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CNN This Morning

Israel Strikes More Than 100 Targets Overnight in Gaza; Israel Nears Ground Assault as Gaza Crisis Worsens; Desperation in Gaza as Water Runs Low, Invasion Looms; U.S. to Evacuate Americans from Israel by Sea; Biden Spoke to Netanyahu, Abbas Saturday; Confusion, Chaos at Egypt's Rafah Border Crossing. Aired 6-7a ET

Aired October 15, 2023 - 06:00   ET

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

[06:00:40]

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Victor Blackwell with Amara Walker in Atlanta. It is 6:00 a.m. on the East Coast. Sara Sidner is in Tel Aviv where it is 1:00 p.m.

And overnight the IDF says Israel struck more than 100 military targets in Gaza. They also say they killed the Hamas commander who engineered the slaughter of Jews at a kibbutz. The window is quickly closing for hundreds of thousands in the northern half of Gaza to move south before an expected Israeli ground offensive. And for many there is quite literally no way out.

The key border crossing into Egypt is still shuttered. There is widespread devastation and unfolding humanitarian crises in Gaza. Water is quickly disappearing. And Israeli military stands on the door of an invasion.

AMARA WALKER, CNN ANCHOR: Thousands of Israeli troops are massed at the border and a new report reveals details about Israel's war plan. Three senior Israeli military officers are telling "The New York Times" objective number one is capture Gaza city. Objective number two, weed out Hamas. Both will likely require bloody block by block fire fights with hostages and civilians potentially caught in the crossfire.

BLACKWELL: Also today, Tehran issues a strident message. They say to Israel, the ground invasion could cross a red line that would provoke far-reaching consequences. And that warning raises the stakes of an already delicate diplomatic mission for the U.S. secretary of state who continues traveling in the region today.

CNN's Sara Sidner is in Tel Aviv. Sara, hello to you. What are you seeing?

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR AND SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Look, things are quiet here, eerily so. We know that there is a mass of soldiers, Israeli soldiers on the border. There are a lot of people here waiting for what they believe will be a ground offensive imminently, but we experienced quite a bit of activity overnight. Overnight, we were standing right in the same spot. There you are seeing those tanks and Israel at its most ready. And there is the possibility at any time now of a ground incursion.

While the country watches and waits for that, we were standing here, as any journalist would do, telling the story of what's happening in the country, in a particular -- in Tel Aviv a place that doesn't get rocket attacks that often, not like what happens on the border. And certainly not in the numbers.

Last night we were standing here and there was a rocket attack, a barrage of rockets that came over our heads, and you are going to -- here we go. I'm going to let you listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: There are five incoming right now. Can you, guys, get me my helmet, please? There are five different -- there is tracer fire coming from the Iron Dome trying to intercept rockets. You are going to hear a boom. It's coming.

You are seeing the light. You are seeing the flashes. And you see the light first. Light travels faster than sound, of course. You should be hearing a boom shortly. I am going to be quiet here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: OK. Those booms are very recognizable. They sort of are like the sound of thunder over and over again. But a significant number of rockets coming over Tel Aviv, a place that really is not used to seeing that kind of rocket fire. It gives you some sense that we are in a full-scale war here.

BLACKWELL: Now, earlier this morning, you visited the Iron Dome defense system. What did you see?

SIDNER: Look, the Iron Dome defense system very probably saved our lives last night because those rockets were literally right over our heads. This is a system that has been around in use since 2011. That was the first time they tested the Iron Dome, and it was successful. And what it does is it intercepts rockets coming over and it can intercept artillery as well up to about four kilometers. So, two and a half miles away.

Obviously, Gaza very, very close. Those rockets coming right into the country. And so, the Iron Dome has been very, very active. We were able to get up close to the Iron Dome.

