♪ i'm boris sanchez live in washington where at any moment president biden will address the nation and the world on the escalating war between israel and hamas. we are going to bring that you speech live. a speech in which we've learned biden is not expected to urge israel to exercise restraint in a potential ground incursion into gaza, something that president biden we've learned has not tried to dissuade prime minister benjamin netanyahu from carrying out. we want to take you live to israel with my colleague anderson who is on the group with us.

>> thanks very much. today the bulk of the fighting has been in the skies here, israel air strikes, hamas rocket attacks ra ramping up on this fourth day of blood shed. here, take a look at the aftermath of air strikes on gaza, entire city blocks wiped out, the israeli defense forces say that they have hit hundreds of hamas targets. on the israeli side the scale of hamas atrocities is now just really fully coming into view. new video shows the scene left behind after more than 250 civilians were massacred by hamas at that music festival on saturday. the idf says the terrorists brutally butchered women, toddlers and the elderly in a southern israeli town this weekend. hamas has also taken dozens of hostages as you know, the exact number unknown. the son of a missing american citizen was understandably emotional speaking to reporters today. >> my mom used the little bit of

arabic that she picked up working as a nurse in the hospital for years to calm down the terrorists and it is our hope, which is a little bit ridiculous at this stage to say that the optimistic scenario is that she's held hostage in gaza and not dead on the street where we grew up. i want also to speak about the responsibility that the u.s. administration, president biden, and the secretary of state blinken has for the lives of every u.s. citizen that is out there. they are responsible to bring the u.s. citizens back home safe and sound. we expect nothing less --

>> the hostage crisis certainly likely would be part of president biden's remarks momentarily. as we await that we have clarissa ward in ashkelon and nic robertson from did he remember rot. nic, the idf forces say that hamas gunmen carried out a massacre in southern israel, this is now just becoming apparent. tell us what you have seen. >> reporter: we were taken to can a kfar aza, this was one of the places that hamas stormed into early saturday morning. 70 hamas fighters, about 700 residents. it was a 48-hour fire fight by the israeli defense force to take back control. they only got control of it back last night and the general who was in charge of that took us in there today and he told us the

reason he wanted to bring -- he wanted to bring journalists in there, he said, the horror that i found, the massacres that i found, the brutality that i found, he said, it reminded me of general eisenhower being taken and shown the death camps after world war ii. he said eisenhower said get the journalists in here and the general told me that's what i told my commanders. he said, get the journalists in here. so we were taken in today to see the aftermath. but what he had to say about that brutality that's being described as isis-style executions, he said very clearly that hamas was cutting the heads off of people. listen to his words. >> what i saw, hundreds of terrorists in full armor, full gear, with all the equipment and all the ability make a massacre, go from apartment to apartment, from room to room and kill babies, mothers, fathers in their bedrooms. >> reporter: you were telling me

some of them you went in their hands were tied together. >> they locked themselves in the protection rooms of their house and people were out with their children and they killed them. they killed babies in front of their parents, they killed parents and we found babies between the dogs and the family killed before him, he cut head of the people. >> reporter: and this is the first time -- i mean, when did you secure this area here? was it late last night? >> so we fight here wave after wave of terrorists until last night. >> reporter: and the aftermath is quite brutal. the apartments ransacked, there was one apartment, anderson, just to tell this other one story from there, where i was told that the parents realized that hamas was coming, they had 10-year-old twins and they locked the 10-year-old twins in a cupboard and then went out to fight hamas and hold them off,

and then they were killed, the parents were killed. it was several hours later that neighbors heard the twins screaming in the cupboard and they went in and the 10-year-old twins were okay, but how did they tell them that their parents had been killed by hamas? this is just one of the myriad of stories we're learning today, anderson. >> so, nick, we should explain, a kibbutz which is an a grainian community, small community, could be several hundred people, there are a number of them along -- near the gaza border, many of them have been there for decades and decades. these aren't necessarily the settlements that we've seen in east jerusalem and elsewhere, a lot of these are older established communities, but they were on -- literally the front lines, when the walls were breached, when the border was breached. it was often these kibbutz communities that were first

