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CNN This Morning

At Least 22 Dead After Attacks In Israel; Hamas Says It Captured Israeli Soldiers, IDF Says No Comment; U.S. Officials Watching Alarm At Explosion Of Violence In Israel; Netanyahu: "Citizens Of Israel, We Are At War"; Israeli Defense Forces: Number Of Hamas Targets Being Struck In Gaza. Aired 7-8a ET

Aired October 07, 2023 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00]

AMARA WALKER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, back to our breaking news. Israel is at war in a way they have never seen before, with unprecedented fighting in their own territory, and some of their soldiers reportedly captured by Hamas fighters. Now, this started before sunrise this morning as the militant group Hamas launched its multi-front attack. Hamas gunmen have now infiltrated Israeli towns. One video shows Palestinian militants opening fire on people just driving by. Residents are barricaded inside their homes. Local news programs are reporting that fighters are now attempting to break into people's homes.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: The latest official number is 22 people killed. Hundreds more have been injured. The barrage, as we said, is still ongoing. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the nation and Hamas fighters just a few hours ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAEL PRIME MINISTER (through translation): Citizens of Israel, we are at war, not in operation or in rounds, but at war. I have ordered an extensive mobilization of reserves and that we return fire of a magnitude that the enemy has not known. The enemy will pay an unprecedented price.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: We're joined now by CNN's Hadas Gold in Jerusalem, CNN's Sam Kiley in London. Sam, stand by for us. I'm going to start with Hadas. As this is of course developing quickly, tell us what's happening there right now.

HADAS GOLD, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the sirens, meaning incoming rockets are coming, have continued to blare across Israel. Here in Jerusalem, we had several rounds of those air raid sirens earlier, but we've had about an hour or two of quiet so far. But just the fact that sirens were also going off here in Jerusalem, we heard multiple explosions in the air above us here in Jerusalem. The other thing that is very concerning is, in addition to the thousands of rockets that have now been fired, is these infiltrations. And we understand that there is still ongoing firefights going on, on

the streets of some of these Israeli villages and towns in Southern Israel. The Israeli military earlier telling us of something like eight or so towns and villages where this was happening, including two military bases as well as the border crossings. We've been watching Israeli media live where we're just hearing harrowing reports from Israeli civilians who are essentially trapped in their homes, in their safe rooms, saying that they can hear the militants and the gunfire going on just outside their, their houses, their rooms, that they've been knocking at their doors.

We are also hearing reports of a festival in the middle of nature in the desert not far from the Gaza border called the Festival of Nature that was also attacked. We're seeing reports of some of those attendees saying that they escaped, but there are several injured and dead at that festival as well. According to Israeli emergency services, at least 22 people have been killed, and the numbers of injuries are now above 545 injured. These include from rockets, from shrapnel, as well as from this militant gunfire and we do expect those numbers to be quickly evolving.

We also do have those reports, the claims by Hamas that they have captured soldiers. There are also some reports of kidnapped civilians. Hamas has not said any sort of number and the Israeli officials have not yet commented at all on these reports. Although, we have seen videos that have also been published by Reuters of what appears to be an Israeli soldier, at least one of them being pulled out of an Israeli tank. We also know for a fact that militants have taken over some Israeli military vehicles. We've seen them drive, our producer there has seen them driving through Gaza. And even the emergency services, the MDA, Magen David Adom said one of their ambulances was taken and is now in Gaza.

The other thing we've seen is now the Israeli military has started to respond with air strikes saying that it's targeted at least 17 targets in the Gaza Strip. We know civilians in the Gaza Strip have started to flee their homes near the border. They're starting to seek shelter in U.N. run schools here in Israel civilians have been warned to stay either in their shelters or near their shelters. Schools have been canceled for most of the country starting tomorrow. This is an unprecedented attack, a surprise attack.

Even the prime minister himself calling it a surprise attack, the likes of which Israel has not seen since the Yom Kippur War, which was 50 years ago, almost to the day, also happened by surprise, also happening on a holiday, because today is the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah. It's also Shabbat, Saturday. It's a holy day. The parallels are stunning and we are keeping a close eye on how this develops because there are a lot of concerns that the north could also develop into a new front if Hezbollah or other militant groups along the northern border choose to get involved, especially if Hezbollah chooses to get involved, this will bring this to a whole other level of escalation.

