In this exclusive interview, Lt. Col. (Res.) Avital Leibovich, former spokesperson for the IDF, joins Nagen Singh from OneIndia to discuss the escalating situation in Tel Aviv as the Israel-Hamas war marks its one-year anniversary. Leibovich emphasizes Israel's commitment to retaliating decisively against Iran and its proxies, warning that without a diplomatic solution, the conflict will continue to intensify. He addresses the casualties in Gaza, asserting that all 40,000 reported deaths were Hamas operatives, and highlights the effectiveness of the Iron Dome, stating it has been crucial in saving lives amid ongoing threats from Hezbollah.
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#IsraelHamasWar #TelAviv #IDF #AvitalLeibovich #IronDome #Iran #Hezbollah #ConflictResolution #MiddleEast #OneIndia #BreakingNews
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NewsTranscript
00:00There were multiple reports of Iron Dome crumbling, the batteries dismantled in the Hezbollah attack.
00:07How true is this report?
00:09Today as we are speaking, there are still seven active fronts against Israel.
00:13In the past couple of hours, Hamas fired five rockets towards the Tel Aviv vicinity.
00:20Think that if you want to live in a fantasy land, you can always read Hezbollah reports
00:25and Hamas reports and the affiliated media outlets which always glorify the amazing
00:31achievements. But the reality on the ground is very, very different.
00:35Iran, it's no question, it's the main actor here.
00:39It's the one pulling the strings of Hezbollah, of Hamas, of Palestinian Islamic Jihad,
00:45of the Houthis, of the pro-Iranian Iraqi militias,
00:49and of course, the Revolutionary Guards, which have a lot of bases in Syria.
00:53Hello and welcome. I'm Nageen Singh. This is One India.
00:56And of course, today, it's October 7, one of the most historic days.
01:01And the war began on this day when Hamas attacked Israel.
01:06So today, we are connected with the former IDF spokesperson, Lieutenant Colonel Avital
01:12Levovich. And she is going to tell us more about what is happening in Israel,
01:18how the war is unfolding, and let's see what IDF is planning because on October 1,
01:27Iran attacked Israel in Operation True Promise 2.
01:31Now, thank you so much for joining us, Ms. Levovich. Tell us what is the situation right
01:37now. We are getting the news that Hamas has hit Haifa and Tel Aviv and Hezbollah also have fired
01:47on Haifa. So what is the situation right now in Israel?
01:51The situation remains that Israel is still fighting seven fronts. On October 7, just one
01:59year ago, as you mentioned, Hamas surprised us, attacked us in the most brutal way I think the
02:06world ever saw. But since then, on October 8, Hezbollah joined. And then in the course of the
02:13months, we saw Yemen, we saw Syria, we saw Iraq. In April, we saw Iran all join and attack Israel.
02:21So today, as we are speaking, there are still seven active fronts against Israel.
02:26In the past couple of hours, Hamas fired five rockets towards the Tel Aviv vicinity.
02:34Fortunately, no one was killed. There were a few landings in open areas, a little bit of damage
02:42to a car or a building. But other than that, of course, this was to symbolize that Hamas still has
02:49the capability. We know it has the capability, but this is not, you know, what Hamas was like
02:56a year ago when it had a huge amount of people and so on. Last night, Hezbollah fired a few rockets
03:04to the Haifa area and the Beirut area. There too, there were two people who were moderately injured
03:11and a little bit of damage. But overall, I think people in Israel are quite disciplined after one
03:16year of sitting in shelters. Whenever they hear the sirens, they know what they need to do.
03:21Right. And of course, we have the amazing air defense systems which protects us. There were
03:26multiple reports of Iron Dome crumbling, the batteries dismantled in Hezbollah attack.
03:34How true is this report? I think that if you want to live in a fantasy land, you can always
03:40read Hezbollah reports and Hamas reports and the affiliated media outlets which always glorify
03:47the amazing achievements. But the reality on the ground is very, very different. First of all,
03:53the Iron Dome batteries spread all over the country has something like 90% success rate
04:01capabilities, which is unprecedented worldwide. But in addition to this, let's talk about the
04:07numbers. We know that at least 14,000 of Hamas terrorists have been eliminated in just one year.
