Thanks for joining us. Im dana bash in washington. And im sara sidner in tel aviv with cnns breaking News Coverage of israel at war. A complete catastrophe, that is how one official is describing conditions in gaza today. The situation there is becoming more dire by the minute as Tens Of Thousands of innocent civilians are fleeing their homes in response to the barrage of attacks from israel from the sky. Gaza is running out of food and clean Drinking Water after being cut off by israel. Today israel claims to have turned the water back on in Southern Gaza, but palestinians say they come in the confirm the supply due to lack of electricity at the water stations. Israel is now working on setting up a humanitarian safe zone in Southern Gaza so when evacuees get there, they will have access to food, water and any other assistance that they might need. Antony blinken says that the Rafah Crossing in the south of gaza will be open later today. Weve seen a surge of people trying to get out of gaza at that crossing in the last few days. It is the only border point out of gaza that is not controlled by israel. Tony blinken met with egyptian officials this morning discussing letting americans out. Israels president says they are preparing for a ground operation. The plan is to uproot hamas infrastructure of terror and, quote, get the mob out. This is what the israeli president told wolf blitzer when they spoke just moments ago. They talked about in a Ground Incursion and also hezbollah sending rockets from lebanon in the north of israel. When asked about what israel was doing to bring the more than 100 hostages home, this is what he said. So let first understand what type of hostages. Who are these hostages. Babies, pregnant women, elderly people with dementia, even with their caretakers, families, innocent civilians from 36 nations. People were killed or abducted from 36 nations. Oka okay . There is natalie from chicago who came with her mother to spend the weekend of a holiday in a kibbutz on the border. And incidentally kibbutz advocating peace all throughout its history. And shes there in gaza. Nobody knows her whereabouts. And so many other americans and so many other people. And not knowing their whereabouts is hell. Actually this Paradise Place turned in to hell. And it is our obligation to move it from being hell to back to being paradise. And part of it is to bring back the hostages immediately with no conditions back to israel. There is incidentally a Big International effort on that respect and i must say that the American Administration and President Biden has been incredibly supportive and we are utterly grateful to him, the american nation, and all our friends and supporters throughout the world. There are so many things happening on so many different fronts here, dana. People are terrified about what is to come because rockets keep coming over. And of course in gaza, you have a similar feeling where airstrikes have been happening but the Ground Offensive is a whole different thing. It is going to be i think the likes of something we have never seen before. Meantime israel is also exchanging fire along its northern border with hezbollah. The militant group sent several rockets across the border this morning and the idf quickly responded with its own strikes targeting hezbollahs military infrastructure. Ben wedeman is joining us again from southern lebanon. Youve been there is a couple days now. Anything new that you are learning at this hour . I know that it is getting late and very dark there. Reporter what weve seen is that over the last two days, there has been a dramatic increase in the amount of Cross Border Fire between hezbollah and israel. Not only hezbollah, but the Military Wing of hamas, its men based here in south lebanon. They seemed a focus on its surveillance and communications and observation positions. They also hit some communities as well according to the israeli medical authorities. One man 40 years old killed and several others were injured in one of those strikes. Now, in the afternoon, there was a solely of rockets fired in to israel, but it turns out that was not hezbollah, it was hamas Military Wing. Those rockets were intercepted by the iron dome system. But as a result of all of this Cross Border Fire, a four kilometer deep closed Military Zone has been declared on the israeli side of the border. Also struck was the interim force known asunifil. I spoke to a spokesman and they said one rocket hit close to the helipad. They are still trying to figure out where the rocket was fired from. Ben wedeman, thank you so much for all your reporting there. Youve been in this region for decades. And i know that you know like the back of your hand. Secretary of state Antony Blinken is extending his Middle Eastern tour and will return to israel on monday. Unprecedented really. He met with the egyptian president today to ensure americans will be able to cross the Rafah Border Out of gaza. That is gazas southern border. And to ensure International Aid can get into gaza. Zachary cohen is joining us now. Reporter and in addition to promising the key Border Crossing will be open, blinken emerged from the