We watch and wait to see how the war evolves now in its third day. Dont go anywhere. Cnn this morning starts right now. Announcer this is cnn breaking news. Breaking news this morning, sirens going off in jerusalem and tel aviv warning of incoming rockets. [ sirens ] this comes as the Israeli Military says it has regained control of all towns near gaza. You can see people taking cover on the side of the road there. And this all comes some 48 hours after hamas militants launched an unprecedented Surprise Attack by land, sea and air overnight. Israeli air strikes pummelled hundreds of targets across gaza. The death toll this morning rising on both sides with more than 700 people confirmed dead in israel and nearly 500 palestinians killed. Video shows the horror on the ground at a Music Festival where 260 people have been found dead. This youre watching right now is a drone video of burned out cars at the site. A dash camera captured a gunman taking man hostage. Right now hamas claims it has more than 100 hostages currently. Israel says that includes americans. We have Team Coverage on the conflict from all angles from washington and The Middle East. Day three of intense fighting, becky. You just had to take cover. Whats happening right now . Reporter yep. You come to us amidst sirens here in tel aviv. We also are reporting sirens in jerusalem as hamas confirms this morning that it is has been and may continue to fire rockets towards both of these cities. We had to evacuate this space. Getting to the stairwell, which is one of the shelters here in the building im in, just in the past hour. It is absolutely clear now that we are in completely uncharted territory and this is very much Ratcheting Up. You have been showing images of the israeli strikes on gaza, on the hamas side. Confirmation that they have fired more than 4,000 rockets. And that is more than the total number of rockets that have been fired on israel by hamas in the last conflict. So, that just gives you a sense of the enormity of whats is going on. Youre right to report that the dir df says the communities on the Southern Side of gaza border are being secured. Thats been a really big effort over the last 36 hours or so to ensure that those communities that, of course, had been breached by mahamas militants a evacuated. That is in the wake of this devastating picture on the ground that has emerged just other the last three days. 260 people, youngsters, killed at a music event in the desert in Southern Israel. So many hostages taken from that site. Hamas says theyre holding now more than 100 hostages. Islamic jihad suggesting they are holding 30 themselves. So the strikes by israel continue on what they describe as the military targets in gaza as the palestinians there, of course, and israelis on this side of the border simply wait this out and consider what happens next. And that is very unclear. Ive just spoken to an Opposition Member who says grounding caution is not off the table. But this is complicated given what is going on on the ground particularly with the hostages on the israeli side. Absolutely, becky. Thank you. Stand by. Nic, to you, now. Israel says they have recaptured the border towns right along gaza. There is no current fighting. Thats a real change from what the Idf Spokesperson told our Anderson Cooper last night. What are you seeing on the ground . Reporter yeah, it is a real change. Were trying to get into that area right now. We were last night in that area a couple of miles from the border with gaza in the town of stirat. Quite literal hundred few yards. There was an active search for two or three hamas militants on the loose. Those loose ends seem to be wrapped up. Also last night we saw more heavy Military Equipment coming in. Heavy armored personnel carriers, big mobile points as they look like tanks but theyre really long artillery guns. Very heavy pieces of mechanized Military Equipment being maneuvered in. And this is exactly along with the tanks that we have seen moved in exactly what the military needs to secure the border. So it does appear that those holes in the border fence are now getting secured. The picture of the incoming Rocket Attacks we have had a view on that this morning as well. We just when the intercepted fired out incoming rockets on this Sea Coastal Town thats about halfway between tel aviv and gaza. The town also just south of that on the coast also targeted. Now, we can see from our Vantage Point we can see the intercepters taking out the incoming missiles. But we also saw impacts on the ground. We were just looking at ashdard from a short distance. You can see two plumes of dark smoke rising up from the city itself. It appears that there were at least a couple of strikes getting through the iron dome difs system, getting through an and impacting ashdard. Get to be confirmed the situation that we know was hit last night, we dont have details precisely whats happened there. We do know that has also been targeted in the past 30 minutes as well. Thank you, nic, becky. Stay close buy. We want to go straight to christiane amanpour. We are learning that the Israeli Defense minister has ordered a, quote, complete Siege Of Gaza that would blockaid entry of food and fuel into the region. What is your sense of what this means Going Forward . Reporter thats a major Ratcheting Up what they want to do. We are fighting barbaric