war. at war against hamas and it's all playing out on the streets of israel as well. we want to warn our viewers that what you are about to see is very, very graphic.these new images showing people dead in cars on the road. this video was taken near the gaza border in israel. we do not know if these people are hamas militants or israeli civilians, but it just shows how unprecedented this quite is right now. president biden by the way is expected to speak with the israeli prime minister [indiscernible] and very soon later this morning. brian biden we were told will address the nation. we of course will bring up life once it begins. right now i want to go to cnn's hadas gold. hadas, this is clearly to you in jerusalem for this is rapidly developing situation, i understand even some rockets landed not far from where you are in jerusalem. israel's capitol, tell our viewers was happening now. >> reporter: if this is an

unprecedented surprise attack on israel, the likes of which this country is never seen since the yom kippur war that happened more than 50 years ago almost to the day, also happening on the jewish holiday. it is shabbat as well but since 6:30 this morning, sirens have been blaring across israel including here in jerusalem we had our fair share of air raid sirens going off alerting us of incoming rockets. we heard several explosions ourselves overhead of either intersections or rockets making impact. did you know there were some impacts made a run jerusalem? sirens going off as far as tel aviv. it's been quieter in the last few hours, but just to give you a sense of scaled numbers we hear from the israeli military at least 3000 rockets have been fired so far today. this is where we are approaching our tent in this conflict with that .21 war that lasted 11 days between israel and hamas militants. there are some 4300 rockets fired just in those 11 days.

so we are approaching that number just in 12 hours or so. and as we speak i'm continuing to get alerts of sirens going off mostly in southern israel paid with more concerning as we noted is the infiltrations of militants and as we speak, firefights are continuing on the streets in certain towns and villages especially in southern israel. we also understand from the israeli military that certain bases were infiltrated as well as the border crossing. army bases we are talking about at least two army bases had militants infiltrating. we are hearing reports from israeli civilians that have been barricading themselves in the bomb shelters and in their safe rooms and houses and in southern israel as they believe there militants firing rate outside their door or entering their apartments, these civilians have been going on the airwaves calling and pleading and begging for help. as we noted you know there are at least 40 is millions who have been killed. set more than 779 wounded but

this is from a combination of rockets, rocket shrapnel as well as from gunfire from that very graphic video that we saw that you shared. we also have claims from hamas that they have captured a number of israeli soldiers. there were also reports that civilians have been captured as well. we have no official confirmation, as well from israeli officials. they said nothing so far. we've seen videos of what appears to be one israeli soldier being pulled out of the tank by militants. we do not know the status of the israeli soldier. these early military already responding with multiple airstrikes targeting the gaza strip and we do not yet know a confirmation of palestinian casualties in the gaza strip and we also know the israeli military is calling up tens of thousands of reservists because this is not just going to be the typical airstrikes that we see on gaza. they say they're going to be sending soldiers to israeli towns and villages in order to try and protect them from this militant infiltration.

hamas has called this information alexa mouse compound. also known as temple mount. a place so holy to both jews and muslims here in jerusalem. what's really interesting about this is that there wasn't sort of a specific trigger point. before these complex there is been a major read potentially please enter the x a mosque compound. there's been a major compound capture of a high-ranking militant of some sort. there been a high level tension to over the past year and have you could say across the occupied west pick. there been some incidences at the l hamas compound. some incidences around the separation fence between gaza and israel. not a trigger point and that's why this is being seen as such in intelligence and security failure on behalf of israel. to not have seen this coming and just the fact that militants entered israel with things like paragliding. into israel. violent by c and they are still on the ground in israel engaging in firefights with israeli soldiers as we speak. >> hadas ããall this so far

we've covered these respected conflicts between israel and hamas in gaza. especially the last one and i was there. very familiar with israel's very sophisticated air defense system including of course the iron dome. which is prevented a lot of these rockets in missiles entering from israel and causing much damage. what happened to that system? is it not working effectively today? >> it's working effectively. from what we understand it still working effectively and several the explosions that we've heard in jerusalem were likely intersections. the thing is that people can still be injured by the shrapnel. because what happens is you know, rocket comes in from gaza. the iron dome launches its own rocket and they meet in the sky. and that obviously, the shrapnel coming from not will cause less damage than a direct rocket impact. you can still get damaged you know, to people to buildings as a result of that shrapnel. we do not have specific numbers on the iron dome and how it's doing.

