Israel-Hamas war: 100 killed in Gaza in last 24 hours, Israel accused of genocide | LiveNOW from FOX

continuing the conversation of a top story here on live now there on your screen as it relates to the Israel Hamas War We are following some breaking news at this hour South Africa launching a case Friday at the United Nations Top Court accusing Israel of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and asking the court to order Israel to Halt its attacks the first such challenge made at the court over the current War Israel swiftly rejecting the filing with disgust now South Africa has been a fierce c

ritic of Israel's military campaign out there in Gaza many there have compared Israel's policies regarding Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank with South Africa's past apartheid regime of racial segregation Israel rejecting those allegations we're joining the conversation now to further explain is Ken Gray he's a senior lecturer in criminal justice and Homeland Security at the University of New Haven Mr Ken always a pleasure having you here on live now from Fox good morning to you good mornin

g Jana glad to be with you again yes sir a lot to break down this morning so let's first start off with the very latest of the war we did hear the latest from the Israeli government they are saying they are still working to bring the hostages home but it seems like Hamas has not really been that um accommodating to that um request absolutely so um the number one priority of uh Israel is to eradicate uh Hamas from the Gaza Strip to get rid of Hamas and they despite the call for a pause the IDF is

still pushing very hard in both Gaza City down in con Yunis and throughout the middle part of the Gaza Strip to try to rid the country of Hamas and Mr Ken you actually mentioned the IDF I actually want to read a tweet that came through thanks to our producer it's talking about how um the IDF saying that their troops in coordination with aircraft have actually eliminated dozens of terrorists and they say that's why they're not wanting the ceasefire Israel is saying that they're not wanting the c

easefire because the ceasefire would basically make it to where they couldn't continue to eliminate Hamas terrorists which they're saying is the whole reason for this war that's exactly right is that uh the IDF has a window that they can operate in that window is is a period of time that they can try to get rid of Hamas but to do so they're having to operate within a very dense populated area World opinion is mouning against them and so that window is closing and so IDF and Israel is trying to p

ush their advantage as far as they can right now to try to achieve their goal of getting rid of Hamas before they are forced to stop I expect to see this conflict continue to be intense over the next weeks or months with their their trying to achieve this goal of eradicating Hamas from the area but uh at some point as this death toll continues to increase they're going to be forced to stop and so they're trying to get as much as they can accomplish done before they are forced to stop and that ac

tually leads me into my next topic Mr Ken you know we're following this breaking news out of South Africa launching this um genocide case accusing Israel of genocide and they're comparing of what happened out in South Africa with that racial aparti to what's happening they're saying it's racial discrimination against Palestinians now I know you're a historian if you could kind of take us back in time this doesn't stem necessarily just from this war there's been um alleged racial discrimination a

nd tension between Israel and the Palestinians for decades yes uh ever since 1948 uh when there was the setting up of Israel uh as a country uh that they had the deal with the Palestinians who were living in parts of the country uh and so this has been an ongoing problem uh between the Palestinians and Israel since 1948 actually before then when uh when Jewish people lived in the area um this this is not a new conflict with them um the idea though that this conflict that is going on that was sta

rted with the invasion here in the most recent version of it the invasion by Hamas and other Palestinians into Israel and killing Israelis is the thing that set this off and to accuse Israel of genocide by trying to defend itself um is what Israel is saying that this is a false claim against them uh in the uh in the world Court and so um I I think that this is not surprising that South Africa should make this claim uh it's just another attempt to stop Israel from trying to achieve its goal of ri

dding the area from Hamas and some were wondering are there tensions with Israel and South Africa for them to make this claim or are they just saying this like you just mentioned to try to uh make the um fighting kind of halt for a minute so This falls in the line with the oppressors versus the oppressed Viewpoint that if you uh if you look at Israel in terms of being the oppressor and Hamas and the Palestinians as being the oppressed South Africa would align itself with the oppressed however I

I I personally reject this concept of oppressor versus oppressed here inside uh Israel again this is Hamas and Palestinians attacking Israel and then Israel responding to that attack and trying to deal with that continual threat getting to some other breaking news we're following here on live now from Fox it's coming to our Studios that the Biden Administration basically bypassed Congress to approve some aid for military artillery for Israel and there was a lot of uh speculation and confusion ar

ound this Mr Ken because I know a lot with of people with the Biden administration were hoping that the attacks with stop because of all of the innocent people that were being killed but then it's like okay you approved this funding for weapons what do you think the weapons are going to be used for break that down for us because some are saying it's counteractive While others are saying it just further supports the US support for Israel well I think the problem here in the United States's politi

cs is that uh the Biden Administration does not want to concede anything to the Republicans uh as far as demands of uh other uh demands if they approve funding for Israel if they approve funding for Ukraine uh if they tie that to our Southwest border trying to secure our border uh the Biden Administration is trying to to get around that by jumping over Congress and saying this is an emergency uh uh provision of of uh weapons to Israel this is the second time they've done this and so I I don't kn

