Announcer this is cnn Breaking News. Hello and welcome, everyone. Cnn brings you unparalleled coverage. Following major, major break news. On the ground. Four hours into the most serious threat to its security in modern memory perhaps ever. Live pictures now of gaza city, dawn just starting to break behind the skyline there. It is widely expected that a massive Israeli Military operation will soon engulf this palestinian enclave. Israel confirming a significant number of israelis including at least one soldier have been captured by hamas militants. You see one of them here being bundled into a car. A young woman. Their locations and fates are currently unknown. It is a shocking and unprecedented escalation in the regions long history of conflict. Israeli forces have been Hounding Hamas targets in gaza for much of the last 24 hours or so. The Prime Minister stating unequivocally that the country was at war. And since dawn on saturday, thousands of rockets have been fired from Gaza In Rapid Salvos and in numbers never before seen in such a short period of time. In many cases, too many for the iron dome air Defense System to intercept. In retaliation the israeli leader vowing to turn gaza into, quote, an island of ruin. Have a listen. Translator what happened today has never been seen in israel, i i will make sure that it doesnt happen again. The entire government is behind this decision. The idea will immediately use all its strength to destroy hamas capabilities and we will take mighty vengeance on this black day theyve enforced on the state of israel and its citizen. All the places which hamas is deployed hiding and operating in, that weakened city, we will turn it into an island of ruins. I am telling gazas people to leave those places now because we will take action everywhere. The Prime Minister just said the Israeli Military warning palestinian citizens in gauzy to leave their residences immediately for whats to come. The thing is this is the gaza strip. Its unclear where 2 million civilians could flee to. Theyve taken control of the Police Station. Cnns nadya bashir joining me now. Are they back in control of their territory . Well, this is certainly the first priority, michael, for the Israeli Defense forces, for the Israeli Government and that has been clearly expressed. Theyve been focusing on regaining control of territories and areas that have been infiltrated by hamas fighters. As mentioned there we saw that attack yesterday in which that infiltration took place by land, air, and sea. And we have seen of course some israeli civilians and soldiers taken as hostages or Prisoners Of War as a result of that and taken back into gaza. Over the course of saturday we have seen continued gun battles in these areas where hamas fighters have entered and if infiltrated israeli territory. As you mentioned there weve seen sums of them overnight. They managed to regain control of the Police Station or theyve taken control temporarily on saturday. Some progress on that front. We heard from israeli Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu describing this as the first phase of israels response. Focusing on regaining control of those areas impacted in yesterdays attack. What will be the second response which will be their next focus in the coming hours will be a Military Response. According to Benjamin Netanyahu, they are now focusing on those offensive preparations, positioning their troops, ready for what is set to be a Military Response to the attack by hamas fighters in israel. But of course we have seen overnight continued rocket fire, both thousands of rockets being fired from gaza into israel, many them intercepted by israels iron dome, and some making Landfall Hitting Targets including where we saw targets hit in ashkelon. Weve seen multiple high rises being targed over saturday including continued rocket fire overnight from israel into gaza. As you mentioned that warning telling residents in these areas within gaza to leave their homes, to evacuate because this will continue and of course questions as to where these people can evacuate to, these palestinians because as you mention there this is an air and Land Blockade on gaza. There is very little option for these palestinians to flee. So this is going to be a difficult few hours, a difficult day ahead. As you heard from the israeli officials as well as Benjamin Netanyahu, the israeli Prime Minister, this isnt just going to be a day or two days here. He described this as a long operation ahead. Thank you. In london with the latest for us. Meanwhile, washington could announce new assistance for israel as early as sunday. Thats according to u. S. Officials who say the two countries are already talking about what kind of aid israel could use right now. The military aid was the subject of a phone call between President Joe Biden and israeli Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu on saturday. Kayla taushe has more. Reporter the white house is working around the clock to understand the scope of israels needs as it responds to these attacks, which the u. S. Is calling appalling and unprecedented. A Senior Administration official says the focus of the u. S. Is in assisting to keep the violence contained at this stage and that there are conversations happening up and down the Military Chain to deliver direct support to israel, which im told by sources Prime Minister netanyahu directly asked President Biden for in a phone call that the two leaders held on