Soldiers are surrounding the borders of gaza in the air, on the ground and in the sea. Gaza residents tell cnn that these air strikes are the most intense they have witnessed since the beginning of this conflict. Almost three weeks ago. Phone service that connects gaza to the outside world has now apparently been completely cut off because of the intense bombardment. These are live pictures were bringing you of the Skyline Over Gaza where we have been seeing explosions all day. This operation coming hours after israels Minister Of Defense told me and some other reporters that israel was, quote, waiting for the best conditions to start its Ground Operation, unquote, exactly what those conditions were, he would not make clear, earlier today sources told cnn that a breakthrough had been made in Hostage Negotiations as 229 people according to the idf are still being held by hamas. Kidnapped on october 7th. The idf says the talk of a breakthrough was, however, only rumors, so now what, of course, is the big question. Now what . U. S. Officials insist Hostage Talks will continue. The white house says it is still in active conversations with israel about what theyre calling a humanitarian pause to allow for the release of hostages, cnns Nic Robertson is just outside the border of gaza in sderot, israel. Not to mention an intense increase in rockets fired from gaza into israel. Reporter absolutely. And as we all wonder what it means to have the best conditions for going in, we think of the clearing operations, the preparing operations that weve been told, the incursion last night, the incursion the night before, the increase in these Ground Operations that we appear to be witnessing tonight are all sort of a preparation, it appears, for a larger incursion. It certainly creates that impression, the idf is certainly giving that impression. I was just glancing up to the sky here, jake, before we were speaking here. Noticing that the sky, the moon, rather, is getting fuller and fuller and fuller and we oftentimes we think of the times when a Ground Incursion by night, Ground Military Operations By Night can be at the militarys advantage and oftentimes thats a time of a full moon and it is getting fuller and fuller. Must be getting close to a full moon but as for tonight it was about six or seven hours ago the really intense barrages of artillery pushed off. We could hear two big batteries of artillery opening up into gaza and then something we havent heard as intensively at all so far and that was tank fire from very close to this location, round after round after round of tank fire and just as night was falling, as dusk was falling this huge swath of Smoke Billowed in here from gaza carried on the wind up from the sea but its exactly the sort of smoke that the military would use to move troops, Move Equipment without the enemy being able to see it. We dont know that thats what it was for. It did have an acrid taste and tingled in the nose but it really created that impression of Heavy Bombardment. This smoke and the possibility of another Ground Incursion following on tonight from previous nights and you just heard that explosion there again, jake. There was a real pickup in artillery fire within the past hour or so and it is still not over yet, and the barrages of outgoing rockets absolutely in the middle of all that intense fire, hamas or Palestinian Islamic jihad firing out toward Central Israel. Firing over us here. Iron dome was firing out defensive rockets to take down the incoming rockets from gaza and we also saw iron dome intercepting rockets to the south of here, so still rockets being fired out, long range, all the way to Central Israel where you are, jake. Yeah, iron dome was intercepting a bunch of palestinian rockets aimed at Population Centers here in tel aviv all day, at least three or four alarms spreading throughout the day, nic, thank you so much. To jim sciutto who is in Northern Israel where israeli troops are facing off against hezbollah. Jim, what are you seeing on the ground there as this Heavy Bombardment by the israelis of hamas and gaza is under way . Reporter so today, two attacks by hezbollah, i should probably call them attempted attacks by hezbollah on Northern Israel, one that fell to the ground here, did not injure anyone. One that seemed to go off course into syria. Reports later this evening of some shelling around golan, that coming from the syrian side, it seemed, but not to any increased pace from what weve seen in recent days and thats despite a very high level of alert among the idf forces here that weve encountered and its interesting, because there was a statement a short time ago come flag a senior hamas were hearing big explosions in gaza right now. Reporter i can hear them as well. I can hear that as well. Reporter the point is hamas as it is under fire as youre witnessing as were witnessing tonight, those israeli air strikes, hamas leadership seems to be underwhelmed by the reaction among its Brothers In Arms in the region. The hamas leader said, for instance, regarding hezbollah, he said hezbollah now is working against the occupation, but he added, we appreciate this, but we need more in order to stop the aggression in gaza. We expect more. It appears that hamas expects more retaliation as it were from hezbollah in the north and from other iranian proxies in the region. They havent seen it yet. That doesnt mean that as we see this increased israeli activity in gaza tonight, the last several hours that that doesnt spark something, but its notable that it has not yet and that hamas officials have noticed that and are, in