welcome to our continuing coverage of israel at war.

i'm erin burnett in israel alongside my friend john berman in new york. the head of the israeli defense forces told his commanders tonight that, quote, we'll enter the gaza strip. not a question. a definitive statement. a spokesperson for the idf saying they are increasing airstres to gaza to minimize risk to troops for the next stage of the war. they've been running on some days at more than 200 strikes and they'll increase that number. they saw dozens of tanks, personnel, carriers, as well as bulldozers massed at the border. and we've seen those bulldozers, massive military ones designed for an urban incursion they will be facing. this video represents just one of several grouping that's our team witnessed. altogether, cnn saw hundreds of tanks and armored vehicles. this comes as the world health organization warns that the limited amount of supplies allowed to cross into gaza from egypt today is not enough. it was about 20 trucks.

they say they need about 100 every day. the director general saying that the hospitals inside gaza are already at their, quote, breaking point. 20 trucks, as i said, entered gaza earlier today. food, water, medical supplies. no fuel. that is deemed too controversial as to whether hamas will siphon that off and take it for military purposes. of course, that fuel is desperately needed to run the hospital generators which are hours away, a day away from possibly running out. nic robertson joined every joins me from israel. to take a pause here, it was two weeks ago today that these horrific attacks happened. what is the very latest where you are tonight? >> reporter: yeah, the very latest is fighter jets in the sky. we've been hearing explosions coming from the northern end of gaza. we've been seeing flashes in the past hour or so. and through the past 24 hours, a noticeable uptick in the. a strikes, israeli strikes going

into gaza, compared to i would say the 24, 48 hours prior tom. that period, a couple days prior to the hostage release early yesterday was relatively quiet. noticeably, it has picked up today. we've been driving along the border, comparing and contrasting what we're seeing today compared to what we were seeing a week ago. that frenzied activity of the very fast military build-up, you heard another heavy detonation coming from gaza there. that frenzied activity for a fast build-up isn't there. it is more settled. more roads are controlled. the security is tighter the closer you get to gaza. a grouping of tanks that we see are ready to get, it appeared, to move forward five or six days ago. they're gone. it is hard to know if they're moving forward and closer to gaza or if they're pulled book a pause. what was interesting today, the areas where we have seen a

massive back from the front line, areas where we've seen massive rows of tanks and heavy armored fighting vehicles. all packed up in fields without troops by them. they're still there. they're still in those locations. that potentially means the idf has a lot more reserves that kit call upon in terms of armored vehicles when it needs them. but it also signals perhaps it hasn't moved all of its force yet toward gaza. more heavy detonations there. it is hard to say from the limits of what we can see about what will happen. obviously, everyone is aware that the humanitarian aid, the hostages play on israel's calculation of when it can do what the idf says it is getting ready to do. >> they've been so clear, right? it's interesting. you talk about that being ready to go. the sense of, they're prepared and ready.

to stay in that stance, we all know, is not possible. you have soldiers busing in and busing out from where they're sleeping at night. you have the air base nearby where we were the other day. thousands of pallets laid out where they're sleeping. they're not going to work, they're ready to go. the idf says we're ready to go. that's two days after netanyahu never said you will soon see the inside of gaza. there is something going on here. on the time line. they canada saying, get ready, we're going, we're going. and then something is not happening. what is your sense of the time line here? >> reporter: yeah. i think it is a very difficult time for prime minister netanyahu. we've heard from politicians, government ministers saying the green light has been given to the military. but the politicians still have a hand in this. we know again in the past few hours or so, hamas's military

wing have said we have another couple of hostages. we've heard from the prime minister's office. the idf saying this is just propaganda coming from hamas. we know that a couple of hostages were released yesterday. we know it took a couple days to formulate the plans and make that actually happen and work. so there's a lot of pressure. how many different nationals are being held by hamas? i think the number is over 30 now. 210 hostages held by them. hamas has got a huge amount of leverage. it is trying to leverage the humanitarian aid situation as well over the israeli governments. it is a different calculation that the israeli government has had to make than it ever made before. it seems to me the intent is absolutely there to go in. it is merely the precise timing of when. >> right. of course. if they are going to do a hostage or two every day, you could stepped it indefinitely. and that, of course, is not

something israel can do in terms of an incursion. thank you very much. sderot is where nic is. this is about the hospital bombing that everyone watching knows about and has seen so much coverage. there is been such intentional reaction to around the world, particularly here in the middle east. this forensic report that we have shows that gaza, the bombing in the hospital in gaza was not from an israeli strike. so it's not the u.s. intelligence saying it. it's not the the idf saying it. this is cnn's forensic analysis. jeremy, i know we that you are sad this incredibly doggedly to try to get an independent view of what happened here. what are you learning? >> the investigations team has done an extensive investigation of this hospital in the gaza

