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CNN International: Jabalia Camp Hit by Second IDF Airstrikes in Two Days; Forensic Analysis Revealing Hamas Horrors; Israel-Hamas War Sparks Protests, Fear on U.S. College Campuses; Legendary Hall of Fame Basketball Coach Dies. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired November 02, 2023 - 04:30   ET

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

[04:30:00]

BIANCA NOBILO, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Bianca. Nobilo.

Live images now of the Rafah crossing from Gaza into Egypt, where a group of people have gathered, hoping to make it through today.

On Wednesday, we saw a brief opening of the gate from Gaza to the outside world, letting some Palestinians leave the enclave for the first time since Israel declared war on Hamas. Egyptian officials say at least 361 people with foreign passports left Gaza and ambulances carried dozens of wounded Palestinians out so they could receive treatment in Egyptian hospitals.

Israeli air strikes hit in the vicinity of the al-Quds Hospital in Gaza Wednesday evening and have continued. The hospital director tells CNN the strikes intensified this morning and are getting closer to the hospital, where 14 thousand displaced people are taking refuge.

Meanwhile, Israel has now confirmed both air strikes on the Jabalia refugee camp in Gaza. But what remains unknown right now is the full extent of the devastation and just how many people were killed in the attacks. The IDF claims a Hamas command center was the target of Wednesday's strike. While on Tuesday, the Israeli military said it targeted and killed one of the Hamas commanders responsible for the October 7th attacks on Israel.

But the strikes have left behind catastrophic damage in the densely populated camp. More now from CNN's Salma Abdelaziz and a warning to you that her report contains graphic images and scenes that are very hard to watch.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Dust and debris filled the air after an Israeli airstrike. Ambulance, ambulance calls the man carrying the child. These are the moments after the Israeli militaries attack on the Jabalia camp in Gaza. Everyone is disoriented and terrified. And this is the result. Several city blocks levelled in an instant. The scene is apocalyptic. Survivors desperately digging for their loved ones with bare hands. Israel says it was targeting a Hamas commander hiding in this densely

populated residential area. An IDF spokesperson called the death of innocent civilians a tragedy of war.

That tragedy tearing apart this community, no one yet knows how many still lie under the ruins. Shortly after the bombs fell, cams in the enclave were mostly severed. But one Palestinian cameraman was among those able to post on social media.

The anguish is heart wrenching. The victims small and afraid. Moms and dads will bury their children.

All three of my children are dead, this father screams, all three.

Entire families are wiped out. This man holds up the name of 15 relatives killed in the airstrike.

My whole family, innocent people are dead, he says. Total destruction. Our whole building is gone -- 20 stories. This is a massacre.

At a nearby hospital, the carnage is on display. The bodies keep piling up. With her dead children at her feet, this mother prays for strength. Many in this forsaken enclave feel they have no one but God left.

Salma Abdelaziz, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NOBILO: The head of the Indonesian hospital in northern Gaza says its main generator is out of service. It's a dire situation for the hospital, which is the closest healthcare facility to the Jabalia refugee camp. The hospital's chief says a secondary generator is working in some areas, but many vital systems, including the ventilation system in operating rooms, the hospital's only oxygen station and refrigerators in the morgue are all without power.

The utter cruelty of the Hamas attacks on Israel on October the 7th is being starkly revealed in Israel's forensic laboratories, fragments of bone, flesh and other pieces of the terrorist victims are going under the microscope with the hope of identifying those who were killed. CNN's Jake Tapper visited Israel's top forensic institute in Tel Aviv. And a warning that some of the images we're about to show you are of course graphic.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR, THE LEAD: We are approaching four weeks since Hamas's deadly October 7th terrorist attack on Israel, when more than 1,400, mostly Israeli individuals, were killed, most of them civilians.

[04:35:00]

But hundreds, hundreds of bodies remain unidentified. I recently spoke with Doctor Dr. Chen Kugel, who is the director of Israel's National Institute of Forensic Medicine, who explained why it's been so difficult to identify these remaining bodies. A warning now I'm going to show you some images that are graphic and disturbing. We're showing them to you because they explained something about the abject cruelty of what Hamas terrorists did to civilians on October 7th. And also because it shows how difficult this process has been for families who want answers about what happened to their lost loved ones. Again, a warning of what I'm about to show you.

