to negotiate future of the hostages. and that of course a critical piece of all of this. thank you very much for your time this morning. and of course as we have been on the air today, hamas is claiming 13 of those hostages have been killed in the course of israeli airstrikes. cnn is trying to confirm that. but in the meantime, thank you all for joining us. i'm kasie hunt. "cnn this morning" starts right now. . this is cnn breaking news. i'm poppy harlow in new york with phil mattingly.

the israeli military is warning more than 1 million civilians to evacuate south as the war with hamas intensifies and hundreds of thousands of israeli troops mass on the border. what you're looking at is new video of leaflets being dropped over gaza city. hamas militants are urging people there to defy the orders and to stay in their homes but we are seeing palestinians heeding that rn with aing, families with small children are walking south carrying whatever they can. >> and this morning israeli forces have continued to hit gaza and hamas is now claiming air strikes have killed 13 hostages, those hostages abducted they say during last weekend's massacre. israeli's military cannot confirm or deny the claim. loud austin is in tel-aviv to meet with prime minister benjamin netten yahoo. antony blinken was in tel-aviv yesterday, and met with abbas in jordan.

we have team coverage. let's start with becky anderson in east jerusalem. there's a large palestinian operation where you are. hamas has called for a day of rage. what's the scene right now? >> reporter: well, we are between two gates here in east jerusalem. the road behind me here, i'll get you a shot, which is got an awful lot of israeli security forces but we are not seeing the muslim worshippers yet who will come down this road, those who have been the al aqsa mosque for friday midday prayers. reports suggest the israeli security forces have been selective on age as we understand it only those over the age of 60 have been allowed in to what is this extremely contentious compound. the temple mount haram al sharif, it houses the holiest

site in jude i didn't mean, al aqsa, the site revered by christians, it is the real flash point over the years, and marks a real moment, always, in this conflict. so, things are relatively quiet, i have to say, the courtyard, we were overlooking that courtyard during friday prayers, it was empty. you would normally see that awash with muslim worshippers, those from the west bank who, today are not allowed in to east jerusalem and indeed youngsters from here. many, many fewer people allowed in to that compound today to pray. we await to see what happens next, we hope things will be contained here. but that's the story here. as far as gaza is concerned we just bring up the map to show where this evacuation order is, by the idf. i mean, the question is, where

do these people go to in southern gaza? the rafa border closed to those who want to get out of gaza, so there is no exit at this point. and you're reporting on where the secretary of state antony blinken is at present is really important because he's been here, he's been to jordan, he's met the palestinian authority president abbas there with king abdullah, doing the rounds to the uae, saudi, qatar, egypt, trying to get the region on board with some sort of plan that they can sort of bring to the israelis to say this is a stopgap, short term solution to sort of deescalate what's going on at present. i mean, we have to hope the secretary of state antony blinken can get the region on board, which is absolutely petrified, the region that is, about an escalation, of course, in all of this. i mean, you know, you talk to anybody around the region, you've heard this from king

abdullah, for example, and from the palestinian authority president abbas getting the palestinian -- on the agenda is important. let me explain what we are seeing here, some skirmishes, we've heard bangs this morning of stun grenades and a little bit of smoke. i want to be quite clear about this. i've been in exactly this position during this conflict over the years, and the violence here was really bad. today things are absolutely calm, within reason, few pockets of scuffles, but i'm not suggesting for a moment that the day of rage has become a violent day. of course, hamas calling this -- calling this operation, this monstrous operation, the al aqsa floods, that speaks to the name of the mosque at the compound, of course, they say that has been desecrated by jewish settlers of late and by the

storming of that mosque by israeli forces over the years. so that's the situation as things stand at present. as far as what's going on in gaza is concerned you can really only hope that there is some sort of short-term plan before what we expect to be a massive assault by the israelis. >> becky, critical context based on where you are tied to your years of experience there. we'll come back to you. and to ben wedeman, in southern lebanon, the scale of this call for evacuation by the idf, estimated to be more than a million people. what's the plausibility of this actually happening? >> reporter: it's going to be very difficult, first of all, given the fact that the sheer number of people, perhaps 1.1 million people a situation where there's very little fuel, the number of people, where are they going to go, where are they

