Israel launches overnight airstrikes on Gaza

Israeli forces carried out new airstrikes on Gaza overnight, adding to the deadly toll of more than a week of fighting. It comes after President Biden expressed support for a cease-fire. CBS News foreign correspondent Imtiaz Tyab joined "CBSN AM" from the region with the latest.

Video Transcript

ANNE-MARIE GREEN: Turning back to the Middle East now where President Biden is expressing support for a cease fire between Israeli forces and Hamas. But he also said, Israel has a right to defend itself against attacks, and this comes as the violence enters its second week with the death toll rising and no clear end in sight. Imtiaz Tyab is in Israel, and joins me now to talk about the latest going on there.

Imtiaz, thank you so much for joining us. First of all, just give us a lay of the land now. What are you seeing now and recap for us what's happened over the past 24 hours?

IMTIAZ TYAB: Anne-Marie, good to talk to you. Yeah, I'm actually in Southern Israel, of course, very close to the border of Gaza. Here in Israel, it's, of course, received the brunt of Hamas rocket fire. And actually, where we're standing right now is an area that we were brought to by the Israeli military. Now, they gave us very rare access to what's known as the Iron Dome. Now, this is a multi-billion dollar missile defense system that US taxpayers partially fund, and it's really being credited for essentially intercepting 90% of Hamas' rockets.

Remember, around 3,000 Hamas rockets have been fired into Israel since this conflict began eight, seven days ago, eight days ago now, I believe. And it really just gives you a sense of Israel's sophisticated firepower and deterrence, but if you cross over into Gaza and the situation as we've been seeing, pretty bleak, pretty extraordinary. We've seen strikes all through the evening, buildings being destroyed, major infrastructure being destroyed, and a warning coming from the UN and other humanitarian aid agencies saying that there's a humanitarian crisis that is spiraling out of control in Gaza.

ANNE-MARIE GREEN: The Iron Dome is quite a formidable tool for protection, but still, we've seen some rockets kind of come through. Can you give us a sense of the destruction and the loss of life taking place, both in Israel and Gaza?

IMTIAZ TYAB: Yeah, for sure. As we were saying, 90% of Hamas rockets are intercepted. Some fall short and land in Gaza, but of the rockets that do fall inside of Israeli territory, they can cause a lot of damage. Just a few days ago, one landed in Tel Aviv, which damaged a neighborhood, killed a person. Here in the south, in places like Ashdod, you've seen neighborhoods really badly affected by these rockets.

But of course, when you compare it to the scale of what's happening in Gaza, there's no comparison. Israel wouldn't even say there's a comparison. What's happening in Gaza is extraordinary. Israel has been striking that narrow densely populated strip of Palestinian territory, home to two million people, with a force not seen in any previous conflict.

And remember, this is the fourth major escalated conflict between Hamas and Israel, but again, Israel has been targeting it in ways that we haven't seen. Entire buildings going down. Israel also saying that they've targeted major tunneling networks, which is just smashed, roads, and many areas leading to hospitals. In fact, many hospitals have been destroyed in Gaza as well.

So, really, over the past seven or eight days since this conflict began, Gaza has been reduced to rubble in many, many places. Although Israel keeps asserting that what they're doing is surgical, but it's pretty clear to see, it's been anything but. Anne-Marie.

ANNE-MARIE GREEN: And now, the United Nations is saying that Gaza's only power plant could run out of fuel later on today. What do we know about that?

IMTIAZ TYAB: Yeah, I mean, if things could get worse, they are just getting worse. Gaza, which suffers from power outages chronically in the best of times, they only have around four to six hours a day, well, right now, they're essentially about to be plunged into complete darkness. There is very little fuel that powers this power plant.

Now, we do understand that humanitarian aid was allowed in by Israel early today. Some fuel was allowed in. So many hope that that power plant will receive some of that, because we have to remember, this isn't just about lights. This isn't just about charging phones.

This is about keeping hospitals working. This is about ventilators. This is about incubators. This is about all the things that a hospital needs to function in order to keep people alive, and that is at risk here.

But as we've been saying that it's not just power that's a concern here, it's water, it's sewage, it's telecoms. It's really a perfect storm of a humanitarian crisis. And even though some aid has been allowed in, it's certainly not enough given the scale of what's going on in Gaza.

ANNE-MARIE GREEN: Now, President Biden has become, I guess, incrementally more vocal about the situation. And he has spoken to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Yesterday, Secretary of State Blinken had a conversation with Israel's foreign minister. As I understand it, both men are encouraging a cease fire. What do we know about these conversations and the overall diplomacy efforts to de-escalate tensions?

IMTIAZ TYAB: Yeah, Anne-Marie, early on in this conflict, the Biden administration was accused of being too hands off by not engaging. All we really heard from them was, Israel has a right to defend itself. Here we are now and the tone has shifted. Not dramatically, it's still very diplomatic, still very supportive of Israel, but it's very clear here that the president wants to see a cease fire, wants to see a deescalation in violence given the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza that we've been talking about.

Now, as we've been saying, major efforts are underway. You have to excuse me. That's an Israeli military helicopter flying over me. So, you may not be able to hear me, but I will keep talking.

We have to remember that diplomacy, when it comes to this very hotly contested part of the world, is complicated. Yes, you can have pressure coming from-- from the White House, from President Biden, but it requires a global effort. And we understand that neighboring Jordan, King Abdullah, of course, an ally of the US, has been doing what he's been describing as intense diplomacy to try to get a cease fire.

We know Egypt has been involved. And we also know that Hamas has agreed to a cease fire, but Israel, so far, has not. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu being very firm and talking very tough, saying that the violence won't stop until they meet their goals. What those goals are, he hasn't said.

ANNE-MARIE GREEN: Wow. Meantime, you know, civilians, just regular folks, caught in the middle of this nightmare. Imtiaz, thank you so much.

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