qatar to negotiate the release of hostages, we ought to just make it very very clear that we are not going to tolerate them detaining american hostages. we don't ask permission to send american forces in to save americans. >> you were also saying you would work hand in hand with the israeli government and what they want. finally on the age package put forward by the biden administration, it's as you know 61 billion for ukraine, 14 billion for israel, you've got money for humanitarian aid, bolstering the defense of taiwan, and 14 billion for the u.s. border. i know you largely have been supportive of this, quibble with some of the numbers but there are a lot of republicans in congress who are not supportive of it, and i wonder what you say to them? >> well, i would say to them that following that disastrous withdrawal from afghanistan by president joe biden that cost the lives of 13 american service

members and really weakened america's credibility on the world stage and after two years of appeasement by the biden administration of iran that we've got to recognize that the weakness of this administration has emboldened the enemies of freedom around the world. war is raging in eastern ureuro and now war in the middle east. we see china menace in the asia pacific. we have to meet this moment with american strength. we're the leader of the free world, the arsenal of democracy, i would tell my old colleagues, it's time, let congress work its will, crunch the numbers. let's get resources to secure the southern border of the united states as well. but this is a time for american leadership and american strength and that's the pathway toward peace around the world. and among our allies. >> and those are all things included in this package proposed by the biden administration. come back soon, former vice president mike pence, thank you. >> thank you, poppy.

"cnn this morning" continues now. ♪ and it is the top of the hour. i'm poppy harlow with phil mattingly. the idf says troops are gearing up for the next phase of the war with hamas. and this is new video this morning of the aftermath in gaza city, palestinian officials are claiming the intense bombardment has killed at least 436 people including more than 180 children. the israeli military says it struck hundreds of targets including the underground tunnel network used by hamas fighters. israel's president says one of the hamas fighters killed during the attack was carrying

instructions of how to build chemical weapons with scyanide. let's go to erin burnett. so much is moving as has been the case for two weeks now. what's happening on the ground? >> reporter: on the ground our nic robertson has reported overnight. he witnessed and can verify an increase in the israeli strikes, more than 300 of them as you said. also we're finding out that israel has made its first operational use of a new type of weapon. it's a precision munition, a mortar bomb, and we understand they have used about ten of them over the past 17 days since the war began, and this new weapon, as our nic robertson was reporting even sounds very different than what we're accustomed to hearing along front lines like the one started along the border with gaza. 300 targets overnight. those were targeting command centers, targeting individual hamas operatives, of course, and also tunnels and, you know,

right now i will say it's quiet. it is the middle of the day. it is the heat of the day. not usually the loudest time. it is quiet today. the question is whether it will be the quiet before the next storm or not, poppy. >> what about what israeli president herzog has said, that they found a usb drive on one of the hamas militants killed in the attack that has some sort of instructions for a chemical attack using cyanide. what specifically was found? i know cnn hasn't independently verified it yet, but what does it tell us? >> reporter: it's a usb, and on it they found a page from an al qaeda operational manual back from 2003. interesting, of course, the israelis are making the argument that it shows it's one continuum from al qaeda to isis, now to hamas. this is an operational manual with a page, a crude drawing of a cyanide distribution method

from a 2003 manual. no evidence presented that there was intent to use such a method by hamas operatives. i will say, reading through some of the documents that were found on these hamas operatives, what they did have that nethey used s incredibly specific and accurate, detailed and tested over time, battle plans they had worked on for at least a full year since october 2022, with plans to attack individual kibbutz along that border that were incredibly detailed and they did follow those to a t. v they said, that is exactly what they did. and so some of the documents found on hamas operatives they did follow to the t. others like this chemical weapons may have been something on a usb in someone's pocket. unclear if it's any more than that. israelis are saying that they found that as well. >> erin, thank you very much for the reporting. we'll get back to you very soon. the israeli war effort is escalating and a ground

