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CNN's Continuing Coverage on the Israeli-Palestinian War in Gaza. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired October 12, 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]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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 it is 10 in the morning 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.

Nearly 1,200 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 1,200 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. 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, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER (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.

(VIDEO PLAYING)

Air raid sirens in southern Israel sent British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly running for shelter. He's there to meet with Israeli leaders and survivors of the Hamas attacks.

Want to go live to London now where journalist Elliot Gotkine is following developments for us. He joins us now. Good morning to you, Elliot. So what's the latest on Israel's large-scale airstrikes on Gaza and of course these preparations for what appears to be an imminent ground incursion as those troops mass at the border?

ELLIOT GOTKINE, JOURNALIST: Rosemary, it was the earlier morning about five and a half hours ago that the IDF said that it was carrying out waves of strikes on targets inside of Gaza. Subsequently, the IDF's chief international spokesperson, Richard Hecht, said that they were targeting the Nukhba elite forces of Hamas, targeting things like weapons, storage facilities and rocket launchers.

What he seem to be saying is that some of the Hamas militants who crossed into Israel who were subsequently taken prisoner by Israel, thanks to their interrogations, they've been able to identify more of the people and the facilities that were used in these attacks and to coordinate these attacks, and adding that it was this Nukhba elite force that was very much involved in this attack on Israel, which began in the early hours of Saturday morning.

And so they are targeting just infrastructure and weapons, but also individuals. who they say were part of the planning of this terror attack, which happened in the early hours of Saturday. Now, one of the big pieces of news which you mentioned there, Rosemary, of course, is the formation of this emergency government, because what Hamas has done as well as really, I suppose, terrorizing Israelis with this attack is to unite Israelis. They've never been more divided over the past nine months, thanks to Prime Minister Netanyahu's push for this judicial overhaul.

Hamas has succeeded in, I think, reuniting Israelis, but also their bitterly divided politicians. So we saw Benny Gantz, the leader of the opposition National Unity Party, no friend of Netanyahu's, joining his government to form an emergency government. He went before the cameras yesterday to say why he'd done so and what Hamas had in store.

[03:04:53]

(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: So we are expecting this ground invasion by Israel, but it's worth noting that the IDF is saying that no decision has been made yet, that it may seem likely they are massing, they are prepared for all eventualities, but no decision, certainly not by the country's political leaders, has been made yet.

Meanwhile, they say that the IDF says that more than 5,000 rockets have been fired from the Gaza Strip into Israel, towards Israel, since Saturday morning. We know that Israel has been carrying out retaliatory airstrikes, hundreds of them, ever since then. We know the death toll inside Israel is more than 1200 and inside Gaza is now more than 1100. And in fact there are still firefights, there are still skirmishes going on inside of Israel between soldiers and militants from Hamas. The IDF saying that the border with Gaza is almost sealed but it's not, in their words, hermetic.

They're still seeing attempts to infiltrate into Israel, especially by sea, but for now there are still some skirmishes going on and they don't know how many, they say there could still be a few militants inside of Israel who could potentially carry out more attacks. Rosemary?

CHURCH: Elliot Gotkine, thanks for that live report from London. I Appreciate it.

And I spoke earlier with Israel Defense Forces spokesperson, Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner, and I asked him about the large-scale Israeli airstrikes and apparent preparations for a ground incursion into Gaza.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LT. COL. PETER LERNER, ISRAEL DEFENSE FORCES SPOKESPERSON: 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 Nukhba forces, has been our effort 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 forces conducting these strikes against specific locations where we know they're hiding out, stockpiling weapons, using staging grounds, 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. The situation is very dire and as these stories come out, the magnitude of the terrorism of Hamas that strategically decided to open a war with Israel is coming to surface. And this is why we 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 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: Hamas are 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 their terrorists still in Israel just over the last 24 hours. So I would say 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, we know how to operate within urban areas, but that is our role, our job. To expect us to mobilize in order to defend the state of Israel is precisely what the Israel Defense Forces is there for. So we will know how to do it. We will do it in order to negate Hamas' capabilities to ever cause more attacks like this in the future.

