hello. i'm boris sanchez with brianna keilar in washington and wolf blitzer live in tel aviv. breaking developments in the israel-hamas war. we're learning about the first idf casualties reported since israel started its ground incursion into gaza. we're going to begin with this explosion, images showing the result of a major blast on one of the largest refugee camps in gaza. >> reports are still coming in but dozens are dead and injured. those numbers are expected to rise. many are still under rubble according to the hospital director in gaza who is treating victims. the ministry of interior in the hamas-controlled enclave reported that 20 homes were key stroids. wolfe? >> -- destroyed. wolfe? >> it's very, very powerful what's going on here. the israel defense forces have not immediately responded to

cnn's questions about that explosion at the refugee camp in gaza. meantime moments ago, right here in the heart of tel aviv we witnessed iron dome intercepting rockets that are coming over right another where we are in tel aviv. jeremy diamond is standing by the ash ke lone, israel. the pictures there you see them, we were standing here on the roof and all of a sudden wie wih heard the sirens go off, rockets coming in and iron dome intercepters blowing up the rockets. it's a very tense situation. it happens fairly regularly, and it underscores, jeremy, what we know, that hamas still has capabilities, presumably, of firing these rockets and missiles from gaza right into tel aviv. right towards the heart of tel aviv. for the israeli they have the iron dome system that can cgo u and destroy the rockets in the skies. once the rockets coming in that are destroyed the debris falls

down and you have to be careful you have to go into shelters because the metal could harm and kill you if they hit you where they're coming down to the ground. it's just an awful situation that is still unfolding here in tel aviv. i want to get your latest, what we're learning abilout the the explosion at the major refugee camp in gaza. >> wolfe, this massive explosion that took place in the jabalia refugee camp in gaza leaving dozens dead and injured according to the director of one hospital, he said that he had hundreds of people coming into his hospital dead and injured. if you look at the images of this explosion, it is just, you know, hard to kind of fathom, the scale of this. multiple, very large craters appearing where normally you would have several buildings. according to the ministry of interior in gaza, 20 homes were completely destroyed in what they are describing as an israeli bombing that targeted a

residential neighborhood in jabalia. jabalia refugee camp is one of the largest refugee camps in gaza. it houses the refugees of the 1948 war, and its descendents who then moved -- who were displaced and moved into that refugee camp in jabalia. these enormous explosions are not the first we have seen in gaza. we know that as this war has stretched on, the toll of casualties has skyrocketed. more than 8,000 have been killed inside the gaza trip in these three weeks of war and, of course, we know that civilians have been too often the results of those casualties, more than 3,000 children killed according to the palestinian ministry of health. of course we are still waiting to see how many people may be under the rubble in this explosion. if you just look at those images, it is just really hard to fathom what that explosion would have been like for the people on the ground.

>> yeah. it's very, very serious indeed. i want to turn to the deaths now reported by the idf of two israeli soldiers in gaza, the first reported soldier deaths since the israeli ground incursion began. tell us what you're learning. >> yeah. that's correct, wolf. the idf confirming that two of its soldiers have died in this initial expanded ground operation, which is now in its fifth day. these are the first confirmed deaths that we have heard from the idf since this began. now this comes as the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu has been vowing that this is a time for war. he says that there is a time for peace be and a time for war, but this is a time for war, and he has rejected calls from some -- from a number of countries for a cease-fire, saying a cease-fire would only play into hamas' hands. of course, the israeli public is sensitive to casualties of its forces and it will be a factor

for the israeli prime minister to consider as he continues to carry out this ground offensive inside of gaza, whether those casualties on the israeli side continue to mount. what has been clear from observing the movement of israeli troops on the ground they are proceeding cautiously to try to minimize the number of israeli troop casualties as they move forward. they have been making heavy use of close air support, where in previous operations infantry troops on the ground would have engaged directly with hamas forces that they see in certain structures. instead what they're doing is making strong use of calling in that close air support, calling in apache gun ships we have seen flying over the gaza strip to carry out strikes on identified positions of hamas militants and also working to try to take out some of the reinforced positions of hamas fighters on the outstrips of gaza city. it's clear they are moving in

