as an israeli ground operation into gaza appears imminent, the u.s., the u.n. and others are scrambling to get palestinians out of harm's way. i'm boris sanchez alongside brianna keeler in washington. >> and today secretary of state tony blinken is in israel trying

to help open the only viable option for palestinians to leave gaza which is the rafah crossing into egypt in the south. at the same time blinken stressed that israel's obligation to defend itself after the hamas terror attack on october 7th that killed at least 1,400 people. >> you know, our deep commitment to israel's right, indeed its obligation, to defend itself and to defend its people, and in that you have and will always have the support of the united. >> i want to go right now to nic robertson along the gaza border. nic, what have you been seeing? >> reporter: yeah, literally two seconds ago three rockets coming out of gaza right on the horizon there. there was a couple of rockets, 30 seconds before that, coming over our heads, i just saw another flash, two coming out, going in the direction of northern israel.

this appears to be rocket fire coming out of gaza and that erupted out there coming from gaza, literally two minutes after we heard two heavy impact, sounds like israeli missiles impacting in gaza. there goes another rocket missile. there's the sirens, we're just going to step to the side, lock off the cam ration step under some shelter to the side. we are expecting iron dome intercepts over here shortly with the siren going off. i'm not hearing them. >> so, nic, just to be clear those lights we saw on the left-hand side of the screen going up, those were rockets coming from gaza? >> reporter: those rockets coming from gaza and the fact that we had the warning siren going off here would have indicated normally that they were coming here into sderot, at least the last couple of them, but there were no intercepts so they were perhaps headed off in a different direction. but it seems that we have had sort of three or four small

salvos of two or three missiles at a time coming up. and because they are not being intercepted here, perhaps they're going to head further north to where you have in tel aviv, perhaps they're headed over our heads further east into is israel. no doubt when the warning sirens go off in other towns and cities around israel, we will get a better understanding of what's happening, but that's literally -- that's what outgoing missiles at night from gaza, outgoing rockets from gaza, look like, anderson. >> nic, is it clear to you what the rocket capabilities still are of hamas in gaza given the -- you know, the artillery we've been seeing, the bombings we've been seeing in gaza, the devastation we've seen in large place -- in a lot of places throughout gaza, particularly gaza city. is it clear -- i mean, is there any sort of analysis of how many more rockets they may have? because clearly they're able to

still fire some. >> reporter: yeah, i think the analysis has to be exactly what you are saying, anderson, that they're still able to fire some, but i think it all comes down to the some. and i think what we've witnessed over the past week is the salvos just get smaller and smaller and smaller. literally these were just in rounds of two or three missiles at a time, and that's what you were witnessing over tel aviv not too long ago this evening. if this was this time last week, the salvos were dozens of rockets at a time into central israel, up to ashkelon and into sderot here. we can't make the definitive calculation that that's all that hamas have in their arsenal because they use their missiles strategically. they may hold some back for other days. typically what we've seen in previous days is when the missile strikes -- when israeli missile strikes and artillery are particularly heavy on gaza,

hamas is unable to get out and fire off as many rockets. today it's been quieter and it seems that they are only managing a few. so perhaps they are in a weakened position as far as rockets, but that's today. tomorrow, tomorrow morning, later tonight could be different, anderson. >> yeah, and also potentially holding back for when a ground invasion does begin. no way to know for sure, nic robertson, thank you. as the war progresses violence has also erupted at israel's northern border with lebanon, also in the west bank as well. cnn's becky anderson joins me now with some of that. becky, you were just in the we bank. what is the situation there? >> it's fascinating. as israel readies itself for the next stages against hamas, there is a potential new front with hezbollah. 100,000 rockets, that's worrying, also worrying what's

