Thanks for joining us. Im dana bash in washington. And im sara sidner in tel aviv with cnns breaking News Coverage of israel at war. A complete catastrophe, that is how one official is describing conditions in gaza today. The situation there is becoming more dire by the minute as Tens Of Thousands of innocent civilians are fleeing their homes in response to the barrage of attacks from israel from the sky. Gaza is running out of food and clean Drinking Water after being cut off by israel. Today israel claims to have turned the water back on in Southern Gaza, but palestinians say they come in the confirm the supply due to lack of electricity at the water stations. Israel is now working on setting up a humanitarian safe zone in Southern Gaza so when evacuees get there, they will have access to food, water and any other assistance that they might need. Antony blinken says that the Rafah Crossing in the south of gaza will be open later today. Weve seen a surge of people trying to get out of gaza at that crossing in the last few days. It is the only border point out of gaza that is not controlled by israel. Tony blinken met with egyptian officials this morning discussing letting americans out. Israels president says they are preparing for a ground operation. The plan is to uproot hamas infrastructure of terror and, quote, get the mob out. This is what the israeli president told wolf blitzer when they spoke just moments ago. They talked about in a Ground Incursion and also hezbollah sending rockets from lebanon in the north of israel. When asked about what israel was doing to bring the more than 100 hostages home, this is what he said. So let first understand what type of hostages. Who are these hostages. Babies, pregnant women, elderly people with dementia, even with their caretakers, families, innocent civilians from 36 nations. People were killed or abducted from 36 nations. Oka okay . There is natalie from chicago who came with her mother to spend the weekend of a holiday in a kibbutz on the border. And incidentally kibbutz advocating peace all throughout its history. And shes there in gaza. Nobody knows her whereabouts. And so many other americans and so many other people. And not knowing their whereabouts is hell. Actually this Paradise Place turned in to hell. And it is our obligation to move it from being hell to back to being 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 on that respect and i must say that the American Administration and President Biden has been incredibly supportive and we are utterly grateful to him, the american nation, and all our friends and supporters throughout the world. There are so many things happening on so many different fronts here, dana. People are terrified about what is to come because rockets keep coming over. And of course in gaza, you have a similar feeling where airstrikes have been happening but the Ground Offensive is a whole different thing. It is going to be i think the likes of something we have never seen before. Meantime israel is also exchanging fire along its northern border with hezbollah. The militant group sent several rockets across the border this morning and the idf quickly responded with its own strikes targeting hezbollahs military infrastructure. Ben wedeman is joining us again from southern lebanon. Youve been there is a couple days now. Anything new that you are learning at this hour . I know that it is getting late and very dark there. Reporter what weve seen is that over the last two days, there has been a dramatic increase in the amount of Cross Border Fire between hezbollah and israel. Not only hezbollah, but the Military Wing of hamas, its men based here in south lebanon. They seemed a focus on its surveillance and communications and observation positions. They also hit some communities as well according to the israeli medical authorities. One man 40 years old killed and several others were injured in one of those strikes. Now, in the afternoon, there was a solely of rockets fired in to israel, but it turns out that was not hezbollah, it was hamas Military Wing. Those rockets were intercepted by the iron dome system. But as a result of all of this Cross Border Fire, a four kilometer deep closed Military Zone has been declared on the israeli side of the border. Also struck was the interim force known asunifil. I spoke to a spokesman and they said one rocket hit close to the helipad. They are still trying to figure out where the rocket was fired from. Ben wedeman, thank you so much for all your reporting there. Youve been in this region for decades. And i know that you know like the back of your hand. Secretary of state Antony Blinken is extending his Middle Eastern tour and will return to israel on monday. Unprecedented really. He met with the egyptian president today to ensure americans will be able to cross the Rafah Border Out of gaza. That is gazas southern border. And to ensure International Aid can get into gaza. Zachary cohen is joining us now. Reporter and in addition to promising the key Border Crossing will be open, blinken emerged from the meeting saying that the two companies shared the same goals of both preventing an escalation and also making sure that aid gets to civilians inside gaza. That has been a takeaway from all of blinkens various meetings. He plans to go back to israel after he finishes his last round of trips. But it was interesting because while he reaffirmed u. S. Support for israel, after the meeting with the egyptian president he also had an interesting message for the Israel Policeis how the out the next