Transcripts For CNNW CNN 20240703

Soil. At least 40 people, israelis, are dead, and more than 770 are wounded, were told, the official numbers coming in from the government of israel. The attack catching israel clearly by surprise. At sun rise earlier today the palestinian mill tachbt Group Launched that iroffensive by air, sea and land. Hamas fighters have now infiltrated various israeli towns were told and thousands of rockets have rained down from the sky above over civilian Populated Areas of israel. Israel is clearly already striking back, sending its own rockets into gaza. And we just have gotten new numbers from palestinian officials there. They say at least 198 palestinians already have been killed in gaza, and more than 1600 people in gaza are injured. This once again, according to the Palestinian Health ministry there. This is quickly developing, this situation, we want to go back to cnn in jerusalem for us. Update our viewers on the very latest. Reporter well, the very latest is weve just gone in from the Israeli Ministry of health saying 898 have been wound, almost 1,000 wounded in israel as a result of these attacks, right now the death toll has not been updated so the last death toll is at 40. I expect it to be updated potentially in the coming minutes and likely expected to be much, much higher. These injuries are from rock, rockets, shrapnel and militant gunfire. And live reports from reporters who were going to a Festival Party of sorts not far from the gaza border. They are still reporting, israeli reporters are seeing bodies still on the ground that have not been evacuated yet. And so we do expect this death toll to rise, as noted, we have also heard from the Palestinian Ministry saying at least 198 killed, and more than 1600 wounded. We dont know the breakdown. Both the israelis and of the palestinians, how many were combatants, how many were civilians, how many were soldiers, but we know these are significant numbers. When you compare to the previous years. When you compare the statistics that weve had, in just, 10 or 11 hours now, of this reflect, to the previous conflicts that weve had in the last decade or even further, we are fast approaching those numbers. Ill give you an example. In 2006, in the war with hezbollah, in lebanon, there were 120 israelis who were killed. If these numbers are going to reach at least 100, which i think they will today, for israelis, within just hours, weve reaching number of casualties that we saw in an extended conflict. When you look at the numbers of rockets, already today, weve passed 3,000, likely more, because as we speak, continuing to get alerts of sirens going off across israel, 3,000 rockets at least in about 10, 11, 12 hours, in all of the 11day war in 2021, between hamas and israel, there were 4,300 rockets, so we are at a different scale, a different level than what we have seen before. This is an unprecedented attack. And of course, these militant infiltrations, that is something completely new and that has caught israel completely offguard and really terrifying the israelly population. As we speak, there are still israeli civilians who are barricaded witness their homes, within their safe rooms, still reporting, calling out for help on israeli media they can still hear gunfire, that militants are still in these cities. There are ongoing fire fights in israeli villages and towns in southern israel. Weve heard reports from the Israeli Military, at least two military bases where there were fire fights breaking out between militants and Israeli Soldiers now. Tens of thousands of Israeli Military reservists have now been called up for service. They are already seeing Israeli Military air strikes over gaza and i much expect a much bigger response to gaza, and a much bigger military response, potentially Ground Forces going in, the likes of which we have not seen in years, if not decades, and an attack like this has not happened since the yom kippur war in 1973. A years ago almost to the day. Wolf . Yes, and this is the end of the Jewish Holiday as well, and it is also the sabbath, the shabbat in israel, similar to what happened 50 years ago during the yom kippur war. We will go to our cnn White House Reporter and National Security reporter natasha bertrand. Mj, what is the white house saying this morning . Well, wolf, for right now, we have gotten word that President Biden was fully briefed by the National Security team this morning on the situation, this is a situation that the white house describes as the appalling hamas Terrorist Attack in israel. We also expect that the president is going to address this situation sometime later today. We just dont know yet exactly what format that is going to come in. We also expect that the president is going to be speaking directly with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, so we will hopefully get a readout of that phone call as soon as that conversation has happened. For right now, womp, we can tell you that u. S. Officials are very closely monitoring this stunning turn of events overnight. But they are also being very careful right now to not weigh in on some of the specific details and reports that we are seeing about the situation on the ground, in terms of the number of casualties, in terms of the reports that we have seen, statements that have been made, for example, about the capturing of Israeli Soldiers. But for right now, it is abundantly clear that the diplomatic ramifications are