Yeah. The president making clear that United States would stop at nothing to gethose hostages back. Thats right. The lead with jake tapper starting right now. This is cnn Breaking News. Welcome to the lead. Were following two major breaking stories, first on capitol hill, where House Republicans are meeting behind closed doors, right now tallying the results of a Secret Ballot where they are trying to decide who their next speaker nominee will be. Our teams are stationed across capitol hill and assuming House Republicans are finally able to nominate a speaker after ten days without one, in the midst of two wars and a pending Government Shutdown we will bring you the results. That is an assumption. Not sure if thats going to happen but well bring you the results. Our other story, Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu vowing this afternoon this is only the beginning of israels fight to destroy hamas. This time one week ago, one week ago today, right this moment, it was just after 11 00 p. M. In gaza and roughly 1,000 members of hamas, which is the ruling government of gaza, were preparing to invade israel to attack. They were going to infiltrate israel by land, by sea and air, by paraglider to kill israeli soldiers, israeli babies, israeli women and men in their beds, israeli young people at a music festival, hundreds and hundreds in totally. The deadliest day for the jewish people since the holocaust. Now nearly seven days later, that attack has resulted in hundreds more innocent dead killed in israeli retaliatory strikes in gaza, strikes the Israeli Defense forces claim are against hamas targets. They say this is based on Israeli Intelligence, though, of course, postoctober 7th hamas Terrorist Attacks, the quality of Israeli Intelligence inside gaza is a legitimate question as an Idf Spokesman admitted the other day. While currently no Western Leader challenges israels right to defended itself, few can answer the question as to what exactly the plan is. As all signs point to israel ramping up an assault on gaza to destroy hamas, including what appears to be a pending Ground Invasion and if and when hamas is destroyed, few can answer what then . Israels military dropped leaflets from the sky warning the 1. 1 million Civilians Lirng in Northern Gaza to evacuate the area. Thats nearly half the population of the entire gaza strip. Hamas, which embeds itself within the palestinian population there, is telling the population to not go anywhere. The United Nations says evacuations on that scale, 1. 1 million, would be impossible to carry out, quote, without devastating humanitarian consequences and there are already questions, of course, about whether israel having cut off food, water, fuel, and other supplies to the entirety of gaza, constitutes a violation of international law. Israels done that, they say, until the hostages that hamas took are returned. U. S. Defense secretary lloyd austin visited israel today where he was on hand to see a u. S. Cargo plane delivering more u. S. Weapons and munitions to support the Israeli Military. Secretary austin also spoke to cnn exclusively. This was his answer when asked about assurances from the Israeli Military about avoiding palestinian civilian casualties. This is a professional force thats well led. Im sure theyll do the right thing. The Palestinian HealthMinistry Says more than 1900 palestinians have been killed since last saturday. More than half of which the authority says have been women and children. Israeli authorities put the total israelis killed at more than 1300. Lets bring in Clarissa Ward who is in israel north of the gaza border. The Israeli Military is warning more than 1 million civilians in Northern Gaza to evacuate, to go south. The u. N. Says its impossible for that to happen without major humanitarian consequences. Thats right. Weve been talking to people in Northern Gaza, Chaotic Scenes there, as people desperately trying to move. No clear idea where they can go because simply put, jake, they cant get out. The efforts that have been ongoing to build some kind of a humanitarian corridor have so far been fruitless. So you see the scenes of people putting their lives into their cars or on their backs, walking with no sense of where they will end up, of where is safe. Meanwhile, that death toll continuing to climb according to the Palestinian Health ministry, more than 500 children in gaza among the dead. The u. N. Palestinian Refugee Agency called this Evacuation Order from the Israeli Military, quote, horrendous and said that gaza is becoming, quote, a hell hole. We actually spoke with a 22yearold dentistry student, yara, she is from that area in Northern Gaza that has been directed to evacuate. She told us that they havent left their home yet because theyre afraid they might never be able to come back and they dont know where to go. Take a listen. Im actually terrified. Im trying not to show it, but its all the situation around us, its like theyre saying that you can die at any moment. You dont know. I dont know if im going to live through the next minute. Yeah. Its really terrifying. I hear the voices of Young Children in your house and how do you protect them from this . Yes. It is its terrifying of that, of just imagining if anything were to happen to them, and when any bombing happen, i could see the look on the 4yearold. He would look