have seen, we are told the first delivery is scheduled to be 20 or so trucks of that aid. but that is just a small drop in the bucket compared to the 100 trucks a day that the united nations says gazans need. i want to thank you so much for joining us tonight and every night this week for this coverage here in tel aviv. oftentimes it is difficult to watch, but it is so important. thank you for watching. i want to turn it over to "cnn newsnight" with abby phillip" right now. ♪ new signs that israel may be pushing pause on its ground invasion of gaza as the clock ticks on the fate of dozens of hostages and millions of civilians there. that's tonight on "newsnight." good evening. i'm abby phillip. as tanks, troops, and firepower line up at the border, israel's impending ground invasion of gaza looks to be on hold after hamas freed two american hostages, a mother and daughter from chicago. here's her father speaking just moments ago. >> i've been waiting for this moment for a long time, two weeks. i've not been sleeping for two weeks. tonight i'm going to speak good. i spoke with my daughter earlier today. she sounds very good. she looks very good. she was very happy. and she's waiting to come home. i'm going to hug her and kiss her, and it's going to be the best day of my life. >> the white house says the u.s. was involved in negotiating their release. while israel credits military pressure on hamas. the women are currently in an israeli military base where they spoke to president biden. now, the urgent questions tonight are, is the united states asking israel to wait to invade until more hostages are freed? and will hamas even agree to give up what they perceive to be leverage in this battle? and, of course, what happens to millions of civilians caught in this crossfire who are now slowly dying without life-sustaining supplies? i want to start first with cnn's kaitlan collins who is on the ground in tel aviv. kaitlan, hamas agreed to release two american hostages today. what are we hearing about how they're doing? and just how this release even came about? >> yeah, we've been hearing update. we know they're getting those medical checkups. obviously they need those. they've been in the custody of hamas being captured for two weeks now. that was one of the first things officials did. they have questions for them, but israeli officials are saying, these are normal people who have been terrified the last two weeks so obviously they have to be treated gently as they have first just come across that border with gaza after two terrifying weeks with hamas. how this all came together were some negotiations happening behind the scenes. the white house was pushing for this, but you weren't hearing them talk about it much publicly at all. including when president biden was here on the ground in tel aviv. and that's because they wanted to hopefully get at least some of these hostages released. it was all happening very quietly. now, hamas for its part, i should note tial is saying this is a humanitarian reason that they released these two hostages, judith ranaan and her daughter natalie ranaan, 17 years old, days away from 18. the idf has been scoffing saying if that was how hamas felt, they could release all of these hostages or they wouldn't have abducted them in the first place or killed and raped so many israelis, as they did during that brutal attack. that's the big question because we know there are many more hostages still being held in gaza to my south, to my left. that is the big question tonight, whether or not they are going to be released. >> it very much is and it will be, unfortunately for some time, i think. kaitlan, thank you so much for all of that. joining me is cnn senior national security analyst juliette kayyem, former department of homeland security official, and also rula jibrail, palestinian journalist and foreign policy analyst. rula, earlier today something interesting happened. a reporter asked president biden as he was heading on air force one about whether he was asking the israelis to hold off on this ground invasion to give them more time to get these hostages out. he answered with one word, yes. then the white house walked that back saying he didn't hear the question properly. do you think that is part of what is going on here? >> i honestly don't know if they're pushing -- asking -- whatever they're asking. the region is listening to something else. the people in the street, whether you listen to the people in egypt and turkey, in jordan in lebanon, the region is about to explode. and they're about to explode because they heard president biden's speech last night and they are not -- they don't believe the words. they believe the facts and the deeds. and what they heard is $14 billion in military aid to the israelis without conditionality, which is -- for them was an important and paramount. egyptians and jordanians were asking the president to put on the table some kind of pressure on israel for humanitarian aid for gaza. but above all, to basically end the military occupation of the west bank and to freeze the settlements. and president biden, my understanding from talking to diplomats in the region, he did not do it or he basically