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Israel Admits Strike on Ambulance near Gaza Hospital; U.S. Expects IDF Airstrikes to Subside as Its Troops Advance; Israeli Prime Minister Rejects Cease-Fire Unless All Hostages Freed; Storm Ciaran Lashes Europe; CNN Sees Rocket Hit Israeli Kindergarten Courtyard; Civilians Leave Gaza as More Wait and Hope; Appeals Court Freezes Trump Gag Order in Federal Election Subversion Case; Biden Meets with Families of Maine Mass Shooting. Aired 12-1a ET
Aired November 04, 2023 - 00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Thanks for joining us on CNN NEWSROOM, everyone. I'm Michael Holmes. Appreciate your company as we continue to cover the Israel-Hamas war.
And we do begin in Gaza and a horrific scene outside of the largest hospital in Gaza City. We're going to show you video obtained by CNN. It is extremely graphic.
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HOLMES (voice-over): The Israeli military admits that it was behind the airstrike just outside the Al-Shifa Hospital, hitting an ambulance, killing at least 15 people. We see scenes of carnage and chaos.
The ambulance was said to be part of a convoy carrying patients to southern Gaza. The IDF, though, claims the ambulance was being used by Hamas, which it said had used emergency vehicles to transport fighters and weapons in the past.
Eleni Giokos is following developments for us from Abu Dhabi. She joins us now.
Good to see you, Eleni. The loss of civilian life in Gaza continues. This strike on or near ambulances outside Al-Shifa just the latest. Bring us up to date on what we know.
ELENI GIOKOS, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: I mean, seeing those images of bodies strewn, the sheer panic, this is the result of an Israeli airstrike on an ambulance just outside the largest hospital in Gaza, Al-Shifa, where we heard -- and this is, of course, from the Palestinian Red Crescent -- that it was in a convoy of other ambulances that were carrying the injured heading toward the south.
The International Committee of the Red Cross says it was aware of this convoy, there were parts of the convoy that even so it doesn't justify a strike on any ambulance, that ambulances carrying the injured should not be a target.
The IDF is saying that it was carrying Hamas operatives. We don't know exactly who they were targeting. But we can see through those images the aftermath of that. The Hamas led health ministry saying that 15 people were killed, 60 people are injured in this latest strike.
Antony Blinken, the U.S. secretary of state, Michael, was in Tel Aviv yesterday, meeting with prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and, again, reiterating the need for some kind of humanitarian pause and talking about the need for mediation talks.
Of course, Benjamin Netanyahu has been very categorical that there will be no cease-fire or any kind of pause at this juncture.
But Antony Blinken, of course, talking about the need for this type of assistance and this type of intervention because the sheer number of civilian deaths in Gaza has reached untenable levels and of course, having a direct impact on how people are perceiving Israel's response to the October 7th terrorist attack and the proportionality of it.
HOLMES: I wanted to also ask you, as all of that goes, the efforts continue on getting more than a trickle of aid in and more than a trickle of people out of Gaza.
What's the latest there?
GIOKOS: Look, I was looking through the numbers and the Palestinian Red Crescent is saying that there are around 374 aid trucks that have been entering Gaza since October 7th.
I want to juxtapose that with the reality of needs in Gaza before October 7th: 450 aid trucks gone in on a single day into Gaza. So firstly, it shows that resources are absolutely scarce. There is a deficit of water and food.
And of course, medical equipment and medical supplies; we have been hearing from so many hospitals and doctors, saying that they are operating without anesthetics, without the simplest of medical requirements.
Fuel, of course, is one of the big issues. Even Antony Blinken, yesterday, was saying fuel will not be allowed into Gaza. The fear is that it will end up in Hamas' hands.
But what that means for hospitals that have now had to shut down generators that are, of course, vitally required to treat patients. It means that many hospitals are out of service. The other issue is getting enough water into Gaza, of course, a vital need and food as well.
