Moments ago Secretary Blinken speaking about the horrifying photos he was shown by the Prime Minister in netanyahus office today of babies who were murdered and burned. Its hard to find the right words. Its beyond what anyone would ever want to imagine, much less actually see and god forbid experience. A baby, an infant riddled with bullets. Soldiers beheaded, young people burned alive in their cars or in their hideaway rooms. I could go on, but its simply depravity in the worst imaginable way. And the secretary confirming that in addition to traveling to jordan and meeting with palestinians there, the president of the Palestinian Authority and king of jordan, he will also travel to Qatar A Country that in the past has been able to influence hamas to the uae, to egypt and to saudi arabia. Its our determination and that of israel as well that there not be a second front or a third front, and we are working as hard as we can, working with other partners in the region to try to ensure that thats the case. Qatar and some of these other countries are also thought to have influence with hamas and they would be involved in israeli and u. S. Efforts to try to negotiate the release of american and other hostages. The number of hostages is now at least 150, including americans. An israeli Spokesman Says the location of some hostages has now been identified. And the stakes are rising even higher this hour and every hour that House Republicans are struggling to find a new speaker as Congress Faces questions over how to respond to the israeli, hamas war as well as ukraine, and other priorities. Right now lawmakers are huddling Behind Closed Doors attempting to find 217 votes for one of them to take the gavel. Joining us now from tel aviv, Josh Lederman whos been speaking with distraught israeli families, families of Hostage Victims and others. So glad youre there. Tell us what theyre telling you. Reporter well, andrea, this was expected to be a fairly brief meeting that Secretary Blinken would have with these families of americans who are now believed to be held hostage in gaza strip, but we are told that Secretary Blinken spent about 40 minutes with them. He heard one by one from them, their families stories about what they know about their loved ones. As he tried to explain with whatever level of detail he can right now what the u. S. Government is trying to do along with their israeli counterparts to bring them home. We heard from one woman, abby ahn who has five relatives held hostage in gaza. They were apparently captured by Hamas Terrorists, ranging from an 80yearold woman with a Heart Problem to a 13yearold with special needs. Almost to a tee, all of the americans that we heard from today said that they left this meeting convinced that the u. S. Is doing everything within its power, which is a limited power right now, of course, to try to bring them home. They said Secretary Blinken did not give them a whole lot of detail about whats taking place behind the scenes with the israelis, the egyptians, the qataris and others due to the sensitivity of that, but they came away very convinced that no stone is being left unturned. I want you to hear from one of these americans, ruby chen, his 19yearold son is serving in the Israeli Military, was serving on the israeli side of the border with the gaza strip now believed to be inside gaza, and he told me what he knows about where his son is right now and what blinken said about efforts to bring him home. Take a listen. After 90 hours of fighting in the state of israel, i think israel has found most of the citizens that were left in the field, so it could be reasonable work assumption that he is not in the state of israel as we speak. The Secretary Of State, of course, cannot go into details exactly what they are doing, but it sounds like they have been turning every corner and to find ways to make this end as soon as possible. Reporter and andrea, i also asked these families what their message is to israels government about whether it should carry on with potentially impending major Ground Incursion into the gaza strip while they have relative who is are ostensibly in gaza. They said this is a dilemma. They dont know exactly how the u. S. Government or the Israeli Government should approach that, but they want to see israel do everything it can to bring them home safely. Josh lederman, thank you so much. Back with us again this hour is ali velshi in ashkelon, israel, north of the gaza strip. What do we know about the leaflets that the Defense Forces are dropping in gaza . Are they telling people to get out . Reporter yeah, so theres two things going on. One is theres no electricity. Theres no internet, very sketchy internet. If you have power, to be able to power up the internet, so communications are largely down in gaza. For two reasons, one is for real humanitarian reasons to warn people theres bombing coming. This isnt at the Ground Incursion. This is about the air raids and missiles coming in from the sea, to warn people in those areas and in response to the fact that hamas had said if you fire on anyones home without warning, theyll kill one hostage for every home that is hit. It is believed that there are leaflets dropped by israeli jets into particular areas, written in arabic which are warning people that there is going to be an attack on the area and that they should try and get out. Right now about 300,000 people are outside of their homes, in some cases its because their homes have been hit or have been bombed. In other cases, its because theyre getting out in preparation or anticipation of their places getting bombed or the Ground Offensive. These leaflets are warnings about