Top Story with Tom Llamas - Monday, October 9, 2023

Episode Date: October 10, 2023

Tonight's Top Story has the latest breaking news, political headlines, news from overseas and the best NBC News reporting from across the country and around the world.

Tonight, a special edition of Top Story live from Tel Aviv, as Israel vows to carry out a full siege of the Gaza Strip, and the death toll continues to climb. More than 1,200 people killed, including 11 Americans, after Hamas militants launched a stunning attack on Israeli soil, fighters shooting their way past the border, massacring civilians, and taking more than 100 people hostage. At least 260 people killed while attending a music festival. Some taken by Hamas fighters there and dragged into Gaza. Israel firing back, targeting Hamas strongholds, cutting off electricity and water to that region. Hundreds of Palestinians killed. President Biden sending reinforcements to the region as fears of a wider global conflict mount will have the very latest from inside the conflict zone.

A desperate effort tonight to reach those who were abducted. Hamas now threatening to kill a hostage every time Israel launches a missile near civilians. More than 100 people believed to be in the hands of Hamas in Gaza tonight. What we're hearing from their anguished families, mounting questions about the massive intelligence failure that let this terror unfold. Hamas releasing new video showing their fighters training to invade Israel for days. So how did the Israelis and the Americans not see this coming? And could Iran have been involved, what we're hearing from the intelligence community tonight? And amid the unthinkable violence and devastation tonight, the moments of compassion, people lining up for hours to donate blood, neighbors, helping neighbors, doing whatever they can to get through it all together.

Top story starts right now. Good evening from Tel Aviv. I'm Ellison Barber in for Tom Yamis. We begin this special edition of Top Story from Israel, a nation tonight declaring war against Hamas following the brutal surprise attack within its own borders, already more than a thousand people killed, including at least 11 Americans. And the grim reality tonight, that bloodshed is far from over. This is the scene in Hamas controlled Gaza tonight, a flurry of Israeli missiles lighting up the night sky exploding on impact as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vows to destroy all Hamas strongholds. The strikes a direct response to these barbaric scenes. Utter brutality captured on

video over the weekend for the world to see. Israelis, including women and children, taken hostage by Hamas fighters after those militants stormed across the border and entered Israel early Saturday morning. Some shooting their way through checkpoints, others paragliding over the border, by air, by land, and sea, that incursion catching Israel's military and its civilians completely off guard. A music festival in southern Israel, the site of an unthinkable massacre. Concert-goers fleeing in terror as Hamas militants fired indiscriminately into the crowd. More than 260 people killed in this attack alone and dozens of others taken hostage, including this 25-year-old woman who screamed for help.

as her boyfriend looked on in horror. She and at least 100 others likely now being held in Gaza. Tonight, Hamas threatening to kill one of them every time Israel launches a missile without warning near civilians. But we have not seen Israel's aerial assault slowed down. More than 500 Palestinians reportedly killed since the start of the conflict.

And now signs Israel could mount a land invasion as well as it calls up 300,000 reservists and sends tanks and troops to reinforce the border with Gaza. The Biden administration tonight pledging its support to Israel, sending a fleet of navy ships and fighter jets to the Mediterranean. Senior U.S. officials telling NBC news that move is designed to try and deter Iran, as questions mount over whether the Iranians helped Hamas plan this attack. We have a full team of reporters covering all angles of this fast-moving conflict tonight

from here in Israel and back. home in the United States. We begin first with NBC nightly news anchor Lester Holt, who leads us off from Tel Aviv. Tonight, Israel bombing the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, ordering a complete siege. No electricity, fuel, or food allowed inside as they hunt down the Palestinian militants responsible for the massive terror attack that's left hundreds dead, including Americans. What Israeli officials called there 9-11. Tonight, Israel's prime minister says air strikes in Gaza are just the beginning.

We just started to hit the Hamas. And now the race to find what Israel says are at least 100 hostages, with Hamas threatening to start executing them. Among those abducted, 25-year-old Noah Argomani screaming for help as she and her boyfriend are taken hostage by Hamas terrorists. This woman barefoot, her hands bloodied and tied behind her back, her face bleeding as she's forced into the back of a jeep, and a mother crying, clutching her two children as they're about to be kidnapped. The horror starting Saturday morning at 6.30, when the biggest attack against Israel in decades began,

Israel's vaunted military and intelligence agencies apparently caught by surprise. Hamas fighters coming in by land, sea, and air, including, paragliders, getting past Israel's border barrier, armed Hamas men in the back of trucks, and this video is showing Hamas terrorists on foot, randomly opening fire, going door-to-door, executing civilians, and unleashing a massacre at a music festival in southern Israel, young revelers running for their lives, others desperately crouching behind vehicles and bushes As the terror unfolded, Sahar bin Salah saw friends die at the festival. Seriously, it's really living hell.

