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.

good evening. >> all right. we are having to take a quick break. our special coverage, though, of the conflict between israel and hamas, the war that has now unfolded continues next.

welcome back. it is the top of the hour. i'm dana bash in washington. >> and i'm sara sidner in tel aviv with cnn's breaking news coverage of israel at war. as israel prepares for the next

stage as they have put it of this war gaza is facing an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe and on the brink of collapse. the situation there is becoming more and more dire. the u.n. is comparing it to a, quote, hellhole. >> gaza is running out of water, electricity and is facing a severe shortage of food and medicine. tens of thousands of people have fled northern gaza heading for the south, that is despite hamas who is supposed to be the leadership there telling innocent civilians not to leave, keeping them there and that according to both the u.s. and israel is because hamas would rather have the civilians as human shields rather than keeping them safe. israel says they are trying to work on a humanitarian safe zone for evacuees. when talking to cnn's wolf blitzer today israel's president could not give a timeline on when it would open. >> how close are you, mr. president, to establishing

what's called a humanitarian corridor out of southern gaza? you mentioned earlier israel is working on it. >> so these facts are being discussed right now. tomorrow secretary of state tony blinken will return to israel and the region and i'm sure this will be a top priority in his meetings. >> so you support allowing that southern rafah border crossing to be open so folks could leave gaza? >> so i would say the following, as president i am a head of state, but this is -- the powers are vested with the israeli cabinet and government under prime minister netanyahu and the new national unity emergency government and it's in their hands, but the entire effort is with a view to maintaining full humanitarian support for the people of gaza. >> a very good interview and there's more of that interview

online between wolf blitzer and the president of israel, herzog. in the south of gaza the rafah crossing as you just heard them talking about is supposed to reopen today according to u.s. secretary of state antony blinken. it is the only border point out of gaza that is not controlled by israel. in the meantime along the israeli-lebanese border there have been some intense exchanges of fire today. we have just learned that a rocket has hit the headqua quar of the u.s. peacekeeping force in lebanon, thankfully no one there was hurt. we are also hearing harrowing stories after air strikes in gaza and these folks are beside themselves wondering what they're going to do when there is a ground offensive, but right now they are in deep sorrow after witnessing another air strike that collapsed a building. listen. >> translator: we are in deir al

balah. today at dusk we witnessed strikes using f-16 without prior warning. we were running and found the house on fire and charred. there were people alive and we rescued them quickly, but there were people still under the rubble. until now there were three families under this house. a large number were martyred and there remains a large number of martyrs under the rubble. >> translator: god willing they are all in heaven. all my family will be in heaven. they gave their life for jerusalem, for lpalestine. for palestine. they were all women, all children, children, children. >> here in israel hamas continues to target israel, tel aviv we saw rockets coming over just an hour or two ago and it is also targeting the border city of sderot. this morning the terrorist group sent a barrage of rockets into that particular area and citizens in the city boarded buses trying to get away from

the conflict zone and into other parts of the country. it has been a terrifying, terrifying situation for the families there as well. cnn's clarissa ward is in ashkelon, that's about 25 minutes' drive from sderot. clarissa, give us some sense of what you have been seeing, what you have been experiencing as you have been here from the start really of this war. >> reporter: well, share ration i t sara, i think the focus is very much on gaza, what the u.n. is calling an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe playing out before our eyes in a pretty emotional statement the commissioner general for the u.n. agency for relief and works basically said that the world has lost its humanity. he went on to outline for eight days not a drop of water no electricity, no food, no medicine has been able to be provided into gaza. he also reminded people that more than 60% of gaza's

residents because of the blockade on gaza are already dependent on food aid. so in addition to the relentless air strikes that have claimed so many lives, more than 2,700 palestinians have been killed, you now have this incredibly intense humanitarian catastrophe. i spoke to a young student in northern gaza, that is the area that the idf has told palestinians to leave, she said that they can't leave because they don't know where to go, they don't have a place to go and they don't feel that it's safe. and there is no electricity. now, i will say that the idf, israel's defense forces, have said that the water has been turned back on in southern gaza. there seems to be some difficulty in confirming that right now, some mixed reports there, but i want to draw your attention, sara, if we can just pull up a tweet, this tweet is from october in 22 and it's