[03:10:04]

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. Hamas 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 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 end game. It needs to change.

CHURCH: Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner in Tel Aviv, many thanks for joining us. Appreciate it.

LERNER: Thank you, Rosemary.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Washington may have to reach deeper into its military arsenal to help Israel at a time when a lot of U.S. ammunition and other supplies are already going to Ukraine. And as Oren Liebermann reports, some officials believe U.S. military inventories could be stretched too thin.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Concern is growing within the Pentagon and the Defense Department about U.S. stockpiles of certain ammunition as it eyes the possibility of having to supply two wars, according to multiple U.S. officials. A war in Ukraine where the U.S. is supporting Kyiv, and a war in Gaza where the U.S. is supporting Israel.

Now right now the two militaries are using very different types of ammunition. For example, in Ukraine it is artillery ammunition that is key, and the U.S. and other Western countries have been sending that for more than a year now.

But in Israel the need is for precision guided aerial munitions and iron dome interceptors, which Israel has requested. The problem is, if Israel carries out a ground incursion, which seems to be what's being built up, according to statements from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, then that Venn diagram of needs, what those militaries require for the ongoing fight, could very much overlap.

Israel could need artillery ammunition or tank ammunition, which is exactly what Ukraine's military needs in the ongoing fight to push out Russian occupiers. And that's where the concern is. According to one U.S. official, the U.S. constantly looks at its weapons supplies, what it has, what's going in and what's coming out.

But here is that concern about having to supply both countries. Now one key difference is that Israel has its own defense industrial base and that is able to crank out some very advanced weaponry. But with Netanyahu promising a prolonged campaign in Gaza and warning the country that it may have to be ready to grind out a war, the needs of that fight may simply outstrip what Israel's defense industrial base can provide, and that's where Israel will have to rely on the US, as it has done in the past.

For example, back in 2014, in an ongoing 50-day war, Israel very much needed to pull from U.S. reserve stockpiles that are actually in Israel to maintain its ongoing fight, and that need may, U.S. officials say, creep up again, especially as Israel expands its campaign against Gaza. So a key question here will be what can the U.S. provide, especially as the U.S. and so many other Western countries have provided so much to Ukraine already, not seeing the war in Gaza coming.

Oren Liebermann, CNN, in the Pentagon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Still to come, the U.N. says there's an urgent need for humanitarian aid in Gaza as civilians seek shelter from Israeli airstrikes. We'll have details after the break.

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[03:15:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) CHURCH: The U.N. Security Council is set to meet on Friday to discuss the crisis in Israel and Gaza. The U.N. says more than 330,000 people have been displaced in Gaza as Israel ramps up its bombardment.

Palestinian authorities say more than 1,100 people have been killed, including women and children. Israel's blockade on the enclave has closed off access to electricity, food, fuel and water. The Red Cross says hospitals in Gaza risk turning into morgues as they lose power. Despite this, many families are turning to hospitals seeking shelter from Israeli airstrikes. Listen to one woman outside Gaza City's main hospital.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIZYAN AL SHURFA, SHELTERING AT SHIFA HOSPITAL (through translator): When the airstrikes hit, we ran barefoot. We were pushing our children, walking with them one hour and a half from Al-Shufa Circle to Al-Jalah to Al-Shifa. We were on foot and got tired. We have children who are one year old, less than one year, or age two years. They are all victims. They are all women, children. What did they do?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: CNN's Nada Bashir has more on the story, but we need to warn you, some of the video you're about to see may be disturbing.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NADA BASHIR, CNN REPORTER (voice-over): Yet another round of Israeli airstrikes. Another neighborhood in Gaza decimated.

In Khan Yunus, the injured are many. But so are 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.

IMAD TALEB, GAZA RESIDENT (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 civilians?

MAHMOUD RADWAN, GAZA RESIDENT (through translator): 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.

