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Protests Erupt After Deadly Gaza Hospital Blast; Hundreds Believed Dead In Gaza Hospital Blast; Israeli Airstrikes Hit Rafah, Khan Yunis Killing Dozens; US President Biden En Route To Israel As War Rages; Israelis Living Near Gaza Border Waiting For Next Move; IDF And Hezbollah Exchange Fire At Israel-Lebanon Border. DF Says It Has Proof It's Not Behind Hospital Blast; Emergency Responder Recalls Horrors of Hamas Attacks; Second Vote Scheduled to Choose House Speaker; Israeli Hospital Operating Out of Underground Parking Deck. Aired 12-1a ET

Aired October 18, 2023 - 00:00   ET

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

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JOHN VAUSE, CNN NEWSROOM ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm John Vause at the CNN Center in Atlanta where it's just gone midnight, and at this hour US President Joe Biden is on his way to Israel, a high stakes visit which became even more complicated as scenes of chaos and devastation unfold in the aftermath of an explosion at a hospital in Gaza.

And a warning, the images you're about to see are hard to watch. According to Palestinian officials, hundreds of people at the hospital were killed in an Israeli airstrike. The Israel Defense Forces, though, denies that. Insisting the explosion was caused by a rocket that was misfired by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad Movement, sources tell CNN. The US is analyzing intelligence which is being provided by Israel.

The World Health Organization says the hospital has been treating hundreds of wounded Palestinians, has also been a sheltering place for thousands of people forced to leave their homes in Gaza. Global condemnation has been swift. The UN human rights chief calls it horrific and unacceptable. US President Biden says he's outraged and deeply saddened. Here's the Palestinian ambassador to the UN.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RIYAD MANSOUR, PALESTINIAN AMBASSADOR TO THE UN: We condemn this action in the strongest possible terms, and we hold Israel responsible for this massacre, this crime.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Protests have broken out in the West Bank and across the Middle East. Demonstrators marched through the streets near the US embassy north of Beirut and Lebanon. Hundreds in Baghdad chanted anti-Israeli slogans as security forces kept them out of the heavily fortified green zone.

Protesters also gathered outside the French and British embassies in Iran's capital, Tehran. Live now to London, CNN journalist Elliott Gotkine is following these developments for us. I guess the crucial question here now is when will the IDF release that evidence, and how compelling will it be, and will it make any difference at all?

ELLIOTT GOTKINE, JOURNALIST: John, they have shared their intelligence with the United States, things like signals intelligence, stuff like interceptive communications and the like. And they will hope that that will be enough to persuade the Biden administration that this was, indeed, not the IDF, and that it was a rocket that misfired or something along those lines from Islamic Jihad. That's what they shared with the Israelis. They're due to hold a press conference later this morning.

Excuse me, that's what they shared with the Americans. They're due to hold a press conference, the IDF, later this morning in which they're due to present the evidence to journalists. This could be things like footage from drones which the IDF says will show that this could not have come, this strike on the hospital, could not have come from an aerial bomb from the IDF and would have therefore have come from a rocket that misfired.

But to your point about whether this matters, I think first of all the world has already seen the initial headlines that came out saying even if it was attributing to Palestinian officials in the Gaza Strip, which of course is run by Hamas, saying that it was an IDF strike. And I think as far as Palestinians are concerned, as far as the Arab street is concerned, it really doesn't matter what the Israelis or the Americans come out and say right now, because they will simply be seeing these images of possibly hundreds of people being killed in a strike on the hospital.

They will automatically be blaming Israel, whether it was the Israelis or whether it wasn't. And they will also be, by definition, they will also be blaming the Americans for supporting the Israelis in its war with Hamas. And I think there are few things now that this really complicates. This certainly complicates President Biden's visit to Israel. We've already seen the Jordanians and the Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas canceling their meeting with President Biden.

It also perhaps complicates Israel's plans for a ground incursion because if we're seeing this number of Palestinian civilian casualties right now, one can only imagine what would happen if and when Israel does go in. I think at the same time, it could increase the likelihood of a northern front opening with Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed proxy in southern Lebanon. And I think we're already seeing some of this, is that it's putting pressure on Israel's allies in the region.