going to be housed? the u.n. and other international organizations in gaza are saying it's simply not possible given the number of people and the circumstances, there's an active war. people are afraid to just move in the street, so moving 1.1 million people from northern gaza to southern part is something that's hard to imagine being done on practical terms. now, i've been in gaza before, for instance, in 2014 the israelis ordered the evacuation of civilians from northern communities, ones near the israeli border. for the most part people were able to do that because you could get out by walking, you could get out by riding on a donkey cart, perhaps, if you could get a car ride out. but that was relatively small numbers compared to gaza city. gaza city is huge. where are you going to put all these people when you move them south when none of the relief supplies, tents, food, water, medicine have been allowed into

the gaza strip. it's very difficult to imagine how this could possibly be done. and hamas is calling on people to stay in their homes, to stay put. so, this is going to be very difficult, and certainly if people do not or cannot evacuate those areas, the israelis are calling them to leave, and this ground offensive goes ahead, probability is, it will be a blood bath. >> quickly from where you are there's also been a call for the quote day of rage in southern lebanon. what are you seeing right now? >> reporter: i'm going to step out of the camera for a minute so you can see, this is a mosque in the southern lebanese town of hana where they've called for a demonstration, people are still inside the mosque. so you see the palestinian flag on top, and these are hezbollah flags around the mosque. however, interestingly there's no lebanese flags here.

however, there is an israeli flag, it's been painted onto the road so that anybody walking by can step upon it as an act of hatred, i suppose you could say, but by and large it's a situation where people are demonstrating, but the border in south lebanon is quiet today. i actually had an opportunity to speak to the lebanese information minister who was going on a tour of the border area, and he downplayed the possibility that lebanon will be drawn into this war. he told me that he thinks the israelis don't have the appetite to go to war again with lebanon, and particularly with hezbollah. >> ben wedeman joining us in southern lebanon, ben, thank you very much. and joining us now to get more of these questions answered, i do, f spokesman lieutenant colonel peter learner, colonel,

thank you for your time again this morning as always. i want to ask you for confirmation on what hamas is claiming, that 13 israeli prisoners taken hostage during the weekend's attack, they are claiming they have been killed in gaza by israeli bombings. has the idf confirmed those deaths? ? i can't confirm those, and we have to be cautious with everything hamas is saying. and their propaganda efforts are extensive. this morning we are continuing our activities against the hamas terrorist organization, and their infrastructure throughout the gaza strip, specifically we are targeting special operations capabilities, we've taken up their drone capabilities. they had attack drones that were posen and prepared to be launched at israel but we've taken some of those out and we're continuing our effort to make sure hamas can never, ever threaten israel again and they cannot be permitted to do so.

>> you do not have confirmation of what hamas is claiming there. do you have any update on the condition of all of the hostages, any of them that are being held? >> well, to my knowledge they've not released any information except for disinformation, and we're looking into it very cautiously. the situation is as such, we believe that hamas are responsibility for the well-being of all of the hostages that they've taken, and they need to return them immediately, they need to release them to israel. and they will pay the consequences for their actions. the situation on the ground, obviously, is a complicated one, and we're taking operating in caution with regard to the hostage situation and of course it is influencing our operational game plan. >> how is it influencing it? is it causing the idf not to take certain actions at this moment, that it would otherwise

take? >> i obviously won't elaborate on operational considerations, but definitely it is part of the planning process, and we do need to take that into consideration. >> okay. >> our priority is to return them home as soon as possible. >> the order from recommendation from israel for about 1.1 million people according to the u.n. to move out of northern gaza, there have been some reports of a time frame put on that. is there a time frame that the idf has put on that? >> so, the orders is to evacuate immediately, and i would highly recommend that people adhere to that instruction because the military is determined to take out hamas's capabilities, they operate from a stronghold within gaza and gaza city and they can no longer be utilize that area.

