The Israeli Military is warning more than 1 million civilians to evacuate south as the war with hamas intensifies and Hundreds Of Thousands of israeli troops mass on the border. What youre looking at is new video of leaflets being dropped over gaza city. Hamas militants are urging people there to defy the orders and to stay in their homes but we are seeing Palestinians Heeding that rn with aing, families with small children are Walking South Carrying whatever they can. And this morning Israeli Forces have continued to hit gaza and hamas is now claiming air strikes have killed 13 hostages, those hostages abducted they say during last weekends massacre. Israelis Military Cannot confirm or deny the claim. Loud austin is in telaviv to meet with Prime Minister benjamin netten yahoo. Antony blinken was in telaviv yesterday, and met with abbas in jordan. We have team coverage. Lets start with Becky Anderson in East Jerusalem. Theres a large palestinian operation where you are. Hamas has called for a day of rage. Whats the scene right now . Reporter well, we are between two gates here in East Jerusalem. The road behind me here, ill get you a shot, which is got an awful lot of Israeli Security forces but we are not seeing the muslim worshippers yet who will come down this road, those who have been the Al Aqsa Mosque for friday midday prayers. Reports suggest the Israeli Security forces have been selective on age as we understand it only those over the age of 60 have been allowed in to what is this extremely contentious compound. The temple mount haram al sharif, it houses the holiest site in jude i didnt mean, al aqsa, the site revered by christians, it is the real flash point over the years, and marks a real moment, always, in this conflict. So, things are relatively quiet, i have to say, the courtyard, we were overlooking that courtyard during friday prayers, it was empty. You would normally see that awash with muslim worshippers, those from the west bank who, today are not allowed in to East Jerusalem and indeed youngsters from here. Many, many fewer people allowed in to that compound today to pray. We await to see what happens next, we hope things will be contained here. But thats the story here. As far as gaza is concerned we just bring up the map to show where this Evacuation Order is, by the idf. I mean, the question is, where do these people go to in Southern Gaza . The rafa border closed to those who want to get out of gaza, so there is no exit at this point. And youre reporting on where the Secretary Of StateAntony Blinken is at present is really important because hes been here, hes been to jordan, hes met the Palestinian Authority president abbas there with king abdullah, doing the rounds to the uae, saudi, qatar, egypt, trying to get the region on board with some sort of plan that they can sort of bring to the israelis to say this is a stopgap, short Term Solution to sort of deescalate whats going on at present. I mean, we have to hope the Secretary Of StateAntony Blinken can get the region on board, which is absolutely petrified, the region that is, about an escalation, of course, in all of this. I mean, you know, you talk to anybody around the region, youve heard this from king abdullah, for example, and from the Palestinian Authority president abbas getting the palestinian on the agenda is important. Let me explain what we are seeing here, some skirmishes, weve heard bangs this morning of Stun Grenades and a little bit of smoke. I want to be quite clear about this. Ive been in exactly this position during this conflict over the years, and the violence here was really bad. Today things are absolutely calm, within reason, few pockets of scuffles, but im not suggesting for a moment that the day of rage has become a violent day. Of course, hamas calling this calling this operation, this monstrous operation, the al aqsa floods, that speaks to the name of the mosque at the compound, of course, they say that has been desecrated by Jewish Settlers of late and by the storming of that mosque by Israeli Forces over the years. So thats the situation as things stand at present. As far as whats going on in gaza is concerned you can really only hope that there is some sort of shortterm plan before what we expect to be a massive assault by the israelis. Becky, critical context based on where you are tied to your years of experience there. Well come back to you. And to ben wedeman, in southern lebanon, the scale of this call for evacuation by the idf, estimated to be more than a Million People. Whats the plausibility of this actually happening . Reporter its going to be very difficult, first of all, given the fact that the sheer number of people, perhaps 1. 1 Million People a situation where theres very little fuel, the number of people, where are they going to go, where are they going to be housed . The u. N. And other International Organizations in gaza are saying its simply not possible given the number of people and the circumstances, theres an active war. People are afraid to just move in the street, so moving 1. 