communities, murdering people in their beds, attacking large community gatherings and a music concert. and, so, what israel needs to continue doing is to recognize the ongoing threat of this terrorist organization, certainly to the people in israel as they continue to inflict harm and to the hostages that hamas continues to hold and to the people on the ground in gaza. >> how worried are you about civilian casualties in gaza? >> i am deeply concerned about any time a civilian is killed, is put in the medicine ild of what is a horrific and violent act of engagement. in this case, i won't use combat because in fact hamas when they went into israel, they targeted civilians, they targeted families, they targeted kids and

murdered them. but israel needs to continue to be able to defend herself. we all across the world need to ensure the safety and security of civilians and the united states needs to stand ready to help our allies. >> congresswoman spanberger, thanks so much for joining us. >> thank you so much for having me. >> and "erin burnett outfront" live from israel starts right now. "outfront" next, live from israel, the breaking news. 20 americans now missing on top of 14 already declared dead. this as a u.s. aircraft carrier moves closer to israel at this all. all while israel prepares for what appears to be a major invasion after a barbaric isis-style attack from hamas. outsmarted the militants by jamming the safe room door. what she did to keep the attackers at bay as they tried again and again to get through. a miraculous story of survival. and that brave woman is my guest

tonight. and then inside gaza. it's as densely packed as the city of london. underground tunnels that could be booby trapped. what an invasion there could truly look like. let's go "outfront." and good evening, welcome to a special edition of "outfront." i'm erin burnett live in tel aviv tonight. and tonight, the breaking news this hour. as we were going to air, our crews near gaza hearing many loud explosions, and we're going to go to the ground there in just a moment. first, though, here off the coast, u.s. aircraft carrier is getting closer to israel at this hour. now in the eastern mediterranean sea. on the "uss gerald r. ford," a number of guided missile destroyers, guided missile cruisers. it is a major show of force after the horrific show of force by hamas that killed more than 1,000 people. and, tonight, we are learning that 20 americans are now missing after the attack still unaccounted for. and that is on top of the 14

americans that we already know declared to be dead. the fate of the 20 is unknown. have they lost their lives, are they being held as hostages as well? they do not know. and this raises a major question. just how will the united states respond. israel right now preparing for an invasion, a ground invasion of gaza that appears to be imminent. along the israeli border with gaza, there are thousands of israeli paratroopers, snipers, artillery and tank units ready for what could be a major ground invasion. and throughout the night, we have heard the terrifying sounds of explosions, and here in tel aviv you can feel them actually through your body. and we have seen israel's iron dome in action intercepting rockets fired from gaza again and again. that, of course, is where the massive and highly coordinated attack on israel was launched from. and in just a moment, we are going to take you inside a town that was raided by palestinian

gunmen, what our reporter found was chilling. bodies everywhere, some executed and then beheaded, homes burned, isis-style savagery committed by hamas is hard to comprehend. and today president biden delivering an angry and forceful conte condemnation. >> this is an act of sheer evil, more than 1,000 civilians slaughtered, not just killed, slaughtered. stomach-turning reports of babies being killed. entire families slain. young people massacred. the brutality of hamas, this blood thirstiness brings to mind the worst rampages of isis. this is terrorism. >> and i want to begin our coverage live here tonight with nic robertson. he is "outfront" live in sderot,

israel, which is about 45 miles south of where i'm standing right now. and, nic, where you are, many loud explosions just moments ago. what's happening as best as you can tell? >> yeah. there's a lot of helicopter activity in the sky. i heard fighter jets. this is not that uncommon. but we've heard a lot of mechanical heavy equipment moving in the area between this town and the gaza fence, which is less than a couple of miles really from where we're standing right now. so there's a lot of machinery, mechanized units being -- military units being maneuvered in that area at the moment. we don't know what for, but the explosions that we've been experiencing here over the past perhaps hour or so. but pretty intense up here in the past 20 minutes. you see a big flash go off behind me, count to five, and then you will hear a huge explosion. the explosions have been enough

