Good morning. Welcome to cnn this morning. Et im victor blackwell. And im amara walker. Were in the final window of the Safe Passage Window for people to evacuate to the south. Gazas Health Care Facilities in the north say they will not be evacuating, saying this warning is a Death Sentence for patients. The Israel Defense forces is accusing hamas of actively trying to stop people from leaving so that they can use them as, quote, human shields, but hamas says that israel is still carrying out air strikes. Now, cnn has verified videos from the scene of a large explosion along an Evacuation Route south of gaza city. We want to warn you this video is disturbing. Yeah. This was recorded friday before the Safe Passage Window was set up. Look closely here. Youll see the plumes of smoke, the cars burping. Hamas says 70 people were killed in this strike, 200 others were wounded. Cnn has reached out to the idf for comment on any air strikes in that area. Now, the sudden surge of people into Southern Gaza has put a lot of pressure on the rafah Border Crossing into egypt, the only place to leave gaza. Egypt says they have not closed it on their side, but a senior jordanian official said its status is unclear. We just learned that the u. S. Expected the rafah crossing to be open sometime today for americans in gaza. There eason a estimated 500 to 600 there. Cnns Becky Anderson has more. Reporter its not clear what happens after 4 00 p. M. Its 3 00 local time. Its an hour from now after that appetized window of, closed, safe passage closes. What is clear is this is a race against time. Youve just shown some video there that cnn has authenticated. Thats video showing the debris of what appears to have been explosions along the gaza Evacuation Routes. Those are routes, of course, for civilians trying to get to the south from gaza city. Theyre being warned to do so, and yet clearly these videos and weve got others show, sadly, many debodies. Weve reached out to authorities to try to get some response, to see whether this was an explosion as the result of any air strikes. The u. N. Is warning that the situation in gaza is a matter of, quote, life and death at this point, not just for those who are trying to evacuate and risking their lives, it seems, in what are these humanitarian corridors, but its 2 million who risk running out of water. The u. N. Is sending fuel trucks into gaza right now. Otherwise the people will start dying as talks continue on extending these safe zones for those evacuating and opening the Border Crossing you spoke to at the top of the border with rafah to get December Braetly needed aid, medical supplies, and fuel into gaza. I know the u. N. Has aid. They just need permission to get them in. Just as all of this is going on and you can only imagine what is going on for the people of gaza and, indeed, lets not forget the hostages being held by hamas, some 100 to 150. This is such a potentially catastrophic situation at this point. I also want to underscore just how much concern there is around the region that this war could spread could spread significantly now to the west bank and East Jerusalem. Weve already seen more than 50 deaths of palestinians by settlers and Israeli Police according to the Palestinian Ministry of idf Warning Settlers reportedly not to, quote, interfere with counterterrorism efforts. Their responsibility, they say, is with the israeli forces. Thats the west bank. We were in East Jerusalem yesterday. There was sort of a tense calm. But at least two people were killed there yesterday. Le to lebanons border to the north has been of real concern. My colleague ben wedeman reporting on the very, very, very sad death of a journalist on that border, on the lebanon side, a very dear friend of many of our cnn colleagues. The u. S. President joe biden, of course, repeatedly warning other players in the region not to join the conflict. We know the u. S. Has warships vowing a steadfast support for israel. Secretary of state Antony Blinken is on a whistle stop tour. This is what the Jordanian Foreign minister told me after he met with King Abdullah and the Secretary Of State yesterday. So the priority now, get immediate humanitarian supplies, and when it comes to a safe sojourn, we have to be very careful too. It has to be within gaza. We cannot have Population Displacement and despair, and we need to make sure now, stop the escalation, get supplies, work on efforts to get supplies to come in. Stop the departing and start working for a big move as peace advocates. Reporter advocating a deescalation of this in order to avoid this spilling out from where this conflict is now. Just to be click clear, the Iranian Foreign minister has been doing the Rounds In Beirut with the hezbollah leader in syria and in baghdad, warning all options are possible if this war continues. Thats the very latest from here and around the region. Back to you guys. Becky anderson, thank you. Its been also an active warning with israels border with lebanon. Israel has conducted a number of air attacks. Its in response to an attack at the border. Cnns ben wedeman is in southern lebanon. Ben, hezbollah has not engaged here, certainly at the level which it could. What do you see . Whats the latest on what were seeing from hezbollah . Reporter hezbollah as you mentioned, yesterday hit four among israeli strikes, one, which, of course, killeded a cameraman, issam abdallah. We saw one of the direct hits by hezbollah on that position, but they dont at this point seem ready to fully engage their forces with the israelis. In fact, as becky was mentioning, the Iranian Foreign minister, hassan was there yesterday and he told a Prime Minister that one of the purposes of his visit was to ensure calm in lebanon. However, he did go on to say later when speaking to