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Israel Expands Assault, Slamming Gaza From Air And Ground; Hamas Attack Survivor: Husband Confirmed Alive, Still Hostage; Trump Expands Lead As Haley Ties DeSantis In Iowa. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired October 30, 2023 - 11:00   ET

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

[11:00:06]

SARA SIDNER, CNN HOST: Israel launched several new rounds of airstrikes this morning and we have new details about U.S. troop movements in the Middle East. You'll also hear from a woman who survived the Hamas attack on October 7th, taken hostage, but her husband is still missing.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN HOST: A trial began just moments ago to determine if Donald Trump can be kicked off the presidential ballot based on his role on January 6th.

KATE BOLDUAN, HOST: The new House speaker and his first full week on the job, the major tests that he's facing, and what this means for Israel, Ukraine, and yet another possible government shutdown. I'm Kate Bolduan with John Berman in New York, Sara Sidner is in Israel. This is CNN News Central.

SIDNER: This morning a rapid intensification of Israel's assault on Gaza from the air and from the ground. Israeli military officials say new troops and tanks are inside of Gaza now as the Israeli military hunts for Hamas, and what's believed to be more than 200 hostages in that underground tunnel system underneath Gaza.

And in the sky, new strikes and new explosions as U.N. security officials prepare to meet amid urgent calls for a pause in the bombings so desperately needed food, water, fuel and medical supplies can get in to Gaza. Let's get right to CNN's Jeremy Diamond he is in Sderot about a mile from the Gaza border. Jeremy, you've been hearing the steady drumbeat of new strikes and explosions. What are you seeing at this hour?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right. And in just the last few minutes, as you can see over my right shoulder that plume of smoke is the result of an explosion inside of Gaza. And this comes as Israeli forces have really been expanding their ground operations inside of Gaza over the last several days. And just today, the IDF spokesman vowing that Israel will continue to add troops as part of this ground offensive inside the Gaza Strip. We have been hearing throughout the day and seeing the sights and sounds of war as we've been hearing outgoing artillery fire from very near to our position where we're standing right now.

Jets circling overhead. We've seen some drone activity as well. And we also saw earlier just an hour ago or so some smoke appearing to emerge from just across the northern border of Gaza, in southern Israel not exactly clear what that was from, but it appeared to be some kind of explosion on the Israeli side of that border with Gaza. We know that fighting has been ongoing between Israeli forces inside the Gaza Strip and Hamas militants.

We have been hearing the thud of machine gunfire throughout the day. And it's also clear that Israeli forces are getting deeper inside the Gaza Strip. Initially, we saw the troops were entering Gaza from the northern entrance to Gaza, tanks rolling in. But what we're also learning is that troops are at least two miles into the Gaza Strip on the coastline with Gaza. But also we saw this new video of tanks, of one tank at least in the southern part of Gaza City, which is again not where we are right here, which is the northeastern corner of Gaza that you have behind my shoulder.

And in this video you actually see a tank appearing to fire on a passenger vehicle. Now we don't know who was in that passenger vehicle and in response to an inquiry from CNN about that incident, Spokesman Major Nir Dinar said, how can you tell there aren't terrorists inside that car? He said Hamas has no Jeeps or tanks, they use civilian equipment for their military purposes, indicating very strongly there, that tank was firing at a military target and not at a civilian targets.

CNN of course cannot independently verify who was inside that vehicle. But these are the kinds of images that we are going to start getting more of particularly as communications are starting to be restored inside the Gaza Strip. We're going to start getting more videos from Palestinian journalists who are inside Gaza but also from civilians using their cell phones showing what is happening to their city and their towns.

SIDNER: Jeremy Diamond, thank you so much for that. And of course we have our Abraham Domon (ph) who is there in Gaza trying to protect his family but also working for us as he always does as a journalist on the ground and we check in with him regularly in Gaza. There is a desperate fight for survival. CNN's Salma Abdelaziz is in London ahead of a critical emergency U.N. meeting.

Salma, there is a call for a pause and fighting. There has been a call for a ceasefire to try and deal with this humanitarian crisis in some small way, at least trying to get more trucks. And what more can you tell us about the aid that it's trying to get into Gaza.

[11:05:13]

SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And that global outcry, Sara, is growing by the hour as these images seep out of just absolute core inside the Gaza Strip in the death toll, the number of civilians killed seems to increase by the hour. You mentioned the U.N. Security Council, the emergency meeting called today by the UAE. We understand that they're seeking a binding resolution calling for humanitarian pause.

