♪ we're glad you're with us. i'm poppy harlow with phil mattingly in new york. erin burnett is live in tel aviv. moments ago we just heard from one of the two hostages just released yesterday by hamas.

you see her there, the 85-year-old grandmother recounting her harrowing experience. her daughter was by her side translating. yoesh shed lifshitz said hamas stormed her kibbutz and abducted her on the back of the moto motorbike. each captive had their own doctor. >> there are huge, huge network of tunnels underneath. it looks like a spider web. when she first arrived, they told them that they are muslims and they're not going to hurt them. and that they shared -- they ate the same food that hamas was eating. >> hamas has now released four hostages as israeli troops gear up to launch an assault on gaza they say by ground, sea and air. the israeli military says it

struck more than 400 targets across gaza in the past day killing hamas commanders and fighters. more than 200 hostages are still believed to be inside gaza. and as we learned from israel's president overnight, that includes 30 children. go to erin burnett she joins us live in tel aviv. erin, to you, incredible to hear those details of how they were taken and then what happened when they were there. >> well, and of course, the stark contrast between what hamas militants did in that terror attack on october 7th. the horrific acts that we now know happened of beheading and execution and rape and dismemberment, but that these hostages, at least from what we are now hearing today and seem to be consistent with what we generally understand was the case from the two hostages friday recounting a very different experience, right? clearly this is something that hamas wants out there for the pr for hamas, look how we treat our

hostages. it's consistent with what the idf said, hostages are being held in tunnels. they said tunnels that hamas is not known to have used before. so it consistent with that. but some of these details that you're sharing, even in the context of a terrorist organization trying to portray a very different picture to the world, saying they were eating the same food and that they had doctors and medical care, is still quite striking. >> yeah. erin, to that point, there's been so much discussion about the preparation for the attack itself, from the terror attack itself. but let's listen to what she said about how prepared they were for the hostages. >> translator: lack of awareness by idf had just a lot -- they warned us three weeks bef beforehand. they were in fields. they sent fire balloons. and the idf did not treat it

seriously. >> description i think you heard there about the idf and the lead up to the attack itself. erin, what's your sense of that given how you've been covering this on the ground? >> well, look, i've had a chance to read through the documents that were found on hamas fighters, specific to the kibbutzing they were going to be attacking, they were assigned to. those were dated -- the ones i saw dated october 2022. that's just the battle plan itself. they did have extremely detailed layouts in there of what to do with hostages. you take the hostages to the communal eating area. hostages were a central part of the plan. when you read through it, every single plan they did was a central part of the plan. what we didn't see in the documents for two of the kibbutz i read through was the rape and dismemberment and horrific inhumane acts perpetuated so broadly and horrifically. but this part, the part about

hostages, that was very clearly in there. and it sounds like now she had -- sounds like from what she's saying very clearly had conversations with the people who were holding them captive, right, talking about their plans that indicates, a you had three weeks warning. that was a level of conversation that was happening between the hostages and hamas. >> there's also one moment this morning, erin, where she recounted another hostage who was very ill and talked about putting them on antibiotics and then it wasn't working and then switching antibiotics. and it just speaks to your point about how prepared it seems like they were for what was coming. i think we have part of this. let's listen to it. >> translator: we had close doctor who came to see us every two to three days. the paramedic took it upon himself and took care of medicines. if there were not medicines, they would bring substitute

medicine equivalent medicines. >> what's your reaction on the ground, erin? >> poppy, you know -- >> go ahead. >> yeah. all right. here is what's interesting about that. i'm sure you're having the same reaction. of course you want the hostages to be returned and returned safe and sound and should never have been taken in the first place. what that highlights is hamas is doing exactly what israel has accused them of doing, right, hoarding medical supplies. right now you have hospitals in gaza where children are being operated on without morphine. they don't have antibiotic. they don't have power. but hamas clearly has all those things and had them stockpiled. they're not using them on their own civilians. they're providing them to hostages. again, you want the hostages to be taken well care of but you don't want hot tajs. all of these things tell a very important tale. of course for the hostage families themselves, it seems this would give them a real hope that hostages are, as israel

