lternative based on a revitalized p.a. is also far has not uh bought into that approach but we also haven't presented any alternative certainly not a um a significant one so there's daylight over there over the day after in gaza and also the u.s is still firmly committed to the idea of once the fighting is over and maybe there's an interim stage but moving soon to uh talks on a two state solution the other area in which there are some differences uh are on the lebanon border to because israel well we may be forced into a uh khizball a initiated escalation but the u.s really wants us to do the best we can so not to escalate in response and certainly not to initiate the escalation on our own part which i mean there is certainly some good a strategic reasoning for doing that and there is some support for that in the government the u.s certainly doesn't want to see that i want to ask about the language here because it because you can read it as being perhaps intentionally confusing or inconsistent because with english language media first we have top id of commanders and spokespeople uh saying that we are entering a less intense phase especially in the north but it's a new phase there's going to be a drawdown less intense ground operations but then in hebrou and even today we're hearing expanded operations in hanyunas especially in the center we're uh entering new areas expanded operations what's the it seems to be a kind of mixed messaging here especially when there is so much pressure on the us to uh as president biden said yesterday to get israel to get out well i think the reality is that we started transitioning to uh so-called stage three the lower not low but lower intensity stage a few days ago and we already released large numbers very large numbers of reservists so it's happening in reality and in in english at least the idea spokesman has said specifically that that's what we're doing and this is partly in response to american pressure and it's partly simply because of the how how the operation is developed that's what's needed at this point in other words less we've expanded into most of the areas that we want yes there are still small areas that have to be done but basically most of the territory in gaza that we might want to take we've already done so there is this is pure politics and the idf is doing its best to avoid it so it's using one set of terminology in english and the other in hebrou the hebrou one is more neutral uh this is just um let's say the idf adhering to we're trying to avoid the political mind so to speak uh in the current cabinet situation professor thanks for being with us here died 24 news this morning great to have you thank you i'm back here in studio i want to ask here about the the messaging and the word specifically both nisrallah from kezbollah and yirya senwar and khamas are known to be vociferous consumers of israeli medias and war himself a rather proficient hebrou speaker that he picked up from his extended incarceration in israel uh so when you hear idf commanders use words like you know releasing releasing from um reserve duty mass you know from soldiers we hear words like withdrawal from parts of gaza we hear words like less intense more precision uh the calls for withdrawal from gaza on is that music to khamas's ears do they believe they can just wait this out over the next few weeks or three months um i don't think that this is music to khamas's ears first of all because khamas itself will be aware that it has lost all of its military formal structures in northern gaza it doesn't have brigades or battalions they're still there they're still in control especially raffia in the south they're still in the south the idf has not led up any of its high intensity operations in the north it's responding to the first of all the situation on the ground which is what we have is khamas cells that have no uh command structure they're just you know doing hit and runs as they see fit as they can do possibly on the ground but they don't have any commanders they don't have intelligence they don't have firepower in an organized manner they have the rpg or the ak under their bed they'll go out and they'll try and do something so khamas as a terrorist army that is organized in northern gaza has ceased to exist and it remains as a sort of a disorganized guerrilla force um and that's why the idf is allowing itself to downgrade its operations in northern gaza in han units in southern gaza that is the epicenter of the fighting and also to some extent in central gaza and we see that the idf is being very responsive it's just not being very declarative about this but it's being very responsive to the reality on the ground there there's only been an intensification today there was a further intense intensification and we're going to see you know divisions like division 98 in the idf which has got a lot of special forces those are the kinds of forces that will start leading the fighting in southern gaza and we'll see less of these you know full on armored core divisions like 162 that will uh you know have been leading the fight in northern gaza and gaza city so it's it's shifting but khamas is under massive pressure about that pressure one thing that is specifically a specific plan that may be raised today according to both american media and israeli media is the idea of letting hundreds of thousands of palestinian families who have been displaced to the south letting them go if they wish back north uh to go back to the areas in the north reportedly israel may be receptive to the that idea but linking it to some kind of progress with a hostage deal what of that do you think that linking or the american pressure will there be and khamas feeling the pressure as well will there be some movement on on that arena i think that you know that's a complex decision and there's a lot of factors involved in that first of all israel certainly sees a lever here in terms of um you know one of the few pressure levers that it has that are not military on khamas is this um is it going to condition the return of these northern gazans to their area um on its progress with the hostage deal i think that is the likely picture it seems to be making that linkage also separately we have to say that a lot of these people have nowhere to go back to right now so you know they would be better off staying in a humanitarian center that is being nourished with food water medicine than going back to those ruins right now in their own interest you know i don't know how many would actually be interested in going back in reality it's a demand that's right now more theoretical than anything else um and you know but yeah i i think israel is saying look if we're going to start seeing a normalization of civilian life in gaza there's going to have to be progress on the hostage situation um but certainly i think that linkage is being made yaka thanks so much for being with us in the next few minutes and today blinkin will leave his meeting with isa kertzak he is soon to meet israeli prime minister of benjamin nikin yahoo and other war cabinet ministers will have live coverage and updates right here on the channel here in i-24 news so we'll see you soon and thanks for watching i-24 news king's famous 1968 mountaintop speech was based on his trip to the promised land well now 55 years later his prophetic words are coming true hundreds of african-american women took a journey of a lifetime to the holy land we'll introduce you to the amazing female spiritual religious leaders who are infusing new energy into the next generation of african-americans for watching i-24 news this morning for the latest live updates from israel as u.s secretary of state anthony blinkin continues his trip through the middle east today he is in israel it is it is his fourth trip here since the hamas war began more than three months ago right now he's finishing up a meeting with israel's foreign minister he just met this morning also with israel's president isa kertzak then after that today he has a flurry of meetings with other ministers and idf generals the message from blinkin's boss the president is very clear israel needs to get out of gaza in a significant and meaningful way top idf commanders this weekend have already given english language interviews saying the war is now in a new less intense phase that will require certainly in the north fewer airstrikes and ground operations as the focus of fighting shifts south here's blinking blinkin speaking in televieve a few minutes ago alongside israel's foreign minister we have to finish the war we have a very brave and hero soldiers they know the dangers but they are going in because they want to bring back the hostages it's very very important to us and to bring back the security to our people i just come as you know from a number of countries in the region i look forward to sharing with you some of what i've heard from colleagues around the region i know of your own efforts over many years to build much greater connectivity and integration in the middle east and i think there actually are real opportunities there but we have to get through this very challenging moment ensure that october 7th can never happen again and work to build a much different and much better future and of course we'll be also seeing hostage families later today talking about the relentless efforts that we're both making to bring people home to bring people back our correspondent nicole scenic is covering uh anthony blinkin's very busy day he's already held several meetings with many more to go nicole tell us more yes well as you were just hearing from blinkin and the israel foreign minister israel cats just talking about this continued trip and all of blinkin's efforts now as you stated it's a very busy day but he's already knocked at least two of those meetings off the bat with not only the foreign minister but earlier before that is really president isaac herzog as well and according to a readout between their meeting president herzog thanked blinkin for coming here for the united states continued support but also reiterated to blinkin that in his words israel is doing everything they can to to protect civilian lives in gaza he said they are dropping leaflets they are calling people they are doing everything they can to try and limit uh the the amount of civilian casualties in the gaza strip and this is exactly what the united states continues to push for for limiting the amount of casualties and also pushing forward to a less intensive phase of the war now blinkin reportedly told herzog thank you once again for for having me and also as we just heard saying a similar message to what he said to foreign minister cats touting how much he's learned from his regional tour here meeting with different representatives in saudi arabia and the ua e in jordan saying that he's hopeful that he'll get to share some of those lessons he's learned not only with the president and the foreign minister but later in the day as well prime minister benjamin netanyahu the israeli war cabinet heads of the masad in the shimbay and of course as he said the families of hostages and we saw quite a big demonstration out here actually a very loud demonstration of some of those enraged family members and friends and protesters who continue to push for the release of those hostages in fact i spoke to manian daniel who's good friend her schulber pullin an american israeli citizen is still held captive in gaza one of the 136 people still held captive and in his words he says it's up to the united states right now really to have some sort of a hostage really steal i know they have good intentions and all but let's say just like israel and everybody else on the political map they're taking too many kind of considerations political and different kinds of which are altogether dragging not only my good sweet sweet sweet hearted her sh friend his family so many other families and of the hostages but the whole region if not the entire western civilization at the moment down down to hell and it's not ending and it's not like i don't want to get hamas obviously disappear but there's reality and in reality they all know that's going to take a lot of time and there's other better ways to do it and to be honest the only one from all of these from egypt katar