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GIOKOS: We've also been speaking to other international organizations. This is a dire situation playing out where Caesarean sections, pregnant women having to go under this intense surgery without any anesthetics.
And the stories continue. The aid situation is a big one and, of course, that creating major concern in terms of how to get enough aid in. The U.S. secretary of state reiterating the points that they have to find a way to get aid into hospitals, to give assistance into the Gaza Strip.
And then of course, we've also seen so many people evacuating, especially dual nationals, through the Rafah border crossing. Michael, so much happening right now. And of course, international intervention and voices have been increasing as we're seeing the death toll rising.
HOLMES: All right, Eleni Giokos, thank you for the update.
Eleni Giokos there in Abu Dhabi. That airstrike outside the Al-Shifa Hospital came as Eleni was saying as the U.S. secretary of state Antony Blinken was meeting with Israeli leaders, urging more care in avoiding civilian casualties.
He also pressed for a, quote, "humanitarian pause" in the fighting. The prime minister flatly rejecting any suggestion of a cease-fire until all Israeli hostages are freed.
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HOLMES: With Israeli forces reportedly encircling Gaza City, U.S. officials say they expect the air campaign to subside as IDF soldiers advance on the ground. Retired Major General Mick Ryan of the Australian army joins me now from Brisbane, Australia.
Good to see you, Mick. Let's talk about this new reporting that the Americans anticipate a new phase in Israel's campaign, a more tactical, ground operation, if you like. And to that point, Israel says it's pretty much surrounded Gaza City.
What's your read on Israel's tactics in the military sense?
MAJ. GEN. MICK RYAN (RET.), AUSTRALIAN ARMY: Good day, Michael. I think the U.S. assessment is pretty close to the mark. What we've seen since 7 October has been heavily an air campaign.
But over the last week, with the incursions into the north and across Gaza by the IDF, they've now been able to isolate northern Gaza and advance to the ocean. They've cut it off, they will have cordoned off northern Gaza. And the focus now will be squeezing Hamas on the ground and of course, under it.
HOLMES: We are seeing more and more concern, of course, over civilian deaths in Gaza. We've heard these calls for a pause in fighting. You've said militarily this operation could take weeks or months.
With the staggering death and injury toll in Gaza, does Israel risk losing the empathy war, for want of a better description, the support of some countries, which originally were all in on Israel's right to defense? RYAN: Clearly, the U.S. administration and others have concerns about
the targeting of certain areas, particularly hospitals, ambulances; about proportionality, about collateral damage and whether these really need to be attacked with the weapons they are.
Whether there is terrorists in an ambulance or not, whether it's proportionate to attack it is a separate question. You might kill a few Hamas terrorists but you might lose the information war around the world. So I think the Israelis really need to rethink their targeting processes to balance short term payoff with longer term political needs.
HOLMES: Yes. Speak to the challenges to that point in Israel's stated aim of destroying Hamas completely.
I mean, is that even possible in the military sense as opposed to damaging Hamas' capabilities for a period of time and the rinse and repeat of the past happens again a few years from now?
RYAN: Well, the military might be useful in destroying a lot of Hamas infrastructure and killing a lot of fighters and their leaders.
At the end of the day, Hamas is not a military problem; it's a political problem. They exist because there is a perception among certain Gazans that they want to resist the Israelis.
But Israelis need to also have a political approach that solves the political issues and makes not Hamas just a terrorist organization but makes them irrelevant to the people of Gaza.
HOLMES: Yes, which reminds me, you recently wrote, and I'll quote you, "In modern war, victory must therefore include the binary approaches of winning the war as well as winning the peace."
Such must be the case with Israel's Gaza operation.
What are the risks then?
Where is the line where what's happening in Gaza to people not connected to Hamas actually creates more militants, not fewer?
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RYAN: That's a risk when you have a heavily military focused phase. The focus is winning the war without preparations for winning the peace. We may just be seeing a more violent version of what Israel has called mowing the grass over the last decade. Clearly, that strategy has failed. A more violent version of it is unlikely to succeed.
