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CNN International: Netanyahu Visits Israel Soldiers Near Gaza Border; Israel Pounds Gaza With Airstrikes Overnight; Israel Warns Gaza Civilians To Evacuate; Interview With IDF International Spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus; Families Demanding Safe Return Of Hostages Held by Hamas; Mourners Gather For Funeral Of Journalist; Death Toll In Palestine Passes 2,200; Israel Faces Threats On Multiple Fronts; Hezbollah Launches Attack Near Israeli-Lebanon Border; Gazans Flee To the South; Violence Erupts In The Occupied West Bank; Interview With Human Right Activist And Sheffield Palestine Solidarity Campaign Chair Musheir El-Farra; CNN Takes A Look At The Hamas Arsenal. Aired 3-4p ET
Aired October 14, 2023 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[15:00:00]
CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): Why Israeli officials were unable to pick up on and prevent the October 7th attack.
Clarissa Ward, CNN, Re'im, Israel.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: And our special thanks to Clarissa for that report. And to our viewers, thanks very much for joining us. I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington. "CNN Newsroom" with Jim Acosta starts right now.
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.
ISA SOARES, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, and a very warm welcome to the show. I'm Isa Soeres coming to you from London.
And there are growing signs this very hour that Israeli troops are nearing a potential ground invasion into Gaza. We are following breaking news for you on the Israel Hamas war this hour. The IDF telling CNN that its troops are "increasing operational readiness" for the next stages of war. Troops and tanks have been massing near Gaza for days, as you can see there on your screen.
Earlier, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met soldiers on the front lines, offering words of support, telling them to be ready. All this as Israel continues to pound Gaza with airstrikes in response to those devastating terror attacks by Hamas last weekend, of course.
Israel has called for 1.1 million civilians, that's half the population to leave their homes and move southwards. And tens of thousands of Palestinians are already fleeing. Hamas, however, is telling Gazans to stay put.
Hospitals say they can't and won't leave because doing so would be a death sentence for their patients, while the U.N. says ordering more than a million people to leave defies the rules of war and basic humanity.
Let's get the very latest. Our Becky Anderson joins me now from Tel Aviv. And Becky, just bring me up to date. I mean, we saw the response from the IDF in the last hour. It says its forces are increasing operational readiness for the next stages of war. What is your sense on the ground, Becky, of how imminent this may be?
BECKY ANDERSON, CNN ANCHOR: Well, that's the big question at this point, isn't it? That they have said that they are getting themselves ready for a land, sea and air attack. What that looks like, what the scope of that is going to be is really very unclear at this point. And they've given this advertised window of opportunity for the 1.1 million Gazans to try and get south, evacuate south to the Gaza Valley as opposed to being in Gaza City, which is clearly going to be the absolute sort of hotspot here.
And that window of opportunity as advertised by the IDF closed at 4:00 in the afternoon. It is now 10:00 at night. So, we await to see what the IDF's next moves are. I can tell you, there is a monstrous storm behind me here in Tel Aviv. And the conditions are unclear down on the border and in Gaza. But it's only, what, 50 miles away from here. So, if they're experiencing this, I can only imagine what they're experiencing there, which is just adding to the absolute nightmare.
The U.N. had asked for the IDF for Israel to rescind that warning to evacuate because they say it is almost impossible to get people out, particularly those who are in hospitals. We know hospitals have suffered damage and reported attacks. The Palestinian health authorities saying that medical staff have been killed. UNICEF itself saying that 500 children now have been killed in Gaza over the past week as we report on these increasing numbers, thousands now, of course, losing their lives in Gaza.
So, bottom line is we await to find out what this next stage of this conflict will look like. The IDF only saying tonight the next stage of the war will involve a wide range of operational offensive plans and hundreds of thousands of reservists.
Well, I am now being told that we can speak to IDF International Spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus. Thank you, sir, for joining us at what is a very, very, very important time. You know, much talk that this is an inflection point. Israel has said it is increasing its readiness. What can you tell us? How can you expand on that, please?
LT. COL. JONATHAN CONRICUS, IDF INTERNATIONAL SPOKESPERSON: Yes. Good night. And thank you for having me at these, I totally agree with you, very sensitive times. Israel at war. We are preparing to deliver a decisive blow against Hamas and its military capabilities.
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We have been striking Hamas from the air and hitting various military targets. And yes, at this time, we are hoping, urging civilians in Gaza, please heed our warnings, go south. Do not let yourselves be the cannon fodder for Hamas propaganda. Go south, care for your life and be careful.
ANDERSON: You all have heard the real concerns about how it is that you get more than a million people evacuated at this stage. Can we get more of a concrete window here? It was advertised as this sort of window of a safe corridor was until 4:00 this afternoon. Is that still open?
