>> turn three 60, breaking news on what the idf is saying in israeli military operation underway inside gaza's main hospital. supporters of israel fill them of washington, according to parents one badly wounded american hostage. also tonight, weather is the center witness nearly coming to blows with the near house speaker urgently elbowing a fellow republican member. what is going on in congress? unless senator bernie sanders, who joins me now. preventing a fight. today we begin with the breaking news, what israeli military officials are calling the, quote, precise a targeted operation in al-shifa hospital in gaza city. it is both gaza's largest hospital and, according to israel, a base for fighters in tunnels underneath. just today john kirby said that american intelligence support of this new, and i'm quoting him now, hamas in the palestinian islamic jihad use some hospitals in the gaza strip, including al-shifa, and tunnels underneath them, to conceal and support the military operations and to hold hostages. he added, hamas in the palestinian islamic jihad members operated commander control node from al-shifa in gaza city. they stored weapons there and are prepared to respond to an israeli military operation against that facility. all of this coming is israel's defense minister complaint maintain that hamas lost control in a gaza strip, and also negotiators trying to reach a deal on releasing with the more than 200 hostages held by hamas and others. a reporter isn't just across the board from gaza. you were in a hospital when you got to the idf. what do we know about this operation, the idf is carrying out chief of hospital? >> yeah, precisely targeted operation is what is highly described it, saying it is based on intelligence information and operational necessity, and they say they have people trained, medics trained and arabic language specialists, trained for what is going to be a complex operation, is how they describe it, and they reiterated what they have been saying many times, the hamas has been using this hospital as a base of operations, of sorts, and they say that they gave a 12-hour warning in the past 24 hours to hamas, saying leave and surrender, and this was not taken up, apparently. the explosions you're hearing behind me a part of an ongoing operation little bit further north than where al-shifa hospital is. that's been going on all through the day. but precisely on the hospital, the idf is saying that they are not targeting patients or doctors. they say they have released this information in arabic. it's not clear how many patients or doctors in al-shifa hospital are able to get this message, but this is they are not targeting patients or doctors, that they will be organizing evacuations, that they do plan to help the medical staff with the medical messages there that they will possibly helping with the transfer of incubators or the provision of incubators for young children later in the day. they also, they have a message, as well, for the civilians hiding out there in the hospital, saying they are not being targeted either. so this is very clear from the idf's perspective a precisely aimed at hamas. how this unfolds in the middle of the night, in a military operation, where there is the potential for hamas to fire back and fire on the troops in the vicinity of possibly civilians, possibly medical staff, possibly patients, it's going to be very difficult given the levels of fear on both sides as civilians there will be obviously terrified about the situation. they've been aware that the idf has been positioned around the hospital for a number of days now, so this is a very complex and will be difficult operation. >> so nick, the hospital you are at yesterday, can you talk about what you saw and how visible with that, i believe it was placed in stockpiling weapons and other, things talk about what you saw. how visible would it be to anybody coming and going in that hospital? is that something the people in the hospital, doctors, staff, i assume they would have been aware of that. >> so in the hospital there they say that they have been subsequent to our visit we have been in touch with medical authorities from the hospital. they say that in the basement of the hospital, where we visited, families had been sheltering. civilians from the neighborhood have been children because they thought the hospital was a safer place to be. it would seem, from what we saw, that the basement would have been accessible from the rest of the building and there's no reason that most activities in the basement would have been known to the hospital authorities. it's hard to say from our visit if hamas or other groups could have operated out there without the hospital staff knowing. they say there wasn't any operation. there weren't any hamas operatives there in the basement. that casts doubt on the information that the idf has provided, and some of the things that the idf pointed out to them looked suspicious about the weapons that were found there, about a chair. there was a woman's clothing on the chair. there was rope around the legs of the chair. i asked the idf spokesman, when he showed this to, us if he thought that meant hostages had been there and he said we're going to do dna testing to see if that is the case. he didn't say definitively. it was the case. but what he was showing us proportionate he believed to show an area where hostages had been kept, a makeshift toilet facility there which did look out of place. and again, would have been hired, i think, for hospital staff not to have been aware of this makeshift toilet. but it's impossible to know definitively, in a short space of time, in the dark, precisely what hospital staff may have known, and precisely what else there may be in other parts of the hospital or even in other areas of the basement we didn't get to. >> nick, we're gonna come back to you momentarily. we're joined by idf spokesman peter lerner. can we talk about what israel is calling a precise and targeted operation adele shiva hospital? >> thank you, anderson. yes, we are conducting our operations in the schieffer compound. and as you've been showing, it is a huge compound. i think what is important to identify in our announcement we said localized in specific in a specific location so we are not running the hospital we are conducting a preseason targeted operation against specific location where we have intelligence and indeed operational change in order to defeat hamas and perhaps rescue hostages. >> and what do you believe is there? admiral kirby had talked about a command node. >> anderson, we've been