they don't have ten extra insulin pens at home. they just barely get by. so, if you start -- if you stop medication delivery, if you stop those services for children, baez rat has 12 kids on chemotherapy in their cancer center. you stop that, that's life threatening to those children. and normal children are at increased risk for dysentery, increased risk for all the things that come when you don't have the basic life needs met. >> i very much appreciate your time. we're thinking of you, hoping that you are able to get out of there. i know it is incredibly stressful and a very fraught situation. thank you for taking the time to join me. you know, one thing to think about, as we were sitting there under that barrage of rockets today, when we heard the outgoing fire and then the giant smoke that you could see from gaza, in one of those cases, we

understand up to 20 people in gaza died. and for each of these explosions, there could be a loss of human life, it is a perspective worth remembering for all of us in t these hard days. thank you so much for joining us. us. "ac 360" begins right now. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com good evening. it is 3:00 a.m. in ashkelon, israel, five days since hamas launched a surprise attack from gaza. israeli troops are amazing along the gaza border. 300,000 israeli reservists are, in his words, close to the gaza strip. that is a fighting force in a country of only 10 million people, nearly the size of all the reserves in the entire u.s. military. in addition to mobilizing forces, preparations are underway at hospitals across this country for what might come next. patients from facilities in the north are being moved to ones in central israel. health officials say in case of

escalation and presumably the need to treat casualties there. right now the focus is on gaza, which israeli air forces pounded heavily again today and the possibility of ground forces going in. u.s. secretary of state antony blinken said talks are underway about setting up a humanitarian corridor so civilians and american citizens could leave gaza. he told reporters that efforts are ongoing but are understandably complicated. that is an understatement. separately today, national security council spokesman john kirby said, of the 17 americans unaccounted for, down from 20, the number hamas is believed to be holding hostage is, quote, very small, like less than a handful. he warned, however, that the hostage number could rise along with the american death toll, which is at 22.

and as you might pimagine, the larger death toll continues to rise here as the bodies of more people are recovered. more than 1,200 people have been killed inside israel. palestinian officials say more than 1,100 inside gaza. rocket fire continues from there. earlier as we were wrapping up a report from cnn's nic robertson just a mile from the gaza border, this happened. >> anderson, i'm just going to -- anderson, i'm just going to interrupt. the iron dome is going up here, so i'm expecting more intercepts. i'm expecting there are more m missales coming. we'll leave the camera rolling. i'll just step into a little bit of cover here. >> that occurred just a couple of hours ago. we'll check in with nic robertson in a moment. we'll also check in with micah silver berg, who was at the music festival, one of the largest slaughters of people, more than 260, according to

israeli officials. he and a friend managed to get away from the festival by car and said that in addition to coming under fire from several gunmen, michael fought back and managed to kill two hamas militants with his car, including this one lying by his motorcycle along the road. he hit them with his vehicle. he walked us through it. we'll talk to him a little bit later this hour. we begin though right now with cnn's nic robertson, who you saw just a moment ago, with iron dome interceptor missiles going up around him. he is still in sderot today. >> the israeli defense forces discovered three forces in there. all we could hear was the

buildup of heavy machine gunfire and it got more intense and more intense. towards the end of it, they put up -- better illumination on the ground for the troops. shortly after the israeli defense force said three hamas militants found -- discovered the in that area and neutralized, the euphemism that's used here. that is not something that we've seen here around sderot since hamas was finally kicked out over the weekend. but it is indicative of what's happening along the border, why you suddenly get these areas where there's a concentration of israeli troops, where the area is secured off, you can't get into that area. other things happening that we haven't seen as well. we've seen tanks firing just along there towards the gaza fence line. it's a couple of miles. we knew that the tanks were there, but they're firing. we don't know why they were firing this evening. literally the last couple of minutes there was a flare up in