took time, said it's not the moment, let's delay, there's something else. but they've been telling him, without that, we cannot control the public opinion, we cannot control our people who have been flooding the streets. today tahrir square, the place the arab spring took place, hundreds of thousands went to that square, and what did they chant? freedom, bread, social justice. these were the slogans of the arab spring. sisi doesn't like hamas. he hates thome, loathes them, sees them as the offshoot of the brotherhood he ousted. yet he was forced to concede, and for one reason, he understands the implications. >> that's what's happening in the streets. juliette, these back channel conversations worked. what is working in this case? if you look at both sides of this negotiation, what's working in the united states? >> we're going to measure success by what's not happening. there hasn't been a massive land incursion by the israeli government into gaza yet. so that's something that's going on to stop that. iran and hezbollah have remained relatively quiet in northern israel. we wouldn't have predicted that right after the terrorist attack. that is also good. biden speaks about humanitarian effort, having problems with egypt in getting that corridor open, but he has not abandoned the palestinians. so i'm looking at success after such a horror as what's not happening, because the saturday after that terror attack, you couldn't have imagined, yes, the streets are not happy, but hamas -- the arab leaders are not embracing hamas. >> why would they release two american hostages? >> they're american. they're american. what's basically happening is -- i mean, you hear president biden. there's going to be -- there will be some sort of action in gaza. i think the administration is clearly very worried that israel does not have a day to plan, which i think is a safe bet, that they are -- and so waiting to try to get as many hostages out as possible is plan "a" right now for the united states. that these two are american is not a surprise. but you have to remember, hamas is now being attacked by people that they thought were their allies or would support them. so this is also a concession. this is a narrative for the arab leaders who have essentially -- are now condemning -- >> they're the ones acting. >> in fact, it's not a coincidence they're americans, not europeans. >> it was interesting to see mbs, the crown prince of saudi arabia, put a proposition on the table. said to the americans, i've been telling you this will happen, the egyptians have been warning you, the foreign minister ten days before the attack said, we are seeing, our intelligence are telling us something is happening there. and again, they've been reporting to president biden saying, well, the priority for bebe netanyahu was the settlement in the west bank where hamas is not there, to actually consolidate. it was interesting to see the saudis and other arab leaders say, this is the equation. annexation and settlements. that means you will have hamas. in some form, you will have radicalization. you have to decide. go back to the '67 borders, give palestinians sovereignty, give plans freedom, and when president biden talked about this, it was interesting. he was not heard. what they heard was, we will give you charity. which is $100 million, food, whatever, which is okay for now. but ultimately, arab leaders want a solution on the table. they want freedom for palestinians and the end of the occupation. >> i think that's right. what's interesting is it's not being heard, but when biden says he supports israel, the second part of that paragraph is, "and i'm meeting or talking to arab leaders about palestinian self-rule," essentially. we've both been around awhile. i have not heard a u.s. president talk about the palestinians in a very long time, let alone other arab countries. the arab rulers have not been great to the palestinians either. so this is the first time in a long while in which the united states and the arab nations are beginning to realize, we cannot advance until there is a discussion about the palestinians. you cannot move forward. this is the first time in a long while that i hear a u.s. president talk about a two-state solution. it's a long way off, but at least it's back on the table. >> some of that is perhaps because of the trump years. >> yes. >> very briefly before we go, the humanitarian situation remains really stuck in place. >> catastrophic. >> and absolutely catastrophic. how much of that really needs to get resolved before israel acts? just if you're an outsider looking in at the situation? >> i'm sorry, i didn't -- israel before the invasion? >> before they go in. >> yesterday. talking to people in gaza, they're drinking one sip of water a day. children are starving. this is what we called in ukraine a war crime. when putin was using food as a weapon of war and water, the international community clearly defined this as a war crime. that israel would use this against not only hamas, because on this television they said, we are at war with civilians. and for the people, especially the global south that president biden wants on account, they hear that, this is a red