talk about this and much more in a minute. stay with us.

welcome back and thank you for being with us. i'm dana bash in washington. >> and i'm sara sidner in tel aviv with cnn's breaking news coverage of israel at war. people in northern gaza are running out of time to get to safety at this hour. israel says it is now clearing up for a new phase of war. the israel defense force is

gathering more tanks at the gaza border as at the prepare for a significant ground operation. this coupled with crippling air strikes is their response to the unprecedented terror attack by hamas eight days ago that left 1,400 israelis dead. many, women, children, grandparents. the death toll in gaza also climbing steeply. according to the ministry of health at least 2,600 palestinians have been killed and nearly 10,000 have been injured. gaza's health ministry is begging for medical teams from around the world to send help, the health care system is on the brink of collapse. and with food and water shorges, a humanitarian crisis is worsening by the minute. >> meantime, israel is also exchanging fire along its northern border with hezbollah. early in morning the militant group launched nine rockets into

israel, killing one israeli citizen. israel responded with fighter jets striking hiz blah's military infrastructure. the idf is sending a stark warning to hez fbollah not to escalate things. >> i would highly recommend that hezbollah watch very closely what is happening to hamas and their organization in gaza as we speak. if they -- they should be very cautious of crossing that threshold because we are determined to defend the state of israel. >> meanwhile, the united states continues to show support for israel. a senate delegation met with israel's president just a few hours ago before the meeting the bipartisan group had to rush to a bomb shelter in tel aviv. senator chuck schumer wrote on social media that they were forced to take cover to wait out rockets launched by hamas.

sara? >> yeah, that is the normal course of business around here. you know, anywhere you go, you can be dealing with that sort of thing. let's go now to nic robertson who is near the gaza border in sderot. nic, israel is preparing for what it calls the next stage of the war, its response we can see hundreds of thousands of soldiers that are amassing there. what are you learning at this hour as to the timing perhaps of all of this? >> reporter: yeah, more air strikes continuing this evening. we can hear the fighter jets even in the skies above us now and hear the big explosions coming from gaza, impossible to know exactly where they're targeting. but we've traveled all along this border today, in fact, we've been to some of the training bases that the idf is using in preparation for troops to go into gaza if they get that decision, if they're called upon

for a ground incursion. we've been to a base where there is a mock palestinian town built, complete with mosques, complete with shops and houses and homes and we've seen the troops training in there, training for that sort of combat in an urban environment. i was asking one of the commanders there is it possible to go in to an urban environment where you know hamas is telling civilians not to leave, civilians have been asked to leave, is it possible to go into that environment where there are women and children? is it possible to do that and not have civilian casualties? and he said, look, we're very clearly focused on going after hamas, that's our target, that's what we intend to do. the idf is a professional force, he said, and we try to avoid civilian casualties. i also spoke to an idf spokesman about this as well and he said, look, you know, israel has asked the civilians of gaza to go to

the south, many of them are going to the south, the idf says, but he said, look, in essence if hamas tells the civilians to stay, that is on hamas's head. that's in their writ, that's not our responsibility. what else have we seen? we've seen troops quite literally in a field, in their vehicles, lining up and rehearsing that moment where these combined forces get the order to go into gaza. so the preparations are really under way. a lot of tanks, a lot of armored fighting vehicles, hundreds getting at the ready from what we saw today. >> nic robertson, thank you so much for that. just, you know, to reiterate what he's saying is that they are trying to figure out how to do urban warfare within gaza by using -- this is just very interesting -- by using sort of makeshift -- a makeshift set, if you will, to give them some sense of how they're going to go about doing that, but in any

war, anywhere, there are always civilian casualties. it is almost in a place like gaza especially unavoidable. d dana? >> thank you, sara. and as israel is preparing for that ground incursion there are millions of civilians stuck in the conflict zone. israel's president spoke with cnn's wolf blitzer for his first one-on-one interview in the u.s. since hamas attacked israel. he said that israel is working to help civilians in gaza get to a safe zone. >> israel is ordering as you know more than a million palestinian residents of northern gaza to immediately leave their homes and move south, but in the past 24 hours alone some 300 people were killed, most of them women and children. what do you say to your critics who insist that israel should be doing much more to protect innocent civilians in gaza? >> so let's talk about it for a moment. we are never indifferent to the