saturday. Officials have acknowledged that the lack of a speaker of the house of representatives in the u. S. And a permanent u. S. Ambassador to israel are unique challenges at this moment as the u. S. Tries to get support in a timely and fulsome manner to israel. But President Biden says that support from the u. S. Is rock solid and unwavering. The United States stands with israel. We will not ever fail to have their back. Well make sure that they have the help their citizens need, and they can continue to defend themselves. In the street, in their homes, innocent people murdered, wounded. Entire families taken hostage by hamas. Just days after they mark the holiest of days on the jewish calender. Its unconscionable. When i spoke with Prime Minister netanyahu this morning i told him the United States stands with the people of israel in the face of these terrorist assaults. Israel has the right to defend itself and its people, full stop. Reporter while biden did not specify the target of that particular message, u. S. Officials have been clear in irans role as a longtime sponsor of hamas. But when asked whether they believe that iran was behind the hamas attacks in recent days, the u. S. Said that they could not yet draw that conclusion. Kayla taushe, cnn, the white house. And joining me now cedric leighton. Always good to see you, sir. We keep going back to this thing ive been to gaza so many times i cannot count, but its one of the most surveilled areas in the middle east. This comes Out Of The Blue in a military sense, israel blindsided. Talk about that failure and why you think that might have happened. I think this is one of the classic failures of technology. When you look at your experience when you went to gaza you saw the techniques the israelis had, the equipment, the devices they used. And we know there were other things they were doing in terms of monitoring radio traffic, telephone traffic, all those things. What hamas did, what their leadership did is apparently moved off the normal modern Communications Links we take for granted every day and went back to what you did in the 19th century, facetoface meetings. They went and used couriers instead of going in and using the telephone or cellphone. And that i think played a large role in doing this. They seemed to be very patient, hamas, in terms of how they planned this, how they carried it out. And it really i think takes us back to a point where we have to look at the fact that technological intelligence is not always the endall and be all weve gotten used to from a technology perspective. I was talking about this earlier with somebody else, israel has literally for years said it will and wanted to destroy the military capabilities of hamas. And clearly thats failed, so what are israels options now . The options are really limited, michael. And, you know, this is one of those headaches that war planners always have because its one thing to bomb something into oblivion, but its a completely different thing to take control of a society and take control of a mindset and change that mindset. This is you know, theres no way the socalled Hearts And Minds of hamas and its adherents are going to be changed in any way, shape, or form by what the israelis do. But on the other hand the israelis have to respond to what happened here. In essence theyre caught between a rock and a hard place because they really dont have any military means to change the things that brought them to this point. So what well see is, unfortunately, a continuation of this conflict but at a much higher level until and unless cooler heads prevail, and thats going to be i think a very difficult thing to achieve at this point. Given given obviously the depth of planning that went into this and it must have been a lot and probably over a long period of time, one imagines that, you know, hamas went into this knowing the possibility or even the likelihood of an Israeli Ground incursion. How prepared do you think hamas will be for that eventuality, a ground operation, and could that be why they took ohostages into gaza . I think that may be the main reason they took hostages. Prapts hamas and terrorists in the middle east have used hostages as a Bargaining Tool and policy for many, many decades. But the way in which theyve done this does reflect a degree of meticulous planning, and i think what theyre looking at is keeping those hostages so that a Ground Incursion by the israelis would have only limited success and may, you know, be a very difficult thing for the israelis to achieve. So the israelis are going to have to be meticulous if they do plan Something Like this. Its going to be hard to find where the hostages are and extraicate them forcibly. This will require more diplomacy than forceful means. Israel should definitely plan for both possibilities at this point. I guess when it comes to hostages, israels got some pretty capable Special Forces who can carry out such things and have done in the past. The thing is they would be relying on intelligence in terms of where the hostages are and so on, and we have seen this Intelligence Failure. So would that complicate hostage recovery, make it that much more perilous . It certainly could, but i think we also have to make the distinction between a strategic intelligence fail, which this seems to be, as opposed to a tactical intelligence situation. A tactical intelligence situation is one in which now things have happened, they may very well find the ways