going on in the round west bank. that is a powder keg for months and months, it's been a real flash point of deadly violence. just this past ten days, since this conflict began, we've seen the death of 60 palestinians, innocent palestinians at the hard of jewish settlers. we went to one village which has lost six men, innocent men, who believe they are right in the crosshairs of the issues that are going on there. we will see this report. >> reporter: 12-year-old abdul can't sleep at night. his sister says he's too scared to be alone. his home in the village just south of nabulis was charged by settlers. you can see them in the video lobbying rocks then firing at the property, shattering the windows. inside the floor littered with glass, scars of bullets scraping

the walls, a pleebleak emptines. four local palestinians were killed in this attack. on the way to their funeral the following day, two other locals, ibrahim and his son also shot dead. images of the lost plaster the walls. the mayor here says his community lives in here, constantly attacked by jewish settlers and he says it's getting worse. >> the situation is so, so bad. you can't even describe it. we're living in a devastating psychological state. none of us can sleep. >> reporter: torched cars, water pumps, electricity lines, ransacked. this man tells me settlers roam freely here, often under the protection of the israeli police. their aim, he insists, to drive

palestinians from their homes and ultimately from the occupied west bank. in israel's current government far right national security minister, a former settler leader himself, previously convicted of supporting terrorism and inciting anti-arab racism. others denying palestinians' very existence. >> while you and i have been talking i'm just getting an urgent update on my phone here, local sources, settlers storm the town protected by the occupation forces. >> translator: the policy is clear, it's no secret, they want to displace this area. we just have to defend ourselves and defend our land. we will die here. where else will we go? >> reporter: a short drive away and in full view of an

encroaching settlement we meet ibrahim and ahmed's family. wives, daughters and sisters, mourning their loss, yet stoic and proud. >> translator: my husband loved his land. he defended his land and we will continue to do that so long as we are alive. >> tell me about ahmed. >> reporter: ahmed was just like his dad, a hero, a brave man with a strong heart. >> translator: as long as there's someone supporting you and encouraging you to carry out attacks of course violence is going to increase. >> reporter: in the shadow of that violence life goes on. for some like these women, intimidation, making them more intent on staying, but for others like rabir, this time it's too much. >> what we can do? >> reporter: they moved six years ago, escaping settler

violence that took away their father's life. now being driven out of their home again. >> and we've spoken to the idf and asked them what they're doing to reinforce their assets on the ground to support palestinians because that's what they're supposed to do, you know, they're supposed to be there to support the population in the occupied west bank, and they said that they are -- they are fully reinforced, i mean, they've got what they need there. the mayor of that town told me something i think which is really important, he said there's a direct connection between what's going on in gaza and what's happening there with these youngsters, these innocent youngsters. he said as this settler violence continues he said he hears more and more from the once palestinians that they would rather die in combat going forward than be humiliated by being driven out of their homes and killed in their homes.

we know that this is a real problem and the region knows this is a real problem as well. we've been talking about this for months. >> becky anderson, thanks so much. joining us right now is michael oren, former israeli ambassador to the u.s. ambassador oren, thanks for being with us. how concerned are you about the situation in the best wang and also along the northern border with lebanon? >> good evening, hi, good to be with you again always, anderson. well, about the recent item you just had with becky, i would unequivocally condemn settler violence against innocent palestinians in the west bank. let's put it in context. roughly 30 jews have been massacred by hamas and terrorists in the west bank since the beginning of the year, including, you know, the mother and two daughters of a family. it's not just one-sided here, there's a battle going on between extremists on both sides

and both of them have to be condemned and israel has to defend itself. i'm very concerned about the situation up north as we talked about before, possibly a multifront war is a reality and he hezbollah as a fighting force is roughly 15 times that of hamas. hamas has 10 to 15,000 rockets, hezbollah has 150,000 rockets, many which are buried under 200 villages in southern lebanon. they put the rocket in the living room with the family there, the family is a human shield for that rocket. they have a fighting force which has been fighting on the side of assad in syria for ten years, experienced with mass a concerning literally hundreds of thousands of syrians, a true terrorist group. backed fully by iran. what hezbollah and its leader has been doing since the outbreak of the war in gaza has been testing us. they've been shooting mortar

