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IDF Says, Evacuation Route to South Gaza to Open Today; Thousands in Northern Gaza Seek Refuge in Hospital; U.S. Warns Israel Global Outcry Will Intensify. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired November 05, 2023 - 03:00   ET

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

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KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to all you watching in the United States, Canada, around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber with CNN's continuing coverage of the Israel-Hamas War. It's 3:00 A.M. here in Atlanta, 10:00 A.M. in Gaza, where we have two major developments we're following.

Right now, the Israeli military is expected to open a safe road for people to leave Gaza City and head south, this as Israeli forces fight their way into the city. The IDF says the offer of safe passage to civilians is only good for four hours, until 2:00 P.M. local time.

Now, one of the refugee camps south of the line where Palestinians have been told to go was hit by a deadly explosion several hours ago. A Palestinian hospital official says more than 30 were killed and more than 100 wounded. Israeli military hasn't commented on whether it targeted the area.

CNN's Ivan Watson joins us from Hong Kong with more. So, Ivan, let's start with that explosion in the Gaza refugee camp. What more are we learning about this?

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. So, the refugee is called al-Maghazi. According to the United Nations, it is very densely populated, with at least 33,000 people living in it in an area of 0.6 square kilometers. That's prior to the start of hostilities on October 7th.

Now, eyewitnesses say that some of them were sleeping when this blast hit that refugee camp Saturday night. Listen to what one of the survivors had to say.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: 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: The head of nursing at the Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital says that he saw at least 33 bodies as a result what was he claimed was an airstrike. That woman who we were hearing from, she says her father was killed. Another survivor in the hospital said his two children were killed in that strike.

The death toll in Gaza as a result of this four-week war continues to rise. The Palestinian Ministry of Health based in Ramallah, not in Gaza, it says that there are more than 9,400 people who have been killed in four weeks of fighting and that the vast majority of these fatalities come from vulnerable communities, including the elderly, women and children. Kim?

BRUNHUBER: Yes. And, Ivan, despite this clear danger, I mean, in the south, that's where the IDF says those in the north of Gaza should flee, and they're opening another window, in fact, at this very hour, we understand, to allow them to leave.

WATSON: That's right. The Israeli military announced and issued a warning to civilians in Gaza, move south. That you can travel between 10:00 A.M. and 2:00 P.M. on one road from north to south. That's the Salah Aldeen Street, and, again, telling people to get out of areas where the ground forces of Israel are on the ground, particularly around Gaza City.

There are some problems here. The announcement was made via social media, on Twitter or X. And many people in Gaza don't have electricity, much less access to internet or telecommunications right now due to the destruction over the course of the last month. Another problem is that that very route just last week, the head of a major hospital in Gaza says that ambulances were targeted by Israeli artillery as they were trying to move south on that same road.

And then there's the final real issue which is, as we see from the case of this refugee camp that was hit Saturday night, other refugee camps that were hit in past weeks, they are in the south of the country where the Israeli military is telling Palestinian civilians to flee to, and we're still seeing huge death tolls when Israel attacks these locations and these communities.

And the Israeli military has claimed responsibility for some of these attacks, justifying them by saying, well, we believe that Hamas was operating in the vicinity.

[03:05:07]

And then at the same time, dozens if not more of Palestinian civilians are killed.

So, a difficult message to try to send to Palestinians who are saying there is no place safe in Gaza if you're a Palestinian today.

BRUNHUBER: Yes, that's right. Ivan Watson in Hong Kong, thank you so much. The IDF has repeatedly called on civilians to evacuate Gaza City and Northern Gaza and move south. As we said, many are on the move seeking shelter anywhere they can find it. CNN obtained exclusive footage of one such makeshift shelter, Al Quds hospital in northern Gaza, where thousands of displaced people are camped out.

CNN's Salma Abdelaziz reports on their fight. We just want to warn you, there are images which are graphic.