israel the states the only person in the world has honestly really has the power to make everybody do this differently and get a deal now to save so many lives of innocent people children hostages women being held captive is joe biden the only person on earth and the sign that daniel was holding it said biden only you can save them and this was the message that many of these demonstrators wanted to show to antony blinken united states and also the israeli officials as well continuing to urge the israeli officials to then urge their us counterparts to do everything they can to release the hostages so that's certainly on the agenda for us secretary of state antony blinken as he is here but also as we're talking it's not just the hostages he has a lot of priorities about how the next phase of this war is going to look specifically for the palestinians in the gaza strip and one thing that's also on the agenda is for him talking about moving some of those displaced gazzians back to the north after the idf has gained operational control in the northern part of the gaza strip so we're speaking humanitarian aid displaced residents and really just what's going to happen next for this next phase inside gaza all right the call thanks so much for that update live for us in televieve here in studio i'm joined by rafael urshalmi a former idf senior intelligence officer and also our middle east correspondent ariel osaron aerial as the war continues in the in the gaza strip i want to note overnight four idf soldiers confirmed killed in firefights with hama six other soldiers critically wounded the battle certainly very intense in the central part of the strip also today a lot of violence and attacks regarding the northern front with hezbollah what's the latest look jeff i think in up until a few weeks ago the focal point of the war was indeed in the south but about three weeks ago i think the pendulum shifted and the in terms of the dangerous border that is the situation more in the north we're talking about these images that we're seeing on screen right now are images from southern lebanon from the village of randoria which is near the litany river where um three hezbollah operatives were uh were taken out in a uh alleged idf drone strike israel obviously not commenting on this but all media in lebanon pointing the finger towards the israeli air force this is not an area particularly close to the border this isn't a border scrimmage this strike happened about 10 11 miles you know the 15 to 20 kilometers away from the border it's a significant distance from the actual border fence significant distance and it is in an area where hezbollah um central has a lot of uh command centers uh in that area given that it's not directly on the border but it is south of the litany river and according to uh urn resolution 1701 hezbollah is not allowed to conduct military operations not allowed to hold weapons south of the litany river randoria is there and so this uh doesn't absolve hezbollah obviously the fact that they're not adjacent to the border but this is an indication and you're right to point out that it's not directly on the border and this is a little further in and we're seeing in indeed israel kind of raised the level of escalation regarding its operations in southern lebanon to include operations that eliminate significant excuse me commanders that take out significant infrastructure that take out multi-story buildings these are new developments that we have not seen up until a couple weeks ago maybe even until last week with the big shift that we saw um with the elimination of salah el-aruri hamas da pideen beirut yesterday we saw tawil one of the uh perhaps the the acting commander of the red one force which is the main target of israel's operations or its goal its main target uh and its operation in southern lebanon but indeed we're seeing another strike of israel against hezbollah alleged strike by israel against hezbollah assets and the the price of these assets continue to rise for hezbollah and rafael in response hezbollah has had a morning of uh flurry of attacks into israel drone incursions at least drone alarms incoming aircraft alarms going off sometimes you know that there are alarms across many communities because uncertainty of where a drone is flying or where it's located exactly but many reports of incoming drones several rocket attacks as well targeting spot as a ariel mentioned you know this this area in lebanon is a significant distance from the border itself about uh you know 15 kilometers or so from the from the border just south of the latani river hezbollah attacking spot today which is about 50 kilometers from the border it's a significant distance it seems that the uh geographical location of these strikes is becoming wider on both sides so it looks like there is a very strong stern determination on both sides nobody seems to give up that hezbollah is not retreating further north away from the israeli border and the israelis are not uh like appeasing the game on the country they're striking harder they're inflicting pain targeted the killings are the best way to inflict pain to the leaders of the hezbollah and so we do not see how we can avoid now a major clash uh already there actually today we're really clashing pretty hard uh with the hezbollah and they're fighting back welcome mr blinken to the middle east that's quite welcome and honestly we i do not see how we can avoid a larger conflict the americans are being showing this is the first trip of mr blinken that they have no leverage on anybody they haven't achieved anything the only leverage they managed to apply is on israel because of the help they give to israel but they haven't put any pressure on the lebanon on the turks and the egyptians um on the qataris it hasn't worked uh also i think they miss read them up they say that they're afraid of an escalation would we attack hezbollah or be in food fledged war with hezbollah that would destabilize the region i think the region is pretty stable if you look at it since the beginning of the war it's one of the times it's been even the most stable and we even see that the normalization process is just on hold but not finished so they're not really reading the map quite very well i want to note of course the war goes on in gaza overnight a particularly deadly day four soldiers killed in gaza fighting six others seriously wounded let's go live to our correspondent piercol schindler update as the war goes on there into its fourth month yeah right the four soldiers uh the the way they died in the fighting gives you an indication of the nature of the fighting three of them died in the area of hanyunas in the southern sector of the gaza strip one by detonation of an explosive it could be a friendly explosive in inverted comma that means an incident an accident while trying to neutralize a tunnel shaft for instance another one died in from an rpg anti tank rocket explosion and another one died in close combat in clashes with hamas terrorists another one died in the central sector of the gaza strip which is just behind me right now so the thrust of the offensive and there it's a high intensity warfare is the central sector of the three refugee camp el borage noserat almorazi and the city of dir el balach and then further south hanyunas in the northern sector in this direction including gaza city there's a low intensity warfare for a few days now they've the idea has cut down the forces at least three brigades of reservists have been demobilized two brigades of conscript have been returned to their base for further training and there the army is operating on pinpoint information intelligence and are performing raids now you just heard the artillery outgoing because the front here is quite active there's a an air force jet just flying over us we can clearly hear the roar of the air force jet and you've got this artillery fire on presumed terror targets jeff thank you apia for that update along the israel gaza border back here in studio rafael we hear both in english first in english then later on in heber from both the defense minister and top idea of commanders that this is a new phase it's going to be a less intense phase and yet the same time we also hear that operations are expanding intensifying in hanyunas especially is the war actually winding down and should it be is it time perhaps to uh to question how much more can be gained with fighting at this point so according to the areas at stake the intensity of the war should be measured differently in the north it is obvious that we have general overall control of the theater of operation there is no need to sit on the ground and to sit in huge numbers of troops on the ground we can have like a relative retreat we can liberate and it has been done a few brigades of reservists have been sent back home and we can proceed in a more serene way into destroying whatever is left whatever is still kicking in the north in the south it's a completely different ball game hanyunas on the contrary needs an intensification of the operation because as we're nearing the goal which is reaching the high leaders of the ramas we need to put more and more pressure as it goes we have of course the problem of the hostages by now we know where Mr. Sinoir is hiding we do know where he is we just cannot do anything because he's surrounded by this human shield of Israeli hostages but we still can apply pressure from outside to try to frighten him somehow or force him into negotiating a reasonable deal anyway but the problem is that Mr. Sinoir knows that by the time the hostages will be liberated if he accepts ever to liberate them he is finished because then we can do what we want so at this point does Hamas feel and are they correct perhaps in their assessment is Sinoir correct if he thinks he can wait this out yes the signal for him is that the IDF and Israelis are getting a bit tired that they want to slow down the pace that is too much to keep up this level of intense combat for a long time that's how he interprets they interpret this and they also say that they're still kicking so far he sees that these military branch is still kicking he thinks he's in control he thinks he might get away with it which is of course completely wrong he has lost the war he has lost the control of the Gaza Strip and if nobody will stop us we will finish him off and we will finish the Hamas off but for the time being Mr. Sinoir doesn't see it that way he's disconnected from the reality whereas his partners in Doha are much more realistic about it and they already speaking of disarming the military branch of the Hamas and just changing the Hamas into some kind of political beast without the weapons and the mingling with maybe the Palestinian autonomy or having complete but in the tunnels in the bunker Mr. Sinoir doesn't see that he thinks he's still fighting and that's the mentality of the person we're dealing with now so long as he can inflict damage to Israel he will be happy he will be satisfied it doesn't matter to him how much damage the Palestinian people or even his own troops are suffering what matters to him is only what damage he can inflict on the enemy and so long and he can do that he will keep up the fight the question now becomes perhaps how to get the hostages home there's so much talk on both the American side and Israeli side of a movement that may allow hundreds of thousands of Gazans of Palestinian families to go back to the north Israel reportedly opened to the idea perhaps of letting movement back to the north but there has to be movement in the hostage negotiation deal where do you stand on that idea here moving these people back to the north is silly there is nothing to move back to so this this is can only happen when there is a peaceful environment in which you can reconstruct and you can it's not responsible even to send the women and children back there there are still terrorists there and there are still fights going on there also doing that will enable Hamas terrorists to mingle with the population and use that movement of population to re-enter their assets in the north so it's completely ridiculous and you have absolutely zero effect on Mr. Sinoir and the hostage situation because this is not there is no leverage as I said before Mr. Sinoir