palestinian people hostage. their leaders are not even in gaza, they are in five star hotels, flying private jets in qatar. i mean, these people have nothing to do with trying to free palestine. they just carried out one of the biggest massacres since the holocaust and people need to realize. people are protesting on the streets of the u.s., pro hamas. people are brainwashed that hamas has anything to do with free palestine. this is something that the world has never -- marched to the streets of the u.s., claiming that i.s.i.s. were freedom fighters of iraq. no, the world recognized that i.s.i.s. is a global problem and the world needs to wake up. this music festival had americans, had british, i mean,

people from thailand, people from children missing. people from around the world. this is a humanitarian crisis and the world needs to get involved. >> it very much is a humanitarian tragedy on a global scale, as you just rightly pointed out. isaac thomas, thank you for joining us, thank you for sharing your story with us. and thank you for watching, laura coates live starts right now. >> thank you abby, a very tough evening. good evening everyone, this is laura coates live. it is 6:00 in the morning in israel. israelis are waking up not knowing what today is going to bring, but here is what at least we know so far. the israeli military is going on the offense against tomas with the prime minister benjamin yet neo-who vows, will be, like never before. after a devastating surprise attack that left at least 900 people dead in israel.

>> we have begun, and i emphasize, we only begun to strike at hamas. the images of the devastation and destruction from the hamas stronghold in gaza are just the beginning. we have eliminated many hundreds of terrorists and we will not stop there. >> at least 260 people were killed at an all night dance party celebrating the jewish holiday of the coat. shot as they tried to escape. we'll talk to one woman who was on the phone with her friends when the shooting started and has not heard from, them since more than 680 palestinians have been killed according to gaza's health ministry. hamas claims to be holding more than 100 hostages and said that civilian hostages will be executed without any warning and broadcast give israel targets people in gaza without giving a warning. the white house says the united states has, quote, no intention to put u.s. boots on the ground in israel, but president biden will, quote, do what he has to

do, unquote, to look after national security interests. here it means to you tonight to help put everything in perspective and context is international security advisor and analyst peter bergen and cnn global affairs analyst kimberly dozier. i want to get on the ground in jerusalem where cnn's jeremy diamond is right now. jeremy, the sun is rising momentarily, it is day four of this horrific conflict. how is the israeli government responding? >> well, for, just as hamas is surprised terrorist tech this past weekend in israel was unprecedented in scale, the israeli government is also making it very clear that it's response, its military campaign in gaza is also going to take on new proportions never before seen. israel has already formally declared war on hamas and we have heard the defense minister say that they are now officially laying a full siege

of the gaza strip, allowing no food, water, electricity, or fuel into that enclaves. and the israeli prime minister, in an address late monday night, making clear that he wants to eliminate hamas. making clear that he wants the military campaign that is government now waging will be unprecedented in scale. what really shows us that it is, perhaps, going to be unprecedented to the fullest extent is what has yet to come. and, what we are seeing building on the ground. more than 300,000 israeli military reservists have been called up. we have seen tanks, artillery formations building up around the gaza strip and all of this a potential sign that israel could be preparing for some kind of ground invasion of gaza, an invasion, perhaps, the biggest in scale since israel withdrew from the gaza strip

back in 2005. but, what is clear amid all of this, we have watched the israeli death toll has risen to over 900 according to israeli defense forces. in gaza we have watched as that palestinian death toll has risen to over 680 individuals. what we certainly know, every time there is a conflict between israel and gaza, innocent palestinian civilians are so often caught in the middle with nowhere to really go. few bomb shelters to speak of and, certainly, we know that civilian casualties typically take their toll in these conflicts. >> jeremy diamond, thank you so much. we will keep with this. please keep us informed, it has been one of the most shocking attacks. in the first few days of this war -- the assault of an all night music festival in the rural area near the gaza israel border. one minute people are dancing, they're celebrating the holiday, and then suddenly you've got

the sound of rockets, the sound of sirens followed by gunfire. at least 260 people were killed. now, some survivors reportedly were taken hostage as well. joining me now is nowhere for mayor, who her friends, they have been missing since the attack. noah, thank you for joining us this evening. we are all watching what is happened. please tell us about your friends who have been missing. when was the last time you spoke to them? >> hello laura, thank you for having me. my friend, my best friend, sister, and her husband, and another good friend of them they went to the festival on saturday morning. some friends of theirs were already there. the girl in the middle, she is like my childhood friend.

