00:00Meanwhile, Israel is pushing on with its offensive on Gaza City despite mounting international condemnation.
00:07Before the very latest, let's cross live now to Noga Tarnopolsky.
00:10She's our correspondent based in Jerusalem.
00:14Noga, Israeli media reporting that there are currently huge strikes on Gaza City.
00:21What more can you tell us about what is happening on the ground there?
00:24It's much more than Israeli media, Sharon.
00:31This is even Israeli citizens in central Israel are feeling the bombings in Gaza.
00:38That's how strong it is.
00:39We understand also from Palestinian sources that there have been at least 37 Israeli strikes within 20 minutes.
00:49This has been described as a ring of fire around Gaza City.
00:53And just in the last few minutes, we've gotten the first reports from Palestinians inside Gaza
01:00that there are IDF, Israel Defense Forces tanks in central Gaza City.
01:06So I can't for sure say that this is the beginning of the Israeli full-on assault on Gaza City.
01:15But this is a very, very major, the largest escalation since Israel initiated the plan to occupy and take over all of Gaza City.
01:26And Noga, what do you make of the fact that this is coming just hours after we saw yet another very public display of unity
01:32between the U.S. and Israel as the American Secretary of State was holding talks in Jerusalem?
01:37I think there's a direct link.
01:44We had really all eyes today on the press conference between Secretary of State Marco Rubio
01:50and the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Tanyahu to see if there was any daylight between them, anything at all.
01:56Well, President Trump has said many times that he wants to see the war in Gaza over, he wants to see it over as soon as possible.
02:03And so there was thinking here in Israel that Secretary of State Rubio's visit might be intended to transmit that message in a more forceful manner to Netanyahu.
02:13But it was pretty clear from the press conference today that that was not the case
02:17and that the United States had no plan to restrain Israel in any way,
02:22that it was allowing Prime Minister Netanyahu to move ahead in what we have to say is this extremely controversial move.
02:30So the idea of Israel taking over, invading Gaza City, emptying it of its one million, population of one million people,
02:41this has not only been condemned roundly by the international community, it's not only being condemned in the Arab world,
02:49but inside Israel, we heard again today reports of a screaming cabinet session
02:57in which the chief of staff of the IDF reiterated his opposition to this manoeuvre,
03:03screamed at the Israeli cabinet members to sign on a deal, to move to Israel,
03:08asking why is the Mossad director here, why isn't he working on a deal.
03:12So this has been very violent on the streets of Israel, in the cabinet of Israel,
03:17and among the family members of the Israeli hostages still held in Gaza.
03:22We've seen scenes that are very difficult to describe, mothers going on television literally to beg the government
03:31to spare their children, very, very extreme scenes that much of the Israeli public is closely identified with.
03:41A vast majority of the Israeli public does not want this escalation of war.
03:44So Netanyahu really is striking out on his own, but with the backing of the Trump administration.
03:51Yeah, and he has also been posting on X just in the last few minutes,
03:55Noga saying that again, that this Israeli attack on Hamas leaders in Doha,
03:59saying this was wholly independent of the US.
04:03This coming, of course, as Marco Rubio heads to Doha.
04:07What kind of reception do you expect him to receive there?
04:10Well, let's first say, if we can take a literary bent, that it's possible the lady doth protest too much.
04:21The Israeli prime minister has now said three or four times that this is solely an Israeli operation.
04:28And we know that at least the first time he made this announcement minutes into the assault
04:32against Hamas leaders in Doha, that this was at the request of the United States.
04:37And we've had conflicting or somewhat conflicting messages tonight.
04:42Again, seven Israeli officials are quoted in the US online magazine Axios as saying that
04:51Prime Minister Netanyahu let Trump know of this imminent assault 50 minutes ahead.
04:59So it's not what we've heard before.
05:01What I take from all of this muddled messaging is that there is some tension or some anger even
05:08between the Oval Office, between Donald Trump personally and Netanyahu,
05:12some conflict regarding when the United States knew and what the world knows about it.
05:19If the Qataris believe, for example, as hinted by these Israeli officials speaking to Axios,
05:25if the Qataris believe that Donald Trump knew almost an hour ahead of time and didn't stop this assault,
05:33that could actually impact American and Qatari relations, which are crucial.
05:39The United States has its largest military base in the entire region there.
05:43So we're seeing a lot of kind of behind-the-scenes maneuvering.
05:46But obviously, the two biggest subjects at the table are the escalation we're now seeing in Gaza City
05:53and what the Israeli government's intentions may be towards the West Bank,
05:57where Israel has threatened to simply declare sovereignty over Palestinian lands against international law.
06:07Noga, we'll leave it there for now.
06:09Thank you so much for that.
06:09That's our correspondent, Noga Tarnopolsky, joining us live there from Jerusalem.
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