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SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Where do you go when the bombs won't stop? Where do you shelter your family when the shelters are full? For many Gazans, the answer is a hospital. The head doctor shows us around. All that separates these families in the ICU is this door. He explains, these are not proper sterile conditions.

Some 12,000 displaced people are camped out in Al Quds Hospital in Northern Gaza, and every single person you see here has been told by Israel's army to leave and move south, an evacuation order the U.N. previously called inhumane.

This is not a place for children to play, this is a disaster, the doctor says. Look, these are sick people. How can a man on a walker be evacuated?

Hospitals are protected under international law, but Israel claims Hamas uses medical facilities as command centers. Aid groups and Palestinian officials deny these allegations.

Either way, this is still not a safe place. Step outside the doors and this is what you face, non-stop Israeli artillery and airstrikes. Everyone here fears the explosions will only get closer, but there's nowhere else to run.

Across the street, desperate people steal basic supplies. The war and a suffocating siege is causing civil order to break down, the U.N. says. Families cannot be expected to flee into this chaos, this father says.

This is a war against our children. See how scared he is from the bombs? Now, we are alive, but tomorrow we could be dead. Please save us, he pleads.

Less than a quarter mile away from the hospital, this is the aftermath of one of those strikes. Residents pull people out of the rubble of their homes. They can depend only on each other. Comms are down. No one can call an ambulance.

Just try and carry him out on your shoulder, someone shouts. Are my mom and dad alive, the wounded man asks.

The sound of war never ceases. You could die trying to help the living. This is one neighborhood during one hour in Gaza, a tiny glimpse into the horror. The humanity and dignity of more than 2 million people that live here, a casualty of a war so many did not choose.

Salma Abdelaziz, CNN, London.

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BRUNHUBER: President Biden says progress has been made on a humanitarian pause in the fighting between Israel and Hamas but he didn't provide any details.

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

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: 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 fundraiser by a protester calling for a ceasefire. And the president acknowledging that protester, saying that he thinks there should be 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 ceasefire, all of this underscoring the complicated political landscape the White House is trying to navigate.

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Priscilla Alvarez, CNN, traveling with the president.

BRUNHUBER: U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has left the Jordanian capital in the past few hours after failing to convince those Arab foreign ministers to back brief humanitarian pauses in Gaza. Blinken found himself very much alone in his meeting with the ministers who say pauses aren't nearly enough. Listen to this.

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

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BRUNHUBER: But the Arab ministers are demanding an immediate indefinite ceasefire and say Israel's actions go far beyond self- defense.

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SAMEH SHOUKRY, EGYPTIAN FOREIGN MINISTER: The unfortunate killing events in Gaza cannot be justified. The collective punishment, 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.

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BRUNHUBER: Jordan's foreign minister stressed that the war threatens the stability of the Middle East and relations between Israel and Arab countries.

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AYMAN SAFADI, JORDANIAN MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND EXPATRIATES: We cannot allow this war to undermine all that has been done to bring about just peace to the region.

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BRUNHUBER: All right. I want to turn to Israel's former New York consul general, Ambassador Alon Pinkas joins me now from Tel Aviv. Thank you so much for being here with us.

So, obviously, bombs are still falling, a ground incursion is still in its beginning phases, but you've recently written a very interesting piece about the longer term outlook for Gaza, and that's why I'd like to focus on that.

Israel's aims from what we're told are to destroy Hamas and its military capability. I mean, is that actually achievable considering how much Hamas is enmeshed in all levels of government, governance, and operates above and below ground?

ALON PINKAS, FORMER ISRAELI CONSUL GENERAL, NEW YORK: That's a good question. I think that complete elimination or obliteration of Hamas is impossible. Because, you know, it's based on an ideology or a mindset or a set of principles that cannot are eradicated from 40,000 feet or through missiles.