sharing with the world for weeks now what we understand is a substantial hamas command and control position, a place of operations, a place of hiding, and perhaps a place of keeping we hostage, is holding the hostages, or some hostages. and so when we are mobilizing, precisely to achieve our military goals, the milk military goals of this war, we're in today 40 now of this, we're aware that we didn't ask, for a war that cost over 1200 israeli lives and 240 israelis are being held hostage. so our goal is to bring them home, to seek out hamas wherever they are hiding, in the hospital compound is one place, a central place, central hub of their operations. perhaps even the beating heart and maybe the center of gravity. we have to deal with the threat and what we have been trying to do throughout extensively over the last few days, you've covered it, we've been trying to evacuate the hospital. we've bought fuel for the essential services. we've been trying and attempting to bring mobile incubators to try to get some of those babies out of the hospital because the people of gaza are not our enemies. a masters the enemy. that is why we're trying to, extensively operate in order to distinguish between the civilians that nick was talking about and the hamas terrorists that are using the hospital in jeopardizing those people. >> if, in fact, the idf and u.s. intelligence is correct and this is an important hub or command control node, what everyone wants to call it, that would mean that palestinian health officials, who have often been quoted, have been lying when they said that there is no military at this hospital. is there any way that you believe health officials reporters who the growth side the hospital with cameras, doctors, people that work in the hospital, would not be aware of what was going on on the grounds of al-shifa? we >> when you say health officials, we have to always add one word beforehand, hamas health officials. >> that's a given. >> amass health officials. so it frames the whole discussion. would they hide? it can hide it? are they free to even speak? the -- hospitals likely named after one of the founders of hamas. so this is the context of the conflict. hamas, over the last 16 years, have built this mercy, this machine of murder. they've utilized all the tools of government. so the health authorities, are just one of those tools. it would not be beyond the understanding that the hamas terrorist organization utilized and abused and put at risk the people of gaza through its health ministry and officials, would lie to the world. why wouldn't? they they butcher babies in our bedrooms. why wouldn't they lie to the world about this? >> we do you have a sense of how many staff, how many patients are still on the compound? and what that means for this operation? the complexity of it. >> the complexity of, it of course, based on the information, and we have been in touch with the hospital administration throw the last days, we've shared recordings of the conversations, publicly. we understand that there are about 1000 people, give or take. but they are not in, necessarily, this specific location. definitely not all of them are in the specific location. we are conducting our search. currently there may be some civilians. obviously it is a complex operation, but we are going out of our way in order to mitigate that threat, and that is why we have announced, we haven't formed, we have had open channels, we have tried to facilitate and bring down the amount of people and tens of thousands of people that were taking refuge in the hospital two weeks ago are no longer there. they have left to go south, to south gaza. yes, the civilians are a challenge, and this is why. we've trained for this operation, as nick pointed out. we have doctors and also arabic speak in order to address some of those threats. we need to take into consideration, we are professional military, and our principles guide, as the principles that guide us are proportionality but also distinction and the military necessity of the operation. there is no doubt, based on the intelligence that we have shared in the u.s. have shared over the last day, that there is a mass military necessity in this operation. >> peter lerner, thank you. we appreciate it. back to nic robertson in sderot, and also four star general wesley clark. general clark, you are talking about proportionality in the sin city. can you talk about that a little bit, just from a military standpoint? in all wars, when there are civilians around and there are targets of that our military necessity, their calculations essentially done about how valuable is the target, what is the risk of civilian lives, and how much civilian mass is acceptable? these are horrible calculations, but these are calculations that armies make during war. a situation like this, operating on the ground in a hospital, it's good to be extraordinarily difficult. >> sure. and you're exactly right, anderson, about the way you cast it. you know what the target is. you know how valuable it is. you try to estimate what the risks are of hurting civilians, and then you have to make the judgment of whether the target, going after the target, taking out the target, is worth the risk of injuring people who are innocent and not part of the enemy force. but here you are dealing with the command and control note of hamas. you're dealing with hamas that has deliberately, cynically located its most valuable assets in a hospital. deliberately to try to provoke outrage in the world community and discredit israel. israel's israelis notice. they've got really great intel on this. when those soldiers go in and armored vehicles first and dismounted into the buildings, and it is a very complex compound, as you saw from the overhead cover, don't have helicopters, drones overhead. they'll be able to mark in repositions with lasers. you will be able to deliver precise fire if there is an opponent there. and then they've got to go inside. if hamas is there, yes, there could be a shoot out in a hospital corridor. and they're going to have to get to the bottom of it. and they're gonna have to search for the tunnel entrances around it. so at every step the soldier on the ground, the take manager, and so forth, is at risk. he's putting himself out there. he's likely to draw fire. he has the right to self defense. no matter what. always. and he is going to respond, if he is attacked, but he's got a lot of assets back in all eyes on the battlefield. so with everything that could possibly be done to protect civilians. and still go after the command and control at the