ahead this hour, our special coverage, israel launches a full-siege assault on hamas, retaliating for the devastating attack on its country. israel now pounding gaza with air strikes. active fighting continuing on the ground as defense forces battle militants still trying to get over israel's border.

nbc's richard engel forced to take cover from mortar fire just a short time ago. [ explosions ]. israel gripped by a hostage crisis in the aftermath of the surprise attack. more than 100 missing, their locations unknown. what's being done to get them home. later, how did militants make it into israel by air, by ground without warning? the intelligence failure that allowed hamas to unleash widespread destruction. good morning. it's 10:00 a.m. eastern, 7:00

a.m. pacific. i'm jose diaz-balart. the israeli air force launching an extensive attack as we come on the air three days after hamas launches a surprise attack against israel. the company claiming to have retaken control of all communities around gaza and ordering a, quote, complete siege of the gaza strip. the bloody cost of this young war is already horrifying. at least 700 israelis and 500 palestinians killed with more than 4,000 injured. among the dead nine americans according to the u.s. state department. that number only expected to rise. this is 25-year-old noa, the woman who has become the face of the ongoing and unprecedented hostage crisis. she, her boyfriend and dozens of others were seized by hamas. the exact number of hostages still unknown. here is one man whose family was

taken. >> i don't know where -- what conditions are they held in. i don't know if they ate enough, if they're cold or hot, if they're hurt, if they're getting treatment. joining us is nbc's raf sanchez who is in ashkelon. how is israel striking back as we speak? >> reporter: jose, we are about ten miles from the gaza border. we can hear those israeli air strikes. this city and other cities across southern israel are also being pounded by rocket fire. i want to show you a little bit of what we're seeing. this is a first floor apartment which took a direct hit from a rocket earlier on. you can see here, cars here riddled with shrapnel. you may be able to hear the booms overhead, jose. literally ten minutes ago the

sirens were blaring here. we had all run into a bomb shelter over in that direction, and a rocket fell perhaps 30 meters or so from where i'm standing. a couple major developments on the ground today, jose. the israeli military says it is fully in control for the first time since the surprise attack began of the towns and communities along the gaza border, because over the weekends, it was this near unimaginable situation that hamas gunmen were holding, were in control, buildings, streets, in some cases whole neighborhoods of israeli towns. the military says it is once again in control. there is still fighting on the ground inside of gaza. there are clearly still breefrps in the border fence. there may be tunnels through which these militants are coming, fighting continues. in terms of what's going on in gaza, hundreds of air strikes being carried out. israel says it is targeting hamas command centers, tunnels

and other infrastructure, but the israeli minister of defense says that he has imposed a full siege on gaza, no food, no fuel, no electricity is getting into the strip. jose, i'm having a little trouble hearing you, but i'll throw it back to you if there's something you want to bring up. >> raf, continue your reporting. i apologize. communications may be a little bit tricky. we're hearing you fine. >> reporter: fantastic. jose, i was just going to say there are 2 million civilians irn side of gaza who live under hamas rule. they're controlled by hamas, but they are not hamas themselves. it is those ordinary people inside gaza who will be paying the price by the siege imposed by israel, by this wave of air strikes. i can tell you, jose, as somebody who spent a lot of time

in gaza, israel goes to great, great lengths to minimize casualties. i remember being there during one wave of air strikes, a man received a call saying the building you lived in is going to be bombed because they suspect there was hamas infrastructure inside. they stayed on the phone with him for 45 minutes while they got people out of the building. it is true that israel goes to great lengths to reduce civilian casualties. but, jose, it's also true when you drop explosives into this densely populated area, inevitably there will be civilian casualties. israeli decision makers from prime minister benjamin netanyahu on down are facing this just agonizing set of bad options when it comes to these hundred-plus hostages inside of gaza. on the one hand, they could try to rescue them by force, but i don't think anyone believes a sort of heavy style rescue is

possible. these hostages are incredibly valuable bargaining chips and they will be doing everything they can to make it difficult for israel to rescue them. there is another city underground below gaza city, a city of tunnels. you can bet the hostages are under ground now, that they are spread out. the other option for israel is to negotiate. i don't know if that is politically palatable, to negotiate with the people who carried out this devastating surprise attack, but we have in the past seen israel negotiate with hamas and other militant groups. back in 2011 israel agreed to release 1,000 palestinian prisoners to free gilad shalit who was held by the palestinians. jose. >> raf sanchez, thank you very much for being with us.