meeting saying that the two companies shared the same goals of both preventing an escalation and also making sure that aid gets to civilians inside gaza. That has been a takeaway from all of blinkens various meetings. He plans to go back to israel after he finishes his last round of trips. But it was interesting because while he reaffirmed u. S. Support for israel, after the meeting with the egyptian president he also had an interesting message for the Israel Policeis how the out the next phase of the war. Take a listen. The way that israel does this matters. Needs to do it in a way that affirms the shared values that we have for human life and human dignity. Taking every possible precaution to avoid harming civilians. Reporter so while he reaffirmed u. S. Support for israel, maybe a word of caution or urging of constraints there from the Secretary Of State. Thank you for that. John kirby also talked this morning about the u. S. Plan to get the american hostages out of gaza. I mean, this is a very tricky and intricate situation not just for the american hostages, but for all of the hostages that have been taken into gaza. At this point nobody has heard anything, none of the families have heard anything about their loved ones. There is a lot of concern here in israel and i know in other countries where people are from. What is the plan right now . Absolutely. The focus of the administration seems to be on trying to talk with the third Party Countries and see if they can figure out a way to identify and rescue some of the hostages that have been taken. But john kirby did not rule out a scenario where there could be american boots on the ground if the opportunity was right to rescue some of the hostages. Take a listen to what he said earlier today when pressed on the issue of hostages. There are noen prac plans or intentions to put troops on the ground. We are actively trying to go find out where the hostages are. We dont even know how many exactly. A small handful we know, but there could be more than we know. What i wont do is rule anything in or out when it comes to getting our hostages home. Were working on this literally by the hour. So you see the full weight of american diplomacy and the military effort with the groups focused on the issue an broad. But Christopher Wray also talking at a reference with Police Commissioners in san diego today, he is acknowledging that they have seen an uptick in threats since the attack by hamas. And he is warning the Police Commissioners that they should be vigilant that lone actor could carry out a similar act of violence here in the United States. So the administration focused broad and here at home in the aftermath of the hamas attack. Zachary cohen, with all those details for us, appreciate you. And joining me now is Senior National security analyst julia kiam and also columnist josh ro rogin. Juliet, ill start with you about what we heard from john kirby. And the notion of not ruling outputting u. S. Troop on the ground to get american hostages out. I think that it is important to just underscore the other part of what he said, which is the u. S. Doesnt apparently even know how many. No. Oond and we have no indicati that the u. S. Or israel knows where any of them is right now. Thats right. People focus on extracting the u. S. Hostages or any hostages for that matter. To extract them requires that you know where they are. And given the fact let me put it clearly. I am conceding that there is a lot going on that neither you or i know. But chances are we do not know where a lot of the hostages are. And so therefore you cant even plant a mission to extract them, but it is possible that conversations are going on and which may be that we can get some if not all of these u. S. Hostages. I think that the second thing that is working against us and working against the hostages is that it is absolutely clear now that Israeli Intelligence because not as sophisticated or as strong as we had thought. They were clearly surprised by this attack or did not take into account some of the intelligence that they may have been getting from foreign governments including us about the potential for a big attack. So we have this idea that sort of israel always knows what is going on or knows what it is doing but in fact we have evidence that suggests otherwise. Yes, we do. Very brutal and horrible evidence. Josh, we have you here now. You are extremely well source everywhere. I want to ask you about what you are hearing about the Secretary Of State and how his diplomacy is going in the region. He of course started in israel but he has been in several arab countries including egypt. What are you learning about how successful his tour has been . He has a lot of different goals but let me start with one which is getting the Palestinian Civilians giving them Safe Passage Out Of Gaza before the ground war starts. Right. So as you mentioned, there is a lot of things going on at one time and Antony Blinken has been dealing with all of them and they all are centered in different places. When he was in qatar, that was mostly focused on figuring out how to get up to 15 u. S. Hostages released by hamas. That