flag, we don't want this. so there's pressure, but the situation is catastrophic. there's doctors that are drinking ivfs. >> ivs, iv fluid. >> my apology. or drinking water from the sea. the situation is so catastrophic, they fear also all the bodies that are under the rubble that -- this could be an outbreak of all kind of diseases. >> we have more on the situation for folks in gaza later on in the show. juliette kayyem and rula jibrail, thank you. up next, the family of those kept in gaza are angry over a lack of answers. lieutenant general mark hertling is back at the map where the risk of regional war is growing by the hour. plus anderson cooper joins me as protests erupt around the world against israel and the west. ♪ tonight we're learning the drone attacks intercepted by a u.s. destroyer off the coast of yemen encountered a larger and more sustained barrage than was previously known. the "uss carney" shot down 15 drones and four cruise missiles over a nine-hour period. joining me here at the wall is cnn military analyst and retired lieutenant general mark hertling. that's more than we understood, even just yesterday when we were speaking. this is just a broad picture of the region and where this all occurred. i'm going to highlight this right here. this is where the "uss carney" we believe intercepted these missiles. tell us what we should be looking out for. we've been talking about the risks of escalation. what are you seeing? >> the "carney" had just come out of the suez canal, they were in this area, and they intercepted quite a bit of both cruise missiles and drones. but this isn't all. the houthis in yemen have been looking to overthrow the government. they are anti-u.s., anti-israel, anti-saudi arabia. they launch these kind of missiles into saudi arabia. but these missiles appeared to be going to israel. you combine those with the popular mobilization fronts that we're seeing in iran, in northern iraq, in syria, in lebanon with hezbollah, in south egypt. israel, as we said last night, is surrounded. they've got a lot of enemies on all sides. there seems to be a movement being directed by someone -- i won't say who, but it's probably this guy right here -- >> you're feeling like this is starting to feel a little bit more coordinated? >> yeah, well -- i'm not sure coordinated would be the word, but i'm certain they are pushing actions by various groups throughout the middle east. >> tell us more about the "uss carney." they were able to except all these missiles. what can this ship do? >> you're in trouble asking an army guy to talk about a navy ship. by coincidence, i've been on one of these ships. not this one. this is an arley burke class, has a crew about 300. this one, the ggd-64 is commanded by jeremy robinson. how's that for a fun fact? they have all sorts of guns, a crew of about 300, 30 officers, 30 petty officers, 230 sailors. they can knock things out of the sky. they can fire tomahawk missiles. they can do short-range air defense and missile defense. they can shoot torpedos at submarines. while this looks like a small ship and you don't see much on the top side, it has guns. >> that's okay. the guns are big enough, we can see. >> it has guns, it has radars, it has all sorts of things that can knock things down. there are four of these kinds of ships in the forward battle group and another couple in the eisenhower strike group. >> one of the other things we want to talk to you about, we have a little bit of a closer look here at the tunnel system that we believe hamas has and is obviously utilizing in gaza. it's really all over -- this is northern gaza here. this is the area that israel has said to evacuate. we have a flow of potential refugees here, civilians moving southward. as you can see here, there are tunnels not just in the north but in the south. what does that mean for israel's plan of attack? >> in the last operation that israel did in here, "operation protective edge," they did a main assault into the northern part. but they also did supporting actions in the center and the south. they understood that there were a lot of tunnels. and these tunnels have since expanded. now, the last time israel went in, they mobilized 70,000 soldiers. this time, they're mobilizing 300,000 soldiers. a lot of the fighting could go on above ground, but i would suggest, when you see these squiggly lines, that's only representative of tunnels in each one of the areas that are about the size of a new york subway system. >> and making even more apparent the concern that maybe nowhere is safe in gaza for civilians? >> right. >> general mark hertling, thank you so much. more than 200 trucks full of aid that is desperately needed in gaza, they're stuck on the egyptian side of the rafha border crossing. joining me now is sammy nabusali, the friend and attorney of a massachusetts family that is currently trapped in gaza. abu wakal and wafa abuzia and his 1-year-old son had been visiting family in gaza when humes attacked israel nearly two weeks ago. they have not been able to leave since then, despite making multiple attempts to cross into egypt. sammy, i want to thank you very much for joining us tonight. we really want to understand what's