guy, no, i don't want to do that. i'm saying guy could be a gal. you know, maybe make history and have the first female speaker of the house. there are a lot of talented people here to support. right now, my support lies with kevin mccarthy. we'll see where it goes in the future. >> thank you so much. let me throw it to dana bash. joining me is republican ken buck of colorado, he did not vote for congressman jim jordan, instead, voting for tom emmer. my first question do you want tom emmer to be speaker. >> no, i think it would be the worst job in america. mike rowe would not want to do this. >> just to under score that, you voted for somebody because you didn't like them? >> i voted for somebody because i didn't want jim. >> you did not want him to be

speaker. that says a lot about where we are right now. let's look at -- you were one of the eight who voted to vacate, kick kevin mccarthy out of the speaker's chair. you just heard congressman gimenez talking to jake saying he wants mccarthy back. is there any chance you'll have a change of heart? >> i'm not going to vote for kevin mccarthy. as carlos also said, we have 221 members, we're going to find someone to move forward. even if it's a temporary basis, but we will find somebody so that we can get our work done. >> what happens now? >> well, right now, folks are going into conference, there's going to be a lot of yelling and screaming. i will go into conference, after it settles down a little bit. and i think we come up with either the 30-day plan. or jim wants to go back to the floor for a second vote. if we get a second vote, is going to lose some votes on the first vote. and he's going to gain some

votes. but i anticipate the vote will still be in that 15 to 25 range. >> was the 20 votes effectively against jim jordan. >> yes. >> a surprise to you? >> no, it wasn't a surprise to me. i was surprised at some of the w.h.i.p. counts floating around on social media had it down to six or seven. i think that was just wishful thinking on some of the staffers' parts. there's a group of people, really widespread across the conference that do not want to see jim jordan as speaker. >> yeah. when this happened with kevin mccarthy, he eventually did get the votes back in january. the people he was trying to convince were mostly from the trump wing, i think that's probably -- i know that's a generalizing, but it's not the kind of people that jim jordan is trying to lobby right now which are largely the moderates, present company excluded. what does he have to do, talk about the challenges and the desires and the pressure points that he's under?

i know for you, in particular, it's multiple issues, right? it's spending. it's about ukraine. it's also about election denialism. >> absolutely. yeah, i had a nice 30, 40-minute conversation with jim last night. it is not personal. i have a lot of respect for jim. we both have sort of risen in the conservative movement and share many of the values of the conservative movement. i think what jim jordan needs to do is stop talking about defunding the department of justice. we pride ourselves on being a party of rule of law. you can't defund the department of justice or defund a part of law in the department of justice and talk about the values that we share. so, there are a number of different issues related to the election. and some not related to the election. >> you are a hard no. i mean, is there anything he can do, anything that he can promise, any change that he can make to get your vote? >> i will not vote for jim

jordan. >> no way? yeah, no way. okay. okay and you talked about the 30-day plan. if jim jordan decides -- either he decides he's going to go back and do a second vote, even a third vote, and doesn't ever get the votes, the idea that you're talking about here is to give patrick mchenry who is the temporary speaker more power? >> so, he's say temporary speaker with no powers. he cannot bring a bill to the floor and make him speaker for a limited period of time so we can go into conference and find a speaker and at the same time run the house the way the house should be run. i, frankly, think it would be a bipartisan vote to make something like that happen. >> you think so? >> you think democrats would support that? >> i do -- well, patrick said he's not interested. evidently had calls would you run for speaker, we would support you, he's not interested

in a coalition government. but i think it would send a strong message to america and the world if both parties came together for a 30-day speaker. >> you just mentioned sending a message to the party and the world. what message do you think they're getting right now. two weeks in, no speaker, the middle east is on fire. ukraine is a problem. there's -- that's not even to mention, china and other issues, globally. >> what do i think the message is? >> what the message is, yeah. >> yeah, i think the message is quite plain and simple that the house is not running right now. i think the fact that we have not received a supplemental request from the white house at this point means there is not an emergency. it's urgent, it's important, and we will get it done. but i don't think anybody in the world looks at our house or parliament or any other legislate tip body and expects to see everything neat and tidy. >> this is far from neat and tidy. >> i think it is chaos.

