This is cnn breaking news. Welcome to the lead. Im jake tapper. The dysfunction among republicans in the u. S. House of representatives has now taken on global significance because of the crisis in the middle east. So we are in this hour going to focus a bit on House Republicans meeting a tt this hour. They are hoping to get one step closer to decide who will become their next speaker. No legislation can be passed including any legislation that might address the growing crisis on the ground in israel. So we are following that story, but we are going to begin today in the middle east, where at least a thousand people have been killed in the hamas attacks on israel, most of them civilians. President biden confirming today that 14 of them were americans. The white house says 20 additional americans are still missing, and that number might not necessarily reflect the number of american hostages. Its just 20 americans who are not accounted for right now. Today israel is carrying out air strikes on the gaza port in retaliation, as were learning israel perhaps not only missed signs of an attack, they may have been tricked. Reuters is reporting that for two years hamas went to Great Lengths to try to convince israel that hamas was so tired of war that it would be placated by economic Incentives Togazan workers. Behind the scenes the groups fighters were being trained and drilled for this extensive attack. A modern day version of the hafr sack ruse during the brits Palestinian Campaign in world war i, into believing gaza was its main target, when it was not. Considered one of the greatest wartime deceptions in Military History and in a lesson apparently not learned well enough. The images coming out of israel today do not show a typical war. They show potential war crimes. This is what hamas did to a small town. One idf official telling cnn they slaughtered israeli civilians. They beheaded people. A grim reminder of the last time this many jews were killed in a single day, that was during the holocaust. This story is now just beginning, and while we do not know how it will end, the world can see of what hamas is capable, whether it is in that small town or at that Music Festival where attendees were hiding in Bomb Shelters where they were executed by Hand Grenades and guns. Cnns erin burnett just arrived in tel aviv this morning. Back and forth strikes have led to another night of unease in israel. Now were Learning Rockets were launched tonight from syria into israeli territory, which of course is just adding to the already volatile situation. Reporter all right, jake, when they talk about the worry about this expanding, the war expanding and also expanding within israel to multiple fronts, the Israeli Defense forces are saying that there were rockets fired from syrian territory to israeli territory. They dont say how many, whether there were any injuries, but they said that happened today. Over the past 24 hours there have been skirmishes with hezbollah forces up in the north, up by lebanon, and down of course by gaza, you had a barrage of rockets. You talk about ashkelon, that is what we saw here in the early hours of the evening, the sky lit up. The iron dome, of course, did protect, very few if any broke through. We dont hear about any injuries, but it was a barrage. Hamas said 5 00 local time theyre going to Strike Ashkelon with rockets, and they did exactly that. The other thing i will say, jake, you talk about the bombardment of the gaza port, i cant tell you if thats exactly what we were hearing today, but one thing that is definitely the case, obviously, given the small distances that youre talking about, here in tel aviv, you could hear the constant thudding, and you could actually feel it, all the way through your body, through your core. You hear the thudding of what we were told was israeli bombardment of gaza. Obviously not able to tell you thats exactly what it was, but you can literally feel that in your body as those strikes are happening. So obviously all this comes in the context as you said, of the fact that youve got 150 hostages and people still dont know their whereabouts, whether theyre alive, whether theyre dead. Families in terror still waiting. You know, people waiting for entire members of their families, and just still so many questions about that, jake. And until there are answers on that, until they know whats going to happen there, it seems very uncertain that we will know exactly how Prime Minister netanyahu will even deal with a possible Ground Invasion into gaza. We heard from President Biden a few hours ago, he pledged his unwavering support to israel. How will that message go over there as the rockets keep firing . Reporter well, jake, as you know, one of the first things when you talk to israeli officials or Family Members of hostages, they say thank you to the United States, and it is, you know, something we hear again and again. So thats certainly the attitude and the feeling. It is interesting when you look at President Bidens comments, of course, you notice right, he talked about when hamas did as sheer evil, pure unadulterated evil. Those are words that are exactly the words you hear here. That is exactly what they want to hear. That is what they believe is happening, and he was very there are no two sides to this issue, so all of that obviously very important here, but also, jake, just on the practical level, i know that theres a real push by the Biden Administration to quickly rush in aid, but when you just look at the barrage of rockets that continually keep coming in here, its not just a matter of whether they overwhelm excuse me the iron