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Hamas In Gaza Launches Air, Land, And Sea Attacks against Targets In Israel; Infiltration By Hamas Militants Into Israel Possibly Occurred Due To Israeli Intelligence Failure; Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Convening Cabinet To Discuss Possible Declaration Of War Against Hamas In Gaza; Israeli Defense Forces Attempted To Restore Security In Cities Near Border With Gaza; Biden Administration States Its Support For Israel Includes Providing Military Equipment; Attack By Hamas In Gaza On Israel May Derail Negotiations Between Israel And Saudi Arabia To Normalize Relations. Aired 10-11a ET

Aired October 07, 2023 - 10:00   ET

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

[10:00:08]

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: So, until it is -- obviously, the U.S. is going to be urging citizens to remain vigilant and to stay out of these areas, if they can, where all of this is unfolding, Wolf.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR, THE SITUATION ROOM: We see this very disturbing video of these populated areas in Israel under attack, the devastation, the destruction very significant right now. Natasha, stand by. We'll get back to you soon. I know you're working your sources.

We are continuing to follow this major breaking news. Israel now declaring war on Hamas in Gaza after a truly unprecedented attack on Israeli soil. At least 40 people, Israelis, are dead, and more than 770 are wounded, we're told, official numbers coming in from the government of Israel. The attack catching Israel clearly by surprise. At sunrise earlier today, the Palestinian militant group launched their offensive by air, sea, and land. Hamas fighters have now infiltrated various Israeli towns, we're told, and thousands of rockets have rained down from the sky above over civilian populated areas of Israel.

Israel is clearly already striking back, sending its own rockets into Gaza. And we've just gotten new numbers from Palestinian officials there. They say at least 198 Palestinians already have been killed in Gaza, and more than 1,600 people in Gaza are injured. This once again, according to the Palestinian health ministry there. This is quickly developing, this situation. We want to go back to CNN Hadas Gold who is watching it in Jerusalem for us. Update our viewers, Hadas, on the very latest.

HADAS GOLD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the very latest is we've just gone in from the Israeli ministry of health saying 908 people have been wound. Again, that's almost 1,000 wounded in Israel as a result of these attacks. Right now the death toll has not been updated, so the last death toll we have is at 40, but I do expect that death toll to be updated potentially in the coming minutes and likely expected to be much, much higher.

These injuries are from rockets, they're from shrapnel, and they're also from militant gunfire. We've been seeing live reports from Israeli reporters who have gone to what was a festival party of sorts in nature not far from the Gaza border where they are still reporting that they are seeing, Israeli reporters are seeing bodies still on the ground that have not been evacuated yet. And so we do expect this death toll to rise.

As you noted, we have also heard from the Palestinian ministry of health in Gaza, saying at least 198 killed, and more than 1,600 wounded. We don't know the breakdown both of the Israelis and of the Palestinians, how many were combatants, how many were militants, how many were soldiers, how many were civilians, but we know these are significant numbers when you compare these to the previous years.

When you compare the statistics that we've had in just 10 or 11 hours now of this reflect to the previous conflicts that we've had in the last decade or even further, we are fast approaching those numbers. I'll give you an example. In 2006, in the war with Hezbollah, in Lebanon, there were 120 Israelis who were killed. If these numbers are going to reach at least 100, which I think they will today, for Israelis, within just hours, we've reaching number of casualties that we saw in an extended conflict.

When you look at the numbers of rockets, already today, we've passed 3,000, likely more, because as we speak I continue to get alerts of sirens going off across Israel, 3,000 rockets at least in about 10, 11, 12 hours. In all of the 11-day war in 2021 between Hamas and Israel, there were 4,300 rockets. So we are at a different scale, a different level than what we have seen before. This is an unprecedented attack.

And then of course, these militant infiltrations, that is something completely new and that has caught Israel completely off-guard. That is what is really terrifying the Israeli population because, as we speak, there are still Israeli civilians who are barricaded within their homes, within their safe rooms, still reporting, still calling out for help on Israeli media, saying that they can still hear gunfire, that militants are still in these cities. There are ongoing fire fights in Israeli villages and towns in southern Israel. We've also heard reports from the Israeli military, at least two military bases where there were fire fights breaking out between militants and Israeli soldiers.