from the eu commissioner ursula von der leyen. she's talking about russia and ukraine but she says quite clearing cutting off men, women, children of water, electricity, she goes on to add heat, these are pure acts of terror and we have to call it such. i think the frustration and the anger and the outrage that you're seeing from many is due to a perceived double standard in the type of language that we have seen from u.s. and european leaders with regards to ukraine as opposed to what we are seeing now. now, i will say that in the last day we have been hearing slightly more calibrated responses from people like secretary of state antony blinken, from european leaders, urging israel's leadership to go out of its way to make sure that the international humanitarian

law and the international norms are not abused, but as it stands quite clearly, listening to that report from the u.n., the situation there is rapidly escalating, unraveling, and despite the efforts on so many parts to try to clear some kind of humanitarian corridor, there is no sense that this is going to change imminently, sara. >> look, this is why the u.n. calls gaza a -- basically an open-air prison because it is very hard for the palestinians there to get in and out of it, and that's on a regular day, not when there has been a war, but as israel has said over and over and over again, hamas has helped create this, hamas is the one keeping civilians there when they want to leave, not giving them any chance when there's a ground or if and when there is going to be a ground incursion. clarissa ward, thank you so

much. i think -- i just want to ask you one more question. there's something going on of course in lebanon, that's the northern border with israel, with rockets coming over. we've seen this over the last few days, different things happening there on that border. this is sort of the existential crisis that israelis and the military and the government here has always worried about that they would have war on several fronts. what are you hearing about what's going on there in the lebanese-israeli border? >> reporter: so we know that there has been rocket fire going both into israel from southern lebanon, also israeli forces have responded to that fire. we know according to the u.n. peacekeeping force in south lebanon that their headquarters there were actually hit. nobody was injured, but as you say, sara, this speaks to a very real palpable fear that a second front in this war could potentially develop and that if

hezbollah was to become involved with this war that it would dramatically change the picture of what we are seeing hezbollah has a huge amount of rockets, including long-range rockets, could potentially be extremely dangerous, of course, everyone remembers the war in 2006 as well between israel and hezb hezbollah. so definite real concerns that that could be escalating, sara. >> yeah, and potential of it escalating further, the u.s. also talking about potentially putting troops on the ground to try and save the hostages that were taken who are americans and others. clarissa ward, there is just so many things that could happen, but we are waiting to see what actually does happen. i appreciate all of your incredible reporting throughout this really difficult time. the idf just announce that had they now have a firm number of how many hostages are being held by hamas, 155 civilians

have been taken into gaza against their will since the war started eight days ago. that is the number that they have come up with. we know that several of those hostages are american citizens. we do not have an exact number of just how many. cnn's hadas gold is joining us now. hadas, the u.s. is saying it won't rule out -- and i just mentioned this to clarissa -- sending in u.s. troops to rescue hostages, which is something that i think will catch some people by surprise and catch the families and give them some hope that potentially maybe there is a way to see their loved ones again alive and well. what are you learning? >> reporter: i mean, it would be unprecedented to have american boots on the ground in this way, but as we've said, unprecedented situation. i mean, the horrors of what we've heard happened to these victims, to the ones who were killed, i can't even, you know, repeat some of what happened to them and the horrors of what may be happening to the hostages right now, especially knows with

american citizenship in addition to those with american citizenships, i think that's why you might see an unprecedented response. now, will we see a full-fledged, you know, full hundreds, thousands of americans boots on the ground, will we see activity from those carrier ships, that's harder to tell. the american and israeli militaries work incredibly closely together, i've heard the idf officials call the americans their brothers in arms. a few months ago i was on the u.s.s. george h.w. bush for the largest military exercise meant to sent this clear message to especially iran and their proxies in the region, be careful of what you do here because the americans will get involved. we've never been closer to this relationship being put to a test than where we are right now. now, we have heard from john kirby saying that right now there's no plans or intentions to put u.s. troops on the ground in this fight between israel and hamas. he said that on fox news earlier today, but they are not necessarily ruling this out. right now so far the american

