Good evening. All right. We are having to take a quick break. Our special coverage, though, of the conflict between israel and hamas, the war that has now unfolded continues next. Welcome back. It is the top of the hour. Im dana bash In Washington. And im sara sidner in tel aviv with cnns breaking News Coverage of israel at war. As israel prepares for the next stage as they have put it of this war gaza is facing an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe and on the brink of collapse. The situation there is becoming more and more dire. The u. N. Is comparing it to a, quote, hellhole. Gaza is running out of water, electricity and is facing a severe shortage of food and medicine. Tens of thousands of people have fled Northern Gaza heading for the south, that is despite hamas who is supposed to be the leadership there telling innocent civilians not to leave, keeping them there and that according to both the u. S. And israel is because hamas would rather have the civilians as Human Shields rather than keeping them safe. Israel says they are trying to work on a humanitarian safe zone for evacuees. When talking to Cnns Wolf Blitzer today israels president could not give a timeline on when it would open. How close are you, mr. President , to establishing whats called a humanitarian corridor out of Southern Gaza . You mentioned earlier israel is working on it. So these facts are being discussed right now. Tomorrow Secretary Of State tony blinken will return to israel and the region and im sure this will be a top priority in his meetings. So you support allowing that southern rafah Border Crossing to be open so folks could leave gaza . So i would say the following, as president i am a head of state, but this is the powers are vested with the Israeli Cabinet and government under Prime Minister netanyahu and the new National UnityEmergency Government and its in their hands, but the entire effort is with a view to maintaining full humanitarian support for the people of gaza. A very good interview and theres more of that interview online between wolf blitzer and the president of israel, herzog. In the south of Gaza The Rafah Crossing as you just heard them talking about is supposed to reopen today according to u. S. Secretary of state antony blinken. It is the only border point out of gaza that is not controlled by israel. In the meantime along the israelilebanese border there have been some intense exchanges of fire today. We have just learned that a rocket has hit the headqua quar of the u. S. Peacekeeping force in lebanon, thankfully no one there was hurt. We are also hearing harrowing stories after air strikes in gaza and these folks are beside themselves wondering what theyre going to do when there is a Ground Offensive, but right now they are in deep sorrow after witnessing another air strike that collapsed a building. Listen. Translator we are in deir al balah. Today at dusk we witnessed strikes using f16 without prior warning. We were running and found the house on fire and charred. There were people alive and we rescued them quickly, but there were people still under the rubble. Until now there were three families under this house. A large number were martyred and there remains a large number of martyrs under the rubble. Translator god willing they are all in heaven. All my family will be in heaven. They gave their life for jerusalem, for lpalestine. For palestine. They were all women, all children, children, children. Here in israel hamas continues to target israel, tel aviv we saw rockets coming over just an hour or two ago and it is also targeting the border city of sderot. This morning the Terrorist Group sent a barrage of rockets into that particular area and citizens in the city boarded buses trying to get away from the Conflict Zone and into other parts of the country. It has been a terrifying, terrifying situation for the families there as well. Cnns Clarissa Ward is in ashkelon, thats about 25 minutes drive from sderot. Clarissa, give us some sense of what you have been seeing, what you have been experiencing as you have been here from the start really of this war. Reporter well, share ration i t sara, i think the focus is very much on gaza, what the u. N. Is calling an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe playing out before our eyes in a pretty emotional statement the Commissioner General for the u. N. Agency for relief and works basically said that the world has lost its humanity. He went on to outline for eight days not a drop of water no electricity, no food, no medicine has been able to be provided into gaza. He also reminded people that more than 60 of gazas residents because of the blockade on gaza are already dependent on food aid. So in addition to the relentless air strikes that have claimed so many lives, more than 2,700 palestinians have been killed, you now have this incredibly intense humanitarian catastrophe. I spoke to a young student in Northern Gaza, that is the area that the idf has told palestinians to leave, she said that they cant leave because they dont know where to go, they dont have a place to go and they dont feel that its safe. And there is no electricity. Now, i will say that the idf, israels defense forces, have said that the water has been turned back on in Southern Gaza. There seems to be some difficulty in confirming that right now, some mixed reports there, but i want to draw your attention, sara, if we can just pull up a tweet, this tweet is from october in 22 and its from the eu commissioner ursula von der leyen. Shes talking about russia and ukraine but she says quite clearing cutting off men, women, children of