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False Video Sparks Misinformation In Azerbaijan; Hamas Atrocities Escalate Amid Middle East War; Israel Warns Of Potential Ground Invasion; Gaza Faces Humanitarian Crisis: Fuel And Supplies Depleted; Secretary Blinken's Emotional Visit And Assurance; Scalise Struggles To Secure Votes For House Speaker; New Charges Against Senator Menendez; U.S. Intensifies Efforts To Recover Hostages In Gaza. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired October 12, 2023 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: But this is false. It is actually a video of authorities in Azerbaijan arresting separatist leaders.

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BORIS SANCHEZ: Our thanks to Donie for that report. I'm Boris Sanchez coming to you live from Washington, D.C. New escalation and new revelations of Hamas atrocities on day six of the war in the Middle East. My colleague, Anderson Cooper, is live in Tel Aviv. Anderson.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: More and more funerals as families bury their loved ones massacred in Saturday's terrorist attacks. A short time ago, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office released photos of babies who had been killed and burned by Hamas. The Prime Minister's office says the pictures were among the images that Netanyahu showed U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken earlier in Jerusalem. Blinken, standing alongside the Prime Minister, compared Hamas's brutality to the worst of ISIS.

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ANTONY BLINKEN, SECRETARY OF STATE: Babies slaughtered. Bodies desecrated. Young people burned alive. Women raped. Parents executed in front of their children. Children in front of their parents. How are we even to understand this? To digest this?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: New warnings are now coming from the International Red Cross, saying Gaza likely only has enough fuel for a few more hours and it is needed to power generators for hospitals. And without power, quote, Gaza hospitals risk turning into morgues. Food and water are also in short supply as Israeli warplanes have continued to bomb the sealed off Gaza Strip. We're covering all the angles at this hour. Senator Jeremy Diamond is in the Israeli city of Ashdod, 20 miles or so north of Gaza. Senator Ben Wedeman is in southern Lebanon. First to you, Jeremy, what are the conditions there? What have you been seeing over the last day?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Anderson, over the last several hours this evening, we had not one but two barrages of rockets over the city of Ashdod. That second barrage was very, very close to our hotel. The boom from the intercepts of the Iron Dome hitting the rockets being fired from Gaza in the air was very close, very loud, indicating its proximity to our hotel. When we went into the shelter on the floor of our hotel, we met a family there who spoke to us about the fear that they have been feeling over these last several days.

They actually live in Ashkelon, which is the city closer to the Gaza Strip that is right over my shoulder. And they said that they fled over here slightly further north for aiming, you know, trying to get to a sense of security. And also, because they do not have a bomb shelter in their home. The father said that his children simply could not sleep when they were in Ashkelon out of fear of rockets landing on top of them.

Now, at the same time, what we do know is that, you know, the Iron Dome system is incredibly effective, but it is certainly not foolproof. And there is a deep, deep psychological impact on the population here. At the same time, we know that what we can also hear from this balcony, and we're hearing it right now, probably not loud enough to pick up on the mic, is the rumbling of the bombing by the Israeli Air Force over Gaza, as well as artillery pummelling the Gaza Strip. And we know that the death toll in Gaza has been rising in recent days, and we have seen horrific civilian casualties emerging from there. At the same time, there is this broader humanitarian question with the UN Human Rights Chief raising questions, accusing Israel effectively of violating international law by not allowing food, water, electricity, and fuel into the Gaza Strip.

There's no question that however this unfolds, as Israel prepares for the next phase of its military campaign, which by all indications appears to be likely a ground invasion of Gaza, the death toll is only going to grow. And we know more often than not, civilians are all too often caught in the crossfire. Anderson.

COOPER: Also joining is Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who spent the day in Israel. We saw some of what he said with the Prime Minister. Talk more about his day.

DIAMOND: Yeah, that's right. Secretary Blinken spoke in very personal terms and very emotional terms about Hamas's terrorist attacks in Israel over the weekend, about the brutality of the way in which Hamas mowed down citizens at a music festival, the way in which they attacked women and children in their own homes in towns in Israel close to the Gaza border. And Prime Minister Netanyahu did the same. And I think what's important to recognize here is why they are doing that. And one of the reasons why they're doing that is because they are laying out the rationale for this widening Israeli military campaign that is all but sure to come..