shells across the border, drone activity across the board, they've killed five of our soldiers so far but they haven't unleashed the rockets yet. the conventional wisdom amongst security people is hezbollah is waiting to see how israel advances with its ground incursion into gaza and at a certain point where it becomes clear that hamas will be defeated that is when hezbollah will open up with its october. the deterrence will be the presence of the two u.s. naval flotillas there, the eisenhower and the ford and the very clear, i think, intention of president biden and secretary of state blinken to say to iran, to hezbollah and i quote them, don't care. and i think that the president is willing to use force to prevent hezbollah and iran from intervening in this war. >> let me ask you about the situation in southern gaza. israel has pushed and

recommended and urged palestinians to leave gaza city, to leave the north, move down to the south to avoid whatever is to come in a ground offensive. you know, u.n. relief officials we've talked to have said they want to get more supplies in, they're not being able to get enough in, we saw a few trucks with gasoline going in today across the rafah border. isn't it in israel's best interest to build up the capabilities in the south in terms of shelter at the very least and food and supply of water for those hundreds of thousands who have already moved? wouldn't that encourage more to move down to the south? >> i would think so. as a citizen i'm not a spokesman for the state of israel anymore but i would say i would be in favor of relieving some of the human suffering in that area as much as possible, if for no

other reason because the president and his secretary of state have asked them, they've asked them to help them help us by reducing as much as possible the human suffering element in this very tragic situation. of course, we have no choice but to urge that population to move because the israeli army is poised to enter into heavily mined booby trapped areas, as a former infantryman i will tell you there is no greater nightmare than this scenario and most of the fighting will not be aboveground it will be beneath the ground where hamas has dug endless kilometers of tunnels an bunkers all of which are mined and booby trapped and hamas's leadership is under hospitals, under schools. there can be no more nightmare situation. the least we can do is move that population out of there because if they were to remain there then the level of civilian casualties would be far, far greater. note that the u.n. has said that they have had trouble getting supplies across the egyptian border, not the israeli border. why have they talked about the israeli border? because the border crossing was destroyed by hamas.

i was in charge of that border crossing, i know it quite well, it's called the vineyard of peace ironically named. hamas destroyed the border, have shelled the area toward the border, there is no way that israel could get the supplies to that border crossing. >> the tunnels, given, you know, your experience in gaza before and the idf's experience, how effective is this bombardment against those tunnels that hamas has built? >> very little. it's difficult to destroy tunnels in the air. we've learned that since 2008 since the first major exchange with hamas and gaza. there almost is no alternative but to send engineering forces underground with explosives to blow them up. we've tried many things. israel has developed the world's most advanced tunnel detection technology, we share that technology with homeland security, america also faces tunnel challenges on its

borders. we have we have a subterranean metal wall that goes down many meters to block the tunnels from coming into our territory but here one of the attacks on one of our bases was undertaken by hamas terrorists using a tunnel. even with all of these precautions. to go into these tunnels is to go into an underground labyrinth. by the way, the tunnels have plenty of electricity, plenty of water. there is no shortage of anything. it is, as i've said often to you, anderson, i was in charge of gaza and i will tell you everything you learn about human nature, human kindness and goodness you have to throw out the window when dealing with hamas. they will us their people and hostages as human shields, they will even shell their own people and i think they have already. it's nothing that you and i can possibly understand. i was listening to your report before about the visit to the killing field of that former rave concert.

i haven't quite -- as they say, i haven't gotten it together. i don't know how you do it. totally, totally -- just so, so disturbing, nightmarish. that's what we're dealing with hamas. we have to defend ourselves against them. >> michael oren, former ambassador. i appreciate it. thank you very much. stay with cnn for our special coverage continues in a moment.

