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Israel Marks One Year of the Hamas Attacks; Hurricane Milton Forecast to Become a Category Four Heading for Florida; Trump and Harris Ramp Campaign as Election Day Nears; Israel Marks One Year Since Hamas Attacks On October 7; IDF: Multiple Hezbollah Targets In Lebanon Hit On Sunday; Gaza Residents Face Humanitarian Crisis As War Rages On; Flooding, Landslides Kill At Least 15 In Bosnia-Herzegovina. Aired 2-3a ET

Aired October 07, 2024 - 02:00   ET

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

[02:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN HOST: Hello and welcome. I'm Rosemary Church and you are watching "CNN Newsroom." It is 9:00 in the morning across Israel where the country is marking one year since the deadly and devastating attack by Hamas on October 7th that killed at least 1,200 people. In southern Israel, survivors and families of those killed at the Nova Music Festival gathered to mark the anniversary. Earlier, the final music track of the festival was replayed before a minute of silence. The day also being marked in Jerusalem.

(VIDEO PLAYING)

That siren marking the hour when Hamas launched rockets into Israel at the start of the October 7th attack. Well, just hours ago, Israelis gathered outside the home of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, carrying flags and images of hostages taken by Hamas. Ahead of the anniversary, images of the hostages were projected onto the walls of Jerusalem's old city. As of today, the Israeli Prime Minister's office says, there are a total of 101 hostages in Gaza, including 35 believed to have been killed. The mother of one victim had this heartbreaking message.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ORIN GANTZ, DAUGHTER EDEN ZACHARIA'S BODY BROUGHT BACK FROM HAMAS CAPTIVITY (through translation): I'm a bereaved mother. I've yet to process the word. I stand before you today, dear family, wanting to shout that I am not miserable because none of this actually happened. I'm still in denial. I'm being asked how it feels a year after, but I'm still stuck on October 7th. The world keeps going, but to me time has stopped. Still waiting to see you on the list of survivors.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: The Israeli army has just released this unseen footage showing troops and police near the border sites targeted by Hamas one year ago as the attack was unfolding. That surprise attack would spark a swift response from Israel, which launched its war against Hamas in Gaza. One year on, the Palestinian Health Ministry says the death toll from the war is nearing 42,000.

CNN's Nic Robertson is following developments. He joins us now from the Nova Festival site in southern Israel. So Nic, one year after those horrifying attacks in Israel, how is the country marking this day?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yeah, it's really somber, it's really solemn, it's really sad, there are a lot of tears here. Each of these memorials you see behind me remembers one person and we've seen their families come, their fathers, their brothers, their sisters, their mothers, their aunts, their uncles, their friends come and express their sadness, their sorrow. I'm joined actually right now by Ben. Now you, this is your first time here?

BEN HASS, BROTHER SURVIVED NOVA MUSIC FESTIVAL ATTACK: It's my first time here, yeah.

ROBERTSON: And you lost two friends?

HASS: Two good friends and another friend that I knew. But yeah, it's a really emotional day for me.

ROBERTSON: And why did you come back today?

HASS: I came back to close the circle for me. And I think it's important to remember them each day and come back after a year, 7th October today. Just imagine this time, last year was all different story. So to come here today and be with the families, it's really reunion all as well together and hearing the Tikvah together. So this is really good for me, I feel it.

ROBERTSON: But you -- and you say it's closing the circle, but so many people, families I've talked to as well, say it doesn't actually close the circle. What has changed for you in that year and does this close the circle?

HASS: So it doesn't, like you said, yeah, for the families each day, like they say in Hebrew, there's a sentence, (inaudible). It means when the times goes, you get more healed. For families, I'm sure it isn't, like each day is a day. And when I say close the circle, I mean like as to see everyone reunion together. And now we can hear the bomb from Gaza. And trying to get, we won't forget the 101 hostages still there. And (inaudible) the target now to get them.

