Happening now, israel formally declares war on hamas and the Palestinian Terrorist groups strikes back. Breaking news. Hamas has just fired a new barrage of rockets at israel tonight. And were learning that there has been a direct strike on the city of ash. We welcome our viewers here in the United States and Around The World. And im wolf blitzer and this is a Special Edition of the situation room. Israel at war. Announcer this is cnn Breaking News. And were following all of the Breaking News, our correspondents are positioned in israel and indeed Around The World to bring you all of the latet developments in this escalating crisis right now. Raising enorm ow fears of a major war in the middle east. Lets begin with Nic Robertson, youre not far away from the border with gaza. What more do we know about the new round of attacks that is underway right now . Reporter weve been able to see a couple of things from this location, wolf. Were seeing rockets taking off that are not intercepted quick which means they are complying toward the center of israel. Up towards the sort of tel aviv direction which is what hamas is claiming. We dont know if theyre impacting there but we suspect the iron dome defensive systems further up into israel will intercept them. What weve also seen and this supports part of what hamas is saying, hamas is saying it launched a massive barrage in on a town, i dont think we could call it massive, but weve seen outgoing missiles from gaza headed into the direction had a that has been intercepted and there were a number of impacts an intercepts but it does appear from the earliest reports that at least one of hamass rockets has got through, has impacted in the town and hamas tries to fire a lot of missiles and were hearing a lot of explosions just now. Because as soon as the barrages of missiles went out, we are heard fighter jets and helicopters in the air. There was an impact there. Probably in gaza, its right behind me where the impacts seem to come from. So israel is responding. You typically try to fire back at the launch sites of those missiles. So there is a real temper, a real rhythm of war with this. Wolf, weve seen this uptempo with the outgoing rockets ant the iron dome intercept them and were hearing the Helicopter Gun Ship come above here and of course heard the fighter jets and then the explosions inside of gaza. So there is a lot of moving pieces in terms of those rockets. On top of that, the Security Forces in sderot, as they are in other places are also still, and we had information in the past hour, still in this town trying to hunt down a suspected two or three hamas militants still at large in this town, wolf. Yeah, this is a Crisis Escalating clearly. The israeli prime minister, as you know, netanyahu has said this country is preparing for what he calls a long and difficult war. Is that the feeling shared by israelis that youve spoken to . Reporter i think people are still in a stage of somewhat shock with the situation. I spoke to a medic here, a doctor who was working in a Field Hospital just outside of sderot here and he was spending last 36 hours treating the casualties who have been as he described barbarically injured by hamas. And i think for people like him, Front Line Emergency workers, this is so out of their normal realm of experience. Hes used to treating casualties of Terrorist Attacks in israel but nothing of the bar barrett on this. The police behind me, it takes time to settle in. The Police Officers have just come back to sort of take control of the area around there bombed out police station. It is entirely different. And for the broader civilian population, they are coming to terms what has happened. Yes, the reality is people recognize that this is going to take some time to play out for the political decisions to be made, for the issues about the hostages to be dealt with, for the response to be delivered to hamas. It is going to take some time to put all of that in place. But i think were still in that phase of people are just till immersed in the utter shock and brutality of what has happened and the fact that there are still missiles flying around and that people are still in danger. If youre in ashco, you into he had to be ready to take cover and Central Israel not off the top for israel. And they confirmed 260 people, young people were killed at the site of a Music Festival being held in Southern Israel near the border with gaza. Not too far away. What are you hearing about that . It is shocking to hear that . Reporter this is just one of the parts of what happened on saturday. That is really blown away for want of a better expression. Peoples understanding of what hamas is capable of. They know they are brutal and do terrible things and theyre terrorists and that is how they operate. But the doctor was treating some of those people, wounded in re imand he said people were shot with rocketpropelled grenades and they had their throats cut and shot by gunfire with no way of attacking the militants coming at them. So and that is possibly a Missile Being intercepted overhead and not clear. But there are this is part of the temper, the war that i was talking about. These bangs that were hearing here. But in terms of that music event, there were people were enjoying it, the sun was coming up in the morning and suddenly they were being attacked. The scale and the scope and barbaric that has caught people by surprise. And i think this is why were seeing the Death Toll Climb so