dome in one onslaught, right, its the overall drawdown of what they do to israeli capabilities so there is a need, theyre very clear there is a need and its at least at this point nothing but thanks to the United States for how the Biden Administration is handling it. Thanks so much, and well look more for more of your reporting on erin burnett out front. I want to go to cnns nic robertson, the u. N. Is calling the latest developments in israel, quote, bone chilling, and truly some of the stories we have heard as the idf and others go into different parts of israel and find the remains of israelis, civilians, civilians at the Hamas Terrorists slaughtered, are just so upsetting. Tell us more about what youre seeing and hearing. Reporter yeah, one of the reasons these stories have been slow to come out is because its taken so long for the Israeli Defense forces to fight and kill so many hamas militants in some of these communities. Population usually about 700 civilians living there in a small community, 70 hamas militants stormed into it, some flew in on para gliders, some came in through the gates and started killing people, but it wasnt straightforward killing. It was binding peoples hands and killing them, according to the general in charge there, he said that there was decapitations. We, to be frank, didnt see and werent shown bodies of anyone decapitated, but this is what was described. And the point that he went on to make was, look, he said, when i got in here and had hes a retired general, 39 year veteran, and he came out of came out of retirement saturday morning, positioned himself as close as he could to support everyone in these communities. He said when i got in and saw what happened, he said i was reminded of what General Eisenhower said when he saw the death camps in world war ii, and that was get the journalists, which is exactly what the Israeli Defense forces did today when they took us in to show what had happened there. That fight and the brutality they described is something that i think is part of the reason why were here in the u. N. Responding this way. But dont listen to me, listen to the words of the general who was there and fought for the fought to take back control and what he saw. They kill babies in the front of their parents and then kill the parents. They kill parents. We saw babies between the dogs and their family killed before him, cut head of the people what i saw, hundreds of terrorists in full gear with all the equipment and all the ability must go from apartment to apartment, room to room and kill babies, mothers, fathers in their bedrooms. I heard during my childhood about the holocaust, of course, all my family came from europe, and their survival, et cetera, et cetera. I never think that i would see in my eyes picture things like this. And this is why its so shocking for a Military Veteran with so much experience to see things that makes him think of the atrocities of world war ii, it tells you the level this has gotten to, jake. Nic robertson, thank you so much. Were going to go back to israel in a moment. We also want to touch on a vital meeting happening right now among House Republicans. This is one day before the speakership vote. Remember, the u. S. Government cannot really function without a speaker of the u. S. House of representatives. Lets get right to cnns manu raju on capitol hill. Manu, the dysfunction of House Republicans now has global ramifications. What is going on there right now . Reporter yeah, republicans know the world is watching them, even as theyre struggling to get behind a single candidate after the unprecedented ouster of the sitting speaker Kevin Mccarthy last week, and just right now, Steve Scalise, the House Majority leader and the House Judiciary Chairman jim jordan walked in Behind Closed Doors to meet with the full 221 Member Conference to make their pitch. We expect them to make their speeches tonight about why they deserve to be elected speaker. Each man will have five minutes to make their case, and then they will open up to questions. Any member can answer any round of questions, go as long as possible, and ultimately theyll close out for today. Tomorrow is the key day. That is the leadership election. Right now under current conference rules, a majority of the conference, 112 members is enough, 111 members is enough to nominate the next speaker of the house. There is a dispute and a debate. Its something that jim jordan is pushing specifically to make sure that whoever gets the nomination actually can get 217 votes. Why . To avoid the long drawn out process on the house froor like we saw back in january, when mccarthy went 15 rounds to be ultimately elected speaker. Theres a problem with that, jake. There is not consensus yet for either man. Both men recognize theyre going to fall short of 217 votes, so the process Behind Closed Doors could last some time, and jake, Kevin Mccarthy himself, even as he is facing a push from some of his supporters to potentially run again pulltold his colleagu not to nominate him for his speakership in todays closed door meeting. Jake, also some of the detractors, the people who vote ed to oust Kevin Mccarthy, matt gaetz said he has not made up his mind. Nancy mace walked in with a le letter a on her shirt. She was asked what that was about. She said it was a scarlet letter. Jake. Okay. Thats not making me convinced that they have their act together, manu raju, thanks so much. Appreciate it. Lets get another live look at gaza, a brief moment of calm, but explosions continue to go off and the world needs to hear the stories coming from those stuck there from those