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Israel: At Least 189 Soldiers Among 1200 Killed; Thousands Of Israel Soldiers, Tanks Massed Near Gaza; Israel Forms Emergency Government And War Cabinet; Gaza Faces New Destruction After Wave Of Airstrikes; Hamas Demands Prisoners Freed For Release Of US Hostages; Hamas Official Claims Group Planned Attack For Two Years; Concerns Hezbollah Could Widen Israel-Hamas Conflict; Volunteers Help Dig Graves For Victims Of Hamas Attacks; Survivor Of Hamas Attack On Music Festival Speaks To CNN. Aired 2-3a ET
Aired October 12, 2023 - 02:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[02:00:12]
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.
ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN INTERNATIONAL 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. It is 9:00 a.m. across Israel and Gaza where the Israel Defense Forces say they are conducting more large-scale strikes against Hamas targets. Palestinian officials report Gaza's only power station is not working and hospitals are in danger of running out of fuel for generators.
At least 1100 people have been killed in Gaza since Saturday, according to the Palestinian health ministry. Hamas militants continue to fire rockets into southern Israel. The Israeli military says at least 189 soldiers are among the 1200 people killed in the terror attacks.
And we are seeing more evidence that Israel may be planning a ground incursion into Gaza as tanks and troops are massing at the border. Now that comes as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and some of his political rivals have formed an emergency government and wartime cabinet.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, PRIME MINISTER OF ISRAEL (through translator): We are fighting a cruel enemy worse than ISIS. We saw girls and boys who were shot in the head, men and women who were burned alive. Young women raped. Fighters beheaded.
BENNY GANTZ, NATIONAL UNITY PARTY LEADER (through translator): Our standing here together, shoulder to shoulder is a message to our enemies, and most importantly, a message to all citizens of Israel. We are all together. We are all soldiers.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and a top hostage negotiator are headed to Israel. Blinken says discussions are ongoing about setting up a humanitarian corridor to get food and medical supplies into Gaza and to get civilians out.
Air raid sirens in southern Israel sent British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly running for shelter. He is there to meet with the Israeli leaders and survivors of the Hamas attacks.
I want to go now to London where journalist Elliott Gotkine is following developments for us. He joins us live. Good morning to you, Elliot. So, large scale Israeli airstrikes hitting Gaza in response to Hamas rocket fire as troops mass at the border in preparation for what appears to be an imminent ground incursion. What is the latest on all of these developments?
ELLIOTT GOTKINE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Rosemary, I've just been listening to a briefing with the IDF chief international spokesperson Richard Hecht. And he was talking about these waves of strikes being aimed at the Nakba Elite Forces of Hamas saying that they were looking at taking out a weapons, stashes and rocket launchers. And what he seemed to be saying is that from some of the interrogations of Hamas militants that they have been speaking with, they're getting more intelligence as to who was responsible.
Who specifically was responsible for this terrorist attack on Israel which began in the early hours of Saturday morning. And then from that working out, who these people are, where these people are and where certain assets be it weapons or storage facilities or rocket launchers might be. And that I think is giving the IDF more targets to aim for.
But of course, one of the big developments we also saw over the last 24 hours, as you said is that one of Hamas' successes has been to unite not just Israelis, but also Israeli politicians who have been bitterly divided of course over the last night last nine months, ever since Prime Minister Netanyahu and his government launched this judicial overhaul. So now we saw Benny Gantz, the leader of the Opposition National Unity Party agreeing to form an emergency government with Prime Minister Netanyahu ahead of a possible ground invasion.
Gantz taking to the cameras yesterday to say why he was joining the government and what Hamas has in store.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GANTZ: We will fight this war to indicate to our enemies very clearly, there will be hell to pay. And we promise to the people of Israel. When we say never again, we mean it. Never again.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GOTKINE: And to make good on their promise, of course, we've seen 300,000 reservists called out. They're not all combat soldiers, but huge number of people called up in Israel and we've seen equipment heading south as well. Now I should point out that the IDF Spokesman Richard Hecht really emphasizing that no decision has been taken by the political leaders -- leadership in Israel yet as to whether or when there will be a ground incursion.