CONRICUS: Yes, that's very important. So, let's understand that the general situation here. There is a war ongoing. We are fighting against Hamas, and we are continuously striking Hamas and its military targets. We're hunting commanders, we're hunting -- we're striking infrastructure. And many things that are happening in real-time.
In addition to that, we have told the population, go south. We will ensure the open corridors and the ability of you to go south, and we urge you to go south. OK. That's where we stand. It's less about hours and about timing, and it's more about the outcome. We want to see more Palestinians heed our warnings and go south so that we can continue and to enhance the operations with a minimal effect on civilians.
Of course, there is an effect on civilians, and we are very much aware of the situation in Gaza. I don't think that any war can ever happen without the effect on civilians We are trying to minimize it. And in order to be able to minimize it, they need to listen to our warnings and disregard the efforts and the statements made by Hamas to force them to stay in a very dangerous area that is going to become more dangerous.
ANDERSON: Understood. I am trying to get some real detail on this and thank you for being as open as you have been. Just to be quite clear, it is after 10:00 at night. It's dark. There is a total siege around the enclave. Fuel is running very short. There's very little food and clean drinking water at this point, and electricity is out.
So, I think it's fair to ask just how long civilians have under these conditions. If there is anybody who is able to hear what you're saying at this point, and I'm -- I think it's probably clear that people won't be watching television who are in that Gaza enclave because of what I've just described. But again, how long do they have?
CONRICUS: Well, let's shift this around a little bit, you know, this could all end if Hamas made an active decision to bring back the hostages and surrender unconditionally. All of the humanitarian difficulties in Gaza would end this quick, and that's the option that Hamas has. If they choose to do that, then they would, by their own actions, perhaps bring back a much better situation that they themselves caused.
Hamas bears full responsibility for everything that has happened so far, the butchering of Israeli civilians and the humanitarian situation in Gaza. They are the ones who have mismanaged the very general international aid to Gaza and used it for military purposes. They are the ones who are using the civilian infrastructure to build and to conduct military operations, which is a war crime, indirect violation of international law.
They are the ones who are holding people hostage, our people, and their own people, telling them, don't evacuate. How cynical and how brutal is -- we are trying to do everything -- possible while we are at war to minimize the damage to civilians. They are not our enemies. We are not actively targeting them. We are targeting Hamas. And until Hamas is dismantled, we will not stop.
ANDERSON: We do know that many children have lost their lives, UNICEF suggesting as many as 500, and thousands on the ground have lost their lives. And I know that you've said and you've said time and again, and I've listened to you during this past week after the monstrous attack by Hamas on Israelis on the other side of the border, that you are making every effort to avoid further death.
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But, as this -- as the hours tick down to the start of what is going to be this incursion, as you suggest, by air, sea and land, how are you trying to mitigate those further deaths of civilians?
CONRICUS: Yes. Death of civilians is not what we're looking for. I want to be very, very clear. What we are doing is that we are striking military targets based on intelligence. We do watch before, and if there is a special situation of many civilians, and definitely children, or anything else that we see, and there are times that we avoid striking, even when there's a military necessity, even when it really serves our military purposes, if we see noncombatants, then we have averted strikes, many of them, in this war and in previous rounds, and that is our practice.
Unfortunately, children are affected. That's not the aim. And we try to conduct our operations again to minimize that. And again, calling on civilians to evacuate is the humane thing to do. We're trying -- we're telling them, get away, including children, get away. Obviously, the parents are responsible. But get away from this active combat zone and care for your own safety.
And it is never our intention to kill civilians. We are going to punish Hamas. We are going to strike their military capabilities. And at the end of this, I think once we are done with Hamas, the humanitarian situation in Gaza will be much, much better because there won't be a terrorist organization that controls their lives, mismanages the international aid that has been flowing into Gaza for so many years and governed in a proper way.
Once Hamas is gone militarily, the situation in Gaza will be better and it is Hamas, they have the option and the agency to directly alleviate the situation.
ANDERSON: Lieutenant Colonel, given the sort of colossal failure of intelligence, are you confident -- ahead of this, are you confident that your intelligence is sufficient to ensure that, one, you are hitting the right targets. And two -- and we must talk about the hostages here, two, that you are gleaning enough evidence to ensure that you can do whatever -- whatever it takes to avoid the loss of those hostages' lives, and please do after these raids yesterday, enlighten us about what evidence you've collected about the whereabouts of these hostages.
CONRICUS: Yes. So, your first question is a fair and pertinent one. Indeed, there were shortcomings, but I want to assure you all of our active intel collection capabilities are zeroed in and focused on Gaza. We, of course, are looking and listening at what's happening in Lebanon with Hezbollah. And we always have our ears towards Iran, which is the source of the evil here.
