Breaking news. Hello, everyone. Alongside Anderson Cooper in tel aviv, well get to him in a moment. Lets begin with this latest information, fighting in gaza continues following yesterdays terror attack. Were seeing pictures from earlier in the day. In gaza explosions have lit up the darkness there. Were also learning hamas is holding as many as 30 people captive in gaza. Residents in more than 20 israeli communities are being told to evacuate the hot spot of fighting continues to flair up. Video showing Israeli Border police rescuing civilians after an exchange of gunfire with hamas fighters on saturday. And Officials Say at least 600 israelis were killed in yesterdays terror attack. And this disturbing video shows dozens of body bags stocked stacked at the site of a musical festival where hamas fighters attacked concertgoers. U. S. Secretary of state Antony Blinken says the u. S. Is trying to confirm reports that americans are among those killed. Israel is striking back at targets in gaza. There you can see a mosque that was destroyed by israeli air strikes, more than 300 palestinians have been killed and 1,900 wounded in the fighting. Cnns Anderson Cooper is with me now from tel aviv. Reporter a Fast Moving Situation on the ground, 39 or so hours since this surprise attack, this brutal attack began. Clarissa ward is along the gaza border and Nic Robertson is in israel, too, places where are used to incoming rockets but have never seen anything like this, the Ground Incursions that both of those communities have experienced. Clarissa, i want to start off with you. We have seen just sickening videos of women, young men, elderly people being taken, kidnapped, taken, dragged across the border brutally into gaza where they will be held hostage and used to suit the purposes of Islamic Jihad and hamas. There was a Music Festival that weve heard about that was going on. A lot of people had gathered, a lot of young people, and that is where weve seen some of the hostages were taken from. Talk about what youve learned about what happened there. Reporter so anderson, we actually went to the site of this Music Festival today. I think were only just starting now to get a sense of just how many people were killed and just how bloody and horrific this entire scenario was. The Israeli Government took an unprecedented step and put up a photograph on twitter that shows dozens and dozens of body bags inside a tent. These are all bodies that were taken from the scene of the festival, festivalgoers who are now being identified so that their loved ones can be allowed to know what has happened to them. We went to the scene today. It is still very, very tense, a huge amount of Israeli Military in the area. And you see as you approach it just scores of vehicles abandoned on the roadside, shot up completely. We saw the bodies sorry, i should have warned the audience of the graphic pictures, of hamas fighters still lying there. There are quite a few of them. You can imagine the chaos, the fear, the terror this group of some 500 young revellers had gathered to celebrate the end of the high holidays to dance the night away, about 6 00 in the morning a barrage of rockets begin followed by the infiltration of scores of hamas militants who went through murdering and grabbing and kidnapping and taking hostages. At one point we could see actually where an Israeli Police vehicle had literally tboned a Truck Holding hamas militants to try to stop them from carrying out this horrendous mission. And there are still so many people, andersons are and weve been in touch with some of them and families of some of them who are still looking for their loved ones, some of whom went down when they heard what was happening early in the morning. One man who went down to find his daughter is now missing. For these families, the excruciating pain of not knowing where your child or where your loved one is, whether theyre alive, whether theyre being held in gaza, whether they are possibly dead but this was this festival took place over quite a large area and people were running in so many Different Directions that its difficult to get a grip on exactly how extensive the casualties were. And, as i mentioned before, as we pushed further in, the Israeli Military saw us and they turned us right around and they were in very alert posture with their weapons and they said you simply cannot be here, anderson. And Nic Robertson, youve been traveling along the gaza border now for an hour. You talked to a spokesperson for the idf. There are still points along the border thats just a helicopter passing over. There are still points that are in contention, is that right . There are still points where hamas fighters are trying to come across. Reporter absolutely correct. There were seven earlier in the afternoon. The idf is quite prompt in announcing when theyre taking control of an area. They were announcing when they took control of the Police Station last night and early hours of this morning after heavy firefight. Those areas in contention a couple of hours ago still appear in contention. Similar experience to what clarissa is experiencing. When you come across groups of soldiers, they will be on high alert, checkpoints of soldiers, who will have the safety on their weapon because thats the posture they need to be in because they are concerned that the next person that comes up to them could be from hamas because those infiltrations are still existing. We havent heard about any new infiltrations this evening but we were yesterday evening, we were early this morning. We heard about one this afternoon as well. We heard a burst of gunfire close of us. That was again suspected infiltration. Thats what the Israeli Forces were up against