but if it wasn't, i'd be more concerned about our democracy. >> congressman buck, appreciate it. >> jake, back to you. let's go to a major story developing in gaza, what the palestinian government is calling a war crime, the government in gaza said the israeli defense forces struck a hospital in the center of gaza city, the hospital in gaza, the number killed in the strike, somewhere between 200, and 300. we expect there are many more innocent people still trapped under the rubble. the idf says they're looking into reports of the incident and it remains unclear to them, right now, if the hospital was struck by israeli warplanes, or by a failed hamas rocket launch. let's go straight to cnn's clarissa ward who is in israel in the town of ashkelon, clarissa. >> yeah, jake, we have heard nonstop sirens, basically, for

the last few hours, that in response to this horrifying strike on this baptist hospital. that is a hospital in gaza city, that is in the northern part the enclave. thousands of people were taking shelter there, from the continued violence, many people were being treated there, some of them couldn't be moved, despite evacuation orders that had been in place. and as you mentioned, we are hearing initial estimates of at least 200 to 300 people killed in that strike, and many, many, many more feared dead, now, hamas is calling this a genocide. hamas has vowed to avenge it, as i mentioned before, i'm wearing my body armor again, because we have had a series of sirens and rockets coming into, not just here where i am in ashkelon, but in other parts of israel a

well. but, certainly, a dramatic and horrific intensification of violence, jake, right on the eve of president biden's visit here. not clear where this goes, from here. you mentioned, idf said they are looking into the incident, that it could potentially have been a hamas misfire, if you like, of a rocket. we've had a look at a couple of videos that we're not ready to share online yet, but certainly, it looked like an enormous blast, hard to see, how that would have been a misfired rocket. but, certainly, we are waiting to get more clarity. on this. and fearing that it's going to be a very long night ahead, with many more rockets and much more violence in the wake of this awful strike, jake. >> all right. thank you so much, clarissa. let's bring in anderson cooper who i believe is in tel aviv with the latest.

anderson. >> reporter: jake, yeah, we are just hearing more about this, as you've been hearing from clarissa. i don't have much more information than what she has said. the spokesperson for the idf, rear admiral acciari has said that the idf has looked into what happened. obviously, you heard the statement that hamas has made, called it a genocide. calling for other nations -- let me give you the exact wording, i'm not going to read the full statement, it says the international community, arab and islamic countries must bear the responsibility and intervene now and top the aggression occupation and hold accountable. so, obviously, more remains to be seen. some sort of explosion at this hospital, the death toll is high. hundreds killed, according to hamas officials on the ground. what we have seen, certainly in the past, is either an israeli

strike or an accidental strike, intentional or accidental. or a hamas rocket launch that then falls short and lands killing civilians which we've also seen in past conflict. so, at this point, it's still very early. we're trying to gain more information on the ground, jake. >> this is a very difficult situation, right now, we have reports of hundreds killed and there's no reason to doubt that. but we don't know what caused it. we don't know who caused it. we don't know the situation under which this happened. and we're trying to bring the best information we can under the worst circumstances there are. so, we will bring that, as we can. obviously, reporting from gaza is all but impossible right now for most news organizations. because it is under constant bombardment. >> that's right, and look, there are many examples of hamas

rockets firing, falling short, killing civilians that then gets blamed on israel. there are also many examples of, you know, civilian deaths caused directly by israel. there's no doubt about it. the bombings that we have seen in gaza have been at a level that we have not seen, certainly in all of the time that i've been covering the conflicts here back into the '90s. so, again, we don't have the information on the ground. it remains to be seen exactly what occurred. but it seems a huge civilian loss -- huge loss of life in this hospital. hundreds, according to hamas officials. and, again, trying to gather more information. >> yeah. absolutely. let's go to clarissa ward. clarissa, tell us about the location of this place, gaza city. the hospital in gaza.

