Announcer this is cnn Breaking News. And we do begin with our Breaking News. Were glad youre with us. Its 6 00 a. M. Here in new york city. Its 1 00 p. M. In israel. Here is the Breaking News that developed overnight. Israel pounding gaza with another wave of air strikes despite threats from hamas to execute hostages. Benjamin netanyahu says the strikes are just the beginning of israels attack. 150 hostages are believed to be inside of gaza right now. Hamas is threatening to kill them on camera in retaliation of the strikes. Israeli troops and tanks have been massing near the border. Military spokesman tells Cnn A Ground Offensive could be necessary to stamp out the Hamas Terrorists. At this stage, we continue to strike from the air. And there are plans to, of course, expand that. And the troops, the reserves, and the regular units that are amassing along the southern border, are readying for their tasks. And we want to go straight to Nic Robertson who is live on the ground. Nic, right now, what are you seeing . Youre one in the liberated with the general who helped take it back. Whats the latest, nic . Reporter exactly. I just give you a sense of where we are. You can see the smoke there rising. That sets the scene. Thats gaza. Thats how close we were. Those are the gates where hamas broke into this area. Standing right next to me is the general. You were retired. You came from our home. You were here by 9 00 saturday morning. Yeah, 9 saturday. Reporter what did you find . What did you do . Actually i tried to come on the road in the way i stoppe and another pickup behind them. I found some policemen and we start fighting against them, kill some of them. Lost one of our people. Even dont know his name. Then i start fighting village not far from here. Then from battle to battle. Reporter when you get here what do you find . I didnt fight here. I fight in other. What i saw, hundreds of terrorists, full armor, full gear, with all the equipment and all the ability make a massacre, go from apartment to apartment, from room to room and kill babies, mothers, fathers in their bedrooms. Reporter you told me some went in, their hands were tied together. Lock themselves the house and people are out with their children and they kill them. They kill babies in front of their parents and then kill the parents. They kill parents and we found babies between the dogs and family killed before him. Cut head of the people. Reporter this is the first time i mean, when did you secure this area here . Was late last night. So we fight here wave after wave of terrorists until last night. Reporter is this area here, were looking at the border, is this completely clear . Can you be 100 sure no hamas. I learned 100 is not part of the game. We try as we can. Now its more secure. And we wait to switch, to switch ourself from defense. We defend our people. Until now, we collect reporter you say youre going to attack. Will you be going into gaza . We can see it here . Its just on the horizon . I look to the next 100 yards. Reporter you take care of the next 100 yards. I fight the next 100 yards and then look forward. Reporter did anything in your career prepare you for what you saw here . We have come in and houses are blown apart. So first of all i prepare myself to everything. Yes, i have all the skills but i never saw and i never imagined that Something Like this could happen. Never could imagine, you know i heard during my childhood, the holocaust, of course, all my family came from europe and survival, et cetera, et cetera. I never think i would see in my eyes picture and things like that. Reporter how do you feel about it . I know youre a 39 career professional in the military. Youve been out, retired, out of service for eight years. Its time to do and make our mission. Its not time for feeling. Maybe later time we will take time to think about ourself and our soul. Now i only want to fight in defense and attack. Reporter can you get the hostages back, do you believe . I hope so. We have commitment. We do our best. Reporter thank you. Major general, thank you very much indeed. We have been around Walking Around this area here for the past i would say 30 minutes or so. It feels like a fluid situation. Theres gunfire. Theres explosions. But were told its for its for our protection that theres no imminent threat here. But look over here. Look at these burnt out vehicles here. Again, testimony to the ferocity of the fight here. We have just seen bodies that are being taken out of some of the houses, of some of the young families that were being loaded and taken away. This is the clearup phase. There are hundreds upon hundreds upon hundreds of troops now in this what was until saturday morning a peaceful village. I mean, just look over here at the houses. Dont go in. There are some bodies of hamas here, so we wont show those. But these houses here, you can see everything pulled, strewn outside. Lives brutally up ended, killed in some cases. But this is the picture all along the border with gaza now. All these small villages, all these small kabots within a mile or