o help to Hamas terrorists to help them in the battle they called to the Bedouins in Jordan also to come to the border we see that Al-Qaeda is trying in this regard is trying to help Iran attempt to escalate the situation not only in rhetoric but Al-Qaeda is trying to activate sleeping cells around the world this is something that we have to remember because Sheikh Sefer Ladel the leader of Al-Qaeda is a very close ally to the Iranian regime and Iran is trying to make a success to turn Al-Qaeda to a proxy of Iran so the threat is not only in Israel we saw that the Houthis also were launch missiles to Israel but the Yemeni situation we don't have to underestimate the threat from the Houthis but I think the Houthis they are a minimal threat they are not target Israel in some way but the main concern will be in the borders between I think Jordan and Iraq where the Shia militias are trying to penetrate to Jordan in order to challenge Israel from the Jordanian border right now the Jordanian regime is blocking this attempt from the Shia militias to penetrate from the Jordanian border and the Shia militias from Syria which are trying to challenge Israel in the Golan Heights but Israel is prepared for that Yes and certainly we are keeping an eye as you said Dr. Barak everything that is happening to the Jewish population all over the world I want you to stay with us Dr. Barak but I want to come back to our guests who are in studio Daniel Sheikh as Barak was saying just the threat to the Jewish population we are hearing more just about some of these different countries that are tightening their travel warnings Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Turkey all of now Israel's warning any Israelis get out as soon as possible because it is no longer safe for you in some of these countries Well you know travel bans and travel warnings naturally have a trend to be as cautious and as extreme as it can be and this is not a criticism I think that is the role they should have and to be honest even if you are just a sensible person I think you probably would think twice before going to an Arab country to visit the sites currently if you are in Israeli but this goes beyond just Arab countries there is also heightened awareness in western countries with the large Jewish communities such as France I know that there is a real discussion not even a discussion anymore it is a decision to strengthen security on Jewish sites synagogues European countries we should add security has already been tight for decades in Jewish sites unlike in the United States True but there are degrees and I think there is real concern in France they call it they are always afraid of importing the Arab Israeli conflict and if you take into consideration that it has the largest Muslim community in Europe and the largest Jewish community in Europe you understand that the friction potential is tremendous and we continue to see this friction not only in France and London also we see more pro-Palestinian anywhere where there are sizable Jewish community do you believe that as the general population might be protesting against Israel is the government doing enough to keep people and is really safe well to be honest there is not much demonstrations against Israel currently I can't guarantee anything for 2 or 3 weeks from now but again I am taking the French example there was an attempt by the authorities to blanket ban all pro-Palestinian demonstrations it was struck down by the courts as institutional which one can understand but there is a real fear among the authorities that such pro-Palestinian anti-Israeli demonstrations could sort of degenerate into something very violent but so for the moment in the end there was a demonstration which wasn't really significant and I know there are others in other countries campuses etc it's unpleasant to see but it's not yet a significant really significant factor I'm curious as to what you have to say about that because as what we have seen and what we have talked about it's just the information war that is also brewing on top of this real war that's happening here in Israel and especially as Daniel Sek mentioned in some of these liberal college campuses we even saw some demonstrations at the White House as well more pro-Palestinian demonstrations planned in London today so a lot of the general public seems to have a different message than what their leaders of the countries are saying yes and no look left wing anti-Israel activity is a fact on the ground it's a fact on the ground across the western world around the world it's simply a fact on the ground that we in Israel have to live with or in some cases die with it's not the target of our information war if you will the target of course the persuadables in the middle and there obviously in some ways it's a combination of policy and message right Israel's ability and concentration and investment on managing has grown over the course of the years and decades to the point where we have a lot of professionals who are engaged in this right and are doing their very best one can compliment or criticize their efforts I had to say on both counts I had what to say if you will about the IDF spokesperson in the wake of the blast at the hospital of course by a Palestinian Islamic jihad rocket and it's also a combination of policy and this goes back to the story of the hour the opening of the Arafat border crossing we as Israelis have to stop being addicted to making our own psychological satisfaction right into what we had been calling the picture of victory I don't understand the fetish in this country for destroyed buildings I understand why but I don't endorse the satisfaction of people from hearing reports of Gaza from Gaza of Gazan civilians who essentially don't have clean water to drink this policy of denying food and water to people in Gaza was never realistic or sustainable right putting aside the ethical and legal issues was never something Israel was going to be able to sustain and it caused tremendous damage to Israel's messaging and I think to Israel's position without actually doing what we are doing is actually beating Hamas the things that make me excited is hearing about the killing of leaders of Hamas because that is actually beating Hamas and hitting Hamas targets that is what should give a psychological satisfaction that's our goal not pictures of rubble in Gaza city which are it best only a means to an end not an end in itself and also this issue of the humanitarian situation in Gaza but in terms of the basics of life food and water and essential medicine they have to be able to go through and my hope is now that this has happened and the crossing has opened and Israel through its cooperation with the United States has done this step I hope that the pressure on Israel can start to subside even if a lot of damage has already been done and I hope the public attention can now be focused on the real issue which is beating Hamas killing Hamas leaders destroying their tunnels and their weapons and telling the world that that's what we're doing and telling the world why we're doing it and that certainly seems to be the message from Israel as well they are doing everything they can they say preparing for this ground operation and as you said completely destroying Hamas that is their number one goal now as we talk about everything that is happening in the south we also have to remember that Israel's northern border also heating up we are still seeing tit for tat on the northern border as well our I-24 news correspondent Robert Swift was in northern Israel near the border with Lebanon and he filed this report overnight the IDF conducted strikes in the south of Lebanon against Hezbollah targets this is in response to continued anti-tank attacks that have emanated from Hezbollah forces along the border with yesterday there have been around six separate attacks with anti-tank weapons overnight the IDF announced that one of their soldiers had been killed in the latest of these anti-tank attack which took place on the eastern end of Israel's northern border around the community of Mar Galiad that attack took place late in the evening yesterday with two other soldiers also wounded them being evacuated to a hospital in Haifa with light to moderate shrapnel wounds now all of this comes in the context of what they do with regards to Hezbollah how should they respond to these continuous attacks which appear to be escalating now there's been a report in the US media stating that there's some disagreement between the US government and parts of the Israeli government members of the Israeli cabinet including Defense Minister Galant had expressed some desire to conduct some sort of preemptive strike against Hezbollah and this is a policy that is supported by much of Israel's defense establishment including the military however the US have pushed back against this approach because they're concerned that any sort of escalation with Hezbollah whether it's one that's triggered by an Israeli preemptive strike or one that comes after Israel goes into Gaza they're concerned that any sort of escalation on the northern border could expand into a wider regional conflict which would have the danger of sucking in Iran first of all but also the US itself so with this regard the US has applied pressure and Benjamin Netanyahu at the end of the day is the one who's made the decision and has expressed a desire not to immediately take this option although obviously it's an option that's still on the table and could be used if Israel sees an advantage in going down that route Our correspondent Robert Swift in northern Israel talking about the latest developments and also the possibility for a more larger wide scale war in the region Dr. Michael Barak I want to come back to you as we're focusing on the threat from the north as well many people while we're saying we're completely going to eliminate Hamas that's clearly the main goal from Israel however if Hezbollah does get involved if then proxies and Iran does decide to back this war what is Israel's obligation to completely eliminate Hezbollah if they get involved Look the real threat is from the north Hamas if we want we can we can exterminate the threat in one moment but because of moral dilemmas and international calculations we are more hesitating to get inside with our full power together the real threat is in the north if Hezbollah will dare to open a front against Israel Hezbollah will not bear only the price but also Lebanon itself so Hezbollah has to think twice if it's it should involve or not so I think this is a golden opportunity that Israel must strike Hezbollah and to eliminate this threat from the north if we want that our next generations let's say 40 years we live in peacefully without a threat from the north this is the time to strike Hezbollah let's remember that Hezbollah and Iran since 2021 increased the coordination with Hamas and I have to mention that there is also a joint warfare between Hamas, Hezbollah PIJ a popular front for the liberation of Palestine and other Palestinian factions they have 8 quarters seen by root where those terrorists are coordinating how to challenge Israel so since 2021 since the operation Israeli the operation defenders of the walls Hezbollah and Hamas are trying to find a way how to challenge Israel for example and we publish it in our institution the open discussions in Zoom via Facebook we saw how Hezbollah gave instructions to Hamas how to disseminate recruiting messages to Arab Israelis how they should be recruited to the next battle against Israel this is something that is IDF knew something has to be done but was not done so Hezbollah is trying also Iran is Iran like to sacrifice to sacrifice its proxies so right now Iran and Hezbollah are using Hamas so Hezbollah is part of this is the main threat to Israel and Israel has to face with that I hope that if Israel now will get inside Gaza strip it will do it very slowly and in the same time will strike Hezbollah this will be the best scenario to do in order to guard the future of Israel Doctor Michael Barak thank you always for all of your insight especially with what's happening with all of these different armed groups targeting Israel here now I want to come back to our guests in studio now specifically as Michael Barak is talking about all of these different Arab countries Iran their proxies coming out to Israel today there's expected to be an Egypt peace summit now the United States not involved in that summit Israel not involved but several Arab and European heads of states will be in attendance some interesting leaders as well Daniel Schepp what can we actually expect to come out of a peace summit if not the main leaders in the Middle East are there well you won't get a former diplomat to say that the gathering of such prominent important event but I am tempted to say that not unimportant but not necessarily useful for the real goal which is to find the way out of this of this of this war for a number of reasons first of all there are only very few countries in the world that have real leverage on Hamas that's the one of the many disadvantages of dealing with a non-state entity they're just not open to much pressure some of these leaders will be in Cairo today but they will be you know surrounded with all sorts of people who don't really have leverage the second thing is timing I think it's just too early it's not realistic to think that at this point you can stop the war what does it where do I do I see the importance first of all I can understand the willingness of these countries to mobilize to just get together and put their heads together and try and think of something maybe it is the groundwork for a forum for the resolution of this conflict in the future we will see and you know if nothing if nothing better it's a good thing that people are getting together and trying to talk about stopping a war and stopping violence and suffering well I'm sure it's a big item on the agenda I would assume would also be the fact of the hostage situation many of them not Israelis but foreign national I don't entirely agree I don't think that's a big issue on the agenda this is all about the leaders themselves this is about Abdel Fattah showing his public he's doing something for middle European powers like George the Prime Minister of Italy George Maloney and Pedro Sanchez the Prime Minister of Spain this is their chance to be in the sun and to be in the spotlight after the British the French and the Germans have in some sense monopolized European policy to a lesser extent also true for the European Union Charles Michel and Joseph Burrell to key European Union officials potentially less inclined in the heart in the staunch pro-israel for example of commission presidents are coming at any rate these about the leaders themselves their own public opinion their own public I don't think it's much about the hostages if it's about anything it's about talking about the humanitarian situation in Gaza the hostages is a secondary point it is true though that this is the one element that's actually favorable to Israel that one could actually imagine in some kind of consensus statement out of this gathering and I do think there is some value if it happens in having Arab heads of state in many cases royals come out and actually sign on to a document calling for Hamas to unconditionally release the hostages that has some level importance in putting some level of international pressure on Hamas again going back to something we said earlier on I think in this broadcast where Hamas simply did not under or in a previous talk with Daniel as well and Hamas simply didn't understand the implications of taking so many foreign nationals hostage and it's certainly going to impact just who is released and how they are released Daniel Shek former Israeli