As he went to fight as a soldier. When i talked with this man on the phone he is a different human being. All wars change people in this war certaiy has. Deeply and profoundly and in so many ways. Cnns coverage continues from israel. Tonight israels war against hamas enters a new phase as is really troops are now amassing along the gaza border. This as hamas is Still Holding as many as 150 hostages several now confirmed to be american. There may have been a but tonight there is still no House Speaker. Document nominated by House Republicans to take the gavel is unclear if we can get the votes to do so. Im Kayla Collins and this is the story. Good evening, this is a Special Edition of the source. We are tracking. Im Kayla Collins in washington. 300,000 troops are amassing. Israel continued to bombard gaza with airstrikes and disturbing new details of how mosses atrocities continue to emerge. It matters that americans see what happens. I have been doing this a long time. I never really thought that i would see all confirmed pictures of terrorists. In gaza tonight a humanitarian is unfolding. Nearly 1100 people have been killed and all power has been shut off. Right now it is believed up to 150 hostages are still being held by hamas and gaza. The death toll in israel has risen to more than 1200 people in the number of americans killed now stands at 22. Among them, two brothers who worked security for the village. They moved to israel from america to take care of their mom who had cancer. Deborah matthias a mother who was killed shielding her son from the bullets and 34year old danielle band senior who was one of the event organizers at the Music Festival that turned from a night that was supposed to be of revelry to a scene of carnage. I want to get right to anderson cooper. Those are just a few of the faces and the names of The Americans who we know have been killed. You have been there in your reporting from this country that has been consumed by grief. How is that impacting what you see on the ground . I think this terror type is a surprise on saturday morning and it has taken days for people are still gathering information and we are still hearing stories about what happened near certain places. We are still learning about scale and scope of this and it will still take weeks before the full picture is clear, but the level of shock is felt everywhere. Theres not anyone here who does not know someone who has not killed or kidnapped or wounded or had a member of their family killed her catnip or kidnapped or wounded. There shock in brief is turning into anger and resolve and we are seeing that with the buildup in is really troops. In the decisions by now a the Opposition Party leader has now joined into a cabinet with the Prime Minister. You look at someone taking off from a Downtown Street and then people get into tunnels and move locations so its very difficult to stop that. And obviously israel has been Hounding Gaza pounding gaza for days now and there has been this buildup of troops. I think the anticipation is now there is this Lady Government as they are saying or unity cabinet that got us one more step to sort of open up this to have an assault. Nobody though is naove about what the reality of that will be both from the potential for loss of civilian life in gaza, civilians have nowhere to go and as you mentioned there have been talks about possibly opening up some sort of humanitarian corridor into egypt and in the past egyptian authorities have not wanted to have an open border with large numbers of residents coming and staying in sinai in egypt so they will have to get on board with that and it remains to be seen if i will even happen, but nobody is naove about what a Ground Assault into gaza would look like and the death toll that occurred from that. 2 million citizens in an area twice the size of washington. Thank you for that. What has been happening presents several pressing issues for the biden administration. First among them is how to help including americans being held by hamas. There is also the intelligent failure but also u. S. Intelligence and agencies among the best in the world will say they did not hear this coming. The push to normalize relations between israel and saudi arabia which would have been a breakthrough is now in jeopardy tonight. Joining me now is someone who has been deeply involved in all of these issues ambassador Robert Obrien who served as u. S. Special envoy for Hostage Affairs and was also a National Security adviser for president trump. Given your experiences negotiating for hostages, obviously this is even more complicated because there is this active war underway. How does the u. S. Get these hostages home . A large number of american hostages i was very pleased to see that Secretary Blinken is traveling there and that he has dr. Carson with him. He is a criminal Military Officer and i worked with him when i was National Security office. He is confident. I am glad we are seeing these things being undertaken. Thats important but we also have to look at another tool and those tools are moving our Hostage Extraction and rescue elements forward. We need to look at how we deal with the regional powers. If there was calm some type of expression, what would that look like . Israel is striking gaza right now with airstrikes. We are told this hostages, u. S. Intelligence says they are not altogether and they are in tunnels and separated. Thats an