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U.S. House Members Received Classified Briefing On Israel; Israeli Gov't: Babies And Toddlers Found With "Heads Decapitated"; Communities Wait For News Of American Hostages. Aired 11:30a-12p ET

Aired October 11, 2023 - 11:30   ET

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

[11:30:00]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes. Your reaction to that, did you just -- your reaction or if you have heard anything more about that --

REP. GREGORY MEEKS (D-NY): Yes.

BOLDUAN: Or if you were able to get this greater sense of the enormity of the horror in this briefing and what you've heard.

MEEKS: It's just unbelievable. It -- we've heard reports previously. I had been going back and forth. We didn't have the confirmation. I'm hearing for the first time that confirmation while I was waiting and listening to the story.

And I got to tell you. It just -- I just -- my soul is hurting. It just shows you the evil of Hamas and its people that are carrying out these horrendous, unspeakable, indefensible killings. Babies, that calf -- I just -- it's just -- and there's a lot that we've been focused on. And I agree that we have to. But it just -- I just apologize because it really just got to me. But it was confirmed.

BOLDUAN: There is absolutely no reason to apologize because there's no way to wrap your mind around how anyone could do this. This is a war crime. This is worse than a war crime. It's not OK.

MEEKS: We have to -- and I think that you know, I said this inside the classified meeting. So, it's not classified because I said it. Make sure that we are going after Hamas and its leaders wherever they may be -- wherever they may be.

We cannot stand as human beings to have such non-human acts take place from terrorist individuals. And so, we got to stand. And I think that's what came out of this meeting with Israel and moving forward to make sure that Hamas no longer exists. We just can't be silent. We can't stand by the wayside in that regards. The focus of this is to get rid of Hamas.

BOLDUAN: The news is, how do you take -- this is the hard -- everything's hard. There are no good options. How do you take out Hamas with the least amount of damage to civilians in Gaza? There are so many children that are in Gaza as well. How do you do it?

MEEKS: You're absolutely correct. Well, we've been talking about that and we're trying to figure out how will we make sure that we get some humanitarian aid into those individuals. Look. Hamas is so terrible. They're the worst enemy of the Palestinian people.

What they do is use innocent Palestinians as human shields. It is clear from just listening to your reporting they are firing bombs from certain buildings, and they have Palestinian people around those buildings. And Israel has no choice but to fire as indicated by where they see that fire coming from. They've got to fire and destroy those buildings to stop the incoming that are happening -- is happening.

So -- and so the government -- the administration that I have spoken with in a non-classified session has said that they are working and talking and trying to find a way to make sure that we can have some paneling to get some of them out of the Gaza Strip. I don't want to talk and can't talk about that specifically, because we don't know -- you know, the Hamas is so terrible. They will go and kill their own folks who don't agree with them or know that there's a pathway out. So, we don't want to discuss that.

But we've got in looking and working to figure out how we can get -- we have American citizens still in Gaza. And so, we want to make sure that we are able to get them out. We want to help to get the hostages that are being held. So, some of the specifics I cannot talk about but know that there is, within the administration and others, the dialogue and conversation and trying to work with the Israel -- Israeli government to figure out how we get them out.

BOLDUAN: Such a mess. Congressman, thank you as always for your time. Thank you for your humanity.

MEEKS: Thank you for having me, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Officials say at least 1,055 people have now been killed in Gaza. This is happening as the U.S. is working to get Americans and other civilians out of the Gaza Strip. We are speaking to CNN's Christiane Amanpour next.

[11:35:10]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:40:02]

SIDNER: Babies and toddlers found with their heads decapitated in Southern Israel. But the picture you're looking at is actually Gaza. That is the information that we have just gotten from a spokesperson from the Israeli Prime Minister's Office of Benjamin Netanyahu.

Israeli defense forces found the bodies of those innocent children after the Hamas attack over the weekend at a kibbutz. Hamas has denied reports that it attacked children, but it's also denied reports that it had killed anyone. And we saw the clear view on video of killing civilians. BOLDUAN: The death toll continues to rise in Israel, at least 1200 people have been reported killed. They are afraid the death hole will continue to rise as they go and grasp the enormity of that terror attack. The death toll in Gaza is rising as well. Now, more than a thousand people killed.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: So, at this moment, the U.S. government is in talks with countries including Israel and Egypt to get Americans and other civilians who were in Gaza out of Gaza. With us now, CNN Chief International Anchor Christiane Amanpour. And, Christiane, another huge bit of news that we all learned within just the last few hours is the formation of an emergency government inside Israel, what they're calling a war cabinet. What is the difference that this might make?

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Well, that's one way of demonstrating unity -- cross-party unity at a time like this, even though there are deep divisions between all the various players on the political side inside Israel. And most particularly -- I mean, we've been reporting this a lot over the last year, when you know so many -- so much of the country was out protesting the current government.

