>> jimmy: thanks to christina aguilera, al michaels and lil yachty. thank you, lil yachty. also want to apologize to matt damon. ran out of time for him. "nightline" is next. thank you for watching, goodnight. [ cheering and applause ] this is "nightline." >> tonight, time running out. the idf staging tanks and troops for what it says is an imminent invasion of gaza. >> will strike hamas from the

top through its institutions all the way down. >> this while gaza's humanitarian crisis escalates and hostages hang in the balance, their loved ones back home desperate. >> i wipe my face and i say now i have to go fight. >> can they be freed and safely evacuated? >> once the ground operation begins, there are no chances for negotiations. plus -- ♪ come and knock on our door ♪ >> remembering suzanne somers, best known as chrissy snow on three's company. >> who would have thought that chrissy snow would be the feminist. >> but her savvy business skills propelled her into infomercial stardom, selling that famous thigh master. >> we might not have been born with great legs, but now we can look like we were. >> sharing her secrets for staying young. >> i want you to go one day when you're this stage, suzanne did it. you can do it too. >> and the poem her beloved gave

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>> byron: good evening. thank you for joining us. as israel ramps up plans to invade gaza, the humanitarian crisis there is dire, with half the population displaced and resources scarce. meanwhile, the plight of some 199 hostages in the territory

grows more desperate with each hour. families urging the government to intervene, and the white house announcing tonight president biden will travel to israel on wednesday. >> picture your mother being told that you are either dead or with your arm blown off, kidnapped by a terrorist organization and being held hostage in gaza where there is a war. those are the only two options. so that's how we are. >> byron: for jonathan pole and rachel goldberg, the last week has been a hell they cannot escape. the chicago couple's son hersh is roughly one of the 200 people the terrorist group hamas says it has taken hostage, and could include up to 13 americans who remain missing. how are you able to, and i ask this less as a journalist, more as a parent. how you just able to get up every day and face each day? >> getting up is not as hard

when you don't go to sleep. try to go through the many, you know, texts or emails that we're getting. i'm going to go do my cry now, and i go into my room, and i do my primal mother, and then i wipe my face, and then i say and now i have to go fight. >> byron: fighting while painstakingly waiting, as the war between israel and hamas intensifies. and an id f ground invasion of gaza seems imminent. for israel, a growing urgency to free hostages taken by hamas. while in gaza, a humanitarian crisis worsening. israel has mobilized around 360,000 reservists, vowing to take out hamas after its attack in israel last week. the death toll from that attack now rising to more than 1400, including 30 americans.

>> we will strike hamas from the top, through its institutions, all the way down to the individuals that conducted the butchery of our babies. >> reporter: tension in the surrounding areas continues to grow. today hezbollah, an iranian-backed terrorist group based in lebanon also launching missiles at northern israeli towns and military posts, stoking fears that a second front could emerge. >> if you have hamas and hezbollah on the north and iran doing something as well, that is potentially a very serious situation. >> byron: as the u.s. moves another military ship to the eastern mediterranean near israel, top national security council spokesman john kirby sending a clear message to lebanon and other countries in the region. >> don't get involved. do not try to widen or deepen this conflict any more than it already has. >> byron: tonight, 2,000 u.s. troops prepare to be on alert for possible deployment to the middle east. as israel continues its

counteroffensive in gaza, civilians are caught in the crosshairs. in the last week, more than 2,700 palestinians have been killed and nearly 10,000 wounded. hospitals already overwhelmed, now on the brink of collapse. this ice cream truck turned into a makeshift morgue. >> they have been bombing for 12 hours, from 9:00 to 9:00, with no stop. >> byron: the israeli government urging millions, more than one million people to evacuate northern gaza. the questions remain how and to where. my colleague matt rivers is in egypt. >> it's important to remember that if you want to leave gaza by land, there is only two ways to do so, one is by crossing into israel. of course that's not happening. and the other crossing into egypt. now overnight, a source in egypt's security forces telling us a deal had been reached to temporarily open that border. that has not happened. >> the egyptians are not inc incentivized to take the

refugees because they don't know who is hamas and who is a palestinian. very, very difficult because the country has to agree to let them out through the gate. then the israelis have to agree to stop bombing. >> byron: hamas reportedly telling residents to remain in place, and even blocking some from moving south, according to secretary blinken. the situation dire as electricity and food supplies remain cut off. water down to a trickle on only one small part of the gaza strip. among those trapped in gaza, upwards of 600,000 palestinian americans like maha barakat. abc spoke on the phone with the aid worker from new jersey. she managed to flee south, but fears what may happen next, and says she is now staying with 48 people in one house. you had to leave your home? >> i did. i am with my nephews and nieces. my brother could not leave because have i an older sister who she has a disability and she

