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watching us here in the united states, canada and all around the world, i'm kim bruhuber with the very latest empty israeli role. it's been ratcheting up its pressure on hamas with expanded explosions in gaza. explosions can be heard reverberating all around gaza, said to be the most intensive strikes since the israeli war started. appear to be down, israeli government official says this conflict won't end like the others. >> israel has decided we can no lodger live with this jihadi enclave. not going to end with a cease fire, this is a war that hamas declared on us on october 7th. the days ahead are going to be long and difficult, because we are going to go after the

terrorism, inside the gaza strip. this war will end with no more hamas in the gaza strip. we're going to go after every tunnel, every rocket launcher, every hamas commander every hamas foot soldier so they can no longer hurt our civilians. >> led the u.n. general assembly vote for an immediate cease fire on friday. israeli foreign minister denounced it as despictable. iron dome intercepted more rockets, one rocket instruction a building. joins us from dubai with more. what more are we learning about israel's are in curing's into gaza in the last few hours? >> reporter: look, things have definitely quieted down. if we look at what happened in the early hours of the morning on thursday we saw intensity that we have not seen since

october 7th. there was a ground raid, operations are expanding, we don't know how many israeli troops entered gaza. we don't know if they are still there. what we do know is that the last few days we have seen a ramp up of raids. and then the israeli troops have exited. the idf have confirmed that there are hundreds of thousands of troops that are on the border with gaza. we have seen a communications blackout in gaza and people within gaza have also said that they haven't seen this type of intensity, importantlily and as you mentioned rocket fire has also come from gaza into israel hurting three people in tel aviv. quotes here waging war from hospital he, now you've got this add he fear of hospitals being targeted specifically, the al shifa hospital the largest in

gaza. i spoke to the inspector general yesterday, kim i want you to take a look at what he said. >> more than 50,000 civilians arare just staying within the premises of the hospital. >> he also described a very miserable scenario with resources depleting fast, u.s. defense secretary has reiterated the importance of protecting civilians as the idea of operations gain traction here. >> all right, thanks so much eleni jokos in dubai. meanwhile, the white house says it won't comment, the u.s. is talking to israel about a possible humanitarian pause to try to get hamas to release its hostages. but when the spokesperson was asked if the u.s. would support a cease fire this is what he told cnn earlier. listen. >> we're not talking about a cease fire right now.

in fact we don't believe that this is the time for a cease fire. israel has a right to defend themselves. they still have work to do to go after hamas leadership. we are giving them more security assistance, we want to make sure they are what they need to continue this fight. we continue to send a strong message to actors in the region including iran that if you are thinking about jumping in here, if you are thinking about deepening and widening and escalating don't do it. we will take that very seriously in the region and we have added to the military capabilities to make sure we can do that. >> lloyd austin also said that aid delivery into the palestinian enclave is urgently needed. cnn's orrin lieberman has more from the pennington. >> very close-from the pentagon.

into gaza as it goes after hamas. but the pentagon and the white house is clear this is israel's war to fight and they won't dictate or order or but they have offered council on their best practices, from decades of war. including the recommendation, instead of incurring a large scale ground incursion, is that advice the israelis have heeded? that is an answer that will be very clear in the hours and the days ahead. meanwhile the u.s. a big concern there is whether the conflict in gaza now that we do appear we are seeing what looks like a larger scale ground incursion if that moves to the rest of the region. even though the u.s. doesn't see a connection between gaza and iraq and syria other groups do. that is a key concern here. take a look at this matt.

you will get a sense of, in four different sites in iraq, four different sites in syria, some of them have had more than one attack, at least seven attacks, against groups that are affiliated with iran's revolutionary guard corps and affiliated groups there. the u.s. says the those strikes didn't result in casualties but resulted in demolition of aan ammunition facility. carrying out these strikes they were narrowly aimed at essentially protecting u.s. forces and the u.s. doesn't want the conflict to escalate, to what u.s. is doing in iraq and syria against isis there. orrin lieberman cnn at the pentagon. >> responded to u.s. president joe biden's public questioning of the reliability of