missile incoming missiles, not about the Ground Invasion. Obviously thats a very different story given the size of gaza. If the Ground Invasion comes in, im not sure how much use leaflets are going to be. Right now those people cant get anywhere. Secretary blinken was asked about a humanitarian corridor or things to do. His answer was indistinct. He said were working on that to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe but theres one unfolding right behind us, andrea. Very briefly, theres no place they can go. For many of them theres no exit, the Border Crossing has been up and down. Correct. Reporter theres some talk of Nebulous Negotiations with egypt about what to do, for the moment nobody can get out of gaza. Ali velshi, thanks so much. Joining us now retired admiral james stavridis. Secretary blinken made it clear this morning with netanyahu that the u. S. Is with israel no matter what happens, that they will be as long as america exists, he said, there will be an israel. That said, for all of the solidarity he also emphasized a different message, a message that the depravity, the savagery weve seen come from the hamas attack is warning that we have our moral center and to try to minimize i think the trancelation would be minimize the civilian casualties. How do you do that with the intensive bombing, with the Ground Assault in an urban setting to say nothing of rescuing the hostages. Lets pick up what ali and you were discussing a moment ago, which is wheres the exit . And right now none exists. I think a kind of rough comparison is syria during the civil war there. 21 Million People inside syria. Ultimately 7 Million People de it to an exit, and an awful lot of them ended up in turkey. I thinkgypt in the end is going to play theol of turkey here,nd there will be immense pressure on the egyptians. A lot of finance offering, probably from the saudis, uae, United States will help egypt deal with this flow. I think thats where this will go because a crucial step for the Israeli Military frankly is to get the civilians out of the way so they can deal with hamas. Until they can open an exit, that task is very hard. So lets hope we can see some progress in the negotiations with egypt. I bet thats front of mind for Secretary Blinken. And there are a lot of innocent palestinians in gaza who do not support hamas who have been terrorized by their own government, elected in 2006, 2007, no election since then, but israel says and ive heard their spokespeople saying, their military spokespeople from the idf saying were at war, when asked why are you laying siege, and the answer is were at war. Why would you give fuel to the enemy. Theyre not going to pass it on to their own people. The israelis and ive operated with them for many, many years. Theyre very toughminded when it comes to combat operations, and i think that kind of attitude is consistent with what ive seen from the israelis over the years. I think there will be growing International Pressure thats going to force them to bend on some aspects of that. And again, its tied to creating an exit so you can get the civilians out. Then that Siege Strategy starts to make more sense in terms of the conflict. Second point here, andrea, Worth Mentioning is what will happen when the israeli army comes crashing through, and there are active firefights in this region. That level of Collateral Damage to the civilians is going to be much higher, much more dangerous even than a lack of fuel, a lack of electricity. So its dark times ahead in gaza, frankly. All the more reason to come up with a coherent plan to get the civilians out of the place. Admiral stavridis, as always, thank you. You bet. And joining us now is democratic congresswoman Debbie Wasserman schultz who has just returned from visiting the region including israel. You were there, you were in saudi arabia i think when the fighting started and then were immediately in israel. What did you learn from your meetings with Prime Minister netanyahu and other leaders as to what their game plan is now that they have theyre slow in responding to a Surprise Attack of such tremendous dimensions. The most chilling thing that i learned from the Prime Minister, from other israeli leaders was, a, we have to remember that hamas hamass entire existence, even in their charter, is focused on the eradication of israel, and the elimination of the jewish people, and in this region, in israel, the comparison that has be made per capita to our 9 11 was emphasized. The equivalent population wise of as if 40,000 americans had died in 9 11 and 4,000 taken hostage. But more importantly, andrea, this was perpetrated by israels neighbors. They are right next to each other. The absolute necessity and the ever present danger and risk for israelis and their safety is constant, and so making sure that this is not about avenging death. This is about ensuring that hamas is eliminated, that the threat to the World Population and civilization really comes down to that is essential. What happens next . Theyve got the military power without regard to human life, palestinian life, if they want to, they have the power, those tanks can go in, and they can eliminate the hamas leadership. In our meetings with i should just point out that john kirby has Just Announced that now the death toll for americans is 27. Yeah, in our meetings both with idf, Israeli Military leaders and elected leaders, they were very clear that they will abide by the rules of war. And they are focused on rescuing hostages, on making sure that they can target hamas and focus on their eradication, but unfortunately as has been said many times, hamas uses their own people as human