Transcripts For CNNW CNN 20240703

Theyre noise cancelling earmuffs. I stole them from an airport. Its always something with you, man. Great solid greek salad . Exactly dont delay the game with verizon or tmobile 5g home internet. Catch it on the xfinity 10g network. Announcer this is cnn breaking news. Good morning, everyone, welcome to cnn this morning. It is sunday, october 8th, im amara walker. And im victor blackwell. And were live in tel aviv as we continue to follow developments in israel. Right now it is 3 00 p. M. In israel. At least 350 Israeli Citizens are dead. Far more wounded since hamas attacked yesterday morning. And the number of dead now includes 44 Israeli Soldiers and 30 Police Officers and border officers. Well today the focus for the Israel Defense forces is to take control of gaza. Retaliatory air strikes from israel against hamas targets have killed more than 310 people and injured nearly 2000 and that is according to Palestinian Authority officials. [ sound of gunfire ] and there the past 24 hours, Israeli Forces have struck more than 400 targets in gaza, including ten towers used by hamas. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is vowing vengeance against hamas and warning civilians in gaza to get out while they can. Translator all of places which hamas has deployed, hiding and operating into, we will turn it into an island of ruins. Im telling people to leave those places now because we will take action everywhere. Hamas claims to have captured dozens of israelis including children and soldiers. Look at this. This is video, it is disturbing. It shows israeli civilians being rounded up, presumably taken into gaza. The idf is working to figure out exactly how many Israeli Citizens have been taken hostage. But near the gaza border, israel is now evacuating more than 20 communities to get Israeli Citizens out of harms way and using drones to keep militants from crossing the border. More than 1,000 hamas fighters poured into country and their still fighting to remove hamas fighters from eight areas in southern israel. And lets go now to our Becky Anderson in tel aviv. Becky, were now looking at the second day, israel has a lot on its hands including trying to find a way to get those hostages, many of whom are civilians andi Israeli Soldiers back safely and securing israel itself, where there are still areas that are undergoing fighting. That is right. This is unprecedented for israeli officials. This is uncharted territory. Lets put it squarely in focus here. At least 100 rockets fired on the israeli town of sderot this morning alone as isreal continues its response targeting now close to 500 targets in gaza overnight and into the morning. You could continue to hear the booms here in tel aviv. It is not very far away but far enough that you dont expect to hear what is going on in this theater of war. But it continues, according to authorities. Benjamin netanyahu vowing that this is a war that israel will win and saying that the enemy will pay an unprecedented price. But i think it is important to consider quite what that war looks like Going Forward. And what the price will be in terms of further lives lost and that will only become apparent in the hours and days ahead. Weve already seen significant civilian casualties on both sides in the hundreds. Those numbers tragically could rise. What is clear is that the dozens of israelis who have been taken captive by hamas and the idf will not put a precise figure on those numbers as they try and establish exactly how many people have been taken by hamas militants. But the idf admitted this is dozens of israelis rounds up in israel and taken into gaza as hostages. That will complicate the Israeli Zeefs forces next moves. The sheer scale of this operation by hamas is cause israel flat footed. Benjamin netanyahu is holding what the government has described as a Situation Assessment with Senior Defense and Security Officials as we speak. And i do just before i get you on the ground to Nic Robertson who is very close to gaza at present, i just want to remind what the world has witnessed in the past 30 hours or so and this is through the israeli lense. These people seen fleeing and militants that have breached the border attacking festivalgoers. This next video which is disturbing to watch, let me warn you, is of a man and woman, festivalgoers, taken hostage by militants. Their whereabouts are known at present but very likely among those who are captured and have been taken into gaza. And hamas saying that the hostages will make theize raely Defense Forces next moves into gaza very difficult. Lets get right to Nic Robertson who is in southern israel. As we consider, nic, what the israeli Defense Forces will be. Of course, there are 2 million palestinians in what is a very, very congested gaza who are also at massive risk here. Already weve seen upwards of 300 palestinians killed in the past 30 hours and thousands wounded. So lest we forget there are civilians and their lives at stake here as well crucially the 44ize raely soldiers who have been killed and these oftages who are being held. Explain where you are and what you are hearing there. Im in sderot. That Police Station, the remains was under hamas control. There was a Fierce Fire Fight by israeli Defense Forces into the earl why i hours of the morning. 