[02:05:09]
He said it could be it could be from the sea. It could be from the air, it could be combined. But no decision has been made yet. The other interesting thing that the spokesman said is that there are still skirmishes gunfights going on between Hamas militants and the IDF inside of Israel. He said that they have done their best to seal the border with Gaza. But in his words, it is not hermetic.
There are still attempts, he says, especially by sea by Hamas militants to come into Israel. There are still skirmishes going on. So, it's still a very volatile situation there. But as you say, Rosemary, I suppose the next stage now that everyone is expecting is not just a continuation of this bombardment. This bombardment these retaliatory airstrikes on the Gaza Strip where we are seeing the death toll rise to, what, 1100 at least so far.
But also, of course, we are expecting this ground invasion to be imminent. We know it's not going to be easy. It's not going to be simple, not least because there's between 100 and 150 hostages that were taken from Israel inside the Gaza Strip. The IDF is working on the assumption that they are spread out, that they may be being kept underground so the Israeli -- Israel's intelligence services and surveillance skills are not able to see where they are.
But everyone would be I think, very surprised, even if it's not been decided yet, if this ground invasion from Israel does not happen, and if it doesn't happen soon. Rosemary?
CHURCH: Word from the Prime Minister clearly but a risky operation nonetheless. Elliott Gotkine joining us live from London. Many thanks for that report.
With the farming community of Kibbutz Be'eri was one of the first places that Hamas attacked early Saturday, gunman went door to door for hours massacring more than 120 men, women and children in cold blood. The Israeli military finally regained control after days of intense gun battles. On Wednesday, journalists were allowed in to see the carnage.
CNN's Clarissa Ward has our report and a warning the content is disturbing.
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CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): It was 7:11 a.m. on Saturday morning when the militants arrived at Be'eri Kibbutz. Surveillance footage shows them lying in wait until the car arrives. They shoot the driver and enter the compound. More poured in on motorcycles, eerily at ease and in no apparent hurry. Thomas Hand heard the gunshots and immediately thought of his eight-year-old daughter Emily who was staying with a neighbor. THOMAS HAND, KIBBUTZ BE'ERI RESIDENT: She doesn't do it very often. But unfortunately, that night, that particular night, the Friday night. She went to sleep at her friend's house.
WARD (voiceover): For 12 hours, he says he was pinned down under heavy gunfire unable to reach his daughter as Hamas went door to door executing his neighbors.
HAND: Waiting. I'm thinking the army are going to be here soon. You know, just hold on a bit longer and longer and longer.
WARD (voiceover): By the time the military gained control of Be'eri, this is what remained of the once tranquil community. Late Wednesday afternoon Israeli forces let journalists in for the first time after days of pitched battles.
MAJ. GEN. ITAI VERUV, ISRAEL DEFENSE FORCES: I saw house soldier fight here and I fight here myself in the first hour only to get inside to the kibbutz. Only to come from, you know, apartment to apartment. It's took a lot, a lot, a lot of time --
(CROSSTALK)
WARD (on camera): Does that weigh on your conscience to know how long it took?
VERUV: You know, we have a very difficult question to ask ourselves. Now we look forward to defense the people to take this survival out (INAUDIBLE) and to switch off so from defense to offensive operation. I'm sure that we ask ourselves all the difficult question update.
WARD (voiceover): For now, there are more pressing questions. The bodies of more than 100 residents have been recovered. But the army says that many more are still missing.
WARD (on camera): You can see the amount of blood. This was a massacre.
WARD (voiceover): And the full scale of the horrors that transpired here are just starting to come to light.
WARD (on camera): Pictures. Family photographs on the wall.
WARD (voiceover): Thomas waited two agonizing days before getting the news.
HAND: They just said we found Emily. She's dead. And I went yes. I went yes and smiled because that is the best news of the possibilities that I knew.
[02:10:17]
That was the best possibly that I was hoping (INAUDIBLE) she was either dead or in Gaza. And if you know anything about what they do to people in Gaza, that is worse than death. That is worse than death. The way they treat you. They'd have no food, they'd have no water. She'd be in a dark room filled with -- Christ knows how many people and terrified every minute, hour, day and possible years to come. So death was a blessing, an absolute blessing.
