thank you for joining us, i'm fredricka, and along with jim sciutto. we begin with the ground in gaza where the him crisis is growing and there are new warnings about the risk of fighting spilling on to other parts of the middle east. earlier today, president biden spoke with israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu. and their conversation comes as u.s. national security adviser jake sullivan warns there is an elevated risk of the conflict expanding in other parts of the region. the ux n. security council will hold an emergency meeting tomorrow about israel's ongoing ground invasion. troops continue to advance in what officials call the second stage of the war. the idf said it's air strikes hit more than 450 hamas targets in the last day including command centers, observation posts and missile launch sites. and today dramatic scenes from gaza's second largest hospital. the palestinian red crescent said nearby israeli shelling has caused damage even as 12,000 gaza civilians are currently sheltering there. desperation is sinking in for many civilians st

i'm jim sciutto in northern israel. we learned a short time ago that a u.s.ine rapid response force is headed to the eastern mediterranean. this as the u.s. continues to warn its citizens to leave lebanon, lebanon the home base of hezbollah. hezbollah has been firing rockets and artillery into northern israel, concern among u.s. officials about an expansion of this war on to israel's northern border perhaps involving hezbollah which is backed by iran. our ben wedeman is in beirut. i wonder, as this warning has gone out for a number of days now to u.s. citizens, are thee heeding that warning and what are the level of concern for the safety of u.s. citizens in that country? >> reporter: i think the immediate concern is that in the event there is an escalation of the situation and israel does a repeat of what it did in the beginning of the 2006 war, the airport will be struck by israeli aircraft and it will be out of actionmen and that is wh happened in 2006. the u.s. had to deal with evacuating thousands of americans. keep in mind that lebanon has many dual leb

i'm jim sciutto in northern israel. as israeli military action expands in gaza, one of the deepest concerns is for the hostages still held there by hamas, numbering some 230. many israelis, but many other nationalities as well, thais, americans. today u.s. national security adviser jake sullivan was asked by my colleague jake tapper what the status was of u.s. efforts not just to release the americans but also americans who were trapped in gaza, american citizens and civilians trapped in gaza by the ongoing war there. have a listen to how he answered. >> so just as there is ongoing discussions and negotiations over the hostages, we are facing a similar situation with the american citizens and other foreign nationals who are trapped in gaza. it is true the egyptians are prepared to allow american citizens and foreign nationals to come through the gate into egypt. the israelis have no issue with that. hamas has been preventing their departure and making a series of demands. i can't go through those demands in public. that

our cnn and chief national security analyst jim sciutto has reporting and our colleague jim lieberman. is it clear what missiles intercepted were aiming at? aiming at the u.s. ship or is it clear? >> reporter: not clear in initial assessments who the absolute target was of this but close enough to u.s. assets there that they shot those projectiles down, intercepted them successfully. this is our understanding at this point. two u.s. officials telling myself and my colleague that the u.s. navy sdrdestroyer was operating off the coast of yemen intercepting missiles. one fired by houthis there and the issue being where you are, kaitlan, kearnconcerns about escalation and the various parties have proxies. hamas a proxy for iran as is hezbollah and lebanon to and houthis to a large number as well. could come from iron irani forc irani-backed forces. and something such as unintended, prap the u.s. destroyer was not the target, close enough it intercepts and you imagine the scenario where it does intercept and the u.s. assets come into danger. that is the witches' brew of dangers that are mi

our jim sciutto is on the israeli side. jim, what do you see? >> john, it is interesting that in the last hour, the idf confirmed another israeli strike inside of lebanon going after what they call the hezbollah infrastructure and we have seen it once a day and multiple times a day as they received fire from the lebanese side, and hezbollah and other fighters have targeted the order of the fire with air strikes and artillery, and as we are speaking together, we can hear the artillery fire off to the left, and you will have this going on back and forth throughout the day, and wherever we go along the border here in the north, and not to the degree where an entire new front is opening up, but where you can say that iran proxies in lebanon and syria are showing the power and presence and showing that they can strike israeli territory, and seeing the forces like the ones that i am here, and this is an israeli unit, and the merka tanks here are stationed for -- well, they don't know whether it is defensive operations, and they have certainly not been

cnn's jim sciutto is with us from northern israel. jim, israel has said that it will send troops into gaza to seize territory. is that what's happening now? what's the situation? >> reporter: that is what the idf is saying this morning that israeli troops, both artillery units, tank units, armored units, infantry have entered fwz for sustained ground operations. we should report we have limited visibility. we're relying on the idf for the extent of the operation and largely what we can see are israeli strikes from the air. beginning last night, our correspondents on the border there, we could see the explosions, which were at a rate we had. seen since those october 7th attacks. then we saw the air strikes, artillery strikes calm down a bit, and appears what followed is this expanded ground operation. again, we know what the idf is telling us as well as the goal of the operations. they say they're expanded. they say they include units, again, armored infantry and engineering units. the question is how long will they be there and what ar

