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IDF Conducts Raid On Gaza With Tanks Before Withdrawing; U.N. Aid Agency In Gaza "Paralyzed" Due To Lack Of Fuel; White House Reacts To Mass Shooting In Maine; Intense Manhunt Underway After Gunman Kills 18 In Maine; U.S. GDP Roars To 4.9% In Q3, Beating Expectations. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired October 26, 2023 - 13:30   ET

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

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[13:33:40]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: We want to focus on the Middle East now where, just hours after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared in his strongest language yet that Israel was preparing for a ground offensive against Hamas, military forces conducted a targeted raid overnight in northern Gaza.

Video published by the Israel Defense Forces showed images of tanks and armored vehicles including a bulldozer -- you see it in the top corner of your screen -- moving on a road near a fence.

The IDF said this is part of preparations for the "next stages of combat." The tanks fired artillery before eventually leaving the area.

Let's take you to Sderot with CNN international diplomatic editor, Nic Robertson.

Nic, what more do we know about the raid and what's to come?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, it was large in scale, they say, but limited in its intent and scope. And its scope was to try to take out some Hamas -- Hamas group that was planning to launch attacks into Israel.

It's interesting that we woke to that news this morning because, last night, we were watching tank fire, right across here, behind me, behind me here, right in the area that we learned this morning that there had been this operation.

So, we were able to watch it in real time. But the IDF wasn't speaking about it in real time.

[13:35:02]

So, we could see a lot of tank fire. We could hear and feel a lot of very heavy detonations. The type of munition that we haven't really heard before.

You're hearing artillery now. You may be hearing a missile explosion behind us. There's a jet overhead. We had one a few minutes ago.

But the detonations we were hearing last night didn't sound like anything we heard before. Hard to describe them. But that was the operation. So it is, apparently, according to the IDF, part of the preparations for more operations to come.

And from the military point of view, if you go in and have an operation that perhaps clears a path or something that Hamas is planning, if you leave too long of a gap in time before you put troops in there again, then Hamas can come back in with other operatives and repair the damage done, get ready to do again, what they were planning to do last time.

So it does feel and seem as if this is potentially a build towards a big incursion. Again, we don't know when that could come. But every indication that we're still moving in that direction -- Boris?

SANCHEZ: Yes. A lot of anticipation for that potential incursion.

Nic Robertson, from Sderot, thank you so much.

Let's discuss the humanitarian crisis in Gaza now with Juliette Touma. She's a communications director for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency. It's been caring for some 600,000 people at its shelters in Gaza.

Juliette, thank you so much for being with us.

You said if you don't get fuel by tonight, you will be forced to halt operations altogether. What is the status? How are you managing that situation?

JULIETTE TOUMA, COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR, UNITED NATIONS RELIEF & WORKS AGENCY: We would be pushed to the very edge. We're being pushed to the brink. We had to start rationing the very little amounts of fuel.

So, for example, today, we stopped the delivery of fuel to medical facilities and to bakeries that we support in the Gaza Strip. And we are running out.

And we're still hopeful that an urgent shipment of fuel does come in, in Gaza, so we're not forced to make the decision that no humanitarian worker should do, and that's stop humanitarian services and assistance to people in need.

SANCHEZ: Put that in context for us. What exactly does that mean? Turning off incubators in hospitals, taking people off of life support? Is that what is at stake here?

TOUMA: It also means very simple things, like it means we will not have the fuel to drive our cars and deliver our assistance, including medicine, as one example.

It means that water salination plants will not work. It means that the bakeries that we have flour for will stop baking.

It's a chain, you see. And that chain will be broken because UNRWA is not getting any fuel for assistance in the Gaza Strip.

SANCHEZ: The idea, in this back and forth with the United Nations over this, they've argued that there are already hundreds of thousands of liters of fuel in Gaza, but that fuel is controlled by Hamas.

I'm wondering if your organization has any communication with Hamas. If there's been any discussion with that group that governs Gaza.

TOUMA: What I do know that we do have no fuel at the moment and that we need an urgent shipment of fuel to come into Gaza in support of our operation.

And if we don't, we're going to have very severe consequences on the people who are already suffering quite a lot, 600,000, in over 150 shelters. Very, very overcrowded. It's four times the capacity of what we had planned for. We need that fuel to come in.

SANCHEZ: It sounds like it's not clear at the moment whether there is any communication with Hamas to provide some of the fuel that the IDF alleges that Hamas has.

What are your agency's plans if Israel carries out that ground incursion that's been anticipated? Are you making any preparations?

TOUMA: Well, we're terrified. We're terrified, also, for the safety of our own staff.

I mean, as of this evening, we're very sad to confirm that another 15 colleagues of ours have been killed. And that number has climbed to 51 colleagues of ours, half of them were teachers, many of them were killed while at home.

Any further escalation would only bring misery, only bring loss and grief. It's time for a ceasefire, not for anything else.

[13:40:02]

SANCHEZ: Juliette Touma, I'm sorry to hear of the passing your colleagues.

Thank you so much for sharing your time and your perspective with us.

Still ahead on NEWS CENTRAL, President Biden has ordered American flags lowered to half-staff in the wake of the tragic mass shooting in Maine. We have new reaction from the White House on the latest on the mass shooting in the United States when we come back.

