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CNN International: Israel Calls on All Civilians in Gaza City to Leave Their Himes; Hamas Tells Civilians in Gaza Not Leave Their Homes; Israeli Military Buildup Grows Along Gaza Border; Palestinians: 1,500 Killed in Gaza Including 500 Children; U.N. Says 423,000 People in Gaza Displaced by Conflict. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired October 13, 2023 - 04:00   ET

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

[04:00:00]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BIANCA NOBILO, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us in the United States and all around the world. I'm Bianca Nobilo

MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Max Foster. It is Friday, October the 13th, 9:00 a.m. here in London, 11 a.m. in Gaza City, where Israel is telling all civilians to leave their homes today and head south. It's the clearest signal yet that Israel plans to intensify its military operations in Gaza after their mass terror attacks over the weekend that left 1,300 people. The Israeli military says Hamas terrorists are hiding in tunnels underneath houses using people as human shields. Israel reports its jets struck 750 military targets in northern Gaza overnight, hitting tunnels, weapons storage, warehouses and the homes of senior terrorist operatives.

NOBILO: America's top diplomat is in Jordan today for talks with King Abdullah and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Antony Blinken is trying to arrange a humanitarian corridor to get food and medical supplies into Gaza and to get civilians out. In Israel on Thursday, he met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reaffirm U.S. support, but he also urged Israel to be cautious in its approach to Gaza. Blinken spoke with the families of Americans who were killed or taken hostage in Saturday's Hamas terror attacks. U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is visiting Israel today.

FOSTER: For more on Israel's call for civilians to leave Gaza, let's bring in journey. Elliot Gotkine. So they tell us about the deadline and what we know about which area of Gaza is expected to go.

ELLIOT GOTKINE, JOURNALIST: So the warning was handed by Israel to the United Nations at around about 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time. So that is around about midnight Israel and Gaza time. So it's due to run out, if you like, the clock will run out at midnight tonight on Friday. So we are talking in what it's 11 -- it's 11:00 now in Israel. So we've got 13 hours until that deadline expires. And what Israel has said.

And they're specific statements said: him Civilians of Gaza City evacuate south for your own safety and the safety of your families and distance yourselves from Hamas terrorists who are using you as human shields.

Now we've spoken with a couple of IDF spokespeople already this morning, and this initial warning seemed to be suggesting the whole northern part of Gaza, so about 10 kilometers in the whole northern part. And then the spokesman seemed to be saying that actually it just applies to Gaza City. But even if it's not the full 1.1 million people that the United Nations says it is going to be effective, that has to evacuate south, it would still be around about 600,000 people -- the population of Gaza City. Which is almost a third of the entire population of the Gaza Strip, having to move south over the other side of Wadi Gaza and that to get out of harm's way. Because the IDF is saying clearly, you know, you we want, we don't -- we want to minimize civilian casualties, is what they're saying. So we want civilians to move out the way, and presumably once that happens, Israel's bombardment and the likelihood and the imminence of a ground invasion will draw now.

NOBILO: Overnight, the intense bombardment continued in Gaza. What do we know about the impact that that has had on civilians in Gaza and potentially hostages that have been taken from Israel?

GOTKINE: Well, in terms of the humanitarian situation, we've already heard hospitals saying that they're it's a calamitous situation. the United Nations also saying that if this many people have to start saying that actually, in its words, that it is impossible to move that many people south or for that many people to evacuate south, without, in its words, devastating humanitarian consequences.

And we know that the United Nations Palestinian -- Refugee Agency for the Palestinians has already moved its central operations south. And In terms of the Israeli hostages, we know that there are between 100 and 150 hostages being held by Hamas since they abducted them at the start of that attack on Saturday morning. Now, according to Hamas, they are now saying in the last few minutes that 13 hostages have been killed by Israel's own strikes on the Gaza Strip. Now we don't have independent verification of that clearly. And obviously, it's in Hamas's interests to either say, for psychological reasons or to imply that the deaths of these hostages is due to Israeli strikes. But that is what they are saying right now, and clearly this will add to the pain of the families of those people that have been abducted, who are just waiting for news on their loved ones.

FOSTER: And you know the geography of this area. How workable do you really think that evacuation is in 13 hours?