[07:05:06]

WALKER: Yes, I think it feels like things are escalating pretty quickly. A lot to be concerned about, especially as we understand it there in Southern Israel. So many residents waking up this morning realizing that they are under attack. Hadas Gold, thank you. Let's turn it over now to Sam Kiley in London. Sam, let's talk more about what's happening there on the ground in Southern Israel. The border from Gaza into Israel, as we know, is heavily protected. This is very rare. In fact, it's stunning that Israel did not see this coming. This was clearly highly coordinated. Talk to us about the scope of this attack.

SAM KILEY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, this was extremely ambitious in scope, and I think a long time in the planning. It began this morning with what Hamas says was a barrage of some 5,000 missiles. The Israeli defense forces say that was about 2,500. Nonetheless, thousands of missiles fired in a very short period of time, providing cover for attacks by sea. There was a motorized craft were used by Hamas to infiltrate from the sea.

They used paragliders to sail over the Israeli defenses and fences that keep the Gazans in and has been like that now for some decades. And of course, then, they were able to penetrate the fence and actually launch ground attacks. All of this amounting to the biggest intelligence failure of Israel since the surprise attack by massed Arab armies in the Yom Kippur of 1973. But much more importantly, from the Israeli perspective this is striking, this is the Hamas and their militant supporters striking right in the heart of towns like Sderot, which is very close to the Gaza Strip.

But there has very high levels of security normally and then somehow they've been able to overcome those, they've been seen fighting on the streets, killing people allegedly at a bus stop. I think the 22-figure of Israeli dead so far is certain to be increasing. And then I think ultimately this is very much part of the plan. It's been a long time in the making. Just under a year ago, I was in Jenin on the north of the West Bank where militants there who had been increasing the violence of their attack had a warning of what might come. This is what they said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There are extensive meetings with the resistance factions in Gaza and the West Bank and with our brothers abroad about starting that fire.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KILEY: Now, that fire has been ignited in Gaza. The leader of the Hamas military wing in Gaza, Mohammed al-Dir, has called on his supporters and supporters of the Palestinian extremist cause to rise up, not just on the West Bank, but obviously inside the Palestinian population inside Israel where the Knesset says there are some 400,000 weapons believed to be in the hands of what they call Israeli Arabs. And of course, in the background there is that potential threat from Hezbollah. That's in South Lebanon.

That's unlikely to be unleashed unless it is clear that the Israelis are fighting on multiple fronts in the occupied territories, Gaza and indeed inside its own territory. So, the next 48 hours are going to be crucial for the Israelis with Benjamin Netanyahu there vowing a very powerful response. He will be under extreme pressure from groups, I think, right across the Israeli political spectrum to try to go into Gaza to break the back of Hamas.

But in the past, that has been tried and has failed, often creating a great deal of criticism for Israel in the international community but also bringing Israelis face to face on the ground in terms of infantry and armored attacks inside the Gaza Strip. It's extremely dangerous and fraught with problems particularly if it is true that Hamas has managed already to have captured live hostages and moved them back into Gaza. That is going to complicate any Israeli operations very severely. Victor, Amara.

BLACKWELL: Sam Kiley for us with the crucial context. Joining us from London. Thanks so much. Of course, the Biden administration is being updated on what's happening in Israel this morning.

WALKER: CNN's Kevin Liptak joining us now from the White House. Kevin, what are you hearing?

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, certainly the officials that I've spoken to this morning are watching this situation with a growing amount of alarm. And we did just get a statement in from the National Security Council, a spokesman saying the United States unequivocally condemns the unprovoked attacks by Hamas terrorists against Israeli citizens. She goes on to say there is never any justification for terrorism.

We stand firmly with the government and people of Israel and extend our condolences for the Israeli lives lost in the attacks. And she also said that the American National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan is in touch with his counterpart and we also heard this morning that the acting ambassador, American ambassador in Israel, Stephanie Hallet, is in touch with her counterparts as well. She actually was a little stronger.

