especially in the town of ashkelon. the people here are concerned.g to leave their houses as little as possible, venture out as little as possible. and also keep their children inside. it is also something taking a psychological toll. of course, especially on the littlest ones. the mayor of ashkelon told me a couple of days ago that he believes that commerce here in this town is down by about 80%. and you can see that. the streets are absolutely empty here in the evenings. normally people go out at night. they go to bars. they have their beer in the open. now of course, that is not having at all. the people that we're speaking to here say yes, they support the military operation that's going on, but they also hope it will end very soon. don? >> all right, fred, thank you very much. of course there's always politics here in the u.s. >>> mitt romney's excuse for losing the election triggered outrage. romney suggested that president obama gave huge gifts to african-americans, to hispanics and to young voters. up next, we'll hear from a senior contributo

fred, what are you seeing now in ashkelon? >> reporter: >> from ted pleitgen, have the rockets stopped in ashkelon? >> reporter: the rockets, yes, have stopped in ashkelon. it was interesting, because up until about a minute before our broadcast began, there were still booms that were heard in the sky. and about ten minutes ago we had to run for cover in ashkelon. now it appears as though things are quiet. i can tell you from speaking to people here on the ground, they're telling us this he don't really believe in this cease-fire just yet at this point in time. folks that we're speaking to at this cafe who have been watching the speech of prime minister benjamin netanyahu say they believe this is not a solution to the problem that they are going to be having to face rockets falling on their heads very soon again, anderson. >> i'm also joined here in jerusalem with cnn's wolf blitzer. we'll be monitoring developments over this crucial next hour. this next hour really key to what happens for the next 24 to 48 hours. ben wedeman

we are here along the beach in ashkelon. lovely day. just beginning to down right now and watching when's going on. it is empty. this area pretty much december late. the israelis staying inside their homes. not going out to coffee shops, not going to theaters. at least in this area. at least for the last few days because of the pounding, the rockets that have been coming in. that iron dome, that thud you hear all the time over the sky and you realize not far away, a few kilometers of here is gaza. densely populated area. right along this same mediterranean. you know, my own sense is this could be a -- such a wonderful area if they could just achieve some real peace between the israelis and the palestinians but obviously that has to wait at least for now. but for now, there's a very deep silence on the beach. unlike what we heard earlier in the day. joined now by anderson cooper joining us from gaza city. i understand you heard some loud explosions moments ago, as well. what happened? >> yeah. in the last five or ten minutes or so, there

i want to bring in cnn's frederick pleitgen in ashkelon. this calming down period, how is it being viewed there? >> reporter: well, people here are reacting quite cautiously to the announcement of a possible cease-fire. that's also possibly, deborah, due to the fact that there was a heavy barrage of rocket fire coming over this place, just a couple of minutes ago. it was really in the period, i would say, in about the last hour, that you had a lot of rockets that were fired over the town of ashkelon toward the town that is behind it. a lot of those were intercepted by the iron dome missile interceptor system, but some of them are actually threatening to come down here. we had a rocket alarm in ashkelon where we had to clear our position a little less than an hour ago. and hearing other israeli towns have been shelled as well. some people believe that possibly these are militants in gaza who are firing off barrages before the calming down period, or cease-fire, or whatever it is going to be called, is going to be set in place. there is other

this is the aftermath of a rocket strike in a town of ashkelon.nd hit this carport and as you can see, did substantial damage to the car as well. the iron dome system has been billed as a game changer in this conflict. but as hits like this one show, it cannot intercept all the rockets that are coming at israel from gaza. still, israel's military says it is very happy with the performance of the interceptor system. >> rockets we want down, we usually down. usually these rockets are the ones who are sent or launched from the gaza strip from the terrorist factions, towards bigger cities where you have more people living. we usually down them, but it is not a 100% solution unfortunately. >> reporter: so the engineers at the assembly plant are working extra hours to assemble more iron dome batteries for immediate deployment. fred pleitgen, cnn, ashkelon, israel. >> all those rockets on the israeli side make regular life very difficult if not impossible at times. here in gauze why as weza, peop hunkered down. we'll talk with arwa damon who spent a lot

