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Hundreds Reported Dead And Thousands Wounded After 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 Says Israel Currently At War With Hamas; Israeli Defense Forces Attempt To Restore Security In Cities Near Border With Gaza; President Biden Gives Brief Statement Supporting Israel Against Hamas Terrorist Attacks. Aired 2-3p ET.

Aired October 07, 2023 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:00]

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Also, a short time ago, sirens and more than a dozen loud booms could be heard across Tel Aviv. Hamas has said that it's fired 150 rockets against that city. This was the scene earlier when CNN's Nic Robertson and others took cover while at Israel's Ben Gurion Airport.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(SIRENS)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: So everybody hitting the ground there as they heard the sirens go off.

Israel is now striking back. It's launched its own air strikes into Gaza, where Palestinians say hundreds have been killed and many, many more injured. New video from CNN shows this tower collapsing in Gaza City following an air strike. Israel also is mobilizing troops and calling up tens of thousands of reservists. Sam Kiley has the latest.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Palestinian militants celebrate the destruction of an Israeli tank near Gaza, dragging what appears to be a body of a crewman from the vehicle. Dozens of Gaza-based Palestinian fighters have infiltrated Israel under the cover of a massive rocket bombardment in what could be the biggest Israeli intelligence failure since Arab nations attacked Israel 50 years ago. Hamas brought war to the streets, its bullets tearing into a civilian vehicle in Spirot (ph), locals film fighters on rooftops, and shooting at police. Here the aftermath of a gun battle, Israeli civilians lie dead on the street close by are what are reported to be Palestinian militants, also dead.

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER (through translator): We are at war. Not an operation or in rounds, but at war. This morning Hamas launched a surprise attack against the state of Israel and its citizens. We have been in this since the early morning hours.

KILEY: Israel has already hit back with air strikes, but the country's rightwing government will be under pressure to attack deeper into Gaza as reserves are being mobilized countrywide.

AVI MELAMED, FORMER ISRAELI INTELLIGENCE OFFICIAL: It's very possible that we will witness a massive Israeli ground operation in Gaza Strip that basically will aim to try and to change totally from the ground the conditions that have been preserved for the last almost two decades.

KILEY: Israel's death toll climbed throughout a day of fighting. Militants claim that they have taken several Israelis hostage, which the Israeli Defense Forces are saying are prisoners of war. And the Hamas-led operation is the most complex and ambitious in its history. Here militants in Jenin on the West Bank foreshadowed what was coming to CNN last October.

JENIN BRIGADE LEADER (through translator): There are extensive meetings with the resistance factions in Gaza and the West Bank and with our brothers abroad about starting that fight.

KILEY: That fight now appears to have begun in Gaza with this Hamas call to arms. "If you have a gun, get it out," he said. "This is the time to use it. Get out with trucks, cars, axes. Today, the most glorious and most honorable history begins." But that appeal has so far not been answered on the West Bank or among Israel's Palestinian population, not yet.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

AMANPOUR: Sam Kiley reporting there. That was Sam Kiley.

So let's bring in Husam Zomlot now. He's head of the Palestinian mission to the U.K. Welcome to the program.

First and foremost, do you condemn what Hamas did inside Israel to Israeli civilians? They're dead and there are hostages.

HUSAM ZOMLOT, HEAD OF THE PALESTINIAN MISSION TO THE UNITED KINGDOM: First and foremost, the western media must really abandon this framework that has gotten us to where we are today.

AMANPOUR: OK, but I just want to know, do you support the killing of civilians?

ZOMLOT: Of course not, of course not, of course not, of course not.

AMANPOUR: So do you condemn that?

ZOMLOT: The loss of civilian life is tragic on all sides, and what is happening is extremely worrying and very tragic. And as we speak, the loss of life, you've counted 70 Israeli, there's more than 200 Palestinian deaths so far, more than 1,600 entire residential compounds are being wiped out. This is a war crime committed by Israel. What is more tragic, or equally tragic, is the blindness and the

deafness of the world and the international community for so many years, of the warnings we have been saying that this was coming. Israel knew that this was coming their way. We, the national movement of Palestine, the PLO, have found a different path 30 years ago. We have committed to what the world asked us -- recognize Israel, commit to negotiations and nonviolence, and to international legitimacy and resolution.