ambassador to France and a local commentator along with I-24 news senior correspondent Owen Altman thank you both for your insight as always as we continue to unpack the latest ever-changing developments of the war here in Israel now in its 15th day thanks for joining us on the I-24 news desk over 1300 people murdered and more than 3000 injured and the war with Hamas continues we bring you firsthand testimonies from the front lines from those who survived and all the records of the atrocities by Hamas follow us as Israel fights terror from the south and north get the insight scoop on what's going on only on I-24 news this particular project with a gross capacity of 103.5 megawatt will be producing around 230 gigawatt hour clean renewable energy per year Vakita reserve we have the right 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 welcome to another breaking edition of the I-24 news desk I'm Nicole Zedek unpacking the latest developments of the war here in Israel now in its 15th day two American hostages have been released by Hamas terrorists working the first release of the some 200 hostages that remain in Gaza the release of Judith and Natalie Ranan a mother and daughter from Chicago was facilitated by Qatar Hamas claims it was for humanitarian reasons but others speculate it was purely strategy meanwhile Defense Minister Yoav Gallant visited troops on the Gaza border to monitor it's the tens of thousands of troops near Israel's southern border already for an expanded operation in the strip oh well the IDF continues to strike Hamas command centers and underground tunnels overnight and while rockets continue to attack the south Israel's northern border is also heating up the IDF striking multiple Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon overnight in response to anti-tank missiles and rockets launched by the Iranian backed terror group which killed one Israeli reserve soldier on Friday at the Rafa border crossing between Egypt and Gaza has opened this morning allowing foreign citizens to leave parts of humanitarian aid into the strip to help the estimated 1.4 million Palestinians who have been displaced since the start of the war and that is where we want to begin with the latest happening out of the Gaza strip our I-24 news defense correspondent Jonathan Oregev is currently in Israel south Jonathan we are seeing images of trucks carrying medicine, medical supplies, food entering Gaza through the Rafa border crossing but we are also hearing that as quickly as those 20 trucks were allowed in the border was shut down again what can you tell us? So probably this was the agreement this is what can come into Gaza and that's it that humanitarian corridor as it is called no one really had a humanitarian corridor for the people in the communities where we are neighboring communities on the Gaza border no one in the world really created any corridor for them but that's how the world sees it maybe you don't have to help the Israelis you do have to help the Palestinians that is why the Rafa border crossing was opened for as it seems as far as we are hearing 30 minutes or so those 20 trucks came in and that's it the border is now closed as far as we understand as it seems this was the agreement this is the amount of trucks that were allowed in and that's it. Jonathan Oregev as you are speaking we are taking a look at some of those live images besides you of the Rafa border crossing right now now I'm curious because as the border was shut down for those 20 trucks of humanitarian aid we're also hearing that was the time for foreign nationals if possible for them to get out so if it shuts down after the aid is let in what's going to happen to those trying to flee the Gaza Strip? Not exactly clear the notion was that the humanitarian the humanitarian assistance will come in and foreign nationals living in Gaza will come out did they really go out there's no indication for that at the moment will they really be leaving Gaza or not we really don't know no no indication for that at this time. Meanwhile Jonathan another question that many people are wondering especially here in Israel and what's enraging many Israelis about this aid going to Israel as it's not only United States aid helping the Palestinians also likely that it will go into the hands of Hamas we also know that Russia is one of the countries sending 27 tons of aid it's not sure if any of that has gotten in yet but with that type of aid how likely is it that illicit goods are in that aid that is also going to end up in the hands of Hamas. I have no proof to what I'm going to say but you can rest assured this will fall to the hands of Hamas who can exactly guarantee what happens to the aid once it goes into Gaza is it UN relief and works agency we've seen Hamas coming basically loot everything that they have in their warehouses can we count on them to make sure that the assistance doesn't have in the end of Hamas the answer is no in this case we're speaking mainly of food and water and medicine and so on nothing that can become a equipment for war only things for the population with the population end up with it at least as it seems the answer is no it will go into the hands of Hamas we've heard of lack of electricity and all those other things you can rest assured that down in the bunker where the rest of the Hamas leadership are there's an abundance of all of them Jonathan Regev our defense correspondent in Israel's southern border thank you for all of the latest that's happening out of the Gaza Strip we're still taking a look at those live images coming from the Rafa border crossing right now some of those movement of those trucks that aid entering the Gaza Strip now another major movement to come out of the Gaza Strip overnight is two American hostages released from the hands of Hamas Natalie Radnan and her mother Judith were kidnapped on October 7th while visiting family in Kibbutz Nahal Oz it's believed that as many as 10 other Radnan family members could still be in Hamas captivity but Natalie and Judith's release does provide a slight sliver of hope for the families of those held hostage I've been waiting for this moment for a long time for two weeks I haven't been sleeping for two weeks tonight I'm going to sleep good I spoke with my daughter earlier today she sounds very good she looks very good she was very happy and she's waiting to come home her mother has a little scratch on her hand but she told me it's nothing she's okay I spoke earlier with President Biden I thank him for his concern for his helping with the release of them and he was very very nice I want to bring in my studio guests with me now I'm joined by Colonel and reserve Grisha Yukovic former head of the civilian department of Kogat and Israeli Palestinian relations experts for the IDF along with our senior correspondent Owen Alterman thank you both for joining me here in studio but before I get to you I want to come to our other guest retired colonel Dr. Michael Mielstein head of the Palestinian studies forum for Moshe Dayan center for Middle Eastern and African studies and former advisor for Kogat the coordination of government activities in the territories joining us from Kiret Ono here in Israel let's begin with what we're hearing about the hostage situation two hostages released from the hands of Hamas many people saying that this is clearly some sort of strategy when it comes to Hamas dealing with the hostage negotiations hostage release well Nicole I do think that the Hamas strategy right now is actually an attempt to use or to take advantage of the hostages as actually a measure a tool to lay to halt the broad military move of Israel you know I do think that the release of the two hostages we saw yesterday the American with the American citizenship was actually an attempt the balloon of Hamas with a lot of assistance of Qatar to check if there is any possibility to limit the Israeli future move against Hamas and I do think that they I mean Hamas they will try to repeat such an experiment I do think that they will try to signal to the whole world and mainly and to the other to the states that their citizens are held by Hamas that maybe they will gradually release more and more hostages and this is their manner to maybe to limit the future move but as I assess Nicole and this is my knowledge I do think that it will not succeed to stop Israel from its major strategic target to erase Hamas to eradicate Hamas from the map for many people in Israel and I mean among the policy makers but also among the public it is much more important to put an end to this existential threat Hamas and there is no no doubt that people want to see all the hostages released but they are not ready to give up on this major strategic goal of eradicating Hamas from the map clearly also as just as you said even if it's not one of Israel's major goal is to defeat and eliminate Hamas they are going to be continuing to get some outside pressure from some of these foreign states who have foreign nationals held captive I'm curious though because as we're talking about Hamas just the level of coordination and possible collaboration that we're seeing between Hamas their strategy impacted by Qatar, Iran any coordination as well with Hezbollah Yeah sure, you know from the 7th of October it is quite clear that Hamas is not you know a separated player in the whole scene of the war Hamas is very much coordinated with the whole players of the axis of resistance of the Mukawama and mainly Iran and of course in a very fruitful let's call it like that and a very tight connection to Qatar and you know I do think and we call that in the day after the war and I don't know when it will be in about a month, a year, maybe more than that Israel should think a lot about the lessons that we learned from the attack the brutal attack of the 7th of October I do think for example that the whole question of the role of Qatar in the Palestinian arena and mainly in Gaza must be questionable. I think that Qatar right now has a very negative role Qatar is fully affiliated with Hamas it is not a mediator it is actually a measure in the hands of Hamas we must also remember that right now when we are speaking actually almost all Hamas leadership is promoting the policy the strategy of the war not from Doha not from anywhere else so I do think that in the day after Israel should consider and should think about getting Qatar out of the arena of Gaza and maybe and I am saying that in a very cautious and modest manner maybe think about another alternative players in this arena maybe we should convince other players in the Gulf much more moderate than Qatar to be effective player when there will be no I wish that there will be no Hamas over there but we cannot repeat once again this negative experience of playing with very gentle policy toward Hamas while Qatar is the mediator I think that this kind of equation we cannot repeat such an idea anymore Dr. Michael Milstein thank you I want you to stay with us but turning to our guests in studio Grisha Milstein brought up a great point what happens after the war and specifically I know he's talking about some of these countries abroad but also we have to focus on what happens after the war in Gaza as the former de facto mayor of Gaza city before Israel's disengagement I'm curious about the Gaza Strip going to work and how are we going to have this new security regime first of all I have to say Shabbat Shalom to Michael we serve together in office by office and I do accept the majority of what he said the day after is part of the strategy so Israel is pushing and continues bumping the Gaza Strip with the readiness again it's not a question of if the question is when and how the IDF would be boots on the ground in Gaza and only the pressure only the pressure the continuous pressure will release the prisoners the ones that were captured and Israel already is preparing itself as a country as a southern entity thinking about the day after like first of all what will be the reality of the people who will be left in Gaza let's see how many of them will be able to fled Gaza okay though I know something like 200,000 already are in Europe during the almost 16 17 years of Hamas regime in Gaza something like 200,000 Gazans fled Gaza and they live in Europe or in other places let's see what will be the situation in Gaza on the ground when it comes to infrastructure okay let's go back to Second World War okay actually the United States okay the coalition bombed Japan bombed Germany and eventually their own money actually was the money to rebuild it reconstruct it okay and to create a new reality in those countries and we see that today two big democracies so this is the same I think it was the Marshall Plan if I'm not wrong so I think it's about time we implement for the day after some sort of a Marshall Plan and I do agree with Michael Dr. Michael we need to approach to the moderate Arab countries let's say the new Western coalition that is already there okay the general secretary Mr. Bligden flew to Israel Jordan Saudi Arabia okay there is a reason for everything whatever happens there is a reason for that when appealing to these more moderate Arab countries even today we see that there is a potential summit in Egypt happening between many of these different Arab leaders some European heads of states as well however senior prime minister Owen Altman we were talking earlier we're not sure exactly what's going to come out of a summit like this especially so soon into the war not much I actually with your permission I want to go back to what Michael Milstein said about Qatar look if this is the verdict on Qatar why wait until the day after right Qatar is playing such a central role as this war goes on and Qatar is very vulnerable here very vulnerable Nicole Qatar cares about nothing more than its brand especially in the United States and think about how much Qatar invested in the world cup because of that and Qatar at this point I think is very very vulnerable to Israeli leaders going out on television and making the case against it with all of the support for Israel in the U.S. Congress Qatar is very vulnerable if this is the verdict on Qatar and maybe there's a question for Michael Milstein the day after they're vulnerable now they're vulnerable now more than on the day after this is the time to quote unquote launch the diplomatic attack and if that's the verdict it seems to me that Israel should act sooner rather than later right against Qatar against Al Jazeera of course that process is well underway here in Israel maybe there's something to be done with that in the United States of course the legal regime is entirely different so I'm simply throwing out an idea here not knowing how realistic or even appropriate it is but taking on Qatar's brand if that's the step that Israel should take and that's Israel's national interest it seems to me it should be done now and not on the day after as for the summit in Egypt look we talked about it there will be nothing that comes out of it other than it seems to me a very general statement about the humanitarian situation in Gaza maybe something about the hostages the number of people there the countries there and their interests are simply too diverse you have everything from Arab leaders who have every incentive to take a hard line diplomatically to the foreign minister of Germany and everything in between so the idea of there being a consensus statement that really says something seems to me awfully hard to see but of course there is still interest in the individual leaders to host the summit in the case of Al-Fattah Qalsisi to show his public he's doing something and obviously each of the individual leaders we could talk about them one by one what incentive they have to see and be seen there as you said just the humanitarian crisis the situation