appreciate it. when we're talking about war and we're talking about what happened there, we have to focus on the fact that this has been an attack on civilians, on the civilian population in israel. we're joined now from israel by elon choen, a professor at brandeis university. his daughter and son-in-law were killed in these attacks. professor, first, my most sincere condolences to you and to your family. i want to just hear about your daughter and her family. >> sadly or happily i'm happy to do so. first of all, i live in israel. that's where i'm talking to you now. that's where my daughter lived. she was born in boone county, missouri. we all came to israel in 1945. she is an american, one of the

americans who count as an american casualty as well. her husband who was also killed was born in bear shef va. they were a couple of idealists who sent their kids to a school where you learned arabic and hebrew together in the hope that somehow jews and arabs would learn to understand more about each other and be able to come to accommodation and change the course of history here. so there's a special bitterness in what has happened to them, these idealistic kids. we found out about all this on telephone. what you have to uventd stand about this war is it is mislabled. it's the kind of event that brought my grandparents to the united states a century ago. it's an event where militarized

people purposely attack and intimidate civilians, not other military targets. the hamas at taxes jews just because that is their faith and that is their identity. the taking of civilians is their intention. what has america done to get release of its prisoners of war from iran, somalia or any other place where americans get embroiled in conflicts. this is not a war of national liberation. this is not a war between states. it's a war between the semi, quasi state that enjoys the real states against a group of people whom its detests, who it would like to subjugate and eliminate. read the hamas declaration of

independence or its charter. we are in a very difficult bind. they rehearsed this. they planned for this, and they did it brilliantly. my government screwed up, if that's permissible on television, and didn't know it was going to happen. we're paying the price. what we do now is the kind of problem in spades that america has had to deal with when hostages have been taken. hostages that are infants, young people and people even older than myself. >> these are the things that we have to talk about because this is happening in realtime. i just -- i understand that your daughter's last act was to defend her son.

>> yes, yes. look, unlike my father-in-law who was at okinawa and normandy and sicily and other family members who fought in the american military, there's no such thing here as the front and the rear, particularly in this age when we all have cell phones. we were on the phone with her and we were on the phone with her son. her son reported -- the last words from her was that i hear glass breaking. they're speaking in arabic and i hear shots. that's the last words we heard from her. after a hiatus, we heard rotem, her son say that i am shot, there's blood on me and he was instructed then not to speak. the rest of the day, we're talking about 9-12 hours. i don't remember the exact time right now, but the rest of the

day was texting. he had to be quiet because these terrorists came back several times to the house. and at the final time they threw in a grenade and tried to burn it down. why? because in the event that there were any survivors, they wanted to shoot any survivor who would walk out the front or the back door. the kind of planning and foresight that went into this mall lev lens is hard to imagine. this is not a struggle of human rights. there are other ways in which people achieve human rights. look at the progress with egypt, with saudi arabia, with jordan and so on and so forth. look at israel itself. 20-plus percent of the students are arabs, at my university, ben gurion university, veterans who head departments, 50% of the pharmacists here are bet wants.

there need not be this kind of chasm between jew and arab. they sent their children when they lived in bare shef va 15 years ago to a joint jewish arab school, where the language was arabic and hebrew, where there were visits and learning about one another, in the hope that knowledge about one another would bring about a greater sense of accommodation and bring about a pathway that would satisfy the needs and aspirations of all populations. these are not the people who should have been killed by hate mongers, but they were. and what happens in the future? i don't know. i don't know what's going to happen to he's hostages. on what basis will the hamas release them? on what national interest, when their stated national interest is the end of the jewish state?

what interest are they willing to compromise in order to allow us to be here. >> professor, i can't begin to tell you how much we feel for your loss and the loss of so many people. i thank you for being with us today. very much appreciate it. >> thank you for your news reporting. and thank you for asking me. it's a story that has to be told. >> thank you, professor. joining us now is joel rubin, former deputy assistant secretary of state and danielle pletka, senior fellow at the american enterprise institute. i thank you both for being with us this morning. joel, what are your expectations now going forward in such a -- just complicated reality?

