"So forgive me. I have a slightly inelegant position, but 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," Ward said breathing heavily on CNN's air while lying on her side on the ground. "We’re just about five minutes away. Gaza is in that direction. We can hear now a lot of jets in the sky. We can also hear the Iron Dome intercepting a number of those rockets as they were whizzing overhead and making impact in that direction, not too far from here."

Ward said the area she was reporting from is "Ground Zero for this entire operation of carnage," that broke out in Gaza over the weekend.

"Hamas militants came on a pickup truck. This was the first place where they breached that border wall and they basically drove down this strip, just spraying lead wherever they went," she said.

Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on Israel on Saturday, with government officials swiftly declaring war on the group in response. Hundreds are dead on both sides, and the U.S. State Department has confirmed that the fatalities include at least nine Americans.

Dutch, the dog, was last seen in the 2000 block of 21st Street N. fleeing the area of the crash in a panic after police found him uninjured.

Officers say they saw him in the area of Langston Blvd. and N. Veitch St.

Police have asked anyone who sees Dutch to please call dispatch at (703) 558-2222.

"I decided to attend today in my personal capacity because I wanted to show solidarity and support with the Palestinian people who have been struggling under apartheid and who had been struggling for basic human rights for decades now," said Director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) Zainab Chaudry.

This comes two days after Hamas, a Palestinian Islamic militant group launched a surprise attack from Gaza.

Israel then declared war on Sunday and promised to retaliate against the militant group.

More than 1,100 people have been killed and thousands have been wounded on both sides, according to AP.

Chanudry said people from all walks of life were at the rally outside of the White House Sunday.

"There wasn't just Muslims or Palestinians. There was a very strong Interfaith showing," she said.

She said people around the DMV are left with conflicting emotions. Some expressed anger toward the Palestinian people while others - especially those at the rally - were somber, concerned as to what might happen next in the conflict.

"My immediate thought was concern for innocent life, what the consequences are going to be, what this will mean for civil society," said Chaudry.

Conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt asked McCarthy — who lost the gavel last week after eight House Republicans joined with Democrats to oust him — on Monday whether he would serve again as Speaker if Republicans are deadlocked on a replacement. 

“Look, the conference has to make that decision. I’m still a member. I’m going to continue to fight and act,” McCarthy said.

Pressed again on whether he would take the job again if the eight GOP members who opposed him retreated, McCarthy remained open to the possibility.

“Look, whatever the conference wants, I will do,” McCarthy said. “I think we need to be strong. I think we need to be united. The eight, in my view, don’t look to be — it was a personal thing.”

He expressed frustration with the Republicans who voted against a GOP-only stopgap proposal. The party's repeated failure to pass a temporary funding bill that included spending cuts and policy provisions prompted McCarthy to pass a “clean” stopgap to avoid a government shutdown, infuriating the hard-line GOP members who then voted to oust him.

McCarthy defended the decision, pointing to the war breaking out in Israel.

“They’re the ones who wanted a government shutdown,” McCarthy said. “We wouldn’t be paying our troops while we’re putting out a carrier strike fighter there – 30,000 American men and women in our armed services in the Middle East wouldn’t be being paid right now? I mean, what weakness would we be at?”

Some Republicans, such as Rep. John Duarte (R-Calif.) and Rep. Tom McClintock (R-Calif.), have argued that McCarthy should be reinstated as Speaker, particularly in light of the new war in Israel.

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) are running to replace McCarthy as Speaker. The House GOP is set to have a candidate forum Tuesday and an internal conference election Wednesday.

On Friday, the St. Johns County Sheriff's Office said its deputies arrested three students at Creekside High School who posed a "credible threat" to their classmates.

Their youth services deputies said they found text messages between the three students that had photographs of other students with their faces circled and photos of the school grounds with an area circled out.

Deputies said there were also signs of firearm use in the messages. According to Sheriff Robert A. Hardwick, the potential victims' addresses were also listed in the messages.

