good evening. right now it's 2:00 a.m. in gaza, but there will likely be little sleep for many people there tonight. tonight we've been watching multiple images of multiple explosions lighting up the night sky around gaza city. cnn's nic robertson in sderot witnessed some big secondary explosions and a huge fire in gaza. nic and his crew witnessed eight rockets being fired from gaza and israel. the idf tell cnn six of the eight rockets were intercepted by the country's iron dome defense system. israeli police say there are no reports of casualties that they can pass along at this moment. meanwhile, u.s. secretary of state antony blinken has wrapped up his meeting with arab leaders in jordan. he's heading to turkey. blinken stressed support for israel to implement what's being called a humanitarian pause in the fighting in gaza, that is far short of the cease-fire wanted by arab countries and international aid agencies. minutes ago israel's military said it would allow a -- a window tomorrow for civilians in gaza to move to the south. let's begin this hour in israel. cnn's ed lavandera is in tel aviv. what can you tell us about this latest round of rockets being fired from gaza? what's the latest on your end? >> reporter: another tense and excruciating night of war here inside of gaza. earlier tonight, just several hours ago, our nic robertson reporting to us that some eight rockets were launched toward israel from inside of gaza, and the israeli defense force says that the iron dome protection system was used, activated, and used to shoot down about six of those eight missiles. there were no reports that we know of so far of any casualties on the ground here in israel for the two that presumably landed somewhere. many of those rockets, according to what we've been able to see, were targeted and directed and struck down over the area just south of tel aviv. so quite a distance away from gaza. but all of this unfolding as israeli defense forces continue fighting inside of gaza. they say they're trying to dismantle that tunnel system which is basically the home and where hamas fighters are operating from. but we're also seeing excruciating images of some -- of the air strikes that have gone ongoing for the last several hours inside of gaza and trying to get a sense of just -- just the scope of the magnitude of the attacks. there's been a great deal of criticism, as we all well know, of the way israel forces have been carrying out some of these attacks and the toll that it is taking on civilian populations. earlier today, just several hours before this latest round of fighting that we've been able to document here in tel aviv, there was a large protest, hundreds of supporters and family members of the 241 israeli hostages that are still being held inside of gaza. there was a rally outside of the military's government building here in tel aviv where protesters had gathered, they were demanding that more be done from the benjamin netanyahu's government here in israel to get those hostages released. it has been nearly a month since those 241 people have been in custody. organizers of the event try to point out that this is not an anti-government protest but more an effort to try to get the focus back on those 241 hostages that remain being held inside of gaza. jim? >> all right, ed lavandera, thank you so much. earlier tonight we learned that president biden was briefed by national security officials including secretary of state antony blinken, cnn's jennifer hansler is traveling with the secretary and has the latest from amman, jordan. >> reporter: well, jim, we saw blinken standing alone among his counterparts in amman today. he was the only one to oppose a cease-fire. we saw the jordanian foreign minister, the egyptian foreign minister, both calling for an immediate stop to fighting in gaza, this cease-fire would be for an undetermined amount of time in order to appease the humanitarian catastrophe there on the ground. blinken instead is trying to bridge this gap by calling for what he's calling a humanitarian pause. this would be a temporary stop to the fighting, not long enough to allow hamas to regroup and potentially reattack israel. this is how he described it today -- >> the united states believes that all of these efforts would be facilitated by humanitarian pauses. we believe pauses can be a critical mechanism in protecting civilians, getting aid in, for getting foreign nationals out, while still enabling israel to achieve its objective to defeat hamas. >> reporter: and jim, we should note this is something that blinken pushed in meetings with top israeli officials yesterday in tel aviv. this is something that he said the u.s. thought would be beneficial to israel and to the wider region, and this is something that benjamin netanyahu came out and rejected almost immediately after their meeting. he said there would be no stop in fighting, whether it was temporary or permanent cease-fire, until hamas releases those hostages. now blinken sought to address some of the common grounds between he and his arab partners here in amman today. he said they are all focused on getting more humanitarian assistance into gaza, and they want to see this regional conflict not spread. and this is, of course, a message he will be bringing to turkey as he travels there in the coming days. jim? >> jennifer hansler, thank you so much. joining us to discuss is cnn military analyst, retired air force colonel cedric leighton. colonel leighton, you know, you're seeing tony blinken trying -- i think his best -- from a diplomatic stand point t get the two sides close to somewhere resembling middle ground, calling for humanitarian pauses. arab leaders in jordan wanted that cease-fire. netanyahu's not going do that right now, there's no way. i was talking to one of his top advisers, they want hostages released. they want hostages out before anything like that is going to come to pass. your sense of things right now? >> yeah, absolutely, jim. i think we have to keep in mind as easy as it is to say we want a cease-fire or a humanitarian pause, it becomes really essential to understand the israeli position, and you have to put yourself in their shoes for a second and say, hey, i have -- my people are being held hostage at this point in time, i want them back before i do anything. so from that standpoint, it's very understandable that the israelis would have that position. now on the other hand, you have the situation with the palestinian civilians in gaza who absolutely need a pause in fighting. so that middle ground that you talked about that secretary blinken is