okay. this is video from moments ago. >> wow. >> you can see the rockets being fired from gaza. our reporter nic robertson is just over the border from gaza in israel in sderot, and nic,

tell us what you are seeing. >> yeah, we are seeing a massive barrage of iron dome intercepts in the sky. here you can make out the tiny puffs of white smoke in the sky, and each one of those puffs is an intercept of an iron dome defensive missile system, and taking down hamas rockets, and you can see over my shoulder there, some of the traces of the rockets themselves that are fired through the sky. it looks as though some of the iron domes were stopping the rockets going to the two big israeli towns along the coast there, ashkelon and ashdot further up the coast there. you can see the missiles coming out from the iron dome and intercepting with the rockets in the sky. so literally in less than one hour from here, there has been missile attacks, hamas missile

attacks on this town, sderot, and missile attacks on tel aviv, and we saw those rockets going out, and there have been these rocket missile attacks on ashkelon and ashdot. so hamas is saying that they have power left and the longer range weapons that is difficult for them to produce, and it can reach central israel and the shorter range ones to come in here, and the mid-range ones to reach the coast, and so hamas is showing that despite the strikes on it so far it has the capability and the reserves of rockets to continue firing out. >> nic robertson, standby, if you can and it is safe, because i want to give the people the sense of where you are. in red is gaza, and put nic back up there, and this is sderot where nic is just over the

border of gaza, and he could hear the iron dome, and that is the israeli air defense missiles shot up into the sky to intercept the rockets fired from gaza, and as nic explained, targets of the missile attacks are ashkelon and ashdot here on the mediterranean coast. so, back to you, nic. how constant is this? do you feel like you are hearing more outgoing, and can you distinguish between the outgoing, and the intercepts from israel? >> yes. the outgoing from gaza, you will see, because there is the white trails behind the rockets. so you will see them, and particular think the longer range ones, and might you see them outgoing, because of the orange burner trail of the back of the rocket, and the intercepts start out as -- i can -- well, i have a rough idea of the firing positions is now, because you can see them come

up, and you will see a little red dot flying through the sky and then it will exploet de int white smoke puff and you will hear the percussion from it, and so you will see how it works and we have a very good vantage point here. >> thank you, nic robertson in sd sderot, and we go to clarissa ward who is over in ashkelon. >> yes, we have heard that there is some sort of threat to be here by 5:00 p.m., and we got here at five minutes until 5:00, and then the sirens started going off, and we were immediately dragged into the bunker by another person here, and massive amount of missile just slamming in all around. we heard -- hi, fred.

there are other journalists here as well, and we have heard the iron dome intercepting some of them, and you can also smell the explosives coming in from the balconies coming out there, and unclear at the moment how many of these rockets may have made impact or what the damage may be, and what the casualty rate may be, but certainly a lot of rockets were fired. the hotel was, you know, relatively secure location. okay. we are hearing more sirens coming again, and so i want to move away from the window. okay. the shelter is over there, and do we want to go toward the shelter? the bunker is this way. >> move, guys. please.

>> reporter: just moving into the bunker here, and this is where we were when the last barrage came in as well. and every floor of hotel has a bunker like this. you can hear some activity out there, and like the previous round and i don't know if you are picking up on that, and this is sounding like maybe interception, and it is difficult to know, but that is what it sounds like. but it is a bit quieter now. we are trying, also, to send in some video that we captured from inside of the bunker when the first round of rockets went off. but, yeah. just waiting to see and get some clairety, kate. >> clarissa, what we are showing, and i wanted to give the viewers some point of reference here. you are in ashkelon, and you have incoming, and you are in the bunker, and stay with me

there, and on the other side of the screen, you can see sderot where there is incoming as well. nic is there. and john is over to the wall where he can show you in relation to where these two areas are, and clarissa, staying with me, and nic, you are seeing the incoming as well, and talk us through it. >> reporter: the vantage point here, we can see the rockets here, and then the intercepts, and this is when the bunkers were getting the sirens where clarissa is, and she is over closer to the three power chimneys that you can see there on the horizon. that is where she s. and i supposely duck down here so that john can get a better view. so, you can see the rockets come up where john is pointing camera now out of gaza. and then they are flying up into the sky and being picked up by the iron dome as flying toward