from a number of directions from the north and south as they head towards gaza city, one of hamas' strongholds. wolf? >> just curious, jeremy, while i have you, just a few moments ago we did see rockets coming in, presumably from gaza, the iron dome intercepting them and blowing them up in the sky, right over the heart of tel aviv where i am. you're further south in ashkelon. are you seeing rockets and missiles coming in from where you are? >> yeah. there have been rockets in this area, wolf, and the next town over just to the north here in a ashkelon they had direct hits. several people were injured in the strike. when we were inn sderot we had rockets fired over. what we're seeing in gaza in terms of the number of casualties from israeli bombings and air strikes and other explosions, we have seen instances where hamas has been

firing rockets from residential areas and have misfired according to the israel defense forces and have caused casualties inside of gaza as well. what is clear the toll of casualties inside of gaza is continuing to mount in a way that really eclipses anything else that we have seen in any past conflicts between israel and hamas. of course israel making clear it will continue to carry out this offensive inside of gaza until it can eradicate hamas and remove it from power inside the gaza strip. >> yeah. this war is clearly intensifying. stay safe over there. thank you very much. we'll get back to you soon. back in washington, by the way, impassioneded calls for a cease-fire as u.s. senators weigh more military funding for israel. listen. [ inaudible ]. >> demonstrators repeated disrupted today's senate

appropriations committee hearing in washington, resulting in dozens of arrests. top u.s. officials, including the secretary of state, antony blinken, and the defense secretary, lloyd austin, implored congress to approve emergency military aid for israel and ukraine. natasha is over at the pentagon for us. what more did the secretaries blinken and austin have to say? >> they're making the case the supplemental funding for israel and ukraine cannot be delinked. they have to be passed together because the ukraine funding that has proven controversial within the house of representatives among republicans cannot be kicked down the road. the u.s. is running low on the funding for the ukrainians and everything in the region and everything with regard to these two conflicts, according to blinken and austin, they are connected and simply cannot be divorced from each other when the administration, when congress is considering the kind of money, equipment, humanitarian aid, to provide to

both nations as they fight off respective threats. ukraine against russia and israel against hamas. here's how secretary of state antony blinken described how all of these threats are interconnected. >> the flconflicts in ukraine a the middle east have clear links as the chair and vice chair have noted. since we cut off russia's traditional means of supplying it tos military it's turned to iran for assistance and moscow has supplied iran with technology allowing russia to prevail with iran's support with embolden moscow and iran. >> so the comments from blinken and austin underscoring this is all one fight and the administration and congress and the u.s. need to treat it as such. this is important because the house gop introduced legislation yesterday that would only provide additional funding $14 billion for israel, something that administration as well as

some senators have said is a nonstarter. you can't just kick ukraine funding down the road. additionally, a through line of this hearing has been the need to protect civilians inside gaza. that is something that blinken and austin have said they have emphasized with their counterparts in israel. as they conduct the ground offensive they need to try to get aid into gaza and protect civilians. wolf? >> natasha bertrand in washington, thanks for that update. the commissioner for the united nations relief and works agency unrwa, the agency that helps palestinian refugees, says in the last three weeks alone, he has lost 64 colleagues in the gaza conflict. listen. >> samir, in the region was killed with his wife and eight children. this is the highest number of u.n. aid workers killed in the conflict in such a short time.

>> reporter: julia is the communication director for unrwa, the united nations relief and work agency, thanks for joining us. i want to ask you about the breaking news we're following regarding the massive explosion at the jabaliya refugee camp. >> yeah. >> i'm sure you've heard if any of your people have been impacted by it? >> yeah. thanks for having me, wolf. look, we are getting exactly the same reports as you are. i was just on the phone with our teams who are down south in the gaza strip. they will follow and get us more information, so i don't have much more to say. however, what i can confirm is since last night when unrwa briefed the u.n. security council, sadly, the number of staff killed has now increased to 67 unrwa colleagues. >> 67 unrwa workers who are