4 00 or 5 00 a. M. Before they took back control of the Police Station. Look the at destruction and the amount of force that was required to take this back from the hamas militants who had taken control of this town. What am i seeing and hearing now. The very beginning of the clear up. But im Hearing Drones in the air, that was an explosion, you may have heard that. Were Hearing Explosions and fighter jets in the air. This town is almost entirely deserted, just a few civilians were seeing over here coming out talking to each other about what happened here. Just to the left, im going to direct john to turn the camera on this car. This was part of the shootout yesterday. It is a very bloody situation on the other side of the voehicle. We wont show you that. But just look around here. If you follow me on theed ground, look at all of the shell casings that are scattered around on the ground and this gives you an indication of the intensity of the fire fight. Ands with drove in in sderot, that is the general background, were a couple of miles from gaza and the explosions sound like theyre coming from Inside Of Gaza, hearing the fighter jets and another explosion there. When you drive into sderot, you pass vehicle after vehicle and we had a Police Vehicle that had three clear shots through the wind screen on to where the driver would have been sitting. Hamas came in here and again you can be understand state this, theyve never done this before. And their still shelling these parts and we have seconds to get to a bunker here. And Sos A Very Active and hot zone. In this Area Security is very tight. You see soldiers at checkpoints with safety catches off their weapons and soldiers going through fields looking for places where there have been reports that there are hamas militants, they have been caught further north from here trying to infiltrate today deeper into israel. So this is still a very uneven situation. But the beginning of the clearup at the Sderot Police station, that is just getting underway now, becky. I spoke to the Idf Spokesperson earlier on and he said the idf is still working to secure and protect 20 communities around that gaza border, which i echo your words, it cannot be understated or underscores just how spectacular this incursion by hamas militants have been. The breaching of these very secure defenses until now the israelis had which put gaza under siege for so many years. The israeli now saying it is part of their next plan, they will cut the supplies of electricity, cut the supplies of fuel and goods into gaza. Which will just reinforce the siege that palestinians have been living under for years. But now you have the addition of, and we dont know the numbers here, but were talking about multiple dozens of israeli hostages which will be the athe forefront of Benjamin Netanyahus mind, as they look to what their plans might be Going Forward in gaza itself. The Idf Spokesperson wouldnt confirm that there would be a ground incursion. Were seeing the buildup of troops around gaza. What is your perspective, nic, of what happens next, in the immediate hours to come . Reporter literally as youre speaking to me, becky, explosions are going off. Fighter jets in the sky. This is what is going to happen. This is Israel Defense forces making sure that theyve secured thatrd boor fence, just a couple of kilometers from here through to gaza. The defense that the hamas militants breached massively and came out into sderot and other places, secure that and make sure that they hit as many hamas Firing Positions to stop the rockets coming and try to begin to target hamas leaders as intelligence allows them to do. Active real time intelligence. Were hearing multiple drones and they are also scouring the area. So in the immediate aftermath, that is what were going to see. Because i think this area is still in a situation of being secured, you are not yet having this big expected Military Deployment of further forces into the area. You wouldnt want to put Artillery Units out in remote fields where there could be hamas militants still around. All of this groundwork needs to be put in place first but real focus is on securing that border fence and making sure there are no more hamas militants around. But the deterrence of hamas having a high number of hostages, dispersed across gaza will be a very big political decision for Prime Minister netanyahu. Weve already, at cnn, heard from the families of those taken away. Theyve already seen the videos of their loved ones on social media taken away. It is very clear what is happening. It is very clear how the famili families feel about it. This is terrible for them. Theyre going through an absolute living hell at moment and there will be political pressure on the Prime Minister not to jeopardize the lives of those hostages, that my Military Action in gaza as the Prime Minister is vowing to do potentially does that. There are offramps in that situation right now. That is really not clear at all. And up likely that hamas is to give any ground. This is the strongest Bargaining Position hamas has had, i think we could say, ever with the Israeli Government. The stakes are high because the stakes are peoples lives, becky. One palestinian commentators said this is a lurch of hubris to humiliation at this point. This is what happens next. You talked about the very shortterm intelligence that the idf will now be used to work out what its next move is. I mean, there will be discussions, im sure, that they want to park today and pick up perhaps tomorrow. But discussions being