is 15 missing americans. Not all of them may be hostages but qataris are probably the best situated to work on that problem. The egyptians are working on the problem of getting 500 to 600 palestinian americans out of gaza. And there was this crazy story from yesterday where they thought they had a window of five hours where american citizens were told to go to the Rafah Crossing and couldnt get through. And so if you saw the interview with jake tapper, he blamed it on hamas. And egyptians are blaming it on the israelis because it is tied to the issue of how to get palestinians out and how to get aid in. So without security you cant get humanitarian aid in and without humanitarian aid in, you cant get people out. So kind of like four dimensional chess and blinken has to fly to different places do. I dont think you need secret sources to know that he would have succeeded because if he had succeeded we would have heard about it. So you dont need to read the tea leaves here. None of these problems are solved but he is working on all of them all at once. Incredibly difficult. And juliet, you heard josh talking about in Difficult Mission that tony blinken is on right now. One of the things that weve heard from not only israelis but also fleleaders from hamas tell Palestinian Civilians not to leave. And so weve heard it with our own ears that the mixed messages that these civilians who are just trying to make sure that their families live another day are getting both from their Leaders Quote Unquote In The Palestinian in gaza i should say and of course israelis saying get out because were going to we want you to be in a safe area. Yeah, and for the palestinians, obviously the innocent palestinians, neither party, the israelis or hamas, are very reliable to them even though the israeli messages is exactly correct at this stage. This is the challenge for blinken that josh was talking about, that he is in israel and this is true of the secretary of defense too, our full support of what israel what israel encountered and israel specifically. But then you travel to the arab countries or secretary austin got on 60 minutes and begin to temper that and begin to say essentially because of what is likely to happen to the palestinians if they are not able to get out or to evacuate, there is some tempering going on. So you hear Secretary Blinken sort of with both messages and in different places because of course what you dont want is you do not want hamas to have a send cond narrative. Their first is that they want to get rid of israel which was last saturday, but the second of course that they are willing to kill innocent palestinians. And that is the kind of country they are. So they are dealing with a very difficult situation. Everyone is a wear it is a humanitarian crisis. No one is behaving well for the palestinians. I only half buy the egyptian excuse of blaming hamas in terms of palestinians getting out and blinken has to sort of try to thread a very, very narrow needle. No question. Josh, what else are you hearing and what is the most important focus we should have right now as we watch suspended animation in many ways . Sure. Yeah there, are signs that pressure from the United States is having some impact on israeli decision making. The decision to turn back on the water apparently was made in a phone call between President Biden and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. So that just goes to show you that the u. S. Government is working on these things behind the scenes. But they dont like to talk about it in public because they dont think it is helpful. I think the most important thing that they will look at is that northern border. We have a second u. S. Aircraft carrier headed there. That is a lot of fighter power and that is meant to deter hezbollah from joining this fight. If that happen, all bets are off. It will make the current war in gaza look like only the beginning. So lets hope that that all can be avoided. Well, sara sidner was reporting with ben wedeman, there are some skirmish, people have died, but nothing along the lines of what hezbollah is capable of. Exactly. And yes, lets hope that they are heeding that call in southern lebanon. Juliet and josh, thank you so much for your expertise. Appreciate it. And still ahead as we were just talking about, there is a lot of frustration and it is growing stronger at the egypt gaza border. Americans are trying to flee at the Rafah Crossing. The u. S. Says hamas has been stopping them from leaving gaza. Even though egypt claims that the citizens can leave. Well talk more about that next. Right now, the u. S. Is moving a second Carrier Strike group into the middle east, into that area, in the mediterranean. And the presence now of two of the u. S. Navy most powerful warships is meant of course to send a message generally in the region, but most specifically to iran and its proxies, do not get involved. There is no guarantee about what happens with the u. S. Troops though in the near future. S sfwh. We have specially trained warriors whose main mission is to rescue american hostages. Of course it has to be made based on the intelligence but it should