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Yifat Zailer is Interviewed about her Missing Family; Philip Breedlove is Interviewed about Israel; Complete Siege of Gaza Ordered; Dennis Ross is Interviewed about Israel. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired October 09, 2023 - 09:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[09:30:00]

BECKY ANDERSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: At CNN moving towards the border with Gaza. So this begs the question, what happens next. Are we on the verge of an incursion by the IDF into Gaza? And we've been talking today at length about just how complicated the idea of a ground incursion is, primarily as far as the Israelis are concerned because of those hostages, those more than 100 according to Hamas Israeli hostages who are being held in Gaza. Of course, there are 2 million Palestinians who are living in this incredibly congested area whose lives, you know, are also at risk at this point.

We know that Hamas is holding these hostages, but we don't know where these hostages are being held. What we do know is many of them are women, children, the elderly. And it is a horrifying situation.

Nic Robertson just reporting from the area of the music festival on Saturday where so many young Israelis were slaughtered and so many of those hostages, as we understand it, were picked up from.

I've got a family member now on the line who has lost, at the moment, contact with a number of members of her family. She is from a community just on the Israeli side.

Yifat Zailer joins me now.

And, Yifat, just describe what happened to you and your family.

YIFAT ZAILER, COUSINS KIDNAPPED FROM THEIR HOME: (INAUDIBLE). I live in Tel Aviv. My family lives in Milod - Melas, I'm sorry.

Saturday morning we received video of my cousin, my beloved cousin, with her two babies being kidnapped by Hamas terror group. You can see in the video and in the photos holding her two beautiful babies. We don't know what happened with her husband.

Later on that day, when the army entered the Kibbutz (ph) and went through the houses to find people, they didn't find my uncle and aunt, her parents. My aunt has Parkinson's disease. She needs her medication.

I'm sorry.

It's been -- we are in a nightmare.

ANDERSON: Completely understandable.

ZAILER: We don't know anything. We haven't received news. These are innocent civilians that have rights. (INAUDIBLE) water, the baby needs to be fed. It's incredible. We don't have sign of life.

ANDERSON: It is your understanding that they have been taken hostage by Hamas and taken back to Gaza?

ZAILER: Yes. Yes.

ANDERSON: And you've heard nothing from them since.

ZAILER: My uncle and aunt, (INAUDIBLE), nothing. All six of them, nothing.

ANDERSON: How old are they, Yifat?

ZAILER: My uncle and aunt are in their late 60s. My cousin and her husband are in their 30s. The babies are nine months old and a three- year-old child.

I beg you, all the institutions of world, to help (INAUDIBLE) civilians. Please, do something to force Hamas to release them alive. This is a (INAUDIBLE). Nothing like this has happened before. We need everyone's help. We need the president of Turkey, we need the king of Egypt, we need everyone to help us. Please.

I'm sorry I'm so emotional. And I'm very sorry, but I'm trying to (INAUDIBLE).

ANDERSON: Your message - your message is being heard. No, it's totally understandable. It's totally understandable.

Yifat, have you heard anything from Israeli authorities or the military about their possible whereabouts, about possible rescue efforts at this point?

[09:35:13]

ZAILER: My other cousin, their daughter -- other daughter, that's the only survivor from -- survivor from the family that lived in a Kibbutz (ph) nearby is here with us in the center of Israel with her three children, received a message this morning, only this morning from the military with contact person that might help them in the future, but it's - it's the first word -- it's the first sign of help or something -- organized that's not through the media and not through Facebook or -- I don't know if the rest of the family received as well any word, but this is the only thing I can tell you and he -- they didn't say anything about their whereabouts or anything about them. It's very sensitive.

ANDERSON: You must feel so helpless.

ZAILER: I guess they don't want -- ANDERSON: Yes. Understood. And I sense your sense of helplessness and

I have spoken to so many families now who have lost family members and many of whom were at the concert in the desert and haven't heard from their kids since. And your response and your helplessness really mirrors what I'm hearing from so many people.

Yifat, I'll leave it there. I'm sure you've got an awful lot to do. But we thank you so much for sharing your story today.

ZAILER: (INAUDIBLE). Thank you. Thank you. (INAUDIBLE).

ANDERSON: John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Becky, our thanks to you and our hearts go out to Yifat Zailer and her family and all those families in Israel that are going through this right now.

