Hamas Accepts Ceasefire Proposal, Rafah Invasion Remains Imminent | CBN News

and welcome to CBN News live coverage my name is Dan Andros and I am joined Now by cbn's Chris Mitchell who is Middle East bureau chief for CBN News George Thomas CBN News correspondent and also Chuck Holton CBN News War correspondent so gentlemen thanks so much for being here obviously we have the breaking news today uh Israel Chris we'll start with you making a big warning here uh to the citizens to the Palestinians there near Rafa and to Israelis as after weeks of negotiations Hamas finally broke off the negotiations and I think there were two deal breakers for Hamas and that Israel would not agree to two things first of all the end of the war and then getting out of Gaza completely uh those are non-starters for Israel and uh Hamas apparently had dragged on the negotiations uh knowing that Israel was under a lot of pressure from the Biden Administration from Nations to go not go into Rafa but uh but later yesterday as well it was uh Ministry yav Galant who said that uh negotiations broken down and get ready to go into Rafa he was talking to troops about that I was at Yad vashem last night which is the uh Israel's memorial for the Holocaust The Six Million Jews who died there and uh heard prime minister Netanyahu say regardless All Nations uh come against his Israel uh they will go we see this is sort of a a battle for their survival and uh and so that's part of the decision of what's happening today we'll see how this unfolds uh already we see some limited bombing uh in and we also see that the IDF has uh distributed uh thousands of leaflets telling uh thousands of Palestinians to go to Safe areas uh right near Rafa all right Chris and uh George you know a lot of the International Community including like Chris was just saying there the bid Administration putting the pressure really on Israel saying hey you need to you need to go ahead and this get this ceasefire as Biden Administration said is the best way for for to ensure the safety of these prisoners but you don't hear a lot of talk about the prisoners themselves they've been here they've been there for months now at this point so what is your reaction when when you saw this news today George yeah well I think we got a of what was coming down the pike so to speak um about a week and a half ago when there was all of this uh talk and and and you know discussion about a potential ceasefire and what the Israelis had proposed secretary blinken uh traversing through uh through the Middle East going to Jordan Saudi Arabia and then to Israel and basically saying uh to Hamas look this is a great deal take it and in return for the release of some 30 33 Israeli hostages the Palestinians would get in exchange thousands I think that's what David Cameron the U the British foreign secretary said while he was uh in Saudi Arabia um during these high level meetings he basically said look the Palestinians in exchange for 33 some Israeli hostages the Palestinians would get thousands of um of prisoners that the Israelis are holding so he was telling the telling Hamas and the Hamas leadership take the deal take the deal this is a good deal for you guys and what Israel is offering uh is very very generous that was the word from secretary blinkin but I think few days right before that with all of this negotiation and the shuttling back and forth with us and British diplomats to the region Benjamin Netanyahu the prime minister of Israel made it very clear uh irrespective of a ceasefire deal or not uh you know to go after Hamas uh you know the understanding from the Israelis is that the Hamas has about six battalions operating today in the Gaza Strip two of them are in the northern Enclave of the Gaza Strip four are in Rafa and uh Netanyahu made it very clear that that they had every intention to dislodge these four battalions uh in in the Rafa region and nothing was going to start them ceasefire or no ceasefire Deal or No Deal and so I think you saw in the last few days the last few hours especially over the weekend uh when when there were talks that this this was breaking down and Hamas had as as Chris mentioned come up with these two you know non-starters for the Israelis pulling out all Israeli troops and and an end to the War uh I think Netanyahu made it very very clear he was telegraphing it uh to Israelis to the region uh that they were going to go after Hamas and I think you're going to see that in the next couple of um hours perhaps potential days as they tried to get all these um Palestinians out of the Eastern quadrant of of Rafa yeah once again giving a giving a warning here to these people before they go in uh something that doesn't ever seem to happen on the other side when uh Hamas decides to attack or Iran decides to attack uh Israel so uh Chuck let's look at this thing militarily what what are we looking at here what types of action can we expect and how difficult of a process is this going to be okay so you've got about six battalions left they say of Hamas operatives operating inside Gaza as George said uh Battalion in this case is going to run about a thousand guys okay so 6,000 guys 4,000 of those are in Rafa the other 2,000 are still running around in Northern Gaza in the areas that the IDF has already been through and are still causing problems there uh the IDF for its part has pulled out all of its troops except for two brigades now brigades could be 10 to 20,000 troops and so now you're talking about uh 20 to 40,000 IDF AR rate against 6,000 uh or so Hamas Fighters now you have to understand that Hamas uh battalions are sort of ad hoc and so they these guys are not wearing uniforms they're not drilling they're not getting you know paid uh like soldiers they are military age males that may be fighting at one moment and maybe acting like a civilian at another moment it's very rare for the IDF to kill a Hamas operative who is wearing a uniform they only seem to wear uniforms in their propaganda videos and they otherwise dress like civilians and so they are melting into the civilian population and for that reason Hamas is going to very vehemently try to stop or the the uh civilians in Rafa from leaving now the IDF for its part has set up a very large safe Zone just to the uh west of Rafa that's actually larger than Rafa itself and they have said they they've already put the word out you need to get out of Rafa we are coming into Rafa if you don't want to fight us here's a safe place you can go we've set