so of gaza. This is what happened. Hamas stormed them all. The populations are gone. The death toll here absolutely massive. But now back under control of the Israeli Defense forces. And they say that even now you just heard the general speaking there, even now its not possible to say with 100 certainty that there are no hamas here, but it does feel like an area that is much more under the control now of the Israeli Defense forces. An area that is getting more and more troops. Theres a tank i saw just over the gate there before. It is still a moment there when you pause and look at these terribly up ended lives of the civilians who were living here. This is what israel is coming to terms with. And this is what the general says is looking at the next 100 yards. Thats how it feels here at the moment. Nic, as we look at what is around you, as you said, lives just stopped in a moment, someone doing laundry right there. We see childrens toys. We see couches. Everyday life. Can you describe for our viewers what you witnessed, body bags, as i understand it, coming out of these homes right before we came to you. Reporter these were the smallest homes. These were the homes for the young families. The general told me when his troops got here this is the end closest to the gate with gaza, when hamas came in, these were some of the first buildings they went to. People, families were hiding inside. Parents, young parents with young children. He said when they opened the doors and went in, he said some of them had their hands bound and had been shot, executed. This is why the death toll keeps, keeps climbing here in israel. Over 900 people now. Why . Because its only when the military can take control of these villages that they can begin to find the cost of hamas attack, that they can actually get into the buildings in the community thats now secure. And just find out how many families were slaughtered. And thats why the number keeps going up. You know, when you talk to a Career General of 39 years in the military, he himself just moved himself when he retired, moved himself here as soon as he could saturday morning, when you see the tiredness in his eyes, he was rubbing his head. Have you had any sleep . No, since saturday. These guys have been on the go. I think this is now where they take a pause, take a breath. They brought a number of journalists in today. This is where they can pause. But its a pause to move forward. Its not a pause to rest back. This is how it feels. Nic, you asked the general about this, but whats your sense right now in terms of those who are dead and the numbers of dead versus those who have been taken hostage . Do they have any idea where you are specifically right now . Reporter they dont. There is sort of nobody left here to have a full picture and accounting of what happened. So the situation happened in chaos. Thats the reality of the difficulty for the government and for the idf right now that there is no list. Its a very tough job to try to go through all those who have been killed and take them off the list of people who are missing, Question Mark about. It will quite literally take some time before you can say with certainty dozens is the figure theyre going with now. Other estimates have been much higher. Hamas and Islamic Jihad both claim to have high numbers. But the reality of the situation is, until everything is taken account for, we have just been told to take a knee just been told to take a knee, hearing an explosion in the background. Im not hearing incoming at the moment. Im not hearing incoming. And the general is standing up. So, yeah. Were taking a knee. Nic, if you need to take cover nic, at any moment we seem to be good. We seem to be good. Nic, can you explain to us what youre hearing . Is it gunfire . There was some gunfire. There was some gunfire there. There are explosions. Im hearing drones in the sky overhead. We heard fighter jets before. Im hearing a fighter jet over there. It is just a dynamic, fluid, battlefield situation, if you will. You know, if they say take cover, well take cover. But the moment it seems okay. What we can see On The Horizon Is that was another detonation coming from gaza. You can see plumes of smoke rising from gaza. This is what we have been hearing all night long really is just more and more heavy impacts coming from gaza. That was another one. You sort of theres a synchronicity to it, if you will. You hear the jets fly over and then you can hear explosions coming up afterwards. Just going to walk through to this area. Again, were going to be careful going in here because there are still bodies here. And we dont want to show those. In graphic detail. So i might just stand myself here. Bodies have been of hamas fighters. We have seen quite a number of them around kaboots. There was a fire fight to get in here. The hamas fighters were along the approach road coming in here. Number of them dead there. Vehicles at the side of the road. Here, deeper in, this is perhaps where they were trying to hold out, where some of the last gun battles were. Thats why the bodies are