Never seen something like this. Bodies, all places, for the slaughter, the slaughter was there. They didn't care if you are a man or woman, you are young or old men. They're killers. Israel releasing this chilling image from the aftermath, the dead in body bags. Officials say at least 260 people were killed. This drone video shows burned-out car strewn along the side of the road. By 1130, Israel's Prime Minister declaring war on Hamas.

Israeli military operations are launched, but others taking matters into their own hands. You were a grandfather on a mission. Exactly. Today I met retired Israeli Major General Noam Teabon. He got a text Saturday from his son Amir, who was staying with his family on a kibbutz near the Gaza border. when Hamas arrived. He told me, dead.

There are terrorists all around. They are shooting on the house. And I said only one thing. Be quiet. I'm on my way. Armed with only his pistol, Noam and his wife, who's also a retired military officer,

drove to the kibbutz, joining Israeli soldiers in a gun battle with Hamas. You killed some of the terrorists. I killed at least one, yeah. You are a trained soldier, but still, you're protecting your family at that moment. I was in many battles. This is by far the most important thing that I did in my life.

I was protecting my family. I was protecting their whole community. He arrived at his son's house, finding his family was hiding, terrified, but safe. My little granddaughter, Galia, said, Grandpa came. And this is maybe the best words that I ever heard in my life. Meanwhile, the death toll is also growing inside Gaza tonight. Palestinian officials say hundreds are dead from Israeli retaliation operations, including civilians, rescuers, combing through rubble. We were sitting peacefully and then started feeling debris falling on us.

My dad and sister were killed, this man says. Hamas is backed, armed, and financed by Iran. And tonight, former U.S. intelligence and military officials tell NBC News, the unprecedented. The unprecedented scale and sophisticated tactics Hamas used indicate Iran most likely played a significant role in the terror attack. Iran's president tonight praising the Hamas strike, which he calls resistance efforts, while Iran is denying direct involvement. And at least one Hamas official saying Iran was not involved. But the Wall Street Journal reporting that Iran helped Hamas plan the attack, giving it a green light last Monday, citing senior members of Hamas and Hezbollah.

The White House says they do not have evidence to corroborate their report. Tonight, Israeli forces say they are still working to clear Hamas out of Israeli territory, with so many waiting for word on their loved ones held inside Gaza. Right now, all we care is that they come home safely. Like American Abby On, whose family texted her Saturday from southern Israel, describing Hamas gunmen inside their home. They were overturning furniture and that they could hear gunfire, and they were locked in bomb shelters, and they began to communicate that they were afraid they wouldn't come out.

Did you know that they were taking hostages? We knew at this point that they were slaughtering people. Missing tonight, her American cousin, three of her grandchildren, and her son-in-law. She's seen this disturbing video online, her cousin, 12-year-old Eras Calderon, being abducted by Hamas kidnappers. When you review the moments of that day, do you keep coming back to the video? Yes. I mean, when I saw that video, my husband and I burst into tears and started shaking. It's something that no parent, no human can ever imagine to see a child in the hands of terrorists.

Tonight, desperate for her family's nightmare to end. It felt like a horror movie. This doesn't happen in real life. And also, you live in a country who boasts one of the best armies in the world. So it felt like all the wrong things happened at the right moment for this to take place. And it's just been, it's hard to close your eyes at night. And Lester Holt joins us now here in Tel Aviv. Lester, listening to those people's stories, that mother, that woman talking about this feeling of safety, comfort, almost being gone.

As you've spoken to people, do you get the sense here that there is a life and an Israel? before October 7th and then a new one after. Yeah, everybody I talked to, I asked that very question. I said, has Israel changed forever? And they quickly all said, yes. Not only anyone can define it, but clearly there was a, even though they lived under the threats of militant groups, they always felt that their government would protect them

because, you know, it's Iron Dome and other intelligence, you know, prop operations, but they didn't come to fruition. They didn't work. And I think they feel somewhat let down. listening to that retired military man talking about going to save his son, that story sounds like something out of a movie. You spend so much time with people at their best moments at their worst. What stood out to you about him? You know, it's just his determination. I mean, I said, first thing I said, off camera, I said, you're a soldier, just to see combat? And it was like,

wow, I should have not have asked the question because he went in all the wars he had fought in as a special forces officers who had incredible, you know, poise and he had to operate a weapon. And what I found interesting from talking to him was how he said, you know, basically had to break the rules. There were checkpoints that were turning him away. You know, he found a way to go around him. He gets to the kibbutz and the soldiers kind of shoeing the civilian guy. And he goes, no, wait, I'm a major general. I'm retired.

