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U.S. Coordinating With Qatar Over Hamas Hostages; Israel Cuts Off Water, Electricity, Fuel, Food To Gaza; Hamas Warns It Will Kill Civilian Hostages If Gaza Attacks Continue Without Warning; Israel Pummels Gaza With Airstrikes After Hamas Reportedly Killed 900; Netanyahu Speaks After New Round of Strikes In Gaza. Aired 2:30-3p ET
Aired October 09, 2023 - 14:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[14:30:00]
M.J. LEE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Because we did hear over the weekend an Israeli minister saying that Americans are among the hostages being held in Gaza.
So if that ends up being true, of course, this situation with the Qataris and the role that they are playing could stand to be very, very important.
And this, of course, is in addition to the nine Americans that the administration has confirmed have been killed in Israel. They don't yet fully know exactly how many Americans are missing in Israel.
And, of course, getting just a full accounting of how many Americans are killed, wounded and missing, that is another sort of big priority for the administration going forward and in the coming days -- Anderson?
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: M.J. Lee, thanks very much.
Israel's defense minister said today that he had ordered the -- what they term the complete siege of Gaza. We probably will hear more about that from Benjamin Netanyahu, who we expect to speak at any moment now.
They're talking about cutting off food, water, electricity, fuel. Gaza is surrounded on three sides, as you know, by Israel and Egypt, and by water on the fourth side.
I want to turn now to CNN national security analyst, Peter Bergen. He's vice president at New America and an Arizona State University professor as well.
Peter, so a complete siege of Gaza. I've spent time in Gaza City, under attack.
Talk a little about what that means, particularly for the civilian population. We can talk about the military component against Hamas, but the civilian population, just in terms of, how did they get out of the way?
There's not a lot of places to go in Gaza.
PETER BERGEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: No, there isn't. It's one of the most densely populated places on the planet with two million people in a very small space.
But, Anderson, I wanted to pick up on the Qatari issue. Because, as you recall, the five Americans that were held by Iran for so long, Qatar was instrumental in getting those five Americans released from Iran.
And has also been instrumental, for instance, in getting American journalists who are held by al Qaeda released.
So the fact they are involved in these discussions, Anderson, is a really good sign because they actually have some ability to influence Hamas and also some ability to be seen as sort of a neutral player in the region.
COOPER: What does -- what are the rules of siege warfare? I mean, does this -- how is this going to work from your vantage point? Or what's it going to look like?
BERGEN: Well, I mean, I think it's going to be terrible for the civilians in Gaza. I mean, we've already seen Hamas threatening to execute hostages if this -- Israeli strikes continue.
Generally speaking, people who take hostages don't execute hostages because dead hostages really don't help them for whatever they're seeking, whether it's prisoner exchange or some form of leverage.
But we have seen, of course, with ISIS executing American prisoners in the past that it can happen.
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: By the way, Hamas has said that they will start executing prisoners -- or I shouldn't say prisoners -- executing these hostages that they have kidnapped if Israel does not give advance warning of attacks.
BERGEN: Yes. And I think we can take those warnings seriously. They've certainly shown that they're willing to kill hundreds of civilians already.
Typically, they -- you know, when you take a hostage, you don't do that. But this is not a political situation.
And unfortunately, with more than 100 hostages Hamas has, unfortunately, a lot of opportunities to kill who they want, should they choose to go down that road.
So it's a very difficult situation. But I think the threats should be taken at face value.
COOPER: And, Peter, I think it's just important to point out for folks who haven't spent time in Gaza or the region, Hamas is the government in Gaza.
This is not some rogue force holding hostages on the territory of Gaza. They are in control of Gaza. They run Gaza. They broach no dissent in Gaza.
BERGEN: Yes.
COOPER: So even civilians who don't like Hamas, they live under the reign of Hamas.
BERGEN: Yes. It's a -- I mean, they were elected at one point, but they run Gaza as a dictatorship. They don't tolerate dissent of any kind.
And I think the situation with the hostages is very, very worrisome. I am hoping that the Qatari intervention will produce some kind of outcome that will be helpful.
Not only do they have leverage with Hamas but Qatar has also provided funding to Gaza. So they can play the role of the honest broker.
COOPER: Peter Bergen, thank you. Appreciate it.
Waiting for word from Benjamin Netanyahu. He's expected to speak any moment. Much more of our coverage just ahead from Israel.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[14:39:27]
COOPER: You are watching CNN's special live coverage of Israel at war. I'm Anderson Cooper in Tel Aviv.
Tonight, the death toll rising on both sides as Israel says it has regained all communities briefly held by Hamas militants from Gaza.
Health officials there say 560 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza in retaliatory airstrikes from Israel.
Over the weekend, Hamas hit Israel with a stunning cross-border attack, as you know, across multiple fronts, killed at least 900 people, according to Israeli Army radio. That number still likely to grow.
