Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Tens Of Thousands Flee Northern Gaza; Israel Defense Forces Announces Safe Passage From Within Gaza, North To South; Timeline Of Israeli Music Festival Massacre; Senior Veteran Leads Kibbutz To Keep Hamas At Bay; Uncertainty For Americans Trying To Leave Israel. Aired 2-3a ET

Aired October 14, 2023 - 02:00   ET

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

[02:00:00]

(MUSIC PLAYING)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): This is CNN breaking news.

LYNDA KINKADE, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Hello and welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Lynda Kinkade with CNN breaking coverage with Israel at war.

The U.N. says tens of thousands of Palestinians evacuated from northern Gaza the past 24 hours in response to an ultimatum from the Israeli military. Many people in Gaza are refusing to leave, saying they have no safe place to go.

The Israeli military claims Hamas is actively trying to keep people from evacuating. The only place to actually leave Gaza is into Egypt. Egypt said they haven't closed it on their side but the status is unclear due to Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza side.

The Israeli military said it carried out a limited raid into Gaza Friday, primarily to seek out intelligence on the estimated 150 hostages now believed to be held captive in Gaza. It's widely expected Israel will launch a massive incursion into Gaza in the coming days after Hamas terrorists killed over 1,300 people last weekend.

CNN's Nada Bashir is covering all the developments for us in London and joins us live.

Over a million people have been asked by Israel to leave northern Gaza.

What is the status of those evacuations and are most people are heeding those warnings?

NADA BASHIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Lynda. We know according to the U.N.'s humanitarian office that tens of thousands in northern Gaza have evacuated. We saw videos coming in. People gathering whatever belongings they could.

Some telling us on the ground they're walking miles and miles on foot trying to make it somewhere safe. As you mentioned, there's an estimated 1.1 million people in northern Gaza. Not all of them will be able to leave. Some physically unable to leave and get to safety.

Of course there are many hospitals in northern Gaza. That has struck real concern, of course, as we have seen last week, there has been continued airstrikes across Gaza. Not just in the north but very much so in the south.

So for many now, evacuating to southern Gaza, there are questions around what they are evacuating to, whether there's infrastructure there to take care of them, to offer them shelter.

The short answer is there isn't. We've heard from the U.N.'s Refugee Agency for Palestine, which runs a number of schools that have been offering shelter there in southern Gaza. They say they are at capacity.

Of course, as we know, Gaza is under a complete siege now. No food, water, no electricity. And of course, as we have seen people fleeing, those airstrikes have continued.

We have some distressing details, a statement from the Palestine health ministry in Gaza, which said yesterday that civilians had been struck while attempting to flee, including three ambulances. We have got video of this from the health ministry in Gaza. A warning to our viewers: it is distressing and graphic. Take a look.

(VIDEO CLIP)

BASHIR: This will be the seventh day of Israel's air bombardment of Gaza. We had a statement outlining, over the last week, 6,000 bombs have been dropped on the Gaza Strip. Of course, it has been under a complete blockade and has been since 2007.

That's the equivalent of the total number of bombs dropped and airstrikes carried out by Israel in the 2014 Gaza war, which of course, lasted 50 days. There is mounting concern for the humanitarian situation and the death toll, at this stage topping 1,900.

KINKADE: I want to ask you now about this siege, 2 million people living in Gaza. About half are children. Basic essential services cut, no electricity, no water, no food. No fuel going into this territory.

[02:05:00]

KINKADE: What reserves are left in Gaza?

How soon will civilians run out of food and clean water and fuel?

BASHIR: Well, what we're hearing from humane groups, from the U.N. personnel on the ground, that this supply of food, of safe drinking water will run out very, very soon. We already know that electricity is limited. Hospitals are running on just a few hours of electricity each day. They are at breaking point.

We heard the warnings. They're at the brink of collapse. This is a huge concern, of course, as the death toll continues to mount, as we continue to see civilians being pushed toward the south of Gaza. The infrastructure in Gaza before this war began was already

crumbling. As we know, Gaza has been under a blockade since 2007 with limited movement, 80 percent of the population living in poverty. As you mentioned there. Almost half on the population are children.

The U.N. relief coordinator yesterday, Martin Griffiths, saying a noose around the civilian population of Gaza is now being tightened.

