Made For Me, a unique concept in Israel. Custom made men's fashion to your measurements. Made For Me, designer of all your events. Schedule your appointment at www.madeforme.co.il. Made For Me, official dresser of I-24 News. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome back. You're watching I-24 News. We're coming to you live from Tel Aviv on this day 23 of Israel's war with Hamas. And we begin with the latest developments in the north of Israel. A house in the town of Qiyyed Shmona was hit by a rocket around an hour ago. This was the result of fire in the home. No reports of any casualties, firefighters, and emergency services at the scene after that residential home was hit by a rocket which was fired from south Lebanon. Around 10 rockets fired from southern Lebanon believed to have been fired by Palestinian groups which are operating with the permission of Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed terrorist group which controls southern Lebanon. So there we have 10 rockets fired from south Lebanon today and we'll get more on the situation in the north a bit later on. But first, let's go to the south where, of course, Israel continues its campaign to destroy Hamas in Gaza. The IDF says some 450 targets, Hamas targets were destroyed today and there have been limited ground incursions over the past few nights as well. Our Mary McAuliffe is at the border. Mary, as you've been telling us, a lot of explosions, a lot of planes flying overhead. What is the latest this hour? That's right, Laura. It's been a very loud night here on the Israel Gaza border in the past couple of hours. This may be quieted down a little bit, but we do continue to hear routine strikes by the Israeli military who continue to operate in this area of the northwest part of the Gaza Strip. Hamas's Al-Qassam Brigade says that its fighters have been involved in active firefights with Israeli troops who are trying to push further south into the Gaza Strip. The IDF itself says that earlier today it battled a number of different Hamas gunmen who tried to emerge from a tunnel on the inside, so on the Gaza Strip side of a tunnel near the areas crossing and that Israeli forces responded with live fire and eliminated them. But we do continue, Hamas continues to say that its forces are operating to try and engage with Israeli forces in the area and we can certainly hear that noise overhead. We hear a number of Israeli airplanes, fighter jets, drones, even helicopters within the past couple of hours, as well as continuous Israeli mortar shelling into this area. We saw a number of different Israeli strikes on a position right over here in the past couple of hours and before that we'd seen a number of mortars that were flying from inside the Gaza Strip towards Israeli communities. It has been a couple of hours since we've had rocket sirens ringing out in southern Israeli communities. Of course, where we've seen a number of rockets sirens ringing out in Israeli communities, most of these areas, of course, have been evacuated. They're so near the Gaza border. We're just about a mile from where I'm standing. We're not seeing a lot of civilians around. We are just seeing a very heavy presence of the Israeli military. Okay, Mary, thank you very much. Mary McAuliffe is there at the border with Gaza with the very latest. And let me introduce my guest on the line with us. Ruth Wasserman Lander is a former MK and former Israeli diplomatic envoy to Egypt. Good evening to you, Ruth. And you're just sort of there, Richard Kemp. Colonel Richard Kemp is a former officer in the British Army. He served in Afghanistan. Thank you for being with us as well. Welcome to you both. And Richard, I'll start with you if I may. So it seems that the strategy of the IDF right now is to, after three weeks of airstrikes, they're going in bit by bit and they're conquering kind of incremental parts of the territory in northern Gaza. Parts of that territory now under IDF control. Yeah, and I think it's going to be quite a tough fight, although I'm sure that the IDF have destroyed a huge amount of Hamas infrastructure and fighters from the air, which obviously makes it easier. But nevertheless, it's going to be a tough fight for the IDF on the ground to clear away and destroy those people who have survived the IDF airstrikes from Hamas. Let's bring in Ruth. Ruth, welcome.  Tunnels to deal with. Who knows what military challenges. On top of that, you've got diplomatic pressure that no other country on earth has to deal with. You know, huge marches all around the world and calls for Israel to give up and impose a ceasefire. Israel is standing, is facing a huge challenge indeed. But something has happened on October 7th, Laura, that has, I think, makes Israel something in a status that has never been before. Israel will not be the same. Red lines have been crossed to a degree that I think the entire country is, in a sense, in a kind of a shock from the heinous crimes that were perpetrated. And we understand that if we do not deal in a very different way with this enemy, Israel cannot continue in the same manner that it has until now. Now, obviously, the enemy is, as you had said, rightly embedded in the Palestinian civilian population. Very ironically, very cynically, very inhumanely, they prevent some 250,000 civilians, Palestinian civilians from actually moving southwards as the IDF has requested in order to save them because they need them as human shields, which makes our task so much more difficult. But there is humanity amidst the IDF that will allow them to try as much as possible to take care to hurt the terrorists rather than civilian population. However, given the embedding of the Hamas in the civilian population, there will be more civilian lives lost. And this is a tragedy, but a tragedy that needs to be addressed by the terrorist organization. I dare say that we do not have an easy time, as you had also pointed out, on the international arena, but we simply have no choice. It's a matter of our existence, the welfare of our own citizens, not to mention the fact that there are 230 civilian hostages amongst them children and the elderly that are still held in captivity underground by these terrorists. All right, thank you. It's beyond me to understand how the world cannot see the terrorism in and within inherently in this act. And Richard, you've written a piece about this today in the British newspaper, The Sun, about how this is integral to Hamas' strategy. It wants as many civilians on its side as possible to be killed. Yeah, I mean, before I answer that, I'd like to agree with Ruth what she said about the fact that Israel has no choice in this. And those people who are calling on, including the United Nations General Assembly, calling on Israel for a ceasefire, effectively they're saying Israel should not defend itself, it should withdraw back into behind the border and let Hamas get on with what it's doing. That's what it's all about. Israel has no choice but to deal with this problem that it faces. And Hamas, people talk about human shields. I don't see them as human shields. I think they're human sacrifices by Hamas because Hamas' entire strategy is based on carrying out attacks against Israel, which in turn forces Israel to deal with the problem as they are now and knowing that if they do, Palestinian civilians will die. It's the only army, I wouldn't call Hamas an army, but in loose terms, it's the only army in history that has wanted its enemy to kill its own civilian population, the reason being so that it can see Israel delegitimized, vilified, isolated. And it works every time.  Disproportionate response. You've heard it all. I mean, we've all heard it all. And it's just nonsense either by people who don't understand warfare or who deliberately want to misrepresent Israel's position. And I wonder if you see any parallels with the war in Afghanistan and the international coalition there, particularly on the issue of aid. I mean, is it possible to deliver aid to civilians when there isn't a ceasefire in place? And was there a similar strategy by the Taliban to embed itself within civilians and make sure that there were civilian casualties? Or was it completely different? No, there were a lot of similarities between the way that the Taliban, Al Qaeda, Islamic State fought to the way that Hamas fight. In terms of delivering aid, I don't think it's very easy to get aid into these communities in Gaza when you recognize, as I certainly recognize, and most people do certainly in Israel, that Hamas will hijack as much of the aid as possible and use it for their own resources. So I think as long as it's controlled and limited, it is possible in some circumstances. And in terms of human shields, I don't remember that the Taliban or indeed the other terrorist groups that I was involved with fighting deliberately tried to get us to kill their civilian population. They did embed themselves in it, but I think that was more for their own protection because there wasn't really the same international campaign against the West fighting in Afghanistan as there is against Israel fighting in Gaza. So it wasn't quite the same, but there was, yes, human shields, lots of positioning of weapons and munitions, fighters and military facilities in schools, hospitals, mosques, just exactly like the Taliban, like Hamas are doing in Gaza. And Ruth, how can Israel operate when it has this level of diplomatic pressure on its shoulders? For now, Israel's allies, the United States, we know that President Biden will be speaking to Prime Minister Netanyahu tonight. For now, the United States is sticking firmly by Israel's side, the Europeans less so, but there is a window, that world sympathy will inevitably run out, won't it? Well, the thing is that we need to make evident to the world what is very, very clear to us. The instigation of these demonstrations throughout the world is as the entire roadmap of this so-called attack is run by the mastermind Iran. And it too is the one that stands behind instigating all those so-called spontaneous demonstrations throughout the world. And the pressure, of course, Qatar has a hand in that as well, funding a lot of the campuses and the universities that are giving a platform to this anti-Israeli rhetoric. I'm not saying that there are no spontaneous antagonism, but it is measured in ratio to the one that is instigated and incited by Iran and its co-workers. We need to make clear to the world that this is not a local squirmish. This is not a war between Israel and Gaza. This is an Iranian-led, instigated, funded, trained effort to undermine together with Iran other factors in the international arena undermine a different access, an access that we want to be a part of, including the UK and France and Italy and Germany and European powers. We need to open our eyes to what is really happening here and what is happening here has very little to do with Israel. We are talking about occupation, what occupation? Since 2005, there is no occupation of one single Israeli. In fact, we dug out the graves from Gaza and imported them back to the undisputed part of Israel. There is not one bone of anybody left in Gaza. There is no occupation. This is something that is very I would say orchestrated by a certain plant, by the way, meticulously planned, masterminded issue to undermine the Western world. And there are reasons for that. We can go into it, we don't have to go into it, but this is something that requires an international coalition, an international coalition by those countries that seek stability, that seek a sane world. And they include the European countries. We need to make them understand. Okay. Because it's just a matter of time until it happens there as well. And just quickly, Richard Kemp, I mean, do you think there is a kind of a weariness in Europe and possibly in the United States as well with the wars in the Middle East, the fight against ISIS, Daesh? They simply don't want to have to deal with this problem again. There's also a war weariness in Europe with what's going on in Ukraine, which has been on everybody's screens and grabbing everyone's attention for a long time. So yeah, I think that's right. And I think one thing we should be very aware of, all eyes are rightly now on what's happening here. But these demonstrations that we were talking about, these protests, they are terrorizing the Jewish communities in Europe and in the United States. And they're aimed, of course, to do that. The protests aren't particularly aimed at Israel. They're aimed at the Jewish diaspora in order to try and force them to remove their support from Israel because they recognize that the strongest support for Israel outside of Israel is the Jews in places like Europe and the United States. And that's what those protests and the Iranian orchestrated protest campaign that Ruth spoke about is all about. All right, thank you, Richard. We're gonna check in on what's been happening in the north. Our Pia Stechelback is there. Pia, the latest on that missile strike on a house in Kiryat Shmoner and the consequent rocket attacks as well. Right, Laura. The rocket attack in Kiryat Shmoner. We're talking about three rockets impacting different places in the city of Kiryat Shmoner. Lighting one, setting one house on fire that was void of its inhabitants as they apparently had evacuated the city earlier. Kiryat Shmoner is one of the latest cities that are a few kilometers away from the Lebanese border that have been evacuated really throughout over the course of the last week. After that, shortly after that strike in Kiryat Shmoner, which is located in the eastern Galilee region, about 10 rockets, this is what the Israeli army says, were launched towards the western Galilee region here, triggering alerts in several communities. Also here where we're at in the city of Narayano, military wing of Hamas in southern Lebanon, claiming responsibility for that attack, saying that in fact they launched 16 missiles, a barrage of 16 rockets towards northern Israel here and also one anti-plane missile that will be the second one in less than 24 hours here. And possibly that barrage of either 10 or 16 rockets being fired by Hamas into northern Israel is possibly the largest barrage of rockets that we've seen coming from southern Lebanon targeting targets here in northern Israel so far since the beginning of the war, Elora. All right, Pierre, thank you very much. Pierre Stackleback with all the very latest. From the north of Israel, which has been hit by a barrage of rockets in the last hour. Well, the United States sent warships and fighter aircraft to the region in a bid to deter Iranian-backed groups like Hezbollah from joining the conflict. The number of troops added to the region is in the thousands and US fighter jets launched airstrikes on two locations in eastern Syria Friday, locations that were linked to Iran's revolutionary guards. The Pentagon said that was retaliation for the drone and missile attacks against US bases and personnel in the region early last week. Well, for more, we're joined by Colonel Rich Altson, senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and geopolitical consultant at Dregerman, LRC. Thanks for being with us, Colonel Altson. Where is the US deploying troops? What is the purpose? And do you think that it is enough of a deterrent for the Iranian-backed groups like Hezbollah? Well, hi, Laura. It's good to be with you. The US, of course, has an extensive network of bases in the Gulf. We have also bases in some nearby country, Cyprus and elsewhere that are useful in any scenarios involving combat in the places where the Iranians have forces. We have some bases in Iraq and in Syria as well. And my understanding is that most of the forces that are being sent are being kept sort of at ready locations