HOLMES: I wanted to ask you to about what you made of the Hezbollah leader's speech, basically, reserving the right, if we can put it that way, to get more involved. But not signaling that happening in any way.
What's your read on that, particularly in the context of the course of Iran's support of Hezbollah? RYAN: It was certainly a much anticipated speech across the region on Friday. But as some have called it, it was a bit of a nothing burger. It kind of threw Hamas under the bus.
He said, this is a Hamas problem, not a regional problem, although we're reserving our right to attack. Hezbollah do not want a repeat of 2006, where the Israelis really hurt them and could hurt them again if they try something in the north.
HOLMES: Yes. And going back to Gaza, what do you think the chances with Hamas just sending its fighters south through those tunnels to fight another day?
RYAN: I think the cordon the Israelis have set up on the ground would probably be accompanied with detection of tunnels that go beneath that cordon. So there may be some potential for that.
But my sense is most of the tunnels that the Israelis are focused on at the moment around Gaza City, where the hostages are -- and a few Hamas fighters leak out there, they're probably less concerned by that than finding hostages in Gaza City itself.
HOLMES: Yes. Mick Ryan in Brisbane, Australia, always good to get your analysis, my friend. Thank you.
RYAN: Thanks, Michael.
HOLMES: Cheers.
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HOLMES: Now Palestinians in Gaza are mourning the death of Palestine TV correspondent, Mohammed Abu Hatab, on Friday. He was killed in southern Gaza on Thursday along with 11 members of his family.
As that civilian death toll steadily grows, the United Nations sounding the alarm as well. CNN's Salma Abdelaziz reports on the humanitarian crisis in the enclave. A warning: some may find the images in her report disturbing.
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SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It is every journalist's worst nightmare. While live on air, this reporter found out his colleague was killed. In his utter despair, he rips off his flak jacket.
"There is no protection at all, no international law, nothing," he says. "The safety gear, this helmet, it does nothing to keep us safe. These are just slogans. No journalist is protected at all."
Correspondent Mohammad Abu Hatab and 11 of his family members were killed in an alleged Israeli airstrike, Palestinian TV reported.
He is among at least 33 journalists killed since the start of the conflict on October 7th, the Committee to Protect Journalists says, making it the deadliest period for the news media since the group began tracking in 1992, it said.
ABDELAZIZ: Abu Hatab was killed in southern Gaza, the part of the Strip the Israeli military tells civilians to flee toward but continues to strike daily.
Many families, too afraid or unable to evacuate, remain here in the north of the Strip where Gaza City is encircled by Israeli troops, the IDF says, and some 300,000 to 100,000 civilians are trapped, the U.N. estimates.
They are stuck in a hellscape. Relentless airstrikes and an intensifying ground assault have leveled neighborhoods and left over 1,000 children missing under the rubble, humanitarian organizations say. Their parents keep digging for them.
"My four children," this father cries. "Why God, why didn't you let me die? Why?"
And there is nowhere to turn for refuge. U.N. shelters, where nearby Israeli firepower has claimed lives, are no longer safe. Now many Gazans live on the streets of a war zone.
"We are humans, we are not terrorists," he says. "Look, we have our children around us. Not even the U.N. shelters can protect us. Only God can protect us."
And with Israeli troops closing in, their plight seems increasingly more precarious -- Salma Abdelaziz, CNN, London.
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HOLMES: The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, says he will not agree to a cease-fire in Gaza unless Hamas releases all of its hostages. Sources telling CNN, Israeli officials have been frustrated --
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HOLMES: -- with Hamas releasing only one or two at a time.
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BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, PRIME MINISTER OF ISRAEL (through translator): I clarify that we, Israel, is going with all its force and refuse to any cease-fire which does not include bringing back our hostages.