04:16That's a huge number if you compare it to other operations in the region. But people say this is
04:20not 40,000 Hamas terrorists. It includes women and children as well. That's what the UN is also
04:26saying. Because the UN is actually quoting and the other sources are quoting the same sorts,
04:32which is Hamas, Hamas's Ministry of Health, as they call it. And obviously, we caught them many,
04:38many times lying over and over again. For example, if you notice how long it takes the Hamas Ministry
04:46of Health to publish a number after a certain attack, it's usually minutes and they can give
04:52numbers like 50, 60, although it's obvious that they didn't count anything or they don't know
04:58anything. Of course, they never publish the full list of names. Of course, they hide the facts that
05:03are terrorists. We know for a fact, and we see the numbers declining in the last year, that Hamas
05:09capability is really, really diminished in terms of their military capabilities. Yes, they do have
05:16a few rockets left. This is not a secret. This is not something that Israel is hiding. And by the way,
05:22they can also fire a few rockets tomorrow. But for their military capabilities, this is really
05:28a huge decline. And right now, in the last couple of months, they're working more in a guerrilla
05:33kind of way rather than the military way. We also have reports that IDF is trying to invade Lebanon
05:40and Hezbollah and IDF forces. They're having ground ops. They are clashing on the ground. And
05:47there are reports of killings on both sides, of course. What do you think is going to happen if
05:54there is ground invasion happening? Who has, you know, who has an edge in this war if the ground
06:01ops happen, not the war, the fierce war, which is happening when they are attacking and bombing the
06:07cities. But when the ground ops happen, who do you think have an edge, Hezbollah or IDF? So on
06:15October 8, Hezbollah, a year ago, Hezbollah decided to attack Israel without any trigger from the
06:21Israeli side. They decided to stand by Hamas. And since then, they have launched more than 12,000
06:28different types of munitions. Now, Israel gave diplomacy a chance for 11 months while we lost
06:35lives of 50 people, while rockets were fired, sometimes 100 rockets a day, sometimes 200
06:42rockets a day. So for 11 months, Israel gave diplomacy a chance with an American envoy,
06:48German envoy and a French envoy. This changed two weeks ago. Two weeks ago, Israel launched a ground,
06:54a very limited ground operation, which is limited to the area close to the border with Lebanon,
07:01between Israel and Lebanon, which we refer to as South Lebanon. This is an area with
07:07dozens, many dozens of villages, which served as a hotbed for Hezbollah's activities against Israel.
07:14Right. These were the locations where Hezbollah fired those rockets in the last year towards
07:19Israel, anti-tank, different kinds of rocket capabilities. Plus, this is the area where they
07:26store their weapons. So that's the reason why after 11 long months of giving diplomacy a chance,
07:33and it failed, Israel decided to make sure that the residents, those 63,000 people in Israel,
07:40who had to evacuate their homes due to this aggression, can return safely to their homes
07:46one day. And the only way to do that is really to make sure that this entire strip, the southern
07:51Lebanon strip, is clean from weapons, from terrorists, and so on. And by the way, one of
07:57the things we have found are plans of a commando unit of Hezbollah called Radwan Forces, and the
08:03plan was to infiltrate into Israeli communities, just like Hamas did on the envelope of Gaza
08:10a year ago. So I think this is a critical, critical operation. I can tell you that
08:18the numbers I have are indicating that more than 400 Hezbollah terrorists have been eliminated
08:26just since the operation on this specific area had begun two weeks ago. But there are multiple
08:32issues that Israel is facing. Of course, Iran is one of them. It is not that the resistance forces
08:37are only attacking. Also, Iran had the direct hit on Israel, and the world was bracing for
08:47IDF attack on Iran, but it did not happen. What are your views? What is going to happen? How IDF
08:54is going to react after the October 1st attack on Tel Aviv? Well, Iran, it's no question, it's
09:01the main actor here. It's the one pulling the strings of Hezbollah, of Hamas, of Palestinian
09:07Islamic Jihad, of the Houthis, of the pro-Iranian Iraqi militias, and of course, the revolutionary
09:14guards, which have a lot of bases in Syria. So without Iran, we would not be in this situation
09:20to begin with. They are giving the directives, they are giving the funding, they are giving the
09:24orders. Now, Israeli officials said repeatedly that following those 200 ballistic missiles
09:33that were targeting us, and I was sitting in a shelter with my family for an hour, hearing the
09:39explosions outside of my house, as millions of Israelis heard, this is something that will not
09:45go by unanswered. I assure you, there will be an Israeli response, it will be a severe response,
09:52it will be a tough response, and I hope the Iranians, the Iranian regimes, of course we
09:57have nothing against the Iranian people, which I know they're suffering too, I hope the Iranian
10:02regime will understand the message after the attack. The timing of the attack has a few elements,
10:09intelligence, readiness, approving the plans in the Israeli cabinet, and so on. So it doesn't have
10:16to be necessarily within 48 hours of the attack, but it will happen, I have no doubt about it.
