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it is the top of the hour. i'm brianna keilar in washington alongside boris sanchez and let's go straight to gabe cohen on capitol hill where a protest is under way. >> brianna, we are in the canon office building in the capitol and you can see from where i'm standing a huge crowd of protesters who are here occupying the rotunda in this building calling for a cease-fire in gaza. this comes just a few minutes after they were holding a rally on the national mall, but as you can see, right in front of us right now someone is being arrested. we have seen a lot of people being zip tied and led away after being told that this was a

sealed space, that they could not here. in fact, we were standing about five feet that way, and i was told by a police officer move or you will be arrested and that's exactly what's happening to the people here. these are the same organizers and the same groups who were outside the white house on monday, 30+ people arrested outside the white house who are blocking entrances. there was a huge crowd there on monday and now we're seeing the same thing today. they, again, are calling for an end to the war. the fighting, the bombings in gaza. they have put a lot of the blame listening to the speakers here over the last couple of hours that were down at the rally on the national mall. they put the blame squarely at the foot of israel and the idf and now again, we are watching as capitol police are arresting people one by one who are seated in this area who are being told they need to leave now and yet they are willing, in this case, to be zip tied and to be led

away. guys? >> can you have your photographer pan up a little. are they in the upper part of the rotunda there, as well or are they on the main floor part? >> yeah, brianna. i'll show you. if we can show the folks across the rotunda and even on the upper level and right as this got under way we saw people hanging banners up there. several people were holding banners along that upper level and those were the first folks who police really grabbed and ripped the banners out of their hands and some of them were then zip tied and arrested. now we're starting to see that here on the lower level, but i can tell you, just five, ten minutes ago the crowd was significantly larger. police are really arresting people quickly and taking them out of this room presumably to be processed. >> so they just amassed there in this -- in this house office

building. police were not expecting this? >> well, it's hard to say, but police came here quickly. we were here before this really unfolded and the crowd gathered very quickly and then a couple of minutes later we saw at first a dozen and now it looked like a few dozen police officers and we are being told to move a little bit here, brianna, but the police really gathered quickly. they warned people who were there chanting, singing and they warned that they would be arrested and that's exactly what's happening now. >> if you've been in touch with the organizers behind the group, do you know if they've had any contact with lawmakers? have they been able to take their message directly to members of congress? >> yeah. there were a couple of congressional leaders, cory bush and rashida talib who actually spoke just a little while ago at that rally i was referring to on

the west side of the capitol on the national mall and there were those congressional leaders there, so they have been in touch with them and even monday during the rally that i was at outside the white house they had talked about that they were starting to hear from the congressional leaders. so they certainly have some boom's attention and they believe that this could make a difference. this is not going to go unnoticed and it will be seen. the question is what difference will it make, guys? >> dave cohen, please keep us updated on what you are watching unfold on capitol hill. obviously one of many scenes we've seen around the world with anger over what's unfold in the middle east. we want to go to anderson in tel aviv. >> here in israel, people search for survivors in the rubble in gaza, that devastating hospital explosion in gaza city. president biden was in israel for a historic wartime visit and it was an unmistakable show of unity between israel and the

united states, a show of support particularly today for israel at a time of increasing volatility. hundreds of civilians were believed to be killed in yesterday's hospital blast according to the palestinian health ministry. hamas, as you know, blamed israel and blamed the idf and israel says it has extensive evidence and presented that evidence publicly that a failed rocket launched by islamic jihad is to blame. the u.s., the national security council, currently assesses israel is not responsible, the national security council made a statement earlier saying that they had looked at their own evidence and came to the same conclusion that israel did. we have regional coverage, and clarissa ward is in ashkelon in israel outside the border and ben wedeman is in southern lebanon and let's start with clarissa. what have you been seeing, first of all, today where you are, clarissa? >> well, it's been remarkably