ashkelon where clarissa, and then the iron dome kicks off and starts to intercept them, and that is the white puff ps of smoke. so where clarissa, we have a position to see the missiles is going out, and then being intercepted to where she is. and then just before the missiles took off, there were fighter jets in the air as well, and couple of explosions from gaza, so it is the impression that the fighters had gone off, and they had gone up to try to target the hamas firing those rockets off. i hear another fighter jet in the sky right now. i can't see it. but typically when hamas comes out the fire the rockets, typically the jets come on station here, and we'll look for the targets, and look for those hamas militants with the rocket, and the firing positions to take them out. this is a very, this view from

here is going to give you a strong understanding of the dynamic of this battle. >> if i can show you where nic robertson is on this map. he is seeing the rockets fired from gaza and where the israeli intercepts are, and clarissa is there in ashkelon, and back to you, clarissa. we saw this hamas spokesman issuing a warning to the residents of ashkelon to leave by 5:00 p.m., and it is 5:11 here, and in a way, hamas said that this is going to happen. >> reporter: they did. that why we came here, and we got here at five minutes to 5:00, and unfortunately, absurdly our room key was not working just as the barrage of

rockets hit, and so someone from the hotel grabbed us and moved us into the shelter where you just saw. it was sustained, and the difficulty of obviously from this vantage point, it is hard to know how many of the rockets were intercepted and how many had made landfall, and then things were quiet and then as we talked again, another round of warning, a warnings, and again, we were moved to the shelter, and it was not as intense of a barrage, and it is appearing to be quieter now, and we are just trying to get more clarity on what damage has been done. it was like clockwork. they had sent a notice just after 3:00 that people needed to leave by 5:00, and then at 5:00 on the dot, those rockets started slamming in. >> we want to ask you how unusual it is that hamas has sent a warning, because often they come with no warning, and

the only warning that people get is from the sirens that are going off and running as you did i into where you are. >> the sirens are going off again fyi. sirens again. >> another hit. >> reporter: clarissa, are you in a safe area? >> sorry. one second. >> step over there away from the window. >> yes, i am stepping away from the window, and yeah, we are speaking to one journalist who said that ak chaully, it is quite common for them to broadcast with these types of attacks what time they might carry them out. he said they happen often at 8:00 p.m. because that is when the israeli news is on. you can probably hear those, so that is quite heavy. what do you mean, you are coming to me, and are you not on with me? >> guys, are you on with me? >> oh, so you are with me.

and i heard someone in my ear. so i can hear you. so you can hear those rockets? >> is everybody okay? is everyone where you are okay? because it sounded like something hit. >> everybody is fine. yeah. yes. there's definitely been another volley of rockets. >> we are going to be quiet here for a second to listen. >> reporter: i can't hear anything, because it may be over. and if will give me a couple of minutes i will work out how to get into this room and come back to you to give you more information if that is okay, guys? >> yes, clarissa, get safe. and we go over to nic robertson in sderot, and the closest point is about 27,700 feet to the

border, and it is that close, nic. >> yes, john is framing up the black smoke that has appeared since the last barrage of the rockets that was targeting the location that clarissa is in, ashkelon, and one of the rockets appears to have gotten through, and that is why we are seeing the black smoke drifting up, and that is a good indication or a bad indication rather that one has made it through the intercepts. clarissa was hearing rockets going out, and we could literally see them taking off from the firing positions in the distance there, and intercepting with the bright flash in the sky, and what you can see now, the intercepts what you can see are the small puffs of smoke there in the sky. but again, the dynamic, and that huge percussion, that explosion that clarissa is hearing, and in the distance, we are seeing the