[04:05:00]

GOTKINE: It's hard to say. You know, I I'm not there on the ground in Gaza to see, you know, there's been a lot of bombardment of buildings, of roads. There's probably unexploded ordinances around. There are presumably elderly and young people who may not be as mobile. The IDF says that it will factor in to its calculations of strikes and the like, the fact that these people are going to be on the move.

Now, I should also note that Hamas has said to residents of Gaza, don't pay any attention to what the Israelis are saying. Neither the statement nor, it seems, voice messages that have been voice notes that have been left on mobile phones of the residents of the Gaza Strip. One can only assume that residents will err on the side of caution and move to the south of where they are right now from Gaza City, in order to move out of harm's way and reduce the likelihood that they are added to those growing statistics of civilian casualties.

FOSTER: Elliott, stay with us. I'm going to speak to the IDF next. Aren't we?

NOBILO: Yes, joining us now from Tel Aviv is Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner with the Israel Defence Forces. Good to have you on the program again. Talk us through what is behind this latest evacuation order. And if you could just be extremely specific about the areas that you're asking to be evacuated in Gaza. Because there's been some cross communication about that.

LT. COL. PETER LERNER, ISRAEL DEFENSE FORCES SPOKESPERSON: I'm not aware of any cross communication when I -- our announcement has been very clear that people in the north of the Gaza need to evacuate beyond the Nuseirat, the Gaza Wadi, for their own safety. The steps are in anticipation, like we ourselves evacuated the people from the southern communities, in the surrounding areas of the Gaza Strip. In order to keep people out of harms way, we're encouraging them to leave. And unfortunately what we have seen is Hamas is telling people, no stay and sacrifice yourself.

The situation on the ground is as such, the military is expanding its operations in order to strike Hamas and prevent them from ever being able to attack us again. You know, we are still burying the people that were butchered by Hamas. There are about 200 burials, funerals a day and we are still burying them. And I can still say there are still bodies in the in the field itself, it means that we're having difficulty getting to because of the situation on the ground.

So I would say, yes, people who have who care for their lives need to listen very carefully to what the IDF is saying. The people of Gaza are not our enemy, and they should listen when we say we are very serious about destroying Hamas's capability to ever inflict such terrorism on our people ever again.

FOSTER: It's not even a week since this terrible trauma was inflicted on your nation, but in terms of the communication Bianca was referring to there, one of your colleagues suggested it was just Gaza City that's being evacuated, not the whole of northern Gaza. So what do you -- because you just said, is all of northern Gaza. Can just explain which areas so we know.

LERNER: I just want to confirm the situation is that the announcement was more than Gaza, so I want to confirm that and I you know we will check it out, I will update you in a couple of minutes. If you could have told me that beforehand, maybe I would have prepared that there was some misunderstanding. I wasn't aware of that.

FOSTER: No, you're in a war footing. I totally understand that there's so much going on and lots of coordination that needs to done. Just if I can ask you in your heart of hearts, do you really think this evacuation is workable? I'm just thinking of one example, someone in hospital in Gaza City, you're expecting them to get a -- somehow, find an ambulance with fuel -- already impossible. Then get past bombed out roads in an immense amounts of traffic. And also avoiding air strikes. How is that workable? And do you really think it is?

LERNER: So it's not what I think. I know, you know, we have as I said, the situation is a realization of what Hamas has done, and they instead of -- they need to take care of the people of Gaza. But what have they done? They're jeopardizing them. So I would say, it's possible, and of course it's going to be difficult in 24 hours and it might take longer than 24 hours. But we're pushing people to take action and take care of themselves immediately because we need to prevent Hamas from doing this again.

So yes, the situation and as you're reporting and following the excellent reports extensively, of course there is a very dire situation developing on the ground, but it is all in the making of Hamas that has, you know, miserably let down the people of Gaza by attacking Israel. And so people need to listen to what IDF is saying. We are very serious in our actions and we are telling people evacuate. We're telling Hamas if you care for the people of Gaza, evacuate them, don't tell them to stay. Don't sacrifice your people any further.

[04:10:00]

Leave them and make them move to the south of the Gaza Wadi.