we were talking a few hours before and in the morning. , saturday morning we all slept and they have never reached the festival and you know this festival is 3000 people celebrating, dancing a prairie dance because all these beautiful people -- the only thing that came it with love in their hearts to celebrate and pray for peace. because we all want peace, we all want quiet times. they went and they made, friends of theirs were at the party already. they made food for them and waited for them. last time they were talking to shiraz and they told him that they were in this place, a place very close to the party, and she said that we are hearing bombing, people

shooting at us, and the other girl, celine, she was texting with her husband and she is writing to him like, yeah, they're shooting at us, they are shooting at us, we hear bombing. my friend said that i hear the powder, the burning powder. they can smell everything, they can feel everything. and celine was telling her husband, oh, i see soldiers. i see soldiers. and since then we never heard of them, we don't know either they're kidnapped, we don't know nothing. we keep the faith, but we don't know. we don't sleep, the families -- they have two little girls asking about their parents, when they're going to come back. it is really hard.

>> how hard has it been to get information, any information about where they are for what may have happened? >> you know, -- you choose life. to ourselves, to everyone. so we always want to keep the faith. we are strong, we have faith. so, until we have no shoes, we keep the faith. it is hard, it is hard, you cannot even imagine. i don't know if any one ever invented a word to describe what happened there because the massacre, it is an understatement. you talk about the festival, but the festival it is all over. you know, first of all, they thought it's a bombing. unfortunately we are used to these bombings. people in the south, it happens all the time. we have time, running into the

shelters. it's something that we know how to deal. so, nobody would believe that this is what they believed. they all finished with the bombing, they all do what they need to do in case of bombing. then they realize it is a shooting, it is a massacre. and it is horrible to even tell you what happened there. even until yesterday i don't know, they were taking bodies out of the festival like three days, four days, they are still taking out bodies from this festival, you know? and all of these people just want to dance for peace, they just want to dance for having a better reality for everyone. >> noa it's so difficult for you to even describe this, spoken with their families. saline as a child at home as well and you have grown up with shiraz. >> shiraz just finished

maternity leave. my message, i tell you laura, we all are under the same sky. you know, the world is one global village. all of us under the same sky. we saw it on the covid time, now with the climate, we see that if something happens it happens to all of us. and every country has a gift because it is universe, uni, it is one. it is like a puzzle. every country has its own gift. israel has it gives that if something happened somewhere in the world we go and help everybody, taking our forces and doing whatever we need to help. the united states has this gift of helping everybody also in business. the arab people have this gift

of hospitality and you know they respect the old people and they have such a beautiful legacy of these things. we really think about gaza like a riviere. i can go there, i can be a tourist. we believe in peace, but, i have to say, every country has the right to defense and it offend on their existence. it is very important keep alive. i just want to say something, with your permission, good luck in arabic.

[speaking in a non-english language] just, a new reality to come. >> thank you so much for sharing your story and your thoughts today with us. our thoughts are with you and we're seeing on the screen right now your friends, thank you so much. >> if somebody saw something, that the picture, we don't know what happened to them. they're still missing, a lot of people are still missing. thank you laura for having me. >> thank you so much. there is new video tonight and, i warn you, it is disturbing. it captures just some of the brutality of the attack of the music festival fight. militants so round a bomb shelter screaming at a shirtless men standing outside of it. now, it is unclear what exactly is being said, but he squats on the ground and they began