in which they can trace where hamas is. They may be able to find telltale signs of where the hostages are perhaps, you know, where they have been, and that becomes something they can use from a forensic standpoint in order to track them and potentially extricate them from gaza. Its not a done deal either way, but it is absolutely a proposition for israelis to conduct such operations. Theres no doubt about it. One thing thats been staggering about this, too the most staggering thing is infiltrations nobodys ever seen before in covering this conflict. It was the massive number of rockets fired in a short period of time. Where does hamas gaza is blockaded. I mean not much gets in or out the israelis dont know about. Where does hamas get the material to make and fuel and arm these rockets . Do we know . Yes, so theres several theories and in some cases we have concrete evidence, but the hamas forces have developed various techniques to manufacture some rockets, Reverse Engineer some others, and they get a lot of aid through several means. Most of it coming eventually it can be traced back to places like iran. In some cases theres some connection to hezbollah, in lebanon and other areas in that region. But it is something where theres been a lot of ill call it indigenous work, if you will, thats been going on in gaza by hamas itself. And theyve been pretty good at figuring out certain things, Reverse Engineering others and learning from mistakes theyve made in the past, so theyve become a fairly effective Insurgent Force. And i would characterize them has an Insurgent Force as that is more what theyre like as compared today a regular army at this point. Really appreciate you sticking around for us, cedric leighton. Colonel, thanks so much. Good to see you as always. Good to see you, too. Israels fight against hamas who invaded the country basically have stretched into the wee hours of the morning, and israel already striking back inside gaza as weve been reporting. The latest updates from the middle east coming up. Also we talked to a former ambassador of the region about what the end game is for hamas in this sudden and dramatic escalation. Well be right back. The israeli Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu says the nation is facing a, quote, long and difficult war following hamas shocking attack on israel. Israel unleashing furious rocket fire overnight against gaza, and the israely military telling Gaza Civilians to evacuate residential areas. This all coming after that brazen and unprecedented assault on israel by the gazabased militant group. Israeli sources say hamas has launched thousands of rockets against israeli towns and cities including as far north as tel aviv and sent as many as a thousand fighters into israeli towns killing some 300 israeli civilians and soliers and kids napping some others. Mr. Netanyahu vowing to destroy hamas wherever its leaders and fighters hide. The former Opposition Leader is urging mr. Netanyahu to put aside their political differences and form an Emergency Government. In a statement he said Prime Minister netanyahu knows with extreme and dysfunctional security cabinet, he cant manage a war. Israel needs to be led by a professional, experienced, and responsible government. He went on, we need to put politics to one side for the sake of an Emergency Government which will manage the situation with determination and wont deal with anything else until we achieve victory over our enemies. Cnns Nic Robertson is just a few miles from the gaza border and has the latest for us. Reporter what were witnessing here, the first time that weve seen it tonight, is Israeli Heavy Armor Being transported in towards gaza. Thats the road to gaza about 2 1 2 miles, 3 kilometers that way, and these are israeli battle tanks. Ive counted at least five. There are more transporting them coming around the corner. The night has been very active. Beyond that check point there, that is the area where the Israeli Defense forces have been contesting with hamas militants who are still inside israel. Where we are, this is the area that israel controls proper. Beyond that, it is still an active military zone. These tanks are being moved into that zone. Weve heard Helicopter Gun ships attacking positions on the ground. Weve seen Special Forces moving in and out of the area around here. And weve seen a lot of missile fire coming out of gaza by hamas militants and others potentially fired out of gaza and intercepted by iron dome defensive missile systems. Iron dome has been firing up from over here. The intercept has been happening literally overhead. And that has happened on multiple occasions. Weve been hearing as well israeli jets flying towards gaza, and then weve heard explosions, heavy explosions at times, flashes on the horizon through the night. So this is a very dynamic and fluid situation. But this is the first time we are seeing heavy israeli battle armor moving towards gaza. Perhaps theres steps of future deployments. Nic robertson, israel. Joining me now the former ambassador to iraq and turkey, james jeffrey. Mr. Ambassador, really appreciate you making the time. What do you think hamas calculation was with this operation and the timing and the scale of it . First, we saw israel weakened by internal West Bank Policy and judicial reform. Secondly, its closely aligned with iran. It wants to block cooperation between israel and the United States, mostly saudi arabia. They hadnt considered how strongl