i'm anderson cooper in tel aviv with john berman in new york. you're watching cnn's special coverage of israel at war. israel is promising that a new phase of its war in hamas is coming, just not clear when exactly that will be. troops have been amassing for days now near the border with gaza getting ready for an expected ground operation. israel pounded the territory again today with air strikes. officials say hamas' commander who played a key part in last saturday's attack was killed. hundreds of thousands of civilians tried to heed the idf's warning to get out. u.n. official warns such a large scale evacuation under siege could lead to a humanitarian disaster. >> anderson, there is an important development tonight from the pentagon as well. we learned a second u.s. carrier strike group led by uss dwight d. eisenhower is sailing to the middle east, sailing to the mediterranean. it is designed to sell messages to israel and proxies including lebanon and hezbollah not to get

involved. the eisenhower group will join the uss gerald ford that reached the coast earlier this week. also the u.s. state department said the number of u.s. citizens killed in last week's attack the number has climbed to 29 dead. 15 majors are still unaccounted for, anderson. >> and as john mentioned, the new u.s. warships are supposed to send a signal to groups like israel not to get involved. today israel exchange fire with tel aviv near the border. what sort of hostilities have been going on there? >> there's been some exchanges of fire. you mention mortar attacks coming from hezbollah oppositions in southern lebanon, just a short distance from the lebanese border now there was artillery fired from the israeli officers that are concentrated

here now in preparation for a possible second front opening up. there's also a missile fired or two missiles, in fact, according to local israeli force commanders fired from syria into northern israel. and there was an israeli response to that as well. but none of those exchanges according to israeli officials have reached the point of escalation yet because what everybody's bracing for is a potential barrage of missiles from the iranian backed militia -- hezbollah militia in lebanon. of the sort of kind of situation that we saw you and i when we were back here in 2006 when there was a huge unleashing of hezbollah rockets into israeli territory here into the north of the country, the situation is even more precarious now because it's believed hezbollah is a much more powerful arsenal than it did, and israel has new technology as well. it's got the iron dome

anti-missile force system up here in israel. it didn't have that in 2006. nevertheless, it has said israel if the hezbollah militia does take that step, it will possibly lead to the destruction of lebanon. so they're being sort of very overt about what a response will be. add to that the u.s. carrier group that's off the coast of israel in the eastern mediterranean, there's another carrier group heading that way as well. the united states really doubling down on its deterrent but also doubling down on its firepower if it is called upon to help israel, to back israel in a broader sort of regional campaign. we're not there yet, but it's definitely a threat. israeli forces here in some considerable numbers in northern israel bracing for that threat. anderson. >> matthew, do people you talk to there think that the u.s. presence in the mediterranean would be a deterrent?

>> reporter: i think they do, yes. and that coupled with the deterrent israel itself has. it has an extremely capable air force and its own missile systems that it has said essentially it'll bring to bear. but i think everybody also knows that that deterrent may not be enough. it it is decided, for instance, in iran to activate the hezbollah militia for them to fire rockets neure northern israel, even though that may end in a massive bloodshed and destruction across the border, of course it's still possible, which is why the israelis say they're taking every precaution they can up here in northern israel. they acknowledge they were caught off-guard in the south in gaza last weekend with 1,300 israelis killed. they have vowed that's not going to happen this time. it's not going to happen in the north of the country. they said, look, we may not have

been ready down in the south, but we're ready now. and so as i say, a very tense situation. there's not a second front opened up yet, but it is a possibility. and israel and the region is bracing for it. >> matthew chance, thank you. israel appears on the verge of responding to hamas' terror attacks on saturday. prime minister benjamin netanyahu visited troops at the border today telling them, quote, the next stage is coming. i want to bring in the lieutenant colonel, a spokesman for the israeli defense forces. colonel, i appreciate you being with us. obviously, i'm not going to ask you what that action means in terms of what the next phase is going to be, but has israel called up the number of people it planned to call up, that it needs to call up? are there plans to call up more people? >> yes, hi. thank you for having me again. it is -- the situation around the gaza strip is that it is

