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Soon: Members of Congress Briefed on Israel-Hamas War; Israel Strikes Port of Gaza; At Least 1,200 People Now Confirmed Dead Due to Hamas's Invasion of Israel; Some Rockets Fired from Gaza Break Through Israel's Iron Dome Defense System. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired October 11, 2023 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: -- is rapidly intensifying. We have team coverage on the ground, our Erin Burnett and Nic Robertson both standing by.

Airstrikes and artillery fire raining down on Gaza this morning as 300,000 Israeli troops with tanks, armored vehicles, and heavy artillery amass near the border. Hamas firing a barrage of rockets. This is video of people scrambling in the wreckage as sirens blared in the Israeli city of Ashkelon. Our own Erin Burnett was right by the Gaza border as that barrage of rockets flew overhead.

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ERIN BURNETT, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, hear these sirens? Are you coming to us. Come to us. You come to us. Tell me where I go. You can see streaks in the sky. We have just seen the Iron Dome here right about three miles from the Gaza border. A lot of it -- there is one right over there coming in. You are going to hear it right up there. Got it. See if we can watch that one. And you can see those Iron Dome interceptions right above us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR: This as video of the destruction in Gaza this morning. The government there warning that all electricity will completely stop and fuel will run out for hospital generators today. Right now, we don't know the fate of all the hostages who were kidnapped from Israel and taken to Gaza. President Biden has confirmed Americans are among the captives and at least 20 U.S. citizens are currently unaccounted for. The death toll in Israel from Hamas's surprise assault over the weekend continues to rise. At least 1,200 people are now confirmed dead as the scale and savagery of Hamas's massacre of civilians comes to light more and more each day. Fourteen Americans are confirmed dead, and the State Department tells us that number is expected to rise today.

Let's begin with Erin Burnett in Ashkelon. Erin, what are you seeing right now? We have been following you throughout the morning. What are you seeing at the moment? ERIN BURNETT, CNN ANCHOR: All right. So, Phil, we are actually moving

here to a stairwell just because we are hearing again incoming. So our security team is having us move to the stairwell. So as you can see, we are just taking shelter here in the north side of a building because, obviously, the rocket fire from Gaza is coming from the south.

Obviously, you saw what happened earlier when we were -- where the Israeli military is amassing very close to where we are now in Ashkelon. We understand from that earlier barrage, remember, we were talking, they said -- we were saying dozens and dozens of rockets were fired. We now know about 60 were fired and about six of them broke through the dome or were partially interpreted, only partially intercepted by the Israeli Iron Dome. So there were remnants here in Ashkelon, in the actual city center where those rockets were targeting. We understand about 12 people were injured. And we're going to be heading over there in just a few moment. But we are here now in Ashkelon, and, as you can see, obviously, there are other people here.

This is a city, a city of more than 100,000 people. The roads are very empty, but not completely empty. And there are cars still going by even as we could hear the thudding that just caused our security to ask us to move here back into this stairwell, as I said, Phil and Poppy, on the northern side of this building in Ashkelon.

HARLOW: Erin, you were speaking with us last hour about the proximity and how it's so different covering this war than Ukraine, for example, and the fact that you could go from where you were right into Ashkelon in less than an hour. It just shows us exactly that, just how close everything is.

BURNETT: Poppy, and just to emphasize that, from where we were, which was in the Ashkelon area, but really essentially in vast open sort of hilly fields where the Israeli forces are massing right now near that border, from there to where we are right now, five or six-minute drive, maybe eight-minute drive. And as I said, on one side of the road you're within the line of where the actual sirens are going off. On the other side of the road we found a grocery store. We went inside. The store was not completely empty. I mean, there was actually someone with a full grocery cart. I would say it was quite empty. The shelves were full. But there is also this semblance of life continuing to go on as normal, which, of course is how things are here when people are so used to the general situation, although, of course, not the unprecedented specifics of the situation that we are in right now.

MATTINGLY: Erin, right now you can't see it, but we are showing a split-screen of extremely dense and intense smoke rising in Gaza. I know you have seen fighters fly over the top of you throughout the course of the morning. You've heard about some of the strikes there.