What is achievable, what is attainable, is to destroy Hamas militarily and to incapacitate it politically, which then raises the question of what then? What's the day after going to look like? Because Israel patently and obviously does not want to reoccupy the Gaza Strip.

The Palestinian Authority cannot go into the Gaza Strip and govern on Israeli bayonets. The Egyptians don't want anything to do with 2.2 million destitute Palestinians. And so that raises the question that even if Israel succeeds in the next two weeks -- and I don't think Israel has more than two weeks at most to complete this -- even if Israel succeeds in significantly diminishing Hamas' military and political capabilities, it raises the question of, what then? BRUNHUBER: Well, that's exactly it. So, you've outlined some of the possibilities. We heard the U.S. secretary of state say that the Palestinian Authority should do it. They've said, under no uncertain terms, the grouping of Arab states, certainly they don't want to take responsibility. So, one possibility then is for international organizations, the U.N., for example, to do that.

How realistic is that given all the dysfunction we've seen at the level of the U.N. Security Council?

PINKAS: Well, you're absolutely right about the dysfunction, but here's the key issue here. Why this won't work or why this is unrealistic, you and I can spend an hour discussing, but what is really unrealistic and unsustainable and untenable is what has been tried until now.

So, we move to the next best option. The next best option is, as Secretary of State Blinken said, some kind of international convention, what is called, and I don't want to confuse viewers, a neo-trusteeship. It's been tried in East Timor, in the Pacific Ocean, and in Kosovo, the Yugoslavia, in 1999.

Last week, in a testimony in front of the Senate Appropriations Committee, senator -- sorry, Secretary Blinken alluded to that.

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He said, look, the Palestinian Authority should take control. But if that cannot be done in one step, then perhaps an international force needs to be assembled.

Now, you correctly pointed that the U.N. is generally dysfunctional, the Security Council is offset by the veto power, but what can be done is an idea to be laid down on an international force with a major and important Arab component, which would make it palatable for both the Palestinians and Russia and China, who are the instigators of chaos in the Security Council.

This could take the form -- and this is me speculating here with you -- this could take the form of a ceasefire in, say, a week, ten days or two weeks from now after Hamas has been conclusively or decisively defeated. It will go to the U.N., but the force will be made of Saudis, Egyptians, Americans, some NATO members, and all under the auspices of the U.N. If any one of our viewers comes up with 17 reasons why this won't work, I agree in advance. But nothing that has been tried until now did work.

BRUNHUBER: What if there is no day after? I mean, how will anybody know if the war actually is over if there isn't a clear and clean end to this conflict, as there would be in a conventional war between states?

PINKAS: Right. Well, that's a key point. There's a very possible scenario in which there is no day after, as you indicated, I think, correctly, meaning that the war is not even declared over, that the operation is not even declared as victory or some kind of finality, and there is an ongoing so-called low-intensity warfare, low-intensity conflict going on for weeks and months.

There's a power vacuum in Gaza. Everyone there suffers, particularly the civilians, the non-combatants, the children, the women, the elderly and so on, no one wants to take responsibility, certainly not Israel, certainly not Egypt. There's going to come a point where the U.S. is going to say, okay, we see a divergence of interests here, and we're pulling our hands out of this. That is a possibility. That, I think, is the worst scenarios of them all.

BRUNHUBER: It's obvious to say, but there are no easy solutions here. I really appreciate your perspectives on this, Ambassador Alon Pinkas, thanks so much.

PINKAS: Thank you, sir.

BRUNHUBER: All right. Still to come, as the war wages between Israel and Hamas, violence is surging against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. We'll have detailed report just ahead. Stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: Violence has escalated in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem since Israel declared its war on Hamas. The Palestinian Ministry of Health says dozens have been killed and at least 150 injured in the past few weeks.

As CNN's Nada Bashir reports, some Palestinians also say they're being forced off their land by the Jewish settlers.

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NADA BASHIR, CNN REPORTER (voice over): Armed and threatening, this is the face of Israeli settler violence in occupied West Bank. It's these acts of aggression which are chasing Palestinian families out of their homes.