[14:05:03]

Israel was expected to do one thing only -- roll back its occupation, stop its colonial settlement expansion. Not one day it did so, killing the prospects of a two-state solution. And the world was expected to do one thing -- uphold international law equally on everybody, on Ukraine, on Palestine. And the world fails to do that. No accountability.

AMANPOUR: So now --

ZOMLOT: Now every single political avenue is blocked, every single legal avenue for us is blocked, like the ICJ, the International Court of Justice. You've heard what the U.S. said.

AMANPOUR: Yes, but I want to know what happens now. What happens now. There's a war that Israel has declared after Palestinian militants, who I don't think are your friends, Hamas is not a supporter of the Palestinian Authority. There's a war, and as you say, there's going to be a massive escalation.

ZOMLOT: There is a war. We're having this conversation because Israelis have seen what they have seen today. But my people see this every day. Every single day Palestinians are targeted, killed, arrested, rounded, their land is confiscated, their holy places are desecrated, not only Muslims, but Christians. You have been following what is happening in the al-Aqsa Mosque, and in our Christian churches, the spitting on Christian worshippers. Our people have been seeing apartheid being enforced on them over the last years and their land is being taken, and their hope for a political solution that will fulfill their rights dissipating. This is what we need to discuss.

AMANPOUR: Fine. I know. I know, but as you know, neither the Israeli political spectrum, nor the United States, nor anybody, it's like the Palestinian issue doesn't exist anymore. The two-state solution, diplomacy is on deep freeze. Can I first ask you, though, before we get to there, what triggered this attack? It's on a certain date, it's 50 years to the date, just about -- 50 years ago it was October 6th, Yom Kippur, Egypt, Syria launched a surprise attack on Israel. What do you think triggered this? And it's a very sophisticated Hamas attack.

ZOMLOT: I don't know. I really, really don't know. What I know is that it was a matter of when, not if. We've been shouting every day, don't leave a vacuum. Don't un-heed what we are saying, pay attention. Don't underestimate people's desire for freedom, for ending the bondage and captivity. Pay attention to the destruction that Israel is doing. Make sure that these supremacists in the Israeli government are not going to turn the whole thing upside down.

AMANPOUR: Do you think --

ZOMLOT: This is not about timing and all that. This is about the fact that we discuss everything except the core thing, the fundamental issue, the root causes. And we've been doing this for 75 years. One sentence, you know that 70 percent of the population in Gaza, the Palestinians are refugees, since 1948. You know that they have been under besiegement since 2007, the biggest open-air prison. This is what leads to events that you want to discuss.

AMANPOUR: Yes, so here's the thing. Obviously, the Israelis will say this is what happens when we evacuate, for instance, withdraw from Gaza, which they have done. And you're right, it is sealed, and it is a very heavily guarded situation.

But what now happens? So, for instance, I was speaking to the former Israeli ambassador to the U.S., and he said, even you, Palestinian Authority, all of you guys who are in the West Bank, you're under threat from Hamas, and he said Mustafa and Mahawi (ph) Abasa (ph) are only live because Israel keeps them alive, that you're under such threat from your own people. What would you answer to that?

ZOMLOT: Nonsense. Absolutely nonsense. An Israeli lies all the time. What the people, our people in Gaza, are subjected to are the same in the West Bank, in Jerusalem, and our refugees. We are united by our suffering, and we are united by our goal, which is ending this occupation, ending this illegality. We have our political differences, of course, but we make no mistake that the one thing that we need to rid ourselves with is the Israeli military occupation, is the colonization, is the system of racial domination that has been imposed on us.

We make no mistake of this. so this is not a Palestinian on Palestinian internal affair. This is the failure of every international actor to pay attention, of every international actor. You see, instead of learning the lessons, what I heard today from many international actors, including from the U.S. and the U.K., is doubling down on the very same mistakes and failure that has led us to where we are.

AMANPOUR: What is the option? What is the option right now? What happens? Israel doesn't respond to Hamas?

[14:10:02]

ZOMLOT: The alternative is statesmanship, is courage, the equal application of international law. We are not lesser of human beings. We are not the children of a lesser god. We are equal as all nations. It's been 75 years, 75 years of oppression, of wholesale destruction. You've seen what happens in Gaza. Wait until tomorrow and see the thousands who will lose their lives and their livelihoods. Enough is enough.

