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IDF Strikes Intensify as Ground Operations Expand; White House: Not Time for Cease-Fire; U.S. and Gaza Officials Spar over Death Toll; Comms Blackout Grips Gaza; IDF Says Warplanes Hit 150 Underground Targets in Gaza Overnight; Israel "Beefing Up" Pressure on Hamas; Military in North Israel on Alert from Hezbollah Threat. Aired 2-3a ET
Aired October 28, 2023 - 02:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): And welcome to all of you watching us here in the United States, Canada and all around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber with the very latest on Israel at war.
Israel announced on Friday it's begun ratcheting up the military pressure on Hamas with expanded ground operations in Gaza.
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BRUNHUBER (voice-over): Explosions can be heard reverberating all around Gaza, said to be the most intense Israeli strikes since the war started. Nearly all communications in and out of the enclave appear to be down. An Israeli government official says this conflict won't end like the others.
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EYLON LEVY, ISRAELI GOVERNMENT SPOKESPERSON: Israel has decided we can no longer live with this jihadi enclave on our borders. This isn't another round of conflict that's going to end with a ceasefire and Hamas deterred. This is a war, a war that Hamas declared on us on October 7th and a war that we're going to win.
The days ahead are going to be long and they're going to be difficult because we are going to go after the totality of the Hamas terror and governing infrastructure inside the Gaza Strip.
After that, the jihadi group that perpetrated the October 7th massacre and this war will end, with no more Hamas in the Gaza Strip. We're going to go after every tunnel, every rocket launcher, every Hamas commander, every Hamas foot soldier and we will totally destroy the Hamas organization so that they can never again hurt our civilians.
(END VIDEO CLIP) BRUNHUBER: The mounting death toll in Gaza led the U.N. General Assembly to vote for an immediate cease-fire on Friday. Israel's foreign minister angrily denounced it as despicable in light of the Hamas massacres.
Meanwhile, Israel's Iron Dome intercepted more rockets fired toward Tel Aviv on Friday. Three people were reportedly hurt when one rocket struck a building. Eleni Giokos joins us now from Dubai with more.
What more we learning about Israel's incursion into Gaza in the last few hours?
ELENI GIOKOS, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: Look, things have definitely quieted down. If we look what happened in the early hours of the morning on Thursday, we saw intensity that we have not seen since October 7th.
And there was a ground raid; operations are expanding. We don't know how many Israeli troops entered Gaza; we don't know if they are still there. What we do know is that, the last few days, we have seen a ramp up of raids and then the Israeli troops have exited.
So we're trying to understand just what the next step here is. But the IDF have confirmed that there are hundreds and thousands of troops that are on the border with Gaza. We've seen a communications blackout in Gaza.
And people within Gaza have also said that they haven't seen this type of intensity, importantly and, as you mentioned, rocket fire has also come from Gaza into Israel, hurting three people in Tel Aviv.
The IDF is also claiming that Hamas, and I quote here, are "waging war from hospitals." Now you've got this added fear of hospitals being targeted, specifically, the al-shifa hospital, which is the largest in Gaza. I spoke to the director general of the health ministry yesterday. Kim, I want you to take a listen to what he said.
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MEDHAT ABBAS, DIRECTOR GENERAL, GAZA HEALTH MINISTRY: Al Shifa Hospital, it's the biggest hospital in Gaza Strip. Some more than 50,000 civilians are (INAUDIBLE) within the premises of the hospital.
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GIOKOS: He also described a very miserable scenario, with resources dpleating fast. The U.S. Defense Secretary has reiterated the importance of protecting civilians as the IDF operations gain traction here.
BRUNHUBER: All right, thank you so much. Eleni Giokos in Dubai.
Meanwhile, the White House says it won't comment on Israel's military operations. The spokesperson for the U.S. National Security Council says the U.S. is talking to Israel about a possible humanitarian pause to try to get Hamas to release its hostages. But when the spokesperson was asked if the U.S. would support the
cease-fire, this is what he told CNN earlier. Listen.
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ADM. JOHN KIRBY (RET.), COORDINATOR FOR STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS, WHITE HOUSE NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL: We are not talking about a cease-fire right now. In fact, we don't believe that this is the time for a cease-fire.
