hello. thanks for joining us. i'm dana bash in washington. ♪ ♪ >> and i'm sara sidner in tel aviv with cnn's breaking news coverage of israel at war. >> israel says it is gearing up for the next stage of its response to the unprecedented terror attack by hamas eight days ago. israeli officials say they see a strong flow of people leaving northern gaza, this just a couple of days after it gave a stark warning to civilians living there to get out before it's too late, and we just learned that israel is now working to set up a place to get aid to evacuees once they arrive in the south. >> already 700,000 people left their homes and we are in the process of establishing humanitarian zone, a big hoo up an tearian zone in the southern part of gaza and they will go there and are in the humanitarian zone and they will get all of the essential provisions like water, medicine, food and things like that. >> israeli defense forces say they are now preparing for a significant ground operation. armed vehicles are now amassing at the border with gaza. meantime, israel is also exchanging fire along its northern border with hezbollah. early this morning hezbollah launched nine rockets into israel killing one israeli citizen. hezbollah said it is in response to the killing of a reuters journalist during iseli shelling there. israel responded with fighter jets striking hezbollah's military infrastructure. meanwhile, the u.s. is bolstering its defense posture in the middle east and additional u.s. attack aircraft have just arrived there and the white house is now not ruling out sending troops to the region to help free americans held hostage by hamas. >> there's no plan or intensions to put u.s. troops on the ground in the fight against israel and hamas? >> retrieve americans? >> we are actively trying to find out exactly where they are. shannon, we don't know how many exactly. the small handful we know and there could be more than we know. what i won't do is rule anything in or out when it comes to getting our hostages home. we are working on this literally by the hour. >> u.s. secretary of state antony blinken is heading back to israel tomorrow for more conversations with israeli government leaders. the main focus continues to be freeing those american hostages that john kirby was just talking about being held in gaza, at least believed to be held in gaza. sara, i want to go back to you now in tel aviv. >> look, there is so many -- there are so many threads going on here because of the complexity of this conflict, that is a protected conflict except this is different. it is different because israel has officially declared war and it is different because of the surprise attack that hamas beared down on israel, killing hundreds of people and kidnapping up to 150 people including american citizens. there is a great deal of fear and concern by those who are in gaza. first to the residents in gaza who are terrified of what is to come. it looks imminent that there will be a ground war at some point in time. there is preparation on the border with tanks amassing and 300,000 or so israeli troops on the border, and then you have people here in tel aviv and all of israel concerned because rocket attacks are still streaming by on a regular basis and tel aviv doesn't normally get that kind of a barrage of rocket attacks, but we have already seen some again today just a few moments ago and earlier this morning, as well. the situation, very, very tense because there is a humanitarian crisis going on in gaza right now. you can hear the sound of sirens going off in parts of israel right now. the big -- there's another huge issue with americans here in israel who have been unable to get out of israel as this war gets closer and closer to a ground incursion. the u.s. now has a plan that they are sharing to try and get people out by sea. so that will be an incredibly interesting and intricate maneuver by the united states. meanwhile, you've got all of this happening on the southern border. you have all kinds of munitions and things coming over from the northern border with lebanon and a back and forth there. israel has two fronts that it is dealing with. one they hope will settle down, but there is no chance that there will not be a ratcheting up of a war-like scenario on the ground in gaza. israel warning people to get out of the way. the u.n. saying, look, it is impossible for civilians and one of the most densely populated places on earth to actually get to safety, but there is some movement to get people out at the rafah border with egypt. a lot of players in this -- in this world. jordan is starting to jump in and talking to spain about how to try and deal with gaza and israel, according to jake sullivan and the people he's been talking to in israel, his counterparts and israel's turned the water back on because there is a dire shortage of drinking water in gaza because israel has a blockade there trying to snuff out hamas and they have turned the water back on so civilians have something to drink with and have something to wash with. dana? >> very important news there, thank you so much for setting the scene from your perch inside israel, sara. i am joined now here in