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At Least 22 Killed in Maine Mass Shooting; Robert Card is Person of Interest in Maine Shootings; Interview with Former Baltimore Police Commissioner Michael Harrison; Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Makes His First Explicit Reference to a Ground Invasion of Gaza; Netanyahu Promising a Crushing Victory Over Hamas; Fuel Shortages will Force Aid Operations to Shut Down; Gaza Hospital Services May Soon Halt Without Fuel; Interview with Israel Defense Forces International Spokesperson Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus; Israel Not Allowing Fuel Into Gaza; Israeli Officials Calls for the Resignation of U.N. General-Secretary Antonio Guterres. Aired 12:15-1a ET

Aired October 26, 2023 - 00:15   ET

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

[00:15:00]

JOHN VAUSE, CNNI ANCHOR: Hello, welcome to our viewers -- our international viewers. I'm John Vause at the CNN Center in Atlanta with our ongoing coverage of Israel's war with Hamas. We'll have that in a moment. But first an update on our breaking news from Lewiston, Maine.

Local police have now identified a person of interest in a mass shooting, Robert Card, a certified firearms instructor and member of the U.S. Army Reserves based in Maine. Authorities say Card is armed and dangerous, and a manhunt is now underway with residents in Lewiston being told to shelter in place after at least 22 people were shot dead, as many as 60 others wounded, a toll which has left many residents stunned and in disbelief.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CYNTHIA HUNTER, AUBURN, MAINE RESIDENT: This is an overwhelming situation. I don't think we've ever had anything like this. I'll tell you my insides are just really sick over this. I've heard people that down there by the doors that have family members in there. There was a girl down there with five people all got shot up, and they're like frantic. You know, what are you going to do? And I can just -- I could just feel the vibes from other people. So, yes, this is not good.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: We'll bring you the very latest developments as soon as we get them.

During a primetime national address, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has made his first explicit reference to a ground invasion of Gaza. He gave no details about timing, but added, the decision on when to begin the offensive would be his along with his war cabinet and the Israel Defense Forces.

Netanyahu promised a crushing victory over Hamas, declaring all Hamas fighters to be dead men walking above ground, below ground, and outside Gaza. And he says already thousands of terrorists have been eliminated. He made no mention of growing international concern over the civilian death toll in Gaza, but says Israel is recruiting support of world leaders because Hamas is ISIS, and ISIS is Hamas.

And for the first time since the deadly Hamas attack on October 7, Prime Minister Netanyahu spoke about his own role in the security breakdown which failed to prevent the worst terror attack in Israeli history.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER (through translator): Citizens of Israel, the 7th of October is a dark day in our history. We will fully clarify what happened on the southern border and in the area adjacent to the Gaza Strip. This failure will be investigated thoroughly. Everyone will need to provide answers, myself included. But all of this will happen only after the war.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: In Gaza, the main U.N. agency working with Palestinian refugees says a critical shortage of fuel will force all operations to shut down within hours. Limited humanitarian assistance has been arriving in Gaza since the weekend. But Israeli officials have refused to allow shipments of fuel over fears it will be seized by Hamas and be used for firing rockets and missiles into Israel. But without fuel for trucks, the U.N. says there is no way to distribute supplies of food, water and medicine.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TAMARA ALRIFAI, SPOKESPERSON, U.N. RELIEF AND WORKS AGENCY: We are talking about Over 600,000 people in our shelters and our school that -- who expect to receive clean drinking water from our water desalination plant, who expect to receive bread that is baked in bakeries, all of these need fuel to be able to operate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Gaza's only power station has been offline for more than two weeks now, not long after all electricity supplies from Israel were cut. For hospitals in Gaza, unreliable or extended cuts in electricity is not new. Most have backup generators, but now, there's no way to refuel those generators. And when they stop working, so will the hospital. And all those lives dependent on ICUs or premature babies in neonatal incubators, all those on ventilators, all those lives could end as well.

According to the Israelis, Gaza still has fuel, but it's controlled by Hamas. Here's CNN's Clarissa Ward. And a warning, her report contains some images which are graphic.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[00:20:00]

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): Every morning they gather outside the Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, family members bidding farewell to their loved ones who did not survive the night. A ritual that tragically has become all too familiar in Gaza.