up tens of thousands of tents for you to live in we have medical care we have food um all of that available for the civilians over in that safe zones and if that doesn't work for them there are what they call Safer zones that are north of that that that safe Zone again is bigger than Rafa itself it it extends all the way up to banoon and then north of there there are even safer zones that have been cleared and are being guarded by IDF troops at the moment where people can go so there's not any excuse for people to not leave Rafa if they don't intend on fighting the problem is Hamas want is going to do everything they can to stop them from leaving because Hamas desperately needs dead Palestinian civilians in order to win this war the only chance that Hamas has to win this war is to win it in the information battle space uh and to do that they've got to have dead Palestinian civilians and so dead civilians Yaya Sinar said so himself in an interview at the beginning of this uh where they said what happens if 10,000 civilians die in Rafa I'm sorry in Gaza and Yaya sinmar said I I would wouldn't mind if a 100,000 civilians died in Gaza uh so they are willing to fight to the last gazin so to speak even if the gsin themselves are not willing to willing participants in that and that this is one of the things we have to keep pointing out that any collateral damage any civilian deaths that happen inside the Gaza Strip are definitely the fault of Hamas because Israel has done everything it can to bend over backwards to keep from harming innocent civilians and I mean they it is as you pointed out it's absolutely unprecedented for a military to actually announce that they're about to do this operation and that civilians should leave the area it's it's unprecedented for them to uh say which buildings they about to blow up it's unprecedented for them to provide water and Medical Aid and lots and lots of food that they know at least a portion of which is going to go to the enemies that they're fighting the United States never did that in Iraq the United States never did that in Afghanistan when we went into places uh in in Iraq like uh hit or um you know some of the the major battles we had in mosul or something like that the United States uh actually you know our air strikes killed a lot of civilians and uh you know we were not the the thing that's I guess ironic is that Anthony blinkin has now made Seven Trips to Israel to try to tell it Israel how to fight this war better when Israel has already been fighting this war far better than the United States ever fought in Iraq or Afghanistan and you know here we've essentially lost the last couple of wars that we've been through but yet Anthony blinkin thinks Anthony blinkin who by the way is a Harvard graduate has been in government his entire life and has never fought in a war has never served in the military he thinks that he can go and tell the IDF commanders how they need to uh prosecute this war against Hamas when they have already proven the IDF that they can do so very efficiently very deadly when they need to be yet save lots of Civilian lives in the process is just it's beyond the pale I I would believe yeah indeed and for all of you just joining us now I see a lot of people coming into this live stream now thank you so much for being here you're watching CBN news's live coverage of this imminent Invasion here really operation of uh Rafa that Israel has now warned uh people to get out as Chuck was just saying now and there plenty of advanced warning here and uh as Chuck was saying people now have a choice they either get out or they or they stay In Harm's Way uh at this point so if you have a question for Chris or George or Chuck just make sure you leave it in the chat here uh right question and big cap so we can see it you know we got a lot of chats coming through here sometimes we miss those so appreciate you all being here uh with us Chris you know we're talking about um essentially this the the move here happening that's imminent and you have these protests at home as well and it kind of mirrors in a a lot of the ways the the Biden Administration and sort of the messages that they're putting forth calling for the ceasefire and then obviously the protests on these campuses take uh even a whole another level uh but that's that's a separate conversation for this point but but what is netanyahu's sort of I don't know political position here I don't know how to phrase it any better but how is he feeling at least as far as the will to keep going forward what kind of pressure he getting internally in addition to what we're seeing externally uh Dan I think right now that politically uh n is in a fairly safe place uh because I think most Israelis feel like uh Israel has to finish this war and if it doesn't finish the war in Rafa and if it allows Hamas to survive then uh then they've lost the war and Hamas will will continue to survive uh and reconstitute themselves in either Northern Gaza or Rafa uh so I believe despite we've seen many many uh demonstrations about release the hostages now bringing them home now which is putting pressure on the government to make a deal any deal uh for the release of the hostages but on the other hand I think there is a uh less maybe visible less vocal uh majority of Israelis who feel uh there's really no way uh that they can allow Hamas to survive you have to believe that there is uh those communities that were attacked on October 7th uh most of those communities are still uh vacant uh tens of thousands of Israelis haven't gone back there because they don't consider it safe and even uh in the last week or so there's been Rockets uh that have been fired to some of these communities so on the one hand and we were at a rally in a March uh Saturday evening Dan where uh several thousand of Israelis came and uh marched telling the government don't stop go to Rafa they believe the road to Victory runs through Rafa now leading this demonstration were uh a few hundred parents mothers and fathers of those soldiers who have died in Gaza uh since October 7th and and they're quite adamant that they don't want the lives of their sons and daughters to be in vain and a couple other points they were making to me as we were discussing that was first of all the uh the whole region is watching what's happening right now you have Hezbollah the hoties Syrian Iranian Backes in Syria and Iraq and Iran itself are watching to see what um what Israel will do or not do in Rafa and if they