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Israeli Shelling Near South Lebanon Border; Israel Tells 1.1M To Leave Northern Gaza, Un Says It's "Impossible"; Hamas Believed To Be Holding As Many As 150 Hostages. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired October 13, 2023 - 11:00   ET

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

[11:00:00]

MICHAEL ONEN, FORMER ISRAEL AMBASSADOR TO THE U.S.: And as soon as they heard there was fighting, they put on their uniforms, they went down south. They didn't come back. My kids had been in funerals. Right now we're all in our safe room, you know, this is my safe room ignore the books behind me, our family beds have been moved in here. We had a rocket fall not too far south from here, about a half an hour ago. So this is all intensely personal. And yet we have to rise above the pain and rise above the fears. And think strategically, try to think clearly.

What are -- what is the best way to navigate this incredibly labyrinth and topography of the Middle East. And we are very appreciative with that. The position of the President of the United States, I've been involved in U.S. relations for many decades, as you know. And as a historian, as a practitioner, I never heard a speech like that, never did.

And we all were watching here with tears in our eyes, as the President spoke, and also when the Secretary of State was here, and the things he said about his personal connections, we deeply, deeply appreciate it. At this time, we will defend ourselves, Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Ambassador I mean as so many people can say and I'm not unique in this, you know, I've known you and reported on you and cover you and interviewed you for a very long time. And this is such a different time. Thank you so much for coming on.

ONEN: Thank you. Take care.

BOLDUAN: Thank you. We'll talk again soon.

All right, so with that, we are going to continue our coverage right now on everything that is developing and playing out in Israel. We have seen troop movements along the Gaza border. We are watching also Israeli shelling happening in southern Lebanon. This comes just hours after the Israeli military has called for a an evacuation of more than a million people out of Northern Gaza telling them to move to the southern portion of Gaza so they can get out of the way for what Israel is going to do next.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, this is an incredibly densely populated area. About 1 million people live north of the line. They're telling people to evacuate from it, it also includes Gaza City. Those people told -- being told to get out as soon as possible. The International Red Cross says this is creating humanitarian catastrophe. Hamas, though, has told civilians to stay put do not go anywhere, they say.

We're also standing by right now to hear from the U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who is in Qatar meeting with Qatari leaders. He's trying to get Qatar to pressure Hamas to release the hostages to some 100 to 150 hostages being held in Gaza. We are going to begin though on the Israeli Lebanese border right now where we have just seen some shelling some real back and forth movement right now. This is the border. Our Ben Wedeman is there. Ben, why don't you tell us what you're seeing?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: At the moment, John, nothing is happening. It's relatively quiet. But what we saw earlier was we heard some very large explosions and smoke on the top of the hill. But then we realized one of the positions that was hit was, I'm just getting sharper the cameraman can zoom in. That's an Israeli military position where you see those lights to the right of that antenna.

We saw smoke coming out of there. That's basically an Israeli army position that keeps an eye on the adjacent Lebanese towns. And we understand that one of the towns are they see -- they said which is on the other side of the wall, Lebanese town was struck. We believe by Israeli artillery. How this started exactly, we're not altogether sure. We have also heard occasional bursts of gunfire around this. Behind me is the town of Metula, where it has been declared by the Israeli military a closed military zone, nobody is allowed in.

We haven't really seemed much in the way of movement. So we don't know if anybody has actually any civilians are in that town. Now earlier today, several hours ago to the west of here near the Mediterranean also along the border between Lebanon and Israel. Apparently according to the Lebanese official news agency, several rockets were fired in the direction of Israel intercepted by the Iron Dome system afterwards.

Israeli military, according to the news agency targeted a Lebanese army observation point and what followed was apparently continued exchange of fire whether that was small arms fire or mortars or artillery, not altogether clear at this point. But this certainly represents within the last few hours is a dramatic escalation of tensions along this border until these incidents this afternoon. The last -- the previous 24 hours were relatively quiet.

