Israel debuts its first 24/7 news channel i24

It’s understandable that Israelis are addicted to watching news, and now there is finally a 24/7 Israeli news channel in Hebrew—i24NEWS. It just went live on Sunday night with its Hebrew-language news and current affairs programming.

It opened with a main evening news program, hosted by Miri Michaeli, and went head-to-head with the established nightly news broadcasts on Kan, Keshet, Reshet, and Channel 14. The new channel is part of the i24NEWS network that was established in 2013 and has been broadcasting news from Israel to the whole world on three channels and in three languages: English, French and Arabic.

The channel is available to HOT customers on the internet and in the i24NEWS app on Channel 15, on NEXT TV on Channel 15, yes+ on Channel 15, STING+ on Channel 15, Partner TV on Channel 22, Cellcom TV on Dhannel 10, and FREE TV alongside the Israeli channels.

The evening news broadcast on i24 featured familiar faces who have moved from other channels and outlets.

Notable among these were Zvi Yehezkeli, formerly the Arab Affairs correspondent on Reshet 13 News, and Yossi Yehoshua, the military correspondent for Ynet, who has appeared as a commentator on several television programs in the past.

Hezbollah attacks across all platforms

Sunday night’s inaugural broadcast was similar to the news programs on the other channels. It opened with coverage of Hezbollah’s attacks on northern Israel and reactions of Lebanese citizens to the fighting; the soldiers who just fell in the fighting in Gaza; the latest attacks by the Houthis; an analysis of terrorism in the West Bank; violence by police at anti-government and pro-hostage deal demonstrations on Saturday night in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem; demonstrations by ultra-Orthodox in Jerusalem against the new law that would require them to serve in the IDF; US President Joe Biden’s weak debate performance against Donald Trump; and so on. In short, it was a pretty slow news day for Israel these days and i24 covered it thoroughly, with Lebanese experts speaking about Lebanon and several correspondents in the US.

Michaeli hosted one segment in which she interviewed Ofri Bibas, the sister of Yarden Bibas, one of the 120 hostages still held by Hamas, who was kidnapped along with his wife, Shiri, and children, Kfir and Ariel, on October 7 from Kibbutz Nir Oz. Ofri has just given birth and discovered she was pregnant in mid-October. Michaeli and Ofri discussed the joy mixed with sadness and how she has fought as hard as she could for family’s release during all these months, in spite of her pregnancy.

The news was followed by a program, The Israelis, with a panel that featured a diverse group: Eli Ohana, former soccer star and former chairman of Beitar Jerusalem; actor Yossi Marshek; Eyal Waldman, the hi-tech entrepreneur whose daughter was murdered by Hamas terrorists at the Nova Festival; and former MK Orly Levy-Abekasis. They were joined by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.

There were promos for several other programs, such as one on business.

It remains to be seen whether there is room for another news broadcaster and news app in Israel, but i24 in Hebrew made a polished debut.