Ill be back at 6 00 p. M. Eastern for our special coverage for israel at war. Thank you for watching. Im wolf blitzer. Special breaking News Coverage continues right now with erin burnett outfront. Good evening. Welcome to a Special Edition of outfront. Israel at war. The breaking developments, the death toll rising as the sound of sirens and explosions can be heard across southern and Central Israel after a Surprise Attack by hamas. An israeli official said at least 300 israelis have been killed. The former Prime Minister of israel Neftali Bennett telling me the ultimate death toll will be much higher. And tonight there are reports that gun battles are still taking place nearly 24 hours after militants first entered israel by land and sea and air, firing 2,200 rockets, according to israel. And this new video, which im going to show you now, shows heavily armed hamas fighters moving through one neighborhood. You can hear the scream as militants try to force their way into homes. Theyre just people at home. Militants forcing their way in. The terror is hard to even comprehend. Tonight there are other horrific scenes of israelis being kidnapped off the streets. In this video you see a woman. Her face covered in blood as shes taken from the trunk of a jeep and shoved into the back seat. Her arms appear to be zip tied. According to hamas, they are present in all a it is of the gaza strip. Of course, the Hostage Issue complicates israels efforts to respond. This enormous and highly coordinated assault was a catastrophic failure of intelligence, and in the words of israeli Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu, what happened today has never been seen in israel. And tonight the situation on the verge of exploding into an Even Deadlier conflict. The Military Wing of hamas warning israel of a, quote, Earth Shattering response after israel responded to this attack, air strikes hitting a group of high rises in gaza. The buildings as you can see, collapsing. Palestinians say at least 230 of their people have been killed since israel returned fire. Tonight at the white house, President Biden and his administration are closely monitoring the situation and our team of reporters are standing live. Nic robertson is in gaza and Oren Lieberman is in washington. I want to begin with nic just over a mile from the gaza border. Obviously, were 24 hours into this now. You are in the wee hours of the morning. What is the latest there right now . Reporter yeah, were Hearing Fighter Jets overhead. Were Hearing Explosions in the vicinity of gaza. If we look up here, you can see there are, these Illumination Flares being put up in the sky. Just below that flare, thats the beach area and the hamas militants were trying to land on that beach as recently as this evening. Weve been told. That zone behind me, more flares in the sky above it there, that is looking down toward gaza. That is the area below those flares where it is an active military ongoing situation with Israeli Defense forces, trying to round up over hamas militants that have gotten into israel today. The fight is still going on. Were seeing Military Traffic coming and going up and down this road. Helicopter gun ships as well. Were hearing the machine guns firing into that area. All of this began unraveling, unfolding in an utterly unexpected way for Israeli Citizens just less than 24 hours ago, the early hours of saturday morning. In the early hours of saturday, israelis work to a sudden assault from gaza militants. The Surprise Attack claimed by the Palestinian Militant Group hamas, a complex and massive operation marking a steep escalation of hostilities. The attack began with a huge barrage of missiles fired from gaza. Thousands of rockets, some making direct hits on targets across southern israel. Under the cover of the missiles, a large scale infiltration began as hamas militants crossed by land, sea and air, even using paragliders to cross into israel. Videos from Border Crossing stations show hamas fighters storming into israeli territory a few miles away in the border town, hamas was seen driving and opening fire at civilians. The gunmen tore through the streets, leaving a trail of casualties behind. The full extent of the casualties is unclear. But hundreds have been killed and more than 1,000 injured on both sides. A spokesman for the Israeli Defense force gave a frank assessment of the situation. A very severe morning in israel. A combined defense by hamas, ground, air and sea. The numbers are not clear but the numbers are substantial. A very severe morning. We are very much now focused on sending forces to these locations where there is ongoing fighting. Reporter during the raid, some faters took israelis as hostages and Prisoners Of War. The Israeli Military said videos geo located by cnn Show Militants taking Civilians Captive in southern israel, and gaza. A woman is seen forced out of her car and into the custody of hamas. Israel retaliated hitting multiple targets. In gaza city, two highrise buildings collapse. The unrest continuing late into the night with both sides trading rocket fire as we touched down at Ben Gurion International airport outside tel aviv, air traffic was halted as sirens wailed and travelers took cover. Literally just got off the plane at ben gurion. The sirens have gone off. People are taking cover. We got off the bus and people are taking cover. You can hear the intercept missiles banging in the air. Nothing incoming here. Everyone is taking cover. A lot of concern about what will happen here. Reporter the israeli Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu has been unwaivering