quite densely packed with hundreds of thousands of israeli reserve units that are preparing for various missions. i am not aware of any other plans to call up more reservists. there are additional israelis that are, of course, ready and trained to join the combat service. but of this stage, i'm not aware of any need for additional personnel. now, actually the challenge and the mission is to have all of those more than 360,000 reservists both in the south and in the north, get them mission ready, equipped, prepared, task forced, and ready for any assignments they will have in the future. >> the idf dropped leaflets in northern gaza telling people to leave the north, to go to the zones -- the zones in the south closer to the rafa border to get

out of harms way to the extent that is possible. i'm wondering if you have monitored movements, and do you have sense how many people have heeded those warnings? because as you know hamas has told people not to leave gaza city and elsewhere. >> yes, we are aware of that extremely cynical activity by hamas, not only statements but actually erecting roadblocks and using force in order to stop gazan civilians from going south into safety or relative safety, which is an act that should be condemned by all of those so-called humanitarian organizations, which many have been quoted in the media lately for that war crime and that cynical use. now, we do -- we have monitored the motion of people. we've seen many, and i think the last estimate i saw was at least 400,000, but that's not an israeli number. that's what i read in one of the

reports. the important thing here to focus on is that we will commence significant military operations only once we see that the area -- that civilians have left the area. but it's really important that people in gaza know we've been very, very generous so to say with the time. we have given ample warning, more than 25 hours -- 24 hours have passed. and really i cannot stress more than enough to say now is the time for gazans to leave. take your belongings, go south. preserve your life, and do not fall into the trap that hamas is setting up for you. >> i want to ask and i want to warn people there's some graphic video they may see. cnn has been able to -- to geo locate a number of sites. sorry, i want to make sure i'm getting this correctly here.

yeah, five separate videos of large explosions along an evacuation route for civilians to get out of gaza. the explosions occurred on sala aldean street. do you have any information on these explosions? was it an israeli air strike? >> i've seen videos, and we are investigating the matter not only from a perspective did israel attack, which i can say categorically we definitely did not intentionally strike anything there. there was no target on that road. a mistake may have happened. we're looking into it, but i think it is at this hour of the war when the whole world has seen very clearly what hamas is and the level of their morality or the lack thereof. i think every piece of information coming out of the gaza strip especially if it serves hamas propaganda purposes

should be treated with extreme caution. and we've started to analyze footage coming out of gaza. i have doubts that these are aerial bomb strikes. and i think that people who have experience and knowledge in forensics and visual analysis would be good to look at those pictures and to understand if these were really aerial attacks or perhaps ieds that were planted. and i'm not yet saying or claiming that they were. but i think the question should be asked. >> the rafa border crossing into egypt remains closed into hamas and by egypt. i assume you were supportive of egypt opening up that border to try to get as many civilians out as wobble, and certainly u.s. citizens as well who were in gaza. do you have any sense of if there's been any progress on trying to get egypt to agree to do that?

>> to the best of the information that i have, there was an attempt today to allow americans and i think a few other nationalities out. it was not successful. i understand that it was because the gate was stopped on the gazan side. and it wouldn't surprise me hamas is not letting people out because that's exactly the same behavior they're displaying in the northern part of the gaza strip, which we just spoke about. it's the same pattern. our intentions are of course to not strike civilians and to minimize the effect on others. i think that we were trying to facilitate this crossing, which, unfortunately, didn't succeed. and those talks are ongoing. i think the triangle of israel, u.s., egypt and a few other countries, perhaps in the u.n. are involved. hopefully that will bring the

possibility to take internationals out of gaza and to safety. the problem with everything reflted to the gaza strip is that hamas uses every humanitarian gesture and activity for their military purposes. and i do want to remind everybody that we are in a hostage situation. hamas is holding more than 120 confirmed israeli hostages. and we know that anything humanitarian will also -- can also be used by hamas for sinister purposes. and unfortunately, to bear the consequences that is the civilian population in gaza. >> jonathan, thank you for your time tonight. >> thank you. >> the pentagon is sending a second aircraft carrier and a strike group to the eastern mediterranean. this as israel readies for its next stage of wars, what we've

just been talking about. we'll have a live report next.