strip. the conclusion is based off dozens of videos and speaking with weapons and explosive experts. this blast, there analysis indicates this blast was likely caused by rocket fire from not side gaza. that the evidence is not consistent with an israeli airstrike. i want to take you through this. first it is dozens of video from social media, from live broadcasts, as well as a video filmed by a free lance journalist working for cnn inside the gaza strip as well as satellite imagery. and these conversations with experts, with dozens of years of experience, explosives and weapons experts. effectively the conclusion is this blast was likely caused by a rocket launched by gaza. that that rocket likely broke up mid air and it landed on the hospital. why was this explosion so large? and that was one of the

questions from folks who believed it was more likely caused by an israeli airstrike. these weapons experts say it likely ignited fuel from the parked cars in the parking lot where the rocket appears to have landed as well as fuel that was at this hospital. one of the videos is from a al jazeera broadcast. you can see it appearing to burn out in the sky before crashing, it appears, at the hospital. another important piece of evidence and this is something israeli officials have pointed to within 24 hours of this blast during. the size of the crater in the hospital parking lot. we actually had that freelance journalist working for cnn go to the site of this blast. what he examined is a crater that is three by three feet wide. about one foot deep. now all of these experts that cnn spoke with say that is more consistent with a rocket and certainly not consistent with a

bomb being dropped from an aircraft, nor is it consistent with artillery fire to that location. so again, this is the analysis of cnn. the only thing to note is that we cannot have a definitive could not class about this in large part because of the difficulty of accessing the site and recovering any kind of physical evidence, shrapnel, for example, from this blast location which could lead to a more definitive conclusion of things. what is clear regardless, israel is standing by its could not class that it was a rocket fared by palestinian militants inside the gaza strip and palestinian officials, as well as much of the arab world, they are sticking to their belief that this was caused by israeli fair. ultimately, what is clear regardless of who was responsible. hundreds of people appeared to have died from this blast. and the broader middle east

world is up in arms this has been a major touch point in this war. regardless of the conclusions, it will remain so going forward. >> it certainly will. i think it is significant, not just that the crater is very different than it would be from an israeli airstrike, but also, it's not consistent with artillery fire either. when we drive along the border, we see a lot of artillery. there is a lot of artillery. and to make the point, it would not be that. back to you in new york. >> thank you so much. we'll jump off from what you were talking about with nic robertson. these last-minute preparations. with me now, cnn meteorologist spider marks. great to see you hear. this is the restricted area where the israeli military is massing. we have seen satellite images of

tanks lining up, ready to go. this is not top secret. they've made it very clear what was happening. those pictures were taken from up hear. there also maybe tanks elsewhere. what are they doing now and what are they getting ready to do? >> at this point, what they're doing is precombat checks. individuals and teams are getting ready to go. a lot of silence. a lot of focus. this is business. nobody is messing around. they're also doing rehearsals. what will take place on the ground. they have a maneuver, they have a plan. they're using what we call sand tables. they're trying to figure out what they'll do. they will refine that. simultaneously, they're doing intelligence collection. >> talk to me about that. what different tames of intelligence? >> what they're probably using, drones. they want to get the drones up in the air. the plans will be altered based --

>> imagery? >> imagery, intelligence. the thing they can do at their level. they can play the drones. get intelligence that will affect them in a very tactical way. they're also probably putting special ops teams into gaza. there's a lot of smoke and haze going on so they can infiltrate folks to put eyes on targets the best they can. so i would imagine that's taking place. and they're also tracking the cell phones of all the signals intelligence. and that's why there's targeting taking place in southern gaza. that's where a lot of the hamas leadership phones are located. >> this is the imagery from rafah. you can see where some of those were taking place. we have some video of the trucks coming over it right there. as you were looking at that, you think they made the strikes because they were following signals intelligence.

