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Israel's Defense Minister Orders "Complete Siege" Of Gaza; Israel Pummels Gaza With Airstrikes After Hamas Reportedly Kills 900; Some U.S. Cities Ramp Up Security After Israel Attacks. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired October 09, 2023 - 15:30   ET

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

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ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: Hamas has announced its members will start executing civilian hostages if Israel targets people in Gaza without warning. The terror group claims it has taken at least 100 hostages. Islamic Jihad, which also operates in Gaza, has said in the past that they have some 30 people hostages. We can't confirm those numbers.

Joining me now is Jonathan Conricus, an IDF international -- Israeli Defense Force International spokesman. Jonathan, I appreciate you being with us. First of all, the threat by Hamas to execute hostages if Israel doesn't give advance warning, what's their response by the IDF?

JONATHAN CONRICUS, IDF INTERNATIONAL SPOKESMAN: Sadly, it is -- first of all, thank you for having me, Anderson. Sadly, it is to be expected of an organization that, according to its own leaders, planned this attack and the result of the attack, 900 killed and dozens of Israelis taken hostage. They are happy with the result of their operation, which means that nothing here was a coincidence. Nobody got carried away with the killing spree. This is what Hamas planned to do. So, it can only be expected that they will at least say what they are going to do in terms of hostages.

It's an extremely sensitive and delicate matter that the highest levels of decision makers in Israel are addressing themselves to. I think that Israeli strikes, as they are now ongoing against Hamas's military targets, are very important. They will continue and the task that the Israeli Government has given the IDF is to totally eradicate all of their military capabilities. To make sure that at the end of this war, Hamas will not have the ability to kill Israeli civilians as they have done 2 1/2 days ago.

COOPER: Can you talk a little bit -- I mean obviously there's a lot you can't say and maybe is not even known at this stage. But what does that actually mean to eliminate their military capabilities? Because obviously build, you know, they have fired -- they fire rockets from residential areas. I assume they move rocket batteries around. They have large supplies of rockets. How do you from the air, at this stage, which is what this is, how do you eliminate a terrorist organization and the governments of Gaza military capability? CONRICUS: Yes, what Hamas has built over many, many years is a network

of tunnels that basically runs on under all of the Gaza Strip. Imagine a network that goes from the north to the South and it runs parallel with streets, only it's not meant for Gazan civilians, it's meant for the terrorist organizations in Gaza, primarily Hamas, but also the Islamic Jihad. This is what allows them to continue firing rockets at Israel, and this is the network and the infrastructure that serve them to prepare and execute the attack that they did 2 1/2 days ago in Israel. The results of which are more than 900 dead Israelis, most of them, by the way, civilians.

And so we will -- are now striking everything that can be struck from above using the Air Force, and we have mobilized 300,000 reserve soldiers who are now in the South preparing for action, getting their equipment together. And organizing the units and starting to study the missions that they will be receiving.

As of now, of course, I'm not going to advertise to the enemy and to the world what we're going to do, how we're going to do it, from where and with what means. There are many means available. I can only speak about the end state and reiterate that this isn't more of the same. As of now, yes, it's a lot more of the same when it comes -- when we're talking about striking from the air, but the continuation of our war effort -- not an operation -- our war effort will be different from anything that Hamas has seen in the past.

COOPER: One of the obviously complicating factors is the civilian population inside Gaza, where there's more than two million people living there.

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I know some people who live in Gaza who do not like Hamas but don't really have any other options. What does the civilian population do? Where can they go to avoid being, you know, collateral damage in this, to avoid dying.

CONRICUS: Yes, we have issued warnings in Arabic. First of all, let me say this. Our goal, the goal of our military operations are Hamas and the Islamic Jihad military capabilities. We are not trying to hurt civilians, we never do. I understand and we are very much aware of your correct explanation of the situation in the Gaza Strip. And yes, there are many civilians who are caught in the middle. Those civilians are used by Hamas as their human shields. What we have done is to issue messages in Arabic to various locations, people living in various locations telling them this location is not safe, leave. Go South or go east or go to -- towards whatever direction and seek security there.

