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IDF Appears On Verge Of "Significant Ground Operations"; Israel Warns Half Of Gaza's Population To Evacuate; USS Eisenhower Deploys To Eastern Mediterranean; Relatives Plead For Release Of Family Of 6 Taken Hostage; Afghanistan Reeling From Last Week's Earthquake. Aired 5-6a ET

Aired October 15, 2023 - 05:00   ET

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

[05:00:00]

KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN HOST: Hello and welcome to all of you watching us here in the United States, Canada, and all around the world, as we continue our breaking news coverage of Israel at War. I'm Kim Brunhuber. It's 5 a.m. here in Atlanta, noon in Gaza City, where an incursion by Israeli ground forces now appears imminent.

On Saturday, Israel declared it's ready to open a new phase in its war against Hamas with a focus on significant ground operations.

The IDF says it struck more than 100 Hamas targets in Gaza overnight. Earlier, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met soldiers on the front lines, offering words of support and telling them to be prepared.

The U.S. is now sending a second carrier strike group to the Eastern Mediterranean as a deterrent to Hezbollah to stay out of the conflict. And the U.S. embassy says Americans who want to leave Israel will be evacuated by sea on Monday out of Haifa.

Palestinian authorities in Gaza say the death toll from Israeli airstrikes is now more than 2,300 people, including 300 in the past 24 hours. It follows the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel last Saturday, which killed more than 1,300 people.

Earlier, I spoke with Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner, Spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces, and he reveals how the IDF killed a Hamas commander overnight who allegedly led one of the attacks last week. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LT. COL. PETER LERNER, IDF SPOKESPERSON: I cannot be unimpressed by how Israel goes around investing in life and saving lives. And this iron dome defense mechanism is just one of those examples of the extent we go. Moving over to what you asked, the IDF is continuing its activities and expanding our strikes against Hamas from their leaders. I can report that over the night, we killed Bilal al-Kedra. He was a Khan Younis Special Forces commando from the Noh'ba Force. He was one of the commanders that broke the penetrated defense and conducted the massacre in Kibbutz Nirim. We are very, very determined to take out the terrorists that conducted

the attack, take out the organization that orchestrated it. And -- and even take out the leader who -- who is the mastermind of the massacre. Yehia Sinwar who is Orchestrated and governs the Gaza Strip as a staging ground for terrorism and utilized all the forces of Hamas government to do so.

BRUNHUBER: Yeah, sadly, I understand the -- the bodies of some of the people abducted by Hamas have been found. What more can you tell us about that?

LERNER: So I'm going to be very cautious and careful around the issue of bodies. You know, there are still bodies and there are still people that are unaccounted for. You know, we have to be very respectful to the families that don't know about that what's happened with their loved ones. You know, we are -- there at the top of our priorities, but I think we'll have to leave it at that at this time. Our operations are influenced by -- by the scenario of the bodies and hostages and we'll do everything in order to try and retrieve them. But that's all I can say at this time.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: And Elliott Gotkine is covering all of this for us from London. And Elliott, when I spoke to that spokesperson from the IDF, I got a significant denial from Israel about that explosion that killed dozens of people who were fleeing Gaza going south. What more can you tell us about that?

ELLIOTT GOTKINE, JOURNALIST: It was an emphatic denial, wasn't it, Kim? Yes, Peter Lerner there, the spokesman for the IDF, saying that quite simply the Israeli Air Force was not striking in that area at that time. And that apparently it seems that the explosion came from beneath the convoy and that it was most likely an improvised explosive device or some kind of booby trap, the implication clearly being that it was put there by either Hamas or Islamic jihad or other militant groups inside the Gaza Strip.

But I think from Israel's perspective, the damage in terms of the information war that's also going on in addition to this military war has already been done. The world has already seen these images of civilians, women and children among them being killed as they follow Israel's instructions to evacuate from the northern part of the Gaza Strip to the south in order to preserve civilian life and to avoid civilian casualties.

