Lipstein head of the Charnegev Regional Council he was killed in a firefight with the terrorists when he rushed out into the ongoing attack to defend his community now he has been eulogized since as a hero, as a dedicated public servant and maybe the biggest compliment as a true mensch we have here in the studio his brother Daron Lipstein thank you for joining us of course Daron first of all a word about your brother he's all soul and he's a leader in his area and representing the country all over the world true Zionist who were voting for peace dedicating his life for peace building industrial centers and working every day to create peace between Israelis and Palestinians in his area a true believer in the future of Israel and the Jewish community and it is said and the circumstances of his death as much as we know I know it was the first first name that I heard first specific name that I heard that came out exactly he was called to save his kibbutz because terrorists arrived from the air he ran into the safe room took his weapon and started to fight and he was fighting something like 50 to 75 terrorists on cars that came into the kibbutz and shot him and he did his best but it was not enough it took hours until the military and the army arrived and we lost few people in our family his mother in law was killed few minutes later his nephew the son of his wife brother was killed in the youth area and his son was missing his funeral is going to be I believe this Wednesday this Wednesday at 4pm and as you can see it's been 10 days until now since we got the formal approval to bury him in Israel and I still hope that his legacy for peace in this area will be the future of our and he certainly made his memory a blessing we should just note that while you were talking were alert sirens going off in that same region along the Gaza border I was there on Wednesday and I saw what's happening and what they have done on one hand tremendous heroism we heard an inspiring story on the other a tremendous loss this country has suffered a huge blow and a huge responsibility on the government to try to steer it now going forward maybe before I speak about that I do want to say that I also met Ophir three weeks ago he showed me around the towns that he was responsible for and I just want to echo what was said by Doron his incredible vision he refused to live in a place where the terrorists dictated how they lived and so he wanted to create community centers he wanted to create life student activities is actually a college there and so he had student activities he really had even bike paths that took me because there were even bike paths that you don't usually see in these types of communities but it was important for him for there to be quality of life and he also had a vision for peace and me and him worked in the same political side right but first of all he had a lot of vision of peace for internally with an Israeli worked with everyone from both sides but also when it comes to peace with the people from Gaza he actually he didn't have any illusions about Hamas right he knew who they were but he was as I think you tried to say he wanted to create an industrial center where people from Gaza could come and make a good living and then go back in order to try and create cooperation and this vision for peace was really really incredible and something that might interest people from the diaspora jury that might be listening right now he was hoping to retire from public service in the next few years I think in another five years he said and to dedicate his life to education of the Jewish diaspora Zionist education for the Jewish diaspora I told Doron if I may say here also that I want to try to find to find a way for his legacy to be remembered in that subject it was something that was incredibly important for him the connection between Jews in the diaspora and Israel and I hope that we find a way really to remember his legacy and I'm going to come back to you on the government a bit I do want to jump up to our correspondent who is on the northern border Robert Swift Robert are you there because there are some reports of some of the sounds of at least fire in that area along the northern frontier what can you tell us that's correct first if we look at the Damascus area where it's been reported that there has been airstrikes airstrikes that are being attributed to Israel Syrian air defenses are understood to have fired and four days ago there was airstrikes against Damascus airport and against Aleppo airport both of which were attributed to Israel there's some speculation that this may be attempts by the Israeli military to intercept weapons shipments as they come from Iran through Syria and to Hezbollah now here on the border itself there's been reports in the last hour of possible infiltration around the community of Matula that's one of the communities that have been evacuated today and there have been a number of security incidences there for the past several days there's reports of explosions there but the actual possible infiltration has not been confirmed and I could also say that ourselves we witnessed from where we're standing a series of explosions also about half an hour ago which appeared to be further to the west Matula is on the far eastern end of Israel's northern border and we're a lot closer to the western end and witnessed several explosions which appeared to possibly be artillery in the air that's the situation at the moment all right, Robert Swift there in northern Israel we're purposely not giving his exact location for obvious reasons let me go back to Dan this was the first day in the Knesset first with the session for this new emergency unity government obviously there's going to have to be a reckoning for the government for what happened last weekend but that's going to come later in the meantime the question is moving ahead is the challenge is facing this government now on two levels both in engaging the war in Gaza but also dealing with the situation of those Israelis for example who are living in those communities along the Gaza border who have been living in the on the northern Lebanese border we're hearing calls now about Ashkelon the people of Ashkelon saying this new government going to be able to function and meet those challenges on both those levels listen the unity in the people of Israel has never been as great as it is today everyone from all parties is really engaged in trying to defeat this horrible enemy whose face was unveiled and where I'm talking of course about Hamas an enemy that reminds us of the worst types of regimes that the world has ever seen we're comparing it to ISIS I think it also reminds us of pictures we've seen in the Holocaust and things that the Nazis would do and this is exactly the type of regime that we need to fight and the only way to fight this type of regime is just to eliminate it and I'm talking of course about the regime Israel is a law abiding country we abide by international law we'll continue to do that but when we're talking about the regime of Hamas this is the only option we have on the table because there's no other way for Israel to move forward and so this is something we owe our people and this is something that we will do this is something that the Prime Minister said again today and the whole people of Israel the opposition leader also right now Yair Lapid who didn't join the coalition said the same message the whole people of Israel is united in this sense and this sense of unity is felt in the battlefield you have soldiers from merits and soldiers that voted for Ben