in sort of the European and Mediterranean theater. I'm not gonna look to see a large increase of the ground troops. We're not looking to fight a ground war. So it's more about the planes, the refueling and the munitions. There has been some increase in the number of US forces in Israel for advisory purposes as well. But the big question is less how many people are there and what are the rules of engagement? So the US has been very loathe to escalate even when there have been drone and artillery, mortar type attacks, rocket attacks on US bases in the recent weeks in Iraq and Syria. We've responded very modestly with some strikes on logistics bases and things like that. So at some point, I think the administration is gonna have to ask the question, is deterrence working? Iran is trying to ratchet up a regional conflict, not just in Israel's north, but against US presence more broadly in conjunction with its information operations. And I think perhaps a stronger strike, a stronger message is gonna be required from the US. Do you foresee a renewed engagement on the part of the US forces in the region? There have been some calls for the US to bolster its presence between Iraq and Syria as a means of containing Iran. Do you think that that will be an effective strategy? I don't think so, to be honest with you. I think there's some delicate politics involved with our presence in Iraq and we don't have the ability to simply unilaterally increase the number of troops. The Iraqi government has to say that we have some agreements with them. And all the troops we have both in Iraq and Syria are there both in terms of, in Baghdad's view, just to help with the fight against Islamic State, but more importantly in the eyes of the United States Congress. So any new deployment to either one of those countries that was not explicitly about Islamic State would require sort of a major political process. So I don't think big ground troops in those places is warranted, but I think there are other bases in Greece, in Southern NATO countries, probably not in Turkey at this point, given where Turkey's come down on the current conflict, but also in some Gulf countries. I think with the idea that we are purring further Iranian escalation rather than assisting efforts ongoing in Gaza. Now, Gaza's interesting, there's American hostages being held in Gaza. So while the US is trying to keep from seeing a massive escalation there, we absolutely are interested in Israel, both defending itself, but also helping to release Israeli hostages and American hostages being held in Gaza. So we're sort of conflict, party to that conflict as well. And just a word on Turkey, if you would. I mean, what did you make of President Erdogan's comments yesterday, a NATO member? And do you think that the sale of F-16s might be off the table now? Well, as you probably know, Laura, I think about Alliance Management as a core strategic tax task for the United States. And I've long felt that Israeli Turkish rapprochement was in the US interest and something that we should press for. And frankly, the comments this week make that a very difficult position to defend at the moment. So I think it's highly likely that the F-16 sale that was already slowed by many different considerations is off the table for now. Maybe not forever, but I don't see any progress on that while the current rhetoric is sustained. And frankly, I'm also concerned about the long-term convergence on regional political and economic matters that the two presidents and Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Erdogan have been very close to fulfilling. So for those of us who want that relationship to work, this has been a very hard week. And just a word, if you would, given your military expertise about your thoughts on the progress of Israel's goal to destroy Hamas so far, 23 days in, and what are the biggest challenges facing Israel? It's a massively complex thing. I think there's no intention that I've seen from Israel to reoccupy the Gaza Strip. So what you're talking about is an operation mostly from the air, but with a ground component to isolate Hamas leadership in Gaza City and to destroy as much as possible of the military infrastructure, the rocket locations, the warehouses, and of course, the tunnel network. To do that without killing a massive number of civilians, and I mean, to be fair, I am concerned about civilian casualties among the Palestinians. You hear many people in the West say it doesn't matter, Hamas brought this upon them. Look, the Tohar HaNeshik, as Israelis say, the purity of arms means that you still have to pay attention even when the other side has done outrageous things. So I think the biggest challenges now are doing this quickly before world opinion becomes further inflamed. Doing it effectively, which is to say most of the tunnel network and the leadership has to be removed. Coming up with some sort of political position on what follows, and doing that in a way that doesn't get your hostages and ours executed among complex. And I know that the Israeli planners and the top tier military forces are among the best in the world. I wish them luck in solving this riddle really. Thank you. We appreciate it. Colonel Richardson. Thank you. Ruth Westman Lander still with us, Ruth. The United States has proven itself to be a reliable ally in times of need for Israel. I think that very much we need to understand two things. One, that the United States has been unbelievable in its support and its value-oriented closeness to Israel in a time of need. And this is something that the Israeli leadership and the people will never forget. But over and above that, the value, the similarity in values and the tremendous and very warm friendship, there is an issue of also proving to the world that the United States is not receding or going back in terms of strength, in terms of its power in the region, in terms of its assets and I would say its presence in the Middle East and the Gulf region. And this is something that has been a little bit questioned in the past several years, particularly after leaving Syria, leaving Afghanistan. And there has been a kind of feeling amidst role players, significant role players in the region that perhaps the United States is becoming more insulated and leaving its impact in the region to other players. And this is something that the United States very recently did not like to be the message, not to leave the ground to other players such as China, Russia and so on. And at this moment, it is reinstating fully its position, its power and its status as the United States leader of the world order, which has been challenged profoundly by Iran, Turkey, Russia, China. Yeah, they're waiting to move in. If the US leaves the region, they're waiting in the weeks to move in, Richard. Yeah, I mean, I think that what this is really, this has obviously got Iran's hand behind it. There's no question about that in every respect. And equally, if Hizballar decides to launch an assault from the North more intensive than it has done so far, then that also has got Iran's hand behind it. And in some ways, this has backfired on Iran, I think, because Iran was encouraged in its plan by America's distancing itself from the region. And it's brought them straight back. Right, and distancing itself from the current Israeli government. And now we've got two carrier strike groups and going to serve what else in the region. Absolutely, the US is back. I think that's the message, isn't it, Richard? Thank you for now. We're going to take a short break. Stay with us. Draw story to the world. Come back, you're watching I-24 News. We're coming to you live from Tel Aviv on this day. 23 of Israel's war with Hamas. And there's been a direct hit on a residential home in the northern town of Kiryat Shmona tonight. A barrage of rockets fired from southern Lebanon by Palestinian groups operating in southern Lebanon. One of the homes was hit. No reports, thankfully, of any casualties, but a direct hit. They're causing a fire. Firefighters and emergency services very quickly at the scene. That town has been evacuated as have many other communities in the north of Israel. So, sirens blaring across the north tonight, as they were earlier in the day in central and southern Israel when rockets were fired from Gaza. And there have been a series of overnight raids by the IDF into Gaza. The IDF now controls small parts of northern Gaza. And we've seen clashes between IDF troops and Palestinian terrorists who burst out of a tunnel close to the areas crossing. Or the Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has apologized after he was roundly criticized for laying the blame on his own defense and intelligence chiefs for the October 7 attacks. US President Joe Biden is expected to speak with Benjamin Netanyahu by phone later tonight. Let me just remind you of who we have with us. This is our Colonel Richard Kemp, is a former commander in the British Army. He served in Afghanistan with me in the studio. Our senior correspondent Owen Alderman is back from that gathering with the families of the hostages in Tel Aviv. And we're joined as well now by Dr. Shani Moore. He's the director of research at United Nations Watch. Welcome to you as well. So Shani, I'll start with you if I can. I mean, this very critical time. You know, the Prime Minister, he put out a tweet last night. He blamed his security and defense team. He then deleted the tweet and he apologized for making that statement. At this, you know, very critical time. Are Israelis getting the reassurance they need from their leader? No, absolutely not. I think just nearly having to ask the question already answers it. The fact that the Prime Minister is awake had one in the morning, essentially drunk dialing his own public with all sorts of attempts to blame other people for his own problems, isn't very reassuring. It's not to say, by the way, that there isn't a lot of responsibility and blame that falls on the heads of the various security agencies. Obviously there is. And that's something that's going to be dealt with. Many of them have already made statements explicitly taking responsibility and implicitly informing about future resignations when this is up. But there's something very, very discerning about the way this Prime Minister and this whole government have handled this from the beginning. It's one thing to be in a state of shock in the first hours or day or two after such a horrible event. It's been three weeks and it seems that he and the ministers around him still haven't recovered from their initial shock, still don't understand what hit them, still don't understand the mistakes they made that led up to this, still don't understand what the situation demands of them and are focused at the most crucial hours in trying to improve their own images and prepare a case for a future commission of inquiry. Should he apologize? Should he resign? Apologize, he already has. If we're up to me, this entire government would resign. I don't think it's capable of handling the task at hand. We are in no situation right now to dissolve the Knesset and hold new options. That obviously is something that... But in this Knesset, there can surely be found 61 members to vote for a constructive no confidence and to establish an emergency government. And there are enough people in the Knesset, in many of the parties, to staff the main ministries and positions necessary for doing this. The people we have now, people whose entire political career is a series of media spectacles and games on social media who've never done anything, accomplished anything, including people, by the way, making big pronouncements on national security who never served a day in their life, often because of their own criminal records. And our fate is in their hands right now. Some of them have disappeared entirely. I don't recall, by the way, seeing Edith Silman at all in the last three weeks. Maybe she's out protecting our hospitals from the scourge of Chomets, of Leavenbread. I don't know. She's gone. I don't recall seeing Tsvistukot, who's not a minister, of course. Well, there is a Shani. There is a unity government in place now, isn't there, which includes Benny Gantz, former opposition leader. You've also got Yoav Galant, who is seasoned... It's not a unity government at all. It's the same, it's not a unity government at all. It's the same coalition of 64 with the declaration of Benny Gantz and Eisenkott. We're very important people who are probably among the only adults in the room right now. It's a shame that they didn't make more serious demands before joining the government. But I'll just give you an example of what we still have because it's important to pay attention. Obviously, you have some very professional people like the ones you named, like Galant, like Eisenkott, like Benny Gantz. The minister who is still in charge of the police among other security forces, the self-styled minister of national security is investing all of his energy in the last week and especially in the last 48 hours in trying to foment violence between Jews and Arabs inside of Israel. It's not because it's good for the war effort. Not because it's good for the war effort, but because it's important for him. And he is going out of his way, tweeting all sorts of scurrilous thing, engaging in all of his typical humiliation, domination fantasies with this Arab arrested for making noise with a motorcycle and that one for posting something on Facebook with rumors from his people associated with him about what's going on at the college in Netanyahu. So far, by the way, it needs to be said, neither the Jews nor the Arabs in Israel have heated this call and there hasn't been any violence, but not for lack of effort on his part. And if and when he succeeds in doing that, and we're not just talking about some random politician, we're talking about the person who has the police force at his disposal. If and when he succeeds in doing that, our war effort will be hampered possibly irrevocably. And so the fact that, you know, Benny Guns joined the government, as long as this man is still in charge of Israel police, as long as the major senator leader, Smotrić, is still in the treasury with his special office in the Ministry of Defense where he's diverting the funds.  What would be the process for removing them at this time? The process would be a constructive, a motion of constructive no confidence. That's what the Israeli law calls for. It requires 61 members of Knesset to not only express no confidence in the government, something that should be very easy to do because this government has failed in a way no previous government in Israel's history ever has, but also to appoint a new government that retains the confidence of at least 61 members of the House. That is absolutely impossible. It requires five righteous men in Sodom from the current coalition. That's it. It requires five people to say enough, not by the way to punish this Prime Minister or his government for their failures, but rather because they are not currently able to function and lead this war effort that is so crucially done. And if anybody had any doubts about that, opening Twitter at one in the morning last night should have absolved them of any of these doubts. All right, thank you, Shani. Stay with me, Shani. Okay, a very strong criticism to say the least of this government from Shani Moore. But do you think that it's possible? Do you think there could be a vote of no confidence in this government at this time when we're in the middle of a war?   