you're watching "cnn news central." i'm boris sanchez with brianna keilar in washington and wolf blitzer is live in tel aviv. in a few minutes prime minister netanyahu will speak to reporters as israel enters what they're describing as the second stage of their war on hamas. israeli defense forces as you can see on your screen intensifying air strikes and expanding operations on the ground in gaza where the idf says dozens of militants were killed over the weekend. >> today the terror group hamas released a short video that shows three women, it's believed, taken hostage on october 7th when hamas murdered more than 1,400 people. cnn is not showing this footage, but in it one of the captives

who obviously may have been under duress speaks to netanyahu, pleading for freedom. wolf? >> in gaza civil order is beginning to collapse right now in the southern and central region according to u.n. officials. they say and i'm quoting now thousands of people broke into warehouses and distribution centers taking wheat, flour and hygiene supplies, it's a sign of the growing despair as the very few aid trucks continue to trickle in. very few. it's nowhere near meeting the need of the more than 2 million people trapped there right now, more than half of them children. melissa bell is joining us from cairo right now, she's covering the humanitarian crisis that's unfolding but i want to start with cnn's nic robertson joining us from sderot not far from gaza. as we wait for prime minister netanyahu to take the podium i want to start with the breaking news that a female israeli soldier has just been released

in gaza. what can you tell us? >> reporter: the private has been released. this is absolutely remarkable and incredible news, wolf, because i think a lot of people felt once the ground operation began in gaza this sort of thing would be unlikely that the hostages would be in deep tunnels and very hard to find. now, the idf is saying that she was released during a ground operation that she has been taken and given medical checks and appears to be fine. in fact, she's met with her family, again, quite remarkable. so this seems to indicate that the idf -- i said indicate because the idf is not saying -- that they will likely have had active, timely intelligence about where she was. of course, they may have parted their operations because they are now on the ground in gaza,

that they may have stumbled across her, but the fact that she is released, has had medical checks and is with her -- is with her family is quite a stunning turn of development. it's the first time that the idf has been able to release any of the hostages and this is one of their own and this must give some comfort and some hope to all those other families who are waiting for news about their loved ones, wolf. >> very important that's major breaking news. another israeli female soldier has just been released. the israelis say there are in gaza for the long haul, nic, and the fighting is intensifying as we speak especially on and under the ground. what more do we have on that? >> reporter: the idf is saying they're putting in additional forces, they are increasing the tempo with infantry, with armor. they've been dropping leaflets

to the citizens of gaza telling them that the area is now a battlefield. in the north of gaza, the center of gaza, they are telling residents to move to the south to a humanitarian area in the south of gaza at the moment because the north is a battlefield. we've seen video shot by journalists in gaza today that appear to show an idf tank firing on what appeared to be a civilian vehicle at close range. the idf has said that it was impossible -- is impossible to know whether it was terrorists or civilians in that vehicle. but the message to residents in gaza is -- in the north at least -- nat a that the area is battlefield. the idf say they are using the ground troops to identify terrorist targets, this is their language and they're calling in air strikes on those targets. we've been hearing throughout the day occasional missile explosions from munitions dropped by jets. we're hearing the jets even now

circling in the sky and earlier on we can see the contrails in the sky of the jets flying lazy loops outside of gaza waiting to get the call from the troops on the ground as the fight inside of gaza on the ground intensifies, wolf. >> nic, i want to turn to the hamas videos that have been released showing apparent israeli hostages. give us more details on what they show and we should tell our viewers cnn has not, repeat not airing this video. >> reporter: there were three female hostages, one of the female hostages speaks, again, we don't know if she's speaking under duress, but she makes it clear that they've been held since october the 7th. she clearly identifies that. she also says -- and this will be information that apparently she will have been told by her captors -- that there was supposed to be a ceasefire and she's been told because she says

this that the prime minister, benjamin netanyahu, didn't go along with the ceasefire and that's why they're still hostages. she becomes very determined in her delivery, telling the prime minister that he and his government is responsible for security failings and the fact that they were taken hostage, that there wasn't a speedy enough military response. so, again, you begin to get the picture that this is the sort of language that hamas wants to spread and this unfortunate hostage may not have a great deal of choice about what she's saying but she closes with an incredibly emotional appeal, essentially, help free us, don't allow us to be killed. >> yeah, it's all so, so intense and so disturbing. nic, thank you very much. stay safe where you are in sderot. i want to go to mel can a bell who is in cairo right now. i know you're following what's going on in gaza.

