As he went to fight as a soldier. When i talked with this man on the phone he is a different human being. All wars change people in this war certaiy has. Deeply and profoundly and in so many ways. Cnns coverage continues from israel. Tonight israels war against hamas enters a new phase as is really troops are now amassing along the gaza border. This as hamas is Still Holding as many as 150 hostages several now confirmed to be american. There may have been a but tonight there is still no House Speaker. Document nominated by House Republicans to take the gavel is unclear if we can get the votes to do so. Im Kayla Collins and this is the story. Good evening, this is a Special Edition of the source. We are tracking. Im Kayla Collins in washington. 300,000 troops are amassing. Israel continued to bombard gaza with airstrikes and disturbing new details of how mosses atrocities continue to emerge. It matters that americans see what happens. I have been doing this a long time. I never really thought that i would see all confirmed pictures of terrorists. In gaza tonight a humanitarian is unfolding. Nearly 1100 people have been killed and all power has been shut off. Right now it is believed up to 150 hostages are still being held by hamas and gaza. The death toll in israel has risen to more than 1200 people in the number of americans killed now stands at 22. Among them, two brothers who worked security for the village. They moved to israel from america to take care of their mom who had cancer. Deborah matthias a mother who was killed shielding her son from the bullets and 34year old danielle band senior who was one of the event organizers at the Music Festival that turned from a night that was supposed to be of revelry to a scene of carnage. I want to get right to anderson cooper. Those are just a few of the faces and the names of The Americans who we know have been killed. You have been there in your reporting from this country that has been consumed by grief. How is that impacting what you see on the ground . I think this terror type is a surprise on saturday morning and it has taken days for people are still gathering information and we are still hearing stories about what happened near certain places. We are still learning about scale and scope of this and it will still take weeks before the full picture is clear, but the level of shock is felt everywhere. Theres not anyone here who does not know someone who has not killed or kidnapped or wounded or had a member of their family killed her catnip or kidnapped or wounded. There shock in brief is turning into anger and resolve and we are seeing that with the buildup in is really troops. In the decisions by now a the Opposition Party leader has now joined into a cabinet with the Prime Minister. You look at someone taking off from a Downtown Street and then people get into tunnels and move locations so its very difficult to stop that. And obviously israel has been Hounding Gaza pounding gaza for days now and there has been this buildup of troops. I think the anticipation is now there is this Lady Government as they are saying or unity cabinet that got us one more step to sort of open up this to have an assault. Nobody though is naove about what the reality of that will be both from the potential for loss of civilian life in gaza, civilians have nowhere to go and as you mentioned there have been talks about possibly opening up some sort of humanitarian corridor into egypt and in the past egyptian authorities have not wanted to have an open border with large numbers of residents coming and staying in sinai in egypt so they will have to get on board with that and it remains to be seen if i will even happen, but nobody is naove about what a Ground Assault into gaza would look like and the death toll that occurred from that. 2 million citizens in an area twice the size of washington. Thank you for that. What has been happening presents several pressing issues for the biden administration. First among them is how to help including americans being held by hamas. There is also the intelligent failure but also u. S. Intelligence and agencies among the best in the world will say they did not hear this coming. The push to normalize relations between israel and saudi arabia which would have been a breakthrough is now in jeopardy tonight. Joining me now is someone who has been deeply involved in all of these issues ambassador Robert Obrien who served as u. S. Special envoy for Hostage Affairs and was also a National Security adviser for president trump. Given your experiences negotiating for hostages, obviously this is even more complicated because there is this active war underway. How does the u. S. Get these hostages home . A large number of american hostages i was very pleased to see that Secretary Blinken is traveling there and that he has dr. Carson with him. He is a criminal Military Officer and i worked with him when i was National Security office. He is confident. I am glad we are seeing these things being undertaken. Thats important but we also have to look at another tool and those tools are moving our Hostage Extraction and rescue elements forward. We need to look at how we deal with the regional powers. If there was calm some type of expression, what would that look like . Israel is striking gaza right now with airstrikes. We are told this hostages, u. S. Intelligence says they are not altogether and they are in tunnels and separated. Thats an incredibly complicated process. We are probably never faced