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Can you talk about just -- and I think this gets to what Poppy was saying about the proximity, you could smell the smoke when the wind was shifting back and forth, what that means for, I think, the future of what is expected to be a very intense conflict? BURNETT: Yes, you can smell -- and I should just say, I don't know if

you can see from Albert, the woman behind me, she I don't think wants to be seen on camera. But Poppy, I had mentioned to you earlier, someone coming out and offering us food. She was coming down and offering us orange juice with cups. I don't know if you could see that. But that's what we've been experiencing here.

But yes, you see the billowing smoke, and it smells. And it's that horrible, thick smell, which you are close enough to smell, and then when the wind shifts you can absolutely smell it there as well. And I know Nic Robertson is her also watching all of that that we now know, Nic, was 60 rockets here over Ashkelon where we are probably not far away from each other here in this city.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, we spent most of our time in Sderot, which is very, very close to Gaza. It's perhaps two miles away. And it gives you that slightly different perspective because what you are witnessing, what we're witnessing here in Ashkelon is that sort of little uptick, slight uptick compared to a few days ago in people trying to go about their daily business, going shopping, a few more cars on the road.

In Sderot it really is still not entirely deserted, but really most people have left. The stores are all closed. There is nowhere to go to buy anything. And on the streets there, really serious and significant foot patrols of military doing their patrols through the town there because there is still this concern about Hamas infiltration, although there is nothing for sure. They are taking a lot of precautions.

So what we're witnessing close to Gaza is this continued heavy artillery barrages, this heavy artillery that was firing into Gaza last night. We could see the flash from where we were, and about four seconds later the boom was so loud, the doors and the windows of the building we were in were rattling. The roof was shaking. Then there will be the airstrikes as well on Gaza.

But you really understand, as we've been traveling around this morning, coming from Sderot to where we are here in Ashkelon at the moment, just that increase in military presence. We have been talking about it the past few days, but the convoys get bigger. Not only do you see the convoys, but you're beginning to see the troops deployed on the ground with their backpacks, they're carrying stretchers, they're carrying radios, they're carrying bedrolls. These are soldiers who are not going back to a barracks anywhere tonight. They are out in the field. They are deployed.

And close to the border with that fence to Gaza last night we could hear a lot of heavy equipment on the move. It sounded like possibly tanks, heavy mechanical diggers, all the sorts of things we have seen in the past that have been brought in by the military in advance of an incursion. Although there is no order for an incursion, I think for all the troops that are arriving here, they know that that is such a real possibility. And I think, it's giving a sense of security again to the population here that they are coming out. But the closer you get to Gaza, it's much more of a military zone, not a civilian zone. BURNETT: Yes, I know, Nic. Watching some of those convoys go by, and

one thing that really struck me is you would have someone on the top with the machine gun, fully ready to go, not sitting and waiting, fully ready to go.

One thing I know you also had a chance to experience, Nic, is sort of why we are here to begin with, right, is we are getting more and more understanding of the horrific atrocities that happened in people's homes when these militants went door-to-door slaughtering people. And you were able to go to a kibbutz where that had happened. Can you tell us what you actually saw?

ROBERTSON: Absolutely. And I will tell you about a conversation I just had, actually two conversations this morning. I've just been visiting a man who escaped. I mean, he doesn't know how he was so lucky. But he had hidden out in one of the rocket shelters, the hard shelters, the concrete shelters, when Hamas was coming. He didn't know that they were coming. He hid there because of the rocket attack. This was Saturday morning.

And then he said all these other young people that were fleeing that music festival, they arrived in their cars and piled into this tiny, tiny space in the shelter. It's a tiny space. And he said there were about 20 people crammed in there.

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Hamas gunmen, he said, came up. The shooting, they could hear getting louder and louder and louder. Then they stopped. They started shooting into this shelter where he was, opening fire on people that were just cowering there.

Then after firing, they threw a grenade in. He said it was just chaos. People screaming. People moaning. People in agony. And then he said they threw another grenade in, and he saw it. And he turned to the wall to try to protect themself, but he said, amazingly, it didn't go off, and the shooting stopped.

