stories that we have been following here And this is a live look out of the Israel. Gaza border That is a view from Israel Overlooking Gaza. Israel now responding in front of the international court of justice as South Africa urges the court to stop a full-scale operation. into Rafa during today's arguments Israel responded saying there is a quote. tragic. war in Gaza, but quote. there is no genocide. Israeli attorney gilad Noam telling the justices. in part that Israel has not conducted. its widescale operation in rafah because of concerns over civilian casualties now on that note Israel's prime minister Netanyahu and countless others have questioned the legitimacy of the death toll in Gaza provided by the Hamas run Health Ministry. Netanyahu sang the ratio of terrorists to civilians killed is about 1 adding that Israel is doing what it can to protect civilian lives. Do want to talk all about this and the latest developments. They are out of the Middle East So let's bring in Alex Taemin the CEO. and Jerusalem bureau chief of Jewish news Syndicate. Thank you so much for taking the time as always. to be here with us today. Josh thanks for having me. Of course. Well first off I do want to talk to you about the arguments that are being made right now in front of the icj we heard yesterday from South Africa. their argument about Israel trying to commit genocide they say over. in Gaza and of course Israel responding there saying that is not the case This is not genocide but it is a tragic War So I want to get your thoughts overall on those comments being made before the icj. Well, South Africa is really making a mockery of the uh claim of genocide. Israel's gone to extraordinary. lengths to protect Civilian, casualties in Gaza, and they're doing so in rafah as well. In fact over. 450,000, residents that have been holed up in rafah have already taken. uh, Israeli instructions to leave that city as the IDF moves methodically through zones that it has divided. uh, specifically and telegraphing exactly where it's going to be attacking in order to make sure that civilians are out of the Harm's Way. and another thing that we kind of discussed there. There's been questions about the death toll in Gaza put out by the Hamas Health Ministry Netanyahu specifically coming out and saying the ratio of terrorists to civilians killed is 1 to 1. What is your understanding of what Netanyahu is saying there? Well last week, uh, the United Nations basically. said that they were reducing the number of uh female and children casualties that they were recording. uh by as much as 40% Uh, which means that the death tolls that the commas and the Gaza Health Ministry had been a civilians were grossly inflated. uh and with Israel saying that it is taken out over. 15,000 terrorists, uh, with the death toll total death toll being around 30,000 now as being reported that would mean that uh, you have a 1-to-1 ratio. of combatant to civilian. casualties, of combatant among the lowest in the history of Modern Warfare particularly. in a densely. populated Urban fighting environment. What do we know about? 5 Israeli soldiers that were killed by Friendly Fire were told this week over in Gaza that information has been coming in over the last I would say. couple days. Yeah, extraordinarily unfortunate incident, uh here in Israel. uh in the town of jabalia, which is in the north of the Gaza Strip. an area that the IDF had uh secured earlier on in the war, but now has to double back. uh as Hamas. militants continue to retake areas that are vacated by the IDF. Uh you had paratroopers from the 202nd Brigade, uh inside of a building, uh tank outside the building saw the barrel of a gun coming from outside the window. assumed it to be terrorists fired 2 shells on the building and 5 Israelis were killed. Uh, and 7, uh injured, uh all several of them serious. there's been a lot of discussion about a post-war Gaza and who is actually going to be ruling over. Gaza Now we do know we heard from Hamas several days ago. their leadership saying that they would not accept anything that prevents them from being a part of ruling in Gaza, but I imagine Israel is not going to accept that even in part They do not want Hamas to be part of ruling Gaza. yeah for the IDF, uh and for prime minister Netanyahu the idea of commas taking over the Gaza Strip is a complete non-starter after this war is over. Uh, the the question mark here is is whether or not the Gaza Strip could be handed over to the Palestinian Authority. Uh, prime minister Netanyahu was adamant last week and saying that that he's not going to let Gaza become kemasan and he's not going to let it become fatak stand fat is the is the faction of the Palestinian Authority led by Mahmoud Abbas. He does not want to see the Palestinian Authority take the Gaza Strip over after the war. the United