killed. these were families that always knew each and asupported each other. do you have any idea how many people from the air that have been kidnapped? there's video of her kids being taken and her husband and as well as her aunt and uncle. it seems like horror came to all these families. >> yes, about a fourth of the community. is gone or missing or dead or missing. others are wounded. everyone is for everyone. the survivors decided to stay

together when we were evacuated and that's what we're doing. they had really -- >> rene -- >> yes. >> i'm so sorry for what you're going through and what your family continues to go through and all the families. i wish you continued strength and peace in ahead. >> can i just tell you how professional they were with having bunch of looters, having bunch of murderers and having the ones who burned and blew gas and rolled paper under people's doors to smoke them out. really they were so prepared. so prepared for this. >> rene butler, thank you. i'm sorry. >> i am, too. >> announcer: this is cnn breaking news.

you're watching cnn news central. i'm boris sanchez in washington, d.c., where we have just learned the house will not be voting on a new speaker today. republicans just nominated congressman steve scalise for the job. we want to go live to tel aviv, israel. anderson? >> the rockets continued to be fired near israel and the death toll is coming into greater view. the tale of horror and atrocity is coming into view the israeli prime's office has confirmed that israeli soldiers discovered decapitated babies. we heard about that yesterday. that was cited as one of the worst attacks. hamas denies it attacked children but the unprecedented

slaughter of hundreds of israeli civilians has led to a severe response and we know children are been killed in many locations here in israel by hamas. air strikes have pounded targets in gaza for days. hospitals are running out of fuels to power generators as the territory remains under a blockade. among those dead in gaza, at least 11 u.n. workers. right now there are behind-the-scenes talks under way, one, to try and free and locate dozens of hostages held by hamas, including americans, we don't know how many americans, and to allow somehow civilians and u.s. citizens to leave gaza through egypt ahead of a potential israeli ground operation. those talks were under way. we don't know how they will resolve. nic, in our last hour there were we saw iron dome interceptor rockets going up to knock out rockets coming from gaza and

there was fire fighting on the ground. talk about what has been going on. >> reporter: yeah, since we last talked, anderson, it's grown strangely quiet and calm, though the last couple of seconds we thought we were seeing some intercept rocket, being fired up towards ashkelon. i suspect that's heavy artillery. there are a number of heavy artillery batteries in the field. i suspect that's being fired into gaza. we may hear some distant impacts from that shortly. the small arms fired we talked about just an hour and a half ago that was over the hill where a couple of hamas militants were caught, neutralize is a euphemism used here by the israeli defense forces. just over the hill two miles inside of israel, that small

arms fired picked up in about half an hour ago. some flares were fired up in the sky, illumination flares. i think that was done to give the troops better visibility on the ground for the situation of what they were firing towards. it kind of indicates that the bulk of the firefight was over, it was done but they want to check the terrain because if you light the terrain to see the enemy, they can also see you. so the flares were up and that operation seemed to wrap up as well. again, the situation here, it changes on a dime. and it's artillery again that's being fired in now. i think interestingly today this end of the gaza strip, remember, we're way up at the northern end. gaza strip behind us there. we haven't any huge impacts from missiles dropped by aircraft. it doesn't mean it hasn't happened but we haven't seen that this evening. it's been mostly the artillery fire, anderson.

>> and the preparations for the next phase of this, have you seen much on that front? significantly. significantly more groups of armored fighting vehicles, of troops in transit and fighting with heavy machine guns on top of the jeep, soldiers at the side of the jeep, their weapons pointed out at the ready. we've seen dug-in, heavy, howitzer gun positions, the big tank-like vehicles, huge, heavy, massive tracks. but the gun on the front of them, unlike a tank, the gun can go up really high. what that means is it can fire so much further. so these heavy artillery gun, the defense forces can really range them over a large part of gaza with a high degree of accuracy. what we understand is they're being used to take out -- try to