military support has been limited to things like munitions, to things like helping replenish the iron dome intercepters, to the carrier ships we see off the coast. we also know that a federal hostage recovery experts are assisting the israelis in trying to recover these hostages. the big question is will we see any sort of special operations on the ground to try to recover these hostages? so far it seems as though they're letting the israelis take the lead on that. >> yeah, i mean, and you know this all too well living here and reporting from here for a good long time that there are whole tunnels, there is a whole complex of tunnels underneath gaza and into israel that these hostages could be in. this could be a really, really difficult situation. i do want to quickly ask you, though, hadas gold, when you hear the possibility that it's not being ruled out, that potentially america would send in u.s. troops, that's got to give israel and their coordination some pause as to

whether or not they're going to actually go forward with a ground offensive if that is in the works, right? would that not sort of stop the ground offensive until that separation was over? >> reporter: i mean, i have to be honest, i think it's a question of when not if this ground operation takes place. the israeli military saying that they will wipe out hamas completely and that is their goechlt their plan is to completely eliminate hamas and potentially turn the power over in gaza to somebody else, to the palestinian authority, to somebody else. they want hamas out. i've never heard this type of rhetoric from the israelis before. i think they will definitely be going in, it's just a question of when and not if. >> hadas gold, thank you so much. appreciate all of your reporting. dana, back to you in washington. joining me now is cnn national security analyst and former director of national intelligence, james clapper. director clapper, thank you so much for joining me. i want to start by talking about intelligence since that is your

expertise, one of your areas of expertise, and about the hostages who the u.s. and israel believes are inside gaza, including an untold number of americans. what will it take to get them out given the reality that you have had biden officials on air all day admitting that they don't -- they don't -- forget about where they are, they don't know who they are or how many there are. >> well, this is pretty daunting challenge. certainly when you're going to do a hostage rescue this sounds like an obvious thing to say, you have to know where they are. i rather doubt we have much insight into location of any of the hostages. i would surmise they are underground and widely dispersed and hamas for its part is going to consider any information on the hostages as very, very sensitive state secret, so to

speak. so this is a real disaster in the making, i think, because as each day goes by, given the condition, the physical condition of many of the hostages, it looks bad. so from an intelligence perspective this is a really, really tough mission and in the absence of much of any insight in the location of the hostages. you can't do a rescue unless you know where they are. >> exactly. and, again, just to underscore the thought is that it's over 100 israelis, but also american citizens, american citizens who were taken forcibly, brutally by hamas terrorists and brought across the border. director clapper, the president of israel, herzog, was on with wolf earlier today and he said that the main goal for the israeli military is to destroy the terrorist infrastructure in gaza.

eventually through their ground operation. what does that even look like? >> i think it looks like a potential humanitarian disaster of biblical proportions, given the conditions in gaza under the best situation, which is not very good, they have very fragile infrastructure there, i think any ground incursion which will be a sledgehammer, i think, with all the weaponry, the tanks of the israelis and i don't blame them a bit for wanting to destroy hamas once and for all, but in the process i think it's unavoidable to incur a lot of collateral casualties, innocent palestinians and a lot of collateral damage, not to mention probably some substantial idf casualties as well. so this whole situation for me does not bode well. >> you served in the military,

served the u.s. country for many years and including at the end as the director of national intelligence so you have -- and you were in that region as well, of course. you have an understanding of the dynamic in the broader region, particularly with the arab countries around gaza. and one of the big discussions today, particularly with the u.s. secretary of state in egypt, has been getting the rafah crossing at the south of gaza where gaza meets egypt open to get these innocent palestinian civilians out of the country, out of harm's way. my question is -- and if you can explain to our viewers -- why is this so difficult? why is egypt not doing this, particularly given the amount of money that egypt gets from the

