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Israeli Airstrikes Continue on Gaza; Families of Missing Americans Give Press Conference. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired October 10, 2023 - 09:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:00:43]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, the breaking news, we just learned that more than 1,000 Israelis have now been killed in the Hamas terrorist attacks. This comes as we are standing by to hear from four American families who say they are missing loved ones, who had family members taken hostage by Hamas. This press conference is taking place in Tel Aviv, where our crews just had to take shelter because air raid sirens just went off. Israeli parents this morning are being warned that they should remove social media from their children's phones because Hamas could release videos of executions.

Israel claims it has now killed 1,500 Hamas terrorists who infiltrated over the weekend. It has launched new air strikes on Gaza. More than 200 targets of what they call terrorist hubs. Even as Hamas has threatened to kill some of the more 100 hostages they hold.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: As Israel continues to pound Gaza to take out Hamas' military infrastructure, these are some of the scenes of what is being left behind, widespread destruction in Gaza.

In Israel there is also new evidence coming to light of the barbaric tactics used by Hamas terrorists against Israelis. Again, as John just mentioned, at least 1,000 people are now reported dead in Israel according to the Israeli embassy to the United States. Palestinian officials are reporting at least 765 deaths are now reported in Gaza.

And as President Biden is preparing to deliver remarks on this situation that is unfolding, his remarks a little later this afternoon, we do know at least 11 Americans are among the dead, several more are still unaccounted for.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: And Biden's remarks will come as we are watching this war unfold. He is preparing to deliver remarks on the situation unfolding right now.

Now, we know at least 11 Americans among the dead, but we are now hearing that there are Americans who have been taken hostage. We will hear from those families soon.

All right, we are now going to go to our Nic Robertson. He is in Sterolt (ph) where he's been listening to sirens. Nic, you are there. Can you give us some sense - you are on the border with Gaza (INAUDIBLE) is very, very close to Gaza. Give us some sense of what is happening at this hour, right now, as we speak.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, yes, quite literally Gaza's behind me on the horizon there. And you - we - from where we are we hear the impacts, we hear the strikes. I saw, there's a cloud of smoke coming up on the horizon there just now. What we're seeing is this multiplications, plums of smoke rising up from - from Gaza after those air strikes.

This town here really only came back under full Israeli control over the past couple of days. There are still a lot of police patrols, military patrols around here. Absolutely you can see from here just how frequently Israel is targeting Gaza. They're using not only the air strikes that they were over the past couple of days, but they're using artillery as well. But it's between here, this town and the border, that you have so many of those kibbutz's, so many of those small villages that Hamas stormed into on early Saturday morning. And those have only - only this past night been coming more fully back under Israeli military control.

We went to one of those, Kafar Aza (ph), just about half a mile - three quarters of a mile from the Gaza fence. And you can see where the Hamas militants stormed through the gate. The general in charge there told us that there were 70 militants. They came in there at about 6:30 a.m. Saturday morning and he said it's taken 48 hours, quite literally, to fight them out. And when we went in there, scenes of destruction. Houses blown apart. There were dead bodies of Hamas fighters lying around. The Israeli Defense Force were taking out the bodies of Israelis who had been killed in the houses. Women and children in the houses.

I was told of one story where the husband and wife had twins, 10- years-old. They hid them in the cupboard in their small apartment there and then they, the parents, went out to try to hold Hamas back.

[09:0501]

The parents were killed and their neighbors heard the children crying out from the cupboard several hours later. The children were safe. The parents weren't.

I spoke to the general in charge about the military operation, about what it was like. This is a 39-year veteran of service in Israel's military forces. He'd never witnessed anything like this, he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAJ. GEN. ITAI VERUV, ISRAELI DEFENSE FORCES: What I saw, hundreds of terrorists is full of -- full gear, with all of the equipment and all the ability, make a massacre, go from apartment from apartment, from room to room, and kill babies, mothers, fathers in their bedrooms.

ROBERTSON: You were telling me some of them, when you went in, their hands were tied together. VERUV: Some of them locked themselves in the protection rooms and they

bomb their house and people are on - out with their children and they killed them. They killed babies in the front of their parents and then killed the parents. They killed parents and we found babies in between the dogs and the - and the family killed before them, cut the head of the people and -

ROBERTSON: And this - this is the first time -- I mean when -- when did you secure this area year? Was it late last night?

