All Different Levels of the administrations in both countries to make sure that israel knows the United States has their back and we will continue to make sure they have what they need to defend themselves. Thank you for your time this morning. My pleasure. Thank you. And cnn this morning continues right now. This is cnn Breaking News. The war between israel and hamas is escalating this morning. Right now israel is Pummeling Fwauz with counter airstrikes. Israels Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu says this is just the beginning. Take a look at this. We are showing you new drone video of destruction inside of gaza city. We are told up to 150 hostages, including children and likely americans, are believed to be held right now in gaza after being kidnapped by hamas militants. Hamas is threat noing to kill them and televise it. Troops, tanks, Armored Vehicles are massing at the border. This is video a short time ago. The Israeli Military reported it found the bodies of around 1,500 hamas fighters inside israel. The death toll continues to rise on both sides of the border. At least 900 killed in israel. Nearly 800 palestinians are now reported dead. Clarissa ward is near the israel gaza border. What are you seeing there on the ground . Reporter definitely fair to say, i think, phil, its a Fluid Situation along the border. We have just heard in the last couple of minutes the iron dome being activated. We also heard coming from that direction intense gunfire at one point and they have completely, israeli forces, blocked off the road behind me saying it is still not safe for people to cross the road, that they are still engaged in various operations to try to clear it. This is interesting because the idf said they thought they cleared the area previously on this border. Its difficult to know that with 100 clarity. If we move over here a little bit, we will try our luck, because they have been trying to push us back, hopefully, you can run some of that video we shot. We have been seeing a huge amount of armor coming through. We saw tanks coming through. A lot also of Israeli Security personnel coming through. You can probably seae as well i dont know if our photojournalist thats the body of a hamas fighter. This was the scene, one of dozens of breaches along this border where hamas militants burst through and started creating havoc and mayhem and the bodies of the civilians and Israeli Soldiers killed in the battles have been removed. But the hamas militants their bodies have been left out. Its been a few days now, obviously. And so, yes, i would say its still tense here, definitely. Still hearing that gunfire. Still hearing that iron dome, and still not clear that this area despite previous statements has been totally cleared. We can see that in the images. We were playing that video of all of those Armored Vehicles coming in as well as you were talking about it. When you are not on camera with us and when you are speaking with israelis near where you are, what are they saying to you and what are they asking you not only about the threat there from hamas, but also about the threat from hezbollah in the north . Reporter so, its interesting. I mean, generally speaking, i think the israelis are very supportive of journalists being here. We had a few people shout out like . Your job, show the world whats going on here. Its no secret there are some differences of opinion as well here internally within israel. We saw a group of sort of orthodox people had a near clash with another group of people. All israelis. But, you know, this is what democracies are like. People have different ideas and different opinions. I think that right now most israelis though are very focused on this issue of the hostages and trying to find a way to get them out safely. Obviously, the prospect of some kind of a deal with hamas is incredibly unpalatable on one level given the carnage and massacres we have seen over the course of these days. At the same time, the overwhelming sense is there are women there, there are children there, there are families here who are petrified, who are learning about the fates of their loved ones from social media, who are looking for answers, who are looking for clarity. There is a lot of kind of chaos and confusion and misinformation that thrives, poppy, in these types of atmospheres. In fact, a school sent a note to parents saying, listen, delete tiktok from your childrens apps. We are hearing they might release Hostage Videos with hostages pleading for their lives. All of that sort of contributing to a kind of contagion here of terror, of horror, which is exactly, of course what hamas has wanted. Contagion of terror and horror. Thank you to your team and being on the ground there near the gaza border. We will get back to you soon. Joining us to understand where this conflict is unfolding, general wesley clark. We appreciate your time. You want to start with we are taking a look at the map of the region itself. Obviously, we have been talking predominantly about gaza here. But what i want to talk about right now is where the actual attacks that we saw over the weekend happened. If you give people a sense of the ongoing conflict, where people like clarissa, Nic Robertson have been, these Kib Kibbutzes represent. First of all, this is a large number of people who penetrated a secured border. They used heavy equipment to get through there. And then they shot and killed indiscriminately and took hostages. Some this is gaza is 2 Million People. Its 25 miles roughly north to south. And what you are looking at in gaza at the Northeast Corner of gaza