operation into gaza seems imminent. there are conflicting stories about whether the u.s. is calling for a delay. two sources briefed on the discussion tells cnn the biden administration has pressed israel to hold off the invasion to allow for more time to release hostages held by hamas, and more aid to reach gaza. a senior israeli official denied the u.s. is seeking delay, telling cnn, quote, we deny this report. we have a close dialogue and consultation with the u.s. administration. the u.s. is not pressing israel with regard to the ground operation. here's how president biden responded over the weekend. >> are you encouraging the israelis to delay invasion? >> talking to israel. >> joining me from the white house is national security counsel for strategic operations, john kirby. appreciate your time. my sense is there's some gray area here to some degree. does the administration believe that once a ground incursion is launched the window to get

hostages released closes? >> look, i think i'm not getting ahead of israeli military operations and whether there will or will not be a ground incursion. it depends on what they do and the manner in which its executed. sings the beginning of the conflict, we have been talking about our israeli counter parts about their plans, their intentions, their strategy. we have been asking them for how they're answering the tough questions that any military is going to have to do before you go on and conduct major operation, and that's what we're doing now, but obviously, look, the israeli defense forces, they make these decisions themselves. they have to defend their own people on their sovereign soil, and of course they're going to have to make those decisions. >> i understand that. if the administration's interest in particular is ten americans that are currently missing a majority of which are believed to be hostages, do you believe that whenever, quote, the next phase as the israelis have framed it, the window closes to get the americans released through negotiations?

>> again, i would think what operations we're talking about, how they execute them. i will tell you that nothing has changed about our focus on those hostages. we're glad we got two back home with their families, where they belong last week. we want to get the rest of them out. you got to have the ability to continue to negotiate and try to work towards that outcome. we jabsolutely want to make tha happen. >> i want to ask you about the president, what he said on air force one. he was asked about discussions happening. i'm not going to ask about military operations but take a listen to this. >> we long talked about that and what alternatives there are. the military is talking with our military about what the alternatives are. >> everybody's been talking so definitively about a ground incursion. there's an assumption there. it has not been confirmed. it's just an assumption. there's been a build up. what alternatives are there right now? >> anytime you conduct a

military operation, you plan for what we call branches and sequels, different ways of executing that mission, and contingencies in case plan a doesn't work, and you got to go to plan b. what is president is talking about is exactly what i have been saying, since the beginning, we have been in touch with israeli counter parts about thing and planning. we have a little experience of this too. and i think we have been willing to share that experience with the israelis in terms of branches and sequels and the contingencies, and the backups, you would expect us to do that. we're very very close friends. >> the secretary of defense said this weekend, there's a prospect of significant escalation. you have talked about the concerns, the efforts towards deterrence. there have been shots back and forth, between iranian proximate sis, has there been any sign that the type of escalation the administration is concerned about has started. >> we have seen some worrisome attacks, and we have to do what we have to do to protect our troops on the ground particularly in iraq and syria.

you have seen us add to the region. right now, we don't see an indication that a major player is willing to escalate in a major way. i don't want to diminish the kinds of attacks we have seen in the last few days on our troops. >> i want to ask you something, we had a gentleman who's close friends with a couple who has a child that are currently near the rafah crossing. there have been there for several days now, and we asked about what secretary blinken said, that hamas has been blocking american citizens from crossing the ra fah crossing. we asked him about that statement. this is what he said. >> and that statement by secretary blinken is one of two things, it's either not true or it's word play. physically at the crossing, there are no militants, there are no military or government personnel at all on the palestinian side. sent me video and pictures of

him at the crossing and literally the only thing between him and egypt is a series of gates that are just closed. there just isn't an agreement right now about aid coming in and american citizens getting out. >> admiral, to that point, we talk a lot about the hostages. there are several hundred american citizens that are currently in gaza. >> yeah. >> to the point made by sammy there, what is the disconnect right now? when will they be allowed out? certain, time certain. we want to get them out. we want to make sure they have safe passage out, and we are working very very hard with the israelis and the egyptians to get to that outcome. right new york ciow, you have s humanitarian assistance, on the other side of the rafah crossing, we know they want to get out, and we want to help them get out, and we are working on that sr.very very hard. >> you have been working hard on several days. they have gotten messages about specific windows they could leave. that fell apart.