VERUV: So, we fight here, wave after wave of (INAUDIBLE), until last -- last night.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTSON: And this is really the scene that you'll find in any one of these kibbutz's along the border with Gaza. The numbers of dead in some of them, over 100. The death toll is incredibly high. And that's why we're seeing the numbers continue to rise because it's only now that the military's getting in and beginning to get full control there.

Sara.

SIDNER: All right, Nic, thank you so much.

We are now going to go to a press conference that is started. It is the families of four Americans who are missing in Israel. They are speaking out right now, concerned they have also, some of them, been kidnapped by Hamas.

Let's listen in.

RACHEL GOLDBERG, SON HERSH GOLDBERG-POLIN IS MISSING IN ISRAEL: Should I start with what happened starting Saturday morning?

I was upstairs in my house in Jerusalem. I knew that Hirsch and his -- a friend of his were sleeping out, doing -- camping somewhere. I didn't know exactly where.

The first sirens, the bomb sirens, went off in Jerusalem. So, I ran down the stairs to wake my two daughters so we could get into the bomb shelter in Jerusalem.

When we got out ten minutes later with the all-clear, I normally don't use my phone on the Jewish Sabbath, but it was an emergency and I needed to know where my son was. So, I turned my phone on, I believe at 8:23 in the morning. And when I turned it on, there were two texts in a row from Hirsch at 8:11. The first one said, I love you. And immediately, at 8:11 also, it said, I'm sorry. And so I knew, immediately, wherever he was, it was a terrible situation. I took it to mean, I love you and I'm sorry because whatever is going to happen is going to cause you tremendous pain and worry.

Since that time, I, of course, tried calling him right back. There was no answer. I texted him a couple times, are you OK? I've not heard from him since the text I received at 8:11 on Saturday morning.

We've since found out from putting together eyewitnesses from a picture from inside of a bomb shelter that we saw, we tried to put together who was in that bomb shelter with him. We've spoken to eyewitnesses. We know that he was injured in a gun battle. I mean they were all civilians at a music festival in -- they were fish in a barrel, sitting in this bomb shelter. Terrorists came to the door. They were throwing grenades in. Shooting machine guns. And we know that Hirsch's arm, from the elbow down, was severed, was blown off, and that he tied a tourniquet around with his shirt. And Hamas came in after the gunfire settled down and said, anyone who can walk, stand up and walk out. We are told that he was completely calm. I think he was probably in shock. And he got up and he walked out with five other people, young people, from the music festival. Two young women, three other young men, they were put on a pickup truck and driven away by Hamas.

Then the police told us one thing they knew is that the last known signal, cell signal, from his phone was on the border with Gaza.

[09:10:09]

JON POLIN, SON HERSH POLIN-GOLDBERG IS MISSING IN ISRAEL: So, not much to add. Hirsch was at the festival with one of his best friends, Amir Shapiro (ph). But eyewitness accounts from the people that we talked to who were in this bomb shelter, several people, independent of each other, said, your son and his friend, Amir, saved our lives. Anybody who's alive because, as grenades were being thrown in, they were tossing them back out. They were trying to comfort people. And so, just thought I would add that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Maybe you could add just the (INAUDIBLE) of the family in the United States.

POLIN: Sure. I'll just say that Rachel and I both grew up in Chicago. We were living in California in 2000 when Hersh was born. We made (ph) Alit, Israel, as a family in the summer of 2008, when Hersh, who's our oldest child -

GOLDBERG: And only son.

POLIN: He was seven and a half, almost eight, when we moved to Israel in the summer of 2008. We've been living in Jerusalem ever since. We have two daughters, 20 and 17.

And I just want to take one minute to talk a little bit about Hersh.

He is a smiley, fun-loving guy. And people of all ages just gravitate towards him. And if you mention his name to his friends, his teachers, my friends, our friends, you mention his name and people just smile because he's the kind of guy who's just fun to be around and makes people feel good and have a good time.

He's got a few passions. One of which is traveling the world. And he's been saving his money to go on his big trip at the end of December.

NAHAR NETA, MOTHER ADRIENNE NETA TAKEN BY HAMAS: Hi. Thank you, everybody, for coming.

My name is Nahar Neta. The oldest son for Adrienne Neta.

As this tragedy was unfolded on Saturday morning, me and my other siblings were talking to my mom on the phone, trying to calm her down. Things were sort of calm when she heard a lot of gunfire outside of her shelter. And we tried to calm her down. That's when I dropped off the call.

And both my brother, and my sister, were on the call with her as the terrorist barged into her home. And we heard a little bit of screaming. And that's -- that was the last contact with her.