Piece by piece, Palestinians in this village of Khirbet Zanuta packed their lives away, never to return.

The settlers come at night while we're sleeping. They beat us and try to kill us. They try to force us out of our homes. I can't sleep anymore. I'm too afraid.

Families in this village, once home to some 140 Palestinians, tell us they have been left with no choice but to flee their homes.

What's happening now is another Nakba, a catastrophe. I'm 60 years old. I've lived here my entire life.

And despite the fact that settlements in the occupied West Bank are considered illegal by many in the international community, they continue to grow and expand with the backing of Israeli authorities.

We inherited this land from our forefathers. We've lived here for generations. Now, it's only getting worse. The war in Gaza has only encouraged the settlers.

According to Israeli rights group, B'Tselem, at least 15 Palestinian farming communities have been forcibly displaced since October 7th.

YEHUDA SHAUL, ISRAEL HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST: The real thing that is influencing the life of Palestinians here is the outpost up there.

BASHIR: Yehuda Shaul, an Israeli human rights activist, says encroachments of Palestinian land are rapidly advancing and personal attacks in the occupied West Bank have only intensified.

SHAULL The next stage is not only attacking Palestinians when they're out in the field, going into the communities, into the homes, burning houses, slashing water tanks, beating up people, threatening women, children, elderly. And the result of it is what you see in front of your eyes.

BASHIR: People leaving?

SHAUL: Entire communities packing up and leaving. Settlers taking advantage that all eyes are on Gaza to accelerate their violence. There is no protection from the Israeli army, there's no protection from the Israeli police. In many cases, the Israeli army is accompanying the settlers. And in many cases, the settlers are the army.

BASHIR: In the nearby village of Atuba (ph), a remote Palestinian community, Israel's military keeps a watchful eye. IDF soldiers never too far away.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You need to go.

BASHIR: Why?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because you (INAUDIBLE).

BASHIR: Sorry?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You need to go right now.

BASHIR: Why? Why are we not allowed to come?

This village knows the price of settler violence all too well.

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Palestinians here say their attacks are edging closer each night.

They come and threaten us, saying we have to leave or they will be back to target us. They're all armed. They never come here without weapons.

In the last week alone, residents here say Israeli settlers have slashed this village's water tanks and cut through local power lines, an effort, NGO workers say, to pressure Palestinian families to leave the area. ELAD ORIAN, CO-FOUNDER AND GENERAL MANAGER, COMET-ME: What we're seeing now is that under the cloak of the war that's happening now, the settler activity, settler violence, has increased tremendously over the last few weeks.

BASHIR: This crisis is not new to the Palestinian people, but it's a crisis that is deepening. Israel's bombardment of the Gaza Strip said to be emboldening violent setters. Across the Southern Hebron Hills, there are now fears that smaller, more remote Palestinian villages could be next. But for Palestinians in Khirbet Zanuta, it is already too late.

Nada Bashir, CNN, in occupied West Bank.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: More aid trucks are crossing into Gaza but none of them carrying much-needed fuel. Still to come, the director of the World Food Program gives an update on the growing crisis.

And pro-Palestinian rallies held all over the world on Saturday drawing thousands of people. We'll hear from protesters on the ground next. Stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: Welcome back to all of you watching here in the United States, Canada, and all around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is CNN Newsroom.

The people of Gaza are running out of critical supplies because of the slow pace that humanitarian aid is trickling in. The Palestinian Red Crescent says 47 aid trucks made it through the Rafah crossing on Friday, bringing fresh food, water and medical supplies. That means more than 400 trucks have now crossed successfully from Egypt into Gaza, but it's nowhere near enough. And the Palestinian Red Crescent points out that Israel still isn't allowing fuel in.

Let's go to Cindy McCain in Cairo. She's the executive director of the World Food Program. Thank you so much for being here with us.

