This evening. Hell be going into an active war zone as israels war with hamas continues. President biden is undergoing pressure to get desperately needed food, water and other aid into zba sa and also supporting israel and trying to save american hostages currently held captive by hamas. Hes coming here at a critical moment for israel, for the region and for the world. The president will hear from israel how it will conduct its operations in a way that minimizing civilian casualties and enables humanitarian assistance to flow to civilians in gaza. It is critical that aid begin flowing into gaza as soon as possible. Overnight, the Israeli Military continued to bombard gaza ahead of a possible ground invasion. The idf said bidens visit will not delay its planning for potential future operations in the gaza strip. Vital humanitarian aid has been piling up at the Border Crossing in the south in egypt. That Border Crossing, Rafa Crossing remains closed and the World Health Organization is now warning that water is running out for Hundreds Of Thousands of displaced palestinians. Take a look at these satellite images. What youre looking at are 30 foot bomb craters blocking the roadway near that crossing. Lets go to our erin burnett joining us live in tel aviv. Erin, good morning to you. The Israeli Military said moments ago it is concerned about the humanitarian situation, but there is no cease fire yet. And you also just had that very illuminating interview with adviser to the Netanyahu Mark regev who talked about the fact that we may have to go in on the ground. Right. Poppy, we all picked up on that. We may have to. You know, decision perhaps that is that cannot be undone has already been made. But at least the words out there are still we may have to. Theyve also talked about the fact that theyve killed more than 10 hamas commanders in gaza and bombardment continues. We have plumes of smoke, thick plumes this morning. We have already heard thuds. Less so than in prior days. Important to always remember here, this war has now been going on for ten days. Gaza has been completely bombarded. Not as if were awaiting for some invasion for this to start. It has already started. Its a matter of what it does next and what it escalates to. President bidens trip to israel tomorrow is intended to reaffirm u. S. Solidarity with israel but serve as a message to iran, syria and hezbollah as this possible does escalate. Cnns Arlette Saenz joins us from the white house. Coming at a moment like this is incredibly high stakes because walking out with nothing is a very, very tough pill to swallow. So what is President Biden hoping to accomplish . Reporter well, erin, President Biden, as hes set to depart for israel later today, is hoping that he can prevent this conflict in israe spreading into a wider crisis in the region. His trip dramatic show of solidarity for israel, but also will act as a sign of deterrence to those adversaries in the region who is president has warned against trying to take advantage of this situation. But the president is heading to israel, hoping to accomplish a few things. One of the key challenges is addressing the humanitarian concerns as israel continues its campaign to root out hamas in gaza. Now, while the president has stressed that israel has the right to defend itself, you have also heard this steady uptick in warnings about the immediate to protect civilian life. His Secretary Of StateAntony Blinken spent more than seven hours meeting with netanyahu and his war cabinet to talk about getting humanitarian aid into gaza and also the need to protect those civilians. Officials say that that is something the president is hoping to stress during parts of his visit. But, additionally, on top of traveling to israel, the president will also be making a critical trip to jordan will he will meet with arab leaders, the president of egypt, the king of jordan as well as the leader of the palestinian authority. It is there where the president is also expected to talk about this situation in gaza. Each of those leaders has condemned the situation on the ground there. You had earlier today King Abdullah of jordan saying it would be a red line for palestinians to be displaced into jordan. He said there would be no refugees in egypt or jordan. Youve also heard the egyptian president saying that this campaign that israel has been waging against gaza is collective punishment on civilians. Thats something that President Biden will have to navigate as these arab leaders will be key as this conflict continues. But there are also huge Security Concerns with President Biden traveling into an active war zone. That was seen just yesterday when Secretary Of StateAntony Blinken had to shelter as air sirens went off in israel. But the president s steam says they acknowledge this is a tense situation, that they have assessed the security situation, white house spokesperson john kirby saying theyve done their homework in assessing it is safe for the president to travel to israel at that time. Of course, this will be the second trip the president has made just this year to a war zone. Remember, he made that secret trip back earlier in the spring as he travelled to ukraine, but later today he will be departing here to israel as he is trying to make this show of solidarity with israel, but it also will mark a key test for President Biden as his presence there could further tie him to the israeli response in this war. All right. Thats certainly the case. Phil, i know you have so many sources you have been speaking to, but there is that risk and theres