Transcripts For CNNW CNN 20240703

Israel is at war with hamas after the worst attack on this country since the 1973 war. Ordinary israelis and citizens from All Over The World with Nowhere To Run and nowhere to hide. Its the scale and the scope and the bar barety and the immediacy of it. We got used to the rockets. This was completely different attack that nobody was prepared for. We went to celebrate life and most horrible attack that happened in our history. Obviously theres no denying that theres a history of iran aiding hamas. Could unfold and get worse but well overcome it. Israelis are united. We all stand together. I need him back. We need him back. Hes a hero. We need to establish control back and do that as fast as possible in this unprecedented scenario. They also have to be incredibly aware of hostages. Theyre using them as Human Shields. Very real concerns as the tempo really continues to ratchet up. And we start with Breaking News this morning. Hamas launching a barrage of rockets on israel after the Israeli Military announced it had regain control of all towns near gaza. That is brand new video of the fiery aftermath in the city of ashgalon not far from the hamas border. Come after there was an unprecedented Surprise Attack by land, sea and air. Going door to door in israeli towns. Killing civilians and taking hostages. This morning, israels Defense Minister announced a complete siege of the gaza strip, no electricity, no food, no fuel. These are live pictures this morning out of gaza where israeli air strikes pummelled hundreds of targets overnight. The death toll has risen on both sides. More than 070 people confirmed dead in israel and nearly 500 palestinians killed. Video also shows the horror at a Music Festival where 260 people were found dead. And this is drone video of burned out cars at the site. We have Team Coverage on all of this. Lets start with our Nic Robertson live on the ground in israel. Nic, you witnessed the strikes in ashdod today. Strikes are happening in gaza as we speak. What can you tell us . Reporter yeah. Im quite literally listening to fighter jets in the sky above me now. The air base that these fighter jets take off from is not too far from where we are and gaza is in this direction over here. Thats where they go to. Thats where theyve been going to. And we have seen after almost every Rocket Attack coming out of gaza, these fighter jets are in the air. Theyre on station. Theyre trying to target the attackers before they launch those rocket. Trying to attack the launch sites afterwards as well and degrade that hamas infrastructure inside of gaza. We witnessed today in ashdod, which is on the mediterranean sea, coastline, about halfway between gaza and tel aviv to the north, we witnessed incoming hamas rocket. We saw the iron dome defensive Missile System try to intercept them. We saw some of the Rocket Strikes get through in ashdod. Also, about 20 miles to the south of there in ashgalon, it was also targeted in the same barrage. We understand there were casualties in ashdod as well. It seems that although the scale of those barrages of hamas rockets have reduced in number, some of them are still able to penetrate this defensive Missile Shield that is protecting the civilian population here that the reason that most people try to go about their daily lives is normal at the moment. This is a very fluid, very on going, very active situation which we get closer to gaza today to see the areas where the idf regained control and forced out hamas militants from that area. Nic to that point, the idf saying they regained control of the border towns. Is there an expectation that will hold . Or does that remain fluid as well . Reporter i think the expectation is that will remain pretty much in hold. What weve witnessed on the road today, we have seen heavy armor on the road today. More troops moving south towards gaza. We saw that through the night last night. It is very clear that that the means, mechanics of repairing the fence line and reenforcing the fence line with troops and heavy armor, thats in place. Once the fence is secure and it does appear to be secure, then that stops hamas coming through ideally. This time clearly having those Intelligence Failures previously now israel will be they will have more eyes on that fence, more eyes on that area, that zone between gaza and the fence hamas breached come across into israel. So once that is secure, it seems to be, it should prevent more incursions. But again, not to overemphasis, there were intelligence deficits. Are there tunnels . Are there other ways for hamas to get across . If it is, it appears it would only be in very small numbers. But, the level of security now is getting in place to mitigate against different that happening. Nic robertson, thank you for the reporting. Stand by. Let me bring in our chief International Anchor Christiane Amanpour with more. The development in the last hour or so is that israels Defense Minister has ordered a complete Siege Of Gaza. In his words that means no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything closed. The question is that the beginning of what may become a Ground Incursion into gaza . Well, you can imagine that the pressure is massively high. This has been massacre thats been called executions, unprovoked. The biggest number of israelis, civilians killed since the founding of the state in one day. So its huge. It even outpaces what happened 50 days ago of the yom kippur war. Clearly managed to evade and dupe israel hamas did in what they did. So, what does their next potential steps . Here i would like to read a little bit of what one of the premier Military Analysts in israel who has been on this