Israel has a right to defend themselves. They still have work to do, to go after Hamas leadership. We're going to keep supporting them. We're giving them more security assistance.
Our focus is on making sure that they have what they need to carry on this fight. We continue to send a strong message to actors in the region, including Iran, that, if you're thinking about jumping in here, you're thinking about deepening and widening and escalating, don't do it.
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KIRBY: We will take our national security interests very seriously in the region and we've added to the military capabilities to make sure that we can do that.
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BRUNHUBER: The U.S. Defense Secretary stressed the importance of protecting civilians in Gaza when he spoke with his Israeli counterpart Friday. Lloyd Austin also said aid delivery into the Palestinian enclave is urgently needed. CNN's Oren Liebermann has more from the Pentagon.
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OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: The Pentagon watching the situation in Gaza very closely as what appears to be a larger ground incursion is taking place on the part of the Israeli military into Gaza as it goes after Hamas.
But the Pentagon and the White House have been clear this is Israel's war to fight and they will not dictate or instruct or order the Israelis on how to fight it.
Instead, they will offer advice and have offered counsel on their best practices for the U.S.' best practices from decades of war, including the recommendation that, instead of conducting a large scale ground incursion, Israel goes with precision guided munitions as well as smaller special operations forces raids.
Is that advice the Israelis have heeded?
That's an answer that will be very clear in the hours and the days ahead. Meanwhile, the U.S. a bit concerned there is whether the conflict in Gaza, now that we do appear to be seeing what appears to be a larger scale ground incursion, if that spreads to the rest of the region.
We have already seen some spillover. Even if the U.S. does not see a connection between Gaza and Iraq and Syria, other groups do and that is a key concern here. Take a look at this map, you'll get a sense of the attacks on U.S. forces over the course of the past 11 or 12 days.
Four different sites in Iraq, four different sites in Syria, many of those have had more than one attack including the al-Aqsa airbase in Iraq, which has had at least seven attacks there.
The U.S. carried out strikes in Eastern Syria against groups that it says are affiliated with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and affiliated groups there. The U.S. said those strikes did not result in casualties but destroyed an ammo storage facility as well as a weapons storage facility.
The U.S. was clear in carrying out these strikes that they were narrowly aimed at, essentially, protecting U.S. forces. And the U.S. does not want the conflict to escalate beyond Gaza or be connected in any way to what the U.S. is doing in Iraq and Syria against ISIS there. It's a very fine line the U.S. is trying to walk.
Will they be successful?
That is what everyone is looking at, with all eyes on Gaza right now -- Oren Liebermann, CNN, at the Pentagon.
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BRUNHUBER: The health ministry in Hamas controlled Gaza has responded to U.S. President Joe Biden's public questioning of the reliability of Palestinian casualty figures in the conflict with Israel by publishing the names of what it says are thousands killed since the start of this conflict.
In the wake of the October 7th attacks by Hamas that killed at least 1,400 people in Israel, the Israel Defense Forces have launched an air campaign against the militant group and imposed a complete siege of the Gaza Strip.
Israel says the strikes will continue until all of the more than 200 hostages are released. Salma Abdelaziz reports on the controversy around the death toll.
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SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Families are mourning and counting their dead. Near endless stream of funerals echoes throughout Gaza. And as Palestinians bury their loved ones, doubt is cast by the U.S. and Israel on the death toll being released by Hamas.
Hamas seized control of Gaza in 2007, no elections have been held since. The militant group is the political military power here. It controls the government and therefore, all ministries including the health ministry.
President Biden says that's why he has no confidence in the reported Gaza death toll.
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I have no notion that the Palestinians are telling the truth about how many people are killed. I'm sure innocents have been killed and it's the price of waging a war.
ABDELAZIZ (voice-over): This is how the Hamas-run health ministry responded, publishing this document, a 212-page report listing the ID numbers, names, sex and age of more than 6,700 Palestinians it says have been killed since October 7th. Among them, nearly 3,000 children.
The total figure is expected to be even higher because of hundreds of unidentified bodies, it says. The ministry says it is committed to accuracy and accused some of dehumanizing Palestinian victims.
"Our people are not anonymous entities that can be ignored," it said.
The Palestinian Authority, which rules the West Bank, also hit back.
