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Deadly Blast At Al-Maghazi Refugee Camp in Central Gaza; IDF: Evacuation Route to South Gaza to Open Sunday; Pro-Palestinian Protesters March to White House; U.S. Warns Israel: Global Outcry Will Intensify; More Than 150 Killed in Powerful Earthquake in Nepal. Aired 1-2a ET

Aired November 05, 2023 - 01:00   ET

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

[01:00:43]

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome, everyone. I'm Michael Holmes live from Atlanta with our continued coverage of Israel at war.

And we are getting horrific reports at this hour of an explosion at a crowded refugee camp in central Gaza with dozens of people reportedly killed. The densely packed al Maghazi Camp lies to the south of Gaza City. A local official says at least 33 were killed, mostly women and children, and there are far too many wounded to treat. The IDF has not commented on whether it was targeting the area.

Meanwhile, in just a few hours, the Israeli military is expected to open a road corridor so people in Gaza City can flee south. At least that's the plan. The IDF is offering what it calls safe passage during a four-hour period beginning at 10:00 a.m. local time.

But it is unclear if people in Gaza will even get that message given the widespread electricity and communications blackouts throughout the war or whether Hamas will try to prevent them from leaving.

The IDF also released video of its chief of staff, Justin Sidegar (ph), on Saturday a week into the ground operation.

And the Israeli defense minister had this message for the people of Gaza bearing the brunt of this offensive.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

YOAV GALLANT, ISRAELI DEFENSE MINISTER (through translator): We will get to him. We will get to Yahya Sinwar and we will eliminate him. I say here to the people of Gaza, if you get to them first, it will shorten this war.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: CNN's Ivan Watson joins me live from Hong Kong with more.

Tell us more about this corridor opening in a few hours to let more people from northern Gaza evacuate? How is it going to work? There have been attacks on that road in the past. IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: There sure have.

I mean, this was announced by a spokesperson for the Israeli military. He put out a statement on Twitter or X in Arabic, basically saying that people should travel south on the Salah Al-Deen Street between 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. local time and they should get south of Wadi Gaza, which is this kind of wetlands that kind of bisects the Gaza Strip.

Now, there are concerns here because there are widespread power outages, and telecommunications outages. So how can people hunker down in this more than four-week conflict get that statement in the first place?

And then the second concern is that there have been attacks on that very road, Salah Al-Deen Street in just the past couple of weeks. Last week, we heard from the director of the al Quds Hospital who said ambulances had been targeted with artillery that were trying to drive south on that proposed evacuation road. And then on October 14th, Hamas claimed that Israeli air strikes hit evacuation convoys also trying to move south on that very road.

So, big concerns there. Meanwhile, we're continuing to hear warnings of catastrophic conditions in the hospitals. The Palestinian ministry of health out of Ramallah, out of the West Bank, it says that more than -- at least 150 health care professionals in Gaza have been killed since the beginning of this war and is warning of dire situations in the hospitals as they are running out of power, out of fuel to run their generators.

The Israeli defense minister has said no fuel will be delivered to Gaza, so that situation in those hospitals is only expected to get worse.

HOLMES: Yeah. I want -- I wanted to ask you about what we've been reporting just recently about, you know, while people are being urged to head south. There was this deadly blast at a refugee camp, which if I'm not mistaken is below the line that Israel set for Gazans to be south of?

WATSON: You're absolutely right. If you look at the geography here, the Gaza Wadi barrier that the Israeli military is urging civilians to move south of, well, this densely populated refugee camp called Al Maghazi is located to the south of that.

[01:05:07]

And we have numerous eyewitness accounts of a deadly blast in this very densely populated refugee camp taking place Saturday night with the head of nursing at a hospital nearby saying he counted at least 30 bodies from what he claimed was an Israeli airstrike that took place Saturday night.