incredibly complicated process. We are probably never faced something this complicated in terms of a Hostage Rescue and if you can imagine the pain and agony that the hostage families are going through after they think about their loved ones in cages subject to torture and possible execution. We have to be prepared for opportunities when they arise. We may not be able to get all of the hostages in one swoop but as israelis move into gaza we will have opportunity potentially to extract hostages once we get control over the ground with our israeli partners. You are absolutely right though, is part of a complicated unitary equation. What we have heard from Defense Officials is if they embark on Something Like that it will be farfetched and they would need to rely on intelligence and there are serious questions being raised about what israel knows about whats happening inside of gaza. How would that happen . I am not suggesting that they launch a rescue at this time but my point is that we need to be opportunistic and be prepared if an opportunity arrives it will be good for us. There is democratic leverage we can use with certain partners and allies and no thats the focus. We need to be equally prepared that if a Military Option does arise especially in the chaos and is really encourage it in gaza we need to be prepared to get americans out. You used to be in daily Intelligence Briefings as a National Security adviser and we heard from your successor, Jake Sullivan, said the u. S. Did not see anything that suggested this attack was coming. How do you think people miss this . 9 11 so we know what it is like but i think what happened here is we become complacent about the United States and israel. There is much electronic intelligence and reconnaissance. Those are exclusive capabilities but i think what happens here is the hamas and the terrorists responses his messengers. They met outside of israel and the Wall Street Journal reports in lebanon and into iran and other locales. We know our capabilities and in this case it looks like they took advantage of our reliance on technical needs and maybe a lack of Human Intelligence and used oldschool techniques. [ indiscernible ] and they use those old school methods. We have seen criminal organizations use less. I should know it has not been confirmed. We heard some Senior Iranian officials were surprised by this of course still a lot of questions gary detman given they have funded hamas. You were in position when the Abraham Accords were assigned and there was hope for that what may mean for the region certainly for Trump Officials and three weeks ago i spoke to israeli Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu about is really a israel normalizing relations. Do you believe that deal is likely off the table . The siberia . Im not sure its off the table. I think we will have an extended period of is really reaction israeli reaction. This is something we have not even seen from isis and this is bad and theres even military response so i think in due time the diplomatic will take place and i applaud the biden administration. I was glad to see Jake Sullivan go to a god and to jerusalem and obviously bringing saudi arabia Input Strengths in the accord so i think its a worthy goal and i think we should continue it and there will probably be i dont think its off the table but i think there will be a cause. A pause. Former ambassador and National Surety adviser Robert Obrien, thank you for your time tonight. Thank you. Cnn reporting israeli officials saying that hamas gave the green light for this attack intelligence saying it caught iran as a surprise. Plus House Republicans have a nominee for speaker but still their nomination need a lot more support to win the gavel. We get back to the ground in israel but here on capitol hill the House Of Representatives still paralyzed by basic arithmetic and infighting tonight. Steve scalise is one nomination from a closeddoor meeting today. A jury of republicans 113 of them locate voting for him. They need 217 votes and as we see in Washington Republicans are still trying to find a way to get him the additional yes votes that it would take for congress to elect a House Speaker and get back to work. One of those republicans he is working they are working to convince is here with me. Can Steve Scalise get to the amount of votes he needs . He is a great man and a great candidate for republicans to try to unify the party. Its very difficult given the politics going on behind the scenes. You are referencing his Health Issues as he was diagnosed with blood cancer. Did you ask him for anything . I am very concerned about ukraine and israel. Obviously russia is involved in the ukraine war and russia is involved in Supplying Has Black , hamas, iran also supplying russia with drones. We need to make sure we are aggressive in how we deal with all those country not how we focus on one area. That was my message and i thought it was well received. Did you make any document i am not going to be the last vote against Steve Scalise. He was at 216 you would vote for him . I would. Thats good to know. One thing you struggled with is you said you had asked both of them who won the election and that neither of them would say that President Biden did. The president ial election and neither have said before and i dont think they will say now. Steve scalise feels very he is unsure about who the winner is. He was also