that we are seeing in Gaza Risha I'd like to talk to you as we're seeing some of these truck loads of humanitarian aid come into the strip I understand also from the ground there are reports that some of these cities don't have any electricity is real no longer funding them but I'm hearing also that that doesn't seem to be the case you know we are falling always to the trap of repeating for somebody's else definition okay you just used it there is a return crisis no there is not I don't know if you've seen pictures from Kanyunis and Al-Fattah you know people go to the market all the shops are open kids are going to schools and we are all repeating the same lie the humanitarian crisis this is a lie this is Hamas lie industry welcome to the club there's reports that people don't have clean water and they're taking well water you think those reports are not true I want to be clear about it okay because when people hear that Israeli officials or politicians state that we shut down the electricity from Gaza automatically you assume that they are left without one megawatt right? okay let's go back to the facts Israel supplied only 45% of the consumption the rest they have a power plant that can supply the same amount of electricity from inside Gaza there is electricity line coming from Egypt during the years that Hamas as an entity and we accepted that one of our mistakes I think that now you see the pictures yes we're seeing some of those pictures you see some of those pictures in the south okay Khayyounis and Rafah that people actually walking freely buying the shops are open so how can we accept that fact when they say you know what I would say something else as I said here a week ago they will pull the humanitarian card as fast as possible but nobody will really check it so the moment we started checking it you see that it's not really like that by the way those are pictures published by Hamas not by Israelis so it's their own evidence to show that there are some normal life about water Israel supplied only 12% of the consumption the rest of the water they are using from the underground water in Gaza the aquifer now if Hamas decided two years ago with Iran to start a war let's assume that they prepared themselves well in our weapons, rockets no they miss everything in Gaza except rockets so I'm sure that they also prepared food, electricity, diesel to operate generators they have thousands of generators they have solar panels come on let's not fall to that trap I'm not saying it's easy it's not also easy for us but let's be at least put the facts on the table and let's not fall into that trap that this is what they said and they show us some grey water or I don't know what to say okay there is a crisis, not really meanwhile with everything brewing as a strip in Israel as well we're also seeing what continues to unfold abroad we're hearing new reports that last night a homemade bomb was detonated near the Israeli embassy in Cyprus one person has been arrested and wanted in connection with this attack all the men suspected are Syrian nationals joining us is I-24 news senior defense correspondent Jonathan Oragiv Jonathan what can you tell us about this latest attack to Israelis abroad yes this report coming in the last half an hour or so not a lot more information from what you've said Nicole but we have seen today just about two hours ago a regional security council here in Israel advising Israelis to leave not Cyprus but other countries in the region Jordan and Egypt and Morocco where now the level of threat against Israelis is very high is at level four which is the highest level same level of course in Turkey where we've seen many many protests against Israel Turkey one of the main backers of Hamas even with relations getting somewhat warmer in recent months still Turkey one of the most hostile places towards Israelis and yes even in Western countries such as the UK the US Germany and others there have been protests against Israel and we can assume that this is just one of the anti-Israel cases around the world it was very clear that it will not take a long time before the words would become actions of a lot of details about what happened last night in Nicosia but the anti-Israel rhetoric is all over the place not only unfortunately in Arab nations but in Western nations where governments are at least are very supportive of Israel but many in the public arena certainly the local Muslim population but not only them are very anti-Israel and this could be one of the expressions seen now in the Cyprus the anti-Israel rhetoric certainly a dangerous one Bruno Bride Jonathan Raghav that update on the situation happening over there Dr. Michael Milstein I want to come back to you now as we're talking about not only the strategy we're seeing by Hamas but also the strategy that we're seeing with Hezbollah we continue to see anti-tank missiles being fired from the Lebanon border into Israel but for now it's mainly been some of this low level firing happening back and forth so I'm curious how sustainable that is for Hezbollah versus them actually fully getting involved Well actually this is the main strategic dilemma now for Israel and when I'm trying to analyze the strategy and the way that both Hezbollah and Iran are trying to analyze their future steps I do think that there is not yet a strategic decision of both of them how or when to be involved in a much more dramatic manner in the war of course this dilemma will be much more tougher when the ground maneuver begin and I do think that today there are three main heavy considerations in front of Hezbollah that makes the whole dilemma much more complex first of all Israel is very much ready for any kind of attack from Hezbollah very different from the situation of 2006 second not very far from the shores of Lebanon and mainly Beirut there are two serious heavy aircraft carriers of the USA it's quite a strategic challenge to Nasrallah and there is something very important the internal discourse in Lebanon itself you know during the last week there were a lot of voices from Lebanon even from a senior figures in Lebanon that call Hezbollah the slogan is our heart is in Palestine in Palestine but please do not involve Lebanon in this war we do not want to be or not want to cause the root to look like a remote neighborhood in Gaza and I do think that you know all those considerations maybe will make the policy of the Iranian's end of Hezbollah to be much more limited there is a second point I want to refer to there was a question about Qatar before Nicole why to promote a different tougher policy Qatar in the day after and not now and there is one basic answer for that question and this is the consideration of the hostages I do believe that right now you know it's not easy to admit it but right now Qatar is the only channel to confines to promote any leverage on Hamas and I do think that as long as there is a possibility to promote release of more ideas, you need to be in contact with Qatar but as I said before when this war will end we must think again about the whole structure the strategic one of Qatar and Gaza as we retired colonel Dr. Michael Milstein thank you so much as always for breaking down all the analysis here certainly one of the main questions that everyone has as Dr. Milstein answered is exactly how the structure from abroad ties into the hostage situation as well as we mentioned at the top of the broadcast to Americans recently released from the hands of Hamas but certainly playing into just the difficulties of everything that continues to happen here in Israel day 15 of the war colonel and reserve Grisha Jakobovich thank you so much for joining us along with senior correspondent Owen Alterman your insight and analysis always appreciated as we continue to unpack on the I-24 news thank you over 1300 people murdered and more than 3000 injured and the war with Hamas continues we bring you first hand testimonies from the front lines from those who survived and all the records of the atrocities by Hamas follow us as Israel fights terror from the south and north get the inside on what's going on only on I-24 news this particular project with a gross capacity of 103.5 megawatt will be producing around 230 gigawatt hour of clean renewable energy per year we have to reserve we have the right ingredients and we have to do the job and that if we have the right ingredients and we do the job the vaquita can be protected welcome to another breaking edition of the I-24 news desk I'm Nicole Zedek unpacking the latest developments of the war here in Israel now in its 15th day two American hostages have been released by Hamas terrorists marking the first release of the some 200 hostages that remain in Gaza the release of Judith and Natalie Rannan a mother and daughter from Chicago was facilitated by Qatar Hamas claims it was for humanitarian reasons but others speculate it was purely strategy meanwhile Defense Minister Yoav Galant visited troops on the Gaza border to monitor if the tens of troops near Israel's southern border are ready for an expanded operation in the strip while the IDF continues to strike Hamas command centers and underground tunnels overnight and while rockets continue to attack the south Israel's northern border is also heating up the IDF striking multiple Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon overnight in response to anti-tank missiles and rockets launched by the Iranian-backed terror group which killed one Israeli reserve soldier on Friday and the Rafa border crossing between Egypt and Gaza has opened this morning allowing foreign citizens to leave and 20 trucks of humanitarian aid into the strip to help the estimated 1.4 million Palestinians who have been displaced since the start of the war and that is where we want to begin with the latest happening out of the Gaza strip in a fort news defense correspondent Jonathan Oregov is currently in Israel south Jonathan we are seeing images of trucks carrying medicine, medical supplies food entering Gaza through the Rafa border crossing about 20 trucks however we're also hearing that as quickly as those 20 trucks were allowed in the border was shut down again what can you tell us so probably this was the agreement this is what can come into Gaza and that's it, that humanitarian corridor as it is called no one really had a humanitarian corridor for the people in the communities where we are in Sderot and neighboring communities on the Gaza border no one in the world really created any corridor for them but that's how the world sees it maybe you don't have to help the Israelis you do have to help the Palestinians that is why the Rafa border crossing was opened for as it seems as far as we're hearing roughly 30 minutes or so and that's it, the border is now closed as far as we understand as it seems this was the agreement this is the amount of trucks that were allowed in and that's it Jonathan, we're taking a look at some of those live images besides you of the Rafa border crossing right now I'm curious because as the border was shut down for those 20 trucks of humanitarian aid we're also hearing that was the time for foreign nationals if possible for them to get out if it shuts down after the aid is let in what's going to happen to those trying to flee the Gaza Strip not exactly clear, the notion was that the humanitarian the humanitarian assistance will come in and foreign nationals living in Gaza will come out did they really go out there's no indication for that at the moment will they really be leaving Gaza or not we really don't know no indication for that at this time meanwhile Jonathan another question people are wondering especially here in Israel and what's enraging many Israelis about this aid going to Israel is it's not only United States aid helping the Palestinians also likely that it will go into the hands of Hamas we also know that Russia is one of the countries sending 27 tons of aid it's not sure if any of that has gotten in yet but with that type of aid how likely is it that illicit goods are in that aid that is also going to end up in the hands of Hamas I have no proof to what I'm going to say but you can rest assured this will fall to the hands of Hamas who can exactly guarantee what happens to the aid once it goes into Gaza is it enra the UN relief and works agency we've seen Hamas coming basically loot everything that they have in their warehouses can we count on them to make sure that the assistance doesn't end in the end of Hamas the answer is no in this case we're speaking mainly of food and water and medicine and so on nothing that can become equipment for war only things for the population end up with it at least as it seems the answer is no it will go into the hands of Hamas we've heard of lack of electricity water and all those other things you can rest assured that down in the bunker where the rest of the Hamas leadership are there is an abundance of all of them Jonathan Regev our defense correspondent in Israel's southern border and for all of the latest that's happening out of the Gaza Strip we're still taking a look at those live images coming from the Rafa border crossing right now some of those movement of those trucks that aid entering the Gaza Strip another major development to come out of the Gaza Strip overnight is two American hostages released from the hands of Hamas Natalie Radnan and her mother Judith were kidnapped on October 7 while visiting family in Kibbutz Nahal Oz as many as 10 other Radnan family members could still be in Hamas captivity but Natalie and Judith's release does provide a slight sliver of hope for the families of those held hostage I've been waiting for this moment for a long time for two weeks I haven't been sleeping for two weeks tonight I'm going to sleep good I spoke with my daughter earlier today she sounds very good she looks very good she was very happy and she's waiting to come home her mother has a little scratch on her hand but she told me it's nothing she's okay I spoke earlier with President Biden I thank him for his concern for his helping with the release of them and he was very very nice I want to bring in my studio guests with me now I'm joined by Colonel and Reserve Grisha Yokovic former head of the Civilian Department of Kogat and Israeli-Palestinian relations experts for the IDF along with our senior correspondent Owen Alterman thank you both for joining me here in studio but before I get to you I want to come to our other guests retired Colonel Dr. Michael Milstein head of the Palestinian studies forum for Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies and former advisor for Kogat the coordination of government activities in the territories joining us from Kira Ono here in Israel let's begin with what we're hearing about the hostage situation two Americans released from the hands of Hamas many people saying that this is clearly some sort of strategy when it comes to Hamas dealing with the hostage negotiations hostage release well Nicole I do think that the Hamas right now is actually an attempt to use or to take advantage of of the hostages as actually a measure a tool in order to delay to halt the broad military move of Israel you know I do think that the release of the two hostages we saw yesterday with the American citizenship was actually an attempt the balloon of Hamas of course with a lot of assistance of Qatar to check if there is any possibility to limit the Israeli future move against Hamas and I do think that they I mean Hamas they will try to repeat such an experiment I do think that they will try to signal to the whole world and mainly to the other to the states that their citizens are kept by held by Hamas that maybe they will gradually release more and more hostages and this is their manner maybe to limit the future move but as I assess and Nicole and this is my knowledge I do think