Gvir that are fighting side by side and everyone in the middle of course that are fighting side by side against this common enemy and I think that the western world also is quite united in this when saw this enemy when it comes to the actual citizens of Israel and some of the problems that we have seen because I mean we have to say to be honest we were surprised with this action and also the extent of the destruction is something that Israel didn't know before the amount of people that were dead and there's still some people that are waiting to hear what happened to their families I want to say from here that's the people that work in these places to identify the dead and when it comes to the home front they're working day and night they're working very hard and they deserve our credit they're doing everything they can in order to get to results and I believe we will get to the question of economic aid and for the relocation on the communities that's on the governmental level that's going to happen I support of course giving help to people who have gone through this tragedy or who are affected through this tragedy whether it's because they were asked to leave their homes of course they need to be compensated the government asks you to leave your home then you need to be compensated for that and again politics you need to get to discussions before you get to a decision it's normal I know that there were discussions and committees right now I believe we'll get to decisions quite quickly because everyone understands the urgency of this all united and trying to there's no opposition coalition just on paper some of those discussions were understandably heated in the Knesset today I mean let me let me ask you what would your brothers say what would he be asking I could ask you just what you'd be asking for if he was here with us now as the head of the Shahr and Egev regional council what would he be telling the government right now so the first thing he will say is those people that over there needs a security this is number one they will not go back before we take care of the Hamas to the same situation that they had to experience for 20 years now and this is very important because if they are not there then Ashkelon is the one to get the heat and if they are not there then so this is now the problem of everyone and I agree with you we are united and the solution so far came from people from citizens I think that the government is a little bit behind aftershock what we call and citizens are helping each other and are giving hands and it's amazing how much support we received from other people from regular soldiers that were in the kibbutz and told us what is happening and searched for my brother and for the son of my brother and I think that this is one area that we are all united in our goals and what we need to do in order to live in peace in Israel the second way is to have a vision for the future what we would like to have here after the winning of this war and it is clear that we will win but we want to live in peace after that this is where I think that we still need to define kind of the new purpose of Israel what we want what people are calling the day after but obviously the focus is now winning the war but yes there will have to be thinking going towards the day after now you spoke about the support that's been given this sport also coming from outside from Jewish communities from supporters and from the United States especially we have here Secretary of State Blinken who is right now I believe in the IDF headquarters on Tel Aviv the defense secretary Lloyd Austin talk of President Biden coming to Israel perhaps Wednesday that has been confirmed our reporter says it's still under discussion that would be quite a trip so there's no question that the US has thrown its full support buying Israel's war with Hamas but we have to ask what exactly that entails and what would be the initial cost for Israel perhaps in the future of determining policy well our correspondent Ari Levin-Waldman takes a look at what America has brought to bear in the Gaza conflict a US carrier strike group carries enough firepower to level a small nation the Biden administration has sent two of them to the Mediterranean as a show of force to support Israel we move to US carrier fleet to the eastern Mediterranean and that region and made it clear made it clear to the Iranians be careful each strike group has close to 70 warplanes thousands of troops and a host of missile support boats and destroyers the United States has made its interest clear this war between Israel and Hamas's murderers must not escalate into a full regional war America's credibility is on the side proving it is still a major player in the Middle East and will back its allies when the worst happens it's also a message to Russia and China to keep out of the region what we're actually doing including the deployment of these aircraft carrier battle groups again not to provoke anyone but to send a very clear message of deterrence that no one should do anything that widens this conflict in any way against Israel from any other direction the United States has also thrown the might of its arms industry behind Israel with rapid resupplies of ammunition we heard from what the Israeli leaders about what is needed and in munitions we heard about precision guided bombs we heard about iron dome replacement we heard about 155 millimeter mortars we heard about JDAMs and many other things and not just munitions the diplomatically support Israel and maintains a crucial security council veto to keep the UN in line but this support comes with a diplomatic bottom line a set of lines Israel must not cross the Biden administration has demanded Israel lift the siege of Gaza and restore water to the strip something Israel has done despite Hamas's atrocities the US says Israel must minimize civilian casualties and should not re-occupy Gaza and maintain the ability for a two state solution going forward restraint may be a bitter pill for Israelis still shocked by the brutal massacre of Israeli civilians but American support will be critical on the battlefield and beyond I just want to clarify according to reports Israel has restored the supply of water to the southern Gaza strip which it has urged the civilian population in the southern half of Gaza to seek refuge in the southern half of the Gaza strip reports of course we've seen confirmed of Hamas terrorists trying to prevent many of those civilians from seeking shelter down there Dan so let me ask you to respond first of all the US the support has been remarkable that is by the way the map was showing the red line there in Gaza is where the population go the US has been supporting that deserves comment but again as our correspondent says the US is also for example I won't say demanded but has is working towards ensure for example with Egypt this humanitarian quarter it's talking about ceasefire so this government is going to have a very difficult task of balancing keeping the support of the US while trying to carry out its aims and meeting while meeting those demands or conditions but sensitivities of the US listen I think you're right in the first section of what you said that the US support was absolutely incredible it's true that in the past the current coalition not the current the previous coalition and the Biden administration sometimes had respectful disagreements but he completely stepped up he's a friend of Israel he made it clear his support is heartwarming and you can also see that it comes from his heart and I want to say also to the American people