Moments im going to share a Special Report weve been working on for much of the weak about defendant trumps legal trouble and why weve seen slowly but surely this inflection point. Ive going to break down for you only with legal facts and evidence how whats happening in georgia with all these confessions and guilty pleas and vows to testify is actually strengthening jack smiths hands in the doj case, which is the first criminal case of any major stature that donald trump will see himself go on trial. That is, remember, coming up in march. That special part will be part of the broadcast in a few moments. Our top story is the escalating crisis in the middle east with israel pounding gaza with these massive explosions heard through the night over there. You can see some of what weve been able to capture from our aerial cameras and thats 1 00 a. M. On the dot in gaza local time. This is according to the experts and local accounts we have some of the heaviest bombing of the war so far. It also matches that is to say what weve seen in the field matches what israel has been expressing quite candidly or bluntly today, which is theyre dialing this up tonight. Theyre increasing the, quote, Ground Operations in gaza. They say they also have specific targets including what they believe is identified as frdground Terrorist Infrastructure, a reference to the tunnels and caves hamas has built and used. Now, gaza is also under a near total internet and cellular blackout. So they dont have communications with the outside world. This is some of the footage we have from earlier friday in gaza city. The United States also we should tell you as you look at the threat and concerns about a widening regional set of conflicts carried out two air strikes in syria. Syria, which is on the northern border of israel, and those were targeting not hamas specifically, but actually iranian linked facilities that the United States decided to hit today. Defense Officials Say those strikes are actually tailiation for the rocket and Drone Attacks on American Forces in syria. That does not mean that in a technical Sense America has entered this war or is at war with any of those aforementioned countries, but it does tell you how this is escalating according to both the public accounts of more than one government or the actual operations you see on your screen. We want to go now immediately at the top of our broadcast to nbcs Ellison Barbara live at the israelgaza border. What can you tell us your reporting shows tonight . Ari, we have been in this area just north of gaza along the border with israel for weeks now. And what weve been hearing tonight is by far the heaviest and longest bombardment into gaza we have heard since we first got here. And again, we have been in this general area for weeks now. There were a number of targeted raids that were carried out on the ground in gaza by Israeli Forces prior to this. At least three of them including one that took place last night and another the night before. But according to the idf those were raids that lasted most several hour, a cup of hours and then forces left. Tonight at 8 15 p. M. Local time and its about 1 00 a. M. Here now, you had a spokesman with the idf saying israel had expanded its attack inside of gaza both by air with the Israeli Air Force targeting what they describe as underground infrastructure and Terrorist Infrastructure inside of northern gaza. And then at 8 30 local time thats when we started to get official reports from the largest Telecommunication Providers inside of gaza saying that they had absolutely no service, no calls, no comms, nothing coming out of gaza. We have heard, and you can probably hear some of it now just some rolling booms inside of gaza. Just behind me, that is gazas skyline. Its hazy tonight and its dark because, remember, they do not have power inside of gaza. But every new minutes or so. Every 10, 15 minutes youll see the skyline just light up and it glowing orange or a reddish color. Hamas military wing, they say that their forces inside of gaza are engaging with Israeli Ground forces in at least two areas in northern gaza, one of them being a city, and we are just a couple miles from that. And we are just hearing this constant steady bit of bombardment into northern gaza. We also know not far from this area there are israeli tanks in formation here. Weve seen for weeks the massive presence of Israeli Forces moving towards the israel, gaza border. The booms come from the left, the right, and behind. Different nights when we have heard bombardments like this, its been shorter time. And typically you can hear it all coming from one section. This is different in that it sounds like a pop, a pop, a pop, and then a pop again. Ari . Ellison barber, thank you for kicking off our coverage of this tonight with your reporting from gaza. We wish safety for you and your team. Thank you. I want to bring in our other experts here state side, david whoed, nbc news Senior Executive editor and as we mentioned a former hostage himself, and elise lavat who has extensive experience in dozens of countries. David, when we hear the government and idf say theyre escalating, obviously this isnt some sort of surprise move. This is part of something theyre conveying. What do we understand their goals to be tonight, and how will this affect what has already been a humanitarian crisis on the ground in gaza . So israeli officials actually today in new york met with journalists from nbc and other news organizations, and they were absolutely clear theyre determined to eradicate hamas ability and Command Structure