Join the millions of people taking back their privacy by Downloading Duckduckgo On Mobile and desktop today. Welcome to our continuing coverage of israel at war, im jim acosta in washington. We begin this hour with a growing death toll in the war. Minutes ago, the hamasrun media reported that 248 people have died in gaza just in the last 24 hours. Palestinian Health Officials say 4,300 people have died in gaza since the star of the war. That number set to rise as israels military says it is increasing air strikes beginning today this is new cnn video showing israeli troops and machinery positioned along the border, awaiting the order to launch a Ground Invasion. Commanders are being told that, quote, forces will enter gaza, for the First Time Since the war began two weeks ago, humanitarian briefly rolled into gaza, but the rafah Border Crossing is closed again after that 20truck convoy made its way through. Relief agencies, in the meantime, say additional shipments of water, fuel, and food are urgently needed than gazas Hospital System is teetering on the verge of collapse. And one day after being freed by hamas, an American Mother and daughter are one step closer to reaching u. S. Soil. Judith and her 17yearold daughter natalie are reuniting with family today, Andt An Israi military base. Natalies father saying she is expected home by tuesday for her 18th birthday. Joining me now, michael orrin. Ambassador orrin, thank you for joining us. Lets begin, if we can, with some good news, for a change, and that is the release of this American Mother and daughter. Whats your response to that . And why do you think that this is happening now . Well, thank you, jim. Thank you for having me. Well, were delighted that judith and natalie are being reunited with their family. We want all the hostages to be reunited with their families. Uncon unconditionally. At once. And that would be very welcome. Its no substitute for our need to deal with hamas, to uproot and destroy hamas. And do you think israel has delayed a Ground Incursion to allow more time to negotiate the release of hostages . Do you think thats entering the equation here . And do you think that should be urged at this point, if there is some progress in getting hostages out, maybe now is the time to hold off a little bit . What do you think . No, i think that our clocks, our schedules, are not timed to hamas clocks. We have many, by the way. For example, we have 360,000 reservists who have been called up. These are people who have left their jobs, their families, their children. They cant remain mobilized forever. That is a clock, certainly. Theres a clock of moving the palestinian civilian population away from the battle area to reduce civilian casualties as much as possible. That is progressing. So, there are a number of clocks here. Not to give time for hamas to decide whether its going to release hostages. As delighted as we were that judith and natalie were reunited with their family, we understand what hamas is doing. It is trying to release hostages in sort of a drip, drip way. In order to drive a wedge between israel and its democratic allies, particularly with the United States of america, to get calls for a ceasefire, to negotiate more time. What does that mean . A ceasefire . A ceasefire means hamas wins. Ceasefire means hamas gets away with massacring, torturing, burning, rapes, 1,501,500 of ou citizens, Firing Rockets at our neighborhoods and gets away with it. Thats what a ceasefire means. And it means that hamas is not Holding Hostages just in gaza. Hamas is holding all of us hostage. And we cant let that happen. And what is your sense, as to what the Israeli Defense forces ardoin there was some expectations, a lot of expectations, really, that this Ground Incursion was going to begin maybe a week ago. And im curious why you think that might have been delayed, or pushed off a little bit, did it having v have something to do with the president s trip . What are your thoughts on that . Again, my im not a spokesman for the government. I will tell you, my feeling, they delayed it because of the president s visit, the secretary of states visit. They may have delayed it because of the Hospital Incident and clarifying that israel was not responsible for the death that occurred in the parking lot of that hospital. There are many factors that went into it, but again, our clocks are ticking, and those clocks are, you cant keep 360,000 basically young people, the most productive part of our economy, mobilized indefinitely. Moral issues, theyre ready to go. As for the actual fighting, unfortunately, i fought in gaza several times, and its a nightmare, jim. Its not like you see in a movie. Its alleyways that are heavily mined and wired and the major fighting is not above ground, its below the ground, where hamas has dug count les miles of tunnels and bunkers, all of them mined. And israels going to have to fight below the ground, as well. And i know you dont speak on behalf of the israeli government, let me ask this question, and that is, what do you think of the wisdom of sending a largescale Ground Contingent in to conduct this incursion . Do you think that is the right approach . Well, certainly wiser than sending in a small contingent. This is a major ground operation. You want to do it with sufficient forces. I think weve learned we went in on the ground in 2014, it was a very costly operation. We didnt go deep into gaza. We only went a mile or two. This is actually going to go into the heart of gaza city and root out hamas. And i think israel has learned