Israeli Group Troops Grind into Gaza; Deadly Conflict Threatens Humanitarian Crisis
WOLF BLITZER, CNN GUEST HOST: Tonight, Israeli ground troops grind into Gaza. As the bloody conflict with Hamas escalates, both sides remain defiant. And now, a deadly conflict threatens to be a humanitarian crisis. Are they past the point of no return? Right now, on LARRY KING LIVE. We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world. We are following breaking news out of Gaza. Only within the past few hours, Israeli ground forces began a massive operation inside Gaza. I'm Wolf Blitzer, sitting in tonight for Larry King. I want to go right to our Christiane Amanpour. She's in Jerusalem. She's monitoring the latest developments. Christiane, what do we know? This operation began as nightfall, was only beginning out there in Gaza and in Israel.</s>CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT: That's right. It is still underway, we understand, by ground troops supported by naval forces. It did start in the early evening hours. What gave signals that it was about to start, after eight days of around the clock aerial bombardment of targets in Gaza, what gave the signal earlier this evening here in Jerusalem was the beginning of ground artillery fire and stepped up air fire. Often these accompany an impressive ground incursion. In any event that did happen. People were seeing it happen. Shortly there after, it was confirmed by Israeli forces, Israeli spokespeople and the Israeli defense Minster Ehud Barak gave a statement in which he said they thought very long and hard about this, that it would not be easy and not be short. But that their aim was, in Barak's words, was to stop Hamas's hostile action against Israel and the Israelis. He said there would be casualties. He said that they would be mindful of the humanitarian consequences. And he also made a public statement that they would not have any thought of starting anything up with their northern borders. That, a reference to Lebanon and Syria up there. Of course, you know, back in 2006, that was a war that Israel fought with Hezbollah up in the north. For its part, Hamas remained defiant. As Ehud Barak was giving a statement and so too were Hamas spokespeople in Gaza. They said that they would continue the fight and it would be no picnic for Israel. And they asked for an immediate stop to the siege.</s>BLITZER: Christiane, stand by for a moment. Nic Robertson is on the border between Israel and Gaza right now. What are you hearing, Nick, and what are you seeing? It's just after 4:00 local time.</s>NIC ROBERTSON, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, we are hearing huge explosions. We are hearing heavy machine gunfire, such as that fired from helicopters over and above the area. Heavy machine gun fire on the ground. Many, many detonations. If you look over my shoulder here, we heard what sounded possibly like exchanges of heavy machine gunfire from a lot of guns. What we are seeing is a sky light up with huge explosions. It will die down for a few minutes and then really become very forceful and strong again. But another thing that we have seen from our vantage point overlooking the Gaza Strip here is say lots of lights in the area go off. Within a half hour, the area behind me that had been very well illuminated, illuminations from a lot of houses, went off. Small pockets of light there now. The intensification of the battle seems to be sporadic. It seems to be quite an intense phase right now. It does seems to be over a wide range of areas. From the north of Gaza here, we are hearing explosions all the way down towards Gaza City, and in this direction. The sky lighting up down there as well. The explosions, most of the ones that I'm hearing, are down in that area. A few minutes ago, it was up here, Wolf. This battle is over a big front and it's intense -- Wolf?</s>BLITZER: All right, stand by, Nic. Karl Penhall is on the other Gaza border. That would be the Gaza border with Egypt right now. This is an area where I assume, Karl, a lot of Palestinians living in Gaza would like to cross over into Egypt. That's easier said than done.</s>KARL PENHALL, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Certainly, easier said than done, Wolf, because the Egyptian government is not throwing this border open to allow able-bodied Palestinians to come across. We have, though, over the last few days, seen a trickle of wounded Palestinians being admitted to Egypt for medical treatment. But I can tell you, over the last few moments, the last few hours, in fact, very clear signs that the ground incursion is also underway in this part of Gaza, which is just across the border here in Egypt. In the last few moments, there have been loud explosions, which I presume are from missiles being fired from helicopters that have slammed into positions probably no more than 400 yards away. We've also heard ground fire. We've heard heavy machine guns. And we've also heard the crack of assault rifles that may indicate that Hamas militants and Israeli forces are in fairly close proximity, Wolf.</s>BLITZER: Stand by, Karl. I want to go back to Christiane. Christiane, the stated objective of the Israeli military, the Israeli government is to stop the Hamas rockets and missiles from being launched from Gaza into southern Israel, but there are some who suggest that the unstated objective would be regime change or getting rid of Hamas in Gaza and replacing it with the more moderate Palestinian Authority of President Mahmoud Abbas. What are you hearing on that front?</s>AMANPOUR: Certainly, that is something that would be very beneficial to Israel and to the Palestinian Authority. There has been this civil war between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority of Mahmoud Abbas. And of course, Hamas now controls Gaza. However, that is not the stated objective of the Israeli government at the moment. We asked the spokesman, Mark Raga, who he will be talking to in a moment, and I asked him early into this planned incursion, what was the aim? He said it was not regime change. It was not, at this point, designed to get Hamas out of Gaza. It was designed to get Hamas to stop using their rockets into Israel. So the goal right now is to really hit them hard and to let them know that this is going to happen unless they stop using those rockets. Before anybody gets too excited about regime change, it's worth remembering that that is not as easily done as some would like it. Back in 2006, during the Israeli-Hezbollah war, the government of Israel kept saying they wanted to smash a final blow to Hezbollah. They didn't. And Hezbollah is still there. And it is, by all accounts, in a stronger position than ever in terms of politically and within the Lebanese government. So this is not an easy task. And right now, they are setting the goal to be not one of reoccupying Gaza, not one of getting Hamas out of there, but of stopping and neutralizing the rocket fire.</s>BLITZER: Hezbollah, as you say, is, indeed, actually part of a Lebanese government right now. I want all of our reporters to stand by. We will take a quick break. The breaking news here on "LARRY KING LIVE" continues. Coming up, we will speak with a spokeswoman for the Israeli defense forces. That's right after this.