don't complete the their mission against Hamas and defeat Hamas that will embolden them uh and the other thing is that they really don't understand and to uh to Chuck's point about Anthony blinkin coming here and telling Israel how to wage a war uh they're thinking why is Biden who apparently at the beginning was very supportive of Israel has really changed his uh his tune in the last few months and they believe that it might be domestic politics that is at play uh persuading the Biden Administration to put pressure on Israel to restrain them uh by going into Rafa and their point is we don't really need that we don't care about the domestic politics we're fighting for our survival right now so that's the message that sent to uh to Netanyahu so I think politically in terms of this Netanyahu uh has probably the backing of most Israelis around and as I said last night when he spoke at Yad vashem some people s thought it was sort of like a Churchill moment you know even if the whole world comes against us this is the Jewish and it's it's a reminiscent of the Holocaust and we're going to do what we can to protect the Jewish people and the Jewish State 76 years almost to the day after it was inaugurated so uh they're promising you know Netanyahu is promising they're going to keep going till Victory like you're just talking about there uh Chris so I'll start with you George but I want to open up to all the all you guys here what does how do we know when we have this Victory what what does it look like exactly uh and and how we'll be able to tell and when do you think they'll be if we're you know beyond Rafa here after Rafa happens it looks like it's gonna at what point do we know what that Victory looks like look I I think it's if you look at it from a military standpoint um in the eyes of the IDF uh it's their ability to completely destroy dismantle the governing structure the military operations the the various outposts that the that the that Hamas is using throughout the Gaza Strip to to operate from that their yanar sinir the their leader of Hamas is either killed or captured uh you know all of their top lieutenants are either killed or captured uh and in essence that they have been beaten to a pulp and completely destroyed and all of their battalions all of their uh operating structures are are eliminated uh and then obviously the big question is what comes next and then and then the operations in the north along the Israeli Lebanese border what happens to Hezbollah they've been somewhat quiet uh you know although they've been there's been you know ongoing action in the northern part of of of Israel uh but obviously you know completely destroying Hamas as a political and a military um institution would be would would be success on the side on the on the on the side of the Israelis you know destroying the mentality destroying the philosophy the ideology that is a much much that's another that's another discussion uh but I think there the ability to completely control the entire Gaza Strip uh deploy Israel forces in combination with maybe a a a un uh type uh Coalition force made up of the United States and other U uh countries that would then take control of the Gaza Strip and then eventually I don't know whether it's um you know the Palestinian Authority 2.0 or some other entity that comes in and takes control but we are a long way off uh from that um and obviously Hamas a senior Hamas official today said the cost for evacuation from Rafa has dramatically escalated the situation obviously there are going to be consequences uh for this uh move uh on on the part of on the part of the Israelis yeah Chuck did you want to hop in on what on the victory commentary yeah no I think you're exactly right both of you uh and what I would add to that is just to say that again we have this information war and we have the kinetic War Israel has to win the kinetic war and they will uh but it we're not anywhere close to them winning yet uh you have to remember that uh Hamas not only exists in Gaza but it exists in the West Bank in Judean Samaria and it exists in Lebanon as well there are Hamas operatives firing Rockets out of Lebanon into Israel uh even still I mean today there were a bunch of rockets that were fired out of there mostly most of the Rockets are fired by Hezbollah but there are Hamas cells up there as well and so they're not finished and they're not going to be finished when they get done with Rafa or or or anything else uh but that information War I don't know that is that there's much Israel could do to change the outcome of that part of the war it's probably already been decided the world has pretty much thrown Israel under the bus as they always do and that's why this speech by Benjamin Netanyahu at yah bashem was so important was so pivotal because he was saying even if the whole world is standing against us we are going to do what we have to do to keep our country safe if they win that kinetic battle and they don't win the information war that is their they don't change World opinion to support them more than it already does uh that's going to have to be okay because one of the hard and fast rules of U of warfare of global political strategy is that if your enemies don't respect you at least make them fear you and that's what Israel is going to have to do the IDF is going to have to make their enemies fear them and not worry about whether or not the world respects them for doing it uh we have we live in a world especially the the Western World which is you know just wrapped up in this idea that if we just make ourselves vulnerable enough that will make us safer you see that in the Second Amendment uh argument that they make in the United States and you see that in the military argument they're making with Israel right now if you just if you just make yourself just be nice just be nicer uh that that will be what you need to do to win the war well the Hamas operatives that fired Rockets into the Kem Shalom uh crossing point today and killed some IDF soldiers uh put that strategy to the LIE they show that that strategy will not work because here Israel has opened the Kem Shalom crossing point and let hundreds and hundreds of trucks full of Aid into aaza for weeks now and as and what does Hamas do they bomb the very point that brings in the aid while Hamas on one one side in public on their Twitter feed and everything is saying you know we we we need more we desperately need more Aid unra the mouthpiece of Hamas is is in there saying