. thank you for staying with our special coverage of the israel hamas war. i'm andrea mitchell in washington. the death toll is rising on all sides at this hour as israel prepares to launch a ground offensive in gaza at any moment. 25 americans are now confirmed dead along with nearly 1,300 israelis and more than 1,400 palestinians. in gaza, the horrors of war are on display. one very disturbing video showing a baby pulled out of the rubble appearing motionless. and civilians including american doctor barbara zind in gaza on a humanitarian mission unable to get out. >> there's no passage out right now, so we're hoping that a humanitarian corridor will be made so that aid can come in to the gazans, and people who want to leave can go out.

>> moments ago secretary blinken speaking about the horrifying photos he was shown by the prime minister in netanyahu's office today of babies who were murdered and burned. >> it's hard to find the right words. it's beyond what anyone would ever want to imagine, much less actually see and god forbid experience. a baby, an infant riddled with bullets. soldiers beheaded, young people burned alive in their cars or in their hideaway rooms. i could go on, but it's simply depravity in the worst imaginable way. >> and the secretary confirming

that in addition to traveling to jordan and meeting with palestinians there, the president of the palestinian authority and king of jordan, he will also travel to qatar a country that in the past has been able to influence hamas to the uae, to egypt and to saudi arabia. >> it's our determination and that of israel as well that there not be a second front or a third front, and we are working as hard as we can, working with other partners in the region to try to ensure that that's the case. >> qatar and some of these other countries are also thought to have influence with hamas and they would be involved in israeli and u.s. efforts to try to negotiate the release of american and other hostages. the number of hostages is now at least 150, including americans. an israeli spokesman says the

location of some hostages has now been identified. and the stakes are rising even higher this hour and every hour that house republicans are struggling to find a new speaker as congress faces questions over how to respond to the israeli, hamas war as well as ukraine, and other priorities. right now lawmakers are huddling behind closed doors attempting to find 217 votes for one of them to take the gavel. joining us now from tel aviv, josh lederman who's been speaking with distraught israeli families, families of hostage victims and others. so glad you're there. tell us what they're telling you. >> reporter: well, andrea, this was expected to be a fairly brief meeting that secretary blinken would have with these families of americans who are now believed to be held hostage in gaza strip, but we are told that secretary blinken spent about 40 minutes with them. he heard one by one from them,

their families' stories about what they know about their loved ones. as he tried to explain with whatever level of detail he can right now what the u.s. government is trying to do along with their israeli counterparts to bring them home. we heard from one woman, abby ahn who has five relatives held hostage in gaza. they were apparently captured by hamas terrorists, ranging from an 80-year-old woman with a heart problem to a 13-year-old with special needs. almost to a tee, all of the americans that we heard from today said that they left this meeting convinced that the u.s. is doing everything within its power, which is a limited power right now, of course, to try to bring them home. they said secretary blinken did not give them a whole lot of detail about what's taking place behind the scenes with the israelis, the egyptians, the qataris and others due to the sensitivity of that, but they came away very convinced that no

stone is being left unturned. i want you to hear from one of these americans, ruby chen, his 19-year-old son is serving in the israeli military, was serving on the israeli side of the border with the gaza strip now believed to be inside gaza, and he told me what he knows about where his son is right now and what blinken said about efforts to bring him home. take a listen. >> after 90 hours of fighting in the state of israel, i think israel has found most of the citizens that were left in the field, so it could be reasonable work assumption that he is not in the state of israel as we speak. the secretary of state, of course, cannot go into details exactly what they are doing, but it sounds like they have been turning every corner and to find

ways to make this end as soon as possible. >> reporter: and andrea, i also asked these families what their message is to israel's government about whether it should carry on with potentially impending major ground incursion into the gaza strip while they have relative who is are ostensibly in gaza. they said this is a dilemma. they don't know exactly how the u.s. government or the israeli government should approach that, but they want to see israel do everything it can to bring them home safely. >> josh lederman, thank you so much. back with us again this hour is ali velshi in ashkelon, israel, north of the gaza strip. what do we know about the leaflets that the defense forces are dropping in gaza? are they telling people to get out? >> reporter: yeah, so there's two things going on. one is there's no electricity. there's no internet, very sketchy internet. if you have power, to be able to power up the internet, so communications are largely down

in gaza. for two reasons, one is for real humanitarian reasons to warn people there's bombing coming. this isn't at the ground incursion. this is about the air raids and missiles coming in from the sea, to warn people in those areas and in response to the fact that hamas had said if you fire on anyone's home without warning, they'll kill one hostage for every home that is hit. it is believed that there are leaflets dropped by israeli jets into particular areas, written in arabic which are warning people that there is going to be an attack on the area and that they should try and get out. right now about 300,000 people are outside of their homes, in some cases it's because their homes have been hit or have been bombed. in other cases, it's because they're getting out in preparation or anticipation of their places getting bombed or the ground offensive. these leaflets are warnings about missile -- incoming missiles, not about the ground invasion. obviously that's a very different story given the size of gaza.

