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CNN's Continuing Coverage on the Israeli Conflict with Hamas. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired October 09, 2023 - 03:00   ET

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

[03:00:00]

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UNKNOWN (voice-over): This is CNN Breaking News.

MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us from all around the world and to everyone streaming us on CNN Max too. I'm Max Foster. We're continuing our coverage of breaking news out of the Middle East where Israeli troops are still fighting against Hamas on the ground inside Israel.

Two days after the militant groups' large scale surprise attack. The Israeli military is also keeping up strikes on Gaza and says it has severely degraded the capabilities of Hamas.

Palestinians in that area say more than 430 people have been killed since the Israeli strikes began. Meanwhile, Hamas is claiming to have launched a major missile attack on the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon, with Israel saying an apartment building was hit. This comes as the militant group claims to now be holding more than 100 hostages in Gaza, including high-ranking Israeli officers.

Inside Israel, the death toll from Hamas' attack has climbed past 700. At least 260 were killed at a music festival near the Israel-Gaza border.

Elliot Gotkine is following all these developments for us from here. I mean, we're getting more images, aren't we, from the music festival, which is one horrific part of this story. And can only imagine what it was like to be there, but also to be a hostage from there and the families watching people taken away.

ELLIOT GOTKINE, JOURNALIST: Right, I mean, that one festival alone, counts for some 260 of the deaths inside of Israel. These were young people at this so-called Peace Festival. They were performers from Brazil, France, Japan, and also attendees from those countries. We know that some of the hostages who have been taken by Hamas do hail from other countries such as Mexico, for example.

And this was clearly not something that was expected. We know that there was this initial barrage of rockets fired from the Gaza Strip towards Israel. And then festival goers reporting that they heard, you know, gunfire. And we've seen, you know, dash cam footage. We've seen footage from people's phones as they were just running in terror to try to get away. And of course, we've seen those harrowing scenes of people being dragged off and hauled off on motorbikes or just taken away, their current fate unknown.

And we know from the IDF and also from what Hamas was saying in terms of the hostages, there are dozens, if not more than 100 hostages now inside the Gaza Strip, and that is going to really complicate the response that Israel now takes or undertakes. We're expecting perhaps some kind of ground incursion, but what does Israel do when you're going into the Gaza Strip and you know that there are Israeli citizens and also Israeli soldiers inside the Gaza Strip being held by Hamas and other militant groups.

FOSTER: What might presumably they've spread these hostages out to complicate these potential ground invasions.

GOTKINE: Right. And not only would they presumably be spread out, but in addition to that, Hamas would expect and maybe even wants the IDF, the Israeli Defense Forces, to go into the Gaza Strip because Hamas knows the Gaza Strip roads and where and they can booby trap places, they can lay down improvised explosive devices and the like.

And there is undoubtedly the likelihood that if and when Israel does go in on the ground, that there will be additional casualties and perhaps additional hostages and let's not forget that in 2006, one Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, was taken hostage by Hamas.

Five years he was held captive He was released in exchange for 1,000 Palestinian prisoners and you can do the math. I mean, I don't even know if there are that many prisoners in Israeli jails to exchange for that kind of a map.

FOSTER: That's what they're looking at.

GOTKINE: Right. And make no mistake that Hamas will really make use of these hostages to try, whether it's to wring out concessions or try to force-stall some kind of invasion or just to get as much leverage as it can against Israel and its supporters.

FOSTER: Meanwhile, targeted strikes into Gaza and the Israelis are telling civilians to evacuate certain areas, but just explain to us the complication of that when this is one of the most densely populated parts of the world.

GOTKINE: Well, Israel was telling civilians inside the Gaza Strip to move away from certain areas. And also in the past, certainly, and at the beginning of Israel's retaliatory strikes, this time around, there has been this so-called knock on the door, a kind of warning to tell people to move. But according to Richard Hecht, he's the chief international spokesperson for the IDF, that is no longer happening, saying that look, Hamas isn't doing knocks on the door. We're now at war. The whole kind of dynamic of this conflict is now different from previous conflagrations between Israel and militants.

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FOSTER: Inevitably, because of the densely populated area, there's going to be huge casualties, right?