And there has been quite a lot of anger directed at Benjamin Netanyahu and his so-called security operators, who are these ideological far- right extremists who have demanded as part of keeping him in power to be part of the government. These are people that the U.S. were very, very concerned about. People like Ben Gvir, Smotrich, these names that you've heard. And now on their watch -- on their security watch, this carnage has unfolded, and this massive breach has unfolded.

So, the previous prime minister in waiting, of opposition Benny Gantz, also a general, has agreed to come into an emergency war cabinet government with Netanyahu to try to -- I guess he would say to professionalize the government and its military response at this particular time. So, I think that's the reason for that, and they need to make sure they have -- you know, for them the best hands on deck.

SIDNER: I do want to ask you something. Benny Gantz, back in 2019 as he was looking to try and be the leader of the government, said something about you know destroying Gaza and sending it back to the Stone Age. He is a former defense minister. He is very well-equipped to understand how that might happen, how they might try to rid Gaza of Hamas.

But what are the realities? If this ground offensive happens, what are the realities in trying to get rid of Hamas with all of the tunnels and all the things that they have built up over the years? And if they do it, then what? What happens in the future? What is the endgame there and how difficult will it be?

AMANPOUR: Well, the truth is, an actual objective has not been formally and properly laid out. The wording is that we want to decimate, degrade -- you know, change the state of play on the ground calling what happened in Israel, which is absolutely true, a game- changer. And therefore, they need to change the rules of the game inside Gaza. The defense minister -- the current defense minister, Yoav Gallant, has basically said publicly that he is taking all restraints off IDF forces. What does that mean? Already, we see what's happening in Gaza and the loud you know please for people, including Palestinian Americans and many, many Palestinian civilians for them to be some kind of help and distinction between civilians and Hamas. But you know that Hamas has embedded itself with so many civilians over the many, many years that it's been in charge there.

The other big issue is that Yoav Gallant, again, has placed Gaza under siege and therefore we're already hearing that the electricity is about to end because they have no fuel, they have been told that they will get no water, food or anything like that in, and this again, the U.S. -- well, the U.N. for sure has said that that is a crime under international law, that kind of state of siege, collective punishment of a civilian population. And people in the U.N. again have appealed for humanitarian corridors for civilians. That does not look like it's going to happen. We hear also that there are third-party negotiations attempting to negotiate some kind of hostage release on both sides.

[11:45:08]

We've been hearing this since Monday. Nobody's formally wanting to come out and say it. But you can imagine there are huge, huge urgency to that not least because that's going to be a consideration -- a massive consideration if Israel and when Israel does send in a ground force.

BOLDUAN: And, Christiane, is -- on the other side of the screen, we can see as the sun is setting in Gaza. You can see just how dark it is, as the main -- the one and only power station in Gaza reports that the power is out. And generators that are there, they will have or will soon be running out of fuel. This is our first look at what a power-out in Gaza is going to mean.

And to your point about how civilians that want to get out of harm's way, want to get out of Gaza, what they're up against in doing so, there are these third-party talks about potentially getting humanitarian corridors out. An IDF spokesperson was on with us earlier this -- earlier in the show, and I asked her where she -- where the IDF thinks that civilians in Gaza should go if they want to get out of the -- out of harm's way. Let me play what she said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAJ. LIBBY WEISS, SPOKESPERSON, ISRAEL DEFENSE FORCES: First, I would say that if they do receive any kind of advanced warning to simply put distance from where they are and go somewhere else, even within the street. And beyond that, there is another border that the Gaza Strip has with Egypt. And I -- you know, I can't speak to that -- to that situation at this stage.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Just showing kind of, to your point, the lack of clarity on exactly what it's going to look like going forward. AMANPOUR: It's not open. The other side is not open. And the people in Gaza do not have anywhere to go. The Israelis have said they are going to try to warn people when they bomb, but we were talking to a doctor inside Gaza last night who said the warning amounts to a sort of a first tap.

The "small rocket" warning people and hopefully they can get out in time before the big ones -- the big bombs come down and level the buildings which is what's happened. There are, according to the U.N., some 150 or so thousand Gazans who've already taken refuge at U.N. facilities, including UNRWA, as it's called, schools, and other such facilities. But that's only a small percentage.

And I think really it goes to the question that Sara also asked, what is the end game? Because it is, for instance, Hamas setting up traps for Israeli forces as has been worn. Does it want to try to drag Israel into a quagmire?

Does it want to spark a regional conflagration by doing this? And more importantly, even if Israel manages to decimate Hamas, then who takes over? Does Israel re-occupy, who then? What then?

There are so many questions. But Israel's aim right now should not be misunderstood. It is to retain and -- regain, rather the deterrence that it has lost since Saturday.