terrorists. They do label hamas a Terrorist Organization. All the europeans and all the allies stood very, very firmly in support of israels right to defend itself. This obviously being the worst single day in israels history since 1948, the founding of the state. Thats what happened on saturday. The 700 plus dead are mostly civilians, we understand. They include, you know, men, women, young people, old people, children and so too amongst them are the hostages. We understand from hamas that there are more than 100. We have yet to hear from israel the precise number of hostages. And this closure, this full blockade will have an impact inside gaza which is already locked down. How hamas breached that is still going to be a cause for investigation. But essentially gaza is completely locked down. Its got a wall, a barrier into israel but also into egypt on the other side. Now the Israeli Defense minister says they are going to stop, as you said, electricity, fuel, water and food. And that, of course, is going to exacerbate the humanitarian situation. Theyre already, according to the palestinians, more than 400 dead there. We dont know mostly militants. We just dont know who they are. But this is clearly a Ratcheting Up, potentially before israel, as has been hinted by israeli officials, potentially conducts a Ground Invasion. Christiane, stand by. Thank you very much for that. That is a development that just came in. While you stand by, lets go to the pentagon. Natasha bertrand joins us there as well because the pentagon is saying sending Military Equipment to israel, moving warships closer to the region we know. What else do we have to know on that front this morning . Reporter yeah, poppy. The u. S. Is Ratcheting Up, of course, its support for israel. Theyre moving assets to the region. Theyre sending israel munitions and showing, of course, the country that they are supporting them in every sense of the word. They are trying to replenish, of course, their Iron Dome Intercepters and potentially other forms of support that have not yet been announced. They are doing this very quickly. Now, one of the Big Questions that u. S. Officials have been asking, of course, is whether there is a link between this attack by hamas and iran. That is one of the biggest questions at this point because of the implications that it might have for the broader conflict. If iran was supporting hamas, then what does that mean for the possibility that israel also feels the need to retaliate against iran . Thats exactly what the administration has been trying to avoid for this to escalate into a broader regional conflict. Now u. S. Officials say at this point there is no smoking gun that links iran to hamass operation here. But there are a lot of questions, including among lawmakers, about how hamas would have been able to pull this off without one of its biggest financial and operational backers, which is iran. Now, at this point, you know, the u. S. Has a lot of questions about the broader Intelligence Failure here, if iran was involved in any way, then why wasnt that spotted . What does it mean that hamas, if there was no support from iran at all, was able to carry out such a large and sophisticated attack . Are they a more, you know, sophisticated and capable adversary than was previously understood . Just a lot of questions here as the u. S. Figures out how best to support israel in this fight against hamas. It does appear at this point that the idf has said is broadly in control of the entire country and of those pockets where they saw hamas fighting. But at this point, the u. S. Basically is telling the israelis we will give you whatever you need at this point, including sending, of course, those assets to the region as a show of force and to potentially deter any other would be attackers and would be threats from escalating the situation even further, guys. Natasha bertrand for us. Thank you very much for that reporting. Of course, the world this morning watching as this war unfolds in israel and gaza. That Significant Development about a full blockcade of gaza. Much of that ahead. This video shows rockets fired from gaza into israel. We will discuss the potential of a global escalation. Disturbing new images surface where 260 bodies have been discovered at a Music Festival. More of our breaking News Coverage ahead. Stay with us. We now have new video this morning what shows what the supernova Music Festival looks like before the deadly attack. This was before the rockets and gunfire. Then horror. People running for their lives. Party goers say as they were trying to get away, jeeps full of gunmen shot at the cars. And this is what the Festival Site looks like now. Abandoned cars lining the streets, some burned out. At least 260 bodies were found at the site. And hamas kidnapped dozens of people, including seani lock. Her mother was watching when she realized her daughter had been taken. We identified our daughter on a pickup truck in the back lying on the floor with militant men around her. And pushing her down. They were driving into the gaza strip with her. So we saw that they were in the gaza strip already. We saw that somebody tried to use her credit card in the gaza strip multiple times. And thats all we have. No other clue. I dont understand really how such a brutal thing can just happen the middle of the day. It was complete surprise. I