EZRA LEVANT ｜ The best of Avi Yemini's coverage from the war between Israel and Hamas
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Summary
Avi Yamini has been on the ground covering the Israel-Hamas war more closely than almost any other reporter. You saw him having to run into those bomb shelters when the rocket started. So we want to show you the best of Avi's reportage.
Transcript
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Hello, my friends. It's been a couple of weeks and Avi Amini has been on the ground
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covering the Israel-Hamas war more closely than almost any other reporter. There is a
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professional war reporter from Fox News named Trey Yings, who I think has literally gone
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100 feet closer to the battle than Avi, but he's been right on the front line. You saw him having
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to run into those bomb shelters when the rocket started. So we want to show you the best of Avi's
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reportage, and that's the show today. So make sure you get the video version of this. You want to see
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it, not just hear it. It's a feast for the eyes, not always in a good way. There's some horrific
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things to see, but I think we have to bear witness. So to get the video version of this podcast, go to
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rebelnewsplus.com and click subscribe. It's eight bucks a month. You'll get all these shows video
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version, and you'll have the satisfaction of knowing that you helped keep us independent and
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Tonight, the best of our coverage from the war between Israel and Hamas. It's October 30th,
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Well, I'm recording this show before October 30th, because as I mentioned to you on Friday,
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I was invited by Jordan Peterson to attend his big conference designed to be a counterweight
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to the World Economic Forum. Jordan Peterson, along with many others, has set up this ARC,
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Alliance for Responsible Citizenship, and the conference has about 2,000 invitees. I was
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delighted to be one of them. I'll be there, along with Avi Yamini of our team, and we're going to be
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participating, and we'll bring you interviews with key people, and I'll let you know how it goes,
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because Lord knows we need a counterweight to the World Economic Forum, and I think Jordan Peterson is
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as good as anyone to do it, and there's other allies from United States and the UK and Australia.
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It looks like it's going to be a big deal. So that's where I'm going to be this week, and I will
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have reports to you from London. But today, I thought it would be appropriate to go over the
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best of Avi Yamini's coverage from the Hamas-Israel war. He put himself in dangerous way. I'm glad we got
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those bulletproof outfits for him and his cameraman, Benji. So without further ado, here's the best of Avi
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I've seen many for rebel news in southern Israel on the way in a bulletproof van heading to Kfar Azzah,
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one of the kibbutzim where Hamas terrorists infiltrated on October 7, going house to house,
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butchering and massacring, raping and kidnapping hundreds of Israeli civilians. We're heading
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here today to speak to one of the first senior fighters on the ground that day.
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We are in the settlement near to Gaza. The settlement Kfar Azzah has 800 civilians. It was Shabbat,
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Simchat Torah, a holiday. It's a beautiful day and every family is together. And you know what happened
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in six and a half at the morning and a brutal attack of Hamas had arrived in this settlement and all the
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red spots that you see here, near to Gaza until Sderot, Netivot, Ophakim, all the red spots that you see
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is the area, the Hamas attack. The Hamas wasn't alone. He came here with vehicles, with machine guns,
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with motor bicycles, but with a lot of civilians. Azzah is one kilometer from here. They walk by feet.
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They murder, torture, rape, and even took off the heads of babies and of our soldiers.
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What stopped this attack? All the civilian armed in the settlement, the head of the settlement,
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like a really leader, go first. After this, the army and the police arrived here and together with the
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It was my son, Shlomi Ziv, 40-year-old, who worked in security in the settlement of the settlement.
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In the morning of the settlement, what happened, all of a sudden we received a report that he was
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dead. From then we did not know anything. We are waiting for the
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of the soldiers and the soldiers who were dead. I am afraid and I believe in the world,
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in our army, in our country, in our country, in our country, in our country,
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that they would be able to be peace. And you know all the world that Israel lives.
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We together will win. Every war that exists in the world, we will win.
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Who is it? Who is it? Who is your son? Who is the world who does not know him?
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Or people who say that it is not so bad? Who is it?
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My son is 40-year-old, as I promised. He went to Miran to the settlement.
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A man who likes to die,å–œæ¡ with the lives and all of the lives.
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It's important to mention this, but for those who want peace.