pain of the other. we are never, never indifferent to the pain of our palestinian neighbors and we always try to operate according to the basic guidelines of international law. we are trying to move these citizens away from the war zone in order so that we can go in and uproot that infrastructure of terror. incidentally perhaps give hope also that the palestinians out there so that they can run their life independently in an honorable way, live and let live. but right now they are under the suppression of hamas and what we are trying to do is to move them to another safe zone so that they won't be hurt, but hamas is threatening them, stopping them. hamas has all the fuel, by the way. it's using the fuel to fight us and shoot at us. hamas has all the water that they need.

they're stopping it. hamas has clear instructions that they have given to their soldiers to basically torture the people in gaza. that's what we are seeing. and let me tell you another interesting fact, hamas is the one who with their missiles broke all the electricity wires supplied to gaza. we are not responsible for their electricity in gaza, they are, but since they're sending out fake news and libels and stories full of lies, our answer is very clear, we will do whatever it takes, civilians will not be hurt, we are working very closely with the united nations and other agencies, we are talking to them, they are cooperating with them on the ground and we are taking our time, therefore, so that civilians will not be hurt. >> israel of course blames hamas for the suffering of these palestinian civilians in gaza, but as you know israel controls gaza's borders and has been blockading the gaza strip since 2007 when it left gaza.

you say you want to minimize palestinian civilian casualties, but at the same time israel has cut off food, electricity, water and fuel into gaza. i understand by the way that water has been turned back to parts of gaza earlier today. but the united nations put it this way, gaza already is a -- in their words -- a hellhole and is now on the brink of collapse. their words. won't these latest moves increase the death toll of palestinian civilians and children in gaza? >> so we are monitoring the humanitarian situation in gaza on an hourly basis. we are following all the facts. for example, 7% of the water only in gaza are under israel's response and the responsibility lies fully with hamas. there is a lot of distortion in the facts. yes, i realize there is a lot of pain, but let's look at the picture honestly, at the picture. something terrible happened, unprecedented in human history

in modern times. you mentioned it yourself. since the holocaust there hasn't been such a huge number of jews being killed in one day. this cannot go on. how would anybody continue to live side-by-side? how could anybody move to peace side-by-side when our homes are bombarded, our families are killed, when we are tortured and abducted, how could we go on like that? we have the full right for self-defense, that means going in, uprooting them out and enabling a new future for that region. for that it takes a process that is painful, but will be under supervision of all the humanitarian needs of the people of gaza. moreover than that, i repeat again and again, there is going to be a humanitarian safe zone for the people of gaza. we are working with the u.n. agencies and everybody else. the ones who are stopping it all is hamas, simply. >> the u.n. says gaza is

becoming a, quote, hellhole on the brink of collapse. that after israel's barrage of air strikes in response to hamas's terror attack savagely killing more than 1,000 innocent civilians. hamas is telling its own palestinian civilians not to go anywhere. joining me now is staff writer for "the new yorker," susan glasser and cnn national security analyst carrie cordaro. susan, you have reported from the region before, you understand how hamas operates. not just when we are talking about what we have seen, which you've never seen because nobody has ever witnessed the kind of savage attack from eight days ago, but what i mean is how it operates inside gaza and how it uses innocent palestinian civilians. what is your sense of what is going on right now as so many hundreds of thousands, north of that, are trying to figure out