mean, we got used to the rockets. We live here with the rockets. We have a kind of routine. Go to the safe room and to take care of ourself, but this was completely different attack that nobody was prepared for and nobody can ever be prepared for such a thing, i guess. Take a look at this now. This video shows her Daughter Seani who is a german citizen, we should note, unconscious in the back of a pickup truck as gaza militants cheer and some also spit on her. We have that video as well. What youre also looking there is drone video. She says shes not gotten any news yet from israeli authorities. Cnn does not know seanis wh where whereabouts. You spoke with the father of a young girl who has been taken hostage. What did he tell you . Reporter she was dancing at the Music Festival in the desert in Southern Israel a couple of days ago. She is now a hostage in gaza. Imagine being the father who lost contact with her for her only to emerge in a video posted on social media petrified and screaming for her life. I talked to her father about exactly what he is going through. Have a listen. Reporter the unspeakable anguish of a father describing the moment he saw a video posted on social media of his daughter pleading for her life. It was noah frightened and threatened he says. Im so sorry. Im so, so sorry. Its okay. Reporter you dont want to believe it, even though you can clearly see its your daughter. He now wants this video to be seen widely. 25yearold noah seen here on the back of a Motorcycle Being driven away. Her boyfriend is seen here with two men holding his hands behind his back. A dark plume of smoke can be seen in the background. They had been among the more than 1,000 people partying at an all night Music Festival in Southern Israel near the gaza border. And it was raided by armed hamas militants early on saturday morning. Her father says noah and abi were kidnapped. Their whereabouts are unknown but are assumed to be held in gaza. Im so sad at this moment. Shes my only daughter. And his pain mirrored by so many others. Parents, family members, wives, husbands filled with horror and dispair thinking about the fate of their loved ones. In this video thats been circulating widely online, a woman is seen in the back of a truck as a militant puts a scarf over her head. Cnn has not been able to independently verify it. But a resident of the Sharon Region told cnn his wife and two daughters, aged 5 and 3, were visiting their grandmother near the gaza border. He lost contact with them on saturday morning and suspected they may have been abducted. Later that day, his suspicions confirmed when he saw the video. The woman was his wife. He told cnn he wants the video to be shown in the hopes of getting them home safely. There was no doubt in my mind they recognized them surely. My wife, my two daughters, my two little daughters, that were on this car. So i know for sure they were taken. Reporter the Israel Defense forces told cnn its taking pains to establish the exact number of hostages taken. Emphasizing the complicated nature of the situation. So far they estimate there are dozens, possibly more in captivity. Jakob has a message to whoever is holding his daughter. You have casualties just like we do. This is an opportunity to connect between the two nations, to reach an honest peace. For now, he sits at home and waits for news. Taking comfort from his family and noahs friends. Translator shes a very special kid. So loving. So giving. I miss her so much. Its only been two and a half days. I cannot believe she is gone, he says. She made this house so alive. Felt like this house is empty without her. Poppy, phil, so often we talk about numbers, dont we, when we are covering conflicts. And the numbers on this occasion are getting higher and higher. But its so important we pause to consider families, friends, those who are, you know, squarely in the crosshairs of what is a conflict that we have been reporting is clearly Ratcheting Up at this point. And there is no clear indication from the israelis at this point as to what they can do next in order to try and get the release of those hostages as we have been reporting. It may be over 100 at this point. There are reports of Mediation EffortsBehind The Scenes as we get more of that, of course, we will bring it to you. But this is uncharted territory as we have been reporting. Yeah. And such a significant Information Vacuum for so many families dealing with this horror. Becky, thank you so much. I want to go back to david sanger and bring in christiane amanpour. Moments ago, cnn obtained a statement from irans mission to the u. N. , which said we emphatically stand in unflinching support of palestine, however were not involved in palestines response as it was taken solely by palestine itself. Denying direct involvement, which has been one of the Big Questions u. S. Officials have been trying to figure out, and yet this was the statement from irans president yesterday. Take a listen. Translator it is a manifestation of resistance in standing up against the fake regime. Palestinian people, palestinian soldiers, all palestinian groups. And the islamic uma really should be congratulated for this victory. This is not an academic question in terms of the amount or direct involvement of iran here. The implications of the answer to that could be dramatic geopolitically. Whats your sense of things