today on "inside politics," two major breaking stories out of the middle east. another massive blast at a refugee camp in gaza. we're getting new video showing the catastrophic damage as people dig through the rubble searching for bodies. we do not know yet who is responsible. is it the same camp that israeli forces struck yesterday. we're also covering a huge breakthrough, civilians are now leaving gaza for the fist time since a mass attacked israel. hundreds are waiting to move through the crucial rafah border crossing. u.s. officials believe more than 5,000 could ultimately be allowed to leave as part of a deal brokered by qatar. we have cnn reporters across the region covering the latest on all of these stories. melissa bell is in cairo. we start jeremy diamond near the gaza border. what do we know about this second blast? >> reporter: for the second day in a row, a massive blast appears to have hit the refugee camp inside gaza. this is the largest refugee camp in gaza historically linked to refugees who fled the 1948 war ask were displaced as a result of that war. this blast, as of now, we understand there's the c catastrophic damage at this site. it happened at a refugee camp, and the images of the destruction are similar to the images a that we saw yesterday inspect. in that strike based on eyewitness accounts and doctors at a nearby hospital that hundreds of individuals were ub injured and killed in that strike. as of now, the israeli military has not confirmed whether or not they were responsible for this latest blast, but it does happen as the death toll inside of gaza is rising. continuing to rise with more than 8,800 people is having been killed thus far in the three weeks of war inside the gaza strip. far too many of them, as you know, include women and children. >> jeremy, more broadly, what is the idf saying about just how farther pushing into gaza as part of this military incursion that they are involve d in. >> we just heard from one of the commanders in the idf who says they are, quote, at the gates of gaza city saying we are deep in the strip at the gates of gaza city. this, as we have started to see some public accounts of how far troops are moving inside the gaza strip, they have made it several miles on the north western part of gaza. we also know they are making another access of advances on the northeastern corridor of gaza. and also tanks have been spotted at the southern end of gaza city, along the main road at a main junction. it's clear that idf troops are moving in towards gaza city, which is a hamas stronghold. today we also saw artillery positions. we went to several positions along the border with gaz a is a. what we could see is that several of the artillery positions that were further back, those have been vacated by troops. instead it appears that some of these artillery positions are moving closer to the gaza strip to provide a support to those troops who are inside. we know that in this war, perhaps more than any other conflict involving israel and hamas, troops are really making pretty heavy use of close air support and calling in artillery fire on specific hamas targets. they identify these targets, they call in that air support and whether it is air support or fighter jets or helicopters then striking those targets. >> thank you so much for that reporting. now to the other big story out of gaza, for the first time since hamas attack ed inside israel more than four weeks ago, the border with egypt and gaza has opened to let a small number of foreign nationals and injured palestinians out. melissa bell is covering all these developments from cairo. so is first, who has been able to leave? >> reporter: a very small number of very lucky civilians at this stage. we're talking about a couple hundred, we don't have the exact figure. it was just over 110, but we understand that that's gone up. we don't have their nationalities b but these are some of the first allowed out. what's been remarkable, we spent much of the day there is how little has gone through. either aid getting in or anyone coming out. until now, we really have only seen a handful of hostages released through this cross. it remained because of the huge complication of the parties involved in anyone getting through. that's israel, hamas, egypt, this mediation through qatar really a remarkable breakthrough that we only got wind of this morning. a really remarkable development. huge relief for all the families who are awaiting for news of their loved ones there's also the possibility for the most severely wounded palestinians to get out and get emergency medical treatment. 81 are expected to make their way through the crossing. they are being taken to a field hospital. but we are talking about the lucky few. we have also been hearing from the crossing today that a further 28 trucks have gone in. that's a tiny proportion of what is needed inside. so the people that you're seeing coming through the crossing today and that you're going to continue seeing over the coming days, including those american nationals, are people that have been hoping, waiting to get through since the conflict began they have been told to head south and they would get through. they are finally getting through, but it's a been a long and difficult wait. >> it sure has, but it is good news. we will continue to monitor that. thank you for that report. i want to bring in lieutenant general mark hurtling, he's a former commanding general for europe. nice to see you again. appreciate you coming on. can we just start where we ended with melissa and talk about the fact that you have foreign nationals leaving the palestinian territory, leaving gaza, i should say, and how long it's taken for this to happen. >> i believe this is a strategic move by hamas. they are releasing international citizens as more condemnation comes against israel by the world for some of the strikes. so they see it appropriate to garner more support for what they are doing and to heap more damage on the israelis for continuous bombing and the kinds of attacks. so the combination of releasing internationals from gaza is and also the potential for releasing international hostages, nonisraeli hostages, i think it's part of the strategic plan by hamas. >> back to what we started with in this program, yesterday, there was a bombing. israel says they were responsible for in order to kill hamas terrorists. there was another blast near that region today. we do not know who is responsible for that yet. we want to underscore that at this point. but from your military experience and perspective, can you assess