still here. You can see the buildings where people were living until saturday morning, until saturday morning people were living here. This is what its going to look like all up and down this Border Region here. We know that the government has helped evacuate civilians from about 20 different communities. We havent seen any civilians today. This is essentially a military zone. As i said before, hundreds upon hundreds upon hundreds of troops here. Heavily armed. We have seen heavy mechanized armor here, tanks we have seen here. But most of the troops that were seeing here real combat soldiers. These Interest Guys at the sharp end of the spear when theres contact with hamas. They have been at the sharp end of the spear. This is where the sharp end of the spear was driving hamas out of this peaceful, residential neighborhood. To that point, nic, do you have any sense you were talking about how this is kind of a moment we picked up where theres been an opportunity to exhale a little bit given the fierce fighting over the course of the last several days. Do you have a sense of when a Ground Incursion may be coming if one is coming here. Reporter my personal sense, given what we have seen and having experience being here before when there were Ground Incursions, the forced posture is nowhere near ready for that. You need a lot more forces and preparation and political decision. We dont know if a political decision has been taken yet or what type of decision because when the Prime Minister spoke last night he did not say explicitly that was what he was going to do. Its certainly not off the table. I dont think it will be coming tomorrow. I dont think it will be coming this week. I think youre looking at a period of time. But again, it depends on the objective of a Ground Incursion. Depends what you want to do. How much area you want to take control of and how much area you want to search. It will come at a high cost of these troops and high cost for the people of gaza. Hamas hides out among civilians. And it is impossible to have a fight to take out the hamas leadership without there being Civilian Casualties inside gaza. These troops know that. Their discipline is to avoid that at all costs. But this is war. Its dynamic. But right now, yes. Its a pause feel. Those orders for whatever comes next, they havent come through. If they have, certainly not public at the moment. Nic robertson, thank you to you and your team from the extraordinary reporting coming to us right on the border with gaza. Well get back to nic very, very soon. Hamas militants received weapons and training from iran. That is according to multiple intelligence officials and reported by the Washington Post this morning. What this could mean for a potential escalation of the war. Here in the u. S. , republicans on capitol hill gearing up for a showdown over the speakership. What former Speaker Mccarthy said about the possibility of returning to his post. Thats coming up. You see the white house lit up in blue and white standing side by side with israel. Just hours from now, President Biden will give a speech from the white house about the escalating war between hamas and israel. Cnn correspondent Jeremy Diamond is live in jerusalem. Obviously our viewers know you from covering the white house. Youre now in israel covering this and biden is going to make a speech this afternoon, i believe, 1 00 p. M. Eastern time. What can we expect . Reporter well, it will be interesting to hear from President Biden today because up until now, what we have heard from the president is really this expression of unkaifring support for israel in the wake of the hamas deadly surprise Terrorist Attack in israel this past saturday. Israeli Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu last night in a prime time address made a point of calling out President Biden, thanking him for the continuous contact that he has had with him and for that very same unwavering support. We know that contact has happened at all levels. At the National Security adviser level, the defense secretary lloyd austin was in touch with Israeli Defense minister as well. And in particular, one of the main issues they have to talk about, beyond how israel is going to proceed with its response, its retaliation for these attacks by hamas is this question of hostages. Thats because of the 100 plus hostages and captives that hamas has taken into the gaza strip, we know that there are americans. We dont know exactly how many. But there are americans, some of Them Dual American israeli citizens. That has been part of the coordination between the United States and israel. Were told that the United States has offered Israel Intelligence support and surveillance support for its a potential hostage recovery operation. We dont know exactly how that is going to proceed, but thats certainly something that is very important to President Biden. But one of my questions right now as we prepare to hear from the president today is how far will his support for israels Military Response Go . We have seen in the past, most notably in the last