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Interview With Eylon Levy, Israeli Government Spokesperson; TX A.G. Threatens Legal Ramifications If Woman Proceeds With Court- Sanctioned Abortion; Scientists: Earth's Average Temp Could Breach 1.5C Degree Rise in 2024; CNN Poll Results Reveal How Americans Feel About Climate Crisis. Aired 2:30-3p ET
Aired December 08, 2023 - 14:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[14:34:16]
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: We are seeing controversial new images coming out of Gaza that have gone viral on social media.
They show Israeli soldiers detaining dozens of Palestinian men, stripped down to their underwear. The men are seen wearing blindfolds, kneeling on the ground. Some packed into the back of a military truck.
An IDF spokesperson telling CNN that the men are members, or suspected members of Hamas. They were undressed to make sure they were not carrying explosives.
I'm joined now by Eylon Levy. He's a spokesperson for the Israeli government.
Eylon, thank you for being with us.
What more can you tell us about this?
(CROSSTALK)
KEILAR: Are these Hamas militants who surrendered? Are they suspected Hamas militants arrested? Why? Because of a particular reason or just because they are men of fighting age?
[14:35:04]
EYLON LEVY, ISRAELI GOVERNMENT SPOKESPERSON: During Israel close- quarter combat against Hamas fighters in Gaza, we have been detaining many Hamas members. Some have surrendered, some we managed to get our hands on. The men we are seeing in those images are suspected terrorists.
Let's remember that these are military aged men that were found in areas that civilians were supposed to have evacuated over one month ago and where we have seeing close-quarter, dense urban fighting between Israeli soldiers and Hamas fighters.
I want to tell you a bit about how that fighting is progressing because Hamas fighters have not only been dressing as civilians, in violation of international humanitarian law, they have also been operating from inside of in civilian infrastructure.
Just today, for example, terrorists in a school tried to draw our soldiers into an ambush. When our soldiers killed the terrorists in that school, they found a tunnel shaft inside one of the classrooms.
Just today at the Al Altso (ph) University, we found a tunnel shaft inside of the university courtyard, right there in the yard! That tunnel led a kilometer away to a mosque.
We are dealing with an area where Hamas has laid ambushes for our soldiers. Trying to draw them into these ambushes.
We have to be very, very, careful to try to get those terrorists and get our hands on them. Otherwise, there is a very high risk to our forces that they continue to launch attacks against our people.
KEILAR: Eylon, thank you for that update.
I do want to ask you, in a statement a news outlet said that one of its correspondents and several members of his family were among those who were detained as part of the incident that is portrayed in these incidents.
Can you respond to that? Can you tell us anything about this?
LEVY: Hamas fighters dress up as civilians, in violation of international humanitarian law, and they operate from inside civilian infrastructure, inside homes, schools, and hospitals.
We wish that all Hamas fighters were wearing uniforms that clearly said Hamas on their helmets. That would make them easier to identify then.
But when Hamas dresses up as civilians, fight within civilian areas, they make it very difficult to find them.
As a result, when we find military aged men in areas that we have been ordering evacuations of for over a month, because these are Hamas strongholds where we have seen intense open fighting, we need to apprehend those people, work out who the terrorists are.
If there are people there who are not, in fact, terrorists, they will, of course, be released.
Hamas does not walk around, as I said, with signs on their chest saying Hamas. When we find people who could be Hamas, in Hamas strongholds, where there has been intense urban fighting going on, we have to get our hands on them.
KEILAR: Eylon, tonight, the U.N. Security Council is scheduled take this rare Article 99 votes calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. How are you reacting to this?
LEVY: It is atrocious and appalling that the U.N. secretary-general is choosing to use his diplomatic power in order to keep the Hamas terror regime in power and to ensure its survival.
Let's be clear, that is the meaning of a permanent ceasefire. If you are calling for this war to end with anything other than the destruction of the army of terror that perpetrated the October 7th massacre, you are intervening to ensure the survival of the Hamas terror regime.
That is telling us that they want to perpetrate more October 7th massacres over and over again. We think the real threat to international peace and security was Hamas's October 7th massacre.
Anyone calling for a ceasefire --
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KEILAR: Eylon --
LEVY: -- that would leave those criminals in power is also posing a threat to international peace and security --
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KEILAR: Eylon, some -- Eylon, some worry that more than 17,000 people killed, according to the Hamas-lead health ministry, but experts believe that those numbers do grossly reflect what is being seen. That that is also a risk to Israel and also to global security, as well.
Do you accept that while some people, yes, clearly have an issue with Israel, whatever you do, however you do it. But there are some people who very much support Israel, just have an issue with how you're prosecuting your war?
LEVY: Every civilian death is a tragedy. It is a sad fact that everyone who has been killed since October 7th would still be alive if Hamas that not launched this war, and if they are not fighting this war from inside densely populated urban areas.
As we take the fight to the monsters who perpetrated the October 7th massacre, we are taking steps unprecedented in the history of warfare. Not taken by the United States or the United Kingdom in Afghanistan or Iraq against ISIS. We are integrating new ways to try to keep civilians safe.
We believe that when the true civilian-to-combatant ratio becomes clear, when the fog of war clears, it will show very clearly the extent to which the IDF has gone in order to protect civilian lives.
[14:39:58]
When you compare it to other counterterrorism wars fought by Western armies in urban areas. That is the standard against which this must be measured.
You are right, we, too, want to support and we want this were to be over. But we need this war to be over in a way that removes Hamas from power. As long as it still has firepower, as long as it threatens to
perpetrate more October 7th massacres, we do not have the luxury of praying this conflict will go away, of ending this job in the middle.
The consequences of inaction will be that we will find ourselves in the same cycle of violence with the army of terror that is telling us it wants to perpetrate more October 7th massacres.