rockets fired out, and the iron dome intercepting, and we are seeing the explosions from here. >> nic, can you describe for us, because you have been on the ground since to get-go, and able to get into sderot, and you were down on the ground where the music festival was, and where that massacre occurred and then moving slowly through. this seems to be a massive barrage of rockets to be coming in, and really since we, since, you know, journalists were able to get on the ground and get a handle on what a horrific terror attack we are talking about, and give us perspective on this. >> reporter: hamas does things for attention. you know, the terror it creates, it has a plan. that big volley of attacks that it put on saturday morning, 2,200, they have not matched it since, but it was cover for the

ground assault they did with more than 1,000 or so hamas militants who came across the border and ripped down the fences and tore into the army bases and tore into the civilian kibbutzes and kill sod many people at the peaceful music festival. that volley on saturday morning has not been match and maybe sunday 150 missiles fired in a salvo towards tel aviv on sunday. i must say that the days are blurring into each other, but what is significantly noticeable is that monday morning though there had been a dropoff in the number of hamas rocket attacks on sunday, monday morning, it noticeably picked up, because they know it is a new news cycle and they wanted the attention, and they wanted to show israeli

forces that they had the ability to fire out, and we are looking at the iron dome intercepts again where clarissa is, and i imagine that she is hearing right now, and raid siren is going off. because those intercepts are right above her now. and so now what hamas is saying is look at the space now, and we are going to launch more rockets, and we have not been forced out of action. and so as well, we are also hearing, we're also hearing howitzers firing on the hamas positions, the israeli guns firing on the hamas positions. >> we are listening to where nic robertson is, and israeli sirens as the rockets are fired from gaza into ashkelon, and clarissa ward, what are you seeing? >> guys, we are trying to get on the air for the last two minutes as it has been complete mayhem

here with the rockets coming in, and the iron dome intercepts there, and black smoke billowing and a couple of points of contact and potential direct hit, but we don't know, and the sirens are going, and the streets, you can see barely anything is moving, and people are obviously sheltering in place after what has been a pretty sustained now 20 minutes are we talking about since 5:00 or so while this has been going on. that last round, and i don't know if it is possible for us to try to rewind the tape and speak in old school parlance to get that video back to you, but you could see the rockets as they were being intercepted by the iron dome. again, you can see the black smoke there and we don't know what was hit or what that is. but certainly a very tense situation here in ashkelon. >> and clarissa, we have had

your shot up during this time, and thank you for explaining much more clearly what we have been seeing for the last several minute, and thank you to you and your crew for the courage to get out there outside so we can see the strike as it is happening in realtime. hamas has claimed credit saying it has fired hundreds of rockets at ashkelon in what is displacement of palestinians in gaza. and so this is an attack from hamas, and make no mistake, because they said it would happen, and now, clarissa, that is closer to the port where we are seeing the black smoke rise up, that is on the water's edge? >> yeah, it is not far from the water's edge. the water is just in that direction. so, not far from the water's edge. we are trying to get a location as to what is there. it is difficult to see from behind the buildings. we do know that there have been rockets pretty much every day in

ashkelon, and correct me if you think it is wrong, but i have not heard anything quite that sustained, the barrage that we have heard over the last 20 minuteser, so and there have been some direct impacts and one a couple of days ago near the hotel at a building, and another one at a bus stop. but the question now of course is, you know, where did these rockets hit, the ones that were not intercepted and was anyone hurt? i will say that the system is incredibly effective and you don't have a huge amount of time from when you hear that siren, because yo have to move quickly, but it is going to give you a few moments to try to get to cover or safer space, and as i mentioned before, all of the hotels and buildings have, or most of them have shelters on every floor. all of the bus stops have shelters attached to them, because it has become part of life for people here, and this is something that they have

become accustomed to, and certainly not anything on this level. >> and if you can come back to the map, and show you where clarissa s and this is just north of ashkelon, and this is the first major or bigger israeli city north of gaza on the mediterranean coast, and they are used to rocket attacks like this, and as you said, nothing like the quantity that you may have just seen over the last few minutes, correct? >> correct. i mean, this is a place where the rocket attacks are frequent, and this is why you have these shelter, and we have been hearing them everyday and an uptick in the tempo since saturday, and what we have witnessed over the last 20 minutes is not like anything that we have seen since we have been here, and, you know, we could be in for a long time, and we will see. i let's hope not. >> and clarissa, you got there a

