>> yes, clarissa, get safe. and we go over to nic robertson in sderot, and the closest point is about 27,700 feet to the border, and it is that close, nic. >> yes, john is framing up the black smoke that has appeared since the last barrage of the rockets that was targeting the location that clarissa is in, ashkelon, and one of the rockets appears to have gotten through, and that is why we are seeing the black smoke drifting up, and that is a good indication or a bad indication rather that one has made it through the intercepts. clarissa was hearing rockets going out, and we could literally see them taking off from the firing positions in the distance there, and intercepting with the bright flash in the sky, and what you can see now, the intercepts what you can see are the small puffs of smoke there in the sky. but again, the dynamic, and that huge percussion, that explosion that clarissa is hearing, and in the distance, we are seeing the rockets fired out, and the iron dome intercepting, and we are seeing the ex

, clarissa. >> well, john, it has been an intense hour.amas had warned via the telegram channel that ordinary residents of the city of ashkelon should leave by 5:00 p.m., and literally like clockwork at 5:00 p.m., we heard a massive sustain ed and most o those rockets intercepted by the iron dome, though we are hearing of places inside of the town where they made direct contact. then it was calm for a few minutes and another sustained barrage, and it is basically going on like that as we were discussing on air on/off for 335 minutes, and hamas say ss that d the noise is just so glaring. hardly anybody out on the street, because this is a city that has come under heavy rocket attack, but in the last few days, there is a up tick in the platform. now, what i would say is that what we witnessed in the last hour. i want to go to nic robertson who is in sderot, and nic, you are not far from me, but i understand that you were able to hear the rockets as they were being fired off. tell me what you saw and heard. >> reporter: clarissa, i have to wa

clarissa is on the ground right now. clarissa, tell us what's happening. >> reporter: hi, john.o, forgive me, slightly unelegant position, but we have just had a massive barrage of rockets coming in here, not too far from us, so we have had to take shelter here by the roadside, we are just about five minutes away. gaza is in that direction, we can hear now a lot of jets in the sky, we could also hear the iron dome intercepting a number of those rockets as they were whizzing overhead and making impact in that direction, not too far from here. we came to this location because this was ground zero for this entire operation of carnage, hamas militants came on a pickup truck, this was the first place where they breached that border wall and they basically drove down this strip just spraying lead wherever they went. i was just grabbing it before that happened and we had to hit the deck, but heavy weaponry being used -- it's saying we can get up now. where are we moving to? sorry, just one second, guys. all right. so now i can show you the scene here. this is where those militants firs

thank you so much, clarissa. let's bring in anderson cooper who i believe is in tel aviv with the latest. anderson. >> reporter: jake, yeah, we are just hearing more about this, as you've been hearing from clarissa. i don't have much more information than what she has said. the spokesperson for the idf, rear admiral acciari has said that the idf has looked into what happened. obviously, you heard the statement that hamas has made, called it a genocide. calling for other nations -- let me give you the exact wording, i'm not going to read the full statement, it says the international community, arab and islamic countries must bear the responsibility and intervene now and top the aggression occupation and hold accountable. so, obviously, more remains to be seen. some sort of explosion at this hospital, the death toll is high. hundreds killed, according to hamas officials on the ground. what we have seen, certainly in the past, is either an israeli strike or an accidental strike, intentional or accidental. or a hamas

clarissa ward joins me now from ashkelon. clarissa, explain what happened in that place and also what you have been seeing throughout the day because israeli defense spokesperson said that israel is in control now or has control of their sovereign territory, though there still may be pockets of hamas terrorists waiting to attack on israeli soil and more trying to come across still, but they believe that large-scale attacks have stopped. is that right? >> reporter: that's right. i think they feel that they're largely in control of that part of the puzzle. and that's why they brought us down, actually, or invited us to come and see that area along the border, which was actually the first area that was breached by those hamas militants who came across in a pickup truck and started spraying the entire area, killing a lot of civilians. and while we were down there just taking some footage and doing some live shots there was, as you saw, a large volley of rockets incoming. we took shelter. and i think the important thing to take aw

. >>> cnn chief correspondent clarissa ward is joining us now. clarissa, you were in the thick of it where people were waiting on the gaga side of rafah. walk us through what happened and i would imagine the logistics of getting this limited amount of aid to people who desperately needed it is going to be quite complicated. >> that's right, amara. just to clarify, we were on the egyptian side of the rafah border crossing yesterday. that was when the hope was that those trucks would start to move. they didn't. but at about 10:00 this morning local time, those 20 trucks of aid did manage to go through. basically they go into this sort of no man's land, they unload. the aid is loaded onto a palestinian truck, which then goes inside gaza. i want to be very clear though. before this war, before two weeks ago, approximately 455 trucks of aid would arrive in gaz every single day. you now have two weeks of no aid followed by one day of 20 trucks. this is a drop in the ocean, the world food program saying this aid may meet the needs of some 30,000 people

