the strongest public comments yet from the u.s. secretary of state. "the lead" starts right now. a global outcry over civilian deaths in gaza. america's top diplomat secretary of state antony blinken said far too many palestinians have been killed and as we're learning about warnings from other american envoys in arab countries. and donald trump on the attack whether a judge indicates one criminal trial to begin before a key date on the 2024 calendar. also this just in, breaking news, as sources are telling cnn that the fbi has seized the phones of new york city mayor eric adams as an investigation heats up into possible illegal campaign contributions. welcome to "the lead." >> i'm kaitlan collins in for jake tapper today. we start with our world lead. a new video that shows the intense bombardment of gaza, carried out by israeli forces. cnn teams on the ground are hearing constant rocket fire as you could see here, flares are lighting up the night sky. this is happening just hours after one of the most forceful calls that we've seen to date by secretary of state antony blinken. for israel to do more to protect the innocent civilians who remain in gaza trapped in a brutal war between israeli forces an the terror group hamas. >> far too many palestinians have been killed. far too many have suffered these past weeks. and we want to do everything possible to prevent harm to them and to maximize the assistance that gets to them. >> it is quite a message to israel, israeli prime minister netanyahu said his forces are doing everything they can to reduce civilian deaths as he highlights this evacuation corridor. it was open for six hours today allowing palestinians to flee south from northern gaza. but israel has also confirmed that it was behind strikes on another refugee camp and other places where people have been sheltering and blaming hamas for embedding itself with civilians. nic robertson starts off our coverage from sderot, israel. tell us what you've been seeing in recent hours? >> reporter: yeah, there appears to be an intense idf ground fight going on around the refugee camp. and that particular area in gaza right in the north of the gaza strip has been the focus of idf efforts over the past couple of weeks. but a big ground battle underway, flares dropped and to help illuminate the ground for the troops and a smoke screen helping the troops hid behind the smoke so they could close in on what must be a hamas target. interesting that they've been operating in this area and there is still the need for such an intense fire fight. heavy strikes, air strikes brought in on their position and we're still hearing the heavy detonations falling in this area. the idf is continuing its operations against hamas. 15,000 different targeted strikes. the idf said they've had -- they've rounded up more than 6,000 weapons. they say they're discovering weapons manufacturing facilities in close to schools, one was near a child's bedroom. but that is a difficulty for the idf and gives you an idea of their fight. hamas is a force. it is not easy to take them out with one strike at a big training facility and that is what the idf is going through right now. that humanitarian corridor at the same time as the fight is going on allowing civilians to flee north to south. but idf tanks have been seen around hospitals today and the idf pushing back on the claims from one hospital that it was struck by idf fire. the idf saying in fact, that was a misfired hamas or one the other groups attempts to target the idf. but the international condemnation as you have been saying is growing. we heard from the head of the international committee for the red cross saying that the health care facilities in gaza are at a point of no return. we know from the palestinian health officials, hamas run, that 193 health care workers have been killed, 60 ambulances damaged and 21 of 35 hospitals completely out of service. 51 of 72 health care clinics out of service. so the humanitarian situation is deteriorating while the fight for -- to destroy hamas seems to be just going at a slow and difficult but very hardly fought pace. kaitlan. >> and you mentioned that six hour corridor that happened today that has now been formalized by israel and announcement from the u.s. on that yesterday. i think the big question is, do people feel safe using it and are they confident that it is something that is a regular daily occurrence? >> reporter: i think there is a degree of confidence in that wasn't there about five or six days ago when it was reinstituted. there was a sense of many civilians in the north of gaza when the ground offensive began. they didn't know how to get out. now they see this corridor working. tens of thousands are leaving. but it raises this massive, massive unanswered question and i think this gets to the root of part of the frustration between the white house and prime minister netanyahu, all of these people, these civilians are heading to the south, but the idf is still having strikes in the south. you now have a double density population in the south of the gaza strip. there is a small humanitarian area set aside, international ngo, the u.n. is saying there isn't a structure there. the infrastructure to support the people not there, shelters, not the food, not the water, no the sanitation and the reality is the idf and prime minister netanyahu both say that they need to go through the whole gaza strip. so you move the civilian population into the south to make them safe for the intensity of the fight in the north, you have a double density of civilians potentially in the way when that fight rolls into the south. there is no answer to this at the moment. >> yeah and we're continuing to hear the booms behind you. nic robertson, we'll continue to check in with you live on the ground in sderot, thank you. and as nick was menging, the situation hor the hospital has become dire. one said tanks are surrounding the medical center making it impossible for hundreds