to shake the roof of this building here. so they're impacting in gaza a couple of miles away. and it's enough to shake the roof of the building here. but what we found when we went to -- it took the israeli defense forces 48 hours of fighting against hamas to take back control of it. what we found there and what the israeli defense forces wanted to show us was what they were describing as the brutality of the way that people were treated there, of the residents were treated. that some of them had their hands bound, that whole families were executed, parents, children, people even beheaded, he said. this is what happened on the road there. the drive into kafir azar is chilling. evidence of hamas' butchery everywhere. this israel defense force

general shocked at what he found. >> i thought about general eisenhower that come to the camp in europe. he did the same, inviting about 50 journalists. it's a big massacre, big disaster. >> have you ever seen anything like this in your career? >> never. >> reporter: less than a mile from gaza, 70 hamas fighters stormed in here early saturday, some even flying. they're telling us this is one of the paragliders that flew in here. you can see the engine here, the propellers here made of carbon fiber. the fuel tank up here, and the seat at the front. the idf in control now after a two-day battle. hamas lie where they fell. only now, the extremes of their

barbarity becoming apparent. 700 plus civilians lived here. how many were killed still unclear. how they died brutally apparent. some decapitated, they say. >> babies in the front of their parents and then they kill the parents. we found babies between the family that was killed before. they cut the head of the people. >> reporter: each body bag silent, sentinel, to the intelligence failure that allowed this community and others to be overrun, and motivation for troops, too. >> we wait to switch ourself from the defense to -- because we defend our people. and till now --

>> reporter: you say you're going to attack. will you be going into gaza? we can see it here. >> i look to the next hundred yards. >> reporter: do you take care of the next hundred yards? >>&then look forward. >> reporter: forward to a possible showdown with hamas. how and when, still to be determined. and that's really where i think these troops find themselves at the moment. they are waiting for that political decision. the sense with them today was there was sort of a pause, but not a pause where you sit back and rest but a pause where you change posture and begin to lean forward. and you get that sense for them. they're really waiting to get the political direction of what they need to do. they know that if they go into gaza, that this will be a very bloody fight, a very dangerous fight for them because they'll be fighting in streets, in small streets and civilian

neighborhoods where the enemy know the terrain, where the population is against them. but also in an environment where they want to avoid civilian casualties. yet, in an environment like that in gaza, civilian casualties, as seen in the past, do and will happen. so, all of this stands in front of israel, stands in front of the prime minister right now. and most particularly stands in front of those troops we were with today. erin? >> all right, nic, thank you very much. major ben wahlhaus is the spokesperson for the idf. i very much appreciate your time, major. on the back of this reporting and here we are tonight. hamas obviously has always been a brutal organization. now, though, these reports we're seeing beheadings, isis-like cruelty, babies. have you seen a shift in their tactics? >> hamas has always been a

murderous terrorist organization, and it's openly stated its explicit aim is to kill all the jews and all the israelis that it can. so in terms of who it is as an organization, that's nothing new. but surely the extent and the barbaric nature of these attacks is something we haven't seen before. and as your journalists saw today, as our forces go through the south and clear house by house making sure there is no terrorist presence left, we are starting to find those corpses that were brutally mutilated, entire communities mass conferred. and, yes, as you say, this is something that we haven't seen before. >> major, there is the strikes coming from gaza. i also understand there was a clash between idf soldiers and hamas militants inside israel. in the north, meantime, three rockets were seen launched from syrian territory, according to the idf. rockets were launched from

lebanon earlier. where does security of israeli land stand at this hour? >> yes. this is an extremely complex security situation. we are continuing intensive fighting in the south with the aim of stopping hamas' attacks and making sure they can't carry these kinds of attacks out again. thousands of rockets are still being fired into israeli cities indiscriminately. and at the same time, now our northern border and on our eastern border, we have antitank fire, rocket fire from lebanon and syria. we have called up over 300,000 reserve soldiers who have left their families and are deployed on all of their borders. and in the north we're watching very carefully and making sure that the message is clear that no one should join in the fight. >> reuters is reporting that for months leading up to the attack, hamas misled israel to believe that it didn't want to fight, didn't want a confrontation, and that report cites a source close to hamas saying that the