gaza, they've had at least 20 rockets come over from gaza here in ashkelon. what they have in place here is a missile defense system called the iron dome and across southern israel, the israeli defense forces say that missile defense system has intercepted as many as 130 rockets coming out of gaza but of course, it can't intercept all of them. that's the reason the israelis say why they keep sending war planes over there to try and suppress especially the medium and long range rockets coming out of gaza, because one of the things that also happened today is that the outskirts of tel aviv we actually hit by a rocket as well. no one was injured in that. however, it is very, very concerning to the israelis if their main city, if the biggest city here in this country can in fact be targeted and the message we're getting from the israeli defense forces and government is that they're both capable and very much willing to keep on widening that operation. in the short term that will probably mean more air strikes, a lot more air strikes and in the longer term, or med

what did you see in ashkelon? obviously that is a town that has been hard hit and people unfortunately have become very used to having to run for cover when some of these rockets are fired into israel. >> it was pretty eerie, i got to tell you. it's a city of about 100,000 people, ashkelon, and it just literally when we got there, we went to a high school where there had been a rocket that hit that high school earlier in the day. we wanted to see what it was like as we were pulling into the parking lot for the high school. all of a sudden, these sirens went off and we realized that a rocket or missile or whatever was heading towards our way, and then these israeli soldiers came running out and said get in, get in, follow us, 30 seconds, 30 seconds, and we followed them into a shelter where it was crowded inside. israeli soldiers, civilians. we were in for a couple minutes and then we finally emerged and we did hear these loud thumps in the sky, then we saw these plumes of loud. it was one of those iron dome anti-m

tonight he is in the israeli town of ashkelon, that has been hit repeatedly by rocket fire, and also the jerusalem bureau chief for "the new york times" is in gaza city and joins us by phone. what are you seeing and what are you hearing? >> reporter: what we are seeing here is that the town is pretty much deserted, not a lot of people out and about although earlier we were next to a sushi restaurant where there were a fair amount of customers. we spoke to the mayor who talked about the difficulties of trying to manage a town of more than 100,000 people living under these conditions and we spoke to one resident here who interestingly enough said he was happy that rockets were fired from gaza into near jerusalem and tel aviv. he said finally. other israelis outside of this area around gaza are getting a feel, getting a taste of what it's like to live under the threat of rockets. so certainly here in ashkelon, you have real frustration that they simply cannot live a normal life with the constant threat of rockets coming in from gaza. >> israel says they are doing targeted strikes into g

there were a lot of rocket alarms here in ashkelon. we were actually out today with a squad that picks up the rockets after they've landed on the ground here. it's an explosive ordinance disposal unit and they had a lot to do. we had to go into shelter with this group six times alone today. so the people here on this last day of this conflict really had a very scary day. another thing to keep in mind is especially people with children were keeping those children inside, indoors for the better part of all of this going on. of course it was very scary for the children as well. so, yes, we are indeed seeing some more people come out. we're seeing more cars on the street especially for these late evening hours. but certainly not the kind of celebrations that you'll be seeing in gaza city right now and that we're seeing from what ar arwa's reporting, wolf. >> frederik pleitgen in ashkelon in southern israel for us. thanks very much. let's bring in our chief international correspondent christiane amanpour, cnn anchor and also abc global news

this has kind of paralyzed the city of ashkelon? >> reporter: the thing is about this and others around the area, they have sort of a routine of dealing with all this, as bad as they may sound. they get rocket alarms even during the best of times. of course, it's something that's increasing and paralyzing marina life. people go there especially on weekends to have their beer and hang out and it was absolutely empty. there was no one there. so it's taking a big toll on businesses. also a lot of people who have chirp, very worried about their families, keeping their children inside. and it is something, especially for the little ones, a very, very traumatizing experience. yes, these people are used to dealing with things like that but right now it's a special situation. dire situation. people we talk to here say they're very much in favor of the military operation going on but, of course, they want it all to end. >> even rocket fire in the best of times. fred pleitgen, thank you very much. >>> are you skeptical of the fiscal cliff end

