joining us. erin will be back tomorrow. i'll be back here live tomorrow in tel aviv starting at 4:00 p.m. eastern. also for "the situation room" starting at 5:00 p.m. eastern tomorrow. "ac 360" starts right now. good evening. this is the aftermath of an israeli strike today in the densely populated jabalia refugee camp. the u.n. says it's the largest such camp in gaza. one eyewitness described the scene to cnn as horrific and said, quote, children were carrying other injured children. we warn you, the next video is disturbing. many of the wounded and dead were taken here, the hospital closest to the camp. witnesses telling cnn they believe a large number were killed, but we can't independently verify the actual number. the idf confirmed the strike and said they were targeting and killed a top commander of hamas in gaza. hamas denies the commander was even there. we'll have more on that in a moment in a conversation with the representative from the idf. israel also said today that there were more strikes north that destroyed hezbollah targets in lebanon. and tonight there is late word that secretary of state antony blinken is headed back to israel friday. he is also expected to visit other countries in the region as well. not clear yet which ones. a spokesman for what hamas calls its military wing, meaning the people who planned, launched and committed the october 7 terror attacks says his group will free some hostages that they kidnapped in particular foreign nationals. no indication when that may happen. only a claim that it would happen, quote, in the coming days. joined now by cnn's nic robertson by the gaza border in sderot, israel. what do we know more about this air strike? >> we know the idf were targeting a senior commander from the hamas, that he was involved in the october 7th attacks, that he was actively planning more operations against israel and had been involved over the past two decades in other attacks, significantly 2004 in ashdod, an attack that killed 13 israelis. they say when they targeted him, he was with a number of other hamas members. this does seem to fit the footprint of what the idf is describing as the ground operations inside gaza, that the troops on the ground when they identify hamas targets, they call in airstrikes. this was a massive air strike by all accounts, multiple impacts on the ground. the crater is very deep. we do know some of the air strikes designed to detonate in the tunnels that hamas hides in. we don't know if that was the case this time, but the idf indicated that he was hiding in tunnels, hiding behind civilians. but the devastation in this densely populated refugee camp in gaza is the biggest of the eight refugee camps there, more than 110,000 people living in that very tiny area, very densely populated. and the local hospital, indonesian hospital, the director there saying literally, they were having hundreds of casualties, dead and wounded. they were treating them in corridors, on floors, the hospital completely overwhelmed. the image is one of massive destruction. but the idf very clear saying they were targeting this hamas leader. hamas has come back, though, and said that he wasn't there. they're not saying if he is alive. they're not saying where he was. they're just saying he wasn't there, anderson. >> and what are we seeing -- or what are you seeing in terms of air strikes where you are right now? >> fighter jets overhead right now. we've seen helicopters it appears firing missiles into gaza this evening. there have been very heavy detonations that we're hearing of heavy artillery being fired in. john, if you can swing the camera around here, you can see some white lights there. now that scenario that was pretty dark until the last few days. that we believe is now an illuminated sort of gateway, if you will, into gaza, that the idf is illuminating. this appears to be as close to the erez crossing, one of the principle crossings into gaza. this appears to be flood lighting to better enable troops to come and go into gaza. they wouldn't have flood lights on if they thought hamas was around there. i think this shows that the incursion into gaza is now one that has a well established beachhead, if you want to call it, breach in the border to gaza there. we don't know how far the troops are getting into gaza, how far they are into gaza city precisely, what are they doing. are they all on foot? are they on tanks or armored fighting vehicles? what we've seen in bases closer to the board, we've been further south along the border here, there are troops and combat vehicles forming up in columns, getting ready to go, getting ready it appeared to go into gaza and reinforce. and that is the message, the idf is conveying tonight. this isn't over. they call it difficult battle space, a difficult one to fight in. they're not after creating civilian casualties. but they are not -- and you can hear it, stopping this incursion, anderson. >> nic robertson, thank you. we have more on the camp itself by one of our reporters who had recently been there. i'm joined by the international spokesperson for the israeli defense forces. colonel, as you know, hamas denies the commander in question was at the refugee camp. i know the idf has intelligence that he was there and that he was killed. how can you be sure? >> yeah, he wasn't in a refugee camp. i agree with the hamas on that. he was in his tunnel complex under a populated area, which is where hamas terrorists hide trying to use civilians as their human shields. and yes, i can confirm that he is dead, just like we have confirmed the death of more than 50 hamas operatives with names, locations and their military importance and their position. also, ibrahim biari is dead, along with dozens of other terrorists. and frankly, i wouldn't trust a single thing that hamas say, whether it's not who's alive and who's dead. and any situation about hostages and practically anything else. >> what is the calculation the idf makes in deciding on striking area that you know is heavily populated? i ask this, because in war, soldiers make calculations in targeting -- you know, in targeting a person, is this person's worth the loss of civilian life? are they important enough that it's worth a certain amount of civilian loss? and these are cold -- it's a cold calculus to make, but all militaries make this. can you just talk about how those decisions are made or who makes them? >> yeah. they are made, as you say correctly, during wartime. war is horrible. the things that happen in war are never good and never positive. and unfortunately, we find ourselves in this war after we were attacked by hamas. what we're doing now is striking back at hamas and striking at its military facilities. in every combat in urban terrain when there is still presence of civilians, which by the way have been called on us to evacuate for more than two weeks, this is northern gaza. we've called on them to evacuate. about 800,000 have evacuated. 