Eastern with live coverage from tel aviv. Until then aaonce again aa thanks for watching. Erin burnett, our front starts right now. [music] upfront next. Live from israel. The Breaking News is dramatic to me. Ramping Up Bombardment of gaza. One of the worlds top reporters in israel telling cnn thousands of soldiers are entering gaza in just the last few hours from israel. This is a new phase. What does it mean for the 200 Hostages Inside Gaza Tonight . And how will hamas retaliate . Plus the United States on tyler at this hour telling all americans to get out of lebanon as the pentagon announces that u. S. Troops in the region have been attacked 20 times just a few days. An hour of the breaking story this hour. The massive manhunt for their respective government who killed 18 innocent people in maine aathat search expanding to me as we are learning troubling new details about when investigators believe robert carr approached his gun. Lets go out front. Good evening and welcome to a Special Edition of out front and im erin burnett live in tel aviv tonight. We begin tonight with the Breaking News. A new phase, thousands of Israeli Soldiers entering gaza in the last hour or two. Those are the words of acts uses break reviewed, one of the most well sourced is really reporters in the world. It comes after a night Up Bombardment and unrelenting attacks on gaza. Israeli military announcing that its quote expanding on what is already a massive assault on gaza. These are live pictures of northern gaza. Clearly dark. Nightvision video was taken just a short time ago. And you can see the constant shelling in gaza and that smoke right there. This was actually happening on the ground. Huge explosions letting up. In the light sky here and you could see some of those studs here. Its incredibly loud and where Nick Robertson is but i want to pause for just a minute so you can actually hear whats happening just south of here. This image was taken by her Nick Robertson who was just two miles away from the gaza border and this you could see the heavy smoke drifting towards israel from gaza completely obliterating any kind of a view he said but that was after having tank fire earlier and moments ago he reviewed and mentioned that i told wolf blitzer just a few minutes ago and he said and and i quote him that there are thousands of soldiers entering the gaza strip from the north in the last hour or two. And we will see more of the as hours passed until the morning. Inside gaza is total for near blackout. The internet appears to be almost all out. We cannot see the impact. We cannot see what or who was being killed or whats happening. Most of the internet and phone lines are down. Its a struggle to reach anyone inside gaza. We in fact try to reach out to some of the people that you have become familiar with here outfront. aathe aide worker and father of two young sons earlier this week witnessed an explosion 500 feet from his home. Three Young Children and the american pediatrician of barbaras in, who is trapped in gaza. Our messages to them are not going through. Barbaras husband, paul preston who is in colorado told him that he last heard from his wife just after 10 am this morning. His word and he sent us this message. In reality i went and others are in a Hostage Situation for they held hostage by countries bickering over border im surprised the United States is aligned to many of its citizens to be in danger. We were able to get a brief dispatch from abraham doc mod. A senior colleague and cnn. Hes been sending exclusive reports almost nightly from inside gaza tonight. He was able to get one message out. And he sent us this video with the message that his family of four right now is safe. But here is the sound of increased activity just to the north of where he is. He is in southern gaza. But now at this late hour or hear its not an early hour, its about 2 oclock in the morning. But those increased early tax mean for the fate of the 229 hostages is unknown. Cnn learned that the white house is actively working behind the scenes to secure the release of those being held captive, but these talks are extremely fragile. We do know that of at least 10 americans were still unaccounted for. All right, we have our entire team of reporters standing by after 2 am at israel where theres too much action on that gaza border per Jeremy Diamond is along the gaza border. Jim shooter was in northern israel. I want to begin with you jeremy. What is the very latest youre seeing and hearing tonight . Amidst these reports of thousands of soldiers Israeli Soldiers point into gaza as we speak . Well erin aamore than seven hours now after israel began this intensified Bombing Campaign and an expanded Ground Operation inside of gaza. We are continuing to hear the steady thugs of explosions coming from inside the gaza strip. Its extremely rare for us to continue to be Hearing Explosions this late at night and yes, its been constant for the past seven hours. Not only the most intense and sustained bombardment of gaza that we been hearing. Over the nearly 3 weeks that weve been covering this war, but the loudest blooms shaking really this hotel, where we are. Which is about six miles away from the gaza strip. And we are also hearing helicopters overhead and Drone Activity as well. These are the sights and sounds that we have not heard over the past several weeks and the images coming out of gaza and these strikes are just absolutely stunning and terrifying when you consider the fact that there are people in the gaza strip and we know that this ability casualties have only been rising over these recent days as israel has been intensifying its strikes and gaza and also beginning