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Tensions In Northern Israel As Pentagon Deploys 2nd Aircraft Carrier To The Region; Interview With Naftali Bennett; CNN Speaks With IDF Soldier Whose 84-Year-Old Grandmother Was Taken Hostage by Hamas; Pentagon Deploys Second Aircraft Carrier Strike Group To Region; Europe Cracks Down On Rising At Anti-Semitism Amid Israel-Hamas War. Aired 7-8p ET

Aired October 14, 2023 - 19:00   ET

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

[19:00:00]

JIM ACOSTA, CNN ANCHOR: New tonight the Pentagon is sending a second aircraft carrier and its strike group to the Eastern Mediterranean. This comes as Israel's military readies for what it calls the next stages of war, and that is likely to mean a ground invasion into Gaza. More than 300,000 Israeli soldiers with heavy equipment are at the border awaiting.

Meanwhile, President Biden has been working the phones today, speaking with the Palestinian authority President Mahmoud Abbas who has called for an immediate end to Israel's attacks. In a conversation with President Biden, Abbas stressed the need for urgent humanitarian corridors to provide essential supplies and utilities to Gaza. That's according to the Palestinians.

Meanwhile, President Biden also spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Their fifth phone call since last Saturday. Today Netanyahu posted a video online of his visit with Israeli troops at the frontline.

I want to go now to CNN's Matthew Chance who is in northern Israel for us.

Matthew, our colleague Erin Burnett is also standing by, we should note, in Tel Aviv. We'll get back to her when we can. But, Matthew, what can you tell us about what's happening on your end? Obviously the concerns continue that things could escalate to the point where there's a northern front in all of this, and there might be some continued escalation between the Israelis and Hezbollah. What's the latest on your end?

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CHIEF GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Well, it's very tense up here in northern Israel because as the country sort of prepares for that widely anticipated ground offensive in Gaza, the real focus of concern, I suppose in the region is what will happen in northern Israel because just across the border in Lebanon, which is just a short distance from here, Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militia there, have a vast arsenal of missiles basically pointed in this direction. And if it decides to unleash those weapons in response to the land

incursion into Gaza by Israeli forces, that will be a game-changer. The Israelis have said that they will strike back hard and they've warned the Hezbollah militia not to take that step across that red line. They said they don't want a second front to open here, but if it does open, they'll respond, you know, in force.

You've also got U.S. forces, as we've been reporting, off the coast of Israel, in the Eastern Mediterranean. The world's largest aircraft carrier is already there. There's another carrier group in the United States -- U.S. carrier group, rather, heading in that direction as well. And that's meant to, the U.S. government says, show a message of deterrence. But of course, it could also be used, these aircraft carriers, they could also be used as platforms to strike countries in the region, to strike Hezbollah, for instance, if there is a concerted attack on northern Israel by that Lebanese, Iranian-backed militia.

At the moment there hasn't been that level of escalation reached. There have been some confrontation. There have been mortar fires -- mortar rockets, sorry, mortar rounds, rather fired across the border from Lebanon, and that has been responded to by the Israeli military with artillery fire. There have been missiles fired from Syria as well across the border into Israel, according to Israeli military officials and there's been an Israeli response to that as well.

But what we haven't seen yet is that big destructive, you know, all- out response, all-out attack, rather, by Hezbollah on northern Israel. And so, look, it could still happen. We hope that it won't. But, you know, certainly the Israelis say that they are prepared for any kind of an attack like that.

ACOSTA: All right. Matthew Chance, thank you very much. Please keep us updated on how things are developing out where you are. We appreciate it very much.

I want to bring in my colleague, Erin Burnett, in Tel Aviv.

Erin, I understand you have former Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett with you. Take it away.

ERIN BURNETT, CNN ANCHOR: Yes. Yes, Jim, and I'm here with the former prime minister. And of course here, it is 2:00 in the morning. And you are awake. You have been in meetings. It doesn't seem like anyone in the Israeli government is sleeping right now. What is the latest as you're able to tell us?

NAFTALI BENNETT, FORMER ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: Well, we're still licking our wounds and have not identified all of the slaughtered Israelis. And that's one process. Right now in the south, it seems like we're on top of things. And here and there, there is a bunch of terrorists jumping out but we by and large kill them. We're in a lull right now. And we're waiting for the next phase and the next phase is going to be our counterattack on Gaza. The big day murder event is behind us and now we're going to hit back within days.

