have. >> and i know she's about five miles, at least as i understand it, paul, from the border of egypt, where the u.n. compound is totally out of room. so, you talk about how tough she is. she's been sleeping the in a car. and i understand, from what you say about her, she'd say others have it a lot worse. but does she have any sense of when she may be able to get out? >> no. you know, she's dealing with -- as your organization is. we're hearing misleading, missing and incomplete information. so, you know, she's actually hearing less than we are. so, like i told her when blinken the other day said that there was -- it was a priority that rafah border crossing becomes open. so, she's getting a lot of her information from me. and unfortunately, her texts are a bit sporadic. they don't come through all of

the time. >> all right. well, i'm glad you had one in the past few hours. i know each one of those has got to give you at least a sense of calm. paul, thank you so much. i aappreciate you joining us. thanks so much to all of you for being with us for our continuing breaking coverage. breaking coverage. "ac 360" begins now. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com it is 3:00 a.m. in israel. the war here in the last hour or so may be widening or entering a new phase beyond just hamas and gaza to the south. just a short time ago, israel's defense forces saying the idf the striking what it calls hezbollah terror targets in lebanon. so, there's that new development. and in a few hours, with troops on the verge of going into gaza, people here will be waking up to what could be the first of many hostage videos to come. hamas released the first one in the overnight hours. the footage is of a 21-year-old

french israeli woman. now, this is not from the video that hamas put out, which we're not broadcasting, because it would serve no other purpose than propaganda for her captors. hamas today said they now hold as many as 250 hostages. earlier, israel put the number at 199. i spoke with mia's family just before air time. we're going to bring you that in a moment. we'll also be joined by the former man in charge of trying to get hostages back action about the difficulties now with so many hostages, all of which could grow that much worse in the hours ahead, especially if hostilities with hezbollah in the north keep growing. which may explain the biden administration's decision to send a rapid response force into the region. about 2,000 marines and sailors, according to defense officials, joining two aircraft carrier battle groups either in the eastern mediterranean or heading this way. secretary of state blinken returning here from stops in egypt and saudi arabia, for what

turned into a marathon meeting, which just wrapped up, after seven and a half hours with israeli prime minister netanyahu and members of israel's war cabinet. we're expecting an announcement from secretary of state blinken shortly, any moment now, and we will bring it to you when p it happens. a portion of that meeting was interrupted tonight by air raid warnings. the press in one location and officials in another, just across the street. and with hamas showing no sign of running out of rockets, it was far from the only such warning today. >> there goes another rocket missile. there's the sirens. we're just going to step to the side, lock off the cameras, step to this shelter the side. we're expecting iron dome intercepts over here shortly. >> that was cnn's nic robertson earlier near the border of gaza, where some 300,000 troops have been massing, pouring artillery onto targets in northern gaza, while refugees stream south

through the territory. and humanitarian conditions there grow more dire. so, there's a lot to get to in the hour ahead. again, we are expecting to hear from secretary of state antony blinken any moment. right now, let's go to cnn's nic robertson. nic, what's the latest we are seeing there? >> reporter: yeah, heavy impacts in gaza. and it's confusing because there are a number of different things. there are some artillery over here firing in that we haven't heard for several days. there were some air strikes before. the explosions really are just, sort of, booming and echoing around this area. there was another one. but you're talking there about the israeli defense force getting ready to go in. and they know that they face a big conundrum right now that hamas is in there. and although the idf has asked a lot of the civilians to move to the south, there are still a lot of civilians who haven't moved. and i asked the spokesman here about that, who is responsible

when your troops go in, if and when they go in? who's responsibility for civilian casualties. >> secretary blinken is speaking, nic. we're going to go live to that. i'm sorry, nic. >> -- for the region and for the world, and he's come here to do the following. first, the president will reaffirm the united states' solidarity with israel and our ironclad commitment to its security. president biden, will again make clear, since he's done unequivocally since hamas' slaughter of more than 1,300 people, that israel has the right and indeed the duty to defend its people from hamas and other terrorists and to prevent future attacks. the president will hear from israel what it needs to defend its people, as we continue to work with congress to meet those needs. second, president biden will underscore our crystal clear message to any actor, state or non-state, trying to take advantage of this crisis to