conflict in 2021, when biden started to express concerns about the high toll of Civilian Casualties in gaza, urging israel to exercise restraint. We have not yet heard that from President Biden. And so the question is what is the tolerance for that from the u. S. Side Going Forward . We know that as these campaigns continue inside of gaza there are going to be increasing Civilian Casualties. It is simply the nature of this kind of congested space in gaza and the Israeli Military targeting the hamas targets in that very congested area. So it will be interesting to see how much further the president is willing to go in that unwavering support and whether or not he calls for any kind of restraint. Jeremy, you also had a very striking conversation with a young woman who survived the horrific massacre at the Music Festival. What did she tell you . Reporter yeah. I spoke with a woman from her Hospital Head here in jerusalem yesterday. She is a remarkable woman, phil. She came face to face with Hamas Terrorists multiple times. At one point running as bullets whizzed past her and she was able to get into a car. As they drove down the road, they came to a crossing and there they saw four Pickup Trucks with she said 20 hamas militants in each of those trucks who began then shooting at them. She ran out of that car where she was able to finally find some cover behind a tank. Here is her describing that scene. I lied under the tank because they surrounded us from every direction, because they saw the people on the tank. And the more of us there were, it was getting worse. Because a large group they could just shoot at us. Those of us who could go underneath did. And i did. And i thought i would survive there but this is where i got shot in the leg. I didnt even know where it was from because everybody had blood on them and i was covered with blood. Reporter despite taking a bullet to the leg and shrapnel to her stomach, she considers herself one of the lucky ones. I asked her how she made it out alive and she simply said it was a miracle, but she thought that she was going to die in that moment of danger and agony. She said one of the most sacred prayers in judaism, a prayer you say when you believe you are about to die. So it was remarkable to hear from her in her hospital bed. I walked into that room and she was initially so weak, so tired. But as soon as she spoke up to tell her story, she seemed to summon some kind of strength within her and she wanted to tell her story but talk about her friends including some who went back after they had already made it out safely from the festival, they went back to try to help their friends. A couple of those friends of hers were taken hostage or are still missing. Phil, poppy . Wow, Jeremy Diamond. Thank you for the reporting and for bringing us that interview. Appreciate it. Questions about hostages remain. Appears preparations for a Ground Offensive in gaza are under way. Lets take a closer look at gaza with retired major mike lions. Appreciate you being here. To start, we hear constantly about just how tight it is in gaza for lack of a better term. About 2 million people, an area about the size of chicago. What complications does that bring for any type of Ground Offensive . Tremendous. I think were going to potentially see casualties and Civilian Casualties like we havent seen since the second world war, just based on what israel has said. They declared war here. Are use the word like siege. Siege from Military Perspective means flatten. Were going to surround, choke off the supply. I want to talk about the Courageous Cnn crew. Theyre sitting right here. And theyre so close to that gaza border here. What missile fire coming from on the other side. Hamas is still firing rockets inside of israel. And so, the airframes you hear are Israel Forces on kind of stationed ready to go ready to knock them out. Just shows me they still have capacity. They have not stopped with regard to attacks israel. What are the Biggest Challenges for Israeli Forces . If we do see the Ground Incursion, nic made a very good point because he had years of experience covering the region, that in his estimation, they are not amassed enough at this point for an imminent incursion, thats his read on the ground. When ever it may happen if it does what are the challenges they face once they get inside gaza. It will take them a while to wound up. It will take days in order of 300,000 reservists mobilized. What are their objectives . Attack from different sides . Going to come from this side here, cut off hamas troops . Obviously this is where the Center Of Gravity is here with regard to where the hamas troops are. I think israel has to be very concerned overall about from a strategic perspective. They have enemy here coming in this direction. They have hezbollah coming up from the north. If they can mass troops in the west bank, this is the problem trying to fight war on three fronts. Thats why they call 300,000 troops up. Once they go back to gaza, once they get into this location here, its going to be street fighting, house to house