assaulted and some of the brutality, some of the worst brutality we're seeing, it occurred very early on and, as you said, this battle in k kfar aza seems to have been going on until just the last 24 hours or so did you actually witness with your own eyes what the commander was saying? what have you seen? >> reporter: we saw -- we were shown a lot of different areas, but one of the areas was where the young families lived. you know, the young parents with young children. when we were there there was a team in forensic white suits taking the dead in body bags and loading them into a van. so the stage that we were at was we were there was, you know -- the dead people were being taken away. there were, i will say, a lot of

hamas fighters lying where they had been shot and killed in the fire fight there. and the proximity you're talking about of all these little, you know, small communities, as you say, you and i have probably both been to some of the same ones over the years, i've been in some of them, you know, 20 years ago. it is, it's a group of very peaceful people living in, as you say, an egrarian life. the gates to that community were broken in where hamas forced their way n right now there is a big tank blocking that hole. we have also shown one of those paragliders, the small portable paraglider with the small engine on it and a motor and a fuel back on it that hamas had used actually to fly into the kibbutz as well. so, again, as we've seen so many times, this was so well-planned. the fighters that came through one hole in the fence knew exactly where they were going

and what they were doing and what they were targeting. 70 armed gunmen against 700 civilians and now we see the cost. >> and, nick, we know of children who have been kidnapped from other kibbutz locations along that border. i talked to a woman today whose cousin was kidnapped with her two very young children, a 9 month old, a 4-year-old. is it clear if there were any people taken alive from that kibbutz, from kfar aza? >> reporter: some were. some were. i think we're still in such an early phase of what's happened that really they're trying to -- the israeli defense force, the police, are just trying to figure out the numbers. who is safe and got away? who escaped in the day? who was -- who was taken out of a safe place by the israeli

defense force and who wasn't? and who was killed and who was taken into gaza. but some people from kfar aza were taken back into gaza. >> nic, stay with us. i want to bring in clarissa ward. clarissa, explain where you are and what you have been seeing because i know you've witnessed numerous volleys of rockets being fired today. >> that's right, anderson. hamas had put out a message on their telegram channel, on their social media app basically saying that people in the city here of ashkelon should leave by 5:00 p.m., that there was going to be retaliation for what they called the force displacement of ordinary civilians in gaza and then at exactly 5:00 p.m. we heard the first -- i won't even say volley -- barrage of rockets come slamming in. we have subsequently been watching, you know, every 20

minutes or so of the air raid sirens go off, you see the skylight up, the iron dome starts intercepting those various rockets. some of them have made impact, there have been reports of at least one home that we know of that took a direct hit. we actually spoke briefly earlier to the woman who was living there and she is miraculously perhaps alive. she was in her -- in her shelter. but certainly i would say a definitely uptick in the tempo here in ashkelon. again, this is a city that is not a stranger to rocket attacks, there are shelters all over, there's shelters on every floor of this hotel, but people here say that they haven't seen anything approaching this level in terms of the veracity, the volume and the continuous nature. and now everyone really just bracing themselves for what the night will bring ahead,

anderson. >> clarissa and nic, if you can stand by as we await for president biden to speak we're joined by lieutenant colonel jonathan conricus. we just got the report from the idf, from kfar aza that women, children, the elderly were butchered in this kibbutz. can you talk about what you think the significance of what you understand idf forces have seen in kfar aza. >> the scenes in kfar aza up until a few days ago was a peaceful society, many of the residents who lived there believed in peace, coexistence and mutual respect and had friends in gaza.