[11:05:14]

Now it's not altogether clear whether Hezbollah which is the major military power in this area is just showing sort of strikes in solidarity with Gaza or this is some indication of something more serious. I don't think so at the moment. Now the Lebanese army has deployed additional troops. In fact, we went out to one of village on the way -- there were -- there was just one army checkpoint. On the way back we encountered four. So the Lebanese army has increased its presence they say to prevent any sort of incident. Meanwhile, UNIFIL, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon that's been based here for decades, it's also patrolling the area as well, in hopes of preventing further escalation if they can, John.

BERMAN: All right, Ben Wedeman at the Israel-Lebanon border in the northern part of Israel, obviously watching events unfold there, Ben, keep us posted. Kate?

BOLDUAN: All right, let's go from the Lebanese -- the Israeli-Lebanese border, let's go down towards the Southern Israeli border where Erin Burnett is with us once again. Erin, every time we've come to you, there has been tank there have been troop movements, tank movements. What are you seeing now? What is -- and what are you hearing from soldiers?

ERIN BURNETT, CNN ANCHOR: All right. So it's OK just in the past few moments, and we are by a staging order right near that southern corner of Gaza, a few miles from the Gaza border and about 10 miles from the Egyptian border. We just saw another bus of troops going in. Each one of them has about 50. We've seen that steadily throughout the past couple hours as we've been at this particular location.

We're next to a staging area that we can hear. We can hear all the action of the staging going on for a tank battalion. And just behind me over this hill, we just saw six rockets in about the past 20 minutes. Those rockets were coming from Hamas here. And they were intercepted by the Iron Dome. They were essentially coming over the small town or mid-sized town of Ofakim where there's been a lot of activity.

And that town is essentially, obviously not far from here. But it's in that buffer zone that I've described between Gaza and where the Israeli military has essentially set up these checkpoints of which we were -- we are along one of them, where they have a complete military zone. And if you can hear some of the loudspeakers where they're speaking up there.

So that's what we've seen, we continue to hear outgoing artillery. But the most recent thing that we just saw was about six rockets that came in here over Ofakim from Hamas.

BERMAN: Thank you Erin Burnett who's down here in this region not far from Gaza here, Egypt here. I want to go right away to Nic Robertson, who is in the northern corner as it were overlooking about a mile away. He's in Sderot, an Israeli town that overlooks Gaza from where he is. Nic, what are you seeing and hearing?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, John, typically this time of day sunset, there's a kickoff and activity and we're hearing that at the moment. We're hearing an increased frequency of artillery strikes on Gaza. But we're also looking and I'm going to ask John to pan over there to the smoke on the horizon. We're also looking at the aftermath from here of rockets, Hamas rockets or Islamic Jihad rockets fired out of Gaza. You can see one plume of smoke has, John, you're looking there towards the power station there and in Ashkelon, that's where there appears to be -- have been one strike. You see the smoke there. And John, if you just go along the horizon, that horizon line that is actually the coastline with the sea, you can't really see the sea but skimming along that horizon up towards Ashdod, massive plume of smoke racing there.

And that has appeared there since we heard that there were rocket strikes landing in that area. So Hamas still able to put up the rocket fire. I think the big interesting development coming from inside Gaza today, a couple if you will. Overnight, last night, when we were standing here we heard some of the or if not so far, the heaviest and missile barrage from Israeli fighter jets going into Gaza, huge repercussions, shaking the windows and doors on this house vibrating the whole thing. That was and we didn't know it at the time, perhaps -- well, we didn't know it at the time. But it does seem to have been the heaviest night of bombardment so far.

And the Israeli Defense Force say they have now fired 6,000 missiles. That's the number that they fired during their last major, major confrontation with Hamas back in 2014 over a period of 50 days. So you get a sense of the concentration and the intensity of the firepower in the past six days. And the IDF today telling the citizens in northern Gaza right behind us where there was a heavy pounding yesterday to move to the south. Hamas is telling them not to move. The IDF wants them to move because they would like to get civilians to a safer place while they target Hamas to avoid civilian casualties.

[11:10:27]

This does seem to set the stage in a very dangerous and very contentious way, and certainly with historical precedent for a blame game over civilian casualties. The Israelis are asking the civilians to move, the U.N. says it's impossible for a million of them to move. Nevertheless, they're asking them to move to get to a place of safety. Hamas won't let them do it. So who then becomes responsible for those civilian casualties if and when there's a ground incursion or the military strikes continue?

