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CNN's Continuing Coverage on the War between Israeli Forces and the Palestinian-backed Hamas group. Aired 3-4a ET
Aired October 11, 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.
ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us here in the United States and all around the world as we continue our breaking news coverage of Israel at war. I'm Rosemary Church.
Well, the death toll from the Hamas attacks has jumped to more than 1200 as Israel steps up its punishing retaliation. In Gaza, the Palestinian Health Ministry now says at least 950 people have been killed by Israeli airstrikes with more than 5000 injured.
We've seen huge explosions within the past few hours. It's not clear what the target was in this instance, but in other areas, the IDF says it has destroyed Hamas systems that detect aircraft, as well as an underground tunnel and a weapons storage facility.
Israel's military also says it hit naval targets, including docks used by Hamas to launch attacks on the Israeli coastline. The Hamas- controlled government in Gaza is warning that electricity will stop within hours, limiting the ability to provide the most basic services.
Meanwhile, Israel is massing troops and tanks on the border. Israel's defense minister says the offensive against Hamas may have started from the air, but it will also come on the ground.
And CNN's Nada Bashir is following developments for us. She joins us live from London. Good Morning to you, Nada. So what's the latest on Israeli airstrikes and of course Hamas rocket fire and what appears to be an inevitable ground incursion?
NADA BASHIR, CNN REPORTER: Look, as anticipated, those airstrikes have continued overnight. As you mentioned yesterday overnight, we have seen rockets being launched by Hamas from within Gaza into Israel. Many of them intercepted, of course, by Israel's Iron Dome air defense system. But those air raid sirens have been almost non-stop in Israel. And of course warning citizens to enter those bomb shelters.
Meanwhile, in Gaza, we have seen into this morning continued airstrikes and as you mentioned there the death toll both in Israel and in Gaza both continuing to rise. In Israel at least 1,200 Israelis are said to have died. Meanwhile in Gaza that death toll is steadily rising and will continue to rise as these airstrikes continue. At least 950 Palestinians in Gaza so far killed some 5,000 wounded according to the latest figures from the Palestinian authorities and of course there is real concern around the civilian toll here.
We've heard from the Palestinian Interior Ministry which has said that the IDF airstrikes have been targeting civilian infrastructure, civilian homes including schools and hospitals, medical infrastructure and that is a huge concern. It is of course important to underscore here that Gaza is under an air, land and sea blockade. There is nowhere for Palestinians inside Gaza to take shelter or to flee.
So this is of course a huge concern. We've heard from the European Union, the E.U.'s Foreign Affairs Chief, Josep Borrell, as well as other human rights organizations which have warned against the use of collective punishment, which of course is what we are seeing in Gaza. Now it is important to underscore also that the IDF says that it is targeting Hamas positions in Gaza. As you mentioned there in your lead, they did say -- they have said that they are targeting key military infrastructure used by Hamas, including most recently an aerial detection system, which of course will prove crucial as these airstrikes continue.
But we have heard those repeated warnings from the IDF, from Israel's leadership, saying that this is only going to intensify. Take a listen to these remarks from the Israeli President.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ISAAC HERZOG, ISRAELI PRESIDENT: Israel is committed to the security of its citizens, to their safety and well-being, both when they are attacked by murderers and cruel human monsters, and when they are kidnapped and taken prisoners by them. I would like to emphasize the full responsibility rests on the barbaric murders of Hamas in Islamic Jihad. And therefore, as to the well-being of those abducted and kidnapped, it should be made clear not a hair on their heads should be harmed. They should be unconditionally released and returned home.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BASHIR: And of course there remains huge concern over those Israeli citizens who have been taken hostage by Hamas and being held in Gaza. According to Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, it is believed that between 100 and 150 Israeli citizens are currently being held hostage by Hamas. And we've heard those testimonies from families waiting for news of their loved ones. So this will be definitely a complex process and operation for the IDF as these airstrikes continue.