>> absolutely. you look at where hamas is located. they're not completely focused in the north. they're throughout gaza. >> i want to talk about these tank that's we see preparing to go in. when they do make the decision to go in. what paths do you think they'll take? >> it's more than just tanks. you've got infantry that's mounted. armor forces. you have artillery, et cetera. and it will be preceded by good intelligence. look. the mwadi is through hear. that's the wetlands. they would come in from the north, of course, and israel has a navy. they've got what is called corvettes. smaller attack ships. they have 45 patrol boats. 10,000 sailors on active duty. i would anticipate activity like this. what israel wants to do.

you want to secure this combat zone. you want to secure the perimeter. and then you go all these units will link up. go to the same place. link up. then you begin the operation to go after very specific targets. and those targets, john, are really the political and military leaders of hamas -- >> the people. >> the people. they want to go after them and i think they would have either a kill or capture mission. in this particular case, i would imagine a kill mission. the second thing they want to go after is the tunnel complex which is extensive, as you realize. >> i can show you. this is a ma'am of what the tunnels look like in 2021. that's some time ago. they probably expanded and redid i. >> that's the most difficult task they have to take on. this is urban terrain with a southern train piece. they have to destroy those

tunnels. that's going to draw people into it. this will be a difficult, difficult fight. >> all right. thank you. so for explaining all this. don't go far. obviously, more things could be happening very, very soon. thank you very much. we're going to dig into the situation with the hostages here. more than 200 are possibly being held in this area, including whether israel would listen to the u.s. urging the idf, the israel defense forces, to hit pause on the operations now. they say the first groups to drop off supplies, that it's not enough. and fears of a wider regional conflict are growing as more u.s. interests are under attack. stay with us. this is cnn's special live coverage.

american mother and daughter are on their way back home to

the united states. they were hostages released on friday by hamas. they were the first two hostages to be released since the october 7th attack. earlier today, president biden spoke to them on the phone from the oval office. we have some video of that particular call released by the white house. >> hey, judith. >> hello. >> i'm so glad you're home. not home. but out. >> thank you so very much. >> how are you? god love you. >> i want to thank you for your support for israel. >> look, that's been long. i'm just so grateful to get you out. we're going to get them all out, god willing. i hope you're not only feeling good but in good health as well. >> yes, sir. yes, we are. thank you very much. god bless you. >> god bless you guys. >> the release was the result of

negotiations between the government of qatar and hamas. now, the idf says there are 210 people being held in gaza right now. and that 210 has gone up steadily. it has gone up by even 7 in the past day. so that number has been inching up. joining me now, the senior diplomat for the israeli consulate. i appreciate appreciate your time tonight. he seems to signal that he wants a pause. friday, he seemed to i is a he wanted israel to delay the ground invasion after the release of the two americans. there's obviously more americans in there or hostages overall. let me play for you what he said.

[ inaudible ]. >> yes. so he said, should you delay the ground invasion until you get the hostages out. he's walking up into air force one. he applied yes. the white house immediately clarified that statement saying biden didn't hear the actual question. tonight he said this. >> are you encouraging israelis to delay invasion? >> so the question was asked directly. and he said no, i'm talking to the israelis. it sounds like, that the white house is pushing for a delay. do you think that is the case? >> well, thank you for having me. i think the first thing that needs to be said, from the secretary of state, from the national security adviser, from all of them. when it comes to the moving that

america is behind us. as portrayed in two of his speeches. he's not just talking the talk but walking the walk by two aircraft carriers on the way. by the package that is supposed to be introduced to congress. i think he's sending a very strong message that america is behind israel. in regard to the back and forth, we are in constant conversation. and we talk to all our partners and the executive branch in the united states. i have to say this is with the legislative branch of support coming from the hill, the house side and the senate side, and the fact that it is supposed to be coming, god willing, when there is a speaker, that will be a very strong message to all the world. >> so i'm going to ask you. hamas is ting dialogue with friendly countries about the release of foreign nationals. that includes qatar because they negotiated one release. but i know the russian foreign affairs ministry said they were

sper speaking to hamas. but the foreign nationals is what i wanted to ask you about. do you think that there is any chance that israeli hostages are released? is this something that the israeli government is trying to work on directly or not? >> well, we picked this war. we were not in a mood toward gaza. october 7th is an event imposed on us. butchering israelis. there are two goals for our return into gaza. the first and foremost is to eradicate the military threat of hamas. the second is to make sure all hostages come back home. we're talking about children. we're talking about women. we're talking about elderly, kids with special needs. this tells you exactly who we're

dealing with. and we will do anything we can to get them home. >> obviously the one big thing, i'm not saying it makes sense. some would say the invasion could be delayed. with the number of hostages they have, that could become an indefinite reality. do you feel there's an acceptance that at some point, presumably in the very near future, israel will go in, even though there will be at that time many, many hostages still in gaza? >> you're describing the complexity of the event and you're 100% right. when we had the one captive, they held him for five years and we had to release more than 1,000 prisoners. by the way, the one heading the entire operation in the gaza strip, was one of the people that we released at that hostage

deal. it will be very, very hectic to go in. but we will do what we have to do to accomplish these two missions. one, to eradicate hamas that they will no longer be a threat to our citizens and our communities. and b, to release as many hostages as possible. >> i appreciate your time. thank you very much for being with us on this saturday night. next, carl bernstein joins us on the growing fears. these are the real fears around the world, of a much wider war. plus, as the united states warns of lone wolves and attacks, a synagogue leader was found stabbed to death outside her home. a horrific story. we'll take you there.