there is not enough Aid we've got to get more Aid into uh into Gaza while if you actually run the numbers they've already shipped enough Aid into to Gaza to feed every mouth in Gaza for about 6 months and they've now reached the point where they are shipping more a well as much Aid every day into Gaza in terms of food stuffs that they were shipping in before October 7th okay so they are getting enough Aid there's the aid is piling up and rotting inside Gaza right now so the aid they they don't need more aid but they have to make the world believe that they're people are starving in Gaza and be that is their greatest weapon is that that uh you know compassion using the world's compassion against Israel is the weapon that Hamas is trying to wield most right now yeah I mean and and look the information game certainly seems to be working for their side when you look at all these college campuses and they're saying all the thing they're saying all the things that you would think that Hamas is putting out there they're try these people that haven't obviously looked into it many of them admitting on camera they don't know what they're talking about but they're out there because they feel bad for all these people who are starving and and to your point they don't know why they're starving and how that all started um which is which is like you said Chu I I don't know how you overcome that it's so overwhelming and it's a lot of times backed up by by the media even some of the mainstream reporting I looked at on on this L latest warning still seems to put the burden on Israel all the time yeah that's what I'm pointing out is that Israel cannot they don't even need to try to overcome that anymore what they need to just focus on and what they are focusing on is making their enemies fear them rather than respect them I was good go ahead just I think it was today or late late yesterday evening just switching here slightly subjects one of the top leaders of the U of A Christian party in Lebanon went on air and publicly scolded his balah and in essence was talking about how this was a war that that that the Lebanese people did not want with Israel and that uh that the government of Lebanon uh should not be waging this war on the on behalf of Hezbollah what what you're seeing what's so different having just spent time a couple of weeks ago in the in South Lebanon what's so different it's so it's so clear as day the difference between what's happening in South Lebanon and What's happen today in Gaza is that the South Lebanese people are publicly speaking out against this Islamic terror group Hezbollah they are they are basically they're they're risking their life in order to tell the world that that not all Lebanon wants War uh with Israel what we're not seeing this same kind of narrative coming out of the Gaza Strip you're not seeing Palestinians who who can who I have the guts or the the you know the the just The Bravery to go up against against Hamas and I remember the the last war having spent almost two weeks in in Gaza uh you know people back then were you know they were they they did come out and and and criticize Hamas but it was a very different War at that time we don't have that kind of same boldness on the side of Palestinians who are trapped today I'm doing a piece on the CL on on faith Nation you know profiling these women and these children who are scrambling to get out of Rafa right now and they talk about my goodness I don't know if we're going to come back to a house that is still standing we were moved from the northern Enclave of the Gaza Strip now we we moved the last couple of months to Rafa and now they're telling us to move again trust me having spent time in the various parts of the Middle East and covering these wars folks like Hamas the pales Ians do not want to live under this kind of uh chaos and violence they don't as much as they may have antipathy or may have hatred against the Jewish people they I would I would suffice to say their hatred against Hamas is more it's just that they don't have a voice and the ability to speak out like those in South Lebanon uh and who who are living under the same kind of dictatorial autocratic Islamic Sharia kind of LIF sty yet they have the boldness now granted so many of them are Lebanese Christians but yet they have the boldness and they're continuing to speak out and uh so you can my at least my heart goes out to those today who are in Rafa who are having to for you know find themselves again displaced moving from another location all because of not Israel because of Hamas and what they have done over these many years since 2006 what they have done to the people the Palestinian people and the a strip there is no one to blame here but Hamas yeah I mean it's just incredible to think about it's almost an afterthought at this point the hostages I mean do we know how many are left still and what hope there is for any of them that are left it's it's really mindboggling to me guys to see almost it hardly mentioned at all that they still have him that's just like well that was kind of the whole thing at the beginning they took all these hostages and now so many of them have died and they've been there for what is it eight months now I mean it's it's Insanity so do you guys have any updates on do we even know how many prisoners are still alive well uh Dan I think there's uh there was 133 was the count the other day uh then they realized that one person they thought was a hostage actually uh died on October 7th so they believe the official number I believe is 132 excuse me I believe they say at least 30 of those have died uh so maybe just over a hundred that may be alive there have been a couple of propaganda videos that came out recently uh one was uh hsh Goldberg Poland uh he railed against netan and the government and there were two others uh that they released as well but just propaganda videos at least we know that a few uh have because of those videos are alive we understand that maybe 15 or 20 of those hostages uh surround y senoir uh his security blanket as it were to keep him uh protected and alive I just wanted to add a few points about what victory means in uh in Rafa I think first of all you know if uh as George said kill or kidnap uh or kill or uh eliminate uh Yaya senoir Muhammad de those are the two top leaders likely in Rafa uh free the hostages as much as possible one other thing I think would be to take control of What's called the Philadelphia Corridor that's the Egyptian Border