i know that personally i know many people in kfar aza who had friends in gaza. the butchery and the executions and the -- i don't want to confirm yet, there are many reports out there about beheadings. at this stage i cannot confirm that but i know that atrocities in kfar aza and in many, many other communities, things that -- they are hard to imagine. we've seen that and the reports that are coming up from israeli soldiers that are clearing communities are unimaginable. it's like things that you would see in a zombie movie or that you would see on online snuff terror movies distributed by isis. there's no comparison. it is unimaginable the cruelty of the just families being

executed, children mutilated. it is horrendous. >> can you give us an update just on what the progress, i mean, in terms of what is happening on the ground, you know, you and i have been talking now for several days and you've been very up front about what areas have been secured as best as anything can be secured and what the situation on the border s what is it like now at this hour? are there still -- i mean, in kfar aza there was fighting according to that on scene commander 24 hours or so ago or last night. what are you seeing on the ground? >> what we're seeing on the ground and the reports that are coming up is that just less than an hour ago the israeli troops in another kibbutz were able to kill two hamas terrorists who somehow made their way to that

kibbutz. they were engaged in battle and israeli troops were able to kill them swiftly. i'm not aware of any civilian or israeli casualties in that event. this tells us that it is still a combat zone, as unimaginable as this is to say, but southern israel is still, unfortunately, a live combat zone. today when international correspondents, cnn included, were granted access to those areas, it was like a combat -- it wasn't taking the international media to a community in israel, it was like taking the international media to see a combat zone and we had to have security and armored vehicles and the journalists had to wear their protective gear because it is an active combat zone, even in an area where there are so many troops.

so it is a situation that we definitely did not imagine before. we are coming to terms with the situation and as, i think, your reporters have also said, the resolve is high and the level of commitment of the public in general, you know, general sentiment, but most importantly of soldiers, of reserve soldiers and the regular soldiers, is very high. as we see the atrocities it saddens and tears our hearts, but it also serves to galvanize our spirit and our focus on what needs to be done against these monstrous terror that we have on our doorstep. >> i also want to be very just -- i'm trying to be very careful in our reporting on what nic robertson saw at kfar aza. as you said, you have not been able to confirm all of the reports that have been coming

out from troops on the ground, from others, but obviously there is more to be learned in the coming hours. you gave an update saying that the idf recovered the bodies of roughly 1,500 hamas gunmen inside israel. if that is the number of dead, do you have a sense of how many hamas terrorists were involved in this overall offensive? do you have an idea of how many are left on the hamas side? >> yeah, we are -- it is an evolving number. the figures here are rolling and we're trying to provide as much information as quickly as possible and as accurately as possible. we're working on counting bodies, the priority is first and foremost to identify israeli civilians and try to match using dna and other information and to, you know, inform families.

there is tremendous outcry in israel of the lacking information. i don't know how much that has been reflected in international media, but that is the talk of the day in israel. so that is priority number one, getting information to israelis. and second priority is, yes, finding terrorists and then counting the bodies. i am aware of that high number that you mentioned. it's not an official idf talley yet, it will be, i hope, during the night or in the morning, and then we can, you know, put pieces of the puzzle together and start to assess the combat capabilities of hamas since they have sent over so many of their trained terrorists, some of them highly trained of their best units, which is their equivalent of the special forces if you can draw a comparison to a military, with the better equipment, better training and that are

really task oriented to do this kind of butchering, going into israeli communities and murdering israeli civilians. so they sent over those, but also let's say rank and file, run-of-the-mill terrorists, perhaps with less training. we will get to the bottom of it. our intelligence people will analyze and make sense of every piece of information. we have live terrorists that we have apprehended, quite a few of them. they are being interrogated in order to extract intelligence, very important intelligence, exactly to answer those questions and others. how did this happen? how did they plan it? how did they enter? et cetera, et cetera. and we will make sense of it and we will use it for our future operations. >> just briefly, reuters has reported that hamas built a mock israeli settlement to train for the operation. can you confirm that? >> yes. i mean, we can see -- you could see it on their propaganda

videos that they're disseminating, both with their buckeye aerial unit, those glienders, motorized gliders and other units. we've that that in the past that they used the ruins of the israeli communities in gaza and they've used that to practice on. we've seen that in the past, that is not necessarily a new thing that they have urban training centers and now they released this propaganda video. so it confirms it. >> lieutenant colonel conricus, thank you. >> thank you. we are awaiting on president biden, anticipating his remarks, reaction to what is happening in israel and gaza. we will bring you his remarks once they begin. also we are monitoring the live pictures from the region, hamas and israel exchanging as clarissa ward was reporting a barrage of rockets. we are on top of the fast moving

developments as we head to a quick break. here is an israeli man whose daughter is still missing after the attack on that music festival. >> you cannot imagine the situation that kids going to dance and, you know, have fun and going to club and they're not coming back home because they've been captured as war prisoners.