hearing the explosions over their homes. Stories from families waiting for any word that their loved ones are alive and coming home. You also need to hear from those suffering loss, the brother of my next guest was a peace activist. He was against what netanyahu was doing. The terrorists found him hiding in a closet, and then they killed him. His story is next. Parts of gaza on fire earlier today. You can see the flames pouring out of this boat as the idf continues to pound the territory with rockets as retaliation for the Terrorist Attack on saturday. Lieutenant colonel jonathan con ree kez is the International Spokesperson for the israel Defense Forces hooef. The idf said earlier today there were a number of launches from syria and for israel that fell in open areas. What can you tell us about this . Who is behind those attacks . Yeah, thanks for having me here. The situation is that we are actually with active fighting on three fronts. The primary one is in gaza where there is still fighting ongoing. There are still attacking coming out of gaza towards israel. There was an attack in ashkelon in southern israel. There was an attack just in a kibbutz, and southern israel in the gaza envelope area, and were talking about the active combat zone in that area, not regarding to the whole aerial campaign you just referred to but things happening on the ground. We are deployed along our northern border in lebanon, and there were skirmishes and there has been the fire of an antitank missile by hezbollah towards israel. Yesterday there were attempts to infiltrate on the ground that were successfully thwarted and the last front to become active is the syrian front, where a few hours ago rockets were fired from syrian sovereign soil towards israel. As of now, i cannot confirm the identity of those firing. I cannot say if it was one of many iranian proxies that are active in syria, under syrian under iranian control or if it were Syrian Forces or perhaps hezb hezbollah. That remains to be confirmed from an intelligence point of view, but this of course adds complexity to our situation and to that, if i may, id add that there are also quite a lot of events ongoing. We have had clashes between palestinians in various communities and there have been attempts by armed terrorists coming out of janine to attack israeli troops. A very, very dynamic environment where we are vigilant and defending ourselves on more than three fronts. Lets talk about the individuals, the palestinians in gaza who are not part of hamas and do not deserve to be hurt in these retaliatory strikes. On saturday when i asked you what they should do, you said that they should go to the shore or they should go to the south. I talked to an american, a palestinian American Woman in gaza right now who said that thats not really possible, and she went to the Border Crossing, the only open Border Crossing in gaza right now between egypt and the gaza strip and israel has been pummelling it with rockets all day. This even came up at the White House Briefing today. Obviously there are more than 2 million palestinians live in gaza, and im sure you dont want to hurt the innocent ones. What are you doing to make sure that the innocent ones do not get hurt and what can be done to provide access so they can leave gaza . Yeah, youre very right in a lot about what youre saying. A, we definitely do not want to hurt any noncombatants. B, it is an extremely complex situation. Gaza is extremely dense, and populated by more than 2 million palestinians. Sadly, the enemies that were fighting, they are cowards and they use civilian infrastructure in order to for the military purposes. And if youll walk around the gaza strip, i dont think that youll find even one sign on a building that says this is the hamas headquarters for producing rockets or gathering intelligence. It simply doesnt exist, and they use all the civilian infrastructure for their military purposes. I mention this because the Footage Running on the screen is what looks like a civilian building, but in fact, these are Military Targets used by hamas for their military purposes, and as such, they are qualified Military Targets. You ask what we do to minimize the risk towards noncombatants. We continue to be in a stage where we abide by the law of international warfare. We do not wish to harm the civilians. It is extremely unfortunate that they are caught in between hamas and ourselves. Unfortunately, hamas leaves us no other option. Were fighting to defend ourselves. Rockets are being fired at israel as we speak. Theyve been fired at israel throughout the day and southern israel, and in order to mitigate that rocket fire and the ability of hamas to fight, we fire at the Military Targets. Noncombatants and combatants. We still do warning and roof knocking and other tactics in order to minimize the civilian casualties. I know and understand the complexity of the situation, but unfortunately hamas and the Islamic Jihad leave us with no choice. Well, i would just say that you your government and egypt need to open up that border so innocent palestinians can get out of gaza, but thats all the time we have, Lieutenant Co colonel, thank you for your time. I appreciate it. Moments ago, another explosion in gaza. We have seen several since weve been on the air. More accounts of folks leaving living in the region and living through this horror. Thats next. Youre probably not easily persuaded to switch mobile providers for your business. But what if we told you its possible that comcast Business Mobile can save you up to 75 a year on your wireless bill versus the big three carriers . Its true. Plu