different israeli military that they are deploying more iron dome batteries across the country.and to give you an idea of how israel sees where it is right now, with benjamin saint israel is now in a state of war. and across the country, not just in tel aviv and south or the southern community including the north, schools all educational institutions have been canceled tomorrow. sunday for israelis is a workday. all schools have been canceled and people are being ordered to stay alert. especially if you're within 80 kilometers or so within the border of gaza to stay close to bomb shelters. this is an unprecedented situation. israel is finding itself in. what we were saying, the likes of which they've not seen in 50 or so years but there are also major concerns wolf that we could see further military attacks across other parts of the country because hamas is called on all palestinians across the occupied west bank and across jerusalem, even those citizens of israel and palestine to take up arms

against israel. so far, an important aspect of this, the northern border, their major concerns and other militant groups that are aligned with hamas may want to get involved so far, that has stayed quiet for the israeli military saying they're preparing for that possibility. >> all right hadas, stay safe over there. we will be in touch with you obviously throughout the day. i want to go to cnn's same kylie right now joining us from london. sam, like me, he spent a lot of time putting from israel but let's talk a little bit more about this fighting. on the ground southern israel right now just outside of gaza, the border from gaza into israel as we all know heavily protected and this is a very rare development that's occurred give us your sense of the scope of this attack. >> it is very remarkable clearly many months in the planning will and indeed last year more or less i was in janine on the northern edge of the west bank. were militants there were saying there something like

this was in the planning. was coming and an event that would in their hopes set the claims for forest fire that they hoped would engulf israel. another hasn't been a response yet from the west bank or indeed, in the israeli population.but they would all be looking very closely at particularly arab media showing the battles that these militants have been able to engage with israelis on israeli territory. not occupied territory but israel proper if you would like. this is very significant indeed.now they were bold. they came across in paraglider's. they came across using the city according to the idf. and according to them they tumbled in and we've seen video footage of them literally pouring through gaps in the fence and on top of that status mentioned that they even knocked out the tank a more formidable tank on the planet wrinkly.using a drone strike of the sort we've seen pioneered by the ukrainians against russian invaders. in their war. now all this adds up to a highly complex and highly coordinated campaign hamasto

set up a competent uprising on the west bank perhaps thecitizens in palestinian citizens across israel in 2020 that access to some 400,000 weapons are according to a government analysis there. so a potential for a congregation. the sign of it yet wealth. these infiltrations are catastrophic for israel. and the show catastrophic failure of intelligence and a catastrophic failure of local defense. you and i have been on that fence and we've been across the fence into gaza. these are heavily militarized complexes and towns. very heavy military and police presence. all of which seems to be completely blindsided by these extraordinary attacks by hamas able to penetrate and get into and are continuing to fight the israeli defense forces are stressing that their ongoing firefights in even admitting that they lost contact with one small military base in southern israel. that is a catastrophic event that will no doubt be used by hamas to try and galvanize more violent responses elsewhere among their supporters.

so far of course is born southern lebanon stayed out of this fight very unlikely that they get involved until they saw real strategic opportunity because they know the consequences for their country if they were to attack israel in any significant way. but in the meantime there would be a lot of concern in israel about an uprising on the west bank and on the side of israeli military. it's inspired by these if you would like incursions by effectively infantry. now this infantry has been attacking military sites but it's also been shooting maintenance of civilians, we've seen harrowing pictures of elderly people who've been gunned down in what appears to be a bus stop allegedly and store rock. that's it, you know will close to the gaza strip. civilians coming under fire from hamas operatives driving around and pickup trucks and they managed to get a hold of. we've seen them pouring through the gaza fence on motorcycles so the numbers of militants

