This is cnn breaking news. I want to welcome you to cnns breaking News Coverage. Im abby phillip here in washington. Today scenes of terror, heartbreak and utter desperation as israel officially declares war on the terror group hamas. Just moments ago cnn has learned that three americans have been killed in fighting according to the u. S. Government in a memo. The Biden Administration is also looking into american deaths and those among the missing, some possibly killed by hamas fighters. We are getting in some gruesome, horrible news. What im about to show you is graphic. A rescue group said 260 bodies were found at a Western Festival site near gaza. The survivors describing hamas fighters storming that festival yesterday morning attacking civilians with rifles, rpgs, kidnapping and killing those that they came across. This is one of the atrocities committed by hamas over the last two days against israel. In response, israel has ramped up attacks on gaza. The area controlled by hamas, this was the scene there just a few hours ago as Israeli Forces carried out a round of air strikes. Its hard to know how many civilians were killed in israeli, although a top israeli minister tells cnn that the death toll is now likely over 600. That number we are expecting to rise. Thousands of israelis have also been injured. Civilians have been killed in gaza, including this flattened Apartment Building where a girls body was pulled out of the rubble. The number of there is more than 400. Now today israel is also opening a missing persons command center for family and friends to register the people who are now unaccounted for. Weve heard some reports of Hamas Terrorists stripping children away from their parents, abducting the elderly and in some cases raping innocent israeli civilians. Its confirmed that americans are among the hostages. Secretary blinken says the United States is work being quickly to figure out if that is true but he has described some of the abductions earlier on cnn today. Take a listen. This is massive terror attacks, Indiscriminate Firing of rockets against civilians, thousands of rockets. Men and women and children dragged across the border into gaza, including a holocaust survivor in a wheelchair, gunned down. You can imagine the impact this is having on israel and should be something that revolts the entire world. Our Coverage Starts with nic robertson, who is in israel. I want to start with that brand new information, the horrible news, 260 bodies found at this Music Festival site in israel that was struck yesterday by these attacks. What do we know today . Reporter we know that there were a lot of abandoned shuttered vehicles along the road, the highway, near where that Music Festival was taking place, 20 miles or so south of where we are. It had been going on through the night, a lot of young people enjoying themselves, dancing and enjoying the music as the sun was coming up. And then the missile strikes, the intercepts, and all that confusion and out of that confusion it appears that hamas ran on there and were just killing in a frenzied way anyone that they could reach, anyone that they couldnt sort of pull back and take away and get back to gaza. I was speaking with a doctor whos been here in this area for the last 36 hours or so treating casualties, treating the wounded. He was down to that Music Festival afterwards to try to help with the casualties there and what he describes are scenes of and putting this in context this is a doctor who deals with aftermath, Terrorist Attacks on a routine basis in israel. He told me that this was like nothing hed ever seen before. Were finding everything. I had like a 90yearold woman with a bullet wound. Reporter a 90yearold woman . They are shooting everyone. A 90yearold woman with a bullet wound to her breast. And people who had an rpg blast nearby and had an injury from the chest from that. People lost limbs, people with Bullet Wounds all over the place. It was bad. Reporter he was talking about people being stabbed as well and the rpg, rocket propelled grenade, this is a weapon normally used to break down buildings, to get into armored vehicles. Ha so finding out the death of 260 gives you a sense of the awful scale and the level of brutality. Its understood that there were about because hamas has given us this number, we dont know for sure but they say there were about a thousand of them with weapons that came out of gaza. Even with that number of people, that is a very, very high death toll. It speaks to the brutality, it speaks to the defenseless nature of all the people who were being killed. They couldnt run fast enough. They had no weapons to fight back. They were not threat to those gunmen. They could have run past them and then nothing was going to happen to the gunmen. This is extreme brutality that was executed upon these people and the numbers keep growing because the discoveries keep happening. Its the shock of the numbers that i think is just stunning hl. One of the other stories we are following here, nick, is the situation with hostages. What do we know about how many hamas may have taken and what israel is doing now to get those individuals back . Reporter well, one of the other terrorist groups inside gaza, islamic jihad, say there are about we dont know if theyre fabricating that number. We dont know if its a lie. Is it bigger . Is it smaller . The number is understood to be large, because the bigger number of hostages they have, the bigger amount of leverage they have over the Israeli Government and israeli officials are being very careful about the language they use, about the number of hostages. Theyre saying it is in the order of dozens but i was