[00:05:05]

We've seen the condemnations from the Jordanians and the Egyptians. Those would be expected. Also from the Saudis. Let's not forget Israel was hoping it was perhaps inching towards normalization with the Saudis. But even from Israel's allies, such as the Emiratis, the UAE coming out and condemning Israel, already pointing the finger at Israel.

So whether or not the evidence comes out that shows this wasn't Israel, that exonerates Israel and that it was indeed a misfired rocket from perhaps Islamic Jihad, the smaller militant group in the Gaza Strip, as far as the Palestinians are concerned, as far as the Arab world is concerned, I think it really doesn't matter.

VAUSE: Elliott, thank you. Elliott Gotkine live for us in London. To Tel Aviv now, and joining us is Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus. Colonel, thank you for being with us.

LT. COL. JONATHAN CONRICUS, ISRAEL DEFENSE FORCES INTERNATIONAL SPOKESPERSON: Thank you for having me. Good morning.

VAUSE: Good morning, now the IDF is very quick to deny responsibility for the explosion of the hospital, with promises of evidence to show it was a misfire of an Islamic Jihad rocket. We know there is a news conference scheduled for later today. Is that where we'll see that evidence? How much will be made public? Given the anger around the region, clearly releasing that evidence sooner rather than later is in Israel's best interests, isn't it?

CONRICUS: You're right on one thing, and I want to correct you on another thing. We didn't release the information very quickly because it took us a few hours to investigate and to get to the bottom of the situation and understand what exactly had happened. It's a complex environment, and we took our time to go through our own information systems and then verify what the enemy had done, put the pieces together, get it approved by the senior levels in the IDF, and then present it to the world.

We just released a few moments ago the information, the first package of information, which is aerial footage showing the scene of the hospital from above, and evidence that clearly supports the fact that it could not have been an Israeli bomb because there was no collateral or significant damage to the buildings around it, no crater, and nothing that is similar to other locations where Israeli bombs have struck.

And once you get the material, you'll be able to see it, and you'll be able to have proper analysts have a look at it. But the bottom line is that we stand by the information that we released. This was a misfired rocket by the Islamic Jihad, not an Israeli strike.

VAUSE: Regardless of the evidence that you put out there, those who believe you will believe you and those who don't will not. It doesn't seem you're going -- you won't change opinion in the West Bank. It's unlikely to change opinion in Gaza for who's responsible for this.

CONRICUS: I am not sure that they are the target audience. The important thing here is, I think, for the majority of the world to know and understand that we do not target any sensitive facilities, definitely not hospitals, and if something happens by mistake, then we own up to the mistake. Here it was clear from the beginning and we investigated it and came out with a founded answer that it wasn't us.

Now it's important for the world to understand. It's important for world leaders. And I saw that some were very quick and perhaps a bit hasty to criticize Israel for it, and I think there were also many people in international media who took information from Hamas controlled Gaza and presented it as the truth without verifying it. And I think that is very dangerous and part of what we have seen in the region, riots in Beirut and Oman and other places, is related to the fact that this was reported de facto as an Israeli strike when in fact it wasn't and nobody had verified it.

VAUSE: The Wall Street Journal has reported that Israel has called for the evacuation of more than 20 hospitals, which the World Health Organization said would worsen the humanitarian catastrophe there. Before Tuesday's strike, the WHO had documented 48 attacks on health care facilities in Gaza, resulting in damage to six hospitals since October seventh, that's when the fighting began.

Among them was an airstrike at the same hospital where this explosion happened on Tuesday. So under what circumstances would a hospital or a health care facility be targeted by Israel?

CONRICUS: Right, so that has to be an extremely rare situation. We are aware of the fact that there are obviously people in need of medical care at hospitals, so it would be an extremely rare situation that would require lots of procedures and approval. I could think of a scenario for instance a senior Hamas leader trying to find a refuge or trying to use a hospital as a safe haven. That could be such a scenario about it would have to be a very, very rare and high quality target, and I don't think that Israel would do so lightly.