has there been any progress in getting more important supplies into gaza? >> reporter: it is a painfully slow trickle, wolf, that continues to make its way through the rafah crossing. we have just heard an extra 26 aid trucks had made it through carrying those much needed medical supplies, a bit of food. that is up from the 118 trucks we saw earlier today. we're hearing also there are a couple dozen extra waiting for inspection. even if by the end of today or tomorrow we get towards 200 trucks, just above, that will be all that's gone through since the start of this conflict. bear in mind the u.n. estimates they need 100 trucks a day minimum to meet the basic needs of the population. we've just been speaking to the world food program they say even before this war began 80% of gazans were dependent on some kind of food aid and at the time there could be up to 400 trucks a day that went in. so it gives you an idea of how little there is now for people to survive on and i think what you mentioned a moment ago those

images we've seen over the course of the last few days of u.n. warehouses being swarmed by desperate civilians in search of those most basic supplies, speaks to that. the world food program says their very own staff are sheltering in parts of southern and central gaza. people unable to get water, unable to get food, unable to get to toilets, the hygiene situation extremely concerning and it is really only a ceasefire that would allow the kind of change in the amount of trucks going through that would allow that to change. the bottleneck at the rafah crossing is unlikely to get any better as long as the fighting continues. >> melissa bell in cairo for us, thank you very much. we will get back to you. i want to right now get back to the major breaking news, the idf says a female israeli soldier who had been kidnapped by hamas has just been freed during ground operations in gaza. we are expect to go hear, by the way, from the israeli prime

minister benjamin netanyahu very soon. we will have live coverage of that but right now i want to bring in our special guests who are here with me in tel aviv. thank you for joining us. i know you are the parents of a 19-year-old missing idf soldier, your daughter there is a picture. i understand you just heard from your daughter during a brief text while she was stationed at a military base near the gaza border. that was the last time you heard from her and here is another picture that we are showing. tell us about that last conversation, that last exchange, text message you had with your daughter. >> it was saturday, the black shabbat for us. it was actually when we heard the missiles and the whole siren in israel and then i started to call her and she didn't answer for me. and then in 9/27 she made a text

message to sharon and told her, hi, mom, i'm okay. i'm in duty. i feel okay. >> red heart emojis. >> emojis. >> saying i love you and i texted her back i love you, too, take care. that was it. >> you heard both of you just heard the breaking news that a female israeli soldier has just been freed, just been released according to the idf. >> yes. >> we are so happy. >> we are very happy and she is one of her friends, she is one of her -- she is one of the team and we are so excited that -- >> they were friends in the army? >> oh, yeah. >> sure. >> they were friends in the army and they were both on the same team. >> same team. >> yeah. >> so this is encouraging to you that maybe, god willing -- >> very.

>> -- your daughter will be released as well we hope. >> i hope and i hope it will be soon. >> and i'm sure you want to speak to her friend who has just been released. >> yeah. >> and get a sense of what -- >> yeah, she needs to recover from what she has been through, but i'm positive that we are going to talk with her very soon. >> were they kidnapped together, do you know? >> we don't know nothing about the details about the duty, the last like shabbat, you know, like saturday, but all we know is like a puzzle that we are making together all of us exactly what's happened there we don't know. we don't know nothing actually, what time it was, how it was, nothing. >> we know she was in the communication room the last -- >> your daughter was? >> yes. yes. and the last message was at 9:27

a.m. >> the bombs started coming in about 6:30 in the morning. >> we think that she was on a shift from 4:00 to 8:00 a.m. and then she stayed there because the bombing -- the bombing started and the communication was supposed to be the safest place in the base. >> right. >> until they set it on fire. >> sharon, you told me before we went on the air that you would like to say a few words to your daughter. i don't know if she's watching but you seem to think that that's a possibility. >> yeah, i think -- i think she's watching and i would like to say to her, roni, you have to stay strong. we are going to get you back. >> i promise you. >> we are going to get you back. the idf will get you back. you have to stay strong. everyone is looking for you and you have to believe that we are coming. we are coming to save you.