network said, urgent negotiations are probably under way now, he says, to try to have a Prisoner Exchange agreement. Under which as we know from the past, hamas will demand extortionate conditions. The soldier taken and held for five years was released only in response of more than 1,000 palestinian prisoners. Then potentially a crushing aerial campaign happening now against hamas target which is will kill also he says thousands of civilians. The tightening of the blockade of this trip and damaging the infrastructure. That of course could increase humanitarian disasters and as has happened in the past get the International Community involved in trying to figure out how to stop this. But this time it seems very, very different in that this is really breached a huge redline, unlike any other confrontation of israel and hamas. The four previous confrontations. It seems that israel is saying right now it wants to decapitate hamas and the leadership. The other question which many israelis are talking about right now is what about the government. And theyre criticizing Prime Minister netanyahus cabinet who he was essentially strong armed into appointing people in the Security Establishment who have no experience. The far right religious fundamentalists who made up the government of israel. So there will be a lot of pressure there as well. Poppy, phil . Nic robertson, Christiane Amanpour, dont go far. Well come back to throughout the hour. Joining us now is the International Spokesperson for the idf. Thank you for being with us. A few things i would like to understand from you this morning. First of all, do you have an update on the death toll . So again, the numbers are thousands. Very high numbers. Hasnt changed much. What we came out earlier is same more or less number. Dozens of kidnapped civilians and hostages. Civilians and soldiers in the gaza strip. We are slowly finishing to secure the communities within the envelope of the gaza strip. I think were at the end of it. There still might be terrorists inside israel. But right before we came on, there was sirens going off in the north. And galalee, Rocket Attacks as we speak on going. Do you have an update on the number of israeli and american hostages taken . I cannot give you the exact number. Were still learning the numbers. I know there is also other foreign civilians that got kidnapped. A german, a canadian and also some americans, yes. Just in the last hour we have learned that the israeli Minister Of Defense has ordered a complete Siege Of Gaza in his words. No food, no electricity, no fuel. Everything closed. What is happening right now, for instance, has water been cut off . Again, im sorry that i have to go back a bit because everybody is running right now to whats happening in gaza. Right now we are still coming from an unparallel attack that happened into our communities. Before we run to whats happening in gaza, i want you to capture what happened within the israeli society. This is an epic event. This is not like the conflicts that we had before. Yes, we are attacking and striking within the gaza strip. Yes, hamas has been in control in the gaza strip for 15 years or more. We do not have to supply them electricity. They have their own electricity. They have their generators. We are not going after hamas targets, cynically they have entrenched themselves within civilians. We are now messaging certain areas in gaza to evict from certain locations where we know theres hamas infrastructure, targets. Thats on going. But were fighting. Were still fighting. Yes. Lets talk about that fighting. You said yesterday that the idfs goal in the next 12 hours, and that was yesterday, would be to, quote, end the gaza enclave and kill all the terrorists in our territory. Have you achieved that . We just heard our colleague Nic Robertson talking about the border towns. Do you believe your hold on those border towns is now secure . Its more or less secure. Theres no Big Fire Fights going on right now. There still could be we still havent cleared, where nic has been spending a lot of time, quite a large time. So there could be still terrorists inside israel. They came in in hundreds. So there still could be terrorists. Were slowly scanning each of the communities and also were evacuating the israeli population from these locations. Do you believe a Ground Offensive into gaza is imminent at this point . So all options are on the table. This is these are issues that are being discussed between the idf leadership and our government. It will be decided. This is not something that we have decided. All options are on the table. Can you speak to how the hostages being held by Hamas Inside Of Gaza complicates those efforts and how you plan if there is a Ground Incursion to also rescue them and protect them because the likelihood they would be used as Human Shields is very high. This is a big question. And this is something that well have to figure out how to be disruptive in our action. I will say this has been said by our leadership to the hamas, these are not soldiers that theyve taken. Theyve taken grandmothers, children, young girls, ive seen gruesome and barbaric things on their social medias of driving them in the streets and showcasing these young girls. If they touch a hair on their head, we will get to every one of them. This is something we have experienced before. Unprecedented attack. After the Israeli Soldiers was taken in 2006, the netanyahu government ended up after five years handing over more than 1,000 palestinian prisoners in exchange for him. What cost is israel willing to bear to bring all of these hostages back . Right now as im wearing uniform, that would be a diplomatic discussion happening