[03:05:09]
And of course, we've heard those repeated warnings now. We've seen on the ground the buildup of Israeli tanks and artillery units. We've seen hundreds of thousands of Israeli reservists being called up. It is really an anticipation now that a ground incursion could be announced. So that certainly hasn't been confirmed by the IDF, but there is speculation that could well be the next step for Israel.
CHURCH: Our thanks to Nada Bashir for that live report. I Appreciate it.
Well, U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan says the White House does not expect Israel to pursue a complete siege of Gaza, as the Defense Minister ordered on Monday. For now, Israeli airstrikes are doing tremendous damage.
CNN's Matthew Chance reports.
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MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Across Gaza, Israel is unleashing its wrath. The small Gaza port pounded from the air. Israel's military says more than 2,000 targets in this densely populated area, including apartment buildings and mosques, have been destroyed.
Recent attacks by Hamas triggering a devastating response. And in Gaza, it's a bloody one too.
Palestinians are digging through the rubble of flattened buildings as the death toll climbs.
Health officials there say more than 900 people have so far been killed.
ZLAD MUSLEH, GAZA RESIDENT (through translator): My three sons were killed along with their wives and children. There were nearly 50 martyrs in this building.
CHANCE (voice-over): Israel's military says it's retrieved the bodies of another 1,500 Palestinians who stormed Israeli territory and is now hunting Hamas down.
Hamas operatives will have nowhere to hide in Gaza, vows this Israeli military spokesman. We will reach them anywhere, he insists.
And that may mean going in even harder. Already Israel has deployed forces and called up hundreds of thousands of reserve troops in apparent readiness for a land attack.
But not only is Gaza one of the world's most densely populated areas, it's also crisscrossed by a hidden, possibly booby-trapped network of tunnels used by militants to move undetected through the area.
Israel's widely anticipated ground assault on Gaza, if it happens, will also be fraught with danger.
Matthew Chance, CNN Jerusalem.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: Joining me now from Tel Aviv, Major General Amos Yadlin is the former head of Israeli Defense Intelligence, now the chair of the El Ned Forum of Strategic Dialogue. Thank you so much for joining us.
MAJ. GEN. AMOS YADLIN (RET.), FORMER HEAD OF ISRAELI DEFENSE INTELLIGENCE: Good Morning.
CHURCH: Israel's intelligence agency, Mossad, has long been considered among the most sophisticated in the world. So how is it possible that it failed to anticipate the coordinated and deadly attacks carried out by Hamas on Saturday involving multiple militants entering Israel by air, land and sea?
YADLIN: I think this will be investigated heavily and deeply after the war. We are in a war. And the war has started with a deadly, cruel attack on civilians, killing families, women, children, and beheaded babies, raped the women. And this is something that is now starting an Israeli decision to destroy Hamas, to take his military capabilities back to zero and to destroy his governance in Gaza.
What Hamas initiated is a disaster to his own people, and Israel will treat Hamas the way the allies treated Germany in World War II and the way the U.S. treated ISIS in Iraq and Syria.
[03:09:50]
CHURCH: Of course, it is important for Israel to know why its intelligence failed because of where things stand in the future. And some critics have suggested that intelligence failure may have been because a lot of the attention was on the West Bank, where protection of the Israeli settlers was focused, but also suggestions of internal political divisions and turmoil adding to the distraction, offering the perfect environment for this surprise attack.
And it is important for the Israeli citizens that they know why there was that failure because it's really unsettled many of them, hasn't it?
YADLIN: Yes, of course. It's an intelligence failure and it's a trilateral failure of the intelligence, of the operation, the line that was prepared to stop a surprise attack was not efficient. And as you mentioned, it's a political leadership failure of a prime minister who dragged Israel to a political dispute between two camps and the country was busy nine months with political domestic issues that weakened it, weakened its deterrence, and you also write that part of the forces, not the intelligence by the way, was diverted to the West Bank.
