hello, everyone. thank you for joining us, i'm fredricka, and along with jim sciutto. we begin with the ground in gaza where the him crisis is growing and there are new warnings about the risk of fighting spilling on to other parts of the middle east. earlier today, president biden spoke with israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu. and their conversation comes as u.s. national security adviser jake sullivan warns there is an elevated risk of the conflict expanding in other parts of the region. the ux n. security council will

hold an emergency meeting tomorrow about israel's ongoing ground invasion. troops continue to advance in what officials call the second stage of the war. the idf said it's air strikes hit more than 450 hamas targets in the last day including command centers, observation posts and missile launch sites. and today dramatic scenes from gaza's second largest hospital. the palestinian red crescent said nearby israeli shelling has caused damage even as 12,000 gaza civilians are currently sheltering there. desperation is sinking in for many civilians still trapped across gaza. the main u.n. agency said thousands of people broke into the warehouses stealing critical supplies as the israeli bombardment continues. apt the same time, more humanitarian aid is slowly trickling into gaza. today ten aid trucks were able

to pass through the rafah border crossing and communications in gaza, rather, have been partially restored. let's go to jim sciutto on the ground there in northern israel. jim? >> reporter: well, fred, to those concerns about this conflict expanding, one of those potential new fronts, the northern border here, israel's border with lebanon where hezbollah and israeli forces have been exchanging fire with regularity. multiple times a day. my team and i found ourselves in the middle of that fire today. artillery fire from hezbollah targeting israel and israeli forces firing back and concerns about ground incursions beth hezbollah fighters. they've tried before in recent days and weeks intercepted by israeli forces and there were concerns again today. we stopped on a road blocked in both directions as there was concerns of another ground

incursion. we heard the shells flying over our head as it happened. that is the north. of course, israel has been expanding its ground operations in the south, in gaza for last 48 hours. and just outside of gaza is where we find my colleague jeremy diamond. he's in ashkelon. now i know our vision inside of gaza is limited and the sense of extent off israeli operations ad the idf and what they tell us about it but you could give us a picture of the expanded ground operations in gaza and how far they've gone into gaza? >> reporter: well, jim, we don't have an exact sense of how far they have stretched into northern gaza. with you know that the operations, the ground operations appeared to be limited to northern gaza. bet hannon is one of the towns on the northeastern edge that israeli forces appear to be targeted but how far exactly we do not yet know and that appears

to be intentional. and we just heard from the idf spokesperson hagari who declined to say where idf troops are operating. for security reasons. but what he did make clear, as we're more than 48 hours into the ground operations, that fighting is continuing between hamas militants and idf troops and that these operations aring go to continue to expand. not only on the ground, but also with air strikes continuing to intensify. we know that in the second day of this expanded ground operation, the idf struck 450 targets according to the idf including command centers, observation posts, missile launch sites and of course that underground -- those underground tunnels that hamas fighters use to operate beneath gaza. what woe know from the idf spokesperson, he emphasizes the effort to go after sinwar, the

hamas leader and saying we'll trace him until we reach him. they didn't say whether it was to kill or capture him but he did put a renewed focus on going after the top leader in the gaza strip and putting the blame on him for the rising civilian death toll that we are seeing inside of gaza. altogether, nearly 8,000 people, y jim, have been killed in the gaza strip since this operation began three weeks ago. and of those 8,000 people, the palestinian ministry of health said that 73%, nearly three quarters of people who were killed belonged to vulnerable populations, including children and women and elderly individuals. now amis this rising civilian death toll, the idf is encouraging civilians in the northern half of the gaza strip to move south. but what we do know is that even in southern gaza, civilians have

about the none immune to the violence. we've watched as the idf carry out strikes including in the south although the majority of the operations does seem to be focused on northern half of the gaza strip. jim. >> the sad fact is the civilians trapped in gaza blocked on one end by israeli military, and in the south by continuing negotiations as yet without resolution to allow some of them to leave gaza for safer quarters. our jeremy diamond in ashkelon, thank you so much. well it may seem like long ago, but it is not. just a little over three weeks since the horrible attacks on october 7th. and the person who is about to join me was involved in the immediate response in the aftermath of that attack trying to save lives in the midst of many hours of the hamas attack on october 7th. he's ari donna ten with the ambulance service.