said, majority of them being alive. would not just mean 50% plus one, mean all of them. it's got to give hope to those families at the very least, of course. but it does also show hamas has the antibiotics. hamas has the doctors. but of course the gaza civilian hospitals right now do not. >> erin, the discussion that -- >> yeah. >> one more quick thing, that is that there already clearly discussions with other captainers, people taken hostage. does that give any sense to the broader landscape of the 200 plus individuals that currently are believed to be held hostage? >> right. we do know, of course, the government of qatar has been involve and government of egypt specifically along with the red cross involved with the two elderly women who were released last night, one of whom we saw speak this morning. there has been a broad perception that foreign nationals or dual pass port

holders may be treated differently. although the two women release wrd israeli. so it unclear. but there's also been discussion that maybe there would be a big group of hostages release and some holdups on any negotiations on that. that's the real question to whether that happens and then of course whether that then gives a green light to prime minister netanyahu to do whatever it is that he's planning to do, which he has a lot of options at his hands even now, right, when you talk about going into gaza. it's not one monolithic choice. even within that there are a lot of different options that continuing hostages being held in gaza could impact. and the israeli defense minister said that israel is preparing for a multilateral option on hamas. they're still talking, phil and poppy, air, ground and sea. here is how he put it last night here. >> translator: keep preparing for our operation. it will come soon. we are preparing thoroughly for the next step. a multilateral operation in the air, ground and sea. do your work. get ready.

we will need you. >> meanwhile, three star american general is here in israel counselling israeli forces ahead of the expected gaza ground invasion. our oren lieberman is at the pentagon this morning for us. so oren, general glen important here and what is the significance of his expertise and experience and being with the idf at this point in the war? >> reporter: so lieutenant james glen from the u.s. marine corps has decades of experience in the military. on top of that one of his previous positions he was commander of marine forces special operations command, so he has experience in special ops as well. u.s. official who confirmed that glen was in israel said he would help with big picture advice. israel hasn't conducted operations on this sort of size and scale in decades, if not longer. where as the u.s. has. more over, glen's experience in iraq, in perhaps urban warfare also helped israel as they get ready to move into gaza and

conduct warfare in a dense, urban environment, an incredibly difficult environment to operate in. so glen can offer all that perspective. the white house yesterday said that there were military officials and officers with relevant experience that would be there to help israel, not only in its operations now but also what israel is planning to do. this as the u.s. urges caution, urges planning and urges israel to sit out very specific goals what it wants to accomplish in gaza. erin? >> and obviously they've been skeptical of what those goals or how explicitly those goals have been laid out. we also heard from iran, the broader fear if you're going to have a massive escalation for the world. foreign minister said in teheran last night that the united states has sent iran two messages. what are those, oren? >> reporter: the u.s. very concerned about escalation in the region. you have seen antony blinken put in a tremendous amount of work on shuttle deploimsy to keep this fight contained to gaza.

the iranian foreign minister said at a press conference yesterday that they received two messages as you said from the americans. one, explicitly saying effectively we don't want to see a larger war and the second, also sort of urging or warning iran to stay out of this and keep its proxies out of this. that would be a number of those proxies. whether it's hezbollah in lebanon, shiite militia or houthi. to make sure that others stay out of this fight as this looks to -- as the risk of escalation seems very apparent here, erin. >> all right, oren, thank you very much at the pentagon breaking all those details today. and the white house still says not enough aid is reaching gaza. that's the reality of the situation. only a few trucks going in versus hundreds needed. one essential resource is a nonstarter for israel, at least up to this point it has been. the senior adviser to prime minister benjamin netanyahu last night telling kaitlan collins,

israel will not allow oil into gaza even if all the hostages are released. >> at the moment we have no interest in more fuel going into the hamas military machine. we have not authorized fuel. we have authorized medicine, water, food. we have not authorized anything else. >> well, it comes as gaza residents have been pushing to the south. many, of course, still choosing to remain in the north. they see it as their home. but many have, hundreds of thousands have moved south, trying to get closer to that rafah crossing. think about all that pressure going to that one point. they all want to get out, improving their chances to making it to egypt on the other side of the border crossing. our journalist here at cnn has been documenting the struggles he and his family are facing for us every single night. here is what happened to him yesterday.

[speaking in a global language]

>> and we are thinking of ibrahim and his family he is documenting with all the power issues and everything every single day for us what he can. and we are getting some new details coming in early, early this morning at new york time from a hostage just released by hamas. and we'll tell you what it says about hamas' strategy as we've been discussing. there's a lot that it tells us implicitly between the lines as well as explicitly. new information, how he managed to coordinate a massive attack without some of the most sophisticated intention services in the world knowing about it.