Now, tens of thousands of Israeli military reservists have now been called up for service. We are already seeing Israeli military air strikes over Gaza, and I fully expect that we will see a much bigger response to Gaza, a much bigger Israeli military response, potentially even ground forces going in the likes of which, again, we have not seen in years, if not decades. An attack like this has not happened since the Yom Kippur War in 1973, 50 years ago almost to the day. Wolf? BLITZER: Yes, and this is the end of the Jewish holiday as well. It's

also the sabbath, the shabbat in Israel right now, and this war is breaking out similarly to what happened 50 years ago during the Yom Kippur War. Hadas, stand by. Stay safe over there. We'll get back to you.

I want to go to our senior White House reporter M.J. Lee who is with us right now, and CNN's national security reporter Natasha Bertrand. They're getting more information. M.J., what is the White House saying this morning?

[10:05:00]

M.J. LEE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, for right now, we have gotten word that President Biden was fully briefed by his national security team this morning on the situation. This is a situation that the White House describes as the appalling Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel. We also expect that the president is going to address this situation sometime later today. We just don't know yet exactly what format that is going to come in.

We also expect that the president is going to be speaking directly with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, so we will hopefully get a read-out of that phone call as soon as that conversation has happened. For right now, Wolf, we can tell you that U.S. officials are obviously very closely monitoring this stunning turn of events overnight. But they are also being very careful right now to not weigh in on some of the specific details and reports that we are seeing about the situation on the ground, in terms of the number of casualties, in terms of the reports that we have seen, statements that have been made, for example, about the capturing of Israeli soldiers.

But for right now, it is abundantly clear that the diplomatic ramifications are incredibly serious. Just to remind our viewers, President Biden has been involved for months and months now in trying to broker a deal between the Israelis and Saudi Arabia, a normalization of relations that has been incredibly difficult, incredibly complicated. And we know that from the U.S.'s perspective, U.S. officials here have been pushing the Israelis to accept concessions to the Palestinians that would be challenging for them to accept, but U.S. officials have made clear that some of those concessions will be necessary for that deal to go through.

Now, given the situation on the ground, all of those talks are now up in the air. It is very difficult to actually imagine that the Israelis would be OK with some of those concessions that have been floated, so this is a very fast-moving situation. But again, we are at the point where U.S. officials, top officials, are gathering information, are speaking to their counterparts, and really just trying to get a handle on what exactly is going on. But again, the gravity of the situation is such that we do expect that we will hear directly from the president on the situation later this morning, Wolf.

BLITZER: I assume that will happen, though, after his phone conversation with Prime Minister Netanyahu, right? LEE: That would be the expectation. We have been told by officials

earlier this morning that the two leaders were going to speak. And so whenever that statement, or maybe on camera remarks come from the president, we expect that he will address that conversation that he had with Prime Minister Netanyahu.

BLITZER: All right, M.J., thank you very much. Don't go too far away. We will be getting back to you soon, I'm sure.

Let's go to Natasha right now. Natasha, the U.S. secretary of defense Lloyd Austin is clearly also very closely monitoring this breaking situation in Israel and Gaza right now. What are we hearing coming out of the Pentagon?

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes, Wolf, so we are told from a defense official that Austin did convene a meeting of senior leaders this morning, including with General Eric Kurilla, who is the commander of Central Command, and Austin then released a statement, saying, quote, "I am closely monitoring developments in Israel. Our commitment to Israel's right to defend itself remains unwavering, and I extend my condolences to the families of those who lost their lives in this abhorrent attack on civilians." And this line is really key here, Wolf, "Over the coming days, the Department of Defense will work to ensure that Israel has what it needs to defend itself and protect civilians from indiscriminate violence and terrorism."

Now, obviously this raises questions about whether the U.S. is going to allow Israel to tap in to the U.S.'s massive stockpiles that it has of weaponry and equipment in Israel. It's one of the largest war reserves that the United States has around the world. And back in 2014, the U.S. did supply Israel with arms and weapons during a 50-day war in Gaza and said at the time that Israel will be allowed to tap into those stockpiles to resupply it with grenades and mortar rounds. So the question now, is that going to happen again? Is the Pentagon going to allow Israel to tap into these stockpiles if the war does continue, if it continues to escalate? That remains to be seen.