that it will not succeed to stop Israel from its major strategic target to erase Hamas to eradicate Hamas from the map for many people in Israel and I mean in the among the policy makers but also among the public it is much more important to put an end to this existential threat Hamas and there is no no doubt that people want to see all the hostages released but they are not ready to give up on this major strategic goal of eradicating Hamas from the map clearly also as just as you said even if it's not one of Israel's major goal is to defeat and eliminate Hamas they are going to be continuing to get some outside pressure from some of these foreign states who have foreign nationals held captive I'm curious though because as we're talking about Hamas just the level of coordination and possible collaboration that we're seeing between Hamas their strategy impacted by Qatar, Iran any coordination as well with Hezbollah yeah sure you know from the 7th of October it is quite clear that Hamas is not a you know separated player in the whole scene of the war Hamas is very much coordinated with the whole players of the Axis of resistance of the Mukawama and mainly Iran and of course in a very fruitful let's call it like that and a very tight connection to Qatar and you know I do think and call that in the day after the war and I don't know when it will be in about a month a year maybe more than that Israel should think a lot about the lessons that we learned from the attack the brutal attack of the 7th of October I do think for example that the whole question of the role of Qatar in the Palestinian arena mainly in Gaza must be questionable I think that Qatar right now has a very negative role Qatar is fully affiliated with Hamas it is not a mediator it is actually a measure we must also remember that right now when we are speaking actually almost all Hamas leadership is promoting the policy the strategy of the war from Doha not from anywhere else so I do think that in the day after Israel should consider and should think about getting Qatar out of the arena of Gaza and maybe and I'm saying that in a very cautious and modest manner maybe think about another alternative players in this arena maybe we should convince other states from the Gulf much more moderate than Qatar to be effective player when there will be no I wish that there will be no Hamas over there but we cannot repeat once again this negative experience of playing with a very gentle policy toward Hamas while Qatar is the mediator I think that this kind of equation belongs to the past we cannot repeat such an idea anymore Dr. Michael Milstein thank you I want you to stay with us but turning to our guests in studio Grisha Milstein brought up a great point what happens after the war and specifically I know he's talking about some of these countries abroad but also we have to focus on what happens after the war in Gaza as the former de facto mayor of Gaza city before Israel's disengagement I'm curious exactly how is the reshaping of the Gaza Strip going to work and how are we going to have this new security regime First of all I have to say shabbat shalom to Michael we serve together in office by office and I do accept the majority of what he said the day after is part of the strategy okay so it's pushing a continuous bump in the Gaza Strip with the readiness again it's not a question of if the question is when and how the idea would be boots on the ground in Gaza and only the pressure only the pressure the continuous pressure will release the prisoners the ones that were captured and Israel already is preparing itself as a country as a sovereign entity thinking about the day after like first of all what will be the reality of the people who will be left in Gaza let's see how many of them will be able to flood Gaza okay I know that something like 200,000 already are in Europe during the almost 16 17 years of Hamas regime in Gaza something like 200,000 Gazans flood Gaza and they live in Europe or in other places let's see what will be the situation in Gaza on the ground when it comes to infrastructure okay let's go back to Second World War okay actually the United States the coalition bombed Japan bombed Germany and eventually their own money were actually was the money to rebuild it reconstruct it okay and to create a new reality in those countries and we see that today two big democracies so this is the same I think it was the Marshall plan if I'm not wrong so I think it's about time we implement for the day after some sort of a Marshall plan and I do agree with Michael, Dr. Michael we need to approach to the moderate Arab countries let's say the new western coalition that is already there okay the General Secretary Mr. Bligden flew to Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia okay there is a reason for everything what ever happens there is a reason for that when appealing to these more moderate Arab countries even today we see that there is a potential summit in Egypt happening between many of these different Arab leaders some European heads of states as well however senior prime minister Owen Alterman we were talking earlier we're not sure exactly what's going to come out of a summit like this especially so soon into the war yeah not much I actually with your permission I want to go back to what Michael Milstein said about Qatar look if this is the verdict on Qatar why wait until the day after right Qatar is playing such a central role as this war goes on and Qatar is very vulnerable here Qatar is very vulnerable Nicole Qatar cares about nothing more than its brand especially in the United States and think about how much Qatar invested in the World Cup because of that and Qatar at this point I think is very very vulnerable to Israeli leaders going out on television and making the case against it with all of the support for Israel in the US Congress Qatar is very vulnerable if this is the verdict on Qatar and maybe there's a question for Michael Milstein why wait until the day after they're vulnerable now they're vulnerable now more than on the day after this is the time to quote unquote launch the diplomatic attack and if that's the verdict it seems to me that Israel should act sooner rather than later right against Qatar against Al Jazeera of course that process is well underway here in Israel maybe there's something to be done with that in the United States of course the legal regime is entirely different so I'm simply throwing out an idea here not knowing how realistic or even appropriate it is but taking on Qatar's brand if that's the step that Israel should take and that's Israel's national interest it seems to me it should be done now and not on the day after as for the summit in Egypt look we talked about it there will be nothing that comes out of it other than it seems to me a very general statement about the humanitarian situation in Gaza maybe something about the hostages the number of people there the countries there and their interests are simply too diverse you have everything from Arab leaders who have every incentive to take a hard line diplomatically to the foreign minister of Germany and everything in between so the idea of there being a consensus statement that really says something seems to me awfully hard to see but of course there are still interests of the individual leaders to host the summit in the case of Al-Fattah Kalsisi to show his public he's doing something and obviously each of the individual leaders we could talk about them one by one what incentive they have to see and be seen there as you said just the humanitarian crisis the situation that we are seeing in Gaza Risha I'd like to talk to you as we're seeing some of these truckloads of humanitarian aid come into the strip I understand also from the ground there are reports that some of these cities don't have any electricity Israel no longer funding them but I'm hearing also that that doesn't seem to be the case you know we are falling always to the trap of repeating for somebody's else definition okay you just used it there is a return crisis no there is not I don't know if you've seen pictures from Hanyunas and Rafah you know people go to the market all the shops are open kids are going to schools and we are all repeating the same lie humanitarian crisis this is a lie this is Hamas lie industry it's like welcome to the club there's reports that people don't have clean water and they're taking well water are you saying those reports are not true I want to be clear about it okay because when people hear that Israeli officials or politicians state that we shut down the electricity from Gaza automatically you assume that they are left without one megawatt right okay let's go back to the facts Israel supplied only 45% of the consumption the rest they have a power plant that can supply the same amount of electricity from inside Gaza there is electricity line coming from Egypt during the year that Hamas as an entity and we accepted that this is one of our mistakes I think that now you see the pictures we're seeing some of those pictures you see some of those pictures in the south okay Hanyunas and Rafah that people actually walking freely buying these shops are open so how can we accept that fact when they say you know what I would say something else as I said here a week ago they will pull the humanitarian card as fast as possible but nobody will really check it so the moment we started checking it you see that it's not really like that by the way those are pictures published by Hamas not by Israelis so it's their own evidence okay to show that there are some normal life about water Israel supplied only 12% of the consumption the rest of the water they are using from the underground water in Gaza the aquifer now if Hamas decided two years ago with Iran with an order from Iran to start a war we let's assume that they prepared themselves well you know weapons rockets they miss everything in Gaza except rockets okay so I'm sure that they also prepared food, electricity diesel to operate generators they have thousands of generators they have solar panels come on let's not fall to the trap I'm not saying it's easy okay it's not also easy for us but let's be at least let's put the facts on the table and let's not fall into the trap that this is what they said and they show us I don't know some grey water or I don't know what's said okay there is a crisis not really meanwhile with everything brewing as a strip in Israel as well we're also seeing what continues to unfold abroad we're hearing new reports that last night a homemade bomb was detonated near the Israeli embassy in Cyprus one person has been arrested and three more are wanted in connection with this attack all the men suspected are Syrian nationals joining us is I-24 new senior defense correspondent Jonathan Oregiv, Jonathan what can you tell us about this latest attack to Israelis abroad yes this report coming in the last half an hour or so not a lot more information from you've said Nicole but we have seen today as just about two hours ago the national security council here in Israel advising Israelis to leave not Cyprus but other countries in the region Jordan and Egypt and Morocco where now the level of threat against Israelis is very high is at the level four which is the highest level same level of course in Turkey where we've seen many many protests against Israel Turkey one of the main backers of Hamas even with relations getting somewhat warmer in recent months still Turkey one of the most hostile places towards Israelis and yes even in western countries such as the UK, the US Germany and others there have been protests against Israel and we can assume that this is just one of the anti-Israel cases around the world it was very clear that it will not take a long time before the words would become actions and we don't have a lot of details about what happened last night in Nicosia but the anti-Israel rhetoric is all over the place not only unfortunately in Arab nations but in western nations where governments are at least very supportive of Israel but many in the public arena certainly the local Muslim population but not only them are very anti-Israel and this could be one of the expressions seen now in Cyprus the anti-Israel rhetoric certainly a dangerous one Jonathan Raghav thank you for that update on the situation happening over there Dr. Michael Milstein I want to come back to you now as we're talking about not only the strategy we're seeing by Hamas but also the strategy that we're seeing with Hezbollah we continue to see anti-tank missiles being fired from the Lebanon border into Israel but for now it's mainly been some of this low level firing happening back and forth so I'm curious how sustainable that is for Hezbollah versus them actually fully getting involved well actually Nicole this is the main strategic dilemma now for Israel and when I'm trying to analyze the strategy and the way that both Hezbollah and Iran are trying to analyze their future steps I do think that there is not yet not yet a strategic decision of both of them how or when to be involved in a much more dramatic manner in the war of course this dilemma will be much more tougher when the ground maneuver begin and I do think that today there are three main heavy considerations in front of Hezbollah that makes the whole dilemma much more complex first of all Israel is very much ready for any kind of attack from Hezbollah very different from the situation of 2006 second not very far from the shores of Lebanon and mainly Beirut there are two serious heavy aircraft carriers of the USA it's quite a strategic challenge to Nasrallah and there is something very important the internal discourse in Lebanon itself during the last week there were a lot of voices from Lebanon even from senior figures in Lebanon that call Hezbollah the slogan is the heart is in Palestine in Palestine but please do not involve Lebanon in this war we do not want to be or not want to cause Beirut to look like a Rimal neighborhood in Gaza and I do think that all those considerations maybe will make the policy of the Iranians and of Hezbollah to be much more limited at the same point I want to refer to there was a question about Qatar before Nicole why to promote a different tougher policy toward Qatar in the day after and not now and there is one basic answer for that question and this is the consideration of the hostages I do believe that right now it's not easy to admit it but right now Qatar is the only channel to promote any leverage of Hamas and I do think that as long as there is a possibility to promote release of more and more hostages you need to be in contact with Qatar but as I said before when this war will end we must think again about the whole structure the strategic one of Qatar and Gaza well Dr. Michael Milstein thank you so much as always for breaking down all the analysis here certainly one of the main questions that everyone has as Dr. Milstein answered is exactly how all the pressure from abroad ties into the hostage situation as well as we mentioned at the top of the broadcast to Americans recently released from the hands of Hamas but certainly playing into just the difficulties of everything that continues to happen here in Israel day 15 of the war thank you so much for joining us along with Senior Correspondent Owen Alterman your insight and analysis always appreciated as we continue to unpack all of the developments here in Israel on I-24 News thank you 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 a hundred soldiers and civilians have been kidnapped help us we don't want to do we just don't know anything entire families including babies and children and elderly were butchered in their beds awaken the giant and we are ready and we are strong everyone is showing up this is the unity you first hand testimonies from the front