Now you remember, of course, that there is a serious controversy a serious spat between the United Nations and Israel, so very unlikely that that would be followed, even if it did pass but the U.S. and Israel looking increasingly isolated on the world stage. Last week, the U.N. General Assembly voted for a non-binding resolution overwhelmingly calling for humanitarian truce, only 12 other countries stood alongside U.S., the U.S. and Israel against that vote.

I know you're also playing images of the desperation on the ground there. These are the warehouses that belong to the U.N. people there, going inside breaking into those warehouses desperately taking just the basic survival. I mean, just soap, water, flour, anything they can to feed their families provide for their loved ones on the ground. The United Nations says we're seeing the breakdown of civil order after three weeks of near constant bombardment and siege.

And with nowhere safe to go, the international community is saying there are grave violations of epic proportions taking place on the ground.

SIDNER: Salma Abdelaziz, thank you for that extremely disturbing report there about the conditions in Gaza for the families there. Kate, back to you.

BOLDUAN: Thanks, Sara.

Overnight, Israel raised the number of hostages believed to be held still by Hamas in Gaza. Officials now say the terrorists kidnapped 239 people in the October 7th attacks. Every single one of those families still trying to clean to hope that they will see their loved ones again. And one of those families is the Lovey family. Now Moshe Lavi, he was on our show two weeks ago and detailed what happened when his brother-in-law, Omri, was kidnapped from his kibbutz Nahal Oz.

Now, Moshe's sister, Lishay and her two young daughters they were there as well. They survived the attack but endured hours of terror, only to have, Omri, ripped away from them. We're seeing pictures of them here. He is still missing. I want to play for you some of what Moshe told us about what his sister endured.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MOSHE LAVI, BROTHER-IN-LAW BEING HELD HOSTAGE BY HAMAS: They were treated violently. The babies were woken up with guns pointed at their heads. And I'm sure that two-year-old Roni will be remembering this for the rest of her life. I have my first memory when I was two years old from falling down the staircase, and I'm sure this will be much more traumatic to her.

They were -- later were grouped with another family, another two more families in a different house. When they entered, they went through the kibbutz, they saw bodies lying around. So, houses being burned with people inside. When they entered, they saw a teenaged girl lying dead, shot on the spot by Hamas terrorists. They saw a terrified family. The parents, the two siblings of that young lady terrified, hollow faces covered with blood.

This was also live streamed on a Facebook off, I believe, one of the -- those who were held captive.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: And joining us now is Lishay Lavi who Moshe was just talking about his sister. Lishay, thank you very much. I wanted to first ask you, what is the latest if anything that you've heard about Omri?

LISHAY LAVI, SURVIVED HAMAS ATTACK, HUSBAND STILL MISSING: We know that Omri is over there. We know is kidnapped. We know he's alive. We know that he's 23 days over there. And we're still waiting. This is what we know.

BOLDUAN: Twenty-three days since this happened to you. And it has taken you some time to get comfortable in speaking out about what you all survived. Is there a moment that sticks in your mind that you think will help people understand what you and your girls and your husband lived through that day?

[11:10:01]

L. LAVI: I have two moments the ones that was in our house and our home when my Roni, two years old, when the terrorists, the monsters, for me it's not a human people, I'm sorry, it's the monsters that come into my house, my home, my safe home, they took Omri, me, and the Alma, Roni, she's sleeping this moment. They didn't give me take care, take with me.

And then when she woke up, she woke up when five people, five monsters with their gun in to her face. This is the first moment I want to share. The second moment I want to share that when Omri, when Omri was there taking Roni, until this moment she was in silence for four hours, she sit and being quiet and don't speak, two years old girl, speak, don't speak.

And when she saw her father go, she started to scream. She just want to go with daddy. She wants to run after him and I need to hold there in my arm in really first. And I need to scream at her to sit and quiet and daddy is go now and you can go with him. After 20 minutes that she's crying and screaming that she wants her daddy, she gets asleep again. And then when she woke up after 10 minutes something like this, she wasn't be a two years girl. She don't a regular two years girl. She's still a lot of violent, a lot of events, she saw monsters took her daddy out.

And this is what I want the world understand. I want the world understand that it's not a regular war. It's not the situation with the Palestinian-Israeli there is a family that killed. There is a family who was murdered. There is a family that broken my Omri, my husband, and Roni, Alma father is over there. He's not a soldier. We are not in this situation.

It's not a regular war. It's a Holocaust. It's the second Holocaust. And this is what the world need to understand.