of people who are sheltering there to leave and to move. they rub out of medicine and water and now asking the red cross to help with the evacuations. cnn's nada bashir is live in jerusalem. what do we know about this particular medical center and who is still there? >> reporter: well, kaitlan, that appeal for support for the evacuation of patients and civilians came from the director of the hospital and the pediatric center in northern gaza. this is one of the only pediatric centers left functioning in northern gaza. and as we know, there are many patients here who cannot be evacuated including children reliant on life support and dialysis. and as we've heard, as you mentioned there, they have said they're being surrounded any by tanks, the world health organization has reported significant bombardment around this hospital complex. and there is significant concern, not only for the patients inside of this hospital and the medical teams there who have said they will not abandon patients but also for the countless families and palestinian civilians who have been taking shelter at this hospital complex. like many hospitals across gaza, hoping that this will be some sort of safe haven or sanctionary from the aerial bombardment. that is not the case for many of the civilian areas and as we've seen today video of civilians attempting to evacuate from the hospital complex and seemingly pushed back by gunfire. it is unclear from which side that gunfire was coming from. >> so that is at one hospital. and we're also hearing from another hospital, the world health organization said that that one is coming under bombardment. israel has denied that it was behind that strike. but what do we know, if anything, that we're able to confirm about what did happen there? >> reporter: we're talking about the al shifa hospital, it is been overwhelmed by the a. of patients and the civilians taking shelter there. in the last few hours we have had that response from the idf with regards to a strike which took place last night. we saw those distressing videos emerging of countless people injured on the outside of the complex of the hospital set to be at the outpatient center. the idf has denied responsible for this strike. they have said that the strike was the result of a misfire launched from within gaza reportedly aimed targeting idf troops in the vicinity. hamas has accused of them carrying out a air strike on the hospital and as we've seen the warnings from medical teams repeatedly warning that israel air strikes are edging closer and closer to medical facilities across northern gaza. kaitlan. >> yeah. that is just raising so many concerns about the people who are staying there and sheltering there and trying to seek care. nada bashir in jerusalem, thank you. authorities in london are bracing for what is expected to be a significant march tomorrow over the ongoing war between israel and hamas. police plan to double the am of officers on duty given the propalestinian demonstration is expected to draw thousands people. every saturday for the last month we've seen thousands people marching, protesting that rising civilian death toll that you just heard nada talking about there. but tomorrow, tensions are expected to be even higher begin it is armistice day, when they commemorate the end of world war i. we've seen rallies in paris, egypt and milan and in new york and also in washington, d.c. in d.c., a lot of the protests have happened right outside of the white house and cnn is learning that the biden administration has been receiving urgent warnings from american diplomats stationed throughout the middle east that its strong support that we've seen from president biden for israel's military campaign in gaza is actually leading to growing anger and fury directed at the u.s. from the arab world. natasha bertrand is covering this and has the latest reporting. what exactly is the white house hearing from the diplomats? >> well they received a cable from the u.s. embassy inno oman and what the cable said was that the arab world is angry with the biden administration, with the u.s. for its seemingly unwavering support for israel's military campaign in gaza. and what is said in stark terms that the u.s. is, quote, losing arab publics for a generation. and that u.s. support for israel is being seen across the arab world as, quote, material and more culpability in what they consider to be possible war crimes. and this cable was sent from the u.s. embassy in oman to the nsc, the fbi and the cia. really as a warning just about all of the anger that is currently being directed to the u.s. but you know, this is something that the arab leaders have directed to the u.s. directly. have told the u.s. directly, antony blinken, he met with many of the arab leaders including the leaders of jordan and egypt last week. and the call from those allies was for a cease-fire. they want to see the fighting stop beatly. but blinken and the u.s. at large have not been prepared to support that. what they're souping at this moment are simply pauses in the fighting. day long pauses, three day-long pauses. but the israelis are not agreeing at this point. so what we're seeing as you've been talking about with our correspondents, we've seen hour long pauses, six hours to allow civilians to get out. >> yeah, a question of if those get longer and if they stay a daily occurrence. natasha, thank you for that. up next, the breaking news that i menged at the top of the hour. a source confirming to cnn that the fbi has seized devices belonging to new york city mayor eric adams. the move part of an investigation into his campaign cocontributionons, he has s jus reresponded. more on ththat ahead. this breaking news just in with a source confirming to the cnn that the fbi has seized new york city mayor eric adams' phone and an ipad as part of the federal corruption investigation. all of this is coming mere days after his chief campaign fundraiser had her home raided by fbi agents as well. i