[14:05:09] Whether it is in the coming days or weeks, we do not yet know. But what they are preparing the public for, they are preparing the Israeli public on one side for the possibility of increased, significantly increased Israeli military casualties if indeed a ground invasion moves forward. And they are also preparing the world for the images of destruction in Gaza. And like I said before, the possibility of more civilian casualties, because that is simply the reality. Every time there is a conflict with Gaza, every time the Israeli military has to go after Hamas in Gaza, they bomb buildings and there are civilian casualties. It is just a reality and it is one that certainly the people of Gaza are bracing for in terrible times. Anderson.

COOPER: Jeremy Diamond, I appreciate that. Gaza facing days of bombardment already by Israeli airstrikes and a blockade of food, water, fuel and medicine. Now, the UN says the situation there is dire. That's their word. Palestinian officials say their hospitals are overburdened right now and their generators are nearly out of fuel, which are obviously critical for the operating of a hospital. CNN's Ben Wedeman is tracking this for us. Ben, you have reported from Gaza for decades. Is this a different level of siege that the people of Gaza are experiencing now?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This is something they have never seen before. And certainly, there have been years, several incursions over the years, some of them lasting for weeks, sometimes more than a month, but nothing on this scale. Now we're just, what, 6 days into this war, we can call it. The death toll is in excess of 1,400. Back in 2014, which was the most severe flare-up between Gaza and Israel, in more than a month, the casualty, the death toll was in excess of 2,000. So certainly, we're off to a very, very bad start.

The people I've spoken with in Gaza, I've never heard them so terrified as they are at the moment. Now, we understand from the UN that 340,000 people have fled their homes. Many of them are taking shelter in UN schools that have been converted to shelters. Those are overcrowded. Also overcrowded are, of course, the hospitals of Gaza, where the Palestinian health ministry says the health system is in a state of collapse. They don't have enough beds anymore. The injured are basically just lying on the floor. Operating theatres are overcapacity. Basically, if you walked into the hospital with a wound, they'll dress it, and you're going to walk right out. So really it is in a dire situation.

Of course, without fuel to run the generators, and that fuel is quickly running out, they will no longer be able to operate, for instance, incubators and dialysis machines. In fact, the Red Cross today said that the hospitals of Gaza are at risk of turning into morgues. Of course, caught in all of this are the civilians of Gaza. These are people, many of whom don't like Hamas, many of whom really just want to get by, feed their children, let them get an education. But that's not happening at the moment. And as we can hear from this one resident of Gaza, people there feel abandoned.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ABDEL AZIZ AL FAGAM, GAZA RESIDENT: No one cries over us. There's no chivalry, no feelings. Hearts are dead. Only shocks and body parts remain. People are blind to this. People can't find food in their homes. And there's an extremely tough social condition in Gaza. Siege above the siege. And all of this is happening because of the siege. Where should our people go? We've been besieged for 18 years. Where should we go?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WEDEMAN: And there is nowhere to go. The Egyptians are still sealing the border. Israel obviously isn't going to let them out. So, they have nowhere to go. There are no shelters in Gaza. Anderson, the best you can do is hide in the basement, as we've seen from some of the areas that have been bombed by Israel. Even a basement isn't safe. Anderson.

COOPER: Why aren't there shelters that have been built? I mean, obviously, Hamas has built a network of tunnels for Hamas fighters, for hiding weapons and moving weapons. But what about shelters?

WEDEMAN: Well, I think what's obvious is that this is not a top priority for Hamas. You know, Israel has controlled the amount of concrete and cement that's allowed into Gaza. And Hamas obviously has smuggled a lot in for itself for building those tunnels underground, but they just aren't there. There's not enough concrete. There's not enough cement. And I suspect if the Israelis saw through their surveillance system that bomb shelters were being built for civilians, they might suspect they might be for another purpose, despite the fact they actually might be meant as bomb shelters for civilians. Anderson.

[14:10:09]

COOPER: Ben Wiedemann, thanks very much. Joining me now to discuss all of this is Ian Bremmer, president of the Eurasia Group and GZERO Media. Ian, Secretary Blinken says that he'll travel to Saudi Arabia, Egypt, United Arab Emirates in addition to Jordan and Qatar. Their expectation, though, is that the war will soon escalate to some sort of ground incursion or invasion. How important do you think are the secretary's talks right now in the region?