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HOLMES: The U.S. secretary of state, Antony Blinken, as we said earlier, meeting with Netanyahu and other top officials in Israel on Friday. And we have more details now from CNN's Becky Anderson.
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BECKY ANDERSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): U.S. secretary of State Antony Blinken arriving in Tel Aviv on Friday with a forceful message. America's top diplomat reinforced Washington's support for Israel's right to defend itself after the brutal October 7th Hamas attacks. But he also said this.
ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: How Israel does this matters and it is very important that when it comes to the protection of civilians who are caught in the crossfire of Hamas' making, that everything be done to protect them and bring assistance to those who desperately need it.
ANDERSON: In his meeting with Israel's war cabinet, Blinken pushed for a humanitarian pause to help get the hostages released, some of whom are American citizens.
BLINKEN: A number of legitimate questions were raised in our discussions today, including how to use any period of pause to maximize the flow of humanitarian assistance, how to connect a pause to the release of hostages, how to ensure that Hamas doesn't use these pauses or arrangements to its own advantage.
ANDERSON: But after meeting with Blinken, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted his government opposes any temporary cease-fire unless Hamas frees all the hostages.
And sources tell CNN the defense minister directly told Blinken there will be no pause without their release. Those directly involved in the Qatar-led talks say negotiators need a, quote, "period of calm" to facilitate the hostage release.
MAJED AL-ANSARI, SPOKESPERSON, MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS, QATAR: Obviously, when there is bombardment, constant bombardment on the sector, you can't even expect for the hostages to be safely from one place to another.
So the best situation for us, the best scenario would be a period of calm, a considerable period of calm that would allow for the hostages to be taken out of Gaza but at the same time would allow for humanitarian aid to go in.
ANDERSON: Blinken has left Israel and the fate of the hostages remains far from certain -- Becky Anderson, CNN, Doha.
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HOLMES: Israel is getting some high tech help from the United States in the search for those hostages. CNN's Oren Liebermann reports from the Pentagon.
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OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The U.S. military is flying surveillance drones over Gaza in attempt to provide Israelis with intel about the possible location of hostages and assist in hostage rescue efforts, according to multiple U.S. officials familiar with the operations.
These drones have been flying since October 7th, when the U.S. shortly thereafter said it would help Israel in any way it could on intel and planning for a hostage rescue effort.
These drones -- and we don't know what type of drones they are -- but these drones have been a part of that. They are unarmed surveillance drones, according to the Pentagon, which acknowledged on Friday these operations that are meant to provide intel in the ongoing hostage rescue attempts by flying over southern Gaza.
Take a look at this graphic. That red line -- those numerous red lines, I should say -- show the trajectories and the flight paths of these different drones. You can see them focusing there on southern Gaza over the course of the past several days and weeks.
Now this coming as the U.S. now has two carrier strike groups in the eastern Mediterranean Sea that have been operating and exercising together.
The Defense Department putting out these images of the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower carrier strike group and the USS Gerald R. Ford carrier strike group working together in the Eastern Med. They've been exercising together for the past several days.
And then, shortly thereafter, the Pentagon had announced that the Dwight D. Eisenhower will then go through the Suez Canal and be in the waters of U.S. Central Command -- the waters of the Middle East, essentially.
This as part of a broader effort not only to deter Iran and Iran's proxies and others from getting involved in the fighting in Gaza but also to make U.S. forces have force protection.
We've seen a number of attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria. So this is very much part of that effort to show a massive display of firepower and U.S. force in the region -- Oren Liebermann, CNN, in the Pentagon.
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HOLMES: The destruction in Acapulco from Hurricane Otis was massive. And 10 days later, people in the resort town are still struggling to find --
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HOLMES: -- clean water and other necessities. We'll have that story and more when we come back.
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HOLMES: The week after powerful Hurricane Otis ripped through Acapulco in Mexico, people in the popular tourist destination are still coping without the basic necessities. The storm killed at least 46 people; dozens are still missing. About 80 percent of the city's hotels are severely damaged. That's
according to the Mexican government's preliminary assessment.