So, the Biden administration is joining the poorest of countries, as well as many aid groups who are asking for a humanitarian pause in Israel's war on Hamas. Why is that so necessary right now?

CINDY MCCAIN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME: Well, most about what we need to do, and I'll speak on behalf, of course, of WFP, is we need safe, unfettered access that's sustainable to get in there, to not only get our trucks in, to get a volume of our trucks in.

Your story is correct, it's a dribble right now and it's not enough to sustain the population that's in there. So, we are asking everyone to please consider allowing us to get more trucks in at faster pace, a better way to get the trucks in terms of the way they process them, so that we can get in and feed people.

We fed -- so far, we fed about 600,000 people, but we need more. And so we're asking -- I met with obviously the Egyptian officials on here, and that was my exact ask of them.

BRUNHUBER: Yes. Let me ask you about that. I mean, you met with the president of Egypt, as well as Egyptian officials. In your discussions specifically on the situation in Gaza, what came out of your talks?

MCCAIN: Well, just exactly what I said. We need to be able to get in there and have access, safe access, so that we can do our job in feeding people. But we also need a logistics center to be able to palletize and do this in an organized way to support the Egyptian Red Crescent and get more trucks in by doing that.

BRUNHUBER: So, you have those trucks that are presumably waiting. I mean, what is the situation now? Do you have trucks waiting with supplies that are just waiting for access to cross over?

MCCAIN: That's true, but it's not nearly what it was. I can say that the volume of trucks that are waiting is down quite a lot, a lot less than it was.

But the point and the whole point is that we need to be able to get in, there needs to be a sustainable way that we can do that. More importantly, this is about saving lives. This is about saving children, women who are always the brunt of these situations. And so that's what we do and why we're here.

And I want to remind everybody, the teams that do these things here in this country or any country that's in conflict like this, they're amazing. Our WFP team and all the other U.N. teams are simply amazing at doing this job.

BRUNHUBER: Well, let me ask you about that. I mean, I know there have been some 70 U.N. staff killed, according to the U.N., it's the highest number of its workers killed in a conflict anywhere in the world in such a short period. I know your staff are facing tough conditions, the loss of loved ones. I mean, what are they telling you about the situation they're facing as well?

MCCAIN: Well, they're facing the same situation as people that are affected by this. There's not enough food, there's no water, there's no fuel, as we all know. And so they're asking the same things.

But these people are still continuing to do their jobs, which just says a great deal about the kind of people who work for WFP.

BRUNHUBER: The need is so great. I know some of your supplies in Gaza were looted, I guess a sign of the desperation there.

MCCAIN: Yes. There is some desperation there. And so that is another reason that we need to get these trucks in there, so that this does not happen, so that we can be able to feed people sustainably and safely for the long-term. BRUNHUBER: You mentioned fuel. When it comes to allowing fuel in, the IDF fears it will be taken and used by Hamas for its war on Israel. When it comes to the aid that's coming into Gaza, how can you be sure that it's going to the right places?

MCCAIN: Well, in a case of WFP, we've been in there for a long time. And so we have those tracking/tracing measures. Our people are on the ground, they're entrenched in these communities. And so they know a lot of the players. Plus, they're trained to look for problems.

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I'm not going to say 100 percent that we can stop anything from being -- from falling into the wrong hands, but we will do absolutely everything we can to make sure none of it happens.

BRUNHUBER: And back to what we were talking about off the top, I mean, you're asking for more access. You want those trucks to get through. You've been talking to all the different officials. Are people listening? Do you have hope that this will happen?

MCCAIN: Yes, people are listening. The world is listening. I've seen a great deal of movement within the Egyptian government now to help solve this problem and make sure that we can get these trucks in. So, I'm grateful -- we are grateful for that. We're grateful on behalf of the people who are our recipients of the food. But we just need more and we need it quicker.

