Return to Transcripts main page

CNN This Morning

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin Gives Speech in Tel Aviv Supporting Israel against Hamas; Israel Tells U.N. to Evacuate Palestinians from Northern Gaza; President Biden Expected to Speak with Families of Americans Believed to be Held Hostage by Hamas; Hamas Propaganda and Training Videos over Previous Two year Reviewed. At Least 1300 Killed in Israel, more than 1500 Killed in Gaza; Thousands Gather in Baghdad in Largest Pro-Palestinian Protest in Decades; U.S. Cities Bolster Security as Israel-Hamas War Intensifies; Israel Warns Half of Gaza to Evacuate Southwards. Aired 8-8:30a ET.

Aired October 13, 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]

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: -- the conference is deeply divided, and the fact that there is just a small majority in the House of Representatives for Republicans means that there could by any handful of Republicans who could hold up any future nominee for speaker. So, so many unanswered questions. We are now in day ten of a speaker-less House, or at least a House that doesn't have a speaker that could put any legislation on the floor of the House. And there are real and urgent needs that need to be met, first among them, of course, potentially more aid for Israel. Phil, Poppy?

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR: Lauren Fox live for us on Capitol Hill, thank you.

And CNN THIS MORNING continues right now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is CNN breaking news.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: It is the top of the hour. We continue to follow all of the breaking news out of Israel and Gaza. I'm Poppy Harlow with Phil Mattingly in New York. It is 8:00 a.m. here on the east coast, 3:00 p.m. in Tel Aviv where Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is on the ground right now. You just heard from him speaking as this war between Israel and Hamas intensifies with up to 150 hostages, including Americans, believed held in Gaza.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LLOYD AUSTIN, DEFENSE SECRETARY: And we will continue to coordinate closely with Israel to help secure the release of the innocent men, women, and children in the clutches of Hamas, including American citizens.

Now, this is no time for neutrality or for false equivalence or for excuses for the inexcusable. There is never any justification for terrorism.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: This morning, Hamas is claiming that Israel's bombardment of Gaza has killed 13 of those hostages, but the Israeli military cannot confirm that nor can the White House.

Meanwhile, Israel is warning more than 1 million people need to evacuate south immediately in Gaza as hundreds of thousands of Israeli troops mass near the border. Thousands of leaflets were dropped over Gaza City.

MATTINGLY: Joining us now is CNN's Nic Robertson in Sderot, Israel. Nic, if I have this right, you just saw, I think what you told our team, one of the largest plumes of smoke blasts you have seen in Gaza City. Tell us about it.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, this is smoke you see behind me is rising out of the northern end of the Gaza Strip. It would just be slightly to the north, perhaps of Gaza City itself, an area of a deep concentration of people.

Now, the Israeli Defense Forces say that last night there was very heavy shelling in the northern area of Gaza. We were standing here through the night. We could hear it through the night, very heavy missile strikes and artillery strikes. Indeed, the Israel Defense Forces say so far in the past six days they have targeted Gaza and specifically Hamas's infrastructure, its military command post, its military commanders with 6,000 missiles. That, according to the IDF's own figures, is already more than they launched in -- launched on Gaza in the war in 2014 that lasted 50 days.

So that gives you a sense of scale of the amount of ordnance that's being dropped. Huge plume of smoke right now. We don't know where that's coming from. But the announcement this morning by the Israeli Defense Force that Palestinians should move south of the Gaza Strip, move out of Gaza City, initially it appeared that they were given a 24-hour deadline. The U.N. had interpreted that way. The U.N. says that is impossible to do, that it will create a humanitarian disaster on the ground. Indeed, one U.N. agency says already more than 400,000 Palestinians already displaced from their homes at the moment.

The IDF has clarified and said there is no 24-hour deadline on that, but it is a very clear instruction for Palestinian civilians to move south in the Gaza Strip. Hamas is telling them not to do that because they don't trust the Israelis or their motives behind this. It is for the Palestinians there, who are caught up at the other end of these missiles, a very, very testing and difficult time. One doctor CNN talked to there said we literally live second by second. It is an impossible situation. He said everyone wants it to end immediately.

MATTINGLY: Nic Robertson for us in Sderot, thank you.