♪ >> translator: very well prepared. they prepared it for a long period of time. all of the needs for female, for women needs, shampoo, conditioner. just remark to believe hear, that was moments ago. yocheved lifshitz just freed describing her experience after she was kidnapped on a motorbike two weeks ago. joining us now with a lot of insight on hamas, its leadership, the economist middle east correspondent and the author after a new piece in the economist 1843 magazine about

the man who transformed hamas from a cluster of terrorist cells into a force capable of invading israel. nicholas, i'm sure you heard her press conference just less than an hour ago. speak to what she described in terms of specifically how well prepared hamas was with all of those medical supplies, all of that planning to take these hostages. >> it's astonishing that if you compare kind of where the military wing of hamas began in the early 1990s, sort of 30 years ago, to where it is today, it's just transformed from being an amateur bunch, kind of part-time gorillas into an effective fighting force equipped with ability to operate in the air, at sea, on land and

critically in a fourth dimension, in the tunnels. and i think it's there which that has been its strength. that was the one area where israel didn't have visibility. and of what was happening under ground and the preparation and the arsenal that hamas managed to collect. the degree to which it was dug in and could operate across borders. >> nicholas, in your piece, which is excellent, as poppy is noting, you write, it's about mohammed diaf, who is the leader of hamas and its his ability to be a phantom of sorts. there's been so many attempts to assassinate him. he's been injured multiple times. lost most of his family members, if not all. in the piece, his decision to commit mass murder may well result in his own death and put palestine at the top of the global agenda, which is one of hamas' main goals.

the shock in the wake of this attack, because there was not a sense that they could do this. and yet your story traces the origin, not just one man, but the military wing and its entirety. were you surprised by the scale of what happened on october 7th? >> again, if you look back at the course of the last 20 years, hamas has toyed with political options. it's discussed cease fires, extended cease fires, even some form of armistice, some form of recognition and talked about ways in which it could even at some point disarm. and i think you can look back at that period now as kind of history of missed opportunities where the politics was sidelined in favor of military power. and i guess if you look at the career of mohammed deif, the one thing that -- except for his survival which is unusual in the

military wing, the one thing is a constant is his belief there wasn't going to be a political solution to essentially a political conflict without some cataclysmic event. and i think that's what he set out to deliver in the most horrific of ways. >> nicolas, can you speak more broadly about qatar. they were crucial in the release on friday and this piece. the reckoning is coming, atlantic piece, argues for too long doha danced between its western and arab partners. the music stopped. talk about the huge influence that qatar has over hamas but also the huge connection it has to the west, to the united states specifically, negotiating hostage releases like this. >> it is absolutely correct that qatar of all the states in the gulf has been dancing and -- it

was backing islamist movements at the time of the arab spring 12 years ago. at the same time, it's been dancing that islamic dance, in many ways at the behest of the west, whether it's in the negotiating with the taliban in afghanistan or dealing with hamas, it was very much coordinating with israel. it was -- israel and qatar together that thought that they could manage hamas through payments, through financial handouts. and they were pretty much in lock step. there was very little that qatar did which wasn't with israel's coordination, partly because it wanted to divide the palestinian west bank parting gaza, partly because it did see that -- it did believe it could manage hamas and restrain it, restrict

it to gaza. and i think if you look at the career of mohammed deif, he comes from a family is from the highlands around jerusalem, he was very much focussed on jerusalem, on the west bank. for him, this wasn't a conflict just for sort of ending a blockade in gaza. it was about trying to resolve an israeli/palestinian conflict and absolutely in palestinian's favor and believed the only message that was going to be understood by the parties was one of force. >> yeah. that message has now very clearly been sent. the pieces deadly phantom, the economist 1843 magazine is excellent. thank you very much for your time. >> thank you for having me. we'll continue to follow all those new developments the middle east. meanwhile, here in the u.s., it's been three full weeks without a house speaker and eight republican candidates are now vying for the job. we'll break down who's who, where they stand on the big issues and where they stand on donald trump.