second carrier strike group led by the uss dwight d. eisenhower is headed to the middle east. we're told its to show support for israel and tell messages like iran to stay out of the conflict. what have you learned about the pentagon's plans. >> reporter: anderson, this was a strike group that deployed yesterday from norfolk in virginia. it was originally supposed to go to european command, and that trip takes about two weeks, so there was some time here. you get a sense of the urgency which the pentagon and biden administration view this, because just one day after leaving that carrier and

destroyers and cruisers going with it will head to the eastern mediterranean to join the uss gerald ford carrier strike group that arrived earlier this week. the administration has made clear these aren't supposed to take part in the fighting in any way. israel has made it clear it doesn't want the u.s. involved in this fight. the biden administration and many countries are watching this play out and trying to make sure it doesn't spill out into any other countries and escalate into a regional conflict. that's the point of these carrier strike groups being in the eastern med, as a message to izran, iran's proxies like hezbollah and iranian backed groups in syria. you don't see two carriers in the same area very often. that gives you a sense how important and significant this is. >> what about other u.s. military assets in the region? >> reporter: of course there are some other options here. we reported just a few days ago that the uss baton, an amphibious landing ship and

amphibious readiness group with the marines could also deploy in that region. they're already around that region around the arabian peninsula and slowly making their way towards the south the east as the latest check. that could also be ordered to the region. that's a rapid response force that specializes in humanitarian assistance, hostage rescue and a number of other missions as well as the air force plussing up a number of fighting squadrenes in the region. it is iran this whole message is aimed at. >> orin leiberman, thanks so much. retired army brigadier general peter zack joins us with more. i'm wondering what you think wept into the pentagon's thinking when it sent this second carrier strike group to the region. >> to see you again, anderson. yes, it's a significant move. two carrier strike groups bring enormous capability and

certainly projecting air power. they come with helicopters. they're there i think as orin said to provide, if you will, deterrence, but it gives again options if this thing were to get worse. you have the ability to support an evacuation. and again, if it somehow spreads to other powers, for example, iran, or gets into something really, really dicy involving syria, then we are there with very, very significant capability. i don't think the plan is to get them involved in that. that would be an extreme case, but they give options, and that's the key. >> what are your expectations for what a ground operation will -- will look like assuming that's what israel has planned

with 360 some odd thousand reservists on the border now? >> okay, well, that's a -- yeah, that's a hard question. i'll make a guess here. i think that it would start -- if they're going in hard especially up towards the north, you believe with special operations you try to get in there and get key hamas nodes and command and control points. perhaps one hopes that they have a line on where the hostages are, anderson, and they would go for them because that's a nightmare. the fact you have over 100 hostages mixed in there in probably several different locations, you'd want to get in there fast.

then you have the -- the more blunt force of large put together noble forces with a lot of infantry that now have got to go in. as we've learned in a number of places in iraq and everywhere, you've got to go in a city fight, hamas is going to be waiting for them. in an absolute cynical way they are using the civilians that they purport to protect as their cover and shield. so they will, first of all, try to muddy the israeli forces and a number of them are reservists and draftees, so not a lot of recent experience in heavy, heavy urban fighting. and then there could be air strikes and artillery that get a lot of -- you know, that kill a

lot of and wound a lot of palestinians in that area. and it becomes a real, real -- even bigger humanitarian nightmare. they're hoping for the press to put pressure on israel. but i think that israel after what happened last week exactly a week ago is hardened. they are -- they're done with hamas, and that's -- that's part i think will lead to a pretty ferocious fight going in there. they would lose a lot of people anyway because hamas isn't leaving. and as we've heard they're not going to let as best they can the pal stippian population out. and i would surmise those explosions you reported very may well be hamas way to disrupt the withdrawal, if you will, or

evacuation of can you believe it half a million or a million palestinians? where do they go? >> it is clearly, though, in -- setting aside humanitarian desires to not injure civilians, it is clearly in israel's military interest to not have civilians around in gaza city and elsewhere in northern israel where they plan to fight hamas. i mean it -- just from a purely military standpoint, correct me if i'm wrong, they would want as many civilians out of the picture as possible. >> you're absolutely right. you know, that awful term "collateral damage," there will be thousands, tens of thousands of civilians that would be killed or wounded in such a densely populated area if a major, major operation goes --

and israelis don't want to have to do the care and feeding of all those civilians in the midst of a fight. and you get into an urban area and i know you reported from iraq on there. you know, the streets, the underground, the tunnels, you want to have a clear -- clear field or clear area so you can fight and not worry that every other target is a civilian. yes, your point is well-taken. >> brigadier general, appreciate it. president biden speaking out today tonight on the war calling for an end to hate in all forms. a live report from the white house ahead.