. >> clarissa ward, cnn, raine, israel. >> our clarissa ward reporting there. our cnn this morning continues right now. >>> hamas launching a barrage of rockets on israel after the israeli military announced that it had regained control of all of the towns on the gaza border. >> you can hear the desperation. this is the aftermath in the city of ashkalon, not far from the gaza border. this all comes some 48 hours after hamas militants launched an unprecedented attack by land, by sea, and by air, killing civilians and taking hostages overnight. israeli air strikes pummeled hundreds of targets in the gaza strip. israel's defense minister has this morning ordered a, quote, complete siege, saying electricity, food, and fuel will all be cut off. >> the videos show the horror on the ground at a music festival in israel are 260 people have been found dead. this is a drone video of burned out cars at the site. a dash camera video shows a hamas fighter shooting his rifle and taking a hostage. this morning, a spokesman for the israeli military say that hamas have brought

cnn's clarissa ward is still with me. clarissa, this obviously is awful, whomever is responsible. does it complicate the humanitarian crisis in gaza beyond the obvious death and destruction of what happened? >> well, i think it remains to be seen what the impact will be, jake, but the assumption is that you will have all parties now retracting from previous agreements to kind of come together, in a sense and work to create a mechanism that would allow aid to go into gaza, that would allow foreign nationalses to leave, potentially also some of the most seriously wounded to leave. the u.n. says that 600,000 people have left their homes in the northern part of gaza, are currently in the south. they don't have water. our own cnn producer has described having to boil water from the toilet to give to his family. they don't have electricity, according to the u.n., they have about six days' worth of food left in the stores and after that people who are already hungry will potentially not have anything to eat at all, and it has been very difficult at the best of times during this conflict

i want to go back to clarissa on the border with gaza. one of the things that makes this so different and there are many things and it's not just people thinking about their own safety and their loved ones in shelters and wondering if rockets are coming in. it's the hostage situations. this mass taking of hostages. we have seen israelis taken hostage before, and other israeli soldiers, but i don't recall ever seeing anything like this, the sheer number, certainly it seems an orchestrated strategy of hostage taking and that's something the israeli authorities now will have to deal with in addition to considering offensive operations on the ground in gaza. >> absolutely, anderson. this complicates things for a number of reasons. first of all, you have the extraordinary emotional impact of this hostage situation, the fact that so many people are looking for their loved ones and the fact that they don't know if they're alive or may be dead. the fact that no one seems to have a good grip on just how many there are. we know it's a lot, though,

clarissa ward is there. what are you seeing? >> reporter: just moments ago, we were trying desperately to get your attention. the sirens went off. we heard a bunch of loud booms, rockets firing. they appeared to go right over us that time. you can see the night skylighting up with the flash of those rockets. we heard some iron dome intersections. this has been a relentless tempo. i mean, for the last three hours now, it has been very, very rare that you get a gap of ten minutes without another siren going off. people then trying to run for cover. i would say at this stage, most residents of ashkelon are staying in cover. we can hear some jets in the distance that you probably wouldn't pick up on this microphone, but a real ratcheting up of the focus and intensity of bombardment here in ashkelon. hamas had warned this was going to happen. they said this was payback, if you will, for the displacement of civilians inside geoaza. they warned that people should leave the city by 5:00 p.m. and at 5:00 p.m. on the dot, this onslaught b

now clarissa is with me. talk just a little bit about where you were because you were very close to the border crossing where the initial -- some of the initial invasion took place. >> reporter: that's right anderson. we had gone right down down to the gaza border to link up with the idf. they wanted to show us the first area where those hamas militants were able to breach the border and storm in, guns blazing in these pickup trucks. and there was just this line of cars that had been shot up, abandoned. many people killed. one of about 80 breaches in that border. while we were gathering some of our footage, the sirens started to alert. we heard a large number of missiles being fired off from gaza. we obviously tried to get down and get cover as soon as possible. i think really the major take away here is that we experienced a small sample of what life is like for so many people on both sides of this border, anderson, as the tempo just continues to ratchet up and up with no end in sight and no clarity as to wh

clarissa, what have you learn frd that side of the border? >> reporter: so, it was earlier this evening, anderson, that we first heard of ambulances, kind of, pulling up at the rafah crossing, essentially nurit cooper and yocheved lifshitz were released by hamas militants. they also released a propaganda video as well. we're not showing it. it shows the militants offering the women tea and biscuits. they want to milk this as a propaganda opportunity. the women were escorted by members of the red cross into an ambulance, cross to the rafah side of the border. they were taken from there really straight to an airport where they were then flown out to a medical center, where they now are, as you see daniel has just visited with his grandmother, who you just had on the show there. questions still remain, of course, anderson, about the future of all the other hostages who have been taken. there have been discussions of other deals in the works. we know the egyptian government and the qataris have been very actively involved in those negotiations, a

john. >> so, clarissa, i will give you a chance to catch your breath here. so you were headed closer to the israel/gaza border, and you heard the rockets fired from inside, and -- >> yeah, a lot. >> reporter: being intercepted, and what is around you in terms of the civilian life? are the israelis back in their homes? >> not here they are not. this was, and you know, the city over there was a buzzing city rehovot, and this is where most people are spending their days in a shelter. so this is really kind of becoming an area where the vehicles that you will see is ones like this. israeli military, israeli personnel is really the army personnel being moved and deployed up and down this border fueling speculation that some kind of a ground offensive could be imminent, although, obviously, it is complicated by the fact that there are a lot of hostages, and i am just moving us out of the roadway here. oh, another one. you can see where they shot thup car here. completely destroyed. we don't know how many lives were lost here, and it is a difficult sense here of wh