an israeli ground offensive in gaza could be imminent and the country's military is continuing to bombard gaza in response to a brutal attack by hamas. there is new footage to share with you showing the aftermath of some of these strikes. blocks decimated and buildings leveled. and in the south the rafah border crossing into egypt is still closed as border authorities have yet to repair the damage from an air strike. keep in mind that crossing is the main point of departure for evacuees and a critical entrance for arriving humanitarian supplies. in northern israel fighting with hezbollah in lebanon has been intensifying. today israel ordered 28 villages near the lebanese border to evacuate. all as the u.s. is moving a

second carrier strike group into the region. the presence of two of the u.s. navy's most powerful war ships meant to send a message to iran and its proxies, do not get involved. the u.s., brianna, very closely watching the messaging not only from tehran but from hezbollah and lebanon as well. >> certainly they're very worried that this could expand. let's talk about this now with retired lieutenant general mark hertling, he is a cnn military analyst and former commander general for the u.s. army europe and seventh army. when we talk about this potentially expanding with he see how it has already expanded, general. you can see of course lebanon, there's shelling on either side of the border there, the west bank 58 palestinians killed there. syria saying two main international airports are nonoperational after israeli air strikes and of course -- and boris was talking about this -- the u.s. sending its second carrier strike group into the region, and then you have gaza which of course we are watching so closely at this point in

time. how big could this get? >> it could certainly get much bigger, brianna. there are a lot of things going around, the israeli defense forces are looking in multiple directions while they're attempting to focus primarily on gaza but they can't do this. they have had these kinds of enemies in the north and in the east part of -- eastern part of their countries. this is going to continue. and i think what we're seeing is some persuasion by their enemies, particularly from iran, to continue to keep this kind of pressure on the state of israel. the focus, again, is trying to be on gaza, but it's not going to remain that way. >> unique of course to this conflict in gaza is the tunnel system and we've been talking about that today. hamas's tunnel system. you can see this is a diagram of it just so people can see. they run under buildings, right, they are connected to these buildings, they're connected to apartment buildings, they're connected to homes. how is israel going to target

this? >> yeah, first, brianna, what i would say is to ensure your listeners and your watchers, don't see this very simplistic diagram as an indication of what the tunnel complexes are like. they are extremely complex. they go for miles, hundreds of miles underneath the three major cities within gaza and in other places. they are deeply buried, some more than a couple hundred feet under ground. they have quick turns and complex weaves throughout the cities where hamas can establish fortified positions, defensive positions. they can move very easily not only from aboveground buildings into these tunnels, but underground as well. this is the idf's worst nightmare. when you're planning an operation as a commander in this, it's extremely difficult to fight these kind of tunnel complexes and what i mean by

that is we train some u.s. soldiers on cave complexes that we came across in iraq and afghanistan. when you are talking about a force going into these tunnels, they go in in one direction and can only usually come out in the same direction. they are in a single stack of a line. you can't mass a force against an enemy force when you're going against a defensive position, you're crouched over, you can't see, the enemy has an advantage. in our training we saw cave complexes that were similar to these tunnels where three or four or five soldiers could hold off an invading force of hundreds and more for long periods of time. we saw that in ukraine in mariupol where trunl complexes existed under a plant and the ukrainians held off the russians for months with a very relatively small group of people. so this is an infantryman's worst nightmare. >> and that is why you are

seeing israel trying couldn't verse yael to move the civilian population, urging them to evacuate south. so this is the population here, gaza city in the north is the largest, the most populous city and this is the evacuation map. they're trying to urge folks there and a lot of them are moving as we understand it south of wadi gaza, south of those wetlands into the southern part of the gaza strip there. you know, i think the assumption for many is that they will not be able to return home, maybe at all. certainly i think considering some of the damage to these areas we know they won't be able to return home anytime soon. is it inevitable, general, that the southern crossing with egypt has to be opened to these people who are amassing in the south? >> either it has to be opened or more u.n. and other emergency relief agencies should get in there. but at the same time, brianna, you're going to see literally hundreds of thousands of people