biden tonight speaking at the human rights campaign national dinner in washington, d.c. the president addressed the terror attacks on israel and anti-semitism. cnn's priscilla alvarez at the white house. what did the president say? >> reporter: he talked about ending hate in all forms. he took a moment to reflect on the attacks in israel and also the humanitarian crisis in gaza. take a listen. >> a week ago we saw hate manifest in another way, in the

worst massacre of jewish people since the holocaust. more than 1,300 innocent lives lost in israel including at least 27 americans. children and grandparents alike kidnapped, held hostage by hamas. >> reporter: he later went onto talk about the, quote, innocent palestinians who have nothing to do with hamas as he reflected also on the humanitarian crisis in gaza. and those themes from those remarks, anderson, also came up in calls the president had today both with prime minister netanyahu as well as the president of the palestinian authority abas. in both of those calls he also talked about protecting civilians. the call with netanyahu was the fifth since last saturday. and he there also talked about the military support that the u.s. was providing and getting humanitarian supplies to gaza, but also, anderson, the resounding message from both of those calls was not widening the conflict and avoiding this from

escalating any further. >> the u.s. has started evacuating americans from israel. what are you learning about that, and what's the plan for trying to get americans out of gaza? >> reporter: this is an effort that's been led by the state department. they've been coordinating behind the scenes with regional partners as well as airlines to try to get those u.s. citizens and israel out of israel when they are limited flights going in and out of the country. so the first charter flight left just yesterday from israel and it landed in athens. this is something going to be ongoing in the coming days to destinations in europe. and, again, the idea here is to help u.s. citizens get out of israel to other locations in europe, and then u.s.-based carriers can ferry them back home. now, national security council spokesman john kirby talked about this over the course of the week. the idea here is potentially expanding capacity by land or sea, but it's clear there is a need. we also learned from the state department that since last saturday more than 20,000 u.s. citizens have reached out to the

department. now, not all of them are looking for transportation assistance, but what is very clear here, anderson, there is need and there's demand. and national security officials saying here while that exists, they will try to charter these flights. when it comes to gaza, it is ongoing talks to try to get that humanitarian corridor open so that palestinian americans or americans in gaza can also find a way out into egypt. of course those talks are still ongoing. >> and do you know what the holdup in those talks is? obviously hamas controls that border and egypt controls that border. >> reporter: we heard from leaders in egypt today in an interview with wolf blitzer, and the resounding message from him was that the holdup was on the gaza end. but, of course, these are talks ongoing. we've seen the secretary of state antony blinken make the rounds in the region. and all of that diplomacy goes to show there is intense talks behind the scenes to make sure that this becomes a possibility.

but in the interim, anderson, it's a wait and see. >> all right, priscilla alvarez. still to come on our special coverage, more from the region, concerns about the conflict increasing anti-semitism across europe. we'll be right back. rs!

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spread beyond the middle east. protests have erupted in cities around the globe. today in paris louvre closed its doors unexpectedly due to what they called security reasons. it is home to the largest jewish population and also has the largest muslim population in western europe. cnn's melissa bell is in paris. melissa, why don't you describe what you've been seeing there it. >> reporter: you john, you mentioned the louvre being called temporarily. so too was versailles for a similar bomb threat, a measure of the tension we've been seeing across europe, john, over the course of the last week now. europe has had an anti-semitism problem for about 20 years. and when you look at the figures and rise in europe they've always correlated closely with rises in tension in the middle east. and this particular week of tension has proven no exception. far from the front lines of the

israel-hamas war, many european jews say they're not just feeling the pain of what's happening there but also fearing the potential ramifications much closer to home. in france at the great synagogue in marseille a prayer is held after reports of cannot semitic incidents of parts in europe after hamas launched its assault on israel more than a week ago and israel's subsequent bombardment of gaza. >> translator: first of all, it's important to be present whenever the jewish people are in danger. unfortunately, we're used to this kind of gathering, this kind of prayer. we're tired of it all. nevertheless, we have to respond in unity. >> reporter: france is home to europe's largest jewish population as well as the largest muslim population in western europe. french president emmanuel macron