Look, Benjamin Netanyahu has apologized. That is not a sentence that I think any of us imagined we would ever say. This is not someone who is known for apologizing. He apologized for the tweet. He apologized for the tweet. Not for his role in... No, you're right, but he apologized for the tweet and fulsomely apologized and personally apologized on Twitter the same medium he used to deliver it. So it is a full apology in that sense. And in this narrow sense, I want to emphasize this narrow sense, Benjamin Netanyahu is similar to Trump in the sense that they just don't apologize. So seeing this happen was really extraordinary on the part of Benjamin Netanyahu. But of course, the apology doesn't erase the episode, which is why we're still talking about it. And the episode still resonates in the public mind. What I think is going on strategically, whether consciously or subconsciously in Netanyahu's head, is he is trying to return the public agenda to his comfort zone, which is the eternal battle of you.  If you go between the, quote-unquote, Israel-Rishonah, the first Israel of secular Ashkenazi that long dominated the country's elite, on one hand, in the so-called second Israel of Mizrachi and Jews of Middle Eastern origin and religious groups within the society on the other. And that has been Netanyahu's paradigm over the course of his career. Through that clash, he's built his coalition, his political identity. And by taking aim at the security services, and if you read between the lines of course, that's code for Israel-Rishonah, the first Israel, the establishment, the elite, I think he's in a sense trying to move, excuse me, the political agenda back to there. So it's a peak in his wider political strategy. And there's a question of how his base will respond. Now, swing voters will respond. We don't know you, because he apologized. Do you think he is still making calculations based on his own political fortunes then?  But do you think he's still thinking about the day after when he can maintain his own political fortunes? At least thinking about the day after, clearly. I mean, this tweet went out, it went out in his name. So of course he's thinking about it. What the balance is between that and considerations of the war, I don't know. But one very, very important thing for all of us to understand, Netanyahu's interests and the public interest are largely aligned here, right? What is good for Netanyahu is a good result in the war. A result in the war that the public will be satisfied with, that helps him. And in that large sense, the interests are aligned. There may be a point in time. Once the victory, let's say, is 90% complete, when we might start to see some divergence. But we're far from that. But very, very quickly, Laura, I don't have time to get into it. Two other areas Netanyahu has to worry about. Number one, the response of Itamar Bendvir to this, where he, in this case, is not outside the mainstream. Unusual, he says, the problem is not whether you did or didn't get a warning from the security services, Mr. Netanyahu. The problem is your entire policy toward Hamas going back 15 years. The concept, as we say in Hebrew. And that is Netanyahu's larger problem. And this tweet and this spad doesn't go to that at all. And finally, what we just heard from Sean Imor, the government's performance since the war started, particularly on the civilian front, where there's a lot of discontent. So even if Netanyahu is correct in the narrow sense that this issue of intelligence about Hamas was the defense establishment's responsibility, and maybe in that narrow sense, I think we should all be open-minded that maybe that's the case. In the wider sense, there are these two other areas, huge areas, about his performance and his policy, where he just doesn't yet have a response. Dr. Shani Moore, come back in, if you would, if you'd like to respond to that. Sure, I absolutely agree that it was a false apology. I don't think the word false means what your correspondent thinks it does, and it's worth double-checking that. It's not the first time he's apologized for such a slip of the tongue. He apologized also after the 2015 election for saying that the Arabs were coming out in droves. But also, that was after the fact. And it didn't change much. It didn't erase the stain of what happened. In this case, I don't think that there's an alignment between the interests of the prime minister and the interests of the public at all. We can see that is in his behavior in the last three weeks. His interest is in preserving his job and preserving his immunity from... He wants to win the war. He wants to win the war, Shani. Once he's out of... Not me, once he needs politically, Lord. He needs to win the war. He's dealing with a minister in government, dealing with a minister in government who, while the war is going on, is trying to foment internal violence in Israel. He's dealing with ministers and government are sending their borderline militias to create all sorts of provocations in the West Bank, something which will only, A, inflame the situation, give us another front to fight on, and, B, eliminate the international support that we have right now. He's not in control of the situation. The amount of time that he is spending every single day on briefing reporters on background with dirt about the various security chiefs shows that this is a man and a government who are not equal to the task. By the way, a no-confidence vote in parliament is not unrealistic at all. There we are, only a few votes short, and I promise you that even within the Coalition of 64, there are at least today five men and women who are aware of just how unfit this government and this prime minister are for the very, very grave challenge that we face right now. Well, I just want to bring in, on the point you said about inflaming tensions in the West Bank, France in the last 15 minutes has condemned Israeli West Bank settler attacks on Palestinians. So that is something that clearly our allies are concerned about. And I just want to ask you, Dr. Sheny, what you're talking about, is that reflected in the polls? I think we saw a poll a week ago, 75%. I think of Israelis directly blame Netanyahu for the attacks. Do you see any change there at all? I don't have any better data than what you do. The polls like that don't matter until the election day. I don't think it's very... I don't think that we're going to be able to see the fundamental dynamic change. But again, we can't realistically hold an election in this condition of war. I want to add one other thing, by the way, to what was said earlier about the conceptia and everything. There's a lot of people who are getting a lot of mileage out of criticizing the reining concept that was governing our security and the whole misbegotten idea of maintaining Hamas rule and Gaza and all that. And tying it to the prime minister and to his own miscalculations. And all that's true, by the way. I mean, the criticism is right and the prime minister bears a lot of responsibility. But there's something also that's a bit dishonest when we're not saying why that was there.  It's not there because the prime minister was venal. It's not there because of one man's mistakes. The conceptia that we had, where we had to maintain the Hamas rule separately in Gaza, existed not for any Israeli strategic interests. It existed in order to maintain the settlement enterprise in the West Bank. We had no need of the separation between Gaza and the West Bank. No need to maintain the Hamas power in Gaza. No need to get into all these ceasefires. No need to bring all this Qatari money, except because we wanted, we, that is the right-wing coalition that's been in power for most of the last 15 years, wanted to be able to maintain the status quo in the West Bank. The other side to that is that the Palestinians elected Hamas themselves in 2006. And also there had been firm nose from all office of peace, including of course, Echel Dahlman's generous offer in 2008. By all means, I'm well aware of that and have written about that a lot. But the Palestinians didn't elect the situation of the two separate governments. That happened in the aftermath of the Hamas coup. What happened since 2007 was, first, the international community for a completely different set of calculations put the quartet conditions, which basically froze into place the separate government. That was actually for the opposite reasons of why Israel wanted to maintain that after 2009. That was because the Europeans and the Americans misguidedly thought that by maintaining a separation between the two territories, they were earning an artificially moderate West Bank regime in Abu Mazen, who could negotiate a more peace agreement with Israel. But as you said, even Abu Mazen, the supposed moderate, was never going to negotiate a serious peace agreement with Israel. That was an illusion. But that wasn't the reason why from 2009, Israel signed on to the exact same policy. In fact, Israel's reasons for going on with what the international community pushed on Israel from 2007 were for the opposite reasons. They were in order to maintain the status quo in the West Bank. What terrified the right wing coalition in power since 2009 was not the prospect of a final status agreement. That obviously was very difficult to do and not going to happen. What terrified them was having to make even the initial steps in the roadmap. What terrified them was having to even, for example, deal with the illegal outposts that Israel had committed to in the roadmap taking down. What terrified them was that they would be in a situation where they might have to carry out another disengagement. And again, I would also point out that it was Mahmoud Abbas in 2014 who refused to engage with Israel at all when Israel offered to resume negotiations under President Obama. Owen. Absolutely. I'm not to know that at all. Wait a second, Shani. One moment, please. Shani, one minute. One moment, Shani, one minute. Shani, one moment, one moment. Look, there certainly is something to the point that there were people who wanted to distinguish between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority in order to discredit the Palestinian Authority. I'm not saying there were people like that. But this conceptia about how to face Hamas was occupied by a much larger part of the Israeli political spectrum, including many professionals who were not in it for the settlement movement. It was there because people wanted to postpone the day of reckoning because people understood what it would mean to go on to a full-scale worth. Hamas, we're seeing that in front of our very eyes. And people believed that by postponing it and by managing the conflict, to transfer that phrase into the Gaza arena that it could be postponed and in a sense dissipated over time through some other scenario intervening. That was the reigning assumption. It proved to, of course, be a complete failure. Was it also a bad decision in retrospect? It may be a more complicated question. What I'm saying is that Netanyahu, I think, may be more vulnerable on this question than he is on the question of what exactly the security chiefs did or didn't tell him and what he did or didn't know. Because at that level, Netanyahu may be right in the narrow sense that that's the responsibility of defense chiefs. But in terms of setting over a public policy toward Hamas, that's the role of a prime minister. And for the vast, vast, vast majority of this period, that prime minister was Benjamin Netanyahu. The terrorist attack in Israel's history happened on his watch. There is no escaping. Not only his watch, but in his watch after Laura, he had been prime minister for the vast majority of the years. All right, okay. Shalima, very briefly, if you want to respond. There were, I mean, besides the political failures, which I think we touched on, but not enough, there are some enormous tactical and intelligence failures here. There's absolutely no way of denying that. And there is no way that either Sahal or the Shabak or anyone else escapes responsibility for these failures. But the policy failure that was here, we have to be honest about what it was. The policy failure emanated from the desire to maintain the status quo in the West Bank. Full stop, I can say this as somebody who was there. Not only did the policy failure regarding Hamas and the Qatari money emanate from that, but also the nine months that we have wasted on an extremely divisive and totally counterproductive judicial reform with all of the hatred that that's brought out in the Israeli public was also by and large a reform in quotes, of course, a constitutional initiative whose main purpose was to preserve the legal framework that allows for the settlement of price to live. We have been hostage of this political camp represent on a good day, maybe four or 5% for at least 15 years now. And they've all disappeared. Find me in your studio where I can see Tsvisukot or Edith Silman or anybody having anything interesting to say. And you know what else? Find me in any of the way among all the stories of among all these heroes who were rescuing people and fighting the Hamas on the 7th of October. I've seen Kibbutznikim. I've seen all the soldiers that they've been insulting for the last year. I've seen all the pilots. Well, I would say that Israelis. I would say that Israelis across the political divide have been affected by these terrible terrorist attacks. And I would say that the country is mobilized and does seem more united than ever before in its bid to defeat Hamas. Dr. Shani. We have an army that has been providing escort services for a bunch of idolaters to go to a shake's tomb that they gave a Hebrew name to. Rather than protecting our border, protecting our border for thousands of families who were left alone to be massacred. So, all right, just let me, okay. From the Kibbutznikim, who's...     We have to get other voices in here as well. Look, as I said before, the concept about Hamas occupied a much larger part of the political spectrum, included professionals, and it was about postponing the day of reckoning. And we see the reason why the day of reckoning had been wanted to be postponed. The question is, was it also wrong prospectively? Of course it's wrong, given what we know now. Was it also wrong prospectively? And just for the record, there were people within the Israeli right, Avi Dichter and others who, Yuval Steinitz and others who long ago talked about the idea of Israel needing to reoccupy Gaza for exactly the reasons we're seeing in front of us. Yesterday that he also tried to tell the Prime Minister, we're gonna have to leave it there, Shani. We appreciate it. Thank you very much for joining us, Dr. Shani Moore. Thank you. All right. Okay, well, it's almost a bit of nostalgia to get back to talking about Israeli politics. It seems like such a long time ago that we talked about. But these are big questions that are gonna have to be addressed. You know, we run Kaplan Street tonight, Laura. Right. 