BURNETT: Within days. And I guess that is the question because it does feel here, we try to explain to everyone around the world just there's this sense of waiting, but an ominous waiting.

[19:05:01]

All right, and businesses aren't fully open. And kids aren't in school. And then troops are on the border. That you can't wait like that for long and it sounds like you're not anticipating waiting like that for long.

BENNETT: That's right. You know, I can't say exactly how long but what I can tell you is that across the board in Israel, everyone, wall to wall, are eager to hit back. I've been visiting various units. I myself was a combat soldier. And the enrollment rates, the enlisting rates are about 130 percent which means people who already were discharged years ago from reserve service are insisting to join and fight. Because Israel took a huge hit. But make no mistake, while our hearts are shattered, our spirit is strong and we're going to hit back.

BURNETT: And, you know, you talk about 130 percent. I've met a few of them, ones who said, a yoga instructor, I'm done. I was done my reserves. I came back in. So they are --

BENNETT: I also wanted to do it but they didn't let me because I'm a -- you know, a former prime minister.

BURNETT: Too high profile. I was in Be'eri today and I know you've been obviously to these scenes. It is horrific and impossible to describe. One soldier was telling me, he's been serving for decades. Never seen anything like it, going into a house. The specific story. The house had been burned but it was locked. So he found a room inside with a four-month-old girl baby shot once in the head, on her back.

These are things that you have seen the unseeable and the unspeakable. At this moment, have you even had a chance to process this? Maybe you never will.

BENNETT: No. It's not -- it's too early for that. Young girls gang- raped and murdered and then burned. Their arms tied behind their backs.

BURNETT: We saw the zip ties there lying around.

BENNETT: Moms with their babies, pregnant woman whose baby was torn out. Horrible things. You know, since Israel's establishment, we've never seen anything like this. The last time we've seen anything near stuff like this was the Holocaust. And we founded the state precisely so this would never happen again. So we've got to fix this. We can't change history but we can shape the future. And we're going to hit back on Hamas until we destroy them. We're going to kill every Hamas snake possible.

BURNETT: And how do you define that history? I know you've made it clear that Israel doesn't have the desire to have Gaza, right? This is about specifically Hamas. But how do you draw that distinction? I mean, everyone knows it's impossible, it's not easy, but how are you actually going to do it from an operational perspective? BENNETT: That's a very important question because you're right,

Hamas's M.O., modus operandi, is to embed civilians as defense. So what we're doing is the following. We set a line pretty much in the middle of Gaza and we told all people living north of that line to move to the south, vacate it, and they are. The vast majority of the Gazan residents are moving southward because we don't want to kill civilians. We're not going to target civilians. We never do that.

Within a short time frame, once north of Gaza is empty, anyone there by definition is Hamas. And then we're going to hit every Hamas installation, person, anyone related. Anyone related to the organization, I mean, anyone who assists the Hamas, and it's going to be very -- we're going to unleash our power.

BURNETT: A question, though. I mean, to state the obvious. when you announce you're going to do something, and if you're a Hamas fighter, why would you stay around? I'm going to just put aside the fact that moving 1.1 million people is impossible in a short period of time. But you're telling them what you're going to do.

BENNETT: Yes, because --

BURNETT: So how then do you expect them to stay?

BENNETT: Well, we're going to hit them not only -- we're going to hit in all places and since there are major operations centers and headquarters are there, this will be meaningful.

BURNETT: Yes.

BENNETT: Now at that point they're going to have to make very tough decisions for the Hamas themselves where they go, et cetera. I don't want to get into every operational, I'm no longer prime minister, so at this time, so that's the plan. We're going to make a clear distinction. Anyone south of Gaza City, not including Gaza City, so everyone has got to be south of the city from our perspective. That's the safe haven.

BURNETT: How strongly do you feel that Rafah border needs to be open in order for you to succeed at moving people down? I mean, we've been driving up along this border, trying to understand, but the small space you're talking about.

BENNETT: Right.

BURNETT: It's already the most densely populated place in the world and you're now trying to double the population of half of it.

BENNETT: And by the way, it's not the most densely place in the world. It's a misconception.