shields. They take hostages intentionally so that more loss of life is they risk peoples lives so that they can further perpetrate their goal of killing jews and eliminating israel. And so when youre dealing with that, israel has a much more complicated, much more concentrated situation, but they have to remain focused on eliminating the threat that hamas poses to their people and their very existence. Do they have any real hope of getting the hostages out from your conversations there . Of course theres always hope and theres no you know, theres no intelligence entity better than israels aligned with ours, obviously there were failures here and those like in the aftermath of 9 11 are for another day, but they will have to focus on trying to get the hostages out while at the same time eliminating the threat that hamas poses. Thank you so much, congresswoman. Thank you. Were going to go to the white house now and john kirbys briefing. And were going to try the best we can to meet it. I would encourage any american citizen in the need of assistance to please complete the intake form that you can find on travel. State. Gov. Its very simple. Go right to that site. There is an as best i can form. Fill it out. It helps the State Department process these requests. It also helps us get a sense of what the scope of the need is, and i would refer you to state on that. Im sure you guys are going to ask me that. I dont have hard figures handy with me now. We do know there are certain american citizens that want to go. Its all available through the State Departments website, and id encourage them to go look at that. Thanks for taking my question. Gazas main power plant has run out of fuel, the humanitarian situation there is becoming quite dire. Im wondering if there have been any communications about allowing shipments of food, fuel, electricity to help lessen civilian casualties and suffering there . Yes, there have been ongoing conversations with our israeli counterpart the about the need for humanitarian assistance. I have a couple of questions on american hostages. Is it still the case that the administration doesnt know anything about the condition of the american hostages and is the number still believed to be less than a handful . Yes and yes. And i know youve been pretty open about the fact that information about the hostages is very hard to ascertain at this moment. The limited information that you do have, is that coming mainly from the israelis and the qataris or is there another source of information . The families too. I mean, as i mentioned yesterday, some of these families actually saw their loved ones being abducted and taken away. So they have been a significant source of information as well. Just one other quick thing. The assumption that the hostages may not necessarily be in one place, was there specific intelligence to point the administration to not make that assumption, or is that based on Something Else . I wont speak about specific intelligence matters, but it is a common tactic in the hamas playbook to break up hostages and move them in rounds sometimes in small groups. We have nothing to indicate to us that they would follow a different set of protocols, but i cant stand here before you and prove to you that is exactly whats happening. We have to in order to think about our policy options, you have to make some assumptions, and we cant rule that out as a possibility. Thank you. John, what is the status of the 6 billion that iran was set to have access to . Its still sitting in the qatari bank, all of it. Every dime of it. Is an agreement now to in essence withhold it from iran should they come asking for it . None of that money has been spent, and i have no updates to provide today. Was a decision to reach a quiet understanding about whether or not it would be accessed by iran made because of the attack or political pressure . Im not going to talk about diplomatic conversations One Way Or Another, ed. What i can tell you is every single dime of that money is sitting in a qatari bank. And also remind because in certain audiences, inconvenient facts are easy to forget. The regime was never going to see a dime of that money, and this account although its moved from South Korea To Qatar was set up by the Previous Administration for this exact purpose. I think it was back in 2018 the former Secretary Of State mike pompeo actually talked in quite some detail about how this money and these accounts could only be used for humanitarian purposes and that there was going to be oversight. Weve done nothing different. It is the same process. All weve done is move that funds from south korea where for some technical reasons it wasnt accessible, to qatar where it is more accessible. All that said, none of it has been accessed by iranian by iran at all, and even if they had accessed it, it wouldnt go to the regime. It would go to approved vendors that we approved to go buy food, medicine, and medical equipment, agricultural products, and ship it into iran directly to the benefit of the iranian people. Let me ask you one other, has the United States independently verified the photos released by the israeli Prime Ministers twitter account today showing the images of dead children. I dont think were going to be in the business of having to validate or approve those images. Theyre coming from the Prime Minister of israel, and we have absolutely no reason to doubt their authenticity. Followup on these questions about the 6 billion, i understand iran hasnt accessed any of this yet. Its intended for humanitarian purposes, but there have been reports of this agreement, yes or no if iran wanted to access this today, could they . Im not