Take a listen to one of the survivors of this attack.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BLAST EYEWITNESS (through translator): I saw a red light. Then we were shaking on the sofa. I saw all my sisters screaming. Then I saw my father. When I found myself alive, I looked to see who was still alive. We turned on the torch, and my siblings were alive, but I did not find my father. I finally found him next to me. I moved him. I moved his hands. I moved his face. He did not respond.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATSON: Another survivor said his two children were killed in this nighttime strike while the family had been sleeping. Again, Michael, this refugee camp which the United Nations says has more than 33,000 inhabitants in good times residing in an area of about 0.6 square kilometers is located south of Wadi Gaza, which is where the Israeli military is urging civilians to move to today. It just underscores the fact that no place in Gaza is safe for civilians right now.

And I will cite the latest statistics coming out of the Palestinian ministry of health in Ramallah in the west bank. That's not controlled by Hamas, saying that now, the death toll stands at more than 9,400 people killed in Gaza in just over four weeks. That's as of Saturday. More than 24,000 wounded, and that ministry of health says 73 percent of those people, of those fatalities, are from vulnerable groups including children, women, and the elderly -- Michael.

HOLMES: Staggering numbers.

Ivan, thank you so much for the update. Ivan Watson there in Hong Kong for us.

Meanwhile, CNN was part of the first group of foreign media granted access to Israeli forces inside Gaza. Journalists embedded with IDF in Gaza operated under the observation of Israeli commanders in the field and are not permitted to move unaccompanied within the strip. They want to be transparent about this as a condition to enter Gaza under IDF escort, outlets had to submit all materials and footage to the Israeli military for review prior to publication.

CNN did agree to those terms in order to provide a limited window into Israel's operations in Gaza.

Here's CNN's Jeremy Diamond, who was there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At this Israeli military post on the outskirts of Gaza City, the fighting is fierce.

IDF SOLDIER: It's okay. It's us.

DIAMOND: Okay.

LT. COL. GILAD PASTEMAK, 828TH BRIGADE ISRAEL DEFENSE FORCES: In the center of the Gaza Strip, IDF soldiers are fighting against militants that are using all the houses that they can in order to harm and to get to the IDF soldiers. DIAMOND: One week into its ground offensive, Israel's military says

it has encircled Gaza City from posts like this.

We're right now in an Israeli military post inside the Gaza Strip, about one kilometer inside of Gaza. Gaza City is just this way, and as you can hear behind me, there was a lot of ongoing fighting between Israeli forces and Hamas militants. What they are trying to do right now is to flank the Hamas positions. That's what the battalion commander just told me.

And all of this intended to try and cut off Gaza City from the southern part of the strip as Israeli forces also move in from the north.

CNN was part of a small group of reporters given access to Israeli forces inside Gaza for the first time since the outbreak of the war. Entering Gaza using the same roads Hamas militants use to carry out their brutal attack on October 7th.

LT. COL. RAN CNAAN, 828TH BRIGADE ISRAEL DEFENSE FORCES: And today, we're going on the exact same roads to the same neighborhoods to their area, to their trucks, you know, to go there and be able to get them pay the price and to eliminate Hamas organization that held this attack on the state of Israel.

DIAMOND: The Israeli military is taking us into Gaza. We are in the armored personnel carrier right now. We're off into Gaza, to the southern point of Gaza City.

But still, Israeli forces face the danger of ambush from underground tunnels.

IDF SOLDIER: And over there, over there and inside the, the neighborhood, also --

DIAMOND: So in address this area, there are at least three tunnels.

IDF SOLDIER: I believe, I believe at least, yeah.

[01:10:01]

DIAMOND: Israel says many of those tunnels lie below residential buildings, and for weeks, it has relentlessly bombed those targets, killing and injuring thousands of civilians in the process.

The forces here say they are now working to secure a humanitarian corridor to help civilians flee the heaviest fighting.

PASTEMAK: This is justice for the brigade, the battalion right here. The population will be able to go from the north to the south surely and freely, in order to get the IDF to what it has to do, north to the murderous Hamas.

