Israel is aiming at terrorist targets and thats what it looks and sounds like from a distance. Here it is up close during an interview with an israeli and palestinian who are in the thick of it. Let me jump in there, mohammed. When you hear him describe the situation where he is, what goes through your mind . Sorry. That is one thing. Carry on with your question. [ indiscernible ] the Palestinian Health minister says at least 30 people have been killed in gaza, 300 wounded. Many of them children and women. He says we cant independently verify those numbers. Cnns sara sidener has seen the missiles up close and is reporting in very dangerous conditions. We have to leave this area now because there are air strikes, and we can hear the planes and weve also seen rockets coming from a neighborhood just from the other side. Today egypts Prime Minister is in the dark jacket visited a hospital in gaza city to see the damage first hand. How egypt will respond to the crisis is a big concern tonight and more on that in a moment. Meantime, new evidence that hamas has weapons powerful enough to reach farther into israel. Two of its rockets hit just south of jerusalem and others got close enough to tel aviv to set off air raid sirens. This video posted on the al qods brigade to show the rockets hamas is using. The u. N. Ambassador called the targeting of jerusalem and tell aviv an escalation by hamas. Three israelis have been killed since wednesday and theres a lot to get to and we begin with sarah in gaza city. Youve seen missile fire explosions earlier. What are you seeing and hearing now . Just a few minutes ago another targeted air strike. We hear a loud blast and thats been happening throughout the day. This afternoon it was just like hell here, to be perfectly honest, for the residents here. There were blasts after blasts after blasts and when you looked up in the sky you also saw the telltale signs of rockets being sent from here to israel. The entire sky at one point looked like it was crisscrossed with rockets, a very, very dangerous situation here in gaza. We also, anderson, went to the hospital and the hospital, the doctors there and nurses there completely overwhelmed. Every 15 minutes people were coming in including men, women and children, anderson. Is there any indication that hamas will stop firing . Reporter look, we talked to one of the hamas leaders and what they said is when israel stops hitting them with air strikes and stops bombarding us we will stop sending rockets into israel. Its kind of a catch 22, who is going to stop and when, anderson . Sara, stand by. I want to bring in ben wedeman, who has experience in the region. Tonight he is in the israeli town of ashkelon, that has been hit repeatedly by rocket fire, and also the Jerusalem Bureau chief for the New York Times is in gaza city and joins us by phone. What are you seeing and what are you hearing . Reporter what we are seeing here is that the town is pretty much deserted, not a lot of people out and about although earlier we were next to a sushi restaurant where there were a fair amount of customers. We spoke to the mayor who talked about the difficulties of trying to manage a town of more than 100,000 People Living under these conditions and we spoke to one resident here who interestingly enough said he was happy that rockets were fired from gaza into near jerusalem and tel aviv. He said finally. Other israelis outside of this area around gaza are getting a feel, getting a taste of what its like to live under the threat of rockets. So certainly here in ashkelon, you have real frustration that they simply cannot live a normal life with the constant threat of rockets coming in from gaza. Israel says they are doing targeted strikes into gaza city. The hamas rockets are obviously not so precisioned. Back in 2006 you visited one of those rocketmaking factories in gaza. What was it like and how has that changed how theyre making weapons now . Well, its something of an overstatement to call it a factory. It was just a couple of rooms in a house in a gaza suburb. And it was really quite crude. They were mixing the propellent there on the scene and they were very worried they could do something wrong in the mixture and the whole place could go up in smoke. What weve seen since 2006 is a real change in the kind of weaponry that hamas and the other organizations in gaza have their hands on. Those rockets we were seeing in gaza back in 2006 had a range of somewhere between six and 12 kilometers. Now were seeing rockets that clearly are not homemade, so to speak in gaza. The rockets that are being fired in the direction of jerusalem and tel aviv clearly have been smuggled through the tunnels. These are probably sovietera mediumrange missiles. They dont have guidance systems so theyre just sort of aimed in a certain direction, but certainly the range and the potential harm that these missiles can cause has changed dramatically over the last six years. Interesting. Youre in gaza city and youve driven around to numerous locations. Are you seeing any indication that hamas or other groups there are expecting a ground operation . Reporter its a little difficult to tell. I certainly dont see people on the street necessarily preparing. I saw late this afternoon i saw quite a number of people on the street. Many fewer than normally in gaza city and more than thursday when i got here for the first time. Go ahead. Going around helping each other and kids playing and it did not look like people were preparing for an operation. There were very long lines at gas stations because theyre cut off, but other than that, i didnt see a lot of what are you hearing on the radio there in gaza city, jodi . Reporter were, you know, a couple of different kinds of things. Actually, i was going to mention when my colleague was talking about the rockets, was there a lot of hamas announcements today proudly taking credit for various operations and some truth and some denied by