But we also should note, Wolf, that we just got a statement in from the secretary of state, Antony Blinken, who said, quote, "We unequivocally condemn the appalling attacks of Hamas terrorists against Israel. We stand in solidarity with the government and people of Israel and extend our condolences for the Israeli lives lost in these attacks. So obviously the diplomatic ramifications of this is something that the State Department is going to be closely watching, as we mentioned to the last hour as well, the State Department has urged its personnel to remain sheltered in place in Jerusalem, and the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem, something that the secretary of state will be closely monitoring as well, over the coming hours and days, Wolf.

[10:10:02]

BLITZER: We will watch it closely as well. Natasha Bertrand, thanks for that update.

Right now, I'm joined by Aaron David Miller, a former State Department senior Middle East negotiator. Aaron, thanks so much for joining us. Were you as surprised as I was earlier this morning when I heard that war had actually broken out between Hamas in Gaza and Israel?

AARON DAVID MILLER, FORMER STATE DEPARTMENT MIDDLE EAST NEGOTIATOR: At 4:00 a.m. this morning, I got a call from CNN, Wolf, and yes, I was surprised. It reminded me of 50 years ago, this week, being in Jerusalem, yesterday, 50 years ago, basically, witnessing the sort of shock and trauma on a much larger, broader scale. But this is a trauma by any standard. It is a trauma because of the clear massive intelligence failure. It's a trauma because Israeli communities proximate to Gaza, obviously, were not adequately protected. There was insufficient Israeli presence there.

And this is going to have a chilling impact, it seems to me, on any prospects for what the Biden administration would like to see in terms of Israeli-Saudi normalization, because any leverage now that the administration thought it had over Benjamin Netanyahu to make concessions on the Palestinians has been reduced basically to an optical zero. So this is going to take days and weeks I think before we see how the dust, proverbial dust is going to settle.

BLITZER: Based on what we know right now, and it is obviously very early in this war, Aaron, how much of a -- how big of an intelligence failure was this by the Israelis?

MILLER: You know, it had to be huge. I mean, they're proximate to Gaza. Their high-tech monitoring capacity of phone calls, Internet, social media, is extraordinary. I think frankly, Wolf, it was a failure, I know it seems sort of cliched, but a failure of imagination. It's similar, it seems to me, what happened in October, 73. I'm not sure that Israeli intelligence, maybe we will learn something in the contrary, imagined that Hamas -- forget the rockets. That's business as usual, even in these numbers. But cross-border infiltration, 60 to 100 armed Palestinians actually occupying communities in Israel, proximate to Gaza, shooting along the roads? I mean, I just don't think the Israelis saw this coming.

BLITZER: Yes, clearly, they're going to have to do a reassessment when all this is over with to see how badly the intelligence, military intelligence, did in terms of getting ready for this kind of war, and it is very similar, as we all know, to what happened during the Yom Kippur War in 1973, almost exactly 50 years ago, when Israel was surprised by the coordinated Egyptian and Syrian attack that surprised the Israelis then.

How serious, how badly do you think this is going to escalate now, not only in Gaza but maybe in Lebanon or the West Bank?

MILLER: Well, the Palestinian health ministry is reporting 198 Palestinians killed, 1,600 wounded. The Israelis have a decision to make, and it is going to be informed by politics as well as security. What is their response going to be? The prime minister has declared war, declared war on Hamas. When you declare war, you aim for victory. But I ask myself the basic question -- exactly what do the Israelis hope to achieve? Reoccupation of the Gaza Strip? A major ground incursion to destroy Hamas's military leadership, Mohammed Deif, who has already been a legitimate target of the Israelis, has been very vocal. And the Israelis may want to eliminate Hamas's leadership. But where does this go? That's the real problem. Where is the strategy

to ensure that this is not a brutal and horrific rinse, wash, and repeat cycle? Because that's what it has proven to be over the last several decades when it comes to Israel's relations with Gaza and Hamas in particular. And you have a very risk averse Israeli prime minister under tremendous pressure from so many fronts now. His trial, the judicial overhaul, inherently risk averse, but he may very well be risk ready. He may have no choice but to respond with ground forces.

BLITZER: And we'll see if that escalates. I suspect it will. What do you think we will hear from President Biden after his phone conversation with Prime Minister Netanyahu?

MILLER: Reassurance. Reassurance. Reassurance. There may be a more tepid call for restraint. It seems to me politically, and given the president's preternatural, profound support, emotional, political, buried in his DNA for Israel.