held outside of the sort of the very core group around Benjamin Netanyahu at the moment. About how this happened. Seemingly a spectacular failure in intelligence on the part of israeli authorities. Nic, thank you, nick robson is on the israeli size of the border to gaza. Antony blinken discussing and monitoring these situations. Natasha bertrand joins me now. What is latest there . Reporter well, becky, the secretary of state has been careilling out a number of intense diplomatic corporations with regional United States partners over there including egypt, jordan, qatar, turkey and basically encouraging them to condemn the attacks in the starkest terms possible. And the message from the white house and the State Department has been that no one should take advantage of this chaos to carry out any additional violence. They are very concerned athe this point that other groups, perhaps other states could take advantage of this to potentially fuel the flames even further. Now, the white house said yesterday that they are horrified by these attacks and the priority right now according to President Biden is just to ensure that israel has what it needs in order to defend itself and continue to be supportive by the United States and its alleys as it continues to fend off the attacks by hamas. Here is what President Biden said in his remarks on saturday. Hamas terrorists crossing into israel killing not only Israeli Soldiers but civilians in the street, in their homes, innocent people murdered, wounded and entire families taken hostage by hamas, just days after they mark the holiest of days in the jewish calendar. It is unconscionable. Reporter now biden was surrounded by his National Security team yesterday including secretary of state blinken who was at the white house making these calls and as i said the priority has been in the shortterm to just make sure that israel has what it needs to defend itself. But there have also been a number of conversations about the the Intelligence Failure that appears to have predicated this. And what how the Intelligence Community would better work with the israelis to make sure theyre not missing additional Signs Of Chaos and violence. Another question is whether iran played any that they were involved and they are investigating in the coming days, becky. While you and i have been speaking, the Israeli Government, the Security Operators around the security Israeli Cabinet has just closed and they have indeed declared this as a state of war. That will play into how washington basically responds to this as they continue to assess the activity on the ground. We will expect to see more activity in the hours ahead. A state of war now being declared by israels security a apparatus. Coming up at the top of the hour on state of the union, dana bash will sit down with Antony Blinken beginning at 9 00 a. M. Eastern time. And to remind you youre watching cnn and im Becky Anderson in tel aviv. This con flick has been going on for decades and the history is complicated to unravel. We bring in robert wright. He writes for the new yorker as well. Robert, it is good to have you. What do you make of what we are witnessing at present . Well it is historic and it is going to change, i suspect the face of the middle east in multiple ways not just militarily. Think there are four or five big steps that have to play out when you look at the pattern of conflict in the middle east. First is the israelis have to contain hamas and regain territory and eradicate the arsenal and decapitate politically the leadership of hamas, make it less of a viable force. But then it has to deal with the h hostages and this is given tremendous leverage to hamas. And we all know how long Hostage Dramas could play out particularly in the middle east. And then it has to deal with, you know, what is next. How do israel has been in this position before. It controlled gaza and in the end it decided to leave and the cost ratio was too high. Because it is been there before, there arent a lot of instantly viable or visible alternatives. So this is why this war could be stretched out not just militarily, but also politically. When it comes to gaza, i saw one palestinian commentator describing the Israeli Government as having lurched from hubris to humiliation. What do you make of that as an assessment . Well clearly the intelligence operation failed. Abysmally. And the bottom line is that israel appears quite vulnerable today. And that will be picked up on across the region, that a country that has the largest military, the finest most pervasive intelligence, failed against what is a limited kind of rag tag militia and Political Movement and it didnt have any intelligence on this at all will have consequences in the way that i think the region treats israel, particularly this government. This was a however you want to describe it, a group, a militant group that spectacularly breached israels defenses on its border with gaza. This is been described as a spectacular failure of intelligence. There are those who suggest who catch this closely and i know that you are one of those, who watched this intently, who have suggested that it was israel with its eye off the ball, flatfooted with what is going on around gaza with hamas as they had their attention focused on the north of the country and what they perceived to be a very real threat from lebanon, hezbollah in lebanon, we have seen some activity across that border, albeit