And I think because that information is already out there, people have already seen the images, reports have already gone out there saying that it was the Israeli Defense Forces, even if and when presumably they present conclusive evidence that it wasn't the IDF that struck that convoy.

I think as far as the Palestinians in Gaza are concerned, as far as the Palestinian supporters around the world are concerned, it kind of will be a little bit too late because they've already seen those images and they've already drawn their own conclusions, Kim. BRUNHUBER: Yeah, in the meantime, Elliott, as the world awaits what

might be an imminent ground invasion, the suffering in Gaza right now gets worse?

[05:05:01]

GOTKINE: It gets worse and I'm sorry to say, Kim, it's probably going to get worse still once if and when that grounding invasion takes place from the Israelis and the number of civilian casualties which has already been on the rise and is well over 2,000 now is likely to rise significantly too and the situation you have there of course is not only people trying to evacuate South to get out of harm's way.

Israel certainly says that Hamas not only we know for a fact has been telling people to ignore the Israeli warnings and to stay put. The Israeli Defense Forces Israel saying that you know they that Hamas is actively trying to prevent people from moving south as well but the fact of the matter is that the humanitarian situation has been deteriorating for some days let's not forget that Israel has imposed a -- in its words, a complete siege on the Gaza Strip not allowing food, water, fuel or electricity into the Strip.

And as far as the water situation is concerned we've all -- we've heard from example from the United Nations saying that Palestine, Palestine is now being forced to drink brackish water which could result in severe health issues coming about and we've also heard for example from the World Health Organization saying that orders for hospitals in the northern part of the Gaza Strip to evacuate is effectively a death sentence for some people in those hospitals. But as I say Kim what we've seen now I'm sorry to say may not be anything really compared with what we are likely to see in the coming days and weeks once this ground invasion this expected ground invasion takes place. Kim?

BRUNHUBER: Yeah, sad but true. All right, thanks so much Elliott Gotkine in London, appreciate it. So in the context of the Israel Hamas war, President Joe Biden announced hatred -- denounced hatred in all of its forms. In a speech on Saturday, he stressed that anti- Semitism, Islamophobia, homophobia and transphobia are all connected. He said hate fed the Hamas attack calling it the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.

His speech came after he spoke again with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. CNN's Priscilla Alvarez has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: 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 talked 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 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.

JOE BIDEN, (D) U.S. PRESIDENT: A week ago, we saw hate manifested in another way in the worst massacre of Jewish people since the Holocaust. More than 1,300 innocent lives lost in Israel, including at least 27 Americans.

Children and grandparents alike kidnapped, held hostage by Hamas. The humanitarian crisis in Gaza, innocent Palestinian families in a vast majority of nothing to do with Hamas. They're being used as human shield.

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 too, on bringing those Americans who are held hostage by Hamas home. Priscilla Alvarez, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken is pushing ahead with his Middle East diplomatic tour. He's heading to Cairo this hour for meetings with Egypt's president.

Blinken was in the UAE and Saudi Arabia on Saturday. Since the conflict began, he's met with leaders in five Arab countries and Israel. Blinken urged the Arab nations to use their leverage with Hamas to keep the violence from spreading and to help free those being held hostage by the terrorist group. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: As Israel pursues its legitimate right to defending its people and to trying to assure that this never happens again, it is vitally important that all of us look out for -- for civilians and we're working together to do exactly that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: Still to come, the U.N. warns 50,000 pregnant women in Gaza are struggling to get the health care they need as hospitals and clinics come under attack.

Also, ahead I speak with a Gaza woman who's been forced to flee her home to the south of Gaza and she is nine months pregnant. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:13:29]

BRUNHUBER: Syria says Israeli airstrikes hit the international airport in the northern city of Aleppo again, rendering it non-operational. The Syrian military reported airstrikes on Saturday, originating from the Mediterranean Sea. State media reports all scheduled flights had to be redirected through another airport Saturday. The Aleppo airport was hit by an airstrike earlier in the week.

