ern border how will khizballa go what will happen if and when a ground incursion happens we don't know i don't know if khasan asrallah knows what i do know is that the iranian foreign minister met with hamas officials met with khasan asrallah himself went back and forth between damascus and katara and beirut closely closely watching the northern border one thing that we have to say hamas said as far as they're concerned was very successful in their in in their operation because they quote israel by surprise there may be an operation but in the north it will not catch israel by surprise anymore israel is ready right uh very marked so uh so let's move to the northern front hamda selhut that when front is corresponded he's there hamda what's going on jake up good evening all quiet now but we have heard israeli jets buzzing overhead after that tit for tat earlier today five exchanges of fire reports of infiltrations people advise to stay and in their homes shelter in place because of the volatile situation now if khizballa enters the conflict we're looking at a semi regional war here i'll remind you khizballa's arsenal is not like what they have in gaza they have up to a hundred and fifty thousand minimum rockets stockpiled we don't know the capabilities of their long range more destructive weapons in a showcase in june they were able to show media some of their new handheld devices that are able to target aircrafts as well the israeli military the defense minister himself is saying that he's not interested in a conflict with his balan if they were to enter they would pay a very heavy price now both the lebanese populations and the israeli population here at the northern border are extremely wary of the situation they are extremely scared of a conflict breaking out because of the more sophisticated weaponry that could come out of southern lebanon i'll also remind our viewers that palestinian factions operating out of southern lebanon are also ready to engage in the fight of the eqa sambergates claiming responsibility for the rocket fire that happened earlier today the iron dome able to accept some of the rockets that were fired but however if this were to turn into a multi-front conflict israel is looking at a war that could stretch for an extended period of time and hezbollah is saying that it's ready okay ramda thank you very much for that meanwhile israeli chief of staff is telling soldiers in the south we are going into gaza so no doubt about that on the line from lebanon now is a foreign journalist that will remain nameless thank you very much for joining us yes yes my pleasure there's the lebanese government there's hezbollah and there are the people of lebanon and let me start with them with all that has been happening in this country do they need another war no they absolutely do not and most people here are very worried about the prospect of a war with israel very few lebanese people that i've spoke with think that a full-blown conflict will erupt but most do expect that the violence we're seeing on the israeli border will only get worse um and people feel totally helpless about this it's very hard for lebanese people to leave the country with such a low-ranking passport and most people don't have the means to leave anyway so whether people here believe it or not they're trying to convince themselves that there won't be a war because there is very little that they could do anyway uh you know israel said just the other day that the lebanese government would be responsible meaning they will pay the price for any escalation do they understand that in beirut yeah the lebanese government does understand that but it's also limited in its ability to restrain hezbollah which most believe has a has a stronger military than the government itself hezbollah of course operates within the lebanese state as a political party while also flaunting its independence from the states it's very unique dynamic um the lebanese government has been keeping its cards close to the chest but last thursday the cabinet met to discuss the situation and after the meeting lebanon's caretaker prime minister nachi nikati said that and i quote the council of ministers strongly condemns the criminal acts committed by the zionist enemy in gaza and will and we affirm solidarity with the palestine people in their struggle but solidarity doesn't mean support so i have another quote here from lebanon's minister of economy who said that and i quote a war would be disastrous for lebanon lebanon is on a fine line where it could fall apart completely so lebanese politics are as complicated as ever but it seems like the sunni prime minister is making statements that are quietly on the side of hezbollah while the christians really want to stay out of it all right thank you very much for that on the phone from lebanon um yakovlapin back to you um the fact that uh israel warns the lebanese government uh is something that we've seen before uh what what does it tell you well i think you know when it comes to uh hezbollah it will have no effect warning like that and hezbollah will decide whether to increase its participation in this war or not according to its own interests exclusively um in fact i would even suggest you know if we're honest about it the idea of a lebanese state is is somewhat of a fiction the largest armed force is not under the control of the government it's an iranian proxy so when we talk about lebanon it's somewhat of a fiction what we're dealing with here is hezbollah stand controls the whole of southern lebanon and much of the rest of the country now when israel makes these uh threats it is basically informing hezbollah um that uh people take the gloves off completely and bring devastation to lebanon just like it is doing uh to gaza and it is making hezbollah very aware of that fact i think that that is a completely legitimate message to send but the the target audience here is it's hezbollah itself because i think the lebanese government has no influence whatsoever on hezbollah's decision making only iran does um jennathon when um the idf says lebanese government is responsible what is the actual meaning of this in the future it means uh israeli officials have said many times if a war erupts on the northern border we will take lebanon back to the stone age and israel has the physical ability to do it i don't think it will happen simply because we're seeing how much how much of a problem it is doing something similar to gaza how much criticism there is already after the terrible attack last saturday morning after the fact that what 1400 israelis were were killed and many others kidnapped any brutal terrible attack and still there's criticism of israel bombarding gaza not even close to bringing gaza to the age of stone doing the same to lebanon which has very close ties to france which has ties to the united states i don't think it's possible but infrastructure here and there the beirut airport will be out of service the beirut port will be out of service everything inside on will be out of service and i ask again so so what the was was the beirut airport out of service in 2006 yes did it change anything in the notion of lebanon is lebanon in charge of lebanon or is an iranian proxy in charge of lebanon and the answer we all know it khizballa is in charge of lebanon eventually it's it's just like yakov lapin said it's not it's not the government of lebanon which will decide what will happen with with this war it's a government of iran as as as terrible as it sounds khizballa lebanon is nothing more currently than an arm of the of the iranian of the iranian regime there are many many factors in lebanon which oppose khizballa which really do not want to see a war with israel not in the this dire economic situation that lebanon is going through and not in any other case but they're too weak and and and the there's the one strong factor in lebanon is khizballa eventually it's up to them theny ambassador island i want to ask you about the situation inside israel politically inside israeli society which was torn for the past nine months it it doesn't disappear in a second or two even though there's all this unity talk and all of that where do we stand on this well jacob well the israeli society now is in a mode which is a necessary mode of survival which means that we must be united at least for now i mean