incredibly serious. Just to remind our viewers, President Biden has been involved for months and months now in trying to broker a deal between the israelis and saudi arabia, a normalization of relations that has been incredibly difficult, incredibly complicated, and we know that from the u. S. s perspective, the u. S. Officials here have been pushing the israelis to accept concessions to the palestinians that would be challenging for them to accept, but u. S. Officials have made clear that some of those concessions will be necessary for that deal to go through. Now, given the situation on the ground, all of those talks are now up in the air. It is very difficult to actually imagine that the israelis would be okay with some of those concessions that have been floated, so this is a very fastmoving situation, but again, we are at the point where u. S. Officials, top officials, are gathering information, are speaking to their counterparts, and really just trying to get a handle on what exactly is going on. But again, the gravity of the situation is such that we do expect that we will hear directly from the president on the situation later this morning. Wolf . I assume that will happen after his Phone Conversation with Prime Minister netanyahu, right . That would be the expectation. We have been told by officials earlier this morning that the two leaders were going to speak. And so whenever that statement, or the oncamera remark comes from the president , we expect he will address that conversation that he had with Prime Minister netanyahu. Mj, thank you very much. Dont go too far away. We will be getting back to you soon, im sure. Lets go to no tasha right now. The u. S. Secretary of defense lloyd austin is clearly also very closely monitoring this breaking situation in israel and gaza right now. What are we hearing coming out of the pentagon . Yes, wolf, we are told from a Defense Official that austin did convene a meeting of Senior Leaders this morning, including with general eric, the commander of Central Command and austin released a statement, saying quote, i am closely monitoring developments in israel. Our commitment to israels right to defend itself remains unwavering and i extend my condolences to families of those who lost their lives in this abhorrent attack on civilians this. Line is key. Over the coming days, the Department Of Defense will work to ensure that israel has what it needs to defend itself and protect civilians from indiscriminate violence and terrorism. Now obviously this raises questions about whether the u. S. Is going to allow israel to tap in to the u. S. s massive stockpiles that it has of weaponry and equipment in israel. It is one of the largest war reserves that the United States has around the world. And back in 2014, the u. S. Did supply israel with arms and weapons during a 50day war in gaza, and said at the time israel will be allowed to tap into those stockpiles to resupply it with grepds and mortar rounds. The question now is that going to happen again . Is the pentagon going to allow israel to tap into these stockpiles if the war does continue, if it continues to escalate, that remains to be seen. But we should note, wolf, we just got a statement in from the Secretary Of State, ax mtony blinken, we unequivocally condemn the appalling attacks of hamas against israel and we stand in sol later with the government and people of israel and extend our condolences for the israeli lives lost in these attacks. Obviously the diplomatic ramifications is something that the State Department will closely be watching and as we mentioned in the last hour as well, the State Department has urged its personnel to remain sheltered in place in jerusalem, and the u. S. Embassy in jerusalem, something that the Secretary Of State will be closely monitoring as well, over the coming hours and days. Wolf . We will watch it closely as well. Natasha bertrand, thanks. Im joined by aaron david miller, a former state Department Senior middle east negotiator. Thanks so much for joining us. Were you as surprised as i was earlier this morning when i heard that war had actually broken out between hamas and gaza and israel . You know, at 4 00 a. M. This morning, i got a call from cnn, wolf, and yes, i was surprised. It reminded me of 50 years ago, this week. Being in jerusalem. Yesterday, a years ago. Basically, witnesses the sort of shock and trauma, and much larger, broader scale. But this is a trauma by any standard. It is a trauma because of the clear massive intelligence alert. It is a trauma because israeli communities, proximate to gaza, obviously were not adequately protected. There was insufficient israeli presence there. And this is going to have a chilling impact it seems to me on any prospects for what the Biden Administration would like to see in terms of israeli saudi normalization, because any leverage that the administration thought it had over Benjamin Netanyahu to make concessions on the palestinians has been reduced to an optical zero. This is going to take days and weeks before we see how the dust, proverbial dust is going to settle. Based on what we know right now, it is obviously very early in this war, aaron, how much of a, how big of an Intelligence Failure was this by the israelis . You know, it had to be huge. I mean theyre proximate to gaza, their hightech Monitoring Capacity of internet, Media Phone Calls is extraordinary. I think frankly it is a failure, it seems like a cliche but a