Welcome to this latest edition of I-24 News as we break down the latest developments of the war here in Israel and the cold static live in Tel Aviv. The IDF is reopening a civilian corridor in Gaza to allow residents in the north to safely evacuate south. This despite coming under attack by members of Hamas will try to open the road on Saturday. All of this as Defense Minister Yav Galant says Israeli troops are deepening their ground offensive in the Gaza Strip, vowing to eliminate all Hamas leaders with the main target on Yahya Sunwar. The Hamas organization knows no borders. The residents of Israel saw this on October 7th. When they saw the severe murders, the abuse, the brutality, the atrocities, the rape and the kidnappings, the heads of Hamas are responsible for this. We will reach them. We will reach Yahya Sunwar and eliminate him. I say from here to the residents of Gaza, if you get him before us, it will shorten the war. I want to bring in my studio guests now. I'm joined by Rafael Yusselemi, former Senior Intelligence Officer with the IDF and a security analyst as well as our I-24 News Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Owen Alterman. Rafael, starting with you because we're seeing that the IDF continuing to state how they are going after all of these Hamas leaders, the main target being Yahya Sunwar. They've been in this ground operation, this ground offensive for nearly a week, more than a week now. They're deepening, they're circling the Gaza City. I'm curious what leadways they have as far as targeting these main commanders. First of all, we have to understand that we have only achieved maybe 10% of our goals. We're only beginning the operation that will eventually bring hopefully to the capture elimination of high level commanders and leaders of the Hamas. Right now we are at kind of a turning point or a dilemma. Do we continue our advance or do we secure positions and start dealing with the tunnels because we are leading towards at the same time one above ground and one underground. And the underground one necessitates a lot of securing of the perimeters so that the engineer corps can operate in a serene manner. So this is a decision that will have to be made in the coming days. We also have the threat, not maybe of a ceasefire, but of some kind of a cessation of our offensive for humanitarian purposes as requested by the Americans, mostly a request that will depend on the fact that the humanitarian starts with our humanitarian needs and our hostages before anything else. All this means that we are now slowing really, and we're going to have to see that there's a slowing of the advance, but it's because we want to secure already what we have acquired. And while we focus on the leaders in the Gaza Strip, it's also important we just heard over the weekend one of the main leaders on the north, Hassan Nasrallah, the Hezbollah chief. I want to cross live to our correspondent, Ariel Osrallah, who is in the north right now. Ariel, I'm curious what's the latest feeling on that northern border following that speech from Nasrallah? Right, Nicole. So a tense and quiet night here in northern Israel following another day of exchange of fire, of cross-border fire. In the later parts of the evening, there were multiple mortars fired from southern Lebanon towards Israel. Some of them did not land in Israeli territory, according to the IDF, which responded with airstrikes on Hezbollah military infrastructure in southern Lebanon as well. There was an anti-tank guided missile attack. We've been seeing a lot of these since the start of the war. So there was another one of those in the area of Mehtullah, but there were no injuries caused by this attack. And so yesterday we did see escalation in the cross-border fire. We did subdue throughout the day, but again in the evening there was a resumption of fire yesterday at about midnight. There was an hour of continuous shelling. Not quite clear if it was us to them or them to us, but indeed that just indicates that the border is still and indeed active here up in the north. Ariel Osrallah, thank you for that update on Israel's northern border. Now Rafael, as we heard this over the weekend, we heard from Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah this anticipated speech the first time since he spoke since the start of this war. But although threatening Israel, still not stating that they're going to get more involved than they already are. So is this really the limit that we're expecting to see as far as Hezbollah's involvement in this war? We have no way of knowing what are the intentions of Hassan Nasrallah, sorry. Because whatever he says doesn't mean anything.   That's Nasrallah. You can't go by what he says or doesn't say. Same for Tehran, by the way. These are mixed signals that try to confuse us. We don't really know. And I'm not sure they know themselves, even when they want to extend the conflict and try to try us because I think they understand that this time there is a determination, there's the American presence in the Mediterranean. I wouldn't say it's the best moment for them to attack Israel. Maybe it's the best moment for us to attack them and that's what the problem is. I don't care what he says or what they say in Tehran. I'm a bit worried about what he's not said here in Jerusalem. Where are we going to do with the northern threat? We're doing absolutely nothing. We're just containing provocations, but we're not doing anything as to what's the northern threat. We're taking care of the south, so hopefully maybe once the south is dealt with we'll take care of the north. I don't know. I'm not sure. I don't think our economy is built to last that long, first south then north. I think now is the time to strike. Now is the time that Israel should attack the Hezbollah, not wait for what Mr. Nasrallah has to say, not to wait for what the Mullahs in Tehran have to say. What do we have to say? Do we really want to have the north stay as it is now, and then we have the same threat that was in the south, our northern villages being hostages of this terrorist organization? Do we really expect 70,000 people to come back home to their homes when just in front of them a few meters away they are outposts of the Hezbollah shooting at them? This is very worrisome. There are probably military considerations that delay such an operation against the Hezbollah. The problem is also at the political level, what is being decided? Is anything being decided? I think you bring up a great point and Owen, this is something that we hear time and time again from residents, especially right now. The fact that they need bomb shelters in every single city throughout Israel. The fact that they need all these precautionary measures, the fact that we're dealing with these threats surrounding Israel that we have been since really the creation of the State of Israel. Many people are saying, when is enough enough? How long do we have to live with this and this constant threat? And why do we need these precautions in the first place? Obviously, a lot of people are asking the question. As always, it's a question of cost benefit, right? And up until October 7th, the cost benefit analysis seemed to lean toward building the protective spaces and not bearing the costs of what it would mean to overthrow Hamas. We obviously all know what's happened since and we understand why the calculus has changed. As you were just discussing their questions about the north, about what to do. And obviously, the logic that applies to the south would seem to apply equally to the north, as we're all saying. And I think there are questions about the day after the war in Gaza. If there's no change to the situation in the north, a question is simple, whether people in those communities will be willing to go back home. And if they don't go back home, what does that mean to the country, to its morale and to its economy? What Israeli decision makers are saying is there being a bit cagey on one hand, not committing to going full force against Hezbollah, and warning Hassan Nasrallah not to make a quote mistake. On the other hand, often using vague amorphous words to say that there needs to be a change to the situation in the north. We heard that from Benny Gantz just a few days ago, for example. So there seems to be a willingness and a commitment to bring about some change to the situation in the north, but not necessarily to go full force, or at least not to go full force right now. And meanwhile, that's because most of the fighting is happening in the south near the Gaza border. Let's cross live now to our defense correspondent Jonathan Raghav, who is in Israel's south right now. But Jonathan reports IDF is reopening a civilian corridor today around 10 a.m. to allow some of those residents in the north to safely evacuate south. However, they tried to do that yesterday, and they fell under attack by Hamas. Yes, so what can we learn from that? Hamas has no problem slaughtering Israeli citizens. Hamas also has no problem slaughtering Palestinian citizens. They don't care. Everything is good enough for them as long as it means protecting their own lives and their own interests. And yes, we've heard reports of Hamas itself shooting at Palestinians, trying to flee south, trying to go to safety. So all the criticism and all those who care so much about the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, maybe they should turn their attention and the criticism to the ones really responsible for the situation, which is Hamas and Israel. As you mentioned, that route to the Salah Adina Road, which is the main road going from north to south in the Gaza Strip, will be, again, a safe passage for a few hours today from about 10 a.m., which is two hours from now, for residents to go south. Israel wants the northern area of the Gaza Strip to be as empty as possible, understanding that the fighting there will be intense. The IDF currently encircling the city of Gaza from all directions, but the push inside the city, which is the heart of the Gaza Strip, obviously will require heavy fighting. And the IDF wants as much as possible to prevent Palestinian civilians to be hurt. Jonathan, we're in day 30 of the war now. For four weeks, the IDF has been urging residents in the north to evacuate south. What's going to make it different this time? Is there anyone that has chosen to stay in the north? Why would they choose to heed the IDF's instructions now? I think there's a difference between now and, say, 10 days ago, simply because the ground operation is on and the destruction is in front of their eyes. Up until a week ago, the bombardment, the Israeli action was done almost completely from the air or through artillery, and therefore people thought that they could still be rather safe if they stay home in those northern parts, now understanding the intensity of the Israeli action on the ground that may persuade people to move. The assumption is that about two-thirds of the people, roughly 800,000 people, already left, but it also means that 400,000 people, approximately, are still there. Jonathan Regev reporting from Israel South. Thank you for the update on the ground. Now, Rafael, you mentioned earlier the humanitarian pause. It all ties into the civilian corridor, lots of this outside pressure, foreign pressure for Israel to increase its humanitarian aid, specifically the United States urging for a humanitarian pause. President Biden saying that there is progress in it, but also we're hearing from US Secretary of State Antony Blinken stating that a ceasefire, a full-on ceasefire, has no benefit to Israel and will only support Hamas. So when we hear this humanitarian pause, what exactly does that mean? Well, exactly the difference between just a pause and a ceasefire. A ceasefire would prolong the even pause if you call it that, because ceasefire is out of the question right now. We're going to continue this war and we're going to wage it as much as we can, hopefully, to the bitter end. And if not, the pause should not be too prolonged because it allows the Hamas to regroup and redeploy. It's something that plays in the hands of the enemy. So whatever we are doing now on the humanitarian ground has never been done by any other army in the world, including the American army, right? Nobody has ever done that to spare civilian lives. We're very happy to do so. We're morally reinforced and strengthened in our Jewish values that we are doing. So there's no doubt about it. Even if some terrorists might even mingle with these civilians that are going to move down south, let them mingle. It will be less fighters against us. Why not? All this being said, we have to understand that there is a need to ensure the control and we have to understand that if we're talking humanitarian, there is no way about anything humanitarian happening without something happening towards the Israeli hostages. It is ridiculous to speak of humanitarian help and speak only of the civilians of Gaza. I will remind you that when you say innocent civilians, you have to nuance the meaning of this expression. A lot of Gazan people support the Hamas, voted for the Hamas, our pro-Hamas. Yesterday night, there was shown a movie on the walls of the Shifa hospital in Gaza, a movie of Hamas propaganda. There were thousands of Gazan people in the square in front of that screen clapping. A lot of these people clapped when Jews and children and babies were massacred by the Hamas. So let's not think that every, I am sure, and that's for them that we're doing it, that they are innocent people and people who want peace and want a better life, peace with Israel. Of course. But a lot of them not. And these are tens of thousands that are not innocent civilians and those who stay behind or do not evacuate are accomplices of the Hamas. We are now opening a corridor. There is an opportunity. It will be a secure corridor. These people will not be shot at by terrorists to be prevented from leaving. The Navy will protect from the sea. There will be troops all along the Salahadin highway, if you can call it that. So that's it. A lot of people who are staying are accomplices of the Hamas. They were civil servants.  The Hamas, it's a lot of white-collar terrorists that are working the bureaucracy all around it. It's those who are not being hit right now, it's those who are also in the bunkers, the political branch, if you may call it that, that do not feel threatened right now. They don't feel the pressure. The pressure is only on the armed part, the military branch. The political branch right now is not seeing that it's threatened, it's still hoping to score points on the diplomatic arena and the mediatic arena to negotiate the hostages they're playing for time. They're not begging us to do a bargain right now. They seem to have plenty of time. So that's where we need to put the pressure on, not only militarily, but on these people of the political branch, they should feel threatened.  One just one point in terms of civilians in Gaza, voicing support for Hamas, let alone feeling support for Hamas, does not mean you're not a civilian with the protections of a civilian.  