From them. The army is now getting in touch with families, i know, and, you know, im keeping my hopes up that theyre alive and well. I know their father and his spouse were taken, also, because weve seen one of the videos. Videos that hamas put on, so we know theyre alive. Im hoping that theyre with them. An israeli mother sharing the story of her sons who were taken hostage by hamas. The Terrorist Group is now threatening to execute dozens of people they have captured, quote, Without Warning. Meaning israeli israel is promising a complete Siege Of Gaza, launching more air strikes overnight while cutting off the area from basic necessities. Were going to get a live report for the latest on all of that straight ahead, right here on morning joe. Good morning and welcome to morning joe. It is tuesday, october 11th. According to israeli authorities, more than 900 israelis have been killed since the fighting began on saturday. The Health Ministry in gaza says 700 palestinians are dead. 11 americans are also among those killed. This brings the total number of deaths to at least 1,600. Hamas says it has kidnapped more than 100 people from israel. It is believed some americans are among those being held captive. The Terrorist Group is threatening to execute a civilian hostage every time israel targets civilians in gaza would warning. Meanwhile, Prime Minister netanyahu is vowing to destroy hamas. In a televised address yesterday, netanyahu says the Military Operations against the Terrorist Organizations are, quote, just beginning. He called on israelis to unite, saying the country has difficult days coming, but that israel will be victorious. Yesterday, israel announced a Siege Of Gaza, cutting off food, water, electricity, and fuel, to roughly 2 million residents there. Since then, air strikes have bombarded the border. Israel says it has restored full control over the communities hamas militants had stormed in the Surprise Attack over the weekend. The country also activated 300,000 military reservists, a potential sign israel could be preparing for a major Ground Invasion of gaza. The last time Ground Forces entered there was in 2014. Joining us now from near the gaza border with israel is nbc news chief Foreign CorrespondentRichard Engel. Richard, what are you seeing there . Reporter well, good morning. We are now on day four of this war, and you mentioned that death toll among israelis that is being reported in the israeli media, 900. It has been going up every day because, frankly, the israelis dont know exactly how many people were killed. We are now in the kibbutz, on the border with gaza. This was one of the first places they entered. They broke out of the gaza strip and came into the community. Some troops just secured this area, but they dont know exactly what is in store for them as they are going through homes. Theyve brought in the ambulances here, recovery teams. Weve seen teams coming out with body bags. They are looking for israeli bodies, and they believe there could be dozens in this village. This is still an active fire zone, so it is possible that there will be incoming fire in this area. There are a lot of troops around the perimeter. This is the First Mission that israelis must do, is to try to reclaim and secure their own communities, before they can potentially go into the gaza strip. Here are some of the soldiers. Theyre taking a break right now, and theyve been going through houses like this to check for booby traps, but mostly to look for israeli victims. Weve also seen ourselves many hamas fighters, their bodies are on the ground, some under trees. Theyve been wearing, the ones we saw, Camouflage Fatigues, and now, because it is very hot, the bodies are starting to decompose. So it is a there are scenes like this all throughout the border communities because this attack didnt just take place at the concert venue, didnt just take place in sderot, where we were yesterday. There are many kibbutzes and towns all in the envelope surrounding the gaza strip, and those were the places that took the brunt of the hamas assault. Were talking about a very large assault. Hamas was able to create about 30 different holes in the border fences, breach communities, breach the border, come into communities like this and go on their killing and kidnapping rampage. Richard, as someone who has covered the region so closely for so many years, spent so much time there, what is your sense of the challenge israel now faces, if it sends troops into gaza . Theyre attacking from the air now in response to the attack over the weekend. Its a small space with 2 Million People as they look for the israeli hostages being held there. How difficult a challenge will that be . Reporter i think it is an enormously difficult challenge, and more so now because israelis have realized how much time hamas has spent in preparation. Hamas just put out new videos this morning showing them, showing their fighters erecting mock Israeli Border fences, blowing them up, crossing these mock fences with Breaching Tools in order to train for this assault. The palestinians are calling this the flood, and thats the symbolism theyre using. The fighters from gaza were flooding into israel. So if the israelis do go in and engage in streettostreet