going to speculate One Way Or Another here about future transactions. What i can tell you is none of it has been accessed, and we are watching every dime. As you would expect we would. Were watching it very, very closely. Im not in a position to speak about these press reports. Im telling you nothing has been accessed and we have oversight. We have oversight over what can be accessed and for what purposes. The president said yesterday that he told netanyahu that its important even with the emotion and frustration, they operate by the rules of war. Why does the president feel the need to underscore this point . The president feels strongly about law of Armed Conflict and the proper respect for innocent life anywhere in the world, no matter where it is, and that certainly includes maybe even especially includes our own military operations. But is the president worried that israel may have already violated the rules of war or that they might going bard . Its part of the conversations weve been having with our israeli counterparts about the prosecution of these military operations. The Palestinian People are like wise innocent civilians. They didnt ask hamas to come in and do this. The its always on the president s mind. I wonder what you make of the president calling the former a jerk. Im not going to comment about comments on the campaign trail. Thats well Beyond The Pale for me. Kirby, can you give us an update on the intelligence about irans role in this, anything changes in terms of what youre seeing what the u. S. Assesses no, i dont have any updates. No direct evidence that iran was a participant in these attacks in any way. Were still monitoring it. While im not going to comment, i would just add that we take seriously our bilateral relationship with israel. We dont get to decide obviously who their cabinet officials are, that wouldnt be our business, but we have strong relationships with them, and its important now that those relationships continue to improve and grow right particularly in this time of crisis, and so were focused on getting things done and supporting israel. Thats where our heads are. Joey. Admiral, speaking of iran john kirby of course at the white house getting information from inside gaza, though its becoming increasingly difficult especially after israels siege of food and fuel and water. My next guest is 22yearold student in gaza city who has been posting video diaries. She wants to share what people there are enduring. Joining me by phone is selma sharad on the phone. In your video diary you say all your friends have either lost their home or their family member, a family member, so talk to me about that and what its like just trying to live in gaza right now given the lack of resources. A lot of aggressions on gaza. Previously were very far from my friends, my home, my family. This time when i woke up in the first day i hear the evacuating, i hear the families of my friends, the houses, its very close to me. That means one thing that this is a harsh aggression. Theres no mercy in it. Going very random. The targets of virtually everyone. Theyre targeting ambulances, people that are innocent children, babies. Its very random, and it makes you very scared of your own life. If its random, then its probably my turn next. Can you understand why they are attacking given what happened to their people on the other side of the border . Im sure like our Palestinian Resistance is doing our best to just come back to the portions that are happening on us, but the thing is were getting is very different because theyre very specific places like israel when they attack us, its very specific. Theyre targeting people from the above. Its very specific and dangerous. It makes you scared of your own life because like the power that they have is very, very large, and we dont even call it a war by now. We call it an aggression. Because the powers are incomparable. Actually, weve been keeping up with the news and the people and the propaganda that theyre making about killing babies with no proof. Its very clear to the world that the victim is us. However it started, the victim is always us, has been always us for many years, and this time its very close to me, my friends, and my parents, and im really scared of my life. I dont think i have a life after this because the streets are destroyed. My university as a student, im graduating this year, its completely vanished. My future is destroyed me, i need to find a plan b, while this aggression is happening im thinking of my own future, and you know what, i might not even have a future. I need to think now state of the my parents stay safe. Yesterday or before two days we evacuated our house because our neighbors were getting callings to leave the house. I was very scared, very afraid. I dropped my bag that has literally nothing that could save me. I tried to run far, we realized we should come back home because you know what . Theres no safer place than home. Like we evacuated to a place that is no safer than our house. And you know, we dont have shelters. People run to the hospital, but the hospital is so full of people and patients that its no longer taking anyone, no longer having supplies, food and water. Its very difficult. We cant be safe during all of this. Do you have any food . Do you have enough food to survive . We dont water, food, were stocking up but were running out of food right now. People in the schools are completely ran out of food and water, and the hospital, theyre running out of the medical materials. Its really difficult. For us in my house, we stopped the showers. We stopped the bathroom. Food is very minimum. Electricity like right now as you