After saying that, we are in a war, and the first days of war or weeks of war, I can -- this intelligence failure is very much like Pearl Harbor, September 11, Barbarossa in operation vis-a-vis the Soviet Union, World War II. When you start the war with strategic surprise, you need time to arrange your forces, but at the end you need to win. And that's what we are now occupied with. The failure will be investigated at the end of the war.
CHURCH: And it's looking like an Israeli ground incursion into Gaza is imminent as troops mass at the border. How risky would such an operation be for those troops involved, and of course also the hostages being held inside Gaza
YADLIN: Yes, Israel is changing its paradigms. The paradigm in the last 15 years was that Hamas become an accountable government that has to take care of 2 million Palestinians. And they are interested in rebuilding Gaza and the welfare of Gaza. And Israel helps them with the crossing, with letting Gazans work in Israel. with enabling them to get the Qatari money.
And now the Hamas will never be anymore a partner for anything only for a war. So we don't need to think in the terms that we sought in the last 15 years. We are now in operation that has to destroy the military capabilities of Hamas.
When Israel and the PLO agreed on a peace process. The idea was that there will not be a Palestinian militarized state. It will be demilitarized. What we allowed, and this is our mistake, is to have a Palestinian state with a deadly military force that is not coming to fight as a military to military, but coming to kill civilians, to destroy kibbutzim towns and settlements all over the place.
And what happened last Shabbat will never happen again. We will destroy the military power of Hamas in Gaza, and we will destroy Hamas as a government. This is the goal of the war, and we are going to achieve it, whether from the air or from the ground. And I'm not going to share with Hamas our operational plans.
CHURCH: Major General Amos Yadlin in Tel Aviv, many thanks for joining us.
Well, U.S. President Joe Biden speaks with the Israeli Prime Minister and tells him the Hamas attacks are akin to the atrocities of ISIS. We'll have a report from the White House after the break.
Plus the heartbreaking stories of people taken hostage by Hamas. We will hear from their families pleading for help from world leaders.
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[03:15:00]
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CHURCH: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is making his first visit to NATO headquarters in Brussels since Russia's invasion of Ukraine began early last year. He spoke standing alongside NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg a short time ago. The visit comes ahead of a meeting by NATO ministers later today.
U.S. President Joe Biden spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by phone on Tuesday, underscoring the need for all countries to unequivocally condemn Hamas' brutal attack and comparing it to the atrocities of ISIS from years ago. The two leaders agreed to speak again in the next few days.
CNN's Kayla Tausche has more from Washington.
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KAYLA TAUSCHE, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: President Biden offering a forceful condemnation of terrorism and anti-Semitism in the wake of incredible violence in Israel that has claimed more than 1,000 lives. Biden saying that at least 14 Americans are among those that, in his words, were not just killed but slaughtered and that there's still an untold number of American hostages there. Here's the president.
[03:20:08]
JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT: Israel has the right to respond. Indeed, it has a duty to respond to these vicious attacks. Democracies like Israel and the United States are stronger and more secure when we act according to the rule of law. Terrorists purposely target civilians, kill them.
We uphold the laws of war, the law of war. It matters. There's a difference to any country, any organization, anyone thinking of taking advantage of this situation. I have one word. Don't. Don't.
TAUSCHE: As the White House works to pull out all stops in providing assistance to Israel, re-upping ammunition and interceptors for Israel's Iron Dome, and pledging a new package of aid to be discussed with Congress upon its return, the White House is also very focused on keeping the war from widening in the region.
To that end, the U.S. has dispatched a carrier strike force to the region and is also deploying military planes with some of this aid that will be landing in Israel.
A senior administration official tells me that while other assets could yet be deployed as a show of force to other hostile parties in the region, that the White House wants to see what effect those assets have first.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken will be visiting the region later this week. Yet another show of force from the administration as they try to prove that this administration is all in behind Israel, even though they say there is still no intention of putting American boots on the ground.