to stay or go, and if they go, how does that even work? >> well, that's exactly right, dana. i've been asking that question as i know so many people have, where is there even for people to go at this point? israel has issued this evacuation order, a demand really, said if you don't leave the northern part of gaza essentially it's going to become some kind of a free fire war zone, and yet, you know, it's clearly not an organized evacuation that's taking place. it does appear that hamas which has embedded itself in the civilian infrastructure of gaza for years in order to make -- increase the costs for israel of any kind of effort at retaliation, clearly hamas is reluctant for these people to go. and, again, nobody -- it's just a complete power vacuum. so that's a big question, how can you guarantee the safety of civilians as we've heard israeli leaders say that they want to do, but who is actually in

charge of doing that is a big question. why have these border crossings not been opened for days? the u.s. has been in talks with egypt about opening that border. secretary of state tony blinken addressed that earlier today but it's still not clear even after all that diplomacy that even foreign nationals are going to be let out, never mind just the actual palestinian residents of gaza. so it's a grim situation it seems to me. >> grim indeed. and we are looking at a map on our screen, both of you should know, of gaza and the area of evacuation, sort of the red zone, and the south which is where israel is saying that civilians should go. you see there that's the rafah crossing into egypt and, carrie, this is -- susan, excuse me, wa of state in egypt today, trying to have conversations about getting that crossing opened so that -- i mean, american

nationals who are also -- they are palestinians as well, maybe dual nationals at the very least can get out. and it does not seem like he was successful. >> well, they're going to continue the secretary of state and american diplomats are going to continue to work on that issue. both with the egyptian government and with all of the other countries in the region through which there is an open dialogue to try to potentially place pressure on jipt to open that to be able to enable some passage through that area. of course, egypt has its own interests at stake so we have to keep in mind that each of the countries in that region has their own interest at stake. even though there is a humanitarian issue here, they are going to put their own national security interests first. but it also does highlight the fact that america's interests and the secretary of state's objectives in working on this issue pertain first to israel

and our support to israel to be able to help it defend itself against this terrible attack and the terrorist organization that perpetrated it. two, our interests pertain to supporting israel as the only democracy in the region. and three, there are american lives at stake and the last count that i saw was over 29 americans were killed in the attack itself and there remain americans who are at risk. >> so you mentioned americans who are believed to be held hostage inside gaza, taken -- forcibly taken, brutally so, from the israeli side of the border over to gaza, that is what the belief is. jake tapper spoke with the biden national security adviser, jake sullivan, about that this morning. listen to what jake sullivan said. >> we know there are 15 unaccounted for americans, but we cannot confirm the precise number of american hostages

being held by hamas at this time. all we can do is to continue to work closely with the israeli government on hostage recovery options, which we are doing, and then work through third countries to see if there are avenues for release. those efforts are under way. our hope is that they can produce results. we will continue to stay focused on this. it's as high a priority as the president has. >> susan, that last part, working through third party, third countries, that's a big part of what the u.s. secretary of state has been doing on this trip through the middle east, isn't it? >> yeah, that's right. i mean, you know, the secretary of state said that he had been in six countries aside from israel, he's traveled around through many of the u.s. partners in the gulf as well as jordan, egypt. he's returning to israel on monday to meet again with prime minister netanyahu. you know, there's a sort of an eerie silence at this point, dana, about the fate of these

hostages. we don't even have a firm number of course of how many were taken. it's already been more than a week. i've just been thinking with a real amount of horror at what has happened to these young, young children and old people who have been taken more than eight days in captivity. if they're still alive, the urgency of this crisis only increases it seems to me as time goes by as far as what options there really are. hamas has maintained contacts, extensive contacts in places like qatar around the region, in recent years, so there are interlocu interlocutors, but it will be israel making the military decisions and taking action on the ground. >> and there's a more fundamental problem or challenge that jake sullivan referred to there, carrie, which is that the u.s. government doesn't even have a full handle on how many

americans are inside gaza and who they are. how do you get out hostages if you don't know that they exist? it's hard enough if you do know that they exist. >> yeah, there's -- >> oh, we just lost carrie there. oh, there's carrie. carrie, you're back. >> dana, there is a whole intelligence side to this which is that the u.s. needs to really reevaluate its intelligence capabilities and its visibility into the area. here we have a real acute crisis where we have americans who are missing and our government is reliant on others in the region to be able to help to actually find them and potentially find a way to see if they are still in a position to be able to be saved, but there's the bigger picture which is the lack of disruption and identification of the plot to begin with, which means that the u.s. from an