take out or prevent the use of some of the launch sites obviously tonight. on that hard to judge the success. but rockets have been launched nonetheless. >> and in terms of the civilian population sderot, did a lot of families leave this area already or are they still there? >> no, mostly it feels like a ghost town. i think that there are a few families here, i think they're staying indoors. even for anyone that stays here, the stores are all shut, the gas stations in the town are shut. there's nowhere -- there's no cafes open. the only places that are open are the military posts, the police posts and the ambulance stations. everything else is locked up. so it really is a ghost town. i'm just checking back, i don't think i've seen any civilians or maybe one or two walking around

the streets today. they're just not around at the moment, anderson. >> nic robertson, thanks very much. joining me now is lieutenant colonel jonathan conriques, an international spokesperson. i just spoke to a woman whose family has been slaughtered, one of many families killed near oz. she was saying of the people who lived near on saturday, about one-fourth of them have been killed in this attack. is that kind of the numbers you are hearing as well? >> yes, hello. thank you for having me on. those are, unfortunately, also the numbers that i have. it varies from community to

community, but many other communities, that's the proportion of the israeli civilians that have been executed in their homes by hamas. >> reporter: and it's important to point that out. these are executions. these are not people getting caught in crossfire, getting killed by a rocket and shrapnel. this is gunmen, killers, coming to houses, breaking in, breaking into safe rooms, throwing gas into safe rooms, shooting babies, killing mothers, that's what this is. it's looking people in the eye and killing them. >> yes, this is as up close and personal as you can get. and i think that the level of hatred that you need to develop in a human being in order to

perpetrate these acts that we have seen documented -- it's not rumors and it's not the israelis are claiming that. there's unfortunately forensic proof on the ground in the shape of bodies of dismembered israeli civilians. it hurts me to use this word but that is what we've found on the ground. i'd like to go back to the words of hamas who said the operation has gone as planned and they are very happy with the results when you add that official statement by hamas and what we've seen, the pictures that we've seen and the evidence on the ground, you understand that this was not

some unit that went crazy or some terrorist who got carried away with themselves. this was a systematic, preplanned assault on the community and the aim was to butcher civilians and that is unfortunately what they did. >> and the hostages who have been taken, many of them from these communities, the woman named sheri taken and her two children, ariel, and a younger child, 4 months old and 9 months old, they were taken as part in policy of what hamas wants. they are taking people from these kibbutzes and killing people from these kibbutzes to use. >> yes.

that is the strategy. hamas is hoping and building on they will take these pour israeli civilians, tender, peace loving and gentle people who live in a quiet kibbutz, a small community and they are hoping that they will drag them over to gaza and then get political gains or release of hamas terrorists from israeli prisons. i don't know how distorted their world view is and in what reality they think that that is a practice that will achieve anything but global outrage against them, but i can say that i think they have signed something close to their own death warrant and an israeli general said in just a few hours after the attacks started and we understood what they were doing, he said that hamas has opened the flood gates of hell on gaza. and i think it's proportionate

because what hamas has done is an unprecedented level of brutality, something that israel has never seen and i don't think that any other sovereign country has seen this level of brutality, definitely not a western democracy. so what hamas has done is beyond in comparison to anything else. we are going to deal with it and it will be our job to make sure that hamas will never, ever have the ability to do this again. >> colonel, thank you for your time. i'm going to go back to boris sanchez. boris? >> anderson, we are continuing to follow breaking news out of capitol hill. congressman steve scalise winning the republican nomination for speaker by 14in vo -- 14 votes. and after some disagreement the decision is that house members

will not move forward on a vote to elect the next speaker today. let's take you live to capitol hill where manu raju has been following the action all day. house members will still gather this hour but not for a speaker vote, rather a procedural step. >> reporter: that's right. in fact, it just happened and it's over. the house came in for just a couple of minutes, called a pro forma session on capitol hill. they simply turn on the lights, turn it back off and that's pretty much it. patrick mchenry gavelled it in, who is still the interim speaker, put in for the vote to oust mccarthy from the speakership. he was asked when the vote would be for the speakership. he said that is up to steve scalise. he said scalise has the right to take it to the vote when he's ready to. scalise does not have the votes

