Thanks to all of you for joining us as well. Im kasie hunt, dont go anywhere, cnn this morning starts right now. Glad youre with us. Im pop bipy harlow and phil mattingly. Overnight the Israeli Military launching raids and ramping up airstrikes on gaza. The idf says troops are preparing for the, quote, next phase of the war. Take a look, this is video of the aftermath this morning. Sources tell cnn the u. S. Is urging israel to delay a Ground Assault in the hopes of getting more hostages out and humanitarian aid in for the millions of palestinians who are running out of food and water. But a senior israeli official tells cnn there will be no cease fire. The idf now says 222 people were kidnapped during the hamas attack and massacre just about two weeks ago. And israels president is now claiming one of the militants who was killed was Car Carrying Instructions on how to make Chemical Weapons. Lets go to erin burnett. Weve seen rhetoric and escalation. What is the latest . Reporter certainly our teams along the Gaza Border Have observed a real increase in being a different. But it is spotty. You will see a big increase for a few hours and then a bit calmer. Nic robertson has been there the past two week and were on day 17. These increased strikes overnight, the idf putting out the latest numbers saying they had 320 strikes on gaza overnight. 320 targets and they specifically say that they hit tunnels and what they say are dozens brace al command centers. Just do the math here, that is 320 overnight. Sunday they had said that they had done more than 200 the day before. So when you look at say 500 over a two day period, you look at the 17 days since this has bec begun, they say they have taken out the chiefs of the rockets command who was in charge of rockets firing into israel, so they have taken out a bit of the hamas command. But as we say, the strikes have been picking up. Well see during the Daylight Hours what happens. Just talk about the significance, if you could, about what israeli president herzog is saying. The idf found instructions for a Chemical Attack on the body of a hamas operative. Cnn hasnt verified it, but what would the implication of that be if true . Obviously very significant. Ive seen some of the documents, and Matthew Chance had the opportunity to obtain a lot of these, and eve seeive seen some documents in arabic that showed the attack plans. Incredibly detailed battle plans dated on them for a full year. Showing the operational level of planning. This specific Chemical Weapons claim that the idf is saying, they are saying they found a usb on one of the terrorists that had on it Chemical Weapons plans of instructions of how to make accrued Chemical Weapon with a drawing that referred tos distributing cyanide. They say this specific plan was from an al qaeda manual from 2003. So in a sense it shows the crudeness of this, right, they didnt have 234ianything new, B Mass Cyanide distribution is not necessarily that you need technological innovation on. So they would say the significance of this is obviously notable, but they dont have any evidence that there was anything with this individual that would enable them to do this. It is just the presence of the plan existed on the usb. That is the latest that we have. And we havent confirmed it ourselves. And we spend so much time talking about aid convoys and whether they could get through. They started to trickle in over the weekend. I believe a third just a short while ago. But they need much more. What is the latest there . This is the third day in a row that trucks have gone in. U. N. Had said you need about 100 trucks a day and we were talking 14 yesterday. So obviously were not anywhere near the number that are needed. Two important things to note. One, they are on doing extra screening so that slows it down. Israel is adamant that fuel could not go in because they say that would be diverted to hamas. But hospitals are saying that they are operating without morphine. So you have a dire need and you also have these generators that run the hospitals. They rely on fuel and need fuel coming in. Fuel is so far not part of the humanitarian convoys. So while it is good they are coming in, it certainly does not address in any way the magnitude of the crisis that is facing gaza right now here of course in the early afternoon on this monday morning. We do understand when we talk about the pace of strikes, 300 as i said, 320 targets overnight. The u. S. Government even with that is asking israel to delay the Ground Assault on gaza. This is the latest reporting we have. Basically the reason is to allow more time for talks with hamas about releasing hostages and the aid into gaza. Hamas released two americans on friday and there had been hope and speculation and in fact clearly discussions going on, hope that there would be more released over the weekend but there have not been. We understand there are still 222 hostages being held. And i think it is important to make the point that we were told 150, 199, and now the number keeps inching up. We dont know whether that means that idf is getting more intel, but important to notice it. Natasha bertrand is live at the pentagon. And you have been reporting on this pressure the u. S. Government is exerting. Are they putting a time line on it, is it like wait, wait, or something more specific around this . Reporter we dont know if there is a specific time line at this point or if the u. S. Is simply telling the israelis lets see how all of these negotiations play out to give it a chance to actually