There was no shooting on the call. And the neighbors downstairs also didn't hear any shooting.

My mom used the little bit of Arabic that she picked up working as a nurse in the hospital in Soaka (ph) for 20 years to calm down the terrorists. And it is our hope, which is a little bit ridiculous at this stage to say that the optimistic scenario here is that she's held hostage in Gaza and not dead on the streets of Lakiputz (ph), where I grew up.

My mom is a 66-year-old lady. Proud mother of me and my three other siblings who are in the room with me. Along with seven grandkids.

She was sitting on the porch of her home in Bearrber're (ph) on Saturday morning when this ferocious attack happened. My mom devoted her life to helping other people of all races and genders in her practice as a nurse in the hospital in the (INAUDIBLE). She installed this passion for people in us, her kids and her grandkids.

As I said, my last contact with my mom was Saturday morning around 9:45 a.m., as the terrorists barged into her shelter in her home in Bearrber're (ph).

[09:15:00]

There are a lot of images kind of spreading around, which I don't feel the need to talk about. I want to bring forward the responsibility that the Israeli government has to bring back all the hostages that are kept in hostage by the Hamas terrorists. While saying this, I want also to speak about the responsibility of the U.S. administration, President Biden, and the secretary of state, Blinken, has for the lives of every U.S. citizen that is out there. And they are responsible to bring the U.S. citizens back home safe and sound. We expect nothing less from the U.S. administration, and from President Biden, and vice -- and Secretary of State Blinken. I speak for -- in the name of myself and my family. And I wish for the quick solution for this terrible, terrible situation that all of us are in. We never imagined that this is how it will look.

Thank you again for coming.

IANNA (ph) NETA, MOTHER ADRIENNE NETA TAKEN BY HAMAS: I'm just going to read out. My name is Ianna (ph) Neta. I am the youngest of my mother's children.

My mother Adrienne is missing and was probably taken by Hamas terrorists to the Gaza Strip.

My mother is an exceptional human being. She spent most of her adult life as a nurse in the community and then as a midwife in a hospital. When she walked into a delivery room, she saw a human being in front of her. Not a religion. Not a race. Not a hijab. Not an orthodox Jew. Always the human being she saw. We once calculated that my mother has brought in thousands of lives into this world.

When Hamas walked into my mother's room in (INAUDIBLE) they saw (INAUDIBLE), but they did not see a human being.

RUBI CHEN, SON ITAY CHEN IS MISSING IN ISRAEL: Again, thank you for coming.

My name is Rubi Chen. On behalf of Itay Chen.

Before starting, I just wanting to ask all of you here, and thank you for coming, and all of those listening to us, please, do not think of us only as a headline. We are more than that.

I'm here with my family. My two sisters. We grew up in New York City. We like to say we are the proud outcome of the New York public education system. Still have family out in New Jersey. Long Island. And I'd like to talk about family before talking about Itay.

Out of some twist of fate, we became family. In addition to us, we've identified about ten other families like us that have a U.S. Citizen missing. This family, and my family, is now missing. We have a missing person of our family.

Within my family, I have in addition to Itay two sons. One of them, the youngest, Ilan (ph), is actually celebrating his bar mitzvah this weekend. The bar mitzvah, for those of you who do not know, is the ceremony where a young Jewish man becomes a man. And Itay, in order to be home this weekend, elected to be at his base the previous weekend in order for us to celebrate the bar mitzvah as a whole, the whole family.

[09:20:13]

We still hope that that celebration with my sisters and my family will happen in the near future.

And I'm sure my friends here as well, all my new family, have additional, you know, events happening that they also wish to have that whole, wholeness, of these events.

So, please, you know, think of us, not just as that headline. But we're people, with families, and we want to be back families again.

Itay, my son, joined the army about a year ago. He's in the armed corps. He was serving on the border of Gaza. The last time that we heard from him was Saturday morning, where he said that they were under attack. We know that he was active. That he was in communication for a while. But since then, silence.

The formal indication that we received from the IDF is that he is defined as missing in action. What does that mean? It means that nobody since Saturday morning has been able to physically locate him, identify him, and see - and say that he saw him. It also means that he's not in the hospital. It also means that he's not on the deceased list that has been identified.

You would think it would be a good assumption to say that after 70 hours, if he's not in the state of Israel, he might be some other place. And if that is the case, then he is, by definition, a POW, U.S. citizen, and Israeli citizen, and what we are asking for his captives and for the U.S. government as well to ask from the captives of Hamas is to treat him as a POW should be treated according to international law, meaning, having someone visit him, have a doctor see him, have the U.N. (INAUDIBLE) representative see him as well.