[14:40:02]
The U.S. says at least nine Americans are among the dead.
Hamas claims it has at least 100 hostages.
An Islamic woman says that Hamas has taken her cousin's family. The video shows militants, terrorists seizing the cousin and her two small children.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) YIFAT SALLER, COUSINS KIDNAPPED FROM THEIR HOME: All the institutions of the world that help kidnapped civilians, please do something to force Hamas to release them alive. This is a precedent. Nothing like this 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.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: CNN's Hadas Gold is in Jerusalem for us tonight.
Hadas, Hamas has just issued a new threat involving civilian hostages. Can you talk about that?
HADAS GOLD, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Yes, so this threat was in a televised statement where Hamas warned that if Israel strikes targets in Gaza without these warning knockers -- this is something that Israel's known to do.
That before they strike a high-rise building or a target, they will often either drop these knockers on the top of the roof that makes this noise, or sometimes they'll even call people directly, warning them to get out of the building before they destroy it.
But now Hamas is saying that if Israel strikes targets without those --
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: Hadas, I have to interrupt you. I'm sorry.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has begun to talk. Let's listen in.
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
COOPER: We're going to bring in Hadas. We're having a problem obviously with translation.
Hadas Gold, can you just talk about what he is saying?
GOLD: Yes. So, so far, what I've been able to catch, he says Israel has never seen such atrocities before. He says Israel always knew who Hamas was. He says now the whole world does.
He says Hamas is ISIS, making the comparison, of course, to the Islamic State, saying -- essentially suggesting that people thought that Hamas was something else, now saying Hamas is ISIS.
He's saying, last I heard, was the first objective is to secure the communities along the border and to seal the border fence. That's all I've heard so far -- Anderson?
COOPER: OK. Let's continue to listen in.
GOLD: I can keep translating. OK.
NETANYAHU: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
GOLD: He's talking about trying to get the international community to support Israel. And he's been doing this now for a few days.
NETANYAHU: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
GOLD: The number-one priority right now is to bring people together. Our inner divisiveness is now over. When we are united, we will win.
NETANYAHU: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
GOLD: He's calling for the opposition leaders to immediately have an emergency unity government without exceptions, similar to what happened in the Six Day War.
NETANYAHU: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
GOLD: He says we are just starting. Israel, we are just starting. We are starting to beat them.
NETANYAHU: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
GOLD: What we're seeing in Gaza is just the beginning, saying that they have killed hundreds of militants and they will continue.
[14:45:04]
NETANYAHU: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
GOLD: He says he's in regular contact with President Biden and he would like to -- and he is thanking the United States for their support.
NETANYAHU: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
GOLD: He's talking about the carrier ship now off the shores of Israel, that it's there waiting to support Israel.
NETANYAHU: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
GOLD: He is talking about the support that Israel's received from around the world.
NETANYAHU: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
GOLD: And he's warning now about fake news and disinformation that he says is spreading online.
NETANYAHU: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
GOLD: And he's saying that it's fake news that Egypt or others had warned Israel ahead of time that this operation was going to take place.
NETANYAHU: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
GOLD: He says he knows everybody wants immediate results, but warning that this will take time. But he promises to all the citizens of Israel that, at the end of this, all the enemies --
NETANYAHU: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
GOLD: He promises the citizens that, at the end of this, all the enemies will know that they cannot beat Israel.
NETANYAHU: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
GOLD: He's now talking about a video about an Israeli soldier, helping each other or supporting each other.
NETANYAHU: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
GOLD: He's now talking about the appointment of a special minister in charge of the hostages, and they will do everything they can to bring them back.
NETANYAHU: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
GOLD: He says we are all families of the hostages.
He says that they have lost entire families, young and old, disabled, soldiers, police and security officials, Jews and non-Jews.
NETANYAHU: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
GOLD: He says together, we will win. Together, we will get over this. Only together.
NETANYAHU: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
GOLD: He says there are difficult days ahead.
NETANYAHU: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
GOLD: And he says that they will win this war, to bring light to our people.
NETANYAHU: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
GOLD: He's now quoting the Bible.
NETANYAHU: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
GOLD: He says the people of Israel will live.
COOPER: I want to bring in CNN's Oren Liebermann, who has also been listening and translating along.
Oren Liebermann, talk about what the prime minister has said. OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, at its most basic
level, that was the message Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had no choice but to put out right now.
And we were listening as he said Israel will win this war. Again, that's a promise he has no choice but to make right now. Warning the citizens of Israel that this will not be a quick or easy victory.
Also, of course, warning Hamas, which he compared to ISISs right at the beginning there, warning them that Israel is only beginning to carry out its attacks.
He said, at one point, that the enemies of Israel would remember the strength of its response and the strength of Israel for generations and that this was a mistake on the part of Hamas.