(CROSSTALK)
KEILAR: Eylon, some of your allies like those in the U.S.--
(CROSSTALK)
KEILAR: Some of your allies like those in the U.S. -- we have heard Antony Blinken, again, with his warnings, our defense secretary, as well -- they believe that you do not have the luxury of killing that many civilians as you go after Hamas in order to achieve long-term security.
What do you say to that?
LEVY: That we do not have the luxury not to fight this war. And why we fight this war, to bring the October 7th monsters to justice.
We are taking unprecedented measures to keep civilians safe. That is why we gave so much time for the evacuation of northern Gaza before we began a ground offensive.
It's why our troops have been on the ground securing safe passage for Palestinians to leave while our men are putting their lives at risk, coming under fire from Hamas' RPGs.
I do not think that during the war against ISIS, we saw British, American troops on the ground protecting civilians, leaving hospitals while ISIS was firing RPGs at them.
We are taking unprecedented measures to keep civilians safe. It is heartbreaking that Hamas continues to shoot from inside civilian areas.
Hamas is human shield strategy has gotten so bad that they started shooting rockets at us from inside the humanitarian zone.
Israel designated a humanitarian zone where Hamas doesn't have operations because we want civilians to find safety there. Hamas has decided to shoot rockets from inside what is supposed to be a safe zone.
We are going to continue to go above and beyond to keep civilians safe despite Hamas's best attempts to sacrifice them, in their words. It is sick, it is disgusting, in their words, to sacrifice them and use them as human shields.
We know the United States sees eye to eye with us about the objectives of this war, about the need to continue fighting in order to topple the terrorists.
KEILAR: Eylon --
LEVY: Because the senior administration officials have said, over and over again, otherwise we're just going to find ourselves in another conflict with Hamas free and enabled into attack our people again.
KEILAR: There are certainly some differences, very clearly, between U.S. officials. You are right that you do have their support. They certainly have many concerns as we have been covering.
Eylon, we will have to leave our conversation there, unfortunately.
Eylon Levy, thank you so much for your time.
We will be right back.
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[14:47:23]
BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: A new legal threat to tell you about now after a Texas judge granted a woman's request for an emergency abortion. The state's attorney general, Ken Paxton, now has a warning for the doctor that could perform that procedure.
CNN's Ed Lavandera has been watching this unfold from Dallas.
Ed, walk us through this warning from Ken Paxton.
ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This came several hours after judge in Austin, Texas, issued that temporary retraining older against the abortion law here in Texas allowing 31-year-old Kate Cox, who is 20 weeks pregnant with a baby doctors tell her will not survive.
The baby has a situation known as Trisomy 18 Syndrome, a fatal genetic disorder.
But hours after that Austin judge issued that ruling, the attorney general here in Texas essentially issued a threatening letter.
Releasing this letter publicly saying that any doctors or hospitals involved in the abortion involving Kate Cox could face legal ramifications, either civil fines or criminal prosecution.
We have reached out to the attorneys for Kate Cox who said they believe that the attorney general's reaction to all of this is callous and extreme -- Boris?
SANCHEZ: Ed Lavandera, thanks so much for the report.
[14:49:42]
Still ahead, new CNN polling reveals who Americans think bears the responsibility to combat the climate crisis. The numbers in just a few minutes.
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KEILAR: A stark warning today from climate scientists, the planet's average temperature could rise by 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels next year.
Researchers say anything above that threshold would cause potentially irreversible effects on the world. This year has already been the hottest year on record.
These dire warnings are coming as new CNN polling reveals how Americans feel about the climate crisis and who they think bears responsibility for combating it.
CNN chief climate correspondent, Bill Weir, is with us now on this.
So, Bill, this really ambitious goal the U.S. has set, a target to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030, how do Americans feel about this?
BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: This is really stunning, Brianna. It has been a politicized issue for as long as I can remember. It really breaks down into ideological camps, partisan camps. We see a little bit of that now.
But look at this. Almost three-quarters of the country, 73 percent, says, yes, we should do what has been promised by this administration to cut those by half by the end of this decade.
And if you look at it by party, it's 95 percent of Democrats, 76 percent of Independents, and even 50 percent of Republicans right now support this.
It is worth mentioning that Texas now leads the country in clean energy just because of the economics of it, despite the politics and all of that.
Solar and wind are the two cheapest forms of energy humanity has ever known and it's sort of starting to bear its fruit, as we see in these polls here, along with how obvious the tragedy is, the hottest year ever, $25 billion disasters. Here we are.
KEILAR: You can't ignore it, although some people clearly would like to.
[14:55:00]
Take us through a couple more numbers here. How do Americans feel about what the Biden administration is doing? And where are Americans placing the responsibility for combating the climate crisis
WEIR: Well, Joe Biden does a little better than he does just generally about his performance, 43 percent approval rating opposed to 57 percent disapproval. The Democrats, going to 74, and 11 percent of Republicans agree with that. As a result of both the United States pumping so much oil, which
disappoints a lot of the Democrat fans of the president, as well as there is the old story about climate change on the partisan breakdown.
But when it comes to the responsibility pieces, as well, you see this 77 percent of Democrats say humanity in general shares the responsibility, only 42 percent of Republicans. And it sort of breaks down along those big spreads there.
What's really interesting there is you see the Chinese government is the biggest -- you know, is the biggest culprit of this when it comes to the GOP.
Again, it is the story around climate change as opposed to actually the science and what is happening.
KEILAR: Yes, it certainly is. And it is so important that you keep telling that story and it gets through to people.
Bill, thank you so much for taking us through that. We appreciate it.
And still ahead, the birth home of Martin Luther King Jr targeted by a would-be arsonist. We will have details ahead.
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