And as said before, we want to be back - we want to go back to become family, you understand, as soon as possible. Hopefully, with your help, the people here will help us amplify this message to the U.S. government, secretary of state, that until now have been saying all of the right things. But we do, at least I, on behalf of my family, I'm asking the U.S. not to take a back seat. The U.S. has a lot of resources at its attention. It is able to do many things that can be different than what the Israeli government can do. And we are asking on behalf of my family for President Biden, where we are sure his heart is in the right place when it comes to Israel, and secretary of state, to do what they can to make this end for us, as soon as possible, to become family, whole again.

JONATHAN DEKEL-CHEN, SON SAGUI DEKEL-CHEN IS MISSING IN ISRAEL: Thank you all for coming this afternoon.

My name is Jonathan Dekel-Chen. I am a lifetime member of kibbutz Seim (ph), on the border, since 1990, and kibbutz Neroz (ph). And kibbutz Neroz (ph) was attacked in the early morning of this Saturday. And I have children and grandchildren who live there with me.

Kibbutz Neroz (ph) is no more. It was destroyed in a barbaric, inhumane attack in which dozens of my friends, my neighbors were killed. Many dozens more are either known to be hostages or missing.

I'm here speaking today, reaching out to my son, Sagui, who grew up on the Kibbutz, Sagui Dekel-Chen. And he's an arm's length away in Gaza, evidently, but couldn't be farther from me and our family right now.

[09:25:01]

I grew up in Connecticut, as you can probably hear from the accent, but I've never felt farther away from there either.

Sagui, is the father, as you can see, 35 years old. The father of two beautiful daughters. And his wife is now pregnant with their third daughter. And Sagui is exactly the kind of son that every father would want to have. A leader, a friend, a loving man. He and many other such young men on the kibbutz are now missing after having tried to repulse the attack by evidently hundreds of Hamas terrorists and looters. Many died in the process. Sagui was not found. And we have heard or seen no trace of him since then.

The survivors of the kibbutz - on the kibbutz, we're a community of 400. At the moment, we know of 160 survivors. The rest have either died or, are, as we said, prisoners or missing. The survivors call this a pogrom, what happened to us. It's not a war. It's not a fair fight. It is a pogrom. Hundreds of heavily armed, well-organized terrorists walked, rode, ran over the border with one object in mind, and that is to kill, maim, and destroy civilian life along the border.

As such, it seems to me that the United States, my original home, and still a very beloved place for me, always wants to be and must be on the side of good. Hamas is evil. It's difficult for me to say. I'm what is called a peacenik in Israel, as many of the kibbutz members are in our area. But when we've witness, this kind of savagery, this kind of inhumanity, it must be stopped. And, as a result, like the other five people on this stage who would prefer to be anywhere but here right now, do appeal to the United States government, to the Congress, to do what they can on the side of good here.

We're waiting for Sagui to come home. We do not know what fate he met along, as I said, with dozens of other people from the kibbutz. And just so you understand, these aren't all 35-year-old men. These are children. These are aged people. And everything in between.

So, if there ever was a moment of good against evil in the harshest terms, this is it.

And I thank you for listening to us. And I'm sure all of us will welcome questions. We'll answer as we can, both for our children and relatives, and for those well over 100 hostages that were taken.

Among the hostages, I'll add, that outside of Sagui, there are three other hostages taken from my kibbutz who are American citizens, Israeli-Americans, and two who were murdered on Saturday morning.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you very much to all the families participating.

We're going to go now to questions from the journalists. We're going to start with Becky Anderson from CNN. We're going to go one by one. Please, when you get the microphone, say your name and the outlet that you're from.

Thank you.

BECKY ANDERSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Thank you. And thank you for doing this today.

Israel has said that it will do its best to get any hostages home. There's also talk of an imminent ground incursion at this point. Just how concerned are you? This isn't to any single person. I don't know who wants to take that.

N. NETA: Yes. I can address the question. As we saw some of the kinds of these questions coming up, right.

I don't have earlier acquaintance with anybody at the table, but I would assume that none of us are military personnel, or foreign affairs strategic thinkers. We are the family members of U.S. citizens that were kidnapped into the Gaza Strip. Hence, I do not think that it is our place to comment on the necessary actions that the -- Israeli government has to take, or the U.S. Biden administration, for that sake.

[09:30:07]

All we ask from the Biden.