is where most of the conflict apparently was. But that doesnt mean that there is not a threat elsewhere. So you try to put an armored force, mechanized force around that spot, 25 miles north to south, six miles or so in depth, that takes a lot of forces 24 hours a day. Thats the first thing to do, is to isolate the area. And then while were what were watching is the idf aircraft taking out known targets. There are only so many targets. I have run an air campaign. Its difficult during Something Like this. So that will throw down. Israel is probably going to have to go in on the ground. And thats going to be the real challenge. How well is hamas organized on the ground . Can they defend block by block . Are they discombobulated now as a result of the bombing . Have enough of the leadership been taken out so that the israelis can penetrate and clear quickly, block by block, or is it going to be a terrible fight with snipers in every building and drones and rpgs and so forth. We dont know that yet. Israel has to be prepared for that. So this is going to be a tough fight. At the same time, if you look to the north, you have hezbollah. You have syria. You have threats in the north, already some penetration of the border, forces deployed up there. This could be a weekslong, amongstlong occupation . Gaza. And at the end of it, still have those 2 million civilians to deal with. Whats the end result . How is israel going to handle this now . Since hamas has to be eliminated. Some really tough strategic diplomatic and military issues sheer. For which at this point there is no precedent. I want to walk through some of the things you were walking through. You talked about the attack itself or the decision over the course of the weekend for hamas to strike really came from the northeast. If you look where israel airstrikes have been over the course of the last several days really focused on that very specific area, there is Something Else you mentioned that i think is critical here as you look at the initial strikes and the scale of the strikes. You can go through, including sesk mosquess. Before and after what the strikes have done, making clear as you have heard from idf spokespeople they are going after that are targets and not thinking about what may happen witht. You are seeing pictures of the before and after of three specific mosques saying they were tied to military targets. The actual dense population we are going to show a video. A strike, you see, general, how tight everything is confined. 2 Million People in about the size of chicago, maybe less. Can you talk about the housetohouse fighting that would be required should there be an actual Ground Incursion here . So, the way this would have to be done is to section it off and clear it step by step. And it all depends on whats left standing after the aerial Bo Bombardment and artillery and tank fire, so forth. Where is enemy fire going to come from . You have got to know the street maps, figure out where to penetrate, what you can hold, and work back to clear it. What we havent talked about is the Tunnel Network. There is a deep Tunnel Network and multiple tunnels. So you have to believe that youve got to go into the basements. Youve got to really work this. Otherwise, the enemy is going to come up from behind you. So in the middle of all this are the civilians running around, moving around. You cant tell necessarily the civilians from the enemy fighters. They are not going to be in uniform, wave their flags at you, identify themselves. They are going to wait and they are going to try to attack from the side, from the top with drones. They are going to attack at night it they can. So this is going to be a brutal, tough fight, and that area is big enough its not a this is not like when the United StatesRan Into Baghdad and the iraqi opposition collapsed. This is an armed populous, maybe 40,000 people with weapons in there, who are waiting for the israelis to come in. And if you think about it from the hamas standpoint, this is a 12 fight. Its first to provoke the israelis, do as much damage as you can, throw them off balance, and then draw them in where you can pulverize them in urban combat, which is the toughest kind of combat for an armored force or western armored force trying to protect civilians and not create unnecessary damages, finds its hostages, preserve its own force from needless casualties. Its a very tough operation the israelis are moving into. They have got to take it step by step and they have to got toe think through not only the tactics of going block by block, but whats the end game here. This is something the United States has to be helping with right now. No question about it. 2 Million People. And of those 2 million civilians with nowhere to actually go, keeping in mind, as you noted, the threats from the north and the east as well. General wesley clark, appreciate it. Thanks so much. Thank you. People Around The World are reacting to the war between israel and hamas. We will show you the global protests ahead. We continue our breaking News Coverage of the war between israel and hamas. Sparking approaches Around The World. Supports of the israeli and palestinian causes held competing rallies in the u. S. And overseas. On the University Of Florida campus at least 30 people were injured last night. A witness says around 1,100 people have gathered for this Candlelight Vigil last night when someone fainted. That startled people and they started shouting and called 911. The confusion triggered a panic and sent the crowd running for their lives. People fell on top of one another. Some were