Arab leaders over the siege denying gaza water, food and fuel. Now staying in the region another day as the one possible escape for gazans is not open, despite promises. President biden canceled his scheduled trip to colorado to stay in d. C. , stay at the white house and oversee the crisis. The white house is in touch with iran through back channels, we are told, to hold off any expansion of the war or else. Future u. S. Aid for israel is on hold until the House Republican majority can unite behind a new speaker, with the current frontrunner facing obstacles to securing the gavel. Good day. Im Andrea Mitchell in washington where the humanitarian crisis in gaza is worsening by the day. Israeli troops are massed at the border. They are not moving into position for an assault. Israel says the number of hostages has increased to 199. Secretary blinken in israel today is extending his diplomacy, pressing to open the crossing to let people out of Gaza To Egypt and let aid in. In the u. S. , the fbi Director Warning of increasing threats of hate crimes. In chicago, a 6yearold Palestinian American child, a boy, has been brutally murdered by his landlord who has been held on murder and hate crime charges are being investigated by the feds. The numbers get worse by the day. More than 1,400 israelis killed and 2,700 palestinians. Richard engel and his team on the ground getting a closer look at the devastation in gaza, including the heroism of some palestinians who are dismissing the danger to protect children who cannot flee the devastation. Reporter not everyone can leave, like the 22 children at an orphanage in gaza city. 12 of the children here are disabled. They are being cared for now by only two adults after the rest of the staff left for safer areas. This boy is 9 years old. He is blind and has profound disabilities. Maria is 7 and can only scoot. These children cant get out of the way of a coming ground war. Joining me now is Richard Engel, near the israel gaza border and nbcs matt bradley, up north in lebanon. Richard, Israeli Defense forces notified 199 families of hostages that their loved ones are being held in gaza and their futures could decide how large this Ground Offensive will be and when it starts. Reporter i can tell you that negotiations are still underway to try and get these hostages out. Im in touch directly with some people involved in these negotiations. They are incredibly sensitive discussions. Hamas, we know what they want. They want its prisoners out of israeli jails. Israel wants the prisoners the hostages released immediately, unconditionally. The hostages have also created a problem for the arab nations. According to negotiators and arab officials im speaking to, the arab world is embarrassed by this. It made it difficult to support the palestinian cause, because it is tarnishing the image of the palestinian cause. They cant defend people who go out claiming to be speaking for the islamic world who kidnap infants and disabled people and hold them hostage and make videos. These are sensitive talks. I think i know they are ongoing. That could be a reason why we havent seen a serious Frontal Assault by the israeli troops who are ringing the gaza strip. It seemed like they were going to go in a few days ago. Now we are in this period of diplomacy, trying to evacuate the americans from gaza and other foreign nationals, trying to evacuate the americans in israel who needed assistance getting out of the country and to try and get those 200 hostages who are somewhere in gaza right now held by hamas and potentially other militant groups. Once you go into gaza strip, right now particularly when people are on the move, it becomes incredibly complicated. These are some of the most delicate conversations that you could imagine. Richard, theres a lot of pressure from the u. S. We know Secretary Blinken is staying, extending his trip. He got a lot of pushback from the leader of egypt and from saudi arabia against the denial of aid, the siege. Water was allowed yesterday, we were told. The electricity the fuel, rather, for generators they cant pump water to people. Theres a lot of pressure from the arab leaders on the u. S. To president the israelis on getting aid in and getting people out. Egypt still hasnt delivered on the crossing. Its still closed. Egypt in particular is baring the brunt of a lot of frustration in the arab world. It looks like an easy solution. Open the door and allow the people to find a safe place, the same way poland and hungary and moldova did during the ukraine war. Open the door, give these people homes and let the militants fight it out with israel. It seems very complicated. Its not happening. Egypt wants to ensure that if it does open that gate, at least it what will effectively be a symbolic amount of aid, food and water across that border. But still, the diplomacy this is the middle east. Diplomacy can take a very long time. It hasnt happened yet. Richard engel, stay safe, you and your team. And matt bradley, in lebanon, hezbollah officials claim they are taking out Israeli Military depots to the north. There are concerns their involvement could increase in the coming days. There are back channel talks with iran from the United States, we believe through intermediaries. They are reaching out to iran to stay out of it, despite the meetings with the iranians in lebanon with hezbollah and with the iranians over the weekend with