Youre live in the cnn newsroom. Im jim acosta in washington. Welcome to our continuing breaking News Coverage of israel at war. Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying the second stage of its war, the ground war, has begun. The goal, to destroy the military and government, he says, of hamas. Translator our heroic fighters have one goal, to destroy this enemy and to make sure the existence in our country. Never again, never again is now. At this hour, the conflict is escalating. This is new cnn video from a cnn producer In Gaza Capturing Rockets being fired into israel. [ sirens ] and cnns sara sidner and her team captured this video of Rocket Barrage over tel aviv earlier today. Israels iron dome Defense System intercepted those incoming rockets. Civilianness northern gaza say they endured the heaviest last night. Cnns Nic Robertson joins us live from sderot, israel. What are you seeing right now . Reporter relentless, jim. Absolutely relentless barrages of artillery fire, aircraft st
we re following all the breaking news in israel s escalating war with hamas. israel s prime minister says his country is now in the second stage of the war. the goal to eliminate hamas and eeradicate its threat to israel. israel s military says it has troops inside gaza, but it s not clear if this expanded operation is the beginning of a broad ground incursion. civilians in northern gaza say last night was the heaviest bombardment so far. israel s defense minister says the intensifying assault will improve his country s chances of treeing freeing the hostages. translator: we are making any effort in order to return the handles to us, to our country. it s a difficult effort. dealing with reality we didn t know in the past. we are ready to do anything possible. this is not a secondary mission. this is a national priority. also new this hour, hamas is firing back. this is new video from a cnn producer in gaza capturing rockets being fired into israel. and cnn s nic roberts