10th of the missing families. Do you believe that Kaplan Street, which we knew for something very, very different up until a month ago? Yeah, okay. And of course the whole country is very much united and it's been to defeat Hamas and get the 230 hostages back home. Kind of a recap. Let's move on from the politics. Let's talk about the military progress. Here we are 23 days. And given your military expertise and your background, how would you say the campaign is going so far? Well, I'm very happy to say that I don't know too much about it because the idea of obviously maintained something of a blackout and quite rightly because the last thing that people like me need to know or any of the media need to know is what's going on in that campaign. But certainly I'm pretty sure from what I understand the air campaign has been very, very effective against Hamas. The ground operations, which are moving forward now, I think are also from what we do know are destroying a lot of Hamas targets on the ground as well. But I think it's going to be quite a lengthy battle. And the thing we sort of touched on earlier on about what happens afterwards and I think one of your guests said the idea are not going to stay in Gaza. I think that's not the case. I think the high likelihood is once that they've, hopefully they will defeat Hamas there. And once they've done that, I think they're going to be stuck inside Gaza, securing Gaza for a very long period of time. How long that is, I don't know. But I think the idea will be back in Gaza. Well, that was one of the criticisms of the International Coalition going into Iraq and Afghanistan, that there was no plan for the day after. Israel perhaps taking lessons from that. Yeah, well, I think that I don't know how much of a plan there is. I'm sure that plan's been cobbled together as the war goes forward. It's very hard to do anything concrete at this stage. But to me, it's very difficult to see, even if you eliminate the whole of the terrorist organization inside Gaza now, that doesn't mean it's not going to come back in some way or form. And therefore, you've got to have a security presence. And no one, except for the IDF, is going to provide that security presence inside Gaza to protect Israel from the repeat of what we saw three weeks ago, or indeed the firing of rockets. So I think, at least in the medium term, we're going to see Israel there running, not necessarily governing, but certainly maintaining the security of the Gaza Strip. Oh, and we're going to have President Biden on the phone to Prime Minister Netanyahu shortly. What do you think will be the message conveyed? Humanitarian aid. And that's been the American message going back weeks, right, Laura? Again, we now have more water going into Gaza. We can easily guess why that's happening. It's coming, obviously, we would imagine, from Washington. And the idea of more trucks being able to cross the border, those reports over the course of the last day. Loyal viewers know my position on this. It was never realistic for Israel to have a policy of denying food, water, and medicines, and the narrow sense of fuel for hospitals into the Gaza Strip was never realistic, even putting aside ethical and legal debates and questions. We're seeing it before our very eyes, Israel's needing to do it. I think to Israel's detriment, having its feet dragged in the process. Yeah, and of course, Egypt, which controls the Rafah crossing, has made it clear it will not accept any Ghazan refugees. So that's not Israel's responsibility. Yeah, very much on Israel then to work with the international authorities to allow aid in. There is mounting international pressure on Israel, of course, to agree to a ceasefire, and of course, facing a tough military objective as well in defeating Hamas. Colonel Richard Kemp, thank you very much to you. Owen, thanks to you as well. We'll be taking a short break, but when we come back, we'll keep you updated with all the latest, including, of course, the latest from the north, where barrage rockets was fired, hitting a house in Kiryat-Shmolna. Thankfully, no casualties reported as yet. We'll keep you updated with what's going on in the north, in the south, and across the country as well. Do stay with us. You're watching I-21 News. Good night. Officially in a state of war. This is a very active scene, and we need to get in the car as we're talking. Within 100 soldiers and civilians have been kidnapped. Help us, we don't want to do... 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. Sir, test-gill? Yes, very good. How do you admit it, Carl? I'm a self-anitone. This is a big hello-ah. Hello-ah. Yeah, I'm a self-anitone. Welcome to this special broadcast on I-24 News. I'm Khaled bin David. It is day 23 of Israel's war against Hamas. The IDF is expanding its ground operations in the north of Gaza as the conflict enters what Israeli security officials call a second stage of the battle. Israeli soldiers are engaging in gun battles with Hamas terrorists there, as rockets continue to be fired into the south and center of the country. In the north, missile launches being fired at an increased pace from across the Lebanon border as the IDF strikes a terrorist cell there preparing to fire an anti-tank missile. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu under political fire as he takes down and apologizes for a tweet blaming security chiefs for failing to anticipate the October 7th attack. Pressure on Netanyahu also coming from the families of the 230 confirmed hostages being held by Hamas demanding action for their release. Pressure from the White House as well, calling for more humanitarian aid to Gaza's civilians as Israel increases the water supply going into the strip. President Biden speaking with Netanyahu this evening, reportedly extending US support for Israel's ground operations but urging it to take greater care between civilians and terrorists. Well, last night, Prime Minister Netanyahu said that eliminating Hamas from the face of the earth while freeing 230 hostages being held in Gaza are compatible, even complimentary goals. But increasingly, voices in the public are questioning if they can both be done at the same time or asking if maybe one objective should come before the other. Senior Defense Correspondent Jonathan Regev breaks down a huge dilemma for the Israeli leadership. Two different objectives, perhaps contradicting each other but both absolutely crucial for Israeli success in this war. Our forces are currently operating on the ground in the Gaza Strip. The objectives of the war require a ground operation and as we know, no victory can come without a price. There's no doubt that a ground operation is needed but the price this time can be very high, maybe too high. At least 230 hostages are held in Gaza. Their families are going through a living hell and are extremely concerned that the ground maneuver which began on a small scale on Friday night may lead to an even more dangerous situation. We are very worried about our dearest that they are there and we don't know that if the all military operation take all these hostages under consideration. Along with the ground operation, the first signal from Hamas leader Ichya Sinwar came over the weekend. Sinwar, a former prisoner himself who was released in an exchange, is well aware of the sensitive sentiment in Israeli society regarding hostages. He now set the tone all for all. All Israeli hostages for all Palestinian prisoners, his message already echoing in Israel. From the point of view of the families, a deal for the immediate release of family members within the framework of all for all is a consideration and will have broad national support. The man who has to decide about that is Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the one who set the precedent of more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for one Israeli soldier in the 2011 deal freeing Gila Chalit. In a meeting with hostages' families on Saturday night, he promised to do everything to release them. We will do everything possible to bring them home. It was true before and after any ground invasion. It's an integral part of our operation. And I'm sure they can do it. Israeli ground forces raising the Israeli flags deep inside the Gaza Strip and promising to defeat Hamas on one hand, 230 hostages lying deep in the Gaza underground tunnels waiting to be released on the other. Can Israel succeed on both missions? Clearly, a very tough question. Let's jump down to still road on the Gaza border. Our correspondent, Mary McCauliffe, and Mary we understand there are sirens going off in that area. That's right. A moment ago sirens ringing out here. We're standing very near the Israel Gaza border and we saw a number of rockets that were fired from parts of the northern Gaza Strip or at least crossing over the northern Gaza Strip. At the same time, mortar shells also being fired by the Israeli military in departs of the northern Gaza Strip. It's been a very heavy evening here inside Gaza. There's been a number of different clashes we've been following in the time that we've been here. The Israeli military says that it's been striking a number of different targets. We have a number of reports of airstrikes happening inside the Gaza Strip, mostly concentrated in that northern part of the Strip, which Israel has of course been asking civilians to evacuate as urgently as possible and also parts in central Gaza Strip. We have reports from an airstrike just minutes ago that caused a large number of casualties that we're taking to the El Shifa hospital complex. We are continuing to monitor the situation, but this is the first time we've had rockets in this area really for a couple of hours. But what we have seen is really, really heavy Israeli strikes into the area, using a variety of different means from mortar and artillery fire to Israeli airstrikes ahead. We've also seen strike helicopters operating inside the area. So we do know that Israeli operation continues to be ongoing. Hamas's Al-Qassam Brigades is saying that they are actively fighting with firefights on the ground with Israeli troops who are trying to push further south into Gaza Strip. Right, and we have seen in the past couple of nights, Mary, this sort of heavy bombardment by Israeli forces sort of setting the stage for some kind of ground operation in Gaza pushing, it seems ever deeper into the Strip. Absolutely, that's what we continue to hear from Israeli forces who say their tanks are still on the ground, their troops are still on the ground, continuing to try and clear the area of the northern Gaza Strip, trying to clear out any Hamas terrorist militants who are in the area, as well as also trying to target some key Hamas infrastructure that's in the northern part of the Strip. We know most of the area has been concentrated, most of the forces concentrated in that northern part, but we of course have seen many airstrikes throughout various parts of the Gaza Strip, reports of numerous casualties and injuries caused by these strikes. We don't have exact details or numbers who are coming out yet, but we do know that earlier today there was also an incident at the Ares Crossing, the IDF said that there were a number of Hamas gunmen who tried to come into and perhaps try and infiltrate, but through the Ares Crossing, they exited a tunnel that was on the inside part of the Gaza Strip, but it is also where Israeli forces are operating and they responded heavily with fire, and we saw for many hours, continued to hear them searching the area, dropping these light bombs, which dropped very slowly into the air, but just released a lot of light, so clearly apparent that the IDF is still trying to make sure that there are no more gunmen, no more terrorists in this area, in the area that they're operating. All right, Mary McAuliffe down in Steroot, take care down there, Mary, are seeing of course, those sirens been going off there. If it's in studio, I've seen a diplomatic correspondent, Robert Altman and Danny Eilon, former Israeli ambassador to the US, former Israeli deputy foreign minister, and Ambassador Eilon, thanks for joining us again. It does seem as if we are on the second stage of this ground operation, not what we thought, not a big push, but it seems definitely there is some kind of progress being made slow, but perhaps steady. And that Kalev corresponds very well with this intimate cooperation consultation that we have with the Americans. I think we have discussed it before, how the Americans are pretty much are in the war room, are in the war cabinet, whether physically when Biden was here or Blinken, but they are always in close cooperation. And they advised us more than once, don't go in all out, start with small incursions, kind of to degrade, degrade the Hamas capabilities. The Americans have this experience, which is not for too long, just two decades, in Fallujah and in Mosul in Iraq. And it took them nine months to mop up and clear Fallujah. So they are bringing to bear here all their operational experience and they're trying to, actually on the one hand, keep the idea from casualties and also to minimize civilians. This is the main care of Biden right now because he's under extreme pressure from his Democratic Party. And so it's a big game here, which has to be played very well, very judiciously. And I think so far, the IDF has proven itself to be not only a discipline and a great army as it has been, but also very professionally and working according to a very methodical doctrine. All right, but let's be clear there, nine months for the U.S. fighting a... No, it won't take nine months here. Half a world away as opposed to home and all kinds of pressures, as you said, the U.S. and international pressures and all in the pressure from the families of those hostages in Gaza. More and more speaking out about this and more and more demanding that the government takes some action more quickly to either rescue them or to work out some kind of deal. Yeah, absolutely. The families cover doing all they can and their supporters. But before we get to the families, important breaking news, I think I have to bring to your attention and to our viewers' attention. Out of Dagestan in the North Caucasus, it's part of Russia, just north of Azerbaijan, a Muslim-majority region, reports and video coming out of the airport there, a plane has just landed from Tel Aviv, of mobs going into the airport trying to murder Jews. Oh, okay. What I just said is not an exaggeration, by the way. Why? I've seen it. From what we have seen and from the best we understand, a lot of questions surrounding this, to what extent is incitement in Russian media related. I think we can get to the commentary later first to establish the facts. Sure. But I think if there are, in fact, mobs going through an airport, as we speak, wanting to murder Jews, not by the way, there's no veneer of Zionists here. They're saying the word Jews. I think we simply have to pause and make mention of that. Of course. Well, we're gonna get to that. And a little man, we'll mention the Israeli government did summon in the Russian ambassador to Israel today concerned out of the rhetoric coming out of Moscow feeding that. We'll get back to that, Owen. But let's go back to that. Let's get back to the hostages. And the hostages' families. You're right, Kalev. The lobbies of the families are doing everything they can to help their loved ones organized well and quickly and doing what they can to lobby in Israel and abroad. Of course, there are two different paths to freeing the hostages. One is through some kind of exchange, some kind of deal. We saw the leader of Hamas, one of the leaders of Hamas, Yahya Sinwar come out and say, he wants in everyone for everyone deal, right? That he will free all of the 230 or more hostages being held in Gaza in exchanges or will simply empty the prisons of Palestinian security prisoners. By the way, Kalev, that would presumably include Israel emptying the prisons of those people involved in the October 7th massacre, right? So they would be freed. One can imagine this is a difficult price for Israel to pay. I would say pretty hard if not a possible pill to swallow. And in any event, the government for now saying they're taking a different tack, that what the idea is, is to put pressure on Hamas through winning the war, through going in on the ground, through hitting targets, through weakening Hamas and thereby putting pressure on Hamas to release the hostages in some other way. And perhaps, of course, hopefully, we're hoping for this, for special operations forces to go in and to rescue these hostages themselves. At any rate, just a few hours ago, I was at the family's tent on Kaplan Street across from the Israeli military headquarters. They're there and you can take a look at this