[02:05:02]

So for me it's emotional to be here with the families, if we could spread the love and be with them. So that's --

ROBERTSON: And what does it mean for you, I know this is a sad day of sadness for everyone here, but what does it mean for you to sort of know that the war's still going on, just a few miles away as we hear, and so many people have died there? HASS: I know, it's horrendous, it's terrible, and let's keep on

going. Each day is a new day, and it's, fortunately, if we had yesterday a terrorist attack in (inaudible), in a South country, and we still have soldiers in the North and soldiers here in Gaza and the West Bank and it's all getting -- I hope one day it will all finish and everything will be okay, peace, but we just have to be with hope at the end of it. It's just to be strong and fill this hope and belief.

ROBERTSON: And what do you think it is that's going to make the difference and bring the peace here? As you say, in this past year it's really spread.

HASS: I know, so, I think what we're doing now, we're starting to get more of the targets of the war into -- if we're getting them without weapons, let's say, or starting to do what we needed to do a year ago. If it was a year ago, the idea didn't even come for a few hours and we have a really good intelligence, but still they came into the fence and they came on the 7th. So I feel like this past two weeks or even a month, we're starting to get back our stuff and trying to minimize the weapons they have and that's one of the targets we have to do.

ROBERTSON: And one of the last thoughts I want to ask you, you said you were going to come to this festival and you didn't. When you reflect on the fact that you were almost here, what?

HASS: That's God's plan I could say because a lot of people survived, some of them didn't. We just know that everyone has a number of a date when he will die or when he will survive. And yeah, it's a lot of questions been, and in fact, yeah, I was supposed to be here.

ROBERTSON: And your brother was here and he survived.

HASS: Yeah, my brother was here. And usually to these kinds of parties, I brought him to this music. I showed him this festival. I showed him the music. He's two years under me (inaudible) or me. And he came in by himself and I told him, sure I'm coming with you, let's do a festival together. And at the end of it I didn't come, I changed my plans. And he was here with two good friends, with three good friends and two survived, him and his best friend and one didn't. And yeah, I'm glad he's with me because it could have been a different story.

ROBERTSON: And how do you remember your friends -- excuse me, how do you remember your friends today?

HASS: How do I remember them? So, my good friend Ofek (ph), he was there. Like you see, I have --

ROBERTSON: This is his face. This is him.

HASS: This is him in fact.

ROBERTSON: Yeah.

HASS: And it says, the sentence in Hebrew, it says, smile, life is beautiful. So that's what I do every day, I just remember him. And in fact, he showed me the festival, the big festival in Budapest, the Trance Festival. And it was his dream to go together. So I made his dream, so I went this year. Like you see on my bracelet, on my hand. This was the last festival, and I felt his energies. We danced together in the air.

ROBERTSON: So you try to remember them by doing the things that you enjoy doing together.

HASS: Doing the things together, exactly. And if it was one month ago, I was DJing in the music, and the set that I made was for him. The music that he liked and everything. So each day we try to remember Ofek (ph), yeah.

ROBERTSON: Ben, thank you very much indeed. Rosemary, I think this is what we're going to see across the country today as people manage to come together and remember those that they've lost and they won't see again. It's going to be that sadness. It's going to be what they do in their lives to try to remember those people, what it meant to them, and the shock and the change. But I think as you heard there, you know, there's a real sentiment still in this country from many people that the army needs to continue. They want the hostages back.

But they want the army to continue and this is, I think, when you talk to people, this is what I think the Prime Minister gets and understands, that he still has political margin to continue the offensive in Lebanon that has killed over 1,500 people there now in Gaza, close to 42,000. The leverage comes there.

CHURCH: All right, Nic Robinson at the Nova Festival site in southern Israel, many thanks for that report. Well, the Israeli military says it struck multiple Hezbollah targets in Beirut on Sunday as it continues to pummel Lebanon. The attack focused on Hezbollah's intelligence headquarters and weapons storage facilities.

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At least four neighborhoods in Beirut suburbs were hit. It comes as an additional 19 villages in southern Lebanon are facing new evacuation warnings.

In northern Israel, an attack on Sunday wounded at least five people. Police say they are responding to multiple locations in the city along with bomb disposal experts. Hezbollah says it launched rockets targeting an Israeli military base near Haifa. The IDF says they attempted to intercept five projectiles, but some made it through.

