. i am poppy harlow with phil mattingly in new york. erin burnett is in tel aviv, israel.

president biden is getting ready to give a primetime address to the nation after returning home from the war zone in israel overnight. we are expecting him to make his pitch for war aid to israel and ukraine. biden said he secured a deal with the egyptian president to allow trucks with humanitarian aid to process to gaza tomorrow where millions are of civilians are running out of food, water and medicine. >> if you have an opportunity to alleviate the pain, you should do it. period. and if you don't, you are going to lose credibility worldwide. and i think everyone understands that. >> president biden also said u.s. intelligence backs up israel's claim that a mall fupgsing rocket fired by palestinian militants caused the deadly blast at a hospital in gaza, not an israeli airstrike. new video appears to show a rocket fired from gaza make a sudden and sharp turn back where it came from moments before the explosion at the hospital. cnn has gee lolo indicated a video where you can hear whatever caused the blast. take a listen. >> cnn cannot independently verify what caused the blast. the palestinian red crescent released this video of huge explosions near a different hospital last night where it says thousands of people are sheltering and this morning

palestinian officials say the death toll in gaza has now topped 3,500 people. >> let's go straight to erin burnett in tel aviv. this is just in now. israel saying it detained 63 hamas terrorists overnight. what do we know about this? >> reporter: well, phil, they just said they detained in the west bank 63 individuals that they say are hamas terrorists. 80 detentions overall overnight in the west bank. they say 63 were hamas. they are also talking about skirmishes where there were injuries, a palestinian was shot, idf was injured in skirmishes as well in the town of better dues in the west bank. significant, when you talk about 63, alleged, we don't know who these individuals are or what role they played, if any, but the significance would be that they are there, that they got there, what role they had to play, whether they have moved there from gaza or whether they were there to begin with.

so that is unclear. and also the context of the fact as of a few case -- these numbers surely have changed. i have been told by idf sources at least ten senior hamas commanders have been killed in airstrikes so far. working to confirm if they were civilians killed in several strikes in southern gaza in the past few moments. i should say the rockets that came in here that anybody watching heard, hamas have claimed responsibility for those, immediately claimed responsibility for those in tel aviv. that horrific strike on a hospital in gaza that reportedly killed hundreds of innocent civilians, we don't know the death toll there. sparked angry protests around the world. demonstrators outside the israeli embassy in washington, d.c., to stand for solidarity yesterday.

police had to arrest about 300 people at another protest demanding a ceasefire in gaza. in new york thousands of demonstrators spilled into the streets on wednesday and one of the largest pro-palestinian protests that that city has seen so far. meantime, in the middle east large crowds in many cities around the israeli embassy where protesters were expressing solidarity with the palestinians denouncing the violence, urging the international community to provide aid to enter fien in gaza. 80,000 people demonstrating in turkey, that consulate is now closed. 80,000 people. take a moment to absorb that. i want to go to arnett in jordan, where there have been so many protests. what are you seeing on the ground in jordan? >> reporter: i think it's important to note that these protests are not new. we have seen demonstrations, hundreds, sometimes thousands of people taking to the streets here in jordan and across the

middle east from the outset of this war but they are certainly ramping up and that is what we have seen on the ground. we were at a protest yesterday in downtown amman near the israeli embassy where hundreds of people had gathered as you mentioned expressing solidarity with the palestinian people and also calling for an end to israel's arab bombardment of the gaza strip. this is a cause, an issue that is deeply personal for so many in middle east but particularly here in jordan where some 50% of the population are either palestinian or of palestinian descent. across the board, the people we spoke to on the ground at the protest, people we spoke to around amman in general say this is something that feels very personal to them. we folk to a protester yesterday who said he felt it was his duty to come out and voice his support and solidarity for the palestinian people. take a listen. >> this thing we could all do is just to stand here and be the