if the ground invasion comes in, i'm not sure how much use leaflets are going to be. right now those people can't get anywhere. secretary blinken was asked about a humanitarian corridor or things to do. his answer was indistinct. he said we're working on that to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe but there's one unfolding right behind us, andrea. >> very briefly, there's no place they can go. for many of them there's no exit, the border crossing has been up and down. >> correct. >> reporter: there's some talk of nebulous negotiations with egypt about what to do, for the moment nobody can get out of gaza. >> ali velshi, thanks so much. joining us now retired admiral james stavridis. secretary blinken made it clear this morning with netanyahu that the u.s. is with israel no matter what happens, that they will be -- as long as america

exists, he said, there will be an israel. that said, for all of the solidarity he also emphasized a different message, a message that the depravity, the savagery we've seen come from the hamas attack is warning that we have our moral center and to try to minimize i think the trancelation would be minimize the civilian casualties. how do you do that with the intensive bombing, with the ground assault in an urban setting to say nothing of rescuing the hostages. >> let's pick up what ali and you were discussing a moment ago, which is where's the exit? and right now none exists. i think a kind of rough comparison is syria during the civil war there. 21 million people inside syria. ultimately 7 million people de it to an exit, and an awful lot of them ended up in turkey. i thinkgypt in the end is going to play theol of turkey

here,nd there will be immense pressure on the egyptians. a lot of finance offering, probably from the saudis, uae, united states will help egypt deal with this flow. i think that's where this will go because a crucial step for the israeli military frankly is to get the civilians out of the way so they can deal with hamas. until they can open an exit, that task is very hard. so let's hope we can see some progress in the negotiations with egypt. i bet that's front of mind for secretary blinken. >> and there are a lot of innocent palestinians in gaza who do not support hamas who have been terrorized by their own government, elected in 2006, 2007, no election since then, but israel says -- and i've

heard their spokespeople saying, their military spokespeople from the idf saying we're at war, when asked why are you laying siege, and the answer is we're at war. why would you give fuel to the enemy. they're not going to pass it on to their own people. >> the israelis -- and i've operated with them for many, many years. they're very tough-minded when it comes to combat operations, and i think that kind of attitude is consistent with what i've seen from the israelis over the years. i think there will be growing international pressure that's going to force them to bend on some aspects of that. and again, it's tied to creating an exit so you can get the civilians out. then that siege strategy starts to make more sense in terms of the conflict. second point here, andrea, worth mentioning is what will happen when the israeli army comes

crashing through, and there are active firefights in this region. that level of collateral damage to the civilians is going to be much higher, much more dangerous even than a lack of fuel, a lack of electricity. so it's dark times ahead in gaza, frankly. all the more reason to come up with a coherent plan to get the civilians out of the place. >> admiral stavridis, as always, thank you. >> you bet. and joining us now is democratic congresswoman debbie wasserman schultz who has just returned from visiting the region including israel. you were there, you were in saudi arabia i think when the fighting started and then were immediately in israel. what did you learn from your meetings with prime minister netanyahu and other leaders as to what their game plan is now

that they have -- they're slow in responding to a surprise attack of such tremendous dimensions. >> the most chilling thing that i learned from the prime minister, from other israeli leaders was, a, we have to remember that hamas -- hamas's entire existence, even in their charter, is focused on the eradication of israel, and the elimination of the jewish people, and in this region, in israel, the comparison that has be made per capita to our 9/11 was emphasized. the equivalent population wise of -- as if 40,000 americans had died in 9/11 and 4,000 taken hostage. but more importantly, andrea, this was perpetrated by israel's neighbors. they are right next to each other. the absolute necessity and the ever present danger and risk for israelis and their safety is

