general wesley clark is joining us. as you see the flares being fired into the air off parts of gaza and what you're hearing from the idf, what do you make of what's going on? >> i think what we have here is what we would call a reconnaissance in force. it's a large force going in and looking to probe the enemy's defenses, find out reaction, collect intelligence, maybe take prisoners, get into the tunnel complex and may or may not stay in. if they find that this is advantageous approach and there's not much resistance an they're going to a strategic objective there inside gaza, maybe they'll hold their ground. if there's heavy resistance, maybe they'll pull back. i think this is one of those operations where the israelis have multiple options. they can come in from a different direction. they can hold. they can go under ground and deceive the enemy using smoke and other things about where they are. so this is [ inaudible ] -- [ no audio ] >> general clark, i'm not sure if you're still with us. i was having trouble heari

general wesley clark, appreciate it. thanks so much. >> thank you. >> people around the world are reacting to the war between israel and hamas. we will show you the global protests ahead. >>> we continue our breaking news coverage of the war between israel and hamas. sparking approaches around the world. supports of the israeli and palestinian causes held competing rallies in the u.s. and overseas. on the university of florida campus at least 30 people were injured last night. a witness says around 1,100 people have gathered for this candlelight vigil last night when someone fainted. that startled people and they started shouting and called 911. the confusion triggered a panic and sent the crowd running for their lives. people fell on top of one another. some were trampled. broken consultants, ribs, concussions, minor cuts. thankfully, in life-threatening injuries sbrn reported. joining us this morning to talk about what we're seeing around the world and what is happening right now on the ground cnn chief international a

. >>> let's dig deep we are cnn military analyst, retired four-star general wesley clark, who served as nato supreme allied commander and founded the group renew america together. great to have you this afternoon. i'm curious on your perspective on what israel is describing as the second wave of this ground attack against hamas in gaza. what have you seen so far that has stood out to you? >> so, israel's in on the ground. they're going to stay in on the ground. the question is what's the rate at which their occupation advances. so, what i see is more forces come in, and they're apparently two miles inside gaza. it looks like from the northwest as well as the northeast. my guess is they seal off an area, then work from all directions in it to clear it, search it room by room, get on the rooftops, go into the tunnel network underneath it, and make it secure before they go -- continue to go deep. they may, as they advance, they're going to run into resistance, they're going to stir things up, they're going to get communications intercepts, go into tunnels, they'll tap phone lines, they'

general wesley clark, we continue to see the bombardments in gaza, we appreciate you. >> thank you. >>> gaza is largely under a communications blackout amid the looming threat with the israeli ground defense as they continue targeting hamas. a local provider says most of the phone and internet leaks have been decimateted as thehe enclave is pounded. with the outside world are severely disruptive, not impossible multiple humanitarian groups saying they can't get in touch with their teams on the ground. in fact, palestinians who maintained connection reached by cnn say they have split their families if you can imagine. so at least some members would survive in case of an israeli airstrike. others talk about hearing explosions but without stable communications they can't check to see if their families are okay. the leader of the u.n. agency sent a dramatic message about the humanitarian situation. >> as we speak, people in gaza are dieting. they are not only dying from bombs and strike. soon, many more will die from the consequences of the gaza strip. basic occurrences, medicine is runni

doesn't help israel and it will be very tough to correct that impression out there. >> general wesley clark, thank you so much for your perspective. we appreciate it. thank you. >> stay with cnn. we're back in just a few minutes. pers! time to win is running out in our prize packed kick off the savings monopoly game! hurry in to play for your chance at over $25 million in prizes and money saving offers like this, and this, or even this. plus, you still have a shot at up to $100,000 in guaranteed prize money. stop in while you can still win and shop your favorite brands sporting the kick off the savings monopoly tag for unlimited bonus game tickets at lucky! ♪ ♪ >>> we've been seeing demonstrations against israel in a number of capitals in the region. i want to go to nara bashir where protesters are holding a rally to support palestinian people. nara, what's the central message you are hearing? >> look, anderson, we've been in the crowds all eeninvening and message we are hearing from the protesters here is the humanitarian situation and the rising civilian death toll and the ongoing israeli