She said, she was sickened by the images coming out of Southern Israel of dead and wounded sickened by the images coming out of Southern Israel of dead and wounded civilians at the hands of terrorists from Gaza. The U.S. stands with Israel. So, statements certainly starting to trickle in, and it remains to be seen if President Biden will speak about this later today. But certainly, this is coming at a very sensitive moment in U.S.-Israel relations.

[07:10:20]

Of course, there has been strains between the president and the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the actions of the far- right government in Israel. The two men met last month on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York. I was there for part of the meeting. Certainly, there is a warrant between these two men. They've known each other for decades. After we left that meeting, they did sit, talk face-to-face, one-on-one for quite a lengthy period of time. And of course, the backdrop to this conflict that is exploding this

morning is this effort to broker some sort of normalization agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia. The expectation had been that that agreement would include some type of concessions for the Palestinians, but this is of course threatening those talks. American officials had been in the Middle East over the last several weeks trying to broker some kind of agreement. Now, we do expect Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to visit the White House in the coming months. That had been one of the announcements out of their meeting in New York in September.

Guys, you'll remember the last time that a major conflict erupted between Gaza and Israel in 2021. The U.S. did play a role in trying to broker the ceasefire there. President Biden on the phone nearly every day with his Israeli counterpart, behind the scenes, kind of hour by hour, talks between American officials, Israeli officials, but also key regional players, including Egypt and Qatar. So, certainly, the diplomacy is kicking into high gear this morning as American officials watch these events unfold.

WALKER: All right, Kevin Liptak at the White House, thank you very much.

BLACKWELL: Of course, we'll continue to bring you the very latest out of Israel. Here's what we know right now. Israeli soldiers captured. Nearly two dozen people dead Hundreds injured will analyze the military operations, coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:16:15]

BLACKWELL: More now on the breaking news in Israel, where militant group Hamas is now claiming they have captured Israeli soldiers near the Gaza border. Israel defense forces said they have no comment and CNN has not verified Hamas' claim.

WALKER: We're also learning that Lebanese militant group Hezbollah has praised attacks by Palestinian militants on Israeli cities and has said that it is in contact with the leaders of the militant groups. Joining us now is CNN Political and National Security Analyst, David Sanger. David, what is your assessment of what is going on? The fighting is ongoing, and as we heard from our Hadas Gold in Jerusalem, the concern next is that there may be attack coming in from the north.

DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL AND NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Yes, I think, you know, one of the things, Amara, that is remarkable about this is the complexity of the operation. Israel has got pretty good intelligence and has seeded the Gaza pretty well with informants so that they would know if a major operation was being launched. And so, in many ways, you know, what it's reminiscent of is the attacks in the Yom Kippur War, which were exactly 50 years ago this week.

And in that case, Israel was also taken by surprise. That didn't really seem possible, given the modern amount of intelligence that they have. So, I think that's one element. The second is the complexity of what Hamas has launched here. And they had bulldozers ready to breach the walls. They clearly had their rocket forces ready. It looks like it's been about 2,200 rocket launches ready. And that's why there are such severe Israeli casualties, which we haven't seen before.

And I think the complexity here for President Biden is going to be pretty high this weekend. First of all, his relationship with Bibi Netanyahu has been pretty tense. Second, he was hoping to be, President Biden was hoping to be in the final weeks of negotiating what would be a historic Saudi Arabia-Israel move toward normalization that was going to depend on Prime Minister Netanyahu agreeing to Palestinian state, a freeze on settlements. Hard to imagine how any of that could happen now under these conditions with Prime Minister Netanyahu saying that Israel is at war.

BLACKWELL: David, it was maybe four or five months ago in which we were discussing the Hamas attacks from Lebanon. And the question was, was Hezbollah involved? Hamas never really took responsibility or claimed responsibility for that. Because, at least one of the reasons, the expectations that they were attacking from Lebanon and not Gaza was the guaranteed retaliatory demolition of Gaza after attacking Israel. Your thoughts on these rockets coming from Gaza, the retaliation already starting from Israel, why this now from this position considering what we saw I think it was in April?