HARLOW: And now I want to take you to our Erin Burnett, she is in Israel. But Erin, you are right near the Egypt-Gaza border. And this is a crucial position to be in, especially since that Rafah crossing in the south is closed. Erin, what are you seeing, what are you hearing?

[08:05:04]

ERIN BURNETT, CNN ANCHOR, ERIN BURNETT OUTFRONT: Yes. All right, so, Poppy, right now we are along that border, Gaza-Egypt-Israel border, about three miles from Gaza, about 10 miles from the Egyptian border in Rafah, the only crossing between Egypt and Gaza, which of course, is closed right now.

And as you can see behind us, these are Merkava tanks. Most of them, we have just seen an entire convoy of them coming around. OK. All right, OK. OK. All right, Poppy and Phil, we are just going to pass it back to you right now. We just have some IDF troops coming over. We'll come back up in just a couple moments, OK? I will send it back to you.

HARLOW: All right, Erin, thank you so much. We will get back to you when we can. I think, Phil, that just shows how all of this is happening in real time as our reporters, like Erin, are trying to get to the most crucial places in this war to tell the story of exactly what is happening.

MATTINGLY: And I think, to take a step back, if we can, given it's been very difficult just how fluid and fast-moving this story has been, the horrors that transpired only six days ago. But in following our teams on the ground throughout our show, throughout our 24-hour coverage, you realize how quickly they are moving to different places, what they are seeing, how quickly military personnel, equipment, everything is happening as we're watching what's happening in Gaza now that there has been an evacuation order. We have reporters and teams that have so much experience there, and I think even they, at this point, have acknowledged that this is such a dynamic situation for them to follow.

HARLOW: It absolutely is. We will get back to Erin as soon as we can as we wait for her report from the south there.

Let's go to Priscilla Alvarez. She joins us from the White House. As we understand it, President Biden sat down for an interview with "60 Minutes" and part of the discussion, of course, about hostages, particularly Americans believed potentially to be held. What can I tell us?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN REPORTER: That's right, Poppy. And we've learned that President Biden is expected to speak with the families of Americans who are believed to be held hostage by Hamas, and his reasoning for that is to make clear to them that he, quote, deeply cares. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why do you feel so strongly about speaking to these families personally on Zoom?

JOE BIDEN, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Because I think they have to know that the president of the United States of America cares deeply about what's happened to them, deeply. We have to communicate to the world, this is critical. This is not even human behavior. It's pure barbarism. And we are going to do everything in our power to get them home if we can find them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALVAREZ: Now, a source tells me that this is call that's expected to happen later today. And what we know from the White House is that there are 14 Americans unaccounted for, and they have characterized those held hostage as a handful, a very small number. And this is something that the White House and administration officials are working around the clock to wrap their arms around. You heard shortly ago from national security spokesman John Kirby who said that they still don't have many details about the conditions of these hostages, where they may be held, and they are working hour by hour on this.

But for now, what we know is that today the president is expected to talk to some of those families and express his sympathies as well as what they may know so far. Poppy, Phil?

HARLOW: Certainly working around the clock. Priscilla, thanks very much.

And now to a CNN investigation that analyzes two years of Hamas propaganda training videos, and it identified six training camps that the militant terrorist group and its affiliates used to train for the attack over the weekend. Clarissa Ward led this reporting. She joins us now. It is stunning what people are about to see. Walk us through it, Clarissa.

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Poppy, obviously, with all of this talk of an imminent ground offensive, the questions of the failures of Israeli intelligence are front and center. And our own open-source investigator Paul Murphy spent days pouring through years worth of satellite imagery, social media videos, trying to put together a picture of how Hamas was able to train for last Saturday's brutal attacks for years right under Israel's nose. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

WARD: Propaganda videos put out by Hamas reveal chilling details about the years of preparations that went into Saturday's bloody attacks right under Israel's nose. Analyzing metadata from the videos, a CNN investigation can reveal the presence of at least six training sites inside Gaza, one just 720 meters from the most heavily fortified and patrolled part of Israel's border.