is there any sense that working will end up with an outcome soon? >> that's what we're working towards. i wish i could tell you for sure. but this is hard stuff. if it was easy they would have been out on october 8th. that's why our diplomats are on the ground. ambassador satterfield appointed for this purpose to get aid in and people out, americans out. he's working on this literal lir every hour of every single day. i wish it was easy. i wish we could flip a switch and have the gate open and people get out. that's not the reality on the ground. >> in the president's prime time address, he talked about the aid he's seeking for ukraine, and how much of the aid is basically to refill american stockpiles. >> right. >> my question is the state of those stockpiles right now, the state of where u.s. weapons stockpiles stand with two wars sending now two different types of shipments on a regular basis towards two u.s. allies, how big

is the concern that the u.s. is dangerously low on what it should have for its own defense right now. >> of course it's a dconcern. we ask for the extra supplemental funding from congress. i can assure you and the american people that the united states military can continue to defend our national security interests all around the world. it's something that we watch very very closely, and with every single aid package that goes to ukraine and now israel, the department of defense has to do an assessment to make sure we can meet our own war plans and operational needs. we are doing that. we have revitalized the defense industry to create, manufacture and produce much more munitions so that we can, a, keep them going to ukraine and israel, and b, replenish those stocks. it is important. that's why the president asked for the funding. >> appreciate your time sir, thank you. >> you bet, thank you. the humanitarian crisis is getting worse by the hour in gaza.

hospitals are overwhelmed. there's an acute shortage of food. clarissa ward takes a look at the dire situation in those hospitals.

this catastrophic humanitarian crisis deepening this morning, and some of the images we are going to show you are disturbing. this is a look at how dire the situation has become. some parents in gaza apparently are writing their children's names on their legs to help identify them if they are killed. it is just as hard to see what the children go through who do survive. this is a journalist in gaza who was traveling to the scene of a strike. here's what he said. listen for yourself.

>> heading to a place of a strike, and just people gave me these two babies. they were injured by the bombing. i just hear them. >> a gaza neonatal doctor warns inf infants on ventilators will not survive if the electricity is interrupted. israel said that themselves. doctors say 166 bodies arrived at the hospital. none of these numbers are possible to verify independently. meanwhile, they are forced to treat patients right now. they don't have morphine. not even a painkiller for the surgeries that are desperately needed. kids with burns are suffering with no painkillers. this is the health care system obviously that has completely collapsed. doctors are toiling against the clock and against everything to try to keep people alive. our clarissa ward is live in cairo, egypt, with more. you were at the rafah border

crossing where there are a few trucks of aid going in. one of the things you were talking about explicitly is fuel was not allowed. water, medicine, things like, that, but no fuel because hamas would take it for their own purposes. what does this mean for hospitals? when you run through the generator fuel, you don't have backup electricity to keep those ventilators or anything else going. what do we know about the dire nature of the fuel crisis for hospitals? >> reporter: well, i think you seized on the right word there, erin, dire. it's gone from critical to dire. israel has turned off the electricity in the gaza strip. that means that all of these hospitals are dependent upon generators. those generators are dependent upon fuel, and fuel is not getting in. israel has blocked it. they say it could be taken by hamas. as a result, you have this

diplomatic impasse, how to get that fuel in. how to satisfy israels concerns. so far no one has been able to resolve it. we're talking about 34 trucks worth of aid that have gone through the border into gaza in the last couple of days. just to give you perspective, erin, in a normal 16-day period, more than 7,000 trucks full of aid would have gone through into gaza. and now, this is all happening against the backdrop against relentless bombardment. many civilian casualties. we spoke to one doctor in northern gaza. take a look what he had to say. you are entering the el shifa hospital in gaza city. this is just one minute in one day. but doctors tell us it could be any minute the last 16 days. it is a scene from hell. many of the patients are young

children. the reception area now a triage center. everywhere you turn, another casualty. every one of these people has been ordered by israel's military to evacuate the hospital, including the staff already out numbered and overwhelmed. and as the punishing bombardment continues, the wounded keep flooding in. doctors say there's nowhere else for them to go. and no safe way to transport them out. >> we had once or twice a day. now it is overloaded. our departments, and are overloaded with the patients. >> reporter: dr. marwan abusaba warns the situation is about to