The only solution is respect people's legitimate birthright of self- determination, the right to return to their properties, the right to establish a state of their own, and stop dodging this. Stop finding detours around it. There is no such thing as detour. Peace can only be struck with us, the Palestinians, not with anyone else. Because Israel is at odds with us, because Israel has taken our land, because Israel is subjecting us and oppressing us, not anybody else.

And bravery from the international community requires the equal application of international law. Israel is occupying power, has a full responsibility to protect the civilians under its own occupation, right? This is international law. Israel has the full responsibility to make sure no civilian is harmed. It's been doing the opposite for 75 years. You've just shown on your program --

AMANPOUR: Do you worry that that statement that you're making is completely compromised when Palestinian militants, terrorists, bomb Israeli civilians, kill them, capture them, hold them hostage?

ZOMLOT: No.

AMANPOUR: How do you keep the moral high ground in that case?

ZOMLOT: We keep the moral high ground by sticking to international law, by reverting to the international judicial system, by seeking the ruling of the International Criminal Court. Let international judges come to Palestine, the occupied Palestinian territory, and rule, rule, and we will accept the ruling. If we commit any mistakes or crimes, we'll accept it. But everybody knows it's Israel that has been violating every provision of international law and our common human decency.

AMANPOUR: Do you see -- final question, is there any mediator, the U.S. or anybody right now, who could deescalate this?

ZOMLOT: The U.S. is completely disqualified. I've been following what is coming from Washington. What Washington considers Israel to be a domestic issue, not a foreign policy issue, and Washington is playing political footballing with this. And regrettably, regrettably we have been at the receiving end. The solution is the world, the international community. The U.S. should be at the table, but so is Europe, so is the rest of the world, so is China. The world must come together to end this conflict as it did with all other conflicts. We are not an exception.

AMANPOUR: Husam Zomlot, head of the Palestinian mission here. Thank you for that perspective.

Now, CNN's breaking coverage of this unprecedented situation continues right after a quick break, and we will be back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:17:00]

AMANPOUR: Welcome back. We're following a major breaking story out of the Middle East. Of course, Israel declaring it's at war with Hamas. At least 70 people are dead and nearly 1,000 wounded. Those numbers are expected to rise. That's inside Israel. The Palestinian terrorist group Hamas launched an offensive by air, sea, and land at sunrise.

Amos Harel is the chief military analyst of the Israeli newspaper "Haaretz." Welcome to the program. So Amos, just first and foremost, tell us, you're in Tel Aviv, and we've heard sirens, loud booms reported from our correspondents. What are you hearing or seeing now?

AMOS HAREL, CHIEF MILITARY ANALYST, "HAARETZ": I'm not seeing anything in particular, but there are quite a lot of alarms and sirens all over Israel for 12 hours. There were recent attacks on Tel Aviv around 8:00 Israeli time in the evening, just in time for the evening news, and there are casualties in Tel Aviv and other places, all over southern and central Israel, as well as the massive event which occurred on the Gaza border, which is the Hamas unprecedented attack, a very massive attack all across both Israeli military positions and especially villages and towns near Gaza.

AMANPOUR: And Amos, are those villages and towns still being fought over? Are there active gun battles happening in those places?

HAREL: Absolutely in a few places. The IDF has announced that there were 22 different places in which Hamas gunmen were seen and active. It's assumed that most of these places were taken over by the IDF and other security forces, but there are many casualties on both sides. There are civilians, dozens and dozens of civilians have been slaughtered murdered by Hamas terrorists, and there are others who were kidnapped, both soldiers and civilians, among them young and old people as well, and even presumably children kidnapped into the Gaza Strip. This is still going on as we speak, and this is, I think, more than 15 hours since the attack had begun.

AMANPOUR: And Amos, you're the chief military analyst for your newspaper. You know what your government does when it's under attack. It defends itself. And you also know what happens when hostages are taken. It does everything it can to get them back. Therefore, what are you expecting to be the next military moves from your government?

HAREL: I would assume that it wouldn't have to do with the hostages. There are so many hostages, these are prisoners of war from the Israeli point of view. I don't think that Israel would start any kind of negotiations about this for the time being. I think this is about a massive Israeli response. We've already heard of many, many air strikes, but this is not the end of it. It will continue for the next few days. I would guess that the Israeli response would get harsher.