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It's a different siren than we're used to hearing.
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There's usually a red alert, which is about rockets.
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and when you're hearing that siren, it's saying a group of terrorists.
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I've seen reports of infiltrations over the border,
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and I believe that it must be happening over there.
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We've been seeing a lot of flares and activity in that area,
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I guess that's 500 metres from where we are now.
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We're probably going to... Do you want to move out?
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It's hard to picture, but it's something along the lines of group of terrorists,
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which to me says that that's the warning for an infiltration.
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People are telling me there's been infiltration.
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To be honest, we should probably just fuck off.
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We were here, and we heard the people that say...
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That's what it means that people are coming from something.
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Earlier today where they'd come through the sea.
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Those flares were a few hundred metres from us.
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You never know how the cons is between certain elements either.
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Listen, the biggest infiltration happened not two weeks ago,
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Let's just follow the reports and hang back a little bit
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just before we put ourselves right at the top of that hill.
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Right in the worst amount of risk-fucking-position.
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But yeah, I was hearing the right warning, that's for sure.
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Families, everyone in the hospital has some relation
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from the very close circle or for, you know, just friends
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that has something to do with one of the families
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In the 20 years, have you seen anything similar to this?
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I don't think that anybody in the world have seen such thing.
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I mean, those colours, those smells, the amount,
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and the time that all of those events happened,
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it was very short for the hospital to get so much, so much injured.
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This is the main hospital for the south of Israel.
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So, yes, the first wounded were sent to that hospital in Ashkelon,
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and most of the main bulk of the wounded came here.
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Especially women and children, but children and babies,
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Yeah, I heard that before the alarm outside is heard
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Then he suddenly got a phone call from his friend
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He's on a turbo car and he's got his foot pedal to the metal.
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With a machine gun on the top and it's just shooting everyone
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So I'm not understanding exactly where they took cover.
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So they sat there under that tree, hiding and you can hear the gunshots for five to six hours.
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4 and a half to five of the hours, it was just gunshots the entire time.
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Do you know that the border is 800 meters away, right?
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The minute they destroyed the border and our first line of defense was gone and they walked in 6 a.m. in the morning or 5 a.m. in the morning or something like this, of course they were on the streets because it was a holiday.
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Some people were on their way thinking about going to the synagogues to pray.
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When the sirens go off, people go into the bomb shelters.
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So no one was on the street and they just had a clean shot.
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Now, usually our first line of defense is our army.
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That's what so many people around the world are asking.
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So you can see all what the experts are saying and right now they're trying to figure out what happened.
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But I have to tell you, this is not the focus right now.
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In order for us to continue, if you look at what's happening right now, we're not in the same situation we were on Saturday.
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They are running around, being chased by people.
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And we are right now in the middle of an attack, you know, with all these rockets.
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And we will go in and out of these bomb shelters if it buys time for the IDF to go and demolish them.
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I have to tell you, we have been warning governments and organizations that have been giving money to the Hamas for years.
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And we've been saying, if you're going to teach a five-year-old how to stab a Jew, and if this is the ceremony, ending ceremony of kindergarten,
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how to stab a Jew, what do you think is going to happen in 20 years?
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Do you think he's going to be a rocket scientist or is he going to be a terrorist?
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If a mother or the women that I've seen from Gaza are celebrating their son's success by killing and raping women,
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when they do that, do you think I have someone to talk to?
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And they have to decide, are they for good or are they for evil?
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Slightly shaken from the explosion, we waited a few moments until it seemed like the threat had passed and continued our interview,
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As we were trying to figure out what was happening ahead, I noticed a drone above and bolted for the bomb shelter nearby.