voice of the people. it's pretty emotional. the whole thing has been running for, like, nearly a lot of years, maybe 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. >> reporter: now, of course, we have seen protests here in jordan, lebanon, tunisia, libya, iraq, occupied west bank, people taking to the streets in a show of solidarity with the palestinian people. of course, we are expecting these protests to continue ramping up, to continue to intensify. the message we were hearing yesterday is they are frustrated by the situation inside the gaza strip, by the mounting civilian death toll, well over 3,000 now inside gaza according to palestinian authorities there and they are frustrated by the international response as well as the delay in getting aid to those in need and so many in need inside gaza. of course, this isn't just on

the popular front. on the diplomatic front, we saw that planned summit between president biden, king abdullah and mahmoud abbas was canceled following that explosion that attack on the allhospital in ga. the key focus of course trying to bring about an end to this war. iron. >> thank you very much. live in amman. we have some new video in of another strike in gaza. the interior ministry is saying there was a deadly shooik hitting a neighborhood in khan yunis. people are streaming into a hospital in khan yunis after what the director general says 13 were killed in the blast. the interior minute stre of gaza

is naming the family that they say their home was hit by this. we don't have any comment from the idf and can't confirm what caused the blast, who was behind it, a death toll. however, it happened. selma you have more. ingoing, out going, non-stop, and now more death. >> yes. and so far we have that death toll from a hospital director, a local hospital director in dpauz who says 13 people killed. that's expected to rise because rescue workers are still pulling people out from under the rubble. we have graphic footage to show you that i want to play of this. an entire city level was -- an entire city block, rather, was leveled in khan yunis. the reality is on the ground is that there are people trapped in an urban war zone, right, there

are no safe places. what is significant about what you are looking at right now, the place you are looking at right now is that khan younis is one of the areas that families were told to flee towards by the israeli military just a few days ago. those evacuation orders over the weekend telling people to flee south. well, this is south. this is supposed to be some semblance of safety. clearly, it is not. it is also the south of the gaza strip which means closer to the rafah border crossing. allowing some trucks some aid into gaza. to do potentially complicate that. if there are heavy airstrikes as officials are saying inside gaza intensifying airstrikes on the south of the strip that complicates the ability to bring that desperately needed aid in and you know that many hospitals are saying that they are simply on the brink of collapse, losing

fuel, losing medical supplies. so you have 2 million people trapped in a densely populated enl enclave, now pushed into a smaller corner in the south seeking safety, but of course t.j. to face that bloodshed. these hospitals they are absolutely overwhelmed e what treatment they can get is unclear. doctors are telling us they were performing surgeries on the floors in hospitals in gaza. >> all right. thank you very much. a doctor telling us -- barely could speak for 20 seconds to tell us there is no medicine, no medical supplies, nothing. there is smoke rising over gaza as the strikes continue. phil and poppy, this particular strike we understand a spokesperson for the idf speaking to jim sciutto saying they have no comment and no information about in block. so more will be forthcoming.

but as selma says, people are dead, we don't know the death toll and there is more tragedy and more things needing to be answered. back to you. >> thank you very much. we will get back to you very soon. with us now is retired four-star general and former cia director david petraeus. he is now the chairman. kkr global institute and co-author of conflict, tracing the evolution of warfare from 1945 to now. thank you. let's start where erin left off and the importance of accuracy in all of this. you quote winston churchill saying, i think 1943, in wartime truth is so pressures that you should always be attended by bodyguard of lies. how do you think about this now in this war? >> we have seen a number of cautionary tales here about the first report is always wrong, which is a truism in the military. let's pause and get additional information, let's try to develop it, so forth.

so the reaction to at hospital bombing which i think we have high confidence was not caused by an israeli bomb by errant islamic jihad rocket upheaval in the region over something that they should be blaming islamic jihad for, the terrorists, not the israelis. but again this is also a reminder that operations in urban areas are just extraordinarily difficult. inevitably, there will be consider damage to civilian infrastructure and there will be loss of life for innocent civilians, especially against an enemy like hamas and the islamic jihad who fight the population. >> this book was completed before this war broke out, you wrote that a ground invasion by the idf could be mogadishu on steroids? >> yeah, i recognize this may be necessary. the desire for vengeance is absolutely understandable. keep in mind that in per capita