clarissa, i want to start off with you. we have seen just sickening videos of women, young men, elderly people being taken, kidnapped, taken, dragged across the border brutally into gaza where they will be held hostage and used to suit the purposes of islamic jihad and hamas. there was a music festival that we've heard about that was going on. a lot of people had gathered, a lot of young people, and that is where we've seen some of the hostages were taken from. talk about what you've learned about what happened there. >> reporter: so anderson, we actually went to the site of this music festival today. i think we're only just starting now to get a sense of just how many people were killed and just how bloody and horrific this entire scenario was. the israeli government took an unprecedented step and put up a photograph on twitter that shows dozens and dozens of body bags inside a tent. these are all bodies that were taken from the scene of the festival, festival-goers who are now being identified so that their loved ones can

i want to bring in clarissa ward.larissa, explain where you are and what you have been seeing because i know you've witnessed numerous volleys of rockets being fired today. >> that's right, anderson. hamas had put out a message on their telegram channel, on their social media app basically saying that people in the city here of ashkelon should leave by 5:00 p.m., that there was going to be retaliation for what they called the force displacement of ordinary civilians in gaza and then at exactly 5:00 p.m. we heard the first -- i won't even say volley -- barrage of rockets come slamming in. we have subsequently been watching, you know, every 20 minutes or so of the air raid sirens go off, you see the skylight up, the iron dome starts intercepting those various rockets. some of them have made impact, there have been reports of at least one home that we know of that took a direct hit. we actually spoke briefly earlier to the woman who was living there and she is miraculously perhaps alive. she was in her -- in her shelter.

cnn's clarissa ward is in ashkelon, that's about 25 minutes' drive from sderot. clarissa, give us some sense of what you have been seeing, what you have been experiencing as you have been here from the start really of this war. >> reporter: well, share ration i t sara, i think the focus is very much on gaza, what the u.n. is calling an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe playing out before our eyes in a pretty emotional statement the commissioner general for the u.n. agency for relief and works basically said that the world has lost its humanity. he went on to outline for eight days not a drop of water no electricity, no food, no medicine has been able to be provided into gaza. he also reminded people that more than 60% of gaza's residents because of the blockade on gaza are already dependent on food aid. so in addition to the relentless air strikes that have claimed so many lives, more than 2,700 palestinians have been killed, you now have this incredibly intense humanitarian catastrophe. i spoke to a young student in northern gaza, that is the area that the

i want to make clear, thank goodness, clarissa and the team are okay. we want to start with another one of our extraordinary members of our reporting team in israel, nic robertson. you are near the gaza border at this time. tell us what you're seeing there. >> reporter: the continual sound of jets flying overhead. a little earlier we were moving around. now it's dark. a little earlier we were standing quite close to the border with gaza. you could hear small arms fire coming, automatic weapons, and seeing huge plumes of black smoke like those you've been showing, huge plumes of black smoke rising up. we were able to see places where there had been strikes, columns of smoke rising up from there. also, we were in the location where all those young music festival goers had been having a nighttime of dancing on friday night into saturday, when the hamas came across the border and just brutally slaughtered 260 of them. the road there was literally strewn and littered with their vehicles, shot up. perhaps one of the most h harrowing scenes, people had gone to

our chief international correspondent clarissa ward joins us from cairo, egypt, clarissa, israel isn't letting fuel into gaza, is other aid getting in? >> today, wolf, there were 12 trucks of aid that managed to go through into gaza from here and egypt across the rafah border crossing. yesterday only six trucks came, this is tiny amounts. keep in mind for our viewers that before this war more than 450 trucks would go in every single day. the aid that those drugs do contain water, medical supplies, food, is desperately needed. as you mentioned, it's fuel that is reaching an absolute crisis play now. the primary u.n. agency that works inside of gaza saying that they have already started to ration the fuel, they're stretching it out, they've had to limit supplies of that fuel to hospitals and two bakeries. and they will be forced if they don't get more fuel to completely suspend their operation tomorrow. we also asked them about the idf's allegations that during the last three weeks hamas has stolen fuel from these u.n. warehouses. they said they have no knowledge of that having happened.