And he leads them in to battle. So it was, you know, he had to make a lot of things come together. But he was determined to fulfill that promise to his son that he was going to get them out of there and he did it. As we're watching this in the days and possibly weeks ahead, what is the thing that you will be watching for next? So many Israelis are looking, the world is looking to see whether or not there is a ground assault. Do you get the sense that that is coming? Yeah, ground assault or a regional war, all these things are real possibilities. Richard Engelze on would be a nightly news tonight, and that's one of things we discussed, was no one knows how this ends or where it goes next.

You know, the prime minister here has hit hard with the airstrikes in Gaza, but he also says, well, that's not all. There's more to come. So I think we're all waiting. Buster, hold, NBC, nightly news anchor. Thank you. We appreciate your time tonight. Great to be on with you, of course. Thank you very much.

Now, to more on that terrifying hostage crisis that is unfolding all over Israel, it is estimated. More than 100 people have been captured and taken into Gaza by Hamas. Tonight, family members overwhelmed with concern and grief. our Richard Engel has the late details. Families across Israel tonight are facing the worst possible anguish with loved ones held hostage by Hamas and dragged into Gaza. Among the missing is Romi Gonin, a 23-year-old waitress who enjoys travel and is from a close family. This was her last birthday before Romi went to that doomed music festival. Mommy was going to a party.

Her mother, Marive, first heard from Romi by phone as rockets started falling on Saturday, which was not that unusual for Israel. She's calling me, Mommy, what should I do? Tell me what to do. If no worries, the bombing will stop in a minute, just be relaxed, go to your car. But this attack kept going. She was terrified. She was saying, Mommy, we are trying to get out of here, but I'm bleeding.

We were shot. Everybody here was shot. And she said, Mommy, I'm afraid I will die. And I said, no, you're not going to die. Then she heard voices in Arabic. And then I heard shooting all around very close to the car and started hearing voices in Arabic talking to each other, shouting at each other.

And I was so afraid. I was so afraid. After that, the phone went dead. The family later tracked it to inside Gaza. Earlier today, we drove to the town of Zderot near Gaza, close to where the music festival was held. Major Jerome Spelman and Israeli military spokesman described the Hamas killing spree here.

Start shooting all these vehicles, people standing at the bus stop, everything, the single thing you see. Carnage everywhere, dead bodies. Then came a barrage of rockets from gossip. Quite close. Get in. Everybody in?

This is what we're up against. This is like a shooter situation in the U.S. Imagine a thousand shooter situations happening constantly. Do you think we're clear? We are. As we left for another part of Zderot, Israeli troops seemed tense. It turned out with good reason.

Stay down, stay down. Go ahead. Nico, Nico, they're coming in very close. So these seem to be mortars, they are coming in very close. No one on our team was injured. Tonight, Murav and her family are trying to hold themselves together. But as they looked at photos of Romy and reminisced, her sister Darya was overwhelmed. When you hear the sound of pure grief, it never leaves you.

It's raw and primal. Tonight, it's all over Israel. And Richard Engel joins us now. Richard, we are glad you and your team are okay. You have spent many years covering things in this region, covering conflicts here and abroad. Talk to us about what you saw in the last 20, 24 hours, what you and your team experienced today and how it compares to your past experience. Well, it's hard to know where we're going here because the Israeli government has said that

its goal now, it is at war, it's declared war against Hamas. What exactly does that mean? Is that mean it's going to kill all the Hamas leaders? Is it going to enact regime change? And I was pressing Israeli officials today. And they think regime change is the goal. So how do you carry out regime change? It is one of the most difficult political missions anywhere on the planet.

The United States has tried it in Iraq. Regime change is tough, especially in an area like Gaza. Hamas has dug in, places full of booby traps, their tunnels, they're fortified, they're clearly have gotten better at their, what's called, militant activity. So how do you do it? Do you bomb them? And when you bomb people, generally, it only creates more. extremism and people rally around the force that is being bombed. But it's also not acceptable for

Israel to allow this to keep happening, to have commandos from Gaza terrorists crossing into this country and going on killing and kidnapping rampages. So what do they do? Do they go in? And if so, for how long? How do they carry out regime church? How do they impose a new, more moderate government in Gaza by force? How do you beat people into moderation while maintaining this overall political system that we're in? So I think we're just really

in the beginning phases of this. If that is the route that we see take place, do you think you quickly see the West Bank, the Palestinian Authority, saying, okay, we're going to get involved here? Do you think we see what we're starting to see happen in the North activity among Hezbollah and other groups?