that are in the area and beyond and i think that's going to be very problematic for the idf be beyond. the smaller pockets that no doubt would've gone down into the further desert trying to get to target in a big urban area for not just the obvious roost to [indiscernible] but perhaps further to jerusalem. i think we've seen relative early stages of what is clearly a very well-planned and very, very ambitious hamas wolf? >> i've been speaking to my sources in israel. what bothers me is that this could escalate dramatically especially since bala in southern lebanon started launching missiles against another civilian area in northern israel right now. how worried should the israelis be that this could escalate? not only attacks coming from gaza, but also from the occupied west bank? especially from lebanon, southern lebanon where ããhas been armed with many missiles

by iran? >> as you know, palestinian jihad on the west bank is very powerful force on the west bank particularly in the north by iran. so iran will have a lot of levers to pull on this one, but and this is important. but the idea of whatever they may say public know in private that there is essentially a kind of understanding between hamas and israel kind of mutually assured destruction. hamas does have thanks to the iranians a really vast armory of rockets with which they could threaten every inch. of israeli territory. the israelis of course have the defense capability perhaps to deal with a great deal of that and it made it very clear indeed to [indiscernible] and other elements within the lebanon that if they do get attacked in any serious way from the lebanon by his bowler that the iranians would not hesitate and really returning nine i use the phrase which used to me by a senior israeli

officer to the stone age. they would take out every single piece of infrastructure in the country. so that is a very high-stakes game. but the concern for the israelis is the extent to which as you point out there will escalate on the west bank and indeed from is really territory itself. if that large numbers of weapons in the palestinian community within israel. but in the recent past it's been used inserted into nissan gain more fair. not for political ends, but could turn in theory. there's no sign yet of that occurring. it's very interesting to that hamas clearly has not coordinated this attack and at least doesn't appear to have been coordinated with any of its elements or allies on the west bank. which is relatively quiet although largely sealed off from israeli territory. as we speak. but for now, think the israelis have been keeping a close eye indeed on his bar and wolf, as you know, sending private messages in a private party or means of his own communicated that his warning and in no

uncertain terms of consequences of getting involved in any way and what is getting involved in gaza. that's kind of the doomsday scenario that they would also be and we know have prepared for preparing for that exact eventuality, wolf. >> we will see what happens. sam kiley, thank you very much. we will stay very close touch with you. i want to bring in cnn senior reporter right now and j leon right now national security reporter, natasha bertram. natasha, let's start with you. give us the white house reaction. what has it been? what have they been saying this morning so far? >> reporter: wolf, this is the latest from the white house. we know that president biden was informed of the situation in israel. biden and his advisors early this morning, we are waiting on word that he is received the full briefing from his top officials. we know also that the president

is also going to address the situation that is unfolding later today. we do not know exactly what and what format that addresses going to come, but whether it's a paper statement from the president or on camera remarks, we certainly expect that he is going to condemn the violence that is unfolding in the strongest possible terms as officials also tells the president biden is expected to speak with his israeli counterpart prime minister and netanyahu later today. it is impossible really to overstate the diplomatic ramifications here wolf. as you know very well over the course of many months that u.s. and there is really counterparts have been working to try and broker some sort of deal some kind of normalization of relations between israel and saudi arabia and as a part of that deal what was expected were some real concessions to the palestinians but right now ããgiven the scene that you

are seeing right now on the screen ããit is sort of impossible to imagine that those efforts and talks in the work that has gone and to those normalization talks that those would not be affected. it is hard to imagine that the israelis would be okay with some of those concessions that have been discussed to the palestinians. now ããi think it is also worth noting here from the white house this morning that u.s. officials right now are being very, very careful to not weigh in at this moment in time on various specific intelligence that is coming in. of course, we expect the u.s. officials are keeping a very close eye on the reports. they are in touch with their israeli counterparts about casualties and reports that are coming in about israeli soldiers having been captured, but i can tell you here at the white house this morning that u.s. officials again are being very careful not to weigh in right now because they are still in the stages of really

