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CNN International: IDF: 450+ Targets Hit in Gaza in the Past 24 Hours; U.S. Discussing Safe Passage for Civilians in Gaza; Palestinians: At Least 950 People Killed in Gaza; Americans Plead for U.S., Israel to Bring Hostages Home; Putin Fails to Condemn Hamas Attack Despite Russian Deaths. Aired 4:30-5a ET
Aired October 11, 2023 - 04:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:30:00]
BIANCA NOBILO, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Bianca Nobilo.
MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Max Foster. If you're just joining us, let me bring you up to date with our top story.
Day five of the war between Israel and Hamas has dawned after a night lit up by rockets and warplanes. Israeli Iron Dome air defenses missiles rose above Ashkelon, just north of Gaza, as barrages of Hamas rockets threatened the city.
NOBILO: And the Israelis are furiously firing at Gaza. In one area of Gaza, the IDF says its warplanes hit 80 targets Tuesday and through Tuesday night. Destroying Hamas's ability to detect aircraft over the territory. These are satellite images of the damage in Gaza from Israeli air strikes and Israel's defense minister seemed to suggest that a ground incursion may be coming.
FOSTER: 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 ADVISOR: 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 is seized with in supporting how we do that operationally.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FOSTER: 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.
NOBILO: The United Nations says more than 200,000 people have been displaced within Gaza and that that number is expected to rise. Palestinian officials say at least 950 people have been killed and another 4,500 injured in Gaza so far.
FOSTER: These are some of the major strikes conducted by the Israeli defense forces in Gaza. Israel says its aircraft struck more than 70 targets in Gaza overnight. And Palestinian officials say dozens of buildings, including homes, schools and medical institutions have been flattened. CNN's Ben Wedeman has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Gaza city neighborhood once known as El Rimal, The Sands, reduced to ashes. Its residents retrieve what they can, which isn't much. Israel continues to pound the strip, targeting, it says, Hamas infrastructure. Residents in shock are asking why?
I got married this year, says Yahya Al-Ahwal. What did I do? What have we done? You destroyed an entire neighborhood. He says he never fired a rocket.
And this, one of the most densely populated patches of land on Earth. Bombs crashing into crowded neighborhoods rarely differentiate between fighter and civilian. The death toll rises by the hour. While Gaza's hospitals are overwhelmed with the wounded, including infants. Around 40 percent of the population of Gaza is under the age of 15, according to the CIA.
The information ministry in Gaza reports that nearly 170 buildings have been destroyed and more than 12 thousand residences damaged. Tens of thousands have fled their homes, seeking refuge in UN schools converted into shelters. An oven in this bakery in Gaza city has shut down, many of the shelves empty. Life here was already difficult, and now the future looks bleaker than ever.
Gaza will take five years to raise its head after this, says Wahiba Sirsawi, and after five years, there will be two or three more wars. It's a catastrophe.
And amidst all this, somewhere in Gaza, only Hamas knows where, are more than one hundred Israeli captives, fates unknown.
Tuesday afternoon, Israel struck Gaza's only port, used principally by fishermen. While at the same time, Hamas unleashed a massive volley of rockets towards Ashkelon. The abyss approaches.
Ben Wedeman, CNN, Jerusalem.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FOSTER: Joining us now, Dr. Midhat Abbas, who serves as the Director General of Gaza's health ministry. Thank you for joining us. Can you just give us an update on the state of healthcare there in Gaza?
[04:35:00]
Understandably, some communication issues there. But we'll try to get back in touch with them. If you -- we'll be back in just a moment with more on our breaking news coverage.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NOBILO: Welcome back. Families in Israel are desperately searching for any information on missing loved ones who may have been taken hostage by Hamas. Jacob Ben Senior says the last time that he heard from his daughter, Danielle was while she was on her way to the music festival, where militants gunned down schools of civilians.
FOSTER: He says his family has given DNA samples from his daughter to police in case she's dead and they find her remains. Ben senior told CNN's Erica Hill, without his daughter, life has little meaning.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JACOB BEN SENIOR, DAUGHTER MISSING FROM MUSIC FESTIVAL: When you have a daughter, you don't know what's going on with her, and you see these animals what they do. You can't rest, you can't eat. You can't life, you can't breathe. It's not yours, it's somebody else. It's different. When it's yours, Erica, it hurts very, very much. I'm crying like a little kid. I have never cried in my whole life before. 71-years-old, I never cry. I'm strong human being.
But this is something you can't control. We don't know anything. The information, it's zero. That drives you crazy. Nobody talks to you. Nobody knows what's where she is. I give this young woman my life. My life, my life, my eyes, she's everything for me. Without her, there is no value for life.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[04:40:00]
FOSTER: Ben Senior says he isn't losing hope though. He is surrounded by family and says, quote, we have to be strong like hell.
Joining us now. Dr. Midhat Abbas, who serves as the Director General of Gaza's health ministry. Thank you for joining us. Can you just take us through the pressure your systems under and how you're coping?