Well, the problem is the Palestinians, as you mean, mentioned are divided. So you have Gaza Strip, which most people don't really understand exactly what we're talking about. You have the Gaza Strip, which is run by Hamas. Then you have the West Bank, which is separate and run by the Palestinian Authority. And the two don't get along. And I think right now Hamas's stock is rising, and the Palestinian Authority is seen as ineffective, maybe seen as lackeys for Israel, seen certainly as more moderate. But the people dominating the streets, the people taking the action.

but now are the extremists. Richard Engel, thank you. We appreciate your insight and your reporting. Thank you. And Israel's Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is warning tonight that the airstrikes against Hamas are only the beginning. It comes as Israel appears to be mobilizing

for a large-scale ground offensive. NBC's Raf Sanchez has more. After being caught off guard by the worst surprise attack in 50 years, now comes an even bigger challenge for Israel, a potential all-out invasion of God. Gaza. The Israel defense forces tonight pounding the strip from the air. But all signs point to a ground offensive. And soon, Israeli tanks massing near the Gaza border and more than 300,000

reservists called up for duty. Is it really militarily feasible to invade Gaza, to fight street by street, and to overthrow Hamas there? It is possible. The question is, what is the price and strategically what is the best way to carry this out? Invading Gaza would mean urban warfare in one of the most densely populated places on earth. And at the same time trying to rescue the Israelis being held hostage, likely imprisoned in the elaborate network of tunnels that run underneath Gaza. The value of hostages as bargaining chips for Hamas shown in the case of soldier Gilad Shalit. Captured in 2006 and held for five years, Israel eventually agreed to free more than a thousand Palestinian prisoners to bring him home. Today's hostages guarded by Palestinian militants

emboldened by their success. New CCTV footage showing a squad of Hamas gunmen on motorcycles storming into this kibbutz, walking calmly through the streets, stepping over the bodies of Israeli civilians, before driving away in this stolen car. The IDF now says it's retaken control of all Israeli communities, but struggling to contain fresh waves of rockets. These mourners in Jerusalem ducking for cover. But inside Gaza, there's nowhere to run.

for the two million Palestinian civilians who live under Hamas rule. Israel last launched a ground offensive in Gaza nearly a decade ago. Dozens of Israeli soldiers were killed and nearly 2,000 Palestinians. Right there, perfect. Nope. All right. Now to the desperate search for those still missing. Some of the first victims of Saturday's attack were those attending a music festival near the Gaza Strip.

Young Israelis, they ran for their lives as they saw rockets launch around dawn on Saturday. Many families lost contact with their loved ones not long after. One such concert goer, 30-year-old, Itte Bon Jo. He made it out of the concert grounds by car taking sheltered and nearby kibbutz. Joining me now on the phone is Itte's mother, Zihava, Zaha von Joe. Zaha, thank you so much for joining us. First of all, I would like to say thank you. for taking the time. We are so glad you are safe. Please correct us on the pronunciation of your name.

I know this is an incredibly difficult time for you. Talk to us about what you have experienced in the last few days. When did you last hear from your son? Thank you. My name is Zeava Banjo, and I'm here to share about my son, Itai. Itai Banjo is 30 years old and he is a student at Bersheva University. Last Friday, I went out with his friends to a party. And evening that none of us could have mentioned even that will turn into a nightmare. After days, we are days are searching more than 16 hours of searching. We are searching families and friends and everyone. And we have some details that we will know and we build some timeline of the events.

we know that at 6.30 in the morning or Itai sent to his friends a photo in the photo we will see him smiling and having fun dancing with his friends just an hour later at around 7 in the morning everything changed his last message

that he described that he have a terrifying situation. The music stopped in the party. Quickly, they realized that something is wrong, and they thought only that they have rockets, and then they hear about guns, and they understand that this is not a regular situation. Itai, Itai Banjo,

along with three friends he managed to make to the car a friend of them and informed us that he had reached to a shelter in Kibbutz, Rheem. He sent me a message

that he's in a shelter. It's a street shelter. It's not like something, yes. like this in the picture that you see, this is the shelter that we can see him that is hiding there.

