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New Rockets Fired from Gaza Toward Israel; Israel May Use Blockades Against Gaza; U.S. Moving Military Assets to Region Near Israel; Father Speaks About Daughter Taken Hostage at Festival; Iran Denies Involvement in Hamas Attacks on Israel. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired October 09, 2023 - 06:00   ET

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

KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you very much for your time.

[06:00:04]

SEN. CHRIS COONS (D-DE): Thank you, Kasie.

HUNT: And we have heard, of course, throughout this hour warning sirens blaring across Israel, as Hamas has fired rockets at Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Our own team is having to take cover, live on air.

This is obviously an unfolding situation, minute to minute, as we watch and wait to see how the war evolves now in its third day.

Don't go anywhere. CNN THIS MORNING starts right now.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news this morning. Sirens going off in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, warning of incoming rockets.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(SIRENS)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: This comes as the Israeli military says it has regained control of all towns near Gaza. You can see people taking cover on the side of the road there.

And this all comes some 48 hours after Hamas militants launched an unprecedented surprise attack by land, sea and air. Overnight, Israeli air strikes pummeled hundreds of targets across Gaza. The death toll this morning rising on both sides, with more than 700 people confirmed dead in Israel and nearly 500 Palestinians killed.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR: Video showed the horror on the ground at a music festival, where 260 people have been found dead. This you're watching right now is a drone video of burned-out cars at the site.

A dash camera captured a gunman taking a man hostage. Right now Hamas claims it has more than 100 hostages currently. And Israel says that includes Americans.

We have team coverage on the conflict from all angles, from Washington and the Middle East. Becky Anderson and Nic Robertson are on the ground in Israel.

I want to start, Becky, with you. Day three of intense fighting. You just had to take cover. What's happening right now?

BECKY ANDERSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. You come to us amidst sirens here in Tel Aviv. We also are reporting sirens in Jerusalem as Hamas confirms this morning that it is -- has been and may continue to fire rockets towards both of these cities.

We had to evacuate this space and getting to the stairwell, which is one of the shelters here in the building that I'm in, just in the past hour.

It is absolutely clear now that we are in completely uncharted territory, and this is very much ratcheting up.

You've just been showing images of the Israeli strikes on Gaza, on the Hamas side. Confirmation that they have fired more than 4,000 rockets. And that is more than the total number of rockets that have been fired on Israel by Hamas in the -- in the last conflict. So, that just gives you a sense of the enormity of what is going on.

You're right to report that the IDF says that the communities on the southern side of Gaza border are being secured. That has been a really big effort over the last 36 hours or so, to ensure that those communities that, of course, had been breached by Hamas militants are evacuated. Getting the Israelis, at least, to safety.

And that is in the wake of this devastating picture on the ground that has emerged just other the last three days. 260 people, youngsters, killed at a music event in the desert in southern Israel. So many hostages taken from that site.

Hamas says they are holding now more than 100 hostages. Islamic Jihad suggested that they are holding 30 themselves.

So the strikes by Israel continue on what they describe as the military targets in Gaza as the Palestinians there, of course, and Israelis on this side of the border simply wait this out and consider what happens next. And that is very unclear. I've just spoken to an opposition member who says grounding caution is not off the table. But this is complicated given what is going on on the ground, particularly with the hostages on the Israeli side.

HARLOW: Absolutely, Becky. Thank you. Stand by.

Nic, to you, now. Israel says they have recaptured the border towns right along Gaza. There is no current fighting. That's a real change from what the IDF spokesperson told our Anderson Cooper last night. What are you seeing on the ground?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, it is a real change. And we're trying to get into that area right now. We were last night in that area a couple of miles from the border with Gaza in the town of Styrat (ph). And quite literally a few hundred yards away from where we are.

[06:05:02]

We were told there was an active search for two or three Hamas militants believed to be in the town on the loose. So those loose ends, if you will, do seem to be now wrapped up, according to the Israeli Defense Forces.

Also last night, we saw more heavy military equipment coming in. Heavy armored personnel carriers, big mobile Howitzers. They look like tanks, but they're really long artillery guns. Very heavy pieces of mechanized military equipment being maneuvered in.