DR. MIDHAT ABBAS, GAZA HEALTH MINISTRY, GAZA CITY: Well, in our hospitals, there's this threat, the situation is miserable. Now all the hospitals are full of injured people. Now we cannot receive anymore. So we're now sending our patients to NGOs and trying to cope to this pressure. But in fact what we consume in one day of our medicine and medical supplies used to be used in one month in the ordinary day.
The other thing is that with the shortage of electricity and shortage of fuel at the same time. Our standby generators will stop within two days maximum. And the main power station plant will collapse today, as I know, which is now giving only one hour every 24 hours of electricity.
In fact, the situation is very miserable. Talking now about 974 killed. And more than 5,000 injured. The houses are being annihilated while people are inside. What's needed now, right now, we need more ambulances and we need to have a safe route at once immediately to be able to send patients outside those wounded for treatment because we can't take them anymore in our hospitals.
The other thing is that we need to have medical communities come to assist our local staff and medication and medical supplies and there should be a solution immediately for fuel and opening the borders. Otherwise we are talking about a disaster and many, many of the people now are still under grabbing. People trying to evacuate them by their hands because of shortage of civil defense equipment in their district. And we are living under heavy bombardment along the hour and strikes are ongoing. So the situation is very, very hard and difficult.
I am 60 years old. I have never ever seen such a thing in all my life. This is the first time to see such a disaster like this in my life. There's a step fully blocks fully neighborhoods are totally annihilated. Yes, it is not there anymore. It's not there anymore.
FOSTER: Dr. Abbas, and thank you for sparing the time in your, you know, in that unbelievable moment you're going through and speaking to us today.
NOBILO: White House officials say they're in active conversations with Israel to try to bring Americans being held hostage in Gaza home. CNN's Becky Anderson spoke with the relatives of some of those hostages who are pleading with their governments to do whatever they can. Some of the videos you're about to see may be disturbing.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BECKY ANDERSON, CNN ANCHOR, CONNECT THE WORLD (voice-over): A massacre as it unfolded. Video of armed fighters rampaging through Be'eri kibbutz in 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.
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.
[04:45:00]
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)
FOSTER: The Hamas attacks are heard in countries far beyond Israel. These twelve countries say their nationals are amongst the dead or missing. Many of the foreigners who were murdered or missing were expatriates living in southern Israel, in towns or kibbutz. The lists grows longer as many of those killed have yet to be identified.
NOBILO: And these are the countries that are sending planes to Israel, making other arrangements to evacuate their citizens who want to get home. With many commercial airlines curtailing or cancelling flights from Tel Aviv, some nations are scrambling military aircraft or arranging special flights with their national air carriers to take people out.
FOSTER: Latin American nationals are also among the dead and missing, following Hamas's deadly onslaught on Israel over the weekends. CNN's Patrick Ottmann has those 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's 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, and another 15 are believed to be missing. Two Peruvians were killed, according to their government. And then one Brazilian man was killed and his girlfriend said in an
interview with CNN Brazil, they were at the Nova Music Festival when Hamas terrorists attacked that festival. They sought refuge in a nearby bunker, but then 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)
FOSTER: Still ahead, the Russian President responds to the attacks in Israel by criticizing U.S. policy instead of condemning Hamas. We'll have more on Vladimir Putin's reaction.
[04:50:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
FOSTER: At least four Russian citizens were reportedly amongst those killed by Hamas in Israel. But the Russian President has so far chosen not to condemn Hamas for the attacks.
NOBILO: The Kremlin says Vladimir Putin is concerned about the number of civilian casualties, but that 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 to you that 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's attack.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (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's 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 FOREIGN 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: 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)
NOBILO: And today, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is at the NATO headquarters in Brussels addressing a meeting of defense ministers. And he says this is it is going to be key for Ukraine's winter resilience.
[04:55:00]
But obviously a lot for NATO to discuss today, Ukraine chief among the issues, but also now Israel and containing that situation in the Middle East.
FOSTER: European Union officials also warning X -- the company formerly known as Twitter -- against hosting misinformation and illegal content about Israel's war against Hamas. A top European Commissioner sent a letter to X's owner Elon Musk saying the platform appears to be dangerously close to breaking EU law regarding content moderation.
NOBILO: Since he bought the company, Musk has laid off much of its content moderation and policy teams and has lowered its standards for verifying accounts. If X is found to have violated Europe's Digital Services Act, it could face billions of dollars in fines.
Crowds gathered in cities around the world on Tuesday to show support for Israel.
FOSTER: In Rome, the star of David was projected onto the arch of Titus, next to the Colosseum, the upper House of the Italian parliament was also lit up with the Israeli flag.
NOBILO: In Budapest hundreds lit candles and filled the Holocaust Memorial shoes on the Danube bank. Many held Israeli and Hungarian flags as they paid their respect to the lives lost in the Hamas attacks.
FOSTER: If you'd like information about how you can help humanitarian efforts in Israel and Gaza, do go to cnn.com/impact.
NOBILO: We've gathered a list there of vetted organizations responding to the crisis.
FOSTER: And that's it. Thanks for joining us here on CNN NEWSROOM. I'M Max Foster.
FOSTER: I'm Bianca Nobilo. "EARLY START" is up next right here on CNN.