Kayla Tausche, CNN, The White House.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: Israel's ambassador to the U.S. is calling on the international community to pressure Hamas to release its hostages without conditions. The group claims to have captured more than 100 people in its assault on Israel over the weekend. The ambassador confirms the hostages include Israelis, Americans, and other nationalities. He says he's not sure if any of them have been killed. White House officials say they're in active conversations with Israel to try to bring American hostages' home.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JOHN KIRBY, U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL: It's early days right now and we don't have a lot of information. about where they are and what condition they're being held, if they're being moved around. And we have to remember this is an active war zone, which makes any hostage recovery effort that much more difficult.
We're obviously going to be developing options, looking at possibilities, how we can get them back, how we can get them back with their families. The first thing we're doing is communicating with the Israelis, because they're on the ground, they're closer to it, they have context that we probably could benefit from. And so we're having active conversations with the Israelis about what they're seeing, what they possibly know.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: CNN's Becky Anderson spoke with the relatives of some of those hostages who were pleading with their governments to do whatever they can. Some of the video you're about to see may be disturbing.
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BECKY ANDERSON, CNN ANCHOR, CONNECT THE WORLD (voice-over): A massacre as it unfolded. Video of armed fighters rampaging through Be'eri kibbutz since Southern Israel close to the Gaza border.
Towards the end, four bodies lying lifeless on the ground. And more, this video showing some of the bodies being removed.
Be'eri was home to 66-year-old Adrian Neta, last seen Saturday morning. Adrian, a nurse, now missing, presumed captured by Hamas.
Distraught, her son Nahar, who grew up on the kibbutz, flew from his home in California as soon as he heard the news. Along with the relatives of three other missing Americans, Nahar pleading for the U.S. and Israel to do everything possible to get their loved ones released.
NAHAR NETA, SON OF AMERICAN HOSTAGE: The Israeli government has to bring back all the hostages. I want also to speak about the responsibility that the U.S. administration, President Biden and the Secretary of State Blinken has for the lives of every U.S. citizen that is out there.
ANDERSON (voice-over): For these families the frustration is palpable.
As the fighting intensifies talk of an imminent ground incursion into Gaza. The fate of the hostages a terrifying prospect.
In another kibbutz, Nahal Oz, more carnage. This was home to 35-year- old Saghi, now missing, presumed captured by Hamas militants.
[03:25:01]
His father, Jonathan, also pleading for action from the U.S. administration, as he tries to come to terms with what has happened and what happens next.
JOHNATHAN DEKEL-CHEN, FATHER OF AMERICAN HOSTAGE: My children and grandchildren who were on the kibbutz, so Saghi's young family and another young family, experienced a living hell for the better part of 20 hours. These are young children, young men and women who cannot be anything other than traumatized by what they witnessed. My job now as a parent is to try to put the pieces back together.
ANDERSON (voice-over): Four families experiencing a living hell, unable to process how this happened and how it will end.
NETA: It is our hope which is a bit ridiculous at this stage to say that the optimistic scenario here is that she's held hostage in Gaza and not dead on the street of the Kibbutz where we grew up.
ANDERSON (voice-over): Becky Anderson, CNN, Tel Aviv.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: Time for a short break. When we come back, scenes of brutality in southern Israel. Why one general wanted to make sure the media was there to document it all.
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[03:30:00]
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ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: As Israeli forces go door to door in towns in southern Israel, they're finding hundreds of bodies of Hamas' victims. They're also still encountering Hamas fighters.
This map shows the Israeli locations where the IDF was still engaging Hamas militants on Tuesday. But officials say the fighting now is turning into an offensive operation. Israel's defense minister visited frontline troops Tuesday along the Gaza border and seem to suggest a ground incursion into Gaza is yet to come.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
YOAV GALLANT, ISRAELI DEFENSE MINISTER (through translator): We started the offensive from the air. Later on, we will also come from the ground. We've been controlling the area since day two, and we are on the offensive. It will only intensify.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: Each passing day brings another horrific example of the brutality of the Hamas attacks. Israel reports more than 100 bodies have been found in a kibbutz near Gaza. And CNN's Nic Robertson saw the carnage in another nearby village. A warning, his report contains graphic content.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR (voice-over): The drive into Kfar Aza is chilling. Evidence of Hamas' butchery everywhere.