might accept some kind of a truth long-term truth to liberate some hostages but he will never get rid of them until the last moment because there are he's a life insurance there are the human shield is counting on to save his own skin and to continue functioning so there's no way we can do anything there is no leverage a humanitarian leverage political leverage diplomatic leverage nothing that is the strength of Mr. Sinoir is that there's nothing that touches him that would convince him to negotiate apart from his own personal interest as the leader of the Hamas in the Gaza Strip and I'll note some of the updates here on the attacks in the north that a drone fired launched by Hezbollah has landed our correspondents are able to confirm into some kind of IDF command base in the north I believe we have video or if not we're going to work on getting video here into the newsroom but an idea a Hezbollah drone landing in the north no reports of injuries yet with us now is Johannathan Sabin the spokesperson of the resilience and medical team hostages and missing families forum speaking here on the situation in Gaza thank you so much Johannathan for being with me tell me your thoughts here on the idea of the importance the urgency of some kind of progress to get the hostages freed from Hamas captivity how important how crucial is it in the days to come it's extremely crucial I mean 100 days since the since the kidnapping of the of more than 240 hostages we still have more than 100 hostages left in Gaza and they are in their immediate danger to their to their lives at the moment most of them suffer from pre-existing illnesses and disease many of them were hurt during the during the kidnap itself and we're talking about the condition of the captivity themselves poor diet lack of light you know the mental their mental state at the moment there are all the hostages now are in immediate risk of their life I want to ask you the conditions of the hostages and we have had released Hamas has released some horrible video but confirming several of proof of life from several of the captives talk to me a little bit here perhaps on the intervention of the Americans intervention of the Red Cross is there anything that more that can be done in the immediate term to get them help even if they're still inside Gaza I mean we're still you know we are we're still one we still want the Red Cross to come and visit get inside and visit and meet the hostages which is not happening due to the fact that Hamas is not allowing the Red Cross to do that but I think we still need to see more public pressure by the ICRC and by the international committee to allow to call Hamas to meet the hostages to allow the international humanitarian organizations to come and visit the hostages supply them with their medical needs and their and their medicines immediately. Do you think that there will be or do you hope that there will be in light of Anthony Blinken's visit here today to Israel some kind of announcement some kind of progress on that deal on that issue. Well I don't know what's going to happen in the meeting what I know is that we need the hostages home now immediately and that's what we need to do and that's what everyone needs to call and act and do whatever they can in order to bring all the hostages back home now. All right Jonathan thank you so much for being with us here on i20news appreciate your time the back here in studio also Rafael I want to note the West Bank also a third front here major operations last night again this every night we're seeing arrests of terrorists big concerns big warnings coming from top officials into the defense ministry and to the prime minister's office that the West Bank may erupt as well how concerned are you about that? Very concerned and I'm afraid the political level is dysfunctional on this matter it is very clear by now that we are on the brink of a boiling point that could lead even the word has been pronounced by security services the word anti-fada certain anti-fada why because we have first of all if you consider that the 150 000 people are out of work now that they had permits to work in Israel on a daily basis for three months now these 150 000 workers are stuck at home without any means of survival this means that with their families you're talking more than half a million Palestinians in dire straits just as dire as the Gazan population and that's very good terrain for the terrorists to exploit and manipulate and so the security services advise very strongly that these work permits should be given back to these workers they will of course ensure the screening of who he can go back to work but they should go back and it's also actually an economic need on the Israeli side there are many businesses who are in distress because they do not have these workers but anyway to have these people go back to work and have some kind of income so they do not come further for the terrorist propaganda and the second thing is to retrocede the tax monies that Israel is holding up to retrocede it to the Palestinian autonomy to have this influx of money because that there again you have like the police and the civil servants of the Palestinian autonomy also not getting paid because of that lack of money all this is only contributing to a very very bad tense atmosphere in the West Bank which until now actually was quiet the Palestinian street has been quiet Mr. Sinoir and the Hamas have not succeeded in inflaming the Palestinian people so we should preserve this this atmosphere thank you so much for that analysis Rafael good to have you in studio more updates coming up soon stay with us right here on i-20. Israel is in a state of war families completely gunned down in their beds we have no idea where she has our soldiers are fighting on the front line but the general perception is something that certainly needs to to be fought as well. It was this morning for the latest live updates from Israel as US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken continues his trip through the Middle East today he is in Israel is it is his fourth trip here since the Hamas war began more than three months ago right now he's finishing up a meeting with Israel's foreign minister he just met this morning also with Israel's president Isaac Herzog then after that today he has a flurry of meetings with other ministers and IDF generals the message from Blinken's boss the president is very clear Israel needs to get out of Gaza in a significant and meaningful way top IDF commanders this weekend have already given English language interviews saying the war is now in a new less intense phase that will require certainly in the north fewer airstrikes and ground operations as the focus of fighting shifts south here's Blinken speaking in Tel Aviv a few minutes ago alongside Israel's foreign minister we have to finish the war we have a very brave and hero soldiers they know the dangers but they are going in because they want to bring back the hostages it's very very important to us and to bring back the security to our people I just come as you know from a number of countries in the region I look forward to sharing with you some of what I've heard from colleagues around the region I know of your own efforts over many years to build much greater connectivity and integration in the Middle East and I think there actually are real opportunities there but we have to get through this very challenging moment ensure that October 7th can never happen again and work to build a much different and much better future and of course we'll be also seeing hostage families later today talking about the relentless efforts that we're both making to bring people home to bring people back our correspondent Nicole Sinek is covering Anthony Blinken's very busy day he's already held several meetings with many more to go Nicole tell us more yes well as you were just hearing from Blinken and the Israel foreign minister Israel Katz just talking about this continued trip and all of Blinken's efforts now as you stated it's a very busy day but he's already knocked at least two of those meetings off the bat with not only the foreign minister but earlier before that Israeli president Isaac Herzog as well and according to a readout between their meeting president Herzog thanked Blinken for coming here for the United States continued support but also reiterated to Blinken that in his words Israel is doing everything they can to to protect civilian lives in Gaza he said they are dropping leaflets they are calling people they are doing everything they can to try and limit the the amount of civilian casualties in the Gaza Strip and this is exactly what the United States continues to push for for limiting the amount of casualties and also pushing forward to a less intensive phase of the war now Blinken reportedly told Herzog thank you once again for for having me and also as we just heard saying a similar message to what he said to foreign minister Katz touting how much he's learned from his regional tour here meeting with different representatives in Saudi Arabia and the UAE in Jordan saying that he's hopeful that he'll get to share some of those lessons he's learned not only with the president and the foreign minister but later in the day as well Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the Israeli war cabinet heads of the Mossad in the Shimbab and of course as he said the families of hostages and we saw quite a big demonstration out here actually a very loud demonstration of some of those enraged family members and friends and protesters who continue to push for the release of those hostages in fact I spoke to many Daniel who's good friend Hirsch Gulbur pulling an American Israeli citizen is still held captive in Gaza one of the 136 people still held captive and in his words he says that it's up to the United States right now really to have some sort of a hostage really steal I know they have good intentions and all about let's say just like Israel and everybody else on the political map they're taking too many kind of considerations political and different kinds of which are altogether dragging not only my good sweet sweet sweet hearted Hirsch friend his family so many other families and of the hostages but the whole region if not the entire western civilization at the moment down down to hell and it's not ending and it's not like I don't want to get Hamas obviously disappear but it's reality and in reality they all know that's going to take a lot of time and there's other better ways to do it and to be honest the only one from all of these from Egypt Qatar Israel the states the only person in the world has honestly really has the power to make everybody do this differently and get a deal now to save so many lives of innocent people children hostages women being held captive is Joe Biden the only person on earth and the sign that Daniel was holding it said Biden only you can save them and this was the message that many of these demonstrators wanted to show to Anthony Blinken the United States and also the Israeli officials as well continuing to urge the Israeli officials to then urge their US counterparts to do everything they can to release the hostages so that's certainly on the agenda for US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken as he is here but also as we're talking it's not just the hostages he has a lot of priorities about how the next phase of this war is going to look specifically for the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and one thing that's also on the agenda is for him talking about moving some of those displaced Gazans back to the north after the IDF has gained operational control on the northern part of the Gaza Strip so we're speaking humanitarian aid displaced residents and really just what's going to happen next for this next phase inside Gaza all right the call thanks so much for that update live for us in Tel Aviv here in studio I'm joined by Rafael Urshalami a former IDF senior intelligence officer and also our Middle East correspondent Ariel Oceran Ariel as the war continues in the in the Gaza Strip I want to note overnight four IDF soldiers confirmed killed in firefights with Hamas six other soldiers critically wounded the battle certainly very intense in the central part of the strip also