And this is exactly, along with the tanks that we've seen moved in, exactly what the military needs to secure the border. So it does appear that those holes in the border fence are now getting secured.

The picture of the incoming rocket attacks, we've had a view on that this morning, as well. We were just in Ashdod when the interceptor, the Iron Dome interceptors, fired out incoming rockets on Ashdod, this sea coastal town that's about halfway between Tel Aviv and Gaza. The town also just South of that on the coast, Ashkelon, also targeted.

Now, we could see from our vantage point, we could see the interceptors taking out the incoming missiles.

But we also saw impacts on the ground. And we were just looking at Ashdod from a short distance. And you can see two plumes of dark smoke rising up from the city itself. It appears that there were at least a couple of strikes getting through the Iron Dome defense system, getting through and impacting in Ashdod.

And yet to be confirmed, the situation in Ashkelon that we know was hit last night. We don't have details precisely of what's happened in Ashkelon. But we do know that that has also been targeted in the past -- past 30 minutes, as well.

MATTINGLY: All right. Thank you, Nic. Thank you, Becky. Stay close buy.

I want to go straight to Christiane Amanpour right now, because we are learning that the Israeli defense minister has ordered a, quote, "complete siege" of Gaza that would blockade -- kind of like electricity, blockade entry of food and fuel into the region. Christiane, what is your sense of what this means going forward?

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR/CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's, you know, a major ratcheting up of what they want to do. In his words, you have Gallant, the minister of defense, said, We are fighting barbaric terrorists. And include, of course, the West, U.S. and Europe and all the rest of it do label Hamas a terrorist organization. So all the Europeans and all the allies have stood very, very firmly

in support of Israel's right to defend itself. This obviously being the worst single day in Israel's history since 1948, the founding of the state. That's what happened on Saturday.

The 700 plus dead are mostly civilians, we understand. They include, you know, men, women, young people, old people, children.

And so, too, amongst them are the hostages. We understand from Hamas that there are more than 100. We have yet to hear from Israel the precise number of hostages.

And this closure, this full blockade will have an impact is really going to have an impact inside Gaza, which is already locked down. How Hamas breached that fence into Gaza from Gaza into Israel is still going to be a cause for investigation.

But essentially, Gaza is completely locked down. It's got a wall, a barrier into Israel but also into Egypt on the other side.

And now the Israeli defense minister says that they are going to stop, as you said, electricity, fuel, water and food. And that, of course, is going to exacerbate the humanitarian situation. There are already, according to the Palestinians, more than 400 dead there. We don't know -- mostly militants. We just don't know who they are.

But this is clearly a ratcheting up, potentially before Israel, as has been hinted by Israeli officials, potentially conducts a ground invasion.

HARLOW: Christiane, stand by. Thank you very much for that. That is a development that just came in.

And while you stand by, let's go to the Pentagon. Natasha Bertrand joins us there now, as well, because the Pentagon, Natasha, is saying sending military equipment to Israel, moving warships closer to the region, we know. What else do we have to know on that front this morning?

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Poppy. So the U.S. is ratcheting up, of course, its support for Israel. They're moving assets to the region. They are sending Israel munitions, and they're showing, of course, the country that they are supporting them in every sense of the word.

They are trying to replenish, of course, their Iron Dome interceptors and potentially other forms of support that have not yet been announced. And they are doing this very quickly.

Now, one of the big questions that U.S. officials have been asking, of course, is whether there is a link between this attack by Hamas and Iran. That is one of the biggest questions at this point because of the implications that it might have for the broader conflict.

If Iran was supporting Hamas, then what does that mean for the possibility that Israel also feels the need to retaliate against Iran? And that is exactly what the administration has been trying to avoid for this to escalate into a broader regional conflict.

[06:10:09]

Now U.S. officials say at this point there is no smoking gun that links Iran to Hamas's operation here. But there are a lot of questions, including among lawmakers, about how Hamas would have been able to pull this off without one of its biggest financial and operational backers, which is Iran.