thank you so much for joink us this sunday evening. >> thank you for having me and giving me the opportunity to tell our story. >> let me begin there with events that day. because you were not only responding to those attacks, you were suffering as well personally because you lost your partner, one of those killed on that day. can you describe what you saw and what your feeling now, these three weeks later? >> yes, i can explain to you. first of all, more than one partyer, more than one friend. unfortunately far too many losses we've suffered. so i first of all would like to dedicate this interview to their memories, it should be for a blessing. what happened on october 7th it was a holiday morning. didn't seem anything out of the ordinary. at around 6:00, 6:30 in the morning we began hearing booms,

explosives, at the beginning i didn't think too much of it because we live here in southern israel and we're used to flare-ups every now and again. i look outside and i see that intensity of the attacks are more than a normal flare-up. so i open up my phone and i called my dispatcher and just to let them know i'm available if i'm needed for anything and he tells me immediately report to the station. there are casualties, dead, injured, everywhere and more than 300 are being waited to be responded to. so i begin going to the ambulance station to -- to open up the ambulance. usually i work in a station a little bit further from my home. i started going there. they called me and said don't go nowhere you normally work

because it is under heavy fire, this likely saved my life because already the whole city where i normally work was taken over by various neighborhoods were taken over from terrorists from the gaza strip. throughout the day we had nonstop casualties. everywhere in the entire southern region, police officers, civilians, of all different ages, soldiers, it was a day of complete chaos. and a day of complete destruction. >> so ari, many thousands of israelis were injure that day in addition to the 1400 who lost their lives. you could give us a sense of the status of those who were injured today. how many are recovering and how many continue to suffer through horrible life-changing injuries? >> so, the extent of the

injuries are very, very high. we're talking about things that we don't normally see on a normal basis. unfortunately terrorist attacks and violent crime isn't something that israel is a stranger too. we deal with it daily, however, the facts that so many terrorists were able to succeed in infilt traiting our borders and that is something that has never been experienced or never been seen. the degrees to which the injuries varied, like i said, many have died, many were tortured, many were raped, many, many were abused and ab ducked. you were talking shooting attacks, being burned alive and being hit with shrapnel from a grenade at point blank.

we're talking about limbs being amputated and people being injured from rockets that were just shott into civilian areas. things that are so unmanageable. if a human being could possibly imagine what the worst that they could imagine, if it was done, it was probably done at the hands of the hamas terrorists. >> yeah. now, i understand you must be watching events in gaza and be sad to see civilians suffering there as well. part of the work you do is responding and helping people in times of need, particularly when they suffer the kinds of injuries that we see in war. some of the most horrible injuries you could see. i wonder what your thoughts are as you look across the border into gaza? >> as i look across the border into gaza, look, i'm a good human being, i belong to the state of israel, i belong to the jewish people, we're a nation

that values life and justice and that values goodness and light over evil. many times i've had patients in my own ambulance which who were civilians from gaza who obtained work permits to work here and as any human being, we give them grade a service and treat them as any human being. that being said, that when their own government is forcing them to stay put, even though they're told by the israeli defense forces to move so southern gaza where they could take refuge while the military con ducks their military operations in an attempt to rid the gaza strip from the iron rule of hamas, if the hamas terrorists are forcing them to stay put and are using them as human shields, then any loss of civilian life or any

innocent life as sad as it might be, it is at the -- the blood is on the hands of the hamas terrorists and that is why we need to be steadfast in what we're doing in order to eliminate them and eliminate their rule over gaza or anywhere else in the world. >> well, ari, i certainly appreciate the work you did on that day, october 7th and continue to do for the many wounds in those horrible attacks. and we wish you luck going forward. thank you so much for joining us this afternoon. >> thank you for having me and may god bring us victory. >> well, as so often in conflict, it is the people, the civilians who go get caught in the cross fire and suffer the most. joining us now is thomas with the red crescent society which is handling the many needs of