organization went so far as to construct a mock israeli town, a settlement in gaza where they practiced a military landing. they trained to storm it. can you confirm any of this? >> well, hamas' intentions have always been clear. the fact that it makes a mock israeli town to invade shows that this is a war against civilians. hundreds of terrorists streaming across the border and massacring women and children and elderly is a war against civilians. taking civilians' entire families into gaza, abducting them, that's a war against civilians. and, at the same time, they're using their own civilians as human shields, placing the military targets inside homes, mosques, hospitals, all in an effort to use their civilian population as shields. >> so, in terms of any sort of a mock, you know, settlement that they may have created, do you know where that is or what they

were doing? do you know how this was trained for and accomplished? >> we're looking forward at the moment, our immediate priority is to stop hamas' attacks. their rocket attacks indiscriminately into our cities. attempted attacks by land, by air from gaza. and our immediate priority is to protect our civilian population from further attacks. >> all right, major, i appreciate your time, and thank you very much. of course, it is past 2:00 in the morning, so another late or all-night for you. in a moment i'm going to be joined by a man whose nephew was abducted from the music festival in israel where hamas fighters killed at least 260 innocent people. i want to warn you that the video that i'm about to show you of omar being taken is disturbing. but we are showing it because ricardo and omar's parents want to see it. he is just 22 years old in the

back of that truck. his clothes appear to be missing. the hamas militants are hitting him, whipping him. you can see the torture, the degradation that he's enduring. there's a gun pointed at him. this is horrific to watch for any human being. ricardo grishner is "outfront" now. for you, this is human -- this is your family, it is incredibly hard for any human being to watch that video. but i know that you and omar's parents are insisting you want the world to see it because you want the world to know what is happening. you want the world to know what hamas is capable of. have you heard anything about your nephew's condition now and his whereabouts? >> thank you very much for the opportunity to basically assess the situation. it's exactly as you said. the situation is brutal.

the video is horrifying, to see your nephew in this situation basically hit, brutalized, something that anybody that is human would be, of course, shocked. from my point of view, i just want to see one thing, i want to see omer getting back to his family. he is 22 years old. he is sick, he needs some medical attention. from our point of view, what we see is hamas is responsible for his well-being. give him back to his family. it can be done. so, anything that we can do, anything that can be done. >> ricardo, you mentioned your nephew being in poor health. i know he has a serious medical condition. he does urgently need medication for it, colitis. what is your biggest concern? we saw how he was actually physically tortured. i know that you have no idea what his actual condition is.

but even the basics of going without his medication, what cost does that come at for him? >> so, of course, the situation can deteriorate. we don't know exactly what will happen at the end of the day because he can get very ill, high fever, physical illness. and, of course, we assume that he will not be treated very good. so, the best thing for hamas is to return him to his family, he is 22 years old, civilian, restaurant manager. he has nothing to do with the situation. he was abducted from a rock festival, a peaceful rock festival. there was no justification, no logic whatsoever. >> well, i want to ask you, because i know you appealed to the red cross. they actually did appeal to hamas, just asking them to allow your nephew his medication. the basic human dignity of his

medication even within the hostage situation. did they even respond, was there a response to that plea? >> nothing whatsoever. we have no information. the international laws, the international agreements regarding taking care of sick, getting to visits, even the hamas brutal murders in the jails of israel get visits. they know exactly the situation. the fact that we are right now 130 captives that we don't even recognize their location, their well-being, any information whatsoever about their condition. i know regarding omer specifically that is okay because you can see from the video. you can see that he is not having any wound shots or any damages. so he should be back to his family immediately without any

justification. >> so you believe from the video, ricardo, that -- i'm so sorry. i didn't mean to talk over to you. but you do believe at this point from every indication that you have that omer is still alive tonight? >> exactly. there is no reason to think something else. as you can see in the video, he has no blood, nothing to shed any justification, only consideration that he is damaged. so he should be okay unless something happened only in gaza, which is under the responsibility of hamas. it's already in the area of -- because you can see in the background of the movie that you can see gaza area. it's not israel. so he was perfectly fine. the only thing was, of course, he was stripped from his clothes, he was hit, but he was perfectly fine from physical condition, as you can see in the movie. so we expect him to return back

to his family. again, he is a civilian, 22 years old. >> thank you for sharing. thank you so much for sharing the story and the video. and i know it has got to be so horrific and a hard choice for you and his parents to make a decision to share that. but it is important, and we thank you very much, ricardo. you're in my thoughts. >> omer, we are waiting for you. you have a loving family. we are here for you. go back home. we will take you home. >> and, as we wait for omer and the other hostages, all of whom are still missing tonight, no one knows where they are, their condition in gaza. our breaking news coverage continues live from israel with a heart-stopping story of survival. next i'm going to talk to a woman, she was at home. hamas stormed her neighborhood. she survived by barricading herself in a safe room. hear how she was able to outsmart the militants as they banged on that door.