washington by cnn's wolf blitzer. wolf, you just spoke with israel's president. what did he tell you? >> it was a very, very passionate interview that we just taped and we will show it to our viewers, and very substantive, as well. he was very emotional in describing what is going on in israel right now. we want to warn our viewers that some of the images he shared with us during the course of this interview are graphic. >> and joining us now, the president of israel, isaac herzog, mr. president. thank you so much for joining us. it's been a horrendous few days and since the holocaust. you are the leader of israel, what is your message to the nation and to all jewish people in mourning? >> and i think the entire humanity. i just got back from kibbutz be'eri. the kibbutz is an epitomization of social and equality and very pro-peace place. you should know that in that kibbutz they lost 10% of their members from young to old. i saw the most hor rific scenes. -- i saw -- i saw the skull of a woman in which house i visited, the house totally destroyed, totally destroyed and they just cut her head off. i saw a pool of blood in that house where the picture of the children is hanging and the grandchildren hanging on the wall with the knives and the hatchets when they went in. i saw the most horrific scenes possible. i saw bloodshed and i was thinking to myself because in kibbutz be'eri there was a spushl fund to help neighbors from gaza. f for years they've been paying money to help friends in gaza and all of a sudden life was shattered and my nation is bleeding and mi nation is in sorrow and we are faced with an extremely cruel, inhumane enemy which we have to uproot with no mercy. i'll show you another example. this was found on the body of one of the terrorists. this is a booklet. okay? this booklet is instruction guide how to go into a civilian premises, into a kibbutz, a sea, a moshad, and how to break in and first thing what do you do when you find the citizens. you torture them. this is the booklet. it says exactly how to torture them, how to abduct them and how to kidnap them. so therefore the story is not israel versus palestinians and the story is with humanity. are we with good or evil and that's where humanity should stand and the battle that we should stand as a nation rising up like a lion is against evil and we will uproot evil so there will be good for the entire region and the world. >> as you know, the prime minister of israel, benjamin netanyahu is vowing to eliminate hamas. how does israel define that? what are the biggest complications now to a successful, full-scale israeli ground invasion of northern gaza? >> so one has to understand what we have in gaza. we have a whole army of terrorists, a whole army of vultures, a whole army of inhumane, cruel people within civilian premises and within their own homes and families. they shoot their missiles at our children from their homes, from their shops, from their mosques, from their hospitals. for years they've been trying to do it. for years and years and years. ever since we withdrew from gaza in 2005, we pulled back from gaza. you all covered that story. that was a very painful story for israelis. we withdrew to the last iota, the last inch and ever since we are getting thousands of missiles and attacks and terror attack, but this one exceed them all. this one has no comparison to anything, and when i stood up in front of the joint session of congress in july, i said to the house the senate and congress, terror cannot be acceptable in any way or form. this is the battleground and that is what we are fighting and we are trying now to move the civilians so that they will not be hurt and we want to go in and uproot that infrastructure of terror. get the mob out from the inner city. that's what we're trying to do and in pack, when you look at it carefully today, we are trying to help palestinians in gaza to go to a safe zone while hamas is trying to block them all of the way through. as you know, on top of all of that israel si facing a hostage crisis and more than 120 are estimated to have been taken and brought to gaza. what can you tell us, mr. president, about israel's efforts to bring them home? is israel open to any deal to negotiate for their release? so let's first understand who are the hostages? babies? women? elderly weem people with dementia, care takers, families? innocent civilians from 30 -- from 36 nations people were killed or abducted. from 36 nations. okay? there's natalie from chicago who came with her mother to spend the weekend and holiday in the kibbutz on the border and incidentally, a kibbutz advocating peace all throughout its history, and she's there in gaza. nobody knows her whereabouts and so many other americans and so many other people, and this -- and this living in not knowing what's their whereabouts is hell. actually, this paradise place turned into hell and it is our obligation to move it from being hell back to paradise and part of it is to bring back the hostages immediately, with no conditions back to israel. there is, incidentally, a big international effort in that respect and i must say that the american administration and president biden