we have a war to win after the war there will be a lot of time for investigation and some recrimination and probably even as i see it a huge political change and i won't be a bit surprised if we will see new alignments maybe even new parties maybe some realign reorganization of of existing parties getting together getting apart i don't think that netanyahu can survive this politically politically not only i mean we see it in the polls but i think within liqud also i think the liqud also is pretty much understanding that netanyahu anymore is a liability not an asset there are of course those who are we call them the the bibis team the bibis just like the trumpets no matter what they would support him but i think they are diminishing in numbers and in quality and i think this is where we will see a change i'll just say that many times i've heard those assessments that netanyahu is done politically uh you know that uh but i never said it this is the first time i say it's the first time he said it okay so yeah it takes it takes some courage to state this uh publicly but it's possible um what about the military uh jonathan um military said already we we are to blame so what will happen the day after again many there's a call that we've heard many times this is not the right time but maybe it is the right time maybe some people are saying it's it's too early to put to put a blame maybe it's too late to put the blame well the the chief of staff said you know i i'm taking responsibility but i have a war to win again i it's true the chief of staff and the whole upper military echelon have a war to win after that this is my assessment i'm speaking out of my own stomach let's call it this way nothing nothing that i know and nothing official i don't believe that a chief of staff can stay at the head of the army after such a thing i don't believe that the head of the military intelligence directorate can stay after such a thing you can be almost sure that when there when there will be a committee to investigate the events of that saturday morning it will blame mostly the military echelon we know that because there have been cases in the past if we go back exactly 50 years to the yonki poor war the agronaut committee they blame the military echelon they blame the chief of staff where to resign they blamed the the head of the military directorate where to resign the political echelon by by the committee they were left aside and they resigned by themselves later when it comes to the military echelon i i'm almost certain that this will be the case now for the political echelon i don't know i don't know if benjamin etaniao is gold amir i don't know if if if you have gallant is is is mushe dayan i don't know that but but we have a precedent in israeli history in which all the blame was put on the military echelon and we've heard her tia levy said we are to blame they acknowledged it very well i don't believe that all the top echelon can stay there but yes now they have a war to win for the moment in one front possibly in two fronts possibly in three fronts or four there's west bank there's syria who knows so now it's time to fight after that there have to be changes because the trust of the israeli public in their army was torn apart we grow in israel with the notion that we have the idf to protect us and that trust was completely torn apart last saturday yeah uh meanwhile the big boom that we've heard was because the rocket uh just fell to the sea nearby and and and a rocket fell to the sea there's no siren the the question was why there's no siren the iron the the the sirens are activated when rockets are headed to populated areas many times rockets do fall in open areas with no siren simply because the iron dome is not activated it activates when when it detects that the rockets are headed to populated areas the sea is of course not a populated area therefore the the the rockets are allowed to fall that of course it makes a very loud boom but there's no siren and thankfully there's also no no injuries and no damage from that specifically because it landed in the sea all right thank you jonathan um we're going to talk now to ifa sigal thank you very much for joining us ifa um tell us about schlommie so uh we just uh we just attended a memorial service unfortunately we could not attend the funeral they buried him and uh into his hometown and then i gave him and it's a closed military zone as i stood up north and he puts up north um the the ceremony was amazing there were so many people we heard the stories of how he was just this guy that we we know he was loved by everyone and the story of heroism what happened that day on saturday um schlommie left his house um saturday morning six o'clock in the morning to go for a bike ride uh this is a hobby of his and then he heard the sirens of the the red alerts and he went to one of the shelters and he met a few other people in the shelters and they waited there in the shelters and then terrorists came and and started firing into the the shelter where they were staying after that one terrorist took a grenade and threw the grenade inside the shelter it turns out that schlommie even though he was injured and uh they shot him in the leg and he was bleeding heavily he he was able to grab the grenade and throw it back the at the terrorist killing the terrorist um he then took the body of the terrorist and put it on some of the people that were in the shelter to try to protect them uh um maybe to make them make it seem like they're they're not alive maybe to protect them with the body of the terrorist rather bullets that might be fired later on and uh and so he taught one of the other guys that were there how to help him uh do a tourniquet on his leg so he won't to stop the bleeding and then he asked him to go and ask for help obviously at that point no one knew the uh the scope of of everything that was going on in the Gaza envelope and so he they were hoping that he would just run to the next the kibbutz nearby and and get some help and so he ran and he was able to to make it but unfortunately by the time that they were able the army the idea of everywhere were able to go back to that shelter and and look for survivors uh schlommie was already killed and so uh it took days for us to find out what happened to him i mean his family's children he has four children he has three siblings everyone were worried sick for for days and eventually on on friday um his body was finally identified and the family got the horrible news that uh that schlommie's gone yeah that's terrible uh tell us a little bit about him what did he do what did he like to do uh schlommie was in the military for for many many years and this this is a guy i mean you should have you should have heard the stories today in the in the memorial service i mean this is a guy everybody loved i mean you can see one of the pictures uh the smile i mean i think that's his signature um you know that's everyone knows him by that smile everyone everyone today mentioned uh this amazing beautiful smile that he has and uh it's just a guy known in the family known by everybody everyone said it today that he was just this guy that you would go to to help to to help cheer everybody up to help organize to to help everybody was a person that just you know was very connected to his family amazing relationship within you know the with the with the children with the brothers and the sister and um so many friends came up today even in a time of war even though it was driving all the way up north so many people showed up so many people wanted to respect him to honor him and so it was just beautiful to watch because that that was the type of person that he was if i i thank you very much uh uh we are very sorry for your i'm very sorry for your loss and thank you for sharing this with us thank you well thank you for having me so what about friends i thank you uh janathan um we've seen many stories like this when the military uh was dysfunctional shocked in a way disorganized these are the individuals who were the heroes yes it should not be this way but it is and and yes individuals were heroes they saved many many lives the tragedy we're going through is horrible and it would have been far worse unless these individual people and and i think of course it's it's on a different scope and a different level but but if we're