the Israeli Military and one thing they were talking about was a new kind of rocket called an m75 named after ibrahim, a senior hamas political official assassinated in 2003 and 75 kilometers is supposedly the range of the missile and he said those are the missiles that went toward jerusalem today. Well talk to reza in egypt in a few minutes. What is your sense of the regional involvement in this . Could egypt and other nations take steps to more actively show their support for the palestinians . Reporter well, for instance, egypt, anderson has to walk a very fine line. On the one hand, Mohammed Morsi from the Muslim Brotherhood does express support for hamas which is an offshoot of the egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, but at the same time he has to be very careful when it comes to crossing any red lines regarding the peace treaty between israel and egypt that dates back to the late 1970s, but certainly its a huge change from just four years ago when the war was going on between gaza and israel. When president Hosni Mubarak, basically, it was well understood that he had no sympathy for hamas because, of course, the Muslim Brotherhood were his main political enemies and therefore, this situation is completely different, but morsi and egypt has to really tread carefully because many egyptians have no desire whatsoever to get involved in any sort of conflict with israel. Egyptians will tell you we fought war after war with israel and we dont want to go down that path again. Stay safe and thank you all for your reporting. Last night we aired this video showing a man being pulled from flames in gaza. After the video aired we were pointed to an israeli website, to another image, this image, the man who was being dragged standing and conscious. The allegation made was that the man was playing for the cameras when he was soon dragged away and was not dragged and wounded. It came from the news agency righters and their did not include the image of the man standing. We asked reuters about it today. They say they dont know the source of the image of the man standing or when that image was shot. They also said they never saw or shot any similar image. The bottom line is we cant independently verify when that image of the man standing was taken before or after the other image was taken of the man being dragged away. We will not be using either image again. This is not only a traditional military conflict and one being waged in the media and our only goal in all of this is to report the truth, the facts on all fronts and its why weve sent so many producers and reporters into the field. Let us know what you think. Follow me, ill be tweeting tonight. What is it like on the ground for the People Living there and what with the stakes are for the entire region if israel sends Ground Forces into gaza, next. In gaza tonight, the mood is very tense. Israeli is poised to begin a ground attack if they get the goahead. Israel has been pounding gaza with missile strikes in retaliation for ongoing rocket attacks by hamas. We got a notion of how intense the bombing in gaza is, and we were talking to a palestinian man excuse me, in gaza and another man in ashkelon. Watch. When you hear him say that, when you hear him describe the situation where he is, what goes through your mind . Sorry. Carry on with your question. Were having [ indiscernible ] that was mohammed suleman, his connection was cut off a moment or two later. He joins us now. Muhammad, you gave our viewers on Cnn International quite a scare. Whats it been like today . Yeah. Today its been actually a little bit calmer than last night which if i might say was one of the most terrible nights i had in my entire life. The neighborhood i was staying at which is on the gaza strip was bombed throughout the whole night. There were about 30 bombs which targeted my own area alone and with every bomb the whole building was shaking back and forth and most of the families staying in my area have moved out including my family who also left our place left our house and left to another place which they think might be relatively safer. I am staying at at the moment and its also in the midst of the gaza strip. So the situation there is a bomb or theres art ilrow shooting and there are palestinian rockets being fired into israel. The situation is completely dangerous here and its not safer at all to be out in the street. Everyone is trying to avoid being in the street, but who people like my friends are trying to be in an area where there is electricity, so we have to be constantly which is basically what makes what makes it difficult for us to stay away from danger. Mohammed sulaiman, i appreciate you speaking to us. A u. S. Official said if it would be a disastrous escalation if israel were to launch a ground assault. And allout fighting, long time rulers in the region such as Hosni Mubarak were forced from power from popular revolt. Joining me is reza. In cairo. And we also have a senior fellow here in new york. The egyptian Prime Minister met with hamas today and he classified hamas as a terrorist organization. Should washington be concerned about israels role in the conflict. Reporter anderson, its impossible to say what egypts role is at this point. It is not clear at this point if the fiery rhetoric is just rhetoric or if theres something beyond that or prepare for example more drastic measures. I think well find out in the days and weeks to come, but people in washington are listening to this explosive rhetoric and they are concerned, but if you look carefully theres not much happening beyond the rhetoric. I dont think egypt can describe this and viewed as extreme, belligerent departure from the past and they certainly havent taken arms against israel will and providing Material Support to hamas and theyve come out and said loud and clear that were going to abide by the camp david accords, the peace accords between camp david and israel and these are all