going on with this family. when was the last time you spoke with them, and what is their life like right now? >> it's been several hours. connectivity and plugging in is a huge issue for anyone in southern gaza at the moment. life is not good for them. it's incredibly dangerous and dire for them. frankly, my understanding, hundreds of other american citizens in southern gaza waiting to enter into egypt. abu was telling me two days ago, there was an air strike between 100, 150 meters away from the home they're staying in. woke up the children in the house, inconsolable all day. there were cracks all over the walls. they ran out of drinking water yesterday, had to drink saltwater for an entire day. food is becoming limited. they're running out of cooking oil. have to look to other alternatives such as wood fire. that's not only becoming dangerously warm, there's now the risk of hunger and dehydration as well. incredibly dangerous, incredibly dire. >> all this with a 1-year-old child, an infant in their care. you've been asking for the u.s. to create a safe zone for the town of rafha, where the crossing into egypt is which is not open for people to go across. have you heard anything and has this family heard anything from the biden administration about any of that or any plans to get them out of gaza? >> nothing, nothing. there is at the moment no confirmed departure option or even a timeline for this family or a single other american citizen that is in rafha right now waiting to cross into egypt. because of that, because there's no plan, there's no timeline, they haven't been communicated any sort of instructions on crossing. i've asked that at the very least, we turn to the benefactor of the u.s. military and financial support and ask that at the very least, there is a safe zone or protection area over rafha. because presumably, remember, everyone was ordered to evacuate to the south. my understanding is any american citizen that wishes to leave gaza is going to do so through rafha. so they're all there, yet the bombardment continues. >> sammy nabulsi, thank you for joining us. we hope this family finds their way out. their situation does sound incredibly dire as you've described it. thanks for joining us. up next for us, anderson cooper joins me from the ground. you'll see what he witnessed at the site of one of these massacres in israel. one of the diplomats who's negotiated peace deals under several presidents joins me live on what he says is the way out of a full-blown crisis. the power goes out and we still have wifi to do our homework. and that's a good thing? great in my book! who are you? no power? no problem. introducing storm-ready wifi. now you can stay reliably connected through power outages with unlimited cellular data and up to 4 hours of battery back-up to keep you online. only from xfinity. home of the xfinity 10g network. ♪ anger, rage, and frustration on full display across the middle east today. people taking to the streets of jordan, egypt, and other countries to protest israel's war on hamas. and more than 4,100 people have died in gaza since israel launched its retaliation against the militant group for its october 7th attack on that nation, which killed nearly 1,400 of its citizens. and tonight we're getting more insight into the devastation of that hamas attack. i want to bring in cnn's anderson cooper who is on the ground in tel aviv. anderson, you recently visit ed be'er oz, one of many kibbutzes devastated by the attack. what were you seeing? >> two weeks since this terror attack, and we're a few hours away from the actual two-week hour that this attack began, we're still learning more information and seeing places for the first time. journalists were just allowed in near oz yesterday. this is a kibbutz with 400 people before the terror attack. the idf says probably about one-quarter of the population is either dead or currently missing. two people were just -- their bodies were just identified two days ago who had disappeared from near oz. the devastation there, there isn't one house that has not been touched. you see safe rooms where people were hiding that gunmen worked for hours trying to break into, trying to pry the doors off, trying to pry the window shutters off. and sometimes successfully. blood is still on floors there. people's possessions are strewn all around. just the overwhelming kind of grief for the residents who are now squatered elsewhere in israel, hoping one day to return. the grief everyone in this country has been experiencing the last two weeks. this is tel aviv. this is a friday night in tel aviv. there is no one on the streets. there is nothing open. and it's been that way for two weeks and there's no sign of any kind of regular life returning any time soon. >> wow. i cannot even imagine. these are really tiny communities, devastated and decimated in ways by this horrible attack. anderson, thank you very much. joining me is jeffrey sonnenfeld, senior associate dean for executive programs at yale university. he's also the coauthor of a new article on time.com entitled, "how peace and prosperity in the middle east can still be reached." he's been an informal personal adviser to several presidents. george