the sky there. not sure what that was doing. there was a fighter jet that flew over, dropped chafe as it flew over gaza. there was a large explosion after that. and a couple other heavy explosions with the big flashes. so, the hour prior was fairly ide quiet. now there's an uptick again. this is the way it seems to go, quiet, then it picks up. i hear the fighter jet again. a little before that, we were hearing detonation, sort of, further down the gaza strip, further south from us here, anderson. >> nic, in terms of that fire fight, is that likely -- and i think i know the answer to this. but is that gunmen who may have recently crossed over from gaza, or is it likely ones who came over days ago and have been lying low? >> yeah, i think it's that. i think it's that they came through saturday or sunday --

confusion when hamas still had some fighters over and then went to ground. and the reason we think this is, because when the idf have gone in, in some of these spots they've found supplies of water, supplies of food, hide holes, hide away places where hamas has been. so, it seems this will have been a group that's gone to ground. they may be hidden in the fields, running out of food, running out of water, coming to the town area to see what they can get. they're trying to maybe steal a vehicle, whatever. but they were identified by the troops. and one of the reasons they're getting spotted more now is it's just more troops here. when we arrived here over the weekend to this location, you had patrols of maybe five or six or seven soldiers. now you're getting patrols of 30 or so soldiers. and it's that -- the numbers of troops that really get the better eyes on the ground and better chance of catching any

hamas that are still around. >> nic robertson, thank you. with me is clarissa ward, who spent the day at one of kibbutzes not far from the border, a farming community where thousands of people live and saturday morning more than 100 were murdered. the stories from these kibbutz, which were the first communities that got hit, they're starting to come out in the last day or two. and we seen just a number of horrific scenes. what have you seen today. >> it's taken a while to get journalists into these kibbutz m because it's dangerous still, and it's taking a long time to clear the mill at that particular times militants out. it really speaks to the voracity of the battles that the israeli military was engaged world war those militants. honestly, anderson, it is the chilling, horrifying stories of the survivors that really stays

with you. >> let's take a look. >> reporter: it was 7:11 a.m. on saturday morning when the m militants arrived. surveillance video shows them lying in wait until a car arrives. they shoot the driver and enter the compound. more poured in on motorcycles, shooting anything in their way. eerily at ease and in no apparent hurry. thomas hand heard the gunshots and immediately thought of his 8-year-old daughter, emily, who was stay being a neighbor. >> she doesn't do it very often, but unfortunately, that night, that particular night, friday night, she went to sleep at her friend's house. >> for 12 hours, he says he was pinned down under heavy gunfire, unable to reach his daughter, as hamas went door to door executing his neighbors. >> i think the army are going to

be here soon. just hold on a bit longer. and longer. and longer. >> reporter: by the time the military gained control of be'eri, this is what remained the once tranquil community. late this afternoon, israeli forces let journalists in for the first time. >> i saw a soldier fight here and i fight here myself, only to come from apartment to apartment. it took a lot of time. >> does that weigh on your conscience to know how long it took? >> you know, we have a very difficult question to ask ourself now. we look forward to defend the people, to take the survivors out, and to switch ourself from

defense to offensive operation. i'm sure that we ask ourself all the difficult questions. >> reporter: for now there are more pressing questions. the bodies of more than 100 residents have been recovered. but the army says that many more are still missing. >> you can see the amount of blood. this was a massacre. >> and the full scale of the horrors that transpired here are just starting to come to light. >> pictures, family photographs on the wall. >> reporter: thomas waited two agonizing days before getting the news. >> they just said, we found emily. she's dead. and i went, yes! i went, yes, and smiled.

because that is the best news of the possibilities that i knew. that was the best possibility that i was hoping for, she was either dead or in gaza. and if you know anything about what they do to people in gaza, that is worse than death. that is worse than death. the way they treat you, they have no food, they have no water. she'd be in a dark room filled with christ knows how many people and terrified every minute, hour, day, and possible years to come. so, death was a blessing, an absolute blessing. >> my god. >> he actually said to me,

anderson, afterwards, he said, what a crazy world it is that we are inhabiting that a father would say that. but that is his reality. and the reality, he said, of others in that community, too, who felt it would be better, it would be more merciful to know that their loved ones went quickly. >> that was his immediate response upon hearing, the yes, as he said. there are a number of kibbutz in which have lost -- near oz, a kibbutz of some 400 people. they believe as many as a quarter of those people are dead or hostage or missing. >> it was so striking as well. when we were with the military today, we kept saying, how many people are missing, how many people are dead, how many people are held hostage, how many people escaped, how many -- they don't know.