GOTKINE: We're already seeing huge casualties. More than 400 Palestinians are killed inside the Gaza Strip, according to the Health Ministry there. And I think it's inevitable that there will be more casualties there. And the question now is that at the moment, Israel still has the support, of course, of the United States, but also of European countries. Germany, France, we've seen support from Argentina, from Serbia, from Ukraine, for example.

And I think that the danger now is that as the civilian death toll inside the Gaza Strip rises, that some of that support will perhaps begin to waver and Israel could find itself being, having let being backed to a lesser degree, if you like, in terms of its retaliation. But at the same time, Israel, of course. not only needs to make a statement, not only needs to restore its deterrence, but it wants to get the Israelis that are being held captive back. And that is going to be a very, very complicated and difficult thing to do.

FOSTER: OK, Elliot, thank you. Back with you throughout the day.

As the IDF continues to fight Hamas inside Israel, an Israeli official says it's possible that militants are still crossing into the country from Gaza. But the IDF says it is going door to door in towns near the Gaza border and helping survivors to safety.

Our Rosemary Church spoke last hour with IDF spokesperson Major Libby Weiss, who gave us an update on the situation right now.

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MAJ. LIBBY WEISS, ISRAEL DEFENSE FORCES SPOKESPERSON: We know that Hamas terrorists are still fighting Israeli soldiers in a handful of civilian communities in Israel along the Gaza border. And of course, this is going to be a long operation, and we are now really in the early stages of beginning to mourn a horrific massacre that we experienced two days ago, what is the biggest massacre of Israelis since the establishment of the country. So it is a very tense and certainly dynamic time right now, and the fighting continues here within Israel as we speak.

ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: And Israel doesn't yet have full control of the border areas, but when might that happen, do you think?

WEISS: Well, of course, it is a top priority for us. We know that, of course, there are civilians who are there. We know of civilians who are currently still being held hostage by Hamas within those communities. So this is of course the main mission of the military right now and our main focus.

CHURCH: Yeah, you mentioned those hostages because Hamas is now claiming that they have more than 100 hostages. We don't know if that is the actual number, but how difficult will it be to bring them all home safely and is a ground incursion inevitable into Gaza, do you think?

WEISS: Well of course bringing them home safely is a top priority. So many of us here in Israel are directly impacted and when we see the images of the elderly, of children, of entire families who have been kidnapped, we are all devastated. So of course it is a top, top priority to bring them back alive and at this stage every option is on the table for the military and then we will assess the situation as it develops and determine what comes next.

CHURCH: And talk to us about the capabilities of Hamas, because we've never seen this level of sophistication and coordinated attacks, land, air, and sea. Just extraordinary. And on top of that, the fact that it was done with the intelligence within Israel not getting any indication that was playing out. I mean, that is alarming, isn't it? Not just for it happening two days ago, but what this means for future attacks. So talk to us about that and how that's being explained to the people of Israel, how intelligence in Israel didn't pick up on this.

WEISS: Well, we've been monitoring Hamas' development in the last decade. And of course, it's something that we have been expressing and echoing in every opportunity, which is that we understand that Hamas, their entire mission, their entire reason for existence, is to wipe Israel off the map. And they are very open about that. And their investment over time of millions and millions of dollars into their weapons systems, into their military capabilities is something that we have certainly been trying to draw attention to globally for the world to understand that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Gregg Carlstrom is a Middle East correspondent for "The Economist." He's also author of "How Long Will Israel Survive? The Threat From Within." He joins us from Dubai. Thank you so much for joining us.

Interesting listening to the IDF there. They're not ruling out a ground invasion, are they?

[03:10:00]

But they've got to get these hostages back. And that's either through negotiation, which seems impossible at this time, or a ground invasion. Does that make a ground invasion inevitable? And when might it be?

GREGG CARLSTROM, MIDDLE EAST CORRESPONDENT, THE ECONOMIST: I don't think it makes it inevitable, but it certainly complicates the planning. I think if it wasn't for those hostages. It would be a very high probability that they would be leaning towards doing a ground invasion now. There was a push for that back in 2014, the last time there was a big war between Israel and Hamas. That war was started when Hamas kidnapped three Israelis and killed three Israelis.