>> so it's the baptist hospital. aldani means baptist. this is in the more than part, jake, this is the area that israeli force has urged gazans living there to evacuate. we have seen according to the last few days, according to the u.n., some 600,000 people, in the north of gaza move into the south. today, what happened is there were a number of strikes in the south. in ckhan yunis, and rafah, the border crossing with egypt. what that did for many people, in the north, planning or trying to get to the south, it made them basically south, right? because they were scared that it wasn't safe in the south. they were also concerned with

the endire humanitarian situati in the south. a lot of people we've been speaking to today are just too afraid to leave their homes. many are living in shelters it appears in this hospital, you had a lot of families who were basically sheltering. who had been displaced from their homes or who were fearful that their homes were in potentially dangerous places. this is something you see a lot in gaza, people flock to hotels, hospitals, any foundation that they basically think will be a safe place. we don't know exactly how many people were there. there are numbers coming in. what anderson said is true, it's very difficult to determine, after early morning hours after an event like this what exactly is happening. even knowing how many people

were killed is that estimate based on how many people are in the building, identifies, these are questions that we'll be asking and just be getting answers to in the coming hours going forward, jake. >> clarissa, it's anderson in tel aviv, let's talk about the situation in the south of gaza, we've seen hundreds of thousands of residents of gaza city, moving south, heeding warnings by the idf, given a 24-hour warning. that time limit has certainly passed. but we've seen continuous flow of people down into the south. but the situation, as you mentioned, for them, is very precarious still in the south. there are still air strikes going on in the south. it's not as if that is not a zone in which there are not still areas being targeted, correct? >> well, i think that's a big

part of the problem, anderson, if you're trying to market the south where a place that people should evacuate to and there are strikes and there's no aid coming in, you're essentially taking away people's incentive to move to the south. as mentioned, 600,000 have moved. to give perspective, the population of oakland, california, is 400,000. that is a huge amount of people in a very tiny area. the u.n. has said they're completely overwhelmed at this stage. that all of the shops in gaza have enough food for maybe four or five days. the hospitals now have said that they are no longer able to operate effectively. we have heard from doctors saying they are performing operations with no painkillers. they are running out of drugs. the water is such a critical issue, anderson. there's no water, we're again hearing reports from our own

producer on the ground of people taking water from the toilets and boiling it so that they can give it to their families. this is clearly not a sustainable situation. and yet, here we are, ten days in, and there is no consensus yet in trying to open that rafah border crossing to allow the free passage of aid. the egyptians ever blaming israelis because of strikes. the israelis is blaming hamas, hamas is blaming israel. in the meantime, as so often the case, hundreds of thousands of civilians are suffering in absolutely dire situation. and perhaps more importantly as well, it is stopping the flow of people out of northern gaza, because they see what's happening in the south. they see that it's not safe. they see that there's no respite for them there. so they're choosing to stay in their homes. which then leads to a situation where you have more high casualty, catastrophic events, possibly like the one we've seen

at the ahli hospital. >> and clarissa, the situation for americans who had been told days ago to go down to the south, to hang out, go as close as possible to the rafah border cro crossing, if and in case it opens up, it's quite remarkable that we're now more than a week into this, and there are still hundreds of americans trapped in gaza. >> so, by the u.s. embassy in cairo's count, they are in touch with 253 americans who are desperately trying to get out of gaza. i think you can be assured that the number is probably higher than that. cnn has spoken to some of them. they have been pleading and imploring anyone who will listen to help them get out. and the problem is, as you point out, many are heading to areas like rafah, near the border crossing to try to be in place, to leave as soon as there's an

opportunity. and this morning, you had a series of strikes there. so that only contributes to even more chaos, even more confusion, even more fear, americans say that they've been trying to get more information on where they should go, when they might be able to cross. we know, anderson, of course, that the flurry of diplomatic activity has been intensive behind the scenes, secretary of state antony blinken flying around the region, sitting down with everyone, trying to build consensus around the establishment of some kind of a humanitarian corridor. yesterday, coming out, after his seven-plus hours meeting with the israeli war cabinet and saying that a tentative plan had been agreed upon to basically construct some kind of a humanitarian zone in the south. but then you look at the events of today, you look at the crippling paralysis of the international community to resolve this issue, and you have to wonder, anderson, when