quiet here in ashkelon, anderson, perhaps that's because president biden has been here, but the situation in gaza is still dire. we have been hearing strikes throughout the day. there have been reports from one our own journalists on the ground of explosions near the rafah border crossing and that is, of course, where everybody is focused now because president biden did make some news when he said that he had got the israeli side to agree to allow for aid to pass through rafah into the southern part of gaza. the israelis came out afterwards and confirmed that. they said that with the proviso that none of that aid is diverted in any way to hamas. we haven't heard any commentary from the egyptian side. up until now the egyptians have been saying that the issue with opening up that border and allowing some of those dozens of trucks full of desperately needed aid through the rafah crossing was because of

continued strikes in the area and fears about the security situation. so a growing sense of urgency, and also a growing sense that possibly we could see -- not clear on the timing yet, but at some point the free flow of some of that aid into the gaza strip where it is desperately needed as we've been talking about, anderson, for days now. hospitals are not able to furng, function, no power, no water and one of our journalists report that people are having to boil toilet water and give it to their families to drink because the situation with drinking water has become so desperate and some 600,000 people in the u.n. have been displaced from their homes in the north and moved to the south with no real refuge or respite. so this is clearly a situation where time is of the essence and president biden saying that the israelis have now given assurance that they will allow

it to go forward, but still a lot of questions and obstacles that need to be cleared before we can expect to see those trucks of aid going through the rafah crossing and getting to those people who need it so desperately, anderson. >> clarissa, let's also just talk about the intelligence that israel presented earlier today here in tel aviv and also intelligence that seems to be backed up by the national security council, the u.s. intelligence community. essentially israel putting out intercept communication between what they described to members of hamas discussing that this was something to do with islamic jihad saying that the rocket fragments were consistent with rocket fragments from hamas or islamic jihad-style rocket and not something from israel. talk about what else israel put forward that the u.s. seems to be backing up at this stage. >> so the israelis have also put

forward satellite imagery. they put forward a detailed map of where they believe the rocket came from, who fired it, the timing of the firing, the intercepts that you mentioned and as you said, the national security council saying that a preliminary assessment and it is a preliminary assessment, appears to back up israel's assertion that this was a rocket that essentially misfired. there are still many parties calling for sort of independent investigation. the u.n. today said, of course, that they would like to carry out their own investigation. i think more broadly, though, the issue that you have and what we are seeing playing out on the streets in the region and what i'm sure ben will touch on in more detail that for some people their mind was made up the second that this blast happened and the second they saw the horrors. this is a highly emotional issue. people have chosen their narratives from the get go, and

it is very difficult to see how cooler minds can prevail, how information just presented, is capable of changing the minds of so many who feel so emotional, who are often getting the information in snippets from social media, memes and all kind of inflammatory misinformation that's out there. so this is an information war, as well, anderson, and we all do our best to walk the line. >> yeah. facts matter. we cannot independently at this point verify the -- the assessment made by israel or the nfc. obviously, we are trying to do our best and working on that. the embassy in beirut just one of the sites of intense protests. what are you seeing? >> this is the second time within 24 hours, anderson, that we've seen large protests. at the bottom of the hill below the u.s. embassy which is a mile up the hill behind a barrier set

up by the lebanese security forces and protesters twice last night and this afternoon tried to break through the barrier, the lebanese security forces were firing tear gas and water canons in their direction and eventually the protesters were cleared out of that square at the bottom of the hill by the lebanese army, but of course, that's just one of many protests across the region and amman, jordan, we saw a very large protest in morocco, yemen, istanbul and elsewhere. this has sort of sent jitters through, for instance here in lebanon, the diplomatic community. the united states is now advising americans not to travel to lebanon and has told family members of staff at the embassy and also non-emergency personnel that they can leave on a case by case basis. saudi arabia put out an advisory to all its nationals in lebanon to leave immediately. the uk and france are telling