But for the purposes of targeting, there is an, unfortunately, well experienced mechanism of collecting intelligence, analyzing it, classifying it and then approving a target, which by the way, has a component of a legal adviser. Is this a legitimate military target? Is the strike proportionate, and does it serve the military aim? And each and every target that is struck, even in real-time, when it happens fast and we see an important target come up, for instance, a Hamas commander, finally, there's to expose himself and isn't hiding underground, like the cowards that they are, even then there's a process of input of legal advisers.
So, it is clear. And yes, I stand behind the intelligence 100 percent. We know how to do this, despite the fact that there were shortcomings in other parts of our intelligence.
Now, to the second part. We did incursions into Gaza in order to help us solve the 1,300-piece puzzle that we unfortunately find ourselves against. Meaning, 1,300 dead Israelis having to understand to identify all of the bodies and to understand who is dead, who is missing, and who is presumed alive or dead and hostage. And the raids into Gaza helped us with additional information. I cannot say it's a breakthrough, but definitely additional valuable information that serves to help and understand where they're being held. And most importantly, how we can get them out.
ANDERSON: It's good to have you, sir. Thank you very much, indeed.
CONRICUS: Thank you.
ANDERSON: We you described this is an extremely --
CONRICUS: Thank you very much.
ANDERSON: -- tense time at the beginning of this discussion. And indeed, you've underscored just how tense it is. Thank you very much, indeed, for joining us.
[15:15:00]
Well, meantime in Tel Aviv, dozens of people, including the families of those still missing, demonstrated outside Israel's Defense Ministry on Saturday, demanding the safe return of hostages still held by Hamas. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) AVICHAI BRODTZ, WIFE AND CHILDREN ARE MISSING: My children are missing along with another girl that came running to us. I'm here because I want the Israeli government along with the Hamas organization, both, I have to say it sounds not so out of context right now, but overall, we're religious countries. Israel is Jewish and Hamas are Muslim, both peaceful, loving religions. I think over the past years, you know, we got into a situation we don't know how to get out of and it led to what has happened right now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: Well, I'll be back a little later this hour with more from here. Right now, I want to hand you back to my colleague Isa Soares who is in London. Isa.
SOARES: Thanks very much, Becky. We'll get back to you in just a few minutes.
We want to take you, though, back to Gaza now, where tens of thousands of Palestinians are fleeing after Israel's call to evacuate. Our Salma Abdelaziz has more. We want to warn you now that some of the images in her report are graphic.
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SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): This is what running for your life looks like in Gaza. An ambulance with a young girl and wounded woman inside rocked by explosions as they attempt to flee. It is unclear what happened to the pair, but they're among the tens of thousands of people on the move after Israel's military called on nearly half of Gaza's population, some 1.1 million people to get south in a matter of hours.
But along the safe passages specified by the IDF, utter horror. You're looking at the carnage and chaos on Salahuddin Street, one of the designated evacuation routes. In the aftermath of explosions, families killed amid their belongings.
CNN has geolocated this video and four other clips from the horrifying scene. The U.N. calls Israel's evacuation advisory impossible and a violation of the rules of war. And Palestinian officials accuse the IDF of bombing civilians even as they fled. Dozens of evacuees were killed or wounded by Israeli airstrikes according to Hamas. CNN has reached out to the Israeli military for comment.
The victims are flooding into Gaza's overwhelmed hospitals. And again, it's the youngest caught in the crossfire. Nearly half of Gaza's population is children.
What did the children do to deserve this? This woman says. Did they fight you? Did they fire rockets? My niece and her whole family are dead. The only survivor is a two-year-old girl.
The health care system is on the brink. A complete siege, making it impossible to get aid into the enclave. And already, there's a shortage of everything, even space in the morgue. We're keeping the dead in ice cream trucks so the bodies don't rot, this doctor says. Gaza is in crisis. Gaza needs help.
For those still able to move south, this is one of the neighborhoods families are expected to flee towards, Hanus (ph), where Israeli airstrikes have wreaked havoc.
This is a genocide, not a war. It's genocide, this man says. And it's an attempt to force all Palestinians out of the Gaza Strip.
Finding refuge is proving dangerous and deadly. And for the many families desperate for shelter, the fear is there may be no safe places left.
Salma Abdulaziz, CNN, London.
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SOARES: A dire situation. And still to come on CNN, mourners gather for the funeral of a journalist killed covering clashes on the border in Southern Lebanon amid questions over who was responsible. We'll have a live report from the region, next.
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SOARES: Well, right now, tens of thousands of Palestinians are fleeing south through the battered streets of Gaza after the Israeli military told them to leave ahead of a planned ground offensive against Hamas. About 1.1 million civilians, half the population, are impacted by this order. The Palestinian Health Ministry says at least 2,200 civilians, including 724 children have been killed in Gaza over the past week.
Gaza has been pounded by relentless airstrikes since Hamas militants launched a full-scale attack on Israel last Saturday. And right now, Israel's military says its forces are increasing operational readiness for the next stages of the war. And this includes, according to the IDF, combined and coordinated strikes from the air, sea, as well as land.