phase of the war. Take a listen. The way that israel does this matters. Needs to do it in a way that affirms the shared values that we have for human life and human dignity. Taking every possible precaution to avoid harming civilians. Reporter so while he reaffirmed u. S. Support for israel, maybe a word of caution or urging of constraints there from the Secretary Of State. Thank you for that. John kirby also talked this morning about the u. S. Plan to get the american hostages out of gaza. I mean, this is a very tricky and intricate situation not just for the american hostages, but for all of the hostages that have been taken into gaza. At this point nobody has heard anything, none of the families have heard anything about their loved ones. There is a lot of concern here in israel and i know in other countries where people are from. What is the plan right now . Absolutely. The focus of the administration seems to be on trying to talk with the third Party Countries and see if they can figure out a way to identify and rescue some of the hostages that have been taken. But john kirby did not rule out a scenario where there could be american boots on the ground if the opportunity was right to rescue some of the hostages. Take a listen to what he said earlier today when pressed on the issue of hostages. There are noen prac plans or intentions to put troops on the ground. We are actively trying to go find out where the hostages are. We dont even know how many exactly. A small handful we know, but there could be more than we know. What i wont do is rule anything in or out when it comes to getting our hostages home. Were working on this literally by the hour. So you see the full weight of american diplomacy and the military effort with the groups focused on the issue an broad. But Christopher Wray also talking at a reference with Police Commissioners in san diego today, he is acknowledging that they have seen an uptick in threats since the attack by hamas. And he is warning the Police Commissioners that they should be vigilant that lone actor could carry out a similar act of violence here in the United States. So the administration focused broad and here at home in the aftermath of the hamas attack. Zachary cohen, with all those details for us, appreciate you. And joining me now is Senior National security analyst julia kiam and also columnist josh ro rogin. Juliet, ill start with you about what we heard from john kirby. And the notion of not ruling outputting u. S. Troop on the ground to get american hostages out. I think that it is important to just underscore the other part of what he said, which is the u. S. Doesnt apparently even know how many. No. Oond and we have no indicati that the u. S. Or israel knows where any of them is right now. Thats right. People focus on extracting the u. S. Hostages or any hostages for that matter. To extract them requires that you know where they are. And given the fact let me put it clearly. I am conceding that there is a lot going on that neither you or i know. But chances are we do not know where a lot of the hostages are. And so therefore you cant even plant a mission to extract them, but it is possible that conversations are going on and which may be that we can get some if not all of these u. S. Hostages. I think that the second thing that is working against us and working against the hostages is that it is absolutely clear now that Israeli Intelligence because not as sophisticated or as strong as we had thought. They were clearly surprised by this attack or did not take into account some of the intelligence that they may have been getting from foreign governments including us about the potential for a big attack. So we have this idea that sort of israel always knows what is going on or knows what it is doing but in fact we have evidence that suggests otherwise. Yes, we do. Very brutal and horrible evidence. Josh, we have you here now. You are extremely well source everywhere. I want to ask you about what you are hearing about the Secretary Of State and how his diplomacy is going in the region. He of course started in israel but he has been in several arab countries including egypt. What are you learning about how successful his tour has been . He has a lot of different goals but let me start with one which is getting the Palestinian Civilians giving them Safe Passage Out Of Gaza before the ground war starts. Right. So as you mentioned, there is a lot of things going on at one time and Antony Blinken has been dealing with all of them and they all are centered in different places. When he was in qatar, that was mostly focused on figuring out how to get up to 15 u. S. Hostages released by hamas. That is 15 missing americans. Not all of them may be hostages but qataris are probably the best situated to work on that problem. The egyptians are working on the problem of getting 500 to 600 palestinian americans out of gaza. And there was this crazy story from yesterday where they thought they had a window of five hours where american citizens were told to go to the Rafah Crossing and couldnt get through. And so if you saw the interview with jake tapper, he blamed it on hamas. And egyptians are blaming it on the israelis because it is tied to the issue of how to get palestinians out and how to get aid in. So without security you cant get humanitarian aid in and without humanitarian aid in, you cant get people out. So kind of like four dimensional chess and blinken has to fly to different places do. I dont think you need secret sources to know that he would have succeeded because if he