Likely by the hour. Israel has told people in Northern Gaza, 1 Million People, we should note torsion get out. To evacuate to the south for their own safety. Even the United Nations has called it impossible and the humanitarian crisis in gaza is only getting worse. The United Nations says water is running out putting 2 Million People at risk. Palestinian officials now say more than 2,000 people have died so far. Israel says that includes a hamas commander who played a key part in last saturdays attack. And i want to bring in my colleague, erin burnett live in tel aviv. I know you have seen a lot. You have heard a lot. I guess all of our collective senses, theres much more to come in the hours and days ahead. Whats the latest on your end . Reporter absolutely there is. The silence here, the palpable sense of waiting. And waiting in an ominous way but waiting for something. A country that has been completely shut down. Meetings of officials going well into the night well past midnight every night. There is only so long anything or anyone can sustain that before you have to do something. Thats the feeling of where we are right now. Today we saw heavy artillery. Israeli heavy artillery, tanks as weve been seeing throughout the week. They are ready. And speaking to a soldier today at the kibbutz which was hit by hamas, one of the first to be attacked by hamas militants on saturday morning, it was that steely preparation that he said. In two decades as a soldier, hes never seen the things that he saw. Actually, in this area where he was, there were soldiers along that gaza border, all ready, all at alert with their machine guns out. Still an active zone. We saw the horrors. The body bags still coming out. The soldier telling us of walking into a room and a baby girl on her back, shot Execution Style in the head. These are the things were still hearing about. New and unbelievable and unspeakable atrocities and it is that that has them ready. They are ready and waiting. It is with a finger on the trigger, literally, literally fingers on the trigger. They are ready to go and they are waiting, Hundreds Of Thousands on that border of gaza. And as this tension builds, we do have some Breaking News on the United States. Oren lieberman is at the pentagon. What are you learning at this hour . Reporter the pentagon has ordered a second Carrier Strike group to the Eastern Mediterranean sea. An enormous statement. First of the severity with which the u. S. Sees this, and second, the risk of this escalating beyond israels borders. The goal here is not to get involved in the fighting between israel and hamas in gaza in any way. Instead, it is to send a message of deterrence to everyone watching and watching very closely and perhaps waiting for an opportunity to take advantage of perhaps what they see as weakness. That message directly to iran and irans proxies in the region and hezbollah just north of the border in lebanon. The Uss Gerald Ford. The uss dwight d. Eisenhower is also headed to the Mediterranean Sea or leading a Carrier Strike group. It left Naval Station Norfolk just yesterday so it will take a couple weeks to get there. It is unclear what ships its traveling with. Two aircraft Carrier Strike groomts in the eastern med is an enormous statement from the United States of support for israel and a warning to others in the region who might seek to get involved. It is also worth noting, these arent waters, the end of the war mission in iraq, normally seeing two carriers. That is what makes this so significant, erin. Certainly seriousness. It shows the profound seriousness with which the United States sees this. Well be going back to oren, jim and i, as soon as he gets more information. I want to go to Northern Israel where obviously, tensions are incredibly high as well with a possible second front in this war. How tense is the situation . What are you seeing there in these early hours of the morning . Reporter i think the situation in Northern Israel, very tense indeed. Of course, it is because of those tensions as oren was reporting, the pentagon has made that decision to send that second Carrier Group to the Eastern Mediterranean to provide an additional deterrent to the various players, countries, hezbollah in particular, which threatens Northern Israel from entering this conflict. So far, there have been skirmishes, confrontations. In the past couple hours, the Israeli Soldiers that weve been speaking to here, very close to the lebanese border, say there have been mortar rounds coming in. Theyve responded with artillery fire. There have been rockets fired into Northern Israel from syrian territory as well. And there has been an israeli response to that also. What israeli officials at the moment say is that none of these firings have kind of reached, breached the level of escalation. That theyre not, theyre not what were waiting for and not why israel has spent so much time and effort and resources really bolstering security in this northern part of the country right up close against the israeli sorry, the lebanese border. Earlier i spoke to one of the officers here. The company commander, and i asked him what exactly the Israeli Military here is preparing for. So we have mobilized our troops here and be prepared for any scenario to open up on the northern border. Reporter you mean whether this area is hit by hezbollah . Is that what youre worried about . Thats one of the scenarios. It could be what happened on the gaza strip. It could happen here. It could be joint. It could be very direct, specific event. We dont know. Well be ready