Inside gaza comes as the idea prepares for a Ground Invasion of the region already reeling from the response to the hamas attack on israel. Here on the israel was a border, were continuing the booms of israeli airstrikes coming into israel. You can see the smoke from a rocket which just fell in israeli territory. In gaza, the devastation growing by the hour, the death toll well over 4000. Nbc news captured this video inside gaza after a strike destroyed the building where a family was living. She watches rescue crews search in vain for her loved ones, walking two miles to the hospital, finding her mother, father, brother, his wife, and five children all killed. She says, what can i do know that they are gone . In a moment, im going to speak to a spokesman for the Israeli Military about the idea of soldier killed in gaza. Its coming amid new efforts to get aid into gaza. Antony blinken vows to continue to push for more help. When i was in israel and throughout the region, as you mentioned a while ago, one of the things i was focused on was making sure that people in gaza, innocent people who were caught through no fault of their own in this cross fire from us, get the assistance they need, whether its food, medicine, water. We are following several other big stories this hour. We are hours away from the next step by House Republicans to pick a speaker for a Candidate Forum on monday starring a whole new list of candidates. Face to face, donald trump is expected to be in a manhattan courtroom this week. Michael cohen takes the stand against him. We will have a preview of that ahead this hour as well. We want to begin, though, with the death of an idea of soldier. The idf said it happened as the soldier was conducting Raids Inside Gaza near the border. Joining me from tel aviv is msnbc National Contributor hala gorani to talk about this. Thank you for joining us on this. We appreciate it. I first want to ask you about any more information we are getting about the death of the idea of soldier and the time in as we talk about this impending Ground Invasion. Yeah, from what we understand, the soldier was conducting across Border Operation Inside of gaza to try to find people, perhaps even hostages, inside the gaza strip. They were killed by an antitank shell on the other side of the border. Three others were injured. I want to bring a news in which may be significant as far as the timeline of a Ground Incursion into gaza. We understand from the Israeli Prime Ministers Office what the french president Emmanuel Macron and the dutch Prime Minister mark ritter are due to visit Israel On Monday and tuesday. This could have an impact on the timeline of an incursion into gaza strip. The Israeli Military presumably would not mount an assault while foreign leaders are visiting the Prime Minister benjamin and yahoo in israel. It might give us a bit of a clue as to when we can expect this incursion to start. The Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu was in the north of the country today, not in the south near the gaza border, and telling troops close to the border were hezbollah operates, saying that the country is facing a battle on two fronts while the Iranian Foreign minister is warning the u. S. And israel not to escalate the fight. The Iranian Foreign minister said that if that is the case the middle east might spiral out of control, yasmin. All right, hala gorani for us, thank you. A lot to dig into their. With that, i want to bring in International Spokesperson for the Israel Defense forces Lieutenant Colonel jonathan conricus. Eutenai want to ask you, if we , about the idea of soldier who was killed inside gaza. Talking first about the details that you can share with us. I thought it was interesting in the statement that was released by the idf, you said that just one of the operations being carried out in gaza. Im wondering if you can share how long these missions have been ongoing over the last two weeks since october 7th. Yes, hello. Thank you for having me. I will explain the context. The context, i will explain the operation itself and the sad result of it. Since october 7th, when hamas invaded into israel and slaughtered civilians, butchered and burned and all of the atrocities we have seen and spoken about, they also took hostages. We have 210, 212 confirmed hostages. What we have been doing on the tactical military level, it is not hostage operations. Thats not what we are doing. We are doing Tactical Operations into the closed perimeter of the gaza strip in order to find intelligence and, sadly, parts or bodies. The carnage was so widespread and significant, we still have more than 100 israeli bodies that are simply unaccounted for that we cannot identify and we have a long list of people that we still do not know if they are dead, missing, or if they are being held hostage by hamas inside gaza. This unfortunately resulted in a dead israeli soldier. Its part of our effort to better understand where our people are. It is part of the bigger effort to collect intelligence from various sources. Thats ongoing in israel. The ultimate aim is to bring our people home, all of those women, children, babies, elderly people, disabled people who are now being held against their will in gaza. The aim is, of course, to bring them home. Colonel, can you confirm if you have eyes on or intelligence on where these people are being held . I can confirm that it is a top priority and that we have a National Task force which is poulin all of the intelligence election resources that the state of israel has. That is quite a lot. Who is being held where and by whom and at what