BERMAN: Christiane Amanpour, we do appreciate you being with us, as we look at the sun setting literally over Gaza and now dark because the one power station as Kate points out has stopped generating power.

BOLDUAN: We have much more on this ahead, including desperately waiting for answers. Up next. We're going to speak with a Rabbi near Chicago who is speaking up for some of his congregants, and their families searching for them as they're missing after the Hamas attack in Israel. We'll be back.

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[11:51:46]

BOLDUAN: A somber warning from the State Department this morning, saying that the death toll of Americans in Israel is expected to rise again today. At least 14 Americans are dead after the Hamas attacks with even more missing, leaving communities here and everywhere waiting anxiously for any updates. One of those communities outside of Chicago in Illinois.

Joining us now is Rabbi Meir Hecht, head of the Jewish Learning Institute of Metropolitan Chicago, also the co-director of Chabad of Evanston. Rabbi, thank you for joining me. Your congregants, your families, they're missing their loved ones.

Judith and Natalie missing. Daughter -- mother and daughter are among those missing. We're going to put up their picture so people can see them. What do you and the family know about what happened to them? RABBI MEIR HECHT, DIRECTOR, JEWISH LEARNING INSTITUTE OF METROPOLITAN CHICAGO: I just got off the phone with family members just a few minutes ago. And to say that they are full of grief and fear and pain is an understatement. One of the things that they conveyed is that the endless frustration to be sitting in a situation where they have no answers and they're just waiting -- they're waiting with some hope or glimmer of hope to find out something. Even to find out that their child and loved one is still alive, that kind of waiting is unbearable.

BOLDUAN: unbearable, unspeakable and unknown. It's all -- it's all of them. When was the last time that anyone had heard from them or was in contact with them?

HECHT: So, Judith is one of the members of our congregation. She's an attendee at irregular Chabad Sabbath services and holiday services and all of our programs. So, a really special woman, a caring, giving, generous woman who's there for anyone and everyone in their time of need.

She's the type of person who's the first one to come out and help whenever someone needs something. A really close family friend. She always comes over to bring gifts for our children on a personal level and spends holiday and Shabbat dinners with us. Someone who's a really caring, giving, loving person.

And her daughter Natalie is the same. That's the like, mom-like daughter, the same type of personality. She just graduated from Deerfield High School here in Illinois in the Chicago area. 18 years old. They've been talking about this trip for weeks.

Judith has been going around to all the members of our congregation for weeks talking excitedly about her trip with her daughter Natalie, to be able to spend this precious time during the Jewish holiday season, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, the High Holidays, and the joyous holiday of Simchat Torah when sadly, this most vicious and atrocious act of terror transpired. And they were -- they were staying at the time in a kibbutz called Nahal Oz, which is in the south of Israel right near just about a mile -- a mile and a half of Gaza. So, that -- we know that that kibbutz was attacked.

[11:55:01]

That kibbutz the Hamas operatives went from door to door killing, murdering viciously men, women, and children in their homes and on the streets, and schlepping people out of their homes and taking hostages. We have not received word of their whereabouts. Apparently, it's -- we assumed that they were taken hostage.

BOLDUAN: Rabbi, thank you very much for your time. Thank you for speaking up for the families.

HECHT: If I could just share -- if I could just share a quick brief thought.

BOLDUAN: Yes. HECHT: So, as the Jewish community, as a faith leader, I think it's important that all people should realize that this conflict transcends religious and cultural differences. The shock, the hurt, and the grief that we are feeling. Every person with a human conscience should be feeling and should feel devastated at this time. And we are asking for everyone to open their hearts and say a prayer for Judith, for Natalie, for all the people of Israel, and that this should end with a swift and clear victory, and we should be able to see our loved ones again.

And I'd also like to say that in every act of goodness and kindness that we do, on our part of the world, makes a world of difference. (INAUDIBLE) said that when we share goodness with someone else, that reverberates around the world and creates a world of difference. So, I'd like to please ask that everyone say a prayer, everyone give some charity, and Jewish men should put on to fill and Jewish women before this -- (INAUDIBLE) upcoming Sabbath.

(CROSSTALK)

HECHT: (INAUDIBLE) to please light the Shabbat candles.

BOLDUAN: Thank you, Rabbi. Thank you for your time.

HECHT: Thank you for having me on.

SIDNER: Complicating things is that the government says this will not be swift. Unfortunately, this will be a long haul in a very deadly war. I just want to share before we leave you the last pictures here that we are looking at, at 6:56, almost 7:00 in the evening in Gaza. And that gives you an idea of what has happened.

The electricity grid is down. They have no more fuel. The one power station is out. And so that is why you are seeing an almost completely darkened Gaza except for those who have generators.

Thank you so much for sticking with us. This has been an extremely difficult time, an extremely hard hour with all the news coming out, including the decapitation of children and babies. Our coverage continues next with Dana Bash.

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