[08:10:00]

In that camp, Hamas recreated an Israeli compound with elements of the nearby border crossing, including an insignia of the Erez battalion. The videos show they even practiced taking prisoners and zip tying their hands at the camp. Satellite imagery indicates the camp was constructed within the last year-and-a-half. At two other locations in the southern part of Gaza, Hamas trained for their audacious paraglider assault, rehearsing takeoffs and landings. At all six sites, two years of satellite imagery reviewed by CNN shows

no indication of offensive Israeli military action. The imagery instead shows that in the last two years some camps even expanded into surrounding farmland and that there was activity in the last several months at the camps.

The stunning revelations raise questions as it to how Hamas was able to train so openly so close to the border for so long, and why Israeli officials were unable to pick up on and prevent the October 7th attack.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

WARD (on camera): So, of course, we have reached out to the Israeli military to get some kind of response, and we did get a comment. They said, we cannot provide answers to your questions since they relate to the complex analysis of intelligence at the same time that we are fighting a war. This topic, together with numerous other issues, will be investigated by the IDF, the Israel Defense Forces, at the end of the war.

And I think that's an attitude that you see broadly reflected here, Poppy. There is a lot of anger among people you talk to. There are a lot of questions and people do want answers. But there is also a kind of acceptance that the priority right now is dealing with the more immediate and pressing concerns, particularly, of course, that hostage situation.

Though coming back full circle, these intelligence failures do raise real questions about some of the challenges that Israel might face if it does launch a ground incursion. Seventeen years Hamas has held the Gaza Strip. So this would be a very challenging fight for Israelis and a lot of people asking whether mistakes that have been made before or questions that are now being asked could contribute to that. Poppy, Phil?

HARLOW: Clarissa, just so everyone understands, those videos that we saw throughout your report, those were publicly available on different social media platforms, is that right?

WARD: That's right. These are Hamas propaganda videos. And I think what's interesting, Poppy, it's not like they just released all of these videos after these attacks. Some of these videos were actually put out in the open space before the attacks happened. So anybody can watch these. And I should add, Paul Murphy was the one who went through them laboriously, but Israeli media have also been talking a lot about this issue. They have also been combing through these videos, and they are quite shocked by what they have found, particularly that one camp less than a kilometer from the Erez border crossing with a literal replica of the Erez battalion insignia. There are certainly real questions here to be answered, Poppy.

MATTINGLY: Clarissa, kind of tied to this, but stepping back a little bit, you have been in country, it's been six days since a horrific attack. Is this issue a peripheral issue? Because we have seen so much resolve, resiliency, pressing forward. How are people feeling right now?

WARD: I think that when you talk to people, I think everybody in Israel right now, and, obviously, I can't speak for the entire country, but the vast majority of people that I have spoken to seem to agree that the most important issue right now is dealing with the threat of Hamas and dealing with the horrifying tragedy of these more than 100 hostages who are still being held. So that is the most pressing issue on everybody's minds.

At the same time, you will often have conversations here with people where they are openly angry about what happened, where they feel there have been real failings on behalf of Israeli intelligence, also on behalf of the Israeli military. But there does seem to be some sort of consensus that that is a topic for broader conversation at a later date, that it merits deep investigation, those investigations are going to take weeks, if not months, and that the focus and the priority right now should be on dealing with these more pressing and immediate concerns. Of course, as I just mentioned before, the two do feed into each other, particularly when you're talking about a possible ground incursion.

HARLOW: Yes, absolutely, they definitely do. Clarissa, thank you for that. It is stunning and important to see for you, and thanks to Paul Murphy, our colleague, as well, for that reporting. So, heightened security concerns, not just in the region, but around the globe as protesters take to the streets around the world.

Here in the United States major cities taking precautions. We'll have more on that ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN NEWS ANCHOR: We were looking at live pictures from Baghdad at a moment when law enforcement and cities around the globe are on high alert. These new pictures where hundreds of thousands are gathering in a huge pro-Palestinian protest.

Joining us now, CNN Senior Global Affairs Analyst, Bianna Golodryga, CNN Chief Law Enforcement and Intelligence Analyst John Miller, and Israeli Special Operations Veteran and Law Enforcement Trainer, Aaron Cohen. Guys, thanks for joining the table.

I want to get into the kind of law enforcement elements of this in a minute, but what we were just talking about during the break, I think is really important to discuss, which is people are scared right now. People are furious, and I'm not talking about people in the region.

