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CNN This Morning

Israeli Defense Forces Retaliate against Hamas in Gaza after Suffering Surprise Attack; Israel Cuts off Electricity, Food, and Fuel Supplies to Gaza; Israeli Defense Forces State They Have Regained Control of Cities Near Border with Gaza. Father Remembers Daughter, Son-in-Law Killed by Hamas; State Department: Nine Americans Killed in Israel. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired October 09, 2023 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:01]

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Our Clarissa Ward reporting there. CNN THIS MORNING continues right now.

And we do begin with the breaking news this morning. Hamas launching a barrage of rockets on Israel after the Israeli military announced that it had regained control of all of the towns on the Gaza border.

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HARLOW: You can hear the desperation. This is the aftermath in the city of Ashkelon, not far from the Gaza border. This all comes some 48 hours after Hamas militants launched an unprecedented surprise attack by land, by sea, and by air, killing civilians and taking hostages overnight. Israeli air strikes pummeled hundreds of targets in the Gaza Strip. Israel's defense minister has this morning ordered a, quote, complete siege, saying electricity, food, and fuel will all be cut off.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR: The videos show the horror on the ground at a music festival in Israel where 260 people have been found dead. This is a drone video of burned-out cars at the site. A dash camera video shows a Hamas fighter shooting his rifle and taking a hostage. This morning, a spokesman for the Israeli military say that Hamas have dozens of hostages that they brought back to Gaza, and there still could be terrorists hiding in Israel now.

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LT. COL. RICHARD HECHT, INTERNATIONAL SPOKESMAN, ISRAEL DEFENSE FORCES: They came in in hundreds. So there still could be terrorists. We're slowly scanning each of the communities, and also we're evacuating the Israeli population from these locations.

(END VIDEO CLIP) MATTINGLY: CNN's Hadas Gold is live in Jerusalem. Hadas, this has been such a fast-moving story over the course of the last couple of days. Where's your sense of where the things stand right now on the ground?

HADAS GOLD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is Israel's essentially worst nightmare in my conversation with Israeli security officials over my past three years here or so. The concern was always about the north and what would happen if the north got involved, if Hezbollah got involved. I don't think anyone ever imagined what is happening right now over the last two days or so.

Earlier today, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv were once again targeted by a barrage of rockets. I was in my apartment when this happened, and as soon as it was over, I came out on my balcony, and I could see a plume of black smoke coming in the area of Jerusalem. Jerusalem in these conflicts in the past tends to be taken out of the equation. It might get one round of rockets and that's about it. It's different this time. And it feels different across this region. This feels completely different. That's what you're hearing from the Israeli military as well. They're saying, this isn't an operation, this isn't a tit for tat. This is a full-out war. Israel has not properly declared war, guys, since the 1973 Yom Kippur War 50 years ago. And that's what's so stunning about all of this.

Here in Jerusalem, I've been hearing just fighter jets, like a constant roar of fighter jets going overhead, likely flying towards the Gaza Strip. We know that they have just been pummeling the Gaza Strip with air strikes. We've seen multiple building being downed. But also keep in mind that because of the blockade on Gaza, the electricity, the Internet is not really fully available there. So our full picture of what's actually happen in Gaza, it's hard for us to completely understand exactly the scale of what's happening there.

Of course, we know that there are hundreds of casualties, thousands have been injured. In Israel, we know of at least 700 who have been killed. We know that there's at least 2,500 injuries. Guys, just what happened at that music festival by itself, this is the largest mass casualty event in Israeli history. And that's just one event of the many that we're seeing right now.

And only in the last few hours did we get confirmation from the Israeli military that they have finally regained control of some of those communities in southern Israel where they were engaging with militants in firefights for 48 hours after this first happened. That's just incredible that there were still residents in southern Israel being told to barricade themselves in their homes, to not leave for fear of militants still being there. And there's a fear there could be other sleeper cells or other militants who might appear.