they don't know. there is still so much confusion. a startling lack of clarity, not just around that but even when you try to get a precise timeline, when did the idf arrive? they said they arrived right away. then you look at the videos and you see hamas swarming around for quite some time. there is still a huge amount of investigation to be done by journalists, by investigators as time goes forward, to really put together a complete picture of exactly how this all transpired, of the anatomy, if you will, of this massacre. >> all the families are looking at jihadist videos online, looking for proof of life or death of their loved ones. >> and that's how many of them are finding out. >> it's unthinkable. clarissa, thank you. this was, of course, just one of several kibbutz along the border where hamas carried out massacred and took hostages.

adina watched gunmen murder her husband before being taken hostage. this is video of her somewhere in gaza on the back of a motorcycle. he is 72 years old. that is her, kidnapped. her husband, who she's been with for 50 years, murdered. short time ago i spoke to adina's granddaughter. >> i understand your grandparents and your uncle's family, they were living near oz, the kibbutz that was invaded early saturday morning. and your grandfather was killed. your grandmother is now missing. can you talk about what you know happened to them? what is the latest that you've learned? >> yeah, of course. so, on saturday, 6:30 a.m., we started to get the messages that there are terrorists inside the kibbutz. my whole family is from there. my uncle, my aunt, their children. we immediately connected with

them through messages, asking what's going on. they told us they can hear gunshots outside their windows. they can tell us that there are many people out there. and then we started to get information from the kibbutz people. the first one was my grandmother's neighbor. the terrorists murdered her, shot her, took her phone, filmed it, and uploaded it to her personal facebook page. >> the people who killed the neighbor, they took photographs of her after she had -- they had killed her and they uploaded it to her own faceboo k

she's a 72 years old woman who did nothing wrong to anyone. sorry. >> and we've seen the picture of your grandmother. that's her on the motorcycle being taken away. >> yeah. >> we received it from friends who saw it on social media.

and this video was took inside the gaza strip. she is an old woman, and she needed to hold that killed her husband just now so she won't fall from the motorcycle. we're all praying that she is safe there. we don't know anything besides this video. we have nothing from her. we don't know she's alive or dead or where is she or how is she doing. luckily, our family, my uncle and his five children, the oldest is only ten years old. the youngest is one year old. they all succeeded to stay in the shelter and keep the door locked. but you must understand, the world must understand, they

didn't came here to kill. they came here to humiliate, to ruin, to take innocent civilians who did nothing wrong, to take them from their own houses and to ruin this beautiful kibbutz that my grandparents built with their own hands. i'm hearing a lot with all the families from the kibbutz, out of 400 people in the kibbutz, there are over 100 people missing, murdered, kidnapped, children, babies, pregnant women. we can't understand how people can do it. we just can't. >> a quarter of the population of near oz, this kibbutz of about 400 people, families that have lived generations together farming in that area in that community of near oz, a quarter of the we can't understand

it. >> that image, as you describe it is so awful, of your grandmother being kidnapped, driven through the streets in gaza city sandwiched on a motorbike between two killers, having to depend on them, holding onto them, the people who killed her husband, so that she doesn't fall off the motorbike. it is sickening. >> it is.

you have to understand, the day people came to see whether there are still injured people out there, they saw dead bodies of children, of babies, who they cut their head off. they robbed everything on their way. they burned down every house, whether there are people inside or whether they already killed them. they came to ruin the place, to burn the place down. they had no mercy for anyone, not for babies, not for dogs, not for children, not for mothers, no one. no one. >> your uncle went to see your grandparents' house. what did he see? >> after the army came to save them, he went to the -- to my grandparents' house to see if