"The 'hit list' was created for select students the group wanted to physically harm and the 'lethal hit list' was created for students the group wanted to kill," the sheriff's office said.

All three students, who were 15 and 14 years of age, were arrested on charges of written threats to kill or do bodily harm and unlawful use of a two-way communications device.

Maya Alper was standing toward the back of the bar with teams of environmentally conscious volunteers, picking up trash and passing out free vodka shots to party-goers who reused their cups. Just after 6.a.m., as a light-blue dawn broke and the headliner D.J. took the stage, air raid sirens cut through the ethereal trap music. Rockets streaked overhead.

Alper, 25, jumped into her car and raced to the main road. But at the intersection she encountered crowds of stricken festival attendees, shouting at drivers to turn around. Then, a noise. Firecrackers? Panicked men and women staggering down the road just in front of her fell to the ground in pools of blood. Gunshots.

The open-air Tribe of Nova music festival will go down in Israeli history as the country's worst civilian massacre. Dozens of Hamas militants who had blown through Israel’s heavily fortified separation fence and crossed into the country from Gaza opened fire on young Israelis who had come together for a joyous night of electronic music. Some attendees were drunk or high on drugs, magnifying their confusion and terror.

“We were hiding and running, hiding and running, in an open field, the worst place you could possibly be in that situation,” said Arik Nani from Tel Aviv, who had gone to the party to celebrate his 26th birthday. “For a country where everyone in these circles knows everyone, this is a trauma like I could never imagine.”

While rockets rained down, revelers said militants converged on the open field while others waited near bomb shelters, gunning down people who were seeking refuge. Israeli communities on either side of the festival grounds also came under attack, with Hamas gunmen abducting dozens of men, women and children — including elderly and disabled people — and killing scores of others in Saturday's unprecedented surprise attack.

The staggering toll of the festival was becoming clear early Monday, as Israel's rescue service Zaka said paramedics had recovered at least 260 bodies. Festival organizers said they were helping Israeli security forces locate attendees who were still missing. The death toll could rise as teams continue to clear the area.

As the carnage unfolded before her, Alper pulled a few disoriented-looking revelers into her car from the street and accelerated in the opposite direction. One of them said he had lost his wife in the chaos and Alper had to stop him from breaking out of the car to find her. Another said she had just seen Hamas gunmen shoot and kill her best friend. Another rocked in his seat, murmuring over and over, “We are going to die." In the review mirror, Alper watched the dance floor where she had spent the past ecstatic hours transform into a giant cloud of black smoke.

Nowhere was safe, she said. The roar of explosions, hysterical screams and automatic gunfire felt closer the further she drove. When a man just meters away shouted “God is great!", Alper and her new companions sprung out of the car and sprinted through open fields toward a mass of bushes.

Alper felt a bullet whiz past her left ear. Aware the gunmen would outrun her, she plunged into a tangle of shrubs. Peering through thorns, she said she saw one of her passengers, the girl who had lost her friend, shriek and collapse as a gunman stood over her limp body, grinning.

“I can't even explain the energy they (the militants) had, it was so clear they didn't see us as human beings,” she said. “They looked at us with pure, pure hate.”

For over six hours, Alper — and thousands of other concert attendees — hid without help from the Israeli army as Hamas militants sprayed automatic gunfire and threw grenades.

Her limbs were so contorted into a tangled mess in the bush that she couldn't wiggle her toes. At different points, she heard militants speak in Arabic just beside her. A yoga devotee who practices meditation, Alper said she focused on her breath — “breathing and praying in every way I knew possible.”

“Every time I thought of anger, or fear or revenge, I breathed it out,” she said. “I tried to think of what I was grateful for — the bush that hid me so well that even birds landed on it, the birds that were still singing, the sky that was so blue.”