MOHAMMAD SHTAYYEH, PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY PRIME MINISTER: There are certain leaders who don't want to see reality. The numbers are correct. They are our numbers. These numbers are fed to us from the hospitals of Gaza every single day that are received by our ministry of health.
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ABDELAZIZ (voice-over): Skepticism over the death toll spiked after the explosion at Gaza City's Al Ahli Hospital. Within hours, the Hamas run health ministry said at least 471 were killed. The U.S. gave the more conservative estimate of 100 to 300 killed.
ADM. JOHN KIRBY (RET.), COORDINATOR FOR STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS, WHITE HOUSE NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL: It was least a couple of hundred. And that's terrible and atrocious and sad and we all grieve with the families and loved ones who are affected by that. But the numbers are not reliable.
ABDELAZIZ (voice-over): News outlets, U.N. agencies, rights groups and even the U.S. State Department have cited the Hamas-run ministry of health in the past. But the U.S. now says recent statements and figures from Hamas are unreliable.
Human Rights Watch, an independent body, responded.
OMAR SHAKIR, PALESTINE DIRECTOR, HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH: We've done research during multiple rounds of escalations and we've always found the ministry of health data to be generally reliable.
The conversation should focus on how world leaders can stop further mass atrocities and not nitpicking whether a number that's generally proven to be accurate may be a little bit off.
ABDELAZIZ (voice-over): And access is limited. Foreign media has been denied entry into Gaza. And for local journalists, conditions on the ground make reporting difficult. CNN and other news outlets cannot independently verify the figures. And while some argue over the death toll, bodies keep piling up -- Salma Abdelaziz, CNN, London.
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BRUNHUBER: All right, still to come, Maine's senator says that it will take, quote, "a long, long time" to process the mass shootings there, even after the suspect in the attack was found dead. We'll bring you the latest.
Plus, demonstrators gather in Grand Central terminal in New York, calling for a cease-fire in Gaza. We'll have more on that ahead. Please stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: U.S. Senator Angus King says he's grateful that Maine residents are now safe after spending days hiding in their homes. This comes after Robert Card, the suspect in the mass shootings that killed 18, was found dead. Here is the Lewiston police chief.
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CHIEF DAVID ST. PIERRE, LEWISTON POLICE: Our work, again, is not done here. I was very elated tonight when I got the call from Commissioner Sauschuck advising me of the revelation of what took place and that Mr. Card is deceased and no longer a threat to our community or any other community.
I just don't want to forget the families that are grieving and will continue to grieve. I don't want to forget the law enforcement officials that have worked tirelessly throughout this whole event to come to a good conclusion.
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BRUNHUBER: CNN's Omar Jimenez has the latest.
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OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: After a more than 48-hour manhunt, the suspect in the mass shootings at both of these locations in Lewiston, Maine, has been found dead by apparent self inflicted gunshot wound, according to law enforcement.
Now this is the end of what has been a very tense chapter for many in this community, wondering where this person may be, especially given the violent nature of what he was accused and what police believe he did.
Now to give people an idea of where this body was found, we are outside the bar and grill, which was the second location of the mass shootings that happened on Wednesday night.
This body was found just about 10 minutes away from here in the town over from Lewiston, which is where we are, in Lisbon, Maine. And it was found near a recycling plant where, as we understand from law enforcement sources, a plant where he was fired from recently.
And so, at this point, this now begins the next phase of the investigation for officers to figure out, OK, what led up to the actions that they say he carried out over the course of Wednesday night and why did this happen?
So that is one aspect of the investigation that continues. However, the main priority that everybody has been looking for, of trying to locate this person, is now over. It is a sigh of relief for many in this community. It's a sigh of relief for many of the leaders in this community, as they laid out in their latest press conference.
We also learned that they found the body at to 7:45 pm Eastern time Friday night. It wasn't until hours later that they announced. And what they said they were doing in the meantime was they were notifying the families of victims.
They also said they notified the family of the suspect as well, a family, they said, had, on the whole, been cooperative throughout this entire process. And while there are still more investigative work ahead, there is a lot more grieving ahead for many of the families here affected.
At least 18 killed in total but so many more lives shattered, based on the lives that they touched. And as one resident told us, they are not just numbers; they are people. And it is those people that are going to live on in this community for much longer than this 48-hour manhunt -- Omar Jimenez, CNN, Lewiston, Maine.