SANGER: It's a really great question because prior to that, what we were seeing coming from Lebanon was certainly not on this scale. As you point out, the retaliation was instantaneous, it's massive, it's going to continue on, and if you think about the kind of far-right government that Prime Minister Netanyahu is barely holding on to, he's going to be under enormous pressure, I think, to make this an even bigger and wider counterattack, which is going to make it all the more difficult, I think, for the United States to step in as it traditionally does as the broker and try to tamp this down.

[07:20:16]

BLACKWELL: David, let me tell people, I just want to interject here, we're looking at live pictures of rockets now. These are coming into, I believe that's Ashkelon in Israel. So, people just have an idea of what they're looking at. These are rockets that are continuing right now. David, continue your point.

SANGER: Sure, and I think, you know, as you can see from those live pictures as well, the massive nature of these rocket attacks seem to be designed to overcome what has until now been a quite successful program using Iron Dome and so forth to intercept incoming rockets. And I think that at this point it's clear that the effort here is to overwhelm that system. And that's why you've seen such incredible damage and such high casualties just in the opening hours of this.

And so, I think we're in for a really rocky period of time. And, you know, it's really it's going to be very difficult for the United States and others to really even find the right forces within the Palestinian political structure to go talk to, because they are so fractured at this point, so divided, that it's not clear how you conduct a meaningful negotiation.

WALKER: I mean, just looking at these pictures of the plumes of smoke, the fighting is ongoing. And if we can just focus, David, on the nature of these attacks and the way that Hamas militants infiltrated Israel from the air, you know, with paragliders by land and sea, the details are stunning. And to also wrap your mind around what the civilians are going through now, people in Israel, especially in southern Israel, they are being told to stay barricaded inside their homes. There are reports that militants are knocking on doors. We know that hostages have been taken, including Israeli soldiers.

That is what we're hearing from Hamas. We know out in the streets, according to some videos that we have gotten here at CNN and some videos that are circulating on social media that CNN has able to geolocate. We are seeing videos of civilians being fired upon. We also had video of, I think it was a red SUV that was also being fired upon by Hamas militants. We also have video of a tank that was seized by Hamas militants and them cheering there in the streets. I mean, all of this, this is just, again, it points to how highly coordinated this was and Israel didn't notice. I mean, how does that happen?

SANGER: You know, it's always stunning when you have an intelligence failure and clearly this was an intelligence failure. And I'm sure that the Israelis today, and my heart goes out to all the people in those villages who are living in terror right now, I'm sure they feel a lot the way we felt in 9/11 when, you know, we had basically no advance warning. Of course, when we did, when had enough time to dig back into it, we all discovered things that we should have seen.

I'm sure the Israelis will, over time, try to go look for how they missed an operation of this complexity. And you know, that really is the most stunning part of this, because we've not really associated Hamas with the ability in the past to do land, sea, air, you know, coordinated operations. They were operating more as a terrorist group and this looks more like a very well planned and pretty well calibrated military operation that I suspect the Israelis did not know they could conduct.

BLACKWELL: David is this a failure of Israeli intelligence alone? Should other countries, should Egypt have known? Should potentially the U.S. have had some idea of planning for something like this. And you mentioned 9/11 and not having appropriate intel ahead of that for the U.S., but one can expect that every subsequent 9/11 there is additional alertness, considering this is the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War, one would expect that Israel, especially, would have had some additional due diligence there.

SANGER: That's an excellent point, Victor, because the 50th anniversary, and we don't know yet whether that played into the timing, but I wouldn't be surprised. And what we've heard from Hamas so far, they've been justifying this by more recent actions, settlement actions. The mosque in Jerusalem that there's been increased attention over, it's a perpetual site of disputes between Israel and the Palestinians over who controls the mosque and when and access to it.

[07:25:35]

So, one of the interesting questions is, are those just excuses right now? And this was planned long in advance. Given its complexity, given the number of missiles that they would have had to go store away and then be ready to go deploy on a short time period. It sure looks like it was something that has been planned for months. And thus, you would expect that Israeli intelligence would pick up on it and that American intelligence might as well, but it's really the Israelis who have penetrated this the best.