A tank instructor in the Israeli army, Alper knew she was safe when she heard a different kind of explosion — the sound of an Israeli army tank round. She shouted for help and soon soldiers were lifting her out of the bush. Around her lay the lifeless body of one of her friends. The girl from her car she had seen collapse was nowhere to be found — she believes that Hamas militants took her into Gaza.

Alper said the Israeli army, on its way to fight Hamas militants in the hard-hit kibbutz of Be’eri near the Gaza border, was at a loss as to know what to do with her.

At that moment, a pick-up truck full of Palestinian citizens of Israel pulled up. The men from the Bedouin city of Rahat were scouring the area to help rescue Israeli survivors. Helping Alper into their car, they drove her to the police station, where she collapsed, crying, into her father's arms.

“This is not just war. This is hell," Alper said. “But in that hell I still feel that somehow, we can choose to act out of love, and not just fear.”

According to a post by Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Public Information Officer Pete Piringer on the X platform, two vehicles collided at the intersection of New Hampshire Avenue and I-495.

Two people were trapped in their vehicles. Several lanes were blocked while the crash was investigated.

"I was in Israel when the horrific attacks carried out by Hamas started on Saturday," Booker wrote Sunday in a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. "My team and I are now safe, but like many we are shaken, angered, and heartbroken by the hundreds killed, the thousands injured, those taken hostage, and all who are directly affected by these sickening terrorist attacks."

In a video posted to X, Booker recounted being in Jerusalem on a run when Hamas's attacks began and he was advised to get back to his hotel. The New Jersey Democrat said he joined others in a bomb shelter in the stairwell of the hotel.

"Frightened faces, there were children and elderly, families, many Americans," Booker said. "There was a sense of fear and worry and a knowledge to many of us that there were horrific things going on around the country at that time."

Booker's office confirmed earlier Sunday he and his staff departed Israel on Sunday, cutting his trip short in the wake of the violence. Booker arrived in the country last Friday and had plans to stay through at least Tuesday, when he had a scheduled talk about regional economic integration, his spokesperson said.

Hamas launched the largest attack on Israel in decades early Saturday, sending forces into multiple Israeli towns, along with a bombardment of rocket fire in a surprise offensive. 

The death toll has surpassed 1,100, with thousands more Israelis and Palestinians wounded.

Booker called for a rejection of those using "terror as a weapon."

"We who believe in peace and freedom and human rights, for Palestinians, for Israelis, for all humankind, must reject those who use terror as their weapon," Booker said.

“Yes, I can confirm that nine Americans unfortunately have lost their lives as a result of these horrific attacks in the region,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on CNN. “We are in close contact with the government of Israel as they continue to conduct security operations to locate missing US citizens, missing Israeli citizens.”

Israel’s military ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip on Monday, halting entry of food, fuel and supplies to its 2.3 million people as it pounded the Hamas-ruled territory with waves of airstrikes in retaliation for the militants’ bloody weekend incursion.

More than two days after Hamas launched its surprise attack from Gaza, the Israeli military said it had largely gained control in its southern towns where it had been battling Hamas gunmen. Israel’s vaunted military and intelligence apparatus was caught completely off guard by Hamas, resulting in heavy battles in its streets for the first time in decades.

Tanks and drones were deployed to guard breaches in the border fence to prevent new incursions. Thousands of Israelis were evacuated from more than a dozen towns near Gaza, and the military summoned 300,000 reservists — a massive mobilization in a short time.

The moves, along with Israel’s formal declaration of war on Sunday, pointed to Israel increasingly shifting to the offensive against Hamas, threatening greater destruction in the densely populated, impoverished Gaza Strip.

On Sunday, strikes leveled much of the Gaza town of Beit Hanoun, which Israel said Hamas was using as a staging ground. On Monday, the Israeli military blared messages to residents to evacuate Rimal, a residential and commercial district of central Gaza City where offices of The Associated Press and other international media are located, a signal that heavy strikes were to come.

