Good evening. Im lindsay reiser, you are watching msnbcs continuing coverage of the israel hamas war. And breaking just within the last hour, we have learned a tentative agreement to allow americans safe passage through the rafah Border Crossing continues to face significant obstacles. Nbc news reports that would be a key item on Secretary Blinkens agenda when he lands and cairo tomorrow. Right now, up to 600 americans are still stranded in gaza after thats promised pathway to safety felt through earlier today. U. S. Officials said they would negotiate temporary opening at the border between gaza and egypt, for american citizens seeking to flee. But evacuees made their way to the crossing say they found a closed. While theres still no guarantee that hamas, which controls the gaza side of the border, will allow safe passage, the State Department continues to publicly urged americans and gaza to move south. Cautioning, if that crossing opens that, window could be brief. The Ground Invasi
The Early Morning assault began with a barrage of rocket fire from gaza just after dawn with explosions heard on the streets of ashkelon. Sderot, which is near gaza, is thought to have been infiltrated by militants. Heres the latest on what we know at this hour. Israels public broadcaster is reporting that after 18 hours, hostages being held in a dining room in kibbutz be eri have been released. Israel has also confirmed that the commander of the nahal brigade, coloneljonathan steinberg, was killed in fighting on saturday. Meanwhile, Major Airlines have cancelled dozens of flights to tel aviv. They include american airlines, air france, lufthansa, emirates, and ryanair, among others. Lets show you live pictures from gaza now. Were hearing that the israeli army has asked residents of seven different areas across the gaza strip which you can see there on your screens to leave their homes and move to the city centres or take refuge in shelters in preparation for Launching Attacks against
Lets bring you up to date on the very latest developments. The israeli army has told residents of seven different areas across the gaza strip to take refuge in shelters as it prepares to launch new attacks on hamas targets. Meanwhile, israeli hostages who were held in a southern town have reportedly been rescued thats according to israels public broadcaster. Three Israeli Soldiers were moderately and lightly wounded. And on the diplomatic front, us Secretary Of State Antony Blinken has called for calm and stability in the west bank during a call with palestinian president mahmoud abbas. And israels allies have shown their support through displays like this. Heres berlins Brandenburg Gate lit up in white and blue to show support for israel. The conflict is also impacting air travel. The federal Aviation Administration is urging us airlines and pilots to use caution when flying in israeli airspace. The us air regulators warning follows an earlier alert issued by the Israeli Government an
Lets show you live pictures from gaza now. The israeli army has asked residents of several different areas across the gaza strip to leave their homes. Move to the city centres or take refuge in shelters in preparation for Launching Attacks against hamas targets. Witnesses told the bbc that dozens of families had started leaving their homes and were sheltering in un schools. This comes as israeli troops are still going house to house to clear communities after the saturday assault. We are hearing there is still fighting ongoing in Southern Israel at this hour. Lets get some reaction now from washington. Us Secretary Of State Antony Blinken spoke with several of his european counterparts. State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller says they discussed and condemned the hamas attacks and underlined the us support for israels right to defend itself. Live now to elliot abrams, who served in the George W Bush and trump administrations. Welcome to you. Thank you for joining us. The Biden Adm
Have a look at this new video coming in to the bbc. Explosions boom. Israel was clearly caught off guard by the attacks from hamas, and there will be much analysis in the weeks and months ahead about why no one saw it coming. Michael singh is former senior directorfor Middle East Affairs at the National Security council, and he joined me earlier. To what extent do you think the us might be concerned tonight that it likely had not heard word of the attacks that we had seen from its israeli partners, that there appeared to be a failure of intelligence . There will be tremendous concern, tremendous concern within israel first and foremost because this was a real failure of anticipation, a failure to detect what was the most significant attack on israel for decades, there will be concern within the United States as well not just at the apparent Israeli Intelligence failure but perhaps the United States intelligence agencys own failure to detect this was happening because you have a very cl