looking at everything that the state has done since then for nine days and what individual people are doing since then for eight days i'm sorry um we're seeing that the individuals are operating and the state is not operating it comes in the way of fundraising food for soldiers um helmets vests whatever everything is or clothes for for those who had to be evicted from from from from their homes tens of thousands of people from the Gaza border communities who were evacuated out of their homes with with clothes and and that's it now now the state is picking up it has to be said now the state is finally functioning funding and everything else but for for almost a week it was all about individuals only individuals were were were were operating and and and the state was not there and it's the same here when the army we do know that there are many bravery stories coming from from the army from units themselves but if this is the final result and then not enough the the army there are many stories about bravery but too many stories come from individuals and they should have come from the army itself right um we spoke before about the bipartisan senate mission here in israel let's listen to senator mit romney there's a war being waged a war being waged against free countries against democracies against freedom and it's being waged by hamas and russia and china india excuse me uh iran there are there are there are nations iran russia china that want to overthrow democracies generally and and uh subvert the cause of freedom and backing away and saying hey we're not going to worry about it is not going to end their effort that war would only continue and spread further and ultimately involve more and more of humanity so we're involved in the world because it's in america's interest it's in israel's interest it's in all of our ally's interest it's in the world's interest so senator mit romney republican of course daniel alone former ambassador to uh washington he's taking the global view representing the republican party today right yes absolutely yeah absolutely and uh and we see really there is a i think even an understanding today in in washington and probably more and more trickling down to the world to the wide american society the grassroot is that uh what we see in gaza i mean this is where the war is but actually the entire campaign is on you know worldwide and that the united states is facing actually a um an axis of evil if you will iran and it's a proxies but behind iran are russia and china you have north korea on the wings and at the understanding is that the line that has to be drawn on the sand you know goes now in in gaza because the way the world treats the hamas which has perpetrated nothing less than crimes against humanity this will be a signal and a lesson to the entire world not just the region so if we want to keep iran at bay and his bala and the hooties and you know chinese in in taiwan and so on and so forth it has to be a decisive win here and this is why we see it's not just an emotional friendship of course that the americans have but it's also a very cold and calculated strategic thinking right and there's another um exactly the isan hour yes uh how is this taken uh janathon in israel this american we are not used to this american firepower around uh there were talks we'll have her back and so forth but this is happening we always grew the notion that israel can defend israel by itself um maybe maybe we should rethink and yes maybe we should need america on our back if there's two or three or four fronts is israel able to deal with that by itself the army is constantly saying yes that israel is ready and can deal with everything by itself i think it's very good to have america on our back in as far as statements such as those we've heard from president biden from secretary of state blinken and and all the statements that we heard here and if if if another front erupts certainly with with a power such as khizballah which is is very strong yes not as strong as israel not as strong as the idf but it's it's a strong power it's it's good to have america and over the years and you you've reported about this uh there were joint exercises between israeli forces and american forces so this is not an entirely new thing yes this is not entirely new thing and many times in those exercises the americans the visiting americans they have said if israel needs her back we will need it now israel needs the back of the united states not unclear israel was caught by surprise israel was caught not as not as strong as it is it wants to think that it is so so therefore we do need america's back is it is it going to be passed statements and into actions i don't know but but it's always good to have america on your back yes and now as we speak the number of casualties uh has gone to 1400 1400 and possibly not the end of it i don't think there was ever a bloodier day in the history of israel i i don't in the entire war of independence the worst war six thousand people were killed yes of course the proportion of the population of israel at the time is different but but but the bloodiest day in israel history terrible terrible terrible and unbelievable disaster thank you very much both of you here in the studio and all of our guests uh here and around the world uh we'll be continuing our special coverage here on night only four years momentarily with kelev bendavid have a good night from television 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 made for me official dresser of i-24 news good evening ladies and gentlemen officially in a state of war this is a very active scene and we need to get in the car as we're talking more than a hundred soldiers and civilians have been kidnapped we don't want to do we just don't know anything entire families including babies and children and elderly were butchered in their beds awaken the giant and we are ready and we are strong everyone is showing up this is the unity you're this particular project with a gross capacity of 103.5 megawatt will be producing around 230 gigawatt hour of clean renewable energy per year we need rain for the embryos welcome to this special broadcast on i-24 news i'm kelev bendavid it's day nine of israel's war against hamas the death toll of israelis stands now at at least 1400 and fatalities in gaza climb over 2300 that's according to palestinian sources the idf continues to pound gaza from the air ahead of a likely ground invasion and is urging its residents to head south while hamas continues to fire rockets into south and central israel exchange is a fire also across the lebanese border today as his bala continues to test israel's resolve midi's diplomacy is also intensifying with u.s. secretary of state anthony blinkin meeting with the saudi crown prince mohammed bin salman anizis president abdo fatah al-sisi this ahead of a return visit to israel tomorrow we'll just jump right down now to the border town of stirrote and our correspondent pia klosher and la pierre stirrote final evacuation for civilians carried out today perhaps a sign that we are on the cusp of the next stage of this war yes and on the other hand we are not there yet ready i guess the israeli army is not ready i guess for a ground invasion at this particular moment in time it's going to take a few more days maybe to prepare all the people that have been called up remember this 360 000 people mobilized there's been quite a lot of problems with equipment vest protective vests for the fighters most of the combatant units are in the rear right now they don't want to be too close to the border because they don't want to become a target to hamas but we've seen some deployment of armored vehicles at certain staging grounds we cannot show you the pictures because the soldiers say for obvious reasons that this is dangerous for their safety and our safety but we've scored the area we haven't seen yet you know the armada of the israeli defense forces they're still in the rear many of them most of them are still training before the ground invasion and but the plans we understand that the plans the operational plans are almost ready and an order will be given in a few in the next coming days we don't know exactly when obviously here in sterot it's been quiet since 11 a.m or less when there was a direct hit on an abandoned house because as a resident told