attack israel. don't. to that end, he's deployed two aircraft carrier groups and other military assets to the region. third, the president will continue to coordinate closely with our israeli partners to secure the release of hostages taken by hamas, including men, women, small children, holocaust survivors, and american citizens, as an indispensable humanitarian effort. fifth, the president will hear from israel how it will conduct its operations the in a way that minimizes civilian casualties and enables humanitarian assistance to civilians in gaza in a way that does not benefit hamas. to that end, today and at our request, the united states and israel have agreed to develop a plan that will enable humanitarian aid from donor nations and multilateral

organizations to reach civilians in gaza, and them alone, including the possibility of creating areas to help keep civilians out of harm's way. it is critical that aid flowing into gaza as soon as possible. we share concerns that hamas may seize or destroy aid entering gaza or otherwise prevent it from reaching the people who need it. if hamas in any way blocks humanitarian assistance, including by seizing the aid itself, we'll be the first to condemn it, and we will work to prevent it from happening again. we welcome to government of israel's commitment to working on this plan. the president looks forward to discussing it further when he's here on wednesday. thanks very much. >> secretary of state antony blinken making that announcement right now in tel aviv. i'm joined by cnn's clarissa ward. alex marquardt as well. clarissa, president biden coming to israel wednesday.

that's going to be a really and certainly something many israelis will be paying very, very close attention to. >> right. this is a big win for israel. this is something they very much wanted, a real show of strength and solidarity. and continuing the idea that the u.s. is in lockstep with israel. i think for president biden, he will be somewhat walking a tight rope as well in terms of needing to address growing concerns about the situation in gaza, about the soaring death toll, about the lack of humanitarian aid getting in. you did here of course secretary of state blinken addressing that, saying that the israelis and the americans have agreed on a mechanism, essentially, that would allow some of that aid to start flowing in to the gaza strip. he didn't really give any details as to what this might look like. this is something, anderson, as you know, that diplomats have

been feverishly working on for days and days now, trying to facilitate the passage of aid through that rafah border crossing with egypt. so far it has been log jammed with all sides pointing the fingers at each other and blaming each other. but clearly after this long, more than seven-hour meeting that blinken had with the israeli war cabinet, they have come up with some kind of solution or mechanism that would allow that aid to get to those who need it most. he also talked about the possibility of creating zones within gaza, where civilians could flow into a, sort of, refuge, if you will. we have heard this before as well from israeli officials, that they would establish an area where potentially hundreds of thousands of people could find a modicum of security, could also have access to aid. you heard blinken also, though, warning hamas about doing anything to attempt to try to

stop that aid from flowing freely. but i think a lot of questions still remain, anderson, and presumably we'll get more clarity on them as the president's trip gets closer and closer, as to what these zones will look like, who will enforce them, who will be allowed in, who will be allowed out. that's obviously a big concern for egypt, which does not want a massive displacement of people in the sinai peninsula. so, a lot of interesting developments here, but a lot of questions as to what this will look like. >> clarissa, this also must be good news for americans who are in gaza, who are hoping to get out. it seems highly unlikely to me that the president of the united states would come to israel with american civilians stuck still in gaza at the rafah border trying to get out. >> reporter: right. and according to the u.s. embassy in cairo, they are tracking 253, i believe the exact number is, americans who

are trapped inside gaza. many have been, sort of, literally camping out right by that rafah border crossing for days now. every day they're told that it looks like tomorrow morning they'll be able to cross. certainly today we expected that early this morning some foreign nationals would be allowed to leave. then at the last minute, it didn't happen. the egyptians blaming the israelis, the israelis blaming hamas and so on and so forth. but certainly that will be a top priority for president biden and for secretary of state blinken in advance of biden's visit. but, again, we don't know yet what the egyptians have to say about this specifically. of course the rafah border crossing is on the border between gaza and egypt. they have had real concerns in the past about a number of issues. but primarily about the issue of security and also the issue of having a lot of people flowing into a part of egypt that is already a heavily militarized

zone, anderson. >> nic robertson, you are in sderot to want. what stood out to you from secretary blinken's statement? >> yeah, i was trying to hear things that might point to a definitive off-ramp in terms of the military buildup for a possible incursion or language that might hint and intimate that israel is dialing back the level of anger, the real feel of a need and a desire to eradicate the hamas leadership through military means by going into gaza. but i don't really think i heard that off-ramp. but i think what we are hearing on top of all those points clarissa is making about the humanitarian area, when you look at the possibility of an incursion, it seems to me