relatively small at this point. Two, three, four, i think attacks from hezbollah into the sheba farms area in israel which has been responded to in kind by the idf. But how concerned, are you, robin, that we could see an escalation, an escalation away from gaza into the west bank, on to the Northern Borders on to the southern borders perhaps of israel as well, and you talk about israel now looking very vulnerable in the eyes of the palestinians but also this region. What are the consequences of that . Well israel faces challenges as you pointed out against israel i mean against lebanon and the mighty hezbollah. There would be what Military Experts call a state of overmatch. Israel is very vulnerable because it has one airport and one grid and israel could be crippled but it also faces the kind of allies and mill issues that are deployed are syria with their missiles and rockets so there are three different fronts that israel faces if it were to become a wider war. But the most important thing to note is that despite the the three or four little attacks on the sheba farms on the border with israel, the fact is that hezbollah did not act simultaneously and hasnt in the past and these are two different movements that have different agendas, they are different, one is shiite and one is sunni and they have their own separate agendas. It would have been much more effective if the game plan was to do something together, from the start, not later on once israel kind of understood that it was under attack and had begun planning to response. So one could only hope. And the reality is that down the road israel will face challenges on all three orders and riran i aiding all three of those countries so you have place it in a larger context of the immediate border an the Shadow War Israel is playing out with iran today in many places. Robin, many people have asked what the trigger for this event, this Spectacular Incursion by hamas was talked to palestinians, and they say there was no need for any single event. They say the occupation over the last 56 years or more, as many see it, is the reason for this, the siege in gaza that pushed toward normalization with the arab states is what is in focus here when the palestinians say their file, as far as israel and the u. S. , saudi other arab states is simply not in focus. That conversation perhaps not for today. But it will be high on the agenda as we move forward in this. Today, though, as the idf described it to me, this is earl why i days. And this is just the beginning of what we should expect to see on ground. Robin wright, it is good to have you. Thank you. Well still to come, israel is in the midst of the fullscale response to what was is this Surprise Attack by hamas. Well assess what we can expect in the hours and days to come. Stay with us. Were just getting this in. The number of dead in israel after the Surprise Attack by hamas is likely now over 500. That is according to cnn analysis. Were also learning that israel has officially declared a state of war. Joining us on this is general and cnn military analyst Mark Hertling. It is good to see you. First let me start with the hostages that have been taken by hamas. How do the idf forces get to them because as weve learned from the armed wing of hamas, they say that the idf should be careful here, be careful of miscalculation because what happened to gaza, as they have said in a statement, happens to these hostages. Well, victor, certainly theyve been taken as Human Shields and theyre already multiple reports of hostages being taken from israel back into the gaza strip. That is going to make any Military Operations difficult. What i suggest is, as your military analysts, what i true i to do is put my head in the mind of the commander on the scene. When youre talking about annize raely commander, right now, anywhere within the state of israel, who are heading toward the gaza for a potential ground operation, theyre measuring all sorts of information. They dont have intelligence on the most likely positions where the hamas headquarters are or where the hostages are, they dont know what kind of equipment the hamas fighters could use against them. They dont know what is secure and what is not. So all of those things from a military per speculative are going to change the way you conduct operations. When you throw in hundreds and possibly at times thousands of hostages inside of the enemy territory, that makes your Military Operation extremely difficult and that is what the commander is dealing with right now. Youre seeing the Israeli Air Force conducting operations now in gaza. It is relatively easy to do for a modern air force to conduct operations against aen e enemy doesnt have those capabilities and weve seen theyve go into gaza before on multiple occasions and theyre brutal in their approach. You couldnt do that when there are israeli hostages in that area, unless you determine that you will do it and hill the hostages. And when you say hundreds if not thousands of hostagesk you counts not only the israeli hostages but the palestinian Human Shields in that number, i assume. Yeah, absolutely right, victor. And what weve seen the Israeli Forces do in the past is use or aemt it to use and they have been very successful, precision Weapons Systems against hamas headquarters, against what they know are hamas fighting positions, or ammo caches and they dont know what the Palestinian People Inside Of Gaza