[14:20:01]

I think there will be massive casualties on the Palestinian side. Israel will focus on military targets, but since Hamas is spread all over Gaza among civilians, there will be casualties for the civilian population. I would also take note of what's going on in Lebanon. We haven't seen any kind of threats from Hezbollah. But we're in a very, very dangerous situation. The numbers you've mentioned before are probably a low estimation of what's actually going on, and hopefully this going to probably get worse.

AMANPOUR: And you said you expected heavy Palestinian casualties as well. Already we've reported the numbers as far as we know that are being told to us from Israel, and the Palestinians are saying already more than 200 dead on their side. But I also want to ask you, because we've talked about the intelligence failure, one of your own former IDF spokespeople told CNN earlier that this is like your Pearl Harbor moment. I was fascinated to Bob Baer, former CIA operative, that he thought it's not an intelligence failure. It's the fact that Hamas have completely gotten off the grid, off the telephone grid, off all those kinds of things that could be electronically surveilled. What is your feeling about that? And I know there's a lot of -- I think there's a lot of social media, I've been told, anger about the surprise nature of this from inside Israel.

HAREL: Look, there's no point in hiding this. This is a spectacular failure, and not only for the intelligence agencies, but for the whole security apparatus and also for the government of Israel, which, as you know, has been otherwise occupied with this attempt at judicial upheaval for the last nine months. So this is a massive failure, something that we haven't seen since the Yom Kippur war in 73, which was our equivalent of the American Pearl Harbor, if you'd like. It's a combination of an intelligence failure, of the fact, apparently, that Hamas went off the grid, but also of the whole concept of Israeli defense along the border. I think we underestimated Hamas's capabilities. We were busy planning for a possible attack by Hezbollah. But it turns out that Hamas has quite surprised us. I think the Israeli retaliation will be quite massive. Personally, my sense is that Hamas leaders will come to regret this. There will be huge repercussions for what has happened.

AMANPOUR: Amos Harel, thank you so much for joining us.

Now, in a few moments, a few minutes, President Biden will speak about the unprecedented situation that we're covering, so stay with CNN for that. Our special coverage continues right after the break.

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[14:26:45]

AMANPOUR: We continue with our major breaking story, that is Israel has declared war with Hamas. It follows an unprecedented attack on Israel itself, when at least 200 Israelis have now been reported killed after Hamas terrorists launched a surprise attack on the country earlier, according to Israel's emergency rescue service moments ago, and of course there are many, many more wounded. Hamas fighters infiltrating towns, launching more than 3,000 rockets, some Israeli citizens and soldiers are being held as hostages and prisoners of war.

Also, a short time ago, sirens and more than a dozen loud booms could be heard across Tel Aviv. Hamas says that it's fired 150 rockets at the city. This was the scene earlier this CNN's Nic Robertson and others took cover while at Israel's main international Ben Gurion Airport.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(SIRENS)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: We literally just got the plane here at Ben Gurion Airport. The sirens have gone off, people are taking cover. We got off the bus, people are taking cover. And you can hear the intercept missiles banging in the air. Nothing incoming here. But everyone is taking cover. They've got down. A lot of concern about what's going to happen here this night.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: Now, the U.S., of course, is calling on its airlines to be very careful around that area and to, perhaps, avoid it. And that warning has gone out internationally. Israel itself is striking back, launching its own air strikes into Gaza, where Palestinians say hundreds have been killed, 232 according to their latest numbers, and more than 1,600 injured.

Now, video from CNN earlier shows a tower collapsing in Gaza City following an air strike. Israel also is mobilizing its troops and calling up tens of thousands of reservists. We're also seeing video that shows Hamas appearing to take Israelis captive. This video has been geolocated by CNN and we want to say that it could be disturbing for some. This is in Gaza. You can see a barefoot woman pulled from a trunk of a jeep by a gunman and then forced into the back of the seat of the car there. Her face is bleeding, and her wrists appear to be cable tied behind her back. The jeep also appears to have an Israeli Defense Force license plate, suggesting that it may have been stolen and brought into Gaza.

Now, we're waiting for President Biden to speak publicly from the White House on this situation that's unfolding in Israel. While we wait, we're joined by the former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett. Welcome to the program. Could I just start by asking you what you expect to hear from President Biden since he will be speaking very shortly?