At least six people were killed in Tuscany, Italy, on Thursday, after torrential rain and strong winds from the storm and Ciaran tore through the region.
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HOLMES: Now in Nepal, a strong earthquake has killed at least 129 people and injured 140. And officials say the death toll is expected to rise.
The U.S. Geological Survey reports the quake was magnitude 5.6, with the epicenter in the western region of the country. People felt the tremors as far away as the capital of Kathmandu, about 500 kilometers or 300 miles from the center.
Nepal's prime minister has arrived in the area near the epicenter, according to his office. And India's prime minister is expressing his condolences to the earthquake victims.
I'm Michael Holmes. For our international viewers, "CONNECTING AFRICA" is up next. And for those in North America, we have more on the Israel-Hamas war coming up on CNN.
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HOLMES: At least two rockets from Gaza made a direct hit in Sderot on Friday evening, one of them falling close to journalists, including our CNN team.
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HOLMES (voice-over): Now that blast hit a kindergarten courtyard, shrapnel damaging the building and some nearby cars. No casualties reported.
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HOLMES: Meanwhile, an Egyptian border official says 353 foreign nationals were allowed to cross into Egypt from Gaza on Friday, as Israel continues to strike what it says are Hamas targets. A young Palestinian American among the evacuees.
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FARAH, PALESTINIAN AMERICAN EVACUEE: I didn't think to be scared. It happened to me and my friends and my family and my house. And I miss all of my friends. I feel bad knowing that not everybody is safe and lots of people are dying.
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HOLMES: Joining me now is Ricardo Pires. He is a spokesperson with UNICEF, who has been in communication with aid workers on the ground in Gaza.
And thanks for doing so and thanks for the work that your organization does.
In fact, a couple of days ago, a UNICEF spokesman said, quote, "Gaza has become a graveyard for thousands of children, a living hell for everyone else."
Try to give us a sense of how dire conditions are for kids there right now.
RICARDO PIRES, SPOKESPERSON, UNICEF: Thank you for having me, Michael. Very dire, the situation is desperate, it's catastrophic. Right now, for hundreds of thousands of children in Gaza, we need an immediate humanitarian cease-fire and also the release of all the hostages that were taken from their homes in Israel into Gaza.
And right now in the Gaza Strip, children are living a relentless nightmare. Day after day, bombs, fire attacks, death, grief, it's just unbearable for them. They have been enduring this for weeks or longer, a nightmare that no child should ever have to go through.
We have reportedly now over 3.7 thousand children killed since October 7th; 7000+ injured. That is an average of over 400 children killed or injured reportedly every day, Michael. That is an unacceptable number. It is almost one child every 10 minutes. So with these figures, you can imagine how dire the situation is.
HOLMES: They are staggering numbers. I was reading those earlier. More children are being killed in this conflict than in 18 months of the war in Ukraine. And 420 kids a day killed or injured, it is staggering.
Now Israeli kids, as you pointed out, they have been traumatized, of course; 20 are being held hostage right now as we speak.
But UNICEF said that, before this late escalation, more than 800,000 kids in Gaza -- that is three quarters of the entire child population -- were identified as needing mental health and psychological support. That, again, is before this conflict.
We know deaths, we know the injuries.
What is and what will be the psychological impact of this war on kids for probably years to come? PIRES: It is already very heavy, Michael. You can imagine children are like sponges. So they absorb a lot of what is happening around them in their environment.
And children in Gaza but also in Israel have been enduring decades of their ancestors and their parents, decades and decades of, you know, tensions in the region, intensity, conflict, different rounds of conflict.
And these children now, in Gaza, the 800,000 that you mention, three quarters of the child population, they are experiencing nothing else but fear -- fear, grief, loss, insecurity and confusion, obviously. So if, before this escalation, three out of four children were already vulnerable --
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PIRES: -- and reportedly in need of mental health support, we can only imagine what the situation is now. It is only getting worse and it will have a very long-term impact on a whole generation of children.