something this complicated in terms of a Hostage Rescue and if you can imagine the pain and agony that the hostage families are going through after they think about their loved ones in cages subject to torture and possible execution. We have to be prepared for opportunities when they arise. We may not be able to get all of the hostages in one swoop but as israelis move into gaza we will have opportunity potentially to extract hostages once we get control over the ground with our israeli partners. You are absolutely right though, is part of a complicated unitary equation. What we have heard from Defense Officials is if they embark on Something Like that it will be farfetched and they would need to rely on intelligence and there are serious questions being raised about what israel knows about whats happening inside of gaza. How would that happen . I am not suggesting that they launch a rescue at this time but my point is that we need to be opportunistic and be prepared if an opportunity arrives it will be good for us. There is democratic leverage we can use with certain partners and allies and no thats the focus. We need to be equally prepared that if a Military Option does arise especially in the chaos and is really encourage it in gaza we need to be prepared to get americans out. You used to be in daily Intelligence Briefings as a National Security adviser and we heard from your successor, Jake Sullivan, said the u. S. Did not see anything that suggested this attack was coming. How do you think people miss this . 9 11 so we know what it is like but i think what happened here is we become complacent about the United States and israel. There is much electronic intelligence and reconnaissance. Those are exclusive capabilities but i think what happens here is the hamas and the terrorists responses his messengers. They met outside of israel and the Wall Street Journal reports in lebanon and into iran and other locales. We know our capabilities and in this case it looks like they took advantage of our reliance on technical needs and maybe a lack of Human Intelligence and used oldschool techniques. [ indiscernible ] and they use those old school methods. We have seen criminal organizations use less. I should know it has not been confirmed. We heard some Senior Iranian officials were surprised by this of course still a lot of questions gary detman given they have funded hamas. You were in position when the Abraham Accords were assigned and there was hope for that what may mean for the region certainly for Trump Officials and three weeks ago i spoke to israeli Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu about is really a israel normalizing relations. Do you believe that deal is likely off the table . The siberia . Im not sure its off the table. I think we will have an extended period of is really reaction israeli reaction. This is something we have not even seen from isis and this is bad and theres even military response so i think in due time the diplomatic will take place and i applaud the biden administration. I was glad to see Jake Sullivan go to a god and to jerusalem and obviously bringing saudi arabia Input Strengths in the accord so i think its a worthy goal and i think we should continue it and there will probably be i dont think its off the table but i think there will be a cause. A pause. Former ambassador and National Surety adviser Robert Obrien, thank you for your time tonight. Thank you. Cnn reporting israeli officials saying that hamas gave the green light for this attack intelligence saying it caught iran as a surprise. Plus House Republicans have a nominee for speaker but still their nomination need a lot more support to win the gavel. We get back to the ground in israel but here on capitol hill the House Of Representatives still paralyzed by basic arithmetic and infighting tonight. Steve scalise is one nomination from a closeddoor meeting today. A jury of republicans 113 of them locate voting for him. They need 217 votes and as we see in Washington Republicans are still trying to find a way to get him the additional yes votes that it would take for congress to elect a House Speaker and get back to work. One of those republicans he is working they are working to convince is here with me. Can Steve Scalise get to the amount of votes he needs . He is a great man and a great candidate for republicans to try to unify the party. Its very difficult given the politics going on behind the scenes. You are referencing his Health Issues as he was diagnosed with blood cancer. Did you ask him for anything . I am very concerned about ukraine and israel. Obviously russia is involved in the ukraine war and russia is involved in Supplying Has Black , hamas, iran also supplying russia with drones. We need to make sure we are aggressive in how we deal with all those country not how we focus on one area. That was my message and i thought it was well received. Did you make any document i am not going to be the last vote against Steve Scalise. He was at 216 you would vote for him . I would. Thats good to know. One thing you struggled with is you said you had asked both of them who won the election and that neither of them would say that President Biden did. The president ial election and neither have said before and i dont think they will say now. Steve scalise feels very he is unsure about who the winner is. He was also comfortable voting for him . What are the choices. . We have Serious Problems around the world and we need to find ways to move