Meanwhile, Lebanese militant group Hezbollah says it attacked five Israeli positions in a disputed area near the Lebanon-Israeli border. Israel says it hopes the group won't get involved as Israel is trying to avoid getting into a two-front war.

Now, there are concerns that Israel may still face a war on multiple fronts with Lebanon in focus. CNN's Ben Wedeman reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: South Lebanon remains in a state of high tension as fire continues to be exchanged between Israel and militants in Lebanon. Saturday afternoon, artillery, rocket and small arms fire echoed across the mountains in the disputed Shebaa Farms area between Lebanon and Israel in the most prolonged exchange yet.

The Israeli military said 30 mortar rounds were fired from Lebanon into Israel while Hezbollah put out a statement claiming its fighters had used precision weapons to target five Israeli positions, including an Israeli surveillance post. Late Saturday, the group's media wing put out video showing precise hits on communications and surveillance equipment at those positions.

[05:15:04]

The official Lebanese news agency reported that an elderly couple was killed when an Israeli round struck their house in the Lebanese town of Shebaa. Hezbollah said one of its fighters was killed in confrontations with Israeli forces.

Earlier in the day, residents of the southern Lebanese town of Al- Khiam came out to mourn the killing of Reuters cameraman Issam Abdallah, well known in the Middle East press corps for his work in conflict zones around the region.

Friday afternoon, Abdallah, was filming an exchange of fire between Israel and Hezbollah when their position was struck with rockets fired. Witnesses told CNN, from the Israeli side of the border, six other journalists were injured, all were wearing protective gear with press markings. An Israeli spokesman described Abdallah's death as tragic, but didn't concede it was caused by an Israeli strike.

Now, also Saturday evening, the head of Israel's National Security Council, a televised briefing with journalists, said Israel hopes to avoid a two-front war involving Lebanon. He said the current level of clashes between Israel and Hezbollah is, in his words, below the escalation threshold.

He also said, we hope Hezbollah won't bring about the destruction of Lebanon. Now, in the past, Israeli leaders have warned, among other things, that if Hezbollah goes to war with Israel again, Israel will send Lebanon back to the Stone Age. I'm Ben Wedeman, CNN reporting from Southern Lebanon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: As violence continues, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are fleeing south toward Egypt since they're unable to cross the northern border into Israel, the only way out of Gaza is through the southern border. Foreign nationals are gathered at the Rafah Crossing, waiting for the chance to cross into Egypt. The U.S. has been in talks with Egypt about creating a humanitarian corridor through which civilians can evacuate Gaza, but Egypt has been reluctant to allow them in.

And joining me now from Cairo, Egypt is Mustapha Kamel Al-Sayyid, Director of the Center for the Study of Developing Countries at Cairo University. Thank you so much for being here with us. So those in northern Gaza that have been told to leave a logical place for many would be the border with Egypt, but that hasn't been possible for many reasons. Why not?

MUSTAPHA KAMEL AL-SAYYID, CTR. FOR THE STUDY OF DEVELOPING COUNTRIES, CAIRO UNIVERSITY: I think as a matter of principle, Egypt does not want to be engaged in what some Israeli politicians call a transfer. I think this has been the plan of some Israeli politicians that the right home for Palestinians is probably Jordan or Sinai and this would be for them the final solution of the Palestinian problem.

So I think Egypt would like Israel to negotiate with the Palestinians how to achieve their settlement that would guarantee for them a state of their own and would ensure also normal relations between a Palestinian state and Israel.

And so forcing the Palestinians to leave Gaza and to go to Egypt, this runs against the commitments by Israel, runs also against the commitments under international law, not to attack civilian populations, not to impose collective punishment on them. So Egypt is I think completely opposed to any attempt by Israel to evacuate, to force the Palestinians in Gaza to go to Sinai. Sinai is not an alternative homeland for the Palestinians. This is the basic Egyptian position.