Very good question on the Egyptians, I don't know that they have been as focused on the Palestinian issues in recent times as they used to be. But certainly, it is going to upend any effort at this point to put together what looked like it could be one of the most historic deals within the Middle East in some time, you know, bringing Saudi Arabia over to normalization with Israel was, you know, really the central focus for years and years, and including during factoring the Trump administration and the Abraham Accords. And I just can't see how that comes together after a situation like this.

WALKER: David Sanger, we're going to leave it there. Thank you so much for the conversation.

BLACKWELL: All right, let's go now to CNN's Hadas Gold. In Jerusalem, Hadas, we have seen the live pictures of rockets in the sky, those streams, those tails. What are you seeing? What are you hearing?

GOLD: Well, we're continuing to get alerts, red alert sirens going off, mostly concentrated in southern Israel. Right now, here in Jerusalem we haven't heard sirens or explosions in the sky for a couple of hours. Tel Aviv also has not heard as much as they were experiencing earlier in the day. We know thousands of rockets have been fired. Much of the concern and concentration right now is on the continuing reports that militants are still actively engaged in firefights in these villages and towns in Southern Israel.

Last we had heard from the Israeli military was that they had reported at least something like eight villages and towns in Southern Israel where militants were actively in there, as well as two army bases, as well as one of the border crossings with Gaza. And we're still hearing reports on Israeli media of active firefights ongoing in these towns of civilians who are still barricaded in their homes, in their safe rooms, calling for help now. They have been in these safe rooms for hours, since 6:30 in the morning, it's now 2:30 local.

We have heard some harrowing tales of them live on air on Israeli media, just begging, calling for help. Another thing we are now hearing developments about is that there was a sort of rave in the desert of what's called the nature festival, a party in the nature, not far from the separation fence between Gaza and Israel. That festival was also attacked. This is according to attendees who are now been giving interviews on Israeli media. We know of several injuries and deaths connected to that festival as well, and they're still coming in.

These numbers we have right now, official numbers of 22 dead and 545 injured, these will increase, I think. And as we continue, this continues to unfold, we continue to get more information and reports. And of course, one thing that all of us are very closely monitoring are these claims by Hamas that they have captured Israeli soldiers. We have seen videos that appear to show an Israeli, at least one Israeli soldier being pulled from a tank. We have seen Hamas has released photos saying what they are claiming are Israeli soldiers. We are also hearing reports of potentially civilians who have been captured as well.

We do not have numbers either from Hamas or from the, or even an official confirmation from the Israeli officials that soldiers or civilians have been captured but even one soldier, even one civilian is a major issue if they have been kidnapped or captured in any way and brought into Gaza. We are seeing videos, our producer there in Gaza has seen with his own eyes Israeli military vehicles that have been commandeered by militants being driven in Gaza. We've even heard reports of an ambulance being taken over and driven into Gaza. Even just one or two civilians or soldiers being captured, we've seen that launch wars.

[07:30:03]

But the numbers that we are potentially hearing, these could be very big numbers. Again, we still have not confirmed this. We also know the Israeli military has started to respond by air. There have been reports Israeli military has reported they've started to carry out airstrikes.

We're hearing reports from our producer in of heavy airstrikes in Gaza. They are responding with force, they have called up thousands of reservists. But the big concern still continues to be those militant infiltrations.

These militants, they came by air, they came by paraglides, they came by sea, they came by foot. We're seeing videos of bulldozers in Gaza, destroying some of the fence that separates Israel and Gaza.

That is the major concern here. That is where a lot of the focus on is getting -- is getting these villages and towns cleared from militants. This is going to be a very intensive operation; house by house, car by car.

There's a lot of concerns this will also spread to elsewhere in the country, because Hamas has called on all Palestinians across the occupied West Bank, across Jerusalem. Even Palestinians who are citizens of Israel, they say they're calling on them to take up arms of any kind that they have. And to target Israelis now.

AMARA WALKER, CNN ANCHOR: It's harrowing to hear these stories about people calling in to these local news programs, saying that they're in their safe rooms, crying for help.

Tell us more what do you know about the response on the ground from the IDF. And also, I do have to ask you this, because we cover for months on end the protests that happened in Israel over Netanyahu's proposed judicial reforms. And what was unprecedented about that was seeing thousands of military members protesting in the streets against Netanyahu, and also, the reservists who came out.

