don't know. a lot thanks for all of you for joining us. don't go anywhere. "cnn this morning" starts right now. ♪ this is cnn breaking news. >> good morning, glad you're with us. i'm poppy harlow with phil mattingly. in israel, secretary of state antony blinken is in jerusalem, he is meeting once again with israeli leaders. and we're also looking at these live pictures of smoke billowing above gaza city. a dire humanitarian crisis is unfolding there at this moment. and israeli ground offensive appears to be imminent this morning. blinken said that the u.s. is actively working to ensure that humanitarian assistance like water, food and medicine can get into gaza. >> the secretary of state also saying that safe passage way into egypt via the rafah crossing would be open as half a million people have fled northern gaza for the south. but overnight the negotiations seem to have stalled and that there is either a ceasefire nor humanitarian assistance in the gaza strip. president biden saying israel must go after hamas but also warning israel against occupying gaza. >> israel is going after a group of people who engaged in a barbarism that is as consequential as the holocaust. so i think israel has to respond. they have to go after hamas. >> would you support israeli occupation of gaza at this point? >> i think it would be a big mistake. look, what happened in gaza in my view is hamas and extreme elements of hamas don't represent all the palestinian people. and i think that it would be a mistake to -- for israel to occupy gaza again. >> do you believe hamas must be eliminated entirely? >> yes, i do. but there needs to be a palestinian authority, there needs to be a path to a palestinian state. >> also this just in, israel now says 199 people are being held hostage in gaza, that is the latest count. we're covering all of this around the world. let's begin with erin burnett live in tel aviv. that is quite an increase from what they had thought before. i wonder if that also indicates that their intelligence is getting a little bit better there. >> reporter: you know, that is a good point. as you point out, 199 is about 50 more than they had been saying the past few days. 199 hostages that they say are still there. in conversations with israeli military, they are honest that they don't know how many are alive or dead. most detail they have given us is to say that they believe some of them may have actually died as they were being brought from israel in to gaza. but that is the most we've been able to get. while there have been reports that maybe a dozen hostages were killed in strikes, there has been no confirmation. we have no visibility on that other than we understand from the idf that they are being held in tunnels sort of scattered around gaza. that hamas has not been known to use before. but as you point out, a very significant increase and it could point out more intelligence, it could point out more negotiations going on, that they actually have a real sense of the number. but impossible to really put details around what it means. all we can say is that that number is a huge increase. and talking to some of those families, the heartbreak is truly horrible to hear. >> and at the same time you heard explosions where you are a few moments ago. you c can you tell us what happened? >> yeah, we heard some explosions and frankly we've been hearing quite a few just the past 12, 16 hours that don't come along with air raid sirens and that is because the israeli iron dome, there is an and that you can follow. it is very specific as to where the exact risk of a hit is. so when you hear a siren, you move fast to shelter because it really could be a real risk to you. when you don't hear a siren, you may hear loud booms and thuds, it is because of that the iron dome have determined that it isn't a risk to the direct location. also military helicopters have been flying eefr. and fighter jets, low and very audible. sometimes higher up as they go into gaza for strikes, there have been lower much louder ones in the early hours of dawn this morning. and as you said, it is about 1:00 here. and as we await for the possibility of a ground invasion at anytime, keep in mind what those jets come with, 250 airstrikes alone just yesterday in gaza. so when we hear the jets, it is followed a few seconded ss late an explosion and of course the devas devastation. >> the secretary of state is in jerusalem today meeting with leaders there. all around the conflicting reports about that critical crossing, only possible one at this point out of gaza into egypt, the rafah crossing in the south. what status of that being open? it was supposed to be open for americans this weekend. >> right. it was. and then of course it wasn't. and it is the topic of all of the negotiations. secretary blinken going to be talking about this here. he has been with el sisi and talking about that. they want americans out of gaza. there are a lot of americans and palestinian americans in gaza of course separate super the broader humanitarian crisis you are talking about. secretary blinken was here thursday and then traveling through the region, united arab emirates, qatar, saudi arabia, egypt, trying for some sort of diplomacy. and then coming back here announced late yesterday. so he is here now in a meeting with the prime minister. there was a senatorial delegation here last night. senator romney, senator kelly and majority leader schumer. and i asked senator schumer why was blinken coming back, was the purpose of this perhaps to get prime minister benjamin netanyahu to stall or to slow d down, to bring this down a nono notch. he said no, secretary blinken is here primarily to try to keep diplomacy in the region on track but not