Understand up to 20 people in gaza died. And for each of these explosions, there could be a loss of human life, it is a perspective worth remembering for all of us in t these hard days. Thank you so much for joining us. Us. Ac 360 begins right now. Captions by vitac www. Vitac. Com good evening. It is 3 00 a. M. In ashkelon, israel, five days since hamas launched a Surprise Attack from gaza. Israeli troops are amazing along the gaza border. 300,000 Israeli Reservists are, in his words, close to the gaza strip. That is a Fighting Force in a country of only 10 million people, nearly the size of all the reserves in the entire u. S. Military. In addition to mobilizing forces, preparations are underway at hospitals across this country for what might come next. Patients from facilities in the north are being moved to ones in central israel. Health Officials Say in case of escalation and presumably the need to treat casualties there. Right now the focus is on gaza, which Israeli Air Forces pounded heavily again today and the possibility of Ground Forces going in. U. S. Secretary of state Antony Blinken said talks are underway about setting up a humanitarian corridor so civilians and american citizens could leave gaza. He told reporters that efforts are ongoing but are understandably complicated. That is an understatement. Separately today, National SecurityCouncil Spokesman john kirby said, of the 17 americans unaccounted for, down from 20, the number hamas is believed to be holding hostage is, quote, very small, like less than a handful. He warned, however, that the Hostage Number could rise along with the american death toll, which is at 22. And as you might pimagine, the larger death toll continues to rise here as the bodies of more people are recovered. More than 1,200 people have been killed inside israel. Palestinian Officials Say more than 1,100 inside gaza. Rocket fire continues from there. Earlier as we were wrapping up a report from cnns Nic Robertson just a mile from the gaza border, this happened. Anderson, im just going to anderson, im just going to interrupt. The iron dome is going up here, so im expecting more intercepts. Im expecting there are more m missales coming. Well leave the camera rolling. Ill just step into a little bit of cover here. That occurred just a couple of hours ago. Well check in with Nic Robertson in a moment. Well also check in with micah silver berg, who was at the Music Festival, one of the largest slaughters of people, more than 260, according to israeli officials. He and a friend managed to get away from the festival by car and said that in addition to coming under fire from several gunmen, michael fought back and managed to kill two hamas militants with his car, including this one lying by his motorcycle along the road. He hit them with his vehicle. He walked us through it. Well talk to him a little bit later this hour. We begin though right now with cnns Nic Robertson, who you saw just a moment ago, with iron dome interceptor missiles going up around him. He is still in sderot today. The Israeli Defense forces discovered three forces in there. All we could hear was the buildup of Heavy Machine Gunfire and it got more intense and more intense. Towards the end of it, they put up better illumination on the ground for the troops. Shortly after the Israeli Defense force said three hamas militants found discovered the in that area and neutralized, the euphemism thats used here. That is not something that weve seen here around sderot since hamas was finally kicked out over the weekend. But it is indicative of whats happening along the border, why you suddenly get these areas where theres a concentration of israeli troops, where the area is secured off, you cant get into that area. Other things happening that we havent seen as well. Weve seen tanks firing just along there towards the gaza fence line. Its a couple of miles. We knew that the tanks were there, but theyre firing. We dont know why they were firing this evening. Literally the last couple of minutes there was a flare up in the sky there. Not sure what that was doing. There was a fighter jet that flew over, dropped chafe as it flew over gaza. There was a large explosion after that. And a couple other heavy explosions with the big flashes. So, the hour prior was fairly ide quiet. Now theres an uptick again. This is the way it seems to go, quiet, then it picks up. I hear the fighter jet again. A little before that, we were hearing detonation, sort of, further down the gaza strip, further south from us here, anderson. Nic, in terms of that fire fight, is that likely and i think i know the answer to this. But is that gunmen who may have recently crossed over from gaza, or is it likely ones who came over days ago and have been lying low . Yeah, i think its that. I think its that they came through saturday or sunday confusion when hamas still had some fighters over and then went to ground. And the reason we think this is, because when the idf have gone in, in some of these spots theyve found supplies of water, supplies of food, hide holes, hide away places where hamas has been. So, it seems this will have been a group thats gone to ground. They may be hidden in the fields, running out of food, running out of water, coming to the town area to see what they can get. Theyre trying to maybe steal a vehicle, whatever. But they were identified by the troops. And one of the reasons theyre getting spotted more now is its just more troops here. When we arrived here over the weekend to this location, you had patrols of maybe five or six or seven soldiers. Now youre getting patrols of 30 or so soldiers. And its that the numbers of troops that really get the better eyes on the ground and better chance of catching any hamas that are still around. Nic robertson, thank you. With me is clarissa ward, who spent the day at one of kibbutzes not far from the border, a Farming Community where thousands of people live and saturday morning more