unlikely president biden would want to come if he thought that there was about to be an incursion. in essence, the violence was about to go up a notch. so, i think in terms of the diplomacy and the politics that are involved here and overall just using the time to sop up some of the heat, some of the anger, some of the frustration, some of the hurt, some of the pain that's going on here. you know, people are still being buried here. there will be more funerals again tomorrow for people who were killed a week and a half ago almost now. that anger and frustration is real. time doesn't heal it. but time gives politicians and diplomats the space to work. so, i think president biden coming here on wednesday opens up a little more time. i don't see the mechanism yet of how president biden comes and there's a conversation that will put prime minister netanyahu and

his cabinet off from an incursion into gaza and find another method of dealing with hamas. i don't see that and i don't hear that in the language at the moment. but it does perhaps help bring down the temperature writ larger in the region. president biden's presence. but also just gives diplomats and politicians a little more time to talk. >> i want to bring in ben wedeman as well, who's in southern lebanon, which we have seen activity on the northern border of israel. the idf said they struck what they called terror targets in southern lebanon. ben, secretary blinken mentioned non-state actors, telling them to stay out of this. that seems to be a direct mess s message to hezbollah. >> yes, it's a direct message to hezbollah, anderson, but also iran, which is the main backer of that. what we've seen certainly in

recent days is the increase in attacks by hezbollah on israeli targets. the iranian foreign minister has been making a tour of the capitals around here, beirut, baghdad, doha, and qatar. he's sending a message, he said, any preemptive action in the next few hours is possible. anything is possible. no side can remain indifferent. he's essentially sending the message that perhaps iran and its allies, syria and hezbollah, for instance, are prepared or considering some sort of intervention in this war beyond what we've been seeing here in south lebanon. certainly hezbollah is well-prepared, well-armed, well-trained and ready if it gets the order from tehran to actually move and open a new

front in this war with israel. anderson? >> alex marquardt, as nic robertson was saying, it seems unlikely that the president would come before, while any ground operation is underway. so, i'm not -- it would seem that this may be a sign that there won't be a ground operation until after the president leaves. alex, what are you hearing? >> i think that's probably right, anderson. and there are probably two signs that the ground incursion would probably not start in the immediate future. now, this very big sign, that president biden is going and the unlikelihood, if you will, that the israelis would launch it while president biden is on the ground. but also all the reporting that we've seen that essentially when israel wants to go into northern gaza, they want to make sure that they're doing so when most of the civilians have been cleared out so they can focus their efforts on those hamas militants. anderson, it does occur to me

that this is the second time this year that president joe biden is going into an active war zone. he did the same back in february. he went to the capital, kyiv, the capital of ukraine, kyiv, on the first anniversary of the russian invasion there. that trip was shrouded in secrecy. and in fact, air raid sirens sounded when he was on the ground there. now we have that 48-hour notice that he is going to israel. you know better than i do, the air raid sirens were sounding there tonight. we saw that happen while secretary of state antony blinken was at the cure yaz, it's known, which is essentially israel's pentagon. the other thing that really strikes me anderson is that you've heard these messages of support from american officials. secretary blinken last week, secretary austin as well -- that really talked about israel's right to defend itself. over the past few days, you really heard that coupled with

the fact that there really needs to be a lot more work done when it comes to people trying to get out of gaza, trying to get aid into gaza. so, at the same time that president biden is coming to express that level of support, there's a lot that he will be discussing on the ground, anderson. >> yeah, more than seven-hour meeting with blinken. obviously they have been discussing a lot. alex marquardt, clarissa ward, ben wedeman, thank you. more now on the hostage who hamas released video of just before air time. i spoke with mia shim's mother, karen shim, also her brothers ori and ellie. >> karen, how does your daughter look to you? >> i would say that she's been through pain. she's in pain. she's injured. she looks a bitter identified. but she is alive and stable.

