This is cnn Breaking News. We are following Breaking News at this hour, israels military says its Ground Operation in gaza is expanding. Im Anderson Cooper in tel aviv. We are seeing live pictures out of gaza right now. Large explosions over the gaza strip, the idf says it is, quote, operating forcefully. Those are their words on all fronts and will continue striking gaza city and keep calling upon civilians to evacuate south. This comes as were learning more about Hostage Negotiations with hamas. U. S. Officials insisting Hostage Talks will continue even as the Israeli Military ramps up its air strikes and expanding its operation on the ground. Jeremy diamond is in ashelon for us. We have been hearing the ste steady thud of these intensified Bombardment Thes and Artillery Fire on the gaza strip. This has been the loudest and most intense, perhaps even the most sustained bombardment of the gaza strip that we have heard in three weeks of covering this war. All of this as the idf says it is expanding its Ground Operations inside of gaza. We have been watching over the last several days a buildup to in a moment, a buildup to a potential Ground Invasion, which as of yet, we do not have confirmation that this expanded these expanded Ground Operations are indeed that invasion that has been expected, that has been telegraphed by israels political and military leadership, but we have seen over the last several days targeted raids carried out by israeli infantry troops as well as tanks rolling across the border into gaza targeting hamass infrastructure and those tunnels, which Israeli MilitaryOfficials Say will be key to eliminating those tunnels in order to make it safer for their troops as they go into gaza. What we have also been watching today is those potential Hostage Negotiations, which are very much now complicated by this expanded Israeli Ground operation inside of gaza. There were signs yesterday and this morning, anderson, that those talks were progressing in a very real, a very significant way. But now it appears that they are that they are all but stalled. Officials insisting to me and my colleagues that these talks have not yet collapsed and a senior u. S. Official telling me that they will continue despite what we are watching tonight, despite this expanded Ground Operation, despite this intensified bombardment, and even despite a Ground Invasion potentially beginning, anderson. And jeremy, from your Vantage Point in ashkelon, are you hearing beyond explosions the thuds of Munitions Landing . Are you hearing small arms fire . Are you Hearing Machine Gunfire . We heard something that perhaps sounded like a machine gun or a 50 caliber weapon being used. It could also have been a helicopter. You know, its difficult. Its dark out right now. We are about 10 kilometers from the border with gaza. I dont want to make any definitive pronouncements. What we certainly have been hearing, anderson, is the outgoing Artillery Fire and then bombardment of gaza, which not only can you hear, but you can also feel it kind of shake the buildings, even as far as we are right now from the gaza strip. What we also what i can also tell you is that we have been hearing that Bombardment Continuous Ly over the last sefm d several days. It has been nowhere near as intense as what we hear tonight. Certainly as we get in reports from people who are inside of Gaza Reporting very much the same, that this is the most intense bombardment that they have felt. Whats also notable, it appears that telecommunications, internet and Phone Service have been cut off in large parts of the gaza strip. Are you still seeing rockets coming from gaza . Over the last couple of hours, we had two sirens that came this way. There was also fire earlier in the day towards central israel. The rockets here this evening appear to have been intercepted by the iron dome, but earlier today, anderson, there were actually two direct hits here in the city of ashkelon. One of them hitting the ninth floor of an apartment building. We actually went to the scene and saw the balcony that was destroyed in part by that rocket, and it also hits near a home, a Residential Home here in the city of ashkelon. No casualties were reported, but certainly one of the interesting things has been to see even as israel has intensified its bombardment, even as they have conducted these raids, it certainly has not stopped the pace of hamas being able to fire those rockets. We know that thats in part because they operate from out of these tunnels, these dozens of miles of tunnels under the gaza strip, and they are also able to fire some of these rockets remotely as well, which makes the challenge greater for Israeli Forces to try and eliminate those positions. Jeremy, it seems like there are some very heavy Munitions Landing in gaza. I mean, im in tel aviv, i can feel as weve been talking, i can hear dull thuds and actually sort of feel the reverberations of them from here. Yeah, again, it has been intense, and it has been sustained, and you know, you can only imagine the power as i can feel the power here of those Bombs Landing in gaza, and you can feel the building shake. You can feel the windows shake. It is hard to imagine, anderson, the power and the destruction that those bombs are wrecking inside the gaza strip. We have watched already as israel has intensified its bombardment in recent days as the Casualty Count has risen to over 7,000, i believe, is the latest number insides gaza strip, nearly 3,000 of