realistically, such a humanitarian zone could possibly be constructed and under what sort of circumstances, andersonson. . >> and just to sum up, hamas officials in gaza saying 200 to 300 people had died in a strike on a gaza hospital. they are blaming israel. israel has said they're looking into what occurred. raising questions about whether it was, in fact, some sort of intentional israeli strike. errant israeli strike. or something to do with hamas and iraq being fired out in a rocket which we've seen in the past week. we cannot say for sure what exactly has caused this but according to officials, hamas officials, palestinian health officials on the ground, 200 to 300 people believed to be dead at this stage. we're just learning about this. we'll gather more information and bring it to you when we can, jake. >> thanks, anderson cooper, appreciate it.

in tel aviv, and we'll do more reporting on the ground in gaza and israel and report back to you when we know more. in the meantime, let us turn back to the big story here in washington, d.c., the race for speaker, as you can recall. jim jordan challenged his fellow republicans to vote, and he came up short. getting only 200 votes when he needed 217. let's go back to manu raju on capitol hill who has the latest. manu, my understanding is that congressman jordan is going to push for a second ballot. and is pressuring people who voted against him to vote for him. what's the latest. >> reporter: yeah, i'm told by multiple republicans that jim jordan is in fact meeting privately with some of those holdouts right now, trying to allay concerns, trying to convince them to vote for him, or vote present which would change the threshold to be elected speaker. those conversations are ongoing.

jake, i talked to several republican it's in hallway who voted against him just moments ago, and they're making clear they don't plan to vote for him on a second ballot. one, sam fossman said i am where i am, same with mario diaz-balart, he voted for steve scalise. carlos gimenez who you spoke with also indicating that he's not going to move from supporting kevin mccarthy. that, right there, just three votes there. there are more that are expected to vote against jim jordan on the second ballot as well. there was some positive news from jim jordan, one congressman who did not vote for jordan on the first ballot indicated he would on the second ballot. maybe some movement in that direction, but not enough movement. there's questions on the timing of everything. i've talked to republicans,

they're not sure if it's a conferencewide meeting or a second ballot. they just closed their doors in the house chamber. don't expect a second ballot to happen imminently. it may not happen for some time today but jordan is still working behind the scenes trying to convince members to come his way. this number, this margin, 20 republicans voting against him that is much worse than the anticipated -- they thought they were in striking distance, jordan allies thought they were within ten votes of the speakership. they thought they were better than mccarthy did in january when they lost 19 republicans on that first ballot. 20 ballots is a significant number to make up. they're still trying to push ahead. still planning at the moment to have that second ballot election. he still has support from his allies including kevin mccarthy himself. he told me jim jordan should not drop out at this point. to convince his members to come along and decide when to pull the trigger for the second

ballot. for the moment, he didn't have the votes to be elected speaker. >> manu raju thank you so much. >> kasie hunt, let me start with you here in the studio then i want to bring in former congressman rodney davis. he's going to push forward, i'm sure he'll pick up a couple votes, once again, i think it's pretty clear, i don't want this to sound harsh, but it's just a mess. >> yes. >> this is not normal, if you don't have the votes. we have not seen this before. >> nope. >> because normally, the person who is going to be the leader of the party has the votes lined up, long before they call the vote. and we don't see this sloppiness. >> yeah, i'm glad that you sort of hit on the big picture, historic nature of what we're seeing, because this is now two weeks without a speaker. second in line to the presidency of the united states. two words as you've noted, no one able to send any money money to help the fact that we're

sending the president to israel tomorrow to address it. and republicans cannot get on the same page. honestly, it's the end of a story that we've been covering in slow motion for the last five years, honestly, ten years since the tea party first came to washington, 13 years in 2010, this is a fraction of the electorate voting for chaos. there is a system set up for them inside the conservative media that makes it impossible for a certain set of them to impose that maga base. then you have a handful still, the ones that make up the majorities who are in district where is voters actually want them to govern and they cannot find common ground. jake, how many times have you said this, how do you find common ground or who won or didn't win the election? it's not in the middle. >> congressman davis, what's going on with your party? this is not abhorrent behavior. this is not normal.