want to bring in polo sandoval who is covering all of this. this is a dramatic escalation. >> dramatic and can't say enough significant escalation and a significant development into this investigation as we learned according to kara scannell, citing a person familiar with the ongoing investigation, that eric adams' phone and also an ipad seized by federal investigators as they continue to probe that fundraising investigation that you just mentioned a short while ago. want to get straight to what we've heard from mayor adams himself. in a statement that was released to cnn by his campaign attorney spokesperson boyd johnson, and in fact we have that and able to put that on the screen. as they have responded to this latest news saying, as a former member of law enforcement, i expect -- excuse me, all members of my staff to follow the law and fully cooperate with any sort of investigation and i will continue to do exactly that, quote, i have nothing to hide. again, these are the words of mayor eric adams through a spokesperson. and as you mentioned, this development coming on the heels of what we just learned in the phish raid of new york city mayor eric adams fundraiser as they continue to look and determine whether or not his 2021 campaign fundraising potentially received some of these foreign funds. with a -- through a brooklyn based construction company to potentially funnel foreign money into his campaign. so a lot of questions right now about what the mayor did know, what he did not know as this latest development comes to light. >> yeah, and i mean, "the new york times" said that essentially the fbi agents approached him on the street and notified him that they had this court order subpoena, warrant to get his phones and an ipad and they returned them a few days later but this is part of wide-ranging investigation. clearly it is more serious than we thought. he's a former member of law enforcement as you noted but he still maintains that he didn't do anything wrong and he's not accused of anything. >> he still maintains his innocence and we've heard from him a couple of times already. especially after that latest development. at least what came to light in the last few days. and the scene laid out in "the new york times" reporting, it was incredible, this idea of federal agents approaching the mayor of america's largest city and requesting to get they are hands on these documents. so again, it could not be said enough. and we can't underscore it enough. this is a significant development with a lot more to come. >> and so what happened? it was november 2nd i believe when his chief fundraiser who is young, she's only 25 years old, had her home searched by the fbi. they took some devices there. what is at the heart of this investigation? >> so, what we can say is that law enforcement were familiar with the search warrants and told cnn that the investigators, they're looking into evidence of foreign nationals who are actually barred from making any campaign contributions may have bundled some of the donations going into new york's turkish american communities and then getting u.s. citizens of turkish origin that the -- to act as straw contributors. we've reached out to stakeholders and we're waiting to hear back. >> a dramatic escalation. thank you for that reporting. up next, there is more to talk about on in developing story and what is at the heart of this. when we come back, we have one of new york's best sourced political reporters on set. we'll talk about what she's hearing with the rest of our panel. the power goes out and we still have wifi to do our homework. and that's a good thing? great in my book! who are you? no power? no problem. introducing storm-ready wifi. now you can stay reliably connected through power outages with unlimited cellular data and up to 4 hours of battery back-up to keep you online. only from xfinity. home of the xfinity 10g network. more on our breaking news this hour. as we're learning that new york city mayor eric adams said he has nothing to hide after it was revealed the fbi agents seized his phone and ipad all part of a federal investigation into his campaign fundraising. our panel is here with me. and emily, you are a well sourced new york reporter. this is the first time that we've seen this probe get this close and directly touch the mayor. >> exactly. and "the new york times" in its reporter calls it a dramatic escalation of the investigation into the mayor's campaign and as you said, the key was approached by federal agents who acted as security detail to step aside and seized his electronic devices just a couple of days after his chief fundraiser home in brooklyn was raided and documents were taken pertaining to his campaign and its fundraising. >> and have we seen mayor adams this week? has he indicated publicly at all that this happened. >> he didn't. this happened this week, i believe on monday according to the reporting. he had no public eevents on tuesday, just closed door meetings and calls and then he did his weekly off topic news conference, addressing reporters in the press corp on wednesday taking questions on every topic that we would want to ask and said nothing about this incident. >> that is really remarkable. we have heard from him now. he's putting out a statement that he feels like he has nothing to hide. and one thing he said, i took all members of my staff to follow the law. it is not just his staff. we don't know that he's done anything wrong but this is close to him. >> well, look, i think we should cautionary remind everyone that you are innocent until proven guilty. a probe is not indicative of any guilt. but i do think the actions of the president -- or the mayor, absent of his words are different. so if you look at what happened. he turned around from d.c. to get home as they say in politics, to figure out what they're going to do. it appears he may have known this was coming or some escalation was coming. so we have to let the facts bear out wherever