It is a very complex situation. We are aware of it. And we are also aware from previous rounds and engagement with Hamas that this is usually what those who are against Israel will use against Israel in order to stop us from completing a mission and actually defending ourselves. So the complexity is understood, the situation with the hostages and the complexity added to that is understood. By the way, also foreign nationals, Americans, Brits, French. German, I understand are amongst the people being held by Hamas and Islamic Jihad as hostages, and that adds complexity.

But the clarity, the only clarity that I have at this stage, is that the unprecedented attack that Hamas leveled against Israel will generate an unprecedented response. What that means on the ground and under the ground will -- is to be determined in the future. But the considerations of civilian and us not wanting to hurt them is clear. It's understood. And we have said loud and clear, despite the fact that we are furious by what has happened. We will abide by international law and we are committed to fighting according to those morals that we hold dear and we will not try to strike civilians. We are going to strike and go after Hamas.

COOPER: Just finally, the level of coordination and planning that went into this Hamas attack a Saturday, Saturday morning, unprecedented, seems to have been a surprise to Israeli intelligence, U.S. intelligence and others. Obviously, in planning any kind of response, you only know what you know. You don't know what you don't know. Are you concerned that whatever improvement in their capabilities they have made that will now enabled them to launch this attack that they have also improved their capabilities of operating inside Gaza itself? So that in any ground incursion, do you have a sense of what you will encounter or are there a lot of potential unknowns for you there?

CONRICUS: That there are always unknowns in warfare and it is fair to assume that Hamas, since when they planned this operation and when they prepared the forces and when they tasked the different death squads going across our border with going to different communities, they anticipated perhaps not as many Israelis as they were able to execute, but I'm sure that they anticipated that they would be able to kill many Israelis. And as such, I'm sure that they also anticipated a very strong response by Israel, including ground units.

We are aware of that and the decisions are made with cool heads. And I'm sure that our commanders, the decision makers, the chief of staff and the Minister of Defense, are all too aware of the situation, are careful not to launch an operation that will fit into the enemy's plans. But instead disrupt those plans and take the enemy out of his balance. Granted, the enemy here had the advantage of surprise.

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He dictated -- dictated the opening, and it should be -- we should assume that he has a secondary and a third level plan, and we must of course operate within those understandings.

COOPER: Hey, Jonathan. Just very briefly, do you think they knew -- Hamas knew that dance party was taking place? Do you think that was a target? Or do you think that was something that they happened upon and realized this is, I mean, there's just a huge thousands of people there and this became the scene of the horrific massacre that it became. Do you think they had a -- do you think they knew what they were going to find?

CONRICUS: Yes, I don't know, based on military intelligence, but I assess and the logic. I understand that there were dozens, if not 100 Hamas terrorists armed in uniform that ascended upon that specific music party. I cannot imagine that that was a coincidence. And I assess -- this is my personal assessment, not military Intel -- that this was premeditated, that they understood, that they would have a soft target of thousands of unprotected Israelis. Outside of a community, outside of the regular confines of defense, and they targeted it and they went about killing and massacring for maximum effect. That is my assessment.

COOPER: Jonathan Conricus, the international -- with the Israeli Defense Forces. Jonathan, thank you, appreciate it for joining me now.

Thank you for joining me on Anderson Cooper in Tel Aviv. CNN NEWS CENTRAL continue with Boris Sanchez and Alex Marquardt. We'll be right back.

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BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Some cities in the United States are ramping up security as the crisis in Israel continues to unfold. In New York, Mayor Eric Adams said police there are monitoring all demonstrations and surveying sensitive locations.