Well, now to growing concerns that Israel may have to fight a war on multiple fronts. Israel says it returned fire earlier today after the Lebanese militant group, Hezbollah, launched an attack on Shebaa Farms near the Israel Lebanon border. That area is claimed by both Lebanon as well as Israel.
IDF spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner is warning Hezbollah against escalating the conflict in Israel and says they are prepared to take on the militant group if necessary. He spoke to CNN's Wolf Blitzer earlier. Have a listen to this.
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LT. COL. PETER LERNER, IDF SPOKESPERSON: We are responding to that as we rightfully should, and we have lots of forces on the ground prepared for any eventuality. We're at high alert, and we're taking all the necessary precautions to be prepared for a front on Lebanon. We -- and I would take advantage to tell Hezbollah, look very closely at what's happening to Hamas in Gaza. They need to be operate very cautiously, and I would warn them from stepping over that line.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SOARES: Well, Ben Wedeman and joins me now from Southern Lebanon with the latest. So, Ben, I mean, it seems Hezbollah is involved but not fully in it. It seems, in many ways, to be helping Hamas to keep Israel off balance in many ways. If there is this counteroffensive, this offensive by the IDF, the ground incursion takes place, what role, Ben, would Hezbollah play here critically?
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we don't know. I mean, basically, Hezbollah until now is doing just enough to sort of tick the box of participation by the axis of resistance in this war without actually going all the way.
Now, we did hear, for instance, the Iranian foreign minister was in Beirut yesterday, and he said that if the situation in Gaza gets worse, all scenarios are possible. But at the moment, it does appear that Hezbollah doesn't want to be in a full-scale war with Israel. Perhaps because there's still very vivid recollections of the 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel that went on for 33 days. I was here. Much of the southern part of the country was destroyed and hundreds of thousands of Lebanese had to flee to safer ground to the north and also into Syria as well.
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So, there's reasons why -- also politically, let's keep in mind that Hezbollah is also a political party with a large number of seats in parliament. And certainly, if there's a backlash from ordinary Lebanese citizens to a major war that leads to much destruction and death, Hezbollah is not going to fare very well.
So, at the moment, I think they're standing on the sidelines. But if this war expands, if, for instance, there's any attack on Iran, then you can take it for granted that Hezbollah will immediately get involved. And let's keep in mind that even though Hamas has, in a very brutal way, shown that it has dramatically improved its military capabilities, Hezbollah is in a whole different league in terms of training, discipline, weaponry, tactics, leadership.
I've seen them over the years develop into probably the most effective and most powerful nonstate fighting force in the world. Isa.
SOARES: And, Ben, what we have seen today, a new artillery and rocket attacks near your position. Just give us a sense of how -- or what you saw and what the situation is on the ground right now?
WEDEMAN: Well, this evening, we've been hearing occasional thuds coming from the direction of the Israeli border, and we understand from our colleagues in Israel that the alarms have gone off in many of the communities on the other side of the wall that separates Lebanon and Israel.
Now, we did hear for about two hours in the afternoon a prolonged exchange of fire between Lebanon and Israel. The Israelis say that 30 mortar rounds were fired from Lebanese territory into Israel. Hezbollah put out a statement that they had struck five Israeli positions in the Shebaa Farms area, which is a disputed area between Lebanon and Israel, and that they were able to struck -- strike, for instance, a surveillance position of the Israelis.
Now, the Israelis say that in the course of that exchange of fire, they saw what they called a terrorist cell, about to launch a guided missile in the direction of an Israeli position that they hit that cell in an airstrikes.
Every afternoon, really, we're seeing exchanges of fire between the two sides, but it always stays sort of below the threshold that might lead to a wider conflict so far. Isa.
SOARES: And staying in Lebanon as well, Ben, we've seen mourners gather today for the funeral of a Reuters journalist. Do we have any more information about who was responsible?
WEDEMAN: Yes, we were at the funeral. This is the funeral for our friend and colleague Issam Abdallah, a Reuters cameraman, well known to journalists who work around the Middle East. I worked alongside him in Syria and Iraq, here in Lebanon and elsewhere.
Now, he was with a group of journalists outside the town of Al Mashrab (ph), which is to the west of here near the Mediterranean, where these journalists were in a very open position, all of them wearing protective gear, clearly marked press. They were following this exchange of fire between Lebanon and Israel when they were struck twice with missiles. And Issam was killed immediately. Six other journalists were injured.
And by all accounts, we've spoken to eyewitnesses who were there on the scene very nearby, they said that the missiles that struck this group of journalists, clearly marked, came from the Israeli side of the border. Isa.
SOARES: Our condolences to his family and friends. Ben, appreciate it. Thank you very much.