speaking here early this afternoon to a major in the Israeli Defense force, a spokesman and i asked him how are you going to get these back . All right, nic robertson, thank you. Reporter and what he told me was go ahead, nick. Tell us what ehe told you. Reporter he told me that they were going to do everything in their power to get them back, no one would be left behind, he said. But i think i picked up from him the extreme difficulty that it presented here because hamas wont give them up and where theyre scattered, where theyre being held, underground tunnels, bunkers scattered across gaza, it is an almost impossible task. Its going to be a critical story as we go forward here, nick. Thank you very much. And i hope you continue to stay safe where you are. I want to turn now to cnns clarissa war who is on the israelgaza border and sharing some of the most Heart Wrenching images of the attack. A warning again, some of this video is disturbing as well. Reporter just in the last minutes we heard a major barrage of rockets landing in the distance not too far over in that direction. We also were driving up along and down the border with the Gaza Strip El and one we had to turn around because there was an active firefight going on. Its important to stress to our audiences that this is not at this stage an operation solely focused on dealing with the Hostage Situation in the gaza strip. This is about dealing with hamas militants who are continuing to run amuck here. Were going to show you footage now and i want to stress to our audiences its kwies where that open air festival, the super know a Music Festival was taking place, where and its about 6 00 in the morning, it began with a barrage of rockets, very quickly then hamas fighters infiltrated the dance party and began grabbing people, murdering them, kidnapping them, grabbing them, trying to drag them on to the motor bikes to get them back into the gaza strip. When we went today, we could only stay a shore time because, the bodies have been clkted of those who were innocent victims but the bodies of the hamas, you could see lots of vehicles shot up, abandoned. You can see one truckful where a police vehicle. We know that many people were killed. Many the Israeli Government took an unprecedented step today and actually released a and its scores and scores of dead bodies who have been gathered and have been working through the process to try tooid th to i. D. Them. Very intense on the psyche of ordinary people and very intense in terps of the tempo of what were seeing on the ground and that continuing to ratchet up. Clarissa ward, thank you for that. Lets bring in pentagon correspondent oren lieberman. Reporter President Joe Biden and other members promised u. S. Unflinching support for israel. This is part of that. This comes in on the message of deter bens. This and he said other parts are watching this. Thats a reference to hezbollah, lebanon, Military Groups in syria backed by iran. Thats a message to them not to get involved. It is a message as well as a Guided Missile Cruisers and a number of u. S. Those squadrons will be about brp. Some of those were headed and went to the middle east specifically to deal with irani aggression both in syria and the gulf of immelman. Its a message of deterrence to iran, hezbollah and israels adversaries who may see this as a moment of critical weakness. And we also learned three americans are dead here. Is there anything more that we can take frp israel hasnt had a number on how many were willing and able to be taken out, how many might be alive and how many might have been killed. Its difficult for the u. S. To get a number on that. There are a very large number of american citizens in israel, many of them dual de. Caller you spent a lot of time. I want to turn to now retired u. S. Army retired Brigadier General kimmitt. Tell us about other threats in the region. Where does that stand now . I think we need to, as oren oren said, there still remains down here in gaza an al guidia threat. So the worst possible thing for this would be that those military threats are pulled into this fight and now you have israel completely surrounded as part of a military operation. What about the possible threats outside of the region . Thats a very good question as well. Yes, theres a small fight going on down here in gaza. You have the concern about the military threats there but everything that the United States and the other countries have been trying to do over the past few years, bringing peace to syria, the Abraham Accords with saudi arabia and of course the concern about the Iranian Nuclear negotiations. All those could be swept in, the military threats, the diplomatic threats and of course the Counterterrorism Risk that we have going on. Its a key piece of leverage that hamas may have as the Israeli Defense forces are considering deal with wthis hams threat, how Dos Hostages Factor in . Thats everything. The major distraction is that whatever actions they take can be met with response against the hostages. So can you imagine those young men and within so thats going to severely limit the types of operations that they conduct inside of gaza if they decide to go in with large military forces but even the Special Operations trying to do Hostage Rescue will be at tremendous risk as well for fear of in. Thank you. And Emergency Services continue responding to Heart Wrenching scenes throughout southern israel. Up next ill talk to aescuer on the ground in the hard rng this. The iran factor in all of didnt they help am as. Youre looking at live pictures over gaza city where its just over 11 20 p. M. We have seen the response to the brutal attacks carried out by