cannot move. >> reporter: you say you've been contacted by the state department twice. what have they told you? >> they've been trying to evacuate us, but we have hundreds of people gathering at the crossing, but with no direction. no one is telling us anything. >> reporter: amid the chaos unfolding in gaza, the safe return of hostages is a top priority for both israel and america. tonight for the first time we're hearing from one of them, hamas releasing this video of 21-year-old israeli mia shem. her family giving us permission to show these images. taken from the dance party we can see her arm wrapped in gaza. "i just ask you you'll bring me home as soon as possible to my family," she says. "to my parents, to my brothers, please get us out of here as soon as possible." >> israelis are quite aggressive when they go into hostage situations. in some ways the u.s. hostage

rescue is much more risk averse than israel, but israel also has far more experience than the u.s. does. >> israel has this party with ethos, the belief that in order to have a people's army we have the principle that we don't leave anyone behind. >> reporter: gershon baskin has negotiated with hamas before, and has been speaking to members of hamas over the last week. more than a decade ago, he led efforts to bring idf soldier gilad shalit home after five years in captivity. shalit was exchanged for more than one thousand palestinian prisoners. one of the prisoners reportedly released in this shalit deal, the alleged mastermind behind last week's attack. >> the leader was in israeli prison for 22 years. israel saved him. he had brain cancer when he was in prison, and he was healed in an israeli hospital, and he is the leader of hamas today. >> reporter: he says this situation is unprecedented due in part to the sheer number of being held, as well as hamas'

dense network of tunnels in the north. >> we don't have five years and four months to wait the free these hostages. there needs to be extreme pressure put on hamas. once the ground operation begins, there are no chances for negotiations. >> reporter: as for the 13 americans thought to be held hostage by hamas, baskin says it's an especially difficult situation. >> it does bring up the question of whether or not the united states and these other countries have a bigger role in using their leverage. some of them met with prime minister netanyahu yesterday. it with us the first time they met with him. president biden spent an hour and a half on the phone with representatives of some of the hostages. >> reporter: one of those families hersh's parents, jonathan and rachel. >> president biden got on the call. and for 90 minutes, he stayed and he listened to us, and he cried with us, and he understands loss. so he said the right things. >> reporter: he was celebrating his birthday with friends at the music festival in southern israel when his parents say he was captured by hamas. this picture their last proof of

life and a beacon of hope. he is seen here in this bomb shelter near the music festival. the family learned through friends who survived hamas terrorists had thrown hand grenades into the shelter. >> most of the people in there died. they came in and they said to three young men, who they could tell were still alive, stand up and hersh was one of the three. >> reporter: the police eventually located hersh's phone in gaza. now rachel and jonathan's hope lie with the government and their faith. what action would you like to see? >> we need not only the u.s. administration, but others screaming to the world that there are hostages in dire need of medical care. it needs to get to them. >> reporter: where does your kind, clarity of purpose come from? >> we have too much to do. and i remember years ago, someone was going through a bad period in their life, and she told me when you're going

through hell, keep walking. >> reporter: winston churchill. >> we're keeping our faith, even when it's hard. even when it's dark. >> byron: keeping their faith even when it's dark, even when it's hard. hersh's parents asked all of us not to forget their boy or any of the hostages. when we come back, in other news, remembering sitcom star and business mogul suzanne somers. when i was diagnosed with h-i-v, i didn't know who i would be. but here i am... being me. keep being you... and ask your healthcare provider about the number one prescribed h-i-v treatment, biktarvy. biktarvy is a complete, one-pill, once-a-day treatment used for h-i-v in many people whether you're 18 or 80. with one small pill, biktarvy fights h-i-v to help you get to undetectable—and stay there whether you're just starting or replacing your current treatment. research shows that taking h-i-v treatment as prescribed and getting to and staying undetectable prevents transmitting h-i-v through sex. serious side effects can occur,

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>> byron: tonight, we mourn the

loss of a tv legend. the 1970s sitcom "three's company" introduced suzanne somers to the world. pegged as, quote, the dumb blond, but she proved you can't judge a book by its cover, leveraging her golden lox and sunny smiles into a series of successful ventures, and landing her a spot in the infomercial hall of fame. here is my "nightline" co-anchor juju chang. ♪ come and knock on my door, we've been waiting for you ♪ >> juju: with her unique blond pigtails and charm, her comedic times as chrissy on "three's company" helped launch her as one of the most popular women on television in the late 70s. >> well, this is typical, getting a girl pregnant. only a man would do a thing like that. >> juju: but her life was so much more than her dumb blond persona. she turned her star-making role into a one-woman empire,