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BRUNHUBER: The Gun Violence Archive, which tracks shootings, says the Maine rampage is the deadliest mass shooting of the year in the U.S. It says there have been more than 560 mass shootings in the country so far this year.
The agency defines a mass shooting as one in which at least four people are shot and/or killed in a single event. As you can see, 2021 is listed as the most violent year in the past decade, with at least 690 mass shootings here in the U.S.
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BRUNHUBER: Gaza is largely under a communications blackout amid the looming threat of an Israeli ground offensive as they continue targeting Hamas. A local service provider says most of the phone and internet likes have been decimated as Israeli airstrikes pounded the enclave.
As a result, communications inside Gaza and with the outside world are severely disrupted. Multiple humanitarian groups say they can't get in touch with their teams on the ground.
Some Palestinians who've managed to maintain connection reached by CNN say they've split their families so at least some members would survive in case of an Israeli strike.
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BRUNHUBER: Others talk about hearing explosions. But without stable communications, they can't check if their families are OK. A leader of a U.N. agency in charge of Palestinian refugees sent a dramatic message about the humanitarian situation. Listen to this.
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PHILLIPPE LAZZARINI, COMMISSIONER GENERAL, UNITED NATIONS RELIEF AND WORKS AGENCY: As we speak, people in Gaza are dying. They are not only dying from bombs and strike, soon many more will die from the consequences of siege import on the Gaza Strip. Basic services are crumbling. Medicine is running out.
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BRUNHUBER: Want to go live now to Chicago and Dr. Zaher Sahloul, the cofounder and president of MedGlobal, an organization on the ground in Gaza helping with the dire medical needs there.
Thanks so much for being with us.
This major incursion by Israel, what effect do you think this might have on the most vulnerable in Gaza, the 1 million or so children there, who are already suffering?
DR. ZAHER SAHLOUL, FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT, MEDGLOBAL: Thank you for having me. The situation, even before this ground invasion, has been catastrophic. And with the blockade and prevention of food and medicine and the medical supplies and water, clean water, the situation, I cannot imagine what's happening right now to the civilians in Gaza.
And now with the ground invasion, that will complicate it further and going to cause more attacks on civilians, more bombs, more injuries. Unfortunately, two thirds of the injuries are women and children, a very large number of children who were killed and injured.
And also it will probably collapse what is left of the medical system, which has lost two-thirds of its capacity because of the consuming large number of medical supplies every day during this crisis.
What's consumed in the hospital is worth of one month of consumption before the crisis. And then you can add to it the lack of clean water that is causing a lot of waterborne infection.
Lack of electricity, many of the core functions of the hospitals will stop functioning, including ventilators, incubators, labs, dialysis units; 1,000 dialysis patients will probably die, if there is no urgent supplies of dialysis kits.
Besides that, 135 newborn who are incubators. The situation is going to be unimaginable and beyond catastrophic.
BRUNHUBER: As doctors try to help those children who've been hurt, with the medical system close to collapse, you've been to many different disaster zones yourself.
From what you're seeing, is this the worst you've seen?
SAHLOUL: I've been in Ukraine, I've been in Syria. I've been in Yemen. Actually, I just came from Ukraine a month ago. And this is the worst I've seen. I've been in Gaza four times before. And Gaza has witnessed wars before. This is the fifth large war in the last 20 years.
But this is the worst I've seen in the whole world. And I think the consequences of this war will continue to affect the people in Gaza and beyond for the next generations. It is not only the physical wounds and the death and the injuries among the families but also the mental health wounds that will last forever among the children, who are witnessing bombing, who lost many of their family members.
Dr. Osama Josafia (ph), who is our lead pediatrician, his last message was 36 hours ago. He told me, if I stayed alive, I would like to talk more about my last patient. He saw a patient. Her name is Dima (ph). She is a child, she's only 10 years old. She lost all of her family members, her two parents and six brothers and sisters.
And she had a fracture in her skull and fracture in her limbs and injuries in her liver and spleen. And they don't have enough supplies to treat her. And he was very sorry and he told me the saddest thing that he has in his life, that he witnessed many children that he saw in the neighborhoods, that now are dead and mutilated.
And this is something that should not happen in the 21st century.
BRUNHUBER: Yes, it is absolutely just tragic, as you describe. You're talking about your teams that you're in touch with.