united states? >> well, dana, that's a great question. you know, the billion plus dollars that we provide to egypt each year i would hope would illicit a more supportive, cooperative attitude on their part. i think they probably have legitimate concerns from a security standpoint about people flowing into the sinai. they have their own internal security challenges already. but that said, something needs to be done here and i think looking ahead here, you know, what's going to change after all this is done, and this is an obvious point but i will state it, that we absolutely must come up with some sort of viable settlement for all palestinians, west bank and gaza both after this is over. we have to get through this, israelis are bound and determined to do their thing and

i don't -- i don't question that. >> and just sticking on the gaza side, which is where this military battle is happening, israel has no desire to be in gaza. israel pulled out of gaza. so we are looking far ahead now, but since we're there, what does that even look like? >> well, it looks like a viable palestinian authority and it looks like to me the destruction of hamas. that has to -- that has to happen. they are despicable and what they did was despicable and i think the israelis have reached a point where they are going to do them in and in the process probably a lot of innocent people are going to be killed. just underlies -- underscores why ultimately we've got to

break this cycle of violence and come up with a viable regional settlement and the arab nations must absolutely be involved and must display some leadership. >> well said, director james clapper, former director of national intelligence. thank you so much, sir, for being here with me. >> thanks. we will be right back.

some extraordinary news at this hour, the u.s. says it is not ruling out sending american troops to save americans who were kidnapped by hamas and taken to gaza. the israel war continues on its different footing now, just hearing that, and in egypt there is mounting pressure to establish a humanitarian corridor to help facilitate the safe evacuation of palestinians,

civilians, who are living there in grave danger as a ground -- by israel is imminent. when exactly we do not know, but they are amassing troops, of course, on the border and have been for several days now. the united nations is indicating its keeping the option open of deploying troops as a potential measure to ensure the safety and evacuation of american citizens as well. joining us now is max boot a senior fellow at the council on foreign relation, he is also an columnist with the "washington post." first, though, i'm sorry -- what did you say in my ear? >> his last piece on the latest conflict is titled "israel doesn't need an inquiry to decide netanyahu must go." these are words that are shared by some here in israel, others are very supportive of netanyahu and his government. what led you to this moment to

say that and put that out in the public. >> i think netanyahu's far right government has been a disaster from day one. they won at a narrow majority and they were trying to navigate changes in the kin net set which led to massive protests, reservists saying they were not going to call up for duty and that was clearly something perceived by israel's enemies as an invitation to attack. it fed this notion that israel was weak, something that israeli intelligence warned netanyahu about this summer. of course, he was caught asleep at the watch in the worst one-day attack in israeli history. so there have been to be consequences for that is correct there has to be accountability and this happened on netanyahu's watch and i think that he has no credibility to lead right now, although i think it is a good thing that he is now in a coalition government with benny

gantz. >> it's interesting that you say that because one of the newspapers here in israel had a similar editorial that they put out and very unusual during wartime when a country has declared war, it is unusual that the leader of that country is attacked, but that is what is happening in some parts of the country here. can you elaborate, max, on the historical examples that you mentioned in your article where you say like tyrants and terrorists underestimate liberal democracies and how do these instances relate to some of the conflict -- this is a protracted conflict, to be fair, between hamas and israel. >> well, i think there is a tendency on behalf of tyrants and terrorists to underestimate the marshall strength of liberal democracies because they see them in peacetime, they see that they are pursuing commercial pursuits, they are not geared up for war all the time and so, therefore, there is a tendency

to think that they are incapable of fighting effectively and that is an illusion that many tyrants have paid for with their lives or with losing their wars. i mean, you think about hitler and tojo and the war that they declared on the united states which ended with the utter annihilation of germany and japan. you think of about more recently osama bin laden thinking that the united states was a weak horse and could be attacked with impunity and eventually he was tracked down and killed by navy s.e.a.l.s. i think that's a common experience that democracies have a hidden strength that dictators and terrorists don't perceive. you're seeing that right now in israel where they've been able to mobilize looiz in just a few days more than 300,000 reserves, that's an a boston thing number. you've seen in russia in the last year people were fleeing the country to avoid being called up to serve the country. israelis are coming from all over the world, flying home to