failure of imagination. Similarly it seems to me what happened in october 73. Im not sure that the Israeli Intelligence, maybe we will learn something in the contrary, but imagine that hamas, for get the rockets, thats business as usual, even with these numbers but crossborder infiltration, 60 to 100 armed palestinians actually occupying communities in israel, proximate to gaza, shooting along the roads . I mean i just dont think the israelis saw this coming. Clearly, they will have to do a reassessment when all of this is over with, to see how badly the intelligence and Military Intelligence did, in terms of getting ready for this kind of war, and it is very similar as we all know to what happened during the yom kippur war in 1973, almost exactly 50 years ago, when israel was surprised by the coordinated egyptian and syrian attack that surprised the israelis then. How serious, how badly do you think this is going to escalate now, not only in gaza but maybe in lebanon or the west bank . Well, in Palestinian Health ministry, they are reporting 198 palestinians killed, 1600 wounded, and israel has a decision to make. And it is going to be informed by politics as well as security. What is their response going to be . The Prime Minister has declared war. Declared war on hamas. When you declare war, you aim for victory. But i asked myself the basic question, exactly what do the israelis hope to achieve . Reoccupation of the gaza strip . A major Ground Incursion to destroy hamass Military Leadership . A legitimate target of the israelis has been very vocal and the israelis may want to eliminate hamass leadership. But where does this go . Thats the real problem. Where is the strategy to ensure that this is not a brutal and horrific rinse, wash and repeat cycle, because thats what it has proven to be over the last several decades when it comes to israels relation with gaza, and hamas in particular. You know, very risk averse israeli Prime Minister under tremendous pressure from so many fronts now. The trial, the judicial overhaul, and inherently risk averse but he may very well be risk ready he may have no choice but to respond with Ground Forces. We will see if that escalates. I suspect it will. What do you think we will hear from President Biden after his Phone Conversation with Prime Minister netanyahu . Reassurance. Reassurance. Reassurance. There may be a more tepid call for trstrength and strit seems politically and given the president s preternatrual for israel, not necessarily the netanyahu government but for israel for sure, so it possible tony blinken is reportedly planning a trip, i gather it was focused on israeli saudi normalization, and now is it time for Crisis Diplomacy for the Biden Administration . I just dont see the president the president may call for strength but he will give the israelis it seems to me a fair margin to deal with this on the Security Military side. So again, reassurance of israel, profound support, minimize civil jan casualties, but it seems to me, it will be rhetoric, the question is, is there anything the administration can do on the action side that could somehow diffuse this, and right now, frankly, i doubt it. Is there anyone on the arab side that has the influence from hamas, for example, to calm things down . Well, there is tremendous pressure, the menendez business, human rights, cc watt, i think, to get involved, he is still a player. Serving as sort of a bad men, funneling money, with the israeli acquiescence into gaza, to sort of quiet the situation and defuse hamass efforts to take on Something Like this. But i think on hamas part, this was an effort to demonstrate that hamas is in the forefront, meeting the Palestinian National struggle against israel. It is not habat. Do you think you can do israel saudi rabe normalization . Were here. These attacks against civilian, Terror Attacks against civilians is part of that campaign to remain the israelis theyre here, hamas may israelis may think it is unfinished business. I just dont see how. Unless the israelis are prepared to mount a major incursion, eliminate the hamas leadership, somehow bring the Palestinian Authority back into gaza, that there is going to be an end state here that is going to be better, somewhat better, almost, than the one we witnessed over the last several decks. I just dont see this. And i think american leverage here on the saudi business, i think there is no way any administration in the wake of this you could end up with 100 israeli dead or more by the time that this is over. No American Administration is going to press Benjamin Netanyahu now for concessions, given this blatant, flagrant assault by hamas to demonstrate that it not abbas, is the leader of the palestinian movement. I guarantee you whatever palestinians are saying publicly, there has got to be gaza, i suppose, and gaza will suffer as a consequence of this. It certainly will. But with the palestinian pride, you know, i dont agree with that, violence is not going to end this conflict, but i suspect that hamass political prestige now is going to rise exponentially. We do know that qatar has a lot of influence over hamas financially and politically and other ways as well. We did briefly share with you, aaron, a statement from the foreign ministry, the qatar Foreign Minister spokesman issued a Statement Saying that the qatar government saying that israel is solely responsible for the ongoing escalation due to its continuous violations of the