Women and children, these are the targets, this man laments. This is Hamas?

Hours earlier, the chaotic moments as the dead and injured were brought into the hospital during the most intense night of bombardment in the last 17 days. And, as with every night, so many of the victims children.

Dr. Mohammed Rayyan says the ER has struggled to keep up with the flood of casualties. And the severity of the injuries that they are dealing with, particularly third-degree burns.

The hospital is not prepared to deal with these types of burns, and I don't suppose the bigger hospitals would be able to either, he says. We're suffering from a lack of essentials due to the siege. Even as we speak now, at any moment, the electricity could cut off.

The World Health Organization has warned that 12 of Gaza's 35 hospitals are no longer functioning, and that number is about to get higher unless desperately needed fuel arrives. Left to fend for themselves with no place to go, they watch and wait for help that has yet to come.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus is the spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces. He is with us now from Tel Aviv. Thank you for your time, sir.

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

VAUSE: I want to begin with fuel supplies in Gaza. How much do you believe is being held by Hamas? Where do they get it? And is there any indication that fuel is being made available for hospitals and civilians?

CONRICUS: Yes, that is the -- really the story. We assess that there's between 800,000 and perhaps more than 1 million liters of fuel of different types stored inside Gaza under the control of Hamas. Some of it stockpiled before, some of it stolen from the U.N., some of it stolen by Hamas from private vendors and essentially controlled as really the hardest currency that currently exists in Gaza by Hamas, dripping it to hospitals and other facilities while these facilities are constantly claiming to the world that they are running short and soon won't be able to operate.

VAUSE: So, again, the question here is evidence. How do you know this? What's the proof? Have you -- how can you actually, you know, be certain that this is the case?

CONRICUS: So, we monitor, as you know, that communications and other sources of information of Hamas and we have been for a while. We have also monitored open source and we have seen reports by the U.N. and by private people, owners, vendors, owners of fuel who have complained. UNRWA complained about it on Twitter, and we've seen other reports about Palestinian civilians who complained about it elsewhere, who were not happy to have fuel stolen from them.

And the bottom line is that we also know that they -- that Hamas stockpiled fuel from before this war started. The bottom line is that there is fuel in Gaza, it's just controlled by Hamas and it is not focused on humanitarian needs, it is focused on Hamas and its military needs.

VAUSE: Can you confirm the number of targets in Gaza which have been hit by Israeli airstrikes in total now number around 7,000?

CONRICUS: No, I cannot. I can say that it depends on the night. We have indeed struck many targets in the Gaza Strip of various sizes and of various types. We have struck between 200 and 400 targets each day, each 24 hours. So, it depends.

We will be doing some kind of an interim summary in terms of the activity of our troops and the activity of the air force, but I can assure you that we are striking Hamas wherever they are, wherever they're hiding. We're trying to really weaken their military capabilities and prepare the battlefield for the next stages.

VAUSE: In terms of rocket fire, which is coming from Gaza by Hamas and other militants, it seems that there has been a dramatic decrease in recent days. There was what, less than 20 air raid sirens across Israel on Wednesday compared with the hundreds that were heard in the first days of the war. Is there a direct link between that decrease in rocket fire and the Israeli airstrikes?

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CONRICUS: One would hope, but that wouldn't be wise to assess. What we are assessing -- and we -- based on our bitter experience, prefer to err on the side of caution. One could assess that Hamas is simply controlling the fire, and it's based on a daily schedule. They don't want to waste their ammo, and they're firing for effect, basically, to remind Israelis that they're still there and they're fighting, perhaps remind other terrorist organizations who are watching or just for their psychological warfare purposes.

But they still do have rockets, long range rockets, and still hundreds of thousands, if not millions of Israelis had to run for shelter today or yesterday as well because of the rockets that were fired to Southern and Central Israel.

VAUSE: Colonel, thank you for your time. Colonel Jonathan Conricus here in Tel Aviv. Thank you, sir.