in order to minimize and mitigate civilian casualties, this is what you've been asking us over the last couple of days, what about the humanitarian corridor, this is part of the humanitarian effort so that people will not be influenced more than they have to be in this conflict. hamas, unfortunately is calling on the other hand, no, people, do not evacuate, stay and sacrifice yourself. hamas has no regard for human life, israeli or palestinian. they will sacrifice everybody as they are proving time and time again. >> the question is, is there a safe window for all of those people, a million plus people to evacuate to the south? the united nations says it is, quote, impossible for such a movement to take place without devastating humanitarian consequences, as these air strikes continue. >> here's what we do. when we saw a threat on the border with gaza we evacuated the people from the border from

gaza. what is hamas doing? they're not doing anything. s sacrificing them, stay put. the idf is coming. we are operating extensively. when they place their offensive drones, strike drones, suicide drones on the roofs of houses, they are jeopardizing everybody in that house, they don't care. so we're telling people, evacuate this area, because we are operating, we plan on broadening the scope of our operations in order to achieve our goal. >> colonel, i'm going to move on, is there a window of safety. the u.n. has said 24 hours, for example, is there a window of safety when this evacuation -- >> i would highly recommend that the evacuation takes place immediately. the window of -- the 24 hours that we're talking about is the highly recommendation, but it could go on beyond that but i would say the instruction is get up, and get out of the north of gaza and gaza city and move to the south. >> and just to be clear, though,

move to the south, but there is still no crossing out of gaza for them? >> yeah, we're directing them exactly where we expect them not to be where people in order to safeguard their own lives should move from. not to go into egypt or anything like that, but they should not be in the area which we designated and have told them specifically. this is like a forewarning of where we're operating, forewarning of where it's going to be more extensive combat, where there are going to be more extensive strikes, you know, this is the whole idea of trying to make safeguard people's lives. the instruction to leave is to save people's lives so they should leave from the north of gaza, from gaza city and go to the south of the city, of the gaza wadi, and they should -- they should set up there. if they stay, they are jeopardizing themselves, this is

what i'm trying to say. i know that there are considerations, there are problems, of course, i would say hamas need to deal with all of those problems, of how to ship people from the north to the south, like we did, we took people from their houses in the south of israel and we moved them elsewhere. and hamas should have the responsibility, rather than failing the people of gaza, they should help the people of gaza. >> colonel, i think the question becomes, for how long can they remain in the south? will an order like israel has given in the north then come to them in the south? if there is no crossing that opens. >> our operation is focused towards hamas, not to the people of gaza, because the people of gaza are not our enemy, the hamas terrorist organization has butchered over a thousand, 200 people, and israel cannot be permitted to govern the gaza strip and use it as a staging ground against israel.

when we recommend to the people of gaza go to the south, you should listen, go to the south, do not stay in gaza city, do not stay in the north, and yes, everybody should listen to that recommendation. >> i do want to ask you about a report this morning out of human rights watch, which says that it has verified videos showing multiple air bursts of artillery fired with white phosphorus over the gaza city port, cnn has spoken to experts, we cannot categorically conclude that or independently verify that, but people know white phosphorus fire causes severe burns down to the bone that are slow to heal, that's according to the group. is the idf using -- has the idf used white phosfphorus, colonel? >> categorically, no. >> the question of the hostages, if, indeed, what hamas is saying is true, elevates the concern about the level of intelligence