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[ cheers ] yeah! woho! running up and down that field looks tough. it's a pitch. get way more into what you're into when you stream on the xfinity 10g network. today marks 21 days without a speaker of the house, just for context. that's not great. republicans at this point are no

closer to appointing one today than they were three weeks ago. they are moving forward in a process. it's now an eight-way race to be speaker. the eight men running for speaker, down from nine candidates after dan muser dropped out during a conference meeting last night. they would like to elect a new speaker by this evening when they meet again behind closed doors throughout the course of the day. you might be wondering, who are these guys? where do they stand on the key issues? it's important to note, issues not exactly the driving force behind who will be the next speaker in this republican conference. but where they stand is critical. let's start with aid for ukraine, that's obviously been an issue that's divided the conference over the course of the last several months and comes as the administration put together a very significant emergency aid package, including $60 billion for ukraine. when it comes to the last vote on ukraine aid, back in september, four of the individuals who were running voted yes four vote nod. tom imer, the current house

majority whip voted yes. austin scott, pete sessions also yes votes. gary palmer were all no votes representing the split that is very clear within the conference. what about the 2020 election? well, that's a little bit more aligned. now voted to certify the 2020 election back on january 6th, two republicans, tom imer and austin scott did vote to certify. six chose not to at the behest of trump and many of his allies. but, before you say tom imer, austin scott very much aligned with actual democracy, not necessarily as much. when you look at who signed on to the texas brief asking the supreme court to consider overturning the election, the initial lawsuit, well, all of them who are in congress at the time, including imer, including austin scott they signed on. they voted to certify, scott and imer did sign on to that lawsuit to invalidate the 2020 election. what about actual votes recently, fiscal responsibility

act, the debt ceiling bill that really launched this entire breakdown, implosion of the republican conference? four of those who are running voted yes on that bill, four voted no. kind of highlighting the conservative split to some sort. while keeping the government open. that's something they should probably be fairly cognizant of right now. november 17th is the current deadline. four voted yes, three voted no. donlds did not vote. the expectation is he would have vote nod. the one primary split is on gay marriage tom imer did vote on the protect same sex marriage act in 2022. imer is a yes. everybody else is a no. this isn't one of the top issues within the conference, this underscores this entire range of issues, is that this isn't necessarily an issue-based election, more of a personality run up to this point. and the big question for imer, who is a member of leadership, who does have high-profile support already including former speaker of the house including kevin mccarthy, where does trump stand? his endorsements haven't won out up to this point. 0 for 2 in these races. imer and he have a history and

it's not exactly a great one and they had phone calls. whether or not that will help him get over the line of the course of the day or days or weeks at this point, we'll have to wait and see. poppy? >> please don't say weeks, phil. listen to what donald trump said when asked if he would support imer's bid. >> would you endorse tom imer for speaker, he is the most likely candidate right now? >> i think he's my biggest fan now because he called me yesterday and told me i'm your biggest fan. so i don't know about that. we're looking at a lot of people. i'm sort of trying to stay out of that as much as possible. i said there's only one person that can do it all the way. you know who that is, jesus christ. jesus came down said i want to be speaker. he would do it. >> that's a high bar. with us now cnn's chief -- >> i think he's running. he wasn't there last night at the conference meeting. >> maybe today. good morning. okay. okay. >> hey, guys.

>> so tom emmer, trump likes him. i thought it was interesting. i had to ask -- >> but he's no jesus christ, poppy. sorry. >> like i said, high bar. but i said yesterday -- i asked about the fact that he and austin scott did vote to certify the election and does that hurt them in the conference. but then there's also the fact that he questioned a lot about the election. and that, for example, that amicus brief in texas, back in 2020, a number of the efforts to try to overturn it. listen to it from then. >> this president is making sure that he stays focussed and his team stays focussed on these questionable election practices that, you know, we're going to find out if so and if it's accurate how much they skewed the outcome of the election in georgia and elsewhere. >> so he did vote to certify, but that brief in texas was to basically throw out the results of the election in a number of swing states.

