Pictures from inside gaza. It is 1 00 a. M. Local time there. There has been sporadic rocket and missile attacks throughout the night. We have seen that on both sides. Hes the moment that an israeli air strike hit a target earlier today. What began with those surprise and horrific Terror Attacks has now turned into a war, hamas is threatening to execute some of what it claims are 150 living hostages that they have apprehended. They say that would be in retaliation for any israeli strike that kills civilians. Israel has ordered a complete Siege Of Gaza with quote, no electricity, no water, no food, no fuel. Israeli Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu said this in an address today. In place from which hamas operates, were planning to what we will do to our enemy the next few days will echo for generations. There is a count of about 800 israelis who have been killed so far. 2,600 wounded, 678 palestinians have been killed, according to these estimates and for those watching in the United States, 11 americans also among the dead. Israel has been moving troops and tanks to the border with gaza, and called up 300,000 reservists on the ground. Israeli forces say they have regained control of border towns but there may still be terrorists in the area. Here is some of what we learned from Nbcs Richard Engel reporting during some shelling today. Stay down, stay down. Richard and his team did take precautions there. They have checked in and are safe. Theres also more focus tonight on the fate of a specific group of hostages and others who were targeted as civilians, disturbing videos that show some abducted. These were israelis who were peacefully at a Music Festival or concert. This is one of the story lines. We have more on that horrific attack later. I can tell you one mother spoke to nbcs Andrea Mitchell about what happened to her children. I could hear people speaking in arabic outside their door, and they broke in, and the last thing i heard was the youngest whos 12 saying im too young, dont take me, and that was it, that was the last time i heard from them. There are countless such stories. The humanitarian carnage is something we are all still just processing. The United States has ordered Navy Warships into the area, an aircraft carrier, Military Supplies being sent to israel. Theres some fighting that erupted on israels northern border with lebanon earlier today which raises fears about widening to other regions, to hezbollah, and whether other middle Eastern Countries will engage. We are going to be covering all of this for you tonight in a time where we have more video, more phones, more surveillance materials than perhaps past wars. We will also take measures tonight to show you the reality of what we understand to be happening with warnings and standards for some of the horrors that we are seeing whether it is on video or as described in these accounts, and i have two experts standing by who will walk us through what is happening in the region in just a moment. We begin first on the ground, msnbcs anchor, ali velshi has been reporting live from telaviv. Thank you for your work, and tell us what youre seeing, sir. Reporter horrors, as you said, this has gone from a terrible situation on friday night and saturday morning into attacks that continue to come in to israel from gaza and counter attacks and air strikes that go from gaza into israel and air strikes from israel into gaza. Earlier this evening, we had several here in tel aviv. They were intercepted by the iron dome system. We had about eight in a row that we heard the explosions of. We also know there have been attacks by israel in gaza. The developments are that israel has called up 300,000 reservists. Thats the largest number they have ever called up. In fact, they dont have those people in the country. They have organized flights to bring reservists from other parts of the world that they might live in. Israel has got a problem on the southern border with gaza. Its got a growing problem thats been going on for ten months with things in the west bank, starting to heat up. Theres no Military Force in the west bank, but they have added reserve troops to that over the last several months, and it has the possibility of war on its northern border with hezbollah. Israel is very tense at the moment. They have imposed a siege on gaza. What that means is no feud, fuel or water will be shipped from israel into gaza. Gaza is not a selfcontained environment. It has electrical power that is generated by a plant that works on diesel fuel that it has to bring in from israel. Gaza has about three days worth of fuel left, maybe four days at the most, and theyre going to run out of water. 135,000 people in gaza are without their homes because of the strikes on that side. Meanwhile, hamas has said that if israel strikes homes in gaza of people who were not involved in this thing, they will kill one hostage for each one of those people. The hostages become a very serious issue here because while theyre there, israel is limited as to what it can do in gaza. Theyre not Israeli Soldiers inside of gaza, so they have to figure out where the hostages are and how to get them out. It may mean negotiation, it may mean more force. The bottom line, its worse and worse with every few hours here. Understood. Ali velshi, stay safe, and thank you again for your reporting on the ground. Were joined by susan glasser, who write writes for the new yo magazine, and ronan, who writes for the new york times, they have heard about past attacks. Where do you put the hamas attack over the weekend on the scale factually compared to the past . Where