me one of the last residents in this city of 30 000 inhabitants he says that if this morning they were now there's a tank coming to us on a semi-trailer this is a common image of what's going on right now you can see the mercava tank which is just here with an israeli flag on top of it this is a common image this is not the staging ground i was talking about but one of the residents told me that only 10 percent of the 30 percent of this city of 30 000 inhabitants who remains here this morning are still here and most of them are people on social welfare isolated people people elder people who don't want to leave their homes people who have no jobs no direction really in life people that are quite lost you can see on their gaze the tormented feeling that they have i spoke to a shop owner he told me i can't even talk about my feelings i don't know what i feel but what i know is that we are all together that's what he told me earlier in one of the only maybe the only shop in sterot that's still open for the soldiers and the security forces calip all right sterot first time i believe it's been evacuated completely unprecedented and clearly what is going to happen in the coming days is also going to be unprecedented pia klosch handler in sterot so thank you for that we do expect the idf spokesperson rarando daniel hargari to speak in a few minutes we'll go straight to that when it happens in the meantime in our studio former israeli ambassador of france in italy avi pezner of redwood israeli diplomat and adviser to prime minister and our defense correspondent jonathan reggaev and avi we see anthony blinkin meeting mbs uh muhammad bin samar asadi arabia president cc of egypt key players coming back to israel tomorrow the question is israel going to continue to get that green light uh from the united states to go ahead to the next phase of the war which couldn't go which certainly will involve many civilian casualties in gaza and for how long will it have to operate i think we are going to keep the green light from the united states because the united states understand that israel has to respond to this horrendous attack has to respond also for its own standing in the middle east israel i mean there can be no situation that you kill 1400 jews and you get away with it and i think it is clear to blinkin and to biden and to at cc and muhammad ben salman everybody expect an israeli ground operation and the question is in what condition will it take place and here we heard that today israel agreed already to let water into the southern part of the gaza strip this is the part where we ask the people to flee too so there is some kind of coordination with the americans also maybe with some arab states including saudi arabia who says now that they don't want now to deal with the normalization certainly with egypt but everybody understand caliph israel will have to respond to that atrocity because if we don't all our deterrents falls apart in this part of the world so it's more the how to do it that if to do it right you mentioned those people fleeing in the gaza strip we uh that is they've been told to the residents of northern gaza and gaza city if we have that map to show they have been told to to the south though there are reports of gaza of hamas terrorists who have been trying to block the palestinians from going from north to south i don't know if we have this clip from the idf actually they had a phone call with a resident of gaza talking about it i don't know if we have that but we'll put that up because they are hundreds of thousands are trying to get to the south reportedly but hamas continues to try to use them as a human shield all right don't know if we have that uh okay we do have that clip let's play it uh yes and let's listen if we have that from the jake sullivan the u.s. national security advisor he was actually relating to that in comments earlier today if we have that we have been working round the clock we have an entire dedicated team that is working on nothing but this helping american citizens who are in gaza be able to get safe passage through the border crossing to egypt uh that has been difficult because of the ongoing operations and frankly because hamas has intervened in some cases uh to make it hard for uh palestinians palestinian americans and others to be able to travel to the border crossing and get through all right uh i want to come to you that on jonathan but first i do want to go to a correspondent hamd the salkhut who is in the north of israel we're not going to identify exactly where because that area in the north has been coming under fire from across the uh lebanese border israel of course also returning fire to his bala positions and mourning his bala do not get involved in this conflict increasingly though hamda that looks like it might be a difficult situation up there right the israeli defense minister is warning hezbollah he says he doesn't want a conflict with them on the lebanese border and that they will pay a heavy price should they choose to get involved today tit for tat retaliation the fire starting in lebanon the israeli military retaliating hezbollah retaliating to the israeli retaliation a total of five instances there palestinian factions operating out of southern lebanon sending in a barrage of rockets the iron dome able to intercept some of those hezbollah is saying though a spokesperson for the militant group in lebanon giving a statement today saying that what happened today was just a warning and it's not an indication that hezbollah is going to join the wider conflict the iranian foreign minister speaking yesterday said that really it's only a matter of time and that no one can control the situation on the ground especially if there is a ground operation inside of the gaza strip now unifil the peacekeeping organization on the blue line that's the israeli lebanese border said that one of the rockets actually hit their headquarters in nakrura and their peacekeepers were sheltering at the time and are working to verify where that rocket came from right now it is all quiet though we are hearing the israeli military planes buzzing overhead circling lebanese positions earlier today they did target several hezbollah posts and really it's only a matter of time before we can see a multi-front war in this conflict all right khan the sahut there right near the lebanese border thank you for that and janathan again she calls khan the calls it tit for tad it's not a full out war but clearly hezbollah is sort of pushing the envelope here and it's threatening maybe giving this as a preview if you if there is a ground invasion well there will be a more serious attack and the question is is the military ready for what we've called the multi-front war the the army is saying yes the army is saying that they are ready and we know that despite the situation in the south a lot of resources have been moved up north to to prevent anything happening on the northern front so the army is saying yes but but we saw that that hamas is able and capable to inflict major major damage and and and he's by la as well and one thing though that that he's by la has lost is the element of surprise if there's one reason why hamas was so successful in its in its terrible operation on that Saturday morning it's due to the fact that it took israel completely by surprise he's by law will not have that anymore because israel is is literally on its edge but they have the abilities they have the the the amount of manpower and sophisticated manpower sophisticated resources so so the army is saying yes we are ready but a multi-front war will be very very difficult right the french foreign minister in israel today in fact meeting you have a holding meetings now with french citizens here confirming that 19 french citizens were killed in the attack president macron has been affirmed for even in france new laws i even outlawing expressions of support for hamas but again the question is how much france can go along with this dealing of course with its own muslim population over time being clever i must say i am pleasantly surprised by the french official position it is really you know a position which favors israel which understands israel which understands what we have been going through and you know the visit of the french foreign minister is extremely important not only because it's