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We do not target civilian and humanitarian facilities, we know where they are, we have them mapped on our systems and we are careful not to strike them.

VAUSE: Spokesperson for the UN secretary general told reporters on Tuesday that 14 staff members with the UN Relief and Works Agency in Gaza have been killed since seven October and there are 24 confirmed reports of UNRWA installations across the Gaza Strip impacted as a result of airstrikes and bombardment.

The actual number he said is likely to be higher. And that includes UN schools, where many Palestinian civilians have been living, because it's the only safe place they could find. Were all of these sites, all 24 which were hit, being used by Hamas, were they all legitimate targets?

CONRICUS: No. And, you know, we'll have to go into the details of that report to see what has been classified as targeted or struck or damaged. I can say categorically without having access to the report that you spoke or not having read it, we do not target them on purpose, there is no such thing.

They may have been affected by us striking near to, and a few days ago by the way we released footage of a Hamas facility that they used in order to fire rockets, which was around 20 meters, just across the street from a UN facility. And this is the unfortunate sad truth of the Gaza Strip. And we have said it before. Hamas uses anything and everything for its military purposes.

Nothing is holy, nothing is sacred. They fire at us from schools, hospitals, mosques, infirmaries, clinics, everything. We have seen it in the past. It's well documented. This isn't the first time that they do it. We continue to try not to strike and not to harm civilian and humanitarian facilities. Sometimes there may be spillover of fire but it is never intentional.

VAUSE: Colonel, thank you for being with us. We appreciate your time sir.

CONRICUS: Thank you.

VAUSE: Israeli airstrikes also pounded other locations across Gaza on Tuesday. Palestinian interior ministry says at least 49 people were killed and dozens of others injured in strikes on Rafah, close to Egypt, and Khan Yunis. CNN's Salma Abdelaziz has more but a warning again, some of the images in her report are graphic.

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SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This city should be the way out of the war zone, but it too was caught in the crosshairs of Israel's relentless air assault. You are looking at the aftermath of airstrikes on Rafah. Thousands have flocked here in recent days seeking safe passage, only to find more death.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): My children, oh God, please find my children this man pleads. They're under the rubble, oh God please pull them out.

ABDELAZIZ (choice-over): It is unclear if his children survived. Israeli bombardment has killed dozens here in recent days, according to Palestinian officials. The city, which sits on the Egyptian border, is home to Gaza's only possible humanitarian corridor, a corridor that is now inoperable and unsafe, the WHO says, because of Israeli bombardment. And at the border crossing, footage shows smoke billowing from multiple airstrikes nearby on Tuesday.

Desperate families gather here for hours a day, praying authorities will allow their exit. So far a diplomatic standoff keeping this crucial corridor shut. Cairo is reluctant to take in refugees but says it wants to see aid allowed into the enclave. Israel's government has imposed a complete siege of Gaza after Hamas terror attacks killed some 1400 people. It says it aims to wipe out Hamas.

CONRICUS: We continue to cooperate and strike Hamas targets as we have defined before, and we try to do that according to the law of armed conflict and of course to minimize civilian casualties.

ABDELAZIZ (voice-over): Intensive efforts by the US and the UN are yet to resolve the logjam, leaving countless people, like this Michigan resident, stuck.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: With the war I can't sleep, a lot of bombs. These people here, these people here live. It's not life.

ABDELAZIZ (voice-over): On the Egyptian side of the border, lifesaving aid is piling up. With more than 10 thousand wounded Palestinians and the health care system on the brink, every hour counts.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's why it's critical to get there. This is for people like pregnant women. We know that there are 84 thousand pregnant women, and many of them are delivering every day. Babies don't care about bombs. They come when they come.

ABDELAZIZ (voice-over): Gaza is in a stranglehold, rights groups say, under siege and under attack, with innocent civilians desperate to escape a growing health scape. Salma Abdelaziz, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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VAUSE: Still to come here, an Israeli border town just a mile away from Gaza is now mostly empty. But a few who have not evacuated have strong feelings about what needs to happen next and what they want to hear from the US president. Also the IDF and Hezbollah continuing to exchange fire in the north, warnings say brace for the possibility that the conflict will spread further beyond the region.

