right now in our special coverage of the israel hamas war, israel bombing gaza for a

fourth day in retaliation for the attack from hamas. electricity in gaza out as night is set to fall. >> israeli troops describing the horror left behind by hamas. civilians indiscriminately murdered or taken as hostages. >> now there's holocaust number one and holocaust number two, and it's mind blowing, infuriating, unbelievable that it happened in 2023 in israel. . and later, america's secretary of state headed to the region in just hours, what his role could be as the fighting between israel and hamas escalates. good morning, it's 10:00 eastern. thank you for joining us. i'm ana cabrera reporting alongside my friend josé diaz-balart. israel warning today that fighting will intensify as it continues its bombardment of gaza. >> israeli air strikes relentlessly striking hundreds of hamas targets in retaliation

for the brutal attack on its country. these are live pictures. these are some of the pictures that we have from up above. take a look at just the level of destruction, warning israel that the scenes out of gaza will be, quote, difficult to cope with. it appears gaza's electricity has been completely shut off. >> and along gaza's border, the israeli military is mobilizing, anticipation growing of a potential ground invasion. in southern israel recovery efforts are now revealing the scale of horror that hamas unleashed on civilians. we're talking women, children, elderly. >> and we have ellison barber who is in ashkelon, as a matter of fact, what are you seeing now? >> reporter: hey, jose, i'm going to show you a little bit of the trail. we just saw another rocket come through here. this is the ninth rocket in the last hour that has been fired in this area of ashkelon. of those, the vast majority

we've seen appear to have been intercepted, but there were two that happened about 30 to 45 minutes, we couldn't see what happened with them. since these rockets started firing again in the last hour, we have seen a number of ambulances driving through this area. we were planning and headed further south to the city of mordahi, we didn't make it to where we were going. we were stopped at an israeli check point where there were a number of idf military members. we were headed further south trying to get closer to the gaza border to see what a potential troop buildup along that northern border might look like. the city is about two miles from the northern border with gaza. we were stopped. we were told we could not pass and that we could not film anything from that point on of the israeli military, of troops or anything else that we saw. but before we got to that check point through some of the trees on the highway, we could see a

section of what appeared to be a massive military troop buildup, israeli tanks, israeli military vehicles. it was impossible to count given that we were moving and we got some footage of it, but it seemed to be at least 100 just in that one section. that's relevant because the question right now is if and when a ground assault into gaza could happen. we know based on what the idf has said in recent days, they were working on building infrastructure around the border, and then there is also news this morning that the politicians in israel, opposing parties, benjamin netanyahu and opposition leader, one of the opposition leader, benny gantz, they have agreed to form a unity government and a war cabinet right now. that is something that netanyahu planned to do once war was declared on sunday. it is something that israeli people have been telling us that they want to see happen because

they want politics, the infighting, the disagreements that were before october 7th to be put aside to focus on this and getting those 100 plus hostages out of gaza. but again, we've just been watching this area. you see a little bit of a plume of smoke back there. it might be hard to see right now, but jose, in the last hour again, it's been at least nine rockets fired over in this direction. it has come in waves. sometimes you hear the siren, not every time, but sometimes you hear the siren, and then it is just a couple seconds before you hear the zoom overhead and start to hear the booms. and remember, these are areas where a lot of civilians have started to leave. but i mean, you can see what is a very populated city right behind me. jose. >> hey, ellison, it's ana cabrera here as well. what's striking to me as i look at your live shot there is just how quiet the streets are behind you. obviously everybody is trying to get in the most secure place as you're seeing some rockets being fired there. it was just about 24 hours ago that we heard from hamas and

saying they were going to be firing and trying to attack ashkelon specifically. is this believed to be what they were threatening? or is there anticipation for an even greater onslaught? >> reporter: i mean the concern and fear here and expectation is that there will be a greater onslaught and that's from both sides, both military directions of this expecting more from israel, also expecting more from hamas. as we were standing here when we started to hear the series of some of the booms and kind of getting in different spaces where you can be safe but also you can see where they were coming, and we're far enough away from it that the risk of shrapnel falling down afterwards was not significant where we were standing, but someone who was driving in the car asked our team, they said are you not scared. i live here and i hear this all the time, and i'm scared. so there is the concern, the focus here that what hamas has said that they are going to target this city, this area even more frequently, that that is

going to happen, and we started to see it happening when richard engel was on the ground yesterday, and there was just that barrage of rockets over his head as he and his team were on the ground reporting. everything we have seen being in this city, being yesterday a little closer to gaza but sort of on the other side a little to the west in the city of siderot, this is only escalating, that's what the politicians are saying, and from everything we are seeing, it very much seems to be the case. >> i was just wondering as you have been going around different parts of the country, you're not in the closest area to gaza, and yet, it's an area that, you know, for 24 hours has been seeing almost nonstop barrage of missiles. what is it that you have seen and experienced these last 24 hours? >> reporter: seeing the urgency of what it is like to be a

