good evening. thanks for watching cnn's special coverage of israel at war. i'm anderson cooper live in tel aviv at this hour. my colleague, john berman is in new york. we will have the perspective from the ground in israel and israel announces a war is coming. the ground operation as troops gather near the border with gaza. israel power pounded the gaza strip from the air. a hamas commander who played a part in last saturday's attack was killed and the u.s. officials are warning more than a million people leaving would lead to disaster. >> tonight, we're learning more u.s. military power is heading to the middle east.

the second carrier strike group led by the uss aircraft carrier in sending a message to iran and its proxies. the state department said the number of u.s. citizens killed is gone up and 59 americans are still unaccounted for. anderson. >> we go to the strike group. we have the latest. these are two of the navy's most powerful warships. what's the plan? >> anderson, this is broadly speaking a message of deterrence as the biden administration watches what the fighting at gaza could spread beyond those borders. sending the strike group into the region, the uss ford deployed last week and the uss eisenhower send in the last two

weeks is how seriously the biden administration is sending a message not only to iran but more importantly iranian proxies, specifically lebanese hezbollah on israel's northern border. there have been skirmishes between israel on that northern border but hasn't escalated beyond that point at least but so far looks to be contained. everyone knows how delicate and volatile that situation can become, and part of the reason of having not only the carriers themselves but what comes with them as a message to iran, hey, stay out of this one. >> what's the latest on efforts to get americans out of gaza? >> this is an ongoing effort but a very very difficult one. the state department put out a message in gaza essentially telling them move as close as you can to rafah, between gaza and egypt. even the state department didn't say the border will be open these hours.

only saying if the border opens it will not be open that long and will help to be as close as possible. you see the images of some waitingality the rafah border. you need hamas or israel to explicitly or passively agree to this in some way. egypt so far hasn't opened the border because they want israel to send in humanitarian aid first and concerns about how many flow into sinai. it's unclear what circumstances that would happen and israel needs a passive understanding it won't carry out any strikes in that area as people are trying to get out of the gaza strip. anderson. >> thank you. retired spider marks joins me now. what do you make, first of all, general marks, on the second strike group of the gerald ford? >> he stated it quite frankly.

it's a show of force intended for iran, stay clear. we have significant firepower and capabilities when you dig inside what one of those carrier battle groups have. it's subsurface, lots of air capability and linkage into air defense and strike capabilities coordinated with the israelis. >> in terms of this new phase as israel is calling it, beyond a ground incursion we've been talking about for days now, what else could that entail? >> well, clearly what i think is going to happen is when the israelis make the decision -- let's assume they're going into gaza, when that decision is made, you will see a simultaneous penetration from the north down to probably the wadi gaza, which kind of bisects gaza. and then from the east to the west a penetration as well to

the mediterranean, so you will have israeli forces coming and joining each other as quickly as possible. when you penetrate you want to penetrate deeply, you want to penetrate quickly, you have to secure your flights, you know you will be shot at. when you link up with friendly forces you can secure that area and then you begin the removal of hamas targets from the south to the north. that's kind of what i would say the primary objective. clearly that leaves the southern part of gaza out of the fight at least initially is what i would assume. you want to hold in one area and conduct your military operations going north. >> if hamas allowed it, which they are not encouraging their citizens to move to the south for their safety, they want their civilians in gaza city to make it difficult obviously for

israeli forces to fight. from a military standpoint let alone a humanitarian temperature, how much better would it be for israeli forces if the civilians were down in the south by the egyptian border? >> the fewer number of civilians interwoven with hamas fighters the better certainly for what the israelis are trying to achieve. let's be frank. the israelis are going to do the collateral damage assessments and try to use precise targeting. they want to separate and do not want to target palestinians. they want to go after military targets. what hamas is doing is against international law using human shields which they're trying to do. israel has lawyers to set the conditions for engagement criteria in every level of their units, not dissimilar from the u.s. military. when i withent to war i had lawyers side by side who said