cnn's national security analyst jim sciutto is on the ground in north israel. jim, the idf says the idf has struck what they call terror tunnels. what more do we know about these underground targets? >> reporter: this is one of the biggest challenges. picture a city under the city, an elaborate network of tunnels which hamas uses as command posts, stage areas, and places that can be booby t-trapped but also where israel believes hostages are being held. this requires a whole other kind of warfare, in effect. that's why it's notable as we heard from the idf spokesman that there's infantry armor and units. they're likely involved in addressing the tunnels. and we've also seen attempted to attack the tunnels from the air. we know israeli air force jetss have been dropping bunker busting bombs which have the capability of penetrating many yards underground through concrete to try to target facilities. again, those tunnels are built to withstand air attacks. so that's going to require a whole different kind of warfare, and it's one of the reasons that the u.s. view o

jim sciutto in northern israel. our thanks to jim. kate?>> minutes from now we'll hear from the u.s. secretary of state and the defense secretary both on capitol hill to testify before senators on the biden administration's ask for $106 billion in aid for both israel and ukraine, but this comes as we have been discussing of this growing opposition to linking these two funding requests. the growing opposition coming really amongst republicans in the house. let's get to natasha bertrand for us. what are we expecting to hear from both tony blinken and lloyd austin as they go for appropriators yet? >> reporter: we haven't getotte their prepared remarks just yet. we expect it to be similar to the pitch president biden made in his speech to the people early they are month in which he advocated for the u.s. congress to pass this supplemental bill that would provide additional funding to ukraine and israel, and he emphasized the importance, the national security interest for the u.s. to provide that money now. he said hamas and putin represent diff

i'm jim sciutto in northern israel. a short time ago we learned that israeli forces struck targets inside syria just to the northeast of where we are. that is in addition to strikes from israel into southern lebanon against hezbollah targets as well as strikes from southern lebanon into israel and also syria into israel. it gives you a sense of the scope of the war, how israel is fighting this, in effect, on multiple fronts right now. although of course the principle front remains its expanding military activity inside gaza in response to the october 7th attacks. our nic robertson is in southern israel. he's been watching this closely since the beginning. and nic, tomorrow, just like on friday, in fact, when there was a u.n. resolution calling for an immediate truce in gaza, there will be another gathering at the u.n. security council to apply more pressure on israeli officials to limit their campaign. i wonder, if israel responding to this pressure in terms of how it is carrying out military activity on the ground in g

cnn's jim sciutto is on the northern israeli border with lebanon. jim, what can you tell us about these latest clashes? >> reporter: well, jake, two things become very clear the moment you come up here. one is that israeli forces are taking the threat from the north, a threat from hezbollah, extremely seriously. they have many tens of thousands of forces arrayed up here in a defensive posture for now to prevent in effect what happened on october 7th from gaza happening up here in the north. and the second thing that becomes clear, and i spent and our team spent most of the day with israeli forces on the northern border, is that the threat they see from hezbollah every day is very real. a triple threat in effect from sniper fire, rocket fire as well as the threat of ground incursions across the border. as we were there up close, they told us to move very quickly through what they knew to be lines of fire. they have drones in the air, armed drones, the israelis do, looking for hezbollah forces just on the other side to take them out in effect before th

. >>> let's bring in jim sciutto. he's in northern israel. jim, what is the latest on israel's offensive in gaza especially given netanyahu's comments today that israel will simply not agree to any sort of cease-fire. >> well the headline, from his comments and he did not leave any uncertain about that, is that israel is going to continue pushing forward. we're limited with our vision into gaza by what we could see from the outside, from jeremy's standpoint and what the idf shares. what the idf has shared is simply there is armor on ground, tanks and personnel carriers and infantry and engineering units used to breach some of those hamas defenses, tunnels and ieds, et cetera and they've killed dozens of terrorists and made some forward progress. it appears at this point several miles into gaza and appears approaching from more than one direction. from the north and also from the east. moving towards gaza city where one could expect that they will face greater resistance. this is the area of more urban and this is an area where it is expected i

jim sciutto in the northern israel. thank you so much. >>> hamas circulating a video this week showing three of its many hostages, 240 or something alive an one of them danielle alony, i'll speak to her brother next. c'mon, we're right there. c'mon baby. it's the only we need. go, go, go, go! ah! touchdown baby! -touchdown! are your neighbors watching the same game? yeah, my 5g home internet delays the game a bit. but you get used to it. try these. they're noise cancelling earmuffs. i stole them from an airport. it's always something with you, man. great! solid! -greek salad? exactly! don't delay the game with verizon or t-mobile 5g home internet. catch it on the xfinity 10g network. >>> welcome back to "the lead." moments ago flares lighted up over gaza, you see them on the left side of the screen as isreal continues to target the area with strikes aimed at hamas. israel estimates there are some 240 hostages still held by hamas in gaza, only four have been released since their capture by hamas on october 7th. one was r