It is one of the very, very difficult and thorniest parts of this conflict, particularly as it builds up to a potential incursion with tanks and ground troops going into Gaza.

BERMAN: Nic Robertson, I have to say it is a remarkable perspective you are giving us. Just to be clear over Nic's right shoulder as you're looking at him at his left, he is looking into Gaza, before he showed us smoke rising over the Israeli cities of Ashkelon. And Ashdod up here, he can see all of that from where he's located in Sderot, a little bit of a hill he's on right there. Remarkable perspective, Nic. Stay safe. Keep us posted. Thank you so much.

We want to go now to Tel Aviv up the coast here. That is where we find our Matthew Chance. And Matthew, Israeli leaders now working feverishly miss everything else to deal with one of the most complicated situations you can imagine. That's 100 to 150 hostages, or they believe somewhere in Gaza right now. So what's the latest on these efforts?

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CHIEF GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Yes. And I think it's really important, John, to bear that in mind as we all sort of brace for the possibility of an Israeli land incursion into the Gaza Strip with the hundreds of thousands of troops they've mobilized on the border, that that military operation is going to be severely, you know, complicated, if not hampered by the fact there are those 100 to 150 Israeli hostages that Israeli officials believe have been scattered in secret locations across the Gaza Strip.

Well, the Israelis say that they're doing everything in their words humanly possible to secure their release, but they're stopping short of confirming to us that actual negotiations are underway through third parties to try and secure the release of those Israeli hostages or at least a proportion of them. But obviously Secretary State Blinken in Qatar earlier, undoubtedly speaking to the Qatar authorities to try and put pressure on Hamas. The overall Hamas leader of course, lives in Qatar, to try and get some sort of accommodation from them and some compromise to get some of those hostages out.

In the meantime, the Israeli government has appointed a hostage Affairs Coordinator. After complaints that enough was not being done to keep the families informed about the status of those hostages, the status of negotiations to get them free. That coordinator within the past hour or so has been meeting with 500 members of the families of some of those hostages in Israel to update them on what the latest status is on their situation, although no details, of course, are being given to us in public.

What the Israelis are saying is that anyone who took these hostages, anyone who mistreats them in the -- in, you know, either now or in the future will face Israeli wrath, whether that's in five years, 15 years, or 25 years. And so the Israelis are absolutely furious that this has happened and say they're doing everything they can to get those people out.

BERMAN: Obviously, it is the most complicated situation the most terrifying situation right now for so many Israelis who are waiting for any war. They barely even see any proof of life of these hostages being held in Gaza. Now, Matthew Chance in Tel Aviv, thank you so much, Matthew, we'll check back out with you soon. Kate?

[11:14:21]

BOLDUAN: All right. Secretary of State Tony Blinken, you're looking at podiums right now, lecterns. Tony Blinken is set to speak at one of those lectures very soon. We are standing by for that as he is coming out of meetings with Qatari leaders. And he continues his sweep of visits across the Middle East. Bring it up very shortly. Stay with us right here on CNN.

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BOLDUAN: CNN teams on the ground near Israel's border with Gaza are seeing a lot of movement today by the Israeli military ahead of an expected ground incursion into Gaza. Our colleague, Erin Burnett, she has been in is near the southern part of the Gaza border right now in Israel. And she was as you can see just covered in dust as Israeli tanks rolled pot -- rolled past a short time ago. She says she's seeing a real uptick in activity as you're seeing these tanks repositioning.

She told us that they are moving closer to the border more movement than she has seen in the past couple of days and she's been monitoring it. All of this comes as we will know the IDF today dropped leaflets into northern Gaza warning civilians there -- the more than a million Palestinian civilians there to leave, to evacuate to the southern portion of Gaza and do so immediately. Aid organizations are warning from the U.N. to several others warning that the evacuation though could trigger a catastrophic humanitarian consequences and doing so immediately quickly is just nearly impossible.

[11:20:27]

BERMAN: And again some 100 to 150 hostages believed to be being held in Gaza right now in the middle of in it.