that we also see that the support is beyond partisan lines we see it on both sides and it's heartwarming to see it from both sides after saying this I'm not sure that I agree with the equation that you posed because Israel wants to follow international law Biden request that we follow international law because the United States it's a fact that they have put pressure on Israel in the past in terms of certain aims in the Gaza strip going at certain places you can really just tell me if we start seeing those pictures of and there will be civilian deaths that is what happens when you're fighting an enemy and they will but when they do that there will be mounting international pressure that might have political impact in the United States even on President Biden you're definitely right I believe that at the end we're hearing very clear messages from Biden that he will let Israel defend itself and that he accepts Israel's mission to remove Hamas completely understand that Hamas is like ISIS Hamas's actions that we saw remind us of images that we saw in the Holocaust and therefore this type of regime is not a regime that you can negotiate with it's not a regime that you can accept it's not a regime that you can weaken it's a regime that you have to eliminate and the way to do this we must do it according to international law we want to do it according to international law but we have to do it aggressively by the way not just because of Hamas but because our actions have to ring very clearly also in Lebanon and in Tehran in order to make sure that these things don't happen again in the future so we'll do it clearly we'll do it according to international law aggressively if there will be disagreements with the United States I think that they will be within this context where we both are committed to international law and therefore I think that there will be disagreements that we will know how to manage they might happen they will probably happen even I'm willing to say but we'll be able to manage them because we're two countries that are dedicated to the international law all right I'll come back in a minute Tehran I do want to go back to Sterot because and our correspondent Jonathan Regev and Jonathan it looks like even though even though Sterot may be a ghost town it looks like Hamas still considers it a prime target yes and I read an alert Siren about 10-15 minutes ago first one we've heard in hours and we're hearing of a direct impact in a house here in the city no casualties which makes sense since practically all of the homes here are deserted so no injuries as far as we're hearing but yes a direct hit in the city what is happening here is true for all of the Gaza border communities they're all practically deserted and yet there are constant barrages here we have to say that among all of the Gaza border communities Ashkelon is the one mostly targeted especially now at this time since Ashkelon with more than 100,000 people living there even if there are mass evacuations there's still a large number of people still in the city that is why Ashkelon is targeted more than Sterot more than the Gaza border communities but they're not spared themselves as we just heard here 10 minutes ago all right Jonathan Regev there and Sterot thank you for that Don I do want to go back to you because we had to go still I wanted to say that my brother used to quote Einstein who said there's no necessity to do the same thing and hope for different results and air strikes and what we're doing right now was something that we did for many years this is the time to do something different something smart something that will protect our citizens and will replace the Hamas regime this evil force let me ask you about the miracles that is seeing already we're seeing and there are going to be civilian casualties we reported on them here but those who are framing it in the still in the context of Hamas as a fighting a war of liberation your brother was and people like that wanted to live in peace with Gaza and I would say so many of the people I know a prominent peace activist Vivian Silver who was in Gaza we think me have been taken into hostage in Gaza and so certainly that message has to get out about people like your brother becoming victims while trying and promoting a kind of coexistence with the people of Gaza this is what unites us all I saw a quote says free Palestine from Hamas right and this is the only thing that will help the civilians the good people in Gaza to help us free themselves from Hamas because those are minorities who control them and make them hostage like our hostage people and this is the time to really clean this area and make it a better place to live in for them and for us Dan we have about 30 seconds so I do want to give you a final response about peace active is the party in which most people a large number of the people were killed was a party that was actually right next to Gaza and calling for peace people were dancing for peace and so this is the part in where so many of the people got killed the people that speak about that narrative forget one very basic fact which is important civilians do get killed in wars but Israel does everything it can to spare civilians on the other side everything we see it right now when it's calling for people to move to southern Gaza the Hamas target civilians they targeted Ophir unfortunately who's a civilian but they target always civilians and even as you speak and there's rockets that are coming remember that every single one of these rockets the goal of Hamas is to kill civilians with these rockets women children elderly civilians and so that's the main difference between Israel and Hamas. Alright Dan is a member of Knesset of the Likud body and Daron Lipstein Lipstein I'll remind the brothers funeral that will be held this Wednesday stay with us on I-24 news we're just going out for a brief break we'll be back in about three minutes with more of our coverage of Israel's war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip www.madeforme.co.il Made for me official dresser of I-24 news Good evening ladies and gentlemen 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 help us we don't know what to do we just don't know anything 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 started working on I-24 news in 2013 that same year as part of the documentary series the reportage inside I traveled to Argentina to interview Fiscal Alberto Nisman who had determined in constitutional memorandum of understanding between Argentina and Iran signed by the ex-president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner who was related to the attack on the AMIA in 1994 which left a salary of 85 dead and more than 100 injured all the material we worked on on January 18, 2015 an impactant event occurred Fiscal Alberto Nisman was found dead in the bathroom of his apartment in the head and what everyone was asking was a suicide or an homicide the Supreme Argentine Court dictated that it was a murder the only solution is to bring them here what is behind this so interesting story a terrorist movement international constellations search for the truth will we ever know the truth? in the last 7 years for the magazine News24 in Spanish which is broadcast on I24 News I made more than 40 reports related to the issue AMIA Nisman Iran a topic that has all the documents for an international channel of news like I24 News keep investigating until one day the truth will be revealed in the Gaza Strip just some updates we have had a flurry of rocket sirens and attacks both in the Gaza border area city of