civilian living in these areas. obviously we're here with a purpose, right? we're media because we need to see what is happening so we can tell other people, but when you see us moving and running, ducking, whatever, this looks like -- by the way, jose, i can't tell if that is military or what, but a large group of people moving through here in that bus. we really -- as ana was saying earlier, haven't seen a whole lot of people come through. we have seen a lot of military tanks, military trucks that will pass through periodically. most of them usually headed that way, not that way, but to your question of what it has been like in the last 24 hours. when the sirens -- if a siren goes off when you hear the rockets, it is just such a short period of time before it is right over israeli cities. that's very different than say the war in ukraine where you have a bigger country. russia is firing missiles from inside russian territory or the caspian experience, while it is

terrifying, when you hear an air raid siren and know missiles are coming, because of the vastness of those countries there's a little bit more time to three and seek shelter. what we have seen and experienced in the last couple of days, which is what civilians are experiencing, is that you have such little reaction time when those rockets are fired from hamas. it is surely the exact same situation for palestinians in gaza. it's just you hear it and they come and you hope you're somewhere where you can take a couple of steps to get to safety. seeking out shelter, running a little further doesn't seem to exist here at all. >> ellison barber in ashkelon, thank you so much. >> reporter: there goes some more military trucks, jose. >> it's a developing situation, and we will check back as things continue to develop. ellison do stay safe, the courage you and your crew have there. let's turn to nbc's raf sanchez who is in israel with

details about the horrors israeli hostages have endured. he spoke to somebody who escaped. >> reporter: we're at the home of an elderly israeli couple. they were held hostage for 20 hours by hamas gunmen. i want to show you just the scene of devastation in here. you can see bullet holes all over the walls against the stairs there, more gunfire, but this is the truly extraordinary part of this story. this grandmother, she actually fed the men holding her hostage. you can see some of the cans of tuna here that she fed to them. she sang to them and the entire time she was trying to buy time for israeli forces to gather. now, her son is a policeman and at some point he came to the door to conduct negotiations, and rahile sent him a secret signal. she put her hand over her face like this to signal that there were five gunmen inside.

i'm going to take you upstairs, i want to warn it is a little graphic up here. as i said, the walls riddled with bullets. there is blood on the stairs. there's more blood as you go up. she and her husband david were held hostage mainly up here on this upper floor. the group of gunmen were gathered here. you can actually see some of the food that she served to them. they were held over in this corner, and all the while israeli special forces outside were preparing to storm the building, and they did eventually come bursting in through this window. they killed at least one of the terrorists here. i don't know if you can see this, but these are family photographs. this looks like a picture of a little girl just in a pool of

blood. the israeli forces came bursting through this door back out into the main room. the gunmen were here. david threw his body over his wife to shield her from the bullets. the police came storming in, and they were able to save this couple. they were unharmed, and this is one of these rare, rare moments of good news that israelis are trying to draw inspiration from right now. >> thank you so much, raf sanchez just what a -- just to see that -- >> so horrific. >> -- moment there, it's still there, very real, very vivid. joining us now is lieutenant colonel peter learner from the israeli defense forces. thank you for being with us this morning. we've been reporting on more air strikes. if you would, bring us up to speed on what the battle looks like right now. >> all right thank you for that. i was just tuning in to raf's

report there and seeing him walkwalk through that home. it's a strong illustration of what happened on saturday as hamas terrorists came into israel and basically went from house to house looking for their victims. the number is currently around 1,200 people murdered and butchered in their houses. you know, it's really, really unbelievable those numbers. each number, we talk about numbers, but each one of those is a story. each one of those is families torn apart, and it's really, really heart wrenching just to see those images over and over again. to your question, the idf now is on the offensive taking the fight to hamas that launched this attack against israel. we are told and said very clearly we won't accept that they will ever be able to have this type of power over our civilians ever, ever again. they can never ever be allowed to do this, and what we're currently doing is taking out their capabilities, their

offensive capabilities, their defensive capabilities, their leadership, and definitely we are operating in a way that cannot enable them to continue to threaten us, and while ellison was reporting about more rockets coming out and i think one of those rockets, from what i understand that she was talking about from about half an hour, 40 minutes ago, actually hit the hospital in ashkelon, and it's the second time a rocket has actually hit that hospital, so there's a lot of things going on on the ground. we are preparing ourselves for the next stage. there may be -- we've accumulated some 300,000 reservists. i'm actually one of those, and yes, it's a story of israel in a state of crisis, in a state of stress, and that is why society is coming together. >> colonel, we've seen israeli troops and tanks amassing along the gaza border. is the israeli military

