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the breaking news out of israel this morning, and we are seeing new israeli air strikes on gaza, and israel is saying that they are targeting the hamas terrorist there, and the new secretary of state antony blinken is in tel aviv at this moment, and moments ago we saw him really just being mobbed by grateful israelis and hugging and consoling survivors of the hamas terror attack, and people thanking him, and sang the israeli national anthem and chanting "usa, usa." we will hear from the secretary of state again with a press conference shortly. >> now, early, antony blinken

met with prime minister neta netanyahu, and you can see him standing there with the prime minister, and he pledged unwavering support for tisrael from america. and also, some american hostages are being held as the humanitarian crisis in gaza is deepening by the hour, and the hostages are believed to be kept underground in tunnels. >> let's begin this hour with jeremy diamond, and you and your team had to take cover, and what is going on there? >> yeah, this is the daily reality here, and you are somewhat close to the gaza border, and there is only the city of ashkelon, and then you

the gaza strip. moments ago, we had air raid sighlens and then here is that mom moment. >> reporter: we just entered a shelter insidef our hotel here, and the iron dome intercepts are happening right now, and this is the first time in the last couple of days that swe have ha a red alert here, and this is further south in ashkelon and one of the harder hit cities. this is is the reality of life when you are miles away from the gaza border, and also, we have seen other rocket attacks in tel aviv and jerusalem, but they are more infrequent, but this is what the people do, and they come into the shelters. we are in a hotel, and two of them on each floor, and people wait for a few minutes for calm

to resume. and then when we returned to the live shot position here in the hotel, we were able to see above us at least three plumes of smoke indicating iron dome intercepts of rockets here above the skies of ashdod, and we know that the iron dome is incredibly effective, and it is not 100% effective, and everyone here still knows drill to take those precautionary measures when that comes in, and at the same time from our position, we can still hear the steady rumble of air strikes hitting the gaza strip, and we know that the israeli military is going to be hitting the air strikes and the military to pound the gaza strip and the death toll in gaza and also

rising now northwards of 1,400 people killed in gaza, and we know that as israel prepares for the next phase of this military campaign and this is all pointing to the ground campaign of gaza, we know it is also going to result in troops on the ground, and you will have casualties and also of to civilians in the gaza strip, and a congested area, and we know those are the people most often caught in the crossfire. >> jeremy, thank you. stick close to you. >> and now, back to tel aviv where antony blinken has gone to a donation center, and this is turning into a remarkable visit, our becky anderson is there, and the reception from the israelis

is extraordinary. >> yes, they wanted the american officials here. they did not want to hear these words of support. they really wanted to see the u.s. secretary of state antony blinken here, and he has been here this morning. in fact, his cars have just driven past where we are in this hotel. but, look, have a look at the stories and lori gillbalm, a 24-year-old israeli american who survived that massacre at the music festival at the weekend, and she was hugged by antony blinken, and she related the story that she has lived through, and it is a story of a nightmare, isn't it? it is absolutely excruciating story of what happened at 6:30 in the morning on saturday, and absolute humanity as he was welcomed into the donation

center and spoke to lori in person. earlier today, he was shoulder-to-shoulder with the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu, and he absolutely insisted that america's support is unwavering, and he said that as long as america exist, israel will never stand alone in defending itself. this is what the iz raly prime minister had to say earlier. >> president biden was absolutely correct in calling this sheer evil. hamas is isis, and just as isis was crushed, so should hamas. they should be spit out from the community of nations. no leader should meet them. no country should harbor them. and those that do should be

sanct sanctioned. >> well, questions of course now abound about what this war against hamas will look like and what the price will be that is paid by civilians. i spoke with president herzog earlier on who has also met with the secretary of state president biden this morning. president herzog gave no indication of when a ground incursion will start, and only that it is a long and drawn out campaign against hamas. and to be quite clear as you were reporting with priscilla at the top of this hour, the u.s. has warned israel to uphold the laws of war as 2 million gazans