[03:20:09]

BASHIR (voice-over): More than two million Palestinians, including almost a million children, live in the 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: We are extremely worried that what

is happening now is totally unprecedented. You talk about entire areas and not just one area, like entire areas are being wiped, are being destroyed. As we speak, there are a lot of airstrikes in the Jabalya camp. Charger, which is a very, very crowded area.

BASHIR (voice-over): According to authorities in Gaza, homes, schools, and even medical facilities have been targeted in this latest round of airstrikes.

On Wednesday, four Palestinian Red Crescent paramedics were killed while on duty. 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 1,000 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 nowhere safe to turn.

Nada Bashir, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: And still to come with Hamas believed to be holding 150 hostages in Gaza, the families of those taken captive are desperately pleading for their release. With fears growing, their loved ones could now be used as human shields.

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[03:25:00]

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CHURCH: Alright, I want to go back to the situation in Gaza. The U.N. says more than 330,000 people have been displaced in Gaza as Israel ramps up its bombardment. Palestinian authorities say more than 1,100 people have been killed, including women and children.

Well, joining me now is Dr. Hassan Abu Sittar, a surgeon working at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. Thank you, doctor, for talking with us at this very difficult time for you.

Doctor, can you hear us there?

I'm not sure, it looks like our shot has frozen. Can I just get confirmation of that?

Doctor, are you still on the line?

All right, we're going to go to our live pictures.

At this stage, we see U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has arrived at Gurion Airport in Israel. That's, he's going to, of course, he's the top U.S. diplomat set to meet in the coming days with the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Now, Secretary Blinken says he's also been discussing a possible humanitarian corridor to get food and medicine into Gaza and get civilians out. And of course we know that a number of Americans are still unaccounted for after Saturday's horrendous attack by Hamas, militants there, and Blinken will be looking for answers on that issue of course. We know at this point that it's thought that some of those hostages are Americans, he has with him in actual fact a hostage negotiator, a top hostage negotiator.

So I've got Nic Robertson on the phone I think or live with us. All right, in actual fact it is a report. Let's go to Nic Robertson's report now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: We're seeing developments this evening that really indicate just how much Israel is getting on a forward footing for a potential incursion into Gaza. We've seen tanks firing in that area over there. We're about two miles away from the Gaza fence and we haven't seen tanks firing there before.

And a little earlier on this evening as well we were hearing exchanges of heavy machine gunfire about a mile and a half that way just over the hill there, small community there. The Israeli Defense Force discovered three Hamas operatives in a cell there. They engaged in a heavy firefight. There were flares put up in the sky to give better visibility on the area.

But at the end of that firefight, the three Hamas operatives neutralized to use the Israeli Defense Force euphemism. Again, indicative of the fact that there are more troops on the ground. They're beginning to find the very last remnants of the Hamas leftovers from the weekend if you will those Hamas operatives came over the border at the weekend didn't go back. They've been holding out now they're being discovered but this whole area now a massive tight security operation here as we see more and more troops.

Heavy artillery pieces, heavy howitzers dug in fields around here and we've heard the howitzers through the evening firing shells into Gaza hitting the launch sites of those rockets.

[03:30:00]

We've had rockets fired on several occasions out of Gaza tonight, the intercepts from the Iron Dome going on above here. The whole feeling here is tense, is more security, is more troops of an up tempo.

Right now there's a lull, but you just never know how long the lull can last or what's going to come out of it. More heavy shelling, more missile strikes. This is a very, very volatile situation.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Nic Robertson with that report.

So funerals have begun for victims of the Hamas attacks in Israel. Several people volunteered to help grave diggers who are working overtime at Israel's main cemetery for Israeli leaders and military personnel.

(VIDEO PLAYING)

These mourners gathered on Wednesday for the funeral of an IDF soldier who was killed on Saturday. Nearly 190 victims of the attack have been identified as military service members. Family and friends also attended 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.

Well, desperate families of the hostages taken by Hamas are pleading for their release, with some telling CNN they want the public to see the videos of their loved ones being abducted in the hope that they'll be found.