what's wrong with tom emmer, what's wrong with steve womack. if you can't rally around kevin mccarthy, just pick one of these guys. >> well, look, this started a few months ago, when i was with you through 15 rounds of votes. and, really, what you're seeing is people within the republican party, within the republican conference in the house can have decided enough's enough. they watched eight individuals decide to take down kevin mccarthy. and i actually, right now, jake, i think jim jordan's making a tactical error in trying to talk to these no votes one-on-one. he needs to get every member of that house republican conference in the room. because his best supporter, his best sales pitch, is coming from the guy in the room, everybody stands up and listens to when he gets to the microphone. and that's kevin mccarthy. and other supporters like patrick mchenry. he needs to use them to try and get the no votes to change.

if he doesn't do that, i don't know how he's going to get any more votes in the second round and may lose a few more. >> congressman rodney davis, thanks so much. this hour, we're closely following two major stories, uncertainty in the house after republicans say no to yet another speaker candidate. this time, it's jim jordan. and in israel what the government in gaza is calling a war crime, a hospital devastated with the number believed to be in the hundreds. we'll have more breaking news after this.

♪ welcome back. we're following two major stories here. neither of them particularly comforting. here in the united states, a house divided again amidst continued house republican divisions. congressman jim jordan tried and failed to secure the speakership on the first ballot. we'll have more on that in a few minutes. continued chaos and disarray among house republicans and the united states still does not have a speaker, for the first time, to the best of my knowledge ever. but first, we're going to israel and gaza where hundreds of reportedly killed at a hospital in gaza that is still on fire. video we're just getting into cnn shows rescue workers pulling

people out from the rubble. mahmoud abbas on the west bank has declare lead days of mourners, the defense ministry is determining what happened and has no details to share at this moment. it's unclear exactly what happened except right now something very horrible. let's get straight to cnn's clarissa ward. clarissa, what do we know for a fact right now? and what are we looking into? >> well, we know for a fact that there has been say horrific incident. at the al ahli baptist hospital in gaza city in northern gaza, that is the part of gaza that israeli forces had ordered people to evacuate from, as early as friday. we don't know exactly yet what caused the incident. it does appear to have been some kind of a massive strike, though, from preliminary videos that we are starting to look through. the palestinian health authority is saying that at least 200 to 300 people have been killed.

and you are already seeing a massive reaction from palestinians inside gaza. hamas calling it a genocide. also from palestinians in the west bank, declaring three days of mourning, flags to be flown at half-mast and certainly, we're also seeing a much myer level of rockets coming into ashkelon in the last couple of hours. there's been sirens at least several times and several barrages of rockets. and all of this leading to fears of a real intensification of violence on the eve of president biden's visit to israel. and from what we're seeing and hearing, it's very clear that there's going to be an incredibly strong reaction to this -- to this hit, on the hospital. again, it will take some time to work out exactly what has happened. it is late at night.

there is very little electricity. it is challenging to find exact numbers for how many were killed and how this happened. but what we can say is that, according to a number of reports on the ground, thousands of people were seeking refuge in this hospital. this is something that's very common in gaza, jake. when you have intense israeli bombardment, people tend to flock to hotels, hospitals, mo mosques and shelters, because those places are largely considered to be safe. so, a lot of families will go and literally, often, sleep in the hallways of hospitals. or hotels, wherever they can find. that appears to be the case at the al ahli baptist hospital. we're hearing that people are being treated.

and more people are being moved to the hospital inside of gaza city. and all of this coming at a moment of protracted suffering for gazan civilians who are facing what the u.n. has called an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe. and of course, as israel has urged people to leave northern gaza and move south, these types of strikes and the ferocity that we have seen in the south, there have been a lot of strikes, too. which is where israel has been pushing people towards. has really left a lot of people paralyzed. we've spoken to families who say they don't want to move. they're too scared to move. they don't want to even leave their houses. so, clearly, a horrific day, in terms of the death toll, now well above 3,000 palestinians killed. and we are just trying to put together a better picture of how exactly this happened, jake. >> all right, clarissa, thank you so much.