had succeeded we would have heard about it. So you dont need to read the tea leaves here. None of these problems are solved but he is working on all of them all at once. Incredibly difficult. And juliet, you heard josh talking about in Difficult Mission that tony blinken is on right now. One of the things that weve heard from not only israelis but also fleleaders from hamas tell Palestinian Civilians not to leave. And so weve heard it with our own ears that the mixed messages that these civilians who are just trying to make sure that their families live another day are getting both from their Leaders Quote Unquote In The Palestinian in gaza i should say and of course israelis saying get out because were going to we want you to be in a safe area. Yeah, and for the palestinians, obviously the innocent palestinians, neither party, the israelis or hamas, are very reliable to them even though the israeli messages is exactly correct at this stage. This is the challenge for blinken that josh was talking about, that he is in israel and this is true of the secretary of defense too, our full support of what israel what israel encountered and israel specifically. But then you travel to the arab countries or secretary austin got on 60 minutes and begin to temper that and begin to say essentially because of what is likely to happen to the palestinians if they are not able to get out or to evacuate, there is some tempering going on. So you hear Secretary Blinken sort of with both messages and in different places because of course what you dont want is you do not want hamas to have a send cond narrative. Their first is that they want to get rid of israel which was last saturday, but the second of course that they are willing to kill innocent palestinians. And that is the kind of country they are. So they are dealing with a very difficult situation. Everyone is a wear it is a humanitarian crisis. No one is behaving well for the palestinians. I only half buy the egyptian excuse of blaming hamas in terms of palestinians getting out and blinken has to sort of try to thread a very, very narrow needle. No question. Josh, what else are you hearing and what is the most important focus we should have right now as we watch suspended animation in many ways . Sure. Yeah there, are signs that pressure from the United States is having some impact on israeli decision making. The decision to turn back on the water apparently was made in a phone call between President Biden and Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu. So that just goes to show you that the u. S. Government is working on these things behind the scenes. But they dont like to talk about it in public because they dont think it is helpful. I think the most important thing that they will look at is that northern border. We have a second u. S. Aircraft carrier headed there. That is a lot of fighter power and that is meant to deter hezbollah from joining this fight. If that happen, all bets are off. It will make the current war in gaza look like only the beginning. So lets hope that that all can be avoided. Well, sara sidner was reporting with ben wedeman, there are some skirmish, people have died, but nothing along the lines of what hezbollah is capable of. Exactly. And yes, lets hope that they are heeding that call in southern lebanon. Juliet and josh, thank you so much for your expertise. Appreciate it. And still ahead as we were just talking about, there is a lot of frustration and it is growing stronger at the egypt gaza border. Americans are trying to flee at the Rafah Crossing. The u. S. Says hamas has been stopping them from leaving gaza. Even though egypt claims that the citizens can leave. Well talk more about that next. Right now, the u. S. Is moving a second Carrier Strike group into the middle east, into that area, in the mediterranean. And the presence now of two of the u. S. Navy most powerful warships is meant of course to send a message generally in the region, but most specifically to iran and its proxies, do not get involved. There is no guarantee about what happens with the u. S. Troops though in the near future. S sfwh. We have specially trained warriors whose main mission is to rescue american hostages. Of course it has to be made based on the intelligence but it should never be ruled out that american soldiers will save american lives. This is the worst attack on jews since the holocaust but also one of the worst Terrorist Attacks on the American People in recent times as well. Joining me now is military analyst general wesley clark. First i want to talk to you about what is going on at the border, but before that, can you just talk about the significance of the two very important u. S. Naval carriers going into the region . Sure. The two carriers and flotillas that go with them, you have tremendous capacity for not only the aircraft, but the escorts and what they can do in the way of Tomahawk Missiles and other things. And so they are there as a warning, they are there as a deterrent to iran. It is keep your hands off, stay out of it, ors else. Because the general thinking is that hezbollah wont go in without iran saying go ahead. This ties iran directly into the assault. On the other hand you can be sure that iran is watching this, they are calculating and that they could get bogged down and be tarnished in World Opinion that they could justify releasing hezbollah and go for the finish of israel. There is going to be that kind of thinking going on in tie ran. And those Aircraft Carriers are very important. And you say it is a deterrent. We h