cnn's jim sciutto has our report. >> [speaking in a non-english language] >> an israeli tank, inside gaza apparently fired on a passenger vehicle. a sniper takes that position in the window of an abandoned building. the israeli infantry advancing on the ground. and in a brief moment of apparent trialed, israeli soldiers raise the israeli flag over a gaza hotel. >> the outside world vision into the extent and size of the israeli ground offensive, so far, is limited. the idf said those ground forces have struck some of their first target. >> dozens of terrorist were eliminated last night. who had barricaded themselves and buildings and attempted to attack the forces that were moving in their direction. >> one measure of their forward progress, cnn geolocated the video where the soldier raised the flag on the hotel. more than two miles inside gaza. one geographical marker in a ground campaign, playing out mostly. what were available for israeli strikes on gaza, and rockets fired from gaza into israel. despite weeks of israeli bombardment, a masochistic e pick up its rocket campaign. the

jim sciutto is along israel's northern border with lebanon. i want to go to him. what are you seeing there tonight, and obviously a lot of eyes will be on that border if and when this operation in gaza really expands? >> no question, israel's been watching this northern border very closely since october 7th for a reaction, the possibility of a second front from hezbollah, of course also hamas backed by iran, and in particular a greater alert as they've expanded operations now no gaza. today up here we saw two hezbollah strikes towards israel, one falling in israel, another one that seemed to go off course and go into northern syria. israel responding to those. and as we've been up here, we've heard outgoing israeli artillery. at this point, though, it has maintained sort of what you might call a low simmer of tensions between hezbollah and israel. the real concern is as those operations expand into gaza that hezbollah would amp up its reaction and attempt to attack more aggressively, and i can tell you having spoken to idf forces up here over the last several days

i want to bring in our jim sciutto who is in northern israel along the border with lebanon. jim, let's talk about what you're seeing there and also what you are hearing internationally, both from israel's allies and from their enemies. >> so you have from their enemies clear warning, you had the iranian foreign minister say on npr that their fingers are on the trigger, they being iranian proxy forces around the region, and we witnessed that since we've been in northern israel up on the lebanese border. we've seen regular speaking to idf forces there, regular strikes from hezbollah both from the air in the form of artillery, sniper fire, but also attempted ground incursions, and of course we saw these attacks elsewhere in the region on u.s. bases in syria and iraq, which is why you saw the u.s. fire back today with those strikes on iranian bases in eastern syria. that is how israel's enemies are reacting, and the question has been will they amp up those attacks from the north, from the northeast in the event of a major ground operation in gaza, and if this is indeed that major

jim sciutto is in northern israel. jim, what are you hearing? what are you seeing right now in northern israel? >> reporter: in the north today there were sporadic attacks from hezbollah on a pace that we've seen for a number of days almost going back to october 7th. in effect hezbollah reminding israel we are here, we can strike in numbers if we want to. so far those strikes have been limited. of course the question is, and the reason you have many tens of thousands of idf forces up here in the north is if israel were to expand its operations inside gaza as we seem to be witnessing tonight, will hezbollah react more definitively in a more devastating way. we cents seen that yet -- we haven't seen that yet tonight, but there's certainly forces up here, the israeli forces up here are on alert for exactly that. what's notable as we watch events in gaza is that it's not just in the north that we're seeing these air strikes at a level we haven't seen since october 7th. our reporters on the southern side of gaza, from egypt, are reporting similarly u

jim sciutto cnn in northern israeli. >> i'll be back with israel's continuing war, please stay with us. to duckduckgo on all your devie duckduckgo comes with a built-n engine like google, but it's pi and doesn't spy on your searchs and duckduckgo lets you browse like chrome, but it blocks cooi and creepy ads that follow youa from google and other companie. and there's no catch. it's fre. we make money from ads, but they don't follow you aroud join the millions of people taking back their privacy by downloading duckduckgo on all your devices today.

cnn's jim sciutto is also now reporting from tel aviv, joining us live. jim, what can you tell us about the intelligence being shared right now with the united states? >> reporter: wolf, from the beginning, the question has been how did israeli intelligence and u.s. intelligence, two of the most highly capable intelligence services in the world, miss this? how did they not detect planning, training, communications prior to the october 7th attacks? and with what we're learning today, we now have at least one indication how that was possible. that is that hamas fighters, for as long as two years, were using land phone lines -- phone lines installed in the network, the labyrinth of tunnels they've built underground in gaza to communicate amongst themselves as they were planning this attack. those land lines cannot be intercepted by the highly capable surveillance technology that the u.s. and israel have, particularly israel, pointed at gaza. so they used, in effect, old-fashioned technology, land lines, in the tunnels to communicate. and that is one significa

