In the middle east. The white house just updated the american death toll from the hamas Terror Attack. At least 27 americans killed. 14 still unaccounted for, and less than a handful as the white house describes it, are believed to be held hostage by hamas. Tomorrow, u. S. Charter flights will begin for americans seeking to leave the country. Anderson . A short time ago, the Secretary Of State met with israeli Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu vowing the u. S. Would stand shoulder to shoulder with its ally, and described the overwhelming nature of the atrocities committed by hamas. I just spoke with a commander for the Israeli Defense forces. Heres what he told me about the fight ahead. How difficult is this fight going to be on the ground in gaza . There have been incursions before . I know its a tough place to fight. We will do what we need to do in order to get to this goal t that isis wont govern gaza. And if any country here in the region next to us that hosts hamas isis, theyre risking their own population, but they need to know if they interfere, if they will act against us, my grandfather fled away from germany. We understand completely what we are seeing now. We have no other place to go. I want to go to cnns Jeremy Diamond and ben wedeman is in Southern Lebanon for us. Jeremy, you have spoken to israelis as they took shelter today. Obviously, this is something they are used to, particularly in those areas by the gaza border. What are you seeing now . Reporter yeah. These last couple of hours, anderson, have been very quiet on the israeli side. We have not had any red alert sirens in this area for several hours. Instead, the main thing that we are hearing is the rumbling of Israeli Air Strokes and Artillery Fire on the gaza strip. Very loud, vibrating the windows at our hotel here, more intensity than we have heard in recent nights. Only giving us a small sense of how intense the air strikes must be for people on the ground there. Earlier, we did have two different barrages of rockets on the city here over the course of an hour and a half or so. That second barrage came very close to our hotel. We know that based off of how loud the sound of the iron dome intercepting the rockets was. Then we saw the plumes of smoke right overhead. As i was in the shelter on our hotel floor, we spoke with a family thats from the city that you can see right behind me thats slightly closer to the gaza strip. They left their home because they dont have a bomb shelter inside of their home, and their children, and the man told me that they were so afraid that they could not sleep. So the Hotel Manager here has given them five nights free. I asked him what will you do next . He said hes not sure. Hes taking it day by day. He has a brother in another city and he has gotten outpouring from israelis he knows across the country, offering him a place to stay. That gives you a sense of the psychology and the sense of solidarity and the resilience of people here, after this country was really shocked by the brutality of those hamas Terrorist Attacks over the weekend. Jeremy, we played some of what Secretary Blinken said today alongside Benjamin Netanyahu. Im wondering what stood out to you as someone that covers the biden administration. Reporter yeah, the first thing that Secretary Blinken was trying to do is to show there is no daylight between the United States and israel. You know, there is a sense of solidarity here. Part of that is driven bey the horror of the images. There are perhaps as many as 20 americans held hostage right now in gaza as part of those up to 150 civilians and soldiers who are believed to be held captive in gaza. What was also evident is as he and the israeli Prime Minister were repeatedly drawing on the emotions, on the outrage from those attacks by hamas, what they were also doing is explaining the rational for what is perhaps a wider Military Campaign that is to come. A Military Campaign that will undoubtedly result in more civilian casualties inside of gaza. That is always the case when israel goes to attack hamas inside of that very congested gaza strip. And also from netanyahus perspective, preparing the israeli public in the event of a Ground Invasion, which appears to be likely at this point. Also preparing the israeli public for the possibility of Israeli Military casualties, as well. Yeah. Jeremy diamond, thanks. Want to go to ben wedeman. On the gaza side, an obviously worsening humanitarian crisis in the wake of this attack. Reporter we heard it described as dire, but that may be an understatement. You have a Health System that is in the process of collapsing. Hospitals apparently are completely overwhelmed. The wounded are simply being put on the ground. There are no beds left. The Operating Theaters are simply completely congested. Of course, theres the problem of power. Power, the israelis have cut off all electricity. The power, the only power plant in gaza went out of operation for lack of fuel yesterday afternoon. Which basically means all the modern equipment that is used to keep people alive may not be able to run any more. In fact, the red cross put out a statement that the hospitals in gaza are at risk of becoming a morgue. In fact, it was interesting, our colleague, Christiane Amanpour a little while ago, spoke to a british surgeon who is in gaza at the moment. Ive interviewed this doctor many times in gaza while hes operating on the victims of war. He is saying between 30 p and of the people hes treating in his Operating Theater are children. This underscores how many people are caught in the middle of this war and will have nothing to do with it. It always seems particularly in gaza that its the civilians who pay the highest price. We are