for the idf to be able to carry out its mission within gaza. can you say, confidently, that your intelligence within gaza is much stronger now than it was one week ago, that makes you more confident that as you carry out what is to come, it sounds like imminently from you, you can do so while protecting those hostage lives? >> we will put the priority of the well-being of the hostages, of course, at the top of our priority list. but we need to also balance out the needs of destroying hamas's capabilities. so, of course, when we are considering mobilizing, and considering air strikes, when we're considering special forces operations, we need to take all of those things into consideration. unfortunately, it is, again, it's hamas that have set the stage for this unfortunate development. they could end that, and release them immediately, as we expect. >> lieutenant colonel peter

lerner, thank you for joining us, especially at such a critical moment in all of this. >> thank you. >> thank you. this morning defense secret secretary lloyd austin is in israel, meeting with officialing, including the prime minister. more on israel's warning to all civilians in gaza city, we just heard us talking about this, with this warning to immediately, you heard from the idf colonel there, move south. we're going to talk about the u.n., saying it is inl i'm possible. what does this mean? much more ahead. 'm possible. what does this mean? much more ahead. m possible. what does this mean? much more ahead. possible. what does this mean? much more ahead.

two very senior top u.s. officials are on the ground in the middle east. secretary of defense lloyd austin and antony blinken as the u.s. pushing for diplomacy to prevent the conflict broadening. blinken is traveling to qatar, the meeting happened in jordan earlier today, he spent thursday in israel meeting with prime minister netanyahu has he works to secure evacuations and the release of americans held hostage in gaza. austin traveled in tel-aviv a few hours ago, he will be meeting with netanyahu and other high-ranking officials. alex marquardt joins us live from washington, d.c. such a show of how critical this is for the united states to have both of them there with these key meetings at the same time. what can you share? >> yeah, it really is. and that's the goal from both

these men is to really to communicate this solidarity with israel as they retaliate against hamas. so austin arrived today, you can see him there getting off the plane, greeted by his israeli counterpart. he's expected to speak momentarily. he's also meeting with the israeli war cabinet as well as prime minister netanyahu. the pentagon and austin have said for days if they're going to get israel whatever it needs in terms of weapons the first american shipment of weapons has arrived in israel already. the focus in terms of the weaponry is going to be more intercepts -- interceptor rockets for their extremely effective iron dome air defense system as well as precision-guided munitions that israel has been using and will continue to use to hit hamas in gaza. but, guys, really, the focus here is by both blinken and austin to show that u.s. solidarity, these top-level biden administration officials are not in israel to call for peace or for a cease-fire,

they're not asking israel to show restraint, they really are there to show support for israel's retaliation against hamas. >> alex, u.s. officials are also trying to figure out how to address american citizens, both gaza, but also in israel, if they want to depart, we're learning that charter planes may be sent to take american citizens home. how is that going to play out? >> well, this is one of the top priorities, of course, you can understand there are a lot of americans in israel who are trying to get home. we know that the major american carriers, delta, american, united have stopped flying because of security reasons. we understand from the state department that today there will be charter flights available, they'll use turkish airlines, israeli airlines, other regional airlines to fly these american citizens first to europe, and then from europe they will be able to get onwards to get on u.s. carriers from europe onwards to the states. of course, there are major concerns about palestinian americans as well who may be

stuck in gaza. that's why secretary blinken is traveling in the region, specifically to egypt, because it's egypt that will help the most in terms of creating a humanitarian corridor to get out of the gaza strip. >> yes. intensive diplomatic process, alex mar carquardt for us in washington, d.c. they've warning all civilians to leave gaza city. the clearest signal, planning to intensify military operations in gaza after the hamas terror attacks over the weekend. the u.n. calls the mass evacuation an impossible task that would have devastating humanitarian consequences, the palestinian health ministry says more than 1,500 people have died so far in gaza after days of israel's air strikes in a total blockade without water, with us now again this morning military analyst retired air force colonel cedric leighton. the u.n. says this is impossible. i'm not sure if you heard the colonel from the idf speaking