to get elected. he needs 217 votes on the floor. he was nominated to be the next speaker of the house but got 113 votes. that shows you the deficit he has to make up. now, there are dozens of those members who plan to vote for him, but not all of those members who voted for jim jordan are ready to fall in line. some say they'll still vote for jim jordan on the floor, including congressman marjorie taylor greene and she said others are willing to vote for jordan on the floor as well. >> i'm not supporting steve sc scalise. i'll be voting for jim jordan. >> reporter: why is that? >> jim jordan presented a detailed plan to us on how to move forward. but there's another situation that's very personal to me. i lost my father in 2021 to cancer and unfortunately steve is going through a cancer battle of his own and, you know, i like

steve scalise a lot and i like him so much, i would like to see him put his full efforts into defeating that. >> reporter: scalise has been under treatment for blood cancer. it's a treatable form of blood cancer. he says he's fully capable of doing the job despite these house challenges. but that shows you the challenge of getting the votes on the floor. he can only afford to lose four republican votes. already more than four are saying either they're not going to vote him or not willing to vote for him. it shows you how scalise will have to get some of those members in line. in a key step, jim jordan, who he ran against for the speakership in that closed door meeting this afternoon has indicated he will nominate steve scalise for speaker and is trying to encourage them to vote for steve scalise on the floor. marjorie and others not willing to vote for him. others told me steve scalise

will never get the 217 votes to be elected speaker. we're see if that prediction bears out and see if the defections to push him out of the speakership, can scalise avoid all those in the days ahead? >> manu, notably, marjory taylor green, is she the first member you've heard voice concerns about his house and blood cancer as a reason to not elect him speaker? >> reporter: i've heard a lot of that privately. one member did say something publicly, congressman ralph norman. he said that was the reason why he was voting for jim jordan and today in that closed door session he was concerned about steve scalise's health. ultimately norman told reporters this afternoon that he would

support scalise on the floor when that happened. this is a significant comment she's making given the fact that he has virtually no margin for hour if he wants to be elected speaker of the house and if she does not come off that position and others don't, he could have a math problem on the floor much like kevin mccarthy did. the question is when does he try to force that vote on the floor? >> a difficult path ahead for scalise, no doubt about that. m manu raj u, thank you very much. >> coming up, we'll speak to a member of the house foreign affairs committee about these issues as soon as we come back. stay with us. raju

we're learning the house will not vote on a new speaker today. an earlier vote happening behind closed door on a secret ballot.

i want to talk to someone there in the room. he was one of eight republicans who voted to remove kevin mccarthy as speaker. congressman you said you were ready to stay all day and you would support steve scalise for speaker. are you disappointed he's not putting forward a vote for speaker right now? >> no, actually, i thought we would do that today but a lot of people aren't here, republicans and democrats. one of my republican colleagues for certain is in israel right now. they're obviously having a little trouble getting home. i think go a little slower, we get there a little faster. i think it has more to do with complete numbers of the congress and getting them all here. >> are you confident that scalise can eventually get to 217 votes? >> yes, sir, i am. he's a proven leader.

he raises money, he knows how to recruit candidate, he's handled some of the toughest legislation that's been handled up here honestly. i think he understands negotiations. he's fiscally conservative, he's strong on the border, all those things that republicans rally around. and i think he understands the fact that when you take in $5 trillion a year, you cannot spend 7 trillion, which has been the habit of washington. >> congressman, what is your message to members like marjorie taylor greene, a republican colleague who said she opposes scalise, even though she likes him personally, in part because of concerns over his health. >> i would help that jim jordan would talk to some of those folks and further convince them along because i think steve, if he's willing to serve and his doctors say he can serve, then he's more than qualified and i think he can handle it. he's been through a lot more medical issues than this and a lot more than most members of