will meet the reprisals of war. and the president of israel addressing the possibility of the international support waning the longer it goes on, and the higher the death toll in gaza goes, and the question of the policy of the collective policy of gazans and frustrated with the questions, and he said that we are working to adhere to the rules of war, but he said that we are at war, and there are going to be many palestinians who do not support hamas, but reality has turned into this tragedy. back to you, guys. >> thank you, becky anderson, in tel aviv, and keep us posted on what else you see on the ground. >> we want to thank jeremy diamond who had to take cover because of the rockets being fired from gaza. right now, the u.s. officials are furiously working

behind the scenes to put together just how many americans are being held by hamas, and what can be done about it, and how to get them out. a top u.s. hostage official is with secretary of state antony blinken in israel, and the national security reporter natasha bertrand is joining us from the pentagon. nat natasha, this is a very, very difficult situation with the hostages in general and the americans in particular in hamas' hands at this point. and what are you hearing about the plans? >> yeah, sara, officials do not know exactly where these hostages are being held, and it is an all hands on deck effort with the iz sraelis to find the hostages before israel launches

a ground invasion to jeopardize the safety of those held captive by hamas, and it is an all hands on deck across the administration, and the fbi and the pentagon is on the ground, and there is an intra agency group, and council and fbi taking information from the hostages and the family members and special operators on the ground in israel to work with the israelis to provide them support and intelligence and help in terms of the best practices to try to get these hostages located and out. and now, it is important to note that the national security official john kirby said that they are only less than a handful of hostages and believed to be american, and they are believed to be held in gaza, and it does no matter, and he said that if you hold, and even if you are a dual citizen, the u.s. is going to be doing everything it can to secure your release. that what they are doing, and

importantly, the fbi critical incident response group is on the ground, and they have a lot of experience dealing with this kind of thing, and so really no effort is being spared here across the swachgs, but it is a difficult task ahead, sara. >> yes, and we should mention that the last time that israel managed to get somebody out, it was gilad shalid, and it is a very difficult moment as the families are waiting to hear anything about the status of their loved ones. thank you so mup for your reporting, natasha bertrand. and now, joining us is republican chairman of the house committee mike mccaul. so a little bit of the official, and then the person. so after moderating the committee, and then hearing that the hostages can most likely be

held underground, is it possible that they can be rescue? >> it is going to be difficult, kate. we will go into not only rescue the hostages, but to kill the terrorist, and this is the most dangerous part of the mission, and it is going to be bloody, because they use the hostages as the human shield, and they will use them in the tunnel, the houses and the buildings, and they are very willing to give the hostages up to be sacrificed. we do think that they are holding the hostages in exchange for prisoners, palestinian prisoners of the israelis, and so it is some hope that it can be negotiated. i am glad that there are special operators with idf and the hostage rescue team who can add some assets on the ground to help them in the mission.

>> on the question or the topic of the prisoners exchange being held in israel. hamas official based in lebanon spoke to russian tv and he also said this, and i wanted to read this for you. we have palestinian prisoners in the u.s. who we want. we have hamas members sentenced to life in prison in the united states. do you know anything of this? would you support releasing any hamas prisoner in the united states in order to get back a hostage from israel? >> i am not looking to incentivize hostage taking, and we had five dangerous prisoners in the united states exchanged for five innocent americans, but on top of that kaitlan was the lifting of the sanctions of $6 billion that would go into iran, and the largest state sponsored

terror, and that greatly concerns me, because you can see what iran is capable of, and the fingerprints are all over this. i would hate to give them more resources to do more acts of terror like what you are seeing. >> these are the live pictures of gaza, and you are seeing more black plumes of smoke, and israel is starting to conduct a large scale strike operation ahead of the next stage they call it which they are not announcing what it is obviously, to take out hamas military infrastructure. tony blinken, mr. chairman, said in his remarks in israel that one of the goals of his visit right now is to prevent this conflict from spreading. do you think that it can be contained, and do you think that blinken can do it? >> that is my great hope. i brought it up in the classified briefing yesterday, and the worst case scenario, kate, is that it is going to