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coming back around they come back around there we go they're starting to shoot it it seems like
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they managed to shoot it down that's the first time we've been close enough from a shelter to
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actually get in there in time tell us what the assam is it's a special police unit and actually
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we react to different terroristic events that happens and that's our job so did you react to
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the the attacks on october 7 correctly on 6 30 in the morning we got a message that we need to go
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quick as much as as we can to zderot because we got information about the invasion of many terrorists
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over there and actually when we started to drive to zderot and next to yad mordechai
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we got shot two times by rpg and thanks god they missed us after some fire that we were conducting
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over there we started to move to zderot because we got information by the radio that the different
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policemen are asking for help because they tried to invade inside the police station and actually we
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arrived over here there were like around 20 terrorists running over this road and we started to
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conduct fire with them it was really hard i saw one of them he tried to shoot rpg on me and i shot him
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i killed him after that we saw that two terrorists are moving across the road to the train station and
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we actually actually we started to run after them and they entered to bushes and who know how to fight
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it's very complicated the place to fight we started to search for the terrorists and after we searched for
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20 40 seconds they surprised us from five meters they started to shoot us we were four two of my guys were
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shot and it was only me and my commander and after like 30 40 seconds we managed to kill them and one of
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them he was playing dead and he threw a grenade over us it's after the explosion one of our guys who was
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already shot he got the grenade on him and the bushes started to burn and he started to scream that he is
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burning so i ran into the fire and i took him back to us and we took our injured guys to the ambulance
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we gave him the first aid and we continued to fight my daughter rome gunnen was kidnapped and in gaza
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now she's 23 have you heard anything from nothing nothing the last time we talked was at 10 58 at that same
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saturday and i heard the the terrorist coming into the car shouting trying to to start the car and
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that's it you heard them on the phone with your daughter phone when i was with my daughter i she
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was shot she was she was calling me when she was shot and she was shot all the kids in the in in the car
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were shot that the two at the front were killed immediately were murdered uh immediately and she
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and another um boy that sat next to her was shot uh they they had they were bleeding and she thought
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she's going to die i don't know exactly what is their condition and i heard the shooting all around
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the car and i heard them shouting around the car and then uh starting to start the car and trying
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to start the car and that's it they closed the phone and nothing he's my friend and what happened
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uh so it's in the morning we were in the we're in the bunker so the hamask attacked us and we were 17
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people there 10 of 10 of our friends were dead died and four of us injured and they kidnapped him this
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this man his name is and uh two of us our friend are back to nepal out of 17 10 died four of us are
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injured and we are having treatment including me and he's been kidnapped by hamas i have one shot here
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one one bullet here one one here on my chest and one in my right soldier the whole world i saw from
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australia the video that hamas put out of mia trying to show that they're humanely treating her what was
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your reaction to that video you have to um consider that we saw the video after about 10 days okay the
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first um eight days uh we didn't we know nothing we were looking for her in morns okay we we gave
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dna samples of dna samples of mia a toothbrush and we were waiting to see if there's a match with these
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1 400 bodies some of them was such um in such a bad condition that they couldn't take dna for
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okay so it's still this process is still going on not everyone knows what the situation of their beloved
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one so imagine that and each phone we are afraid that there is a match can you tell us from the
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front line what's the what's the morale like at the moment so as somebody who did three years made
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alia from a different country somebody who's married i have a whole lot of stuff going on
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in my life a lot of different priorities the guys who are in milouim guys who have families guys who
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have been here been there want to go to where one don't want to go to war civilians were called up
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people have a lot of stuff to live for a lot of things on their mind this is a war this is an
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initiative that has just united everybody in a way that i've never seen never seen not in the
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jewish people not land of israel not in the military nowhere uh so you want to ask about morale there
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there's nothing people want more than to just go in there and not kill not avenge not uh bloodthirsty
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to just get get some justice done to really just erase this threat bring peace to southern israel
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which has been for so so so long it's about time uh people could live in peace and they could play
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basketball on their front lawn and they can play with their kids on a saturday afternoon and not
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worry about people coming in and slaughtering you know 50 of their community that's something that
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really unites everybody and even though there's been three weeks and we've been pushed off we've
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had plans that have been you know cancelled and rescheduled again and again and again and i'm sure
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there still will be uh people are with a smile even if even if it's an internal smile sometimes uh ready
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to go in and just uh completely charged and ready to go you know me personally i try to lift up the
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like the the vibes you know because it is hard times but it doesn't mean you know where i'm israel