we are standing by for the white house as biden is due to speak at any moment from the state dining room about the attacks on israel. we just learned that he wrapped a call moments ago with israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu. let's take you to the white house now with cnn's mj lee. so, mj, talk to us about what you've learned regarding the call and what we're anticipating will be biden's message during these remarks. >> reporter: boris, we are told by officials that we should expect president biden to address a couple of things here. first and foremost, and this is

no surprise, we should expect president biden to reiterate the u.s.'s support for israel, both the government of israel and the people of israel, and that the u.s. is willing and ready to provide whatever resources and tools the country needs to get through the next couple of weeks. we also expect that th president will address the hostage situation unfolding over there. of course, this comes as officials have made very clear that they are sort of accepting the very real possibility that americans could be among the hostages that have been taken into gaza, but this is a very, very precarious and complicated situation where they really can't at this moment in time give us even a number, an estimate as to how many hostages might have been taken and certainly the conditions of those people that are inside gaza right now. we also are told by officials that there should be a message from the president broadly to the jewish community, obviously goes without saying that the events over the weekend and the scenes that are coming out of israel, they have been deeply upsetting and traumatizing for everyone, but particularly this

community. now, boris, as for the situation on the ground, and just the questions of what actions israel might take next, we are told this by one official, we are not urging restraint right now. i think that really just goes to capture just how unique and shocking and just the complexity of the attack that we saw over the weekend that the president right now at this moment in time feels like it is wholly inappropriate for him when he is talking about the situation to urge kind of -- any kind of restraint to israel. now, as you mention, we did just get word from the white house that president biden wrapped up his phone call with prime minister netanyahu. this is the third time that we know of that the two men have spoken since the attack began on saturday, and, of course, while we don't have a full readout, we fully expect that the president reiterated the u.s.'s support for israel. and i can tell you just based on information that we have about their prior phone call on

saturday, we are told when -- that prime minister netanyahu brought up the possibility of a ground incursion into gaza, again, the president privately in this phone call did not urge restraint. so, again, all of this just goes to capture what u.s. officials here are navigating and the shocking sort of wide breadth of the attack that we are told both israeli and u.s. officials were really caught offguard by. >> we will see what president biden says about his phone call with the prime minister of israel in his remarks moments away, mj lee, thank you so much. let's discuss the situation with cnn global affairs analyst kimberly dozier. always great to see you. what are you anticipating we are hear from president biden. >> i think president biden has to prepare the american public for what the israelis have told him is coming. it's very clear from the positioning of their military equipment they're going to do a ground assault and they promised something like the hamas fighters have, quote, unquote,

never seen before. so you can expect that it's going to go into several parts of gaza. when you do something like that in a tightly populated area, 2.3 million people inside this area, u.n. schools that have been used as bomb shelters are overflowing, people literally don't know where to go to get out of the way. there are going to be civilian casualties and israel is going to need u.s. support for the days that are coming. at the u.n. security council, the u.s. in the past has been one of the few countries that has abstained or stood by israel when there are votes of censure. they will need that support. they will need rearming, resupplying to keep the iron dome going and precision air strike weaponry to keep those precision strikes going especially if this opens up into a more than one front war. we have had some skirmishes from the north, that to get worse.

>> how do you read the reporting about biden not encouraging restraint when it comes to a potential ground incursion into gaza? >> look, we just had a conversation with idf spokesman jonathan conricus and he's being very careful about not confirming some of the reports of atrocities yet, but what i'm hearing from israeli friends, israeli officials, they are seeing horrific video of -- video that the militants took and have posted to brag about what they did, assaulting women, children, and u.s. officials are seeing that and their raw emotion is also driving this reaction. in other words, how can you ask an ally to show restraint when you've seen not just attacks on troops, but attacks on civilians that go into the isis level category of violence.