today a lot of violence and attacks regarding the northern front with Hezbollah what's the latest look Jeff I think in up until a few weeks ago the focal point of the war was indeed in the south but about three weeks ago I think the pendulum shifted and the in terms of the dangerous border that is the situation more in the north we're talking about these images that we're seeing on screen right now are images from southern Lebanon from the village of Randoria which is near the Litany River where three Hezbollah operatives were were taken out in a alleged IDF drone strike Israel obviously not commenting on this but all media in Lebanon pointing the finger towards the Israeli Air Force this is not an area particularly close to the border this isn't a border scrimmage this strike happened about 10 11 miles 15 to 20 kilometers away from the border it's a significant distance from the actual border fence significant distance and it is in an area where Hezbollah has a lot of command centers in that area given that it's not directly on the border but it is south of the Litany River and according to UN resolution 1701 Hezbollah is not allowed to conduct military operations not allowed to hold weapons south of the Litany River and Doria is there and so this doesn't absolve Hezbollah obviously the fact that they're not adjacent to the border but this is an indication and you're right to point out that it's not directly on the border and this is a little further in and we're seeing indeed Israel kind of raised the level of escalation regarding its operations in southern Lebanon to include operations that eliminate significant excuse me commanders that take out significant infrastructure that take out multi-story buildings these are new developments that we have not seen up until a couple weeks ago maybe even until last week with the big shift that we saw with the elimination of Saleh el-Rouri Hamas Dapidin Beirut yesterday Weesam Tawil one of the perhaps the acting commander of the Red One Force which is the main target of Israel's operations or its goal its main target and its operation in southern Lebanon but indeed we're seeing another strike of Israel against Hezbollah alleged strike by Israel against Hezbollah assets and the price of these assets continue to rise for Hezbollah and Rafael in response Hezbollah has had a morning of flurry of attacks into Israel drone incursions at least drone alarms incoming aircraft alarms going off sometimes you know there are alarms across many communities because uncertainty of where a drone is flying or where it's located exactly but many reports of incoming drones several rocket attacks as well targeting spot as Ariel mentioned you know this area in Lebanon is a significant distance from the border itself about you know 15 kilometers or so from the the border just south of the Latani River Hezbollah attacking spot today which is about 50 kilometers from the border it's a significant distance it seems that the geographical location of these strikes is becoming wider on both sides so it looks like there is a very strong stern determination on both sides nobody seems to give up and Hezbollah is not retreating further north away from the Israeli border and the Israelis are not like appeasing the game on the contrary they're striking harder they're inflicting pain targeted killings are the best way to inflict pain to the leaders of the Hezbollah and so we do not see how we can avoid now a major clash already there actually today we're really clashing pretty hard with Hezbollah and they're fighting back welcome Mr. Blinken to the Middle East that's quite welcome and honestly we I do not see how we can avoid a larger conflict the Americans have been showing this is the first trip of Mr. Blinken that they have no leverage on anybody they haven't achieved anything the only leverage they managed to apply is on Israel because of the help they give to Israel but they haven't put any pressure on the Lebanon on the Turks and the Egyptians and on the Qataris it hasn't worked also I think they misread the map they say that they're afraid of an escalation would we attack Hezbollah or be in food fledged war with Hezbollah that would destabilize the region I think the region is pretty stable if you look at it since the beginning of the war it's one of the times it's been even the most stable and we even see that the normalization process is just on hold but not finished so they're not really reading the map quite very well I want to note of course the war goes on and Gaza overnight a particularly deadly day four soldiers killed in Gaza fighting six others seriously wounded let's go live to our correspondent Pierre Colchandler for an update as the war goes on there into its fourth month yeah right the four soldiers the the way they died in the fighting gives you an indication of the nature of the fighting three of them died in the area of Hanyunas in the southern sector of the Gaza Strip one by detonation of an explosive it could be a friendly explosive in inverted comma that means an incident an accident while trying to neutralize a tunnel shaft for instance another one died in from an RPG anti-tank rocket explosion and another one died in close combat in clashes with Hamas terrorists another one died in the central sector of the Gaza Strip which is just behind me right now so the thrust of the offensive and there it's a high intensity warfare is the central sector of the three refugee camp El Burej Nusserat Almorazi and the city of Direl Balak and then further south Hanyunas in the northern sector in this direction including Gaza city there is a low intensity warfare for a few days now they've the IDF have has cut down the forces at least three brigades of reservists have been demobilized two brigades of conscript have been returned to their base for further training and there the army is operating on pinpoint information intelligence and our performing red raids now you just heard the artillery outgoing because the front here is quite active there's a an air force jet just flying over us we can clearly hear the roar of the FOS jet and you've got this artillery fire on presumed air targets Jeff thank you appear for that update along the Israel Gaza border back here in studio Rafael we hear both in English first in English then later on in Hebrew from both the defense minister and top IDF commanders that this is a new phase it's going to be a less intense phase and yet the same time we also hear that operations are expanding intensifying in Hanyunas especially is the war actually winding down and should it be is it time perhaps to question how much more can be gained with fighting at this point so according to the areas at stake the intensity of the war should be measured differently in the north it is obvious that we have general overall control of the theater of operation there is no need to sit on the ground and to sit in huge numbers of troops on the ground we can have like a relative retreat we can liberate and it has been done a few brigades of reservists have been sent back home and we can proceed in a more serene way into destroying whatever is left whatever is still kicking in the north in the south it's a completely different ball game Hanyunas on the country needs an intensification of the operation because as we're nearing the goal which is reaching the high leaders of the Hamas we need to put more and more pressure as it goes we have of course the problem of the hostages by now we know where Mr. Sinoir is hiding we do know where he is we just cannot do anything because he's surrounded by this human shield of Israeli hostages but we still can apply pressure from outside trying to frighten him somehow or force him into negotiating a reasonable deal anyway but the problem is that Mr. Sinoir knows that by the time the hostages will be liberated if he accepts ever to liberate them he is finished because then we can do what we want so at this point does Hamas feel and are they correct perhaps in their assessment is Sinoir correct if he thinks he can wait this out yes the signal for him is that the IDF and Israelis are getting a bit tired that they want to slow down the pace that is too much to keep up this level of intense combat for a long time that's how he interprets they interpret this and they also say that they're still kicking so far he sees that the military branch is still kicking he thinks he's in control he thinks he might get away with it which is of course completely wrong he has lost the war he has lost the control of the Gaza Strip and if nobody will stop us we will finish him off and we will finish the Hamas off but for the time being Mr. Sinoir doesn't see it that way he's disconnected from the reality whereas his partners in Doha are much more realistic about it and already speaking of disarming the military branch of the Hamas and just changing the Hamas into some kind of political beast without the weapons and the mingling with maybe the Palestinian autonomy or having complete but in the tunnels in the bunker Mr. Sinoir doesn't see that he thinks he's still fighting and that's the mentality of the person we're dealing with so long as he can inflict damage to Israel he will be happy he will be satisfied it doesn't matter to him how much damage the Palestinian people or even his own troops are suffering what matters to him is only what damage he can inflict on the enemy and so long and he can do that he will keep up the fight the question now becomes perhaps how to get the hostages home there's so much talk on both the American side and the Israeli side of a movement that may allow hundreds of thousands of Gazans of Palestinian families to go back to the north Israel reportedly opened to the idea perhaps of letting movement back to the north but there has to be movement in the hostage negotiation deal where do you stand on that idea here moving these people back to the north is silly there is nothing to move back to so this this is a can only happen when there is a peaceful environment in which you can reconstruct and you can it's not responsible even to send the women and children back there there are still terrorists there and there are still fights going on there also doing that will enable Hamas terrorists to mingle with the population and use that movement of population to re-enter their assets in the north so it's completely ridiculous and you have absolutely zero effect on Mr. Sinois and the hostage situation because this is not there is no leverage as I said before Mr. Sinois might accept some kind of a truth long-term truth to liberate some hostages but he will never get rid of them until the last moment because there are he's a life insurance that the human shield is counting on to save his own skin and to continue functioning so there's no way we can do anything there is no leverage a humanitarian leverage political leverage diplomatic leverage nothing that is the strength of Mr. Sinois is that there's nothing that touches him that would convince him to negotiate apart from his own personal interest as the leader of the Hamas in the Gaza Strip and I'll note some of the updates here on the attacks in the north that a drone fired launched by Hezbollah has landed our correspondents are able to confirm into some kind of IDF command base in the north I believe we have video or if not we're going to work on getting video here into the newsroom but an ID Hezbollah drone landing in the north no reports of injuries yet with us now is Johannes Saban the spokesperson of the resilience and medical team hostages and missing families forum speaking here on the situation in Gaza thank you so much Johannes for being with me tell me your thoughts here on the idea of the importance the urgency of some kind of progress to get the hostages freed from Hamas captivity how important how crucial is it in the days to come it's extremely crucial I mean 100 days since the since the kidnapping of the of modern 240 hostages we still have more than 300 hostages left in Gaza and they are in the immediate danger to their to their lives at the moment most of them suffer from pre-existing illnesses and disease many of them were hurt during the during the kidnap itself and we're talking about the condition of the captivity in themselves poor diet lack of light you know the