know, i couldnt make this live video because electricity went out, and you have to call me from my phone. I really was hoping to see your face and to talk to you, and youve seen my expression, im really scared right now. Well, hopefully we will be able to see each other on another occasion. Thank you so much salma shurrub. I want to turn to republican congressman mike lawler. Theres suffering on both sides. Theres no question who started this war, but the retaliation is going to be brutal and the siege continues. We just heard john kirby saying that there are, quote, ongoing conversations between the u. S. And israel about lifting the siege to get some supplies in to the people. Look, obviously this is a difficult situation, and a lot of innocent people have been impacted by it. But lets be very clear, hamas is a terrorist organization that the Palestinian People in gaza have lived under the oppression of for years. They chose to invade israel, to slaughter innocent women, children, babies, beheading, and there are consequences for that. The bottom line is hamas has made it clear with the backing of iran that they want to wipe israel off the face of the earth and prevent their very existence. And so we the United States need to continue to stand with our ally israel and make it very clear they have the right to defend themselves. There is no moral equivalency here, and i certainly empathize with any innocent person who has been impacted by this. Israel has a right to defend itself and a right to respond, and were talking about now over 20 americans who have been killed. We still have people missing. I have hundreds of constituents who are still in harms way because they cannot get out of israel due to the lack of commercial flights available, and the failure on the part of our administration to get military planes there to help evacuate as other countries are doing, and so there are a will the lot of challenges here right now, but we have to be firm in our resolve to support israel. Secretary blinken described horrendous photos and video that were shown to him by the Prime Minister in his office today of babies riddled with bullet holes and you know, people burned, a soldier beheaded. I know the idf and others in the Israeli Government have talked about beheaded infants. We havent seen evidence of that, that has been what they have said. I know the president repeated that, just saying were trying to confirm as well as we can in the fog of war what really happened. As horrendous enough as it is, i dont want to quarrel with that. I know theres a lot of information not getting to the people of gaza because they have been under hamas rule now for some 30 years. That is clearly true, but just to point out that the u. S. Is at least urging israel to try to minimize the civilian casualties, which are causing criticism from the Secretary General of the u. N. , theres going to be pressure around the world. This Ground Invasion as you know, is going to be is going to have horrendous impacts. Look, andrea, of course, anytime we are in a situation where there is a war or a military response, of course everybody wants to minimize civilian casualties. You would hope there are none. But the realities of war obviously are that its inevitable unfortunately, and so you certainly try to minimize that, but i think and to be clear regardless of whether or not you want to say theres no evidence of beheadings, youre talking about innocent babies, innocent children being slaughtered for one purpose because theyre jewish. This is the worst massacre of jewish people since the holocaust, and i think we need to be very clear about this, why this is happening, and what the response should be. It cannot happen. It cannot happen. And im not by no means am i minimizing that. Ive been seeing things and reporting on things in the last five days that have horrified me. And horrified all of us. Let me ask you about the inability of our government to send aid to israel because of the lack of a speaker. You didnt not vote for Steve Scalise yesterday. You said you were undecided. Have you made up your mind . We were just talking to another republican member ken buck who said that he thought that scalise was actually losing support as time goes on, and that it might become a compromised candidate, not jim jordan or scalise. Look, i think the biggest challenge that i have seen throughout all of this, and ive made it very clear is that we should not have removed Kevin Mccarthy to begin with. And you had eight people team one 208 democrats to remove duly elected republican speaker against the wishes of 96 of the conferences, and so unless you deal with that issue, unless you deal with the fact that throughout the ten months weve had members who have voted down rules, who have undermined the majority, its very hard to get consensus, and so what i said yesterday was we should not have left that room until there were 217 votes secured. We are now back in conference meeting, discussing, the bottom line is we should not leave until we have 217 votes secured for a speaker, whether its Steve Scalise or someone else. But we need to come together quickly. We need to elect a speaker. I wish we were not in this situation, i voted to keep Kevin Mccarthy in as speaker. But here we are, and so we have to get back to the work of the american people. We have to govern. We have to deal with the very real challenges both domestically and abroad from israel and ukraine to our southern border, and the reckless debt that we have accrued. There are real challenges, and we need to govern, and so im hopeful we can get a consensus in short order, get on the house floor, elect a speaker and