fred pleitgen is in ashkelon, ben wedemans in gaza city. ben wedeman, good morning, set the scene for me. >> reporter: yes, brooke, it was a noisezy night and we saw intense bombardment just behind where i'm standing. that was proceeded by increasing sort of mounting reports that a cease-fire was about to be announced or a period of calm. but it appears that there were problems within the israeli government that prime minister benjamin netanyahu and his foreign minister lieberman didn't see eye to eye with the defense minister who was leaning towards accepting this draft proposal sent by hamas via the egyptian government. so once it was clear that those efforts had sort of run into a brick wall, we saw an intensification of israeli air strikes and of course rocket fire out of gaza as well. one of the rockets, rather, one of the air strikes hit very close to the hotel where many journalists are staying right on the coast right next to the gaza city beach. now most recently within the last hour the house of a senior adviser to hamas, prime mi

children are finally playing outside again in southern israel, but the city of ashkelon is not back to normal. just ask 3-year-old donna. it's hard to forget rocket sirens. she won't leave my side, her mother says. every little noise scares her. grandmother alana isn't celebrating this cease-fire either. eight days of suffering for nothing, she told us. on tv, the people of gaza say that they want. ashkelon is an easy target, nine miles from the gaza border. 65 rockets fired at this city were intercepted, but more than a dozen slipped through. one smashed the roof of the high school. classes were canceled because of the fighting, so no one was hurt. closer to the border, military units were packing up to leave. there are a lot of people in this country who believe it won't be long before they are back. israeli security forces say they have arrested the man behind the bomb blast here in tel aviv. they say he was a member of a group affiliated with hamas and islamic jihad, but they did not say that hamas ordered that attack. veronica? >> nbc's stephanie gosk in tel aviv. stephanie, thank

of course especially towns like ashkelon.re all the time even in the best of days you have rockets hitting here maybe one or two every week, maybe one every two weeks. however, the people here live in constant fear. and they say they simply don't want that to continue. they want the problem solved once and for all, wolf. >> yeah. they certainly do. that's what i heard when i was in beersheba earlier today and walked through the house that had been destroyed when i was where you are, frederik pleitgen, thank you very much. gaza also taking a deadly pounding throughout the day today despite the talk of a cease fire. anderson cooper is in gaza city for us. you got a firsthand look at the explosion. share with our viewers what you saw. >> that's right, wolf. for all the talk of cooling down period if anything things remain very hot here, continue to heat up. we've heard a number of explosions even within the last hour one just about a minute or so ago while you were talking to fred in ashkelon. there was a large explosion actuall

frederick pleitgen is in ashkelon city. we begin with sara sidner at the scene of that bus explosion that happened just a little while ago in tel aviv. sara first of all describe for me how that looks right now. >> what has happened right now is the cleanup is under way. there are still tape up around the scene. we're very close to the defense department building, and the military headquarters, this is a bus that the number 61 bus, we know that it exploded, glass all around the bus was blown out. however the blast was not strong enough to knock out the ability for the bus to operate. and so we saw literally the bus -- someone in the bus drive the bus away, 15, 20 minutes ago. we know that there are several people injured. they were taken to a hospital. that is very, very nearby where this bus exploded. right now, police are telling us that they are still looking for potential suspects, we see a helicopter in the sky. there's been a lot of confusion, a lot of rumors, as to who may have done this. even rumors about an arrest.