KINKADE: Nada Bashir in London, thank you.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KINKADE: Joining me is CNN military analyst and retired Air Force Colonel Cedric Leighton.

Good to have you with us.

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Thank you. It's good to be with you.

KINKADE: Israel amassed over 300,000 troops along Gaza's border, almost double what Russia amassed along Ukraine's border before launching its invasion.

What are your expectations to how this will unfold in the next 24 to 48 hours?

LEIGHTON: That's an interesting comparison between what happened with Russia and Ukraine and what is probably going to happen between Israel and Hamas in this particular situation.

In this war, I think what the Israelis are going to do is -- they're doing it now -- is softening up the targets by bombing them and using both artillery as well as aerial bombs to move the Hamas fighters in a certain direction.

Of course, they're also moving civilians out of the northern part of Gaza into the southern part. So what they're trying to do is, in essence, clear the city of as many people as possible.

Then they plan to go in and try to rid the Gaza City area, at least, of Hamas fighters. If they can do that, they will effectively have broken the back of that organization. Now there's some question as to whether or not that will be possible. But that is at least the goal. There will be a lot of challenges when they do that.

KINKADE: I want to ask you about the challenges. Israel told more than 1 million residents in northern Gaza to leave. Hamas told them to stay.

For those who want to flee Gaza completely, there is no way. Israel won't let them in. The other neighbor, Egypt, won't accept them. There's no humanitarian corridor and we know that over 2 million live in Gaza. About half are children.

What happens to them as Israel appears ready to launch a ground invasion?

LEIGHTON: This is going to be a really terrible mess, I'm afraid, because of those facts that you cited. And the problem that you have is that, as you said, there is no humanitarian corridor. If there were peacekeepers or some kind of U.N. cease-fire or something like that, it would be a completely different issue.

But first of all, it's early in this conflict. And neither side is willing to accept a cease-fire at this particular point in time. So the poor civilians are caught in the middle of all of this.

What they're going to have to do, if they want to avoid what's happening in the north, they will have to move to the southern part of Gaza, near the Rafah crossing that goes into Egypt.

Egypt, like you said has not opened the border to them, at least not yet. They have a lot of reasons for not doing so. But the humanitarian idea would certainly be to protect as many people as possible.

And that would call for there being an opening in that border and a camp set up. But nobody has set up camps. There's no sanitation available for anyone that would come this way. That will further stress any social services available and utilities and the infrastructure we've gotten used to.

None of that is available to the extent it's needed in the southern part of Gaza.

KINKADE: Colonel, how long do you expect this conflict to last?

What are the risks that this trauma will lead to the emergence of other extremists?

LEIGHTON: The risk for that is really high. I think that, you know, to say how long this is going to last will be a difficult prediction to make. But I think this conflict will go in various phases.

Right now, we're in the initial phase. We're seeing basically a movement forward, the retribution, if you will, for what happened to the Israeli civilians, will be what we will see next.

[02:10:00]

LEIGHTON: And then Hamas fighters will probably melt into the background. They will be a factor going forward in Gaza because it will be, I think, impossible for Israel to kill all of them or to eliminate all of them in one way or the other.

But having said that, the effectiveness of Hamas as a political organization is something Israel is probably looking at minimizing. If it can do that, it will have achieved at least one of its goals to some extent.

And that, I think, is what we'll see going forward. As far as the length of all of this, there will be several phases of this. I think we can see this conflict going on potentially several months, if not a year or two.

KINKADE: Colonel, we're learning that the U.S. had intel that, days before this attack, Hamas was training and doing some things quite unusual. Israel had the same intelligence. And CNN now has video that shows Hamas training for an attack like this.

How was Hamas able to carry out such a widespread, brutal attack against one of the world's most powerful militaries, a military which gets about almost $4 billion a year from the U.S.?

LEIGHTON: This is something that is going to have to be looked at on so many different levels. And one of the key areas, of course, is intelligence, as you mentioned. I think one of the problems is that both Israel and potentially the United States took their eye off the ball.

In other words, they didn't pay attention to what was going on and didn't see some indicators that would have indicated that this was going to be an attack or that there was going to be an attack.