intelligence perspective really needs to conduct an entire new review that takes into account that apparently we cannot just rely on our partners in the region, on even the israelis to be able to protect americans who are there. >> yeah, i mean, that's an entirely different and critically important conversation that will be had and is already being had about the vaunted israeli intelligence and what happened there. i'm sure you are each talking to people in israel as i am that the -- that the mornurning and e sadness is really coupled with the anger about how this happened. israeli government officials just keep saying, we will deal with that later, let's first deal with hamas. thank you both. looking forward to talking to you again and your incredible expertise. >> thank you, dana. >> susan glasser and carrie cordero, thank you. and we are going to be back with our special coverage after a

quick break. don't go anywhere.

right now the u.s. is holding off on getting directly involved in the war in israel, instead it's making sure two of its most powerful navy ships are in the mediterranean sea in an effort to ward off other groups from joining into the war. note, hezbollah in lebanon, but it's not ruling out sending troops over to get american hostages out of gaza. with us right now is cnn's jerusalem correspondent hadas gold. can you give us some sense of what might be the tipping point for potentially deploying troops, something we have not heard at all in other incursions, for example, in ukraine, but in this instance something very specific to try and help save the hostages that

have been taken by hamas. >> reporter: yeah, it's possible we would see it, but i think that would be a very major moment in history and a very major moment in this relationship. listen, the israeli and american militaries work very, very closely together, they are constantly exercising together, in fact, just a few months ago i was on the u.s.s. george h.w. bush a carrier ship for the largest joint israeli american exercise in history, that was meant to send a very, very clear message to iran that's obviously being sent right now. i don't think we've ever been closer to seeing this joint military relationship be tested and possibly exhibited than where we are today. as you noted the u.s. has never gotten fully involved, even in 2006 with the lebanon war and previous wars the u.s. has never sent full troops on the ground, always more providing support. right now they're providing support in terms of munitions and having the carrier ships offshore. israel is pleased to have the ships sitting off the mediterranean to send a clear message to hezbollah, iran and elements in syria as well, we can't forget about possibly

getting involved. if the united states gets involved whether by intention, whether by potential accident, something happens that causes something to blow up, that could completely change the region into potentially a much broader conflict than what we've seen before. as of right now it doesn't seem like that's a direction that the united states or israel wants to go towards. right now the united states is letting israel take the lead, including with these hostages, even though some of these hostages have american citizenship as well. sara? >> i have to just say quickly, hadas, that it is extraordinary, just to hear that the situates is considering sending troops on the ground and in particular for the hostages in a very, very, very difficult -- what would be a very difficult operation because hamas as you know does not easily give up hostages. the last time i remember a hostage being released from gaza it took five and a half years

and that was someone who was in the idf and had been captured. very, very long time. others had been killed, some people had been there for nine years. this is extraordinary to hear this. is that how you feel when you hear the possibility of u.s. troops on the ground? >> reporter: absolutely extraordinary but this is an extraordinary situation. that was a single israeli soldier who was later then exchanged for more than 1,000 palestinian prisoners. right now we are talking about civilians, babies, we are talking about the elderly. so unprecedented situation might mean an unprecedented potential solution. that could potentially involve a very small special ops american forces who will be on the ground supporting the israelis, maybe even something we don't necessarily know publicly but that could be the support that might be needed because, again, unprecedented situation. you have civilians, babies, children, elderly most likely in these hamas tunnels underground. >> i think unprecedented situation, unprecedented response is likely.

