Israel has confirmed that the body of
one hostage and the remains of another
have been recovered from Gaza and
returned to Israel. The Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed
the identity of the recovered body as
that of Ilan Vice. In a statement, he
said in an operation by the IDF and
Shinbet in the Gaza Strip, the body of
the late Ilan Vice, who was held by the
murderous terrorist organization Hamas,
was returned to Israel. The operation
also returns the remains of another
hostage whose name has not yet been
released. The remains are currently
being identified at the Institute of
Forensic Medicine. He goes on to say,
"Together with all the citizens of
Israel, my wife and I extend our
heartfelt condolences to the dear
families and share in their great
sorrow."
The Israeli president Isaac Herzog also
released a statement
saying, "I offer my heartfelt
condolences and support to the Vice
family and the community of Kibutz Berry
upon upon the recovery of the body of
the hostage Ilan Vice of blessed
memory." That comes as the Israeli
military confirmed that it has begun its
initial operations on the outskirts of
Gaza City. An IDF spokesperson has said,
"We have begun preliminary operations
and the initial stages of the attack on
Gaza City, and we are currently
operating with great force on the
outskirts of the city. We will intensify
our strikes and will not hesitate until
we bring back all the hostages and
dismantle Hamas militarily and
politically." Well, this footage, which
was captured today from inside Gaza
City, shows strikes already taking place
throughout the area as Israel ramps up
its military operations in the city. Our
Middle East correspondent, Adam Parsons,
joins me from Jerusalem now. Uh, good
afternoon to you, Adam. Uh most people
believed that this uh intensification
around Gaza City was a matter of when uh
not if or what what are you seeing? What
are you hearing?
>> Well, I think these are still
preliminary operations. This is not the
start of the big uh offensive, but it's
certainly a sign that the the noose is
being tightened around Gaza City. An
area that I remind you what, less about
a week ago, was declared to be suffering
from famine uh and is now surrounded to
an extent particularly in the the
northeast and southeast by Israeli
hardware. Israel is calling up tens of
thousands of reserveists. Uh, Israel
says that Gaza City is the last
remaining stronghold for Hamas, that
there are hundreds, potentially
thousands of Hamas fighters in Gaza
City, and that if Israel is to win this
war, then it will have to uh go forward
with a a full offensive. And and to put
that into some kind of context, uh a
source has has told Sky News that that
would mean months, not weeks. That they
think that they will have to not just
enter the city, but search for tunnels.
That they say they cannot go into Gaza,
take it over, and then leave and allow,
in their opinion, Hamas terrorists to
simply emerge from tunnels. So if this
offensive goes ahead, it will be
enormous. Now, at the moment, Israel is
doing two things. It is uh attacking the
outskirts. It is showing enormous
military might. It is also telling Gaza
city's 1 million potentially 1.2 million
residents to leave to seek sanctuary to
head further south into areas that they
say they are preparing uh with uh with
water, electricity, and the other
requirements uh for basic life. uh tents
and shelter uh and so on. Now this is a
message that's been put out through
social media, through leaflets, through
announcements. Uh but of course these
are people who are in some cases not
just hungry but starving, emaciated,
exhausted. Some of them have been
displaced multiple times. There are some
who we have already seen leaving Gaza
City. There are others who the Israelis
know will not leave are not able to
leave or may not maybe not physically uh
sort of mentally able to leave Gaza
city. So a question will be what do they
do to take care of those people as they
launch this enormous offensive uh
against Gaza city. If there is not a
ceasefire and there is no sign that
Benjamin Netanyahu is going to sign the
ceasefire that's been proposed been on
his desk for more than a week now then
this offensive will go ahead and and one
extra thought by the way you mentioned
Ilanis's body being recovered the IDF
says that that takes that number of
hostages down to 49 as you've been
reporting another body has been taken
down uh has been recovered in that joint
operation by the IDF and Shinbet but at
the manding is that those are parts of a
body that are being examined at the
moment. In the minds of the Israeli
military, it is not enough to say that
they have recovered uh another body
today. So, it is the body of Elam Weiss
killed on October 7th and the remains of
an as yet unidentified individual.
>> Okay, Adam, thank you very much. A
developing situation uh there uh in
Gaza. Thank you.