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IDF Appears On Verge Of "Significant Ground Operations"; Netanyahu Visits Israeli Soldiers Near Gaza Border; Death Toll Of Americans Killed By Hamas Rises To 29; USS Eisenhower Deploys To Eastern Mediterranean; New 6.3 Magnitude Earthquake Strikes Afghanistan; Palestinians: 300 People Killed In The Past 24 Hours In Gaza, Aired 1-2a ET

Aired October 15, 2023 - 01:00   ET

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

[01:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LINDA KINKADE, CNN HOST: Hello, and welcome to all of us here in the United States and all around the world. I'm Linda Kinkade with CNN breaking news coverage of Israel at war. There are growing indications that an Israeli Military ground operation into Gaza could get underway at any moment. The U.S. is now sending a second carrier strike group to the eastern Mediterranean, as well as additional fighter jets.

The move is intended to deter Iran, Hezbollah and others from entering the conflict. Some 300,000 Israeli troops began massing on the Gaza border soon after last weekend's terror attacks. On Saturday, Israel declared that it's ready to open a new phase in the war with a focus on significant grounds operations. And earlier Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met soldiers on the frontlines offering words of support and telling them to be prepared.

Palestinian authorities in Gaza say the death toll from the Israeli airstrikes is now more than 2200 including more than 700 children. According to the health ministry, 300 of those deaths happened in the past 24 hours. The majority were women and children. Elliott Gotkine is covering all the developments for us and joins us live from London. Good to have you with us, Elliot. So Israel has been striking Gaza in retaliation for the Hamas terror attack. It's already carried out some raids. What more can you tell us about this next stage of this war?

ELLIOTT GOTKINE, CNN JOURNALIST: Linda, since Hamas launched that devastating and brutal terrorist attack, as you say that killed more than 1300 people in Israel, it's been a question of when rather than if Israel goes in on the ground. As you say, it's really carried out a couple of raids, to carry out reconnaissance missions according to the IDF. But this ground invasion as and when it comes is expected now to be imminent.

And that, of course, is one reason why it was telling Gazans in the northern part of the Gaza Strip specifically in Gaza City, to evacuate towards the south, to get out of harm's way in order to minimize civilian loss of life. Hamas, of course, which runs the Gaza Strip has been telling Gazans to ignore these Israeli warnings. But nevertheless, most of them have been erring on the side of believing the Israelis and moving towards the south.

We have of course seen those reports of strikes hitting and some more civilians losing their lives as they've tried to move south. But the situation right now is that Israel is continuing to carry strikes, you know, just in the last few minutes we've been hearing more reports of strikes. It says overnight, it's been targeting command and control centers, anti-tank missile launchers, rocket launchers, and also command centers belonging to Islamic Jihad and also specific militants.

It says that among its targets, which has succeeded in hitting overnight was the target of one of the commanders of the Hamas commando unit that it holds us principally responsible for that attack a week ago, just over a week ago. Linda.

KINKADE: And Elliott, as you mentioned, Israel has told residents in the north to evacuate to head south in Gaza, with some people using that so called Safe Passage announced by Israel around this time yesterday, were killed. We know the death toll in Gaza is rising. Just describe for us the humanitarian disaster that's unfolding right now.

GOTKINE: It is unfolding and it is getting worse and probably with this expected ground invasion. And not only the humanitarian situation, but of course, also the civilian loss of life will also rise because of course Hamas is very much embedded in the civilian population there. Now we know that there are eight trucks to the Egyptian border crossing with the Gaza Strip, that are unable to get in just yet. And that is also kind of preventing the alleviation of the humanitarian situation.

The World Health Organization, for example, saying that asking, you know, residents or people evacuating Gaza hospitals is equivalent to a death sentence in its word. So there is a growing concern not just from international aid organizations, but also from the international community about the unraveling humanitarian situation there. Linda .