[19:10:03]

New York is more dense. Paris is more dense. There is a misconception. There is enough land there. It's not fun but there is a huge difference between temporary refuge and burning babies and raping young girls. So, you know, this is highly proportional and even weigh under the threshold. It's going to be tough. We're not going to prevent humanitarian aid from coming in. We're not going to provide them.

Israel has no duty to provide another country with anything. And we're not going to do that, but if other countries want to, you know, provide water or medicine, et cetera, that's theirs to do. We're fighting from my perspective a Nazi state. But again we're not going to target civilians. We never do.

BURNETT: And I don't know if you've heard the news but it was just Oren Liebermann obviously was stationed here in Jerusalem for a long time, has the Pentagon reporting that the U.S. is deploying another U.S. carrier strike group to the region, which is an incredibly high state of readiness. A very significant statement. I don't know if you're already aware of that. But what do you read into that?

BENNETT: Basically what America is doing, first of all, I have to thank President Biden, my friend, and the administration, and the people of the United States of America. At this very tough moment for Israel, you're showing what friendship means and what being a dependable ally means. This is very meaningful.

On a more concrete dimension, it is basically a signal to Hezbollah in Iran. Don't have any thoughts of entering this battle because you're going to get hit hard not only by Israel but by others.

BURNETT: And in the north, Matthew Chance was just reporting from there, along that border. Obviously it's a very dangerous place. A journalist was killed there. It is very dangerous but you haven't yet seen -- you're not seeing the same conflict there. You're not seeing what's going on here. Do you anticipate it will remain that way? What do you understand right now there to be in terms of communication or coordination or support between Hezbollah and Hamas at this moment?

BENNETT: Well, this pressure on Hezbollah to enter because Hamas is beginning to be in a much tougher situation than they envisioned. But Hezbollah cannot surprise us now because we're there. We were taken by surprise by Hamas.

BURNETT: Yes.

BENNETT: But in war you never want to attack an enemy that's waiting for you, and that's precisely what we're doing with Hezbollah. We're waiting for them. And it would be tantamount to destructing Lebanon if they attack us. And since Nasrallah claims that he's the protector of Lebanon, I think it would be a big mistake for him to turn himself into the destroyer of Lebanon.

BURNETT: Do you have -- how do you feel right now about the fact that in Jordan, King Abdullah and of course in Egypt, Sisi, are not opening their doors to large numbers of refugees? Do you think that they should?

BENNETT: I'm not going to tell -- I'm not going to give advice to both of them. They have their own interests. At the end of the day, we're not out to hurt the Gaza people but we're also not responsible for them. We have no responsibility for an enemy state or any state. So whoever really cares can come and help, can come and allow them in or whatever. It's simply not our problem.

BURNETT: And then in terms of where your meetings are. One other question of course everyone is asking is when you make this move in these next few days, with everyone knows you're going to do, you said you're going to do, what is your intelligence about Iran's response?

BENNETT: You see, that's also a good question. Iran is sort of the head of this octopus and it has various arms. It has Hezbollah in Lebanon. It has Islamic Jihad and Hamas down in Gaza. It has Syria. And it knows that we will allow ourselves to hit it on the head in certain circumstances. And they are very vulnerable. They have an economy. They have many power centers. I think it would be a grave mistake for them to enter.

BURNETT: All right. Naftali Bennett, thank you very much. Very glad to see you. Obviously these late hours of the night, early hours of the morning, Jim. And I think it's important to say the reason Naftali Bennett is here, as like so many in the top levels of the Israeli government, they're working through the night, too. And again, to your questions about when this happens, they're staying up all night doing these things.

[19:15:02]

Human beings can only do that for so long. And obviously we're here in these final hours or days before that next move comes.

Jim, back to you.

ACOSTA: Yes. Yes, I know it's been a lot of long hours for everybody there.

Erin Burnett, and to the former prime minister, thank you very much for your time. We appreciate it. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ACOSTA: Moments ago, President Biden addressed the Israel-Hamas war and antisemitism while speaking at the Human Rights Campaign national dinner here in Washington, D.C., and here's what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The humanitarian crisis in Gaza, innocent Palestinian families and the vast majority had nothing to do with Hamas.

(APPLAUSE)

BIDEN: They're being used as human shields. Yesterday, I spoke for over an hour with the family members of those Americans who are still unaccounted for, in a Zoom call.