CONRICUS: Thank you. VAUSE: Israeli officials are still calling for the resignation of U.N. General-Secretary Antonio Guterres. He sparked outrage Tuesday during a meeting of the Security Council by saying the deadly Hamas attacks did not happen in a vacuum.

He called the attacks appalling, but added they came after 56 years of what he called suffocating occupation of Palestinians. The secretary- general sought to set the record straight, saying his words are being twisted.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTONIO GUTERRES, U.N. GENERAL-SECRETARY: I am shocked by the misrepresentations by some of my statement yesterday in the Security Council as if I was justifying acts of terror by Hamas. This is false. It was the opposite.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Live now to London, CNN's Scott McLean joins us more on this. It seems Israel isn't stepping back with the secretary-general. They're not just leaving it there. Other U.N. officials are now being denied entry visas into Israel and there are threats that others may be expelled. So, where is all this now heading?

SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, John. Let me just walk you through how we got to this point first. So, as you mentioned, this was Antonio Guterres, the U.N. secretary-general, speaking on Tuesday at a meeting of the U.N. Security Council. And look, he said very plainly in that speech that there were clear violations of international law happening in Gaza. He criticized Israel for forcing the evacuation of more than a million people south and then continuing to bomb those areas. But I'll just remind our viewers once again, the comments that really set off this controversy. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GUTERRES: It is important to also recognize the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum. The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCLEAN: Yes. He also made clear in that speech that the grievances of the Palestinian people, he said, cannot justify the appalling attacks by Hamas. But as you mentioned, John, not good enough for Israel. The foreign minister was in that meeting. He asked Guterres, in what world do you live? He said he would not meet with Guterres. And he said, look, when it comes to Hamas, after these attacks, there is no room for balance.

As you said, the ambassador said that Israel would cut off visas for U.N. officials. And despite the secretary-general trying to set the record straight in that clip that you played earlier, Israel is not buying it. In fact, the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations called it a disgrace that Guterres didn't apologize for his comments and retract them. And then he said this, "He clearly said yesterday that the massacre by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum. Every person understands very well that the meaning of his words is that Israel has guilt for the actions of Hamas, or at the very least, it shows his understanding for the background leading up to the massacre that Hamas perpetrated."

He also called for Guterres to resign. That's not going to happen. But look, the reality is that this diplomatic spat between Israel and the United Nations also did not happen in a vacuum. Israel has been critical of the United Nations for decades. It thinks that the organization is biased against it.

And for instance, if you look at the results of the U.N. Human Rights Council, it has passed more resolutions about Israel than it has about some of the world's most authoritarian and, you know, human rights abusing governments of the world.

Obviously, none of this helps the current situation. You have the U.N. in Gaza saying that they're going to run out of fuel in a matter of hours, that it's going to. mean that hospitals will be left without fuel. You also have the U.N. Security Council unable to come up with a resolution for the whole situation. Right now, they seem to be squabbling about some pretty minor language around whether to call for a humanitarian pause or a ceasefire and how much, if at all, to criticize Israel -- the Israelis and Hamas in all of this. John.

VAUSE: Scott, thank you. Scott McLean, live for us there in London. Thanks for the report.

We'll take a short break. When we come back, the very latest on the mass shootings in Lewiston, Maine. Dozens dead, many more wounded. The gunman, still at large. Back in a moment.

[00:30:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VAUSE: Welcome back, everyone. The very latest breaking news now of two mass shootings in Lewiston, Maine.

At least 22 people were killed in a bar and a bowling alley. Another 50 to up to 60 people injured, according to local police. The manhunt is underway for a person of interest, 40-year-old Robert Card, described as a certified firearms instructor and a member of the U.S. Army Reserves.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COMMISSIONER MIKE SAUSCHUCK, MAINE DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY: Police are currently searching for a Robert R. Card, 4/4/1983, of Bowden. Card is considered armed and dangerous. He's a person of interest, however, and that's what we'll label him at moving forward, until that changes.

If people see him, they should not approach Card or make contact with him in any way. (END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Authorities released this photo from the scene of one of the shootings. They're urging students to stay inside, lock doors, and report suspicious activity.