[14:30:00]

NAFTALI BENNETT, FORMER PRIME MINISTER OF ISRAEL: Well, we know that President Biden and the United States of America stand behind Israel, and that warms our heart and strengthens us. Now the job is ours to do. And it's time to strike back. And that's what the IDF is doing right now. This morning at 6:30 in the morning, we were attacked by Hamas in a sinister attack against dozens of communities, women, children, elderly people were all murdered point blank. Well over 200 Israelis were murdered point blank by these terrorists. This was unprovoked, and, in fact, over the past week or so the Israeli government had opened up Gaza for more Palestinian employees to come in. So this was totally unprovoked, and now Israel is hitting back.

AMANPOUR: What do you think your government, your country will do next? When you say hitting back, so far we've seen air strikes. What do you think is going to happen? We understand Prime Minister Netanyahu has had an all-cabinet national security meeting. What do you think, given your experience in government, as head of the government, will happen next? BENNETT: We're at full war with the Hamas and with the Palestinian

state of Hamas. And I want to be very clear, there's a full full-blown Palestinian state in Gaza run and governed by Hamas, and we had an unprovoked act of war this morning. And the prime minister correctly defined this as an act of war. What we're seeing in Israel right now is everyone left and right, religious and secular, who have been divided over the past eight, nine months in a meaningful domestic debate, but everyone is uniting behind the idea, and everyone in Israel, from left to right, is in full consensus that we need to go out and defend ourselves, and we need to hit back very severely. I'm not going to give advice to my government, I'm going to stand behind my government, because we're all one today.

AMANPOUR: You mentioned the internal debate, and others have mentioned it today, and suggesting that perhaps that was a distraction. Do you think so?

BENNETT: Well, certainly our enemies interpreted it as a sign of vulnerability, and they are taking advantage of it. But throughout the day, I've spent hours with the fighters. I, myself, for many years have been a fighter. So I was in their launch grounds. And I can tell you that the Israeli IDF fighters and soldiers are all ready, and, in fact, eager to strike back and defend our families. So the terrorists, Hamas misinterpreted Israel's mentality.

AMANPOUR: You're in Tel Aviv. We had our correspondent, Nic Robertson, at the airport. Are you hearing or seeing anything now around Tel Aviv?

BENNETT: Yes, well, just about six minutes ago there were sirens and booms just a few hundred meters away from where I'm sitting right now. But really, the main events right now that are still open are roughly a dozen battle points where, as we speak, Israeli citizens are usually within a locked-in shelter. I'm talking to some of them, and they're whispering to me, help, help, because just a meter or two outside there's terrorists, Hamas walking next to them, and sometimes calling them to come out. And I'm telling them, don't go out unless you confirm that it's, in fact, IDF soldiers and not Hamas terrorists.

And then what the Hamas is doing, they're beginning to burn some of the homes in order to smoke out the Israeli citizens. This is horrible. This is going on right now. I was talking to a mom that had a baby in the shelter for the past 14 hours. She's running out of food. And it's very tough. So my message to them is to keep strong. We're sending hundreds of thousands of IDF soldiers, flooding the south with them, while also strengthening the north against potential Hezbollah attack.

AMANPOUR: Naftali Bennett, former prime minister, thank you for joining us.

And as I said, we're waiting for President Biden to speak at the White House on this attack. And I want to go now to our CNN White House reporter Kevin Liptak, for more. So Kevin, what do we expect, what should we expect to hear from the president beyond the statement that he's made? KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Certainly forceful

condemnation of these attacks, I expect to hear that from President Biden. Also reiterating his support from Israel amid all of this, and he did just get off the phone with the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a few hours ago, and he reiterated in that phone call that the U.S. stands ready to support Israel in all of this.

[14:35:05]

The one thing that I'm going to be listening for in the president's remarks is any indication of how he sees this conflict unfolding going forward, whether he got any indications from Prime Minister Netanyahu about where this goes next. And of course, that is the big question American officials are asking now, what room is there for diplomacy to diffuse sort of a broader conflict?