clarissa ward, great reporting. you very much. >>> president biden will leave today for an extraordinary war-time trip to israel and jordan. admiral john kirby joins us to discuss the president's decision. that's coming up next. ♪ . >>> this morning israeli forces continue to pummel gaza with airstrikes as president trump prepares for his high stakes diplomatic visit to israel. defense officials tell cnn that a unit of 2,000 marines has been ordered head to waters towards israel on top of the u.s. carrier strike groups deployed. the israeli military getting ready for the next phase of their campaign. mark hertling is here to walk us through all of it. when you talk about the scale of what the u.s. has put into place assets-wise, what does to tell you about the u.s. posture? >> it is a lot. it is to prevent other nations and potentially terrorist groups from entering into this conflict. it's not going to contribute to the fight in gaza, but it will try to contain the area so there are no other actors coming in to inf

clarissa ward is in cairo. oren liebermann is at the pentagon with more new on the battle. i want to start with nic robertson. i know there was a lot of activity where you were, when the two hostages were released. what exactly happened? >> reporter: yeah, absolutely fascinating, erin. throughout the day it hadding exceptionally quite. no missiles, no rockets comes out of gaza, no missiles going in. not even any drones in the air. really quiet. it gave just the impression that something was happening in the background today that was different. we had no idea. just, just as that news was coming out that natalie and her mother judith were being released, hamas or one of the other groups in gaza launched a massive salvo of rockets. the iron dome intercepted this. they have done it again. they were intercepted again. in the intervikings hour, they fired five salvos into this area, way more than they fired in an hour period that we have seen over the past week on so. so kind of a significant turn in action by hamas or one of the other groups right at that moment of release. was

i want to bring in cnn's clarissa ward and jeremy diamond with me here, and go to clarissa who is inskelon, and i know that you are experiencing explosions in your area in the last few hours, and what more can you tell us? >> that is right, sara. it has been pretty quiet for most of the day and then a barrage of rockets that came towards this city, askelon every single day, and this is different though, because it is leading to that weak account that was intercepted and that did not make contact, and this is what it sounded like early on. [ explosion ] >> and you can hear the iron dome making contact, and you can hear them saying this is revenge for the continued strikes on gaza, and i wanted to point out that in gaza there is no iron dome and relentless bombardment for yet another day there including strikes as you heard john berman talking about the southern part of the gaza strip, and this is where the israeli forces that you had heard people move to, and you are hearing of six strikes right next to the rafah crossing, and nearly 3,000 people killed, and we had spoken to a 22 dent

clarissa, president biden coming to israel wednesday. that's going to be a really and certainly something many israelis will be paying very, very close attention to. >> right. this is a big win for israel. this is something they very much wanted, a real show of strength and solidarity. and continuing the idea that the u.s. is in lockstep with israel. i think for president biden, he will be somewhat walking a tight rope as well in terms of needing to address growing concerns about the situation in gaza, about the soaring death toll, about the lack of humanitarian aid getting in. you did here of course secretary of state blinken addressing that, saying that the israelis and the americans have agreed on a mechanism, essentially, that would allow some of that aid to start flowing in to the gaza strip. he didn't really give any details as to what this might look like. this is something, anderson, as you know, that diplomats have been feverishly working on for days and days now, trying to facilitate the passage of aid through that rafah border

is in southern lebanon and let's start with clarissa. what have you been seeing, first of all, today where you are, clarissa? >> well, it's been remarkably quiet here in ashkelon, anderson, perhaps that's because president biden has been here, but the situation in gaza is still dire. we have been hearing strikes throughout the day. there have been reports from one our own journalists on the ground of explosions near the rafah border crossing and that is, of course, where everybody is focused now because president biden did make some news when he said that he had got the israeli side to agree to allow for aid to pass through rafah into the southern part of gaza. the israelis came out afterwards and confirmed that. they said that with the proviso that none of that aid is diverted in any way to hamas. we haven't heard any commentary from the egyptian side. up until now the egyptians have been saying that the issue with opening up that border and allowing some of those dozens of trucks full of desperately needed aid through the rafah crossin

i do want to bring in clarissa ward, she is in ashkelon and ben wedeman is in jerusalem for us tonight. ben wedeman, in particular you lived in egypt and there is a border crossing to egypt. when you hear about jake sullivan talk about the diplomatic discussions about where civilians in gaza can go and as you pointed out, there are many civilians who do not like hamas, do not like to be ruled by hamas or dominated by hamas. what do you -- when you hear about that idea about border crossings, is there a precedent for that? where can they go? >> there are only two borders, israel and egypt. the egyptian border, the main point is hafa. the egyptians were not very open to any sort of flood of palestinian refugees coming out and in pfact, this time it's similar and there is not any willingness by the egyptian authorities to allow this to happen. they don't want hundreds of thousands of palestinians flooding into the sinai peninsula. in january of 2008 i was in gaza when hamas actually blew up a long stretch of the wall that had been constructed between egypt and gaza, and what i saw was hun

clarissa, thanks very much. clarissa ward reporting from cairo for us. just ahead, we'll have a closer look at the new house speaker mike sons wereon, including his very conservative and sometimes very controversial background. >>> we're back with breaking news. president biden has called the news house speaker mike johnson to congratulate him on his election. house republicans picked the louisiana conservative for the position after weeks of infighting and paralysis. brian todd taking a closer look into his background and record and what have you learned about the new speaker? >> reporter: he's not a household name but he's nope in republican circles for being an ardent supporter of donald trump who rejected the 2020 election result, a fervent opponent of abortion rights and his views on lbgtq rights make even some republicans uncomfortable. >> frankly we did win this election. >> in the contentious days after the 2020 election when then president trump was desperately maneuvering to hold on to power mike johnson was one of trump's most ardent supporter