to try to influence in any way the decisions netanyahu may make on the timing of this anticipated ground invasion of gaza. and ahead of that of course, you talk about the gaza refugees and getting people out of there, there is of course a broader sort of evacuation going on in israel itself, a flight with nearly 300 americans on board previously stranded in israel actually left overnight, that flight went to tampa, florida overnight. and we're also aware after florida governor ron desantis signed an executive order for charter flights for floridians trapped in israel and desantis was there, it was a real publicity moment for him on the runway. and the united states is helping more americans evacuate israel. there is no lebanese or saudi border, you have to go jordan or by sea. and so they have a ship, 10 to 12 hours on this giant evacuation ship from the u.s. milita military -- going to see you press. and natasha bertrand is live for us. this is basically a military cruise ship. tell us what you know. >> reporter: that's right. the u.s. making an effort here to try to evacuate civilians and u.s. ziv citizens who to want to leave. and what we're told, that it will be departing from hyfa and it is about 10 to 12 hours to see you press. it has to be only u.s. nationals and their immediate family members. and then once these u.s. citizens get to seecypress, if y don't have their own october, the u.s. will arrange for charter flights to continue with their journey there. it is important to note that this is not a noncombatant operation as such. that the military for example carried out in afghanistan when u.s. citizens were trying to flee at this point. this is a smaller effort, organized by the u.s. state department and the alert issued yesterday saying that they would be organizing this evacuation for citizens who want to leave. now, we should note that twhe fi we first reported earlier this weekend that the u.s. military is putting a marine expeditionary unit kind of on standby preparing them for the possibility that they might have to deploy closer to israel in the event that there is that demand signal from u.s. citizens who want to depart israel en masse. so right now they have not gotten that order, the marine expeditionary unit is capable of helping to assume large scale evacuations. and that is actually one of their mission essential tasks. they have not gotten that order yet. the white house has said that they have not seen yet the demand signal from u.s. citizens trying to leave. remember a lot of these people are dual citizens so they don't necessarily want to leave the country, but they are preparing for that possibility if they need to. >> so why is the u.s. sendin oi carrier strike group in when you consider the air power that that would make available to the u.s. military in the region, what does that actually signal in sec se terms of the posture and the way the u.s. sees as potential for escalation? >> reporter: this is a huge show of force. even the first aircraft carrier which arrived in the region earlier was very significant. but to have a second aircraft carrier headed toward the eastern mediterranean, that is really significant and a sign that the u.s. is concerned about the possibility that additional group, additional actors will try to join this conflict. so it is meant as a deterrent primarily against hezbollah, the lebanese militant group that the u.s. has expressed so much worry about, the possibility that they could open a new front in this conflict. of course iran also very concerned is that they could get involved somehow. so two aircraft carriers, strike carriers, in the region really significant. a sign that the u.s. is trying to show really forceful sign of deterrence. >> in tasha, thank you very much at the pentagon this hour. poppy and phil, back to you. >> and we also just learned that secretary of state antony blinken will not only meet with netanyahu and president herzog, he will also meet with the opposition leader and defense minister of israel. so a lot of key meetings still ahead. joining us now, dan s oeceynor. great to have you with us. there is mass confusion as erin reported over the southern crossing, the only potentially possibly safe way for palestinians, americans, to get out. can you explain what is happening right now diplomatically? because saturday it was supposed to be open for five hours for americans to get out and it wasn't and the blame was on hamas. >> hamas doesn't really want the palestinians leaving. because the way they wage their war is they co-locate civilians, large concentrations of civilian, with their weapons capabilities. so the u.n.-run schools in gaza have thahamas' weapons. they put their command centers in hospitals because they know if israel tries to hit a command center, they can say that you hit a hoopt. so the last thing they want is dispersing palestinians to other parts of gaza that makes it harder for hamas to use them as human shields. egypt doesn't want all he's palestinians coming in over the rafah border. they say we should look after the palestinians' needs but the one easy way to do it is to move them across the rafah border into egypt and they don't want in a. what egypt is doing is moving food and other supplies into gaza. israel is letting them do that and that is tricky because you don't know who is in control of them. are terrorists getting access to those supplies. so the southern border is a mess. single best move would be for egypt to say we'll take in palestinians, we'll create tent cities, it has worked in other parts of the world. it is very expensive, but as we've seen from ukraine to the war in syria, international communities spent enormous amounts of money so no single