BRUNHUBER: It's not just for the Palestinians good that they're stopping them from crossing. I mean, it does seem most Egyptians support the Palestinian cause. I noted an opinion poll from an Egyptian Center for Republic Research found that 82% believe Palestinians have a right to respond with violence to Israeli attacks. But for the Egyptian government it's not that simple. What kind of threat does Hamas pose to Egypt's government?

AL-SAYYID: Yeah, my understanding is that the Egyptian government is not opposed to the presence of a sort of humanitarian corridor which could be used by foreigners leaving Gaza. But it would like also this to be accompanied by facilitating the supply of medical equipment, food, water to Gaza.

[05:20:10]

So I think the U.S. government should not continue to be acting all the time on behalf of Israel. The American government with its close links to Israel should, first of all, persuade the Israeli government to stop the ground offensive. And secondly, also, if it would like foreigners to leave Gaza, it should also take into account the needs of the Palestinian people in Gaza, the need for, you know, for food, for medicines, for water, et cetera, which -- in fact, there is a popular campaign in Egypt now to mobilize all the needs of the Palestinian people.

There is a popular campaign in order to get medicines, food, clothes, et cetera, to be given to the Palestinians. So the Egyptian government would like the U.S. government to facilitate also the supply of these, you know, vital supplies to the Palestinian people.

So it's not just a matter of facilitating the exit of foreigners, including Americans. We are not against this, but also I think we are strongly in favor of, you know, helping the Palestinian people to meet their most basic needs.

BRUNHUBER: Well, I guess the point I'm making is that the Egyptian government itself hasn't been necessarily all that friendly with Hamas. It's -- you know, it's worked with

Israel, for example, to block tunnels and so on and so forth, so it might be not disposed to helping Hamas at all, even though they may want to help the Palestinian people.

I want to ask you in terms of diplomatically, what role is Egypt playing in sort of de-escalating the crisis and are

they playing any role in helping to get the hostages back?

AL-SAYYID: Yeah, I think the Egyptian government has been involved in contacts, you know, with many foreign governments. I think they have been in contact with the British government, the Italian government. Now, also the Turkish Foreign Minister was in Cairo. I think they have been contacts also with the Italian government, with the Saudi government, the Jordanian, the Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas in order to find ways of dealing with this situation.

In the past, Egypt had also good relations with Hamas and Egypt tried to promote a sort of reconciliation between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority. And in the past, when Israel attacked Gaza, the Egyptian government tried to reach a sort of ceasefire between the two. So I think, well, I don't talk -- I'm not a government official, but I think Egypt did all it could in order to ensure peace on its eastern borders. And also, you know, it did its best in order to achieve a peaceful settlement between the Israelis and the Palestinians.

The problem is that the Israeli government, you know, continues to build settlements and continues also to send its troops to, you know, attack Palestinian camps, et cetera. So I don't think the Egyptian government is responsible for this complicated situation. I think the blame should be addressed to the Israelis who continue military occupation, often seen in territories against international law. And the U.S. government should be blamed also because it has much influence over the Israeli government, but it does not like your form. Of course, the well-known domestic considerations does not like to persuade the Israeli government to do something which is in the best interest of Israel.

BRUNHUBER: All right. Well, we'll have to leave it there, we appreciate your perspective. Mustapha Kamel Al-Sayyid in Cairo, Egypt. Thank you.

AL-SAYYID: Thank you.

BRUNHUBER: We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:27:50]

BRUNHUBER: All right, so you're looking at live pictures from Gaza, which bracing for an offensive on the ground and taking a pounding from the air. Israel has conducted more than 100 new air strikes overnight and reportedly killed a commander responsible for some of the Hamas atrocities in Israel last weekend.

Earlier Israel says it's preparing for the next phase of the war, including what it called significant ground operations that Israeli strikes and blockade are already causing, one official called, a complete catastrophe in Gaza.

Palestinians say about 300 people were killed in Israeli strikes over the past 24 hours alone with 800 others wounded. That brings the death toll since the crisis began to more than 2300 people.