forward. Its not an ideal situation. He led the effort to decertify the electors in 2021 on january 6 so you have to do the best you can. To get that aid to israel past you have to get a House Speaker first. How long do you think you could take it could take before republicans reaching actual decision . I think there will be some issues towards the end of the week and hopefully we really get our act together. Do you think it could be tomorrow . You dont think it will happen this week . I dont know. It may drag into the weekend. Okay, congressman ken buck, thank you. We will be back here in just a moment with the latest on the Ground Developments happening in israel and as we mentioned 300,000 reservists are amassing on the border of gas gaza but new reporting suggests iranians were surprised at least some of them. We just had a massive barrage of rockets coming in here. Our continuing coverage of the conflict here in israel. Face the opponent. Join poppy and phil on cnn 6 00 eastern. We are about 19 miles from the border with gaza and over the last few nights on our programs we have been able to hear the impacts of shells being fired into gaza from israel. The last hour it has been actually quite quiet. Across israel tonight community after Community Tanks are mobilizing and troops are mobilizing in preparation for what israels continued response for the is really reservists called up in historic numbers. They say any Ground Operation in gaza will be different this time. Everyone has lost someone. Every person. In amsterdam until wednesday morning monday morning i came here to the army. I have been in all the campaigns in the last 30 years. Never Something Like this. What remains is the looming question of what role he iran played in this. U. S. Has specific intelligence that suggests some senior officials were caught by surprise. We have seen no evidence in the intelligence that they were awaiting of it, preaware or were involved in any of the planning, resourcing or even directing of the operation. I want to bring in cnns matthew chan. The biden administrations position or what their public statements are is that iran bears broad responsibility for their support of hamas and others. You spoke to an israeli official, what was their perspective . Anderson, they agree with that. Its not really disputed that iran provides Political Support , finance and training for hamas militants inside the gaza strip so thats were the two intelligent intelligence overlap. There is a bit of a gap when it comes to the knowledge of a run in the enforcement of a run in this particular operation. What the israeli officials i spoke to told me is that he thought and believed as a result of intelligence that iran had effectively given the green light. To clarify, he said he didnt believe they ran ivan watson five new about the timing of the impact but they knew that there was an operation and planning before the operation went ahead. And so in that sense it was in on it and didnt do anything to stop it so its not necessarily a contradiction of u. S. Intelligence. It doesnt give iran the benefit of the doubt and the way that you can see The Americans are doing and so is in israels political interest. They have been trying to rally support and say iran should be punished for the interaction with thomas and i think this is another reiteration of that. What do you hear from israeli sources about what comes next in gaza . The israelis have been pretty clear that they will take action on the ground in gaza. They have not given in exact times timeframe but we have seen a massive buildup of forces. 360 reservists have been called. No one is under the impression that this will be an easy Military Operation in a different magnitude than we have seen before in gaza not least because of the density of the city in terms of its population. A network of tunnels that run underneath it and also the 150 or so hostages inside the gaza strip and that has to complicate any Military Operation plan. Matthew chan, thank you so much from tel aviv. Another story of survival. A young woman as he is really Music Festival where 160 people were killed according to israeli authorities. We will talk to her next. Is ukraine going to win im dr. Sanjay gupta and this is cnn. Tonight new details are starting to emerge from survivors of that Music Festival where hamas slaughtered at least 260 people so far as they ran for their lives some of them had to resort to Desperate Measures to find safety including hiding under dead bodies. Here is what one of the survivors told my colleague jake tapper today. As we got to the bomb shelter there was about 35 or 40 people who entered. When we got rescued seven hours later only nine or 10 were there. Everyone that came into that bomb shelter i saw get murdered in front of my eyes. I had a flash all over my body. We had to bury ourselves under these dead corpses to protect ourselves from these blades and rifles and rpg. Reporter hours before they were rescued hiding under the bodies of friends and fellow concertgoers. It was a massacre. Tonight i am joined by another survivor who also had four hours surrounded by hamas, shawny ohana visits us. Im so glad you are okay. These accounts of you and others who are there are difficult to even hear. Can you just start by walking me through what happened . Okay, since you for your kind words and thank you for having me. So me and my friend went to a party, another party, the day before i worked at the same location at a