Some civilians trapped in Gaza allowed to cross into Egypt as Israeli airstrikes continue

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• Amna Nawaz:

  The first group of around 1,000 civilians, including Americans, are leaving Gaza today after more than three weeks under Israeli bombardment following the Hamas terror attacks. President Biden said there would be more Americans leaving in the coming days.

• Geoff Bennett:

  The deal struck among several nations also allows people badly wounded in Gaza to be taken for treatment in Egypt.

  But that brief respite was only that, as the war continues between Israel and Hamas.

  Leila Molana-Allen again starts our coverage.

• Leila Molana-Allen:

  After nearly a month of brutal war, the first Palestinians allowed to leave Gaza crossed into Egypt.

  Egyptian television show the moment some of the evacuees stepped off a bus to safety. Among those allowed out, hundreds of foreign passport holders and some of the severely injured, but for many that waited desperately at the gate this morning, the future was unknown.

• Rania Hussein, Gaza Strip Resident (through interpreter):

  We are relying on God and hoping we get out. It is still our country, and we feel sad for it, for its destruction, for our friends and loved ones. If it wasn't for what happened, we would not leave it.

• Leila Molana-Allen:

  The home they are trying to leave is becoming less recognizable by the hour.

  For the second day, the IDF pounded Gaza's Jabalia refugee camp amid another communications blackout. Gaza's Health Ministry says the casualties from the strikes are in the hundreds. Residents dug through the rubble of an apartment building on their hands and knees. One made a list of the family members he lost.

• Abdel Kareem Rayan, Jabalia Refugee Camp (through interpreter):

  I lost my whole family, 15 of them. They were innocent, just staying in the camp. What did they do? They were innocent and kind. It is literally a massacre, complete destruction.

• Leila Molana-Allen:

  Hamas says the barrage also killed seven hostages. Israel claims the strikes took out dozens of militants hiding among the civilians, one of them, a senior Hamas commander involved in the October 7 terrorist attacks.

  Today, the IDF released video of what they claim is an interrogation with a Hamas terrorist involved in the attacks, describing what he did in detail. The "NewsHour" cannot confirm under what conditions the prisoner was held or why he spoke.

• Man (through interpreter):

  We checked the house and heard the sound of young children in the safe room. I shot and Ahmad Abu Kamil shot. We shot at the door.

• Question (through interpreter):

  Until when?

• Man (through interpreter):

  Until we didn't hear noise anymore.

• Leila Molana-Allen:

  Here in Israel, the Israel Defense Forces confirmed today that they have attacked 11,000 targets in Gaza since the war began, which they say are linked to Hamas.

  The army is intensifying its aerial bombardment and ground raids in Gaza, as troops move further towards Gaza City and the densely packed urban warfare that awaits there.

  At a briefing in Tel Aviv, the IDF spokesman said Israeli troops engaged in a battle in a Jabalia building last night.

• Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, Spokesperson, Israeli Defense Forces (through interpreter):

  Terrorists fired at our forces in the area. Hamas used that structure, like many others, as a sanctuary, in this case, talking about the deliberate use of a civilian structure near a school, a medical center and government offices.

• Leila Molana-Allen:

  The funeral for a fallen soldier in that raid was held in Jerusalem today. Israel says 11 troops have been killed in action since the start of their ground invasion.

  And on another front, Israel announced today it deployed navy missile boats to the Red Sea. The IDF says it shot down an aerial threat in the area last night, supposedly caught in this amateur video. That's after it intercepted a missile and drone attack fired by Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen yesterday.

  In Washington, Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Saudi Arabia's defense minister, Khalid bin Salman. Saudi Arabia has called for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza, which Secretary Blinken says is off the table.

  Back in Gaza, the devastation is unrelenting. This refugee camp south of Gaza City was among the IDF's targets yesterday.

• Ayham Al-Tartoori, Gaza Strip Resident (through interpreter):

  I was at the end of the street, and they struck. I came over and this whole building came down with its residents, no warning or anything.

• Leila Molana-Allen:

  This man says his kids were playing soccer in the street when the airstrike hit. He found a small body while frantically searching the ruins, but can't tell if the child is his. The blast rendered this child unrecognizable.

  For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Leila Molana-Allen.

• Geoff Bennett:

  The intelligence services in Israel are being faulted, along with the Netanyahu government, for missing the signals that Hamas was preparing to launch its attack on October 7.

  Leila now has a conversation with a former Israeli spy chief, Efraim Halevy, who ran the Mossad, Israel's foreign intelligence service, during the second Palestinian uprising in the early 2000s.

• Leila Molana-Allen:

  Efraim Halevy, thank you so much for being with us.

  And I want to start by asking you about the attacks, what seems from the outside this huge intelligence failure on the part of the Israeli security forces and intelligence agencies. What do you think happened?

• Efraim Halevy, Former Mossad Director:

  Well, the truth of the matter is, I was surprised myself. I'm not part of the political level, but I want to wait until the facts come out.