This Israel Defense Force general shocked at what he found.
MAJ. GEN. ITAI VERUV, ISRAEL DEFENSE FORCES: I thought about General Eisenhower that come to the death camp in Europe and the first thing that he said is bring depressed young children.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): He did the same, inviting about 50 journalists.
VERUV: You will see it's a big massacre, big disaster.
ROBERTSON (on-camera): Have you ever seen anything like this in your career before?
VERUV: Never, never.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): Less than a mile from Gaza, 70 Hamas fighters spawned in here early Saturday. Some even flying.
(on-camera): They're telling us this is one of the paragliders that flew in here. You can see the engine here, the propellers here made of carbon fiber, the fuel tank up here and the frame of it and the seat at the front.
(voice-over): The IDF, in control now after a two day battle. Hamas lie where they fell. Only now the extremes of their barbarity becoming apparent.
700 plus civilians lived here. How many were killed, still unclear. How they died, brutally apparent. Some decapitated, they say.
VERUV: He killed babies in the front of their parents and then killed the parents. They killed parents and we found babies between the dogs and the family that killed before him. They cut head of the people.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): Each body bag, silent sentinel to the intelligence failure that allowed Kfar Aza and other communities near Gaza to be overrun and motivation for troops too.
VERUV: We wait to the switch, to switch ourselves from the defense to the attack because, you know, we defense our people and till now, we collect their money.
ROBERTSON (on-camera): And when you say you're going to attack, will you be going into Gaza? So we can see it here, look, it's on the horizon.
VERUV: I look to the next 100 yards.
ROBERTSON (on-camera): You take care of the next 100 yards?
VERUV: Next 100 yards, and I fight to the next 100 yards, and then look forward.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): Forward to a possible showdown with Hamas. How and when? Still to be determined.
Nic Robertson, CNN, Kfar Aza, Israel.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: Well as the fighting intensifies between Israel and Hamas, the U.S. is talking to Israeli officials about a safe passage for civilians in Gaza.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAKE SULLIVAN, U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: This is something also that we have been discussing with our counterparts in Israel and with our counterparts in Egypt and without getting into the specifics of safe passage for civilians and so forth I will say it's something that the U.S. government has seized with in supporting how we do that operationally.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[03:35:03]
CHURCH: Large crowds have been gathering at the Rafah border crossing, hoping to make their way into Egypt. But the crossing was hit during an Israeli strike on Tuesday. The United Nations says more than 200,000 people have been displaced within Gaza and that number is expected to rise. Palestinian officials say at least 900 people have been killed and another 4500 injured in Gaza so far.
Well for now, most Palestinians are simply unable to leave Gaza as Israeli airstrikes rain down. CNN's Salma Abdelaziz has the latest. And a warning, her report contains some graphic images.
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SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Parts of Gaza turned into ruins as Israel continues to pound the coastal strip.
My whole building, it's all gone, the man behind this camera says, with countless civilians caught in the crosshairs and under siege.
Israel says it is targeting terrorist sites where attacks emanated from, as it vows to obliterate Hamas' military capabilities, no matter the cost. But that cost, inside this densely populated enclave, will be steep, a place all too familiar with suffering, bracing for even more.
This mother, among the tens of thousands in Gaza, forced to flee their homes.
Why is this our fault? What did my children do? There's no electricity, internet, food or water. Why? She says. Now I'm on the street. Tell me where should I go? And in what are only the first days of Israel's military operation,
hundreds already dead this morgue overwhelmed with bodies.