>> jose, excuse me. i'm tearing up. professor troen, his story is my story in many ways, jewish american community story in many ways. i was on the phone with cousins in israel over the weekend. i went to brandeis where he teaches, the kind of peace and coexistence that his daughter exemplified is the type of life i've tried to live. i think this is still a period of mourning, clearly, mourning for the whole world, i believe, mourning certainly in israel, mourning here in my heart and in the american jewish community. i think it's still a shock. it's still raw. the political, diplomatic considerations, military considerations all being executed are being executed in advance with deep heavy hearts

and sadness. i think what we heard with the professor and this bigger point, this idea of hamas wanting to eliminate the jewish state, wantonly murdering children, taking a holocaust survivor hostage and bringing her -- parading her in the streets. as a jew it just feels desperate, the kind of hate we're experiencing here in the united states and now to see this in israel. it's extremely raw. the appreciation that i have for those who are standing with us at this moment as we see what goes forward next, it's deep and profound and still very raw. >> joel, listening to the professor, and he's so eloquent and so wanting to focus on not as much as personal loss as more the loss of ideals and the loss

of people's work to try and make a difference and bridge those gaps. and yet his daughter and her husband and the little boy that i understand was shot in the abdomen and he's doing okay, but you know -- i just think -- this sant war against the israeli, the idf. this is going in -- they went into that family's home, shot them and then dropped a grenade in just in case that kid was alive. how does -- how do things go forward from there, joel? >> you're right, jose. this was not a targeted assault

against israeli military installations. this was a targeted assault against innocents in their sleep, innocents in their beds, being picked apart and murdered, murdered directly. i take cues from the israeli people at this moment and multiple conversations with my cousin there. one being we will persevere, we will overcome, a toughness. and the other of, i hope for a better future after this, the hope, the optimism. these are the core values of israel that has made it be the state that it is today, surviving waves of hate and wars for survival. the israeli people are sadly, shockingly practiced in this type of maintenance of strength and hope in the face of assault. again, this is very important.

i'm glad you brought it up. hamas did not launch a military strike against military installations for military purposes. it launched a strike into homes and villages for terror, to terrorize the population. so the israeli response also is going to be rooted, i believe, in not just trying to deter hamas, but also restoring confidence and a sense of survival in the israeli people right now who are deeply shaken by what we've just seen. >> the largest number of jews killed since the holocaust at one time. let's think about this. let's put things into perspective as we talk about the fact that not only a professor's family killed, so many others were killed, 240 kids that were shot out of the thousands of

kids that were out at 6:00 in the morning in a festival dancing. that's what it's all about. joel, i thank you for being with us this morning. i appreciate it. i want to apologize to danielle pletka. we lost her connection. i apologize to her. i hope and look forward to hearing from her shortly. more special coverage of the war in israel when we're back in 60 seconds, including the white house response to the attack and the carrier strike group steaming towards the region. plus, why did israel appear to be caught off guard by this attack? the questions being raised about intelligence failures there and here. >> this is an attack that i don't think anyone saw coming in the immediate. the immediate. this is spring semester at over 13,000 us school districts, which have become top targets for ransomware attacks. but there's never been a reported ransomware attack

on a chromebook. which is why thousands of schools like the fairfield-suisun unified school district switched to google tools for education. so they can focus on teaching and 22,000 students can focus on learning, knowing that their data is secure. ( ♪♪ ) you know that feeling of having to rewash dishes that didn't get clean? i don't. cascade platinum plus has me doing dishes... differently. scrub? soak? nope. i just scrape, load and i'm done. only platinum plus is bigger. with double the dawn grease fighting power and double the scrubbing power. for a no rewash clean... and a cabinet ready shine. rewash? not in my house. upgrade to cascade platinum plus. dare to dish differently.