And you have seen the Americans act as a broker in the past for potential cease-fire. You saw that in 2021, President Biden on the phone almost daily trying to organize the cease-fire between the Palestinians and Israel, with the help of Egypt and Qatar. And I think when you're talking to American officials today, that is the question they're asking, is what are these avenues with which they could take to try and diffuse this crisis.

And we did also hear that President Biden spoke today with the king of Jordan, King Abdullah. And so I think that that is an important indication of the president trying to find these avenues for diplomacy, because at the bottom line, this is a very sensitive moment for U.S.-Israel ties. The relationship between the president and the prime minister had been strained over some of the steps taken by this far right governing coalition. President Biden and Netanyahu did speak last month on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, and he was expected to visit the White House in the coming months.

But the bottom line is this is a tense moment. And of course, President Biden is also working to negotiate this historic agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia. That was expected to include some serious concessions from Israel to the Palestinians. But when you talk to American officials this morning, they say it's just too early to tell how that process will go forward, Christiane.

AMANPOUR: Indeed. And just listening to you speak as we watch a split screen of where the president will speak and the podium getting ready, the context around this is so huge and so dramatic and so important that it really does beg the question of whether any of these big strategic goals can be achieved at this particular time. And Kevin, you know and I know, we've all watched it, you mentioned the 2021 issue when President Biden intervened and used diplomacy. But this is, by some counts, round five of Israel and Hamas going at it in Gaza, and it never leads to anything permanent. And I wonder whether you're picking that kind of stuff up, that no matter what happens now, there's likely to be a good many days of high and heavy military escalation.

LIPTAK: Certainly, and that had been one of the goals of this normalization effort between Israel and Saudi Arabia, is to try and establish some normalcy for the Palestinians, some of the concessions that had been bandied about, things like freezing settlements in the West Bank, talking about Israeli acknowledgment of an eventual Palestinian state. With all of that on hold, the situation certainly becomes more chaotic. And I think for President Biden the question is where he can have the most effect.

For now, certainly, that will be on the side of the Israelis, and politically for President Biden, he will have to support the Israelis sort of full-throatedly going forward. I think the other question, big question that you're hearing from American officials today is where was the intelligence? Why weren't the Israelis able to see this coming? Because when you talk to American officials, they say they did not detect any indication that this attack was in the works in their own intelligence, and certainly if they had, they would have shared it with the Israelis. And so the question I think American officials are asking is, did they miss anything, or did the intelligence just not exist at all? So a lot of questions going forward in the opening hours of what certainly U.S. officials expect to be quite a prolonged conflict, Christiane.

AMANPOUR: Kevin Liptak at the White House, thank you.

And we will be right back after a break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:43:06]

AMANPOUR: So as we wait for President Biden to speak from the White House and tell the world what the U.S. is going to do to try to deescalate the situation, we're joined now here on set by CNN international correspondent Sam Kiley along with CNN White House reporter Kevin Liptak, and the national security reporter Natasha Bertrand.

First, let me turn to you, Sam. You have been -- obviously, you've covered it for a long time. One of your reports today showed a conversation that you had with Hamas militants in the West Bank a year ago, almost predicting that something big was going to happen. So put it in context. Why now?

SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think from the Hamas perspective, and when we talk about Hamas, we're really talking about those highly militant groups that deny the right of the state of Israel to exist, Islamic Jihad among them. They're the dominant group up in Jenin. But they're very closely linked to Hamas, mostly through the funding and inspiration coming out of Tehran. So that links up into Hezbollah. We'll probably come to that.

But there has been a steady buildup of militant energy and anger on the West Bank. Gaza is a pressure cooker at all times, but on the West Bank where Israeli settlements have been gouging into the landscape, the Israelis are now almost comfortable with the allegation from their critics that they've established a system of apartheid for Palestinians in that landscape. There's been a steady buildup of violence. And, clearly, there's always going to be a Palestinian group who says war is coming. But we have seen this incremental increase.

And I think what I heard in Jenin last year really was, if not part of the early planning or a confession to the early planning, certainly an expression of intent. And what we're seeing is the manifestation of that intent, which is to scupper a whole series of Israelis plans.

[14:45:00]

AMANPOUR: Yes, maybe that might be the intent, but the other intent, the other manifestation is that this was a very -- it's not planned last week. This is months, at least, in the planning.