this? >> a little bit. i'm not a crater analyst, but the first time i saw the pictures of yesterday's bombings and what are reported as today's bombing, it's a similar bomb, a precision device with a large explosive. because the crater is so big, it tells me that this is a hardened case. the israeli air force can deliver blu bombs that have a hardened casing to get underground before it explodes. so it doesn't explode on the surface like we have seen already with some bombs hitting buildings. these were meant to go deep. what you see not only around the crater, but you see some collapsed buildings, and that's not just architecture problems. that's a result of collapse ing from the foundation. it tells me that evidently israel had some very good targets in some underground tunnels. think haven't given any information for this. and to have a second strike when the world is beginning to condemn them tells me they have some pretty good intelligence of the movement of the terrorists underground. i can understand why the world is upset is. the humanitarian crisis here, but also i can understand why these are being targeted the way they are. >> and general hurtling, i'm sure you can understand as well that we are being very careful about who was responsible for the second strike today until we know for sure. we believe it happened and see it happened, we don't know who is responsible for that. but going back to one of the things you said, let's focus on what happened yesterday because we have more information about that. about the crater and the tunnels. what it tells you is that the blast was so big and so deep, what it tellhouse about how deep these tunnels likely are where hamas was potentially located, where some of their the headquarters are located. >> it isn't just the kinds of tunnels we have shown on cnn where you see the single file. they have meet rooms under there. they went into some of these tunnels in 2021 the last time israel went into gaza and they were amazed at how you basically had an underground city. so there are the passage ways. there are also rooms, places where hamas can store ammunitions, that have been built up. and they are about, from all indicators, between 100 to 150 feet skbrurnd ground. so you have to have a pretty large penetrate ore to get there. and i think after three or four israel knows that these tunnels are extensive. they are moving fighters around under the cities, and they are in areas like this neighborhood and underneath hospitals, that have not just human beings as shields, protective facilities as shields, hospitals, schools, neighborhoods. so all this is part of the way hamas fights using that victim doctrine that i mentioned before. >> it's so manipulative and so democracy. i can't even think of another word to describe the notion of doing that to your own people. thank you so much for your expertise. i appreciate it. >> thank you. with the death toll in gaza continuing to rise, president biden and his top national security officials are increasingly facing tough questions about israel's commitment to minimizing civilian casual sits. priscilla alvarez is live at the white house with more. what are you hearing from your sources a at the white house about trying to balance the commitment to israel, the commitment to israel's democracy and right to exist versus the criticism that the president is hearing from within his own party, in particular, about some tactics that israel is using to retaliate against the terror attacks in their country. >> reporter: it's a dell balance. the biden administration is walking a tight rope in its support for israel. because they are trying to contain casualties, while grappling with the images of destruction out of gaza, fueling public outrage. these casualties weigh heavy here at the white house among officials as they ratchet up pressure to make sure that they are protecting innocent civilcivilian in their fight. these concerns go all the way up to president biden, who is also discussed this with benjamin netanyahu, even this weekend n their call. saying that israel has the right to defend itself, but they also need to make sure that they are protecting innocent civilians at all costs. aids to the president believe that these warnings are best stressed and are most effected in those private conversations that they have with their israeli counterparts, but the reality here for the white house is that they are facing this public outrage over the destruction in gaza, the dire humanitarian crisis there, and that all of this risks eroding international support for israel at a time where they need it. so all of that is what the president is keenly aware of and what white house officials are monitoring as this continues to unfold. >> real quick. the u.s. secretary of state antony blinken is going to go back to the region this week. >> reporter: that's right. this is his third trip to israel. he will be meeting with members of the israeli government, but this will be the first visit after the ground invasion that we saw in the last several days and also after this airstrike on the refugee camp. so another important meeting for the secretary there in israel. >> thank you so much. appreciate your reporting. joining me for more reporting is kasie hunt, laura lopez and natasha bertrand. thank you all for being here. i want to start with the president. and the fact that understandably, right after the unbelievable attack that killed in the most brutal of ways more than 1,400 people, he was incredibly clear about what israel and could do, which is whatever they feel they need to do. and his rhetoric has changed just a bit in recent times. i want our viewers to listen to some of the differences. >> israel has the right to defend itself and its people, full stop. let there be no doubt. the united states has israel's back. we will make sure the state of israel can defend itself today, tomorrow, as we always have. >> if you have an opportunity to alleviate the pain, you should do it, period. if you don't, you're going to lose credibility worldwide. >> we also have to remember hamas does not represent the vast majority of the palestinian people or anywhere else. >> husband position has not changed, but then incoming he's taken has stepped up, particularly from within his own party. >> it has. and i think that when i was listening to them describe what happened, it was a massacre against jewish people. and the president, the administration, and i think the world has been clear in saying, there's a difference between people who indiscriminately kill civilians on purpose because they