lines from those who survived and all the records of the atrocities by Hamas says Israel fights terror from the south and north yet the inside scoop on what's going on only on I-24 News I'm Nicol Michel and this is a special I-24 News in Spanish let's analyze what has happened since its start on October 7 when the criminal attack started more than 1,500 terrorists Hamas against Israel share with you the support messages that Israel received from Ibero-America to update the situation and how it can help collaborating to support young people that have been damaged by the war that the state doesn't help them on Saturday October 7 at 6.30 in the morning an attack with missiles from Gaza that served as a cover and distraction so that at the same time an invasion was made to the population around the border the result until now 300 dead, 2,500 injured a definitive figure of 150, 200 dead Kibbutzim completely destroyed a devastated country both the government and the Israeli army took understanding, analyzing and responding in those first hours in which thousands of Hamas terrorists were freely assassinating, raping and trying to fulfill with their commitment to destroy the state of Israel but after the initial shock and the Israeli defense forces and the citizenship also reacted in a unison to defend the country the attack was terrible the images of families were found killed by young people running in favor while they were shooting on the back in a music festival hundreds of kidnapped everything has shocked the world that it hasn't been apathetic, there is tragedy and it seemed that once there was more clarity against who is fighting the democratic state of Israel against the terrorist group fundamentalist Hamas inspired by ISIS but ISIS was forced and Hamas who has become an exterminator terrorist group will also be nothing will be like it was in the Middle East Nicole has been in the southern front to understand what is going on when you are in combat tell us your experience well it was impressive we were with the I24 news team the French-English channel in the south, in the city of Esderot, it was shocking because the whole city was taken for almost two days grenades, bullets that were in the place and it really impacts that they have come so close we are talking about Esderot that is one kilometer from the and five kilometers from the center of Gaza and that is Esderot one hour, one hour and ten minutes like much of Tel Aviv and I asked those moments Carlos and I felt a great concern what would have happened if the Hamas terrorists had been much more prepared and they would have come to Tel Aviv today we would not be here let's see then the report of Nicole that happened one day in front of Esderot where the police are El Kibbutz Niram has a very interesting story it is located between Esderot and Bay of Hanun and it was the only Kibbutz that could be saved from the barbarity that they were doing in Israeli territory the Hamas terrorists Imbal Lieberman who is 25 years old is an Israeli soldier who saved El Kibbutz he was armed he immediately realized what was happening and he armed a whole squadron of reservists killing 25 terrorists unlike all of the other Kibbutz that were completely affected Esderot is a city that is one kilometer from the Gaza and five kilometers from the center of Gaza there are all the commands of the Al-Qasam Brigades of Hamas I also want to highlight that in this city 100 people died in the hands of the terrorists the terrorists that are more or less calculated were a hundred and a few who arrived there are not exact numbers yet they arrived here to the city they were able to get out of the city even from the center of the police and it is still suspected that the terrorist has been released the most impressive apart from everything is to think that from the city of Esderot to Tel Aviv by car there is one hour of route if they had been prepared we would wonder do you imagine what would happen if the Al-Qasam Brigades of Hamas had followed their objective and they would have arrived and that we are living here in the city of Esderot so close to the Gaza Strait a special report for News 24 in I-24 News Nicole, we see that on the map Esderot is stuck to Gaza and that in your visit the streets were almost empty but I see that you brought memories of your visit Exactly, Carlos here is a grenade already, of course, crushed of Hamas invest in this type as I say, of toys and not in books, in education, in food in advance for the society of the Gaza Strait Carlos a good reminder of your work as a journalist in the front despite that in all this chaos Esderot tried to give it a bit of normality to the daily life and you found yourself with two different stories Nour and Nofar Exactly, Carlos we are going to see Arab-Israeli, Bedouin Muslims and he was cleaning the streets and those moments when you say I want to give a message through something small and Nofar is a volunteer girl who lives very close to Esderot and she is very moved because she has lost friends Let's see then the meeting of Nicole with Nofar and Nour It's unbelievable when I heard about it She says it's something incredible Even when my friend got died got shot, got killed, I don't know Even when I heard about it I couldn't believe someone could be that evil It's something that will impact a lot, a lot, a lot I can't explain the feelings the things you were doing it's just too much It's too much Nofar, Nofar Thank you, thank you for that effort Everything will be fine Life in an learning The streets of Esderot were completely destroyed Mayoum Sencha Nour lives near the city of Bergeva Atabedouin He is Bedouin He is a Muslim and he is collaborating with Israel to clean the streets Thank you Nour You see that coexistence can exist that the disasters that provoked the terrorist groups as it is never in that barbaric so similar that ISIS has to be analyzed and reflected by the international community here we continue in the city of Esderot But Carlos another of the central topics that has moved the country has been the take of prisoners It is estimated that between 130 to 200 it cannot be known exactly between them American, Mexican, Italian, French and also Argentinian, I mean and Latin American it has no news yet about them The portavoz of the armed arm of Hamas Abu Abaidah said that the group will kill an active Israeli civil every time Israel attacks civilians without any news before One of the affected by this tragedy is the journalist Haidz Haidz who has disappeared to two of his children Jair and Eitan Hor I had a brief conversation with Itzik Horan I asked him to tell our public who he is and what is the situation of his children My name is Itzik Horan I live in Israel in the city of Esderot I am a geometer of the Gaza Strip and I am the father of Jair and Eitan who have disappeared from the state where they were living in the Niroz quibout and we do not know anything about them after the terrorists entered and they were taken we presumed that they are and after that we did not have any information about the whereabouts of our children and what has happened with them, if they are alive, if they are dead if they are prisoner I asked Itzik if someone from the government had contacted him to give him some kind of information let's listen to what he told me Just now we learned from the press that exactly this type of commission has been formed that, as I understand it is through the force of the Israeli Armed Forces until this time that you and I are recording we are doing this interview no one has taken contact with us Itzik's children are two of the disappeared kidnappers from October 7 a topic that produces high attention within the Israeli society there are 1,300 families who have been deported to their loved ones murdered in a wild way and who have recently been asked to form a national emergency government that acts with all the necessary force to erase all the terrorists from the map and that they do not have more military and operational capacity but on the other side of the coin are the family of the kidnappers disappeared, they understand that releasing them before an attack by land to Gaza has made a difficult decision for the Prime Minister Netanyahu and his government but there is something that must be said considering that the kidnapped Israelis have double nationality English, French, Italian, among others this is a message directed to the Prime Minister of Britain, Rishi Sunak Mr. Sunak British citizens are held hostage by Hamas if you want to help freedom send your aircraft and station it in front of the port of Gaza demanding the unconditional release of all prisoners from all countries this is a message directed to the President of France Emmanuel Macron President Macron there are French citizens held hostage by Hamas if you want to help free him send your aircraft and position it in front of the port of Gaza demanding the unconditional release of all prisoners from all countries and now this is a message directed to the President of the Prime Minister of Italy Giorgia Meloni if you are an Italian citizen and you are held hostage by Hamas if you want to help free him send your aircraft and station it in front of the port of Gaza demanding the unconditional release of all prisoners from all countries this message is directed to you, the leaders of Europe so that you can join the support provided by President Joe Biden who sent the aircraft all together you can pressure Hamas to understand that Israel is not alone and to avoid unnecessary deaths of the civilian population of Hamas prisoner Nikol Hancanza symbolically is the time when Europe was besieged by the evil forces of the 20th century with an exterminator that devoured the continent and cost the lives of 6 million Jews you were not alone countries of the world joined together to liberate Europe by paying a huge price it's time to do what should be and station your force in front of Hamas and demand without spending a single minute to free all prisoners do not leave Israel alone Israel is not alone not even started this war especially from the Latin American countries they received support messages condemning the Hamas terrorist group and offering help to Israel there were dozens of marches in different cities along and all over the continent Carlos, let's hear some support messages to Israel I'm Felipe Calderón former president of Mexico and I condemn the absurd massacre the unacceptable terrorist act perpetrated by Hamas against the people of Israel the murder of those children of those young people of those women is a reputable act that was done against all humanity it is not about being left or right it is about being Christian, Jewish, Muslim or Agnostic it is about respecting human life and repudiate with all energy this act against the people and the people of Israel not to the Hamas terrorism not to the terrorism in any part Greetings Rodrigo Chavez president of the Republic of Costa Rica I want to manifest our solidarity with the people of Israel against the deplorable and unacceptable attacks terrorists of Hamas of the last days receive our most felt burden by the dead injured and captured people in these unfortunate events in these times the solidarity and the commitment to restable peace must be the guide a fraternal hug and our most felt support in these difficult times of Costa Rica that God blesses them We can not triumph we can not consent the horror we feel and the stolen victims can not become hatred or fear because then the evil would have won and a person of good can leave today to pray to God if he has it to solidarize with the families of the dead and injured to demand the immediate release of the kidnapped no one can deny the right to the legitimate defense of the people and the state of Israel I just ask that we do not let the terrorists, the fanatics or the anti-Semites and forget who you are one of the most important peoples of the history of humanity the only democracy of the next generation one of the most capable, brave and mestizos of the world I am the admiration of those who have a heart to admire for your ability to live in the middle of the danger to prosper and innovate to know how to be at the height of everything that your ancestors suffered you are a brother to Spain and we are like you as Spaniard and representative of the Madrileños I bring you our condolences our love and support as a woman, I feel scared and will never erase certain images I know that you will be at the height of the terrible time that you have to go through more than 2,000 years even out of your land you continue to be the same people the Jewish people and no one will change you no one can deny your right to exist to the promised land that is your home and the home of many who are not Jews but your democracy no one can believe the terrorism to any kind to end with freedom the coexistence and prosperity in the world the terror wants to kill all the good that we have built throughout history to make us forget our own humanity but I repeat that they will not get it conviction, enthusiasm bravery and imagination of the people of Israel will make this admirable work that you are thank you very much I think that Simerman has an excellent relationship with Pope Francis and he had a telephone conversation asking for support it's true that evil has spread here and do you know that there are many Argentinians between the 20s? I don't know because I know and in fact they have called me today and they have told me that we would have to take the Argentinian families to see Pope Francis and talk to him to receive a little support I said, well, we'll see we'll see later if you have if you have strength later we could bring some families of these because they really need comfort what has happened here is that they don't have a name inside and outside of Israel dozens of NGOs have been working to collaborate with the people of Israel with initiatives that go from the basic and even request donations for those who have lost everything well, an example among many that is the chain the humanitarian organization for example in Colombia led by Sol Ventolila the war doesn't only affect those who are in the battle but it also affects especially the small and medium-sized companies and the autos that when there is no activity in their rubles, they don't have income since day one of the war dozens of NGOs that exist in Israel have been busy preparing boxes with food for the soldiers sending medicines to the elderly of third age and attending requests from mothers with newborn babies but in what way will the independent workers take care of themselves? well, in our studio we have two luxury guests one honor are Mika and Galit Gurovich the daughter of Carlos who have taken an initiative to help those who are here today for the war they are private to generate income Mika and Galit, welcome to your program and also your father well, thank you for the space I am Galit Gurovich and I am Mika Gurovich my older sister at the beginning of this war we have seen that many independent workers here in Israel have been affected by the lack of work so we came up with the idea of starting this foundation that we call Akoh Jelanu Beyahal Mika our joint force we started this foundation with the objective to raise funds from all over the world through a PayPal account that will be able to send money from all over the world for those who are interested to help those who do not know when they will be able to return to have work this foundation was created by Mijal and since the two of us are independent workers Mijal, tell us how you have felt in these days, we have been for a week and some war how has it been for you, for your work as a photographer? I have been a photographer a lifestyle photographer for more than 10 years and obviously nobody wants now to take their photos