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CNN International: Israel Says It Has Restored Water Flow to Southern Gaza; IDF Seeing "Strong Flow" Of People Out Of Northern Gaza; Aid Groups Running Out Of Food And Medical Supplies; IDF Fighter Jets Hit Hezbollah Infrastructure In Lebanon; Norwegian Refugee Council Says Israel Must Reverse Relocation Ultimatum; British Couple Trapped In Gaza; Afghanistan Struck By 6.3 Magnitude Quake. Aired 3-4p ET
Aired October 15, 2023 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[15:01:48]
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.
ISA SOARES, CNN INTERNATIONAL HOST: Hello, and welcome, everyone. I'm Isa Soares in London.
BECKY ANDERSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL HOST: And I'm Becky Anderson in Tel Aviv. Welcome to our breaking coverage of the war in Israel.
Tonight a complete catastrophe. That is how one official described the situation in Gaza. Scenes of chaos, confusion, and utter devastation unfolding as Israeli rockets keep raining down on the besieged enclave. Tens of thousands are people have now fled northern Gaza after Israel warned it could begin soon a new phase of its assault including, quote, "significant ground operations," while diplomats are racing to stop this crisis getting any worse.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Jordan today. Speaking after meetings in Cairo, he swore that the crucial Rafah border crossing will soon be open and that progress is being made.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: I had very good conversations both with the crown prince in Saudi Arabia and here in Egypt, with President El-Sissi, and also heard I think a lot of good ideas about some of the things we need to do moving forward including practical ideas on getting assistance to Palestinians in Gaza who are in need. But also good and important conversations about the future and where we hope ultimately together we can bring this in a much more positive way.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SOARES: Well, right now the Rafah checkpoint on the border with Egypt is the only viable way in or indeed out of Gaza, as you can see there on your map. Until it's open for those who fled their homes there is nowhere to go, and no way can get in. Aid groups are warning they'll soon be running out of food, water, and medical supplies. And with the borders closed, well, there's no way to get to more.
Becky, it really is, as we've been showing our viewers here in the past 24 hours, you and I, a truly devastating humanitarian situation unfolding in Gaza right now. And I know there will be focus on this for the next three hours.
ANDERSON: Yes, absolutely. And it is our focus over the next three hours. And just let me fill our viewers in. We've had torrential rain at times over the last 24 hours, so just adding to the absolute misery and sort of devastation that we see is the weather which is just really making things so much more difficult for everybody.
On Sunday Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office told CNN that Israel had restored the electricity, sorry, had restored the water, the vitally needed water flow to southern Gaza. But according to Palestinian officials, the local water stations won't be functional unless Israel or until Israel also restores electricity.
[15:05:00]
So just to be clear, Israel insisting it has restored water but that can't function unless electricity is restored or enough fuel is imported or brought in to ensure that generators which are used by lots of people there can function.
CNN's Scott McLean is across the very latest developments -- Scott.
SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Becky. Yes, the water situation is especially complicated. You have the U.N. saying earlier today that, look, some people out of pure desperation because Gazans do not have access to water, were drinking from wells meant for agricultural use, raising all kinds of obvious concerns about this potential spread of waterborne diseases.
And you have this back and forth between Israel and the water authority in Gaza where Israel says that the water is back on but Gaza is saying, look, we need electricity, we need fuel to actually pump it to people's homes. And I can tell you that as of this morning, at least earlier today, there was no water in southern Gaza. The people were still filling jerrycans from water trucks wherever they could find them.
As you mentioned, there are also aid groups warning of food and supplies that are in short supply. You have Israeli military strikes showing no signs of letting up either. And I should warn you that some of the images you're about to see are pretty tough to watch.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MCLEAN (voice-over): This is the frantic scene outside of a hospital in the city of Deir al-Balah. Constant wail of sirens and a steady stream of children carried desperately inside. Some bandaged, some seemingly alert, others not moving at all.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is this a target? Is this a real target for Israel? This toddler? MCLEAN: On Sunday people in that same city gathered to pray over
bodies, wrapped in white, and loaded onto a flatbed truck. Deir al- Balah located south of evacuation line declared by Israel in Gaza was hit again on Sunday. Afterwards heavy machines shift the slabs of concrete hoping perhaps in vain to find survivors.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): They're all women and children. Children, children.