mental their mental state at the moment there are all the hostages now are in immediate risk of their life the conditions of the hostages and we have had released Hamas has released some horrible video but confirming several of proof of life from several of the captives talk to me a little bit here perhaps on the intervention of the Americans intervention of the Red Cross is there anything that more that can be done in the immediate term to get them help even if they're still inside Gaza I mean we're still you know we are we're still one we still want the Red Cross to come and visit get inside and visit and meet the hostages which is not happening due to the fact that Hamas is not allowing the Red Cross to to do that but I think we still need to see more public pressure by the ICRC and by the international committee to allow to call Hamas to meet the hostages to allow the international humanitarian organizations to come and visit the hostages supply them with their medical needs and their and their medicines immediately do you think that there will be or do you hope that there will be in light of Anthony Blinken's visit here today to Israel some kind of announcement some kind of progress on that deal on that issue well I don't know what's going to happen we're in the meeting what I know is that we need the hostages home now immediately and that's what we need to do and that's what everyone needs to call and act and do whatever they can in order to bring all the hostages back home now all right Jonathan thank you so much for being with us here on i-20s appreciate your time the back here in studio also Rafael I want to note the West Bank also a third front here major operations last night again this every night we're seeing arrests of terrorists big concerns big warnings coming from top officials into the defense ministry and to the prime minister's office that the West Bank may erupt as well how concerned are you about that very concerned and i'm afraid the political level is dysfunctional on this matter it is very clear by now that we are on the brink of a boiling point that could lead even the word has been pronounced by security services the word anti fadda certain to fadda why because we have first of all if you consider that 150 000 people are out of work now that they would add permits to work in israel on a daily basis for three months now these 150 000 workers are stuck at home without any means of survival this means that with their families you're talking more than half a million Palestinians in dire straits just as dire as the gas and population and that that's a very good terrain for the terrorists to exploit and manipulate and so the security services advise very strongly that these work permits should be given back to these workers they will of course ensure the screening of who he can go back to work but they should go back and it's also an actually an economic need on the israeli side there are many businesses who are in distress because they do not have these workers but anyway to have these people go back to work and have some kind of income so they do not come further for the terrorist propaganda and the second thing is to retrocede the tax monies that israel is holding up to retrocede it to the palestinian autonomy to have this influx of money because that there again you have like the police and the civil servants of the palestinian autonomy also not getting paid because of that lack of money all these is only contributing to a very very bad tense atmosphere in the west bank which until now actually was quiet the palestinian street has been quiet mr sinwar and the ramas have not succeeded in inflaming the palestinian people so we should preserve this this atmosphere thank you so much for that analysis rafael good to have you in studio more updates coming up soon stay with us right here on i-24 you know that martin luther king's famous 1968 mountaintop speech was based on his trip to the promised land well now 55 years later his prophetic words are coming true hundreds of african-american women took a journey of a lifetime to the holy land we'll introduce you to the amazing female spiritual religious leaders who are infusing new energy into the next generation of african-americans security and military officials have acknowledged the intelligence failures that allowed hamas to plan and execute the october seventh attacks but new details have emerged in a report from the new york times describing how hamas financed its activities with the portfolio of investments a financial network that the newspaper says israel's leaders were aware of but did not shut down with more here's our correspondent robert swift as early as 2015 israelian us officials became aware of a network of companies that not only funded hamas but were owned and controlled by it an empire that was worth an estimated half a billion dollars while organizations like isis and al qaeda have frequently used fronts to launder money hamas's portfolio was a genuine enterprise launched with seed money to go out to make a profit the new york times reports it reportedly included mining chicken farming and roadbuilding firms in sudan two skyscrapers in the united arab emirates a property developer in algeria and trend a real estate company listed on the turkish stock exchange an israeli financial intelligence team task force harpoon began tracking the investments flagging up their concerns to us counterparts and the israeli cabinet but the threat from iran and the finances it distributed to its proxies hamas among them ultimately eclipsed fears over the hamas portfolio and at the time the israeli security services consensus was that money flowing into gaza would help tame hamas rather than arming it for the next attack a strategy led by israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu regarding this published investigation i am not familiar with it and i suggest you wait until after the war a thorough examination and a thorough investigation of all these things will be done and the picture will become clearer while there were some sanctions placed on businesses and individuals in 2022 ultimately the flow of money from it was not disrupted money that israeli intelligence assesses was directly invested into hamas's military preparations cyber attack directed against aran over the past day the backer of the hooties of course may indicate that israel is also now seeking its own indirect response to address this issue our correspondent robert swift has more in this report as much as 70 percent of the petrol stations across aran were disrupted monday with iranian authorities citing a possible cyber attack as the cause some people say it was hacked some people say well we wonder if maybe there is a shortage but these are all questions that need to be answered by a high-ranking authority iranian state media singled out hacking group predatory sparrow as responsible it has been linked by israeli media in the past to unit 8 200 israel signals intelligence agency this cyber attack comes in response to the aggression of the islamic republic and its proxies in the region the hacker said in a statement in persian and english on telegram the incident occurs as israel's allies search for an appropriate response to hootie attacks against cargo ships passing the babel mandab straight this is a battle against the iranian axis the iranian axis of terror which is now threatening to close the maritime street of babel mandab this threatens the freedom of navigation of the entire world so in the red sea we're leading a multinational maritime task force to uphold the bedrock principle of freedom of navigation iran's support for hootie attacks on commercial vessels must stop part of iran's network of proxies the emin base group says it will attack any ships approaching israeli ports while fighting in gaza continues its drone and missile attacks have escalated in the last week causing numerous shipping lines to cancel voyages through the red sea placing a squeeze on the economies of israel and neighboring countries like egypt as well as international energy markets a cyber attack may be an efficient means for israel to reach into iran in response to the hootie actions on its southern front the question is whether his impact will be sufficient to alter the yanny group's behavior let's talk about alina tovenberg a makeup artist and a body painter that is known for her uv body paints and on october 7th she found herself on the front line during the hamas attack at the nova festival near the gaza border i24 news reporter orish apira brings her story alina tovberg didn't believe in divine intervention until october 7 her years she's worked as a makeup artist and body painter working at the nova festival was only natural for her we came to the field on thursday and stayed for the entire weekend we decided to stay at nova i was attracted to the wonderful people who came there the perfect place and the unique atmosphere in the air so i decided to stay at 6 20 a.m we saw this amazing sunrise i was just finishing painting elinor my last painting i gave her a hug and a kiss and went on dancing on the floor everybody was waiting for the sunrise 15 minutes earlier my partner tom air gave me a glass of tea and told me that he wanted to go to the car because he was tired it seemed very strange to me because he never acts like that but in retrospect this is what for me resembled the first miracle that happened to me i looked to the horizon and i saw heavy smoke very dark to see the smoke inside this beautiful place felt very strange to me and i immediately closed my makeup kit suddenly we started to hear booms the music was still on we could hear the bits but we heard the shooting mixed with the trance music after three to four minutes they shut down the music and the chaos began it was a sharp transition people were at their peak and suddenly everything was shut down and you find yourself in a war at a certain point alina's partner could not start his car the group found itself in a survivor scenario we split into two areas in one place i took care of girls who were in panic in the other spot tom air tried to fix the car he asked his brother to bring people to help and he got a call from his brother and heard that he'd been shot tom air understood that there were terrorists in the area he managed to find someone who helped him fix the car this angel is not with us today we drove like crazy to kibbutz rayim a black truck tried to crash into us but tom air managed to escape it was another miracle it was a matter of seconds then we managed to get to rayim god opened the gate for us alina says that everyone she's painted that night survived one of the people alina remembers the most is a young woman named elinor who elina painted when the hamas attack began elinor hid inside the fridge and survived this short soundtrack we hear the moments of horror when elinor saying goodbye to her eight-year-old son i painted on elinor an image of a woman full of light and hope more than two months after october 7 lina took part in an exhibition in televiv dedicated to the nova rave she rebuilt the boot where she walked at that night i remember every painting i made that night each painting i made that night became a part of me it became a part of my family a part of my story there is alina and there is my art and there is this night and this night laid down roots now we turned to the story of ophir engel one of 110 hamas hostages that were released from captivity last month now he's attempting to return as best he can to his normal life but the events of october 7th and almost two months in captivity in gaza still haunt him here's his story adapted from local channel 12 the romantic trip of these two teenagers of fir engel and his friend yuval sharabi to belgrade in time for christmas season to see his favorite basketball team apoyl jerusalem is accompanied with immense distress 18-year-old of fir was released from gaza two weeks ago but yuval's father and uncle remain in hamas captivity how does it feel to fly right now exciting but weird a little yuval a little because dad is still there yes we miss them so much they're probably in the tunnel or in a house on that black saturday of fir a 12th grade student from kibbutz ramat rachel near jerusalem was with 17-year-old