[06:05:01]

You know, it's funny. You walk up to these things and it sounds like it's going to be some massive, you know, complicated thing. And you look at it and it looks like, to be perfectly honest, a huge Lego piece that is just sitting on a platform. But its significance in this war cannot be overstated. It saves lives. It is about 90 percent or more accurate in taking out missiles. And there is no doubt that the carnage here would be far, far worse if it wasn't for the fact that Israel has the Iron Dome.

So Gaza, obviously, does not have the same technology. Gaza is dealing with a completely different situation with numbers of people just crammed into a very small space. But at this time, we are still waiting to find out exactly what is going to happen, whether that ground incursion is going to occur. Of course, there have been airstrikes throughout all of this in response to those rocket attacks from Hamas.

I want to go now -- want to talk about what is happening in Gaza. There are more than 2,300 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. Now, the United Nations says that 700 of the dead are children.

CNN's Scott McLean is monitoring the dire situation that's getting more dire by the hour in Gaza. And really the race to evacuate people there, which at this point seems almost impossible. Scott, what are you learning?

SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Sara. Yes. Things certainly are not getting any better in Gaza. Not only have the obvious danger, the obvious threat from Israeli military strikes, but now you also have dwindling supplies and the threat of that now perhaps equally or even more concerning.

Aid groups say that food, water, fuel, they are all running very low, and relief in the form of foreign aid is sitting at the border crossing with Egypt unable to actually get inside. You have hospitals in the northern part of Gaza saying that they cannot safely evacuate their patients without deadly consequences. And now even the main escape route south to southern Gaza has come under attack.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MCLEAN (voice-over): Dozens of Palestinians dig through rubble. Desperately searching for survivors in the aftermath of an airstrike. More than half of Gaza's 2 million residents who live in the northern section of the strip were told to evacuate ahead of an anticipated Israeli ground assault on Hamas.

But leaving is also deadly. An apparent explosion Friday along a main evacuation route killed a number of people, including children. The IDF says Hamas was responsible.

LT. COL. PETER LERNER, IDF SPOKESPERSON: It appears that they have -- they have physically prevented people from moving -- from north to south. And also, it appears that they have booby-trapped some of the roads.

MCLEAN (voice-over): Even emergency crews are not safe from the constant barrage. The Palestinian government says paramedics were targeted in an Israeli airstrike while trying to rescue a family in northern Gaza. Another disturbing video shows an explosion rocking an ambulance carrying a woman and child. It's unclear what happened to them. Hospitals in the area already struggling are now overwhelmed.

AVRIL BENOIT, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS: We considered it a humanitarian chronic emergency over many, many years, and now it's a complete catastrophe.

RICK BRENNAN, REGIONAL EMERGENCY DIRECTOR, WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION: There are major gaps in food, water, shelter, sanitation. People now are being forced into these unsanitary overcrowded settings, risks of disease outbreaks.

MCLEAN (voice-over): Lack of electricity along with food and water shortages in both the northern and southern parts of Gaza are becoming very real concerns.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I am searching under here under the rubble for the remains of lentils and rice.

MCLEAN (voice-over): Many who have taken refuge in an U.N. run school sleep on the ground and try to comfort their families.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): It's a tragedy. There is no water. No electricity. And I have no money. I am standing here and hungry, wondering what's left.

MCLEAN (voice-over): Palestinians who hold foreign passports are also in dire straits. The only remaining route out of Gaza is through Egypt.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We waited there for maybe four hours and everyone was calling the embassies and they were telling them that they don't know if they are going to cross today or not.

MCLEAN (voice-over): Egypt's foreign minister says the crossing is open but the roads are so damaged, they are impassable, even for humanitarian aid.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCLEAN: Now, Sara, you already mentioned the number of dead in Gaza has now hit more than 2,300. This is significant because it means that in just eight days more people have died in Gaza than died in the entire 2014 conflict, which lasted 51 days. The U.N. also says that most people in Gaza simply do not have access to water.