terrified. Its really heartbreaking. Have you lost any friends or family throughout the strikes of the last seven days . Yes. Theres friends. She got out from her house to her cousins house. When she was there, the area were targeted. And the house got bombed. Shes gone. What was she like . She really loved to joke a lot, laugh with us a lot, even though in school, you know, even though in school we had tough times, she just always she just always knows how to make us laugh. Im sorry. Dont be sorry. Dont be sorry. We just want peace. Thats it. And jake, the name of yaras friend is asma. She was killed according to yara at 3 00 this morning in khan yunis. Want to under score from the people we are talking to today inside gaza, so many of them share that same feeling that you heard yara express. They just want peace. We did ask yara about her response to the atrocities carried out by hamas and she believes and prays all civilians should be off limits, all civilians should be safe. Jake . Clarissa ward, thank you so much. While we have generally been focused this week on the victims of the brutal hamas Terrorist Attack on israel, the deadliest day for the jewish people since the holocaust, our team has been in touch with many in gaza where as you can see from clarissas piece the situation is dire. One man we asked to join us told he was trying to evacuate gaza but didnt know where he would be by the end of the day. He told our producers youre lucky if im still alive the next time you reach out to me. Another man told us he had only 30 minutes left of battery on his phone and could not charge it without power in gaza. He told us the you are Israeli Military destroyed his home. Hes sleeping on the ground. There is no food, no water. We have been in touch all week with hanin. The palestinian American Woman from new jersey who had been on the show on tuesday, stuck in gaza city with her three children. At one point we lost all communication with her, but this afternoon we did get this voice memo saying she had managed to make it close to gazas Southern Border with egypt. Take a listen. People left their homes, everything. They left everything. I hope that everybody could make it out of here because its not safe at all. People are still waiting for egypt and israel to open the Southern Border. The problem appears to be at this hour egypt refusing to open that border. Cnns nada bashir has a wider look at the situation in gaza and want to warn you many images are disturbing. Reporter as dawn breaks in gaza now under bombardment from israel for seven days a warning from the skies, pamphlets telling all civilians in Northern Gaza to evacuate southwards. Were seeing our children killed right in front of us. Theyre starving us of food and water. We have no electricity, nothing. This isnt a life. Now they tell us we have to leave, but we dont know where we will end up. Hamas leaders have called on civilians to remain steadfast, and stay put. Accusing israel of engaging in psychological warfare. But families desperate for some semblance of security gather their belongings. And while they are unsure of what awaits them in the south, one thing is clear, there is no guarantee of safety wherever you are in gaza. It happened to our grandfathers, and now it is happening to us. We are being forced out. Gaza is being destroyed. Nothing is left. It is a catastrophe. More than 2 Million People live in a tiny besieged gaza strip. Still under a blockade enforced by israel in 2007, more than half of those are now being told to move. The Norwegian Refugee Council characterized the Evacuation Order which holds no guarantee of safe return as an act of forcible transfer. In other words, a war crime. Meanwhile, the u. N. s Refugee Agency for palestine says the scale and speed of the unfolding humanitarian crisis is bone chilling. On the move are more than 1. 4 Million People in gaza. These are ordinary palestinians, who live in the gaza strip, with their families, including pregnant women, children, children with disabilities. Reporter an ongoing siege means access to food and safe water is quickly running out. The u. N. World Health Organization warned that hospitals here have only a few hours of electricity each day, pushing gazas already crumbling Healthcare Infrastructure to the brink of collapse. At the hospital, the bodies of those killed in the air strike lay shrouded outside. There is, doctors say, simply not enough space in the morgue. They were all innocent civilians. Women, children, the air strikes came suddenly and destroyed all our homes, with children still inside, and now we dont even know where we can bury our dead. Enough, please, enough. In less than one week, israel has dropped more than 6,000 bombs on gaza. The equivalent to the total number of air strikes carried out, during the 2014 israelgaza war which lasted 50 days. And while there continues to be widespread condemnation of the collective punishment the people of gaza are being subjected to there is every indication that this war will only intensify. And many here feel that the world has abandoned them. Nada bashir, cnn. And our thanks to nada bashir for that report. Our focus is not only in the middle east but washington, d. C. Moments ago House Republicans chose their next nominee for house speaker. Manu raju is on capitol hill for us. Manu, what are the results . Yeah. Jim