We have heard from the minister of defense who has declared a complete blockade on the Gaza Strip. This means no electricity, no fuel, no food, nothing will be going in and out of Gaza for the foreseeable future. Eyes are still on the north. There were some reports that sirens, air raid sirens had gone off in the north. That is a very, very concerning development. We don't have that confirmed yet, whether that means that there were rockets fired or not, because, again, if Hezbollah decides to join this fight, we are on a whole different level of conflict here the likes of which this region has never seen before.

HARLOW: Because that would be from southern Lebanon into the north and then from the south there from Gaza. Hadas, your reporting has been extraordinary throughout this. Thank you very much for joining us live from Jerusalem.

MATTINGLY: And CNN's Nic Robertson joins us live now. Nic, you've seen the movement of the military equipment firsthand. What can you tell us this hour as I think everybody is working under the assumption that an assault, an incursion is coming. No official confirmation yet. What are you seeing?

[08:05:04]

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: You know, I think it's going to take, realistically, some time for that to actually happen on a scale that perhaps people imagine. You know, I don't think it's beyond the realms of possibility that if the Israeli Defense Force got active and timely precise intelligence about the location of some hostages, that they would try to take that opportunity to get them. But I think that's exceptionally unlikely.

And the sort of ground incursion that we've seen in the past, and I've been here before when those have taken place, it takes some time to gather the troops and the equipment and the material. And I don't see that in place yet. I do see increasing security. What you can see behind me now is Gaza. I'm going to step out of the way. You're looking at apartment buildings in Gaza, the city itself, that gives you a sense of the dense structure of the population. I'm hearing a fighter yet. You can actually see the fighter jet overhead here, flying quite literally towards Gaza at the moment. I have visibility on this Israeli fighter jet flying in towards Gaza.

We can't really see in the distance. I can see with my eyes, but it would be hard to show. It would be hard to show. We'll try and show you some smoke coming from the horizon in Gaza itself. That appears to be the aftermath of an earlier strike that has taken place in Gaza. But from our position now, we have views over Gaza, the Gaza Strip, and I can still hear that fighter jet that I saw flying through the sky on its way to Gaza. Often, when we hear or see those jets flying, and it's flying relatively low because I can see it relatively easy, when we hear that, we hear them coming over, normally you get an impact in Gaza. It's not clear if that's what we're going to see or witness from here right now, but it's typical of what has been happening over the past 24, 36 hours, with increasing frequency as Israel tries to stop those additional rocket strikes being launched, as we've witnessed earlier today.

MATTINGLY: Nic, as somebody who has so much experience in the region, in that area specifically, can you explain to people what the effect of the defense minister ordering a full siege, cutting off electricity, water, food, what does that mean in practice? ROBERTSON: It's going to mean an increasingly difficult humanitarian

situation in Gaza. Gaza is incredibly poor. You can hear that fighter jet again. It's incredibly poor, has one of the densest populations in the world. They absolute -- their economy absolutely is on its knees and relies on the ability of Palestinians to come into Israel to work and get some money, which keeps the economy ticking over, that and humanitarian aid and financial -- financial stipends from states that are trying to feed the civilian population in Gaza.

It is a population that will very, very, very quickly feel the effects of an electricity stoppage. It does have a border with Egypt, and it is possible to get food and electricity from Egypt. But it has come to rely on Israel for a large part of the population's needs. So it will be felt. And that will be a pressure point on the government, on the leadership of Hamas.

But it will also be -- it will also be something that Hamas will use to further their position that, we will lead you in this tough situation. It's Israel that's the problem, not us that's the problem. That will be their message.

But it is likely to be a scenario where we will hear from aid officials about the decline in the health situation, in the decline of safe drinking water, in the decline of enough food for populations there. So 2 million people is a lot of people in a tiny space not to have clean water that's getting filtered -- that won't be filtered without the electricity. So the pressures will grow, without a doubt.