[06:10:03]

Not just clean drinking water, but any water at all, which means the desperate people, some them are resorting to drinking brackish water from wells meant for agricultural use. This is raising obvious concerns about the spread of waterborne diseases, Sara.

SIDNER: Yes, you have the sea there as well, which is, obviously, not potable, you can't drink it. Scott McLean, thank you so much for that reporting and showing us the devastating pictures in Gaza. I'm going to take it back to you, Victor and Amara. It is really good to see your faces. BLACKWELL: Sara, thank you for the reporting. We will check back in just a moment.

Israel says that its forces are increasing operational readiness for the next stages of war. Let's bring in now retired U.S. Army Brigadier General Steve Anderson and former director of communications for U.S. National Intelligence Shawn Turner. Gentlemen, good morning to you.

General, let me start with you and what is happening now? What is the IDF doing and what does practically increasing operational readiness for the next stages of the war mean?

BRIG, GEN. STEVE ANDERSON, U.S. ARMY (RET.): Well, thank you, Victor. What that means is that they are getting ready to execute their war fight and a war plan. They are preparing -- they are gathering food and ammunition, all the logistics they need, water, et cetera.

They are probably getting, hopefully, lots of rest. Because that's what soldiers need before they do this. But they are also gathering intelligence and they're trying -- probably going to do some probing patrols to find out where the weakest spots are and no doubt they are going to continue to apply pressure. They need to -- we saw the reports about the shortages of water and fuel. That's exactly what a blockade is intended to do.

Because what that's going to do is going to yield, hopefully, intelligence. We want the Palestinian people to be complaining to Hamas and saying, hey, you got us into this. Now get us out of this. And the way they can do that, of course, is to release the hostages and shut this thing down.

But they are getting ready to fight. I hope the Israelis show restraint. They are in a good position right now. They occupy the moral high ground. They need to retain that for as long as they possibly can because the minute they start their attack, they are going to lose it.

WALKER: General, let me follow up with that before we get to Shawn Turner there, especially as we're seeing "The New York Times'" reporting about this preparation for this ground invasion and the objectives that the soldiers are getting, number one, to capture Gaza City. And secondly, and ultimately, to eliminate Hamas' leadership.

First off, how long do you think it will take to capture Gaza City knowing the extensive tunnels that Hamas has built? They are entrenched in right now, presumably, with those hostages. And also, strategically is it possible to eliminate Hamas through force? I mean, is that a realistic objective?

ANDERSON: I believe that it is realistic with the help of the Palestinian people, you know, I think that they probably can find Hamas and eliminate them. But look, 16 years ago I served in Iraq. Remember Fallujah, OK? That was five times smaller. Only 400,000 people lived there instead of 2 million. And it was much, much smaller area. And it took the United States Marines months to take Fallujah. When we think about like Mariupol just back in Ukraine recently here, the tunnel system they have in there, you had hundreds of Ukrainians who were able to withstand the Russian advances for weeks and months down there. I mean, it's going to be an absolute mess trying to take and capture Gaza City, I believe, is not something they should try to do.

What they need to do is they need to surround it. They need to tighten the noose. They need to establish a blockade and they need to make it painful for the people -- the Palestinian people so that they come up on the net with Hamas and they say, look, get us out of this. Because capturing Gaza is going to be an incredibly difficult task.

BLACKWELL: Shawn, what's the type of intel that they are looking for as they move to this next stage of the war?

SHAWN TURNER, FORMER DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS, U.S. NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE: Yes, Victor, good morning. Intelligence is going to be critical to everything that the general just talked about. You look -- as this fight goes on, Hamas is going to try to resupply. They are going to need to get additional weapons. They are going to need to get food. They are going to need to get information about the Israeli Defense Forces.

Where are they? What are they doing? And to do that, the Israeli Defense Forces are going to need intelligence to make sure that they can counteract that. So, everything from overhead reconnaissance, overhead imagery to what's happening on the ground.