they are. but it is troubling when you have the mayor in new york city in the midst of a crisis have to worry about his own fiscal house of order, so to speak. >> and potentially criminal exposure. the day that his campaign fundraiser's house was raided, that was the day he was supposed to go to washington and have all of these meetings at white house. and he canceled those. how big of a concern is this for democrats here if -- and innocent it will prorven guilty. how big of a concern is this? >> with what little information we have, i don't want to write his political obituary, his statement was strong and he is confident that he might not he committed a crime himself. so, what i would advise the team over there would be to tell everything that you know, tell it early and tell it yourself. because the last thing you want is drip, drip, drip of information coming out like we've seen with other politicians. >> yeah. it is a major concern. how does he typically respond to -- i mean you've seen the moyer, he has a lot of bravado. we've interviewed him multiple times here. how is he responding as these developments are -- >> well he's been consistent in that he's cooperating with the probe that he himself as a law enforcement official and will help law enforcement in turn. and he maintains that he hasn't been charged or accused of wrongdoing which is true. nor has his chief fundraiser, who is 25 years old in charge of millions, according to the campaign. but the allegations uncovered by the "new york times" that obtained part of the search warrant are pretty serious. the campaign is under investigation apparently for allegedly conspiring with a turkish government to funnel illegal donation news his campaign. it is not legal to take foreign contributions if you're an american politician. and new york city has a very generous matching funds program and if you leverage some of the donations locally the right way, you could get more public financing dollars for your campaign. >> a lot of questions here. we often hear these allegations of two tiered justice system but they are investigating both parties alike. we got the update on the classified documents investigation into former president trump. the judge there indicating not yet that she's moving that trial date, which trump is certainly trying to do. right now it is still on track to happen in may of 2024, right before some key political dates. how much is that a factor into next year. >> it is clear that the road to 2024 is going from courthouse to courthouse. if you sub skrooscribe to the b that he'll be the nominee in 2024. people feel there is a two tiered justice system, some things were brought on the president by his on actions but i do think there are some legal theories have been acknowledged that are novel or stretching the law to the limits. so i think that is part of it. the hyper partisanship of how we analyze these issues but as we get closer to 2024, polling numbers today, will not be what polling numbers look like in may or june and it is naive to think it is not going to be colored by what occurred inside of the courtrooms and some of the rul rulings as we go through this maze of courtrooms. >> that date, if it sticks, is one day before primaries in kentucky and other states. how does the white house -- we saw president biden at a fundraiser in chicago last night talking about who could be his -- his opponent in 2024. how does he handle trump being in court regularly? does he talk about it on the campaign trail? what is your advice. >> my advice would be to rip the bark off the guy and attack him or hit him back whenever he hits biden which he's done successfully with the republicans. they've dragged down president biden's personal approval. but two tiered just is system, and i saw your interview with one of his lawyers. >> former lawyer. >> and to say that there is a two tier -- hunter investigation has been under investigation longer than the monica lewinsky investigation. and senator menendez has been investigated three times. and i saw him talking about the secret service and it was no go. >> that secret service agents could be brought in. >> he was so indignant about that. because president clinton's active head of detail and two other agents were brought if to testify and just recently they're going after the president -- they're suing the republicans have sued the secret service for records about the president's dog. maybe the cat is next. god bless her. >> a lot of questions about what that looks like. thank you one and all for being here. up next, we're a week out from a potential government shutdown. right now there is no plans so we could be headed to one. this deliberate approach that we're seeing the new house speaker take could cost his party support. that is a big question. we'll go to capitol hill right after this. just into our sports lead, the big ten conference is now sanctioning the university of michigan football team over allegations about sign stealing violations. as part of the sanctions, we have learned that the head football coach jim harbaugh has been suspended from the last three games of the regular season. he previously denied that his program was illegally stealing any signs. he said he was fully cooperating with this investigation. but now he will flot be able to be on the side lines for the three games. he will still be able to coach during the rest of the week. michigan is currently ranked third in the college football playoff rankings. more to that? a moment. the federal government to shut down in seven days from now and so far mike johnson has not offered many, if any clues about what he plans to do to keep that from happening. melanie zanona is live on capitol hill. have we gotten any closer to some kind of plan from republicans? >> we have a new speaker but they are running into the same old problems. speaker mike johnson has been wrestling with his decision all week. he has yet to reveal his plans for government funding