KINKADE: Elliott Gotkine, good to have you on the story with us from London. Thanks very much. Well, thousands of Palestinians have fled to southern Gaza since Israel issued that evacuation order early Friday, but it's not known how many have stayed behind. One thing though, is abundantly clear. Whether people in Gaza city choose to stay or go, no place is truly safe. We get more now from CNN Salma Abdelaziz and a warning, her report contains graphic and disturbing images.

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SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (VOICES OVER): 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 geo located this video and four other clips from the horrifying scene. The UN calls Israel's evacuation advisory impossible and a violation of the rules of war. And Palestinian officials accused the idea 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.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: 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.

ABDELAZIZ: 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.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Keeping the dead in ice cream trucks so the bodies won't rot, this doctor says. Gaza is in crisis. Gaza needs help.

ABDELAZIZ: For those still able to move south this is one of the neighborhoods families are expected to flee towards, Khan Younis 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. Salam Abdelaziz, CNN, London.

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KINKADE: With us now via Skype from East Jerusalem is Shaina Low Communications Adviser at the Norwegian Refugee Council. We appreciate your time. Thanks for joining us.

SHAINA LOW, COMMUNICATIONS ADVISER, NORWEGIAN REFUGEE COUNCIL: Thank you for having me.

KINKADE: So I understand you have a team in Gaza, many of whom have had to flee from the north to the south. What are they telling you? How are they doing?

LOW: I mean, life is a struggle for all Palestinians in Gaza. I just moments before I got on this call, was speaking to my colleague in this who had relocated to the south of Gaza after fleeing with his family. He said there's a complete shortage of bread, bread lines are two hours long, and now he's looking for alternatives to feed his -- his children. Finding other basic needs like water is proving to be incredibly difficult. He also told me that last night despite that him being relocated in the south, that there were airstrikes near him. And just to prove that, you know, there is no safe place in Gaza. The Israeli authorities have told Palestinians in Gaza that they need to flee to the South for their safety. But as you -- as was indicated in the report, just before I started speaking, some people were killed while trying to make that journey to the south and others are still facing bombardments even once they're relocated to the south.

KINKADE: Yes, it seems nowhere safe right now. But for those in your team, how many are going south? How many is staying behind and for those staying behind, what are their reasons?

LOW: I'm not sure entirely this the breakdown between those that that fled and those that stayed behind. I do know that we have a handful of staff that at least that have chosen -- that have stayed behind some because they have nowhere to go in the south. They're worried because there's a lack of facilities able to accommodate mass influx of people. Others are having trouble even finding transportation because the size of their families is so large.

I've heard about colleagues who've been forced to flee on foot. Other colleagues who haven't been there able to leave because of sick relatives and needing to try and get them treatment at hospitals in the north. There's a variety of reasons people aren't leaving and aren't able to leave.

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KINKADE: And of course, even before this war, Gaza was facing a humanitarian crisis. The poverty rate over 50 percent, 1/3 of the residents living in extreme poverty. Describe the work that your team have been doing on the ground now and what will happen in the coming days.

LOW: Prior to this last week, our team was focused on providing cash support to families in need, helping to repair substandard housing for and bring it up to standards, helping to work with children, to help them improve academically and overcome trauma that they face due to conflict or displacement. For the last week, we've been unable to do any of that work. It's just simply not safe for our colleagues to be out in the field working with people, providing aid to those in need.

That's why we desperately need at least -- at the very least of humanitarian pause, and humanitarian corridors to be established so that we can go back out and do the work that we do, providing assistance to vulnerable Palestinians. And now I think we just see how much greater our workload will be once it's finally safe for us to be able to go and serve Palestinians in Gaza.

KINKADE: We know Israel supplies the region with basic necessities, but after the Hamas terror attack, it stopped the flow of food, water, fuel, electricity. Do you have any indication of the reserves in Gaza in terms of food and clean drinking water?

LOW: I mean, we've seen that there's already worries about illness -- waterborne illness from people being forced to drink brackish water in agricultural wells. I read this morning that the UN has announced that basically, with the fuel that remains inside of Gaza for in 48 hours or so hospitals will no longer be able to operate. It's a crisis.