Ashkelon and here in Tel Aviv as well we even heard the we just got to see live on air the interceptions by the Ayan Dome also reports of fire across Lebanon border this evening we don't have any detailed information on that so it was a day of military activity here in Israel and in Gaza and it was also a day of political and diplomatic activity Secretary of State Anthony Blinken here I believe he's still here US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was here I believe he has now left the country and of course the opening of the Knesset Winter Session, the parliament with the first time the new government emergency unity government in place joining us in studio in Mayar from a deputy head of the Israeli National Security Council and director of command is for Israel Security and Owen Altman, our senior diplomatic correspondent there's so much to go on so many multiple fronts to talk about let's just talk about the current situation in Gaza Israel continuing its air campaign the question on everybody's mind is when will that goal have been achieved what would be the goal of that air campaign what would trigger for example the next stage of the war which we've already heard from the government would be on three fronts land, sea and air the operation itself had started already what we see air strikes this is part of the operation itself it's some kind of first step before sending ground troops into the area ground troops will go in depends on different questions first of all the results of the air strikes secondly the diplomatic circumstances and there are many many other issues that are part of the decision makers decisions when exactly it will happen more than it there is a question mark about to which areas ground troops will go in the prime minister said already that there are three main goals to the bigger operation first of all to get rid of the Hamas governing Gaza the second one is to make sure that the Hamas will not have any operational military capabilities and the third one and it's not according to this line it's to try to find the people that were kidnapped into Gaza in the minute that the authorities will realize that everything is ready including you know they train the soldiers that are going in they will give the order to send ground troops I would add to it that some ground troops are already in Gaza but for now it's not well have made incursions into Gaza occupying permanent areas of Gaza no I didn't use the term occupied I used the term went in we don't speak about tanks we don't speak about heavy vehicles but some special forces were there already and I believe that the other units that make sure that once we go in we'll have good enough information for it gentlemen we're going to come back to this discussion in studio but since we are talking about what is happening down there the military side let's jump down to southern Israel and speak with one of the soldiers who's taking part in these military preparations we've been talking about he is reserve staff sergeant Idan from the Golan we cannot for security reasons identify him more than that Idan thank you for joining us first of all I want to tell you you've made you've done some traveling a little bit lately maybe just explain how is it what brought you down there your path to southern Israel now and back in your uniform first thanks to having me so the thing is that on the chat but I just see on Telegram lots of video where why are we done where are you I actually live in Mexico in the past two years I live there and I just opened my phone for me on normal day checking and getting so much message on Telegram and I start to see horrific stuff horrific video unbelievable things that I will never be able to think that can happen I start to see on my group from the reserve that everyone have to come as fast as they can to the base so it was what we call here in Hebrew that's an emergency call from the army so when I see that I had the opportunity not to come but I was feeling that I have to because first that's my team that's the people that I've been with them all the army and then after in the reserve some part of them so I jump on the first lane that I find that's the place after that I take the first flight straight to Paris when I arrive in Paris I didn't have any flight to Tel Aviv yet so then I start to check the contact contact of contact and then I get some phone call to call Elal because it was I think the only company that fly there at the time so after I negotiate about 5 hours with lots of different people from the security, from Elal from everyone I get the opportunity to enter straight to the plane but I was on the seat bit the seat of the of the flight attendant and then after during the flight they find me a seat normal seat and then I arrive in less than 30 hours to Israel, 6 hours after I was at my unit base where I get my arms and the rest of my my package, my arm the best then I arrive straight to my unit in the south then we start with the military Let me ask you something, Golani is famous for its fighting spirit in the IDF but it suffered a blow on last weekend many of the soldiers that fallen were Golani I don't know what the situation is with your particular unit but how is the morale, the spirit among you and your comrades and arms there There is something in Golani that I don't know if you can find in any other brigade especially in the Israeli army is that we are always ready we've been trained to be ready all the time no matter what so the morale is ready high happy I don't think is award but ready I think is the award I do want to ask you Adhan you know that you're facing without going to specifics which of course you can't but you're facing the IDF is facing an unprecedented challenge now in Gaza there is a determination to in a sense sort of finish the job you talked about Golani individually I believe you're someone you were an immigrant to France you came to Israel if I'm correct about that and I want to just ask your feelings now on the eve of what could be a very serious operation there First of all I've born in Israel it's true I grew up but I made Aliyah when I was 18 so I came back when and I always feel a lot more Israeli than French so it's complicated to answer you about that then about the the future I cannot say anything I don't know but I can say I want things we're ready to do what we have to do All right Staff Sergeant Idan whatever it is you're going to do we wish you a safe return back to home and we wish you all you and all your comrades safe return good luck Thank you The fighting spirit of the Golani and of the IDF still there even though we have to say the army and the Israeli society suffered a tremendous blow I think that most of the Israeli population part of some kind of depression these days based on what happened mainly because of the fact that it was a huge surprise and of course the figures of people that lost their life and people that are still missing it's some kind of a shock to the whole Israeli society but I think that there are some benefits even and the main benefit is that now going into operation hopefully we will not have to go to an operation in Lebanon as well but the military and the civilians are ready now to do the job without any question because after the Israeli population the Israeli soldiers are part of it so the results of the Hamas the last Hamas attack there is no doubt there is only one thing that needs to be done is to make sure that nobody in the future will be able and will have any kind of capabilities to hit the Israeli population again We've been talking