Hamas Firing A Barrage of rockets. This is video of people scrambling in the wreckage as sirens blared in the israeli city of ash ka lon. Come to us. Come to us. Tell me where i go. You can see streaks in the sky. We have seen the iron dome here three miles from the gaza border. A lot of there is one over there coming in. You are going to hear it right up there. Got it. See if we can watch that one. And you can see those Iron Dome Interceptions right above us. This is video of the destruction in gaza this morning. The government warning that all electricity will completely stop and fuel runs out for Hospital Generators today. Right now we dont know the fate of all the hostages who are kidnapped from israel taken to gaza. President biden confirmed americans are among the captives and at least 20 u. S. Citizens are currently unaccounted for. The death toll in israel from hamas assault continues to rise. 1,200 people now confirmed dead as the scale and savagery of hamas massacre of civilians comes to light more and more each day. 14 americans confirmed dead. That number is expected to rise today. Lets begin with erin burnett in ashkelon. What are you seeing right now . We have been following you throughout the morning. What are you seeing at the moment . Reporter all right. So, phil, we are actually moving here to a stairwell because we are hearing again incoming. So our Security Team is having us move to the stairwell. So we are just taking shelter here. The north side of a building because, obviously, the rocket fire from gaza is coming from the south. Obviously, you saw what happened earlier when we were where the Israeli Military is amassing in ashkelon. We understand earlier, they said we said dozens and dozens of rockets were fired. Now we know 60 were fired and 60 broke through dome or partially inter intercepted by the israeli iron dome. There were remnants in ashkelon. 12 people were injured and we are going to be heading over there in a few moment. We are here now in ashkelon and, as you can see, obviously, there are other people here. This is a city. City of more than 100,000 people. The roads are very empty but not completely empty and there are cars going by even as we heard the thudding that caused our security to ask us to move back into the stairwell on the northern side of this building in ashkelon. You were speaking with us last hour about the proximity and how its so different covering this war than ukraine, for example, and the fact that you went to ashkelon in less than an hour. It just shows us exactly that. How close everything is. Reporter from where we were, which was in the ashkelon area, but really essentially in vast open sort of hilly fields where the Israeli Forces are massing near that border, from there to where we are right now, five or sixminute drive, maybe eightminute drive. And as i said on one side of the road youre within the line of where the actual sirens are going off. On the other side of the road we found a grocery store. We went inside. Store was not completely empty. I mean, there was actually someone with a full grocery cart. It was quite empty. The shelves were full. There is a semblance of life continuing to go on as normal when people are so used to the general situation, although, of course, not the unprecedented specifics of the situation that we are in right now. Erin, right now you cant see it, we are showing a splitscreen of extremely dense and intense smoke rising in gaza. I know you have seen fighters fly over the top of you throughout the course of the morning, heard about some of the strikes there. Can you talk about just i think this gets to the proxy. You could smell the smoke when the wind was shifting back and forth. What that means for, i think, the future of what is expected to be a very intense conflict . Reporter yes, you can smell i should say i dont know if you can see from albert the woman behind me i dont think wants to be seen on camera s. She was offering us orange juice with cups. I dont know if tu can see that. That has what we have been experiencing here. You see the smoke and it smells. That horrible, thick smell, which, you know, you are close enough to smell. When the wind shifts you can absolutely smell it there as well. Nic robertson is also watching all that. He was 60 rockets over ashkelon where we are probably not far away from each other here in this city . Reporter yeah, we spent most of our time until sderot. It gives you that slightly different perspective because what you are witnessing, what were witnessing in ashkelon is that sort of little uptick, slight uptick compared to a few days ago in people trying to go about their daily business, going shopping, a few more cars on the road. In sderot it is not entirely deserted but most people have left. The stores are all closed. There is nowhere to go to buy anything. On the streets there really serious and significant foot patrols of military doing their patrols through the town there because there is still a concern about hamas infiltration, although there is nothing for sure. They are taking a lot of precautions. What were witnessing close to gaza is this continued heavy artillery barrages, this heavy artillery firing into Gaza Last Night. We could see the flash from where we were, and about four seconds later the boom was so loud, the doors and the windows of the building we were in were rattling. The roof was shaking. Then there will be the airstrikes as well on gaza. But you really understand as weve been traveling around this morning, coming from sderot to where we are in ashkelon at the moment, just that increase in military presence. We have been talking about it the past few days. The convoys get bigger. Not only do you see the convoys, but see the troops deployed on the ground with their backpacks, carrying stretchers, carrying radios, theyre