also what israel says which is, at least they say, and this is diplomacy, but they say that biden coming hasnt impacted their plans at all. Then the widely discussion on the ground, biden is coming, netanyahu isnt going in there because that would tie biden to this in an incredibly tight way and make him look bad. What risks is biden taking on . Age what are your hearing about his goals . The risks are very real in terms of they want deliverables. Youre sending a president over, president deciding to travel on the front end of a war, into a war zone, key the kyiv, the trip there was a dramatic moment, hostilities in a static phase. This is a very, very different moment and yet one we were talking to kate beddenfield, she made clear which is something i heard from other officials last night, they werent surprised. Face to face diplomacy is critical for this president. He talks so often its a known truism he wants to meet with people face to face. He feels thats where hes most effective and comes in context what we have seen the last several days. The Secretary Of State traveling to israel twice in between traveling to several arab states as well to meet with leaders. Each Time Reporting back to the president , briefing him on where things stood. The president was having his own phone calls as well. The critical piece of what you heard from tony blinken, after that 7. 5 hour meeting between he, his team and their counterparts, israeli counterparts, where im told they were separating into rooms working through shuffling paper trying to hammer out some type of humanitarian answer here. Is an understanding that while the u. S. Is certainly completely supportive of israel, while they have made clear they will stand side by side to them, give them whatever they need militarily to succeed in the offensive thats like ahead, they understand the other players in the region, most specifically about egypt, the president will be in amman the second visit for biden, King Abdullah of jordan, the red line and their concerns. But also meeting with the Palestinian Leader the president spoken to. They are critical players here as this moves forward here. What people are saying publicly, officials arent surprised by it. Its what they do behind the scenes and whether or not a humanitarian corridor or aid agreement or safe zones can be locked in thats critical not just for the ability for israel to conduct the offensive ahead but also the long game for here for an operation that u. S. Officials know is going to be very painful and very lengthy. Painful and lengthy and the world just hopes does not escalate beyond that. But no matter what painful and lengthy and in part because of the hostage situation. Sara sidner is with me here. I know, sara, we got this hostage video. Theres a lot that it tells. Not just about the situation and how they treated her, in the video, but about what theyre trying to signal, they are alive. You dont put that out unless you want to do a deal of some sort. It would seem. You actually were with the moesh of this hostage this morning. Yeah. What hamas is doing is part of their propaganda war, a part of any war. And what they are doing is basically signaling to the world that if you come in here, if you have a Ground Offensive or if you decide to try and rescue these hostages, theyre still alive. Its a pawn for them, i think, in this. If you look at it from 30,000 feet for the family. It was the very first video out, first time anyone, anyone in the world, has seen one of the hostages since hamas took them. Its the first time that anyone even knew at least one of them at some point after the festival was alive. Right. And thats what her mother so mia shem is a beautiful young lady who went to this rave party. Was there to dance and enjoy hes and she ended up in a horrible situation that Surprise Attack on friday. Her mother had been waiting all this time. She said i knew she was alive. I just knew she was alive. But she didnt have any confirmation. Then yesterday the confirmation came. She got it along with the rest of the world. We all saw at the same time that her daughter was alive. Her Daughter Looks she has been injured. She has what is clearly a broken arm. Probably from a bullet wound. She is all sewn up, not well. You can see bandages around her arm. Her mother is watching this. Think about this from the perspective of a mother, a family member, and you imagine what that is like to see your child in pain and also parroting words that hamas has asked her. She was being treated in the video. That was also again a Propaganda Move on hamas part to say, look, look at our humanity. Were taking care of her and yet theyre the ones that injured her and stole her. Thats of course why were not airing it. It was interesting one of the Hostage Ghonegotiators they tri to make her look better. Than she actually is. Hes an expert at these things but this is his interpretation that he heard Ventilator Noises in the background consistent with being underground and consistent with what the idf told us they believe these hostages are being held under ground in different locations. Right. Because if they were to hold them in all one location and israel would have intelligence, they would go in. The possibility is they might actually get rescued. They do it all over, it is much more difficult. I do want to let you hear from karen shem, the mother of mia shem taken by hamas on saturday. It was incredibly, as you might imagine, Heart Wrenching to hear this mother suffering. Listen. I didnt know shes Dead Or Alive until yesterday. What i knew