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VAUSE: While the US president's trip to Israel is mostly a demonstration of support, Joe Biden is also aiming to ease the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, a crisis which has gotten significantly worse amid outrage over the explosion at a Gaza hospital, which Israeli and Palestinian officials have blamed each other for. The US national security council spokesperson says President Biden will first meet with the Israeli prime minister and then the Israeli war cabinet.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KIRBY, NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL COORDINATOR FOR STRATEGIC COMMUNICATION: He'll be asking some tough questions. He'll be asking as a friend, as a true friend of Israel. But he'll be asking some questions of them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Other issues for discussion will be the hostages held by Hamas and how to get humanitarian aid into Gaza. President Biden is expected to make public remarks in Tel Aviv later in the day.

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Meantime, those living near the border with Gaza are sharing their concerns about the war and what can be done, but there are not many residents left in Sderot. CNN's Nic Robertson shows us the situation in this community which is no stranger to rocket attacks.

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NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR (voice-over): Sderot, a mile from Gaza, is deserted. 90 percent of residents have gone. Even abandoned pets are learning when to run. Bolting with incoming rocket warnings, it is an eerie place. The police station, overrun by Hamas 10 days ago, bulldozed flat.

ROBERTSON: You can hear the sound of the drones in the sky all the time. Over here, the shell casings from the fire fight still here. Bullet holes in the wall, still there. It's like everyone is waiting for the next move.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): For local officials, that next move is President Biden's visit.

AYELET SHMUEL, DIRECTOR, INTERNATIONAL RESILIENCE CENTER - SDEROT: I don't know what Biden is thinking. I wish I knew. If I could be a little bird in his ear, I'd tell him, hey, if you take a stance now, I believe that if they will take a stance and not fold, we'll be able to get our people back, all the hostages.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): Over the years, Sderot has become synonymous with resistance to Hamas' rockets. It's one of the most fired upon Israeli towns. Today, politicians here to show their solidarity. Boaz Bismuth is a member of the prime minister's Likud party.

BOAZ BISMUTH, ISRAELI LIKUD KNESSET MEMBER: We shall never put our friends in America in a position where they will feel uncomfortable, meaning we're not going against civilians.

ROBERTSON: And Biden, is he going to tell you that to respect that and for you to take that very tough decision, do not go into Gaza right now because that will just inflame the region?

BISMUTH: I think that President Biden and any American president knows exactly the morale of the Israeli army, and we know how to put limits to ourself. But there is one thing we shall not put a limit, is the fact that Hamas will not exist.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): To do that, the military ground incursion into Gaza appears inevitable.

ROBERTSON: Along the border with Gaza here there's a real sense of calm before a possible storm. The number of strikes compared to the last few days seems to be down. And that town you can see there with the tower blocks, that's Beiteinu. It was one of the first places the Israelis targeted in their 2014 incursion. And it could be again now.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): Tour guide Robbie Berman came to Sderot to tell journalists about his fund to offer Gazans money for helping free hostages. His message for President Biden is typical of many here.

ROBBIE BERMAN, ISRAELI TOUR GUIDE: The pressure on Arabic countries to allow those innocent Arabs, those innocent Palestinians from Gaza, who are not supportive of Hamas, to get them Visas to go into other Arab countries.

ROBERTSON: And all those Palestinians that would go out into other Arab countries, does that not for Palestinians look like '48 or '67, just losing their homeland again?

BERMAN: Yeah. And it's sad. It's sad for the Palestinians. Life is sad. War is sad. Collateral damage is sad. I feel for the innocent Palestinians. Enough. We can't live under this terror anymore.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): More of that terror in Sderot just hours before President Biden's anticipated arrival. Several missiles from Gaza crashing into the town.