gathering the information and assessing the situation and again, that goes to the president too. we expect that it will be told by the white house that he is received a full briefing and moments. for now what we know is that he was informed of the situation and sometime later today we will hear from the president whether that's a paper statement or hearing him speak to the camera. >> right now there's no indication on what time you might make a statement on camera. is that right? >> well ããi've to be clear, we do expect to hear from the president, but it could be in the form of a paper statement. so this is not necessarily going to be on camera remarks. we are just waiting on the white house to let us know when we will hear from the president. but we absolutely do expect that the president will address the situation and of course we will be condemning the violence that we are seeing here in the strongest possible terms. >> we will stay very close touch with you and jay as well.

thank you very much. only good to natasha bertram right now. the u.s. defense secretary lloyd austin, released a formal statement of what's going on in israel and gaza. tell our viewers what he said. >> yes, secretary often did convene a meeting with senior leaders this morning including the commander of u.s. central command which obviously has responsible before israel and the region. and he said in his statement that quote he is monitoring development in israel and that his commitment in the same commitment to israel's right to defend itself remains unwavering in the extent of his condolences to the families and those with lester lives and important attacks on civilians. in his statement here he says over the coming days, the department of defense will work to ensure that israel has what it needs to defend itself and protect civilians from indiscriminate violence and terrorism. now that obviously raises questions about whether the u.s. is going to help replenish

israel's stockpiles of weaponry here if this conflict does continue to escalate and if it keeps going down 2014, the same active supply israel with arms and weapons during the 50 day were in gaza and the pentagon said at the time that israel would be allowed to tap into local u.s. on stockpile there to resupply with grenades as well as mortar rounds. now it should be noted that the u.s. has one of the biggest weapons stockpile and were reserves in israel. so the israelis could visibly tap into that if they get permission from the pentagon from the u.s. were remains to be seen how this is all going to play out. but i think that diplomatic wreck ramifications as well are very serious at this point as nj noted that the israel saw the normalization tract that could be in jeopardy here and saudi arabia actually released a statement just this morning because they have been of course the main regional defender of the palestinian cause and they said that saudi arabia quote has repeatedly warned of the consequences of

the deterioration of the situation as a result of the occupation as well as depriving the palestinian people of their legitimate rights and have not halting systematic publications against the holy site. so that clearly the saudi's are coming out here in support of the palestinians and of course they called for a cessation of the hostilities at large. but both sides are kind of become entrenched in their positions here already. we are seeing and we should note that the u.s. embassy is now sheltering in place. we just got that from the u.s. department. it remains to be seen how this continues over the coming hours per the pentagon of course closely watching it for the diplomatic ramifications, those are being closely monitored as well. and again, israel has access to the u.s. stockpile of weapons if the u.s. tells them that they can do so. the question of course being whether the u.s. is going to try course to try and calm the situation rather than fuel it further wealth. >> reporter: it's interesting that there's a shelter in place order now now for u.s.

diplomats and families at the u.s. embassy, which is now in jerusalem and happens to be in tel aviv it was moved during the trump administration to jerusalem. so clearly there where worried about additional attacks in jerusalem itself, is that right? >> the state department released a statement from the u.s. embassy saying that they are closely monitoring the security situation as a result of rockets fired from gaza across southern and central israel including of course tel aviv and jerusalem and infiltration of hamas militants. they say the u.s. embassy is aware that there been casualties of course as result of these incidents. they are taking all necessary precautions. to make sure of course that the u.s. personnel are safe and they note wolf in their security alert here that of course u.s. government personnel can continue to be prohibited from any type of travel to gaza and areas with seven miles of gaza. as of right now they are

sheltering in place and of course it's a very volatile unpredictable situation and the top priority of course for the state department to the u.s. is a security of its citizens and personnel there. >> we were told that sirens have been going off throughout all the major ablated areas of israel. so they are obviously watching all of this unfold. tosha, standby, we will get back to you. siemens breaking news coverage of this of this unprecedented s in israel will continue right after a quick break. [music]