>> does it help to see her? >> of course because until now i didn't know if she's dead or i mean, it's been ten days. until saturday, she was missing. and on saturday, they said that maybe she's been kidnapped. that's all. so, i didn't know if she's alive or dead. and every day, the numbers of the missing and the dead people are getting up and higher and higher and higher. so, it's really tough. >> do you know where she was taken from? where was she when the attack took place? >> she went to a festival party. and all i know, that saturday

morning at 7:00, she sent text message to one of her friends who was in the party. and she wrote, they are shooting at us. please come save us. that's the only thing i know. the other thing i knew was rumors, like she was shot. now i can see that is true because she's injured. you can see that she had an operation in her hand. she went to this party with her friend. they went together. and we know nothing about him. not on the missing list, not on the kidnap list, not on the dead list. we still have bodys ies that we didn't recognize because we have

so many. >> now is the time when we are interviewing with you to say to all the people that are hearing us, all the viewers around the world that can see this interview, to come and stand with us and stand with human rights and help us get mia and all the other 200 innocent soles, the hostages at the gaza strip, come back home. that's all we want. just to get mia back to us. >> we are begging the world to bring my baby home. she's only 21 years old. she just went to a festival party after months that she didn't go anywhere. she had medical problems. she just wanted to have some fun. and she shouldn't be there.

so, we are begging the world to interfere and to bring her home. and all the others -- we have, like, 200 more hostages. children, babies, old people, holocaust survivors. we don't know what's going on with them. we don't know if they are alive, if they are dead, if they give them food. we don't know which condition they are. >> we aren't showing the video that hamas has put out, but we are showing other photos of her. can you just tell people what she's like? what do you want people to know about your daughter? >> my daughter is very mature.

i'm a single mom, and we've been through a lot. and she's only 21, but she's like 60-year-old smart woman. she's very, very strong. that's why we all believe in our hearts that she's alive because we knew that she will never give up. i really knew it. the problem is that every time they open the tv and i saw the numbers, it was very hard to stick to this belief. but she's a survivor, and she's very, very talented. and i have four children. i have a daughter, small daughter, dani, ten years old. and mia is like a mother to dani. and she's very, very, very close

to her brothers. she cooks for them. she tells -- they are talking with her about everything. i mean, she's a mother like me, and my best friend. she's very, very creative. she paints. she cooks. she makes the tools. she's the heart of the family. >> karen, thank you so much for talking to us. is there anything you would want her to know if for some reason she could see this? >> i want her to be strong and i want her to be sure that the world will do everything to bring her home. >> mia, if you can see us, we want to tell you from all the

family and all the people in israel -- [ speaking in a non-english language ] and we're waiting for you. >> we love you. we're waiting for you. >> and we're going to do anything -- >> to bring you home. >> -- to bring you back home. >> we will never stop. and after you will be here, we will continue until all the 200 hostages will be home too. we never stopped, and the world is with us, i'm sure. because it's not our war. it's a very, very big war. >> thank you. i wish you the best. >> thank you. >> thank you very much. for more perspective now on the taking of hostages, joining me is former division chief of the hostages and m.i.a. unit with the massa. thank you so much for being with

us. 199 hostages. that is the number israel says hamas, others say as many as 250. what lessons have been learned from hostage negotiations that have taken on -- that have happened here in the past? >> israel's biggest mistake in the past was negotiating for prisoners in israel. >> you're talking about a soldier who was held for years by hamas, exchanged ultimately for more than 1,000 prisoners. >> all the top echelon today in the gaza strip are people who have been released in the -- >> all the people who are running hamas now were in israeli prisons. >> everyone. and they got out. and sinwar, the operational head of hamas today, was one of these people released. and these people have an obligation for their prisoners in israel. part of the reason for this whole thing is the release of

israeli -- of their prisoners. >> part of the reason for the terror attack was to get people to exchange. >> to exchange. >> because they knew there was a history of israel making a deal. >> yes. israel can't afford having another situation like this. we can't live with hamas. you couldn't -- if the hamas ever returns to the gaza strip, we are faced with a situation. people can't live not in/around the gaza strip but not also in tel aviv, as you can see yourself. i mean, you run to the shelter. and there's no reason you should run to a shelter as a civilian. we are looking at a organization that is fundamentalist and is primarily evil. we don't -- it's not only here. it's all over the world. look at the taliban, look at the hezbollah, look at many other organizations like this that have a purpose. and the purpose is to have a --

with us. so, civilization is facing this sort of thing. and our obligation, i think, and i think -- go into the gaza strip and eradicate the hamas. >> it is such a hard lesson, you say, to not negotiate. i mean, on paper, yet people can say, yes, that makes sense. emotionally -- >> terrible. >> -- it is terrible. there's 199 families and thousands of people related to them, who are desperate for getting -- >> it's terrible. emotionally it's a terrible decision. but if you look at the practical side of conducting war in the gaza strip, israel will do all it can in order to release these prisoners, and some of them or maybe all of them will be released by force. the only way to release prisoners in this situation is force. hamas has come back to us and