fight and dee if end their country. i think hamas is going to be surprised by the veracity and effectiveness of the israeli response. >> and you know this in any war civilians always seem to pay the highest price, but this was something that was precipitated by an attack, a terrorist attack by hamas on civilians here in israel and israel has decided that it is going to respond in a very different way than in the past. it has declared war. max boot, thank you so much for your thoughts and our coverage continues right afte

welcome back to our special coverage. i'm dana bash in washington and sara sidner, you are in israel. i want to take a moment to talk

to you about your experience. you've been in tel aviv now for several days, but you were the jerusalem correspondent for cnn in 2012 and 2013 and i know you've been in and out since then covering some battles and so forth, and i wanted to just take a moment for you to give our viewers that perspective of things that you have seen then and how different it is at this moment where you are. >> yeah. back then, which is a long time ago, it didn't connect with me that it's been ten years, but you would see clashes at people would call them on -- between the west bank and israel, and then you would see incursions or, you know, operations as israel would call it in gaza and you would see rockets coming over from gaza every now and then. this is -- this is completely

different. there is a completely different feel. even though some of those operations, some of those incursions, were massive, i mean, there were air strikes, i was there in gaza during some of the air strikes after there was a barrage of rockets that kept coming over the border from hamas and from gaza into israel, these air strikes were powerful, they make your bones rattle, your teeth clench. they are terrifying. you can hear planes flying over and there's a real sense, you know -- i was around children when one of those air strikes went off and i can't tell you -- children would shutter looking up every time they heard anything flying over them. on this side of the border the rocket attacks that happen so often, dana, in places like sderot and ashkelon there's always this sense that at any

moment you could lose your life or be injured or lose a family member. so you can understand that deep sense of resentment and the tension that has been building and building and building, but this attack by hamas was so disturbing, disgusting, debased that israel has decided that it is going to go all out war and that is a completely different thing. we will have to wait and see how it all ends. dana. >> no question. and you mentioned what's going on even where you are in tel aviv. you've heard sirens go off and you've heard booms. people largely there, for now, are safe. >> which is unusual for tel aviv. >> largely safe thanks to the iron dome which the u.s. is helping replenish. sara, thank you so much for your excellent reporting. i will try to tell you to stay safe, but i know you will. thank you, sara. >> thank you, dana. still ahead, the victims of hamas's brutal attacks still

recovering both physically and emotionally, at least trying. next i'm going to talk to a woman who survived the festival attack, she is back with the idf fighting for her country. she will join me live after a quick break.

now a sobering reminder of how this war upended lives within seconds, one moment this young woman was enjoying the nova peace festival, music festival with her friends, next rockets started raining down. she survived by hiding and now just days later she is back with her idf unit fighting to protect her country. we are withhold err her last name and specific location for security. thank you so much for joining me. first if we could just go back in time, if you will, to eight days ago and what you survived at that festival. >> okay.

first i can't believe that eight days from that day, and i've been at the nova festival with my friend and we went there to celebrate life and happiness and all we wanted to do was to dance. and during dancing at about 6:30 in the morning they shut down the music and we look up in the sky and we saw a rain of rockets, like literally rain of rockets. no one knew what to do so everyone starts screaming and yelling and crying, and me and my friend decide we need to go to our car. so we went to our car and 3,000 people trying to go out from a parking lot it's not something easy, it's not something nice. while we were in our car waiting

to go out i saw -- i saw everyone left their cars and started running and i didn't know what happened so i opened my car window and i heard someone screaming they're here, the terrorists are here, and then i realized that this is big. terrorists in israel? okay. so i left my car, me and my friend started running to the field and i start -- i start hearing the gunshots and come forward to us and i lost my friend during the running and i -- i started running by myself. so i found a bush and i lay on the ground in the bush and i put my hands on my head and -- with my face down and the gunshots still continuing. people crying for help.

after that about one hour or two later of hiding i heard people -- not screaming, but they were loud to go back to your cars. guys, go back to your cars. so because i was on my own i decided to raise my head a little bit up to see what's going on and i decided i need to go back to my car. so i started running and i saw my friend from home during the running and i call him to come with me and we get inside the car and we start driving because the road was blocked from both sides. we saw the cops, they were terrifying, the cops were terrified also, they didn't know what happened. >> i'm sure. >> and they directed us to a road, to a farm road. >> and you got out.