HOLMES: Yes, I have been to Gaza several times; last, I think, in 2019. Life is always a struggle in Gaza.
Given the life losses but also the loss of perhaps half the housing units in the Strip, the damaged infrastructure, what are going to be the broader, long-term needs once this is over?
What is the world going to need to do to sustain life in Gaza as well as help those kids?
PIRES: It is so hard to imagine because the situation now is so desperate that, you know, the whole Gaza Strip has been basically leveled down to rebel. As you mentioned earlier, it has become a cemetery for children.
And they are dying, they are hiding in schools that were supposed to be places for them to learn and thrive. And now even there they are not safe. They are actually not safe anywhere right now in the Gaza Strip.
So rebuilding that place, that infrastructure, a war infrastructure, hospitals, schools, houses, it is hard to imagine how long it will take but certainly many, many years.
HOLMES: Yes, the world is going to have to come together on that.
With groups and organizations like yours, I always wonder about your staff, how they are doing, because, of course, they are there trying to help and do their jobs. But they live there. They have their own families.
How are your people doing, their kids, what did they tell you?
PIRES: Very distressed, Michael, very distressed. We have been in touch regularly with our staff in the Gaza Strip. And many of them have indeed lost family members, loved ones, children.
We spoke to a colleague the other day and she has two daughters, one 4 years of age and the other, 7. And both of them are living through different traumatizing experiences. Her youngest one was asking her mom the other day why can't she have normal water as she used to?
Now the water tastes so salty and obviously we know the long-term impacts on their health this could have. And her other daughter was experiencing severe symptoms of mental health distress. She was ripping her own hair or scratching her legs until it bled.
And her mom, watching all that, couldn't think of anything else but getting them through the next day, to keep them alive.
So not even concerned at the moment with longer-term impacts that these situations will cause them but just trying to keep them alive. That is how desperate our colleagues are, many of them. And we are happy that none of them have lost their lives but they have certainly seen a lot of grief and lost relatives.
HOLMES: Heartbreaking testimony. Ricardo Pires with UNICEF, thank you so much, appreciate your time and what yours and other organizations are trying to do.
PIRES: Thank you.
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HOLMES: Aid agencies warning that the people of Gaza are running out of supplies. Have a look at this.
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HOLMES (voice-over): You can see crowds of people. This is in Khan Younis, waiting in lines for food and filling up plastic jugs with water, desperate situation. The director of the main U.N. agency in Gaza says the situation there just keeps getting worse.
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THOMAS WHITE, DIRECTOR, UNRWA AFFAIRS, GAZA: We now have over 4,000 people on average in the 147 schools which are now operating as shelters. Conditions there are becoming desperate, particularly in terms of sanitation. And that is just the basic services.
People are having to go out on the street and try and find water and food. And this is for the whole population, really, in Gaza, as food and water is increasingly in short supply. So the situation continues to get worse here in Gaza.
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HOLMES: The spokesperson for the U.N. says it would cost about $1.2 billion to meet the needs of the people in Gaza and the West Bank. And that is just for the rest of this year.
The White House says the U.S. embassy in Cairo has helped more than 100 U.S. citizens and family members get out of Gaza. The departures, which began on Wednesday, are the first since the war between Israel and Hamas began almost a month ago.
And as Melissa Bell reports, as many others are still waiting for the chance to leave.
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MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A tired smile and a wave from one of the lucky few finally allowed to leave Gaza since the war began. These families, just some of the first foreign and dual nationals, finally permitted through the Rafah crossing into Egypt on Wednesday.
The result of a deal brokered by Qatar between Israel, Hamas, --
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BELL (voice-over): -- Egypt and the United States that will allow all foreign and dual nationals to leave the besieged enclave.