MCLEAN: Across Gaza, Israel says it hit more than 100 military targets overnight and more on Sunday. In the aftermath of each, people rushed to frantically find victims, never far from danger. This video from Gaza City shows the sheer chaos as distraught men, women, and children try to figure out what to do and where to go next.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): It is as you can see destruction. Destruction. They are destroying us.
MCLEAN: Even hospitals like this children's hospital have been told to evacuate from northern Gaza. But with newborn babies and children on ventilators doctors say they can't.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Where will these children go? They're on ventilators. And it's not possible to move them.
MCLEAN: The World Health Organization said it strongly condemns Israel's repeated orders for the evacuation of 22 hospitals treating more than 2,000 inpatients in northern Gaza, saying forcing the evacuation of patients south could be tantamount to a death sentence.
Across Gaza, aid groups say that food and fuel are running desperately low. The U.N. says most people already lack access to water. Foreign aid is being sent by the planeload and truckload to Egypt in hopes of getting it into Gaza. But Egypt and Palestinians on the ground say the roads near the border are too badly damaged from airstrikes for trucks to pass.
On Sunday CNN asked the IDF whether it was coordinating with aid groups to ensure that supplies get in.
LT. COL. PETER LEMER, IDF SPOKESPERSON: The IDF and the Defense Ministry are engaged with international community to try and facilitate various different things. You know, I think we need to leave -- I speak on behalf of the IDF, so we are deeply involved in the combat. We are the warriors. We need to leave the diplomacy for the diplomats.
MCLEAN: In just eight days the death toll in Gaza has already surpassed the number of people killed in the 2014 conflict which lasted 51 days. And with an Israeli ground invasion looming and supplies running low there is little hope that things will soon get better for the people of Gaza.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MCLEAN: And Becky, look, the Health Ministry in Gaza is pleading for health professionals to come and help if they can. They're running low on supplies. They say ICUs are full and hospitals are also being used as makeshift shelters for people who have been displaced.
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The World Food Program has also said that, look, they've been able to help more than half a million people already but they are quite simply running out of food and nothing can come in and nothing can come out of Gaza right now. And they said very plainly that people will starve in Gaza if they cannot help them -- Becky.
ANDERSON: Thank you.
Well, the IDF tell CNN it's seeing a strong flow as it describes it of people moving out of northern Gaza. And they were given a safe window on Sunday to move. A spokesperson for the IDF says that it will start significant military operations only once it sees that civilians have a left the area.
Let's get you straight to CNN's Nic Robertson in Sderot on the Israeli side of the border.
Well, Nic, people there leaving their homes and heading to other parts of the country. Is this a mandatory evacuation, Nic? And how many people are we talking about and where are they going?
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Closer to the border with Gaza, although Sderot is pretty close but it's a large town and it's not a mandatory order in this town. The mayor has said, you know, strongly, very strongly, that people should leave. And there aren't any stores open at least we've been here for almost a week, that we've been able to find.
But he's saying, you know, he's not insisting, the mayor saying he's not insisting that people leave, but along the border communities here and we've seen them today, their cars packed up driving away along the border communities. Most of those kibbutz have been emptied of their civilian populations. I mean, many of them were overrun by Hamas and people fled and left because they were traumatized.
But also the government has been helping bus people away over the past week. And those homes, those communities now, a lot of them that are close to the border are quite literally turning into military bases. And they are in a military zone. Sderot perhaps, it slightly falls outside of some of that. But what we've seen of our travels along the border today and to some of the training camps where the IDF are doing their training they are getting ready for the possibility of an incursion.
We have been with the IDF troops while they've been in fields lining up in their vehicles with their integrated forces, their tanks, their infantry, their combat engineers, rehearsing for a movement of when they get that order, you know, to go through the fence, through the wire, into Gaza. So the preparations for that are underway.
And we've seen preparations as well for the IDF troops training in a simulated, in a large concrete village modeled town, modeled on a Palestinian town with mosques, with houses, with shops, with traffic intersections. The IDF troops in there training for that urban environment conflict. So you really get the sense here that the troops really are building up to that moment when they may get the order to go across -- Becky.