gaza in the midst of the military operations but deep shortage of necessities. thank you so much for joining us. >> good evening and thank you for having me here today. >> so, first question for you is this -- israel said that it is warned civilians away from the northern part of the country, told them to move south, it is safer there. i wonder, based on what you see, and what you hear from colleagues on the ground, is that true? did -- is there any safe place, truly safe place for civilians there now? >> well that is a very good question and what we're reading from police of the palestinian crescent is that there is not really a safe place to stay in gaza. and also the main problem here, it is how to move from the north to the south, where to go and how and where to take food or

water or medical assistance. so i think the main point here is that the people in gaza are having confusion where they don't know exactly what to do and how to survive this situation. >> yeah. thomas, so there is discussion now of how to get people out of gaza. while ongoing military operations are underway by israel. jake sullivan, the u.s. national security adviser told my colleague jake tapper this morning that in terms of them leaving, going out via egypt, that really it is hamas standing in the way, hamas has made demands, not just for the release of hostages, but also to allow them to cross that border, but they're also are questions about what -- egypt's role here. will it allow large numbers of gassan's to leave. who is standing in the way of

getting them to safe harbor outside of gaza right now? >> i think it is more complicated than pointing the finger to one or another. i think it is kind of very complicated situation. it is a kind of a joint effort between different parties and stakeholders to get -- to civilians who need. and we are not seeing this only in the gaza strip today. we have been seeing this in many different contexts around the world. so this is why, since the beginning, we've been calling on all of the parties, all of the stakeholders, all of the people would could put pressure on this at the regional level to make sure that first civilians can reach safety, second that humanitarian aid could enter into gaza strip in a continuous way, not a couple of trucks every other day, and also third that this is very important to say that under international humanitarian law civilians are respected if they decide to

flee. but those decide to stay because in the end this needs to be a free decision of every individual and all the part yours needs to do the utmost to spare the people. >> right now at this point it seems all parties can't come to an agreement on a path to safety for these people. we appreciate the work you're doing with the red crescent and we appreciate you joining us tonight. >> thank you. well this is a war with many fronts. and also the civilians caught on the ground in gaza and a concern about this expansion to the northern border with lebanon where we've seen a great deal of fire exchange today and in recent days. we'll continue to cover all angles of this war. i'm jim sciutto in northern israel and we'll be right back.

welcome back. today fans and friends of

matthew perry are paying tribute to the actor who died yesterday at the age of 54. his career included tv shows and movies but his role as chandler bing on the hit show "friends" that made him a house hold name. >> i took the quiz and it turns out i do put career before men. >> get up. >> what? >> you're in my seat. >> how is this your seat? >> because i was sitting there. >> but then you left. >> it is not like i went to spain. i went to the bathroom. you knew i was coming back. >> what is the big deal. sit somewhere else. >> the big deal is i was sitting there last. so that's my seat. >> friends are remembering perry saying in a joint statement, we are shocked and deeply, deeply saddened by our beloved friend matthew's passing.

it is still seems impossible. all we could say is that we feel blessed to have had him as part of our lives. >> the l.a. times said perry was found unresponsive in his hot tub and his body is at the los angeles medical examiner's office and an autopsy is pending. camilla barnal, is covering is -- this story. what are you learning. >> they are still investigating but sources have told cnn that no foul play is suspected here. the 911 call came in at 4:07 p.m. saturday local time here in l.a. and reported as a water rescue emergency. we know that lapd responded at 4:10 p.m. and then they characterized it as a death investigation, as you mentioned the l.a. times is calling it an apparent drowning accident. we do not have an official cause of death yet. and it is important to note that

usually a full autopsy and toxicology report takes several weeks. now, perry's family did release a statement to people magazine saying that they were heartbroken by the tragic loss of their beloved son and brother. they went on to say in the statement that he brought joy to the world as an actor, but also as a friend. and matthew perry wanted to be remembered as someone would helped others. he said that he was sharing his struggles with addiction being so public and candid about it and not just in interviews but in his memoir in his november 2022 memoir being just extremely open about how difficult it was to deal with his addiction. he said, he wanted to be remembered not just for helping people through the media and in his book, but also one-on-one or in groups. he also wanted to be remembered as someone who lived well, someone who loved well and someone who was a seeker. rs of course, we do remember him by his acting career.