those casualties, anderson, it needs to be noted are children according to the hamas controlled Palestinian Ministry of health. So we know that every time we hear this bombardment intensifying inside of gaza, we know that there are lives being lost and in some instances civilian lives being lost including foing unfortunately children. Jeremy diamond, well come back to you in ashkelon. I want to go to Lieutenant General mark hurtling. What do you when you see what has been going on for the last two hours or so in our coverage, what do you think is going on . It could be a series of things or a choice of things, anderson. It could be an increase in bombardment to prepare for an assault, which normally happens. It could be a continued bombardment just for the sake of knowing that the Israeli Defense forces have achieved targeting data and intelligence that shows where targets are. Jeremy just said there are continued rockets going off. Israel has the capability to see where those rockets are coming from. Every time a point of origin appears on a radar screen or intelligence feed, its going to be targeted by israeli aircraft. Or third, it could be sending a message about the slow pace of returning the hostages. You know, it appears hamas is using human shields, hostages in this case, to delay israels operation, and its been 20 days since they took these hostages. Israels probably sending at least a partial message, even though that Hostage Negotiation continues of saying were not going to put up with this anymore, either return the hostages or the operation will be executed. Now, truthfully im your military analyst, anderson. Id like to be able to tell you what is exactly happening, but unless im in the Operations Center of Israeli Defense forces, i dont know what theyre doing, neither do any of us who are Making Analysis on this, and guess what, neither does hamas. They dont know whats happening either. I will tell you that continued concussion of these bombs and these Artillery Shells is not only affecting them physically, but its affecting them psychologically, because being under constant huge shelling like this, really takes its toll on a force. And Lieutenant General, when, you know, i think many people when they hear about a Ground Incursion of Israeli Forces and knowing that there are more than 300,000 troops on israels borders, they think its going to be something large all at once. Do you i mean, thats a possibility, i assume, but given their experiences with Say Fighting Hezbollah in 2006, those movements were very slow as they went into lebanon. What are you expecting in terms of the speed of any kind of operation . Well, again, this depends, anderson. I hate to say this, but, yes, when israel went into lebanon against hezbollah in 2006, it was a slow operation, and unfortunately they paid the price for some of that. At the same time, in tw2014 whe the idf went into gaza, they had 70,000 forces go in on three different axes. That was a fast operation. There was also a lot of defensive positions that hamas had established. Theyve only improved those defensive positions and the tunnels underneath, the subterranean operations, so it could be a massive invasion and a massive incursion on four or five different axes. It could be a smaller invasion to gain more intelligence to use air forces to strike them. It could be targeted operations on specific information that the israeli army has in a Tunnel Complex or in the bottom of a building. It could be any of those things. Thats where really hamas is on their back foot, but theyre in a very key defensive position underground. They can withstand some of this targeting, and unfortunately, the only people that are being hurt are the Palestinian Civilians who are being placed between hamas and israel and cant get out of some of the locations within gaza. Lieutenant general mark h hertrtling, thanank you. Wewere going g to take a a sho brbreak. Welll be rightht back. Hostage negotiations are still ongoing despite what were seeing these ramped up strikes on gaza. Alex marquardt is with us now on what u. S. Officials are saying about the Hostage Negotiations. Alex. Well, briana and boris, american officials are unwilling to say that given what weve seen tonight from israel in terms of its activities in gaza that the Hostage Conversations have collapsed. The american officials have told us, myself and several of my colleagues that those conversations will continue. One person saying in particular, theres no scenario until the hostages are freed that we would stop pursuing talks. Now, one thing we have heard repeatedly from various Biden Administration officials is the need for humanitarian pauses to both allow aid to get into gaza, but also to allow for more time and ease for these hostages to come out. That is something that we just heard moments ago from the national securitys john kirby, saying that they have been having active conversations with israel about these humanitarian pauses saying that its something that they absolutely would support. Now, when you look at what we are literally looking at right now in gaza, that appears to be the last thing on israels mi mind. They seem to be really pushing forward, expanding their military operations. Thats something im told u. S. Officials are also seeing but certainly trying to assess. Theyre watching this very carefully as well. They are certainly seeing this as an escalation of what weve seen in terms of incursions by israel over the