22 past the hour. this morning the u.s. government is pledging support for israel after the brutal attacks by hamas. the u.s. military sending an aircraft carrier strike group and military aircraft closer to israel in the eastern mediterranean. that after president biden promised prime minister benjamin netanyahu the u.s. would send military and diplomatic aid. i want to bring in nbc news senior white house correspondent gabe gutierrez and white house senior adviser nigera kokh. >> >> reporter: good morning. you mentioned the strike group heading the the mediterranean, the u.s.s. gerald ford. it will include several guided missile destroyers. the u.s. is also sending on land additional air power as well as munitions to the idf. this is all meant to be a show of power, but also act as a deterrent.

we heard the message over the weekend repeatedly from president biden that he is urging any enemies of israel not to take this moment, any perceived vulnerability in israel to try and mount their own attacks. that comes as the brags is scrambling to prevent this from escalating into a larger conflict across the region. that's what the u.s. is doing in the short term. there are questions about what it can do in the long term in terms of additional funding for israel. this comes as congress is effectively paralyzed without a house speaker. the biden administration says it would like to have a functioning congress but it is also focused on the immediate needs of israel. a spokesperson talked about the need for the senate to confirm ambassadors including the u.s. ambassador to israel. the biden administration focusing on trying to prevent this from becoming a larger conflict, multi-front conflict

across the middle east, jose. >> nair, the president has been in close contact with netanyahu. he's had a strained relationship with in the past. but the president was so clear on saturday that after what happened there is no light between israel and the united states. what's the message the united states has to continue giving going forward? >> the united states has been a long-time supporter of the street of central, regardless of who is in charge on the left and right. we saw that reflected over the weekend from members of congress who typically speak ul on a palestinian perspective. congresswoman ilhan omar, senator bernie sanders, making it clooer that this hamas attack was tragic, should not have happened and should not have happened given the fact that the united states and israel also have a strong security cooperation. that is going to be one of the

questions in the long term, is how was the netanyahu government left flat-footed when essentially this support, all of the intelligence that we share is in order to anticipate and prevent this type of attack -- that's what biden and the u.s. government is trying to tamp down and stand up against to make sure this does not become an anti-semitic kol drum throughout the region ps. >> the big question there is how, how do you do something like this when you have entire governments celebrating it. even on saturday evening our time the iranian regime was already having people go out into the street with fireworks to celebrate this. how do you, nayyera, deal with that? and also, for example, we're

already confirming that nine american lives that we know of have been lost. that number probably going to rise. we've also seen reports that americans are among the hostages. how do you deal with something like that? >> this is where you use all the tools in the toolbox. you have the secretary of state talking to egypt, turkey. those are going to be allies in the region who have relationships with israel and with russia to help make sure that nobody is taking advantage of this moment that has been seen as weakness for israel. that's the short term. the long term is also beefing up military security. this is part of why the biden administration wanted to bring saudi and israel closer together, have a formal recognition of each other because those are the u.s.'s strongest military partners in the region. that is how the united states has been trying to box in iran. let's be clear, iran is not a friend to the united states or to israel. they have been deep support of

hamas, but they also have been drawing a wedge between palestinians who have been willing to work with israel and palestinians like amass that are supporting terrorism. we also need to make sure that we recognize the different factions not only in the region, but even here in the united states so that we don't just paint everybody with the same brush. that's the only way we're going to get out of this war. >> gabe gutierrez and nayyera haq. next, the growing crisis in israel, more than 100 people missing. one israeli man telling the "today" show this morning about his two daughters, his wife being taken and tracking her to gaza through her phone. >> these are babies, babies, women, families are off limits. show some respect. >> the desperate effort to get them back.

you're watching special coverage of the war in israel on msnbc. .

