Fired over. A very tough day. Another tough day. Our continuing coverage continues now. This is cnn breaking news. Today in inside politics, the cost and chaos of war in response to an unprecedented Terror Attack against israel. First, Inside Israel [ sirens ] sirens and screams. Fire and rescues. And now the crackle of bombs. Youre looking at live images of the gaza skyline, smoky ash as far as the eye can see. And here in the u. S. , the worst Case Scenario for Nine American families, a National Security council official confirming that nine u. S. Citizens were murdered during attacks Inside Israel and there are also Americans Still missing. Today israel escalates. We should warn you that you are about to watch something quite graphic. It is carnage inside gaza. An air strike near a refugee camp, evidence of what the hamas attack has wrought on many innocent palestinians. Soot and mangled Concrete Strewn everywhere, amid a race to pull people from still burning rubble. Israels government response includes a complete blockade of gaza. Cnn teams spotted Hervery Machinery headed toward the border. Israel has called up 300,000 reservists. Its Prime Minister vowed to make hamas extinct. This morning, cnn cameras were rolling near the border when this happened. Get down. Down. Youre fine, youre fine. Youre okay. Youre all right, youre all right. Guys. Are you seeing our situation, guys . Yes. Okay. Stay down. We have to stay here. Guys, come to us. That was cnns Clarissa Ward and the rest of her cnn Team Sprinting for their lives as the clanging of missiles burst overhead. I want to make clear, thank goodness, clarissa and the team are okay. We want to start with another one of our extraordinary members of our Reporting Team in israel, nic robertson. You are near the gaza border at this time. Tell us what youre seeing there. Reporter the continual sound of jets flying overhead. A little earlier we were moving around. Now its dark. A little earlier we were standing quite close to the border with gaza. You could hear small arms fire coming, automatic weapons, and seeing huge plumes of black smoke like those youve been showing, huge plumes of black smoke rising up. We were able to see places where there had been strikes, columns of smoke rising up from there. Also, we were in the location where all those young Music Festival goers had been having a nighttime of dancing on friday night into saturday, when the hamas came across the border and just brutally slaughtered 260 of them. The road there was literally strewn and littered with their vehicles, shot up. Perhaps one of the most h harrowing scenes, people had gone to find shelter, that Dot The Landscape here, that are used Toy Communities to dodge and get out of harms way, and that was a natural place for people to go and try to seek shelter. What happened . They went inside the Concrete Bunker, and i took a look inside, and it was an awful scene. There was blood thick on the floor, blood on the wall, on the ceiling, and bullet holes in the wall. Its so clear that the Hamas Terrorists literally stepped into this Concrete Bunker where people, young people, innocent young people had been celebrating and enjoying that night, were trying to get away from the danger, and quite literally gunned them down mercilessly in cold blood, and its an awful, awful scene. Now it is israel that is deciding its at war. There is this blockade on electricity, on food, on any kind of coming and going from gaza. That will have a very, very quick impact, and as weve soon seeing the air strikes, were also seeing as we were driving around many, many more Israeli Defense force troops on the move. Groups of them, 20, 30, 40 at a time, in Armored Vehicles and soft skin vehicles, weapons at the ready, experienced troops that are deployed around the area, as well as dozens upon dozens of tanks and other heavy armor that are clustered there. Were seeing the army gathering, nothing like the 300,000 reservists who have been called up, but nevertheless, it is very clear that this deployment of troops close to gaza is really ramping up at quite a pace right now. Certainly, it is. And just the description that you have, and i know that you were there earlier today, of what happened at what was a very happy, joyous, peace festival, and the terror there. And i want to tell our viewers what were looking at right now. I think this is some of what you were referring to, that you could hear some big explosions inside gaza, as israel continues to respond to the Terror Attack that happened inside its own country on saturday, on the jewish sabbath. Nic, thank you so much for that. I want to go to lieutenant colonel, spokesperson for the global israeli forces. Thank you so much for joining me. To tonight in israel, sirens are going off in jerusalem and tel aviv. There have been multiple impacts in gaza and were showing our viewers that as we speak. What can you tell us about the Current Situation on the ground in israel and on the borders . So, first of all, im late to thank and compliment clarissa and nic for outstanding correspondence, endangering their lives in order to tell the story in a fair and balanced way. First of all, i would like to thank you. Were watching them work and talking to them in the field. Very impressive. So thank you for that. I would like to start with that, because being here and being under fire is not something we take for granted. The situation on the ground i think, is more or less, as you are seeing it, our first goal was after this unprecedented attack, again, the stories are coming out as were evacuating people from the gaza communities on the israeli side, horrific, carnage, kidnapping, terrible visuals. We managed to more or less take control of that security area. There may be some more terrorists, but