ROBERTSON: This looks like the fin of the missile over here, and you can see where it came. It smashed through the outer wall, through that window, through this wall here, ending up here. Everything inside the house, torn apart. Fortunately when it hit, no one was home.

ROBERTSON (voice -over): Hard to remember a time in the Middle East when an American president's powers were more tested. Nic Robertson, CNN, Sderot, Israel.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: To the north, the IDF continues to exchange fire with Hezbollah and militants just across the border in Lebanon, raising concerns of a possible second front for Israel which could then trigger confrontations across the region. More details now from CNN's Ben Wedeman.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Strike after strike after strike, and every strike is followed by an Israeli counter strike. Combatants and civilians killed on both sides. Hezbollah's testing just how far it can go, hitting Israeli targets without igniting a full scale war. But the stakes here are treacherously high. If Hezbollah makes a mistake, the Israeli military's chief of staff warned on a tour of the border, it risks, in his words, annihilation, annihilation, annihilation.

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HASIN JESHI, HEZBOLLAH PARLIAMENT MEMBER (through translator): Hezbollah isn't wavering. We're not afraid of the Israel, and we are not afraid of the Americans behind them, Hezbollah parliament member Hasin Jeshi tells me.

WEDEMAN (voice-over): And behind Hezbollah stands Iran, whose foreign minister warns, if diplomatic efforts fail to stop Israel's attacks on Gaza, the opening up of new fronts is inevitable. And South Lebanon could be that front. In some places a wall separates Lebanon from Israel. In others, it's wide open.

From a hill by the border, you can peer down into Israeli border towns like Metula. Now largely abandoned, but for soldiers, scurrying from house to house. Israel and Hezbollah have battled here before, and they may soon be at war, again. Ben Wedeman, CNN, Southern Lebanon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: When we come back here, more on the deadly explosion at a Gaza hospital. If Israel did it, then why? Why now, just hours before the US president arrives on a visit? What would be the motivation for the attack? Also ahead, conservative Congressman Jim Jordan struggling to get holdout Republicans to change their votes and elect him as house speaker. Some are not budging.

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VAUSE: It's just gone 29 minutes past the hour. Welcome back. The latest now from Gaza, a deadly blast at a hospital which is believed to have killed hundreds of Palestinians. Just who is to blame remains unclear. Palestinian officials say the hospital was hit by and Israeli air strike. But the Israel Defense Forces has categorically denied any involvement, saying Islamic Jihad is to blame.

[00:30:09]

A warning: some of the images coming from the scene are disturbing and difficult to watch. Here, medics can be seen working to try and help the wounded.

According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, the hospital was not only treating patients but also was being used as a shelter for thousands of people who'd been displaced from their homes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAHMOUD ABBAS, PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY PRESIDENT (through translator): What happened tonight is a huge tragedy and more ugly massacre that cannot be tolerated or allowed to pass without accountability.

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VAUSE: News of the explosion ignited protests on the streets across the Middle East, including near the U.S. embassy in Lebanon.

Ronen Bergman is a staff writer for the "New York Times" magazine. He is with us this hour from Tel Aviv.

Welcome back. It's good to see you once again.

RONEN BERGMAN, STAFF WRITER, "NEW YORK TIMES" MAGAZINE: Hi.

VAUSE: As President Biden was leaving Washington, he said in a statement that he's "outraged and deeply saddened by the explosion at the Al Ahli Hospital in Gaza, and that the U.S. will continue gathering information about exactly what happened."

As you know, Israel denies responsibility for the explosion. And while there's always a possibility this could have been a mistake, putting that to one side, if this was a deliberative Israeli air strike, why do it in the hours before the U.S. president arrives? What's to be gained by putting your most important ally into a very difficult position?

BERMAN: I was told the military spokesperson was supplied with the secret recordings that were done by the Israeli intelligence. Interception of conversations between different operatives of the PIJ.

And the same material was also shared with the American national security agency. I think we need to wait until President Biden comes over, flies in to give a public speech, see how he sees this incident. This is -- this is important.