And just tying back into the hostages also, you mentioned that even as this humanitarian pause that we have seen a lot of international pressure here in Israel, many people are voicing against that humanitarian pause saying it's been 30 days since our loved ones have been held hostage in Gaza. A nine month old baby is now 10 months old. They spent a month without their mother. And we've seen some major, major protests specifically in Tel Aviv just last night from many of these families of the hostages. Owen, so many of these families are saying that the government is just not doing enough saying that they are falling into this outside pressure for humanitarian pause. That means they're not caring about their own civilians enough. Right, if the hostage families won't stand up for the hostages, Nicole, who will? So it stands to reason that they'll be doing everything they can to raise awareness, to try to put a mass movement together. To try to raise awareness, by the way, of course, not just in Israel but around the world. And we've seen a lot of effective action in that regard. How should the hostage issue be balanced with the other part of the other main, if you will, mission and objective here, which is, again, the ending the Hamas control over the Gaza Strip, continues to be part of the public debate here in Israel. And I think the prevailing view inside the government among the public is when the two objectives clash, the objective of ending Hamas control over the Gaza Strip takes priority. That's not to mean that people don't have a lot of empathy for the hostages and the hostage families in their horrific plight and the need to raise awareness abroad and to put pressure on Qatar and on Hamas in order to make that happen. But at the end of the day, we had 1,400 people slaughtered. And those families are grieving, too. And if Hamas' control over the Gaza Strip isn't ended, there'll be another 1,400 people murdered, and another, and another, and another. As for the issue of humanitarian pauses, look, obviously it's understandable to make the demand that the hostages be released. But in the big picture, taking into account Israel's foreign relations and need for American support, let alone the conditions on the ground in Gaza, to the extent it won't compromise military operations too much, which is what Rafael was speaking to. And of course, that's ultimately the priority. This is a boat that's going to sail. We were going to see humanitarian pauses of some kind. The details obviously need to be negotiated, but by all accounts, there's progress in figuring out how these are going to work. So I think that just the necessities on the ground and the necessities of international diplomacy are going to mean that humanitarian pauses of some kind happen. Again, provided that they don't unduly burden or hamper the military operations. If they do, of course, Israel's not going to agree to them. They need to go hand in hand. And as all of these on the ground developments do continue to progress, we continue to see not just international pressure, everyone watching for the humanitarian pause, but we continue to see just these many vocal advocates or anti-advocates for the state of Israel. Just yesterday, I believe, in Washington, D.C., a major pro-Palestinian march at the White House. People getting violent and stating some, pretty much just the destruction of Israel is what they want to see. Yeah, this protest is great news for Israel. I was really, I was excited when I read about it. There's a terrific development for Israel, and we should welcome this protest. We should welcome more protests like this. We should welcome more people being there, more extremism, more violence, more violent language, more violent acts. This is terrific for Israel. This protest absolutely plays into our hands, Nicole. This is a terrific development, and now it's incumbent upon us to take advantage of this terrific development. This protest has given us a tremendous gift, and now it's our chance to take that gift and run with it, okay? Israel and Israeli spokespiece and advocates need to go out there and speak to the extremism of these protesters and explain to the wider Bali politic in the United States that that's not their political home. That's not their political home. It's Israel that's their political home. For people in the political center of the United States who want strong American alliances, who want moderation in American policy and politics, who want to hear a moderate voice, and who want moderation to be the move and the style and the substance of American foreign policy, Israel is their political home. And we haven't heard our spokespeople make this point and drive it home. The other thing that, of course, would help greatly in this regard, it's one concrete thing that can be done, is changing Israel's policy toward the war in Ukraine. That would capture the political center, most of all in Europe, where Ukraine is a kind of religious cause, right at a time when Russia is inviting Hamas's leaders to Moscow and working with Iran. Israel could work with Ukraine and be tied to the mantle and the brand of the Ukrainian fight. This would be a great way for Israel to capture the political center in Europe, where we've already made such great inroads, certainly among the leadership, but not only, but also in the United States. And I hope our leaders understand how wonderful of a development, how blessed the news is of this protest, and what it means for us and how incredible of an opportunity this is. I think that's a very positive outlook on this, Owen, and I like it a lot. It's the only outlook. Obviously, the pictures look scary to people, but the pictures don't tell the full story. The full story is one that we should be very, very optimistic about. Meanwhile, as the pictures are pretty horrific that we are seeing around the world, Rafael, we are seeing that Israelis are now being urged to reconsider their overseas travel. So while we are seeing these pro-Palestinian, these sometimes violent marches, these hateful marches, Israelis, according to here in Israel, they should consider travel because they could be in a dangerous situation if they are abroad. Well, I think if you do go abroad, I don't think you should go abroad with an Israeli flag in the street or put here, I'm from Israel. I suppose you have to be careful. You know, for many, many years, the National Security Councils have warned Israelis not to go on the Pesar holidays to the Sinai, and they've been going there by the thousands and so far so good, nothing's happened. It's only a matter of precaution to be careful. Remember that many Jewish children and Jewish students from the diaspora leaving abroad are under much more danger than an Israeli tourist or an Israeli businessman. Today I think in places like Paris or Brussels, it's much more dangerous for an Israeli student to go on campus than for an Israeli tourist to go and visit the Louvre Museum. So let's put everything in proportion. I will just say that I agree with the optimistic note. I'm very reinforced by what you said. And I think it's true in the long run, it is true people and normal people are being frightened and some of them even disgusted by this campaign against Israel. This being said, it gives an amazing opportunity for the Jew haters to regroup and for Jew haters to say out loud things that they wouldn't have said out loud before and the kind of language and dialectical approach that was avoided because it sounded anti-Semitic because it could even be punished by law. Right now everybody that hates Israel is regrouping under one flag, the Palestinian flag, and saying things that are very, very dangerous in the end for the security because they could lead to murders of Jews because it's okay to kill Jews. That's what these people are chanting.  One of the main voices of the Hamas, Mr. Khazi Ahmad, said the other day, we are the victims. Everything we do is there for justified. You see, that's what they're saying.  This is very, very, very dangerous and they feel free to say it out loud in their demonstrations. So okay, in the end, people might be disgusted or say these guys are on the other hand. This part of the population is regrouping, is gathering strength, is gathering support and because they are fanatical, because they are aggressive as opposed to the silent majority, they conquer the social networks and they're winning the war on TikTok, for instance. So how important is it to win the war on TikTok, I don't know, but I think it is dangerous. I do think you might just very quickly use the word silent majority. I do think it would be very, very helpful to Israel's cause for there to be a broad coalition that could get behind large pro-Israel marches in these capitals and not to abandon the street, but to form a large coalition. You can even imagine a vision, Nicole, if we really see a real deep-rooted change here of a joint protest on behalf of Israel and Ukraine, how amazing would that be to see that in European capitals? And how would then- Let alone America. Exactly how that would kind of replay, also shifting the media perspective, because as Rafael said, it's not just on social media, it's the mainstream media that is also picking up a lot of these different narratives, so to speak. Quite a lot to unpack, but Rafael, you saw me, former Senior Intelligence Officer with the IDF, as well as our I-24 News Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Owen Alterman. I appreciate your analysis as always as we continue to unpack the latest developments of the war here in Israel. We're in day 30 now, and we continue to see not just the latest developments on the ground, both in the south and in the north, but also the regional repercussions as well of this ongoing war efforts and how it's sparking some international pensions as well. The I-24 News will continue to break down all of the latest developments. You can always head to i-24news.tv for an update on everything that's happening here on the ground. Thanks for tuning in. Over 1,300 people murdered and more than 3,000 injured, and the war with Hamas continues. We bring you first-hand testimonies from the front lines, from those who survived, and all the records of the atrocities by Hamas. Follow us as Israel fights terror from the south and north.  Dozens of correspondents throughout the world brings the truth from Israel to hundreds of millions of people in scores of countries bringing Israel's story to the world. I-24 News Channels, now on Hot. Welcome to this latest edition of I-24 News as we break down the latest developments of the war here in Israel and the cold static live in Tel Aviv. The IDF is reopening a civilian corridor in Gaza to allow residents in the north to safely evacuate south. This despite coming under attack by members of Hamas will try to open the road on Saturday. All of this as Defense Minister Yav Galant says is really troops are deepening their ground offensive in the Gaza Strip, vowing to eliminate all Hamas leaders with the main target on Yahya Sunwar. The Hamas organization knows no borders. The residents of Israel saw this on October 7th. When they saw the severe murders, the abuse, the brutality, the atrocities, the rape and the kidnappings, the heads of Hamas are responsible for this. We will reach them. We will reach Yahya Sunwar and eliminate him. I say from here to the residents of Gaza, if you get him before us, it will shorten the war. I want to bring in my studio guests now. I'm joined by Rafael Ursolemi, former senior intelligence officer with the IDF anti-security analysis as well as our I-24 News senior diplomatic correspondent Owen Alterman. Rafael, starting with you because we're seeing that the IDF continuing to state how they are going after all of these Hamas leaders, the main target being Yahya Sunwar. They've been in this ground operation, this ground offensive for nearly a week, more than a week now. They're deepening. They're circling the Gaza city. I'm curious what leadways they have as far as targeting these main commanders. First of all, we have to understand that we have only achieved maybe 10 percent of our goals. We're only beginning the operation that will eventually bring, hopefully, to the capture or elimination of high-level commanders and leaders of the Hamas. Right now, we are at kind of a turning point or a dilemma. Do we continue our advance or do we secure positions and start dealing with the tunnels? Because we are leading towards at the same time one above ground and one underground. And the underground one necessitates a lot of securing of the perimeters so that the engineer corps can operate in a serene manner. So this is a decision that will have to be made in the coming days. We also have the threat, not maybe of a ceasefire, but of some kind of cessation of our offensive for humanitarian purposes as requested by the Americans, mostly a request that will depend on the fact that the humanitarian starts with our humanitarian needs and our hostages before anything else. All this means that we are now slowing really, we're going to have to see that there is a slowing of the advance, but it's because we want to secure already what we have acquired. And while we focus on the leaders in the Gaza Strip, it's also important we just heard over the weekend one of the main leaders on the north, Hassan Nasrallah, the Hezbollah chief. I want to cross live to our correspondent, Ariel Osron, who is in the north right now. Ariel, I'm curious, what's the latest feeling on that northern border following that speech from Nasrallah? Right, Nicole. So tense and quiet night here in northern Israel following another day of exchange of fire of cross-border fire. In the later parts of the evening, there were multiple mortars fired from southern Lebanon towards Israel. Some of them did not land in Israeli territory, according to the IDF, which responded with airstrikes on Hezbollah military infrastructure in southern Lebanon as well. There was an anti-tank guided missile attack. We've been seeing a lot of these since the start of the war, so there was another one of those in the area of Matura, but there were no injuries caused by this attack. And so yesterday we did see escalation in the cross-border fire. It did subdue throughout the day, but again in the evening there was a resumption of fire yesterday at about midnight. There was an hour of continuous shelling. Not quite clear if it was us to them or them to us, but indeed that just indicates that the border is still and indeed active here up in the north. Ariel Osron, thank you for that update on Israel's northern border. Now Rafael, as we heard this over the weekend, we heard from Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah this anticipated speech the first time since he spoke since the start of this war, but although threatening Israel, still not stating that they're going to get more involved than they already are. So is this really the limit that we're expecting to see as far as Hezbollah's involvement in this war? We have no way of knowing what are the intentions of Hassan Nasrallah, because whatever he says doesn't mean anything.   