with our troops. We mobilize and were here. Reporter it seem the Israeli Military down south near gaza were not ready. Are you going to make the same mistake here . Were here now so were not making the same mistake. Reporter not going to make the same mistake hear, of course, the Israeli Military, the whole of israel is acutely aware that the military did not respond effectively to the hamas attacks at the weekend in the south. At left a not in the first few hours. And they are determined to make sure that this area in the north, if a second front opens, we are properly defended. Matthew chance, thank you very much. In Northern Israel tonight. Just a week after hamas launch that had devastating terror blitz on israel, hundreds of israelis remain missing. Among them is an 85yearold woman. One hamas Propaganda Video released shortly after gunmen invaded israels villages with that brutal slaughter shows an elderly woman wrapped in a pink blanket being driven on a golf cart into gaza as people wildly cheer. The woman holds her head high, occasionally smiling despite the chaos around her and the terror she must have been feeling. The family shared this video with us and said they recognized her immediately. They knew who she was, of course. Her grand daughter joins me now. When all this happened, youre thinking, oh, my gosh. Is she alive . Is she dead . You knew immediately this was your grandmother. Yet you see her in this video with people cheering around her. Clearly a hostage. When you first saw the video, how can you even describe the feelings that you had . I dont know if theres even words that can describe how it feels to watch your grandmother, your 85 years old grandmother being kidnapped. We were scared to death, really. Were very worried about her. And you know, we havent heard anything since this horrible video. Were trying to stay positive and help. Hope there will be help. And she will survive this. What do you know what happened at your grandmothers kibbutz that day . Do you know anything about so many people obviously horrifically were killed in horrific ways. But she obviously is taken as a hostage. Do you know anything about what happened . Unfortunately, i have other family that also lives in this kibbutz. So even when the contact with my grandmother was off, we still heard from them. And the stories are horrible, really. They are telling about the terrorists getting from house to house and slaughtering people. Kidnapping elders. Kidnapping entire families, children and babies. And whoever they couldnt hurt physically, they burned his ho house, stolen and broken everything. I have another cousin who, when everything starts, went to protect his family and he is also kidnapped. My grandfather is hospitalized because the terrorists burned his house while he was sitting inside. And he inhaled a lot of smoke and he couldnt breathe. Another cousin that is hospitalized because he got shot and he lost a lot of blood. And thats just, you know, my family. From the community of less than 400 people, 100 people are either dead or missing. Its unbearable number. The stories are horrifying. It is unspeakable. You say horrifying. Its impossible to find the words and it encircles your entire life. Have you felt, adva, the idf, have they been speaking to you . Giving you any updates . Is anyone telling you anything . Even if they have nothing to say. Is somebody talking to you and answering questions about where your grandmother may be . Where your Family Members may be . They contact us and gave us an official statement that both may grandmother and my cousin are kidnapped. We have, you know, someone to talk and to check with. But they have no answers to give us. No one knows anything since this video. No one knows where is she and whats her condition . My grandmother is ill and shes taking medication on a daily basis. And we dont know if she survived without her medication. And we dont know how long can she survive without her medication. And no one knows anything else. Adva, wherever she may be right now, not even knowing youre speaking about her. I know shes so grateful and proud that you are speaking for her. And we are grateful for you sharing her story and yours. Youre in the thoughts of everyone watching. Thank you. Thank you very much. Waiting for her grandmother, praying for her safe release. Our Special Coverage continues next. Earlier today, it was asked, are you ready for what is coming . More is coming. And a Ground Incursion in Northern Gaza appears more likely every hour. Lets bring in the Israeli Special forces. Appreciate your time very much. Thanks for being with us. Your sense of things at this hour. Weve been showing live pictures of gaza throughout this program. I cant remember the last time its been this eerily quiet but it is a moment that were on the cusp of something changing very dramatically this hour. Well, nightfall is a friend of counterterrorism. When things get dark, thats when we cream around. Thats when we collect our intelligence. Its when we are listening for phone calls. Were passing on information. There are two operational pieces that are forming here. One, first and foremost is the rescue of those hostages. Over 150 were taken hostage after the massacre in Southern Israel which means Israeli Special operations unit, such as the general staff reconnaissance unit, which reports directly to the chief of staff, that is Prime Minister netanyahus old unit. The same unit that went in 1976 and rescued 103 hostages. Brought them back to israel after a week of very highly skilled unit. Youve got the