terms, the loss of 1,300 israelis in a barbaric act is the equivalent of 40,000 for us compared to the 3,000 that we lost in 9/11. this has touched everyone. they are all called up. but nagain the recognition is increasing about how challenging this would be. i think this is a military mission that can be accomplished but it's not going be quick. it's not going to be in the least bit clean or antiseptic. >> this is going to be hugely damaging. the question that has to be asked, then what? during the fight to baghdad, there was a moment we took the first large iraqi city tfrmt good news and bad news, good news is we own a city of about 400,000 people, she a islam. what's the bad news? we own the city. what to do with it? if you destroy hamas and again

we all want to see hamas -- hamas is the islamic state. this not a idealogical movement. these are bar bareions. and if you dismantle the political wing, which is what israeli senior officials said they intend to do, then what? who is going to own gaza? again you will have 2 million people in even worse humanitarian crisis than they are and figuring that out and i am sure, i know the idf, the israel defense forces, chief of staff and the others, i am sure they are saying, boss, we can do this, but it's going to be hugely costly and we'd like know what will be done afterwards. how are you going to administer this and make sure that hamas doesn't come back. you not only need an organization in there to hand out humanitarian assistance and rebuild and restore basic services. you need a counterinsurgency campaign because a hamas counterterrorism campaign would be more accurate, because hamas

and islamic jihad will come back. >> there is a more of a concern about this. how real is that, this could escalate quickly and very broadly? >> very real. you saw in response to the ib accurate information about the hospital bombing real upheaval in the west bank, in lebanon, you know, keep in mind hezbollah on the northern border of israel has 150,000 rockets. if they decide to unleash them, that could overwhelm the sophisticated iron dome and integrated air defense systems they have. realize in 2006 when there was a war with hezbollah, they got hammered by israel and we reassessed several times after that the increasing amount of damage. so i'm not sure they want to get into it, but it's not impossible. you have to be concerned about it. >> the region is different than in 2006. there has been a realignment of

the players, new leaders, several the players right now, does that add to the risk right now? >> certainly it does. and iran is frankly probably delighted to see all the trouble going only i this stoked it, they fund hezbollah, hamas, the shia militia in syria, houthis in yemen. and all of these could do something. you saw actually three drones interpreted headed towards u.s. buys in iraq. we still have several thousand soldiers there in northeastern syria at the request of the iraqi government to keep an eye on the islamic state, which is necessary, by the way. even after you destroyed the islamic state, which is what happened in mosul. mosul is a city about the size of gaza city. it took nine months for the iraqi security forces to clear all of mosul with our direct assistance.

it puts it in perspective as well as identifying the potential for regional escalation. that's why we have two carrier task forces either out there or a second on the way. additionally, heightened protection. >> one of the through lines in your book that i think is so critical then and now especially is this -- you've got good leaders have to get the big ideas right. >> yes. >> you say it starts with getting the big ideas right, failing to do that typically dooms what follows. if you were sitting down with netanyahu right now, how would you talk to him about the big ideas? >> he has laid out what i think one big idea is, but it's only one and there needs to be several more. one is destruction of hamas. again, entirely understandable. need to do that. but the military has to acquaint him, this is how hard this is going to be, how many casualties we are going to take, they are going to take, civilians, damage, destruction. if you think there is a

humanitarian crisis now, wait until this begins. but then it's what's the other big idea here which is just begging for an answer, and that is what next? who is going to take over gaza? you know the old if you break it, you own it. we broke iraq and owned it and it turned out that our phase for planning the post-conflict planning was inadequate. i remember asking in kuwait, a two star, can you give us more detail what happens when we get to the baghdad top of the regime, he said get us to baghdad, they will take it from there. that was wholly inadequate and we compounded it by some decisions we made. >> this is the question phil has been asking from day one, day two of this. >> part of the reason is your quote from 2003 runningg ringin my head. no one has a end. t book is conflict.