their nationals don't come to lebanon at the moment unless it's absolutely necessary, and of course, we've seen a variety of airlines, lufthansa and swissair have canceled flights and the lebanese national carrier has sent five of its airplanes to istanbul as a precautionary measure because, of course, one of the first things that happened at the beginning of the 2006 war between hezbollah and israel was that the airport was struck by israeli aircraft and taken out of action, anderson? >> ben wedeman in southern lebanon. ben, thanks very much. joining me now to discuss is former israeli prime minister naftali bennett who enlisted in the reserves. i appreciate you being with us. i wonder what you made of president biden's visit here and the message that he sent? >> well, it was a very

meaningful visit to know that america stands on the right side of history and stands beside israel in our fight against this nazi-type regime in gaza with the murder rate, the severed heads of little babies because this will be a long and protracted and tough war, and we're going to need the time to get the job done. so this is very meaningful. >> one of president biden's stated goals about coming to israel was try to deter the conflict from expanding, given the fact of the blast of the hospital and the claims of hamas about it early on and the canceling of the meeting in jordan with others in the region, with king hussein, al sisi in egypt and mahmoud abbas, do you think more could have been accomplished? how significant would it have been for him to have had that

meeting? >> i think a lot of a accomplished, but i do also want to talk about this floating -- the narratives or the claims. there are no two sides to this hospital. either it was bombed by israel or it was targeted by someone else on the palestinian side, and you know, if two people come and say -- one says it's raining outside and the other says it's dry you don't bring to both sides. open a window and look whether it's raining or not and that's what we did and this hospital, in fact, it's a parking lot, was hit definitely, 100% by islamic jihad shot fired at 6:59 p.m. we have three different videos from different angles showing it. we have the ballistics. we know that an israeli bomb would have created a crater which does not exist.

we know that the propellent in the rocket because it was a long-term rocket targeted for israel, so a lot of that propellent was still in the rocket which created a lot of fire. we have two hamas talking to each other and admitted that it was from islamic jihad. so anderson, with all due respect there aren't two sides to this and not everything is two sides, and i have a feeling that if it wasn't the state of israel then i think the global media would have behaved very differently. >> we're simply saying we have not been able to independently verify the claims being made. we have report exactly what israel has put forward and also that the u.s. intelligence community has backed up, as well and that certainly seems to be what president biden has also been basing his assessment on and what he said, information from his own defense department

in addition to israel's presenting of evidence. >> anderson, i -- i have to barge in here. i have to say something. you know, i was in 9/11. i was in manhattan when it happened and if a day later al qaeda would have said that it's america who perpetrated it, no one would have quoted al qaeda. and you didn't have validation back then that it was al qaeda, but you knew it's not america, and somehow there's a double standard here. you had 30 hours to validate. we have all of the information. everything is transparent. for heaven's sakes, to see the headline of "the new york times" saying that the palestinians claim that israel bombarded a hospital. we don't do that. it's the palestinian who rape young girls. it's the palestinians who tear apart limbs. it's the palestinians who burn whole families and shoot 5-month-old babies. it's the palestinians, for

heaven's sake, who kidnapped 84-year-old holocaust survivors. it's not the israelis. this is not what israel does, and you've had ample time. do your job and tell the truth. there is moral clarity in the world. not everything has two sides to it. >> naftali bennett, i appreciate your time. thank you very much for being with us. >> thank you very much. >> it is still unclear -- up next, we'll have a detailed military analysis of the video that was presented, video and also images from the site of the attack. the analysis of that ahead.

>> the fallout is growing from a deadly blast in a gaza hospital. the u.s. is refusing to acknowledge israeli demand that the u.n. secretary-general publicly declared palestinian terrorist organizations responsible for that blast. we were able to geolocate this video showing the moment of the explosion. watch this. [ explosion ] >> let's discuss the incident with cnn military analyst and retired four-star army general wesley clark. general, thank you so much for being with us. so on the question of the u.s. currently assessing that israel was not responsible for the explosion, walk us through the steps that u.s. intelligence takes to come to that assessment when there's an incident like this. >> so you would assemble various data. you would look for communications intercepts. you'd look for imagery from

overhead. you would look for the bomb crater analysis. you would look for fragments on the ground and you'd look for any indicated that there was anything other than an accidental hit on this location. so let's start at the back. israel is following the laws of land warfare so they're not going to target a hospital unless that hospital is somehow disguised and it is a real imminent threat, they're not going to target the hospital. secondly, we know from the communications intercepts that two hamas individuals were saying oh, god. look what happened. we didn't do it and then we know people have looked at it. they found residue of the fuel and they found the fragments that were symptomatic of an islamic jihad rocket that misfired, that didn't stay on course, a large warhead and fuel there.