w. bush, bill clinton, donald trump, and also joe biden. he was also an adviser to the abraham accords, which of course was struck during the trump administration. jeffrey, great to have your expertise. we were talking to rula earlier in the show. she was saying the arab world is about to basically explode. and it strikes me that there's a real risk here that there could be maybe tens of thousands of palestinian casualties in a ground invasion of gaza. does how israel conducts this war, is that going to be a factor in whether peace is possible after it? >> yes. absolutely. i wrote that article that you mentioned with dennis ross, who was the chief middle east envoy for president obama. and then for adam buller who had a comparable role with donald trump, who worked with jared kushner very closely. we're optimistic that there's a possibility -- it's not immediate because the ground invasion is a -- it's going to be tremendous losses of life that are horrible. the israelis have to control, of course, the collateral damage. this must be strategic in every possible way and very, very careful. but you can't take out hamas without a ground invasion. campfire is not going to do it. you can't have any of the outcomes that people were chanting. as rula said, just before the break, that they were chanting for freedom, chanting for bread, chanting for justice. she left off, on the list of nouns, peace. and that's right, humes already back to its charter is looking for the genocide of the jewish people, driving israel into the sea. they don't have in there -- they are a terrorist organization running a state. there's not a single arab leader that either rula or anybody watching the show can tell us supports hamas. they get more support from norway than arab nations. >> those arab nations are watching what's happening in their streets and they're concerned about it. in egypt there are protests when there are typically not allowed to be. are they going to be able to -- their interests clearly are not aligned with hamas, but given what is happening with their population, are they going to be able to come to the table and say, let's make peace, a lasting peace happen? >> the great momentum we had before two weeks ago with a completely unprovoked hamas invasion, the invasion came because the progress on the abraham accords were so promising. morocco had signed on. uae had. bahrain had. we had great relations as we saw with egypt and jordan. this was remarkable. saudi arabia was all lined up. all parties agreed they were ready to sign. that's why these guys came across as the destroyers, the disrupters, to try to throw a wrench in, which they did. who's behind it? it is iran, as general hertling was saying beforehand. all these coordinated attacks are through iran. the saudis have interests in blocking every one of these parties. the palestinians, if war were to stop today, the quality of life doesn't improve under hamas rule in gaza. things don't get better for israel. things don't get better for the saudis. they have to get hid of hamas and stop the iranian influence, and that's why the saudis want to do. the saudis have a lever to pull to deal with their mobs, if you want to know. >> who's the most important player in all of this right now? when it comes to peace? whose actions are most important? >> what the saudis can do right now, because they do have inflamed populations because of misinformation. we've seen lots of -- >> you think it's the saudis? >> what the saudis can do, the saudis under president trump were producing one-third more oil, for whatever reason. whether they didn't like joe biden or they liked vladimir putin, whatever it was. they voluntarily cut production 13 barrels down to nine. if they add it back up to 13 barrels a day, those 4 million barrels a day, they could replace the iranian oil. we have lifted the sanctions, lifted the restraints on iranian oil. iran can only fund all these terrorists around the region through their oil money. if they put oil caps on, which were easily done, effectively done against russia. i helped design them with the treasury department. they had to tighten them the last few weeks. if they put those sanctions on iranian oil, cut that out, iran can't fund any of this and suddenly we don't see people from yemen, from islamist jihad, we don't see hezbollah, we don't see hamas without the fuel they need to fund their way. >> a lot of people at home are saying, 75-plus years of violence and this kind of despair in the middle east. do you realistically think this could be an opening for a true end to all of this? >> well, it's a little harder now for sure. it's a lot harder now than it was two weeks ago. but the idea of this was to help bring a better quality of life to the palestinians. it was a way of doubling their gdp in a couple of years. a way of tripling their exports. a way of bringing in great infrastructure. $50 billion of immediate infrastructure under the abraham accords. there was a $5 billion bridge, bl blackstone and others, committing to build this high-speed railway connecting the west bank to hamas -- to gaza. but we have to -- that has to be replaced. and dennis ross moses had a very good