said twice already, said, all right, we're willing to negotiate the release of the prisoners. we want first of all, ceasefire. second of all, meaning stop killing us, stop eradicating us. second, we want all our prisoners. we're talking about thousands of prisoners that are in israeli jail. people with blood on their hands. release the people and we will release the people with us. >> it's not just hamas holding hostages. i mean, islam jihad had said days ago that they had some 30 -- >> 30. >> but you told me something before, which i hadn't really realized, that there are individuals, perhaps, who may be holding hostages. >> because not everybody is accounted. right now hamas said 150, but jihad has said 30. we know that many palestinians went -- drove into israel on that black saturday and taken with them israeli -- >> so, some of the videos we've

seen of people being led away -- >> videos -- you haven't seen videos yet because these people are not in the same situation the hamas is. but you will see, once the maneuver in the gaza strip starts, that some of these people are going to come out of private homes. >> not necessarily taken by hamas or jihad. >> like a criminal organization. >> yeah, a criminal organization. >> the operation, whenever it starts, what is it going to be like? what are the lessons that have been learned from the last operations on the ground in gaza that would be applied to this? >> the last operation in the gaza strip was many, many years ago. but it was in '67. '67 was the last operation. i'm not talking about a small operation. we're talking about the taking over of the gaza strip.

the only way you're going to eradicate hamas is go house by house, get one by one. these people, there's 150,000 hamas operatives in the gaza strip. >> 150,000? >> 150,000. and they have to be taken out of this game. we can't have -- we can't continue living in israel with this kind of thing at our border. >> how essential -- you know, the humanitarian situation obviously is dire on the ground in gaza. israel has told people to move south. it seems like, with antony blinken's statement, maybe there will be some mechanism for supplying people in the south with food, that sort of thing. >> water. >> from a military standpoint, that is something i would imagine israel would want because they would want as many civilians -- >> hamas is stopping them. hamas is there stopping the civilians from going south. the hamas would like civilians

to be human shields. this has been a tactic all along. israel is going to do the most it can in order to keep the humanitarian situation reasonable. it's not going to be fun. we're in a war zone. look at other war zones. it's not easy. israel is going to do its most -- civilians who are not connected to hamas, to get out of the situation and come home safely. you have to think there's 600,000 hamas supporters in the gaza strip. and the rest are non-supporters that are there captive of the hamas. >> i appreciate your time tonight. thank you. >> thank you. >> nice to meet you. next, more on the growing american military presence on the region and the mission that could be ahead for it. ahead.

we just learned more about president biden's itinerary this week. he'll come to israel on wednesday. from here, he goes to jordan to meet with the palestinian leader, jordan's king abdullah, and egypt el-sisi. two carrier groups, we learned today a rapid reaction force, cnn's jeremy diamond joins us now. what more do you know about the trip and about the military force we're talking about? >> reporter: anderson, the pentagon is sending a rapid response force of about 2,000

marines and sailors to the waters off the coast of israel. this is effectively preparing this 26th marine expeditionary unit for rapid potential deployment to israel. but the pentagon, the defense official who confirmed the story to us is making clear that this is not an indication these troops are being readied for a combat role here. instead, what could happen is they could play some kind of medical or logistical support role here as well. beyond that, of course, this is part of a bigger picture of deterrence that the united states is trying to put forward in the region. president biden has already deployed not one but two aircraft carriers to the region as well as additional fighter jets, all intended to send the message to countries like iran, for example, to not turn this conflict between israel and hamas into a broader regional war. that is certainly what the white house and the president are trying to head off here. we should note that the 26th marine expeditionary unit, they

are known for a number of specialties, including crisis response, humanitarian assistance, as well as amphibious operations and other special operations, all important context right now, as we await to see not only the humanitarian situation in gaza, the possible evacuation of american citizens from israel, but also, of course, the recovery of those hostages from gaza. >> how confident are american officials that those assets could -- we're talking two aircraft carriers -- would be enough of a deterrent? >> well, it's certainly part of a bigger picture, anderson, right? beyond the deployment of the assets, you had secretary of state antony blinken shuffling from one arab country to the other over the course of the last week to try and head off the possibility that this conflict could expand into a broader regional conflict. and president biden, as he comes