That's Nasrallah. You can't go by what he says or doesn't say. Same for Tehran, by the way. These are mixed signals that try to confuse us. We don't really know, and I'm not sure they know themselves, even when they want to extend the conflict and try to try us, because I think they understand that this time there is a determination, there's the American presence in the Mediterranean. I wouldn't say it's the best moment for them to attack Israel. Maybe it's the best moment for us to attack them, and that's what the problem is. I don't care what he says or what they say in Tehran. I'm a bit worried about what he's not said here in Jerusalem. Where are we going to do with the northern threat? We're doing absolutely nothing. We're just containing provocations, but we're not doing anything as to what's the northern threat. We're taking care of the south, so hopefully maybe once the south is dealt with, we'll take care of the north. I'm not, I don't know. I'm not sure. I don't think our economy is built to last that long, first south then north. I think now is the time to strike. Now is the time that Israel should attack the Hezbollah, not wait for what Mr. Nasrallah has to say, not to wait for what the Mullahs in Tehran have to say. What do we have to say? Do we really want to have the north stay as it is now, and then we have the same threat that was in the south, our northern villages being hostages of this terrorist organization. Do we really expect 70,000 people to come back home to their homes, where just in front of them a few meters away, they are outposts of the Hezbollah shooting at them? This is very worrisome. There are probably military considerations that delay such an operation against the Hezbollah. The problem is also at the political level. What is being decided, is anything being decided? I think you bring up a great point, and Owen, this is something that we hear time and time again from residents, especially right now. The fact that they need bomb shelters in every single city throughout Israel. The fact that they need all of these precautionary measures. The fact that we're dealing with these threats surrounding Israel that we have been since really the creation of the State of Israel. Many people are saying, when is enough enough? How long do we have to live with this and this constant threat, and why do we need these precautions in the first place? Obviously a lot of people are asking the question. As always, it's a question of cost benefit, right? And up until October 7th, the cost benefit analysis seemed to lean toward building the protective spaces and not bearing the costs of what it would mean to overthrow Hamas. We obviously all know what's happened since, and we understand why the calculus has changed. As you were just discussing their questions about the north, about what to do. And obviously the logic that applies to the south would seem to apply equally to the north, as we're all saying. And I think there are questions about the day after the war in Gaza. If there's no change to the situation in the north, a question is simple, whether people in those communities will be willing to go back home. And if they don't go back home, what does that mean to the country, to its morale, and to its economy? What Israeli decision makers are saying is they're being a bit cagey on one hand, not committing to going full force against Hezbollah. And warning Hassan Nasrallah not to make a quote mistake. On the other hand, often using vague amorphous words to say that there needs to be a change to the situation in the north. We heard that from Benny Gantz just a few days ago, for example. So there seems to be a willingness and a commitment to bring about some change to the situation in the north. But not necessarily to go full force, or at least not to go full force right now. And meanwhile, that's because most of the fighting is happening in the south, near the Gaza, near the Gaza border. Let's cross live now to our defense correspondent Jonathan Raghav, who is in Israel's south right now. Jonathan reports IDF is reopening a civilian corridor today around 10 a.m. to allow some of those residents in the north to safely evacuate south. However, they tried to do that yesterday and they fell under attack by Hamas. Yes, so what can we learn from that? Hamas has no problem slaughtering Israeli citizens. Hamas also has no problem slaughtering Palestinian citizens. They don't care. Everything is good enough for them as long as it means protecting their own lives and their own interests. And yes, we've heard reports of Hamas itself shooting at Palestinians, trying to flee south, trying to go to safety. So all the criticism and all those who care so much about the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, maybe they should turn their attention and the criticism to the ones really responsible for the situation, which is Hamas and Israel. As you mentioned, that route to the Salah Adina Road, which is the main road going from north to south in the Gaza Strip, will be again a safe passage for a few hours today from about 10 a.m., which is two hours from now for residents to go south. Israel wants the northern area of the Gaza Strip to be as empty as possible. Understanding that the fighting there will be intense. The IDF currently encircling the city of Gaza from all directions. But the push inside the city, which is the heart of the Gaza Strip, obviously will require heavy fighting. And the IDF wants as much as possible to prevent Palestinian civilians to be hurt. Jonathan, we're in day 30 of the war now. For four weeks, the IDF has been urging residents in the north to evacuate south. What's going to make it different this time? Anyone that has chosen to stay in the north, why would they choose to heed the IDF's instructions now? I think there's a difference between now and, say, 10 days ago, simply because the ground operation is on and the destruction is in front of their eyes. Up until a week ago, the bombardment, the Israeli action, was done almost completely from the air or through artillery. And therefore, people thought that they could still be rather safe if they stay home in those northern parts, now understanding the intensity of the Israeli action on the ground that may persuade people to move. The assumption is that about two-thirds of the people, roughly 800,000 people, already left. But it also means that 400,000 people, approximately, are still there. Jonathan Regev reporting from Israel, south. Thank you for the update on the ground. Now, Rafael, you mentioned earlier the humanitarian pause. It all ties into the civilian corridor, lots of this outside pressure, foreign pressure for Israel to increase its humanitarian aid, specifically the United States urging for a humanitarian pause. President Biden saying that there is progress in it. But also, we're hearing from U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken stating that a ceasefire, a full-on ceasefire, has no benefit to Israel and will only support Hamas. So when we hear this humanitarian pause, what exactly does that mean? Well, exactly the difference between just a pause and a ceasefire. A ceasefire would prolong the even pause, if you call it that. Because ceasefire is out of the question right now. We're going to continue this war and we're going to wage it as much as we can, hopefully, to the bitter end. And if not, the pause should not be too prolonged because it allows the Hamas to regroup and redeploy. It's something that plays in the hands of the enemy. So whatever we are doing now on the humanitarian ground has never been done by any other army in the world, including the American army, right? Nobody has ever done that to spare civilian lives. We're very happy to do so. We are morally reinforced and strengthened in our Jewish values that we are doing so. There's no doubt about it. Even if some terrorists might even mingle with these civilians that are going to move down south, let them mingle. It will be less fighters against us. Why not? With all this being said, we have to understand that there is a need to ensure the control. And we have to understand that if we're talking humanitarian, there is no way about anything humanitarian happening without something happening towards the Israeli hostages. It is ridiculous to speak of humanitarian help and speak only of the civilians of Gaza. I will remind you that when you say innocent civilians, you have to nuance the meaning of this expression. A lot of Gazan people support the Hamas, voted for the Hamas, are pro-Hamas. Yesterday night, there was shown a movie on the walls of the Shifa hospital in Gaza, a movie of Hamas propaganda. There were thousands of Gazan people in the square in front of that screen clapping. A lot of these people clapped when Jews and children and babies were massacred by the Hamas. So let's not think that every, I am sure, and that's for them that we're doing it, that they are innocent people and people who want peace and who want a better life, peace with Israel. Of course, but a lot of them not. And these are tens of thousands that are not innocent civilians and those who stay behind, who do not evacuate, are accomplices of the Hamas. We are now opening a corridor. There is an opportunity. It will be a secure corridor. These people will not be shot at by terrorists to be prevented from leaving. The Navy will protect from the sea. There will be troops all along the Salahadin Highway, if you can call it that. So that's it. A lot of people who are staying are accomplices of the Hamas. They were civil servants. They were not only terrorists with weapons. The Hamas, it's a lot of white-collar terrorists that are working in bureaucracy all around it. It's those who are not being hit right now. It's those who are also in the bunkers, the political branch, if you may call it that, that do not feel threatened right now. They don't feel the pressure. The pressure is only on the armed part, the military branch. The political branch right now is not seeing that it's threatened. It's still hoping to score points on the diplomatic arena, on the mediatic arena, to negotiate the hostages they're playing for time. They're not begging us to do a bargain right now. They seem to have plenty of time. So that's where we need to put the pressure on, not only militarily, but on these people of the political branch. They should feel threatened.  They don't care. Well, just one point in terms of civilians in Gaza, voicing support for Hamas, let alone feeling support for Hamas, does not mean you're not a civilian with the protections of a civilian.  And just tying back into the hostages also, you mentioned that even as this humanitarian pause that we have seen a lot of international pressure here in Israel, many people are voicing against that humanitarian pause, saying it's been 30 days since our loved ones have been held hostage in Gaza. A nine-month-old baby is now 10 months old. They spent a month without their mother. And we've seen some major, major protests, specifically in Tel Aviv just last night from many of these families of the hostages. Owen, so many of these families are saying that the government is just not doing enough, and if they are falling into this outside pressure for humanitarian pause, that means they're not caring about their own civilians enough. Right, if the hostage families won't stand up for the hostages, Nicole, who will? So it stands to reason that they'll be doing everything they can to raise awareness, to try to put a mass movement together, to try to raise awareness, by the way, of course, not just in Israel, but around the world. And we've seen a lot of effective action in that regard. How should the hostage issue be balanced with the other part of the other main, if you will, mission and objective here, which is, again, the ending the Hamas control over the Gaza Strip, continues to be part of the public debate here in Israel. And I think the prevailing view inside the government among the public is when the two objectives clash, the objective of ending Hamas control over the Gaza Strip takes priority. That's not to mean that people don't have a lot of empathy for the hostages and the hostage families in their horrific plight and the need to raise awareness abroad and to put pressure on Qatar and on Hamas in order to make that happen. But at the end of the day, we had 1,400 people slaughtered, and those families are grieving too. And if Hamas's control over the Gaza Strip hasn't ended, there'll be another 1,400 people murdered. And another, and another, and another. As for the issue of humanitarian pauses, look, obviously it's understandable to make the demand that the hostages be released. But in the big picture, taking into account Israel's foreign relations and need for American support, let alone the conditions on the ground in Gaza, to the extent it won't compromise military operations too much, which is what Rafael was speaking to. And of course, that's ultimately the priority. This is a boat that's going to sail. I says we were going to see humanitarian pauses of some kind. The details obviously need to be negotiated, but by all accounts, there's progress in figuring out how these are going to work. So I think that just the necessities on the ground and the necessities of international diplomacy are going to mean that humanitarian pauses of some kind have happened, again, provided that they don't unduly burden or hamper the military operations. If they do, of course, Israel's not going to agree to them. They need to go hand in hand. And as all of these on the ground developments do continue to progress, we continue to see not just international pressure, everyone watching for the humanitarian pause, but we continue to see just these many vocal advocates or anti-advocates for the State of Israel. Just yesterday, I believe, in Washington, D.C., a major pro-Palestinian march at the White House. People getting violent and stating some pretty much just the destruction of Israel is what they want to see. Yeah, this protest is great news for Israel. I was really, I was excited when I read about it. There's a terrific development for Israel and we should welcome this protest. We should welcome more protests like this. We should welcome more people being there, more extremism, more violence, more violent language, more violent acts. This is terrific for Israel. This protest absolutely plays into our hands, Nicole. There's a terrific development and now it's incumbent upon us to take advantage of this terrific development. This protest has given us a tremendous gift and now it's our chance to take that gift and run with it, okay? Israel and Israeli spokespiece and advocates need to go out there and speak to the extremism of these protesters and explain to the wider Bali politic in the United States that that's not their political home. That's not their political home. It's Israel that's their political home. For people in the political center of the United States who want strong American alliances, who want moderation in American policy and politics, who want to hear a moderate voice and who want moderation to be the move and the style and the substance of American foreign policy, Israel is their political home. And we haven't heard our spokespeople make this point and drive it home. The other thing that of course would help greatly in this regard, it's one concrete thing that can be done is changing Israel's policy toward the war in Ukraine. That would capture the political center most of all in Europe where Ukraine is a kind of religious cause, right? At a time when Russia is inviting Hamas' leaders to Moscow and working with Iran, Israel could work with Ukraine and be tied to the mantle and the brand of the Ukrainian fight. This would be a great way for Israel to capture the political center in Europe where we've already made such great inroads, certainly among the leadership, but not only, but also in the United States. And I hope our leaders understand how wonderful of a development, how blessed the news is of this protest and what it means for us and how incredible of an opportunity this is. I think that's a very positive outlook on this, Owen. And I- It's the only outlook. Obviously the pictures look scary to people, but the pictures don't tell the full story. The full story is one that we should be very, very optimistic about. Meanwhile, as the pictures are pretty horrific that we are seeing around the world. Ravel, we are seeing that Israelis are now being urged to reconsider their overseas travel. So while we are seeing these pro-Palestinian, these sometimes violent marches, these hateful marches, Israelis, according to here in Israel, they should consider travel because they could be in a dangerous situation if they are abroad. Well, I think if you do go abroad, I don't think you should go abroad with an Israeli flag in the street or could hear, I'm from Israel. I suppose you have to be careful. You know, for many, many years, the National Security Councils have warned Israelis not to go on the PESA holidays to the Sinai and they've been going there by the thousands and so far, so good, nothing's happened. It's only a matter of precaution to be careful. Remember that many Jewish children and Jewish students from the diaspora living abroad are under much more danger than an Israeli tourist or an Israeli businessman. Today, I think in places like Paris or Brussels, it's much more dangerous for an Israeli student to go on campus than for an Israeli tourist to go and visit the Louvre Museum. So let's put everything in proportion. I will just say that I agree with the optimistic note. I'm very reinforced by what you said. I think it's true in the long run. It is true people and normal people are being frightened and some of them even disgusted by this campaign against Israel. This being said, it gives an amazing opportunity for the Jew haters to regroup and for Jew haters to say out loud things that they wouldn't have said out loud before and the kind of language and dialectical approach that was avoided because it sounded anti-Semitic because it could even be punished by law. Right now, everybody that hates Israel is regrouping under one flag, the Palestinian flag, and saying things that are very, very dangerous in the end for the security because they could lead to murders of Jews because it's okay to kill Jews. That's what these people are chanting.  