[inaudible conversations] palestine will be free shame on you shame on you shame on you [background sounds] neil tensions Around The World escalating as a fullscale Ground Offensive is thousand fast approaching one week after hamas launched its Surprise Attack on israel from gaza. Israeli forces are said to be just hours away from Invading Gaza as thousands of palestinians are scrambling to get out. Lots of americans are caught in the crosshairs. Theyre also a searching for a path back home. Were on all the fastmoving developments and talking to all the key players including here and only here the former israeli Prime Minister ehud barak on israels current Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, promising to wipe hamas off the planet. Weve also got president ial candidate and Florida Governor ron desantis the on his efforts to evacuate floridians from the war zone and his 2024 rival, South Carolina senator tim scott, On Washington needing to send a clear signal. Even if it is far from clear the house will find a speaker anytime soon. Also former new York Police Commissioner ray kelly on startling protests worldwide and worries of lone wolf attacks right here at home. And a ceo who is facing major backlash for vowing not to hire Harvard Students blaming israel for all this. Its coming in the next two hours. Welcome, everybody, im neil cavuto, and this is, indeed, cavuto live. Were on top of all those developments with the former Prime Minister of israel, the top president ial candidates, but first i want to go to trey yingst in southern israel with the very later latest there. Trey. Reporter yeah, neil, good morning. As we speak right now, breaking news, there are Air Raid Sirens in tel aviv. The countrys second largest city, this is the second time today that hamas has fired on tel aviv, and its significant because those airstrikes against gaza continue. Just a few moment ago i spoke with the countrys former Defense Minister benny ganz who is in the cabinet within this unity government that the israelis brought together after that wartime declaration. And he told me israel is preparing for a large assault against gaza that matches what we see on the ground. There are large deployments of infantry troops. We have seen different apcs and tanks preparing at staging points throughout the area. And overnight we even saw fuel trucks and d9 bulldozers headed toward the border with gaza, all pointing to the fact that in the coming hours it will likely be announced about a ground operation into gaza. This country is bracing for what could be months of fighting. They understand that it will be a difficult battle, a streetbystreet battle, urban warfare, Guerrilla Tactics conducted inside gaza, and theyre trying to get as many civilians out of the way in the process. Thats part of the reason you saw them dropping these Leaf Leaflets and warning civilians to go south immediately. At the same time, this parallel story, you have american citizens inside gaza, and the American Government looking to cut a deal with egypt and the israelis to allow for passage out of the Rafah Crossing. I do want to touch quickly, neil, on the northern border. As we speak, there are ongoing Artillery Battles between factions in the southern part of lebanon, we do believe hezbollah is firing on israeli positions, and the israelis are responding at this hour. Of its a very active Northern Front as well, and it raises the point about the possibility of this erupting into a much larger war. Neil . If. Neil you know, trey, were learning right now Israeli Soldiers taking out two hamas key players. I dont know whether they would be considered formal commanders, but can you tell us about that . Reporter yeah. Were talking about two individuals. Morad is a Hamas Aerial Systems link. He was the man responsible for dealing with the aerial systems as it e related to this multifaceted attack on saturday morn, this massacre of so many civilians. Certainly an important target for the israelis given the background. Kud can i was a Company Commander for one of the groups of fighters that crossed into israel and conducted some of the slaughter of civilians. So these are two people linked to what happened on Saturday Morning and yet another message by the israelis that they will target each and every person that had any responsibility for what took the place here and the deaths of more than 1300 soldiers and civilians. Neil . Neil trey, id also learn right now, its not only difficult for anyone to get out of israel right now with american airlines, you know, canceling flights to and from israel, but its apparently extending to points outside israel. Lufthansas just canceled all flights to lebanon for the next couple of days. Thats got to complicate the picture there are those for those trying to get out, right . Reporter yeah, absolutely. Weve received a lot of messages. People see us on air, they know that we are inside israel, we understand the situation, and they say my participants are stuck in tel aviv parents stomach in jerusalem, they are on a vacation and now they cant get home. And so its important to note there are many people, and you can see some more equipment going behind me, there are many people who are trying to get out and simply cant. We know the border with jordan does remain open, but its difficult to get all of the logistics together. And im just going to step out of the way so you can see some of this Military Equipment on the move, neil. This is a very active