>> do you want to say something to her in hebrew, too? >> she understands english very well. >> do you want to say something? >> it's okay. >> of course it's okay. >> roni -- [ speaking in a non-english language ] >> let's hope that what you say happens, that you are reunited with why you are beautiful daughter. here is a picture, a special young lady. she's only 19 years old. >> she's 19 years old, she's very beautiful as you can see and she's very talented. she loved cooking, loved music, loved to hear taylor swift and

harry styles, we had just been to a concert of maroon five when they were in israel and we danced and sang and i want to take her again. i want to take her again. >> this is a picture from the first day in the army. >> really? >> yeah. it was one year and four months ago. >> it's hard to believe that this has actually happened in israel. i've been to israel many times, reported on a lot of news here. it's hard to believe that terrorists would be able to come in to israel not just kidnap and take away your beautiful daughter, but so many other people, just including children, including grandmothers and grandfathers. >> it's hell. >> as we call it it's the black s shabbat. they killed babies, women, children, elderly and much more horrible things that i won't

speak about now and what i would really like is to ask the help of the international community to help us, please, help us. help us bring my roni back home and help us bring all the kidnapped people because they are so much civilian and children and babies. and babies. do you know that there was a woman, pregnant woman, who gave birth in captivity. we don't know if she's alive, if the baby is alive and they should all be back home. >> they should be. >> yes. and i'm speaking to you as a mom, as a parent, please, please help me. help me bring her back home and all the other kidnapped people. >> let's hope that happens and thank you so much for coming in. thank you for your story. and when you are reunited, god willing, with roni, we'd like to continue this conversation.

>> sure. >> i promise you. >> i'd like to meet her. >> i promise. >> you thank you very much. >> thank you for having us. >> thank you so much. >> as we say [ speaking in a non-english language ] >> for all of us. >> boris, back to you. >> more than 230 hostages still being held by hamas. we do want to get a military perspective on israel's ground operations in gaza so for that we have retired u.s. army brigadier general mark kimmitt with us, also a former assistant secretary of state for political military affairs. great to be with you. obviously overnight israel conducted exercises in the gaza strip, they said they killed dozens of hamas terrorists. walk us through what you're sighing in this early part of what they describe as the second phase of their operation. >> first of all, we wouldn't call this an exercise, we call this an operation. what they're trying to do is a little more than what is known as a reconnaissance in force. they've probably got a good idea of what's in front of them.

they're sending preliminary forces in there to get a sense of how hard they're going to fight. they are meant to be a shield for the main elements come in through this ground invasion. >> so our reporting indicates there are roughly now two miles into the gaza strip. when you consider that this is urban warfare, this is people barricaded in buildings and that there are also again some 230 hostages being held by hamas in tunnels and other places how does that complicate the situation as we take a look at this map of where evacuation routes have been laid out. >> i would say first of all this is exactly the opposite from ukraine. ukraine is flat and open. they are not fighting inside the cities there. once they get inside the city they will be fighting off a significant number of terrorists and they will be obstructed by the buildings, there will be snipers in those buildings, there will be tunnels. this is the toughest type of mission for a military unit

which is exactly why hamas chose to fight in this manner. >> i do want to play some sound for you, this is what the white house is saying about the potential for a broader regional conflict in the middle east. let's go ahead and listen. >> we also take our national security interests writ large in the region very seriously which is why the president has now employed two aircraft carrier strike groups, one will stay in eastern med, one will go down to the gulf region. we have to make sure we send a signal to all actors not just iran but all actors, certainly iran included that we will take our national security interests very seriously. we will protect and defend our troops and we will do it at a time and manner of our choosing. >> i quickly want to point out the u.s. is sending multiple assets to the region. so what would it really take for the united states in that area to deter some of the other actors from getting involved? >> i think first you have to recognize that we have in place forces already set.