States certainly does and defense minister you have Galan seem seemingly now taking the position of the United States. even against his own party leader and prime minister Netanyahu. And we did see some kind of back and forth between the 2 of them those comments by Galant. uh, pretty much circulating all over social media. everywhere and there's been some backlash there. What do you make of of that backlash? Well, it's a bit of a mutiny on the point of. galante to say that. over in netanyahu's head you have. uh people here in Israel saying you cannot. determine what is going to be on the day after. uh in the Gaza Strip when you don't know what the situation on the day after is going to look like first things first is to make sure that commas is out now from Netanyahu. what he would like to see is uh, you know local Palestinian leadership That is not connected to the Palestinian Authority. what you all go on is is basically suggesting is that there's no No way that Israel can remain. in power in the gods strip Not not only. militarily, but certainly not. uh not on the Civil level as well, But I think there are many in Israel that think that uh, the only way to make sure that Hamas is not that Gaza doesn't become a terror Enclave once again in the immediate aftermath of the war is for significant Israeli presence, uh, even after Hamas has taken out. the US House has now passed a measure that would prevent President Biden from uh, preventing weapons from reaching Israel there. it still has to go through the Senate and there's questions about whether it would pass but Biden has said the White House has said that he would veto that measure if he did make it to his desk so my question here is would that create a bigger issue a bigger? divide between the US and Israel if you have the president veto something here that would prevent him from sending weapons over to Israel. Well like as you mentioned, you know, the the obligation to send weapons, uh to Israel from the United States is is based on the Congress. uh, you know in the Congress is the 1 that can determine whether those weapons are sent. uh, if the president of the United States would seemingly block those weapons, uh from coming that that would uh, put a further Rift between Israel and the current Administration but not between Israel and the United States where Israel has overwhelming. popular support and Congressional support for its, uh, Mission and it to to uh, affect this war I I do think that we're seeing the souring of relations between the Biden Administration and the Israeli government. Uh, and we'll have to that's what makes this election in 2024 November. so important for Israel. uh, because it could have a great effect on what Israel's policies will be uh in conducting the war not only in Gaza against commas, but also potentially uh in Lebanon against kazbah and even against Iran itself. My last question for you here. They're Al seems to be a growing divide between Israel and Egypt and I know there's been issues in the past there, but that divide that is happening. Why does it appear that that is happening and what? effect could it have overall? Well as uh the IDF moves into Rafa, which is the Southernmost city. uh in Gaza the IDF has taken control of the Philadelphia. courts, or which is the uh Corridor between Egypt uh, and the Gaza Strip and the reason why the idea of did that is because there's been significant. smuggling, uh, not through tunnels. uh that go but to the from the Gaza Strip into Egypt and also through the Border itself, where where it's being reported that uh bribes are allowing. for goods to move through so Israel wants to make sure that there can be no, smuggling inside or out uh at this phase. uh, you know, there's been public, uh spat between Egypt and and Israel here, but Egypt hasn't recalled its ambassador. and there's a good reason to believe that uh that Egypt wants to maintain good relations with the state of Israel. Uh, and so hopefully the relations will not uh disintegrate further. All right, Alex Treman as always. Thank you so much for taking the time to be here with us. Anything else you want to add about any of this before I let you go. Well, you know like we mentioned, you know. we're definitely seeing the difference of opinion here. between Netanyahu and his government and the United States and how they want. uh to Israel to carry out this war. We're seeing the defense minister now seemingly siding with the United States on this. a difficult. moment for Israel It could lead to some political chaos here. uh in the in the Jewish State and its it's really uh an obligation for Israel to to continue methodically and and to win the war and to defeat commas and make sure that they're no longer. possible of being a military or political force in the Gaza Strip. All right, Alex. Thank you again