and again large Civilian Casualties. We talk about the strikes that we have seen over the course of the last several days. There have been air strikes. We have seen numerous strikes very specific facilities, at least according to the idf and what their targets are. What do those tell you . Theyre going after if you look at some things. These are mosques now. Theyre taking everything off the table with regard to Collateral Damage again. Normally the military wouldnt attack these kinds of targets. Theyre saying they are clearly military targets. And in this case theyre leaving nothing behind. You know, in the past they would be more discriminate with regard they would go after, specific things. Here they are literally leveling all the kind of targets they going after. Theres nothing left now. Those are both mosques youre showing in the before and after. Yeah. On saturday, there was rockets fired from hezbollah Southern Lebanon into israel and bit of a pause secretary blinken said and yesterday seeing more. Can you speak to the complication of trying to fight hezbollah in the north of israel while doing the rest . Yeah. Thats really what israel has to be concerned about because theyll have to put troops to the north here. This is where they would come from here. Also, it would introduce, we warned now, the Syrian Government says, look, if hezbollah decides to come in, theyre good fighters. Theyve been part of the syrian civil war. They have that kind of experience. Opens up a front where damascus becomes a target in this area here. I think israel will be forced to put Ground Troops up there. What israels advantage here is shock effect. They bring tanks, air power. The problem is the enemy is not fighting that kind of battle. This isnt conventional. Exactly. They prepared for a war that they didnt get. What are hezbollahs capabilities compared to hamas . Better. Better, more, greater capability. Again, still dont really have that shock effect, but theyre good fighters. Theres more of them. Israel has to be concerned. This now creates if they come in from the north here, and the attackers are coming from the south, this now creates the nightmare 1973 scenario of an attack on both fronts. We appreciate it. Thank you. Six Family Members kids napped in southern israel by hamas. Well speak to their brother about what happened when militants began rack sacking their building. Cnn went inside of a bomb shelter after it was shot up with bullets and blown up with a grenade by hamas militants. Youll see that ahead. The power goes out and we still have wifi to do our homework. And thats a good thing . Great in my book who are you . No power . No problem. Introducing stormready wifi. Now you can stay reliably connected through Power Outages with unlimited cellular data and up to 4 hours of battery backup to keep you online. Only from xfinity. Home of the xfinity 10g network. Youre probably not easily persuaded to switch mobile providers for your business. But what if we told you its possible that Comcast Business mobile can save you up to 75 a year on your wireless bill versus the big three carriers . Its true. Plus, when you buy your first line of mobile, you get a second line free. There are no Term Contracts or line activation fees. And you can bring your own device. Oh, and all on the most reliable 5g Mobile Network nationwide. Wireless that works for you. Its not just possible. Its happening. New evidence this morning of the brutal tactics being used by hamas militants, including Opening Fire On Civilians inside of bomb shelters. Even throwing grenades into those bomb shelters. Look at this video. The militants are seen bomb sh screaming at a Shirtless Man Standing outside. He squats down as they begin kicking him. His fate this morning is unknown. Moments later, a militant throws a grenade into the bomb shelter. A man runs out trying to escape but the militants immediately raise their weapons, fire at him. We also do not know his fate this morning. Cnns Nic Robertson later visited that shelter. Here is what he found. Reporter people came in here to get shelter. Theres gunshots and impacts all over the wall. I dont think well go in too far. It is a very horrific testimony to the absolute carnage, rampage and utter, utter brutality of hamas that people were hiding in there. And its absolutely clear from blood on the walls, the bullet holes in the walls that they just went in there and shot these innocent people, cowering and hiding away from them inside this concrete place of safety, this shelter. Joining us now editor and chief of The Forward Jody and bobby gauche. Thank you so much for joining us at the table. Jody, i want to start with you. Were all trying to figure out the what comes next, but its important to also watch that and recognize what this is and why this was so different from anything i think we have seen at least at this scale. And that drives the what is the response going to be and when will it happen. Whats your sense . Well, your right. I mean, nic has shown us so power any the brutality and the extent. Its like nothing we