preparing for a ground invasion? >> we have a huge amount of tools in our arsenal and indeed, ground offensive is one of those. i wouldn't commit to that at this time and definitely we need to be prepared for the direction instructions if we need to -- if we need to mobilize. so while not committing, i'd say we need that ability. we need it to be prepared, and if need be, then we can move forward. i did mention the 300,000 troops, but they're not all for gaza. we have other concerns at this time as well. we've had antitank guided missile fired, operational forces with lebanon this morning. we responded to that. it just goes to show that there's instability across all of our borders and the reservists and the forces are taking up position, defensive positions and ready for conflict if we need to operate. it's a very, very dire situation. >> it is indeed, and we're

showing pictures, colonel along when we were having this conversation of different locations that we have our cameras, including this one in gaza where you can see there's plumes of smoke coming out of what has been a constant essentially barrage of attacks on hamas sites and other things in gaza. i'm just wondering, colonel, you're talking about that you're one of those 300,000 people who have been called from the reserves. you know, in your daily life, non-military life, you are an active participant in israeli society, and i'm just thinking separate from what your responsibilities are right now. israel's military has just begun to show where hamas unleashed their brutality. there is no other word but a massacre in villages, and you were talking about what raf was showing us.

that's just one incident where the person survived, but so many other people lost their lives. i'm just wondering, colonel, what do you see and how do you process that? >> i think we try and put those -- the images, we try and put them in small compartments and try and deal with them perhaps a bit later on. i think we're very focused on israel, i think generally now is very focused on the hour and what we need to do now to make sure that these images can never, ever return. as we're speaking and as you talk about this massacre, how i'm feeling as a human being is devastation, and you know, i think the whole world is looking at what happened on saturday here, and they're equally devastated. we heard president biden yesterday, and the words of the president echoed out very strongly to israeli society. you know, we are allies in arms,

and we have a fight against terrorism together because these types of actions, they don't care. they took people -- they abducted people from different nationalities. they killed and murdered and massacred and mutilated people from different nationalities, foreign workers that come here. in my day job, i'm a trade unionist, i'm an organized labor person. that is what i do when i'm not in uniform, and that is my -- what i constantly am involved in is workers' rights. when i see that foreign workers have been abused in such a way, when they've been mutilated and killed and abducted. it's heart wrenching, all of these images. we need to make sure, that is why israeli society, everybody understands. when i woke up to the sound of my mobile phone and the alarm on saturday morning at 6:30 when the missiles began the attack and it was really ringing off of the hook.

it was just going ballistic that phone, my wife turned over and looked at me and said peter, what's going on, and i said there are rockets coming in. it was never ending. and i got up and then the sirens sounded where i live, and i went into my daughter's room and i said let's go down. we have to go down to the shelter, and my daughter, she's 12 years old, and she looked at me and said what's happening. i said let's go down. that's where it all began. so when we are under attack, we need to make sure that these things can't happen. it's just -- it's unbearable. it's unthinkable, and it's unacceptable. >> it's pretty indescribable the pain that i know so many are feeling and just witnessing from afar is incredibly heart wrenching, and when we hear of these atrocities, it really hits you in the gut. i'm wondering as israel is now responding and the strategy that you are a bigger part of as one

of these reservists, do you have a sense of what the end game is for israel? >> the end game is to make sure that hamas doesn't ever have this leverage over israel again. we can't allow this to happen. you know, they took over gaza in 2006. they could have built the middle eastern singapore. they could have invested in education. they could have built magnificent economy, high-tech system, but no, what did they do? they took their money and they built this huge -- the money from iran and other places and built this terrorist infrastructure creating not a terrorist organization but a terrorist army that have so many capabilities that they proved on saturday, and they proved that they have motivation and intent and unfortunately, they were successful in their actions. and the end game needs to be

that they can never be successful as such ever again. >> lieutenant colonel peter lernor, appreciate your time. >> joining us now the former spokesperson for the u.s. mission to the united nations. hagar, just as we discussed with lieutenant colonel and as we witnessed some of those scenes like what raf showed us and the additional reporting that's coming out of there, what are your thoughts about the scale of the horror here? >> so this -- you know, we've seen, this is fifth round of violence we've seen between israel and gaza since hamas took over since 2007, but this -- the unprecedented nature of this is something that not only is it something that we've never seen happen, israel couldn't have seen something happening to this scale, and we can go into the intelligence failures if you want. i thought president biden put it best when he said that it was unadulterated evil, and it is, and the thing i really want to hone in on here is hamas is a terrorist organization. no matter how you slice it.