Israel's military launched a new ground operation in northern Gaza, saying their troops have encircled Jabalia after seeing signs of Hamas regrouping. That is despite nearly a year of fighting in the densely populated refugee camp, which Israel previously said was rid of Hamas.

The IDF also carried out airstrikes over the weekend in northern Gaza, saying it targeted weapons storage facilities, military sites, and terrorist cells. A new evacuation order was announced in the area, but some residents are refusing to move, saying there is no safe place left in the enclave.

And CNN's Paula Hancocks joins us now from Abu Dhabi. So, Paula, one year after the horror of the October 7 attacks, the Middle East is in crisis with war on multiple fronts. Israel launching this new military operation in northern Gaza one day before the one-year anniversary. What is the latest on the impact of that operation?

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Rosemary, we are seeing increasing activity in Gaza, certainly in the days before the anniversary. We've just heard from the Israeli military. They say that they have been carrying out attacks throughout Gaza, saying that they are targeting Hamas launchers and also Hamas targets, saying that they believe that they were preparing to fire projectiles into Israel.

Now, we have seen over the past day or so that the Israeli military saying that they're going to be carrying out a ground operation in Jabalia. This is actually an area in northern Gaza which was one of the first areas that was targeted by the IDF following that October 7th attack. It's home to Gaza's biggest refugee camp. It is a very densely populated area and it's an area where there has been a huge amount of military activity.

Israel claims Hamas is embedding itself in the civilian population and using them as human shields. It's something that Hamas denies doing at this point but we do know that this particular area Israel had said in the past it was free of Hamas. They had done their operations there and moved on to another area but they believe that Hamas is now regrouping, rebuilding in this particular area.

Now, Sunday was a deadly day in Gaza as most days have been since October 7th of last year. We know that at least 25 were killed in Deir Al-Balah. This is when a mosque was targeted, Israel saying that Hamas was using it as a command and control center. And we also know that there was a school hit nearby as well. So we really are seeing intense bombardments of certain areas of Gaza.

Certainly a couple of weeks ago, once the Israeli military said that the focus was turning to the northern border, to Lebanon, Palestinians in Gaza would have been forgiven to have believed that the situation would ease somewhat in the enclave, but it simply hasn't happened. Rosemary?

CHURCH: And Paula, on the other war front, Israel went after Hezbollah, pounding the Lebanese capital of Beirut with heavy strikes as Israel issued new evacuation orders. What more are you learning about that?

HANCOCKS: Yes, so the evacuation orders, there's well over 120 villages now which have evacuation orders on them. This is in the southern part of Lebanon and the Israeli military also says that those who have left these areas should not return back to them until they are told to do so. This is an area that they have been focusing on, a Hezbollah stronghold in southern Lebanon and also those southern suburbs of Beirut. We understand from the Air Force they struck the intelligence headquarters of Hezbollah, also weapons storage facilities. But we know that there's around 1.2 million Lebanese who are displaced

at this point, the large majority of them having moved from southern Lebanon to come to the capital believing that they would be potentially safer in the heart of Beirut.

[02:14:58]

And so we are seeing an increasingly desperate situation on the ground in Lebanon as many people are having to shelter in schools which have not been opened for learning since this began. We know that the start of the school year has been pushed back to November 2nd, I think it is now, understanding that it's just impossible to have a semblance of normal life in Lebanon at this point.

And we also know that there were around 130 rockets that were fired from Hezbollah into northern Israel, according to the IDF. Some of those hit in the city of Haifa. At least five people were injured there. We heard from the Israeli military that they had tried to intercept some of those rockets, but some of them did hit targets. We heard from Hezbollah that their target was actually the Carmel military base, but we understand that they did hit in the city itself. Rosemary?

CHURCH: Paula Hancocks bringing us that live report from Abu Dhabi. Many thanks.

And still to come, Florida residents are lining up for sandbags with another major hurricane bearing down on the state. We will have the latest on Milton's track and how millions across the state are starting to prepare.