I tend to believe that -- of course, it needs further investigation, but it seems to be that most chances are that it was not an Israeli missile fired by the PIJ, which may have misfunctioned and just landed, unfortunately exploded shortly after landed inside this hospital.

VAUSE: It's not the first time, though, this hospital in Gaza has been hit, according to the Anglican communion, which owns and operates the facility, an earlier "strike on the Al Ahli Arab Hospital happened at 7:30 pm on the 14th of October. Four hospital staff were injured in the blast, receiving treatment for their wounds."

And here's the reaction from the World Health Organization on this latest attack, or explosion.

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MIKE RYAN, HEAD OF EMERGENCIES PROGRAMME, WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION: It is absolutely clear to all sides of this conflict where the health facilities are. It is absolutely clear. Health care is not the target. It should never be a target of anyone in conflict. That is enshrined in the international humanitarian law, and we're seeing this breached again and again and again over the last week. And it has to stop. It must stop.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: You know, in the past, health facilities have been targeted in Gaza by Israel because Hamas used the buildings as command and control centers. They were seen as being relatively safe for senior leadership of Hamas.

The only time, it seems, anyone wants to talk about respecting international law in this conflict is when it's to their own benefit, though?

BERGMAN: Again, I'm trying to judge case by case. We are looking -- we are looking into this case, as well, waiting for more evidence to be -- or less evidence, at least, to be shared by Israeli authorities.

Of course, if Hamas or the PIJ is able to supply other evidence, this is an Israeli missile, we'll be happy to see that, as well. Other than that, if in other case, Israel violated international law, those cases should be reported.

VAUSE: Right now, the humanitarian crisis in Gaza seem to be getting worse by the hour. No food, no fuel. The water has been turned back on, but there's no electricity in part of it.

If anyone can convince the Israeli government to allow food and fuel and other supplies into Gaza, it would seem to be the U.S. president. So what are his chances of getting any kind of concessions from Israel? And why is the Israeli government so opposed to allowing humanitarian assistance into Gaza?

BERGMAN: Why the Israeli government is doing such -- that, or I think you should ask the Israeli government. But a -- the arrival of President Biden to Israel was announced only after there was quite a heated discussion between Secretary of State Blinken and the Israeli government, where he demanded the Israelis to allow for humanitarian help into the Gaza Strip from the South, from the Egyptian border, including a different kind of basic food, other materials, for the people who left, close to a million, who left their house from the Israeli demand, this area will be bombed.

[00:35:46]

And so there are many refugees that did not leave the street. There are refugees inside the Gaza Strip. And I think that there's already a consent from the Israeli government to get some of this humanitarian help inside.

VAUSE: Ronen, thank you for being with us. Ronen Bergman there, staff writer for "New York Times" magazine, in Tel Aviv. Thank you, sir.

BERGMAN: Thank you.

VAUSE: Well, still to come, new details continue to emerge 11 days since Hamas militants launched their well-planned, well-coordinated massacre of civilians in Israel. One of Israel's first responders shares what he saw in the immediate aftermath of that brutal terror attack.

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JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You said that the bodies that day, they spoke to you. They told you stories. When you got to kibbutz Be'eri, what was the story that you found in that first house?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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VAUSE: For decades, an Israeli responders (ph) group, known as ZAKA have voluntarily collected the remains of Israels -- Israelis killed in terrorist attacks.

And so it was again on that Saturday, 11 days ago. A senior leader from ZACA told CNN's Jeremy Diamond about the horrific gut-wrenching scenes he saw on that day.

CNN, though, has not been able to independently verify some of the details, although we have evidence of some atrocities committed by Hamas. And a warning: what you're about to hear is graphic. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

[00:40:00]

DIAMOND (voice-over): Ten days after Hamas carried out its attack in Southern Israel, Yossi Landau is still discovering fresh horrors from that day.

YOSSI LANDAU, SOUTHERN COMMANDER, ZAKA: We were going to clean up, to pick up the terrorist. There was, like, all of the houses in the back were filled with.

And there was one terrorist body over there. And just right next to him was the body of this 14-, 15-year-old, the head chopped off. We were looking around for the head, couldn't find it.