clarissa, what's the situation there now? >> well, i don't know, you probably can't hear on this small microphone but the skies, anderson, it's just been non-stop jet activity. i've seen at least three big orange flashes coming from that direction. presumably air strikes on the gaza strip. as we arrived here, there was a huge barrage of rockets. the vast majority of them were intercepted by the iron dome. we could see them lighting up the night sky. but at least two did manage to make impact. one reportedly hitting a bus stop. the other hitting a building. not too far from where we are now. and i think just more broadly speaking, honestly, anderson, there's a sense that people here are kind of reeling, trying to get their arms around the magnitude of what the last 40, 42 hours has brought. and trying to deal with the most poignant or i should say pressing threat at the moment, which is the continued presence of hamas militants inside southern israel. just earlier today, we were driving along. we had to reroute and change cour

clarissa ward, cnn. >> our thanks to clarissa ward.here is new video of secretary of state antony blinken arriving in bahrain as he continues his tour across the middle east. stay with cnn. more ahead. >>> jim jordan and austin scott are lobbying members in a closed door meeting right now competing for the speaker's gavel. >> and scott has been very critical of his republican colleagues who voted to oust kevin mccarthy and reject their last candidate steve scalise who dropped out of the race last night. we have cnn chief congressional correspondent manu raju who is on capitol hill following every twist and turn and yet somehow kind of ending up back at the same place. i know you spoke to congressman scott before the meeting. what did he tell you? >> reporter: yeah, he's been sharply critical of everything that transpired over the last week. he has a lot of people who align himself with that view. last week he called those members of eight republicans who sided with democrats called them chaos agents and yesterday leaving the closed doo

>> nic, i want to bring in also cnn's clarissa ward who is in ashkelon also along the border or veryse to the border with gaza. clarissa, we heard from benjamin netanyahu, no real details about what the next stage of this war is going to look like. no specifics about a ground incursion. you were listening to his comments to make sure, but so far it seems he was talking in generalities. what are you seeing on the ground? >> well, it's really interesting, anderson, because i think everybody had been sort of anticipating that he might announce some kind of a ground incursion or offensive. as you say he was pretty vague with his language and basically just stealing the isteeling the israeli people for a fight that is not going to be easy and not going to be quick. bee have seen armor in terms of personnel and we saw a large staging ground for tanks earlier on today so there has been a lot of speculation that this is what would be on the cards. the complicating factor as everybody has mentioned before is the wild card of what that would mean for these hostages, these dozens of hostages wh

clarissa, i know you are in ashkelon just north of that gaza border. and, what are you seeing tonight? it is -- we've been watching and watching and the build up is to incredible and so powerful and yet still we wait. >> reporter: still we wait, erin. we've been hearing jets overhead and we've been talking to people inside of gaza where the situation appears to be rapidly spiraling out of control into what one u.n. commissioner called an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe. we spoke to a 22-year-old dentistry student and she lives in the northern part of gaza, that is the area that israeli forces have asked to be evacuated. she said that she and her family have not been able to leave their home yet because they don't have anywhere to go. their concerned about the fact that there is no place in the south that has electricity, that has water. i should say that israeli forces have said that they have turned the water back on in southern gaza but it is very difficult to get a picture of whether or not that is happening with one -- one group in gaza sayi

let's get right to clarissa ward in gaza and she's in ashkelon and the u.s. confirmed there's, quote, no update on if and when any aid will start crossing from egypt into gaza or any innocent palestinian-americans and others can get out of gaza. what are you hearing from israeli officials? >> that's right. the u.n. basically saying no set timeline here, jake. we also heard today from the egyptian leader abdul fatah al sisi. he said this was because of shelling and strikes, israeli strikes near the border crossing and a cnn journalist did observe several explosions near the crossing during the day. the israelis have said echoing what president biden has announced that they are now willing to allow aid through the rafah crossing provided that it does not get diverted to hamas. they said they will not open up any aid to come through this side of the border until all of the hostages are release, and we know there's been a flurry of diplomacy and desperate attempting to get dozens of trucks on the egyptian side of the border on tuesday morning to get some of that

i want to go to clarissa ward watching this, as well. you and i both have been in gaza several times. can you describe the people who really don't know what it is like on the ground there, just how congested and just how filled that small space is, 139 square miles, just how small it is and how difficult it is, for example, for the civilians on a regular day, not during a time of war. >> well, sara, if you've been to gaza, as you have during times of intense bombardment, it is tr truly terrifying. there is a lot of chaos. there is a lot of confusion and a lot of panic. you see people running around trying to get to safety and not knowing where the safety is and in the case of the al ahli hospital it was clear that hundreds thought that that would be a safe place to go to. it is worth mentioning that al ali is in the northern part of gaza and that is the area that they had asked people to leave and evacuate from on friday and we kept hearing from people we've spoken to, how can we leave our home and go to the south when there were strikes