that's what we keep hearing from u.s. officials in their description of what they have been seeing. >> heartless terrorism, there is really no other way to describe the bar beatty in some of that footage. kim, you noted the complexity of urban warfare in a place like gaza, there are complicating factors, it's not only civilians that troops have to worry about, it's also hostages, 100 to 150 israeli, some american citizens, hostages being held by hamas. how does that complicate what the idf might try to achieve? >> well, in the past couple of days with all of the bombing and saturating the area with all of their available intelligence assets, what they've surely been trying to do is map out where are new tunnel networks where the hostages could be hiding that we weren't aware of before. perhaps the u.s. even gave some of their satellite time to do that kind of deep probing into the ground because the best way to avoid civilian casualties and

casualties on the israeli side, they don't want to have more troops taken hostage, is to know precisely where the hostages are, get to them and get as many of them safely out. >> kim, please stand by because, again, we're anticipating remarks from president biden at the white house set to come at any moment. we do want to go back to israel as hamas launches a new round of attacks. we will take you there live in just moments. stay with cnn for continuing coverage of israel at war.

welcome back to our special coverage of israel at war. president biden is set to speak at any moment. we are going to bring that to you live. right now israel is striking gaza with air strikes. hamas has returned fire, launching a barrage of rockets toward ashkelon. the death toll continues to climb. israeli defense forces say that they are still trying to assess the actual number of fatalities. they say that more than 900 people have died in israel, haven't given an exact number. nearly 900 are dead in gaza according to palestinian officials. up to 150 hostages, including children and americans, are

believed to be -- are believed to be in gaza right now. stories have been continuing to come in of family and friends desperately searching for missing loved ones. i spoke with one woman, i want to show you some of that. >> can you just walk us through what happened when your home was attacked? >> yes. we were hiding in the shelter, a friend of mine living next to me and me, we were hidden in the closet -- hiding in the closet, and then the terrorists came and they bombed the door. the bullets, they all entered into my friend's body, so i was saved thanks to him. and then they pulled me out of

the closet, they told me to cover myself so i just took three skirts and put them on me, one on my legs, one on my shoulders and one on my head and then they took me to my living room. >> wait. i'm -- so wait. so the person you were with in the closet was shot? >> he was murdered, yes. >> and you were shot as well? >> i wasn't. i wasn't. i was saved because he was next to the door and they shot him and they saved -- i don't know why, they just took me out of there and i was saved. he absorbed all the bullets into his body and when i went out i saw him dead. >> they took you to the living room? >> they took me to the living room and then came more terrorists, the children of my

friend which she is still missing. they gave me the 4 1/2 month old boy and the 4-year-old girl, both traumatized and they just gave them to me and from there they took me to another home. it was a family in the shelter and they tried to convince them to go out of the shelter -- shelter and they told me what to tell them in order to come out. thankfully they did not listen, not to me, not to the terrorists obviously. >> and these children, they must have been terrified. were they crying? >> yes. >> were they silent? i mean, this is -- >> they were -- they were traumatized. they were shocked. one had a bullet that crossed

his foot and the baby he was breathing so much gunfire and his lungs were absorbing so much. both of them were traumatized and they were just quiet. they kept like, you know, gazing at the terrorists with terrified e eyes. from there -- >> a 5-year-old child and a 4 1/2-month-old child? >> almost 4 years old child and a 4 1/2 month -- almost 5 month baby who is still breastfeeding. his mother is missing. >> well, we are still awaiting live remarks from president biden. he just wrapped up a phone call with the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu. we are told it comes as israel

is continuing to -- to bombard targets inside gaza. our coverage continues in just a moment.