so, i suppose he didn't upset the president too much, former president. >> well, poppy, look, i think that that was in the context of when the trump campaign was going through the legal challenges. and i think for a lot of republicans in that period, they were willing to say, okay, sure. anyone has the right to go to court, to talk about this stuff. of course, later we learned over time that the courts rejected all of these appeals, right? and then you get to january of 2021 when we face these certification questions and of course what happened on january 6th. and you know, while trump was up in new hampshire saying those things that you showed about emer saying i'm not trying to get involved. only jesus christ could win, he was actually reposting later that day attacks against emmer on his social media. so, it's clear that there's an issue here. you know, i think the challenge and, phil, you pointed this out, we don't fully understand how

much influence trump has here. he obviously wanted jim jord on the be speaker. he didn't have enough juice to get him the gavel. i think it's more likely he does have enough juice in the conference to sink somebody that he doesn't want. and if he really applies himself to sinking emmer's bid, that could happen. but i do think that exhaustion factor is really setting in. and i think you saw last night member after member telling our team, look, we got to get this done. we are over this. i think they are starting to see in their polling just how bad it looks for the american people. and they are realizing that they're going to start to get punished for it if they don't actually move. now whether it's enough, we'll see. >> yeah. pain threshold has been much higher than i suspected given the fact we're 41 days. that's a great point. when are they going to break? it feels like it's about there. we'll have to wait and see. kasie hunt, thank you as always. >> thank you. a russian court is extending pretrial detention for a u.s. journalist by another six weeks.

also, works in prague, she was arrested and charged with failing to register as a foreign agent. that carries up to five years in prison. she went to russia in may for a family emergency but had both her u.s. and russian passports confiscated in june while she was waiting for a flight home. she is now being ordered to remain in detention until the 5th of december. she is the second american journalist detained by russia this year along with evan gershkovich. off duty pilot charged with 83 counts of attempted murder. we'll tell you what happened. and cnn is on the ground in the west bank where the war is driving a wedge between generations of trust between jews and palestinians. >> something is being -- something is not the same anymore.

♪ welcome back. i'm erin burnett live in tel aviv. in the last hour we heard from one of the two israeli hostages who were just released by hamas with her daughter by her side. she told the world about what she experienced after being kidnapped by hamas fighters on that horrific day, october 7th, that saturday morning. along with nurit cooper were released last night after being held captive in gaza for more than two weeks. >> translator: there are a huge, huge network of tunnels underneath. it looks like a spider web. when she first arrived, they told them that they are muslims and they're not going to hurt them. and that they shared -- they ate the same food that their -- that

hamas was eating. >> this morning israel defense forces gave an update on the war effort. so the idf's latest update, 400 terror targets they say they struck yesterday including hamas commanders and numerous operatives. that's in the past 24 hours. over 400 in the past 24 hours. more than 250 in the 24 hours before that. that is the number of strikes going on in gaza. they are by and large incredibly precision targeted at hamas targets. and the french president emmanuel mack roan is actually here in israel today. the dutch primester yesterday, the french prime minister today. macron saying that france shares israel's pain and understands what it's like to experience a terrorist attack. of course referring to the pataclan. the french president is expected to meet with prime minister benjamin netanyahu. that should expect later on

today. of course it is 1:30 local time here in tel aviv. i spoke to a woman who was taken hostage. she didn't end up going to gaza. she's here. she survived. the thought she would never see her children again. she was used a as a human shield for a hamas commander who surrendered. she's been reunited with her children. all the lives of the hostages around her, including her boyfriends were lost. all were killed. here is what happened. >> i don't know from where i have this courage to do what i did, but the terrorists that talk hebrew, he says i'm looking at them. he told me calm down. we don't want to kill you. we just want to take you to gaza. and he tell me -- he asked me, you have friends from the police in the army. i told them yep. so let's call one of them. after two hours the police

arrived. and we saw jeeps. everybody get to the terrorists. put the guns, you know. shots started to happen between both sides. and it's one, two, three. and then wow. 100. we all -- after this end, the terrorists lay down. >> you have a bruise. >> like this. >> like -- >> yeah. >> yeah. >> i feel something very hot. and then i understand that i'm really, really -- that's when i understand that i'm going to die. that i'm not -- it's not possible to get alive from this situation. and because i was calling to the police, they know that there is

woman, so they told him, go with this man outside. put your clothes out. and take four minutes he put out of -- >> vest. >> was naked. and he's going with me slowly to the police. >> and how does he go with you? >> he told me in the back like this. >> like -- so you're a shield wngt yeah, i'm a shield. a human shield. and he goes with me to the police. but it's taking us four minutes. everybody is -- and i'm telling don't shoot, don't shoot. >> what does hamas do then? do they see him then? >> they see him. they told him they will shoot him but they didn't. >> and they didn't do it? you'll never know why. >> yeah. >> and then we are 20 policemen