appreciate it. the palestinian ministry of health says that this particular hospital was sheltering thousands of displaced people who have been evacuated from their homes in gaza city. as clarissa was just suggesting. joining us now to discuss cedric leighton as well as security analyst kim dozier. thank you so much to both of you, cedric, look, i know there are people out there who think that there's just one easy answer that we can just share right now. but, obviously, in the situation like this, it's not that simple. go ahead. >> yeah, that's right, jake. one of the key problems that you have is, you know, what was being targeted. was this in fact an israeli air strike. and of course, that looks like that was really the case. and when you have a situation where there are a lot of civilians, it really complicates the targeting mechanism. and the whole targeting process. so, i would really like to know, you know from a military

standpoint, what the israelis were targeting. did they think that there was a hamas entity in the hospital, and even with that, you know, what kind of justification would there be to do this kind of a strike. it's something is that, you know, really different from how we do the targeting process in the u.s. air force, at least it appears to be. and that is something that, i think, you know, really has to be investigated. and i think it also, you know, puts a -- kind of a brake on what the israelis are doing right now in terms of their offensive operations. they will find it difficult to continue these operations if these kinds of mistakes, if that's in fact what happened, continue to occur. >> i want to warn our audience right now, it's 2:35 p.m. in the east coast. so, this is a time when kids might be watching television. we're going to bring you some video from gaza right now of the hospital. it is rather graphic. it is the scene of what

happened, and there are people who have been wounded. people who have been jurled in the fire. so, just know that that is what you're looking at. these images coming in. and kim dozier, you have covered war zones before, and so often, there are so many questions, and that we don't know and in the fog of war, it's difficult to answer. first of all, so many things to keep in mind, one, this latest spade of violence began with hamas attacking israel two saturdays ago, something to remember. two, obviously, the palestinian israeli conflict did not begin two saturdays ago. three, if israel did in fact strike this hospital and we don't know that to be the case, four, sometimes, hamas does misfire and blame it on israel. five, israel is bombing that part of gaza right now.

six, sometimes, hamas does embed within the population. i mean, there are so many things we do not know. the one thing we do know is that innocent people in gaza are being hurt and are being killed. >> and, jake, what those images add up to is a mass casualty event that could change the international opinion of what israel is doing right now. it could shift international opinion against them. it's already shifted that opinion in the arab world against israel. israeli news channels are still coverage hostage families, arab news families are covering the destruction insides gaza. but this is a denied area, so israel, international investigators, we can't get in to see what brought that structure down. remember, israel is also trying to target the subterranean weapons storage cache rocket launcher facilities. and hamas has a pattern of

having those types of things stationed near civilian areas. >> when you say subterranean, let me just translate for folks, hamas has an intense, rather sophisticated tunnel network. >> yeah. >> under gaza, sometimes, under homes, under hospitals, i'm sorry, please continue. >> yeah, absolutely. they've bragged of having 300 miles of tunnels beneath gaza city. beneath other parts of the whole territory. israel and the u.s. has tried to use new technology to map those tunnels. but israeli officials have admitted to me, they don't -- they don't know the whole structure. so they're trying to smoke fighters out of some of the entrances. and they're hitting multiple targets related to that. is that what brought the structure down? it won't matter to people in the arab world. the young generation of arabs watching this, growing in anger, against what israel is doing. and that's going to make it

harder for egypt, say, to open its rafah border crossing to allow aid in. it's going to make it harder for all arab leaders to do what president biden will be asking them to do in his visit tomorrow, to show some sort of cooperation with israel that helps the palestinian people. >> and, cedric, it is under this circumstance that president biden is getting into air force one and flying is to israel. it's already a circumstance under which his u.s. secret service detail must be grinding their teeth. i mean, if it were up to u.s. secret service, presidents would never leave the white house. much less go to war zones. but i cannot imagine how upset and worried they are right now. and israel's national security minister ben gaveer who is rather hawkish would be a charitable term, he just wrote