Jirmts In Beirut that if the israelis escalate in gaza, then all scenarios are possible. But as i said, i was here in 2006. I saw the destruction caused by the war between hezbollah and israel, and certainly among the population in this part of the country there isnt any enthusiasm for any sort of massive repeat of what we saw in 2006. And yesterday just anecdotally i can tell you we drove for an hour going west. As we did that, we encountered one rather board army checkpoint. On the way back there were multiple checkpoints. They were looking at everybodys documents to make sure nobody was operating in the area who might cause trouble, so to speak, but nonetheless, obviously yesterday afternoon there has been fire from the lebanese side as well as from the israeli side, and the israelis are reporting that this morning they killed infiltrators trying to get into israel. So its relatively calm. Et you certainly cannot compare whats going on here with whats going on around in gaza, but its very, very tense. Victor . Very calm but very tense as you say. Ben wedeman, thank you for your reporting. Bobby gauche is joining me now. Hes an editor and columnist for bloomberg. Bobby, good to see you. In less than an hour, 50 minutes before this window of Safe Passage Set Up by israel closes for the civilians who have been called to evacuate from Northern Gaza to Southern Gaza. Im sure youve heard the criticism regarding these calls for evacuation, the United Nations calling it impossible. Israels top diplomat calling it utterly unrealistic. What are your thoughts . On the face of it, it is unrealistic. You couldnt empty a Million People out of manhattan in a team time of peace. To do so in gpz at a time of war with infrastructure severely lacking. Theres no transportation, people are confused, its frightening, bombs are falling from the air, its simply impossible. Et it cant be done. One hopes with all the pressure and negotiation United Nations that International Figures from the u. S. On down are trying to imposeon israel, one hopes there will be an extension. People are moving. As you can see from your reporting, people are trying to make their best effort to get to what israel declares as safe zones, but there are other factors. Hamas. They need niece people as human shields. Thats the core of their survival strategy. Theyre simply not going to allow a Million People to evacuate gaza city. If they do, guess whos going to go with those people . Hamas. There is so many complications at a time of so much stress and so much violence. There have been explosions along an Evacuation Route south of gaza city. Cnn was able authenticate this video we saw where there were dead bodies. This is before the Safe Passage Window opened, and we did reach out to the idf for comment for air strikes in the same location. But do you expect with hamas, do you expect hamas to target or attack the Evacuation Routes then . Well, weve already seen rep reports where theyve told people to stay put. That suits hamas very well. Will hamas shoot people down in the street as they evacuate . I wouldnt put it past them. These are people who demonstrated just what theyre capable of doing inside israel. If they can kill babies and slaughter people in their sleep, killing their own people is something theyve done for a very long time without any sense of remorse or guilt. So its entirely possible. Also, this is a war. In a war, theres always the odd chance of ammunition going to sort of the Bombs Landing in the wrong places. Theres always a chance of false flags. If you were in gaza right now with all of the reports going in, theyve hit one of the roads going south, youre not going to necessarily pause to say when did they hit it . Did that it hit it before the warnings were given or now . Remember, theres no elec electricity, no water, no food. Theres panic and pandemonium in the middle where misinformation, disinformation is possible. Anything is possible at this moment. If youre in fear for your life, youre not sure what exactly to believe. I want to pose this before you go. If we put up a map of gaza just to show you how fortified this area is, you know, there is a Border Security wall that israel erected years ago. Its a subterranean wall. You can see the red line. On the east, theres this physical wall. Then you do have two crossings where people could cross. You have the areas to the north and the rafah crossing, which we understand will be open to americas today, but they share a border with egypt. What happens, bobby once i dont know how many people will make it safely to the southern part of gaza. Will they be arrived to get humanitarian aid . There is aid that has arrived on an anne from jordan to egypt. What happens after this window closes and once many of the civilians get south . So you have a lot of people, 2 millionplus people, herded into a hostile area of gaza. It was already a congested place. Half the places where we have open fields, no water, no roads, no sanitation. Will people try to get to egypt . Thats the big question. If they do, how will they get there . Hamas has closed it on one side and egypt on the other. Hamas doesnt want the people to leave. Egypt doesnt want the people in. Remember, a lot of these people dont necessarily want to up and leave their homes. The only place theyve known as homes their entire life. Their fears are if they leave, theyll never be allowed to come back, just as many are never allowed to go back to the homes of their ancestors in what is now israel. So were hoping that humanitarian aid. The world has shown it is capable of airlifting and providing humanitarian aid to vast numbers of people. You think of earthquakes and suns and natural disasters of that nature. Its a manmade disaster, but it requires the same level of