DIAMOND: For these soldiers, achieving that goal may see them deployed deep into Gaza City, where the prospect of deadly urban combat awaits. PASTEMAK: Well, the IDF will be here as long as it takes, weeks,

months, years, until he makes sure that Israel is safe and secure for the long time period. If you need to get inside Gaza house by house, it's exactly what's going to happen.

DIAMOND: Jeremy Diamond, CNN, with Israeli forces in Gaza.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Britain's prime minister coming under pressure from a massive rally in central London on Saturday.

Tens of thousands gathering to demand an end to the violence in the war between Israel and Hamas. This is the third straight weekend of demonstrations.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's a bloodshed. And the Israelis are targeting hospitals, schools, and you can't -- we can't stand by and just watch this.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We can only hope. We just have to keep going until they do. There is power in people. There is so many people here, and we just have to keep going until they do listen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Police report making 29 arrests for inciting racial hatred. Other racially motivated crimes, violence, and assaulting a police officer. It wasn't just London. In addition to the thousands you see gathered here in Berlin, demonstrations took place in capital cities such as Paris, Santiago, Chile, and Caracas in Venezuela.

And in Washington, protester marched to the White House carrying Palestinian flags and signs that read "stop the massacre, let Gaza live".

CNN's Gabe Cohen spoke to some people who are calling out U.S. President Joe Biden.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GABE COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, thousands of protesters marched through Washington and ended up here at the White House after that huge rally just a few blocks away at Freedom Plaza. Hours of speakers who called for an end to the bombings and the ground operations in Gaza, but also demanding that the White House and President Joe Biden call for a cease-fire and end its unequivocal support for Israel, saying that it could be a serious political issue for the president in 2024 if he does not call for that cease-fire.

Here's what some of those protesters told me.

AAMINA ALIZAI, PROTESTER: My message to President Biden is, I voted for you and I regret it. COHEN: Will you vote for him in 2024?

ALIZAI: Absolutely not.

RIBHI, PROTESTER: I'm not going to vote for him. I'm not going to vote for him, because he's supporting Israel. He has control of $13 billion to do more killing of the Palestinian people.

COHEN: And the organizers told me they had hoped this would be the largest free Palestine rally in U.S. history. And while I can't confirm that I can tell you, it is by far the largest we have seen here in Washington since the war began last month.

Gabe Cohen, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: As protests ramp up, fears are growing that the Israel/Hamas war could turn into a wider conflict.

Here's Firas Maksad, senior fellow at the Middle East Institute.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FIRAS MAKSAD, SENIOR FELLOW, MIDDLE EAST INSTITUTE: Listening to the report about the mass protests taking place in Washington, I can tell you the crux of the Arab position which Secretary of State Blinken was confronted with is that what happens in Gaza doesn't stay in Gaza. It plays out on the streets in terms of anger and frustration around the world, but particularly in these Arab countries. I mean, I'm thinking about the royal family in Jordan. I'm thinking about Lebanon. I'm thinking about all these countries that really have to contend with anger on their streets and the political consequences of that.

So, what we saw today, what Secretary Blinken heard, is an angry message from Arab partners of America, asking, demanding, a cease- fire. And I should also add that those are no friends of Hamas whatsoever. In fact, they have no love lost for Hamas. They would very much like to see Hamas gone. It's just a matter that the long they are bloodshed continues in Gaza, the more difficult the political situation is going to be for America's Arab partners.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[01:15:03]

HOLMES: And as we heard there, those Arab partners calling for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza while meeting with the U.S. secretary of state.

Coming up, why Antony Blinken says that's the wrong move, and what he's calling for instead.

Also, hundreds of Israelis protest the government's failure over Hamas' attack on October 7th. We'll have details on that.