get back to work. Thank you very much, congressman mike lawler. Appreciate it. Thank you. And when our Special Coverage continues, we will speak with the parents of a 21yearold israeli soldier who was killed defending his fellow fighters when Hamas Terrorists stormed his base at an israeli Border Crossing. But first an israeli Major General who fought for three days to clear the terror, describes the Heartbreaking Carnage he found. Capture and someone kills them, children in the same room that someone come and kills them all, 15 girls and teenagers put in the same room, and this is a massacre. This is a massacre you dont have to take it to the dealer. Bring it to safelite. We do more replacements and recalibrations than anyone else. Customer thank you so much. Tech vo schedule now. Singers safelite repair, safelite replace 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. Stories are emerging about heroes forced to make the ultimate sacrifice. An israeli soldier who died trying to save the life of his fellow fighters. Joining me now rois parents, i cant express our sadness, our sympathy, our condolences for your unimaginable loss. Tell us about roi. Thank you. Roi was 21yearold boy who had spent two years, the last two years in the army. He was he was loved by everyone. He was a funny, charismatic young man. Was a great human being, and i can say honestly that he was also probably my best friend. Roey was im sorry . Im sorry, go on. Roey was guarding his base at his base over the weekend, and Sunday Morning he was woken up to bombs and mortars going off. He walked out to see what was going on and found that Hamas Terrorists had broken through the Fence Guarding between between gaza and israel, and they had just run it all over and come in with cars and trucks with hundreds and hundreds of soldiers, and they were trying to overtake his base. As well as many other bases in the area. As soon as roey heard this, he heard the commotion, he saw that all the soldiers on the front line of his base were being taken down. He decided he was going to take action. Our son was a creative thinker and always sharp, always the first to run into fire. So roey decided that if they keep on drawing fire the way they were, they were going to be slaughtered, and decidd that enough is enough and that action needed to be taken or else he would have found his Friends Soldiers would have been found dead and decided through the most amazing, brave move to take three more soldiers with him and try to flank the terrorists drawing fire towards them and in the act also to return fire. In the process they managed to flank, they managed to shoot back at the Hamas Terrorists, and they managed to fight them off, killing most of them, and they managed to keep their their base their base unscathed in the end until reinforcements came. In the process roey was shot and he ultimately died, was killed. Murdered. What about roey gave him that kind of courage, the love of his adopted country just the ability to do that and go into the line of fire to save his fellow soldiers . Roey was always that kind of child. When he was in high school, he volunteered for the Firefighting Departments and always wanted to run into fires, whether we wanted him to or not, and you know, we got phone calls all week about how he saved the lives of those around him, and we were just so honored m. We live in a Great Community and great people and hes had a great upbringing and lives in a wonderful country where this is what children were defending our country, and this is what he believed in. He lived and died by who he believed in. Defending our country against our terrible evil enemies. Naomi and yami, you should feel so proud and so honored. I know to doesnt mitigate your loss, but youve raised such an extraordinary child. Our sympathy. Thank you. Thank you. Secretary of state tony blinken in israel during last hour speaking about the historical significance of the horror that we are seeing in israel. This is a moment for moral clarity. This is a moment where Everyone Needs to make clear that there is revulsion, disgust, and a determination, a determination not to allow this to go forward. Joining me now is the former editor in chief of the Jerusalem Post who is now a senior columnist. Hes also a Senior Fellow at the jewish people policy institute. Thank you very much. It appears that the ground war in gaza is imminent, at least the tanks, the Armored Vehicles are amassing. What do you expect this to look like . You know, andrea, just before i answer that question, i just have to say one thing. I know yami and i know the weiser family, i didnt know they would be right before me. Im sorry. My daughter 13 has now walked over to one of yamis nieces a cousin of roey. It just goes to show what a small country this is and how what happened on saturday, october 7th, how it impacts everybody when you have so many people slaughtered, what that does to a country of the size of israel. And you understand this word, were a family. Thats whats happening here in israel, but im sorry to digress. To your question no, no, let me just say, you know, its the size of new jersey. Weve spent decades covering israel and the west bank, and until youve been there, you dont realize its all together. Yeah. Go on. 100 . So to your question, look, israels getting ready. What weve seen over the last four or five days since the terrible massacre was first and foremost clear out the south of these terrorists who had infiltrated. The second thing was to begin to create a new line of contact which is pushing hamas back into gaza and to have a new line of contact that would be in the gaza strip and not in israeli