The trigger for war is much bigger right now. Prime Minister Netanyahu has a much more right-wing coalition. So I think there's going to be a real push within Israel for a ground invasion. But yes, the presence of those hostages. really complicates matters. You run the risk that people will be killed in crossfire. If there is a ground invasion, it looks like it's going to unseat Hamas from power, remove it from power.

The group could perhaps decide it has nothing to lose and execute hostages. And so those are the things that Israeli security officials and Israeli politicians are discussing right now as they try to figure out how to respond.

FOSTER: We heard from our correspondent earlier that a ground invasion might actually be what Hamas wants because they also know the territory better and they would have laid their defenses.

CARLSTROM: Right and this again if you go back to 2014 when there was some talk about this there were a lot of people in the Israeli army who were warning about exactly that it's one thing to do an aerial campaign to bomb from the air maybe do a few raids near the border but to actually go into Gaza to send large numbers of troops you wind up with very bloody urban combat in an environment where Israel has not had a presence in almost two decades. Israel withdrew its troops from Gaza in 2005.

It doesn't have a foothold on the ground. And so there's a real risk that you get drawn into a very prolonged, very bloody battle and don't know how to get out of it. Don't know what the endgame is.

FOSTER: There's obviously a lot of sympathy for Israel right now because of this horrific series of events that is still transpiring there. We're hearing that there are still attempts to cross the border. They will lose sympathy presumably when they go into one of the densely populated -- most densely populated areas on Earth and inevitably the casualties escalate and Arab countries or, you know, several Arab countries are already just sitting on the sidelines and not actually even expressing sympathy for Israel right now.

CARLSTROM: They will, and that's what tends to happen every time there is one of these escalations in Gaza. The sympathy for Israel erodes very, very quickly. As you heard before, Gaza is a densely populated place. People have nowhere to go. There are no bomb shelters. There is nowhere to flee.

They're hemmed in on two sides by Israeli and Egyptian blockade and on the third side by the Mediterranean Sea. So the civilian casualties will be quite high, especially if there is ground fighting that goes on. street to street in densely populated neighborhoods.

And with Arab states, I think it's interesting how for all of the talk in recent years about Arab-Israeli normalization, about the Abraham Accords, the response that we've heard from many Arab states has not been at all full-throated support for Israel. And I think even the sort of very neutral responses that we've heard to date will grow increasingly critical as the weeks go on.

FOSTER: And this normalization of relations between Israel and some Arab states, including Saudi Arabia, was obviously central to President Biden's Middle East policy, wasn't it? What happens to that?

CARLSTROM: Well, if you ask American officials, they say it's still on the table and they say they're still working on it. I think one thing to point out is that even before all of this, when you ask people in the White House about Israeli-Saudi normalization, they would say, we really have to get it done before the end of the year, because if this goes into 2024, the American political system is going to be consumed by elections.

It's not going to be a time when we can get a big foreign policy initiative through, maybe, get a defense treaty for Saudi Arabia through the Senate. That's just not going to be possible with the political situation next year. So I suspect what happens now, the Americans are still pushing for it, but the attack on Israel this weekend will certainly delay it as will the Israeli response and the scenes of war coming out of Gaza.

That is not a good backdrop for the Saudis or anyone else to normalize with Israel. And I think if this gets pushed off into next year, there's a good chance that it's going to remain tabled until after the election in November.

FOSTER: Greg Carlstrom, Middle East Correspondent for "The Economist." Thank you very much for your analysis.

Still ahead, families search for their loved ones as Hamas takes dozens of Israelis hostage. We'll hear from one anguished father. Just ahead.

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FOSTER: Well, Israeli military officials say it's taking them longer than expected to clear all the Hamas militants out of southern Israel. Fierce gunfights are underway in several areas around Gaza. A spokesperson for the Israeli Defense Forces says they are working to secure the border, but that breach points still exist.

He says in fact it's possible that more Hamas fighters are crossing into Israel after the initial surprise attack. As we mentioned, Hamas says it's holding more than 100 hostages in Gaza, including high- ranking Israeli officers. Families of those captives say they're desperate and they're pleading for their safe return.

CNN's Becky Anderson spoke with one of them.

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BECKY ANDERSON, CNN ANCHOR, CONNECT THE WORLD (voice-over): The unspeakable anguish of a father, describing the moment he saw a video posted on social media of his daughter pleading for her life.