than 100 were murdered. The stories from these kibbutz, which were the First Communities that got hit, theyre starting to come out in the last day or two. And we seen just a number of horrific scenes. What have you seen today. Its taken a while to get journalists into these kibbutz m because its dangerous still, and its taking a long time to clear the mill at that particular times militants out. It really speaks to the voracity of the battles that the Israeli Military was engaged world war those militants. Honestly, anderson, it is the chilling, horrifying stories of the survivors that really stays with you. Lets take a look. Reporter it was 7 11 a. M. On saturday morning when the m militants arrived. Surveillance video shows them lying in wait until a car arrives. They shoot the driver and enter the compound. More poured in on motorcycles, shooting anything in their way. Eerily at ease and in no apparent hurry. Thomas hand heard the gunshots and immediately thought of his 8yearold daughter, emily, who was stay being a neighbor. She doesnt do it very often, but unfortunately, that night, that particular night, friday night, she went to sleep at her friends house. For 12 hours, he says he was pinned down under heavy gunfire, unable to reach his daughter, as hamas went door to door executing his neighbors. I think the army are going to be here soon. Just hold on a bit longer. And longer. And longer. Reporter by the time the military gained control of beeri, this is what remained the once tranquil community. Late this afternoon, Israeli Forces let journalists in for the first time. I saw a soldier fight here and i fight here myself, only to come from apartment to apartment. It took a lot of time. Does that weigh on your conscience to know how long it took . You know, we have a very difficult question to ask ourself now. We look forward to defend the people, to take the survivors out, and to switch ourself from defense to offensive operation. Im sure that we ask ourself all the difficult questions. Reporter for now there are more pressing questions. The bodies of more than 100 residents have been recovered. But the army says that many more are still missing. You can see the amount of blood. This was a massacre. And the full scale of the horrors that transpired here are just starting to come to light. Pictures, family photographs on the wall. Reporter thomas waited two agonizing days before getting the news. They just said, we found emily. Shes dead. And i went, yes i went, yes, and smiled. Because that is the best news of the possibilities that i knew. That was the best possibility that i was hoping for, she was either dead or in gaza. And if you know anything about what they do to people in gaza, that is worse than death. That is worse than death. The way they treat you, they have no food, they have no water. Shed be in a dark room filled with christ knows how many people and terrified every minute, hour, day, and possible years to come. So, death was a blessing, an absolute blessing. My god. He actually said to me, anderson, afterwards, he said, What A Crazy World it is that we are inhabiting that a father would say that. But that is his reality. And the reality, he said, of others in that community, too, who felt it would be better, it would be more merciful to know that their loved ones went quickly. That was his Immediate Response upon hearing, the yes, as he said. There are a number of kibbutz in which have lost near oz, a kibbutz of some 400 people. They believe as many as a quarter of those people are dead or hostage or missing. It was so striking as well. When we were with the military today, we kept saying, how many people are missing, how many people are dead, how many people are held hostage, how many people escaped, how many they dont know. They dont know. There is still so much confusion. A startling lack of clarity, not just around that but even when you try to get a precise timeline, when did the idf arrive . They said they arrived right away. Then you look at the videos and you see hamas swarming around for quite some time. There is still a huge amount of investigation to be done by journalists, by investigators as time goes forward, to really put together a complete picture of exactly how this all transpired, of the anatomy, if you will, of this massacre. All the families are looking at jihadist videos online, looking for proof of life or death of their loved ones. And thats how many of them are finding out. Its unthinkable. Clarissa, thank you. This was, of course, just one of several kibbutz along the border where hamas carried out massacred and took hostages. Adina watched gunmen murder her husband before being taken hostage. This is video of her somewhere in gaza on the back of a motorcycle. He is 72 years old. That is her, kidnapped. Her husband, who shes been with for 50 years, murdered. Short time ago i spoke to adinas granddaughter. I understand your grandparents and your uncles family, they were living near oz, the kibbutz that was invaded early saturday morning. And your grandfather was killed. Your grandmother is now missing. Can you talk about what you know happened to them . What is the latest that youve learned . Yeah, of course. So, on saturday, 6 30 a. M. , we started to get the messages that there are terrorists inside the kibbutz. My whole family is from there. My uncle, my aunt, their children. We immediately connected with them through messages, asking whats going on. They told us they can hear gunshots outside their windows. They can tell us that there are many people out there. And then we started to get information from the kibbutz people. The first one was my grandmothers neighbor. The terrorists murdered her, shot her, took her phone, filmed it, and uploaded it to her personal facebook page. The people who killed the neighbor, they took photographs of her after she had they had killed her and they uploaded it to her own faceboo k shes a 72 years old woman who did