NOBILO: Just before you joined us, our journalist that we have in studio, Elliott was telling us that Hamas has claimed that 13 hostages have been killed in Israeli bombardment of Gaza. Obviously, that hasn't been verified. And as Elliott pointed out, it's in Hamas's sort of psychological and strategic interest to claim that. But can you give us any update or new information about the status of the hostages in Gaza?

LERNER: So I saw that as well circulating on social media. I'm very cautious in believing anything Hamas says to begin with. So I hope that's not the situation. We, our chief of staff yesterday, General Hertzi Halevi said very clearly that the influence of the hostages, the abductees, the men, women and children are at the top of our priorities and we will do everything to bring them home. And it is in Hamas's interest that they come home alive. It is their responsibility for their well-being and they need to release them and they need to release them immediately.

FOSTER: Will there be some sort of ceasefire to allow this evacuation? And what happens if you don't see an evacuation?

LERNER: There's no expected ceasefire at this time because we can't permit Hamas to regroup, to conduct more attacks against us. The situation on the ground is developing and we are pursuing those that conducted the attacks by us. You know, they were so clever in circulating extensive footage on social media of themselves doing these this butchery that we're able to actually identify them and seek them out and hunt them down. NOBILO: I'm wondering if there is any level of humanitarian toll or

collateral damage that you would not be able to stomach in your position or on behalf of the Israeli people in retaliation for the terror that Hamas perpetrated in Israel.

LERNER: Our retaliation is not against the people of Gaza. Our retaliation is against Hamas and that is where we are and those are our targets. They have intentionally and strategically embedded themselves deeply within the civilian population. And that's specifically why we're telling the civilian population keep away from Hamas. Move away from their facilities. Try and keep away from them for your for your own well-being because they don't care about you.

So we are doing what we can in order to limit the civilian casualties or limit the civilian influence on the arena. But Hamas is doing everything it can in in order to make that worse, in order to exasperate the situation. We need to understand that Hamas cannot be permitted to rule the Gaza Strip and attack Israel the way it did ever again.

FOSTER: If you're -- if this evacuation, rather, not your evacuation, but the one you've ordered is successful, what happens afterwards? Obviously, it makes a ground invasion more likely, or the grounds for a ground invasion are there. But also what after that, are people going to be allowed back in? Because the big fear of many Gazans is once they leave their areas, they aren't allowed back in.

LERNER: Indeed, the call for evacuation is indeed to enable us to be, first of all, differentiate between Hamas and civilians on one hand, and that explicitly explains why Hamas is calling for them to stay. But we are in the in the midst of preparation for the potential of a ground operation and that would obviously make that more feasible.

But I would also emphasize that, you know, if we -- and if we do receive the instructions to mobilize on the ground, then we need to be prepared for to face whatever that whatever comes to us. So it would not be a condition for us to mobilize if that's the question, Max. I think we need to be prepared for every eventuality. We've recruited a 300,000 reservists in the aftermath of the terrorist attack, precisely to restore security and safety to the people of Israel.

FOSTER: OK, Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner, thank you so much for your time today. We know how busy you are. And if you could clarify exactly which areas are being evacuated people there -- yes.

LERNER: I'm just getting it in. Gaza City, just Gaza City, that's clarified.

FOSTER: OK. Thank you so much. Really appreciate that. Thank you.

LERNER: Thank you.

NOBILO: Well, U.S. officials are scrambling to get Americans stranded in Israel back home safely, the Biden administration says it will start chartering flights today to destinations in Europe.

[04:15:00]

FOSTER: Travelers will then be ferried home on U.S. based and other carriers. United, American and Delta Airlines all stopped flying to and from Israel earlier this week over safety concern. Other countries have already been pulling out their citizens. Germany's first evacuation flight from Israel landed in Frankfurt on Thursday. Many of the evacuees received an emotional welcome by their friends and families -- you can see. Officials say, around 950 German citizens have been evacuated by air, land and sea.

NOBILO: Canadians are also getting out. Landing in Athens, on their first military plane sent by the government. Some evacuees say that they've lived under lockdown for days before they were able to leave.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBIN COX, CANADIAN EVACUEE FROM ISRAEL: We tried to leave on the day that the war started and we were living in or staying in Ashdod, which is about 45 minutes from Gaza and we were in a lock down situation. We could not leave. We were in and out of the bomb shelter for six days and we were finally evacuated today.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My wife's Canadian and she was able to contact the Canadian government and they were very responsive in providing an alternative. I guess evacuation flights which we took advantage of.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: More than 1,600 Canadian citizens and permanent residents need help to leave that region.