A warning, this report from Salma Abdelaziz contains disturbing images.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They are festival- goers, little children, sons and daughters, old and young, now held hostage by Hamas.

Social media video of some of the abductions has gone viral, but the stories of these victims are still coming to light. This is 9-month- old Kfir and his brother, 3-year-old Ariel, believed abducted from their home in kibbutz Nuruz, along with their mother Sherry, their dad and two other family members.

This horrifying video of their capture, Sherry clearly terrified is the last time the family was seen alive. Yifat Zalier, a relative, told our Anderson Cooper she is in agony.

YIFAT ZALIER, RELATIVE OF HOSTAGES: I want my family back. I want my family back.

ABDELAZIZ (voice-over): Also among the hostages, several Americans. Hersh Polin-Goldberg, a 23-year-old Chicago native, is being described as a hero for his actions inside a bomb shelter during Hamas's rampage.

JON POLIN, FATHER OF HERSH POLIN GOLDBERG: Several people, independent of each other, said, your son and his friend, Anir, saved our lives. Anybody who's alive, because as grenades were being thrown in, they were tossing them back out.

ABDELAZIZ (voice-over): His parents say he sustained a critical injury and was later kidnapped by Hamas militants.

Yoni Asher is pleading for the release of his family, too, after seeing this video showing a scarf placed on his wife's head by militants. She was believed abducted with their two daughters, ages five and three.

YONI ASHER, RELATIVE OF HOSTAGES: When my wife was me on the phone, she told me that a terrorist of Hamas entered the house. Later on, I managed to track her mobile phone and I saw that the location is in Gaza Strip.

ABDELAZIZ (voice-over): Hamas says the hostages are spread out across the Gaza Strip. Israel fears to be used as human shields.

And in a chilling warning, the group threatened to execute hostages if Israel continues its assault of the enclave.

The hostage horror complicates Netanyahu's mission to obliterate Hamas. But on the Israel-Gaza border, the country's defense minister is refusing to hold back.

YOAV GALLANT, ISRAELI MINISTER OF DEFENSE (through translator): I released all restraints. We attack everything. The gloves are off. Hamas will no longer exist. We will destroy everything.

ABDELAZIZ (voice-over): So far, Israeli airstrikes have killed more than a thousand Palestinians, including children, according to officials in Gaza. But for the hostages, no indication of rescue efforts yet. And as Israel intensifies its attacks on Gaza and prepares for a potential ground offensive, desperate families fear their loved ones could be caught in the crossfire.

Salma Abdelaziz, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: The Biden administration says military aid to both Israel and Ukraine are top priorities. But Congress can't act until House Republicans elect a new speaker. On Wednesday, Steve Scalise was picked as the GOP nominee for the top job over Jim Jordan. But Scalise's chances of winning a floor vote are already in doubt.

CNN's Manu Raju has the latest now from Capitol Hill.

[03:35:10]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Republicans are growing fearful that Steve Scalise's path to the speakership may be getting much smaller made opposition from members of the hard right and others as well who are not yet sold on his nomination to be speaker of the house, the math simply is a challenge for him at the moment. This is a narrowly-divided house meeting. He needs to get 217 Republicans to support him for the speakership. Well, to win the Republican nomination on Wednesday, he won 113 votes, and three of those votes were from non-voting delegates.

So he has essentially 110 members who vote on the House floor, who he'll needs a lot more. We do expect dozens of those people who voted against Scalise and voted for Congressman Jim Jordan to support Scalise on the floor. But there are a number of others who say that they will vote for Jim Jordan on the House floor, even though Jordan himself has urged his supporters to back Scalise and end this paralysis in the House and the aftermath of that unprecedented vote last week to oust Kevin McCarthy from the Speakership.

But even despite those calls from Jim Jordan, a number of Republicans we have talked to are making clear they still plan to vote against Scalise on the floor, making it incredibly difficult at the moment for him to win the Speakership.