IAN BREMMER, PRESIDENT, EURASIA GROUP AND GZERO MEDIA: In the near term, they're just maintaining the status quo, hoping that the relationships that have been built both formally and informally with the Israelis will continue, because that is still the interest of the Gulf states, of the Arab states, even if the Arab street increasingly is going to have a very significant problem with that. But let's be very clear. The civilian horrors that we're going to see in Gaza are going to create enormous amounts of diplomatic pressure on what has been Israel's geopolitical strengthening in the region. They're in better position, Israel, before this last weekend than at any point in decades. And that's something that's very strongly in the United States' interest, whether Republican or Democrat. Blinken is over there in part to try to maintain at least the floor on that.

COOPER: You said this was a desperate gamble by Hamas, which was fast becoming irrelevant. Can you talk about that? Because I assume you mean irrelevant because of the potential deal with Saudi Arabia, and which would have resulted--

(CROSSTALK)

BREMMER: Not just--

COOPER: -- in the strengthening of Qatar.

BREMMER: -- Not just that, Anderson. I mean, the fact is that over the past years, you'll remember when John Kerry was secretary of state for Obama. He said quite famously during his 18 months of shuttle diplomacy that there can be no peace in the Middle East unless you resolve the Israel-Palestinian problem. Well, turns out that a lot of countries in the region just didn't agree with him. That's why we got the Abraham Accord. So, you've got the UAE. And if you go to Dubai, you see Jewish tourists like crazy now from Israel. It was just announced a couple of weeks ago, this major investment deal where the UAE puts money into Jordan for solar power, and the Israelis provide desalinized water, inconceivable five years ago.

So, a lot of business happening in the region with Israel. Meanwhile, what are the Palestinians getting? More settlements. What are the Palestinians getting? Intolerable living conditions. No ability to drive an economy. No ability to educate your kids. And so, in that regard, you know, everything that Hamas was driving for, which is we refuse to recognize Israel. We want liberation for the Palestinians. Well, they were the only one saying it. No one else cared. And I've spoken with CNN over the last six months. God knows how many times on Israel. We weren't talking about the Palestinians. We're talking about judicial reform.

So even in Israel, this was becoming an irrelevancy. And that is, I think, a big driver that explains why the timing, nothing justifies the attacks, the atrocities don't even go there. But in terms of what made a group like Hamas decide that they were going to sort of throw the dice on a suicide move, I think we have to look at the geopolitical context and we have to look at the domestic Israeli context, Anderson.

COOPER: How do you see a ground? I mean, we have all seen, you know, how this has played out traditionally over, over the decades, exchange of rockets, occasional ground incursions. But it generally, you know, international pressure bills and there is some sort of ceasefire or some sort of stalemate called. And both sides kind of go back to regular times. This feels certainly different. I mean, I was just, you know, talking to Israeli troops at the site of the music festival. And I mean, they are, I've never seen such determination in talking to any soldiers anywhere about the fight ahead.

BREMMER: This is going to be so much more aggressive. I mean, look, 80 percent of Israel citizens, just a poll that was done in the last 24 hours by the Jerusalem Post, hardly a progressive media outlet in Israel, blame Netanyahu for what happened this last weekend. Because if you're not going to talk with the Palestinians, you better have your eye on the ball in terms of national security intelligence. [14:14:39]

So, this new unity cabinet is going to be focused singularly on recreating national security for the Israeli citizens, the nearly 10 million Israeli citizens of whom over 1,200 were murdered over the last week. That is their priority number 1, 2, and 3. And if that means that a lot of Palestinian civilians are going to be killed, then that's what it means. Again, I'm not justifying this. I'm telling you what the perspective is overwhelmingly for the Israeli government right now. That's why you have a siege of Gaza. That's why you're preparing for ground operations, even when there are still 150 plus Israelis that are sitting there as hostages of Hamas. None of this is precedented for Israel.

COOPER: Ian Bremmer, I appreciate your time. Thank you. We have new details on the Biden administration's furious behind the scenes effort to try to locate American hostages in Gaza. More on that ahead.

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[14:19:19]

SANCHEZ: Happening right now, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise is fighting to convince his Republican colleagues that he should be the next Speaker of the House. He's reportedly struggling to get some votes, though. Let's get an update from CNN Congressional Reporter Melanie Zanona. Melanie, there are rough estimates out there. I just heard from Congressman Ken Buck a moment ago who says there are more than a dozen hard no's against Scalise. Where do things stand right now?