report that we filed and the people we spoke to. Let's take a look. They come here day in and day out. Representatives of the families of the 230 hostages being held by Hamas and others in Gaza. Here in central Tel Aviv, just across the street from the Israeli military headquarters, here to make their voices heard to the military leadership, to the political leadership, we spoke with some of the family members earlier. Here's what they had to say about their trying hour. We come here to convince our government and the world that something needs to be done. They need to be released. You can't leave them there and wait for something to happen. Something must be done. This is our message. We come and say to the government, do something. To the countries of the world, help us because we cannot do it alone. But it's not only the representatives of the families themselves. It's also the activists and the supporters who have come out here to be with them, including a bereaved mother who herself lost a son in battle in Gaza in 2014, but who felt compelled to come here and also support the cause of bringing those hostages home. We asked her about how she felt about the possibility of a prisoner deal with all of the risks that that involves for Israel. Here's what she had to say. We have no way to release them except to give up the security prisoners who are here. I think that the state of Israel knows how to deal with our enemies even after we release them. There is no price for an Israeli soldier, even if it means giving them all of our prisoners. It's not the best way, but it's the only way to free them. There is no other way. The issue of the hostages remains high in the Israeli public agenda. Just on this Sunday afternoon, family members met with Israeli President Isaac Herzog and also with Defense Minister Yoav Galant. After his meeting with the families, Defense Minister Galant came out and reiterated the government's strategy that the best way to bring the hostages home is to move forward full speed with the ground campaign into Gaza and thereby putting pressure on Hamas for Hamas to then feel it needs to return the hostages, saying that reports of potential deals over the hostages are simply psychological warfare being used by Hamas to divide the Israeli public. At any rate, for the family members coming out here, day in, day out, it's such a difficult waiting game. And the irony, we're standing next to Kaplan Street, where just until about a month ago, this part of Tel Aviv was known as the central venue for protests against the government's proposed judicial overhaul. How Israel's public agenda has changed. We'll get back to the hostages in a minute first. We're gonna jump to the north of Israel and our correspondent P.S. Dekobach and P.O. also in the north. It does seem an intensification of fire across that northern border. Certainly more rockets seem to be coming across and Israel also stepping up its response. Right, Kalev, the northern front is continuously heating up. Today we had a couple of barrages of rockets here in the north, one in the east, targeting the area of Kiryat Shmona and the latest one targeting the western Upper Galilee area, also here in Naar-e-Aria. We had a siren earlier on. That barrage that was fired from Southern Lebanon towards the western Galilee region, towards that region we're at here right now, Hamas claimed responsibility. The Qatai Qassam, the Lebanese wing of Hamas in Southern Lebanon fired, as it said, 16 rockets. The Israeli military speaking about 10 rockets being fired here, which is possibly the biggest barrage of rockets we've seen so far coming from Southern Lebanon towards Israel. They were all intercepted or fell into open areas, so no reports of damages or casualties here. But early on another barrage of rockets, of six rockets, that was what was said by the Israeli military, was fired towards the city of Kiryat Shmona on the eastern part of the Israel-Lebanon border. They're targeting, directly impacting one house. The rocket lit that house on fire. It was void of its residence as the city of Kiryat Shmona has been evacuated throughout the last week. They're only about five kilometers away from the Lebanese border. One of those many communities that have been evacuated from its citizens. Earlier on the late afternoon hours, the city of Rojpina was targeted as well. We are talking about a city that is about 30 kilometers away from the Lebanese border. There is a city that is just above the sea of Galilee. So you definitely see that not only does the rocket the rocket fire intensify, but also the distances that they reach do intensify here. Hezbollah claiming responsibility for the rocket fire onto Kiryat Shmona there. As you see, really the scumishes do still intensify that coming also after the Iranian president, Ibrahim Raisi, saying today on X-Family Twitter that Israel has been crossing a red line, forcing others to intervene here. This is also what has been coming from Hezbollah and from the Iranian regime since basically the beginning of the war that Israel's operation in Gaza will decide about whether this will actually turn into a full-on full-scale front, the northern front, that has been high tensions. The tensions have been high here since basically the beginning of the war. But Kalev, you definitely do see that the fire here coming from Lebanon intensifies. We're not only talking about rockets, we're also talking about motor shells. Motor shells targeting a military base close to Avivim earlier this afternoon there too. Israel, as per protocol, is targeting the origin of any kind of fire in southern Lebanon there, striking from there and also with artillery here from the ground as we've seen really throughout the last three weeks since the beginning of the war here. But we do see that especially the rocket fire here has been intensifying here, especially this evening, Kalev. It certainly has. And it looks like that decision to evacuate those communities in the border area was not an overreaction. As we see some of them, you mentioned Kiryat Shmoner getting a direct hit on a dwelling there today. P.S. Dekobach in the north, thank you for that. Gentlemen, things heating up on both fronts, it seems certainly, but also on the home front. And that's what I wanna ask you about, Danny, because the government under pressure from the hostage families making their voices heard. And maybe one clear sign of it. I, frankly, was surprised to hear last night, I believe it was the Defense Ministry of Ghana who even said that Israel is weighing all possible resolutions of, I thought of the Prime Minister, actually. Okay, we are getting some. I just wanted to say we are getting more reports of red alerts in the south of the country. So clearly that is as well. But even the Prime Minister discussing this idea of an all for all deal, which is Israel, the Hamas releases 230, let's say, confirmed hostages. And Israel releases thousands of terrorists, something that I think for a lot, many sounds almost unthinkable. Well, we have to remember, Hamas is the most cynical, brutal, Nazi type, ISIS type organization, manipulating and using the car that they have of the hostages to try to actually drive a wedge inside Israeli society and drive a wedge between the Israeli government and the people. Because, of course, the hearts, all the hearts go to the families and everybody wants to bring the hostages back home. But we have to understand here, this is a cool and calculated game. This is not a game where you can really use emotions. I mean, emotions, of course, you cannot deny that if God forbid someone has a loved one over there, of course he will do everything.  But if a country, when you're a leader, you have to think very, very straight. And here, the truth of the matter is, and this is, I think, what the government lacked in communication to the hostages. And I think maybe now they're trying kind of to pedal back is that in order to get the hostages back or as many as possible of them safe, you have to put the military pressure on Hamas. There's no negotiations. And that's exactly a yes today. And this is the only way to get them out because I do not believe a word Sinwar or any of his people say, well, let's get, let's make a deal. Let's stop. Let's do a ceasefire. My first negotiation. First ceasefire, then we'll start negotiations. It's a hoax. Only continued pressure will have a chance for the release of the hostages. And here, I believe that as cruel as the ISIS type Hamas Nazis are, they have really hot potato on their hands because at least 40% of the hostages have dual citizenship. So they're talking about citizens of the United States of France, of Germany, of Russia and others. So I think they will be very, very careful not to hurt them. Right. But of course, they could be potentially harm's way through the ground operation. What was the sense you got there at that rally speaking to these families? I mean, clearly some of them already want to see this deal done, maybe others being a little more circumspect, understanding the difficulties or even the unlikeliness at the time, being a likelihood of that. What's the sense you got? Well, first of all, very well organized, as the Families Forum has been since day one. And with the supporters also there and the setup across the street from the defense headquarters. And as we've said before, Kalev, along the street then just until a month ago was known for the protests against the judicial overhaul. So obviously a fair amount of irony or coincidence there. I do think in terms of the overall situation, I want to play devil's advocate a bit. Reading into what Prime Minister Netanyahu said last night, I don't think he's seriously considering the all for all deal for all of the reasons that we talked about. I think he was trying to talk around it, to talk it down, and to try to put the focus more on the first objective of the war, of winning the war, than on the second objective of freeing the hostages. Of course, that's something everybody wants to see, Kalev. And again, the government being very, very clear, including Defense Minister Joav Galant earlier today after his meeting with representatives of the family saying the best chance to free the hostages is through the ground offensive, right? So again, the government going all in on this idea that we are not stopping to negotiate. The negotiations are a psychological tactic, psychological terrorism on the part of Hamas. There's nothing to all of these reports in cuttery media and Egyptian media about any kind of progress. We are going full speed ahead with the ground campaign. We see that at the end of the day as the priority, and we're going to try to get the hostages freed in that route. One final note, Kalev, the emotions at the tent are unmistakable. The sympathy in Israel and around the world for the cause of the hostages is unmitigated. But you don't see a huge protest movement developing on behalf of the hostages. You don't see protests of tens of thousands of people in the streets. Maybe it's unrealistic to expect that during a war anyway. And maybe that's not really the metric to go by. But I do wonder whether Israeli society has had different perspective on this than it did, for example, in the years leading up to the, let's be honest, disastrous deal to free Gilad Shalit. Well, I think that shadow is hanging over this clearly. Yes, clearly. Gentlemen, I want to move on a little bit because as noted, Prime Minister Netanyahu, under pressure on a lot of fronts, backtracked after he refused last night to take responsibility for what happened on October 7th. And later even tweeted a message that he was told by the security services that no such attack from Gaza was imminent. Well, after a furious reaction from both politicians and publics, Netanyahu offered up a rare apology tweeting, I was wrong. Things I said following the press conference should not have been said, and I apologize for that. I give full packing to all the heads of the security arms. I'm strengthening the Chief of Staff and the commanders and soldiers of the IDF, who are at the front and fighting for the House. Together we will win. Daniel, apology from Benjamin Netanyahu, as I said, fairly rare, clearly on the T-feels, he made a serious mistake last night. I don't recall any apology from him in the, well, 30 so years that he's in politics. We had a guest who had won after the 2015 elections when he said the Arabs are going to the polls and droves after the elections. So there's one, so there's one. Okay, but okay, maybe one, fine. But I think he realized he made a mistake. I think that he's losing it. I mean, his finesse as a politician is really also degraded with the war. I think he has not come out of the shock that happened to him because he is actually the father of the concept. And the concept was Hamas is deterred. You have him on record after every operation, whether it was in 2014 and 2009. You have it on record where he says Hamas is deterred, Hamas has suffered a blow that he'd never experienced before and so on and so forth. So he cannot deny that and he cannot escape. There will be a commission of inquiry and there is no escape to put the blame on him. Okay, well, gentlemen, stay with us. We are going out for a brief break, but stay with us. We'll be back in about three minutes with more on this special broadcast on my 24 News. Israel is at war. Make an investment in Israel bonds. It is the most powerful and direct way to stand with Israel. Visit israelbonds.com and invest now. Made For Me, a unique concept in Israel. Custom made men's fashion to your measurements. Made For Me, designer of all your events. Schedule your appointment at www.madeforme.co.il. Made For Me, official dresser of I-24 News. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. 