area. This is one of of the main junctions where there are soldiers and equipment moving from place to place. But i can tell you the equipment, and you can see the soldiers here many in high spirits as awe they move this stuff near the border. But i can tell you that all of this is headed toward gaza. Were not talking about a limited operation, we are talking about a full scale seeming on the gaza strip from multiple different points, and thats exactly what israel is preparing for. Neal . Neil you know, trey, with very little sleep for you and your crew, youve to gone around the country and have a chance to see how average israelis are holding up through all of this because it changes and gets scarier by the hour, by the day. How would you sum it up . If how are they putting up with all of this . Reporter i think people are showing up in a lot of different ways. You see Restaurant Owners bringing food to soldiers. Almost every building that you go into, especially hotels where there are families from many of these communities that were attacked by hamas and islamic jihad, they have boxes of supplies, toothpaste, socks, food, anything these people would need because everyone is pitching in whatever way they can. In terms of the psyche of the israeli people, this was a collective trauma against the country of more than 9 Million People. Weve spoken with many soldiers today, and theyre in high spirits. They are focused. Even benny ganz, the countrys former Defense Minister, a man who is currently on the cabinet making these decisions alongside other israeli leaders, he was very specific to reference what he has seen and why that was a motivating factor in whats about to take place in gaza. So the soldiers are motivated and they are ready. They do say, some of them, they are scared to go into battle, but they are going to do it to protect their country. On the civilian side, its difficult. Parents are trying to explain whats taken place to their children. One person described to me as ref are few gees in their own country refugees. And its true. Their homes were burnt down by hamas, they were destroyed, communities slaughtered. There are still bodies in these communities that are being worked through by israeli officials that can make it there, but its often too dangerous to get to some of these areas along the border. It was a collective trauma for the israeli people. Theres an understanding there are difficult days ahead. Neil . Neil trey, i know youre getting tired of hearing this, my friend, but please be safe, you and your crew. Thank you so much for incredible reporting through so much. Trey yingst in israel. There are, we are told, 14 americans who are missing, assumed hostages, right now, and the focus is on trying to rescue them or get them out of harms way. Al zahn drink cra of at the white house with the latest on that. Reporter hey, neil, thats right. And the president spoke with their families yesterday. I do first want to get to secretary blinken because he did just land in abu dhabi as he continues what is a regional a campaign to expose hamas as a terrorist organization and nothing less. That was his focus, his focus when he sat down with saudi arabias Foreign Minister earlier today. The tone coming from the two differed though. The Foreign Minister did not mention hamas, blinken did right off the a bat. We need to Work Together to find a way out of this cycle of violence. This is, i think, an important moment for moral clarity when it comes to hamas. At the same time, as israel pursues its legitimate right to defending its people and to trying to assure that this never happens again,s it is vitally important that all of us look out for civilians. Reporter or so both agree e that safe passage for civilians is critical. Sources tell our Jacqui Heinrich that the u. S. Had actually urged israel to delay any Ground Invasion into gaza a until a route out was secured. President biden, what worries you about a potential israeli Ground Invasion . Death. Reporter you heard the president say right there simply death is his biggest worry. That was during a trip to philadelphia yesterday when the president said he did speak with the families of the 14 missing americans. He spoke over zoom, a conversation he called gutwrenching. I assured them my personal commitment to do Everything Possible, Everything Possible to return every missing american to their families. Were not going to stop until we bring them home. Reporter but, of course, before they can be brought home, they have to be located. Many of these 14 may be hostage as of hamas right now. Something else i want to mention is that this meeting with saudi arabias Foreign Minister the comes at a critical time as saudi arabia is reportedly putting on pause talks that they had with israel to instead focus on iran, try to deescalate tensions in the region, neil. Neil alexandria, thank you for that. In the meantime right now, the reverberations of an imminent ground war that could change the complexion of israel and maybe the region for some time to come. With us right now is ehud baa a rack, the form former barak the former Prime Minister of israel joining us out of tel aviv. Mr. President , thank you for joining us. Neil thank you. Neil Benjamin Netanyahu has said the goal here is the elimination of hamas. Do you agree with that goal . Look [inaudible] but we exactly determined to make sure that hamas will be paralyzed. And all his operational capabilities will be taken from him to the last rocket