And why pregnant women in Gaza are facing new dangers nearly a month into this war. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: The U.S. special envoy for Middle East humanitarian issues, David Satterfield, said earlier on Saturday that the U.S. is looking into establishing field hospitals in southern Gaza. He says it depends on whether guarantees can be made that staff would be able to enter and exit the area safely. The official also shared that Israel is in conversations to bring hospital ships off the coast of Gaza. All of this coming a day after a blast outside Al Shifa hospital and as the Palestinian death toll continues to climb.

[01:20:02]

The collapse of Gaza's health care system poses an extreme risk for pregnant women who are already among the enclave's most vulnerable. The U.N. population fund estimates 50,000 pregnant women are caught up in the war right now. They warn that 5,500 of them are due to give birth within the next 30 days. Without fuel and medical supplies, the U.N. agency says they are already facing danger posting, quote, pregnant women in Gaza endure forced c-sections without anesthesia, which poses huge threat to their lives. We call for immediate cease- fire to ensure access to maternal health services and safeguard their well-being.

To tell us about it is Laila Baker, the United Nations population fund's regional director for Arab states. She joins me from Cairo.

And thanks so much for making the time. The numbers are pretty staggering, 50,000 pregnant women I think it is in Gaza, perhaps 150 births every day. Babies don't stop coming because there's a war on. What are conditions like for these women?

LAILA BAKER, REGIONAL DIRECTOR FOR ARAB STATES, U.N. POPULATION FUND: Good morning. I think you described it very well. Even one woman trying to give birth, imagine that you are in this context that was just described by the previous reporter, bombs continually raining down on Gaza relentlessly. There's nowhere safe to flee.

Over 130 attacks on health care facilities, 70 percent of the primary care that women need to deliver safely are gone. And then those conditions, women are not only subjected to the physical deprivation of good health care, but also the mental anguish of what will happen next to me, to my baby, to my family?

HOLMES: A doctor in one Gaza hospital I was reading, he said he's delivered babies by emergency C-section with no power, using the light of a mobile phone, no anesthetic. I mean, a natural birth would be difficult enough in this situation, what about those who need interventions, cesarean sections, surgery, and so on?

BAKER: We are critically -- we are critically concerned about the entire population of 2.2 million people living in Gaza. But for those 5,500 women who have to give birth, among them the ones who will have complicated labor like you were talking about, put yourself in the shoes of that woman and her family. She goes to a hospital, and if she can find a qualified surgeon, someone who can help deliver her baby under those circumstances, which is not a given anymore. We're working with one-third the personnel after all of the attacks in the last four weeks on Gaza.

She may have to make the choice of having that delivery with no anesthesia. I can't imagine the trauma and the decision of those poor women to have to do that. For the surgeon who has to choose whether or not he or she will intervene and cause pain to a patient. And even in the event that she could deliver safely at that moment, there's no water, there's no fuel, there's no transportation for her, and nowhere safe to flee.

HOLMES: Yeah, yeah.

BAKER: We have accounts from many people who say, we can feel the bombs, we know our babies feel them. Imagine the anguish and anxiety of having to live with that, even if you could deliver your baby safely.

HOLMES: That's an extraordinary thought. We're talking about women who get to hospitals, having these problems. A lot of these women aren't able to get to hospitals. I was also wanting to ask you about those pregnant women not due for perhaps a few weeks or months. I mean, what are the challenges for them of getting the basics of nutrition, prenatal care, to keep their babies healthy? Because that can have an impact on their child going forward.

BAKER: Of course, it can. And maybe I can just start with the story of a colleague of mine who is in Gaza. She is a professional woman who was simply displaced under the pretext of evacuation to what should have been a, quote/unquote, safe site. She has a 9-month-old child who stopped breast feeding for the majority of time because she didn't have enough water, enough food, or enough safety for her to be able to breast feed with any -- with any consistency.

And this is a woman who has a life, who has a home in Gaza. Imagine for the other women.