they are there. he couldn't see anything because the flames were still burning. but he came to the window of the shelter, and he just peeked there and he saw my grandfather lay there inside of his dried blood, shot several shots. the whole wall inside the shelter was full with gunshots, full. and the window was half open. there were no signs to my grandmother. so, actually we are very -- at least we can see where she is. there are so many families here that don't know where our loved

one is. >> what is your grandmother's name and what is your grandfather's name? >> my grandmother name's is adina, and my grandfather's name is david mu shay. >> enzyi'm so sorry for your lo and -- >> please help us bring them back. please. the whole world needs to know this. the whole world needs to hear their story and what they've been through. they don't deserve it. the children don't deserve it. the elderly don't deserve it. they're just innocent civilian who is did nothing wrong to anyone, really. i just can't understand how it

happened. how the world let it happen? it is just pure terrorism. there is no justification to kill civilians. >> thank you for talking to us. >> thank you. thank you so much. next, there is new reporting on talks underway aimed at getting at least some hostages back. i'll have the latest on who's doing the talking. and later, my conversation with a music festival survivor about how he and a friend dectried to pak their mistake, their several brushes with hamas gunmen.

we've learned there is -- we have new reporting on talks aimed at perhaps getting some hostages released. cnn's becky anderson joins me now from tel aviv with more. what have you learned, becky? >> diplomatic sources have confirmed to me that the -- are in touch with both israel and hamas on mediating some sort of effort to get hostages released. now, as we understand it from these diplomatic sources, this would be a prisoner -- an

exchange of women and children taken by hamas in gaza at present in exchange for women and teenagers held in israeli prisons. and what i'm told is that neither side has rejected this idea. so, there is some optimism, certainly, around what is going on at present. now, of course there is some precedent for this. the israeli soldier who was released back in 2011, who'd been abducted back in 2005 on the israeli border near gaza, he was released in exchange for at

the time over 1,000 prisoners held in israeli prisons. now, let's just provide a little bit of context for this, why the cat ris in this stage? well, they are in a decent position to do this. let's consider they've got an open line of communication with hamas. that was actually opened at the behest of the bush administration, i'm told, back in the 2000s. so, that's that file. they also, of course, recent ly negotiated they will be the main interlockers negotiating the u.s. prisoners exchanged for five iranian prisoners just a couple of weeks ago. so, very much involved in that u.s./iran prisoner exchange recently, now mediating efforts to get the women and children released from gaza in exchange for women and teenagers held in

palestinian -- in israeli jails, anderson. >> hamas had earlier, i believe several days ago, made a statement they would not deal with any negotiations until military activity had ceased. obviously this reporting seems to indicate that they may be open to something. i know you've been talking to family members who have loved ones who have been held hostage. what are they telling you? >> i spoke to the families of four americans who have lost their loved ones, missing, presumed to be in gaza, being held hostage. and the message was just very, very clear from the families of these four americans. they said they want direct help from president biden, the u.s. president and the secretary of state, antony blinken, who we know, of course, will be here on the ground in israel tomorrow

morning. and they appealed directly to both biden and blinken and said that they shouldn't be leaving americans behind. and now one of the parents of a 35-year-old man in the kibbutz near oz who is missing, the 35-year-old with two kids, wife is pregnant, this is from the kibbutz that was a community of 400, now only 160 survivors. his father who lives on the same kibbutz, he described what he want as wanting a partnership, impressing upon the americans to build partnerships with whoever it takes to effort this release of these hostages. so, that, sort of, speaks to the idea that this third party who can speak to both sides, qatar, open line of communication with israel, open line of communication with ha hamas. these relatives really

impressing upon the americans how important it is there are these channels being used. >> becky anderson, thank you very much. i'm joined by michael oren. thank you so much for being with us. >> good to see you again. >> the idea of negotiations with becky anderson reporting that qatar might be trying to talk to both sides. at this stage, do you think that's a possibility? >> i think that any effort to release hostages is good. but the end of the day, going to have to take measures to defend itself. the comparison here would be sort of like 9/11, but this is 15 or 16 times 9/11. 1,200 israels killed. if al quaeda had taken hostages on 9/11, how much would the united states be negotiating with al quaeda? we have special forces. this is what they're trained to do. many have released already within israel at a very high cost to our special forces.