Clarissa Ward, CNN, Be'eri Kibbutz, Israel.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: Joining me now from Tel Aviv, Israel Defense Forces Spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner. Thank you, sir, for talking with us.
PETER LERNER, ISRAEL DEFENSE FORCES SPOKESPERSON LIEUTENANT COLONEL: Thanks, Rosemary.
CHURCH: And as these new horrors of the Hamas attacks are revealed to the world, what is the latest information you have on the large-scale Israeli airstrikes and of course, the apparent preparations for a ground incursion into Gaza?
LERNER: I'm just really, really affected by the story that you just broadcasted. And it's really -- it really touches home. And that's unfortunately, just one story of the many, many families that have just been torn to pieces by Hamas's attack. So, since the attack, the IDF has engaged on a widespread attack against Hamas. Indeed, we are currently focused on -- I would say two or three different components of the operation, but primarily those that conducted the special commando forces of Hamas.
The Nakba Forces has been our effort this -- over the past night and we are taking out their capabilities. We are striking them and we are making sure that they can never be able to commit these atrocities ever again. Our Air Force is conducting these strikes against specific locations where we know they're hiding out, stockpiling weapons, using a staging ground or preparing to launch rockets towards Israel.
The IDF has recruited some 300,000 reservists and we are making necessary preparations if the government instructs the military to go on a land ground force offensive. Now, the situation is very dire. And as the stories come out, the magnitude of the terrorism of Hamas that strategically decided to open a war with Israel is coming to -- coming to surface. And this is why we are need to change the paradigm that we've got used to for so many years.
CHURCH: And of course, a ground incursion into Gaza is fraught with danger in one of the world's most densely populated areas where Hamas knows the streets and underground tunnels better than the IDF and complicating the mission, of course, are the 150 or so hostages are being held in unknown locations probably in those tunnels. So, how ready is the country for this risky mission because many more lives will be lost, of course.
LERNER: I must respond responsible for the well-being of the hostages that they abducted to Gaza. We expect them to release them immediately. Nevertheless, we are -- we are very, very certain that we can't permit this to happen again. So, we are not going to sit on our hands this time and we are going to take the fight to Hamas. That is the job of the military to defend the citizens of Israel.
You know, even until yesterday, throughout the day, we had four different engagements with terrorists that were still hiding out in Israel. And we killed five of the terrorists still in Israel just over the last 24 hours. So, I would say we -- this is still a threat and we have to remove this threat once and for all. And that is our directive as such. You know a ground force operation if required. Of course, you know how to operate within urban areas.
But that is our role, our job and to expect us to mobilize in order to defend in the State of Israel is precisely what the Israeli Defense Forces is there for.
[02:15:03]
So, we will know how to do it. We will do it in order to negate Hamas' capabilities to ever, ever cause more attacks like this in the future.
CHURCH: And as you've been speaking with us, we've been taking this live picture from Gaza City in the aftermath of another large-scale wave of airstrikes from Israel. It's 9:15 in the morning there. So, the mission for the IDF, of course, is to dismantle the military capabilities of Hamas. What does that mean, exactly? And how will that be done?
LERNER: Rosemary, it's not just the military capabilities. Now, Hamas t have miserably failed the people of Gaza, instead of running the Gaza Strip and making Gaza flourish. They've turned it into a staging ground for brutal massacres against Israel. And so, we are targeting Hamas. They are in a state of chaos this morning after the last five days. They have no idea of their abilities, and they're still -- and they're struggling to understand.
The end game needs to be a new paradigm for Gaza. A situation where Hamas can no longer threaten Israel ever again. And that's what we're doing this morning. That is the endgame. It needs to change.
CHURCH: Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner in Tel Aviv. Many thanks for joining us. Appreciate it.
LERNER: Thank you, Rosemary.