when you pair these two statements together . Well, first of all, the u. S. Obviously as you say is trying to find the smoking gun which they say they havent yet. The hard line president of iran has given that statement they congr congratulate. Whatever they deny, the u. S. Moigs will stand in contrast what the president is actually saying. We know in the past whether it was over the Nuclear Program in iran that israel has taken undeclared action but nonetheless action against nuclear scientists, against nuclear facilities, centrifuges, that kind of thing inside iran whether by hacking or by actual agents that take revenge. So were waiting to see what happens. And this plays into the whole fear of a wider regional war. If iran backed hezbollah and theres no question about that, right . Iran, syria backs hezbollah, there in lebanon, everybody is waiting to see whether they actually get into this fight. And then what happens on the west bank . If indeed the hamas and other Islamic Jihad and other Terrorist Organizations there gin up some kind of more robust reaction to whats going on. All of this is very, very troubling clearly in the face of this unprecedented attack on israel and what the Israeli Defense minister is now saying potentially might proceed a Ground Invasion into gaza because he has now issued an order to completely blockade gaza in terms of the delivery of vital necessities like electricity, water, food, fuel. So, theyre clearly looking at what military means they might take next and israel has said Something Different to what they said in their four previous encounters with hamas, they want to essentially wipe out hamas leadership. They didnt say or do this in any of their past encounters. David, if israel does proceed with what many are expecting is a real possibility and thats a full Ground Incursion of gaza, you have 100 hostages there, at least, it is believed. Talk about netanyahus delimb ma and the goal, the ultimate goal. Is it a reoccupation of gaza, and what would that look like . Poppy, this is the core problem. And first, they have to deal with the hostages. The wrenching photographs and video we have seen now of the family of hostages being taken away and the way that will resonate in israel, which is understandably particularly sensitive. But particularly kind of case. Its going to be a very hard decision because once they go in particularly on the ground the lives of those hostages are all deeply at risk. The second big dilemma hell face, its one thing to hunt down the hamas leadership. Its similar to the decisions that president bush was making after 9 11 to go in and hunt down al qaeda leadership. But after that, of course, it turned into an occupation of afghanistan. And we all know how that turned out. The israelis have no desire to occupy all of gaza. Youve seen that before. And it would be violent and would lead to constant insurgency. So thats going to be a very hard decision. Do they allow gaza basically to continue under some form of hamas control . And then i think the third one is the one you were just discussing with christiane and with others, which is if iran is involved, if at some point this spreads to the west bank, do we risk a much larger regional war . Just at the moment that the world is trying to go deal with ukraine, trying to deal with the rising threat in china. Its the very reason that President Biden wanted to shift his focus from The Middle East and turn it elsewhere. And of course, the world of The Middle East always has a way of sucking you back in. Ian, a little to that point. Theres been a big Behind The Scenes focus of Biden Administration working to press forward on normalization between israel and saudi arabia. How much did that effort and i think the standing of that effort play into the decision to launch the attack here but also what that means Going Forward in this very, very fluid moment . I think it plays a big role in the decision to launch the attack. The fact is that israel was and even today is in the strongest geopolitical position in the region that we have seen for decades. The abraham accords, of course, with bahrain, the uae and baroco. And the deal between israel and saudi arabia, it wasnt imminent but it was absolutely coming. I think within months if not weeks. Certainly conversations ive had with senior saudi officials in the past couple of weeks were very optimistic in that regard. If you are hamas leadership, and you are still bracing the idea that israel shouldnt be on the map. It has no right to exist, youre increasingly isolated in that role. Your friends are not supporting you. And theyre going off and doing deals with the israelis irrespective of what happens on the ground. You see with the new netanyahu right wing government only taking more land, taking more settlements and the average israeli, even on the left, theyre focussed on economic issues, focussed on their own constitutional crisis. So, yes, certainly you can see that the hamas Leadership Saw themselves as increasingly isolated and without many good options. And in that circumstance, sometimes you make suicidal decisions. Thats exactly what weve seen here because this leadership is not going to be around for much longer. Christiane, if you could speak to the hostages and a big Question Mark is whether theyll there will be a Ground Incursion, but take us back to 2006, israeli