ANDERSON: They haven't clearly had that as of yet. Let's be quite clear about that.
Nic Robertson is in Sderot in Israel. Thank you, Nic.
Earlier today CNN's Wolf Blitzer spoke with Israel's President Isaac Herzog. Have a listen to his message to the nation, and I got to warn you there is graphic content coming up in this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ISAAC HERZOG, ISRAELI PRESIDENT: I think the entire humanity, you know, I just got back from Kibbutz Be'eri. The Be'eri Kibbutz. The kibbutz, as you know, is an epitomization of socialism, equality, very pro-peace place. You should know that in that kibbutz they lost 10 percent of their members from young to old. I saw the most horrific scenes. I saw the scalp of the women in which house I visited. Her house totally destroyed, totally destroyed. And they just cut her head off.
I saw a pool of blood in that house where the picture of the children is hanging and the grandchildren hanging on the wall, with the knives and the hatches with which they went in. I saw the most horrific scenes possible. I saw bloodshed. And I was thinking to myself because in Kibbutz Be'eri, there was a special fund to help their neighbors from Gaza. For years they've been paying money to help their friends and neighbors in Gaza, because they advocated peace. And all of a sudden life was shattered. And the same life was shattered for the Israeli nation.
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My nation is bleeding, my nation is in pain, my nation is in sorrow. And we are faced with an extremely cruel, inhumane enemy which we have to uproot with no mercy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SOARES: And that was Isaac Herzog, Israel's president speaking as you could see to our Wolf Blitzer. Well, other voices in the region are now speaking out against the Israeli response. The prime minister of Jordan accused Israel of blatantly violating international law in Gaza. He said the forced displacement of Palestinians was a red line and would lead the region to a deeper as well as wider conflict.
Joining me now from Italy is U.N. Special Rapporteur on Occupied Territories, Francesca Albanese.
Francesca, great to see you. Great to have you back on the show. I really want to get your insight first of all in terms of what you are hearing from those inside Gaza. Just tell us what conditions are like. Paint a picture if you will.
FRANCESCA ALBANESE, U.N. SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR ON OCCUPIED TERRITORIES: Sure. Thanks for having me back. I have to confess that I have not been able to reach out to the people I know I'm normally in contact with. The humanitarian operators who are still active and frantically working to cope with the inferno that has beholden them, nor with my usual partners who are human rights organizations on the ground.
And the situation I see is -- pictures of which I get from the United Nations and others who are there is very grim. As I said, it's an inferno on earth because we -- in response to the heinous attack that Israel received, and I truly understand and empathize with all the victims, that I know no Israeli was not suffered the loss of a family member or a friend. So no question about that. But the response has not been -- has clearly been disproportionate, unproportional, because it has resulted already in 2,600 people killed, 700 of whom are kids, 500 of whom are women.
And the Israel carpet bombing the Gaza Strip has turned it into rubble. On top of it, it has closed. They already closed the Gaza Strip. There's been a blockade for 16 years now. But depriving people of water, food, and electricity at the time of this severe bombing and also bombing hospitals, targeting ambulances, because this has happened. Is this a proportional response? How on earth can this be proportional?
But also, Becky, you know that this argument of going after Hamas and wiping off Hamas, eradicate Hamas from the Gaza Strip, we have heard it before. It doesn't -- I mean, it has happened. There have been five major wars which have made 4,200 --
SOARES: Francesca, let me get --
(CROSSTALK)
SOARES: Francesca, let me just get -- this is Isa here in London. Just let me just update you, stay with us, in the last few minutes we've just heard from the Israel Defense Forces telling CNN there are 155 hostages being held by Hamas. Efforts continue on several fronts to get the hostages released.
I heard your point. I heard what you were saying there. We've also heard in the last hour or so, probably an hour and a half I'll say, Francesca, the Israeli ambassador to the United States, Michael Herzog, basically saying we are in the process of establishing a humanitarian zone, a big humanitarian zone in the southern part of Gaza with the U.N. Your reaction to this?
