Im Boris Sanchez in washington, d. C. Alongside Anderson Cooper in tel aviv. We begin this afternoon with the Israeli Government confirming some of the most disturbing reports that have surfaced in the wake of the hamas terrorist attacks this weekend. The Prime Ministers Office says that babies and toddlers were found decapitated in the Small Community of kfar aza. Thats the kibbutz where Israeli Defense forces say that hamas butchered civilians, though hamas denies it attacked children. The unprecedented atrocities have put months of Bitter Division within the Israeli Government on pause. They have now formed an Emergency Unity government and war cabinet and in a few hours the u. S. Secretary of state will be in israel to meet with senior officials. Anderson . Boris, here in israel 300,000 reservists have amassed near the border with gaza, signaling a possible Ground Invasion could be imminent. Overnight the first shipment of u. S. Munitions arrived here in israel, that of course to bolster israels arsenal. The pentagon has tasked Suppression Operators to assist the idf, the Israeli Defense forces for planning with potential hostage rescues. It is believed that hamas has captured more man 100 hostages, slim jihad claimed they had 30. Overall there are an unknown number of americans being held hostage. The white house says at least 20 u. S. Citizens are right now unaccounted for and the State Department now confirms at least 22 americans have died in israel, that is up from just 14 that was the number about 12 hours ago. So those numbers are growing. Right now i want to get you to cnns Nic Robertson who is in sderot by the gaza border. What have you been seeing over the last several hours . Reporter yeah, just literally, anderson, as you were coming to us there, i dont know if you can pick that up, there is going there so what were hearing there is gunfire, Heavy Machine Gunfire. Its hard to tell how far away it is, its were in a safe location from that gunfire, but thats something new. Thats not something weve been hearing so much of recently. Weve also been seeing and hearing heavy artillery strikes on gaza, the big yellow flashes that you may see behind me in the next couple of minutes, a few seconds later, perhaps 10, 15 seconds later you will hear the huge explosion here. But that machine gunfire, thats something new. Weve seen today additional troops deployed around the area were in, sderot, a couple miles from the border fence with gaza. So the tempo of troop presence, the tempo of their activity, the patrols around here are getting bigger, bigger numbers of troops in the patrols. Minnesota gunfire again. Weve seen tanks this evening as well towards the fence with gaza, thats something new, we havent seen that until this evening. So the picture of the picture of what troops are doing, its really developing and as i say, this is quite a new development to have that gunfire over there. We dont know why, it sounds closer than the actual border fence itself, but we do know the security around here has really been stepped up because every day there seem to be several concerns that there have been infiltrations by hamas. John is telling me here our cameraman to expect these explosions. There might be another explosion coming up behind me shortly. Thats that heavy impact there, that was the impact associated with that flash you saw. So you get an idea of how far away from us that impact is. If you see the flash and you wait maybe 15 seconds for that to hear the bang, then that gives you an idea. Its a good few miles away, perhaps seven or eight, and there will be another explosion coming soon, i think, from what john was indicating here behind me. Theyve seen there was another one. So thats the tempo of whats happening. Nic, with the gunfire that you have now been hearing, what we have been hearing somewhere behind you, talk about that a little bit because obviously what has occurred in sderot and ashkelon early on is attackers on the ground, gunmen on the ground slaughtering people. Israel has worked hard to try to eliminate all of those all of them on the ground. Is the area secure in the sense of from a your ability to move around . Reporter its much more controlled than it was. There are a lot more Police Check Points around and they are enforcing controls enforcing controls on who can use the road. Much more strictly than there were before. We understand that the concern about hamas cells being out there, some who have gone underground, that theyve been holed up in a location, theyre running out of food, running out of water and theyre breaking out but also you get more troops on the ground like weve seen, they cover more ground, theyre more likely to come into contact with these elements. Weve seen these armored fighting vehicles out today and they come mounted with a Heavy Machine Gun on the front of them and thats the type of Heavy Machine Gun that i think that were hearing there. So it could be that a group of soldiers theyve established themselves in a field or wherever their location is, they got guards on their perimeter and they might have picked up some movement or they might have seen something through Thermal Imaging or night vision or whatever it is and theyve realized that thats a target and theyre going after it. So i