BOLDUAN: I know that you've said and you described it there that Roni will never be a normal, will never be herself again, will never be a normal two, three-year-old little girl again after what she saw. What is the change that you see in your poor daughter?

L. LAVI: She's grow up. She understands that, you know, Daddy is not here in her mind. And now Daddy got lost and we need to find him, of course, but he got lost. And she understand that, I, her mother, I cry and I'm upset and I'm angry and she know that. She know that she need to guard to her sister that six months old. She's two years old and she understand that she needs to hug and to kiss and to give a power to her mother and to her little sister.

She start to speak. She understands that is very dangerous in our house. And this is not something like I know how two years old girl needs to be. It's not something that two years old to understand.

BOLDUAN: These are not things that she should ever have to worry about needing to guard her six-month-old little sister or protect you even. I'm sure that's how she feels as well. Four hostages have been released Lishay and now that you know that Omri is there. How does that make you -- how does that feel for you knowing four hostages have been released. It's like impossible I'm sure to I don't know be hopeful. How do you feel about that?

[11:15:14]

L. LAVI: I really -- I'm happy for their family, really happy. It's, you know, when you're in this situation, you can understand. I can't explain how we -- how it's feel that you know that your man, the father of your daughter over there, I can't explain it really. Even not in my word, even not in Hebrew.

And I really happy for the family that they are here. And I hope, I ever hope that everyone come back. But we need all the world with us. We need all the world stand with us with Israel, with the citizens. I don't speak about the ministry. I don't speak about the IDF. I don't want to speak about that. I speak that the world need to understand that who is taken, it's not like it's father, it's fathers, mothers, sisters, kids, grandmother, grandfather. We need that all world understand it. And all the world needs to be with us and screaming with us. It should help us that all people go out and come back home.

BOLDUAN: Do you think you will see Omri again?

L. LAVI: Yes. I know. I know I'm going to see him. I believe in this. I know inside my heart that I'm going to see him. I speak with him every night. Every night, I tell him all what I'm doing and what Alma and Roni doing? Yesterday, I told him that Alma is already -- it's not -- she's now seven months old, that she is not six months old anymore. She's seven months old. She's sitting now. You don't see the first time she's sleeping.

And I'm sure and I need this hope. And I believe that he is going to come back. And I want it's going to be hard. It's not going to take a lot of time. But I don't know how much time it's going to take, how long is going to be.

BOLDUAN: Your strength after what you have lived through is remarkable. Lishay Lavi, thank you so much. L. LAVI: Thank you very much. And again, I want to say all the world need to understand. I know now, before when -- before five minutes, you saw what's going on in Gaza. I know they really suffer the citizens over there, they really suffer. I know this. And you need to understand that what happened here in Israel, that it's the terrorists that take our family over there. It's not that we want this war. We need -- we want to -- we want our family again here. We want my Omri here. And everyone needs to understand it and be with us.

BOLDUAN: Lishay Lavi, thank you.

L. LAVI: Thank you.

BOLDUAN: John?

BERMAN: To hear her say she speaks to her husband every night.

New reporting about where U.S. Marines are moving in the Middle East and how they are preparing for the potential evacuation of U.S. citizens.

Two censure votes, a possible expulsion and funding for two wars just part of what's on the plate for the new House speaker this week.

[11:19:23]

And an autopsy has been performed on Matthew Perry, what we are learning about the results.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:24:04]

BOLDUAN: This morning, it is back to business on Capitol Hill after weeks of chaos. The new Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, he's kicking off his first full week in the new role and quickly facing major legislative hurdles. Welcome to the job Mr. Speaker. Israel will be on the top of the agenda specifically a standalone $14.5 billion aid package that Republicans want to move in the House. There's also two competing center resolutions, a push to expel New York Congressman George Santos. And last but very much not least, an effort still to try to move ahead with government funding bills to avoid another government shutdown. CNN's Manu Raju on Capitol Hill for us. Manu, where did things go from here?

MANU RAJU, CNN HOST: Yes, a pretty complicated first full week for the new Speaker Mike Johnson at the top of the list dealing with aid to Israel. But setting off a collision course with the Senate given that Johnson plans to advance a $14 billion aid package to Israel but does not include aid to Ukraine. The White House, Democrats and the Republican leader in the Senate Mitch McConnell want to tie all those issues together.

