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Palestinian Officials: 2,750 Killed as Gaza on Brink of Real Famine; Israeli Ground Offensive into Gaza Appears Imminent; Hamas Continues Firing Rockets into Israel; Rafah Border Crossing between Gaza and Egypt Still Closed Despite Negotiations Including U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired October 16, 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]

WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT: They say that the landlord who had been angry with what he had been seeing in the news knocked on their door, and when she opened, he tried to choke her and proceeded to attack her with a knife, yelling, "You Muslims must die."

When she ran into the bathroom to call 911, she came out to find that he had stabbed her six-year-old son to death. It all happened so fast, Phil. That man due later in court today.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Whitney Wild, thank you for the reporting. Please keep us posted as well on the status of the little boy's mother.

And CNN THIS MORNING continues right now.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

HARLOW: It's the top of the hour. We're glad you're with us. I'm Poppy Harlow with Phil Mattingly in New York. Erin Burnett live for us in Tel Aviv, Israel. It is 8:00 a.m. here in New York City, 3:00 p.m. in Israel. And right now, Secretary of State Antony Blinken is meeting again with Israeli leaders.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR: As a dire humanitarian crisis is escalating in Gaza and an Israeli ground offensive appears to be imminent. Blinken said just a short time ago the U.S. was, quote, actively working to ensure that humanitarian assistance like water, food, and medicine could get into Gaza.

HARLOW: Blinken also said yesterday that a safe passageway into Egypt via the Rafah Crossing would be open. Half-a-million people have fled northern Gaza for the south. But overnight, those negotiations appear to have stalled. The Israeli prime minister's office saying this morning, quote, at the moment, there is neither a ceasefire nor humanitarian assistance in the Gaza Strip in return for the exit of foreigners. We also just learned President Biden is canceling a planned trip he had to Colorado so that he can attend national security meetings. MATTINGLY: And that comes as Israel says that there are more hostages

than we previously knew about. The number now stands at 199, including some Americans.

We are covering this from across the world. We begin with CNN anchor Erin Burnett live in Tel Aviv, Israel. Erin, the secretary of state is back in Israel. There has been a just nonstop questions about what the status of the Rafah border crossing is at this point. Do we have any idea?

ERIN BURNETT, CNN ANCHOR, ERIN BURNETT OUTFRONT: No. We know it's closed, but we don't know. We know that there are negotiations ongoing, but then pieces of it leak out. The Egyptian foreign minister just over the past hour here as we've been live has said that they're making no progress towards opening that border.

And that border, of course, you don't just have a lot of people who want to come out, including Americans who have massed there along that border, the southern Gaza border with Egypt, but also all the humanitarian aid waiting to come in is also along that border. And it is still completely closed.

And you don't know until you know with a negotiation, but certainly what's coming out of it is not positive. But the context, obviously, Phil and Poppy, is that the Prime Minister Netanyahu and Antony Blinken are in a meeting right now, and Blinken has met with leaders in Egypt as well as Jordan and around the region. So, obviously, that's going to be part of the conversation today.

But as we have this feeling of imminent -- and I know we've been saying it for days, but things are changing and things are moving, the status of that border becomes more and more crucial. But as we speak right now, it is closed, Phil.

HARLOW: You heard explosions earlier, Erin. Often, the sound of them being intercepted by the Iron Dome that is so effective. We have seen debris in people's backyards, even near Tel Aviv. Reminding people, the city behind you is a big, bustling metropolis. What is it like this morning there?

BURNETT: I will say, you are right, it is sort of the heart and soul of the energy of Israel here, Tel Aviv. Bustling, though, is the one thing it hasn't been since this happened. It has been really still. But yes, there have been rockets that have been coming in here, you either get the alert if you're in the immediate area or if you hear the explosions if you're near, but outside the potential area that they determine to be likely for impact.

And then, that happens in people's backyards. And being under the Iron Dome, at one point, we had 60 rockets come in. And that was near Askelon, as you know, we were with you that day. When that happens, those rocket pieces have to go somewhere, right? They get intercepted, they get blown up. Then they have to come down.

So they do in forms of debris. And some of them actually break through. We saw apartment buildings struck, a fire in a building that we subsequently had to seek shelter in because of more rockets coming in. But that's the reality of it. And that shrapnel coming through, those broken rockets, even ones that are intercepted in part can be deadly for people. That's exactly what you're talking about, in somebody's backyard. It gives you a sense of the randomness and the potency and fear that people feel.

I want to bring in Sara Sidner now, because she is no far north. She's in Haifa, Israel. That is where American families have been gathering who are boarding a ship to leave Israel. Obviously, an incredibly hard country to get out of. Sara, you and I have spent so much time in Ukraine, you have so many land borders possible for people to get out, here you don't. You simply don't.