Charlie Ramsey is a CNN senior law enforcement analyst and was the police commissioner for Philadelphia and police chief for Washington D.C.

Thank you for being with us, Charlie. So I want to get into this -- the fact that we had these first reports of a shooting about fire five hours ago, and right now, the shooter is still out there.

The question is, where is "there"? So how can concerning is it that he's been, essentially, on the run now for five hours? How far away could he be? And what are state police doing at the moment to try and find him?

CHARLES RAMSEY, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, they're doing everything they can to try to find him, but obviously, they don't know where he is right now.

They did find the car that he was in when he did the first two shootings. They found it abandoned. What they don't know is whether or not he had a second vehicle waiting for him or, did he carjack another car? Could he still be mobile? Or is he on foot?

[00:35:11]

So right now they don't know. There are woods in the area where the car was found. I'm sure they've got a helicopter up with thermal imaging capability to see whether or not they can they can locate any images in the woods.

But I doubt if they will go into the woods tonight. They'll wait until dawn, because it's just too dangerous. This individual is heavily armed. He is a weapons expert, military-trained.

And so right now, they'll try to just contain that area in the event that he is still in the general area.

VAUSE: With that in mind, just looking at his profile here, he's 40 years old. As you mentioned, he's a certified firearms instructor, a member of the U.S. Army Reserves. This doesn't seem to be a garden- variety shooter. This seems to be someone who's well-trained and could stay out, you know, in the wild, or the rough, if you like, for some time.

RAMSEY: Well, it makes him quite dangerous, though, to try to apprehend. We don't know what's on his mind, but clearly, killing that many people, although we don't have a confirmed number, but right now we're hearing as many as 22, with several more seriously wounded.

So the fact that he was able to do that, he's heavily armed, he does have military training, you know, it's going to be very dangerous for the men and women that go in after him. But that's part of the job. That's exactly what they'll do. They have to capture or kill this guy as quickly as possible before he has a chance to do this again.

VAUSE: I guess that's why residents of Lewiston, I see about 40,000 people, are now basically on lockdown. Authorities have canceled schools on Thursday. Businesses are being urged not to open.

How long can that situation continue? How long can people be expected to hunker down and wait inside?

RAMSEY: As long as they have to. I mean, it's a dangerous situation. And so, if they need to take this for several days, then that's exactly what they'll do.

I mean, a car was found in Lipton (ph), which is another community in Maine. So that community is also on lockdown. So, again, it's not just where the shootings took place. There are other communities that are now impacted.

But they will do everything they can to keep people safe, and people should listen to law enforcement. They should stay inside their homes. If they see or hear anything suspicious, call the police. Do not try to investigate on your own.

They're really looking for information from the public to be able to find this individual as quickly as possible so he doesn't have a chance to do this again.

VAUSE: Just explain what we can learn from what actually happened in terms of the shooting here. It took place around 7 p.m. local time. Starting in -- there was a shooting in a bar. There was a shooting in a bowling alley. You know, what can we piece together to put sort of a motive, if you like, into why this has actually happened?

RAMSEY: Well, we don't know a motive yet. But now that they have a name, I'm sure they're going through all his social media. They've already found some information where he threatened to shoot up the military base where he is doing his reserve duty.

So this is a person who has also had some mental health treatment, as well. So they're doing as much as they can to background this person. Family, friends, relatives, anybody that they can talk to right now to find as much information as possible for a possible motive.

But right now, the main thing is just to find him and to be able to neutralize him to a point where he cannot hurt anyone else. So they're either going to take him in custody or, unfortunately, it's going to be, you know, perhaps a violent ending. That's up to him.

Hopefully, he does surrender, and there's no more killing that takes place. But they do have to get this guy and get him as quickly as possible, even if that means getting involved in gunfire.

VAUSE: Looking at the weapon that he was carrying, alleged -- you know, carrying during the shooting, what does that tell you? What sort of weapon was it? How dangerous was that? It looks like some kind of military-style weapons, some kind of AR-15?

Ramsey: Yes, AR-15-style weapon. Whether it was actually an AR-15, I don't know.