NOBILO: In all the conflicts between Israel and Hamas over the years, there has been, and still is one constant. Civilians always suffer from the violence. The wars toll on Gaza's children coming up next.

FOSTER: Plus, CNN looks into where Hamas militants trained for their incursion into Israel. The short answer is not too far from Israeli troops and in plain sight as well.

[04:20:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FOSTER: Welcome back you. If you're watching before the break, you would have seen the interview we had with the Israel Defence Forces ahead of this deadline for people to get out of Gaza City that was directed by the IDF. Elliott was looking at that interview because there has been some miscommunication over this. Of course, it's a war situation so there will be that. But what did you clarify from the interview and learn from it?

GOTKINE: I think there were three things. The first and perhaps most important is as you said, as you asked Max for Peter Lerner to clarify, is it the northern part of the Gaza Strip or is it just Gaza City? As one of his colleagues had said earlier on CNN. And it's now clear that it is Gaza City residents. So we're talking around about 600,000 people. That's almost a third of the entire population of the Gaza Strip that the IDF is telling to evacuate in order to get out of harm's way. And so that they minimize the number of civilian casualties.

Worth reiterating that Hamas has told residents of Gaza City to not pay any attention to these warnings or the warnings that they apparently are receiving on their mobile phones from the IDF to evacuate, to move out of harm's way. So that's the first thing.

The second thing is, he said it may take longer. It may take longer than 24 hours. The clock started ticking at midnight local time. So we're talking 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time is when the clock started ticking. So it's supposed to expire at midnight tonight in Israel. It seems that there will be a little bit of wiggle room there, that there will be some flexibility as far as the Israelis go in allowing the people of Gaza City to vacate.

And I suppose the other thing is that he stressed -- and this isn't something that was stressed earlier in the warning -- is that there will be no ceasefire. So although they said or his colleague said earlier, that they will factor into consideration that there are going to be large numbers of people evacuating Gaza City to get out of harms way. In other words, they're going to try and ensure that they are not targeted or not hit. At the same time, there will not be a ceasefire. Because according to Peter Lerner, the spokesperson for the IDF, they don't want to give Hamas militant a chance to regroup, to carry out further attacks. Whether it's rocket launches towards Israel or to do any other, you know, practice or any other attacks or planning any other attacks that they might be wanting to do?

FOSTER: Elliott, what a journey for anyone trying to leave.

NOBILO: Absolutely. And we when we've been speaking to representatives from NGO's, all of them of course are calling for a ceasefire as a first priority in order to try and stabilize the situation there. And we did ask him as well about the level of collateral damage and civilian devastation and death that they he would accept. He gave the same answer that we've been hearing all week essentially. But now that the U.S. and other partners are urging caution in Israel's retaliation to the Hamas attacks, would you expect to see any change of messaging or, more crucially, change in terms of them being more discriminating in their targets that they choose?

GOTKINE: No, it's the short answer. The gloves are off this time. Israel has repeatedly said Israel is so shocked and angry, disgusted and heartbroken about everything that has happened since Saturday morning. And they have said repeatedly whether it's from the Prime Minister, the Defence Minister or the spokespeople from the IDF that there will be a price to pay. Their goal this time in the past is just to restore quiet. This time they are saying -- and I don't know, and no one really knows if they're going to be able to achieve this. They are saying that their aim is simply to destroy Hamas and to ensure that it can never again even come close to wreaking the same kind of brutality and savagery and death on Israel that it did in that initial attack in the early hours of Saturday morning.

NOBILO: Elliot, thank you so much for joining us.

FOSTER: Relief groups calling for the protection of civilians in Gaza as the humanitarian crisis worsens by the hour. The Palestinian Ministry of Health says more than 1,500 people have been killed in Gaza since the air strikes began. 500 of those killed are children.