[08:05:02]

And water is perhaps the main means of egress for many people. And that's what you're seeing.

SARA SIDNER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. It is interesting. There have been chartered flights, but the flights are just far and few between, the commercial flights. A lot of them get canceled. El Al is probably one of the only ones that is reliable, but there are very few, very few seats for people. At first, we were seeing tons of people coming in because the reservists were coming in from all over the world. But going out is a different thing for families who want to leave.

And particularly for Americans, there's a large contingent of Americans who are here. About 20,000 of them contacted the State Department, not necessarily to leave, but to get information, and some of them should get information to try and leave Israel because they're having such a hard time over the past week trying to get out. It just wasn't working.

What we have noticed today is this ship, which is the Rhapsody of the Seas, which is owned by Royal Caribbean, and basically the United States has asked to use the ship in order to take Americans out, we've seen mostly families, to be honest. It's mostly families with small children who are making the decision to leave.

This ship holds more than 2,000 passengers, but we've only seen a few hundred Americans. And again, it is oftentimes a mother, father, and three children, or two children, who are leaving. Often the parents feel very strongly that they want to make sure that their kids are safe, are secure.

There is a lot of conflict in leaving, as well, though. The families sort of trying to figure out what the right thing to do is. For many of them making sure their kids are safe and making sure their kids do not feel afraid, as many of them have expressed, is the most important thing for these families, who some feel they should stay because they want to be here to help the country as it goes through this cycle of war.

But it is remarkable to see this, having to use a ship. But I just want to get out of the way, just let you just kind of get an idea of just how big this ship is. I mean, it is a proper cruise ship that has all the accouterment onboard.

And we are seeing, it is about to leave. It has been here since this morning, waiting for people to board, and then at 2:00 is the cutoff. It is now, let's see, it is now 3:00. So you notice, there is no way to get on now. It's no longer available to actually board because people were supposed to be here by 2:00.

They are very close to leaving. They have just taken some of the ropes away, and, actually, I think it is moving back just a tiny bit. But, yes, this is the way that people are evacuating Israel. Every family we spoke with, by the way, says that they will be back. They are not leaving forever. Erin?

BURNETT: That's a pretty incredible image, though, and a powerful image there to see in this time, in this day and age, people boarding a ship like that to try to leave. And I think that many complicated feelings for people in seeing that. As Sara says, about a 10-hour on that boat to get to Cyprus and then from there, Americans will be able to find their way back to the United States. Sara Sidner, thank you very much. And Phil, back to you in New York.

MATTINGLY: Thanks, Sara.

Joining us now is John Kirby. He's the National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications at the White House.

Admiral Kirby, thanks for your time. I -- I want to get to the Rafah Border Crossing and Americans attempting to get out of Gaza in a minute. But to start, the president has canceled his domestic travel today in order to stay at the White House for national security meetings. We know that the prime minister invited him to Israel. Is there any connection between those two things?

KIRBY: The -- the reason to stay home today, Phil, was really to make sure that he could stay focused on what's going on between our -- Israel and Hamas. He'll -- he will have national security meetings today. I don't have any travel to speak to or announce with respect to Israel. There was an invitation from the prime minister, but again, no -- no travel to speak to right now.

MATTINGLY: The secretary of state is back in Israel today, meeting with the prime minister, among many others. Yesterday, he said the Rafah Crossing will be open. Consular services told people we were speaking to, American citizens in the area, it may be open. This morning, the Egyptian foreign minister says there has been no progress on the opening. Israel says no arrangements for an opening.

I understand this is complicated. Where is it stand -- where does it stand right now for Americans that are waiting?

KIRBY: Right now, it's still closed, and obviously, we want to see it open. Secretary Blinken has been working on this very, very hard in the region. You're right, he's back in Israel. It's anoth- -- another chance to consult with our Israeli counterparts. We want to see that gate open. But I just can't tell you with perfect predictability what that's going to look like. We're hoping, hoping that -- that sometime later today, it could be open for a period of hours. But again, we just have to kind of wait and see how this goes. We -- we had had those hopes over the weekend, only to see that -- that those hopes were dashed. So we're going to keep working at this very, very hard.

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MATTINGLY: What's driving the bottleneck? Is it one specific country, one specific issue?

KIRBY: I think there's a couple of things at play here. Number one, of course, the Egyptians. They have to be willing to have that gate open and have a flow of -- of human traffic through that. And so we're -- we're in discussions with them about what that could look like and how that could be managed in a way that -- that protects Egypt's national security interests, as well. They -- they have a right to -- to look after their own population, of course.