their one goal is to harm innocent civilians, innocent israelis, innocent jews in order to achieve an ideological and political goal. their goal is to create an islamic state where israel and the palestinian territories exist. they don't hide that. this has always been their goal. that's why when they took over, israel and egypt blockaded that area. it's the reason why hamas doesn't receive money from the united states. i've heard that a lot, yeah, taxpayer dollars have funded hamas. that's not true. they can't receive any aid that goes to the palestinian authority. they make their money mostly from iran and from taxes levied frlt import of egyptian goods or their own people and other donors and charities and so on. it's a terrorist organization through and through. the important part by the way is that they operate to the detriment of the palestinian cause. they don't represent all palestinians. >> right. but that said, they have been able to empower themselves and grow and arm themselves in gaza, having control over gaza.

i thought that lieutenant colonel peter lerner was so amazing and so measured. i expected him to say that israel would obliterate hamas, that they would obliterate them completely and obliterate their willingness and ability to fight or exist. and he didn't. he said the main goal is to make sure they don't have any kind of leverage over israel, and i think that's important. but when they target them in gaza, it's a game of whac-a-mole. that is because where they launch rockets they deliberately put it in residential areas, and they move it around. we know what they're doing. >> a few things, thank you, because you clear up so many issues. i think it's important to state -- and if you look at the constitution of hamas, there is no side byside living with israel. it is the destruction of the israeli people, the destruction

of jews, the destruction of the state of israel. there is no side by side living in their constitution. when you have that reality being in de facto control of an area, it's a small area. 2 million plus civilians living there essentially nowhere to go, they can't get out through israel. they can't get out through egypt. how does something like that -- because that's the reality. you go to war with what you have, not with what you wish you had, right? and so that's the reality on the ground. i'm just wondering how does the state of israel defending its existence against an organization that is committed to its destruction, how does it deal with that being in a place where there's 2 million civilians there? >> yeah, this is an impossible situation. it's 2 million civilians in a piece of land the size of two washington, d.c.s. and for years we have -- and by the way, i worked in counterterrorist financing, hamas was in my portfolio for a long time. i worked closely with the israeli intelligence on that.

they have found ways around that. they have extorted their own people. they have raised money in countries that they can. they -- and like i said, that's why they put their mobile launchers in residential areas deliberately. why? they either think it will shield them or they know how israel will look when they target that area. and the problem here -- i expect a brutal response -- as israel has pursued with all of those scenes of violence we had since 2007, every time something happens, they respond with this brutal response. the problem is while i don't doubt that they're going to succeed at that battle, of course they're going to succeed at that battle, i don't know that it helps them win the larger war for a peaceful situation, for a secure israel, and now netanyahu said the way they pursue this one will change the middle east. i don't know what that means. i expect this response to be e also have to be for israel -- i don't want to in any way say they don't have the right to defend themselves. they have the right to defend themselves.

they have the right to go against these hamas targets as brutally as possible. it's going to be difficult because civilians are inevitably going to be included and that is going to further undermine their efforts. >> there's so much more we could discuss. please stand by. when we come back, the hostage crisis gripping israel. >> we'll talk to one israeli man desperately looking for his 23-year-old niece. she's believed to have been taken hostage from that music festival attacked by hamas. >> you're watching special coverage of the israel hamas war here on nbc. we're back in just a moment. t. [ 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? and for fast topical pain relief, try alevex. >> tech: cracked windshield on your new car? bring it to safelite. who do you take it for? my customer was enjoying her new car, when her windshield cracked. [gasp] >> customer: my car! >> tech vo: she didn't take it to the dealer. she scheduled with safelite.

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. this morning, israel is launching strikes on multiple fronts, relentlessly continuing to pummel hamas targets inside gaza. >> the fighting also spreading north with israel shelling southern town in lebanon in response to a fresh rocket attack from hezbollah. >> let's bring in ellison barber who is live for us in ashkelon just a little bit north of gaza in southern israel. ellison, what's happening there right now? >>. >> reporter: you can see some plumes of smoke back here. we just heard what sounded like machine guns firing from this general direction behind us. that is in the direction towards gaza strip. when we were talking to you earlier in the hour, we told you we'd seen nine different

