hello again, everyone. thank you so much for joining me. we're watching several new developments across the middle east as israel pushes forward with its war against hamas. we're seeing more airstrikes across gaza today, with israeli forces closing in on gaza city. one explosion hit a u.n. run school. that is serving as a shelter for thousands of palestinian refugees. the hamas run ministry of health says the blast killed at least 15 people and injured dozens more. meanwhile, u.s. secretary of state antony blinken met with arab foreign ministers today in jordan for a high-stakes summit, but while the arab officials called for an immediate cease-fire in gaza, blinken says now is not the time. >> is our view that a cease- fire now would simply leave hamas in place. able to regroup and repeat what it did on october 7th. and you don't have to take my word for it. just a few days ago, the senior hamas official said that it was their intent to do october 7th again and again and again. >> and significant development of the rafah border crossing between egypt and gaza. a u.s. official says hamas is now blocking foreign nationals from exiting gaza until israel guarantees that ambulances from gaza can reach the crossing. a source tells cnn more than 700 people are waiting to cross into egypt, including nearly 400 americans. cnn was part of the first group of foreign press granted access to israeli forces inside gaza. journalists embedded with the idea in gaza operate under the observation of israeli commanders in the field, and are not permitted to move unaccompanied within the strip. as a condition to enter gaza under idf escort, outlets have to submit all materials and footage to the israeli military for review prior to publication. cnn has agreed to these terms in order to provide a limited window into israel's operations in gaza. cnn's jeremy diamond was there. jeremy, what did you see? >> reporter: well, fred, we met up with israeli soldiers on the israeli side of the border first. we joined up with them, went into armored personnel carriers, and within a few minutes, we were inside gaza. about a kilometer inside the gaza strip, where we met with soldiers from the 828th infantry brigade. the soldiers have been trying to work to cut off the southern part of gaza from the northern part of gaza, as israeli forces and circle gaza city. at this israeli military post on the outskirts of gaza city, the fighting is fierce. >> it's us. >> reporter: in the center of the gaza strip, idf soldiers are fighting against militants that are using all the houses that they can in order to harm and to get to the idf soldiers. one week into its ground offensive, israel's military says it has encircled gaza city from posts like this. we're right now in an israeli military post inside the gaza strip, about one kilometer inside of gaza. gaza city is just this way, and as you can hear behind me, there was a lot of ongoing fighting between israeli forces and hamas militants. what they are trying to do right now is to flank the hamas positions. that's what the battalion commander just told me. and all of this intended to try and cut off gaza city from the southern part of the strip as israelrc in from the north. cnn was part of a small group of reporters given access to israeli forces inside gaza for the first time since the outbreak of the war. entering gaza using the same roads hamas militants use to carry out their brutal attack on october 7th. >> and today we're going on the exact same roads to the same neighborhoods to their area, to their trucks, you know, to go there and be able to get them pay the price and to eliminate hamas organization that held this attack on the state of israel. >> the israeli military is taking us into gaza. we are in the armored personnel carrier right now. >> reporter: but still, israeli forces face the danger of ambush from underground tunnels. >> and over there, over there and inside the, the neighborhood, also -- >> so in address this area, there are at least three tunnels. >> i believe, i believe at least, yeah. >> reporter: israel's as many of those tunnels lie below residential buildings, and for weeks, it has relentlessly bombed those targets, killing and injuring thousands of civilians in the process. the forces here say they are now working to secure a humanitarian corridor or to help civilians flee the heaviest fighting. >> this is justice for the brigade, the battalion right here. the population will be able to go from the north to the south surely and freely, in order to get the idf to what it has to do. >> reporter: for the soldiers, achieving that goal may see them deployed deep into gaza city, where the prospect of deadly urban combat awaits. >> well, the idf will be here as long as it takes. weeks, months, years, until he makes sure that israel is safe and secure for the long time period. if you need to get inside gaza house by house, it's exactly what's going to happen. >> reporter: and during our time inside gaza, we were there for about an hour, and there was very active fighting throughout our time there. about 100 meters away from this post, both to the north and to the south, fierce battles still ongoing between israeli forces and hamas militants. now, this unit, the 828th brigade, their commander told me that they have killed a few hundred hamas fighters since the start of this war, but they have also lost fighters. 