It was Noah, frightened and threatened, he says.

(on-camera): I'm so sorry.

UNKNOWN: It's okay. ANDERSON (on-camera): I'm so, so sorry.

UNKNOWN: It's okay.

ANDERSON (on-camera): I'm so sorry.

(voice-over): You don't want to believe it even though you can clearly see it's your daughter. He now wants this video to be seen widely.

25-year-old Noah Agamani, seen here on the back of a motorcycle being driven away. Her boyfriend, Avianatan Orr, is seen here with two men holding his hands behind his back. A dark plume of smoke can be seen in the background.

[03:20:04]

They'd been among the more than 1,000 people partying at an all-night music festival in southern Israel near the Gaza border when it was raided by armed Hamas militants early on Saturday morning.

Her father says Noah and Avi Natan were kidnapped. Their whereabouts, unknown, but are assumed to be held in Gaza.

I'm so sad at this moment. She's my only daughter. And Yakov's pain, mirrored by so many others. Parents, family members, wives, husbands, filled with horror and despair, thinking about the fate of their loved ones.

In this video that's been circulating widely online, a woman is seen in the back of a truck as a militant puts a scarf over her head. CNN has not been able to independently verify it.

But Yoni Asha, a resident of the Sharon region, told CNN his wife and two daughters, aged five and three, were visiting their grandmother near the Gaza border.

He lost contact with them on Saturday morning and suspected they may have been abducted. Later that day, his suspicions confirmed when he saw the video. The woman was his wife.

He told CNN he wants the video to be shown in the hopes of getting them home safely.

YONI ASHA, SHARON RESIDENT: There was no doubt in my mind, I recognized them, surely, my wife, my two daughters, my two little daughters that were on this cart. So I know for sure that they were taken.

ANDERSON (voice-over): The Israel Defense Forces told CNN, it's taking pains to establish the exact number of hostages taken, emphasizing the complicated nature of the situation. So far, they estimate there are dozens, possibly more, in captivity.

Yaakov has a message to whoever is holding his daughter.

You have casualties just like we do. This is an opportunity to connect between the two nations, to reach an honest peace.

For now, Yaakov sits at home and waits for news, taking comfort from his family and Noah's friends.

She's a very special kid, so loving, so giving. I miss her so much. It's only been two and a half days. I cannot believe she is gone, he says. She made this house so alive. It felt like this house is empty without her.

Becky Anderson, CNN, Tel Aviv.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: There's so many layers to this. There's the personal stories. There's that conflict, Nada, isn't there, between these two areas? And now we've got the international reaction, which is where it gets really complex.

NADA BASHIR, CNN REPORTER: Absolutely. And there's a real focus on the diplomatic side and efforts to de-escalate tensions. We've seen the expression of solidarity, of support from Israel's allies, particularly, of course, in the United States. President Biden was very clear on the weekend the U.S.'s support is rock solid and unwavering in his words.

And we've heard on Sunday that the U.S., according to Biden, will be sending additional assistance. He says it's already on its way with more to follow in the coming days as well. We've heard those repeated expressions of support from European leaders.

We heard from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the weekend saying that he has spoken with the leaders of Germany, Italy, and Britain, as well as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, all of whom he says have expressed support for Israel.

But of course, on the regional front, there is a real sense of concern and fear around the potential for further escalation of this violence and the impact that could have regionally.

Turkey, for its part, says it stands ready to support any efforts to mediate some sort of peace agreement to reduce the tensions between the Israelis and Hamas.

They said they are determined to continue intensifying the diplomatic efforts that President Erdogan has so far initiated.

But of course, there has been some expression of support, solidarity with the Palestinian people as well. We've heard from Saudi Arabia. Interestingly, Saudi has been exploring the potential of normalizing ties with Israel up until this far, and they have condemned the attack. They've expressed their wish for the violence to end.

But I've also said that, according to the Saudi Foreign Ministry, that they have been warning Israel for some time now around the consequences of Israel's continued occupation of Palestinian territories, and also failure to uphold the rights and the freedoms of the Palestinian people. And that, of course, has been echoed by Iran. Iran, of course, a key player here, and it is a key focus.