With us, even our own just bringing it to a personal level with our staff, the lack of electricity and people's reliance on generators which are quickly running out of fuel and solar means that headcounts which used to take 15 minutes to check in with our staff are now taking four hours because of difficulties with people having their phones charged, being able to connect to mobile networks.

I mean, the life in Gaza was challenging, with only about 12 hours or 14 hours of electricity per day for -- for in good, in so called good times. Now we're facing a complete blackout and the inability to -- for people to get basic necessities. I think food, it's from what I understand the stocks on the shelves are quickly being depleted. And there needs to be an influx of -- of food and water and electricity and fuel in order for this civilian population of 2.3 million people to survive.

KINKADE: You're an American living in East Jerusalem, just give us a sense of the feeling there. What are you hearing? How has life there changed in the past week?

LOW: I mean, the situation in my neighborhood, my neighborhood is a bustling, bustling neighborhood. It's very busy. I have a school at the end of the street. For the last week, it's just been eerily quiet. Early in the week it was punctuated by sounds of -- of the Iron Dome intercepting rockets. Now what I hear besides this eerily quietness is often just the sound of war planes going overhead heading towards Gaza or surveilling the area. Life here does not feel normal.

It feels that people are anticipating the worst. When I go to the supermarket while the shelves are stocked there's a depletion of all of kind of the basic pantry items rice, grains, beans, those shelves are empty and -- and I think as soon as they fill them up, they're being depleted again because people are anticipating that this could go on for a long time and want to make sure that they have enough food to take care of their families even here in Jerusalem.

KINKADE: Wow. Shaina Low, we appreciate your time and your perspective and the work that your team are doing in the region. Thanks so much.

LOW: Thank you.

KINKADE: Well, for so many of you watching, you may feel compelled to help with the humanitarian relief efforts in Gaza and Israel. CNN is compiling resources. You can head to cnn.com/impact. You'll find a list of vetted organizations responding on the ground, that's at cnn.com/impact.

[01:15:00]

Well, the U.S. has ordered a second carrier strike group to the eastern Mediterranean Sea. The USS Eisenhower is on the way from Norfolk, Virginia. It will join the USS Ford, which was deployed after the Hamas attacks last weekend and arrived off the coast of Israel Tuesday. Their presence is intended to send a message to Iran and its proxies in the region, not to get involved in the conflict between Israel and Hamas.

Well, U.S. President Joe Biden is continuing his talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu since that Hamas attack with another phone call this weekend. Mr. Biden also called the attention to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza at a human rights event Saturday night, as the Israeli-Hamas war enters a second week. CNN's Priscilla Alvarez has more.

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: President Biden on Saturday spoke with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu marking the fifth time the two leaders have talked since the attacks on Israel last Saturday. Now in that discussion, the two talks about U.S. Military support, as well as protecting innocent civilians as this conflict unfolds. Now in a second call, the President also spoke with Palestinian Authority President Abbas and in that call, they talked about humanitarian supplies reaching Gaza, which is facing water shortages and food shortages.

Now, the President also spoke in at a Human Rights Campaign dinner and in his remarks, he too talked about the terror attacks in Israel as well as the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Take a listen.

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JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITES STATES OF AMERICA: We could go we saw hate manifests in another way and the worst massacre of Jewish people since the Holocaust. More than 1300 innocents lives lost in Israel, including at least 27 Americans, children, grandparents who lived kidnapped, held hostage by Hamas humanitarian crisis in Gaza, innocent Palestinian families and the vast majority have nothing to do with Hamas. They're being used as human shields.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALVAREZ: Now the focus for officials at the White House continues to be that this conflict not widen in the region, but they are sending a message of deterrence in the region as well and focusing their efforts to on bringing those Americans who are held hostage by Hamas, home. Priscilla Alvarez, CNN, the White House.

KINKADE: One week ago, a powerful earthquake hit the Herat region of Afghanistan and now it's happened again. I've details in the new quake that's hit the area and how people are coping with the devastation after the first one.