so, we'll do our best. >> in term of -- jake sullivan talked about this last night. antony blinken mentioned it as well today. the idea of creating some sort of corridor for american citizens in gaza to lead down through egypt. and perhaps as gaza citizens who want to get out, civilians going to egypt. egypt had been resistant to that in the past. do you think that's a possibility? just from a military standpoint, i would imagine it would be easier for israel in any ground operation to have fewer civilians. >> it's not just that. nobody wants to harm civilians. it's, like, we care deeply about the -- the parents and families of these hostages are going through. we feel very deeply. i personally know people in israel whose kids and family members are hostages today. we're going to have to defend

ourselves against this organization that has massacred our people. and massacred in the most hideous, barbarous way. i was talking to one of my best friends today, very strong woman who does not give in to expressing emotions this way. she sent her 18-year-old son down to the border as a soldier, and they sent him to pick up bodies in gaza. not bodies, pieces of bodies. and my friend was saying, you know, i sent a boy down there and i talked to him on the phone, and he's a different human being today. can you imagine what these people are going through? i speak to my kids. every time i talk to them, there's somebody else they knew who was killed. this morning my daughter called crying saying that the rabbi that married her and her husband, two boys, beautiful boys who were reserve officers, the minute they heard the war broke out, they put on their uniforms, left their families, left their kids, went off to battle. and neither of them came home.

so, this is all deeply, deeply personal. and nobody wants to cause suffering on the other side among civilians. hamas is a different story, of course. so, we'll do it -- i'm sure every possible consideration, whether it be leafletting, sending text messages to combat areas, the knock knock thing where the air force sends dummy rockets onto houses to let the people on houses know they might be targeted, get them out. no one wants to see them suffering. >> in term of a ground operation, obviously there have been ground operations in the past. what are the lessons learned then? how difficult is this going to be? >> it's going to be difficult. in 2014, israel had limited ground incursion into gaza, only a mile or two. they lost a lot of soldiers. they lost a lot of soldiers to booby traps, mines, ambushes. we're much more cautious moving in, clearing paths that the

soldiers can go into and not have ambushes, not have snipers aiming at them. it's going to be cautious. but at the end of the day, this is war. and we're up against, again, an enemy who doesn't share any of our values and wants to destroy our civilization, wants to destroy our state. so, it will be a very tough battle. >> in terms of the end goal, what would it be? >> well, let's see. certainly restoring security to our borders, our territory, and our state, eliminating hamas' power in gaza, and rescuing the hostages. not in any order. >> is it just eliminating hamas' terror capabilities in attacking israel or them as in control? >> i think you have to eliminate them as in control. i have not spoke ton the government now. this is now our sixth round of

fighting the hamas. i participated in several of them, as you know. and every time we go back, they fire a couple rockets that kill people, we shoot back at them, we get blamed for all sort of crimes and we give them a lot of qatari cash and we think that's going to keep them quiet for a while. we let a lot of workers in. when i was in the government, i was actually in charge of those workers, getting them in. and the assumption was back then, okay, hamas wears two hats. it's got a terrorist hat. it's got a government hat. it was the sovereign government of the independent house in gaza, what they had. and there was this thought that somehow if you, sort of, incentivize them to put that government hat on more than the terrorist hat, they'd sit quiet. that's not true. if you restore hamas rule in gaza, the whole process is just going to start again. and i know whether it's two years from now or five years from now, we're going to be back in exactly the same place.

i think the israeli public has had it. back in 2021, i was involved with the diplomacy with the biden administration, when we were fighting -- it was may' 21. we were fighting with hamas. and the president was amazing. has a right to defend it. at a certain point, he said, we've got to put an end to this. and the message was brought to the israeli government. and it was a very difficult decision for the government back then because 80% of the israeli public was against the ceasefire. they were getting hit by rockets. they didn't want to go back to the status quo. this time i think it's 98%. >> thank you so much. >> thank you very much. >> appreciate it. coming up, this piece of news is going to be hard in many ways. monday night i spoke to a woman -- her friend and neighbor was unaccounted for. she herself had been taken, kidnapped by hamas saturday morning, taken by gunmen who

handed her audi, her neighbor's two young children. she and the boys were taken to the gazan border and they were suddenly released, allowed to walk back to the kibbutz. tonight we learned from the family that the friend, audi, was killed in that initial attack on saturday in israel. a family said, quote, she was murdered by terrorists in her home just for being jewish. monday night when there was still hope, i asked what she wanted people to know about her friend and neighbor. >> she's brave and she has such a good heart. she wouldn't hurt a sole.