Meanwhile, the U.S. will start helping its citizens leave Israel by sea. Officials say an evacuation ship will leave the city of Haifa on Monday and take U.S. nationals to Cyprus.

As Israel prepares for the next stage of its war against Hamas, the U.S. and other Western nations are working to keep the conflict from spreading. As part of that effort, the Pentagon is deploying more military resources into the region. Oren Liebermann has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: The Pentagon has ordered a second aircraft carrier strike group to the eastern Med as a deterrence message to Iran and Iranian proxies in the region, as we see the U.S. military here bolster up its forces in the Middle East as Israel's war prepares to enter what officials there have called a bigger stage the next stage here.

So the USS Gerald R. Ford carrier strike group, which is the carrier, several destroyers and a cruiser is already in the eastern Med and arrived there earlier this week. That will now be joined by the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower carrier strike group. Elements of that group including the carrier left Naval Station Norfolk on Friday. So that will arrive in the region in a couple of weeks. It is a very significant statement for the U.S. to send two carrier

strike groups, all the force and power that entails to the eastern Med. Now, in doing so, the White House and the Pentagon have made clear it is not the role of the aircraft on this deck or the warships here to get involved in the fighting with Israel.

Israel doesn't want that and the U.S. doesn't want that. But the Biden administration, Israel and the region are watching this very closely and watching the fight play out in Gaza and trying to make sure it doesn't spread beyond Israel's borders to other areas.

[05:30:07]

And the key message there is to Iran. And that's who the point is of sending these forces to the region, a warning to Iran not to get involved, a warning to Iranian proxies not to get involved. Hezbollah in Lebanon, as well as Iranian-backed Shiite proxies in Syria that could open fire on Israel. So that's who the recipient of this message is.

The U.S. also has other forces in the region. It has plussed up some fighter squadrons, F-15s arriving just a couple of days ago here, and perhaps more fighters expected. And there's also the USS Bataan, part of an Amphibious Ready Group that's also in the region and could be ordered closer to Israel in case, essentially as a message to Iran, and in case this escalates. Oren Liebermann, CNN in the Pentagon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: And Scott McLean joins us now from London with more on the U.S. military moves in the region. So, Scott, we're seeing on one side some saber-rattling by the U.S. on the other some complex diplomacy. So talk us through the politics here.

SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Kim, yeah, as you heard Oren explain there, the U.S. has made very clear that it's not sending ground troops. It's not wanting to get involved in this conflict at all. The presence of one aircraft carrier, soon to be two aircraft carriers in the eastern Mediterranean, is simply aimed to be a deterrent to Iranian-backed groups or militant groups in the area like Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed military and political group, which effectively controls a large swath of southern Lebanon.

And of course, we have already seen and continue to see exchanges across the border between southern Lebanon and northern Israel. But look, compared to what's happening in and around Gaza, obviously this is relatively minor despite the fact that there are casualties on both sides.

Obviously, the fear, as always, is that these more minor incidents will snowball into a much wider conflict, which everyone has said they want to avoid, including Israel, and for good reason. In 2006, it fought essentially to a draw with Hezbollah in a war that lasted more than a month. And Hezbollah has only gotten stronger since then. It now has precision, guided missiles. It says that it has reservists up to 100,000 of them, many of them battle hardened already from fighting inside of Syria and the Israelis also believe that there are hundreds maybe even thousands of rockets stored in private homes in southern Lebanon near the border region. So that is simply a fight that they don't want to get into especially at this stage of the game.

After nine days since all of this blew up, Kim, we have not though heard directly from the Hezbollah Leader, Hassan Nasrallah. We do know that he met with the Iranian Foreign Minister recently to talk about all of this and from Iran, well, the Foreign Minister has warned of far-reaching consequences and also saying that, look, if Israel's continues what it's doing in Gaza that no one can "guarantee" that the situation in the region will remain the same. Kim?