have ever, ever seen before. This was a brutal, horrific Terrorist Attack on mostly innocent civilians. And the scale of it is something israel is totally unprepared for, has not seen in its history. So we thought we understood the cycle of violence between israel and gaza. We have seen many rounds of things. They were very predictable. And you would see air strikes in response to rocket fire. The scale of this attack is so beyond anything we were prepared for that its hard to predict the response. And the hostages complicate that situation. I mean, israel takes hostages incredibly seriously. We have seen the entire country and government mobilize to rescue one hostage and give up massive numbers of prisoners in exchange of one hostage. Now theres 130, 150 people inside gaza, soldiers, women, children, families, also dead bodies that were taken back, which is very high stakes for israel as well. So the idea of exactly how israel will respond is really something that is almost impossible to predict, but it will be severe and fierce. You have called this, bobby, hamass biggest success but also its greatest failure. The mask has come off. For some of us we have known for a long time what hamas really is. But there is a large proportion of people in the world, even among our european partners, for instance who have been reluctant to use the t word. Terrorists. The fact that hamas is a terrorist group. Theres been a temptation in many parts of the world to think of hamas as a resistance movement. Well, Resistance Movements dont go into a Music Festival and slaughter young people who are doing nothing but singing and dancing, many of them In The Name Of peace. Resistance movements dont take children and elderly women hostage. Resistance movements dont do what we just saw in those videos. This is a terrorist group. This is much closer in the spectrum to isis than to any resistance movement. And now, that mask has fallen. Hamas might think at the moment they delivered this huge blow to israel. Of course they have. This is the single as we just heard, that israel has not received a blow of this gravity perhaps in its entire history. But at the very moment it was delivering this blow, hamas was also essentially revealing itself to any remaining people who think that hamas is a resistance group, thats no longer sustainable. To that point, you know, i think the why in terms of not just the response to israel how it didnt see this coming, but also the attack itself has been one of the biggest questions about why would hamas move at this point. Plausible explanation i heard so far is that netanyahus right wing government took the eye off the ball. And focussed far too much energy on suppressing prodemocracy protests rather than thwarting actual dlets. I know there will be a lot of time to see what went wrong here. Do you think that was a Driving Factor behind the hamas decision to launch now . Yes. I think a more compelling explanation of why hamas may have launched now is also connected to the saudi deal and the spending saudi deal and irans particular opposition of the idea of saudi and israel making peace. So i think the hamas iranian backers are motivated by that. But i think the timing, not just it was on a holiday. And we see history in israel on attacks on holidays being very effective. And i do think that israels internal political division, the fact that israel spent a year torn apart by the politics of this right wing government and by particularly the judicial overhaul plan made it particularly vulnerable to attack in terms of well find out more about the specifics about whether troops were actually moved and how. But, the cyclely everybodys attention has been on the protests in the street, on the internal divisions around the questions about the right wing ministers and the questions about the religious and the secular in israel and nobody was focussed on this threat as it massed and became as bobby talked about, so much bigger than anybody had ever imagined. Very quickly, the role that qatar can play in the hostages. They were integral in getting the five americans released from iran several weeks ago. 150 its now believed held in gaza. This is bigger than anything qataris had to deal with in the past. Proportion of the hamas leadership is based in doha. They have good offices with hamas. The qataris will be expected to help reconstruction after all the damage we have been looking at. So they are the best bet we have now to intervene. But the trouble is that hamas is not one sort of top down organization. There are factions and factions. At this moment, it might suit the hamas militants to have those hostages as shields and of course that threat of killing them if israel continues its on camera. On camera. Talk about isis. It might suit hamas more to hold on to those hostages rather than have sort of meaningful discussion act letting them do. When that time finally comes, i expect the qataris will be crucial. Im not sure this is the moment. Good to have you with us this morning. House republicans preparing for a messy fight to appoint