jeremy and clarissa, thank you to both of you. now joining us, we have from jerusalem is avi, the editor in chief of the jerusalem post. avi, what can you tell us about what you are learning about this strike that appears to have killed hundreds according to the palestinian health ministry? >> i'm hearing the same sort of things that your correspondents are hearing that there is a lack of clarity on what transpired and i can tell you that it took place in the midst of the barrage of rockets from gaza into israel and it is certainly not unusual for those rockets to misfire. roughly 10% to 30% of the rockets fired by palestinian terrorist groups in gaza towards israel actually land in gaza often killing palestinians. it is certainly possible that that happened here and it is also certainly possible that was an israeli air strike that hit this hospital. i can tell you as far as the mechanics, israel does not target hospitals and if this happened it was obviously an accident and it doesn't diminish the very real human tragedy that we

erin burnett, clarissa ward, m.j. lee, thank you. erin will be back right at the top of the hour for erin burnett "out front." >>> just ahead, more reaction to the breaking news. senator chris murphy, a key democrat on the foreign relations committee is standing by to join us. >>> plus, we'll get an update on the chaos in the u.s. house of representatives as 20 republican di defacters torpedo jim jordan's attempt to gain the speakership. >>> we'll have more on the breaking news from the middle east in a few moment. there's also breaking news in washington. republican congressman jim jordan trying to win over 20 republican holdouts after failing to secure the speaker's gavel on the first ballot. another vote has been set for tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. our chief congressional correspondent manu raju is tracking all the action on capitol hill. manu, how far is jordan saying he's willing to go, prepared to take his fight to become speaker? >> reporter: he's ready to go for the second ballot tomorrow morning. he does not appear to have the vo

clarissa, what can you tell us? >> reporter: well, anderson, we have been talking to people inside gaza, talking to doctors who are inside that hospital, one of them said that the ceiling actually collapsed on to the operating room floor where he was carrying out a surgery. palestinian authorities and also the entire really arab world coming forward almost immediately and laying the blame for this at israeli forces feet, saying was an israeli strike. eyewitnesses on the ground also saying that. the idf, as you mentioned, coming out and saying a full-throated denial, saying that this was caused, they believe, by a misfire potentially, rocket from the militant group islamic jihad. i will say just based on seeing these rocket attacks many times over the years that they don't usually have an impact like that in terms of the size of the blast, in terms of the scale of the death toll, and the scope of the damage. it's also not the first time, it's important to add, we have seen the idf categorically denih my something bef

clarissa ward is not far from the scene. clarissa, explain what the situation is and has been. >> reporter: well, i would say for the first time in three hours, anderson, the skies are relatively quiet. but it has been nonstop. we have heard jets wailing over head. we have seen a series of large flashes coming from that direction. that's the gaza strip. also talking to colleagues inside gaza, it appears there has just been a massive amount of activity there, a number of different strikes, according to the idf. on top of that, when we arrived here, we heard a barrage of rockets, a significant barrage, i should add. we saw the iron dome was activated. most of those were intercepted. two, at least, however, did make direct hits, one at a bus stop, another at a building and a residential building not too far from here. and you really have the sense, anderson, that the tempo is just continuing to ratchet up more and more. there are still squirmishes going on along the border, as israeli forces try to push out hamas fighters who h

. >> clarissa ward, thank you. clarissa has more reported and will come up with us again shortly. i want to play the conversation i had with idf spokesman rear admiral who took us to the site of the music festival from the text of a work hundred 60 people were killed. it is clear to you at this point hamas knew the festival was taking place here, it wasn't just an accident that happened upon it to it was architect plan as government plan. this was a major governed event by gaza. this is an event on a scale i don't think the world has seen. it is a scale of brutality and being cruel here, girls were being rape, people handcuffed and slaughtered killed people running because of the security when you have the rockets so they took them inside and throw grenades inside the cube. >> there's video from numerous bomb shelters people were hiding in of grenades being thrown in. >> i don't know how people can explain this, i don't have the words. them running away on motorcycles with girls to gaza. >> this is a parking lot, people try to get out of the parking not. it was too chaotic. >> wha

clarissa ward is live for us, she spent the day as one of the hard-hit kibbutz not far from the border. be'eri is a farming community. saturday morning, hundreds were murdered. what did you see? >> reporter: i think it's interesting that it took almost four days before the israeli military even finally let journalists to be'eri kibbutz because they had been fighting pitched battles there, really struggling to control and contain that situation. and the scenes of destruction that you see when you arrived at be'eri are just mind-blowing, frankly. but really it was the conversations we had with some of the survivors who have been moved to a hotel a couple of hours away that are the most chilling and most haunting. take a listen. >> it was 7:11 a.m. saturday morning when the militants arrived at be'eri kibbutz. surveillance footage shows them lying in wait until a car arrives. they shoot the driver and enter the compound. more poured in on motorcycles. eerily at ease and in no apparent hurry. thomas hand heard the gunshots and immediately thought of his 8-year-old daughter emily, who was s

yeah... ♪ clarissa ward has more on that.e want to warn you some of the images you'll see are graphic. >> every family members bidding farewell to their loved ones. did not survive the night. ritual that tragically has become all too familiar in gaza. women and children, these are the targets this man laments, this is hamas. hours earlier the chaotic moments as the dead and injured were brought into the hospital during the most intense night of bombardment in the last 17 days. and as with every night so many of the victims, children. a doctor says the e.r. has struggled to keep up with a flood of casualties, and the severity of the injuries that they are dealing with, particularly third degree burns. the hospital is not prepared to deal with these types of burns, and i don't suppose the bigger hospitals would be able to, either, he says, we're suffering from a lack of essentials due to the siege, even as we speak now at any moment the electricity could cut off. the world health organization has warned that 12 of gaza's 35 hos