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KARINE JEAN-PIERRE, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: It's within Congress' power to pass legislation that will make our streets safer, that will make our communities safer, that will make our schools safer.

[13:45:03] The House has a new speaker, who -- he said -- he said he's ready to get to work and to find common ground. Now is the time. Now is the time to find common ground.

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JOHN BERMAN, CNN HOST: You can hear the new reaction from the White House, just hours after this string of mass shootings in Maine left 18 people dead.

There is an intensive manhunt underway, we should note, at this very moment for the suspected killer who is very much on the loose and on the run.

Let's go right to the White House. CNN's Arlette Saenz is with us now.

Arlette, what are you hearing from the president on this?

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, President Biden says that, once again, the country is in mourning in the wake of this mass shooting that killed at least 18 people in Lewiston, Maine.

Just behind me here at the White House, flags have been lowered to half-staff.

In a statement a little while ago, the president said that this is a situation that should not become normal in the country, that action needs to, quote, "address the epidemic of gun violence" as White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre here addressed earlier in the briefing.

President Biden last night was at the White House, hosting the Australian state dinner. He was actually pulled out of that dinner to receive a briefing after the shooting took place last night.

He also spoke with the governor of Maine as well as the state's two Senators and congressman.

And the president this morning was also briefed by his senior advisers.

One thing that the president has stressed and the White House has stressed as well from the podium is that people in the area need to listen to local law enforcement officials as there is still that search underway for the suspect.

But the president also used the statement as another attempt to renew calls for further action when it comes to gun safety in this country.

The president has said he's exhausted many of the options available to him, via executive order.

You'll remember there was some legislation passed after that horrific shooting in Uvalde, Texas. And the president did recently establish an office that is focused on gun violence prevention. In his statement today, the president once again renewed his calls for

an assault weapons ban, a ban on high-capacity magazines and also calling for state storage laws for firearms and trying to end the immunity from liability for gun manufacturers.

The president, in his statement saying, quote, "This is the very least we owe every American who will now bear the scars, physical and mental, of this latest attack."

As you heard Karine Jean-Pierre say it's the time for Congress to act. She specifically called on the new House speaker, Mike Johnson, to try to take some steps to address this issue of gun violence.

But so far, there's been very little appetite on Capitol Hill for passing more meaningful reforms.

So it remains to be seen what exact actions could be taken in the wake of yet another horrific mass shooting.

BERMAN: Yes, by some count, Arlette, more than 500 mass shootings in the United States this year alone.

Arlette Saenz, at the White House, thank you very much.

And as Arlette just noted, even the White House is saying people here in Maine, around Lewiston, need to listen to local law enforcement, follow instructions, shelter in place. There are businesses around the state that are shut down as this manhunt for a mass killer continues.

Much more of our breaking news coverage, right after this.

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[13:53:01]

SANCHEZ: The U.S. economy defying expectations yet again, growing at its strongest rate in nearly two years in the face of stubborn inflation and high interest rates.

The Commerce Department today reporting that gross domestic product, or GDP, the biggest test of measure of the economy's health, soared over the summer quarter to a 4.9 percent rate.

That's more than double the growth we saw in the spring. And faster than economists predicted.

CNN business and politics correspondent, Vanessa Yurkevich, is digging into these numbers,

Vanessa, what was behind the surge?

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS & POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Boris, it was this time of year when analysts and big CEOs at financial institutions were expecting that we would be in a recession. But this third quarter GDP report shows anything but that. As you mentioned, extremely strong growth. The U.S. economy growing by

4.9 percent. That was led by consumer spending. Americans still out there spending, despite high inflation.

And then you have home buying. Home buying playing into this report, for the first time in two years. People still purchasing homes, despite higher borrowing rates.

And then you have Americans really spending on entertainment and travel. Experiences. If you remember the sort of girl power summer, you had millions of Americans spending on going to the movie theater to see "Barbie."

Going to see Taylor Swift and Beyonce in concert. That actually has played into third quarter GDP.

And also, we're seeing these results play out in real time. Today, we saw earnings, third quarter earnings, from companies like MasterCard that said that continued resilience in consumer spending was one of the key reasons why they saw strong growth in their third quarter.

And you have Royal Caribbean, cruises, people taking experiences. They're saying that the acceleration of consumer spending on experiences have propelled us towards another outstanding quarter and a robust 2023.

[13:55:05]

So you're hearing it from the companies themselves. That they are seeing this intense consumer spending in the third quarter.

SANCHEZ: Vanessa, not to be a buzz kill, but economists are warning that this is likely going to slow down very soon?

YURKEVICH: Yes. Analysts are not expecting this the sustained momentum into the fourth quarter. And that is because, in this third quarter GDP report, we also saw that household income dropped a bit. So you're going to see less disposable income going into the fourth quarter.

You're also going to be seeing people feeling their student loan payments again, and that started up.

And also interest rates continuing to climb. People may start pulling back because of that.

And, Boris, despite the fact that consumers are still spending, they're putting a lot of their purchases on credit cards. And that contributes to consumer debt.

So, not as much of a rosier picture for the fourth quarter GDP report as we've been expecting -- Boris?

SANCHEZ: Vanessa Yurkevich, thanks so much for the update.

Stay with CNN NEWS CENTRAL. We're continuing to follow the search for the suspect in mass shooting in Maine. We're going to take you to the scene for the very latest.

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