I'm joined now by retired General Philip Breedlove, former NATO supreme allied commander Europe.

And, General, I guess let's start with the situation that Yifat Zailer was just describing there. This is the region we are talking about here in Gaza. We can push in and see the towns around Gaza that were attacked. This is where the people were taken from back into Gaza territory.

So, from a military perspective now, as the Israelis are talking about complete siege, a complete siege of Gaza, how will they do that and what consideration must they take with 100 hostages somewhere in the city?

GEN. PHILIP BREEDLOVE (RET.), FORMER NATO SUPREME ALLIED COMMANDER EUROPE: Well, thanks for having me.

And this is a tough problem. The Israeli military is extremely capable and very talented. But the problem of what we used to call military operations in urban terrain, this is hard no matter how good you are. That's what they're facing. Gaza is a very dense place with lots of problems for mechanized forces, et cetera, et cetera. So, I'm sure that Israel is getting things set, setting the conditions as we say, in order to not only blockade, but then to begin surgical insertion to pull their people out.

BERMAN: General, one other thing we heard Becky Anderson reporting moments ago was, yes, I think there are armored columns moving towards Gaza right now for this siege of Gaza. But Becky was reporting up here in the north, and this is the border between Israel and Lebanon, some select operations over possible infiltrations in this region here.

Why is that important? What is Israel's concern to the north?

BREEDLOVE: Well, you don't have to go very far back in history and remember what the Golan Heights means to Israel. And Israel has been forming friendships all around its borders, to the west, to the south and to the east, but they have not been able to make any progress in the north of course. Syria and the southern part of Lebanon are home to many black flag organizations supported by Iran and the terrorist network that extends out of Iran. And so Israel is going to be very close to the issues in the north so that a second front doesn't become a problem.

BERMAN: Yes, in 2006 there were rockets from Hezbollah and then some cross-border skirmishes there. Israel ended up bombing severely southern Lebanon to try to squelch that, even as they were fighting with Hamas in Gaza as well.

[09:40:00]

I want to talk about what the United States is doing now, sending a carrier group into the Mediterranean. What will U.S. forces be doing here?

BREEDLOVE: Well, there's a couple of things happening. One, of course, the Ford carrier group is moving closer to the problem, to lend whatever aid it may need, and possibly to support any U.S. action. Remember, there are U.S. citizens now being held by Hamas. Additionally, the United States is moving aircraft from the U.S. Air Force and other parts of our air power nation towards this area in order to be ready for whatever might happen.

BERMAN: And one of the things that has happened is the United States, both the president and the secretary of state, Antony Blinken, have warned other nations in the region not to try to take advantage of this. This is Iran over here, obviously, which has supported Hamas substantially in the past right now. What will the U.S. be watching in terms of the Iranians?

BREEDLOVE: Well, let's don't quibble. You talk about it being in the past. Iran is connected to all manner of terror around Israel. They are flush with money now. I think they feel emboldened. I think that a lot of the snatching of hostages in Israel are because Iran has seen how hostages are helpful to their efforts. And so we need to make sure that we understand without equivocation that Iran is pulling the levers here, financing the problem and encouraging the problem.

BERMAN: No, there's no question of the connection between Hamas and Iran.

General Breedlove, we appreciate your help on this. Thank you very much.

Obviously, we're getting new information from the ground in Israel. Our reporters are right on the border between Israel and Gaza. We're going to have the very latest right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:45:22]

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: We have seen rocket fire, we have seen air strikes happening all morning long. We have more coming in also on the still developing situation in Israel and Gaza following the terrorist attack by Hamas on Israeli civilians this weekend. Israeli officials are now ordering a complete siege of Gaza. Israel

has launched an overwhelming response to the attack, launching air strikes in Gaza. Video shows mosques and residential buildings have been flattened there. The Israeli Defense Forces claim the buildings hit were being used by Hamas to launch attacks into Israel.

Palestinians in that area say over 550 people have been killed there. The Israelis say more than 700 people have been killed in Israel.

Meanwhile, Hamas says it's fired 120 rockets towards the southern Israeli cities of Ashdod and Ashkelon in response to Israeli air strikes. Israel says, again, more than 700 people killed by Hamas since it launched the surprise attack, which includes at least nine American citizens. This is all coming as Hamas claimed it has taken more than 100 hostages into Gaza. Now that includes men, women, children, high ranking Israeli officers and possibly U.S. citizens.