jordan just won his partys nomination to be speaker of the house. He won a majority of House Republicans, but he is far short of the vote that he would ultimately need on the house floor to be elected speaker of the house. That number he just won 124 votes from republicans supporting him to become speaker. He needed to clear a majority of votes. We believe there are 209 members. Congressman, was the 124 to 81 . I think that was the first count. That was congressman higings. Were trying to get information. This is behind closed doors, Secret Ballot election. We understand from multiple sources is jordan got 124 votes. We believe hes gotten more than 80 in opposition to him. We were told 81 from several sources and want to make sure before we report that. Congressman higgins seems to believe that was the number, 124 to 81. Once we get the final number we will report it. The larger issue here is that jim jordan indicated for some time he needed to get 217 votes behind closed toors before going to the full house. He did not want to go through a messy floor fight the way we saw Speaker Mccarthy do. 15 ballots, ultimately getting the vote to become speaker. Jordan wanted to hammer this out behind closed doors. It is clear he did not here. What is the question . This is how it could potentially play out. He was up against austin scott of georgia. The question will be what will austin scott do . Does he decide to step aside and do austin scott supporters go and support jim jordans candy dasy in . Does that increase his totally or does another Candidate Step in if jordan decides to step aside. All Big Questions at the moment. Still uncertainty about what congressman jordan congressman, was the vote 12481 . Something like that. As you can tell, people have different recollections of what happened. The congressman said 124 to 81, Something Like that was the vote. Well try to get a better sense of what the next steps are when we talk to more members as they come out here. At the moment, jim jordan, winning the republican nomination to be speaker after this week of a tumultuous moment in the house, completely paralyzed unable to do anything until they elect a speaker. Can they elect one now, still a question, despite jordans win. My conversations with House Republicans that are reluctant to support jim jordan for speaker have centered on two issues. One of them, obviously, is the Ohio State University scandal involving the former doctor who has since died by suicide, i believe, who would molest the players and jim jordan was the Assistant Wrestling Coach and claimed to not know anything, and there have been players this week, who said they didnt believe that. Thats one of the issues. The question about whether or not jim jordan would be a good representative for the party given that scandal and questions about that. And the other one, former congresswoman and House Republican conference chair liz cheney tweeted early today and said jim jordan was involved in trumps conspiracy to steal the election and seize power. He urged that pence refused to count lawful electoral votes. If republicans nominate jordan speaker they will be abandoning the constitution, lose the House Majority and deserve to. There are a number of republicans from districts that President Biden won that probably are fearful of being tagged with jim jordan as the speaker. He could be radioactive to them, i would think. Whats your impression of why there are dozens of republicans reluctant to support him . One reason, uncertainty about whether jim jordan can help them keep the republican majority. There are members from Swing Districts supporting him, so well see ultimately how some of those members who ended Speaker Mccarthys speakership and do not want to reward what they consider bad behavior. He rewarding the members that tanked the sitting speak and getting behind the person they are backing. A lot of members on the far right are backing jim jordan. That is where his strength is. The question, too, jake, if jordan decides to go to the floor without having 2917 votes, does he dare those more moderate members to vote against him on the floor . Kind of a reverse of what we saw in january when the conservative members voted against mccarthy, time and time again, until mccarthy ultimately won that fight. Will jordan do that with the moderate and will they stand up . Those are huge questions at this moment, but really, the biggest one, is what swrrds will do despite winning the nomination well short of the 217 votes how does he press ahead . Keep us posted. Coming up what sources tell cnn about activity picked up by u. S. Intelligence days before the hamas Terrorist Attacks last saturday. Stay with us. Were back with the sources that tell cnn u. S. Intelligence signaled the potential clash between hamas and israel in the days before that Terrorist Attack by hamas. Cnn helped break the reporting and what did the intelligence show . There were a series of Intelligence Reports that had varying degrees of different warnings, two of them were american, one was israeli in the days before this horrific attack. Starting on September 28th There was a u. S. Intelligence report that said that there was a likelihood, a possibility of crossborder attacks that would include rocket fire. October 5th there was a cia wire that went out that spoke generally about the possibility of g