1,300 people murdered and more than 3,000 injured and the war with Hamas continues. We bring you first-hand testimonies from the front lines, from those who survived and all the records of the atrocities by Hamas. Follow us as Israel fights terror from the south and north. Get the inside scoop on what's going on. Only on I-24 News. From scratch, and the way that it works is it generates this random body that kind of looks like a sponge and it evaluates its behavior. Seeing and we need to get in the car as we're talking. More than 100 soldiers and civilians have been kidnapped. Tell us we don't want to do it. We just don't know anything. Entire families, including babies and children and elderly were butchered in their beds. Awaken the giant and we are ready and we are strong. Everyone is showing up. This is the unity. Welcome back to this special broadcast on I-24 News. We want to just go to a developing story out of southern Russia, the republic or province of Dagestan, which is in the Caucasus regions. You're looking at life, that's not life, the footage they taped earlier. That's the airport in Dagestan where crowds of locals busted in the airport because there was a flight leaving from Dagestan to Tel Aviv scheduled there for this evening earlier, earlier. And so the crowds broke in. There have been some incidents of recent, just this week in the past couple of days of crowds in Dagestan going from hotel to hotel and rumors of trying to find Jews or Israelis in those hotels. Again, this is a primarily Muslim region of Russia. Oh, and what do we know about what has happened here in Dagestan? Again, reports still coming through. Collab, the facts are still developing. We should all be cautious. But from the best that we can gather, there were some Russian security forces who at least tried to get to the airport to control the situation. And also reports, including in Israeli media that the flight has been diverted to a different airport presumably to try to get the passengers away from this crowd. But obviously an incredibly distressing situation. And again, I want to emphasize to people around the world there's no veneer of Zionists here. They're after Jews. Right. And as you said, Collab, it's true this is an autonomous republic. This is a part of the world where broadly speaking there have been security issues of course over the course of the number of decades. But this is part of Vladimir Putin's country. Right. And he's responsible for the security of people in his country. And if there is a mob going into an airport that is wanting to murder Jews, that's happening in Vladimir Putin's country. Right. Dagestan, you could say it's similar to Chechnya or the same area. It's the same region as Chechnya. Has the same religious makeup more or less. And this is what, and as I said before, we've seen this building of the past couple of days reported incidents there. And in fact, as I mentioned, the Israel's foreign ministry did summon in the Russian ambassador earlier today. And Vladimir Putin's rhetoric in terms of the Hamas and hosting members of Hamas in Moscow just in the past week has certainly created an atmosphere there that Israel sees as Putin as, I just want to say, developing, tolerating, maybe even encouraging. Well, Collab, I think all of us have to understand there is a world war going on. Different manifestations. The manifestation is not as, you know, it was so blatant like World War II. But there are flesh points. One is the Ukraine, one is in Gaza, one is in the Gulf. Iran is involved, Russia is involved. China very much is involved with a financial backup. And Russia is on the wrong side of history again, vis-a-vis the Jews and vis-a-vis Israel. We have here two camps. One is the coalition led by the United States, NATO country, Western countries, Israel. And on the other hand, we have Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, and of course all the proxies on the ground, the terror organizations. Russia is really the perpetrator of anti-Semitism more than any other country. We have to remember always that this collusion, this lies about the protocols of the elder of Zion, came out of Russia. During the Tsar, you know, even before the Soviet, you know, there were Tsar agents who concocted that. We can never, ever rely on Russia. So if there was any thinking here when the war in Ukraine broke out that we should be tiptoeing, I think today is clear that we should be much more, much more supportive of the Ukraine and actually... Vladimir, and we should say President Zelensky has been quite supportive of Israel in the past three weeks. Absolutely, because he understands what's going on. And Israel, because of some kind of fixation that we need to keep the Russians, let's say, at bay on our northern border in Syria, you know, we had to be very, very much careful with the Russians. I can tell you today, forget about the morality, forget about the strategic thinking of the future that we must be with our values and with our friends, not only because of morality, because of our very, very existential interests. On top of that, if you look at the downside, what can the Russians today do to us? They cannot...  Well, I can tell you what they can do to Jews, which we see happening in Dagestan this evening, which was they can encourage something. And you have to go back to Zora's Russian pogroms, which were spontaneous eruptions of anti-Semitism against Jews. But as we know, it was something the regime encouraged, allowed to happen for its own reasons. And unfortunately, we don't have the full picture yet. Something like this seems to be happening in Dagestan, at least. But I think today the policy should be very clear. Just, you know, there are 20,000 Jews in Iran. Still, we blame Iran for being the worst country in the world, and they hold them responsible for the Jews over there. And the Jews over there are quite safe. Actually, they use them as propaganda. Have you heard that the Jews of Iran just two days ago had some kind of a manifestation supporting the Palestinians? With Russia, it's the same. There are 800,000 Jews or so, I don't know, some say less, some say more, depending how you count. Let's say between 200,000 and 800,000, we should hold the Russian responsible for their own, they're their own citizens. Okay, well, I'm sure we'll be coming back to this story.  I see in the last 15 minutes Zikim Sirens also going off in Niarim, so the South continuing. It seems to come under fire. That's absolutely right. Kolev, we're here. It's just very near the Israel Gaza border. A couple miles away from it, from here, there just moments ago there were rockets again, overhead, Iron Dome intercepting those. But here we continue to also see inside the Gaza Strip. We're looking here at the northwestern part of the Gaza Strip where we continue to see continuous Israeli airstrikes just moments before I begin speaking to you. Once again, seeing those flares coming from the Israeli side into the Gaza Strip. We've heard Israeli attack helicopters overhead throughout the night as well as just a number of Israeli planes overhead continuing to operate both doing surveillance as well as those strikes on the ground. So it does continue to absolutely be a very heavy area here in southern Israel. Of course, we should note though that most of these communities we're talking about where we've heard probably over 20 rocket sirens throughout the day today. Most of these communities have at this point been evacuated. So we haven't received any reports of injuries or casualties on the Israeli side. Now that we have internet partially restored to Gaza, we are hearing reports about some of the injuries and casualties that have been coming up from Israeli strikes throughout the evening. All right. Mary McAuliffe, still with us? Okay, Mary. Yes, I'm still here. Okay, good, Mary. What are you hearing in terms of like an Israeli military activity in the immediate area? Just shortly in the last hour. Absolutely. We continue to hear this heavy presence. We continue to see a very heavy Israeli presence just moments ago before speaking to you of large group of Israeli soldiers just in the area telling people to evacuate from this area saying there is a heavy fear that there could be a strike or rocket fall here trying to clear this area and to remind people that this continues to be a very active war zone throughout this area in the South. We just see many, many different Israeli forces, troops, tanks, heavy machinery, artillery that are being fired into the Gaza Strip from where we were earlier in the day on the other side of the Gaza Board inside Israel. But we could hear on the other side Israeli tanks operating in the near distance. We know also they were trying to have this incident with infiltrators or possible infiltrators as really troops were responding using every method at their disposal to try and make sure that infiltration was put out. So we heard heavy machine gun fire helicopters attacking from the sky as well as airstrikes and light flares to try and illuminate the area to make sure that they can see exactly what's going on as forces continue to try and push further south into the Gaza Strip. All right, Mali, Nicole, if they're in stereo, thank you for that. Now even before the Israel Hamas war there were serious concerns for the Jews of Europe amid a surge of anti-Semitism. But of course since October 7th a bad situation has gotten dramatically worse. Massive pro-Palestinian rallies degenerating into pro-Hamas rhetoric and anti-Israel and anti-Semitic and victim have been seen across the continent from London to Paris to Rome and many other places. A synagogue torched in Berlin. Jewish schools shut down in Amsterdam over safety concerns. And as we've been reporting in Russia's largely Dagestan region Lynch mob's raiding hotels looking for Jews and Israelis and this evening an attack on the airport in Dagestan where a flight was looking to evacuate some of the Jews from that area to Tel Aviv. Joining us in studio is Dr. Ariel Muzakant president of the European Jewish Congress. Dr. Muzakant, thank you for joining us. First of all I have to tell you what's happening in Dagestan at this moment in the airport is it sounds almost like a program. Absolutely. And I'm afraid it's not going to be the end of the story. We are facing difficult times in Europe but we are fighting back. We will not let that happen. Like the Israelis we are supposed to protect our Jewish people. There's about one and a half million Jews left in Europe today. And one of the main scopes is to protect them and to call on the European governments to do the same. But the situation is serious. Let's put it this way. Well certainly in some countries are more reliable those governments than the others. Certainly in Russia it would appear perhaps in some ways are encouraging these attacks. But let's talk about this. How has the European community? How have the governments been responding? It's very different. I'm Austrian so not only has Austria taken a very, very good stand defending Israel at the United Nations and in other places. But also just to tell you that I'm here now with the delegation of Jewish presidents from seven countries. But I have also three members of Austrian parliament here who came here to show solidarity with the state of Israel and its people. So you have countries like Austria where it's great and then you have other countries like Ireland let's say or Spain where it's a catastrophe where anti-Jewish, anti-Israeli mood is really terrible. So you have a very big difference in the different communities but you also have a very large Muslim community for example in France, Germany and Sweden or the UK and there the manifestations on the streets are kill the Jews. Right so how have the governments been responding to that in some elements of the Muslim community we do see in some countries for example in France taking a tough line. How about in some of the other countries? It's been very, very tough from the governments. UK France, Italy, Austria Germany we'll see where it goes at the moment the governments have taken a lot of precautions and a lot of steps to push this type of extremism down but nevertheless parents are thinking should they send the kids to Jewish schools or should they stay at home people are afraid. What about Israel what should Israel be perhaps looking to do or help or contribute or avoid doing in these circumstances? First of all we are here to support Israel. Our mission here is solidarity with the state of Israel and its people. Number one why we came here we said now is the time to come and now is to show the Israeli people that the European jury is standing 100% behind Israel in this war. That's number one. Number two I think that Israel can call on all these countries in Europe to do the duties to protect their citizen. There shouldn't be a difference between a Jewish and a non-Jewish citizen to be protected and be able to have a normal life in Paris, Berlin or Vienna and if that's not happening then Israel ambassadors and Israel Foreign Ministry has to call on their colleagues in Europe and tell them to do their job and it's happening and we cannot complain right now. I just want to bring up the answer of the passages being held in Gaza because many of them are European citizens. We are going to see the families tomorrow and try to discuss with them what we can do and it is strange that when so many European countries have voted for this resolution or abstain where were they concerning their own hostages just because they are Jewish nobody seems to they are calling for humanitarian passages why are they not calling that before anything else they should free the hostages the civilian hostages at least if not all but again you see how the double standards go in the world and Europe is not better than any other place 125 countries I think more or less have voted for this Jordanian resolution and Hamas wasn't even mentioned or abstained or playing their games including friends including friends so look again we are together and alone and that's why we have to come to Israel to express this position we are together and alone and if we don't help each other nobody else will help us hopefully the Americans but if you look at this vote I think it's a catastrophe certainly the events that we've been discussing this evening show us that this war extends the battle beyond Israel's borders especially if you know that there's 20 million Muslims living today in Europe most of them coming from North Africa Turkey or now refugees from Syria so these are people who have been drinking the anti-Semitism with the mother milk we're talking about a strain within that community or extremists within that community if you look at the figures where the anti-Semitism comes from the most right now in Europe it's from these type of the population as you said because they've been fed this steady stream of insight I don't say that all Muslims are anti-Semites I'm saying that the percentage within the Muslim community is two or three or four times higher what about the non-Muslim citizens of Europe I would say it's not really going up it is steady and it's bad but it's not something which would make me be afraid don't forget from the Muslim side there's also the issue of violence the anti-Semitism from the right and from the extreme left I wouldn't say all but the majority is non-violent the anti-Semitism from the other group can become violent Dr. Ariel Moussaquian president of the European Jewish Congress thank you for joining us we're going to go now to the IDF spokesperson we're at Moldaniel Hagar the ground operation in Gaza continues ground forces have operated in Gaza and took down many terrorists among the dozens taken down tactical commanders those are the ones commanding the forces on the ground next to the in addition to the ground operations we're continuing with massive airstrikes to secure the ground forces and also to take down Hamas terror infrastructure and terror targets we continue to expand the operation gradually according to the plans in order to achieve the goals the ground operation is complicated and includes risks we will do everything by air sea and ground in order to ensure the safety of our forces over the past several weeks we have proven Hamas uses the residents of the Gaza Strip cynically and executes crimes against humanity by using facilities like hospitals schools and other institutes the Gaza population speaks about the fact that Sinwar no longer cares Sinwar has brought a disaster on them he has lost control and he is the person that is responsible for the situation in Gaza he acts as a killer that has shown the entire world that Hamas is worse than ISIS when it has executed the murderous massacre on 7 October and has kidnapped over 200 Israelis to the Strip including elderly and children we will chase Yahya Sinwar until we get to him over the past two weeks we call on the residents of the northern part of the Gaza Strip and the Gaza city to evacuate temporarily Southwards is for their own safety this is an urgent call we stress south of the Gaza river there are the conditions that would enable you to get medicine, food and water go south in the north during the day a number of launches were executed from Lebanon into Israel IDF troops responded with fire towards the sources of fire targeting Hezbollah infrastructure we also took down three squads of terrorists that attempted to fire towards IDF troops we killed terrorists on the fence that attempted to enter our territory we will continue to kill all the terrorists on the fence and will not allow entrance into Israeli territory this evening rockets were fired towards Kirachmuna and the northern Galilee the IDF returned fire we continue with our defense in the northern border we