hadas gold, thank you for all of your reporting here and there in washington. appreciate you. the situation presents some major complications as you might imagine and that is putting it lightly for the u.s. military as they try to learn exactly how many americans are being held hostage and where exactly. joining me now is retired two star major general with the u.s. army, dan pennsylvania pitard. thank you so much for joining us. when you consider the possibility -- i mean, i have to tell you it blows my mind to hear the possibility of u.s. troops on the ground, but there is a very strong relationship obviously between israel and the united states and american hostages who have been taken, but this is no easy fix. >> good evening, sara. it's an extraordinary time, extraordinary situation. it's been nearly 80 years since this many jewish people have

been killed and when the united states and our allies said never again, it meant never again. so it is an extraordinary time. u.s. forces right now are certainly in support by having two carrier strike groups off the coast of israel and the eastern mediterranean which in itself is rare. hostages, as you've already discussed, very, very complex and difficult situation, and right now it's the intelligence that's going to matter. it's finding out where those hostages are, and then determining who will get those hostages. u.s. military and i've been a part of that, have worked closely with the israeli defense forces for decades. there is a very close relationship and there's a lot of trust, too, in what the idf is capable of doing, but the u.s. in this conflict is in support. it probably will not happen for u.s. forces to participate, but that should not be ruled out.

>> i have to tell you it blew my mind a little bit just to hear -- just to hear it, never mind the possibility of actually happening. it shows you the relationship between the two countries and the extraordinary situation we find ourself in. i do want to ask you about what it might mean if that were to happen, would that bring in an excuse for iran, for example, to respond? an excuse for iran-backed hezbollah who is already firing rockets on the northern border into israel to respond in a different way? what are your thoughts there? >> iran is always looking for an excuse. i mean, iran, i think, has already claimed that if israel attacks into gaza that they may take action. so this would not be any different. but what the powerful u.s. carrier strike groups are doing, having two of them there in the eastern mediterranean, is sending a distinct message to potential adversaries like iran, syria or hezbollah to stay out,

or the power of the u.s. military may be a part of this situation. so iran does not want to take on the u.s. in this case. the fight itself with israeli defense forces going to gaza and i've been to gaza myself, it's densely populated. it's going to be a very, very difficult and complex urban fight. >> wow. mr. pittard, thank you so much for sort of walking us through that. we are in an extraordinary time and unprecedented time here in israel as well as those experiencing this on the other side of the board in gaza. i appreciate you coming on. and as israel prepares for what they call the next stage of the war with hamas, which is basically going to be a ground war and that is imminent, thousands of troops we have seen gathering near the border with gaza. next we will talk to an american idf reservist who is stationed into err that border.

significant ground operations are expected soon as israeli troops are amassing at the gaza border. israel's president told wolf blitzer earlier that they are trying to allow civilians in gaza to get to safe zones. joining me now to talk about that and what he has seen is ben, he is an american-born idf reservist originally from los angeles who has been living in israel for the last six years and we're just going to call you ben and tell our viewers that you are near the border. i want you to have the opportunity to explain what happened about a week ago when you and your fellow idf soldiers

went to kfar aza and saw what happened there. >> thank you so much for having me, dana. yes, last week when we arrived, we were moving around quite a bit, but when we did arrive at kfar aza then we initially were waiting for our orders of what to do, where to move, where to even sleep and the first thing that we saw were just ambulances and large 18-wheeler trucks and they were moving, they were processing the bodies from dead body bags from the ambulances into the big trucks and so after each body bag that went into the truck we would say the mourner's prayer and this went on for about an hour and a half or so. immediately after the last body bag was loaded we all broke out

into the israeli national anthem which translates to the hope. when i looked over at my fellow comrades we all had tears in our eyes, but it gave us a feeling we know why we're here, what we're doing and we have a mission, you know, truly one of the darkest days in israeli history and, you know, the day with the most murdered israelis or most murdered jews since the holocaust. so we know what we're doing. we have a very clear mission ahead of us. >> and, ben, you provided us with some follow toes, i want to warn our viewers they are very, very difficult to see, but it is a reality of what happened and we don't want to lose sight of the war that's going on and what precipitated the war, and that is, i mean, you see there a crib, a blood-stained crib, and

