hello. i'm brianna keilar with boris sanchez, wolf blitzer is in tel aviv and we're tracking multiple developments in israel's war in hamas. rescue efforts under way following an israeli air strike, a strir strike the idf say was ordered to take out a hamas leader. >> reports are still coming in, dozens confirmed dead, many more injured. those numbers are expected to rise. officials in hamas controlled gaza say 0 h20 homes were destrd there. >> just moments ago, i spoke with an idf spokesperson who confirmed that israel was involved in the blast. listen to this. >> we'll be coming out in the next hour hopefully with more data. i can give you there was a senior hamas commander in that area. sadly he was hiding, again as they do, behind innocent civilians. that's all i can say. we'll be coming out with more and what happened there. >> can you confirm it was an israeli attack that destroyed a big chunk of the jabalia refugee camp? >> yes, i can. we were focused again on a target, a senior -- commander and we'll be updating you with more data as the hour moves ahead. >> let's get to cnn's international editor nic robertson. what are you learning about this latest incident inside gaza at that refugee camp? >> well, according to a doctor at a nearby hospital, he said he's seen hundreds of casualties, dead and injured, that they were so overwhelmed they were treating them in rooms on the floors, in corridors, just overwhelmed by the level or number of casualties he's receiving. this refugee camp, according to one of the principal u.n. agencies in gaza has a population of 110,000 people, densely populated area. one of the most densely populated parts of the gaza strip, the biggest refugee camp of the eight inside of gaza. this guest said the idf's point was they described this as a complicated battle space, the spokesman telling your they will get back with more data points, the possibility of tunnels in that area. the images show multiple impacts within this area that locally hamas controlled officials say destroyed 20 different noems that area. the image of devastation and the impact on the civilians in that area is huge. this is bound to continue to escalate the international calls for israel to get to a cease-fire, which the prime minister has said as recently as yesterday is not going to happen. for the idf this does seem to be a situation as they say they've taken ownership of it and now more explanation is required and they're working on it, wolf. >> they certainly are. i was at that jabalia refugee camp years ago, and i can confirm it's packed with people. very intense. i assume you've been there as well so you can confirm that as well. the israelis say they are trying to avoid civilian casualties in gaza, but this won't be an easy argument to make to the public, will it? israel is going to get severely kr criticized, i assume. >> it is. israel's position on this is that they are trying to avoid civilian casualties, that hamas, who they say hide behind the civilians, are responsible for the safety of civilians. this is why the idf has been dropping leaflets in the area in the north of gaza and the center of gaza saying that this is now a battlefield and that people should leave. journalist from al jazeera who lives in gaza city close to the jabalia refugee camp yesterday on air spoke about a husband in the family home where she was receiving a phone call from the idf saying that you need to move south. you need to get out of the area. it's unsafe. and he asked the person on the phone, well where do i go to do that, how do we do it? this is the question that many palestinians are facing at the moment. this is what we hear from others. they don't he know the safe roads to get out of gaza, and when this reporter's husband, she says, asked the idf how do we do it, the answer was, well, that's going to come from the local authorities. we can't tell you that. so, you know, while there are these warnings, the warnings are not apparently doing a lot to provide the gaza citizens with road maps, if you will, safe road maps. they're told there is a humanitarian safe zone in the south of the gaza strip, but what they're looking for is information that will get them there safely. times that they can get there safely, roads they can use safely, and that's information we're not aware that idf is able to communicate them or is trying to communicate to them. that's what makes the situation in gaza desperate. the civilians are hugely afraid of these huge strikes that are happening around them and that they're getting caught up in. but they don't know how to get physically to these safe places, for many of them at least. >> it's important. israel's military operations in gaza entering its fifth day, the new fphase, the ground incursio if you will. what do we know about what's happening on the ground there today? >> yeah. it's very hard to find out precisely what's happening inside gaza. the idf has announced it has had two fatalities so far, two first sergeants, both 20 years old, were killed as part of these operations. it's very hard to understand in a detailed way what's happening on the ground, but from where we are here in sderot and we've been further south along the border with gaza today it's the same there, you hear these sounds of artillery being fired into gaza at the moment. we were hearing particularly at dusk multiple rounds being fired into gaza where we were further south along the border and that seems to be the nature of the fight at the moment. the troops on the ground calling in strikes against what they describe as hamas strongholds. the artillery bringing fire power to bear on that. the civilians as we've seen today sometimes getting caught, sometimes feeling the brunt of that and caught up in it. but how -- what type of progress the troops on the ground are prague, how they're making that progress, how many troops are in there, how many tanks are in there and armored fighting vehicles hard to know. what i can say is what we saw this evening not far from the border with gaza as night was falling was another column of armored vehicles forming up. we don't know where they were going