we have u.s. military forces, ground forces, here in kuwait, you've got a very, very large air element in qatar, we're bringing in naval assets here into the persian gulf as john kirby just said. we have forces here in the eastern med, we have forces transversing here. so it ought to be a very clear sign that not only does the united states have the willingness, but the capability in place to be able to defend american soldiers, embassy officials, critical u.s. allies in the region. that is a large force that has got to be sending a clear message to iran that if they do something we have the capability to respond. >> quickly, general, you are just returning from the region. what were your impressions? >> i think the headline is the street is back in the sense that the palestinian cause which had sort of lied dormant for the last five or six years is now --

resonates through the streets. it's pretty calm, but it's clear if this war gets bigger they will be forcing the politicians in their countries to back away some of the most significant diplomatic efforts that have been made over the past five years. my view is this is going to cause all of those diplomatic efforts we've made, those advances, to go away. >> general mark kimmitt, i appreciate your expertise. thanks for sharing it with us. still to come on "news central" missed warning signs. new information obtained by cnn showing that police were made aware of the maine mass shooter's mental condition prior to the shooting. we wilill tell youou what we're learning w when we comome back.

-- there is no need to get into the details. it's not going to help us, it's clear that the u.s. is standing behind us. we've seen additional attacks of hezbollah in the north. the idea is to abolish the threat of hezbollah. we are at war in the south, that's the definition. i think that hezbollah is

hamas's fault because we have defense forces in the north and i'm hoping that we're going to keep the quiet in this front . the >> they deserve a different government you said. what do you think the government responsibility regarding your quote from the past? >> the events that happened that shouldn't have happened i said and i would say again i was a defense minister when the events occurred. i'm responsible for the defense forces and the defense system

and i will bring them for victory against the hamas that i'm going to enact. >> defense minister, did you know when you started the job, did you know that they decided not to listen to the hamas anymore, that was lieberman said . >> until recently many believed that the promise of progress in

the 21st century would enable us to move beyond the barbaric horrors of the past towards a better and brilliant future. many believed that we could go about our comfortable lives and that evil will simply pass us by. it will not. the horrors that hamas perpetrated on october 7th remind us that we will not realize the promise of a better future unless we the civilized world are willing to fight the barbarians. because the barbarians are willing to fight us. and their goal is clear, shatter that promise in the future, destroy all that we cherish and usher in a world of fear and darkness. ladies and gentlemen, this is a turning point, a turning point for leaders and nations. it is time for all of us to

decide if we are willing to fight for a future of hope and promise or surrender to tyranny and terror. rest assured, israel will fight. since october 7th israel has been at war. israel did not start this war. israel did not want this war, but israel will win this war. hamas launched this war by perpetrating the worst savagery our people have seen since the holocaust. hamas murdered children in front of their parents, murdered parents in front of their children. they burned people alive. they raped women. they beheaded men. they tortured holocaust survivors, they kidnapped babies. they committed the most horrific crimes imaginable and they are a part of the axis of evil that iran has formed, an axis of terror that works by arming,

training and financing hamas in gaza, hezbollah in lebanon, the houthis in yemen and other terror proxies throughout the middle east and beyond the middle east. in fighting hamas and the iranian axis of terror israel is fighting the enemies of civilization itself. victory over these enemies begins with moral clarity. it begins with knowing the difference between good and evil. between right and wrong. it means making a moral distinction between the deliberate murder of the innocent and the unintentional casualties that accompany every legitimate war, even the most just war. it means holding hamas responsible for the double war crime it commits every day by deliberately targeting israeli civilians while deliberately using palestinian civilians as human shields. it means making clear that the use of human shields is not only

an immoral tactic of terror, but also an ineffective one. because as long as hamas's use of palestinian human shields result in the international community blaming israel, hamas will continue to use it as a tool of terror and so will others. hamas will continue to use the basements in gaza's hospitals as the command posts of its vast terror tunnel network. it will continue to use mosques as fortified military positions and weapon depose, it will continue to steal fuel and humanitarian assistance from facilities. while israel is doing everything to get palestinian civilians out of harm's way, hamas is doing everything to keep the palestinian civilians in harm's way. israel urge palestinian civilians to leave the areas of armed conflict while hamas prevents those civilians from leaving those areas at gunpoint. hamas is also preventing foreign nationals from leaving gaza all

together. and most des pick blee, hamas is holding over 200 israeli hostages, including 33 children, holding them, terrorizing them, keeping them as hostages. every civilized nation should stand with israel and demanding that these hostages be freed immediately and freed unconditionally. i want to make sure israel's position regarding the ceasefire. just as the united states would not agree to a ceasefire after the bombing of pearl harbor, or after the terror attack of 9/11, israel will not agree to a cessation of hostilities with hamas after the horrific attacks of october 7th. calls for a ceasefire are calls for israel to surrender to hamas, to surrender to terrorism, to surrender to barbarism. that will not happen. ladies and gentlemen, the bible says that there is a time for peace and a time for war.