This morning our colleague, Poppy Harlow, spoke with a man who was on the phone with his daughter when she and her husband were killed by Hamas.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LIAN TROEN, DAUGHTER, SON-IN-LAW KILLED BY HAMAS: This is not a military event. It's not a military strike. The historic interpretation or explanation of a pogrom is when a military strikes at civilians. And this attack was rehearsed. Well-rehearsed, well planned, carried out. And then you look at what they're doing. They're taking hostages from infants to senior citizens, people older than I am, denying them their rights. Sure, this is a human rights outrage that really echoes what the kind of pogroms that made my grandparents leave Europe for the safety of America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: It has been terrifying, especially for those watching their loved ones being taken by Hamas militants.

CNN's Hadas Gold is live for us in Jerusalem.

Hadas, can you tell us what the situation is there? I know there have been sirens going off all morning.

HADAS GOLD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, so sirens have been going off across Israel all day long. And while there had been some respite from the rockets being fired towards the big cities of Jerusalem here and Tel Aviv, that was not the case earlier today. Sirens going off I think it was around noon here in Jerusalem. I was in my apartment. And when I came out after the sirens were done and we heard the explosions in the sky, I actually saw black plumes of smoke that may indicate that there had been impacts of some kind.

But we are -- as we speak, there are still sirens going off, especially in southern Israel, meaning that rockets are incoming. Of course, our own correspondents are experiencing that firsthand. The Israeli military also saying that they are continuing to strike

the Gaza Strip with quite a bit of intensity. And we are seeing movements of ground artillery, tanks and the likes on the ground, approaching the border with -- between Gaza and Israel.

Now, this, on one hand, is, of course, to reinforce the border that had been breached dozens of times by these Hamas militants who infiltrated Israel, but also it could be the stager of a potential ground incursion. It's hard to imagine that this situation will continue without some sort of ground incursion that would only be by air.

But another thing that's incredibly concerning right now, guys, is what's happening on the north. And this is a very quickly developing situation because in the last few hours there have been several reports, there were sirens going off in the north.

[09:50:04]

The IDF confirming that at least two mortars were fired from southern Lebanon into Israel. The IDF also reporting that there was an attempted infiltration of some sort of people from southern Lebanon into Israel and they engaged in fire fights with Israelis there. The Israeli military also saying they struck the area with their helicopters.

This could really be a huge explosion because if Hezbollah gets involved, and Hezbollah, of course, is the one who controls -- the militant group that controls southern Lebanon, that could really put this on a whole different playing field.

Now, there are pockets of Hamas in southern Lebanon. There are pockets of Palestinian militant group. But really nothing happens in southern Lebanon without Hezbollah's acknowledgement or permission of something happening. Now, sometimes there's been able to sort of calm previous situations by saying, oh, this is Hamas, these are Palestinian militant groups. But this could open this up into a multi-front war.

Guys.

SIDNER: Yes, I think that is the biggest fear, that this is going to turn into a regional war.

Hadas Gold, thank you so much for all your reporting there.

I'm going to send it over to Kate and John.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Joining us now for more on this is Ambassador Dennis Ross, former special assistant to President Obama.

I mean, Ambassador, few American diplomats are more familiar with the long history here than you.

First and foremost, hearing these reports as Hadas Gold is talking about them, what the IDF says are possible people coming -- infiltrating is the word that you're - they're using from the north, the northern border, what - what - what does that -- what does that - how - what does that do to your level of concern of where this could go?

DENNIS ROSS, FORMER SPECIAL ASSISTANT TO PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, I was concerned before I heard that. I think that we have to understand that Hezbollah represents even much more of a severe military threat than Hamas does. And, obviously, the assessments of Hamas's capabilities, I think, were underestimated prior to what we've seen them do over the weekend.

In the case of Hezbollah, Hezbollah has at least 150,000 rockets. It could be hitting Israel with 3,000 rockets a day.

Now, having said that, they also knows, Hezbollah knows, what Israel would do in response. Hezbollah is facing a reality where the country is completely impoverished, their own base, their own Shia (ph) base is showing signs of increasing alienation. I suspect that - that Hezbollah would like to signal the Israelis that if they do - if they go into Gaza, that they -- that Hezbollah may feel the need itself to act and to come into Israel.