it started out with small roles and then he eventually was cast as chandler which is the role that a lot of us remember him by. that funny and that sarcastic character that made so many people laugh. the cast of friends very close on and off screen. they famously negotiated their contracts together and became some of the highest paid tv actors at the time. we have yet to hear from the cast. but there are so many others in hollywood reacting saying they're in shock, they are so sad, devastated and saying that this is a huge loss for hollywood and of course for his fans, fred. >> camilla bernal, thank you so much. still ahead, concerns for the hostages being held in gaza as isreal expands its ground operations in the palestinian enslave.

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welcome backm i'm jim sciutto in northern israel. we continue to cover israel at war and there has been an enormous amount of criticism of israeli military operations in gaza particularly in this region from israel's arab neighbors and other places around the world. the u.s. has stood and the right to defend itself. today jake tapper spoke to jake sullivan to press him on whether the u.s. has pressured israel in any way to limit its operations particularly with civilian casualties inside of gaza in mind. here is how he answered. >> we could go back however many years people want, if whether they want to start in the hasha mite kingdom or 1948 or 68 or 73 or 2008, whenever you want to start the october, but if you want to start on october 7th and

the bottom line is as far as the idf is concerned, the government of the country next door, invaded, killed 1400 of their kritss and they have a right to take out that government and i get that the biden administration is on board. my question is, is the idf going about this the right way? do you think they're going about this the right way? >> what we believe is that every hour, every day of this military operation, the idf, the israeli government should be taking every possible means available to them to distinguish between -- >> and are they? >> civilians who are not targets. and i'm not going to react to every strike, every move that they make.

that is our principle and that is our advice to them and that is what we're communicating and we continue to do that at highest levels. the president will speak with the prime minister in a few hours time and continue to reiterate the united states position on this issue. it is clear and state forward and we believe this is rooted in the fundamental laws of war. >> in addition to those kofgs, we know that the u.s. sent a current marine general to israel to advise commanders on the operation before it began and as he left, the marine commandant said that israeli forces took some of the u.s. advice and didn't sake some of the u.s. advice as well. the question is, what they're differences are on -- are there any differences, our kevin liptak covering the president for us. and, kevin, jake sullivan is not going to publicly criticize, but president biden has been careful

to express support for israel and express his desire for protecting civilians there and meeting the needs of civilians there and looking longer term, looking for a just outcome to this conflict including the rights of palestinians. i wonder, do you sense in your reporting, any daylight between u.s. officials and the israeli counterparts on the conduct of this war so far? >> well certainly not in public, as you said, jim. but it is hard to read into these conversations. you know, there century some kind of difference on how they're approaching the crisis and you cannot look at the pikes in the ground and not be effected by what is going on there and the president has concluded his conversation with netanyahu. jake sullivan did give an indication of how the conversation would go. but the white house did underscore in their read out, they s

they said that the israel has the right to defend itself but in assistance with humanitarian law that prioritized the protection of civilians. so reading between the lines, the president is encouraging israel to make the protection of civilians a priority and certainly he is under pressure from the left, the progressive left in the united states and as well as american arab partners to say more about what is going on in gaza, to do more to get aid into that country and that we're told it is also a topic of discussion with netanyahu today. the president under scored the need to immediately and significantly increase the flow of humanitarian assistance. but it is this fine line that the president is walking, trying to hold israel very close, he's a staunch defender of israel and talking about the right to defend itself but in the private conversations raising these tough questions about the scope of its response to the hamas attacks, about its objectives and intentions going forward.