carrying bed rolls. These are soldiers who are not going back to a Barracks Anywhere tonight. They are out in the field. They are deployed. Close to the border with that fence to Gaza Last Night we could hear a lot of Heavy Equipment on the move. It sounded like possibly tanks, hef mechanical diggers, all the sorts of things we have seen in the past that have been brought in by the military in advance of an incursion. Although, there is no order for an incursion, i think for all the troochs that are arriving here, they know that that is such a real possibility. And i think, you know, its giving a sense of security again to the population here that they are coming out. But the closer you get to gaza, its much more of a military zone, not a civilian zone. Reporter watching some of those convoys go by, one thing that struck me is you would have someone on the top with the machine gun, fully ready to go, you know, not sitting and waiting. Fully ready to go. One thing i know you also had a chance to experience, is sort of why we are here to begin with, we are getting more and more understanding of the horrific atrocities that happened in peoples homes when these militants went doortodoor slaughtering people. You went it a kibbutz where that happened. Can you tell us what you actually saw . Reporter absolutely. And i will tell you tabout a conversation i had. Would actually two conversations it this morning. I have been visiting a man who escaped. I mean, he doesnt know how he was so lucky. But he had hidden out in one of the rocket shelters, the hard shelters, the concrete shelters, when hamas was coming. He didnt know that they were coming. He hid there because of the rocket attack. This was saturday morning. And then he said all these other young people that were fleeing that Music Festival, they arrived in their cars and piled into this tiny, tiny space in the shelter. Its a tiny space. And he said there were about 20 people crammed in there. Hamas gunman, he said, came up. The shooting, they could hear getting louder and louder. Then they stopped. They started shooting into this shelter where he was. Opening fire on people that were cowering there. Then after firing, they threw a grenade in. He said it was just chaos. People screaming. People moaning. People in agony. Then he said they threw another grenade in and he saw it and he turned to the wall to try to protect themself, but he said amazingly it didnt go off and the shooting stopped. And then when he ventured out, he said he had to climb over people to get out. When he ventured out, there were two policemen, israeli policemen outside with handguns and he thinks that they had helped save him and a couple of others in the shelter because they drove the hamas fighters away. He is still coming to terms with what happened. Of course, he helped put some of the survivors, some of the victims in his car and drove them out area, got him as close to hospital as possible. Reporter all right. Nic, thank you. Nic near in ashkelon near the gaza border. Phil and poppy, i send it back to you. We are going to head over to try to show everyone a little bit more about the impact of what happens when one of these rockets actually strikes and breaks through that dome. Back to you. We will be checking in with you. You and your team stay safe. Pass our appreciation on to the woman who offered you orange juice. I think it shows humanity and personal side of this as well. Erin burnett, thank you. Back to cnn military analyst colonel cedric leighton. Erin reported that six rockets broke through the iron dome. Its not infallible. Talk through that. So basically, phil, what you see every system is vulnerable. I cant emphasize that enough. When you see the iron dome in full effect here, you are able to see it take out some of the incoming rockets. The problem that you have is they can handle about 80 rockets per battery. Once you get beyond that, once the system is saturated you have a whole different situation here. And so you can tell, you know, when the Rocket Strikes occur, when hamas is doing conducting these Rocket Strikes, they can go all over israel and do this. Most of the time these Rocket Strikes are intercepted. However, every time they saturate the system and the system isnt ready to take care of the trajectory as it comes to assess where its going on any other anomaly you get an impact and the kinds of things you see in ashkelon and several other cities right around here. And the reason for that is the system is really dependent on accurate radar pictures. In some cases, accurate intelligence. And the ability of the operators of the system to actually figure out whats going to happen with the incoming rockets. And that really becomes the key thing. Colonel cedric leighton, thank you for standing by. We will get back to you soon. Fords. And moments from now, congress is set to receive a classified briefing on the state of the war. Democratic Congressman Dean Phillips will be briefed. He joins us live right ahead of that. Crystal clear. We stand with israel. We stand with israel. And we will make sure it has what it needs to take care of its citizens. Defend itself and respond to this attack. President biden declaring the United States unequivocal support for israels war on hamas and saying he intends to ask congress to approve new funding for israel. You are looking at live pictures now. Look at those smoke plumes out of gaza city. Moments ago, lawmakers are set to receive a classified briefing within the hour. Joining us now one of the representatives who will be at that briefing is democratic Congressman Dean Phillips of minnesota. He is on the Foreign Affairs committee, the Ranking Member of The Middle East subcommittee. He traveled to israel in august and met with Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu both times. Good