>> we are continuing our breaking news coverage this hour.the u.s. secretary of defense is scoring israel after this morning's surprise attack

by hamas that has killed at least 40 people and wounded hundreds of others put secretary often met with top u.s. military officials just a little while ago including the commander of u.s. military central command. we are also waiting to hear directly from president biden. the white house has issued a statement condemning this attack on israel by hamas. seen in military analyst retired lieutenant general mark ripley is joining us right now. to general ridley, thank you for joining us serpent we are watching all this unfold. what's surprising to me is that this is a major surprise that the israel military intelligence committee was caught off guard.

what is your sense?>> i believe the intelligence was certainly lapsed this morning wolf. it was problematic in terms of the kind of things that hamas has been doing with regard to operational security, which has hidden a lot of the intelligence from the israeli golf courses and from the u.s. as well. this is something that they should've seen. there was a comment issued by the [indiscernible] supreme leader of iran a few days ago saying that palestinian forces were ready for these kinds of things. this is something that should've been picked up and given the multi-domain operations, we were talking about air land and sea as israel has reported and then the amount of conventional activity as well as the reports of the denial of services and cyber community, these are the kinds of things that you normally pick up before an operation and it just wasn't done this time. this is just very different than things that we've seen hamas do in the past. >> the israelis are gonna have to do a major look back on a

major reassessment of what went wrong because normally they would be well prepared for this kind of surprised attack but clearly they were at this time. we are seeing the destruction and major populated areas of israel not far from gaza whether [indiscernible] or ããand it looks like the success of these rockets and missiles coming and has caused the expense of an enormous amount of damage and casualties at the same time, which is also surprising as you all know general hurtling given israel's very sophisticated air defense system, right? >> it's true wolf and i've been listening to the commentary about the iron dome and yes, that is a very good weapon system. it's very good at protecting the citizens of israel. but when you have a massive attack like we've seen this morning with anywhere between two and 3000 missiles and rockets coming in ããmatter how good your defense system is ããit cannot knock down all of them. and as hadas mentioned earlier, you are not getting the effects from missiles that strike, but you're also getting the effects

from those that are broken up in the air and then come down and cause the kind of fires like we are seeing on the screen right now. the amazing thing about this attack by hamas this morning is the fact that they were able to have so much conventional artillery and missiles on the air, land, and see all synchronized into a fight. this is going to cause the israeli defense forces some real challenges in the next few days. and as other reporters began to say we do not know who else might join in the fight could be purchasing the support by iran. there been some comments out of russia saying that they support hamas in these actions. we do not know ããlebanon is going to do and what's been happening in westbank. or even inside the state of israel with the arab and palestinian populations that are spread throughout the country. this is going to be different than what is israel has faced in the past and it depends on the 50th anniversary of the yom kippur war of 73. >> which was a major surprise as well. and caused an intelligence

failure at that time went syria and egypt launched a surprise attack against israel and on yom kippur. it was exactly 50 years ago to the day. and as a result of that ããa lot of is really retaliatory action will not happen. i suspect there's going to be a very significant israeli military response in gaza and elsewhere to what's happening right now. would you agree? >> i certainly would wolf and what comes to my mind is that we've got a conventional israeli defense force against a complex attack by hamas. they are taking vehicles, they are conducting conventional rocket attacks printer reminds me and i studied this in the 1982 israeli war against lebanon. were you had a conventional force going against terrorists against fighters supported by foreign governments. when you're talking from a

military perspective as you've seen some of these palestinians climbing on top of the tank, this is going to be challenging because it's a swarm of activity from various directions against the conventional courts. i think hamas and iran especially is learning a lot from what russia has been doing to conducting not only conventional attacks, but terrorist and rocket attacks against the civilian population. so this is just the emerging of a new style of warfare that i think hamas is learning from their partners in iran who are taking it from the partners in russia.>> this looks to me like it's only the beginning. this is going to be prolonged war that is about to take place between israel and hamas and gaza and maybe of other palestinian military groups in lebanon and the west bank get