One of the main voices of the Hamas, Mr. Ghazi Ahmad, said the other day, we are the victims. Everything we do is for justified. You see, that's what they're saying.  It's also in the best compasses in America and in Oxford and Cambridge. You will hear this rock really under the belt. Horrible, Nazi, Jew-hating phrases. This is very, very, very dangerous and they feel free to say it out loud in their demonstrations. So, okay, in the end, people might be disgusted or say these guys are, but on the other hand, this part of the population is regrouping, is gathering strength, is gathering support. And because they are fanatical, because they are aggressive, as opposed to the silent majority, they conquer the social networks and they're winning the war on TikTok, for instance. So, how important is it to win the war on TikTok? I don't know, but I think it is dangerous. I do think you might just very quickly use the word silent majority. I do think it would be very, very helpful to Israel's cause for there to be a broad coalition that could get behind large pro-Israel marches in these capitals and not to abandon the street, but to form a large coalition. You could even imagine a vision. Nicole, if we really see a real deep-rooted change here of a joint protest on behalf of Israel and Ukraine, how amazing would that be to see that in European capitals? And how would that... Let alone America. Exactly, how that would kind of replay, also shifting the media perspective, because as Rafael said, it's not just on social media. It's the mainstream media that is also picking up a lot of these different narratives, so to speak. Quite a lot to unpack, but Rafael, you saw me, former Senior Intelligence Officer with the IDF, as well as our I-24 News Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Owen Alterman. I appreciate your analysis, as always, as we continue to unpack the latest developments of the war here in Israel. We're in day 30 now, and we continue to see not just the latest developments on the ground, both in the South and in the North, but also the regional repercussions as well of this ongoing war efforts and how it's sparking some international tensions as well. AirDi24 News will continue to break down all of the latest developments. You can always head to i24news.tv for an update on everything that's happening here on the ground. Thanks for tuning in. Israel is officially in a state of war. This is a very active scene, and we need to get in the car as we're talking. Within 100 soldiers and civilians have been kidnapped. Help us, we don't want to do it. We just don't know anything. Entire families, including babies and children and elderly, were butchered in their beds. Awaken the giant, and we are ready, and we are strong. Everyone is showing up. This is the unity. This week on News 24, Israel under attack. News 24 in Spanish brings the analysis and the information about the events of the war, Iron swords. Exclusive interviews, reports from the war zone, the reaction of the Spanish-speaking countries. News 24, the only media in Spanish that keeps you informed and connected with the Latin community in Israel. News 24, only on i24news. To this latest edition of i24news, as we break down the latest developments of the war here in Israel, under cool static live in Tel Aviv. Israeli forces have destroyed more than 2,500 Hamas terror targets in Gaza since the beginning of their ground operation one week ago. Now it's battles in Gaza ramp up. The IDF is reopening a civilian corridor to allow residents in the north to safely evacuate south. Despite coming under attack by members of Hamas, we'll try to open the road on Saturday. Meanwhile, United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken returned to Israel this morning to meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. After Blinken visited Jordan to discuss Israel's ongoing war efforts. This says Defense Minister Noah Galant said Israeli troops are deepening their ground offensive in the Gaza Strip, vowing to eliminate all Hamas leaders with a main target on Yahya Sinwar. The Hamas organization knows no borders. The residents of Israel saw this on October 7th when they saw the severe murders, the abuse, the brutality, the atrocities, the rape and the kidnappings. The heads of Hamas are responsible for this. We will reach them. We will reach Yahya Sinwar and eliminate him. I say from here to the residents of Gaza, if you get him before us, it will shorten the war. With this increase fighting happening in Gaza now, let's cross live to our I-24 news. Defense correspondent Jonathan Aragev, who's in Israel south near the Gaza border now. Jonathan, the idea of just coming out saying they've struck 2,500 Hamas targets since the start of this ground operation, what can you tell us about the latest developments? Let's try, perhaps, to call and actually see what that means. Right behind us, you can see the smoke rising from within the northern outskirts of the city of Gaza. And just to the left of it, you can actually see the neighborhoods of Gaza City, but they're still standing. We have to say practically intact the city itself. But this is where we can assume that the next stage of the ground operation will take place. Israeli forces have now encircled Gaza City entirely. Forces have come in and cut the Gaza Strip into two parts just south of Gaza City, just to the left of your image. While forces also came in from the north and therefore the city itself is encircled. At the next stage, we can assume, after all the civilians leave, if they take the advice and actually leave with this open corridor later on today, Israeli forces will then have to actually get into Gaza, which is the main focal point of the Gaza Strip, and look for the Hamas leaders who are hiding under the ground. Basically, this will be the main challenge, finding those tunnels which are protected by Hamas terrorists. It will not be an easy task. And perhaps looking for first Hamas terrorists and then Hamas leaders who are hiding under civilian infrastructures, under schools, under mosques, under hospitals. And this will come with a price, with a humanitarian price. But this is what Hamas is putting the Palestinian population into. They have no problem sacrificing tens of thousands of Palestinians. The Palestinian lives are matters to Hamas much less than it does to Israel. Jonathan, you mentioned the main fighting and the main problem being that so many of these leaders are in underground tunnels as the IDF continues to circle and go into Gaza City. Former IDF Chief of Staff said that it's basically a death trap if soldiers want to go into those underground tunnels. So what can we expect as this continues to go forward? It is very difficult, because of course those tunnels, they're not only people there. They're explosives and IEDs and going into them will be difficult. A lot of work is done from the air, perhaps ammunition that can penetrate bunkers or can shake the ground. Going into those bunkers, as you said, will be, bunkers and tunnels will be a very difficult and costly task. Correspondent Jonathan Raghive reporting from Israel South, thanks for the update. I want to bring in my guests. In studio now I'm joined by retired Colonel Dr. Jacques Narria, the former deputy head of assessment for Israeli intelligence and former foreign policy advisor to Prime Minister Yitzhak Babin, as well as Daniel Shek, former Israeli ambassador to France and a political commentator. Thank you both so much for being here. Now as we just heard from our defense correspondent Jonathan in the south, the IDF opening this civilian corridor. This despite yesterday, them trying to do the same thing and being attacked by Hamas terrorists. What can we expect different about today as the IDF continues to try and get all of the civilians in the north to safely get out so they continue with this ground operation? To tell you frankly, I'm in despair because from videos we watched yesterday evening of the huge crowd, thousands, thousands of cousins together that filming or taking pictures of on a huge screen about about the attacks perpetrated by Hamas on Israeli forces and everybody applauding and nobody, it was in the Shifa hospital and I said to myself if our forces will reach the hospital, what will become of all those thousands of people who are there and claiming high about their exploits. So this is really something that one has to take into consideration. The fact is that of course we have encircled Gaza. We have penetrated the first lines of defense, but this is not the prominent. This is going to be a big fight because this is the best fortified positions ever built since World War II and if you have to compare to something else it's not Mosul in Baghdad, it's Iwo Jima. This is the kind of war of battle that we will have to wage against Hamas there and right now even though we have penetrated and encircled Gaza they have not crumbled. They are fighting and people who are familiar with the events say that hundreds of anti-tank missiles are being fired at our vehicles at our tanks, at our troop transporters and this is really a very tough battle that we are waging and the end of it is not for tomorrow the day after tomorrow even not in few months from now. Certainly we have a long game here this humanitarian corridor humanitarian pause also coming from a lot of international pressure. We've also seen US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken he was in Israel on Friday before doing a regional tour of meeting with other Arab leaders in Jordan and now returning to Israel to meet with Mahmoud Abbas. What exactly can we expect from his meeting especially after meeting with these Israeli heads these Arab heads now Abbas? To be honest not much. Meeting just to keep in touch and to make sure that Mahmoud Abbas is on top of things as best he can in the West Bank including security cooperation with the Israeli security agencies and with the army I think it's in everybody's interest including Mahmoud Abbas is that things don't flare up in the West Bank but you know there is also I don't know what's in the mind of Secretary Blinken but he's the one who's talking about the need to start thinking about an exit strategy and an exit strategy is also to try and envision what will happen in Gaza after Hamas is defeated I add in double brackets. It's a little bit difficult to define what a defeat of Hamas will actually look like but that's a different story but the Palestinian Authority currently run by Mahmoud Abbas is or is mentioned as a possible player to take over Gaza. So there needs to be a line of communication with him I think that the humanitarian issue is top of the list in his attempts to achieve something tangible and I think it's not unreasonable from the Israeli point of view to demand that humanitarian access is not a unilateral thing it's not just humanitarian access to Gazans in western Gaza it's legitimate to demand humanitarian access to over 240 Israeli hostages held in Gaza. That remains to be one of the most complicated dilemmas that comes to the operations in Gaza but we're also the idea on high alert in the north as well that's where we find our I-24 news correspondent Ariel Osron on the northern border with Lebanon. Ariel, the action that we're seeing there following on Friday Hassan Nasrullah's speech what's the latest feeling following Nasrullah's speech up there in the north? Right Nicole, so this morning is quite tension here on the northern border following another day of cross-border fires between Israel and Hezbollah yesterday, overnight multiple sounds of mortars launched from southern Lebanon towards Israel also in the western axis but also in the eastern part of the 80 mile long border Israel saying the IDF that it responded with artillery fire to the origin of the launches but also the Israeli Air Force carried out strikes in southern Lebanon on Hezbollah infrastructure. Now the equation that Hezbollah the Iranian axis has been presenting is that as Israel's aggression progresses in Gaza so will the aggression of the axis. Now Hezbollah threatened to increase its activity against Israel if it goes into a ground invasion but indeed we do not see really a significant change in that but rather we saw the Houthis join the fray activating a new arena now last night we heard the heads of the of the pro-Iranian Qatayb Hezbollah militias in Iraq, warning Anthony Blinken the US Secretary of State from visiting Baghdad and so that's just a reminder of the multiple arenas and potential fronts that can be activated obviously we know that American assets have been targeted in Syria and Iraq since the start of the war and obviously that also needs to be taken into consideration when we look at all these different fronts and axes working together. Ariel we continue to talk about the threshold that we see on the northern border we continue to see this tit for tat of firing but not going over the threshold yet so is it expected that Hezbollah will not go over that and we'll continue to see this relatively low level firing. Well two points on that Nicole first while these are limited exchanges of fire especially compared to what's going on down south this is something that has been gradually escalating since October 2nd that is it's not getting lower than density is only getting higher and another thing we need to point out is the fact that systematically Hezbollah has been targeting Israeli military outpost targeting cameras until gathering capabilities and yesterday in a video that Hezbollah shared they showed that they're now also targeting the border fence causing gaps this is something that the army is looking into but obviously is another indication that while the intensity remains low gradually slowly they are raising the level of escalation the IDF continues to be on high alert up there in the north our correspondent Ariel Osaron thank you for that update now as we continue to look at the main two fronts of this war the south and the north it's important to notice that the IDF also operating in the west bank as well just overnight we're seeing the Palestinian authorities had nine people arrested in Janine also reports that Hamas bombed troops entering Janine now these are Hamas reports but I'm curious Jacques it's the IDF continues to try and maintain a stronghold on the west bank and limit these number of Hamas terrorists that are running it well where it not the operations conducted by the IDF in the west bank we would be seeing a real anti-father going on there since the beginning of the war more than 2000 people wanted people have been arrested out of out of the 2200 there is about 800 who are Hamas operatives and Hamas leaders political and others in the area the Palestinians have suffered scores of