[01:25:02]

The UNFPA is trying desperately through the -- if there could be a cease-fire and a humanitarian corridor opened -- not a pause. This is not about a pause. We need the complete cessation of bombing of Gaza, unhindered, unimpeded access to the population to be able not only to deliver to the civilian population of 2.2 million, including the women who are pregnant right now, but also to be able to deliver in safety.

Health care facilities are not a target. U.N. personnel are not a target. Humanitarian workers are not a target. And yet we've lost 75 personnel from UNRWA alone. That is the respect for humanitarian law that is necessary at this point in order to interphone for the lives of those women we are so desperately concerned about right now.

HOLMES: Amid all the carnage and loss in Gaza, the thought of 150, 180 women having to give birth every day under those circumstances is just bone chilling. Laila Baker, thank you so much getting up early for us there in Cairo.

Such an important part of this story.

BAKER: Thank you so much for having me.

HOLMES: Anger on the streets of Jerusalem as hundreds of anti- government demonstrators gathered in the city on Saturday. The police say they were protesting Israel's failure to prevent the October 7 Hamas attacks in which more than 200 people were taken hostage. They say three people were arrested at the rally.

Meanwhile, the families of the hostages held a separate rally in Tel Aviv demanding greater action by the government to secure their release.

I'm Michael Holmes. For our international viewers, "INSIDE AFRICA" is next. For those watching in North America, the news continues after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:30:35]

HOLMES: Welcome back. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM with me, Michael Holmes. Thanks for your company.

Now, a hospital official in Central Gaza says at least 33 people have been killed and 100 others injured in a blast in a densely populated refugee camp. That official says he holds Israel responsible, saying one of the houses in the camp which was crowded was bombed. Israel's military has not commented as to whether it targeted the area.

According to the United Nations Relief Agency, the camp is home to some 33,000 people, this coming just hours before Israel Defense Forces say they will open a window of what they say is safe passage for people who move from northern Gaza to southern Gaza.

U.S. President Joe Biden says progress has been made on a, quote, humanitarian pause in the fighting between Israel and Hamas but did not provide any details on that.

However, as CNN's Priscilla Alvarez now reports, the president and his team have warned Israel that it doesn't have long before support for its military offensive erodes.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: President Biden and his top advisers are warning Israel that it will be more difficult for them to achieve their military goals as global outcry intensifies over the situation in Gaza. U.S. senior officials have been keenly aware of the scenes of destruction and dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza, and just last week, President Biden was confronted at a campaign fund- raiser by a protester calling for a cease-fire.

And the president acknowledging that protester, saying that he thinks there should a pause. That pause being a humanitarian pause, an extension of what U.S. officials have been calling for that would allow aid to go into Gaza as well as the release of hostages from Gaza. Now, Secretary of State Antony Blinken is taking that call to the region, meeting with Israeli officials as well as foreign ministers, also calling for a humanitarian pause and pushing for that as the scenes of destruction continue to fuel outrage.

Now, the president's closest advisers believe it is a matter of weeks, not months, that the United States can continue rebuffing the pressure to publicly call for a cease-fire. All of this underscoring the complicated political landscape the White House is trying to navigate.

Priscilla Alvarez, CNN, traveling with the president.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is heading to Turkey on Sunday. He met with Jordan's King Abdullah on Saturday and other Arab leaders as well who were all calling for an immediate cease-fire in the Israel/Hamas war. And he voiced his opposition to that idea.

Our Becky Anderson with more on Blinken's latest diplomatic tour.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BECKY ANDERSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with key Arab allies in Amman on Saturday, the message from Saudi Arabia, Jordan, the UAE, Qatar, and Egypt -- clear and consistent.

AYMAN SAFAD, JORDANIAN MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND EXPATRIATES (through translator): In Arab countries, we demand an immediate cease-fire.

ANDERSON: The response from America's top diplomat, also consistent.

ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: It's our view that a cease- fire now would simply leave Hamas in place, able to regroup and repeat what it did on October 7th.

ANDERSON: Sharing a stage with Blinken, the Jordanian and Egyptian foreign ministers said Israel has gone beyond a justified response.

SAMEH SHOUKRY, EGYPTIAN FOREIGN MINISTER (through translator): Israel targeting innocent civilians and facilities, medical facilities, paramedics, in addition to trying to force immigration for Palestinians to leave their lands -- this cannot be legitimate self- defense at all.

ANDERSON: While he was in Amman, Antony Blinken made a point of stressing that the U.S. and its Arab partners share the, quote, same fundamental interests and objectives to end this war. But if he arrived in Amman hoping to share plans and build consensus for a postwar future for Gaza, he likely left disappointed.

[01:35:04] SAFAD: What happens next? How can we even entertain what will happen in Gaza when we do not know what will be left as this war stops?

ANDERSON: The message from Arab leaders, no talk about what happens the day after this conflict ends until all parties agree on what happens today.

Becky Anderson, CNN, Doha.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Khaled Elgindy is a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute where he directs the program on Palestine and Israeli/Palestinian affairs. He joins us now from Washington. Good to see you, sir.

I wanted to start with this. The Jordanian foreign minister said, quote, he said the whole region is sinking in a sea of hatred that will define generations to come. A few days ago, we heard the U.S. defense secretary, Lloyd Austin, say a lesson that the U.S. learned in counterterrorism is that actions could, quote, create a resistance to your effort that lasts for generations.

Do you see that developing now, that while Israel is trying to destroy Hamas after its terror attack in Israel, that while trying to do that, it will create more radicalization, not less?

KHALED ELGINDY, SENIOR FELLOW, MIDDLE EAST INSTITUTE: I think it's certainly on that path right now, the trajectory that the events are headed toward certainly point in that direction. There is a real sense of anger across the Arab world at the United States in particular, obviously also Israel, but the United States as Israel's primary backer militarily and otherwise.

And, of course, there is quite a lot of anger and rage even among Palestinians, certainly in Gaza, where there really is no place that is safe for the 2 million plus people who live there and across the Palestinian territory, in the west bank as well. So it certainly looks like we're creating the -- precisely the kind of conditions that will ultimately backfire. Just the enormity of the death and destruction in Gaza is really unprecedented.

HOLMES: You mentioned the U.S., and it is interesting. Israel is essentially ignoring or rejecting U.S. calls for a pause, let alone a cease-fire. There's a U.S. relationship with Israel that's being dealt with. Relationships with the Arab world which seem a little fractured. We saw that play out on Saturday, all while that death and suffering in Gaza grows by the minute.

How precarious is the U.S. position as it balances all of those things?

ELGINDY: Well, it doesn't appear to be balancing those things at the moment. Right now, they are still very much openly hostile toward the idea of a cease-fire. They've only recently come around to the notion of a humanitarian pause, which is n really a legal concept. No one is quite sure exactly what that means.

And they -- to the extent that they're using their leverage with the Israelis, it doesn't appear to be producing any results. I mean, we're constantly told by administration officials that they are expressing their concerns about civilian casualties and about the humanitarian catastrophe that is unfolding. We're now almost -- we're now four weeks without water, fuel, and the basic necessities of life.

And there is, in addition to the bombardment, there's real humanitarian crisis going on. And the Israelis, they're entirely unmoved. So we don't see whatever kind of pressure the United States might be applying really producing any moving of the needle at all.

HOLMES: Bigger picture, I mean, shouldn't a strategy be to turn Palestinians against groups like Hamas by offering them an alternative? You know, the Gaza Strip is not Hamas writ large. There are no longer any obvious efforts to create a pathway for Palestinians for self-rule, self-determination, let alone a state of some sort, which seems to be forlorn hope these days.

How important is it to long-term peace that that pathway return?