[19:20:02]

They've endured an agony of not knowing what's happening. Not the same thing, but I can tell you what it's like. It's one thing to lose somebody you know you're going to lose and be there with them and hold their hands, like I was able to do with my son. It's a very other thing to get a phone call I got years ago, saying there's been an accident. Your wife and daughter are dead. I'm not sure your boys are going to make it.

The uncertainty of those two or three hours, trying to get back to find out. It's the worst feeling in the world. It's gut-wrenching. And it's yet another reminder that hate never goes away. It only hides. It hides under the rocks. I thought being so deeply involved in the Civil Rights Movement when I was able to convince of all people Strom Thurmond to vote for the Voting Rights Act in his last year changed his mind, I thought, well, you can defeat hate.

And guess what happened? Hate just hides under the rocks until there is a little oxygen blown under, like happened. What happened in Charlottesville. Just a little bit. And it comes roaring out again.

Folks, we have to reject hate in every form. As history has taught us again and again, antisemitism, Islamophobia, homophobia, transphobia, they're all connected. Hate toward one group left unanswered opens the door for more hate toward more groups, more often readily. But here's what it shows.

(APPLAUSE)

BIDEN: The antidote to hate is love. The answer to twisted dehumanizing (INAUDIBLE) is solidarity. It's standing up for everyone --

ACOSTA: Let's talk about the unfolding situation in Israel and Gaza with retired U.S. Army Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, formerly the deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East.

General Kimmitt, I guess we just learned that the U.S. is sending another aircraft carrier group, strike force group to the Mediterranean near Israel. What do you make of that?

BRIG. GEN. MARK KIMMITT (RET.), FORMER ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE, POLITICAL-MILITARY AFFAIRS: Well, I think it's meant to be a very, very clear sign. Not only to Iran, but to Hezbollah and Lebanon, that if you decide to attack, we've got the capabilities to stop you. If they don't like that message of deterrence, it's clear that the United States is not just drawing a red line like President Obama did in Syria, nut in this case, it certainly sounds like President Biden is serious.

ACOSTA: And General Kimmitt, what is your sense of where thing stand right now? The prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, went down to the frontline earlier today, met with some of his forces there on the ground. I guess presumably, gearing up for an invasion. But right now, as we're looking at some live pictures of Gaza at 2:22 in the morning, their time, it is just eerily quiet right now. Is this the calm before something very big and violent happens?

KIMMITT: Well, it could be. And I would suspect at the granular level, at the troop level, they're all just getting some sleep right now. The good commanders are down there telling their troops, get some sleep. For those guys that are not getting sleep, they can't get to sleep, they're probably cleaning their weapons, they're probably putting more batteries in their night vision goggles.

The worst thing you can do is have a force that when you hit the line of departure, they're already tired. So I would suspect what they're doing is they're going over their precombat checks. They're putting their troops down. And they're just waiting for what they call the ex- order, the execution order. It may come tonight, may not come until tomorrow night or the night after that.

ACOSTA: Yes.

KIMMITT: But it also provides an opportunity for that humanitarian crisis that's evolving right now, provides more and more opportunity for those Gazans to get out of there and get down to the south so they won't be part of this.

ACOSTA: Yes. I mean, we talked with an IDF spokesman earlier today. And he I think indicated to some extent that they were giving people in Gaza a bit more time to get out of that northern area. Move down to the southern part of Gaza. And -- but you know, it goes without saying that not all of them are going to go. And I'm just curious what your thoughts are.

We heard the former prime minister Naftali Bennett talking to my colleague Erin Burnett just a short time ago. And the former prime minister seemed to be saying that the Israelis want to hit Hamas. They want to hit them very hard. They want to make a statement. But if they're doing it in an area that is still somewhat densely populated with people who may still be on foot trying to evacuate that area.

[19:25:05]

And at that time, they're trying to hunt down and root out leaders of Hamas. I mean, it doesn't take military experts to figure out this could be a very messy situation.

KIMMITT: Yes. I think it's been very clear that they've established specific humanitarian corridors for these people to leave Gaza and head south. I would not suspect to see military operations anywhere near those for a couple of weeks. I think that this initial bravado that was broadcast by the Israeli leadership, the military leadership, has probably done exactly as you say. Tell these people to relax. We can do this right. We can do this sensibly. As the old saying goes, let's not rush to failure.