hospital. and israelis, militarily they have to do. this >> one of the things i'm surprised there is not more outrage at, internationally about, is that hamas had two years, say, to prepare this attack, or a year. however long it was. we don't know the exact amount of time we've been preparing. but certainly they've been preparing for quite some time. they have not made any effort to build any bomb shelter for any civilian, it seems, in the gaza strip. they built tunnels for themselves, to store supplies and weapons and to protect themselves. but they're not bomb shelters. even the kind of shelters that you see on the sides of the road in israel by bus stops to protect against rockets. those don't exist on the streets of gaza. in your military experience, have you seen many countries or territories with a military that does not prepare or have some save hybrid fruit civilians? >> no, but on the other hand, her mass deliberately wants these civilians to be at risk. >> yes, that's the point, but i still find it stunning that that doesn't seem to register with a lot of people. >> the thing about it, anderson, we call a massive terrorist organization but it's actually the government of this gaza strip. they're in charge of everything. >> right, in the ever seemed hundreds of millions of dollars from qatar and other places, and they have not built any bomb shelters for their people. >> right. because they're not interested in protecting their people. they're interested in provoking international outrage against israel. they knew that when they launched this attack. and they hope to draw israel in, boggy's real down, make a lot of casualties, do whether doing with world opinion, a lot of voices out there saying cease-fire, cease-fire, cease-fire, and try to stop the israeli assault and then declare victory. that's the goal. so the more civilian casualties of the israelis inflict, even though they don't want to inflict any, the greater hamas believes its chances of success. >> and nick, it's accurate to say that the health officials in gaza have denied repeatedly that al-shifa hospital or others are being used by hamas for any we, i don't even want to call it military purposes, i mean for any of their own purposes? >> they have, and it's something health officials in gaza hamas, health officials say is true for other hospitals there and we've been speaking, cnn has been speaking, with officials from the hospital over the last few days and just going through our latest information on that in appears the most recent over the past couple of days, beta from the hospital itself, or male shiva hospital, they say they're about 7000 civilians taking refuge there, or they were until recently. it's not clear how many of those might have left, and about 1500 staff, 100 or so doctors, other medical officials and included in that 1500, of course 700 patients as well, as well as sort of support staff in the hospitals, so it's really a big complex. a complex complex. and it still appears a significant number of people working there. you would have to assume that these health officials would have knowledge of the whole complex. there's a lot of people there, it would have knowledge of the nooks and crannies, if you will. they wouldn't be places that they wouldn't know about within the hospital complex. so they continue to say hamas isn't there. >> that's the thing about operating, i mean, anyone who has reported from gaza knows, i mean, you know see rockets being fired from civilian areas, rockets being fired from the building, the time, the last time i was in gaza, i could see rockets were being fired from in buildings nearby me. even the doctors in the hospitals know hamas. , islamic jihad in others are fighting rockets over their hospitals but they don't speak out about it because they don't want to get killed. they obviously, nobody speaks out against hamas for fear of their own safety. maybe they agree with a mask, maybe they don't, and a lot of people don't gaza, don't like hamas. but people don't speak out, but people know, i mean they know where the tunnels locations are or where the rockets are being fired from. you can see it. >> in a nutshell, people, people are scared. when her mass was voted in by the electorate in gaza to power in 2006, 2007, they went around throwing out windows of high buildings, the political opposition. they might've won an election in 2006, but they have maintained control ever since through fear and intimidation. they might have a hard-core base of supporters there who genuinely believe in them, but the vast majority of people would not want to speak out against, and would fear speaking out against them, like you, anderson. i've been to gaza and have had those private conversations, away from cameras with people who will tell you precisely that. we are too afraid to speak out. hamas has done this to me, have done that to me. >> the last time i was there i watched as hamas, to on motorbikes dragged to human beings along on the ground, the legs tied together with rope or chains, to the motorbikes, and they were dragging them through the streets as a warning to other people. i don't know what those people have been accused of, but they were palestinians, and they were dead and they were being, accused, probably of being collaborators, and they drag them through the street as a warning to everybody else to stay silent and to not collaborate. we're overtime. nic robertson, thank you wesley clark, thank you. coming up next, my conversation with parents of a son who is still being held hostage. we believe last seen with his half of his left arm blown off being loaded into a pick up truck. later, a day unlike most if not many at the capitol, republican voted to oust kevin mccarthy saying mccarthy elbowed him in the coming in the halls of congress. an n npr repororter side and jos usus. >> israel's military operation tonight al-shifa hospital in gaza city is aimed at idf spokesman a moment ago told me specific target within the hospital compound, a large compound, natural overrunning the entire facility, he said. this is coming with negotiations underway to try to secure the release of some 240 hostages still being held. no word on exactly who's being held or how many. the red cross has not been allowed to visit any of these hostages. earlier today president biden expressed opposition about those talks. >> i've been talking about, them people involved everything will, day i believe it's gonna happen. i don't want to get into detail. >> what's your message for the families? >> hang in there. we're coming. >> some of the families wer