she's always smiling and always giving. she's so kind and so gentle. she's such a good mother. she just had had a baby. he's four and a half months. she's just a beautiful sole really, just such a good friend, such a good mother. we need her, we need her. they both need her. the big one is asking. she just needs to come back. she needs to come back home. >> we now know she has died. we'll be right back.

israel. then we stopped at the bus station where there's a bunker right next to it to hide from the rockets. and we entered that bunker, the three of then the terror came and one of

us went outside to take a peek and suddenly we hear motorcycle with terrorists coming. there were people in cars ahead of you. what did you later learned happened to the people in the cars ahead of you? >> the motorcycles that came continued and they were in front of us. they started to attack and we were left behind hiding in the bunker for about 10 minutes and then we understood that they continued on their trip to kill innocent people and we just entered the car again and started to drive to safety and to north of israel. >> you gave us some video you

took in that bunker that we will play and at that point did you know, could you hear stuff outside? >> not at that point. the guy in the video and heard the trucks outside and we heard he was killed. we hoped our friend outside survived and did not get shot and we heard the terrorists outside of the bunker running around the bus station heard the chute and other vehicles passing and they just didn't into the bunker for about eight to 10 minutes and left us behind and then they continued on their trip. >> found out. have they decided to go into the bunker or check the bunker?

they would have killed you. >> of course. we heard them outside speaking arabic and sitting at vehicles. we were making each other's -- making each other signs if someone enters the bunker we would jump on him and try to save ourselves we heard in arabic woman killed. they killed -- they shot an arab woman? >> instead of my friend that hiding behind the trees. he jumped into the trees. he cut himself by jumping into the trees and he's taught everything. luckily he was saved. >> we have seen other videos of you know, hamas members

throwing a grenade into a bunker. you were incredibly lucky. >> we were. we were completely lucky for one hour. the whole trip from leaving the parking -- party and arrived it was one hour and then we were lucky enough and we started to flee and we managed to get away from a motorcycle with terrorists on it. >> you get into your car what happened then? >> we had is really people entering the bunker and then we understood that the motorcycles had left. we went outside and we entered the car and we were completely happy he was alive. we were all shocked.

we entered the car and we started to drive as fast as we can into safety and only one minute into the drive saw this one motors nicholas, probably the last one of the five that were at the gas station. we saw them in front of us shooting a car in the front. he didn't see us. and when he saw us too late because i hit the car as fast as i can and i hit them directly, i change the will directly heading into the motorcycle and i just hit them and i cannot explain how i reacted but it worked. >> so how many terrorist did you hit? >> one writing the motorcycle and the shooter in the back. the shooter in the back wanted to turns -- turn toward us and shoot us .

>> we are showing the terrorists on the ground dead. >> the shooter was dead the first second. this was the other man on the motorcycle. >> and you said you lost his weapon on your window. there is a picture of a bullet casing on the windshield. is that from his gun. >> that's from his gun. we tried to grab it but it fell on the road and my car was completely hit and was like --.

>> >> came into -- which is a village near gaza border and they had weapons. we were recovering from our eggs variance. >> then you have friends who came to pick you up. >> yes, then called friends to pick us up and take a to safety. the whole day experience. we started our journey a quarter to seven and we got home at 9:00 in the evening. >> michael so happy that you and your friends survived this and i'm so sorry for what you

have intro and for all those others who have not. thank you so much. >> you are welcome. goodbye. >> we will be right back.

earlier tonight israel's former ambassador to the united dates said goodbye to