ACOSTA: Yes. But your sense of it, though, I mean, if this is a densely populated area, and we heard Bennett saying well, maybe it's not the most densely populated area in the world but it is one of the most densely populated areas in the world, there is just no question about it. And we were talking about with some other guests earlier, this question of, if the point of the operation is to root out and crush the Hamas leadership, but you're doing it in a fashion that involves street by street, house by house, urban combat, does one get in the way of the other?

KIMMITT: Come on, Jim. You remember 20 years ago, our Marines going through Fallujah. And it's exactly the same scenario. The only difference is that you can put nine Fallujahs into the city of Gaza. It's that big. 45 square kilometers. There is no doubt. Urban combat, particularly with the presence of civilians, and if they're still there, they will not be friendly civilians. That's the toughest kind of warfare necessary. But you can be sure that the Hamas military leadership is holed up in there, and they're ready to fight, of course, while the Hamas political leadership is enjoying their five- star hotels in Doha.

ACOSTA: Right. And the prospect that hostages could get caught up in this.

KIMMITT: Hostages will get --

ACOSTA: Yes. Right.

KIMMITT: I think that, but I will tell you that I think that's already been accounted for. I found the most interesting comment over the last couple of days is when Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said, we want them to show resolve. He did not say we want them to show restraint. And to me, that's the difference in how America sees this. How American military leadership sees this, and Israeli military leadership sees this as well.

I certainly hope restraint will be shown. I certainly hope this will be a short war. The leadership will be turned over, the hostages returned. I don't see it at this point.

ACOSTA: All right. General Kimmitt, thank you very much for your time. We appreciate it.

And we'll have more on all of this straight ahead. Be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:32:16]

BURNETT: Israeli officials believe that as many as 150 people were taken hostage during Hamas' brutal assault last weekend. The families are now just hoping for signs of life as Hamas is claiming that IDF shelling has killed some of those held hostage.

I want to bring in Moran Mina, he is an IDF soldier currently at home expected to return though to active service in the next day or two.

His grandmother seen in this disturbing video was kidnapped from her kibbutz in Southern Israel last week. She cried for help. Her name is Ditza Hayman. She is 84 years old. She has lived in her kibbutz since she was 18. She's got five grandchildren. She is one of at least 78 people taken from her community, which has a population of just 800. Moran knows about 50 of those people kidnapped by the terrorist and Moran, I can't even comprehend what that is like to know 50 people that possibly are hostage right now, you don't know their situation.

Your grandmother, I know your family received WhatsApp messages from her early Saturday morning. So as this began, you're getting messages from her, then her phone went dark. But it didn't go dark until that evening.

Have you been able to piece anything together about what happened?

MORAN MINA, IDF SOLDIER: We know that she cried for help. She yelled "azar, azar" that's "help" in Hebrew. Her neighbor heard this. He go outside the safe home of his house, try to shoot the terrorist, but there were so many so he come back home to save himself. He saw them take her out of her house. That's all we know.

We got a video in Tuesday night, three days after, and that's all we know. We didn't see another photo of her in Gaza. Nothing. We don't have any more information.

BURNETT: But I know that on Saturday and Sunday, you could have of course, given what the news was, you could have been for sure worried that she was dead. When you find out on Tuesday that that that video gets posted on Facebook that she could be alive.

I mean, in a sense, it must have been an incredible sense of relief, although an incredible fear about where she is. Has the Israeli government told you anything about what's being done, Moran, to find her.

MINA: Not a single thing. Nothing. They did not talk to us at all -- at all. They didn't have any new information, don't to say anything about negotiate to bring them back, nothing.

[19:35:06 ]

BURNETT: Hamas does claim, Moran, that several hostages were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza. We don't know if that's true. We don't know if that's how they died, even if it is true and we don't know which ones even if it's true. So we don't know a lot. But it's possible that that that that happened. Do you have any message to the IDF about how they're handling the hostage situation?

MINA: I just want my grandma and all the kidnapped people to come home safe. That's all we want. Of course, we need to protect us, but we need to consider that 200 people or 150 people, Israeli citizens are now in Gaza Strip. And I don't know what happened, I don't know if someone in the IDF know where are they, but all I know is that my grandma is there and we strike them all the time -- all the time and she might die from our strikes.