You know, as the general pointed out, this is a very difficult environment. And if you don't have human -- if you don't have human intelligence on the ground, then what you -- the only thing you can do is you can listen, you can watch from overhead. And when you see that something is about to happen, when you see that there are actions on ground that need to be dealt with, you can provide that information to the Israeli Defense Forces and they can react to that information.

[06:15:09]

But, Victor, I want to also say that it's really important to point out that the -- that Hamas, this organization that just planned this multi-pronged really complex attack, they were also thinking -- they got to be thinking about how the Israel Defense Forces might have responded to this attack. And so, one of the things the IDF has to be doing right now is asking, what have they planned as they thought about what we would do? And thinking about how they would respond to that.

So, this is really -- as the general said, this is going to be a mess. And the IDF really has to be careful here because this is -- this is extremely complex.

BLACKWELL: Yes. One would expect a group that planned what happened last week in that detail and executed it also assumed what was coming from the IDF. Does that mean booby traps? Does that mean that they are going to be popping up as "The New York Times" is reporting out of these -- openings of the tunnels to attack the IDF forces from the back?

WALKER: What happened to the hostages as this ground invasion happens as well.

BLACKWELL: Right. Shawn Turner, General Anderson, be sure to stay with us. Thank you.

WALKER: Thank you, gentlemen. Well, President Biden spoke to both the Israeli prime minister and the leader of the Palestinian authority. What we've learned about those crucial conversations next. And get our loved ones home. The families of 14 missing Americans demand President Biden do more.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:20:34]

SIDNER: We are back live for you in Tel Aviv where Israel is preparing for a ground offensive into Gaza. Just in this morning, the U.S. is announcing it will be taking action to help Americans leave Israel by sea. It has been a scramble to evacuate Americans from Gaza.

Zachary Cohen is live in D.C. for the U.S., for us, and for the U.S. and the world. Zach, what have you learned about trying to get Americans out?

ZACHARY COHEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: Yes, Sara. The U.S. is telling its citizens in Israel that they will have an opportunity to leave the country on Monday by boarding a ship. That will take them from Israel to the country of Cyprus.

Now, the ship leaves from the Israeli city of Haifa on Monday. From there it will be about 10 to 12-hour trip from Israel to Cyprus. And this speaks to really the scramble and really the fraught nature of the situation on ground in Israel as this situation continues to unfold and escalate. You know, the State Department warning its citizens in the country that the situation is completely unpredictable and they are urging their citizens to leave with their families if they have the opportunity to could so.

Now, look, the ship will only take U.S. citizens and their immediate family members from Israel to Cyprus. Commercial flights out of the country are extremely limited. So, the U.S. government trying to find different ways to get its citizens out of the country.

SIDNER: We know there are about 20,000 Americans who contacted the U.S. State Department. Not all of them want to leave. There are a lot of dual citizens, for example. But there are quite a few people who -- one of whom I spoke to who are really, really frightened because they were stuck here. So, this will be good news for the families who would like to leave.

Also, I want to ask you a question about the American hostages that are being held by Hamas. The families are asking the president to do everything he can to get their loved ones home. How is the administration handling this in a situation where like Palestinians cannot leave and certainly the hostages are in even more precarious situation?

COHEN: Yes. A group of families really pressing the president, Joe Biden, to do more and everything in his power to bring home their family members that are being held hostage by Hamas, this was during a virtual meeting on Thursday. And the White House released a clip of the president from that meeting. And take a listen to what he said to these families as they pushed him to do everything he could.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I know from experience there is not a single thing more and more worrisome than have someone you love, someone you adore, who adores you, and not knowing their fate, not knowing their fate. You made it clear how important this is to you, to me personally, and to all of the American people, and it really is. It really, really is. And we're not walking away. We are not walking away. I promise you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COHEN: So, Biden also speaking by phone to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the fifth time since the attack by Hamas. Speaking by phone by the Palestinian authority President Abbas, and moving a second aircraft carrier into the region as a deterrent for countries like Iran and its proxies from expanding this war any further.