yuvalin baeri during the sirens the two together with yuvals parents and two sisters entered the safe room it was 10 in the morning when the terrorists broke in and what do you see three terrorists enter with guns two with guns one with an rpg first thing they shoot the dog shoot the dog first they're very afraid of dogs and then just take us all downstairs are they speaking with you in arabic they say to you itba al-yehud and there they got us all up they took us to the road and a black car was just waiting there there's a black car waiting for us they motioned in opening the door her father yosie went in first and then she and i held hands she's already getting in her foot inside already then they take her out and put me in are the women just taken out no they just leave them with the other two terrorists this is the last image i have in my memory of them are you yelling anything to him i told him i love you did you hear yes did you answer no we're already driving away what i remember is the red eyes fear shock because you don't understand what's going on you see her with two terrorists and in captivity you think she is either dead or kidnapped there is no other option logically and you don't hear anything in captivity about you val nothing nothing two terrorists what are they doing with you the two terrorists just walked away what's going on in the car they just take us to gaza the person sitting in front has a weapon aimed at us like this oh really yes ophir was kidnapped together with yosie yuvall's father and a neighbor 16 year old amit chani 54 days in captivity they saw no other hostages ophir stayed close to his girlfriend's father and yuvall's father calms you down yes he reassured us but obviously everyone is scared so it's calming only for a moment what do you do all day play cards i can't look at another card what did you play a game they taught us are the terrorists also playing with you yes how did they act towards you it is relative to a good situation because no they weren't abused yes we were not abused they were simply psychologically abused they keep saying they don't want you who doesn't want you israel there's only one demonstration in israel there's only one demonstration for a week and the families don't want you to come back they don't take action or do anything you're going to stay here for at least a year things like that in your head you say it won't be a year for sure it'll be five months did you know you would come back i figured i'd be back sometime were you afraid to die there yes i was less afraid that they would kill me because if they wanted to kill me they probably would have killed me on the first day and they wouldn't care about bringing food what food really there was no food what did you eat a peter and a half a peter and a half a day in the morning yes with labneh so what scared you from the booms around that the idea doesn't know our location suddenly a missile would hit fear of death a house near us was bombed it sounded like it hit ours one of the guards was informed that a relative of his had been killed you say to yourself just as long as it doesn't come back at us just don't come back at us what feels most difficult moments were when terrorists moved them twice through the heart of the city when they were completely exposed in total darkness when all around and non-stop explosions when they transferred you it was always overnight do you see gazens obviously yes it was a terrible fear how would you know who's going to turn on you do you think they care no they don't care about each other you know some extremist would kill me and the hamasnik with me and did anyone come see you they had their boss who would come and bring food once every two days who bring a packet of peter bread whatever you eat you eat in these three days did he say anything to you he would come and tell us again that they don't want us and all that he was the main one who was psychologically abusing us did you make a connection with one of them that was more pleasant the one who guarded us was a bit better didn't he say something like death to the jews yes he did say that they know nothing other than that did you try to explain to him say what do you want from me i'm a kid from israel what so he told them a hundred times they said why are you in israel why did your family come to israel what did you answer i told him my grandfather was born here then he tells me you're lying you're lying why would i lie so i just said yes should i argue with him do you see sin war no where they told me this is sin war when they told me you are returning to israel he pointed at someone he said this is sin war but he was so fat and didn't even look like him do you believe them when they tell you you are going back the next day yes because they look happy and to get rid of you yes we are quite a heavy burden for them what did you say to you val's father before you separated nothing we were separated in an instant oh just like this yes just like this i call her and tell her i'm fine i'm alive everything is good what does she say to me shave your beard and then call me did you see what he looked like no you were excited yes yes until i saw him with my own eyes i couldn't believe it is there one moment that you cry or did you suddenly fall apart i asked the soldier on the minibus what about you val her mother and her sisters and they told me they were fine everything is well with them i was in shock crying falling apart yes that was the only thing i was worried about i was just shocked that he was there in front of me i collapsed for a second did it surprise you that she suddenly fell to the floor yes i think she was also a little shocked ophir who played last year on the apoel jerusalem youth basketball team is a diehard fan the team flew him and his family this week for a match against paak des aloniki in the champions league so i had this picture for two months on my shirt and he was in every square and to see him come out of all the demonstrations and the pictures and it comes out to something real on the court how do you say it's double happiness for us afir was locked trapped on gaza for almost two months i don't think any of us expected him to be here i don't think his family expected i don't think he expected to see the smile on the faces not only afir but his family and to the other families here with us as well it moves me a lot oh ophir and yuval's joy at apoel jerusalem's victory at the game and the feeling of freedom in belgrade is momentary the photos of yuval's father yossi and his brother ellie in gaza never leave their mind now as well though heartbreak in israel after three hostages were killed in a case of mistaken identity now families demand an immediate deal for the release of those still held by the hamas terror group these families marched in tel Aviv demanding an end to the fighting so that negotiations can begin they rejected the idea that military force will bring hamas to the negotiating table hamas has vowed that there will be no negotiations until a permanent ceasefire has been reached the position of the israeli state is that hamas cannot be allowed to endure as the group has vowed to commit more raids kidnappings and massacres modeled on october 7th that killed 1200 israelis the overwhelming majority of which were civilians and in the coolest and most sadistic ways possible it is believed the terrorists still hold 128 hostages spread across gaza not all of whom are still alive prime minister netanyahu reiterated he will not succumb to hamas's demands without the military pressure we would not have succeeded in creating an outline that led to the release of 110 hostages and only continued military pressure will lead to the release of all of our hostages my directive to the negotiating team is based on this pressure ceasefire remove our troops they have all kinds of demands so what do we understand as soon as we give in hamas has won we are obligated to eliminate it and return our hostages but will not give up either this goal or that goal and of course this is very concerning to the friends and the families of so many hostages still held by the terrorists one such being amit parpara the friend of noah argamani who is still being held by those terrorists amit i'm glad you could be with us there are no words to console you for what you are going through with your friends still in captivity what is your reaction when you hear the prime minister say this is not going to force a negotiation so thank you for having us we're happy to hear you talk about it i'd say no there's a lot of well feelings come up to your head when you think about all this stuff that are coming up in the news but i certainly believe that israel is trying its best to get out the hostages in the way that they know um and i really hope that the what are the what they are doing right now is going to bring them home safely um just yeah it's you have to believe in what you see and you have to believe in the government that will do everything to spare as he said i mean there were so many of us that were hoping and praying that the military action would succeed in freeing hostages on the ground do you still believe that's a realistic opportunity i think it's always the realest of opportunity i think that coming from both ways not just uh you know a deal is a deal but on the other side you can you never know what is going on on the other side uh we're dealing with terrorists they're not humans it's not it's not dealing with with a country that you know um they'll keep the hostages safe because we can just run out and bring the hostages back and and let them be free and you can never know what is really happening i think that uh what happened is is something that should concern the government and should concern us as the civilians and and should bring us our attention to bring it back to hostages as quick as possible but i believe that the government doesn't what it's best to to get them there so we've seen a lot of the families that were marching in Tel Aviv demanding an immediate ceasefire to start negotiating right now where do you fall on this discussion what should be done i think i personally believe that um um the military may be able to free some hostages but it's there and some i think that we should see we should we should take out the hostages in the deal i don't know if it sees far if it's releasing other hostages i don't know what that really means but i think that taking them out as a whole as a group should be the top priority right now and and to release those who are not in any way um connected to this war it should be the top priority because there's no winning picture without them at home and i think that bringing them whatever ceasefire or whatever it may have been i think that bringing them all them homes should be doing what whatever we need to do i know this is going to be a cruel question and light of everything we've seen in the last few days but when you see these news reports we hear the fate of these hostages that were so close to freedom what goes through your mind about the military operation and the people that are still trapped there um you need to understand that there's a lot of complex complexion when talking about these kind of military events and and much they do i can't blame anyone for what they've done i think that being there and fighting is hard enough but and deciding on the ground is hard i personally um know Aris Haim which is the the mother of uh Yatam Haim i was with her on the location to Australia and back a couple days ago and it's you see it seems like when they're there everything is fine and they can be released and and if they're alive they will come out alive this is the hope at least and because you know that they want them alive uh you know that they will come back to you but as we just saw again i can't blame anything or anyone of these missions but as we just saw no one is safe when they when they are in kama sense no one is safe and bringing them back should be now and not and and some other forms or ways in a couple days and should be now because in each second that you think that they might be alive they can they can get killed and we're talking about people that's that's the hardest thing that everyone needs to remember i mean thank you very