And then when he ventured out, he said he had to climb over people to get out. When he ventured out, there were two policemen, two Israeli policemen outside with handguns, and he thinks that they had helped save him and a couple of others in the shelter because they drove the Hamas fighters away.

He is still coming to terms with what happened, but of course, he helped put some of the survivors, some of the victims in his car and drove them out of the area, got them as close to hospital as possible.

BURNETT: All right, Nic, thank you very much. Nic, of course, also here in Ashkelon right near the Gaza border. And Phil and Poppy, I send it back to you. And we are going to head over to try to show everyone a little bit more about the impact of what happens when one of these rockets actually strikes and breaks through that dome. Back to you.

MATTINGLY: We will certainly be checking in with you. You and your team stay safe. Please pass our appreciation on to the woman who offered you orange juice. I think it's happening to you repeatedly, and I think it shows humanity and the personal side of this as well. Erin Burnett, thank you so much.

I want to get back now to CNN military analyst Colonel Cedric Leighton. Colonel, Erin's reporting that six rockets had broken through the Iron Dome. We talk about what an incredible system it is when it's in action. But it's not infallible. Talk through that.

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: So basically, Phil, what you see is every system is vulnerable, and I can't emphasize that enough. So when you see the Iron Dome in full impact and full effect here, you are able to see it take out some of the incoming rockets. The problem that you have is they can handle about 80 rockets per battery. Once you get beyond that, once the system is saturated, then you have a whole different situation here.

And so you can tell when the rocket strikes occur, when Hamas is doing -- conducting these rocket strikes, they can go all over Israel and do this. Most of the time these rocket strikes are intercepted. However, every time that they saturate the system and the system isn't ready to take care of the trajectory as it comes to assess where it's going or any other type of anomaly, then you get an impact. And you get the kinds of things that you see in Ashkelon and in several other cities right around here.

And the reason for that is the system is really dependent on accurate radar pictures, in some cases, accurate intelligence and the ability of the operators of the system to actually figure out what's going to happen with the incoming rockets. And that really becomes the key thing.

HARLOW: Colonel Cedric Leighton, thank you for standing by through all this reporting this morning. We will get back to you very soon.

And just moments from now, Congress is set to receive a classified briefing on the state of the war. Democratic Congressman Dean Phillips will be briefed. He joins us live right ahead of that.

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JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: So, in this moment, we must be crystal clear. We stand with Israel. We stand with Israel, and we will make sure Israel has what it needs to take care of its citizens, defend itself, and respond to this attack.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: President Biden declaring the United States unequivocal support for Israel's war on Hamas and saying he intends to ask Congress to approve new funding for Israel. You are looking at live pictures right now. Look at those smoke plumes out of Gaza City. Airstrikes have been raining down on Gaza in retaliation for Hamas's siege moments ago. Lawmakers are set to receive a classified briefing within the hour.

Joining us now, one of the representatives who will be at that briefing is Democratic Congressman Dean Phillips of Minnesota. He is on the Foreign Affairs Committee. He's also the ranking member, I should note, of the Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia Subcommittee.

He traveled to Israel twice this year, most recently in August, and met with Prime Minister Netanyahu both times. Good morning, Congressman.

PHILLIPS: Good morning, Poppy. Good to be with you.

HARLOW: Just seeing those live images as we brought you in. You heard the boom there; you heard the strikes as they were ongoing. You met with Netanyahu twice. Given your recent trips there, and those critical meetings, what is your assessment of how you believe Israel will respond in the coming days?

PHILLIPS: Well, sadly, Poppy, I think it's clear there will likely be a ground invasion of Gaza. It's the last thing that Israel wants to do. It's the last thing the world wants to see. But it is the responsibility of any democratically elected government to protect its people.

The failures of security and intelligence in the last week are graphic. And Israel has a responsibility, I ask Americans to recognize, imagine if we had missiles raining on us from Canada. You'd imagine, imagine if our own babies had their heads decapitated. Any human being, forget your race, religion, your politics.