think more and more of this may come. And, nic, you were at kfar aza yesterday and i want to talk about it because over the last 24, 36 hours we have been starting to the full picture of what occurred on some of these kibbutzes is becoming clearer. Kfar aza near oz is another one. Kfar aza is the site of these atrocities that the Israeli Government has now confirmed, babies were beheaded. Talk about what you saw, you talked to the commander on the ground there. Reporter yeah, toddlers and babies beheaded. You know, when i think now because you and i were talking about this last night and we didnt see any of the bodies. I really would not have expected the Israeli Defense forces to be parading out bodies of decapitated children. It is such a sensitive issue. But, you know, when i reflect back on what the commander said to us, the Major General in charge, you know, again, i will repeat repeat this line because it really sticks. He said i was shocked by what you found, the massacre. He said that i was reminded he said of what General Eisenhower said when he found the atrocities, when he found the death camps after world war ii, he said get the press in here, show them. I think thats what was taking place yesterday. And i realize now that when he said there was beheadings and that families were being killed, he was really understating the brutality of what he had seen and what he was aware of because weve now heard it now from the prime ministers spokesman confirming this. So it kind of just adds that other degree of incredulity, i think, that could be that level of barbarity. The commander was telling us these families, some of them, their hands were bound when they were executed. So the shock level here is just horrific and for him it was reminding him of what is you know, what his parents had gone through. They left europe and they were survivors, they were survivors of the second world war. Yeah. We dont need to say more when you have those points of reference. Yeah. Nic robertson, thank you. We will come back to you shortly. I want to bring in Alex Marquardt right now. We are learning new details from u. S. Intelligence about when and what iran knew or may have known about the Terror Attacks on israel. What have you learned from forces . What are you hearing from the government . Reporter anderson, there is no question that iran bears major responsibility here. The Administration Still sticking to their line that iran was complicit in this attack because of the years of funding, of training, but what were hearing from u. S. Intelligence sources and people familiar with the intelligence is that for now there is still no smoking gun that directly connects iran to the execution, to the planning, to the approval of this attack. Certainly they are complicit because of the support they have given to hamas over the years, but for now and theyre still going through the intelligence, there is no direct tie. In fact, were told by u. S. Intelligence officials that iranian officials expressed some surprise at this attack. Now, understand that surprise may come around the timing of it. I spoke with a senior israeli official who said that he really doubts that iran was not aware of this plot. Another senior israeli official spoke with our colleague Matthew Chance just recently saying that iran effectively gave the grown light for this operation, that they might not have been aware of the timing but they are certainly aware of this hamas operation. Again, both israeli and american intelligence communities now as is protocol going back and combing through any evidence that they may have looked over to see if theres a more direct connection between iran and these attacks over the weekend. Alex marquardt from our bureau in washington. Thanks very much. I want to go back to Boris Sanchez. Boris . Anderson, we do have some Breaking News just into cnn. There was a big vote among republicans in the house today to determine a new speaker and the gops nomination for speaker has gone to Steve Scalise, the republican congressman from louisiana, winning the gops nomination for speaker on a Secret Ballot that is per multiple sources in the house of representatives. A major win, but not a guaranteed path To The Speakership. He still needs a majority of the entire chamber to replace Kevin Mccarthy, the ousted speaker who was removed by the house last week. Lets get to you capitol hill right now. I believe we have cnns manu raju in place. Manu, this is a big win for congressman scalise. Reporter yeah, no question about it. This victory coming barely clearing the Majority Threshold that he needed to be nominated as speaker of the house. That Majority Threshold was at 111 republican votes. He got 113 votes. The vote was 11399 defeating jim jordan who had the support of former president donald trump, had the support of a lot of conservatives, including the ones who voted to oust Kevin Mccarthy as speaker. This vote to elevate Steve Scalise who is currently the House Majority leader, the number two under the speaker To The Speakership essentially is a sign that he has some work to do because of the fact that in order to be elected as the House Speaker you need to have 217 votes On The House Floor and at the moment as you can see a long ways from getting that. In fact, there