here's go, no go criteria. you have to be careful before you pull the trigger. the israelis do the same thing. >> i've been getting a lot of messages from people asking why wouldn't egypt open up the border to allow palestinian civilians to seek safety in the sinai, just from a security standpoint, egypt is already -- has already had security issues in the sinai. they would be concerned, i assume, of hundreds of thousands of young palestinians moving into the sinai and for who knows how long, and the potential that that could create. >> clearly, egypt has always, in the course of the last 30 years, egypt has really brokered the peace that's been necessary when israel and hamas and hezbollah have flared up. since 1982, that's happened about a dozen times. you have some fighting an egypt

steps in and establishes the conditions and everybody goes back to the situation ante. i'm not certain why israel -- i'm sorry -- i'm not certain why egypt doesn't step up and say, look, we can record this migration of folks across from rafah. we can make sure we get a handle on them. we have identification. if nay truly want to be a peace maker and try to help our priority, not having a bunch of things break. then that would be the motivation. i cannot figure out why they wouldn't want to try to do that. of course it would be painful for them and, of course, they would accept some challenge and risk and also nay would provide tremendous peace-making efforts in advance opposed to separation of warring parties. >> how long -- if the goal for israeli forces is the elimination of hamas as a fighting force, maybe the

elimination of hamas total, how long an operation is this? obviously, there's a lot of factors involved, international pressure and the like which in the past we have seen builds very quickly for some sort of cease-fire. how long an operation would you see? >> i couldn't put a time frame on it, anderson, this is the question. israel has indicated they want to change the dynamic, they want to altar the dynamic in the middle east which means we want to eliminate the existence of hamas. that's an incredibly high bar. i don't know how you measure the success going forward and when you've met that objective. when do you say, we're finished and done. i think hamas would get bloodied tremendously. israel knows, the idf knows they will be bloodied as well going

forward. but when they think they can stop because they've met that objective, i don't know how you determine that. i think hamas would be tremendously bloodied but i don't think they would be eliminated entirely. >> general "spider" marks, thank you. we heard from president biden speaking at the human rights campaign in washington and addressed anti-semitism. we are at the white house. what did the president say? >> reporter: the message was ending hate in all moments. he talked about the attacks and the humanitarian crisis in gaza. take a listen. >> a week ago we saw hate manifested in another way in the worst massacre of jewish people since the holocaust. more than 1,000 innocents live lost and children and parents

alike kidnapped and held hostage by hamas. >> reporter: he went on there to talk about the humanitarian crisis in gaza and innocent palestinians put in danger by hamas. he also in those remarks went on and in his calls today went on to send that message to other leaders. he had a call today with prime minister benjamin netanyahu. that was the fifth call since last saturday and also with the palestinian president abbas. in both of those calls, anderson, the humanitarian situation came up, but also not allowing this conflict to spread inform and to widen. that was really the message that the president sent. you were earlier talking about that second carrier going to the region, the united states there again showing that deterrence and show of force. all of these calls have the same

line, which is the united states does not want to see this conflict widen any more or escalate. >> on the top of everyone's minds in israel is unaccounted for people and missing people and people known to have been kidnapped or potentially held hostage. the president spoke with the family of american hostages yesterday. do you know much about those conversations? >> reporter: a source described those calls as emotional. he did take the time to talk to families of 14 americans unaccounted for. that number has since gone up. we learned today, to 15, as well as a lawful permanent resident. the u.s. has been working feverishly behind the scenes to try to wrap their arms around this situation and get more information about those americans unaccounted for. when they characterize how many americans are held hostage by hamas they say it's a very small number.

officials have been pressing officials here for more details on those hostages. the reality they say they're facing this is an active war zone, that hamas operates in subgroups and consist in subgroups and sometimes move the hostages to different locations and maybe not in the same locations. and not much is known about the condition. they are working around the clock on this issue and there is some information they cannot provide publicly. that is certainly a priority here, trying to understand more about those americans unaccounted for and those being held hostage by hamas. >> priscilla alvarez, thank you so much. so many people here are waiting for answers about their loved ones. coming up i will speak to an israeli woman who has not seen or heard from her sister since they launched the terror attack at the music nova festival on

saturday, what she's hearing and efforts to rescue her ahead.