>> no, but in that road we saw a lot of dead bodies, dead bodies that didn't just murdered, they was slaughtered, okay, with cold blood. we drove slowly because we didn't want to run over the bodies and this is how i escaped. >> i'm so sorry, i just want to make sure that our viewers know that you are talking to us in the dark because you are just days later fighting in the idf, fighting in the war. >> yes. >> can you briefly tell us -- >> i decided to come back. >> -- as a survivor that must be unimaginably difficult. >> yes, it is, but after a couple days that i was sitting in my home and dealing with my mental health issue that happened after what i survived, really survived, i decided i

need to go back to army because i'm a combat soldier, okay, and when we reach 18 in israel and we join the army, we take an oath and we swear to protect israel, to protect our country no matter when and no matter what. i decided that i need to go back to my unit because my unit were there to start fighting and i needed to do my duty. i needed to do what i swear on. >> yeah. >> because i don't have another home and what happened, this massacre, this -- we're on 2023 and i was witness to a massacre and i don't have another home. i don't have another land. my family is here. i don't know anything else. so i decided i need to come back. i decided to put aside everything i've been through. >> i'm sure you can never put aside everything you've been

through and your bravery is just -- it clearly knows no bounds and we thank you so much for coming on, particularly given how late it is there and the peril that you are facing and we thank you so, so much. thank you. >> thank you for hearing me. >> we will be right back.

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stories of heroism are emerging as we learn how israeli citizens put up fierce resistance against terrorists as they invaded their homes. here is matthew chance. [ sound of gunfire ] >> reporter: at attacks were a

blood bath. israelis slaughtered or taken hostage. but at a kibbutz near gaza, the militants met their match. >> you should never catch me. with my underwear in hi hand. >> never catch you with your pants down. >> never. >> he suffered shrapnel wounds and an amputated leg but when te tried to breach his kibbutz fence, this 72-year-old former paratrooper and war veteran swung into action. >> i decided to take my car. i take a few magazines with me, and i decide to enter as much as soon as i can to show them over the window of my car.

>> so you drove towards the attackers and you started shooting at them. >> yes. i shoot at them. >> before they came through the fence. >> that was the ome way to show them. >> reporter: in nearby communities, hamas attackers ran amok in a vile killing and kidnapping spree. but at kibbutz, home to more than 400 israelis, the small team of armed volunteers trained and led by baruch, kept the militants at bay. his wife mina at his bedside told me she has no doubt why. >> the difference is israel. >> your husband? >> 20 years he's in this position and every time that a lot of young people coming make the same position and in the other kibbutz, they laugh at him

and say that he's crazy, that he's speaking nonsense. nobody will come. and he defended the cab its year by year and all of the people laughed at him and he was. >> they laughed at him and said he was paranoid and it is not going to happen. >> it never will happen because we have the army. [ sound of gunfire ] >> reporter: in fact, the israeli army came under attack by hamas, too. leaving baruch and his team to fight alone for more than six hours. way longer than expected. >> where is the army? they teach us, if something happened, i always tell to my friends to remember that we got 35 minutes of -- that belongs to us. until 35 minutes, the army should be here. the best units should be here

and et cetera, et cetera. >> but they didn't come? >> [ inaudible ]. >> reporter: as israelis elsewhere was taken hostage, barack fought on, severely injured and out of ammo, armed with just a blade. >> and i took a blade and i said, you shall find me with a knife. >> reporter: a stubborn determination, his friends and neighbors say help save them from the grim fate of others nearby. matthew chance, cnn, jerusalem. >> almost too much to bear and that man truly is a hero. thank you so much for joining me today. i'm dana bash. cnn's coverage from israel will continue with erin burnett there and jim acosta right here. don't go anywhere.