from israel, he pushed me and told me i'm running to the police. he get arrested. and i'm safe. but i understand that my boyfriend and the others are still there with 40 terrorists because just one surrendered. three days after the attack, they have -- that's it. and he was dead. and everybody was dead. i think it's a dream. maybe i'm going to wake up. i don't understand it. you understand what i'm saying? >> yeah, yeah, i do. >> i know the information, but i don't feel the information. i know he's dead. i think, okay. >> you can't feel yet? you don't have the emotions yet. >> yeah. sometimes i have the emotion. but most of the time i living in denial but i know i'm in denial. because it's weird for me that

he's gone. he was younger than me. i'm 44 and he was 37. so it's weird to me that won't get to my age today, you understand. >> he'll never be 44. >> yeah. never be 40. >> this is the trauma that she's going through. of course she did say hamas, described him commander, did turn himself over. all of the other hostages, except for her, and an older woman, were killed that were in that group. every single one of them, including her boyfriend. the white house says it does not believe that this is the time for a cease fire. although of course these words start to become confusing because of course there's been a serious delay and full-on assault. the white house is calling on hamas to release all the hostages held in gaza before a cease fire as constant bombing rains down on gaza. the u.n. security council will meet to address the situation the middle east. secretary of state antony blinken will be there.

we'll be speaking with someone else who will be in that room. that's ahead here on "cnn this morning."

this morning he'll be speaking

at the u.n. security council meeting on the middle east. sir, we appreciate your time this morning. i want to start with the idea of the cease fire. the balance between humanitarian aid for the people of gaza, trying to separate them from hamas and last night another 400 strikes as the israelis prepare for what appears to be a ground incursion. we don't have a timeline on it, yet. do you believe -- or do you agree with the president that a cease fire simply can't be on the table so long as hostages are being held. >> the british government has been absolutely clear about this. the cause of this incident, the awful moment, is hamas. hamas has captured israeli citizens, has brutalized palestinian people, has murdered israeli civilians only 17 days ago. what the uk government supports is extremely clearly the right of the israeli government to defend itself, to defend itself people against what it was, the largest since 1945. this is a horrific moment in israeli history and the israeli government has a right to defend itself. we're also calling for the

ability of aid to get into gaza. and that's why british government has committed some $40 million to aid for the palestinian people who are, of course, victims of this gruesome hamas regime as well. >> you have such experience in the region not only did you deploy to both iraq and afghanistan, you served as an officer, as an arabic speaking intelligence officer the middle east. there is concern, cnn's reporting has it, and "the new york times" has it, just concern among those in the biden administration that israel has not yet expressed, at least publicly, a clear objective if they are able to wipe out hamas. what the end goal is in gaza for the long-term. cnn's reporting is that the u.s. and its allies has been urging israel to be strategic and clear about those goals. what would you say to that? and what we learned in the past in iraq, for example, and afghanistan about the end game is. >> so i think we all know that the military operation is not the end game. the end game is a peaceful, sustainable situation.

but we also know that hamas is not a partner in that peace. we have seen the iranian money that funded hamas into murdering not just israelis but palestinians. we have seen the iranian money that's gone into hezbollah and other organizations, the houthis and murdered saudis and seen this pattern of violence that means that we know that hamas is not partner for peace. now of course it's true that what we need to see is a peaceful resolution of this conflict so that palestinians and israelis can live together. but i'm not giving military advice to general ganc did an extraordinary job defending israel. >> beyond now, the question is you heard president biden say on "60 minutes" it would not be wise to have a reoccupation of gaza by the israeli military. so, then what long term for gaza and the palestinian people there? >> that's exactly why the prime minister of united kingdom has been going around the region, foreign sec ter has been in qatar and egypt and jordan and

turkey and many other places talking to leaders and talking to partners in search of peace. you're absolutely right. the reality is what we need to see is we need to see the palestinian people able to govern themselves and the israeli people able to live in safety and security alongside them. and that's exactly what the uk government is working towards. that's exactly why i'm here to talk to the united nations. we can only do that if we work with partners and allies including important allies in the region. >> i think the geopolitical kind of power play to some degree or power plays plural will be on display at the u.n. security council. that's not knew. it will be vivid today. to some degree. but also in the travels that you were talking about, u.s. officials, uk officials around the region, there are new players, through new leaders and vacuums to some degree that have been filled over the course of the last couple years. when it comes to spillover and escalation, how significant is that? >> the uk government is always worried about conflicts escalating. one of the reasons why our foreign secretary devotes so much time and effort into