comfortable voting for him . What are the choices. . We have Serious Problems around the world and we need to find ways to move forward. Its not an ideal situation. He led the effort to decertify the electors in 2021 on january 6 so you have to do the best you can. To get that aid to israel past you have to get a House Speaker first. How long do you think you could take it could take before republicans reaching actual decision . I think there will be some issues towards the end of the week and hopefully we really get our act together. Do you think it could be tomorrow . You dont think it will happen this week . I dont know. It may drag into the weekend. Okay, congressman ken buck, thank you. We will be back here in just a moment with the latest on the Ground Developments happening in israel and as we mentioned 300,000 reservists are amassing on the border of gas gaza but new reporting suggests iranians were surprised at least some of them. We just had a massive barrage of rockets coming in here. Our continuing coverage of the conflict here in israel. Face the opponent. Join poppy and phil on cnn 6 00 eastern. We are about 19 miles from the border with gaza and over the last few nights on our programs we have been able to hear the impacts of shells being fired into gaza from israel. The last hour it has been actually quite quiet. Across israel tonight community after Community Tanks are mobilizing and troops are mobilizing in preparation for what israels continued response for the is really reservists called up in historic numbers. They say any Ground Operation in gaza will be different this time. Everyone has lost someone. Every person. In amsterdam until wednesday morning monday morning i came here to the army. I have been in all the campaigns in the last 30 years. Never Something Like this. What remains is the looming question of what role he iran played in this. U. S. Has specific intelligence that suggests some senior officials were caught by surprise. We have seen no evidence in the intelligence that they were awaiting of it, preaware or were involved in any of the planning, resourcing or even directing of the operation. I want to bring in cnns matthew chan. The biden administrations position or what their public statements are is that iran bears broad responsibility for their support of hamas and others. You spoke to an israeli official, what was their perspective . Anderson, they agree with that. Its not really disputed that iran provides Political Support , finance and training for hamas militants inside the gaza strip so thats were the two intelligent intelligence overlap. There is a bit of a gap when it comes to the knowledge of a run in the enforcement of a run in this particular operation. What the israeli officials i spoke to told me is that he thought and believed as a result of intelligence that iran had effectively given the green light. To clarify, he said he didnt believe they ran ivan watson five new about the timing of the impact but they knew that there was an operation and planning before the operation went ahead. And so in that sense it was in on it and didnt do anything to stop it so its not necessarily a contradiction of u. S. Intelligence. It doesnt give iran the benefit of the doubt and the way that you can see The Americans are doing and so is in israels political interest. They have been trying to rally support and say iran should be punished for the interaction with thomas and i think this is another reiteration of that. What do you hear from israeli sources about what comes next in gaza . The israelis have been pretty clear that they will take action on the ground in gaza. They have not given in exact times timeframe but we have seen a massive buildup of forces. 360 reservists have been called. No one is under the impression that this will be an easy Military Operation in a different magnitude than we have seen before in gaza not least because of the density of the city in terms of its population. A network of tunnels that run underneath it and also the 150 or so hostages inside the gaza strip and that has to complicate any Military Operation plan. Matthew chan, thank you so much from tel aviv. Another story of survival. A young woman as he is really Music Festival where 160 people were killed according to israeli authorities. We will talk to her next. Is ukraine going to win im dr. Sanjay gupta and this is cnn. Tonight new details are starting to emerge from survivors of that Music Festival where hamas slaughtered at least 260 people so far as they ran for their lives some of them had to resort to Desperate Measures to find safety including hiding under dead bodies. Here is what one of the survivors told my colleague jake tapper today. As we got to the bomb shelter there was about 35 or 40 people who entered. When we got rescued seven hours later only nine or 10 were there. Everyone that came into that bomb shelter i saw get murdered in front of my eyes. I had a flash all over my body. We had to bury ourselves under these dead corpses to protect ourselves from these blades and rifles and rpg. Reporter hours before they were rescued hiding under the bodies of friends and fellow concertgoers. It was a massacre. Tonight i am joined by another survivor who also had four hours surrounded by hamas, shawny ohana visits us. Im so glad you are okay. These accounts of you and others who are there are difficult to even hear. Can you just start by walking me through w