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KINKADE: We are following some breaking news now out of Afghanistan where a 6.3 earthquake has struck. The quake was centered northwest of the city of Herat and came one week after another quake the exact same magnitude hit the same area. There's no word yet on casualties, but we'll bring you that information when we get it. Taliban government -- government officials there say more than 2000 people across Herat province were killed when the earthquake struck on October 7 and the situation is quite grim. Anna Coren has the details.

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ANNA COREN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (VOICES 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 am, a 6.3 magnitude earthquake struck the district of Zenda Jan, completely flattening 11 villages.

You can see the state of my home. It's now in ruins says 56 year old Zahir. There is no need for words. Zahir 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 structures supported by wooden poles with the homes of villages on these dusty plains. They've all been reduced to rubble. Aid agency tents are now their new homes.

32 year old Shah Bibi last two daughters when her house collapsed. The only reason she survived was because she was standing under the doorframe.

SHAH BIBI, MOTHER WHO LOST TWO DAUGHTERS: My children were buried under the wall, she explains, everything is gone. Nothing remains for us.

COREN: The Taliban government and international organizations estimate more than 2000 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 statistic.

It is 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, COFOUNDER, 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, they 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 whole -- it's a country where half the population is under house arrest.

COREN: At this hospital in Herat, makeshift wards 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.

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FATIMA, MOTHER WHO LOST ALL HER 7 CHILDREN: I've experienced a great deal of pain and sorrow, she says. We've lost everything in our life. Nothing remains.

COREN: 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 AFGHANISTAN: 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.

KINKADE: Still ahead, families of Israelis being held hostage by Hamas in Gaza are demanding help for their relatives. Stay with us. You're watching CNN.

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KINKADE: Welcome back I'm Linda Kinkade, and this is CNN Newsroom. I want to bring you up to speed on the latest in the war between Israel and Hamas. Israel is indicating that it will begin a significant ground operation in Gaza but it's unclear exactly when. Iran is threatening far reaching consequences if Israel does not stop its attacks on Gaza. U.S. is sending a second aircraft carrier the -- the eastern Mediterranean as the deterrence for Iran and its proxies.

Palestinian say about 300 people have been killed in Israeli aerial strikes on Gaza over the past 24 hours. 800 others are wounded. The majority of the casualties are children. That would bring the death toll in Gaza since the crisis began to more than 2300 people.

[01:30:00]

Humanitarian aid for Gaza is piling up in Egypt right now because supplies can't get through the main border crossing. The Israeli families are demanding urgent help for their loved ones being held captive by Hamas in Gaza. On Saturday, the hostages and missing families formed demanded that the Red Cross helped them to get medicine to their loved ones.

Israel Association of Public Health positions says there are 150 captives with various medical conditions who need help immediately. Yiftat Zailer is one of the forum's members and says her relatives are missing.

YIFTAT ZAILER RELATIVE OF HOSTAGES: Chivvy, my cousin was abducted from her home with her two babies, 9 months old and four years old along with her husband, and my aunt and uncle, your (inaudible), both in the late 60s You've all seen her photos holding her two redhead babies. He's nine months, a baby being held captive underground somewhere. I don't know if he got his food, his formula. He doesn't eat food. He need his bottle.

My cousin and I gave birth two months apart. I have a seven month old at home. I put him to bed every night thinking about (inaudible). My aunt suffers from Parkinson's disease. She's 63. Every day without her medication, is torture. She's being tortured. We don't know how long it's going to take me to understand this can take a long time. Those are innocent civilians. Those are innocent civilians. They have rights. This is Hamas. It's a terror organization.

You need to put the pressure on the right people on all their organizations, on Turkey, on Egypt, please. They need to help the Red Cross enter. Those people lives are so important to us. We need to bring them back home alive. They were kidnapped alive and they will be back alive. I'll do everything I can. And then we need your help.

