Much. Erin Burnett Outfront starts erin Burnett Outfront starts right now. Captions by vitac ca www. Vitac. Com outfront next, live from israel, the u. S. Putting 2,000 troops on notice as israel is on the brink of invading gaza. Hamas releases the first video of a hostage, the family of a hostage just sharing new photos with outfront. And also this hour, inside the massacre. We are going to take you to a community that suffered some of the greatest losses in the hamas terror attacks, more than 100 people were slaughtered there. Homes torched and the chilling evidence that hamas was going to take many, many more lives. And well check back in with yoni asher, whose wife and two young daughters were taken hostage. Yoni opening up about the guilt he feels for not being able to rescue them and why he wanted to show us his little girls shoes. Lets go outfront. And good evening, welcome to a Special Edition of outfront. Im erin burnett live from tel aviv tonight. And we begin this hour with the Breaking News. American troops on notice. The pentagon has told roughly 2,000 u. S. Troops to prepare for potential deployment to support israel, a second Carrier Strike group has also been deployed to the region. This order coming as President Biden weighs a trip to israel. Secretary of state Antony Blinken is in the region at this hour. He was here today trying to stop the deadly violence in israel and gaza from spreading. While he was here in tel aviv, Air Raid Sirens blaring overhead disrupting a highstakes meeting with israels war cabinet. And those strikes here in tel aviv have been constant throughout this day. This is video from earlier this evening of israels iron dome taking out what appears to be live rockets. Not far from where we are broadcasting this evening. It comes as hamas releases a video that the group says is of one of the hostages, 21yearold mia shem. Her family just moments ago providing us these pictures of her from before she was captured. This is the first Hostage Video that hamas has released of any of the 199 people believed to have been held by hamas. And cnn has decided not to air it. But in the video she says she suffered an arm injury and was brought to gaza. In a moment im going to be speaking with her mother. His wife, two young daughters and his motherinlaw were all taken hostage. We have spoken to him several times after he recognized his family in this viral video. His daughter is huddled in the back of the truck. He spoke to me about the incredible amount of guilt that he feels for not being there for his girls. You know, the worst thing as a family, i have three girls, a wife and two little babies, is this guilt, this guilt. Why are you not coming to get us . Im thinking about them sitting there maybe if theyre alive and thinking, why daddys not coming. I cant, i want to. Well have much more of our interview with yoni asher in just a moment. But all of this in the context of an invasion, which, by all accounts, appears to be imminent, still imminent and a probable feeling here. We reported earlier from an Israeli Military base not far from the border. And while we were there today, we, of course, Saw The Iron Dome at work. Israels iron dome, this is a base that we saw clearly at war. Mats lined up on the ground for troops to sleep, hundreds of them out in the open air. There is little time, though, are of course, to sleep. These troops are ready to act at a moments notice. Well have our team of reporters standing by right now ready to give you the very latest on this story on the gaza border. We also begin with Oren Liebermann at the pentagon. I do want to start with you, though, nic along the gaza border. As i mentioned, we have these new photos of mia shared with us by her family from before she was captured. What is the very latest you could tell us about whats going on . Reporter well, it is the first video of hostages, as you say. It was always anticipated that hamas would use the hostages and videos of them, and it would put out a steady drip feed of videos to put pressure on either israel or the international community, and the nature of this video appears to be already in that vein. This is, you know, we understand that her family has authorized their release of this video. But its not instructive about The Big Picture of where the hostages are or anything beyond a piece of propaganda coming from hamas. Hamas itself says that it has been 200 and 250 hostages. The idf say they believe the figure is 199. And hamas says as well that it has already, or, rather, already 22 of those hostages have been killed, they imply in airstrikes that have been going on. You have heard artillery back and forth. Weve heard Apache Gun Ships along the border as well with their heavy machine guns. Indicative of, perhaps, a softening up of targets just over the border. Its not clear. Each night theres Something Different in the level of military activity. Tonight its the apache gun ship. All right, nic robertson, thank you very much, along the gaza border this night. I want to go to Oren Liebermann at the pentagon right now. The u. S. Show of force is escalating in the region. And every night theres been additional development. Now a very significant step. What are you learning . Reporter two different moves here. Both of them significant. A Marine Rapid Response force is moving towards the waters off the coast of israel. The Excesspeditionary Unit has on the gulf of. It is now making its way towards israel, according to a Defense Official familiar with the plans. The amount of u. S. Military assets and capabilities theyre already near israel. The uss gerald r. Ford is in the eastern met. The