in RA in Gaza and that's where Hamas gets much of its supplies ammunition and weapons and uh that is controlled by both Egypt and Hamas and I think that would be another sign of Victory uh uh I I wanted to ask a question of Chuck uh you know tell us about how slow this pace is going because Israel right now is uh not only under a microscope I mean even more than a microscope throughout this uh campaign but now the whole world is going to be looking to see how Israel proceeds and how many Palestinians may be killed in the process uh but how how deliberate do you think um Israel and the IDF are going to go proceed in Rafa I think what they're going to do and this is uh backed up by some of the reporting I saw today uh is they are going to start with a limited operation into Rafa not an allout operation uh and maybe even do kind of what they have done in Jude and Samaria which is uh going in doing a raid uh taking out a high value Target or something like that and then pulling back out uh and doing that several times before they go in and actually stay and hold ground inside Rafa uh this has been their strategy all along it's what they did at the very beginning it's what they did in in conun and it's what they've done now throughout the South uh they they don't tend to keep the ground that they hold uh there are certain areas that they kind of have to hold for example in the south in this area that they call this safe Zone that's to the west of Rafa where it it it's the area where the United States is building this pier uh to bring more Aid in and it's also the area along the beach where uh many there I guess 12 Nations now have been airdropping food and and supplies every day along the beach there to so so it there's a draw for the uh people in need to go there and get that stuff now uh we need to talk a little bit about the how the United States fits into this um obviously you mentioned that there's the political angle uh the reason why the Biden Administration has likely been sort of backing off on its support for Israel some people would say literally throwing Israel under the bus here uh you know over and over and over again as it tries to you know beg Israel to stop fighting just to give up just to to essentially lose the war by not accomplishing their objectives for Israel this is a really binary choice they either wipe out Hamas in Gaza re and remove their capability to pose a threat to Israel in the future or they don't and if they don't then that cancer will continue to grow and that will happen again and so Israel knows this they know they have a binary Choice what blinkin has been doing is pressuring them to try to make it more of a Nuance thing where he says well instead of a fullon operation in in Rafa what you should do is what we've said we're going to do in Iraq and Afghanistan which is just conduct Special Forces raids from time to time on targets that of opportunity that we know that we can take out well the problem is if there's 4,000 uh or or more Hamas troops if there's four battalions of Hamas Fighters inside Rafa and they were to take that tack it would literally take years for Israel to actually wipe out those those battalions you're not going to be able to take out 6,000 Fighters with pinpoint Special Forces raids from time to time they and now what's the other option they they carpet bomb Rafa obviously they're not going to do that so the the choices that Israel has here is continue to to do what has been successful for them so far in Gaza which is to do limited raids at first and then pull out until they can establish a beach head in there and they the reason that that has been successful is that by driving a bunch of tanks in there and attacking certain uh you know strong points of the enemy and then pulling back out it's a it's another way of sending a signal to the civilians that if you don't want to get killed don't be around these areas because we're coming in here okay and then once they are able to keep going in and finally establish that permanent or semi-permanent you know Beach head in there then they can start you know spreading out from there and essentially hurting the civilians that want to stay out of the danger area and into the safer zones now for its part uh Gaza or uh Hamas is very likely to take advantage of those safe zones and to fire at Israel from those safe zones because they've done that over and over and over again throughout this war they again they use the civilian population as a weapon against Israel and they do that by hiding among the civilian population it's a very cowardly way of War but it is hamas's way of war and so it's without a doubt we are going to see Hamas shooting at the IDF from those safe zones where they are setting up tents and and bringing in resources for uh the civilians we are also going to see Hamas attacking the uh Pier that is being put in now you understand this pier is in two basic parts uh there's a 500 meter half a kilometer long uh Pier that's attached to the land that actually Israel is helping to build right now and they're securing that area because the Biden Administration has promised has said over and over again there will not be any us boots on the ground in Gaza but it doesn't really matter because the second part of that operation is the floating offshore Pier that will be about one about one kilometer offshore so there'll be about 500 meters that separates the end of the pier and the floating dock that the United States is building where large ships can come in and offload a they will offload that Aid onto trucks those trucks will get on smaller ships that will then cross that 500 meter straight to the dock that has been built and offload those the thing is Hamas has the ability to shoot more than a kilometer and so if the United States has that floating dock offshore that's just one kilometer offshore there's no doubt that Hamas is going to try to shoot at it and it's fairly large and and so you know promise that we're not going to have US forces boots on the ground is kind of a a a hollow promise because that doesn't mean that US forces will not be In Harm's Way when it comes to bringing this Aid in and oh by the way possibly bringing uh gazen civilians out and bringing them to the United States as potential uh you know refugees which is another possibility that has been floated uh in the halls of power in Washington yeah very interesting indeed and you know we still don't have a firm idea do we guys and and correct me if I'm wrong