to israel on wednesday and is also, as you just mentioned, set to visit jordan as well as the palestinian authority president, his visit here will also act as a deterrent factor. in fact, that's one of the things that the secretary of state highlighted earlier this evening is that the president's visit here to israel is intended to make crystal clear that the united states is committed to israel's defense. and again, just part of that broader picture of deterring any bad actors, such as iran, as the u.s. views it, from taking advantage of the situation. anderson? >> jeremy diamond, thanks so much. now back to the hostages. moments ago, we talked to a former top official with the intelligence service, masad. he said the only way to get the current hostages released is,

quote, by force. her sh goldberg of poland is 23 years old. he's an american born israeli. he was at that music festival october 7th, where hundreds were killed. he was severely injured and taken hostage. his mom wrote a moving op-ed in "the new york times," the title was, "i hope someone somewhere is being kind to my boy." i spoke to rachel goldberg and her husband earlier. rachel, when the attack happened, were you able to communicate with your son at all? >> as soon as we heard bomb sirens going off in jerusalem, it was around 8:00 in the morning on saturday morning, john was at synagogue. so, i ran downstairs to my girls to get them into the bomb

shelter we have in our home. the protocol is to wait ten minutes after a siren. then i turned on my phone, which i don't normally use on the jewish sabbath. i saw two texts pop up at 8:10, 8:11 in the morning, and they had come in about ten minutes before i turned on my phone. the first one said, i love you. and the second one said, i'm sorry. and immediately i knew something horrible must have been happening or was about to happen. and i of course tried to call him. and it just rang and rang. and i wrote him a few texts, and those have never been answered. so, i wasn't in touch with him. he tried to be in touch with us. and that's the last that we have any communication from him. >> i know that you have a photo that was taken inside a bomb shelter of people who were

hiding in the bomb shelter. i know you've identified your son in that photo. we're showing it. do you know what happened in that shelter? >> we do. what we pieced together, starting over the course of the day on sunday into monday of last week, is he and three other friends got in a car to escape the massacre at the festival. and about 7:30 a.m., they were on the road trying to get out, and there were terrorists shooting bullets along the road, rockets flying overhead. so, they got out and they went into a bomb shelter, where they picture surfaced and is taken. and basically what we know is, from 7:30, they came under heavy gunfire, grenade fire. an rpg was launched into there. and there were -- >> into the bomb shelter? >> into the bomb shelter. and we know from three eyewitness accounts of survivors

that basically there were at least 11 grenades thrown into the bomb shelter. we've been told by three different eyewitnesses that hersh's very close friend, amir, who he was with, standing in the doorway of the bomb shelter in this photo, was able to take at least eight of the grenades and toss them back out. but under gunfire and grenades, there were many injury. we know at 9:00 in the morning, gunmen came in calmly and removed our son and two others who were alive. there were other survivors pretending to be dead. but these three young men, boys, were taken out at gun point. our son, by all accounts of the witnesses, had his left arm blown off at some point during the attack. he had fashioned for himself some sort of bandage, tourniquet. we don't know what. one of the other guys that was taken out with him, we were told, had a bullet in his leg. and these three guys were placed

on a hamas tender, driven off towards gaza at 9:00 in the morning. and we subsequently have been told by israeli authorities that about an hour and a half later, they have the final ping identifying his phone from inside gaza at roughly 10:25 a.m. on saturday morning, october 7th. that's the last we've heard. >> rachel, you wrote about your son's abduction, about what happened in a piece in "the new york times." and you wrote about being stuck in the awful presence and that time is slowly ticking to the future, you said, with the hostages approaching a week in captivity. you also talked about being in a, sort of, alternate universe. you're no longer in the world that others are living in. can you just talk about that? >> it's very hard to describe i

know anyone who has suffered a shocking loss probably understands what i'm talking about. i know you yourself have been through loss in your life. so, people have talked to me about when you have, like, a very fast reality shift between what was before and what was after. and we're, kind of, stuck in this middle ground also. so, for example, yesterday we were talking to some of the senators who are here, who were here visiting, to talk to americans who have loved ones who are being held hostage. and i said to them, i don't live where you live anymore. i'm in a different -- everything is different. and it's very hard to describe it to people. there is -- it just doesn't -- it feels like i'm very close to where the rest of the everyone i know is, but there's this layer