And I remember back in the summer that many of these reservists had said that they would not report to duty if they were called up.

Do we know there is any impact from what happened over the summer, carrying over into now and the way the IDF is going to respond or is responding?

GOLD: Yes, that was a major concern that these reservists who were saying they were not going to fight was going to affect the military readiness of the Israeli military to be able to respond. Because some of these reservists, they fulfill very important roles, especially, in the Israeli Air Force. Where, if they don't come for regular training, they are considered unfit for duty.

And actually, the deadline for some of them to kind of have had their training be expired, I understand, was coming up. I don't know if it already passed. I do not have information yet about whether those reservists who said they would not serve, whether they have follow through and have not followed the call to serve right now or whether that has affected the Israeli military readiness.

We have not heard that from the Israeli military. All we've heard from them saying that they are calling up thousands of reservists.

What is clear, though, is that Israel was caught off guard. Israel was surprised, Israel was not expecting this. This is something that Benjamin Netanyahu said himself saying that they were surprised.

I mean, if Israel was expecting anything close to this, that festival of nature, that party, that rave in the desert would not have happened because it's so close to the separation fence.

In the past, there have been sort of indications. We kind of get an idea of what's been happening. And there have been tensions in Jerusalem. There have been tensions along the separation fence.

We've all -- we've been covering for months now the situation in the occupied West Bank, but there wasn't a clear trigger. And that's why Israel I think was caught so off guard.

WALKER: There wasn't a clear trigger. You are right. Hadas Gold, thank you very much.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Retaliation has begun. Video coming in. We'll have for you this morning. The Israel Defense Forces of the attacks on Hamas targets in Gaza. We will bring you the latest.

The words of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: "Citizens of Israel, we are at war." More after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:37:39]

BLACKWELL: More now on the "BREAKING NEWS". Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says, Israel is at war, after this stunning surprise early morning attack from Gaza.

Hamas militant fired 1,000s of rockets into southern and central Israel and armed militants also crossed the border infiltrating Israeli communities.

WALKER: At least 22 people have been killed. Of course, that number is expected to go up, and there are hundreds of casualties at this time. We are getting new video in from the IDF. The Israeli Defense Forces have released video of what it says are attacks on Hamas in Gaza just in the last few hours.

Let's bring in CNN military analyst, the retired Air Force Colonel Cedric Leighton. This is stunning, obviously very concerning about what happens next. What are you expecting when it comes to Gaza and Israel's response?

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Yes. I think, Amara, what we're going to see is a lot of aerial attacks, like the one that you just showed the video of. That one appeared to be along the Gaza-Israeli border. And we're going to have the Israelis go after the infiltration routes that the Hamas fighters are using right now.

So, the Israeli intelligence is working overtime at this particular point in time, Israeli Air Force is sending its jets up in the air to respond in the way that you see. But they're also going to go after the command-and-control targets of Hamas.

So, any headquarters type installations, any areas where the leaders of Hamas are concentrated right now, they will -- the Israelis will go after those areas. That's part of the standard Israeli practice.

And they will also be using ground forces to probably go into at least parts of Gaza. That's going to be a very difficult operation. Because Gaza is not only a very crowded, it's basically a complete setting for urban warfare. And that is going to make it very difficult for the Israelis to advance in areas like this.

They will try to be as precise as possible with their targets, but they're going to have a pretty big fight on their hand if they go into this area -- these areas.

BLACKWELL: I want to stay there with the potential for the IDF going in with ground forces, because not only is there the threat of urban warfare, you've got what 2 million people in 140 square miles there in Gaza.

But you also have of the international condemnation that will likely come of the IDF going in, even considering the pictures we're seeing today.

[07:40:09]

Based on your experience, is it worth that risk going in to retaliate for the attack that we've seen this morning?

LEIGHTON: Yes, Victor. That's a really hard question for the Israelis to answer. But historically, what the Israelis have done is they've gone into these areas very quickly. They have tried to go after all of the leadership entities that they can, and they want to send a message.

In many cases, what they're trying to do is put the international condemnation to one side, go and do the military thing, and then deal with the diplomatic and political fallout later.