but I mean all of the numbers we see on the amount of casualties are still primarily from the Hamas run Health Ministry are they not do we do we have any real sense of I mean obviously we know there's an impact there but do we have any real Sense on actual numbers well Dan I'm working on a story worry right now about that right now the quote unquote official number from the uh Ministry of Health run by Hamas or overseen by Hamas is over 34,000 that doesn't include combatants uh Israel estimates maybe 13,000 uh Hamas Fighters been killed in the fighting that doesn't include the people that might have died because of misfired rockets by Hamas or Islamic Jihad that is numbers approaching a about a thousand uh and also they uh just recently the Ministry of Health came out and said they don't have figures they don't have uh accurate information for about 11,000 of those 34,000 uh so the numbers seem exaggerated uh there's been a statistician from uh Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania says there's no there's no uh attachment to reality for some of these numbers exactly we don't know I think after the uh the war presumably we'll find out more and more but 34,000 seems like an exaggerated number George do you want to add to that yeah I mean I think you know we have a history of um various Islamic Terror groups be it al-shabab alqaeda Isis you know Hamas hasbalah bah Haram it's all part of the same Playbook guys right I mean this is this is something they they're very used to doing and and it's a it's a very cowardly way they f F because as Chuck mentioned we see this Mo all around the world where Islamic Terror groups engage uh in various military operations against civilian targets military targets uh you look at for example what's happening in Nigeria you know they they kidnpped hundreds of these girls from these various schools again the whole idea here is that to to bury themselves within the civilian uh population puts people at risk and as Chuck mentioned you know as you tried to as the idea of tries to evacuate about 100,000 uh Palestinians from the Eastern side of of Rafa into these safe zones you better believe that there are going to be amas operatives who are going to blend into these into these communities as they jump on their donkeys or get into the back of these cars and load them up and go into these safe zones you know I had the question people asked me while I was reporting from South Lebanon hey did you see Hezbollah did you see the fighters I said no I I they don't walk around wearing a uniform they don't walk around with you know with with um with with a Hezbollah uniform you only see them in the propaganda videos it's the same situation in uh in the Gaza Strip it's the same situation in South Lebanon which makes it all the more more difficult uh and and and why it's going to take some time you know you mentioned we're almost you know we're month eight into this and you're wondering how is it possible that Israel such a powerful force in the the region cannot completely destroy Hamas which has no fighter planes no tanks nothing up against the mighty Israeli Army and it's because of this very reason because Hamas deploys these very cowardly tactics in order to draw as much civilian casualty uh and debts and in the process use that as propaganda for the rest of the world so it makes it all the more more difficult as we have said multiple times over and over again you know no country in the world takes the kinds of precautions just imagine today Israel dropped hundreds of thousands of leaflets over the city of Rafa all in Arabic urging people giving detailed instructions they in fact they they they blocked off areas of Eastern Rafa block by block basically numbering them and saying these blocks if you live in this particular block you need to head south you need to head north imagine what country today does that kind never takes that kind of precaution uh to to mitigate uh the potential of of Civilian casualties it's unheard of no one has done this and Israel takes these these precautions and has done so for many many years as is as it has continued to wage uh its you know its efforts uh to protect its own Homeland it's quite remarkable you know Dan you know go ahead I'm sorry being a bit sarcastic here it's a pretty poor way to commit a genocide as it's been charged by uh Israel and we've seen this throughout the years uh from 20089 was the first war with Hamas 2012 14 21 and they do this all the time they call people they text people they drop leaflets and they tell them get out of Harm's Way and they're doing that and they've done this all the way through their campaign that began after October 7th I got a I want to ask you guys one more question here and then we'll wrap this thing up but question from the audience um you know there's a lot of talk growing talk here in America about should we support Israel should we support Ukraine and I thought this question from the audience I'd like to hear your guys' answer from it from Donna it said are there Hamas cells worldwide and so Chuck I know you've been on the border you guys have been you know George you've been on the border as well um talk about about that and just um you know sort of in relation to how America is getting all you know getting the argument here on both sides should we or should we not fund Israel okay so I think the better question would be are there Iranian fund proxies that are uh hostile to America worldwide because uh Hamas is fairly Limited in scope to uh attacking Israel from Gaza the West Bank and a little bit in in in Lebanon and even some in Syria okay so just around that region however we know that there are his Bala sells his Bala training sites and that sort of thing uh in several places in Latin America very close to the United States with they they have operated heavily in places like Venezuela because Venezuela and Lebanon have a lot of close ties as a matter of fact the vice president of Venezuela for some time was a Lebanese uh Syrian and I'm sorry Lebanese um Arab right and so it is clear that healah and that Iran more importantly is funding Terror groups across the globe uh and so whatever name they go by is less important but the the source is what's more important and that's Iran would you want to add to that George yeah absolutely to that very point it's the IDE ideology that unites all of these groups you know obviously Hamas healah Shia Sunni but it's the the overarching um you know ideology that unites these