french israeli relation but after israel she goes to lebanon and i'm sure that she goes there with a message or a warning maybe a big warning that we see lebanon as a state the lebanon president lebanon prime minister lebanon government as responsible for what happens in the relationship between us and them meaning that even if the khizballah decides to open a full-fledged hostility we will see lebanon the state of lebanon as responsible with all the consequences hala with all the consequences and i think we don't speak too much about that and i think it is good that we do not make too much public warning what we will do to lebanon if khizballah attacks us but the message will be clear and i hope it will be heeded in berut and i think this is the main purpose how that thought we're going today in the higari the idf spokesperson our six anti-tank missiles were fired towards a number of idf posts and israeli communities as a result a civilian was killed and civilians and soldiers were wounded the forces responded immediately towards the origins of the fire in addition earlier rocket fire was executed towards the galilee we intercepted most of the rockets idf forces on the ground and an air of struck hezbollah infrastructure throughout the day the war started with a murderous attack of the hamas ter group we embarked on the war in gaza backed by the world the hezbollah group operates on the northern border in order to challenge israel during the war in gaza it does so under the guidance of iran and it risks the state of lebanon and its citizens israel has a strong army that is ready and willing to fight on both fronts and more or willing to and ready to fight hamas and bring security we're following the developments on the northern front in full cooperation with the u.s. in order to ensure that the security interests of the state of israel are maintained as for the instructions of the homefront command in the north the roads are open at this moment there are no special instructions for the residents when receiving an alert you need to enter the safe zone the offensive operation in gaza over the past several days we have prepared the idea for the next stages in the war the chief of staff is in the area is meeting the warriors and meeting the fighters making the plans fighters who are well ready to fight and win we continue with the wave of strikes in gaza we took down several hamas commanders that led the murderous attack on israel by air by sea and on the ground every terrorist who was involved in this murderous attack his elimination his top priority starting in the morning hours hamas have restarted the fire towards israel i wish to emphasize the importance of the guideline guidelines of the homefront command maintain your security i mean follow the instructions maintain them allows us the war effort without any damages to the homefront as far as evacuating the population from the city of gaza southwards we continue to evacuate the population from gaza southwards hamas is determined to keep the residents of gaza as human fields this is a test of control for it over 600 000 gazans have already evicted from the city of gaza southwards i call again here to the people of gaza go south for your safety and the safety of your families we have created for you corridors of movement from the gaza river south there are conditions that enable your presence there the conditions are there hamas attempts to spread fake news under which the idf is striking the residents that are evicting idf allows the people of gaza to evict safely hamas is under immense crash pressure it is loosest legitimation in the world and in the public we will expose its lies we'll continue to do so hamas must not think we still have many targets and ready for massive waves of strikes as much as needed we operate according to international law in order to heart as many as infrastructure of terror and terror operatives with minimum civilians this is the difference between us and our enemies in juda and samaria in the home front command in the center command we continue to engage in fights in all arenas in south and north as well the idf and the shin bet have arrested since the start of the war in the west bank over 200 hamas wanted operatives and we will continue to eliminate terror we are engaged in an immense effort as far as the kidnapped this is a top priority for us led by two headquarters an intelligence operational headquarter by nitzan al mog and another one by lior carmelie that is in touch with the families of a kidnapped the operational headquarter includes hundreds of reservists they operate from saturday in order to locate any trace of information that could clear the information and create operational opportunities we also use civilian companies that bring in advanced technologies that are already operating at the same time our headquarters is operating by creating the real-time picture of the situation they are in touch with the families civilians and soldiers the contact with the missing is dealt by the police and the idf is helps as much is helping as much as needed the idf is also assisting gal here she in charge of the kidnapped with dozens of reservists in order to learn about the whereabouts of those kidnapped the dear families of the kidnapped i know that for you every matter every second is an eternity we will do everything possible everything in order to bring your loved ones home the operation of identifying the those fallen continues around the clock the investigation of the police is operating together with the homefront command this is a sensitive national mission in order to bring them to burial as quickly as possible the identification process of some of the fallen requires technological means this is long and complicated it will take time accuracy comes in front of speed we must not be wrong it's in such an important issue we use all the information and all the checks in order to ensure that every fallen be he a civilian or soldier is being buried in a respectable way we have informed the families of 289 idf fallen soldiers and 155 kidnapped our hearts are with the bereaved families who receive the difficult news we are facing weeks of war the idf is ready to complete the plans by air sea and ground we will run the operation with determination and we'll stand up to our mission that we gave and that was rear admiral daniel hagari the idf spokesperson giving an update on the current the military situation well for more let's go and speak with tal heinrich she is a veteran journalist who is now joined the government the israeli prime minister's office as its representative to the national public diplomacy directorate essentially one of the government's spokespeople she's joining us from televieve we've just heard on the military side of the operation tal but there is another side the public diplomacy side i talked about getting the world showing the world what hamas is doing and that will help the idf gain time to carry out the operation it thinks it's need to do how is the government doing that and is it being effective in doing that well collab we are nine days after the october 7th massacre and after nine days as you sort of elude the international media and people outside this country are more starting to become more focused maybe on the pictures coming out of gaza and are forgetting why we launched this counter offensive and what we're doing there we're not in gaza to deter hamas to degrade hamas to contain hamas we are in gaza the idf is operating there right now in order to dismantle hamas uh prime minister nethny i was defined the goal of this operation very clear it is first and foremost to make sure that by the end of this operation and we will finish it on our terms hamas we lack the motivation to hurt us again as they did and they will lack the military capabilities to hurt us as they did so this is what we're doing and prime minister nethny out just a few hours ago i'm sure that you guys were reporting he also met with some families of those who were abducted earlier in the week he uh was uh down south meeting with soldiers of one of the southern brigades he also met with families who lost loved ones and what he describes is a few things first he sees fire in the eyes of the idf soldiers some of them have lost friends over the past week um so he describes that this kind of fighting