hamas. Reporter we are seeing diplomacy throughout the region. Its in parallel with Antony Blinken visiting several arab states as well as israel. The other with the Iranian Foreign minister visiting Client States or allies of iran and proxy groups like hezbollah, which is where thats the predominant force where i am here in southern lebanon. And hamas, Based In Gaza Near where Richard Engel is. We are seeing this parallel diplomacy. Both of them dancing around each other. At the same time, they are trying to create peace. They are also sort of instigating each other and launching at each other. I spoke with one member of hezbollah, a member of pa parliament. Here is what he told me. S what. Reporter he made a little interesting reference there, andrea, you could hear to the Axis Of Resistance. This is a selfstyled coalition of iranled governments and proxy groups like hezbollah, like hamas, who get direction from tehran. They also are somewhat independent. Its a very loose coalition. This reference that he made to the Axis Of Resistance, these are all groups that are opposed to israel and that are more opposed to Suni Gulf Powers like saudi arabia. That decision will be made in the coming days, and we believe after a sense of what israel is going to do in the gaza strip. Right now, hezbollah which is based in southern lebanon, just over the border with israel thats behind me, think are positioning themselves as a deterrent to whatever israel does in the gaza strip. They want to be placed here to move in and try to split the israeli army should they try to completely dismember hamas, which is exactly what they say theyre going to be doing in the coming days or weeks. We have a very delicate situation here. We have been seeing this crossborder firing over this border for the past week. It has been on a slow, rumbling sort of simmer. If anybody makes a mistake on that border and escalates the conflict further, it could boil over. Also, they are waiting on word from tehran and from their allies in the socalled Axis Of Resistance that this gentleman described. Its an incendiary situation and wouldnt take much to internationalize the conflict, drag in more foreign powers and even drag in the United States, with its naval assets parked right in the eastern mediterranean. And more coming. Matt bradley, thank you. Stay safe. Joining us now is former nato supreme allied commander, retired admiral james stavridis. Admiral, the military side, Israeli Forces are paused. Why the delay . We dont exactly know. Theres some factors that i think could be playing a part. The humanitarian aid issue that we are hearing from el sisi and the Weekend Meetings where it was really tough meetings with the Secretary Of State. The message to go back to israel where he is today, extending his trip. So theres a real pressure to do something more to help the people of gaza because of the protests that we are seeing and the devastation people are witnessing all around the world. I think there are perhaps four things at play here. None of them are mutually exclusive. First, its an incredibly complex Military Challenge to mobilize 350,000 troops, get them in position, give everyone their marching orders, if you will. Number two, the Special Forces, i assure you are doing reconnaissance, trying to find hostages. The israelis would like to give them some time to work. Then the two points that you just made. Israel has paused, i think, for the right reasons. Number one, allowing more of the gazan people to get out. Number two, to allow more time for diplomacy and potentially a hostage negotiation. Those are good reasons to pause. I suspect the idf is leaning forward ready to go but will continue to pause for the reasons i just indicated. At the same time, the worry about iran. We are told by Jake Sullivan you heard him yesterday there are back channel talks going on. How is that proceeding . How do we know whether iran is listening . I dont know how much they are listening to us. If they perceive a Potential Threat to them, they will take the diplomacy more seriously. They have always looked at hezbollah as a deterrent for attacks against them, reserved force against the israelis. They dont want to give that up. I dont think that they have a level of enthusiasm about getting into this. I do think that if you want to affect their calculus, there needs to be concerns about what we might do. They need to hear from the chinese who can tell them they really dont want to see this expand. They depend a lot on the chinese. The chinese, unlike the russians, do not want to see a regional war in the middle east given their dependency on oil coming out of there. We know Secretary Blinken talked to his counterpart in china, a close advisor, foreign minister, but he has a Larger NationalSecurity Portfolio for president xi. Also, what is israels likely reaction today . We saw meetings with bibi, an expanded meeting there, meetings with the president of israel. But then going on to meet in tel aviv after being in jerusalem with the former Prime Minister as well as the defense minister. Is israel likely to listen to the cautions coming from the arab world and the u. S. About getting the humanitarian aid in . I dont think they will dismiss it. The israelis are going to consider a number of factors before they go in. One of the main factors they are going to consider is broader not so much broader public opinion, but