[10:15:04]

Not for Benjamin Netanyahu, certainly not for the Netanyahu government, but for Israel for sure. So is it possible Tony Blinken is reported to be planning a trip, I gather it was focused on Israeli Saudi normalization. Now, is it time to do crisis diplomacy for the Biden administration? I just don't see -- the president may call for restraint, but he is going to give the Israelis, it seems to me, a fair margin to deal with this on the security military side.

So again, reassurance of Israel, profound support, minimize civilian casualties, but it seems to me, it will be rhetoric. The question is, is there anything the administration can do on the action side that could somehow diffuse this? And right now, frankly, I doubt it.

BLITZER: Is there anyone on the Arab side that has the influence from Hamas, for example, to calm things down?

MILLER: Well, Abdel Fattah El-Sisi has been under tremendous pressure, the Menendez business, human rights. Sisi will want, I think, to try to get involved in this --

BLITZER: The Egyptian president.

MILLER: -- to demonstrate he is still a player. Exactly. The Qataris, of course, have been serving as a sort of a bad men, funneling money, with Israeli acquiescence into Gaza, to sort of quiet the situation and to defuse Hamas's efforts to take on something like this.

But I think on Hamas' part, this was an effort to demonstrate that Hamas is in the forefront leading the Palestinian national struggle against Israel. It is not Abbas. You think you can do Israel-Saudi normalization? Remember, we're here. And these attacks against civilian, terror attacks against civilians is part of that campaign to remind the Israelis they're here. Hamas may -- the Israelis may think it is unfinished business.

I just don't see how, unless the Israelis are prepared to mount a major incursion, eliminate the Hamas leadership, somehow bring the Palestinian Authority back into Gaza, that there is going to be an end state here that is going to be better, somehow better, Wolf, than the one we've witnessed over the last several decades. I just don't see this.

And I think American leverage here -- on the Saudi business, I think there is no way any administration in the wake of this -- you could end up with 100 Israeli dead or more by the time that this is over. No American administration is going to press Benjamin Netanyahu now for concessions, given this blatant, flagrant assault by Hamas to demonstrate that it, not Abbas, is the leader of the Palestinian national movement. I guarantee you whatever Palestinians are saying publicly, there has got to be in Gaza, I suppose, and Gaza will suffer as a consequence of this.

BLITZER: It certainly will.

MILLER: But among Palestinian -- pride, I don't agree with that, violence is not going to end this conflict. But I suspect that Hamas's political prestige now is going to rise exponentially.

BLITZER: We do know that Qatar has a lot of influence over Hamas financially and politically and other ways as well.

We did briefly, and I'll briefly share with you, Aaron, we got a statement from the foreign ministry, a Qatari foreign ministry spokesman issued a statement saying that the Qatari government says Israel is solely responsible for the ongoing escalation due to its continuous violations of the rights of the Palestinian people. So a strong statement from the foreign minister in Qatar, blaming Israel for all of this. Are you surprised?

MILLER: No, not from the Qataris. They've improved relations with the Israelis but they have been very supportive of Islamists, and I think they want to maintain their ties and contacts with Hamas. They may well come in to play a role in the event, in the next days and weeks ahead, this thing can be defused. But right now, this is an Israeli, this is -- the blood is up. And this is going to get worse, Wolf, before it gets worse.

BLITZER: Yes, I suspect you're right, and I think it's going to escalate not only in Gaza but elsewhere as well. Aaron David Miller, we'll stay in touch with you. Thank you very, very much. We're going to have much more coming up on all of the breaking news we're following, the developing situation out of the Middle East right now.

Up next, we'll take a closer look at the military ramifications. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:24:01]

BLITZER: This just coming in. A new video, geolocated and authenticated by CNN shows at least one Israeli soldier has now been taken by prisoner by Hamas in Gaza. A warning, this video may be disturbing to some viewers. We should note it was released and edited by Hamas. It shows Hamas militants yanking two Israeli soldiers out of a disabled Israeli tank. It is unclear from the video how the tank was disabled. But Hamas has been utilizing drones to drop bombs on to Israeli tanks.

You see one of the soldiers being kicked on the ground by the militants, a second soldier is being led away while another is on the ground. CNN does not know the current whereabouts or status of these three Israeli soldiers. Israeli Defense Forces are not commenting on Hamas's claims that they have captured the soldiers.