spirit it's something that he hasn't seen before and also when he talks to the families who were affected by hamas's isa style atrocities they are also telling him that it is israel's moral duty to make sure that hamas is dismantled right uh we did cover that uh meeting uh one of the parents of the um uh of one of the hostages there said the prime minister has told them that israel can achieve its aim uh that you've described uh basically taking out hamas or at least its military capability without endangering the lives of the hostages but but that is going to make it quite difficult for the idf operating this thing and is the government now prepared after let's be honest after being a little slow in dealing with that situation of the hostages and the sensitivities of the family uh is ready to deal with what may be coming in the next few days well everyone knows that the situation of having people and so many of them over 120 were abducted into the gaza strip in such brutality and in such scope is making things very complicated obviously one of the goals of this operation is to bring them back and israel has been calling on hamas to unconditionally release them we are also calling on the international community to send such a message is very unequivocal message of this kind because just you know let's remind the viewers here it's not only israeli citizens to were abducted are in gaza right now there are different nationalities or dual citizenship holders that are there right now so uh the prime minister also sent out a warning do not touch them do not hurt them we will come for you terrorists one after one right now uh lastly uh secretary of state danthony blinkin reportedly will be returning tomorrow certainly will be meeting uh with the prime minister perhaps bringing some of the messages uh from the uh arab states at least publicly egypt's president cc mob and ben salman of saudi arabia expressing some support for the palestinians raising the humanitarian cause what is the prime minister how is he going to answer anthony blinkin if for example there's some pressure from the u.s some reporting about maybe for a a temporary uh huma ceasefire to allow humanitarian aid into gaza or something like that well we'll wait and see uh what secretary blinkin brings as he's meeting with the prime minister tomorrow as you just reported but if you heard the shared press conference the statements that they delivered uh just a few days ago before he had it to the gulf then you probably know that there's no daylight between them second both prime minister netanyahu and secretary blinkin were uh very much on the same page when they did two things compared humas to isis when loyton austin came here he said that it's even worse than isis because he's seen isis and then the second thing that both prime minister netanyahu said and secretary blinkin was uh that this is the time of moral clarity and uh both israel and the united states have the same definition of moral clarity when it comes to this war all right tal hindriff now a spokesperson uh for the israeli prime minister's office thank you for joining us on i-24 news now good to see you color uh let's go back to the issue uh gentlemen of those civilians in gaza uh as we heard early and we listened to that uh uh that tape that oh i do want to do we have that uh side of the prime minister on the assages let's take a look at that because that that was an interesting comment the prime minister specifically announced to us that one of the objectives of this war is to bring our loved ones back and in the best condition possible he also said this is objective of bringing our loved one back is not impacting or hurting the effort of eliminating the hamas and the other objectives of the war well i want to come back to the issue of the hassas gentleman but first i want to go to the united states because the argument to dispute the battle at least the public diplomacy a battle over the israel's war with hamas is certainly not limited here that's being fought out in different arenas of public opinion that includes us universities which have long been ideological battlegrounds over the israeli palestinian conflict even more so this past week that's been especially so so at harvard university whose president claudine gay released an initial statement on the hamas attacks that critics said lacked moral clarity even walking damned was a letter signed by 30 student groups that essentially blamed israel for the hamas a massacre that in turn led several business figures and ceo's many of them harvard grads to declare that alarms they would not hire anyone who supported that statement additionally the israeli billionaire idan o'fair and his wife bacha who are major donors to harvard quit one of its executive boards well certainly someone in the in the in the midst of that uh discussion is professor alan dershowitz the professor emeritus of harvard law school and he joins us from miami florida professor dershowitz what do you have to say about your alma mater right this evening it doesn't surprise me harvard has had a terrible history when it comes to jews there were groups at harvard in the 1930s who marched in favor of nazis harvard gave an honorary degree to a nazi in the 1930s many of the university supported nazism thousands of people marched around where i live in new york on york avenue in favor of nazis 30 000 people went to madison's square garden to support nazis lindberg supported the nazis there were many supporters of nazis and that's what's going on today you have harvard students supporting nazis and harvard ought to treat them exactly as if they were in favor of lynching blacks in the 1920s or in favor of raping women or in favor of destroying and shooting up gays it's exactly the same thing you can't have a double standard harvard can't say oh we don't get involved in these issues we stood in our heads over the issue of george floyd one black man who was killed by police unjustifiably filled with with drugs filled with alcohol with a long criminal history and harvard wouldn't stop reckoning and changing its curriculum it's about time harvard reckoned with its virulent anti-semitic past with its quota system with its support of nazis with even in my time when i was in harvard it granted an honorary degree to von weiziker one of the people who was supportive this whole family or supportive of of nazi so harvard has a real real reckoning to do and its current president who doesn't seem to know very much about the history of harvard is part of the problem not part of the solution her three statements are are you know increasingly tough against hamas but boy it took alumni telling her that they would cut off funds for her to even make any statement and to this day she is still not condemned the 30 student groups imagine if 30 student groups at harvard supported raping women or supported lynching blacks or supported shooting gays i guarantee you president gay would be out there condemning it in the strongest terms she wouldn't talk about freedom of expression because freedom of expression includes her freedom of expression her freedom to establish the moral clarity as president summers of harvard said you know universities should say we're neutral and we won't say anything about anything but this is his exact words harvard has forfeited that prerogative by taking positions on the killing of blacks on the killing of gays on ukraine why why why won't they attack their nazi students who have signed these petitions blaming everything on israel they certainly would attack anybody who blamed rapes on women who blamed attacks on gays on the gay lifestyle who blamed the lynching of blacks on there being quote uppity as they used to happen at the time harvard has to have a single standard i you know larry summers and i together have 100 years at harvard i have almost 60 years at harvard and i can tell you i am disgusted disgusted at harvard disgusted at yale disgusted at nyu disgusted at the city university of new york all of whom have failed their mission of moral clarity all right professor alan der schwarz i think you have definitely made yourself pretty clear there thank you for joining us on i24 news thank you for this issue you have to i'm sorry would you repeat that professor der schwarz there's no room for ambiguity or ambivalence here you have to