jim sciutto reports now. >> reporter: main street, normally the busy center of town, now abandoned. the 2,000 residents fled in the wake of the october 7th attacks. part of a mandatory evacuation of communities too close to the border of lebanon and hamas. now there are hundreds of idf soldiers. we don't identify them due to security. >> they're under attack here on other places in the area. so we need to keep ourselves under cover to make sure we won't be exposed. >> matteau la is surrounded on three sides by lebanon, on territories controlled by hezbollah, and that's why the area has been evacuated and soldiers face three athletes, sniper fire, rocket fire, and also the possibility of ground incursions. one happened days ago and they're on constant alert of the next one. the town mayor has the job of relocating residents further south and keeping the town ready for residents to return. the when is far from clear. what's clear is the old status quo is no longer sustainable for those living this far north, not with hezbollah fighters on their doorstep. >> translator: we don't want a

jim sciutto is in the golan heights for us and kim dozier also joins us. we want to go first to you, jim, on the scene there. bring us up to speed on what happened with the strikes overnight and why the u.s. made this move. >> reporter: good morning, kasie. standing here in the golan, you can see syria behind me here. just a reminder that in the northern part of israel and when you get to the golan, you have in effect two international borders that israel is directing its tension at, certainly lebanon, where hezbollah is based, and also syria where you have iranian-backed militias as well. the significance of these u.s. strikes overnight is that it appears to be retaliation for strikes on u.s. forces by iran-backed forces in both syria and iraq. but notably this is a base that doesn't just have at times iranian-backed militias, it has actual iranian forces from the iran revolutionary guard core, the irgc. and it is not clear that the u.s. prior to these strikes was certain that there were no iranian personnel there. in other words, a risk there that these u

let's bring in our anchor and chief national security analyst jim sciutto and military analyst cedrick lee joins us from washington. j jim, those drone attacks, minor injuries, but 21 u.s. service members. the u.s. is going to have to respond in some way. what do you make of what they chose to do in this moment? >> reporter: it's notable. i should note where i'm nou. i syria is just behind me. it's a reminder when you get into the northern parts of israel, you have lebanon with hezbollah directly to the north. when you look to the east, you have iranian-backed militias in syria. what was notable to me in lloyd austin's statement was that these attacks were targeting a facility that had not just iran-backed militias, but also is known to be a base for iran revolutionary guard core. so specifically, iranian personnel, not clear if they were there at the time, but this is a bases that's been used by them. so you can look at this strike as a direct u.s. strike on iranian forces in the region. and that's significant because as lloyd austin said in explaining these strike, they looked a at t

cnn's jim sciutto is with us now from northern israel.o, israel promised a major ground offensive after the attacks by hamas on october 7th. is it clear yet that this is the beginning of that? that we are seeing that ground incursion in a major way or is this potentially something else? >> reporter: well, victor, it's the beginning of something. that's no question. because israel is now confirming the idf spokesperson confirming that israeli ground forces are inside gaza and operating. those ground forces include infinity, armor, engineering units as well and this, of course, follows what we were witnessing last night, our teams on the border including nic robertson were witnessing last night which is a vastly expanded air campaign. that includes air strikes from war planes as well as artillery fire and other strikes on targets there in advance of this ground operation. so, a bigger ground operation than we had seen previously, since october 7th. the open questions remain, victor and amara, how big exactly and the duration of this ground

. >> real fears of a growing regional war here, jim sciutto, on the ground. please stay safe. thank you for that report. >>> and i want to turn to sara sidner in tel aviv. things are intensifying in israel. what could you tell us about the strikes on the other side of the southern border with gaza? >> reporter: look, we heard there were going to be escalating strikes and there have been. there is also a ground war that is going on with israeli soldiers in gaza as we speak. but it is not the massive ground war that i think was expected. you are seeing a smaller number of israeli soldiers as you know, there are more than 300,000 reserves who have been called up an on the border between israel and gaza. so we're seeing an expanded ground operation. we're seeing the heavy, heavy air strikes that have been going on and on. and that has been really for days. that we've been seeing that. it is just pounding gaza. and they are telling, as you mentioned, the palestinian civilians to go from north to the south. but there have been air strikes in the south. and so there is a lot of const

let's go to our chief national security analyst jim sciutto on the ground in northern israel. update our viewers, what's the latest? >> reporter: wolf, still assessments under way as to the extent of civilian casualties, and also the result of this strike. first on the casualties, reports on the ground for as many as hundreds of killed and wounded. those on the ground responding to this saying many more victims are still buried under rubble, so they're still assessing the exact extent of those casualties there. and then in terms of the target, of course the idf says the target of this was a hamas leader involved in the october 7th attacks, ibrahim biari. they say they successfully struck and killed him and other hamas fighters. hamas is denying biari was killed. what is clear is this was an enormous munition or munitions in a highly, very densely populated part of gaza in this refugee camp. an enormous munition that collapsed as many as 40 homes around that target and possibly collapsed underground tunnels as well, which added to the destruction. that part is clear. how many c