to go but for all intents and purposes looks like they were forming up to provide reinforcements for the troops already inside gaza, wolf. >> and nic, before i let you go, you're in sderot, not far from gaza in israel. what's it like where you are right now? are there still rockets or anything like that coming in to where you are? >> we took a rocket alarm here earlier today. dive, took cover, as people always do here. and there have been other reports of rockets fired out from gaza. but this location here, so close to the gaza strip, about a mile away where we are at here, yes, it's had rounds coming in. i have to say, though, compared to a week ago and two weeks ago, the number of rockets is way down. it's a couple of rockets at a time. you do back a few days and weeks, we were talking perhaps ten, perhaps a couple dozen further back. >> all right. nic, stay safe over there in sderot. nic robertson reporting for us. want to talk about israel's military operations in gaza. joining us now, retired u.s. army major general dana petard. first of all, what's your take on the israeli air strike hitting gaza's largest refugee camp earlier today? >> well good evening, wolf. very, very difficult and complex. i've been in a strike cell making that kind of a call against a high value target in a populated area. you know, israeli forces are extremely good. in something like this, sometimes it may call for tactical and operational patience. once you have a target then you track that target. you track him with your manned and unmanned ariel equipment and all sorts of systems and sensors. maybe that was the only shot they had and had to take it. it's a difficult call to do, but i've seen it where once we have that high value target, we're able to track that target to a location away from a populated area because they'll make a mistake at some point. let's remember, hamas has put the palestinian people in jeopardy by having leaders hide behind innocent civilians. >> is that what the u.s. would do if there was a target, say an al qaeda or isis target, a high commander in a very populated refugee camp with a lot of men, women, and children all over the place, would the u.s. do what the israelis clearly is it now? they've confirmed it. the idf spokesperson confirmed it just a little while ago, that this was an israeli operation targeting this hamas commander, but would the u.s. go and bomb a situation like that with a lot of civilians in the area even if there was a high value target there? >> i would think not, but it still depends on the target. it depends on how high up that target is, of course. but there's a difference also when you have u.s. aircraft, precision bombing, very, very good, in getting precision targets. but again, you try as hard as you can not to have any civilian casualties. so most likely that decision would be no, but it still depends on that target. if that's the only shot you have, you have to make a decision. >> and you think the u.s. would have made a similar decision or not? >> i think not because of, as i mentioned before, tactical and operational patience. the idea that once you have the target, you track the target with your different sensors and systems and wait for the target to move out of the populated area or into a spot where you can minimize casualties. >> those of us who have been to that jabalia refugee camp know it's packed, packed with people all over the place, innocent civilians, men, women, children, who are just there, stuck there, they really can't go anyplace else and so it's, obviously, a very, very difficult decision for any military to make, even if there's an extremely high value hamas target there, right? >> i agree, wolf, but remember, hamas leadership has put their own people in jeopardy trying to hide behind them in a densely populated refugee camp. >> yeah. awful situation. major general pittard, thank you for joining us. as the conflict in the middle east clearly intensifies, the rise in hate at home is intangible. there are new warnings about domestic threats against the jewish, muslim and arab american communities in the u.s. we'll have much more on that. that's's just aheaead. right now rescue efforts are under way following an israeli airstrike earlier in the day in gaza's largest refugee camp, a strike the idf says was ordered to try to take out a senior hamas commander. joining us now is michael oren served as israel's ambassador to the united states. ambassador, thank you so much for joining us. i want to ask you first of all about this blast at the jabalia refugee camp in gaza, gaza's largest refugee camp. an idf spokesperson a little while ago confirmed to us on cnn that it was an israeli air strike that caused this. he said israel hit the camp as it was targeting a senior hamas commander. there's likely, as you know, going to be huge worldwide backlash against israel because of this because of the dozens of civilians killed in the process. how do you see israel responding to this on a diplomatic level? >> first, wolf, good to be with you, and it's not good to hear about this. no one wants to hear or see innocent palestinians hurt suffer or killed. the state of israel is going to respond the way it has, it says these deaths are tragic, but not the fault of israel. israel's asked the and urged the civilian population to leave that area, to flee to the south, away from the battle area. we've had reports of hamas preventing the flight of civilians to safety, often at gunpoint. it's keeping great numbers of palestinian civilians at the hospitals and under those hospitals you know there are the headquarters of hamas. so these citizens should not have been there and if they're there around the headquarters of a hamas base, then the responsibility for those deaths lies solely waith hamas. >> but if that senior hamas commander, ambassador, was there in the midst of this heavily populated refugee camp, the largest palestinian jabalia refugee camp in gaza, even if he was there, is it wise for the israelis to go after this individual knowing in the process dozens of innocent palestinians, men, women, and children, would be killed? >> listen, i