has urged his citizens to remain united, though french police used water canon and tear gas to break up a recent rally in support of the palestinian people who had been banned by french officials citing concerns about public order. but there are fears of further unrest in france. 10,000 police officers have been deployed to protect synagogues and jewish schools. and on friday france raised its security alert to the highest level after a knife attack at a school, the french interior minister says was linked to the conflict between israel and hamas. the u.k. is also stepping up security after reports of increased anti-semitic incidents. the security community trust, a british non-profit organization that monitors anti-semitism, says the number of incidents reported to them in the past week has increased by more than 300% compared to the same period last year. tensions at times spilling out

onto the streets of london where flyers of israelis reportedly kidnapped by hamas were torn down. >> they're not mutually exclusive. it's children. it's innocent people. >> okay, what about the children in palestine? >> reporter: germany, meanwhile, says it has a zero-tolerance policy towards anti-semitic acts and will ban all activities supporting hamas, which is on the eu's list of terror groups, which german officials say they can do no less. >> translator: protecting jewish life in germany is part of our democracy. the security of jews in germany is our democracy at its core. only if jews live in peace and security can our country as a whole do so. >> reporter: i mentioned a moment ago, john, those rallies in favor of the palestinian cause had been banned here in france. that ban remains in place, and yet there was another gathering

this afternoon. 19 people were arrested. a reminder really that desire to get out onto streets and protest and make their voices heard in favor of palestinian cause shows no sign of abating here in europe either, john. >> melissa bell in paris, thank you very much. the united nations is criticizing israel's order for more than 1 million people to evacuate northern gaza saying it's impossible for that many people to move in such a short period of time. egypt has not yet opened its border with gaza because it reportedly wants israel to first send humanitarian aid in for any incoming refugees. cnn's wolf blitzer spoke with the egyptian foreign minister by phone to clarify why the border remains closed and what concerns he has about the flow of humanitarian aid. >> as of right now what you're saying and i just want to be precise, foreign minister. you're saying the border, the

crossing is open as far as egypt is concerned. you're willing to accept these u.s. citizens and other citizens if they can get there, but you're saying near that border crossing in rafah because of bombing that's going on presumably by israelis, they can't get there? is that what you're saying? >> i'm saying the border crossing on the gaza side is inoperable because of the damage that's been afflicted and the procedure for those managing the border on the gaza side to verify the documents and the lists of foreign nationals that have been provided has not been fulfilled. so as far as we're concerned, we have indicated once and again that we will facilitate, we're in coordination with the embassies in cairo to receive the list of nationals. it has fulfilled the entry to

assist groups and humanitarian supplies, we'll be very happy to coin continue to facilitate the return to the countries of origin. >> are humanitarian supplies that are in egypt right now able to get through the rafah border crossing into gaza to help those palestinians who are there? >> unfortunately not. we are coordinating with the united nations, to applying for permission to have the supplies transit through the rafah crossing and be deposited with the united nations for dispersement, but we have not received authorization to do so, so we are at a very i think a dire circumstance. i'm speaking to the director who says there's no water, no electricity, no supplies and no

dwellings. the multitude of palestinians those displaced from the north of gaza, it's a very critical situation. and we would very much like to disperse all the supplies that have arrived to our region as soon as possible to meet the needs of those vulnerable palestinians who are in these very difficult circumstances. >> foreign minister, in your conversations with your u.s. counterpart, the u.s. secretary of state antony blinken, what's your bottom line, egypt's bottom line message to the u.s. right now? >> we need greater protection for civilians not to come under fire and certainly the numbers of arriving casualties, injuries with more than 500 children who have perished during this conflict, we need to -- to contain this and hopefully see a way out of this quagmire and return to dealing the issue of

resolution of the israeli-palestinian conflict and the enemy occupation. >> again, israel instructed people in northern gaza to remove south. it's the most densely populated part of gaza, the north is. we're talking about well over a million people there. with me now is the regional emergency director for the world health organization. rick, thank you so much for being with us. when you heard israel dropping those flyers, telling a million people basically to move, what went through your head? >> well, our concern always from the world health organization is that health and humanitarian dimension of that. so it's very clear there are huge health implications, huge humanitarian implications. as you mention the area is already incredibly densely populated. there are major gaps in food, water, shelter, sanitation, so