congress have. so i think he's up for the job and i think he'll do a fine job. >> in an interview with cnn yesterday, you said the conference would come out of today's meeting united, that there wouldn't be 15 rounds of votes to elect a speaker but there's obviously still disagreement and not just over scalise but whether a vote should have and today. how concerned are you that there's still disunity among your conference? had. >> i think the unity is fine. we just have to heal a few wounds and i think that's what we have to do right now, as well as getting members here so we know we have a majority here. so i think those two things play into it and also i think the fact that people are just concerned about the country and where it's headed and that it's headed forward in a conservative manner, which i this nk the fol that are holding out now for jim will eventually come over. >> reporter: congressman, there are also questions about aid for

israel. i'm curious about the classified briefing that house members received this morning. obviously there are things you can't share to us but what stood out to you about that briefing that you can share with us? >> well, i've often said one time when i first got here if i came 15 minutes late to a classified briefing, i could probably catch it all on cnn pretty quick. i think that continues to this day. there isn't really a whole lot they tell you in those meetings that you didn't already know or that you didn't suspect. i'm always disappointed in our state department and their ability and they did not disappoint me in that regard this time. i'm still disappointed in their abilities and their grasp on world issues and the people that we allow to make these decisions and that they try to legislate from behind a desk and they're not legislators, they don't have a vote. and i'm not worried about israel because they're on auto check to

get about $3.4 billion from america. the president did the right thing. he's in for gerald r. ford, the largest carrier in the world, maybe sending more. that shows a huge amount of support and he can free up aid as he sees fit, just like he did for ukraine without congressional support. congress is going to write a strong resolution and i don't know that hamas would actually read that. unless we declare war or additional aid that i don't know about that isn't on auto check i think they would be just fine. they probably would like america to mind our own business and let them handle it but as i stated before, you're going to see some very old testament kind of judgment come down on a lot of mean people. and they deserve it. killing babies. you know, that reminds me of my dad telling me about the second world war and the japanese and china in '38 and just what they did to those poor civilians in

okinawa. there hasn't been this many jewish folks killed since the holocaust. if we can't rally around israel right now, we have to think about where we are. >> congressman, we very much appreciate your time and perspective. thanks. >> thank you, brother. >> still to come, we're on the ground in israel where thousands of israeli reservists are amassing on the ground in gaza. the potential for a ground operation soon to be under way. stay with cnn central.

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events are moving on the ground here in israel quickly, the nation of course preparing for war. a nation at war already, positioning hundreds of thousands of soldiers near the border with gaza. in the five days since hamas' terror attack, reported over a thousand deaths. a senior israeli official tells cnn that talks are on to try to allow u.s. citizens who are in

gaza and palestinian civilians to be able to leave the gaza strip into egypt. that's something egypt has always resisted in past years ahead of a possible israeli ground invasion. and then of course there are the hostages, up to 150 people believed to have been captured by hamas and other groups like islamist jihad, including an unknown number of americans. qatar has been in negotiation with hamas to try to release women and children hostages. so there's a lot of moving parts to this. joining us now is daniel flesh, a former spokesperson for the united nations. thanks for being with us. you said iran may have wanted to poison the normal developing relationship between israel and

saudi arabia. can you talk about why any potential deal with saudi arabia with be so threatening to iran? >> a deal would be threatening to iran because it would signal a paradigm shift in the middle east, end a 70-plus year arab war on israel. and reports from a couple years ago were only approved because saudi arabia gave sanction to them. it's the peace relationship between israel, uae and bahrain. the question is asked why did hamas attack israel today, this past weekend, with is it happening now? last month at the u.n. general assembly, the crowned prince of saudi arabia announced publicly that peace negotiations and normalization talks are going p positively. so iran fears and is doing