Joining us is Elad Shdaimah in Pennsylvania. His 84-year-old grandmother or Savta, as his family calls her. It believes she was kidnapped by Hamas from her home in a Kibbutz near Oz right on the border between Gaza and Israel and Saturday's attack. Elad, thank you for being with us. We are so sorry. You're going through all of this. I know the day of this terror attack your family was desperately trying to get in touch with your Savta, could not reach her. But ultimately, it was a chilling phone connection with one family member that gave you a sense of what was happening. Describe what happened there.

ELAD SHDAIMAH, GRANDSON OF A HOSTAGE IN GAZA: My cousin was finally able to get through to my Savta's phone. And someone picked up a man and said it's Hamas. It's Hamas. And of course they hung up immediately.

BERMAN: Somebody shouting Hamas, Hamas into your Savta's phone. And we have pictures up on the screen so people can see her, 84 years young she looks like here. Ultimately, you did see a video posted you believe by Hamas on Facebook of your grandmother alive. What was it like to see that?

SHDAIMAH: It was a harrowing watch for us. It's not something we've been sharing around. We don't want to perpetrate any propaganda, but it shows her house with a lot of shattered glass. And, you know, thankfully, this is kind of a voice that they need to show full option. I guess as peaceful as you can call it. She's not beaten up in it. Thankfully, she's really being pulled and shoved into a vehicle and taken away. It is proof that she was alive, captured, which is reassuring and was through it.

BERMAN: It's reassuring in a certain way. As wonderful as she looks in these pictures, she's 84 years old. What are your concerns? What's your biggest concern for her right now?

SHDAIMAH: For her, she's been without medication since Saturday, as far as we know. I don't know if Hamas is providing any medical relief for their hostages are not. I'm assuming not. And I'm not certain how severe some of her medical conditions are. But regardless, she's 84 years old and being held hostage. I mean, already it's six days and that's not good. So for her I'm very concerned.

BERMAN: Tell me about your Savta, what kind of woman she is. I mean where she lived, I mean did she live in fear living so close to the Gaza border?

SHDAIMAH: I mean, my Savta is a very strong woman. She's also a very caring woman like a host at heart, absolutely. She's a founder of Kibbutz Heroes, which is the -- it's found that was destroyed during the attack and she lived in. Over the course of her years there, she pretty much held every position on that Kibbutz and is an essential member. When she was like 40 or 50 years old she went back to school, FGA (ph) or MSW, and has had been working as a social worker in Be'er Sheva, which is a nearby city. We're the family up until just four years ago.

So I mean, beyond that, then she's just to give her a shout out (ph) to my family, essentially. And welcome to her home. She's always available and she's always calling. She calls Hebrew on the Hebrew birthday, (inaudible) on her birthday, during on her birthday every year. She knows our favorite foods, she knows everything. She's connected family members that were separated during the Holocaust, even my grandfather who (inaudible).

BERMAN: Elad, if you can speak into the microphone, we're losing your audio just a little bit here and it's OK, it's all good. I just want to note how almost surreal it is. I hope there's nothing that feels normal about talking to you about your 84-year-old Savta, your grandmother who's a hostage right now, who -- if you hope is being held alive captive in Gaza right now, in a manner of speaking, what do you want to see happen in the coming days?

[11:25:35]

SHDAIMAH: I'm not quite sure what I want to see happen. I mean, obviously, I want her safe return pretty much immediately as soon as possible. And that's really in the hands of the IDF at this time. I -- beyond that, I mean, I just like pieces, pieces what I want, pieces what we need, and the current governing bodies in each location are just not going to be headed in that direction.

So and it's not something that can happen immediately anyway. But I'm really hoping that a shift and for in respective, a shift in motivation happens where we're really aiming towards peace, and Hamas gets dissolved. And the current Israeli government might have to shift as well in order for that to happen.

BERMAN: Elad, we're sending love to you and your family. Your Savta sounds like a wonderful woman. Sounds like exactly the kind of grandmother we'd all like to give a big giant hug to right now. That woman there on the right, is being held hostage in Gaza, at this very moment. Elad Shdaimah, thank you very much. Kate?

SHDAIMAH: Thank you very much.

BOLDUAN: Coming up next, our colleague Sara Sidner. She just arrived and is now on the ground in Israel and we're going to check in with her right after a quick break.

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