Have you still been in touch with them?
I know the communications have generally been cut.
SAHLOUL: The last message we got was from our lead nurse. She sent it about 15 hours ago. And she said that, if I died, please take care of my children.
BRUNHUBER: Gosh, that's just horrible to contemplate. I mean we -- we heard about the number of, you know, children who have been killed. I think the Hamas controlled ministry of health said close to 3,000 children are already dead.
We know that both Israel and the U.S. question the casualty numbers that are given by the ministry, you know.
[02:25:00] BRUNHUBER: Whatever the true number is, it is just too many.
But do you trust the statistics that they're putting out?
SAHLOUL: I have no doubts that the real number of children who were killed and injured is much higher than the 7,000 because there are still hundreds of children or civilians under the rubble of their houses. People were not able to pull them out.
And the hospital, which is a pediatric hospital in the north of Gaza, which has a capacity of 80 beds, they had 150 patients and they received 300 dead bodies; 60 percent of them are children.
And the reason that you have this high number of children, because people ask how come that you have children are killed with this large number, because bombs actually kill children.
And because of the flying shrapnel, even if the children are not in the immediate vicinity of the bombs, the flying shrapnel will kill a child more than killing adults because if it penetrates their skull, they don't have protection. And also they don't have large body mass. So they tend to bleed more than adults.
They tend to suffer more than adults and they tend to die easier than adults. So that is why you have this large number of children who are killed because of the bombs and the missiles.
BRUNHUBER: Gosh, just horrible. We've been talking here about Palestinian children in Gaza but we can't forget about the Israeli children who were kidnapped. I think it's estimated to be around 30. I mean, the threat to their lives, never mind the psychological trauma all this will cause them, is just unimaginable.
SAHLOUL: Every life is precious. And I think we need to be morally consistent. Whether it's a child in Ukraine or in Israel or in Gaza or in Chicago, they deserve to live and they deserve to go to school. They deserve to have a future.
And what's going on right now in Gaza is beyond imagination and the whole international community is responsible, including my government here.
BRUNHUBER: All right. Listen, we'll have to leave it here but certainly, hopefully your teams on the ground there in Gaza are OK. Dr. Zaher Sahloul, thank you so much for speaking to us.
SAHLOUL: Thank you.
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BRUNHUBER: If you would like information about how to help with humanitarian relief efforts, go to cnn.com/impact. There is a list of vetted organizations that are providing assistance, at cnn.com/impact.
Still to come, the U.S. is still working to secure the release of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. We'll have details next, stay with us. (MUSIC PLAYING)
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BRUNHUBER: And welcome back to all of you watching us here in the United States, Canada and all around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber.
The White House says it is still working to secure the release of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, after Israel announced it is expanding ground operations there. CNN's Alex Marquardt has the details.
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ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Efforts to get Hamas to release the almost 230 hostages being held captive in the Gaza Strip took a blow on Friday when Israel significantly stepped up its operations in Gaza.
Sources tell CNN that talks to release hostages, which have been led by Qatar, had been going well and that they, were nearing the release of a large number of hostages. Then after Israel launched the expansion of their operations, U.S. officials insisted that the talks will continue.
One U.S. official telling CNN quite firmly, that there is no scenario in which, until these hostages are free, that the U.S. would stop pursuing talks. The White House is saying they are having active conversations with Israel about humanitarian pauses, as they call them, because the U.S. believes those pauses could help get hostages out.
Israel, on the other hand, have argued that more military pressure is what helps free hostages. The growing Israeli campaign will also make many people more desperate to get out of Gaza, including hundreds of foreign nationals that have been trapped in Gaza and are trying to escape.
The U.S. and Israel have accused of not opening the gate at the crossing into Egypt, called Rafah. Egypt has also shown some reluctance at letting people, out and allowing foreign officials to be on the Egyptian side of the border in order to process the people coming out.
There is little doubt that, as Israel ramps up, this further complicates the situation for both those hostages and those trying to flee -- Alex Marquardt, CNN, Washington.
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BRUNHUBER: An Israeli man whose sister was kidnapped from a kibbutz by Hamas militants says he is consumed by concern for her. CNN's Jake Tapper asked if he was worried that Israel's airstrikes on Gaza would make it tougher to get his sister home alive. This is what he said.