has been incredibly supportive and we are utterly grateful to him and the american nation and all of our friends and supporters throughout the world. >> so how do you get those hostages out of there? >> it's a complicated situation because you're dealing with people who have -- do not obey any rules of international humanitarian law in any way, for years already they've been holding israeli soldiers, bodies, citizens from previous rounds and not even telling any information about the fate, where abouts and how they're feeling and some of those hostages now need special medication, special treatment of. they need their personal needs. some of them are in extremely fragile medical situation. so we are doing whatever we can to release them. we have met with the families of the hostages, and it was a painful meeting. what can you say? what can you say to a newlywed whose wife was kidnapped and abducted and a 3-month-old baby is at home not knowing anything surrounding -- what are we saying to families where grandparents, children, grandchildren were all abductioned out there. what do you say to these families? some numbers, five, six, seven members of a family gone, all of of a sudden, abducted to the cellars of the enemy. so we are trying our best. we are trying our best, of course, to identify and understand their exact faith and various sources and we are demanding from the international community unequivocal condemnation for the release of the hostages immediately with no conditions. >> israel is ordering, as you know, more than a million palestinian residents of northern gaza to immediately leave their homes and move south, but in the past 24 hours alone, some 300 people were killed, most of them women and children. what do you say to your critics who insist that israel should be doing much more to protect innocent civilians in gaza? >> so let's talk about it for a moment. we're never indifferent to the pain of the other -- sorry. yes. >> we are never indifferent to the pain of our palestinian neighbors, and we always try to operate according to the basic guidance of international law. we are trying to move these citizens away from the war zone in order so that we can go in and uproot that infrastructure of terror. incidentally, perhaps give hope to the palestinians out there so that they can run their life independently in an honorable way, live and let live, but right now they are under the suppression of hamas, and what we are trying to do is to move them to another safe zone so they won't be hurt, but hamas is threatening them and stopping them and hamas has all of the fuel, by the way, it's using fuel to fight us and shoot at us. hamas has all of the water that they need. they're stopping it. hamas has clear instructions that they have gaven tiven to t soldiers to torture people in gaza and let me tell you another interesting fact and hamas is the one that with their missiles broke all of the electricity wires supplied to gaza. we are not responsible for the electricity in gaza, they are, but since they're sending out fake news and libels and stories and full of lies our answer is very clear. we will do whatever it takes that civilians will not be hurt. we are working very closely with the united nations and other agencies. we are talking to them. we are cooperating with them on the ground and we are taking our time, therefore, so that civilians will not be hurt. >> israel, of course, blames hamas for the suffering of these palestinian civilians in gaza, but as you know, israel controls gaza's borders and has been blockading the gaza strip since 2007 when it left gaza. you say you want to minimize palestinian civilian casualties, but at the same time israel has cut off food, electricity, water and fuel into gaza. i understand that water has been turned back to parts of gaza earlier today, but the united nations put it this way, gaza already is a -- in their words, a hell hole and is now on the brink of collapse, their words. won't these latest moves increase the death toll of palestinian civilians and children in gaza? >> so we are monitoring the humanitarian situation in gaza on an hourly basis. we are following all the facts. for example, 7% of the water only in water are israel's responsibility lies full we hamas. there's a lot of distortion in the facts. yes, i realize there's a lot of pain, but let's look at the picture honestly, at the picture. something terrible happened unprecedented in human history in modern times. you mentioned it yourself, since the holocaust there hasn't been such a huge number jews being killed in one day. this cannot go on. how can anybody move to peace side by side when our homes are bombarded and our families are killed and when we are tortured and abducted. how can we go on like that? we have the full right for self-defense. that means going in and uprooting them out and enabling a new future for that region. for that, it takes a process that is painful, but will be under supervision of all of the humanitarian needs of the people of gaza. moreover, than that, i repeat again and again, there is going to be a humanitarian safe zone for the people of gaza. we are working with u.n. agencies and everybody