don't have all the details of this, no one does. i was just trying to look at the statistics about the number of people that were reportedly hurt or killed and they are vary widely according to numerous sources. arab or western sources. but having said that, we don't know whether this commander was alone or in a command center. if it's a command center that is directing hamas terrorists to shoot at our troops and kill our troops, then the israeli generals and commanders probably had very little choice but to make that call. >> move on to another sensitive issue. earlier today the u.s. secretary of state antony blinken gave senators in washington an update on the hundreds of americans who are still trapped in gaza right now. i want to play this clip. listen to this. >> we have about 400 american citizens and their family members, roughly 1,000 people, who are stuck in gaza and want to get out. i'm focused on this intensely. my entire department is as well, both in the region and here, working with parties to try to facilitate their departure from gaza. the impediment is simple, it's hamas. we've not found a way to get them out by whatever -- through whatever place and by whatever means that hamas is not blocking. we're working that with intermediaries. >> ambassador, what measures are not being done that should be done, to try to get those u.s. citizens, those americans, out of gaza right now? >> i think before answering that it bears saying, why is hamas being be an impediment, the same reason hamas is keeping civilians around the headquarters. human shields. having american citizens in many ways they're the ultimate human shields, the hostages as well. i think the best route that united stad business interest r to the qataris we want these. >> is there anything realistic that israel could do to help get these thousand americans out of gaza? could israel open up a border crossing allow them to come into israel and back to the united states from israel? >> it's a very good question and hard one. i spent a year and a half in my government in gaza and in charge of the border crossings. one of them during my time was knocked out. another border krozing erez has been knocked but by hamas during this fighting. the biggest border crossing the vineyard of peace, which was shelled and taken over by hamas terrorists. physically, i don't know how this could be done on oside of the border. the only place it could be done is at the egyptian crossing at rafah, i can understand why the egyptians would not want to coordinate with the united states on this. they're sensitive about letting one palestinian into sinai, but the united states has reference over eqequip as well. with us there's no place to cross and you can't ask israelis to risk their lives under fire to reopen one of the border crossings. >> ambassador oren, thanks for joining us. >> thank you, wolf. and we'll be right back with more news. you want to be able to provide your child with the tools or resources they need. with reliable internet at home, through the internet essentials program, the world opened up. fellas, fellas. that's how my son was able to find the hidden genius project. we wanted to give y'all the necessary skills to compete with the future. kevin's now part of this next generation of young people who feel they can thrive. ♪ ♪ . new york governor kathy hochul says law enforcement has taken into study a person of interest in the online anti-semitic threats over at cornell university in new york state. the individual is currently being questioned by state police. meanwhile, state troopers are camped outside the school's users threatened to shoot or attack jewish students at cornell university. religious-based hate crimes. >> jul former assistant secretary in the department of homeland security. julia, thanks for joining us go that are coming from, you know, phone calls or e-mails. i mean, basically treat this as a law enforcement effort to protect a minority community, jewish americans, rather than it's part of a larger discussion about the future of the middle east. it's not. it's harassing individuals because of their group identity. i think universities have been a little slow on this front to say the least. i think the second is probably less having to do with the government, and more having to do with leadership here in the united states from the jewish community from the muslim community and others, is understanding that they actually have a lot of common enemies and so their safety does come in solidarity, in particular as chris wray was saying, is right wing groups, foreign groups, russian incitement efforts, all live off of our divisions and take advantage of them. i think if we can understand that america's success is actually not in isolating along the same lines that exist in the middle east, that that can lower the temperature. first and foremost, this is not a political debate. this is a law enforcement issue. and prosecute people to the full extent of the law. lots of people will go away after that. >> given what's going on right now, can the safety of the american jewish community truly be guaranteed bywords, a threat environment is too high right now, and it has been high. it's not simply because of what's happening in the middle east. right wing extremists have focused often the jewish community's tree of life or just a couple days out of that anniversary, and so that community has always been a focus of a broad range of terror organizations, so i would never promise can the u.s. guarantee the safety. there are things that u.s. can do and also that communities can do. i mean, one is clearly the increased law enforcement effort and presence at these colleges and universities and synagogues and elsewhere, at least for the time being. the second is that the community also needs to take and has been much more cognizant of their -- of the threat environment, of calling in any threats, making sure they are utilizing the efforts of the united states government to protect themselves rather than feeling they're on their own. the third factor here is, obviously, there are also attacks against the muslim community