rockets, one when come up right as we were starting to talk to you. fired from the direction of gaza towards israel. in the last ten minutes or so, we saw a series of rockets come from -- i'm going to stop here just so you can see this military vehicle moving by, we're seeing a lot of this activity on this highway, but just a few minutes ago, we saw a few missiles whiz by coming from the -- coming from israel, headed into the direction of gaza. the fact that we keep seeing military vehicles, that's relevant because the question, the discussion is what does this war look like in the coming hours. there was a very significant move made by the government here where the opposition parties have joined together to form a unity government right now and to start a war cabinet. when we were driving further down this road headed to the israeli city of mordechai, we were stopped just before we were able to cross into that city

that is just a couple of miles from the northern border of ga sa, and we were told that we could not go further and we could not film any of the equipment or military troops that were down further past that check point. before we got that check point through the trees on the highway, we could see a massive amount of israeli tanks and israeli military vehicles. it looked like there were at least 100, and i think that is a conservative estimate, but we could only see a section through the trees. it seemed like there was some sort of fairly large buildup going on in that area. we do know that in recent days, the israeli military, they have acknowledged sending more and more battalions to the border of gaza as they prepare for what they have described a siege of gaza. we've seen a lot of activity here just in the last hour and a half from rockets firing back and forth from both sides to the number of tanks and military trucks that are driving through here with multiple members of

idf in them. we've also seen quite a few ambulances come through this area. ana. >> ellison, i was struck, you said that in the beginning of our conversation this time around, we're going to stay very close to you. we want to know exactly what is going on as it happens, but ellison, you were saying you heard machine gunfire as well as rockets? i mean, the state of israel has said that it has already claimed control over all of its territory. you're not exactly on the border there, and you're saying you heard machine gunfire. >> reporter: yeah, that's what it sounded like, and speaking with our team, our security here who has military experience, it was a rapid fire, sounded further down in that direction. we don't know which way it was headed, but it sounded like what everyone here who has covered wars in the past and also now who has, you know, who has reported on it and who has physically been in it, we're talking to some folks here who have gotten out of the car.

they said it sounded very much to them as if it was gun firing, that is what our team believes we have heard. it was further that way. we don't know which direction it was coming from. it was a five, six second rapid fire of what sounded like someone using some sort of machine type weapon. our security detail described it as 0.5. >> we were just speaking with lieutenant colonel peter lerner, and he talked about ashkelon's hospital being hit by one of these rockets fired into israel. is the iron dome still working at the level that has been anticipated and expected? >> reporter: i mean, look, it seems like it from what we can see. i mean, for the vast majority of times we have seen whether it's in this city or yesterday from what our team, this particular team has seen when we've been out and seen the rocket fire is that the majority of them are being intercepted again. today so far we've seen if i can do math as i'm standing here,

you know, nine plus coming through. we know for a fact that we saw at least seven of those intercepted. the other two we didn't -- we don't know if they were intercepted or if they were not. we just couldn't really see based on some of the tree line. from what we've seen, the majority of them are being intercepted. some are breaking through. we hear reports like that every day of spaces in israel of things that were hit. even if they're intercepted, the thing you have to remember for civilians, the fact that they're intercepted is good, but it doesn't mean there's no threat or danger from it. when they're intercepted, there's shrapnel and debris that can hit civilians, that can hit property, that can start fires, all sorts of things. it seems like anecdotally the iron dome is working in terms of intercepting these missiles. hamas announced on their social media that they had their version of an intercepter that was a homemade makeshift device,

but you know, you have to think too of what's happening to palestinian civilians inside gaza. they don't have access to something like an iron dome, and we know they are decimating blocks, and neighborhoods and communities inside of gaza. israel they say that the areas that they are striking where there are civilians when they're hitting things like mosques they say that's because hamas is storing weapons there. they're using it to run command centers. they say hamas uses civilians as human shields, but the toll for people, all of it is very real. even if things get intercepted on either side, it's never totally safe. as more and more rockets are fired into israel, there are so many coming. >> ellison barber, we will stay very close to you. please let us know as things progress. we will come back to you at a

moment's notice. >> a harsh and stark reality for so many. let's bring in clint watts along with retired army colonel jack jacobs and bloomberg opinion columnist eddie gauche. clint, if you will, will you give us a bigger picture of what's happening in this region right now and what we know is happening today as far as this battle? >> yeah, so right where ellison was, right here around ashkelon, that's one of the places where we've still seen a lot of contact over the last 24 hours, so you've seen some fighting there. there was reports of three hamas militants being killed there. it's not surprising that there's some machine gunfire there because here is the border, and that's erez crossing. that's one of the crossings between israel and gaza. separately over the last 24 hours, the key zone that the israelis have moved back into and taken over is here re'im, that's where that music festival, there's another

kibbutz here and here where all of the israeli soldiers are going into finding atrocities, mass casualty incidents, killing of women, children, it is a stark scene. so when you look back at what's going on now, i think everyone's looking to see as the israeli military is here and doing the clearing operations, they've got to secure inside their border first. separately, what would they do if they go into gaza, already are the bombing campaigns we have lots of strikes against what they say are key targets for hamas. you're seeing several mosques hit around refugee camps. the other thing is the humanitarian crisis that may be unfolding. so down here at the rafa crossing, which is about in this area. there's reports of hundreds of thousands of gazans desperately trying to move out while the egyptians remain steadfast in keeping that border closed. so right around gaza, that's the picture that we see right now.