water, electricity, she goes on to add heat, these are pure acts of terror and we have to call it such. I think the frustration and the anger and the outrage that youre seeing from many is due to a perceived Double Standard in the type of language that we have seen from u. S. And european leaders with regards to ukraine as opposed to what we are seeing now. Now, i will say that in the last day we have been hearing slightly more calibrated responses from people like Secretary Of State antony blinken, from european leaders, urging israels leadership to go out of its way to make sure that the International Humanitarian law and the International Norms are not abused, but as it stands quite clearly, listening to that report from the u. N. , the situation there is rapidly escalating, unraveling, and despite the efforts on so many parts to try to clear some kind of humanitarian corridor, there is no sense that this is going to change imminently, sara. Look, this is why the u. N. Calls gaza a basically an openair prison because it is very hard for the palestinians there to get in and out of it, and thats on a regular day, not when there has been a war, but as israel has said over and over and over again, hamas has helped create this, hamas is the one keeping civilians there when they want to leave, not giving them any chance when theres a ground or if and when there is going to be a Ground Incursion. Clarissa ward, thank you so much. I think i just want to ask you one more question. Theres something going on of course in lebanon, thats the northern border with israel, with rockets coming over. Weve seen this over the last few days, Different Things happening there on that border. This is sort of the existential crisis that israelis and the military and the government here has always worried about that they would have war on several fronts. What are you hearing about whats going on there in the lebaneseisraeli border . Reporter so we know that there has been rocket fire going both into israel from southern lebanon, also Israeli Forces have responded to that fire. We know according to the u. N. Peacekeeping force in South Lebanon that their headquarters there were actually hit. Nobody was injured, but as you say, sara, this speaks to a very real palpable fear that a second front in this war could potentially develop and that if hezbollah was to become involved with this war that it would dramatically change the picture of what we are seeing hezbollah has a huge amount of rockets, including longrange rockets, could potentially be extremely dangerous, of course, everyone remembers the war in 2006 as well between israel and hezb hezbollah. So definite real concerns that that could be escalating, sara. Yeah, and potential of it escalating further, the u. S. Also talking about potentially putting troops on the ground to try and save the hostages that were taken who are americans and others. Clarissa ward, there is just so many things that could happen, but we are waiting to see what actually does happen. I appreciate all of your incredible reporting throughout this really difficult time. The idf just announce that had they now have a firm number of how many hostages are being held by hamas, 155 civilians have been taken into gaza against their will since the war started eight days ago. That is the number that they have come up with. We know that several of those hostages are american citizens. We do not have an exact number of just how many. Cnns hadas gold is joining us now. Hadas, the u. S. Is saying it wont rule out and i just mentioned this to clarissa sending in u. S. Troops to rescue hostages, which is something that i think will catch some people by surprise and catch the families and give them some hope that potentially maybe there is a way to see their loved ones again alive and well. What are you learning . Reporter i mean, it would be unprecedented to have american boots on the ground in this way, but as weve said, unprecedented situation. I mean, the horrors of what weve heard happened to these victims, to the ones who were killed, i cant even, you know, repeat some of what happened to them and the horrors of what may be happening to the hostages right now, especially knows with american citizenship in addition to those with american citizenships, i think thats why you might see an unprecedented response. Now, will we see a fullfledged, you know, full hundreds, thousands of americans boots on the ground, will we see activity from those carrier ships, thats harder to tell. The american and israeli militaries work incredibly closely together, ive heard the idf officials call the americans their brothers in arms. A few months ago i was on the u. S. S. George h. W. Bush for the Largest Military exercise meant to sent this clear message to especially iran and their proxies in the region, be careful of what you do here because the americans will get involved. Weve never been closer to this relationship being put to a test than where we are right now. Now, we have heard from john kirby saying that right now theres no plans or intentions to put u. S. Troops on the ground in this fight between israel and hamas. He said that on fox news earlier today, but they are not necessarily ruling this out. Right now so far the American Military support has been limited to things like munitions, to things like helping replenish the iron dome intercepters, to the carrier ships we see off the coast. We also know that a federal Hostage Recovery Experts are assisting the israelis in trying to recover these hostages. The big question is will we see any sort of Special Operations on the ground to try to recover these hostages . So