with us, who said evacto it south immediately and he did say they would intensify their strikes. he didn't talk about a ground incursion, but the u.n. says it's possible. what do jowsey? >> i think it's going to be really difficult. when peter lerner was talking about this, he was talking about this area of evacuation right here, so this area is the northern part of gaza, it is the most densely populated area in this strip right here, so over 1.1 million people live right where my hand is. now, when you look at the possibilities here, we're talking about going down this way to the south, toward the rafa crossing. so this is going to be a very, very difficult thing for them to do. the rafa crossing is right on the egyptian border right here, this is what it looks like when normal times, more or less

normal times are present, it is a very difficult place to get to under these conditions because, quite frankly, the crossing is closed. and it's going to be very hard for all the citizens of gaza from the northern part to not only go to the south but if they're told to move out of gaza, the egyptians won't let them do that. that's going to limit them, that's going to box these people in, in this southern territory right here, which has its own issues, of course. >> just a follow-up, that's really key, the rafah crossing in the south and what egypt is going to allow or not allow. our reporting that be the white house, the u.s. has been in these discussions about what egypt may allow. with your experience in the region, do you think that changes? do you think they open some safe passage for some amount of time for civilians into egypt? >> they might get a lot of pressure to do that, poppy, and it's going to be really interesting to see how this might unfold. the egyptians have sometimes been inflexible diplomatically

when it comes to things like this. they have a lot of reasons not to allow people from gaza into their territory. economic reasons, the overpopulation in certain areas, this is a very desolate part of egypt we're talking about here, it's the beginning of the sinai peninsula, and it's not an area where there are a lot of -- there's a lot of infrastructure, there's basically no running water, no sewage system set up, no refugee camps set up. so there's a lot of -- there are a lot of limitations here to what the egyptians can physically do at this point in time. if that changes, if there's some massive tent city that's built up or something like that then perhaps the egyptians might let them in but to do that within a day or two that's really hard, really difficult. >> colonel, if we could, could we step back for a minute to -- it's difficult, i think, it seems a little bit abstract, 1.1 million people evacuating immediately in the middle of a bombing and air strike and artillery campaign. but the other huge element here is just the population density,

how closely packed residents are within this very, very small space. can you give people a sense of what that actually looks like? >> yeah, absolutely, phil, so what you're seeing right here, this is gaza city, about 583,000 people just in that particular area, but add all the other places right here, and then by the time you get to right about here you've got a population of 1.1 million, which is basically half of the population of the entire gaza territory. now, that's this part right here. now, when you get down to the south, which originally started as a refugee camp for palestinians, that has 172,000 people and on the border we jipt, the town of rafah has 138,000 people in it. that's what this looks lick in terms of different population centers right here and then you've got the population

density itself, you've got over 21,000 people per square mile in gaza, compare that to washington. 3,632, a vast difference, gives you some idea of how things are, when it comes to this. >> yeah, six times more dense than washington, three to four times more dense than los angeles. cedric leighton, we appreciate it, thank you. >> you bet. a cnn investigation into where hamas militants trained for their attack on israel, how it appears they were able to do it in plain sight, not far from israeli troops. and former israeli prime minister, will join us from tel-aviv. stay with us.

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. more israeli strikes under way in gaza and we're learning more about how hamas was able to execute saturday's terrorist attack inside of israel. a senior hamas official says they were preparing for the invasion for two years, and a cnn investigation shows militants trained in at least six sites across gaza, including camps just over the border with israel, and because of the report you're about to see the idf says it will investigate all of this after the war, our senior international correspondent chief

international correspondent carissa ward reports. >> reporter: propaganda videos put out by hamas, chilling details about the years of preparations that went into the attacks under israel's nose. analyzing data from the videos, revealing the presence of six training sites inside gaza, one just 720 meters from the most heavily fortified and patrolled part of israel's border. in that camp hamas recreated an israeli compound with elements of the nearby border crossing including an insignia of the erez battalion, they practiced taking prisoners. the camp was constructed within the last year and a half. at two other locations in the southern part of gaza, hamas trained for their audacious para