be clear one sided and morally certain this is not an issue for ambiguity all right professor alan der schwarz thank you for that well here's one of the reasons why many people certainly feel that way we've presented plenty of stories over the past week of tragedy and trauma in the wake of the chamas attack across the Gaza border there's also no shortage of accounts of heroism and survival to stemming from that terrible day one of those is of syrit curtsman a young woman who together with her husband yonatan and 14-month-old daughter zohar spent some 26 hours in their homes safe room that was on kibbutz alumim while terrorists went on a spree of death and destruction just outside their door syrit lesnick curtsman joins us now from the city of netanya where i presume she and her family have taken shelter syrit tell us in your own words about those 26 hours of terror so just like you said it was horrifying it all started at 6 29 a.m when we woke up from a sound that unfortunately is kind of familiar to us it was the missiles from gaza and i ran to my daughter's room i picked her up and brought her into the bomb shelter um but then something was a little bit different something was a little bit odd the missiles just didn't stop coming um we looked at my husband and we said like okay something is going on um if i go out of our story right now i zoom out a little bit and see what's going on outside what happened was is that the terrorist actually did this missile attack and while the missiles were coming obviously we have a drill our drill is to go into the bomb shelter we want to live so we go into the bomb shelter um and the terrorist actually that during that time while we were in the bomb shelter is when they were able to break through the the fence and actually invade many many kibbutz team um only at around seven thirty uh we're talking about an hour here that we're just in the bomb shelter being told not to leave at seven thirty we were told to lock the doors um lock the windows make sure everything is completely closed because that there are terrorists on the kibbutz we um um right away did obviously what we were told we were very shocked because we never in our craziest dreams imagined that something like that can happen um but our story my personal story being in the bomb shelter for 26 hours with my husband and my child it was very intense and very how do you can i just ask how you i'm sorry how did you deal with your your child doing those hours especially right so between six thirty to seven thirty when it wasn't clear exactly what's going on we were able to run out and grab some diapers and some wipes and just get our yogurt from the fridge so she can eat something because usually this these uh occasions that happen we know it happens and it takes about 10 minutes you're in and out you know the bomb shelter um it's it's horrible to say it like that but that's how we've been living um but what happened here and what's so amazing about my kibbutz's story is that we have uh emergency security team and when the terrorists came into the kibbutz the first group because they came in from eight separate places um on the fence around the kibbutz well the first group they came in from the back of the kibbutz in the back of the kibbutz is um you guys can see the pictures of our farm of our milk farm and some agriculture and what happened was is they came in from there and like I said our drill is that there's missiles you have to go into the shelter so they knew exactly where their victims are because we were all in the shelter we all like I said have the want want to live um and so they came and they went right where the foreign workers live they went into their shelter and slaughtered them they killed 16 um of our foreign workers the rest are actually leaving the country tonight and then while they were slaughtering the foreign workers they called up our emergency security team this emergency security team is all volunteers they're men that work in different jobs we have one of them is a professor one of them works in agriculture one of them is the engineer and they all volunteered to keep us safe and what happened was is that they were able to get to that point on the back of the kibbutz and stop those terrorists from entering the community where we all live um and they did that at every single point where the terrorists tried entering and that's how our lives were saved these people are neighbors these people are my friends and now they're just heroes that saved our whole entire community's lives um slowly slowly we're learning more and more information about how our lives were saved because um they they just we just heard in the news the other day of a group of soldiers that were actually on their way to beri to kibbutz berri which we all unfortunately heard how that story ended and on the way they saw about 50 terrorists coming towards us towards alumim and they were able to stop them there unfortunately a soldier was also killed at that point um and again these are soldiers that risked their life soldiers that's life lives were taken so i can be alive so my daughter can be alive and so my husband can be alive and these heroes just like you mentioned that there there are horrific stories but they're also heroes here and they're those are the stories that need to be heard and we need to tell these stories and and really bring strength and faith to our nation because these people are amazing and i think that's what makes our nation so special and united that we we know how we we always have hard time through history the jewish nation is always um always going through difficult times this may be one of the roughest ones but we always fight and we survive and we win and that's what we believe is going to happen now uh as as a nation and as a kibbutz that's what we're that's kind of what's going on in our kibbutz too we're just looking forward and trying to understand how and when we will we we we will rebuild our kibbutz and the whole area of otef asa which now we're trying to change the name to otef israel right all right so read i just i'm just briefly uh am i correct your husband now has been called up for his reserve duty am i correct in that yes well i just want to say you have an experience like that we certainly wish him the best and we wish you and your whole family him a safe return and your whole family a safe return to kibbutz alumim uh and to the future and and to the building of your future there thank you so much for joining us thank you gentlemen quite an inspiring story i want to give you a chance to react to some of the things we've heard uh there it's quite a difference going from that kind of story and then hearing the outrage for example of professor dershowitz towards some of the things that he's hearing and experiencing for example in his alma mater yes you know it's amazing kalev we know the united states how come that the universities have turned to be anti-semitic not only pro-hamas but anti-semitic i don't want to generalize but certainly there is that there is those elements you know and i agree with every word that professor dershowitz it is disgusting that the reaction especially at harvard but not only at harvard on the day that 1400 jews were massacred they blamed the jews on the very day on the very night they blamed the jews so there is something rotten in this system of american universities and i don't know what can be done because you know it's not something that you can tell the government of the united states go and make order in your university but maybe what israel should do and maybe not only israel also the jewish community after we finish with what we have to finish now but afterwards to launch a campaign in the american university a real information has barra campaign to explain you know there are jewish organizations i was going to say there are a stand with us there are there are other jewish classes that's not enough not enough well certainly maybe that are clearly a focus now jonathan i want to go back to the question the issue of the hostages uh prime minister benjamin netanyahu having its first meeting that was in rambler with families of hostages there assuring them uh that the ivf is going to both work with their the safe return uh but at the same time carry out its uh main mission of uh of basically taking down chamas its