. hello and welcome to our viewers in the united states and all around the world. i m bianca nobilo. max foster has been on assignment. and we begin with the israel-hamas war. it is s friday, novembmber 3 3, a.m. in london, 10:00 a.m. in gaza where the israeaeli milita says it has gaza city cut off and surrounded. idf says the primary goal is to locate and destroy hamas tunnels and eliminate explosives and other objecstacles. 23 soldiers have died in the operation. secretary of state antony blinken returned to israel and is expected to meet this hour with benjamin netanyahu. the secretary says the u.s. is increasingly concerned by the rising civilian death toll in gaza which palestinian officials say is more than 9,000 people. more than a dozen u.s. democratic senators are now calling for a short term pause in the fighting in order to deliver more aid and to focus to getting hostages released. scott mclean is covering these angels for us. what is blinken hoping to accomplis
counteroffensive that has gained ground around the city. bodies of 44 civil januarys discovered in the rubble of a five-story building in izyum under russian control. ukrainians say the building was destroyed by the russians. in mariupol, several hundred soldiers are holding out in the azovstal steel plant. at least 100, mostly men, are still trapped there. you can see the flag flying over the plant. cnn cannot verify in the flag is still is there. and a senior official tells cnn that anecdotal reports show that some russian officers are refusing to obey orders to move forward in the donbas offensive. some of these officers have either refused to obey orders or not obeying them with the same measure of alacrity it that you would expect an officer to obey. joining us a retired major