few days ago and in comparison, we saw you in another barrage of fire coming from gaza yesterday or the day before, and how many people do you have some sense of how many people are still there? are you seeing the civilians still there in ashkelon trying to live their lives and stay safe at the same time as this is happening, because there was a warning by hamas, but are you seeing the people who have stayed? >> reporter: you are definitely seeing the people who have stayed. a lot of them, those who have the mean, and a lot them have come to bigger hotels like the one where we are. when we first arrived we saw the civilians kind of flooding in and basically looking for somewhere that they could shelter in place, and feel confident or comfortable to have some degree of security. obviously, a lot of people have left as well. particularly families. even when they don't cause

casualties these rockets, the effect on the psyche, and the effect they have when they do make impact, and we visited a house yesterday that had been basically destroyed by a rocket. again, they had a shelter. they heard the siren and they went down to the shelter, and they were okay, but the house is destroyed. clearly, this is not a sustainable living situation for most ordinary people, and having said that, the iz lays are built of stronger stuff. so you do still see the people here. it is just sort of comes and goes depending upon the level of activity if you see them out on the street. right now, you can't really see almost anybody on the street. i can't see anybody. i see one car moving around, but most people of course, they will be sheltering in place until they know it is safer to come out. >> claclarissa, when we are loog at, that and the camera as made a turn, and nic robertson is up, and we are seeing one on

ashkelon and one at sderot who is closer to the gaza strip, but you are about 16 miles or 27 kilometers away from each other. sot so, you are both seeing the results of the rocket attacks, and what are you experiencing there, nic robertson in sderot? >> it is uncanny and uneasy feeling, because when we were watching there before, i was just saying nit conversation to you as well, when i saw the intercepts above where clarissa is, and i noo thaw the sirens were going off where she is. and she is reporting black smoke coming out of the port area, and this is the smoke that john is pointing the camera at right now. so, you know, we have -- we have a very good view of what is happening where clarissa is, a distant outside view. the hell she is under gets rained down on different parts

of israel, because that ashkelon and ashdot area gets it bad, and this town, sderot gets it bad at times, but not at the moment. perhaps because hamas knows civilian population has mostly left here, and there is still a lot of civilians among whom they want to cause terror in ashkelon, and that seems to be part of the pattern. the pattern as well, the rockets fired out of tel aviv and then our colleague becky anderson had a siren go off there where she was. so, hamas, this evening, they are trying to send this clear signal partly by saying to watch this spot at 5:00, and partly by firing missiles that they can do all of the way to tel aviv and then coming out to say we have fired over 500 missiles this evening. they are on an information offensive as well as military offensive saying that we are not

defeated and we have firepower left, and rockets left, and clearly from what we have seen traveling around, the fire power that is amassing around them and be being brought to bear from their leaders and their fire positions are clearly going to tip the balance out of hamas' favor so they can't fire the rockets, but they are clearly saying you have not done it yet. >> thank you, nic robertson and we are looking at the live pictures of what is gaza port, and this is now presumably inside of gaza, and israel is hitting what it is calling the terrorist hubs from the air for now several days including 100 strikes just today, and they are saying. so that is what is happening in gaza as there is outgoing from gaza as well, and you saw the explosion there of some sort in the water, and that is incoming

airstrikes on gaza port there, and nic, and clarissa, we will bring you both back in, and you are sort of on opposite sides, and not opposite sides of the conflict, but nic, you can see the outgoing, and clarissa, you are experiencing the incoming from ashkelon, and we will let you two describe what is happening. >> i will let clarissa go first. >> well, sorry, and i know that we are too polite, nic, and waiting for the other to speak. [ laughter ] and essentially from here, i don't think that anyone understood it would be from 5:00 p.m., and this barrage of rockets would start, and it is quieter now, and surreal almost, because it is beautiful weather in the mediterranean, and yes, this is a sort of the sustained barrage of rockets coming into