CHURCH: The U.N. Security Council is set to meet on Friday to discuss the situation in Israel and Gaza. Civilians in Gaza are facing a deepening humanitarian crisis as Israel ramps up its bombardment for a fifth day. Its blockade on the enclave has closed off access to electricity, food, fuel and water. And the Red Cross says hospitals in Gaza risk turning into morgues as they lose power.
Palestinian health authorities say Israeli airstrikes have killed more than 1100 people. And that includes 11 U.N. employees and 30 students. And the U.N. says they have been unable to bring any aid into Gaza.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANTONIO GUTERRES, U.N. SECRETARY GENERAL: U.N. staff are working around the clock to support the people of Gaza. And I deeply regret that some of my colleagues have already paid the ultimate price. Crucial lifesaving supplies including fuel, food and water must be allowed into Gaza. We need rapid and unimpeded humanitarian access now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: CNN's Nada Bashir has more on the story. But we do need to warn you some of the video you're about to see may be disturbing.
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NADA BASHIR, CNN INTERNATIONAL REPORTER (voiceover): Yet another round of Israeli airstrikes. Another neighborhood in Gaza decimated. In Khan Yunis, the injured are many. But so of the dead. In the north of this tiny besieged enclave survivors of the IDF strike on the neighborhood of al-Karama are left to come to terms with all they have lost.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): We're civilians, not a single resistance fighter was here. Not a single person here was carrying even a bullet. Why? Why are you targeting civilian?
MAHMOUD RADWAN, GAZA RESIDENT: There are body parts scattered everywhere. There are still people missing. We're still looking for our brothers, our children. It's like we're stuck in a living nightmare.
BASHIR (voiceover): More than two million Palestinians, including almost a million children live in a densely populated Gaza Strip, an area which has been under a land, sea and air blockade enforced by Israel since 2007. Israel says it is targeting Hamas infrastructure. Focused on destroying the group's military capabilities. But humanitarian workers in Gaza say it is civilians that are paying the highest price.
NAJLA SHAWA, OXFAM STAFF IN GAZA (via telephone): We are extremely worried that what is happening now is totally unprecedented. We are talking about entire areas, not just one area. Like entire areas are being wiped, are being destroyed as they speak. There are airstrikes in the Jabalya camp which is a very, very, very crowded area.
BASHIR (voiceover): According to authorities in Gaza, homes, schools and even medical facilities have been targeted in this latest round of airstrikes.
On Wednesday, for Palestinian Red Crescent paramedics were killed while on duty.
[02:20:04]
And as Israel's aerial bombardment of Gaza intensifies, hospitals are quickly being overrun.
I was sleeping and then suddenly everything started falling on us, 11- year-old Yassmin says. Someone came and helped me out. They took me straight to the hospital. But I don't know what happened to all of my sisters.
The Israeli government has declared a complete siege on the Gaza Strip, meaning no food, no water, no electricity and no fuel. A move condemned by the United Nations and characterized by Human Rights Watch as an act of collective punishment tantamount according to the NGO to a war crime.
The death toll in Gaza is rising rapidly with more than 1000 people killed so far. But there is also deep concern over the fate of more than 100 Israeli and other citizens held captive here by Hamas. Threatened with execution if Israel strikes Gaza without warning. The IDF has told civilians in Gaza to evacuate. But safe spaces under a blockade are almost impossible to come by.
And with a possible Israeli ground incursion on the horizon, for the overwhelming majority of civilians here, there is simply no way safe to turn.
Nada Bashir, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: And next hour we will hear from Dr. Ghassan Abu-Sittah, a British Palestinian surgeon working at a hospital in Gaza City. That interview coming up in about 60 minutes from now.
And next, Israeli reservists from around the world head to southern Israel with a massive ground incursion into Gaza looking more and more likely.
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[02:25:50]
CHURCH: Israel has not ordered a ground incursion into Gaza yet but hundreds of thousands of reservists a gathering along the enclave's border. They have come from all over the world mandated to serve by the Israel Defense Forces, but also propelled by grief and horror over the atrocities committed by Hamas militants over the weekend.
CNN's Jeremy Diamond reports.
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JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): At a military base in southern Israel columns of Israeli Merkava 4 tanks stand at the ready, awaiting orders for an invasion of Gaza that everyone expects, but no one has yet commanded. This is a country on a war footing.
