Off. No fuel means no electricity and no pumps to distribute water. Israel estimates 500,000 people have fled Northern Gaza for the south. Israeli Officials Say thats where theyre working with the United Nations to establish a humanitarian zone to provide those vitally needed supplies. With israerly preparing for a Ground Invasion of gaza, President Biden said in a 60 minutes interview aired sunday it would be a big mistake for israel to occupy gaza as part of its plan to eliminate hamas. What happened with gaza in my few is hamas and extreme elements of hamas dont represent all of the Palestinian People. And i think that it would be a mistake to, for israel to occupy gaza again. By the numbers, the state Department Says 30 americans have died in the hamas attack. 13 still unaccounted for. The Israeli Military says hamas is holding a total of 155 hostages in gaza. Cnns Clare Sebastian is live in london. Clare, good morning to you. The worsening humanitarian situation is pressuring everyone here, as israel, hamas, egypt, the u. S. Is it fair to say, its nothing compared to what might happen after israel invades . Yeah, kasie, its hard to imagine, given how bad things are now, but if you look at the size of the force that israel has sa massed, up to 300,000, including reservists. There are Tens Of Thousands on the border with gaza right now, if you look at the fact if they go in, which they are sort of heavily of hinting that they will, a new phase in the operation thats coming, saying it will involve significant Ground Operations, then they will be engages likely not only with hamas who has proven itself to be very well prepared for this. But also likely other militant groups in gaza as well. And that will worsen the humanitarian situation, though we know more than 500,000 people have evacuated to the south as they were told a few days ago. Many have left in hospitals, the vulnerable patient, doctors making the decision to stay behind to care for them. Increasingly dangerous if this becomes a Ground Operation to bring in aid that has not happened yet. A lot happening in the Rafah Crossing down on the southern border of gaza, with egypt. Both israel and egypt denying that a ceasefire corridor has been arranged as yet. There are truckloads of supplies waiting at the border this morning. Is this why you see the diplomacy intensifying, Secretary Blinken has now arrived back in israel. Pushing for more humanitarian assistance and stepping up efforts as the u. S. Has been doing at the start of this, to try to prevent the conflict from spreading, kasie. Clare sebastian in london for us, thank you very much for that. And moments ago, Secretary Of StateAntony Blinken arrived back in tel aviv in the latest Whirlwind American diplomatic effort. This comes as humanitarian aid deliveries accumulate at egypts rafah Border Crossings where thousands are waiting to Cross Includieing palestinian america. He promised the goods and services will start flowing. Rafah will be open, were putting in place with the United States, with israel and egypt and others, the mechanism by which to get the assistance in and get to people who need it. Blinken meets with Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu and the security council. Lets go to jenner is hanson. Jennifer, good morning, theres been a lot of back and forth about the rafah Border Crossing here. It doesnt seem to be clear how, when, it might open because the israelis are saying Something Different than what it seems the americans are saying. Whats going on for real there . And what is the goal of blinkens trip . Well, good morning, kasie, blinken told reporters yesterday the goal of his trip, he wanted to return to israel to be able to talk about everything hes heard and learned over his past several days of meetings. We have seen him go to six other countries in the past three days, jordan, qatar, bahrain, saudi arabia, the United Arab Emirates and egypt. And he wants to be able to brief netanyahu and other senior officials what he learned in those meetings. He also said he wanted to, quote, talk the way forward with israeli friends and that comes as stakes are incredibly highlyade of what Ground Incursion by Israeli Forces as weve seen 2600 civilians in gaza killed in the air strikes of the Palestinian Health ministry and the humanitarian situation there is incredibly dire. We expect him to bring up that situation in his meetings today. We saw the Biden Administration yesterday appoint a Essential Envoy on those issues. He will likely press netanyahu on the safe zones discussed last week. And he will discuss the Rafah Crossing situation where there is just so much confusion, as you noted. It is very unclear who is at fault for this holdup. But we have seen hundreds of civilians waiting, some of them days, to try to get out of gaza into egypt. U. S. Officials have blamed hamas for the holdup. They say that the group is not letting civilians out. They say egypt is not the holdup. Israel is not the holdup. But we will likely see him press, for especially Palestinian Americans, we know 500, 600 of them are in gaza. Not all of them want to leave, but some of them do he will likely press the israeli leader to figure out how to get these americans out. Of course, the other key issues he brought up on his trip in all of his meetings was the need for hamas to release the hostages to