The other aspect is Hamas, Phil. I mean, they are literally throwing up roadblocks to prevent people from moving from North Gaza to South Gaza to get -- to get towards the Rafah Gate. They're actually trying to encourage people to remain human shields as they try to tunnel up underneath their homes and headquarter in their schools and hospitals. So Hamas has also caused a -- a bit of a -- well, not a bit -- caused a significant amount of the problem.

MATTINGLY: There -- there appear to be at least some level of a humanitarian breakthrough yesterday when Jake Sullivan, the national security advisor, said there had been an agreement to turn water back on into Gaza. The Israelis confirmed that about an hour or two later. Now, the Gazan Water Authority says water -- they've denied that water is turned back on. Do you know what the issue is there?

KIRBY: We're still looking into that -- those conflicting reports. Obviously, as Mr. Sullivan said yesterday, we believe it's essential that humanitarian assistance, food, water, medicine, also electrical power remain available to the people of Gaza as much as possible. They are the victims here, too. They didn't ask for this. We want to make sure humanitarian assistance can continue to get in.

So I've seen the conflicting reports; can't confirm exactly where -- where the situation is with the water, but it is something that also has been high on Secretary Blinken's agenda as he travels through the region.

MATTINGLY: We've received a statement from the IDF saying they are in the midst of implementing an evacuation of Israeli towns and -- and citizens near the northern border with Lebanon. Do you view this -- is there any indication that this is the start of a Hezbollah operation or concerns that the spillover is happening now?

KIRBY: It's worrisome, the -- the possibility of having some sort of northern front open up. As -- as we've said all along, we don't want to see this conflict widen. We certainly don't want to see the IDF have to devote resources to a -- a second front. It seems to me like they're taking the prudent steps that they feel like they need to take for citizens that live up there -- makes eminent sense.

I would tell you that as of this morning, we haven't seen any firm indications that Hezbollah has decided to go all in here and -- and truly open up a -- a second front for the IDF, but we're watching this closely. That's one of the reasons why, of course, we've moved military assets in the region to make it clear to any would-be actor that might want to get involved and broaden this conflict that they shouldn't do it.

MATTINGLY: The president had a -- a pretty in-depth interview on Israel on what's happening last night. There -- there's one piece of sound I want to play for you. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRESIDENT JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR.: I think that it would be a mistake to -- for Israel to occupy Gaza again. We just -- but to go in -- in and taking out the -- the extremists, the Hezbollah is up north, but Hamas down south is a necessary requirement.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: There hasn't been any dispute from Israeli officials today in terms of what the president laid out there. But I -- my question is, if you go in and take out Hamas, what fills that vacuum? Does the U.S. have planning? Have you thought through the "what happens next" part of this process?

KIRBY: We're talking to the Israelis about as much of this as we can and the -- and the "what next", and the day-after kinds of questions. But obviously, they're going to have to make these decisions. I don't know that -- and I won't speak for them, but I -- I don't know that governance is Ga- -- in Gaza is really what they're focused on right now. They're focused mostly on trying to get at Hamas targets, and it's difficult to target in there because it's so heavily-populated and very urbanized. So, again, I think the -- the Israelis are trying to work through this step by step and I -- I don't want to get ahead of where they are.

But the president, I think, was representing real, candid, forthright concerns about the challenges that would -- that would meet Israeli forces, should they try to have some sort of long-term presence in Gaza.

MATTINGLY: Did the issue of leadership in Gaza come up with this call with President Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian Authority?

KIRBY: I won't talk about the specifics of the diplomatic conversations, Phil. I think you know we're careful about that.

We all want to see the -- the people of Gaza protected. We all want to see innocent civilians not harmed, have ability to leave, have ability to get access to food, water, medicine as appropriate. And the president still believes -- even for all this conflict, he still believes in the promise of a two-state solution, that the Palestinians deserve their own state, a place where they can call home. We -- we're still -- we're still affixed to that notion.

MATTINGLY: I know the president -- there are no travel plans to announce. Would the president like to travel back to Israel?

KIRBY: He's been to Israel many, many times.

[08:15:00]

I have no doubt in my mind that he'll go again. He knows that this is a critical time for the nation of Israel, for the Israeli people. He has deep and abiding affection and respect for them. But again, I just don't have any travel to speak to this morning.

MATTINGLY: Appreciate your time, as always. Admiral John Kirby of the National Security Council, thank you.

KIRBY: You bet, Phil.

HARLOW: Thank you, Phil for that.