there is a school in birsheba and ashkelon, in many of the major cities now.y children haven't gone to school in the last seven days. a lot of the kids are sleeping in shelters, bunkers, they are very afraid. their moms and dads very worried. i was in birsheba. outside, didn't look too bad. in the inside, the whole house destroyed. the mom, dad and four of the five kids -- the fifth was away four of the five kids there, heard the siren go off. had 30 seconds, ran into the small room which is their safe room. a concrete bunker really, sort of like the size of a closet and waited it out and when they got out, they were fine, okay. but their house totally destroyed and not livable at all. they have to go live in a hotel as they wait for whatever is going to happen. and you can see on the face of the little kids who heard the sirens going off, these kids were pretty traumatized by what happened. just one story out of a lot that's going on. both sides of the border, it is pretty awful right now, anderson. >> yeah, in 2006, we spent a month in the areas north, in th

and fred pleitgen is in ashkelon, israel.h frederick. >> reporter: can you so that city you see down here, that is already part of the gaza strip. what we're hearing, as we're reporting here, is that israeli warplanes are overhead and also drones that are circling in the area, basically constantly. there's also some firing going on. we believe that's outgoing artillery fire by the israeli military. we're not sure what that's about, if they're targeting anything or calibrating their weapons. very close to here, obviously, they have a big military buildup with a lot of forces there that might be calibrating their weapons, of course, for a possible ground invasion. that ground invasion at this point is currently on hold. what we've seen throughout the course of the day, there have been rocket attacks on various towns, 13 of those were intercepted by that iron dome missile defense system. however, there was one israeli officer, reserve officer severely wounded in a rocket attack, soledad. >> frederick pleitgen for us right on the

ashkelon is seary right neerie . >> many people left the town.people just don't want to go outside because it's dangerous. >> reporter: like many of the residents we spoke to, he was not very optimistic about the immediate future. we're here along the beach in ashkelon. normally this place would be lively. it's a lovely day. the sun is just beginning to go down right now. we're watching what's going on. it's empty. this whole area pretty much is desolate. the israelis are staying inside their homes. they're not going out to coffee shops. they're not going out to theaters. at least in this area. at least for the last few days because of the pounding of the rockets that have been coming in, that iron dome, that thud you hear all the time over the sky. you realize not far away, only a few kilometers, is gaza. densely populated area right along this same med trarian. my own sense is this could be such a wonderful area if they could just achieve some real peace between the israelis and the palestinians, but obviously that's going to have to wait at le

there is a school in ashkelon, any of these major cities, over the past week, seven days now, the kidsone to school. a lot of them are sleeping in shelters, sleeping in bunkers, because they're afraid the sirens go off, they're traumatized, their moms and dads are very worried. i was in one of them today that from the outside didn't look too bad. when i got inside, the whole house was basically destroyed inside. fortunately, the mom and dad and four of their five kids, the fifth was away, but four of their five kids, they were there, they heard the siren go off, they had 30 seconds. they ran into the small room which is their safe room, it's a concrete bunker, really, sort of like the size of a closet, and they waited it out. when they got out, they were fine, they were okay, but their house was totally destroyed and not livable at all. they'll have to go live in a hotel right now as they wait for whatever is going to happen. and you can see on the face of the little kids who had heard the sirens going off, these kids were pretty traumatized by what happened. it's just one story out of

one of the biggest israeli cities that were targeted for the past two years either be'er sheva or ashkelon which dog each of these cities have more than two hundred thousand people did you ever feel what it's like to run into a shelter and have fifteen seconds to do it or to raise children in a family inside a shelter protected room and sleep there night after night this is not something normal this should not be this way but of course we can also gaza as we can also happens the same question of course i beg to differ because you can't make this equation hamas the star getting sick. we are not looking to target civilians we are targeting terrorists why is he then the very reason the call reason why this is happening is because of israeli policy towards the gazans the way they've been suffering from this blockade that has been the provocation as well blockade there is a border to reject the roughest border it's opened do you know that every day we allow patients from gaza to get hospitalization in israel despite the rocket fire do you know that we supply electricity to gaza we supply truckl