get dramatically worse. the hospital is a few days away from running out of fuel needed to power the generations that are keeping the hospital and its patients alive. if you do run out of fuel in two days, what will you do? i mean, what can you do? >> i think the international community will be part of the process of killing of our people if they don't act on israel to allow the fuel to get into gaza, what to do for the people who are in the icu. what about kne neonatal. they're small babies, we have 130 many our neonatal, what to do with them. we are allowing them to die in peace. we don't have fuel to run our generators in the hospital. >> reporter: just a trickle of aid has been allowed to cross into gaza, and none of it fuel, blocked by israel, it says over concerns it will be taken by

hamas. hundreds of trucks are waltitin along the egyptian side of the border. but diplomatic efforts to establish a continuous humanitarian corridor have failed, and there is no more time for debate. >> now, erin, another important point to make is the trickle of aid that has gotten into gaza has not reached northern gaza. dr. abusata, says they haven't seen any of the medical supplies that have been going inside gaza. this is just another problem. another obstacle to be overcome, and meanwhile, a lot of frustration, particularly in the arab world, certainly here in egypt from the government. they say they desperately want to make this happen but there is just a complete standoff over this issue of the fuel. obviously israel has been very

vocal about its concerns about getting the fuel, but we are now firmly on the precipice of what is very clearly a life or death situation, erin. >> absolutely, and of course israelis say there is now electricity in dpgaza, but whene look at those shots in the night, it is incredibly dark. poppy and phil, back to you. we want to brink in cnn anchor christiane amanpour who joins us live from london. there's the humanitarian crisis, and the broader geopolitical on the verge of crisis if not already there. you have so much experience in the region. the way regional actors are operating right now, how close is kind of that line that u.s. officials are very clearly concerned about right now? >> so, guys, the internationals who support, you know, hamas, hezbollah, all the rest of it, and the regional powers, are looking at precisely that humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in gaza as part of

their publicly stated reasons for potentially getting involved, and just to add, you know, the fuel means there's no water either. humanitarian organizations, the u.n. told me last week that most gazas have to rely on bottled water. they have sal nated water, and without fuel they cannot operate the desalinization process. it's about water, too. this is the basic of survival. people can live longer without food than without water. this is causing hezbollah, iran, the others, to say, unless there's quote unquote war crime, this humanitarian catastrophe is not relieved. not to mention the massive deaths among civilians, including according to gaza health ministry, some 1,900 children. then in iran's words, the situation risks spinning out of control, and you can see there has been more intensive i'm

going to say squirkirmishes nowt engagements on the border between hamas and the idf. >> you have so much experience reporting on hamas, and its rise to power. i mean, especially in 2009 right after the israel-hamas war in december of 2008, can you tell aus us a bit about that and how it informs where hamas is now. >> i started going in the hamas era in 2006 when they won na election, the u.s. insisted, the administration of george w. bush insisted on an election, believing that their war in iraq meant that democracy was going to take over the middle east via baghdad. it didn't happen and despite what the israeli government and what the palestinian authorities said don't have these elections because hamas will begin in gaza. they did have the elections, and of course hamas won. at that time, i went in 2006 and then again just after the last, you know, the latest war in

2008, 2009, hamas was moving from having been mostly, mostly, according to the people, a social organization. it was becoming more and more militant, more and more involved in quote unquote, the resistance, and becoming very very militant in that way, but what i did notice and what i think is a cautionary tale is i visited the homes of palestinians in gaza city around that heavily bombarded north ga sa sa and went to civilian homes. there was a little boy i always remember, hamza, 5 years old. his parents showed what had happened to their house in the latest israeli campaign, and this is a cautionary tale about what happens when people are constantly subjected to this kind of violence, and how they and where they put their faith and their, you know, their politics, even as a kid, for the future. just watch this a little bit.