KINKADE: Flights in and out of Israel have been hard to come by as major airlines have canceled many of them. That problem has led to the creation of Israel Friends, a charity formed after the Hamas attacks last weekend. The group is helping to fund a private flight with Israeli and American citizens who want to help Israel during the war. Here's now CNN's Stephanie Elam.

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: About 150 people met up at Los Angeles International Airport in the wee hours of the morning to board a charter flight to get back to Israel. And this all coming together in just a matter of days, we're told by a nonprofit humanitarian organization called Israel friends.

They're looking to get people who needed to get back to Israel, as we know a lot of carriers are not flying into Israel right now. And they also wanted to get tons of humanitarian aid to the country as well. And the word went out and this charter flight gathered these people together, these people coming together early in the morning. And we've seen some of them who were there alone, some of them there with loved ones, sad, devastated, but also respecting the choice of their loved ones to go back to Israel.

And some of the people going as a one man that we spoke to who is born and raised here in Los Angeles, but to Israeli parents. He said that he just felt that he had to go back and that looking at everything that he had seen. He was just numb to it all and just knew he had to go. Take a listen to him.

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DOREL MEIRI, ISRAELI AMERICAN VOLUNTEERING FOR WAR: I'm American, and Israeli. I'm an American-Israeli. It's very simple. So my home is here, and my home is there. So I feel obligated and almost a desire and more so a need to go to -- go right now. So.

ELAM: Like you don't feel like you could just stay, that's not an option for you?

MEIRI: It's not an option.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ELAM: And it's worth noting that many of these people were coming from many places outside of the Los Angeles area. Some live in Israel like David Frankel who when the war started, he gathered up his wife and his two young sons and fled to California so that he could leave them with family members here, but he knew he was going to get called back and he also wanted to go. Take a listen to him.

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[01:35:00]

DAVID FRANKEL, ISRAELI ARMY RESERVIST: I'm obviously nervous. I mean, 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, and stop the madness that's happening.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ELAM: And Frankel said that he kissed his two young boys goodbye while they were sleeping before heading to the airport. And that's the difficult part. For these people for the people that are leaving behind. They don't know when they'll see their loved ones again, and for the people heading back to Israel. They don't know how long it'll be before things calmed down enough that they can be with their families again.

But what we did see while we were in the airport terminal with them was a lot of camaraderie and even though people didn't necessarily know anyone else in the terminal, they were making fast friends, faster, says because they were unified in their goal to get back and defend Israel. Back to you.

KINKADE: Thanks to Stephanie Elam there. Well, still to come; This family says this grandmother was snatched right out of her home and is being held hostage by Hamas. What her grandson shared with CNN is next.

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KINKADE: Welcome back. A family in Israel says their grandmother was taken from her home and is being held hostage by Hamas. CNN's Erin Burnett spoke with a woman's grandson earlier as they hope and wait for more information.

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MORAN MINA, GRANDMOTHER TAKEN HOSTAGE BY HAMAS: We know that she cried for help. She yelled, azero, azero, that's help me in Hebrew, her neighbor heard this. He go outside it's safe home is house, tried to shoot the terrorist but there were so many so he come back home to save himself. He saw her, he saw them take it out of the house. That's all we know. We got a video in Tuesday night, three days after and that's all we know. We didn't see another photo of her in Gaza. Nothing. We don't have any more information.

[01:40:00]

ERIN BURNETT, CNN ANCHOR: But I know that on Saturday and Sunday, you could have, of course, even what the news was, you could have been for sure worried that she was dead. When you find out on Tuesday, but that that video gets posted on Facebook that said she that she could be alive, I mean, in a sense, it must have been an incredible sense of relief, although then incredible fear about where she is. Has the Israeli government told you anything about what's being done, Moran, to find her?

MINA: Not a single thing. Nothing. They didn't talk to us at all. At all. They didn't have any new information. Don't say anything about negotiate to bring them back. Nothing.

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

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

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KINKADE: One week since the conflict began. Fake videos claiming to show the fighting has been going viral with worrying results. The European Union has sent Google and its subsidiary YouTube a warning over how they handle fake or graphic content linked to the Israel Hamas war. It's not the first time the EU has stepped in with social media platform X. Having already received a similar letter. CNN's Donie O'Sullivan has more.