SIDNER: Zach Cohen, thank you so much for that reporting. I know there are so many families just so concerned about their loved ones, especially people in Gaza as there is an imminent ground war. And I'm going to send it back to my colleagues, Victor and Amara.

BLACKWELL: Sara, thank you. And we are going to start right there with the people who are at the Rafah Crossing trying to get out of Gaza. Let's bring in now Avi Mayer, editor in chief of the "Jerusalem Post," and Bobby Ghosh, editor and foreign affairs columnist at "Bloomberg." Good morning to you.

Avi, let's start with you. And I want to play for you what the Egyptian foreign minister told our Wolf Blitzer about the opening of the Rafah Crossing and allowing Palestinian Americans to pass through. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

SAMEH SHOUKRY, EGYPTIAN FOREIGN MINISTER: The Rafah Crossing officially is open on the Egyptian side. It has been open all along. And the problem with the roads was -- that it's been subject to aerial bombardment. And thereby on the Gaza side the roads are not in a state that can receive the transit of vehicles.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

[06:25:03]

BLACKWELL: Families have been told that they may want to move to that crossing because maybe it would open. They are not allowed to pass through. What do you know about why they are not able to pass through into Egypt and this description of the roads being impassable to get to the Egyptian side of that crossing?

MAYER: Well, it's important to note that the primary obstacle for those Palestinian civilians who are trying to get from the northern Gaza Strip down south to safety as Israel has urged them to do has been Hamas which has both called on them to stay in place and has actually put-up roadblocks to prevent civilians from escaping, essentially keeping them as human shields an effort to ensure that they are harmed when Israel does what it must to eliminate Hamas infrastructure.

So, that is the primary obstacle preventing Palestinian civilians from reaching the southern Gaza Strip or entering Rafah. Now, we've heard conflicting reports as to what Egypt is doing. There are those who say that Egypt has actually not opened the crossing. That actually they have been putting up barriers to prevent Palestinians civilians from entering the Sinai.

If so, that would be tremendously discouraging. And I certainly hope that the Egyptians will take seriously their responsibility to the people of Gaza to ensure that they are able to maintain their humanitarian condition. Obviously, this is tremendous humanitarian situation. We are talking about many, many people who need a place to go, who are being held by Hamas as human shields at the moment and need to be vacated in order to enable Israel to do what it must to eliminate the threat imposed by Hamas to the people of Israel.

WALKER: Yes. Bobby, to you. Iran sent a message to Israel warning them of further escalation and that it will have to intervene if they continue. This comes as the Pentagon ordered a second carrier strike group to the Mediterranean, obviously, to -- as a sign of deterrence for other countries who may want to join the war. What happens next?

BOBBY GHOSH, EDITOR AND FOREIGN AFFAIRS COLUMNIST, BLOOMBERG: Well, Iran's traditional mode of operations here has been to fight Israel with the last possible Arab. Iran uses its proxies in the region, groups like Hamas, groups like Hezbollah in Lebanon. It does not get its own hands dirty with this and it does not risk taking on Israel directly.

So, if when Iran says it will get involved, I would assume it would try to get involved through Hezbollah in Lebanon. Hezbollah has been firing some rockets into Israel, but these are more in the nature of shots across the bow. It has not matched, say, Hamas' operation, Hamas' terrorist attack last week by sort of getting its strength, getting its people in strength into Israel in the north.

Should that happen, that would be an enormous game changer for this conflict. Then Israel has a two-front war to fight. And Lebanon in the north is a more difficult place to operate. It's a sort of more complex terrain.

And Hezbollah has had a lot of recent practice in fighting wars because Hezbollah's fighters have been active in the Syrian civil war for a long time now. So, they have battle hardened veterans as well as quite substantial supplies of weapons, sophisticated weapons from Iran.