does it stand . Doesnt stand anywhere. Its just totally different. First, the ability to execute a very sophisticated ground assault, for some time have total control over parts of the southern of israel. The ability to understand the idea, the ability to evade any kind of intelligence detection, the ability to continue fighting on the ground for very long time. Until now, there are still militants of hamas there, but mainly, this isis mindset of conquering, destroying, and killing a massive massacre of children. This is something we havent seen in the Israeli Palestinian conflict, never, ever. And it seems that hamas was trying to not just kill as many people, and take some hostage, but also take videos and show it is not a coincidence that we have so many videos from the scene that were taken by the Hamas Terrorists and were sent to social media. They were trying to create shock and awe, demoralize, and of course portraying themselves. As much in the israeli mindset, this immediately goes back to the holocaust and scenes from that era. Susan, your thoughts on the same . The scale of it, the unprecedented nature, the sheer death toll of israeli civilians, which rivals months long efforts, and what else you want to add beyond what ronan said. Yeah, i think his point is extremely important when it comes to this spectacularly horrific nature of the crimes that theyre televised. Its been a spiral in a way of Terrorist Groups for some years using not only the internet but now the tools of social media and realtime, you know, horror content creation. And the goal of this clearly was to provide a decisive break with the actions of the past. This is not just one of these spirals of retaliation and response that we have seen over the last few years. I think its shocking israel, and potentially parts of the rest of the world out of this cycle and saying this is something different. As far as the scale of the deaths, we still do not have a firm death toll. It will continue to grow, and what that says is that in a small country like israel, this is an event without precedent. Analogies here are going back all the way to 1948, war that led to israels that followed israels founding as a state. This is something that is going to be beyond even a onceinageneration type of attack for the citizens of israel. Its that big of a moment, i think. And so, what do you see, that targeting of israeli civilians, because they are israeli, because they are jewish, that type of targeting, murder, hostage taking, alleged war crimes, how does that play out in a region where israel has had both significant conflict with some of its neighbors but also recently, and we have a report on this coming up later in the program, potential breakthroughs . First of all, i think this will bury any chance as much as there was a chance for any resolution to the Israeli Palestinian conflict for many many many years. People who are considered to be very moderate, leftist, liberal, who sported the twostate solution for a very long time, friends of mine, all of them say we lost any faith, any trust in a potential peace agreement, but because of this region, israel will react with force that the region never saw from israel. Its not just about revenge. Its not just because israel promised, the first Prime Minister promised never again, never again, the holocaust. This was not the holocaust. Holocaust scenes reminded of this. Hamas, i believe, a complete , with no choice but to show an area that they believe was force, to show Massive Force after that. Because some israeli figures believe if they dont, then we are doomed in this area, and nobody will give us real respect and let us continue living after that. Before i let you go, could you build on that point for what is the american or foreign audience. Youre saying people who were on the israeli left or were supporters of what is called twostate solution or a Peace Process, youre saying they look at this kind of attack, this ambush and this show of force against civilians, against the elderly, against children on some of the videos, and that diminishes any hope for a twostate solution, why . Because youre saying the state that would exist would pose these kinds of threats . Yeah, but people see those militants of hamas storming into children and families and butchering them. They say we dont have any kind of theres no hope, theres no chance that we will have any kind of negotiation or any kind of diplomatic resolution with those people. And also, i believe that the israeli reaction would be so aggressive, so fierce, you heard Prime Minister netanyahu speaking, that it by itself will create so much anger and so much resentment, and so much hatred, i think hamas has just sentenced us, all of us, to continue living on for many generations. Ronen bergman, i thank you for your thoughts, your analysis here. Susan does come back because we have other programming coming up. Susan stay with us. What were going to do next after a very short break is a break down on how we got here. Why is this happening now . Where are we headed . Im back with you in one minute. In one minute Liberty Mutual customized my Car Insurance and i saved hundreds. With the money i saved, i started a dog walking business. I was a bit nervous at first but then i figured its just walking, right . [dog barks] oh. No its just a bunny calm down taco. Sit duchess. Stop sesame no no. Archie walter dont, no, ahhhh. Ahhhhh youre lucky youre so cute. Only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. When you smell the amazing scent of gain flings. Time stops. and you realize youre in love. Steve . With a laundry