ALBANESE: This is very worrisome. And again, this is where, when I saw that and when I saw also the alarm among others like the Norwegian Refugee Council and other human rights organizations, I said, wait a second, you cannot order the evacuation of 1.1 million people because this sounds not new at all. Under the fog of war Israel is forcibly displacing an entire, I mean, half of the Palestinian population but where? Into the south, which is also being bombed. And so they are pushing them into Egypt. When I say pushing, I mean
it, because -- I mean it, because, you know, this Egyptian solution, these the Palestinians can be all moved into the Sinai has been repeated, pirated, over and over for many years now.
SOARES: On that point -- on that point, Francesca, on that point what can Arab leaders, Gulf leaders do here? Because we heard what we mentioned about Jordan's prime minister accusing Israel of blatant violations of international law.
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But what role do they play, not only diplomatically but also humanitarian perspective in trying to support the people of Gaza?
ALBANESE: Look, I can't hear much. I can't see anything effectively being attempted because there is only one thing, one urgent thing that is to be done now, it's calling for a cease-fire. I have not heard any U.N. official. I have not heard the secretary-general calling for it. This is indispensable, Becky. Because this is the only way to stop a ground invasion which is going to lead to even more catastrophic results.
And also, again, it's impossible to imagine an entire population displaced as an outcome of war. So this is why I have not heard anything meaningful. To be very honest. I'm sorry, this is not the time for diplomacy. And the protection of the civilians which has been completely violated should be prioritized.
SOARES: Francesco Albanese, always great to get your insight. Thanks very much, Francesca. Becky?
ALBANESE: Thank you. Bye.
SOARES: Well, we're actually going to take a short break and be back after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANDERSON: Well, the U.N. says no one was hurt after a rocket hit its peacekeepers headquarters in southern Lebanon. U.N. officials say they are still trying to determine the source of the rocket fire, adding there was an intense exchange of fire on Lebanon's border with Israel earlier.
And we are also getting an update from the Israel Defense Forces about Hezbollah. The IDF says its fighter jets were striking the militant group's military infrastructure in Lebanon earlier today.
Well, let's get you on the ground with CNN's Bed Wedeman who joins us now. He is in southern Lebanon for us.
Ben, the IDF has warned Hezbollah to, quote, "watch very closely what is happening to Hamas," end quote. What's the situation there, Ben?
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: As a matter the Israeli military has just put out a tweet saying that they are hitting Hezbollah military infrastructure in Lebanon right now. And we are hearing some very distant thuds now. Throughout the day there has been this constant back and forth. Hezbollah has said that it has hit a variety of Israeli positions.
We've seen video that they put out where it's very precise hits on communication surveillance and observation positions.
[15:25:03]
In addition to that, they hit the Israeli town of Shtula where, according to Israeli medical services, one 40-year-old Israeli male was killed, several others injured. And of course the Israelis throughout the day have been striking targets within the border region, not beyond the border region so far. In the afternoon there was a volley of rockets fired from Lebanese territory towards Israel. They were intercepted by the Israeli Iron Dome System.
However, in that instance it was the military wing of Hamas, not Hezbollah, that claimed responsibility for that. We have seen in the Israeli press reports of several people injured in that rocket barrage. Now as a result of the tensions on the border Israel has declared a four kilometer deep-closed military zone all along the border with Lebanon.
And of course as you mentioned, in the afternoon, there was that single rocket strike on the U.N. headquarters in Naqoura which is on the Mediterranean, just north of the border with Israel. There were no casualties there and they have yet to determine the source of that rocket -- Becky.
ANDERSON: Right. OK. Ben, that's getting us bang up to date on what is going on. Let just step back for a moment and lean into your vast experience in this region, and particularly there in that part of Lebanon. What is the atmosphere? How do you read the room at this point as it were?
WEDEMAN: It does seem that Hezbollah and Israel are getting very close to what I think the head of Israel's National Security Council yesterday called the threshold of escalation. There have been sort of unofficial rules allowing for a certain amount of back-and-forth fire. But it's getting very close to breaking those rules on both sides.
There is a sense that we are walking on very thin ice at the moment, and normally, for instance, Hezbollah and Israel restrict their back- and-forth fire to the Shebaa farms area, which is a disputed area between Lebanon and Syria with a very complicated history that nobody really knows who it belongs to. But now it's spreading along the border and that certainly does not portend well.