So, that's something I think we won't be looking out for, talking about since the beginning of this conflict. Will Lebanon get involved? Will Iran push Lebanon to get involved through Hezbollah? So far, that hasn't happened. And I suspect everybody in Israel is keeping their fingers crossed that that doesn't happen because that would be a conflagration of much higher order than we have seen so far.

BLACKWELL: Yes, cross fingers beyond Israel, of course. Bobby Ghosh and Avi Mayer, thank you so much.

WALKER: Thank you. Israeli Defense Forces appear to be moving closer to a major offensive in Gaza and CNN is on the ground with the latest.

BLACKWELL: And desperate family members are searching for any information about their loved ones kidnapped and held hostage by Hamas.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The scariest, most surreal thing you could ever imagine. A few hours later when we -- after we lost contact, later on a video showed up on TikTok.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[06:33:42]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WALKER: This hour, we are following the desperate efforts to escape Gaza. Lines and lines of cars stacked one behind the other, all headed towards the Rafah Crossing. There are some of the hundreds of thousands in Gaza who are trying to get out as conditions worsen. Food and water are scarce. Devastation is nuts. Israel is inching towards a ground invasion. Overnight, Israel struck more than 100 military targets inside Gaza.

CNN's Sara Sidner is live in Tel Aviv. For us there. Sara upwards of 100 hostages are still unaccounted for. I know you spoke to family members who are desperately trying to get their loved ones back. What are they telling you?

SARA SIDNER, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Look by the hour, the people in Gaza, the Palestinians in Gaza who live there and those families on this side of the border who have hostages that have been taken to Gaza are terrified as the hours get closer to a ground incursion.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAN MOR, SISTER-IN-LAW KIDNAPPED: I mean this is war.

SIDNER (voiceover): Nothing could have prepared Dan Mor and his family for the video that showed up on their phones. A TikTok that sent them into a grief-stricken frenzy. It was the confirmation they never wanted but had to face. Moran Yanai (PH) had been kidnapped by Hamas.

[06:35:05]

SIDNER: And your sister --

MOR: She calls her father -- she called her father who is with her sister here saying that they are being attacked, ambushed by -- you know, by Hamas militants.

SIDNER: And they can hear the gunfire going off.

MORE: We could hear the gunfire over the phone. It was the scariest, most surreal thing you could ever imagine. Few hours later, when we -- after we lost contact, later on, a video showed up on TikTok.

SIDNER (voiceover): The video playing on their phones showed his sister-in-law, her hands clasped in a prayer-like position sitting in the dirt. Two men standing near her speaking in Arabic.

SIDNER: What were they saying?

MOR: Something along the line, we found another bitch on the tree, as if they went hunting basically. We found another -- some more game on the tree.

SIDNER (voiceover): That's when they learned Moran had survived the initial attacks at the Supernova festival grounds near Gaza and had been hiding in a bush to escape the firefight. She'd gone to the festival to do something she'd never done before, exhibit the jewelry she made to the public for the very first time.

MOR: She's just so excited about it. There's videos of her, you know, up on her Instagram story saying how she's excited and --

SIDNER: Let me get this straight. This is her first time exhibiting --

MOR: Her jewelry publicly.

SINDER: Her work publicly.

MOR: Yes.

SIDNER: And so, she must have been so excited to be there.

MOR: She was so thrilled.

SIDNER (voiceover): But Moran's sky-high excitement on the border with Gaza was leveled by terror. While her family waits, hopes, and pleads for help from Israel and the international community, the reality of her rescue has become more grim as Israeli tanks amass on the Gaza border and a ground offensive looks imminent. The family members of hostages know they can do nothing to stop civilians from being killed, which could include their loved ones.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIDNER (on camera): So, that is a situation for up to 150 families, 150 possible hostages in Gaza. I do want to take you to Gaza now because you have a whole huge population, perhaps one of the densest populated places on Earth. There has been some smoke that has been rising from the area there. We haven't seen that in a bit. As you just saw there, the troops on the Israel side are amassing at that border. There have been air strikes throughout the last of what, six days now. The first surprise attack from Hamas came on a Saturday. We are now at Sunday.