never be ruled out that american soldiers will save american lives. This is the worst attack on jews since the holocaust but also one of the worst Terrorist Attacks on the American People in recent times as well. Joining me now is military analyst general wesley clark. First i want to talk to you about what is going on at the border, but before that, can you just talk about the significance of the two very important u. S. Naval carriers going into the region . Sure. The two carriers and flotillas that go with them, you have tremendous capacity for not only the aircraft, but the escorts and what they can do in the way of Tomahawk Missiles and other things. And so they are there as a warning, they are there as a deterrent to iran. It is keep your hands off, stay out of it, ors else. Because the general thinking is that hezbollah wont go in without iran saying go ahead. This ties iran directly into the assault. On the other hand you can be sure that iran is watching this, they are calculating and that they could get bogged down and be tarnished in World Opinion that they could justify releasing hezbollah and go for the finish of israel. There is going to be that kind of thinking going on in tie ran. And those Aircraft Carriers are very important. And you say it is a deterrent. We have heard this morning in sbn veer us interviews not riling out the u. S. Being involved. I think it is important to put that into context. It doesnt seem as though the u. S. Will get involved in a very active way with u. S. Troops in this conflict. The discussion is about how to get american hostages out. And american civilian, but mostly the american hostages that the point. And im sure that we have a joint plan going on with the israelis if we can locate the hostages, if they can put in an extraction mission, sure wed work with the israelis do that. But there is also the possibility of those u. S. Forces in the north actually having to engage should hezbollah decide as to launch its 150,000 rockets against israel. An iran should be under no illusion, those ships are not just there for show. Those ships are ready go and on the president s order, they could go. So as President Biden said, were 100 committed to israel. And i want to get your perspective on what is happening inside gaza. The idea that according to the white house hamas is the ones that stopped americans from getting into egypt via the rafah Border Crossing. Were talking about palestinians excuse me, in this case about americans who are inside gaza. These are civilianses. What does it tell you, first of all, that the crossing was closed and what is your sense of why this really happened . And were showing our viewers a man of the area were talking about now. And i think that hamas always looked at this as a two phased operation. First is show how powerful you are and then fall back into gaza and use the civilian population as a shield and then attack israel on the stage of World Opinion and cause israel to look like an evil force that is antihumanitarian. And what is happening right now is that hamas is losing the second phase already before the fighting has even started because the people there are getting out of the way. Hamas may be trying to keep them in position, but hamas is failing to do that. They are evacuating the Northern Area despite hamas road blocks, a big explosion we saw yesterday. Id be very surprised if that was an israeli explosion on a main evacuation route. That looks like something engineered by hamas to intimidate its own people. Their view is that those people are human shields, they are coll collateral. They are interested in the destruction of israel and so the poor people in gaza as the president said, they are not all hamas. There are a lot of innocent people in there. They need to be protected too and the United States and israel are doing the best they can to do that. But at the same time hamas needs to be eliminated and that is what the israeli objective is eventually. But in this phase, it is already under way hamas is losing control of the population. And that is a huge loss for hamas. Just to underscore, were out of time, but just to underscore what you said, that hamas which is supposed to be the leadership of gaza is trying to prevent innocent civilians from getting out of harms way, getting out of a warzone because they think that it helps them in the propaganda war. Really important to talk about the difference there. General wesley clark, thank you so much. Appreciate you coming on. And still to come, as israel prepares for the, quote, next stages of war, well hear from an Israeli American who traveled from chicago after last saturdays attack to serve on the front lines. Stay with us. Is it possible my network could take my business to the next level . It is with comcast business. Powering all your devices with gigspeed wifi. And you get fast downloads and uploads. Pick it up pick it up oh we got this because its powered by The Next Generation 10g network. More speed for your business . Its not just possible. Its happening. Get started for 59. 