imam, israels National Police hostage unit. Theyre preparing right now in conjunction with the command to potentially blitz and get all that information together. Hopefully theyre training on scenarios right now. Theyve got time to build structures so theyll be able to make very clean and fast entries into buildings and tunnels. That would potentially happen at the same time as this ground offensive. A smoke screen possibly. And at the same time, weve got the counteroffensive. Weve got missiles coming down for a couple of days. Special operations units, or troops from the king fisher unit. Those are commandos who infiltrate and put the missiles down selectively. So were looking at heads to two main pieces getting prepped. This quiet could be, this is the calm before the storm. Let me say this. Israel has a lot of experience with being attacked on multiple fronts. This isnt israels first rodeo. Weve done this five times since 48, 56, 73. You are seeing israel do what it does best. Getting organized quickly and theyre kicking the rust off right now and getting really, really focused. This is going to get really serious and it will be violent and there will be casualties. And what is your sense of it . Do you get the sense, and this is based on your experience, that they have a general sense of where to look for these hostages, that they would like to pull the hostages out before this Ground Incursion really gets underway in a massive and overwhelming kind of way . Or have they, perhaps, reached a point where they know that is going to be a difficult kind of operation to find those hostages . They could be in tunnels, in any house, on a random street in gaza. You dont know. And the incursion has to happen because they want to carry out this mission. Its complicated. The reason why is because the Hostage Siege right now is happening in multiple locations with dozens and dozens, 150, probably more, that hasnt been verified. So you have multiple Target Locations and youre going to have multiple teams working in multiple places at the same time performing very highlevel operations which israel is really good at. However, to try to predict how that will happen is tricky. At the same time, the operational goal is the complete destruction of hamas. What weve been seeing the last couple days with the missiles and the artillery is designed to really create pathways in openings for tanks and for the unit that is responsible for the southern command. Theyre an elite infantry unit. They have special commands in those units. So theyre softening gaza to open the pathways but who is to say that israel hand been on the ground the last four days conducting Surveillance Missions within gaza to bring that information back. The Hostage Rescue Mission is only, it is only as capable as the intelligence is realtime. But again, israel is really good at this. Theyre really creative and they have a lot of experience with this particular set of missions. So it may be a combination. It may be a smoke screen, creating diversions. A lot of moving pieces. Thislargest Hostage Siege in the history of modern warfare. Israel is really good under pressure and theyre really smart and they really are able to come together when the going gets tough. So i think you might see some magic here. I was talking to an Israeli Defense forces spokesperson earlier on in the program who said that they want to give Gaza Civilians as much time as possible to evacuate. I suppose it raises the question as to how long you can wait. Heres the thing with that. From what im hearing, from what i believe, i dont think that the palestinians are being given an opportunity to exit gaza. And thats a fact. The reason why, if you look at the context of hamas and how these terrorists operate, based on what the whole world is seeing. I dont have to sell this. Everybody is seeing what these terrorists do and how they operate. I believe that the civilians, which israel doesnt have a problem with the palestinians. In fact, i see it quite the opposite. What i see here is a Hostage Siege that involves the 150 plus israelis being held captive, women and children. And i see another 170,000 being held captive in the city of gaza. From what i understand, hes not opening the door to egypt. Even if he is, hamas isnt opening the other door to let them out. So the humanitarian crisis is based on the operational goal of hamas. They need those civilians in there to achieve maximum media, maximum exposure, and therefore, the palestinians are essentially prisoners within gaza. And that raises my next question which is, if you have a significant number of civilians that are left behind in Northern Gaza. They cant go or they wont go, or any combination of those things. And you have the Israeli Defense forces saying that part of their mission is to take out hamass leadership. They want to route out hamass leadership and crush it. There is a Counter Terrorism dimension to that. How does it get complicated though if on top of all that, you are stuck in some very heavy urban combat time of battle. I see where youre going. Does one get in the way of the other . There is a lot of Shades Of Gray in this particular scenario, and it is unfortunate. This is the Modus Operandi as weve seen of one of the most lethal terror groups in the world. At this point i can tell you, from my colleagues who i served with in the 990s, in Command Positions now. The tail for would bes, could bes and maybes is over. It is time in israels mind and the world is seeing it for the complete destruction of hamas militarily and every other format. Israels