different party. We came to celebrate my Friends Birthday and around 6 30 i remember a few minutes before i took a picture of the sunrise because it was so beautiful the bombs started. At first i didnt panic because bombs are something that unfortunately happens in our daytoday lives in israel so my friend and i started walking back to our camps taking back our stuff and making sure everyone we were with were with us and the police told us to leave everything and run that things are bad. There were tons of bombs. So we got in our car and we started driving. I soften one friend. We came to a blockade on the road and we saw from afar that there was military at first and then we heard people turning their cards around yelling at us to run and that they were shooting. So we turned the car around and started to realize that the situation we were in affecting my friend telling me that there was shooting at the party, trying to call another friend who is not picking up, we came to another blockade. People told us to go around and there was shooting also on the other side. We went by one of those Bomb Shelters where horrible horrific things happened. We wanted to stop but we decided to keep driving. I called one of my friends to make sure he was safe and i heard him running and he was telling me that they got ambushed and they started shooting at them and he and my friend split up and he started running for about 15 minutes and hes not talking. The call got disconnected and then i started going to my friend who were driving and i panicked i told them drive, drive straight and dont stop and then on the road we were a few minutes prior we see i am sorry we see inside three trucks armed with Hamas Terrorists with weapons started to shoot at our car while we drive straight in the middle of them and buy a miracle we didnt get hit by any bullets. We are stopping, the car is stopping on the side of the road. We go out and start running into the field while they where they are shooting at us. We hear the bullets. We can feel them around our legs. By a miracle we are not getting hit. We started to go like down this road hiding, ducking and then we started to get really far so we started to feel a little more safe. Then i see on the other side, i see People Hiding in a recognize them and they were my friends again, a miracle from above. We go and hide in the bushes and for the next between eight to nine hours which is here nonstop shooting. We started hiding at 8 00 a. M. And we got rescued at 5 00 p. M. This video that you took. I want our viewers to see it because is video that you took on your phone as you will hiding in the bushes for those nine hours and i just want to be quiet for a moment because you can hear the rapid gunfire in the background. Reporter i cant even imagine what was going through your mind at that moment. Do not and so and so as far as the first hour i could not even breathe, it was so stressful because they were so close. At first the video that i sent you i took about four hours in so we were hearing it nonstop we would hear them Walking Around us. We can hear them talking. We could hear them laughing while they were shooting. Tonight they were laughing . They were laughing. Always laughing and shooting. You can hear them on their voices that they were having fun and like yes, we finally did this. Every car that passes my we can hear the grenades and shooting and it was just terrible. After a few hours i just tried to disconnect myself and not think about anything. I couldnt even touch my phone even if i did have a reception, it was very hard and scary thinking that maybe if we make one wrong sound and they hear us , its the end. Reporter were you worried that you were not going to survive . Yes, i was. There were a lot of points where i was worried i would not go back home, that my friend wouldnt go back home. Im still trying to process all of it. One minute im at a party having a great time with all the people i love and enjoy at a big festival for a community, you know, so everyone there knew everybody. It was really exciting and the sunrise was beautiful and the next moment Something Like this happens and i still cant really even process what is happening. To think that day started with you taking a picture of the sunrise. Shawny ohana, i am so glad you are safe and with your family. We are thinking of your friends and what you have gone through and everyone involved. Thank you. Thank you very much will be back in just a moment. Right now secretary of dates Antony Blinken is making his way to israel as 17 americans are still unaccounted for. There is a small number are believed to be hostages being held by hamas and gaza tonight. Joining me is barak rabiid. If you are watching you see Benjamin Netanyahu forming this Emergency Government with a former defense minister. How much does that indicate what a crisis this is for the Israeli Government . Good evening caitlin, i think if the government will announce today because we have a sentiment Benjamin Netanyahu and are not only political rivals they have so much bad blood between them. Also the political situation is the best that he could ever dream of. The last nine months and his favorability went down. Elections were held and for him to enter the government politically is i dont want to say political suicide, but its not the best political move to join the government now and help Benjamin Netanyahu, but i think this shows how deep the crisis is if he feels he has no other choice but