but he has been very deliberate and careful in how he approaches this. because he knows this is likely to be the most consequential decision that he makes as speaker to date. and at issue is the republican conference is divided over what path they should pursue. there are moderates pushing for a stopgap spending bill but then hardliners are pushing for this complicated idea where they would extend government for funding agencies for various amounts time teeing up multiple fiscal cliffs. >> that option would be dead on arrival in the senate. so it would risk a government shutdown which johnson does not want on his watch. but at the same time, he doesn't want to infuriate his right flank so early on in his tenure. and lawmakers are growing anxious for him to reveal his hand. while the office of management and budget has started to take formal steps to prepare for a shutdown in one week. but we could see a window into johnson's thinking soon. i'm told he's aiming to release bill text, although it is not finished yet, by tomorrow, with hopes of voting on a bill by tuesday. so a new moment for the new speaker that will tell us a lot about his plan for government and his plan to rule over this conference. >> and we now how much lawmakers lo of to work on the weekend. thank you for that. ahead, inside the investigation that is happening right now into suspicious letters that have been sent to election offices all across the country. i'm going to speak with one election official who said she had one sent to her office that had fentanyl inside and she's not alone. the fbi said that suspicious letters sent to election offices in six states may be connected. these are in california, georgia, nevada, oregon, texas and washington. all reporting that they are getting these mailings. most of them have contained a powdery white substance and sosome cases had traces of fentanyl. with me is julie wise, from king county, washington, one of the counties that got one of the letters. i know it is been about 48 hours since this letter arrived at your election center, what if you heard, if anything, on the latest of this investigation. >> we have heard that it is confirmed to be trace amounts of fentanyl in this envelope. it is similar to what we're seeing sadly across this country that election administrators are receiving. it is our second letter with fentanyl to date that we've received this year alone. >> that is -- hard to imagine that it is the second one that you've gotten already. how does everyone at the office feel? i mean, they must be scared to come to work, to check the mail and do basic things that you do every day in an office? >> well over the last three years, we've seen a clear and coordinated effort to undermine elections and election administrators so the tone has been along the same lines for the last three years so we have prepared our team for incidents just like this. and the team is certainly disheartened and saddened that folks want to cause them harm. but they are also determined to continue this important work in counting ballots in democracy. because we believe in it. >> that is powerful to hear that they're determined to keep on with their jobs despite these obvious threats that you're getting. you're in washington, georgia is also another one of the states that received a suspicious letter that we also told had these trace amounts of fentanyl. this is what we heard from the secretary of state there brad raffens burger, talking about the seriousness of this threat. >> some people like to call fentanyl a drug but it is a poison. it will kill you and very quickly, very easily and it is very dangerous. we lost our son five and a half years ago due to fentanyl overdose. we know how deadly this stuff is. >> what is your reaction when you hear him talking about this? not just being a drug, but calling it poison? >> absolutely, this is an attempt to stop elections and an attempt to break us and to harm us. and you know, that just makes us all that much more determined to continue running democracy and counting ballots and be election administrators. the election administrators should be seen as heroes and not enemies. these are human beings who are your neighbors and who are part of your community that are called to be a civil servant because they are passionate about conducting nonpartisan accurate secure and accessible elections. >> you talked about how people are still willing to come to work, and they still want to come and do that important job that you noted there, that is just done by our neighbors. do you have any concerns, though, that these kinds of threats, these kind of letters that you're getting and other election offices could discourage people from doing this jobs, from getting involved in this? >> absolutely. we've already seen across this country a mass exodus of election administrators because of the threats and intimidation and bullying. so absolutely we are nervous about being able to retract and maintain the amazing administrators across our country and i feel the same way here in king county. they want to go home at the end of the day to their families and they need to make a priority for their own mental and physical safety. so absolutely concerned about being able to have the stellar election administrators across this country and in king county. and so i think it is important that we prepare our team physically and emotionally and mentally to be prepared for incidents like this to come because i believe we'll certainly see more next year in 2024 election cycle. >> julie, i know the fbi is still looking into this. who sent these letters. but if you could speak to that person, given what you just said there, who did send these, what would you say to them? >> i would say that you really are focused in the wrong direction. election administrators, again, are quite the heroes and not the enemy here. and i understand that you have been fed lies about our elections for the last several years and the