there in gaza. they've been killed in these operations. is that what you're saying? just want to be precise. >> exactly. so since the 7th of october when the war began, 67 unrwa colleagues have been killed in different circumstances, including some that we were able to confirm today. one of them last night was killed with his eight children and wife while he was at home. his name was samir. >> if you don't mind, tell us a little bit more about some of the people your organization has now lost, that unrwa has now lost, what they did and i assume they will all be severely missed? >> very much so. very much so. unrwa will not be the same without those colleagues. these are mainly teachers and school principals, they were a couple of doctors, there was a psychologist, there were people who were in charge of staff

safety, support staff, few support staff, they are the backbone really of our humanitarian operation. there was one engineer. we have 13,000 people working with unrwa. we are the largest humanitarian organization in gaza. we have been there since the early 1950s. this we've never seen before. >> so heartbreaking to see these families destroyed like that. the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu as you know, julia, refused to call for a cease-fire, strongly opposes a cease-fire, despite a significant majority of u.n. nations supporting that resolution for what's called a sustained humanitarian truce. how is your group going to respond to all of this? are you pursuing other ways to try to convince israel to at least pause the air strikes? >> well, the united nations has called many, many times since early on for the a cessation of

facilities for a cease-fire, humanitarian cease-fire, we called for last night at the u.n. security council has got to happen. we are way too late. too many civilians everywhere continue to lose their lives, unnecessarily. there's so much destruction, so much grief, so much sadness, so much loss, many mothers, fathers, pregnant women, older people, i mean the pain is just immense, and that has got to stop. >> certainly is. julia, the unrwa communications director, thank you so much for joining us. good luck to you and good luck to all of your people in gaza right now. we know they're doing important work. in the midst of israel's war with hamas top u.s. officials warning of a spike in domestic threats. what they're saying about the threats against jewish, muslim and arab-american communities. we have new information. the maine mass shooter's ex-wife and son alerted police

months ago. what they told authorities back in may and what we're learning about how he acquired up to 15 guns. stay with us. much more coming up.

. law enforcement in maine is now under intense scrutiny after officials were apparently alerted to the lewiston, maine's shooters comments before last week's massacre. cnn has learned the 40-year-old's ex-wife and son went to police more than five months ago to report what they described as paranoid behavior and also said he took between 10 and 15 guns and rifles from his brother's house. now this is according to documents released by the sheriff's office. leroy walker, whose son was one of the 18 killed in wednesday's rampage, expressed his frustration that there were missed warning signs. listen. >> i think we've seen enough facts to know that they totally

missed what this man was capable of doing. they should have removed this man's guns immediately. this man went rampant on people saying that he was going to do this, and we still let him run around two or three months later. >> joining us now, chief law enforcement analyst john miller. john, thanks for being with us. in may, his family warns authorities about his behavior. in july he spend a couple weeks at a mental health facility and then in september, officials try to conduct a welfare check on him. there weren't only signs that something was coming, there were missed opportunities to stop him. >> so, boris, when you look at that arc over five months and then compare it to at least the studies that we know about that say what are the preattack behavioral signs of an active shooter, you really have to ask how did all this go wrong?

let's take a look at some of the preattack behaviors. according to an fbi study that looked at preattack behaviors by active shooters, mental health issues. he had a mental health crisis that occurred in july when they had him hospitalized for two weeks, interpersonal reactions. that is the fighting that went on between him, card, and two of his soldier colleagues, talking about hearing voices, being accused of being a pedophile. leakage, when you're hinting at violence. he was talking out loud about shooting up an army national guard base, threats, confrontations, angers, the firearm behavior, gathering up 15 weapons and going to gun stores and buying more weapons and then trying to purchase a silencer from another local store in maine. when you look at all of those signs, then you say okay if you go by the offender

characteristic, he ticks the boxes. the things he was saying and the things that law enforcement were being told by others, and i think we can go to some of those comments where he had been reported for gathering up those weapons, he had the angry rants, he answered the door with a gun when relatives came to see him. he was also making threats to shoot up the national guard base in saco. that means that it wasn't just signs he was showing they could have picked up, but people, family members, members of the military, colleagues, were warning them of those signs. then they engaged. they tried to find him. they tried to talk to him. they couldn't locate him. they had family members talking to him. they had the army reserve colleagues talking to him. what's the next phase? if you go back to the fbi reports on what are the final