MATTINGLY: No question, Nic. And as Nic was pointing out, as a fighter jet has been circling over the top of him, we are now looking at live pictures of Gaza City. You see the smoke rising from what appeared to be a strike coming right around the time that Nic was pointing out the Israeli fighter jets or fighter jet that was flying over the top of him right now. This is continuing to be an escalating situation that we've seen back and forth over the course of the last several hours as things continue to move towards what has been a very fluid situation, one with very little, if any, precedent up to this point. Nic Robertson has been on the ground, is keeping us posted. Thanks very much, Nic.

HARLOW: We'll keep you posted on those strikes, but the death toll rises. We are learning more this morning about the victims and the families who are in mourning. We are about to introduce you to a man who lost his daughter and his son-in-law and nearly his lost his grandchild as well. Ilan Troen says that his daughter Deborah Matias and her husband Shlomi both lost their lives.

[08:10:04]

You see them there shielding their 16-year-old son, Rotem, from Hamas gunfire after the attackers invaded their home. Ilan says a bullet penetrated his grandson Rotem's stomach, but that he did survive. He is recovering right now. And Ilan Troen joins us this morning. He's an Israeli scholar and professor emeritus at Brandeis University. I am deeply sorry for the loss of your daughter, Deborah.

ILAN TROEN, DAUGHTER, SON-IN-LAW KILLED IN HAMAS ATTACK: Thank you. Thank you. So are we.

HARLOW: Tell me about her. Tell me about her.

TROEN: Deborah was a child of light and life. She, rather than becoming a scientist or a physician, she said to me one day, dad, I have to do music because it's in my soul. So she went to the equivalent to the Berkeley School of Music in Boston, she went to the Ramon School in Tel Aviv, where she met Shlomi, her husband. Actually, Deborah grew up in Be'er Sheva, and that's where I'm speaking to you from. Those jet planes are flying over my house into Gaza. And to give you a sense of geography, it is 45 seconds from Gaza to my house. And that's the time that we have to go into our domestic bomb shelter.

So she is a singer, a child of life, and the kibbutz in which she chose to live, she was the center of organizing festivals, of parties, of celebrations. And it was a natural role for her. She's a part of a family of six children and is used to the commotion and the wondrous tumult of being in a big family. And that kind of excitement and pleasure was communicated to the people amongst whom she lived.

HARLOW: As you are speaking --

TROEN: Can I say something to you?

HARLOW: Of course, of course.

TROEN: Can I say something? You had on before parents who want information on their children. I want to tell you is that I had too much information. This is not a normal war. It isn't like there's a front and a rear. We were on the phone with Deborah as she was killed. We were on the phone the entire day with our son -- our grandson, Rotem, as he lay first under her body and then found a place to escape under a blanket in a laundry.

In other words, we live in an age of cell phones. We all knew, most of Israel knew what was going on. We had contact with -- and have contact with our loved ones, our husbands, our children, our family members, our friends, our neighbors. We were participants in what can only be called a pogrom. This is not a military event. It's not a military strike. The historic interpretation or explanation of a pogrom is when a military strikes at civilians. And this attack was rehearsed, well rehearsed, well planned, carried out.

And then you look at what they're doing. They're taking hostages from infants to senior citizens, people older than I am, denying them their rights. I wonder if they're giving them their medications, if they're giving them visitation, they're allowing them to communicate. In short, this is a human rights outrage that really echoes with the kind of pogroms that made my grandparents leave Europe for the safety of America.

HARLOW: We know among those hostages, according to the Israeli ambassador, include holocaust survivors as well as children and elderly, as you mentioned.

TROEN: Absolutely. HARLOW: Ilan, you had to take the phone call from Rotem, and we are

so thankful that he survived, but talk about the phone call. He had to call you and tell you his parents were dead, saving his life.

TROEN: It wasn't a phone call. It was texting. He was told not to speak, and therefore he was to hide and use texting. By the time he was rescued, he had four percent left in his battery. Other people ran out beforehand and he was lucky to have his four percent. And on that line, there was a chat that was invented to help them. That chat extended from southern Israel up to the north, up through the Galilee. And it included people who were social workers and a trauma specialist, telling him how to breathe, what to do with the bleeding -- the blood that was coming out of his abdomen, how to -- what actions might be helpful, encouraging him, telling him that you're a hero, trying to raise his spirits, to endure more than 12 hours of hiding when he could hear outside people speaking in Arabic and engaging in shooting.