Also allowed to leave under the deal, the first Palestinians, 81 of the most severely wounded, those desperate enough for urgent surgical intervention taken one by one in a convoy of ambulances to a field hospital set up a few miles away and to other hospitals in northern Egypt.
Large crowds of foreign nationals had been massing at the border after hearing at the start of the conflict that they'd be allowed out. Families desperately checking to see if they were some of those lucky enough, finally, to get through.
ISMAIL ABU SHAABANE, AMERICAN-PALESTINIAN IN GAZA (through translator): I'm an American living in Gaza.
We heard that the crossing was open but unfortunately we discovered that it was open for specific nationalities at the moment and we had to turn back because the cellular network was down and we weren't aware that there was a list. We hope to see our names on the list tomorrow or the next day.
BELL (voice-over): As the only crossing from Gaza to anywhere other than Israel, all eyes had been on Rafah ever since the total siege of the Strip was announced by Israel.
It is the only way in and out now and what's gone in has been painfully little. A further 20 trucks arriving on Wednesday, a drop in the ocean, say aid organizations given the needs inside.
For some here it's been days or even weeks of waiting and praying. With ever dwindling supplies and under the constant fear of Israeli strikes, even here in the south where civilians had been told by the IDF to evacuate, nowhere in Gaza is safe for a small few a chance to leave and live again -- Melissa Bell, CNN, Cairo.
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HOLMES: The leader of Hezbollah says America is fully responsible for the war in Gaza. Hassan Nasrallah reiterating a call for a cease-fire which he said the U.S. is preventing and that is why Islamic resistance factions are targeting American positions in Iraq.
The Hezbollah secretary-general also warned that, quote, "All scenarios are possible on the border between Lebanon and Israel," where Hezbollah is based.
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HASSAN NASRALLAH, SECRETARY GENERAL, HEZBOLLAH (through translator): The worry is that the possibility of this front actually escalating or going into a fully fledged war or becoming a wider war is a realistic one.
It can happen and the enemy has to make every provision for this. And I'm sure they do make every provision for this and I'm sure they do think about it.
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HOLMES: Nasrallah said all Israel has done in the last 75 years is, quote, "commit massacres," but that Israel will not win this time and Gaza would be victorious.
Hezbollah is backed by Iran and has been skirmishing almost daily with the Israeli military on the Israel-Lebanon border.
Donald Trump's son, Eric, took the stand in New York on Friday for a second day of testimony in his father's civil fraud trial. We will have details on when the former president himself will take the stand. That is after the break.
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HOLMES: A federal appeals court has issued a temporary freeze to a gag order that kept Donald Trump from speaking out about his federal election subversion criminal case. The former president can now publicly criticize possible witnesses in the case.
Also on Friday, the judge overseeing Trump's civil fraud trial expanded the gag order in those proceedings to include Trump's attorneys.
And Donald Trump's son, Eric, finished up his testimony. Kara Scannell has more on that. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Eric Trump wrapped his testimony on Friday after being on the stand for four hours over two days. In his testimony, he stood by the accuracy of these financial statements, something that the judge has already found to be fraudulent.
Eric Trump testified that, after he was comforted by lawyers and accountants, that these financial statements were, quote, "perfect." He says he was more than happy to sign them, adding he wouldn't have signed anything that was inaccurate.
The judge also extended a gag order in this case to attorneys, saying they cannot make any references both in court and outside of court about any of the confidential communications the judge has with his staff.
This is after Trump's lawyers have raised questions of potential bias with the judge's clerk passing notes to him during the trial and during testimony. Next on the stand will be Donald Trump. And Eric Trump after leaving court said that his father is more than ready.
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ERIC TRUMP, DONALD'S SON: (INAUDIBLE). He thinks this is one of the most incredible injustices that he has ever seen. And it really is.