clarissa, thank you for that. it is stunning and important to see for you and thanks to paul murphy, our colleague, as well, for that reporting. so heighten security concerns not just in the region, but around the globe as protesters take to the streets around the world. in the united states, major cities taking precautions. more on that ahead. . >>> live pictures from baghdad. cities around the globe on high alert. these new pictures where hundreds of thousands are gathering in a huge pro-palestinian protest. joining us now bianna and john miller and law enforcement trainer aaron cohen. guys, thanks for joining the table. i want to get into the kind of law enforcement elements of this in a minute. but we were talking about during the break, it's really important to discuss, which is people are scared right now. people are furious. i am not talking about people in the region. i am talking about people here. you know, you had a tweet last night i think that caught my eye and i think kind of captured this to some de

we are still, though, a long way from that. >> clarissa woard, thank you. what impact could this aid have inside gaza? selma abdul aziz is covering this angle. >> as you heard from clarissa ward, this doesn't begin to scratch the surface of the need on the ground. that convoy is going to face some serious challenges. there's no fuel on it. air strikes continue to rain down on gaza. there are major infrastructure issues. i want to give you a sense of the humanitarian crisis inside gaza. i do want to warn our viewers these images are graphic. hospitals in gaza are crumbling. everything is running out from food to medicine. the tiniest lives are left hanging in the balance. we need power, we need access to clean water, this doctor says. without basic services, this will be a humanitarian catastrophe. already seven hospitals in 21 primary health care facilities here are out of service according to palestinian officials because of shortages. after intense diplomatic efforts, prayers of relief at the rafah border crossing as a trickle of aid was allowed in from e

clarissa ward was among the journal ists allowed to enter.ere's what she witnessed yesterday. >> it was 7:11 a.m. on saturday morning when the militants arrived. surveillance footage shows them lying in wait until a car arrives. they shoot the driver and enter the compound. more pour ed in on motorcycles. early at ease and in no apparent hurt ri. thomas heard the gunshots and thought of his 8-year-old daughter emily who was staying with a neighbor. >> she doesn't do it very often, but that particular night, friday night, she went to sleep at her friend's house. >> reporter: for 12 hours, he says he was pinned down ors. >> waiting longer. military g gained control, this is what remained of the once tranquil community. late wednesday afternoon, israeli forces led journalists in for the first time after days it took a lot of time. >> did that weigh on your conscience to know how long it took? >> we have a very difficult question to ask ourselves. now we look forward to defend the people, to take the survivor out of it and to switch from defense

i'm joined by clarissa ward for more on what we know about that. clarissa, let's start with these incursions by israeli troops. >> reporter: so, anderson, the israeli military has put out a statement, but it's a very limited statement. essentially all they say is that during the past day there have been a series of incursions of israeli forces into gaza. they say they have a three-fold mission. they were trying to destroy hamas weaponry. they were also trying to take out some hamas militants who have been firing anti-tank missiles onto israeli side of the border. and they said they have been trying to collect evidence, collect evidence that presumably might help them to locate the position of these hostages. you may remember that hamas yesterday said that at least 13 hostages had been killed in air strikes. i think no one would be exactly shocked to imagine that israeli special forces, for example, might have some kind of a presence or might be launching, sort of, smaller incursions into gaza to try to help pin down the location of those hostages,

. >> cnn's chief international correspondent clarissa ward is with us now. so after weeks of waiting, the rafah closing opened just long enough to allow these 20 trucks in. 2 million people plus are in gaza. walk us through what happened. explain what we saw today. >> reporter: so we got word at about 9:30 this morning that the rafah border crossing was going to open at 10:00 a.m., that it was going to open for long enough to let in those 20 trucks. that is the initial amount that was agreed upon by all different sides. these were egyptian red crescent trucks. they drove through the gate. they took off the aid. palestinian trucks then loaded the aid and it went through the gazaen side of the border. this is obviously very heartening for so many people who have been pushing so hard, but mostly, of course, for people in gaza who are in such desperate need of aid, but it's importantlet to be clear it's really a drop in the ocean in terms of what is actually needed, the scale of the humanitarian catastrophe to put it in some context or perspective for you. the u