To understand what happened to Itai, we need to watch videos of Ba'i Hamas that we are seeing this only because we want to find something, details, some photo that we can see

Itai, something that we can see and say, okay, maybe he's here, maybe he's there, maybe let's go and and assist. Let's go and help him. You can see the stories that you hear. Yeah. As you are waiting, trying to find information on your own, what is it that you want the Israeli government,

the Israeli military to do right now to try to help your son and others? I will tell you the true. I only want my son safe and alive and alive. I don't think about something else. I only want Itai Banjo come back to me and that I know that he's alive and he's safe and we can hug him and only to see him and to smile. This is the only thing that I want to see.

I want him safe here in Israel. at his home, and I don't want to leave him to any party, only that he will stay home. You need to understand the situation with a lot of hours that we don't know nothing. We only hear about things, and we are trying to understand the details, to help to do something. and it's like our family like many others we are going through unimaginable pain and first of all we have reached the support from the community and people around the world

we can see this we can see that we have support in the world we can see that you want to help Israel It's looking like Israel, it's under attack, and I only want my son home. I want Itai Banjo home. Zava Banjo, thank you so much for speaking with us. We hope you hear good news, something from Itai, and that he comes home safe to you soon. Thank you. We really appreciate your time tonight.

We're going to turn now for analysis on how we got here, more analysis on how we got here, more analysis, on how we got here and what might be next in this conflict. Joining us now is Ambassador Dennis Ross. He has played a key role in the U.S.'s efforts to advance peace efforts in the Mideast and has worked to broker historic agreements in this region. He has also served under President Bush and Obama. Ambassador Ross, let's talk about the timing of this assault, right? Hamas's leadership has said this was driven by frustrations with at least three different things.

They have specified specifically. They say Israelis, going in to the Al-Aksa Mosque in Jerusalem, and in their view, desecrating it, the blockade on Gaza that has been long running for years now. And also, they say concerns about countries in this region beginning to normalize relations with Israel, seemingly Saudi Arabia being one right now that they were focused on, right? Chahmas in Israel, they have fought four times before this. But tell us why this aggressive attack, what we saw unfold over the weekend, what makes it different, and why do you? do you think they chose to launch this attack right now? First, I would ignore basically the pretext that Hamas identifies

because Hamas hasn't needed pretext before when it triggered conflicts. The conflicts with Hamas after Israel withdrew from Gaza 100%. In 2005, Hamas never stopped attacking Israel even after Israel withdrew. They attacked the top of the crossing points. even after Israel withdrew from Israel into Gaza, even though the crossing points provided movement of people and goods into and out of Gaza, those were not a favorite Israel. They were something that Palestinians needed. They provoked the conflict in the end of 2008, 2009. They did the same in 2012. They did the same in 2014. There were skirmishes up until 2021 when they did it again. So they don't need a specific pretext other than the same.

the fact that Israel exists. They reject Israel's existence. Now, your question of why now is appropriate, and the one thing that I think that was true of the three elements that you identified, they very much feared the breakthrough between the possible breakthrough between Saudi Arabia and Israel. Clearly, Iran is very much opposed to that. You had the Supreme Leader last week give a speech devoted entirely to being against that normalization, being challenging and making it clear that those who did it would pay a price, and then suddenly you see this. Now, this wasn't just produced over the last few days,

which was obviously planned over a number of months. But it's also been clear that for a number of months, the possibility of a breakthrough between Saudi Arabia and Israel has emerged publicly. So I think if you're looking for why they did this, I think that's the main reason, it reflects a fear of that and a fear that Israel and Saudi Arabia would create a further network of those who are building very resilient, prosperous societies, which contrasts very strongly with the realities of what Iran, Lebanon, where Hezbollah is, Gaza, where Hamas is, they offer no future. they oppress their publics, they offer no future, no possibility, and the last thing they want are states that look highly successful economically, given the impact, potential impact that has on them and their own stability. So I think that helps to explain the timing. It's hard to understand why Israel was caught so unaware and why its military seems so unprepared,

although here again, I think there are explanations for that. I'm happy to get into it if you like. Do you think there is any chance, Ambassador, that this could end soon, that we could see some sort of discussion, some sort of ceasefire like we have seen in the past, or do you think, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that this is going to be a long protracted war? You won't see a ceasefire like we've seen before. I cited the 2009, 2012, 2014, 2021. In all those cases, cases, Hamas use a ceasefire to rebuild and prepare themselves for the next round. The reality of what Israel is now prepared to do is to say, look, we are going to come up with an outcome where Hamas is no longer capable of threatening Israel again. Every line was crossed here. The reality that you take hostages who are grandmothers, yes.

young mothers with children under the age of 10, some as young as six months. You come in and you shoot up every house you can get into and the houses you can't get into because people have somehow successfully locked you out. You set on fire. I mean, they committed unspeakable acts, and the shock that Israelis are feeling is a shock that they've never felt before. This is beyond what happened in 1973 when they were surprised by the Egyptians and Syrians, and those were conventional armies. Israel has not suffered these kinds of fatalities and casualties in Israel itself since its war of independence in 1948. So the shock, the anger is at such a high level.