Among the killed, two Gazan journalists struck down while doing their jobs, Palestinian officials say. In this graphic video, friends cry over the body of Mohammed Sabah, still wearing his PRESS-flak jacket.
On the other side of the Gaza wall, the horrors Hamas inflicted here are becoming clear. More than 100 bodies were retrieved from this one small Israeli community of Beira days after the assault.
YOSSI LANDAU, ZAKA SOUTH COMMANDER: Then we thought that everything, we saw everything, but then it came to yesterday when we went into Kibbutz Be'eri and we saw the -- what was done to the families.
ABDELAZIZ (voice-over): Most of these neighborhoods now ghost towns as Hamas rockets continue to rain down. Soldiers going door to door to find militants both dead and alive.
VERUV: It doesn't over yet. We don't know sure that we clean all the area. The last engagement with enemy or terrorists here was last night. I served 40 years in the military. I never saw something like this. It's not a war. It's a terror attack.
ABDELAZIZ (voice-over): And Gaza has yet to bear Israel's full firepower. Prime Minister Netanyahu has vowed a response unlike anything ever seen before. But for now, it's a waiting game. A matter of when, not if.
Salma Abdelaziz, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: Still ahead, it appears airstrikes on Gaza are just one phase of Israel's response. We'll have details on Israel's lightning-fast mobilization of reservists, one of the largest in the country's history, the major ground offense of looking more and more likely.
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[03:40:00]
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CHURCH: We're showing you a live shot out of Gaza City in the aftermath of another Israeli air strike on the territory. We'll continue to follow this story and of course as Israel prepares for a potential ground incursion into Gaza, it's called up more than 300,000 reservists in just 48 hours in one of its largest mobilizations in history.
CNN's Jeremy Diamond reports now from southern Israel near the Gaza border.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Three days after hundreds of Hamas militants infiltrated Israel, Israeli forces are still fighting to eliminate the threat.
(on-camera): We are here right outside of the Israeli town of Mefalsim, where we have been hearing repeated exchanges of gunfire over the last 10 minutes or so. These exchanges, we haven't seen who exactly they are between, but we do know that Israeli forces have been continuing to try and clear some of these Israeli towns around the Gaza strip from those Hamas militants.
DIAMOND (voice-over): The IDF later confirming they killed two Hamas terrorists in the battle. But minutes after it ended, Israeli defense forces rushing a casualty into an ambulance.
But the soundtrack to life in most Israeli communities around the Gaza Strip today wasn't gunfire, but rockets.
In Sderot, the booms punctuate the stillness of the day.
(on-camera): We've just come into a shelter here where we can take cover from these iron dome interceptions. And of course, they're intercepting active rockets coming in from Gaza. The booms are very loud. They are directly overhead.
(voice-over): 20 minutes later, another barrage of rockets headed for the city of Ashkelon.
(on-camera): We're in the city of Sderot where we can now see that barrage, that Hamas promised at 5 p.m. appearing to head over in the direction of Ashkelon. Now that is exactly where Hamas officials said about an hour ago that they would fire rockets in that direction.
[03:45:07]
(voice-over): But there is also another sound in towns like Sderot.
Israeli troops and reservists mobilizing to the Gaza Front. Part of a massive call-up of more than 300,000 reserve troops, preparations for a potential ground invasion of Gaza. For some, this moment feels different.
ARYEH EASTMAN, RESERVE PARATROOPER: Then we came in with a concept of full control. This one started with much more, obviously, fusion. And the playing field is different, certainly. But I think in the last two days the momentum has shifted.
DIAMOND (voice-over): An entire country is springing into action, with those out of uniform bringing food and supplies to troops. After days of tragedy, also a sense of resilience.
I'm not afraid at all, she said. When it will be my time, it will be my time.
Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Sderot.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: At least four Russian citizens were reportedly among those killed by Hamas in Israel. But the Russian president has so far chosen not to condemn Hamas for the attack. The Kremlin says Vladimir Putin is concerned about the number of civilian casualties, but he's largely blaming U.S. policy for what's happening in the Middle East.