constant, and so making sure that this is not about avenging death. this is about ensuring that hamas is eliminated, that the threat to the world population and civilization really comes down to that is essential. >> what happens next? they've got the military power without regard to human life, palestinian life, if they want to, they have the power, those tanks can go in, and they can eliminate the hamas leadership. >> in our meetings with -- >> i should just point out that john kirby has just announced that now the death toll for americans is 27. >> yeah, in our meetings both with idf, israeli military leaders and elected leaders, they were very clear that they will abide by the rules of war. and they are focused on rescuing hostages, on making sure that

they can target hamas and focus on their eradication, but unfortunately as has been said many times, hamas uses their own people as human shields. they take hostages intentionally so that more loss of life is -- they risk people's lives so that they can further perpetrate their goal of killing jews and eliminating israel. and so when you're dealing with that, israel has a much more complicated, much more concentrated situation, but they have to remain focused on eliminating the threat that hamas poses to their people and their very existence. >> do they have any real hope of getting the hostages out from your conversations there? >> of course there's always hope and there's no -- you know, there's no intelligence entity better than israel's aligned with ours, obviously there were failures here and those like in the aftermath of 9/11 are for another day, but they will have to focus on trying to get the

hostages out while at the same time eliminating the threat that hamas poses. >> thank you so much, congresswoman. >> thank you. >> we're going to go to the white house now and john kirby's briefing. >> and we're going to try the best we can to meet it. i would encourage any american citizen in the need of assistance to please complete the intake form that you can find on travel.state.gov. it's very simple. go right to that site. there is an as best i can form. fill it out. it helps the state department process these requests. it also helps us get a sense of what the scope of the need is, and i would refer you to state on that. i'm sure you guys are going to ask me that. i don't have hard figures handy with me now. we do know there are certain american citizens that want to go. it's all available through the state department's website, and i'd encourage them to go look at that. >> thanks for taking my question. gaza's main power plant has run

out of fuel, the humanitarian situation there is becoming quite dire. i'm wondering if there have been any communications about allowing shipments of food, fuel, electricity to help lessen civilian casualties and suffering there? >> yes, there have been ongoing conversations with our israeli counterpart the -- about the need for humanitarian assistance. >> i have a couple of questions on american hostages. is it still the case that the administration doesn't know anything about the condition of the american hostages and is the number still believed to be less than a handful? >> yes and yes. >> and i know you've been pretty open about the fact that information about the hostages is very hard to ascertain at this moment. the limited information that you do have, is that coming mainly from the israelis and the qataris or is there another source of information? >> the families too. i mean, as i mentioned

yesterday, some of these families actually saw their loved ones being abducted and taken away. so they have been a significant source of information as well. >> just one other quick thing. the assumption that the hostages may not necessarily be in one place, was there specific intelligence to point the administration to not make that assumption, or is that based on something else? >> i won't speak about specific intelligence matters, but it is a common tactic in the hamas playbook to break up hostages and move them in rounds sometimes in small groups. we have nothing to indicate to us that they would follow a different set of protocols, but i can't stand here before you and prove to you that is exactly what's happening. we have to in order to think about our policy options, you have to make some assumptions, and we can't rule that out as a possibility. >> thank you.

john, what is the status of the $6 billion that iran was set to have access to? >> it's still sitting in the qatari bank, all of it. every dime of it. >> is an agreement now to in essence withhold it from iran should they come asking for it? >> none of that money has been spent, and i have no updates to provide today. >> was a decision to reach a quiet understanding about whether or not it would be accessed by iran made because of the attack or political pressure? >> i'm not going to talk about diplomatic conversations one way or another, ed. what i can tell you is every single dime of that money is sitting in a qatari bank. and also remind because -- in certain audiences, inconvenient facts are easy to forget. the regime was never going to

see a dime of that money, and this account -- although it's moved from south korea to qatar was set up by the previous administration for this exact purpose. i think it was back in 2018 the former secretary of state mike pompeo actually talked in quite some detail about how this money and these accounts could only be used for humanitarian purposes and that there was going to be oversight. we've done nothing different. it is the same process. all we've done is move that funds from south korea where for some technical reasons it wasn't accessible, to qatar where it is more accessible. all that said, none of it has been accessed by iranian -- by iran at all, and even if they had accessed it, it wouldn't go to the regime. it would go to approved vendors that we approved to go buy food, medicine, and medical equipment, agricultural products, and ship it into iran directly to the benefit of the iranian people. >> let me ask you one other, has the united states independently verified the photos released by