of terrorists killed by the IDF and all the situation is that it's not very much mediatized so we are not aware of the war that is going on in the west bank but there is a conflict there a very active conflict where Israel is fighting Hamas fighting any uprising that's happening but unfortunately from time to time we see that it's not hermetic and you have lone wolves so called attack Israelis and we had three Israelis killed in the last in the last week so this is an ongoing and I think that the Palestinian Authority must be aware that we are in fact assisting them in surviving because where it's not our activities in the west bank the Pata and the Palestinian Authority would have been wiped out long ago just to add this did not start with the war in Gaza you know the friction between the IDF and Palestinians in the west bank has been going on for over a year now and it has intensified I think it's more focalized now on Hamas operatives but as Jacques said not exclusively but as we're seeing that the Palestinian Authority has struggled to maintain the terror cells that have popped up in the west bank Daniel you said earlier that many people are looking at the possibility of the PA taking control of Gaza if and when this war does run so what is the other choice there's nobody the Egyptians don't want Gaza the Georgians won't even look at Gaza they have enough Palestinians of their own in the kingdom so the only possible and the US said no way we are not going to govern this land so they are just aiming at the Palestinian Authority putting it back and in a certain renegotiating I would say the Oslo agreement implementation concerning Gaza according to some Israeli politicians we are thinking of turning Gaza into a B-Zone like in the West Bank which means that a civilian Authority of the Palestinian Authority of the PA but on the security Israel would be present there or free to act as soon as a danger is seen there this is more or less the thing that this is in my view this is what has been discussed in Amman with Blinken with the Arab Foreign Ministers and this is what Blinken is trying to convince Abbas to take over the day after when the war is ended. Blinken has said that is one of his main objectives of this regional tour not only focusing on making sure that this doesn't regionally escalate the war itself but also what happens the day after I'm curious just going off of Blinken's regional visit I know he's also he went to Jordan he's heading to Turkey as well what can we expect from his visit to Turkey Well to be honest as things stand now not much probably Erdogan is the most unstable regional leader one day he's Israel's closest ally the next day he hates everybody he's an opportunist and currently he sees his future as the leader of the resistance against Israel and he's pro Hamas I remind people that he's hosting some Hamas leaders but like other countries there not many who traditionally had contact with Hamas and even supported them they must understand that they have a choice now either they become they go down in history as collaborators to these atrocities or they can become the heroes of this story if they can bring it to an end get to the freeing of the hostages etc etc at the moment it doesn't look like he's chosen that direction What comes to freeing the hostages also I just wanted to say that you ask a question about the northern front and I think that this is important to assert that we are inching forward towards a full-scale war regional war we heard yesterday the Prime Minister of Iran saying very openly that there's no way to evade or to avoid a regional conflict all the American bases in Iraq from Kurdistan till Jordan are under attack day after day the Iraqi militias have fired a missile towards Iraq so it's not only coming from Gaza and from Yemen it's also coming from Iraq and they're putting pressure on the Americans and let us remember what Nassala said. He said we are preparing surprises for the Americans and trust me he has surprises and there's also the sense that there's almost a ticking clock when it comes to how long we're going to maintain this very very strong amount of support from America we can't continue to have their troops in the Red Sea for months on end Thanksgiving is at the end of this month and instead of being at home they'll be on the carriers just waiting to think that something must happen otherwise they just have to go away Meanwhile also this is a kind of a sense of who is really Israel's partners in this as you were stating and who is against Israel and one country that is stepping up seems to be Saudi Arabia another report that they've intercepted another missile coming from Yemen that was heading towards Israel so Saudi Arabia although talks are no longer here they seem to be showing a lot with their actions I'm sure that this is because they feel so close to Israel and want to protect the Israelis I think there's a strong self-interest here they are very concerned I think that war in Yemen will flare up again we're supposed to be in a ceasefire situation so when they see the Houthis in Yemen waking up and starting to be active again they understand they're probably right that now it might be pointed at Israel but sooner or later they'll come back to their main dish which is Saudi Arabia the more we speak about Saudi Arabia intercepting missiles who are Israel the more we just distance ourselves from the Saudis and the Saudis don't like that at all because they are being identified as pro-Israelis I mean helping Israel in intercepting missiles coming from Yemen this is definitely not the kind of information that the Saudis are interested right now to publish yet they are doing it so I mean there is a dilemma here it's a back and forth and we'll continue to focus on exactly what's happening here the ongoing war efforts it's important to remember exactly what sparked this war in the first place that was the October 7th massacre in those Israel southern communities the local security chief of Kibbutz Kaveem in the Gaza envelope gave I-24 news a rare look on life in the Kibbutz after October 7th and his optimistic vision on the future of the area Kibbutz Kaveem near the Gaza Strip adjacent to the southern city of Sderot was not severely hit by the brutal terror attack by Hamas on October 7th but things could have been very different as Gil Schwartzman a member of the Kibbutz tells I-24 news about the dramatic moments at around 7 a.m. I heard gunshots around the gate I got a call from the local security coordinator he said I've been shot I'm injured I called the standby squad and we came to help him another car was shot at and the guy there was shot in his head but he survived another car was also hit by gunshots and grenades we counted 45 bullet holes in the car the local security chief got hit in his leg and I had to take his place we also had a lot of luck perhaps even divine providence I want to show you something special this gate took a lot of bullets when we opened the gate look at the shape of the bullet exit hole Kibbutz Kaveem was established in 1947 a few months before Israel declared its independence over the years it's known many challenges due to its sensitive location in the beginning people lived here in tents in July 1947 this structure was built to protect the residents from attacks by Egyptians members of the Kibbutz lived in tents and small cabins Schwarzmann is one of 16 people of the standby squad the only ones to remain in the Kibbutz out of its 617 members when we walk around we see empty houses but thanks to Schwarzmann and a few people who were left here the Kibbutz is not neglected and even the local dairy is functioning I was in Germany on a family vacation when the situation started after a few days I came back it's a bit strange to be here I'm alone here except for a few people and soldiers but what can I do outside the Kibbutz we visit Sauter with Schwarzmann Directs this startup hub is home to dozens of high tech companies which develop revolution inventions from 3D printers to FSMP platforms we've been active for 6 years now all the companies have told me that they are not leaving this hub other companies have been interested in participating in this project it's the first high tech hub in the negative and one of the biggest and most successful ones high tech always has a future I have no doubt that in 2 years when you come back to visit we'll have expanded to 50 companies despite the horrific tragedy Schwarzmann is still optimistic and says he believes that most of the residents will return to their home eventually and that Kevim and the high tech scene will flourish perhaps a ray of hope in this dark time in the south it's been 30 days one month since the October 7th massacre in here in Israel civilians certainly remember why the fight is still ongoing abroad as Israel continues to defend itself is there this feeling that people are forgetting exactly what sparked this in the first place you're absolutely right Nicole and without finding excuses it's understandable unfortunately it was a one day event it was terrifying it was the magnitude of the event itself with the brutality are difficult to describe but there's a distance that's growing between that date and today and on the other hand the events in Gaza are ongoing so they are piling up and they are sort of covering up in the minds of the people overseas they are covering up the original event now it's one of the challenges for Israel is to keep this story alive and to remind everybody where this started one of the ways one of the ongoing stories one of the ongoing tragedies are the hostages because they are still there and there is both the government and civil society are working very hard to remind people and there are operations worldwide trying to do that so not everyone forgets that clearly I think it's possible to remind people what happened but we have to understand that this is as the further we go from there the more difficult it will be to show where this started media cycle to remind people exactly why they are fighting in the first place Daniel Shek along with Dr. Jacques Maria thank you for your insight as always in this latest edition of I-24 News welcome to this latest edition of I-24 News as we break down the latest developments of the war here in Israel of the cold static live in Tel Aviv Israeli forces have destroyed more than 2,500 Hamas terror targets in Gaza since the beginning of their ground operation one week ago now it's battles in Gaza ramp up the IDF is reopening a civilian corridor to allow residents in the north to safely evacuate south despite coming under attack by members of Hamas while trying to open the road on Saturday meanwhile the United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken returned to Israel this morning to meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas after Blinken visited Jordan to discuss Israel's ongoing war efforts this says Defense Minister Yoav Galant said Israeli troops are deepening their ground offensive in the Gaza Strip vowing to eliminate all Hamas leaders with the main target on Yacka Sinwar the Hamas organization knows no borders the residents of Israel saw this on October 7th when they saw the severe murders the abuse the brutality, the atrocities, the rape and the kidnappings the heads of Hamas are responsible for this we will reach them we will reach Yahya Sinwar and eliminate him I say from here to the residents of Gaza it will shorten the war with this increase fighting happening in Gaza now let's cross live to our I-24 news Defense Correspondent Jonathan Aragev who's in Israel south near the Gaza border now Jonathan, the idea of just coming out saying they've struck 2,500 Hamas targets since the start of this ground operation what can you tell us about the latest developments? let's try perhaps and actually see what that means right behind us you can see the smoke rising from within the northern outskirts of the city of Gaza and just to the left of it you can actually see the neighborhoods of Gaza city they're still standing we have to say practically intact the city itself but this is where we can assume that the next stage of the ground operation will take place Israeli forces have now encircled Gaza city entirely forces have come in and cut the Gaza strip into two parts just south of Gaza city just to the left of your image while forces also came in from the north and therefore the city itself is encircled at the next stage we can assume after all the civilians leave they take the advice and actually leave with this open corridor later on today Israeli forces will then have to actually get into Gaza which is the main focal point of the Gaza strip and look for the Hamas leaders who are hiding under the ground basically this will be the main challenge finding those tunnels which are protected by Hamas terrorists it will not be an easy task and perhaps looking for first Hamas terrorists and then Hamas leaders who are hiding under civilian infrastructures under schools, under mosques under hospitals and this will come with a price with a humanitarian price but this is what Hamas is putting the Palestinian population into they have no problem sacrificing tens of thousands of Palestinians their Palestinian lives matters to Hamas much less than it does to Israel Jonathan you mentioned the main fighting the main problem being that these leaders are in underground tunnels as the IDF continues to circle and go into Gaza city former IDF chief of staff said that it's basically a death trap if soldiers want to go into those underground tunnels so what can we expect as this continues to go forward it is very difficult because of course those tunnels they're not only people there there are explosives and IDs and going into them will be difficult a lot of work is done from the air perhaps ammunition that can penetrate bunkers or can shake the ground going into those bunkers as you said will be bunkers and tunnels will be a very difficult and costly task our correspondent Jonathan Raga reporting from Israel South thanks for the update I want to bring in my guest in studio now I'm joined by retired colonel Dr. Jacques Naria the former deputy head of assessment former Israeli military intelligence and former foreign policy advisor to prime minister Yitzhak Babin as well as Daniel Shek former Israeli ambassador to France and a political commentator thank you both so much for being here now as we just heard from our defense correspondent Jonathan in the south the IDF opening this civilian corridor this despite yesterday them trying to do the same thing and being attacked by Hamas terrorists what can we expect different about today as the IDF continues to try and get to the north to safely get out so they can continue with this ground operation to tell you frankly I'm in despair because from videos we watched yesterday evening of the huge crowd thousands thousands of cousins together filming or taking pictures of on a huge screen about the attacks perpetrated by Hamas on the Israeli forces and everybody applauding and nobody it was in the Asshifa hospital and I said to myself if our forces will reach the hospital what will become of all those thousands of people who are there and claiming high about their exploits so this is really something that one has to take into consideration the fact is that of course we have encircled Gaza we have penetrated the first lines of defense but this is not the prominent this is going to be a big fight because this is the best fortified positions ever built since World War II and we are if you have to compare to something else it's not Mosul in Baghdad it's Iwo Jima this is the kind of war that better that we will have to wage against Hamas there and there right now even though we have penetrated and encircled the Gaza they have not crumbled they are fighting and people who are familiar