uss dwight d. Eisenhower is headed toward the eastern med and should arrive in iaum could in a couple of weeks. One, a show of support for israel and a message of deterrence for iran and iranian proxies in the region. And the second is to try not to get directly involved militarily in a conflict that right now is between israel and hamas in gaza. So, more assets in the region and more u. S. Involvement as it sees this conflict, a very hot conflict between israel and gaza. At the same time, defense secretary lloyd austin issued orders yesterday for 2,000 troops to be ready for possible deployment to israel. These are not combat troops. They are not intended to get involved in combat according to u. S. Multiple u. S. Officials. But they are support troops for the possibility of Planning Logistics and medical assistance if that order comes. More options for President Joe Biden as he decides what to do and how to handle this along with his National Security leadership, erin. Oren, thank you very much at the pentagon. I want to go now to retired Lieutenant General mark hertling. And also joining me now is a former s. E. A. L. Team 6 Squadron Leader who has gone all over the world doing hostage rescues. So much to talk to both of you. General hertling, u. S. Officials have stressed that there are no plans to put american boots on the ground to fight in this war. So then why would the marines go in to strike groups, all of this every day more and more . How big do you think this war may get . Reporter well, erin, you have to understand that the makeup of a strike group, first of all, a Marine Rapid Response force is about 2,000 soldiers, and thats exactly what is part of the ford group. They were in oman conducting Theater Security cooperation exercises with governments in the Area Militaries in the area. So they were pulled off of that exercise, put back on their ship, the baton, and sent as part of the strike group into that area. Its a prudent move. Its to get forces in the area to handle any contingency that might arise. And those contingencies fall along an entire spectrum of things. Along with the ford and the eisenhower strike group, one has been in the area for about six months, the ford, they were getting ready to leave the area, be replaced by the eisenhower. So it was a prudent move to actually ask the Eisenhower Group or task them to go forward earlier to have two Carrier Strike groups in the area. It is a show of force. Make no mistake about that. But its also to handle any kind of contingencies. And i think the Deterrence Effort is to prevent this from turning into a wider conflict than it already is. Chuck, how do you see it . Well, it was a very unusual step for washington to announce that joint special Operations Command, advanced units would be put into israel. That has never been done, in my memory. A joint special Operations Command also includes delta force s. E. A. L. Team 6. They will be joined by the fbis Critical Incident response group, which includes the fbis hostage rescue team, critically their Hostage Negotiation Unit as well. So i agree with general hertling, this is the United States putting some cards on the table and showing that they are prepared for any contingency. Chuck, i also want to talk about that new video of a hostage that hamas released. I know you watched it. Weve chosen not to show it to viewers, because hamas released it. Were not going to show it at this time. But you did have a chance to watch it. What did you take away from it . Well, i was listening very carefully. I heard the sound of ventilators, which maybe confirmed what i suspect that she was being held underground. I noticed some audio inconsistencies. There were some sound of some shelling off screen. She cant react to it. There was also very incongruously the sound of an automobile horn. I would suspect that she and all of the other hostages are in fact being held underground. I also noticed her hair and makeup had been she has an injury to her arm, pretty severe injury, from what i could see. It appeared to me she had been prepared for a video appearance. And what do you read into that . I mean, i know it sounds like an odd thing to say. But its not just the incongruous sounds and holding underground. But the hair and makeup, what does that say to you about what hamas is trying to do . Well, theyre trying to present the image that she is well cared for, that shes receiving medical care. They also took pains to make sure that there was not much else to be gleaned from the video. I expect these videos to keep coming. There are somewhere between 160 and 199 hostages. I believe there are probably somewhere around 12, maybe 15 americans. Those are the prime pieces for hamas to play. General hertling, what do you think the strategy is here . They pick one, they do this now. What is that about . Well, its a Proof Of Life video, erin. And i think chuck would agree with me that thats something thats been studied a lot. There are different outcomes whenever a Terrorist Group sends a Proof Of Life video. Sometimes the Terrorist Captors are in the video. It didnt seem like, although there was someone there, you never saw anyone elses face. It appeared that she was talking under duress, which is understandable, and, as chuck said, her arm was being bandaged as she was talking. And it looked like it was either broken or sprained or something. So, all of those things are factors in this. But its also showing hamas, at the same time they released this, they were talking about having more hostages than what israel had already concluded. Israel said 199, they said between 250. So that tells me theres more its an