rights of the palestinian people. So a strong statement from the Foreign Minister in qatar, blaming israel for all of this. Are you surprised . No. Not from the qataris. Theyve improved relations with the israelis but they have been very supportive of islamists and i think they want to maintain their ties and contacts with hamas. They may well come in to play a role in the event, in the next days and weeks ahead, this thing can be defused, but right now, this is an israeli, this is the blood is up. And this is going to get worse, wolf, before it gets worse. Yeah, i suspect youre right and i think it will escalate not only in gaza but elsewhere as well. Aaron david miller, thank you very much. We will have much more coming up on all of the Breaking News were following, the developing situation out of the middle east right now. Coming up, we will take a closer look at the military ramifications. Well be right back. This just coming in. A new video, geo located, authenticed by cnn shows at least one israeli soldier has been taken by prisoner by hamas in gaza. A warning this video could be disturbing to some viewers, it was released and edited by hamas. It shows hamas militants yanking two Israeli Soldiers out of a disabled israeli tank. It is unclear from the video how the tank was disabled. But hamas has been utilizing drones to drop bombs on to israeli tanks. You can see one of the soldiers being kicked on the ground by the militants, a second soldier is being led away while another is on the ground. Cnn does not know the current whereabouts or status of these three Israeli Soldiers. Israeli Defense Forces are not commenting on hamas claims that they have captured the soldiers. Joining us now, cnn military analyst, retired air force colonel cedric latin. What is your reaction to the disturbing video we just shared with our viewers . It is definitely a real problem for the israelis, and it shows, wolf, the surprise which israelis were confronted this morning by this invasion from hamas. It is pretcally clear that the pretty clear that the goal of hamas is not only to capture as many Israeli Soldiers as possible but to disable as much equipment as possible and i think thats what were looking at here. I think as this unfolds, we will see not only more attacks on southerlies but more attacks on civilians as well. Give us your analysis of the tactics that weve seen so far used by hamas in this attack on israel. And the attack involving land, sea, and air forces. Yeah, i think this is very interesting, because this is a real difference from the way in which hamas has engaged in attacks on israel before. So what youre seeing is, as you mentioned, land, sea, and Air Components coming together, and in essence, kind of a joint force type maneuver, using very cheap methods and they are able to use small arms, theyre able to use paragliders, motorized paragliders to come into israeli territory and those have the purpose not only of evading Israeli Defenses, israeli radars, and other defenses, but they also have the capacity to swarm into israeli territory, and there is basically a swarm attack, both in the sense of the paragliders coming in, as well as the number of rocks that have been used against israeli targets. And the idea there, it is to overwhelm the iron dome Defense System, Missile Defense system that the Israelis Have, which is exceptionally good, but any type of air Defense System is going to be subassumed at some point by the sure number of missiles and rockets coming into. It so this is in essence the kind of thing that were looking at, trying to overwhelm as many Israeli Defenses as possible. They will try to take temporarily at least some territory, but this is not a conventional war, like the kind were seeing in ukraine. This is basically a larger guerrilla action, on multiple fronts and as such it presents a significant amount of challenge to both the israeli Defense Forces and the israeli called on to defend communities especially around gaza. Israel of course has a very formidable Military Capability right now. How do you think they are going to respond to this war . Well, i think with the israelis, what theyre going to do, wolf is, theyre going to try to find as many leaders of the hamas operation as possible and try to neutralize them. Theyre going to not only go after command and control modes, like they traditionally, do but they are also going to go after individuals. They are probably going to try to mount an incursion into gaza, to try to dislodge some of the fighters, and frankly, for retribution, that is kind of the way this has been going, and that is i think what were seeing here, so the israeli response is going to be fairly massive, its going to involve many members of their armed forces and it is also going to require air power to be integrated with the Ground Forces. They will be using Precision Bombing in this campaign. Were going to get reaction from an idf Defense Forces military spokesman coming up next. Colonel cedric leighton, thank you very much for joining us. Well be right back with much more on this Breaking News. Were continuing to follow the Breaking News out of israel and gaza right now, at least 40 israelis are confirmed dead by the israeli government, more than 900 israelis are wounded right now, that according to the Israeli Health ministry, after a surprise multifront attack from hamas, On Israeli Soil earlier this morning. Israel is responding with air strikes on gaza, palestinian