leadership its military capabilities that is going to be a very difficult uh narrow line to walk uh in when this operation finally gets underway yes and first of all we heard about a half hour ago from from the idea of spokesman i think for the first time we heard the number 155 this is a number we've not heard before now we have then and but i want to say there have been other reports unofficial some based on stuff on social media and some based on reports out of gaza putting the number higher even even higher but officially this is the first time we're speaking of 155 which is a very very high number uh working on on first invading gaza taking out chamas which is a an extremely difficult task by itself while trying to secure the the the safety of the hostages or i i can only assume our spread all along underground gaza it's it's it's a terrible task and and and i simply don't know how it's done i we we can totally understand the desire of israel to see chamas crushed down and eliminated we at the same time we can also completely understand the the the desire of those families to see their loved ones back i mean they've had a severe terrible trauma already um so so it's it's a it's a very narrow line as as you have said and the israeli army will have to work along this line very carefully it's it's a a a dreadful task really all right uh i want to go now to an occult setting who was at uh bengurian airport of course we're a situation where most of the normal flights are canceled but the airport is still uh involved in flights both taking foreign nationals out of the country many airlines and nations have arranged flights and of course allow still operating with special flights we're still trying to bring israelis especially those young israelis abroad who are resourcing the idf back in what's uh going on there and exactly i mean when you drive to the airport right now it it really is like a ghost town but you know that it is very difficult for people to be getting in and out because so many of the flights are delayed when you look at the screen it's really just red line after red line after red line canceled delayed canceled delayed so that's exactly what we're seeing here at bengurian airport and the reason that we were here is actually because the french foreign minister was here after doing a whole tour of the south earlier today and and she came out here to the airport to address the press to talk about really the solidarity that they're standing with israel right now she's one of the many western allies that has actually come here to israel to continue to show their support not only to stand with israel also saying that they're going to be donating different medical equipment for some different mobile units on the ground here in israel but also continuing to talk about the hostage situation uh that was the main main key point of what she wanted to address here because that is what so many people are worried about here in israel club earlier today we were also at the home front command base center where is really prime minister benjamin netanyahu met with a representative for some of the families and now we know that the hostage number has increased now at least 155 confirmed people are taken hostage and so as the french foreign minister was addressing the press here she said that's definitely uh something that she wants to tackle and it's one of the main priorities for so many people here prime minister benjamin netanyahu also addressing the representative saying that it is one of his key priorities and many of the families right now collab they are outraged that it's been more than a week and 155 loved ones are still taken hostage being held in the gaza strip they're urging the state of israel to do more but it's a very complicated situation so hearing from israeli prime minister netanyahu hearing from these different french representative other western allies and continuing to show their support and really trying to tackle and address this hostage situation that seems to be one of the key focuses from many of the different foreign nationals right now all right uh nicole said deck uh there at benjamin airport uh thank you for that uh i mean this is this hostage situation is it's a problem for it's a challenge let's put it that way for this israeli government there's now no emergency unity god wartime government on several levels both dealing with the israeli uh public and as you said there were so many foreign nationals uh french uh americans germans maybe others uh there and that is going to be i'm just going to say reports president uh isaac art song apparently appearing on cnn presenting documents uh this evening which even hamas documents that were captured which talk about even doing uh something we've only seen isis do public execution of hostages i hope we will not see that but here i think we have to make a too strong effort one which is a priority is to destroy hamas its leadership but at the same time there must be a big effort to try and see what we can do for these hostages and this question if i know the israeli public well with every day that passes the question of the hostages is to become more prominent more prominent and it is understandable 155 maybe 200 who knows right those are our our own flesh and blood so the israeli public will demand from the government that how and i agree with jonathan i agree with you it's very difficult they are hidden in tunnels and spread all over the catastrophe but this has to be a priority a priority because if not then the government would have failed also in that and i don't think the government wants to fail and as you said kaleb we have now a an emergency government the white government reflecting all sides of the society and the side the society will want to see the government dealing seriously with that issue only today has the prime minister met with the families and i don't know whether anybody else have has met them in the last few days right you know it is important i should know that gail hirsch the former idf officer would point it to the job he's a good man dealing with the hostages it is claimed either he or the people working with him have contacted each and every one of his families at the state perhaps took you know the perhaps a lot on the late side we have to say it has to be said but it looks like maybe now the government is getting its footing and we also heard daniel hughari the idf spokesperson also say the army now appointing special officers to deal with this it's only yes kaleb you're right but it's only in the last two days or three days yeah that the issues is is being that i can understand the shock and the horror and everything and the and the 1400 that of course but those are our people our people we have to do whatever we can to get them out of this hell because they are in hell i don't know what in what condition they are held right you are now speaking about public execution like i says it's doing i don't know i hope it's only propaganda okay i hope it's only propaganda but you know the hamas is an organization who is capable of doing that kind of thing and we have to to launch a warning about that if that happens then what we will do will be even more terrible than what we are planning now all right finally there are reports of air raid sirens over the past five minutes there in the south jonathan just give us a yes again on on the gaza border communities and unstopping it's it's true that perhaps the level at least in the south has has gone down compared with the previous days but it's it's not as if it stops and it was well we ran here to shelter what about two hours ago Hamas still has the ability let's remember we spoke of Gaza overground where all the civilians are they're the ones suffering the underground Gaza that's where the leadership is that's where the rockets are held and and they appear for a minute fire and go back you can be sure Kalev that those people the Hamas leadership underground they have enough water they have enough electricity they have enough fuel they have enough everything it's only the people in Gaza overground that suffer and that's where the rockets are hid and and they appear for a minute fire and go back I just want to just clue it to our viewers that about 15 15 minutes before this broadcast began the air raids they were 20 about a half hour there was a