BRUNHUBER: Thousands have been demonstrating in cities worldwide over the weekend to show support for the Palestinians. Crowds in Jakarta carried signs and flags in a show of solidarity earlier today. One participant says Indonesia has an extraordinary history with the region, so there is strong support for Palestinians to live free from Israeli occupation.

In Washington, protesters marched to the White House carrying Palestinian flags and signed that read, stop the massacre, let Gaza live.

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

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 ceasefire 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 ceasefire.

Here's what some of those protesters told me.

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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 voting for him because he's supporting Israel. He asked for $14 billion to do more killing of the Palestinian people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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.

BRUNHUBER: Coming up, an Israeli mother tells CNN how her family was torn apart by Hamas terrorists on October 7th. We'll have her heartbreaking story next.

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BRUNHUBER: Many Israelis are still reeling from Hamas' deadly attack on October 7th. One resident describes the terrifying ordeal she and her family experienced when the militant group attacked her kibbutz that day. Hamas killed her daughter and also used a neighbor's phone to livestream the attack on Facebook.

Here's what she told CNN's Wolf Blitzer. And we just want to warn you, what you're about to hear and see is disturbing.

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GALI IDAN, LOST DAUGHTER IN HAMAS ATTACK: We woke up because there was screaming that alert for missiles are on. And our daughters yelled to come to the shelter. Zac (ph) and I looked at each other, something's wrong. Then they got the message that there's a fear of terrorist attack on the kibbutz.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: They might be crossing the border into the kibbutz?

IDAN: They might be crossing the border into the kibbutz and crossing the fence into the kibbutz and the houses. So, they told us to keep quiet.

Now, you need to understand that kids, when they're fearful, they cannot be quiet. We were all in this tiny room which is the kids' room, the sleeping area because -- so we won't wake them up. They started to say that they are walking in the path, you know, in the kibbutz and --

BLITZER: The terrorists?

IDAN: Yes. So, Zachie (ph) took a chair -- sorry. He took a chair and put it near the door. Because we don't have an actual on the door and we were like waiting and being quiet, just fearful and crying, the kids were crying, and trying to calm them down, and between our house and the neighbor's house, and we heard glass shatter.

And after awhile, we heard somebody was walking in the house. You heard them walking on the broken glass. And it wasn't like one person. You could hear. We were quieting the kids and, you know, like --

BLITZER: You were huddled together?

IDAN: Yes. Me and Shahal (ph) and Yael underneath the bed and Mayan (ph) and Zachie was near the door, and we were really, really scared and --

BLITZER: Were you hearing Arabic?

IDAN: No. They were not talking until they got into the door, the shelter door. And then we heard in Hebrew, they banged on the door really loud and said, open the door, open the door, help, open the door.

BLITZER: In Hebrew, they said?

IDAN: In Hebrew. Unfortunately, there was Tomel (ph), he was killed afterwards. He was a 17-year-old boy from the kibbutz. And they used him to open doors, like a bait.

BLITZER: So, it was Tomel who was speaking in Hebrew?

IDAN: Yes. And then when they saw Zachie, Zachie locked the door and struggle it to lock it real hard, and they started shouting, we do not shoot, we do not shoot, open, open.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I will not shoot. Open the door. I will not shoot.

IDAN: You could hear three or four of them shouting and Zachie struggling the door. And they fought him to open the door and they're still shouting and shouting. And then Mayan saw that there's a crack starting to open and she jumped on the door to help Zachie close it. At that moment, there was a gunshot.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I will shoot, I will shoot now.

IDAN: I was hanging on to one of the kids. I think it was Yael. I'm not sure. And then Zachie was shouting, who got shot, who got shot? And then he said, it was Mayan, it's Mayan, it's Mayan, help, help, it's Mayan.

BLITZER: Your daughter?

IDAN: It's my daughter. It's my 18 and 4 days daughter.