country had to absorb it. >> and the u.n. is already setting up and they have people now positioned there in northern egypt in the hope that this will -- >> right. and like i said, there is precedent for egypt not absorbing all the costs. cc knows that. >> but there are domestic security concerns as well. and to your point, what they say publicly versus what his considerations are internally oftentimes diverge from one another and i think that is a driver as well to not wanting a large -- >> and if that is his concern, he should say it. but what he shouldn't do is say this is israel's fault. to your point, these are security concerns that he has which is fine and the international community can help him with that. >> i want you to listen to two things secretary blinken said. the first was in that press conference with benjamin netanyahu. and second was yesterday in egypt. listen to how they echo one another. >> the prime minister and i discussed how israel does this matters. the way israel does this matters. needs to do it in a way that affirms the shared values that we have for miami life and human dignity. taking every possible precaution to avoid harming civilians. >> intentional that he said it both times in that way and the real question is, you know, what will the u.s. support in terms of how israel does it. they have said that they are loc lockstep, no matter what? >> no, i think the comparison that president biden made in his speech and his press statement where he kept comparing israel to isis, when -- >> hamas. >> sorry, thank you, when compare hamas to isis. when the united states over the course of three administrations, obama administration, the trump administration, the biden administration, went to wipe out isis, they obviously didn't want civilians to be killed, but there was collateral damage in war that is inevitable and that did not slow them down from taking out isis. you've heard president biden make these repeated comparisons to the holocaust, that what hamas has done to israel is the worst suffering of jews anywhere in the world in any single day since the holocaust. you know, we're concerned obviously, america and uk and our allies are worried about civilian casualties in fighting world war ii, but obviously there are civilian casualties and there is collateral damage. so the declarations that israel should be mindful, of course israel should be mindful. but how do you be mindful when they are putting their capabilities in schools and hospitals. >> cutting off water, electricity, strategically put it on to hospitals for example. >> or could you move it to the southern part of gaza where israel is trying to get the palestinians in gaza to move to. >> here is where i struggle with the isis analogy. they had a caliphate that they created amongst themselves. but when they were taken out, there were governing structures and infrastructure there to fill the vacuum or to retake control. the president in that "60 minutes" interview saying he would be opposed to israel occupying gaza. there is a very real reason israel pulled out of occupation of gaza. so my question if you point to isis, who fills this vacuum. >> when isis was driven out of these areas like raqqah, there was a massive vacuum. there was no strong authority to really fill -- >> one did at least in iraq. >> but it was weak. and of course the u.s. went in saying look, we got to wipe out isis. isis poses and enormous threats to the west. we'll wipe out sooigs and then we'll figure out how to fill the vacuum. but you can't say we'll live -- we're not going to learn to live with isis until we figure out what will succeed isis. i think what israel went through over the past week, babies be headed oig, babies burned, women raped. like jew hunting. the idea that israel should be told you have to learn to live with this entity until we know what succeeds it. there are possibilities of what succeed it. there is a whole range of options. but this is an existential threat to israel since the 197 # yom kippur war. the idea that they should wait and learn to live with this threat that it is their border. >> i'm not saying that they have to wait, but i'm thinking of foresight and thinking flew what happens next is critical. >> but they didn't choose the timing of this. they had a security doctrine that was learning to co-exist effectively with hamas for two decades since israel pulled out in 2005. and then this happened. and the idea that the rug gets pulled out from israel and israel says you have to figure out what happens next, israel says no, we have to probability our citizens from the jew hunting. we'll do that and protect our security and then deal with what follows. >> and you were an adviser to president bush and you think this week for biden has been what? >> i think it has been one of if not the best weeks of his presidency. i think he has spoken with moral clarity and i'm often a critic of his. the language he has used booth in his press statement earlier in the week and the "60 minutes" interview was not only clear headed but actually quite moving and i think he's established goalposts. there will be moments where governments around the world will be critiical of what israe does in the weeks ahead. but he put down markers and compared it to the threat that isis opposed to the west. once you establish knows markers, and i think he comes at it sincerely as we were talking off camera, president biden has taken his grandchildren every single one to visit concentration camps. i think he feels this. and once he puts down knows markers, i thinkful be hard to be critical of israel as it takes the next steps. >> great to have you. next we'll hear from an idf spokesman to hear what is being done to free