people now have been forced into these unsanitary overcrowded settings, risk of disease outbreaks. the directive from the authorities has also been to evacuate hospitals in northern gaza, and that has huge and complex and high-risk consequences associated with it. it's -- we have probably over 100 patients that are critically ill, and trying to forcibly move them under the current circumstances would certainly result in the deaths of many patients. so we're asking the israeli authorities to actually rescind that directive. >> what happens if they stay? what happens if they do stay in the hospitals, though, and there is a ground operation? >> well, that's -- you know, the risks of the military offensive that involves a hospital facility we would hope -- we would certainly hope the offensive would respect the

neutrality of hospitals, respect frankly the sanctity of health care. but our conversations with the health care providers there is that they already don't have much of a choice. it's -- you know, with patients on ventilators, babies in incubators, patients requiring chemo dialysis, unstable patients, it's a very high-risk exercise to move them. and they don't have the resources to do so. they don't have the vehicles. they don't have the equipment. they don't have the trained staff. and then you can imagine the logistics dimension of this as well. longer roads, damaged roads. and where do these patients go in the south? the hospitals are already overwhelmed. and so the doctors and nurses in northern gaza have made the determination that it's too high risk. patients will die if they're

moved, so they've made the determination to stay. therefore, we're asking for that directive to be rescinded. >> for the israelis the idf what they say is, look, we have issued this order because they say they have to go in to get hamas. and by telling people to leave, they're actually moving them out of harm's way. what's your reaction to that? >> well, they -- they'll be forced into another type of harm. again, if you're trying to forcibly vacate a hospital, as i've mentioned there are clear consequences of that. then as, you know, the health system itself has -- is under enormous strain right across gaza and increasingly in southern gaza people will be, again, congregating in these

massively overcrowded unsanitary settings lacking water, lacking food and so on. so there's big risk of disease outbreaks. either way, major, major health consequences. >> understood. what do you see as the responsibility of hamas now to alleviate the suffering of the people who might be in the hospitals? >> so, you know, on either side of a conflict they have responsibilities. so they have to respect the health facilities, make sure they are not attacked, make sure that patients have access to those health facilities and that there's no interference in the delivery of health care. and the movement of patients, the movement of health workers in and out. so both sides of the conflict

have very, very serious responsibilities in that regard including under, you know, national humanitarian law. >> an incredibly tense, difficult situation. and people in the hospital stuck in the middle of it. thank you for being with us tonight. >> thank you. thanks very much. >> all right, there has been activity in israel's northern border, back and forth exchanges between israeli forces and hezbollah. mourners gathered today for the funeral of a journalist killed covering the clashes in southern lebanon. our breaking news coverage continues next.

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>> john: new clashes between has blood militants israeli forces. the fighting was the most prolonged exchange of fire between the forces and that last week. it erupted just hours after the funeral of a south lebanese journalist for reuters who was killed while covering the crashes. here is correspondent ben wedeman. >> reporter: south lebanon remains in a state of high tension as far continues to be exchange between israel and

militants in lebanon. saturday afternoon, artillery rocket and small arms fire echoed across the mountains in the disputed farms area between lebanon and israel. the most prolonged exchange yet. israeli military said 30 mortar rounds were fired from leading lebanon into israel. hezbollah put out a statement claiming its fighters had used precision weapons to target five israeli positions including is released surveillance. late saturday, they put out video showpr communications and surveillance equipment at those positions. the official lebanese news agency reported that an elderly couple was killed when an israeli ground struck their house in the lebanese town of shaq bond. has blood said one its fighters was killed in confrontations with israeli forces. earlier in the day, residence at

the southern lebanese town of eltayeb came out to mourn the killing of reuters cameraman well-known in the middle east press corps for his work in conflict zones around the region. friday afternoon, he was filming an exchange of fire between israel and hezbollah run their position was struck with roc rockets, firing at witnesses from the israeli side of the border. six other journalists were injured, all were wearing protective gear with press markings. is really spokesman described abdallah's death is tragic but did not concede it was caused by an israeli strike. also saturday evening, the head of israel's national security council in a televised briefing said israel hopes to avoid a war involving lebanon. he said the current level of clashes between israel and hezbollah is in his words below the escalation threshold.

he also said we hope hezbollah won't bring about the destruction of lebanon. now, in the past, israeli leaders have warned of among other things that if hezbollah goes to work with israel again, israel will send lebanon back to the stone age. i'm ben wedeman, cnn, reporting from seven lebanon -- southern lebanon. >> john: israel says it is getting ready for "the next stages of the war." our special coverage continues ahead.