trying to achieve is really one in which there is a pause in the fighting, but israel is allowed to achieve its goals. and it's very hard to really thread that needle because those seem like diametrically opposed interests in someways. the israelis wants to move forward militarily. the u.s. has a vested interest with the arab nations in limiting the damage done to the palestinian civilians. it's a tough and difficult situation from that standpoint. >> let's talk about the civilian casualties in gaza. the israeli air strike on two ambulances in gaza overnight. there was a u.n. school that was being used to shelter refugees that was also apparently hit earlier today. when we talked to the israeli, the idf spokesman, earlier this evening they keep stressing we're trying to minimize civilian casualties. we're not targeting civilian facilities, and so on. they're hitting them. >> yeah. >> we're seeing the images come out. how much longer can the israelis do this without really risking the support of the americans? because it sounds as though while blinken and biden are saying we're standing with israel it sounds like behind the scenes they're putting on a lot of pressure for some of this to ratchet down. >> that's my sense, as well. what the biden administration is saying to the israelis privately is very clearly you need to be more precise in your targeting. you need to be doing things to minimize this kind of activity. now there could be difficulties that the israelis are having from a military technical perspective in getting things exactly right, the right coordinates, the right fusing even on the bombs. >> when i was talking to mark regev, he was saying we values this issue of hamas using civilian facilities for military strategic purposes. and so how do we differentiate between the two? i mean, obviously at some point the israelis have to prove that that's what's taking place. >> yeah. that's exactly the problem because, you know, the world sees a school being bombed or two ambulances being hit, and those things are actually happening. the problem that the israelis have is they get intelligence saying that these things are being used for hamas' purposes. so you have a choice in the military, you have a choice are you going to hit a target like that and eliminate it at the risk of killing civilians, or are you going to let it go and hit that target another day? there are ways to do that. it quarters a lot of patience and -- requires a lot of patience and a lot of fine-grained intelligence to make those decisions. and even with that you can make a lot of operational mistakes. the united states has made operational mistakes that way. >> absolutely. >> so we have to be -- in criticism of israel, we have to understand there are a lot of limitations to what can be done in that sense, as well. >> and we've been watching this extraordinary reporting from our jeremy diamond this afternoon. he was able to embed with idf forces briefly to see some of the fighting that is happening on the ground inside of gaza. one has to think that that is really ultimately the next stage in all of this. from a military standpoints, there's only so much you can accomplish with these kind of bunker buster-type bombs that blow things up, creates huge craters, results in a lot of civilian casualties, and you don't know whether or not you're getting these tunnels, whether you're getting hamas leaders. >> one of the key difficulties that you have when you target something like tunnels is how do you do battle damage assessment for something like that, and battle damage assessment is a key process to determine whether or not you actually struck the target, whether or not you achieved your goals for that particular piece of ordnance. in this particular case, what you're looking at is you're going to run out of bunkers that you can safely hit without damaging the civilian infrastructure, and clearly they've already damaged a lot of pieces there in that way. >> and we've been seeing some increased activity tonight. we can show the footage. we saw some pretty dramatic explosions taking place earlier on in this program. our nic robertson and his crew were close by witnessing some of this. what do you suppose is going on with some of these -- these are just massive explosions that you can see from inside of gaza. >> yes. this is -- obviously shot from israel. but close enough it's happening close enough to the border that it can be seen. and one of the key elements here is these look like a lot of ammunition dumps are being hit, a lot of other areas, perhaps rocket launch facilities. all of those kinds of things that either have munitions or fuel, those things can actually give off spectacular explosions when they're hit by ordnance, even normal artillery shells. >> that might be what we were seeing. >> that is a possibility, yes, absolutely. >> colonel, great to see you as always. thank you so much. as i mentioned, cnn got rare access to what's happening inside gaza. next, what our jeremy diamond saw and learned while embedded with the idf in gaza. those imagages coming g up in a moment. cnn was part of the first group of foreign journalists allowed into gaza with israeli forces. the journalists were embedded, meaning they had to stay with the idf in gaza, and could not move freely. news outlets have to agree to submit all footage to the israeli military before it can be published. cnn has agreed to the terms in order to provide a limited window into israel's operations in gaza. and jeremy diamond was there. jeremy, what can you tell us about what you saw, and i guess how much of an indication did you get that this is really the next stage to come for the idf? >> reporter: jim, one week into israel's ground offensive in gaza, the israeli military agreed to give us access to an israeli military position about a kilometer inside gaza. this position was overlooking gaza city. i can tell you it was very much an active combat zone. we were hearing multiple fire fights between hamas militants and israeli soldiers while we were at this military position. the fighting was happening about 100 meters away from us, and effectively the israeli military is trying to cut off the northern part of gaza from the south as they encircle gaza city. at this israeli military post on the outskirts of gaza city, the fighting is fierce. >> the center of the gaza strip, the idf soldiers are fighting against the militants that are using all that they can in order to harm and to get to the idf soldiers. >> reporter: one week into its ground offensive, israel's military says it has encircled gaza city from