the hostages and how the weather could impact battle plans. welcome back. we're live in israeli this morning and so is secretary of state antony blinken just landing here arriving in tel aviv earlier this morning where i'm standing. blinken is meeting with benjamin netanyahu and other israeli officials today. and blinken and netanyahu expected to hold a joint news conference in a little over an hour. his trip here, his second in days as israel about to launch a major ground offensive, expected to, and there is a growing humanitarian crisis ahead of that anticipated incursion. there is still confusion over whether the border crossing between gad za and egypt will b open for anyone to leave and any humanitarian aid to be allowed in. and while israel battles hamas, it is also facing threats in the northern part of the country against the powerful iran backed hezbollah militia in lebanon and syria. that threat continues to grow. and matthew chance is there along it that northern israel border, that possible second front. when i say possible, matthew, it is already there. there is already of course a lot of action and already a lot of people killed along that border. >> reporter: yeah, there has been one person killed in exchange of fire across the border between northern israel and lebanon. also syria as well. territory inside syria being used to fire rockets in to israeli territory. over the course of the past 24 hours or so, israeli military say they have carried out multiple strikes on targets inside lebanon in response to at least nine rocket attacks from lebanese territory controlled by the iranian backed militia hezbollah into northern israel. but none of those attacks so far, and this is crucial, none of them have reached what the israelis call the point of escalation. we haven't seen yet the full-scale bombardment of northern israel which hezbollah would be capable of given its massive arsenal of rockets. that many people are bracing themselves and the israeli army is bracing themselves for. what the israeli military has done is impose a securitiey zon in the areas very close to the lebanese border. civilians in various areas like this one have been asked to evacuate their homes for skirt re -- security reasons because this is in the firing lines should hezbollah decide to open up its missile arsenal and throw rockets in to northern israel. but nevertheless israeli forces say they are determined to fight back, they won't be caught off guard. and in fact are actually bristling for a potential -- take a listen to one commander we spoke to. are you hopeful still that hezbollah will stay out of this war? >> i hope there will be another front. we need to destroy hezbollah. >> you hope there will be another front, you want the war. >> yes. >> why? >> reporter: incredible. and that gives you a sense, erin, of the mood not just h amongst ordinary soldiers but civilians as well, they feel the time has come because of the attacks near gaza last weekend to really strike back at the enemies of israel. >> what an incredible thing to say. in a sense surprising but shows you still how raw this is. yes, we want another war with another group because of how they feel right now. powerful. thank you very much, matthew chance in northern israel. phil, back to you. >> joining us now is idf national spokesman colonel peter lerner. the idea that the individual matthew spoke with wanted the front and the north to open up in an effort to go after hezbollah as well. is that something that you agree with? >> the situation on the north is extremely delicate. the idf is not looking to escalate on the border with lebanon and there has been an increase of exchanges across the border. we've seen several anti-tank guided missile strikes against civilians and military forces operating on the border and indeed we've evacuated along the border in an area of two kilometers throughout the breadth of the border at the frontier. all of the civilians we've asked them to leave. and it is coordinated evacuation because that is what we do, we evacuate our civilians out of the line of danger. on the other hand, it is total of around 28 communities, 28 towns and villages. on the other hand, we are preparing ourselves for that eventuality and i think that soldier obviously he does not present the policy of the idf that matthew interviewed on the spot in the field, but of course there is a sense that we need to be prepared for that eventuality. and of course there is a challenge. what we understand at this time is that hezbollah is actually operating in order to increase and expand and perhaps even broaden under the drirection of iran and that is a cause of concern and why we've recruited? 300,000 reservists for both fronts, also for the gaza strip which is the main arena at this time, but also to be prepared and poised for the potential outbreak of violence with hezbollah in the north. >> right. there are now confirmation that the number of hostages has gone up, roughly around 199 i believe at this point. and also reports that the idf, israeli forces, have some intelligence about the whereabouts of at least some of the hostages. is that accurate? >> about the situation or state of the hostages. that number 199 people ob abduc from their homes, that is a serious thing that has happened and developing the last ten days now. i won't go into the issues of them out of respect for the families, the vehicle fills, and also in order not to impede on the potential negotiations and actions behind. of course, you know, we have gathering and we are gathering intelligence and there is a lot of intelligence coming out of the terrorists that we killed in the aftermath of the attack over the last ten days and still more terrorists