this month join the new subway mvp rewards program and get rewarded. get 50% off any footlong when you join subway mvp rewards. so many all star options. it's just for subway mvps right? you catch on quick herbert. join now and get 50% off any footlong. from pep in their step to shine in their coats, when people switch their dog's food to the farmer's dog, the effects can seem like magic. but there's no magic involved. (dog bark)

it's just smarter, healthier pet food. it's amazing what real food can do. c'mon, we're right there. c'mon baby. it's just smarter, it's the only we need. go, go, go, go! ah! touchdown baby! -touchdown! are your neighbors watching the same game? yeah, my 5g home internet delays the game a bit. but you get used to it. try these. they're noise cancelling earmuffs. i stole them from an airport. it's always something with you, man. great! solid! -greek salad? exactly! don't delay the game with verizon or t-mobile 5g home internet. catch it on the xfinity 10g network. here's why you should switch from chrome to duckduckgo. duckduckgo is a browser you download to your mobile and desktop devices. unlike chrome, the duckduckgo browser has privacy built-in. it comes with a private alternative to google search, which doesn■t spy on your searches, and it blocks cookies and creepy ads. and there's no catch. it's free. we make money from ads, but they don't follow you around. join the millions of people taking back their privacy

by downloading duckduckgo on mobile and desktop today. 31 past the hour. we have breaking news from israel. hamas confirming it launched a missile strike with 90 missiles in the israeli city of sderot this morning, a strike that our own richard engel appeared to be caught in just over an hour ago.

take a look at that. >> reporter: there's been a lot of incoming fire here. we believe it is mortar fire. some of them also appear to be rocketsment they've been coming in quite close. >> that strike, as israel remains gripped in a hostage crisis. more than 100 reportedly missing. their loved ones have very few clues. videos like this one from hamas showing some of the hostages being held in gaza. women, children, the elderly, babies used as human shields deterring israeli attacks on hamas. that group announcing this morning that israeli strikes have killed four hostages, a report that israel warns the world not to trust. nbc's kelly cobiella is in tel aviv this morning. kelly, what's the latest? >> reporter: well, jose, you mentioned that strike by hamas into sderot which is on the eastern border with gaza.

we're still trying to find out how much damage was done, if there are any casualties as a result of that strike. some 90 rockets fired into israel just a short time ago. meantime, people whose loved ones are missing are really at wit's end. they can't seem to find any answers. i just heard from one man whose brother is missing. he says his phone has suddenly been turned on, but he has no idea where he is or whether he's been taken loss staj. they are desperate for any information about their loved ones. this morning horror stories from a music festival in the israeli desert where at least 260 people were killed saturday by hamas fighters in a surprise attack. drone video showing the devastating scene afterward, captured on dash cam video, festival goers reeling. now we're hearing of others at the concert disappearing. near the border, this video

appearing to show militants attacking an israeli tank. entirely families snatched from their homes at gunpoint. this video appears to show sherry and her two young sons being taken away. they're missing along with her husband and her parents. >> we don't have any proof of their state, if they were fed, if the baby got food, if my aunt is okay, if my cousin and husband is alive. >> reporter: 23-year-old romi goran hasn't been heard from since saturday morning. >> she was talking to us saying help us, we don't know what to do. >> reporter: jessica desperate to find her boyfriend who she said helped rescue people before he, too, vanished. >> we were talking. he said everything is okay, we're going out. suddenly i heard screaming. >> reporter: yoni's entire family, wife and two young girls were abducted while visiting

relatives. his wife calling him for help. >> the last thing she said to me was that there are terrorists in the house. >> reporter: this video appears to show his wife, daughters and mother-in-law being loaded into a truck. all he could do was track his wife's phone all the way to gaza. israel's ambassador to the u.k. says more than 100 people are believed to have been taken hostage, a number of americans may be among the captives. just a quick update, jose, on that strike in sderot by hamas. we understand one rocket did fall in that city in front of a supermarket. one person was injured. there have also been a number of hits in towns in greater jerusalem, ten injured in and around that air e yeah, two of them sseverely. >> kelly cobiella, thank you so much. former fbi agent and msnbc