for the same reason because it's a heightened threat environment and so focusing also on trying to lower the temperature here in the united states, whether it's political, religious or social leaders. i think a lot of this energy we see on campuses and others where it's antagonism we see on campuses and other is modeling off behavior we shouldn't tolerate in the united states. i will say one thing in terms of the threat environment for the jewish community at this stage, as i said, i would never promise safe everything is safe, but to modify your behavior baseding on t -- based on the threat environment now until when. students ask me should i do x, y, go to synagogue, i'm like until when? this is going to be, unfortunately, a very long war in the middle east. we anticipate. so part of our obligation as citizens as well is to continue onward vigilant, but schools, they've got to do a better job on this very sensitive issue, which is affecting schools and universities all over the country right now. julia, always good to speak with you. thank you very much. to our viewers stay with cnn. we'll be right back. we have more news. happening now on capitol hill, the senate is preparing to vote on the nomination of jack lew as the u.s. ambassador to israel. last week the senate foreign relations committee voted to advance his nomination, despite some republican opposition over his key role in the iran nuclear deal when lew served in the obama administration. let's take you now live to capitol hill with melanie zanona. melanie, this vote comes at a critical time with israel's war against hamas. what are we anticipating is going to happen when it hits the floor? >> boris, we are expecting jack lew to be confirmed and probably going to happen any minute here on capitol hill. this post, a high profile post, has been vacant since july. president biden nominated jack lew back in september, but the war has sped up the sense of urgency on capitol hill to get this done. now lew has a long history of serving in public service. he was a former treasury secretary, former white house chief of staff, and former director of the office of management and budget under the obama administration, but as you mentioned, he has faced some criticism from republicans for his role in the controversial iran nuclear deal in 2015. during lew's confirmation hearing some republicans grilled him on the decision to lift sanctions on iran as part of that deal. on the committee, though, all but one republican voted against lew. we are expecting to see some more republican opposition when this vote comes to the floor, but as a reminder they only need a simple majority in order to be able to confirm lew. democrats are expressing confidence that they're going to be able to get this done today at a critical moment. >> melanie zanona, keep us up to date with what happens. thanks so much. some troubling new revelations today about the good morning -- gunman in maine who killed 18. documents detail how as far back as may the shooter's ex-wife and son went to the sheriff's department to report their concerns over robert card's paranoid behavior. we know that officers in his army reserve unit shared similar concerns. in july card spent two weeks in a psychiatric facility. police did make an attempt to contact card in september. they visited his home, but they never made contact. at a press conference yesterday, cnn's shimon pro cue pez asked about the missed signs. >> we know that activity and information here was ignored. the simple answer why was that done and are you concerned about that? >> i think those kinds of facts are yet to be determined. you're making assumptions. >> all right. let's discuss this now with cnn's senior law enforcement analyst charles ramsey. charles, the governor would not answer that, but we have a lot more facts now based on these documents released to cnn by the county sheriff's office there. first off, they didn't ultimately make contact. how big of a failure was that and what should they have done even under difficult circumstances if this man did not want to make contact, to go ahead and do that? >> well, from what we know now, it was a huge failure to follow up in this particular case. you know, oftentimes when we're talking about the aftermath of a mass shooting and looking at the offender, there are flags there, but they're not always that clear before the incident took place. this is not the case here. i mean, you've got the military sending out warnings, you've got friends sending out warnings, family sending out warnings, you know, he spent two weeks in a mental health facility, it's flags all over the place, and it's unfortunate there wasn't follow-up. in september they visited the house twice. they weren't able to reach him. i guess the following day they reached his brother, and they had an alert out. but then they canceled the alert, even though they had not talked to him and got more information. this needs to be investigated, but it needs to be an independent investigation in order to really get at the facts to find out what took place so it doesn't happen again. >> they seem to -- they did make contact with the brother, and it seems that the family, based on reporting, was interested in intervene and trying to assure law enforcement, you know, that they would make sure he didn't have access to weapons. clearly that did not happen. how big of an oversight is that on the part of law enforcement relying on the assurances of family members and not actually doing the work to make sure he didn't have access to weapons? >> well, i mean, you have to do the work yourself. this isn't saying anything negative about the family, but family members, you know, it's hard to believe that someone who you know, someone whom you love, is capable of doing something like this. they know he had issues, but, you know, to think that he would actually carry out a mass shooting is probably something that they really didn't want to think about at all, so, you know, the thought that you would leave it all in their hands, to me, is not something you would do. as law enforcement, you've been notified, so you have to