the israeli prime minister's twitter account today showing the images of dead children. >> i don't think we're going to be in the business of having to validate or approve those images. they're coming from the prime minister of israel, and we have absolutely no reason to doubt their authenticity. >> follow-up on these questions about the $6 billion, i understand iran hasn't accessed any of this yet. it's intended for humanitarian purposes, but there have been reports of this agreement, yes or no if iran wanted to access this today, could they? >> i'm not going to speculate one way or another here about future transactions. what i can tell you is none of it has been accessed, and we are watching every dime. as you would expect we would. we're watching it very, very closely. i'm not in a position to speak about these press reports. i'm telling you nothing has been accessed and we have oversight. we have oversight over what can be accessed and for what

purposes. >> the president said yesterday that he told netanyahu that it's important even with the emotion and frustration, they operate by the rules of war. why does the president feel the need to underscore this point? >> the president feels strongly about law of armed conflict and the proper respect for innocent life anywhere in the world, no matter where it is, and that certainly includes maybe even especially includes our own military operations. >> but is the president worried that israel may have already violated the rules of war or that they might going bard? >> it's part of the conversations we've been having with our israeli counterparts about the prosecution of these military operations. the palestinian people are like wise innocent civilians. they didn't ask hamas to come in and do this. the it's always on the president's mind. >> i wonder what you make of the president calling the former -- a jerk. >> i'm not going to comment

about comments on the campaign trail. that's well beyond the pale for me. >> kirby, can you give us an update on the intelligence about iran's role in this, anything changes in terms of what you're seeing -- what the u.s. assesses -- >> no, i don't have any updates. no direct evidence that iran was a participant in these attacks in any way. we're still monitoring it. >> while i'm not going to comment, i would just add that we take seriously our bilateral relationship with israel. we don't get to decide obviously who their cabinet officials are, that wouldn't be our business, but we have strong relationships with them, and it's important now that those relationships continue to improve and grow right particularly in this time of crisis, and so we're focused on getting things done and supporting israel. that's where our heads are. >> joey. >> admiral, speaking of iran --

>> john kirby of course at the white house getting information from inside gaza, though it's becoming increasingly difficult especially after israel's siege of food and fuel and water. my next guest is 22-year-old student in gaza city who has been posting video diaries. she wants to share what people there are enduring. joining me by phone is selma sharad on the phone. in your video diary you say all your friends have either lost their home or their family member, a family member, so talk to me about that and what it's like just trying to live in gaza right now given the lack of resources. >> a lot of aggressions on gaza. previously we're very far from my friends, my home, my family. this time when i woke up in the first day i hear the evacuating, i hear the families of my

friends, the houses, it's very close to me. that means one thing that this is a harsh aggression. there's no mercy in it. going very random. the targets of virtually everyone. they're targeting ambulances, people that are innocent children, babies. it's very random, and it makes you very scared of your own life. if it's random, then it's probably my turn next. >> can you understand why they are attacking given what happened to their people on the other side of the border? >> i'm sure like our palestinian resistance is doing our best to just come back to the portions that are happening on us, but the thing is -- we're getting is very different because they're very specific places like israel

when they attack us, it's very specific. they're targeting people from the above. it's very specific and dangerous. it makes you scared of your own life because like the power that they have is very, very large, and we don't even call it a war by now. we call it an aggression. because the powers are incomparable. actually, we've been keeping up with the news and the people and the propaganda that they're making about killing babies with no proof. it's very clear to the world that the victim is us. however it started, the victim is always us, has been always us for many years, and this time it's very close to me, my friends, and my parents, and i'm really scared of my life. i don't think i have a life after this because the streets are destroyed. my university as a student, i'm graduating this year, it's

completely vanished. my future is destroyed me, i need to find a plan b, while this aggression is happening i'm thinking of my own future, and you know what, i might not even have a future. i need to think now state of the my parents stay safe. yesterday or before two days we evacuated our house because our neighbors were getting callings to leave the house. i was very scared, very afraid. i dropped my bag that has literally nothing that could save me. i tried to run far, we realized we should come back home because you know what? there's no safer place than home. like we evacuated to a place that is no safer than our house. and you know, we don't have shelters. people run to the hospital, but the hospital is so full of people and patients that it's no longer taking anyone, no longer

having supplies, food and water. it's very difficult. we can't be safe during all of this. >> do you have any food? do you have enough food to survive? >> we don't -- water, food, we're stocking up but we're running out of food right now. people in the schools are completely ran out of food and water, and the hospital, they're running out of the medical materials. it's really difficult. for us in my house, we stopped the showers. we stopped the bathroom. food is very minimum. electricity like right now as you know, i couldn't make this live video because electricity went out, and you have to call me from my phone. i really was hoping to see your face and to talk to you, and you've seen my expression, i'm really scared right now. >> well, hopefully we will be able to see each other on another occasion.