far it seems as though theyre letting the israelis take the lead on that. Yeah, i mean, and you know this all too well living here and reporting from here for a good long time that there are whole tunnels, there is a whole complex of Tunnels Underneath Gaza and into israel that these hostages could be in. This could be a really, really difficult situation. I do want to quickly ask you, though, hadas gold, when you hear the possibility that its not being ruled out, that potentially america would send in u. S. Troops, thats got to give israel and their coordination some pause as to whether or not theyre going to actually go forward with a Ground Offensive if that is in the works, right . Would that not sort of stop the Ground Offensive until that separation was over . Reporter i mean, i have to be honest, i think its a question of when not if this Ground Operation takes place. The Israeli Military saying that they will wipe out hamas completely and that is their goechlt their plan is to completely eliminate hamas and potentially turn the power over in gaza to somebody else, to the Palestinian Authority, to somebody else. They want hamas out. Ive never heard this type of rhetoric from the israelis before. I think they will definitely be going in, its just a question of when and not if. Hadas gold, thank you so much. Appreciate all of your reporting. Dana, back to you In Washington. Joining me now is Cnn National Security analyst and former director of National Intelligence, james clapper. Director clapper, thank you so much for joining me. I want to start by talking about intelligence since that is your expertise, one of your areas of expertise, and about the hostages who the u. S. And israel believes are inside gaza, including an untold number of americans. What will it take to get them out given the reality that you have had biden officials on air all day admitting that they dont they dont forget about where they are, they dont know who they are or how many there are. Well, this is pretty daunting challenge. Certainly when youre going to do a Hostage Rescue this sounds like an obvious thing to say, you have to know where they are. I rather doubt we have much insight into location of any of the hostages. I would surmise they are underground and widely dispersed and hamas for its part is going to consider any information on the hostages as very, very sensitive state secret, so to speak. So this is a real disaster in the making, i think, because as each day goes by, given the condition, the physical condition of many of the hostages, it looks bad. So from an intelligence perspective this is a really, really tough mission and in the absence of much of any insight in the location of the hostages. You cant do a rescue unless you know where they are. Exactly. And, again, just to underscore the thought is that its over 100 israelis, but also american citizens, american citizens who were taken forcibly, brutally by Hamas Terrorists and brought across the border. Director clapper, the president of israel, herzog, was on with wolf earlier today and he said that the main goal for the Israeli Military is to destroy the terrorist infrastructure in gaza. Eventually through their Ground Operation. What does that even look like . I think it looks like a potential humanitarian disaster of biblical proportions, given the conditions in gaza under the best situation, which is not very good, they have very fragile infrastructure there, i think any Ground Incursion which will be a sledgehammer, i think, with all the weaponry, the tanks of the israelis and i dont blame them a bit for wanting to destroy hamas once and for all, but in the process i think its unavoidable to incur a lot of collateral casualties, innocent palestinians and a lot of collateral damage, not to mention probably some substantial idf casualties as well. So this whole situation for me does not bode well. You served in the military, served the u. S. Country for many years and including at the end as the director of National Intelligence so you have and you were in that region as well, of course. You have an understanding of the dynamic in the broader region, particularly with the arab countries around gaza. And one of the big discussions today, particularly with the u. S. Secretary of state in egypt, has been getting the rafah crossing at the south of gaza where gaza meets egypt open to get these innocent Palestinian Civilians out of the country, out of harms way. My question is and if you can explain to our viewers why is this so difficult . Why is egypt not doing this, particularly given the amount of money that egypt gets from the United States . Well, dana, thats a great question. You know, the billion plus dollars that we provide to egypt each year i would hope would illicit a more supportive, cooperative attitude on their part. I think they probably have legitimate concerns from a Security Standpoint about people flowing into the sinai. They have their own internal security challenges already. But that said, something needs to be done here and i think looking ahead here, you know, whats going to change after all this is done, and this is an obvious point but i will state it, that we absolutely must come up with some sort of viable settlement for all palestinians, west bank and gaza both after this is over. We have to get through this, israelis are bound and determined to do their thing and i dont i dont question that. And just sticking on the gaza side, which is where this military battle is happening, israel has no desire to be in gaza. Israel pulled out of gaza. So we are looking far ahead now, but since were there, what does that even loo