thank you. secretary of state antony blinken is asking u.s. embassies around the world to re-evaluate their security as the war between israel and hamas rages on and law enforcement in the u.s. also remains on high alert. a look at the warnings and potential threats. that's next. blinken ordering al

and consulates to conduct review of security. law enforcement on high alert. the fbi and the department of homeland security issuing a joint intelligence warning lone offenders reacting to the ongoing war post the most likely

threat to americans. joining us now cnn chief law enforcement and intelligence analyst john miller. so, what do people do with that information? >> i think what people do with the information is we get back into kind of the post-9/11 mode of the heightened version of if you see something, say something. what law enforcement is looking for is help from the public in terms of suspicious activity. the lapd put out a note to their communities saying you know your community and you know your neighbors and the best way to protect them is, you know, to share information and come forward if you see something that doesn't fit in. so there is a lot of that. but what we are seeing in terms of police departments is the nypd put 3,500 people who would normally work thousands in plainclothes in uniform, no request for days off that weren't scheduled are being approved, and l.a. they did the same thing.

in chicago they enhanced things. in las vegas they have tightened the casino industry and camera systems. the major city chiefs association, which is all of the most populous urban areas in the country had a conference last week and sent out a notice today with a ten point set of recommendations for enhances intelligence, counterterrorism plans, conatingencies, strategis for demonstrations. so what you're seeing is a girding of the american security apparatus on the federal, state and local level. >> on the international level, we were watching i think in real time yesterday we were all watching what was happening in beirut as the protests in the wake of the hospital bombing or the hospital explosion. the cable from blinken, obviously, a lot has changed in terms of embassy security in the wake of benghazi and things like that. what are this he doing? >> they told everybody to get

your emergency action committee together within the embassy, assess our day-to-day security, where are we in the world and what are the level of tensions where we are. what do we need to ratchet up in terms of do we need more people out front, do we need more help from the host country at the perimeter. but there is a flip side to that, which is what do we need as a regional security officer from the diplomatic security service to be putting out from the embassy to our americans in that country, in that region, to say here is where to go, here is where to avoid, these are potential flashpoints. so it's a top to bottom threat assessment. and he didn't just say do it. he said do it and send it back to me in state. >> what is the significance of it's believed to be a hamas taken among the 63 detained in the west bank overnight? >> a couple of things, poppy. it's an interesting distinction.

you have the military wing and you have the propaganda and political people, but this isn't an regular law enforcement posture in israel. this is war. and that is in terms of war the people doling out the propaganda are setting the message are operational and, in addition, this he can be given operational responsibilities beyond their day job of spokesmen, but i think if you look at this in the when it happened and the who it happened to, you see israel trying to control a message, which is the israelis bombed this hospital and killed 500 innocent people, including women and children, when we have sorted through there is at least significant doubt, if not evidence to the contrary, and that -- those facts aren't fully established yet. so somebody who would be stirring that kind of emotion in a genre where people would commit agents of terrorism just

base based on that is somebody you would want to roll up in the west bank as opposed to gaza, he's got communications infrastructure and advantage there. >> john miller, thank you, for your expertise. the world health organization says the situation in gaza is in their words, quote, spiraling out of control from millions of civilians trapped there. our san gentleman gupta has reported in afghanistan in middle east, performed brain surgery in a war zone. he is with us next to help us understand what the doctors are going through.

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new video just into cnn after gaza say a deadly airstrike hit a neighborhood in khan younis. this is hard to watch. death and destruction and lives forever changed. people stream nothing a hospital in khan younis. 13 were killed. they are blaming an israeli strike. we don't know the number of dead or injured. the idf spokesperson responded to questions about this to cnn just moments ago.

>> these are not people that we can trust with information. i am not saying that nothing happened there. i have no information about it. however, we learned from the hospital incident, we cannot trust what they say because they simply have no problem deceiving the world. >> reporter: cnn at this moment cannot confirm for you what caused the blast at this point or who was behind it. we simply don't know. we know that it happened. we know that people are killed and that's a huge tragedy. we don't know yet know who is responsible for the idf, what they were trying to do the airstrike. se salvador ramos /* /* do you anticipate getting more answers from the idf or hamas about in? you. >> reporter: let's just focus on what's happening on the ground, erin, because regardless of the accusations being traded back and forth, the reality on the ground is that there are some 2 million people, half of them children, that are trapped in an

