Israel military steps up presence across southern Israel after unprecedented Hamas attack
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00:00 out the latest. Let's speak to our correspondent in Jerusalem, Eris Mackler. Hello to you, Eris.
00:04 What is the latest information you have at the moment?
00:07 I can tell you that more than 30 hours after this operation from Hamas in Gaza into southern
00:14 Israel began, there are still Hamas militants in certain pockets of the south of the country.
00:21 And we hear reports of firefights at a place called Be'eri, at a place called Kisufim,
00:27 another one called Kfar Azza. And there have been rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip
00:32 into Kisufim and Kfar Azza during that fighting, which would make you think that's a coordinated
00:38 attack from Hamas. Israel says that in a fourth place, Yatid, they have now cleared it. That is,
00:44 they have both killed the Palestinian militants or taken some prisoner. So that's the picture
00:51 there. What they are aiming to do, and they're still going house to house to free Israelis who
00:56 are still more than 30 hours later in their bomb shelters awaiting that rescue. They're trying to
01:02 get all the civilians out, partly because they're traumatized by these events, by the hundreds of
01:08 dead around them and by everything they've endured. And also, I think, to take them out of rocket
01:13 range. And if Israel does want to organize a ground offensive, it's better to have this area
01:19 clear. So I think all those things together are part of Israel's motives. At the same time,
01:24 we have to say that Hamas has put forward, has put out information saying that it has sent
01:30 reinforcements in to its soldiers inside Israel. That is actually theoretically possible because
01:36 the fence hasn't been secured. But I haven't heard an Israeli confirmation of that at the moment.
01:42 But I have heard the Israeli defense spokesman saying that there are relentless air attacks
01:50 inside the Gaza Strip by Israeli planes and that they are targeting the homes of Hamas leaders,
01:56 both political and military. And Neers, any more information about the reports about scores of
02:05 people being taken hostage by Hamas, some of them reportedly being taken back to Gaza?
02:10 Yes, you know, it took many hours after Hamas said that they had hostages yesterday,
02:16 I think about 12 hours actually, for the Israeli military to confirm that there were hostages,
02:21 both soldiers and civilians. It hasn't specified numbers, and I suspect it's because it doesn't
02:26 know those numbers. And I say that because I've been speaking to people who are looking for lost
02:31 loved ones. And there's an entire program I've just been listening to, where people ring in to
02:36 say, I'm looking for this person, they describe them, it's actually a phone in and they leave
02:40 their numbers in case someone else in the country has seen them or knows where they are.
02:45 So that implies to me that the army actually has no idea. And what they've set up is a DNA sampling
02:52 point where people come, they give their DNA, and then they'll be checked off with, you know,
02:56 with the morgue, with the hospitals. And by a process of elimination, they'll be able to figure
03:01 out that perhaps, you know, who it is, what the numbers are of the people who are held hostage in
03:06 Gaza, unless you've actually seen them on footage that Hamas has released.
03:12 All right, Eris, thank you very much.
03:13 Eris Mackler reporting from Jerusalem.