i think everyone's wanting to know will there be an offensive operation that goes on the ground into gaza. it's an urban environment, so you're talking about fighting up, fighting on the ground, and most importantly here fighting subterranean. hamas has been dug in in this area along with palestinian, islamic jihad, for a very long time, subterranean booby traps, land mines, that will be a question if they're going to rescue hostages, 150 or so hostages are there, how would they really maintain momentum and do some sort of offensive operation in gaza on the ground. >> clint, if you would, give us a little broader map. we're seeing egypt on one side and those 2 million plus civilians that are essentially trapped there. there's nowhere for them to go. they can't go through israel. can't go through egypt. you have lebanon, you have syria, and hezbollah has been very active in lebanon. they've had government there is, and they still have as much power as they've ever had in lebanon. there's a circle around israel

and then another circle around gaza. >> that's right, and so key points here, jose. the big one is egypt and rafa crossing. that is where, you know, traditionally you've had refugees and personnel moving back and forth across. separately, though, over the last several months and when i was in israel this summer, there were lots of protest uprising and skirmishes in the west bank. a lot of the israeli defense forces were deployed here to the west bank. most importantly i think is the open questions of both syria and the golan heights and hezbollah on the northern israeli border. yesterday we saw some exchange of fire, some missile fire back and forth, the israeli military doing some strikes there. there were reports of a few rockets or mortars landing somewhere in the golan heights as well. the question is will this become a multifront war. should israel move into the gaza strip. would you see a southern front, possibly protests or uprisings

in occupied west bank. everyone is trying to figure out how far this might extend. will it go into a larger regional conflict with many more players that are involved or will it stay isolated to gaza and can the situation diffuse a little more suddenly than having an all out war or three fronts. >> clint you do such a great job explaining how dynamic and complex the region is right now and these different factors that may be playing into strategy for israel and the international community in responding here, so let me ask you, colonel, if we're just talking about right now the israeli response against hamas in gaza specifically, the idea of a potential ground invasion. we did speak with lieutenant colonel with idf say that is an option. can't commit that that's going to happen at this point, but given 2 million people in that area, many innocent civilians, hamas's entrenchment in gaza right now, what would the dynamics be like if there is a ground incursion or invasion by israel to try to root out hamas?

>> well, in the military just like in almost any other endeavor, you got to start at the end and work backwards. you have to articulate what the objective is first before you start throwing assets at it. so it really depends on what the israelis want to do about hamas. if they want to take over all of gaza, which has been attempted before, they probably don't want to do that. and it wouldn't work in any case. it would take a very long time. if all they want to do is make it extremely difficult for hamas to do again what it's doing now, that may include a limited objective attack inside gaza, but it wouldn't happen until after the israeli defense force has a high degree of confidence that through air strikes and missiles, it has selectively reduced the command and control, hamas's ammunition stores and training areas so that it cannot

do again what it's done or mount a spirited defense of the areas into which israel wants to go. but in any case, whatever the operation is in gaza, if it does happen on the ground, it's going to be extremely short lived. >> and is there confidence that the intelligence is up to speed to know even, you know, what they're dealing with! it couldn't get any worse than it's been the last -- recently. complacency is one of the independent variables that resulted in what we see today, otherwise you wouldn't have seen the images that we all saw with hamas coming through holes blown in fences that were not manned, when all of us have been down there in that region before, we've seen foot patrols, armed motorized patrols. israeli defense forces in the area covering the border, and we didn't see that this time because they became complacent. it's a very, very difficult

period and israel now has to play catch. >> it's a very difficult period that we're living through in -- on planet earth and just your concerns, bigger concerns, because nothing happens in a vacuum, even terrorist attacks don't happen in a vacuum. what are the intended -- other than massacring men, women, and children -- consequences of this in the bigger picture? >> well, war, i think the colonel will agree with me, war is the beginning of unintended consequences. what follows from the first assault is a series of predictable things and then another series of completely unpredictable things, and this is a particularly kinetic part of the world, to use the old saying, a tinderbox, there are lots of players, there's iran

and syria and hezbollah. this also plays into the larger geopolitics. we're already asking questions about can we as the united states keep our eye on two different balls at the same time, the war in ukraine and the war in israel. there's a russian component through syria. russia has been active in syria for a very long time. so there are 99 ways in which this can go horribly wrong, and only one way in which it can go horribly right. those are the choices that military commanders have to make all the time in realtime everywhere they go, if there is a ground offensive, there will be more complexities. for one thing, what about those hostages. how much intelligence does israel have about the location of 150 hostages including many americans as we learned, at any given time? all of their previous intelligence on hamas and hamas's positions. hamas is also highly mobile.