territory. Theres 300,000 that have been drafted. Some to the north along the border with lebanon, some to the south along the border with gaza. Also just as important, has been this ground swell of diplomatic and political support. Thats very important for israel to have the legitimacy it needs for the ground operations. I would guess and i dont know for sure, no ones telling us this is going to happen in the next 72 hours or so. Israel will likely be going into gaza. Its going to take some time, but they have to go into degrate hamass capabilities, to weaken it, to capture and kill as many of its members. Do you worry that the support around the world will lessen when they see the devastation of a Ground Invasion of such a dense city . Im not worried. Im certain its going to happen, right . In other words, the world will begin to change the narrative. The support that we have right now, which is pretty incredible, is going to start to chip away, and were already starting to see cracks in that, or people are saying, maybe you shouldnt go into gaza. Youve done enough from the air. Why do you need to go into gaza. I need to explain why its important that israel does enter into gaza. The first is they crossed into israel. The borders completely wide open. We have to go in and push hamas back. There has to be a zone through which they cannot enter. Right . We have to take away more of their capabilities. We cannot allow god forbid for what happened on saturday to ever, ever repeat itself. As congressman lawler said, the most jews killed on a single day since the holocaust. That can never be allowed to happen again. The second reason is the whole regions watching, andrea. The whole world is watching. Our other enemies, hezbollah, the iran, theyre all watching. If israel does not show strength and resolve and determination, they will think that they can take advantage of our weakness and our situation. We have to show force and strength and resolve right now to be able to bolster our deterrents and prevent another conflict like this in the future. Yaakov katz. Thanks for being with us today. Thank you. There are new signs that that Ground Offensive in gaza could start at any moment. Cutting off the power, water, food in an attempt to weaken hamas. Even the main hospital is experiencing power issues. Tens of thousands of Israeli Forces are lined along the border awaiting orders. Earlier today. Reporter tanks are moving in. Direction, theyre going a constant of three, four in the last five, ten minutes here just moving back in towards all of the israeli troops heading back in that direction. Joining me now is retired Lieutenant General steven twitty, former Deputy Commander of the United States european command and an msnbc military analyst. General, what you just saw is clearly the prepositioning of the tanks for a Ground Offensive, whether its today, tomorrow, or the next day. What are you going to be watching for . Yeah, so what youre seeing with the movement of the armor is moving into our Attack Positions, to actually cross over some line, in this case thats what the israelis are doing, theyre moving into their Attack Positions and making sure that they have everything that they need in those Attack Positions because when they cross over, theyre in contact and theres nothing they can do to get further assistance. The other thing that you should be watching for is what youve been seeing over the last couple of days is called shaping operations. Where the israelis are going after command and control centers. Theyre going after the hamas leadership, theyre going after missile to missiles that have been coming into israel and theyre going after the underground bunker and tunnel facilities, and the purpose of that, obviously is to disrupt hamas. Then you should see next is the breach in operations that occur where they will actually breach through the fence and conduct an assault into the strip, and as i mentioned on the previous previ that when that breach happens, it will happen very quickly and violently, but as you mentioned, the civilian casualties will probably be the ones that are most impacted in this particular operation. I just want to also say that we have some Breaking News that we finally confirmed that the state Department Says tomorrow they will start arranging Charter Flights to assist u. S. Citizens and other immediate Family Members who are unable to book commercial travel out. There are americans, so Many Americans and duel citizens in israel, as you know, having watched so much in coordination who have worked military who want to get out. Thats good news that we can get them out. Sadly enough, we have american hostages that will not be on those flights over the next couple of days. What is your hope for a Rescue Operation . Well, initially my hope is if we can get a humanitarian corridor established in egypt and at a minimum, we should be thinking about the women, the infants, the children and the elderly. At a minimum, let them get out. And then you can set up some kind of a vetting for the males. But i think we should start thinking in that route because as you know, once this operation starts, its going to be tremendous devastation, and when youre a population of 2 million inside 140 square miles, you cant help to have significant Collateral Damage here and so i hope were thinking about the population before we actually conduct this particular attack. General steph twitty, thank you very much. Take care. You too, sir. In response to the war in israel and gaza, Police Across america are ramping up security around both synagogues and mosques, coming up, Combatting Hate and disinformation in a time of