even yesterday that are participating in this attack. basically because, you know, they are so proud of their action that they videoed everything in order to supplement and support their propaganda war. so they all have body cameras. we know who they are and we know how to get to them. >> lieutenant colonel, on the rafah border crossing, i'm aware there are multiple different players vofrl involved here and not he is inially up to just the israelis or u.s. or anybody else, but concerning the fact it has not opened yet, i want to play sound from the palestinian director. take a listen. >> convoys of people were killed and targeted. rafah border was bombarded a couple days ago itself. so i think inn order for aid to get in, we need a ceasefire. >> is a ceasefire an option in that area? >> we've heard and seen that the prime minister's office made an announcement that there was no cease fire at this time. and of course the idf is subordinate to the government and we'llinst instructed on that basis. as we speak there is another window of evacuation of civilians from the north to the south in order to get civilians, palestinian civilians, out of harm's way. and it is actually hamas who is trying to keep them i instructing them not to leave, placing checkpoints to block their roads and even potentially boop pi trapping some of the roads going south and blaming israel for it as we've seen a couple days ago. so we're trying to shift people in order to distinct between the wr terrorists them, between hamas and innocent civilians, we're trying to make a suffer enyags so we can go in and destroy hamas. we are determined that hamas will never ever use gaza as a staging ground for massacres in israel. it is high time that they be banished from the realm of existence. >> logistics are critical given i think what is being planned right now, what many people expect. there are weather issues right now, intensifying thunderstorms, forecast impact israel and gaza. how does that play a role if any in the decision to launch what is expected to be a counteroffensive? >> the idf is a professional military. weather is not an issue. we will mobilize if instructed to do so in any weather and any other circumstances. of course in order to achieve the best result in order to achieve our goal of destroying hamas. >> lieutenant colonel, we appreciate your time, sir, thank you. >> have a good day. hospitals in gaza are under constant bombardment and now facing an imminent shutdown. how long until they completely run out of fuel, that is next. also ahead, we'll be speaking with the son of an american doctor, his mother still stuck in gaza on the efforts to evacuate civilians at that southern rafah crossing, still called fluid and unpredictable. welcome back. half a million people have moved to the southern part of gaza, many hoping that they can cross at some point through the rafah crossing in to-t egypt, but it still closed. one of those people is an american pediatric oncologist who is visiting with the palestinian relief fund. she was on air with us last week as a bomb went off. listen. >> well, whenever you go to gaza, you always know there is danger and violence when you are there. [ bomb ] but no i was not prepared for this. >> we were hoping to be joined by her this morning but we were unable to abable to connect wit because the wi-fi is spotty. last her son heard, she was at a unbuilding about five miles from that southern boreder with egyp. and her son is joining us. i appreciate you being with us. what is the update that you can share with us as she moves south and hopes to be able to leave? >> yeah, i think she's about five miles from the border right now. because the main u.n. facility was so full, i think there are about 10,000 people around, they are currently at a vocational school. i think they are sort of sleeping in their cars ready to go at any minute. i'm told sleeping with their shoes on, just anytime that they can hear the border is open, they will get there. i think that they have some food and water. i know that there is a pretty good shortage of bottled water right now, but they still have some well water that they are drinking from. >> as she talked to you about whether potable water has been acce accessible, electricity, right? israel said that they turned on the water to southern gaza but without electricity, you can't get it running again. what has she told you? >> yeah, sounds like that they have one workable spigot in the area that has pretty long lines at it. and that most of the facilities are out. i think the u.n. has sort of one thing that they can use. yeah. >> and you know what i think is so striking about your mother, and it has been an honor for all of us to get to hear from her throughout all this, she went into gaza knowing that there would be risks. certainly not this, but some risks. in many respects she was born to do work like this. >> yeah, i think it has been interesting to see how she's developed from the fact that -- so her mother was escaped -- her family escaped anti-jewish persecution in belarus and eastern europe and her father's family escaped persecution in iran and a war in southern lebanon. and so i think that she has grown up with this feeling of the family running away and knowing what that is like. and so i think going back and helping people in that same situation has been something that is really close to her as she's grown as a doctor. just doing rural medicine in america too is honestly pretty tough as well. >> and we're looking at pictures of the two of you together around the world. before you go, i wonder if in your conversations with her she has struggled with leaving. she knows she has to go, but at the same time, she's a pediatric