about the military side of things but of course the government the civilian government has to direct that military you were in the Knesset today where this new emergency unity government made its debut on the parliamentary stage what was your impression and what was the morale of the spirit there in the Knesset what you saw well first of all very different than the standard this was the opening of the Knesset's winter session which by the way Kalev if you think back just a month ago was supposed to be a tumultuous event for an entirely different set of reasons think about the protests we were expecting this was the winter session that was going to kick off a new drive potentially on judicial overhaul legislations and all the protest of course none of that was there and on the other hand the opening of a Knesset session is a festive affair all 120 members of Knesset are usually there they're often banned not always at the level of the swearing into a new Knesset we've seen plenty of those in recent years because of our elections but even so the opening of a new session is a festive event none of that today none of that today there was only the formal opening inside the plenum and the speeches as required by law and then the building down and the members of Knesset went home you are leaving something important that would have ruled that festive atmosphere and also even if it had been there of course we had two sirens while we were there and all of us including the members of Knesset themselves walked out of the plenum and we're in the hall next to nearby so you see all of them including the ministers in many cases the members of Knesset members of the media the parliamentary assistants and stuff all of us milling around right for 10 minutes while we waited for it to go on it happened during the business of the of the winter session opening during the plenum right so members of parliament they're at the podium had to step down so another surreal moment and one would imagine of course this was a picture that Hamas wanted the world to see although on the other hand of course dramatizes the difference Hamas firing rockets at a billion population centers turning on the business of democracy we are getting some sirens quite close to us gentlemen now we're hearing that there are sirens in Tel Aviv our staff members I'm going on coming to you now live while the air raid sirens are ringing out in Tel Aviv we will stay in the studio and continue to broadcast sirens all over in both Tel Aviv and some of the neighboring communities such as Bat Yam, Halon often just minutes after the sirens go off we sometimes hear the booms of either rocket interceptions or unfortunately sometimes impact of rockets hitting the ground we will bring you any updates as that happened in Amar this new government many different features from previous governments where you have to go back quite a ways to perhaps define it one of them is this new war cabinet that has been established three men talking about Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who was a former senior top senior commander of the IDF and Benny Gantz the former chief of staff and defense minister plenty of experience there is this formation of the government going to be sufficient to carry out the operation with the goals that you've described that you've set out I think that this kind of new organization if I may means that these five people it's not only three of them we're hearing I'm just going to interrupt you there we just heard the sound three booms of some three booms we're looking at a live feed of the skyline of the Tel Aviv area I'm not seeing usually sometimes we see at least the iron dome interceptors go up but probably already had I should say it's also with some cloudy there's some clouds out tonight so we'll bring you more information as we have it we have just heard two or three booms might have been interceptions sounded like interceptions you probably know so certainly interceptions so that would be good news we'll bring you any more are you interrupted by this these five people two of them are observers I should mention it doesn't matter because this kind of a crew it's not a formal one they don't have any legal authorities are in the hand of the subcommittee the cabinet subcommittee for security and foreign affairs and that organization what we call the cabinet the defense cabinet took almost the only decision that they need to take formally and this is the decision to declare a war once it was done already the five people it doesn't matter who are the three that formally have to vote and the other two don't take the legal one they as a group are the best five people that we have in Israel to lead such kind of operation but having said that they will deal with the security and defense operation I think that we need to mention that the other half of the story is the whole scene of the civilian activities and I'm not so sure that the government is doing the right job on that. Well, let me ask because there were some heated scenes in the some of the committee meetings some of the mayors for example mayor of Ashkelon some harsh charges against the government I'm not talking about what happened last Saturday but what's happened even in the days since then how the government has reacted to dealing with those what we call frontline communities and having to deal with even what we're dealing with here tonight. Yeah, obviously a lot of disagreements about who should be compensated how how quickly and it's going to take a long time for this to be sorted out and by the who should run it and how it should be managed these are operations that correct if I'm wrong each of our don't really ever just want to interrupt these those aren't visuals of the interception that was a tell of it just a short minute ago I'm sorry. Of course I don't know that has any precedent really on this scope of this substance. Kaleb it's the fact that so many people in Israel just don't feel like the government is in touch it took so many ministers so long to actually go and visit the communities that were hit by the massacres and there's just a sense that the government isn't stepping up the way the military isn't the civil society is by the way a couple points about the speeches themselves inside the plan and because again by law the prime minister speak the speaker of the parliament of the president the prime minister and a different kind of atmosphere usually in an atmosphere like that we have we have members of parliament calling out in the middle of the speeches essentially taunting the person on stage and argument of course none of that today there was a kind of unity of purpose between Netanyahu's speech and Lapid's speech and we did hear Netanyahu I think for the sharpest coming words coming out of his mouth about the definable measurable objective of this war to end the Hamas control over the Gaza Strip it's something that Netanyahu personally I think is saying for a long time maybe because it's going to be hard to achieve and he didn't want to commit himself to achieving it but I personally think that taking that step and actually making a definable measurable commitment to the public is really really important to win to win back public trust also it actually came from opposition leader Yair Lapid I think it's going to be interesting for foreign viewers to hear this saying point blank very bluntly that Israel should ignore international public opinion what did Lapid say in his first phrasing but not too far away from the actual quote it was our children who were killed it was our children who