Israel & Iran trade threats amid war in Gaza, US warns of imminent assault | LiveNOW from FOX

Welcome back in live now from Fox I'm Austin Westfall let's get to the latest on the Israel Hamas war and for that we turn to Dr alone burin of uh UCI visiting assistant professor and Israel Institute fellow alone always good to see you there is a lot to get to it's been a busy few days there is a lot of speculation out there right now about.

The possibility of Iran striking Israel directly following the killings of Iranian Generals in Syria earlier this month but as Trey yst says uh Israel's I should say as trying says it's impossible to know what Iran has planned if anything at all Israel's foreign minister meanwhile is threatening that this that his country's forces would.

Strike Iran directly if the Islamic Republic launched an attack from its territory against Israel uh what strikes me about all of this is the word directly alone pretty much all of the fighting we've seen since October 7th has been through Iranian proxies you're a history guy um have Israel and Iran ever had any type of direct combat or.

Has it always primarily been through the proxies first of all always good to see you um and you're absolutely right this if this would escalate to a direct confrontation between the countries this would be a first Iran since the revolution in 1979 has invested Monumental amounts of funding research technology anything you.

Want to develop these proxies in the Middle East and we're seeing how it's paying off offer them you know many years later however throughout all of their you know Big Talk rhetoric and the money that they give and the weapons that they give the country itself has never gone to war with Israel there have been a couple of times where it came.

Fairly close there was one time last year where a couple missiles were launched by in from Syria and it was speculated it was actually Iran launching them themselves but otherwise the country's always employed its proxies in turn Israel has never carried out Direct strikes in Iran either Israel has retaliated against things that.

Iranian proxies do even when it's very clear that it is Iran even when Iran almost takes responsibility for it Israel's always retaliated against Iranian proxies and even when Israel's carried out the mad is carry out carried out assassinations in Iran it's almost never taken responsibility for it so the way the region is right now gearing up.

For war if that does break out it will be a first and we're seeing how big it is we're seeing that the Iranian foreign minister tonight reportedly spoke with the foreign Ministers of Saudi Arabia Qatar the UAE Iraq the United States has said that they will participate if Israel has to retaliate in Iran that they will they do not take it out of the.

Question that they will also participate we're seeing how big this is is it going to happen or is it not going to happen a lot of the rhetoric that Iran is using is implying that it is going to happen the supreme leader Ali H said today that the attack that Israel carried out in Damascus on April 1st that killed right Muhammad razza zahedi um was an attack.

On on the Iranian consulate and that that constitutes an attack on Iranian soil and therefore Israel already carried out the first strike so the rhetoric does show that that's probably what they're going to do I will say that alongside the rhetoric again Iran has never wanted a direct confrontation so much so even with this current War it.

Has not wanted a direct confrontation even between Israel and healah even with its main proxy it has not let all it's not like loosen all the restraints and let War break out so there's a lot of rhetoric it'll be very surprising if Iran does say okay all bets are off it's time to launch this all out war on the one the other hand Iran s of needs to.

Save face the attack on its consulate and the assassination of this top General is a big blow for Iran so they do need to show their people and mostly their militias who they're sending out to fight they need to show we're also prepared to fight so they need to do something remains to be seen how they try to do that while maybe not.

Escalating to an all war remains to be seen does Iran have a history of promising to attack Israel and and simply doing nothing it has a history of always making threats that the future is coming you know Iran is run by by religious authorities religious authorities are very good at saying you know someday retribution will come so.

Iran has said right that the Israeli cancer is going to be cut out of the Middle East Israel's days are numbered Israel is going to pay for its crime the Republic is going to make it pay for its crime they have a long history of saying that they're going to do I will say what's different about the current situation compared to this long history.

Is one we are in the midst already of an allout Regional War we are in the midst of Israel being attacked and attacking as you said the Iranian proxies across from Lebanon to Syria to Iraq to Yemen to Gaza so we're in the midst of escalations already and the second thing is this attack that was carried out in the consul even though Israel did not.

Admit that it did it it's very obvious that that was an Israeli attack the attack sced on the consulate is already a game changer that is already Israel escalating an attack on the consulate by international law also would constitute an attack on the country itself the fact that the attack was carried out in Damascus that it was carried out against.

You know these quotequote advisers who are clearly involved in promoting terrorism but they're not combatant themselves so the the escalation sort of the spark was already there in Israel's initial attack sort of to say the the rules of the game have changed and we're now in a different position it Reigns to be seen if Iran sort of almost like.

Takes the bait and says okay so we are in a war now or if it tries to still retaliate but not go into this allout explosion which would occur if it would attack directly there's a lot to watch there's a lot to be seen as you say uh we will be following the situation with Iran closely I do want to move on to some of the news of the day though three.