around here. I think what were witnessing this field medical post that earlier on when we were talking just a couple of hours ago, anderson, there were ambulances swarming around here, it was buzzing with medics and doctors. One of the ambulances have taken off, theyve dispersed around the area, moving into places where the army feels they will be better ready to be used. I think the understanding we will have is they will be close to those areas of contention. Theyre not just helping civilians here, theyre helping injured soldiers as well. It is all about trying to take back control and making sure any woul wounded, casualties, can get speedy help, anderson. Reporter Clarissa Ward, the mobilization of security forces, do they have all their troops where they want them at this stage or is it still large movements of troops and trying to get people rallied and armed and moving forward . Reporter were still seeing huge amounts of movement and people arriving on the scene, some Carrying Duffle Bags with them, large amounts of military tanks being brought into the area. We also, as nic had described, had to turn around at one stage because there was an active firefight going on with the Israeli Military and what we presume were hamas militants. Nic said they continue to lurk or Hide In Plain Sight in these areas. For now the focus is very much to try to route out any militants who may have infiltrated but also to build up a huge presence along that border and to try to repair the damage to the border. One of the things that i hadnt necessarily expected to see was huge Flatbed Trucks carrying Building Materials to try to repair the damage at some of these places where the border was transgressed. Im just warning you now, anderson, because i have just lost communications on my phone here so i will not be able to hear you for a minute. Well come back to you. Nick, in terms of where were at, for people in sderot, is that secured . Ostensibly, yes. The power is off in a lot of parts in the town and its dark so a lot of people there will have that uneasy feeling about the explosions. And some of the explosions we were hearing and the gunfire was very close. And that seemed to indicate that and certainly the troops on patrol, weapons ready, looking for suspected hamas militants on the streets there late this afternoon indicate that there is that potential. Its so difficult. In a way its proving a negative. How do you know when you have them all rounded up . Its very hard to know. One can pop up and start shooting just because the areas been quiet for a few hours doesnt mean its fully secure. Its when the fence is resecured, its when youve got the troops in place and traps its going to take realistically several days to know for sure that all the militants have been rounded up. Its just a very big logistical task and at night here, you can hide out pretty easily and thats despite the hightech equipment the Israeli Forces have. But reestablishing the border is obviously critical. If you dont have it sealed and you dont have eyes on it, again, reestablish that level of control, you dont youre still open to infiltration, anderson. Yeah, its one of the difficulties for Israeli Forces is just prioritizing all the things that need to be done. I mean, sealing the multiple border places that were overrun, searching for any, you know, militant fight who are still may be hiding on the ground or actually engage in fights, dealing with the fate, just trying to figure out how many hostages have been taken, who they are, getting contacts with their loved ones, trying to figure out identifying the dead, responding to stop more rockets from being fired from gaza to all points across israel including here in tel aviv and its been very quiet here thankfully for the last several hours and trying to knock out and track down leadership of hamas and others. The amount the Israeli Forces have to contend with this is overwhelming in the first two days of this. Reporter i think absolutely. And, again, in that environment you dont tell the enemy what youre going to do. You do want to inform the israeli population about how youre going to secure them, but youre not going to announce publicly were moving x number of forces and x equipment down to gaza because you may need to put some of that in reserve close to jerusalem and in the west bank where violence could be triggered there. That will be an Israeli Military concern as well as the north, the border with lebanon. We saw sort of a testing of that, if you will, overnight. Its not clear what the other players in this multiple threat matrix, be is syria, as you were discussing earlier, be it hezbollah and other actors in the west bank, not just hamas, Islamic Jihad. Isis is believed to have a foothold in some of the areas in the west bank. There are multiple actors, multiple threats and if you announce youre going to secure the border of gaza with a big force, you potentially leave yourself veneraulnerable and signaling youre going to be vulnerable. Is its very complex. Were going to take a short break. Our breaking News Coverage continues in a moment. A very fastmoving situation still on the ground here. We have been talking to our correspondents and people of israel. I want to bring in the head of the group head of diplomacy in the womens zionist association. Thank you for joining me. People are reaching out to you desperate for information. What are you hearing from them . Thank you, anderson. Its just sheer desperation and utter devastation. We dont know if their loved ones are in gaza, if they are dead and they are appealing to me for immediate channels through whatever connections i have here with government channels if weve heard anything, and its just such