is that shes might be kidnapped. Im begging the world to bring my baby back home. She only went to a party, to a festival party, to have some fun. And now shes in gaza. Hearing that is hard. Excruciatingly hard. Being in the room you could feel it. You could feel that horror and hope and feel that pain all at the same time. The brothers were also there talking about her. And you see these pictures of this beautiful young woman. They probably picked her for a reason to be the first video that was sent out. But we dont know when the video was taken. Thats the only thing. We dont know how many days ago or if it was most recent. The likelihood is it wasnt today. Thats the likelihood or yesterday. So, this mother is just begging people in the world to pray for her daughter and to get her daughter home. I cant tell you how impactful it was to be sitting in that room. I can only imagine these families. The pain is to the world hostages, people feel sorry for them. People feel upset. When you see that pain, it is a human pain. Unimaginable. Incredibly unimaginable human pain. Sara, thank you very much. Just in, idf says shots have been fired along lebanon and israel. An antitank missile was fired toward an idf post along the border with lebanon. Israel is now responding. Theres Artillery Fire in response to that. Lets go to ben wedeman there in southern lebanon. Ben, what are you learning and able to observe yourself . Reporter erin, what we have been hearing is fairly distant thuds. We understand that most of the action is going on to the southwest of us. And this is really sort of in line with what weve seen over the last four days. Hezbollah will attack Israel Military positions and the israelis will respond, this sort of level of violence is at a level where perhaps you can say the water is being kept hot but not boiling over because it would appear that at the moment neither hezbollah nor israel want to become involved in a fullscale war at the moment. However, we are Hearing Statements from iranian leaders, iran, of course, the main backer of hezbollah, which would indicate that this holding of the line in terms of maintaining a certain level of violence but not crossing what the israelis have called the threshold of escalation, the Supreme Leader of iran, has said if atrocities if gaza persist, muslim and Resistance Forces could lose patience and no one can prevent their actions. Now, thats just one statement from a variety of iranian officials. Which would indicate that theyre holding out the possibility that if israel goes into gaza full scale incursion with the bloodshed that would inevitably result, perhaps iran and its allallies, such as hezbollah will not sit on the sidelines, occasionally firing at the israelis but will go one step further. Erin . Ben wedeman, thank you very much there in southern lebanon. Poppy . Erin, thank you very much. Well get back to you soon. As President Biden prepares for this visit to israel and then the broader region, the u. S. House of representatives still doesnt have a speaker. A vote is expected today. Well be joined next by democratic congressman jim himes in studio. Today President Biden is preparing for a highstakes trip to israel. The president will land in tel aviv tomorrow morning where he is expected to meet with israeli Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu and biden will travel to jordan and meet with King Abdullah of jordened and egyptian president elsisi and palestinian authorities later. New this morning, iran Supreme Leader is weighing in on the humanitarian crisis in gaza and calling it, quote, Ethnic Cleansing and saying, quote, muslims and Resistance Forces could lose patience. Israel maintained it is making efforts to minimize civilian casualties by Warning Civilians to move out of the north and move into the south of gaza. The number of deaths reported stands at nearly 2,800. Joining us now is jim himes of democrat, the top democrat on the house intelligence committee. Good morning. Thank you for being here. Good morning, poppy. What do you think President Biden needs to achieve on this trip, not only to israel but in the region, to make the risk worth it . Werent i think what President Biden is doing same thing that two Aircraft Carrier strike groups, air wings and Secretary Of State is doing, which is telling iran and irans client hezbollah to stay out. Nothing says stay out quite as much as the president s presence on the ground. As long as with supporting the israelis and trying to identify the location of the hostages, thats probably their top priority right now. This is a bad situation to begin with. Were hezbollah to start Launching Missiles in force that would be a massive escalation. Specifically lets say egypt does not play ball and the Rafa Crossing, nothing changes there. And we just heard mark regev, Senior Adviser to bb netanyahu saying we may have to when erin asked about a ground invasion. Israel said the president coming is welcome but wont change any of their plans on the ground. What if that happens while the president is there . Is it still worth it . I have been heartened by the israeli leadership in the last couple days in particular has come off of the understandable emotional enraged statements that they were making ten days ago. And come to grapple with the reality that ground incursion into gaza would be a brutal thing for Israeli Soldiers as well as for obviously the gaza and civilian population. They have come off this notion of cutting off the water in the south. Theyre talking with our people and with others about the humanit