things that happen before an active shooter you get to the stressors. if you look at his life and those stressors, there was the mental health intervention that came up, there was the breakup of his marriage, which is a common stressor, relationship. the fact that he got fired from his job at the recycling center. the fact that he was having conflicts and paranoid delusions about friends that were causing people to shun him. then, of course, the shooting happened. boris, where were the signs not? >> right. so, obviously, there's an investigation now reviewing what could have been done to prevent this. i'm wondering where you think they might find shortcomings and separately what does an internal review like that look like? >> well, i think, you know, the sheriff's office took the bull by the horns and they released all the documents yesterday and they said, here's everything we have. from the standpoint of

transparency, the sheriff's office, they've been very up front about this. it's the governor and the state that has been a little more cautious. until we hear the governor of maine say, i'm appointing an inspector general and independent investigator, someone who wasn't involved in this, to review it -- because the important lesson here isn't to take people to task for what they could have done, but to figure out how do we not have this happen again by changing those procedures or tightening them? >> john miller, thanks so much for your perspective. appreciate it. a tangible step in the healing process for a texas community also traumatized by a mass shooting. ground has been broke on a new elementary school in uvalde, texas. the new building replacing robb elementary school where 19 children and two teachers were killed in may of last year. no name has been chosen for the new school, but its design

includes a tree with each branch representing one of the victims. it is scheduled to open in the fall of 2025. next, israel says that it hit hundreds of hamas targets overnight as it expands its ground operations in gaza. we'll speak with a spokesperson for the israeli defense forces for what's next in the war.

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. back now to our breaking news here in the middle east. a massive explosion at the largest refugee camp in gaza. joining us now is lieutenant colonel richard heck, the international spokesperson for the israel defense forces. thanks so much for joining us. i want to you first about this massive blast that we all just saw, we saw the video, at the jabalia refugee camp in gaza. is there anything you can tell us about how this explosion happened? >> hi, wolf. thanks for having me. we will be coming out in the next hour with more data. i can update you now that there was a very senior hamas commander in that area. sadly he was hiding, again, as they do, behind civilians. that's all i can say at this point. we'll be coming out with more as we learn what happened there. >> so can you confirm it was an

israelly attack that destroyed a chunk of that jabalia refugee camp? >> yes, i can. we were focused again on a target, a senior -- senior commander, wolf. we'll be updating you with more data as the hour moves ahead. >> even if that hamas commander was there amidst all those palestinian refugees in that jabalia refugee camp, israel still went ahead and dropped a bam there, attempting to kill this hamas commander, knowing that a lot of innocent civilians, men, women, and children, presumably would be killed? is that what i'm hearing? >> that's not what you're hearing, wolf. we were focused on this commander, again, you'll get more data who this man was, killed many israelis. we're doing everything we can --

it's a very complicated battle space. there could be infrastructure there, tunnels there. we're looking into it and give you more data as the hour moves ahead. >> you know that there are a lot of refugees, innocent civilians, men, women, children in that camp as well, right? >> this is the tragedy of war, wolf. we've been saying for days, move south. civilians are not involved with hamas. please move south. >> just trying to get a little bit more information. you knew there were civilians and all sorts of refugees, but you decided to drop a bomb on that refugee camp attempting to kill this hamas commander. was he killed? >> i can't confirm yet. about the civilians there, we're doing everything we can to minimize. i'll say it again, sadly,

they're hiding themselves within civilian populations. again, we're doing this stage by stage. we're going to go after every one of these terrorists who were involved in that heinous attack on the 7th of october, wolf. >> lieutenant colonel, i'm having trouble hearing you. let me move on. i assume you can hear me, right? >> i can hear you loud and clear. can you hear me now? >> as you know, just a little while ago, the idf announced the first two deaths of israeli soldiers since the ground incursion into gaza began. what more can you tell us about that? >> so the fighting is going on. i won't go into the slow details. we're slowly moving ahead, stage by stage, and this expanded ground operation, we're expanding it stage by stage, and moving as -- on our plans to root out hamas.

again, you saw last night while we were doing the ground operation we rescued one of our hostages. we're focusing on dismantling hamas, at the same time trying to put pressure and also rescue our hostages. >> we do appreciate you being with us. we just lost wolf's signal. we are going to say thank you very much for being with us, and we are going to get in a quick break. that was the idf spokesperson lieutenant colonel richard hecht. we'll be back with wolf blitzer. stay with cnn.