theres no major fire fights along the gaza strip. Youre seeing the barrages of fire that they are firing. Weve also secured the border, which was a substantial thing. There were many crossing points. Now were responding very, very severely against hamas targets. Again, everybody has a mindset of conflicts in the past. This is something different. What they did on saturday is unprecedented. It was declaring war on the state of israel. Were at war. Again, we can talk about the north later, whats happening in gaza right now, weve deployed forces. Lieutenant colonel, i just want to make sure i heard you right. Did you say that you have been able to rescue israelis from the other side of the border from inside gaza . No. As you well know, were deployed and mobilizing our reserves, 300,000 reserves all over israel, north, center and south, to take that area. Again, we have a tragic situation where you have not only soldiers, but civilians, children, grandmothers, kidnapped inside gaza. No question about it. As you prepare to, you said you havent been able to rescue any of these civilian hostages that were taken outside of their homes and off the streets, any sense as the response begins inside gaza of where they are . Or is it too soon . Its too soon to ask that question. We are focusing very differently from our enemies who attack civilians. Just something which is important to mention, this attack, it was a massacre, and in one day they killed it was the biggest number of jews killed since the holocaust. Thats the scale of this event. Right now the hostages in gaza, its a tough one, and were all affected by it. Theres not one israeli who is not connected, because were the peoples army, but we are focusing on hamas targets. And i know the questions are going to come right now, but this is something different. Challenging. I mean, im just sort of taking in what you just said, that this is the most jewish deaths since the holocaust. Obviously, were talking about jewish civilian death, this is not like some of the wars that weve seen in israels past, where it is largely military on military. This is quite different. I want to ask you about the intelligence that you have right now about other Non State Actors moving in toward israel in addition to hamas. We would advise hezbollah not to join this horrific event. Weve responded with fire after they started firing rockets, and they also infiltrated immediately. We thwarted them. In the north our defenses are ready. Its important to mention that the americans sent a battle group, a carrier, moving in with a powerful statement, which were very thankful for from the Central Command commander, saying that he will support us, with a statement saying to advise anyone thats not part of whats going on in the south to join in on this. Thats a very strong message coming out from our brothers in arms in america. Just final question, i want to ask about a claim by hamas Military Wing that air strikes in response, israeli air strikes, killed four israeli hostages overnight. Do you have any sense of whether thats true . We have no sense at this point. Okay, i understand. It is very early and a lot of information that you do not know. I hope you come back, a lot more questions. I know that you are a very busy man. Thank you for your time. Here with me to share critical perspective is former commanding general of the u. S. Army in europe, mark hertling. General hertling, just your thoughts on what we just heard from that global spokesman from the idf. Its fast moving, dana, thats for sure. Theres a lot of activity going on throughout the day. Israel has ramped up their air attacks and their Combat Air Patrols over the gaza. It appears to me that they are assimilating their ground forces, getting their reservists potentially linked up with vehicles, and what weve heard so far about the potential for a second front in lebanon or against the hezbollah fighters that may be coming across the borders. Thats going to be very challenging. This is not going to get any lighter. This is going to continue to grow in terms of catastrophes and casualties and deaths. We can see that based on the films that youre showing, what we know will occur because israel is planning an operation inside of the gaza. But they are having to deal with a lot of things, not only the complex situation in the gaza strip, the continuing taking of hostages, deaths of israeli and other citizens, u. S. Citizens that we know about, the deployment of u. S. Forces into the region with the naval forces and the air forces coming there, as well as probably some intelligence collection devices from space and air breathers. But throughout the night, im sure the bombing is going to throughout the night in israel, im sure the bombing is going to continue and theres going to be more deaths and destruction that will make the incursion into gaza even tougher for the Israeli Defense forces. General, you are such an expert, not only serving in this region, but studying this region academically as a scholar. Can you talk about one of the things that you mentioned there, which is the possibility of this becoming a twofront war for israel . And by two fronts, were talking about gaza and were talking about the north at the border with lebanon. Well, it has the possibility of even more than that, dana, because youre talking about not only threats from hezbollah, which is linked to the same supporter that supports hamas, and thats iran. But youre also concerning im sure the Israeli Government is concerned with uprisings in the west bank. This is the kind of threat they face daily in their country, but weve seen some things that have happened this time with the attack of hamas and using the multidimensional operations that has taken this to a whole new level. The mass killing