10 fighters since the start of this war, fred. and what we could also here today, beyond the small arms fire, were also antitank missiles and, and more, and all of this as these israeli forces, again, are trying to and circle gaza city. but the question now, will they go in? will they do the bloody work of this kind of door to door urban fighting? that is a question for israel's political leaders. >> yeah. and that was a reflection of just one hour on one day, jeremy diamond. thank you so much. all right, it has been four weeks since that horrific hamas attack on israel left more than 1400 people dead. cnn's nic robertson spoke exclusively with one of the survivors, who, for the first time, returned to the site of the music festival that was attacked that day. it's hard to imagine what she has been going through. >> reporter: it is, and, and, and i think one of the things that we discovered traveling along with her and traveling along with her cousin, who was one of the medics who was first on the scene to come down here and to come, to try to come and help people on that weekend of october the seventh, that so much has still, is unchanged, and so much is still happening. so these scars are very fresh and real, and to that point, we just had a salvo of rockets come out of gaza right overhead here, perhaps four, perhaps eight rockets coming in. so this is still, although we're four weeks on, all this pain and suffering and agony and anguish that people have suffered here, not to diminish, of course, what is happening in gaza, but all of that is still very real for people here. at least -- alisa samuel is trying to breed brave. for the first time, the 24-year- old is back to where her friends were brutally slaughtered during hamas is murderous music festival rampage october 7th. >> people's bracelets are here. >> reporter: the bracelets from the festival? there's another one here. >> reporter: four weeks later, fierce still scattered in the fields. >> people's bags, everybody just dropped everything and left. >> reporter: she is struggling. >> i don't want to walk further. >> i think gaza's straight down that way, if i'm not mistaken. >> reporter: getting this far has been made easier with the help of her cousin, dr. shlomo gensler, one of the first emergency medics sent to the taxpayer >> first casualty was, like, i think right by the drain point. >> reporter: he too, for the first time since, revisiting the terrors of that day. >> they were shot in the back of the head, plus a bunch of places in the back of his body. he also was, he had, he was shot -- oh, interesting. you can actually see a bullet still. >> really. >> this is actually crazy, wow. there was a ton of shell casings laying all around. >> reporter: just as we're about to move on -- >> guys, siren! >> reporter: an incoming rocket warning. alisa is visibly shaken. >> you're, you're okay, right? you're safe. come. we'll get in the car and we'll continue going, okay? so sorry. it's reliving it for you, yeah? >> are you okay? >> yeah. >> yeah. >> for her is externally traumatizing, because part of where this whole thing, how it started with her -- >> was a rocket attack. >> was being at this party, and the rocket attack started. hearing this, but not knowing what was to come. so for her to go through this again is extremely, extremely scary. it's crazy, because it's still very real. now that i'm seeing these bullets, they were never cleaned up, and that's, you know, and it, still feeling that level of insecurity here. >> reporter: we'd met dr. gensler soon after the attacks, still treating patients. a month later, he's helping his family heal. >> the people that are close to you that you love, you see them struggling, and that's very painful. >> i think it's important for me to come back because i think to help me move forward. it's not easy. it's not going to be easy. it needs to be done. >> reporter: this is where it started to get even more real. >> reporter: dr. gensler, too, needs some closure. we stopped again. more trauma relived. >> so we had treated a bunch of people, in other words, a few soldiers that came out, came out this way, and over here, i, there was one soldier -- >> if i look, there's still a, there's still a medical equipment lying there from that day. >> yeah. so this is definitely from that day. >> reporter: this is incredible. wherever we're going, almost four weeks later, it's not changed. the, everything is still lying around. >> yeah. it's surreal. i'll be honest, coming