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MAYOR ERIC ADAMS, (D) NEW YORK: In New York. We have as many people know, the largest Jewish population outside of Israel is in New York City. The police commissioner and his entire leadership team, we have done some things that are going to be visible, but there's also the intel, the invisible action that we're going to put in place.

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SANCHEZ: And near Salt Lake City, Utah, officials there are on alert after a synagogue was forced to evacuate during Sunday service following a bomb threat.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everybody to calmly please exit the building and go to Tanner Park.

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COOPER: Officials there say the bomb squad came in and cleared the property.

We want to go now to CNN security correspondent Josh Campbell. Because Josh, you worked counterterrorism cases as an FBI agent. Walk us through how U.S. security agencies would be preparing for potential fallout of the conflict here in the U.S.

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Boris, so as Mayor Adams in New York alluded to there a short moment ago, there are actions that are seen and actions that are unseen. We know from a security deterrent posture, we've seen police around the country in various cities increasing patrols at synagogues, at mosques. And that is again, to show that force in case there are, you know, perpetrators out there who might be inspired to do something here at home.

But as far as the unseen efforts, you know there are multiple agencies, obviously that work together on a daily basis to detect threats. I'll speak specifically about the FBI who is the lead counterterrorism agency in the U.S. You can point to a map of the United States and where you place your finger as an area that falls within the responsibility of an FBI Joint Terrorism Task force.

And, for example, you know, I was in the FBI, we would monitor global threats just to ensure that there weren't possible, you know, follow on attacks. We would query sources who report on terrorism matters. Again, just to try to get a sense of whether people reporting on these threats normally have detected anything, that all that obviously helping investigators to try to get out in front of anything here at home.

SANCHEZ: And Josh, looking overseas, while the U.S. intelligence community is working to detect those threats at home, we understand there's also work being done to help Israel locate hostages, some of which are believed to be American and also to protect against future attacks.

CAMPBELL: Now that's right, and this falls essentially into three buckets. You have what's called human intelligence -- that's what I just referred to there. Overseas, the CIA and the Defense Intelligence Agency would be doing the same thing, querying their sources in order to gather any information that might assist the Israelis. There's also a category of overhead imagery that could help the Israelis in their efforts to try to locate perpetrators. To try to locate obviously hostages -- that can be valuable. Whether we're talking about aircraft reconnaissance flights, reconnaissance satellites. Again, information that gives you a picture of what's happening on the ground.

You know, in my kidnapping cases overseas -- I won't get too much into the sensitive satellite technology, but suffice to say that it's very valuable and trying to get a picture of a certain situation.

But the final category is signals intelligence. You know, one thing that I think it's important to note here, obviously this attack took so many people by surprise. But the U.S. National Security Agency, you know, people may know, they collect infinitely more pieces of intelligence than they have analysts who can sift through it on a daily basis. That gets stored in what's called their holdings.

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And then typically after some type of event like this, a terrorist attack, those analysts will be going back through that data to try to search it, to see if there are clues there that can help our Israeli counterparts and obviously trying to determine what happened here. But then also try to prevent against future attacks as well. So a host of resources that the U.S. government could bring to bear to try to help allies there in Israel.

SANCHEZ: Josh Campbell, appreciate the perspective. Thanks so much -- Alex. CAMPBELL: You bet, sure.

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN HOST: And for more perspective on this, I want to bring in Rabbi Joseph Potasnik. He is the executive vice president of the New York Board of Rabbis. Rabbi, thank you so much for joining us today. We hey just -- I want to ask you first, how is your community reacting and coping in the wake of these horrific attacks over the past few days?

RABBI JOSEPH POTASNIK, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, NEW YORK BOARD OF RABBIS: Alex, you know there are times when there are no words or prayers that can bring that necessary comfort. We're doing as much as we can to strengthen one another. I can tell you this, it's reassuring, the number of calls that we're getting not only from our Jewish families but from our non-Jewish friends. I received a call from Cardinal Dolan from the Archbishop of the Greek Orthodox Church, from people from both sides of the political aisle. People are standing with Israel during this critical time.