this is a time for war. a war for our common future. today we draw a line between the forces of civilization and the forces of barbarism. it is a time for everyone to decide where they stand. israel will stand against the forces of barbarism until victory. i hope and pray that civilized nations everywhere will back this fight because israel's fight is your fight. because if hamas and iran's axis of evil win, you will be their next target. that's i didn't say real's victory will be your victory, but make no mistake, regardless of who stands with israel, israel will fight until this battle is won and israel will prevail. may god bless israel and may god bless all those who stand with isr israel. >> so the first question will go

to news 18 india. take the microphone, sir. >> reporter: good evening, sir. >> good evening. >> reporter: leaders from israel i represent networking group in india. my question to you is that how do you see the india's stand on u.n. resolution? india abstained because in resolution there was no condemnation of terrorism. >> i think that resolution was deeply flawed and i was sorry to see that even many of our friends did not insist that there would be a full and powerful condemnation of the horrors that were committed here, that are horrors that no civilized country including your country and so many others would tolerate. so i hope that we don't see a repeat of these kinds of

resolutions. >> we will go now to abc america, matt river. >> reporter: thank you, sir. it seems that the level of support that you have amongst the israeli public has dropped considerably so the question is how can you continue to lead this country effectively during a very difficult time and have you at all considered stepping down? >> the only thing that i intend to have resign is hamas. we're going to resign them to the dust bin of history. that's my goal. that's my responsibility and that's what i'm leading the country to do. this is my responsibility now and it's something that i think unites the entire country. we're all supporting the soldiers, we're supporting our commanders, we're supporting the idf, we're supporting, i think, the unbelievable efforts of our reservists and our security forces. we will continue to do that until victory.

>> germany, michael. >> reporter: good evening, sir. channel 2, german television. i would like to ask you there is a widespread discussion, especially among the relatives of the hostages about the course of military action you have taken so far and the question if this is the only way to free the hostages of course you are successful in freeing one hostage on sunday, but there's a widespread criticism that this doesn't allow a place for other negotiations. what do you explain to the relatives of the hostages for this course relying mostly on military pressure? >> i met twice with the families of the hostages. you felt their anguish. i felt their anguish. i know the sense of -- it's not only the sense of loss that

bereaved parents have, it's a sense of not knowing, of continuous anguish. so i fully understand their concern, but our common assessment of all of the -- not only the cabinet members but also all the security forces and the military is that the ground action actually creates the possibility, not the certainty, but the possibility of getting our hostages out because hamas will not do it unless they are under pressure. they simply will not do it. they only do it under pressure. this creates pressure. and, again, we obviously greeted one hostage with open arms after yesterday's successful action by shabbat and the idf, but we are committed to getting all the hostages back home. we think that this method stands a chance. it is a goal that we are committed to. >> channel 7 australia, chris.

>> reporter: channel 7 australia. i want to ask a question from my country and the people in my country looking at this and wondering -- they agree with you, they want you to chase down hamas and terrorism, destroy terrorism in this region, et cetera, but people can't understand why so many people, civilians, have to die in this process. you argue that hamas is putting them up as human shields. is that a good enough excuse? are you inflicting here collective punishment on the people of palestine? >> not a single civilian has to die. hamas merely has to let them go to the safe zone that we created in southeastern gaza strip. there is a safe zone there. not a single civilian has to die. but hamas is preventing them from leaving.