trampled. Broken consultants, ribs, concussions, minor cuts. Thankfully, in lifethreatening Injuries Sbrn reported. Joining us this morning to talk about what were seeing Around The World and what is happening right now on the ground cnn chief International Anchor christiane amanpour, editorinchief of the forward and former New York TimesJerusalem Bureau chief and host of the mo news podcast. Thank you for being here. Krishon, i want to start with you oopd and what we heard from an Idf Spokesperson last night speaking to anderson. Here it is. The issue here is that we have been tasked with mitigating or making sure that hamas doesnt have any military capabilities at the end of the war. And that will be achieved. Is there any way that that can be achieved . Given all your expertise in the regional without a Ground Incursion . So we spoke to him as well yesterday. This is the line coming out of the israel, obviously. They have been shocked beyond belief by what happened. The worst single Mass Casualty since the founding of the state. 900 civilians killed one day. Now we understand some 1,500 hamas bodies have been found as israel tries to secure and says it has mostly secured its border with the gaza at the crossing and hundreds of casualties many civilians according to palestinian authorities in gaza. So what is the end . You just heard from somebody who really knows and that is general wesley clark. As he said, he conducted an air campaign. I covered it. It was the intervention to help save the kosovos from serbian attack in 1999. It was extremely difficult. They didnt go in on the ground because they know how difficult it is and how terribly difficult urban warfare is particularly with the Prison Refugee Camp that is gaza and has been like that for decades. After the Israeli Occupation it is a blighted place of poverty and overpopulation there. The aim clearly, as he i sarks is to get back the hostages. As you heard one of the, if not the most important thing for israelis now, family memband government hostages. We dont know how many. I am hearing stories from people who say that their people, their friends, their relatives have been taken and thats just me. So everybody is hearing these stories. And then what is end game . How do you decimate hamas . How do you degrade them . Up until now, this is the fifth encounter between israel and hamas. This one is different because israel has declared formal war. Before they were, you could say, and its a horrible word because so many people die, skirmishes that ended in truces, sometimes didnt last more than a couple of weeks. That always left hamas in place. There was negotiations. There were hostage releases. There were reasons why hamas stayed in place although israel hoped they would be somehow degraded each time. Clearly, they have not been. And so now the question is, as Benjamin Netanyahu said, we will exact revenge, end this threat once and forever and we want to reshape the middle east or this regional. What does all that mean . Its very difficult to see it, but we know there is going to be some very, very difficult days as He Himselfase for gaza coming up. Yseveral points there that ae really important. One in terms of how many people she knew that knew someone. Its striking the last 36 hours, seems like everyone knows someone. What that means for the country, the collective psyche of israel and also in political situation that had been very fractured over the course of the last several months and longer, what that means Going Forward. It is a very small country, 9 Million People. The impact much 900 dead is like 11 times the number killed in 9 11 here. I was strike in 2014 when i was on the ground and covering the war there that everybody i knew in jerusalem had somebody who had been called up in the reserves. And now its like everybody has that several people called up in the reserves and somebody missing just in the hour since ways on, i was receiving Text Messages from a woman i used to go to spinning class with and she is asking for help from her friends whose son was kidnapped and my rabbi in jerusalem is very Close Friends with vivian silver, who was kidnapped f. A lot of americans know her. So, yeah, its the intimacy of this country and of this conflict within this country is powerful. And i think hard for americans to understand. Some new yorkers feld t that wa with 9 11. But i think the intensity of this is really it is really, really small and it does have somewhat of a family feel. As you said, it is a family that has been fractured in a way that i havent seen this year. So its been very interesting to watch. Yes, there is some unity that we are seeing. We are also seeing, i think, a surprising openness in which people are questioning the governments response and failure to be prepared for this attack in a way i didnt see in 2014 and 2012 during the previous conflicts with gaza. It was clear from our conversation with Admiral Kirby and the white house we are not going to know what President Biden and Prime Minister netanyahu speak about, but there are major questions about iran and if there is any determination that they have not made yet, any direct determination of that, but also the question about how the u. S. Would respond if there is a grand invasion by israel of gaza. Right. How long would the u. S. Let it go on. Given what we have laid out here, a National Trauma at the scale of 11 times 9 11 lighting up the white house in blue and white, thats a scale of support. You havent seen that in a long time. Former president obama saying we will be behind israel as they eliminate hamas. Okay. Significa