there's no crater that would be symptomatic of a bomb falling from the sky, no big crater. even a 500-pound bomb crater in the parking lot, talking about ten, 12-foot wide crater, three, four, feet deep. there was not that there. this was not an israeli bomb by all evidence that's been available. what we would do if we had access to it we would put our own forensics experts and be checking everything ourselves and we're not going to get in there. by the time we do get in there or the israelis get in there on the ground it's been altered and not legally protected. so we've gone about as far as we can go at this point. it's clear that the information that was propagated around the around. others would imagine that and

would like to believe that. i don't think the evidence supports it. i'm sure the israelis wouldn't have done it because it would be so incredibly counterproductive to everything that israel is traying to accomplish right now. there's just no motive for it. on the other hand, it does feed the hamas islamic jihad narrative. civilian casualties and how barbarrous the israelis are and how being they attack innocent people and so forth. so from the technical side, the analysis of who benefits from it from looking at it, it just doesn't seem to be an israeli accident and certainly not something on purpose, but not an accident either. all of the evidence points to something wrong with a rocket that was fired by islamic jihad.

do you think president biden would share that intelligence with the world to make it public the way he has on multiple occasions with the intelligence the u.s. has gathered during the russian invasion of ukraine? >> i think it might happen, but i imagine if it was our communications intercepts or the israelis that picked up the statements by hamas and these communications intercepts are classified and when you release them you also give away the methods you might have used to collect them and you make it more difficult to get future information collection. so i would think that they would not be just because cast willy-nilly with the president of the united states saying you have the former prime minister saying you have people that looked at it and given our opinions and to be honest it will take a long time for this to sink in around the world and may never get the kind of

correction that we want in the minds of some who are watching al jazeera or arabia or other networks. they just won't accept the evidence. so that evidence will be presented and is being presented with something like a war crimes hearing at the united nations. and he possibly could be there, but we're in a current information warfare environment and so this struck on the hospital was a big strike in favor of hamas, however it happened, it doesn't help israel and it will be very tough to correct that impression out there. >> general wesley clark, thank you so much for your perspective. we appreciate it. thank you. >> stay with cnn. we're back in just a few minutes. pers!

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protesters here is the humanitarian situation and the rising civilian death toll and the ongoing israeli air strikes in the besieged gaza strip and many people felt they had a duty. it is important it know that here in jordan this is an issue that's central to the jordanian identity and almost half of the jordanian population is palestinians. this is a cause that's deeply personal to many here as it is across the arab world and we have been speaking to people in the crowds and we just moved a little further up to speak to you, but take a listen to what one person had to say to us a little earlier. >> the best thing we can all do is just to stand here and be the voice of the people. it's pretty emotional. i mean, the whole thing has been running for nearly a lot of years, a hundred years it's been going on, and i think it's about time that, you know, people know the truth and what's exactly going on.

>> now, anderson, it's important to note that these protests have been going on on an almost daily basis here in amman, as they have done across the middle east and they've been ignited and we've seen the protests intensify and grow particularly on the attack on the hospital in gaza. as we know both sides are placing the game on each other, but as far as the jordanian government is concerned they have placed the blame of that attack squarely on israel. >> nara bashir. thank you very much. israel says it was not an attack and it was a blast caused by islamic jihad which misfired and that was the evidence that they presented earlier today which is what we've been discussing. the national security council of the united states said that they, too, have concluded that israel was not at fault in this. obviously in jordan and elsewhere in the region that message is not being believed

and we are seeing continued demonstrations. we will have live continuing coverage from the region in a moment.