kicking him. his fate is unknown. one militant then throws a grenade into a bomb shelter, a man runs out trying to escape the grenades explosion. he runs out of the frame, but the militants immediately fix their guns on him and began firing. his fate tonight is also unknown. shocking violence by all accounts, i want to bring in peter bergen and -- dozier into the conversation as well. when you look at what is happening here, peter, hearing the accounts and the stories that are being told, it is so significant. we are four days watching what is happening right now. give me a sense of how you are viewing this? well let's assume that the least 100 hostages. one of the hardest things is to mount hostage rescue operations. first of all we have to know where the hostages are. that seems pretty obvious but

that can be pretty hard. one and hostage rescue situated there's a lot of things it can go wrong. i've seen a lot of the hostage rescue operations by jihadist groups. when it's a hostage rescue is hostages are killed, either by people or trying to rescue them or by the hostage takers. even if you have an operation lot of things can go wrong. >> when you look at this kimberly as you were explaining, there is potentially a strategy now of unclaimed all these passages knowing all and well what impediments it creates for the israeli soldiers and the government didn't retaliate? >> the hostages are essentially human shields because everything in everything that the israeli defense forces do from here on out might injure or kill them. hamas has even threatened to execute them live on camera.

meanwhile you have these families and friends missing. the government has told them that they will be informed in the next 48 hours if their loved ones have been found, identified dead. a friend of mine said they heard a motorcycle come up the driveway, go to a neighbor's house, wheeling breakout inside. that's other notifications are being delivered, and it's taking a long time to get around the country and get to everyone who is related to those who have been killed. so people want to know, people like noaa, they want the answers, yet they don't want that knock at the door, not that one. >> please stick around both of you. we're gonna have this conversation really rely on both your expertise, we've got a lot more to talk about. next we're gonna go to the magic wall. way to break down what's happening on the ground right now as to the war enters its

fourth day. as we go to a quick break, look at the white house tonight. it is lit up in the colors of these really flag.

, israel has been pounding gaza with airstrikes and after the surprise attacks by hamas that have left at least 900 people dead. more than 280 palestinians have also been killed according to gaza's health ministry. what's happening on the ground right now and where is this conflict headed? let's go right now to cnn military analyst retired colonel cedric leighton. he's at the magic wall. also peter bergen and kimberly dozier as well. let's begin with a cedric because what is happening exactly on the ground right now? others still fights in the streets of israel? >> yes there are in fact laura and let's take a look at this because there's some interesting things that have developed here. the location of the festival

that everybody talks about where the 260 people were killed is right about here just about southwest of the area. all these towns have had folks from hamas actually showing up in each of these areas. some of them still have pockets of hamas fighters in them, others have been cleared and the israelis are saying that they have pushed out most of them now. but the latest briefings from the idf defensive forces say they still have some areas where they are fighting in one or two elements. that is one area where you can see there's hasn't been quite cleaned up yet basically laura. >> israel is saying the, government is saying that over 4000 rockets were actually fired into israel. how have they been responding? >> so one of the key things that has happened 11th this is the take a look here. these areas in red with the red dots are the hostile attacks

into israel. explosion graphics are where israeli aircraft and artillery have struck targets within gaza. so what that looks like he's kind of interesting because this is a pilots i view of what is going on, and you can see how they go in and they actually target certain areas in all of this gaza territorial right here. you see one explosion right there, you can see that they're going after road intersections, they're going after specific buildings. this is the kind of thing that targeted or's go after. what they are trying to do is they're trying to in essence limit the activities of hamas. they're trying to move them in a specific direction and of course takeout as many them as possible. >> peter, on this point you raised the point of the last time israel attempted to go and it did not work out the way they had hoped? >> the last time they went into lebanon in 2006, eventually israel withdrew and i think

there is a larger point. urban warfare is very hard. right now we are in an aerial campaign. be look at when ices was embedded in mosel, which is a city of roughly the same population sizes gaza, it took many, many months with a major iraqi army operations supported by u.s. air support throughout before i.s.i.s. was sort of removed. so one of the hardest operations you came out is urban warfare. we've seen that very recently. so if it becomes a ground incursion we are in a very different kind of operation. >> go ahead. can >> i was going to say one of the reasons that they are leery of going in on the ground is because it is tightly packed. hamas knows that they are coming and will of prepositioned weaponry et cetera. but also one of the reasons they withdrew originally from gaza is because once you get in there what do you do? do you stay? and it becomes a counter