DIAMOND (on camera): The Israeli military has called up more than 300,000 reservists. It is one of the largest mobilization efforts in this country's history. And this right here behind me is that mobilization efforts in action. You are witnessing thousands of reservists. Israelis from all across the country coming to this military base in southern Israel to begin to prepare for the next phase of this military campaign.
DIAMOND (voiceover): But it's not just the scale that makes this mobilization different.
ALON KAMIL, IDF RESERVIST: I've been in all the campaigns in the last 30 years. Never something like this.
DIAMOND (voiceover): For the soldiers converging on this base, the shocking brutality of Hamas' surprise terrorist attacks is still reverberating.
KAMIL: Every person is -- has lost someone. Every person.
MICHAEL, IDF RESERVIST: I've been in Amsterdam until Wednesday morning, until Monday morning, I came here, you know, to release to the army to fight those battles.
DIAMOND: It's a very emotional moment.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's very emotional moment. Yes. When you see children die and keep nodding. It's like animal. It's not --
DIAMOND (voiceover): Driving down roads east of the Gaza Strip, preparations for the next phase of Israel's military campaign are everywhere. Trucks loaded with ammunition, armored vehicles, thousands of Israeli soldiers mobilizing and just seven miles from the Gaza border, this formation of armored personnel carriers.
DIAMOND (on camera): We are about a dozen kilometers from the Gaza border, about six or seven miles. And what we are seeing here are the preparations for what many people in Israel believe is going to happen next. And that is the possibility of a ground invasion. You can see here armored personnel carriers, perhaps nearly two dozen of those, as well as trucks and you see soldiers all here preparing for the next phase of this war.
DIAMOND (voiceover): But amid the preparations for tomorrow's battle, today's is still very much alive.
Jeremy Diamond, CNN in southern Israel.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: Still to come. A look at how Hamas pulled off the deadly attacks on Israel last weekend and the shadowy militant leader possibly behind the violence.
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[02:32:29]
CHURCH: Thursday morning is revealing new destruction in Gaza after a night of ferocious, Israeli airstrikes, and we must warn you, some of the pictures are graphic. This video, obtained by CNN, shows frantic rescuers taking injured and some deceased Gaza residents to hospitals. Gaza's health ministry says that hospitals are overwhelmed, and the Red Cross says they risk turning into morgues.
Across the border, in Israel, the IDF is massing forces as speculation of a possible Israeli ground incursion into Gaza grows. And some three hundred thousand Israeli reservists are reporting for duty in southern Israel. Now this comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, announced an emergency government to oversee the war, that includes opposition leader, and former defense minister, Benny Gantz. And in Washington, US President Joe Biden is reaffirming America's support for Israel.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, US PRESIDENT: This moment we have to be crystal clear. There is no justification for terrorism. No excuse. And the type of terrorism that is exhibited here is just beyond the pale. As I said yesterday, my commitment to the security and the safety of the Jewish people is unshakable. The United States has Israel's back.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: Meantime a senior Hamas official based in Lebanon claims the militant group prepared for the attack on Israel for two years. CNN's Sam Kiley has more on the assault, and the shadowy figure who may be behind it. A warning, the report contains graphic content.
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SAM KILEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A brazen political move. Hamas demands that the US negotiate the release of American hostages on Russian TV.
ALI BARAKA, HAMAS NATIONAL RELATIONS ABROAD (through translator): There are also prisoners in the US. We want them of course. There are Hamas members sentenced to life in the US, we demand that the US frees our sons from their prisons. The US conducts prisoner swaps, only recently it did one with Iran. Why wouldn't it conduct one with us?
KILEY (voice-over): Confirmation of part of the intent behind the Hamas assault in Israel. They were enabled by a failure of Israeli intelligence, but plotted by the shadowy Hamas officer they call al Deif, The Guest. Only two photographs exist of Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al-Masri, who is nearly 60.
He is known as al Deif because he belits as a guest in a different location every night. He is the mastermind, or monster, behind the murder of more than a thousand in Israel, and the kidnapping of about 150 hostages.