300,000 or so still remain in the area, which is regrettable. but in any case, the calculations that we do, like any military, what is the importance of the military target, and how can that promote the achievement of the aims of the war, and what is the estimated cost in noncombatants. and then you try to decide balance between those who. i can tell you that there are dozens, if not hundreds of strikes that we avert in the early planning stages, or even once they're being executed, because we see that the balance between the military importance and collateral damage, as it's called in military speak isn't good enough. and then we avert the strike or we decide not to do it. or we give advanced warnings, or we call ahead. we do all kinds of things. but the bottom line is it's always relevant. in this case, a senior important combatant commander of hamas that was running operations from his bunker complex underneath that neighborhood, that is why he and the other terrorists were struck. and yes, he is a confirmed killed to the best of information that we have at this time. and hopefully soon we will be able to get our hands and weapons on more hamas commanders. this guy, by the way, was one of the planners and the executers of the october 7 massacre as well. >> how many hamas leaders does the idf believe are in gaza? >> excellent question. very relevant, and really at the top of the focus of israeli intelligence. where are the commanders? how many of them have gone incognito and trying to embed themselves in civilian population? how many are trying to flee from gaza using tunnels and other ways? very, very relevant, and really at the top of our information requirements. we are monitoring that. at this stage, i cannot say here what our assessment is, but we are aware of the common phenomenon with hamas, whenever the going gets really tough, they will send expendables from their point of view to try to fight off forces, but the seniors we will find them perhaps elsewhere, maybe in qatar, maybe in other locations. but in relative safety, usually the cowards that they are, they will leave palestinian civilians to face the consequences of their aggression, and they will have the rank and file continue fight while they take big checks of money and leave the area. unfortunately, not the first time that happens. but it's part of the calculation that we're seeing. >> colonel jonathan conricus, thank you. >> thank you. >> joining me now from cairo, melissa bell, who want to the rafah crossing today where aid is still stalled. and in southern lebanon, john wiedeman who visited the jabalia camp this past may. ben, the idf says there were hamas tunnels in this camp and they killed a senior hamas commander. when were you last at this camp, and was a hamas presence evident there? >> i was last there in may after another round of fighting between at that point islamic jihad and israel. and no, there was no obvious hamas presence there. what was obvious was that this was one of the most densely populated of gaza's eight refugee camps, and more than anything, what you would see in jabalia was lots of children, more than anything else. certainly not any hamas fighters walking around. i've been going to jabalia for years, going back to 1993. and what always struck me going there was how many children were there. in fact, among journalists who regularly covered gaza, they always said you're going to jabalia? watch out for the kids. there are so many of them. not hostile, not aggressive in any way. just simply you had to manage the children while you tried to do your work. and this is -- you have that spokesperson for the israeli military. anybody who watched the footage coming from the scene of that air strike would have been struck by how many children were on the scene, how many dead children were being pulled out of the rubble. so perhaps there was a hamas tunnel deep underneath the jabalia refugee camp. but on the surface, there were people, there were civilians, there were children who were struck in this. and cnn was able to speak to eyewitnesses. they talked about children pulling wounded children out of the rubble. one man who saw the strike said it felt like the end of the world. anderson? >> melissa, do you know how much humanitarian aid actually got into gaza today in the south? >> well, what we saw today, anderson, was a bigger proportion of aid getting through a 24-hour period than we've seen over the course of three weeks since this war began. in all, there are 217 trucks with 57 extra who made it through that slow trickle in the rafah gate through into the enclave. just to be clear, while that is a bigger proportion than we've seen so far, anderson, it is a tiny proportion of what is needed to meet the needs of the people inside. in fact, one aid worker described it as a drop in the ocean. to give you an idea, the u.n.'s children's agency says there is currently just 5% of the water needed in the enclave to meet the needs of the people inside. and so ever since israel has declared this full siege, beyond the bombardments that ben was talking about, essentially what you're looking at is a policy of starvation, and that is close to where we're now getting inside gaza. >> what is the latest, melissa, on whether the rafah crossing will ever open for whether it's wounded civilians to get out of gaza to be treated or the palestinian americans who have been stuck there now for more than throw weeks. i don't understand who's preventing the palestinian americans from leaving? because there is families who have been waiting there for weeks. >> that's right, who headed there when this all began in the hope that they'd be allowed through. it's certainly what they heard. in fact, we are starting to begin to hear some word of movement on that. so a little increased aid has gone in. and what we're hearing is that for the very first time, 81 wounded palestinians will be allowed through the rafah gate and to a field hospital that has been set up some 15 kilometers away by egyptian authorities. so that is good news to be at least for the first time, for the first civilians to be able to head out of gaza. they've been entirely trapped so far. and to your question about the dual nationals, there are so many