course of the past few days. Now, where these talks exactly stand about the hostages, that is hard to say. What everyone seems to agree on is that they are not in as good a place as they were earlier today when we thought that we were closing to a potential deal that could have seen a much larger group of civilian hostages released, so it appears that those talks have taken a step back. We have heard from the Israeli Military spokesperson who was asked about this, as he announced the expansion of these military operations, briana and boris, he said that you should not believe the rumors about a potential deal. We are told reliably that the conversations continue. They just dont seem to be in as good a place as they were earlier today and yesterday, guys. And alex, as you were speaking we were hearing some very loud what sounded like explosions or very loud thuds as we take a live look at the skyline in gaza. Its been lit up multiple times since weve been watching. We want to take you now to doha in qatar with Cnns Becky Anderson because, obviously, becky, the qataris are an integral part of these negotiations. Whats the latest . Reporter yeah, these are qatarled negotiations. Theres been two cycles of these of course with an american civilian and her 17yearold daughter released, and two Israeli Citizens, elderly women released on tuesday. There had been some momentum, we were told by diplomatic sources who are very familiar with the talks earlier on today, and its now quarter past 11 00 in the evening qatar time. Earlier on today, weve been told that significant progress had been made in these Hostage Negotiations. We were told that there were still issues that were outstanding. Im just reading my notes here, but talks were ongoing, and at the time earlier today they remained hopeful that this momentum would continue, and at that point there was a suggestion that at least in principle there might be an announcement on a large number, a relatively large number of civilian hostages being released at some point in the next few days. Its not clear given that we have now had the idf announce expanded operations in gaza whether or not that momentum for this mediation continues, certainly we know that there are 229 hostages or abductees as described by the idf earlier on today. What we dont know is how many of those are Israeli Citizens and how many are foreign nationals. How many are women, children, and the elderly as opposed to military hostages, i. E. Hostages who are of either soldiers, serving soldiers or reservist age, what we understood was that the negotiations were on the release of a significant number of civilian hostages. Whether that was in exchange for more aid and a pause in the fighting, whether the details on that had be organized. Thats certainly the sense we had at the time. As i say now here, as we move towards midnight, qatar time, certainly no evidence that the momentum for these talks has in any way slowed down. Certainly no evidence that these talks had fallen apart. Certainly no news as of yet as to whether this these talks continue at this point with a view to news of a Hostage Release anytime soon. Do we have any view into the details of these talks . How shrouded in secrecy are they . What are the interests of the parties as they are discussing who to release, how to release them . Reporter yeah, thats a really good question, and the details are not absolutely clear, but i think weve got some sort of parameters that at least we understand were being discussed right from the outset, lets remember, right from when we first knew that they had hostages being taken, and im talking about nearly three weeks ago. The israeli had said there will be no cease fire until if at all, until hostages are released. They didnt see that as a credible demand from hamas who was saying they wanted to see a cease fire before hostages were released. As things have moved on, it does appear that there were a number of parameters here. There was the rafah Border Crossing, how much more aid could hamas demand was sent through that Wordeborder Crossid to where. Incredibly important that humanitarian aid, fuel, medical supplies gets into gaza, but massive concern and a red line by the israelis from the beginning of this saying that those that those medical supplies, that fuel could not go to hamas. We do know that the rafah Border Crossing as we understand it has been in play in these negotiations, and then the other point is where are these hostages . Does hamas have all of these hostages . Could it be that there are some hostages who arent with hamas at the moment . And then how many whats the exchange as far as civilians are concerned, it did appear that that was an exchange for aid that was being discussed as opposed to a prisoner swap, which would be military for women and teenagers, palestinian women and teenagers being held in israeli jails. So perhaps it can be described as a twin track. I cant stand that up. Certainly weve heard reports of that, but at present all we do know is that there are 229 hostages as described. Thats the number that was described by the idf earlier, and at this stage its not clear whether any of those, be it a large number or a smaller number, will now be released anytime soon. Many Unanswered Questions to this point, now nearly three weeks into being captured, abducted by hamas. Becky, please keep us up to speed with the very latest as we take another live look at gaza. The Skyline Lighting up repeatedly th