[11:25:08]

Also Johnson has made clear, he wants to offset the $14 billion in aid to Israel with spending cuts. That is going to cause Democratic support. Already Democrats are revolting at that notion, given that emergency aid packages typically do not include spending cuts. Then he has a series of personnel issues. One of them the expulsion of George Santos, who has been indicted on federal charges. He has said that he has pleaded not guilty to those charges.

But New York Republicans, freshman Republicans are pushing an expulsion resolution. There's only been five members in United States history who have been expelled from the House. They will need two- thirds majority in the House to get there, a vote that could happen later this week. And in talking to those New York Republicans, they believe they are close to getting the votes they need to kick George Santos out of the House.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. NICK LALOTA (R-NY): I think we're getting two-thirds. There seems to be a good sentiment out there that enough is enough.

REP. ANTHONY D'ESPOSITO (R-NY): I think that people have seen over the last 10 months, what a fraud he is. I think that, you know, you read either indictment, there's a clear outline that lays out the fabrications, the lies, the manipulation of donors and others that he has committed over the last, you know, year or longer.

REP. MARCUS MOLINARO (R-NY): So I think at this time, it is absolutely appropriate for him to serve. And I think there's significant support certainly on both sides of the aisle, I understand hesitance. But this is a clear case of an individual who used every lie and misdeed in order to attain the very office he holds.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Now Speaker Johnson has indicated that he is not supportive of that effort given that Santos has not been convicted yet. Also two central resolutions one against Rashida Tlaib, another one against Marjorie Taylor Greene. But there's opposition on both of those measures uncertain about whether either of those will pass. Johnson himself said on a private conference call yesterday, he is not in favor of this tit for tat center resolutions as this plays out in the days ahead here. Kate?

BOLDUAN: All right, good to see you Manu. Thank you so much.

BERMAN: All right, brand new polling this morning out of Iowa shows Donald Trump with a commanding lead there. But you can see Nikki Haley slowly creeping up into a second place tie with Ron DeSantis. With us now CNN political commentator and PBS host Margaret Hoover and CNN's senior political analyst John Avlon. Margaret Hoover, you just flew back from Iowa. And boy your arms tired. What did you see there in terms of the polling which shows Donald Trump with this commanding lead?

MARGARET HOOVER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Look, I spent a lot of time with Republicans in Iowa this weekend. And Donald Trump certainly still has a base of the party captivated. But I can do a little bit of math and I know you can too, John Berman. If you add up all the other support for other candidates in Iowa, they have more support than Donald Trump. So the party is divided. Even the base of the party is divided.

So if they could get behind one person, instead of dividing their support amongst all the others, actually, Donald Trump doesn't own the Iowa Republican Party.

BOLDUAN: But doesn't sit -- but does that seem likely? I mean, you have Mike Pence, who has left the race now. But does it seem that there's an appetite for as people have been calling now since the primary began for the people who are polling in single digits still to drop out so everyone can Republicans can coalesce around one challenger, Donald Trump?

JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Kate, you know, I'm not a fan of this idea of the inevitability of Donald Trump, particularly before anyone has actually voted. Does he have a grip on the base of the party? Yes, absolutely. Is the how -- are the headwinds he's facing legally and otherwise significant? Yes, that is well. Now with Mike Pence dropping out, with Mike Johnson is setting to the speakership, I think you do see there's an election lie litmus test inside the Republican Party that's deeply troubling when you come to matters of truth.

But this poll is really interesting. Because while Trump is in poll position, DeSantis is dropping, Nikki Haley is rising, right, 10 points.

BOLDUAN: What do you seeing there?

AVLON: Well, you've dig into the crosstabs. And you see that she is increasing among independents and suburban voters. That's also known as the people who decide who wins elections in America.

BERMAN: In Iowa?

AVLON: In anywhere, including in Iowa, yes.

BOLDUAN: But do the -- you don't have to win Iowa in order to win the primary.

AVLON: You don't. It used to be a swing state less so now. But I'm just saying look at where Nikki Haley is growing. You look at those demos, that says as many polls have also shown, including CNN's, that she's a more competitive general election candidate that Donald Trump against Joe Biden.

BERMAN: Do you guys want to take a moment from Mike Pence?

AVLON: Yes.

HOOVER: You know, I actually think the contrast between Mike Pence and Mike Johnson, the new Speaker of the House is a really important one because there's been a lot of conflicting the two of them, both evangelicals, both from the sort of the evangelical Protestant wing of the party, which has become the base. And I don't think we should gloss over the fact that one of them took a principled, honest stand with real integrity that defended the Constitution on January 6th and the other one propagated the lie, which has now brought him to the speakership.