BURNETT: Moran, it's your grandmother, it's 50 people that you know, it's an overwhelming thing for anyone watching to even understand. But on top of that, you're also a soldier yourself and I know you're going to be going back to active service in just the next day or two. Are you ready?

MINA: No, I don't think anyone is ready for this fighting. Anyone in the country know someone that's been killed or kidnapped, or, I don't know. Everyone is broken and we try to do the best we can to continue our lives, to save our country.

I'm not ready. I don't know when I will be ready, but it is something that needs to be done. I have two wars to fight. One is the fight of my country and one is the fight of my family, the mental health of my family and the fight on my grandma.

BURNETT: Moran, thank you very much for telling us about her, sharing your thoughts with us and your story.

Moran Mina, thank you. And we'll hope you'll keep us on the loop on anything that happens --

MINA: Thank you, Erin.

BURNETT: Any updates you get on your grandmother. Yes.

And we'll be right back with our breaking coverage.

MINA: Thank you very much. I just want to say one more thing, we need to make sure that they have medications. We need to make sure they've got monetary support, because there's a lot of elderly people in there and they don't have meds. We need them to live and I don't know what can happen till they come back or I don't know.

You need to ensure that you do everything you can because I don't know what our government do. No one talks to us.

BURNETT: All right, well, I hope that they will talk to you and give you some more information. They hear that because I know they are elderly, they are people who desperately need those medications.

And Moran, thank you very much. Please stay safe yourself as you return to duty.

And we will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:42:43 ]

ACOSTA: Multiple sources tell CNN, the US intelligence community warned of the potential for conflict between Israel and Hamas just days before last weekend's surprise attack.

Let's discuss more with CNN national security analyst and former deputy director of National Intelligence, Beth Sanner.

Beth, I appreciate you coming in, I guess what is -- what's going on with this intelligence failure? It's unclear if these assessments were shared, I suppose but some of the intelligence that the US had was from Israel.

BETH SANNER, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Absolutely. And then there's some reporting that some of these very specific things that Hamas was doing in terms of training, right out in the open.

ACOSTA: Right.

SANNER: That the Israelis knew about those things. So you know, I can explain things by very technical things like oh, they were relying on technical means, and they didn't have good human assets. But really, it's about the human mind, and about how the mindset of the Israelis to think not able to have the imagination to think that Hamas was capable of these things and to take that information and to say: Oh, this is different, instead of putting it into the same box with the same assumptions, and having very linear analysis, and that's what most intelligence failures are all about.

ACOSTA: Yes, it's that expression we heard after 9/11, a failure of imagination.

SANNER: Exactly.

ACOSTA: We were just showing some of this video a few moments ago, if we can put it up on screen again -- on social media showing Hamas terrorists, their propaganda video, but instructive to everybody outside of this region, to see what they were up to.

What's incredible is that some of this training was going on within a mile of the Israeli border.

SANNER: Yes.

ACOSTA: How did they not pick up on this? Or did they see it going on and think --

SANNER: Yes, I think that there was, what we call in the business D&D, denial and deception. So I suspect that they did pick up quite a bit of this, but they just thought that the line that Hamas was giving them through -- they were picking up indications that it was about the West Bank, not about Gaza, or they weren't ready to go.

So they saw this training, but they didn't think that it was happening anytime soon. And they didn't put all the pieces together to see that it was going to be this really a very elaborate combined operation, so I think that this is the kind of thing that in hindsight, you know it becomes very, very clear.

[19:45:11 ]

But in the moment, you know, you just don't do it. And the US intelligence community, we have had our own failures, we understand --

ACOSTA: Oh, certainly, yes.

SANNER: And so you have to, you know, have some humility about it when you look at what happened to them, but this probably isn't the time for them to be thinking too much about it, but they have to actually address this issue of, do they have enough intelligence to conduct these operations now in terms of going into Gaza, eliminating the Hamas leadership and trying to rescue these hostages?

ACOSTA: Yes, one has to think they're going back and re-examining the intelligence that they were banking on going into this operation.

SANNER: Right.

ACOSTA: Because if the stuff that they had before wasn't reliable, then what -- what do they have now?

SANNER: Yes.

ACOSTA: And let me ask you about the news of the day, which is the Pentagon sending the second aircraft carrier group into that region. What does that tell us?

SANNER: Well, Israel has to do two things right now. They have to figure out the Hamas problem and try to solve that, but they have to try to reestablish deterrence, because what Hamas did, maybe it's a tactical failure, maybe, you know, they were defeated in a lot of ways.