And for instance, we're hearing from the Iranian foreign minister who's been in Beirut, and Damascus, and Baghdad, who's basically said -- he said in a statement today that the situation in the region is like gun powder where there's a possibility of a huge explosion at any hour. Now the Israelis have been sending messages that they don't want a two-front war, they want to avoid escalation. But certainly it seems that if the situation in Gaza really
deteriorates it may be a matter of time before Hezbollah picks up its attacks on Israeli positions and the Israeli counterattacks may spread beyond the border area in which case all bets are off -- Becky.
ANDERSON: Yes. Frightening. Very frightening. And the reason that the region has been calling for a de-escalation in all of this, there's a real fear about what is happening in Gaza and that is catastrophic. There's a real fear that this conflict could, you know, spread outside of there and clearly nobody wants that.
CNN's Ben Wedeman is in southern Lebanon. Thank you, Ben.
We're going to take a very short break at least for myself and Isa. We'll be back after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[15:31:37]
ANDERSON: Welcome back. You're watching CNN. I'm Becky Anderson in Tel Aviv.
Now we just got some numbers in for you which are very, very concerning. Israel has just confirmed that 155 hostages are being held by Hamas and that efforts of course on multiple fronts continuing to secure their release. And let's just be clear. This is the first time I think I'm right in saying that Israel have actually released the numbers. Before that it was Hamas suggesting they were holding between 100 and 150. So Israel now saying 155 hostages being held by Hamas.
Meanwhile, aid groups say conditions in Gaza where these hostages are being held are deteriorating rapidly. The enclave is being cut off from water and electricity for days now as Israeli strikes continue to pound towns and cities.
SOARES: Yes. Tens of thousands of Palestinians have already fled from northern Gaza to the south to escape an expected Israeli ground incursion. In the last few hours Israel's ambassador to the U.S. told CNN that Israel is working with the United Nations to establish a humanitarian zone in southern Gaza. And U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken told reporters earlier that he believes the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt will be open.
The Rafah checkpoint is currently the only viable way in or indeed out of Gaza after Israel declared a complete siege on the territory.
ANDERSON: Norwegian Refugee Council says Israel must reverse its order that people in northern Gaza move to the south, calling it both impossible and illegal, saying it amounts to the war crime of forcible transfer. Not cutting his words is the secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, Jan Egeland, and he joins me now.
Good to have you, Jan. Before we talk about the wider picture here I do want to ask how your staff on the ground are coping and how are they describing the situation? JAN EGELAND, SECRETARY GENERAL, NORWEGIAN REFUGEE COUNCIL: They
described an increasingly desperate situation. Several of them have fled south from Gaza where we have our headquarters, Gaza City, then come back. It was so hopeless in the south, it was so overcrowded, there was no supplies, there was nowhere to stay. There was no security in the south so they came back and said, they'd rather die with the minimum of dignity here in our own homes in Gaza City than go south.
That's the nature of this horrific situation in the besieged enclave which is smaller than a Norwegian municipality with 2.3 million civilians are held, one million of them are children.
ANDERSON: Jan, you've been calling for the Israelis to reverse their demand that civilians flee south. Frankly that has not happened and they continue to demand for those who haven't left go now. As we understand it we've been told the numbers are about 600,000. I'm not sure whether your staff have been able to stand those sort of figures up.
[15:35:00]
Does that suggest to you that despite a chorus of calls from around this region and beyond now to stop any further military action that this pause in a full-scale attack is likely just that, a pause at this point? And however long that might be, what is the likely fallout if we are looking at a full-scale invasion at some point?
EGELAND: Well, if we're looking at continued bombardment of civilian housing, and then a ground invasion into a heavily urbanized area and hundreds and hundreds of thousands will not and cannot leave, what about the patients in the hospitals, what about the elderly, what about the disabled, what about the widows with no car, no fuel, no transport? It will be filled to the brim with very, very vulnerable people.
That we all agree, Israelis, Americans, the rest of the world agree that the children of Gaza bear no responsibility for the atrocious, horrific terror in Israel. So it will be a bloodbath.