suggestion on some sort of interim authority, gaza interim authority, until the palestinian authority is ready to take control. hamas has to be eradicated. there's not a single arab leader that wants hamas to stay there, despite whoever is chanting on the street. they have oil upon to use to take iran's influence out of the equation. also, there's a lot of u.s. support. we have 160 major u.s. ceos in the last days have said they're fully behind, full-throated support of israel, and quite condemning of the atrocities of hamas. >> this kind of conflict here and in the ukraine, it's definitely one of those types of events that no one in the business world wants to see happen. it only creates far more uncertainty than they like to see. jeffrey son.feld, thank you for your expertise on all of this. up next, another donald trump codefendant pleading guilty in georgia, directly implicating the former president. wilken neth chess proceed take the stand against trump? ♪ a huge legal blow for former president trump with a third codefendant pleading guilty in the georgia election interference case. this time it is the person who is at the heart of the fake elecectors plot. pro-trump lawyer kenneth chesebro pleading guilty to one felony count of conspiracy to commit filing false documents. prosecutors are recommending he serve five years of probation, and he's also agreed to testify in future court proceedings. i want to bring in kenneth chesebro's attorney, scott grubman. thank you for being here. look, today your client has now implicated trump in this criminal conspiracy. if he is called upon to test 50 in this georgia case, is he willing to implement trump on a witness stand? which seems to be required in this plea deal that he just struck. >> so abby, first of all, thank you so much for having me. second of all, i am going to respectfully disagree with you on one thing. i don't think he implicated anyone but himself. and i just want to point out two important facts that i think will get exactly to your question. not only did he avoid jail time, but this is the most important. he did not plead guilty to the rico charge. mr. chesebro pled guilty, and i printed it out to make sure i had the exact words, "conspiracy to commit filing of false documents." the rico charge was dismissed. listen, mr. chesebro accepted responsibility for count 15 of the indictment, and he agreed that if he were called by the state, he would come testify truthfully. and he is a man of his word, and he will do that. whether his testimony is going to be helpful to the state, that's going to be for the state to decide. i personally do not see his testimony being helpful for the state, but if the state wants to call him, he absolutely will come and tell the truth. if they think that's helpful for them and they think they can convince a jury that his testimony's helpful for them, so be it. >> so when in mr. chesebro's view was the architect of this fake electors plot? >> mr. chesebro doesn't think there was a fake electors plot. abby, please, again, i know i'm repeating myself. but the fake electors plot was part of the rico conspiracy. and fani willis dismissed the rico charge. and the charge that he pled to has nothing to do with being the architect of the fake elector plot. and i will say and i will ask y themselves this question. if mr. chesebro was the architect of the fake elector plot, then would the district attorney of fulton county offer him five years' probation and first offender? i don't think she would. and that really just proves that while he did accept responsibility for count 15, that he was never the architect of the fake elector plot. and i think if you asked him who was, i think he would say there wasn't a fake elector plot. and there certainly wasn't an architect, and it certainly wasn't him. >> have any of the other codefendants in this georgia case reached out to your client? >> no. not to my knowledge. >> i want to also ask you about some reporting from "the new york times" just a couple of days ago that mentioned some emails from late december 2020 between mr. chesebro and other lawyers that were involved in all of this. they discuss the filing of some legal litigation in an effort to fight the election results. so one of the emails says, reportedly, "i particularly agree that getting this on file gives more ammo to the justices fighting for the court to intervene. i think the oodds of action before january 6th become more favorable if the justices start to fear that there will be, quote, wild chaos on january 6th unless they rule by then either way." that was notably just a couple of days after trump sent that tweet, "will be wild on january 6." it seems that that suggests that there was some at least political motivation for your client, but more to the point, was he coordinating with trump to pressure the courts to weigh in on the outcome of the election? >> abby, i'm his defense lawyer, so of course i'm going to say it. i can absolutely guarantee you, there was no such coordination. and while the use of the word "wild" was, of course, a not convenient coincidence, i acknowledge, it was a coincidence. in terms of -- >> you think he used the term wild in quotes