this town, and you could see that black smoke behind me. it seems to be somewhat dissipating and what we are trying to find an answer to is what exactly was hit, and we can hear the jets in the sky, i should say, and it is something that we have been hearing a lot over the last few days, and we have been hearing drones as well. and a pretty, you know, you can hear the strikes here when they land in gaza. obviously, rockets, and this place is coming under sustained rocket attack for days now. yeah. nic? >> yeah. yeah. i can't think of a scenario where i have been sort of looking at rockets that are outgoing, and colleague, you, cla rissa are underneath it, an that is a bad feeling.

when i see the rockets, i want to pick up the phone and say, guys, guys, they are coming. but i know that the defense system is so strong that when they are coming, you are getting the vsirens and the intercepts right over your head. and we are seeing the iron dome rockets taking off and making those intercepts and you are trying to figure out to get to the cloud of smoke that john is looking at the cloud of smoke, and watch it getting to a darker cloud of smoke, and it is big and billowing and the smoke is gray, and something has gone out, and when i see the rockets out there, and the intercepts above your head, i am thinking about you and your team, brant and clayton, and i am hearing it. i am hearing small arms fire behind me there, and that's the israeli defense force, i believe, who would be firing towards gaza, and small arms

fire, machine gun, heavy machine guns. back to you, kate. >> and yes, we are hearing it right over the shoulder. have you been hearing that since the rockets, since this barrage kind of started up basically right at 10:00 a.m. eastern? >> not really. we don't get much small arms fire, but we had it in this sderot, and we knew that the idf was going after the militants in the town, and because it is coming from gaza, does it mean some militants have been spotted at the border fence and trying to get across, and we are seeing the intercepts, and clarissa, there are missiles coming your way, and i am seeing the intercepts over your head, and take cover. they are intercepting them right there. >> okay. yep. you can see right here, and there you can see them right

above us, and that is the iron dome intercepting. i am sort of crouching here on the balcony, and you can see that -- clayton, just a little bit inside -- and the sirens went off a matter of seconds ago, and now, we are hearing as those rockets, and it is look like most of them were intercepted by the iron dome up there, and you can see the plumes of smoke from where they were literally stopped in their tracks. it seems that maybe it is a little bit quieter right now. not clear, and oh. there is another one. hold on. you can hear a jet overhead now, and it is not uncommon in these situations that you will hear the intercepts and the iron dome at work, and quickly after that, you will hear the jets and then the distant thud of a strike in

gaza. still hearing the rockets being intercepted. and just gives you a feel for the volume of rockets that are being used. i think that many people initially had been surprised by how many, how many rockets and how extensive the stockpiling, and oh, you can hear another -- sorry. how extensive the stockpiling and how effective it has been in terms of the sheer amount of the rockets and the longer range rockets and missiles as well. so, now, it appears to be a little bit quieter, and we can still see the plumes of smoke from where the iron dome was activated. we can still see a plume of darker smoke lower on the horizon from where one of the rockets appears to have made

impact earlier on. but clearly, hamas is trying to send a very sobering message to the people of ashkelon today. they warned people, and told them to leave by 5:00 p.m., and it is pretty unrelenting in, i forget how long we are out here, but it is -- what are we talking about? 35 minutes of pretty sustained i would say barrages of rockets coming into this seaport city. >> this is remarkable, cla ris sash -- clarissa, it is incredible to see the iron dome intercept those rockets over your head. to remind cla ris sashgs she is in ashkelon, and our nic robertson, and this is remarkable here in sderot looking over gaza as the rockets were shot out into ashkelon where clarissa is.

we heard the explosions and the blasts there. was that from the sky? can you dedistinguish between the intercepts or whether there was impact from the last barrage on the ground? >> yeah, you can usually, you can usually distinguish because it is intensive and the most int intensive. we don't know where they hit with the exception of that one location where it appears that one of the rockets hit. again, we don't know exactly what was there, but we have been going out every day now and seeing the impact and effect that some of these rockets have, and they destroy cars.