BRUNHUBER: Interesting. All right, so in the meantime we heard Prime Minister Netanyahu telling Israeli troops that "the next stage is coming." So what are we learning about what that next stage might look like?

MCLEAN: Yeah, it is difficult to imagine any kind of ground war -- ground incursion without a huge number of civilian casualties. Remember we're talking about one of the most densely populated areas on Planet Earth where you already had people living in pretty poor conditions, many of them living in poverty even before all of this began. You have also hospitals 22 of them in the northern part of Gaza saying essentially we can't evacuate. We can't get patients to safety and so they are going to be staying put and from Israel's perspective. They think that Hamas is pretty happy to have what it would describe as human shields around for it to use.

The IDF says that any advancement in this area would be slow and that the goal would be to completely dismantle Hamas and all of its networks in and including getting to the network of tunnels that it says that that run all underneath of Gaza. This is how a former U.S. army general described what a ground war might actually look like. listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRIG. GEN. PETER ZWACK, U.S. ARMY (RET.): If they're going in -- going in hard, especially up toward the north you'd leave with special operations, you try to get in there and try to get key Hamas nodes in and -- and -- and command and control points. Perhaps one hopes that they have a line on where the hostages are and they would go for them because that's a nightmare.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[05:35:00]

MCLEAN: And so, again, in addition to smuggling weapons and hiding Hamas fighters that network of tunnels Israel also believes is where a reason would dictate Hamas is also hiding the hostages that it has as well. Kim?

BRUNHUBER: All right, Scott McLean, thank you so much, appreciate it.

Flights in and out of Israel had been hard to come by as major airlines have cancelled most of them. But 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 CNN's Stephanie Elam with more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

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 non-profit 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 come 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 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'd seen, he was just numb to it all and just knew he had to go. Take a listen to him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DOREL MEIRI, ISRAELI AMERICAN VOLUNTEERING FOR WAR: I'm American. I'm 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 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.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID FRANKEL, ISRAEL 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 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 they're 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 calm down enough that they could be with their families again.

But what we did see while we were in the airport court 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, fast acquaintances, because they were unified in their goal to get back and defend Israel. Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: The United Nations is urging all parties to put an end to the fighting in Israel and Gaza. The organization says that since October 7th, more than 400,000 people have been displaced. What's more, the U.N. says many of those displaced people are pregnant women who will be unable to move southwards to escape the fighting and are struggling to get the care they need.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHANE DUJARRIC, UNITED NATIONS SPOKESPERSON: When women reports that Gaza is now, is home to 50,000 pregnant women who are struggling to access essential health services, as health care workers, hospitals and clinics come under attack, some 5,500 of these women are due to give birth in the coming months.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: Earlier, I spoke about this with Dominic Allen, the U.N. Population Funds representative for the State of Palestine, who painted a picture of what those women are facing. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DOMINIC ALLEN, UNFPA REPRESENTATIVE FOR THE STATE OF PALESTINE: Humanitarian crisis in Gaza is catastrophic. And as you noted, there are over 1 million women and girls in Gaza. And UNFPA and I am extremely concerned for Gaza's 50,000 pregnant women who right now cannot access the basic maternal health services they need. They're facing a double nightmare. And as you referenced, the health care system itself in Gaza is crippled. It's under attack and on the brink of collapse. And these pregnant women that we are seriously concerned about have nowhere to go. They're facing unthinkable challenges.

BRUNHUBER: Yeah, let's talk about those challenges. I mean, even if you, you know, put aside the danger from bombing, which is still huge, I mean, the lack of food, water, electricity, when you're pregnant, I mean, what kind of threat does that pose to their health and their unborn child? [05:40:09]

ALLEN: Exactly and of these 50,000 women, we expect that 5,000 of these will give birth in the coming month. So imagine having been displaced from your homes, fearing for your life in shelters right now with very little food, very little water, very little fuel, and with little access to the healthcare they need.

