You see her there, the 85yearold grandmother recounting her harrowing experience. Her daughter was by her side translating. Yoesh shed lifshitz said hamas stormed her kibbutz and abducted her on the back of the moto motorbike. Each captive had their own doctor. There are huge, huge network of tunnels underneath. It looks like a spider web. When she first arrived, they told them that they are muslims and theyre not going to hurt them. And that they shared they ate the same food that hamas was eating. Hamas has now released four hostages as israeli troops gear up to launch an assault on gaza they say by ground, sea and air. The Israeli Military says it struck more than 400 targets across gaza in the past day killing hamas commanders and fighters. More than 200 hostages are still believed to be inside gaza. And as we learned from israels president overnight, that includes 30 children. Go to erin burnett she joins us live in tel aviv. Erin, to you, incredible to hear those details of how they were taken and then what happened when they were there. Well, and of course, the stark contrast between what hamas militants did in that Terror Attack on october 7th. The horrific acts that we now know happened of beheading and execution and rape and dismemberment, but that these hostages, at least from what we are now hearing today and seem to be consistent with what we generally understand was the case from the two Hostages Friday Recounting a very different experience, right . Clearly this is something that hamas wants out there for the pr for hamas, look how we treat our hostages. Its consistent with what the idf said, hostages are being held in tunnels. They said tunnels that hamas is not known to have used before. So it consistent with that. But some of these details that youre sharing, even in the context of a terrorist organization trying to portray a very different picture to the world, saying they were eating the same food and that they had doctors and medical care, is still quite striking. Yeah. Erin, to that point, theres been so much discussion about the preparation for the attack itself, from the Terror Attack itself. But lets listen to what she said about how prepared they were for the hostages. Translator Lack Of Awareness by idf had just a lot they warned us three weeks bef beforehand. They were in fields. They sent fire balloons. And the idf did not treat it seriously. Description i think you heard there about the idf and the lead up to the attack itself. Erin, whats your sense of that given how youve been covering this on the ground . Well, look, ive had a chance to read through the documents that were found on hamas fighters, specific to the kibbutzing they were going to be attacking, they were assigned to. Those were dated the ones i saw dated october 2022. Thats just the battle plan itself. They did have extremely detailed layouts in there of what to do with hostages. You take the hostages to the communal eating area. Hostages were a central part of the plan. When you read through it, every single plan they did was a central part of the plan. What we didnt see in the documents for two of the kibbutz i read through was the rape and dismemberment and horrific inhumane acts perpetuated so broadly and horrifically. But this part, the part about hostages, that was very clearly in there. And it sounds like now she had sounds like from what shes saying very clearly had conversations with the people who were holding them captive, right, talking about their plans that indicates, a you had three weeks warning. That was a level of conversation that was happening between the hostages and hamas. Theres also one moment this morning, erin, where she recounted another hostage who was very ill and talked about putting them on antibiotics and then it wasnt working and then switching antibiotics. And it just speaks to your point about how prepared it seems like they were for what was coming. I think we have part of this. Lets listen to it. Translator we had close doctor who came to see us every two to three days. The paramedic took it upon himself and took care of medicines. If there were not medicines, they would bring Substitute Medicine Equivalent medicines. Whats your reaction on the ground, erin . Poppy, you know go ahead. Yeah. All right. Here is whats interesting about that. Im sure youre having the same reaction. Of course you want the hostages to be returned and returned Safe And Sound and should never have been taken in the first place. What that highlights is hamas is doing exactly what israel has accused them of doing, right, hoarding medical supplies. Right now you have hospitals in gaza where children are being operated on without morphine. They dont have antibiotic. They dont have power. But hamas clearly has all those things and had them stockpiled. Theyre not using them on their own civilians. Theyre providing them to hostages. Again, you want the hostages to be taken well care of but you dont want hot tajs. All of these things tell a very important tale. Of course for the Hostage Families themselves, it seems this would give them a real hope that hostages are, as israel said, majority of them being alive. Would not just mean 50 plus one, mean all of them. Its got to give hope to those families at the very least, of course. But it does also show hamas has the antibiotics. Hamas has the doctors. But of course the Gaza Civilian Hospitals right now do not. Erin, the discussion that yeah. One more quick thing, that is that there already clearly discussions with other captainers, people taken hostage. Does that give any sense to the broader landscape of the 200 plus individuals that currently are believed to be held hostage . Right. We do know, of course, the government of qatar has been involve and government of egypt specifically along with