to proceed cautiously with advances being preceded by artillery, by very strong intelligence to find out where the enemy is. There will be unceasing efforts to locate those hostages and try to rescue them. And the big the big challenge there is locating them. Weve had hostages in gaza for years now, for years. And we havent been able to locate them. Extremely difficult. So, all of that is proceeding didnt think is going to be a lightning strike. I think its going to be cautious, moving, say, alley by alley, bunker by bunker, and youre going to get some really tough challenges, because hamas puts its major headquarters under hospitals, under schools. So, you can imagine what a tremendous moral challenge that is, not just a military challenge. Were going to be grappling with all of that in the coming days. And what Unintended Consequences do the israelis need to be worried about at this point . Might you somehow trigger a response from hezbollah . Might this spill over in ways that perhaps you didnt imagine . Youre talking to an american audience here, and obviously there are folks here in the United States who remember, and you remember all too well, ambassador, what took place after the United States went into iraq, went into afghanistan, they ended up being very lengthy and costly commitments. Yeah, just a personal note, back in 2003, i was merely a historian and not an ambassador, i was called into congress, i said, invade, get out, dont get involved in statemaking. Hopefully israel wont do that, as well. We actually have a plan for the morning after, thats what President Biden wanted to hear. I hope it involved other palestinian elements there, in order to create a stable government that can really enable gaza to reach its potential, because theres amazing potential there. Its very fertile ground. One of the unlikely, or the wild card situations, yes, hezbollah could enter, and were poised and ready for that. My expectations is that hezbollah will come in at a point where the israeli army is deeply engaged in gaza, perhaps tired from fighting for a week or two, and then hezbollah could strike. We already now have these missiles fired at us from yemen, by the houthi rebels, the uss missiles, were grateful for that. There are proiranian missiles in iraq that could come. But the wild card, right now, really, scares revery much, because ive had a lot of personal experience, you are fighting in a densely populated area. All you need is one tank shell or one artillery shell to hit a building and cause a great number of casualties, and that can change the course of a conflict. This has happened several times. It happened in our 2006 lebanon war, it happened in an operation in 1996 called Grapes Of Wrath against hezbollah in lebanon. One shell changed the whole course of the war. Youre up against the law of averages. Yeah, and that leads me to this question, is, what are the prospects of the israelis and the palestinians to get back to the negotiating table, back to the Bargaining Table . Or has i guess perhaps this gets to the question of the mindset Inside Israel right now, because when i talk to folks about this, you know, they will say, israelis will say, you folks in the United States, you just dont understand the way we feel right now, how we feel deep down in our bones about this, and why we feel like we need to that this time is different. Does is that perhaps getting back to the Bargaining Table to some extent . Let me express it as a hope. One thing is certain. Right now, israelis are saying, and the vast majorities are saying, look, there is a Palestinian Authority in the west bank, thats headed by Mahmoud Abbas who is in the 18th year of his fouryear term. He will not stand for reelection, because he know hamas is going to win, and what if we had ah hamas state there, and not just in gaza, our entire state would be in danger of being wiped out. Im sitting in southern tel aviv, i look out my window and i see that area, thats how close it is here, i wouldnt be in rocket range id be in we understand that. We cant risk this right now. But i would express a hope that the elimination of hamas, which has always been one of the major obstacles to war, ive been in v volved in the Peace Process for years. We tried to make peace with the plo and hamas came and blew us up and they also killed palestinians. Hamas doesnt want peace it all. They will blow it up. So, the elimination of hamas will remove an obstacle. So, being an optimist, you know, personally, i hope that when hamas is removed as that obstacle, we can begin to think about some type of reconciliation. All right, ambassador michael oren, thank you so much for those insights. Really appreciate it. Thank you, good evening. To you, as well. And well have more on the war in israel ahead, but were also following the drama up on capitol hill. Theres been a lot of it. There isnt much the house can do right now until there is a speaker, and they certainly dont have one at this point. Well talk about the prospects for that, coming up next. Charlie ham. Breaking news to tell you out of detroit. A detroit synagogue says its president has died after police say a woman was found with multiple stab wounds outside of her home this morning. Were still piecing together what exactly has taken place, but cnns Polo Sandoval has more. Reporter theres a lot that we dont know, but we know the Detroit Community is certainly in mourning, after they learned of the death of the president of the board of the Downtown Synagogue there in detroit. The synagogue identifying their