Thats been confirmed by those on the ground. A lot to tell you about, heres what the day looked like. [ sirens ] day six of rockets crisscrossing the border. A spector of Israeli Ground invasion is still very real. This strike occurred monday when we were live at 2 00 a. M. Also, two media centers. That was a rather large explosion. That occurred, just look out here, i cant actually see where the impact of that was. Its actually set off a number of car alarms but that was probably the largest explosion that weve heard just in the past really in the past hour. By daylight, the results of that strike were clear. And this is the results of the explosion that we witnessed last night. Its the Police Station or a Police Station in gaza city. Local people say it was still being built so there werent a lot of Police Officers or anybody inside. Two people were injured, they say, its not clear who those people were. But the building is pretty well destroyed. It will take quite awhile to rebuild. All day and all night, idf drones fly over gaza looking for targets but it hasnt stopped the rockets from being fired into israel. Thats a rocket thats just been fired up there. You can see the smoke trail in the sky. Thats about the fifth rocket weve seen being fired in the last 20 minutes or so. Cnns Fred Pleitgen experiences the terror thats the reality for those living in the rockets range. We have an alarm going off right now. Im going to have to seek cover. Were going to go over here. Lets take the camera off the tripod. Seems like something impacted in the distance. Not sure how far away. There, over in the sky, you probably wont be able to see it here, theres an interceptor missile taking off right now. That is the iron dome interceptor. If you just saw the flash in the sky, that was a rocket coming out of gaza that was just intercepted right now. Back in gaza, a targeted strike on the second story of a building that houses various media groups. Two people are killed, one of them an official from Islamic Jihad rent an office in the building. Islamic jihad is a group that israel and the u. S. Consider a terrorist organization. Regular life in gaza city is pretty much ground to a halt. Stores are closed and shuttered. Streets which would normally be filled with people are largely empty. Most people just try to stay indoors as much as they can, only venturing out when they absolutely need to in order to buy supplies for their families. Otherwise, its just too dangerous to go out. These days, for israelis along the border and residents of gaza city, there is no such thing as regular life. As the battle enters its seventh day, casualties, rage and grief grow on both sides of the border along with the fear that the worst may be yet to come. Im joined by wolf blitzer in jerusalem, also here with ben wedeman and arwa damon. Arwa, yesterday you were at the scene of what was the most controversial attack, a strike on what Israeli Forces said was a building owned by a hamas official, commander of an artillery unit. They say initially he had been killed, then stepped back from that. At least nine members of a family were killed. What was the scene like . It was very intense. There was a lot of anger, there was a lot of frustration and there was also a certain sense of resignation. People here have been through this before and they fully expect to have to go through it once again. People were frantically digging through the rubble, some of them even using their bare hands, screaming for shovels, for anything they could possibly find. They were hoping to find survivors but of course, we now know that was not the case. We have some of your report. Lets play that. Reporter the large slab of concrete and mangled metal finally gives way. Buried beneath it, another lifeless body. Its the second child weve seen. There was also a baby. Others in the neighborhood say the blast killed all ten people who lived here. The rescue efforts are not always so hopeless. Not far from here, just the day before, 11 month old ahmed and his 4yearold sister both survived a multiple missile strike on their home. Obviously an attack like that, it accentuates peoples anger toward israel here in gaza. Of course it does. It most certainly does. In this other house we went to visit, that family that actually did survive the air strike, we were speaking with the mother and she was the last person to be extracted from the building, and she was saying that, you know, yes, on the one hand she does want revenge but at the same time, she was saying that more important than that, she wants peace. People are so exhausted, they have been through this so many times. Yeah. Ben wedeman was at the funeral for that family today, that family of nine. Lets play some of his piece. What he saw. Reporter the body of 5yearold yusef was held aloft as calls rang out for revenge. In life, he was a child known only to his family and friends. In death, yet another potent symbol for the cameras and the angry crowds. Their bodies were carried through the street to the sound of gunfire, under the banners of hamas, to the cemetery. When the crowd leaves and the chanting stops, the real mourning begins. Friends and relatives quietly pray for the dead. Quiet tears are shed for the latest to die so suddenly without warning. How hardened have the positions come on both sides of this border . Certainly they are harder than i have ever seen before. I mean, in israel, there really is sort of an exhausted anger at the fact that these rockets have been coming over for so long and now for the first time, this time theyre hitting places like tel aviv and jerusalem. On this side, theres a real sense of hopelessness that theyve gone through the camp david accords, theyve watched their leaders go into talks time and time again with israel. Now theyre ruled by hamas, much more rejectionist than the plo was years ago. But they feel that the best they can hope for now is not peace or a solution, but just a period of relative calm. Wolf blitzer, you were in ashkelon earlier today. I think we have some of that report. Lets play that. Im told we dont have that. Well have that later on. What