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fears tonight that the conflict between israel and hamas could escalate into a broader regional conflict. israel's national security

adviser picked the u.s. would get involved if the gaza war escalated to the point where iran or hezbollah in lebanon join in. with me now, legendary journalist carl bernstein. we have a map up here that shows this in israel. every country in red, iran is one of them, egypt is highlighted because inside sinai there are militants targeting israel. but you can see every country there, forces that are loyal to iran and that could cause problems for israel. what are your concerns? >> well, the map illustrates it. it's not just the map. it is the people in the countries. at the moment, the arab street in all of those countries is on the verge of erimting. it has erupted this week. in such a way that the leaders of those countries, so ordinarily, you're seeing most of them as moderate, including

saudi arabia, have been trying to have a dialogue with the united states. there are people in the streets this week are saying no. we don't want a dialogue. we want to see the palestinian cause embraced by you, our leaders, in such a way as it actually supports hamas. and those leaders, look at what those demonstrators have been saying. death to the jews. death to israel. we are moving from a maxt that we've had for a good while of accommodation of these countries, many of them. not iron. with the state of israel. we're moving away from that now. that's one of the great concerns in the white house is that the arab street, and i've talked to a lot of people about this. in the white house and people in contact with people in some of those countries. that the arab street is pushing

it to the point where those leaders are no longer saying, as we've seen in their statements, they're talking about the palestinian cause. not about what happened with hamas and israel. they traveled to qatar, bahrain, uae blanketing the region. almost every possible country you can imagine, talking to leaders. you're suggesting that has limited capacity to change the situation. what he had said to those leaders is now being obviated by the cause of gaza. the people, the palestinians in gaza. their plight has been taken up in such a way to say no more of this. no two-state solution.

we want to see hamas succeed. that's the message in those then stragss. it's very significant. in many of those countries, those operations were not shut down by the leaders of those countries. let me go to one more thing about this particular moment in that clip shown yesterday about president biden being asked about what is going on. we don't know what is going on except there are significant suggestions. back and forth between the president and netanyahu. and that all important attitude that biden has been stressing, but we don't know the specifics is restraint. israeli forces as you go into gaza. how can it be made more surgical, perhaps? the fact that we don't know means this attitude of us trying

to restrain netanyahu, we don't know if it is succeeding. it is kind of unusual. we would know ordinarily from sources what is going on. we don't at this critical moment. >> it seems inevitable that israel will go into gaza with ground forces. does the way or degree to which they do that, how will that influence the reaction on the arab street that you were talking about? >> inevitably it will. i don't think there is any question. there is a bigger question. there are people around the president who want netanyahu to somehow say in some way that yes, we see the day where there can be a two-state solution. by moving so far away from that possibility. and i don't think it is likely that we'll hear that while the troops go in. but there are people in the

white house who want to see netanyahu say something to this effect to try to diffuse the situation that is not working to the israelis' benefit in terms of what we are hearing around the world today. that's really a huge problem for jews all over the world, for israel. no matter how righteous, what israel is attempting to do in the face of these or inch attacks. the tide among too many people in europe, elsewhere, in terms of how they view israel today is not working to the israelis' advantage even after this horrific attack. >> thank you very much for being with us. i appreciate it. >> good to be here. so coming up, the chilling call from a daughter to a father as she and her brother were being kidnapped by hamas. and the parents' heartbreaking

reaction.

i'm erin burnett live in tel aviv. the other day i had a chance to speak to the parents whose son and daughter, both their son and daughter were kid animal by hamas more than two weeks ago. they had been on vacation with their mother for three weeks in mexico. they came back the night before because they were so excited to go to the festival. they literally landed here in tel aviv at 11:00 p.m. they got to use one of the family cars and they drove down together straight down to the festival. the brother and sister. elon their father played for me, and this is the first time he had played this call since he received it. he had not listened to it even though his phone recorded it. he wanted everyone to hear it. he wanted them to hear the heartbreaking call from his daughter as she and her brother

were being kidnapped. here is that moment. [ speaking in a non-english language ] >> she said she loved me.