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DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (VOICES OVER): One video shows a rocket proportionately fired by Hamas another video claims to show Israeli jets bombing Gaza but neither is real. This video is actually footage from a video game called Arma three and this is actually video of soccer celebrations in Algeria. It's all part of a tidal wave of viral mis and disinformation circulating around the Israel-Hamas conflict. Adi Cohen works with Memetica, an online Threat Intelligence Service. He's been monitoring misinformation like this, a fake BBC News report that falsely claimed Ukraine had provided weapons to Hamas.

O'SULLIVAN: This is relatively sophisticated stuff. I mean, it's got even the same kind of graphics that as the BBC News normally would have.

ADI COHEN, COO, MEMETICA: Right. And I think what happened over recent years that it becomes very easy, affordable to mimic those graphics visualization.

O'SULLIVAN (VOICES OVER): In response to the false news report, the BBC told CNN in a statement, "in a world of increasing disinformation, we urge everyone to ensure they're getting news from a trusted source." Just hours after Hamas attack began on Saturday, this began circulating on social media, a fake White House memo falsely claiming the U.S. was immediately sending billions of dollars in new aid to Israel.

O'SULLIVAN: This is like some more old school disinformation, a fake White House document circulated pretty widely online.

COHEN: Right. I do want to point out though, it is an old school tactic that we've seen, you know, for multiple years by now. But with the current tools, you can also create it very quickly and make it more believable.

GRAHAM BROOKIE, DIGITAL FORENSIC RESEARCH LAB, ATLANTIC COUNCIL: There's new information every second every minute, every hour. And so there's a lot of room for error as -- as things develop on the ground.

O'SULLIVAN (VOICES OVER): Graham Brookie tracks disinformation with the Atlantic Council's digital forensic research lab.

BROOKIE: And this conflict is hyper connected. Israel is a very, very connected country. And so we're seeing an enormous amount of misleading content coming out of this conflict as the world's eyes are watching it.

O'SULLIVAN (VOICES OVER): Twitter, now known as X is a major source of misinformation, in part because of the changes Elon Musk made to the platform since he took it over, including laying off key employees. On Thursday the European Commission announced it was opening an investigation into disinformation on X about the Israel-Hamas conflict.

[01:45:00] COHEN: Another component of it, I would say is that because several platforms have scaled back and moderation, it's much easier to spread rumors, unsubstantiated rumors, false information very quick.

O'SULLIVAN (VOICES OVER): But this isn't just an information war. It's a real war. And false information can be fatal.

BROOKIE: And that disinformation is extraordinarily harmful, including putting folks lives at risks.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'SULLIVAN: Now X formerly Twitter says that it is moving resources around the company after of course it had all those layoffs on there most to try and address some of these issues. But look, this is not a problem that is exclusive to X. It is happening on other platforms as well. But right now it's quite pronounced on X you can see false videos, misleading videos, getting hundreds of thousands, millions of views on the platform before anything is really done about them.

And of course, the real tragedy is here, you know, there is no need to post these fake videos and images. We have seen the tragic footage, the real footage from Israel and Gaza. And of course it is upsetting enough. These fake videos and images really just adding to the chaos, confusion and concern. Donie O'Sullivan, CNN New York.

KINKADE: Well, still to come the Israeli Military is gearing up for a significant ground offensive in Gaza. I'll speak to an Israeli Military official about that when we come back. Stay with us. You're watching CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:50:00]

KINKADE: Welcome back. I'm Linda Kinkade. Israel's Military says it's preparing for the next stages of the war against Hamas. I want to bring in Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner, a spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces. He joins us from Tel Aviv. Good to have you with us.

LT. COL. PETER LERNER, IDF SPOKESPERSON: Thank you.

KINKADE: So there were raids by Israel Special Forces happening in Gaza. What can you tell us about those operations right now? How many people involved and what is that mission about?