and certainly president biden has his own objectives on the ground. primarily the release of the hostages that are being held by hamas in gaza including the potential for american hostages that are an owe the ground there. jake sullivan did say today that those talks are progressing. he said that the u.s. is an hourly consultation with regional partners, the government of qatar which is the broker in all of this. the u.s. is also working to get out american civilians and other foreign nationals from gaza. that has been a nonstarter until now. they have not been able to cross that border into egypt. sullivan said today that the egyptians are willing to accept foreign nationals but that the issue right now is they are making certain demands that are making it more difficult. and we did learn that the president spoke with the egyptian president el sisi and those were a topic of discussion between those men as well, jim. >> well left unanswered is

whether the egyptian government will accept nonforeign nationals, residents of gaza who are currently attempting to or hoping to flee the ongoing mimt action there. kevin liptak, thank you so much. joining us now is brett burn, he served in the obama administration. as you watch, the u.s.-israeli relationship is a close one, but i've covered these con flicks where there is advice or pressure that the u.s. gives or applies to israeli officials, which they do not take. and i wonder, do you sense that the u.s. here is pushing for more restraint and that israel is, despite that pressure, pushing forward? >> well, i i think you need to look at the recent actions. one, the delay into going into gaza in a full scale way. israel has held off for now. additionally, just in the last 24 hours they restored internet

and phone communications. so you could say that the biden administration is having some influence. but also i think we need to moderate our expectations. this is a sovereign country. and as somebody who served in the u.s. foreign service for a decade and a half, i think it is important that as an american, especially in a situation like this, responding to a terrorist attack of such a mass scale, we aren't in a position to tell another country how, when, where they should act. so we also have to understand that the israelis are entitled to make a lot of these decisions themselves. >> true, and listen, the u.s. has made its own decisions in how it conducted war across the world. but there are international laws and standards about acting -- taking positive action to protect civilian lives. and what is not clear, given the

scope, particularly of this aerial campaign, whole apartment blocks collapsing on top of people. how does that meet the requests or demands of the u.s. government, how does that meet international standards, international law? >> you're right, jim and it goes back to 1907, the geneva convention which enshrined some of the rules of war. and i think that what israel has done is largely abide by those principles. now, obviously, we're going to see on the television screen, images of the collateral damage, largely because hamass en sconces itself and it is a violation of the geneva convention. it must operate in an

environment where we'll dealing with a extremist, a terrorist group that isn't following the rules. so what are they supposed to do, jim? are they supposed to just stay back and allow hamas to operate in those areas? >> yeah, no, i'm certainly not suggesting that. but you look at other situations that have some comparison to this, say u.s. operations in fallujah or mosul, there were corridors to allow people out. now there are other obstacles in this situation in that egypt controls that other border and it is not clear that egypt wants a large number of gaza residents to enter the territory. i was looking off to my right because i'm hearing booms to the north of me here. the israel border with lebanon in the north and syria to the northeast is just a number of miles from here and we're continuing to hear sounds of artillery fire. this sounds outgoing but today we were up on the norther border where we heard incoming from the

hezbollah side. so that point, there is a great deal of concern that a second front could open in this war, that hezbollah could make addition to attack from the north. to date those attacks have been limited. are you surprised by that? >> i think it is an encouraging sign, and jim, you raise both the spector of an attack by iranian backed hezbollah groups and a number of other the houthis in yemen, who fired off the missiles that were taken out by saudi air defense but bound for israel. what i do think is important here is that the u.s. continue to apply pressure on regional partners. you brought up the egyptians, obviously the saudi defense minister are headed tomorrow to meet with jake sullivan and other u.s. officials in washington. they need to be doing more. it is not enough for the egyptians to have a closed border and to be screaming at the israelis over the border

saying hold back, i think the path to some sort of stabilization to some sort of solution here runs through riyadh and cairo and qatar as well. >> no question. and listen, a lot of those players there perhaps dubious intentions and have motives of their own. with the relationship with hamas and the taliban, it is a witch's brew of dimensions to this conflict. brett brewen, thank you so much for joining. >> sure thing. and we continue to follow the conflict here in israel. expanded israeli military action in gaza and increase it seems in attacks on israel's northern border as well as we've been hearing during this broadcast. we'll continue to follow both sides of this war, both fronts. please do stay with us. we'll be back after a short breaeak.

welcome back.