ANDERSON: You've described your staff suggesting that they went south but they have gone back into northern Gaza because conditions were so bad. Where do people go either in the south or currently in the north? We know in the past the U.N. has been the sort of safe houses it were for tens of thousands of people in U.N. facilities, schools, hospitals. You know, what is -- what are the options at this point? Where do people go and what sort of conditions do they face?
EGELAND: Well, those who went down, some of them stayed. But I mean, that's what it would be, with relatives that would perhaps have eight people in the family in an apartment, now there could be 35 people there. And they couldn't take another 20 with one bathroom. So those who returned, returned to a large extent to their own apartments knowing that this is very, very dangerous. Others have gone to more than 80 U.N. schools. 100,000 or 200,000 people there. Again, few bathrooms, no water. The cutting of electricity to the entire Gaza Strip, all of the
families, all of the civilians also need no pumping of water, no pumping of sewage, no nothing of running a society. So this has to stop. There is moral -- Blinken asked for moral clarity. Moral clarity has indeed to lead to a unanimous condemnation of Hamas' horrific violence and for a release of the Israeli hostages. It must also lead to a halt of the Israeli offensive into a place where children can go nowhere. They will die from this offensive.
ANDERSON: Jan, both Egypt and Jordan have said they cannot and will not take Palestinians fleeing Gaza. They say that is a red line. This is for security issues, this is coming from the National Security Council in Egypt. I've spoken to the Jordanian foreign minister. I mean, they are -- just the impact of the refugees they already host Jordan is so bad for them. You know, Egypt's economy is struggling.
What's the prospect -- I mean, you know this, you've been on this file for 30 years.
EGELAND: Yes.
ANDERSON: And you and I have been talking about it for most of that time. What's the prospect for those who are now internally displaced, given that we have no idea at this point what the Israelis do next as far as this incursion is concerned? What the objective is likely to be, and we know the objective is to completely obliterate Hamas. But what is the prospect here?
EGELAND: Well, the prospect is bleaker than bleak really. Remember, Becky, Gaza Strip is filled with refugees. Their original home is what is now Israel. They fled violence originally. They came to this place in the hope that they could return home was for them as Palestine, places in today's Israel.
[15:40:03]
Going to Egypt should be possible. Going back into Israel should be possible. Fleeing for your life is a human right. Ukrainians fled to Poland, to Norway, to many places. Afghans to Pakistan and Iran. The Gaza Strip people cannot flee anywhere because Israel has sealed all of the borders, and Egypt as well, Egypt needs to also open its border so does Israel even though Egypt says this would just lead to more ethnic cleansing, another (INAUDIBLE). And this people will never be able to return. Israel would take the land. That's how they look at it. Who loses, the children.
ANDERSON: Jan Egeland, depressing as it is, it's good to have you on, sir. And your perspective and analysis is incredibly important, as we try to sort of join the dots from what is going on here as we sit in this kind of, you know, position of pause, this sort of observation of what the Israeli Defense Forces are in at present.
Want to take a short break. Back after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SOARES: Welcome back, everyone.
Now the families of those trapped in Gaza are now waiting in agony for any news or indeed help. Mo El-Deeb says his parents who are British Palestinians have been trapped in Gaza since Israel siege and have received no help from the U.K. government.
You're looking at a photo of both of them.
Last week the government announced evacuation flights to British nationals stranded in Israel. But El-Deeb says no one seems to know what to do about those trapped in Gaza. Mo El-Deeb joins me now from London.
And Mo, your parents from what I understand were visiting family in Gaza. Give us a sense of where they are now, how they are doing.
MO EL-DEEB, PARENTS STUCK IN GAZA: So, yes, my dad has been there for a couple of months, and my mom followed two days before things ticked up. They were up in the north, and after being instructed to move south, they've done so. They bounced around between U.N. schools and now they're at family homes, hosting 15 families. Situation is very dire at this point.
SOARES: When did you last speak to them, Mo? And what did they tell you?