national security analyst clint watts joins us. clint, thank you. i'm just wondering, clint, when you're seeing what we're all seeing, and kelly's story of the people who were just at a festival or at home, and these people were taken to this densely populated area there in gaza. more than 2 million people. how do you deal with hostages being held there? >> jose, it's going to be just incredibly complex to get an understanding of where that many hostages -- i can't think of really any incident in recent memory where that many people have been taken hostage at one time. so when you add that to what is one of the most densely populated areas in the work which is the gaza strip, how they would locate or know where

all those hostages could be, how they could be rescued. it was mind-boggling to determine how they would do that. the israeli military i'm sure is planning something. they're probably working through a lot of different factors to determine it. when we're talking about this area, i think the other thing is, normally you hear people talk about air, land and sea battle. this is about three dimensions. it's up, meaning it's an urban area. there's a lot of multistory buildings as you can see there, very densely packed. urban warfare and urban fighting should the military go in there, it's extremely volatile, very difficult to do. usually the ratio of manpower is about 10-1. meaning offense is 10 to every defender. then there's the subterranean component of this as well. inside gaza it's very well known lots of tunnels, lots of sub complexes and bases. this is a very tough area to locate where the hostages might

be how you might rescue them and what the combat or conflict might be should they enter that area. >> i keep thinking in history there are so few parallels to this. even i'm thinking of the japanese embassy hostage situation in peru in 1996 when hundreds of diplomats were taken at one time by these terrorists and it didn't end well. how do you -- after the picture you've painted, there's no -- even the japanese ambassador, there's one area you're dealing with. is there any way to deal with hundreds, dozens of people spread out in dozens of city blocks under ground? >> reporter: it would have to be the most complex, multi-stage whose queue rescue ever. i cannot think of any other that would be that way. usually you would do what is known as a cordon where you'd seal off an entire area.

how they would do that in these very dense urban environments, very difficult to see how they would do that. second, how would they proceed in terms of getting a foothold in these cities and towns to get to where hostages might be on a multi-front series of positions. very, very difficult to do. so i'm sure they're looking at are there ways to do negotiations, hostage release, those sorts of things as well. i am just not sure what the plan would be or how they would execute it. i'm confident that from the hamas side, they probably divided the hostages into many locations, using them as human shields as was noted in the broadcast, very, very difficult situation from a planning perspective. i don't think anyone had thought of a plan where they would have to rescue hundreds of hostages in what could be dozens of different locations. >> and these are live images we're showing from gaza city. as you see the smoke there,

there's clearly been some bombings in that area. it's what's happening at 5:40 p.m. there. clint watts, thank you for being with us. you're right. the massive amount of problems that anyone looking to get these people are going to confront. it would be the largest ever, right? just no other way to see how this could be solved. >> i can think of none bigger, jose. the other part is, usually with a hostage situation that you've talked about, it's a single point, single facility, single hostage or set of hostages in one location. you'd have to be developing intelligence on dozens of locations. every time you try to rescue even one or a small group of hostages in one location, you'd be putting hostages at other locations probably at risk. this is a very tough calculus for how the israeli military

might proceed going forward. >> clint watts, thank you very much for being with us. really appreciate it. coming up, how did israeli and u.s. intelligence miss what hamas was planning? you're watching special coverage of the war in israel. he war in l this month join the new subway mvp rewards program

and get rewarded. get 50% off any footlong when you join subway mvp rewards. so many all star options. it's just for subway mvps right? you catch on quick herbert. join now and get 50% off any footlong. it ain't my dad's razor, dad. ay watch it! it's from gillettelabs. this green bar releases trapped hairs from my face... gamechanga! ...while the flexdisc contours to it. so the five blades can get virtually every hair in one stroke. for the ultimate gillette shaving experience. the best a man can get is gillettelabs.