Plus, we are less than a month away from election day here in the United States. Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are entering the final sprint in the race for the White House. We'll explain what they're doing with that time.

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CHURCH: Hurricane Milton is forming in the Gulf of Mexico right now and is set to make a direct hit on Florida midweek. It comes with the state still reeling from Hurricane Helene's devastating landfall less than two weeks ago. Milton quickly grew to Category One strength on Sunday and could become a major Category Three storm before its expected landfall on Wednesday.

More than 15 million people in Florida are under flood watches with up to 15 inches or nearly 400 millimeters of rain possible in some areas. More now on the preparations underway throughout Florida from CNN's Rafael Romo.

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: In addition to declaring a state of emergency in 51 counties, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has ordered management sites to remain open 24/7 so that many areas covered by debris after Hurricane Helene can be cleared before the arrival of Milton, which became a hurricane Sunday afternoon. More than 800 guardsmen are currently deployed for debris removal, but DeSantis said there will soon be up to 4,000 available.

We also heard from Florida Senator Rick Scott, who said that Milton has the potential of causing much greater damage than Helene, which pummeled Florida less than two weeks ago. With Helene, Scott said, over a million households were left without power. Milton has the potential of having an impact that will be much worse.

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SEN. RICK SCOTT (R-FL): It seems like a lot of our storms have become water events. We got it all with this one. We're going to have storm surge, we're going to have flooding, we're going to have massive winds. And guess what it means? You're going to lose power.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMO: We heard a similar assessment from Governor DeSantis Sunday, who also said that Florida is going to see a lot of power outages. And that is something that people should prepare for, adding that crews are already getting staged to restore electricity as soon as possible. His emergency management director warned people that evacuations will be necessary at a level Florida hasn't probably seen since 2017 when Hurricane Irma hit the peninsula.

Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody says people should realize that evacuating is a life or death decision.

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ASHLEY MOODY, ATTORNEY GENERAL, FLORIDA: If they say get out and it's going to hit us like this and they can't predict exactly that storm surge and you are in evacuation zone, you probably need to write your name and permanent marker on your arm. so that people know who you are when they get to you afterwards.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMO: More than 500,000 people in Pinellas County, where we saw many getting sandbags ready on Sunday could be ordered to evacuate Monday as well. Many of these people were also impacted by Helene and have yet to recover from it. Manatee County, located just north of Sarasota, earlier announced that they will begin evacuations Monday afternoon in preparation for the storm's arrival. Rafael Romo, CNN Atlanta.

CHURCH: The death toll from Hurricane Helene is now at least 232 across six states. North Carolina has reported the majority of those deaths, with nearly 120 lives lost, according to officials. Helene's path of destruction battered the western part of the state, tearing up roads and making some areas unrecognizable.

Election Day in the United States is now just 29 days away, and the Harris and Trump campaigns are racing to win over undecided voters in critical swing states. Republican nominee Donald Trump addressed supporters in the battleground state of Wisconsin on Sunday. A recent CNN poll of polls in Wisconsin shows a tight race with no clear leader. Trump has been ramping up his attacks on the Biden-Harris administration and his grim rhetoric on what he thinks will happen if he loses in November. As Steve Contorno reports from Trump's most recent rally in Wisconsin.

STEVE CONTORNO, CNN REPORTER: Donald Trump spoke for nearly two hours in Juneau, Wisconsin, picking up right where he left off this week and criticizing the Biden-Harris administration's response to Hurricane Helene. Even as Republican leaders of the state's (inaudible) they continue to say they're getting all the help and resources that they need. He also continued this dark rhetoric about what would happen if he does not win the 2024 election. Take a listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If you go four more years, you may never recover. In fact, I will say, some people say it, I think it's very severe, but I can understand it. Some people say you'll never have an election again, this would be your last election. And I can see it. Remember I used to say we'll be Venezuela on steroids. And that's sort of what's happening. We're Venezuela on steroids.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[02:25:06]

CONTORNO: This was Trump's fourth visit to Wisconsin in just nine days, underscoring just how important this battleground state will be in the weeks ahead. Take a look at this poll that just came out from the Marquette Law School. It shows a very tight race with Vice President Harris leading Donald Trump by a 52 to 48 margin. That is razor thin and you can expect to see Donald Trump make even more visits to the Badger State in the weeks to come. Steve Contorno, CNN, Juneau, Wisconsin.