else, the ones stopping it all is hamas, simply, and that's the real face of hamas which is part of a whole empire of evil which emanates, as you know, from tehran, with its folks all over the region. wherever they are there's havoc, in syria, in iraq, in yemen, in lebanon and definitely in gaza. it's about time we changed the equation. israelis are fully mobilized. we didn't want to get there. we were living in peace. there was a nature festival with 3,000 young israelis celebrating on the border, but living in peace. for the last two years we enabled a huge economic growth in gaza. for the first time we enabled tens of thousands of palestinians from gaza to work in israel, to break bread, to enjoy life. what happened? there's no justification. it is simply an isis-type ideology that wants to eliminate us off the ground and therefore they need to be eliminated off the ground. >> mr. president, i want to play some comments you made at your thursday news conference and get your reaction and a chance to explain what you meant. listen to this. >> it's an entire nation out there that is responsible. it's not true, this rhetoric about civilians not aware, not involved. it's absolutely not true. they could have risen up. they could have fought against that evil regime. there are many, many innocent mrrns who don't agree with this, but unfortunately, in their homes there are missiles shooting at us, at my children. >> can you clarify your stance, president herzog? are you saying that all of gaza's 2.3 million residents, almost half of them are children, by the way, are respo responsible for hamas' terrorism because they did not rise up against hamas? >> no, i did not mean that or say that. i actually, in a follow-up sentence explained it clearly. first of all, the truth of the matter is that the infrastructure of terror lies within people's homes and we know it and missiles and huge missiles are launched at our heads, at our children and our homes from those homes, but i meant was i expect the palestinian people to have risen and put the truth in front of their people's face. this cannot go on that every time hamas carries a terror attack on us everybody claps and everybody celebrates. how is this justified? for the last six months ham his has launch a terror campaign against us all around israel and in the west bank and not around gaza. for the last six months every day there was a terror attack. i said it to the u.s. congress. it is impossible. guys, let's understand, there's only one moral clarity, and fighting the evil. we suffered evil for a long time and we were hurt badly, badly in the most atrocious way by evil right now last week, and that's what i meant, that i expect the palestinian people to say something about it, to say the truth and to admit, that's what i meant. >> looking back, mr. president, was this a political failure from multiple israeli governments to let the status quo of the hamas terrorist organization leading gaza go on for so long? >> well, one has to understand there was a huge international effort. there were a lot of efforts and let's explain to your viewers. in 2005 prime minister ariel sharon decided to pull unilaterally out of gaza. we uprooted settlements and we uprooted families and it was an extremely painful process. we told our people that this would be the new hong kong of the middle east. within a year and a half hamas held a coup d'etat, killed their own cousins, brothers and family members who were in fatah and shoved them out of gaza, totally disconnecting themselves from the palestinian authority which is in the west bank and they turned this place into an iranian-supported platform of terror. all of the money that was spent on all these booklets on all that ammunition and all those knives and hatchets and war machines and guns and cars that broke into israel a week ago should have gone to the people of gaza for their well-being. they should live -- they should have lived in tranquility and peace with us as much as we want to live with them in peace, but no. all the efforts they exhausted from all of the efforts towards a war machine. that's the issue here. >> how closer you, mr. president, to establishing what's called a humanitarian corridor out of southern gaza? you mentioned earlier israel is working on it. >> so these facts are being discussed right now. tomorrow the secretary of state tony blinken will return to israel and the region, and i'm sure this will be a top priority in his meetings. >> so you support allowing that southern rafah border crossing to be open so folks can leave gaza? >> so i will say the following, as president i am the head of state, but this is the powers are invested with the israeli cabinet and government under prime minister netanyahu and the new national unity emergency government and it's in their hands, but the entire effort is with a view to maintaining full humanitarian support for the people of gaza. >> "the new york times" columnist, tom friedman, a man i know and you know, obviously, he wrote in "the new york times" that israel's security climate is weakened -- weakened by its security provision. let me read a line from the article, israel was taken to the