coincidentally? he quoted the word wild, just to be clear. >> yeah, but i -- i can absolutely guarantee you, i have looked through all the discovery in this case. and the state has looked through all the discovery in this case. and not only do i not think there was any coordination, but i can tell you with absolute certainty, i've never heard the state say once that they believe there was a connection between those two things. the first time i heard that was when it was reported in "the new york times." that was the first time i had heard anyone try to make that connection. i had never made that connection. the state never made that connection. i've never seen any evidence to suggest that. the same word was used, yes. and that is very unfortunate. but i have never heard anyone in a court of law suggest there's evidence that those two things were connected. >> so will your client testify if he is asked in a trial, which donald trump is the defendant, that there was no conspiracy in which donald trump was a part of? will he be able to say that under oath? >> well, that's not even admissible evidence. what he would be able to say under oath and what a judge would alou him to say is he would talk about his involvement in giving legal advice to the campaign regarding the electoral count act and the alternate slate of electors. a judge would never let mr. chesebro say one way or the other whether he thinks someone else broke the law. he would simply talk about the facts, and of course the jury would have to decide whether that's supportive of one side or the other. mr. chesebro will absolutely go testify if called, but he'll also go testify if called by the defendant. he will testify truthfully regardless of which side he's called by and whoever the jury thinks that supports, that's the way our criminal justice system works. i personally don't think that there's any reason that mr. chesebro's testimony would be particularly harmful to any other defendant in this case. >> all right. scott grubman, thank you for joining us tonight. >> thank you so much. and next, the guilty plea, a fine for trump, and chaos on capitol hill. the no good, very bad day for maga in just a few moments. we saw more angry demonstrations today across the middle east protesting the worsening humanitarian conditions in gaza, and some of them directly confronting cnn about israel's actions. our own clarissa ward was near the crossing in egypt today, and she heard some of those angry words and thoughts of these protestors. >> reporter: for days, they have been waiting. more than 200 trucks full of aide desperately needed no gaza but stuck on the egyptian side of the border crossing. hope to be here for a much-needed diplomatic win. instead, he found himself in the midst of a protest. his remarks drowned out by the crowd. people are chanting over and over again, with our blood, with our souls, we will defend palestine. there's a huge amount of anger, a huge amount of emotion. much of it directed at the west. >> we need justice. >> reporter: and much also at western media, who people here fear have favored israeli voices ahead of palestinians. a protestor starts shouting at me. we invite her to do an interview with us. >> 1,000 plus babies die, you don't feel the same. it's when i tell you one of your own has died. but these are our own, and it is unfair, and egypt won't stand with pal es -- who's there for the palestinians? and don't call it a war. the jargon is even more infuriating. it is not equal footing. it is not a war. >> reporter: for many, it is deeply personal. a palestinian man holds up his i.d. >> i can't connect with my family there. i have seven sisters, my father, grandmother, uncles, all my family is there. i can't contact with them. >> reporter: are they okay? >> i don't know if they are okay or not. >> reporter: as egyptian soldiers stand by, the demonstrators get more animated. protests are normally illegal here, but today, the egyptian president called on people to take to the streets. so this is rapidly becoming a very chaotic scene now. they're trying to get the secretary-general out of here. we were ordered back on to the buses and escorted out through the crowd back to the airport where piles of aid sit by the runway, so close to where they need to be but held back the u.n. says, by complications over how to monitor the trucks that enter gaza and how to establish a continuous humanitarian corridor. when you saw the anger of those protestors, most of it leveled at israel and the u.s. but also at the international community for failing to stop this situation, what's your response? >> i think what's important to say is that we are doing everything we can, engaging with all the parties to make sure that sooner rather than later, we are able to have not only a continued aid to the population. >> reporter: no timeline? >> i think it should be as quickly as possible, and with as many as possible trucks to cross in the first three days. >> reporter: but that is little comfort to the people of gaza for whomever day, every hour, is vital. >> our thanks to clarissa ward for that. ahead, more from the ground in the israel war, including two american hostages. back in a moment.