everything it can to interrupt that. >> the u.s. unfroze $6 billion to iran to got he et hostages f america back. the white house has said there's no evidence yet of a smoking gun at this stage but certainly blames iran broadly for their support of hamas and islamic jihad. there's a lot of questions. jake sullivan was peppered with questions yesterday about is the white house going to unthifreez the $6 billion? do you think they should? >> iran has had a ehand -- whil there's no smoking gun found yet, hamas is fully assimilated

with iran. it's been providing funding, munitions and training, et cetera. in relation to the $6 billion, that's only a small drop in the tens of billions of dollars iran has recouped throughout this administration from oil exports and from other measures and means. so if the administration were able to stop the transfer of the $6 billion, that's phenomenal but it does not change the fact that iran over the last couple of years has felt incredibly emboldened in the region. anything going forward needs to realize iran, even if it did in the directly order hamas to initiate the israeli attacks on civilians and americans as well, it certainly has been instrumental and key in planning it. >> if egypt was to allow not only american scitizens in gaza currently in gaza, living there with family, whatever it may be and a certain number of

civilians in gaza to leave and cross over into juegypt, i assu it would help israel having fewer citizens on the ground but what would that look like? is that logistically possible? there are a lot of people in gaza who would like to leave gaza. >> people forget, as you point out, gaza has two borders, one with israel and one with egypt. there's no reason they shouldn't be allowing gazans to leave. it would be great if the wars were conducted in isolated environments and no the case here. hamas is embedded among the population. hamas perfected the use of human shields and it will use every human it can to retard the advance of the israeli defense forces and make a p.r. campaign

of the offensive that's to come. so certainly any civilians able to get out of gaza through egypt should be making their way there but ultimately whatever happens to the population in gaza strip is the responsibility of hamas. >> reporter: unfortunately, it doesn't seem they care much about that. they have built such a network of tunnels which could be used as bomb shelters but it's used by hamas to move weapons and protect themselves. daniel, appreciate your time tonight. israeli's defense ministry said the first shipment of weapons has arrived as troops prepare on the ground here of what is to come. more on the challenges of open warfare ahead.

israeli air strikes are hammering gaza as the idf has mobilized 300,000 troops and a ground operation into gaza appears to be coming soon. the first shipment of advanced munitions arrived in israel today. you see that video there. let's discuss with major john spencer, an armed veteran and the co-author of "understanding urban warfare. sir, thank you so much for being with us. among the challenges you say the idf could face in gazas , as we look at drone footage from that area, you are mentioned rockets drones and even human shields. what's your kbconcern about a ground operation there? how do israeli combat that? >> especially the human shield. that's the big, giant concern of

the operation in any of the urban areas of gaza. but the idea to know how to tell the civilians to leave, they've already issued videos, photos, text, but it's hard because hamas is very known in past operations to keep those civilians in those buildings, to keep them on the streets and then air their deaths as a pursuit of their objectives. >> major, i do want to show our viewers some video of the tanks that are being amassed by israel. given the dense terrain in gaza, the fact that it is a very urban setting, are vehicles like these usable? what's the most effective weaponry there? >> vehicles like those are vital to entering a dense urban area that is defended by this kind of enemy force. you have to be able to take the first shot. so that i am lead with bulldozers, follow with a tank that can shoot back at a concrete building.

the tank is like one of the most vital pieces of equipment you need in a fight like this, cont contested urban environment. >> how about the capabilities that hamas has? do they have the ammunition, the air power to stop israel? >> no, not at all. there's no way around it. this will be a costly operation if executed on all sides, on the idf, on collateral damage. but know that hamas doesn't have -- they don't even have a phased defensive line like isis did in the battle of mosul. but they can make it very costly on the idea of anti-tank guided munitions, rockets, house bombs, things like that but they can't stop it. >> major, i wanted to get your thoughts on the potential for this to be a multi-front conflict for israel because we've gotten reports that there was some hezbollah activity here in the border with lebanon. there are obviously a lot of