the red cross involved with the two elderly women who were released last night, one of whom we saw speak this morning. There has been a broad perception that foreign nationals or dual pass port holders may be treated differently. Although the two women release wrd israeli. So it unclear. But theres also been discussion that maybe there would be a big group of hostages release and some holdups on any negotiations on that. Thats the real question to whether that happens and then of course whether that then gives a green light to Prime Minister netanyahu to do whatever it is that hes planning to do, which he has a lot of options at his hands even now, right, when you talk about going into gaza. Its not one monolithic choice. Even within that there are a lot of different options that continuing hostages being held in gaza could impact. And the Israeli Defense minister said that israel is preparing for a multilateral option on hamas. Theyre still talking, phil and poppy, air, ground and sea. Here is how he put it last night here. Translator keep preparing for our operation. It will come soon. We are preparing thoroughly for the next step. A multilateral operation in the air, ground and sea. Do your work. Get ready. We will need you. Meanwhile, three star American General is here in israel counselling Israeli Forces ahead of the expected gaza ground invasion. Our Oren Lieberman is at the pentagon this morning for us. So oren, general glen important here and what is the significance of his expertise and experience and being with the idf at this point in the war . Reporter so lieutenant james glen from the u. S. Marine corps has decades of experience in the military. On top of that one of his previous positions he was commander of Marine Forces special operations command, so he has experience in special ops as well. U. S. Official who confirmed that glen was in israel said he would help with big picture advice. Israel hasnt conducted operations on this sort of size and scale in decades, if not longer. Where as the u. S. Has. More over, glens experience in iraq, in perhaps urban warfare also helped israel as they get ready to move into gaza and conduct warfare in a dense, urban environment, an incredibly difficult environment to operate in. So glen can offer all that perspective. The white house yesterday said that there were military officials and officers with relevant experience that would be there to help israel, not only in its operations now but also what israel is planning to do. This as the u. S. Urges caution, urges planning and urges israel to sit out very specific goals what it wants to accomplish in gaza. Erin . And obviously theyve been skeptical of what those goals or how explicitly those goals have been laid out. We also heard from iran, the broader fear if youre going to have a massive escalation for the world. Foreign minister said in Teheran Last Night that the United States has sent iran two messages. What are those, oren . Reporter the u. S. Very concerned about escalation in the region. You have seen Antony Blinken put in a tremendous amount of work on Shuttle Deploimsy to keep this fight contained to gaza. The Iranian Foreign minister said at a Press Conference yesterday that they received two messages as you said from the americans. One, explicitly saying effectively we dont want to see a larger war and the second, also sort of urging or warning iran to stay out of this and keep its proxies out of this. That would be a number of those proxies. Whether its hezbollah in lebanon, Shiite Militia or houthi. To make sure that others stay out of this fight as this looks to as the risk of escalation seems very apparent here, erin. All right, oren, thank you very much at the pentagon breaking all those details today. And the white house still says not enough aid is reaching gaza. Thats the reality of the situation. Only a few trucks going in versus hundreds needed. One Essential Resource is a nonstarter for israel, at least up to this point it has been. The Senior Adviser to Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu last night telling kaitlan collins, israel will not allow oil into gaza even if all the hostages are released. At the moment we have no interest in more fuel going into the hamas military machine. We have not authorized fuel. We have authorized medicine, water, food. We have not authorized anything else. Well, it comes as gaza residents have been pushing to the south. Many, of course, still choosing to remain in the north. They see it as their home. But many have, Hundreds Of Thousands have moved south, trying to get closer to that rafah crossing. Think about all that pressure going to that one point. They all want to get out, improving their chances to making it to egypt on the other side of the border crossing. Our journalist here at cnn has been documenting the struggles he and his family are facing for us every single night. Here is what happened to him yesterday. [speaking in a global language] and we are thinking of ibrahim and his family he is documenting with all the power issues and everything every single day for us what he can. And we are getting some new details coming in early, early this morning at new york time from a hostage just released by hamas. And well tell you what it says about hamas strategy as weve been discussing. Theres a lot that it tells us implicitly between the lines as well as explicitly. New information, how he managed to coordinate a Massive Attack without some of the most sophisticated intention services in the world knowing about it. Translator very well prepared. They prepared it for a long period of time. All of the needs for female, for women needs, shampoo, conditioner. Just remark to believe hear, that was moments ago. Yocheved lifshitz just freed describing her experience