a feeling of helplessness to not be able to give them an answer. And i can barely articulate the desperation coming from parents who just want to know that their children are still alive and that there is a chance for them. You know, i dont want anybody to have to deal with the phone calls from desperate parents and just hear the utter despair in their voices and desperation as they wait for word of their loved ones. This situation is very, very personal for my organization as well. Rolene, at this point, this is 39 hours since these attacks began. There is still a lot families dont know. They dont know if their loved one has died, has been killed, murdered or if their loved one has been kidnapped. Are there people in the government reaching out to them or is it so early theres still not a lot of information and thats why theyre reaching out to you, theyre just desperate . I think the situation given the nature of the depraved attacks that weve been very careful or the government is being very careful not to jeopardize any security for those who are being held captive, but there has been an appeal for family think their children might be amongst the dead to please come to central with dna samples. Its similar to what were heard on 9 11 and the pleading is distraught and devastation. The Womens International zionist organization, this is so personal. We have four Day Care Centers in the town, we have a facility that helps with ptsd. We have been reaching out to our workers frantically to make sure that theyre all okay and theyre all accounted for. And also its a community we know so well. This is a communicate we helped evacuate in 2014, just shortly after they gave us a tremendous lunch to say thank you. We now know that at least 15 of those are dead, including family. They have a project called the wall of peace where all they want is peace with their neighbors, where you can place a tile on the wall between gaza and israel. This is there are no words, just sorrow to explain what people are dealing with what the situation on the ground is. You know the situation here obviously better than most. Do you ever expect there could be an attack like this . Obviously rockets are a fact of life, sadly, but an attack like this in sderot and elsewhere . Rockets were used to which is why we have four rocketproof Day Care Centers. We have children in a completely rocketproof day care center. But this is a level of depravity you only see in a horror movie. I dont think in our Worst Nightmare we could anticipate a situation where thousands of terrorists infiltrate our borders, our community and execute people and kidnap people and take them to probably an untold situation, an unfathomable situation in gaza. And, you no, we were talking to our correspondent Clarissa Ward who went to the site of the dance party that was taking place near the border and, again, those stories are just starting to come out about the slaughter that took place there. Its, again, more will be learned in the coming hours but its hard to imagine the pain that the families are going through right now as they wait and they wonder where their loved one is. We cannot understand it. We cannot understand it unless you are a family member. Just a short while ago the Family Members gave a Press Conference and i dont think that theres anybody in this country who watched that that hasnt had their heart reached out to the sheer terror coming from the parents and the absolute heartbreak in their voices. These are people that went to a rave, a party in the desert to celebrate peace, to call for peace, to think of a day where we will manifest peace between us and our neighbors. Our war is not with the people of gaza. We know that they are held hostage just as much we are by terror entities. And this is why young israelis are having events on the border to call for peace. This is what they want. And this is the situation a short while ago, daca, the organization responsible for handing the remains of the dead after terror attacks and disaster have confirmed 250 bodies have been recovered there. Its the absolute unfathomable for anybody, for any family member. And citizens kept in gaza now are the elderly, are small children who must be terrified out of their mind, pregnant women, Men And Women who went out yesterday with nothing planned for the day except to celebrate, support, maybe just spend the day with their family and now we are living a nightmare. I appreciate your time tonight. Thank you very much. Much more ahead. Well be right back. Cnn is learning a u. S. Carrier strike group is headed to the Eastern Mediterranean scene as israeli prepares for a Large Scale Campaign to respond to the terror attacks we have been seeing here over the last 39 or so hours. I want to go to orrin lieberman. What are you hearing . This is the u. S. S. Gerald r. Ford operating and is now heading to the waters off of israel. Its goal is to offer a message of support and deterrence. It was President Joe Biden who said yesterday that other parties, references, even if not naming hezbollah and lebanon and other groups in syria, warning them not to get involved here and that now is what the u. S. Is showing with this Carrier Strike group that also consists of a Guided Missile Cruiser and destroyers. The general underscored that in a statement saying u. S. Centcom stands with others against the risk of expanding the conflict. In the middle east areas like qatar and other areas, those will be augmented, according to austin. Youll see f35s, f16s, a10s b bolstered there. Some were sent as a response against Syria Aggression and the purpose was to deter that sort of behavior. Now what were seeing from hamas that gets part of its funding and guidance fr