1 Million People from Northern Gaza To Southern Part is something thats hard to imagine being done on practical terms. Now, ive been in gaza before, for instance, in 2014 the israelis ordered the evacuation of civilians from northern communities, ones near the israeli border. For the most part people were able to do that because you could get out by walking, you could get out by riding on a donkey cart, perhaps, if you could get a car ride out. But that was relatively small numbers compared to gaza city. Gaza city is huge. Where are you going to put all these people when you move them south when none of the relief supplies, tents, food, water, medicine have been allowed into the gaza strip. Its very difficult to imagine how this could possibly be done. And hamas is calling on people to stay in their homes, to stay put. So, this is going to be very difficult, and certainly if people do not or cannot evacuate those areas, the israelis are calling them to leave, and this Ground Offensive goes ahead, probability is, it will be a blood bath. Quickly from where you are theres also been a call for the Quote Day Of Rage in southern lebanon. What are you seeing right now . Reporter im going to step out of the camera for a minute so you can see, this is a mosque in the southern lebanese town of hana where theyve called for a demonstration, people are still inside the mosque. So you see the palestinian flag on top, and these are hezbollah flags around the mosque. However, interestingly theres no lebanese flags here. However, there is an israeli flag, its been painted onto the road so that anybody walking by can step upon it as an act of hatred, i suppose you could say, but by and large its a situation where people are demonstrating, but the border in South Lebanon is quiet today. I actually had an opportunity to speak to the lebanese Information Minister who was going on a tour of the border area, and he downplayed the possibility that lebanon will be drawn into this war. He told me that he thinks the israelis dont have the appetite to go to war again with lebanon, and particularly with hezbollah. Ben wedeman joining us in southern lebanon, ben, thank you very much. And joining us now to get more of these questions answered, i do, f spokesman Lieutenant Colonel peter learner, colonel, thank you for your time again this morning as always. I want to ask you for confirmation on what hamas is claiming, that 13 israeli prisoners taken hostage during the weekends attack, they are claiming they have been killed in gaza by israeli bombings. Has the idf confirmed those deaths . . I cant confirm those, and we have to be cautious with Everything Hamas is saying. And their Propaganda Efforts are extensive. This morning we are continuing our activities against the Hamas Terrorist Organization, and their infrastructure throughout the gaza strip, specifically we are targeting special operations capabilities, weve taken up their drone capabilities. They had attack drones that were posen and prepared to be launched at israel but weve taken some of those out and were continuing our effort to make sure hamas can never, ever threaten israel again and they cannot be permitted to do so. You do not have confirmation of what hamas is claiming there. Do you have any update on the condition of all of the hostages, any of them that are being held . Well, to my knowledge theyve not released any information except for disinformation, and were looking into it very cautiously. The situation is as such, we believe that hamas are responsibility for the wellbeing of all of the hostages that theyve taken, and they need to return them immediately, they need to release them to israel. And they will pay the consequences for their actions. The situation on the ground, obviously, is a complicated one, and were taking operating in caution with regard to the Hostage Situation and of course it is influencing our operational game plan. How is it influencing it . Is it causing the idf not to take certain actions at this moment, that it would otherwise take . I obviously wont elaborate on operational considerations, but definitely it is part of the planning process, and we do need to take that into consideration. Okay. Our priority is to return them home as soon as possible. The order from recommendation from israel for about 1. 1 Million People according to the u. N. To move out of Northern Gaza, there have been some reports of a time frame put on that. Is there a time frame that the idf has put on that . So, the orders is to evacuate immediately, and i would highly recommend that people adhere to that instruction because the military is determined to take out hamass capabilities, they operate from a stronghold within gaza and gaza city and they can no longer be utilize that area. In order to minimize and mitigate civilian casualties, this is what youve been asking us over the last couple of days, what about the humanitarian corridor, this is part of the humanitarian effort so that people will not be influenced more than they have to be in this conflict. Hamas, unfortunately is calling on the other hand, no, people, do not evacuate, stay and sacrifice yourself. Hamas has no regard for human life, israeli or palestinian. They will sacrifice everybody as they are proving time and time again. The question is, is there a safe window for all of those people, a million plus people to evacuate to the south . The United Nations says it is, quote, impossible for such a movement to take place without devastating humanitarian consequences, as these air strikes continue. Heres what we do. When we saw a threat on the border with gaza we evacuated the people from the border from gaza. What is hamas doing . Theyre not doing anything. S sacrificing them, stay put. The idf is coming. We are operating extensively. When they place their offensive drones, strike drones, Suicide Drones on the roofs of houses, they are jeopardizing everybody in that house, they dont care. So were telling people, evacuate this area, because we are operating, we plan on broadening the scope of our operations