work. And we have been told that the qataris are actually the key intermediaries here, they have been talking to hamas about the potential of releasing even more hostages. So that is what the u. S. Wants to see, they want to see if before israel launches a ground i incursion, they can secure the release of more hostages because of course there are several americans believed to be held by hamas inside gaza. And the other aspect of this of course is the humanitarian aid. The Biden Administration wants to see whether more humanitarian aid can flow into Southern Gaza before they launch the Ground Incursion and give that an opportunity to work. Of course it remains unclear how israel is responding to this Behind Closed Doors, but the fact that they have not yet launched the much anticipated Ground Incursion does suggest that they are perhaps heeding the u. S. Calls here. Israeli officials have said publicly that the u. S. Has been pressuring them very intensely to allow the humanitarian aid, food, medical supplies to get into gaza. And so it does seem at this point like that delay is working. But still the israelis are obviously very keen on launching this invasion, something that israeli officials have said publicly they plan to do. Right. And of course you have all these people this country is known for being an economic juggernaut, that has been its entire power to the world. And right now it is not open for business. That is the reality. And you have so many young talented best and brightest on that border that are not going to work, schools are not fully open. It is not functioning here. So they need to make their decision, and they feel that acutely. Over the weekend, the Defense Department said they were increasing Military Presence in the region, more troops ready to deploy, Missile Defense systems. What have you learned from Pentagon Sources . Reporter yeah, i can tell you that here people are really concerned about the recent escalations that have been an served over the last week or so. Several Drone Attacks on u. S. Bases in iraq and serial as well of course as the intercepted missiles that u. S. Navy warship conducted last week off the ko coast of yemen, several intercepted that were launched by houthis from yemen towards israel. It appears that that was the trajectory they were taking. So things are kind of ramping up across the region and officials here are very worried that u. S. Troops and u. S. Forces could be the target of that as they have been over the last several days. So the u. S. Defense secretary to send Additional AirDefense Systems for the bases across the refugee upon here is what s Secretary Austin said over the weekend. What were seeing is the prospect of a significant escalation of attacks on our troops and our people throughout the region. We maintain the right to defend ourselves and we wont hesitate to take the appropriate action. Reporter right now it is unclear just how involved iran is on these kind of escalations across the region. The u. S. Has said that these are iranbacked proxies who are carrying out the various attacks on u. S. Forces and coalition bases there, but unclear how much iran is directing this. They continue to look at the intelligence and seeing whether iran has a direct hand in this or not. Natasha bertrand, thank you very much. And an Israeli American we understand this morning has been killed while serving in israeli dee defense forces. Idf says omar was a staff reservist, he was killed on friday on the northern border. Israel says by antitank missile fired by a militant group led by hezbollah. He came to israel after israel called up more than 300,000 reserv reservists. The Jewish Day School from which he recently graduated called him unabashed advocate for the state of israel. He was just 22. Overnight new strikes in lebanon, targeting Hezbollah Terror Sources as concerns grow. And more Military Assets are being sent and putting american troops on prepare to deployed ones. So what more is being done right now to prevent a wider escalation in the region . That is next. New overnight israel says it struck what it called a terrorist cell in lebanese territory following two strikes on sunday. Lloyd austin expressing concern about a wider escalation toward american troops in the area. Lets bring in military analyst colonel cedric leighton. Thanks for joining us. To start with the concerns for escalation, weve seen u. S. Assets move into the region. How real is this concern right now . It is pretty real. Good morning to you. When you look at the whole region right here, youve got so many different areas that you can actually look at from the standpoint of what could potentially harbor possible threats against u. S. Forces. And that includes of course hamas and gaza plus forces in lebanon, syria, iraq, iran, and of course down south in yemen. So all of these areas could potentially harbor places that could affect u. S. Troops in the region. And in fact they have done that because they have gone after targets, u. S. Bases, that have been targeted in places like iraq and syria and that of course has been a significant aspect to this deployment of u. S. Forces as well as the overall balance of forces easte. Everyone was struck by what Secretary Austin said yesterday. But also Secretary Blinken said there is a likelihood of escalation by iranian proxies directed against our forces, against our personnel. So sort of doubling down with the specificity on iran. And my question about that is the fact that the u. S. Has deployed this additional Missile Defense system