there are many families in israel who are in agony, some pleading for the safe return of loved ones taken hostage by hamas and others desperate for information of loved ones missing unaccounted for. i want you to meet this woman. the last time she heard from her sister was at the music festival last saturday. how have you gotten through this week? >> it was very hard. at the beginning we started

looking for her. because i'm a doctor i was talking to every hospital in israel and to all my friends. when i saw that's not enough i went to the hospital. i went to ciarrocca, the main hospital, where the wounded came in. i just went from patient to patient and asked if they saw her. and if they know where she is. >> that's one of the things, there's so little information it's up to families in the last week to really go around and talk to as many people and look at awful videos looking for people. >> yeah. i couldn't do that. my husband did it for me because i saw one video and -- >> people are literally looking at jihadist videos. >> it was so hard to watch, i couldn't, yeah. >> you talked to her when she

was at the festival about an hour on the phone. the attacks started at 6:30 and i think you said you talked to her until 7:30? >> 7:30. i actually, we woke up to an alarm, missile alarm and went to the safe room in our house. then the first thing i thought about is to send her a message on the what's up, what's going on with you. are you going home. she said she cannot go home because there are terror attacks on the road and they told her, they told everybody at the festival to stay in place. they told her, okay, but you have to check where you're going. you have to open a map on your phone and see where you are, where you can go if the terror comes towards the festival. >> we now know hamas attacked from the west and the north and the south, and your sister, you

believe, was able to get into a vehicle and drive a little bit. that's where the last you heard. >> yeah. that's the last we heard of her, and her phone was found near the road, so we believe that she probably went out of the car and the phone fell down. since then, we don't know what happened. she actually wrote a message that we didn't get. >> she wasn't able to send. >> she was -- >> what did it say? >> she said she's heading home. >> there were some 3,000 people at that music festival. i assume you were still hoping somebody there knows something about what may have happened. >> we did -- at first, saturday morning, there was a list of people that came to other

kubbitz, and didn't make the list and we assumed she may be hiding, maybe kidnapped because we already knew they kidnapped people or maybe worse. >> what do you want people to know what's tamara like? she was studying to be a lawyer? >> she started, her second year in law school. she actually was a very caring person, the family -- >> the family caregiver? >> yeah, caregiver. she always thought about others. the day before the festival happened it was a holiday in israel, and my mother was -- my mother and two sisters was bored and she was angry about them because she said you left father alone and she went to my father and cooked him a meal. then i was at home studying for

my board exams. she came to my place and gave me a meal. >> wow. she feeds everybody. >> she likes to cook and she likes to bake. then she went to the festival. she was such a caring person. she had a dog that she loves so much and now she 's looking for her all the time. >> is there anything else you want people to know? >> i want people to know that the people that were murdered there and was civilians, was good civilians, were peaceful people, and it was a massacre, and they did such horrible things people cannot put in words.

i want the world to know i think it's one of the most horrible -- a tough word for that -- terrible terror attack i think that i saw. >> did you ever imagine something like this could happen? >> no. no. i don't think a normal person can imagine the things they did to the people. they didn't just shoot, they beheaded people and they rape women, and they burned children and i don't think that the normal person can imagine something like that can happen. >> i hope you get word soon and please let us know, we will continue to stay in touch with you. i know there are many families

waiting for word. i can't imagine the pain and agony of it. thank you for talking. >> thank you velshi. >> i wish you the best. >> an entire family of six is among the missing, the mom and dad, baby, a toddler, grandparents, we heard pleas today from their relatives as well. >> my cousin was abducted from her home with her two babies, 9 months old and 4 years old. along with her husband and my aunt and uncle, both in their late 60s. you've all seen her photos holding her two red-head babies. a 9 months old baby being held captive underground somewhere. i don't know if he got his food, his formula. he doesn't eat food yet. he needs his bottle.