NOBILO: A warning. Now some of the images you're about to see in our next report are graphic and heartbreaking, including one of a baby girl who was rushed through the streets to a waiting ambulance by her uncle, but ultimately didn't make it. The stories and images are gut wrenching but important to hear and see. CNN's Nada Bashir has this report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

[04:25:00]

NADA BASHIR, CNN REPORTER (voice-over): Gripped by grief and loss of unfathomable scale. Gaza's death toll and the number of civilians wounded is rising with each and every airstrike.

In the Al-Shati refugee camp, men dig with their bare hands, desperate to rescue loved ones from beneath the rubble of what once were their homes.

SAAD: Yasser, Ramadan, Shaheed, and Ayah.

BASHIR (voice-over): Saad begins to list the names of the children killed in this latest strike. Among them, his niece. She was just a few months old. Now, she is one of more than 440 children, Gaza's health ministry says, has been killed by Israeli airstrikes so far.

Israel says it is striking Hamas targets. But authorities here say medical facilities, schools and residential areas have been impacted.

Our neighbors said that the Israelis had called and told them to evacuate the area around our home. So, we came to stay with relatives here in Al-Shate, Nabil says. But the next morning, when we woke up to pray at dawn, the airstrike happened. There was no warning.

The densely populated Gaza Strip, which has been under an Israeli land, sea and air blockade since 2007, is home to more than two million people. Around 47 percent of them are children. So far, at least 340,000 people have been displaced within Gaza. Many are now forced to take shelter in U.N.-run schools like this one. But civilians here are also now facing what the Israeli government has described as a complete siege on Gaza.

There's no water for us to drink, no water for us to wash ourselves with so that we can pray, Maram says. They've bombed our schools, many people have been killed. It's not fair for children like us. Why is this happening to us?

Life under a blockade is all that the children of Gaza have ever known. For some, like 13-year-old Nadine, it is hard to imagine a future beyond this relentless conflict. NADINE ABDUL LATIF, TEENAGER LIVING IN GAZA: The last couple of nights have been the worst couple of nights I've ever lived in my life. This is not living, this is existing. We're not planning our futures anymore, we're just trying to survive.

BASHIR (voice-over): But survival in Gaza is becoming more and more difficult by the day. The humanitarian situation is rapidly deteriorating. And while the U.N. has condemned what it has described as Israel's unlawful blockade on Gaza and the indiscriminate nature of Israel's airstrikes, there is little hope that the bloodshed will end here.

Nada Bashir, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NOBILO: Let's go live now to Haifa, Israel and Diana Buttu, a Palestinian political analyst and human rights lawyer. Thank you very much for joining us this morning. Your reaction, first and foremost to the impending humanitarian catastrophe. Well, indeed it already exists, but it's only worsening by the hour.

DIANA BUTTU, PALESTINIAN POLITICAL ANALYST AND HUMAN RIGHTS LAWYER: It is indeed already a humanitarian disaster. Look, just to give you a sense of what Gaza is like, it is 40 kilometers long, 20 kilometers wide at its widest point. It's the most densely populated place on Earth. It's been besieged for decades by land, sea and air. Nothing can get in without Israel. Nothing can get out without Israel's permission. And now they are bombing the Gaza Strip.

This is a refugee population. It's effectively a large refugee camp with no place for people to go. And Israel has already projected and indicated that it plans to carry out mass atrocities. And indeed we've already seen them. Just in the past few days alone, Israel has dropped more bombs on Gaza than were dropped in an entire year by the United States in Afghanistan. If that isn't creating a humanitarian disaster, I don't know what it is.

But the worst part is that everybody is remaining silent and that the United States is in lockstep, complicit with these war crimes that are being perpetrated against a refugee, child population.

FOSTER: And what are you hearing from Palestinians in Gaza today? Because it strikes me they're in an impossible situation. We were just speaking to the IDF. They're saying there won't be a ceasefire, but they are -- they do want people to evacuate Gaza City. A lot of people just -- I mean, how are they going to get out? I mean, what are people saying? Are they going to stay, you know, see if they can survive or are they going to go?

BUTTU: This is a talking point on the part of the Israelis. They asked them to evacuate but evacuate to where? Israel has a responsibility. It has an obligation as the occupier, and just -- and it's not fulfilling that that obligation. Instead, it's telling people to flee. But flee to where? There's no place for them to go. It has to provide them with that opportunity to leave and people don't want to go. These are people who have survived.