in other channels. Right now were focussing on severe Military Action against the hamas that started this. Again, i know that everybody is now running to the hamas started this and were performing severe Military Action to degrade their capabilities. So finally, on the objective that you have now, can you lay out the idf objective for the next 24 hours . So right now our Main Objective is to first of all finish the safety, evacuate the communities and around the gaza strip, secure our border. And start conducting strikes on hamas targets. Last night just to put it into context, launching areas of all these hundreds of warriors that came through into israel. Its not people coming into work or for medical activity. Warriors coming into carnage, kill, kidnap civilians. One more question before you go i know you have so much on your plate, do you have any information about the health of those being held hostage . Sadly we do not. Thank you very much for all of your time and all of the information this morning Lieutenant Colonel hecht. We appreciate it very much. Thank you very having me. The world is watching. This new video showing rockets fired from gaza city into israel. Also new very disturbing images surfacing from the attack on that Music Festival where 260 bodies were recovered. More of our breaking coverage ahead. Sirens ringing right now in northern israel. Hamas and israel have been exchanging rocket fire. This has been happening throughout the morning. Hamas saying they have launched rockets beyond the area just surrounding gaza. Also toward jerusalem and at tel aviv. Becky anderson joins us now again live. Youre live in tel aviv what can you tell us . We have been on the sharp end of those hamas rockets this morning. To the extent we can hear a continuous low level boom likely. The iron dome intercepting those missiles. Hamas confirming that they fired a series of rockets this morning. None of those landed, you know, in an impactful way. But we are hearing this continuous boom. We had sirens going off here in tel aviv where i am. Were about 28 minutes from the airport here. Our engineer who is coming in through the airport this morning had to hit the deck and videoed what you are seeing here, plumes of smoke it seems very choes to the airport. So this is the intensity of this conflict is significantly ratcheting up, beyond no illusion, the idf telling me yesterday and speaking to the Opposition Leaders again, this is early days to a certain extent. Only the beginning. And we should expect the intensity of this conflict to significantly ratchet up. As far as the u. S. Ambassador to israel is concerned, i can quote him here as well as other sources here, hamas has fired Something Like 4,400 rockets. Thats more than the total number of rockets that were fired in the last conflict. And that is in day three, 50 hours into this at present. Its clearly uncharted territory. We have been talking about that for some time now. But i think now its quite clear. You have just spoken to the Idf Spokesman there who is not really mincing his words at this point. I know they cant give his numbers on the hostages held inside gaza at this point. But its clear there are huge concerns about what is going on there. Theyre telling us they have now secured the communities around the gaza border. But admit that there is militant Activity Still on the israeli side of that border. But from this perspective here now in tel aviv and reports of the sirens going off as a result of the barrage of rockets from hamas today on jerusalem, this is ratcheting up and the next hours and days are going to be absolutely crucial. No question about it. Becky anderson, please keep us posted. Great reporting. Thank you. There are disturbing and graphic new videos from the unprecedented aid tacks over the weekend. They show at least four hostages, roaming in an area nearly three miles from the border with gaza. Next to burned out cars and bulldozer. The end of the video also shows four bodies. I want to bring in bobby gauche, jeh johnson is back with us and so is Christiane Amanpour. Bobby, start with you, trying to draw parallels to past events similar kind of escalations. Its difficult because i dont know that we have ever seen anything to this scale certainly in recent memory, perhaps ever. Yeah. This is its own thing. I think we have to wrap our heads around this. This is terrorism on a scale that we have never seen. Its a combination there are some parts to it if you focus only some aspects, it may give the appearance of military operation. But this is terrorism when you drag civilians into the street and shoot them which apparently happened to these people. Thats just terrorism, pure and simple. We have gone from that phase now. Israels response will look much more like war, certainly like war as we have seen it take place in that part of the world. And that will add to the general sense of confusion. There will be a tendency and there will be certainly from the hamas side they will try to portray this as this is an act of war. Were in war with israel. We have always been at war in israel. What were doing is fair. But its not. Its just not. They specifically targeted civilians. They targeted young people who were doing nothing more dangerous than participating in a Music Festival. This is purely terrorism. Its just new the next iteration. 