A major question remains whether it will launch a ground assault into the tiny Mediterranean coastal territory, a move that in the past has brought intensified casualties. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to destroy “the military and governing capabilities” of the militant group.

As Israel hit more than 1,000 targets in Gaza, Palestinian militants continued firing barrages of rockets, setting off air raid sirens in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Video posted online appeared to show a plume of smoke near a terminal at Ben Gurion International Airport. There was no immediate word on casualties or damage from the latest bombardment.

Civilians have already paid a high price. Around 700 people, including 73 soldiers, have been killed in Israel, according to Israeli media outlets, citing rescue service — a staggering toll by the scale of its recent conflicts. The Gaza Health Ministry said 493 people, including 78 children and 41 women, were killed in the territory. Thousands have been wounded on both sides.

Palestinian militant groups claimed to be holding over 130 people abducted in Israel and dragged into Gaza. The armed wing of Hamas claimed on its Telegram channel that four of them were killed in Israeli airstrikes. That could not be independently confirmed.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant ordered a “complete siege” on Gaza, saying authorities would cut electricity and block the entry of food and fuel.

Gallant said Israel was at war with “human animals,” using the kind of dehumanizing language often employed by both sides at times of soaring tensions.

Israel and Egypt have imposed a blockade on Gaza of varying strictness since Hamas seized power in 2007. In recent years Israel has provided limited electricity and allowed the import of food, fuel and some consumer goods, while heavily restricting travel in and out.

The Israeli seal will leave Gaza almost entirely dependent on its crossing into neighboring Egypt at Rafah, where cargo capacities are lower than other crossings into Israel.

An Egyptian military official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the press, said more than 2 tons of medical supplies from the Egyptian Red Crescent were sent to Gaza and efforts were underway to organize food, and other deliveries, but the question of allowing in fuel was not yet decided.

Israeli Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari told reporters that Israeli bombardment was moving from district to district to destroy houses and buildings Israel says are being used by Hamas. Israel is planning to hit thousands of targets, he said. He said “hundreds” of Hamas militants were buried under rubble of buildings destroyed by Israel in the past 48 hours. His claims of the numbers – and his characterization of the dead as Hamas – could not be confirmed.

In the southern Gaza city of Rafah, an Israeli airstrike early Monday killed 19 people, including women and children, said Talat Barhoum, a doctor at the local Al-Najjar Hospital. Barhoum said aircraft hit the home of the Abu Hilal family, and that one of those killed was Rafaat Abu Hilal, a leader of a local armed group. The strike caused damage to surrounding homes.

Over the weekend, another airstrike on a home in Rafah killed 19 members of the Abu Quta family, including women and children, and five neighbors, said a survivor, Nasser Abu Quta, adding that there were no militants in the family house.

The U.N. said more than 123,000 people have fled their homes in Gaza – many after Israeli warnings of imminent bombardment. The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said a school sheltering more than 225 people took a direct hit. It did not say where the fire came from.

Meanwhile, after about 48 hours of pitched battles, Hagari said the military has “control” of its border communities in southern Israel. Despite some isolated incidents early Monday, “at this stage, there is no fighting in the communities.”

He said 15 of 24 border communities have been evacuated, with the rest expected to be emptied in the coming day.

Earlier, Hamas spokesman Abdel-Latif al-Qanoua told The Associated Press over the phone that the group’s fighters continued to battle outside Gaza and had captured more Israelis as recently as Monday morning.

He said the group aims to free all Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, which in the past has agreed to lopsided exchange deals in which it released large numbers of prisoners for individual captives or even the remains of soldiers.

Among the captives are soldiers and civilians, including women, children and older adults, mostly Israelis but also some people of other nationalities. Egypt's state-run Al-Ahram newspaper said Monday that Egyptian officials are trying to mediate a release of Palestinian women in Israel’s prisons in exchange for Israeli women captured by militants.