Nothing Wrong to anyone. Sorry. And weve seen the picture of your grandmother. Thats her on the motorcycle being taken away. Yeah. We received it from friends who saw it on social media. And this video was took inside the gaza strip. She is an old woman, and she needed to hold that killed her husband just now so she wont fall from the motorcycle. Were all praying that she is safe there. We dont know anything besides this video. We have nothing from her. We dont know shes alive or dead or where is she or how is she doing. Luckily, our family, my uncle and his five children, the oldest is only ten years old. The youngest is one year old. They all succeeded to stay in the shelter and keep the door locked. But you must understand, the world must understand, they didnt came here to kill. They came here to humiliate, to ruin, to take innocent civilians who did Nothing Wrong, to take them from their own houses and to ruin this beautiful kibbutz that my grandparents built with their own hands. Im hearing a lot with all the families from the kibbutz, out of 400 people in the kibbutz, there are over 100 people missing, murdered, kidnapped, children, babies, pregnant women. We cant understand how people can do it. We just cant. A quarter of the population of near oz, this kibbutz of about 400 people, families that have lived generations together farming in that area in that community of near oz, a quarter of the we cant understand it. That image, as you describe it is so awful, of your grandmother being kidnapped, driven through the streets in gaza city sandwiched on a motorbike between two killers, having to depend on them, holding onto them, the people who killed her husband, so that she doesnt fall off the motorbike. It is sickening. It is. You have to understand, the day people came to see whether there are still injured people out there, they saw dead bodies of children, of babies, who they cut their head off. They robbed everything on their way. They burned down every house, whether there are people inside or whether they already killed them. They came to ruin the place, to burn the place down. They had no mercy for anyone, not for babies, not for dogs, not for children, not for mothers, no one. No one. Your uncle went to see your grandparents house. What did he see . After the army came to save them, he went to the to my grandparents house to see if they are there. He couldnt see anything because the flames were still burning. But he came to the window of the shelter, and he just peeked there and he saw my grandfather lay there inside of his dried blood, shot several shots. The whole wall inside the shelter was full with gunshots, full. And the window was half open. There were no signs to my grandmother. So, actually we are very at least we can see where she is. There are so many families here that dont know where our loved one is. What is your grandmothers name and what is your grandfathers name . My grandmother names is adina, and my grandfathers name is david mu shay. Enzyim so sorry for your lo and please help us bring them back. Please. The whole world needs to know this. The whole world needs to hear their story and what theyve been through. They dont deserve it. The children dont deserve it. The elderly dont deserve it. Theyre just innocent civilian who is did Nothing Wrong to anyone, really. I just cant understand how it happened. How the world let it happen . It is just pure terrorism. There is no justification to kill civilians. Thank you for talking to us. Thank you. Thank you so much. Next, there is new reporting on talks underway aimed at getting at least some hostages back. Ill have the latest on whos doing the talking. And later, my conversation with a Music Festival survivor about how he and a friend dectried to pak their mistake, their several brushes with hamas gunmen. Weve learned there is we have new reporting on talks aimed at perhaps getting some hostages released. Cnns Becky Anderson joins me now from tel aviv with more. What have you learned, becky . Diplomatic sources have confirmed to me that the are in touch with both israel and hamas on mediating some sort of effort to get hostages released. Now, as we understand it from these diplomatic sources, this would be a prisoner an exchange of women and children taken by hamas in gaza at present in exchange for women and teenagers held in israeli prisons. And what im told is that neither side has rejected this idea. So, there is some optimism, certainly, around what is going on at present. Now, of course there is some precedent for this. The israeli soldier who was released back in 2011, whod been abducted back in 2005 on the Israeli Border near gaza, he was released in exchange for at the time over 1,000 prisoners held in israeli prisons. Now, lets just provide a little bit of context for this, why the cat ris in this stage . Well, they are in a decent position to do this. Lets consider theyve got an open line of communication with hamas. That was actually opened at the behest of the bush administration, im told, back in the 2000s. So, thats that file. They also, of course, recent ly negotiated they will be the main interlockers negotiating the u. S. Prisoners exchanged for five iranian prisoners just a couple of weeks ago. So, very much involved in that u. S. iran Prisoner Exchange recently, now mediating efforts to get the women and children released from gaza in exchange for women and teenagers held in palestinian in israeli jails, anderson. Hamas had earlier, i believe several days ago, made a statement they would not deal with any negotiations until Military Activity had ceased. Obviously this reporting seems to indicate that they may be open to something. I know youve been talking to Family Members who have loved ones who have been held hostage. What are they telling you . I spoke to the families of four americans who have lost their loved ones, missing, presumed to be in gaza, being held hostage. And the message was just very, ver