Of course, Hamas also established a pattern in which they have conducted training like this for a very long time. So people got used to watching this kind of activity and thought it was routine and that they would never actually operationalize it.

Or if they would operationalize it, they would do so in a much smaller way and not in such a spectacular fashion as they did this past Saturday.

KINKADE: Retired Air Force Colonel Cedric Leighton, good to have you. Thank you for your time,

LEIGHTON: You bet, Lynda, thank you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KINKADE: We're joined by Major Daron Spielman, a spokesperson for Israel Defense Forces, joining us from Tel Aviv.

Thanks for your time.

MAJOR DORON SPIELMAN, SPOKESPERSON, ISRAEL DEFENSE FORCES: Thank you.

KINKADE: Sir, we're told that civilians in Gaza are being offered safe passage from the north to the south beginning soon.

What can you tell us about that?

SPIELMAN: So, as we know, it's been a week now since all of this horrible drama, horrible tragedy happened to the state of Israel, the innocents in Gaza. Unfortunately, residents did not have any early warning. They were really the sheep that were just slaughtered by Hamas terrorists, as we know. We're trying to prevent as many civilian casualties as possible. I

heard the previous speaker. This comes at an operational cost. We've given the residents of Gaza City 24 hours to move south. They've begun to move. We have lots of footage of them moving.

And we're hoping, we know Hamas; we've been reading Hamas in a totally unsurprising way, since they don't value human life, have been telling many residents to stay in their homes. Once again, cynically using them as cover for their terrorist operations.

KINKADE: If you're warning civilians to leave the north and head south, surely Hamas terrorists, if indeed civilians left and headed south, surely Hamas terrorists would do the same.

SPIELMAN: As I mentioned, Israel cares a lot about civilian life. I think we care definitely more for the lives of the Gazan citizens than Hamas does. Therefore, we're taking an operational -- this is a weakness operationally.

But we feel, given a humanitarian corridor to the residence of Gaza is worth it, even though operationally it will extend what we need to do to defeat Hamas.

I think this is, again, clearly shows the moral divide between Israel, who cares about civilian life, and Gaza, who cares nothing about Israeli civilian life and seems to care nothing about their own civilians, either.

KINKADE: Major, can you explain how this safe passage will work for civilians in Gaza and how is that being communicated to them?

SPIELMAN: So we've notified everybody in Gaza City now knows exactly what's happening, notified in Arabic, in multiple languages on every available platform, both electronic and nonelectronic platforms.

Everyone in Gaza City knows that they need to go. This is also not going from northern Gaza Strip to the southern Gaza Strip. It's not a very long distance. And we've seen already --

[02:15:00]

SPIELMAN: -- the footage shows that there are large amounts of Gazan civilians managing to move south. But what's preventing this -- and there's enough time to get there. What's preventing this is Hamas.

And this is not the first time. We've seen Hamas with people at gunpoint before, many times use their civilians brutally putting them in the way of fire. But we're hoping, in any case, as many civilians can get out of this area as possible.

KINKADE: You said you have notified people on various platforms.

Have you done an additional leaflet drop?

SPIELMAN: There's everything has been done. There's -- you will not find a citizen in Gaza City now that does not know they need to move south. The entire city knows they're trying to move. We can see masses of them are moving.

What's happening, with Hamas holding them back, there will be a lot of footage showing this. We know because it's been announced by Hamas, publicly, that their citizens should not leave Gaza.

As the authority of the Gaza Strip, Hamas should have had contingency plans for what's happening to their civilians. When they massacred our people, they knew we would respond.

KINKADE: As you mentioned, Major, it is a week since the inexcusable terror attack by Hamas.

Is a ground invasion imminent?

If so, how soon?

SPIELMAN: First of all, I'll tell you that the residents of Israel, we are in an unbelievable situation. We're such a small country. This is not a -- no one is disaffected. I just came home; after spending 12 hours at home, the neighbors, one lost their brother. All the young and old, anybody fit to be able to man the front, man or woman, has been called up.

This has been a complete mobilization of families, it's not just of actual troops. And therefore, we are ready for any scenario. The people of Israel are united. Any political divides are behind us in doing whatever it takes, as a nation, as a family to make sure this never happens again.

I think that's rare to see that in another country, maybe because we're so small, maybe because of our deep 3,000-year history. But that's where we stand.