soldiers, was taken, five years to get him out and 1,027 palestinians handed over by the netanyahu government at that time for one. What does that portend for what might be ahead for 100 plus . Youre just absolutely put your finger on the button. One soldier five years and more than 1,000 Palestinian Prisoners released. Thats how important it is for israel to get back their soldiers and their civilians. And by all accounts, those who have been held hostage now are mostly civilians we understand. We havent had a read out from israel as to who they are. But that is the general belief that theyre mostly civilians. So this is going to be incredibly difficult. Where are they . What tunnels are they in . Where are they being held . How are they being held . Presumably hamas will want to keep them alive if the idea is to bargain them but how when you have these relentless air strikes . Where are they, et cetera . So this is going to be incredibly, incredibly difficult. And to the u. S. Perspective, its sending its aircraft carrier, warships, fighter jets to support israel and to try to warn off any other activity from iran or elsewhere. But the truth is, as ian said, as david said, the United States hoped with its deals, with potentially saudi capping all the others, that this region would be able to look after itself. And it is unable to do that. None of these deals mean that any of these countries can deal with the crisis inside israel. And we have heard many, many israelis, even this weekend, former israeli Prime Minister, formally good Prime Minister, we heard israeli former intelligence and the like, unless the palestinian situation is dealt with, israel faces an issue. And weve heard many, many times from Israeli Security officials that that is the existential threat. And now you have all this on top of it. And its very, very complex now to figure out how this is going to go. While the u. N. The u. N. Middle east envoy told the Security Council that this region has now taken a very, very, very big step towards the precipes. Christiane, david, ian stand by. More rockets have landed. No casualties reported but the damage is significant. Cnn chief International CorrespondentClarissa Ward joins us live from there. Tell us what youve been seeing on the ground. Reporter well, phil, you can probably see behind me, im going to step right out of the way, but this is where that missile landed. It has completely destroyed one, two, three, four, at least four cars that i can see. And i dont know if you can hear those booms in the distance. It has been a very active morning here. We could hear this barrage from our hotel which is not too far away as it came in. We actually watched one or two missiles make impact in the sea. Some of them, of course, were intercepted by the iron dome. But this one actually took a direct hit. You can see the Apartment Building as well just behind some of the shutters have been destroyed. Theres also shrapnel damage. Mercifully it appears that nobody was injured or killed in this. But, you can begin to imagine, phil, just by seeing the scale and the damage the effect that this has on the psyche of ordinary people who are trying to go about their lives living here. Also this is coming on the heels of a very active night. We were up all throughout the night in the nearby city of ashgalon. We could hear jets in the skies nonstop, profound pounding of the gaza strip last night. The idf now coming out today and saying basically that gaza will be completely shut down, no food, no fuel, no electricity will be allowed to be delivered into the gaza strip. And certainly here in ashdodd, also in ashgalona lot of tension as people are bracing themselves for yet another day of war, phil. Clarissa ward right in front of the scene of a most recent strike. Thank you. Also this new video into cnn it shows how nearly 1,000 hamas militants infiltrated israel from gaza. Look at that. More on the ground straight ahead. Well, overnight there was a new round of hamas rockets fired into israel with overnight and into the morning. The death toll rising on both sides with more than 700 people confirmed dead in israel. Nearly 500 palestinians killed. Israel Defense Minister now saying israel will completely blockade gaza. We are now joined retire d colonel cedric leighton. I want to start with the idf saying theres no on going fighting on the ground. What do you make of that . So, good morning, fim. I think one of the big things to look at here is the nakt theyve kind of done their Mopping Up Operations and theyve stopped what they needed to do. So, when you look at all the different aspects here, like all of the efforts that the israelis have been able to do when it comes to attacking things in gaza, theyve basically done this in addition to the fact that theyve been in essence dealing with attacks in all of these areas within israel itself. So what youre seeing here, phil, is the fact that they think they have mopped up everything here at least to the extent where things are more or less safe or safer than they were when the this attack first occurred. But every single one of these areas right here is one in which the israelis had to either clean things up or move in and take out hamas fighters that were coming in this way. Can you speak to what this will mean . We just in the last hour heard from the Israeli Defense minister who has