CNN's Fred Pleitgen has our report. And a warning, some of the video is disturbing.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): After hundreds of Israelis were slaughtered by Hamas near Gaza, condemnation and condolences poured in from around the world, but not from Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
Now in his first comments, instead of empathy, Putin blasting the U.S.
VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): This is a clear example of the failure of the United States policy in the Middle East, which tried to monopolize any settlement between Israelis and Palestinians.
PLEITGEN (voice-over): Kremlin-controlled TV following suit, mocking both America and Israel for allegedly being caught off guard by Hamas' attack.
UNKNOWN (through translator): Mossad and its famous counterintelligence, as well as the U.S. and its CIA, slept through Hamas' invasion. It's the biggest Israeli failure in security since 1973.
PLEITGEN (voice-over): Russia has long been allied with Israel's staunchest adversaries and Hamas' most important backers, bombing Syrian rebels in support of pro-Iranian fighters battling on the side of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad during Syria's civil war.
But Russia also maintained strong ties and security arrangements with Israel, Putin meeting Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on many occasions.
SERGEI RYABKOV, RUSSIAN DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER: We, in no way, underestimate the importance of measures that would ensure very strong security of the state of Israel.
PLEITGEN (voice-over): But since Putin launched his full-scale war against Ukraine, Tehran has become a key ally for Moscow at Israel's expense. Fostering economic and military ties with Iran, while Tehran provides the Russian army with scores of Shahed drones the Russians use to hit Ukrainian cities and infrastructure, Kyiv says, even though Tehran denies it.
Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, claiming Moscow's allegiance in the Middle East has shifted towards Tehran. VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): We see
how Russian propagandists are gloating. We witness how Moscow's Iranian allies openly lend support to those who attacked Israel.
PLEITGEN (on-camera): Now, the Kremlin has denied allegations by Volodymyr Zelenskyy that it's trying to inflame the situation between Israelis and Palestinians. However, the former chief rabbi of Moscow, who of course fled that country two weeks after the full-on invasion of Ukraine, he said that he believes that the lack of a show of support of Russia for Israel is an ominous sign of deteriorating relations between those countries.
Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Kyiv.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: Still to come, a number of people from Latin America are among the victims of the Hamas terror attacks in Israel. We will have more on that after a short break.
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[03:50:00]
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CHURCH: The Hamas attacks are impacting countries far beyond Israel. These 12 countries say their nationals are among the dead or missing. Many of the foreigners who were murdered or missing were expatriates living in southern Israel.
And these are the countries that are sending planes to Israel or making other arrangements to evacuate their citizens who want to get home.
Latin American nationals are also among the dead and missing following Hamas' deadly onslaught on Israel over the weekend. CNN's Patrick Oppmann has details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Multiple people from Latin America are confirmed to have been killed or believed to be missing following Hamas' attack on Israel, according to governments from across this region.
The largest group comes from Argentina. At least seven Argentines were killed according to the Argentine government, another 15 are believed to be missing.
Two Peruvians were killed according to their government and then one Brazilian man was killed. His girlfriend said in an interview with CNN Brazil, they were at the Nova Music Festival when Hamas terrorists attacked that festival.
[03:55:00] They sought refuge in a nearby bunker but then the assailants threw smoke grenades into that bunker. They were separated and according to this woman, also a Brazilian citizen, her boyfriend was killed.
Governments from across the region including Mexico, Brazil and Colombia have sent or will be sending planes to evacuate their citizens. Hundreds of Latin Americans are now awaiting evacuation from Israel to be brought back home and to safety.
Patrick Oppmann, CNN, Havana.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: Want to bring up this live picture out of Gaza City. This is of course the aftermath of yet another Israeli airstrike. We'll continue to follow that. Want to thank you for your company. I'm Rosemary Church. Our coverage of Israel at war continues with Max Foster and Bianca Nobilo, next.
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