President Biden had said in an interview on MSNBC on Saturday that, look, his red line would be Israel going into Raafal, which even Israel's closest allies and many other countries in the international community would be a catastrophe because you have well over a million people there who are sheltering, and frankly, there is nowhere for them to go. Israel has said that they would evacuate them elsewhere, but there is fighting and bombing taking place in virtually every other part of the country. And yet despite that warning from President Biden of not crossing that red line, we have Prime Minister Netanyahu saying that that offensive in Rafeh will, in fact, go ahead, saying that his red line is October seventh and making sure that that doesn't happen again. And he said that an IDF incursion into Raqqqa to root out Hamas there, it could take two months, perhaps even less than two months, and that there would be no pause in the fighting until there is some a deal made to bring the hostages home. He also left open the possibility of expanding military operations into Southern Lebanon, where, of course, there have been many back and forth firing between Hezbollah and the Israelis.

In fact, you have tens of thousands of Israelis who have been forced to leave their home in Northern Israel. And this is what Netanyahu said about ensuring those people can go back home. Listen.

So we will do whatever we can to restore security for them and bring them home. And I hope we can do that. If we have to do it with military means, we'll do so. If there's a diplomatic way to achieve it, fine. But ultimately, we'll do it.

It is worth pointing out, Erika, that Hezbel, excuse me, is a much more formidable fighting force that really divorfs the capabilities of Hamas. The Israelis themselves, at least before the war, estimated that there were hundreds, maybe thousands of rockets stored in people's private homes near the border within firing range of Israel. When it comes to the negotiations to get those hostages back in any a potential ceasefire, the hopes of that happening anytime soon are pretty dim at this stage of the game. You had President Biden pointing out that the CIA director was in Israel to meet with his Mossad counterpart. But the problem is that the Israelis and Hamas are not actually talking to each other, at least not publicly. Publicly. You had Hamas leaving the last round of talks in Cairo on Thursday, and the Israelis were never there in the first place because they say that Hamas has failed to address its latest demands, which include providing a list of hostages which are alive and which hostages are dead, something that Hamas says that it cannot provide. Hamas is also digging in on its key demands of a permanent ceasefire and a full withdrawal of the IDF from Gaza.

Both things that are going to be very difficult for the Israelis to agree to because they continue to insist that the war will only end, as you heard the Prime Minister saying there, until Hamas is completely destroyed. And that means going into Ra'afa, whether that's before or after any a ceasefire deal is made. And they also say that the day after the war, the IDF will have full control, free reign to go wherever they want inside of Gaza. And the IDF will also continue to control the borders of everything going in and out of the territory. We also heard from the Hamas leader Ismail Haneia, who gave a televised address saying that Hamas is still open to talks, but he says that it is Israel who is to blame for the lack of progress. And he also insisted that there would be no hostages released until there's a deal. Erica?

Wow. And as we watch all of that, a lot of really important developments tonight, Scott. Appreciate it. Thank you. I also want to bring in now CNN military analyst, retired US Air Force Colonel Cedric Layton. Colonel, always good to see you. First, I'd just love to get your reaction as we start. Two prime Mr. Benjamin Netanyahu's comments about invading Raafa, which, of course, come on the heels of what we heard from President Biden in that interview yesterday.

Yeah, Erica, I think this is really setting things up for a showdown between President Biden and Prime Minister Netanyahu. It looks as if both sides, both US side and the Israeli side, are basically digging in in their respective positions. The Israelis have that military imperative of basically destroying Hamas and doing it at Rafe because everybody seems to be concentrated in that area there in the Southern part of Gaza. The problem with that, as Scott pointed out in his reporting, a one million plus people are right there because they had to flee to that location. To get them out of there, to get them out of harm's way, is going to be really difficult to do under the best of circumstances. And in these conditions, those circumstances are certainly quite difficult. So it's one of those areas where we're going to see a lot of difficulty, a lot of problems, and this could portend to rift in US-Israeli relations, at least to some extent. And that could be really dangerous for any peace prospects for this area.

Were you surprised at all at how far we saw the President go in those comments yesterday? So saying that Rafa would be a red line. When asked about other specific red lines, he was a little less committal, if you will, but said there can be another 30,000 another 30,000 Palestinian civilian deaths, for example. The fact that the rhetoric is now ramping up. To your point, the impact that this could have moving forward, especially given the US's role in these talks, in these efforts to try to get to a ceasefire, to try to get some of the hostages home, how damaging could this be at this point?

This could be very damaging. It could be damaging for the Israeli hostages that are still being held by Hamas. It could be damaging for all the Palestinians, civilians that are caught in this in Gaza, especially in Raqqa. And from a political standpoint, I think, Erica, what you're seeing here is, on the one hand, domestically, President Biden is trying very hard to placate concerns from the Arab-American community. And on the other hand, he still wants to show himself as being a strong supporter of Israel. But there are certain things that Israel is doing that make it very difficult for the US US to, in essence, sell those policies or defend those policies in international forums like the UN or with European allies in the European Union and with international public opinion at large. And so this is where the United States finds itself, and it's going to be really difficult for them, for the United States, to be in lockstep with Israel at this particular juncture.

Let's talk about the AIDS situation. So news today that some of the equipment for this new floating pier is actually on its way to Gaza. So the Pentagon has said that pier is going to take probably at least a month to construct. It would require as many as a thousand troops to get that completed. That's a long timeline. When we look at just how acute the needs are today, what do you make of that timeline?

Well, it's certainly a long timeline. I do think that it is possible to do some things a lot quicker than that timeline. For example, we know that there's a barge that's on on its way from Cyprus right now to Gaza, or at least it's supposed to be on its way sometime today. If that is the case, then that will help alleviate some of the things that are plaguing the population in Gaza in terms of hunger and possible famine. But the fact is that the US military is going to have to move very quickly to install this floating pier and to make sure that the requisite number of can actually come in to provide the support that's necessary. I think it is something that should have been done a bit earlier, but sometimes we just don't know how difficult a situation is or our dire situation is until we start seeing the pictures from places like Gaza.

One Qatari official said that this new Marine Corridor would bring some 200 truckloads of aid via barge from Cyprus to Gaza each day. Do you think that is a realistic number?

I did a little A little quick math just based on how many containers can fit on barges and how many shipping containers can fit on trucks. And it does seem a realistic possibility, assuming that all of the flows from places like Cyprus are going to be uninterrupted and there are not going to be any security issues once everything gets to Gaza. So assuming all of that works perfectly, it is realistic that somewhere around the order of 200 truckloads of food Trucks and other necessary equipment can get into Gaza using this method. Of course, the other thing is, I think before this crisis occurred on the seventh of October, it was somewhere around 400 to 500 trucks that were needed just to sustain the Gaza population. So this is about a little less than half of what they really need in order to sustain themselves.

Really quickly, before I let you go, we have a scene analysis of satellite images which show Israel building this road that runs across the Gaza Strip. The Israeli military has said that route will help it to establish an operational foothold in Gaza. What does that say to you?

Well, it says to me that the Israelis are going to try to maintain some degree of a military presence in Gaza, and they're going to make it as much of a permanent presence as they possibly can. Basically, this road will facilitate them getting in and out very quickly, and it may facilitate the idea of lightning rates against Hamas, terror cells, installations of that type, possibly walk and launch facilities, things like that. So they're building it for military purposes, and they want to continue to have a say in Gaza and basically the security situation there, and they want to try to protect themselves from Hamas at this point.

Colonel Cedric Leighton, always appreciate your insight and your expertise. Thank you.