insurgency situation where you are always be in friction with the local population. so what is the goal of this operation going to be? are they just gonna go in and try to get the hostages intake of as much as the hamas hamas in extra military infrastructure as they can and then leave? and what happens with gaza? who rules it? next hamas is ruled it with an iron fist it won with elections. it hasn't held any since. they have all of these questions to ask but right now the public is asking them to get our people back, so that is pressuring this operation. >> cedric, is this confined as we speak right now to israel's war? is it outside of the borders now? >> let me do one quick thing before we get to that point laura. this is something that is really important to get a visual on because this is a mosque. normally he wouldn't a religious site. but in this particular case, this is the before, this is the after picture. according to the israeli

defense forces, this was a commanding control point for hamas. now getting to who else is playing in this field, you have of course the area right here, this is gaza, you have golan heights which is israeli occupied territory of syria. there is a large presence of pro iranian and syria, the government is pro iranian. as hezbollah, then you have rent right itself. all these players are much part of a bigger picture. they support hamas, they support what hamas is doing against israel right now and the risk is that it makes for a bigger conflagration in the future with all these forces coming to bear. don't forget, the u.s. is sending its carrier group in the mediterranean. >> cedric leighton thank you very much, peter and kim stay with us, someone to get more while the mosques were targeted with kim. next israel has faced one conflict after another since its founding 75 years ago.

but is this war winnable and cannot bring peace to the region?

you're looking at sunrise over gaza city on the fourth day of this war. and just moments ago we saw an explosion on the horizon. but how did we get here, a full blown war? joining me now as robin right a contributing writer for the new yorker, who is and covering this since the 1970s. back with me is peter bergen and kimberly dozier. very glad to have you here as well.

there is so much robin to unpack about what we are seeing right now and specifically when you are looking at this war and where things have been, injury all has been embroiled in conflict since modern founding back in 1948. i've been reporting since 1970s. i wonder how did we get here? >> well, the palestinian israeli conflict goes back a long time, 75 years but, the recent iteration, all the wars since 1973 have headed israel against militias, non state actors. hezbollah, hamas, the plo, and that is a much harder challenge and finding another state as it did against egypt and syria in 1973 when there was an address to go to our government to deal with, a peace process that could be negotiated with international partners. israel is found at the absolutist ideologies of

particularly hezbollah and hamas are much harder to deal with. that you can win temporarily, short term, beat them back, destroy their arsenals but they come back because they're based and fury and passion and religious ideology. so while israel's mountain lakes officiant military progress eventually, the question is can it really when in conventional terms? and it's not even clear what winning would mean for israel and to leave in a certain degree for hamas. this is going to be much more difficult than anything israel has faced at least since its longest war with hezbollah. i think a lot of it is unpredictable, and fluid and in many ways the much greater challenge than its earliest wars between 1940 and 1973. >> and naturally terror was the goal, judging success becomes

almost diabolical in nature. but there have been a least now for conflicts with hamas just since the 2000s. terrorist organization calls for the destruction of israel. so if that is the endgame is there any negotiation even to be had here? >> there is negotiation you can do, a temporary cease-fire which is happened in the past. the pattern was always hamas would fire rockets, israel would fire back with its air power and there would be after several days, several weeks there would eventually be and i go shaded settlement usually by egypt and qatar. but this one is much tougher. and it's the lesson that the united states also learned in fighting a ragtag militia and its longest war in afghanistan with the taliban and again with i.s.i.s. where crisis is still operating in iraq and syria and has franchises across the world. so this is something that the