There have been questions around the possible role Iran may have played in supporting Hamas. We have this statement from the Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, who says, Iran supports the Palestinian nation's legitimate defense.

[03:25:04]

The Zionist regime and its backers bear responsibility for endangering the security of the nations of the region, and they must be held to account for this.

And there have been questions around whether Iran has played a role in perhaps funding or training Hamas fighters, particularly given the sophistication of the attack that we saw on Saturday. At this stage, the U.S., according to U.S. sources, say they do not have any evidence to suggest or indicate that Iran has played a role, but they are looking into this, given the long history Iran has of backing Hamas, as well as the Iran-backed group Hezbollah in Lebanon.

FOSTER: Okay. Nada, thank you.

Still to come, some festival goers, soldiers and even children. What we know about those who've been captured by Hamas, just ahead.

Plus, we'll speak with a woman who survived the attack in Storot, in a bomb shelter with her two very young children, her story next.

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FOSTER: We're following breaking news out of the Middle East where deadly fighting continues between Israel and Hamas. An Israeli military official says Israeli troops are still fighting against Hamas on the ground inside Israel. More than 700 people are dead in Israel after Hamas launched unprecedented surprise strikes on Saturday, prompting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to declare outright war on Hamas.

Israel's own attacks on Gaza have killed more than 400 people with the IDF claiming to have, quote, "severely degraded the capabilities of Hamas in a series of airstrikes." Among the Israelis, Hamas has kidnapped our young people who are celebrating a Jewish holiday at a music festival near the Gaza border.

[03:30:00]

But the Hamas gunmen who stormed the site didn't just take hostages. They also murdered hundreds of festival goers.

We caution you, the images of the aftermath you're about to see are very graphic as CNN's Clarissa Ward saw when she visited that site.

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CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): What happened just off this quiet border road was a massacre. The bodies of the perpetrators still remain, while the fate of many

victims is unknown.

Organizers of the Supernova Music Festival say that thousands of young revelers had gathered to celebrate the end of the holidays, when just after 6 A.M., Hamas militants launched a bloody attack.

(on-camera): So we're just now on the approach to the Kibbutz where that dance party was taking place. You can see there's vehicles all around here that have been shot up. We see the bodies of at least one, two Hamas fighters. I think there are more down this way.

(voice-over): Many of the victims spent hours in hiding, waiting to be rescued and calling their loved ones.

(on-camera): Many of them are still missing. Many of them are dead. It's been very difficult to try to get a precise number.

(voice-over): Now, a volunteer group that handles human remains says that at least 260 bodies have been found at the festival site. The government here took a bold step, releasing an image of scores of body bags in a tent where investigators were tasked with identifying them.

(on-camera): So you can see over here the body of at least one other person. I don't think you want to get too close to it. It's pretty graphic.

(voice-over): Active fighting continued along this stretch of the border throughout the day as Israeli military forces poured in.

(on-camera): So we're seeing a bunch of tanks being brought down this way. You can also have been hearing a steady stream of booms, apparently rockets landing in the distance in that direction and certainly a feeling that people are on high alert. We tried to push further down that way. We were told on no uncertain terms we needed to turn around.

Clarissa Ward, CNN, Re'im, Israel.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Adi Levitz and her very young children are survivors of the Hamas attack on the city of Sderot. And she is eight months pregnant. Adi joins us live from the safety of Jerusalem. Thank you so much for joining us. I can't imagine the trauma you're suffering. So thank you for making the time to tell the world of your story.

Just take us through, if you would, what you first heard of the attack and how you responded?

ADI LEVITZ, ISRAELI CITIZEN: So my kids woke up very early Saturday morning. We were awake having breakfast at 6:15 in the living room. They were having corn flakes. And suddenly I heard our window, our kitchen window is right towards Gaza. So whenever there's missiles, we see them come first and then we hear the siren. So I heard a little bit of booming. I thought it was maybe thunder,

maybe weather. And after one second, there was a siren. I had to pick up my three-year-old and my two-year-old in both arms and run to the bomb shelter. And my husband was, you know, he was sleeping. We both went in and we closed the door.

And the immediate first bombing was at least 15 sirens in a row. In other words, there was missiles falling one after another without any pause. And from that moment, we understood that this is out of the ordinary. In other words. It's not just an attack that is maybe one or two missiles and then it's over, but there's something different about this time.