oncologist, the whole reason she went is to help children in the most dire of situations and is this the most dire of situations. i wonder how she wrestles with that. >> yeah, i think that is really hard. i mean, i think one thing that has been hard for her to see firsthand, a lot of her work is kids with chronic illnesses, kids who need chemo or sort of constant checking on different biological things. and so when you have attacks like this, when you have violence like this, the infrastructure is gone too. so while there is a lot of medical need in gaza, it is a lot of vaech like primary care and things like that and what really is just impossible in these situations is really the work that she goes over there to to because there is no way that you can have kids on chemo right now or care for things that aren't immediate actionable things for health but are things that she will do. so in a lot of ways she can't into what she went there to right now. >> very important point.can'tino right now. >> very important point. i hope she gets home to you soon. and president biden says the dysfunction in weighmaking the less safe. what he said about the political ineptitude here at home. and it is monday and house still without a speaker. we'll talk to you about where the votes now stand and what democrats are proposing. does the dysfunction that we've seen in congress increase the danger in the world? >> yes. look, this is not your father's republican party. 30% of it is made up of these maga republicans who are maybe -- democracy is something that they don't look at it the same way you and i look at democracy. >> that was president biden speaking on "60 minutes" about the in-fighting among house republicans nearly two week he is after kevin mccarthy was soug ousted as speaker. jim jordan is working the phones going in today trying to bring holdouts to his side ahead of a full house vote that could happen on tuesday. let's go to lauren fox live on capitol hill. lauren, break it down, does he have anywhere near the numbers that he needs to clinch the speakership? >> reporter: yeah, he's not there yet. that is what we're learning from conversations over the weekend. one thing to be clear on, the holdouts right now are not the hardliners that you might be used to seeing from past iterations of this fight but instead some moderates and more establishment republicans who are deeply concerned about jim jordan potentially being rewarded after many of his backers tried to block steve scalise and were successful in scalise not getting the speakership last week. so there is so much bad blood and frustration within republican ranks that this could go on for a while. house republicans are slated to meet around closed doors around 6:30 p.m. tonight. this is one of many meetings we've seen the course of the last several weeks among house republicans and yet they are no closer to electing a speaker. as you noted, jordan's office is making it clear that he is having conversations trying to move members, but the biggest question right now, you have a bloc of members who are arguing that they may go to the floor and block jim jordan one of the questions has been if you went to the floor would members start to get to yes on whatever candidate was before them. but what we're hearing from our sources is the fact that actually that is not going to happen because some of these members are dug in saying that they are never going to support jim jordan. a lot can change in congress as it this war in israel continues and this goes on and on and on. there becomes a question of when do republicans come together and say enough is enough, we need to find someone, but at this moment, it doesn't look like jim jordan has the support he needs. >> lauren fox, keep us posted. thank you. strong words from president biden after the murder of a 6-year-old muslim american. we'll have a report. and also the president issuing this warning about how the war in the middle east could increase threats here at home -- >> because of what we're seeing in the middle east, is the threat of terrorism in the united states increased? >> yes. this morning investigators in chicago are looking into a horrific attack on a 6-year-old boy and his mother. the sheriff says that their landlord targeted them because they are muslim. he is now facing first degree murder and hate crime charges after he reportedly stabbed the child 26 times and wounded the other. whitney wild has the report. whitney, my god. >> reporter: this is awful. this is really horrible. here is what police describe. they say they got a call around 11:40 saturday morning regarding a stabbing and when they showed up, they found the suspect gentlemen joseph czuba in the driveway. and it is difficult to describe the horror they walked in to. they found the two victims in a bedroom. the mother had been stabbed more than a dozen times, the little boy had been stabbed 26 times. both rushed to the hospital. the mother is expected to survive. but sadly the little boy was killed in this incident. again, police saying that they have enough information about this incident to charge this man with hate crimes, although he did not make a statement. the council on american iz almostic relations has a chicago chapter and they are helping the family through this tickdifficu time. here is what their director said. >> he was a lovely boy who loved his family, his friends, he loved soccer, he loved basketball. and he paid the price for the atmosphere of hate. he has no clear about these larger issues happening in the world but he was made to pay for it. >> reporter: this was again just horrific and it was actually the council on american islamic relations that provided more detail to help illustrate