[02:35:08]
MKHAIMAR ABUSADA, CHAIRMAN, POLITICAL SCIENCE DEPT., AL-AZHAR UNIVERSITY: From the beginning of his life he was very much interested in fighting the Israeli occupation.
KILEY (voice-over): In the mid 1990s, he was believed to be behind a wave of atrocities in Israel. And in 2014, he's believed to have lost an arm and a leg in an Israeli airstrike aimed at him that killed his wife and daughter. But the last two years though, Hamas has pretended to focus on welfare, not warfare.
All the while, under the table, Hamas was preparing this big attack. Israel, meanwhile, invested in automation, and sensors. A high technology iron wall around Gaza, and focused forces on the West Bank. Under Deif, Hamas encouraged Israeli complacency. Then, last weekend, it hit hard. Attacking communication towers and automated machine guns with drones. Over running command and control centers.
Killing senior officers, among them, three colonels, and unleashing terror on thousands of civilians. The Israel Defense Forces found Hamas anti-tank mines and other heavy weapons, a sign they may have planned for a longer stay. The shock infantry attack is either deliberately brutal from the start, or degenerated into a massacre as Israeli defenses collapsed. It shifted attention and power to Hamas.
ABUSADA: He has become like a god to some of the Palestinians because of what he has done.
KILEY: Many Palestinians are dismayed by the massacre and the bloodshed that's followed. But with the lives of hostages in his hands, the guest now has an unwelcome place in America's mind. Sam Kiley, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: Israel is concerned it may have to fight a war on two fronts, following Hezbollah's moves in Lebanon. The IDF says the militant group fired rockets and anti-tank missiles from across the border on Wednesday. Israel has deployed tens of thousands of extra troops in the area, in anticipation of a possible attack by Hezbollah, from Lebanon.
Senior US officials are not convinced the militant group is ready to do that. But Washington, and its allies, have still sent a message to Hezbollah to stay out of the war, including through a show of military force.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN KIRBY, SPOKESPERSON, US NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL: The aircraft carrier USS Gerald R Ford, and her strike group, are now in the eastern Mediterranean, they arrived yesterday.
They are there for deterrence purposes, to make it clear to any would- be actor, organization, group, terrorist network, nation-state, anybody who thinks that with hostile intent towards Israel, that this is the time to widen, and expand the conflict, that we will take our national security interest seriously.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: For more, we are joined by Kim Ghattas, a contributing writer for The Atlantic who's been covering the Middle East for more than 20 years. She joins us from Beirut. Thank you so much for being with us. KIM GHATTAS, CONTRIBUTING WRITER, THE ATLANTIC: Thanks for having me, Rosemary.
CHURCH: So, one of the biggest concerns, as this conflict escalates, is the risk of it expanding beyond Israel's borders, into the larger region. The IDF has been saying now that it's fighting three fronts, in fact. Lebanon, Syria, as well as Gaza. Talk to us about the likely ramifications, if this draws in Hezbollah from the north, and of course, other players.
GHATTAS: Well so far what we are seeing from Hezbollah in Lebanon is a choreographed but potentially deadly dance with the Israeli army. They're sending some rockets into northern Israel in a script that is still understood by the Israelis, targeting territory that is considered to be under occupation still, like the Shabbat Farms.
But we have had rockets as well launched by the Islamic Jihad from southern Lebanon as well. So it is a very volatile situation, and miscalculations can happen. This is what happened in 2006, and the secretary general of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, at the time, also said that he miscalculated, that if he had known what the Israeli reaction would be to the kidnapping of three Israeli soldiers at the time, he would not have gone ahead.
Unfortunately for Lebanon, he did, and we paid a very heavy price. I think that this time around, there is no desire within Hezbollah, for now, to escalate. What they want to do is show support for Hamas, for the Palestinian cause, as they put it. But, as you say, the risk of escalation is great.
[02:40:01]
What I found very interesting is the denial coming out of Tehran, from the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, saying that Iran was not involved in this. It was not involved in the planning, as though the Iranians also suddenly realized what the risks were here. Of course, they're complicit because they have a long-standing relationship with Hamas, they provide weapons, they provide money.