around that southern crossing. and just to put this in perspective, you are in washington, d.c. from the very top where gaza city is to that crossing point at rafah in the bottom of gaza -- or in the south of gaza is 25 miles. that's like going from the washington monument to manassas, virginia, on one road with 100,000 or more people trying to execute that over rubbled cities. it's very difficult with no support, and these are individuals, the palestinians, who are trying to get out, the women and children specifically, are scared, they're anxious, this he know they're not going to be going back home because many of their apartments have already been leveled. so they're just looking for a means to get out and a means to be saved. with all the things going on around them, that 25-mile trek is just it your worst nightmare. so those are the kind of things that are happening and you would

think that the israeli military would try to support the continued flow of the refugees, but in some cases it doesn't appear like they're doing much help. of course, they're being prevented, the refugees are being prevented from hamas who are setting up road blocks and continuing to rubble and also setting up explosive device toss further scare the citizens. again, i can only put it that this would be a civilian, a mother, the children, this would be their worst nightmare. >> yes. and in the south we're hearing this, no food really, no water, certainly very much dwindling supplies and dwindling supplies of fuel as well. it's obviously at a critical point there. general hertling, always great to have you, thank you so much. >> thanks, brianna. >> please stay with cnn for our special coverage.

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today israel's government ordered evacuations in 28 villages that lie within 2 kilometers or just over a mile from the border with lebanon. that region has seen numerous exchanges of fire between hezbollah and israel in recent days. cnn's matthew chance is in northern israel for us right now. what's the situation you're seeing, matthew? >> reporter: anderson, it's still very tense here. we're hearing almost every hour now fighting taking place or at least exchanges taking place from israeli forces firing artillery rounds across the board noor positions inside lebanon, that's in response to firing that's coming in the

other direction into northern israel as well. it hasn't reached the point of escalation yet, which is the phrase israeli officials use to describe the point at which they would regard this as a second front that's opened up, but nevertheless there's evacuations that have taken place in those 28 villages near the lebanese border because of the increasingly dangerous security situation here. >> reporter: they're bracing for a dangerous second front, but we're gained exclusive access to israel's tense northern front here. the israeli army have now sealed off a security zone some of the areas close to the lebanese border because of the threat being posed, but they're taking us now to the closest period -- the closest place they can that they say is safe to see the lay

of the land. and that land is hostile. none of the israeli soldiers here wanted their faces shown to hide their identities from hezbollah, the powerful lebanese militia with a vast arsenal trained on these position across the border. >> we're ready if they choose to come, they will make a huge mis mistake. >> reporter: war with hezbollah would be brutal says this senior israeli command who are asked not to be identified, but it is now also necessary, he told me. >> do you believe there will be a second front open here or are you hopeful still that hezbollah will stay out of this war? >> i hope there will be another front. we need to destroy hezbollah. >> you hope there will be another front? you want the war? >> yes. >> why? >> what hamas did in gaza, it didn't come from nowhere, it came from hezbollah, it came from iran and in order for us to

stop what happened from hamas, we need to stop them also. >> reporter: all right. well, this is as close as the israeli military say we can go. just across there is territory of lebanon controlled by hezbollah, the lebanese militia and israeli soldiers in this position tell us over the past few days there have been multiple attempts by hezbollah fighters to penetrate the fence and to come into israel but they've been fought back. if there is going to be a second front in this war in israel the likelihood is it's going to start here. already there have been exchanges of fire forcing local israelis to free, terrified what happened in israel's south could happen here, too. >> a terrorist attack of this scale has never happened and i'm scared that i live on the border, what's to stop them from doing it here? i want to be strong and i want to come back and live here, but

i need to think about my kids first. >> reporter: back from the border israel is bolstering its forces with some of the 360,000 troops mobilized after the hamas attacks last week. if war in the north is coming, israel seems ready, even bristling to fight. well, i can tell you after the attacks from gaza last weekend, israel feels like it is in no need to compromise because every civilian we speak to, every soldier and a lot of the politicians as well say that they will unleash destruction on lebanon if a second front opens up here in the north of the country. back to you. >> matthew chance, thank you. stay with cnn for our special coverage ahead.