president as samantha wool. Separately, Detroit Police confirming the death of an individual. Initially, officers were called out to that home and found an unresponsive individual, according to Detroit Police, lying on the ground. Ame medical personnel said that person is dead. Separately, what you have now, is the Downtown Synagogue in detroit confirming the death of the president of their board, samantha wool. Already, some widespread reaction that were getting in from elected officials, including representative Elise Slot Kin, who took to social media who said that wool at one point worked for her, was on her staff, the representative writing that wool did for her team as Deputy District Director what came so naturally to wool, that representative writing that she often helped others and served constituents separately in politics and in the jewish community. She dedicated her short life to building an understanding across faiths, bringing light into the face of darkness. That was a Statement Released by Elise Slot Kin about samantha wool. Still so many questions, of course, the most important one is a possible motive in wools death. Homicide investigators in detroit are on the case right now, they say they dont plan on hosting any sort of Press Conferences any time soon, however, we are still pressing them for more information to try to learn more about the death of this individual, the president of the board of the Downtown Synagogue in detroit. Jim . All right, thank you so much. The World Health Organization says hospitals in gaza have reached a, quote, breaking point. The first convoy of trucks entered into gaza this morning, carrying vital aid, including Trauma Medicines and emergency relief supplies, lifesaving health supplies, but palestinian Officials Say thats not enough. Joining me now to talk about that, is spokesperson for the palestine red crescent society. Thank you very much for being with us. We know your organization is working to make sure these supplies reach the right recipients. What can you tell us about this delivery this morning . And, i guess, the other pressing question is, when will more su supply, aid relief, come in . Thank you for having me. The palestine red crescent today has received about 20 trucks from the egyptian red crescent, which has water, fuel, medical supplies, and medicine. The palestine red crescent teams were unable to unload the trucks in gaza strip, which was moved toll one of our warehouses, to where we will start distributing the aid, based on what was received from the egyptian red crescent. There is some from the w. H. O. , along with the palestine red crescent. Hopefully mtomorrow will start the Distribution Process to deliver the aid to the most needy areas in gaza, basically, one of the most needy areas is hospitals, where hospitals now are lacking everything, facing a great shortage in medicine and medical supplies. Its worth mentioning that this first shipment of the humanitarian aid does not include fuel. All of the fuel is extremely needed to continue the operation of hospitals, as well all know, hospitals in gaza are now running out of fuel, which is needed to have the electricity. Without having the fuel into gaza, that means that death of thousands of Palestinian Civilians who are patients injured in the hospital. Also, all ambulances will stop running, stop being able to provide their emergency medical services, along with bakeries, who also need electricity, theyre going to stop having bread. Its going to be absolutely a humanitarian catastrophic. And do you know, can you confirm that these trucks have reached the right recipients, the intended recipients of this aid . And yes. What a and what can you tel us about more trucks coming in . Yes, as i said, the trucks are now at our warehouses. Tomorrow, well start the Distribution Process, they will handle the distribution to give the aid to where it should go, according to that was received from the egyptian red crescent. As far as, like, the situation is just this kind of aid is just a drop. Just a drop in the ocean, because there is a huge need in gaza. Whether were talking about 2 million Palestinian Civilians who are in need for food and water, because they dont have food and water, or also talking about hospitals, all hospitals in gaza, not only one, are l lacking medicine and medical supplies, as well as fuel, so, hopefully, in the upcoming days, much aid will be allowed to get in into gaza, especially were talking about dozens of trucks are still waiting at the border, still waiting to get the approval to be in. We call on the International Community to continue advocating, to ensure the continuity of aid into gaza. This process should not be hindered. Also, not from the rafah crossing border, but from all crossing borders, even from the Israeli Occupation forces, because it is the responsibility of israel as an occupying power to ensure, to fulfill basic humanitarian needs of civilians in gaza, along with medical supplies and medicines that is urgently needed to the continuity of work of hospitals. Yeah, and we talked to a spokesperson for the Israeli Defense forces earlier on in this program, and he indicated that the idf is not really thrilled with the idea of allowing more of these trucks in, because they fear that these supplies will be deliver ed to the hands of hamas. Can you verify whether or not that is the case . How do you know . I just said, its their responsibility to ensure the entry of the trucks from the borders, that is controlled by the Israeli Occupation forces, to allow