various extremist groups by no means the entire Muslim population no but if you look at you know what what's a common denominator be it al-shabab in Kenya Somalia bah Haram in Nigeria Isis alqaeda uh you know Hamas Hezbollah you Islamic Jihad in the in in Judea and Samaria all of these groups what is it it's this whole overarching idea of creating an Islamic caliphate where Islamic Sharia law uh would would be the ruling jurist prudence and the governing of of of everyday life you know I sometimes I wonder as I've seen these protests on college campuses the last couple of weeks do these group do these individuals know what life would be like uh if you lived uh under Hamas control or in hasbalah territory or for that matter lived under Isis or Al-Qaeda I mean Chris Mitchell Chuck you guys have been doing reporting extensive reporting from the parts of Iraq of Syria where you know we remember what it was like what it was like for men women and children uh even Muslims the majority of the Muslims who lived under the tutelage of Isis I think of kobani I think of uh what the Y yazidis uh experienced the horrific nature of this ideology and then I look at the protests at all of our various Ivy League schools and see these kids who have absolutely no idea they have not seen what Chris Mitchell has seen in the Middle East they've not seen what Chuck Holton has seen what I have seen uh in these various countries where where these Islamic radical Islamic groups Reign bring Reign their their their Terror on people and what they do to people this is what these Ivy League school students are are supporting I mean are you kidding me just imagine if you are a woman you know you go and live under Hamas you go live under Isis or Hezbollah you have absolutely no Freedom uh so again it's it's I think to Chuck's point it's not really a you know whether there are Hamas operatives that there are radical Muslim Terror organizations and its tentacles either coming from Saudi Arabia from Iraq uh from uh from uh from Afghanistan and other places that Taliban again all of these folks who who do not like the United States do not like uh Christians do not like those who don't follow a very strict form of of Islam including M millions of Muslims who they consider to be cuffers who believe who believe that they are not following the true true doctrines according to their inter ation the true doctrines of the tenants I think that's what we need to be concerned about and I think what what we are seeing as this war continues to drag on uh the sort of the the the new generation of people who will Who will who will Who will come through the ranks who will hate the United States who will hate Israel because of what they have seen over the last seven eight months and I think this is a this is a generational battle uh for the hearts and minds of a new generation of of Muslims who are you know growing up in this in these um in these communities and but the good thing is as we have reported many many times uh the Lord is moving miraculously in these areas and that is the good news and we will continue to report that good news yeah absolutely I like to add to that good news actually if you don't mind uh because I'm standing here in Armenia as we make this report and uh the good news that I'm seeing here is that Armenia is a border state to Iran and a lot of AR a lot of Iranians are coming to Armenia on vacation and they're coming here so that they can have a glass of wine or they can re you know do dance or do the things that are they're not allowed to do in Iran and so I've actually had a chance over the last week or two to talk to quite a few Iranians here in in Armenia and what I'm hearing from them is that they are fed up with their own governments funding Terror around the world are fed up with their government's aggression against even Israel they they really are are tired of the dictatorial terroristic violent aggressive behavior from their own government the question is whether or not there will be the some kind of Uprising whether or not they would be able to make a change in that because obviously they don't have the freedom to do so all right good thoughts there both of you guys I just wanted to interrupt with this uh a little bit of an update here from the AP the Hamas militant group says they've accepted an Egyptian Qatari ceasefire proposal that would halt the seven-month war with Israel they issued this statement today saying their supreme leader had delivered the news in a phone call with qatar's prime minister and Egypt's intelligence Minister the two Middle Eastern Nations they've been mediating months of talks between Israel and Hamas no immediate comment from Israel so far do you guys want to react to that yeah well the CIA CIA director Bill Burns um just I think today the reporting from Baron subsidiary of the Wall Street Journal Bill bur Bill Burns the CIA director made a quick trip to Qatar uh this morning and I think sort of the efforts to salvage this ceasefire that that broke down over the weekend so uh it'll be interesting to see uh what the Egyptian Qatari version of this of this proposal is is what are the the fine prints what are the details of this of this proposal that they are accepting uh uh and uh and then we'll see what the kind of reaction we get uh from the Netanyahu government very I would say as well Dan that uh you know Netanyahu has been saying for a few weeks now with or without a deal they're going to go into Rafa uh I think this uh this sense that they've already started an operation into Rafa is probably probably putting the pressure on Hamas why they may uh accept this uh this deal I think it's going to disappoint some people here in uh in Israel uh what we did know about the deal where it might extend uh almost 3 to four months and the sense here among some is that when you stop military operations for that length of time uh it might be very difficult to get started again uh and apparently it's ALS Al going to leave I think maybe 33 hostages would be released for hundreds uh of Palestinian prisoners some that may have blood on their hands uh that too is not going to play very well here uh we talked earlier about you know how Netanyahu uh you know politically how he stands here it might be hard for him politically uh to accept this deal uh people on the right right uh side have been critical of this particular deal and uh that it gives too much to Hamas so we'll just see what happens how it plays out uh whether or not netan