MELANIE ZANONA, CNN CAPITOL HILL REPORT: Well, Boris, at this moment, the prospects for Steve Scalise are very grim. He is meeting behind closed doors. He's trying to assuage these holdouts, trying to convince them that he is the right person to unify the party. But we're being told that he is failing to unify the party in there and that he is not moving the needle whatsoever at this moment. And we're actually told that there are over 20 holdouts at this moment, a list that is only growing. In fact, just to give you an example, Anna Paulina Luna, she's a congresswoman, last night told us she would be behind Scalise. But she came out of that meeting today saying she is not going to be backing Steve Scalise. So, it is trending in the wrong direction for the congressman. Now, Kevin McCarthy, the former speaker, knows the situation all too well. Here's what he had to say.

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UNKNOWN: Do you think it's possible that he can get the votes?

REP KEVIN MCCARTHY, FORMER SPEAKER (R): Possible. It's a big holdout.

UNKNOWN: You told a lot of people he's going to be a run for 50. Would you prefer to see Jordan win this vote?

MCCARTHY: No, I mean, the found prospects are that decision [ph]. ZANONA: So a little shade there from Kevin McCarthy, who has had a

rocky relationship with Steve Scalise over the years. But the big question right now, Boris, is whether Steve Scalise is even going to go to the floor with a vote. There are a lot of doubts about whether that is going to happen, because he does not have the votes. It doesn't look like he's going to be able to get there. And meanwhile, the House is paralyzed, all while critical issues like aid for Israel and government funding hang in the balance.

SANCHEZ: And Melanie, there's also breaking news on the Senate side, new charges against New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez. Bring us up to speed on that.

ZANONA: Yeah. So last month, the senator and his wife were both indicted on corruption related charges, including allegations that they accepted thousands of dollars' worth of bribes. But today they were hit with even more charges. They are being accused of trying to conspire to act as a foreign agent for the Egyptian government. Now, Bob Menendez had already pleaded guilty. He is also refusing to resign from his seat in Congress. But these are very serious charges and are only going to likely grow the calls on Capitol Hill, including from Democrats, that he should step down from his seat. Boris.

SANCHEZ: Melanie Zinona on Capitol Hill. Thanks so much, Melanie. So today, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with the families of Americans killed or kidnapped in that horrific terror attack this week. His visit to Israel comes as the White House is facing growing pressure to take action as Hamas threatens to execute hostages in Gaza. There's new CNN reporting shedding light on what the administration is doing behind the scenes to recover American hostages and the challenges the administration will face. CNN's Zach Cohen joins us now with that reporting. What do we know about those efforts?

ZACHARY COHEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: Yeah, Boris, there's a massive effort underway behind the scenes on the part of the American government to secure the release of what they believe the White House believes to be only a handful or less than a handful of American hostages in this situation. But still multiple agencies working with the Israelis and other partner countries to try to identify who may be being held hostage by Hamas and ultimately secure the release if possible. Now, look, we have FBI hostage negotiators on the ground in Israel. They've been there since before the attack happened. But this is really their expertise, finding hostages, negotiating the release.

We also have special operations forces on the ground there that are assisting the Israelis in trying to locate these hostages. There's 150, believed to be 150 total hostages in this case. But, you know, the death toll continues to increase. And with every minute that goes by, you know, the prospect of finding them and getting them to be released really does go down.

SANCHEZ: Yeah, absolutely. And Zach, what did we learn from Secretary of State Tony Blinken in his visit? What did he say about the hostages?

COHEN: Yeah, Blinken really reiterated the Biden administration is doing everything it can to secure their release. And he really he confirmed today that he's going to travel to multiple countries that could act as maybe mediators in hostage negotiations with Hamas. That includes Qatar that could potentially serve as a connecting point to talk to Hamas about releasing these Americans, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, you know, Middle Eastern countries that could help find and locate them.

And the White House is still trying to find details about the condition of these American hostages and trying to find out if they're even being held all in one place. The president saying today they don't believe that they are being all held in one place. So, a massive effort underway to find less than a handful of American hostages.

SANCHEZ: Notable that Saudi Arabia is on that list, given that there were reports that Israel was in the process of potentially normalizing relations with that country. Zachary Cohen, thanks so much for the reporting. Still ahead, CNN's Clarissa Ward went to the kibbutz where Hamas went door to door executing civilians and she spoke to survivors of the attack.

[14:24:19]

SANCHEZ: Still ahead, CNN's Clarissa Ward went to the kibbutz where Hamas went door-to-door executing civilians and she spoke to survivors of the attack. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNKNOWN: She was either dead or in Gaza and if you know anything about what they do to people in Gaza, that is worse than death.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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