are in high redness in the north any attempt to fire and any aggressive operation against us will be met with a crushing blow in the home front command the instructions continue to be updated every day it is important to listen to the recommendations these save lives the behavior of our civilians is perfect and this is how we would enable to maintain routine so far we have given notices to the families of 311 fallen IDF soldiers and 239 kidnapped this is 239 kidnapped among them are civilians who are foreign workers who have been killed their identity and reaching their families is complicated for us it is difficult to build that picture and therefore the number that I have mentioned 239 we continue with efforts to collect information and update the families all the time the number of missing continues to go down and is now 40 I wish to address the families of the missing that the uncertainty is very difficult we will not stop until we understand what happened to your loved ones questions please increased Hezbollah operations in the north what are the red lines the rocket fire today towards Kiryat Shmona we intercepted most of it most of it except for hitting open areas this was claimed by the Hamas for us the control over Lebanon is the responsibility of the Lebanese government and the Hezbollah group it is the group that decided to be the defender of Hamas ISIS so we target those who fired at us and also we target the Hezbollah group also at this time a question about the troops we just heard IDS spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Higari give his nightly briefing there was some important new information he delivered the number of confirmed hostages being held in Gaza is 239 239 and it indicates that some of these additions it was 230 were perhaps foreign workers in Israel and he explained it is somewhat difficult for Israel to even reach their families and perhaps to understand that these people are missing that they haven't contacted anyone so 239 now in Gaza among them foreign workers in Israel he said the number of unaccounted four is now 40 that has dropped the number of people still unaccounted for could be either being held in Gaza or their remains could be not identified or not even located yet we've seen this happening I do want to go back to this developing story out of Russia the southern republican region of Dagestan and Muslim region which has seen some outbreak of anti-Semitic incidents in the past couple of days a major one tonight a crowd storming an airport because of a televieve oh and what's the latest that we heard from here the latest is that the airport has been closed to traffic the authorities are trying to get control over the situation reports in at least Russian telegram groups that there's an investigation being opened more to the point the mob was able to get onto the runway trying to get onto the plane which is parked there the passengers have been told not to get off the plane for obvious reasons with great caution amid all the fog the intense reading between the lines is that the authorities seem to start to be getting control over this but the incident isn't fully over it seems the people will be okay just barely but Clev, it's not over it's not over and certainly this is really disturbing pogrom is the only word that could be describing what went on there in Russia and Danny we're coming to the end of this hour of the broadcast we're talking about Admiral Higari again the number of hostages confirmed hostages going up among them foreign workers presumably from Asian nations as well as there are many here and this issue of the hostages is now going to again just increasingly way over both the government and the IDF as it conducts these as you said before sort of cautious but steady moves into Gaza yes and you know further complication is that we do not know how many of them are in the hands of Islamic jihad I mean we know that some of them were taken hostage by the jihadist and also by some families you know Hamulot some private Gazans you could imagine them extorting Hamas they were not getting you our hostage criminal gangs that operate within Gaza is almost kind of subdivisions subunits within the Gaza Strait this goes again to show that the military and by the way to give a fair analysis with the military they waited and the Israeli government they waited until Friday two days ago before they started the ground operation in the attempt to really understand whether there are any chances of negotiations with Hamas and they realized there were not hence you know we have to continue with that and hopefully hopefully as we mentioned that Hamas out of very cool and calculated interest will not there heriting this civilian hostages because of the ramification in the worldwide community and this is a crime against humanity a war crime which is of course part of the problem with even thinking about a deal at this time since we're even talking about as you mentioned hostage and law for all deal would even include some of the people that committed these crimes against humanity's war crimes on October 7th itself so a huge dilemma for the government and a challenge for the IDF and a challenge in burden for Israeli society which is going to be tested in the, this is being tested now but maybe even more so in the coming days. Ambassador Danny Elon thank you for joining us Owen Altman I'm going to ask you to stay with us we are going to move to the second hour of the broadcast we will go out for a brief break of about three minutes back at the top of the hour with more of our special coverage on I-24 news of Israel's war against Hamas stay with us big questions answered at the Edmund and the Lisafar Center in Jerusalem questions like what makes us human how come that my brain is so sophisticated what makes it so sophisticated is it only the number of the cells we have more thousand times more than the cell or is there something else in the brain that is beyond the big numbers my answer is certainly yes some people feel that there is something else maybe mystical thing you know that it's not only the material but there is something else that comes to the complicated machine makes us human I don't think so it's a machine a wonderful wonderful machine so if this is a machine in principle I should be able to replicate it Don Segev has spent his life mapping out the brain's base unit the NORR when you have a mathematical formulation of a biological phenomena you build a machine that replicates the mathematics and the mathematics represent the biology so we merge biology with technology through a mathematical understanding if you want a complex machine to be able to do complex things like multiple tasks and general artificial intelligence then you will need for sure more complex architectures that exist today what professor Segev is doing at ELSEC is building that new architecture or at least the code for it machines that transcend the limits of hardware this other machine will be very much like us it will feel it will work it will be intelligent it will be our friend 1,300 people murdered and more than 3,000 injured and the war with Hamas continues we bring you first hand testimonies from the front lines from those who survived and all the records of the atrocities by Hamas follow us as Israel fights terror from the south and north get the inside scoop on what's going on only on i24 news back to this special broadcast on i24 news it is day 23 of Israel's war against Hamas the IDF is expanding its ground operations in the north of Gaza as the conflict enters what Israeli security officials call a second stage of the battle Israeli soldiers are engaging now in gun battles with Hamas terrorists there as rockets continue to be fired into the south and center of the country and the north missile will increase pace from across the Lebanon border as the IDF strikes a terror cell there preparing to fire an anti-tank missile Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu under political fire after he takes down and apologizes for a tweet blaming security chiefs for failing to anticipate the October 7th attack pressure on Netanyahu also coming from the families of the 230 confirmed hostages being held by Hamas demanding action for their release also coming from the White House today as well calling for more humanitarian aid to Gaza's civilians as Israel does increase the water supply that is going into the strip President Biden speaking with Netanyahu this evening reportedly extending your support for Israel's ground operation but also urging it to take greater care in distinguishing between civilians and terrorists well for more let's go down south to our Mary McAuliffe who was by the border at Mary sirens continue to go off in areas and communities in that that Gaza border region that's absolutely right Clef throughout the day we've had a number of sirens going out in these border communities area beginning at 6 a.m. over 20 times that they have been fired throughout the day it's important though to remember that these are areas that have for the most part been evacuated we do not have any reports of injuries or casualties from throughout the day but we continue to hear the rocket sirens going off and sending all those who remain here in the area into shelters as well as the forces in the area but we continue to hear very heavy Israeli military infrastructure in the area a lot of movements by troops, tanks, buses you can see these big trucks that are driving by we're all repositioning in the area of course the big story coming out today is heavy heavy battles gun battles between those with the IDF said were those who came out of terror tunnels inside the Gaza strip so Hamas terrorists who are apparently trying to infiltrate or trying to attack Israeli forces so inside the air is crossing on the Gaza side they said that they eliminated all of those gunmen but we're hearing from Palestinian sources inside the Gaza strip is that they continue to hear gunfights ongoing continue to hear Hamas's al-Qasambe gates that they're actively engaged in firefights they're actively engaged and also using heavy weapons to try and target these heavy Israeli vehicles so it's very much ongoing all the meanwhile we continue to have a large number of Israeli airstrikes inside the Gaza strip and Israeli tanks continuing to be on the move as Israeli forces continue to try and push further south into the Gaza strip to marry me a call-off down there and still road on the right near the Gaza border thank you for that Mary well we're joined in studio by Rafael Jusami a former senior intelligence officer for the IDF and the security analyst now and of course our senior card diplomatic correspondent Owen Altman and Owen we've been following a disturbing story of what has to be called the pogrom crowds of residents in Dagestan that's a region of Russia in the south largely in the Caucasus in region like Chechnya largely Muslim we've seen in the past couple of days some disturbing incidents of anti-Semitism and now crowds attacking an airport the airport there because of a flight that an incoming flight from Tel Aviv that landed at that airport they broke into the airport rampaging looking for Jews they've been clips going out to kill Jews we've seen clips of a child saying I'm coming here to kill Jews tonight Jews what are we hearing what's the update on that well the latest look a security services seem to be on the ground from Russian telegram accounts and trying to control the crowd in a sense letting the crowd Kalev chant anti-Semitic slogans in an effort to in a sense negotiate with them to let them chant but not let them get close to the passengers interestingly enough the Israeli government still scrambling to at least get statements out but the Israeli National Security Council putting out a statement with an interesting interesting fact as best they understand it that there are actually no Jews or Israelis on the plane so all of this to try to kill Jews no Jews on the plane but of course it doesn't attract from the absolute seriousness of the incident there are Jews living in Dagestan but the idea is of course to get them out of this going on so again security services seem to be there on the ground trying to control this mob as best we understand it the passengers are still on the plane they've been told not to get off the plane for obvious reasons but you have to understand Kalev this mob was able to get not only onto the runway but into the plane looking into the plane's engines trying to go everywhere they could to try to find the Jews to kill so an incredibly distressing event that I think will ricochet for the coming hours in the coming days before you go I just there is a comment on Twitter from President Volodymyr Zelensky about this incident this evening he says appalling videos from I believe the name of the city in Dagestan Mahachkala Russia when angry mob broke in the airport searching for Israeli citizens on the flight from Tel Aviv he says it's not an isolated incident but part of Russia's widespread culture of hatred toward other nations which is propagated by state television pundits and authorities I also talking about Russian Foreign Minister has made a series of anti-Semitic remarks in the last year Volodymyr Zelensky commenting right now blaming this incident this pogrom attempted lynching in Dagestan squarely on the Russian government right well of course Russia's ultimately responsible this is Russian territory this is the country which President Vladimir Putin is the leader so let's be very clear about that okay on the other hand look they're obviously two strains here right one strain is this is a majority Muslim area in a part of Russia that has known its security issues over the course of decades so it's not coming from the tradition of Russian anti-Semitism per se in terms of what's motivating them but there may and is being positive interaction between that and the message in the messaging coming from Russian media and from the Russian government it's going to we're going to have to try to untangle those strands of course that's going to happen in the days to come after an incident is distressing as this one a different updated shade of that tradition you might say Raphael I just wanted to add that the national security council is weighing the possibility of sending rescue planes after a call from the chief rabbi of Dagestan there are 400 Jewish families living there they are now of course threatened I think the Russian government will help us coordinate this action if it takes place meaning planes evacuating to Israel or evacuating from Dagestan maybe in some other part of Russia but this would be an evacuation to Israel would be an evacuation to another part of Russia this will have to see with the Russian authorities what they agree to do and what planes are going to be used Israeli planes or Russian planes but there is this call from the chief rabbi of Dagestan and just a warning that 400 families are in absolute immediate danger of being attacked by these crowds and the Jewish community there goes back centuries right connected with the mountain Jews that we know of or Kavkazim is in Israel from across the border and Azerbaijan a lot of Jewish communities live for centuries in many places and then all of a sudden of course of course all right but we'll have to follow this developing story throughout the program I want to go back now to the situation in Israel earlier today excuse me in the past half hour we had a nightly briefing by the rear Admiral Daniel Higari the IDF spokesman he did have some news the number of confirmed hostages now rising to 239 that was increase of I believe nine over the previous day also he explaining perhaps the delay in confirming the hostages there is that he said some of them are foreign