EL-DEEB: So the last thing that was mentioned was I lost contact with them when they were at the border. As advised by the British government there was a window of opportunity yesterday between one and five which turned out to be a waste of time essentially. On the way back they managed to use a family friend's telephone to call us and let us know that they were safe. In the background there was a barrage of bombings so it was a very -- you know, constantly on eggshells at this point but they are now sheltering in the mid part of south Gaza.
[15:45:12]
SOARES: So you're referencing there the fact that some people were told to go to the Rafah border but once -- I assume once they got there they saw there was no way for them to cross, is that correct?
EL-DEEB: Yes. So there was -- I mean, once they got there it was utter confusion. There was no kind of approval from the Palestinians nor the Egyptians. The advice that we got was foreign nationals now a window of opportunity to leave. They should take it obviously at their own risk. And when they got there, there was no confirmation and they stood there for five hours. And then while they were there another instruction came to us which we weren't able to communicate to them, which was a bit of information about some kind of a checkpoint which had been arranged by the Israelis, so that they could cross over by foot which I should say is a kilometer long walk which again that piece of information and that update (INAUDIBLE) also.
So it's complete confusion and nobody seems to know. And I've been in contact with them well over 30 times in the last couple of days. And there isn't a real sense of direction. SOARES: A sense of direction. How are they doing? I mean, and have you
critically heard -- Mo, have you heard from the Foreign Office? Has anyone given you any sort of advice?
EL-DEEB: So this is (INAUDIBLE). So I've been consistently calling the Foreign Office, the CDO. And their advice is to keep an eye on the advice, which whenever it comes in it's turned out to be inaccurate. The first time that they went on a Tuesday they were there for no longer than 10 minutes, and the border itself was bombed. So they essentially have to go back to a war zone for half an hour endangering their life.
The second update that we got was this -- one that I mentioned, the window of opportunity between one and five which also didn't work out. So that's another risk to their live. And had they had taken the opportunity, and farm lot which they came today from them actually was that they should shelter in a place called Khan Younis.
Now within half an hour from receiving this message there was a barrage of bombs which had dropped in that same area. So all three updates that we had could have potentially endanger their lives. So the position that I have at the moment is I no longer trust the advice, and I'm no longer taking it on board.
SOARES: Don't trust the advice and also just waiting for some sort of clarity here. And you must be so anxious, Mo. I can't imagine. I also know from what you told our team that your father, I believed, your mother, I believed, pardon me, had suffered a stroke since arriving as well. So I am sorry for what you're going through, Mo. Please keep us posted. And hope that you'll be with them safely and shortly.
Thank you very much, Mo. Appreciate it.
EL-DEEB: Thank you, Isa.
SOARES: I want to turn to Europe. Polls are closed in hard-fought parliamentary elections in Poland. The exit poll suggests that populist ruling party's reign may be over. It shows the Law and Justice Party will lose its majority in parliament.
The results of this election were expected to have major ramifications for Poland's direction. The balance of power in the European Union and of course the future of the war in Ukraine.
A 6.3 magnitude earthquake struck Afghanistan on Sunday morning just over a week after another deadly quake hit the same region in the west of the country. The Taliban government officials estimate more than 2,000 people were killed in (INAUDIBLE) on October 7th. Most of them, women and children.
Our Anna Coren has more.
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ANNA COREN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Beneath crystal blue skies on the outskirts of Herat, in western Afghanistan, the sound of vanished hope fills the air. Under mounds of earth lie countless bodies. There are no survivors here. Only evidence of Mother Nature's wrath and fury unleashing further misery on a traumatized country.
Last Saturday, around 11:00 a.m. a 6.3 magnitude earthquake struck the district of Zinda Jan, completely flattening 11 villages.
You can see the state of my home, it's now in ruins, says 56-year-old Zaher. There is no need for words.
Zaher wasn't home when the earth violently shook for only a few seconds, but when he returned, he found 13 family members crushed to death, including his daughters, sons, and multiple grandchildren.
Simple mud brick structure supported by wooden poles were the homes of villages on these dusty plains. They've all been reduced to rubble. Aid agency tents are now their new homes.
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Thirty-two-year-old Shah Bibi lost two daughters when her house collapsed. The only reason she survived was because she was standing under the door frame.
My children were buried under the wall, she explains. Everything is gone. Nothing remains for us.