take action. you cannot delegate that to someone else, family or otherwise. >> charles, thank you so much for being with us. we appreciate your expertise on this. >> thank you. we're also following some breaking news out of the middle east. an israeli air strike hitting gaza's largest refugee camp. you can see the huge crater right there. so many people believed killed and injured at this point in time. that number expected to rise. our special coverage continuing after this short break. welcome back to cnn's special live coverage of israel at war. we're hearing new details from family members of loved ones who are believed to be held hostage by hamas in gaza. earlier i had the privilege to speak with the daughter of aviva and keith segal and the brother of keith segal. they have been missing since october 7th when hamas attacked israel. here's part of our conversation, which by the way was interrupted at one point by rocket fire over tel aviv where i am. watch this. >> we're joined now by elan, the daughter of eva and keith segal, joining us is lee segal, his brother is being -- we assume has been kidnapped and held in gaza, right? >> we have confirmation from the army from israel that my brother keith, u.s. citizen, 64 years old, is being held in gaza since three weeks ago. >> what about aviva. >> aviva as well, there were witnesses to her having been taken. there was a sighting of his car crossing the border and that's what we know, which is already more than three weeks ago, more than that we don't know. >> so how are you coping with this? >> we stay and hope. we stay together. we stay strong. we believe in the u.s. government and the israeli government and the whole world to do, everybody, their best efforts to bring all the hostages back home safely and quickly. >> and this is your mother? >> yeah. >> the picture you're showing us? >> yes. >> you miss her, obviously, terribly? >> yeah. >> but you still have hope? >> yeah. >> you still have hope too? >> we all have hope, and we have hope for good reason. we have hope because we know the united states government has made this a priority. keith being a united states citizen, i'm a united states citizen, elan and her siblings are united states citizens, my siblings in the united states are united states citizens, and the united states has a track record of bringing united states citizens held hostage home where they >> tell us about your mom and dad. >> so, my mom is a kindergarten teacher. >> hold on. >> this is considered a local siren, right? have you had that before? >> yeah. we had multiple. >> i mean -- >> we'll be back. >> all right. we had an interruption, understandable interruption. you guys heard what was going on. you saw the rockets coming in. you saw the iron dome intercept and everybody was told to go to a shelter, which obviously we all did. and now, we're back. this is your mother. >> i was saying she was a kind garden teacher. loves her work. loves the kids. the kids ask her daily where she is. why she is not coming back. and all of the parents are praying for her to come back. she loves her job, loves life, loves the simple things, the ocean and the nature. mostly, she loves her family. >> tell us about your brother. >> my brother is a very giving human being. my brother is always looking to the next person to help. he's helped with the elderly. he's worked with children. he works in pharmaceutical field. he's trying to push every available resource that he has, of the good health of everyone around. in israel and internationally. grew up in chapel hill, north carolina. he's a southern boy. when he and aviva are back and he needs to say hello, he will be able to talk to him, interact with him and see what a gentle person he is. >> what was the last message you got from your parents? >> it was that saturday. october 7th. it started early, around 7:30 in the morning when we heard from the news there were a lot of rockets in the area, gaza, near the settlements. and they were telling us that we shouldn't call them because they need to stay quiet. and they can only text us. they text they were okay. they locked the door of the house. and they are waiting for the idf, soldiers to rescue them from the shelter. a few hours after that, we didn't hear from them anymore. but they kept telling us they're okay. and we shouldn't worry and they will be okay. >> what was the last message you got? >> similar experience. we were awoken to rockets, that saturday morning, october 7th. and immediately try to communicate with if they are at home in the south, what they did with their children and grandchildren in the north. they are at home. as elan said, they are in the safe room, and are locked in. and meanwhile, things are all right. too quickly, we lost communication. and it took a number of days before the army was able to announce that yes, indeed, they were taken hostage. >> did you ever think anything like this could happen in your life? >> i never thought about this. not my immediate family. there's no vocabulary to bring the right words that we're feeling. >> your mother, your parents. let's hope the next time you get together, they will be with us, as well. good luck to both of yu. good luck to the families. good luck to all of the families of the hostages being held by hamas. >> thank you so much. >> thank you. >> thank you, wolf. >> as this israel/hamas war intensifies, blood banks are certainly vital. i visited what is believed to be the only shielded underground blood bank in the world. the marcus national blood services center, is just outside of tel aviv and features three levels underground that are designed to resist a chemical attack, a poisonous gas attack or biological attack. watch this. >> the idea of this place is because we are now actually in a shelter. >> this presumably would be a major target for israel's enemies. >> absolutely. >> we were concerned about the people and the blood. in the case of siren, rocket attacks, we're all protected. it's a shelter. >> you can see more from my visit. that's coming up later tonight in "the situation room" live from 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