detergent. gain flings. Seriously good scent. Your best defense against erosion and cavities is strong enamel nothing beats it. New pronamel active shield actively shields the enamel to defend against erosion and cavities. I think that this product is a gamechanger for my patients it really works. The world woke up to this war in israel. A massive Surprise Attack by Palestinian Militants from gaza. Israels army battles Hamas Terrorists after the bloodiest attacks in decades. Israel at war after the worst Surprise Attack in 50 years. This began with that Surprise Attack, the Terrorist Group HamasLaunching Deadly Ambushes on civilians, homes and a Concert Killing at least 800 people in israel. The death toll, greater than past Terror Campaigns against israelis that have lasted months. There is now over 1,500 dead overall. And there is no debate today about that element of surprise terrorism. U. S. Secretary of state blinken saying no one saw this coming, while deferring on the intelligence. This is an attack that i dont think anyone saw coming. Do you acknowledge it was an Intelligence Failure . Will have plenty of time, the israelis will have plenty of time to look into that. Other u. S. Officials view it as a stunning and astounding Intelligence Failure there, and that is the terrorism, the timing and this debate over the intelligence. Why is this happening now . And how did we get here . The answers matter both for an understanding in what is an enduring and complex conflict, and also what comes next. The first and consequential cause is the most obvious, the Terrorist Violence by hamas. Theres no major factual debate about this. Hamas has operated as a terrorist Group Targeting civilians, and specifically israeli civilians for decades. The United States designated it a Foreign Terrorist Organization over 25 years ago in october 1997. And so to start with basic context on something that were all probably going to be living with here for a while as this war grinds on, that record of hamass terrorism runs longer than terror groups that may sound more familiar to some americans. Hamass record longer than say when al qaeda or isis were designated, Terrorist Organizations by the United States. Hamas has staged ambushes across many decades, Suicide Bombings, attacks on civilians riding buses. Deadly attacks where the group publicly claims responsibility. Again, no factual debate about what they do, and who they target. They will publicly proclaim after the fact that they have attacked buses with civilians and children on it. The group has kidnapped and killed israeli civilians as well as soldiers. A new wave of violence, then the apparent capture of an Israeli Military officer. Militants used one of those tunnels to launch a Surprise Attack, killing two Israeli Soldiers. A terrorist came out with a suicide belt, blew himself up, killed two. It is a very long record that is very well known in the region. So if you follow this conflict or this region, you know about it. If youre paying more attention now that we have this war crisis, well, this has been known. The timing was the surprise but the measures are not. That is the background for some of the new reporting were seeing today. Take the american publication, the atlantic, reporting on the new hamas mass kidnappings, rapes and torture by those terrorists against israeli civilians. Human Rights Groups collecting evidence for war crimes investigations. Some of the images and videos are broadcast in context with excerpts and warnings, and others are so extreme that there are limits to what we air at least on american television. That same artle reporting on hamas kidnapping children, elderly, with apparent sexual assaultsumend videos showing aleeding into her shorts being forced out of a d another one stripped down to r underwear, lying face down in a truck, hamas gunmen sit on her body, and by standers spit on it, end quote. Again, this is material thats been documented. Some of it is of a nature that we are not broadcasting the video excerpts. These are accounts and evidence of what hamas does to civilians. What it has been doing for some time. Hamas took control of gaza after it did win elections in 2006, and thats the last time those kind of elections have been held, and there are palestinians who support the group but it is very divisive, explicitly for its use of violence, and civilian targeted terrorism. So for many, hamas is more associated with forded elections and a Peace Process than engaging in them, and that brings us to another factor in our Special Report for you right now, as we try to understand the facts of this conflict. And a reminder that, in addition to the terrible suffering of people on both sides of this war right now, there are major external factors at play, with foreign actors who oppose the very steps to normalization or peace that could benefit both sides in this region. And that brings us to another factor tonight. Iran. The extreme leadership of iran has been quite alarmed by the possible breakthrough in the region, that it was actually backed by the United States and the biden administration, a potential deal to pursue peace and normalization between saudi arabia. Now, that could be a big deal. President biden just met with netanyahu, the israeli leader on the sidelines of the u. N. Meeting. Biden also shook hands with saudi arabias de facto leader, mohammed bin salmon in september. Theres unusually positive signals from both leaders about what could be, and again if youre not following the region closely, what you might not have heard as much about is a precursor of what were going through, the kind of diplomatic