an excerpt. >> reporter: since this latest round of war, teachers have noticed not just sadness but anger. hamza hits a boy with the ball that we have given him. when an adult tells him to share, he makes an extraordinary threat. he wants to bring in the hamas militia. for him, they are the strongest authority. >> oh, my god. >> reporter: they tell me their home was hit by missiles twice. it so frightened their 90-year-old grandmother that she now spends her days sitting outside in the dust. unprompted, hamza launches into a tour of his devastated home.

complete with sound effects. >> so you see what happens, and we spoke to a very respected psychologist at the time in gaza who said they have no more faith in their parents. they can't defend themse. they have no faith in society, not their teachers. just in what they're told is their defender, and that is hamas in this case. so these generations, and that was in 2009. he's nearly 20 now, young hamza, where is he today? this is a cautionary tale. and you can see it in u.s. expeditions, in iraq, afghanistan and elsewhere. the tendency to radicalize people who have nowhere else to turn. >> at such a young age as well. christiane, so glad you brought us back to that moment. sources tell cnn the united states is pressuring israel to delay its planned ground invasion of gaza in hopes of getting more hostages out.

the senior israeli official tells cnn there will be, quote, no cease fire in gaza. we'll be joined by a man who says five of his family members were taken by hamas in the initial attack on october 7th.

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welcome back. sources tell cnn the united states is pressing israel to delay its planned invasion of gaza in hopes of getting the hostages out. but a senior israeli official says there will be, quote, no cease fire. on friday, hamas released two american hostages being held. there was hope more would be freed. that has not happened yet. earlier this morning, a cousin of the freed americans told abc news the work has just begun. >> we cannot put it aside. we cannot rest. getting judith and natali back was not the end. it's the beginning. there are so many others. we don't know, why them. so it's for me, lucky and guilty. >> our next guest, story roberts is one of those enduring this agonizing wait. he says he has been, quote, walking a thin line between madness and sanity. because five of his family

members were taken by hamas. five, his aunt, who was later found dead along the gaza border, her long time partner, cousin and two daughters. the "new york post" putting the two on the front page. roberts who lives in texas thinks endlessly, what are they going through every minute of the day. he had to discover the truth of what happened that day through a tiktok video. a tiktok video showing hamas militants capturing his family members. dory joins me now. good morning. i'm sorry does not begin to express appropriately, and i am, and we are so sorry for your loss and angst and grief of what could be of your other family members. can you talk about what you describe as walking that line between madness and sanity, what that's like? >> good morning, poppy. thank you so much for having me on the show this morning, and thank you for your amazing coverage so far. it's been over two weeks.

there's no news about five of my members. we found out last week that my aunt was dead and found along the border with gaza. i still have a half cousin who was in that community, we have not heard from him as well. he's still missing. and it's been really challenging times for all of us. for my family, the nation, for jewish people around the world. just yesterday i talked to my community in los angeles via zoom, and we talked about all of that grief and how challenging those times are for us as a nation. the fact that we're still looking for any kind of relief, any kind of news, are they well, are they not well. are they still alive. these are day-to-day and hour by hour struggle.

it's not easy for me, not for my family, for might be who has missing and kidnapped people by hamas. we don't know anything. >> as you speak, we're showing pictures of your beautiful family, including those two beautiful little girls, 2 and 4 years old. i wonder how you balance the grief of the loss of your aunt, and then perhaps a little bit of hope because there were two hostages that were released on friday? >> right. yes, thank you, poppy. we are definitely trying to keep the hope. just yesterday, we celebrate sister lior, she was in many news outlets throughout the two weeks, we celebrated her birthday. we're trying to keep them up, wrap them up with love and show them that there is still hope. it's so hard. it is devastating every day to go through those motions. and we all are parents.