And it's a high holiday for us. So we generally don't have phones, we're not connected. We don't have the ability to know what's going on. And a few hours later, we understood that once we were hostile inside the bomb shelter, we went to check our phones and we saw that there's terrorists roaming in the streets, shooting, there's missiles, that it's not possible to even leave our houses.

And it was the first effect of my two-year-old said to me, Imaam scared, I'm afraid. And for a two-year-old to be able to express that for me, that was like shocking in the situation. But it was a very scary, very tragic moment for us to understand that there's a war going on in the middle of our holiday.

FOSTER: It's still going on as well, which I find extraordinary on the Monday. There are still incursions and concerns about incursions and there's still battles going on.

LEVITZ: It's just the beginning and I think there's a game changer that right now it's not about the missiles and it's not about anything. It's about the manslaughter that's going on. And I'm in WhatsApp groups all over the city.

[03:35:00]

First of all, the amount of civilians announcing about shootings all over the city, in different places, in different locations. At the same time, it's horrifying, the amount of people that we hear Arabs in our buildings shooting everywhere and killing civilians and my friends, they also, yesterday we left our home after we were there all Saturday night and all Sunday morning. We understood that in order to function, we need our kids to not be in this scenario.

FOSTER: Yeah, what was your decision about that? Because to leave there and go to Jerusalem, because that was a brave move in itself.

LEVITZ: I could say one of the most scariest moments of my life, my husband was driving super fast and praying the whole way. And we were just trying to get out of the outskirts of Sderot as fast as we can.

During Saturday that we had the bombings, a neighbor of mine, her husband was enlisted to the army during Sabbath and she came with her three little kids and was with us in the bomb shelter and we were together in this time because that's what we do. We stand together and the whole city is really, everybody's helping each other and the humanity and the amount of like togetherness and love that people have for each other.

And it's not what you feel on the outside when terrorists try to just come and kill you in every corner. And I think that's the main difference of caring for life. And it was I believe we have a strong army. We have a strong government. We have a strong country. And yet there's children and mothers and right now I'm trying to help get diapers and wipes and formula for babies and kids that are still up in the middle of the war zone, can't get out, don't have food.

We left our key to our neighbors now to go and take all the food we have, take all the supplies you need. In other words, yes, on the one hand, it's hard to leave your home. On the other hand, the trauma that my kids will suffer, that I don't think that necessarily you need to be in combat in order to be apart. And I rather than be safe in this moment and that the soldiers do, you know, protect and defend us. And hopefully we will all be safe and there will be peace in Israel.

FOSTER: Okay, and you're now in Jerusalem. Can I just ask, it'll take you a very long time. to decompress this, of course. But the atmosphere in Jerusalem, is there, and are you, is there some upset on your side that the intelligence was so bad that you didn't have any warning this was coming? You've obviously been quite complimentary about the government and the military about their response since, but you're frustrated that they didn't know more beforehand?

LEVITZ: I think at this point, there's gonna be so much time to be able to, you know, to check what happened and how happened and everything. But right now the focus in my eyes needs to be -- to be able to fight and combat and protect the Israel nation and country. I have a friend that her husband, two friends that her husbands were slaughtered in the massacres in the Kibbutzim and the names and they're just coming.

And I think that right now it doesn't really help or give any advantage to ask ourselves what happened to the intelligence, but more to focus on being able to fight back and being able to protect ourselves and defend ourselves and be able to come out of this situation strong, alive, and with the democratic, amazing country that we have, because I think that the value of life that we have has no value in the eyes of the terrorists.

And in Gaza, when they come and they wanna just kill. manslaughter. I have my mom's cousin is kidnapped in Gaza right now and we found out because they're looking for her in the Kibbutz and they can't find her anywhere and she's been kidnapped. An 85 year old woman has been kidnapped into Gaza. Can you imagine how you even be able to physically take an 85 year old woman into Gaza into captivity?

FOSTER: I'm so sorry to hear that. How's that process going? I mean, what information are you getting? I mean, what's the support package around her family as you sit there watching what's happening in Gaza?