. >> i want to go now to cnn's clarissa ward who is in cairo, egypt. clarissa, you've been following a different story, the dire crisis in gaza, the dire need for food, for medicine, for water. today another 20 aid trucks were able to enter the territory for egypt, but that's still not enough. >> reporter: no, jake. it's really a drop in the bucket. you're talking about in the last few days some 60 trucks that have managed to get into gaza. just to give you some perspective, before this war, three weeks ago, 455 trucks a day according to the u.n. in the last 16 days there's been no aid going in. on a normal level there would have been more than 7,000 trucks going in during a 16-day period. meanwhile, this is happening against the backdrop of relentless and punishing bombardment. the scenes in these hospitals is extraordinary, it's disheartening. we spoke to one doctor who said two days left before they go from critical to dire. i want to warn our viewers that some of what you're about to see are distressing. >> reporter: you're entering the al schiff f

our clarissa ward is there. what have you been seeing tonight?> reporter: anderson, honestly, it really hasn't stopped. we have been here about five or six hours now. drones overhead, jets overhead, large thuds coming from that direction. the sky glowing orange. those are strikes on the ga strip, and in addition to that when you mentioned, as we were arriving, i don't know if you can hear that in the distance, they're loud and they're constant. as we were arriving, a huge barrage of rockets, most of them intercepted by the iron dome, although not all of them. at least two did make impact. one allegedly hitting a bus stop. the other hitting a building near to here. the streets, not just because it's the middle of the night but because people are frightened and sheltering in place are completely empty of human life. everyone waiting to see what tomorrow will bring, what the next few days will bring, and really, no sense of clarity as to what that might look like, anderson. >> clarissa, i talked to a spokesperson for the idf a short time ago, and th

they found clarissa, and her mom, karen, in their bedrooms.killed execution style with a shot straight to the head. >> crimes quickly become statistics, but this just stands out, doesn't it? >> it stands out, it makes the hair on the back of her neck. >> federal prince george's county homicide detectives bernie nelson was in charge of the case. the first arriving officers told him, they found the main door locks shut from the inside. the killer, they thought, had likely entered the house through an unlocked side window. >> this bedroom on the second floor that is facing us. that is where caruso is found. >> detective nelson wondered, did the murders have anything to do with the plague of recent home invasion robbery's? if so then why was nothing stolen from the house. >> the vehicle was still in the driveway and nothing appeared disturbed. >> investigators did not find any useful evidence. just six spent bullet casings that it killed teresa and karen. fired from a handgun. >> we did find out two doors just down the street, someone had seen a b

clarissa ward is joining us. tell our viewers what you're seeing there. >> we have been hearing rockets fired off but nothing that really matches the tempo as we were arriving in the city where i think you just showed that video of this extraordinary barrage of rockets. the vast majority being inter intercepted the iron dome. at least two of them managing to breach the iron dome and make land fall here. one hit a bus stop, the other a building. actually not too far from here. there's no reports of casualties but certainly the effect has been very chilling. there are barely any civilians outside on the streets at all. partly of course because it's the middle of the night but also because people are sheltering in place. we did see a few people arriving at various hotels basically looking for shelter because the situation is so dangerous and of course, the fear of the rocket attack is just one of the many threats. the primary one that i would say people in this part of israel are focused on at the moment is continue

and clarissa ward, thank you so much, in ashkelon. phil, back to you. >> mentioning the acute difficulty complexity on the diplomatic side of things between the president and those canceled meetings with arab leaders, accelerant to that difficulty, that complexity, obviously, the blast the hospital in gaza. now, at this moment in time we have seen from the idf their rationale for why they were not responsible. you have seen the protests as well of people in the arab world that don't believe that. cnn has geolocated video that shows the moment of the deadly hospital blast in gaza. i will pull it up here because as you can see, as this video plays, the skylights up as a large blast erupts right there on the hospital grounds. it sends a huge crowd of smoke in the air. cnn cannot independently verify what caused the blast. we are working on that. i want to bring in cnn military analyst lieutenant-general mark hertling the magic wall. whl you see that in isolation, one of the things we have heard repeatedly from officials that are pointing

i want to bring in chief international correspondent clarissa ward.sident zelenskyy is relying on other leaders to step up as the u.s. is threatened by the political people in congress we're seeing this play out. how are european leaders responding to this? >> well, i think there's definitely a very real sense of anxiety, pamela. we saw president zelenskyy in granada, in spain, today, meeting with european leaders. he was trying to put a brave face on it, essentially saying, you know, a lot of work needs to be done. but believing that the support will continue, that bipartisan support will continue. but privately, i think you hear more and more european leaders starting to give voice to the possibility that their populations may be becoming increasingly disenchanted with the very large check that many of these countries are having to write. we heard from the italian prime minister giorgia meloni who said we're in lockstep steadfast with ukraine, but we have to be reminded of support and issues that have risen on the back of ukraine, such as migration

that is where we find our chief international correspondent clarissa ward. at this hour, clarissa, you were there when there were explosions happening, rockets coming over and a huge barrage a few days ago. what can you tell us about the situation there now and along the gaza border? >> reporter: it's been quieter this morning, up until just a few hours ago. hamas released rockets again towards ashkelon. they are saying that it's in revenge for the current situation inside gaza. but i want to play you some video that we managed to capture of the moments as those rockets fell into ashkelon. [ explosions ] you can hear some intercepts, but you can also hear at least two, by our count, that made landfall. one just behind me in that direction. it's important to emphasize that israel does have the iron dome. it's incredibly effective. the rockets do have a paralyzing affect on community, but there are few casualties as a result of them, which is a very stark contrast to what we have been seeing in gaza this morning. reports of at least six air strikes in southern