so it can never again pose a Terror Threat or Military Threat to anyone in southern israel. You know, we ask questions about the cut off of humanitarian supply, and they said they will continue to use the same tactics theyve been using, the bombing weve seen. And it does seem theyre using a new tactic these smaller raids and the question is whether itll work every time. And take a listen to an israeli official who spoke on msnbc today. I can say this, that everyone was saying that israel wasnt going to do it, that israel is waiting. Well, we waited, we prepared, we planned. And were hitting them where it hurts them. Hamas will pay for its crimes against humanity. Hamas will pay for slaughtering our people. And tonight we are starting payback. Elise, thats as mentioned a very clear statement there from that advisor to the Prime Minister and what Israel Intends to do and linking it of course to the Precipitating Hamas attacks. Embedded in that, though, theres about 200 hostages hamas is holding. How cuz that may out in the operations and israels concerns about the safety of those people . I think its unclear, ari, whether these small what i would consider tactical incursions, i dont think this is the big Ground Incursion that weve been waiting for the last couple of weeks, Tens Of Thousands of troops amassed at the border. I think these are small, these are operational targeted things to shape the battlefield, and does that mean theyre going in and looking for hostages to see where they think they are . Are they going to startup a base of operations and move from there . And i think they want to suss out whats going on over there, how much infrastructure they have been able to destroy from these air strikes. We also hear that negotiations are still continuing with hamas, with the state of qatar, with egypt. Theres some hope that maybe this initial, you know, bombardment, additional strikes may lead to a big hostage release. Thats really unclear right now. I think in the morning well know whether this is part of the beginning of that Ground Battle were all expecting or this is continuing to shape the battlefield and is this going to be the way israel shapes the battle, special operations, get in and get out and achieve your mission. I think thats what the u. S. Prefers right now not just because of the hostages, many of them american but also because they think that perhaps israel is not really prepared for the kind of urban battle that theyre going to get when they all land in gaza. With both of our opening guests here, weve been focused on what israel says in escalation and this activity in gaza. Our experts stay, but i want to bring in for the widening regional perspective, a Senior Administration in the clinton administration, a long Time Foreign Affairs analyst. David, i want to bring you in on the other thing that i mentioned but again trying to be as straightforward as possible, if the world were quieter and we woke up here on friday and the United States was bombing an iranian linked facility in syria, that would obviously be a very Big Story For America and the world all along. Here against Everything Else it sort of gets folded in. I want to get your view, david, how should the American Public understand what that operation is and what according to the Biden Administration it isnt. In other words, theyre not saying thats a prelude to try to fight iran, but walk us through that, please. The Biden Administration has made it clear that the reason that they struck the targets in syria was to protect u. S. Forces in the region and to send a message that we would not be tolerating threats against those forces. They need to understand that today in addition to what you were just speaking about with elise and david, with regard to whats happening in northern gaza, youve got skirmishes taking place in Northern Israel with hezbollah. Youve had recently missiles fired from yemen with the houthis backed by iran that landed in egypt. But you also had messages theyre really targeting israel. You had a drone attack coming from iran that was struck down with iraq. We are at a very precarious moment that depending on how the Israeli Escalation in gaza does, depending on what kind of interactions the u. S. Or people that we are allied with have with iranian or iranian backed groups, that this could blow up into something much larger at any moment. And thank thats one of the principle considerations right now in the mind of the Biden Administration. The reason they sent forces into the region was to reduce the likelihood of that conflict, but of course those forces could just as easily become engaged in a broader conflict. Elise . I think this is a deterrence. I think, yes, it was about retaliation, but its more of deterrence. Its saying, okay, you tried it, dont even think about doing anymore. The u. S. Is continuing to send, you know, by air and sea sophisticated weaponry. Theyre really beefing up their presence in the region. The u. S. Hopes not just to use it but its not just a message to syria and hezbollah and lebanon but also the u. S. Is there. As david said, it doesnt want to get drawn into this conflict but it will. And then bringing david rhode into this regional piece we saw how it was seen as a big positive for moderates, people looking for a peace process, and hamas wanted to scuttle that. It sort of can be frustrating to people looking at this from afar and saying, gosh, why does this stuff work. And yet we know from World History how extremism and violence and v attacks can work. What the saudis are saying right now from the New