they destroy homes. they leave crates in therrs on streets and of course, a powerful psyche on the people. i think that i am hearing a drone. and again, drones are common at the moment for obvious reasons. we heard some jets before as well, and we had been hearing pretty much constant jet activity yesterday, but more so even the day before. it is this day before.

it is this utterly discombobulating sense of the people who live here from on the one hand sirens are going off, and people are frantically running to try to get to shelters and crouching and you can hear the explosions in the sky, and then five minutes later, everything is quiet again, and you can hear the sea.

it is hard to imagine how people can live like this day in and day out. it is extremely difficult to kind of find any sense of equilibrium, and we have definitely noticed that the tempo in ashkelon today, this afternoon, it has dramatically escalated today, john. >> clarissa, thank you. standby for a second. we want to go to nic robertson and you were hearing the firing, and describe what you were hearing and what you think it might have been. >> we were hearing what sounded like small arms fire, machine gun fire, and this is typically going to be the israeli defense forces won't fire the machine guns unless they are close to a target, and then we could hear what sounded like exchanges of fire, and sustained bursts of fire coming from that direction towards the border fence there as sara was saying, it is

literally 2,700 meters, what you said, sara, where you are at, and the border fence, and if hamas is trying to make the incursions, we are down there in that area, and probably 700 meters from the border fence earlier today, and there are a lot of israeli troops down in that area, combat troops in jeep, tanks and armored vehicles, and they are ready for the potential of more hamas militants to slip inside. so that is possible what we heard there, but the fact that the gunfire has subside, but the fact that it has subsided, the contact has been broken and they are not engaged in a gun fire, and this is over unless we hear it start up over again, and what we did hear with clarissa in the bombardment, we did hear a lot of artillery fire being fired

from the artillery forces into gaza, and that is accurate artillery using to target the firing points to try to get the hamas militants who are firing rockets and further south in gaza, i did hear a series of bigger explosions. those may have been associated with the fighter jet. i am hearing another sound explosion ripple through the air, and maybe that was associated with the fighter jet that both clarissa and i heard flying over gaza in the past few minutes. >> it is disturbing that you are hearing the gunfire, because this is the thing that a lot of the residents are so concerned about whether or not the area is clear and free of hamas terrorists who had come into the country in a way we had never seen before in the 75 years of the history. i do want to ask you about that. as far as you have been told, and we will be speaking with the

idf spokesperson lib b by ife in moment. is that what you have been hearing? >> and the answer is yes, and can the iz lay defense force be 100% sure they have rounded up everyone in sderot and all of the other place, and i asked it of the general in charge of driving hamas out of this particular part of the border, and he said, no, you cannot be 100% sure. you don't know what you don't know if somebody is hiding in the house a couple of days to cause mayhem when they come out. so in a strict sense has the

israeli defense force gotten control and own the streets? yes, they do. might a gunman pop up, yes, it is possible, and lunlikely, but it is not impossible. i am seeing the multiple patrols and army pa el trolling going o here, and you can double and triple that closer to the fence as well. no one is dropping their guard. >> let me know when clarissa is back up and ready. nic, i took a note as you spoke to a general earlier in the day when you were asking him, and this is speaking to the posture that all israelis needs to be in right now, and you asked him how he is feeling, and he said it is not a time for feeling, but it is a time to do. it was an extraordinary conversation as you were entering the area, and seeing what they are dealing with now, and it is really extraordinary.