brink of civil war for an ideological flight of fancy, and they may have stirred their boldness. what's your reaction to those words? >> that on my national broadcast to the nation in february 12th, i already said that i saw in intelligence reports how our enemies are celebrating the internal strive in israel and that clearly, our enemies watched the internal situation in israel, but let me make it absolutely clear, there's no reason directly or indirectly in any way that that is the reason they waged war in israel any this terror attack and this vulture terror attack comes from an ideology of hate and it is just like isis and therefore, that's the way we need to look at it and not now review what led to it, what was the circumstances. we are now fighting to change reality and after that, we will definitely have soul-searching and fact searching. >> a complete commission of inquiry to figure out exactly where israel may have gone wrong and how this attack got under way. on top of all of this and this is very concerning, mr. president, iran is now warning of what it calls far-reaching consequences if israel continues its attacks on gaza. how concerned are you, president herzog, that this -- that this entire war that's goongoing rig now could head into a much larger, regional conflict? >> iran is planning all over the place. for years and years we've been claiming it, it is rushing to a nuclear bomb on the one hand. it spreads hate and billions of dollars of terror all around the region and trying to overtake more and more spots in the region and this is a strategic coalition where it is faced with the coalition of these nations and want to move to integration and peace in the region. it's no secret it's been told, and we know the rhetoric. we are very much on alert and we suggest not to fall into any mistake that israel will fall to anything of that kind. we are fully mobilized in an iron fist. >> do you think a war with iran is possible? >> we don't want to get to any war with anybody, believe me, and we are very cautious and restrained. we are being attacked constantly from our northern border. we are retaliating and defending our people, but clearly, we are trying to be as cautious and as careful in order to prevent those situations and israelis are in full alert and the israeli defense forces are strong and weets are there to protect and defend our people. >> thank you very much for joining us. >> thank you very much. a i said in kib its be'eri and we will bring back the towns and villages from these dark, horrific moments back to a future, a bright future, hopefully of peace. >> that would be great if that could happen. thank you so much once again. we appreciate your time. >> thank you. >> very, very emotional, very powerful interview, dana. i've interviewed a lot of us rail i leaders over the years and i've never seen an israeli leader discuss in such detail the enormity of what's going on. >> it was sch a good interview and you got a lot in there and we'll talk about it after the break, and the way that he framed this as nothing more important than good versus evil, it was really telling, i thought. we will talk a lot more about that and much more after the break. stay with us. we just heard an extensive interview that wolf blitzer had with herzog, to uproot hamas' infrastructure of terror and it is good to get the mob out. i want to bring in wolf blitz tore talk about this and nor and joining us is national security analyst david sanger and cnn military analyst colonel cedric leitenin. there is so much to take away from this, what do you think having done interviews like this in many, many different situations many, many times. what struck you about what he said and didn't say? >> what struck me is over the past several months the people of israel were pretty much and the political leadership of israel were pretty divided over various issues over the government's call for judicial reform and all of that. there were huge protests almost every saturday night and other nights of the week and hundreds of thousands of israelis were protesting and the country right now based on everything i'm hearing and seeing is very united. they are determined to take action against hamas and president herzog at one point said israel is mobilized with an iron fist and who was critical of some of these other decisions that were being taken by the netanyahu government and the country right now is fully mobilized. they have hundreds of thousands of troops, maybe as many as 400,000 troops who are ready to move in and it sort of reminds me after 9/11 when al qaeda attacked the world trade center, the u.s. immediately got fully mobilized with an iron fist ready to take action and went in and did to al qaeda what the israelis are doing now to hamas, and all of us have lived through a period like this and we'll see how it unfolds. >> that's an important analogy which the israelis remind us over and over again and it is quite different that they're right on the border in afghanistan that is thousands of miles away. >> when the u.s. went in to destroy al qaeda and later isis, there were a lot of battles and i was in fallujah and there were a lot of innocent