That theyre defended. And that, again, this cant be allowed to continue. With regard to the second point, yes, this is something that were very focused on. We want to make sure that no other country or entity tries to take advantage of the situation. The president s been very, very clear about that. He said very starkly that any state or nonstate actor considering that, dont do it. Hes backed that up in a number of ways, including, as i mentioned the other day, deploying our largest Aircraft Carrier battle group to the area. So, thats clearly designed to help ensure that anyone contemplating getting engaged doesnt do it. But beyond that, a big part of my own conversations here throughout this trip, including today, following up the next couple days, is working with other countries to make sure theyre using their own contacts, their own influence, their own relationship to make that case, that no one else would be taking this moment to create chaos in some other place. I should mention, as well, that earlier today i had a very good conversation with and among other things, acting effectively to make sure there is security and stability, something that is [ Microphone Static ] right now on Andrea Mitchell reports, Secretary Of StateAntony Blinken in doha, qatar, a key ally of the u. S. And harboring hamas leaders. Blinken saying that israel, like no country, can tolerate what happened to israel but also saying that he has made it very clear, hes told israel they should do whatever they can to avoid civilian casualties, this amidst the dire warning that israel has dropped leaflets over gaza telling a Million People to get out within hours and halting their overnight bombing to give them a chance to else cape. Please to, you have time, not much, but you have time. Move away. Hamas telling them to stay home. And where would they go . The u. N. Is warning such a large evacuation would have a def stating amount of humanitarian consequences, and there is no exit for gazas hospitals, whose doctors are warning theyre already short of critical fuel and walter and soon will become morgues. Secretary austin showing americas military support today. I am here in person to make something Crystal Clear americas support for israel is ironclad. The deliberate cruelty of hamas vividly remind me of isis. Bloodthirsty, fanatical, and hateful. While Secretary Of StateAntony Blinken earlier today shuttling meetings with palestinian and west bank leaders in a man, jordan, pressing for help and rescuing american Hostages Kid Napped by hamas in an oil and gasrich nation that, as we say, harbors their leaders. I had an opportunity yesterday to meet with some of those families with hostages being held by hamas. Their anguish is profound. Theyre desperate to bring their loved ones home. All this as the State Department is scurrying to arrange the first Charter Flights today, Charter Flights for americans desperate to believe both israel and gaza. And the House Republican speaker here at home is paralyzing the government from passing any legislation for israel, for ukraine, or for the u. S. Border with republican Members Meeting at this hour now that their nominee, Steve Scalise, dropped out after failing to garner enough votes to win on the floor. Im Andrea MitchellIn Washington. Israel warning 5 00 p. M. Eastern, midnight in israel. The death toll is staggering. The civil yap is dire. 40 now, palestinians. Supplies of food and water are running out. Children wounded by shrapnel from the bombings. This 10yearold girl was hit by shrapnel. Her brother lies under a tent. They ran out of bed days ago. The ferocity of the attack, the number of patients, the children that are brought in are brought in with Crush Injuries from collapsed buildings or shrapnel or debris. There needs to be a stop to the bombing, and there needs to be a humanitarian corridor. Nbc Foreign Correspondent raf sanchez filed this report moments ago from israel. Reporter israel today issuing an unprecedented Evacuation Order for Palestinian Civilians telling them to evacuate the entire northern half of gaza. Israel says that area is full of hamas Military Targets and that it will be intensively striking there. But that area is also home to more than a million Palestinian Civilians, and there is nowhere for them to run. The Israeli Border is sealed. The egyptian border is sealed. The Mediterranean Sea is closed to them. And the United Nations is saying there is simply no way to evacuate a Million People without a largescale humanitarian disaster unfolding. Now, hamas is urging people in gaza not to evacuate. Israel says it wants those civilians as Human Shields to try to deter israeli strikes inside of gaza city. But many palestinians feel strongly that they are not going to leave their home. There is a culture among palestinians, feeling that theyve already been driven from too much land by israel and that they wont leave any further. Hamas also saying today that 13 hos hostages, including foreigners, have been killed by israeli strikes inside of gaza. Israels military is calling that a lie. I want says it has absolutely no evidence that that is the case. And that is not a claim that has been independently verified by nbc news. But just assuming for a moment that 13 hostages are dead, either murdered by their hamas captors, or killed