But there is such fear such terror, such anxiety in Gaza with two million people packed into such a tiny space. It's about two times the size of Washington, D.C., but has three times the number of people living and working there. A very, very, very difficult situation for the families there, the innocent people there and for those who have been taken hostage by Hamas. No one has heard anything about the status of any of the hostages that have been taken. There's just a lot of sorrow, fear, and anxiety on both sides of this intractable situation, this intractable conflict.

WALKER: Yes. Obviously, so many questions about what will happen to those hostages once that ground incursion begins to the civilians and of course, to the IDF. As we know, Hamas has been planning this out and they will -- have been expecting obviously a response like this.

Sara, thank you very much.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: All right, back here in the U.S., the House is paralyzed and still without a speaker. So, can Jim Jordan pull off what Steve Scalise could not? Scott Jennings is up next with his insight.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:43:18]

BLACKWELL: With the war in Israel rapidly escalating, there's still no Speaker of the House. But a floor vote, we're told, is expected as early as Tuesday. Congressman Jim Jordan is the GOP's nominee for the job, but there is a big problem. He is still far short of the 217 votes needed to get the gavel. He only got 152 votes in a secret ballot after Steve Scalise abandoned his bid. And we're told that Jordan has been spending the weekend trying to win over holdouts.

Joining us now is CNN Political Commentator Scott Jennings. Scott, he can only afford to lose four. Five and all the Democrats is a loss. Are there five absolute nos on Jim Jordan? Can he get there?

SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I mean, great question. I mean one thing about being the GOP nominee for this office is it doesn't really mean anything. I mean, Steve Scalise was the GOP nominee, and he had to drop out. Kevin McCarthy, of course, was the selection of the conference. He's no longer the Speaker of the House, so that means nothing. And there are significant concerns with Jordan among people who are on the Armed Services Committee, Defense hawks, and a few more moderate members of the party.

I think the Jordan plan is to try to essentially use the conservative grassroots to bully these people when they actually have to go on the floor and cast their ballot publicly. What happened in conference was a secret ballot, but I don't know. I talked to 1 member this weekend who told me that it was possible but not likely. So, that that was one man's handicapping.

WALKER: So, Scott, what do you think about this strategy then or this reported plan for him to try to bully people into voting for him? Will it work?

JENNINGS: Well, the Conservatives are thinking that the moderates who often talk of good game on this and always fold will fold when they get to the floor and have to face down a public vote. But I don't know if they can bank on that this time because the numbers are so small, as was pointed out, you only need five people to tnak this thing.

And obviously, I don't think there's any goodwill from the Democrats for Jim Jordan. He's been one of the biggest thorns on their side for years. And so, I don't know if that's going to work. I mean, there's a part of the party that really views being on television and being sort of a talking head as the most important part of the job. That's what the grassroots sees. But there's also a part of the party in the House, the rank-and-file members who know the job of Speaker is a lot more about political mechanics, running the conference, and actual governing. That's not what Jim Jordan is known for.

He is certainly beloved by conservative grassroots, but that's really different than running the House of Representatives.

[06:45:52]

WALKER: All right, Scott Jennings, we're going to leave it there. Good to see you. Thank you so much.

JENNINGS: OK, thank you.

WALKER: Well, the search for hostages continues as families beg Hamas to free their loved ones. We're going to talk to a woman who has six family members missing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALANA ZEITCHIK, SIX FAMILY MEMBERS KIDNAPPED DURING HAMAS ATTACK: This is not a time for discourse, context, or debate. We must come together against what we know is evil and pick up the pieces of our shattered hearts one by one.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:50:26]

WALKER: Israel's national security adviser announcing Israel will not negotiate with Hamas to release hostages. It comes as families continue to seek any information about their missing and capture loved ones. My next guest, Alana Zeitchik, has six family members who are missing, her husband, David, their 3-year-old twins, Emma and Julie, and her first cousin Sharon. Also taken, Alana's other cousin, Danielle, and her 5-year-old daughter Amelia.

