'The question is not if, but when': Israeli troops expected to launch ground offensive on Gaza
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Transcript
00:00 Mackler sending by. Hello to you, Iris. The Israeli unity government, the war cabinet
00:05 doubling down here. And just moments ago, it released a statement saying that 258 Israeli
00:11 soldiers killed since the Hamas attack. It seems like this ground invasion is not if,
00:16 but a matter of when. I agree with that, because when I hear what
00:22 is being said here, it's, I think this attack with almost 1400 Israelis killed really in
00:29 the space of 24 hours. They simply die from their wounds received on that first day. I
00:36 think something inside Israel has snapped and they now are speaking of removing Hamas
00:42 from power. That's it. You know, no ifs or buts. And in order to do that, they say they
00:47 have to go in and they have to go under. Because although the people have no place to go under,
00:52 the Hamas leadership is quite safe and it is presumed has all it needs down there, including
00:58 fuel generators and comms. And of course, rockets. They're still coming into Israel.
01:04 So this feeling that I get from listening to people, leaders speaking here, is that
01:12 this time it's different. They're not going to put up with Hamas remaining in power. The
01:19 chief of staff said yesterday that certain leaders and he named Yehya Sinwar, the leader
01:24 of Hamas, others are dead men walking. And we've heard we're going to destroy Hamas.
01:29 We're going to eliminate Hamas. We're going to dismantle Hamas. So I think you're right.
01:34 It's it's when they go in, how many civilians will have moved? I did hear from the IDF spokesman
01:43 this morning. He said it may take more than 24 hours for those civilians to go. That's
01:48 fine. If they want to be safe, they have to go. So that is another indication to me that
01:53 they are definitely planning some kind of wide ranging ground offensive that will be
01:59 above ground and below ground. And I would not be surprised if an end of this will be
02:07 actually, I'll see if you want to discuss this or not. Will there be a humanitarian
02:11 corridor and who would go in and who would go out?
02:13 Yeah, here's a real quickly on that front. We hear Hamas claiming that 13 hostages, Israeli
02:22 hostages were killed by Israeli airstrikes. Well, you know, there's been Hamas claims
02:29 of that from the first day. I'm not saying it's not true. I'm just saying you can't corroborate
02:33 it. Excuse me. On the first of the second day, I think there was an announcement that
02:38 four hostages had been killed. On the third day, there was an announcement that they were
02:43 going to kill the hostages hour by hour. The hostages are very much a bargaining chip and
02:49 a publicity tool, I think, for Hamas. And it could well be true. You know, the level
02:55 of airstrikes in the Gaza Strip is something I've never seen in all the years I've been
03:00 reporting here for you and all the previous conflicts with Hamas and Gaza, sorry, Hamas
03:06 and Israel in Gaza that I've covered. It could well be true, but it could also be part of
03:11 the psychological warfare that we see with the hostages playing a part in this backwards
03:18 and forwards. Just the other day, I heard from Hamas, for example, that they had not
03:22 taken or harmed any women or children. Well, we've seen footage that they released or that
03:28 they had put on social media. You know, that isn't true. Not everything that they say is
03:32 true, though. This could very well tragically be true.
03:35 All right, Iris. Thank you very much, Iris Mackler, reporting from Jerusalem.