thank you so much salma shurrub. i want to turn to republican congressman mike lawler. there's suffering on both sides. there's no question who started this war, but the retaliation is going to be brutal and the siege continues. we just heard john kirby saying that there are, quote, ongoing conversations between the u.s. and israel about lifting the siege to get some supplies in to the people. >> look, obviously this is a difficult situation, and a lot of innocent people have been impacted by it. but let's be very clear, hamas is a terrorist organization that the palestinian people in gaza have lived under the oppression of for years. they chose to invade israel, to

slaughter innocent women, children, babies, beheading, and there are consequences for that. the bottom line is hamas has made it clear with the backing of iran that they want to wipe israel off the face of the earth and prevent their very existence. and so we -- the united states need to continue to stand with our ally israel and make it very clear they have the right to defend themselves. there is no moral equivalency here, and i certainly empathize with any innocent person who has been impacted by this. israel has a right to defend itself and a right to respond, and we're talking about now over 20 americans who have been killed. we still have people missing. i have hundreds of constituents who are still in harm's way because they cannot get out of

israel due to the lack of commercial flights available, and the failure on the part of our administration to get military planes there to help evacuate as other countries are doing, and so there are a will the -- lot of challenges here right now, but we have to be firm in our resolve to support israel. >> secretary blinken described horrendous photos and video that were shown to him by the prime minister in his office today of babies riddled with bullet holes and you know, people burned, a soldier beheaded. i know the idf and others in the israeli government have talked about beheaded infants. we haven't seen evidence of that, that has been what they have said. i know the president repeated that, just saying we're trying to confirm as well as we can in the fog of war what really happened. as horrendous enough as it is, i

don't want to quarrel with that. i know there's a lot of information not getting to the people of gaza because they have been under hamas rule now for some 30 years. that is clearly true, but just to point out that the u.s. is at least urging israel to try to minimize the civilian casualties, which are causing criticism from the secretary general of the u.n., there's going to be pressure around the world. this ground invasion as you know, is going to be -- is going to have horrendous impacts. >> look, andrea, of course, anytime we are in a situation where there is a war or a military response, of course everybody wants to minimize civilian casualties. you would hope there are none. but the realities of war obviously are that it's inevitable unfortunately, and so you certainly try to minimize that, but i think -- and to be

clear regardless of whether or not you want to say there's no evidence of beheadings, you're talking about innocent babies, innocent children being slaughtered for one purpose because they're jewish. this is the worst massacre of jewish people since the holocaust, and i think we need to be very clear about this, why this is happening, and what the response should be. it cannot happen. it cannot happen. >> and i'm not -- by no means am i minimizing that. i've been seeing things and reporting on things in the last five days that have horrified me. and horrified all of us. let me ask you about the inability of our government to

send aid to israel because of the lack of a speaker. you didn't not vote for steve scalise yesterday. you said you were undecided. have you made up your mind? we were just talking to another republican member ken buck who said that he thought that scalise was actually losing support as time goes on, and that it might become a compromised candidate, not jim jordan or scalise. >> look, i think the biggest challenge that i have seen throughout all of this, and i've made it very clear is that we should not have removed kevin mccarthy to begin with. and you had eight people team one 208 democrats to remove duly elected republican speaker against the wishes of 96% of the conferences, and so unless you deal with that issue, unless you deal with the fact that throughout the ten months we've had members who have voted down rules, who have undermined the

majority, it's very hard to get consensus, and so what i said yesterday was we should not have left that room until there were 217 votes secured. we are now back in conference meeting, discussing, the bottom line is we should not leave until we have 217 votes secured for a speaker, whether it's steve scalise or someone else. but we need to come together quickly. we need to elect a speaker. i wish we were not in this situation, i voted to keep kevin mccarthy in as speaker. but here we are, and so we have to get back to the work of the american people. we have to govern. we have to deal with the very real challenges both domestically and abroad from israel and ukraine to our southern border, and the reckless debt that we have accrued. there are real challenges, and we need to govern, and so i'm hopeful we can get a consensus