my cousin and i gave birth two months apart. i have a 7-month-old at home. i put him to bed every night thinking about him. my aunt suffers from parkinson's disease. she's 63. everyday without her medication is torture. she's being tortured. we don't know how long it's going to take. we understand this can take a long time. those are innocent civilians. those are innocent civilians. they have rights. this is hamas, it's a terror organization. you need to put the pressure on the right people, on all their organizations, on turkey, on egypt, please, they need to help, and the red cross enter. people's lives are so important to us. we need to bring them back home

alive. they were kidnapped alive and they will be back alive. i'll do everything i can. we need your help. >> talking about the half of her family, which is now missing. hamas is holding an estimated 150 people hostage. we will take you back live to northern israel next as thousand of palestinians are trying to find a way to safety with few places to go. their stories in gaza just ahead.

s we're coming to you live in tel aviv, israel with a new phase with hamas. today, fire exchanged with a lebanese group, hezbollah, on a disputed piece of territory. now in northern israel, talk about the situation on the northern border. >> reporter: hey, anderson. the situation is very tense as the country braces itself for that land invasion at gaza to the south, 250 miles away approximately in northern israel is potential of a second front opening. there's a great deal of tension around here and a lot of israeli

troops concentrated on this northern border close to lebanon and close to syria as well. there's already been some exchanges of fire, mortar attacks across the lebanese side, artillery fired in the other direction by the israelis and according to local israeli forces we've spoken to here, rocket attacks from syria and already an israeli response to that as well. none of those attacks or exchanges have in the words of israeli officials reached the point of an escalation. it hasn't got to the point yet we're looking at a sort of broad wide scale attack by forces for instance of the hezbollah militia, across in lebanon, on the territory over here in northern israel. but, of course, that's the big concern, that's why there are so many troops concentrated up here. that's what local commanders on the ground say they are preparing for.

take a listen to one of the commanders we spoke to earlier. >> we have mobilized our troops here with reserves for any scenario that might happen in the northern borders. >> reporter: when you say any scenario, you mean whether this area is hit by rockets by hezbollah, is that what you're worried about? >> that is one of the scenarios and could be similar scenario to gaza strip. it could be joint, a very direct specific event, we don't know. we want to be ready with our troops and mobilize and are here. >> reporter: it seems the military down south were not ready. will you make the same mistake here? >> we're here now so we're not making the same mistake. >> reporter: anderson, what he is saying, it could be a missile attack, it could be a ground attack like we saw in gaza, whatever it is israeli forces say they're ready for it and

their prepared. >> we've been reporting a second carrier strike group to the mediterranean, part of that sending a message to other countries in the region, other groups like hezbollah. >> reporter: that's right. there's already a carrier strike group in the eastern mediterranean from the united states. the united states said that's there as a deterrent to make sure other players in the region and other groups in the region don't enter the war in israel as it's poised to embark on that land invasion. the fact the u.s. is now sending a second carrier group understood lines how nervous they are, how tense the region is. it doubles up on the deter rance hand also the amount of resources the united states will have at its disposal in the eastern mediterranean should it need to carry out strikes in southern lebanon against other

players in the region. one of those players or countries were to make the decision to cross that red line and enter the war in northern israel. it's something we haven't got there yet but it's definitely a threat that both the u.s. and israel are braced for. >> matthew, you and i both spend a lot of time in 2006 covering the fighting between israel and hezbollah. that was a difficult fight. that was a tough fight for israeli forces and a lot of rockets coming into all those towns up along the border and elsewhere. if this does open up as a second front that would make what's going on here exponentially harder. >> reporter: it would. it's the real threat actually to peace in the region. if a front opens here in northern israel it would be a game-changer. you say, we were both up here in

2006. it was a very dangerous situation back then. but the missile arsenal of hezbollah has now got much big ir, the weapons more powerful and possibly they could use drone strikes to carry out attacks in israel. drone strikes didn't really exist to a very great extent to the extent they do now, back in 2006. that's new technology that's transformed the battlefield. now, israel has new tech as well. it didn't have an iran dome or not much of one to speak of back in 2006. it's got one now. that facility, those weaponry, those anti-missile systems are really in place here and bolstered and ready for what could be a massive onslaught. by the way, the israelis say if hezbollah does cross that line and attack northern israel it would lead potentially to the destruction of lebanon.

