The rapidly intensifying conflict between Israel and Palestinian militants roared into a second day Sunday, with new fears the surprise attack could spark a wider Middle East war. Today, the Pentagon ordered US warships and forces in the region to move even closer to Israel including the aircraft carrier G.R.F, currently deployed in the Mediterranean. Israeli soldiers today battled Hamas militant at the country’s southern border. More than a thousand people have reportedly been killed on both sides. The White House confirming some are in fact American citizens. They include at least two hundred and sixty Israelis attending a music festival near the border. Hamas claims to hold more than one hundred people hostages right now. Israeli has responded of course with fury. Fighter jets taking aim at targets in the Palestinian territory. Here in New York, hundreds of Israelis and Palestinians supporters held rival rallies in Times Square. And at the US Capitol today, the flag was lowered to half-staff in solidarity with Israel.

Here in Israel, Prime Minister B.N says his country is now engaged in a, quote “long and difficult war.” Hamas gunmen smashed their way through barricades that Israel uses to contain Palestinian in Gaza. The militants, designated as terrorists by the US, fired waves of rockets into Israel and arrived by sea and even in paragliders. It was a complex and coordinated attack. What followed was a bloodletting. Civilians were slaughtered on the highways and in the towns of southern Israel. In Sderot, around 2 miles from the border with Gaza Strip. Hamas gunmen overran the police station, killing dozens. It’s now a charred ruin. Minutes after we arrived today, we heard gunfire and an Israeli SWAT team moved in. Later, the police told us there was no militant and an Israeli citizen had accidentally been shot and injured. Their nervousness isn’t surprising. Hamas also took hostages including women, children and the elderly. They paraded some of them through the streets of Gaza. Israel says among them are US citizens.