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GILI ROMAN, YARDEN'S BROTHER: Worrying is mostly what I do since they have kidnapped her. Yes. This is my main occupation. And every day, we have significant worries.
Every day can be a day -- I'm sorry for the language -- can be a day of rape, can be a day of torture. It can be a day of dying or dead or illness. Every day is that worry. So -- and most of my worries comes from the treatment of Hamas and my disrespect or -- I don't know which stronger word to use to what I think the Hamas might be using.
So I have more, let's say, respect to what our military is doing. And I hope that they're very calculative in their actions. Of course, it also worries me that I have much more trust in them in what they're doing and how they are trying to operate than whatever happens inside of Gaza.
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BRUNHUBER: All right, for a military perspective, let's bring in Malcolm Davis, a senior analyst with the Australia Strategic Policy Institute.
Thanks so much for being here with us again.
So what we are seeing from Israel right now, do you think this signals the start of the main invasion?
MALCOLM DAVIS, SENIOR ANALYST, AUSTRALIAN STRATEGIC POLICY INSTITUTE: Look, Kim, it could. I think what you are seeing is certainly a ramping up of artillery and airstrikes against Hamas positions across Gaza.
And that generally does suggest the preliminary stages of an invasion. You prepare the battle space; you attack known targets.
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DAVIS: You clear defenses before you send in ground forces because the last thing you want to do would be sending ground forces into poorly prepared positions. If you can attrit and wear down those positions as much as possible prior to sending in ground forces, there is less likely to be friendly casualties in the process.
BRUNHUBER: That might explain what we're being told; according to the IDF, they have targeted some 150 underground targets, what it called terror tunnels and underground combat spaces.
What do you make of those specific objectives?
DAVIS: Well, I think that is sensible. Hamas is using the tunnel network to move around the battlefield in Gaza and to basically position themselves so that if the Israelis move in, they can exploit the tunnels to attack the Israelis from the rear.
So it would actually make sense for the IDF to actually attack those tunnels and destroy those tunnels, ideally with Hamas inside of them, so they can't use those tunnels. And it makes it more difficult then for Hamas to defend against an incoming Israeli incursion on the ground.
BRUNHUBER: Just before you came on, we heard from the family of someone held hostage in Gaza, an Israeli.
What about the hostages?
If this is the precursor to a ground invasion, does these incursions, all of these attacks, airstrikes, does it help or hurt their chances of coming back alive, do you think?
DAVIS: Look, I'm sure the Israelis and the Americans are doing their very best, trying to get those hostages out. And you know, there may be possibilities that intelligence operations can locate some of the hostages and Special Forces go in and rescue them.
But you know I think that once the ground invasion begins, the chances of rescuing those hostages drop dramatically. Hamas want to use them as human shields. And secondly they want to use them as bargaining chips to try and delay the Israeli offensive.
And I think the Israelis and the Americans have woken up to this cynical tactic by Hamas, of drip feeding hostages out over a period of days and weeks to try and delay that offensive.
That gives them, Hamas, more time to prepare defenses. So I think that the Israelis are going to go in irrespective of the situation. The hostages, we'll do our best to get them out but there is no guarantee, sadly.
BRUNHUBER: Looking ahead, let's say Israel does crush Hamas, something they have promised before and failed, what then?
DAVIS: Well, that is a key question for the Israelis. They have to defeat Hamas, they have to defeat it decisively and not just as they have done in the past, mow the lawn. They have to go in and destroy Hamas as an organization and as a fighting force.
But then they have to win the peace. And that's going to be challenging because Gaza is an urban environment that is extremely dense in terms of population. There's large numbers of civilians in harm's way.
Even with the most advanced precision strike weapons available, civilians will be killed and injured. So it's going to be very difficult for the Israelis, having defeated Hamas, to then go in and sit down and talk with the Palestinians in Gaza and say, look, we have to come up with a durable security solution that prevents the radicalization of future Palestinian groups.
That's going to be really difficult for the Israelis, particularly if, for example, the war escalates to bring in Hezbollah and Iran and Israel is fighting a multifront war. But they have to win the peace. They can't just see another generation of Palestinians radicalized.
BRUNHUBER: Yes, a tough challenge to say the least. In the meantime, we have heard Iran warning that new fronts would open against the U.S. If it continues its unwavering support of Israel.
