‘Hamas is saying bring it on’- Engel on tensions as Israeli military gathers near Gaza border
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00:00 escalating in Washington major political drama is unfolding on Capitol Hill during a moment of international crisis.
00:07 The House remains speakerless as the Republican majority is still unable to garner enough support for their nominee.
00:14 It is a whole mess and we'll have more on that later in the show.
00:17 But we begin tonight in Israel, where earlier today Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that he is forming an
00:24 emergency unity government in the wake of the Hamas attack, adding two opposition leaders to his cabinet.
00:31 In a news briefing Netanyahu said the newly formed government would "crush Hamas."
00:36 It comes as the nation has intensified its retaliation against Hamas, relentlessly bombarding Gaza
00:43 with missiles throughout the day, leaving the streets unrecognizable, entire neighborhoods destroyed.
00:49 And tonight all of Gaza is completely in the dark. The fuel to the power station ran out after being cut off by Israel,
00:57 leaving the people of Gaza with no electricity and no running water.
01:01 On top of that, the humanitarian situation there is being described as catastrophic.
01:05 More than 260,000 people have now been displaced.
01:10 Authorities are pleading for help and hospitals are overwhelmed, filled with the cries of children.
01:18 Meanwhile, Hamas militants have been firing rockets at Israel into the night.
01:22 While on the border, the scale and brutality of this weekend's attacks are still being uncovered.
01:29 One Israeli soldier describing the horrific scene inside a kibbutz that was ambushed by Hamas militants.
01:34 It's not a war. It's not a battlefield.
01:38 You see the babies, the mother, the fathers in their
01:44 bedrooms, in their protection rooms and how the terrorists kill them.
01:49 It's not a war. It's not a battlefield.
01:51 It's a massacre. It's a terror activity.
01:55 The human toll of this war has been catastrophic.
01:58 At least twelve hundred Israelis have been killed and in Gaza, at least eleven hundred people have been killed.
02:04 Between 100 and 150 people are estimated to have been taken hostage by Hamas,
02:10 something President Biden addressed today when speaking at a roundtable with Jewish community leaders.
02:14 We want to make it real clear we're working on every aspect of the hostage crisis in Israel, including
02:23 deploying experts to advise and assist with recovery efforts.
02:26 Now, the press are going to shout to me and many of you are that, you know, what are you doing to bring these, get these folks home?
02:34 If I told you I wouldn't be able to get them home, folks, there's a lot we're doing.
02:40 A lot we're doing. I have not given up hope of bringing these folks home.
02:44 This all comes amidst growing signs that a ground invasion may be imminent as Israeli forces gather near the border,
02:53 as NBC's Richard Engel points out.
02:55 Israel has brought in enough tanks and armor for a full scale ground war and is now mobilizing the more than three hundred and sixty
03:04 thousand reservists called up for national service.
03:07 A new phase of this conflict is about to begin and there'll be many casualties.
03:11 For Israeli troops, the risks are high.
03:15 Hamas planned for Saturday's murderous rampage into Israel for a year.
03:20 It's gunmen showing a level of training and savagery that shocked Israel and the world.
03:26 New footage shows Hamas gunmen paragliding into that music festival on Saturday morning.
03:32 Hamas is also prepared for Israel's ground invasion and says it welcomes it.
03:37 Hamas has a network of tunnels and booby traps and knows the ground far better than Israel.
03:43 For the two million civilians in Gaza, the risks are even higher.
03:47 Gaza is one of the most densely populated areas on earth.
03:51 Street to street fighting could kill thousands.
03:55 Richard Engel joins me now from Ashdod, Israel.
03:58 And so let's start at that last point that you were making, Richard, and thanks for joining us.
04:03 A ground invasion.
04:05 Where would it come from and how would it even work in that tiny strip of land that we know that Gaza is?
04:14 And we can throw up the map if we can.
04:15 But please, please explain even where would it come from?
04:17 Well, if you pull up a map, it's quite easy where it would come from, because it would come from everywhere.
04:25 It would come from all sides.
04:28 Israel would move in from all sides.
04:31 And I think that's not a secret.
04:34 I'm not revealing any plans.
04:35 I don't have inside knowledge.
04:38 But Israeli troops are deployed all around Gaza and they would try and overwhelm it.
04:44 There would be attacks from the sea.
04:45 There would be attacks from the air.
04:47 There would be drone attacks.
04:48 There would be attempts to block out communications with jamming equipment.
04:54 So it would be a full scale invasion.
04:58 Israel has done this before.
04:59 They have gone into the Gaza Strip.
05:01 But usually when they've gone in, they've just stayed in the north or they've tried to cut the region in half.
05:08 The actual tactical operations will be revealed if they do this.
05:14 But generally, they push in from multiple sides.
05:18 They cut the roads.
05:19 They cut the north from the south.
05:22 They use a lot of drones and a lot of jamming.
05:24 And it is highly destructive.
05:26 I was in Gaza during a previous ground assault and there was one area, Hayeltufa, it's called.