accidentally by israeli strikes, that would be about 10 of the roughly 150 or so hostages. Now, President Biden expected to speak today to the families of some of the american hostages being held in gaza. The president has said that he will do everything in his power to bring them safely home. Defense secretary lloyd austin also here in israel today, the latest member of President Bidens cabinet to make a visit of solidarity. The defense secretary, before he entered his current job, was a senior u. S. Army general. He was responsible for the war against isis in northern iraq. He says he knows isis, he fought against isis, but that the acts of savagery committed by Hamas In Southern Israel on saturday eclipse even the worst acts of isis. Back to you. Our thanks to raf sanchez. Joining us now is nbcs matt bradley on the lebanese side of the Israeli Border. Matt . Reporter yeah. So, what weve been hearing over the past couple hours is some tit for tat, Rock To Elts Being fired from lebanon into israel, andrea. We saw it, you can see off my right shoulder, its pretty clear. This was a rocket that was intercepted, and it fell into what looks like a wooded area and has since started a fire. That fire has been spreading for the past several hours. So, you can see theres quite a lot of action here thats been going on for the past several days. Weve heard there have been at least three, probably four hezbollah fighters have been killed in the past several days, and at least three Israeli Soldiers who have been killed. This pales in comparison to what weve been seeing in the gaza strip or in southern israel, but it still contains the seed of an explosive ingredient to this whole conflict. If hezbollah, the dominant Paramilitary Force here diminishing and when i say paramilitary, they do bear more of a resemblance to a regular army than they do to a militant group they really are much stronger than the actual Lebanese Army if it were to enter into the fight. It would be a game changer. It would internationalize the conflict and bring in yet another even more muscular Military Group than hamas. It would split the Israeli Military, and it would likely rally the rest of the arab world or quite a few other countries and other militant groups in the arab world around this cause that, so far, many groups have been kind of stepping back from. Now, im also here just across the border from the northern most israeli town of metuula. It comes out pretty stark. Weve been hearing over the past couple of hours, the idff have said theyre ordering all residents of this whole area to be evacuated. Weve been watching as Israeli Defense forces soldiers have been running around, trying to enforce that order. Theyre doing it in a way they look like theyre doing it very quickly and running from place to place in a way as if theyre taking cover. Clearly, theyre afraid of taking shots from the lebanese side of the border, where im standing right now. So, this is a very tense situation with all the ingredients of a major conflagration that could erupt into allout war. Back in 2006, there was a war here, and it was awful for the lebanese people and for the people of israel. I want killed more than 1,500 lebanese people or nearly excuse me, nearly 1,500, and nearly devastated all of lebanon, which is why this country is so reluctant to seeing israel to dragged into yet another catastrophic war. Matt bradley, thank you so much. Stay there. I was there on both sides of the border in 2006 when, indeed, the u. S. Did intervene at least diplomatically with Secretary Of State condoleezza rice. Jeremy basher, former Chief Of Staff to secretary leon panetta at the pentagon and previously at the cia, and former nbc News Tel Aviv Bureau chief, veteran israeli correspondent martin fletcher. So good to have you both. Jeremy, let me ask you about the troop buildup. The 360,000 reserves that were called into duty, so many of them on the southern border, israel has enough forces to also patrol the northern border, but so far the assumption has been that hezbollah will not become fully engaged. We should point out that the Iranian Foreign minister was just in beirut meeting with he says hezbollah leaders in the last few days. I dont know whether we know at this hour whether or not hezbollah has made the decision to become engaged or not. They may want to wait and see how the Ground Invasion refolds. They may be a Reserve Force for the iranians, serving as their proxy. Looking at israels various borders, one of the key lessons out of this whole situation is of course the landforpeace bargain has failed. Israel obviously withdrew from gaza in 2005 and essentially theyve gotten rocket attacks every other year, and now this horrific terrorist invasion of their own country, the slaughter of their own civilians. But also in the north its important to note that israel withdrew. They had been up towards the river after the 1982 lebanon war. They withdrew back down to the previous borderline, and hezbollah has moved in and obviously have 200,000 rocket pieces. So, you know, the longterm strategic issue facing israel and the palestinians is really this untractable situation, which is if israel were to contemplate further military compromise or withdraw from the west bank, where most palestinians live, i think the israeli people