morphing into a infomercial queen. >> thigh master. we may not have been born with great looking legs, but now we can be like we were. >> she always was an extremely popular figure, but she found a which to monetize that popularity in a way so many famous people would after her. kind of a kardashian 1.0. >> juju: the day before her 77th birthday, she passed away pleas pacific northwestfully, surrounded by family, including her devoted husband of 46 years, allen hamil. born in 1946, in san bruno, california, sommers began acting in the late '60s. her first credited role, the blond driving the white thunderbird in george lucas' 1973 film "american graffiti." ♪ ♪ why do fools fall in love ♪ >> wait, what did you say? >> juju: but her life changed when she landed the role of chrissy, one of three platonic

roommates on "three's company." >> i always say it's a little homey touches that make a home homier. >> i was always proud of that character because she had a moral code. she wouldn't take your husband or boyfriend. she would never lie to you. >> juju: the abc show became a smash hit, and somers became a household name. she spoke to barbara walters in 1979. >> do you think of yourself as sexy? >> yeah, i am. my husband thinks i'm sexy, and i believe him. >> juju: but summers left after just five seasons. she says she demanded to be paid the same as her co-star, john ritter. >> i was the first female who asked to be paid parity with men, and i got shot down. who the would have thought that chrissy snow would be the feminist. >> when she held out to get more money from "three's company," that really paved the way for more prime time stars to insist that they get paid what they're worth. also, that more women get paid what they were worth as opposed to what men were getting. >> juju: but back in 1981, sommers was written off the show. >> my career was dead because the public got mad at me for

being greedy. and really what i was asking for, i still think that i deserved it. >> she was seen as kind of a pariah, and there was a lot of question what she would do to get back in show business after that. >> reporter: but sommers found away forward. >> i felt sorry for myself, maybe for the first time in my career, for one year. and one day i heard a voice, why are you focused on what you don't have? why don't you focus on what you do have? and then my voice in my head said, you have enormous visibility. everybody in this country knows your name. and i thought, god, we can do something with that. >> juju: with her manager turned husband by her side, sommers took her talents to las vegas, starring in her own variety show. ♪ yes, he's a tramp, i adore him ♪ >> juju: and proudly leveraged her famous face and signature good looks to become a savvy marketer and infomercial royalty, most famously for the thigh master. >> it became a phenomenon.

we ended up selling over 10 million thigh masters. >> reporter: sommers continued to work in hollywood, appearing in tv shows and movies, including the hit '90s show "step by step" with patrick duffy, which ran for seven seasons. >> this keeps up, i'll be walking around here buck naked. >> i have no problem with that. buck. >> juju: sommers never shied away are from her age. >> you know what this is, suzanne? that's the fountain of youth. you own it apparently. >> reporter: i spoke with her in 2012 at her home in palm springs. >> celebrities would never sit down and say i'm 65. look at me. >> so i'm saying that, because i want you, one day when you're this age to go suzanne did it. i can do it too. ♪ ♪ a whole lot of shaking going on ♪ >> juju: embodying the mantra, you're only as old as you feel, at 68, she lit up the stage on "dancing with the stars."

>> i honestly love my ainge. i love it. i look forward to next year. as long as i can still wear my high heels and my short skirts. >> juju: sommers insisted that her vitality came from a nontraditional approach to health and wellness. she wrote 25 books on the subject, including 14 best sellers, at times drawing controversy, some of what sommers advocates in her books is not backed up by the mainstream medical community. >> yeah, everybody is different. all i can do is put it out there. i feel that by example, others will want what i have. >> juju: in 2000, she was first diagnosed with breast cancer. this july, sommers announced her breast cancer had returned, writing on instagram, "i know how to put on my battle gear, and i'm a fighter." the night before she died, sommers read a poem from her husband, which he shared on instagram, describing her love. "there are no words, there are no actions, no promises. we are one. i am in love with you, my beautiful suzanne, for all of eternity."

>> the message is be grateful for the highs and be grateful for the lows, because it's in the lows where you learn. when you're down here and you got the blues and nothing is going your way, that's the opportunity right in there. >> byron: some would call that a sermon. our thanks to juju. we'll be right back. my a1c was up here; now, it's down with rybelsus®. his a1c? it's down with rybelsus®. my doctor told me rybelsus® lowered a1c better than a leading branded pill and that people taking rybelsus® lost more weight. i got to my a1c goal and lost some weight too. rybelsus® isn't for people with type 1 diabetes. don't take rybelsus® if you or your family ever had medullary thyroid cancer, or have multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2, or if allergic to it. stop rybelsus® and get medical help right away if you get a lump or swelling in your neck, severe stomach pain, or an allergic reaction.

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>> byron: and finally tonight, 100 years of our parent corporation, the walt disney company. >> come on, everybody. off to neverland! >> 100 years ago today, 21-year-old walt disney and his brother roy formed the walt disney company, inspired by walt's love of cartooning. first came mickey mouse. >> all yours, pluto. >> followed by feature films, park, broadway shows, even a cruise line. the beloved characters and stories entertaining generations, all springing from walt's wish upon a star. happy 100 to us and from us to you. that's "nightline" for thi