location . How can we get them out . Its an operational and humanitarian challenges like we have never faced before. Im not sure that any country has faced such a challenge when so many of its citizens are held under a terrorist organization. We are confident and committed that we can get all of them out by whatever means necessary. It is a challenge that definitely requires special resources and special thinking. With the confirmation that french president Emmanuel Macron is going to be coming to israel, has that changed the timeline of a potential Ground Incursion by the idf . Right. The issue of our continued operations in gaza, they have been a Talking Point for many days now. I would like to explain. When any military plans operations, you have to take many different physical circumstances as to soil and terrain, the state of the enemy, in your own forces, and diplomatic and political considerations. All of these are factored in. No matter who is visiting or what is happening in global news, the idf as guided for the war cabinet will commence Military Operations once the timing is right for israel, once the best of the variables is found they can launch the second stage of the operations. The aim here is clear. We are going to go in and dismantle hamas. We are going to take all of the military capabilities and fundamentally change the Security Situation in Southern Israel so that never again will the atrocities of october 7th reoccur. What is the plan after you dismantle hamas, colonel . Which orders have you been given after you dismantle hamas when it comes to govern in gaza . I wish that was as easily done as you and i are just now talking. I say dismantle and it would be done. Unfortunately, thats not the situation. We are looking at what we anticipate will be a long, difficult, and resource intense operation. We are going to be fighting in urban terrain against the civilian population and using everything at its disposal, especially civilians, in order to fight us. At the stage, what we are focused on is first and foremost that they dismantle hamas and any other Military Infrastructure in gaza and, of course, the discourse between the political cabinet and the idf will continue. Whatever is decided, we will implement that. The first order of the days to return security for the people in Southern Israel and actually for Southern Israel because weve been under Rocket Threats and attacks for more than 14 days now coming out of gaza. That has to end. The threat from gaza for the civilians has to end. Colonel, i know that on october 7th there were many women that were killed. The death toll seems like it is about 4600 people, many of them women and children who have lost their lives because of Israeli Rocket Fire how do you explain that . Yes, i dont want to create any parity. And Human Suffering is suffering, whether its ours or theirs. The only thing i can say is that we definitely dont target civilians. We try to strike militants, contrary to what the subhuman terrorists, these i. S. I. S. Monstrous that came across the border did, they specifically targeted our women and children and elderly and men and soldiers, but specifically the civilians. Out of 1300, more than 1300 and israelis, more than 1000 are civilians which is, that is by design. We are not targeting the civilians. Unfortunately, the civilians are in the battle space. We are doing our best to get them out of harms way. We have called on them to evacuate. Those who listen to us have a much better chance of safety. Those who do not, unfortunately, they are at risk. We will still try to operate according to the laws of our country and distinguish between combatants and non combatants. Try to operate in the laws of armed conflict. You talk about many of the civilians who have died being in the battle space. You are urging, i know, palestinians in gaza to move south. 700,000 or so have now subsequently moved south. However, israel is still launching rocket fire in Southern Gaza as well. People dont feel safe there even being told by the idf, though, to move south. I understand that they dont feel safe. I think that theyre feeling is sadly correct. The situation in gaza is that hamas uses all of the civilian infrastructure today. We just issued aerial footage of how close hamas is Firing Rockets from kindergartens, schools, and you end, facilities and medical facilities. All of that is documented. We just released footage of it. Hamas endangered civilians by their operations. They have tunnels underneath the civilian population and their leaders, which we are actively hunting, are trying to use Human Shields to protect themselves. That is the biggest contributor to the sad reports of casualties. I want to say one more thing when it comes to data coming out of gaza. Please keep in mind that everything that comes out of gaza is not verified independently. Its information disseminated by hamas and hamas is the equivalent of i. S. I. S. When it comes to truthfulness. Colonel are you disputing the number of people that have been killed in gaza, the number of women and children . Are you disputing that and saying its not accurate . I am definitely questioning each and every piece of information that comes out of the hamascontrolled ministry of health. Each and every piece of information i will give you an example. The first reports many of these are being reported by independent journalists that are in the region as well. Let me give an example. I think it will be useful. The first reports also reported here on msnbc, but in many other Media Outlets quoting the Hamas Run Health Ministry and gaza. They said 500 dead