building up diplomatic partnerships in the region. allies like jordan and egypt have been extremely important partners for many years have been in different ways for you, too. what we're looking to do is to make sure we're working together with others to resolve this crisis, get aid into the palestinian people. we can get security to the israeli people. and we can resolve this without it escalating. let's be clear who wants this to escalate. it's not israel or the palestinian people. it's iran and hamas who want this to escalate, the free counties like ours and our partners in the region to make sure that escalation does not happen. if there's one piece of advice you should always follow is don't do what iran wants you to do. >> to that point about funding hamas and iran, the deputy treasury secretary just confirmed to me he is going to europe later this week to specifically meet with european leaders about what can be done to go after hamas' financial network with such backing from iran, what more do you think can

be done on that front? >> well, this is a conversation that we have with partners in many different ways. and clearly closing down finance networks that fund terror groups like hamas is incredibly important. it's something we devote an awful lot of time to. but of course terror groups also devote time to and try to use new currency and systems to get around it. that's why we constantly got to update our systems and constantly update our laws to make sure we're working alongside partners like the united states but also the european union and many partners in the region to close down those routes, those funding channels that don't just fund in israel -- let's not skip over it, the murder and brutalization of israeli people. hamas dug up water pipes to turn them into rockets. stolen aid off the palestinian people and leadership lives in luxury. abroad. this is the brutal regime that has done more to destroy the lives of palestinians than

anything else. >> thank you. we know you have a big day at the u.n. glad you're here. >> thank you. off duty alaska airlines pilot is accused of trying to cut engine during flight. deadly crash in louisiana involving more than 150 vehicles. how super fog managed to cause so much devastation. ♪

♪ alaska airlines pilot is being charged with 83 counts of attempted murder for trying to shut down a plane's engines mid flight. joseph emerson was off duty sunday and sitting in the jump seat when authorities say he

tried to cut fuel from the engines by pulling the fire extinguisher handles. the crew jumped into action and subdued aemerson. pete muntean joins us now. this is a horrifying incident. what are authorities saying right now? >> reporter: we're learning about the nature of the incident. a passenger says a flight attendant announced to the plane that emerson appeared to have a breakdown of some sort. and that same passenger actually saw emerson and said he looked well kept but, quote, dead in the eyes. now, emerson was an alaska airlines pilot flying on regional flight known as the jump seat. a small third seat in the cockpit. it's behind the captain of the first officer. it is used all the time by airline employees often to commute between their home cities and bigger airline hubs. now this flight left seattle on sunday afternoon. it was bound for san francisco. 31,000 feet, the pilots radios air traffic controllers in seattle to declare an emergency.

i want you to listen now to what they said after the captain and first officer subdued emerson. >> we got the guy that tried to shut the engines down out of the cockpit. and he doesn't sound like he's got any issue in the back right now. i think he's subdued. other than that, you know, we want law enforcement as soon as we get there. >> reporter: this flight diverted to portland, oregon, where police met the plane and arrested emerson. he is now charged with 83 counts of attempted murder. one count for each person on the plane. one count of endangering an aircraft. sources are stressing to us overnight that this had no link to terrorism. the faa is telling airlines it's not in any way connected to world events. and the fbi says there's no continuing threat. but one more interesting detail here, phil. alaska airlines says emerson attempted to engage the engine fire suppression system for both of the engines on this airplane.

when that system is first engaged, it first cuts fuel off to the respective engine causing that engine to begin to shut down. those big red tea handles you see at the top of the screen. alaska airlines said the captain and first officer acted really quickly to reset that system. and that kept the engines from failing completely. phil? >> wow. pete muntean, thank you for the reporting. pretty scary. "cnn this morning" continues now. ♪ >> two women release affidavit being held hostage by hamas for more than two weeks. >> i can't express how happy i am and relieved to see her. >> this is a small ray of light in a big story. >> the story is not over until everybody comes back. >> huge amount of hope for the other families. >> the support is there. the empathy is there. we want action. >> we believe the best way to do that is to keep the pressure up on hamas. >> it is important to keep