the next speaker. Why Kevin Mccarthy is not now ruling out a return to the role. President biden was interviewed by his handling classified documents. What it tells us about the state of the investigation. Thats up next. You bring a lot back to civilian life. Leadership skills. Technical ability. And a drive to serve in new ways. Syracuse universitys Daniello Institute for veterans and military families has empowered more than 200,000 veterans to serve their communities and their careers. From professional certifications, to job training, to help navigating programs and services, we give veterans access to support from anywhere in the world. Were now showing you live pictures of plumes of smoke floating atop gaza city. Its 1 45 p. M. In the afternoon there. We have seen this throughout the course of the last several days as israeli strikes from fighter jets continue as we have had reporting on the ground from our Nic Robertson as Israeli Forces on the ground outside of Gaza Continue to move kibbutz through kibbutz trying to clean up, trying to recover and trying to get a full sense of the scale of whats happened over the course of the last several days. As we keep a very close eye on that, at least 30 people are injured after a stampede during a proisrael candle lit vigil at the university of florida last night. Around 1100 people gathered to honor the victims of the attacks on israel and suddenly someone fainted. People were startled, shouting. Started to call 911. You see that. The confusion sparked a panic and sent the crowd running for their lives. People fell on top of each other, causing them to be trampled. The injuries treated at the hospital are said to include broken ankles, ribs, concussions, minor cuts. Thankfully no life threatening injuries have been reported. But you can see all of the tension playing out there in the United States as well. Were also still following news on capitol hill, keep in mind there is still no formal speaker of the house. House republicans meeting today about electing a new speak after a closed door meeting only seemed to add to the division. Twoman race Steve Scalise and jim jordan is growing more complicated. Former Speaker Mccarthy refused to rule out a return to power. Ill allow the conference to make whatever decision. Whether im speaker or not, im a member of this body. I know what history its had and can lead in any position it is. And right now, i realize we need these five actions taken now and stop delaying. Cnns lauren fox joins us now. Lauren, i got to ask, it wasnt very settle yesterday between the Press Conference and the comments related to its up to the conference. He pulled himself out of running. Is mccarthy considering trying to hop back in here . Reporter well, i think thats what a lot of his allies are watching very closely, phil. There is a lot of concern and consternation within the conference that why should Kevin Mccarthy be forced to be ousted when you potentially could just have a reshuffling of the leadership where everyone moves up a rung. That is the concern that a lot of his allies have. Does he get back into the race . I think he said repeatedly yesterday its up to the republican conference. But last night, Behind Closed Doors, republicans got no closer to electing a speaker. We expect that there will be a Candidate Forum today around later this afternoon where both jim jordan The House Judiciary Chairman and jordan Steve Scalise both men vying for the speaker will talk about their plans for funding and plans for the future of the republican majority in the house of representatives. And then tomorrow they would go Behind Closed Doors and vote as a conference on potentially electing a speaker. Now, theres a question about that process tomorrow, whether there would be a rules change. Right now to get that vote in the conference, you have basically a simple majority. Theyre looking at potentially raising that threshold to having to get 217 votes. Thats the magic number Behind Closed Doors before you go to the floor. And theres a reason for that, phil. The reality is that once they go to the floor, there is concern they could put themselves in a position where neither of these men have locked down the votes you need and you could have a 15, 20round speaker race similar back in january when Kevin Mccarthy was vying for the job. We should point out that republicans feel like this is a moment in which the world is watching. Many members want the conference to coalesce quickly. Here were two of those members last night. Were kind of like a scatter gram. Were all over the map in terms of the way forward. Some of it about rules changes. Some of it about, you know, hard feelings about what happened on tuesday. I believe that we should reevaluate every single individual, not based off the job theyve done previously, just based off where we are today and me leaving that room and seeing how broken the personalities are with individuals who are currently running. We have a lot of work to do. And i believe we need an extra week. Look at different options for all leadership