How great is the threat to the U.S. here?
DAVIS: I think it's very serious. It's not just the U.S.; it's U.S. allies. We should be seriously looking at how Iran and Iranian supported elements across the world could act against the U.S., act against the interests of U.S. allies.
Here in Australia we should be considering, you know the potential threats in this country. I think that Iran is very serious. It's clearly stating that it intends to open up new fronts. We should take that threat seriously. And we should have the forces in theater to counter those threats if and when they do emerge.
BRUNHUBER: All right, we'll have to leave it there. I really appreciate your insights, Malcolm Davis, thanks so much.
DAVIS: Thank you.
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BRUNHUBER: When we come back, Israel claims Hamas is using one of Gaza's largest hospitals as a command center.
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BRUNHUBER: Still ahead, what this may tell us about Israel's next move as it expands its war on Hamas. Stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: Israel says its warplanes hit 150 underground targets in Gaza overnight. Just a short time ago, a series of loud booms were heard throughout northern Gaza.
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BRUNHUBER (voice-over): Gaza residents describe heavy airstrikes in the past 24 hours and there's a communications blackout, with phone and internet services down.
This comes as the Israeli Defense Forces say it's expanding ground operations in Gaza as it ramps up its war on Hamas. Meanwhile, some relatives with hostages being held in Gaza say they no longer have hope that their loved ones can be freed through negotiations.
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YOSI SHNAIDER, RELATIVE OF HAMAS HOSTAGES: We waited for three weeks, we tried to negotiate with them. We tried our best to bring as many people that we can back home. But we will see that we're dealing with liars.
If we want them back safe and sound, we have to get in and make sure that Hamas will be demolished and make sure that they will go down on their knees and beg us to stop. This is the only way that we can bring our people back.
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BRUNHUBER: CNN military analyst and retired Air Force Col. Cedric Leighton has more on the Israeli operations in Gaza.
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COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: This is all of Israel. This is the West Bank and this is Gaza. So we expect the Israelis to have their forces basically in this area around the northern and central part of Gaza.
There are also reports that there may be some activity in the southern part of the border areas between Israel and Gaza. So all of these areas, expect them to be quite active. Now as far as the tunnels are concerned, let's take a look at the damage right here.
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LEIGHTON: This is the kind of damage that we have as of the 22nd of October, all of this area right here has been hit by the Israelis, all through here. You see the different impact points that you have here also in this area and in this area.
These are all the different areas that have all been impacted by the kinds of airstrikes that you see here. And then as far as the tunnels go, they are, at a minimum, described like this, about -- you know could be up to 300 mimes of these tunnels but they are all in this area right in here, particularly in the north and in the upper central part.
And then there are some also here in the south. These are areas in which we can expect to find command and control nodes for Hamas, hostages and also resupply efforts plus the rockets that Hamas has stored and fires against Israel as often as they can.
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BRUNHUBER: Israel is claiming the largest hospital in Gaza is the site of a major Hamas command center. It appears to be a significant attempt to prepare public opinion ahead of a major ground offensive inside Gaza.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) REAR ADM. DANIEL HAGARI, SPOKESPERSON, ISRAEL DEFENSE FORCES: The red buildings, as I mentioned, are building that Hamas is using, meaning he does his command and control in different departments of the hospital.
Like the rengen (ph) room and others, he uses these places in order to do command and control for terror activities, launching rockets, et cetera, et cetera. It is here in Al-Shifa hospital where Hamas operates some of its command and control centers.
This is where they direct rocket attacks, command Hamas forces. Hamas terrorists operate inside and under Al-Shifa hospital, in other hospitals in Gaza, with network of terror tunnels.
Hamas also has an entrance to those terror tunnels from inside the hospital wards, meaning, from different places of the hospital, you can go into an underground tunnel that will provide you shelter.
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BRUNHUBER: The Palestinians reject Israel's claim. The director general of the Hamas controlled Gaza health ministry told CNN, hospitals are used to treat patients only and they are not hiding anyone.
Hamas also rejected the allegation, calling on the U.N. and Arab and Islamic countries to immediately intervene, to, quote, "stop the madness" of bombing and destroying the medical system.