jim sciutto, cnn, in northern israel. >>> all right. for a military perspective, let's bring in malcolm davis. thanks so much for being here with us again. what we're seeing from israel right now, do you think this signals the start of the main invasion? >> look, kim, it could. i think that what you are seeing is certainly a ramping up of artillery and air strikes against hamas positions across gaza, and that generally does suggest the preliminary stages of an invasion. you prepare the battle space. you attack known targets. you clear defenses before you send in ground forces because the last thing you'd want to do would be sending ground forces in to fully prepared positions. if you can wear down those positions as much as possible prior to sending in ground forces, then there's less likely to be friendly casualties in the process. >> that might explain what we're being told here. according to the idf, they've targeted some 150 underground targets, what it called terror tunnels and underground combat spaces. what do you make of those s

to jim sciutto who is in northern israel where israeli troops are facing off against hezbollah. jim, what are you seeing on the ground there as this heavy bombardment by the israelis of hamas and gaza is under way? >> reporter: so today, two attacks by hezbollah, i should probably call them attempted attacks by hezbollah on northern israel, one that fell to the ground here, did not injure anyone. one that seemed to go off course into syria. reports later this evening of some shelling around golan, that coming from the syrian side, it seemed, but not to any increased pace from what we've seen in recent days and that's despite a very high level of alert among the idf forces here that we've encountered and it's interesting, because there was a statement a short time ago come flag a senior hamas -- >> we're hearing big explosions in gaza right now. >> reporter: i can hear them as well. >> i can hear that as well. >> reporter: the point is hamas as it is under fire as you're witnessing as we're witnessing tonight, those israeli air strikes, hamas leadership seems to be underwhelmed by

remains to be seen. >> jim sciutto, extremely helpful. thank you very much. >>> clashes at the lebanon/israel border north of israel over the past week have been raising fears about a wider regional war. earlier today israel announced mandatory evacuation of an israeli city near lebanon and pulled that back. we will speak to lebanon's minister of foreign affairs next. is it possible my network could take my business to the next level? it is with comcast business. powering all your devices with gig-speed wifi. and you get fast downloads and uploads. pick it up! pick it up! oh we got this! because it's powered by the next generation 10g network. more speed for your business? it's not just possible. it's happening. get started for $59.99 a month for 12 months. plus, ask how to get an $800 prepaid card with a qualifying internet bundle. comcast business, powering possibilities. >>> you're looking at live pictures in ramallah and the west bank and on the other side of the screen pictures from a short while ago in egypt. this is just part of wh

light on and we support them as best as possible, because they reflect who we are as a people. >> jim sciutto, your thoughts? >> well, it's notable today that the president making clear the u.s. does not want the get involved in direct conflict with russia over ukraine or in direct conflict, say, with iran over the war in israel. but what we saw today was just how dangerous the possibility is at least of escalation. you had a case off the coast of yemen. we reported earlier where missiles were fired from houthi rebels. they're iran-backed. the question at the time were they fired at the u.s. destroyer or elsewhere? the u.s. destroyer took them out, took several of them out. we learned later that in fact those missiles appear to be headed towards israel, a chance of opening up another front against israel, not just from the north, say with hezbollah, also backed by iran, but here houthi rebels to israel's east. at the same time today, we saw u.s. forces fired on in syria and in iraq, again by what are in effect proxy forces for iran. and you have two u.s. carrier groups now in the eastern medi

cnn's jim sciutto is with us from northern israel. so jim, is it clear what we are watching? is this the incursion that leads to the seizure of territory that the idf said that it would attempt? >> we don't know, frankly, because the idf is providing only very limited information about the scope, the number of forces inside gaza, what period of time and what the ultimate goal is. we're basically reporting what we can see, which is a large scale aerial operation, yesterday air strikes, artillery fire, and then a ground incursion today, which israeli defense forces spokes people have confirmed is under way. what we are seeing in this region is deep opposition to an expansion of the ground offensive by israeli forces inside gaza. i had the opportunity a short time ago to speak to the foreign minister of jordan, of course, close u.s. ally about, list reaction. here is what he had to say. >> it is going to make it impossible, with the number of casualties, it is going to sink us deep near this abyss, and then what? another war to be added to the many wars we've had in the region?