palestinian casualty figures in the conflict with israel by publishing the names of what it says are thousands killed since the start of this conflict in the wake of october 7th astacks by hamas. the israeli defense forces have imposed a complete siege of the gaza strip. israel says the attacks will continue until all the hostages are released. controversy against the death toll. >> reporter: families are mourning and counting their dead. a near endless stream of funerals echoes throughout gaza and as palestinians bury their loved ones, conflict continues over the death toll released by hamas. hamas took power in 2007, no

elections have again taken since. it controls the government therefore all ministries including the health ministry. president biden says that is why he last no confidence in the reported gaza death toll. >> i have no notion that palestinians are telling the truth about how many people are killed. i'm sure innocents have been killed and that is the price of waging a war. >> reporter: this is how the hamas run health ministry responded, publishing this document, a 212 page report listing the i.d. numbers names sex and age of more than 6700 palestine janes it says have been killed since october 7th. among them nearly 3,000 children. the total figure is expected to be even higher because of hundreds of unidentified bodies. it says, the ministry says it is committed to accuracy. accused some of dehumanizing

palestinian victims. our people are not anonymous entities that can be ignored, it said. the palestinian authority which rules the west bank also hilt back. >> there are certain leaders who don't want to see reality. the numbers are correct. they are our numbers. these numbers are fed to us from the hospitals of gaza every single day that are received by our ministry of health. >> reporter: skepticism over the death toll spiked over the explosion of gaza city's hospital. within hours the health ministry said at least 471 were killed. the u.s. gave a more conservative estimate of 100 to 300 killed. >> it's at least a couple of hundreds, that is terrible, but the numbers are not reliable. >> reporter: news outlets, even the u.s. state department have cited the department of

health in the past. figures from hamas are unreliable. human rights watch an independent body responded. >> we've done research during multiple rounds of escalations and we've always found the ministry of health data to be generally reliable. the conversation should focus on how world leaders can stop further mass atrocities and not nitpicking whether a number that is generally proven to be accurate might be a little bit off. >> reporter: and access is limited. foreign media has been denied entry into gaza an for local journalists, conditions on the ground make reporting difficult. cnn and other news outlets cannot independently verify the figures. and while some argue over the death toll, bodies keep pieblg g up. salma aziz, cnn.

>> even after the suspect in the attack was found dead, we'll bring you the latest. plus demonstrators gather in grand central terminal in new york calling for a cease fire in gaza. we'll have more on t that ahead, pleasese stay withth us.

>> says he's grateful that maine residents are now safe after spending days hiding in their homes. this comes after robert card, the shooter of 18, was found dead. here is the lewiston chief. >> our work is not done tonight. i was very elated when i got the call from commercials sasha informing me of the revelation that mr. card is now deceased, and is not a threat to our community or any other community. i don't want to foresight the law enforcement officials that have worked tirelessly through this whole event to come to a good conclusion. >> cnn's oh mar jimenez has the

latest. >> reporter: after a 48 hour, found dead after an apparent self inflicted gunshot wound. this is the end of, wondering where this person may be especially begin the violent nature of what he was accused and what police believe he did. now to give people an idea of where this body was found we are outside the bar and grill which was the second location of the mass shootings that happened on wednesday night. this body was found just about ten minutes away from here in the town over, the town over from lewiston which we are in lisbon, maine and it was found near a recycling plant which we understand from law enforcement forces a plant where he was fired from recently. so at this point this now begins the next phase of the investigation for officers to

figure out okay, what led up to the actions, that they say he carried out over the course of wednesday night, and why did this happen? so that is one aspect of the investigation that continues. however, the main priority that everybody had been looking for of trying to locate this person is now over. it is a sigh of relief for many in this community as a sigh of relief for many of the leaders in this community as they laid out in their lates press conference. we also learned that they found the body at 745 p.m. eastern time friday thiet. it wasn't until hours later that they announced, what they said they were doing in the meantime was notifying families of victims. they also said they notified the family of the suspect as well. a family they said had, on the whole, been cooperative throughout the entire process. and while there is still more investigative work ahead there is a lot more grieving ahead for many of the families here