positions. Reporter and the reason the timing is so important here is because without a House Speaker theres nothing that can be done for israel on the floor of the house of representatives, including just a simple resolution for support. Now, there is some talk among congressional leadership as well as the white house about tying israel aid to ukraine funding. Those are two issues that are important to many republicans and democrats. But, the ukraine piece of that has been problematic for some hardliners. I was asking members last night, republicans, if they would agree to tie those things together. And even people who supported israel funding and ukraine funding, like representative Mario Diazbalart told me he has concerns about potentially attaching those two things, saying they should be separate votes. You see trouble ahead even if the republican conference can get through electing a speaker. Still remains a big question. Indeed. Lauren fox for us. Live in washington. Thank you. Meantime at the white house, President Biden spoke voluntarily we learned with the Special Counselor investigating his handling of classified documents. Officials say that he interviewed the president on sunday and on monday. It wrapped up yesterday. Katelyn polantz joins us now with all the reporting. Notable that he sat down. The white house saying this is transparency, were putting it throughout. What more can you tell us . Reporter yeah. It is quite notable in this Special Counsel investigation. A Special Counsel investigation thats been around for about a year. That we have heard very little about but is significant enough, thorough enough, to make sure that the Special Counsel is he clearly is wanting to check all of the boxes and make sure that hes doing as thorough investigation as possible, interviewing the president. That is not a small thing. So the white house did confirm this yesterday. They said the voluntary interview, voluntary, was conducted at the white house over two days sunday and monday and concluded monday. As we have said from the beginning, the president and white house are cooperating with this investigation. And if you recall, back when this started about a year ago, it was against the backdrop of other investigations around the handling of classified records specifically with donald trump and maralago which did result in charges against the former president trump. That is a different situation as far as the investigation and as far as the response, what we know of than what happened with trump because the white house appears to have given these documents back willingly and now having biden sit for an interview quite possibly signals potentially the end of the investigation or at least a very thorough review thats been done so far. All right, Katelyn Polantz for us in washington. Thank you. Happening now, air strikes continuing between israel and gaza. Were getting a closer look at hamas deadly attack on israel. Cnn is live on the ground. Stay with us. Their house and theyre not sure they are going to make it. They said i love you. And later on, we got a message at the house and that they dont think they will make it. And thats was the last time i heard them. Theres an important i think distinction that you wanted to draw here that this isnt a military verse military conflict. This isnt idf versus hamas. That these are civilians. What do you want to say about that . Correct. One second. Sorry. One second. Yeah. Sorry. I wanted to say that this is this entire situation is not military against military. Its a military no less than that. Hamas is a military against civilians. Mothers, sisters, childs. My 3yearold nephews. My 5. 5 year old nephew are there. And this is we need to understand that now everything that i want is to see them again. And hopefully well do everything that we cannot to make it happen. Im currently supporting myself, my daughter, my parents. Its a surreal situation for us. I cant imagine from a family perspective. How are your parents doing through all this . First two days i think its shock. We all were. We all still are. Youre kind of, you know, losing you dont know what happened. Its a terrible situation. Its not something that anyone is teaching you how to handle. So, first two days are shocked. I was there, trying to just manage the situation. Trying to gather as much information as i can. We got a lot of information from their family. There are all of my brotherinlaws family is there. They were under the same Terrorist Attack. His younger brother and his girlfriend were also are also missing. We also think that they are as well. And so we got this a lot of information. Thats what i try to communicate to my parents, understanding whats going on. And slowly we are managing ourselves. Nothing more. Were just surviving. Moran alony, we appreciate you, one, taking the time to share your story. We certainly are thinking about you and your family and certainly hopeful for your family that you at least get more information sooner rather than later. Thank you so much. Thank you. And cnn this morning continues right now