with the events say that hundreds of anti-tank missiles are being fired at our vehicles, at our tanks at our troop transporters and this is really a very tough battle that we are waging and the end of it is not for tomorrow not the day after tomorrow even not in few months from now for the long game here this humanitarian corridor humanitarian pause also coming from a lot of international pressure we've also seen US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken he was in Israel on Friday before doing a regional tour of meeting with other Arab leaders in Jordan and now returning to Israel to meet with Mahut Abbas what exactly can we expect from his meeting especially after meeting with these Israeli heads, these Arab blood heads now Abbas to be honest not much I think it's a meeting just to keep in touch and to make sure that Mahmoud Abbas is on top of things as best he can in the West Bank including security cooperation with Israeli security agencies and with the army I think it's in everybody's interest including Mahmoud Abbas is that things don't flare up in the West Bank but you know there is also I don't know what's in the mind of Secretary Blinken but he's the one who's talking about the need to start thinking about an exit strategy and an exit strategy is also to try and envision what will happen in Gaza after Hamas is defeated I add in double brackets it's a little bit difficult to define what a defeat of Hamas will actually look like but that's a different story but the Palestinian authority currently run by Mahmoud Abbas is or is mentioned as a possible player to take over Gaza so there needs to be a line of communication with him I think that the humanitarian issue is top of the list in his attempts to achieve something tangible and I think it's not unreasonable from the Israeli point of view to demand that humanitarian access is not a unilateral thing it's not just humanitarian access to Gazans in western Gaza it's legitimate to demand humanitarian access to over 240 Israeli hostages held in Gaza that remains to be one of the dilemmas when it comes to the operations in Gaza but we're also the idea is on high alert in the north as well that's where we find our I-24 news correspondent Ariel Osron on the northern border with Lebanon Ariel the action that we're seeing there following on Friday has been achieved Hassan Nasrullah's speech what's the latest feeling following Nasrullah's speech up there in the north right Nicole so this morning is a quiet tension here on the other day of cross border fires between Israel and Hezbollah yesterday overnight multiple sounds of mortars launched from southern Lebanon towards Israel also in the western axis but also in the eastern part of the 80 mile long border Israel saying the idea that it responded with artillery fire to the origin of the launches but also that the Israeli air force carried out strikes in southern Lebanon on Hezbollah infrastructure now the equation that Hezbollah the Iranian axis has been presenting is that as Israel's aggression progresses in Gaza so will the aggression of the axis now Hezbollah threatened to increase its activity against Israel if it goes into ground invasion but indeed we did not see really a significant change in that but rather we saw the Houthis join the fray activating a new arena now last night we heard the heads of the pro-Iranian Qatayb Hezbollah militias in Iraq warning Anthony Blinken the U.S. Secretary of State from visiting Baghdad and so that's just a reminder of the multiple arenas and potential fronts that can be activated obviously we know that American assets have been targeted in Syria and Iraq since the start of the war and obviously that also needs to be taken into consideration when we look at all these different fronts and axes working together. Arielle we continue to talk about the threshold that we see on the northern border we continue to see this tit for tat of firing but we don't see the threshold yet so is it expected that Hezbollah will not go over that and we'll continue to see this relatively low level firing. Well two points on that Nicole first while these are limited exchanges of fire especially compared to what's going on down south this is something that has been gradually escalating since October 2nd that is it's not getting lower than density is only getting higher and another thing we need to point out is the fact that systematically Hezbollah has been targeting Israeli military outpost targeting cameras until gathering capabilities and yesterday in a video that Hezbollah shared they showed that they're now also targeting the border fence causing gaps this is something that the army is looking into but obviously is another indication that while the intensity remains low gradually slowly they are raising the level of escalation. The IDF continues to be on high alert up there in the north that are corresponding. Ariel O'Sarron thank you for that update now as we continue to look at the main two fronts of this war the south and the north it's important to notice that the IDF also operating in the west bank as well just overnight we're seeing the Palestinian authorities had nine people arrested in Janine also reports that Hamas bombed troops entering Janine now these are Hamas reports but I'm curious Jacques the IDF continues to try and maintain a stronghold on the west bank and limit these number of Hamas terrorists that are running it well where it not the operations conducted by the IDF and the west bank who would be seeing a real antifada going on there since the beginning of the war more than two thousand people wanted people have been arrested out of the two thousand two hundred there is about eight hundred who are Hamas operatives and Hamas leaders political and others in the area the Palestinians have suffered scores of terrorists killed by the IDF and all the situation is that it's not very much mediatized so we are not aware of the war that is going on in the west bank but there is a conflict there a very active conflict where Israel is fighting Hamas fighting any uprising that's happening but unfortunately from time to time we see that it's not hermetic and you have lone wolves so-called attack Israelis and we had three Israelis killed in the last week so this is an ongoing and I think that the Palestinian authority must be aware that we are in fact assisting them in surviving because where it not our activities in the west bank the Fatah and the Palestinian authority would have been wiped out long ago just to add this did not start with the war in Gaza you know the friction between the IDF and Palestinians in the west bank has been going on for over a year now and it has intensified I think it's more focalized now on Hamas operatives but as Jacques said not exclusively but as we're seeing that the Palestinian authority has struggled to maintain the terror cells that have popped up in the west bank Daniel you said earlier that many people are looking at the possibility of the PA taking control of Gaza if and when this war does run what is the other choice there's nobody the Egyptians don't want Gaza the Georgians won't even look at Gaza they have enough Palestinians of their own in the kingdom so the only possible and the US said no way we are not going to govern this land so they are just aiming at the Palestinian authority putting it back and in a certain renegotiating I would say the Oslo agreements implementation concerning Gaza according to some Israeli politicians we are thinking of turning Gaza into a B zone like in the west bank which means that civilian authority of the PA but on the security Israel would be present there or free to act as soon as a danger is seen there this is more or less the thing that and this is in my view this is what has been discussed in Amman with Blinken with the Arab Foreign Ministers and this is what Blinken is trying to convince Abbas to take over the day after when the war is ended Blinken has said that is one of his main objectives of this regional tour not only focusing on making sure that this doesn't regionally escalate the war itself but also what happens the day after I'm curious just going off of Blinken's regional visit I know he's also he went to Jordan he's heading to Turkey as well what can we expect from his visit to Turkey well to be honest as things stand now not much probably Erdogan is the most unstable regional leader one day he's Israel's closest ally the next day he hates everybody he's an opportunist and currently he sees his future as the leader of the resistance against Israel and he's pro Hamas I remind people that he's hosting some Hamas leaders but like other countries there are not many who traditionally had contact with Hamas and even supported them they must understand that they have a choice now either they become they go down in history as collaborators to these atrocities or they can become the heroes of this story if they can bring it to an end get to the freeing of the hostages etc etc at the moment it doesn't look like he's chosen that direction what comes to freeing the hostages also I just wanted to say that you ask a question about the northern front and I think that this is important to assert that we are inching forward towards I would say a full scale war regional war we heard yesterday the foreign minister of Iran saying very openly that there is no way to evade or to avoid to avoid a regional conflict all the American bases in Iraq from Kurdistan till Jordan are under attack day after day the Iraqi militias have fired a missile towards Iraq so it's not only coming from Gaza and from Yemen it's also coming from Iraq and they're putting pressure on the Americans and let us remember what Nassala said we are preparing surprises for the Americans and trust me he has surprises and there's also the sense that there's almost a ticking clock when it comes to how long we're going to maintain this very very strong amount of support from America we can't continue to have their troops in the Red Sea for months on end Thanksgiving is at the end of this month and instead of being at home they'll be on the carriers just waiting waiting and I think that something must happen otherwise they just have to go away meanwhile also this is a kind of a sense of who is really Israel's partners in this as you were stating and who is against Israel and one country that is stepping up seems to be Saudi Arabia another report that they've intercepted another missile coming from Yemen that was heading towards Israel Saudi Arabia although talks are no longer here they seem to be showing a lot of actions I'm not sure that this is because they feel so close to Israel and want to protect the Israelis I think there's a strong self-interest here they are very concerned I think that the war in Yemen will flare up again we're supposed to be in a ceasefire situation so when they see the Houthis in Yemen waking up and starting to be active again I understand they're probably right that now it might be pointed at Israel but sooner or later they'll come back to their main dish which is Saudi Arabia the more we speak about Saudi Arabia intercepting missiles toward Israel the more we just distance ourselves from the Saudis and the Saudis don't like that at all because they are being identified as pro-Israelis I mean helping Israel in intercepting missiles coming from Yemen is definitely not the kind of information that the Saudis are interested right now to publish yet they are doing it so I mean there is a dilemma here it's a back and forth and we'll continue to focus on exactly what's happening here the ongoing war efforts it's important to remember exactly what sparked this war in the first place that was the October 7th massacre in those Israel southern communities the local security chief of Kibbutz Kaveem in the Gaza envelope gave a really rare look on life in the Kibbutz after October 7th and his optimistic vision on the future of the area Kibbutz Kaveem near the Gaza Strip adjacent to the southern city of Zderot was not severely hit by the brutal terror attack by Hamas on October 7th but things could have been very different as Gil Schwartzman a member of the Kibbutz tells I-24 news about the dramatic moments at around 7 a.m. I heard gunshots around the gate I got a call from the local security coordinator he said I've been shot I'm injured I called the standby squad and we came to help him another car was shot at and the guy there was shot in his head but he survived another car was also hit by gunshots and grenades we counted 45 bullet holes in the car the local security chief got hit in his leg and I had to take him out of the car we also had a lot of luck perhaps even divine province I want to show you something special this gate took a lot of bullets when we opened the gate look at the shape of the bullet exit hole Kibbutz Kaveem was established in 1947 a few months before Israel declared its independence over the years it's known many challenges due to its sensitive location in the beginning people lived here in tents in July 1947 this structure was built to protect the residents from attacks by Egyptians members of the Kibbutz lived in tents and small cabins Schwartzman is one of 16 people of the standby squad the only ones who remain in the Kibbutz out of its 617 members when we walk around we see empty houses but thanks to Schwartzman and a few people who were left here the Kibbutz is not neglected and even the local dairy is functioning I was in Germany on a family vacation when the situation started after a few days I came back it's a bit strange to be here I'm alone here except for a few people and soldiers but what can I do outside the Kibbutz we visit Sauta with Schwartzman directs this startup hub is home to dozens of high tech companies which develop revolution inventions from 3D printers to FSMP platforms we've been active for 6 years now all the companies have told me that they are not leaving this hub other companies have been interested in participating in this project it's the first high tech hub in the negative and one of the biggest and most successful ones high tech always has a future I have no doubt that in 2 years when you come back to visit we will give you a message despite the horrific tragedy Schwartzman is still optimistic and says he believes that most of the residents will return to their home eventually and that kevim and the high tech scene will flourish perhaps a ray of hope in this dark time in the south it's been 30 days one month since the October 7th massacre and here in Israel civilians certainly remember why the fight but I'm curious, abroad as Israel continues to defend itself is there this feeling that people are forgetting exactly what sparked this in the first place you're absolutely right Nicole and without finding excuses it's understandable unfortunately it was a one day event it was terrifying it was the magnitude of the event itself of the cruelty of the brutality are difficult to describe but there's a distance that's growing between that date and today and on the other hand the events in Gaza are ongoing so they are piling up and they are sort of covering up in the minds of the people overseas they are covering up the original event now it's one of the challenges of Israel is to keep this story alive and to remind everybody where this started one of the ways one of the ongoing stories one of the ongoing tragedies are the hostages because they are still there and there is both the government and civil society are working very hard to remind people and there are operations worldwide trying to do that so not everyone forgets and clearly I think it's it's possible to remind people what happened but we have to understand that this is as the further we go from there the more difficult it will be to show that where this started to move on but that I-24 news will continue to remind people exactly