civilians who have no connection to political organizations. We return here to find that our house has become rubble and the entire area has been destroyed. We have now become homeless and have nothing but the clothes we wear. Reporter of course, they do have nowhere to go. There are no Bomb Shelters in gaza for ordinary people. Even though there are for hamas. And of course, at this point, even though the United States and other European Countries are talking about setting up a humanitarian corridor to get civilians out of gaza into egypt, so far there doesnt seem to be any public progress on that front. Anderson . Ben, can you just explain why egypt has been reluctant in the past to allow gaza residents, you know, safety in egypt . They have very Real Security concerns. Reporter yes, the e jimgsgy have said that time and time again, the top priority is National Security of egypt. But the sinai peninsula, which is a very thinly populated, and the Egyptian Government controls very tightly who gets out of gaza and who gets across the sinai peninsula. Certainly, theyre in a political bind. On the one hand, they dont want palestinians to flood into the sinai, as we saw in january 2008 when hamas blew up a large section of the wall that separated gaza from egypt. I saw Hundreds Of Thousands of gazans flowing out of the gaza strip because they wanted to get out of what has been described as an openair priszon. On the other hand, that egyptian hesitation has to be balanced with the fact that many people in the arab, muslim world are saying for gods sake, help these people. The best way to help many of the civilians in gaza is to get them out of gaza. Anderson . Ben wedeman, thank you. We are learning more about the victims of the Terror Attacks that began saturday morning at 6 30 a. M. One woman just gave birth to her third child, a daughter. This is the grandmother holding her grandchild just two days after this picture was taken, she says that hamas attacked her mother, shot her 14 times. Im sorry for your loss, and im so happy for the birth of your child. How did you learn about your mothers death . So thank you, anderson. Thank you for giving me time to tell my story here on television. The first day i was giving birth for my third child. The next day, i saw my mother for the last time. I didnt believe my husband took a picture of my mother for the last time, the only picture i have right now of them together. The next day, saturday, i was hearing when i was in the hospital, i was hearing the sirens. I was calling my husband and trying to contact me. He said dont worry, we are now in the shelter. But i dont know whats going on with your mother. So after that few hours later, i could not contact my husband, could not contact my children, could not contact my mother. I thought that they were slaughtered, because before i get the phone call that we a message that we have like 40 terrorists of hamas inside that is butchering and killing women, children, and people. And my husband didnt answer me for an hour and a half. I didnt know what was going on with my mother. I was really afraid that i have no family any more. So i was trying to call him, and he answered me. Then after that, i was calling my brothers and told them, listen, i cannot i dont know whats going on. They told me that the army is always getting under the attack of terrorists all over the area. When they tried to get inside and helped to save the babies and the children. If you can just come and help me, i told my brothers. So they came, and we have a few murderers there. And then they got inside my apartment, my house, and they found there my husband and my children alive. But my husband told them, listen, i dont know whats going on with my mother, so please just go and see if she is fine. So they went, they had the guns. They went, of course, to find her. She was stay thing because we had the holiday of course. I she wanted to help us because i was just giving birth. They went to her apartment and then they found her dead. There were 40 bullets inside her body, kalashnikov bullets. Shes 65 years old. And 40 bullets in her. She was on her way to my children and my husband, just to help me, because i had my third child. Then after that, my husband called me and told me that my mother was butchered and killed by the terrorist of hamas. And i heard that a lot of friends were also butchered and killed. Women, children, and babies. Im sorry. Im so sorry for your loss. It is unthinkable. Thank you. How is your baby . Shes wonderful. Shes really shes a light inside all this, you know . She looks beautiful. Were trying to be joyful about what we have. Thank you. Im really grateful that my husband and my children are alive. My mother, she was a wonderful grandma. Just 65 years. She must have been so proud of you and the three children in your family that you have built. Im so sorry for her loss and so sorry she wont be there for the children as they grow. Thank you so much for telling us about her, lior. Thank you. Lior ben sur, i wish you continued peace and strength in the days ahead. Stay with cnn. Well be right back. Were following a lot of breaking news today, including on capitol hill. Steve scalise making his case for house speakership. And sources indicate a vote yielded mixed results. Here is scalise speaking moments ago. Obviously, issues have come up over the last week about the whole process of how we get our conference back on track. But then individually, people have had questions. I felt it would be much better if we did it in fuel view, where people dont think that tlir s that there are side deals going on. The good news is, our support continues to grow. Were continuing to work to narrow the gap. And thats going on and well