steeply today. Is were still in the throes of getting to grips with what has happened and chasing down hamas militants that are still inside of israel proper as well as trying to recover and get to grips with the situation. Recover and identify all of those who were brutally murdered, at that music event. And that is why the figures have gone up so much, as medics could get in and as the Israeli Defense forces could get in there. It is just shocking. Everyone you talk to who has played a role in helping the recovery and rescue effort there, it is still in shock about it, wolf. These kinds of things have never happened in israel before. Young people going to a Music Festival and all of a sudden terrorists coming in with guns and knives and just slaughtering the young people. Killing them. Anyone for just going to a Music Festival. It is really shocking. Nic, tstay stafe over there. And scores of hostages as everyone knows has been taken by the hamas and including children and even holocaust survivors. Joining us now is amir for the newspaper and he and his family were rescued by idf soldiers after his home was besieged for some ten hours. Amir, thank you for joining us. Thanks for writing of your experiences. What a harrowing experience this has been for you, your wife and your two young daughters. First of all, how are you all doing . Thank you, wolf. Relatively were okay. Were safe. As you said, we were in the safe room of our home in our Beautiful Community loebcated o the the border with gaza for ten hours on saturday with no food, no electricity, no Cell Reception for most of the time. My two daughters were real heroes. They kept silent for the entire time, behaved in extremely pature way that i didnt believe a 3yearold and a 1yearold were capable. But they understand the severity through our emotions of the situation and they stayed silent until we were rescued. And yet, i have to say, israel is grieving right now. Yesterday was one of the darkest days if not the darkest day in the history of our country. We lost approximately 700 people so far, that is like more than half of the second antifatah which lasted for five years but so our situation was very tough and we were close to dying at some point. But many other people suffered much more terrible situation and this is right now a very, very sad and difficult situation. Yes, so glad that you and your wife and little girls are okay. And you write very movingly about your 62yearold father who did an extraordinary job at helping to rescue your family. Tell us about that. Yeah, my father is a retired general in the Israeli Military. On saturday morning when we realized what was happening, we started hearing first of all the rockets an the mortars falling on your community and then we ran to the safe room which for people who live in our area close to the border is usually where the kids are sleeping. So we just joined our two daughters in the room. We locked the door and the windows. And we expected something that we have experienced before. Mortar fire on our community. We are accustomed to it unfortunately. But then we started hearing automaker gunfire. And we realized that this is a different kind of event that terrorists have infiltrated our community. And at first we heard the gunfire in a bit of a distance, and this goat closer and closer until we heard it right outside of our window. They were shooting into our house. I told my parents that we are locked in the safe room. That there are terrorists in the neighborhood and that there is nobody there to help us. The Israeli Military was caught by surprise. And i have to say, wolf, what happened yesterday is the biggest failure of any Israeli Government in the history of this country. The government did not function and the citizens were left alone for long hours to try to defend themselves and so i told my parents who live in tel aviv, it is about a hour and 20 minutes drive that this is the situation. And my parents said were coming. Now, the roads were blocked. Terrorists were Infiltrating Community after community all over the border. What happened in our Little Community was not unique just to us. It was happening in many different places, at the same time. You mentioned this Music Festival, that is a ten minute drive from our home. More than 200 people were slaughtered there. And so the military was caught by surprise and did not have enough resources in the beginning to help everyone. And the tragic result is what were seeing, this large number of casualties. But my parents made their way toward the border area. And toward us. At some point they split, my mom stayed, you know, in a more safe place and my father began a very dangerous journey to try to get to our community. On the way, he witnessed he just had a pistol with him. He witnessed an ambush of a group of Israeli Soldiers by hamas. And he and another soldier intervened to help fight the terrorists. And then took two Wounded Soldiers back with them. They had already got in close to our community. But they went back the Wounded Soldiers and handed them over to my mother so they could take them to the hospital and try to save their lives. And then they returned and made the trip again and they joined a group of soldiers who were planning to begin the process of going from housetohouse, in this community. We are a community of about 500 to 600 people. From housetohouse to looker to the terrorists, kill them and free the people. And they did this methodically, they went