Mayyan Zin, a divorced mother of two, said she learned that her two daughters had been abducted when a relative sent her photos from a Telegram group showing them sitting on mattresses in captivity. She then found online videos of a chilling scene in her ex-husband’s home: Gunmen who had broken in speak to him near the two weeping daughters, Dafna, 15, and Ella, 8. Another video showed the father being taken into Gaza.

“Just bring my daughters home and to their family. All the people,” Zin said.

Hamas has ruled Gaza since driving out forces loyal to the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority in 2007 and its rule has gone unchallenged through the blockade and four previous wars with Israel.

After breaking through Israeli barriers with explosives at daybreak Saturday, an estimated 1,000 Hamas gunmen rampaged for hours, gunning down civilians and snatching people in towns, along highways and at a techno music festival attended by thousands in the desert. Palestinian militants have also launched around 4,400 rockets at Israel, according to the military.

Hamas said it launched the attack in response to mounting Palestinian suffering under Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, its blockade of Gaza, its discriminatory policies in annexed east Jerusalem and tensions around a disputed Jerusalem holy site sacred to Muslims and Jews.

The Palestinians want a state of their own in all three territories, captured by Israel in the 1967 war, but the last serious peace talks broke down well over a decade ago, and Israel’s far-right government is opposed to Palestinian statehood.

On Sunday, the U.S. dispatched an aircraft carrier strike group to the Eastern Mediterranean to be ready to assist Israel and said it would send additional military ai

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Democratic state House and Senate candidates have largely zeroed in on abortion as a key messaging tactic, painting their Republican opponents as extreme on the issue. Republicans, on the other hand, have hit Democrats for being too lax on crime. 

The election comes as both parties navigate a post-Roe v. Wade world that has seen crime become an increasing concern for voters. 

“It really is the Democratic message vs. the Republican message and seeing which of those is resonating more,” said Abhi Rahman, communications director at the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee (DLCC), a group that works to elect Democrats in state legislature races.

Rahman noted that of the 10 most competitive House of Delegates races in Virginia, seven are open seats, while five of the most competitive state Senate seats are open seats. 

“It means basically there is no incumbent advantage,” he noted. 

Polling shows a tight race in the commonwealth. A University of Mary Washington poll released last week found 40 percent of respondents saying they favored Democratic majorities in both chambers next year, while 37 percent said they favored Republican majorities. The poll’s margin of error is plus or minus 3 points. 

And both sides are pouring massive amounts of money into the off-year battle. On Thursday, Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s (R) Spirit of Virginia PAC announced it brought in more than $7 million during the third quarter, while the DLCC said it was injecting $2 million into the races in an effort to boost Democratic candidates. 

Republican and Democratic groups and candidates have been infiltrating Virginia’s airwaves with spots pushing their messaging on their preferred issue in recent months. 

In July, Virginia House Republicans launched a six-figure ad buy targeting 12 House Democrats, painting them as extreme on crime and taxes. Meanwhile, Democrats have sought to capitalize on the party’s successful attacks on Republicans over abortion last cycle. 

Democrats point to the Virginia special House of Delegates race in January in the 7th state Senate District. Now-Sen. Aaron Rouse (D), who campaigned heavily on the issue of abortion, flipped the seat, which represents swaths of Virginia Beach and Norfolk. And two months before that, Democrats performed better than expected in the 2022 midterms.

“The reason we believe that seat flipped for us is because of the messaging on women’s reproductive rights,” said state Sen. Mamie Locke (D), chairwoman of the Virginia Senate Democratic Caucus. “I did door-knocking for that candidate, and much of what we heard is, ‘This candidate going to protect women’s right to choose?’” 

According to data from the firm AdImpact cited in the Washington Post on Friday, abortion is the top issue in ads supporting House and Senate Democrats in Virginia’s Legislature. Those ads total $4.5 million. 

“People know that the only thing that is stopping Virginia from becoming the next Florida is having a Democratic Senate,” Rahman said.  