in his message that israel is at war with hamas. Now, israel rushes to regroup with its allies, despite the Intelligence Failure that appeared to lead to the attack. It is clear that the true force of the israeli governments response is yet to come. And thats what were seeing here. As weve been here the last two or three or four hours now, weve been able to hear the increase in the fight activity, an increase in the number coming from the gaza area, an increase in the flashes from the sky. It is not clear. If you can point the camera over there to that light on the horizon. That is probably five or six miles away. That is the rock. Thats one of the areas the hamas militants stormed into earlier today and it is not spirely clear if the Israeli Defense forces still have full control of that area. So the hits going and coming down, israeli hits coming down on gaza. At the same time, Israeli Defense forces still trying to get back control of all of their own territory. Thank you very much. Well be speaking to a spokesperson for the Israeli Defense forces in a moment. Obviously the white house was very clearly caught off guard by this as well. What is the response from there . Reporter well, senior officials have raised concern about the surprise nature of this ambush with one intelligence official telling cnn there will need to be an afteraction report to determine whether there was intelligence this was coming and it was simply missed or whether there was just a massive blind spot. Tonight, a Senior Administration official denying that there was a warning from a third country such as egypt that this attack was coming and saying the focus at this moment is on keeping the violence contained and figuring out how best the u. S. Can support israel. Tom end, the white house is acknowledging that there are unique challenges here in washington posed by the lack of a current speaker of the house of representatives, as well as the lag of a permanent ambassador from the u. S. To israel. They said they have to figure out how to get that aid in a quick, fullsome and timely manner to israel and there could be an announcement as soon as tomorrow. President biden says that support will be unwaivering and rock solid, and he had a warning to any party hostile to israel not to exploit these attacks. Tom end, the white house and senior officials have said that it is too early to determine whether iran had any involvement in the attacks overnight but suggested that iran is a longtime been factor of hamas and cannot be denied. At the white house tonight. Outfront now, lieutenant come them conrickas, i appreciate your time. Im very sorry to be speaking to you tonight and i know you are sleepless again as you work through the night. Nic robertson was five or six miles away. He said it was unclear if hamas had full control of the territory. Are you able to answer that question . Does israel have full control . It is, unfortunately, i cannot yet say that we have regained full control over all of our communities and all of our sovereign territory. There is still fighting ongoing in southern israel. Our Special Forces and reserve forces are going door to door, house to house, reaching out to all the israeli civilians that were holed up there during the day, and rescuing hostages. One such situation just ended positively in a kibbutz where the israeli hostages were released by israeli troops and they were held by terrorists. The terrorists were killed. There is still fighting ongoing and i dont think we can say with confidence that we have regained full control of the area until the crack of dawn tomorrow. It is an unprecedented situation here in israel. The unprecedented attack, the sheer brutality of the violence against our civilians. The fact that they have paraded women, elderly, children and men into gaza. That they have taken such a significant number of israelis into gaza and are holding them captive. It is something that we have not faced before. And in an unprecedented attack will call for an unprecedented response against hamas. You talk about a significant number of hostages and you were saying there, thank goodness, there has been one situation that has ended positively. The hamas militants were killed by members of the idf and that. How many israeli hostages were rescued . And how many more do you think are out there . I know it may be hard for you to be specific. Are we talking hundreds of people . Are we talking dozens of people . We are most likely talking dozens of people at this time but the numbers are very dynamic. Im sure youre familiar with the term, the fog of war. This is an extremely foggy situation. We have today, during today, there were more than 25 active fighting events inside israel. Locations like communities, idf bases, and places of gatherings where there were active terrorists fighting. Either taking hogs or running crazy on the streets, killing civilians. Now were down to a significantly lower number but not yet over. The bigger, most important figure, i think, is unfortunately, the number of israelis held in gaza. I cannot say how many but i can say that it is a substantial number of civilians, as well as military personnel. Some are programmed alive, according to video footage, and some are presumed not to be alive. It is an extremely delicate situation. I think that will influence future decisionmaking in israel, or how we continue here. And it is something that we havent faced before but we are determined to put a swift end to. Absolutely. So when you talk about an unprecedented response, the Hostage Situation plays a crucial role in that. Are there any