on telegrams, quote, the only thing that needs to enter gaza are hundreds of tons of explosives, not an ounce of humanitarian aid. a rather hideous thing to say, given all of the innocent civilians, innocent palestinians, suffering in gaza. what do you make of that? >> indeed, jake, i think the real problem for president biden is going to be try to cool as best he can everything down. and that's a really tall order. he was already confronted with an almost impossible task by coming into the middle east, especially into israel, and doing this situation. and his stated purpose, with at least part of the israeli visit is to take a look at the strategy that the israelis are proposing. and the kinds of tactics that they're using in order to achieve that strategy. this kind of a situation if it is indeed what the idf, israeli

defense forces, have been doing, then it really not only complicates things but also calls into question the entire mechanism with which the israelis are actually prosecuting this war. how are they doing it, how careful are they. you know, the idea of humanitarian areas, humanitarian corridors that kind of thing would really need to be worked out. should have been worked out way before this. but, this really underlines the fact that there's a lot of -- there's a lot of missing pieces here. and that's the kind of thing that really needs to be fixed before we have more civilian casualties like this. >> and, kim dozier, just to underline something that i thought was important when i was interviewing an israeli official the other day, the israelis regard this as an existential threat to israel. and especially, when you look at the hamas charter, which calls for the destruction of israel, and you look at the unbelievably horrific attack on israel two

saturdays ago, i raised issue of civilian casualties with the israeli official, as i have every time i've interviewed an israeli official since that horrible day, october 7th. and the israeli officials -- one israeli official said to me, along -- i think it was saturday or sunday, i can't even remember, said i'm sure there were innocent germans, too. that is how they look at this. >> absolutely. for them, they're worried about a site being hit from not just rockets from gaza, but rockets from hezbollah in lebanon in the north. to wipe out the state of israel, so has iran. the israelis feel like this could escalate into something where every single israeli in every part of the country is threatened. i tried to ask the same question you tried to ask. they get angry. they're like, yes, it's bad, but

that's where the enemy is. and the enemy needs to be wiped out. >> kim, cedric, thanks to both of you, appreciate it. we're going back to israel as we learn more details on this hour rick h horrific hospital strike. again, we do not know who is responsible for that strike. we'll find out and bring that to you as soon as we can. coming up next, what is the next step for congressman jim jordan after he failed ignominiously on the first ballot. is there a path forward? we're going live to capitol hill. that's next.

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welcome back to cnn's special live coverage. two stories rippling across the globe right now. one, graphic scenes in gaza city where a hospital was caved in, killing hundreds and stranding an untold number under the concrete. it is unclear right now who is responsible for the strike. and for what the palestinian government brands as a war crime. the other story is happening right here where we are on capitol hill. jim jordan wants the speaker's gavel. but after the first vote it appears there is no clear way he will get it. i want to go right to cnn's manu raju. manu, i know you've been speaking to sources about what's next, what are you hearing? >> reporter: yeah, jim jordan plans to press ahead. even at the moment, he is still short the 217 votes he needs to be elected speaker of the house with 20 republicans on that first vote. that first vote he can only afford to lose three republicans, nevertheless, he's playing for the vote.

and the house needs a speaker as soon as possible. expect another round of votes today. it's time for republicans to come together. it's not clear exactly the timing of this vote. we do know that jordan is meeting behind the scenes with the holdouts, trying to convince them to come his way. i've heard from a couple of them saying they're open for the second round, even the congressman who said he wanted to vote for kevin mccarthy in the first round, to register for the opposition the way mccarthy was pushed out saying now it's time to get behind house speaker. and indicating some openness after voting for him on the first ballot. there's a significant amount to make up. there's a real risk, dana, of other republicans shos who vote jordan, but only did it tentatively. they want a new candidate, congressman vern buchanan of florida, one who was the initial rival to replace kevin mccarthy.

