to quote prepair for the possibility of widening significantly. israel said the goal has not be to destroy hamas but restore security for israeli citizens. but what this invasion is really about is to destroy underground cross border tunnels built by hamas. these tunnels move supplies and people in and out of gaza. tunnels israel says it is meant to murder and kidnap its citizens. israeli defense forces have been tweeting with photos of tunnels discovered in gaza. since israel began the invasion last night at 10:00 p.m., 28 palestinians and one israeli soldier have died. hamas has continued to fire dozens of rockets in to southern israel. according to to the gaza ministry of health, 274 palestinians have been killed in israeli attacks. unicef said the number of children killed in gaza has reached 48. an average of four children
killed each day. there are reports that 80% of gaza is currently without electricity. and the u.n. says the number of people seeking shelter in the facilities in gaza doubled from 22,000 to 47,000. u.n. secretary general ban ki-moon is expected to travel to the region tomorrow. joining me now from washington is senior fellow from middle eastern studies at the council on foreign relations steven cook. thank you for joining me. let s speak about the tunnels. hamas uses these tunnels to transport weapons and supplies. if the tunnels are disabled does that mean that hamas is disabled? it doesn t mean that hamas is disabled. it is clear that hamas has large stores of weapons, rocket launchers hidden throughout the gaza strip. there are workshops that build these kinds of things and put them together but it would hamper their ability to resupply over a longer period of time.
jerusalem. this operation in gaza ongoing with the possibility very much of intensifying. wolf will stay on it for us. coming up next, president obama will deliver a statement on the situation in ukraine. we will bring that to you live the minute it happens. plus with russia and ukraine now exchanging blame, the folk has shifted to vladimir putin. how much is he to blame? we ll speak to a u.s. senator calling for a much tougher u.s. response to russia. that s coming up. d everybody knows that. well, did you know words really can hurt you? what.? jesse don t go! jesse.no! i m sorry daisy, but i m a loner. and a loner gotta be alone. heee yawww! geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more. jesse?
international event with major consequences. it is not the only event taking place in the world right now. we re going to go now to israel. israeli ground troops, tanks have invaded into gaza. there are boots on the ground now in gaza. the israeli operation is continuing and the prime minister himself, benjamin netanyahu says it will expand. the initial goal is to go after those tunnels, tunnels that have been built over the past several years by hamas, tunnels that go from gaza into israel. the slses israelis of have evidence of those tunnels. they shown pictures of those tunnels and they have video of 15 hamas terrorists emerging from them at a can i kibutz.
expand. thousands are on the ground in gaza. reservists are on call right now. they have been activated. this is a very significant operation, and clearly the israelis would like to destroy as much of hamas s military capability as much as they can before international pressure mounts to call for some sort of cease fire and for the israelis to withdraw. they want to really set back hamas. they think they have an opportunity to do so and that s what they are trying to do. do we have any information about casualties from this latest ground offensive by the israel defense forces? either casualties in gaza of palestinians or of israeli soldiers? one israeli soldier has now been confirmed killed in this operation. the palestinians casualties continue. i think it s well over 250, so far. a big percentage of that, maybe the majority of those civilians