CHURCH: Kamala Harris is reaching out to voters through a series of high-profile interviews. Our Julia Benbrook has the details.

JULIA BENBROOK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Ever since Vice President Kamala Harris replaced President Joe Biden at the top of the Democratic ticket, there have been calls for her to do more sit-down interviews and give voters a glimpse of how she performs in those unscripted moments. She's ramping up those efforts this week with a series of high-profile interviews that each aim to reach a different type of voter.

Her appearances range from a relationship-focused podcast called "Call Her Daddy," where the host, Alex Cooper, has millions of followers both on Instagram and on TikTok, to "60 Minutes," which of course has been on the air for decades and is the most watched news magazine program in the United States.

The "Call Her Daddy" podcast episode aired on Sunday and the host said that no topic was off limits, but for the most part they focused in on how the issues this election cycle will impact women like reproductive freedoms. And Harris emphasized that she believes more people support abortion access since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I think that's also why in state after state, so-called red states and so-called blue states, when this issue has been on the ballot, the American people are voting for freedom because ultimately, it's about, look, this is not about imposing my thoughts on you in terms of what you do with your life or your body. It's actually quite the opposite. It's saying the government shouldn't be telling people what to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BENBROOK: Harris' "60 Minutes" interview with Bill Whitaker airs on Monday. And this is just the start of her media blitz. She'll also have appearances on "The View," "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert," and "The Howard Stern Show." She'll be participating in a roundtable hosted by Univision. And it's a busy week for her running mate as well. Minnesota Governor Tim Walz will be speaking to the media. He's on "Fox News Sunday," "Jimmy Kimmel Live," and several local news interviews. At the White House, Julia Benbrook, CNN.

CHURCH: When we return, survivors of Hamas' attack on Kibbutz Be'eri are honoring their friends, family members, and neighbors who were killed in the Hamas attacks, when we come back.

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[02:31:31]

ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: One year ago today, Hamas militants killed at least 1,200 people in a brutal terror attack in Israel. More than 100 victims were killed in the neighborhood of kibbutz Be'eri. It was one of the worst hit communities in the massacre, and an Israel Defense Forces investigation concluded the military had failed to protect the residents.

Today, the kibbutz is holding a memorial ceremony to honor the victims.

CNN's Matthew Chance spoke to some of kibbutz Be'eri survivors.

They told him why they want to rebuild and reclaim their trauma- scarred neighborhood.

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MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CHIEF GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's a painful wound that still has Israel reeling. Even a year since Hamas rampage through kibbutz Be'eri and other Israeli communities near Gaza, that wound has far from healed.

Driving through the streets of Be'eri and you really get a strong sense that the scars of the October 7 attack is still very much here, almost every one of the houses along these roads has been damaged and was overrun. The families inside, torn apart, people killed, abducted to Gaza traumatized.

YARDEN TZEMACH, FARMER FROM KIBBUTZ BE'ERI: Used to be family house, a beautiful home.

CHANCE: Inside one, burned-out shell, Yarden Tzemach tells me how his neighbors, the Haram family, were killed and kidnapped from their home. Bullet holes and scorch marks where Palestinian gunmen ran amok.

Kibbutz Be'eri lost more than 100 people in the October 7 attacks, one of the unsuspecting Israeli communities worst affected. The ten residents are among the hostages still being held in this ongoing ordeal. It's hard to imagine people ever feeling safe here again.

TZEMACH: I believe that it's possible. It will be a big challenge and it might take a long time for people to fail as safe as we felt before October 7.

CHANCE: But you said yourself, you know, that feeling of security that you had on October the 6, that was an illusion.

TZEMACH: It was an illusion.