early indications that president morsi has taken a calculated decision and not to disrupt the alliances that are in place and it should come as a relief right now to washington and tel aviv and it could anger the arab streak. Look, i think, this is really what we have. The egyptians have tremendous attachment to the palestinians and not all arab states are enamored of the palestinians the way the egyptians are. The historic ties between egypt and gaza in particular and egypt ruled gaza for Something Like 19 years or so. So, of course, there is a sense of outrage in egypt and anyway, we should remember it was never good between egypt and israel even under mub abak, but what the israelis now miss is sulaiman and the Vice President of mubarak. He was tied to israeli intelligence. What kind of proximity and that kind of affinity is gone and what you have in hamas now is the sense that there is an islamist wage in the region and they see the islamist government in tunisia and they look around and see turkey hovering over the region with an islamist government and they feel the wind is blowing their way. Do you think it is blowing their way . Not at all because in the end the hamas people would be fooling themselves and the palestinians would pay the price for this kind of folly because the arab world is not going to march to the tune of hamas. The saudi monarchy, if you listen to whats happening and whats coming out of saudi arabia, the only thing the saudi monarch said was we need the rule of reason to prevail in the region. So is anyone going to risk the stability and security for hamas not at all and the egyptian patrons of hamas, they really worry about their own country. They have economic problems. Not only that, in the end, the egyptians have fought four wars in israel and they dont want to go back to the past. Reza, were protesting in Tahrir Square today. What are people on the ground there telling you . Reporter we should point out the protests were relatively small and nowhere near the protests weve seen in the past in Tahrir Square and that could have something to do with the aggressive pr push by the Egyptian Government to speak out against the Israeli Government, but the egyptian people want a tougher stance by the Egyptian Government against the Israeli Government and some are calling for egypt to back out of the peace according and many are saying the world should focus the root cause of this and that is the occupation of palestinian territories. Many egyptians say the world and the media is losing focus now, that the conflict has started keeping track of whos firing what rocket. They say the world should keep the focus on the root cause and that is the occupation of palestinian territories, anderson. Reza saya, i appreciate you being on tonight. Touch. A lot more to report tonight. One congressman is toning down the message on the benghazi attack. This after testimony from David Petraeus on capitol hill. Last night on the program, congressman peter king accused the white house of changing the talking points on the attack. Changing the talking points from one they got from the Intelligence Community to the ones they got from susan rice. The message today is much different. Were keeping them honest next a man convicted of plotting to bomb the new york city subways, the sentence and what he said at the hearing when we continue. Tonights keeping them honest report. Were not offering our opinion or trying to play favorites and were not supporting democrats or republicans as they do on other cable channels, finding the facts, the truth theres still value in that. The benghazi attack and the toned down message from one congressman today. Republican congressman peter king, a member of the house Intelligence Committee. Former cia director David Petraeus testified about the attack before the committee today in a closeddoor session and he did the same on the senate side. The retired general was on the hill for five hours. According to congressman king, petraeus told them the attack on benghazi was an act of terrorism committed by al qaeda, Christopher Stevens and three other americans were killed in that assault. Five days after the attack on the sunday morning talk shows there was no talk of a terrorist attack from susan rice, the u. S. Ambassador to the u. N. She kept her talking points and blamed the deadly attack on outrage over an antimuslim movie although she did say it was early in the days of the investigation and there was the possiblist an Al Qaeda Group being involved in the escalation of violence, but at that point they had not been able to decide one way or the other who was involved and those talking points were first put out by the cia and went through various agencies and even the white house before ambassador rice used them on september 16th. Last night on this program congressman king put the blame squarely on the white house for changing the talking points. Watch. The Intelligence Community said that al qaeda was involved. That was taken out by someone in the white house. The Intelligence Agency said thats not what the dni said. Im telling you what he told us today and im telling you what was their reporting on 12th, 13th and 15th, there were intelligence estimates saying al qaeda was directly involved somehow after that was prepared by the Intelligence Community that was taken out after it went to the white house and that was a very serious issue. That was congressman king last night on 360. The dechl democratic congressman did not have that same perception listening from the same briefing that day. Keeping them honest, this morning only 12 hours later. Mr. King seemed to change his tune. After his committee met with retired general petraeus, it was no longer putting blame directly on the white house. Listen. It is still not clear how the final talking points emerged. He said he went through a long process involving many agencies and the department of justice or the state department an