Joining us now, CNN military analyst, retired U.S. Air Force Colonel Cedric Leighton. Colonel Leighton, thanks so much for joining us. What is your reaction to this very disturbing video we just shared with our viewers?

[10:25:07]

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: It is definitely a real problem for the Israelis, and it shows, Wolf, the surprise with which Israelis were confronted this morning by this invasion from Hamas. And it is pretty clear that the goal of Hamas is really to not only capture as many Israeli soldiers as possible but to disable as much equipment as possible, and that's kind of what we're looking at here. I think that as this unfolds, we will see not only more attacks on southerlies but more attacks on civilians as well.

BLITZER: Give us your analysis of the tactics that we've seen so far used by Hamas in this attack on Israel, an attack involving land, sea, and air forces.

LEIGHTON: Yes, I think this is very interesting, because this is a real difference from the way in which Hamas has engaged in attacks on Israel before. So what you're seeing is, as you mentioned, land, sea, and air components coming together, in essence, kind of a joint force type maneuver, using very cheap methods. And they are able to use small arms, they're able to use paragliders, motorized paragliders, to come into Israeli territory. Those have the purpose not only of evading Israeli defenses, Israeli radars and other defenses, but they also have the capacity to swarm into Israeli territory. And there is basically a swarm attack, both in the sense of the paragliders coming in as well as the number of rocks that have been used against Israeli targets. The idea there is to overwhelm the Iron Dome defense system, missile defense system that the Israelis have, which is exceptionally good. But any type of air defense system is going to be subsumed at some point by the shear number of missiles and rockets coming into.

So this is, in essence, the kind of thing that we're looking at, trying to overwhelm as many Israeli defenses as possible. They will try to take temporarily at least some territory. But this is not a conventional war like the kind we're seeing in Ukraine. This is basically a larger guerrilla action on multiple fronts. And as such it presents a significant amount of challenge to both the Israeli Defense Forces and the Israeli police, because they're also going to be called upon to defend the communities, especially around Gaza.

BLITZER: Israel, of course, has a very formidable military capability right now. How do you think they are going to respond to this war?

LEIGHTON: Well, I think with the Israelis are going to do, Wolf, is they're going to try to find as many leaders of the Hamas operation as possible and try to neutralize them. They're going to not only go after command and control nodes, like they traditionally do, but they are also going to go after individuals. They are probably going to try to mount an incursion into Gaza to try to dislodge some of the fighters, and frankly, for retribution. That's kind of the way this has been going, and that is I think what we're seeing here. So the Israeli response is going to be fairly massive. It's going to involve many members of their armed forces, and it's also going to require air power to be integrated with the ground forces. They will be using precision bombing in this campaign.

BLITZER: We're going to get reaction from an IDF, Israel Defense Forces military spokesman, that's coming up next. Colonel Cedric Leighton, thank you very much for joining us.

And we'll be right back with much more on this breaking news.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:32:58]

BLITZER: We're continuing to follow the breaking news out of Israel and Gaza right now. At least 40 Israelis are confirmed dead by the Israeli government, more than 900 Israelis are wounded right now, that according to the Israeli health ministry, after a surprise multifront attack from Hamas on Israeli soil earlier this morning.

Israel is responding with air strikes on Gaza, Palestinian officials say at least 198 Palestinians are dead, and more than 1,600 others are injured. We don't know if those deaths are Hamas fighters or Gaza civilians.

I want to bring in IDF International spokesperson, Lieutenant Colonel Richard Hecht, who is joining us right now. Lieutenant Colonel, thank you very much for joining us. First of all, what can you tell us about the situation on the ground right now? Can you give us an update on what's going on?

LT. COL. RICHARD HECHT, INTERNATIONAL IDF SPOKESPERSON: So again, I have been looking at all of your reports, and you're pretty much on the dot how it's happening. What I can now confirm is that we have hostages taken by Hamas. We also have some casualties, IDF casualties. We don't have the exact numbers, but all I can say, Wolf, is that we're in war right now.

We have multiple terrorists that came in through the land, the sea, and the air this morning. There was a specific area right beside the area, the southern part of Israel, they also came through the sea. We are now conducting, as we speak, firefights at 22 locations around the Gaza Strip. We've mobilized special forces to all of these locations because these firefights demand a certain level of professionalism. There's some communities that we've taken out the terrorists and there's some communities where the fighting is still going on. BLITZER: What --

HECHT: And it is a very, very complicated and a very severe warning for Israel.