What Israel says it's preparing for the next stages as thousands of civilians flee from Northern Gaza to the south. I'll talk with a human rights activist and filmmaker on the ground in South Gaza. That's after this.
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SOARES: If you're just joining us, let me bring you up to date with some breaking news we've been following for you this hour. The Israeli military now says its forces are preparing for what it calls the next stages of war. And you can see some of its tanks gathered earlier near the border there with Gaza.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was also at the border today, as you can see with that video. He met soldiers before going online to post these words to the world, on the front line, we are all ready, his words.
Gaza has been pounded, meanwhile, by relentless airstrikes since Hamas militants launched a full-scale attack on Israel last Saturday. The Palestinian Health Ministry says at least 2,200 civilians, including 724 children have been killed in Gaza over the past week.
I want to get back to our Becky Anderson, who is live for us in Tel Aviv this hour. And, Becky, we started this hour discussing the intense crisis unfolding right now in Gaza. And a few moments ago, in fact, I was discussing the tension in the Lebanese border with our Ben Wedeman.
From what I understand, you've been reporting as well that the West Bank is not immune from the violence. Just tell us what you've been seeing and what you've been hearing.
ANDERSON: No, that's right. And there has been a real concern, particularly about -- around this region that this violence, this conflict will spread away from Gaza into the West Bank, up into the north of Israel and slip into Lebanon.
We were in East Jerusalem yesterday, and we've been reporting on what is going on in the West Bank. There have been more than 50 deaths in the West Bank over the past week while this conflict has been ongoing.
Settlers reportedly roaming with guns. There have been incidents of people being shot at point blank range. We reported on that yesterday, and this is what we found.
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ANDERSON (voiceover): A disturbing sight. An Israeli settler shooting a Palestinian point blank in the South Hebron Hills. While the man who was shot in this video did survive, many others confronted with settler violence across the occupied West Bank recently have not. CNN has reached out to Israel's police for comment on this shooting, but has not received a response.
Nearly a week into the war between Hamas and Israel, at least 47 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by settlers and Israeli forces, with hundreds of others injured. Fears that the violence would spill over into this area are beginning to feel very real.
At the heart of the conflict, this place, Al-Aqsa Mosque, usually filled with tens of thousands of worshippers gathered for Friday prayers. Today, almost empty. The Israeli police restricting access to the compound, only letting in the elderly.
57-year-old Um Tamer says seeing the compound so empty is upsetting.
The atmosphere was so tense, it was difficult getting in, she says. We are just going there to pray. We're not going to fight. We're not going to war. What is a worshipper expected to do?
[15:35:00]
Meantime, piles of prayer mats as younger Palestinians were forced to worship on the streets. Abbas was one of them. He says, this feels like an inflection point in this decades-long conflict.
It's very different this time around, he says. This time feels more difficult. May God grant us relief.
Fridays can be fraught here. Over the years, all too often these streets have witnessed clashes between Palestinians and Israeli police. And today, stun grenades, tear gas, and skunk water used to disperse local residents and worshippers.
Munir Hamal (ph) was reportedly one of them. His nephew, Qassem, said that his uncle was attacked by Israeli police as he tried to pray close to his home after being barred from Al-Aqsa. Like many civilians here, Qassem fears for his family's safety.
What's happening is very ugly. I can't explain it to my kids. I'm trying to distract them so they don't get scared, Qassem says.
So many people here scared about what happens next.
They robbed us of our homeland and now they punish us here in Al-Aqsa, and they punish the people of Gaza. They annihilated this small tight space. Why? Why do they deserve that? She says.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON (on camera): It was very eerie in Jerusalem when we filmed that report for Friday prayers with the compound absolutely sort of empty, and you just wouldn't expect that on a Friday. And obviously the -- as we reported there, the Israeli security preventing anybody sort of -- under the age of 60 men and 50 as women getting in.
And so, you know, it was very tense on the streets of East Jerusalem as a result of that, but not as tense or -- and certainly, not the sort of clashes that I've seen in conflicts of past. So, it's a the day of protest that had been called by some Hamas representatives, not necessarily sort of being pulled off in East Jerusalem, but we did see protests around this region in the West Bank, in Jordan and in countries around this region and around the world.
The U.S. top diplomat spent the -- sorry, let me say that again. The top U.S. diplomat, Antony Blinken, spent the day in the UAE today. That is the latest stop of his whirlwind diplomatic mission to try and prevent this conflict spreading. The U.S. secretary of state headed to Egypt on Sunday. And he's got three missions, really. He's clearly very, very concerned and trying to affect the release of these hostages, particularly those American hostages, very mindful of the humanitarian corridor set up today and whether that can be extended for the safe passage of Gazans evacuating from the north. And then, what happens next? And the Saudi foreign minister, during his meeting with Antony Blinken, stressed, and I quote him here, the categorical rejection of calls for the, as he described it, forcible displacement of Palestinians from Gaza. And he affirmed the kingdom's call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and its surroundings.