keeping them in the areas of conflict. so i think that you should direct your questions to hamas, but i can tell you one thing, we're going out of our way to prevent civilian casualties. not only by asking civilians to move, calling them to move, arranging a place for them to be which is safe, also putting in humanitarian support, providing them with the means, with food, with water, with medicine and so on. i think that this question should be placed on hamas and the more it's placed on israel, the more you're going to see this repeated, again and again and again. so other groups, other criminal states, other criminal organizations will use civilians as human shields. we cannot give immunity to these terrorists. we cannot give immunity to these savages. we have to do everything we can to minimize civilian casualties

but we cannot give up the fight because then i think this will have disastrous consequences not only for the future of my country but for the future of your country, your countries. this is a battle of civilization against barbarians, the barbarians will do something that civilized countries will never do and civilized countries will make every effort to prevent this. and i will give you one example. and i will end with that because i have to go to manage this war and lead it. in 1944 the royal air force bombed the gestapo headquarters in copenhagen. a perfectly legitimate target. but the british pilots missed and instead of the gestapo headquarters at the hit a children's hospital nearby. you didn't tell the allies don't stamp out naziism because of

such tragic consequences. they went to the end because they knew that the future of our civilization was at stake. i'm telling you right now that the future of our civilization is at stake. we have to win this war. we will do it by minimizing civilian casualties and may we succeed. thank you. >> all right. that was the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu with very, very forceful remarks. this is a time for war, he said flatly, and totally as he has before rejected any ceasefire with hamas. he says that would be surrender and israel is not about to surrender. i want to bring in cnn's nic robertson who has been covering all of this for us along with the editor and chief of the jerusalem post. avi, what do you make of these comments from netanyahu, very strong comments indeed that the

fighting will continue in a major way, at one point he said that this is a battle against tyranny and terror. >> wolf, i think that these comments had two audiences, the first is domestic and the second is international. i think on the one hand he's trying to signal to the israeli public that this is not a battle that will be done in a matter of days or even weeks but perhaps months. this is a long-term campaign that could stretch into the next jeer and he's conditioning the israeli public to understand that that may be what they're in for. as for the international community he's making very clear what the goal is here, to eradicate hamas's ability to ever perpetrate a massacre like october 7th ever again. he said this is a battle for humanity, a battle of sieve lagss and israel it at the forefront of that battle. that is a message he has been trying to convey throughout and reiterated tonight. >> it was interesting, nic, you've been covering this from the beginning, that the defense

minister spoke before the prime minister, yoav gallant, he was very forceful, too. he also predicted victory. he made it clear that israel was going to fight until there was victory. what was your major take away? >> reporter: the prime minister, i think, one of the big take a ways i took from prime minister netanyahu was that he tried to for the international audience, many of those journalists, the countries they come from have been very critical of israel recently, critical of the high civilian casualties. we know that a third of the casualties inside of gaza are children. there's been so much pressure on israel for the ceasefire which he refuses. but what he said is -- and i think this is very important as israel tries to deal with this barrage of international criticism, people need to make a

moral distinction, a moral distinction between us, the idf, and hamas. hamas who go out with the intention of killing -- and he spoke very graphically about the killing of civilians and the idf goes out of its way he says to avoid civilian casualties, dropping flyers, calling people's houses in some specific cases, but pointing out that gaza has become a battlefield that's no longer safe. he said that civilians need to go to this humanitarian zone in the southeast of gaza. of course, for those civilians in gaza many of them feel that they can't get there, it isn't safe to get there, they don't know how to do t they don't know which are the best and safest roads for t but this is a prime minister trying to lance that boil of international growing pressure and anger against israel saying that we have the moral high ground here. we're doing the right thing. that, yes, unfortunately civilians do get killed in

battle, but hamas sets out to kill them intentionally. we don't. i think that was a very strong point that he was really trying to land there, wolf. >> you know, it's interesting, avi, the prime minister netanyahu, it was under his watch that this surprise hamas attack on october 7th took place and he's getting a lot of criticism for that. how much trouble is he in politically right now as a result of that? the other day he blamed israeli military intelligence, blamed the shin bet, the domestic intelligence service but then withdrew that and said he was sorry for doing that. he is in a lot of political trouble right now, isn't he? >> he absolutely s there is a great deal of frustration in israel that the one leader who hasn't taken personal responsibility for the failures that led to october the 7th has been the prime minister. leaders of israel's military and intelligence communities have all stood up and said we share responsibility for what took place. the prime minister has yet to do