Whether that's a wise decision or not is, you know, of course, I think, depends on the situation. But right now, the Israelis are dealing with what they consider to be a very potent threat. And they're going to try to neutralize that threat as quickly as they possibly can, no matter what the international reaction is.

WALKER: Do you expect urban warfare in southern Israel as well? Because as you know, militants there, Hamas militants are on the ground, there are civilians, families, people who woke up this morning -- is civilians in the streets who were shot at, vehicles that were shot at. You know, what -- how do you expect the response to, I guess, you know, play out on the ground in southern Israel to rescue the citizens?

LEIGHTON: Yes, that's going to be the first priority, Amara. And I think the key thing for Israeli Defense Forces, the Israeli police is going to be to try to, in essence, do multiple SWAT-type operations in these areas. They want to protect as many Israeli civilians as they possibly can. We've seen the reports of -- you mentioned them on air, where you've got people who are in shelters, in their bomb shelters, and the Hamas militants are right at the door of the bomb shelter, trying to force their way in. So, those types of scenarios will result in that limited type of urban warfare.

Hamas won't -- probably won't be able to amass the numbers of fighters that they would need to do a full-blown urban warfare-type operation. But limited incursions absolutely are possible, because, frankly, they're going on right now. And there will be continued attacks in places like Ashkelon, as we're seeing right there on the video.

And that is going to be a major factor for the Israelis. It's going to be an essence of diversionary attack by the Hamas fighters in order to get into areas where we haven't seen them in many instances before.

So, they -- but they have some experience with this on the Hamas side. And they're going to be able to do that. They've trained, I think, fairly extensively in this type of warfare, and it's going to be a challenge for the Israelis.

BLACKWELL: Colonel Cedric Leighton, thank you so much. And as we get these updates, I'm going to continue to read them to you, from our CNN colleagues were there in Gaza. Heavy Israeli airstrikes, a heavy plume of smoke seen rising from Gaza after these air strikes. Of course, the retaliate -- retaliation will likely continue.

Quick break more on the breaking news in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:47:34]

WALKER: We're continuing to follow "BREAKING NEWS". Israel carrying out airstrikes on the Gaza Strip.

BLACKWELL: Hamas militants entered Israel by land, sea, air, firing 1,000s of rockets breaking into homes of Israelis.

The White House this morning condemns the -- as they call it, the unprovoked attacks by Hamas terrorists against Israeli civilians. CNN's global affairs analyst Kimberly Dozier, joins us now.

Kimberly, beyond the condemnation, what are the options for the U.S. to try to quell some of this fighting?

KIMBERLY DOZIER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: At this point, it is Israel show to react defensively and likely aggressively. The Palestinian Authority and Hamas don't have very good relationships. Hamas doesn't have any relationship with the White House. And the Palestinian Authority has had a very fractured relationship, especially as the Biden administration has been moving to normalize relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia, as part of its moves to normalize relations between Israel and all the Gulf countries and the Arab countries.

The Palestinians have been felt -- have felt left behind, and that has fueled some of the anger that has led to this.

Also, we've had reports and video of Israeli ultra-nationalists who have been staging various invasions of the sacred Al-Aqsa Mosque in the old city of Jerusalem. that has inflamed Palestinian tensions, both in the West Bank and Gaza. So, when the Palestinian militants say that's part of what's driving this, they are hoping that other Palestinians will take up arms because of anger over those incidents.

WALKER: You know, there was no specific trigger to this, as we have seen in the past, as Hadas Gold was highlighting. So, you know, and makes sense that this was, had been planned, obviously for some time, and it was highly coordinated, as you see, in the way that they have infiltrated parts of southern Israel.

You say that the crackdown by Israel into Gaza is going to be horrendous. Elaborate.

DOZIER: Well, the Israeli prime minister has already promised that the enemies will pay. His youth, very forceful language. And when you think about this government, it is a conservative government with a lot of hardliners, ultra-nationalists within it.

[07:50:06]

For this to happen to them, I've been speaking to a lot of very angry, former Israeli and U.S. officials, who can't believe they use the words intelligence failure. They can't believe that the Israeli Defense Forces, that the intelligence community inside Israel was caught so flat footed. And they are calling it their 9/11.