But I wonder perhaps whether they were surprised by the extent of the, if we could call it that, the success of this deadly slaughter that Hamas carried out. And so this denial out of Iran is interesting. And of course overnight we had the call between the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed Bin Salman, calling the Iranian President, Ebrahim Raisi, for the first time ever.
If you'll remember, Rosemary, they only recently had a rapprochement between Iran and Saudi Arabia, and this is the first call ever between Mohammed Bin Salman, and President Ebrahim Raisi. And so I think that everybody's worried about the potential for a bigger conflagration, which raises the question, what is Hamas's endgame here?
CHURCH: Right. Indeed, that is the big question of course. Now, Israel's Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has now formed an emergency government that includes Benny Gantz, and his opposition party. Gantz, of course, is a former defense minister. So is a ground incursion inevitable in their effort to wipe out Hamas, do you think, despite the deadly risks involved on all sides in fact, including for Palestinian civilians?
GHATTAS: You know, I can't speak to Israeli military planning but this is what we're hearing, that a ground incursion is possible. For now, they seem to be preparing for this, they're talking about eliminating Hamas from the Gaza strip. Of course that poses several challenges. You know, bombing from the air, no matter how precise your weapons are, we've seen what it does to civilians.
We saw it in Lebanon, we've seen it in Gaza over the last few years, there's been four wars between Hamas and Israel. We're in a very different position at the moment, and a very different place. This is uncharted territory. Because if Israel wants to, as they say, eliminate Hamas, it's going to require a long campaign. Because I would assume that if they thought this was easy they would have done it in the past.
And they haven't succeeded in doing that, including, because, as we keep hearing from Benjamin Netanyahu himself, in some ways, and the people around him, it suits Netanyahu to have Hamas there because they undermine, together, the idea of a two-state solution. So it's a convenient excuse for why Benjamin Netanyahu isn't talking to the Palestinians about a future Palestinian state, or making any concessions.
But when it comes to the military planning, as I said, the challenge of preserving civilian life is massive. We're already seeing casualties mounting in Gaza. And then of course you have the issue of hostages, not only Israeli hostages but potentially American and many other nationalities. And I think that that's why the regional parties and international community are getting, very quickly, involved. Because this is not just another war between Hamas and Israel, this has much wider potential to become deadlier, and engulf the region.
CHURCH: Kim Ghattas, thank you so much for joining us, appreciate it.
GHATTAS: Thanks for having me.
CHURCH: And still to come, the faces, and the stories, of those taken hostage by Hamas as families face an agonizing wait for word on their loved ones. We will hear from some of them. That's just ahead.
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[02:46:53]
CHURCH: Well the Biden administration says it's still unclear about the condition of US citizens who may be among the hostages being held by Hamas. But US President Joe Biden says that he is not losing hope on rescuing them. This comes as we learn details about others who have been taken from Israel by the militant group. CNN's Brian Todd, reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Militants yell, as a pick up truck approaches. In the back, 22-year-old Omer Wynker is filmed, lying almost naked, and being beaten. Omer was taken hostage at the music festival, last Saturday. His uncle tells CNN, Omer's parents wanted the world to see this video. The uncle says Omer is in poor health, and needs medication.
RICARDO GRICHENER, NEPHEW ABDUCTED BY HAMAS: It's horrifying to see your nephew in this situation. Basically hit, brutalized. He could get very ill, high fever, getting up to basically physical illness left in a serious situation. And, of course, we assume that he will not be treated very good.
TODD (voice-over): This video shows 22-year-old Haviator David being led around, shirtless, in a headlock, after being abducted from the music festival. In another video, he is shown tied up, in the back of a truck, looking horrified, like others. Haviator's brother wanted us to show the video, as excruciating as it is.
ILAY DAVID, BROTHER HELD HOSTAGE BY HAMAS: It was very hard to see the video. It has made us very angry, very sad. But also a little bit optimistic because we saw that he is okay, that he is fine, that he is not injured.
