NBC reporter Richard Engel and his crew were forced to take cover during a live report in Israel on Monday as rockets and mortar shells exploded nearby.
“This one was right practically right on top of us,” said Engel in a dispatch aired on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” He and some of his crew, who are all wearing helmets and safety vests, crouched down between a vehicle and a brick wall as Engel continued to describe the situation after Hamas forces launched a deadly surprise attack in Israel on Sunday.
“There has been a lot of incoming fire here,” Engel said in the video. “We believe that it is mortar fire. Some of them also appear to be rockets. That is why we are on the ground right now. This is still considered a very active combat zone, even though we are inside Israeli territory, and it is not just the incoming rockets and mortars.”
Engel said that Israeli officials are reporting new infiltrations of Hamas fighters through breaches in the border fence and that some might be hiding in nearby buildings.
“This is still an active situation here,” Engel continued. “Most of the residents in this area have been cleared out and the Israelis are trying to move people away from from from border towns and communities and to try and also look for Hamas fighters…”
He and his crew were not injured and the sound of rockets and mortar fire subsided. “It seems like that big barrage that that that we just experienced, has passed. They come in waves, but this one was right practically right on top of us,” he said.
Also on Monday, CNN’s chief international correspondent Clarissa Ward delivered her updates while taking cover from a “barrage of rockets” coming into the south of Israel.
“Forgive me. I have a slightly inelegant position,” Ward said as she delivered her report while hunkering down near an embankment. “We have just had a massive barrage of rockets coming in here not too far from us. So we have had to take shelter here by the roadside.”