So Dr. Kugel says, what looks to be a piece of burnt wood or coal here is actually flesh. And upon further examination, with imaging, it reveals two sets of rib cages. One of them is smaller, with a wire tying them together. And the conclusion of Dr. Kugel and his team, these are the burned bodies of an adult and a child tied together, maybe embracing.

Opening a body bag, Dr. Kugel and his team found these charred remains. You'll notice that these remains are white. Kugel told me that that means the temperature was above 700 degrees centigrade, which Dr. Kugel says likely means the terrorist used some sort of chemical accelerant to get that high of temperature. Ultimately, his team concludes these were actually the remains of two different people, though there was no DNA to trace. No DNA was left because of the high temperature. So their identities will never be known.

From a different body bag, a CAT scan revealed that there were bones in here. Three left legs, and two right legs in the bag. So that meant Dr. Kugel and his team concluded three different people in this same body bag and these five bones were the only traces left of these three people. Maybe in other bags there were other pieces of these people, Dr. Kugel told me.

These are very difficult cases to deal with. And I'm about to show you an even more upsetting example. This is a blurred picture from the National Center of Forensic Medicine and even blurred it's disturbing. This is the burned body of an adolescent girl and her head has been mostly separated from her body. Now the forensic experts say they don't know if the separation happened before or after the girl was killed. Still, this happened. And this is the level of cruelty that we are talking about here.

Jake Tapper, CNN, Tel Aviv.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NOBILO: The Presidents of Israel's top institutes of higher learning have written an open letter to university leaders around the world. The letter warns those institutions against giving anti-Semitism a foothold and to avoid false equivalency. It says in part:

It is ironic that the very halls of enlightenment in America and Europe ostensibly, the bastions of intellectual and progressive thought that are your campuses have adopted Hamas as a cause celebre, while Israel is demonized. Let's be clear, Hamas shares no values with any Western academic institutions.

It comes at a time when university students in the U.S. and Europe are protesting Israel's air strikes on Gaza. Many accused Israel of targeting civilians. Israel denies that, saying Hamas is the target of its bombings. Universities around the world are also reporting an uptick of anti-Semitic threats.

College campuses in the U.S. have a long history of being hives of political activism, especially during times of conflict. CNN's Elle Reeve spoke to students at three American universities on how they feel about on campus protests in the midst of the Israel Hamas war.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: From the river to the sea.

(CROWD): From the river to the sea

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Palestine will be free.

MALAK ABUHASHIM, CORNELL STUDENTS FOR JUSTICE IN PALESTINE: I'm Palestinian, I have family in Gaza. This has been an issue that's affected me my entire life. Like, I'm calling them and there's bombs in the background. They need to go somewhere safe.

ZOE BERNSTEIN, STUDENT, CORNELL UNIVERSITY: I have a lot of family and friends in Israel. Just having so much hate thrown at and so much misinformation as well that was going on, just shared on campus and on social media has been challenging.

ELLE REEVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): There's tension at hundreds of colleges across the U.S. At Tulane, a fight broke out after someone tried to burn an Israeli flag. At Harvard and Columbia, a doxing truck showed up on campus naming students who allegedly belonged to organizations that released an anti-Israel statement.

EVE M. TROUTT POWELL, MIDDLE EAST HISTORY PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA: I'm shocked at the temperature on campus. I could never have imagined it would be like this. There's a level of -- I don't want to say hatred -- but anger and fear.

BENI ROMM, STUDENT, UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA: The AEPi, the Jewish fraternity was hit with a graffiti attack of the Jews are Nazis earlier this weekend.

REEVE (voice-over): CNN visited three campuses where the response to the war has had major consequences. University of Pennsylvania in Drexel, where students were part of a nationwide walkout in support of Palestine. And Cornell, which this weekend faced anti-Semitic threats.

TALIA, STUDENT, CORNELL UNIVERSITY: I was on my way to the kosher dining hall when I looked down and saw the threats.

REEVE: How did you feel?

TALIA: I mean, it's terrifying. Like, this isn't -- this isn't anything that we thought we would ever have to deal with in the United States.

REEVE (voice-over): The post on a Greek life website threatened to shoot up a kosher dining hall and kill Jewish students. They were signed Hamas Soldier. But on Wednesday, Patrick Dai, a 21-year-old Cornell student was arraigned on a federal charge for making online threats.