You know, if you look at Jewish history, it is very much dominated by periods of silence. When we were shouting and others were silent. Now there are others who were shouting with us.

MARQUARDT: In terms of the security and some of the fears that may be growing understandably right now among Jewish Americans. We did hear Mayor Eric Adams of New York, where you are, he announced the deployment of additional police resources to synagogues. The governor of your state, Kathy Hochul, saying that surveillance has been increased at all Jewish targets. Is there anything more that you would like to see, to hear from law enforcement and political leaders?

POTASNIK: No, I think that they are certainly so proficient in protecting us and we are most grateful. They are always there. Look, I was talking with the former chief of police in Pittsburgh, who he and his team rushed into the sanctuary -- Tree of Life Sanctuary -- and they were -- some of them were wounded. They risk their lives to rescue lives. We could not be more grateful for all they do, and they're doing everything they can to make sure that we're safe.

And the other part of it is, you know, years ago, Alex, there was a terrorist bombing of a discotheque in Tel Aviv, the parents of the children who were murdered put a monument in front of that discotheque which simply said, we won't stop dancing. We're not going to stop living as Jews. We're not going to stop praying. We're going to do all the things we are. We're going to be more careful. We're going to look around, but thankfully we have others like NYPD and all the other security groups that are there with us to protect us.

MARQUARDT: Yes, I can attest to that. I've lived several years in Israel. There's an extraordinary carpe diem mentality. But as you know well, Rabbi, long before what events of this weekend, anti-Semitic incidents here in the United States were already at an all time high. That's according to the statistics put out by the Anti Defamation League. So what are your concerns about now and even greater rise in anti-Semitism because of what's happening in Israel? POTASNIK: When I hear the hateful rhetoric that is spewed in public,

that is spewed on social media, I'm afraid of the impact it will have on people who very often will buy into it. People who will be motivated to hateful attacks. So there's great concern. There's heightened concern. But as I said to you before, we're not going to stop living as proud Jews. We're not going to hide our identity. We did that, you know, years ago, we had no choice. But now we do have a choice.

But I do think it's incumbent upon parents, upon social media, to monitor what goes on in that home, what goes on that people are listening to, so that we have a better sense of what is happening out there. Minds are too easily influenced by the hate rhetoric. It's a shame that here we are years after the Holocaust and we're talking about increased anti-Semitism.

MARQUARDT: Rabbi, we have a couple of moments left, but are you also concerned about potential spike in attacks against Palestinians and Arab Americans in the wake of this?

POTASNIK: Look, nobody wants to see any life taken away. Any person, innocent person threatened. To us Jewish life is precious. Palestinian life is precious. We don't want to see innocent people hurt. So very often -- one of the things we enjoy New York are close bonds with one another. We come together, different faith communities and we consider each our different beliefs, but we belong to one family. So yes, there is concern for one another.

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As a matter of fact, Alex, very often when there's an attack on a mosque or synagogue or a church, we all stand with one another in solidarity. So there is that commitment for one another is family.

MARQUARDT: Well said, Rabbi Joseph Potasnik, thank you so much for joining us.

POTASNIK: Thank you, Alex.

SANCHEZ: A lot of angles to cover here. Including a new drafted resolution among House members that would go into effect or rather would go up for a vote once a new speaker is elected. So many angles to monitor of this story.

"THE LEAD" with Jake Tapper will pick those up after a short break.

But first we want to leave you with U2 playing a tribute to the victims killed by Hamas during a music festival.

MARQUARDT: This was at the Sphere in Las Vegas where Bono, the lead singer of U2, dedicated their song Pride. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BONO, SINGER, U2: October 7, as the sun is rising.

In the desert sky, stars of David.

They took your life, but they

Could not take your pride.

Could not take you pride.

(END VIDEO CLIP)