ow how long they can continue with this I think Congress will have something to say about this by bypassing Congress um but nonetheless this is an attempt uh as far as internal politics here in the United States of trying to keep from having to make concessions to the Republicans got you so break that down for us though Mr Ken because we know the abiden Administration has been saying they do want some of the fighting to calm down but they're not calling for a ceasefire but again how can you want

the fighting to calm down if you're providing the weapons and the money for the weapons for the fighting to continue I guess that's where the confusion lies yes uh so earlier in the week uh uh uh prime minister net Yahoo and the President Biden had a long conversation and during that time uh President Biden was trying to to uh push the idea of having a pause to try to become more surgical in their attack to try to Target Hamas leaders as opposed to this widescale destruction in their attempts t

o uh to get rid of Hamas uh but uh Netanyahu recognized the fact or stated that he he said that they're a sovereign country and that they are going to take whatever steps necessary to protect their country um so the Biden Administration is kind of having it trying to have it both ways they are providing weapons and saying that they're continuing to support Israel but at the same time they are trying to to push for a two-party Sol State solution and also to try to involve the Palestinian authorit

ies and to try to to shift this war into another phase and trying to wrap up the the the ongoing fighting there in U inside the Gaza Strip and to Instead try to move on into another phase where uh the the destruction the wide uh area destruction ceases and turn into trying to hunt down Hamas members that's very difficult in a very very uh urban area like this to try to to shift over because after all many of the attackers that went into Israel were not Hamas members but were other Palestinians a

nd I was going to say when you have so many different terrorist organizations taking part in this it's kind of hard hard to hone in on who is the attacker and then they're hiding in tunnels under innocent people's homes and in hospitals just so many different aspects of this war Mr Ken but really briefly I want to kind of segue into a different aspect we know the United Nations has been meeting for that humanitarian pause also calling for humanitarian Aid to Gaza we're about to enter 2024 in a f

ew days and this war is ongoing and you still have innocent people out there without clean drinking water some haven't eaten um How do you think this is going to affect as we enter the new year because obviously it's a time for reset and a time to hone in on the things you're thankful for and many of these innocent Palestinians don't even have a home to return to this is a total humanitarian disaster uh people are dying uh for due to the lack of water due to lack of food uh these things uh you k

now with when you displace a large number of people that were already relying upon uh International humanitarian Aid to just sustain life there in the Gaza Strip when you have that and then you disrupt all that and not have this continued amount of Aid that had been already coming into the country uh be disrupted then the the end result is is that people are dying not from being shot not from being bombed but also from uh being exposed to the lack of Sanitation uh no water no food humanitarian a

is trying to get into the country uh the Israelis opened up a second uh gate there to to get into Aid into the country uh but the problem is is that those are not secure areas you have to make sure there are not weapons inside the aid coming in uh and so it slows down that process so there's just a trickle of Aid coming in and some of that Aid once it does get into the country is actually being taken by Hamas we have seen that time and time again especially during those hostage exchanges when t

hat was the excuse from Hamas as to why they couldn't release hostages um as we are closer and closer to 2024 many people calling for a ceasefire Mr Ken what's the likelihood that'll happen so you know again it's International pressure that will cause that to happen or not happen um the Israel is attempting to to get as much done as they can before they are forced to stop uh they are going to be forced to stop by International pressure and that International pressure uh it depends upon how Hamas

displays this to the world as far as showing the humanitarian disaster that is going on here you know uh whenever you have groups like this that are trying to appeal to the world what they are trying to do is to to cause internal uh political change by forcing uh outside pressure to cause that to happen I'm thinking of uh the uh in Algeria where the French were forced to leave uh or made the decision to leave Algeria because of the opposition that was going on in there in this particular case i

t is not exactly the same but nonetheless just like the alerian terrorist groups were relying upon outside pressure the same thing is true about h here Hamas was hoping for a regional conflict that does not look like it's going to happen although it may still happen but they are now also appealing to the world to try to force Israel to stop well Ken Gray with the University of New Haven I always appreciate you coming on here with us here on live now from Fox your perspective you also share a lot

of history with us which explains not only why we are here where we are today but how we got to this point um happy New Year to you is there anything else you'd like to add Mr Ken about out the Israel Hamas War before we end this interview one last thing in that is is that the USS Mason shot down missiles and shot down a drone that was launched by the houthis against a a convoy of ships there in the Red Sea so that still is ongoing uh a lot of shipping uh is avoiding the Red Sea uh making the l

ong trip around uh to to avoid possibly being attacked but nonetheless The Who these are still trying to control uh the who passes through the straight there into the Red Sea and so that is an aspect we should not forget about it still is a constant irritant and in the long run it might cause extreme damage just simply by its effect on commercial shipping and international shipping absolutely I'm going to have to check in with you once we make it through 2024 to get an update on that Mr kenr aga

in thank you so much for joining me here on live now from Fox and happy New Year to you and your family Happy New Year to you too thank you