glider assault, rehearsing takeoffs and landings. at all six sites two years of satellite imagery reviewed by cnn shows no indication of offensive israeli military action. the imagery instead shows that in the last two years some camps even expanded into surrounding farmland, and that there was activity in the last several months at the camps. the stunning revelations raise questions as to how hamas was able to train so openly, so close to the border, for so long. and why israeli officials were unable to pick up on, and prevent the october 7th attack clarissa ward, cnn. the security lapse has many wondering what will be done to make sure it never happens again. joining us now is former israeli prime minister naftali bennett. we want to look forward and what to expect what you're seeing. to start there, i think it's

been striking when you listen to israeli officials, idf officials as they try afigure out what happened, including this from our colleague last night. take a listen. >> we fail, we fail, i feel ashamed, we fail to protect them. they live here on the first line of israel, and we fail to defend them. it's a personal humiliation, a national humiliation at the same time. >> and, sir, i think what stuck out to me, you had an interview with channel 11 news, with how the international community views israel right now. i want them to fear us and understand our strength. are you concerned that kind of the -- how israel is perceived has been punctured over the course of the last six days? >> oh, absolutely. and whoever that general is, is correct, there's no doubt that the first and foremost duty of

the sovereign state is to protect its citizens, and factually, 1,500 israeli citizens were slaughtered by nazi monsters and we're going to have to fix all of this. the military history teaches us that time and again there's a limit to our mistakes, like pearl harbor, like 9/11, like ti don't meanky purr war, we're going to have to fix it, but now our view is forward and going to the next stage from collecting ourselves, and checking out, and killing all the terrorists that entered israel to the next state, which is the offensive state. >> we also want our viewers to understand, mr. prime minister, you have stepped up into the idf reserve, so that's the role that you are serving now as well, serving your country. but you say we're going to have to fix it, meaning the intelligence. the question is, do you believe

that fix has happened enough that whatever is about to imminently be carried out on the ground in northern gaza can be done while protecting the lives specifically of the hostages, that includes many israelis, and americans, as you know hamas has claimed overnight that 13 of the hostages have been killed by israeli air strikes, the idf cannot confirm that. but it does raise the question of, is the intelligence now there much better than a week ago? >> we've collected ourselves. we're ready, and over the next period of time we're going to go on attack. the attack is going to be very forceful, what we're doing right now is evacuating the gazan res dens, uninvolved people that are not militants, telling them to move southward of the city of gaza so we can focus on the hamas terrorists, and our goal

is clear, to wipe out hamas off the face of earth. >> sir, to that point, there were debates in 2009, 2014, the last time there was israeli forces incursion in gaza about the scale, how long to stay, whether or not to stay permanently or for a longer period of time, when you say very forceful, what does that mean? >> well, it means, to your question, i would anticipate months or years of what we need to do because we have to -- we'll have to hunt down every single hamas -- takes time. >> so, potentially years? i mean, that sounds like a reoccupation of gaza. go ahead. >> israelis, we have no -- we lost nothing in gaza. we don't desire gaza.

all right, but we do insist on our security. the whole mind-set of being able to live side by side with a nazi type regime has collapsed. that doesn't work. we have to topple the regime. you know, the west did not say, you know what, we'll respond to the original nazis in world war ii, and hit them hard, but stop. no, it continued until they eradicated the whole nazi regime. that's what we're going to need to do here. it's going to take time. it took time for america to collect itself after the pearl harbor surprise attack, for the soviet union to collect themselves after -- it's time we don't need -- we're fixing things on the fly. idf is a powerful army, the israeli people are a people of lions, of brave people, i've had

friends that have lost their lives. sons and daughters that have lost their lives. but i'll tell you this, in every single military unit that i've seen over the past five days, there's about 130% to 150% enlistment rate, meaning people who are red discharged, might be 45 years old, they're insisting, give me a weapon, i want to go fight. every single israeli man and woman wants to, and is in consensus, that we need to destroy and obliterate our enemies. >> and then what? and i don't ask that flippantly, but there will be a power vacuum here. what happens next? do you have a sense, is there a plan for governance in gaza if you eliminate hamas, as you say is the goal? >> we'll figure it out.