groups in syria that are anti-israel. you got the golan heights and the west bank here and the focus being gaza, could all of that stretch the idf thin? >> absolutely it could. i mean, that's the concern. they're massing, like you said, 300,000 reserves. if you add active duty, that's 400,000 soldiers. an operation into gaza will take a hundred plus over that thousand forces actually in the fight. so, yes, a different front, a second front, a third front would stretch it and would be really challenging. that's why this is a very sensitive situation. it does look like israel plans to execute the gaza mission, but it will be trying to keep that second front, the third front from opening for sure. >> there are also questions about how israel might be able to eliminate the leadership of hamas, one of the stated goals from officials in israel partly

because there are a series of tunnels through gaza. there are bunkers. there's also the issue that some of the hamas leadership may have fled gaza altogether. they may be in egypt. is there any scenario in israel's pursuit of hamas leadership which it doesn't lead to a drawn out military presence for israel in gaza? >> that's a tough one and you're right, there are hundreds of miles, not just a few, hundreds of miles of tunnels underneath gaza, the urban environments and gaza. that poses a huge military challenge. it also allows hamas leadership, if they're even still there, to be able to hide, escape and to contain them would be really hard. but of those objectives that idf has said they want to accomplish, it's also about removing the military capability, which is a very bold objective they haven't tried before, which you have to go in and clear urban train to do

that. >> major, thanks so much for sharing your perspective with us. our live coverage from israel continues after a short break.

early saturday morning, very close to gaza boarder, a kibbutz farm community home to some 300 israelis was attacked by hamas. the video showed gunman racing toward it and you could also see smoke rising from the kibbutz in the distance. it is not clear how many people living in there were murdered or

wounded or kidnapped. but a cameraman from gaza uploaded a video that he made of the kidnapping of a woman named sherry and her two little boys, a 3-year-old and a 9-month-old and we want to warn you that the video you're about to see is disturbing. [ speaking in global language ] >> that is her clutching those two little boys. i met with sherry's cousin who is name is efad tyler yesterday. >> every hour things get clearer and more horrific. it's something that we can't really understand. a nightmare.

a nightmare. >> efad is searching for under information about her cousin sherry and her kids an the rest of her family. >> when did you realize something had happened? >> saturday morning around 10:00. we lost connection with my cousin. >> it wasn't until she saw this video saturday that she knew sherry and her kids had likely been taken hostage. >> i could see the horror in her face. i think they might have been in a state of shock. they were still not understanding what is going on around them. this video is horrible. but it is the only proof of life that we have. other families don't have that. it gives me something to hold on to. >> sherry lives with her husband and two children. >> you have heard in word about her husband? >> nothing. nothing.

we don't know. >> also missing is her uncle and aunt. >> my aunt has parkinson's disease. we've got her medications and without it her body stiffens. we're a small family and half of them -- >> half of your family? >> yeah, this is it. i can't believe this is happening. i can't believe this is our lives now. >> she has children of her own, but can't stop thinking about sherry's kids, ariel and kafir, i . >> i want to know if they're being fed and if the diaper is being changed and if he got his formula or something to eat. >> they need formula and everything? >> we need a sign of life. >> i'm so sorry. >> the only thing that helps me

be sane right now is sitting here with you and showing their faces and telling their story. i want my family back. i want my family back. i tried to be strong and stoic and speak clearly, but i'm devastated. and i'm devastated. i i don't know what else to do. we need institutions from the world. we need someone to take care of those captive people. civilians. i'm lost of words, really. every hour, every day it is getting worse. we know that the first days are

the most important. >> take your time. >> i want my family if by any chance they're watching this, i want them to know that we love them and we're doing everything that we can to get them. i want them to be strong and that we are strong. we want this to end. in the best way possible. >> hours after we did that interview, efad sent us this picture that was found online showing sherry's husband with blood on his head and hands but still in captivity. this is the best proof of life since the four days that he went missing. that is it for us. "the lead" with jake tapper starts right after this short

break. we'll have more from israel later today.