KINKADE: The brutal attack by Hamas killed 1,300 in Israel. In the days since, over 1,900 people, including 583 children, have been killed in Gaza, according to the Palestinians health ministry.

What else will the IDF do to minimize civilian casualties going forward?

SPIELMAN: Again, I do want to say that it's clear that Hamas is a cult of death. Wherever they go, it's about death. They're dedicated not to any type of solution with Israel other than killing Israelis.

Unfortunately, that spills over to their own civilians. We're trying to do, every single one of our targets, every one is a military target. We never, ever, God forbid, shoot toward civilians intentionally.

We know in certain cases this is a very difficult thing to do. But we're trying to give a very strategic and pinpointed strike against the commanders, take out infrastructure and, as we said, we're willing to take an operational hit, which is probably the greatest sign of our value of human life, by enabling and encouraging the citizens to leave Gaza.

As you said, we know there will be Hamas terrorists that, in the most cynical way, are going to slip out with their civilians. That's I think the greatest thing we can do and that's what we're doing.

KINKADE: How is the IDF working, finding and rescuing of hostages?

And how can you be certain they're not held in places you're bombing?

SPIELMAN: First of all, we have engaged intense intelligence with our top intelligence branches to identify and locate, to the greatest degree possible, our hostages. We've set up multiple teams working on this. We're considering every scenario possible.

We assume, we know that Hamas, since they're willing to massacre Israelis and their own civilians, they probably are trying to use our hostages as cover. This is typical Hamas evil. And we have many operational ideas.

I will say this. If Hamas thinks holding our hostages will stop us from completely destroying their capabilities, they are wrong. We are going to destroy Hamas' capabilities, which will be a lifesaver for the people of Israel and, ultimately speaking, a lifesaver for the citizens of Gaza.

KINKADE: Does Israel have intelligence to suggest that any other nation or organizational group helped Hamas in its terror attack?

SPIELMAN: Without going into enormous intelligence details, I will say this. This has clearly been broadcast. Again, they have not played their cards close to the chest. They announced to the entire world, only in June, on June 20th, three months ago, we saw the leaders of Hamas meeting with the leaders of Iran.

[02:20:00]

SPIELMAN: And they specifically announced they were discussing what's happening in Gaza and with Israel. The funding of Iran toward Hamas, the funding of Iran toward the IJ, Islamic Jihad, the funding of Iran toward Hezbollah is public information.

We're talking about billions of dollars dumped in into these terror organizations, which have been used for one thing: to kill innocent people. Now it's Israelis. It's often others as well. But Iran's long hand is involved in everything happening in this region. We know that.

KINKADE: IDF spokesperson, Major Doron Spielman, thanks very much.

SPIELMAN: Thank you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KINKADE: A survivor speaks about the deadly Hamas attack on an Israeli music festival. When we come back, still ahead, you will hear from her about the horror that played out during the militants' rampage last weekend.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(MUSIC PLAYING)

KINKADE: Welcome back, I'm Lynda Kinkade.

We've obtained some horrific new images of the massacre carried out by Hamas at the music festival in southern Israel last Saturday.

[02:25:00]

KINKADE: We have to warn you, what you're about to see is graphic.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KINKADE (voice-over): The images show the attackers spraying portable restrooms with bullets, trying to kill anyone hiding inside. These pictures come from bodycam footage taken by Hamas militants. More than 260 people were killed at that music festival.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KINKADE: Joining me is Natalie Sanandaji, an American who survived the music festival massacre.

We appreciate your time.

NATALIE SANANDAJI, MUSIC FESTIVAL ATTENDEE: Thank you.

KINKADE: No matter how much we've read or seen in the last few days since the massacre at the festival, it's still hard to comprehend what you have experienced.

How are you doing?

SANANDAJI: I think I'm still in state of shock. I don't think I fully comprehended what I've experienced. Each time that I speak about it, I think it becomes more real to me.

But going through something like this and surviving it and seeing what happened to the innocent children who didn't survive, to the children who were kidnapped, killed, raped, it feels very surreal. It feels as if I wasn't there because I made it out.

KINKADE: You were in Israel for a wedding. And you decided to go to this music festival with some friends and found yourself among thousands hunted down by Hamas terrorists.