. >>> we want to dig deeper with former nato supreme allied commander general wesley clark.eneral clark, thanks so much for being with us. what do you estimate is vladimir putin's calculation here, this missile going into an area that's full of civilians, not really a military target, and it's not exactly on the front lines? >> it's punishment, pure and simple. it's the russian way of war. the ukrainians are resisting, they should be killed, and that's the intent of the strike by the esconder missile. general, the timing of this is interesting, too, because it comes as support for the war in ukraine from the west is appearing to wane. there are doubts about whether congress will pass more funding for ukraine in the united states. zelenskyy right now is in spain, trying to court support from european allies. what do you make of the timing of this? >> i think it's a calculated gamble by putin. he believes, and i think this is wrong, but he believes that showing strength like this and punishing the ukrainian people will discourage western support. he believes that the west is w

we're joined now by general wesley clark. he was the supreme allied commander of nato during the kosovo war. general, thanks so much for sharing part of your afternoon with us. we saw this drone video of gaza earlier today. this is the aftermath of aerial strikes on the territory. i'm wondering what an israeli ground operation in this region is going to look like. >> well, first of all, they've got to pick the targets. and the way you would probably do this is to section off gaza, maybe block by block, figure out how to go in, isolate that area and work from the outside in. you've got to work against the tunnel network, and you've got to work against snipers and other people on the high ground. now, you've created a lot of rubble in the city right now. so you've got to stay away from those streets if you're trying to move armored vehicles in there. so that adds to the obstacles there. it's going to be a very tough, slow, painstaking operation. you've got to do it with maximum protection for your own troops because you have to

general wesley clark, thank you so much. appreciate you coming on. >>> and still to come, as israel prepares for the, quote, next stages of war, we'll hear from an israeli american who traveled from chicago after last saturday's attack to serve on the front lines. stay with us. 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. >>> right now a ground offensive could be imminent, israel says it has prepared for a new phase of the war. today u.s. secretary of state antony blinken promised that the rafah crossing will open providing a possible opportunity for evacuating c

recalibrate, and at that point, they might well decide to launch hezbollah, but not yet. >> general wesley clarkwe should note that the leader of hezbollah said he will speak on friday, several days from now. obviously the world will be watching very closely what he'll say. general clark, thank you very much. kate? >>> coming up for us, donald trump's kids are set to testify in his civil fraud trial in new york. what that could mean for them, for their dad, and for the family's business empire. >>> and we're also learning about new warnings that were coming from the main shooters, the murderer's ex-wife and son. what they told police back in may, and what we're learning about how he acquired up to 15 guns. >>> and ron desantis speaking out this morning after nikki haley is now touting being in second place behind trump in key early primary states. what this race looks like now after the first major republican contender drops out. mike pence's former chief of staff is our guest. >>> donald trump's kids are taking the stand starting this week in the $250 million civil fraud trial against trump him

. >>> with us, retired general wesley clark, supreme alleyed general. she talked about the tunnel complex she was held in. she mentioned there were other hostage there's. multiple hostages with her. there was one terrorist per hostage underground there. how can israelis use that information as they plan this offensive? >> i'm not sure it is usable. it's what we would expect. they're going to take good care of the hostages because the hostages are valuable. you're going to put guards on each hostage and put an additional gourd in for the medical conditions and so forth. what we don't know is where they were in the tunnel complex. you have the motion of tunnels up there. but we don't know what's up there. >> that's a good point. this is from 2021. you can be sure they have changed, expanded. >> multiple levels, blind alleys, lots of different things going on underground. they are producing weapons. they have stores under there. you don't know until you get into the tunnel complex. i kthink it's a good thing the hostages are released. i don't know what int

army general wesley clark, thank you so much. really appreciate it. >> thanks, jake. >> the october 7th hamas attack from the perspective of an israeli volunteer rescue squad. my heartbreaking visit to their command center, next. >>> united hatzalah is israel's volunteer rescue service, with 7,000 trained emergency workers, jews, christians, muslims, throughout the country ready to spring into action when alerted, helping those in need until an ambulance can arrive. on october 7th many of them heeded the call, and some paid the ultimate price. we want to warn you, some of what you're about to hear you might find disturbing. >> reporter: frantic callers knew what was going on immediately. [ speaking in a non-english language ] caller after caller understood and pleaded for help. it was a deliberate terrorist attack. calls rang out in this busy jerusalem call center at the headquarters of united hatzalah, or united rescue. the all volunteer first responders group is nearly 7,000 strong across israel. using high-tech tracking and co

here with us now, cnn military analyst, former nato supreme allied commander general wesley clark.eciate your expertise. >> good to be with you. >> especially on a morning like this. we now know that a commander of marine forces special operations command marine corps lieutenant general james glen is in israel advising israel on next steps. can you speak to what he would be doing in a moment like this? >> i think he'll just be consulting. you know the israelis have their own plans. they have a lot of experience. but we do, too. we had some major urban operations like in mosul in 2014. we worked it really hard. and there are some similarities. there will be some differences. i think the exchange of professional opinions in places like this at a very high level is really important. >> you bring up mosul, which is really interesting because that is something that the defense secretary also -- lloyd austin, also brought up over the weekend talking about the reminder from mosul about the difficulty and that's an understatement of urban warfare like this. so would he counsel in that resp