And Biden has certainly heard real calls of real words of concern from regional leaders about how this conflict could escalate should it not be contained at this point. Much discussion going on behind the scenes. So, that diplomatic track is really, really busy at the moment as we watch what happens next with the conflict very specifically in Gaza and what the IDF's next plans might be. Isa.
SOARES: Thanks very much, Becky. I want to pick up exactly with Gaza, because my next guest, Becky, now lives in U.K. but was on holiday in Gaza when this war erupted. He's in Khan Yunus in Southern Gaza and is helping people flee from the north and Gaza City to the south. He's also trying to get food to families.
Musheir El-Farra is an author and documentary filmmaker and chair of the Sheffield Palestine Solidarity Campaign. Thank you very much, Musheir, for being with us. Just give us a sense of what you have been seeing critically on the on the ground, what you and your family going through right now?
MUSHEIR EL-FARRA, HUMAN RIGHT ACTIVIST: In fact, I'm still in a state of shock because this morning I attended a scene of horror, I would call it like a four-story building with four families living in four flats on top of each other was hit by an F-16 at about 10:30 this morning. 11 Palestinians, including four children.
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And this is really shocking to me because three of these children attended a children's center called Never Stop Dreaming, which I personally found it 13 years ago, and we are -- they are partners with us in Sheffield Palestine Solidarity Campaign. Three beautiful children were killed under the rubble. It was overwhelming. It was really devastating.
And that -- after that, I counted, up until now, 15 airstrikes by F- 16s on Khan Yunis. Now, this is the area in the south that the Israelis are instructing the Palestinians in the north to leave to. And our -- and threaten them to be bombed and killed if they don't leave their homes in Gaza and Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahia in the north of the Gaza Strip.
I'm talking about how can they escape to an area which is being bombed? There are 15 times in one day and counting, you can hear the background. If you can, these are the drones and jet fighters in the air. And let me tell you something that happened on the road, Salah al-Din Road yesterday, and that's for the record and for people to know the level of indiscriminate bombing.
I mean, hundreds, thousands of cars under the orders of the Israeli army left Gaza City towards the south, towards (INAUDIBLE) and they were bombed on the way, and 70 civilians were killed in an Israeli airstrike on the cars. I'm talking facts here. And you can -- I'm accountable for every word I'm saying. 70 people have been killed after being ordered to leave their homes. This is the level of indiscriminate crimes that are being committed.
Let me tell you something, I mean, as a human being, first of all, I want to live in peace in the world. I want to live. And I don't want to have anything to divide me with people based on religion, race, color, or whatever. But the fact that Israel is always pushing for religious war in the West Bank, attacking Muslim's holy shrines, pushing for religious war when we are trying to say day in and day out that our struggle with Israel is about the destruction of our homeland, the -- you know, the expulsion of our people in 1948, the killing of our people, the -- you know, the theft of our land, of our water, but yet, they are pushing for religious war, for hatred. And that's what caused what's -- what happened 10 days ago or nine days ago in the Gaza Strip.
SOARES: And Musheir --
EL-FARRA: (INAUDIBLE) to reduce people to nothing.
SOARES: Yes.
EL-FARRA: You don't speak to (INAUDIBLE) that people don't know. Fishermen in the Gaza Strip in their rusty ailing failing boats suffered 1,135 attacks from the year 2020 to 2023. Now, not a single incident of the Israelis finding one bullet in any fishing boat, yet they attacked those poor fishermen.
SOARES: Musheir, let me ask you this. It's really important that I get our viewers a sense. Can I just ask you this, because it's really important? And of course, so many innocent civilians have died and you've just outlined what you have seen in the past kind of 24 to 48 hours.
EL-FARRA: Unbelievable killing. Unbelievable killing.
SOARES: But let me ask you this, you're visiting family in the south, but you also had a feminine member, I understand, in the north. Have you been able to move him? What are you hearing? And give us a sense, our viewers a sense, of what conditions are like? Do you have water? Do you have electricity? Do you have food?
EL-FARRA: We -- I mean, I personally have food, but thousands of families don't have food. I am working hard with a group of volunteers to provide as much -- you know, as we can, as many cases, as many food parcels as we can. We could only secure a few hundreds of food parcels. Thousands of people are on the streets.
Let me tell you the irony of the matter. I talked about my relative. This is really irony, and I call it, like, gallows humor, you know. He was forced to leave the Gaza Strip yesterday, my nephew. Again, under threat, under bombing, to come to my own house, his grandparents' house, in Khan Yunis, where I stayed. 11:00 time, the house behind us, immediately, an overcrowded area, was ordered to leave or be bombed. So, are the entire neighborhood.