are trying to sew terror and people who are trying to achieve a military objective with military targets that results in civilian casualties. however, it is very clear that the damage in gaza is wearing on the psyche of the world. it is horrifying to see bodies of children pulled from the rubble, it just is, no matter who you are or where you come from. it does seem to me that there are a couple things. there's geopolitical pressure on the president and the united states and israel to do a little bit more to try to minimize these casualties, but as you point out, there's increasing challenge from president biden's left. he comes out of an old school relationship with benjamin netanyahu. >> you're right. one thing i would point out is that not everybody in the western world said it was okay to criticize these terrorists who went into israel, including some democratic members of congress. there was a resolution that passed last week standing with isr israel, but criticize ing the notion of terrorism about beheading babies and there were a number of democrats who either voted no or voted present. you see them on the screen there. and they might be a small mi minority, but they represent a very vocal group of progressives out in the world in america right now. >> i think that some of those democrats would say the reason they voted no in part was because of their very strong criticisms of the israeli government. not because they don't think that it was a massacre, which some of those democrats have said that it was a massacre that occurred and condemned the action of hamas, but because they are very strongly against the actions of benjamin netanyahu and what they see as his degradation of israel's democracy and then his attack now on gazaens and civilian, but the president may not have shifted his position, but he has shifted his rhetoric. he started to say more and more, so have his national security advisers and secretary blinken, all of them across the board have started to say more and more that they think there could be a time for a pause in the fight ing. they will not call for a cease-fire, but they think there should be a pause. john kirby just said that yesterday because they are very aware of the fact that seeing these dead civilians in gaza is something they don't want to see. >> what you hearing from sources? >> this is exactly what the biden administration was worried about in terms of the response. because that is why they have been advising israel to do more limited ground operation, limited airstrikes, make this proportional because of the risk that the hamas terror attack would be completely overshadowed by israel's response. that would erode international support for the israelis. so the message from the united states to them consistently since this attack happened has been we support you, we support everything that you teal you need to do to eliminate hamas, but now they see this operation kind of taken on a life of its own in terms of the administration not having a ton of influence at this point over what the israelis do. they took some of their military advice in terms of the airstrikes and ground incursion, but as we have seen, there hasn't been a humanitarian pause. there hasn't been some of these things the administration has been asking them to do. so that right now is the focus. even if they are not backing it up with actions, threatening to withdraw support from israel, they are advising them to be careful. >> standby. thank you so much. we're going to have much more coming up. a massive blast hit a refugee camp in gaza for the second day in a row. i'll talk to an idf spokesperson, next. welcome back. there's a lot of news this morning out of the middle east. for the first time since the war began, the boshder to gaza has opened up to allow foreign nationals and injured palestinians to get out. and also a massive blast hit gaza's biggest refugee camp for the second day in a row. israeli defense forces say yesterday's strike on the camp targeted a tap commander who was providing among civilians. joining me now is the idf spokesperson. thank you for joining me. first question is about this blast today. cnn is reporting that it was a second blast that hit the refugee camp. is the idf responsible for this blast? >> thank you for having me. i would say that all of our operations right now in gaza, the responsibility lies at the feet of hamas. we cannot ignore that behind all of the situations,s especially the refugee camp, where hamas is embedded as we said before he went into gaza. hamas is embedded within the the civilian population. there are terrorists that are firing rockets at israel. all of the responsibility is at hamas' feet. >> we haven't forgotten what started this. it was a terror attack inside israel. my question is about this particular blast today, which did the idf drop the bomb or or shoot the missile that cause d this blast? >> i don't have specifics on this exact incident. it will probably be coming out in the coming hours. what i can tell you is if it did happen, and we will come forward and say if it did happen, it is because there are terrorists that are embedded there. we have to understand the situation. the idf right now is fighting face to face combat with hamas terrorists inside jah ball ya. they are running into tunnels, united states inside universities, you see wanted terrorists that are going into schools. they don't come out again because there's a terror network underneath them. when we eliminated one of their top terrorists, this was a second implosion of an entire tunnel network. they are running on their way to carry out terrorist attacks. they purposely put it there. even if we did hit this site, the collateral damage is on hamas' shoulders. >> going back to yesterday's strike, which was the idf. can you provide proof that your strike was successful in killing the senior hamas leader that you said israel targeted? >> all of our information, all of our intelligence information points to the fact that, yes, that terrorist was eliminated along with around 50 other terrorists that were all holed up in that exact same area. we have to understand that this was the planning terrorist segment that actually armed and trained and sent the morning of october th the terrorist that came into israel and murdered those people. all of our intelligence points to them being there. from what we understand, they were eliminated. >> is there a way you can show that to the world? >> eventually, it will become clear that terrorist does not resurface. we have confirmation. but you never know until tim