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Speaker 1: We're joined now by Jonathan Cursley, Channel nine's US correspondent.

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Speaker 1: Good morning, Jonathan.

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Speaker 2: Mate, Good morning to you both, and good morning for

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Speaker 2: your listeners as well.

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Speaker 1: Jonathan. There has of course been quite a few developments

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Speaker 1: on the Gaza Strip since we last spoke to you

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Speaker 1: this morning. Probably the biggest thing that people are talking

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Speaker 1: about is the Palestinian hospital rocked by an explosion. Hundreds

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Speaker 1: of reported dead. But there's some tooing and throwing on

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Speaker 1: who's to blame there.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, this is a real blame game now, and it's

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Speaker 2: a very very delicate situation and a very tragic situation.

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Speaker 2: You've got hundreds of people dead. Estimations early on with

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Speaker 2: two hundred to three hundred, it could be many as

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Speaker 2: five hundred or more. It is late in the night there,

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Speaker 2: It is overnight, very much in the early hours of

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Speaker 2: the morning, and it is still an emergency situation. They

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Speaker 2: are still try to deal with the situation on the ground.

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Speaker 2: But as you say, a blame game has emerged, and

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Speaker 2: ask blamed Israel. Israel, blame day an Islamic ji Adascript

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Speaker 2: and says he has evidence to prove that this was

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Speaker 2: a misfire from one of their miss so I was

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Speaker 2: are good, but they say are terrorists that they claim

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Speaker 2: was misfired and struck the hospital. Israel is adamant existing

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Speaker 2: it was not them. They are not to blame for

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Speaker 2: this deadly strike on this hospital. And this through the

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Speaker 2: whole sequence of events in the region really in two

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Speaker 2: complete chaos. Joe Biden is now on his way to

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Speaker 2: the region. The US President was due to hold high

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Speaker 2: stakes talks in Israel and in Jordan, particularly with Arab leaders.

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Speaker 2: Three Arab leaders in Jordan. That section of the trip

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Speaker 2: is now off and awake of this deadly strike. So

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Speaker 2: Joe Biden now traveling all of this way to meet

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Speaker 2: Benjamin Ett Yahoo show American support for Israel. But it's

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Speaker 2: a very very delicate situation.

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Speaker 3: On the ground, there was speculation that the President wouldn't go.

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Speaker 3: Now does it have any real impact with him being there?

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Speaker 3: Does it make things worse?

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Speaker 2: Well, I mean imagine the ramifications of this attack and

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Speaker 2: the discussions that would have been going on inside the

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Speaker 2: White House. The White House says that Joe Biden was

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Speaker 2: being brief players National security team, that he spoke to

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Speaker 2: his Secretary of State Anthony Blincoln, who is in the

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Speaker 2: Middle East, that He also spoke to Bedjamin then yahoo

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Speaker 2: in, the Israeli Prime Minister before he took off. Now you

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Speaker 2: can imagine one of the questions he may well have

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Speaker 2: wanted to ask him, was Israel behind this attack? If

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Speaker 2: you were, then I cannot go to see you. Now

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Speaker 2: that may word been one of the questions he wanted

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Speaker 2: to ask him before he actually set foot on the

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Speaker 2: plane and made his way to the region. Then, just

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Speaker 2: as he's about to leave the White House and Justice

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Speaker 2: he's about the god to Joe Bess Andrews and stepped

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Speaker 2: on the plane, Jordan's finme minister announced the whole Jordan

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Speaker 2: somebody is off. So he won't be meeting Egypt seven

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Speaker 2: and CC, he won't be meeting King ab Dora or Jordan.

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Speaker 2: He won't be meeting to Bus the palaestin near authority

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Speaker 2: leader three leaders. He would have been wanting to see

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Speaker 2: face to face to talk to them. That's not to

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Speaker 2: say talks won't be happening behind the scenes while he

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Speaker 2: is in the air, But certainly this is a blow

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Speaker 2: for his diplomatic mission. Maybe now his focus is to

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Speaker 2: triumph Israel back and say to them, perhaps a ground

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Speaker 2: invasion into Gaza is not a great idea.

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Speaker 1: Well, this was going to be my next question to you, Jonathan.

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Speaker 1: The other day, Israel was pretty firm in giving northern

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Speaker 1: Gaza a fairly fairly short deadline to move because an

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Speaker 1: offensive was going to begin, and I think Joe Biden

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Speaker 1: was one of, maybe not even the only leader to

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Speaker 1: kind of gently suggest that that's a little unreasonable. And

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Speaker 1: so that has that hasn't started yet, that offensive. What

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Speaker 1: is the latest on that.

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Speaker 2: Well, again, we'll see you're seeing Israeli troops and mats

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Speaker 2: near the border with Gaza. There have been tanks there

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Speaker 2: for days, tanks rolling the streets. As you see continue

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Speaker 2: attack inside Gaza. You also see continued attacks on the

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Speaker 2: Israeli Lebanese border, in clashes with Israel and Hesbali and Leatherbon.

