Breaking news. Israel is unleashing intense new air strikes on gaza tonight as it is expanding its Ground Operations there as well. The war against hamas heating up. Nearly three full weeks after the surprise hamas Terror Attack on israel. Phone lines and other communications have been cut off. Civilians caught in the cr crossfire. The United States says it is in talks with israel about a humanitarian pause to try to allow the potential release of more hostages held by hamas. White house insisting negotiations aimed at freeing more captives is ongoing. Breaking in the United States, divers join the search for the Mass Shooting in maine. Sources tell cnn the gun apparently used was bought just days before. Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. Im wolf blitzer in the situation room. We are witnessing here in the middle east, we are witnessing a clear escalation in the is israel hamas war. The Israeli Military declaring it is operating forcefully on all fronts,
introducing storm-ready wifi. now you can stay reliably connected through power outages with unlimited cellular data and up to 4 hours of battery back-up to keep you online. only from xfinity. very good day to all of you home of the xfinity 10g network. from msnbc world headquarters in new york. welcome everyone to alex witt reports. it s noon in the. east seven pm in tel aviv. in gaza, we begin with breaking news on the war. this is what is near this. i ll israel promise the gaza strip and says this new an intense phase will continue to expand. the idf is again warning residents of gaza to move south. gaza is under a blackout with no phone or internet service. elon musk injustice last hour has said that his spacex starlink will provide support to prove an aid groups. u.n. officials warn of possible catastrophic consequences from this latest round of shelling. [sound of artillery] this is what the intensified israeli offensive in gaza sounds like from inside the israeli borde
sentiment, but i also know that his death may not bring solace. to many. but now is a time to heal and with this search concluded, i know that law enforcement continues to fully investigate all the facts so we can bring what closure we can to the victims and their families. all 18 victims in wednesday s attack have now been identified. i want to begin with nbc s kathy park who was at the conference in lewiston. cathy, thank you for being. they re what else did we hear from officials, and how are you? this had to be an extraordinary few days. yeah, and an extraordinary 12 hours to be quite frank with you stephanie. so at 10:00 this morning we got an update as to how long enforcement was going to move forward with their investigation. they talked about the large police presence in the lisbon area, the boat launch in that area, that is where the suspect abandoned vehicle was located, and that s why they decided to ramp up the activity there, and then at 5:00 this evening, ju
hold back units to regroup. a senior official said the u.s. recognizes the difficulties ukrainian forces are facing, though, they retain some hope for renewed progress. multiple officials are telling me the approaching fall season when weather and fighting conditions are expected to worsen give ukrainian forces a shrinking window to push forward. here s another issue i hear consistently. western officials say the slow progress exposed the difficulty of transforming ukrainian forces into large combined mechanized fighting units, sometimes with as few as eight weeks of training on western-supplied advanced weapons system, such as an abrams tank. we ve been reporting on the storm shadow missile from the uk and it has been effective. again, something ukrainians have to train on.
lines, networks of trenches, which has been really difficult to get through and to make progress and to gain land. the other issue, i m told, is training. in very short order, the attempt has been made here to train up ukrainian forces on complex weapons systems like the abrams tanks, which is going in soon, or the jer dan leopard tank. and in effect turn ukrainian forces into mechanized fighting units, sometimes with only eight weeks of training. and that has proven perhaps not sufficient to get them up to the grade necessary to break through these lines quickly. the final piece here, wolf, is time. you have a weather change coming as the fall approaches. that means the fighting changes. that is seen as applying pressure. then you have political pressure. you have some sense from ukraine s allies that they need to see results, increasing pressure over time, well, if