are doing and how many of them have been Human Shields. You add to that the fact that they have seen, the israelis have seen people being murdered and kidnapped. That takes a toll, a psychological toll on the soldiers who are conducting the operations. So, yeah, it is going to put a lot of people at risk and the operations could be very brutal and not as precise as they have been in the past when israeli Defense Forces have gone into gaza. These are plumes of smoke over gaza as the idf continues their retaliatory aerial strikes. Hundreds of them, according to the idf, have been executed since the attack by hamas. So part of surprise here was not only that it happened, but the coordination, and the planning and training that it required. As you said, our military expert, does this appear that hamas just got a lot better quickly or they had some help . No, well i would say a couple of things. Theyve had some help. Theyve seen operations that have been conducted in other parts of the world. Specifically ukraine by the russians. They have coordinated with the iranians and when this all started yesterday morning, you have to remember hamas has never conducted Human Attacks inside of israel other than some suicide operations. They havent had the kind of waves, they havent coordinated strikes of air, land and sea. They havent gone in and used paragliders or drones, and done denial of services on Computer Systems which they are continuing to do. A report this morning in the Jerusalem Post said that was hacked. So youre seeing some great actions by the hamas Terrorist Groups that are not typical of any Terrorist Groups. Coordinating operations, conducting multidomain operations, attacking into a foreign country. Now, into israel at this point. But what you also saw was great use of intelligence. They have had to scope out the Border Operations of the israeli Defense Forces, they had to know where the israeli army was and obviously many of them werent in think base camps in and around the gaza strip. They were elsewhere. So the combination of intelligence, training the forces for what they have to do as infantry men or drone pilots or whatever and then attacking specific targets are outside of the strip all require a lot of coordination and a lot of help. You cant just do that from Inside Of Gaza. You have to have intelligence, you have to have Human Sources in other places in israel, and you also have to have the help of your enemy, in this case the israeli army who were not there and whose intelligence resources were depleted in that area for whatever reason that im sure the investigation will determine. As were watching these plumes of smoke and weve seen three or four by my count as weve been talking, general. I want to ask you about what were hearing from israeli officials warning people in gaza to get out of the way, or get away from these hamasrelated facilities. Where are they supposed to go . I mean, it is not like theyre allowed to leave this area, there has to be a consideration as weve discussed in the context of u. S. Missions, the Collateral Damage and the impact on civilians, and the secondary concern, how that could feed the Terrorist Group and their narrative as this Retaliatory Campaign continues. What is your consideration as we watch these pictures . Yeah, and that is certainly a thought, victor, and it is something that happens before in any of the incursions into gaza. The palestinians have attempted to use actions by the israelis on a on a Public Relations front to show how brutal they are, how they kill women and babies. I think when i heard Minister Netanyahu yesterday say they needed to get out of gaza, the palestinians who werent involved in the fight. I think everybody in the world said this is a ridiculous comment. That is ludicrous. Where are they going to go . This is a two mile wide trstret of land with 2 Million People. But i think he was saying was get away from any facilities that you know tend to house hamas because were going to bomb them. Were going to direct strikes. So you could move about within the area but i dont think it is very precise or very surgical in terms of surgical strikes by the israelis in this area. They are going to go in and roll over much of gaza. That is the kind of war this is become. And they see that the young people that came across the border yesterday, i mean, theyre not wearing uniforms. This is not a army. This is a Terrorist Group. So it is very difficult to separate the socalled military age male in gaza from normal citizens. So unfortunately, i believe there are going to be a lot of citizens of gaza that are not involved with this strike and may not even support the palestinian Striking Inside of israel that are going to be killed and wounded. General, thank you. I want to bring in Becky Anderson who is live in tel aviv. Wee been seeing live pictures of plumes of smoke over gaza. As a Retaliatory Campaign continues. I dont know that there is any country in the world that would blame or criticize israel for retaliating after the numbers were hearing, what we saw yesterday. But there is, as the general said, this concern of and even from the israeli s, of trying to move civilians out of the way. What could you tell us about the pikes were seeing . Lets be clear, there are some countries and qatar included who has put israel in the crosshairs here as they responded to what we saw, what, 30 hours ago. And said it is up to israel to change