Fighters are seen storming the main Border Crossing between the israel and the gaza strip. Fighters have infiltrated israeli cities and there have been gun battles in the street. Cnn teams are deployed Around The World to bring you all the latest developments. Cnns Nic Robertson has just landed in israel. He got off the plane at the Main International airport where sirens warned of possible incoming rockets. And before we get to you, nic, i want to show our viewers how it unfolded on the tarmac. [ sirens ] we literally just got off the plane here, the sirens have gone off. People are taking cover. We got off the bus, people are taking cover, and you can hear the intercept missiles banging in the air. Nothing incoming here. But everyone is taking cover. Theyve gotten down. A lot of concern about whats going to happen here this night. Again, nic, we just showed our viewers what happened when you and your team arrived at the airport in israel. You have now made your way to an area right outside of you say theres a lot of concern there tonight. First, explain to people who are looking at you, 11 00 local time, where exactly you are, what does that mean, and what is happening there . So, when we came out of the airport, we headed south along the Coastal Highway. Thats the Coastal Highway there. What youre seeing is a checkpoint on that highway, and that, as far as we know, is as far as we can go, because 15 miles further down the road from there is gaza. And while weve been standing here, weve been able to hear what sound like fighter jets in the air, and the sound of detonations, possibly detonations from explosions that are happening inside gaza. But i want to show you Something Else here. Take a spin around and look. Theres just a couple of vehicles on the highway down here, but this is in relative terms absolute ly deserted. The further south weve come towards gaza, the quieter the roads have been. There is very little traffic compared to how it would be normally. Now, at this time, still a few people like this gentleman here, coming out to see whats going on, but it is going to be down this road here, where you see the blue flashing light that we can expect to see potentially deployments of Israeli Defense force troops around gaza. It is further south from here, where those hamas militants came out of gaza, broke down the fence, and got into communities that are just 20, 30 miles south of here. Thats where we saw the terror on the streets, the people being kidnapped, the people shot in their cars, on what appeared to be on this highway, or roads very close to it, earlier on this morning. It is a sort of lull at the moment, but it is very much a dynamic situation, because the government now needs to decide how its going to move forward. And with the potential hamas says it has, hostages, its got people captured, this is an entirely different dynamic than the Israeli Government has really faced on this kind of scale before, for perhaps a generation or more, so, this will be a huge challenge tonight for the government. And although we are seeing some small number of troops around, not seeing any large Military Te Employment so far, but we are seeing checkpoints on this highway, as it goes north, because obviously, the Israeli Defense force concerned that there might be other hamas militants out there who want to try to move further north tonight. That would be an ongoing concern, until the Israeli Defense tors aforce are complet sure theyve rounded them all up, dana. It certainly is eerie. I cant imagine what it feels like being there, it does feel calm, its 11 05 at night, and thats probably typically what you see which is not a whole lot of action, when its that late at night, but for this moment, it is because people are scared to come out. It actually, frankly, surprises me that im seeing even a few cars heading towards gaza right now. Yes, theres a checkpoint there, but its surprising youre seeing civilians even trying to get up there. Perhaps they have family or their homes are between where you are and the gaza border, but this is, as you said, a very, very dynamic situation. And that for People Living in the area, a little bit further north up the coast and tel aviv, its going to be a big worry throughout the night. Are there going to be more rockets . There was a salvo of about 150, 200 maybe rockets fired from gaza into tel aviv. Go back ten years or so, hamas didnt have rockets that could reach tel aviv. The dynamics of the situation here have been evolving. Hamas has been getting longer range weapons systems, theyve been trying different techniques to to attack israeli civilians, but what were seeing today, of course, by breaking out of gaza and storming military positions, Israeli Defense force positions, as well as civilians, that is an order of mag any tide, a quantum step, as we said, different to what people have seen here before so, weve seen a couple of vehicles go through that checkpoint, going south that way. They seem to be military vehicles, and there are military on the move here, and if you look at their vehicles, you wouldnt potentially move they were military. Yeah. Well, that actually makes a lot of sense. Nic, i want to show our viewers some new video that we have in from what is going on this evening in tel aviv. We have some video of a building that was hit by a rocket, you see it there. You see the aftermath of what is going on there in tel aviv. I mentioned to you earlier that ive been in touch with people who are in and around tel aviv, who were hearing the sirens, going up and down from the bomb shelters, for the most part, they have been protected by israels famous iron dome system, which protects from rockets, but obviously, it is not foolproof. And were seeing that