why police are charging this man with hate crimes. the mother had texted the father from the hospital describing that this man czuba came in, he tried to choke her, proceeded to attack her with a knife and yelled you muslims must die. >> president biden and the first lady weighed in last night. what did they say? >> reporter: i mean, they have children, any parent knows how horrific and sad and just devastating this would be. here is what president biden said -- the child's palestinian muslim family came to america seeking what we all seek, a refuge to live, learn and pray in peace. this horrific act of hate has no place in america and stands against our fundamental values. freedom from fear for how we pray, what we believe and who we are. and you know, i think it is worth noting here council on islamic relations said there had never been an incident, they lived there for two years, and a switch flipped and they believe it was directly related to the conflict in the middle east. back to you. >> thank you for that reporting. tragic. as we heard the war appears to be fueling hate and tensions at home. christopher wray warning of rising threats in the united states. >> we have seen an increase in reported threats to these groups here in the united states and we're moving quickly to mitigate them, so we're working closely with our partners in state and local law enforcement, through our joint terrorism task forces, to ensure that together we stay laser focused on mitigating threats we have identified and continue sharing intelligence to keep our communities safe. >> joining us now, andrew mccabe and also easy really special envoy for combatting anti-semitism. what the fbi director says regarding moving quickly, what does that mean? >> well, phil, it can mean a whole bunch of different things depending on the sort of threat that the fbi is focused on. so if they have credible information about a specific threat, that will prompt an investigation by the fbi joint terrorism task force in the community where that threat exists. the joint terrorism task force, there is about 200 of them around the country. they are made up of fbi agents and local partners for exactly this purpose. but on the other end of the spectrum, it may simply mean reaching out to state and local officials or community officials, people in the faith based community to explain what these threats are to help people understand what the threats are and to protect themselves during times of elevated risk. >> and you've just returned from israel, your children i believe are serving. >> i live there. i just came to be able to engage here. >> thank you for what you do and for what they are doing as well. it is one thing to combat this hate after you see it, but another thing to work to change it from the inside out. can you talk about that work in a moment like this? >> well, i'll say the hate that we just saw is awful in the case of the story that we just heard about the little 6-year-old boy. i'll say with the genocidal terrorists that bludgeoned and murdered and raped and burned, that tore babies out of their mother's arms just last saturday morning as we were celebrating the sabbath and festival of joy in israel that turned into living hell for thousands, we know that there are 199 be a duc abducted, but know how tos were murdered and lying in hospitals. that kind genocidal hate i'd say fueled by a deep hatred not only for the state of israel but for jews and hamas charter stipulates that its role is to annihilate the state of israel and murder jews. that kind of hate i think is not one that we can understand. >> here in the united states also, how do you combat it most effectively? >> i think one of our biggest challenges is to -- part of the reason that i'm here. it is the same that fueled denial, justification, excusing for those heinous crimes for the murder of entire families, for piling up 20 young boys one on the other and igniting them in front of their parents, if there is somebody that cannot condemn that unequivocally, there is not anything that we can it without identifying the anti-semitism that fuels it. in order to be able to address or i dentify anything, we have o first define it. anti-semitism is designed not only on what we see here in the ground and protests as we are hamas or university campuses where we hear legitization of what happened, but it is imperative that we understand if we are going to be able to identify and combat it 3. >> andrew, from law enforcement perspective, how complicated is this moment given the various threads, platform, all of the different dynamics fueling this? >> it is incredibly complicated. you know, it is the role of every counterterrorism official is watching events overseas, understanding that terrorist attacks overseas can often inspire or drive reactionary attacks here in the homeland. so that is what they are looking for. i can guarantee that the fbi is reaching out to their partners in the jewish community and the muslim community with concern over crimes like we saw in chicago over the weekend. in addition, they are talking to informants, to sources of information, they are helping state and local officials protect locations that might be at greater risk. there is no question in my mind that the folks in the counter terrorism division if heat the are working 24/7 right now with their eyes on this threat. >> thank you both very much. "cnn this morning" continues right now. along the border with gaza, more than 300,000 soldiers a wait orders. >> one of the big issues for the idf to distinguish between hamas and civilians. >> we may have experienced it, but what is happening now is unprecedented. >> israel has the right to defend itself but he said that