The Palestinian Militants responsible for the massive Terror Attack thats left hundreds dead, including americans. Its what israeli officials called their 9 11. Tonight, israels Prime Minister says airstrikes in gaza are just beginning. [speaking in a global language] translator we just started to hit hamas. Meanwhile, the death toll is also growing inside gaza tonight. Palestinian Officials Say hundreds are dead from israeli retaliation operations, including civilians, rescuers combing through rubble. [speaking in a global language] we were sitting peacefully, and then started Feeling Debris falling on us. My dad and sister were killed, this man says. And gaza, hamas is holding over 100 israelis hostage, including young children, elderly, and entire innocent families. President biden warns there are likely americans among them. Hamas is now threatening to kill those hostages unless israel stops killing civilians in gaza. Our own Richard Engel saw some of the ongoing Rocket Attacks firsthand earlier today. Earlier today, we drove to the town of sderot near gaza, close to where the Music Festival was held. Major spellman, an Israeli Military spokesman, described the hamas Killing Spree here. Started shooting all these vehicles, people standing at the bus stop, everything you see, carnage everywhere, dead bodies. Then came a barrage of rockets from gaza. Everybody in . This is what were up against. This is like a Shooter Situation in the u. S. Imagine the thousand Shooter Situations happening constantly. Do you think were clear . We are. As we left for another part of sderot, israeli troops seemed tense. It turned out, with good reason. [sound of artillery] [sound of artillery] [speaking in a global language] stay down, stay down. [sound of artillery] [sound of artillery] [speaking in a global language] [sound of artillery] so these seem to be mortars. Theyre coming in very close. Thankfully, richard and his team were not hurt. But the question on everyones mind tonight, how did Israeli Intelligence miss an attack of this magnitude . Many tonight calling it a monumental Intelligence Failure. How did israels vaunted Intelligence Network and military and the u. S. Not see this coming . There were a lot of failures that led up to this. Clearly, the israelis didnt have either the human or Technical Resources that give them insight into this. This clearly was a failure of epic proportions. Now, questions about whether israel has been distracted by yearlong protest dividing the country over the Prime Ministers controversial plan to overhaul their supreme court, even prompting many Army Reservist refused to shop for duty. [sound of gunfire] some reporting iran helped plan the attack, but u. S. And israeli officials tell nbc news its unclear what role iran played. I just want to say were examining the exact iranian role in this. We are not 100 sure about their Operations Role in this, and whether or not theyre involved in the operation, the planning, execution of this in israel. It wouldnt surprise me if we discovered it was a complete iranian rule behind the scenes. With that, lets bring in msnbc Chief Correspondent and my partner ali velshi, joining us live from tel aviv. Ali, i hope you got some sleep. It is just passed 60 am there. Tell us whats been happening overnight. Its been one of those environments for my team and i havent slept in 40 hours. But it is i can tell you, stephanie, how heartbreaking this is on all fronts. First of all, just the way israelis are feeling. From the moment we crossed the border from jordan, we encountered israelis who were asking us whether we knew what had happened. They obviously saw we are media and had our gear, and their hearts were pouring up in that moment. The tension, the fear, the grief, and i want to say fear, israelis have been through a lot, theyve since the creation of this country. They feel fearful. Someone told me theyre more fearful than they have been before 1973. The folks of gaza, 2. 2 Million People, they are very fearful. They have seen the wrath of israel as a result of retribution for those strikes. They now are facing siege. Israel has said theyre not allowing food, water, or diesel fuel in. The gaza operates on diesel fuel. Their electrical power plant uses diesel fuel. Theyre going to run out of that in three days. 2. 2 Million People, and theyre going to run out of fuel. Were gonna see a humanitarian disaster there, plus continued airstrikes. Last night, 500 airstrikes. Then we have a third problem, theres problems in the west bank. Thats been going on for about ten months. Theyve called out reservists, and theyve had reservists go into the west bank. Now, theres no army in the west bank. But its individual acts of protest and violence that take place. Those have ramped up tonight. And then theyve got the northern border with lebanon. Hezbollah is there. They lob some missiles in on saturday as a show of support, not ruling anything meaningful, but a show of support for israel. And there was the incursion by some hezbollah militants today. An israeli commander was killed in that protest. So israel is now preparing for action on three fronts. Theyve told israelis, be prepared have three days worth of water and non perishable foods in case this escalates, so that you at least got food in your house. They called up 300,000 reservists. Think about that, stephanie. Theyve never had that many reserves. They dont have the, in fact, in the country. So el al, the airline, ascending airplanes