affected. at least 18 killed in total. but so many more lives shattered based on the lives that they touched and as one resident told us, they are not just numbers this ,they are people. and it is people that are going to live on in this community for much longer than this 48 hour manhunt. oh mar jimenez cnn. >> deadliest mass shooting of the year in the u.s. it says that there have been more than 560 mass shootings in the country so far this year. the agency defines a mass shooting at lease four people are shot or killed in a single event. 2021 is listed as the most violent with at least 60 mass shootings here in the u.s. gaza is largely under a communications blackout amid the looming threat of an israeli

ground offensive as they continue targeting hams. a local service provider has most of the internet and communications inside gaza and with the outside world are severally disrupted. multiple humanitarian groups say they can't get in touch with their systems on the ground. some palestinians say they split their families so at least some members were survive in case of an israeli strike. others talk about hearing explosions but without stable communications they can't check if their families are okay. a leader in charge of palestinian refugees sent a dramatic message about the humanitarian situation. listen to this. >> as we speak, people in gaza are dying. they are not only dying from bombs and strike. soon many more will die from the consequences of siege imposed on

the gaza strip. basic services are crumbling. medicine is running out. >> want to go live now to chicago and dr. zahar zahul, the founder and president of med global, an organization on the ground in gaza helping with the medical needs there. thanks so much for being with us. this major incursion by israel what do you think this might have by the 1 million or so children there who are already suffering? >> thank you for having me. the situation even before this ground invasion has been catastrophic. and with the blockade and prevention of medicine and water supplies and water, clean water, the situation, i cannot imagine what's happening right now to the civilians in gaza. and now with the ground invasion that will complicate it further and going to cause more attacks on civilians, more bombs, more

injuries. unfortunately, it will probably collapse what is left of the medical system which is lost two-thirds of its capacity. because of the consuming large number of medical supplies every day, during this crisis, what's consumed in the hospital is worth worth one month of consumption before the crisis. and then you can add to it the lack of clean water that is causing a lot of water borne infection. lack of electricity, many of the core functions will stop functioning, including incubators, diet sis equipment, 1,000 dialysis patients willll probably die, plplus the 135 newborn who are incubators. the situation is going to be unimaginable and beyond

catastrophic. >> as dr. stridea helped those people with the medical system close to collapse you've been to many disaster zones yourself. from what you're seeing, is this the worst you're seeing? >> i've been in ukraine, i've been in syria. i've been in yemen. actually i just came from ukraine a month ago. this is the worst i've seen. i've been in gaza four times before and gaza has witnessed wars before. this is the worst i've seen in the whole world. and i think the consequences of this war will continue to affect the people in gaza and beyond for the next generations. it is not only the physical wounds and the death and the injuries among the families but also the mental health wounds that will last forever among the children who are witnessing bombing who lost many of their family members. dr. samma josafia who was our

lead physician, he said if i stay alive i would like to talk about my patient, she is a child only ten years old, she lost all of her family members, her two parents and six brothers and sisters, and she had a fracture in her skull and fracture in her limbs and injuries in her liver and spleen and they don't have enough supplies to treat her. and he was very sorry and he told me the saddest thing that he has in his life that he witnessed many children that he saw in the neighborhoods that now are dead and mutilated. and this is something that should not happen in the 21st century. >> yes, it is absolutely just tragic as you describe. you're talking about your teams that you're in touch with. have you still been in touch with them? i know the communications have generally been cut. >> the last message we got was from our lead nurse, she sent it

about 15 hours ago, and she said that if i died, please take care of my children. >> wow, that's just horrible to contemplate. i mean we -- we heard about the number of, you know, children who have been killed. i think hamas controlled ministry of health said close to 3,000 children are already dead. we know that both israel and the u.s. question the casualty numbers that are begin by the ministry, you know whatever the true number is, it is just too many. but do you trust the statistics that they're putting out? >> i have no doubts that the real number of children who were killed and injured is much higher than the 7,000 because there are still hundreds of children or civilians under the run of their houses. people were not able to pull them out. and the hospital which is a pediatric hospital in the north of raza which has a capacity of 80 beds they had 150 patients and they received 300 dead