LERNER: Well, good morning. We are, you know, in the ninth day now of our activities to destroy him as his capability. The operations are extensive and increasing. I can inform you that over the night we attacked and killed one of the Nakba Commandos, leaders that from Khan Younis. His name is Bilal Ikitra. He was the leader that conducted the butcher and attack in the Nerium kibbutz.

And this just goes to exemplify that we have the intelligence in order to take our promises leadership from (inaudible) the mastermind of the massacre, all the way down to the terrorists that breached penetrated and butchered our babies in their bedrooms. So the operation is ongoing. Indeed, we are taking out Hamas, and we are determined to fulfill our mission to safeguard and secure the people of Israel.

KINKADE: I've seen numbers ranging from 20,000 to 40,000 Hamas fighters. What is your understanding how many Hamas militants are there and talk to us about the next stage of this operation, sea, land, ground incursion?

LERNER: Well, there are some tens of thousands of Hamas operatives, terrorists, but it's not just the operatives, the IDF is targeting the institutions of Hamas, because they have subordinated the entire government system to build support, fund, finance, and instruct and execute their terrorist activities. So effectively, what we're doing is dismantling the entire system to begin with.

With regard to the second question, what are we doing now? How are we preparing for the next stage? We are we have recruited several hundreds of thousands of soldiers of reservists some 300,000 rallying, many of them in the area of southern Israel, on the border with Gaza, in the anticipation and preparation, if the instructions from the government to mobilize into Gaza does come and we need to be prepared for that. KINKADE: Lieutenant Colonel, Israel has instructed residents in northern Gaza to evacuate, they were told they would have a safe passage for six hours. But we've witnessed people killed along that very passage. Half the population in Gaza children under the age of 18. Is there anywhere safe for civilians in Gaza?

LERNER: So I'm glad you asked me that. It was a point that I actually did want to raise. You know after action review, we found that the incident that you reported on yesterday throughout the day, was not a strike by the Israeli Air Force, it appears and what we have found that no idea of strikes were conducted against the convoy and it falls exactly in line what we've been telling you and your viewers throughout the day, you cannot trust one word Hamas is saying to you.

It appears that they have they've physically prevented people from moving from north to south. And also it appears that they have booby trapped some of the roads in anticipation. And what we see and what we understand is that the people that were killed yesterday, in -- in a convoy going down was not a result of an IDF strike.

So I would say first of all, our instructions to people to move south is in our policy and to differentiate between the people, the hostages of Hamas, the people of Gaza, and to -- to enable us to target Hamas, the terrorist organization that has used the Gaza Strip as a staging ground for this brutal massacre last Saturday.

KINKADE: Lieutenant Colonel, Israel has deployed a significant number of infantry to the Israeli Lebanon border. Our CNN team have seen the heavy artillery and rocket fire in southern Lebanon, at least one journalist was killed there. And we've also heard threats from Iran that there'll be far reaching consequences if Israel does not stop its attacks on Gaza Should we be worried that this war between Israel and Hamas will become a wider regional conflict?

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LERNER: So I certainly hope not. Of course, hope is not a method and we have to be prepared for every eventuality. We have indeed, out of those 300,000 reservists that have been called up, position some of those on the frontier with the border with Hamas, with Hezbollah, on Lebanon. You know, there has been some skirmishes and exchanges and indeed, there has been mortar fire and rocket fire and anti-tank guided missile attacks against forces operating on the border.

I would caution Hezbollah; look very closely of how we are dismantling Hamas. They need to be very, very cautious. With regard to Iran, I would say they have invested extensively in the network of terrorism, their proxies here on our border. So of course they're concerned. I would also caution them from getting involved.

KINKADE: Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner, we appreciate your time today. Thanks so much for joining us.

LERNER: Thank you. Good day.

KINKADE: Well, that wraps this hour of CNN Newsroom. I'm Linda Kinkade. I will be back with more breaking news out of Israel after a very short break. Stay with us. You're watching CNN.

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