i believe there are sirens going off where you are, anderson. >> that's right, boris. the sirens just started 15 seconds before we came back to air and the location we are in they're calling for people to go to the shelters. there have been sirens throughout the day in tel aviv, we were on air about an hour ago, i think there was sirens as well. we're now just waiting to hear or see any -- okay, there you see some intercepters from the iron dome going, there's one, two, three, four, five going up into the air right now. these ones are actually relatively close.

we have not actually seen rockets, but clearly the iron dome has picked up -- we may hear, then, the echos of the interceptions shortly. that seems to be about it. again, this has occurred throughout the day here in tel aviv, which is an uptick over the last several days that we've seen, but it seems as if all is fine, so let's go back to you -- oh, there. you hear the echos of the interceptions there. boris, back to you. >> we will of course keep watching the situation there as the iron dome is intercepting rockets ostensibly from hamas. anderson cooper, keep you u updated. ohio congressman jim jordan

says he's ready to force a vote on the floor to become the next speaker of the house of representatives. tonight republicans will meet to try to get everyone on the same difficult for the conference.en jordan's team say they're confident they can flip any remaining hondouts and they have flipped about a handful. let's discuss with congressman keith self of texas. so jordan can only lose four republicans by his team's count there are at least ten against him. what's your message to those holdouts? >> well, i think jim is doing a great job of building the momentum, of pulling those people on his side and i think he will do that. i don't know how many votes it will take, but i believe that jim jordan will be the next speaker of the house. >> so he told cnn that he's taking this up for a vote on the floor, that's something that steve scalise declined to do because he didn't have the votes. are you concerned we're going to

see a repeat of january when it took kevin mccarthy 15 rounds over four days to become speaker? >> well, i was one of the 20 as you know and i will tell you i don't know how many rounds it will be. i don't think it will be 15 because i think that we will have a speaker of the house either tomorrow or the next day and i think that jim will be the next speaker of the house, he will have the support he needs and we will have a conservative speaker of the house. >> you're right, you were part of the reason it took kevin mccarthy 15 rounds to become speaker, you're obviously now calling for unity among republicans. why jim jordan? you had no concerns about him becoming speaker? >> i do not. jim has been a conservative leader in the house for a while and he represents new leadership. we need new leadership in the house. we could go into the reasons why, but jim represents that and he also represents the movement across america of frustration of

even anger with the federal government because pick your issue, southern border, inflation, it's chaos under the biden administration and jim jordan represents a different approach, new leadership. >> congressman, what should he offer as incentives or concessions to those holdouts? >> well, i have no idea, those discussions are going on, as we've seen today, several people have come out. i have no idea, those discussions, because i think what he needs to offer is good leadership, good conservative policies. you've seen mike rogers say that he has agreed to a strong national defense, which is exactly what mike rogers is interested in. so he is doing the best he can to get the momentum. he's doing a great job with momentum, talking to the people about their concerns, which is what it takes to get unity in the republican conference. >> as you describe momentum and good leadership, are you concerned that electing jim

jordan as speaker potentially makes it more likely that we will see a government shutdown on november 17th? >> oh, absolutely not. jim jordan's plan is that we will pass a cr quickly to get the 99% cr that is in law in the fiscal responsibility act kick in as of january. no, his plan is no shutdown. he's been very clear about that. >> i ask because he did engineer shutdowns back in 2013 and 2018, but it appears you don't have concerns about that. obviously one of the main priorities for the next speaker is going to be aid for israel. there have been members of your party -- it's actually a bipartisan push -- to pair aid with israel for additional -- with additional funding for ukraine. would you be support it i have of that move? >> look, we've passed the dod appropriations bill, we've passed the state and foreign ops appreciations bill. the senate has not taken them up. what i want to see is the senate