escalate beyond the gaza, beyond the hamas in gaza, and escalate to hezbollah in lebanon and remember that hezbollah has 100,000 rockets at their disposal and that would overload the iron dome, because it is not capable of defending israel from that amount of rockets. and we are worried about the jihadist groups like in syria where we had the iran-backed shia militia groups, and that is the worst nightmare that we want to contain the conflict to the gaza, but what you are seeing is the original command and control to take them out by strike, and then the second phase is house-to-house to liberate hostages and root out terrorist, and that going to take months. the people of israel have to be prepared for, that and this is

more time for our adversaries to react and respond to this. i agree with the secretary on that, and i am glad that he is there, and i'm glad that he embraced mewusicgoers who were there at the concert, and he and i love music, and we have that peace to music bill together, and i was on the kibbutz down there in south gaza that was mas massacred. >> yes, your office sent me some images that you visited kibbutz just last year in kfar aza, and how does that impact you? >> well, it makes it personal. i was there a year ago with the then speaker mccarthy. and then to see, you know, i got a call the day after the

invasion, if you will, that the entire kibbutz had been massacred, and kate, that day care center that i saw with all of the children and the babies, and they had just undergone a 4,500 rocket attack by hamas a month prior, but to find out that the day care center had been invaded and killed all of the children and beheaded them. and beheaded the babies and that is how vicious they are, and when netanyahu says they are like isis and when they are beheading children and babies, i think they are. >> there are some -- there is some lack of clarity now on how on the -- it is hard to even work through it who is beheaded, if it is involving children, and i say that for accuracy of the

reporting and not to at all diminish that the children were massacred there and massacred everywhere. tony blinken saying it is worse of what comes from isis that he is hearing coming from hamas. >> and now, what was said about the hamas attack yesterday in the issue of containment, and what role could mbs in saudi arabia play in preventing this from spreading further, and bringing an end to hamas? >> i believe turkey could have a

role, and the qataris and also the palestinians. so we need to bring all diplomacy together, and i am glad that the secretary blinken is there to meet with the partners to bring a diplomatic end tonight mair, and as we talk about a future escalation of, of this massacre that has taken place. >> and it is important to note what you said we could be looking at months to bring hamas down, and to get these hostages out hopefully safely and alive. mr. chairman, thank you for your time. >> thank you, kate. thank you for having me. >> of course. john? >> right, on the screen there, that is a live look inside of gaza right now. israel says it is conducting

large-scale strikes on hamas targets. we are hearing more stories of the horror of to hamas terror attacks in israel including a teenager who survived by hiding underneath his mother's dead body.

all right. happening later today, the house republicans will meet behind closed doors to try to figure something out. yesterday, you know, steve scalise narrowly won a house republicans for their choice of the next speaker of the house, but the problem is that they cannot get 217 of them to agree

to put him on the house floor to win the vote. so as the chaos ensues, congress is doing nothing, and that means nothing while israel hangs in the balance. by cnn's count, at least a dozen republican holdout, and scalise can only afford to lose four. with us, john avalon and political commentator ana navarro, and scalise won the vote in the conference, but it is not enough. do you think that they will coalesce around a speaker? is there ever going to be a speaker? >> there is going to be a speaker at some point, and i think that scalise winning is going to be a good news from the republican caucus, because he is less polarizing by degrees, albeit, but less polarizing than jim jordan, but i have to say

that the contrast could not be starker at a moment when our friend and ally israel is under attack and at war, and when there are american hostages, when there have been americans killed, and when the entire region is inflamed, our congress cannot have a reaction much less a unified reaction and this is no time for the clown show and the performances of the click and the twitter bait and the fund-raising appeals that has taken over congress for the last few years. it is imperative for these people to do their job and imperative for them to get their act together, and get some leadership, and stop the infantile games and stupidity which we have all been guilty of the last few years. it is enough. for god sakes, turn on the tv and look at the children dying