continue the meetings. Lets get to capitol hill now with manu raju. How are members feeling coming out of the meeting . Reporter lots of frustration and anger among the members here, because there just does not seem to be any sign that this dysfunctional moment, this historic moment where the house is paralyzed, will find any progress to making it unstuck, to moving on key legislation to try to avoid a government shutdown, to try to provide aid to israel. All things that cannot happen without a speaker of the house. The simple reason why, Steve Scalise does not have the votes yet to become speaker, after the vote last week to oust Kevin Mccarthy, an unprecedented vote pushing him out of the speakership. Theres been nobody atop this chamber. Steve scalise needs 217 votes, that means he can only lose four republican votes. There are up to two dozen that have voiced frustration and some said no. Some of them leaving this meeting saying they are still a no. But he plans to meet with those holdouts to see if there is any progress, and meet again tonight with the larger republican conference in an effort to pick off those votes one by one. But several of these members are indicate thing is just not much time for scalise here before they have to decide another option if he cant get the votes. For whoever the noes are, whatever it is, those guys get in a room, work with steve. If they cant be reconciled, yeah, somebody else needs to stand up. Thats not going to happen in the next 15 minutes. Are you concerned this dysfunction could put your seat at risk . I am. Theres work to be done here. We need to get the economy back on track. Z israel is at war. Im concerned about the military. Im concerned about people from my district who we sent in harms way. Reporter that has been echoed by other members from swing distributes, including a congressman from nebraska who told me he is concerned that his seat could be at risk in the next election, and hes arguing that those individuals, those republicans who want to tank Steve Scalises bid essentially want to be a republican minority. Not the majority party. So you are hearing just a lot of frustration, sharp words traded by members against those members who officially pushed out Steve Scalise, and a number of other members who pushed out Kevin Mccarthy and other members not willing to elevate Steve Scalise at this moment. But this afternoon so critical for scalise. Can he flip any of these holdouts and go back and say im getting closer to 217 votes. And then does he take it to the house floor . All huge questions as the house remains completely paralyzed amid this gop leadership crisis. Boris . A fraught path ahead for scalise as speaker. Manu raju, thank you so much. We are following a fast evolving situation in israel where Hundreds Of Thousands of reservists are gathering at the border with gaza six days after the hamas Terror Attacks on israel. The white house now says 27 americans were killed, 14 remain unaccounted for. Joining us now to discuss is retired u. S. Army general peter zwack. The white house made it clear the recovering of americans being held hostage by hamas is a key priority. How do you see that playing out . Well, its its extraordinarily complicated, because its likely that most of those americans or a percentage of them are also israeli citizens, and theyre intermingled with the other hostages from a number of countries. So my instinct is that we need to fall in and support the israelis while they do the lead effort to work those hostages out. I dont think that its right for negotiation. They can try, but after what hamas has done, i dont think anybody is in the mood for that. But the problem is, what will happen if hamas, as they have shown extraordinary ruthlessness already. Theyre already so deep into this, you know, they can p perpetuate it. What do they do is shoot hostages if they are not getting their demands met. So what point do you go in with major forces or Israeli Special operations . I dont know. Its devilishly complicated. I believe theres a lot of midnight oil being burned in capitals, and what this does do is it just continues to show the depravity of hamas, and i think a key angle is to try to, as much as possible, separate hamas in Gaza Civilians that are caught in the middle of this and are hostage in this awful situation. General, is there any potential for humanitarian corridors, ways for the civilians to get out of harms way . What would you advice be . My advice would be, and im so far away from this, would be youve got, you know, i know were talking to the egyptians and other nations. It would be a hard mission as well, because how do you manage the flow . There will be also a major effort to make sure that any type of outflow, where do the refugees go . Egypt, i dont think they are ready to take on thousands or Hundreds Of Thousands of displaced persons. This is really hard. And i know the whole discussion about sending food and aid up through those corridors makes eminent sense, but does it get to the palestinians who desperately need it in the city, or does it go in to feed hamas and continue . Ill make one other point about hamas. How ruthless and how they the fact that they are Firing Rockets out of builtup gaza shows they have total disregard for the palestinian citizens, who they are using for cover, and that should be, i dont know, through leaflets or narrative, get out to the populations to the palestinian population. That is key in all of this, a couple million of them. Very much appreciate your time. Thank you for joining us. Thank you for having me. Our special coverage of israel at war continues after a quick break. From chrome to duckduckgo. Duckduckgo is a browser you download to your mobile and des