and steve scalise. he voted for that was still an open question for him and that will be an open question for others and if jordan doesn't get 217 votes in the second ballot expect calls from some of the members to step aside, to allow another candidate to put his or her hat in the ring given that no one has been able to get the 217 votes needed yet to become speaker of the house and leaving this house completely paralyzed, effectively shut down and unable to act on any legislative business for the last two weeks after the historic ouster of kevin mccarthy. even though that is still -- that is what jordan is trying to convince his members to come in line saying, look, we can elect a speaker today, come and support us. we can get the house moving again, but at the moment he has a ways to go, dana, to get the votes even as he presses ahead on the second ballot and we'll see how he'll do on the third

ballot if he falls short yet again. >> losing 20 votes, as we reported, was not what he expected. he thought if he was going to lose the first vote it would be by far fewer numbers. thank you very much, manu. i want to go to our melanie zanona who is outside of jim jordan's office, rather. he is huddling, melanie, with the people who are trying to help him find the votes in a very frenzied way. what are you learning? >> yeah, dana. i am outside his office, but jim jordan is not in his office. we are told he is in the capitol, as we speak, and he is having the critical meetings with holdouts trying to win them over and it is unclear at this point what he can offer these members to get them to change his support. as manu is mentioning there is real concern that some of the people who voted for jordan on the first ballot might start to bleed their support and vote for someone else on the second ballot. the question now is whether jim jordan can really show progress, but to give you a sense of the

problem he's facing here, like the new york republicans they cited some of jordan's past record on voting on critical issues that are important to new york, and for example, he voted against aid for super storm sandy. he voted against health care funding for 9/11 first responders. those were issues that were very important to the centrist republicans who handed the gop the majority last years and unclear whether jordan can assuage those concerns and these are things that he voted against and it is not clear when he can convince them that he's ready to bunch and lead. we'll see what he's going to do in these critical meetings and in a sign of hope there are other members who voted on the first ballot who are signaling that they might be willing to flip. if jordan is not able to make progress in the second round, a lot of republicans are doubting that he's ever going to be able to get there. a critical few hours here, dana. it is unclear if they'll have a conference by meeting and at this point we're expecting one-on-one meetings and at some point we're expecting a second

vote, dana? >> ml elanie, thank you very mu for that reporting. my panel is here now. i was talking to someone who was close to jim jordan who said that, yes, he is going to as we heard from our colleagues push for a second vote, but it doesn't mean that the whip count that the work that he's doing to change minds is going very well. it's, at this point, perhaps more about his brand as a fighter and that he can't just give up after the first vote. it's something that we were talking about here privately, but it is actually something that is very much on the minds of not just jim jordan, but the people around him. >> we know the whip count didn't go well. obviously, the margin was a lot larger than they thought it was going to be and some of that was whip projecting and telling people what they wanted people to believe, but if that had been eight or ten votes then the don bacons who said a sliver of our

conference shouldn't be held hostage and would be that sliver of the conference and they would be in a very strong position. 20 is a big number and it means while we all are doing one thing democrats and republicans all do is hurry up and wait to see what that next vote's going to be. if that number is bigger it will be a lot harder for jim jordan moving forward. >> the brand you mentioned of being a fighter and also being supported by donald trump, not someone who gives up easily. i'm not surprised that they'll go to a second ballot because to have given up after the first ballot would have been to have totally folded when for years you've told republicans that we have to keep fighting and we don't stop in the face of political adversity. so the momentum is the key. if it's not the same or if he picks up one or loses one, you wonder how much the conference will tolerate how many more attempts will the larger rank and file tolerate when a lot of these people didn't want to get rid of mccarthy in the first place and then they were with

scalise and how much leash do they give someone on this if they're not showing progress on this next immediate vote. >> i find it hard to believe that on the next ballot he doesn't get under ten, how do you go to a third? at 20 it's already so large, you have to really knock that down. >> he can only afford to lose three. so if you can't get under ten i don't know what the endurance of the caucus is, but i will say on the contrast, my democratic friends are remaining united and have continued to double down on the call that if we can't find something -- if the republicans can't get their act together why not try? >> there is a third option and that's a temporary speakership with patrick mchenry who republicans not just like, and respect. >> which is becoming more and more an option that republicans in the building behind us are talking about. jim jordan did not have the votes in the first round. it doesn't look that he has them

in what we expect him to have in the second round. we are expecting that to happen and a lot of high drama as the ohio republican vows to keep fight. also, of course, we are following the horror in gaza as hundreds are dead inside a packed hospital. much more on the breaking news right here on cnn after this.