here, i feel a real strong emotion, because i'm seeing, reliving what i've seen. >> reporter: his colleagues say he is a hero, saved dozens of lives that night. he says he was just doing his job, and wishes all the innocent suffering on both sides of the border was over. >> i really cry about the kids in the letter suffering that didn't make the choices that some of these operatives, these hamas terrorists, it bothers me. it tremendously bothers me, and it hurts to know that there are kids that are, you know, that are suffering as a result of that. >> reporter: a few more miles, he gets us to the festival site. alisa recognizes it immediately. >> these are the trees that we had in. >> reporter: we stopped. she leads us into the bushes. >> so this is where you had? >> right in there. >> you're hiding in here? >> yeah. >> oh my goodness. >> we saw everything. i saw people just get shot, lined up. friends of mine. they were lined up, and they, they were -- i saw one of my friends, she was begging for her life. she was 20 years old, and she was begging for her life. she asked them to not kill her, to not kill her, to not kill her, and they didn't care. they were laughing. >> reporter: hiding for almost three hours in absolute fear for their lives. >> my friend, i had to come all the way over here to hold her mouth shut. like, literally to geiger, because i couldn't let her make noise. because you make noise, you're dead. you are killed or taken, kidnapped. >> reporter: hour after hour, witnessing murder after murder after murder. >> and i saw the hamas take a bunch of people, and went to their commander and asked to kill them or to take them. and when he said to kill these people and take these people, they shot them right in the four head. like, right there. and once they were dead, they didn't stop. they just kept shooting them, and you just saw the body just jump and jump from the bullets after they were dead. >> reporter: she is here to help with her recovery, but returning has brought everything flooding back. >> sitting here right now, i hear, i hear everything. i hear the screaming, i hear the bikes, and i hear the gunshots. hearing the gunfire, hearing everything, hearing people crying for their life, to save their life, to give them just a few more days, just to go to see their family again. >> reporter: eventually, she gets the courage to get a closer look at >> but look. look how many things are here. >> reporter: most everything where it was dropped. >> where was your -- >> over there. yeah, we set up camp here but because i remember this. this, this little white thing. >> the white one year? remember that one? >> yeah, we always made fun of it. >> at least you knew how to get back to your tent. >> we needed a place to remember. >> reporter: it's the first time we see her smile, but it's fleeting. >> we're going to come out of this stronger, and all the survivors are going to have a story to tell, and they should tell it, and no matter how painful it is, they should tell it, because this is something that the world needs to know. >> reporter: so as we've been listening to that report, fred, i have to say that here, we've been witnessing sort of a pickup, an uptick in the war. i don't know if you're able to turn the video around, but we were recording just now, ken's penning the camera over to take a look. the horizon. but we were literally seeing red rain that we believe was coming from, there's a little bit of it coming down again. looked like red rain, but it, but it is gunfire, we think, coming from a patchy helicopter , or perhaps a couple of apache helicopters, into the north, northern part of gaza. at the same time, there's some more of it coming down now. the same time, there were rockets coming in from above, possibly aircraft. so it does appear to be an uptick in the fighting right where those, that, that gunfire is raining down. we can also hear the sound of, the sound of heavy machine gun fire in that area. but it just is an indication of, of how volatile the fight here still is, and even while that story was running, it was running for seven minutes. during that time, that was happening in gaza, and more rockets came out. again, we had to run for cover again, fred. it's, it's, you know, it's an indication, jeremy was in there, inside the battle, right there with the troops, getting a real first-hand view of it, and you stand back at the end of the day, but you can see it's still going on. fred? >> all right. that battle picking up with this nightfall. continue to be careful, nic robertson, to you and your crew, thank you so much. and we'll be right back. there cornell university canceled classes friday, acknowledging extraordinary stress after a student there was arrested and now faces federal charges for allegedly making violent anti- semitic threats against jewish students. classes will resume on monday. protests over the israel- hamas war are growing on college campuses, including