in order to achieve our goal. Colonel, im going to move on, is there a window of safety. The u. N. Has said 24 hours, for example, is there a window of safety when this evacuation i would highly recommend that the evacuation takes place immediately. The window of the 24 hours that were talking about is the highly recommendation, but it could go on beyond that but i would say the instruction is get up, and get out of the north of gaza and gaza city and move to the south. And just to be clear, though, move to the south, but there is still no crossing out of gaza for them . Yeah, were directing them exactly where we expect them not to be where people in order to safeguard their own lives should move from. Not to go into egypt or anything like that, but they should not be in the area which we designated and have told them specifically. This is like a forewarning of where were operating, forewarning of where its going to be more extensive combat, where there are going to be more extensive strikes, you know, this is the whole idea of trying to make safeguard peoples lives. The instruction to leave is to save peoples lives so they should leave from the north of gaza, from gaza city and go to the south of the city, of the gaza wadi, and they should they should set up there. If they stay, they are jeopardizing themselves, this is what im trying to say. I know that there are considerations, there are problems, of course, i would say hamas need to deal with all of those problems, of how to ship people from the north to the south, like we did, we took people from their houses in the south of israel and we moved them elsewhere. And hamas should have the responsibility, rather than failing the people of gaza, they should help the people of gaza. Colonel, i think the question becomes, for how long can they remain in the south . Will an order like israel has given in the north then come to them in the south . If there is no crossing that opens. Our operation is focused towards hamas, not to the people of gaza, because the people of gaza are not our enemy, the Hamas Terrorist Organization has butchered over a thousand, 200 people, and israel cannot be permitted to govern the gaza strip and use it as a Staging Ground against israel. When we recommend to the people of gaza go to the south, you should listen, go to the south, do not stay in gaza city, do not stay in the north, and yes, everybody should listen to that recommendation. I do want to ask you about a report this morning out of human rights watch, which says that it has verified videos showing multiple air bursts of artillery fired with White Phosphorus over the gaza city port, cnn has spoken to experts, we cannot categorically conclude that or independently verify that, but people know White Phosphorus fire causes severe burns Down To The Bone that are slow to heal, thats according to the group. Is the idf using has the idf used white phosfphorus, colonel . Categorically, no. The question of the hostages, if, indeed, what hamas is saying is true, elevates the concern about the level of intelligence for the idf to be able to carry out its mission within gaza. Can you say, confidently, that your intelligence within gaza is much stronger now than it was one week ago, that makes you more confident that as you carry out what is to come, it sounds like imminently from you, you can do so while protecting those Hostage Lives . We will put the priority of the wellbeing of the hostages, of course, at the top of our priority list. But we need to also balance out the needs of destroying hamass capabilities. So, of course, when we are considering mobilizing, and considering air strikes, when were considering special forces operations, we need to take all of those things into consideration. Unfortunately, it is, again, its hamas that have set the stage for this unfortunate development. They could end that, and release them immediately, as we expect. Lieutenant colonel peter lerner, thank you for joining us, especially at such a critical moment in all of this. Thank you. Thank you. This morning defense secret secretary lloyd austin is in israel, meeting with officialing, including the Prime Minister. More on israels warning to all civilians in gaza city, we just heard us talking about this, with this warning to immediately, you heard from the idf colonel there, move south. Were going to talk about the u. N. , saying it is inl im possible. What does this mean . Much more ahead. m possible. What does this mean . Much more ahead. M possible. What does this mean . Much more ahead. Possible. What does this mean . Much more ahead. Two very senior top u. S. Officials are on the ground in the middle east. Secretary of defense lloyd austin and Antony Blinken as the u. S. Pushing for diplomacy to prevent the conflict broadening. Blinken is traveling to qatar, the meeting happened in jordan earlier today, he spent thursday in israel meeting with Prime Minister netanyahu has he works to secure evacuations and the release of americans held hostage in gaza. Austin traveled in telaviv a few hours ago, he will be meeting with netanyahu and other highranking officials. Alex marquardt joins us live from washington, d. C. Such a show of how critical this is for the United States to have both of them there with these key meetings at the same time. What can you share . Yeah, it really is. And thats the goal from both these men is to really to communicate this solidarity with israel as they retaliate against hamas. So austin arrived today, you can see him there getting off the plane, greeted by his