44 past the hour. israel's 9/11. that's how many are describing the horror inflicted by hamas. a wide-scale attack by air, land

and sea taking the lives of hundreds of israelis and palestinians. how did israel and the rest of the world miss signs that the attack was coming? we'll bring in nbc news pentagon correspondent courtney kube. courtney, why didn't israel or the u.s. get any indications that this was going to happen? >> that's been one of the biggest questions for the last 48 hours since this all unfolded, is not just how did they not know that hamas was planning some sort of an attack, but something on this scale. we're talking about a multi-pronged coordinated and timed attack, something we have not seen hamas do in the past. our teams at nbc have really been trying to dig into this. the reality is there's no real clear answer at this point of exactly how they were able to really catch israel flat-footed, but really to catch the rest of the world flat-footed with this attack, jose. >> it's such a widespread

attack. using so many different kinds of transportation, air and fast boats, et cetera. courtney, it's also -- people have been asking about how maybe the idf and security forces were not there when the attack happened. it took some time for the forces to be able to come to the gaza area on the israeli side. >> exactly. given the fact that what we have heard about israeli intelligence and border security for years is that it is virtually impenetrable to get through. for me, for instance, i always had an assumption that the israeli military would have something called a quick reaction force, a group that was there that could quickly respond to any penetration of a border area, security checkpoint, anything like that. what we learned here is they

simply didn't. we also know israelis had extensive cameras and sensor system along there. it's not clear why those would have failed. this is not just an intelligence concern, but a real breach of what would be a physical security perimeter that we still don't have good answers how that was able to happen, jose. >> courtney kube, thank you so very much. appreciate it. next, how the lack of a house speaker here in washington is impacting how congress responds to the conflict in israel. you're watching special coverage of the war in israel. verage of the war in israel ♪ if you struggle. ♪ and struggle. ♪ and struggle with cpap. you should check out inspire. ♪ no mask. no hose. just sleep. inspire. sleep apnea innovation.

learn more and view important safety information at inspiresleep.com when it comes to your hair, ingredients matter. that's why herbal essences is packed with naturally derived plant ingredients you love, and none of the stuff you don't. our sulfate-free collections smell incredible... ♪ and leave your hair touchably soft and smooth. ♪ herbal essences

this is american infrastructure. megawatts of power, rails and open road, and essential services of every kind. all running on countless invisible networks, making it a prime target for cyberattacks. but the same ai-powered security that protects all of google also defends the systems running america's infrastructure. for these services. for the 336 million of us living here. ♪ [bones cracking] ♪ (tense music) ♪ one aleve works all day so i can keep working my magic. just one aleve.

12 hours of uninterrupted pain relief. aleve. who do you take it for?

take a look at live pictures of gaza city right there you see it as we're coming up to almost 6:00 gaza time. we're seeing missiles and smoke at this hour as israel launches strikes against hamas. it is one of the most densely populated areas on earth, about 2 million people there. these are live pictures. as you can see, there is a huge plume of smoke coming out from right that area there, right in the center of your screens. joining us now is california congressman john gar man dee, i thank you for being with us this morning.

i just want to hear your reaction to what we've been seeing for the last -- since saturday, but what we're seeing on our screen right now. >> this is a horrendous, vicious attack by hamas against israel. children, families of all kinds, hostages, it could not be worse. we need to understand that this is not new for hamas. hamas originated more than 30 years ago as a terrorist organization supported by iran. eventually, they seized control of the gaza strip taking that control away from the palestinian authorities and imposed on gaza a very heavy-handed terrorist organization running that government. they're continuing attacks almost every week from gaza into israel. sometimes there's a few. sometimes there's a lot, but always this is ongoing. this unprecedented attack is not -- not to be unexpected.

we need to understand the overall political situation in the middle east. iran has its own problems at home. the abraham accords are bringing together the gulf states with israel, even saudi arabia was in the process of trying to create some sort of a relationship with israel. i'm certain that iran saw this as a threat to their security. they amped up hamas as well as hezbollah in the lebanon area to stage this attack. this didn't happen without iran's authority and munitions and the rest. so what we have here is a very, very difficult situation, and unfortunately, the congress of the united states is controlled by the chaos caucus and we are inoperable. the congress is not in operation because of the chaos within the