TODD: This video shows people cheering, as a kidnapped 85-year-old grandmother from kibbutz Nir Oz's Yafar Adar is paraded down a street and a golf cart. Yafar's granddaughter says she can't understand why anyone would want to take her.
ADVA ADAR, GRANDMOTHER KIDNAPPED BY HAMAS: We don't know how long she can stay without her medicine. And I do know that every minute that she doesn't have her medicine, she's in a lot of pain. And she is suffering. And, you know, I'm sure she is very scared. And I'm sure she feels very alone.
TODD (voice-over): When we first saw this video of Shani Louk, she was in the back of the pickup truck, unconscious, a militant draping his leg over her. At least one person spat on her. Shani's mother gave CNN an update.
RICARDA LOUK, DAUGHTER ABDUCTED BY HAMAS: We heard information that she is alive, and that she has a bad head injury, and is in the hospital. That's all that we know.
TODD: One analyst says this about the hostages.
NATAN SACHS, BROOKINGS CENTER FOR MIDDLE EAST POLICY: These hostages are meant as two things. One, human shields, just like the rest of the two million people in Gaza are human shields for Hamas, and second, as bargaining chips.
TODD: A diplomatic source tells CNN that Qatar is mediating between Israel and Hamas, to exchange women and children being held as hostages in Gaza, for Palestinian women and teenagers, being held in Israeli jails. Meanwhile, traveling with secretary of state, Antony Blinken to Israel, is a US deputy special envoy for hostage affairs, who will work to try and get Americans released from Hamas captivity. Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.
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CHURCH: And we'll be right back.
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[02:54:00]
CHURCH: Funerals have begun for victims of the Hamas attack in Israel. Several people volunteered to help gravediggers who are working overtime at Israel's main cemetery for Israeli leaders and military personnel. And on Wednesday, these mourners gathered for the funeral of a young woman who was killed while attending the Nova Music Festival. She is the granddaughter of the Israeli national football team coach, who was also killed.
The Hamas massacre, at that outdoor music festival in southern Israel, killed at least 260 people. Many are still missing. Sahar Ben-Sela was there, and made it out despite the trauma he endured. He is now determined to tell his story to the world. CNN's Christiane Amanpour spoke with him earlier, from a hospital in Tel Aviv. A warning though, his story is difficult to hear.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SAHAR BEN-SELA, SURVIVOR OF HAMAS MASSACRE AT MUSIC FESTIVAL: It was an animal slaughter. It's like they take took all the animals to one place and shot them all.
[02:55:02]
And then, the policeman got shot, and ran away. And they killed one of the terrorists but got shot, and ran away. I found him and saw he got life in God, the policeman. One second, sorry. Then, they dropped the first grenade. Dropped it aside. It exploded the entrance.
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN HOST: I am sorry. If it's too much, don't talk.
BEN-SELA: No, it's okay. No, no, it's okay. I need to tell about this. Just a second please, thank you. After the first grenade, after something like four to five seconds, he dropped the second grenade. And it hit the wall, hit my head and flew to the back of the people in the back row, and explode on them.
And then there was something like a lot of smoke inside. And my friend's girlfriend start to choke, and she wanted to go out. And she start to run away from the shelter. We try to catch her, I remember, I was in the second row of the people. I tried to catch her with my hand and it was slipping, and I think she tackled the terrorist, and he shot her dead from zero --
AMANPOUR: Point blank. Point blank.
BEN-SELA: Point blank, yes. Thank you. From point blank. And after he shot her dead, he just got inside, I can never forget the face of him. He was smiling at us, he looks like the devil.
AMANPOUR: Sahar, I'm just pleased that you made it out. What a complete, and utter horror.
BEN-SELA: I wish it was a horror. In a horror movie you can go out somehow. But there, there is no choice. I saw the kids that their bodies full of bullets. A girl that all her body parts on the floor, and she was crawling to her boyfriend. Her dead boyfriend, and start to kiss him until she died by herself.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: Horrifying. Sahar Ben-Sela says he wants the world to know the music festival was a peace festival, and that they did nothing to provoke the attackers. I want to thank you for joining us this hour. I'm Rosemary Church, do stay with us. I'll be back with more news in just a moment.
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