involved, this thing could escalate dramatically causing enormous amounts of casualties on all sides to be sure. but also complicating the u.s. mission in the region right now. which in the last several months has been to try normalize relations between israel and saudi arabia. that doesn't look like it's going anywhere right now. >> no, it certainly doesn't. and wolf, our mind you know you know this. we do not the u.s. does not have an ambassador in israel right now. there is been one to has been nominated, but is not been approved. sweet ãrj and the embassy in israel sort of connecting ourselves with this operation. at the defense department has a lot of people there and they will get the information but given the current situation not only in israel, but in our own government. we are going to be challenged to react to this event the chaos that's going on in congress right now. we don't have a leader in congress to bring things to the floor about what we might do as a nation to support israel.

now there are certain things in effect that will continue on. but this is going be very challenging not only for the various militaries of the world, but also for the governments that deal with this while we're dealing with several other crisis. i would suggest the timing of this attack by hamas is certainly not surprising. they know when to take advantage of these guys sometimes. what's it certainly looks like that as well pick very strong statements coming in from senior u.s. officials including the defense would often, when we read that one sentence he said. our commitment to israel right to defend itself remains unwavering and i extend my condolences to the families of those who lost their lives in this abhorrent attack on civilians. i suspect we're gonna be getting more statements like that from senior u.s. officials in the hours ahead. i said you agree. >> i certainly do agree wolf and i think the american people have to understand to is that the size of the israeli nation ããit's certainly not very big.

the population is significantly less than united states.so when we talk about casualties ã ãfor those who've been abducted ããseems like relatively small numbers ãã the u.s. citizens ããbut that's a huge percentage of the israeli population.when you're talking 40 and 50 and hundred deaths and many people being captured ããthat's very significant. it's the equivalent of a 9/11 attack on the united states where we lost thousands of people. so this is certainly a dynamic that we've got to continue to consider and how challenging this is for israel, the state of israel with enemies on all sides. and the fact that there can be more and more damages and certainly more and more casualties. this is going to be a tough one both. there been, as you know, there've been many words inside israel and was outside addressing their adversaries. but this one i believe along with you this can be a lot of casualties in this. >> the israelis are gonna retaliate big time.no doubt about that.

very quickly before i let you go general currently. in recent years, israel was brought into the u.s. military central command which deals with all the countries in the middle east in the past a lot of the arab countries didn't want israel to be part of the central command, but they have not been brought in to the military central command taken out of the european command. what does that mean? what is that mean practically no warlike situation like this? >> welcome it's interesting wolf because i was part of european command when israel was still part of what we call footprint. so i made many visits to israel. we had soldiers in israel.we supported them at different times with air defense equipment and other trips. we had great relationships. when you're talking about a ship and this is part of the debate, shifting israel and the nation from european command to central command, it was during a time when central command was

pretty busy in other parts of the middle east and other parts of the countries that are part of the command footprint. so ããthere is no permanently stationed forces in the middle east other than in kuwait. so this is one of those kind of things where if there is a requirement for support from the u.s. military ããit would be difficult. certainly the navy and air force can support any kind of operation if they are requested to. i don't think that's going to happen. but again, has to do with the footing of the u.s. military in the middle east and especially in the bond of israel and lebanon to. >> yes, it's a whole new world right out there in the middle east right now. we're watching it unfold. retired general, mark ridley. we are continuing and think for monitoring the breaking details in jerusalem. we will have more from jerusalem when we come back. [music]

>> we are continuing to follow the breaking news out of israel right now pretty here in washington the pentagon is

vowing to ensure that israel has spoke with it needs to defend itself. that the formal statement from the defense secretary. all this after hamas militants from gaza wants to surprise attack on israel earlier this morning. at least 40 people were told and hundreds have been killed and wounded per president biden has been briefed on the situation. it's expected to speak with the prime minister of israel benjamin [indiscernible] , and gaza, some palestinians are stocking up on supplies and fleeing their homes. the israeli military is carrying out airstrikes in response to the attack by hamas and i expect they will escalate in the coming hours. we want to get right to cnn's hadas joining us from jerusalem right now. hadas, and told by some sources i was speaking to earlier in jerusalem, the sirens went off in jerusalem for probably not far from where you are right now.