BLITZER: Lieutenant colonel, what's the latest on the numbers? How many confirmed Israeli dead, and how many confirmed Israeli wounded?

[10:35:04]

HECHT: I can't go into the numbers. You can see, these are substantial numbers. I think one of the interesting numbers here, or tragic numbers here, is actually civilians. Again, I'm hearing a lot of the Palestinian narrative going on in the media. When we target someone on their side, we go for a military target. These terrorists that came in this morning, they didn't go only for military targets. They went into communities, they abducted grandmas, they abducted families, they killed children. A very, very severe morning, and we're going to respond.

BLITZER: I'm told, Lieutenant Colonel, that the Israeli cabinet, Prime Minister Netanyahu's cabinet is about to hold an emergency meeting very, very soon, and may in fact wind up formally declaring war on Hamas. What's your understanding of that?

HECHT: So, again, our leadership is meeting in a very composed and calm way. We are focused right now on getting the security back into the communities and putting out on the table plans for a very, very strong response to this inhumane activity that happened this morning on behalf of Hamas.

BLITZER: So you think that there's going to be a formal declaration of war?

HECHT: It's hard to say at this point. We've leave that to people way over my pay grade, Wolf. But again, we're looking right now at all arenas. It's not only Gaza. We're also looking towards the north. As you remember, last Ramadan, also we had some challenge from the north, so the idea of the Israelis also looking towards the north and also looking at Judea and Samaria. Sadly, they are trying to manipulate, actually a very quiet holiday that we had on Temple Mount, and they have performed this horrific attack this morning.

BLITZER: Have you seen any indication yet that Hezbollah in southern Lebanon may begin to launch attacks against northern Israel?

HECHT: We're watching the traffic. We're watching the language. And we're ready for any option. But at this point, that's all I can say.

BLITZER: So is it still quiet along Israel's northern border with Lebanon?

HECHT: As we speak, it is still quiet, yes.

BLITZER: And what about from the West Bank? HECHT: So we're monitoring it closely. As you know, we've had some

volatile days here, the events two nights ago, so a lot of the IDF battalions are deployed there to keep safety, also from badly behaved people on our side, and badly behaved people on their side. We're stretched because we have also forces deployed in Judea and Samaria, and now we're also mobilizing forces to the Gaza Strip. But we're looking at all arenas, and we're prepared.

BLITZER: You say that there is Israeli hostages who are now being held by Hamas militants. Do you have any sense how many are being held, how many of them are military and how many are civilians?

HECHT: So when I talk about, there is a hostage situation right now, also Ofakim, and also in Kibbutz Be'eri. These are civilian communities, a Kibbutz in a small town. These are not military targets, Wolf.

BLITZER: So what is the Israeli military, the IDF doing to try and safely rescue these Israeli civilians who are being held, in your words, as hostages?

HECHT: So we're very -- sadly, we're very experienced in these kinds of situations. We have special forces that that's their professional capability, and right now they are engaging in all of these 22 locations that I talked about. And we have very severe situation also in Kibbutz Be'eri and also in Ofakim.

BLITZER: The Kibbutz is not far from Gaza. We also just saw some video, we shared with our viewers, video released by Hamas of at least one Israeli soldier captured by Hamas. What can you tell us about that, if anything?

HECHT: So as I said at the beginning of our chat, they have abducted the Israeli soldiers, Hamas, and we're dealing with it as much as we can.

BLITZER: Will Israel launch a formal ground offensive in response and move its troops directly back into Gaza?

HECHT: That I will leave to our cabinet who is meeting as we speak. I'm sure that General Halevi is putting all options on the table. And our leadership will then decide how we respond to this. Again, this is an unprecedented attack.

[10:40:01]

I've been for many years in the army, this is something of a scale that we haven't seen in many years. And again, I emphasize, the story here is Israeli civilians that have been killed, not soldiers.

BLITZER: What happened to Israel's excellent air defense system, the Iron Dome? Because we see a lot of these rockets and missiles coming in from Gaza destroying civilian areas and major Israeli cities, whether Ashdod or Ashkelon, Rehoboth, other towns. What is going on with the Iron Dome? HECHT: So I'm actually thinking of my best friend, the commander of

the air defense. I'm an air defender myself. We always say in the air defense, there is never a hermetic defense. Iron Dome up to now has done quite a good job. There was a hit, a direct hit in Askelon this morning. We're still learning what happened there. There was is something that hit Tel Aviv, but some of it was also debris from an interception. Right now, the Iron Dome is actually still holding ground in quite a good way, and the numbers are quite good, actually.