we all have partners and wives and husbands. walking that thin line between madness to hope is very real to us. every day, every part of the day is around us, we definitely can feel it, the heart ache, the heavy hearted to everybody and try to hope for the little things. sending my kid just now to school, giving them a big hug, that i will be there when they get out of school, and trying to hang on to those daily things to remain humane, to remain sane with those times. to be in touch with my family, to be in touch with my communities here in austin and around the u.s. while i do my mission and be here with the news and keep this story and their faces up and hoping for their release as soon as

possible. we are demanding that, and we are still help from other governments, from the administration to help us and bring them back home. not everybody were as lucky as the two american hostages that were released. i'm very thankful that they are back in safety. we want the same for everybody else. we want that for our families, and we want that to everybody that is held by the hamas so we can stop this war right now and go back to recovery and go back to grief and mourning and bury our dead. >> dori, i wonder how you think about the new reporting that cnn has that the biden administration is behind closed doors urging israel to pause torks wait on a ground invasion in gaza in the hopes that more hostages can come home. is that something you hope to

see? >> i hope to see that, absolutely. i think this is a tremendous amount of effort from the administration, alongside with other players on the scene. i think our family are in intense and constant contact with the germany government. since three of them are actual duel citizenship with germany, and we are in touch with them right now to do exactly the same, to apply the pressure, to influence the leadership of hamas to immediate return. hopefully other countries will join the effort, and we'll be able to see results as soon as possible, and that will bring an end to this war, they will release the hostages, absolutely. we do not want to see any more civilian innocent people getting hurt on either side of the border. >> dori roberts, thank you very much, if you hear anything, please let us now. we are all hoping for you.

>> thank you so much, poppy. senate republican leader mitch mcconnell is supporting president biden's call for congress to bundle aid to ukraine. they can't move forward without a speaker. they don't appear any closer to finding one. we'll have more on that next.

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new reporting this morning about donald trump's handling of potentially sensitive national security information while he was president according to "the new york times." and 60 minutes australia, trump allegedly shared information about his calls that the leaders of ukraine and iraq with an australian billionaire named anthony pratt who is a member of mar-a-lago. pratt is a key prosecution's witness in the classified documents probe. he gave an interview to the special counsel jack smith. cnn's affiliate in australia, 9 news obtained what they claimed are secret reportings of pratt speaking about trump. here's what he allegedly said about a conversation he had with iraq's president. >> hadn't even been on the news. and said you just leveled my city, and he said, okay, what are you going to do about it. >> and he also recalled trump sharing information about that

infamous call with ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy where trump presidented se zelenskyy to launch an unfounded corruption probe of president biden. . >> trump said, you know, that ukraine phone call, that was nothing compared to what i usually do. and he said, the ukraine phone call, that's nothing compared to what we normally talk about. >> pratt offered searing critiques, saying he says outrageous things nonstop. >> kevin mccarthy urging house republicans to finally select his successor. >> this is not a time to play games. this is embarrassing for the republican party. it's embarrassing for the nation. and we need to look at one another and solve the problem. >> good news. they will get another chance this evening to try and solve the now nearly three-week long embarrassing, kevin mccarthy and many other people's words, not mine, issue that they're dealing

with. jim jordan is out this time around. they'll be looking at nine republicans vying for the gavel. this evening, those candidates are expected to make their pitches to their republican cand colleagues in a candidate forum. cnn congressional correspondent lauren fox joins us now live from capitol hill. lauren, i got to be honest, i'm looking at this list of nine, i don't see anybody that gets 217. that's the number they're going to need to become speaker. where do we go from here? >> reporter: the rigamarole that's going to unfold in the next several days on capitol hill, a lot of viewers are probably very used to at this point given the fact that it is the third week without a house speaker and it is going to be their third attempt in a closed-door room to try and get a speaker designee who can get the votes they need on the floor, the magic number of 217. what you can expect is that tonight there will be a candidate forum. it is the first opportunity for those nine republicans to make their pitch to their colleagues as to why they think that they should get the speaker's gavel. tomorrow morning at 9:00 a.m.,

the voting begins. it will be behind closed doors first. this is an opportunity for republicans to choose their speaker designee. there have already been two times that they have chosen both steve scalise, then jim jordan in the closed door room. after they emerge, neither one of those candidates were able to clinch the votes that they needed to become the actual speaker. so the next two days are going to be this process to try to find that person, and while representative tom emmer who's the republican whip is certainly probably the front runner given the fact that he has the endorsement of kevin mccarthy, given the reality that he has experience in leadership, there is a thirst and a hunger from a lot of hard liners that they do not want to see the status quo continue. that likely means they're going to be looking and have their eye on someone else, perhaps byron donald or another one of the hard line republicans who are running, hoping that they can get the 217 they need on the floor. again, it is such a difficult margin because you can only afford to lose a handful of republican members, just about

four members, phil. >> lauren fox, thank you very much. i wish i could say this is almost over for you, but i don't think it is. well, the catastrophic humanitarian situation in gaza. it is getting far worse, the near constant bombing has left one hospital overwhelmed with bodies, and forced doctors to operate without morphine.