you hit a mosque and you think this mosque was being used as a hamas center weapons cache yesterday or six hours ago, but does that mean that's still the case right now in this instance? impossible to know. impossible to know for absolutely certain. that's the whole point of urban warfare. that's the reason hamas uses human beings, innocent human beings as shields against conventional forces because they know that these are the questions -- these are not questions they care about, by the way. they're perfectly happy to have their own people be slaughtered. in fact, it suits their narrative to do so. but they know that the other side must make these calculation, and those calculations require sort of certainty, which you could never have. they require sort of real cold appreciation of the facts and the risks, which is really, really hard: and you know, none of us -- well, yourself excluded, we civilians have not had to make those choices.

military people know how difficult that is to do. >> bobby mentioned the hostages, and it may be worthwhile to talk about a military operation to get the hostages. >> and do you think a lot of people are wondering are those hostages likely still alive at this point? >> number one and number two, they could be at 150 different locations. >> that's precisely the point. i can't think of any military operation that is more difficult than trying to rescue hostages, and when it is accomplished it can go tremendously right, most of the time it fails. you have to know specifically, exactly where the hostages are. you have to know exactly what is surrounding them, how you're going to get in, and how you're going to get out, and you have to rehearse it before you go in. to have hostages, 150, 200, whatever the number is split up in numerous different locations becomes impossible to do. >> clint watts, colonel jack

jacobs, bobby watts, thank you so much. as israel calls up reservists to fight hamas, we'll talk to the president of yeshiva university whose own son is now preparing to fight. you're watching our special coverage of the israel-hamas war here on msnbc. so i can keep working my magic. just one aleve. 12 hours of uninterrupted pain relief. aleve. who do you take it for?

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welcome back this morning. a mobilization in israel, the israeli defense forces now calling on some 360,000 reservists to upend their lives and get ready for battle. >> joining us is the president of the yeshiva university, his son was called up to serve in the idf. thank you for being with us this morning. >> thank you. >> i know you just got back, as a matter of fact, this morning. >> i just flew back from tel aviv. >> what is it that the people of israel are feeling today? because it is a widespread effect. it's not just one attack like we've seen over the years, one

bombing, one terrorist attack. it's a massive massacre. what does that do to the israeli people? >> i tell you, there's a range of emotions that's happening right now. first of all, this week the funerals have started. you know, people attending, you're limited to the amount of people that could attend because of the fear of the rocket attacks, so everybody's listening over zoom, and the stories are just coming out ove killed and israel is a small country, everyone knows someone who is either murdered, injured, over 3,000 people injured. and the worst, taking hostages and captivity. everyone knows somebody who has been mobilized. so there is certainly the sense of profound sadness, profound concern for the future, our soldiers and the fate of our

country as well as an incredible resilience. i have seen the most inspiring acts of compassion and kindness over the past couple of days in israel than i've ever seen in my life. i just -- i just went yesterday to my son and his combat unit, he was called up as one of the reservists, he's not yet been deployed to a fighting position so we're able to come and we loaded up our car with all basic necessities, additional necessities, home-baked goods. we told people we're going and they all donated goods and we drove down and it was amazing how many others were there. like, there is a real sense in the citizens army that these are all of our children. >> the strength they're showing, your family included, the courage you must be having to, you know, really muster inside yourself and your son. what is it like to be the father of a son who has now been called to serve in this way, especially

after seeing how evil and barbaric the enemy is? >> well, i'll say on both sides of that question. first of all, i have enormous pride in my son. he's defending the jewish state. i remember when he first put on his army uniform, the feeling that i had that all my life i've worked to protect him, but as a father, only to protect his son. and now he's going out into the world to protect me. you know, and that sense of -- and all of our children, and my story is replicated 350,000 times. it is all of the children of the state of israel that sense that we're here for each other, but what we're defending is not just the state. we're defending something greater. it is what ana said before, about this massacre. this was a massacre. this is not a battle between israel and the palestinians or israel and arabs or israel and