International Effort in order to provide help to those people. Will they make it is question one. Will the egypt clan authorities allow that todelivered to the palestinian people. Weve got to go. Theres also a question if the rafah crossing is open on the gaza side. I understand theres an underground tunnel for Smuggling Weapons and equipment was struck in the rafah area. The idf has not said the Border Crossing was actually struck. So we dont know if the roads are passbling. Weve leave it there, bobby ghosh. Thank you. For more information on how to help, go to cnn. Com impact or use your Mobile Device to scan the qr code on your screen. The white house is working to help those, and we hear from the families of those unaccounted for. Just minutes ago u. S. Sec of state Antony Blinken left saudi arabia. Hes headed to the uae. Hes pressured leaders to use any leverage available to hamas to leave hostages. U. S. Officials must strike a delicate balance as they stress support for israel. Theyre not telling israel to back down on its bombardment of gaza, but theyre trying to Prevepv Prevent The War from spreading. Its a delicate line. What more do you know . It really is. The administration is trying to toe this delicate line on the upcoming incursion thats expected to start while urging them to protect civilians. This is something theyre extremely concerned about. This is evidenced by the extensive disheveled diplomacy. Secretary lloyd austin was in israel yesterday. Blinken has been to saudi arabia, bahrain and is on his way to abu da a by. Hes expected to stop off in egypt before returning to the u. S. Tomorrow. He said these are not retal retaliatory, theyre defensive oper operations. But we have also heard him increasingly speak about the need for civilians to be protected. Were hearing increasingly of the death toll rising. Resources are running out. This is a message he reiterated this morning in a meeting with the saudi arabia minister. Take a listen to what he said. As israel pursues its legitimate right to defending its people to try to ensure it never happens again, it is vitally important we look out for the civilians, and were wok working together to do exactly that. We also know hes pressing israeli officials to establish safe zones within gaza. Its unclear when or where those safe zones will be established. And the other key message were hearing from these meetings is he is pushing partners who have sway over hamas to bring that message to release all of the hostages that they are holding immediately. Hes also pressing partners who have sway over actors like iran. Hes told them, do notel come into this conflict, do not make this situation any worse. President biden spoke with the families of americans who were unaccounted for in israel during a group call on friday at the white house. The president discussed those conversations during a visit to philadelphia. Heres what he said. After going through agony not knowing what the status of their sons, daughters, husbands, wives, children, you know, its gutwrenching. I assured them my personal commitment to do Everything Possible to return every missing person to their families. Cnns Jasmine Wright at the white house. Jasmine, 14 americans remain unaccounted for. What more can you tell us about the call . Reporter yeah, amara. On the call, President Biden promised to use u. S. s full might to try to do what it could to bring those Family Members back here to the country, back here to those who are really waiting for them here to come home. We talked to those involved with the call and they said it was an emotional one. It lasted for about 45 minutes. There were about 25 families on the call with President Biden, bothet in the u. S. And it israel, a larger format, and they described President Biden as somebody who sat there and listened to folks talk about their personal relationships with those unaccounted for and talked about what they want the government to do. The president tapped into the chief role we know hes frequented over the last few years hes been in office. Something else President Biden did is reiterate his affirmation that hes trying to do everything he could to bring their loved ones home, something he also relayed in the cbs 60 minutes interview. Take a listen. I say were going to do everything in our power to find them, everything in our power, and im not going to go into the detail of that, but were working like hell on that. Because i think they have to know the United States of america cares deeply about whats happening, deeply. We have to indicate to the world this is critical. Its not even human behavior. Its clear barbarism. Reporter that message we just heard from the president is one that we know that the folks on the call really got from the president , his commitment to doing more to try to get their loved ones returned. In that interview we heard him talk about it a lot. Secretary of state Antony Blinken was on the ground in israel. Qatar, other places we know involved in the diplomatic conversations, we know they have the fbi and others on the ground, making sure theyre Moujting A Full Corps Press to bring these hostages unaccounted for home. 14 of them, they believe, are held hostage by hamas. Theyre trying to make sure those who are missing their loved ones is the u. S. Is putting their full might to it. Its going to take a few days, potentially longer than that. All right, Jasmine Wright at the white house. Up next, it was one of the deadliest sights. Cnn goes to the scene of that musical festival that hamas targeted. The power goes out and we still have wifi to do our homework. And thats a good thing . Great in my book who are you . No power . No problem. Introducing stormready wifi. Now you can stay reliably connected through Power Outages with unlimited cellular data and up to 4 hours of battery backup to keep you online. Only from xfinity. Home of the xfinity 10g network. This next story may be too much. Cnn reports on the Music Festival that ended with 260 people dead. Cnns Anderson Cooper goes to the site of that Music Festival and the signs of terror are still obvious there. Reporter the music was playing, the dance floor packed when the rockets began just 3. 