to the region. We know that there is the interception of those shot by Houthi Rebels and yemen. What does It Deployment tell you . It tells me that the u. S. Is basically getting ready to have a presence in the region, an expanded presence in the region. And the Defense System that you are talking about is this one right here, this is the terminal High Altitude area Defense System. So if you think of this as complementary to the Patriot System and other air Defense Systems that are out there, this is the kind of battery that would actually be used in a situation like this. And it fires from a tubelike system here, multiple Launching Possibilities here, multiple missiles. And they of course are designed too come i to come into an area take out the targets that would be out there. So this is what they did when it came to the missiles fired from yemen. And they were able to of course knock those out of the sky as well as the drones. So basically a Force Protection Measure for the u. S. Forces. But it also serves to send a message to any of the forces that are thinking about doing things against the u. S. That we will respond. The secretary also talked about the prepare to deployed ones. What does that mean in practice . In practice what that means is that the forces are being told they need to get ready. There is heightened tension here in the middle east. We are bringing forces in. We have brought in for example Uss Eisenhower and moved that over here. And so weve got two carrier battle groups, one over here, one possibly in the persian gulf depending on which part of the iranian sea area and persian gulf that they have come into. So what were doing with a prepare to deployed on, it means get ready. Get your stuff ready. Because when you are given the order to actually deploy, you will have 24 hours to get into theater. And that is what that means for the u. S. Forces that have been given that direction. And it also puts everybody else on notice that were potentially coming in with more forces into places all around the region that would help us protect israel as well as protect our own national interests. Colonel cedric leighton, thank you. Obviously were staying on all the latest in the israel war on hamas, but also here at home we still dont have a speaker. Third week no speaker. And now nine republicans are in the running, which if anyone is getting traction, that is ahead. Potential new candidates for speaker include tom emmer, kevin hern, Jackb Bergman and six mor who are clearly george santos. Saturday night live poking fun at the elect speaker. But others call it embarrassing. They will hear from the nine, yes, all nine of them republicans expressing interest in the job. This would be the House Republican partys third attempt at rallies behind a candidate after jim jordan withdrew following three failed votes on friday. Joining us now, lauren fox. Tom emmer has big time support behind him including mccarthy. Can he get to 217, can anyone at this point . Reporter well, that is the question of the week. And well be covering every moment of this race. Obviously tonight is very important. It is the first opportunity that candidates will have to talk to the broader republican conference. They will meet Behind Closed Doors after 6 00 p. M. Tonight and then tomorrow at 9 00 a. M. , voting begins. And this again happens Behind Closed Doors. It is a Secret Ballot. And essentially because there are nine candidates, expect that it will take a bit of time tomorrow. But the expectation is that someone will emerge with the majority, that person will be the speaker designee. And then of course the hard fight to win on the house floor begins. They can only afford to lose a handful of votes because of the narrow republican majority. And that has been what has bedeviled every candidate before them from Steve Scalise to jim jordan, no one has been able to clinch the necessary 217 votes. Tom emmer, republican whip, certainly starts out with a bit of an advantage. He got an endorsement last week from kevin mccarthy. Here is what mccarthy said about his deputy whip. This is not a moment in time to play around with learning on the job. We need someone who understands how to do this job. I believe tom emmer, our whip, he has been in the room with all of our successes, he sets himself head and shoulders above all those others who want to run. We need to get him elected and move on and bring this not just Party Together but focus on what this country needs most. Reporter and i think one dynamic to keep in mind is that because they are voting by Secret Ballot tomorrow and because there is going to be vote after vote, the lowest vote getter will drop off the ballot and then they will continue voting until someone has a majority. That does create some unpredictability in the room tomorrow. So while tom emmer goes in definitely with a strong advantage given the fact that he has been in leadership before, it is not clear that some republican hardliners will want anybody who has been in leadership in the past. A lot of republicans have argued that they want a new start. Again, well see, can anyone clinch 217 this week. That is the major question. Lauren fox, going to be a busy one. Thank you very much. Two american hostages released by hamas, what it means for the others still being held captive. Also thousands of Palestinian Refugees forced from their homes with nowhere to go. Why their relocation from gaza and west bank is being called a red line by the king of jordan. Overnight Israeli Military launching raids on the ground r