I'm talking about people here. You had a tweet last night, I think, that caught my eye and I think kind of captured this to some degree about schools closing. I'm going to get it wrong, it's right on the screen about schools closing in New York.

Can you explain to people who feel like this is something that's happening far away from us? Why is this having such a dramatic effect on Americans and American Jews? BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN SENIOR GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: I debated on

whether or not I would send that tweet because I never want the story to be about me.

MATTINGLY: I understand I'm not trying to make it ---

GOLODRYGA: It's just one of those situations where you have to separate your day job from just who you are as a person and the humanity and the lack of, I think, compassion that a lot of people are feeling in terms of what this means.

[08:20:00]

For Jews around the world, what we're seeing in Israel, for years, people have sort of been conflating. Well, there's Israel, they're Jews. And Israel is home to Jewish people. Right, and there are Jewish people around the world. And when they're seeing what happened and we're not even a week following the massacre, it's hard to talk to your kids about that.

Everyone's getting letters from schools about how to address this. And in 2023 in New York City, when you get alerts that perhaps maybe you should think about keeping your kids home and maybe you shouldn't go to synagogue. It's really troublesome, and I haven't raised it with my kids.

They're at school, this particular aspect. But I just think it's an important reminder to not only check on our humanity, but also just check on your Jewish friends and neighbors because it's been a really tough week for everyone.

HARLOW: That's right.

MATTINGLY: From the law enforcement perspective, we've seen the preparations at a great piece this morning on that. But also, this is not something that happened just now. The anti-Semitic task forces from the federal, state, local level, this has been accelerating to match an accelerating threat and rhetoric over the course of the last several years.

Where are things right now?

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT and INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: Well, New York is kind of unique in that regard, in that we literally live on high alert as normal in the post 911 world. The city went through a terrible mass murder. It went through a trauma; it went through an intelligence failure. We've seen all of that.

So, we put more resources in New York City into the counterterrorism and intelligence venue of the police department than any other city probably on the planet. That said, fear is fear. People are nervous, they're watching social media, frankly, to be candid, they're reacting to rumors and speculation.

But we also have to remind ourselves fear is the oxygen that makes the claims of terrorism survive. This is what they're counting on. So, it comes down to this personal question for people, which is, do I actually have information that I should be worried about?

At a time when everybody's saying there's no specific credible threat, knowing that there's always some risk in the world, and am I going to give into fear? When you inject the specter of children into that, it gets even more complicated emotionally for parents.

But what officials are saying is, go about your business. Be vigilant, we're doing all we can, your part of that.

HARLOW: Aaron, can I turn the topic to ---

AARON COHEN, ISRAELI SPECIAL OPERATIONS VETERAN: Can I answer that?

HARLOW: Sure.

COHEN: And this man has built counterterrorist programs for New York and Los Angeles. And I agree that the fear feeds the flame. And it's fine to go about your business I'm also a reserve deputy. I live in Los Angeles, and I'll say this, why feed the bear? And what I mean by that is you can go about your day and do your business.

But regarding the synagogues, the Jewish schools, there's real action that's happening right now. And LAPD, LASD, law enforcement around the country, we don't know what actionable intelligence they have on potential sleeper cells. And I'm not trying to spark the flame.

So, the question is, do you have security at your school? Are they trained? Are they armed? This man knows the average response time for LAPD, for Beverly Hills, for Santa Monica Police Department. I don't know New York as well, Buti know they get around pretty quickly.

Are they trained in active shooter response or security? Is there a little bit of behavioral or predictive behavioral profiling training sprinkled in there? So, where I come out, look at the intelligence failure of the Mossad, one of the finest institutions in the world, and then ask ourselves, if Israel didn't get it right, what should we be doing?

We need to at least be layered up to some capacity if people are yelling and screaming, let's get together and cause chaos. That's where I come up. But I'm with John on the psychological tactics being used by terror. Whoever's more scared is losing that's how that works.

MATTINGLY: That's the point that he's making.

MILLER: I agree with all of that, and part of the story that we had on earlier in the show is the Community Security Alliance, which organizations like the UJA and ADL have literally gone out and trained personnel at synagogues, at Jewish schools, at symbolic locations, have trained teachers, have trained staff.