in short order, get on the house floor, elect a speaker and get back to work. >> thank you very much, congressman mike lawler. appreciate it. >> thank you. and when our special coverage continues, we will speak with the parents of a 21-year-old israeli soldier who was killed defending his fellow fighters when hamas terrorists stormed his base at an israeli border crossing. but first an israeli major general who fought for three days to clear the terror, describes the heartbreaking carnage he found. >> capture and someone kills them, children in the same room that someone come and kills them all, 15 girls and teenagers put in the same room, and this is a massacre. this is a massacre you don't have to take it to the dealer. bring it to safelite. we do more replacements and recalibrations than anyone else.

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stories are emerging about heroes forced to make the ultimate sacrifice. an israeli soldier who died trying to save the life of his fellow fighters. joining me now roi's parents, i can't express our sadness, our sympathy, our condolences for your unimaginable loss. tell us about roi. >> thank you. >> roi was 21-year-old boy who had spent two years, the last

two years in the army. he was -- he was loved by everyone. he was a funny, charismatic young man. was a great human being, and i can say honestly that he was also probably my best friend. roey was -- i'm sorry? >> i'm sorry, go on. >> roey was guarding his base at his base over the weekend, and sunday morning he was woken up to bombs and mortars going off. he walked out to see what was going on and found that hamas

terrorists had broken through the fence guarding between -- between gaza and israel, and they had just run it all over and come in with cars and trucks with hundreds and hundreds of soldiers, and they were trying to overtake his base. >> as well as many other bases in the area. as soon as roey heard this, he heard the commotion, he saw that all the soldiers on the front line of his base were being taken down. he decided he was going to take action. our son was a creative thinker and always sharp, always the first to run into fire. >> so roey decided that if they keep on drawing fire the way

they were, they were going to be slaughtered, and decidd that enough is enough and that action needed to be taken or else he would have found -- his friends soldiers would have been found dead and decided through the most amazing, brave move to take three more soldiers with him and try to flank the terrorists drawing fire towards them and in the act also to return fire. in the process they managed to flank, they managed to shoot back at the hamas terrorists, and they managed to fight them off, killing most of them, and they managed to keep their -- >> their base -- >> their base unscathed in the end until reinforcements came.

in the process roey was shot and he ultimately died, was killed. >> murdered. >> what about roey gave him that kind of courage, the love of his adopted country just the ability to do that and go into the line of fire to save his fellow soldiers? >> roey was always that kind of child. when he was in high school, he volunteered for the firefighting departments and always wanted to run into fires, whether we wanted him to or not, and you know, we got phone calls all week about how he saved the lives of those around him, and we were just so honored m. we live in a great community and great people and he's had a great upbringing and lives in a wonderful country where this is what children -- we're defending our country, and this is what he believed in. he lived and died by who he

believed in. defending our country against our terrible evil enemies. >> naomi and yami, you should feel so proud and so honored. i know to doesn't mitigate your loss, but you've raised such an extraordinary child. our sympathy. >> thank you. >> thank you. secretary of state tony blinken in israel during last hour speaking about the historical significance of the horror that we are seeing in israel. >> this is a moment for moral clarity. this is a moment where everyone needs to make clear that there is revulsion, disgust, and a determination, a determination

not to allow this to go forward. >> joining me now is the former editor in chief of the jerusalem post who is now a senior columnist. he's also a senior fellow at the jewish people policy institute. thank you very much. it appears that the ground war in gaza is imminent, at least the tanks, the armored vehicles are amassing. what do you expect this to look like? >> you know, andrea, just before i answer that question, i just have to say one thing. i know yami and i know the weiser family, i didn't know they would be right before me. >> i'm sorry. >> my daughter 13 has now walked over to one of yami's nieces a cousin of roey. it just goes to show what a small country this is and how what happened on saturday, october 7th, how it impacts everybody when you have so many people slaughtered, what that

does to a country of the size of israel. and you understand this word, we're a family. that's what's happening here in israel, but i'm sorry to digress. to your question -- >> no, no, let me just say, you know, it's the size of new jersey. we've spent decades covering israel and the west bank, and until you've been there, you don't realize it's all together. >> yeah. go on. >> 100%. so to your question, look, israel's getting ready. what we've seen over the last four or five days since the terrible massacre was first and foremost clear out the south of these terrorists who had infiltrated. the second thing was to begin to create a new line of contact which is pushing hamas back into gaza and to have a new line of contact that would be in the gaza strip and not in israeli territory. there's 300,000 that have been drafted. some to the north along the border with lebanon, some to the