the republican race for u.s. president is now a bit smaller. while the democratic field has expanded. on saturday, former vice president mike pence announced he was suspending his 2024 presidential campaign. with me now to talk about these developments is julian zel ser. let's begin with pence. he was struggling to raise money and gain traction in the polls. how does his decision to drop out impact the race overall and who might benefit from his bee parture? >> well it wasn't a surprise. he had all of the baggage of the trump presidency and any of the political strengths of trump who is running and he had become a focal point of anger among trump supporters because of his refu refusal go along with not certifying the election. so i think it narrows the feel. i don't think it changes the fundmal dynamics, which is the former president is far ahead in

this race and even someone like nikki haley are just struggling to get air time, to get poll time, and to get the kind of money that will be needed to defeat him. >> so, trump continues to dominate in the national and early state polls for the republicans. and through the ire of the gop base. when he refused to help trump over turn the 2020 election. and his occasional criticism of trump didn't help him at all. so does pence's departure only further cement that the republican party is indeed that of trump? >> yeah, i think it does. i think one of the foils of trump's political persona went down to a pretty quick defeat years ago pence was considered one of the most possible and exciting republicans to become president. and this was a quick fall. so i think it just, you know, confirms the point of where trump is and where his opponents

are. >> let's shift gear ts to the democratic race. president biden has a new challenger. dean phillips announces that he is running against biden for the democratic nomination. he's not a house hold name. so what do you make of his decision to make a primary challenge to biden? >> well, some of it plight be self-interest, meaning by doing this he's made himself a national name. here we are talking about limb so he becomes a recognizable democrat. part of it is a message he's been talking about now for some time. that democrats need a choice, a candidate who is younger, a candidate who is from a different generation and who is por popular. and so by entering he's going to be able to make that statement. but i think it is unclear to many democrats frankly where he's doing this. and he's a democrat who votes pretty loyally with biden. so it is a younger version of biden. running against biden himself.

>> julien, we'll let it there. thanks so much. >> thanks for having me. >> we'll have much more on the conflict in the middle east in just a moment. stay with us.

welcome back, i'm jim sciutto in northern israel. israeli forces have now advanced some 2 miles on the ground into gaza as the eyes of the world focus their cross border fire on israel's northern border between israeli and hezbollah fighters in lebanon, it has been a daily event, many times a day. my team and i traveling on the

border today found ourselves right in the middle of the cross fire with israeli forces firing mortars and artillery toward lebanon and hezbollah firing artillery back towards israel. it is a dangerous game up there and ben wedeman is in bee route, and this is low level conflict but not open war. do your sources in lebanon, do officials there expect hezbollah to expand military activity on the border or do they see hezbollah as largely sitting out of this conflict for now? >> reporter: jim, officials in beirut do not want to see this conflict beyond the border area but they don't have a lot of control over hezbollah itself. what we've seen along the border between lebanon and israel is that there is an increased

lebanon army presence perhaps trying to put up appearance of trying to have some control over the area but what we've seen since the 8th of october, the day after hamas' surprise attack on israel, that there have been daily fire from lebanon into israel and israel responding. today there was a series of fire incidents along the border. hezbollah claims to have shot down an israeli drone with a surface-to-air missile. another group known as jamal -- the islamic group which is a lebanese group affiliated with hamas fired in the direction of shmona, the israelis responded with an air strike and so it does appear that it is going along at this level that certainly keeps tensions high but isn't quite yet dragging

lebanon into a war, most lebanese don't want to see. i was here in 2006 and saw how many destruction resulted from israeli bombardment in the south of the country. and here in beirut. there is very little desire among most lebanese to see any repeat of that. jim. >> no question, i was on this side of the border in 2006 and when israeli forces did cross, they had serious losses. it shows that each side faces dangers with the prospect of the expansion of this war on to another front. our ben wedeman in beirut, we'll continue to cover this war from that side of the border. and we continue to cover the war in israel on every front as well as the plight of civilians in gaza which continues as negotiations are underway, not just for the release of hostages but for the possibility of some

hehelp for gaza.a. i'm jim m sciutto, w we'll be b afteter a shorort break.

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