BERNSTEIN: I think that the quick response by the university really did quell a lot of students' fear. I know a lot of people are choosing to do Zoom options for their classes. They're asking for special accommodations because they just don't want to put themselves at risk.

REEVE: What did you think when these anti-Semitic threats were posted online?

ABUHASHIM: I think those were hateful things to say. As a Muslim, it's very disturbing to see such hateful comments being made in the name of Allah. It's like it is very disrespectful. Anti-Semitism will never be accepted in our movement. And hateful comments such as these whether it be Islamophobic, et cetera, have no place on our campus or anywhere really.

REEVE (voice-over): Abuhashim is the Head of Cornell Students for Justice in Palestine. A group whose national chapter has drawn a ton of criticism for saying the Hamas attack was a historic victory.

[04:45:00]

And some other college chapters have posted images of paragliders. But Abuhashim says her group acts independently and she doesn't get talking points from the national chapter.

ABUHASHIM: Cornell SJP, we make statements based on what our students are feeling, what needs to be said. Just having that equal treatment from administration.

REEVE (voice-over): Some Muslim students say they're frustrated. They're constantly asked to denounce Hamas. That it's a distraction from their message about Palestinians.

REEVE: There's a lot of concern that pro-Palestinian students are pro- Hamas and pro-terrorist tactics.

MOMODOU TAAL, PHD STUDENT, CORNELL UNIVERSITY: Yeah.

REEVE: Going all the way up to national politicians.

TAAL: Yeah.

REEVE: Is that true?

TAAL: Absolutely not true. My condemnation is inconsequential. I think it's quite racist, Islamophobic that before I'm allowed to have a view on genocide, I have to condemn a terrorist organization.

REEVE: But is it so hard to say, like, yeah, I condemn Hamas? TAAL: But what does that do? Why is the immediate association, I support Hamas. I can say clearly, categorically, I abhor the killing of all civilians no matter where they are and who does it. I don't go around asking white people, do you condemn the KKK? Why the assumption you would be a supporter of the KKK in the first place?

(CROWD): From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.

REEVE (voice-over): From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free, heard in many campus protests has become a lightning rod.

YOUSSEF RAFEH, STUDENT, DREXEL UNIVERSITY: Free Palestine is when Palestinians can live with food, water, electricity, have equal rights that all humans deserve.

SEAN, STUDENT, UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA: You're completely ignoring the fact that people chanting that have lost all their family members, have had neighborhoods wiped out.

REEVE (voice over): Many Jewish student leaders see the chant as a threat, a call for Jewish genocide in Israel.

BERNSTEIN: From the river to the sea -- the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, Palestine will be free. Free of what? Free from who? What will happen to the people who live there? That to me sounds like a call for genocide or an ethnic cleansing, and that really does terrify me honestly.

ROMM: Chanting slogans of from the river to the sea and intifada, right, is never going to invite a conversation with the Jewish students of, hey, look at me, I'm also experiencing -- suffering as a result of the events in Israel.

(CROWD): Free, free Palestine.

TAAL: What from the river to the sea means is that Palestinians will live freely in that region away from secular violence. That's not calling for the extermination of Jewish people.

(CROWD): From the river to the sea.

POWELL: This politicalization, it works two ways. I mean, I don't hear people talking about Israeli violence pre-October 7th. I'm not hearing it. If the term makes you uncomfortable, then ask why it make you uncomfortable.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's violence being inflicted on Palestinians.

REEVE (voice-over): The students at the heart of this remain proud of who they are.

TAAL: In my lifetime, it may never change. But I feel encouraged because at the end of the day, I feel like we are on the right side of history, and I can go to bed quite comfortably.

BERNSTEIN: I'm very, very proud to be a Jewish student on this campus, seeing the resiliency of my community, seeing the unity of my community. It really has only strengthened me and my pride since October 7th and I hope that that will continue for a very, very long time.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NOBILO: There's been an increase in anti-Semitism in Europe. A ceremonial hall at a Jewish cemetery in Vienna was defaced with swastikas and set on fire. Police are investigating. With Austria's chancellor saying anti-Semitism has no place in society and will be fought with all political and legal means.