99 a month for 12 months. Plus, ask how to get an 800 prepaid card with a qualifying internet bundle. Comcast business, powering possibilities. Right now a Ground Offensive could be imminent, israel says it has prepared for a new phase of the war. Today u. S. Secretary of state Antony Blinken promised that the Rafah Crossing will open providing a possible opportunity for evacuating civilians in gaza before that Israeli Ground invasion. Still unknown when that invasion will actually happen. And if enough Palestinian Civilians who want to get out will be able to. A place where about 50 of the population is under the age of 18. Children. And even with no Ground Invasion yet, the airstrikes have been crushing. Survivors are reeling. Listen. Translator we are in here witnessing strikes using f16 without prior warning. We were running and found the house on fire and charred. There were people alive and we rescued them quickly, but there were people still under the rubble. Until now, there are three families under this house. A large number were martyred and there remain as large number, but martyrs under the rubble. Translator god willing they are all in family. All my family will be in heaven. They gave their life for jerusalem, for palestinian, for palestinian, they were all women, all children, children, children, children. Really difficult to hear. I do want to tell you in the last few sendconds while that w going, we heard two massive booms. Those booms sound exactly like what airstrikes sound like in gaza. We have not had any Air Raid Sirens here, so that is likely what it is. But here on this side of the border, i is for an idf Army Reservist who is from chicago, he flew into israel after the Surprise Attack to serve on the frontlines. I woke up in chicago to the news of what had happened, i actually learned early that morning that my partner from the army, from smir advmy service, been killed in battle. And i think all the real message is that every jew is connected to each other somehow. And so while many people around the world, many jews around the world that may not specifically know people that were killed like me, it struck everyone to their core. And everyone has a responsibility in them to do as much as they can in order to make sure that this can never happen again. What we saw saturday morning was the closest thing to the holocaust that weve seen in 80 years. And so like i said, closest thing to the holocaust weve seen in 80 years. And that slogan of never again, it wasnt a suggestion. It is something that we intend to act on. And you are seeing a lot of people coming in from other parts of the country who have served before in the army and are back because they want to fight for israel. Lets talk more now with aaron david miller, former middle east negotiator at the State Department and now a Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for international peace. You know this region like the back of your hand and watching everything. Time is of the essence when it comes to the civilians in gaza to try to get to safety. They have been told by israel to evacuate. The u. N. Says that is impossible to evacuate one million plus people, half of the population of the very densely populated area. What do you know about the Israeli Military Ground Offensive at this point in time . Do you have any sense that were getting closer to a possible Ground Incursion . There have been two fac factors actually three factors, maybe four, that influence israeli thinking. One is the issue of hostages. It is a cruel dilemma for the israelis. Their commitment to figuring out a way to eradicate hamas at least in a Military Capacity in the wake of the october 7 terror outrage. And then you have the problem of civilians. 1. 1 million in gaza city. You cant evacuate 1. 1 Million People in 24 days less alone 24 hours. And then you have the weather which is always not recognized, but a critical factor in terms of cloud cover would retard israeli operations. And then the final issue of what is the objective. Im sure there has been extraordinary debate within the war cabinet over how extensive, how broad, how deep, what the objective is. But i suspect because of what happened on october 7 all these other constraints will fade away. Israelis i think are faced with a monumental challenge in terms of why they need to do this. In large part because the governments responsibility to protect their citizenry is critically important. And what happened on october 7 not only is an intelligence failure, it is a failure of confidence, a crisis of confidence in the capacity of the government of israel to protect its citizens. I think many israelis feel that now. And so it is coming. I would think within days. You know, im curious because you talk about coming in days, a lot of people were looking at the timing of telling the residents of gaza to evacuate within 24 hours. That was thursday. We are now at sunday. And so were marching ever closer, but Secretary Of State Antony Blinken is back in the region. And so do you think that that will have any kind of a decision for israel to make that when the u. S. Officials are here, would they go forward with an incursion like this or would they wait to see if negotiations for example for trying