and the slaughtered teenagers and have some common sense. >> that is what is wrapped up in this when you are looking at the events in israel, and on a political front, that is what is happening, and we have had mike mccaul who has clashed with the administration, the biden administration before, and chairman of house foreign affairs and he has threatened to hold tony blinken in contempt, and complimenting him for being on the ground to stand with israel. who is not doing that is former president of the united states former president donald trump and i want to play what he said yesterday, because we have heard a response from biden whitewhiteho

house. >> i will never forget that b.b. netanyahu let us down and talking about the intelligence and system ofome of the things t wrong over the last week, and they are fighting potentially a big force. gee, i hope that hezbollah does not attack from the north. that is the most vulnerable spot. well, hezbollah is very smart. and the white house said we don't comment on 2024 and it is unhinged and it is unknown to us why anybody would say that a terrorist group is smart, and especially when we are trying to fight back one of the worst terrorist attacks in history.

>> and there is a time when partisanship should end at water's edge. but the fact that he did not try to unite the nation, but there is always his instinct to divide the nation, and make it about himself and then praise the hamas as very smart, and then that is what he said the chinese government over in tiananmen square as being very smart. and so it is thinking about others and not thinking about uniting the nation and the allies at this time. >> and we saw antony blinken in a remarkable moment when israelis are hugging him, and he is with the biden administration, and do you see

donald trump trying to get his attention that he so craves instead of trying to govern? >> that is the instinct and he has to crave, and what he feels about himself and even in the middle of a terrorist attack to rise above, and it is nothing more than his ego and the instinct to praise the strong men no matter how ugly that is. this is not hard to unite right now, and yet it is impossible for him. >> and ana, is this -- >> yes, to me, donald trump is who he is. he is an incoherent narcissist who makes everything about himself. but for me, the problem is really people like senator tim scott who talked about joe biden having blood on his hands. people like ron na mca mcdaniel

saying that there is people who have blood on their hands, and only one people who have blood on their hand, and it is hamas, and whether you are pro israeli or pro palestinian, you cannot be both. so, for those who have platforms and our leaders should be directing their fire and directing the works, and the contrast again could not be starker. at a time when you are seeing billboards thanking america and thanking joe biden, and at a time when israelis are gathering around the secretary of state and hugging him, and hugging him as an extension of america. you see, here in america, people are trying to blame americans for what happened in israel. come on, folks. stop this stupidity and stop the insanity, and the partisan shot, because we have to unite at a

time like this. >> annaa navarro and john avalo thank you. and now, we are desperately trying to get some information about the family members who have been taken hostage, and up next we will speak to the brother who has been kidnapped by hamas, and likely take n int the tunnels of gaza when we come back.

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israel has a staunch warning from hamas and they will not provide gaza with food, water, electricity or fuelhostages at and so saturday they stormed to take what is believed to be up to 150 people captives. the families have been notified that their loved ones now were taken to gaza. one of the family members of those hostages, and there he is, 21-year-old omar was taken by hamas at the music festival known as the super nova festival in israel while he was trying to

enjoy himself and his brother. his brother is joining us now. first of all, ahmed, thank you so much for taking time out, because i know that this is a very difficult moment for you and your entire family. i wanted to ask you about your brother. he was kidnapped by hamas at the super nova festival, and how did you and the family find out that your brother had been taken? >>, so it was saturday morning, and we all heard the alarms. we thought that it was going to be like casual, and usual thing, and in israel every now and then we get the rockets into us, and then it comes down, and kind of like this time, we noticed that there was a lot more, and the hamas managed to breach into israel. so we got into touch with omar and asked him to send us the location. it was not accurate and it

looked like first up north and south, and it was not true low case, but in the end, we saw that the location was inside of gaza. first, we were in denial. towards the evening, it was like 8:00 p.m., that it showed omar tied up in the back of a pickup truck and we managed to recognize him. >> when you say that you received a video, was it on social media or officials sent it to you, and where was that horrible moment that you recognized him in the back of the truck. >> okay. so a friend of omar sent us a video, but omar, his friend received it from telegon. so it was a chain that was sent to someone who sent it to someone who got it to us.