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you know we have to always be strong and keep going now obviously there's many around the world that
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you know that have gotten over the massacre and are now looking at people like you and
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you're now the devil how does that make you feel i try not to think about it too much because it does
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make my blood boil seeing everything that's going on in america like uh because that's where i'm from
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from miami and so i don't know it's it's it's really easy to get it twisted are you are you the
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devil no definitely not do you want to kill no that's the last thing i want to do i don't want to
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go to war me especially out of all people i haven't waited for this i don't want to do it but it's
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something that you have to do why to protect your people and until hamas is until hamas is erased
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it's just going to keep happening there's always going to people that hate us and we just have to always
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come on top is that something you're getting a lot of at the moment
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all over all over the people of israel telling us finish the job we are willing to pay the price
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be in the shelters do all the things we are doing but finish the job we don't want to be here in
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another five years or three years another cycle it's enough we have seen the atrocities we have seen the
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brutality of our enemy so the people of israel expect that the prime minister will lead the
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nation for a victory for the defeat of hamas we are not going to do half of the job now and we've
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spoken to a number of soldiers who keep talking about these delays and people around the world are
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thinking maybe israel's got cold feet or the international pressures too much is that possible
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is israel going to back out or is the land invasion just a matter of time well i think that it's a
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matter of time it doesn't matter when we'll do it the question is what we do and we have to complete
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the mission not to stop in the middle we should ignore the international pressure we should do what's
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good for it well now so you agree with the soldiers absolutely the aftermath of um five
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neutralized terrorists who took a couple a civilian couple hostage and the professionalism of um israeli
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special forces police as they entered both upstairs and downstairs at the same time saving both so this
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is a city that 50 people were slaughtered by the commerce terrorists but these two here were saved
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i'm i want to say that i'm a police officer and i'm doing this interview and just to make sure that
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everyone around the world will know the truth and it would happen to us and my story
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um i called to my mom in 6 30 in the morning when we heard the the alert and i told her to go to the
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safe place she told me that she hear shots i thought that she was kidding i told her it's only the bombs
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were really regular to that she said told me no heavy there's someone shooting at us and it's hanging
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i came from my girlfriend house she lived there one kilometer from here and i came here and i saw a lot of
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police officers and a lot of police officers and a lot of bodies all around the world people that i work
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with them as i said i'm a police officer and those are friends of mine that got killed that got murdered
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by those terrorists i came and i joined the force that there was a fighting for my parents house
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and fighting for their lives and the people that are i got killed by to save my parents and everyone around
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here i got neighbors and friends that got murdered and i was shocked at the moment and i realized that
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this is my parent house and i'm going to enter the house and i'm going to see bodies bodies of them
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i stay focused and i try to stay calm because i know that i need to help my friend and my friend needs
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me i'm another soldier in this battle so we need to be very focused and go to do our job i was home in
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miami and it was the last day of the chag and as being a military physician as well as a physician
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and more so a jew it's difficult for me to sit at home and watch what was going on without doing
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something so in the middle of chag i literally pulled all my equipment and monitors and trauma bags
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and everything that i use going into conflict and literally went to the airport jumped on a plane
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and came here in order to volunteer my services as a physician on the front lines my area of
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concentration has been since i've been here primarily on the front lines working along with
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the advanced tactical units their military personnel in order to treat stabilize and save lives you know
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that are with the personnel that are affected by this conflict of course so can you tell us from you
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know from when you arrived what did you witness for yourself initially when i got here um headed
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straight down into south and was right at the entrance of kvaraza and there was a certain group of
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idf soldiers that i lined myself with and we were generally under fire most of the time so it was
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you know ak fire 762 rounds coming in mortar barrage rocket attacks of course and for the most time
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there were injuries that i needed to help and assist with with their medical personnel of course and it
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took a little bit of time in order for them to go in and start clearing kvaraza and finally after about
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the third wave or so i believe um we finally went in and um did the best that we could with whatever we saw
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in order to help and support and at that point it was mostly
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and even though we were still under fire while we're there there were still pockets of resistance
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you know the terrorists had embedded themselves in different locations and
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trying to ambush and um nevertheless it never stopped us from having to do what we needed to do
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whether it's going home to home doing searches for survivors remains
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and that that was over the course of the next little bit
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Until tomorrow, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters, to you at home, good night, and keep fighting for freedom.