why they are fighting in the first place Daniel Scheck along with Dr. Jacques Maria thank you for your insight as always and thank you for tuning in to this latest edition of I-24 News Israel is officially in a state of war this is a very active scene and we need to get in the car as we're talking within a hundred soldiers and civilians have been kidnapped we just don't know anything entire families including babies and children and elderly were butchered in their beds awaken the giant and we are ready and we are strong everyone is showing up this is the unity I-24 News channel broadcasting from Israel with dozens of correspondence throughout the world brings the truth from Israel to hundreds of millions of people in scores of countries bringing Israel's story to the world I-24 News channels now on hot this week on News 24 Israel under attack News 24 in Spanish brings the analysis and information of the events of the war Iron swords exclusive interviews and reports from the war zone the reaction of the Spanish-speaking countries News 24 the only medium in Spanish that keeps you informed and connected with the Latin community News 24 only on I-24 News welcome to this latest edition of I-24 News as we break down the latest developments of the war here in Israel and the cool aesthetic live in Tel Aviv certainly forces have destroyed more than 2,500 Hamas terror targets in Gaza since the beginning of their ground operation one week ago as battles in Gaza ramp up the idea is reopening a civilian corridor that ends in the north to safely evacuate south despite coming under attack by members of Hamas while trying to open the road on Saturday meanwhile United States Secretary of State Anthony Blinken returned to Israel this morning to meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas after Blinken visited Jordan to discuss Israel's ongoing war efforts this says Defense Minister Yoav Galant said Israeli troops are deepening their ground offensive in the Gaza Strip vowing to eliminate all Hamas leaders with a main target on Yahas and war now meanwhile with all of this action we're seeing in the southern Gaza Strip we want to begin with actually what's happening up north as the idea says they are continuing to be on high alert in the northern area as well that's where we find our I-24 News correspondent Ariel Osteron right now Ariel within the past 30 minutes the red alert sirens blaring through the northern area what can you tell us indeed Nicole about half an hour ago red alert sirens that's to warn of incoming rocket fire was sounded in the border community of Matat now there's no indication of impact or injuries and while there hasn't been any official statement by the IDF of a response strike in southern Lebanon there are reports coming on the past few minutes of four injured in the village of Tircharpa that's in the central area of the border area between Israel and Lebanon and this follows just moments before you came to me I heard another boom behind me which could either be artillery growing out or artillery growing out or incoming mortar fire most of the times it is incoming mortar fire and so this just indicates the fast-paced change in nature that this the situation here in the border changes with yesterday also an amplification of cross-border fire along the border so far this morning there was this siren half an hour ago and the sporadic sound of shelling but other than that the situation remains quiet tension here in the northern border with the sporadic sound of shelling off in the distance I'm curious I know many people have already evacuated from the north but as we see these slowly slowly tensions increasing residents who are there are they now deciding to flee the area if they haven't done so already you're right Nicole the vast majority of residents in the border communities up to five kilometers from the border have been evacuated either by choice or by state mandate and that doesn't give forces here a little more leeway and breathing room but indeed I think the situation here as we've seen this gradual but steady escalation I think that is not what is what's going to send the rest of the remaining locals home I think if the we indeed see a wider scale escalation here in Hezbollah really joining the war a full scale that would probably prompt further evacuations here from the north but we're also talking about what line of how far from the border are being evacuated there's also criticism among people living past the five kilometer threshold that they should be evacuated to some leaving on their own accord but obviously not all in this current situation our correspondent Ariel Oceran reporting from the northern border with Lebanon thanks for the update I want to bring in my guest in studio now I'm joined by Rafael Urusalmi former senior intelligence officer with the IDF and security analysis and our I-24 new senior diplomatic correspondent Owen Alterman thank you both for joining me Rafael as we were just speaking to our correspondent Ariel up in the north we know dozens of northern communities have already evacuated posing this threat from Hezbollah at some point they're going to need to return to their northern communities however if the threat from Hezbollah is still there how are they supposed to feel safe knowing that situations such as October 7 could happen again if the IDF doesn't impose stricter limitations and really push back against Hezbollah so obviously they cannot feel safe returning if the situation remains as it is today there's pointless to return what was the point of evacuating in the first place if you're going to return to the same situation so of course I advocate pre-emptive strike on the Hezbollah I do not necessarily imply that the objective of attacking the Hezbollah should be the same as Hamas meaning dismantling the Hezbollah altogether I don't think it would be possible but what we could do is have some kind of retreating of the Hezbollah presence in south Lebanon further back north to have them move far away from the border villages of Israel meaning at least we would take out the threat of infiltration of terrorists coming into villages and killing innocent people there this doesn't mean we would get rid of for instance the missiles, the threat of the missile so maybe we shouldn't dream about that right now but for sure there is a possibility to change the situation in south Lebanon we have this presence of blue helmets that would become suddenly useful meaning they would the unifil blue helmets of peacekeepers of the United Nations could ensure some kind of a zone between the Hezbollah and Israel that would be like a safe zone, demilitarized zone as it is demanded to do even now but not doing it so that could allow for people just to come back home feel a little safer the huge threat that the Hezbollah is for the Israel in general strategically speaking that could be dealt with later but now there is an emergency situation to make sure we can at least change the the deployment of Hezbollah troops should be so close to our border in south Lebanon and in south of Syria because in the south of Syria there is also Hezbollah presence and Pro-Iranian that also should be and there is also there a force of blue helmets for the United Nations that also not doing really that job all of these Iranian regional proxies certainly surrounding Hezbollah right now and United States Secretary of State Anthony Blinken currently on a regional tour trying to make sure that this doesn't escalate any further oh and just returning today to Israel to meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas what do we expect Blinken has already met with Israeli leaders he's met with Jordanian leaders other Arab leaders now he's meeting with a boss what exactly could come out of this well listen I suspect that there are two messages number one the similar message to what we heard is press conference here in Israel during his visit here that he's still committed to the two state solution to the Palestinian Authority to calm in the West Bank and so forth I suspect and frankly also hope that he'll also speak with Moud Abbas about the need to tamper down his statement and to continue security cooperation between the PA security forces and Israeli security forces as part of maintaining the common not to abandon that right Moud Abbas has responsibilities here too it's not only up to the United States to calm tensions and to Israel to whatever degree to calm tensions and there are important steps Israel should take including on excesses by settlers in the West Bank for example by some settlers in the West Bank but the Palestinian Authority also has what I would hope and expect and suspect that Anthony Blinken will make that clear Nirmala meanwhile you mentioned these increasing calls for a two state solution that's what people say need to happen that's what we're seeing from these international calls but I'm curious Rafael following the October 7 attack the Israeli perspective and to the possibility of a two state solution the possibility living side by side with our Palestinian partners what's the feeling here is that a possibility well everything is possible the day after is the day after we are living side by side anyway right with a state or not a state we live together and tens of thousands of Palestinians in normal times common work in Israel if you look at the day to day life apart from the extremist fringes of the West Bank the day to day life of settlers as living next to Palestinian populations it's rather peaceful Palestinians come to work in the settlement settlers go and shop in Arabic Palestinian villages so whether the two state solution is the solution or one state is a solution this is really too soon to tell I think that the two state solution is just utopia it's not doable it's not feasible on the ground it's much more feasible than one state solution if for him already like a federation if you would say of two different states but in the same national entity that's politics I'm not an expert of that what is important is is the peaceful way of living I think we can keep this status quo forever with the Palestinians have a Palestinian autonomy next to the national and Israel state it's crazy the city hasn't been done before it's out of the box in a way but it's there and it can be done if security is ensured and really the main obstacle to that security to that quiet it's the Hamas, it's the terrorist organization we have to get rid of them first then we have to get rid of the PLO because right now the PLO is the least worst solution and we should be strengthened to take over for a while but in the long run we have to get rid of them too and that's the problem we are still dealing with the old generation of Palestinian leaders the Arafat old schools these people are not able to run a country they are not able to run the Palestinian autonomy they are corrupt, they are violent and there is an elite in the Palestinian sometimes the name Mohammed Dahlan pops up but it's an example of a kind of elite that exists today generation of learned people, people who have been abroad people who want to do business with Israel, we should cultivate these kinds of people they don't like the PLO, they don't like the Hamas they want something else for their country, for their future and they exist they exist in Ramallah, they even exist in Gaza lawyers, doctors, businessmen, all these people they are starters that we work with these are the people who we should try to reinforce strength and convince because unfortunately today, clever people and good people don't do politics politics is for people who don't know to do something else I think we have to try and convince them push them to take responsibility for their faith and their future even though they don't like the politics that they should try and work with us because if we keep dealing and willing with these PLO, Hamas all these old school guys of the terrorist school we're not going to get anywhere these are all certainly questions for the day after but let's also focus on today the fighting that's happening on the ground that's where we find our correspondent Jonathan Regev who's in Israel south right now near the Gaza border Jonathan the IDF is coming out today saying since the start of this ground operation they've hit more than 2,500 Hamas targets so certainly heavy hitting and using their intelligence to find the different targets that they can what are you seeing on the ground? that is true, heavy hitting and hitting targets on the ground as important as that may be you do not eradicate Hamas and you do not have a loud and clear war if you do not do it on the ground invade on the ground and conquer on the ground and that's something that Israel began to do a week ago and that is something that comes with the challenges Hamas did not only prepare that extremely vicious attack on the morning of October 7 but was also well aware that such an attack will come we lead to an Israeli incursion and they've been preparing for that so Israel has to make sure that it is not only rushing in but going in wisely carefully it comes with their casualties we're already seeing it but Israel is progressing for now it seems cutting the Gaza Strip into first focusing on the northern part and the southern part will have to be taken care of as well meanwhile Jonathan we're taking a look at some of those images coming out of Gaza truly the fog of war in the Gaza City right now as we continue to see just these huge plumes of smoke overlooking and I'm sure you see it behind you as well you mentioned the IDF continuing to go and continuing to circle really the main action is expected in Gaza City with all of those difficulties as well because of the underground tunnels where these Hamas terrorists are hiding ready to pop up at any moment what difficulties are the IDF soldiers going to encounter in these coming days it's exactly that and we've already seen it happening terrorists rising up from their tunnels shooting anti-tank fire at Israeli soldiers and going back into their tunnels and disappearing after two minutes or putting IEDs on the big armored vehicles in the area these are some of the challenges that exist and will continue to exist our correspondent Jonathan Raghav reporting from the southern border with Gaza thanks for the update now we are 30 days into this war one week into the ground operation Ravel in the first couple of days we saw that the IDF was successful in rescuing one hostage Israeli soldier however one week later there remains 242 at least still in Gaza so as they are expanding their operation we still haven't seen any success yet as far as the hostage is no we are gathering more and more intelligence we are helped by that by the American forces for instance deploying spying drones over Gaza especially the south we think that some at least of the hostages might have been moved towards the south to be away from the combat zone for the simple reason that they are the life insurance of the leaders of the Hamas they keeping these hostages as their last rampart of defense in case things would get really really rough and tough for them they would offer these hostages back to us in exchange of their own lives so that's the place, the hope we place that they are the life, the hostages are the life insurance of the leaders of the Hamas this being said the operations that are led now as against the tunnels they of course contain the risk of reaching hostages that might be there very slim because the tunnels we are attacking right now and destroying right now are operational tunnels tunnels with armed people of the Hamas and I don't think that's where the hostages would be detained, they will be detained more into I would say the more luxurious and inside bunkers of the political branch of the higher ranking leaders that's where they will be held in my opinion