partners who have sway over hamas to push for that. And its unclear if he did actually make progress on those hunts, kasie. Yeah, we were just looking a moment ago at the plane, Antony Blinken, we expect be him to deplane in israel any moment now. Of course, were also watching to see, weve been reporting that President Biden is considering a trip to israel. Well update folks on that when we get more. Jennifer hansler, thank you for being with us, appreciate your time. And coming up, could there be u. S. Boots on the ground in gaza if the war expands . Plus, divided House Republicans pick trump ally jim jordan as their nominee for speaker. More on his uphill climb for the gavel. Theres no plans or intentions to put u. S. Troops on the ground to fight between israel and hamas. We are actively trying to find out exactly where they are. Would you absolutely rule out the possibility of any u. S. Forces being on the ground there . What i wont do is rule anything in or out when it comes to get our hostages home. S that National SecurityCouncil Spokesman john kirby, not ruling the possibility of american boots on the ground in gaza. President biden calling Rescuing Americans the top priority. Lets bring in senator cedric leighton. Can i get your take on how he framed that, whats he saying or not saying there. Good morning, i think hes leaving his options open. When you look at israel and United States, its really rare for u. S. Troops to even come close to going into israel. Now, theres been training between Israeli Forces and American Forces in the recent past. In fact, just in the runup to this particular event, you know, over the last about eight or nine days ago now. And that, you know, shows that theres some mobility between u. S. And Israeli Forces. One possibility is that u. S. Forces would be used in a Hostage Rescue, but in a humanitarian role. Thats one possibility. The other possibility, of course, is rescue. But normally, the israelis would want to take that responsibility themselves. And make sure that they were in control of any Hostage Rescue operation. Well, thats interesting. I mean, what do you think that u. S. Special forces could i mean, youre basically saying that theres nothing really the u. S. Could add to a mission like that. Is that right . Yeah. The basic thing is this, kasie, u. S. Special forces are great, but they are not, you know, in that neighborhood. In other words, that have not worked in gaza. They have not worked in any other of those other areas that are under palestinian control, like in the west bank, for example. And that is usually been the province of the israelis. Now, could they do something . Yes, they could trainup very quickly and try do a Rescue Operation or Something Like that. But it would be very, very difficult to do that, because youre talking a very, very tough target. You know, especially in the hostages are in the tunnels. I think its highly unlikely, but nothing is impossible. So thats something you ought to keep an eye out for. Were obviously waiting, theres a wide expectation israel is going to launch the Ground Invasion of gaza, theyre asking them to evacuate. The rafah Border Crossing has been closed. People are amassing there. There seems to be a lot of finger pointing about why its not open, whats really going on there. Do you have an understand how the situation at that crossing plays into the israeli decisionmaking about the timing of any invasion . Yeah. So, i think what youre looking at, you know, the egyptians are saying the border is open, but they know it really isnt because from the gaza side, gaza has not opened the gates. And, two, the roads damaged by air strikes. The israelis are taking note of that saying we may not be able to mount an operation at this point in time when theres so many people that have fled from gaza city in that particular area. I think what we may be seeing is the possibility that israel might want to use an avenue of approach not just from the north or the northeast, but possibly one from the south as well, and, of course, they want people out of the way who are coming in from the south. Right. No, its of course. Whats your sense of the other factors at play here . I know weve seen reports about weather perhaps affecting their timing. Youve been you have an understanding of how militaries make decisions in these kinds of situations. What else are they thinking about . Yeah. So, on the weather point, there is that factor of rain. In fact, this morning in gaza, it did rain. And that makes it a little bit more difficult for Armored Vehicles to come into a particular area. It makes it a bit more difficult for other Military Operations to take place. So, depending on the severity of the storm, i dont think it was that severe. But depending on that, that could impact operations. You know, one of the most famous one was dday which was delayed 24 hours as the military launched that operation. So a huge factor in Military Operations weather plays and the israelis may be looking at it for it to dry out or Something Else to happen. Colonel cedric leighton, i appreciate your expertise. Appreciate your time. You bet. Americas top diplomat back in israel after a sixarea tour. How his message was received. Just ahead. The power goes out and we still have wifi to do our homework. And thats a good thing . Great in my book who are you . No power . No