hundreds of them inside the enclave. we're beginning the hear there might be some movement on that front too, although no confirmation for the time being that will happen tomorrow. we're starting to hear that some of those internationals will make their way out. the difficulty here i think is first of all, the very intense negotiations that have had to take place between hamas, israeli officials who keep a control function at that gate. it is their inspections that is making the entry of the trucks so slow, even at that within gate that leads on to egypt rather than to israel. it also takes their agreement for the civilians being able to get out. it takes egyptian agreement. bear in mind egyptians have been very reluctant to open the crossing. first, they don't want to be dealing with a refugee crisis. second of all, they do not want to see the forced movement, displacement of the palestinian people into the sinai desert. so they've been very wary about this. the negotiations have been painfully slow, but we are beginning to hear that there will be some movements. some of the nationals will be able to make their way out. bear in mind to add to the difficulty you have the question of the consular services that are going to have to be set up, sometimes for people who have no documents. this is an extremely difficult situation to deal with at the gate. but of course there are very desperate people on the other side of the crossing, just hoping they're going to be able to get through, anderson. >> on the northern border with lebanon, what are you seeing? >> well, it's been relatively quiet today. yesterday we saw a lot of back and forth fire between israel and hezbollah and other groups. significantly targeting further into the territory of the other side. but by and large, i mean, the situation remains very tense. we've seen that hezbollah today had a funeral in one of the border towns for the 47th of its fighters to have been killed so far since the 8th of october when hezbollah joined into the fight so to speak. we've seen almost 30,000 people who live along the border on the lebanese side moving to safer ground further north. and a lot of the towns and villages along the border are largely abandoned at this point, because people fear that perhaps worse is to come. anderson? >> ben wedeman and melissa bell, thank you very much. still to come tonight, more on the northern border with israel. fears of an expanded war. north of israel in lebanon, daily fights. jim chutsciutto has our report coming up next. an update on shani louk who was 23 years old when she was terrorized and killed by hamas. you may remember her near naked body was tossed into the back of a pickup truck. she was paraded through gaza while crowds spat on her and shouted god is great. her mother held out hope she might still be alive, but shani was confirmed dead this week. we talk to her mother ahead tonight. as we were discussing before the break with ben wedeman, there is continued concern that as israel's military pushes farther into gaza and casualties mount, the already daily skirmishes to the north in lebanon with hezbollah could grow more violent. today intercepted a missile launched from yemen, which israel obviously doesn't share a border with. jim sciutto has more. >> reporter: israeli soldiers gaze north toward lebanon. what they fear could be the next front of this war. and, in fact, israel and hezbollah are already exchanging fire across the length of the israeli-lebanon border. idf howitzers firing on hezbollah targets and hezbollah firing back. virtually every village we visit along the border has come under fire. when you travel along the israel-lebanon border, you see things like this multiple times a day. the smoke rising there, the flames from a strike just across the border inside lebanon. not clear if that was outgoing fire from lebanon or incoming from israel. we did just hear from the idf -- and there is another explosion as we're speaking. and we heard of another exchange of fire just a couple of miles down here. that wall you see along there, that marks the border between israel on this side, lebanon on the other. the threat comes from further afield as well. today israel said its high altitude missile defense system fired for the first time since the october 7th attacks. responding to a missile launched by houthi rebels in yemen. israeli officials see one nation behind all these attacks, iran. >> translator: there are many actors who are acting at the behest of iran, including the houthis, who are trying to challenge us and to distract us from the war in gaza. we remain focused. we are focused on the war in gaza. >> reporter: gaza remains the main thrust, but the idf is attacking inside lebanon and syria, multiple times a day. this strike, the idf says, hit hezbollah infrastructure. funerals held for the last two days in southern lebanon. hezbollah saying nearly 50 of its fighters have been killed since the clashes began. >> jim sciutto joins us now from northern israel. what are iranian officials saying about the clashes between proxies and the idf? >> the consistent answer from the iranian foreign minister has been these are the independent acts of forces, resistance forces it calls them hamas in gaza, hezbollah, and lebanon and others in iraq and syria. and while it is true that these groups operate with some independence, that of course denies the fact that it is iran that arms them, that supplies, for instance, the missiles that the houthis were firing today in the arms and the training to hamas and hezbollah and others. and we should also note that even as iranian officials deny responsibility for these attacks, the iranian foreign minister noted that he has recently visited those fighters and the leaders of those groups in iraq, syria, in lebanon, and each statement we've heard from iranian officials has included a threat of its own. we heard the iranian foreign minister warn that israel has crossed red lines and warn again that everyone will pay a price for israel's actions. of course, sounds very much like threats. and it is the u.s. view that none of these groups operate without, we should say, anderson, iran's at least tacit approval for these attacks. >> jim sciutto, jim, thanks. joined by a reporter and middle east expert who covers politics and foreign policy for axios. thank you for being with us. i'm wondering what you are hearing about the ground operation in gaza in terms of how many israeli troops are actually on the ground, have they gone to gaza city yet? >> good evening, anderson. i don't think they're in gaza city yet.