to carry out some of these targeted grades, which they say is intended to take out these Hamas Tunnels and other infrastructure in preparation for a larger scale Ground Invasion of gaza. Now what we dont know erin is whether or not this expanded Ground Operation that we are witnessing this evening whether or not that is at Ground Invasion. That top is really military and political leaders have been telegraphing now for days. Vowing that it will come at a time and place of israels choosing. We dont know yet whether that has begun this evening. But what we do know as you hear more thugs overhead right now a ais that this could risk the negotiations that have been ongoing and very sensitive complex negotiations in recent days to try and secure the release of some of those civilian hostages being held inside of gaza. Earlier today i spoke with a senior u. S. Official who said regardless of what israel is doing tonight aaexpanding this operation is those talks will continue. But certainly again, less optimism now about the fate of those talks than earlier in the day. Aaron . Hello jeremy. Thank you very much. I will go on now to eli levy, the Government Spokesperson here. You are here with me after 2 oclock in the morning. You are here for reason for this a lot happening right now. What is israel doing today . Israel at the moment is pushing ahead with its campaign to defeat and destroy hamas response to the october 7 massacre. Its been only three weeks since hamas death squads invaded southern israel butchering, burning, beheading, raping, torturing, mutilating their way through our southern communities. They killed 1400 people, but the most spectacular and cruel violence taking 2000 including children and decided that israel can no longer live with these Jihad Enclave on our borders but its not an end with the ceasefire and hamas deterred. This is a war. A war that hamas declared on us on october 7 and war that we are going to win. So we now three weeks into this aathousands and thousands of airstrikes, special spoke Special Forces rate so on gaza nearly a decade and then tonight. It has gotten bigger. Barack david has reported a thousand Israeli Soldiers have gone in. And are going in over these next two hours. What can you tell us . Are they staying in . Israel is expanding those Ground Operations are not going to speculate or comment on whether or not this is the invasion. Incursion. But its important to understand whats coming up. The days ahead are going to be long and theyre going to be difficult because we are going to go after the totality of the hamas terror and governing infrastructure inside the gaza strip. After that she had group perpetrated the october 7 massacre and this war will end with no more hamas in the gaza strip. Youre going to go after every tunnel, every rocket launcher, every hamas commander, every hamas footsoldier, and we will totally destroy the Hamas Organization so that they can never again her our siblings like they did on october 7. If you go after every tunnel, you willing to accept some of the deaths of those israeli hostages but we are demanding the unconditional return. The fact that they affected 230 aawe are demanding that they because they released for hostages under international pressure. That pressure both from the Israeli Military and diplomatic pressure is increasing criminal on the whole world to put more pressure on hamas and its commanders, and its supporters as well, because we want our civilians back. Theres no excuse for holding them hostage inside of gaza. If you continue though this is so obviously, the reality of it is that they may not see it that way. The reality is that they may say too bad. Were gonna hold your hostages. Is it true . Is it fair to say that israel has made a choice . That if you have to choose between hostages and getting rid of hamas, youve chosen to get rid of hamas . Thats completely incorrect. Israel stated warrants to return the hostages and to destroy the Terror Organization that took them captive so that they can never again abduct our civilians. Those two aims bringing back to hostages and destroy Hamas Go Hand and hand. Can you tell us about the silence that we are seeing in gaza tonight . Not the actual silence, but the sound from the Communications Perspective . I have not aa [indiscernible] is that can change . I have no comment on that but. Nothing to comment on that . Another question for you in these hours here as aais reporting here that you can be continuing to send more soldiers in. The other night that youve gone in and youve come back out. Is there any guidance that you can give us . On the plane here . Im not going to comment on operational matters, but the two weeks now, israel has been urging civilians in the gaza strip to move south because hamas has embedded its tunnels under schools and homes and hospitals just today they released intelligence showing that hamass Command Bunkers underneath the hospital, which is of course an atrocious work rent use civilians that way. As human shields. So as israel goes in and the days ahead, we are asking siblings to get out of the way temporarily for their safety. There are thousands of people who are not hamas there. America comment on operational matters, but weve been very clear. Were going to destroy the totality of hamass governing enter infrastructure. Inside the gaza strip and we are urging civilians to get out of the way for their own safety. All right. Thank you very much. I appreciate your time tonight to. Thank you. Levy, spokesperson for the Israeli Government now im a retired Lieutenant Governor and general ben hodges are former commanding generals of the u. S. Army europe joining