and live pictures out of gaza where loud explosions can be heard at this evening, and as casualties mount there, a look at what an invasion could actually look like, and what is truly one of the world's most densely populated areas. and i'm going to speak to a hostage negotiator who has gotten american hostages out of ukraine and other countries around the world including afghanistan. he's with me tonight, on the hostages he is trying to free right here in gaza to save lives.

breaking news. a u.s. carrier strike group just arriving in the eastern mediterranean sea just off israel's coast. it is led by the "uss gerald r. ford." it is a nuclear-powered navy aircraft carrier, and is accompanied by guided missile destroyers and guided missile cruisers. its arrival comes as the u.s. confirms 20 americans are missing after hamas' brutal attack on israel. on top of 14 already declared dead. oren liebermann is "outfront." oren, what more have you learned about this show of force from the united states? right now that's what it is, it's a show of force, as opposed to actual force. but that's the question, what could it mean for a much deeper and more serious involvement in this conflict? >> reporter: erin, the biden administration has made clear that it is not getting involved in this fight right now between israel and hamas in gaza. that's not the purpose of the "uss gerald r. ford" and the carrier strike group that's coming with it. but it is a message to other iranian-backed proxies in the

region, hezbollah and lebanon. we've already seen some firing at the lebanese border with israel. this is who that message is directed at, a message of deterrence warning iran of its proxies not to get involved. it's not just the carrier in the eastern med. the u.s. is sending more fighter aircraft to the region, realizing iran might try to take advantage of the situation in other parts of the middle east. so this is very much the recipient of that message. it's also worth noting that the u.s. has a special operations team in jerusalem that was scheduled to be there as part of the cooperation with israel before the fighting started. but they have offered help when it comes to intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance on the hostage rescue effort. so that's another key element of all the support we're seeing from president joe biden, defense secretary lloyd austin and others in the administration all directed at israel to give the country the full u.s. backing. erin? >> all right, oren, thank you very much. a situation obviously dynamic.

and, as i said, we look out here tel aviv behind me. the mediterranean in front. and you know that it is not far, that aircraft carrier is there. "outfront" now, a person who survived a harrowing siege by hamas in the near bose kibbutz, which is a community right near the gaza border. she survived by barricading herself, barricading herself in a safe room in her house for nearly 12 hours. as i said, i don't want to say i'm glad to be with you, but i'm glad that you're okay, you're with your family. you're inside your home. you're celebrating. and all of a sudden hamas storms the kibbutz. what even happened? when did you realize that there was something horrific happening? >> um, actually, we just -- we ran into the safe room just for a regular bombing, which we used to for years and years now.

and then a few minutes later my neighbor texts us a message to the neighborhood saying he sees armed hamas people entering the kibbutz. >> individual militants? >> yes. so he said close yourself in the security room. so, we stayed inside, we and my daughter, we stayed inside. then minutes later i realized that actually they can just open the door, it's not really locked. so, this is like such a scary moment because we started hearing shooting, automatic weapons, grenades a second later after he texted us this message. the whole kibbutz with guns and fire guns, just automatic weapons everywhere, endless, endless shooting and grenades. so i'm trying to figure out what to do, are they going to maybe break into our door, how can i

make sure it's locked. and i started texting and calling people from the kibbutz how to lock the door, and nobody knew how to lock the door. >> oh, my goodness. >> it was so scary. then i text my family, do you know how to -- >> your brother. >> my brother responded with a picture of how he locked his door. he is in a small village just five kilometers from mine. and he was there, too. so i saw how he locked his with two broomsticks. i thought -- >> so like a makeshift barricade, it wasn't even technically locking. >> yes. and then i thought, i don't have any brooms, how would i do that. but i then remembered i had a stick and then i took my -- >> we're looking at some of the pictures, your dyson vacuum. >> i took this hose, and me and