BLITZER: Lieutenant Colonel, clearly an attack on this level, by Hamas, by land, and sea and air, with thousands of rocks launched against Israel, took some extensive planning. Was Israel caught off- guard, was this an intelligence failure?

HECHT: So we were surprised this morning. About failures, it'd be fair not to talk at this point right now. We are in war, we're fighting. I'm sure this will be a big question once this event is over, and also the people that are connecting it to events yesterday. Right now, we're focused mainly on gaining back security. So I assume the intelligence question will be talked about down the road, and we'll learn what happened here.

BLITZER: There is a lot of reassessment that needs to be done. The IDF International spokesperson, Lieutenant Colonel Richard Hecht, thanks so much for joining us. We will want to stay in close touch with you. Appreciate it very much.

HECHT: Thank you, Wolf.

BLITZER: CNN's global affairs analyst Kimberly Dozier is joining us right now. Kimberly, thank you very much for joining us. What's your assessment right now, bottom line assessment of what's going on?

KIMBERLY DOZIER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Right now, the Israeli Defense Forces and every branch of Israeli intelligence is watching not just to try to mop up the fighters who got through the Gaza border and are staging ongoing attacks, but they're looking at all of their opponents, possible militant attacks from the West Bank, also Hamas -- sorry, Hezbollah, in Lebanon, which has more than 100,000 rockets and missiles that could reach most of Israel, and even militants as far away as Syria.

The suspicion is that Iran has at least facilitated this attack by Hamas in Gaza. And therefore, since Iran cooperates with Hezbollah and militants in Syria, the worry of Israeli officials is that this attack could expand. As you just heard from the IDF spokesperson there, they haven't detected anything like that yet, but they are watching. They also have to reevaluate every bit of intelligence over the past several weeks. What did they miss? Did they see a pattern, but they didn't put it all together? How did this come as a surprise attack on Shabat, on a holy day in Israel?

BLITZER: There is going to be a lot of reassessments going on, I suspect, you're absolutely right. The fear right now is this war, and it is already being billed by the Israelis as a war, could dramatically escalate in the coming days and weeks, for that matter, to other fronts, not only in Gaza, but as you point out, in Lebanon, maybe even the West Bank. What's your fear?

DOZIER: That the strike-back that the Israeli Defense Forces surely have to carry out will cause so many civilian casualties that it will make the possibility of any future peace talks brokered by the White House or Europe, between Palestinian factions and the Israelis, impossible for years to come.

It also could derail efforts to normalize relations between Israel and Gulf states like Saudi Arabia. The statement so far out of the Gulf states, including Saudi Arabia, have been harsh and mostly blaming Israel for this violence. There have been, in recent days, in Arab newspapers, a lot of coverage of ultra-nationalist Israelis trying to, quote-unquote, storm or enter the temple mount, or al-Aqsa Mosque area in the old city. This is an area that is holy to both Muslims and Jews, but Jews have very limited or no access to the top of Temple Mount.

[10:45:05]

And this has caused great anger across the Arab world and especially in Palestinian areas. I think what we're seeing is militants in Gaza are trying to take advantage of that anger and kick off a wider conflagration.

BLITZER: Yes, I suspect, you're making an excellent point right now. We're going to watch all of this unfold.

And I think everyone is bracing right now to see a major military assault by the Israelis on various targets inside Gaza right now. If that happens and there are a lot more casualties in Gaza, what's going to happen after that?

DOZIER: I think they're going to have to do some sort of ground incursion into Gaza territory, which means urban fighting, also the possibility of a lot more civilian casualties. The Israeli public, I'm already hearing from some, as I'm sure you're hearing from some friends over there, is furious about this. I've heard from the former officials who can't believe that this was missed. They're comparing it to not just the October War of 1973, when Egypt and Syria attacked Israel in a surprise attack, but to the U.S. 9/11 attacks that they had been caught so flatfooted.

So when you have that kind of anger, that's the kind of thing that will drive the government to really crack down hard on Gaza and root out every last conspirator, as they see it. And Gaza is so tightly packed, there's no way to do that without also hitting civilian areas and taking civilian casualties.