much for being with us on this show and we're all praying for exactly what you're praying for that people do come home lose still alive will make it back to their families at the end of this ordeal a state of war families completely done down in their beds we have no idea where is she as our soldiers are fighting on the front line but the general perception is something that certainly needs to to be fought as well israel bajo ataque news 24 en español trae el análisis y la información de los acontecimientos de la guerra espadas de hierro entrevistas exclusivas reportes desde la zona de guerra la reacción de los países hispano parlantes news 24 el único medio en español que te mantiene informado y conectado con la comunidad latina en israel news 24 únicamente en i24 news but decisively the idf is moving deeper into gaza in practically every corner here signs of terrorism are found as the forces rated the private residents of a senior chamas official this is what they found suitcases containing five million shekels roughly 1.5 million us dollars meant purely for terrorism as well as weapons and rocket launchers yes all this in a private residence along with a ground maneuver and the aerial activity there is a constant search for hostages following the tragic incident in which three hostages were mistakenly shot by the idf chief of staff heritia levy came to visit the forces in order to reinforce the rules of conduct in these very delicate situations if it's two gozans with a white flag coming out to surrender would we shoot them absolutely not that's not the idea even those who fought us and now lay down their arms and raise their hands we arrest them we don't shoot them it may be somewhat unfair to judge the soldiers acting in this very tense environment but even if he doesn't say directly the chief of staff believes this incident could have had a different outcome three people came out they took the risk of approaching the idf troops to minimize that risk they took off their shirts so that no one would think they have an explosive device and they held a white cloth on a pole to identify themselves the friday incident and the desperate hebrou signs found in the home where the hostages were held surveys a reminder of this tragic reality a reality that needs to be resolved old yagil and his 16-year-old brother or were held for weeks by Hamas terrorists before they were released on november 27th as part of a temporary ceasefire deal their father though remains at the hands of the terrorists more in this report rena yagil and or who but you know how important it is to empower and strengthen all the children of the gaza envelope i want to invite you to light a seventh hanukkah candle our light the light of all of us is your return home let the light illuminates their way back and a great miracle will be here just before they lit the seventh kennel of hanukkah in a lot we met renana a mother whose two boys returned home only two weeks ago their father is still in gaza in captivity my brothers came to accompany me during these difficult days and forced me to go down here and enter the sea and snorkel to pass the time so on the day when my children went through this whole process and i was waiting nervously i snorkeled i went in from here until we were there to the bridge and back we spent another hour or in yagil were released in the fourth exchange i put crazy pressure on the members of the cabinet so that yagil was on the list because he was held by the islamic jihad he had to be transferred to hamas it was not clear if he was transferred and until there was family reunification they were not ready that was a condition right family reunification our condition so they weren't ready to release both of them and they had to transfer yagil yes everyone knows that yagil was with the jihad he was their presenter they chose the best presenter there was he said they did 50 takes they harassed him all night before that to probably get him to the studio they gave him a message sheet the first thing that was the most important for him to say bb are you listening the most important thing for him was to say that he didn't mean what he said there at all my sons were alone in my house sleeping they got into the safe room they called me scared to death they said they hear someone breaking into our home the door to the safe they were taken from the same house they threatened them with a knife put him up in boxers a boy in boxers with a knife to his throat they put him on an electric bicycle and after he left they took his brother renana who until october 7th was the head of kibbutz holit on october 16th took a new role she led the initiative for the return of the kidnapped children the discussion at that moment was about freeing foreign citizens israeli citizens with foreign passports there was no prioritization for children it took me 48 long hours to get the children's lists i turned to kfaraza i turned to berri and we started working etan stiva brought the money to the initiative professor cehanover was involved along with many other important people and the civic initiative led to four meetings of the parents of the kidnapped children with qatari representatives now the initiative is changing its face fighting for the return of men who remain captive men remained like it's okay my children's father came out injured probably seriously we don't know exactly what his condition is we haven't received any sign of life it keeps me awake and i admit that until you see my son he has to celebrate bar mitzvah we didn't even have the going up to the torah because he wants his father what did your children say there were very complex descriptions of loneliness because they were not together so one was really lonely and the other was with other people from our community to my delight the fact that you are with people who know you and care for you and you have someone to care for is something very significant the other one was really alone alone alone alone alone then he spent another 10 days with a seriously injured tie worker what does a child do alone for 30 days looks at the window learns the azan by heart watches lots and lots of al jazeera unfortunately learns arabic talks to his captors how he puts it i was without a phone so the brain started working he learned about them who they were and how many children they had and he looked and learned about the family sitting across the window he used his head the children are very very very worried about the condition of both their father and other fathers who stayed there including all those they met and were with the knowledge that he is there from the terrible place they were in they know unlike us they also know exactly what it looks like this fact is unbearable for them and how is sheer she is relatively okay singing is very difficult since they returned it's very difficult for her to bear the fact that her father is still there the discourse has become a discourse of another attack in canunis and another rocket hit in televiv in the next step in the strategy game you're playing you moved on to canunis and then you will move on to rafa and it is unbelievable under all this destruction there are 137 people sitting today waiting for you to get them out of there it's insane i'm not a great general the only thing i can say is that at the level of the state's contract moral agreement with its citizens you owe them you owe them get them out of there now you owe it to them these are people whose only sin was that they believed in you enough to sit there and maintain a community on the border between the lighting of the hanukkah candles and the meeting with the president the children as renana says returned to the regular thing from the past they quickly adapted their new life living in a hotel but every morning the first thing they ask is if there is a hostage deal and if dad is on the list and here in israel citizens are increasingly furious at the international red cross for lackluster efforts to secure access to israeli hostages while the icrc says they have no power to force the issue with the hamas terror group the icrc has not even made the token effort to get hostages their necessary medications something that israelis have noticed my son is suffering from asthma he need to use his inhaler and at that time you say that you will do everything in order to help them and i'm sure i'm sure you try and you try to do your best but my son cannot wait anymore and i'm sorry i cannot wait anymore this is his inhaler please make sure that he will get it i don't know the address or visit in gaza but we need he needs to get it and by the way this is your job right this is the job of the red cross please do your job it's worth noting that the international red cross was founded with the explicit purpose of ensuring humanitarian protections and assistance for the victims of war and other situations of violence but for so many israelis the icrc is failing that mission entirely when it comes to the hostages held by hamas in gaza the red cross being quite vocal publicly about the humanitarian situation of the palestinians in gaza but when it comes down to israeli hostages not so much this has drawn ire by the families of those hostages and the loved ones of those held captive in gaza we're gonna have so much more on that in this report adapted from local channel 12 news many emotions on display at the demonstration in front of the jaffa home of alessandra menagon the red cross representative in israel these voices are from all over israel and testify to the broad feelings among the public israelis simply do not like the red cross let her move from jaffa go leaving gaza i don't think she should be here i don't think she should be sharing the same oxygen with me right now so these are some of our offices for our operations we have cooperation um some economic security this week we receive permission to visit the offices of the international red cross in east jerusalem a body that acts discreetly its officials say this is the most successful way to deliver humanitarian aid to war victims around the world we do also have more teams operating in gaza and in the west bank area but the fact is for over 70 days the organization has not met any of the scores of hundreds of hostages held by hamas in gaza they have not provided any humanitarian aid or medicine the red cross says it's not that it doesn't want to it's that it can't people sometimes have the idea that the red cross is an organization that can achieve anything in conflict that we can swoop in anywhere we can access anywhere and while we work so that we can do this we always need the agreement of parties in conflict one of the fundamental principles of the red cross is the fact that it is neutral it must not take sides in any conflict in order to be acceptable to both parties our neutrality means that sometimes publicly we don't say things so that behind the closed doors in the direct discussions with the people involved with the parties involved with hamas we can say what needs to be said and know that we can have that dialogue that we can engage with them but when red cross president maryana spoliarych visited gaza two weeks ago she released a video that outraged many i've just visited the european gaza hospital and the things i saw there is it's beyond anything that anyone should be in a position to describe it took her a minute and a half to mention the israeli abductees and then it appeared only casually we have to protect the rights of the hostages when she arrived in israel for a short visit she met the members of the families of the abductees they had harsh words for her in recordings obtained by yulan cohen the tone of the meeting is clear yes i left the meeting shaken i don't know how you can sit so coldly in front of people who tell you that their loved ones are in such a difficult situation and your answer is so correct and so measured my son has a colitis disease and it's his medicine i don't want my son that will come back in a black plastic bag you've been at gaza last week at the philistine hospitals if they afford you to go inside gaza you need to ask or maybe to condition it by medicine for our kids or beloved that are injured and they are sick the members of the families also brought up spaliaritch's message from gaza