  It's not the first time we have had an intelligence failure. I mean, 50 years ago, we had an intelligence failure on the Yom Kippur War. That was a different story. This is a much more compelling story. The consequences are much more serious than was in the Yom Kippur War.

  It was a war against foreign countries. The intensity of this event is much more in many ways than any of the other wars we have had ever.

• Leila Molana-Allen:

  So, let me ask you about that enemy that's being fought. What's your assessment of how Hamas has changed and grown, particularly since the withdrawal from Gaza in 2005, to become what they are now?

• Efraim Halevy:

  The nature of the leadership changed.

  And whereas the founder of the movement was a spiritual leader, who ultimately we killed, we then had the what was called mowing the lawn. Every now and then, you have a confrontation. You mow the lawn. You bring the grass down to a lower level. And then it begins to grow and it grows.

  You're also changing the character of the movement. And you are reaching a point where, each time you succeed in damaging the leadership, you find a new leadership, which is probably more extreme than the leadership that you cast aside.

• Leila Molana-Allen:

  The attitude now since the attacks amongst the Israeli military and the Israeli political establishment seems to be that enough of mowing the lawn. Now is the time to eradicate Hamas completely.

  Do you think that's possible?

• Efraim Halevy:

  I don't want to be a prophet and to say it's impossible, but I think it's extremely difficult to do.

• Leila Molana-Allen:

  Netanyahu has been criticized widely now. Mr. Security didn't succeed in keeping everyone safe.

  He's refused to step down. He said that he is running this war and he's going to win it. Do you think that he can recover in public opinion?

• Efraim Halevy:

  It's very dangerous to prophesize.

  At the moment that we are speaking, his ratings are very, very low, as you probably know. But I do believe that there are many people in his own party who have reached a conclusion that it's very dangerous to allow him to continue for any long period of time.

  He is living in a world which is not real. It's not reality. Let's imagine we win the war and Mr. Netanyahu will get up and say, I won the war.

  Maybe it's true he won the war, but what will people say the day after?

• Leila Molana-Allen:

  And on the hostages, what do you think about that strategy of being so intensely militarily involved while there are more than 220 people stuck inside Gaza?

• Efraim Halevy:

  This is a serious problem, because the question of hostages is a very delicate question in Israel.

  The last time there was a hostage exchange, all the leaders of the Hamas today were among those people who were released, all of them. I think it's a very, very difficult decision to take because, this time, A, the number of hostages that the — they have is very large.

  But if the price would be to go through the same kind of exercise again and know that, by doing so, you are preparing the next round, for all intents and purposes, that is not a good deal.

• Leila Molana-Allen:

  A lot of public opinion is turning against Israel now, when it was very much in the country's favor after the horrific terror attacks.

  What do you think the strategy is here? And if Israel loses the war of international opinion, but wins the ground war, will that be enough for the future?

• Efraim Halevy:

  I think that it would be wise for the powers that be in Israel who, for a moment, get into a room, close the door and shut out the noise from outside for several hours in order to determine which way we are going and, in the end, where — what kind of account will we be able to give to the Israeli public at the end of the day?

  Is it simply going to be a military victory, period? And what happens next? What I am very, very concerned about is that, in the end, we don't have a viable solution for Gaza.

• Efraim Halevy:

  After the terror attacks, we saw the Iranian foreign minister touring countries in the region, essentially to build support, almost like a war cabinet.

  What's your assessment right now of what this Iranian leadership wants in terms of who they're funding and how they're going about that and what their reaction to this war against Hamas is going to be?

• Efraim Halevy:

  The way Iran is reacting, the way the head of the Hezbollah is reacting, yes, the tension in the north has risen. Areas in the north have been evacuated. I don't belittle this at all.

  But, nevertheless, I do not think that Iran today is interested in having a major confrontation at all, because Iran wants to take what it gained with the relationship with Saudi Arabia, and it wants to capitalize on it, and it wants to solidify this. And, probably, they know that Saudi Arabia, for reasons of its own, would not be interested in a big flare-up in the north.

• Leila Molana-Allen:

  Even if the war in Gaza stopped today, the International Committee of the Red Cross says up to 40 percent of homes in Gaza have already been destroyed, at the moment, over 8,000 Palestinians killed, 3,500 Palestinian children killed inside Gaza.

  It will take years to rebuild. And that's right on Israel's doorstep. What's the future there in terms of reconstructing after this?

• Efraim Halevy:

  What I'd like to say, with all due respect to the powers that be in this country, I don't think that anybody in the Israeli hierarchy these days is giving much attention to what you have said just now.

  We're now intent on winning the war. So, we are going to try and win the war. And for us to win the war is to decapitate Hamas as much as we can. What will happen in the future, what will happen in 40, 50 years from now, well, we won't be around to have to deal with it. People don't think so much into the future, as I have been trying to say and talk about.

  But I think that, in the end, we will have to change the disk in your brain and think differently on different terms in different ways.

• Leila Molana-Allen:

  Efraim Halevy, thank you so much.

• Efraim Halevy:

  Thank you.

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