south along the border with gaza. also just as important, has been this ground swell of diplomatic and political support. that's very important for israel to have the legitimacy it needs for the ground operations. i would guess and i don't know for sure, no one's telling us this is going to happen in the next 72 hours or so. israel will likely be going into gaza. it's going to take some time, but they have to go into degrate hamas's capabilities, to weaken it, to capture and kill as many of its members. >> do you worry that the support around the world will lessen when they see the devastation of a ground invasion of such a dense city? >> i'm not worried. i'm certain it's going to happen, right? in other words, the world will begin to change the narrative. the support that we have right now, which is pretty incredible, is going to start to chip away, and we're already starting to see cracks in that, or people are saying, maybe you shouldn't go into gaza.

you've done enough from the air. why do you need to go into gaza. i need to explain why it's important that israel does enter into gaza. the first is they crossed into israel. the border's completely wide open. we have to go in and push hamas back. there has to be a zone through which they cannot enter. right? we have to take away more of their capabilities. we cannot allow god forbid for what happened on saturday to ever, ever repeat itself. as congressman lawler said, the most jews killed on a single day since the holocaust. that can never be allowed to happen again. the second reason is the whole region's watching, andrea. the whole world is watching. our other enemies, hezbollah, the iran, they're all watching. if israel does not show strength and resolve and determination, they will think that they can take advantage of our weakness and our situation. we have to show force and strength and resolve right now to be able to bolster our deterrents and prevent another conflict like this in the future. >> yaakov katz.

thanks for being with us today. >> thank you. there are new signs that that ground offensive in gaza could start at any moment. cutting off the power, water, food in an attempt to weaken hamas. even the main hospital is experiencing power issues. tens of thousands of israeli forces are lined along the border awaiting orders. earlier today. >> reporter: tanks are moving in. direction, they're going -- a constant of three, four in the last five, ten minutes here just moving back in towards all of the israeli troops heading back in that direction. >> joining me now is retired lieutenant general steven twitty, former deputy commander of the united states european command and an msnbc military

analyst. general, what you just saw is clearly the prepositioning of the tanks for a ground offensive, whether it's today, tomorrow, or the next day. what are you going to be watching for? >> yeah, so what you're seeing with the movement of the armor is moving into our attack positions, to actually cross over some line, in this case that's what the israelis are doing, they're moving into their attack positions and making sure that they have everything that they need in those attack positions because when they cross over, they're in contact and there's nothing they can do to get further assistance. the other thing that you should be watching for is what you've been seeing over the last couple of days is called shaping operations. where the israelis are going after command and control

centers. they're going after the hamas leadership, they're going after missile to missiles that have been coming into israel and they're going after the underground bunker and tunnel facilities, and the purpose of that, obviously is to disrupt hamas. then you should see next is the breach in operations that occur where they will actually breach through the fence and conduct an assault into the strip, and as i mentioned on the previous previ that when that breach happens, it will happen very quickly and violently, but as you mentioned, the civilian casualties will probably be -- the ones that are most impacted in this particular operation. >> i just want to also say that we have some breaking news that

we finally confirmed that the state department says tomorrow they will start arranging charter flights to assist u.s. citizens and other immediate family members who are unable to book commercial travel out. there are americans, so many americans and duel citizens in israel, as you know, having watched so much in coordination who have worked military who want to get out. >> that's good news that we can get them out. sadly enough, we have american hostages that will not be on those flights over the next couple of days. >> what is your hope for a rescue operation? >> well, initially my hope is if we can get a humanitarian corridor established in egypt and at a minimum, we should be thinking about the women, the

infants, the children and the elderly. at a minimum, let them get out. and then you can set up some kind of a vetting for the males. but i think we should start thinking in that route because as you know, once this operation starts, it's going to be tremendous devastation, and when you're a population of 2 million inside 140 square miles, you can't help to have significant collateral damage here and so i hope we're thinking about the population before we actually conduct this particular attack. >> general steph twitty, thank you very much. >> take care. >> you too, sir. in response to the war in israel and gaza, police across america are ramping up security around both synagogues and mosques, coming up, combatting

hate and disinformation in a time of war. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. s" on msnbc. your ancestry is so much more than names and dates. (♪♪) c'mon! it's the story of your family - then and now. a story that made your name mean something. a story you're still writing. so discover your heritage. preserve your traditions. represent all that makes you, you. (♪♪) want luxury hair repair that doesn't cost $50? pantene's pro-vitamin formula repairs hair. as well as the leading luxury bonding treatment. for softness and resilience, without the price tag. if you know... you know it's pantene. ♪♪ with fastsigns, create custom graphics that get tails and tongues wagging. ♪♪