9 11 was one iteration. The attacks in paris were another iteration. This is a new iteration. And all terrorism, striking civilian, children, the elderly. We heard from the holocaust survives as well. Does this remain a war between israel and hamas . Or does this get much larger . What role does hezbollah play coming from South Lebanon . This is what Secretary Blinken said on that front that theyre watching very closely just yesterday. Here it is. We saw some limited firing of missiles coming from lebanon toward israel. That seems for now to have stopped. The israelis responded immediately. And as of now, thats quiet but its something were watching very carefully. Does this become larger, christian . Clearly this is the whole question. Theres two aspects. Theres the hostages inside d gaza. Theres the need to decapitate once and for all and the wider middle east region. So, hezbollah did send some. Israel sent some back. It appears that that was so far status report essentially hezbollah saying were here. We support hamas but hasnt got bigger than that. The west is looking at what might erupt on the west bank or allied nations like jordan, a very rested palestinian population in jordan which has one of the only well, one of the first two Peace Agreements with israel along with egypt. So these are all very, very, very sensitive issues that historically do manifest themselves when this kind of confrontation has happened in the past. Now, the additional is very, very intense looking at irans role in this. You saw and we played the iranian president praising the hamas action. And you know that the iranian the other officials in the u. N. Said we had nothing to do with it. Certainly the west is looking to see if there is any evidence of that. Then that brings in a whole another set of very, very dangerous potential escalatory moves. At the same time, any hope that the u. S. Had that making deals between israel and other members of the arab world in addition to the abraham accords, any hope that the u. S. Had that that could take care of a situation which is on going the middle east has been crushed today. That is most definitely on hold. And again, the u. S. Is involved because its sending its Carrier Group and historically had the most influence between certainly the Palestinian Authority, not with hamas, but the Palestinian Authority and israel. Mr. Secretary, to that point, we have seen the actions that the u. S. Has taken up to this point both the words but also in sending the Carrier Group. Take us inside in your former position, the secretary of Homeland Security what are you doing over the course of the last 72 hours . If i were at the department of Homeland Security, i would be doing what im sure theyre doing right now, which is to widen the intelligence Law Enforcement aperture, getting out to state and local Law Enforcement everything that we see, the potential for violence here in the homeland. There was just a few blocks away yesterday in times square confrontation between palestinians and israelis that got pretty intense. If i were secretary of dhs, i would be putting out the word to state and local Law Enforcement that mosque and synagogues need to be on heightened alert, heightened security and heighten awareness and that state and local Law Enforcement itself right now needs to be vigilant. We should not assume that though this is a hemisphere away, things are as normal here in this country. Passions are high. Anger is high. And so this is a time of heightened alert here in this country as well. We just heard from the Idf Spokesman colonel hecht, he said all options are on the table. If a Ground Incursion happens, what does that mean . Reoccupation of gaza. Phil brought up a great point last hour, they can get in. How do they get out . What would that look like . I cant imagine that the israelis want to reoccupy gaza. Thats taking on an enormous burden, security burden. They will want to do as much as they can to degrade hamas capability. Hamas has shown a much greater capability than anybody had given them anyone was aware that they could put together. So that needs to be severely degraded. Decapitating hamas. Im skeptical of that. Its a multiheaded beast. You dont where the head is, who is head is at any one time and what you would qualify, what israel would consider to be the head of hamas. I mean, quite a lot of the Political Leadership is in turkey, not even in gaza. If israel went in with land forces, it would go in to try to engage as many fighters as it could possibly do so and take them out. Whatever Israeli Intelligence has on the current leadership of those fighters in gaza, they will want to take them out. Obvious complication being there would be hundred of thousands of ordinary civilian palestinians and now possibly more than 100 hostages, possibly including some americans. So that is a complicating factor that really is hard for the israeli planners to game out. Israelis have gamed out almost every scenario that the four of us at this table can imagine to do with gaza. They had people gaming this out for years now. But this with this many civilian hostages on the ground, im not sure they gamed this out. We appreciate your expertise, as always. Thanks very much, guys. President biden throwing his full support behind israel, but the war is happening as the u. S. House didnt even have a fulltime speaker. How can congress get started on sending aid. Well discuss next. Stay with us. Including munitions. This comes as we learn that two members of congress were in israel during the weekend attack. Representative dan goldman and his family were there for a bar mitzvah. They have now safely left the country. And new jersey senator cory booker was in israel for several days of meetings ahead of an economic summit in tel aviv. He spoke on social media after safely leaving the country. About this time yesterday i was jogging behind me in the old city when i got an urgent call from my Chief Of Staff telling me to get back to the hotel as quickly as i could, that israel was