[08:15:00]

ILAN TROEN, DAUGHTER, SON-IN-LAW KILLED IN HAMAS ATTACK: You should know that he was in a safe room, but that made no difference because the terrorists who came, they had explosives and blew up the front door to their house, and then blew out the front door to their safe -- their so-called safe room.

This was an unbelievably well prepared attack on a civilian population. It was not an attack of military against military, and so it was planned and that's going to be our problem going forward with hostages.

The Hamas wants hostages, they planned on having hostages. And how we deal with that is a conundrum that very few other countries have ever dealt with successfully.

After all, in America, how long did it take to get people out of Iran and so on or Somalia or other places?

So, we have a first-class problem, but what we do know is we will not tolerate thousands of rockets being sent against the civilian population.

I heard before somebody talking about the outrage of NGOs that are concerned about human rights. I would like to hear NGOs being outraged at the sending of thousands upon thousands of rockets that are inaccurate against civilian population centers.

That is an outrage. Sorry --

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: No. Do not apologize.

TROEN: You got me excited. This is a hard time in which still live.

HARLOW: Do not apologize. You lost your daughter and your son-in-law.

Just before I let you go, is Rotem going to be okay? TROEN: Rotem will be fine. He is -- the brunt of the shot was borne

by his mother and it penetrated stomach -- a short distance, missed any vital organs. There are also some resisim (ph) -- there are some splinters near his eye and his ankle and other places, but they are minor.

The last report, other children, there are lots of siblings. It is a big family here -- is we're walking with him through the halls of the hospital. He is 16, tough, resilient. He survived this. He'll survive more, but the trauma of it is going to last his lifetime.

HARLOW: Of course, it will, and saved by his mother.

Ilan Troen --

TROEN: Exactly.

HARLOW: Saved by his mother.

TROEN: Thank you.

HARLOW: Thank you.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR: These are live pictures this morning, Israel continuing its strikes into Gaza.

We're just learning from the State Department that nine Americans have been killed in Israel since Saturday. We're going to get an update from the State Department, spokesman Matt Miller will be with us. Stay with us.

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[08:21:03 ]

MATTINGLY: Happening now: You see the smoke rising above Gaza as Israel continues to launch counterstrikes in response to the attacks by Hamas militants.

And this just in: State Department says nine Americans were killed in those attacks in Israel.

Joining us now, State Department spokesman, Matthew Miller.

Matt, I appreciate your time. To start there, it had been four, it has now been updated to nine. Can you tell us what more you know about the Americans that have been killed so far?

MATTHEW MILLER, US STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESPERSON: So I'll start with, yes, I can confirm that nine Americans unfortunately have lost their lives as a result of these horrific attacks in the region.

We are in close contact with the government of Israel as they continue to conduct security operations to locate missing US citizens, missing Israeli citizens, and we are of course in close contact with the families of these nine deceased Americans and offering them any consular assistance that we can provide.

MATTINGLY: Does the US have any sense of how many American citizens or dual citizens are missing at this point?

MILLER: It's very hard to say it's a number that moves all the time as the Israeli military continues to conduct military operations.

There are missing Americans who are unaccounted for. We've continued to work, some of them will be located. We suspect some of them may unfortunately turn out to be deceased, but we will work on that with the government of Israel in the coming days.

MATTINGLY: And is there any information available as to whether or not any of them have been taken hostage?

MILLER: We cannot confirm that at this point. There are reports of that, but there are Americans who are unaccounted for and our first priority is to locate those Americans, find out what their status is in the coming hours and days.