LEVITZ: Right now, there's a lot of unknown and a lot of unclarity, and there's not a lot of information. And I think that right now, there's also so many different units and focuses and right as we speak, there's people, civilians still saying that terrorists are coming in and shooting everywhere. The same truck that I saw in the news with terrorists standing on it, I saw from my window.

[03:40:02]

In other words, I saw the vehicle with the terrorists standing with their guns up under my window, roaming around the streets looking where they can shoot. And I saw the missiles Saturday night go out from Gaza on their way to the center of Israel while making myself some dinner a few minutes out of the bombs out there.

And I knew that in a minute that they're going to get sirens in the center of Israel. In other words, I already know when they're going over our heads, not landing by us, but going to Tel Aviv, going to Rishon LeZion, going to the rest of the country.

FOSTER: Okay. Adi Levitz, thank you so much for joining us when you've been through so much. And I'm so glad to see that you're well as well and still, you know, you obviously, you were pregnant when all this happened as well, and the amount of stress you must have suffered, but thank you for sparing your time to speak to us and sharing your story.

We'll have much more on this breaking news of the coverage of Israel's war against Hamas after the break.

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FOSTER: Israeli troops say they are still fighting Hamas on the ground in Israel more than two days after the group's highly coordinated surprise assault. This video obtained by Reuters appears to show IDF soldiers patrolling a city near the Israel-Gaza border.

A spokesman for the Israeli Defense Forces tells CNN they aren't in full control of all the borders yet. He says the military is still hunting down the remaining Hamas operatives in Israel.

Oil prices surged and U.S. stock futures fell on Sunday in their first reaction to Israel's war with Hamas. Although Israel is not a major oil producer, escalating tensions in oil-rich Middle East nations seem to have spooked investors who have already been selling off oil in recent weeks. Since then, things appear to be changing. Let's have a look at the latest oil prices. So Brent is up. WTI is up, quite significantly, actually.

[03:45:01]

The conflict with Hamas is having a big impact on passenger flights, of course, at Israel's main airport, dozens of flights in and out of Ben Gurion Airport are delayed or canceled. American Airlines says it has canceled all flights from Tel Aviv to New York-JFK, through Monday. Air Canada cancelling all flights until further notice. Delta Airlines canceled flights to and from Israel through the weekend.

Clare Sebastian's joining us. We'll talk about oil in a second, but I mean, what's more extraordinary about the flights than the flights being canceled is the ones that are still going.

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There are a few, if you look at the arrivals board at Ben Gurion this morning, most are canceled or delayed. But you do see some airlines, British Airways are still flying, Emirates are still flying. British Airways say they're closely monitoring the situation. They've offered flexible booking options to people who want to change their flights.

Obviously, Israel's flagship carrier, El Al, is still flying. They have also offered people the chance to cancel their flights and get a voucher. But people are still braving this situation. We've seen the scenes at the airport, people having to take cover, including our Nic Robertson on the tarmac.

And I think some of these flights will be to bring people out who want to come out. Korean Air says it's going to operate a flight on Tuesday to do that, United did so over the weekend for staff and for, you know, citizens of other countries who want to leave.

But I think, you know, a lot of people are watching closely, monitoring the security situation. And I think It'll be just a question of how this escalates and how widespread this becomes.

FOSTER: On oil, this is quite complex, isn't it? Because as we say, Israel isn't an oil producing country, but that region is. And there's concern that if there's contagion, but also diplomatic contagion, we're all looking at Saudi Arabia, how it might react, because it was actually moving more closely to Israel diplomatically.

SEBASTIAN: Yeah, this is another layer under all of this. I think, look, some of this is a knee-jerk reaction. We had seen oil prices come down by more than 10 percent in the past week. So it's a very volatile market to begin with.

So this hasn't even reversed those losses that we saw over the past week. But I think, yeah, concern about the conflict spreading, the spectacle of things like the U.S. carrier group heading to the Eastern Mediterranean, pockets of violence seen elsewhere, the question of Iran, which is of course a major oil producer in itself, and really the only major oil producer that backs Hamas.

And then of course, as you say, the diplomatic context with Saudi Arabia, this puts in doubt that diplomacy towards a normalization agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia and potentially reduces the likelihood that Saudi Arabia would be willing to raise production, which would in turn stabilize oil prices. So there's a lot of uncertainty around this market at the moment, Max.