long term strategy is still very unclear even if the short term goals are obvious. >> kim, i know you had some thoughts with robin. >> robin, what do you think was behind hamas's strategy here? is it to get the attention of the rest of the middle east when during the wars of iraq and of a ghana stan, especially the younger generation wasn't paying much attention to them? what is their end game? >> oars are always a result of a confluence of factors. i think there's a number of things here. whether was a prospect of israel making peace with saudi arabia, whether it was the inflammatory language from some of the hard-liners in the israel government about what to do around the mosque which the third holiest site in milan's lab. what's it about deprivation economic realities in gaza for the majority of palestinians. i think this all comes together

and it coincides with capability. this is where we see iran's increased role in training army had, equipping and funding hamas, as well as other militias in the middle east. that there is not i think a single reason. this is becoming for a long reason time. the irony of all this is that israel actually created a creation of an islamic motion movement because they found a religious group is a front center nationalist group. same with lebanon. it went on to defeat the appeal of, and as a byproduct was a creation of hezbollah. we've seen this trend line evolve. there's a trajectory that as you know well, you can understand when you look at the politics in the modern history in the confrontations in this region. >> peter, i know you mentioned the idea of normalization being impacted or being a part of the undercurrent here. what is you thought? >> i mean, the saudi

normalization -- there was a deal was almost imminent, clearly that is going to be dead. the subsidiary target here obviously the main target is israel, but i mean the subsidiary target is basically ending this potentially normalizing between saudi arabia, the side of the two most police said citizen and israel, brokered by the united states, which of course iran's three main enemies, and around as some influence on the situation. it's not clear if they were directly involved in this attack but clearly iran and hamas have a long term relationship and i think this deal is basically dead. >> one of the reasons is be able to move so far as it has is that the public has forgotten about the palestinian issue. this right now is dominating all the headlines across the middle east making a lot harder

for rulers just to steam roll all over public opposition. >> very important point. robin right thank your depth and knowledge, peter and can stay with me. the toll of this war is shocking and we are just days into the conflict. at least 900 people are dead in israel, more than 680 dead palestinians as well as according to gaza health ministry. we have a report from gaza. next.

you're looking at live pictures

of gaza city this morning. it's just past 6:40 a.m. there. the morning after a chilling warning from hamas. civilian hostages will be executed and the killings broadcast if israel targets people in gaza without warning. this is according to a spokesperson from the armed wing of hamas which claims it is holding more than 100 hostages. they say including israeli army officers. cnn's ben wedeman has our report on the ground and gaza. >> moments after an israeli airstrike on the refugee camp desperate calls for help. the dead to dying in the injuring covered in dust and blood. israel's wrath is now unleashed upon gaza. these >> israelis say hit the building without warning they didn't ask us to evacuate they didn't say anything suddenly we

heard the airstrike and we found it a completely collapsed. around 75 people thousand people have already been displaced. it deals with palestinian refugees. this crap strip of land along the mediterranean 2 million anton revenge for her masters surprise attack. which left hundreds of israelis dead and thousands wounded and dozens now in hamas captivity by evening the death toll was approaching nearly 700, with 4000 wounded according to gaza health ministry. >> monday evening the spokesman for hamas issued a grip warning. the start executing the civilian hostages and

broadcasting those executions if israel targets people in gaza without warning gaza and israel have gone to war many times before since hamas took control. this will not be yet another brief outbreak of attack and counterattack before a return to the status quo. israel is amassing troops in armor on the outskirts of gaza, preparing, in all likelihood, for a ground invasion on a scale not seen before. and now, israel's defense minister has ordered what he called a complete siege of gaza, cutting of all food, fuel, and electricity. that in a place where, according to the world food programme, 63% of the population was food insecure before this war began. so much has happened since

saturday morning in israel in gaza and it's only the beginning. ben wedeman, cnn, jerusalem. >> ben wedeman, thank you so much. back with me is peter bergen and also kim dozier. when you look at those images that we have seen today and just now from ben, how is this being perceived in the arab world? >> well, when you look at things like the before and after picture of a mosque that the israeli defense forces say, openly, we took it out because there was a command and control center inside. it becomes a he said she said situation. who do you trust? in israel they believe the defense forces. across the arab world, they think the holy site just got hit and it is like, well, show us the intelligence. that, combined with all of the pictures of the destruction and the reports that there are 2.3 million people inside gaza, a very tiny place, and there are