When you look at that picture of him, you'll also see he's got the cargo pants, and it -- the pockets are bulging, which looks like he's got extra magazines in those pockets. So he's heavily armed.

And he probably had pretty much -- a lot more ammunition in the car, as well. So you have to assume that he is still very heavily armed and very, very dangerous.

So this is a person who knows what he's doing. I mean, you can tell by the way he's holding the gun that he's very familiar with that type of weapon.

And again, he does the training, tactical training, as well as firearms training for the military.

[00:40:05]

VAUSE: Charles Ramsey, thank you so much for being with us. We really appreciate your insights. Thank you, sir.

RAMSEY: Thank you.

VAUSE: Well, if and when Israel invades Gaza, it will face a daunting Hamas defense based on miles of secret underground channels. And when we come back, we'll take you inside what the IDF calls the Gaza Metro, to show you just how sophisticated, complicated, and dangerous they are.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VAUSE: Update now on the breaking news out of Southern Maine in the U.S.

At least 22 people are dead in multiple mass shootings in the city of Lewiston. Police have identified a person of interest: 40-year-old Robert Card, a certified firearms instructor and member of the U.S. Army Reserves.

The shootings took place Wednesday night a bowling alley and a restaurant. The gunman was armed with a high-powered assault-style rifle. As many as 60 people have been wounded. It's not clear if all the injuries, though, were due to gunfire.

City officials say hospitals are bringing in all the help they can get.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT MCCARTHY, LEWISTON, MAINE, CITY COUNCILOR: The two hospitals have called in every off-duty staff member that they could to deal with this.

We are a town of about 39,000. Our hospitals are not geared to handle this kind of shooting event. And they're doing the best we can.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Al Jazeera is reporting the family of its Gaza bureau chief was killed Wednesday in a purported Israeli airstrike. A warning: the images you're about to see are disturbing.

According to Al Jazeera, Wael al-Dahdouh lost his wife, son, daughter, and grandson in the attack in central Gaza. These are images from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, where Dahdouh saw his son's body while laying the body of his grandson on an examination table.

The airstrike reportedly happened at the Nuseirat refugee camp, where he'd recently taken his family for safety.

[00:45:06]

Al Jazeera did not provide evidence that Israel was behind the airstrike. The IDF has not responded to CNN's request for comment.

Right now, more than 200 hostages being held in Gaza, and Israeli officials say 135 of them hold passports from more than two dozen countries.

With Hamas militants and the militant group Islamic Jihad believed to have them in a sprawling web of underground tunnels somewhere below Gaza.

CNN's Nic Robertson has more on the secretive tunnel system.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: This is the invisible danger awaiting Israeli troops in Gaza. Hamas tunnels, miles of them, hiding the well-armed terror group's fighters.

The video, Hamas propaganda distributed by the Israel Defense Force, shows concrete, reinforced subterranean passages.

Israeli hostage 85-year-old Yocheved Lifshitz, saw them firsthand before she was released late Monday.

YOCHEVED LIFSHITZ, RELEASED HOSTAGE (through translator): We began walking inside the tunnels over wet ground. It was moist all the time.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad had been building tunnels under Gaza for least a decade.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The ceiling is made out of concrete.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): Over the years, CNN has been shown them by both the IDF, after capture, and by the terror groups themselves, showing off their underground advantage as propaganda. A place to hide weapons.

Estimated at dozens of miles long, they snake underneath many of Gaza's neighborhoods and have become known to Israelis as the Gaza Metro.

These new videos the IDF is sharing appear to show a progression in sophistication, and therefore, an increase in potential danger to troops in the event of a ground incursion into Gaza.

Like a 21st Century equivalent of World War I trenches, these deep burrows have dug-outs for storing weapons and safe rooms for fighters to plan and gather.

Small trap doors in the desert let militants evade advancing troops, even sneak up behind them.

And the danger down here, not just to the troops above, but to Israeli civilians, too. Long-range rockets stored on wall brackets can be rushed forward to be fired towards Tel Aviv and other cities from hidden gun pits connected directly to the tunnels, making the launch sites even harder for the IDF to strike back at.