civilians, unfortunately, who were killed and injured in those confrontations and the u.s. knew it, as well. >> absolutely, wolf and those are the areas when you really can't help it, as much as you try to avoid civilian casuallies and this bes come the critical imperative to avoid as many as possible and no matter what you try to do in a situation when they're top of each other and civilians on top of hamas, you'll have problems just like we in in fallujah and other places. >> president herzog said to you, his brother who is the ambassador from israel to the united states said to jake on "state of the union" earlier today that they are trying to establish humanitarian safe zones. >> yes. well, that's one part of it, but to have a safe zone that you can't get to if you're a gaza civilian, that creates another problem and there you are, that you are going to be, in essence, a very vulnerable, in a very vulnerable place at that point. >> i thought it was a fascinating interview that wolf did and as fascinating for his non-answers as for his answers. so as cedric has said, in this battle it's going to be very hard to separate civilians and militants and that's exactly the way hamas wants it. they want to make sure that if there is a battle particular me in the northern part of gaza that there are a lot of civilian casualties and the narrative shifts against israel in that regard and what was missing, i thought, from president herzog's otherwise very compelling argument is a plan for two steps of this. say they are successful and they get rid of the hamas leadership. who then runs gaza? they don't want to and they've tried this before and yet it's not clear who would run it and secondly, it's not clear where they will go and to go to the southern part of the country and even if they could get there it's not a solution. that's why it is pretty important that secretary blinken, he is flying around the region, he's trying to get the gate opened that would let them go into egypt. the egyptians don't want them there. the other arab allies have not stepped up and said okay, if they can get them into egypt we will take care of them here and those are the two parts of the plan that are missing. >> that is a key point and something that i've been slightly obsessed with and harping on for the past several days because, wolf, you've all been involved either deployed or covered the region for so long, but wolf, you were there and have covered this for decades and you know that this is one of the longest stories when it comes for the plight of the palestinians is where are their arab brethren. where are they? now the question is more dire, maybe the most dire that it has ever been. >> it was interesting, this is happening right in the diplomatic effort to get saudi arabia to get the abraham accords and they were moving, the israelis and the saudis has set them back big time. one of the things that the saudis kept telling me, and i interviewed several of them throughout this entire process, is in order to achieve a normalization of relations between israel and saudi arabia, the israelis have to do some significant things to help the palestinians to move the two-state solution and israel living alongside a new state of palestine and the saudis were trying to make that happen and now all of that has gone away given the hamas attack on israel. >> it's the worst thing you can do to hamas right now is to go ahead with the deal because the essence of that deal is to have the country that is at the core of the muslim -- actually recognize israel as a state, and of course, that's what hamas doesn't want to have happen, but it would be interesting to see if the saudis would then step in and try to actually help the situation. the saudis don't want hamas around either, but we don't see them stepping up or publicly condemning it because they're afraid of their own street. >> i just want to go back to one of the things that you said which is completely accurate and it's worth not brushing over because it's critical. hamas, you said, is okay with palestinian civilians getting killed because it helps to keep the anger alive and well and keep it going towards israel. >> absolutely. >> but that, just think about that for a second and we know what hamas is capable of because we have seen what the terrorists did inside israel, but in this conversation, we're talking about its own people. >> here's the problem. >> you have a group that is, yes, they were elected earlier a decade or so ago, but the problem is that they don't look at their position of power as being one in which they're responsibility to people that they are in essence, governing, de facto governing and when you have a situation like this where you have a bunch of people who are in charge and the human capital that they're responsible for is not being taken care of, it really creates this problem where they are not really part -- they don't see them as part of the solution. they thrive on the crisis and they thrive on all of the things that can be done to the population, but not what can be done for the population and that's the real problem. it's a crisis of governance, basically. >> it's a crisis of governance