were massacred and it's we who have the obligation and the need to take the steps that we feel we need to take to change the situation even if the world doesn't like it I actually asked the chairman of the foreign affairs and defense committee Yuli Edelstein afterwards about that and he had a much more nuanced answer saying essentially on the one hand that's true on the other hand Israel is a very broad reality listen and be attentive to international public opinion and particularly the views of Israel's close allies and partners of course the United States foremost among them so there is this debate that's getting started among the politicians and within Israeli society it's a wrenching debate because people here feel so very strongly and so fearful and so vulnerable and so angry and so determined to take action to take care of those of those emotions but at the same time Israel's going to have to meet and take it to account in terms of planning the military operations and all the rest. At a moment I want to come to you in a minute I just want to jump down to Ashkelon and our Mary McAuliffe she's at Barzoloi hospital I don't know from that vantage point if you can see the rockets going over Mary I should report we had these rockets intercepted above Tel Aviv no reports of injuries or the rockets landing but certainly we've just been discussing Ashkelon and certainly many people are leaving the city but it now calls and perhaps calling for a total evacuation of a city of over 100,000 people that's right Kolev we're beginning to hear much more from the local government here in the city calling for more aid from the central Israeli government who were supposed to have been evacuated the same they should be evacuated from the city they continue to have so many residents throughout the city having to duck for cover to go into bomb shelters throughout the day four different times throughout the day from the morning until this evening and they said that only 40% of people in the city are still living and they don't have shelters in their houses which means they have nowhere really safe to run to they just go to the stairs well in the bottom of their buildings but many residents are still very fearful and very scared living here and so they're calling for more aid from the central government to help them and not just to evacuate them to call for that evacuation order but to also give them some of the hotels in the north the central Tel Aviv and other areas that are a bit safer for them to live to and also these grants that I've been giving to members of the Gazan border community they're saying we're just four miles from the Gazan border here so how is this not considered a Gazan border community? All right Mary McCall up there at Basel Le Haas when I said thank you for that and then I want to go back because you wanted to weigh in on this issue of the role of the United States in doing casualties in Gaza accelerate and Israel has to take this war to the next stage how far will America that support go from the United States? I don't know about the American support I can speak about the way how Israel see the international community view about it including the US I can't believe that the head of the opposition have said or the public opinion worldwide or we don't take by consideration what the foreign government think about it I think that he meant even if he said something similar to it that we will take it by consideration but in the end of the day Israel will have to take the decisions that we believe are the best decisions for our national security and when we speak about the results of this operation we don't speak only about the short term the situation we don't speak only about achieving something that will exist for the next few months we understand now that what we saw from the Hamas it's something absolutely different and the results and the conclusion is that we can't live again with military capability next to our border and it means that the only solution that we can have and we can achieve is to get rid of the Hamas military capability and to make sure that the Hamas will not control the Gaza Strip and the priority list when you discuss all the elements before taking decisions the view from the outside view is part of it but it will not be the leading part just to get the exact quote I've been able to pull it out about the chance I have to hold this a bit close to my face if the world won't like it so it won't like it it's not the children of the world who were murdered our children were murdered okay right well I brought to mind a little by David Ben-Gurion's famous comment Um Shmoom Um being the Hebrew word for the UN it's certainly part of the Israeli mentality for decades this war in particular is going to bring this question to a head if it already has right but of course by the way speaking of the United States reports in the Israeli media that US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken was in the Curious still here in Tel Aviv doing this list alert and he had to again take shelter but of course it's the US it's really the US's opinion it's even more than it you know we hear information that President Biden might come we've reported been reporting that on Wednesday and this is something important why because it means that he comes to make sure that the Israeli activities will follow the American policy as well it's kind of a polite way to make sure that we take the American view at least by consideration I want to thank Reserves IDF Colonel Itamar Yer for joining us and of course our senior correspondent Owen Altman we want to leave with a little bit of a different look here because we've talked about the international attention the war here in Israel is gaining it's also sparking social media debates in many areas including among celebrities the entertainment field and internationally known athletes now some are using their platform to promote peace well others to promote propaganda on a cult set it breaks down how the war is impacting even the global world of sports as a war rages between Israel and Hamas the worldwide sporting arena is becoming a battle ground of its own famous athletes are taking a stance in the brutal massacre of Israeli civilians and the following attacks by Israel in the Gaza Strip Tunisian tennis star took to Instagram posting a story stating what Palestinians have been going through during the last 75 years is indescribable and ending her post with the hashtag free palestine this sparked a strong response by the Israel tennis association blaming Jebore for supporting a quote murderous terrorist organization she's not the only athlete in the line of fire Real Madrid legend Karim Benzema sparking flames with his post on X all our prayers for the inhabitants of Gaza who are once again victims of these unjust bombings which spare no women or children former Israeli goalkeeper Doudou Await responding to Benzema in five languages Hebrew, Arabic, French, Spanish and English calling Benzema a quote big son of a bee and while a war of words has broken out between athletes off the field some organizations are speaking out the NBA as a whole posting their solidarity for the people of Israel boxing champion Floyd Mayweather is even going beyond empty words on social media sending his private plane to Israel full of food protective vests and critical supplies for Israeli soldiers according to a source close to Mayweather a clear sign of solidarity with the Jewish people and it's the war between Hamas and Israel escalates it will be telling to see which athletes use their platform for peace