at the university of pennsylvania. this while donors are calling for the university's president to resign after she allowed a palestinian literary festival to be held on campus in september, prior to the terror attacks by hamas. against israel. cnn's danny freeman is on the university of pennsylvania campus, where penn and cornell football teams are playing each other today, and while it's football that brings them together today, both campuses are also trying to figure out how to deal with growing discord stemming from the israel-hamas conflict, danny. so what is the mood today among the students, the fans, everyone there? >> reporter: yeah, fred, i think you put it really well. there's really a bit of a conflict on campus, right? because there is a lot of cheering. the band's going nuts. penn is doing really well against cornell. there is happiness because it is homecoming weekend here, but there is that layer of concern, fear, in some cases, because of this ongoing conflict happening overseas, and then the debate over it spilling over into college campuses. and then, like is that, the university of pennsylvania, cornell, they're certainly not immune. cornell canceled classes on friday because of that student making those anti-semitic threats. he was ultimately arrested. and then here, as you said, the university of pennsylvania leaders here have been facing a backlash for not doing enough to fight back against anti- semitism. we spoke to some students and alums. i wanted to take a listen to what they said about the overall temperature right now in these campuses. >> do a lot of students feel safe? >> i want to tell you they don't. right now, i think people are unsafe, emotionally, at the pain of other people watching it, feeling, and seeing it is absolute trauma. >> luckily, penn has not seen some of the violence that occurred at cornell or nyu, but that's just around the corner. that's how i feel but >> hopefully they continue in the direction of all of our students, the palestinians, or anybody. >> reporter: so again, you can hear right there, fred, still plenty of concern, even amid the homecoming weekend festivities. i should say the president of the university of pennsylvania said this week that they have now an action plan to combat anti-semitism, hoping to turn the temperature down a little bit on this campus. fred? >> all right. all right, danny freeman, thank you so much. all right, coming up, the leaders of hezbollah calling, rather, the leader, cingular, of hezbollah, is calling for a cease-fire in gaza, and warning that battles with israel on the lebanese border could escalate. details right after this. is it possible my network could take my business to the next level? it is with comcast business. powering all your devices with gig-speed wifi. and you get fast downloads and uploads. pick it up! pick it up! oh we got this! because it's powered by the next generation 10g network. more speed for your business? it's not just possible. it's happening. get started for $59.99 a month for 12 months. plus, ask how to get an $800 prepaid card with a qualifying internet bundle. comcast business, powering possibilities. with israel's war against hamas intensifying in gaza today, u.s. secretary of state antony blinken was in jordan meeting with officials from several arab nations in a high- stakes summit. today, blinken doubled down on the u.s. opposition to a cease- fire in gaza, which put the u.s. at odds with its arab partners. let's go now to cnn's gustavo valdez in tel aviv. gustavo, instead of agreeing to a cease-fire, idf officials are vowing to hunt down and kill top hamas leaders, right? >> reporter: that is correct, and not only that, they are asking palestinians to be the ones who killed the leaders. they said that if they do that, the war might end sooner. this is -- antony blinken touring several arab countries. he said that the objective of the u.s. and its partners is the same, but they just have different ideas of how to to get to that goal. meanwhile, in palestine, the palestinian ministry of health said that the death toll there has almost reached 9500 people, and they say that most of the victims are children, women, and the elderly. >> reporter: and, gustavo, the leader of hezbollah is also calling for a cease-fire in gaza, and warning that battles with israel and the lebanese border could escalate into a, a broader conflict. >> yes, and that message that he gave yesterday, a recorded message, he first justified the attacks by hamas, saying that he was 100% planned and executed. he warned that the escalations could lead to hezbollah being more involved. however, he did not give any indication of what could trigger their increased activity. he also recognized that the presence of u.s. ships in the mediterranean somehow are making israel a little stronger. >> all right, gustavo valdez, thank you so much. in tel aviv. all right, let's talk more about these developments. let's bri