through dozens of houses, we were not aware that this was happening because by that point we had lost all cell phone reception. But we heard the gunfire. We realized that there were exchanges of fire between the two sides and that is when i told my two young daughters who were beginning to lose patience after nine and a half hours, i told Them Grand Ffather is comi. Stay silent and stay quiet and grandfather is coming. And after another hour of this battles from home to home, that the soldiers engaged in. We heard a large bang on the window of the safe room and the voice of my father and my older daughter, shes 3 1 2 years old, she said grandfather is here. And that is when we started crying for the first time after ten hours in this situation. Did you ever think, amir, that because you live so close to gaza, in that kibitz, that the fall or the fence separating gaza could be penetrated along those lines by the Hamas Terrorists and that they would go into israel and start kidnapping and killing everybody they saw . Wolf, ill tell you, ho honestly, this is not something we could imagine would happen and i think hamas was surprised by its own success. I do not believe they thought on saturday morning when they began this operation that they would end it with more than 100 israeli kidnapped inside of the gaza strip which is something weve never had before. I remind you that 12 years ago israel, one of the previous governments of Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to release more than 1,000 Palestinian Terrorists, prisoners for one israeli soldier. For one soldier. A government in israel released 1, 1,000 prisoners. And if they thought they could kplap several israelis it would be a major win. They have more than 100 people in their hands right now. This is unprecedented and again the most important thing right now is to win this war. And to win it decisively for israel. But we also have to be honest about what happened here. This is the largest failure in the history of our country. Amir, the Diplomatic Correspondent for the newspaper and also the former washington correspondent for us. Amir, thank god you are okay and your wife and little girls are okay. We are all very grateful for that. Be strong over there. We will stay in touch. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for having me. Well have much more on all of the Breaking News coming and there is a lot of Breaking News. Up next, ill speak live with a spokesperson from the idf. This is a Special Edition of the situation room, israel at war. [ sound of gunfire ] new video just coming in. This happened in thei israeli city moments ago in Southern Israel. Were following the Breaking News. Israeli police say the new Rocket Attack made a direct hit on an Apartment Building in that southern city. The Idf Spokesperson major Ben Wellhouse is joining us now. Thank you for joining us. You could update our viewers here in the United States and Around The World what is the situation on the ground right now amid this new barrage of rockets being fired into israel by hamas . Thank you, wolf, yes, it is just past midnight here in israel. And we are still under constant attack from gaza. Hamas and other Terrorist Organizations like the Palestinian Islamic jihad are still trying to invade by land and sea and air. We are still fighting for israeli territory. Families are still stuck inside of their home and uncertain what is going on outside. Waiting for people to save them. And as youve shown weve under constant attack all throughout israel, southern and Central Israel thousands of rockets being fired indiscriminately into israel from gaza. I know the latest rockets hit the city of ashculla, did they reach tel aviv as well. Yes, we have had rockets reaching tel aviv. Im talking you from tel aviv. My family lives here and my three children are constantly running down to the basement to the bomb shelter, im obviously not with them. But thousands, hundreds of thousands of people in israel tonight are spending their time in the Bomb Shelters with the sirens trying to protect themselves and their loved ones. At this hour, could you give us an update on how many israelis have been killed by these Hamas Terrorists and how many hostages are being held . Yes, we have now certain that over 700 people have been killed since this attack started. And it is important to mention that this is not just soldiers or young men, these are women, these are elderly, these are children, entire families, absolutely massive executed in cold blood by hamas. Their bodies mutilated in some cases. Some of them taken back into gaza. And we know that we have tens of hostages now inside of gaza. Soldiers and civilians alike and women and children and elderly. They just took everyone they could and you see some of the things on social media, how theyre treating those people. And theyve taken them back into gaza. This latest strike that hit ashculla, does the iron dome, the air missile system, did it not work as far as all of the missiles launched against the town. Thank god for iron dome and the u. S. And our israel cooperation on that respect and we appreciate the u. S. Assistance so much. That is been declared today. But hamas is Firing Barrages with a aim of trying to overcome the iron dome. Your viewers will know weve been Fighting Hamas for years and each time they try and make an additional effort to over come our defenses and while we invest our money in trying to protect our people to give them