my daughter, we tried tieing it first. every second counts because -- >> so then you're hearing when they come in the house, you hear them. what is that like -- the fear of death is this. it's hard to imagine how you know that you're just going to die if they break in. and i was just tieing these things to the door. and large, you know, men's large voices screaming in arabic banging everything, large bangs and shouting. the whole -- it's just fear. and after they broke everything, they reached the door. and i was still hoping that they would pass that door and not go in. >> they came to the door? >> they came to the door and they start trying to open and trying to open and banging and shouting and banging it.

there's nothing we could do except we were hugging, my daughter and i under the table hiding in the dark. >> and you're just sitting there trying to be silent. >> yeah. >> at this moment, you're thinking seconds till -- >> till our death. so we started saying to each other, i love you, my daughter says, mom, i love you, i really appreciate everything you did for me. and i told her how much i love her. we thought we were just going to die, and they kept banging the door trying to open. and i was sure that whatever i did, the vacuum cleaner and the broomstick would hold, but it did. after eight or ten minutes of trying and screaming and shooting everything, they finally moved on breaking more things in the house and moved to the next neighbors and shooting there and trying to break their doors. terrible, terrible. they just moved from door to

door, from house to house, bringing to each and every house in the kibbutz. i heard my neighbor's daughters, the ones who lived right in front of me. they have 2 years old and 5 years old. they were screaming while this automatic weapon shooting. >> did they survive? >> they did. but the other side neighbors, they killed the whole family, grandmother, her son and his wife and three little children. so many people died. i think 30%, one out of three people either died or kidnapped. and we're a small community. we're just less than 400 people including children. so many were kidnapped. and my best friend's daughter and son were kidnapped. and we don't know if they're alive. my friend's parents were

kidnapped, killed. i don't know. and, you know, this is like where is the limit of somebody's behavior? even if you want your own freedom, you want your own country, where is your moral limit? shooting and killing children? kidnapping 5-year-olds? babies, babies! a woman with her two little babies who were just born, where is one's moral behavior? would you do everything for that? everything for what you want? and, you know, i volunteer, i was a big supporter of the palestinians. i used to volunteer taking sick palestinian kids from the border to the israeli hospitals. i volunteered doing this. i mean, this is what happened. it's breaking my heart. and my friends are crying and crying.

all these people are missing. we don't know if they will come alive. so many people are dead. they destroyed our kibbutz completely, burned houses. terrible. but luckily they left, but then we thought, ah, okay, they left, we are alive, but then they came again an hour later, again, trying to break into the door, banging, banging. this arabic shouting. it was so scary. but it didn't open again, luckily. and then the third time again they came. it was like an endless nightmare. we couldn't believe that we would come out alive. >> well, thank god. thank god you are here. i think anybody watching anywhere around the world cannot truly comprehend what you went through. but -- >> terrible. >> i think it's so important, and thank you so much for sharing so that we can all understand, try to understand a bit of the pain and agony of what you endured.

>> thank you. >> and we thank you and your daughter that you're all right. i'm so sorry for the incredible loss of your friends. >> i hope everybody's getting -- will be released and will be alive. i don't know if they will come out alive from this. i hope so. i hope they will. it's terrible. thank you. >> thank you for sharing. we're going to take a brief break and we'll be right back in a moment.