of israeli citizens, as you just heard, as well as the potential for hamas and other forces using new types of techniques to attack the state of israel. Yeah, and as youre speaking, you can probably hear the bombs going off, the explosions, which is happening inside gaza right now. Thank you so much, general her l hertling, for your time, your expertise. Youre welcome. Thank you. Again, you are looking at pictures of gaza. You can see that the sun has set. It is darkness, which means that it is going to be, as the general said, the beginning of a very long night. This is three days after an unprecedented Terror Attack and intense fighting that ensued. Were going to go live to jerusalem next, plus israeli families are desperately searching for their loved ones taken by hamas. Well speak to someone whose r was killed and whose nephew is wounded and missing. Right now, you are seeing darkness in the region, in gaza, but we are seeing overa and ove the orange glow of war. At this very moment, nowhere inside gaza or Inside Israel appear to be safe. The video is from jerusalem were looking at now. That was under threat from hamas rockets. Jerusalem is where hadas gold is right now. We usually dont see this as active when israel is under threat in the holy city. This is different. Reporter this has felt much different. In 2021, jerusalem was sort of symbolically targeted on the outset of that war, but this time there have been several rounds of air raid sirens, indicating incoming rocket fire, and the sirens today, we heard at least ten Explosions In The Sky when the sirens came our way earlier. We know of several injuries, including one 10yearold who was injured, in serious condition. Most of these rockets fell in areas outside of jerusalem, one of them is actually a town thats mostly made up of arab israelis, and it shows you that these rockets can hit anyone. Its striking to see them targeting jerusalem, because of the proximity to the holy sites, all of the important sites in jerusalem. But, dana, i want to bring up something that we just have now from cnn exclusively, and this is body Camera Footage of hamas militants while they were infiltrating some of these towns in southern israel. This was provided to me by the Israel Defense forces. They say they got this footage off of a body camera a hamas militant was wearing at the time they infiltrated this village. This was taken the body Camera Footage was recorded on october 7th, on saturday morning. Now, weve edited out a little bit so that you dont see the moment where this dog was shot. But you see them walking into what appears to be a neighborhood. The dog walks up to them, they shoot and kill the dog. They go into a house, theyre looking for water, they say to each other. Then they go to the entrance to another house and seem to be trying to set fire to something. Of course, this video has been edited by the Israeli Military and provided to us, and im sure theres body Camera Footage of much worse. The Israeli Military, in their comment to me, they said these fighters, they called them worse than isis, and it is just incredible, also, just to see from sort of a Security Failure aspect that these are hamas fighters wearing the green hamas bands, walking freely through an israeli town, and just walking up and into all of these houses. That gives you the idea of what it looked like when these militants going into these houses, were abducting and killing people and doing all these horrible things, that now we are hearing about. It is really interesting and noteworthy that the idf wanted the world to see those, and as you said, im sure we will get a lot more to give an illustration of the fact that these are Hamas Terrorists who were going into civilian homes, they werent attacking the Israeli Military. I appreciate you bringing that to us, hadas. I want to show our viewers some video we just got in from Clarissa Wards Team Showing Shelling in the city of ashkelon. I want to bring in somebody whose family was directly affected by the hamas attack in southern israel, lost family in a kibbutz near the border and still has a family member, a nephew, unaccounted for. Thank you for joining me. Your brother was the mayor of the kibbutz right near the border with gaza, and he was murdered. Your nephew is unaccounted for. Yes, my brother, who was dedicating his life for peace, was murdered on saturday morning at the beginning of this attack. And, also, his wife was murdered, 80 years old, and his wife, nephew, 22 years old, also was murdered on the same day. We are now looking for his son. His son is 19 years old and he was wounded in his room from a gunshot and we lost contact with him at 2 30 midday. Its been more than 55 hours, and we havent heard anything from him or from anyone else in israel. We are all trying to find out what happened to him, but we have no clue. Just want to ask you about that. You said that you lost contact with your nephew at 2 30 local time. What contact did you have up until then . Was he calling and explaining what was happening . Yes, exactly. He was calling ask asking for help, and he was guided how to rescue himself and rescue his leg, because he was shot in his leg. At 2 30, the battery of his mobile was dead. You have to understand that there was no electricity in the kibbutz. More than 100 terrorists was all around and shooting everyone and a lot of people died, and he was helping himself until, probably, the battery was dead. Later on, when they rescued the kibbutz, the room was empty, and we have no idea where he is. We need help from anyone in the world to get more information about where he is. We hope that he managed to maybe get out of the room and hes still there somewhere. There was gunfire all day long, today and yesterday and the day before, so only in the