Some of these pregnant women made so for complications. They will anticipate it to do so. So whilst eight days ago, they would be thinking of the dream that they would be fulfilling, this life- affirming process of giving birth. But right now in the shelters they're in, they're not able to access the healthcare that they need. And we're hearing from the hospital staff, the midwives on the ground telling us some very harrowing stories.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: An entire family of six is among the missing. Mom and dad, baby toddler, grandparents, you heard pleas from their relatives.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

YIFAT ZAILER, SIX FAMILY MEMBERS AMONG THE MISSING: Shiri, my cousin, was abducted from her home with her two babies, Kfir, nine -month - old, and Ariel, four-year -old, along with her husband and my aunt and uncle, Yosi and Margit Silberman, both in their late 60s. You've all seen her photos holding her two red-head babies. Kfir is nine months old baby being held captive underground somewhere. I don't know if he got his food, his formula. He doesn't eat food yet. He needs 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 Kfir. My aunt suffers from Parkinson's disease. She's 63. Every day without her medication, she's tortured. She's being tortured.

We don't know how long it's going to take. You need 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 the 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.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: Hamas is holding an estimated 150 people hostage. All right, one week ago a powerful earthquake hit the Iraq region of Afghanistan. And now it's happened again. We'll have details on the quake that's hit the area, that's coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:46:20] BRUNHUBER: We're following a developing story out of Afghanistan where a 5.4 magnitude aftershock has hit north of Herat. The latest tremor came just hours after a new 6.3 earthquake. That quake was centered northwest of the city of Herat and came one week after another quake of the exact same magnitude hit the same area. Authorities say at least 50 people were injured in Sunday's quakes.

And, of course, scores of people were displaced by last week's earthquake which Taliban officials say killed more than 2,000 people. Our Anna Coren shows us the aftermath and the chilling reason why 90% of the victims were women and children.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

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 a.m., 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% 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.

I've experienced a great deal of pain and sorrow, she says. We've lost everything in our life. Nothing remains.

[05:50:02]

COREN (voice-over): 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.

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BRUNHUBER: Still to come, pro-Palestinian supporters have been taking to the streets this weekend in the U.S. and around the world. Stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: Palestinian supporters marched in Washington Saturday gathering in Lafayette Park and on Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House. Here's one man explaining why he came to show his support.

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I wish I can do something. I wish we could all do something. I wish we could stop the war. Just stop the war. That's all we need. Just stop the war. They're in prison. They're in prison. Gaza, people are living in prison. No water, no food, no electricity, no nothing. This is not right. Where's Europe? Where's everybody at? This is not right. What's going on right now? It's not right.

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[05:55:04]

BRUNHUBER: Rallies in support of Gaza are expanding across the U.S. This weekend taking place in San Francisco and outside the Israeli consulate in Los Angeles. On Friday, thousands took to the streets in New York, gathering in Times Square and demanding Palestinian independence.

The longtime U.S. sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live started on a serious and personal note last night. Guest host Pete Davidson shared a poignant message about Israel's war with Hamas. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETE DAVIDSON, ACTOR, COMEDIAN, GUEST HOST "SNL": This week we saw the horrible images and stories from Israel and Gaza. And I know what you're thinking, who better to comment on it than Pete Davidson?

Well, in a lot of ways, I am a good person to talk about it because when I was seven years old, my dad was killed in a terrorist attack. So I know something about what that's like. But I saw so many terrible pictures this week of children suffering, Israeli children and Palestinian children. And it took me back to a really horrible, horrible place. And, you know, no one in this world deserves to suffer like that, you know, especially not kids.

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BRUNHUBER: The actor and comedian says comedy is sometimes the only way forward through a tragedy.

And before we go, if you'd like to help the humanitarian relief efforts in Israel and Gaza while CNN is compiling resources, you can head to CNN.com/impact. And there you can find a list of vetted organizations that are responding on the ground at CNN.com/impact.

All right, that wraps this hour of CNN Newsroom. I'm Kim Brunhuber. CNN This Morning is next with more on our breaking news coverage of Israel At War.