Welcome to the lead. Im jake tapper. We start with Breaking News. The Israel Defense forces announced this evening it is expanding its Ground Operations against hamas in gaza. This was the scene just moments ago. It has been nearly constant rocket fire and explosions. Gaza residents tell cnn that these are the most intense air strikes that they have experienced since the war began 20 days ago. And there are reports of widespread power and cellular and internet outages across the gaza strip. It is unclear what these ramped up attacks will mean for Hostage Negotiations. Today israel said it believes hamas is Still Holding 229 innocent people that they kidnapped october 7th. In the United States, the white house says it is in, quote, active conversations with israel about a humanitarian pause to work on the release of the hostages. Diplomatic sources told cnn earlier today that significant progress had been made. U. S. Officials are insistsing those talks are going to continue, although t