after she was kidnapped on a motorbike two weeks ago. Joining us now with a lot of insight on hamas, its leadership, The Economist middle east correspondent and the author after a new piece in The Economist 1843 magazine about the man who transformed hamas from a cluster of Terrorist Cells into a force capable of invading israel. Nicholas, im sure you heard her Press Conference just less than an hour ago. Speak to what she described in terms of specifically how well prepared hamas was with all of those medical supplies, all of that planning to take these hostages. Its astonishing that if you compare kind of where the military wing of hamas began in the early 1990s, sort of 30 years ago, to where it is today, its just transformed from being an amateur bunch, kind of parttime gorillas into an effective fighting force equipped with ability to operate in the air, at sea, on land and critically in a fourth dimension, in the tunnels. And i think its there which that has been its strength. That was the one area where israel didnt have visibility. And of what was happening under ground and the preparation and the arsenal that hamas managed to collect. The degree to which it was dug in and could operate across borders. Nicholas, in your piece, which is excellent, as poppy is noting, you write, its about mohammed diaf, who is the leader of hamas and its his ability to be a phantom of sorts. Theres been so many attempts to assassinate him. Hes been injured multiple times. Lost most of his family members, if not all. In the piece, his decision to commit mass murder may well result in his own death and put palestine at the top of the global agenda, which is one of hamas main goals. The shock in the wake of this attack, because there was not a sense that they could do this. And yet your story traces the origin, not just one man, but the military wing and its entirety. Were you surprised by the scale of what happened on october 7th . Again, if you look back at the course of the last 20 years, hamas has toyed with political options. Its discussed cease fires, extended cease fires, even some form of armistice, some form of recognition and talked about ways in which it could even at some point disarm. And i think you can look back at that period now as kind of history of missed opportunities where the politics was sidelined in favor of military power. And i guess if you look at the career of mohammed deif, the one thing that except for his survival which is unusual in the military wing, the one thing is a constant is his belief there wasnt going to be a political solution to essentially a political conflict without some cataclysmic event. And i think thats what he set out to deliver in the most horrific of ways. Nicolas, can you speak more broadly about qatar. They were crucial in the release on friday and this piece. The reckoning is coming, atlantic piece, argues for too long doha danced between its western and arab partners. The music stopped. Talk about the huge influence that qatar has over hamas but also the huge connection it has to the west, to the United States specifically, negotiating Hostage Releases like this. It is absolutely correct that qatar of all the states in the gulf has been dancing and it was backing islamist movements at the time of the arab spring 12 years ago. At the same time, its been dancing that islamic dance, in many ways at the behest of the west, whether its in the negotiating with the Taliban In Afghanistan or dealing with hamas, it was very much coordinating with israel. It was israel and qatar together that thought that they could manage hamas through payments, through financial handouts. And they were pretty much in lock step. There was very little that qatar did which wasnt with israels coordination, partly because it wanted to divide the Palestinian West Bank parting gaza, partly because it did see that it did believe it could manage hamas and restrain it, restrict it to gaza. And i think if you look at the career of mohammed deif, he comes from a family is from the highlands around jerusalem, he was very much focussed on jerusalem, on the west bank. For him, this wasnt a conflict just for sort of ending a blockade in gaza. It was about trying to resolve an Israeli Palestinian conflict and absolutely in palestinians favor and believed the only message that was going to be understood by the parties was one of force. Yeah. That message has now very clearly been sent. The pieces deadly phantom, The Economist 1843 magazine is excellent. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you for having me. Well continue to follow all those new developments the middle east. Meanwhile, here in the u. S. , its been three full weeks without a House Speaker and eight republican candidates are now vying for the job. Well break down whos who, where they stand on the big issues and where they stand on donald trump. Stay with us. Nice footwork. Man, youre lucky, watching live sports never used to be this easy. Now you can stream all your games like its nothing. Yes [ cheers ] yeah woho running up and down that field looks tough. Its a pitch. Get way more into what youre into when you stream on the xfinity 10g network. Today marks 21 days without a speaker of the house, just for context. Thats not great. Republicans at this point are no closer to appointing one today than they were three weeks ago. They are moving forward in a process. Its now an eightway race to be speaker. The eight men running for speaker, down from nine candidates after dan muser dropped out during a Conference Meeting last night. They would like to elect a new speaker by this evening when they meet again Behind Closed Doors throughout the course of the day. You might be wondering, who are these guys . Where do they stand on the key issues . Its important to note,