video just into cnn, it shows the shear devastation of israeli air strikes in central gaza. israel says 320 terror targets

were struck in gaza overnight including tunnels and command centers belonging to hamas and islamic jihad. the palestinian health ministry says 436 people, that includes 182 children, were killed in the strikes. joining us now foreign policy ana analyst. king abdullah of jordan went as far as to call what israel is doing in gaza a war crime and then he said this, listen. >> our lives matter less than other lives. the application of international law is optional and human rights have boundaries. they stop at borders. they stop at races and they stop at religions. >> he says that in the context of the united states repeatedly saying over the past two weeks how israel does this matters and now are reporting that the u.s.

government biden administration is urging netanyahu and the israeli government to pause before a ground invasion. how crucial that a u.s. ally like king abdullah said that over the weekend? >> i think it's very important and the message is not only to the israelis but the american administration to pressure the israelis to care for civilian lives, to distinguish between civilians and militants, and what we're seeing, because they're seeing things that in america we are not seeing, the unfolding of humanitarian catastrophe in gaza. before the war 50% of people in gaza had basically food shortages, they didn't have access to adequate food. 90% didn't have access to clean water. now we're seeing a catastrophe that is unfolding that i think in palestinian history they remembered in 1967. in the middle east they connected to the humanitarian catastrophe that took place in

yemen. gaza is a small strip of land, you have 2 people. to starve 2 million people which is a war crime, they call it out as a war crime, they're seeing people that are -- especially children, i mean, 1,800 died -- they see children consuming water that is unfit for human consumption. they're seeing people basically being operated without any anesthesia, but also they are seeing real starvation and 20 trucks, you know, the humanitarian -- is nothing. what they need is 7,000 now, yesterday. and i'm reading even stories where hospitals that are becoming morgues basically, are becoming graveyards and all of this is happening while israelis flag and tell the region we're going to wipe out gaza. so the region is very worried because if they are seen as complicit in what's happening, even scholars, jewish israeli scholars go on television and denounce these policies and say

this is what israel is doing is a textbook definition of genocide. these are israeli scholars. they don't want to see being complicit to the destruction of the palestinian people. >> but there are lines to what they will do to help to some degree, right? jordan's king has made it very clear, doking abdullah there wi be no refugees into jordan, he will assisi has said pretty much the same thing. why do those lines exist? >> well, this is the fact, jordan has already 60% of its population that is palestinians, they took refugees from syria, millions, and from iraq. so they paid the consequences of both israeli actions and american actions. egypt is 100 million people, it's the poorest country in the middle east. they didn't trigger this. they've been asking the administration, we are willing to take some, but with one condition, that they would be allowed to return. israel is now refusing. i mean, what israel is

suggesting to those countries, but also to the palestinians, we would basically expel you, millions probably, and this is a definition of ethnic cleansing. if you are allowing refugees to exit but never to enter to the land they belong to, you are basically creating a massive refugee crisis. a country that is already paying the price of other refugee crisis. so the only alternative that they are trying to ask the administration, pressure israel to create basically a place where if you really care about human life and the sanctity of human life, israel is the ultimate power that can determine what to do with refugees. if they really care, move them somewhere else, but guarantee that they would come back home. if they really care about distinction between hamas which is 30,000 or 40,000 but there are 2 million people. if you decide to sacrifice 2 million people then this becomes a catastrophe and will drag america into another war.

>> we appreciate you coming in. >> thank you. thanks to all of you for joining us this morning. we will see you right back here tomorrow. "cnn news central" is next.

hello, everyone, i'm kate bolduan with john berman here in new york. sara sidner is in jerusalem. ov