big time and it is also a case of whether there's some serious misinformation and one of the things that you were talking about, wolf, with the israeli president what was about the hearts and minds of the palestinian people and his argument over and ofver again i that the palestinians are applauding some of the atrocities that hamas waged inside israel. one of the things that he did not say is that many of these palestinian civilians are not getting accurate information about what actually was done perhaps. maybe some of them are, but i would venture to guess many are not. >> you're absolutely right. that's one of the big problems is they're not getting the full picture. the enormity of what's going on and the atrocities occurring in israel a week or so ago and it's a good point that you make. one thing that david mentioned was that why president herzog was not explaining what the israeli military operation was all about, what they were going to do, one of the things that the israelis have said to me, and the idf spokespeople and others and chanders have said we don't want to advertise what we will do because that will endanger the entire operation and we're not going to tell you when it's going to unfold, it's going to happen and we will not give you details because that endangers the operation and endangers israeli troops 200,000 troops or 300,000 troops who have been activated and mobilized to go inside gaza and god forbid elsewhere, as well so they don't want to spell out the details because it can compromise the operation. >> the operation and of course, we cannot forget the hostages who are still believed to be inside gaza, both israeli and american hostages. wolf, ecolonel leighton, fantastic interview. >> thank you. up next, the israeli -- has hezbollah to, quote, watch very closely what is happening to hamas after recent exchanges of fire along the israeli-lebanese border. we will go live to southern lebanon next. c'mon, we're right there. c'mon baby. it's the only we need. go, go, go, go! ah! touchdown baby! -touchdown! are your neighbors watching the same game? yeah, my 5g home internet delays the game a bit. but you get used to it. try these. they're noise cancelling earmuffs. i stole them from an airport. it's always something with you, man. great! solid! -greek salad? exactly! don't delay the game with verizon or t-mobile 5g home internet. catch it on the xfinity 10g network. to israel south and gaza, a ground incursion by the israeli military is imminent. to israel's north, now another potential battle as some small arms fire and rockets have been sent from lebanon into israel. the israeli military says it is responding to fire from lebanon and warning hezbollah to, quote, watch very closely what is happening to hamas and their organization in gaza as we speak. earlier today, as israelis were killed after hezbollah launched an attack on the town of shitullah. ben wedeman is in southern lebanon for us. you've been there for a while watching all of this and hearing about all of this. what are you seeing and learning at this hour? >> we've seen sara is over the last two days, a fairly significant uptick in hezbollah strikes on israeli positions. yesterday they hit according to hezbollah, five, today it seems perhaps just as many, if not more. they seem to be focusing on israeli military positions, communications and surveillance equipment and they have also been firing inside of communities. as you mentioned, one israeli has been killed and several others have been using -- have been wounded. what it appears hezbollah is using is guided missiles, very precise. they are very good at putting out videos of their attacks and these are not random rockets fired in the general direction of the israelis. these have very precise targets. now in the afternoon there was a salvo of rockets fired into israel. the iron dome intercepted most of those rockets. the rest, we but it was not hezbollah that fired them, turned out it was the military wing of hamas based here in southern lebanon that claimed responsibility. the israelis have repeatedly responded to these attacks with airstrikes and artillery strikes as well. now, one of the rockets, it is not clear fired by whom, hit the headquarters of the united nations interim force in labor about a non, that is a peacekeeping force that has been here for decades. i spoke to the spokesman and he said that the rocket landed near the helipad. be in was injured. but certainly this does represent sort of a broadening of this conflict to include a variety of new targets. >> yeah, this really speaks to how israelis see it as an existential treat. we'll have to see what happens. of course a humanitarian crisis happening in gaza as we speak. ben wedeman, thank you so much there on the northern border. and in israel, as you just heard about, there is a lot going on to the north, but also when you look at what is going on with the border, with gaza, significant ground operations are expected soon. that is according to sources who are looking at what you are looking at right now, israeli troops amassing at the gaza border. but the idf says this will only happen when they see palestinian civilians out of