So, my nephew escaped bombing in Gaza, came to Khan Yunis to be threatened with bombing. This is the irony of the matter. There's nowhere safe. They're bombing everywhere. They're attacking everywhere. And the humanitarian crisis of people on the streets.
SOARES: Musheir, I appreciate you taking the time.
EL-FARRA: To have always (INAUDIBLE) on the road, sleeping on car boards. Look, it's really a crime that needs to be stopped.
SOARES: Musheir, I appreciate you taking the time to speak to us there from Khan Yunis in Gaza. Thank you very much. Do stay safe. Thank you.
We're going to take a short break. We'll be back after this.
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[15:45:00]
SOARES: And the latest on the breaking news for us this hour, Israel says it's gearing up for the next stages of the war against Hamas, a spokesperson for the IDF telling CNN this very hour that Israel will stop until -- will not stop until Hamas is dismantled. Inside Gaza, thousands of people have been fleeing from the north to the south ahead of a potential ground incursion by Israel.
Our Oren Liebermann joins me now from the Pentagon. And, Oren, we've heard from IDF saying that its forces are increasing operational readiness for the next stage of the war. What are you hearing from the US side in terms of how soon how imminent this may be?
OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, the U.S. has offered nothing but a full-throated support for Israel, and that coming all the way from President Joe Biden, from Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and from Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. Worth pointing out that Blinken and Austin were both just in the region there.
Austin essentially just visited Israel. He spoke with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as well as met with the defense minister and several others there. And then, U.S. munitions landed in Israel while he was there.
Meanwhile, Blinken is making a series of visits throughout the region. I believe he remains in the region, having met with the Qataris, the Jordanians, and others, as he tries to find some sort of off ramp here. But increasingly, especially based on what we're seeing from Israel and the forced posture of its military gearing up around Gaza, an off ramp here does not look particularly likely as Israeli leaders, including Netanyahu and others, promised that the next phase is coming.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) LIEBERMANN (voiceover): An entire arsenal on display. Weapons fashioned in Hamas' homegrown facilities, but no less deadly. CNN analyzed dozens of photos and videos of Hamas militants during the surprise assault to identify the weapons used to kill at least 1,200 people in Israel.
MAJ. MIKE LYONS, U.S. ARMY (RET.): The most important characteristic of the military equipment they have is that it's easily interchangeable, it's reliable, dependable, and you can get parts for it.
LIEBERMANN (voiceover): Many, like this Soviet Bill 50 caliber machine gun, appear to be Russian or Chinese firearms, relics from previous wars, that made their way into the hands of Hamas. Ubiquitous among many of the photos and videos, the Avtomat Kalashnikova, the AK-47, the preferred weapon for militant groups, capable of spewing automatic fire with horrific results.
The assault rifles, along with the grenades carried by Hamas militants made them deadly when they reached Israeli towns and villages near Gaza.
LYONS: All they're trying to do is provide the shock effects, provide dependability. Their weapons have to work. So, they're very rudimentary. But based on their training, best on how they operate them, they are successful with them.
LIEBERMANN (voiceover): Hamas' main weapon has long been their supply of rockets, short-range to long-range. The terror attack on Saturday morning began with a barrage of rocket fire. A smokescreen for the imminent attack. Thousands of rockets overwhelmed Israel's Iron Dome air defense system, a tactic Hamas has refined over the years.
LYONS: That's the capability for the enemy, for Hamas, to fire them up against potentially commercial aircraft. And that, I think, is one of the major issues of these terrorist groups, if they have those kinds of weapons in their hands.
[15:50:00]
LIEBERMANN (voiceover): Hamas used paragliders to cross the Gaza border. The recreational vehicles are barely maneuverable and easy to target in the air. But in the chaos of the moment, the plan worked.
Some of the weapons and equipment were decidedly more low tech. Israel built a complex underground barrier to stop tunnels from crossing the Gaza border. So, Hamas used a bulldozer to tear down the above ground fence.
LYONS: They are just looking to create chaos with the kind of equipment they have and the equipment has got to be reliable.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LIEBERMANN (on camera): The weapons we just looked at are only what we've seen so far in the attack that came out of Gaza. But we know Hamas has other weapons. We have seen them use anti-tank or anti-armor missiles in the past, and it's weapons like that that make an Israeli ground incursion such a difficult proposition.
SOARES: Thank you very much. Oren, there for the very latest.
Let's get more on all this. CNN Military Analyst Cedric Leighton is live for us with more. And Cedric, Colonel, great to have you back on the show. Let me just pick up where Oren really has just laid out for us in that report. Hamas' vast arsenal and tactics against innocent Israelis. What kind of battle would IDF soldiers be facing here when a ground incursion does take place?
CEDRIC LEIGHTON, CNN MILITARY ANALYST AND RETIRED U.S. COLONEL: Yes, Isa, it's great to be with you. The basic battle that they'd be faced with is really one that would come out of the books of a counterinsurgency manual.