and you are looking at live pictures out of gaza where

israel is conducting right now wide-scale strikes on multiple hamas targets. the israeli defense minister warning tonight, quote, gaza will never return to what it was. this as the white house says it does not expect israel to pursue a siege of gaza. that's the word they used. as it responds to the unprecedented attacks by hamas. attacks that we understand now have left at least 1,000 people in israel dead. matthew chance is "outfront." >> reporter: across gaza, israel is unleashing its wrath. the small gaza port pounded from the air. israel's military says more than 2,000 targets in this densely populated area including apartment buildings and mosques have been destroyed. recent attacks by hamas triggering a devastating response. and in gaza, it's a bloody one,

too. palestinians are digging through the rubble of flattened buildings as the death toll climbs. health officials there say more than 900 people have so far been killed. >> translator: my three sons were killed, along with their wives and children. there are nearly 50 martyrs in this building. >> reporter: israel's military says it's retrieved the bodies of another 1,500 palestinians who stormed israeli territory and is now hunting hamas down. >> translator: hamas operatives will have nowhere to hide in gaza. we will reach them anywhere. >> reporter: that may mean going in even harder. already israel has deployed forces and called up hundreds of

thousands of reserve troops in apparent readiness for a land attack. but not only is gaza one of the world's most densely populated areas. it's also crisscrossed by a hidden possibly booby trapped network of tunnels used by militants to move undetected through the area. israel's widely anticipated ground assault on gaza, if it happens, will also be fraught with danger. >> so, matthew, obviously the u.s. is saying there's no expectations of a siege. but you have a mass amount of israeli defense forces, paratroopers, snipers amassing on that border for an unprecedented possible ground invasion. is there a sense from israel that they truly can do anything they need to do? >> we certainly get that sense. i mean, israel at the moment, as you've been reporting on, as you've been hearing yourself, is full of horror and full of rage

about what's happened in this country. and a lot of anxiety about what happens next. and, of course, if you speak to the soldiers and the officials of this country, they are saying we'll do whatever it takes now the gloves are off. of course, all sides have a responsibility to protect civilians in a conflict and the humanitarian law. and israelis reject the idea that the killing of palestinian civilians can in any way be comfor comparable to the way hamas attacked. >> matthew chance, thank you very much. "outfront" now, retired lieutenant general mark hertling, former army commanding general for europe and the seventh army where he worked closely with the israeli army including dozens of instances of providing air defense support. so, general hertling, here we are tonight, obviously, attacks

again, counterattacks in gaza. you hear the thuds, you feel the thuds through your body throughout the day. you've got the rockets then coming in from hamas. we understand right now 14 americans have been killed, 20 or more unaccounted for in israel, we understand from the biden administration. and president biden has confirmed that there are american hostages. so, general, in this situation, where you've got the israelis massing on that border, prepared for a ground invasion, can the u.s. sit back and just send aid? or will the united states do more and get more involved? >> i'd suggest, erin, what we're talking about with both the carrier strike group, the central command headquarters, as well as the air force that are in the area, that there's an awful lot of planning going on across the entire spectrum of contingencies. there's no sitting back. i guarantee you that general eric carrillo is not sitting back. they are looking at all different types of options, not only for support but how they

might engage others that would interfere with the operations that are about to occur, or that might provide more forces in the area that would counter what israel's trying to do. i say there's no sitting back, and there's a lot of planning and contingency operations being prepared. >> we talk about americans missing, americans confirmed killed. obviously, there are incredibly close ties between the two countries. many americans in israel. germany announced it's going to evacuate the german citizens who are in israel. they want to get them all out of the country on thursday and friday. they say their airline lufthansa is going to operate special flights to accomplish this. a country doing a full-scale evacuation, and do you think the united states either should or will do something similar? >> well, it's interesting, erin, because i had this conversation today with a member of the administration. and, in fact, american airline is still flying into ben gurion.

that's the airline that normally flies the israel routes. there are several others that are also supporting that. and the question about conducting noncombatant evacuation, a neo operation, which is a military operation, which germany is considering. i would suggest there's probably other countries considering that. as long as commercial airlines are flying in and out and ben gurion is not damaged, those will continue. and there's no need for a military neo to support that kind of escape of people, civilians, who are in the area. there's over 100,000 americans inside of israel right now. so that would be a pretty hefty lift in terms of a neo. so they're getting out pretty well with commercial airlines. >> obviously, the airport is -- it is packed. i've never seen anything like it in an airport before. i can say that. hamas has warned it will kill

hostages if israel continues its attacks. so they're saying that they will do this. and, of course, that's complicating israel's decision on how and when to conduct any kind of a ground operation or invasion. how much time do you think there's left, general, on the ground, to locate and rescue hostages? are we looking at days, hours, weeks? what are we looking at? >> that's a great question, erin. and one of the things that is involved in military planning for hostage rescue is a series of questions. where do we think they are, what kind of force is guarding them, could they be moved there booby traps around waiting for us to come in to try and rescue them. what is the intelligence factors that are involved in determining where they are and how we might be able to get them out. how do we protect the rescuers. and i could list a hundred different questions that rescuers, hostage rescuers go through before they go in and conduct an operation.