the area. an idf spokesperson says that they are seeing a strong flow of people leaving northern gaza following friday's urgent warning to evacuate. joining me now is the former israeli national security adviser and former head of israeli national security council. thank you so much. first i want to talk about what the israeli president herzog told cnn about the idea of establishing a humanitarian zone. what does that look like, how realistic is that? >> first we need to understand the goflt government. i t goal of the government. the president was clear in explaining that israel has set a goal that when this war is over, hamas is no longer in control of gaza. israel is not in control over the palestinians. in order to be able to do this, we need civilians to get out of the warzone. for that of course, this is why we gave this urgent message to tell he them to leave. by the way the way we evacuated our warzone, we evacuated a town of 30,000 people this morning and we'll evacuate more and more and more. israel understands of course that when the civilians evacuate to the south, they need basic humanitarian conditions to live their lives. and as president herzog explains, they will do that. but hamas opened this war. we did not get an advanced warning for our people to leave all of the communities around gaza. hamas came in and i don't remember that we got any -- >> because israel is not terrorists. >> because israel does not act this way. and this is why throughout these days there are of course already unfortunately civilian casualties in gaza. most of them are human shields because hamas put them there. and they are using our hostages as human shield. but israel does not play this way. israel plays by the code. there are codes in war even in such dreadful circumstances. we called for the civilian population to evacuate where we need to operate. >> sbut you know far better tha i that it is very difficult for the civilians in gaza to evacuate. they are being told to go to the south of gaza. but then they have -- they can't get out. and so the question is, and this is because of israel, but also because of egypt, so given your experience inside the israeli government dealing with the egyptians, let's take them for example, that u.s. secretary of state was in egypt and other arab countries. how crucial is it for egypt to allow these innocent palestinian civilians to cross over into their land? >> so first it is difficult for those people to go to the south because hamas is blocking them. let's first put the blame on who takes most of the blame. it is not in the hamas interest for people to leave their houses. they want them as human shield. but this has been discussed throughout these days and secretary blinken as reported was in egypt for this cause. this cannot only be israel's problem. the countries around us, old friends and new friend, need to step up. if they care so much about the humidityian situation, they need to do something about it. of course they need to open the crossing and temporarily allow thea ns to get there and get whatever they need. we do not have intention to control gaza. we left in 2005 to the last wave of our people that we took out of gaza. this is not in israel's intention. the egyptians has a lot to do to assist the situation especially the ones that they claim they feel so much for the population. >> i don't want to lose sight of the hostages who are in israel, mostly israeli, but also american citizens. >> and other nationals. >> and other nationals. thank you. i don't expect you to tell me what intelligence that israel does have, but you have a lot of experience in intelligence. what are the chances that israel actually knows where they are right now? >> israel embarked on an immense operation of collection for this. we start in a very bad starting point because clearly we were in the dark. we didn't see this coming. we didn't see the preparations. so it is not like we knew in advance where hamas would attempt to put those. and it is very unfortunate, but hamas already said that some have been killed because they use them as human shield. of course for washington, i don't know their situation and how many are still alive. but israel has an obligation to release all of the hostages. and i think the international community should have an obligation to release all of the hostages. hamas shouldn't have taken them in the first place. >> you say israel has an obligation to release. you mean to rescue. >> yes. >> hamas has an obligation to release. >> yes, of course. israel has an obligation for rescue them of course. hamas needs to release them immediately. it should have been trivial that hamas would give -- i mean, they are kids, children, babies. grandmothers in wheelchairs among those. why are they still there? it is such a humanitarian disaster and the international community needs to demand this from hamas. they need to release them. >> thank you so much for being here. appreciate it. i hope you'll come back. >> thank you. and coming up, what will this new humanitarian area that israeli feerkts are telling cnn about in the last couple of hours, what does it mean? our special coverage of the conflict continues.