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reporters to take shelter before the interruption the families expressed their frustration with the lack of information coming from officials. our becky anderson was there, she joins me now. a lot of frustration. a lot of people understand also the chaotic nature of the situation and why there may be a lack of information, but still people are desperate. >> reporter: yeah. yeah. we heard today from the families of four u.s. citizens who are missing, believed now to be hostages in gaza. they range from a 23-year-old who had been partying in the desert on saturday morning and we've reported on what was a massacre when 260 people were killed there, and many attacked and taken into gaza. as we understand it this young land is one of those. we heard from the family of a 66-year-old woman who has lived on a kibbutz for more than 40 years, she is a midwife and a peace-loving woman, we heard

from her son and her daughter. >> she's been taken as well? >> reporter: she's been taken as well. and we also heard from the father of a young chap who is 35 years old, he's married with two kids, another on the way, lives in the kibbutz very near oz and his father last heard from him on saturday morning. i caught up with him and this is part of the conversation that we had. >> the united states administration and its various services have relationships in the world and with countries that israel does not, and it could be helpful for the united states and its various parts to engage with those friends, those acquai acquaintances, to help negotiate in some way secure the release or at least get solid information. my children and grandchildren

who were on the kibbutz, so his young family and another young family experienced a living hell for the better part of 20 hours. these are young children, young men and women who cannot be anything other than traumatized by what they witnessed. my job now as a parent is to try to put the pieces back together. >> reporter: these families including jonathan are making a direct appeal now to the u.s. president joe biden and to the secretary of state antony blinken to get involved. they are incredibly frustrated about the vacuum of information. they are hearing nothing about either the kids' moms who have been taken, taken hostage, nor are they hearing anything at all about what happens next. so they are appealing directly to the u.s., and they are

they understand the chaos of saturday. but they are so frustrated now. >> as the days go by, the frustration obviously understandably only grows. one of the sick scenarios here is that you have families without -- not getting any information from authorities, are scrolling on telegram and these other social media sites through jihadist videos looking for sign of their loved ones. seeing horrific things in these videos but forcing themselves just in the desperate hopes that maybe somewhere in the background they can see a missing loved one. >> it's so interesting because i had that conversation with the parents of the young lad who was in the rave. and you know, they didn't want to look at any of this stuff. of course they don't. but rachel, his mother, had pieced together herself, and she explained this in the press conference which we took live on cnn, she pieced together what happened to her son herself through getting in touch with other people who were at that

rave and looking at social media. that's it. >> that family member, somebody from nir oz. that's a kibbutz that has been there for a very long time. it was one of the -- in the initial wave of this terror attack they were hit very, very hard. it was a battle that went on for very long. everybody in the kibbutz has safe rooms in their house. many people were hiding in their houses. we know of at least -- we know of multiple children that were stolen, that were kidnapped from nir oz, and that is just one of these kibbutz. >> that was a community much 400. there are 160 left. >> incredible. becky anderson, thank you. stay with cnn. we'll be right back.

about 24 hours before house republicans are set to hold an internal election for a new house speaker, there are still signs of deep division. today the republican conference will hold a candidate forum with the tension over kevin mccarthy's unprecedented ouster still simmering. cnn's knelmelanie zanona is livr us on capitol hill. what's happening today? >> reporter: on the eve of their speaker election there is still no clear candidate for the job, which is really just underscoring the uncertainty inside the house gop amid these

horrific attacks on israel. so far the speaker's race is a two-way race between jim jordan the house you'ri chairman and steve scalise the house majority leader. but kevin mccarthy has thrown in a last-minute wrench into the mix by refusing to rule out a return to the speakership and refusing to throw his weight behind another candidate. and now some of mccarthy's allies are saying they're thinking about nomtding him or at least continuing to vote for him tomorrow. just take a listen to what one of his supporters told me yesterday. >> i'm voting for kevin mccarthy. until -- until told otherwise. we can be just as hardheaded. so we have to come to the middle. all right? and to me the middle is not a consensus kind of candidate. maybe it will be at the end. but right now, you know, it takes -- you know, two can tango. >> reporter: to be clear kevin mccarthy still faces very long odds to securing the speaker's gavel. all the hard-liners that i talked to who voted to remove him say they are not relenting.

but this could complicate and pro-long the gop's ability to coalesce around a single candidate tomorrow, which is their goal, and it has also only heightened tensions inside the gop, boris. >> absolutely. and there's a lot in the balance, not the least of which is aid for israel. melanie zanona live for us on capitol hill. thanks so much. we're still awaiting remarks from president biden on the crisis in the middle east. at any moment the president set to speak from the white house. we'll take you there when it happens. stay with cnn.