Now, at this point, you know, the U.S. has a lot of questions about the broader intelligence failure here. If Iran was involved in any way, then why wasn't that spotted? What does it mean that Hamas, if there was no support from Iran at all, was able to carry out such a large and sophisticated attack? Are they a more, you know, sophisticated and capable adversary than was previously understood?

Just a lot of questions here as the U.S. figures out how best to support Israel in this -- in this fight against Hamas. It does appear at this point that the IDF has said that it is broadly in control of the entire country and of those pockets where they saw Hamas fighting.

But at this point, the U.S. basically is telling the Israelis we will give you whatever you need at this point, including sending, of course, those assets to the region as a show of force and to potentially deter any other would-be attackers and would-be threats from escalating the situation even further, guys.

HARLOW: Natasha Bertrand for us. Thank you very much for that reporting.

Of course, the world this morning watching as this war unfolds in Israel and Gaza. That significant development about a full blockade of Gaza. Much more on that ahead.

This video showing rockets fired from Gaza into Israel. We will discuss the potential of a global escalation.

MATTINGLY: And disturbing new images surface from the attack on a music festival, where 260 bodies have been discovered. More of our breaking news coverage ahead. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:15:36]

MATTINGLY: We now have new video this morning what shows what the Supernova music festival looked like moments before the deadly attack. Young people dancing, celebrating the Jewish holiday of Sukkot. But that was before the rockets and gunfire.

Then horror. People running for their lives. Party goers say, as they were trying to get away, Jeeps full of gunmen shot at the cars.

And this is what the festival site looks like now. Abandoned cars lining the streets, some burned-out. At least 260 bodies were found at the site. And Hamas kidnapped dozens of people, including Shani Louk. Her mother was watching the videos of the scene on social media when she realized her daughter had been taken.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RICARDA LOUK, MOTHER OF SHANI LOUK, WHO WAS KIDNAPPED FROM FESTIVAL: We identified our daughter on a pickup truck in the back lying on the floor with the militant men around her. And pushing her down and with -- armed. And they were driving into the Gaza Strip with her. So we saw that they were in the Gaza Strip already.

We saw that somebody tried to use her credit card in the Gaza Strip multiple times. And that's -- that's all we have. No other clue.

I don't understand, really, how such a brutal thing can just happen in the middle of the day. It was a complete surprise. I mean, we got used to the rockets. We live here with the rockets. We have a kind of a routine. We go to the safe room and to take care of ourself, but this was completely different attack that nobody was prepared for. And nobody can ever be prepared for such a thing, I guess.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARLOW: Take a look at this now. This video shows Ricarda's daughter, Shani, who is a German citizen, we should note, unconscious in the back of a pickup truck as Gazan militants cheer and some also spit on her. We have that video, as well.

What you're also looking there is drone video.

She says she's not gotten any news yet from Israeli authorities. CNN does not know Shani's whereabouts or condition at this time. Of course, we will keep you posted.

Our Becky Anderson joins us live again in Tel Aviv. And Becky, you spoke with the father of a young girl who has been taken hostage. What did he tell you?

ANDERSON: Noa Argamani, she was dancing at the music festival in the desert in Southern Israel a couple of days ago. She is now a hostage in Gaza.

Imagine being the father who lost contact with her, for her only to emerge in a video posted on social media, petrified and screaming for her life. I talked to Noa's (ph) father about exactly what he is going through. Have a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

ANDERSON (voice-over): The unspeakable anguish of a father, describing the moment he saw a video, posted on social media, of his daughter pleading for her life.

"It was Noa (ph), frightened and threatened," he says.

ANDERSON: I'm so sorry. YAKOV ARGAMANI, DAUGHTER KIDNAPPED: It's OK, it's OK. It's OK.

ANDERSON: I am so sorry.

ARGAMANI (through translator): You don't want to believe it, even though you can clearly see it's your daughter.

ANDERSON (voice-over): He now wants this video to be seen widely. Twenty-five-year-old Noa Argamani, seen here on the back of a motorcycle, being driven away.

Her boyfriend, Avinatan Or, is seen here with two men, holding his hands behind his back. A dark plume of smoke can be seen in the background.