CHANCE: What I'm asking is, do you think that a community so close to Gaza can ever really be secure and safe?

TZEMACH: You know, once something happens, you know that it can, you always have in the back of your mind that it can happen again? They killed my sister over there, okay? She's one of them.

CHANCE: But among this close-knit community brutalized and scattered, there is determination to rebuild.

AMIT SOLVY, FINANCE CHAIRMAN FROM KIBBUTZ BE'ERI: Be'eri will recover and most of the people will come back, rebuild their lives, rebuild their house, rebuild the kibbutz, and Be'eri will come again I hope stronger than before, but there is no infrastructure for kids. There's no school. People with families cannot come back yet.

CHANCE: How difficult is it for people to come back emotionally after what happened?

[02:35:02]

Must be hard.

SOLVY: It's difficult, it's hard. I think that Be'eri recover again, it's take time. It will take time.

CHANCE: Meanwhile, building is underway, 100 residents have already returned but most are still living an hours-drive from the memories of home, in temporary houses in the Israeli town of Hatzerim.

Hi, Matthew. Please to meet you. Please to meet you. Hi. Hi, hello.

Like Ayelet Hakim who says her family's narrow escape from being killed in their Be'eri home still keeping them away.

AYELET HAKIM, DISPLACED KIBBUTZ BE'ERI RESIDENT: It's a trauma of living in a house where vicious terrorists invaded and sitting in my safe room for hours and hours, not knowing what's going on and being -- and felt like I've been threatened. So I feel in that house, I feel unsafe in that house.

CHANCE: But in the kibbutz.

HAKIM: Not in the kibbutz, no.

CHANCE: But the kibbutz, you want to go back?

HAKIM: Yeah. Kibbutz Be'eri is my home. That's where I want to live.

CHANCE: But living after so much death and destruction here will never be the same.

Matthew Chance, CNN, in Kibbutz Be'eri, southern Israel.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Amir Tibon is the diplomatic correspondent for "Haaretz". He and his family survived Hamas's attack on his home in kibbutz Nahal Oz.

Amir describes that experience in his book, "The Gates of Gaza", and he joins me now from near Haifa in Israel.

Thank you so much for talking with us at this difficult time.

AMIR TIBON, DIPLOMATIC DCORRESPONDENT, HAARETZ: Thank you for having me and thank you for devoting so much important time to the memory of this terrible day.

CHURCH: Of course, and, of course, as you and your family mark this one-year anniversary, what are your memories of the day you survived the horrors of those attacks? And what are your thoughts in this moment?

TIBON: So, for us, every day, over the past year has been October 7. And today, the calendar just happens to show that date. The reason we are still in October 7 is because even now, we have 100 hostages in the hands of Hamas, about half of them are presumed to be alive, and this includes two friends and neighbors of hours from kibbutz Nahal Oz, the small community where we lived and were attacked on that morning. Two friends of ours, Omri Miran and Itzhaki Edan, both of them are fathers of young children, who were taken by the terrorists in front of the eyes of their children on that day.

And until they come back alive and all the other hostages that we have, they're alive or released in some kind of a deal, the date on the calendar remains October 7 for us and we're still living it.

CHURCH: Yeah. And, Amir, Israel, as you say, marks this grim one year anniversary with 101 hostages still being held by Hamas. How likely is it do you think that they will be brought home, with Israel raging war in both Gaza and Lebanon to, or do you believe that Prime Minister Netanyahu has no intention of making a deal to bring them home?

TIBON: This is a very, very complicated negotiation. We started this war with 250 hostages. President Biden orchestrated a deal in November that brought us back approximately 100 hostages alive mostly women and children, including five women and girls from my kibbutz, the oldest, an 84-year-old woman, the youngest and eight-year-old girl, and they were released in November because of the deal orchestrated by President Biden.

Right now, the negotiation has been stuck for many months, and we're hearing accusations between the Israeli government and the leadership of Hamas over who's to blame. And for me as an Israeli citizen I put all the blame on Hamas, and all the responsibility to bring them back alive on my government. It's obvious that Hamas is to blame for kidnapping these people in the first place and for murdering and for doing all those terrible things, all those atrocities and war crimes on October 7, but the responsibility to bring our people back alive is the number one responsibility of our government.