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Speaker 2: This is certainly a very very dicey situation. You mentioned

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Speaker 2: that timeline that was given, that was a twenty four

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Speaker 2: hour window an days ago. Now, obviously, behind the scenes,

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Speaker 2: Israel would want to be planning and meticulously thinking through

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Speaker 2: how it would carry out any sort of move into Gaza.

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Speaker 2: But the US President Joe Biden clearly going with a

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Speaker 2: mission in mind to say to israel occupation. Reoccupation of

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Speaker 2: Gaza should not be their objective. Now, Israel says it's

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Speaker 2: not that would throw potentially the entire region back into chaos,

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Speaker 2: but the American officials have admitted that this is a

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Speaker 2: critical time for Israel, a critical time for the region,

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Speaker 2: at a critical time for the world.

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Speaker 1: Now even more, it certainly is well when we're talking

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Speaker 1: in the news with Hamas and Hezbala in the same sentence, again,

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Speaker 1: it's not good, so dangerous, No, it really is not good.

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Speaker 3: And Jonathan, we're hearing about, you know, the scenes of

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Speaker 3: City Airport, you know, the repatriation flights landing there. The

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Speaker 3: mixed emotions is a lot of relief for people, but

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Speaker 3: it comes with a lot of sadness and maybe a

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Speaker 3: little bit of guilt for those left behind. It's just

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Speaker 3: part of the toll for people involved, isn't it.

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Speaker 2: There is a death toll, there is a physical toll,

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Speaker 2: there is an emotional toll. It is being carried through

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Speaker 2: all of this just in the Middle East. But there

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Speaker 2: were reverberations being felt around the world. Now, obviously some

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Speaker 2: joyous seed, some emotional scenes at Sydney Airport, families being reunited,

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Speaker 2: but also a tinge with sadness. As you say, there

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Speaker 2: are people who have left family behind. There are people

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Speaker 2: who've left their homeland behind. What they see is now

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Speaker 2: and they feel very uncomfortable and saddened about the fact

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Speaker 2: that they have had to do that. Many of them

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Speaker 2: say they want to be able to get back there

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Speaker 2: as soon as they possibly can. But obviously they deem

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Speaker 2: the situation right now not to be sack enough for

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Speaker 2: them to be there, so they wanted to come to

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Speaker 2: Australia where they are citizens. More Australia is also their home.

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Speaker 2: But this is just another sign of the ramifications and

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Speaker 2: the repercussions that this conflict is having around.

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Speaker 1: The work and the other thing. Any any sort of

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Speaker 1: give on the hostage situation at this stage.

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Speaker 2: Well, again you keep seeing the numbers down to around

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Speaker 2: on how many Israel actually pick some masses holding hostage.

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Speaker 2: Early on it was about one hundred to one hundred

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Speaker 2: and fifty. Now it's up to around aout one hundred

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Speaker 2: and ninety nine two hundred that it's estimated of being

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Speaker 2: held hostage. Now that creates another problem through Israelti moves

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Speaker 2: into gards because her master's had a strategy before of

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Speaker 2: moving hostages around areas, taking them through tunnels in the area,

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Speaker 2: shifting them, constantly moving them around. So it's been very

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Speaker 2: difficult for American authority, through their only authority, struggle to

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Speaker 2: work on where some of these stilisms are. Not Americans

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Speaker 2: in Israeli throving held hostage, there's concern for Brits too,

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Speaker 2: and they, as I say, I keep saying, this is

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Speaker 2: a delicate situation because it is one of Joe Biden's

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Speaker 2: main aims when he wanted to go to Israel was

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Speaker 2: to try and secure the release of hostages. But without

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Speaker 2: knowing where they are, that becomes a very very difficult mission.

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Speaker 1: Certainly seemed like a strategic move on her mass behalf

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Speaker 1: on day one to you know, set that up for

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Speaker 1: a week or two down the track when they would

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Speaker 1: need those human shields.

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Speaker 2: Well, yeah, a user word human shield that's been used

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Speaker 2: a lot of This has been a strategy from a master.

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Speaker 2: The Western governments have said four years this is what

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Speaker 2: Hamas does. They do use people as human shields. And

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Speaker 2: with hostages they now have in their arms and in

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Speaker 2: their sights, they may seem to think that they have

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Speaker 2: some sort of upper hand in this situation, and really

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Speaker 2: what you're looking at is one hundred and ninety nine

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Speaker 2: to two hundred lives that right now hang in the balance.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, people just become pawns, which is very very sad.

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Speaker 1: Yes, well, Jonathan, thank you as always for updating us

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Speaker 1: in a bit more detail, and sadly we'll probably talk

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Speaker 1: to you again.

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Speaker 2: Nowherries at all and anybody affected by those communities obviously

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Speaker 2: or part of those communities obviously, our thoughts are this

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Speaker 2: is a very very troubling time.

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Speaker 3: Absolutely, thanks gentleman.

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Speaker 1: Thanks Jonathan,