Soldiers are surrounding the borders of gaza in the air, on the ground and in the sea. Gaza residents tell cnn that these air strikes are the most intense they have witnessed since the beginning of this conflict. Almost three weeks ago. Phone service that connects gaza to the outside world has now apparently been completely cut off because of the intense bombardment. These are live pictures were bringing you of the Skyline Over Gaza where we have been seeing explosions all day. This operation coming hours after israels Minister Of Defense told me and some other reporters that israel was, quote, waiting for the best conditions to start its Ground Operation, unquote, exactly what those conditions were, he would not make clear, earlier today sources told cnn that a breakthrough had been made in Hostage Negotiations as 229 people according to the idf are still being held by hamas. Kidnapped on october 7th. The idf says the talk of a breakthrough was, however, only rumors, so now what, of c
An escalation in gaza in the wake of that Terror Attack that left 1,400 israelis dead. Youre looking at live pictures. Widespread reports of sirens and exploegs. The Israeli Defense forces saying today they are stepping up their Ground Operations. Take a listen. Their Ground Forces are expanding their ground up aerations. Idf is operating at all dimensions in order to achieve the goals of the war. We will continue to attack in gaza and its surrounding, and we keep calling upon the People Living in gaza and iran that south from there the idf did not say troops have entered gaza though its worth noting israeli tanks have temporarily entered gaza over the last two days. All of this while the fate of the 200 hostages held by gaza is unknown. Back channel negotiations are ongoing in the midst of the conflict. Just a few hours ago repeated explosions were seen in the israelgaza border. A few miles away on the ground in gaza near total darkness that was interrupted only by flashes from the ai
Pushing. This is not inevitable. We can do better than this. Angela, thank you so much for being with us. Thank you so much. That wraps up the hour for me. Thank you for the privilege of your time. Andrea mitchell picks up with more news right now. Right now on Andrea Mitchell reports, manhunt. Suspect robert card, wanted in connection to the mass murder of 18 people in maine, still at large. State, local, federal Law Enforcement chasing down more than 500 tips. So far, none pan out. Including last nights dramatic search at his home and extensive property just 15 miles from the murder scenes. The safety of our Community Remains paraunt. I want to assure all that a tremendous amount of Law Enforcement manpower time and effort is being utilized around the clock in every effort to apprehend the suspect and safeguard this community. Every minute this goes on, we are more concerned because whats the next thing thats going to happen . One big focus today is on the river near where he abandon