and which just add fuel to the social media fire that wraps it up for me today but please stay with I-24 News we'll be back in about three minutes with our live coverage of Israel's war against Hamas it's fight for its life and it's fight for the lives of its citizens stay with us 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 help us we don't want to do it we just don't know anything entire families including babies 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 particular project with a gross capacity of 103.5 megawatt we'll be producing around 230 gigawatt hour of clean renewable energy per year the global is affecting Bolivia not only Bolivia but the whole world and we need rain for the embryos Vakita reserve we have to write ingredients and we have to do the job and that if we have the right ingredients and we do the job that the Vakita can be protected come to the special broadcast here on I-24 News we continue our rolling coverage day 10 of the war that was forced Hamas terror the opening of the Israeli parliament's winter session today began with a minute of silence commemorating over 1400 Israelis who were slaughtered and was also interrupted twice due to rocket fire towards Jerusalem and central Israel one of many barrages of rockets today the latest one only short minutes ago in the north Hezbollah opening fire and idea of positions who in turn attack the source of the shooting in Lebanon underlining the question on Hezbollah's desire to get in or stay out meanwhile the IDF continues to get ready for ground operation and the Gaza Strip while dozens of Hamas military headquarters and water launch positions were destroyed by air the head of Hamas intelligence in the Hanunas Brigade eliminated but with Hamas leaders knowing they are dead men walking will it make them even more radical than they are well judging by the fact that they are actively preventing Gaza civilians from evacuating despite idea of please that seems to be the case and more so in relation to the battle to freeze really hostages 199 families officially notified their loved ones are held captive in the Gaza Strip all of this maybe no boots on the ground but yes feet on the ground US President Joe Biden might very well Israel as soon as the day after tomorrow but where a clear line of light is drawn evil begins before we get here in studio with all the analysis we start a broadcast in the field we're heading to our Mary McAuliffe down south in the city of Ashkelon Mary airstrikes are seen as you know the pre-gaming so to speak IDF forces ready to go but it might take a bit longer meanwhile the home front command as we call it the battle over the lives of so many people who are injured during the massacres Saturday continue so the fight for life on all fronts that's right Ellie so we're here at Barsley hospital in Ashkelon it's just over four miles from the Gaza border and of course that means it is the main hospital to receive patients coming from those border community areas as well as of course from those attacks that happened well over a week ago we're here in Ashkelon we've heard a number of different rocket sirens overhead throughout the day this has been the situation for residents in the city ever since this began 10 days ago continuing to run to shelters and continuing here at the hospital we continue to see the hospital staff working really around the clock to try and provide care to some of these residents here eight Ashkelon residents who are still hospitalized in serious condition here three people have died here in the city but as these hospital workers continue to work around the clock to try and save lives dealing with both soldiers as well as just residents and civilians most of them civilians here there are a number of people in this area who have also been trying to lift the spirits and to provide some comforts we'll go over here and show you they're bringing food and we'll bring you and talk to one of the residents here he is a British citizen but a resident of Ashkelon for a long time now and so just tell me this is Jeff tell me exactly what you're doing here why did you come out to the hospital well I realized that I had to do something to help here obviously I'm 50 years too old to be on the front line but then this was the next best thing to come down here and give some back up to the report to the military the staff in the hospital the ambulance crews it was I realized I had to do it I couldn't sit at home not do anything I decided to stay in Ashkelon and not to go back to the UK at the start of the war Israel's made me very welcome I've been here I've built up a lot of loyalty to Israel and it was the only thing to do I couldn't have lived with myself if I'd gone home it's really amazing what you all are doing and we can attest to it we've seen the impact that you guys have had just being here to providing food and providing coffee and tea to all the workers and the injured patients here some now the mayor here in Ashkelon is calling on the government to try and evacuate all the residents to have them flee to safer parts of the country do you want to leave or do you think they should stay here I certainly don't want to leave that's a very difficult question to answer without any thought but obviously none of us knows what's going to happen over the next few days or the next week or so but I would have thought the thing to do is to stay that we should stay and carry on doing what we're doing thank you so much Jeff so that's just one of the many voices who are here in the city and one of the many residents who are saying we don't plan to leave despite the sirens Mary McAuliffe down south at the Sorocco hospital in the Barzilla hospital excuse me in the city of Ashkelon the desire to life is stronger than all else thank you very much for this Mary McAuliffe we're staying down south moving to the city of Sderot more or less military zone at this point in time I-24 New Senior Defense Correspondent Jonathan Regev standing by there Jonathan the targeted killings continue targeted assassination still in slow pace but it is clear that this is high on the Israeli to-do list that's correct every time that a Hamas official pops up from the underground Gaza basements and tunnels where they are they're killed but it's clear that the highest ranking officials are still there and it seems they have no intention of popping up the cause of a humanitarian crisis in Gaza I think they were way too premature and if they're true for Gaza itself they're especially true for the underground Gaza the people there have enough fuel enough electricity enough water they can stay there for weeks and weeks and here in Sderot just about an hour ago took another direct hit we can still see the remains of what has happened here last Saturday for example this truck right here behind me as you can see just parked outside and you can see the various bullets that have hit its back part there you can see it and this is one of many cars we've been driving around the city of Sderot all day and it's as difficult as it is to say it this is a common sight many cars and trucks and homes in Sderot look like this a reminder to the terrible terrible massacre this city and the surrounding communities witnessed just over a week ago and Jonathan briefly before we let you go I think that we need to meet our terminology to an extent because as we speak there are tens of thousands of Israelis displaced refugees in their own country and we're hearing those terms of refugees displaced in the context of what is happening on the other side of the border and we'll get back