would be so concerned theyd be yielding ground to terrorists, i think for the time being thats a nonstarter. Martin, you have seen this before over decades in israel, in the region. But this is different. The hamas attack was proprorgs nattily different. It has reached the soul, the fiber of the israeli people, the failure of their military for the first time, failing, you know, and being caught by surprise. Talk to me about the resolve that israel has for this Ground Invasion and the very explicit caution from tony blinken again today, as he did in tel aviv yesterday, to be careful as much as they can or fully embracing the need to respond, to be careful about trying to limit civilian casualties. I think israel obviously wants to limit civilian casualties as much as they can. But in this case, probably they cant. Thats the bottom line. Israel, as a result of this extraordinarily atrocious attack on their citizens and their homes on saturday and the next day, as a result of that, israelis are feel toing vulnerable. Theyre feeling you know, theres a sense of we thought the holocaust was over. This is the worst attack on jews since the holocaust. In one day, its rather extraordinary how many people were killed, how defenseless the victims felt, how they called for help from their own army, which didnt arrive in some cases for as much as eight, nine, ten hours. The idea that terrorists could Wander Around their homes and pull people out of their beds and kill them and shoot babies in their beds, this is something that has completely changed the psyche of israel overnight. So i think the israelis are united. They feel the need that this is it, they have to take out hamas. What that really means in practice we dont know, because the Ground Invasion, destroying hamas, if they could even do that, okay, so what next . Israel got out of gaza in 2006 because they didnt want to be there. They couldnt really handle it. They dont want to go there again. So, this is an extraordinarily sensitive time for israel. Theyre very conscious of the fact that this wasnt an attack only against israel, it was an attack against all jews. The call from hamas has already gone out, strike jews anywhere in the world. Its not only about israel, its about the jewish people, and it always has been. One thing about the question of hezbollah in lebanon, andrea. Please. You know, for israel, hezbollah equals lebanon. Were talking about hezbollah, a very strong Paramilitary Group that is backed by financed and armed and trained by iran, a proxy army for iran, but theyre more than that. Hezbollah is part of the government of lebanon. Theres a Big Hezbollah influence in the army of lebanon. So, if israel strikes hezbollah, theyre striking lebanon. Theyve already said many times that if hezbollah goes to war with israel, then lebanon will take the brunt of the response. So, you know, this is not only about israel and the Paramilitary Force. Its about israel and another neighbor, lebanon. And, in fact, there are hezbollah parliamentarians in lebanon, fully in the fabric of the government there. Such a good point. Jeremy, we now know from the white house that President Biden today has spoken to the 14 American Families of those who are still not accounted for. He met with them as well as with state Department Official jake sullivan, of course the National Security adviser. Similarly to inperson meeting that Secretary Blinken had yesterday with some families, the president also earlier spoke to 60 minutess scott pelley about why he wanted to talk to these families. Why do you feel so strongly about speaking to these families personally on zoom . Because i think they have to know that the president of the United States of america cares deeply about whats happening, deeply. We have to communicate to the world this is critical. This is not even human behavior. Its pure barbarism. And were going to do everything in our power to get them home if we can find them. That is the essence of joe biden, and i should add also tony blinken in the extraordinary meetings he held yesterday, jeremy. The israelis i talked to say when they saw the president s speech the other night, Tony Blinkens yesterday, some of them, including officials, were in tears. Yeah. The statements, the moral clarity, really, from the president and from our Secretary Of State has been striking that the hour, and its precisely what the israeli people need. They need to be consoled, and there are bill boards in tel aviv saying, thank you, joe biden. Its really because he has a 50year history of working on The Middle East and a 50year history of Standing Shoulder to shoulder with israel. Also Secretary Blinken has his own personal history, had parents, grandparents, who survived the holocaust. And he stood there telling beebe netanyahu, he stands there not just as Secretary Of State but as a jew. You can feel the emotions from american officials. Everyone ive talked to has been moved. They want to help israel, but israel does not have terrific Military Options in clearing gaza. They dont want to occupy gaza for a permanent status. They want to go block to block, street by street, take out hvts, take out hamas leadership, take out command and control, take out the rockets and factories and caches and make the southern part of israel more safe. I think th