Sons of Hamas leader Ismael Hana were killed in an Israeli strike in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday uh that's according to the Palestinian islamist group and hania's family uh the Israeli military confirmed carrying out this attack alone describing that the three Sons as the three sons were operatives in the Hamas armed Wing there were also some of his.

Grandchildren killed in this strike as well let's give a little more context to this situation hana's family is obviously in Gaza or at least some of them are in Gaza at least but he himself is not correct yeah isia um has a long history in the Hamas leadership he was actually the Hamas prime minister when Hamas won.

The elections the last time there were elections in the Palestinian Authority in 2006 he became the Prime Minister and he since then Rose in the ranks also of the different leadership apparatuses of Hamas and he was the internal leader right we have the divided leadership he was the internal leader of Hamas until 2017 when really what happened is there.

Was a leadership CH change he got elected to lead the political Bureau which historically really means he's the he's the ultimate leader of Hamas and that leader historically has always lived outside of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank for security purposes because as they're engaged in the fighting Hamas wanted its leadership to be far away so.

Because of that symbolically but also for practical reasons he left the Gaza Strip he was in the Gaza Strip till 2017 he left instead of him who was appointed the leader in the Gaza Strip is the name we know Yahya sinir the current leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip that's how they both became the leaders y sinir in the Gaza Strip is hania the ultimate.

Leader so to speak who is in Qatar he used to be they used to be in Syria but after the Syrian Civil War broke out Hamas sided with the rebels and thus they were kicked out of Syria and ended up in Qatar now hania has come under a lot of criticism because leaders like him and Haled Mash these are the known figures of Hamas they live lavish lives.

In Qatar they live in sevenstar hotels their fortunes together is estimated at some you know over5 billion According to some different reports and you know this stands in sharp contrast to what is to the situation of Palestinians in the god of strip which is brought on among others as a result of hamas's activity so there's a lot of criticism about this.

External leadership his some of his family lives with him some of the family remained back in the Gaza Strip when his sons were assassinated today one of the first things he said he saw the opportunity to say see my family is suffering too see it's the fact that I'm living this lavish life as an external leader does not mean that my family is.

Not suffering in fact the exact quote that he said is the blood of my family is no than the blood of any Palestinian who is spilled in the Gaza Strip This is no different than any other IDF attack so it is true that that you know this is obviously a strike against him personally and obviously he's going to feel it some his grandchildren were.

Killed but it's also he's using it as a way to try to show okay but you see even though I lived this lavish life in Qatar and really is a lavish life some of the pictures that you see coming out from their gold Laden hotels I'm still like one of the people fighting in the Gaza Strip which of course he's not let's talk a little bit more about Gaza Han.

Yunas to be specific here's some video that was taken this week Han Yunis residents returned to their communities on Monday to salvage what they could from the destruction this comes after the IDF withdrew from the area the day before alone do we know why the IDF left hunas there's a lot of different reports we don't have an official answer um the.

Some of the but I I'll say that the common denominator among the reports is that the reason is this hold up in the invasion of Rafa the IDF invaded hunas already four months ago in made hunas in December and hunas is one of the strongest strongest strongholds forgive me of um of Hamas had four battalions there and it was expected the fighting.

Would take a long time the fighting had pretty much played itself out the IDF had subdued most of the battalions already a month ago with that IDF forces in the city become much more Sitting Ducks they're not there with a specific purpose so they're just holding territory which allows them to be attacked here and there without a lot of.

Purpose seemingly what the IDF was expecting is okay and now they'll be given the order by Israel political establishment continue The Invasion to to to Rafa that did not happen that not happened because of a lot of the political escalation that has occurred and the fact that Israel has been pretty much forbade by the United States to.

Carry out that Invasion before a lot of things will happen and the IDF was stalling it was stalling was carrying out different operations in alal it was carrying out operations in Al karara this in the outskirts in the western parts of the city the Eastern parts of the city eventually I think they just decided to withdraw let the troops.

Regroup before going back in the IDF has been repeating again and again that this is not an end to the fighting that as far as they're concerned they haven't withdrawn from the Gaza Strip they simply ran out of what they were doing here and thus withdrew I will say that already though there's there's criticism that is being raised by IDF officers.

That are saying that what is happening in hunis is very similar what happened in the Northern parts of the Gaza spr without the political establishment in Israel having any mechanism to replace Hamas Hamas governing positions what is happening is along with the civilians that have returned to hunis Hamas is returning to hunis we already know that.

There Hamas police officers who are starting to take up their positions again who are starting to do anything from running Sanitation to clearing Rubble to being police officers because there's no other governing apparatus and the IDF there's a lot of frustration that is being that is starting to surface saying the IDF goes in succeeds.

In the mission Hamas battalions are destroyed but because there's no plan for what happens next in the god of strip the IDF pulls out and Hamas is returning so remains to be seen if the ID is going to end up returning to Huna soon that could be the case obviously all this destruction that we're looking at on the screen right now was done in.