taken not for social media there are no events happening everything is like around funerals and the moral is so low with the people that nobody wants to do fun stuff so like me, there are thousands hundreds of thousands of people that their work has completely stopped the dancers, the performers nobody is going to use our services in the next two weeks, three weeks two months, one year we have no idea how long this is going to take so that's when this idea came to our mind, that we wanted to see how we can help the small businesses to cope with this situation in the next future Ok Galit, explain to us what would be the method someone who is watching them now who sees us we are going to publish it on the screen where the money can be sent how is it going to work then? well, in principle we have a web page where we explain what is on the screen now we are going to explain in detail how the project arises, how we are going to work who we are there is a direct link for Paypal they have to send money to a bank account and we also have an Instagram all in English where they are going to be able to see how we are managing and we are real people who are not fake news we are not fake news exactly living in Israel in a moment of a lot of difficulty and what has been the feeling you have picked up in the same situation that you now, Galit, in Israel well, the truth is that thank you very much a word from Alibio we are very grateful that someone puts their eyes on this situation so delicate well, we just have to feel proud of the initiative and we hope that people respond, that they help so many people who in Israel at this moment do not have any income and that the state must recognize that at this time they have been busy with other things from Michal and Galit to be successful and that people can receive help even though it is the least that can be given to girls thank you very much for the great Michal and Galit we reached the end of this mission a different mission where we hope that in the future our next mission is a mission where we can say that the situation has not escalated in the region more deaths that we can live and live with us next to the Gazettes of the Liganeses brothers who we do not want to see involved in this war nor to people who are unnecessary victims of the exterminating terrorism exactly, Carlos we have to live in peace Israelis and Palestinians and continue to inform them monitoring everything that happens here in Israel in the Middle East in Spanish thank you very much for being with us Carlos, thank you we are here again to tell you what is happening thank you the atrocities by Hamas follow us as Israel fights terror from the south and north get the inside scoop on what's going on only on i24 news this is a very active scene and we need to get in the car as we're talking more than a hundred soldiers and civilians have been kidnapped tell us we don't want to do we just don't know anything entire families including babies and children and elderly were butchered in their beds awaken the giant and we are ready and we are strong everyone issues everyone is showing up this is the unity you're watching i24 news coming to you live from Tel Aviv on this day 15 of Israel's war with Hamas the IDF says the number of hostages being held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip is now 210 a number which does not include the two American citizens who were freed by the group last night the IDF says that number is not final the families of all those being held have been informed mother and daughter Judith and Natalie were freed in a deal facilitated by Qatar last night 20 trucks carrying humanitarian aid have crossed into Gaza via the Egyptian controlled RAF crossing more than 200 trucks are waiting on the Egyptian side of the border hundreds of thousands of gardens have moved south away from the conflict zone is hosting an international summit on the conflict today Jordan's king of Dullar the president of the UAE the emir of Qatar are all attending as is the Palestinian leader the Turkish foreign minister the prime ministers of Iraq and Italy are there along with delegations from the EU, France, Russia, China and Japan but neither the United States nor Saudi Arabia are taking part and tens of thousands of Israeli troops remain gathered at the border with Gaza in anticipation of a ground offensive the Israeli defense minister Yoav Galan visiting the troops last night while the IAF continued to pound Hamas command centers and underground tunnels overnight and today we have had a barrage of rockets fired at the communities around the Gaza Strip well let me introduce my guest for you now Grisha Yakubovic is the former head of the civilian department Israeli-Palestinian relations expert Ahayla Grisha we're also joining the studio by our senior international affairs editor, Owen Ultiman Grisha, let's talk about Gaza then the first aid convoys rolling across the Egyptian controlled raffle crossing this morning tell us what is life in Gaza like right now two weeks after this war began well the life at the northern part of Gaza are empty because the IAF asked the people to get salt into the valley of Gaza and in the south life it looks like excellent I've seen pictures and videos from Gaza and there is electricity and there is water people go into the shops markets are open actually even better than in Israel so why people are mentioning even that there is a humanitarian crisis why are we all in panic so explain it to me then because there has been pressure on Israel accusing Israel of putting Gaza under siege saying that they've cut off the electricity they've cut off the water explain that to me in practical terms did Israel actually do that or not there are four crossings around the Gaza Strip one in the north the Arabian pedestrian crossing 17,000 Palestinian workers entered to work in Israel on a daily base since 2021 there is another crossing at the triangle border between Gaza, Egypt and Israel with 1000 trucks a day that brought goods from Israel into Gaza back to back on both cases Hamas as the sovereign entity in Gaza taxed those goods making huge money into their pockets that eventually they invested in the tunnels and not at the people there are also two crossing between Gaza and Egypt that were open almost 24-7 so 65% of the goods entered to Gaza from Egypt and Hamas also taxed those goods and there is a natural border to the Mediterranean with thousands of fishermen that used to enter and be at the Mediterranean 15 miles inside so do we control their electricity and water or not Israel supplied until October 8 45% of the electricity and 12% were supplied to Gaza of water the rest of the water came from the aquifer yes they need electricity so they can clean the water and there is a well and you take the water from underground there is a compacted deceleration plant on the well so it's operated with electricity so you will be able to decelerate it because the salinity is very very high on the other hand Hamas could invest millions of dollars to build more deceleration plants in Gaza or to improve the power plant or do other things I want to focus on the situation right now because the accusation that's been leveled with Israel is that it has put Gaza under siege since October 7 it has cut off the water it has cut off the electricity and so that makes it necessary for a large aid convoy it's political declarations of Israeli ministers to the Israeli audience now when we look at it on the ground we see that it's not only Israel that supplied those things to Gaza they were also provided to themselves and it's there, it's left they have thousands of generators they have solar panels they can operate it by the way I've seen just a video from Gaza from Gaza the northern part of the Gaza Strip of Shifa hospital with a woman that is crying because somebody is dead my sympathy is to her but it's with full electricity even the trees are also lightened all right well stay with us Quisha Egypt is hosting a major international summit today with leaders from across the region and indeed the world taking part Itzhak Levanon is the former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations in Egypt thank you for being with us it's like dozens of countries taking part today and when you have such a disparate coalition can anything really be achieved by holding these talks or are we just going to see calls for a ceasefire I think that those who are participating in this summit called the peace summit I think that each one has a different agenda when you speak to the Egyptians and more or less also with the Jordanians they are afraid of what they call the relocation of the Palestinian whether in Jordan or whether in Gaza when you talk to the president Mahmoud Abbas and the other leaders that are supporting the Palestinian narrative I am not talking about Hamas I am talking about the Palestinian authority narrative and when I am listening I see there is no change with this narrative we cannot reach any political solution Tennis then because you know Egypt how is Egypt a president SEC affected by the war in terms of its own security we've seen some very angry scenes and large protests on the streets in the last few days well now in Egypt I think that if the president didn't want to have any demonstration in the street he could stop it immediately by not giving any okay coming from the police but he did not he let the people you know to go into the street chanting against Israel etc and I think this is a mistake from his side for the mid and the long term but this is another issue the second point I see also that in Jordan the king is you know dealing with the situation in a very weak a hesitating way and this is again is not good we have to bear in mind and Israel you know is trying to do the best in giving the clear picture and I do agree with Colonel Geyser now what he says look the northern part Hamas is the bastion of Hamas the leadership the terrorism the bonkers the killing everything in the south it is something completely different and what Israel is trying to do is calling the population go to the south be safe and let us finish the work with Hamas in the northern part if the leadership the Arab leadership will not understand that Hamas is a terrorist organization and this is bad for Egypt and there are bad for Jordan and there are bad for all the Middle East I think that Israel will have to go forward and do the job alone Egypt and Israel are allies via a peace treaty and have been for many decades can this treaty survive this war between Israel and Hamas well in the past the peace treaty between Israel and Egypt survives all kinds of turbulences in the Middle East I guess that this time also it will survive just for the simple reason really very simple and probably it is travel but it is true of the Fatah Assisi himself the president has a long account with Hamas they killed his people during the Ramadan and he said so I think that the Fatah Assisi will not cry for a minute if Hamas will be decapitated or there will be a vanish or they will disappear in order to bring a different kind of institutions or leadership or call it whenever you want in Gaza which will bring Egypt a kind of good neighborhood and stability all right it's like Lebanon thank you very much indeed we appreciate it well there have been rockets fired at the communities in Israel close to the border with Gaza this morning we can get the latest on the situation in the south now with our Jonathan Regev our defense correspondent he's with us now Jonathan a barrage of rockets fired this morning yes to the communities around the Gaza border there have been two or three instances of rockets not very much it's not been very noisy here relatively speaking of course in the morning there were rockets fired towards the city of Ashdod further to the north but all in all it has not been very loud not on behalf of rockets flying from the Gaza towards Israel and we've not heard a lot of artillery Israeli artillery we do hear it here and then usually the pace picks up around the evening I suspect we'll see the same today and of course the defense minister was visiting the thousands of Israeli troops close to the border with Gaza last night tens of thousands I should say still no sign of that ground offensive Jonathan there are reports that international pressure is being put on Israel to hold back for now yes and Hamas is doing very well in playing with that very strong card it has with his hands which is the hostages there's a constant call to try and do as much as possible in the negotiations to free the hostages and yes Israel perhaps was ready to go in with ground forces last night but then came those images of the two hostages released we now know that there are up to 210 hostages in Gaza so a quite a strong card there for Hamas and they played very well as unfortunate as it is for me to say it all right Jonathan thank you Jonathan Regev there close to the border with Gaza Grisha Yakovovich is with us security expert what are your thoughts then on the fact that Israel has not yet gone into Gaza these military considerations is there diplomatic pressure is it to do with the hostages and is there a risk in delaying too long there's the general picture the general events okay many things are happening in parallel let's not forget that the question is not if the ground attack will start the question is when and how I've said it almost on a daily base what Hamas are trying to do by releasing the two the mom and the daughter last night the mother and daughter it's a hostage situation okay just just imagine that terrorists enter to a house with hostages and now somebody is negotiating and they ask for a cup of water they are supposed to release somebody the pizza they need to release somebody the same thing is happening but we are talking about probably by the way from what I understand it's not 210 it's close to 300 people that we kidnapped that's what I understand Hamas even don't know yet all the numbers the official number is 210 the official number is 210 the find is disappeared exactly so that's what I refer to so if we will continue like that and that will be the let's say the way to move ahead it means it will take us a year because every day is two hostages or once a week so they will delay the only way what I'm saying is that what I'm saying it will happen the only way to release the ones who were kidnapped is only by continuing the pressure continuing the attack and a ground attack do you think there is international pressure from Israel's allies on it to hold back of course there is but they also understand that the only way to release them is by a huge pressure I just want to point out the IDF has said in the last few minutes that 550 rockets fired from Gaza have fallen short in the strip and this is pertinent isn't it Owen given what happened on Tuesday nights when pretty much all of the world media went and said that Israel had hit a hospital in an airstrike they were forced to walk that back very quickly we're now seeing retractions and corrections all around the world to some degree listen this has happened in past conflicts between Israel and the terrorists in Gaza that the rockets have not only been shot at Israel but have fallen in Gaza and have causing damage and injury and even death in Gaza which again is of a piece with what happened at that hospital in Gaza city so another example of how the actions by Hamas and in the case of the hospital by Islamic jihad are harming the people of Gaza in this case rather directly and they're trying to do the same thing with the church close by two days ago a Greek Orthodox church that has been said by those in Gaza as having been hit by an Israeli airstrike and there is a lot of evidence pointing to the contrary in one direction or another my hope is that because of these