And to come and say, well, Hamas doesn't want, that's not a good answer. We need to make them want a deal if they don't want one and we need to apply more pressure on the one hand and show more flexibility in the negotiations on the other hand.

[02:40:04]

But right now, it seems very little of anything is happening. The hostages in a way are being forgotten. We're fighting now in the north against Hezbollah. We have great achievements over there. We've eliminated many of their top commanders. We're on the verge of an all- out regional war with Iran and we are operating militarily again in northern Gaza.

But the hostages are still there. They're being held in conditions that to me bring back thoughts and memories about the Holocaust and we don't have any plan to bring them back. And this has to be our number one priority at the moment, to make a deal and bring them back alive.

CHURCH: And in the midst of Israel's multiple war fronts, critics are raising concerns that Israel has failed to provide a long-term strategy for Gaza and an alternative to Hamas governance.

Do you share those concerns?

TIBON: Very much so. I plan to return to my home in kibbutz Nahal Oz with my family and I don't want to live next to Somalia. I don't want to live next to a failed state and we right now don't really have a plan to avoid that kind of scenario.

But also not to allow Hamas to rise from the destruction and take over Gaza again, there has to be a diplomatic plan involving important countries in the region like Egypt, like Saudi Arabia, Jordan. We have partners in the region that we can work with to create a better reality in Gaza and to build something new. That will actually function out of this destruction.

If we don't do that, we will come to regret it. We will kill many terrorists and destroy many of their infrastructure, and they will slowly rise back because there's never a vacuum in this part of the world.

CHURCH: Yeah.

TIBON: There's always an opening.

CHURCH: And as Israel marks this one year anniversary, the world waits to see how Israel responds to Iran's ballistic missile barrage last week. Israel says everything is still on the table, including the possibility of striking Iran's nuclear sites, which is a concern the rest of the world.

How do you think Israel would likely retaliate?

TIBON: I'm convinced there will be an Israeli strike on Iran. They fired 200 ballistic missiles on us without any Israeli attack on them that, you know, preceded it. They had no real reason to do it and no country in the world would just accept that kind of scenario, not retaliate.

Of course, there is an ongoing dialogue within the corridors of power in Israel and with our allies in the world about the magnitudes and the nature of this Israeli response. What will we strike? Will it be economic targets, you know, the oil industry? Will it be military targets? Will it be perhaps the nuclear program, which I think is more difficult to attack, but it depends also how much ammunition you want to use, how many planes.

But the real question here again, let's say we strike back. They then retaliate again. And are we entering a new phase of the war in which Israel and Iran strike each other all the time, while we're still fighting Hezbollah in the north, and we still have the hostages. We have to bring back home.

This is a very, very difficult question and my fear is that again, we are forgetting our people over there in the tunnels of Gaza because we are being drawn to this larger regional confrontation.

CHURCH: Amir Tibon, thank you so much for talking with us. We appreciate it.

TIBON: Thank you.

CHURCH: And we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:47:00]

CHURCH: A day before this October 7th anniversary, the Israeli military says it struck multiple Hezbollah targets in Beirut as it continues to pummel Lebanon. The attack focused on Hezbollah's intelligence headquarters, and weapons storage facility at least for neighborhoods in Beirut, suburbs were hit.

Meanwhile, Israel's military launched a new ground operation in northern Gaza, saying their troops have been encircled Jabalia after seeing signs of Hamas regrouping. That's despite nearly a year of fighting in the densely populated refugee camp, which Israel previously said was rid of Hamas.

Nearly 42,000 people have reportedly been killed in Gaza since the war began.

We go now to Georgios Petropoulos, head of the Gaza sub-office of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Thank you so much for talking with us.

GEORGIOS PETROPOULOS, GAZA U.N. OFFICE FOR THE COORDINATION OF HUMANITARIAN AFFAIRS: Thanks for having me today.