this is the kind of thing that you saw and you talked about you and your fellow idf soldiers says mourner's kaddish and it took so long because there were so many bodies that were being loaded in there. and you see a prayer book riddled with what looks like bullet holes. you of course were mourning those who are dead, the question -- one of the many questions is those who are still alive taken across the border by hamas terrorists into gaza and we believe the u.s. government believes that it could be upwards of about 20, maybe even more, american citizens who are inside gaza. i don't expect you to nor should you talk about the operational situation that is ahead of you, but talk about the mission in general and the idea of those american -- fellow americans,

you, again, were born in los angeles, that need to be res rescued. >> yeah. i mean, look, our mission right now is to eliminate hamas, to make sure that hamas can never do something like this ever again. i'm just a staff sergeant, you know, i'm not sitting in the war room, the operational rooms, making those big decisions so i can't really speak to that, however, you know, being an american and an israeli, knowing -- i wear both of these hats at the same time, it's personal for me on all levels. you know, while we have our mission of making sure that this can never happen and i'm a reservist, you know, i have my daily life, i have my dog, my family, my girlfriend, you know, my job. we didn't plan on having this happen, but if we don't come what we saw happen in the gaza border communities would happen all throughout israel if we don't rise to action. and it was also very clear, you

know, very clear what our mission is. we found the orders on the bodies of hamas terrorists that were taken out here and their mission was very clear as well, so hunt and kill everything that moves. what we saw and the pictures that you showed on the broadcast here are pictures that i took in our couple days in the community that, you know, that's proof of it, that they -- complete bar bashism and savagery, this massacre that took place. they took a few chess pieces with them and we have to get them back, but it's just -- as an american, i just want to say also it warms my heart knowing how close our two countries are and the support that we've received from the united states, from the president, knowing that our brothers and sisters in america are standing by our side at all costs if this is going

to, you know, turn into something larger than what it already is. >> ben, thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us. thank you so much for sharing the horrific story and what you saw that will no doubt be etched in your mind and for explaining in your words why you fight as an american and as an israeli. take care. >> thank you so much for having me. appreciate it. and still ahead, aid workers in gaza say conditions there have deteriorated into a complete catastrophe. tens of thousands of palestinian civilians are trying to flee south. where will they go? will egypt let them in? stay with us.

within gaza humanitarian crisis is worsening by the hour. israel's prime minister has told

cnn now that water is being restored in southern gaza, but gaza officials say they can't get the water running without power, which they do not have because fuel is also not allowed into gaza. >> right. and, sara, israeli officials say that that power is not there because hamas, which is supposed to be leadership in gaza, they bombed the supply lines there and we're trying to get more information about that, but meanwhile, what is very clear is that deaths are adding up. we want to warn you that the next videos you're going to see are graphic and may be much too disturbing to some of you. mourners in gaza pray over the bodies of those killed. the death toll in gaza has risen according to officials there to 2,600 people. you see people in gaza recovering the body of a child from underneath the rubble of a

collapsed building following an israeli air strike. now, we're working to find out if that child is dead or alive. regardless, what you are seeing there is the result of a response from israel after hamas terrorists went into israel and brutally killed civilians there. cnn's scott mclean has more, but, again, we want to continue to warn you the images you are going to see are quite graphic. >> reporter: this is the frantic scene outside a hospital in the city of deir al balah, constant wail of sirens and a steady stream of children carried desperately inside, some bandaged, some seeming alert, others not moving at all. >> is this a target? is this a real target for israel, this toddler? >> reporter: on sunday people in

that same city gathered to pray over bodies wrapped in white and loaded on to a flatbed truck. deir al balah was hit again on sunday. afterwards heavy machines shift the slabs of concrete hoping perhaps in vain to find survivors. >> translator: there were women, children, children, children. >> reporter: across gaza israel says it hit more than 100 military targets overnight and more on sunday. in the aftermath of each people rushed to frantically find victims, never far from danger. this video from gaza city shows the shear chaos as distraught men, women and children try to figure out what to do and where