was a debate inside the conference this morning about whether the person to be nominated as speaker should have to clear that 217 vote threshold Behind Closed Doors in the Conference Meeting. Scalises supporters defeated that motion, jordans team believed that could help him get elected To The Speakership. Now the work is cut out for scalise who has to try to avoid the same fate as Kevin Mccarthy who in january went through 15 rounds On The House Floor to get the requisite number of votes to be Elected Speaker. Can he do that . That is one of the Big Questions that he will have to deal with here. A number of members voted present because they didnt like their choices, they had concerns about some of the answers that these two men gave. Others were with jim jordan and jordan himself has not said that he would vote for scalise. I asked him that question going into this Conference Meeting. He said i will get behind whoever can get 217 votes. Well, scalise did not get 217 votes. If jordan does not get behind scalise that could lead to a messy fight On The House Floor. Now where does this go from here . They have to make a decision of when to bring this to the full house. It could happen as soon as this afternoon, could go into next week, could go into tomorrow. That will be a key decision here. Scalise will have to ultimately decide if he wants to take a risk, go to the floor if he does not have the votes locked down here. A significant moment after this house has been paralyzed following the historic vote, unprecedented vote to oust Kevin Mccarthy as speaker. Now the republicans have voted on a nominee, can he get the votes, Elected Speaker and can they move on key issues, whether its aid to israel, aid to ukraine, avoiding a Government Shutdown by midnovember . All major questions after Republicans NominatingSteve Scalise the House Majority leader to be the next speaker of the house, boris. Manu raju, please stand by and keep us updated with any new information that you get. Joining us now is cnns dana bash, you were literally on the phone moments ago before joining us. A long list of priorities for the house, aid to israel, aid to ukraine, but chiefly the house is paralyzed until they elect a new speaker. How big is this development that Steve Scalise is now the republican nominee . Huge. Huge. But i think we need to underscore, highlight, put in bold the key caveat that manu was just talking about which is that with every other leader of the congress, house, senate, all you need is a majority of the people in your party and then you are the leader, and this is a constitutional role, the speaker of the house. Second in line to the presidency, which means that there is going to be a vote on the floor. People who were not under a rock in january know that that is something that tends to be difficult sometimes, it certainly was with the 15 rounds that mccarthy had to go through in order to get that. And so the question is right now how quickly is Steve Scalise going to be able to get those who voted for jim jordan and according to manu and our team it was pretty split, to get them to come over and support Steve Scalise. So as quickly as that happens, that will answer the first question that you asked me, boris, which is how and when will it get on with the business of the American People . And, look, the pressure is on. This isnt just a runofthemill vote. Not just because the government is going to run out of money in about a month, but because of these crises on the world stage. And, look, this does tend to historically be a moment that galvanizes and rallies in a bipartisan way the American People, and certainly puts pressure on congress to get its act together. Sure. We have seen it in big moments before. This is not the way it was, and weve seen lots of bits of evidence of that, that hardliners continue to be hardliners and im not sure that even what were seeing in israel, for example, will be something that will ease the way for Steve Scalise as it would have maybe just a few years ago to just get the votes and move on. Lets talk about his path toward the speakership because as you noted with Kevin Mccarthy there were 15 rounds of votes over four days. He made some major concessions to the hardliners in his party including that one vote necessary for a motion to vacate. How does scalise convince those who perhaps oppose him and we know hes got some rivals in the house even among republicans, how does he get them over to his side . We have to this was a Behind Closed Doors meeting, it was a Secret Ballot. We dont know yet and im sure our excellent reporters are going to find out momentarily if there were any promises along those lines that Steve Scalise made to not only hardliners but to some of the moderates who are really upset about the way in which the republicans the eight republicans who ousted mccarthy went about doing that. So we dont know what has gone on Behind Closed Doors. What we do know is that some of what happened with Kevin Mccarthy was personal. Yes, there were a lot of complaints about spending and about promises made and not promises kept, but some of it was personal. So i mention that by suggesting that perhaps with the Steve Scalise, there might be a bit more grace in the short term to say, okay, were going to let you d