in the past from there've been attacks from gaza, they gone into [indiscernible] israeli towns not far from gaza. how unusual is it that there was an attack on jerusalem itself? >> not just one attack, we had at least five or six rounds of sirens going off and that is very unusual because you are right. typically these types of conflicts jerusalem is sort of left out of the equation in during the 11 day war, jerusalem got one or two rounds of sirens and rocket attacks but otherwise nothing because jerusalem of course the home of the [indiscernible] compound place and home of the jews and a place wholly for so many. we had several rounds of every sirens and explosions in the skies they could been interceptions and impacts by rockets but these were just several of the more than 3000 rockets that have been fired thus far since 6:30 a.m. this morning for that number is actually likely much higher just in the last few hours.in comparison in 2021 and the entire 11 date ãthe 4300 rockets were fired in the span of 11 days. 3000, we have not even hit 12

hours of this conflict. even more concerning is those infiltration of palestinian militants as we speak. in addition to the rockets continuing to be fired from gaza into israel paid their continuing firefights and is really villages and towns between palestinian militants have made their way into israel fighting with israeli security. we also have reports of israeli soldiers, weapon captured potentially also israeli civilians who have been captured. no confirmation yet from the israeli military about any soldiers or civilians being kidnapped or captured. but we have seen videos from hamas saying that they have for example, pulled an israeli soldier out of a tank. we know for fact that some israeli military vehicles had been commandeered and taken into gaza. in terms of death toll, 40 israelis and potentially others have been killed. more than 770 wounded as a result of combination from rockets as well as militant gunfire. and we are getting new numbers and from the palestinian

numbers of health, a reaction of 198 deaths and more than 1600 injuries.we do not know yet from those members how many were civilians and harmony were militants. but we know these military undertaking airstrikes as we speak against our targets against gaza and people in gaza taking shelter in un schools. unlike many israelis have access to bomb shelters in gaza, the civilians do not normally have access to the fortified bomb shelters for their very much at risk there. and there is the expectation that this will be a very severe response to the israeli military. they are not taking this lightly. they are calling this a state of war and will, israel has not seen such an unprecedented surprise attack and 50 years since the yom kippur war 1970 through the habitable 50 years ago to the day. wolf? >> all right, as the israeli military reacted its reserve forces, the service, i think it's a significant abutment. tell us what you know. >> dave activated the reserve and the israeli military

telling us that they have called up tens of thousands of reserve. those reservists, some of those reservists who said they would not heed the call to serve because of the ongoing protest to the judicial overhaul, those organizers say they will be serving in this case paid wolf? >> they're going to the front lines right now? well as reservists, this is a huge huge development in israel right now. hadas, thank you so much and stay safe over there. we will have much more in the breaking news in israel when we come back. [music]

[music] >> we are continuing to follow the breaking news out of israel whenever drifting by president biden we were told is expected to speak soon with the israeli prime minister benjamin [indiscernible] 40 people are dead.hundred

were wounded in israel after hamas launched attacks on israel earlier this morning. obama, the start of this next video may be very disturbing to some. it's from the israel defense forces which they claim counterattacks in israel and gaza. we also learned that the gaza health ministry says the hundred and 98 palestinians were killed in gaza this morning. again, going to robin wright contributing writer for the new yorker magazine is also has a number of important books in the middle east and knows the subject well paid robin, thank you so much for joining us but what's your reaction to the breaking news of this hamas attack on israel that was launched earlier today? >> well, it reflects something you have learned since we recovered the 1973 were 50 years ago. it was that the greatest challenge is to israel's sense that last conventional work has been from extremist groups. islamic extremist groups, we have seen not only in hamas and in the west bank, but we