under attack. Joining us now is mikey cheryl of mj mj, member of the services committee. Just to start, its over the weekend. The house has not been in session. Whats your understanding in terms of your conversations with colleagues on capitol hill or the administration about where things stand right now. Thanks so much for having me. As i spent last night with hundreds of members of the Jewish Community here in new jersey, many with very close ties to family and friends in israel, many who have lost a loved one in the attacks, i can also tell you that the Attorney General of new jersey is very aware of the situation, has put out extra support for our synagogues, our mosque, our places of worship. However, he did say last night that there were no Credible Threats right now, but we are continuing to monitor the situation to make sure that people who are very concerned about it here are kept safe. And then, moving forward, we are getting back into session tomorrow, i wish it was today, but we have to get a new speaker so we can continue to provide israel with all the resources its needs to defend itself. To that question, i know its been something House Republicans have been trying to figure out throughout the course of the weekend, do you have to have a speaker to be able to move forward on any additional aid packages . Is that your understanding right now . That is my understanding now. Its pretty limited the actions of the speaker pro tem and those actions are basically to be put towards getting a new speaker. Thats what we have to do now. And do you have confidence that republicans can actually secure a new speaker at some point in the coming days . I have confidence that republicans could secure a new speaker, especially if they are willing to work with the majority in the house to make sure that we move forward on that. I would encourage anyone who wants to be the next speaker of the house to do just that. I think our nominee, who we will nominate when we go back on tuesday, Hakeem Jeffries put out an oped about how that could look moving forward. I think its really critically important as we have seen that as speaker of the house not be beholden to an extremist far right group of people that are not focussed on governing the nation or supporting our friends and allies across the world. You know, as were speaking, were showing videos from whats transpired over the course of the last 48 hours on the ground in israel, in your role on the Armed Services committee, were you ever aware that something at this scale could occur like it has over the course of the last several days . You know, as you know, i mentioned i sit on the Armed Services committee. We work hard in the memorandum of understanding in other ways to support israel, to replenish the iron dome when necessary. You know, i had not seen this or indications that this was happening. And were going to do an afteraction report when its appropriate. But right now what we need to do is make sure israel has the resources it needs to defend itself, that up to and including intelligence sharing with United States and in the future we will make sure that we understand how this happened so we can prevent it from happening again. Do you have any sense in your conversations i know u. S. Officials have spoken to are trying to identify what connection, if any, iran had in terms of direct development. Have you received any briefings or indications as to where that stand currently . I have asked for briefings on this, but i think we should be very careful about any understanding of how iran is involved. We know they have given weaponry in the past to hamas. However, i think moving forward we want to make sure we understand exactly how this happened and so we will be looking into that. But i think its too soon to say exactly what role iran may or may not have had in this situation. Very busy week ahead for you guys. I appreciate your time. Thank you. Thanks. Well, this morning the search for dozens of civilians including children, the elderly, theyre among those believed taken hostage by hamas over the weekend and held in locations across gaza. This is complicating israels response. And turning the situation into a Hostage Crisis as well as this war. Among the missing, this young man. His apartments say he was attending a nature party with his friends. They lost contact with him on saturday. His parents shared this photo of him. They have not heard from him since saturday afternoon. That on your screen is a photo of him in shelter. They believe he is hiding out in a border city near gaza. His parents join me now from northern israel. Thank you both for being with us. No one can imagine a parents anguish. Tell us if youve had any update from your son at all. No, we havent had any update. We are trying to contact any piece of information. We have nothing. There is hundreds of parents like us. We cant find any source from any formal source that can tell us anything. We are working with hundreds of people trying to just look for him and all his friends. He looks very young in this picture. How old is he . Hes 20 years old. Can i ask i think you got at this, but try to broaden this out. We have been trying to figure out if you all have been given any information from the authorities, been any contact, been any guidance. Are you saying at this point there simply has not been any contact from Government Officials . There was a contact two days ago for missing people to come and give a dna sample. So, we gave a dna sample of him and mine just to make sure if they find him. And today on the third day of after the attack, some rescue teams, official rescue teams, contacted us and we gave them the exact location the