bodies. 60% of them are children. and the reason that you have this high number of children because people ask how come that you have children are killed with this large number because bombs actually kill children. and because of the flying shrapnel, even if the children are not in their immediate vicinity of the bombs, the flying slap inners will kill a child more than killing adults because if it penetrates their skull they don't have protection. and also they don't have large body mass. so they tend to bleed more than adults. they tend to suffer more than adults and they tend to die easier than adults. so that is why you have large number of children wore killed because of the bombs and the missiles. >> gosh just horrible. we've been talking here about palestinian children in gaza but we can't forget about the israeli children who were kidnapped. i think it's estimated to be around 30, i mean the threat to their lives never mind the

psychological trauma all this will cause them is just unimaginable. >> every life is a precious. and i think we need to be morally consistent. whether it's a child in ukraine or in israel or in gaza or in chicago. they deserve to live and they deserve to go to school. they deserve to have a future and what's going on right now in raza is beyond imagination and the whole international community is responsible including my government here. >> all right listen we'll have to leave it here but certainly hopefully your teams on the ground there in gaza are okay. dr. zahir, thank you very much so much for speaking to us. >> thank you. >> if you would like to have information about how to help with humanitarian efforts, go to cnn.com/impact. they are providing assistance to cnn.com/impact. still to come. the u.s. is still working to

bring about the release of hostages. we'll have an opt, stay with us. an update, stick with us.

>> and welcome back to all of you watching us here in the united states, canada and all around the world, i'm kim brunhuber. israel, announced it's expanding ground operation in gaza.

cnn's alex marquart has the details. >> reporter: almost 230 hostages held in the gaza strip. israel stepped its operations up in the area. nearing the release of a large number of hostages. then after israel launched the expansion of their operations, u.s. officials insisted that the talks will continue. one u.s. official telling cnn quite firmly that there is no scenario in which until these hostages are free, that the u.s. would stop pursuing talks. the white house is saying they are having active conversations with israel about humanitarian pauses as they call them because the u.s. believes that those pauses could help get hostages out. while israel on the other hand has argued that more military pressure is what helps free hostages. now the growing israeli campaign will also make many people more

desperate to get out of gaza, including hundreds of foreign nationals who have been trapped in gaza and are trying to escape. the u.s. and israel has accused hamas of not opening the gate at the crossing into egypt which is called rafah. egypt has shown some reluctant of letting people out and allowing foreign officials to be ton egyptian side of the boarder in order to process the people coming out. there is little complicated the situation for the hostages and those trying to flee. alex marquart cnn washington. an israeli man whose sister was kidnapped says he is consumed with concern for her. he was worried that israel's hair strikes on gaza would make it did you ever to get his sister home alive. this is what he said here.

>> worrying is my main occupation and every day we have significant worries, every day can be a day i'm sorry for the language, can be a day of rape, can be a day of torture, can be a day of dying -- dead or illness, every day is worry. >> right. >> so and most of my worries come from the treatment of hamas and my disrespect or i don't know which stronger word to use, to what i think the hamas might be using. so i have more let's say respect to what our military is doing and i hope that they already calculate in their actions, but it of course also worries me but i have more trust in what they are doing and what they are trying to operate than whatever happens inside of gaza. >> all right from a military perspective let's bring in malcolm davis, a senior

official, what we are seeing from israel right now do you think this signals the start of the main invasion? >> look, kim, it could, i think what you are seeing is certainly a ramping up of artillery and air strikes against hamas positions across gaza. and that generally does suggest the preliminary stages of an invasion. you prepare the battle space. you attack known targets. you clear deans before you send in ground forces. because the last thing you want to do would be sending ground forces into fully prepared possess. if you can attrit and wear down those forces prior to sending in ground forces there is more likely to have friendly forces in the process. >> they have targeted 150 underground targets, what it called terror tunnels and

underground combat spaces. what do you think of those specific objectives? >> i think that is sensible. hamas is using the tunnel network to move around the battlefield in gaza. and to basically position themselves so if the israelis move in they can exploit the tunnels oattack the israelis from the rear. so it would actually make sense for the idf to actually attack those tunnels and destroy those tunnels ideally with hamas inside of them so they can't use those tunnels and it makes it more difficult then for hamas to defend against an incoming israeli gnar incursion on the ground. >> just before you came on air we heard from somebody whose family was held hostage in gaza. what about the hostages, if this is the precursor, these incursions all of these air strikes does it help or hurt