problem. Introducing stormready wifi. Now you can stay reliably connected through Power Outages with unlimited cellular data and up to 4 hours of battery backup to keep you online. Only from xfinity. Home of the xfinity 10g network. Welcome back. Egypts president says israels response to the hamas attacks has gone beyond selfdefense is now a quote, Collective Punishment against gazans. Both leaders met with Secretary Of StateAntony Blinken as they crisscrossed the region over the past several days. Purpose of seeing all of our partners was first and foremost to listen to them. To hear how theyre seeing this crisis. And to look at what we can do together. All right. Lets bring in cnns max foster in london. Max, good morning to you. Blinken just landed in israel again. Hes also been, of course, working over time to try to convince arab leaders to condemn hamas, and to prevent this war from expanding. Its a herculean tansk. And the sort of balance around the sentiment towards whats going on is really on a knifes edge . Yeah, the first part of it asking them to condemn hamas isnt like it sounds because many of these countries are not fans of hamas. Theyre obviously concerned about palestinians more generally and the casualties coming from that and the efforts to get aid in there. Its not getting in there. Its a crigrim situation, weve been reporting on that. We did have a stark that they do have a right to defend itself but its tipped in Collective Punishment. That was very stark. Actually, over the course of the morning, weve seen that being echoed around the world. And similar language from the chinese and even the irish Prime Minister, would you believe. So, this is a real challenge for israel. Hes going back to israel and saying youve got to protect civilians. You cant target civilians. Youve got to get aid in there. And thats going on his big challenge right now. I spoke to the idf earlier today, they made tell clear, civilians arent their enemy, theyre doing everything they can to protect them, its hamas that made him vulnerable. Thats the argument being made that hamas is trying to keep people in their homes to use them as Human Shields. Weve just seen video at the rafah Border Crossing. Theres a lot of confusion whats going on there. The country is saying the intent is to be open. But the reality, we have not seen that. Americans waiting to cross, Palestinian Americans who would like to leave. Im sure youre probably more right in than i about civilians from the rest of the world looking to cross. Obviously, you mentioned the humanitarian aid the egyptians play. This is the border with egypt. Where are they in this . Well, i think fundamentally, well, its so complex, isnt it, who knows really whats going on behind the scenes. Right. Sort of messaging were getting is that egypt wont open the border in theres a promise that aid can get in. What weve heard from the israeli side, theyre not going to open the border in the hostages are released. Thats fundamentally, i think, the broad argument there. The egyptians are hugely concerned about sending their Truck Drivers in if theyre going to be hit by strikes as well. They want to fee in theres a ceasefire to protect the aid convoys. People have been told to go to the border there, to gather there. If there is a window to open, its going to very tight. So they have to rush through. But its not going to be a big evacuation of people. It just isnt. A lot of gazans dont want to leave saying why should we. No, of course. You are right to point out for folks who are trying to decide what to do there, that they are advising people, hey, go be nearby. Because were not going to get a lot of warning. Max foster, thank you as always, my friend. See you soon. Thanks, kasie. Meanwhile, iran now warning of consequences if israel doesnt stop attacks on gaza. More on fears and expanding global conflict. Good morning. Just before 5 30 here on the east coast. Thank you for being here early with us, i am kasie hunt. There are concerns this morning over the possibility that the war between israel and hamas could spread into a wider regional conflict. Over the weekend, the u. S. Send a second Carrier Group for deterrence, with hamas on the northern border, considered proxies for iran. Theres no evidence that iran is behind the attacks on israel. Now, iran constantly supports hamas and hezbollah, i dont mean that, but in terms did they have foreknowledge, did they help plan the attack, theres no evidence of that. Journalist Elliott Gotkine is with us from you no london. Elliott, thank you very much for being with us today. Lets take a look at this. Obviously, the second Carrier Group head zing into the region kind of underscores the concern over the population here. You can help us understand what could draw iran into this conflict and cause it to escalate . I think were more likely to see israeli boots on the ground than american boots on the ground. By have seen this proxy war going on between iran and israel for quite some time. You mentioned hamas and hezbollah in the south receiving support and islamic jihad. And weve already seen skirmishes with rockets being fired from hezbollah and israel and causing casualties and israel firing back as well. The real concern is weve seen not only the repeat of the war between hezbollah and israel in 2006, but it could be much more deadly. Back then,