BLITZER: And we're told, Kim, that the Israelis have mobilized their reservists, many of their reserves, thousands of reserve forces, to go in and help deal with this warlike situation what is unfolding right now. And as all of us know, in these weeks and months leading up to now, there were a lot of reservists who were saying they weren't going to go serve in the military because they oppose Netanyahu and his government's efforts to overhaul judiciary. But it looks like the reservists, whether pilots or intelligence operatives or commandos or whatever, if they're getting their orders to be activated, they are beginning to activate and go into military activity. At least that's what we're being told. This is significant, right?

DOZIER: Well, in a situation like this, yes, you did have several reservists going on strike and refusing to serve because of their objection to the Netanyahu government's changes with the judiciary. But in a time like this, when the nation is under attack, everyone pulls together.

I've talked to some people who I consider on the leftwing of the Israeli spectrum, and they are sheltering in bomb shelters and scared right now. So I think that kind of fear and the number of casualties and all of the funerals we're going to see in the coming days is going to wipe away the internal political dissent, and they will unify and fight back. One of the reasons they need so many reservists is if they do something like a ground incursion into Gaza, which is at this point speculation, analysis, we don't know for sure that they're going to do that, but what they would do is use their active duty forces to do that kind of incursion, and then the reservists would most likely backfill a number of positions across the country, especially as, at this point, the security services have been gut punched, and they don't know where the next strike is coming from. And they want to cover all the bases because the Israeli people demand that.

BLITZER: Yes, they certainly do. And we're told that the Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu is convening his national security cabinet right now, and it may emerge, it may emerge soon, with a formal declaration of war. I'm not exactly sure what that will mean other than it will be a major escalation in the fighting right now. But if that happens, Kim, what do you think?

DOZIER: I think Netanyahu is -- he has already made some strong promises that the enemy will pay for this. I think the next thing that the Israeli people are expecting to hear from him is, all right, what is your concrete action going to be? How are you going to keep us safe? I have spoken to at least one, or communicated with at least one former official who believes that this could bring the Netanyahu government down. But then you have the question, this is a conservative government with a lot of nationalist members. It is arguably one of the most security-minded administrations Israel has had in decades. If they can't keep people safe, Israelis will wonder, who can? What can you do to stop this from happening again?

BLITZER: Our CNN global affairs analyst Kimberly Dozier, thanks so much for your expertise, appreciate it very, very much.

[10:50:01]

And we'll have much more still ahead as we follow the breaking news, the developing and unprecedented situation unfolding in Israel right now. Stay with us. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BLITZER: Our Hadas Gold in Jerusalem is now reporting that the Israeli emergency services have now concluded, at least right now, these numbers probably will go up, approximately 70 Israelis are confirmed dead, dead as a result of the strike from Hamas and Gaza, and hundreds of Israelis, hundreds of Israelis are now listed as seriously injured.

We're watching all of this unfold, so is the White House. President Biden, we're told, has just spoken with the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on this deadly attack in Israel earlier this morning.

I want to get right to our senior White House correspondent M.J. Lee, who is watching this. What is the latest, M.J.?

LEE: Wolf, we have gotten word that President Biden has spoken with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. We don't have a full readout yet from the U.S. side of what exactly was discussed and what they talked about, but as soon as we have those details of how they discussed the unfolding situation in Israel, we will bring that to you.

[10:55:11]

I do want to make a note, though, here about that relationship between the prime minister and President Biden. These two men, Wolf, have known each other for some four decades, and it is a working relationship that has come under strain and has really been tested in recent years as Netanyahu had left power, then was reelected, and then sort of pushed his far right government to push through these very controversial judicial reforms. And that ended up putting President Biden in sort of a tough position of speaking out against those attempts at judicial reforms and speaking out in support of democracy and democratic institutions, and that ended up putting a strain on the two men's relationship.

The two men did meet a few -- last month, I should say, at the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, and they attempted to show sort of a warm and cordial relationship, and the president did invite the prime minister to come to the White House before the end of the year. And of course, you fast forward a couple of weeks, and here we are, the two men speaking about the stunning turn of events in Israel right now. We certainly expect that they are going to stay in close contact in the coming hours and days, Wolf.

BLITZER: We will watch it all unfold. M.J. Lee, thank you very much. CNN is covering all of the breaking news out of Israel. we will have much more right after a quick break.

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