their chances of coming back aliver do you think? >> look, i'm sure the israelis and the americans are doing their very best trying to get those hostages out. and, you know, there may be possibilities that intelligence operations can locate some of the hostages and special forces go in and rescue them. but you know i think that once the ground invasion begins, the chances of rescuing those hostages drop dramatically. hamas want to use them as human shields and secondly they want to use them as bargaining chips to try and delay the israeli offensive. and i think the israelis and the americans have woken up to this cynical tactic by hamas, drip feeding hostages over a period of days and weeks to try and delay that offensive. that gives them hamas more time to prepare defenses. so i think that the descraims are going to go in -- israelis are going to go in, irrespective of the hostages, we will do our

best to get them out but nothing is guaranteed sadly. >> something they have promised and failed, destroying hamas, what then? >> that is the key question for the israelis. they have to defeat hamas, have to defeat it decisively and not like they have done in the past mow the lawn. destroy enhancements as a fighting force but then they have to win the peace. and that's going to be challenging. because gaza is an urban environment that is extremely dense in terms of population. there's large numbers of civilians in harm's way. even with the most advanced precision strike weapons available, civilians will be killed and injured. so it's going to be very difficult for the israelis having defeated hamas to then go in and sit down and talk with the palestinians in gaza and say look we have to come up with a durable scoourtd solution that presents the radicalization of

future palestinian groups. that's going to be really difficult for the israelis, partrticularly if f for examplee war escalates s to bringng in hezbollah and iran and i israels fighting a multifront war but they have to win the peace. they can't just see another generation of palestinians radicalized. >> a tough challenge to say the least. in the meantime we have heard iran warning that new tronts would open against the u.s. if it continues its unwavering support of israel. how great is the threat to the u.s. here? >> i think it's very serious. i don't think it's just the u.s., it's u.s. allies. we should be seriously slobbing at how iran and iranian supported elements across the world could act against the u.s., act against the interests of u.s. allies, here in australia we should be considering, you know, the potential threats in this country. i think that iran is very

serious. it's clearly stating that it intends to open up new fronts. we should take that threat seriously and we should have the forces in theater to counter those threats if and when they do emerge. >> all right we have to leave it there. i really appreciate your insights, malcolm davis thanks so much. thank you. >> gas's largest hospitals as a command center, still ahead what this may tell us by israel's next move as it expands its war on hamas. stay with us.

is it possible my network could take my business to the next level? it is with comcast business. powering all your devices with gig-speed wifi. and you get fast downloads and uploads. pick it up! pick it up! oh we got this! because it's powered by the next generation 10g network. more speed for your business? it's not just possible. it's happening. get started for $59.99 a month for 12 months. plus, ask how to get an $800 prepaid card with a qualifying internet bundle. comcast business, powering possibilities. >> israel says its war planes hit 150 underground targets in gads gaza overnight. just a series of loud booms were heard throughout northern gaza. gaza residents describe heavy

air strikes in the paths 24 hours and there's a communications blackout with phone and internet services down. this comes as the israeli defense forces, say its expanding war on hamas. meanwhile, relatives being held as hostages have no longer hope that he their relatives can be treed through negotiations. >> we waited for three weeks, we tried to negotiate with them. we tried our best to bring as many people as we can back home. but we will see that we're dealing with liars. if we want them back safe and sound we have to get in, and make sure that hamas will be demolished and make sure that they will go down on their knees and beg us to stop. this is the only way that we can bring our people back. >> cnn military analyst and retired air force colonel cedric layton has more on the

operations of gaza. >> this is the west bank and this is gaza. so we expect the israelis to have their forces basically in this area around the northern and southern part of gaza. there may be activity in the southern part of gaza between israeli and gaza. now as far as the tunnels are concerned firm let's take a look at the damage right here. this is the kind of damage that we have as of the 22nd of october, all of this area right here has been lit hit by the israelis, all through here. you see the different impact points that you have here. also in this area, and in this area, these are all the different areas that have all been impacted by the kinds of air strikes that you see here. and then as far as the tunnels go, they are at a minimum,