MATTINGLY: Matt, the secretary, Secretary Blinken, you could see through the readouts of the phone calls, it has been a furious effort on the diplomatic side over the course of the last 48 hours. Is there a sense inside your department right now that an offensive from Israel ground incursion is almost an inevitability?

MILLER: I think I will let Israel speak to their exact military operations, both the nature of those operations and the timing of them. The Secretary in his conversations with his counterparts in the Israeli government has made clear that we see it as our job to support Israel.

The first shipment of military assistance, including munitions began to move yesterday and will arrive in Israel in the coming days. And the secretary has made clear as the president made clear in his public statements that we will do everything we can to support Israel as it defends itself from this terrorist attack.

MATTINGLY: My understanding from talking to people involved in some of the unclassified briefings last night is that there is space and supply in order to send immediate aid over to Israel right now, but there is a possibility that there will need to be requests for more. Do you have a sense that that is imminent, an additional emergency supplemental request?

MILLER: I don't want to get ahead of where we will come down on that question. I will say that we do have the ability to meet Israel's immediate needs. As I said, the first package of military assistance has already began to move to the region.

But we are in close contact with our Israeli counterparts about what additional assistance they might need, if any. And if there is, if it is important that we go to Congress and ask for additional assistance, we will of course do that.

MATTINGLY: There has been a lot of questions about the involvement of Iran. I know US officials have said there's a difference between complicity and direct involvement. The latter is something that there hadn't been evidence up to this point. Can you update people on where kind of the US intelligence sees things at this point in terms of Iran's involvement?

MILLER: So we don't have any direct intelligence at this point that would show Iran's direct involvement in this terrorist attack. But that said, Iran has been a longtime supporter of Hamas. That's why we've taken action to hold Iran accountable for its support of Hamas and other terrorist organizations. This administration has imposed more than 400 sanctions on Iran and we will continue to hold it accountable.

We will continue to examine what information we can about what directly led to these attacks and whether Iran or any other country may have been involved, but at this point we don't have any evidence to confirm that.

[08:25:08]

MATTINGLY: One last one on Iran, you know I know this is something the administration has pushed back very sharply on in terms of the $6 billion in unfrozen assets that were put into an account in Qatar to be used for humanitarian aid.

You guys have pushed back on the idea that this could be utilized for this attack, but I want to play something that Congressman Michael McCaul said. Listen.

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REP. MICHAEL MCCAUL (R-TX): I'm also concerned about the $6 billion and lifted sanctions that have now gone into Iran. I don't think it played a part in this event, but it certainly could play a part in any future terror activities.

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MATTINGLY: Matt, to that point, the idea of money is fungible here. This frees up ability for Iran in terms of its terror activities going forward. What's your response to that?

MILLER: I think it's important to just establish what the actual facts are. There's been a lot of rhetoric that's thought about this. But the facts I think, are pretty clear.

First of all, the reason Iran had this $6 billion in the first place, and this is Iranian money, is because the previous administration, the Trump administration, allowed this money to be paid to Iran, and placed into accounts where Iran could use that money for humanitarian purposes.

We have allowed the money to move to a different account in the State of Qatar from an account where it was held in South Korea, where Iran will continue to have access to that money only for humanitarian purposes with strict oversight from the United States Treasury Department. So there is no ability for Iran to use this for anything other than humanitarian purposes.

I will also say that Iran has funded terrorism for years and years and years, decades, in fact, and we expect that they will continue to do so, which is why even as we allow them to have access to this humanitarian funding, which was already their money, it was already in an account to where they could act with and they could spend it, but were just unable to do so for some kind of technical reasons, we have made clear that we will continue to hold them accountable.

As I said, we have imposed 400 sanctions on Iran since the beginning of this administration for its range of activities, including support for terrorist groups, and we will continue to take steps to hold Iran accountable going forward.

MATTINGLY: All right, Matt Miller, State Department spokesman, we appreciate your time. Thanks.

MILLER: Thank you.

HARLOW: We do have this new video just in to CNN showing how nearly 1,000 Hamas militants infiltrated Israel from Gaza. Much more on this ahead.

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