CHURCH: So, while Israel marks this one year anniversary of the horrors of those Hamas attacks on October 7, the people of Gaza are paying the price. How many civilians have actually died since the start of Israel's war on Gaza.

PETROPOULOS: You know, you're right, it's -- mark today by year of war in tragedy, people here remain desperate. Hostages remain in Gaza. Their families wait for them as even 4:00 a.m. this morning, we were woken up by renewed bombing here in Rafah, Gaza, where I'm talking to you from. Jets buzzling, shelling and tank fire.

The only thing that's left in Gaza is I would say hope our supplies are almost zero. There's fighting all around, there's no safe locations. As you said yourself, almost 42,000 people are killed almost 100,000, that's the number were approaching are injured, and we don't know how many thousands of people remain under rubble.

As the United Nations and partners, we've been very clear. We essentially run out of almost every single supply, whether it's medicine or food, or fuel for water, or as winter approaches, the things that you need to stay warm and dry.

CHURCH: And Israel launched a new military operation in northern Gaza one day before this one year anniversary is saying there were signs that Hamas was regrouping there. How is that military operation impacting the lives of Palestinians right now?

PETROPOULOS: I think it's interesting to interconnect that the operation is beginning in the north, we're talking about we estimate there's about 430,000 people left in northern Gaza. Now the intensified bombardment and the advance of the Israeli forces means that around 50,000 people in the last 24 hours and displaced from Beit Hanoun, Beit Lahia, Jabalia, essentially from the north parts of north Gaza moving south.

[02:50:07]

Not many of them have come. We don't really have reports that people have become south of Wadi Gaza, but if they do, they are not moving. We're displacing to a south Gaza that for them is a place where they know they're going to find what they need -- safety, security, and dignity and lifesaving supplies.

So a lot of them have told us that they have absolutely zero interest in displacing further unfortunately, the application of this new operation has already affected several health points and three hospitals have been told that they need to evacuate. That's almost 350 patients that have to find somewhere to go. And if that means to go across Israeli checkpoints to the south there's, going to be a very, very heavy operation for the U.N. and partners, indeed.

If 430,000 people are pushed to come south, I have to be very clear no idea where we will put them, what we will give them to eat, and how we will shut with these people.

CHURCH: Yeah, I wanted to talk to you about that. I wanted you to describe the lives of most Palestinians and the midst of this war that has no clear end insight. What access do Gaza residents have to food, clean water, and shelter?

PETROPOULOS: Almost 1.5 million people in the south of Gaza, 1.4 million people to be exact, will not get enough food in October. The World Food Programme essentially has run out of food in its warehouses. We can get some flour in, but we are talking about the response that used to get between 250 to 300 trucks a day from the Rafah crossing were now down to if were lucky, 50 to 60 trucks of the goods, we really need.

That current pace, it will take us about three years to make sure everyone can stay warm and dry in the winter that's coming. We don't have enough medicine. We are not able to upgrade the number of beds that we will have in hospitals in the south to take the people from the north, not only those that are coming injured, but those that will be injured in the fighting to come.

We see increased violence. There are robberies in the street, humanitarian warehouses, guest houses and offices are also rocked or under threat of violence if they don't prove that they don't have plastic sheeting, or tents that they are hiding. There increased suspicion between people that there is withholding of food or the very emergency shelter that you need to survive. What's coming both in terms of the winter and the continuing fighting.

CHURCH: Georgios Petropoulos in Rafah. Thank you so much for talking with us. We appreciate it.

PETROPOULOS: Thanks for having me.

CHURCH: And we'll be right back.

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[02:56:43]

CHURCH: It could take years for some villages in Bosnia and Herzegovina to recover from massive flooding and landslides. The extreme weather caused shocking devastation Friday in an area southwest of the capital city, Sarajevo. At least 15 people have been confirmed dead, and now three days on, several others reported missing, haven't been found. A local meteorologist says more rain fell in six hours than they typically see in four months.

Thank you so much for your company this hour. I'm Rosemary Church. I'll be back with more CNN NEWSROOM after a short break. Do stay with us.

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