described like this: about, you know, could be up to 300 mimes of these tunnels but they are all in this area right in here particularly in the north and in the upper central part and then there are some also here in the south. these are areas in which we can expect to find command and control notes for hamas, hostages and also resupply efforts plus the rockets that hamas has stored and fires against israel as often as they can. >> israel is claiming the largest hospital in gaza is the site of a major hamas command center. it appears to be a significant attempt to prepare public funny ahead of a major ground offensive inside gaza. >> the red buildings as i mentioned are buildings that hamas is using. meaning he does his command and control, in different departments of the hospital. like the roentgen room and others. he uses these places in order to do command and control for

terror activities, launching rockets, et cetera, et cetera. it is here chief hospital where hamas operates some of its command and control cells. this is where they direct rocket attacks, command hamas forces, hamas terrorists operate inside the chief of hospital. and other hospitals in gaza, and other network of opportunities. hamas has an entrance to those terror tunnels from inside the hospital wards meaning from different places of the hospital you can go into an underground tunnel that will provide you shelter. >> the palestinians reject israel's claim the director general of the hamas control gaza health ministries told cnn, hospitals are used to treat patients only and are not holding anyone. calling countries to immediately

intervene, stop the bombing on the medical system. jewish, calling for a cease fire in gaza. the demonstration remained peaceful though there are reports of dozens of arrests and some passengers were delayed. a pro test of this scale is unusual for grand central. israel's prime minister is calling the fire despicable, israel intends to eliminate hamas just as the world eliminated the nazis. 14 voted against it including the u.s. and israel. the attack on hamas, has put the israeli military on high alert.

fighters in lebanon that's coming up stay with us.

>> aa top israeli official tells

cnn the country is imeefg up pressure on hamas. the comments come as israel says it's expanding ground operations in gaza that that its war planes hit 150 targets in gaza in the night. communications are down in gaza. rockets were seen in the sky. now the escalation of the strikes on gaza comes as hamas makes a rare public plea for help. a senior hamas noicial telts the associated prest they mean hezbollah and other allies to play a bigger role in the war. we appreciate this but we need more in order to stop the congregation on gaza, we expect more and now the u.s. is urging citizens in lebanon to leave now while commercial flights are still available. in northern israeli towns civilians have been evacuated

because of increased attacks from hezbollah militants. cnn jim sciutto reports. >> reporter: earlier the center of town now abandoned. 2,000 citizens evacuated because of attacks. too close to israel's border with lebanon and too close to hezbollah. >> the problem is from too many windows we are under threats. >> reporter: now based here are hundreds of idf soldiers. we don't identify them due to security. >> in a few hours we were under attack here or places in that area. so we need to keep ourselves under cover to make sure that we won't be exposed. >> metulla is surrounded on three sides by lebanon by territory controlled by hezbollah and that is why the town has been evacuated because of that threat.

and soldiers based here now say they face three threats infrom hezbollah. sniper fire, rocket fire but also the possibility of ground incursions. one happened here several days ago and they are on constant alert for the possibility of the next one. the town's mayor has the job now of relocating residents to safer areas further south and keeping metulla ready for residents to return. the when is far from clear. what is clear is that the old status quo is no longer sustainable for those living this far north. not for hezbollah on their doorstep. >> we don't want the war. we want to end the current status quo and move hezbollah through southern lebanon. we can make a peace deal through the americans and iranians or we will have war. >> for now this is an operation to defend and deter and the threat is real.

we are advised not to linger too long in hezbollah's line of fire. >> can you find more than 400 soldiers looking at you. >> reporter: for the soldiers tear job now is to make sure some day metulla can come alive again. do you believe people will be able to come back to a town like metulla again or is it just too close lebanon to hezbollah? >> i know we will do everything to make them feel protected, to make them feel safe, as someone who packed his last luggage with tears in his eyes and asking why, he told me i don't know if i will return here. >> reporter: that is the new reality here in northern israel but also in the south. communities emptied by the threat from hamas, in gaza and hezbollah here in the north. many people demanding increased military action across the border but that portends costly

operations with israeli forces with an uncertain military outcome. jim sciutto cnn in northern israeli. >> i'll be back with israel's continuing war, please stay with us. to duckduckgo on all your devie

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