last location we knew and all the information we had and gathered by ourselves from friends and people that saw him or maybe saw him just to try and find him to find something. And thats it. Its chaos. Its so much information coming from unofficial sources. And this is this age of time, of so many sources coming. And we try to find him ourselves. I think much more than the official government or people. You are nodding. Tell me more about that, your efforts to find your son. We have been calling and texting and emailing and just sending photos on social media and asking everyone we know and sending trying to look for people in upper scales in the official authorities and just no one is contact we have no parents to this whole event. We are trying to connect with other parents. We are trying to connect with just we dont know anything. Please, please, if anyone can help us and all the other parents find our children, he was there with his friend. I hope you have her picture as well. Yes. And we are desperate, desperate to find our children. Please. If anyone can just contact someone that can help us. We are were trying to find him in the hospital, on the injured. Morgue, is not on the kidnapped list. Nothing. And we are, you know, three days you dont do nothing about your son. Its hard. Very, very hard. I cant even imagine. Can you tell people a little bit about your son, as you continue to try keep hope to get any kind of information. What was he like . What is he like . What is he like. He is an amazing soul. Everybody that meets him loves him. He has this charming smile. Hes 64. Hes this huge gentle giant. His father is a deejay and his dream is to be a deejay like his father. Thats what he loves to do. He loves to be in nature with his friends and celebrate life. Thats what they were doing over there. They were just going out to have a good time in this crazy world that they live in. Like young people should do. Yes. And we cant even imagine such an event happening in such a happy place that its purpose is just to make good to yourself and to each other. And its like the craziest horror movie which was nobody could ever dream Something Like this could happen. And people doing this stuff to other people. We will keep showing the picture of your son as well as his friend who i know was with him when he went missing. We will share this on all of cnn social media accounts. And we are here if there is anything we can do to help. Thank you. Please do anything you can. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Of course. New video just in to cnn showing israel moving heavy armor and troops towards gaza. More details from cnn reporters on the ground. Thats next. Just into cnn, this is new video and youre going to be looking at heavy right there, heavy armor and troops moving towards gaza from israel. This comes after the third day of hamas and israel exchanging rocket fire. Nic robertson joins us now. Nic, explain to people exactly where you are in the context of all of this. And what youre seeing at this mom moment. So were in a town called offakim. Were about ten miles from gaza. Gaza is in that direction. And when hamas stormed in on saturday, this town, ten miles from israel proper, was the furthest theyve got into israel. Weve heard from Israeli Defense forces today saying theyve got all Hamas Elements Out of israel. That situation is under control here. What we have seen on the highway driving down here today, we have seen some of that heavy military armor. In fact, theres some part well, i shouldnt go into details about the dispensation of military equipment, but we have seen some on the highway, and some relatively close by. And we have seen as well troops moving in this direction towards gaza as well. Not huge numbers, but when we add that up with what we saw when we were up in the early hours of this morning, late into yesterday evening and into the night yesterday, it is very clear theres a lot more theres a lot more tanks, a lot more how itzers, heavy mechanized howitzers, Armored Personnel Carriers and additional troops coming in here. The Security Checkpoints are very tight. Theres a high degree of concern again making sure these areas are controlled. And just, weve witnessed here just a few minutes ago, a Small Army Patrol Going by. This is an area where the military presence really is stepping up at the moment. Nic robertson, thank you very much for your reporting. I know youve within on the move all day as youve continued to cover this, just extraordinary of him on the ground. Thank you very much. The palestinian to the United Nations is speaking out against israels military response to the hamas terror att attacks. History for some media and politicians start when israelis are killed. We know only two well that the messages about israels right to defend itself will be interpreted by israel as license to kill. To pursue on the very path that led us here. The death toll is rising on both sides, with more than 700 people confirmed dead in israel, nearly 500 palestinians killed. The u. N. Estimates that more than 123,000 palestinians have already been displaced since the fighting began on saturday. Joining us now palestinian american, middle east analyst omar badar. Appreciate your time. Start with the timing. The big question has been the surprise about how did this happen. How was israel caught so offsense about the timing of why it happened now . I think the timing is inherently random, because otherwise, it would not be a successful Surprise Attack. And i just want to mention that obviously, what weve seen out of it has been absolutely horrific. Ive listen listening to your previous guests who are talking about not being able