as i saw it i thought the iclc is going only on one side so i'm asking you if the hamas don't give you any operation to go to the hospital or to give us the sign of life don't go inside gaza israel and the abductees families expect the red cross to take a clear position against hamas the organization claims it cannot do this public pressure it's not going to work because if the more public pressure we seemingly would do the more they would try to do well i'm not sure that they would they would a condemnation by the red cross which has such a large platform and so many international connections can change the narrative in the entire world as soon as it condemns hamas and that will change the story here as well for the abductees about three weeks ago israel held its breath when some released abductees made their way from gaza to the egyptian raffa crossing in red cross jeeps that sparked the criticism that this is what the organization's activity is all about a shuttle service you're like a taxi cab you're an uber you should be ashamed of yourself you call it uber you call it taxi you call it not enough and i'm not even agree not enough but everything we could we have done it maybe we're only a taxi but we did it nobody else did it after the disappointment of the meeting with the president the abductees family's campaign headquarters decided to intensify the fight against the organization by placing a container to collect medicines and sanitary equipment in hostages square in televieve the intent pass it on to the red cross offices and from there to the kerim shalom crossing on the border of the gaza strip well some 800 israeli children from the city of steahot have been unable to return to their homes since the attacks on october 7th they're currently staying in the red sea city of elat these kids grew up under constant threat of hamas rockets now though they are longing to go home still no idea though when they will be able to do that we've got more we did not want to disrupt the class but the rumor about the camera in the school's halls spread quickly only nicole kept to herself she had something more important to do oh for the last 67 days the children of steahot are scattered in different hotels in elat even though they were born to a reality of sirens and rockets they still can't comprehend the events of that morning when they woke up to terrorists walking around their city since then they have been here between the hotel the temporary school the promenade and other attractions we came here to hear from them a little bit of what they are going through where are they some of the buildings that are still in the buildings as far as the side there are those that have also been built or that they will come back later i don't okay because my house is a big one it's the first one in the house why is it a secret so it's kind of scary it's the first one in the house and I don't want you to come back close the educational staff here at amichai school is composed of steahot's teachers who know every child personally along with idf teachers and many volunteers that do everything they can to embrace the children it's not always easy some of the kids lost the people they love more than anything like halel whose uncle went on a morning jog on october 7th and never came back to the school okay I think I'll see you in the sky and in the sky there is a place that is with us in the room now to be all the photos and pictures of these things. At first, we thought that there were no cameras and that it was something else. Then, we took this blue jeep with the cameras and put it in the car. Are there any cameras for you? Yes. For us, it's not a test, because I really don't know what it's about. But again, it's not a test and it's not a test for the world. We had to go to the house to try to understand what it's about. Because we can't understand it. Children in the village don't really need to know what it's about. It's something that can't be fixed. And today, do you want to see them from the cell? Or not to Gamre? Not to Gamre? Because it can't be fixed. It's not something that can be fixed. People hear about it everywhere and it's still not working on it. It's known that people who come to you, people that we don't know, in families that talk on TV and hear how difficult it is for them and the problems that are there, it's scary. It's a very different thing. You can't eat more. You can eat more and more and more and more and more and more and more. It's impossible. I don't want to talk about what's happening now in Gaza and what's happening to families who are also fighting for it, who are fighting for it. Do you think it's a lot? Do you want to go back to your home for a few minutes? I really want to. But it's very difficult to go back to the village. It's very difficult to come to the village and there's no way to talk about what's going on in the village, or that suddenly there's a man's army or that suddenly starts to attack. You don't know what it is, because we really don't know. I want to, but I'm afraid to go back. Before the war, I would have been friends to say and do things, but now I don't know how to do it. In the end they said that there is only one way to go back. I told my father that I would go back to the village and he said, Yes, but I would go back. I told him that I would go back. I would go back. I would go back. I don't have any money. Do you think the question is what he said to you? He said that if the house is empty, it's like it needs to be. Today, over two months after October 7th, Styrot is still deserted and empty. The residents who are perceived as tough and immune will take a long time to recover from the images of the pickup trucks roaming the streets. Do you believe that such a thing can happen again? Yes. Really? Yes, it will happen again. You said that you don't have any idea what's going on. They already did it. They took it, they took it, they took it. They already did it. Do you believe that the residents will be empty without the garbage, without the village and the village? I believe that today, tomorrow, it will be a better place for them to leave. I already believe that they will leave. Why? They won't let us go. They won't, neither will Hamas, nor Yaza, and Yaza will be empty without the garbage. I believe that Hamas won't be empty. They will leave, and we will leave. What does that mean? The garbage will be empty. Do you think we will leave? Of course. Because it takes a lot of time. Really? The garbage will be empty too. How? The garbage will be empty. I will leave. The garbage will always be empty. The garbage will be empty. Okay. That's the only way. Did we leave them? Yes. Let's leave the garbage. Okay. Let's leave. If there is anything that crushes the heart, it is listening to children that lost their innocence, and furthermore, their optimism. Children that in one moment became adults that, like all of us, are still living through that morning. To this day, no one can tell them when the hands of the clock that stopped on October 7th will move again. Arthur King's famous 1968 mountaintop speech was based on his trip to the Promised Land. 55 years later, his prophetic words are coming true. Hundreds of African-American women took a journey of a lifetime to the Holy Land. We'll introduce you to the amazing female spiritual and religious leaders who are infusing new energy into the next generation of African-Americans.


We're here at the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference 2014 in Busan in the Republic of Korea and I'm very pleased to be joined by Mr. Luis Fernando Borjon Figueroa, who is the Commissioner for the Federal Institute for Telecommunications in Mexico. Mr. Borjon Figueroa, thank you very much for being here today. Thanks to you. Now, this Plenipotentiary Conference comes at a challenging time for the ICT industry. It's at a time of great opportunity, but also at a time where issues like financing new network capacity is becoming critical. In a fast-evolving environment, what do you think needs to be done to ensure that everyone gets the access they need? Well, I think that there has to be a strong commitment from every one of the countries towards developing this sort of networks. For instance, in the case of Mexico, we have been having a structural reform and telecommunications that has established clear goals to develop a new network, a new wholesale network based on the 700-meter-hertz band to encourage investor competition and development of new competitors. This will be a public-private partnership that is going to be run by the government and going to be seeking a new partner from the private sector to do so. We as a regulator have been created with a constitutional level to guarantee that this will be done in a neutral fashion, meaning that while the government is intervening to foster this new network, we will guarantee that this will be done unbiased, meaning in a neutral fashion. I think this is a way to go on doing these sort of projects with this strong commitment from the country. And what are the priorities of Mexico in the next four years to the next planet potentially? Well, right now we're in the middle of the TV transition. I guess everybody's running through that project. We are seeking to finish the transition by the end of 2015. That is one priority. Another one is we need to change the conditions for competition. We have been implementing asymmetric rules for that matter with what we call the preponder employer. There are some other goals, as I mentioned, in fostering the development of a wholesale network. We are as well reorganizing the spectrum to provide new opportunities for competition as well as running through the challenges on going to the least developed regions of the country while seeking new opportunities for broadband in the future. Of course, another part that is very important is to consolidate this new independent regulator that we are, the Federal Institute of Telecommunications, as a guarantee to regulate telecommunications and broadcasting and every competition issue that deals with that. Can you tell us a little bit about the progress and the goals of the wholesale network in Mexico and how this will foster competition and network access? Yes. This is a project that was established at the Constitution. It's a very important way to try to go deeply into more broadband penetration. We are using the capacity of the 700 mHz band, 90 mHz of this band to implement the project with a national basis of coverage. We are seeking coverage of 98% of the population and this network has to be operated by 2018. Right now, we're in the middle of developing the basis together with the executive power. The executive power is going to be doing the project and the public-private partnership. We will seek that these bases are neutral on the competition basis and the project will begin for the auction probably by the beginning of the first quarter of 2015. So you're optimistic for the future of telecommunications in Mexico then? Absolutely. And that's the reason that we have just raised our contribution to the ITU. We believe that the ITU is the right forum to discuss these issues, to go into broader ICTs penetration to the public, better services, better opportunities for economical growth. Thank you very much indeed for being here today. Thanks to you.


I'm gonna go to work. Okay. Come on. This is Ray. Come here. Search. Ray's a rookie. Good boy. This is the Fred group, so it stands for the Front Range Explosives Detection Group. These are all officers that train every week to keep our community safe. That's a good boy. Even though these dogs are initially trained on all the explosive orders, they're like an athlete. They need to be working out every day. They need to train keep their senses sharp. Good boy. It's like a big Easter egg hunt for him. He finds something. I yell a command to him, and he knows that he found it. He comes back to me and gets his toy, and he's happy. Oh yeah, that's a good dog. We look for a strong hunt drive. They want to go all the time. You know, they want to hunt, hunt, hunt. Good.  So, and he has a high drive. That's why he was selected just for his energy and his tenacity to hunt. Good boy. We like labs. Our temperament's great. They're cute too, right? Good doggy.