ELGINDY: Oh, it's extremely important. And it's precisely the absence of that political horizon or hope is precisely what led us to this crisis in the first place, the growing sense of despair among Palestinians.

[01:40:05]

And now, of course, that's been compounded infinitely. And the reality is, the brutal reality is that neither Israelis nor the Americans have any clear idea of what an end game would look like. And so, everyone is certain that they don't want to go back to the status quo that existed before October, but no one has any idea of what will come next other than a continuation of this assault on Gaza.

And so, what we're looking at in the future is, if the Israelis are successful in removing Hamas, we're going to have a combination of a security and governing vacuum plus enormous suffering and misery and destruction on the ground. And those are precisely the ingredients that you would expect for radical movements to emerge.

HOLMES: Yeah, always good to get your analysis.

Khaled Elgindy, I wish we had more time, we do not. Thanks so much.

ELGINDY: Thank you.

HOLMES: Still to come after a quick break, a Palestinian American family shares their story of loss with CNN. Dozens of their relatives were killed in Gaza in just one day. That's ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: A Palestinian American family is in mourning after dozens of their relatives were killed in Gaza. In just 24 hours, three generations of a family were gone. The youngest just 3 months old.

CNN's Isabel Rosales brings us their story. We warn you, some of the images you are about to see might be disturbing.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ISABEL ROSALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A crowd of neighbors and survivors working together to bury loved ones.

[01:45:04]

Wrapped in white burial shrouds, their bodies are carried and lined up inside a mass grave. They belong to one family.

Thousands of miles away in the U.S., family members across three states are united in grief.

EYAD ABU SHABAN, 42 RELATIVES KILLED IN GAZA: I'm still in this nightmare. I'm still not -- I haven't woke up yet.

ROSALES: In Florida, Eyad Abu Shaban can't bear the unimaginable loss.

E. ABU SHABAN: That's my cousin and his son.

ROSALES: Three generations gone in a single day. Back-to-back airstrikes the family says, in Gaza, killing 42 relatives, the youngest just 3 months old, Abu Shaban tells CNN.

A video shot by a neighbor shows charred ruins and rubble, all that's left of. Sakalah (ph) family compound.

E. ABU SHABAN: We've never seen in this day and age what the whole world is watching, innocent people just being torn apart. Families, whole families just wiped off the map.

ROSALES: The family blames the deaths on Israeli airstrikes. CNN cannot independently confirm that.

Israel has launched numerous airstrikes on Gaza city since the terror attacks on October 7th, including multiple strikes in the area that day. The Israel defense forces did not comment on the purported airstrikes.

E. ABU SHABAN: In my family members, we have no Hamas members. They're just ordinary people, doctors and grandmothers and grandfathers and uncles and aunts and children. I mean, if you want to exterminate Hamas, you should go to the source.

ROSALES: Among the dead, four brothers, all doctors. Family members say they operated Gaza's largest network of family-owned eye clinics. An independent journalist on the ground captured the aftermath and the moment survivors pulled body after body from beneath the rubble, including Mona Abu Shaban's uncle, his wife, and son. The three had recently left their home in a different part of the city to stay at the Sakalah compound, Mona says. MONA ABU SHABAN, 42 RELATIVES KILLED IN GAZA: Their previous home where they were at before, they were told to evacuate. So they assumed they were going to be safe. So they went to a safe area, a safe house, basically.

ROSALES: Watching from afar in Ohio, Mona is pleading not only for a cease-fire but long-term action.

M. ABU SHABAN: We can't just say, okay, we're going to stop bombing and then it's over. You have to give them, you know, their dignity. You have to give the Palestinians a place to call home.

ROSALES: In Minnesota, community members fill up an Islamic center, praying in support of the Sakalah family. In the face of so much loss, their family has no time to properly mourn. Overcome by constant worry for the more than 2 million palestinians in Gaza caught in the crossfire.