right now in new video that we have from tel aviv, which is an important note, because, yes, what is happening where you are closer to the border with gaza, nic, it is sort of where everybody is focused for lots of reasons, first and foremost, because thats where the Hamas Terrorists physically came in, killed save yans, took civilians across the border into gaza, but it is not limited to that area. Not at all. Typically in the past, when hamas had shorter range missile systems, they would hit the towns here, but now they can reach tel aviv. It seems that that is their preferred target. Potentially because its a greater density of population. Potentially because they know, for israeli, thats more has a greater psychological impact, literally as were standing here, i can hear explosions in the distance coming from the direction of gaza. We cant say with certainty what those explosions are, but they feel like quite big detonations that were hearing from a distance. Gaza, the northern end of gaza is about 15 miles in this direction here. And nic, were showing our viewers, its very dark, so, you cant see a whole lot, but kind of an area view of gaza city, and what Orrin Lieberman here was reminding us, and you have certainly reported on like he has from the ground there, is, when youre talking about israeli retaliation inside gaza, how difficult that is, even without israeli hostages who are apparently there now, because it is so dense, because it is so hard to navigate for the Israeli Military. Now, on top of that, you have the Israeli Military, according to Prime Minister net yaanyahu, very clearly ready to retaliate, but how are they going to do that, to avoid palestinian civilian deaths, but also, the israeli hostages who were intentionally brought in there as shields. Its a huge, huge challenge. Look, hamas hides out in the civilian population. They live in the same houses civilians live in. They build tunnels under civilian properties. So, that presents a military challenge. But youve got to take a step back and analyze this from the new scenario that weve witnessed today, not just the hostage scenario, which is terrible for any government to deal with, but particularly in a pressing situation like this, but the very fact that there appears to be an intelligence deficit on the israeli side. They didnt know this was coming. What else dont they know . What else dont they know about the terrain that they would have to physically cross . On the outskirts of gaza still, to get into gaza . What awaits them there that theyre not aware of that they havent faced in the past . So, all these are going to be calculations and things that the military is trying to determine. Look, we know in the past that israel has gotten some super sophisticated equipment that can detect hamas tunneling going on, but they were unaware of, it seems, that there was going to be a breakout from gaza by hamas into the civil yawn ian communi. And thats going to be on the minds of the military. And it takes some time to get the tanks, to get the reservists in place, to put Issuppressing Fire On Hamas Attacking and firing positions. It takes some time. And even when you do that, and you move into an arena that hamas is able to use as they want, almost effectively freely, being inside gaza, there are unknown dangers for the israeli forces. So, it is a very dangerous scenario, crossing that open ground, and then, where do you go . Which buildings do you target . What happens when you get within the buildings of civilian in infrastructure . That is an entirely different fight from from a fight that tanks can be useful at. And artillery can be useful at. It becomes infantry. You would think that Special Forces would try to do a rescue and recovery on the hostages. Intelligence is going to be the lead part of that picture. But the intelligence is lacking here. So, the challenges are vast at this stage. They are sure. And im so glad you put that in persp perspective. I dont want to belabor the 9 11 sort of illusion, but when youre talking about the Intelligence Failure and talking about that the Israeli Government, the Israeli Intelligence doesnt know what they dont know, it does remind you of the fear in the United States and frankly, Around The World, after 9 11, because they were caught so flatfooted. They didnt know what else could potentially be coming. Thank you so much, nic, for that incredible reporting, to your and your team. We will definitely get back to you. I want to go to sam kiley to stay on this this thread, this question, of the israelis not know what they dont know. Well, yes, dana. On top of that, all day, and nic and i have been in and out of the gaza strip, my case, for 25 years, ive never been into that strip or out of it, near it, without being within sight of an israeli helicopter. Where were those gun ships . They have observation balloons. It is almost impossible to move anywhere in gaza without being observed, particularly now by israeli drones. And yet, we were witness to by video and by social media, an incursion from gaza into israeli territory, without any kind of aerial response from the israelis whatsoever. Theres been no evidence whatsoever that they got an apache into the air and go after palestinian gunmen who were brazenly walking down the streets, opening fire on passing civilian vehicles, opening fire on police officers, overrunning two different small idf bases on the edge of the gaza strip. This is an absolutely extraordinary piece of planning by the gaza militants of hamas, but also, they could not have imagined that it might have been quite this easy. This is extraordinary, that they would have been able to capture that may be really seriously significant numbers of civilian hostages and, indeed, what