10:22One question I want to understand, you have been part of IDF, how does it work when IDF is
10:28planning, you know, big assassinations? Nasrallah killed, Ismail Haniyeh killed, so many big
10:35assassinations in these 365 days. What do you have to tell our viewers,
10:44how all these big operations are planned, what are the things that, you know, a force takes care of
10:50before taking such big steps, because the retaliation could lead to a much bigger war,
10:56you know, all-out war. In one word, intelligence, in two words, great intelligence. So basically,
11:03these are terrorists who Israel has been following from an intelligence capabilities,
11:09human, all sent others, 24-7 for many, many years. It's not something that started yesterday,
11:16or a month ago, or three months ago, obviously. So when you have the intelligence information,
11:23when you have all conditions on the ground, which are relevant, for example, there are no
11:30civilians who are uninvolved in terror, which are in the area. When the situation,
11:36when the weather permits, when you have the right tools, and when this meets your goal,
11:41for example, to return the safety and security to Israel, then you can attack. So we are talking
11:47about long-time intelligence developing, collecting from different means, from different levels,
11:56on these terrorists, and for the right timing to happen. Right. Well, what are your views about
12:03IDF's operation in Gaza? Do you think Hamas has been completely eliminated? Because Netanyahu,
12:10PM Netanyahu said that their major focus or the biggest goal is to completely eliminate Hamas,
12:18but Hamas is still operating. Of course, the many big names, they have been assassinated,
12:24killed. There are several reports of IDF inside the tunnels. The tunnels have been destroyed.
12:31Of course, Hezbollah tunnels is a new problem. But where do you see Hamas elimination? Has the
12:38goal been achieved or there is a lot to achieve yet? There are two goals in Gaza with regard to
12:44the war in Gaza. Number one is to collapse Hamas military and government. That has been achieved,
12:51I would say, something like 90, 90 percent in some areas, even 100 percent. So in most of Gaza,
12:58there is no Hamas governance. You can see it here and there in small neighborhoods, in small areas,
13:05but in large, you don't see Hamas governing Gaza. And from the military perspective, it's the same.
13:11Almost all the brigade commanders of Hamas have been eliminated. So you see, I think there is
13:17one brigade commander who is left. There are a few battalion commanders who are left, but there
13:21are not many terrorists under them so they could operate them. So overall, I would say this goal
13:29has been mostly achieved. The second goal was to return the hostages. And here, unfortunately,
13:35we have not achieved the goal for multiple reasons. The main one is that the leader of Hamas
13:41is not interested to reach any kind of deal with Israel, Qatar, with Egypt. So I would say 50 percent
13:48of the goals have been achieved, and that's why there are still forces in Gaza, boots on the ground,
13:54still operating to remove the last terrorists from the area. Well, my last question, and that comes to
14:02Iran and Israel. In case of ground operations, Israel has a much lesser army and great
14:10technology. I must say they're technically very advanced than any other country. But when it comes
14:16to ground operation, Iran has much bigger, you know, force, army, not Israel. In that case, how will it
14:24turn out? I don't think this is a relevant issue because the distance between Iran and Israel
14:30is 1,300 kilometers. So I don't see a situation in which Iran will risk the lives of its own
14:39military in order to attack Israel. That's the reason it's using proxies like Hezbollah,
14:43like Hamas, like Islamic Jihad, like different militias in Iraq, like the Houthis. I think that
14:52after the next response that Israel will retaliate to Iran, I think more capabilities,
14:59more Israeli capabilities will be revealed, and Iran will need to recalculate its route
15:06vis-Ã -vis Israel and the region. I'm optimistic. I have to say, although this is a day of mourning
15:13here in Israel for us, we're all commemorating those 1,200 people who were murdered on October
15:207 a year ago and the soldiers that were killed and are still dying in order to defend this
15:27country. But I am optimistic that at the end of the day, Israel will overcome its enemies far
15:34and near, and there will be a brighter future, not only for the Middle East, but for the entire
15:40world because the long arms of Iran do not stop only here in the region, but they reach Europe,
15:47they reach Latin America, they reach North America. The world would be a better place without
15:54the horrendous regime in Iran. But how do you see the war ending? How do you see the war will end
16:02and when? I think at the end of the day, the war is not going to end around the corner. We're not
16:08there yet. And again, seven fronts is a big load to deal with. At the end of the day, Israel is not
16:15a war-savvy country, so it will have to be a diplomatic solution. I hope sooner rather than
16:24later, but I do hope to see those hostages at home before we see anything else. Diplomacy,
16:31obviously, is the answer. You know, to those watching us now, I would urge all of you to
16:38think and look at the restraint that Israel has practiced for such a long time. You know that the
16:44first rocket that was fired from Gaza to Israel was 23 years ago. For 23 years, Israel has been
16:54dealing with this rocket attacks, and it's attacks on civilians. It's not an attack on bases or
16:59things like that. And Hezbollah is the same since 1982. So this is something that Israel needs to
17:07deal with to protect itself. It has the right like any other country to do so, and that's the plan.
17:13Well, thank you so much for your time and explaining to us what is the situation and
17:19giving us a feel of how is Tel Aviv right now. We just hope that this war ends as soon as possible.
17:27So many lives lost in Israel, Hamas war, of course, Russia and Ukraine having their own war.
17:33So we hope that things come to a peace. Thank you so much for your time.
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