workers and it may be it is a challenge for Israel to get in touch with their families some of these coming from countries in Asia the Philippines or Thailand the number of unaccounted going to 40 and Rafael you're an old intelligence hand this is a challenge in terms of intelligence for even the IDF to even know who's being held there nevermind for example where they might be and what their condition is of course and also there's an extra problem is that not all of the hostages are at the hands of the Hamas yes we don't know exactly but I would say a rough 80% are at the hands of the Hamas the majority of the rest would be at the hands of the Islamic jihad a few more would be at the hands of autonomous terrorist factions affiliated to Al-Qaeda or ISIS and even a few might be at the hands of private citizens those people who joined the invaders the terrorists that invaded the south of Israel that went into the villages in Kibbutzim and massacred people there were some people from the northern fringe of Gaza city who just joined in the party and they killed and raped citizens of Israel but apparently some of them might have also taken hostages so the Hamas doesn't control all of them it's very difficult to establish a list now the problem is the former chief of the Mossad Yoseko and said you can absolutely wage the war the battle and take care of the hostage situation we are not in a vicious circle that we cannot do anything because if we strike then we are going to lose the hostages it's the country it might even be that striking very hard and very urgently could frighten or terrify the Hamas in such a way that they would bargain some of the hostages I think it's going further saying if the idea does not put this pressure on Hamas it will not even consider especially that so far the diplomatic channels and the negotiations haven't led to anything apart from false rumors the Hamas is letting us know that they want all the prisoners back it was called a psychological fog you know that they're doing really it's my personal opinion but it's shared but quite a few in the security establishment the Hamas will keep these hostages they don't want to exchange them for anything because they are the life insurance of Mr. Sinoir and all the high commanders of the Hamas it's their last run part of defense would the IDF like the spokesman of the IDF now promised reach the high command of the Hamas their last defense is the hostages and they say please give us free passage to Egypt spare us and we get your hostages so for sure I would say between 40 and 50 hostages will not be exchanged ever and because they are the life insurance of these leaders some of them might be exchanged like we had four exchange for what for playing for time right it was a cynical expectation of these hostages like to delay the ground offensive playing for time telling the Americans look look we are getting somewhere this is finished the offensive has started it could be could it be for more fuel that they need diesel could it be for human internet who knows what they are going to ask for but this cannot be the bargaining chip we have to say everybody on nobody you cannot now have a bargain of liberating this that or the other the Russian I think will be liberated because Mr. Putin is going to put so much pressure on the Hamas that they are going to liberate the Russians the double nationality so really the good strategy should be to refuse the cynical I call it is the selection we are back to the Nazi Germany you are selecting hostages according to the nationality if they have this nationality selected if they have blue eyes or not blue eyes it's not possible we are now exchanging Jews for trucks that's also the Nazi regime I just want to go now to the north of the country in our correspondent Pia Stakobach because Pia also in the north a real intensification I think during this day of that fire being exchanged across the Lebanese border right Kalev the Israeli Air Force is and has been striking targets the evening that comes after barrages of rockets were fired towards different areas alongside the border with Lebanon here into northern Israel beginning in the early evening hours with the city of Rojpina a town about 30 kilometers away from the Lebanese border there siren sounded in Rojpina and several other communities there one rocket fell into open area one was intercepted then it continued with rockets towards the area of Kiryat Shmone a city about 5 kilometers away from the Lebanese border in the eastern part of the Galilee region a city that had just been evacuated throughout last week and that really shows you how important these precocious measures are because one rocket one of six that were launched from southern Lebanon as well impacted a house setting it on fire a house that was empty as residents had evacuated before there are three rockets impacted in the city one as I said let that house on fire are there Hezbollah claiming responsibility for that barrage of rockets and then also in the evening hours another barrage of rockets west and Galilee region here also we had a siren here a barrage of the idea of saying 10 rockets Hamas later claimed responsibility saying 16 rockets being fired here towards the western Galilee region in really an intensity that we have I believe not seen here at the northern front so far different barrages of rockets there coming from Hezbollah and from the Hamas military wing in southern Lebanon there that comes after also Ibrahim Raisi the Iranian president has voiced his opinion on Twitter now acts today saying that Israel is crossing red lines in what it's doing in Gaza today provoking the intense entry of other factions of forcing others to enter and this is what we've been here really throughout this war from both Hezbollah and also Iranian forces that they're closely watching what Israel is doing in Gaza and decide whether they will full-scale escalate the situation here on the northern border Israel also the Israeli military saying that they have targeted several cells in southern Lebanon trying to launch anti-tank missiles throughout the day what we've been seeing here throughout the past two weeks is basically infiltration attempts often coming from Palestinian small factions southern Lebanon the attempts to launch mortar shells and also now and that specifically this evening the launch of rockets here into the region here northern Israel we're speaking about many communities that have already been evacuated such as Kiryat Shmon and communities that are even closer to the border here and that really shows you how volatile and how dangerous the situation here is is really things can change any second team we're talking about Hezbollah that is also connected with as we know Palestinian factions in southern Lebanon there and they have emphasized all over again that they do want to combine the fronts and that they also closely working together with the Iranian partners Kalev Alright Piaz Takobach there Nahari just south of the Lebanon border another front heating up in this war and of course the fronts in this thank you Piaz the fronts in this war not just local but also as we just saw this evening in southern Russia also do we have any kind of update on that situation developing situation this program attempted program in Dagestan in southern Russia right responses from the Israeli government the Israeli Foreign Ministry coming out just a few moments ago saying that it expects the Russian authorities to care for the welfare of Jews and of Israeli citizens and of Jews whoever they may be and to act with decisiveness against those who have rioted and against the wild incitement that is again is targeting the Jews and Israelis the Israeli ambassador to Russia is working with the authorities in order to protect the welfare of Israelis and Jews in the location I'll see what else I can get over the next few minutes as well of course we'll follow this and of course as I said before the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky just a short time ago blaming the Russian government saying it's basically inciting its population with some of the rhetoric it's just clashes getting some reports out of Russian telegram clashes between police and rioters at the airport the situation seems to not be entirely under control although again if the passengers are still on the airplane it seems awfully hard for that mob to actually get on the plane so it would seem that at least in the first instance the passengers will be protected and of course little silence to the 400 Jewish families living in Dagestan so we don't know what happened at the airport itself so let's wait and see until we get some more facts of what actually happened there but as I said, blame being put certainly by the Ukrainian president against the Russian government for what it said it's an insightful rhetoric especially against Israel during this period it's not just Russia though Israel withdrew its diplomatic mission yesterday amid the vicious verbal attacks made by president Rajip Type Erdogan against Israel since the October 7th attack including these remarks that he made yesterday at a massive pro-Palestinian anti-Israel rally in Istanbul Just as Netanyahu is a terrorist the opposition says Hamas is a terrorist organization as well Shame on you Israel, we will declare you as a war criminal to the world right now we're making preparations for this Hey Israel, how did you come here how did you enter here you are an occupier you are an organization the Turkish people know this Rafael what a difference a few weeks make because Israel was on the path of reconciliation with Turkey President Erdogan completely changing the tone that he had from most of the past decade or even longer to dozen years towards Israel and now a reversion back and even more so I would say which is on several levels concerning Well, if you had any doubt who is Mr. Erdogan a terrible dictator and a very violent person he has his temper he can wake up one morning and be nice and be friendly to Israel and the next morning I think one of the thing that is happening now on the international scene is that a lot of people are showing their true face that includes the king of Jordan by the way and the queen of Jordan and we're seeing the true face of certain leaders and what they really think thank God we're seeing the true face of some other leaders like Joe Biden and Mr. Sennach in England because you know the beast has shown a horrible ugly face so we've seen it it's been horrible but now the face that is showing itself is showing the people of good will the people who are going to win against the beast so Erdogan we're not surprised we're used to this a classic played host to Hamas leaders over the years and he's playing a double game he's you know doing whatever he speaks with the Russians and then he speaks with the Americans he speaks with the European Union and to each one he addresses a different speech so that's a strategy with him then you have to remember it's just a dictator and he can just change the direction of the Turkish policy just himself without asking a parliament without asking the people it just decides but I think it's not big surprise I'm very much more disappointed by the king of Jordan it was never such a great friend of Israel but it's purely anti-Semitic discourse of the last days are terrible a bit of the disappointment also with Marshall C.C. of Egypt I think he's also very guilty of crime against mankind by the fact that he hasn't opened the border to Sinai you could receive hundreds of thousands of people from Gaza innocent civilians fleeing the combat zone into Sinai opened their refugee camps similar to the refugee camps opened in Turkey for the refugees from the Syrian civil war I think Mr. C.C. is very guilty in what is happening now to the people of Gaza I should note it's not just Turkey as a country in the region that has close ties has had close ties with Hamas now since the October 7th terror attacks Qatar has emerged as a key player in mediation efforts to release the now some 239 hostages held by Hamas and Gaza now for years Qatar has hosted Hamas leaders in its capital Doha we're also hosting the United States largest military base in the region so how did a small oil-rich country like Qatar find itself in such a key position here on Middle East correspondent Ariel Osseron explains Our target is to release all of the civilian hostages that's what we're working on and that's what we want to achieve Three weeks after Hamas's deadly rampage in Israel which included the capture of 230 hostages Qatar has quickly emerged as the main mediator between Israel and Hamas If there is a continuing bombing if there is a continuing escalation in the situation our task is getting more difficult the mediators need a period of calm needs a situation where we can speak easily to both parts and try to be more creative in bringing initiatives that can get those civilians out Since October 7th Qatar has been the address of various countries for help in releasing their citizens from Hamas captivity it has also been hosting the Hamas leadership prior to the war and since it began providing a safe haven from Israeli reprisals however recent reports indicate this might end soon We will release them and the Al Qasem Brigades announced that they will also release them as well but now they are distributed in different locations Let them stop this aggression and you will find the mediators like Qatar and some Arab countries like Egypt and others They will find the way to have them released and we will send them to their families So how did a small oil rich country in the Persian Gulf become the one that decides what happens in Gaza In recent years as Arab countries as the main financial supporter of the Gaza Strip We're here to assure the Palestinian people that were with you with the reconstruction in Gaza and with fulfilling the commitments made by the state of Qatar in previous international conferences Tens of millions of dollars entered Gaza each month with Israeli consent to fund humanitarian projects and to improve the economic situation in Gaza But much of that money is going to play into the hands of Hamas That's no surprise given its closest regional allies are Iran and Turkey Qatar is playing here a double game On one hand, its role in putting out fires in the region awarded with points from the Middle East to Washington who considers Doha as a major non-nado ally On the other hand, it uses its influential Al Jazeera TV network to incite against Israel and Jews against Hamas propaganda For the Qataris, it's all about regional influence and it is currently positioned at the heart of hostage negotiation efforts Whether that engagement is in good faith remains to be seen And just again a brief update We have an updated number of hostages being held confirmed hostages being held in the Gaza Strip that number rising to 239 this evening in a briefing by Rear Admiral Daniel Higari Some of them he said being foreign workers which explains for the delay in identifying them and the number of missing or unaccounted for from the October 7 terror attack now going down to 40. We'll stay with us We are going out for a brief break We'll be back in about 3 minutes with more on this special edition of I-24 News as we cover the Israel Hamas War Stay with us 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 special broadcast on I-24 News Israel at war against Hamas Now if anyone doubts that the constant air raid sirens going off in southern Israel are taking their toll on the residents there take the case of Tamar Haya Torfieshevili a nine year old girl who died yesterday in Ashdod According to the Asuta Medical Center Tamar's cause of death was cardiac arrest He has her father Avi speaking at her funeral She did