They'd been among the more than 1,000 people, partying at an all-night music festival in Southern Israel, near the Gaza border. And it was raided by armed Hamas militants early on Saturday morning.

Her father says Noa and Avinatan were kidnapped. Their whereabouts unknown, but are assumed to be held in Gaza.

ARGAMANI (through translator): I'm so sad at this moment. She's my only daughter.

ANDERSON (voice-over): And Yakov's pain, mirrored by so many others. Parents, family members, wives, husbands, filled with horror and despair, thinking about the fate of their loved ones.

[06:20:06]

In this video that's been circulating widely online, a woman is seen in the back of a truck, as a militant puts a scarf over her head.

CNN has not been able to independently verify it.

But Yoni Asher, a resident of the Sharon (ph) region, told CNN his wife and two daughters, aged 5 and 3, were visiting their grandmother near the Gaza border. He lost contact with them on Saturday morning and suspected they may have been abducted.

Later that day, his suspicions confirmed when he saw the video. The woman was his wife. He told CNN he wants the video to be shown, in the hopes of getting them home safely.

YONI ASHER, FAMILY KIDNAPPED: There was no doubt, in my mind, I recognized them. And surely my wife, my two daughters, my two little daughters, that they were on this truck. So I know for sure that they were taken.

ANDERSON (voice-over): The Israel Defense Forces told CNN it's taking pains to establish the exact number of hostages taken, emphasizing the complicated nature of the situation.

So far, they estimate there are dozens, possibly more, in captivity. Yakov has a message to whoever is holding his daughter. ARGAMANI (through translator): You have casualties, just like we do.

This is an opportunity to connect between the two nations, to reach an honest peace.

ANDERSON (voice-over): For now, Yakov sits at home and waits for news, taking comfort from his family and Noa's friends.

"She's a very special kid, so loving, so giving. I miss her so much. It's only been two and a half days. I cannot believe she is gone," he says. "She made this house so alive. I feel like this house is empty without her."

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON: Poppy, Phil, so often we talk about numbers, don't we, when we are covering conflicts. And -- and the numbers on this occasion are getting higher and higher.

But it's so important we pause to consider families, friends, those who are, you know, squarely in the crosshairs of what is a conflict that, as we've been reporting, is clearly ratcheting up at this point. And there is no clear indication from the Israelis at this point as to what they can do next in order to try and get the release of those hostages as we've been reporting. It may be over 100 at this point.

There are reports of mediation efforts behind the scenes. And as we get more of that, of course, we will bring it to you. But this is -- this is uncharted territory, as we've been reporting.

MATTINGLY: Yes. And such a significant information vacuum right now for so many of those families who are dealing with this horror. Becky Anderson, thank you so much.

I want to go straight to David Sanger and bring in Ian Bremner and also bring in -- bring back in Christiane Amanpour to discuss.

Christiane, I want to start with you, because just moments ago, we -- CNN obtained a statement from Iran's mission to the U.N., which said, "We emphatically stand in unflinching support of Palestine. However, we are not involved in Palestine's response, as it was taken solely by Palestine itself."

Denying direct involvement, which has been one of the big questions U.S. officials have been trying to figure out, and yet, this was the statement from Iran's president yesterday. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

EBRAHIM RAISI, IRANIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): It is a manifestation of resistance in standing up against the fake Zionist regime. Palestinian people, the Palestinian soldiers, all Palestinian groups. And the Islamic ummah really should be congratulated for this victory.

(END VIDEO CLIP) MATTINGLY: This is not an academic question in terms of the amount or direct involvement of Iran here. The implications of the answer to that could be dramatic geopolitically. What's your sense of things when you kind of pair these two statements together?

AMANPOUR: Well, first of all, the U.S. obviously, as you say, is trying to find the smoking gun which they say they haven't yet. However, that fundamentalist hardline president of Iran has given that that statement that they congratulate.