>> so when is the last time that you were able to speak to your brother, amit? >> we had a dinner on friday and this is the last time that i saw him. >> can you tell me what your reaction was as you heard what was going on? you just hung out with him friday night, and this events where there was dancing and music and a rave was going on early morning, and hamas comes storming in, and what were the conversations with him, and give us a sense of how he is as a human being. >> as a human being, he is a kind soul. he is a lot of friends, and everybody loves him. his dream is to become a music producer, and i hope that one day he comes back and we see that dream come true. i didn't really have touch with

omar that saturday morning, because i was still asleep, sadly. so my mom and my sister and my dad were speaking to him through call, phone call. they told him to come back home, and he managed get to the car, but the car did not get out of the parking area, out of the south -- >> it is all right. >> i am truly devastated. i am devastated. i wish for nobody. >> i am sorry, i can hear the sheer emotion in your voice. i lastly want to ask you, if you is heard anything at all from the israeli officials on where he may be, whether he is on a list somewhere -- any kind of information that you have got

gotten? >>, so monday, government officials came over to our house to confirm the fact that he has been kidnapped and held up by hamas, and i think that they saw the same video that we saw. they gave us his last location, and this is all we know for now, and it has been five days and almost six. we are worried. >> and looking at the pictures and he has incredibly relaxed look and blue eyes, and you had just had dinner and enjoying dinner and family time, and this happened, and you are devastated because you have said, so and anybody would be, and i am so sorry for you and your family having to go through this with more than 100 other families and stay in touch with us, and we will certainly get this to you. and mitch, thank you for taking the time out with us today. >> thank you very much. >> john? >> it has to be so hard.

>> i want to go to jeremy diamond who is near ashdod who had to take cover again, with the sirening going off warning of potential danger again. what is happening? >> yes, john, barrages of rockets heading to ashdod in the last couple of hours, and the last one was really close. you know, we have heard the intercepts very, very loud which indicates that they were right above us, and right behind us, and we were able to see the smoke in the air when we returned, but we were there in the shelter with a whole family that moved actually from the city of ashkelon, and slightly closer to the gaza strip closer to ashdod hoping for safety, but when i spoke to the father in the shelter, this is what he had

to say. >> reporter: you can see that we are in the shelt e and this is life in israel near the gaza strip, and there are a couple of families here living near the hotel, and can you speak english? >> we from ashkelon, and we are here because of the bomb. >> reporter: yes, ashkelon is closer to the bomb. >> yes, and the children are crying and they don't sleep at night, and it is a lot of afraid, the child. >> reporter: and so you came here looking for more safety, and -- >> and they gave us five days to be here. >> reporter: for free? >> yes, a good man. a good man. yes. >> reporter: do you feel safer here?

>> yes, the children, they feel safer, but when they are, the noise. >> reporter: they get afraid. yes. and so you can hear that father trying to bring the family closer to safety, and the children in ashkelon not able to sleep when they heard the booms overhead, but when they moved to the city ashdod, they have not been able to escape the situation. and as much as we talk about iz raly families, i wanted to talk about what is happening in gaza as well, because there are images of children terrified by the bombs falling overhead, and of course, one reality is that does not exist in gaza that exists here, gaza does not have the same kind of bomb shelters, and they do not have the iron dome overhead, and it is

important to keep in mind the fear that the very real fear, and the psychological impact and the deaths and the injuries that are occurring on the israeli side, but also to hold in the other hand what is happening in the gaza strip, because on both sides what you have is humanity, and children and civilians being impacted by this war between israel and hamas. >> thank you, jeremy diamond, he is in ashdod here. and talking to the people who had fled from ashkelon to ashdod because they felt that they would be safer. over to jeremy. sara? we have disturbing new information after the prime minister's office said that babies had been beheaded, they