i be for a fact that u.s. special operations are coordinating well with the israeli special operations in what might occur. and, truthfully, i would also suggest the israeli government and the israeli military is assessing the situation, and right now, erin, i tell you it's hard. if you're asking me for a date when that might occur, it's going to depend on the answer to those questions. if you ask is there a date that may occur where ground forces go into gaza, again, the israeli government and military are assessing the situation, determining how they can do that, and conduct the operations and accomplish the missions, which they're determining and giving their commanders. but i'd finish by saying this is going to be a very tough operation for the israeli defense force. >> all right, general hertling, thank you very much. and brian stern is with me now in tel aviv. he runs project dynamo, a veteran led donor funded

organization. you've rescued americans in afghanistan. you've rescued americans in ukraine. and now, of course, you are here. >> and sudan. >> it's around the world. even here, before we went to air, you were dealing with a situation in another country as well. so, let me put this question to you that i just put to general hertling because you're dealing with a very specific situation. time is of the essence to get people out if you're going to get them out alive. >> absolutely. the purpose -- the reason why terrorists take hostages is for leverage and utility. but they will use that leverage and that utility at some point. we need to remember we've had hostage situations with the iranians that have lasted just recently, they just got released. it was years. so, time is of the essence. the sooner the better because people can outlive their usefulness and their utility.

hamas had 100 to 150 hostages. they have to be fed, cared for. that means food and toilet paper and care and feeding and they have to be hidden and moved around. it's not so easy to keep somebody in captivity, especially if you're a terrorist group. there's a balancing act there that has to happen. >> terms of time being of the essence. so, what would you say in terms of the situation you're dealing with right now? are you dealing with people in hamas who are able to make decisions and do things? how would you describe that process right now, even? >> the process -- where we are in this situation is new. this is where -- we're a hundred hours into this war. which means that everything is very fluid, very dynamic, who's in charge today may not be true who's in charge tomorrow, who the real power brokers are may not be who is saying that they're in charge, if that makes sense. so there's a lot of really

self-identified leaders who are actually -- >> not leaders. >> not decisionmakers. so the newness of this, and that's also an opportunity from a hostage negotiation perspective and a hostage rescue perspective. >> there's sort of micro players here. >> there's these moments, these windows of opportunity, and that's in the hostage world. that's what we're looking for. we're looking for these opportunities that we can make things happen and also not get in the way of other efforts that are going on. the u.s. government is actively working. the state department and the fbi are working really, really, really hard. they're the best at this sort of thing. our special operations forces. we have whole units of people that wake up every day, this is what they train for. so, we're really good at this stuff. the catch is that this war is a little different than other wars that we've had to deal with. this is a different flavor. >> brian, thank you very much. i know we'll stay in touch here because i know you've got situations you're working against the clock.

thank you. and "outfront" next, russia notably not among the many nations condemning the deadly attack by hamas. instead, on state television, they're mocking the united states and israel.

and welcome back to a special edition of "outfront" live from israel. we've got breaking news. we are now learning that the death toll from the hamas attacks on israel has gone up

significantly. that number is now at least 1,200 people, according to an israeli public broadcaster. we've been saying about a thousand. so that number going up by at least 200 here. and it comes as questions grow about who is behind the attack. and today vladimir putin had a very tepid response to hamas' attack, which killed at least two russian citizens. fred pleitgen is "outfront." >> reporter: after hundreds of israelis were slaughtered by hamas near gaza, condemnation and condolences poured in from around the world, but not from russian leader vladimir putin. now in his first comments, instead of empathy, putin blasting the u.s. >> translator: this is a clear example of the failure of the united states policy in the middle east, which tried to monopolize any settlement between israelis and palestinians.