opportunity for them to say, hey, israel, you dont know everything you think you know. So all of those things are factors in intelligencegathering. All right, thank you both so very much. I appreciate it. And, next, i visited with yoni asher, a father who we have spoken to over the past week after his wife and two young daughters were taken hostage. In a powerful interview, he will open up about what tit has been like since the attack. Sometimes we think what is the apocalypse in area, what hell looks like. When i saw the images. Every minute is forever. Plus, the harrowing journey to get out of Northern Gaza. A Special Report from cnn journalist who is there, who lives in Northern Gaza with his young family. Explosions surround them as they attempt to flee. And tonight you will see it. He will tell his story first here outfront. And a miraculous story of survival. A 74yearold who cannot walk was home when hamas stormed himself kibbutz. His neighbors dead, his home burned, but he survived. His daughter is my guest. Well, we are back with the Breaking News tonight live from tel aviv. Hamas releasing its first Hostage Video since its attack on israel. Showing the 21yearold woman mia shem who was taken from that Music Festival where hundreds were killed. It comes as israel confirms that there are 199 people being held in gaza right now. Hamas says there are more than 200. One of the Family Members desperately holding out the hope that one of these hostages will be rescued, yoni asher, and his wife and two young daughters were taken while visiting his motherinlaw near gaza. We spoke to yoni just hours after he first saw his family in this viral video online. You can see a gunman placing a cloth over his wifes head, his motherinlaw and his two daughters are huddled in the back of the truck. After seeing this video,oni tried to track his wifes location. It said her phone was in gaza. We have been checking in with yoni ever since then. And i was able to meet him in person over the weekend, traveling to his home north of tel aviv. Here is our conversation. Well, yoni, we get a chance to see each other, to see you in person. How are you doing now . Well, eight days since my wife and two daughters got kidnapped. I am realizing that i got to see the gates of hell. I got to see how hell looks like. I dont know if there are any more tears left in me. But it became it became clear to me that i saw hell. I saw what hell looks like. You know, its not only the phone call that i got from my wife 10 00 a. M. Telling me that theyre entering the house shooting and we got disconnected. And its not even the video nine seconds long video which i saw my wife getting taken with my two daughters recognizing them, just like that after a few hours of nervewrecking time, which i tried to get information. The hell was the images. I didnt watch them. I heard, i understand very quickly. That, when i saw that, when i knew that there is a possibility that they are held by such i dont know how to call but they are held by them. It was even worse than the video. Because you think about what . I mean, at every moment. I dont know. I only saw them kidnapped. I only saw them get in on some kind of video. You can see from the video, its pretty familiar, my wife getting covered on her head, Al Alahu Akhbar getting screamed. And i tell you i dont know if i can explain yet. But, like i said, i dont know if you ever thought about it. But sometimes we think what is the apocalypse in area, what is the what hell looks like. When i saw the images, every minute is forever. Youre living it. Forever. Yoni, what have you heard about them . Is the government, are they updating you . Are they telling you anything about what theyre doing or where they think they may be . I mean, even thinks like, are they even able to tell you whether they think theyre together . Well, you know, there is the channel that the authorities are in contact with me. But, as you know, these things are not simple, they sometimes can be extremely complicated. I am not diplomacy, i have no diplomacy or security training. I have no understanding of these kind of matters. Its not my area, but theyre in touch with me, and i only know what i knew last saturday. Its the only thing i knew. And i live here in uncertainty, and im hanging between the earth and heaven. And i am moving between the desperation, sometimes hope, but i dont know. I know the time is critical. I know that i need medicine. I know that there are babies, my little baby daughter is not in january she will be 3. And the same month january also my older will be 5. They are celebrated together in the same month. They are good friends. They love each other. I hope that they are alive and they are well. And i hope that they are they take care of each other. With their mother. What happened to this house, how it became a media, an office to save them. I just want them to be here. I cannot start to explain to you what smart beautiful girls they are. I cant even start. Well, we sit here. I think that you sit here. You have so many visions of when you and jerome were in the kitchen and they were here, they were playing, this is their special area. Well, you know, erin, i dont allow myself to i cant. I cant profound in this visions. I want to remember the sound of their voice, the smell of their hair. But its hard. I know that i have to be strong for them. I cant look at a video of them not even one. I know that many videos were published by us, Me And My Friends and family that are helping. I didnt watch a single one. So you dont go over your phone and watch i cant. You ask me about the last few days. Something that the body and the