given an order for a complete Siege Of Gaza. No electricity, no food, no fuel, everything closed. Does that tell you that a Ground Incursion is ahead . Poppy, that would be one of the key indicators for a Ground Incursion. What youre talking about here is the fact that every single one of these areas right here is going to be in essence xed out. So what youre doing is youre cutting off all the power supplies. So at least half of the electricity that gaza ge things that the gazans can do, it comes to their very densely populated area. When you look at everything you see here, this right here is actually the border area right in this way. All of this area is gaza. All of this is extremely crowded, densely populated area that probably the most densely populated area on earth. You have about 2 Million People here. So every single one of these areas is going to suffer from food shortages, lack of electricity, lack of sanitation. In essence this is what you do when youre getting ready to move in and do a Ground Incursion. In essence theyre laying siege to gaza. In terms of how a Ground Incursion would work. Theres been a full reticence to do this, how densely populated it s how to get out once you get in to some degree. What would be a what are the key elements they have to consider before doing Something Like this . So, there are several key things. This is an excellent point. Theres something unique about gaza. People have described it as being in essence an open air prison because once their in, they cant get out. Thats overstating it a bit because before all this attacks there were a lot of people from gaza working in israel. The Border Crossing right here is the one they would use to work day jobs in israel. But this is all now closed off. And so one of the unique features they have to consider is that these people cant get out of anything that is happening here. This in essence is all blocked off right here. And that very fact makes it really hard for the israelis to go in because when you look at all of the different areas here, these are all very narrow streets, all built up areas with very few Agriculture Areas at least in this part of gaza. That makes it hard because youre dealing with here is known as urban warfare. It will be tough for people to get in here, for the Israeli Forces to move in buildings, around corners, around rooms. Their tactical intelligence will have to be extremely precise, especially when it comes to any efforts to try to rescue the hostages. And thats going to be a critical moment for the israelis. They have to decide exactly how they want to do it and what other things they can do in order to make that happen. To phils good point about once they get in, how do they get out, couple that with the fact that we learned overnight that the u. S. Is sending this Carrier Strike group to the eastern mediterranean. How will that play into this decision . What can be done from that to help israel . Yeah. So the Carrier Strike group, the uss gerald r. Ford is a key element. This is one of the preeminent ways in which the United States projects its power. And when it uses a Carrier Strike group, they have a lot of aircraft. This Carrier Strike craft can take 70 to 90 aircraft along with it and other ships part of this effort. So what they can do is they can do everything from humanitarian aid all the way to providing things like Close Air Support if they were engaged in combat operations. This is not whats going to happen in this particular case. They can also be a presence there. That would mean they cut off anybody else who is going to, for example, try to do something from other countries around here to try to help hamas in this particular area. You dont want anybody to move in in that sense. And what you want to do is you want to make sure that every single element is in essence blocked off so that the fighting is contained. So what the gerald r. Ford and all the other elements of u. S. Power in the region are here to do, is theyre going to make sure that nobody else gets involved, at least overtly. And thats one of the key reasons to have them do this. Yeah. U. S. Officials have been very clear, deterrence, deterrence, deterrence, not active participation. Thank you. We appreciate it. You bet, phil. The situation in israel and gaza turning into a hostage crisis. We will hear from one woman whose mother was kidnapped and that kidnapping is on video. Beginning of the video you see the terrorists enter the house of my mothers partner. They just enter, talk in arabic and then theres a cut and you see the shelter breaks. They enter the shelter and just take her from under the bed. Just shocking. Unfathomable. Cnn cannot independently verify the video. There have been similar shocking videos throughout the course of the last 24 hours. Joining us now to discuss former Homeland Security secretary jeh joh johnson. Aria, i want to start with you. Can you describe what its been like the last 48 hours on the ground there . Firstly, im not in the direct line of fire in the area around gaza, the heartland of israel has been under rocket fire for the last two days. Here in jerusalem, rockets are pretty infrequent. On saturday in the jewish festival, we have a toddler a 2yearold. We told him it was a game. The music plays outside, you have to run to the office. We did pretty well. By the end he was asking for more music. Managed to keep a brave face. To have to tell your toddler to go to shelter is a game really says it all. Secretary johnson to you. If you can help us put this in perspective. We keep saying somewhere around right now, may go up, 700 israelis killed in these attacks. But then in the context of america post 9 11. It is such a small country. 