for now the house remains speakerless. congressman jim jordan's second bid to become speaker was defeated on the house floor. in fact, he lost support in the second round of voting. 22 republicans opting to vote against the ohio republican. he has vowed they will keep going. we are joined by someone who

voted against jordan twice. florida republican congressman carlos jimenez. he voted twice for former speaker kevin mccarthy. congressman, good to be with you. is it time for jim jordan to give up on becoming speaker? >> look, i'm never going to give jim jordan advice as to what he should do, but obviously, he and i had another day to try to convince people to come over his side and it obviously didn't work. he actually lost a net two votes. i suspect that if we go to a third round i think we'll end up with more people voting for somebody else, and so, you know, he's got to take that -- he's got to do the calculations himself and see what he wants to do, but i'm not going to give him any advice. >> i wanted to ask you some of cnn's reporting regarding blowback that jordan has gotten on his outreach to certain members. it's reported that he's put on a pressure campaign including some form of intimidation. i read that you got some of that outside pressure. are you concerned at all that

not supporting jim jordan now could harm you politically down the road? >> i will do what i think is right. i'll always do what i think is right. i've been a politician for close to 20 years and of a held positions that represent more than what i'm representing now and mayor of miami-dade county and got elected three times and twice as commissioner, so no. i don't succumb to pressure and you know what? that usually works out in the end and i am comfortable where i am right now. if somebody tries to pressure me i go into the wind and i don't go against it. when you succumb to pressure then all you will do for the rest of your career you will be pressured and i don't want that to be part of my career. >> have you had any conversations with him since that second vote? >> no, i have not. i had a conversation between the first and the second, and i told him exactly where i was. i've been in the same spot for two weeks. i thought that what happened to

kevin mccarthy was a travesty and eight republicans stopped our agenda and we need to get our agenda going again and we need to elect a spooeaker or at least open this house to continue the agenda. >> you've spoken to give henry mchenry expanded powers to move legislation things like aid to israel. jordan initially said that he wanted that voted on today. is it fair to say that he is now daring holdouts to either elect him as speaker or to work with democrats? >> no, i think what should happen is our designate -- our speaker designation should show leadership and put that measure and back the measure so that we can get all republicans to vote on a republican measure. that's what we need. i mean, you know, you really should put the interest of america before self-interest. when i was mayor in miami-dade i had a cup in front of me that

said service before self. service before self. that's the hallmark of public service, and so i would hope that everybody in here would put the interests of america before themselves. >> so you mentioned that mchenry is still backing jim jordan. it doesn't appear that just based on the votes that a majority of republicans are right now in favor of expanding mchenry's powers. you could potentially get there by courting democrats. is that something you're willing to do? make some sort of deal with democrats to go that route and get the house open again? >> i want our leader right now, our speaker designee to make that move. i think he needs to put that forward so that it's a clear signal that that's what he wants if he wants to continue this fight, i guess, to become speaker and then hold up america's business that tells me something about jim jordan also. so i would expect for him to say, hey, look, we know we have issues here, but we need to get america's business rolling, the

republican agenda moving and so we need to give speaker designee mchenry more powers and i expect that from him and not all of this do we have to work with democrats? i don't think we have to and the only reason we would have to is somehow he's blocking that effort and then what does that say? >> the numbers for something like that to move forward right now are tenuous, to say the least. congressman, while we have you i want to get your reaction to something that was unfolding near where you are right now. this is an office, a house office not far from the actual capitol building. there are protesters gathered there, some of them we understand, have been arrested from our gabe cohen who was reporting from the scene previously. this was a jewish group that was in favor of a cease-fire between israel and hamas. what's your reaction to seeing this demonstration? >> look, it's america. that's what's great about america. we allow for demonstrations and

we allow for differences of opinion. as long as it's peaceful and so i will -- i will support the right of every group here to demonstrate peacefully for what they believe in. obviously, i don't agree with this group. i think that israel has every right to defend itself. look, if israel allows hamas to exist and they are just going to degrade their capabilities, hamas will rearm and israel will have this happen again. the only way to defeat hamas is to destroy hamas, and so i support israel, but i support these demonstrators' right to whatever point of view that they have as long as it's peaceful. >> congressman carlos gimenez, please keep us posted on any conversations you might have with jim jordan and if that move on empower patrick mchenry moves forward. thank you very much. >> thank you much. >> stay with cnn, we'll be right back.