And one interesting thing to note, notwithstanding all the differences that were triggered that were seen within Israel over the effort to push the judicial reform, it's very interesting that the numbers of people reporting for reservist duty right now, for being called up, is higher than it's ever been in any previous conflict. It tells you all the divisions are now not even being thought about, and they understand why, because Hamas didn't draw distinction between who was right-wing and who was left-wing,

who was for peace and who wasn't. They killed anybody who they saw. All right. Ambassador Dennis Ross, thank you for joining us. We appreciate your time tonight. Still ahead tonight on this special edition of Top Story, our coverage continues from here in Tel Aviv. The difficult questions tonight, how did the intelligence community not see the Hamas attack coming and did a year of domestic protest cause Israel to take its eye off the ball? And where do we go from here? Tonight, what the U.S. and Israel can do to prevent an attack of this scale from happening again. Stay with us.

Back now with perhaps the biggest question, these recent Hamas attacks are raising. How was Israel, a country known for its intelligence services and military force, not prepared? For more on this, I want to bring in NBC News National Security Analyst and former FBI agent, Clint Watts. Clint, thank you so much for joining us tonight. Let me just pose that question to you. It's the one everyone seems to be asking. How does something like this happen? Does it just come down to a major failure of Israeli intelligence? Was it a major failure of U.S. intelligence? Or was Hamas just that good this time? And do you think they had help? Definitely a downfall on the part of Israeli intelligence. I'm sure there'll be a lot looked at when the dust settles on this. Right now, the intelligence services are fully engaged in what's going on in Gaza and likely trying to nail down where those hostages are. The big things that I think stick out is the Israeli intelligence services were known really

to be the best in the world. If you look back during the global war on terror, most Western countries looked to Israel to really learn how to do counterterrorism, how to defend a country against a terrorist threat. They were known for their human intelligence combined with their technical intelligence capability, very sophisticated country. And I think that's probably where the downfall was, was that mix of human intelligence and technical intelligence got into some sort of imbalance where the technical intelligence was taking over. The Hamas militants devised a plan that was well coordinated, but not particularly sophisticated. The things they did should have been detected. And so I think

there is a lot of questions today, and it probably is really shaken Israel at a time when they thought they were on the way to mending fences with a lot of countries in the Middle East. What do you think will happen next? I mean, because they appear to have been caught kind of leaning back, can they get on a forward footing, if you will, to make up the difference of the initial failures here? Well, the one note that was your guest who was on right before I joined, he noted that recruitment, you know, reserves showing up for duty, people volunteering for duty is exceptionally high. That's a reversal from this past summer. I was in Israel in June, and it was a time of protest in the country where people were not showing up for their reserve duty.

That probably has been reversed. I think the big challenge, though, is how do they prepare for Gaza? How do they think about getting those hostages back? While at a time where they had a lot of their forces deployed in the West Bank, if you remember through the summer, there was a lot of conflict there in the West Bank, they redeployed a lot of their forces there. How would they, you know, situate themselves and then protect on what is three fronts, Hasblah to the north, other Palestinian militant groups in the West Bank, and then what they're going to be probably doing in Gaza. All right. Clint, thank you so much. We appreciate it. Stay with us. When we come back, we're going to take a closer look at that group, Hamas, the militant group that is labeled a terrorist organization by the United States that launched that brutal assault on Saturday, how they took power in the Gaza Strip, what they say they are fighting for. and the international power, providing them with military and financial support. That's next.

We're back now with a special edition of Top Story live from Tel Aviv as Israel fights a war against Hamas following a horrific attack by the militant group this weekend. But who is Hamas? And how did this group come to control the government? Gaza Strip, Valerie Castro explains. Hamas, the militant Islamic group that carried out an unprecedented attack in Israel, has long called for the end of the Jewish homeland. U.S. intelligence officials say Hamas, formed in 1987 during the first intifada,

wants to establish an Islamic Palestinian state in place of Israel and governed by Sharia law. What is fundamental belief is that all of historic Palestine is, rightfully belongs to the Palestinian people and actually to Muslims at large, and therefore it does not accept the legitimacy of Israel's existence. The group was designated a foreign terror organization by the U.S. State Department in 1997 following a series of suicide bombings in Israel. Hamas took complete control over the Gaza Strip in 2007, about two years after Israeli forces withdrew from Gaza leaving the region under Palestinian authority. A win in the Palestinian parliamentary elections in 2006 over rival political party, Fatah, ultimately putting the group in power.