3 miles from the boarder of gaza. It doesnt take long before gugun masked gunmen p arrived. Many were able to get to their colors. We were a man who was a soldier all his life. He had never seen anything like it. Its a massacre scene. I dont have any other recall of memory in the history of israel since this was established of this kind of event. Reporter the bodies and body parts of the dead have been removed, but peoples possessions are strewn all around. The carnage is clear. Burned out cars, bullet holes, bloodstains on seats. From some cars the idf has retrieved Dash Cam Videos that show masked gunmen for hours roaming, sheeting freely. This one shows a bloody Hostage Being Led away and you see a man hiding under a car. He moves slightly and a masked gunman runs up to him and chutes him pointblank in the head and body. I dont understand. And then running away on motorcycles with girls to gaza. Reporter fleeing east was the only way out for many, but they were easy targets. Others sought safety in nearby bomb shelters. This is Dash Cam Video of hms Gunmen Tossing a grenade into a bomb shelter. When a man attempts to escape and run out, they shot at him repe repeatedly. You can hear the panic in their voices, asking whats going on, are there Israeli Soldiers nearby . We arent going to show you what happened next. Cohen says hamas gunmen repeated will i tossed grenades into the bomb shelter. Bodies were blown apart. Its some of the worst weve ever seen. This man hiding under body parts. Thats him terrified but alive. We found the shelter in a town yesterday evening. Someone put a curtain up over the doorway, but nothing could hide the smell as you entered. My cameraman neil whos experienced a lot began to wretch and had to step outside. Theres bloody handprints on the wall. Theres blood smeared on the walls. You can see these are either bullet holes or from the grenades that were thrown in here. Body parts have already been collected from here, but blood soaked clothes and shoes remain. This looks to be a bloody handprint. The shelter is no more than 15 feet long, maybe 5 1 2, 6 feet wide. The idea of so many people packed in here Standing Shoulder to shoulder, terrified, screaming, its incredible that anybody was able to survive. There are other shelters like this, other tragedies still to be discovered. The full horror of what happened here is just starting to come to light. Anderson cooper, israel. Well take a break after this. The House Of Representatives have gone ten days without a speaker. More than 50 republicans voted against supporting jordan on the house floor, so the congressman does not seem to have the votes to get speaker. Were joined by nicholas wu. Good morning to you. The 55 or so republicans who in conference voted against jim jordan, they might not necessarily vote against a nomination on the floor, but are there five absolute noes for jim jordan, which means if all of the democrats vote for hakeem jeffries, he wont get the gavel. There are absolutely five hardnosed representatives against jordan. Theyre really hesitant to vote for someone like jim jordan, the reason being, democrats are threatening to turn jim jordan into a political foil, into a potent attack against the lawmakers who represent the front line, these purple districts. So this could come up on the floor next week, but everyone im talking to seems to think the vote will still fail. With no speaker, the house cannot pass not only aid for israel, but not even a resolution of support. Is that motivating the conference at all . Its something that has some lawmakers scrambling for any kind of escape hatch for this crisis. Yesterday we saw a group of Centrist Democrats pitch an idea to republicans to basically find a way to share power, to empower the temporary speaker patrick mchenry, so that the house would be able to conduct its ordinary business, so they could pass a ukraine bill or israel aid bill. Yesterday there were top lawmakers who went to the white house for a classified briefing on the crisis in israel, and i asked the top democrat on the Foreign Affairs committee how it went and he says basically the white house was concerned about the lack of speaker and what this meant for israel. Right now without a speaker, theres not a lot the house can do, so folks are not quite at a level of desperation to pull the escape hatch and find a way to work with democrats, but that could come soon. So if im hearing you right, this idea of Power Sharing to try and come to some consensus nominee that can get enough votes, democratic votes, theyre not any clearer to that today than they were ten days ago . Right now theyre not. I mean republicans are just so loathe right now to evoke for a democrat. I mean the margins are small enough that a lot of the democrats point to the math. If only a handful of republicans came to vote for hakeem je jeffries, yes, you could have speaker jeffries, but that that almost is never going to happen. Right now you have a number of names floated as a consensus speaker, but this runs into the same problem weve seen with every one of these Speaker Nominees so far. They dont have enough support in the gop conference for that to happen. Nicholas wu, thank you. Lets take you back now to the middle east. Our cnn ben wedeman is in southern lebanon. Youre Hearing Artillery and rocket fire. Whats happening there, ben . Reporter