muslims. it is against hamas. and hamas is isis. okay. what they did to children, to the elderly, the stories, raping, murdering, butchering, i mean, this is a massacre that has never happened in the history of israel and when we think about when the last thing something like this happened to the jewish people, one can only shutter in horror. this is a fight that is not just about israel against a specific group. it is about the world being against evil. >> as a rabbi -- >> yeah. >> -- how do you explain, how do you explain this level of evil among human beings? how do you explain it? >> i can't. it is unfathomable to me. i thought president biden got it right when he said unadulterated

evil. i think our response is filled with moral clarity. that's what's key. the world needs to respond with moral clarity. this is evil. this is an abomination. it is sickening. it is viscerally sickening to hear what happened. and it needs to be neutralized. and we need to speak with absolute clarity. i'll tell you, i'm the president of a top tier university. we have in our university jews who have been to israel, who have friends in israel, family in israel, but we have non-jews in our university. the president of our alumni association for science and health school is a woman from bangladesh, a muslim woman who found a home at yeshiva. and all of us are unified in our absolute abhorrence, are unified against what happened and how we need to fight this evil and that's true for everyone. i call on all university presidents to issue with more

clarity for their entire university that what happened has to be eradicated, what happens can never happen again. and we need to give israel the strength to defend itself and to defend the world against this type of evil. >> rabbi ari berman, thank you. thank you for coming in. i know you just literally got out of the airplane to be with us. i appreciate your time. >> jose and ana, you're doing a great job. and it is not just my son who is called to service. we are all called to service in this fight against evil and you're doing your service by shedding the light and the truth on this situation. so thank you. >> thank you so much for lending your voice and your perspective and understanding to all of this. we have some other breaking news we want to get to this hour. the fight for a new house speaker here in the u.s. and nbc's ryan nobles is following the very latest for us. >> ryan, what's happening right now? >> reporter: well, jose, ana, right now right behind me all of the members of the republican

conference are huddled in a private room where they're having a discussion about who they think should be the next speaker of the house. they're going to go through a process where they're going to have a private ballot vote. and whoever emerges from that private ballot vote, the hope is that that person will then come to the floor and be elected speaker of the house. now, there are some complications associated with this. there is an effort by some members to first pass a resolution that says the person who emerges from this room needs to be guaranteed the 217 votes necessary on the floor of the house before they leave that room. and if that resolution passes, that will be first thing they vote on, it could take some time to get to a point where a true speaker nominee emerges. now, the members were forced to surrender their cell phones as they walked inside this room to prevent leaks. so we're going to just be playing a waiting game here to see how this whole process plays it out. there is a scenario where they wrap things up very quickly, everybody gets on the same page, and then harmony emerges.

there is another scenario, ana and jose, where this takes several days to sort itself out. >> ryan nobles on capitol hill, keep us posted. i want to bring in former new york democratic congressman max rose who is here with us. so, congressman, we understand that house members as well as the senate received an intel briefing this morning on what is happening in israel. do you see what is happening there impacting this speaker fight? >> absolutely. i mean, look, the republican party is in disarray right now. highly disorganized and what everyone forgot prior to this atrocity in israel is that that impacts the ability of the united states legislature, the government to respond to a crisis. and so they absolutely feel the urgency, but that urgency does not change the fundamentals of their extremist wing. and the same extremist wing that controlled kevin mccarthy, that forced that rule change, that allowed them to put that vote on the floor to remove him, that extremist wing has not gone

anywhere and they have not shifted as a consequence of this crisis. >> do you think they have a way out of this? >> certainly. there is a way out of it, it is them finally standing up to their extremist wing. now, what you see with this vote behind closed doors, that's not going to be the hurdle. any time that they're behind closed doors, their extremism becomes subdued. they are not allowed, the phones and not just because to prevent leaks, but so they can't take a photo of their ballot and so when they can't take a photo of their ballot, they don't have anything to show to whether it is to text to donald trump or to his people or to the extremist base. but the danger will come when they have to go out in public and take that public vote and there once again their disarray and disorganize will come to the forefront. >> we'll be watching. max rose, thank you for lending your insights. much more special coverage in our next hour on the latest in the israel-hamas war and we're

looking at pictures of smoke. this is gaza? >> yeah. >> this is in gaza. we're going to continue to follow this and bring you the very latest from the region when we come back. e very latest from the region when we come back ♪♪ with fastsigns, create custom graphics that get tails and tongues wagging. ♪♪ fastsigns. make your statement. you're probably not easily persuaded to switch mobile providers for your business. but what if we told you it's possible that comcast business mobile can save you up to 75% a year on your wireless bill versus the big three carriers? it's true. plus, when you buy your first line of mobile, you get a second line free.

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