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when president biden spoke to jewish community leaders at the white house yesterday, we heard some of the most direct language so far about what the u.s. is doing to help the more than 150,000 israeli and american he or she -- 150 israeli and american hostages taken by hamas. >> we are working on every aspect of the hostage crisis. now the press are going to shout to me and many of you are, what are you doing to get these folks home. if i told you i wouldn't be able to get them home. folks, there's a lot we're doing. >> joining me now is a community leader who was at that meeting. ceo of the jewish council for

public affairs. thank you for coming. that was pretty direct, that something is going on, at least on the intelligence level that said no american boots on the ground, not that they would tell us until after the action, but clearly there are efforts to try to figure out where these hostages are. >> absolutely, i think first and foremost, the administration and prosecute made clear they felt the pain in the room and that the community is feeling, and that includes the fact that many of us in the room know people who are among the hostages or among those killed, and that pain was felt in the room and hearing that reassurance from the president was deeply meaningful. of course he can't share specific details as they are going about their planning, but now with secretary blinken on the ground, and the reassurances from the white house and the team yesterday, the moral clarity and the reassurance that they have provided has been felt. >> do you personally know anyone immediately involved, any of the

victims? >> i have a number of friends and former colleagues who have deep connections to those who were impacted, including a number of the peace activists who are among those killed or taken hostages, vivian silver, who is the leader of women wage war, people on the front lines of the fight for peace with the palestinians and have now been caught up directly in this bloodshed. and i would imagine would still want many of us to channel their spirit in urging for a resolution here. and fighting for a long-term security and safety for both israelis and palestinians. >> i know that has been among the most heartbreaking aspects of this is interviewing families and relatives of those who were peace activists, moved near the border top helpful to people there, to help go into gaza, one woman, mrs. silver, to bring, you know, cancer patients out for treatment in israeli

hospitals. what more do you think the u.s. could be doing, the administration. >> i appreciate the moral clarity, continue to do so at a time when moral clarity feels like it's in short supply, has been deeply meaningful. i also appreciate their comments about efforts to distinguish between hamas and the palestinians, to make clear, hamas is not the future of the palestinian people, and to do whatever they can to mitigate civilian impact, and more broadly, the message that many of us brought into the room yesterday and that we heard back from the administration is this is going to have ripple effects everywhere, including here at home, and many of us are deeply concerned that this crisis has the possibility to roll back all of the progress we've made in the fight for safety and security to bring up anti-semitic, islam phobic and

other acts of hate at home. it's crucial we not lose sight of that and let those trying to exploit this crisis, tear communities apart. >> are you concerned about the security of both synagogues and mosques of religious institutions in this country? >> look, even before this crisis, we were already facing record level anti-semitism and hate fueled violence. this was a crisis long before this past weekend, and in fact, those of us at the white house yesterday, many of us were originally supposed to be there to discuss implementation of the anti-semitism strategy which is crucial. but at this moment, we are already seeing extremists who are seeking to exploit this, to target palestinian americans, muslim americans, and jewish americans. in a variety of ways, and we cannot let that happen because we know that our communities are only -- are safest in solidarity with one another, despite what those extremists might try to do to exploit this moment. >> amy, thank you so much.

i know you're going to continue to work in these arenas as you have been. it's very good to talk to you. >> of course, thank you. and that does it for our special two-hour special coverage of developments in israel and the war with hamas in gaza. you can find us on social media @mitchellreports. msnbc's special coverage continues now with katy tur. good to be with you. i'm katy tur. it is 2:00 p.m. here in new york. 9:00 p.m. in israel and in gaza. day six of the war. and it is getting uglier and harder. the israeli government has been releasing bloody pictures of the dead, including infants, images that burn your brain and haunt you when you try to sleep. overwhelming grief as secretary of state antony blinken said today after the israeli government showed him what they have seen. i