05:32 It was more or less level to the ground.
05:34 And it became a parking lot.
05:38 There was no way that anyone could survive in that area.
05:41 So it is highly destructive.
05:45 You can't move tanks into a built up area and start firing them without causing a lot of destruction.
05:52 This is not a pinpoint operation.
05:54 But in addition to the blunt move in with the tanks and the armored bulldozers, there will also be, because of all the hostage situation, commando raids, because they are going to be looking for the hostages.
06:07 So this will be a highly complex operation, very difficult to carry out for Israel, very dangerous for Israel and for the troops involved.
06:16 And potentially extremely lethal for all of the Palestinians who are there.
06:23 And Hamas is saying, we welcome it.
06:26 Bring it on. We want to fight on our own territory.
06:29 We know the territory better than anyone else.
06:32 And Hamas is feeling very confident after this weekend's assaults into Israel that have raised the group's reputation across the Arab world, at least.
06:45 And now we will see what happens if Israeli troops do go in.
06:50 It will make this early phase of the conflict pale in comparison.
06:56 And thank you for explaining that, because, you know, and we can put the map back up, because this is the question.
07:01 If there is an assault from the sea from the north of Gaza, Gaza is tiny.
07:06 So, I mean, we're blowing it up, you know, to try to make it to make you see what it is.
07:09 But it's really small.
07:10 There is only one way out for the two million civilians, and that is to go south to go to Egypt, which is, as you can see, is south of the Gaza Strip.
07:20 Egypt has been talking about trying to get aid in, trying to get U.N. aid in.
07:25 The U.N. has talked about it as well.
07:27 But Egypt has rejected any move to set up safe corridors inside of Egypt for people who are trying to flee south.
07:33 What is the status of that southern crossing?
07:36 Because if Egypt closes it, that means that this catastrophic assault that you're describing takes place in a place where everyone in Gaza is trapped there.
07:49 So that is generally the dynamic that happens.
07:52 The assault comes.
07:55 There are two main cities in Gaza.
07:58 There's Gaza City in the north and Hanounis in the south.
08:02 There are other smaller communities, but two major urban centers.
08:06 So one of the first things that Israel has done in the past is cut it off from the north to the south to prevent movement from one area to the other and prevent Hamas from resupplying and communicating and gathering
08:19 in force. And the other thing that happens is people rush toward the border with Egypt.
08:25 Egypt traditionally has not wanted to open that border because it doesn't want all of the two million Gazans to end up on Egyptian territory because they might never leave and they might become new Egyptians.
08:36 And the Gaza Strip could empty out.
08:39 So negotiations and discussions are already underway and appeals are already underway to open some sort of humanitarian corridor into Gaza to get supplies in, to allow medical relief in, to give the people some sort of a way to to survive, to give the civilians a way to survive.
08:59 But but so far that that corridor hasn't been opened and it's unclear if it will.
09:04 Richard Engel, thank you very much. We really appreciate your eyes and your knowledge on this.
09:09 Thank you. Let me bring in MSNBC political contributor Ben Rhodes, former deputy national security adviser in the Obama administration.
09:16 Hopefully you were able to hear Richard, Ben, because what we're talking about is potentially a major ground assault inside of a very small, packed, densely packed area where no one can leave.
09:31 So this could be difficult and then an attempt to also locate hostages up to 150 people who only Hamas knows where they are.
09:39 From a national security point of view, are there what are the risks here?
09:45 You know, because the the the idea, I'm assuming, is to not have this spark a larger war.
09:52 But inside of the countries that are around the region, they're going to see whatever the aftermath of that assault is.
09:59 And God only knows what happens next.
10:01 And that's right, Joy.
10:03 I mean, there's so many risks involved here.
10:05 I mean, first of all, there are obviously risks to Israeli ground forces moving into a densely populated area where Hamas may have prepared to ambush troops coming in.
10:15 There's obviously catastrophic risks for the civilians.
10:18 And we should think about the innocent Gazans who are trapped and have no way out and will be in the crossfire of this assault and already are in the crosshairs of the bombardment of Gaza.
10:29 But then beyond that, Joy, as you point out, there are risks that if the images coming out of Gaza are horrific of a humanitarian catastrophe, there are risks that that might prompt Hezbollah to enter the conflict from the north.
10:45 Hezbollah has actually said that a ground invasion might might bring them into this war.
10:50 And so then all of a sudden you have another front in this, a major Iranian proxy and a more capable organization than Hamas and Hezbollah with rockets and with manpower potentially coming in and escalating this conflict from the north.
11:03 And if the images, again, are obviously going to be triggering, you could see uprisings in the West Bank.
11:11 We've already seen some settlers, Israeli settlers, attack Palestinians in retribution for the horrific attacks by Hamas.
11:18 You could see Palestinian attacks.
11:19 And suddenly you could be looking at a multiple front war in the West Bank from Lebanon and as well in Gaza.
11:28 So there are a lot of risks associated with that kind of escalation, human risks and security risks.
11:33 Absolutely.
11:34 [Music]