taking them up, pass them, get them to the president's desk, if he signs them we have everything the president needs to support israel and frankly he also has the presidential draw down authority at his disposal at any time, and i believe that's what he might be using now, either that or the $3.8 billion available today to rush aid to israel, which we know has already started flowing. so everything is in place right now through the $3.8 billion, through the presidential drawdown authority and through the dod appropriations bill that is waiting on senate approval. >> what about the issue of perception? what message do you think it sends to world leaders, especially those authoritarians that are very much against the united states like vladimir putin or xi jinping that congress doesn't seem to be able to reach a consensus over something as basic as the speaker of the house of represe representatives.

>> well, chaos today is because of the weakness in the biden administration. >> how? it's your party. it's members of your party that ousted kevin mccarthy. >> the southern border is absolutely in chaos, the inflation -- >> congressman, respectfully, the reason the house doesn't have a speaker is not because of joe biden, it's because of members of your party. that's why the house doesn't have a speaker. >> look, democracy is messy. we're going to get through this, we're going to have a new leadership in the house of representatives and then we're going to lead to the victory in 2024 of a republican president, hopefully a republican senate and we're going to change some of these policies that we see today. >> congressman keith self, we have to leave the conversation there. we very much appreciate your time and perspective. >> you bet. right now a funeral is under way for a 6-year-old palestinian-american boy who police say was stabbed more than two dozen times by his family's landlord. the boy and his family allegedly targeted because of their muslim faith. we're following the latest details on this story. "cnn news central" returns in a

moment.

right now in the united states a funeral is under way for 56-year-old boy, a 6-year-old palestinian-american boy who was killed during a horrific attack on him and miss mother in the chicago area. police say the young boy was stabbed 26 times and his mother was stabbed more than a dozen times by their landlord on saturday. the landlord is 71 years old, his name is joseph czuba. allegedly targeting the family because they are muslim. officials say right before the attack he had gotten into an argument with the boy's mother

about the ongoing conflict involving hamas and israel. cnn's whitney wild is live outside the mosque where his family is saying their final good-byes to their little boy. what more are you learning, whitney? >> reporter: anderson, this is so tragic. there are hundreds of people here to say good-bye because there is collective heart break, collective outrage here in this community. the little boy's uncle spoke about him and said he was just like any other child, he was full of love, full of life. he spoke earlier today flanked by leaders in this community here in illinois, there is a significant palestinian community here. at this very moment you can hear people are very angry. they feel angry that because they feel that many people said that they were left out of this greater conversation, that the palestinian community was not included in a conversation that is touching them on a very personal level. right now there are cars driving to where this little boy will be

buried. this is, again, collective outrage, collective heartbreak and anderson, what is perhaps the most excruciating is that this little boy's mother is in the hospital, she's referring from more than a dozen stab wounds. she cannot say good-bye to the little boy. that is how much this man took from them, anderson. >> just sickening, whitney wild, appreciate you being there. cnn's live special coverage of the war in israel continues.

it is the top of the hour and we are tracking the rush to get aid into gaza and to get people out. i'm brianna keilar here in washington alongside boris sanchez, anderson cooper is on the scene in israel ahead of an expected israeli ground invasion of northern gaza there are roughly half a million people who have fled south at the urging of israeli officials, but there is no power, there's also no way out. the border crossing into egypt is closed. >> among those who are stranded more than 250 american citizens and their families. u.s. officials are pushing egypt to open the rafah cross to go let aid and evacuations through. anderson? >> here in tel aviv secretary of state antony blinken is back holding high-level meetings. we may be hearing from him soon. i want to get our global cnn coverage with jeremy diamond