DIAMOND (voice-over): Landau is a 30-year veteran of ZAKA, a search- and-rescue group that specializes in recovering the victims of mass casualty events. But he has never seen anything like the horrors of October 7.

DIAMOND: On your way to kibbutz Be'eri, you came across a shelter. You found 20 people inside. And they were burned alive.

LANDAU: I first came into that place. I saw, they were hugging. They were trying to -- to escape and to defend themselves.

DIAMOND: When people are burned alive like that, they suffer.

LANDAU: They suffer until they burn. They suffer.

DIAMOND (voice-over): For hours, Landau and his team of 30 volunteers worked painstakingly to pry friends, relatives, and perhaps even lovers from each other's arms.

LANDAU: We have to take each and every one and take them apart, while they were burned. Only this took us about 4 to 5 hours.

DIAMOND (voice-over): At kibbutz Be'eri, Landau and his team found a family of four around the dining room table. On one side, the parents. On the other, a boy and a girl about 6 or 7, all with their hands tied behind their backs.

DIAMOND: You said that the bodies that day, they spoke to you. They told you stories. When you got to kibbutz Be'eri, what was the story that you found in that first house?

LANDAU: That terrorists were having a ball, eating the food that was on the -- over there, that was prepared for the holiday.

DIAMOND (voice-over): Landau said all four had a bullet hole in the back of their heads and signs of torture.

LANDAU: And I saw the father. It was fresh. It wasn't -- it wasn't something that it was suffering, to be missing an eye. Was missing an eye. This happened next to the children. Children screaming. I'm sure. DIAMOND (voice-over): In another house, Landau found a pregnant woman,

shot from behind and stabbed in her stomach.

LANDAU: The knife, stabbed. The baby. And the mother, lying on the stomach. Big pile of blood, and shot in the back.

Same thing came up, a question. Who was first? And we had a debate: are we going to use two bags or one bag? We decided, we're going to use one bag. We were -- we are not the evil people to separate the -- the infant from the mother. No, we're not going to do it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VAUSE: Chaos is engulfing the U.S. House of Representatives two weeks after Republican lawmakers ousted Kevin McCarthy as speaker.

Conservative Republican Congressman Jim Jordan has scheduled a second vote in the coming hours after he lost the first vote for house speaker on Tuesday, when 20 Republicans voted against him.

CNN's Manu Raju has more now, reporting in from Washington.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: For more than two weeks now, the House has been paralyzed amid GOP infighting that initially led to the ouster of Kevin McCarthy as speaker. The first time ever, voted out by his colleagues.

And since then, Republicans have been unable to get behind anyone to lead the House and reopen the chamber. Remember, the House cannot act until the speaker is elected. No legislation can move forward. Everything essentially paralyzed.

But Republicans have been unable to get behind a candidate. And when Jim Jordan put his name up for the first ballot on Tuesday, he lost 20 Republicans, in a party-line vote that ultimately he needed to -- could only afford to lose three Republicans in that particular vote. A significant deficit that he is now working behind the scenes to try to make up.

Next vote scheduled for 11 a.m. on Wednesday. Can he close the deficit?

The concern among some Jordan allies is that perhaps the opposition may grow. That other -- some Republicans who are only with him on the first ballot may not be there with him on the second ballot.

And this all is coming as concerns are growing in the ranks. Republicans in the Senate side and the House both saying this dysfunction needs to end and are raising serious concern about how it reflects on Republicans.

SEN. KEVIN CRAMER (R-ND): It's problematic, obviously. It's hard to function when you're dysfunctional. And we need the House to function.

In this case, the disrespect for the majority is what's problematic to me. And I think that a lot of people are -- look at it and go, my God, that's chaotic. I don't think it helps the brand.

What's alarming to me is it's such a small group, such a small minority of the majority wags the dog. When the tail is wagging the dog, I think it -- you look a little rudderless. Things don't have to be unanimous to be united. And right now, there are neither.

[00:50:14]

RAJU (voice-over): If Jordan does not get the votes on Wednesday to become elected speaker of the House, then there will be questions about what will happen next.