separating us from other people. although, you know, so many people in the country now are suffering similar loss, similar questions, similar unknowns. and i know that we all are feeling that. so, in a sense it's a bunch of people in this alternate universe that we find ourselves in this dark hour. >> if i can, i want to read more passage you wrote. you said, to safe a life is to save a life. please help me save my life, save my world. i would say as mothers to other mothers, if you see hersh, please help him. i really think i would help your son if he was in front of me, injured near me. how hopeful are you that

somewhere someone will see this and see your son and help him? >> i mean, i'm beyond -- there's no way to describe how hopeful i am that that would happen. i know there are good people in gaza. i know that. and i know that, you know, i'm not a politician, and i'm not a diplomat, and i'm not a military strategist. i'm a mother, and i'm a teacher. and i think that there is universal pain that all of us are going through now. i think there are periods in history where people have done the right thing, even when it's terrifying for them. there have been good people in bad places throughout history who are have made the choice to do the right thing, even when it is so frightening for them. and i'm praying that there is that person on the other side. you can't hide 200 people. there are 200 people there.

there are children there, little children. and there are elderly, elderly people. there are holocaust survivors there. and there's my son, who was at a music festival and who is having a critical, grave wound. he could be bleeding out. he could be dead. we don't know. and i'm praying that somebody does the right thing and helps. obviously hersh is my son and my world. i hope they help hersh. but i hope that people help scores and scores and scores of these innocent hostages what are just there in a very scary situation. and it seems unreasonableable to me. >> is there anything else you want people to know about hersh?

>> there are. so, we've been making awareness to hersh's story, to his plight. we've been doing it on social media, facebook, instagram, on twitter, @bringhershhome. and the story resonates with people. people can relate in some weird way. they can't but they can. and we're hearing support from people all over the world, and it's lifting us up, and it matters and it helps. so, please continue to spread the story. >> john and rachel, i thank you for talking to us and telling us about hersh and what you're going through. and i hope someone is listening. >> we do too. thank you so much. >> rachel goldberg, her husband john, talking about their son, hersh. just ahead, a little boy just six years old, and officials say he was killed because he was muslim. today was his funeral. and investigators say his landlord near chicago stabbed

him to death and wounded his mother gravely. the new developments next.

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tonight, palestinian american mom is recovering in a hospital outside chicago unable to attend the funeral of her 6-year-old son today. both were attacked in a horrific stabbing. authorities have arrested their 71-year-old landlord. they believe the attack was motivated because the mother and son are muslim. the justice department has also opened a federal hate crime investigation. cnn's whitney wild has details. >> reporter: a 6-year-old boy,

wadea al fayoume laid to rest today. >> he was a good kid. his last words to his mom, mom, i'm fine. you know what? he is fine. he's in a better place. >> reporter: police say wadea was brutally stabbed to death by his landlord just outside chicago allegedly for being muslim. >> the landlord, in an act of hate, shouted the threats and unleashed violence. >> reporter: the boy's mother was also stabbed more than a dozen times and is still being treated in the hospital. she was unable to attend her son's funeral today. the landlord, 71-year-old joseph czuba appearing in court today. czuba allegedly rented the room to shaheen and her son, stabbing the 6-year-old 26 times.

>> the landlord has the child in another room and is stabbing or has stabbed the child. >> reporter: authorities have now opened a federal hate crimes investigation. the local sheriff saying in a statement, both victims in this brutal attack were targeted by the suspect due to them being muslim, and the ongoing middle eastern conflict involving hamas and the israelis. outrage erupting over the brutal crime. >> he paid the price for the atmosphere of hate. >> reporter: illustrating why federal officials are worried about growing threats aimed at american muslims and american jews since the hamas terror attack in israel. >> we will not tolerate violence motivated by hate and extremism. and we're going to continue to do everything in our power to protect the american people. >> reporter: a 6-year-old's funeral more evidence that threat is all too real. his father said the conflict in

the middle east should cause no violence on american soil, saying, quote, i hope that my son will be the bullet that will resolve this issue. >> whitney, what is law enforcement saying about other threats to muslims or jews, hate crimes against these groups in the u.s.? >> reporter: well, the risk across the nation is very real, and it remains, anderson. there was a man in michigan just days ago who was arrested for making threats again palestinian americans in deer born. that is one of the largest arab american populations in the country. law enforcement on high alert. this is the kind of case that illustrates why vigilance is so important and why law enforcement is so concerned, anderson. >> whitney wild, thank you. we'll be right back.

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