This is horrifying and more than a congressman, I'm a human being. And these images and the depravity of Hamas have got to be addressed. They've got to be neutralized, and then, and only then, can we really plant the seeds of peace, which is going to be our next prerogative.

And that's why I've been traveling to the Middle East, to inspire that.

HARLOW: Yeah, and look, you have said this, as quickly as we can pursue peace. That is your mission. The question remains, how complicated it is when you have so many civilians stuck in Gaza, and Americans held hostage and Israelis held hostage as well?

We learned from Phil's interview with Matt Miller at the State Department that the US is working actively with Israel, with Egypt, with our allies in the region, to try to find safe passage.

But as we understand it, the Rafah crossing into Egypt is not passable for them right now. I just want your reaction to this is one Palestinian American speaking to Jake Tapper just yesterday.

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Is there anywhere for you to go to escape this barrage of missiles?

HANEEN OKAL, PALESTINIAN-AMERICAN STUCK IN GAZA: No, we tried everywhere. They say to go to the shore, and then they bomb the shore the next day. They say go to the north, and then they bump into the north areas the next day. Like, everywhere, they're bumping everywhere. So, no place is safe here in the Gaza Strip.

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HARLOW: Do you believe it is crucial to find a way for people like her to exit before this ground invasion that you believe is coming?

PHILLIPS: Well, Poppy, again, as a human being, absolutely. My heart is bleeding for Israeli parents who've lost their children and for Palestinian parents who are suffering and losing their own and their lives, of course. That's why I've traveled to Riyadh recently, to Jerusalem, to inspire what we hope and still expect will be peace between Saudi Arabia and Israel.

We believe in that because we think that may be the beginning of the very peace that we've been seeking for a half-century between Israel and Palestinians. But I want to remind people, that Hamas is sworn to Israel's destruction. Hamas is sworn to annihilate the Jewish people.

Until they change that disposition, there is going to be more death, there's going to be more destruction. And I ask, I plead, I invite Palestinians to recognize that principled leadership in this time has never been more important. And if and when they achieve that, there might be a chance, because then the rest of the world can push both sides together and ensure that we never see the images that we've been seeing this week.

It's going to be difficult, but we must redouble our efforts right now because the Iranians, their proxies Hamas, and Hezbollah, they did this to disrupt that peace process because it frightens them. I want people to be well aware of what this is really about.

HARLOW: There is some division within your party, within the Democrat party, within Democrats in the House, including Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, Cori Bush, and also Congresswoman Ilhan Omar of Minnesota. Your districts neighbor one another, in fact, your website notes they are the only neighboring districts in America represented by members of Jewish and Muslim faiths.

Here is part of what she wrote. I want your reaction to it Congressman, quote, "Instead of continuing unconditional weapons sales and military aid to Israel, I urge the United States at long last, use its diplomatic might to push for peace."

What is your response to that at this moment?

PHILLIPS: Well, look, I don't want to get into these complicated issues on television, but I will say that there is right and wrong, and it's black and white to me right now. We have to support Israel, I mean, anybody who has seen what Hamas has done, anybody who knows what their charter reads, has to make a choice.

I know reasonable people can disagree; I don't think that's a reasonable proposition. With all that said, yes, we should all have empathy for human beings, period. Israelis and Palestinians, I do not know why two things cannot be true at once.

I take exception to some of my colleagues' support of some of the protests that have had swastikas presented and clear and sickening antisemitism. I just ask people to be objective and empathize with both people right now. But there is wrong and right as it exists at this very moment.

And the United States will be on the side of right, no matter what a handful of our colleagues think, because the overwhelming majority of Democrats and Republicans feel the same way. But let me remind you, Poppy, we can't do anything until we have a speaker of the House.

I also call on my GOP colleagues. My GOP colleagues are meeting momentarily after our classified briefing to hopefully choose their new leader, who will become the speaker of the House. Absent that, we cannot provide a dollar. We can't take care of Americans, we cannot take care of Ukraine, and we surely can't take care of Israelis in the way that we will need to if we want democracy to win.

At the end of the day.

HARLOW: Look for your chamber, to be paralyzed at a moment like this on the world stage is just stunning.

PHILLIPS: It's embarrassing.