posts like this. we're right now at an israeli military post inside the gaza strip about one kilometer inside of gaza. gaza city is just this way. and as you can hear behind me, there is a lot of ongoing fighting between israeli forces and hamas militants. what they are trying to do right now is to flank the hamas positions. that's what the battalion commander told me. all of this to try and cut off gaza city from the southern part of the strip as israeli forces also move in from the north. cnn was part of a small group of reporters given access to israeli forces inside gaza for the first time since the outbreak of the war. entering gaza using the same roads hamas militants use to carry out their brutal attack on october 7th. >> today we are going the exact same roads, to the same neighborhoods, to their area, to their trucks in order to go there and be able to get them pay the price and to eliminate hamas organization that held this attack on the state of israel. >> reporter: the israeli military is taking us into gaza. we are inside an armored personnel carrier right now. another point in gaza city. still, israeli forces face the danger of ambush from underground tunnels. >> and over there -- over there and inside the neighborhood also. >> reporter: so in just this area there are at least three tunnels. >> i believe -- i believe at least. >> reporter: israel says many of those tunnels lie below residential buildings, and for weeks it has relentlessly bombed those targets, killing and injuring thousands of civilians in the process. the forces here say they're now working to secure a humanitarian corridor to help civilians flee the heaviest fighting. >> this is a huge objective for the brigade, battalion, here. the population will be able to go from the north to the south in order to get the idf what it needs to do. >> reporter: for these soldiers, achieving that goal may see them deploy deep into gaza city where the prospect of deadly urban combats awaits. >> the idf will be here as long as it takes, weeks, months, years, until it makes sure that israel is safe and secured for the long time period. to get inside gaza house by house, this is exactly what's going to happen. >> reporter: and jim, israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu and other israeli political and military leaders have made clear that the goal with this ground offensive is to eliminate hamas, to remove it from power in gaza. for now, they have encircled gaza city, we know that they are operating in parts of gaza city. but they haven't gone into the most densely populated areas. they haven't engaged in that kind of -- the most bloody, the most deadly kind of urban combat that could be expected if indeed they made that decision. for now, the soldiers that we met today say they are prepared to go in if necessary, but they haven't yet gotten that order it seems. that still seems an open question of how far is the israeli primarily willing to go into gaza city. jim? >> and that certainly is a critical stage to come. jeremy diamond, thank you so much for that reporting. really appreciate it. a u.s. congressman canceled a planned town hall with his constituents citing, quote, threats against jews. he joins me next to share what happened. stay with us. as war rages in fwooz, we're continuing -- gaza, we're continuing to monitor the rise of islamophobic incidents in the u.s. democratic congressman glen lansman canceled an event saying in part it was because of, quote, problem attic online discourse and serious national threats against jews. and congressman lansman joins me now. tell us about what happened. >> reporter: you've seen -- obviously the anti-semitic attacks, the violence, you know, against both jews and muslims. but you know, we've seen just an explosion of anti-semitism in the united states, and there have been threats to members and the house -- sergeant-at-arms has said, hey, be careful, if you don't have to do these events, don't do it. then there was a lot of online local chatter, there was going to be a protest and a sit-in. that wasn't, you know, a problem, but there was some additional chatter that suggested to law enforcement that they should just pull it down. and you know, folks don't want to be put in a position where they're not going to be safe. >> and congressman, did you receive some specific threat? is that what really pushed this over the edge where you had to cancel? >> no. not a specific threat on my life or anything like that. i think this is part of the issue is that you have folks who are, you know, well intentioned potentially that, you know, want to stand in solidarity with folks who are really suffering in gaza, but there are very problematic, dangerous rhetoric that comes along with it unfortunately sometimes where you see israel is racist or, you know, israel is pursuing genocide, and you know, as jews, that is very, very scary. and so there's been protests in front of our offices, jewish members and certainly my office, but it was just chatter that local folks, law enforcement thought was particularly problematic, and there was just no reason to put people in harm's way. >> and what is your sense of this sharp rise we've seen in anti-semitism and islamaphobia in the u.s. right now, and how do we get to a place where some of that is knocked back? is it really just going to -- is this something we're going to have to live with as kind of a new normal while israel and hamas are at war with one another? >> i think there are three reasons why it's happening. one is that there is legitimate anger and, you know, stress, anxiety, frustration, hurt, both from the jewish community and the muslim community. i spent a lot of time with both. we have big jewish and muslim communities in southwest ohio. and both communities are grieving. so there's real frustration there. and then, you know, our foreign adversaries want us fighting with each other. so they're spending money to put a lot of this awfulness, whether it's anti-semitic or anti-muslim, you know, nonsense on social media platforms, and that doesn't help. it fuels the fire. >> right. >> then it's how on line people are. we've got to get off line and spend time with each other, and that's the way we're going to get past this. >> let me ask you about some -- the heated rhetoric that one of your democratic colleagues rashida talib, has been saying. let me get your response. >> mr. president, the american people are not with you on this one. [ chants ] we will remember in 2024 -- >> congressman, she is saying that president biden is, quote, supporting genocide, and i think you pro