launcher, Weapons System or individual who participated in these terrible kind of barbarian attacks. And we are determined to make sure that this kind of event can never happen, and hamas is a Military Terrorist Organization that will be totally, fully paralyzed. Neil you know, Prime Minister, are you surprised or disheartened by some, not all, sir, of the Global Reaction . The United Nations warning that any israeli activity to clear out, you know, gaza will be a Human Tragedy and israel shouldnt try it . Weve heard from a lot of countries in the middle east themselves including countries presumably friendly to you prior to all of this, from egypt to the united arab emirates, even saudi arabia saying that this was of israels making. What do you make of that . I dont listen to anything that they say from any place, you know . After these attacks which was the most severe blow in that we suffered since the state of israel. To a murder, 1300 israelis with terrible, you know, some people were decapitated, babies that were slaughtered, their whole families, and its really bar bare. Its a [speaking in native tongue] you call it isis, alqaedalike operation. And you, The Americans crossed half of the globe to put an end to the phenomenon of alqaeda or daish, and we are going to do the same beyond our border with these guys who executed these brutal attacks. So we, you know, we would be happy if it could be accomplished from the air. It probably cannot be accomplished from the area to go underground and make sure that it happens and, of course, we are totally committed to the international law. So we have to warn them with enough time. So we already issued warnings that whoever have any hamas activity or terror nature or holding some munitions or having an office, whoever had any such activity within the residential place, working place have to move out of this place because with every such place is a target. And we warned the population, please, make sure you leave the area. We cannot assure a full completion. And and so probably inevitably there will be certain Collateral Damage and people will be killed. But, you know, its a whole different. They sent the terrorists deliberately to slaughter innocent civilian people. We are hitting them back and and only those who would not leave the place in spite of our warnings, repeated warnings might risk their lives. Neil you know, i was thinking, Prime Minister, ahead of your coming here the significant role you played trying to broker peace for your country. You were elected in may 1999, you were the Labor Party Leader at the time. You defeated at the time Benjamin Netanyahu in that race for Prime Minister. The next year you were at camp david meeting with Jasser Arafao Hammer out an accord that would form a lasting peace. Much like the Camp David Accords before that with jimmy carter, israel and palestinians have had a devil of a time doing just that that. Now, a hamas has complicated things at a minimum, i get that. But do you get frustrated with a process that is unending and war and violence that is unending no matter your aggressive peace efforts and those of Prime Ministers before and after you . We are now focused on the war. We first have to win the war. We suffered an a unprecedented blow, but we are a defiant species. We know how to unite when we face a real threat, and now we are focused on a kind of completing what i have just described. And we will win. Even if it, certain constraints on the operation, one constraint is the hostages, another constraint is the, to whom you might pass the torch of Controlling Gaza even if we spend the next several weeks in cleaning every, every spot of hamas activities of present. We have, we dont intend to stay there for 20 years. We have to [inaudible] thats the second constraint. Third constraint is the possibility that it will spread e to the hezbollah in lebanon, probably some dormant cells will come out in jihad. In west bank probably even some she e unite mill saw shiite militias backed on the syrian side of the golan heights. All of them might join is. We have to take it into account. We are not interested in intervention, but already they will do do it on the initiative of probably the situation will just deteriorate through the exchange of activity. So even with these wider situation in which we have to take into account, it can happen. I cant promise you there is no exist ten existential net to the state of israel. Threat. It might take more toil and sweat and tear and blood, but we win this war. Thats whats important. Now, i never lost my eye contact with the fact that at the the end of the road we should have certain kind of arrangement9 with the fall pal Stinting Januaries palestinians. I am great believer in the twostate solution. But thats not the time for it. There is dispute about it in israel and netanyahu mentioned the opposite. I think that hes it doesnt matter right now. We are now focused on destroying the hamas, and we will do it. Neil all right. So when you say destroying hamas, that echoes what the president has said the Prime Minister has said now, that that that is the goal. So by that i assume whatever happens in gaza after this attack and you make things right and you hope that things, you know, theyre eradicated, hamas should have no role then in gaza, right . Would that be yeah. Neil important to handing over to whomever does get that control, no connections to hamas at all . Look, you know, there is a utopian wish, i dont know if its