general wesley clark, thank you very much for joining us on all of that. another guilty plea ain't the georgia election interference case. and this time, it's trump's former campaign lawyer jenna ellis. she's had a bumpy evolution between being a trump critic and a trump loyalist. we'll have all those details, next. pers! time to win is running out in our prize packed kick off the savings monopoly game! hurry in to play for your chance at over $25 million in prizes and money saving offers like this, and this, or even this. plus, you still have a shot at up to $100,000 in guaranteed prize money. stop in while you can still win and shop your favorite brands sporting the kick off the savings monopoly tag for unlimited bonus game tickets at lucky! >> the fourth of trump's codefendants to plead guilty in georgia has had quite the evolution. >> my name is jenna ellis, and i'm a senior legal adviser to the trump campaign. >> but, she did not always start out as a hard-core trump loyalist. here is ellis when trump first ran for president in 2016. >> why should we

fourth panelist has been delayed but we hope you will join us soon, he is retired army general wesley clark, former supreme allied commander europe. now i will turn it over to these distinguished individuals to present a memo to the president. thank you very much. >> this paper is a result of concerns the group of 42 who signed on to this paper have the we face an existential challenge or great security challenge from vladimir putin's russia. is worn ukraine as part of a much broader effort to restore control across post-soviet space and if he's not defeated in ukraine we will face a major security challenge, direct threat to our interests in europe, possible provocation into war, the baltic states, poland, romania and a group of people, we did three roundtables, we sent many hundreds of e-mails to come up with the paper which we think represents american interests and calls for strong policy by the administration, to supply all the weapons ukraine needs, advanced weapons and adequate numbers on time so they can in fact defeat the russians ukraine so we don't have to worry about the russian

should also check russia, china, and the middle east. about ex-commander of forces in europe, wesley clark, says that the conflict in the middle east is beneficial to russia. he points out, in particular , that the hamas attack on israel helps divert the world's attention from the war in ukraine. russia has been involved in this from the beginning, and what is happening now is clearly beneficial to vladimir putin. he avoids responsibility. ukraine is no longer in the news, meanwhile the north. korea and iran are helping russia, and we don't know how things will unfold in israel, but what has already happened, the direction of american an aircraft carrier strike group, the concentration of all american attention is right there, while on the other side of the world china is watching and asking: how strong is america now, they are moving in different directions, they are easily distracted, their policies do not work, they cannot get a speaker of the house of representatives and cannot allocate money for ukraine, it seems that this is a good time for them. the head of the pentagon , lloyd aust

i am joined by retired army general wesley clark. he is a cnn military analyst and the former nato supreme allied commander. general, i'm so glad you're here to talk with us, because we've gotten some new information. i want to read once again the exact wording of what the idf are saying at this hour. they're saying, quote, there is an increasing operational readiness for the next stages of war. what does that mean to you specifically? >> it means they're going through their troop leading procedures prior to crossing the line of departure. this means they'd be issuing rations. they'd be giving their objectives for the various subordinate units from the brigade to the battalion to the company to the platoon. they're working on their radio communications, exchanging frequencies and alternate frequencies. they'd talk about where the logistics is coming from. they'd talk about how they going to move from their current assembly area to their position for departure, all standard troop leading procedures. >> this is such a difficult spot fo

general wesley clark as you continue to see the bombardments there in gaza it's important to have yourtive on it, really appreciate it. >> thank you. >> now as we were saying gaza is largely under a communications blackout at this hour still under the looming threat of an israeli ground offensive as they continue to target hamas. now a local service provider says most of the phone and internet links have been decimated as israeli links poununded the ststrip. insidede gaza and with the outse world are severely disrupted if not impossible. multiple humanitarian groups say they can't get in touch with their teams on the ground. some palestinians who have managed to maintain connection reached by cnn say they've split their families so at least some members would survive in case of an israeli strike. others talk about hearing explosions but without stable communications they can't check on their families to see if they're okay. now the leader of the u.n. agency in charge of palestinian refugees sent a dramatic message about the humanitarian situation. listen. >> as we speak, people in gaza