The mayor of Rome says two commemorative cobblestones honoring Auschwitz survivors have been damaged and, in his words, desecrated. He called for solidarity with the city's Jewish community.

Still to come on CNN NEWSROOM. It was one for the ages for the Texas Rangers. Details on that game coming up after this short break.

[04:50:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NOBILO: Now to college basketball, where Bobby Knight was one of the most successful head coaches of all time. He was also one of the most brash and controversial. The Hall of Fame coach who led Indiana to three national championships and an undefeated season that hasn't been matched since has passed away. Bobby Knight was 83 years old. CNN's Andy Scholes looks at the highlights and low lights of Knights remarkable career.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look at here. Bobby. Knights just threw his chair clear across a free through lane.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORT ANCHOR (voice-over): Robert Montgomery Knight, nicknamed the general, is one of basketball's biggest and most polarizing personalities. A strict no-nonsense coach on the court. Bob Knight didn't mince words off the court either.

BOB KNIGHT, COACH: I'll handle this the way I want to handle it now that I'm here. You've (bleep) up to begin with. Now, just sit there or leave I. Don't give a (bleep) what you do. Now, back to the game.

SCHOLES (voice-over): After graduating from Ohio State University, Knight enlisted in the Army to help lead their basketball program. He was the Black Knights head coach for six seasons before accepting a job to coach at Indiana in 1971.

Under the general's leadership, the Hoosiers won three national championships, including the undefeated 1976 season. Which remains the last men's college basketball team to not lose a game all season.

Knight also led the USA to a gold medal, coaching Michael Jordan and the rest of the men's basketball team at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles.

After 29 years, Knights behavior on and off the court strained his relationship with the administration at Indiana University. In May of 2000, Knight was placed on a zero-tolerance policy after CNN aired a video of a practice three years earlier where it appeared Knight placed his hand on the neck of a player named Neil Reed. But months later, Knight had an altercation with a freshman student on campus.

KENT HARVEY, INDIANA UNIVERSITY FRESHMAN: He grabbed my arm and he kind of like, got my face and just said a couple of comments like, like pretty, I don't know. It's pretty wild.

KNIGHT: I would have to be An absolute moron -- an absolute moron with the things that have been laid down on me to grab a kid in public and cursed at a kid in public.

SCHOLES (voice-over): But that incident turned out to be the final straw for Knight in Indiana.

MYLES BRAND, INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT 1994-2002: I gave him the option of resigning as head basketball coach.

[04:55:00]

He declined and I notified him that he was being removed as basketball coach, effective immediately.

SCHOLES (voice-over): Knight continued coaching after Indiana, spending seven seasons in Lubbock coaching Texas Tech.

KNIGHT: This is without question the most comfortable red sweater I've had on in six years. I can't tell you.

SCHOLES (voice-over): After retirement Knight, who had little patience for the media, became a media member himself, broadcasting college basketball games for ESPN. And during the 2016 presidential campaign, Knight tried his hand at politics, stumping for Donald Trump.

KNIGHT: You folks are taking a look at the most prepared man in history to step in as president of the United States. That man right there.

SCHOLES (voice-over): In February of 2020, after years of turning down invitations, Knight finally made his return to Assembly Hall. Knight attending a Hoosiers game for the first time in 20 years. He was surrounded by former players and received a huge ovation from the home crowd.

Brash, intimidating, unapologetic, mad genius, Bob Knight has been described a lot of ways and always true to form, those opinions never seem to matter much to the general.

KNIGHT: When my time on Earth is gone and my activities here are past. I want they bury me upside down and my critics can kiss my ass.

(END VIDEOTAPE) NOBILO: An incredible pitching performance by the Arizona Diamondbacks Zach Gallen was not enough, as the Texas Rangers pumped out four runs in the final inning to win baseball's 2023 World Series. And it was bedlam as Texas relief pitcher Josh Sports threw a -- threw a called strike to seal the victory. Arizona's Gallen had thrown a no hitter through six innings, but a towering two run homer by Texas Marcus Semien in the ninth was more than enough for the Rangers. Final score 5 to 0. It's Texas's first World Series championship in the club's 63- year history.

I honestly feel like I was speaking Greek just then. And that does it here on CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Bianca. Nobler in London. "EARLY START" with Kasie Hunt is up for you next, stay tuned.

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