urban war zone as these two warring parties literally exchange explosions, exchange fire. the images we are playing right now, as you mentioned, you are disturbing, but they are of people streaming into an overwhelmed healthcare system. hospitals are absolutely on the brink in gaza. some of them warning they are going to run out of fuel, they are already running out of medical supplies. doctors were telling us that they were performing surgeries without painkillers on the floors of some of these hospitals. that's the medical treatment that these victims will receive when they enter this khan younis hospital and othe location is significant. khan younis is in the south of the gaza strip. these are areas that families, civilians were told to flee towards this weekend by israeli military for their safety. so families went there. i think about 500,000 people went there hoping to find that refuge to absolutely not see that at all they continue to

face death, continue to face destruction in those areas. the other significant thing to take away here when we're talking about southern gaza is that's where the rafah border crossing is. you remember president biden announced this deal that will allow some trucks into gaza through the rafah border crossing. that could complicate those efforts if there is continued fighting. we have from rights group there has been destruction to the rafah bordering crossing caused by israeli airstrikes. that humanitarian aid is crucial. every single hour counts. again, when you are looking at the people trapped, sealed into the gaza strip essentially by this complete siege, by the closure of the rafah border crossing, rights groups accusing this offensive by israel of being collective punishment on this enclave. >> thank you very much.

and phil and poppy, there are just -- when you think about 2 million people, 20 trucks are apparently, if it opens up as biden says sisi agreed to. that's 20 trucks. there is nobody coming out. it's so important for all of us to remember just the anguish and fear those people have and there is right now no hope even for any getting out. >> yeah, and the fact that you pointed out, that's in the south, right, where so many people were told to flee. we will get back to you as soon as we can. with us our now our chief medical correspondent dr. sanjay gupta. no better doctor to have at the table in a moment like this. you covered war zones, done brain surgeries from lebanon to israel to afghanistan. i mean, we are hearing stories of doctors performing surgery with no anesthesia. >> these hospitals are ready --

even before this happened, there is no system for redone undancy. they are always full. it's a tough situation in mean hospitals in the middle east. add to that the fact that they are targeted. you know, when i first started doing this some 25 years ago now, you had a red cross on your truck, that was safe haven. there were international humanitarian sorts of codes of ethics. in 2006 i was covering the lebanese israeli war and someone took a shot at the truck we were in which had a red cross on it. i realized there are no rules in situations like this and hospitals that are in the war zone become targets. in fact, sara sidner did a great report about hospitals under ground in thief. that started happening in lebanon about 25 years ago. hospitals have to go underground to try to preserve the resources. something else, you know, i covered natural disasters,

conflicts. they are both terrible. the thing about conflicts is that the targeting of that, that really messes with the mental health of the clinicians and people trying to do this work, so they are going to save lives, oftentimes strangers' lives and saying to their spouses when they leave, today i may die in order to save the life of someone i don't know. it's really from a burnout standpoint and sort of mental health standpoint, really significant. urjts mentioned the memphis. you -- the mental health. you have this week your podcast chasing life talk to a mental health expert about the anxiety, fear, that comes from the news. a different degree from gaza for health care officials, but everyone is dealing with this. >> even from afar, if you are witnessing this as we all have been, you guys have been witnessing it, as have i, that can have an impact on your brynn. it's worse for people on the ground that are seeing it firsthand. but witnessing the images on television.

what is interesting -- i brought this brain non-detonated to give you an idea. you have two areas of the brain relevant here. one is the amygdala, the emotional center of the brain, that activates no matter what just by seeing the images. what happens is you are by passing the frontal lobes, the judgment. you are basically a reactionary emotional sort of person at that point. as gail salts, a psychiatrist said, you are not in your wise mind at that point you are not making rational decisions. it's all emotional. that's no surprise. the surprising part is it can happen anywhere. she has all sorts of suggestions what to do about it. here is what she told me. >> i am agreeing with the american psychological association and other organizations that say, hey, take these social media apps off your kids' phone for a while. but i would also say for the adults, it may be a time to remove for yourself, and i am not saying, hey, crawl under a

rock and have no idea what's going on. i am not advocating for that. i am advocating for perhaps not scrolling through on the social media where there is no trigger warning, there is no warning, it's just a constant diet of really upsetting images. >> you want to be an informed person but you want to take care of your mental health. doesn't mean just going under a rock as she said. another thing, the idea of mental health self-care. you brush your teeth, take care of your skin, how do you take care of your mental health? deep breathing is something anybody can do. this may sound like i am minimizing things, but it makes such an impact. five seconds in through your nose and seven seconds, two extra seconds, out through your mouth. those two extra seconds your heart rate lowers, cortisol levels lower. do that ten times. you should do it. i do it when i'm in war zones.