they're issuing very stark warnings about what retaliation would be going to lebanon if hezbollah was to take the step and launch strikes against northern israel. >> obviously, the situation at lebanon is already chaotic. there's been economic collapse. hezbollah is contending with a lot going on in beirut and elsewhere. >> reporter: it is. it's a bad economic situation, the political situation is unstable. things could get worse. if hezbollah is ordered by iran or takes the decision on itself to strike over here to israel we're going to be see egg, i think, a massive onslaught by the israeli air force possibly joined by the united states as well. the israelis say that could lead to the destruction of lebanon. i think the message being put across by the u.s. diplomats and

israelis as well israel is in no mood to be messed with. they had this traumatic event that has shaken the country last weekend with the deaths of so many israeli citizens and poised to embark what they believe will be a game-changing intervention in gaza and praised as well for a broader regional war if they're forced into that situation. that's the message i think is being broadcast loud and clear to the region. but we will see whether hezbollah, whether iran, whether other countries in the region pay heed. >> matthew chance, thank you reporting from northern israel tonight. now to the civilians trying to get out of gaza before the war with hamas intensifies. israel is telling them to flee south from population centers. hamas told them to stay where they are. some who tried to leave have become casualties themselves.

more on the humanitarian crisis and we want to warn you some of the imagines you are about to see are graphic. >> reporter: this is what running for your life looks like in gaza. an ambulance with a young girl and wounded woman inside rocked by explosions as they attempt to flee. it is unclear what happened to the pair but they're among the tens of thousands of people on the move after israel's military called on nearly half of gaza's population, some 1.1 million people to get south in a matter of hours. but along the safe passages specified by the idf, a lot of horror. you're looking at the carnage and chaos on one of the designated evacuation routes. amid the explosions, families killed among their belongings. cnn has videos and horrifying

clips from the horrifying scene and calling the advisory impossible and violations of the rules of war. they accuse the idf bombing civilians even as they fled. dozens were killed by air strikes according to hamas. cnn reached out to the israeli military for comment. the victims are flooding into gaza's overwhelmed hospitals. again, it's the youngest caught in the crossfire, nearly half of gaza's population is children. >> translator: what did the children do to deserve this, this woman says? >> did they fight you? did they fire rockets? my niece and whole family are dead. the only survivor is a 2-year-old girl. >> reporter: the healthcare system is on the brink, a complete siege making it impossible to get aid to the enclave. already there is a shortage of everything, even space in the morgue.

keeping the dead in ice cream trucks so the bodies don't rot, this doctor says. gaza is in crisis and needs help. for those able to move south that's is one of the neighborhoods the families are expected to flee towards, where israeli air strikes have wreaked havoc. >> this is a genocide, not a war, genocide, this man says and attempt to force all palestinians out of the gaza strip. >> finding refuge is dangerous and deadly. forto the many desperate for shelter the fear is there may be no safe places left. cnn, london. >> we'll be right back with more from tel aviv.

we'll go back to anderson in tel aviv in just a moment. first, new drama in the battle to be the next speaker of the house, if there ever will be a next speaker of the house. congressman jim jordan became the second republican in a single week to get nominated by the republican conference but he does not have the support of the full conference and not enough votes as of tonight to win on the full house floor despite what he told our manu raju. >> i think we will get 217 votes. >> reporter: will you keep

running if you get 217 votes? >> i think we'll -- watch your step. i think we will get 217 votes. >> reporter: would you be open to empowering patrick if you don't? >> i think we will get 217 votes. >> so jordan is now spending the weekend trying to flip enough holdouts to win the speakership. with me now is the director for the center for politics at the university of virginia. great to see you. i'm old enough to remember when steve scalise had the votes in the conference but not enough on the house floor. when he dropped out you wrote the republicans should change their name to the can tank rouse crazy clown conference. what do you mean? >> i did. i actually left out the word chaos, i think that should have fit in there some place. basically there is nobody that seems to be able to get the 217

votes needed because virtually everybody is associated with one faction or another and they all hate one another. maybe a miracle would happen. it would be a real miracle for jordan if he could message to lose only four votes on the floor from the republicans. there's zero chance of any democrat voting for jim jordan for speaker. then, what do they do if it's not jordan? all kinds of names are being floated. it's hard to see any of them not losing at least four votes. some would lose dozens of votes. democrats are hoping somehow a small group of moderate conservative republicans, i would say mainstream conservatives, i don't think there are any moderate left in the caucus if any. they would say we will make hakeem jeffries as speaker if you agree with a, b, c, d.