The name of destroying Hamas that's what we've been hearing from the IDF ever since October but are there any highlevel conversations that you're picking up on about where these civilians go long term obviously I mean we're looking at these pictures this is no condition for people to live in there's a lot of conversations there.

Does not appear to be a plan as long as the war is going on um the IDF is focused more on temporary situations when it comes to Palestinians there's a report that in preparing for evacuating the over a million civilians from Rafa the IDF has begun purchasing some 40,000 large scale tents that that are going to be used to maybe move civilians and.

House them in different places but there's no permanent solution that's being developed there are solutions that are being voiced by the United States they not Solutions but I'll say plans that are being voiced by the United States United Arab Emirates Saudi Arabia who have talked about what is really going to be needed eventually is money.

Number one obvious ly and number two heavy Industrial Equipment right most of the equipment that would be used to even just remove the rubble you can see the pictures remove the rubble from the streets in order to start rebuilding neighborhoods for that you need vast Industrial Equipment Israel and the IDF I will say you could really understand.

Their point of view are saying yes but heavy Industrial Equipment in the Gaza Strip has been used to build tunnels has been used for Weaponry so Israel and the idef are not allowing any industrial equipment to operate in the Gaza Strip right now and it would be far-fetched to think that they're just going to allow Palestinian companies or or Aid agencies.

To start rebuilding later so there's going to have to be some mechanism of coordination between Saudi Arabia United Arab emites maybe Qatar the United States all of them are saying they're developing plans for removing reubel and rebuilding but it's not going to work unless the IDF actually feels that someone is making sure this is not being.

Used for Terror activity that part has not been solved yet how you bridge those two sides and we of course are still waiting for some sort of extended ground incursion from the IDF into Rafa that's something that we've been talking about for months now there is one more thing I want to hit before we go alone Hamas has told negotiators that it does not have.

40 Israeli hostages that it can release as part of a temporary ceasefire deal with Israel a source familiar with the talks confirmed to the hill so Israel says 133 hostages total have yet to be released 133 yet Hamas says that they don't have 40 living hostages it's been common.

Knowledge that a number of hostages sadly are not alive but did we know that the number of living doesn't even reach 40 and of course it's also worth asking alone can we even put any real stock in that number of 40 because it's from a terrorist organization all very good question so I'll just say some uh some numbers there.

Are 133 hostages that remain of those the IDF has confirmed that between 35 and 36 are dead and different intelligence agencies have suggested that it is possible that there are another 20 who are dead but that's in terms of the estimates of who is dead and who is alive I will say that I read hamas's message a little bit different.

And then I'll talk about if it's believable or not I read hamas's message as relating to the first phase of the deal right now it's being negotiating the first phase of the deal is releasing everyone who Hamas does not consider soldiers of military age that means males who are under 65 with that that is how they came up with a number of 40.

That means women elderly people who are injured and Israel has been pressuring that IDF female soldiers also be included and that's a bit of a sticking point because Hamas is saying they're not releasing Fighters and as far as they're concerned anyone under 65 who's a male can be a fighter while ID have female soldiers where do they fall.

Israel's insisting that they'd be included in the first phase that is considered again not people who cannot be combatants as far as Hamas is concerned that is who they're relating to when they say that they don't have 40 Israeli hostages to be released they are saying that though those who fit that category specifically they don't have 40.

Live hostages to some extent I'll say regrettably that may make sense because there were a total of between 40 or 42 who who fit this category so it is possible that some of them have been killed it is also possible that some of them are held by other organizations we know that the Palestinian Islamic Jihad the alaka martyrs Brigade the popular FR.

Of the liberation of Palestine we know that they also were holding hostages is possible that Hamas is trying to imply that they're not holding them it's other organizations it is also of course possible that Hamas is lying that they simply don't want to give out away their cards and say how many they have I will say that it would not necessarily be in.

Their interest to say that they're lying a lie of hostages are are a lot more valuable than dead hostages Hamas has an interest in keeping hostages alive because that is the biggest bargaining chip that they have to stop the war to stop the fighting so I would argue that if they did have 40 live hostages they would probably have no problem using.

Them it is possible that they only want to return let's say 30 and hold on to another 10 then say Oh we found them so obviously it's possible I'm not saying that we can take them at their word but there are circumstances in which it is also possible that some of these are dead or not in hamas's possession and that is what they're implying but again.

Right now Hamas is not even given its answer to if they agree to the deal this is all still preliminary Israel's demanding that Hamas say how many live hostages they have this is just hamas's answer that they said we're not sure we can we could Supply even that list so we're still a long way away from a deal all right so much to follow alone we.

Will of course keep in touch with you we will talk with you shortly we always look forward to your daily YouTube uploads as well take care

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