700 is a huge number. For israel, the state of israel, 700 is a huge number. On 9 11 we lost 2,977. I agree with the Prime Minister that this attack on saturday alone was israels 9 11. It was the worst single day Terrorist Attack in that nations history. I almost think that it overdignifies it to refer to it as a war. This is terrorism. Its out and out terrorism. The initial wave of Rocket Attacks was somewhere between 2 and 3,000 in the space of just minutes or an hour on saturday morning. And it was such that iron dome, the iron dome Defense System could not keep pace with intradikting them. Nor the iron wall. And we lost 700 israelis by their count. I suspect thats going to rise. Overall over 1,000. This is an act of terrorism, pure and simple. Theres a second wave occurring as we speak right now. And i would not be surprised if Israeli Defense forces do go into the gaza strip to try to recover the hostages and frankly decapitate the hamas leadership. To that point, aria, the feeling inside the country right now, i think theres always been this kind of assumption, certainly here in the u. S. , i think over there as well, idf, the intelligence and Security Apparatus that israel has and utilizes is the best in the world, if not one of the best in the world. You talk about what its like now knowing that this is even possible. Sense of real shock of what happened. The failure both in the incur jens and in readiness. It wasnt just that nobody knew this was coming. It was that nobody has d a planf it did happen. Intelligence can fail. It seemed there was no readiness whatsoever. Hamas terrorists entered israel in 7 00 a. M. On saturday. It took 12, 14 hours in some cases before the military arrived. Israel is a tiny country. Stories of people, retired military officers, getting in their cars from tel aviv and driving themselves to go and rescue people. They got there hours before the idf did. Theres a lot of head scratching, a lot of shock, a lot of disappointment and general bafflement at how is it the gaza seems to have had no troops around it and, you know, eventually twwe have to get to e bottom of what happened. That is the question, how is that the case . Not only israeli, the west. Here is what Jake Sullivan said ten days ago. This was about The Middle East on september 29th. The middle east region is quieter today than it has been in two decades. Now, challenges remain. Irans Nuclear Weapons program, the tensions between israelis and palestinians, but the amount of time that i have to spend on crisis and conflict The Middle East today compared to any of my predecessors going back to 9 11 is significantly reduced. It is not to point fingers. It is to ask and look at what is ahead . First i can attest that Israeli Intelligence capability is first rate. To the extent that the United States very often relies on Israeli Intelligence for our own intelligence capabilities in that region. I actually think jake put his finger on it. He said, ten days ago, its as quiet as it has been in that region for a long time. For a Terrorist Organization like hamas, that is at odds with their interest. This attack is very definitely an effort to destabilize the region, to increase tensions, to roll back the clock, to stop the normalization of relations between israel and the arab world. And so, this is the nature of terrorism, to disturb the peace, to stir up violence, to stir up passion, emotion, to cause death and destruction. Aria, whats the sense of what happens next . Secretary johnson made a key point about there are 100 plus hos ttages at this point. We have seen the scale of what could be traded for just one idf soldier several years ago that had been detained for five years. What are the expectations right now within israel . It still hasnt fully sunk in. People are beginning to get the names of people who were killed, beginning to figure out who was taken by looking at videos and the Israeli Government has not been on top of updating families of the situations. Its clear theres going to be some kind of Ground Operation in gaza i think both for the fact that people expect a Rescue Attempt and theres a political inevitability to it. But its not talk that such an operation would be successful. Already were hearing reports today that hamas is claiming and who knows if this is true, that israeli air strikes on gaza are killing some of the israeli hostages. They could be lying but shows the challenges that israel is already facing in its operations to try to rescue those people. One thing on the other side, a lot of israels policy and Military Posture towards gaza and the west bank, predicated on avoiding any hostages taken. Some of that may also shift because once there are 100, 150 hostages, maybe there will be bit more of a balance to the decisions taken. Theres so many questions remain outstanding. Aria, jeh johnson, thank you so much for your time. Youre looking at live pictures of gaza city. Israel relaunching counterattacks with gaza. We have much more of our breaking News Coverage coming up next