>> reporter: when you are standing next to somebody who has the command of troops in action, there's always going to be a fire in the eye, and at one point he rubbed the face down, and this is the sign of somebody being tired, and i asked if he had sleep, and he said, no, not since saturday, but the fire in the eye to keep his men safe and keep hamas out, and to return to the streets of iz radsrael to t citizens of israel is right, there and this is what he was getting to what he was saying, it is not done. i asked him the question, well, are you going to go into gaza and a ground incursion, and he said right now, all i am looking at is the 100 yards in front of me, and that going to sum it up, and he is going to get the command and the orders and he commanded himself out of the house saturday morning, and he said, i am going, and he went to

help. it is the fact that he has thousands of troops at his dispoal, and he is waiting for the next orders. and having the kibbutz back, and it is a pause, and it is not the pause to get the rest back, but it is the pause to move forward and he connected to all of that. nic standby and we will come back to you. var? >> -- sara? >> i wanted to bring in libby who is a spokesperson for the idf, and what can you tell us about the round of rockets in ashkelon, and if there is any injuries, and we noticed a plume of smoke, and where it hit today? >> well, today is a day of

multiple barrages as everybody is seeing is. we are getting reports of a home in ashkelon that suffered a direct hit from one of those rockets. but of course, the situation is very, very dynamic, and we expect to keep getting more updates from the field as the minutes go by. >> and so at this point in time, we are looking, and i wanted to let you know that we are looking, major rice, at the gaza port that has been struck. i wanted to keep you there, and please don't go anywhere, but we have questions to ask you, but we have clarissa ward who is there in ashkelon watching this unfold. what are you experiencing right now, clarissa? >> well, it is quiet right now after a very intense 40 minutes or so. we are see on the hamas telegram channels, videos of fires allegedly in the city, and allegedly because of the

rockets, and of course, we do not just put the videos up on air for good reason, because we need to verify and get a better picture of where the rockets may or may not have hit. and i will say from our vantage point after the first volley where we heard more direct impacts, the iron dome does seem to have intercepted vast majority of those, and we also spoke to our driver who is down near the lobby, and he sent us a picture of shrapnel damage to the car. and this is speaking to the fact that when they land, they spray shrapnel everywhere, and a large area, and they create so much damage, and that why you see the burned out vehicles, and things of that nature, but so far, we have not heard anything specifically about the casualties, and i would refer to the idf spokesperson or who you were just talking to if there has been a house directly hit, then, you know, we'll have to

see what exactly transpired there. we visited a house directly hit yesterday. the man who had been home was very lucky. he had gone straight down to the shelter that he had built for himself. so, he was okay. but the house, itself, it suffered heavy, heavy damage. the streets are quiet, but you starting to see a couple of cars, and maybe more than you had before. perhaps now, a feeling that the worst of the bombardment or the barrage is past us, but frankly speaking since we have been here in the last few days, you might have a lull for a little bit and then it picks up, but nothing on the sustain and the intense level that we saw from 5:00 to 5:30 here in ashkelon. >> clarissa ward, thank you for the update in ashkelon, and you

have just experienced a huge barrage of rockets coming over from gaza into that seaside city. we are also looking at pictures live right now from the gaza port, and you are seeing the boats, and this is a fishing area, and lot of people trying to go out to get their food by using some of the boats, and a lot of incursions from the boats going out into the waters, and israel is very keen on seeing what they are doing, but we should note that there are huge plumes of smoke, and we have actually seen some of the air strikes drop right into the sea there. i want to go become to major libby weiss with the israeli military and the israeli defense forces. i do want to ask you that you have heard from clarissa there what has been happening in ashkelon, and not sure about the things that have been hit there, and we should try to pull up a picture of ashkelon there, and if we k and show that video of

what we saw earlier, but we have also heard of sderot, and according to nic robertson about ten minutes ago, we heard some fire that sounded like it was from the ground, and automatic weapon fire. can you give us any idea what that was about, and whether or not there could possibly be hamas terrorists who came into the area of sderot that was fired on by the israeli military. >> what i can say of course, is that we are cautiously saying that we have regained control of to communities like sderot and communities along the gaza border, but as stated, we know that hamas is constantly trying to infiltrate into the state of israel once again with what they have continued do since saturday morning. of course, we are trying to gather as much information as we