York Times reporting they warn the israeliu. S. Invasion of gaza could be catastrophic. A much tougher or more combative approach there for all those reasons that saudi arabia feels they can no longer be where they were a few months ago. Where does that fit into this, david rhode, because people look and say it would be a thashl thing for this to grow into a wider regional conflict when so many forces prior to october 7th were headed that way. Broadly speaking all of this is unkerring because of an unprovoked Terrorist Attack by hamas on israel. But what theyre trying to spark is a wider regional conflict. And what matters here, and this is, you know, equally important, all lives matter. The number of palestinian deaths. As this death toll rises, and it may hit 7,000 tomorrow, it hits 10,000 lets say several days from now. You know, thats a 101 ratio very roughly speaking israelis to pal stainians. And the fear in saudi arabia and these conother countries is they lose the arab streak, that all these governments would come under pressure. Jihadists across the region want to say look at the Saudi Arabian family, the king of jordan, theyre doing nothing as palestinians are being slothered. Israel has a right to neutralize hamas thats understandable given what was done. The question is can they do it while minimalizing the number of palestinians who die in the process . Its just a terrible and dangerous situation. Dangerous and according to everything weve been reporting tonight, evidence that it is escalating this evening, about 1 15 a. M. Local time. Thanks to each of you. Appreciate it. Now we turn to a Special Report. The Justice Department special counsel jack smith has been building on procedural wins when recruiting this new star witness to testify against defendant trump at that trial, which is coming up in march. And so right now im going to begin walking you through a lot of things that have just recently changed. Now, smith has invoked a gag order that he partially won to try to corner donald trump further. In a new filing smith urges the fedel judge there to actually tighten this gag order which was going to be paused on appeal, and mentions the psibility or threat of sending defendant trump to jail before hes convicted, before any trial, if he basically breaks the gag order and rules enough to interfere with witnesses. Remember this move comes as the other prosecutor for two crimes d. A. Willis in georgia has three trump aides each of them vowing to testify. These are each separate cases. Both prosecutors are running their own strategy, and they have their own time lines, but the progress in georgia is putting a lot more heat on these defendants, and that may help jack smith corner donald trump. And remember jack smith has the first criminal trial of donald trump. If convicted there and upheld on appeal, that could send donald trump to prison potentially hypothetically before there is an election. Now, i say potentially he is as a defendant donald trump presumed legally innocent there. Bullet, now, look at georgia where those confessions put the heat on. You have white house veteran mark meadows. And i want you to remember this chart right here because were going to come back to it and add to it in the Special Report. Convicted, convicted, convicted. And hes seeing them vow to testify against trump and him because meadows is a codefendant there. Meanwhile, and this is important and im going to say this clearly and slowly. Meanwhile, as meadows worries about that which could landmark meadows in a georgia prison, note that meadows is vowing to testify against trump back over in d. C. With that Big Abc Report Meadows is fully cooperating i with the Coup Probe Run by jack smith In Washington. From meadows on trump in d. C. , and that is the high stakes road to Donald Trumps response, because hes been berating his former Chief Of Staff as weak for potentially cutting any kind of deal. Now, as a pr move i could tell you that kind of attack from donald trump may sound typical or even tire or washed at this point. Youve heard it all before. But im not talking about pr. In court where these things are going to be resolved, well, jack smith is using it and thats something he singles out. In the filing i mentioned smith talked about a social media post targeting a known witness to influence and intimidate him. Meadows is that witness. And while you are allowed to criticize people in politics and say all kinds of words, smith is making the case donald trump is on the road to potentially commit another crime, witness intimidation,viting the gag order. If this were a random case about a street gang or mafia, a judge could easily jail someone before trial just for messing with witnesses, just for doing what i just showed you trump is doing. Now, this judge paused that original gag order to give donald trump the right tew peel it. But with the meadows clash, prosecutors are now going further in smiths office and theyre even pointing to a specific law that allows you to have detention to jail a defendant for this kind of thing. In Plain English, judges can let some defendants roam free before trial with conditions. But if you break those conditions, then, yes, you may find that the judge will mandate your detention that is you go to jail and you have to prepare for your trial behind bars. If that sounds like a more serious punishment or sanction defendant trump has faced in a while, thats because it is. So where Do We Go From Here . Well, i can tell you were going to a place where Donald Trumps odds of being convicted are much higher. And our Spec