how well are they positioned militarily to achieve their aims. I think one of the reasons they are not rushing in probably has less to do with broader diplomacy and more to do with their own sense of how much time do they need to try to weaken hamas to the point where the nature of resistance though difficult will be less than right now. If in the process they can be signaling the arabs that they have taken some of the concerns into account, so much the better. I think theres Something Else going on. They know how important our support is. We are critical to this. We are critical to deterring hezbollah and iran. I think they will take what we have to say into account. Admiral, you know the Israeli Military so well. We had an extraordinary thing happen this year last couple of months of the year. There were daily protests and reservists, almost half the reservists signing up saying that they didnt want to train, they didnt want to do reserve duty and not going because of the domestic political concerns that they were disagreeing with the netanyahu government, with the overhaul the takeover of the judiciary, the independent judiciary. They then went. Clearly, people did show up when called after the massacre by the terrorists. Is there a lack of training or a lack of morale among the forces on those lines front lines . I spent four years in charge of u. S. Israeli Militarytomilitary activity. Went to israel constantly. Good friends with the former general who joined the unity government, which i think is a very positive thing in this regard. I mention it because getting general gantz into that war cabinet as they are calling it will ensure the spirit, the morale, the idf will continue to lean forward. Secondly, your point, this is a highly motivated force that has watched 1,000 israeli civilians butchered by these terrorists. This is a force that is going to go in with great morale and reserves have answered the call as israels Reserve Force traditionally has done. I look for the israelis to succeed here. The ambassador is correct. Its going to be a very difficult, long fight. Ultimately, i think israel will prevail because of that Reserve Structure and how they have answered these crimes against their people. Thank you so much. Appreciate you. Coming up, we speak to a father whose daughter was killed during the hamas attack but think there may be a way to somehow work toward peace. Thats next when the Special Edition of Andrea Mitchell reports is back in 60 seconds only on msnbc. Ment for your chronic migraine 15 or more headache days a month, each lasting 4 hours or more can be overwhelming. So, ask your doctor about botox®. 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Learn how abbvie could help you save on botox®. The death toll in israel has surpassed 1,400 people in israel. Their grieving relatives are trying to deal with the massacre with a mixture of heartbreak, anger and in some cases a recommitment to work for peace. An israeli businessman says his 24yearold daughter, california native, Danielle Waltman and her boyfriend were massacred trying to escape the gunmen at the music festival. As a formecoat soldier and tech titan, he was able to track his daughter and her boyfriend to their car, despite the murder of his daughter, his companies employ palestinians, said he still hopes for peace but not in the near future. He joins me now. Theres no way to express the depth of our condolences to you for your grief, the loss of a daughter. Hi, andrea. Thank you very much. Theres actually no words that can do much, but thank you for your kind words. Im sure of that. I would like to begin by asking you to tell me about danielle and her boyfriend. Tell us what kind of person she was, what kind of woman, what kind of people were they . Danielle was 24 years old. He was 26. She was born in california and spent the first four years of her life in california and around the United States. We traveled a lot. Then we came back to israel. They both grew up here. Danielle was love of everything woman. She loved dogs. She loved animals. She loved people. Everybody she touched really fell in love. She had an amazing smile. Everybody here talked about this. She loved to dance. She danced a lot. Theres an amazing dance that they have danced in a ski resort this year. My two other children and them. I will always remember them dancing. They have had a full life of traveling and fun and adventures around the world. They have lived a full life but very short. They were murdered by those creatures that came from gaza and killed so many innocent people that went down to the festival of love, Peace And Freedom In The South part of israel. Its just unimaginable looking at the pictures you have so kindly shared with us of these vibrant, beautiful young people, to think of their lives being cut out this way. So brutally, so horribly. At a love and peace festival. How did you track their car . We had an Emergency Call from her iphone that reported on a crash. Theres an sos call from the apple phone, which sends you theres an sos phone call. Then sends youion. I was able to go with a general. We took three officers with us withwo jeeps. Went down. Located the car. There were still the area was not clear. I couldnt stay away from her. I said, got to find my young daughter. We tracked the gps. We found the car. The car was full of bullets. From the back, there were at least three terro