their position with regard the palestinians. But be that as it may, lets have a look at these pictures. These are live pictures just after half past 3 00 until the afternoon, and as we understand it, these the israeli Defense Forces say that fighter jets have struck three military headquarters belonging to as they describe them Terrorist Organizations in the gaza strip. And i quote the idf here, military headquarters belonging to Hamas Terrorist Organization used for directing terror was struck as well as military headquarters belonging to jihad Terrorist Organization that we use during recent operations to bring in that Palestinian Group as well. And additional military headquarters belonging to Islamic Jihad Terrorist Organization by the rocket forces, so we we have heard just in the past hour or so that israel has now declared that it is in the state of war. The Prime Minister is been meeting with the Security Operators here ahead of that statement. We heard Benjamin Netanyahu describe this as war. A war he said that israel would win. And it would be punishing and br brutal at the response to what he described as the enemys activities. We know that there has been a buildup of ground troops, Movement Towards the border, which of course has been breached. This is the border between israel and gaza that has been breached by some 1,000 militants yesterday morning, saturday morning. Well breached. And the Israeli Forces still trying to reassure israelis living in the communities around that they are securing and protecting those communities. The community of sderot where Nic Robertson is, hes witnessed the debris of a real fire fight which clearly happened yesterday. Israeli forces say that community is now secured and protected. But, look, i mean, israelis on the side of the border, those who havent been taken hostage, of course, are massively concerned about the failure of intelligence, their security at this point, the idf describing this as very early days. To mean earlier on today, this is the beginning of the operation. And certainly the images that were seeing now is the result of bombardment by Israeli Forces from the air. Nic, has been hearing the booms. We could even hear in tel aviv. We are hearing activities, booms of activity whether or not that is coming from the actual bombing of gaza or not remains to be seen. But, you know, this is this is the Security Operation now in action on the part of the israelis who have been caught extremely flat footed when it comes to the securing of their border, the palestinians describe this as a siege and that siege of gaza now reinforced by the israelis, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that they will cut the supplies of electricity, of fuel, of goods so for those 2 million that you have just been discu discussing with mark, those 2 Million People have a very worrying time ahead of them. And they are to all intents and purposes hostages in their own city. As there are as we know multiple dozens, the number is not yet been released by israel, but multiple dozens Offize Raelies that have been taken hostage and capturedo and taken back into gaza and are hostages and are littered around gaza and it is with real concern that the Israeli Forces work out what their next moves are. The palestinians who are living within gaza, lest we forget, more than 200 have lost their lives, thousands have been injured in this attack as we know now there are 500 deaths on part of the israeli, 44 of those as we understand it are idf soldiers. Stay with us. As we continue to monitor these images. But this is gaza live as we speak. Becky, becky, this is amara here with victor in atlantic. I want to bring up something that Mark Hertling brought up, considering there are hostages, israeli hostages that have been taken into gaza, and of course saving those lives is going to be paramount for the idf. We also have been hearing through the morning, you know, idf officials along with netanyahu are urging those who live in gaza, the civilians to leave their residential areas immediately as the Retaliation Strikes continue. What are are there Viable Options for those civilians who had nothing to do with hamas, to seek shelter, a place that they could reasonably stay safe . It is a very good question. And in the past when we have seen attacks on gaza by the israelis and palestinians have sought refuge in hospitals, in schools and education facilities. Primarily those are run by the u. N. Where they seek sanctuary because they feel that may be a better cover provide more security and more protection than facilities that the israelis might identify as those that are used by hamas. So, that is the sort of that is the sort of opportunity that palestinians in hamas, in gaza have at present. But, yeah, youre absolutely right, when the israelis say seek shelter, leave your homes, you know, be clear, gaza will be under attack, it is absolutely terrifying for those who live there, who quite frankly have very, very few options, amara. Journgeneral hertling is sti with us. One would assume that those who coordinated this attack, that we saw yesterday, also would anticipate exactly what were watching, a retaliatory early on aerial strike. So were seeing that these are military headquarters that according to idf are being targeted. How much organizational damage are they likely doing if this is anticipated, this response has been anticipated by the armed wing of hamas . Yeah, i picked up on that same thing, too, from beckys comments, vickor, and it is a very good point. Normally when hamas is launching rockets and artillery into israel, there is a immediate response. This is a slow response. They plan hamas planned this operation for months. I would suggest all of the headquarters that israel has been tracking through either signal or Human Intelligence or satellites, hamas has gotten smarter. I would suggest that as soon as they launch the operation, they took the command post, if you will, away from the places that were normally used as headquarters and im going to use the term in the military often used when you hit a target that is not effective and that is the israelis have been pounding a lot of dirt. Without hamas leaders in those buildings that they once used. So, i think, you know, you see a change in the way hamas has conducted their operations, how increasingly savvy theyve become. And they know when theyre about to be attacked and it is announced by thei Israeli Government, theyre getting the hell out of the headquarters, they are not going to about where they have been tracking as the cps, the command post of the hamas organization. So that makes it increasingly difficult for theize raely military to counter those actions. And by the way, one of the other things i forgot when i was talking about what goes through the minds of a Military Commander, in the past the israeli army has gone right into gaza immediately. We have seen that in several iterations of the campaign against hamas. This time it is different. They have to secure areas on the israeli side of the border. So that is one more task that the commander has to have and by my count there are 17 locations where there is still not a proper understanding of who is in the area, where hamas forces are, what are they doing and that really rummages through the mind of the Military Commander on the eastern side of the gaza strip. So, you know, a lot of things going on. We will see a Ground Assault into gaza, im sure. It is probably going to take longer. Im not sure that the Israeli Military is going to be able to roll as quickly as they have in the past. And it is going to be much more difficult because their intelligence is faulty right now. So perhaps the worst is yet to come. Right. These earl ey days, this is jus begun or this retaliation is about to begin when it comes to israel. Lets bring in Jonathan Greenblatt from the antidefamation league. And lets focus on the widespread repercussions of what were seeing right now in the middle east there in israel. Are you concerned, jonathan, about further violence in other parts of the world following incidents like this especially considering what you are also seeing, the rhetoric online and social media . Im glad you asked and i appreciate you having me on. Id say a few things. Number one, hamas should be seen as the hate group that it is. A hate group that has been promoting a ideology for years. Dehumanizing jewish people and dehumanizing the jewish state. As weve seen in america and around the world, when you dehumanize people, you create the conditions, you brain wash the public into thinking that acts of dehumanization is permissible. So we know that they have prompted the antisemitism here in the United States and around the world. Weve seen time and again after attacks on israel prompt vandalism and violence against jewish people, and france and belgium and u. K. And here in america in 2021. So were very alarmed about that. I also have got to tell you that you need to tell Becky Anderson to stop using words like spectacular, to describe the Terror Organization of hamas. Stop saying they made great gains, spectacular gains. It is a savage organization that weve seen the videos of them gleefully shooting elderly people at point blank range, kidnapping children after killing their parents. Mutilating corpses and dancing on them. We should call these people the barbarians that they are and we should recognize that the only words to use in the context of this are criminal and homicidal. Those are the only adjectives that apply. Jonathan, appreciate your perspective. Well bring in general hertling. Just regarding what is happening there, on the ground. Regarding hamass capability now, now that they are as they are awaiting a dramatic escalation or retaliation from israel, what kind of fight will they be able to keep up or sustain . In my view, its going to be difficult for them to continue to sustain. They have taken action over the last 24 plus hours, hamas has, and they have really expended a lot of what they have right now. But, in doing so, you would anticipate that hamas, if they have advanced in their thinking, about ways to conduct Military Operations, which they have, i mean this is a pure military analysis, it has nothing to do with politics, it has to do with determining what your enemy can do. You would think that they know that thei Israeli Defense force is coming into the small area which is the gaza strip. In the past hamas has been relatively effective in countering combined arms weapons that the israelis have brought in. They have struck tanks, they have destroyed killed Israeli Soldiers as they rolled into traps. This is same kind of thing that occurred, im going back a couple of decades that occurred in lebanon in 1982 and in operation peace for galilee, where the Israeli Military rolled into a place with a conventional force and