to get some of the palestinians out of gaza, would they wait for that and hold off on a Ground Invasion . Antony blinken, i realize the optics of launching a Ground Campaign with the Secretary Of State still in the region. But whether it is 24 hours, 48 hour, whether it is by next week, the fact is that it is coming. And i think that weve been in a long Dark Donetunnel since octo7 and we have a long way to go before we emerge. Lets hope somehow with respect to the day after that in fact like many crises in this region evolving an extraordinary amount of pain in large measure to civilians, lets hope by the end when we emerge that there will be some opportunity, some prospect for turning that extraordinary amount of pain into gain. Because there is going to be an end. And palestinians will still grapple with the basic proximity problem. Their futures are linked together. Neither side is going anywhere and there is no Military Solution to this problem. There may in fact be a Military Solution to the issue of addressing hamas military gaza. Israelis and palestinians and their children i would hope soon will have to garoppolgrapple wi. And hamas is not the only group in gaza that targets israel. You have Islamic Jihad there as well. But a much Smaller Group and they are certainly not in any Power Position in gaza. Aaron david miller, thank you so much for your insight. Always very, very good. Now, getting a sense of how americans feel about the war in israel. And the response to hamas attacks. Up next well discuss what they think of President Bidens handling of the situation and what the u. S. Needs to do on their end. That is ahead. New cnn poll released today gives a read on how americans are feeling about what is going on in israel. Overall, most see israels military response to the attacks as justified. But the crisis, which is ongoing, is sparking debate among republican president ial candidates in the u. S. This morning in an interview on State Of The Union with jake tapper, nikki haley responded to ron desantis commanding on the fact that he believes that the u. S. Should not accept refugees from gaza. You have to realize that whether were talking about Gaza St Sgazans and palestinians, half the time when i was there they didnt want to be unq qder hama rule. They knew they were living a terrible life because of hamas. Lets talk about it with republican strategist doug. It is really striking to me that right now there is such overwhelming support for israel and for what israel is doing. And i think that we can put on the screen some of the numbers that were talking about here. We have you see that it says israels governments military response to hamas is fully justified at 50 . Given the divide in america, maybe it is not surprising or it is surprising that it is only 50 . But 20 partially justified. 8 not justified at all. And 21 not sure. Just knowing what you know about kind of the american electorate, what does it tell you about the fact that half say that what israel is doing is justified in their response to this Terror Attack on their soil . Well, if im a republican candidate or frankly a member of the israeli government, i look at the number is 70 backing what israel is doing right now, backing their and we have that. Lets put that up. Keep going. And that is significant because it tells us that the American People at this point are firmly behind israel. They have seen the atrocities in this Terrorist Attack and they expect and support israel to th. What we dont know is as this progresses will those numbers hold, but right now this is exactly where israel should want to be and for the republican candidates i think they should be mindful that this is a moment to lead, whether youre ron desantis or nikki haley, youre going to have different opinions, thats fine. Remember, though, that one person has stood out pretty strongly in this and thats donald trump with his rhetoric specifically targeting Benjamin Netanyahu and the israeli government. This nomination doesnt go through ron desantis or nikki haley, it goes through donald trump. This is your time to lead and take him on on Foreign Policy where trump did have some successes as president. Yeah, and just so you know we are putting up what you were just referring to. This to me is maybe the most striking of the numbers that we saw out of cnns poll this morning and the question is whether or not the that sentiment is going to stay where it is. It is very, very tricky and weve seen things shift when it comes to a public sentiment very quickly in the past. I want to because i have you here, we cannot forget the fact that in america there is no House Speaker and you worked in the House Leadership, republican leadership, for several years, you are still in touch with people who are there. At this moment there is a nominee and that is jim jordan of ohio, and the question going into this week is whether or not he is going to suffer the same fate as steve scalise, which is being elected by his fellow republicans, but not being able to get a Majority Vote on the house floor, which is what one needs to be speaker of the house. What are you hearing . Well, i just saw