morning, congressman. Good morning. Good to be with you. Seeing those live images, you heard the boom there. You heard the strikes as they are ongoing. You met with netanyahu twice. Given your recent trips there, those critical meetings, what is your assessment of how you believe israel will respond in the coming days . Sadly, poppy, its clear. There will likely be a Ground Invasion of gaza. Its the last thing that israel wants to do. Its the last thing the world wants to see. But it is the responsibility of any democratically elected government to protect its people. The failures of security and intelligence in the last week are graphic and israel has a responsibility. I ask americans to recognize. Imagine if missiles were raining on us from canada. Imagine if thour own babies had their heads decapitated. This is horrifying. I am a human being. These images and the depravity of hamas has got to be addressed. They have got to be neutralized. And then and only then can we really plant the seeds of peace, which is going to be the next prerogative. That has why i have been traveling to The Middle East to inspire that. You said to end this as quickly as we can pursue peace. That is your mission. The question remains how complicated it is when you have so many civilians stuck in gaza and americans held hostage and israelis held hostages while we learned from phils interview with matt miller at they are working with israel, egypt, allies to try to find safe passage. The Rafa Crossing is not available now. This is one Palestinian American speaking to jake tapper yesterday. Is is there anywhere to go to escape this barrage of missiles . No. We tried everywhere. They say go to the shore and then they bomb the shore next day. They say go to the north, then they bomb the north areas next day. Like, everywhere. They are bombing everywhere. So no place is safe in gaza strip. Do you believe it is crucial to find a way for the people like her to exit before this Ground Invasion that you believe is coming . Poppy, again, as a human being, absolutely. My heart is bleeding for israeli parents who lost their children and for palestinian parents who are suffering and losing their own. Of course. Thats why i traveled to riyadh recently, to jerusalem, to inspire what we expect will be peace between saudi arabia and israel. We think that may be the beginning of the very peace that we have been seeking for a half century between israel and palestinians. But i want to remind people, hamas has sworn to israels destruction, sworn to annihilate the jewish people. Until they change that disposition, there is going to be more death, there is going to be more destruction. And i ask, i plead, i invite palestinians to recognize that principled leadership in this time has never been more important. And if and when they achieve that there might be a chance because then the rest of the world can push both sides together and ensure we never see the images we have seen. We must redouble efforts because the irans, hezbollah, they did this to disrupt that Peace Process because it frightens them. They want people to be well aware what this is about. There is some Division Within the Democratic Party, within the democrats in the house, including cori bush, and also ilhan omar of minnesota. In fact, your website notes they are the only neighboring districts in america represented by members of jewish and muslim faits. She wrote, i want your reaction. Instead of continuing unconditional Weapons Sales and military aid to israel, i urge the United States at long last to use diplomatic might to push for peace. What is your response to that in this moment . Look, i dont want to get into these complicated issues on television. But i will say that there is right and wrong and its Black And White to me right now. We have to support israel. I mean, anybody who has seen what hamas has done, anybody who knows what the charter reads has to make a choice. I know reasonable people can disagree. I dont think thats a reasonable proposition. With that said, yes, we should have empathy for human beings, period. Israelis and palestinians. I dont know why two thins cant be true at once. I sake exception to some of my colleagues support of some of the protests, swastikas and antisemitism. I ask people to empathize with both people right now. There is wrong and right and the United States will be on the side of right no matter what a handful of our colleagues think. The overwhelming majority of democrats and republicans feel the same way. Let me remind you, we cant do anything until we have a speaker of the house. I call on my gop colleagues, meeting after our classified briefing to, hopefully, choose a new leader who will become a speaker of the house. Absent that we cant provide a dollar, cant take care of americans, cant take care of ukraine and israelis if we want democracy to win at the end of the day. Look for your chamber to be paralyzed at a moment like this on The World Stage is stunning. Its embarrassing. Congressman, you made a lot of headlines within the Democratic Party for being very vocal about your support of President Biden for all he has done and his record but not for him as the next nominee. You recently even stepped down from House Leadership and said that it is clear that my convictions about 2024 are incongruent with the positions of my colleagues and that was causing discomfort. Many asked if you are going to run. I wont ask that question because i think you have been clear. I will ask if events of the last week and war breaking out in israel, fieears of escalation, fears whether support for ukraine will continue, the divide in the republican party, no speaker. Do you take that position . Do you think it is something that makes america looks more vulnerable to our enemies to have division on that front within the Democratic Party . Absolu