to go next. >> translator: it is as you can see, destruction. destruction. they are destroying us. >> reporter: even hospitals like this children's hospital have been told to evacuate from northern gaza, but with newborn babies and children on ventilators, doctors say they can't. >> translator: where will these children go? they are on ventilators. and it's not possible to move them. >> reporter: the world health organization said it strongly condemns israel's repeated orders for the evacuation of 22 hospitals treating more than 2,000 inpatients in northern gaza. saying forcing the evacuation of patients south could be tantamount to a death sentence. across gaza food and fuel are running desperately low. the u.n. says most people already lacked access to water. foreign aid is being sent by the planeload and the truckload to

egypt in hopes of getting it into gaza, but egypt and palestinians on the ground say the roads near the border are too badly damaged from air strikes for trucks to pass and sunday cnn asked the idf whether it was coordinating with aid groups to ensure that supplies get in. >> the idf and the defense ministry are engaged with the international community to try to facilitate various different things. i speak on behalf of the idf so we are deeply involved in the combat. we are the warriors, we need to leave the diplomacy for the diplomats. >> reporter: in just eight days the death toll in gaza has already surpassed the number of people killed in the 2014 conflict which lasted 51 days and with an israeli ground invasion looming and supplies running low, there is little hope that things will soon get better for the people of gaza. and on the water situation, sara, as of this morning there was no working water in southern

gaza, people were still filling jerry cans from trucks wherever they could find them. the u.n. was warning so people were so desperate they were brink drinking water from wells ments for agriculture raising concerns about water-borne diseases. the israelis have said that the water is back on in southern israel, the gaza water authority said it's not going to work unless we have fuel or electricity and we have neither. the world food program says they can't get anything in or out, they are run out of food and it says plainly that civilians will starve in gaza if it cannot help them, sara. >> that's really disturbing to hear. and what a difficult piece that you put together. thank you so much, scott mclean, we appreciate your time. still ahead, the victims of hamas's brutal attack are still recovering. next, we will talk with a doctor at shi va medical center near tel aviv where many of those victims are being treated at this hour. stay with us. they need to supp

their family members lying on icus and critical -- >> are they all from gunshot wounds? is that mostly what you are seeing there? >> the nature of the violence that happened last shabbat mostly is gunshots from very near proximity, a few meters, even less. we see also some shrapnel from the grenades that the terrorists

throw on shelters and unfortunately some of the casualties are suffering from severe burns, i would say some of the families in the shelters were cooked to death. >> from the heat from the explosion of the grenade. that is just horrifying. >> they -- they put fire in the houses, they took the tires from the -- the flat tires from the cars, put them on fire and make smoke and heat in those apartments and some of them were choked to death because of the smoke, some were burned completely and now we have to take care of those burns. we have small babies, adults, unfortunately sheba is ready to take care of such casualties,

but this is a big challenge for us and for them in the next coming days. >> it is a horrible, horrible, first of all, way to die and, second of all, injuries when there are burns involved. i just want to lastly ask you, you know, you are a doctor, obviously, your first order of duty is to do no harm, but you also are in israel, you have someone who is in the idf in your family. how difficult is this for you as a human being to see the carnage that you have been seeing from your fellow countrymen and women? >> look, i served 28 years in the army, tmy two boys right no are in the army. i was dreaming that one day when they would grow up there is no need for army in israel. unfortunately the history and

the current situation show us that we need still to defend ourselves. as a professional it's very hard to see those visions, the brutal and the animal behavior of our en enemy. as much as i can say we are trying to be different, we're trying to do it in a moral way, as human beings, as jewish people, as israelis, again, it's still horrifying to see. >> you're speaking as a former soldier and now as a doctor who has two sons that are serving in the military in what is officially a war that has been declared by israel now. doctor, thank you so much for the work that you're doing to try and heal the people who have been so badly injured. i appreciate your time, sir. >> thank you, sara. thank you.