Officials Say at least 198 palestinians are dead, and more than 1,600 others are injured. We dont know if those deaths are hamas fighters or gaza civilians. I want to bring in Idf International Lieutenant Colonel richard hectare, joining us right now. Thank you very much for joining us. First of all, what can you tell us about the situation on the ground right now . Can you give us an update on whats going on . So again, i have been looking at all of your reports and theyre pretty much on the dot on what is happening. What i can confirm is that we have hostages, and taken by hamas, we also have some casualties, idf casualties, we dont have the exact numbers, all i can say, wolf, is that were in war right now. We have multiple terrorists that came in through the land, the sea, and the air this morning, there was a specific area right beside the area, the southern part of israel, also came through the sea, and we are now conducting, as we speak, firefights, 22 locations, right at the gaza strip. Weve mobilized Special Forces to all of these locations because these firefights demand a certain level of professionalism. Theres some communities that weve taken out the terrorists and some communities where the fighting is still going on. What and it is a very severe Lieutenant Colonel, whats the latest on the numbers . How many confirmed israeli dead, and how many confirmed israeli wounded . I cant go to the numbers. As you can see, these are substantial numbers. I think one of the interesting numbers here, or tragic numbers here, is actually civilians. Again, im getting a lot of the palestinian math going on, there when they target, they say we go for a military target, these terrorists came in this morning, they didnt go only for military targets, they went into communities, and they abducted grandmas, they abducted families, they killed children, a very, very severe morning, and were going to responds. Im told, lieutenant skcolon, that the Prime Minister cabinet, Prime Minister netanyahus cabinet will hold an Emergency Meeting very, very soon and may winds up formally declaring war on hamas. Whats your understanding of that . Well, again, our leadership is meeting in a very composed and calm way. We are focused right now on getting the security back into the communities, and putting on the table plans for a very, very strong response to this inhumane activity that happened this morning. On behalf of hamas. So you think that theres going to be a formal Declaration Of War . Its hard to say at this point. Weve got people way over my pay grade, wolf. But again, were looking at all, not only gaza, towards the north, as you remember, last ramadan, also we had some challenge from the north, so the idea of the israelis also looking towards the north and also looking at Judea And Samaria. Sadly, they are trying to manipulate actually a very quiet holiday that we had, and they have performed this horrific attack this morning. Have you seen any indication yet that hezbollah in Southern Lebanon may begin to launch attacks against Northern Israel . Were watching the traffic. Were watching the language. And were ready for any option. But at this point, thats all i can say. So is it still quiet along israels northern border with lebanon . As we speak, it is still quiet, yes. What about from the west bank . So were monitoring it closely. As you know, weve had some volatile days here, with the events here, a few nights ago, so a lot of the idea of the battalions are deployed there, the idf battalions are deployed there to keep safety and also badly behaved people on our side and badly behaved people on their side, were stretched, because we have also forces deployed in Judea And Samaria and mobilizing forces to the gaza strip, and were looking at all of the arenas and were prepared. You say that there is israeli hostages who are now being held by hamas militants. Do you have any sense how many are being held, and how many of them are military and how many are civilians . When i talk about, there is a Hostage Situation right now, also in areas where there are civilian communities, a small town, these are not military targets, wolf. So what is the Israeli Military, the idf doing to try and safely rescue these israeli civilians who are being held, in your words, as hostages . So were very sadly, were very experienced in these kinds of situations, we have Special Forces, thats their professional capability, and right now, they are engaging in all of these 22 locations that i talked about, and we have very severe situation also in kibutz, and also hakim. Skibutz is in the far from gaza. We also saw some video, we shared with our viewers, video released by hamas of at least one israeli soldier captured by hamas. What can you tell us about that, if anything . So as i said, at the beginning of our talk, they have abducted the Israeli Soldiers, and hamas, were dealing with it as much as we can. Will israel launch a formal Ground Offensive in response and move its troops directly back into gaza . That i will leave to our cabinet who is meeting as we speak. And im sure that the general is putting all options on the table. And our leadership will then decide how we respond to this. Again, this is an unprecedented attack, ive been for many years in the army, this is something of a scale that we havent seen in many years. And again, i emphasize, the story here is really civilians being killed, not soldiers. What happened to israels excellent