republican caucus. >> this is such a horrific picture, and the fact is, congressman, i mean, there's a gang of eight, right, on capitol hill that deals with all kinds of national security and international security issues. what's -- it's not operational. i mean, when are you all going to be briefed? what -- what can be done when, you know, this is happening in realtime, congressman, and yet on capitol hill you've got this, you know, inability to even move forward. >> well, we all ought to be aware that the gang of eight is not only the leadership of the congress, but it is also the crazies in the republican party. they have over the last decade, 13 years now taken out three speakers, three republican speakers have gone under, have

left their job because of the freedom caucus and now matt gaetz and others who are the most vocal part of that. it is extremely troublesome for the united states. this israeli situation is but one of many, many problems. the government of the united states will shut down in another 35 days, and the congress of the united states has got to get its act together. i would implore those rational moderate republicans to reach out to those of us on the democratic side and put together some sort of a coalition, some sort of an understanding so that we can work together. unfortunately, former speaker mccarthy never even attempted to work with the democrats to keep -- to settle up this schism within his party. we did, however, democrats with a handful -- with several dozen republicans put forth a

continuing resolution that continues the government until mid-november. but that time is rapidly approaching. we've got to have an accommodation, and i implore those republicans, moderates, reach out. reach out to the democrats, talk to our leader hakeem jeffreys and seek some sort of a coalition so that we can get the congress back in operation. it can be done. it's been done all around the world in various parliaments and we can do it in the congress. i know that leader jeffries and his team is prepared to work with the republicans, if they're prepared to work with us. but right now the chaos caucus, those 20 or so radical maga republicans, seem to not want to do it, and the candidates they put up, jim jordan is a bomb thrower. you only need to look at the committee hearings which he's been chairman of. he's a bomb thrower. he's not going to bring about an

accommodation within congress. he's going to throw the whole thing into more chaos. mr. scalise, far less radical, but i'm not sure that he's capable of putting it together. there are men and women in the republican congress that could lead, but they can't do it unless they reach across the aisle and work with the democrats to put together some sort of -- and i can give you what can be done. put this -- stabilize things. don't go with any big ideas, either democrats or republicans. stabilize things. work through the appropriate funding. the senate has done that with their appropriation levels. they did it with the continuing resolution. take the senate's lead here. put that in place. work into a stable situation and then we'll fight it out in november elections, and we'll see whether the republicans or the democrats are able to persuade the american government as to who is capable of governing.

clearly, clearly the facts show that the republicans are incapable. mccarthy is not the first speaker to fall under the weight and the schism of the freedom caucus within the republican conference. there will be more lest the republicans reach out and work with us. >> and this stalemate, this inability to get anything even done in any way is happening, congressman, as you and i were speaking. that's a live picture we've been showing you of gaza city. these are explosions that are happening in realtime. congressman, i thank you for being with us. i want to bring in a member who previously served as israel's ambassador to the united nations. ambassador, thank you for being with us. we're looking at live pictures right there at gaza city after the new israeli strikes. what are we seeing and what can you tell us we should be

anticipating? >> we are in deep pain. we are still counting the number of casualties and the number horrible, horrible, almost 800 people who were massacred, more than 100 people who were kidnapped, and i'm talking about kids, with their parents, elderly people -- but at the same time, we are starting to fight back. we have called our bodies into reserves, and we are getting ready to fight against hamas and to hand them down those barbaric terrorists, what they did in israel remind us of isis, al qaeda, such barbaric terrorism we haven't seen for many years in the region. what we are seeing now, it's only the beginning. we are determined to fight back. we are united. we put politics aside now in israel, and we are going to hunt them down. so i'm telling the people of

gaza they should move away -- from hamas headquarters because we have no intention to hurt any civilians, but next to the hamas militants, unfortunately they will be held too. >> that's important you mention that because that is, as you know, one of the most densely populated areas on earth. we're talking about more than 2 million people, and they can't go anywhere, right? i mean, they're stuck in there, ambassador. they can't go to israel. they can't go through egypt. >> what we are doing now, we are actually -- what we are doing now and i don't think you will find it in any other military, we are actually texting those residents in different neighborhoods and we tell them move out. move out from your neighborhood. you can go to another area in gaza, but don't stay where you are because this area will be attacked or this building will be attacked. i will go not like hamas is not to hurt