war. Youre watching Andrea Mitchell reports on msnbc. S on msnbc. Your ancestry is so much more than names and dates. cmon its the story of your family then and now. A story that made your name mean something. A story youre still writing. So discover your heritage. Preserve your traditions. Represent all that makes you, you. want luxury hair repair that doesnt cost 50 . Pantenes provitamin formula repairs hair. As well as the leading luxury bonding treatment. For softness and resilience, without the price tag. If you know. You know its pantene. With fastsigns, create custom graphics that get tails and tongues wagging. Fastsigns. Make your statement. When President Biden spoke to Jewish Community leaders at the white house yesterday, we heard some of the most direct language so far about what the u. S. Is doing to help the more than 150,000 israeli and american he or she 150 israeli and american hostages taken by hamas. We are working on every aspect of the hostage crisis. Now the press are going to shout to me and many of you are, what are you doing to get these folks home. If i told you i wouldnt be able to get them home. Folks, theres a lot were doing. Joining me now is a Community Leader who was at that meeting. Ceo of the Jewish Council for public affairs. Thank you for coming. That was pretty direct, that something is going on, at least on the intelligence level that said no american boots on the ground, not that they would tell us until after the action, but clearly there are efforts to try to figure out where these hostages are. Absolutely, i think first and foremost, the administration and prosecute made clear they felt the pain in the room and that the community is feeling, and that includes the fact that many of us in the room know people who are among the hostages or among those killed, and that pain was felt in the room and hearing that reassurance from the president was deeply meaningful. Of course he cant share specific details as they are going about their planning, but now with Secretary Blinken on the ground, and the reassurances from the white house and the team yesterday, the moral clarity and the reassurance that they have provided has been felt. Do you personally know anyone immediately involved, any of the victims . I have a number of friends and former colleagues who have deep connections to those who were impacted, including a number of the Peace Activists who are among those killed or taken hostages, vivian silver, who is the leader of women wage war, people on the front lines of the fight for peace with the palestinians and have now been caught up directly in this bloodshed. And i would imagine would still want many of us to channel their spirit in urging for a resolution here. And fighting for a longterm security and safety for both israelis and palestinians. I know that has been among the most heartbreaking aspects of this is interviewing families and relatives of those who were Peace Activists, moved near the border top helpful to people there, to help go into gaza, one woman, mrs. Silver, to bring, you know, Cancer Patients out for treatment in israeli hospitals. What more do you think the u. S. Could be doing, the administration. I appreciate the moral clarity, continue to do so at a time when moral clarity feels like its in short supply, has been deeply meaningful. I also appreciate their comments about efforts to distinguish between hamas and the palestinians, to make clear, hamas is not the future of the Palestinian People, and to do whatever they can to mitigate civilian impact, and more broadly, the message that many of us brought into the room yesterday and that we heard back from the administration is this is going to have ripple effects everywhere, including here at home, and many of us are deeply concerned that this crisis has the possibility to roll back all of the progress weve made in the fight for safety and security to bring up antisemitic, islam phobic and other acts of hate at home. Its crucial we not lose sight of that and let those trying to exploit this crisis, tear communities apart. Are you concerned about the security of both synagogues and mosques of religious institutions in this country . Look, even before this crisis, we were already facing record level antisemitism and hate fueled violence. This was a crisis long before this past weekend, and in fact, those of us at the white house yesterday, many of us were originally supposed to be there to discuss implementation of the antisemitism strategy which is crucial. But at this moment, we are already seeing extremists who are seeking to exploit this, to target palestinian americans, muslim americans, and jewish americans. In a variety of ways, and we cannot let that happen because we know that our communities are only are safest in solidarity with one another, despite what those extremists might try to do to exploit this moment. Amy, thank you so much. I know youre going to continue to work in these arenas as you have been. Its very good to talk to you. Of course, thank you. And that does it for our special twohour Special Coverage of developments in israel and the war with hamas in gaza. You can find us on social media mitchellreports. Msnbcs Special Coverage continues now with katy tur. Good to be with you. Im katy tur. It is 2 00 p. M. Here in new york. 9 00 p. M. In israel and in gaza. Day six of the war. And it is getting uglier and harder. The Israeli Government has been releasing bloody pictures of the dead, including infants, images that burn your brain and haunt you when you try to sleep. Overwhelming grief as Secretary Of StateAntony Blinken said today after the Israeli Government showed him what they have seen. I