When did you realize what was happening?

What did you see?

SANANDAJI: This was my first time ever experiencing rockets. I have been coming to Israel almost every year my entire life. But I have never been in Israel at a time of war.

But kids at this festival, they've experienced things like this before. So I looked to them. I looked to see their reaction. And for the most part, they all seemed fairly calm at first. Nobody could have predicted what was about to happen.

We waited a few minutes to see if the rockets would (INAUDIBLE) and they did. I could tell the other kids were starting to get a little bit more nervous, which made me more nervous.

I think the first time we understood the severity of the situation was when they shut off the music. The security of the event had asked us to please pack up our things and go to our cars. We packed up our things. We went to our cars.

Something that I would like to mention is because we still didn't understand the severity, because we still didn't know that there were terrorists on foot, just a few feet away from us, coming to shoot at us.

I had told my friends I'm going to go use the bathroom one last time before we go into the car because I knew we would have a drive of minimum three, four hours. I knew there would be traffic heading out because we'll all be heading out the same dirt road.

I went to use the bathrooms one last time by the exit of the campground. And yesterday, I saw a video that surfaced, of the terrorists coming to those exact bathrooms probably minutes after I used it and just shooting at the bathroom stalls.

And yesterday, honestly, was one of the first times I really -- like it really occurred to me, I could have died. I could have been shot. I could have been one of the unlucky ones.

KINKADE: Seeing that video it came back to you, just how close you were, how you were one of the lucky ones to escape that horror.

SANANDAJI: Yes, because I was there. I was in those stalls just minutes before. So when we went to our cars, we were instructed to start driving out on the dirt road.

Try to imagine all of these children were in an open field. This field is not made for driving. You couldn't drive on most of it. You couldn't just drive in any direction. We're all going down the same road, all trying to respect the fact that we're all just trying to make it out alive.

Obviously, it caused traffic. It was very congested. And then the security started telling us to go in another direction. This obviously made me a little nervous.

[02:30:00] SANANDAJI: It made me kind of realize that there's something but that we don't know what's going on, other than the rockets.

KINKADE: Security asked you to exit the car and then you were running on foot, one of the many chased by terrorists.

(CROSSTALK)

SANANDAJI: Yes. So they eventually started to yell at us, pull your car over to the side. You're making yourselves too much of an easy target. And run. We were running for four hours. Any time the shooting subdued, we slowed down a little and gave ourselves a chance to catch our breath.

As soon as we heard the shooting again, we had to run. I couldn't even tell what direction the shooting was coming from. I honestly couldn't tell if I was running in the direction of the shooting or away from it.

One of my friends told me there was an incident, where we almost went to hide in a ditch. And in split second he yelled at us and said, don't go in the ditch. Just keep running. And we had later found out that the other kids who decided to hide in the ditch had been shot.

KINKADE: Of course, we now know over 250 young people were killed at that festival, brutally murdered.

SANANDAJI: Yes.

KINKADE: Why do you think the festival was one of the first targets of Hamas?

SANANDAJI: I don't have an answer to that. I can't understand why Hamas targeted innocent children that had nothing to protect themselves, why they would go into a neighborhood, kidnap grandmothers, kill them and tape it on their own phone and put it to their Facebook for their families to find out.

Why they would kill babies, I can't understand why they did anything they did. Possibly their choice for attacking the festival was they knew it was a big amount of concentrated, innocent young people without weapons to protect themselves.

And that was their way of making a bigger impact. I can't even try to comprehend these monsters. I don't have the answer to that.

KINKADE: We know that Israel appears ready to launch a ground offensive into Gaza.

What do you want to see happen?

SANANDAJI: I want feel all my soldiers come out safe. I have friends who were in party, who survived that party, who've now reenlisted into the army and are risking their lives again to protect our people and our country. I can't comment on what the army is going to do if they are going to

go in with a ground offensive. The only thing I would like to see happen is for no more soldiers to die, for no more innocent people to die.

KINKADE: We appreciate your time. I'm so sorry you had to experience that and I hope you're getting the support you need right now. Natalie Sanandaji, thank you so much. And take care.