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SCANNELL: Trump's testimony is expected to last all day Monday. Next up will be Ivanka Trump. She is scheduled to testify on Wednesday and, after that, the New York attorney general's office will rest their case -- Kara Scannell, CNN, New York.
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HOLMES: Courts in Colorado and Minnesota are hearing lawsuits aimed at keeping Trump off the 2024 presidential ballot in those states. On Friday, witness testimony wrapped up in Colorado.
And the Denver district court is set to hear closing arguments on the 15th of this month. The lawsuits say that the former president is ineligible to hold office under the 14th Amendment insurrection clause because of his attempts to overthrow the 2020 election.
One of the sticking points in both cases is whether enforcement falls under the courts or under Congress.
Once again, the U.S. president acting as consoler in chief. Just ahead, we will have more on Joe Biden's solemn visit to the site of the latest U.S. mass shooting. We'll be right back.
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HOLMES: On Friday, President Biden and the first lady were in Lewiston, Maine, meeting with the families of last week's mass shooting victims. A gunman opened fire at a bowling alley and a restaurant, killing 18 people before he was found dead from an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound. CNN's Omar Jimenez with more.
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OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Even though it's been more than a week since these shootings, the pain is still very raw for so many in this community. That was the climate that President Biden was visiting over the course of Friday.
He met with first responders, nurses, others that were on the front lines of responding to the pair of shootings that happened a little bit more than a week ago now.
You can't go far in this Lewiston community and the surrounding areas without seeing signs of support, even just behind me where I am outside the bowling alley, which was the first site of where the mass shootings happened that night.
We've got signs of support, saying "Lewiston strong;" saying things simply like "Be nice," acknowledging the climate and the pain so many are going through still even at this point. Eighteen people killed total in these shootings and their families are still trying to figure out how to process.
Now President Biden, along with meeting with first responders, he also met with members of some of the victims' families. He also took some moments to make some remarks about his visit. Take a listen to some of what he said in regards to the political climate around some of these mass shootings.
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I know consensus is ultimately possible.
This is about common sense, reasonable and responsible measures to protect our children, our families, our communities, because, regardless of our politics, this is about protecting our freedom to go to a bowling alley, a restaurant, a school, a church without being shot and killed.
JIMENEZ: And another thing the president talked about is how he's had to make too many of these visits before, including in places like Buffalo and Uvalde and, of course, now here in Lewiston, Maine.
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JIMENEZ: One thing we heard from a community member ahead of his visit about whether they wanted him to be here, they said they were glad he was here because it showed that the highest levels of the U.S. government cared about what happened here in Lewiston. And another thing that my crew and I have heard overwhelmingly, even in the hours after the shooting actually happened a little over a week ago at this point, is that they couldn't believe something like this happened here in Maine.
And I say that because when you look at their yearly homicides across the state, that number is comparable to the amount of people that were lost in a single night in this community.
And that gives you an idea of the shock but also the amount that they're actually having to process over what happened, again, in just a matter of minutes at two separate locations, here at this bowling alley and just a few miles from me at that bar and restaurant as well.
Every indication we have seen has shown that they have banded together in the face of this adversity and they are going to try and move forward, stronger together.
That's why you can't go far in this community without seeing symbols like the state of Maine and a heart over where we are in Lewiston to represent the love and the strength they will have for each other moving forward -- Omar Jimenez, CNN, Lewiston, Maine.
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HOLMES: The White House is warning it is running out of money for Ukraine and it needs lawmakers to act. The U.S. announced more than $400 million in new military aid on Friday, which didn't require congressional approval.
But that money has almost dried up. And President Joe Biden is asking Congress to approve another $100 billion, which includes money for both Ukraine and Israel. However, the House has passed a separate bill that funds only Israel. House Speaker Republican Mike Johnson, due to Ukraine aid, will be tied to strengthening U.S. border security, which is likely to face pushback from Democrats.
I'm Michael Holmes. Thanks for spending part of your day with me. We will have more coverage of the Israel-Hamas war after a quick break.