But I also think we should be looking at these current reports being mindful of how they could escalate, but also be aware that Hezbollah may want to look like it's supportive of Hamas, but it may not itself want to get involved. The best indication that that would be the case is that they would be signaling Israel by allowing the kind of actions that you're seeing right now, either allowing Hamas, which is located in southern Lebanon to take certain steps, or Hezbollah itself it could allow - could fire mortars or rockets in the northern part of Israel signaling, look, we want - we're going to show we're supporting Hamas, but we don't want an all-out war with you. That's an easy thing to signal. It's not necessarily an easy thing to control. But be mindful as Hezbollah may not be so enthusiastic about going to war with Israel.

And the problem here is that Iran will be pushing Hezbollah to go to war with Israel. Iran would love to sit on the sideline. They don't mind fighting to the last of Hezbollah or last of Hamas. They want to bleed Israel as much as they can. No question that Iran has played a major role, I think, in terms of planning this. The leaders of Hamas have visited to Iran.

BOLDUAN: Ambassador, I can I ask you a little bit about that. I wanted to ask -

ROSS: Yes.

BOLDUAN: I want to ask you just about that because as of yesterday the - Secretary of State Blinken, he told CNN, the words that he used is, "we have not yet seen evidence that Iran directed or was behind this particular attack, but there is certainly a long relationship," is how he put it. But an attack on this scale, this scope. It's seen by so many to not be possible without the coordination with Iran. Do you agree?

ROSS: I do agree that Iran has played a role here. You know, the question is, were they the instigators of this? Did they

plan it? Did they organize it? The reality is, Hezbollah does a lot of training of (ph) Hamas. Hamas is getting funding from Iran. Hamas leaders went to Iran. Iran organized meeting in Lebanon with Hezbollah and Hamas. SO, their fingerprints are all over this. And they clearly favored this.

They were driven, no doubt, as was Hamas, by wanting to disrupt the possibility of a Saudi/Israeli breakthrough.

[09:55:04]

They understood that could change the whole configuration of the region. They understand that you create a network of states that actually are increasingly successful. And that contrasts with the failures. These are basically - you look at Lebanon, you look at Gaza, you look at what's going on within Iran. In all these places their publics suffer. The only thing they're good at is developing military capabilities. But they basically are failed policies, or failed states. So, the last thing they want is to contrast with something that looking increasingly successful to where the publics actually have a sense of possibility about the future.

BOLDUAN: And that's an important point when you're talking about the future.

When you're - when we talk about the response in the immediate right now, the fact that there are now -- we hear from the State Department -- nine Americans who were killed and possibly more being held hostage, how does that complicate things for the United States?

ROSS: Well, it certainly creates an American stake in this, even independent of our support for Israel. We would be there for Israel regardless, especially given what Hamas has done. But we're directly engaged because we have Americans who have been both killed and very likely are part of the - those who are being held hostage. So, it gives the United States a stake in terms of effecting what Hamas does. It gives the United States a stake in terms of not wanting to see the war expand. If the war expands, then more Americans will also again be exposed. So there's no - there's no escaping the fact that we have a stake in what's going on. We also have a stake in ensuring that the end result of this is not the appearance of a Hamas victory. Hamas wins or looks like it wins, this whole ideology of resistance and war and terror is given a huge boost.

So, we have a stake in Hamas being defeated. Israel has declared war because what Israel has experienced is completely unprecedented. You have to go back to the Israel's war of independence 1948 to see the numbers of deaths of Israelis in Israel. No war since that time has exposed Israel in the same way that we've seen now.

We've seen more Israelis lost in one day than were lost in any single day of the 1973 war. So, we are in unchartered territory. And for Israel, Israel is dealing with the need to not only re-establish security, but a sense of security, and to deal a setback to Hamas so that the Hamas ideology is also defeated in the process. BOLDUAN: Ambassador Dennis Ross, your perspective always important on

this issue, and so thankful to have you here today. A war that they are now fighting, a war ignited by a terrorist attack on the Israeli civilians.

Dennis Ross, thank you.

John.

BERMAN: All right, we're getting new information about what Israel is calling infiltration into its country from Lebanon. Also, Israeli troops in armor moving toward the Gaza border. Our reporters just saw these tanks rolling by. Our special, live coverage continues right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)