Hundreds of people from a group called Jewish Voice for Peace gathered in Grand Central terminal in New York Friday night, calling for a cease-fire in Gaza.
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BRUNHUBER: The demonstration remained peaceful though there are reports of dozens of arrests and some passengers were delayed. A protest of this scale is unusual for Grand Central.
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BRUNHUBER: Israel's foreign minister is calling the U.N.'s call for a cease-fire "despicable."
In a social media post, he said, quote, "Israel intends to eliminate Hamas just as the world dealt with Nazis and ISIS."
The U.N. approved a new resolution on Friday, calling for a cease-fire in Gaza; 120 countries backed it while 14 voted against it, including the U.S. and Israel.
The attack by Hamas on southern Israel has put the Israeli military on high alert in the northern region as well. We'll have details on the increasing tensions with Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon. That's coming up. Stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: A top Israeli official tells CNN the country is, quote, "beefing up pressure on Hamas."
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BRUNHUBER (voice-over): The comments come as Israel says it's expanding ground operations in Gaza and that its warplanes hit 150 underground targets in Gaza oil and gas. Communication links are down in much of the enclave.
Meanwhile, air raid sirens blared across Tel Aviv on Friday as rockets were seen in the sky.
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BRUNHUBER: Now the escalation of the strikes on Gaza comes as Hamas makes a rare public plea for help. A senior Hamas official tells the Associated Press they need Hezbollah and other allies to play a bigger role in the war.
Saying, quote, "Hezbollah now is working against the occupation. We appreciate this but we need more in order to stop the aggression on Gaza. We expect more."
And now the U.S. is urging its citizens in Lebanon to leave now while commercial flights are still available. In one northern Israeli town, civilians have been evacuated because of the increased risks of attacks from Hezbollah militants. CNN's Jim Sciutto reports.
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JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Main street, Metula, Israel: normally the busy center of town, now abandoned. Metula's 2,000 residents fled in the wake of the October 7th attacks, part of a mandatory evacuation of communities too close to Israel's border with Lebanon and too close to Hezbollah.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The problem here is that, for man, from too many windows, we are under (INAUDIBLE).
SCIUTTO (voice-over): Now based here are hundreds of IDF soldiers. We don't identify them due to security.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Every few hours, we were under attack here or in other places in the area. So we need to keep ourselves undercover to make sure that we won't be exposed.
SCIUTTO: Metula is surrendered on three sides by Lebanon, by territory controlled by Hezbollah. And that is why the town has been evacuated because of that threat. And soldiers based here now say they face three threats from Hezbollah: sniper fire, rocket fire but also the possibility of ground incursions.
One happened here several days ago and they're on constant alert for the possibility of the next one.
SCIUTTO (voice-over): The town's mayor has the job now of relocating residents to safer areas further south and keeping Metula ready for residents to return. The when is far from clear.
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SCIUTTO (voice-over): What is clear is that the old status quo is no longer sustainable for those living this far north, not with Hezbollah fighters on their doorsteps.
MAYOR DAVID AZULI, METULA (through translator): We don't want a war, we just want to end the current status quo and move Hezbollah out of southern Lebanon. We can either make a peace deal through the Americans and Iranians or, if not, we will have war.
SCIUTTO (voice-over): The Israeli military does not comment on its plans for the north. For now, this is an operation designed to defend and deter. And the threat is real. We were advised not to linger too long in Hezbollah's line of fire.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We can find more than 400 soldiers looking at you.
SCIUTTO (voice-over): For the soldiers, their job now is to make sure that, someday, Metula can come alive again.
SCIUTTO: Do you believe people will be able to come back to a town like Metula again?
Or is it just too close to Lebanon, to Hezbollah?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know that we will do everything to make them feel protected, to make them feel safe. There was someone who packed his last luggage with tears in his eyes. I asked him why.
And he told me, "I don't know if I will return here."
SCIUTTO: That is the new reality here in northern Israel but also in the south. Communities emptied by the threat from Hamas, in Gaza and Hezbollah here in the north.
Many people demanding increased military action across the border. But that portends costly exercises and operations for Israeli forces with an uncertain military outcome -- Jim Sciutto, CNN, in northern Israel.
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BRUNHUBER: I'm Kim Brunhuber. I'll be back after a quick break with CNN's continuing coverage of Israel at war, please stay with us.