. >>> joining me now is retired general wesley clark, a cnn military analyst and former nato supreme allied commander, and cnn senior national security analyst and former official at the department of homeland security. general clark, your sense as to what we heard from the prime minister today, the latest escalation, is this a part of this widely expected ground operation we've been anticipating, or is this a sneak preview of coming attractions? what do you think? >> i think this is the next phase. this is the start of the ground operation. now, whether it's going to be 300,000 troops squeezing in from every direction, whether it's going to be a penetration, a slice in to seize what is considered key or decisive terrain inside gaza, we don't know that yet. but what we know is the israelis are in, they're working against time, and by all accounts they see this as an existential threat and they're going to stay in and continue to push. >> and, julia, what did you think when the defense minister said that this assault on hamas is going to help hostage negotiations? i asked nic about th

>> joining me now is general wesley clark, former allied supreme commander, great to see you.ant to talk about things that happened outside of israel over the last 24 hours. we know that there was a meeting in beirut between hassa nasrallah, the shia militia group that operates outside of lebanon and political leaders from islamic jihad and hamas. they took a picture of this meeting. meanwhile, we got word that there was an air strike, an israeli air strike on a syrian military location over the border inside syria. talk to me about the significance of all of this, particularly when we talk about the fears of a widening conflict. >> so this has always looked look a three-phased operation from the hamas perspective. that is provoke israel, get israel to come in and then use hezbollah and palestinian militants to squeeze israel and hamas wants the decisive battle. whether this will be that or whether this is more psychological operation, but we do see problems with lebanon on the north. we see the israeli strikes here and striking at the airfield. we know there have been attacks

general wesley clark is a cnn military analyst and former nato supreme commander. he joins us this hour from new york. it's good to see you, sir. >> thank you, john. >> so, the israeli defense minister was at an idf naval base in houston and made a few brief remarks about the plans for a gaza incursion. this is what he said, listen to this. >> >> translator: keep preparing for our operation. it will come soon. we are preparing thoroughly for the next step. a multilateral operation in the air, ground, and see. do your work, get ready. we will need to. >> there is also this reporting that israel learned that after 16 days of airstrikes the idf has told the government that it is fully prepared for a ground offensive in the gaza strip and believes it can achieve the goals set out for it, even at the risk of any casualties to soldiers and amid ongoing attacks by hezbollah in the north. if the israeli military has been doing its job and saying it will be preparing for a ground incursion in gaza longer for this latest conflict. so, if the idf is ready in terms of a milita

with us now, retired general wesley clark, and former nato supreme allied commander. general, israel from moment it happened said they will destroy hamas, and the goal is to destroy hamas, and make sure they are not going to operate again, but from the military perspective of the achievable goals, what are the military goals within gaza, if there is a ground operation? >> we don't know what the goals are yet. they would be classified in the israeli operation. but what we can imagine what they are going to be, and the strategic goals of destroying hamas, to make sure they cannot reconstitute and provide israel for instance, and the specific tactical missions with the objectives and those are not known yet, and you can speculate what they might be. >> what is the universe of things that they might be? >> so, when they went in 2014, they penetrated in various areas designed to wreck the tunnel access for the tunnels that led out of gaza into israel. this has to be a different operation. so, if they are really going to go after hamas, they are probably going to the have t

he is retired army general wesley clark, the former supreme allied.ow, i will turn it over to these distinguished individuals to present the memo to the president. ambassador hurts: this paper is a result of concerns that the group of 42 have. that we face an existential challenge were a great security challenge from putin's russia. this war on ukraine is part of a much broader effort. if he is not defeated in ukraine, we will face a major security challenge, direct threat to our interest in europe, possible provocations against our nato allies. we have assembled a group of people. we did 39 -- three roundtables of 90 minutes each. hundreds of email's to come up with a paper that we think represents american interest and calls for strong policy by the administration. one, to supply all of the weapons ukraine needs, more advanced weapons in adequate numbers on time so they can in fact defeat the russians in ukraine so we don't have to worry about the russians going beyond ukraine. and to ensure stability in europe for generations to come to bring ukrai

general wesley clark, former

he is a retired army general wesley clark on the former supreme allied commander in europe. now i will turn it over to these distinguished individuals to present the memo to the president. >> thank you very much. this paper is a result of concerns that the group of 42 who signed on to this paper have that we faced an existential challenge are a great security challenge from putin's russia, is worn ukraine is a part of a much broader effort to restore moscow's control. and if it's not defeated in ukraine, we will face a major security challenge, direct threat to our interest in europe, possible provocations in the war against our nato allies, both in poland, romania. and, we've settled with a group of people. we did three roundtables of 90 minutes each. we sent hundreds of emails, took them up at the paper that we think represent american interests and calls for strong policy by the administration. want to supply all the weapons ukraine needs or advanced weapons in adequate numbers on time so they can beat the russians in ukraine so we don't have to worry about the russians.