KILEY: Absolutely. They went in on paragliders. That's very difficult to train. They have been trained. They've shown training videos in the past of using motorized paragliders in Gaza, but it looked a bit peculiar, a bit amateur. That's certainly proven to be highly effective in this incursion. They've come in by sea. They've used their tunnels. They've overrun Erez Crossing, probably the most fortified location in the whole of the strip. You and I have been through it dozens of times. It is a kind of enormous fortress with tunnels and sniper positions. They've somehow managed to get in there, kill a large number of Israelis, get out the other side, capture some Israelis. They've released propaganda video along these lines.

So not only have they planned it militarily, but they planned it from a propaganda perspective. So releasing these, quote-unquote, military success videos --

AMANPOUR: And the hostage videos --

KILEY: The hostage videos.

AMANPOUR: As Israel calls them, prisoners of war, but they are releasing it, some of it --

KILEY: Drip feeding this out with the hope that they will see a concomitant uprising, perhaps, on the West Bank, perhaps even among the Palestinian population of Israelis. All of this is an effort to try to combine it into that regional conflagration that that man talked to me about in Jenin this time last year.

AMANPOUR: Incredible. I just want to turn to Natasha Bertrand who is at the State Department. Natasha, with all of that in mind, this incredible planning that happened, and everybody has been calling it an unprecedented attack inside Israel for decades and decades, what does the U.S. have front and center? Is it to try to deescalate the local situation? Are they worried about a bigger conflict?

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes, Christiane, I think the chief concern for the U.S. right now is what kind of blind spots exist in Israeli intelligence that may have allowed something like this to happen. I know we're expecting President Biden to come out within the next minute or two, but that is really what the president and his national security team are homing in on right now, is to see whether there were any signs that were missed that potentially could have predicted this kind of large-scale coordinated attack, or whether the intelligence was simply not there at all.

Now, Israel has long prided itself on being able to detect these kinds of mass operations, these kinds of communications that may have led up to this. And the fact that it appears that they were completely caught off guard by this, something that Benjamin Netanyahu even acknowledged earlier today, that this was a surprise, is highly concerning to the U.S. because the U.S. does rely a lot on the Israelis to inform them about what is going on, of course, in their own backyard.

And so there are going to be a lot of questions in the next few days and weeks and months as this goes on about whether the terror groups have perhaps gotten more sophisticated, whether there are serious gaps in Israeli intelligence that the U.S. needs to be aware of and needs to perhaps help them fix. But this is, obviously, very concerning to the U.S., which has a very robust intelligence sharing partnership with the Israelis. But clearly, something went very wrong here, Christiane.

AMANPOUR: Natasha, just want to say we're looking at the podium. We've seen a presidential aide place a statement on the podium. We know that within a minute or so the president should be there. So very quickly, to Kevin, what do we know that he's going to say beyond his statement of earlier today? And you've probably got about 30 seconds.

LIPTAK: Yes. Well, I wouldn't be surprised if these are extraordinarily short remarks, because I think the president doesn't feel like he can say a great deal about the actual situation on the ground there because, one, it is in folding, and Israel hasn't yet responded, but also because he doesn't necessarily want to inflame tensions any further. And so, I think you're going to hear from him sort of a generic condemnation of the attacks, support for Israel, a brief readout, potentially of his conversation with the prime minister --

AMANPOUR: Here he comes. The president is there, Kevin. Thank you. With the Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

JOE BIDEN, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Today, the people of Israel are under attack, orchestrated by a terrorist organization, Hamas. In this moment of tragedy, I want to say to them and to the world, and to terrorists everywhere, that the United States stands with Israel. We will not ever fail to have their back. We'll make sure that they have the help their citizens need, and they can continue to defend themselves.

The world has seen appalling images, thousands of rockets in a space of hours raining down on Israeli cities. I got up this morning and started this at 7:30, 8:00, my calls, Hamas terrorists crossing into Israel, killing not only Israeli soldiers, but Israeli civilians. In the streets, in their homes, innocent people murdered, wounded, and entire families taken hostage by Hamas, just days after Israel marked the holiest of days in the Jewish calendar. It's unconscionable.

[14:50:07]

When I spoke with Prime Minister Netanyahu this morning, I told him the United States stands with the people of Israel in the face of these terrorist assaults. Israel has the right to defend itself and its people, full stop. There's never a justification for terrorist attacks. And my administration's support for Israel's security is rock solid and unwavering.