to find their children. And thats absolutely heartbreaking. I have two little children, and i cannot imagine how i would feel if they were kidnapped and i did not know where they were. But the real scandal here is this is every bit horrific as it is predictable and preventable. I think theres a much more common failure of l common sense that you can put millions of palestinians under indeft occupation as recognized by every major human rights, where israel commits daily war crimes against palestinians everywhere, land theft, lack of access to water, dropping bombs on civilian areas, and think this is not going to lead to an explosion is absolutely insane. This is absolutely predictable. We were obviously heading towards eventually a disaster of this kind. And now, all of this direction towards further militarization and further violence is obviously not going to lead to anything better, because that is exactly the track that got us here. That is absolutely correct. We need a real meaningful solution to the underlying justice that drives this violence. And that has to Nthat Palestinians are declared free of Israeli Occupation. You just heard from david and mikhail searching from their 21yearold son. This is what the spokesman for the idf, colonel hecht said overnight. We dont focus our attacks on women and children. And well do everything we can to minimize collateral damage. But again, we are at war with hamas and sadly, there might be people that are involved killed. It wont be intentional. And sadly, hamas have entrenched themselves in a cynical way within the civilian population. You have said that this conflict cannot be solved militarily. How do you see this ending . Where do you see this going . I mean, look, theres all of these pronouncements about the need to do everything they can to avoid civilian casualties. Its worth emphasizing that israel has pommed gaza many, many times before and Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International and even israeli Human Rights Organizations say this is not at all what israels conduct is. There isnt an effort to minimize civilian casualties. There is mass inselfidiscrimin bombings of civilian areas and were watching that unfold right now. The policy is to punish the entire palestinian population, cutting off electricity to all of gaza, preventing anybody in gaza from coming in and out. This is an act of collective punishment. And this is exactly the trajectory we are unfortunately are on. We are going to see much greater death thats going to cover the entire gaza strip, and at the end of it, palestinians will remain a situation thats under illegal siege, and were only setting ourselves up towards another round of this in the future. What we need rowan is the World Community to come together and start dealing with this shall seriously. Understanding that this policy of giving israel a Carte Blanche to behave however it wants towards palestinians is not way to achieve longlasting peace. You cant keep doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. The one thing that has not been tried so far is allowing palestinians to be free of Israeli Occupation and military dictatorship. And until we start taking palestinian grievance seriously, until israel starts seeing palestinians as decent human beings, im afraid were going to be in stuck in this situation for a very, very long time. Omar baddar, thank for joining us this morning. We have new video this morning that shows what the supernova Music Festival looked like moment before the deadly attack. Young people dancing and celebrating the jewish holiday, but that was before the rockets and gunfire. Cnns Clarissa Ward visited the festival site. We want to warn our viewers, what youre about to see is graphic and disturbing. Reporter what happened just off this quiet border road was a massacre. The bodies of the perpetrators still remain, while the fate of many victims is unknown. Organizers of the supernova Music Festival say that thousands of young revelers had gathered to celebrate the end of the holidays, when just after 6 00 a. M. , hamas militants launched a bloody attack. So were jufsst now on the approach to where that dance party was taking place. You can see, theres vehicles all around here that have been shot up. We see the bodies of at least one, two hamas fighters. I think there are more down this way. Many of the victims spent hours in hiding, waiting to be rescued and calling their loved ones. Reporter many of them are still missing. Many of them are dead. Its been very difficult to try to get a precise number. Now a Volunteer Group that handles Human Remains says that at least 260 bodies have been found at the festival site. The government here took a bold step, releasing an image of scores of body bags in a tent where investigators were tasked with identifying them. So you can see over here the body of at least one other person. I dont think you want to get too close to it. Its pretty graphic. Active fighting continued along this stretch of the border throughout the day, as Israeli Military forces poured in. So were seeing a bunch of tanks being brought down this way. Youve also been hearing a steady stream of booms, apparently rockets landing in the distance in that direction. And certainly a feeling that people are on high alert. We tried to push further down that road, we were told in no Uncertain Terms we needed to turn around. Clarissa ward, cnn, raine, israel. Our Clarissa Ward reporting there. Our cnn this morning continues right now. Hamas launching a barrage of rockets on israel after the Israeli Military announced that it had regained control of all of the towns on the gaza border. You can hear the desperation