. the escalating conflict between israel and hamas is igniting anti-semitic incidents on campuses here. high school students in stamford, connecticut, found swastikas found on the tennis courts last week. administrators say it's the second time that's happened. yesterday in virginia officials say vandals spray painted a swastika on a football field. at cornell university, new york state troopers are posted outside the center for jewish living after it was targeted in online threats. the governor said troopers are helping authorities protect school, synagogues and mosques. listen. >> jewish new yorkers are experiencing the greatest increase in anti-semitic hate crimes in decades. we cannot allow any new yorker to live in fear.for the day we accept that, is the day that our moral compass has broken and

spun out of control. let me restate in the strongest of words, every single new yorker has a right to feel safe and to be safe as they go about their daily lives. >> cnn national correspondent athena jones has been tracking all of this from new york and the governor said there is a person of interest in that cornell case? >> hi, boris. that's right. the governor putting out a statement in the last half hour or so saying when i met with cornell students yesterday, i promised them new york state would do everything possible to find the perpetrator who threatened a mass shooting and anti-semitic violence on campus. law enforcement identified a person of interest as part of the investigation and this individual is currently in the study of the new york state police for questioning. public safety is my top priority, and i'm committed to combatting hate and bias wherever it rears its ugly head. we know as soon as the governor met with those cornell students

yesterday, we knew a lot of resources were being dedicated towards helping law enforcement find, track down the person responsible for a series of anti-semitic posts targeting jewish students at cornell over the weekend with violent rhetoric and threats to kill and shoot and commit sexual violence against jewish students there. very, very clear now that they're pleased they have someone in custody that they are questioning. we also heard the governor expand on this issue. the issue of the need to fight anti-semitism and other hate crimes. she gave a speech this morning saying over the last several weeks since the october 7th attack she's been meeting with jewish and muslim sharing their fear and pain and the impact it's having on communities at home. she made announcements about an expansion of resources going to try to fight and prevent hate crimes and anti-semitism in new york, including expanding the work of the state's social media

analysis unit at the new york state intelligence center to cease monitoring of violent threats at schools like cornell and all other schools in the state, as well as credible threats by white supremacists and nazi organizations. she also announced they're going to provide $3 million to help law enforcement agencies expand the use of the red flag law to try to keep guns out of the hands of people who will do harm. millions more are going to state law enforcement to try to prevent and monitor for acts of violence connected to anti-semitism or hate. boris? >> atheen na jones, thanks so much for reporting. the israel-hamas war is raising homeland security concerns. in a senate hearing today the dhs and fbi directors warned lawmakers about a marked spike they've seen in domestic threats since the october 7th attacks. >> the days and weeks since we have responded to an increase in

threats against jewish, muslim, and arab community across our country. they add to a preexing increase in the level of anti-semitism in the united states. >> our most immediate concern is that violent extremists, individuals or small groups, will draw inspiration from the events in the moofts to carry out attacks against americans going about their daily lives. the ongoing war in the middle east has raised the threat against americans in the united states to a whole other level. >> the justice department announced more than $38 million in grants to help local communities combat hate crimes. we're joined by the vice president of the adl center on extremism. thank you so much for being with us. when you look at the statistics from the adl, you see a 36% increase of anti-semitic incidents in 2022 compared to the year before, and ai'm sure

you're expecting 2023 to pale in comparison based on what you've been seeing? >> i mean if what we're seeing since the massacre on october 7th is any indication for what the total number this year will be, this is going to be another all-time high. we've already documented a nearly 400% increase in anti-semitic vandalism, harassment and assault, reported to us since october 7th, in comparison to the same time time frame last year. >> hamas is aware that anti-semitism is on the rise. we're talking about it in the u.s. it is especially pronounced in europe as well. do you think that hamas is exploiting that, that this is part of why they chose this moment? >> i think hamas is notoriously focused on creating fear and