it's just like 1944, you'd ask america, after you've been -- what do you do after? we'll take care of them and we'll figure it out. right now we have to destroy hamas. >> prime minister, finally, before you go, what is your assessment of how you believe the biden administration has responded to this over the last week? >> i want to say something to be loud and clear. president biden and the american administration and the great people of the united states of america have shown that they are the best friend, the strongest ally, at a time -- a very difficult time for us, and saying this as a former prime minister. i mean, if there was any question where the united states of america stands there's no question anymore, you have stood

up to the plate and you are behind us. we're going to do the fighting. we don't need america to do our fighting. we never asked america to fight for us. but the overwhelming warmth that we're getting from the great people of the united states of america, it strengthens every single man and woman in israel, and we're grateful for that. i want to thank you and the american people, and president biden. >> former israeli prime minister naftali bennett, thank you for your time from tel aviv today. >> thank you. >> we want to show you this video out of gaza city. take a look at this, this is drone footage from a journalist. his name motaz, we were going to speak with him on the program, bring you interview, from the side of gaza city but he could not join us last minute because he is currently evacuating, look at this. >> they want gaza to be empty, to destroy it more.

>> a ghost town. we were sad because we lost so many members, and lost houses but right now we're losing our homeland, and no one knows anything about this. >> so, pray for gaza, please. >> he's been reporting on the ground, he's been capturing these remarkable, dramatic images, and this footage, drone footage of large scale destruction at his home, even. >> i'm speechless. i don't know what to say. i don't know, what should i say? but believe me, it's the most sadness that gaza ever had. >> he even reported from the scene where an israeli air strike that killed at least 15 of his family members happened. we will try to bring him to you in any form we can when it is safe for him to join us. well, here in the u.s. house republicans aren't any close tore finding a speaker after

their initial choice steve scalise dropped out of the race, without a speaker there's nothing the house can do to provide aid or support to israel. what happens next? great question.

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we are continuing to monitor the latest on the ground in israel and in gaza. here in the u.s. house republicans are back to square one, seriously, in their search for speaker after majority leader steve scalise made this announcement last night. >> i just shared with my colleagues i'm withdrawing my name as a candidate for the speaker designee. if you look at where our conference is, there's still work to be done. our conference still has to come together, and is not there. there are still some people that have their own agendas. i was very clear, we have to have everybody put their agendas on the side and focus on what this country needs. this country is counting on us

to come back together. >> so, scalise withdrew just 24 hours, by the way, after he was nominated, once it became clear he did not have the votes to get to 217. >> the question remains, fairly important one at this point, can anyone in the conference get 217 votes? and here's the actual reason why it's important, without a speaker there's nothing the house can do regarding israel's war with hamas, or anything else, that includes a simple resolution to support israel, let vote to provide it aid. we're told the house republican conference is expected to regroup in a few hours behind closed doors to figure out the next steps. i have a lot of thoughts on this. republicans said them all themselves last night in their airing of grievances. we'll bring in errol louis, and john avlon. errol, i want to play some of the comments to our colleague manu raju which really captured

things. take a listen. >> now is not the time to be attacking our ally, you're not going to find me throwing verbal grenades at the israeli leadership. >> psalms 122 :6 you pay for th peace of jerusalem, those who do will prosper. the former is just wrong. >> let's make it clear. he's a fool. he's a fool. only a fool would make those kind of comments. >> that obviously was not about the house republican conference. >> we'll get to that. >> i'll read for you what austin scott told manu raju, he said how does this make you look? and congressman scott said it makes us look like idiots, not an isolated comment. >> and it's not wrong, on the other hand in an odd way this is the system working in the sense that -- >> go on. >> look, they represent the divisions of the country, right,