did you see in ashkelon . Obviously that is a town that has been hard hit and people unfortunately have become very used to having to run for cover when some of these rockets are fired into israel. It was pretty eerie, i got to tell you. Its a city of about 100,000 people, ashkelon, and it just literally when we got there, we went to a high school where there had been a rocket that hit that high school earlier in the day. We wanted to see what it was like as we were pulling into the parking lot for the high school. All of a sudden, these sirens went off and we realized that a rocket or missile or whatever was heading towards our way, and then these Israeli Soldiers came running out and said get in, get in, follow us, 30 seconds, 30 seconds, and we followed them into a shelter where it was crowded inside. Israeli soldiers, civilians. We were in for a couple minutes and then we finally emerged and we did hear these loud thumps in the sky, then we saw these plumes of cloud. It was one of those iron dome antimissile systems that had destroyed the incoming rocket, coming into ashkelon. As a result there was nobody hurt. But it was a terrifying scene. Lot of people were scared, especially the young kids were very scared, and this goes on all the time. They get about 1,000 of these rockets that have been launched in the past six days from gaza into israel. The iron dome has worked pretty successfully, anderson. About 90 of the missiles, the antimissiles that were launched, worked, and they only use it when they sense that one of these rockets or missiles is heading toward a populated area or a strategically important area. If its just going to a farmland or rural area, theyre not going to use it. Its been pretty successful so far. Its probably saved a bunch of lives but its a very tense situation here in israel and i sense even as the Israeli Cabinet meets, this thing could go either way, ceasefire or all out Israeli Ground invasion. We will talk to a member a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry in just a few moments. Ben, explain how the level of sophistication of these rockets that hamas and other groups here in gaza have, has increased and also, how are they able to get rockets in . Well, they are much more sophisticated than they were six years ago. I went to a rocket factory here and it was very crude. No guidance systems, made with basically fertilizer propellant. Now they are getting these rockets, some of them through the tunnels in the southern border with egypt. Some of them is more than one stage, a long rocket. Has to be disassembled and brought in, and this has increased the range of the rockets fired by hamas and the other resistance organizations as far as jerusalem and tel aviv. That is real significant change. Really the most significant change weve seen in the conflict between hamas and israel for quite some time. You and i were also on the scene about four or five blocks from here earlier in the day when three israeli missles hit the second floor of the media center. Explain what happened there. That was about 3 20 in the afternoon and we saw three rockets hit the building. One hit the front, we saw great big ball of flame coming out. Very quickly, a large crowd of journalists of course and first responders, the fire department, the ambulances, showed up. They did bring out a man on a stretcher, his body was completely charred. He appeared lifeless. His clothes had been burned off, everything. Completely. Absolutely. We do believe that he is this member of Islamic Jihad who is the leader of their socalled military media office. So the israelis are saying he was one of the targets. They say a number of people from Islamic Jihad were in the building and he was the one that was killed. Yes, thats right. In addition to him, there was a shop keeper in the building who died of a heart attack as a result of the blasts. So another victim. Arwa, you have been talking to people, you both are fluent in arabic, you have been talking to people in the marketplace. For regular life for people here, i think were about to hear it, we just saw the skylight up, just heard another explosion off in the distance there, pretty distant, though, because not a huge sound, regular life here has pretty much ground to a halt as it has on the israeli side of the border in some of these border towns. It most certainly has. You walk through the streets here again, you can hear you probably picked up that one. That was actually a little bit closer. It almost sounds like rolling thunder, kind of echoing in this densely populated city. Go on. It does. It sounds like that. Experiences like this that have effectively driven people indoors because they do believe as if they have no way to keep themselves safe other than try to stay well inside. You drive through the streets here, at any time of day, and they are completely deserted, especially after dark, when people tell us that that is when the strikes are really intensifying. When you drive through here during the day, you feel as if youre almost in any other war zone because its so deserted, the shops are closed, but the reality is that the people here have not fled. They have nowhere to go. And a lot of the families that were talking to are saying that the best thing they can do is really sit at home and pray. Tonight we were in a home where 30 members of one family had crowded together, the children were all underfoot because they felt their own neighborhoods were quite simply too dangerous for them to stay in. Again, we hear this on both sides of the border. The regular life for families, for children, for women, very much affected by this, obviously. Appreciate your reporting. Well continue to have more from ben and arwa and also wolf blitzer in jerusalem. I want to bring in a spokesman for the israel Foreign Ministry. Appreciate you being with us, sir. There has been a lot of talk, a lot of rumors over the last 24 hours about a possible ceasefire, about some sort of negotiated settlement. I know the Israeli Cabinet met earlier this evening. Whats the latest on that . I cant say because obviously, while negotiations are going on, were