to join the government at this time and be part of the decisionmaking in this really dark hour of history. Gaza is a Densely Populat place. Twice the size of washington but has 2 Million People who live there. Obviously, thats a concern if there is going to be a ground incursion. What are you hearing from your sources about civilians being able to get out of gaza, innocent civilians who live there . So, first, unfortunately, and im saying that with a heavy heart, i dont think that Palestinian Civilians living in gaza will be able to leave anytime soon. The only negotiations that is taking place right now between the u. S. , egypt and israel is about some sort of a safe passage, a safe corridor to egypt for american citizens and foreign nationals. In gaza, there are approximately 500 or 600 american citizens in gaza. There are fewer hundred foreign nationals, you know, people working the journalists, u. N. Workers. All of those people, the ones who would want to leave, might be able to do it. The negotiations as far as i understand are making progress. Israel and egypt has given their consent in principle to establish such a safe passage, but the operational details are very complex. You have to understand its impossible to get out of gaza right now because all the border crossings are closed. And if a Ground Operation would start, would be even harder. Everybody wants to do it as fast as possible before the Ground Operation starts. Of course, the idea of the rafah crossing, a lot of complex details. Great reporting. Thank you for joining me tonight. Thank you. And here on capitol hill david axlerod, former advisor to president obama, and Adam Kinzinger, who represented Illinois In Congress for 12 years, cnn political commentators. Thank you for being here. What is happening here on the hill is tied to what is happening tonight in israel. David, i mean, the chaos here has consequences because we have been hearing from john kirby, the National Security council spokesman, who said they are running out of runway when it comes to appropriations for funding for israel and ukraine. Yeah. You would think this moment would bring some sobriety to this place and that the consequences would be obvious and that the political consequences of continued chaos here would be obvious. But there are people in this Republican Caucus who simply dont care. And i think thats dangerous for our country and its dangerous for the world. And by the way, im old enough to remember when Adam Kinzinger was in congress. Wasnt this bad when i was there. When did you leave . January . Yeah. And in those days when a caucus met an elected leader, then the caucus would close ranks behind the leader and that leader would become speaker of the house. Those days are gone. People are going, you know, we have nihilists in the Republican Caucus, and there is no end in sight here. You represented you worked in these halls. What do you make of what happened today. Its sad. What you have is typically we have people run for Leadership Positions and again, as david mentions, somebody would win, wed vote together because we have real work to do. What you are seeing is the terrorist caucus, the legislative terrorist caucus is continuing to do what they did they got rid of mccarthy. They are going to keep Steve Scalise from winning because jim jordan is behind this. He wants to be speaker, even though he lost the vote. The sad thing is ukraine is still occurring. We saw this incredible attack in israel right now. You still have taiwan. You still have north korea threatening south korea. And we have these little fiefdoms getting in little battles lets not forget we are five weeks away from a government shutdown. Yeah, 37 days. And influencing all of this, Donald Trump Endorsed jim jordan for speaker. Something he was advised against. He was speaking tonight and he sought to tie his claims about the election to what is happening in israel right now. This is what he said. And if the election wasnt rigged, there would be nobody even thinking about going into israel. The election was rigged, very sadly rig. Could i just say donald trump was actually one of the weakest Foreign Policy president s we have ever had. He says things like this would never happen if i was president. Remember what he did with Vladimir Putin. Lets remember what he did when Vladimir Putin attacked Eastern Ukraine again. He said this was brilliant. Iran attacked saudi oil fields. Donald trump did nothing. Iran shot down a drone the size of an airliner costing 200 million. Donald trump did nothing. Donald trump projected weakness with the exception of kiln soleimani, which was big. But for him to say this is because he is not president is not only jis wrong. He is totally incapable of rise to go a moment when we would love to have a former president show support for the current president as we are trying to unify against a common enemy of america. What do you say, david . Well, donald trump, when this catastrophe began, the thing you could be sure of was that it was only going to be a matter of seconds before trump would try to take political advantage of it and make grandiose claims like this that. Thats as predictable as the sun coming up in the morning. And i think, hopefully, people will see this. David axlerod, Adam Kinzinger, thank you for joining me. We have breaking news right after this. Nice footwork. Man, youre lucky, watching live sports never used to be this easy. 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