>> i thought she was dead. i thought both of them dead. my son, both of my child in the car. they kill me, they kill me, i

love you, pop. i love you, daddy. >> john, you know, they wanted to play that call. and as i said, he did not realize his phone recorded it. you wouldn't think your phone would record a conversation. he has a samsung. he showed me the record button. he didn't realize it was recorded. he didn't listen to it until then. and she had never heard it. they're divorced. they wanted to be together for this. i don't know, john. they want everyone to see that. they want everyone to, i use the word trespass on their grief because they want everyone to know what they're going through and to not forget. it is excruciating to even watch a parent going through that. i know you as a father, me as a mother. >> it's beyond excruciatexcruci. it really is. the word doesn't even begin to

cover it. i can't ever put myself in that position, i can understand the reason why he felt it necessary to play it. because over these last two weeks, there's been so much going on and so much chaos. there have been moments where i think the world has forgotten that there may be 210, as many if not more hostages not side gaza right now. his children, maybe two of them. and the idea of that, if i'm him. the idea of the world not recognizing that, or seeing that must be just as excruciating as hearing his daughter's voice there in that moment of agony and terror. >> yeah, it is. what is it worth living without your children? with life. to be faced with the reality that the world has not focused

on it in that way and does not focus on it in that way. it does make sense. of course, it is, it's hard for anyone to watch but that is nonetheless what they wanted us to see. >> it was very hard and i know it had to be hard for you to be in that room. it's important and thank you for that reporting. we'll come back to you in just a bit. there is breaking news in the united states. a synagogue leader in detroit found stabbed to death outside her home. we have new details tonight. plus, anderson cooper will be with us live and he will interview an israeli official with the idf, israeli defense forces, to get the latest on the situation on the ground. that's just minutes away.

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tonight, the tragic story out of detroit. the leader of the synagogue was found stabbed to death outside her home. explain what we know about what happened there. >> because of the recent rise in anti-semitic incidents this is going to beg the additional question as to whether or not her role in a local synagogue there may have made her a potential target. to be put crystal clear here, detroit police say a motive has not been established. they're not ruling anything out during this portion of the investigation, in fact the police just pleaded for

patients. they want to give investigators time to examine every aspect. here is what we know at this point. samantha woll, according to what we know from the synagogue in detroit, found dead outside of her apartment this morning not far from downtown detroit. what homicide investigators have said so far is that she was stabbed multiple times, found unresponsive outside of her apartment. the blood trail outside of the scene suggest she was attacked inside of her home. meanwhile, there is a wealth of tributes right now pouring in >> reporter: targeting -- regarding samantha. she used her faith and activism to help her community. i want you to hear a portion of an interview earlier today. >> we got to know each other very well, and it is honestly a devastating loss, you know, as someone who has sisters, this is just kind of one of those

things you can never really -- can never really prepare for. >> detroit's mayor also with an additional tribute. in fact, he was with her just a couple of weeks ago to celebrate the opening of a synagogue. that was definitely a labor of love for woll in this community now left not just grieving but also with important questions about the circumstances that may have made her a target. >> look, just to reiterate, we do not know yet many of the details surrounding this, but when you do look at this, what would be the concerns in terms of overlap of internal security concerns in this type of attempt? >> we don't know the specific case, but we don't have to be dumb to what's going on in the world, so obviously that is going to be a focus of the police chief was set rightfully, understandably, this crime leaves many unanswered questions, so his leaving open the possibility that we all would think right now, which is sort of lone wolf

or targeted attack against someone who is a leader in the jewish community. we know last week, dhs and fbi said beware of the lone wolf phenomenon. there is no concern of a hamas targeted attack against an individual. it would be a targeted attack against an individual. why patience is being asked -- if it is not a hate crime, there is a horrible crime that occurred and so the police chief wants to leave open the possibility. if it is a hate crime, it impacts the community and impacts the jewish community in ways that they will be more scared than i have been over the last two weeks for obvious reasons but also, it's a diverse community in detroit. arabs, muslims, , and christians and it is just a very -- an area that has prided

itself on diversity and on inclusion. in fact, she was involved with a lot of those very inclusive efforts, and so if you are a police chief and this is about to be a targeted hate crime against the jewish leader, with all this going on, he also has a lot of community engagement to do, calming down another things that are going to have to happen. >> you want to be sure and you can feel the pain and all the voices there. thank you very much for that. we have more breaking news from israel. still ahead, the idf chief of staff says israel will enter the gaza strip. could military movement be coming soon? anderson cooper is live in israel with the latest.

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