FOSTER: Okay, Clare, thank you.

Still to come, stuck in Gaza amid Israeli airstrikes, how regular citizens are struggling to survive amid the continued fighting between Israel and Hamas.

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[03:50:00]

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FOSTER: An Israeli military official says Israeli troops are still fighting against Hamas on the ground inside Israel. This comes two days after the militant group launched a surprise attack that killed hundreds. The Israeli military is also keeping up its strikes on Gaza, saying it has severely degraded the capabilities of Hamas.

Palestinians in that area say more than 430 people have been killed since the Israeli strikes began. Overnight, Hamas claimed to have launched a missile attack on the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon. Militants say 100 rockets were fired in response to Israeli defense forces targeting their safe houses.

Inside Gaza, Israel is unleashing devastating airstrikes on numerous sites. It says they're tied to Hamas and other militants. And while the militant leaders are hiding out, Gaza civilians are trapped in the strip's narrow confines with nowhere to run.

CNN's Salma Abdelaziz takes us inside.

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SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): These are the first moments of what Prime Minister Netanyahu warned will be a long and difficult war.

Airstrikes in the densely populated Gaza Strip that the Palestinian Health Ministry says left hundreds dead and thousands more wounded. Israel's military says it is targeting headquarters belonging to Hamas and Islamic Jihad and released this video.

Netanyahu vowing to avenge the hundreds of Israeli lives lost with more ferocious firepower to come.

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER (through translator): All of the places which Hamas has deployed, hiding and operating in, that wicked city, we will turn it into an island of ruins. I am telling Gaza's people to leave those places now because we will take action everywhere.

ABDELAZIZ (voice-over): But destroying or severely deterring Hamas will prove extremely challenging for Israel's army. A significant and unprecedented number of Israeli citizens were captured by the militant group according to the Israeli army. This disturbing social media video, geolocated by CNN, shows one of those victims. Hands appear to be bound and in captivity. And Hamas claims the hostages are distributed across the strip. Israel believes to be used as human shields.

Still, Israel's military is pressing on. With air assaults already underway, the IDF says it is preparing for a potential ground incursion and that all options are on the table.

Thousands of Israeli reservists have been called up for the task. Israel's army telling Gazans to clear the way for operations, ordering

families to leave their homes and providing locations for evacuation. But with the conflict sure to engulf the whole of the strip, for most, there is no way out. Gaza is largely isolated from the world by an Israeli air, land, and sea blockade and Egypt's southern border closure.

Electricity, which is mostly provided by Israel, was cut off to the enclave and internet disrupted, unclear how long services will be severed. And with Hamas leadership reportedly going underground, the two million people living in the 140-square-mile territory have nowhere to turn. Fears that an unprecedented attack on Israel could yield unprecedented bloodshed in Gaza.

Salma Abdelziz, CNN, London.

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[03:55:09]

FOSTER: The New York competing rallies by supporters of Israelis and Palestinians. The pro-Palestinian rally got underway Sunday afternoon near Times Square. Organizers described it as a way to stand with the people of Palestine and their right to, quote, "resist apartheid, occupation, and oppression." New York's governor condemned the event, calling it abhorrent and morally repugnant, while New York's mayor said people have the right to protest, even though he strongly disagrees with it, claiming it's celebrated a horrific incident. Nearby, counter-protesters showed their support for Israel and the hundreds killed during Hamas' attack on the country.

Pope Francis responding to the horrific attacks in the Holy Land, calling for an end to the violence. Speaking in St. Peter's Square on Sunday, the Pope pleaded to stop the attacks and the weapons, saying that terrorism and war do not lead to any solution. The Pope also expressed his sympathy to the families of the victims.

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POPE FRANCIS, HEAD OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH (through translator): I follow with apprehension and sorrow what is happening in Israel, where violence has exploded even more quickly, causing hundreds of deaths and injuries. I express my solidarity with the relatives of the victims. And I pray for all those who are experiencing hours of terror and anguish.

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FOSTER: He went on to say, quote, "War is a defeat. Every war is always defeat." Pope Francis also urged everyone to pray for peace.

I'm Max Foster. Bianca joins me in just a moment as our coverage continues after this short break.

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