Headquarters in new york. Breaking right now, were waiting for the first News Conference from the brand new Speaker Of The House, mike johnson. He won with a slim majority from the republicans but they were lined up this time around, which we have not seen in the prior three rounds. This happened three weeks after they ousted former speaker, Kevin Mccarthy. This is a beautiful country. Its the beauty of america that allows a firefighters kid like me to come here and serve in this Sacred Chamber where great men and women have served before all of us and strive together to build and preserve what lincoln referred to as the last best hope on earth. Martha well hear from mr. Johnson about what he plans to do as he takes on this very big role in the United States government. Also, on the other front, a very big afternoon as President Biden spoke today, he spoke quite briefly actually, in a News Conference that everybody was waiting all day for about what we now know have been attacks on u.
Israel. Two more hostages have been released. Two older women were told, the family of yohevid confirms that she has been let go. They confirmed this just a couple of minutes ago. Lipsitd was one of the founders of the kibbutz. A Peace Activist who the paper says regularly transported patients from gaza for medical treatment in israel. She is somebody thats been talked about a lot in the news over the past two weeks. Joining us now from tel aviv is nbc news correspondent hala gorani. A lot is up in the air. Walk us through what we are able to report right now . Reporter we heard from the brigade spokesperson, the military ring of hamas, announcing the release of two hostages, a source briefed on the talks confirmed to me as well about ten minutes ago that these two hostages were released. They were chosen for release because they were elderly, without confirming the names of the hostages, but you mentioned elderly women. One of the families confirming their release. This comes a couple
Very much for joining us. Cnn newsroom with jim acosta starts right now. Im jim acosta in washington. Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world to cnns breaking News Coverage of israel at war. It has been one week since hamas launched its attack inside israel that killed more than 1,300 people. Today israel appears to be on the verge of responding with full force. Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu posted a video online of his visit with troops at the front line near the gaza border. He told them, quote, The Next Stage is coming. A Ground Invasion appears more inevitable by the hour. Israel has called on more than a million civilians to evacuate Northern Gaza for their safety. Today the State Department is urging Palestinian Americans in gaza to move closer to the rafah crossing into egypt. The reason, there may be little notice if the crossing opens but if israels sixhour window for safe passage from Northern Gaza has expired lots of questions are going to b
Understand up to 20 people in gaza died. And for each of these explosions, there could be a loss of human life, it is a perspective worth remembering for all of us in t these hard days. Thank you so much for joining us. Us. Ac 360 begins right now. Captions by vitac www. Vitac. Com good evening. It is 3 00 a. M. In ashkelon, israel, five days since hamas launched a Surprise Attack from gaza. Israeli troops are amazing along the gaza border. 300,000 Israeli Reservists are, in his words, close to the gaza strip. That is a Fighting Force in a country of only 10 million people, nearly the size of all the reserves in the entire u. S. Military. In addition to mobilizing forces, preparations are underway at hospitals across this country for what might come next. Patients from facilities in the north are being moved to ones in central israel. Health Officials Say in case of escalation and presumably the need to treat casualties there. Right now the focus is on gaza, which Israeli Air Forces po
Likely a prelude to a new stage of conflict with incredibly high stakes for israel, the palestinians and for the United States and the world. Air strikes in gaza have intensified today ahead of a possible Ground Invasion intended to crush hamas. Nbcs ellison barber captured this video of a steady stream of tanks about two miles from the border with gaza. U. S. Secretary of state Antony Blinken was in israel today reiterating the yaunts decades long and steadfast commitment to israel. Here is what he had to say about the conflict ahead. On the humanitarian situation in gaza, i think its first important to remember fundamental issue that makes this complicated. Hamas continues to use civilians as Human Shields, something thats not new, something that theyve always done, intentionally putting civilians in harms way to try to protect themselves or protect their infrastructure or protect their weapons. So thats one of the basic facts that israel has to deal with. Of course, civilians should