Alana spoke at the United Nations Friday begging for their return.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ZEITCHIK: I am pleading for your help to bring my family back. We don't want more bombs or rockets or blood or tears. We want our family back immediately and we want peace.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALKER: Alana Zeitchik is joining us now. First off, Alana, thank you for joining us. I know this is a very difficult time for you. Do you have any updates on your family this morning? You did learn that they are alive recently, correct?

ZEITCHIK: Yes, we learned they were alive as of Friday, but we have not received any other information since then and we are very desperate for more information.

WALKER: Can you tell me what the last two days have been like for you? How have you been coping?

ZEITCHIK: It's been a week and a day which is absolutely crazy. I'm -- it's unfathomable, honestly. It's been a roller coaster of emotions. There was a lot of tears, but I think in some ways the tears have dried up. And I'm at a place where all I can do is take action right now.

WALKER: You know, there are still several Americans who are unaccounted for. There's not much information on them. But you at least were able to get some information at least on Friday that your family is alive. What -- did you get any other details or information when you got that update?

ZEITCHIK: No, it's been very hard. It came through the IDF, to my family in Israel, to my aunt. And we haven't really been able to get any other information. They had to actually seek them out at first. So, yes, we don't have any other information and we don't know how to get it, really.

WALKER: I understand that the last contact your family has had was with your cousin, Sharon. She left a voice note for your aunt, her mother. Can you tell us about that voice note? What does she say? What does she sound like?

ZEITCHIK: Well, it was Saturday morning as they had been, you know, in communication for several hours from their bomb shelter on the kibbutz. And the last thing she said was we're not going to make it. I love you and we have a -- we have a video of her. We've we put the voice note onto a video. And anyone that hears that can hear this sheer terror and fear in her voice. This is a fear she's always had living close to Gaza. This is her true worst nightmare happening.

WALKER: Obviously, you've been out there desperately -- you're fighting, as you say, desperately trying to get your family members back home. We showed you the video of you speaking at the United Nations Friday. You posted about speaking with an Iranian opposition media outlet to plead with the Persian Community for help. What has the response been especially from the international community?

ZEITCHIK: I'm not really focused on the response yet. I'm still focused on spreading our message and asking people.

WALKER: Sure.

ZEITCHIK: I have received amazing, wonderful messages. A woman from Hungary reached out to me on Instagram. I have received quite a lot of support, but we need more. We need more people to rally together.

WALKER: What is going through your mind as you hear that the IDF may be preparing for a ground invasion that could be imminent? What are your thoughts? How do you feel about that?

ZEITCHIK: Well, as it's clear, right, my number one concern is to bring my family home and to get them back. So, it's terrifying. I'm scared. I don't know what's going to happen to them. We want to know that they are safe. We want to know what the conditions are. We want to know that there is no way that this is going to hurt them. And we want them to focus specifically on getting our family back as the number one priority. Our family and all of the hostages.

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WALKER: We were just saying that Israel's national security adviser announced that Israel will not negotiate with Hamas. What do you say to that?

ZEITCHIK: Like I said, I just want to get my family back. I'm just a person. I'm a person who loves her family very deeply and I'm here to advocate for them. So, my ask is really for the global community to help me place pressure on both our governments, Israeli and American, to focus their number one priority on getting our families home.

WALKER: Alana Zeitchik, a very difficult time for you. Thank you very much for taking time out of your morning to speak with us. Thank you. And all the best to you.

ZEITCHIK: Thank you.

BLACKWELL: Israeli forces are gearing up for a potential major ground operation in Gaza. CNN is live in Israel with the latest on the military movements. Plus, hear from Israeli soldier from Chicago who is now on the ground preparing to fight.

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