[03:45:00] And he was -- I didn't see him because there was not light yet. But the light came on, and I saw Zachie. I think he was over her or she dropped near him.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go out. Go out.

IDAN: I didn't see her yet. And then Zachie was yelling, she's dead, she's -- help her, help her, she's dying, she's dying, because he was in a pile of blood, of her blood. He was sitting there, you know, with his hands on his head. And he was saying, Mayan, help her, help Mayan. And I went to her. And I saw her on her back, straight, still, you know, shaking. The body was still shaking, but she wasn't there. Because when I checked her, checked where she's bleeding from. I checked, and it was -- I went up to the head, and then I felt the injury. And I said, Zachie, she's gone. She's gone. She's not here. She's gone. And they took us south immediately. They took us, everybody.

BLITZER: The terrorists?

IDAN: Yes. I told the kids not to look. We shouted not to look because I didn't want them to see their dead sister in a pile of blood. Zachie went out with his hands and knees all bloody.

Then afterwards I realized that I was live on Facebook with Tomel's mother's phone, and that everybody saw them entering and shooting the door, the door of the shelter and killing Mayan, actually.

They set us on the floor and took my phone and said, is this your phone? I said, yes, what do you need my phone for? And he said, I want to do live on Facebook. What's your code? I gave him the code, and he just started say, repeat after me. And he said -- I don't remember the exact message but he told me something to say that -- about the government or -- I don't remember the exact thing, but that they are here and they're fighting. And then they took the phone and actually started filming us live.

Now, I thought it was done, and I'm still trying to understand what happened, or shocked. And Zachie was broken, he couldn't speak. He was crying. And the kids asked, Zachie, are you bleeding? And he said, no. And he'd just nod his head and I had to tell the kids that they just killed Mayan and it's her blood. And then the kids started crying and shouting.

And they said to the terrorists, you know, holding us hostage, said, don't kill us, please don't kill us. And they were filming it all the time. I realize that now but I didn't know then. And I was still in shock about Mayan. And then the red alert started shouting that there are missiles coming. And I told him -- I tried to jump to the shelter. And they say, no, you're staying here.

They said, don't worry, our commander knows we're here so he won't shoot missiles in here. You're safe.

(END VIDEOTAPE) BRUNHUBER: We'll have more of Gali Idan's story next hour, including how she says her surviving children are coping with the trauma of losing their sister.

We'll be right back.

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[03:50:00]

BRUNHUBER: Right now, the airport in Hamburg, Germany, remains at a standstill. All flights in and out have been halted for hours 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 Saturday evening.

He's reportedly still inside the car along with his four-year-old daughter. Officials say a substantial amount of Special Forces are on the ground trying to resolve the situation.

Rescuers are scrambling to get food, tents, and other supplies to a remote region of Nepal after a powerful earthquake. It struck while people slept Friday night. Some villages were almost leveled. Officials say 157 people have been killed, but that number could go up.

Our Michael Holmes reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR (voice over): Devastation all around 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: We were sleeping. The earthquake came when we were sleeping. The house was shaking, but we escaped and survived. There were three of us in the house. One got killed and 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. Nepali police say it's estimated 90 percent of houses and villages were destroyed.

[03:55:02]

But the rocky terrain and the remote location of the quake zone, some 500 kilometers west of Kathmandu, is slowing down 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. Others are sleeping outdoors in the cold without tents or gathering in 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.

Michael Holmes, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: Matthew Perry's funeral was a true gathering of friends. People Magazine reports the actor's farewell took place Friday in Los Angeles and all five of his co-stars from their hit T.V. show, Friends, attended.

Perry played the quick-witted Chandler Bing on the sitcom. The 54- year-old was found unconscious in a Jacuzzi at his home last Saturday. The L.A. County Medical Examiner's Office is still investigating the cause of death.

All right, that wraps this hour of CNN newsroom. I'm Kim Brunhuber. Thanks for watching. My colleague, Richard Quest, will be back with more news after this short break.

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