air Defense System, the iron dome, because we see a lot of these rockets and missiles coming in from gaza, destroying the civilian areas and major israeli cities, rehobeth, other towns, what is going on with the iron dome . So im actually thinking of mire my best friend, the commander of the air defense, im defender myself, and obviously in the air defense, there is never a hermetic defense, iron dome up to now has done quite a good job, and there was a hit there this morning, we are still waiting to hear what happened, there is something that hit tel aviv but debris from an inception, and right now, that is still holding. Lieutenant colonel, clearly the attack on this level, by hamas, by land, and sea and air, with thousands of rocks launched against israel, took some extensive planning. Was israel caught offguard, was this an Intelligence Failure . So we were surprised this morning. About failures, it is a failure at this point, right now were at war, were fighting, im sure this will be a big question once this event is over, and also the people that are connecting it to events in yesterday, and right now, were focused mainly on getting back security, so i assume that the Intelligence Question will be talked about down the road. Im aware of what happened here. There is a lot of reassessment that needs to be done, and the Idf International spokesperson, Lieutenant Colonel richard hecht, thanks for joining us. We will want to stay in close touch with you. Appreciate it very much. Thank you, wolf. Cnns Global Affairs analyst Kimberly Dozer is joining us now. Thank you very much for joining us. Whats your assessment right now, bottom Line Assessment of whats going on . Reporter right now, the israeli Defense Forces and every branch of Israeli Intelligence is watching not just to try to mop up the fighters who got through the gaza border, and are staging ongoing attacks but theyre looking at all of their opponents, possible militant attacks from the west bank, also hamas, sorry, hezbollah, in lebanon, which has more than 100,000 rockets and missiles that could reach most of israel. And even militants as far away as syria. The suspicion is that iran has at least facilitated this attack by hamas and gaza. And therefore, since iran cooperates with hezbollah and militants in syria, the worry of israeli officials is that this attack could ex pand. As you just heard from the idf spokesperson, they havent detected anything like that yet, but they are watching. They also have to reevaluate every bit of intelligence over the past several weeks, what did they miss, did they see a pattern that they didnt put it all together, how did this come as a Surprise Attack on shabat, on a holy day in israel . There is going to be a lot of reassessments going on, i suspect, youre absolutely right. The fear right now is this war, and it is already being billed by the israelis as a war, could dramatically escalate in the coming days and weeks for that matter, to other fronts, not only in gaza, but as you point out, in lebanon, maybe even the west bank, and whats your fear . That the strikeback, that the israeli Defense Forces surely have to carry out, will cause so many Civilian Casualties that it will make the possibility of any future peace talks, brokered by the white house, or europe, between Palestinian Factions and the israelis, impossible for years to come. It also could derail efforts to normalize relations between israel and gulf states like saudi arabia. The statement so far out of the gulf states, including saudi arabia, have been harsh and mostly blaming israel for this violence. There have been, in recent days, in arab newspapers, a lot of coverage of ultranationalist israelis trying to quoteunquote storm or enter the temple mount, or alaksa mosque area in the old city. This is an area that is holy to both muslims and jews but jews really have no access to the top of temple mount and this has caused great anger across the arab world and especially palestinian areas. I think what were seeing is militants in gaza are trying to take advantage of that anger and kick off a wider conflagration. I suspect. Youre making an excellent point right now. Where were going to watch all of this unfold. I think everyone is bracing right now, to see a Major Military assault by the israelis on various targets inside gaza right now. If that happens, and there are a lot more casualties, in gaza, whats going to happen after that . I think theyre going to have to do some sort of Ground Incursion into gaza territory, which means urban fighting, also the possibility of a lot more Civilian Casualties. The israeli public, im already hearing from some, as im sure youre hearing from some friends over there, is furious about this. Ive heard from the former officials who cant believe that this was missed. Theyre comparing it to not just the october war of 1973, when egypt and syria attacked israel in a Surprise Attack, but to the u. S. 9 11 attacks that they had been caught so flatfooted. So when you have that kind of anger, thats the kind of thing that will drive the government to really crack down hard on gaza, and root out every last conspirator, as they see it, and gaza is so tightly packed, theres no way to do that without also getting into civilian areas and taking Civilian Casualties. Were told that the Israelis Have mobilized their reservists, many of their reserves, thousands of reserve forces, to go in and help deal with this warlike situation what