Hamas supporters celebrating their landslide victory in Palestinian elections. Now the radical Islamic party has to form a government. The victory, a crucial turning point. Empowering Hamas to eventually oust Fata forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who condemned the civil war as a coup ruling from the West Bank. The Palestinians have been divided essentially between two governments, the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip and the Palestinian Authority government in the West Bank. There's been various efforts to reconcile the two sides over the years,

but none of those reconciliation efforts have come to anything. Hamas has also found a longtime ally in Iran, which has provided both financial and military support to the group, but Iran has denied any involvement in this weekend's attacks. For decades, Hamas. and Israeli forces have been in a cycle of violence that has included suicide bombings, kidnappings and fighting along Israel's southern border that has resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of Palestinians and Israelis, a cycle that doesn't appear to be ending anytime soon.

Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are also victims of Hamas. So we shouldn't equate Hamas's actions with those of Palestinians or assume that Hamas is acting with the support of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip or Palestinians elsewhere. And Valerie Castro joins us now from our top story studios in New York. Valerie, as we were discussing with Richard Engel earlier and heard in your piece, Hamas rules the Gaza Strip. They have controlled that outright since 2007. But the West Bank in East Jerusalem, that area where Palestinians live,

that is under control of a different government. The president, President Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority, they do not get along with Hamas. They have not been in the Gaza Strip since the 2000s. So talk to us about what we have heard from the Palestinian Authority. Are they supporting Hamas's actions here? And is there a likelihood that they could join in this war? Well, Ellison, President Abbas didn't express direct support for Hamas for its actions, but also didn't condemn the violence.

and Palestinian state-run news agency is reporting that a boss held an emergency meeting with Palestinian leadership and security officials in wake of this weekend's violence, calling for protection for Palestinians and saying they have the right to defend themselves against occupation forces. U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken also spoke with Abbas over the weekend, calling on all leadership in the region to condemn the violence against Israel, and calling for the Palestinian Authority to take steps to restore calm and stability in the West Bank. Listen. All right. Valerie Castro, thank you so much. Now to a look at what comes next for the region. I'm joined by MSNBC columnist Naira Huck. She previously served as a senior director at the White House and a senior advisor at the State Department. Nayara, in a column yesterday on MSNBC.com, you wrote that the region is not a powder keg just because of the weapons stockpiled there here, rather, but because of the volatile leadership. here and resentments that just loom over the population. This is a century-long fight over

territory. The status quo, it has been bad for decades. How do you think we got to this current moment right now? It's so hard to grasp as Americans, right? Where we have 250 years of history, founding fathers, right? We look at the 1700s, and we're talking centuries-old, resentments, identities. The Israeli Zionist ideology harks back to biblical times. You have civilization-breaking era types of issues between Iran and Saudi Arabia, all right, Sunni and Xi, and all of that coming into play on a piece of land that is literally the size of New Jersey, right? So that's the backdrop. And you have leadership and years and years of corruption that have just piled on top of each other so that people like you and me have grown up with this idea

of a two-state solution being discussed, never coming to fruition. And now the last several years, just being a side note, right? It's anybody working policy in the region understands that a two-state solution does not have the pieces in place right now, certainly not after this devastating attack by Hamas. for moving forward. As we've had conversations with some people here in Tel Aviv, I was struck by a fairly young person mentioning back to 2005. You know, as we're talking about, as you rightly mentioned, a very small piece of land. A thing Israel will often discuss and remind people of is that they withdrew forces from Gaza in 2005. They also removed Israeli settlers from the area. It was very controversial in Israel at the time. That being said, the argument from Palestinians

is that they never really left. They relocated and created a border that essentially barricaded people inside this area. And that is why they described that area as an open-air prison. But someone mentioned 2005 to me earlier today and said that when she's watching this now, and she was quite young, but she said she looks back at 2005 and thinks that Israel and everyone in the region, Palestinian Authority as well, missed an opportunity there to possibly have worked with Fata, Palestinian Authority, instead of letting Hamas then control Gaza. Is there a moment that you look at that you think, okay, that moment passed, maybe an opportunity that existed wasn't seized, but something similar could happen again? Or do you think we are going to be in this long war just for this foreseeable future? Do you have hope, I guess, is the question?