You're going to vote for Jordan on the floor in the first ballot. Are you going to speak with vote for Jordan for every single ballot?

REP. NANCY MACE (R-SC): I mean, it's hard to say, but I think we'll have to go several rounds and I will not move from that position, at least initially. And I'm talking to different people in different camps and you're figuring out where they are. And that would be conservatives that would be moderates that would be Democrats and figuring out what the next steps might be.

RAJU: Now, the timing of the vote is still uncertain. Republicans had come out of the Wednesday meeting, hoping to have a vote by Wednesday afternoon and maybe even the evening time to elect Scalise as a speaker. That did not happen. Thursday remains a possibility as well, but Scalise does not have the votes.

The question is, does he go to the floor? Does he dare Republicans to vote against him, try to sink the nomination? Does he grind it out like he did, like Kevin McCarthy did back in January, winning the speakership after 15 ballots? All key questions for Scalise, as some worry that there's just no path for him to get the nomination, to get the speakership and believe that perhaps another candidate could emerge down the line. All those key questions continue to loom over the GOP at this time when the House cannot act on any legislation until the speaker is elected.

Manu Raju, CNN, Capitol Hill.

(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. Back with that in just a moment.

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[03:40:00]

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CHURCH: 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 though, the report contains graphic content.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SAM KILEY, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A brazen political move. Hamas demands that the U.S. 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 U.S. We demand that the U.S. frees our sons from their prisons. The U.S. 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 assaults in Israel. They were enabled by a failure of Israeli intelligence, but plotted by a shadowy Hamas officer they call Al Dief, the guest. Only two photographs exist of Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al-Masri, who's nearly 60. He's known as Al Dief because he billets as a guest in a different location every night.

He's the mastermind or monster, the murder of more than 1,000 in Israel, and the kidnapping of about 150 hostages.

MKHALMAR ABUSADA, CHAIRMAN, POLITICAL SCIENCE DEPARTMENT, 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.

For the last two years, though, Hamas has pretended to focus on welfare, not warfare.

BARAKA (through translator): All the while under the table, Hamas was preparing this big attack.

KILEY (voice-over): Israel, meanwhile, invested in automation and sensors, a high-technology iron wall around Gaza and focus forces on the West Bank. Under Dief, Hamas encouraged Israeli complacency.

Then last weekend, it hit hard. Attacking communication towers and automated machine guns with drones,

overrunning 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 has 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 (voice-over): 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: And still to come, warnings about Hamas posting graphic videos online. I'll speak with an expert about misinformation already spreading on social media and what parents should watch out for.

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[03:45:00]

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CHURCH: Schools in Israel, the United States and the United Kingdom are advising parents to shut down their children's social media accounts over concerns Hamas could soon upload or broadcast disturbing videos.

In Tel Aviv, a school parents' association expects videos of hostages begging for their lives to surface on social media. They're telling parents to delete apps like TikTok, X and Instagram from their children's phones. And there are also concerns Hamas could exploit social media algorithms to target Jewish or Israeli influences.

And as CNN's Donnie O'Sullivan reports, misinformation about the Israel-Hamas conflict is already spreading online.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONNIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This might look like a video of a real soldier firing a real rocket at an aircraft. It was posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, with the caption, More power to you, Hamas.

But it's not real. It's actually a clip from a video game named Arma 3. Despite that, it's been viewed more than half a million times on X. The viral clip is just one of many pieces of misinformation that spread rapidly on the platform in the hours after Hamas launched a surprise attack against Israel.

After Elon Musk took over Twitter last year, he laid off thousands of employees, including many responsible for combating misinformation on the platform.

Now, to help police false content, the company relies heavily on Community Notes, a crowdsourced, user-generated fact-check system, like this one, added to the bottom of a post.

[03:50:00]

Musk's changes to verification on the platform is also causing confusion. Before, a blue badge was proof a person or organization was who they said they were, but now anyone can buy a verified account with a blue checkmark and those accounts are boosted by X's algorithms and the people who run them even have the chance to make money from their posts.