The Taliban government and international organizations estimate more than 2,000 people were killed across the region during Saturday's earthquake. And according to UNICEF, more than 90 percent of the victims were women and children. U.S. charity "Too Young to Wed," part of the humanitarian relief effort on the ground, says there is a clear reason for this staggering statistics. It's because women and girls are forced to stay at home under Taliban rule, denied their basic rights, banned from education, work, and being part of society.
STEPHANIE SINCLAIR, CO-FOUNDER, "TOO YOUNG TO WED": They have been systematically stripped of their rights over the last two years. So instead of being at school and at work on a Saturday, which is when they have their school week and their work week, they were home, confined to their homes, imprisoned in their homes. I mean, it's a country where half the population is under house arrest.
COREN: At this hospital in Herat, makeshift boards have been erected in the courtyard to cater for all the injured. Lying on a bed 35-year- old Fatima, who was knocked unconscious when her home collapsed on top of her. While being rescued from the rubble, she woke to discover her seven children, aged four months to 14 years, were all dead.
I've experienced a great deal of pain and sorrow, she says. We've lost everything in our life. Nothing remains.
With the world firmly focused on the war in Israel, aid organizations are pleading for the international community not to forget the earthquake victims in Afghanistan.
SIDDIG IBRAHIM, CHIEF OF FIELD OFFICE, UNICEF: The children of Afghanistan deserve equally as all children in the world. Things happening in the world are not going to stop. It doesn't mean we abandon them.
COREN: Anna Coren, CNN, Hong Kong.
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SOARES: And we'll be back after this very short break.
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SOARES: Well, it is important of course to remember the human tragedy at the center of the war between Israel and Hamas. An Israeli newspapers is doing just that today by featuring pictures of children on its front page. The paper says they are believed to be missing or held hostage in Gaza.
The headline as you could see there reads, "This is How Hell Feels." Important to point out here that CNN cannot independently verify the fate of these child featured on that front page. But I want to bring in our Becky Anderson who's on the ground and has been covering this conflict, and is an expert of course in the region.
And Becky, as we look at this front page and of course we are reminded of what we brought our viewers at the top of the show, that message from the IDF, the 155 hostages have been brutally taken by Hamas. Just speak here to the despair and the anger that so many families are facing right now.
ANDERSON: Yes. I think I'll describe it as a collective trauma here.
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Israelis, everybody you speak to knows somebody or knows of somebody who was massacred nine days ago either in a kibbutz or at the music festival. And all, they have a brother, a sister, a father, a niece or a nephew who was either serving, doing their national service here, or is now signed up as a reservist to fight in whatever happens next.
And look, you know, it's difficult to find an Israeli who doesn't share the government's determination to destroy Hamas here. But so many people I speak to here in Tel Aviv also share the utter despair and concern about what happens to Palestinians in Gaza who -- the majority of whom do not support Hamas and its monstrous sort of activities.
And so the atmosphere is really one of despair. It's been shock, and many people who haven't slapped. I mean, Israelis are just trying to distract themselves at this point. But it would be wrong not to suggest the Israelis here that I've spoken to, as I say, I mean, this is just, you know -- this is just me speaking to people here in Jerusalem and other places. You know, they really do understand that what happens next, you know, is so consequential.
And I think that's important to point out because as we've been reporting, you know, Jan Egeland has just been discussing with me, you know, there are, as far as UNICEF concerned already 500 children who've been killed in the conflict in Gaza. And we know the numbers of dead are now in the thousands. We know the number of injuries in Gaza alone are upwards of 7,000. So what happens next is -- you know, we're in an unprecedented territory here as far as, you know, this conflict is concerned.
What is clear is we will not be going back to the status quo. In the past, you know, the conflict between Israel and Hamas has sort of been managed back into a box of conflict in 2021. You know, it was a 10-day conflict and then sort of, you know, it sort of lurched back to its kind of status quo. I just can't see that happening this time at all. But yes, the atmosphere here is dreadful, it's really dreadful.
SOARES: So much hopelessness on one side, despair, frustration, anger. We appreciate you, Becky, being there, telling these stories so critical.
Becky and I will be back after a short break. Do stay right here for our continuing coverage. You are watching CNN.
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