anybody who is watching these images can do it. >> there are apps. >> yes. >> breathing apps. >> i did it before i came on the set. >> sanjay does it, so i feel comfortable saying i do breathing exercises. >> i do, too. so helpful to hear what she said what to do about our kids and also for yourselves. >> yes, you can't measurian own me -- own mechbl. 22 republicans voting against jim jordan yesterday in his bid to become the next hourz. that's a higher number than n t first round. ssman mike lauer is going to join us next. stay with us.

multiple republican sources telling us it that congressman jim jordan is poised to lose even more support if he goes through with a third vote today. yesterday's vote 22 fellow republicans voted against him. that's up from 20 who rejected his bid the day before. joining us republican congressman from new york mike lawler, voted against jordan twice. i appreciate your time. is there anything jim jordan can do to get you to vote in support

of him? >> as i said to jim last week, the fundamental issue, frankly, is not who the speaker is. it is the ability of the conference to work together. you have 221 members and throughout the course of the year around 20 folks have undermined the conference by voting down rules, by delaying the vote in january for speaker, by voting to vacate the chair, by refusing to support a conservative cr that would have cut spend big 8% and helped secure our border. and so the frustration among many is the ability to govern and that to me is the focus. so as i said to jim last week, if you want to be able to advance this forward, you have to get those 20 folks together with folks in swing districts and find a way forward in terms of legislation because that's what the fundamental issue is. >> and so you are no vote would

seem to say he hasn't been able to do that. the bigger question now, nobody -- tell me who can get 217 votes in your conference,just to be blunt about it. there is no one. >> there is nobody that is at 217 right now. the closest person is kevin mccarthy. and i still fundamentally believe he is the right person to lead our conference. matt gaetz is the dog that caught the car. there was no plan after the removal of mccarthy. you just hope the rest of the conference would solve the problem for him, that he created. but you have a real challenge here, and especially after the removal of mccarthy, after blocking steve scalise, there is a lot of frustration within the conference. to me at the end of the day we need to come together, get book to work. if we can't get 217 in the immediate, then we need to empower patrick mchenry to serve temporarily as speaker so we can

move the appropriations bills, we can deal with border security, deal with aid to israel and ukraine. if you don't open up the house floor, then we are in paralysis and gridlock. that, obviously, is not good for the american people. it's not why i was elected to be here. you know, i am here to govern. and that's what we have to get back to. >> i think there is clearly momentum moving behind i think congressman joyce's proposal about empowering the speaker pro tem, patrick mchenry. also a framing by conservatives that that would be selling out, working with democrats instead of finding a solution, a solution they can't point to and given life to the threats your colleagues have gotten because of their opposition to jim jordan. have you or your family received any of those threats? >> no. and certainly, look, voters are entitled to reach out to offer their opinion, voice their frustrations. i respect that and i accept

that. obviously, people should not be issuing death threats to members of congress or anyone. but the one thing i would say, the idea that this is somehow selling out or, you know, the uniparty striking, let's be clear of the only reason we are in this mess is because eight republicans teamed up with 208 democrats to do this, to throw the house into chaos. so we wouldn't be here but for that, and patrick mchenry is a republican. he has been a republican his whole life. he served in congress nearly 20 years. he is well respected across the broad spectrum of the house. he would be able to do the job effectively and efficiently, and the bottom line is we need to get back to work. so this is not about selling out or, you know, striking a deal with the democrats. it's a republican speaker who is going to govern as a republican. we just need to get back to work. >> right, a conservative republican who also just wants

to be the house financial services chairman. do you expect a move towards the joyce proposal towards empowering patrick mchenry today? >> if we can't get to 217 today, we need to get the house floor back up and running. i have a bill in the foreign affairs committee today that we are marking up to sanction iran and iranian petroleum even further. we need to be moving the bills on the house floor given the situation in israel. so there is a lot of work to do. and if we can't come to an immediate consensus on a speaker, then we need to empower patrick to govern. that's as far as i am concerned the most important thing we can do today. >> congressman mike lawler, thank you. >> thank you. so president biden reached a significant verbal breakthrough on providing humanitarian aid to palestinians facing dire conditions. that aid has not yet actually been allowed through the rafah

crossing. when that happens is crucial.