the Israeli Defense forces are calling prisoners of war, in other words, soldiers that have been taken alive back into the gaza strip. Now, we havent seen very compelling evidence yet from hamas about the numbers, but we have seen video of them being taken back in, so, these air strikes that weve seen going in the early stages of the israelis trying to figure out, as nic was rightly pointing out, what on earth to do next. These spectacular attacks that you see with buildings targeted, coming down, weve seen this before, but what we havent seen before are these gazan incursions from gaza into israeli territory. Some of which weve got every reason to believe they be ongoing. And i think as nic was explaining there, is why hes not able to get further down the road, because there still are likely to be militants, armed Militants Roaming Arngsd not just near the gaza strip, but by now, maybe trying to pen trait into jerusalem. These are very serious, complex responses that the israelis are going to have to make on, on tof that, trying to figure out how they will, other than just by air, conduct operations inside gag gaza. Forgive me, sam, we heard nic talking about the fact that he could hear rockets going off in gaza, and what we were just looking at was moments ago, that very thing. Waiting for the tape to rerack, but continue what you were saying. Well, very interestingly there, youve seen, also, the activity of the iron dome actually shooting down some of those missiles, those flashes in the air are sometimes thought of in a grim way as almost sort of english pheasant shoot. The missiles go up overhead i think we have it again, so you can explain it. Yeah, its a remarkable piece of equipment, its a big boxlike piece of rocket that sends up a kinetic missile, essentially, a very fastmoving dart, that is able to bring down these hamas rockets in the air. And when you see Them Exploide N the air like that, theyve been detonated in the sky over usually israeli territory. Some of them, of course, misfire and even kill civilians and others in the gaza strip. But those detonations that weve seen in the sky are the missiles being shot down by the iron dome. Very sophisticated piece of equipment that has saved many thousands of israeli lives, dana. Sam kiley, thank you so much for that excellent reporting. Were going to take another quick break. Dont go anywhere. More of our Breaking News out of israel, hamas launching an unprecedented attack on israel. Stay with us. Welcome back to our breaking News Coverage of the hamas Terror Attack inside israel. Were going to go to the white house in a moment, but before we do, i just want to show our viewers, its very disturbing, but its important to see what were talking about here when we discuss the Terror Attack that happened on the Youjewish Sabba on a jewish holy day, and something that happened to a civilian woman that was in a car and she was driving, i believe we have this video . In the car, and it was overtaken by terrorists and then she was taken by terrorists. Difficult to watch, but it is just unfortunately one of many images, videos and photos that we are seeing coming out of israel, of innocent civilians being captured, being killed, and this is going on, went on all day. It is now nighttime in israel, nighttime in gaza, and i want to bring back our panel and i want to start here at the table with Orrin Lieberman, our Pentagon Correspondent who spent many years in israel, and also colonel leighton. I want to start with something that i heard from someone in israel, whether or not that Israeli Military forces have been very focused on the west bank, not on the gaza border. And we actually saw earlier that there was an example of an Israeli Military base being overrun. And is that because and obviously its early, were doing reporting, is it because the focus of the Israeli Military was not in gaza, which is what the Hamas Terrorist Organization and individuals took advantage of . It certainly looks that way. We have seen israel in Rexloents Focus its efforts on the west banks, carrying out raids in the northern west bank, going after terror cells in jen anin. So, thats where israels Military Focus has been. That leaves open the question, did they simply stop paying attention to gaza, and to the gaza border . It has not been completely quiet, but certain relative to the west bank, from what we have seen, the focus was simply on the west bank, and it leaves open the question, were they caught sleeping in this case . I want to add one more thought to that, the video being taken hostage, according to the license plate, that was an Israeli Military vehicle, they got a civilian there, they have now, it appears, stolen military vehicles, as well, in part of this raid that caught israel completely by surprise. Thats really important to know. Colonel . Yeah, dana, and i think its a question of resources, you know, like any other military force, you have a situation where what do you focus on first . What is your top priority, what is your top threat . And if the israelis believed their top threats came from the best bank, it is not surprising that they didnt focus as much on gaza, but having known the History Of Gaza and knowing hamas, its pretty clear that they, you know, in retrospect, you could say, if this is true, they should have been paying more attention to gaza and they certainly should have been paying attention to the fact that from an intelligence perspective, their sources were beginning to dry up. And that, of course, is a major, major problem for the israelis at this point. All right. It sure is. Were going to talk a lot more with the reporters and experts that we have. Were going to take a quick break. And on the other side, were going to go t