The same University of Mary Washington poll found that 53 percent of Virginia voters said the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade last year would be a “major factor” for them at the ballot box; 23 percent of respondents said abortion should be legal in all cases, while 34 percent said it should be legal in most cases. Another 27 percent of voters said abortion should be illegal in most cases, while 8 percent said it should be illegal in all cases. 

Republicans note that there is much more nuance in abortion messaging, noting how voters nationwide tend to be more supportive of a 15-week federal ban. 

“We’ve told Democrats and the whole commonwealth exactly where we are,” said Garren Shipley, communications director for House of Delegates Speaker Todd Gilbert. “We are at a limit after 15 weeks with exceptions for rape, incest, and the life and health of the mother.”

A Gallup poll released last June found that 69 percent of Americans said they believe first-trimester abortions should be “generally legal,” while 37 percent said they supported second-trimester abortion access in general and 22 percent said the same about abortion access in the third trimester. However, Gallup also found that support for second- and third-trimester abortions increased by 9 percent since 2018.  

Veteran Virginia political analyst Bob Holsworth said the Democratic messaging on abortion polls well, but noted the support changes when it comes to a 15-week ban. 

“If you ask about the 15-week ban, most of the polls I see, it’s relatively even,” Holsworth said. “What the Democrats are doing, they’re just saying [the Republicans] want a ban, and 15 weeks is disingenuous.” 

“For the Republicans, what’s interesting is, does the 15-week ban … does this work? Or does the fact that Republicans have pushed far more stringent bans in many states make their claim suspect?” 

Virginia Republicans were not immune from Democratic successes during last year’s midterm elections, with Democrats winning two out of the three competitive federal House races, in the 7th and 10th Districts. Republicans were successful in flipping Virginia’s 2nd Congressional District. 

Democrats in 2022 focused heavily on the threat of potential state abortion bans in their elections, catching many Republicans nationwide flat-footed. But Republicans inside and outside of Virginia say this time around they’re confronting the issue head-on. 

“We’re not putting our head in the sand,” said Zack Roday coordinated campaigns director for Youngkin's Spirit of Virginia PAC. “We’re correcting the record and sharing where Democrats are in this case, with a pretty simple choice between a reasonable 15-week limit to protect life and an extreme position where there are no limits to abortion.”

“I just always go back to Campaign 101,” Roday continued. “You can’t just ignore what your opponent is leveling against you when it’s their No. 1 attack.” 

Roday said Republicans are continuing to zero in on kitchen-table issues, such as education, crime, and the economy. 

“We’re running toward where the broad majority of issues and where their interests are and that’s the kitchen table around those three: economy, education, and public safety,” he said. 

On crime, Republicans are seeking to peel away from the support Democrats are trying to win in the suburban enclaves in Northern Virginia, outside of Richmond, and the greater Virginia Beach. 

“There is an understanding out there that persuadable voters are concerned about inflation and they’re also concerned about crime,” Shipley said. “The closer you get to an urban area, the more concern about crime pops up.” 

Holsworth also noted that many of the Republican attacks on crime in Northern Virginia are linked to the election of progressive prosecutors in the region. 

“The crime issue is one which is really an attack on the progressive prosecutors, which they’re hoping will rub off on the Democrats,” he said. 

But Democrats also say they are also focused on running on kitchen table issues, including public safety. 

“Voters are really concerned about what happens at their kitchen tables,” said Locke, the state senator. “Yes, they’re concerned about crime. They’re concerned about what’s going on at the federal level, but they’re more concerned about what’s going on in my neighborhood, what’s going on in my community.”

Democrats are also trying to flip the script on Republicans, saying the GOP is to blame for crime-related issues, citing issues such as gun control. 

“Every time that we have tried to address those kinds of issues, they have voted against all of it,” Locke said. 

“We can’t be hypocritical about this issue,” she continued. “Where Democrats have always tried to figure out ways we can be sensible about this issue, we have had roadblocks thrown in our way.”