incidents and particularly the incident of a hospital or that it will cast justifiable doubt on all of the information coming out of the authorities of Gaza including the death toll by the way to the hospital a U.S. congressman has confirmed that he lost family members in that in that strike so there certainly were civilian casualties at the hospital nobody's claiming that there wasn't I never claimed that either there were indeed civilian casualties the question is what's the incident we don't know what caused the incident when you hear that 550 rockets have misfired I think we know with a fair amount of confidence would cause the incident because the Israeli has presented evidence that presents I think a fairly compelling case oh the church sorry I'm not talking about the hospital there is overwhelming evidence about the church there is a building near the church a building near the church that collapsed not the church I know the place personally I've been there because the story was Israel dropped a bomb on a church killing everyone and by the way I will defer to people of deeper expertise in international law I don't know that a church or a place of worship is automatically off bounds if there are military targets within that building it may well be that it passes the test and becomes a legitimate target I don't know what the situation was with that church if it was hit if it wasn't hit what was inside it wasn't inside but Hamas is using buildings like schools and shelters hospitals mosques and other possibly we don't know other places of worship as places to locate their assets there is no reason and it doesn't mean that there is an automatic bar on targeting these places if in fact they are military targets and targeting them passes all of the relevant tests under international humanitarian law Israel says that it is acting within the law international law in this war can we just talk for a moment about what happened in Cyprus I'm sorry we will get to Cyprus in a minute we're going to go to the north of Israel the army is on high alert amid fears the Iranian backs terrorist group Hezbollah may seek to join the conflict our Robert Swift is there Robert series of escalations by Hezbollah yesterday IDF strikes across the border what's the situation now the situation now is quite quiet to be honest after the intensity of the skirmishes here two days ago and also to a lesser extent those launches of anti-tank weapons yesterday this morning seems quite quiet there has been reports of one rocket fire here on the border and we saw something that may have been some confirmation of that but for the time being it remains quite quiet if I just move to the side you'll be able to see the Lebanese border behind me the darker hills on the far distance that is where Israeli territory and Lebanese territory meet and just to give you an idea of the situation of the residents of the villages here in the north of Israel we are standing about eight kilometers from the Lebanese border and the anti-tank weapons that have been causing so much death and destruction here in the north most of them the standard ammunition that they are using have a range of about six kilometers so that gives you an idea that the communities here where we're standing are outside of the the range of those weapons systems but there are other villages closer to the border and some of them have been evacuated the village that we're standing in has not officially had an evacuation order but I've been speaking to some of the local residents and one told me that he thinks about 30% of the population of the village have already left not due to any official directive but just because they don't feel safe here because although the anti-tank weapons are the main threat there's also rockets like we possibly just saw a short distance ago Hamas have been firing rockets from the south of Lebanon and Hezbollah definitely have the capability to fire similar weapons that they choose to do so and so the streets here are pretty quiet one resident I spoke to he was doing repairs around the house he said because he was getting ready to bed down in the family home other residents have decided not to take that chance and are deciding to move to other parts of the country if they have the means to do so and Rob we've just been talking about how there is potentially international pressure on Israel not to launch a ground invasion into Gaza is there similar pressure on Israel not to preemptively strike Hezbollah and wipe out their missile capabilities there is it's just been reported in US media earlier today that there's pressure from the Israeli government sorry I should say from the US government on to the Israeli government not to launch any kind of preemptive strike previously we've heard previously we've heard reports backing this up so you can see that international pressure there Rob thank you Robert Swift there he's at the north which is on high alert tens of thousands of citizens have had to leave their homes essentially the border area being turned also into a war zone let's talk about hostages of course the two American citizens the mother and daughter were freed last night why do you think Hamas decided to do this now two things one there are Americans so they want to show the United States the biggest supporter of the State of Israel that the first one will be released will be American citizens like okay you also need to shift a little bit President Biden and also support us not only Israel number two something that for the first time I think we succeeded when we said Hamas ISIS or even the worst ISIS and they want to show some humanity because ISIS of course never released any hostages ISIS slaughtered people that they kidnapped so they wanted by the way I know that there was a debate I heard okay it's not that I know I heard a debate between the Gaza leadership Sinwar death and others between Hamas leadership from outside Hania and Mashal and others there was a pressure from the outside leaders to release those prisoners but you know they look at things differently because they are from the outside they are not actually underground under this huge pressure that Israel is pushing them so those are the two main reasons to show to gain support from the United States and to show themselves as human beings it will not help them can we all know I agree with all of that and I obviously the hostage issue in general presents a serious moral dilemma for the Israeli public and for the Israeli leadership but we must I think and I think the public supports this must keep our eye on the all important main goal here which is to achieve the objective of the operation which is ending Hamas control over the Gaza Strip and we can't let anything stand in our way of that ultimate objective including the hostages. I want to take a quick listen to the father of the American girl who was released last night let's take a listen I've been waiting for this moment for a long time for two weeks I haven't been sleeping for two weeks tonight I'm going to sleep good I spoke with my daughter earlier today she sounds very good she looks very good she was very happy and she's waiting to come home her mother has a little scratch on her hand but she told me it's nothing she's okay I spoke earlier with President Biden I thank him for his concern for his helping with the release of them and he was very very nice that's the father of Natalie Ranan one of the American hostages who was released last night and absolute agony for the families of the 210 plus people who are still being held by Hamas terrorists including of course babies and young children and Holocaust survivors disabled people all the rest of it it's a lot it's very difficult to say the least I want to talk about the situation around the world an incident earlier today in Cyprus overnight in Cyprus we have two different versions of what happened by the way the Cypriot media has said that around 1.30 in the morning a bomb was placed outside the embassy and went off again because it was in the middle of the night causing no injuries and that four people have been arrested in connection with the incident all of them Syrian nationals that's what's been a report in the Cypriot media just in the last hour we have a statement from Israel's foreign ministry which tells a slightly different story it talks about the firing of fireworks outside the embassy and says that they're again no injuries or casualties according to the Cypriot media four Syrian nationals arrested in connection with the incident the Israeli foreign ministry didn't address the nationality of who did it or who did it or what arrests have been made so two slightly different versions of what happened but both confirming that something happened someone was trying to at least make a statement outside the embassy and what is happening with Israeli diplomatic missions around the world it's not entirely clear the foreign ministry has told I-24 news safety protocols of Israeli diplomats abroad in the initial stages of the war the Israeli embassy in Jordan was evacuated one can easily understand why but we don't have a lot of information about how expansive embassy evacuations have been I assume it's in the hands of the professionals and the experts on the one hand Israel obviously needs a strong diplomatic presence overseas now more than ever on the other hand obviously the safety and security of those personnel's paramount okay so the MFA not confirming whether or not embassies and diplomatic missions have been evacuated but of course we're also talking about large Jewish communities in some countries like Tunisia, Morocco and Tunisia we saw an attack on them not large but present Jewish communities in both of those countries 2,000 Jews in Tunisia thousands of Jews live in Morocco and of course we're seeing large pro-Palestinian protests in London today so Jewish communities in the world feeling vulnerable and feeling unsafe this is the yeah listen I think we do need to distinguish in this sense between the communities in Tunisia especially but also I suspect Morocco versus communities in places like London where there's obviously much more of a critical mass and the environment is quite different and even by the way Tunisia and Morocco these are communities that are well rooted that have been there for centuries particularly in Morocco there's a traditional feeling of warmth toward Jews I'm sure there's a lot of tension now surrounding this issue but there is that heritage that Moroccans are very, very proud of at least in many circles so one would hope that that would help keep the communities safe but obviously there's a lot of concern around the world I'm not sure if I'm right but I don't think Morocco is taking part in the conference today in Egypt there's also an alert from MFA that Israelis should not fly to Morocco probably good advice okay Grisha and Owen thank you very much stay with us our live coverage continues in a few minutes here on I-24 news stay with us 1300 people murdered and more than 3000 injured and the war with Hamas continues we bring you first hand testimonies from the front lines from those who survived and all the records of the atrocities by Hamas follow us Israel fights terror from the south and north get the inside scoop on what's going on only on I-24 news you're watching I-24 news coming to you live from Tel Aviv on this day 15 of Israel's war with Hamas the IDF says the number of hostages being held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip is now 210 a number which does not include the two American citizens who were freed by the group last night the IDF says that number is not final the families of all those being held have been informed mother and daughter Judith and Natalie Rahnan were freed in a deal facilitated by Qatar last night 20 trucks carrying humanitarian aid have crossed into Gaza via the Egyptian controlled RAF crossing more than 200 trucks are waiting on the Egyptian side of the border hundreds of thousands of gardens have moved south away from the conflict zone and Cairo is hosting an international summit on the conflict today Jordan's king of Dullar the president of the UAE the Emir of Qatar are all attending as is the Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas the Turkish foreign minister the prime ministers of Iraq and Italy are there along with delegations from the EU, France, Russia, China and Japan but neither the United States nor Saudi Arabia are taking part and tens of thousands of Israeli troops remain gathered at the border with Gaza in anticipation of a ground offensive the Israeli defense minister Joav Galan visiting the troops last night while the IAF continued to pound Hamas command centres and underground tunnels overnight and today we have had a barrage of rockets fired at the communities around the Gaza Strip. Well let me introduce my guest for you now Grisha Yekul Bolvage is the former head of the civilian department at Kolgat the Palestinian relations expert we're also joining the studio by our senior international affairs editor Owen Alterman. Grisha let's talk about Gaza then the first aid convoys rolling across the Egyptian controlled raffle crossing this morning tell us what is life in Gaza like right now two weeks after this war began well the life at the northern part of Gaza are empty because the IAF asked the people to evacuate and to divide Gaza and in the south life it looks like excellent I've seen pictures and videos from Gaza and there is electricity and there is water people go into the shops markets are open actually even better than in Israel so why people are mentioning even that there is a humanitarian crisis why are we all in panic so explain it to me then because there has been pressure on Israel of course saying they're using Israel of putting Gaza under siege saying that they've cut off the electricity they've cut off the water explain that to me in practical terms did Israel actually do that or not there are four crossings around the Gaza strip one in the north the Arab pedestrian crossing 17,000 Palestinian workers entered to work in Israel on a daily base since 2021 there is another crossing at the Triangle border between Gaza Egypt and Israel Kerem Shalom a thousand trucks a day that brought goods from Israel into Gaza back to back on both cases Hamas as the southern entity in Gaza attacks those goods making huge money into their pockets that eventually they invested in the tunnels and not at the people there are also two crossing between Gaza and Egypt that were open almost 24 seven so 65% of the goods entered to Gaza from Egypt and Hamas also attacks those goods and there is a natural border the Mediterranean with thousands of fishermen that used to enter and you know being at the Mediterranean 15 miles inside so do we control their electricity and water or not Israel supplied until October 8th 45% of the electricity and 12% were supplied to Gaza of water the rest of the water came from the aquifer yes they need electricity so they can clean the water when there is a well and you take the water from underground there is a compacted deceleration plant on the well so it's operated with electricity so you will be able to decelerate it because the salinity is very very high on the other hand Hamas could invest millions of dollars to build more deceleration plants in Gaza or to improve the power plant I want to focus on the situation right now because the accusation that's been leveled against Israel is that it has put Gaza under siege since October 7th it is cut off the water it is cut off the electricity and so that makes it necessary for a large aid convoy it's a political declarations of Israeli ministers to the Israeli audience okay now when we look at it on the ground we see that it's not only Israel that supplied those things to Gaza they were also