can now about what is taking place, but it is something that we know that they are continuing to do, and monitoring it obviously very closely, and it going to explain the very, very large number of soldiers there in the area scanning to make sure that not another hamas terrorist is able to infiltrate the territory. >> i wanted to ask you about the house that clarissa ward saw hit in ashkelon, and do you is any information about the people who are injured or killed in the home or what have you heard about this attack on the home? >> we have not heard any information yet, and we are in touch with the police here who is also taking a point on those types of events. we will be finding this out as we speak likely to understand what exactly took place. we are instructing everyone to stay in shelters and follow guidelines. when we hear the siren, and i

will hear one now, and i will run to the shelter, and it is something that we have seen time and time again is the best way to protect our lives in the barrages of rockets. >> yes, you are in tel aviv we should mention which is much farther away from the border that we have been showing nic robertson and clarissa ward. so, let me ask you this, because the entire country is talking about not just this war, but specifically about the hostages. we have just heard some riveting and gut-wrenching comments from system of the families who have, who are american, who have their loved ones, they believe, who have been taken, and one of the things that they said was we have heard nothing, not a word from the israeli military, from israel official or from u.s. officials. can you give us any update of

where, how many hostages hamas has taken and what is being done? what is the plan to try and get them back to safety? >> well, first, i have to say on a personal level, we are all just devastated and horrified and the sense of sadness and devastation that we are all feeling here is overwhelming, and it is something that the entire country, the entire country feels nonstop. in order to try and get more information and to better understand what is taking place with the wellbeing, and their status, the idea as two generals working with the military, and the families to try to get as much accurate information, and

of course, the battle here in israel, we want them to bring accurate and vetted information to the families, but the fastest way for these hostages to return safely is for hamas to do that and that could be done right now without any conditions or terms. that would be the single fastest way for them to come home, but the entire focused of bringing them back, and we are all thinking about them constantly. >> you talked about hamas, and the military wing spokesman said they will kill hostages every time israel bombs civilians homes without warning. will that threat change anything that the idf is doing in gaza? >> well, first, it speaks to the depravity of hamas, and again, we are talking about here old women, elderly people, grandparents, children, toddlers -- i mean, it is just

once again echos the horror that we are all feeling. it is important to note that the idea is to stop hamas's capability to attack us as we have seen. the operational task is one that we are committed to, and working constantly to bring back those hostages, but of course, the call here is to hamas to release them immediately. have these people come home to their families and loved ones without any conditions or terms. >> are there any negotiations between israel and hamas at the moment over the hostages or a third party? i know that qatar said it is getting involved, and the united states has, do you have

information? >> well, other stakeholders are taking an active role in that, but it issing? that we are thinking of 24/7, and in the military realm, we have two generals who have come to take this as their mission, and truly the entire country here is thinking about them. we want to do everything that we can to bring them home safely as soon as possible. >> hamas is not concerned about slaughtering the elderly, the children, mothers, women, girls and they have conducted a terrorist attack on israel, and the world has seen that, but israel is saying, that there is going to be a total siege on gaza, and what is that is going to look like, and how concerned is israel to take steps to mitigate the number of civilians killed in the most densely

populated city, perhaps one of the most densely populated cities on earth? >> well, first of all, the air strikes taking place are against the hamas military targets, and this is something that we know, and something that we have been saying for years, that the ground game is and we understand that they have long placed their assets within civilian areas in the gaza strip. we are doing the maximum we can operationally in light of what has taken place to minimize the impact on civilians, but again, we understand that it is a very complex operational reality on the ground, and we need to make sure that first and foremost that hamas does not have any capability to continue to attack us, whether it is an attempt to

infiltrate, and rockets were having on the ground and the chances for survival. >> do you plan for a ground assault? >> it is something that the government would have to decide. we are prepared for any eventuality, and we will take our orders from the government, and deliver upon whatever we have to do. >> major libby weiss, thank you for taking the time in what is an incredibly difficult moment in the history of israel. appreciate your coming on the show. >> thank you. >> and you are looking at the gaza ports, and you can see the docks smoldering. we have been following the hamas strikes inside of ashdot, and we

have heard from clarissa ward, and now hearing that sirens are going off in the north part of the country. there is obvious concern of that region because of what could happen with hezbollah over the border. so we have a number of developments. our live coverage continues right after this.