And so, whatever they deny, the U.N. mission and elsewhere is going to stand in contrast to what the president is actually saying. And we know in the past, whether it was over the nuclear program in Iran, that Israel has taken undeclared action but, nonetheless, action against nuclear scientists, against nuclear facilities, centrifuges, that kind of thing inside Iran, whether it's by, you know, hacking or by actual agents that -- that take revenge.

So we're waiting to see what happens. And this plays into the whole fear of a wider regional war.

[06:25:06]

If Iran backed Hezbollah, and there is no question about that, right? Iran, Syria backs Hezbollah. They're in Lebanon. Everybody is waiting to see whether they actually get into this fight.

And then what happens on the West Bank? If indeed, the Hamas and other Islamic Jihad and other, you know, terrorist organizations there gin up some kind of more robust reaction to what's going on.

All of this is very, very troubling, clearly, in the face of this unprecedented attack on Israe. And what the Israeli defense minister is now saying potentially might proceed a ground invasion into Gaza, because he has now issued an order, Yoav Gallant, to completely blockade Gaza in terms of the delivery of vital necessities like electricity, water, food, fuel.

So they're clearly, you know, looking at what military means they might take next.

And Israel has said something different to what they said in their -- in their four previous encounters with Hamas, that they want to essentially wipe out Hamas leadership. They didn't say or do this in any of their past encounters.

HARLOW: David, if Israel does proceed with what many are expecting is a real possibility and that's a full ground incursion of Gaza, you have 100 hostages there, at least, it is believed.

Talk about Netanyahu's dilemma and the goal, the ultimate goal. Is it a reoccupation of Gaza, and what would that look like?

DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL AND NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Poppy, this is the -- the core problem. And first, they have to deal with the hostages. And I think the

wrenching photographs and video we've seen now of the family of hostages being taken away and the way that will resonate in Israel, which is understandably particularly sensitive. We're all sensitive to hostages but particularly kind of case.

It's going to be a very hard decision, because once they go in, particularly on the ground, the lives of those hostages are all deeply at risk.

I think the second big dilemma he's going to face is it's one thing to go in and hunt down the Hamas leadership. It's similar to the decisions that President Bush was making after 9/11, to go in and hunt down al Qaeda leadership.

But after that, of course, it turned into an occupation of Afghanistan. And we all know how that turned out.

The Israelis have no desire to occupy all of Gaza. You've seen that before. And it would be violent, and it would lead to constant insurgency. So that's going to be a very hard decision.

Do they allow Gaza, basically, to continue under some form of Hamas control?

And then I think the third one is the one that you were just discussing with Christiane and with others, which is if Iran is involved, if at some point this spreads to the West Bank, do we risk a much larger regional war, just at the moment that the world is trying to go deal with Ukraine, trying to deal with the rising threat in China.

It's the very reason that President Biden wanted to shift his focus from the Middle East and -- and turn it elsewhere. And of course, you know, the world of the Middle East always has a way of sucking you back in.

MATTINGLY: Ian, a little bit to that point. You know, there has been a big behind-the-scenes focus of Biden administration working to press forward on normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia.

How much does that effort, and I think the standing of that effort play into the decision to launch the attack here, but also what that means going forward in this very, very fluid moment?

IAM BREMNER, PRESIDENT AND FOUNDER, EURASIA GROUP AND GZERO MEDIA: I think it plays a big role in the decision to launch the attack. The fact is that Israel was, and even today, is in the strongest geopolitical position in the region that we've seen for decades. The Abraham Accords, of course, with Bahrain, the UAE and Morocco. Israel normalizing relations, despite the fact that there was no agreement on the ground with the Palestinians.

And the deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia, it wasn't imminent, but it was absolutely coming. I think within months, if not weeks. Certainly conversations I've had with senior Saudi officials in the past couple of weeks were very optimistic in that regard.

If you are Hamas leadership, and you are still embracing the idea that Israel shouldn't be on the map, it has no right to exist, you're increasingly isolated in that role. Your friends are not supporting you. And they're going off and doing deals with the Israelis, irrespective of what happens to the Palestinians on the ground.

And you see, particularly with the new Netanyahu right-wing government that was taking only more land, taking more settlements. And the average Israeli, even on the left, this wasn't a top priority.