fighting in the gaza strip, which theyve done in the past and has been difficult in the past, it is very likely to be even more difficult this time because hamas has the initiative. They chose the timing of this assault, and they clearly areba seen over the last four days. Richard, joe here. You mentioned the training. The Washington Post talking about the massive Security Failures and Military Failures on the netanyahu governments part. Theyre talking about, as you were saying, how hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists had been trained for weeks, drilling in rocket launchers, practicing kidnapping soldiers, destroying settlements. Talk about the israeli people and how shaken they are by their governments failure to protect them from the initial attack and also not rescuing them from their until hours after the terrorists stormed over the gates. Reporter theres a lot of uncertainty here. I can say israelis are shaken by this. They are much more nervous than ive seen in previous conflicts. They were taken by surprise. They were also israelis were also angry that it took a long time, from their perspective, for the army to react. The concert that has received so much attention, for good reason. It was the overnight rave that hundreds of israeli youngsters were attending that was attacked. When i first heard about this assault, i thought it was a relatively quick thing, that the hamas went in, they opened fire on people, they grabbed as many as they could, and they went back over the border. Thats not what happened. Weve spoken to people who were there, to people who were on the phone with relatives who were there during the assault. It lasted about four hours. The israelis have told me time and time again, where was the Rescue Operation . Why werent forces coming more quickly . There was a long gap in the initial phases of this assault when the israelis seemed to be caught flat footed. There is anger about that. But now, i think this country is pulling together. Ive spoken to people who previously didnt like Benjamin Netanyahu, previously were opponents, and they say, yes, were going to address these issues. Were going to look into it. Well have an afteraction analysis of what went wrong. But right now, with hamas militants still on the loose, its not the time to focus on that. That the truth will come out over the course of the investigations in the coming days, weeks, months potentially, but, right now, they say, we need to pull together to secure this country and try to get the hundreds 100, maybe 150 hostages out of gaza. They dont know how many hostages there are. They dont know exactly how many bodies there are. In places like this, theyre still doing clearing operations, recovering people. If that death toll is 900 now, after they go through, this kibbutz right now, it could up by a few dozen. This isnt the only clearing operation. Chief Foreign CorrespondentRichard Engel, thank you very much. Well talk to you again soon. Lets bring in the host of way too early, White House Bureau chief at politico, jonathan lemire. Editor for the Washington Post, David Ignatius. Former Chief Of Staff at the cia and department of defense, jeremy bash. He is an Nbc News National Security analyst. Thank you, all, for being with us. David ignatius, weve all been wondering how this happened. We have all been wondering how the Israeli Government was caught asleep so badly. Especially as your newspaper is reporting, that theyve been practicing for weeks in plain sight of Israeli Soldiers, of basically committing these heinous acts. Now, as Richard Engel reports, the concert, the massacre at the concert, over four hours long. Weve heard from israelis locked in their homes for hour after hour, wondering where the army was. In all your reporting, david, have you been able to unpack over the past couple days how this could have been such a massive Security Failure and Military Failure by an Israeli Government that has long been considered one of the best, one of the strongest, one of the swiftest . Most secure. One of the most secure. Joe, the only thing ive really been able to focus on clearly is our own experience after 9 11, when we realized that every indicator that an attack was coming was in the system, but our Intelligence Analysts didnt see it. In the famous phrase, they couldnt connect the dots. They didnt see what was in front of their eyes. There must be some of that going on in this case. I think the Biggest Surprise for the israelis and for analysts looking from outside, is not the intense hatred that hamas has, the Terrorist Tactics, we knew their level on feelings about israel, its their competence in executing this operation. Their ability to keep secrets. The operational secrecy that preceded this is extraordinary. There are reports that even the head of hamas may not have known the details of this operation in the weeks before. It was done with that degree of caution. Im also struck, joe, by the question, if the israelis didnt know this with their Incredible Focus On Gaza and hamas, what else didnt they know . I think Intelligence Services all over the world are going to be asking themselves in the wake of this, if our israeli Brothers And Sisters, who were supposed to be the best of the