There are layers of protection, and so many of them have security. But the watchword today, literally today, was limit your access. Lock all your doors and run one entrance and exit. Know your visit, positive ID, check your packages and delivery. Are you expecting them? Do you recognize them? So, they have kind of stepped up to the idea of, we woke up.

[08:25:00]

Five days ago in a world that has been adjusted, and we have to adjust towards it.

GOLODRYGA: Let's be crystal clear, these are protests called by Hamas. This is not in solidarity with Palestinians. There are so many people, so many Jewish people, it doesn't even matter your background who want freedom and dignity for Palestinians.

These protests that are called for today, what we're seeing around the world is incited by Hamas. And that is what's so frustrating, is that we're not seeing more outrage in terms of differentiating the two Hamas should not be representing the plight of the Palestinian people.

HARLOW: I'm so glad you did, and they do need to continue to do that.

GOLODRYGA: Yeah, of course.

HARLOW: Thank you.

MATTINGLY: Thank you, guys, very much, appreciate it. Bianna, John, Aaron, we appreciate it. Well, overnight, Israel issued a new warning to citizens of Gaza and called for evacuations in one of Gaza's most populated cities, in a statement sent to citizens of Gaza City, the IDF called for residents to, quote, "Evacuate south for your own safety and the safety of your families and distance yourself from the Hamas terrorists who are using you as human shields."

In a statement to CNN, the United Nations said the evacuations were supposed to take place within the next 24 hours. Now, the IDF did not specify timeline for residents to leave. Gaza City is home to more than 1 million people, the UN secretary General calling the overnight order, quote, impossible and warning of devastating humanitarian consequences.

Joining us now from Amman, Jordan, as Tamara Alrifai, is the apologies for mispronouncing your name. She's the director of strategic communications for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees in the Near East. The agency already moved its operations and staff to southern Gaza to that point.

Where do things stand right now, given how fast moving this has been over the course of the last 12 hours?

TAMARA ALRIFAI, U.N RELIEF AND WORKS AGENCY, SPOKESPERSON: Yes, good morning. Things are pretty chaotic and extremely worrying right now in Gaza, as you rightly said. My colleagues, my international colleagues, moved from our headquarters in the northern part of Gaza to the southern part of Gaza after we received a warning that our installations would no longer be safe.

Now, along with my colleague on the move are more than 1.4 million people in Gaza. These are ordinary Palestinians who live in the Gaza with their families, including pregnant women, children with disabilities, all of them on the run because they're looking for safety.

So, the situation right now is very chaotic, and we're extremely worried as these people are on the move while the air bombing the airstrikes continue.

HARLOW: Are you coordinating evacuations out of the schools that you and your colleagues have run in northern Gaza?

ALRIFAI: Right now, we are not able to coordinate any evacuation, but we're also not able to continue assisting people who are in these shelters. And I'm glad you asked the question, because we're talking about almost 220,000 people in schools and other buildings that belong to the UN. That belong to UNRA.

We were supposed to provide these people with food, clean water, and other essentials that they need because they have been displaced from their homes. However, by no longer being able to assist them, we do not know what will become of them.

Many of them are moving to the south, in the south, we do have twelve schools where people can seek shelter. However, these schools are not even ready to receive them. So, we're looking at a really disastrous humanitarian situation. In the hours when they succumb.

HARLOW: Can you explain why you are not able to help with their evacuation and why you are not able to get that aid in, specifically?

ALRIFAI: Because, first of all, the Gaza Strip is completely sealed, so whatever food, clean water, or other supplies we have are very limited, and we're still not able to get more supplies in. Last night, around midnight, my colleagues in Gaza received a warning from the Israeli Defense Forces to evacuate our own compound.

Because of the airstrikes that were being planned, my colleagues left the compound to our building in the south. We could not take with us almost a quarter million people in our schools. Everybody received the same warning. We at UNRA, we're the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees.

We feel very responsible for the people who are sheltering in our schools, but we also feel completely atlas as to what kind of advice we can give them. Given the ongoing bombing and airstrikes, we do not know how to help them move safely, and therefore our call right now at the highest political and the ---