confusion around this. but these are not the folks that are really the ones that should be attacked here. these are folks, again, that are dedicated professional election administrators that want to make sure that their community members have their voices heard and our democracy and that this is not the right approach to have your concerns addressed. >> it is a powerful statement. julie wise, i'm sorry this is happening to you and your team. but thank you for coming on to talk about it. because it is obviously critically important. >> thank you. coming up, cnn's jake tapper with some survivors of the october 7th attacks by hamas. their decision to make a memory of that day permanent. the power goes out and we still have wifi to do our homework. and that's a good thing? great in my book! who are you? no power? no problem. introducing storm-ready wifi. now you can stay reliably connected through power outages with unlimited cellular data and up to 4 hours of battery back-up to keep you online. only from xfinity. home of the xfinity 10g network. the horrors of the attacks by hamas on october 7th left images ingrained in the minds of so many around the world. some people who survived that day want to make sure that they stay that way. jake tapper visited a spot in israel where art has taken on a new role in reflecting life. >> i think the whole process of getting tattoo is a little bit therapeutic. >> reporter: in downtown tel aviv, october 7th survivors wear their pain on their sleeve. or wrist. or thigh. >> like doing through therapy, but not like going to a therapist. they feel that they make maybe something that can, something they can make, uh, this day forever on their body. >> maybe not here. >> they lost something? >> yes. >> this will last forever as long as they are around? >> yes. i actually have clients that were murdered there. >> you do? >> yeah, yeah. someone that did a sleeve and he had moments and he was supposed to be -- he was supposed to be here tomorrow. >> reporter: he owns three tattoo shops. he has consolidated to the one close eggs to a bomb shelter. after the terrorist attacks october 7th he says the usual requests for cartoon, pop art and photo realistic work have shifted to a demand for memorial ink. now, i don't want to be a stick in the mud. >> yeah. >> reporter: but i happen to know that it's against jewish lieu to get a tattoo. >> yeah. >> reporter: because the body belongs to god, and the soul belongs to you, but the body belongs to god. >> that's right. >> reporter: how do you reconcile that? >> i think people today are more understanding that's not everything that is written down in the book, they have to go by the law. >> reporter: you said a lot of people are getting stars of david, too. kind of like an act of defiance. you are going to kill us because we are jewish? i am going to put it on my arm. >> yeah. i think it's like showing everybody we are not scared and we are going to show everybody that we're jewish and we are proud of that. and we want everybody to know and everybody should remember those dates. >> reporter: the stories as emotional as they are elaborate, such as the one of this soldier among the first to respond to kib kibbutz be'eri where 130 were killed. there were bodies on the floor, he saws. women, children, the elderly. just awful. it's difficult to explain in words. as i'm explaining it, my eyes are shaking a bit. he didn't want to show his face or the final tattoo for fear of being identified when he returns to battle. i want to get this tattoo in memory of two soldiers who fell in battle with me, he says. very few soldiers were able to come to the burial because we were in the field. it's also for the soul, so i can unload. i am in a special unit with the idf. it's something for me to unload a bit. part of his tattoo has paw prints. what was the story with the dog? a dog from the k-9 unit entered a home before my team and i, he tells me. the dog noticed the terrorist waiting for us and was hiding. the dog alerted them. unfortunately, was killed. because of him, we are alive, he says. me and a few of my friends. but two were killed in the battle. we buried them two days later. i was saved by a miracle. across the room, daniel is getting his memory inked on his thigh. he was the nova music festival and arrived when the attack that killed more than 260 began. >> you could here the shootings all over [ bleep ], massive shooting, then you hear it, but i serve the army. i know how bullets sound. this one really whistled. near to your ears, your head. like -- >> you see bodies all over the roads, all over the driveway. some of them are dead or some of them just captured. soldiers and bodies all over. and you see it was like looking at the apocalypse. >> reporter: i found safety in a kibbutz where he and his girlfriend stayed for nine hours, receiving periodic and devastating updates on his phone. >> we heard stories and we saw videos of our friends just slaughtered. and you don't even understand what's going on. so what i want in my tattoo, the flower is supposed to show the growth that nobody -- what we can grow from it. it's a beautiful thing. this specific flower from this area. and the angels is the people that we lost, that just went up and not with us anymore. >> reporter: jake tapper, cnn, tel aviv. >> i should note that soldier who spoke with jake was on the first day of a two-week break from service after more than three weeks of the war. he will go back to fight soon, no doubt with tough days ahead. coming up, this sun on "state of the union," you will see national security advisor jake sullivan, obviously, israel a major topic for the white house. republican national committee chair mcdaniel, former senior advisor to president obama david axlerod and the former republican governor of maryland larry hogan this sunday morning 9:00 a.m. eastern. again, at noon here on cnn. thank you so much for joining me. i'll be back tonight at 9:00 p.m. eastern on "the source."