was struck with both conventional weapons and terror weapons and an unconventional force. I think the israeli army may see the same thing here. I think hamas certainly knows that the normal actions of the israe Israeli Military is to come on the ground after they conduct air strikes. So i believe theyll be prepared for it. And the question is my mind, is what kind of weapons and how could they sustain it. And the answer to that is i dont know. Iran has been supplied hamas with missiles for decades. Have they now been supplying them with other weapons like drones, like antitank capabilities. General, do you think israel knows . Because again were talking about a colossal Intelligence Failure and the fact that they didnt know that they had this number of rockets. I think it was the former chief that was talking to cnn, im sorry i cut you off there, he stated it was beyond imagination were his words, the number of missiles that were launched into israel. So do you think we at least Israeli Intelligence has an idea of the arsenal . Yeah, well, it is a good point. And if i could segue just a second, because what you talked about in terms of Missile Strikes is israel is saying there were 2,000 missiles launched from hamas yesterday. Hamas said they launched 5,000 missiles. It doesnt matter. Between 2,005,000, that is a lot of missiles an it is more than hamas launched between the years 2002 and 2006. Four years in one day. So it overwhelmed the Israeli Defense systems, the iron domes were effective, but not because of the massive attack. So again, if massad does not know kind of things that have been transferred into the gaza from iran on ships or some kinds of smuggling, it is going to be very difficult to counter that with conventional operations. Nic robertson is with us as well in sderot, when is close there to the gaza border. Nic, were getting this shot as wide as possible across gaza and not seen the smoke plumes, but youve been hearing the explosions all morning, afternoon there. Are they continuing . They are continuing. Sometimes theyre intense, sometimes not as intense. But to set the scene here, this area here, sderot, about a couple of miles from the border from gaza was under hamas, if you will, control yesterday. They controlled the Police Station, the destruction that took place at that Police Station overnight was the israeli Defense Forces regaining control of this area. So they have control of the town. But there are still high concern about the security in the countryside about infiltration from hamas militants. Were Hearing Drones in the sky above us. We occasionally hear fighter jets above us as well. And i could see standing behind our cameraman here, john, the spokesperson from the israeli Defense Forces. So im going to wonder up, Nic Robertson on cnn. Were live very good to meet you. We spoke on the phone. Yes, we did. Were live on cnn just now. Were talking about the current situation. Can you brief us on the situation as it stands right now . Absolutely. I could tell you that were in sderot, a few kilometers from the gaza strip. We could hear the response taking place on the gaza strip. What is that response . We are right now trying to eliminate the hamas infrastructure as possible. We know hamas here took the men and women and children and dragged them from where were standing right now not that long ago to the gaza strip from right here. These families in those homes right next to us. Some of them are missing. Drug dragged them back to the gaza strip and what were doing right now is trying to eliminate the hamas infrastructure and guard that gate, the same openings that they came through. More and more terrorists are still trying to infiltrate into israel. Today . There are seven different locations they are trying to infiltrate into israel. We have mostly air command over all of those. But it is still going to take this sometime before we do. The desire to come in and continue doing this, it is like a kamikaze, they know were ready an there is a hunger and thirst for blood. Just up the street from where you and i are, we found a gaza man and he followed the terrorists looking to steal. You found him just now . How big of a task is it they came in and they infiltrated the territory. When you could say that theyre gone and when you could bring in reinforcements safely to this area . This is keep this in mind. This is most devastating attack in the history of the state of israel over the last 75 years since the state was created. We have hundreds of civilians that were killed. We have men and women and children and grandmothers sitting in gaza in some basement. Tell me this, im going to interrupt because were short on time and im sorry,ern wants to know you are going to get the grandmothers and the children and everyone else back from gaza. Were not going to stop until we exhaust every means possible of doing so. And well not leave any person behind and that is what has changed over the last 24 hours. Thank you very much. Well speak later. Thank you very much. That is the situation from sderot. It is still fluid, it is still dynamic and this area here, the Police Station just being beginning to go through it now. But this area, still under Missile Threat, active Missile Threat from gaza. Nic robertson there in sderot with the crucial interview giving us the very latest that is happening there so close to gaza. Thank you so much for that. Thank you for joining us this mo