that's not going to happen either. that's fantasy. the odds of one of these scenarios happening is about the same as you or i winning that billion dollar pot in the lottery. >> what does happen? the west wing version of this would be some democrats get something with some republicans and they pick some republican who can get enough votes. that's something most people have scoffed at up until now. is it becoming more possible? >> i tend to think the west wing was written by ideal lists. i don't think there's a lot of hope that will happen. however, i will say this, when it happens at the state level there are plenty of precedents for doing that. in alaska right now both houses of the alaska legislature are run by a bipartisan coalition. this even happened in texas a few years back when a few

moderate republicans approached the democrats and they messaged to overturn the preference of the majority very conservative republican caucus there in texas and they got a moderate conservative in as speaker and he lasted five terms. it's happened in some other states. it's not impossible but you have to be willing to do it. you have to be willing to try and then this actually do it. i fail to see where people are really trying and really want to do it. >> what impact do you think this has, your crystal ball, you're the crystal ball, man, what impact might this have on republicans in their efforts to keep the house in 2024? >> you never know how long the electorate will remember anything. we all have short memories and the electorate has a short memory. this has gone on long enough and embarrassed the republicans so many times already again will

probably continue to do so for a while i think some of it will rub off on their candidates in 2024. a lot depends on who wins the presidency and where the coattail is. but in those really close districts where more moderate conservative republicans have been elected, like in new york or california, this is a really sorry story to have to defend. so i think it will hurt some republicans, yes. >> remember, there are such major events happening around the world congress needs to take action on. this is having a real impact. larry sabato, great to speak with you tonight. thanks for speaking with us. >> thank you, john. >> we go back to israel and the very personal decisions some americans are making to return and join the fight. cnn speaks to some of those army reservists next.

some israelis living in the u.s. are heading back home to fight in the war against hamas. cnn's stephanie elam was at the airport in los angeles when a charter flight carrying at least 150 people took off for israel today. stephanie, talk about what you saw. >> reporter: anderson, it was very early in the morning.

many of these people had not slept, and this whole flight came together very quickly by israel friend, a non-profit humanitarian organization that was just created. and starting monday, according to the founder jordan fried, they were able to start working on this charter flight that took off early this morning. as you would expect there was a gam of emotions there. many of these 150 people showing up with family members, hugging, talking to them up until it was time to go from security. for people to make this decision he felt there was no other option, born and raised here, but he did already fight for idf and he wanted today get back. he said he was just numb and knew he needed to go. take a listen. >> i'm an american israeli, it's very simple. so my home is here and my home is there, so i feel obligated and almost a desire and moreso a

need to go right now. so -- >> but you don't feel like you could just stay, that's not an option for you? >> it's not an option. >> and for others they fled the drama that was unfurling, the tragedy, the scariness that they saw and wanted to get their families out like david frankel. he fled with his family to southern california after the war broke out with his two young sons and his wife, and he's leaving them, left them here, in fact kissed his sons good-bye in the darkness of night as he left to catch this flight. this is what he had to say. >> i'm obviously nervous. i mean, i want to come home safely to my family. i want to see my boys grow up, but you have to put that aside and stop the madness that's happening. >> reporter: and what was noteworthy is that energy, anderson, inside the terminal as these group of people, as they came together. most did not know anybody else

there, but it was a sense of camaraderie and unified sense what they were going to do even though many of them don't know when they'll be home or when and if they'll see their loved ones again. >> sten aef elam, thanks very much. right now a plain load of humanitarian supplies is waiting. we're going to speak live to someone from the w.h.o. just ahead.