My hope is always in a new generation of leadership, because that is where new ideas can come or people try things again without the expectation that they will be repeating a pattern. I mean, let's, you know, Netanyahu's been in office for 16 years under multiple indictments, has, you know, by many descriptions within Israel, been distracted by his own struggles and his own right-wing coalition focusing on West Bank settlement advancement, whereas, we're talking about the threat from God. Hamas, having been elected 20 years ago, losing to even recognize the existence of a country that we all see as a functioning democracy. And then you have the aging Fatah leadership over in the West Bank, right? None of

these people, as I mentioned in the piece, are motivated by change or something new. They're trying to hold on to the established positions they've had for decades. So, Could a younger generation create change? Sure. But there were also each of them, whether Israel or Palestinian, growing up now under that threat of insecurity, of oppression, of genocide. And that's not a recipe for creating positive change. And we certainly are looking at this latest instigation by Hamas, the retaliation that's inevitable from Notting Yahoo. and seeing this as something that governments want to contain just to the region and not become an all-out Middle East war.

All right, Naira Huck, thank you so much for speaking with us. We appreciate it. Coming up next, continuing special coverage from here in Tel Aviv, Israel, now sending tanks and troops to the south, preparing for a possible land invasion of Gaza. How an operation of that scale could, unfold. Stay with us. We'll be right back. Back now with the military strategy as Israel responds to Hamas' historic attack.

Joining me now to bring his perspective on the conflict is retired lieutenant colonel Danny Davis, senior fellow at defense priorities and host of Daniel Davis deep dive on YouTube. Thank you for joining us. Talk to us about what you think is going to happen next. columns of Israeli tanks. They're massing on the border with Gaza as the country's armed forces appear to be preparing for some sort of land assault, what has been described by the Israeli military as the siege of Gaza. What could a ground land operation look like? Yeah, you know, you have some recent examples to look at. You have Fallujah in 2004 during the U.S. war there, the second battle of Fallujah, where you had the U.S., which was armed with, you know, Bradley's. Abrams tanks going against, you know, the kind of jihadis that the Hamas will be. And that was a very brutal situation required going door to door. And that place was much, much smaller than the Gaza Strip.

And you got to expect that with the operation that Hamas launched and that they knew for sure because of their experiences in 2014, 2021, and elsewhere, they had a pretty good idea what Israel was going to do in response. So we can expect that they have built traps, booby traps within there. They have created defensive positions. They probably have false walls. They have, you know, bunkers and tunnels done. All of those kinds of things are going to make it extraordinarily difficult for Israel to get in there and probably make the casualties very high. This is going to be a high risk and high casualty producing operation. All right. We will stay in touch with you as we see what progresses next. Thank you.

When we come back, the communities here in Israel coming together in this moment of darkness. Finally, tonight, images of resilience, the Israelis helping each other during one of the country's most difficult times. For days, residents here in Israel living in fear. Every time I hear a loud noise right now, I'm afraid it's a siren and I need to go, like, to look for a shelter. But that has not stopped many of them from leaving their homes and coming together to help neighbors and fellow citizens. affected by this ongoing nightmare. Residents like Tamar Shorri, gathering critical supplies for her community. Until now, I'm getting hundreds of calls, people who want to help, want to bring food, and volunteer.

At donation centers in Tel Aviv, hundreds helping to sort boxes of food and clothing that will make its way to southern Israel. Instead of being home and listening to the news and crying, I'm here. I have a soldier. It's very emotional. In Jerusalem, a three-hour line forming as Israelis showed up to donate blood for the thousands of wounded across the country. The country's at war. And as a civilian, it's very important to do my part, to do what I can. The Deputy Director of Israel's National Blood Service thanking the public for their ongoing help.

We are not prepared for this, and we need more and more blood every minute, every hour, five times more than usually. It's just amazing. I'm so proud of Israeli people in this situation. Citizen volunteer Elizabeth Schwartz has seen the heartwarming efforts firsthand. The overall feeling is like this harmonization of people that's kind of, of this like infectious uplifting energy despite the fact that we're all living through these trying times she says donating and volunteering has given many people like herself an outlet to cope with the sense of helplessness during this conflict this is our way of giving back even if it is through more smaller acts of service or kindness a nation coming together

amid its grief thank you so much for watching top story For Tom Yamis, I'm Ellison Barber in Tel Aviv. More news now on the way.