so currently we're at the border, i've been coming almost every day on the hopes it's going to open. but unfortunately every day there's no news. we don't know whether we can leave or stay. so i ask people out there who have a heart, who do care, to find us a safe haven or at least get us out of gaza. >> that was a man named nora in rafa right at the border crossing with egypt. he like many are desperate to escape as israel and hamas continue the war. with egypt and other countries unwilling to take in palestinian refugees. while egypt is keeping refugees out, the country has agreed to open that southern border for humanitarian aid to go in,

that's according to president biden. much more on this and the big picture we have bianna golodryga with us now. thank you for being here. now it's about proving it. al-sisi proving what biden said. >> remember the meeting biden hoped to have with the leaders was canceled. this was the takeaway deliverable was getting at least 20 trucks through this crossing. anything would be helpful for the people desperate. the innocent people desperate for aid inside. but taking a big picture look this goes back many, many decades. remember in 1967 when israel was attacked by egypt, jordan, syria, israel walked away with more territory, including the west bank, gaza. now egypt and jordan are saying we are home to millions of refugees ourselves, egypt about

9 million refugees and jordan over 1 million. the united states providing aid to both countries for years as well. which is why the president is leaning on that aid in the push to get egypt specifically to participate here. but egypt and al-sisi said yesterday we're not taking any more of these palestinians in for a number of reasons. they're fearful this may be a push by the israelis to permanently displace these gaza residents. israel saying no we'll have them return but after the war. el sisi said they should send them to the south of the country to the desert, that is a nonstarter. so going through the options here, it speaks to a bigger issue. these are countries that have normalized relationships with israel, egypt and jordan, and they're saying if these people, some of them terrorists, cross

into our border this war could expand beyond just hamas and israel to perhaps even within egypt and jordanian borders and that could impact whatever peace treaties they have here. >> then you had the iranian influence as well. that plays a role in all of this. we have been talking about the risks of escalation. you talk about the countries that border israel, where they stand, why they stand there, public statements differ. and you talk about iran supporting hezbollah, a proxy of iran but also iranian militia groups in iraq, syria, anon ongoing war in this yemen right now. what does that do to the risks? >> it destabilizes the whole region, which is why people

sayle iran gains the most. because you speak to the leaders, of egypt, jordan, yes, behind the scenes the economist has a piece out this morning behind the scenes they're shocked by what the leaders say to them privately about how they feel about hamas, no different than some right wing extremists in israel. but when it comes to people on the streets, they are largely pro-palestinian, pro-palestinian cause while the leaders may have been trying to circumvent netanyahu, the palestinian case, in order to maintain and build on relationships, perhaps even normalizing relationships with the the saudis. this would throw a wrench in there and if you look who benefits is iran, which is why the focus is on northern israel and with what, if anything, hezbollah would do given the green light from iran. >> to put a button on it, the israeli idf, skirmishes between

hezbollah and the south of lebanon and north of israel got more frequent and worse in the last 24 hours. what does that tell you? >> testing the waters here to see how far israel would go. skirmishes they could handle but could they handle a two front war. now the hezbol 2007 said that conflict and war was very costly for them and they did not expect to see the intensity coming at them from israel. israel saying they could do the same now but this would be a costly battle and what's the u.s. going to do now that we have two carrier strikers in the region. a lot to watch out for. >> thank you as always. helpful. this as the u.s. ambassador -- u.s. embassy is telling americans to leave lebanon as soon as possible. we'll keep you posted on what's behind that. cnn "news central" starts right after this break.