jim sciutto, cnn, northern israel. >>> clare sebastian has been tracking the latest for us.et's begin of what israel is describing as the active rescue of a hostage. from release to active rescue. i think, trying to make the point that the ground incursion doesn't necessarily prohibit the release of hostages, which is the families' concern. >> yeah. i think that's exactly the point here. this was the first of its kind. we've seen hamas release four hostages, they said, on humanitarian grounds. this is the first time we've seen an actual rescue. and the wording is critical. listen how the israeli spokesperson described this to cnn's anderson cooper. she was rescued, actively rescued. a joint idf and isa israeli security agency operation, with boots on the ground. thanks to the ground operations that we're conducting in northern gaza. special forces were able to come in and based on intelligence, get her out. >> this was female idf soldier. the emphasis there is on israel using this as proof, they say, the ground operations serves, rather than threatens efforts to get hostages

targeted the hamas leader's compound there, and i do want to get right to the very latest with jim sciutto who is with northern israel who has seen ingoing or outgoing fighters who are based there in the southern part of the country, jim, and tell us what you are seeing. >> so, john, just to place us. we are less than a half mile of the border, and smoke and flames are dipping up above the horizon from the cross-border exchange of the rocket fire, mortar fire, and in the last few minutes here, we are hearing boom after boom, and whether it is additional shells being fired or the secondary explosions from the first one, you see the smoke rising there, and it is a measure of what is a low-grade conflict going on along the border here. these exchanges are happening multiple times a day. short time ago, the idf told us of another strike in the israeli town of aramshaw where we were over the weekend, and more mortar shells are dropping there. it is a low grade, and not what we are seeing in gaza, but it is a measure of both sides testing each other at the northern border. and one more measure,

analyst jim sciutto is standing by in tel aviv. what have you learned?reporter: there was some question going back to october 7th, how hamas carried out this enormous assault on israel. highly complicated, without being detected by israeli intelligence prior. israeli intelligence highly capable. focused on the activities of hamas in gaza. and the new reporting gets to some of that answer, noting that what hamas did was build, not just a network of tunnels under gaza, but hard land lines, phone lines that they use this there to communicate for some two years prior to this assault. those land lines could not be intercepted by israeli intelligence. it's highly capable. and that's one of the ways they managed to keep this quiet and attack with that surprise, that devastating surprise, that we witnessed on october 7th. it's not unlike, john, with alak qaeda. what bin laden was forced to do after 9/11. focusing on cure curriers, not electronic messages. that's a discovery. it speaks to hamas' preparations for this attack. >> israel has had a complicated relati

jim sciutto cnn in northern israel. >>> the united nations general assembly, 120 countries voted in favorsolution introduced by jordan friday. it calls for an immediate durable and sustained truce. humanitarian access. and a reversal of israel's owpghts ever gaza. release of all civilians being held cap pif but does not name hamas as cap force. a kahn aidian resolution was rejected the other day. grand central station terminal new york friday night calling for a cease fire in gaza. now the demonstration remained peaceful. it did have a knock-on effect though for travelers with some passengers being delayed. a protest in fact of this size and scale in grand central is quite unusual and it's certain to disrupt things for several hours. >>> the israeli government is moving ahead to rebuild the towns in gaza that were savagely assaulted on october 7th. almost 1400 people were murdered many of them in their own home. benjamin netanyahu, he says security would be the top priority as the communities are made whole again. meantime volunteers were at the site of many of the massacres cleaning up t

my colleague, jim sciutto, interviewed the jordanian foreign minister on his thoughts now that the israeli military is on the ground in gaza. >> reporter: you said prior to these ground operations today that in an israeli ground offensive there would be a human catastrophe. now that operations have begun, i wonder what is your reaction? >> thank you, jim. i said actually after the operation started last night, after i saw it on your screen, that this is just going to bring a humanitarian catastrophe of epic proportions. we all stand by that because we know how devastating the air campaign is, the ground war is going to make it an impossibility. the number of death and casualties, it's going to sink us deeper into this abyss. and then what? another war to be added to the many wars we've had in the region. that saved no one. our position is we need to stop this war. we need to go back to a peace path that will save palestinian, israeli, and other lives. >> reporter: when you have expressed that position both in public and privately to u.s. diplomats, have they listened to your opposition to

jim sciutto is live with more. it's the biggest question i'm hearing from u.s. officials. is hezbollah going to keep them from getting involved. what's your sense on the ground? >> one thing is clear. it's a conflict underway on the border. they are firing art illery. ieds coming in via small pir chutes also attempted ground incursions braerking through the walls here. and israel firing back. we got caught in the middle of that in one of thosevill amgs right up along the edge of the border. a village that is cut down the middle by the wall separating. and it shows us the intensity of this conflict up here so far. have a look. >> they are most ly deserted no. evacuated due to fear of attacks h hezb hezbollah. from his rioof, he shows us whee fighters attempted to cross the border just a few days ago. minutes after we arrived, we see the threat is constant. hezbollah shells fired from across the border land on the hillside just opposite us. we are on a border town between israel on this side and just beyond the fence is lebanon. as we have been standing here, we see the smok