being safe because they are life insurance of course we are giving a chance to a diplomatic ballet that is going around everywhere we have new actors coming in to negotiate a possible release and we hope that complying with the American demand for humanitarian pose will include humanitarian also meaning hostages and the last thing is that we are putting a lot of pressure with our offensive hoping that that pressure might also have some kind of a result and the Hamas to beg for like a ceasefire or a pose by giving us some of the hostages the hostage situation continues to be most difficult but it's also to look back exactly what happened on October 7th channel 12 the Israeli channel did a following report on one of the Kibbutz communities the thing that hurts me the most from this event and I remember it the most is arriving at the entrance of the Kibbutz and seeing a group of 500 soldiers standing organized, methodical with all their equipment with all their vehicles standing and looking at us this is where my trust in the army is completely snapped on the cursed Saturday of the 7th of October Kibbutz Berry the largest Kibbutz near the Gaza Strip was destroyed by hundreds of terrorists the 11 members of the Kibbutz team standby squad fought the last bullet calling for help from the police and the army, help that came too late here's another here's another at 6.56 a friend called me and said he could see terrorists with a motorcycle around the Kibbutz I told him you're kidding there's no way like it can't be I'm sure I just saw them with Hamas headband speaking Arabic there was no message from the army no discussion with the army Aarik Kranik Berry's mythical security coordinator went out to open the armory and lock the Kibbutz gate on the way he called to mobilize the members of the standby squad I had a very short conversation with Aarik I'm mobilizing you the sticking point is here I got ya I see the security coordinator lying on the road two minutes from the start of the event Aarik the security coordinator was killed in an encounter with terrorists I'm getting organized I'm leaving the safe room as far as I'm concerned I haven't I haven't made coffee yet and I'll soon catch the terrorists and go back to and go back to preparations because my wife likes coffee and she's waiting for us to make it for her it's only 7.30 in the morning at this point the standby squad already has two dead and three wounded Hagi was seriously injured and died of his wounds in the field the other six members of the standby squad fought alone against hundreds of terrorists who continued to infiltrate the Kibbutz from three different locations from the front gate, the back gate and a gap they created in the fence the terrorists dispersed in the neighborhood of the vineyard and the olive trees going from house to house murdering and burning civilians at this time the security camera recorded the first police force entering the Kibbutz and they realized very quickly five police officers with guns that this was an incident not in a scale they could come and make a dramatic impact here they took a certain position where they tried to have some kind of response if it developed further I, as a standby squad member knew that right now there were actions going on half an hour later the police left the Kibbutz to equip themselves with other weapons but were given other tasks and did not return you see with your own eyes you see terrorists pouring into the Kibbutz van upon van driving here probably also very much under the influence of drugs happy and hunking and running and deriving with an orderly plan basically there were an army with plenty of ammunition they knew the Kibbutz, they were organized they had maps of the Kibbutz the forces were divided into neighborhoods they probably also knew the layout of the neighborhoods here we actually had a guerrilla force inside our locality against an army I actually informed them that all the members in the Biri were inside save rooms and I can also put the standby squad into save rooms and so they could bomb them from the air because everything moving here was not friendly just terrorists Yair made it to the dental clinic in serious condition there he was cared for by Daniel the doctor Nareed the Kibbutz nurse and the paramedic Amit Shahar and Eitan from the emergency department joined them to defend the clinic and wage war from it they actually put a personal dressing on me to stop the bleeding see, this is a personal dressing they tried to stop the bleeding with all kinds of cloths at this point, Shahar and Eitan are fighting and our feeling is that we we are winning, the guys here everyone who passes, passed a car they killed a squad, passed a motorcycle they killed him, passed some other all-terrain vehicle, killed them too I started receiving phone calls for my mother who was actually already telling me that my father was wounded that I have already shot him through the emergency room and that she thought she was also injured some conversations are not easy Yuval told me, we must go to my parents and fight well, we must not do that we will die there the contact with my parents was very quickly cut off I already understood what happened and we carried on fighting you heard the massacre you heard the screams you heard the non-stop shooting you saw the houses burning you see the... the red who tries to tear down houses and we shot him who went inside the houses and we have nothing to do when I'm here, Yuval is here while fighting, while shooting I get a phone call from a relative of mine a cousin I remember for a moment the man works in the prime minister's office and he tells me what I hoped he would say I'm here with the prime minister with other people he wants to hear a report from you can you? I told him berries under attack by hundreds of terrorists we are fighting with a few people a standby squad hundreds have been killed hundreds of terrorists are attacking Berry there is no force here to help you have to help now I think I even raised my voice we must come immediately with forces right now, silence and then they said, understood the matter is being handled and the conversation ended and at this point terrorists tried to take over the dental clinic at least eight grenades exploded here and the ammunition had already run out Shahar yelled in English I am not your enemy please, I am not your enemy Amit went outside we heard a shot and she said, that's it this is the end, I got hurt, they shot me and another shot is fired at this point, silence then another grenade is thrown and Shahar is no longer with us at this point, I'm breaking breaking the blinds here I'm trying to get out, there are four terrorists here they are putting a barrel on my forehead laughing, I pushed back the weapon crawling, going half body into this little cabinet Etan is here they shoot him, they say like this is for fun they throw a grenade, the grenade explodes they said, like this for fun, I did not understand yes, in Hebrew, in Hebrew like this is for fun I lie here, pushing my tongue hard into my palate in order not to make a noise, I understand that if I make the slightest movement they'll catch me and I'll die I was covered in my own vomit, my own blood pretending to be dead, not moving and not making a sound at half past six in the evening, forces arrived to rescue the wounded Yair he and the Kibbutz nurse Nirit were the only ones who survived the inferno 85 Bari residents were murdered 26 were kidnapped to Gaza and four are missing close to one tenth of the Kibbutz was wiped out 500 soldiers standing outside organized with dogs, with equipment and protection with vehicles standing outside and no one managing anything and I remember shaking the stretcher and everyone shouting, we are being slaughtered come in, save us everyone looks at me, no one says anything looks at me like a village fool the members of the emergency squad remained in Bari until Monday evening they accompanied the military forces until the end of the searches and the discovery of the last bodies only then were they free to start digesting the loss of families and friends who fought alongside them the cries for help that were received too late the destruction can you sleep at night? sleep? no, I haven't slept yet as soon as you close your eyes so many things float that we might have been able to do what we didn't do there isn't a bush, there isn't a stone that I don't imagine that if we had gone through maybe like this we would have been saved and maybe saved another family so much guilt and so many questions keep coming to mind very very hard it's very hard to sleep thinking about it these stories from October 7th act as a reminder as to why the ongoing fighting continues 30 days into the war here in Israel we'll continue to bring you all of the latest updates here on i24 news thanks for tuning in Israel is officially in a state of war this is a very active scene and we need to get in the car as we're talking more than 100 soldiers and civilians have been kidnapped tell us we don't know what to do we just don't know anything entire families including babies and children and elderly were butchered in their beds awaken the giant and we are ready and we are strong everyone is showing up this is the unity broadcasting from Israel with dozens of correspondents throughout the world this is the truth from Israel to hundreds of millions of people in scores of countries completely done down in their beds bringing Israel's story to the world i24 news channels now on hot look up to this latest edition of i24 news as we break down the latest developments of the war here in Israel on the cool aesthetic life in Tel Aviv its early forces have destroyed 2500 Hamas terror targets in Gaza since the beginning of their ground operation one week ago as battles in Gaza ramp up the idea is reopening a civilian corridor to allow residents in the north to safely evacuate south despite coming under attack by members of Hamas while trying to open the road on Saturday meanwhile United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken returned to Israel this morning to meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas after Blinken visited Jordan to discuss Israel's ongoing war efforts this says Defense Minister Yoav Galan said Israeli troops are deepening their ground offensive in the Gaza Strip vowing to eliminate all Hamas leaders with a main target on Yai Haas and war now meanwhile with all of this action we're seeing in the southern Gaza Strip we want to begin with what's happening up north as the idea says they are continuing to be alert in the northern area as well that's where we find our I-24 newest correspondent Ariel Osteron right now Ariel within the past 30 minutes the red alert sirens blaring through the northern area what can you tell us indeed Nicole about half an hour ago red alert sirens that's to warn of incoming rocket fire was sounded in the border community of Matat now there is no indication of impact or injuries and while there hasn't been any official statement by the IDF of a response strike in southern Lebanon there are reports coming on in the past few minutes of four injured in the village of Tircharpa that's in the central area of the border area between Israel and Lebanon and this follows just moments before you came to me I heard another boom behind me which could either be artillery growing out or incoming mortar fire most of the time that is incoming mortar fire and so this just indicates the fast-paced change in nature that this situation here in the border changes with yesterday also an amplification of cross-border fire along the border so far this morning there was this siren half an hour ago and the sporadic sound of of shelling but other than that the situation remains quiet tension here in the northern border with the sporadic sound of shelling off in the distance I'm curious I know many people have already evacuated from the north but as we see these slowly slowly tensions increasing residents who are there are they now deciding to flee the area if they haven't done so already you're right Nicole the vast majority of residents in the border communities up to five kilometers from the border have been evacuated either by choice or by state mandate and that doesn't give security forces here a little more leeway and breathing room but indeed I think the situation here as as we've seen this gradual but steady escalation I think that is not what is what's gonna send the rest of the remaining locals home I think if we indeed see a wider scale escalation here in Hezbollah really joining the war a full scale that would probably prompt further evacuations here from the north but we're also talking about what line of how far from the border are being evacuated there's also criticism among people living past the five kilometer threshold that they should be evacuated to some living on their own accord but obviously not all in this current situation our correspondent Ariel Osir on reporting from the northern border with Lebanon thanks for the update I want to bring in my guest in studio now I'm joined by Rafael Urosalmi former senior intelligence officer with the IDF and security analysis and our I-24 news senior diplomatic correspondent Owen Alterman thank you both for joining me to our correspondent Ariel up in the north we know dozens of northern communities have already evacuated posing this threat from Hezbollah at some point they're going to need to return to their northern communities however if the threat from Hezbollah is still there how are they supposed to feel safe knowing that situations such as October 7th could happen again if the IDF doesn't impose stricter limitations and really push back against Hezbollah so obviously they cannot feel safe returning if the situation remains as it is today there's pointless to return what was the point of evacuating in the first place if you're going to return to the same situation so of course I advocate a pre-emptive strike on the Hezbollah I do not necessarily imply that the objective of attacking the Hezbollah should be the same as Hamas meaning dismantling the Hezbollah altogether I don't think it would be possible but what we could do is have some kind of retreating of the Hezbollah presence in south Lebanon further back north to like have them move far away from the border villages of Israel meaning at least we would take out the threat of infiltration of terrorists coming into villages and killing innocent people there this doesn't mean we would get rid of the for instance the missiles so maybe we should dream about that right now but for sure there is a possibility to change the situation in southern Lebanon we have a useless presence of blue helmets that would become suddenly useful meaning the unified blue helmets of peacekeepers of the United Nations could ensure some kind of a zone between the Hezbollah and Israel that would be like a safe zone as it is demanded to do even now without doing it so that could allow for people just to come back home, feel a little safer there are huge threats that the Hezbollah is for the Israel in general strategically speaking that could be dealt with later but now there is an emergency situation to make sure I can at least change the deployment of Hezbollah troops should be so close to our border in southern Lebanon and in the south of Syria because in the south of Syria there is also Hezbollah presence and Shiite militias pro-Iranian Shiite militias that also should be and there is also there a force of blue helmets for the United Nations that also not doing really that job all of these Iranian regional proxies certainly surrounding Israel right now State Secretary of State Anthony Blinken currently on a regional tour trying to make sure that this doesn't escalate any further oh and just returning today to Israel to meet with Palestinian President M