best, missed this, what are we missing now . What is america missing about china and chinas intentions . What are we missing about russia . Talking to intelligence professionals over the last couple days, thats what im hearing, what else dont we know . David, as we talk about the miscalculations and the failure to connect the dots, also reporting that netanyahu and his government had come to the conclusion that they could somehow manage hamas, that they could work with hamas, that they could pay off hamas, and their focus was primarily on the west bank and the settlements. How could they have made that grave of a miscalculation . This Terrorist Group that the world has known to be a Terrorist Group for so long. So, joe, i think the biggest nightmare for the israelis today is the recognition that deterrence hasnt worked with hamas. The israelis have gone in repeatedly, again and again to gaza, the level of violence back and forth has been extraordinary. Weve had several decades of it. There was a belief that hamas was deterred from this kind of major action. That turned out not to be true. So if youre bibi netanyahu, the Prime Minister, you have to decide how you restore whats deterrence . Its a level of fear and determination. How do you restore that . What action will be strong enough, in his words, will reverberate through generations and prevent future attacks like this. The problem for Israeli Attackers today is they have to plan this overwhelming, intimidating operation, perhaps invasion of gaza, with more than 100 israeli hostages in tunnels, buried in places the israelis probably dont know where they are. Tunnels are probably booby trapped. For an Israeli Operations planner today, right now, this is a nightmare, trying to think through exactly what to do in coming weeks. Mika, this is the Washington Post interviewed the former head of israels National Security council. He said, the Modus Operendi was that there was a price every so often, and that was the best that israel hoped for. Now, the strategy is violated, that they could manage a Terrorist Group like hamas. Like iran, hamas cant be managed. No. Jeremy bash, one of the questions the United States administration is dealing with this morning, you have Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu vowing to destroy hamas. As David Ignatius pointed out, there are some 100 hostages whose lives hang in the balance. Their location is not completely known. Yeah, mika. First of all, first and foremost, we may have american hostages in harms way. I think the u. S. Government is going to be intensely focused on that. Second, of course, is to prevent a wider war, to prevent any mobilization by Islamic Jihad or hamas elements inside the west bank, to go after the Palestinian Authority leadership or try to infiltrate israel. Israels main Population Center is right there next to main Population Centers in the west bank. Third, of course, is to keep israels northern border quiet, where hezbollah has 250,000 Rocket Artillery and mortar pieces. We talked about 9 11. I think this is worse than 9 11 for israel in some important respects. First, in sheer proportionality. Its about like 25,000 americans being killed, if you take the proportions of our populations respectively. Second is, you know, we didnt have hostages being held after 9 11. Third, we didnt have rockets raining down on our entire country. Our entire country wasnt in Bomb Shelters. Fourth, we didnt have a Mass Mobilization of every military aged male over the age of 18, which is what israel is undergoing right now. In so many respects, this is so much more devastating for israel than even we experienced after 9 11. John, President Biden is going to make a speech at 1 00 this afternoon. He is going to talk about israel, about the Terrorist Attack on the country there. Hes been in close contact with Prime Minister netanyahu, offering unequivocal support for the israelis in this fight as they seek now to respond and destroy hamas. In the words of netanyahu. What do you expect to hear today from the president . What more should we expect from the United States in terms of support for israel . Were seeing the white house here lit up in the colors of the israeli flag. The blue and white still on this morning before the Sun Jnsunrise in washington. Yes, the president , we didnt see him in public the last two days but we will be today. Hes been busy Behind The Scenes, working the phones, spoke to netanyahu at least price. He rallied a statement of support from european partners, putting out a joint communique yes, saying they stand completely behind israel in condemning this hamas terror attack. I suspect today, aids have previewed that it will be more fullthroated support, suggesting that the u. S. Stands with israel and has been an ally for decades. And they will do everything they can to help. Now, there are complications here, of course, the biggest being theres no speaker of the house. Therefore, it will be challenging to put together the funding that israel will need. The military and Security Assistance. Theres some the u. S. Can do immediately. We saw weapons transfers. There are shortterm solutions they can do in the interim moment with the house in chaos. If there is a longer, prolonged