so. we don't know exactly when he's going to take that responsibility. in the prison conference he had the other night he said the time for taking responsibility will happen after the war but there are many israelis who feel that isn't good enough. it's almost certain there will be a reckoning once this war is over, i think his political future is very much in question. >> nic, as you and i can testify everyone who is here in israel right now can testify the country is very, very nervous. no one really anticipated that hamas would have this capability to cross the border from gaza into israel and slaughter and kill all these people and take all these hostages. people are really nervous right now and they're wondering what is going on. what's your sense? >> reporter: i think they are and hamas tries to play on that. you know, the message that from the three hostages who spoke today in a video released by hamas that we are not going to air, but we've listened to, was very clearly a message trying to blame the prime minister for

these security failures, to try to sow that seed amongst israelis, to try to grow the anger against the government and divide the israeli population. but they are very united in their concern about those security failures. hamas played on that again today in a different way when there were these already upscaled ground forces inside of gaza, actively taking out hamas cells and groups there, according to the idf. hamas was able to fire rockets towards jerusalem. they haven't fired them towards jerusalem recently and that really from hamas's perspective signals that they still have their longest-range rockets that they can bring down on perhaps the most sensitive of cities for the israeli government. they've been firing at tel aviv but jerusalem sends another additional message. i think, you know, from hamas's perspective they are trying to inflict that fear and terror and

the government says it's doing everything it can to squash it down but of course those failures on october 7th, that's going to be -- that is a very big deal for the government to have to answer there. >> certainly is. nic and avi, thank you very much. to our viewers, stay with cnn. much more coverage of israel at war, that's straight ahead.

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after days of being locked down in terror maine's lewis ton community is seeking answers following a gunman who shot and killed 18 people at a local bar and bowling alley. officials found his body on friday along a river dead by a self-inflicted gunshot wound. >> there are a lot of questions surfacing about card's mental state and whether authorities knew about red flags that were obvious well before last week's massacre. an army spokesperson telling cnn in september the shooter's unit had requested a health and welfare check from the county sheriff's office saying that they were concerned for his safety. cnn reviewed a national guard statement to the sheriff's department that explains the reason for the check and states that card spent 14 days at a psychiatric hospital in july following an altercation that he got into with some fellow guardsmen and after his release

he reportedly told another guardsman that he was going to shoot up a military base and other locations as well. the statement going on to say that that same friend feared card was going to snap and commit a mass shooting. joining us now is cnn law enforcement analyst jonathan wackrow. jonathan, you know, sometimes there are these shootings and we look back and we wonder, you know, what did they miss? it's obvious here, but take us through this because you had someone who knew this man saying they were afraid he was going to do this very thing that he did. >> good afternoon. listen, while we know that these warnings were raised by individuals and other government entities, how these warnings were actually acted upon really is the question right now. what we need to look at is when a verified source such as the

maine national guard states that an individual could snap and actually commit a mass shooting, that warning should have been escalated immediately to the highest levels of maine law enforcement, both at the state level and at the local level and fully adjudicated and not let lingered at all. you know, the second point here is we know that statements were actually made to law enforcement regarding the threat that this individual had posed. we had people state that he oftentimes answers his door of his trailer with a handgun in his hand, just out of sight. all of these are behavioral red flags that law enforcement should not only have picked up on but acted upon. >> on that question, jonathan, so maine has yellow flag laws, this essentially means if someone says troubling statements, if there's concern that they might carry out an attack like this, law enforcement legally has to go find them, get them in custody, then have a medical professional

evaluate them and if that person deems them dangerous a judge has to approve a temporary order to hold on to their weapons until they're eventually cleared. given what you've seen about this case, it sounds like this person was exactly who this was intended to stop. >> exactly. right. but you highlighted the three main points there. first of all, law enforcement has to locate the individual, take them into protective custody, and then a medical professional has to make the evaluation. so just because you're raising a warning, raising a red flag, doesn't end the issue, you have -- you actually have to proceed with those following three steps to have that law really effectively prevent, you know, this individual from obtaining a firearm. so, again, while there's great intention behind this law, how it's -- how law enforcement engages with it and fully adjudicates any type of red flag that is raised is really the

central question that investigators need to look at right now. >> the what if's here are just glaring. jonathan wackrow, thank you so much. >> thank you. and we will be right back. stay with cnn.