i mean, you know, unless they cross the aisle and work out some kind of stable centrist governing pattern, which is at odds with the politics of how the house has been run for the last generation at this point, we're not going to move forward. you know, this whole idea, what they call the -- unless you can get a ma report of just your conference no legislation ever sees the light of day, that is not -- that was never a good idea. and it can't work. and now we've seen, you know, sort of proof of concept, that it can't work. you can't even get yourself to 218. you can't get yourself to 217. you can't get a speaker of the house. you can't pass the resolution, you can't pay yourselves ultimately. you can't even run the country and they're going to have to figure this out. we've seen it in parliamentary democracies, you try and try and try again and can we get a coalition, put people together? they're unable to do it without democrats. i think that is crystal clear at this point and they're going to

have to figure out how it can happen. >> amen on the centrist solution. this is a problem within the republican party. nancy pelosi didn't have a difficult time, a similarly narrow margin and democrats got a lot done, some of which was bipartisan, this is a problem within the republican conference, predates kevin mccarthy, back to boehner, ryan, and now scalise. and there's no obvious person, maybe patrick mchenry can do this. errol is right, the necessity may be the mother of invention, op-ed coming out later today on cnn that makes the case, ultimately you're going to have to put forward a republican who can garner some democratic votes. >> who is that? >> a number of people. tom cole from oklahoma. >> who wants it? >> plenty of people want it, tom cole is one, bacon another you hear, mike gallagher, a number of folks who would be pretty strong and could have that.

all you need to do is liberate yourself from the disproportionate -- republicans have called arsonists, not jim jordan, and then hakeem jeffries, to have democrats, a handful of them vote to get this done. that's the only way -- >> scalise was supposed to be that person. scalise, and jeffries have a good personal relationship. they've both talk abed about it. plays on the house baseball team. scalise threw in his cards because he had so many extremists in his conference who said we will take you down, mccarthy you, make it impossible for you to become speaker of remain speaker, it's a very difficult task. >> everyone i spoke to on the hill, republican chiefs of staff, saying scalise is trusted by members, very conservative, but he's trusted. scalise had friends. and you know they just kicked

him to the curb 24 hours after he got the vote. >> i want to get this in before we go. what we played for you that was republican presidential candidates responding in disgust, i think is fair to what president trump has said recently this week about israel, and by the way hezbollah. let's listen to the former president, this is wednesday. >> and they said, gee, i hope hezbollah doesn't attack from the north because that's the most vulnerable spot. i said, wait a minute. you know, hezbollah is very smart, they're all very smart. >> so he said hezbollah is smart but he also has been critical of netanyahu, and israel in this moment, john. >> you cannot help but make it all about himself. this is another -- these rambling incoherent, unhinged statements from the former president, attacking one of our closest allies at a time of maximum pain, blaming the

victim, in effect, while praising a terrorist organization targeting civilians. it's the kind of thing that would be a disqualifier, self-evident, you heard the clips of people running for the republican nomination finally standing up to trump and condemning his comments. there's absolutely no moral excuse except that he sees everything through the prism of himself, even a massive terror attack in israel. >> another way to put that, the argument for trump is falling apart right in front of him and we're seeing him lash out for that reason. he's supposed to be a successful businessman. on the world stage, doing all kinds of things, move the embassy to jerusalem, netanyahu is like, you know what, we're with biden right now. that part of his argument is falling apart. he will continue to lash out as he sees his chances for recapturing the white house fall in front of him. >> a cleanup effort, several

press releases. i'm sure the former president will undercut that shortly. thank you, guys, appreciate it. we're going to show you pictures live of east jerusalem this morning where police are patrolling, protests are happening. we are going to stay with this throughout the morning. also, police in cities across the united states are on high alert today after a former hamas chief called for a day of, quote, global rage, in support of palestinians in gaza. we're going to take a look at the preparations right now here in new york city.