walked it back, but this new information coming in is extremely disturbing. the prime minister's office has released and i am quoting here, horrifying photos of babies burned by the hamas monsters. and he says that hamas is inhuman and hamas is isis, the three photos show two babies whose bodies have burned beyond recognition. and a third that is blood stained. it is a very small baby, an in infant. netanyahu posted the pictures and we won't show them to you are right now, because they are extremely disturbing. and we want to make sure that for the families to just make sure that we are not showing those images to you as they are

where you can see every horrible thing. that is where we are right now in this conflict. i think that they were shared with secretary of state antony blinken who we have been watching extraordinary pictures of the israelis hugging him as they tell the stories of survival at that music festival and so now we are getting some images, and i know that hamas has denied beheading children, but they certainly cannot deny what is on video, and what is on photos and what people have seen with their own eyes with children. >> and no matter what, to no finer point, children were murdered, full stop. >> and new information here that we will soon hear from antony blinken in tel aviv and has been

meeting with israeli leaders and you are seeing smoke up over hamas in that enclave. we will be right back.

the new round of air strikes on gaza this morning and israel says it is hitting hamas terror targets. palestinian officials say more than 1,400 people including 4,700 children have been killed. and there is a complete siege on the more than 7 million people cutting off food, water and fuel. the health ministry says that the hospitals are on the verge of catastrophe. i am joined by a palestinian journalist who lives in maryland, and her family is in gaza, and thank you for being with us now. please explain when this happens, where can the residents

of gaza go? what recourse do they have? >> thank you so much for having me. they can go nowhere. there is nowhere to go, and this what we have been trying to emphasize over and over again. and forgive me, my heart is pounding, because i am getting the whatsapp messages to my family if they are alive or not, and many members of my family have had to leave their homes and go to relative's homes and then leave there because they are in danger, but there is no bomb shelters in gaza, and there is no safe place, and a complete blockade on gaza, but it is a blockade on upon a blockade upon blockade for 17 years and some form of fortune there, and so unless they plan to swim out to sea before getting shot by israeli guns, and so the crossing when my own uncle tried to leave for his permanent

residence in jordan, the crossing was bombed about half an hour before he left. >> and the rafah crossing is not open on either side, correct? >> correct. there were people who were at teming to l in tempting to leave before it shut, and they were stopped. >> can you tell us what the relationship is in times like this between hamas and the civilians, and the people in these residential buildings who may be wanting to move to somewhere else? >> this is first and foremost about a population of 2.3 million people who are captive, who are besieged, 80% of which are registered refugees with the

united nations, and many are not from gaza, but from villages and towns from historic palestine, and villages they have been forbidden the right to return to or remembering, and completely erased from remembering since 1948. this is about those individuals half of which is under 25 who are denied the basic freem do, and i don't want to reduce this to access of food and water and as important as it, but they cannot fish in sea, and to pursue higher education, and they have been enduring a brutal siege of the stated aims of the israeli government is to deprive the people of their basic means to prosper and live ordinary normal lives with dignity, and that is what this is about, and the fact that the elected israeli leaders enjoy the full support of our government and others stand up to unabashedly

say that we will turn gaza into rubble, and deprive the palestinian population of food, water and electricity is unfathomable, and it is a war crime. >> and many will say that hamas charter calls for the obliteration of israel, and that is very heated language. >> and to remind the viewers that elected israeli government and officials have officially called for the ethnic cleansing of palestinians and called for the palestinians to be wiped out, and these are the israeli leadership who have said they do not want palestine to exist, and i should point out that in the oslo according there was never a mention of the gaza to be established, and the likud

charters point -- >> if i can come in, to ask you what type of conversations can be taken place between hamas and antony blinken? >> an end of hostilities and all human life is sacred, and immediate end of the hostilities and we can address the root of this, which is the brutal occupation of the palestinian people that they have been enduring for 56 years now, and when that end, and when israeli ap par tiz of the palestinian land and people then there can be a just end for all peoples, and that going to help us to achieve the vision of peace for all. >> and i know that they also want some help with the some

150-hostages being held now inside of gaza. thank you for joining us. we will be right back.