yeah. For the last 25 minutes, amara, weve heard heavy artillery and outgoing rocket fire to the east of here. We dont have the specific details. Weve seen some video on social media we obviously cant confirm, but it does seem to be in this area to the east of here. This is the first major this is the longest, most prolonged and heavy shelling weve heard since weve been here. The details arent clear, but certainly it does not bode well. Amara . All right. We can hear the explosions there in the background, ben. Appreciate it. Thank you very much. Well be right back. This morning israel is ordering more than a Million People in Northern Gaza to get out. Israel Defense Forces are telling people to pack up and flee as quickly as possible for their own safety. Theyve given about them a sixhour Safe Passage Window to move south and that window closes in ten minutes. Meanwhile idf says hamas is trying to prevent people from living gaza. The situation is now so desperate that a doctor tells cnn his hospital is using Ice Cream Trucks as morgues as the Hospital Mortuary fills up. As we were talking about last hour, there are a lot of families concerned about their loved ones in gaza who are trying to make their way down, but, of course, with Cellphone Towers and things destroyed, its hard to for the people in the u. S. Who have relatives there and people just watching the images out of israel and gaza its incredibly disturbing. The war shows no sign of ending any time soon. Stas a result it is taking a toll on Peoples Mental Health around the world. Joining us from her podcast we have a doctor joining us. Thank you so much for joining us. Even if you dont have Family Members of people you know who are impacted by whats happening in israel, i think people are just shocked at the level of carnage. How would you advise the General Public in terms of how much they should be consuming and when they should know when to take a break . I think you have to know yourself, so for people who know, they tend to be anxious or they tend to struggle with mood, they have a history of trauma of some sort, really any sort or history of problems in terms of mental health. Theyre more at risk. People as you pointed out who are connected to this in any sort of way, theyre more at risk. I would say to you that actually all of us are somewhat at risk because we have never had this level of graphic image coming to us on such a constant basis. Its not only on the news its on everybodys social media feeds. Today, children, adolescents, adults, were receiving these images and images tend to stick in your mind in a very intrusive way, making it difficult to concentrate, feeling its repeating all the time, making it difficult to sleep. Those things will further impact your mental health. I would say a little bit to all of us we have to really limit how much we are seeing and possibly even take a break and take your news in via reading it or listening to it, but picking a source and limiting how much of the day you actually expose yourself, maybe like 30 minutes, and not doing it close to bedtime, we are likely to be even more stirred up and therefore have difficulty sleeping. Theres a point at which we have to turn it off and then theres a point at which for some people they need some help. How do you know when youve gotten to that second level, that Second Degree there where you need to talk to a professional about what youre watching and what youre experiencing . I think for a lot of people can do things for themselves before they get there. They can add coping tools to help with anxiety during the day, deep breathing, aerobic exercise, and do things that make them feel better. Stay away from doomsday people that actually make you feel worse but talking to. People can be helpful. Beyond that, if your anxiety and concern are disturbing you such that you cant concentrate at work or get things done the way you normally do or cant sleep at night and affecting your relationships. Basically if its intruding into and affecting your day for more than a few days, this might be the time you say, hey be i need to get an evaluation and think whether i need a little extra help with. I cant help think about so many of our cnn colleagues we interviewed in this war zone, the Family Members that have seen the war happen before their eyes, people losing their children, people being on the phone while the abduction and scheming was happening in the background. How do we begin to help them recover from the trauma. So obviously the closer that you are, as i said, to this event, the more likely you are to have what is called an acute stress reaction, which is a whole collection of thoughts repetitively of the event and the fact you have to avoid anything that reminds you have the event, concentrating and sleeping and trouble with pleasure and your appetite. The closer you are to this the more likely you can go on and develop post Traumatic Stress disorder. You need to intervene early, any kind of thing to help you decrease your overall anxiety levels. There are exercises you can do to take down your anxiety level to help you message trauma more. You want to Pay Attention to your mood. Spending time talking about anything positive, anything positive. We here or someone anywhere and they too can think about what can they do to help their situation. Helping and being involved in something that feels like an active action really does help with the messaging the trauma of this. Those sorts of things will be very important to the people who are involved. People like myself, were getting involved in mental health, care for those people as well. Doctor, some great advice there. Thank you so much. Thank you for spending your money with us. Well be back in about an hour. Well be back about 10 00 a. M. Eastern