So, what you're looking at is a classic counterinsurgency operation that mind to bear some similarities to what happened with the American forces in Fallujah in Iraq, possibly what Iraqi and American forces encountered in Mosul at various times. In essence, a Middle Eastern cityscape that has a lot of hidden warrens, hidden areas that people can hide in, booby traps, IEDs, that kind of thing is what unfortunately can be expected during this period.
SOARES: And we've heard the IDF, and you probably heard this at the top of our show, Colonel, saying that these forces are increasing operational readiness for the next stages of war. And that includes, according to you, have combined and coordinated strikes from the air, from sea and from land. How do you envisage this taking place and how soon do you think this may take place?
LEIGHTON: Well, it could take place as soon as within the next 12 to 24 hours, or as late as 48 to 72 hours from now, but it's going to happen fairly soon if it's going to happen at all. And the reason I say that is because a military force that is ready to invade is kind of like a coiled spring, it's ready to go, it's cocked into action. And once you're there, you almost have to go forward unless you are pulled back, and that is -- pulling back is sometimes a harder exercise than going forward for a variety of logistical and political sometimes reasons. So, that becomes, I think, the main issue. That's why I think this is going to happen fairly quickly.
The one thing that could stop that would be perhaps a deference to Secretary Blinken, who is still in the area of the Middle East, and that could potentially delay things. But from a military standpoint, I think we're very close to something happening.
SOARES: And the reality, Colonel, for our viewers right around the world, is that -- I mean, Hamas have held the Gaza Strip for, what, 17 years or so? They know the land, the layout of the land better than the IDF. How will they be preparing here? How concerned should IDF soldiers be about the fight inside of Gaza using anti-tank and anti- armor missiles?
LEIGHTON: Yes, especially using those anti-tank and anti-armor weapons you can expect that the Hamas folks have really prepared themselves quite well. They've had, in essence, all of the 17 or so years that they've been in charge, they have used that time to prepare.
We have seen the training videos that Hamas has put out there. We have seen their ability to mount surprise operations. So, the surprise operations that they conducted against Israel last weekend, they will have similar surprises in store for any IDF soldier that comes their way. And IDF soldiers can expect to be confronted by a very crafty, very wily opponent, and that is, I think, something that is easy to underestimate when it comes to the intelligence assessments of something like this. But hopefully, the Israelis will have learned certain lessons when it comes to this so that they can be prepared for this.
SOARES: Yes. Critically difficult operation, of course, with civilians, with hostages. Colonel, always great to get your insight. Thank you very much, sir.
LEIGHTON: You bet, Isa.
SOARES: Well, at least 150 people have departed Los Angeles International Airport on Saturday on a charter flight to Israel. Many are Israeli Americans and Israeli military reservists who are going to help in the war effort. You can see some footage there.
[15:55:00]
Stephanie Elam is at Los Angeles International Airport and more. So, give us a sense, Stephanie of -- really of the numbers of people traveling and what, critically, this means to them.
STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: For so many of the people that we spoke to, Isa, it was not a decision, it was basically something that compelled them to get on this flight, to go back and to either serve the country or serve the country of their parents, and many of them just saying that they needed to go back. Many of them had served in the Israeli Defense Forces and want to get back and be a part of that.
It was emotional. Some of the family members were there. There were some 150 people in the middle of the night at Los Angeles International Airport to be on this flight, something that has been pulled together within just days by a nonprofit, a humanitarian organization called Israel Friends. And they did this within just a few numbers of days. They had no expertise on how to get a plane, how to charter a flight, but they were able to do that.
But just to give you an idea of what these people were talking about and what they're leaving, I want you to listen to one man, David Frankel, who -- when the war first broke out, he made sure to get his family out, his two young sons and his wife here to where they have family in Southern California. But he is going back to fight. Take a listen to him.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVID FRANKEL, ISRAELI ARMY RESERVIST: I'm obviously nervous, you know? I want to come home safely to my family. I want to see my boys grow up. But you have to put that aside and stop the madness that's happening.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ELAM: So, he lives in Israel and he says that he is been serving and he, you know, does report and is a soldier with the IDF. But still, this is something that he just knew he needed to make his family safe and it was hard for him, because in the middle of the night, he was up kissing his two young boys goodbye before leaving for the airport. And at this point, no one knows when he will be back. Isa.
SOARES: Yes, incredible stories and compelled, of course to make their way to Israel and the help, of course, their country. It's so important. Stephanie Elam for us there in Los Angeles. Thank you very much.
That's it for this hour of "CNN Special Coverage." But do stay right here, I will be back with more news after this short break. Of course, we heard in the last hour the IDF saying its forces are increasing operational readiness for the next stages of war, and that includes combined coordinates of strikes from the air, the sea, and land. We will bring you the very latest at the top of the hour.
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