shows israeli forces pushing into southern gaza now. the united nations saying that situation is quote, quote, apocalyptic for civilians and that there is nowhere safe for them to seek shelter. the gop debate stage is set for tomorrow night. nikki haley, chris christie, ron desantis and vivek ramaswamy will face off in alabama. noticeably absent once again the guy up by 30 points, donald trump, who is opting to fundraise instead. in two hours, three university presidents will testify before a congressional committee about the alarming rise in antisemitism on college campuses since the october 7th terror attack. this morning, this hour of cnn this morning starts now. we begin this morning on the mounting concern for civilians. as israeli forces push into southern gaza, which has been a refuge for palestinians trying to escape the fighting, these are new satellite images and what you see there are dozens of armored israeli vehicles in the south of gaza. there is sti
sderot, israel. how is israel expanding its ground assault? reporter: i sat down with israel s top tank commander to talk about how tanks are going to play a central role in the offensive in the south as today the first israeli tanks were spotted in southern gaza. as israel expands its ground offensive into southern gaza the brigadier general, the head of israel s armored corps, said tanks will once again be central to israel s war strategy. reporter: israeli tanks were at the tip of the offensive into gaza in october, clearing the way for infantry troops to move into dangerous and densely populated cities. ibrahim says this kind of coordination is a lesson learned from russian failures in ukraine. translator: we saw where they only fought with tanks alone they were more vulnerable. this overcomes almost every problem on the battlefield. reporter: israeli tanks are pushing through, not around residential buildings, reducing entire neighborhoods to rubble to minimi