anxiety in the jewish community around the world and to attacking israelis and jews in israel. i mean, one of the realities is and the shocking part of what we've seen in this sort of post massacre landscape, not only the rise in anti-semitic incidents, but how much glorification, celebration and justification for what hamas did, is part of our public discussion, what we're seeing at rallies on and off campus. is it any surprise that anti-semitism is increasing when people are lauding the acts of a terrorist group who just massacred 1400 people. >> we heard the fbi director chris wray say this morning if ever there's a time for that saying, if you see something say something, it is now. the fbi is looking for tips, they're looking for leads. what do americans need to be on the lookout for?

>> i mean, it's very true. it's not just on the new york city subway where it says if you see something say something. if people are identifying the type of language online they should report that, not only to the platforms, but to law enforcement if there's a threat there. even at adl and our center on extremism where we are tracking extremists in the darkest spaces all the time we have seen, for example, a nearly 1,000% increase in threats specifically at jews, israelis and zionists on a platform like telegram. the more that people are engaged in online spaces trying to tell the difference between disinformation and facts, the reality is, we are also seeing these threats on more established platforms and people should report it to law enforcement. we don't have a luxury to ignore any of these threats. >> they're raising the alarm. you hear that today. they're on capitol hill. they're raising the alarm.

do you think that americans are listening? do you think what they're saying is enough? >> i mean, the reality is, the spikes that we're seeing not only in anti-semitism but other acts of hatred around the country i think it's only the beginning. this is going to be a long, drawn out effort that we're likely going to see in the middle east and the longer that it goes, the more that people are going to be angry, mort that there's going to be people spreading disinformation designed to feed upon people's anxiety, so we know that this spike is probably going to continue. it's critical that our law enforcement agencies, that the administration is saying we are going to double down on making sure that communities are protected. >> we appreciate you being with us. oren segal with the adl, thank you. and nx, we will be heading back to israel with wolf

blitzer, the latest on the massive explosion at a refugee camp in gaza, the result of an air strike by the israeli defense forces. stay with us.

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camp in gaza. lieutenant colonel richard hecht said the idf was targeting what he called a very senior hamas commander in that area. cnn military analyst colonel cedric leighton is joining us now. what's your reaction to this? >> well, it certainly sounds like a very massive strike, wolf, and it's very unfortunate that it seems to be right in the middle of the jabalia refugee camp. the target, we're not sure exactly, at least i'm not sure exactly which person this was, but it would be under the category of what we in the u.s. would have called a high value target or hvt, someone that is essential to the operation of hamas and, you know, merits a lot of effort to go after, so sounds like that's what the israelis were trying to do. they were trying to prosecute an hvt or high value target, and that very fact, of course, put a

lot of people in that refugee camp at risk. >> because what the critics of israel are pointing out is if a refugee camp isn't considered safe, what is it safe in gaza right now? >> well, that's exactly right. and i think one of the most disturbing aspects of this is the fact that it really is very difficult to distinguish between safe areas which there appear to be very few or none, and areas of combat. there really needed s to be a distinction made and it is definitely not as far as i'm concerned in israel's interest to prosecute targets when there is such a high risk of hitting civilian targets like this. that is kind of what we're having right now. we're having a situation where these targets are being prosecuted and they're going

after them, and it almost seems to be a case in which they're doing this regardless of the collateral damage that is ensuing and that becomes a real problem. >> what do you think, colonel, is likely to be the reaction from the white house and the pentagon for that matter, on this? president biden, as you know, has repeatedly warned the israeli prime minister to try to avoid as much as possible civilian casualties to try to avoid those casualties at all costs? >> well, i think most of the reaction, wolf, is going to be behind closed doors or closed channels, but that kind of reaction is going to be pretty firm and swift, and basically telling the israelis they can't do this kind of work in this way. they can't go after these targets with such a great amount of damage to civilians and, of course, causing death to many

civilians. that i think is going to be the white house message and it's going to be echoed by the secretary of state and secretary of defense. stew colonel cedric leighton, thanks for joining us. we'll have more on all the breaking n news comingng up. stay with us.