able to provide it to themselves okay and it's there it's left they have thousands of generators they have solar panels okay they can operate it by the way I've seen just a video from Gaza from Gaza the northern part of the Gaza Strip of Shifa Hospital with a woman that is crying because somebody is dead my sympathies to her but it's with full electricity even the trees even the trees are also lightened okay alright well stay with us Quisha because I want to talk more about the diplomatic side of things we are hosting a major international summit today with leaders from across the region and indeed the world taking part Itzhak Levanon is the former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations in Egypt thank you for being with us it's like dozens of countries taking part today and when you have such a disparate coalition can anything really be achieved by holding these talks or are we just going to see calls for a ceasefire I think that those who are participating in this summit called the peace summit I think that each one has a different agenda when you speak to the Egyptians and more or less also with the Jordanians they are afraid of what they call the relocation of the Palestinian whether in Jordan or whether in Gaza when you talk to the president Mahmoud Abbas and the other leaders that are supporting the Palestinian narrative I am talking about the Palestinian authority narrative and when I am listening I see there is no change with this narrative we can not reach any political solution tell us then because you know Egypt how is Egypt a president SEC affected by the war in terms of its own security we've seen some very angry scenes and large protests on the streets of Egyptian cities in the last few days well knowing Egypt I think that if the president didn't want to have any demonstration in the streets he could stop it immediately by not giving any okay coming from the police but he did not he let the people you know to go into the street chanting against Israel etc and I think this is a mistake from his side for the long term but this is another issue the second point I see also that in Jordan the king is you know dealing with the situation in a very weak, hesitating way and this is again is not good we have to bear in mind and Israel you know is trying to do the best in giving the clear picture and I do agree with Colonel Gershon now what he says look the northern part of Gaza is the bastion of Hamas the leadership the terrorism the bunkers the killing everything in the south it is something completely different and what Israel is trying to do is calling the population go to the south be safe and let us finish the work with Hamas in the northern part if the leadership will not understand that Hamas is a terrorist organization and this is bad for Egypt and they are bad for Jordan and they are bad for all the Middle East I think that Israel will have to go forward and do the job alone Egypt and Israel are allies via a peace treaty and have been for many decades can this treaty survive this war between Israel and Hamas well in the past the peace treaty between Israel and Egypt survives all kind of turbulences in the Middle East I guess that this time also it will survive just you know for the simple reason really very simple and probably it is tribal but it is true of the Fatah Assisi himself the president has a long account with Hamas they killed his people during the Ramadan and he said I will never forget it so I think that the Fatah Assisi will not cry for a minute if Hamas will be you know decapitated or they will be vanished or they will disappear in order to bring a different kind of institutions or leadership or call it whenever you want in Gaza which will bring Egypt a kind of good neighborhood and stability All right, E-cycle Lebanon thank you very much indeed we appreciate it Well there have been rockets fired at the communities in Israel close to the border with Gaza this morning we can get the latest on the situation in the south now with our Jonathan Regev our defense correspondent he's with us now Jonathan a barrage of rockets fired this morning Yes to the communities around the Gaza border there have been two or three instances of rockets not very much it's not been very noisy here relatively speaking of course also earlier in the morning there were rockets fired towards the city of Ashdod further to the north but all in all it has not been very loud not on behalf of rockets flying from the Gaza towards Israel and we've not heard a lot of artillery Israeli artillery we do hear it here and then usually the pace picks up around the evening I suspect we'll see the same today And of course the defense minister was visiting the thousands of Israeli troops close to the border with Gaza last night tens of thousands I should say still no sign of that ground offensive Jonathan there are reports that international pressure is being put on Israel to hold back for now Yes and Hamas is doing very well in playing with that very strong card it has with his hands which is the hostages there's a constant call to try and do as much as possible in negotiations to free the hostages and yes Israel perhaps was ready to go in with ground forces last night but then came those images of the two hostages released we now know that there are up to 210 hostages in Gaza so a quite a strong card there for Hamas and they played very well as unfortunate as it is for me to say it Alright Jonathan thank you Jonathan Regev there close to the border with Gaza Grisha Yakovovich is with us security expert what are your thoughts then on the fact that Israel has not yet gone into Gaza these military considerations is their diplomatic pressure is it to do with the hostages and is there a risk in delaying too long there's the general picture the general events okay many things are happening in parallel let's not forget that the question is not if the ground attack will start the question is when and how I've said it almost on a daily base what Hamas are trying to do by releasing the two the mom and the daughter last night the mother daughter it's a hostage situation okay just just imagine that terrorists enter to a house with hostages and now somebody is negotiating and they ask for a cup of water they are supposed to release somebody they need to release somebody the same thing is happening but we are talking about probably by the way from what I understand it's not 210 it's close to 300 that's what I understand Hamas even don't know yet all the numbers the official number is 210 the official number is 210 to find is disappeared exactly so that's what I refer to so if we will continue like that and that will be the the way to move ahead it means it will take us a year because every day they will release two hostages or once a week so they will delay the only way what I'm saying is that what I'm saying and it will happen the only way to release the ones who were kidnapped is only by continuing the pressure continuing the attack and the ground attack do you think there is international pressure from Israel's allies on it to hold back? of course there is but they also understand that the only way to release them is by a huge pressure I just want to point out the IDF has said in the last few minutes that 550 rockets fired from Gaza have fallen short in the strip and this is pertinent isn't it Owen given what happened on Tuesday night when pretty much all of the world media went and said that Israel had hit a hospital in an airstrike and they were asked to walk that back very quickly we're now seeing retractions and corrections all around the world to some degree listen this has happened in past conflicts between Israel and the terrorists in Gaza that the rockets have not only been shot at Israel but have fallen in Gaza and have caused damage and injury and even death in Gaza which again is of a piece with what happened at that hospital in Gaza city so another example of how the actions by Hamas and in the case of the hospital by Islamic Jihad are harming the people of Gaza in this case rather directly and they're trying to do the same thing with the church close by two days ago right a Greek Orthodox church that has been said by those in Gaza as having been hit by an Israeli airstrike and there is a lot of evidence pointing to the contrary in one direction or another my hope is that because of these incidents and particularly the incident of a hospital or that it will cast justifiable doubt on all of the information coming out of the authorities of Gaza including the death toll by the way the hospital a U.S. congressman has confirmed that he lost family members in that in that strike so there certainly were civilian casualties at the hospital nobody's claiming that there wasn't I never claimed that either no I'm sure but I'm just pointing out that there were indeed civilian casualties the question is what's the incident we don't know what caused the incident when you hear that 550 rockets have misfired I think we know with a fair amount of confidence would cause the incident because the Israeli that presents I think a fairly compelling case I'm talking about the church I'm not talking about the hospital there is overwhelming evidence I don't think anyone is about the church there is a building near the church that collapsed okay not the church I'm not the place personally I've been there because the story was Israel dropped a bomb on a church killing everyone and by the way I will defer to people of deeper expertise in international law that a church or a place of worship is automatically off bounds if there are military targets within that building it may well be that it passes the test and becomes a legitimate target I don't know what the situation was with that church if it was hit if it wasn't hit what was inside it wasn't inside but Hamas is using buildings like schools and shelters more hospitals mosques and other possibly we don't know other places of worship as places to locate their assets for exactly this reason and it doesn't mean that there is an automatic bar on targeting these places if in fact they are military targets and targeting and passes all of the relevant tests under international humanitarian law Israel says that it is acting within the law international law in this war can we just talk for a moment about what happened in Cyprus sure I'm sorry we will get to Cyprus in a minute we're gonna go to the north of Israel the army is on high alert amid fears the Iranian backed terrorist group Hezbollah may seek to join the conflict our Robert Swift is there Robert series of escalations by Hezbollah yesterday IDF strikes across the border what's the situation now the situation now is quite quiet to be honest after the the intensity of the skirmishes here two days ago and also to a lesser extent that those launches of anti-tank weapons yesterday this morning seems quite quiet there has been reports of one rocket fire here on the border and we saw something that may have been some confirmation of that but for the time being it remains quite quiet if I just moved to the side you'll be able to see the Lebanese border behind me the darker hills on the far distance that is where Israeli territory and Lebanese territory meet and just to give you an idea of the situation of the residents of the villages here in the north of Israel we are standing about eight kilometers from the Lebanese border and the anti-tank weapons have been causing so much destruction here in the north most of them the standard ammunition that they are using have a range of about six kilometers so that gives you an idea that the communities here where we're standing are outside of the range of those weapons systems but there are other villages closer to the border and some of them have been evacuated the village that we're standing in has not officially had an evacuation order but I've been speaking to some of the local residents and one told me that he thinks about 30% of the population of the village have already left not due to any official directive but just because they don't feel safe here because although the anti-tank weapons are the main threat there's also rockets like we possibly just saw a short distance ago Hamas have been firing rockets from the south of Lebanon and Hezbollah definitely have the capability to fire similar weapons if they choose to do so and so the streets here are pretty quiet the one resident I spoke to he was doing repairs around the house he said because he was sort of getting ready to bed down in the family home other residents have decided not to take that chance and are deciding to move to other parts of the country if they have the means to do so and Rob we've just been talking about how there is potentially international pressure on Israel not to launch a grounding invasion into Gaza is there similar pressure on Israel not to preemptively strike Hezbollah and wipe out their missile capabilities there is it's just been reported in US media earlier today that there's pressure from the Israeli government sorry I should say from the US government on to the Israeli government not to launch any kind of preemptive strike previously we've heard previously we've heard reports backing this up so you can see that international pressure there Rob thank you thank you Robert Swift there he's at the north which is on high alert tens of thousands of citizens have had to leave their homes essentially the border area being turned also into a war zone let's talk about hostages of course the two American citizens the mother and daughter were freed last night why do you think Hamas decided to do this now two things one there are Americans so they want to show the United States the biggest supporter of state of Israel that the first one will be released will be American citizens like okay you also need to shift a little bit President Biden and also support us not only Israel number two something that for the first time I think we succeeded when we said Hamas is or even the worst ISIS and they want to show some humanity because ISIS of course never released any hostages people that they kidnapped so they wanted by the way I know that there was a debate I heard okay it's not that I know I heard a debate between the Gaza leadership Sinwar death and others between Hamas leadership from outside Hania and Mashal and others there was a pressure from the outside leaders to release those prisoners but you know they look at things differently because they are from the outside they are not actually underground under this huge pressure that Israel is pushing them so those are the two main reasons to show to gain support from the United States and to show themselves as human beings it will not help them we all know I agree with all of that and I obviously the hostage issue in general presents a serious moral dilemma for the Israeli public and for the Israeli leadership but we must I think and I think the public supports this must keep our eye on the all important main goal here which is to achieve the objective of the operation which is ending Hamas control over the Gaza Strip and we can't let anything stand in our way of that ultimate objective including the hostages I want to take a quick listen to the father of the American girl who was released last night let's take a listen I've been waiting for this moment for a long time for two weeks I haven't been sleeping for two weeks tonight I'm going to sleep good I spoke with my daughter earlier today she sounds very good she looks very good she was very happy to come home her mother has a little scratch on her hand but she told me it's nothing she's okay I spoke earlier with President Biden I thank him for his concern for his helping with the release of them and he was very very nice that's the father of Nathalie Ranan one of the American hostages who was released last night