earlier, former cia operative bob baer spoke with jim sciutto. >> going back to 2006, 2007, hezbollah has been preparing for attacks like this. crossing borders by paragliders, keeping secrecy to the very last minute. and there is a close coordination between hezbollah and hamas. how that exactly worked in this case, i don't know. i would imagine that a lot had to do with it. more than anything, it's hamas's communications discipline. if they're using push to talk radios, they weren't on it. if they were using apps, they weren't on those. they completely went radio silence before this attack and they've gotten better over the years. they can the israelis listen to all their phone calls. all of them. i've been in the israeli listening sites and exchanges on the border. every single call, they listen in. the palestinians know that and accounted for that. and their fighting forces are getting better over the years. but more than anything, israel lacks sources inside the military command of hamas. that is a great failure. know they try to get them but they can't do it. look at gaza is lik

cnn's jim sciutto is with me. >> in a war full of astonishing moments of the depravity of what was witnessed on october 7th, this is one of those moments, as you listen to the audio, playing to the u.n. security council, an attempt to show the depth of the depravity behind these act. this gets to the mindset behind it, that one of the attackers involved here and that seemed to be one they were playing. cnn can't confirm of where or how it was recorded. >> i would like to listen to this recording. >> this is a terrorist of hamas, what he said there in arab, telling to his mother and father, that he's proud that there's blood of the jewish that he murdered. >> what struck me listening to this audio here and we have covered too many terror attacks we can barely account for all of them, we'll often see the depravity itself as it's played out, we don't often get a vision into the mind set of the people playing it out. what you hear here is the depth of the hatred where a young man would brag about it to his parents and his parents would respond with pride. >> a new level of personalization in thi

. >> jim sciutto, thanks very much. >>> the rise of anti-semitism. a mob of men rampaging through the airport searching for passengers getting off a plane from israel. fred pleitgen has more on the incident i israel's prpresident cocompared to o -- . >>> as we mentioned earlier, israel's prime minister benjamin netanyahu said, this is a time of war. a number of allies are working for a humanitarian pause. president biden spoke with netanyahu sunday for the first time since the expanded ground operation began. and according to the white house, the president spoke about the need to increase aid and meet the needs of civilians in gaza. ambassador, thanks for being with us. this idea of expanding humanitarian aid into southern gaza, assuming inspections of those vehicles is possible before they leave egypt, why wouldn't that be something that israel would encourage, both from obviously humanitarian standpoint but even a tactical standpoint. wouldn't it encourage more gazans to head south? >> good evening. good to be with you, anderson. this is one of the

cnn's jim sciutto spoke to one israeli soldier about the difficulty of asking people to leave their homes indefinitely. >> do you believe people will be able to come back to a town like mid to late again, or is it just too close to lebanon and -- hezbollah. >> -- make them feel protected and make them feel safe and to protect them if it's necessary in our own life. and -- -- as someone who backed his -- and still in his eyes and. see my own house. >> -- our guest is israel's volunteer rescue service were he springs into election in. october 7th a heeded the call and some paid the ultimate price. we want to warn you, some of what you are about to hear is disturbing. >> translator: frantically's new what was going on immediately. >> [speaking in a non-english language] >> caller after caller under student pleaded for help. >> [speaking in a non-english language] >> it was a deliberate terrorist attack. calls rang out in this busy jerusalem call center at the headquarters of united -- or a united rescue. the all volunteer first responders group is nearly 7000 strong, across israel. using hig

jim sciutto, cnn in northern israel. >>> well, a communications blackout in gaza is now making the crisis even more complicated for people trying to help. earlier my colleague kim brunhuber spoke to dr. ze zeher zehu, a founder of -- helping with the dire medical needs there. here he is. >> with the blockade of -- and prevention of food and medicine and medical supplies, and water, clean water, the situation, i cannot imagine what's happening right now to the civilians in gaza. and now with the ground invasion that will complicate it further and going to cause more attacks on civilians, more bombs, more injuries, unfortunately, two-thirds of the injuries are women and children, very large number of children who were killed and injured. and also it will probably collapse what's left of the medical system has lost two-thirds of its capacity, consuming large number of medical supplies, every day during this crisis is consumed in the hospital worth of one month of consumption before the crisis. and add to it the lack of clean water, lack of electricity. many core functions of the hospitals wi

cnn's jim sciutto is live at a staging post where israeli troops are preparing for further attacks from hezbollah. what are you seeing on the ground there? >> reporter: phil, if you want a sense of the level alert up here in the north for the possibility of a second front in this war, you get it here. this is in northern israel, normally a bustling down of young families and older people, students. it's empty, under mandatory evacuation it has been after a day after the october 7th attacks. it's surrounded three sides by lebanon to the north and here as well and the soldiers tell me they are under constant lookout for sniper fire, rocket fire, ground incursions. a few miles from here several days ago a hezbollah unit crossed the border. they were engaged by the idf and killed. they say they were probing attacks similar to that most days. that is the level of the alert here. when you speak to soldiers here, most of them reservists, called up since october 7th, they feel like they are fighting for the safety of their country now. one of them said to me, it feels like a second war of indep