our fred pleitgen, live for us in ashkelon, israel. fred, thank you. >>> five minutes here past the hour. susan rice now publicly defending the comments she made in the aftermath of the september 11th terrorist attack in benghazi on the u.s. consulate there. rice initially suggested the attack was sparked by protests over that anti-muslim film. well, now the u.s. ambassador to the u.n. is insisting that she was relying solely on information provided by u.s. intelligence agencies and says she made it clear at the time the information was preliminary. and she had this to say to one of her harshest critics. >> i have great respect for senator mccain and his service to our country. i always have and i always will. i do think that some of the statements he's made about me have been unfounded, but i look forward to having the opportunity at the appropriate time to discuss all of this with him. >> rice says she believes everyone, especially intelligence officials, were working in good faith to provide the best assessment of the events in beng

to stop the rockets flying from hamas and gaza, and heading towards southern israeli cities, like ashkelon and ashdod. so, that is the aim. if that does not stop. prime minister benjamin netanyahu made it clear they are ready to go in for a ground incursion in gaza. rob and paula? >> many feel that hamas would be overmatched at that point. lama hasan, live from jerusalem. thanks for that report, lama. >>> he has stabbed a security guard and has been apprehended by police and say the man had an ax. an abc news crew is on the way to the scene. and we'll have more on "gma." >>> in case they are needed, the u.s. navy is moving three ships into the eastern mediterranean. that's if they're needed for the promote possibility that americans need to be evacuated from israel. the state department right now says it is not even contemplating evacuation. >>> and we have breaking news overnight from california. four men are in custody charged with planning to kill americans. the fbi says, the plot's ringleader was a follower of al awlaki. the terror leader who died in a drone attack last year. two of th

this is the aftermath of a rocket strike in the town of ashkelon.rockets that hit ashkelon came here and hit this car port and did substantial damage to the car, as well. the iron dome system has been billed as a game changer in this conflict. but as hits like this one show, it cannot intercept all the rockets that are coming at israel from gaza. still israel's military says it's very happy with the performance of the interceptor system. >> usually down. usually these rockets are the ones who are launched from the terrorist factions. towards the biggest cities where you have more people living. we usually down them but it's not a 100% solution unfortunately. >> reporter: and so the engineers at the assembly plant are working extra hours to assemble more iron dome batteries for immediate deployment. cnn, ashkelon, israel. >>> so what does this cost? let me dig into the costs of the system. it costs $62,000 every time a missile is fired from the iron dome. in 2011 the israeli military said the system had a 70% success rate. and the united states has a

allen pizzey, cbs news, ashkelon, southern israel. >>> now the other side of gaza where residents are facing daily missile strikes that are getting deadlier by the day. charlie d'agata is live in gaza city. >> reporter: good morning to you, yes. all night long israeli fighter jets and avynavy warship continued a relentless attack. we were able to survey some of the damage driving around the city. there was police headquarters, two buildings that were completely leveled. we were also able to go to the hospital. we saw wounded, injured people on the way in. but we saw many more bodies leaving the hospitals on the way to the cemetery. it included some of the children that were hit in yesterday's air strike. now, the israelis will say they're hitting legitimate targets here, and they have hit legitimate targets here. but they're also hitting private residences, too. that's what's caused so much anger and despair and really hysteria in the scenes outside the hospital today. >> charlie d'agata in gaza city, thanks. >>> there's new pressure for egypt to step up and negotiate an end to the cu

. >>> so this is an assortment of rockets that have fallen over the ashkelon area. this is not all of them, there are more of them laying around. this is a rocket, you can tell by the fins that pop out when the rocket gets launched. whereas this is one of the homemade qassam rocket. >> he and his crew were forced to take cover a number of times. one american diplomat who understands what it took to negotiate the cease-fire and what it will take to maintain it. is george mitchell, special envoy from 2009-2011. he is schooled in the opposing viewpoints, and also in '99, chaired the committee to help with the agreements there. and i spoke to him about the difficulties that lie ahead. senator mitchell, how optimistic are you that this cease-fire can hold, and what would be the next steps in ensuring that it holds? >> well, it is critically important, the longer it goes on, with fighting and dying, the harder it is to solve any problem. on the other hand, past experience tells us it will be difficult to have a truly enforceable truce that will take hold over a longer per