>> reporter: kremlin-controlled tv followed suit, mocking both america and israel for allegedly being caught off guard by hamas' attack. >> translator: mossad and its famous counterintelligence as well as the u.s. and its cia slept through hamas' invasion. the biggest israeli failure in security since 1973. >> reporter: russia has long been allied with israel's staunchest adversaries and hamas's most important backers, bombing rebels battling on the side of bashar al assad during syria's civil war. but russia also maintained strong ties and security arrangements with israel. putin meeting israel's prime minister benjamin netanyahu on many occasions. >> we in no way underestimate importance of measures that would ensure very strong security of the state of israel.

>> reporter: but since putin launched his full-scale war against ukraine, tehran has become a key ally for moscow at israel's expense, fostering economic and military ties with iran, while tehran provides the russian army with scores of he ishad drones. ukraine's president vladimir putin claiming moscow's allegiance in the middle east has shifted towards iran. >> translator: we see how russian propagandists are gloating. we witness how moscow's iranian allies openly lend support to those who attacked israel. >> the kremlin has denied volodymyr zelenskyy's that the russians are trying to inflame the situations between the israelis and the palestinians. however, the former chief rabbi of moscow, who of course fled russia about two weeks after the full-on invasion of ukraine, he today said that the lack of show

op support of russia for israel is an ominous sign of deteriorating relations between those countries. erin? >> fred, thank you very much. and "outfront" now, the former israeli ambassador to the united nations and israel's former deputy defense minister danny dinone. fred is reporting russian citizens are killed in the attack. putin silent, really for days. many russians live in israel. there are very close ties between those two countries as well. and yet putin showing virtually no sympathy at all for israel. nothing at this point. why do you think that is? >> it is unacceptable. we have witnessed a whole attack against the israelis. 1200 people were killed, butchered in daylight. so we expect more than a little. president biden's speech, we appreciated the speech. it was very emotional. it was a remarkable speech. though the attacks, it was very hard for us.

the pain is still in our stomach, and we're grate. for the support coming from the u.s., from europe, from almost all over the world. i cannot explain putin's behavior. >> so fred pleitgen pointed out russia has long been allied with iran, and of course we've seen that intensify, if i could use that word, the ukraine war as well. iran is the key backer of hamas. do you think that if iran had any advanced knowledge, that russia would have had advanced knowledge? do you see any ties here that you're starting to tie together? >> well, iran is very involved in what's happening here. they're founding hamas and hezbollah for years. they're training hamas operatives. we know hamas experts went to tehran to get training about explosives and other things. we know iran is involved, and maybe, i don't know for sure, but maybe we saw in the last few weeks, the relationship between arabia and saudi arabia, it wasn't good for iran. unprovoked attack against israel. nobody can find logic for the

timing of this vicious attack. >> so how involved to you think iran was? the white house has been careful. they said there is ambiguous ties, that iran is broadly complicit, be threw is no intelligence linking iran to this attack. do you buy that? >> no. when you find hamas and you give them hundreds of millions of dollars every year, you control hamas. so basically, both hamas and hezbollah are proxies of tehran. they control them. and that is why we're sending a very clear message today to hezbollah and to tehran. watch very carefully what will happen in gaza. don't mess with us. we're not playing anymore. we're going hand down hamas. and if anyone will try to play with us, either from north or somewhere else, it will be under as well. >> so as you're massing idf forces, paratroopers along that border, is there anything that will be off limits when, if i

assume at this point when israel goes in? >> we will do whatever is necessary to eliminate hamas. we're going come from the sea. we're going come from the land. we're going to come from the air. we're going hunt them down. they butchered 1200 israelis, and they went to the communities. they didn't attack soldiers. they attacked women. today we actually saw the pictures of innocent babies that were tied up and burned alive. those are animals. we have to fight them. we have to hand them down, and we are committed to do it. we're still in pain, in shock, and i think in a few days, we will start to show the might of the idf, the strength of the israeli people. we put politics aside now. we are united, and we're going go into war against hamas. >> thank you very much. i appreciate your time. >> thank you very much. thank you for coming here. now. >> yes. well it's important, and we are glad to be here with you. thank you so much. >> thank you. >> and thanks very much to all of you for joining us for our live coverage here from isra