me now. General heartland, let me start with you now. I want to talk about operational details, but the reality of it is here that you already have the biggest round of Ground Assault on gaza and a decade this week. Tonight, the counterattack in gaza is expanding could we have barack reviewed report. He expects that to continue into the early hours of the morning as dawn approaches here. What do you think we are looking at . Well, we cannot define it uniquely aaron. It could be one of several things. It could be an expansion of their operations as you stated. It could be the initial stages of an assault. With more forces going in. Or it could be sending an additional message to hamas saying that we are tired of playing around with getting the hostages back. Were going to start the operation. But from my take, truthfully seeing this kind of operation before, with the extensive amount of bombing and Artillery Barrages and movement of forces, this seems to be the early stages of Troop Movements into the gaza strip. General hodges, on top of this, as we are keeping up live pictures of gaza both to emphasize the darkness and also so people can see what explosions do light up the sky because we do here a lot of action there along that border and a lot of sound. Right now. There does appear to be part of this blackout, internet, cell, outage general hodges. Do you aayou heard he refused to comment on whether that would continue. What do you think we are looking at on the and does that aais that now going to remain this way . Well aaof course, i agree with how martin has described things to knock out the communications would be a logical thing to do for the Israeli Defense force. To make it difficult for hamas to reposition and director on troops in their response. This has a feeling to me of Israeli Forces that are going to fill the spaces that are there. They are going to try and dominate as much of gaza as they can as they continue to build up. And these first couple of sort of armored rates that went in a ai think were intended to develop intelligence and figure out how has hamas been defending . Where are there gaps . Where are they aawhere are there potential traps . And now youre seeing the mass of troops starting to come in and begin to fill the spaces and i think to accomplish the instate that the advisor or the spokesman just described is going to require time, but a lot of them to be able to dominate that space. General heartland, you committed u. S. Forces in northern iraq, that means of course you were in mosul. Is that worse . This is exponentially worse. Aaron. There were a couple of fights and i was involved in one of them in 2007, eight. From our command and fought for several months along with five divisions of iraqi forces. This is a tough fight. And they dont compare in terms of relative enemy action. In most all, we had al qaeda in 2007 and 2008. They were in the city in and out of the city ingress and egress. They did not have the kinds of supplies that hamas has. They didnt have the underground tunnel Extensive Network aathey didnt have as many citizens as our in gaza 2. 2 million. They didnt have the two or three years to prepare for an invasion into the city of mosul. They just went in and started fighting. So this is going to be exceedingly tough for the israeli army. Exponentially tough for them than what we ever faced. Thats a sobering reality exponentially tougher. General hodges, heidi think is really forces are dealing with the tunnels in these Ground Assault on gaza . I mean, if youre floating thousands there tonight, tunnels are the absolute core of any assault. We think is happening there . Well, i think the Israeli Defense force of their probably as well equipped and trained to do this as anybodys army. They will probably use a combination of Ground Penetrating radar as well as other means to identify the tunnels. And then they will be making tactical decisions about the tunnels that either get or are destroyed or sealed off or maybe they decide to go in some of them to find out where the network goes. With that aathats going to be very dangerous obviously. But they know what they are up against. And they probably have the right equipment and training to do this. Right. All right, thank you both. Thank you very much. I appreciate your time. Next, hamas Making A Rare Public Plea. Just ahead of these thousands of troops pouring over the border that we are seeing now. This is the negotiations to free more than 200 hostages. Tonight, are hanging by a thread if that could my next guest is speaking to sources in hamas leadership it will tell you what hes learning at this late or early hour. Just into cnn, the u. S. On high alert connected american troops in the middle east have been attacked 20 times in just a few days. We have the very latest from the pentagon this hour and hour of the breaking story tonight with the manhunt for the government who killed 18 people shifting to the water tonight. As we are learning more about a note the alleged government left behind. [music] [music] Breaking News continues live in tel aviv today. These are live images over gaza where israel has stepped up its bombardment in a massive way tonight. The escalation coming as hamas is Making A Rare Public Plea for help. A senior hamas official telling the ap today that they need his allies to play a bigger role in the were saying quote they are now working against the occupation could we appreciate this, but we need more in order to stop the aggression on gaza. We expect more. We expect more. Thats from a position of strength that would see that the u. S. Is imploring u. S. Citizens in lebanon where of course his bullet is now