Airstrikes Pound Gaza As Rockets Hit Israel
BLACKWELL: Let's talk about the crisis in the Middle East now. Sometimes we talk about these in terms of day by day things are changing. This is ratcheting up by the hour.</s>PAUL: Israel's defense minister says the military is gearing up for more long days of fighting, speculation increases that Israeli ground troops may move into Gaza. That is the iron dome defense system intercepting militant rockets flying across the border from Gaza.</s>BLACKWELL: There is no iron dome defense shield in Gaza. Instead, activists are forming human shields around some hospitals. We are seeing casualties mount as Israeli missiles rain down there. Officials say an air strike at a facility for the disabled killing two women. They say 127 people now have been killed in Gaza and nearly 1,000 have been injured.</s>PAUL: CNN's Wolf Blitzer is in Israel. In fact, he and his team had to run for cover when air raids sirens sounded. Here is the video of him trying to take cover. He is safely in Jerusalem -- Wolf.</s>WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST, "THE SITUATION ROOM": I've been coming to this region for many years. Usually when I'm here the situation is bad. I'm here usually covering bloody conflicts, though, I did have a happy experience back in 1994 when I was CNN's senior White House correspondent. I covered the signing of the Israeli Jordanian peace treaty. That was in Aqaba in Jordan, but now the situation is very tense, very bad and I truly fear it's about to get a whole lot worse. Israeli attacks and armored vehicles, they are poised to move into Gaza, which already has taken a severe Israeli pounding from the air. There will be many casualties on both sides if that happens. Millions of Israelis have been living in fear, fear of hearing those awful air raid sirens blast out. I've encountered a few of those experiences over the past couple of days when I drove down south to the border with Gaza. But as bad as the situation is on the Israeli side, it's a whole lot worse in Gaza. That's a small area with more than a million and a half Palestinians crowded in. Finding a way out of this awful mess won't be easy. Everyone seems to appreciate that. What's so sad is that Israeli and Palestinian leaders, they've had opportunities over the years. They would have a wonderful coexistence if that long elusive peace process could get off the ground once again and both sides were willing to make the necessary compromises. Unfortunately, right now that seems so unlikely. Wolf Blitzer, CNN, Jerusalem.</s>BLACKWELL: An alleged escort is charged with manslaughter in the death of a California Google executive, but it does not stop there.</s>PAUL: Investigators are taking a new look at the death of a nightclub owner in Georgia that's scarily similar.