no exits. they've been going to u.n. schools, that's an area that supposed to be safe. they are saturated, there are more than 100,000 people in all the schools. there is no room. people don't know where to go, that is inflaming tensions across the arab world. anger, a top iraqi cleric and politician has called for attacks against israel and america because of what is going on there. we are only a couple of days into this, it's going to get worse. >> why the united states? >> why the united states? >> why is it being called to attack as? well >> i mean, i will note that the military adviser to ayatollah is encouraging hamas and saying that, until they liberated jerusalem and palestine, the war isn't over. to add what kim is saying, the region is going to be angered by these pictures. >> we're going to get more in the intelligence aspect of what is happening and how this happened. we know some of the historical context of how we got to hear,

but now, in terms of a lot of the criticism of how did this happen now, in particular, peter, kim, standby. please, that is the question tonight. how could israel's military and intelligence be caught so off-guard by this unprecedented attack? was it a security failure or something else?

>> tonight as we hear more of the devastating details about what happened as this war began, there are a lot of questions including questions about what the intelligence was ahead of the attacks. back with me is a peter bergen and kim dozier. peter, when you look at this

stepping back there is the immediate almost knee-jerk reaction to say it is unprecedented and it went undetected, how could they have not anticipated it? is it that simple? >> we don't know yet, but after 9/11 you recall everybody said there was an intelligence failure. after the 9/11 commission was formed over a year later, much against the bush administration's attempts to make sure didn't happen, it became clear the cia was constantly warning the bush administration in the summer of 2001 about a possible attack, not clear where it was going to be, but the bush administration really did nothing during that time period. now, the netanyahu government is going to come under considerable pressure from israelis about how did this happen. my guess is that, because this usually happens, there is usually a lot of noise but when you look back there are a lot of signals that you missed. something this big surely there are signals that were missed and, surely, there will be pressure from the israeli public would find out what happened and how this --

because it couldn't have come without any kind of warning at all. >> there is the actual detecting of the intelligence, there is the interpretation of it and time for deterrence, then there is the policy decision makers will act on the intelligence who may or may not believe that it is imminent, and then you've got, of course, the intelligence apparatus in israel certainly well known to hamas and will they be able to circumvent knowing or was it safe? >> there have been reports from hamas that they tricked israel. they made it look like they were happy with the economic concessions that israel had offered, meanwhile they were planning this attack. but, hamas has, prior to that, always signal that they were going to carry something like this out. there has been criticism inside israel that the netanyahu government, which includes members of the west bank settler movement was too focused on the west bank

militants in the west bank and that it was a concentration of resources on the wrong part of the country and our failure of imagination that a certain arrogance that they just didn't think hamas would be able to do something like this. >> when the president of the united states speaks tomorrow on pm. what are you expecting to hear from the president of the united states? because, certainly there are conversations about the intelligence in israel. will he be called on what we should have been dissipated or known as well? >> very possibly. the united states has the best, the national security agency can listen to every conversation in the world so why didn't the united states? maybe did have some indications, but presumably they will say what they expect him to say that we support israel, it will talk about the ill of americans that we know to be dead and he may talk about americans that we suspect to be taken hostage. i imagine this will be the things you talked about. >> we can't forget there is also a war in ukraine. i know we don't have much time, can, but do anticipate there being an impact on the ability

to provide aid to both asian nations? >> the national security council spokesperson this afternoon said, for a large country, we can do both at the same time. so i think ukraine is getting phone calls to reassure right now that we're not going to take the eye off the ball, but in biden's speech tomorrow watch for warning to iran without naming iran, just a warning that they don't make this any worse than it already is. >> kim, peter, thank you so much for staying for the hour. it was important to hear your perspective. thank you all so much for watching, our live coverage continues after this short break.

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