SANANDAJI: Thank you. Thank you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KINKADE: Still ahead, fighting in Gaza could destabilize other parts of the volatile region. Tensions are growing in the West Bank amid concerns the war could escalate into far more serious violence.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:35:00]

(MUSIC PLAYING)

KINKADE: Welcome back.

The Israeli military said one of its drones targeted and killed, quote, "a number of terrorists," who it says were trying to infiltrate Israeli territory from Lebanon. This comes after the IDF said drones entered airspace from southern Lebanon and fired on an Israeli drone.

Hezbollah claimed responsibility for attacks on four Israeli locations on Friday. The United Nations criticized Israel's order for civilians to evacuate Gaza City. A senior U.N. official calls the order outrageous and says it, quote, "defies the rules of war and basic humanity."

As many world leaders voice support for Israel's war in Hamas, people around the globe are standing up in support of the Palestinian people.

Thousands of South Africans took to the streets of Cape Town. Nelson Mandela's grandson, who is also a member of South Africa's parliament, encouraged South Africans to stand with Palestinians because they supported the fight against apartheid in his nation.

As Israel pounded Gaza with airstrikes and artillery fire, demonstrators turned out in several cities across Turkiye to rally in favor of Palestinians.

With a ground incursion into Gaza seemingly imminent, tens of thousands of people in Yemen joined a mass rally in Sanaa.

Diplomats are concerned the violence in Gaza could inflame the other Palestinian enclave in the West Bank; 12 more Palestinians were killed there and in East Jerusalem Friday, bringing the total death toll to 47, according to Palestinians officials.

Hundreds of others were injured in clashes with Israeli troops and settlers in the region. As Becky Anderson reports, some incidents were caught on camera. And some images in this report are disturbing.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BECKY ANDERSON, CNN HOST (voice-over): A disturbing sight: an Israeli settler shooting a Palestinian point-blank in the south Hebron hills.

While the man who shot in this video did survive, many others confronted with settler violence across the occupied West Bank recently have not.

CNN 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.

[02:40:00]

ANDERSON (voice-over): Today, almost empty. Israeli police restricting access to the compound only letting in the elderly; 57-year-old Untama (ph) says seeing the compound so empty is upsetting.

"The atmosphere was so tense. It was difficult getting in," she says.

"We're just going there to pray. We're not going to fight. We're not going to war.

"What is a worshipper expected to do?"

Meantime, piles of prayer mats as younger Palestinians were forced to worship on the streets. Abbas (ph) 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. Today, stun grenades, tear gas and skunk water used to disperse local residents and worshippers.

Muniha Hamal (ph) was reportedly one of them. His nephew, Qasem (ph), 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, Qasem (ph) 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," Qasem (ph) 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 did they deserve that?" she says -- Becky Anderson, CNN, East Jerusalem.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KINKADE: In southern Lebanon, a journalist working for Reuters has been killed. Six other members of the media wounded in an Israeli strike while covering the war between Israel and Hamas. All of them wore body armor, clearly labeled press.

Issam Abdallah was the Reuters videographer who died. According to a CNN analysis of statements and videos, the blast that hit the group happened when Israeli forces struck Lebanon on Friday. The Israeli military has not responded to CNN's request for comment.

Israel's military did say it had fired artillery at Lebanese territory after a border fence exploded near an Israeli kibbutz.

In one Israeli community, keep Hamas militants at bay during their brutal attack and that's all thanks to a 72-year old and his ragtag defense force. We'll have that story ahead.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:45:00]

(MUSIC PLAYING)

KINKADE: The IDF said it will open a safe passage corridor for people to evacuate from northern Gaza. The U.N. is condemning the evacuation order, calling it outrageous and saying it defies the rules of war and basic humanity.

Tens of thousands of Palestinians fled south since the evacuation order came Friday. Many others are refusing to leave. Israeli military said it carried out a limited raid Friday, primarily to seek out intelligence on the estimated 150 hostages in Gaza.

It said the Hamas commander behind last weekend's terror attacks was killed Friday in an airstrike. It's expected that Israel will launch a massive incursion into Gaza in the coming days after Hamas terrorists killed some 1,300 people last weekend.

Hamas militants faced fierce resistance when they attacked a kibbutz near Gaza last weekend. Local residents there led by a stubborn 72- year-old former paratrooper. Matthew Chance has the story. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CHIEF GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The attacks by Hamas were a bloodbath. Israelis slaughtered were taken hostage.