communications between israel and hamas, directly or through Anyin Interneed areas to try to get the civilians back . Even if there were, im not sure that i would be aware of them. But based on previous situations, that is not how hamas operates. They launched this attack into israel in order to abduct israeli civilians and soldiers, to kill as many as possible israelis. Thats why they launched this outstanding operation that they did. Something weve never seen before. I dont think they would try to negotiate so soon but that is, i think, besides the point. We need to make sure the border is sharp and defended and no further attacks into israel, and we have already started striking military targets in gaza, and it is important at this time, that this is an Important Message for me. This is how it started. Were in the first day of the war in israel. This is how it started. And there will be images in the coming days and weeks of a difficult situation inside gaza. But we urge people to remember, this is how it started. It started with a hamas attack into israel, unprovoked and unprecedented. This is why we are responding and we will respond with tremendous force. I appreciate your time. Thank you very much. I know, you have not slept and you will continue to work in these early hours until dawn. Thank you. Thank you. Our breaking News Coverage continues here. Were going back to the ground in israel where Palestinian Militants have fired more rockets. People are rushing to bomb shelters. Plus, hamas claiming that dozens of israelis were taken as hostages and you just heard the colonel talking about this situation. Our next guest said his wife and two daughters were taken hostage. The moment that it happened was caught on camera. New video into cnn coming in right now. Scary moments has the attack unfolded. Hundreds of people running from gunfire at a festival. This as several images are coming out of innocent civilians being captured as hamas launches this attack on israel. Those are the people running, as you can see from the festival. And then the hostages still being held by hamas, as far as we know. You just heard the spokesperson for the idf talking about dozens of hostages. We want to show you some video that we have here of a woman. It appears to show a woman being pulled from the trunk of a jeep at gunpoint. Her wrists appear to be tied behind her back. Several men are yelling out. This all caught on camera. One man also sharing this video saying it shows his wife and two young children, his young daughters, 5 and 3 years old, being taken to gaza. Now, cnn hasnt been able to independently verify this video but we are going to be able to speak to him in just a moment. Those are his wife and children. First, hadas gold is out front. What are israeli officials saying about the hostages . It sounds like even talking to the idf moments ago, this is very dynamic situation. They dont even seem to know full numbers. I think that erin, at this point, they do have a sense of the numbers. They are being very cagey about the details and they are working out exactly who was where and what happened. They have confirmed that both Israeli Soldiers and civilians have been taken as what they call Prisoners Of War. This is in addition to people being held hostage in southern israel, who had been taken from israeli territory into gaza. We know of at least one situation that had just been resolved in the last few hours, although we know firefighting is continuing. I know these numbers in terms of Prisoners Of War taken by hamas, they are said to be in the dozens. Were not talking about one or two or even five. Keep in mind in previous situations, a single israeli prisoner of war has launched wars, has caused massive prisoner exchange, it has been a major, major situation. These are not just soldiers. As weve been seeing from these videos, as weve been seeing from accounts from israeli families, these are civilians including children, some of whom have been taken from the streets, from their homes. Israeli or hamas militants had infiltrated israeli towns and going house by house and trying to get into these houses and take people out. This is an incredible situation that israel has never been in before. It is being likened to israels pearl harbor or even worse. Right now israeli officials are saying there are 300 israelis killed. More than 1,500 injured. These numbers are likely to rise. There are still towns in southern israel that have not been completely cleared of militant activity. And the rockets are continuing as we speak. Im still getting notifications of red alert sirens going off in southern israel. It has been quieter for the rest of the country in jerusalem. We had our own fair share of rockets targeting jerusalem today. Tel aviv had a barrage a few hours ago. Those have quieted down for now but they are continuing. This is a very tense and unfolding situation. The Israeli Military is attacking the gaza trip with air strikes. So far only air strikes. It has not been a Ground Invasion yet. The Israel Military sending out a warning to israelis in gaza telling them to go to certain safe areas, as they are calling them, where they should evacuate to. It is very complicated there. Whatever air strikes attack, the Israeli Military may want to undertake in the gaza strip, they have to keep in mind the number of hostages. Hamas has said they have taken these Prisoners Of War to strategic locations throughout the gaza strip trying to use them as shields of some kind. This is an incredibly tricky and dangerous situation for the entire region. Thank you very much. Live from jerusalem tonight.