effect, complaining publicly that they dont have the support they expect. Now, i dont want to minimize what we have seen because, you know, those hezbollah threats, those strikes so far have basically emptied the northern part of israel. Towns up here, many of them that we visited under mandatory evacuation, many tens of thousands of israelis fleeing south and i should note as we discussed earlier, jake, u. S. Forces in the region are also under threat. Iranening Proxies Firing on them in iraq and syria, so that doesnt mean they are not firing back but from hamas perspective not to the degree that theyd hoped for. All right, jim sciutto, thanks so much. Appreciate it. The former cia director under president obama, leon panetta, joins us now. Secretary panetta, good to see you. What do you make of these expanded idf Ground Operations this evening . Do you think that this is a good idea . Well, i think its part of their Military Operation now, which is to go ahead and hit the targets that they want to hit in gaza, and at the same time be able to move their tanks forward so that they can be in position to basically conduct whatever kind of operation the israelis decide on. I think we have to be careful to jump to any conclusions here, because this is going to be a wellplanned operation. This is not going to be just something that they pull out of their hat. And for that reason, i think we have to be a little bit careful about assuming what exactly is going to happen. Im not so sure it will be a fullblown military invasion. It could very well be setting up a buffer zone and conducting targeted attacks into gaza. We dont know the answer just exactly what operation follows next. I dont mean this next question is either praise of israel or criticism of israel, but when you look at how they are conducting this war against hamas, the air strikes, the refusal to let fuel in because of the chance it could end up in the hands of hamas and be used for rockets to be used against the israeli people, do you see any real material difference in how the Israeli Government and the Israeli Military is handling this from how the u. S. Might be handling such a crisis . You know, its tough to draw assumptions, jake, as to just exactly how each country would handle it. I mean, 9 11 was a hamas attack on the United States in terms of a Terrorist Attack, and it was soon after that happened that we sent forces into afghanistan to go after al qaeda, and that was pretty much a ciatype operation with special forces. So, whether the United States would be doing this differently or not, i just i think its really hard to jump to any conclusions here. I think the israelis have dealt with gaza before. Theyve been to gaza before. They know the problems theyre going to face. I think you mentioned this. You are talking about 2 million palestinians, youre talking about tunnels. Yeah. Throughout that area. Youre talking about Suicide Bombers and booby traps. They know what theyre up against and im assuming theyre taking steps to deal with that challenge. Yeah, all right, secretary panetta, thank you so much for your insights. Well get back to the Breaking News out of gaza but lets go to l lewiston, maine. You can put that together. Peyton brewer ross, 40. Joshua seal. Mine mcmcfarland, 41. Joseph lawrence walker, 57. Arthur fred strout, 42. Max a. Hathaway, 35. Steven m. Veryvozzella, 35. Thomas conrad, 34. Michael r. Dilauria. Jason adam walker, 55. Tricia asselin, 53. William a. Young, 44. Aaron young, 14, his son. Robert e. Violette, 76 and his wife leucille, 73. William frank brackett, 48 years of age. Keith d. Mcnair, 64. Just have a moment of silence, thank you. Thank you for that. Truly appreciate it and appreciate that for the family. They did give us those photos. I did not, however, have any of the Family Members pronounce any of those last names so certainly no disrespect intended if in any way i screwed up the pronunciation. So to move on, i would also like to address the numbers of the victims that we that i confirmed with the number 8 and i will tell you miscommunication on my part, i was wrong. In talking to our detectives, we had a list for people that had been identified and Family Members that had been notified. Its also a separate list that involved a Family Advocacy and whether they had been plugged into that. All 18 of those victims, everybody that we listed here today, everybody has been identified and their families have been notified. So we are in contact with them. I would expect some more information later tonight and ill definitely talk about it tomorrow morning at 10 00, reference to Family Information Center and a new location and some material around that exactly what services will be available at that particular time. But i definitely wanted to make sure i correct that mistake from earlier. Several other updates from this mornings briefing. I know that shannon has sent along the aerial maps that we showed or tried to show here on the board so you have received those. I also think that we had shannon is correct on this. The boat ramp, the proper name was the paper mills trail and miller park boat launch. The address was correct at 501 lisbon street. Pa pajumpscot is further down and like everybody working with us to make sure we have the proper location, the proper terminology. And other additional updates, the Boat Launch Search of the river, theyre still out there right now. We were talking about sonars, thats time intensive and taking them a while to work through there and want to make sure they do it right so we wont finish that search this evening. I would be