palestinians in the Hospital Incident in gaza. Do you know how many people were actually killed . The eu estimates that it was a between ten and 50. The 500 is what the hamascontrolled authority said. Most of the International Media fell for that and reported it. It gave credibility to a false number disseminated by a terrorist organization. That is why i say that we should all Exercise Caution and skepticism when we get these figures, especially when they speak about civilians, women, and children. Those are the things that they will try to harvest. That is what they are trying to achieve. That picture of that pictu many of these reports are being reported by pictures being taken by independent journalists, who are risking their lives every day. They are reporting on what is happening inside of gaza. I think we can both admit the innocent civilians are losing their lives. Children are in fact losing their lives in gaza as well. I want to ask you another question before i let you go. I know that you do have a busy day ahead of you. A leaflet anaerobic obtained by an msnbc News Producer in gaza, translated by two nbc staffers warn that those remain in Northern Gaza would be considered either a partner or accomplice of a terrorist organization. The idf now claims that, quote, the translation from arabic that has spread across platforms is in precise. To clarify, the idf has no intention of considering those who have yet to evacuate as a member of a terrorist group. The idf, stating once again for the safety of gazan civilians that they should evacuate to the south. All those that remain are endangering themselves due to the hamass Terrorist Activities within civilian areas. However, colonel, just yesterday, your defense minister says that israel will remove its, quote, responsibility for life in the gaza strip. That is in direct contrast to the statement put out by the idf from my translation of what he said. But i think that there is a lot of room for interpretation here. But im not entirely sure that that is the intention. I do think the intention of what the minister said is that our responsibility, our focus will be on providing life and security for our civilians. They were butchered, they were slaughtered in their homes. They live in a situation which is totally untenable. We cant have our communities under the sort of hamas and be with these continuous threats for them to live there. It cant go on. When we speak about our responsibility towards our people, it is to make sure that the 7th Of October never happens again. Not along that border, not along any of our other borders. Thats your primary responsibility. Of course, the idf, and this is been studied by the chief of general staff, we will continue to fight according to the lives of conflict. We will distinguish between combatants and noncombatant. We are doing that factually, provably, by trying to move people out of the area. We are telling them, listen, its dangerous, dont be there. Hamas is using you as Human Shields. If you care about your safety, and not about hamas survival, be somewhere else. Go south of gaza its an area where we can strike. If the gaza commanders are there, and we have an opportunity to strike a commander, we will also strike south of the gaza river. Definitely, the bane focus of our operations is in the north. Thats why we ask palestinians out of concern for their safety, and risk of our troops. Now we have advertised our intentions. Military unusually do. We do have them. Because we want the civilians out. Because we do distinguish, and we do care about civilians. Yeah colonel, i lied, i have one more question. As you talk about, this i just had a reporter on, and independent reporter on who was speaking to a man in los angeles whose parents are stuck in gaza city. They cant leave. They cant move anywhere from where they are. They are old, they are injured. They dont have the resources, they dont have the medicine they need, they dont have the food they need, they dont even have the water they need. Should they worry that they might be casualties of war when this Ground Invasion happens . But this might sound cynical, but i will say it anyway. Do you know who also is old, wounded, worried, held against his will without his medicine and in a enemy our hostages in gaza. Women, children, toddlers, elderly people, holocaust or virus. Theyre being held against their will as hostages in gaza by hamas and other terrorists. They were taken from their homes. While i feel for these people and i wish them the best, our primary focus is to get our people home and to significantly change the Security Situation. We cant allow this unsustainable situation to continue. Hamas is the aggressor here. We did not start this war. We are responding to it. The massacre of october 7th wasnt our doing. It was our doing, their military failure. At the end of the day, hamas has to be gone from the gaza strip. No military capabilities to be left in gaza for them to be quiet, peace, prosperity, on both sides of the border. This will be a good thing for gaza. First and foremost, for us, we will live in a sovereign country, defendable borders, and there will be the laughter of children again in kibbutz, and there will be prosperity in gaza once hamas is gone. This isnt a bad thing. The world should look at this, yes, there is suffering, difficulty, hardship, i understand that. I understand the focus. What the world is focusing on. Look beyond that. Hamas has been holding the poor citizens of gaza hostage for almost 20 years. What have they done . Have they built anything good . Has any prosperity come out of it . Roc