will continue the ra operation Deal or No Deal and uh and how this is going to play out in the next few days or hours things change very quickly here yeah and we don't have the de obviously it's coming from their side of things so we don't have the details yet all of the details yet on the deal Chuck what's your initial reaction to that yeah I mean well first of all Hamas has been intentionally drawing this out because the more they can draw it out the more pressure gets put on Israel uh and that they it's it's amazing here because what we've seen is Hamas and the United States working together against Israel you you get that you know when you when you watch the pressure that blinkin has put on Israel the things that the Biden Administration has said publicly about this Rafa operation and it it actually is shows that they're kind of siding with Hamas here now they they still publicly say that Israel has the right to defend itself and to make its Nation safe and we support Israel and blah blah blah but out of the other side of their mouth they're saying something that is completely incompatible with that statement and so you have to ask yourself like what would take a week to decide if if Israel says look we'll offer you uh 5,000 you know whatever whatever it was you know a thousand hostages or I'm sorry a thousand of our prisoners Palestinian prisoners many of whom as Chris said are murderers and terrorists uh we'll offer a thousand of those for 33 of our hostages and Hamas said well there's your offer so Hamas says I don't know let us think about that for a week what are you thinking about well what they're doing is they're actually trying to run around Gaza right now to see if they can actually collect up 33 hostages because they haven't kept most of those hostages all in one place they spread them out out and gave them to civilian families and said you keep this guy in your basement locked up and feed him and make sure he doesn't get away until we need him until we come get him but obviously now in Gaza it's very difficult to get around it's difficult to communicate and we've seen several times throughout the process of these negotiations where they've said uh well that offer sounds good but we actually can't come up with 40 hostages you know like they can't find them they they can't get to them so we they they still believe that there are about a hundred of them alive but they actually they they're not sure if Hamas can actually go get them and collect them up in order to turn them over and so that's been part of the problem but again the bigger is the the bigger reason why it's taken so long why this is moved so slow is simply because it is a powerful weapon in hamas's hands and it's something that the Biden Administration has just played right into all right you guys you're watching all of you joining now I appreciate you being here you've been watching live coverage talking about this imminent incursion into Rafa and Southern Gaza and we just had that breaking news here just a few moments ago that that Hamas has accepted a deal but it's from uh Egypt's intelligence Minister and qatar's prime minister and and those those sources there Israel hasn't responded yet so we'll we'll keep you posted on what happens there uh gentlemen any final thoughts here before uh before we head out let's pray yeah let's do it goad Chris you can lead us off father uh Lord we just pray uh for the many people there in Rafa we've talked about it uh but there are many uh innocent people we want to pray for their protection uh and we pray father for great wisdom on Benjamin Netanyahu the Israeli government the IDF uh give them wisdom so that they can both eliminate Hamas capture the leaders free the hostages but protect civilians it's a very difficult thing to do Lord but we ask for your intervention and we pray father for those inside Gaza inside Rafa we've heard it over and over throughout the Muslim world of dreams and visions of you and turning their hearts to you and we pray holy spirit that that would accelerate there in Rafa and Lord we just ask whatever this deal that Hamas has come up with uh father we just ask for wisdom for those in the Israeli government that you would um you would just help them to make the right decision we pray continue praying for the IDE of troops and Lord just for the entire State uh state of Israel today in Jesus name and father God we have learned throughout this process that uh governments go to war but it's seldom that people go to war and and so we know that there are people who are hurting inside Israel who have been away from their homes for more than six months we know that there are people inside Gaza who are are just actually praying to you that there are Christians there inside Gaza who are praying for an this father we pray uh for all of those people who are hurting we ask that you would bring peace in Jerusalem and Lord we we just beg you father to uh let the evil plans of men fall back on their own heads and that that that Iran's evil plans would backfire against them and would eventually lead to the end of that regime and that the the the Iranians we've met here would be able to go home and take a Bible with them and actually reach out and and we would see a Revival inside Iran father and that that source of all of this evil would dry up and it would be replaced by Springs of Living Water we pray in Jesus name amen and we just ask God that all the glory go to you uh and that you just um draw more to souls to yourself and we're just uh thankful for all you've provided through us through the cross uh and so we lift up all these concerns and More in Jesus name amen amen amen all right thank you all for being here thank you cbn's Chris Mitchell George Thomas Chuck Holton for uh breaking all this down for us greatly appreciated so uh God bless you all and we'll see you here when uh more news breaks take care

Channel: CBN News

Views: 810,210

Keywords: cbn, cbn news, christian news, christian tv, christian stories, faith, faith news, faith stories, inspirational stories, news today, today's headlines, quick news, quickstart podcast, us news, international news, cbn digital, jerusalem, israel, middle east, holy land, jews, iran, middle east tensions, israel news, hamas, gaza, idf, airstrikes, hostage release, ceasefire, netanyahu, rafah invasion, george thomas, chris mitchell, chuck holton, live, live now, cbn live, breaking news

Id: FD5RfrJf2c0

Length: 58min 39sec (3519 seconds)

Published: Mon May 06 2024