that the extremist militias have become increasingly well armed, very ambitious in the challenges to israel, and that this kind of conflict is not likely to do anything to bring a resolution, peace, in the kind of conflict that has been sporadic between these forces in israel for a re as long as time now. >> you know, what jumps out at me, robin and i'm anxious to get your thoughts, clearly the israelis are saying a few thousand rockets from gaza have been launched against various targets in israel and clearly they have been anticipating this, with a stockpile, and it has been in the works for a long time and it doesn't look like the israelis tried to pre-empt or do anything in advance. it looks like another intelligence failure which similarly occurred 50 years ago during the 1973 yom kippur war. >> indeed it did. i remember being in the beirut

airport and a woman whispering to me, the egyptians have just crossed the suez canal, and the world was stunned. the world is stunned again. what is really striking about this operation is just how sophisticated and ambitious that hamas is. we've seen these groups come from the underground, going to government jobs, build up arsenals that can fight israel in real terms of deaths of hundreds and the injury of thousands over a period of time. this is not likely to end any time soon. and the danger is it doesn't do anything to resolve the basic flash points that have haunted this region now for years. >> do you think that it is going to escalate and there will be attacks from southern lebanon, from hezbollah, which is providing -- which gets a lot of weapons from iran as we all know and maybe from the west bank? what do you think? >> i have doubts at this stage hezbollah will get engaged.

it has its own gend. it doesn't really want to get involved in a war the likes of which it fought at 2006 which lasted 34 days and led to billions in damage and hundreds of death. so not yet. but it depends how this plays out. and what actions israel takes. what happens to hamas. the kind of death toll. i think they are for now, even though they are both trained, armed, funded by iran, they are different movements in their own ways and hezbollah is shiite, and hamas is sunni, and they are common ideological bedfellows but have different agendas when it comes to israel. they want to fight their own fights, not each others. at this stage. >> good point. robin, we will stay in close touch with you. thank you very much, robin wright, with an excellent analysis, thank you. the u.s. embassy has issued an advisory for all american staff workers in jerusalem right now, in response to the violence of israel and gaza. the response from washington and

it is a significant response, we'll share it with you when we come back.

we're following the breaking news, the u.s. embassy in jerusalem has now issued a shelter in place for u.s. embassy personnel amid the ongoing violence, the war that is unfolding right now, in israel, and gaza. let's go to cnn's natasha bertrand watching this unfold. what you are hearing? >> reporter: the u.s. embassy in jerusalem is issuing a warning. to personnel. telling them to shelter in place. telling them the u.s. embassy is closely monitoring the security situation as a result of rockets that have been fired from gaza across the southern and central

israel, including tel aviv and jerusalem and the infiltration of hamas militants. obviously the top priority for the state department is the safety and security of u.s. personnel and u.s. citizens in the country as all of this unfolds. now, the statement also goes on to say that the u.s. embassy is aware that there have been casualties as a result of these incidents, and so that u.s. citizens are reminded to remain vigilant and take appropriate steps to increase their security awareness. now, as of right now, obviously, this is a very fast-moving situation, it remains unclear how long the shelter in place will remain in effect or if the u.s. embassy will try to take steps to remove personnel from jerusalem, but at this point, they are telling personnel to stay in the embassy, because as we have seen, wolf, there have been attacks in jerusalem, which doesn't happen very often, but this is clearly a source of major concern right now for the state department. wolf? >> has the state department, natasha, yet, released a statement, advising americans to avoid travel to israel?

>> well, they say that u.s. government personnel as of now, they continue to be prohibited from travel to gaza, of course, and areas within seven miles of gaza, but at this point, we have not seen any kind of security alert come out from the state department just yet, urging americans to avoid travel to israel. however you have to imagine that is going to come soon. this is a very fast-moving, volatile situation, seeing a lot of violence play out, and it's clear that the situation is not yet contained. so until it is, obviously, the u.s. is going to be urging citizens to remain vigilant and to stay out of these areas, if they can, where all of this sun folding, wolf. >> we see this very disturbing video of the populated areas in israel under attack, and the de devastation, destruction very evident. stand by, that tashia. we are following major breaking news. israel declaring war on hamas and gaza after a truly unprecedented attack on