ABC News correspondent Matt Gutman was reporting live from Israel… when the Israeli Defense Force ordered him and everyone else to evacuate for their own safety.
Gutman began by addressing the possibility of a counter-invasion on land.
“It seems at this point that it’s extremely probable that Israel is going to mount some sort of incursion into Gaza. We’re hearing about 360,000 reservists called up in three days. That is a tremendous number at this point. Never have so many been called up so quickly. The amount of anger in Israel is monumental… I think it would be very difficult for Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, not to launch some sort of significant incursion at this point,” Gutman said, before being interrupted by an IDF officer.
Gutman asked the officer, “We have to leave. What’s going on?”
The officer responded, “The IDF, the IDF has issued an immediate alert that everybody has to leave. There is a security incident just near us.”
Gutman continued talking, even while walking to the car. At the time, ABC was showing his live feed on The View, and Gutman was talking directly to The View host Whoopi Goldberg.
“Matt, do what you have to do,” Goldberg said.
Take a look —
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that Israel “has only started” a fierce offensive in the Gaza Strip in response to an unprecedented attack by Hamas, a terrorist group powerful in Gaza.
Netanyahu delivered the pronouncement in a nationally televised address Monday as Israel pressed ahead with a third day of heavy airstrikes in Gaza.
“We have only started striking Hamas. What we will do to our enemies in the coming days will reverberate with them for generations,” Netanyahu said, amid speculation about a possible counter-invasion of Gaza by Israel.
Israel expanded its mobilization of military reservists to 360,000 on Tuesday, according to the country’s media. The chief military spokesman emphasized the unprecedented nature of the current campaign against Hamas, saying “all options are on the table.
The military said it struck hundreds of Hamas targets overnight in Gaza. Tens of thousands of residents fled their homes as relentless airstrikes leveled buildings, including in Gaza City’s residential and commercial district of Rimal.
Along with bombarding downtown Gaza City, Israeli airstrikes also targeted the crossing between Egypt and the city of Rafah in southern Gaza, the only passage out of the territory.
Over 137,000 Palestinians were packed into United Nations shelters, and the World Health Organization reported that the medical supplies it had pre-positioned in seven Gaza hospitals were already used up.
The head of Doctors Without Borders for the Palestinian Territories said he was concerned the humanitarian medical group’s team in Gaza would soon run out of medical supplies now that the enclave’s borders have closed.
Leo Cans told The Associated Press he was particularly concerned about the supply of surgical equipment, bandages, antibiotics and fuel.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared in a televised announcement Monday that the offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip “has only started.”
“What we will do to our enemies in the coming days will reverberate with them for generations,” he said.
Hamas leaders have not spoken publicly about whether they anticipated Israel’s ferocious retaliation — or the potential risk of losing much of the group’s government infrastructure — when they launched the weekend attack.
Indeed, the war reverberated around the world Tuesday, as foreign governments tried to determine how many of their citizens were dead, missing or in need of medical help or flights home.
Numerous countries also offered to play a role in mediating an end to the fighting, which already has killed hundreds on both sides.
The conflict already has killed at least 1,600 in total. The Israeli military said more than 1,000 people have died in Israel since Saturday’s incursion. In Gaza and the West Bank, 830 people have been killed, according to authorities there. The death toll was expected to grow as Israel pummeled the Gaza Strip with airstrikes and sent Palestinians fleeing into U.N. shelters.
Israel’s military said Tuesday that it had regained effective control over its south and the border with the Gaza Strip four days after Hamas fighters stormed into the country and brought gunbattles to its streets for the first time in decades.
The declaration came as the Israeli Defense Forces sought to make good on the government’s vow to hunt down the militants and to intensify an assault on densely populated Gaza, the Palestinian territory ruled by Hamas and home to 2 million people.
The Horn editorial team and the Associated Press contributed to this article.