HARLOW: Of course, you've made a lot of headlines within the Democratic Party for being very vocal about your support of President Biden, for all he has done in his record, but not for him as the next nominee. You recently even stepped down from House leadership and said that, "It is clear that my convictions about 2024 are incongruent with the positions of my colleagues, and that was causing discomfort."

Many people have asked if you're going to run. I'm not going to ask that question because I think you've been pretty clear. What I am going to ask is if the events of the last week and war breaking out in Israel, fears of escalation, fears of whether support for Ukraine will continue the divide in the Republican Party, no speaker.

Do you still take that position? Do you think it is something that makes America look more vulnerable to our enemies to have division on that front within the Democratic Party?

PHILLIPS: Absolutely, in fact, I think as we look back on the recent days in Israel, we will discover that internal divisions in Israel, for reasons we're all aware of, probably created the window of opportunity for Hamas to do what they did.

I think the United States should be well aware of the same potential and consequences right here. The world is watching, our dysfunction is dangerous. I do want to celebrate President Biden. [08:25:00]

I thought his speech yesterday was outstanding. I think the way he's handled this is equally outstanding. And I think we should be focusing first on the course of the United States, our support for Ukraine and our support for Israel right now. But, yes, until we get our act together, it's going to be hard for us.

By the way, Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, they're aligned in wanting to see us fail. And I would ask that thoughtful Americans on both sides of the aisle right now stop the nonsense and come together, because it is existential, and we have a choice to make for our children and our grandchildren, and those choices will be made over the coming days.

HARLOW: And to be clear, your position, though, on President Biden 2024 remains the same.

PHILLIPS: I think President Biden is an extraordinary man. I think he saved our country. I also speak for an overwhelming majority of Americans whose perspectives; I think have been well shared. It's in the polls, it's in the numbers.

It's how we all feel, he's a remarkable man. But my perspective on 2024 is clear because I'm afraid we're going to have a repeat of 2016, which this country can ill afford. That's my perspective, it's not about the President, it's about the numbers and the realities.

HARLOW: Congressman Dean Phillips, really appreciate having you on. I'm going to let you go, I know you have that briefing, and please come back as you learn more.

PHILLIPS: Thank you, Poppy.

HARLOW: Of course.

MATTINGLY: We want to get straight back to CNN Military Analyst Colonel Cedric Leighton. Colonel, we want you to watch something that was happening just in the past couple of moments. We'd seen and been seeing a lot of explosions in the water near Gaza.

This right there is something that just happened moments ago. What are we looking at here?

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: So, Phil, this is one of those times when you have to kind of step back a bit and see what the possible goals are. And I think what's happening here now that I've seen this video is that notice this break wall right here? This is an effort to basically keep all of these little boats inside.

And remember that one of the attack mechanisms that Hamas was using against Israel was to use some boats that came along the Israeli coastline. So, with that said, I think what they're trying to do is they're trying to box these guys in.

There is a fishing fleet there, too, so it'll probably impact them as well. But the basic idea that I think the Israelis have, is that they fear

that they're going to be using small boats to go attack vessels in the Mediterranean, potentially, or even the Israeli coast. There's also some smoke over here in this building.

I suspect that might very well be a target related to Hamas. Not 100% sure about that, but that is certainly something that looks like a very clear precision strike right there. So, this is the kind of activity that is part of an effort to interdict what the Israelis believe the Hamas forces are going to be planning next.

HARLOW: Okay thank you, Colonel Leighton. We'll get back to you shortly.

MATTINGLY: Well, Israeli leaders are sending a strong message to Hamas to release more than 100 hostages unharmed. We're going to speak to an Israeli special operations veteran about what can actually be done for their safe return.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ISAAC HERZOG, PRESIDENT OF ISRAEL: The full responsibility rests on the barbaric murderers of Hamas and Islamic Jihad. And therefore, as to the well-being of those abducted and kidnapped, it should be made clear not a hair on their heads should be harmed. They should be unconditionally released and returned home.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: The President of Israel there, and these are live images of the damage in Ashkelon, Israel. Our Aaron Burnett is standing by, she's with us next, from there.

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