about 30 minutes ago jim jordan tweeted out that what unites us as republicans were much closer than where we are with democrats. You know, dana, how many times did you hear eric cantor or john boehner say that same thing when a group of Congressional Republicans often led or partially led by jim jordan said actually were still too divided in our own party. Jordan is trying to run as a uniter right now, its a different tact and a different tone from him. Clearly he has a majority of the majority, but he is still far short of where he needs to be to get to 218 on the floor. What you usually do in House Leadership is you dont take anything to the floor unless you know that youve got the votes to win, whether thats a vote on a rule or a vote on a bill or certainly a vote on the speaker. Jordan would be testing that, but very clearly he wants to call out members and see who is on which side. One thing you know very well because you interview these people every day is we often hear this is the time when house moderates and republican moderates are going to start flexing their muscles and then we learn that republican moderates not only cant flex their muscles, they dont know where the gym s this is going to be a gut check moment for them. Are they going to stand behind what they said or support jim jordan as speaker. I would tell you taking this to the floor and losing would put House Republicans in an even worse situation than they are in now, if thats possible. And gym, gym not jim, jim. Unfortunately we are out of town. I want to note that these two issues are very much related what is happening in israel and the paralysis in the House Of Representatives because they cant do anything when it comes to what israel is asking for, even just a resolution without a speaker of the house. Dana, thats the point. These arent parlor games within a republican conference or house caucus, there are real implications here. Well said. Doug, thank you for being here. Were going to check back in with cnns sara sidner in tel aviv in a moment. We will be right back. Rs time to win is running out in our prize packed kick off the savings Monopoly Game hurry in to play for your chance at over 25 million in prizes and money saving offers like this, and this, or even this. Plus, you still have a shot at up to 100,000 in guaranteed prize money. Stop in while you can still win and shop your Favorite Brands sporting the kick off the Savings Monopoly Tag for unlimited bonus game tickets at lucky and we continue to follow developments out of the middle east as we are seeing the Death Toll Rise as israel continues to respond to the Terror Attack that hamas conducted eight years ago excuse me, eight days ago inside of israel. We are going to talk to sara sidner in just a moment. We are going to take a quick break. Dont go anywhere. Oh, forgive me. This is Live Television and we have a correspondent and anchor in a war zone, so thank you to the audience for bearing with us. Sara, im glad that we have you back because i really wanted to talk to you on tv what you and i have talked about offline, which is you were trreporting and anchoring about this for nearly a week in the studio in new york and now you are actually there, and the difference that you feel as a reporter actually being on the ground. Yeah, i think there is a couple of things. Because i used to live in jerusalem and work for cnn back in 2012 and 13, and because i was in new york before this covering this incursion, this Surprise Attack from hamas and then the Declaration Of War back in the studio, im of two minds because in the studio you feel completely helpless to sort of watch whats happening and not be able to talk to people and console people and let them tell their stories in a way that is very personal. It is a little less personal when its a zoom call and when, you know, youre doing things from afar. When you show up here you get the real sense of what it feels like, which is hard to share with an audience who is watching this on a screen, and you get a sense of what the place really is like on a regular basis because usually war happens in pockets, right . It happens there are, you know, air strikes in gaza, there are missiles coming over in one part of israel but the rest of israel is not experiencing that same thing. What i noticed here is just having that contact with people and being able to, you know, hug someone, hold someones hand, talk through it, those members who have Family Members who have hostages that are in gaza, you feel like you are at least making a different kind of connection than when you are separated. Really, i mean, helpless is the word, i think, that came to my mind. Helpless not being able to be, for example, in gaza to try and understand and talk to people there, where you are at least sharing the story of those going through this trauma, but being here is very different and i will tell you that it is so quiet here, it is eerily quiet, this is not normal. Tel aviv is usually a bustling fun place, dana. It sure s thank you so much for that important perspective, sara. Sara and i will both be back to talk about this and much more in a minute. Stay with us