Talks will intensify about perhaps a bipartisan solution. Democrats are floating the idea of some sort of bipartisan deal, potentially even empowering Patrick McHenry, who is the interim speaker of the House. He does not have legislative power, but there's some discussion about trying to give him more authority. We'll see how that plays out.

RAJU: Also, there could be other candidates who could emerge. Other Republicans who would put their hat in the ring to be the next speaker of the House. They could run into the same problem as Jim Jordan, unable to win over this badly divided Republican conference.

Many members simply are angry still about everything that transpired with Kevin McCarthy. And made the hard-liners who pushed out Kevin McCarthy want another -- another hard-right conservative to be leading the conference. Something that does not go over well with some swing- district Republicans.

All of this raising major concerns about whether the House can get out of the state of paralysis, whether it can reopen. Unclear if that could happen and when that can happen, or if this will persist in the day -- in the days ahead.

Manu Raju, CNN, Capitol Hill.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: For Israeli hospitals, this conflict means finding new creative ways to keep up with patient care amid the conflict. One hospital has relocated their operations under ground because of the potential air strikes.

CNN's Sara Sidner toured the site in Tel Aviv.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A doctor checks in on a patient. Just an ordinary day in the hospital. Except there's nothing ordinary about where this is taking place. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the bunker underground hospital. This is a

functioning hospital. In the highest level, every service, every technology, everything that they need, we provide them. And everything has been supplied here.

SIDNER: It has the look and the feel of a regular hospital, with all the things that you'd expect, except for when you turn the corner and you can really see this is an underground parking garage, at least it was.

SIDNER (voice-over): Vehicle parking spaces are now for patient beds. Driveways? For pushcarts. This is how Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center is preparing to treat patients in wartime.

SIDNER: So it's as perfectly normal as usual in the most abnormal scenario.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Exactly. This is the right place to put it.

SIDNER (voice-over): This is the result of 14 years of planning for war.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We planned this underground hospital 14 years ago, more or less, after the second Lebanon war. Tel Aviv was -- was, for the first time, got missile attack.

SIDNER (voice-over): That was then, before Hamas stormed across the border by land, air, and sea on shabbat, killing, kidnapping, and maiming men, women and children.

Several floors above the hospital bunker, 60 hospital beds are now filled with victims from the Hamas attack.

TOMER ZADIK, SURVIVED NOVA MUSIC FESTIVAL ATTACK: I went to a party with my friends. It was a music festival, and at 6:30 or something like that, alarms started.

SIDNER (voice-over): He and his friends managed to jump in their car, but then --

ZADIK: There was a squad of terrorists. They all started spraying at us, shooting at us without conscience.

SIDNER: Shooting at you, just indiscriminate?

ZADIK: Yes. Just shooting without conscience.

SIDNER (voice-over): His car among those abandoned on the side of the road. He ran and hid for the next five hours, blood pouring from his arm where a bullet smashed through his skin and bone.

ZADIK: There is no one in this world who wants peace more than I do. Trust me. I've been following (UNINTELLIGIBLE). I got shot over peace. I don't want this. None of us wanted this to happen.

SIDNER: Do you still think that peace is possible? ZADIK: Wow. I used to believe in peace all the time. But right now,

after seeing what I saw, it's like Rabin, who was the prime minister of Israel said something very important. Yes. he said that peace you do not make with friends, you make with enemies. But even enemies need to be human beings.

SIDNER (voice-over): No matter who you are, this hospital will treat you deep below the earth's crust. It has already moved a whole section of the hospital to get the staff and patients prepared for life below during war.

SIDNER: What do you think about being in a parking garage?

[00:55:02]

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's enjoying every minute of it.

SIDNER: Does this feel different this time?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It feels different, because we know that we -- it's not like kind of a limited operation. It's wartime.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Thanks to CNN's Sara Sidner for that report.

That's all we have time for this hour. Please stay with us. I'm John Vause, and I will be back after a very short break with the very latest from Israel and Gaza.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)