Only an incursion can Israel expect to fully destroy the terror tunnels. Absent that, the so-called Gaza Metro will outfox and endanger Israeli soldiers and civilians alike.

Nic Robertson, CNN, Sderot, Israel.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Coming up here on CNN, residents of Southern Lebanon bracing for history to repeat and for hard times ahead, if the war spreads to their country.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:52:04]

VAUSE: Back now to the breaking news from the U.S. state of Maine. Police have identified a person of interest in two mass shootings Wednesday night in the city of Lewiston. They're searching for Robert Card. He's considered armed and dangerous.

Law enforcement officials say he is a certified firearms instructor and a member of the U.S. Army Reserves.

At least 22 people were killed at a restaurant and a bowling alley. Another 50 to 60 people were wounded.

Residents have been asked to shelter in place of the manhunt continues for the suspected shooter.

Among the questions since the October 7 mass attack on Israel is how involved were other Iranian-backed terror groups like Hezbollah or Islamic Jihad.

On Wednesday, Hamas leaders met with their counterparts in Hezbollah and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. We don't know where that meeting took place. According to Hezbollah, they discussed efforts to achieve a, quote, "real victory" for the resistance in Gaza and Palestine. Israel Defense Forces say they're trading fire with Hezbollah

militants who are targeting them from Southern Lebanon. The fighting has triggered painful flashbacks for many civilians in Lebanon on the other side of the border with Israel.

Jomana Karadsheh has more now on how they're coping.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In these tranquil lands not far from Lebanon's volatile border with Israel, it feels like war is creeping closer by the day.

Many have abandoned the olive harvest they wait for every year. There are those who have remained, out picking the olives for a few dollars a day to feed their families.

Across the Southern frontier with Israel, more and more villages appear deserted. In the town of Marjeyoun (ph) a few miles from the border, the streets are quiet, many shops now shuttered. About half half of its residents have packed up and left.

They've heard the fighting. It hasn't hit their town yet, but people here have seen it all before. Memories of the last big war with Israel in 2006 still raw.

Nazira lived through that, Lebanon's civil war, Israel's decades-long occupation of Southern Lebanon, and the country's economic collapse. This little bakery is all she and her family have to survive.

"We've been through enough. We've had enough. We're old people. Where do we go?," she says. "We brought up our families in poverty, and look at what we have to do now to live. We can't take any more."

For the past two weeks, it's been a daily exchange of deadly fire between the Iranian-backed Lebanese paramilitary group Hezbollah and Israel. Attack and counterattack, mostly contained to a three-mile area on both sides of the border. But the threat of an all-out war, calculated or inadvertent, is real.

So real, it's already driven nearly 20,000 people out of their homes, according to the U.N.

In the Southern city of Tyre, the disaster center is back up and running. They've had to deal with more than 6,000 who fled here. Local officials say as the fighting spills out of the red zone, all these now mostly empty villages along the border more and more are fleeing.

HASSAN HAMMOUD, SPOKESPERSON, TYRE DISASTER MANAGEMENT CENTER: We are afraid that the number will increase. We hope it will not happen. But we -- we have to plan for -- for the worst thing.

The Israeli enemy, we can't sleep. We have to be always -- sleep with open eyes, as they said.

KARADSHEH (voice-over): Schools like this one have been shut down and turned into makeshift shelters, with a state barely functioning in Lebanon's majority, now living in poverty, they just don't have enough resources to deal with the new crisis.

Many here don't want to speak to us on camera. It's the indignity brought by displacement.

Amal barely made it out with only the clothes on her back, when a neighbor sent her a photo of the damage her house sustained.

"We've endured the economic situation, stayed in our homes," she says, "in the land of our parents and grandparents. All that we've worked for. I just hope it calms down, and we can go back to our homes. We cannot take any more."

Israel and Lebanon say they don't want another war, but with tensions this high, and the two enemies so close, everyone is preparing for the worst.

Jomana Karadsheh, CNN, Southern Lebanon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM. After the break, we'll have the very latest on that mass shooting in the U.S. state of Maine. And then I'll have the very latest on the Israel's war with Hamas, in just a moment. You're watching CNN.

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