not going to disclose any details. All i can say is that our contacts, and we are trying to explore diplomatic ways to end this, but as we have stated since the beginning of this operation, the only objective of this operation, only objective we are trying to achieve is to stop rocket fire on israeli civilians but not just to obtain a shortterm truce that will be broken again and again by hamas, but to obtain the cessation of rocket fire for a long period, for a very long period. Now, we have tried to explore diplomatic ways by alerting the Security Council, by trying to file official complaints with the Security Council and hoping that they will take a stance or do something, and as that didnt work, we had to use the army, we had to launch the operation. Now, if theres a diplomatic possibility to stop rocket fire through some sort of arrangement or agreement or anything of the sort, then of course, we will not shun it. We will try to explore that. Otherwise, if that fails, we will continue to use military means to try and stop rockets. Hamas is saying theyre insisting not only on ceasefire by israel, but also opening up of the virtual blockade of gaza for any kind of peace deal can be made. For israel, what are the minimum requirements for a deal to be made . You say clearly, obviously, the stopping of firing of rockets by hamas and other groups here in gaza. Is there anything else . The firing of rockets needs to stop and it needs to stop for a long time and there need to be many guarantees for that. Of course, because were not going to just take hamas word for it or the Islamic Jihads word for it. Nobody would. Now, how exactly to do that, thats a tough question and im not going to go into the details of the negotiation. I think that by going out to the media, hamas officials who are disclosing or apparently disclosing details of the negotiation are trying to influence it so im not going to comment on that. I think that well have to leave the negotiators to do their business and what happens behind the scenes stays behind the scenes until we see an agreement that we can all come out with, i would rather not talk about details, about conditions, about requests and so on. How concerned are you that hamas may come out of this stronger than they were before, with greater influence than they had before, particularly over the other group thats in control of the west bank . I think that palestinians can see for themselves what hamas has brought them. Ever since hamas took power over the gaza strip, by expelling through blood and fire the representatives of the Palestinian Authority, not israel, the palestinians, gaza has been sinking and has been sinking into a situation of hopelessness. It has become a sort of platform for rocket launching and attacks and bombings on israelis and of course, its future looks terrible. Ever since hamas is in power. I think that after this conflict is over and palestinians in the west bank and in gaza will think about what has happened, they will understand that none of this would have happened had hamas not adopted this you called it a rejectionist policy. Its not rejectionist. Its a holy war policy. Their only project is holy war until the bitter end, until they destroy israel, and this is something the palestinians need to think about very seriously. Is this what they want for gaza for the west bank, for themselves, or do they want to find a path to negotiate peace with israel and coexist peacefully in two separate independent secure states. I think its for the palestinians to make that choice and until then, if our security is threatened, if israeli civilians come under fire, then we will take whatever measures are needed to protect them. At the same time, we are still willing to discuss and to negotiate with the Palestinian Authority a peace deal. We are willing to talk any time without preconditions and this situation, this conflict in gaza has not changed that fundamental position. Mr. Palmor, appreciate your time tonight. Thank you very much. When we come back, i want to show you what it was like up close as we went to the scene of the multiple rocket attack on what was a media center, but also a place where Islamic Jihad, a number of Islamic Jihad officials were congregating, according to israeli officials, and one of them was killed in the strike. Well show that to you when we come back. Twins. I didnt see them coming. I have obligations. Cute obligations, but obligations. I need to rethink the core of my portfolio. What i really need is sleep. Introducing the ishares core, Building Blocks for the heart of your portfolio. Find out why 9 out of 10 large professional investors choose ishares for their etfs. Ishares by blackrock. Call 1800ishares for a prospectus which includes investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses. Read and consider it carefully before investing. Risk includes possible loss of principal. [ gordon ] for some this line is a convenience. How you doing today . Im good thanks. How are you . Im good. [ gordon ] but for others, its all they can afford. Every day nearly nine million Older Americans dont have enough to eat. Anything else . No, not today. Join me, aarp, and Aarp Foundation in the drive to end hunger by visiting drivetoendhunger. Org. There, over in the sky, you probably wont be able to see it here, theres an interceptor missile taking off right now. If you just saw the flash in the sky, that was a rocket coming out of gaza that was just intercepted right now. It appears as though at this point in time there is another barrage being fired from gaza into this part of israel, close to the israeli border. When the iron dome antiaircraft missiles are fired, you can actually see them in the night sky, even sometimes during the day. A few hours ago we saw a number of rockets being fired from a position just a couple blocks from here in the center of gaza city, and we saw the iron dome antimissiles go up and take them out. So its a very effective system. The israelis say about a third of the thousand or so rockets that have been fired into israel have been intercepted. They also say more than 100 or so of th