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so go pay your unpaid tolls y and keep your wheels on the ! as the strike in the middle east reverberates here in the u.s., hundreds gathered to pay tribute to a little boy. the 6-year-old palestinian-american child who was stabbed to death in an alleged hate crime over the weekend. wadea al fayoume was buryied after a funeral attended by thousands. joining us is one of the four kick chicago area rabbis who went to the funeral of that little boy. tell us a little bit about your decision to do this, why it was so important for you to attend

wadea's funeral and show your support for his family. >> thanks for having me. you know, my community's been in tremendous pain beginning with the terrorist attack that murdered over 1200 of our brothers and sisters and raped and kidnapped and i want to mention the name of hirsch poland who is a member of my community who is still captive in gaza and his mother still lives here, so we're hurting and it's been very hard, and then we heard about this horrific crime, this horrific murder of a boy because of his religion and because of his identity and just the murder of an innocent, and just as we've stood out and called out terrorism against our people. we needed to call out this terrorism against this young muslim boy. we went. it wasn't simple and our communities are very similar in certain ways, but also do things

very different in a lot of other ways, but it was important to affirm our shared humanity and to affirm that children deserve the right to not be murdered for who they are. it's very low bar, but let's at least come together and agree on that and that's why we went and it was powerful and we were welcomed and we shared our condolences. we shared the fact that thousands of yjewish people, an thousands have condemned this horrific crime and none of us want this, none of us want this at all, and it was -- it was very meaningful to be there. >> we have all been appalled as we have heard about this. this is part of bridge building work that you do through an initiative called solu this isn't the first time that you have crossed a line that i think

a lot of people don't, and you have said that this little boy was killed solely because of his religion and his identity, that we need to try to build a world where it doesn't happen to anyone. how do you do that? >> that's right. you know, i think begin with relationships and you begin with reaching out and sometimes reaching out is not simple, but that's, specifically, i think when you have to try to do it even more. so we reach out to all kinds of groups, and i am blessed to have friends of every religion, of every race, of every ethnicity and by getting to know people on a one-on-one and realizing that 99.9 of us want the same thing. we want our kids to be safe. we want to live in freedom. we want to live in a world where this kind stuff doesn't happen. that's what 99.9% of humanity wants, but we have to sometimes cross those barriers and by the way, the terrorists don't want us to make those connections.

the people on every side, all of the extremists want to keep us apart. they want to make it seem like we're so different and we can never come together. i reject that. we share so much more as humans than what divides us and we need to find ways to come together and build bridges of tolerance and of love and of building the world we all want to live in. >> the debate is so fraught, right? this is a conversation that some people don't want to begin because you see where it goes so often. >> yeah. >> what are some of the keys to finding understanding? >> i think one of the keys is to acknowledge complexity. you know, anybody who says any issue is black and white is either naive or is being deceptive. things are complicated and that's okay, and we can talk about complexity and we also need to be able to call out evil. so when children are murdered because of terrorism and when children are actively targeted

and killed for who they are, that's evil and we have to call that out. i think it's holding both. we have to hold nuance and complexity and there are a lot of complicated things in the world right now and be able to listen and learn and think openly and expansively about them and also to be able to strongly say, you know what? murder is murder, terrorism is terrorism and wherever it happens, we call it out. >> rabbi, thank you so much for your time today. we do appreciate you speaking to us. >> thank you. everybody, please spread some light today. that's what we all need right now. "the lead "woe" with jake t starts after this short break.