phil and poppy, this particular strike we understand a spokesperson for the idf speaking to jim sciutto saying they have no comment and no information about in block. so more will be forthcoming. but as selma says, people are dead, we don't know the death toll and there is more tragedy and more things needing to be answered. back to you. >> thank you very much. we will get back to you very soon. with us now is retired four-star general and former cia director david petraeus. he is now the chairman. kkr global institute and co-author of conflict, tracing the evolution of warfare from 1945 to now. thank you. let's start where erin left off and the importance of accuracy in all of this. you quote winston churchill saying, i think 1943, in wartime truth is so pressures that you should always be attended by bodyguard of lies. how do you think about this now in this war? >> we have seen a number of cautionary tales here about the first report is always wrong, which is a truism in the military. let's pause and get additional information, let's try to develop it, so forth. so the reaction to at

we go to jim sciutto, and what are you hearing? >> kate, as israel begins ground operations there in gaza, is that there isis a concern theres going to be a reaction from the main street here in gaza which is evacuated and has been in the hours and the days after the ground streets. it is surrounded on three sides by lebanon, territory controlled by hezbollah, and in fact, if you are looking down the street here at the bottom of the hill, that is lebanon. i have been speaking to the soldiers based here, and they are the only occupants of betula, and they say constant threat of the sniper fire which is why i am laying down low here on the main street, and this main street is in the line of fire, sniper fire, rocket fire and the threat of ground incursions. in recent days the ground incursion was in the days where some were able to get across before there were others killed by rocket fire. and the concern is when hezbollah may apply more pressure. we can hear the drones flying overhead, and they are armed drones that may take out spo

republican congressman mike lawler told my colleague jim sciutto he does not think trump should comeo capitol hill and interfere in any way in the speaker process. do you know how trump plans to weigh in, or whom he might try to support? >> all of those are really great questions. and look, my colleague mr. lawler from new york is a great friend of mine. i can understand his hesitation. but president donald j. trump is still the leader of the republican party. in terms of his influence in who he would like to see as speaker, he has yet to make that clear. i know very much where i would like to see the conference go, in what direction. but under president donald trump's policies, he has been a great president, but i believe to get to 218 votes within this conference, it's going take a lot of us to come together and to be comfortable with the uncomfortable dealing with a lot of these issues. and i believe that we can get there. but i don't know if that would be the most helpful thing. i certainly welcome the president's presence, if you would like to come up to capitol hill, i'd love t

so our chief national security analyst jim sciutto has this new video "outfront." >> reporter: on tuesday, a hamas terrorist team attempting to enter israel from gaza by sea, an idf video which cnn cannot independently verify, israeli naval forces seen intercepting the divers, gunning them down on the beach and in the water. it is not the first time hamas has attempted to enter israel by sea. during the october 7th attacks, hamas divers carried out another raid, and made it inside israeli territory before they were intercepted by the israeli navy. hamas' seaborn attacks demonstrate the continuing depth and breadth of hamas military capabilities even in the midst of devastating israeli airstrikes on gaza. hamas has now attacked by sea, land, and air. on october 7th, aerial drones disabled surveillance equipment along the gaza border. and fighters air-dropped into israel in motorized paragliders. fighters breached border walls and sped into southern israel on motorcycles and in armed suvs. hamas dive teams form a formidable third front. >> this force is one that is a combination of a terror

jim sciutto is live with more on the strikes. let's start with syria. what are you hearing from your sources about what happened there? >> reporter: these were significant strikes for the u.s. to carry out now. i should note where we are. that is syria just beyond those likes there. less than a half a mile from where we're standing, that's a u.n. base there. the u.s. carried out strikes on two bases inside syria. the eastern part of the country used not just by iranian-backed militias, and this is crucial, but also by the iranian islamic revolutionary guard corp. which the defense secretary referenced specifically. the u.s. knows that those bases are used not just by the iran-backed militias, but by iranians themselves. so this has the makings of a direct strike potentially on iranian personnel there. we don't know the results of that strike, how many casualties, but it shows the seriousness with which the u.s. has been taking those iranian-backed strikes on u.s. forces both in syria, but also in iraq. strikes that we know have injured u.s. service memb

we want to bring in jim sciutto now. just spoke to a long-time hostage representative. >> i spoke to jonathan franks, he's been in the release of the travis king case in north korea. i asked him what a release like this might indicate. he said given the number of hostages that hamas is holding to release two could be an attempt just to relieve the pressure somewhat. i mean, you are in the midst of a quite aggressive devastating israeli air campaign, threat of a ground offensive, demands for humanitarian supplies, to relieve the pressure does not necessarily portend that all the hostages are going to be freed quickly. he makes the point, and kaitlan made this point as well, that in previous hostage exchanges with hamas they've demanded a great deal in return, particularly when it involves a soldier, for instance, 1,000 palestinian prisoners were released. it may be as you look at this that you have different kinds of hostages. here is a mother and daughter, apparently the mother in ill health. they can make the case that