to countries where these reservists live, just bring them back into the country. This country is on a war footing. It has declared war. Tel aviv, the city, its six in the morning, but even at eight in the evening, seven in the evening, its a vibrant city. Its sort of a Bit Reminiscent of miami, a mix of restaurants, clubs, things like that. Not today, not yes day, things are closed, restaurants are closed, cafes are closed, the streets are empty. We had fighter jets go bus earlier. Four hours ago, we are the intercepts for the iron dome, the missiles that intercept the rockets that come in from gaza, each of them in a row. And this is tel aviv. And the south, this is happening, rockets are landing all over the place. There are still hamas militants, the israelis say, inside of israel who are not accounted for. And of course, the biggest story of all, the people who were killed in the videos that youve been seeing, but the hostages who are still alive. Theyre in gaza, they believe theyre in gaza. Theyre not sure who they, are not sure how many there are, and they want them out. Benjamin netanyahu as promised that there might be an incursion, a Ground Invasion of gaza. But he cant do that until they figure where these hostages are, because those hostages could end up as human shields. This is a terrible, terrible situation for everybody involved, stephanie. And theres nothing ive seen since ive been here for the last two days that indicates that anything is Getting Better anytime soon, steph. These hostages, children, families, the elderly, an attack on humanity. Ali velshi thank you so much. Please get some rest, stay safe, we need your reporting. Lets dig deeper with our lead off panel, peter baker joined, the chief White House Correspondent for the new york times. Axios Reporter Barack revealed, he just moved to the u. S. From israel to cover Foreign Policy and politics. And jeremy bash is here, former Chief Of Staff at the cia and the pentagon. Barack what have you been hearing from your friends and colleagues in israel over the last 48 hours . Hello, stephanie. I think that, if i can try and explain or describe the way, i think the majority of Israelis Feel, i think 80 to 85 of Israelis Feel right now, its on the one hand, it shock. I think it is still stop shock, even though three days have passed. Its humiliation. Its anger. And more than everything, it is people want revenge. Again, im trying to describe to hear how people feel, not expressing an opinion. And i think because so many Israelis Feel that, if you asked the Average Israeli right now what he wants to see, he will tell you, why arent we going in . Thats what most israelis want to see right now, the idf going into gaza. And this is why i think it is pretty clear, and Prime Minister netanyahu told this to joe biden, president joe biden, on sunday when they spoke, he told him we have no choice. Were not going to have any negotiations right now. Were going in. How is this time different . Put it in perspective for us, barak. Well, i think its, you know, this is the First Time Since 1948, when israel was established, since our war of independence, that israeli villages and towns were occupied by the enemy, First Time Since the country was established. The amount of carnage and killing by hamas was the biggest ever in the history of israel. Just to give you an example, in the entire second intifada, which was between two and three years, we had more than 2000 people were killed in suicide bombings. Now in one day, we have 1000 israelis who are killed in one terrorist attack. So i think people are shocked, people are angry, and i think the result will be that the government will have to go on a massive operation that will take a lot of time, at least from what i hear from senior israeli officials, theyre talking about at least three months. I want to say it again so people will understand, at least three months. This means more airstrikes. This means a ground operation. This means a lot of people dead on both sides. Peter, the amount and killing and carnage of the inset it is almost unfathomable. Help us understand the mission of hamas, the goal of hamas. Well, thats a real mystery here, i think, for a lot of people. Because in fact what they are doing here is not just inflicting harm on the enemy, but bringing harm to their own people, right. They know, they had to have known of course that that he is for imposing an entire siege on gaza, that they are cutting off supplies of food and water and fuel to gaza, thats 2 Million People there who are going to be, in theory, affected by this, and many of whom who are of course not hamas importers or anything to do with this attack. And hamas do knew that going in, and obviously it did not stop or deter them from doing that. So why did they do this . Its a very good question. There is speculation that this came at a time when United States, biden administration, had been negotiating an agreement between israel and saudi arabia to finally establish normal diplomatic relations. If that were to happen, they would transform the dynamics of the region, they would really be a gamechanger for the middle east. And obviously, are on, which is hamass patron, is against that. So well see if it turns out to be a motivating factor according to any investigation or intelligence. But obviously, a lot of people are looking at that and thinking it cannot be a coincidence. Well, people who are looking at that, are they seeing this as an attack