But strategically they have succeeded in shattering this image of invincibility for Israel's security and intelligence organizations. So with that --

ACOSTA: Israel is vulnerable.

SANNER: Yes, so now it creates his vulnerability. So what does the US do? We bring in the second carrier now to show the seriousness that we are taking this, and saying --

ACOSTA: To other actors in the region.

SANNER: To other actors --

ACOSTA: Don't even think about it.

SANNER: Absolutely, right. So this is what Blinken's tour around the region was about today as well, going to Qatar and you know, the Foreign minister of Iran was in Qatar today. He was meeting with the head of Hamas, political group, but he was also meeting with the officials in Qatar and you know, Qatar is telling them do not escalate.

ACOSTA: All of this done out in the open to put the US and the Israelis on notice as well.

SANNER: Yes.

ACOSTA: Beth Sanner, thank you very much. Appreciate it.

SANNER: Thank you, Jim.

ACOSTA: All right, more on the breaking news. Coming up, a live report from Israel straight ahead. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:51:42]

ACOSTA: As the conflict between Israel and Hamas worsens, officials across Europe are warning of a rise in anti-Semitic incidents.

CNN correspondent, Melissa Bell, joins us live from Paris.

Melissa, this is very troubling. What more are you learning?

MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Jim, there had been a rise in anti- Semitic acts and speech over the course of the last 20 years, and always with a very close link to what was happening in the Middle East.

And so, this time as well, with tensions running as high as they are regionally, the expectation and fear had been that those tensions would also be felt here in Europe, and so it is proven.

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BELL (voice over): Far from the frontlines of the Israel-Hamas war, many European Jews say they're not just feeling the pain of what's happening there, but also fearing the potential ramifications much closer to home.

In France at the Great Synagogue in Marseille, a prayer is held for the people of Israel. It's a fervent prayer, after reports of anti- Semitic incidents in parts of Europe, after Hamas launched its assault on Israel more than a week ago, and Israel's subsequent bombardment of Gaza.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): First of all, it's important to be present whenever the Jewish people are in danger. Unfortunately, we're used to this kind of gathering, this kind of prayer. We're tired of it all, nevertheless, we have to respond in unity.

BELL (voice over): France is home to Europe's largest Jewish population, as well as the largest Muslim population in Western Europe. French President Emmanuel Macron has urged his citizens to remain united, though French police used water cannon and teargas to break up a recent rally in support of the Palestinian people, which had been banned by French officials citing concerns about public order.

But there are fears of further unrest in France. Ten thousand police officers have been deployed to protect synagogues and Jewish schools. And on Friday, France raised its security alert to the highest level after a knife attack at a school, the French Interior minister says was linked to the conflict between Israel and Hamas.

The UK is also stepping up security after reports of increased anti- Semitic incidents. The Community Security Trust, a British nonprofit organization that monitors anti-Semitism says the number of incidents reported to them in the past week has increased by more than 300 percent compared to the same period last year.

Tensions at time spilling out onto the streets of London where flyers of Israelis reportedly kidnapped by Hamas were torn down.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is for Palestine.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They are not mutually exclusive. It's children. It's children. It's innocent people.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What about the children in Palestine?

BELL (voice over): Germany, meanwhile, says it has a zero tolerance policy towards anti-Semitic acts and will ban all activities supporting Hamas, which is on the EU's list of terror groups. German officials say they can do no less.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Protecting Jewish life in Germany is part of the identity of our democracy. The security of Jews in Germany is our democracy at its core. Only if our Jewish citizens live in peace and security can our country as a whole do so.

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BELL (on camera): Now pro-Palestinian protests, Jim, remain banned here in France and yet that didn't prevent people from gathering once again this afternoon at Place de la Republique where 19 arrests made there and also today both the Louvre and Versailles evacuated for bomb threats, a reminder and indication maybe of just how tense the situation remains.

ACOSTA: Absolutely. All right, Melissa Bell, thank you very much for that report. We really appreciate it.

And thank you very much for joining me this evening. Reporting from Washington, I'm Jim Acosta. See you again back here tomorrow starting at five Eastern.

Our special coverage of Israel at War continues next with my colleagues, John Berman and Anderson Cooper.

Have a good night.

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