E. ABU SHABAN: There's a sense of helplessness. There's no -- the only thing we can do is pray.

ROSALES: Two family members survived, including a woman who was on her balcony when the air strikes hit. That's according to relatives in Minnesota. The family is extremely worried about them. Communication with relatives in Gaza is not easy right now.

Mona tells me that they are essentially hunkering down, but are unable to leave because the only official way out so far is available only to foreign nationals and injured Palestinians, according to officials and Egyptian media.

Isabel Rosales, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOMES: Still to come on the program, searching for survivors in Nepal after a major earthquake there that hit in the middle of the night, flattening villages while people slept. We'll have details when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:52:28]

HOLMES: Let me bring you up to speed on some of the day's other news stories.

Hundreds pulled to safety from migrant boats off the Canary Islands on Friday. More than 700 people rescued from four boats. For of those people died. Spain says the number of migrants arriving in the Canary Islands has more than doubled over the last year as controls are being tightened in the Mediterranean.

It is nearly 7:00 a.m. in Germany and the Hamburg airport is at a complete standstill. All flights in and out halted for hours now because of a family hostage situation. Police say a 35-year-old man smashed through security barriers and drove his car onto the tarmac and underneath a plane on Saturday. He's reportedly still inside that car along with his 4-year-old daughter.

Officials say a substantial amount of special forces, as they put it, are on the ground trying to resolve the situation. We'll bring you any updates as we get them.

Rescuers feverishly trying to get food and other supplies to a remote area of Nepal after a powerful earthquake that struck while people slept on Friday night. Some villages almost leveled. Police say 157 people have been killed. That number could go up.

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HOLMES (voice-over): Devastation in this village in northwestern Nepal. Not a single structure in sight is still standing. Survivors say a nighttime earthquake magnitude 5.6 shook them awake.

KAMALA OLI, SURVIVOR (through translator): We were sleeping. The earthquake came when we were sleeping. The house was shaking, but we escaped and survived. There are three of us in the house, one got killed, only two survived.

HOLMES: Rescue operations are under way to try to find survivors trapped in the massive piles of bricks and wood that were once homes.

Security forces have been deployed to assist in those efforts. Nepalese police say it's estimated 90 percent of houses in some villages were destroyed.

But the rocky terrain and the remote location of the quake zone some 500 kilometers west of Kathmandu is slowing down some search and rescue teams.

Officials say they can't contact some of the hardest-hit areas where about 190,000 people live in villages in the hills of the Himalayan Mountains. It's still unknown how badly some of those places were affected, though injured people are packing local hospitals.

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Others are sleeping outdoors in the cold without tents or gathering at shelters, some too frightened to go back to their homes, many without a home to return to.

The country's prime minister visited the quake zone on Saturday to offer his condolences and support, both of which the country could need more of if the death toll rises as officials have warned. The quake is already the deadliest in Nepal since 2015 when at least 9,000 people were killed when two earthquakes struck the country.

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HOLMES: Negotiators for striking Hollywood film and television actors are reviewing what is being described as a best and final offer from the Major Hollywood studios. It's not clear that a deal will be reached, though. The union and studio executives have been meeting on and off since SAG-AFTRA actors went on strike on July the 14th. They're asking for higher pay for streaming services, better benefits, and restrictions on the use of artificial intelligence.

If a deal is reached, it would still need to be ratified by members of the 160,000-member union before going into effect.

Matthew Perry's funeral was a true gathering of friends. "People" magazine reporting the actor's farewell took place Friday in Los Angeles, and all five of his costars from their hit TV show "Friends" attended.

The L.A. Fire Department says the 54-year-old was found unconscious in a Jacuzzi at his home last Saturday. The cause of death has not been officially determined. The Los Angeles County medical examiner's office is still investigating.

I'm Michael Holmes. Thanks for spending part of your day with me.

"THE WHOLE STORY WITH ANDERSON COOPER" is next, and more news an hour from now with Kim Brunhuber.

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