That they haven't seen something this violent from the Palestinian militant's side, in decades. They're likening it -- likening it to various wars in which states attacked Israel, not just an internal force.

And they're also worried that Hezbollah in the north might join this attack. That's their fear, not something that we've seen realized in any way on the ground. And that is driving this internal dissent. I've already heard from at least one official who thinks that the Netanyahu government will fall over this.

They're just really angry and also scared.

BLACKWELL: Considering, I mean, they're 9/11, that puts that really into the context for American viewers.

(CROSSTALK)

WALKER: It does.

BLACKWELL: With all of that context, the Egyptian foreign minister says that they are in intense communication with officials to stop the escalation between Israel and Hamas.

Do you think we're anywhere near a cooling hour?

DOZIER: I think even if Egypt can get the Hamas leadership to draw back on some of its attacks, you've got the young armed men who have already carried out kidnappings. More than 20 Israelis are reported by local media to have been killed. There is going to be, unfortunately, a lot of bloodletting after this.

This is going to take weeks to quell. The last reports I read were that there was fighting going on in, possibly, more than a dozen locations.

And I think that the Israeli Defense Forces are probably going to have to go into Gaza, into some part of Gaza to root out whoever took part in this. Because they've got to wonder about every aspect of their intelligence operations. What else might they have missed?

This was a multi-pronged attack, as we've talked about air, land, and sea. And it also meant that they've been stockpiling weapons in a major way. All of that was possibly seen, but somehow no one had the imagination to put all the dots together of something this sweeping and violent.

But it could be the event, the attack that triggers other violence, as has happened with previous intifadas. It becomes sort of a match that hits a kindling and strikes things off. That's surely what Hamas is hoping will happen.

WALKER: Let's do a quick reset for our viewers who are just waking up. It's 7:52 on Saturday morning, and about six to seven hours ago, Israelis woke up to what was really an infiltration by Hamas militants, especially, in southern Israel. And the scenes that we have been seeing, this is an infiltration by land, air, and sea, even paragliders, coming into the country.

And what we saw, through videos that we have obtained, are civilians being shot out in the streets, some tanks, Israeli tanks being seized. A civilian car looked like that was being shot at.

And obviously, this is still ongoing. This has caught Israel by surprise. It is shocking. As the world is watching. E.U. leaders are condemning this. The White House is in close contact with Netanyahu.

And this is being deemed a huge -- a colossal intelligence failure by -- well, within Israel itself, as Kimberly, as you were saying. Tell us why it's such a big intelligence failure. Because we know that Israel has embedded spies in Gaza. They are -- they actually have tapped into the communications lines. Right? So, this is -- it's surprising that Israeli officials would have missed this.

DOZIER: Yes, they are proud of saying, in past interviews that I've had that they have penetrated the communications network, that they monitor almost everything that goes on within Gaza and the West Bank.

And also, after the last two uprisings decades ago, they built a system of walls around Gaza and around Palestinian territory in the West Bank. So, they essentially physically locked a lot of that territory up.

They have informants on the ground, but none of them gave them a heads up that something like this was going to happen.

[07:55:06]

In the past uprisings, what happened was minor incidents seems to lead to demonstrations that then, various groups took advantage of, and that's how the violence kicked off.

This is very different. This is an organized internal militant attack inside Israel. It is one of Israel's greatest nightmares. And also, Israeli analysts, I've spoken to have all talked about their fear that Iran being such a supporter of militants within Gaza, and also a supplier of weapons to Hezbollah in southern Lebanon and militants in Syria could pull together a three-pronged attack on Israel.

The Hezbollah militants have more than 100,000 missiles that could reach just about every part of Israel.

(CROSSTALK)

BLACKWELL: Yes. Wow.

DOZIER: Israeli officials have told me and other reporters.

BLACKWELL: Yes. DOZIER: And the missiles stored or thought to be stockpiled in Syria, also present a threat. So, that's what Israeli security planners are thinking about right now. What else did they underestimate? Where else could the next attack be coming from?

(CROSSTALK)

BLACKWELL: All right. All right. Kim Dozier, thanks so much for the analysis.

We have much more head on the "BREAKING NEWS" when we return. Stay with us.

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