to that in a second here in studio but we need to stress tens of thousands of Israelis refugees Exactly and we're constantly hearing about Palestinian refugees a tragedy we all agree we don't want to see anyone misplaced but I don't see anyone in the world speaking about Israeli refugees and there are hundreds of thousands of them because from the northern southern communities where we are and the northern communities where everybody up to two kilometers from the Lebanon border had to be displaced no one ignited the war here in Sderot or in the other southern communities or in the northern communities on the other side and people have needed to flee their homes and there are now refugees let's see someone in the world speak about it I don't hold your breath Exactly Jonathan we are not holding our breath we keep on going that's the only way thank you very much and joining us now here in studio Major General in the reserves Mr. Eitan Dango coordinator of government activities in the Palestinian territories Mr. Dango thank you as always for joining us I do want us to talk about the IDF essentially begging no other way to put it begging Palestinians in the Gaza Strip to relocate to move to evacuate themselves and Hamas actively preventing them from doing so some report that they're even taking their car keys and that obligates to do so and Cairo is not budging so how do you see this arena evolving first of all it's a very clear direction that we are on a war and on the war you have to behave much more shortly without expanding your activities with all this kind of human talent but according to the law international law concerning wars what has been done is by the IDF is warning the population to evacuate themselves to the south part of Gaza in order to save their life because it's very clear that in the north part of Gaza where we have 1.1 million people who are living it's half of the population of Gaza who are living in the middle of life with the Hamas with the underground tunnels using the rockets and all the tunnels they prepared against centuries of the Israelis it's a mix they are taking the population and are using them as prevent or defend their life in the front human shields you're right what has been as I know for now was published that between to 500,000 people to 600,000 or move to the south or change their place from the north part in this area of Gaza city to schools and places while the international community like UNRA or other kind of movement from the United Nations Red Cross etc can organize themselves and we have a very close contact with my experience with this organization that we know exactly when the most of the population are there but the behavior of Hamas shows one thing Hamas by its defend is where fighting with by in a situation of entering together by make a lot of let's say as we say a carpet of defending themselves fighting etc for many years but according to the fact that the goal of this operation is to destroy Hamas to be active as a terror organization with Jadislamic in the future we are not very important also maybe we will talk later about the goal of this operation I think that we will have to do it in situation that Hamas also preventing the population to move on the other and I want to say that in the last 48 hours the world of human itarian is raising by many people you just made equal to the fact that in Israel thousands of people evoke from their home refugees in their country with a lot of bloodshed some of them under the threat they have now on the north the world is not never will be able to make it balance I think that we will have to continue with this way also by the way in Lebanon we identify and evacuate of population from the south area of Lebanon towards the center or towards Beirut area they have a lot of experience what happened in 2006 as well so for now it looks like Hamas also under pressure because Hamas I think is prepared himself towards such entry of IDF it is not coming yet and I think by the way there is a lot of recommendation so by many experts we can call them to advise when to enter etc the IDF continue with its readiness continue with offensive strike continue to destroy structure of Hezbollah to destroy command and control areas in order to make much and much more easy this hard step of ground movement or deployment in Gaza so what we are seeing now from air is again some sort of pre-gaming ahead of the ground operation but we do need to say that with all humbleness we do not know what Hamas prepared for IDF forces once they are in because Hamas took it into consideration I think that as close as we are towards maybe the next step you see that there is a change by the air strike that is coming to serve this ground operation right okay Major General Dangot here staying with us of course all throughout this broadcast but as we speak the efforts to identify more and more bodies still under way Israeli authorities have placed a death toll from Hamas's deadly rampage last week at 1,400 Israelis but of them only about half have been identified at Israel's medical forensic center dozens of new bodies come in every day in the hope to identify them and bring them to proper burial but as our real answer on reports that 24 news Middle East correspondents some of the corpses are in such horrendous condition that they may never be identified and please beware some of the images that you're about to see are very disturbing It's been nine days since the horrific slaughter in the community surrounding the Gaza Strip and the dust is still settling but at Israel's national medical forensic center examiners are working around the clock to identify as many of the 1,400 bodies and at times it's an impossible task and the remains here are child you cannot see what is there again go another one and this when we separated it we see that two people there at least we don't know how many people are there so these people were sitting in the room and they were not shocked because we don't see any metal fragments there but they were banned because they were not shocked this is like a crematorium they were banned in the security room and this what is actually left from them I don't know if you will be able to take DNA from these samples because they are very child you can see here two spies another one two spies and Dr. Nachman can show and two ribs two sets of ribs and this is an adult with a child sitting together and hug sorry and now he is hugging the child the first one and Dr. Nachman thinks it might this metal wire that you see here might used to try two bodies together and they were banned like this since last Saturday the center's examiners have checked over 950 body bags some have their remains of more than one body of victims from the border communities, the desert music festival and security forces so far there are about 500 bodies that were identified and there are still close to 300 bodies that remain unidentified and new ones keep coming in we are getting samples from the deceased we are sampling them for the right amount of material that we need to extract DNA for then we will use that to create a genetic profile and compare it to the family members who wait for the answers some of the bodies have bullet wounds some also in the hands as the victims were trying to protect themselves in their final moments burnt babies, headless bodies some of the bodies are in such bad condition that they may never be identified so this is a baby mattress but just by addition by the size of the spot it seems that he was bleeding he or she were bleeding in the bed I never saw anything like this