hamas this weekend. Now more than 600 people have been killed since, with so many victims in pleat. Im jond right now from one doctor. He works with United Hezbollah of israel, a trauma and Crisis Response unit. Adam, thank you for taking the time to join us tonight. I want to ask you first of all how your team is doing on the ground but also, how are you and your loved ones right now . Thank you. Its very kind of you to ask. A lot of families are going through some very difficult things at the moment. We had a long night and weve got some long rn and were going to forge ahead and do our best for our patients. So so many volunteers in your organization were able to get mobilized in the last 24 hours or so and what kind of support are they providing . So we were and we work with other National Agencies and all the governors you we have self thousand volunteers. So were a large organization. Ins first 24 hours, we were 17 and two helicopters, 4 by 4s, open to Field Hospital and an improvised land and just plow odd rn. So quite ser rufl. What are you the types of things that they are seeing there. In woo where and took a lot of time to get responded with the same scene, Bombed Out Peter and body. I saw peter pal a on round side of the rote, people who have been shot and burned, its really quite harrowing perk prn you talked about pilots being piled up on the side of the road. What is your sense of how many people have been killed in all of this . The number we know is 300. Unfortunately there are still areas which are many. And you know, we have over 3,000 casualties. Weve transported ourselves over 700 of those. You sh rng, angd in our organization, weve used to are, and weve run out of used Combat Application tournament frepgs you was lucky enough to sfooechlts p obviously the intensity and the tempo of operations here has been, you know, anything beyond we were table to plan or supply for. That is really hard to imagine. For your team members that you are working with, this is such a small country and a huge number of casualties as you pointed out. Have any of them had loved ones impacted by these attacks and by the kidnappings that weve been discussing . As you say, in such a small country everyone knows someone who knows someone. And i think were at that situation now where we all know either ourselves or, you know, one of our close Family Members or contacts no someone who is either missing, kidnapped or deceased and thats very difficult. One of our responders has been shot, unfortunately. He looks like hes going to be okay. Hes in hospital and hes been stabilized. So thats obviously a slaert. And its the the personal toll is a very dig toll but for now we have to put the emotions to the side and keep moving poured and the casualties start to come in wide so if theres a kibbutz or a settlement thats been able to recapture that from the terrorist, then suddenly you have a wave of patients who may have no patients an hour and then you may have 20 all the time. So its a ditch. Doctor, thank you for taking the time to join us and thank you for everything youre doing on the ground. My condolences to you and anyone you know experiencing tragedy this weekend. Thank you again. The u. N. Security council is what iran and hamas have said today. Thats coming up next. Is it possible my network could take my business to the next level . It is with comcast business. Powering all your devices with gigspeed wifi. And you get fast downloads and uploads. Pick it up pick it up oh we got this because its powered by The Next Generation 10g network. More speed for your business . Its not just possible. Its happening. Get started for 59. 99 a month for 12 months. Plus, ask how to get an 800 prepaid card with a qualifying internet bundle. Comcast business, powering possibilities. Members of the United NationsSecurity Council are meeting Behind Closed Doors this afternoon to discuss this crisis unfolding in israel. Before the meeting, israels ambassador to the u. N. Called saturdays attack, quote, israels 911 and called reports of israelis being kidnapped blatant documented war crimes. Israel wants the u. N. To condemn the terror attacks. Joining me is senator ben cardin in the state of maryland. Senator, thank you very much for being here. Abby, its good to be with you. We have been reporting all weekend on these attacks and now learning that at least three americans have been killed. A big question facing everyone right now, how big of a u. S. Intelligence failure was this . You know, were going to have time to evaluate the intelligence failures, why there wasnt more information known and better defense in israel, but right now the depth of this tragedy is just being understood and the consequences are still uncertain. So i think our thoughts now are with how do we keep people safe in israel, how do we deal with those that have been taken hostage, how do we account to the families, our sympathies to the families who dont even know where their loved ones are today and also to make sure it does not spread beyond the current conflict. I think President Biden sent a really clear message to groups around the world that they should not take advantage of this situation. I want to play for you what your colleague in the house said earlier today on state of the union. We do know that iran is behind this. They have financed this every step of the way and theyve trained these terrorists. This must have been planned for months to strike on the 50th Anniversary of yom kippur, the war in 1973. And thats very evident. My question to you is do you believe that iran played an operational role in this attack, not just the general support and financing that they provid