on israel, or an attack on jews, peter . Well, its a good question. In some ways, its obviously both. You cant separate the two. Its motivated obviously by many things. Obviously, there are many palestinians who have longstanding grievances about what israel does in terms of its protection of its own security, in terms of blockading gaza, and so forth. But remember, the israelites pulled out of gaza in 2005. They said, fine, you want to be in charge, there you are in charge there. But its been a nightmare situation there ever since, largely because hamas has been in charge. Hamas has never accepted responsibility for making gaza a better place. Instead, its chosen to repeatedly and periodically launch much smaller scale attacks, nothing of the scale and scope were seeing today. Now, weve seen it obviously raised to a far different light barak to, said something we havent seen in israel in decades, if ever. Jeremy, whats the important thing that you think we need to understand tonight . I think this is much worse than 9 11 for israel, stephanie, for a couple of reasons. First and foremost, just in terms of proportion, obviously a country of 9 Million People suffering 1000 dead on a single day is like if in the United States 25,000 people being killed. The second is after 9 11, we didnt have rockets raining down our entire country. Our entire country wasnt living in Bomb Shelters. And hezbollah in the north, with 200,000 rocket pieces, hamas with another 50,000 rocket, artillery, and mortar pieces in the south, they can suppress the entire population of israel and force them into Bomb Shelters for weeks at a time. We did have that after 9 11. We didnt actually fear that america was would be under attack from all sides and our borders were going to be breach and that our way of life has gone to fundamentally change. But we knew that we would fundamentally survive. I think israelis at this hour are questioning exactly what their Security Looks like over the next days, weeks, and months. And i think its very difficult for americans to palpably understand that fear, that trepidation. Jeremy, how could an Intelligence Failure of this magnitude happen . Well first of all, i think its a failure on multiple levels, not just intelligence. We dont actually know what the intelligence said or did not say. It might have been a failure of collection. It might have been a failure of analysis. Might have been a failure of border security. Might have been a failure of technology. It probably was a systemic failure on all those fronts, including on civil defense, on the idea of force posture. I think in the history of this is written, were going to see a perfect storm gathering. It took the United States three years, not until july 2004, to fully analyze and appreciate the lessons of 9 11. I think its gonna take israel a very long time to focus at this hour isnt why it this happened, its how to secure the border, how to get hostages out, and how to ensure that there arent rocket artillery, murder and Terrorist Threats that essentially suppress the entire country for the coming days and weeks. Barak, you want to weigh in . Yes, i think that lets try to maybe broaden the scope a bit. In the last nine months, since this Israeli Government assumed office, it went on a campaign against israels judicial system and try to push this judicial overhaul that the result was the weakening of Israeli Society, israeli economy, and the Israeli Military. And i think that Israeli Intelligence did not give a warning of that specific attack, but Israeli Intelligence told the Prime Minister and the Israeli Security cabinet for months that israels enemies are looking at whats going on in israel, they see that israel is weaker, that its more vulnerable, that there will also be that they will wake up one morning and say, you know what, were going to do something. So strategically, i think the intelligence was right. Operationally, tactically, there was a failure. But strategically, i think if you ask the why did hamas decide to do it, i think they decide to do it now because it saw how weak israel is because of the Israeli Governments judicial overhaul. Jeremy, how is Vladimir Putin reacting to all of this . It sure seems like a plays right into his hand. Yeah, undoubtedly, he wants the United States and the west to be distracted. Obviously, our support for ukraines what hes trying to fight against. So every moment that we focus on another region is sort of a big day for putin. I mean, there is a important strategic dynamic happening, which is that putin has supported iran, iran has supported hamas. So, you can kind of see these things lining up. And i think its very important for the United States, for western countries, including our nato allies, to continue to stand for square behind israel. Actually, i think probably other arab countries, including gulf countries, are also supporting israel, although maybe not as loudly as other countries. But i think stephanie your point is right, which is that we should analyze this also the context of the Russia Ukraine war. Peter, you worked in moscow and covered putin for years, how do you think hes reacted . I think what germany said is right. Anything that takes the american focus away from ukraine, from his perspective, is a good thing. But its a complicated thing as well. Remember, a lot of russians live in israel, a lot of russians are currently living in Bomb Shelters and afraid for their lives. A lot of russian israelis have been