At the kibbutz Magen near Gaza, militants met their match.

BARUCH COHEN, KIBBUTZ LEADER: As I always was, I thought you should never catch me with my underwear in my end.

CHANCE: Never catch you with your pants down?

B. COHEN: Never.

CHANCE: He suffered shrapnel wounds and an amputated leg when dozens of Hamas fighters tried to breach his kibbutz fence last weekend, this 72-year-old former paratrooper and war veteran swung into action.

B. COHEN: I decide to take my car, I take a few magazines with me. And I decided to enter as much as soon as I can to shoot them over the window of my car.

CHANCE: So you drove toward the attackers and you started shooting at them?

B. COHEN: I try -- I shoot them.

CHANCE: Before they came through the fence?

B. COHEN: Before. In my head, that was the only way to stop them.

CHANCE: In nearby Jewish communities or kibbutzim, Hamas attackers ran amok in a vile killing and kidnapping spree.

But in kibbutz Magen, home to more than 400 Israelis, the small team of armed volunteers trained and led by Baruch, kept the militants at bay.

His wife, Mina, at his bedside, told me she has no doubt why.

MINA COHEN, BARUCH'S WIFE: The difference is Baruch because --

CHANCE: Your husband?

M. COHEN: My husband, Baruch, 20 years that he's in this position and every time that the lot of young people coming, have made the same position that Baruch in the other kibbutzim, they laugh at him. They said that he's crazy. They said that he's speaking nonsense. Nobody will come.

And Baruch defended the kibbutz year by year and all the people laughing. And he was --

CHANCE: They laughed at him. They said he was paranoid.

M. COHEN: Yes. He's paranoid.

CHANCE: They said it's not going to happen.

M. COHEN: It's not, it never will happen, because we have the army.

CHANCE: In fact, the Israeli army came under attack by Hamas, too. Leaving Baruch and his team to fight alone for more than six hours, way longer than expected.

B. COHEN: Where is the army?

[02:50:00]

B. COHEN: They teach us that if something happens, I always say to my friends, that we've got 35 minutes, minutes that belong to us. After 35 minutes, the army should be here. The best units should be here, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

CHANCE: But they didn't come.

B. COHEN: It didn't work.

CHANCE: As Israelis elsewhere were taken hostage, the communities overrun. Baruch fought on. Severely injured and out of ammo, armed with just a blade.

B. COHEN: I take in my hand I said if they should come, they should find me with a knife.

CHANCE: A stubborn determination, his friends and neighbors say, helped save them from the grim fate of others nearby -- Matthew Chance, CNN, Jerusalem.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KINKADE: Some family members of Americans held hostage in Gaza were on a call with the President of the United States on Friday and had a very specific message for him. I'll have details ahead.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:55:00]

(MUSIC PLAYING)

KINKADE: I am Lynda Kinkade.

U.S. President Joe Biden said he wants the families of Americans taken hostage by Hamas militants to know he cares deeply about what's happening. White House confirmed the president spoken by phone to family members of 14 Americans still unaccounted for after the attacks last Saturday. He spoke to them in an address on Friday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They are going through agony, not knowing what the status of their sons, daughters, husbands, wives, children are. You know, it is gut-wrenching. I assured them my personal commitment to do everything possible, everything possible to return every missing American to their families.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KINKADE: One woman, whose sister and niece are believed to be hostages in Gaza, spoke with CNN about the message her family had for the president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SARAY COHEN, RELATIVE OF MISSING WOMEN: The message was that we want to have a sign of life from them, that we are asking the American authorities to have any channel with the Hamas to get a list and to know what is their situation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KINKADE: A New York City landmark is shining in support of Israel and those killed in last weekend's deadly attacks. The Empire State Building lit up in blue and white Friday night. This is a live look at the landmark. You can see it there, the colors of the Israeli flag.

According to the site's social media pages, the colors honor the victims of the Hamas attacks on Israel last Saturday. The posts say the colors will light up the building's tower from sunset Friday until sunrise on Saturday.

Thanks so much for joining us, I'm Lynda Kinkade. I'll be back with more breaking news coverage of Israel at war after the break. Stay with us. You're watching CNN.