Let me say this as clearly as I can. This is not a moment for any party hostile to Israel to exploit these attacks to seek advantage. The world is watching. I've also been in contact with the king of Jordan. I spoke with members of Congress, directed my national security team to engage with their Israeli counterparts, military to military, intelligence to intelligence, diplomat to diplomat to make sure Israel has what it needs.

I've also directed my team to remain in constant contact with leadership throughout the region, including Egypt, Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Oman, the UAE, as well as our European partners and the Palestinian Authority. It's also a terrible tragedy on a human level. It's hurting innocent people, seeing the lives that have been broken by this, the families torn past. It's heartbreaking. And Jill and I are praying for those families who have been impacted by this violence. We grieve with those who have lost their loved ones, lost a piece of their soul.

We have hope for a swift recovery for many who have been wounded. We're going to remain in close touch with the prime minister, I personally am going to remain in close contact with Prime Minister Netanyahu as this situation continues to develop. And let there be no mistake, the United States stands with the state of Israel. This we have from the moment the United States became the first nation to recognize Israel 11 minutes after its founding 75 years ago.

Thank you very much.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, was there an intelligence failure in the lead-up to this attack?

AMANPOUR: The president taking no questions, delivering a two-minute or so address, a very, very strong and unmistakable statement, saying several times we stand with the state of Israel, condemning the terrorist attack against them, giving all those who have been killed the condolences and sympathies. As he said, Jill and I are praying for those who have lost their lives and those who are injured. He said that he's been talking and has instructed his teams to talk to all their allies in the region, in Europe, also, of course, the Palestinians.

So let us now turn quickly to our cast of experts here with us. First to you, Sam Kiley, sitting next to me, senior correspondent in this region. What can actually somebody like Turkey or Jordan or Egypt, all the usual interlocutors actually do right now?

KILEY: While any of them have got a hotline to Tehran, and there was a very pointed, literally he was waving his finger saying any of the regional players think about exploiting this, don't. We're watching you carefully. So anybody who has got a line into Tehran, and there are limited communications there, will be instantly trying to insist to Tehran to keep Hezbollah under control. I don't think Hezbollah is likely to out of control. They're highly disciplined, but they might want down the line to exploit this. That would be regionally catastrophic.

Then he's also a slight dig at Qatar which has condemned the Israelis and blamed the Israelis for this very spectacular and complex incursion operation that has come entirely out of Gaza. And then, of course, you've got the ones that are closer, Jordan, the UAE, of course recently normalized relations, again, trying to make sure they keep their own populations under control, that they don't join a bandwagon of this energy, which is precisely what Hamas is trying to create, is to reignite the Middle East in an anti-Israeli fervor at a time when there's been this process of normalizations. So I think that's really what's going on on a wider regional level with his statement there.

AMANPOUR: So let me turn to you, if you're there, Natasha and Kevin. What did you take away from, obviously, a short and scripted statement, no questions. Natasha, is that what you expected to hear?

BERTRAND: I don't think we expected a very fulsome press conference scenario for the president at this point because so little is known He is still working, of course, with Israeli counterparts to determine what exactly they need. And as Kevin mentioned earlier, he does not want to inflame the situation earlier. I think it was just really an effort by the president to show that the United States stands in complete solidarity with Israel and convey that with the secretary of state standing directly behind him. It was an opportunity for him to take the statement that he had put out earlier on paper and address the American public about it directly, Christiane.

[14:55:00]

AMANPOUR: Very quickly to Kevin, because we're coming up to the end of this particular show, the U.S. is banking on its historic influence. Does it still have what it takes given that the U.S. has seemed to literally put this issue on the backburner for many years now?

LIPTAK: I think in President Biden's view they do. But I think that will be the test over the next months, next weeks, next days, is whether President Biden can lean on regional partners who have influence with the Palestinians to make what difference they can, and whether he can lean on his own personal decades' long relationship with the prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, to sort of defuse this crisis in any manner that he can, Christiane.

AMANPOUR: Kevin, Natasha, Sam, thank you all very much indeed for joining. And of course, you'll all stay here.

Thank you so much for joining me today. I'm Christiane Amanpour in London. And our special coverage anchored by Dana Bash will start after a quick break.

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