I'll have to go back and listen to it. And I didn't hear Hadas pick up on it in her excellent translation there as she was listening. But he didn't promise a ground incursion. He didn't say that was imminent, I don't think. We'll have to go back and double check on that.
[14:50:06]
But we're seeing right now the airstrikes from Israel. That's the beginning of the campaign, Netanyahu said. And he said this will take time.
He said he appointed a hostage negotiator, Gal Hirsch. Rather a minister in charge of hostages, Gal Hirsch. That's one of the major focuses here, to try to, in some way, secure the release of hostages.
But that is a defiant Netanyahu in the face of what, at this point, is effectively pretty much an outright Hamas victory.
Trying to gird the state of Israel for what's coming ahead, which he clearly portrays as what may very well be a long and difficult war to try to restore deterrence.
To try to save and protect the people of Israel on the Gaza border and beyond and to try to a message to Israel's enemies -- Anderson?
COOPER: Oren, stay with me.
I to bring in Hadas Gold as well as Clarissa Ward.
Hadas, just in terms of -- thank you for jumping in there, by the way, Hadas. I'm not sure why there wasn't a simultaneous translation with that.
Let's talk about what stood out to you. And to Oren's point, did you hear anything about any kind of ground operation, ground incursion?
GOLD: I didn't hear anything about a ground operation. He was talking about grand language, saying what will come to you are enemies will resound with them for generations.
And he said, at the end of the campaign, all our enemies will know that it was a terrible mistake to attack Israel.
Not making any sort of promises on exactly what this operation will look like in the Gaza Strip, not making any specific -- also addresses to what's potentially happening on the northern border, as well. He's trying to bring the Israeli people together.
He did make a reference to what's happened in Israeli society over the past few months, directly connected to his government's attempt to change the judiciary.
Saying that it's time to put divisions to the side, that people need to come together, that only through unity, though Israeli people acting as one will they be able to defeat the enemy.
And he called for an immediate emergency unity government, the same that happened in the Six Day War. There has been calls for that from the opposition leaders as well.
Some of them have placed conditions on the unity government. He is telling the opposition leaders to do so, to join a unity government without any conditions.
COOPER: Hadas, if you can explain just for folks who have not been following the politics of Israel very closely or as closely, certainly, as you over the last six months to a year, can you explain why he is calling for unity?
And why that is such an important call for people in Israel, given the demonstrations that have taken place there?
GOLD: When Benjamin Netanyahu took back power late last year, he did so with the most right-wing extremist and religious government in Israeli history. So that alone was divisive.
On top of that, his government set out to completely reshape Israel's judiciary, to eventually give the political parties in power more power over the Supreme Court, over how judges are selected, and over the powers that the Supreme Court has to stop government actions.
That have already passed some these as law. This has triggered regular protests in the streets of Israel. Tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of Israelis every single week since January have been taking to the streets to protest this government.
I have never seen Israeli society so divided over an issue than what has been happening over the past few.
And it's even led to some military reservists vowing they would not serve and they would not heed the call to serve because of this judicial overhaul.
I don't know that anybody anticipated the type of security situation that Israel would be faced as they have been in the last few days. Because as far as we understand, there haven't been a mass number of reservists who have refused to serve. One of the main organizations representing the Israeli military
reservists said very early on that they are relying on all of the reservists to heed the call to serve at this moment.
COOPER: And, Hadas, just in terms of what happens next on the ground here -- actually, you know, let me go to Clarissa Ward, who I think we have with us now.
I think she dropped out but she's back -- and we lost her again.
This is obviously a very fluid situation. And just the technology of having all these people live, particularly from the border region is very difficult. So I appreciate you all bearing with us.
Hadas, just in terms of the military operation now, we are 60-plus hours into this response to the attack that occurred Saturday morning around 6:30 a.m.
Talk about what stage this military operation is at. Because we've been seeing massive explosions in Gaza itself. But the question of, are Israeli troops going to enter into Gaza? It's a fraught question and, obviously, that is the big unknown at this stage.
[14:55:00]
GOLD: Yes, I mean, just look at the numbers, 300,000 Israeli army reservists, Israeli military reservists have been called up. And that has never happened, such a fast and massive call-up, being called up to serve in addition to the active duty.
So you can only just assume that that is partly in preparation for a potential ground incursion.
But something that needs to be kept in mind is what's happening on the northern border. There have been several instances this morning of mortar shells and rockets being fired, and infiltrators trying to make their way across.
The military confirming that they engaged with these infiltrators and they were firing at targets along that border.
If Hezbollah gets involved, that is a major consideration here and a major possibility that completely changes the nature of this conflict in ways I don't think we will have ever seen before.
COOPER: Yes. Yes.
Hadas Gold.
We will take a short break. Our coverage from Israel continues in just a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