This video is shared by a blue badge account and has been viewed nearly 2 million times. The video purports to show Hamas militants capturing senior Israeli officials. But this is false.

It is actually a video of authorities in Azerbaijan arresting separatist leaders.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Joining me now is Layla Mashkoor, Associate Editor at the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab. Appreciate you being with us.

LAYLA MASHKOOR, ASSOC. EDITOR, DIGITAL FORENSIC RESEARCH LAB, ATLANTIC COUNCIL: Thank you for having me.

CHURCH: So as we saw in that report, we are already seeing a flood of misinformation and disinformation on the Israel-Hamas War circulating on social media platforms as well as graphic material. What needs to be done to combat this problem? And how do parents and all of us, in actual fact, ensure that this material is avoided?

MASHKOOR: Yeah, so the online information environment surrounding this conflict is being flooded with disinformation, misinformation, and tons of really graphic and horrific footage.

And the pipeline that we're seeing in terms of this information flow is originating on Telegram where there is a lack of robust content moderation systems, and it serves a utility to militant groups to allow them to upload this graphic content. And that pipeline is now continuing onto Twitter where we're seeing the, as the report mentioned, the team that works on content moderation and trust and safety has been essentially gutted at Twitter or X and that has allowed the proliferation of really graphic footage and a lot of disinformation and misinformation to spread online. And so the way to sort of combat that is we need to be bringing these

experts in these content moderation decisions about what is permissible online and what is not are really tough decisions to make. And I think in this context, it is even tougher because a lot of this content is spreading in Arabic, in Hebrew, and that makes it all the more difficult to really get a sort of control over the spread of this conflict.

And so what is required is expertise in terms of being able to understand the delicate nature of this and being able to understand the local context, the language, the historical context, and making decisions that are considerate and thoughtful about what is allowed to be online and what is not. And in terms of the graphic content, I think we've seen the European Union put out an order for both Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg to clamp down on the spread of this. And that requires robust content moderation.

CHURCH: Right. And of course, the big concern now is what happens if Hamas carries out its threat to broadcast the murder of hostages that it's holding inside Gaza. Parents in some schools are being urged to delete their kids' social media accounts in advance of this horrifying possibility. But what should these social media companies be doing to try to get ahead of this? Because they can't even get on top of the misinformation, can they?

MASHKOOR: Yes, exactly. It is a very the flood, the speed at which we're seeing the pace of this misinformation, this graphic content spreading is enormous and it is very hard to get a clamp down on it.

And what that requires is systems that are in place to recognize -- what to recognize this graphic content and take action against it. But those systems must be precise and that requires expertise. And so the solution here is to really implement systems that are proactive and that are able to flag this content before it reaches people who it should not reach, before it influences debates, before it traumatizes children.

CHURCH: Yeah, and you mentioned too that the E.U. has warned of penalties for social media companies that allow disinformation to circulate on their platforms but how tough should those penalties be because I mean, Elon Musk doesn't seem very perturbed by it, does he? Doesn't seem to be worried about it at all.

MASHKOOR: Yes, so we did see that the E.U. put out a 24-hour notice to take action against Twitter, and they have responded. They have said they will begin removing new accounts that are associated with Hamas, and they've partnered with the Global Internet Forum to combat terrorism. And so those are good steps to try and limit the spread of this.

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But the fine -- there is a fine associated with not taking action, and I believe it is about 6 percent of revenue, which is quite significant. And there needs to be consequences that will be felt for not taking action, because the harm that can emerge from allowing disinformation to spread unchecked, from allowing graphic content to spread unchecked, is very real and it could inflame an already very fraught situation.

CHURCH: Layla Mashkoor, joining us from Dubai, many thanks for helping us out with this very complicated issue. I Appreciate it.

MASHKOOR: Thank you.

CHURCH: And thank you for joining us this hour. I'm Rosemary Church. CNN's breaking news coverage of Israel at war continues next with Max Foster and Bianca Nobilo.

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