is unfolding right now. And as all of us know, in these weeks and months leading up to now, there were a lot of reservists who were saying they werent going to go serve in the military because they oppose netanyahu and the government and overall judiciary and it looks like the reservists whether Pilot Operatives or intelligence operatives or commandos or whatever, if theyre getting their orders to be activated, they are beginning to activate and go into military activity. At least thats what were being told. This is significant, right . Well, in a situation like this, yes, you do have several reservists going on strike and refusing to serve because of their objection to the netanyahu governments changes with the judiciary, but in a time like this, when the nation is under attack, everyone pulls together. Ive talked to some people who i consider on the left wing of the israeli spectrum, and they are sheltering in Bomb Shelters and scared right now. So i think that kind of fear and the number of casualties and all of the funerals were going to see in the coming days, it is going to wipe away the eternal political distent, and they will unify and fight back. One of the reasons they need so many reservists is because if they do Something Like a Ground Incursion into gaza, which is at this point speculation analysis, we dont know for sure that theyre going to do that, but what they would do is use their active duty forces to do that kind of incursion, and then the reservists would most likely backfill a number of positions across the country. Especially as, at this point, the Security Services have been gut punched, and they dont know where the next strike is coming from. And they want to cover all the bases, because the israeli people demand that. Yes, they certainly do. And were told that the israeli Prime Minister netanyahu is convening his National Security cabinet right now, and it may emerge, it may emerge soon, with a formal Declaration Of War. Im not exactly sure what that will mean, other than it will be a major escalation in the fighting right now. But if that happens, kim, what do you think . I think netanyahu is he has already made some strong promises that the enemy will pay for this. I think the next thing that the israeli people are expecting to hear from him is all right, what is your concrete action going to be . How are you going to keep us safe . I have spoken to at least one, or communicated with at least one former official who believes that this could bring the netanyahu government down, but then you have the question, this is a conservative government, with a lot of nationalist members, it is arguably one of the most securityminded administrations israel has had in decades, if they cant keep people safe, israelis will wonder who can, what can you do to stop this from happening again . Our cnn Global Affairs analyst Kimberly Dozer, thanks so much for your expertise, appreciate it very, very much. Well have much more still ahead as we follow the Breaking News, the developing unprecedented situation unfolding in israel right now. Stay with us. Well be right back. Jerusalem is now reporting that the Israeli Emergency Services have now concluded, at least right now, these numbers probably will go up, approximately 70 israelis are confirmed dead, dead as a result of the strike from hamas and gaza, and hundreds of israelis, hundreds of israelis are now listed as seriously injured. Were watching all of this unfold, so is the white house. President biden, were told, has just spoken with the israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, on this deadly attack in israel earlier this morning. I want to get right to our senior White House Correspondent mj lee, who is watching this. What is the latest, mj . We have gotten word that President Biden has spoken with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. We dont have a full readout yet from the u. S. Side of what exactly was discussed. And what they talked about. But as soon as we have those details of how they discussed the unfolding situation in israel, we will bring that to you. I do want to make a note though here about that relationship between the Prime Minister and President Biden. These two men will have known each other for some four decades, and it is a Working Relationship that has come under strain and has really been tested in recent years, as netanyahu has left power, and then was reelected, and then sort of pushed his far right government to push through these very controversial judicial reforms, and that ended up putting President Biden in sort of a tough position of speaking out against those attempts at judicial reform, and speaking out in support of democracy, and democratic institutions, and that ended up putting a strain on the two mens relationship. The two men did meet a few last month, i should say, at the sidelines of the next general assembly, and they attempted to show sort of a warm and cordial relationship and the president did invite the Prime Minister to come to the white house before the end of the year, and of course, you fast forward a couple of weeks and here we are, the two men speaking about the stunning turn of events in israel right now. We certainly expect that they are going to stay in close contact in the coming hours and days. Wolf . We will watch it all unfold, mj lee, thank you very much. Cnn is covering all of the Breaking News out of israel, we will have much more right after a quick break