surprised if you ever saw divers in the water overall but tomorrow well have additional dive Resources Available to us from out of state as well as additional instate teams and well discuss that a little at 10 00 tomorrow but no surprises and expect that to go over and well have some asset there is tomorrow and did a bunch of flyovers as i mentioned and did the Sonar Searches and well be back on that tomorrow. The bar scene itself, they continue to do their onscene investigation there, as well as at the Bowling Alley. They did check those wood lines, they may be back in there tomorrow, as well, but that is progressing as expected. And i think another major piece of updates for you now is to talk about the shelter in place order and where that is going effective immediately, and im not a big reader of orders but i think this is important you hear this directly from a couple different source and put out a release and there will be a Cell Phone Geofence release to some folks that weve used a couple times already. During an active shooter and otherwise but the shelter in place order is rescinded except hunting is prohibited in the towns of lewiston, lisbon, bowdoin and monmouth beginning Saturday 10 28 until further notice. They continue to search for the suspect and recommend individuals remain vigilant. Businesses may choose to open or remain closed. Commissioner camuso is here to help us answer any additional questions about that Hunting Piece that was asked this morning and it was a good question and i told you at that time we were working on an answer for that. And what that means is that, the general shelter in place has been rescinded specifically hunting again is prohibited in those four towns and those four towns only and its important i mention that because the rest of the state is allowed to continue with their resident only day on saturday, tomorrow. And what does that mean . That means that there are going to be communities that hear gunshots from time to time because theyre going to be hunting so we would ask everybody to use caution in that and not think that every one of those gunshots is directly regarding this particular crisis situation, this investigation. So, clearly if they think, if theyre suspicious, concerned they can call their local agencies but i would ask them to think about that where theyre located, when did they hear that, if theyre 150 miles north, do they need to call their 911 center and create a response and i think i would say no to that unless they have another set of facts, a fact pattern that would lead them to a direct connection between the two. So we had mentioned why we made that decision initially, because of the crisis and the situation that we had. Those four towns in particular, clearly with lewiston and the two tragic situations here, the two locations we already talked about, and then you have lisbon with the boat launch and bowdoin where the suspect lived and monmouth other Family Connections there as well. So this is not to say that the crisis is over, the emergency is done, we can go about our lives and life is good. We want our residents to remain vigilant and Pay Attention to what we share for information. I, again, focus on what we share as in the department of Public Safety and the city of lewiston but we continue to see a lot of information from a lot of different places that is far from accurate. I would also say in that regard when we say that were going to meet you here at 10 00, were going to meet you here at 10 00 and when we say well notify you, we will notify you in the afternoon if we get together and what time that is. I just encourage you to believe that until i prove you wrong and i wont and i say that because weve heard some other stuff. There will be a Press Conference at 1 00 and then our pio gets 100 emails and asks is it going to be 1 00. Were trying to help you do your job. If you could help job, that would be greatly appreciated. That is some of those pieces for updates from what we worked on this morning. A couple of additional things. Neighborhood canvases as an example, i did not speak to that. We talked go large deployments. Neighborhood canvases could be a couple of officers knocking on a door and thats going to be happening at various locations around this particular area in multiple towns, again, if somebody is using their own common sense and say that doesnt seem right, sure, call, but you could have two uniformed officers or two officers who clearly display badges jumping out of a marked car to speak to you as detectives. There was a question around arrival times at the two locations and had done some research on that, which was hot off the presses walking out the door to come here today. So, spare time as we mentioned earlier, that initial 911 call was occurring at 6 56 p. M. And by the computeraided dispatch system, someone calls in and says im out at that location, the first officer, the first lewiston officer arrived based on that system at 7 00 p. M. , four minutes later, the reality is there were four Plainclothes Police officers that were shooting on the range in that general area. They hear that call come in and theyre walking into the bar and or rather the Bowling Alley about din about a minute and a half. They hear it at the range and respond to the address immediately and address the threat and clear the building. For that same location, right, spare time as an example you have lewiston selfcontained Police Department that work with everybody. Not uncommon to see Maine State Police in town but dont have specific areas to patrol, calls came in to dispatch centers for the