More than 2,700 people have been killed in the strikes on Gaza. So far, hundreds of thousands of civilians have been displaced, many heading south to try to leave through that southern crossing. The latest images from the ground in Gaza, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BURNETT: All right, you are looking at live pictures of the Rhapsody of the Seas. That is the giant cruise liner that the US government has brought into Haifa, Israel. It is just pulling out from port, our Sara Sidner has been reporting there throughout the morning.

Americans had been boarding that ship. It is now full, closed, room for no one else on that ship. It is heading 10 hours to Cyprus, where Americans will be able to board commercial flights and make their way back to the United States.

This comes as here in Tel Aviv, coming from Haifa, we are seeing some really heavy storms and I'm showing those to you right now for a very specific reason, because when we have seen these blow through here, and we've heard some -- felt some initial raindrops, so this is probably going to be moving our direction pretty quickly.

You're looking north of Tel Aviv, and across the skyline where we are, still some sunshine, very significant because the meteorological service has said that the ferocity of these thunderstorms coming from Northern Israel to the south could put both marine and aircraft -- marine vessels and aircraft at risk. They're extremely severe.

We have felt the brunt of them ourselves. It's literally like a monsoon. Even the heavy duty tents that we would set up for broadcast the other night when one of these came through, which wasn't even forecast completely blew our tents down.

So it's very severe, and a spokesman person for the IDF was telling me that absolutely, this impacts Israel's plans of what it's going to do and whether it's going to be conducting a ground offensive at a given time.

So this is significant and there had been a forecast for these storms to be rolling, moving in and even to the south of here coming through Gaza where there could be accumulation about a half an inch.

Now, we'll see, but that is a lot of water where we are, which is a complete and utter dustbin along some portions of that border.

It comes as this morning, the President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas condemned Hamas' attack on Israel, and saying that Hamas does not represent the Palestinian people. His office sending out a statement that says: "Gaza is now on the brink of a real famine with half a million people displaced and no aid in sight."

Continuing to focus on the humanitarian part of this of course, the Palestinian Health Ministry reporting the number of people killed in Gaza is more than 2,700; almost 10,000 wounded. There is absolutely no way to verify any of these numbers.

[08:20:07]

But we do know that the death toll and the wounded toll is significant no matter what.

Let's go now to CNN's Salma Abdelaziz.

So Salma, this is a mounting humanitarian crisis. What do you understand from your sources from what you're seeing that is happening on the ground?

SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So over the weekend, Erin, you heard about half a million Gazans, an estimated half a million make their way southwards after the Israeli military essentially, issued an evacuation order, but even there, Palestinian say they are absolutely not safe. That's what the UN is saying as well. There are no safe spaces in Gaza.

And this is only the beginning of the offensive that Prime Minister Netanyahu has vowed after those very brutal attacks, those very barbaric attacks, of course that left 1,400 Israelis dead.

But the fear rights groups say now is that families in Gaza will be the ones to pay the steepest cost.

I do want to warn our viewers, the images in this report are graphic. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(UNIDENTIFIED MALES speaking in foreign language.)

ABDELAZIZ (voice over): This is what life looks like in what Israel has designated the safe zone, where constant bombardment has reduced homes to rubble and wiped out entire families, these survivors say.

(UNIDENTIFIED MALE speaking in foreign language.) ABDELAZIZ (voice over): "I've lost all my relatives, 15 people," this

man says. "We were not on the frontline or anything, we were just sitting at home. What have we done wrong?"

The UN warns there are no safe places. About half a million people fled here to Southern Gaza after an evacuation order by the Israeli military. But families desperate for refuge are still trapped in the war zone.

The dead and injured flooding a healthcare system on the brink. More than 2,600 Gazans killed so far, just over a quarter of them are children, according to Palestinian officials.

And a week long siege is strangling the enclave, the UN says amid fears food, fuel, water, and medical supplies may soon run out.

Some two million people are crammed into this 140 square mile territory. Now many of them pushed into an even smaller corner of the enclave. About half the population are children.

There are not enough shelters to house the sheer number of civilians, and even those who do find spaces in overwhelmed schools turned refugee centers, it is little comfort to the youngest victims.

(UNIDENTIFIED GIRL speaking in foreign language.)

ABDELAZIZ (voice over): "There is no one to protect us," this little girl says. "There is no one to come save us. How are we supposed to live? How? Answer me?"

Prime Minister Netanyahu has vowed to annihilate Hamas, but with a militant group so deeply embedded within Gaza's population, rights groups fear a bloodbath.

LYNN HASTINGS, UN RESIDENT COORDINATOR FOR THE OCCUPIED PALESTINE TERRITORY: What we're seeing right now, the direction that Israel is going to -- is going in, they have said they want to destroy Hamas, but their current trajectory is going to destroy Gaza.

ABDELAZIZ (voice over): Hamas does not answer to the people of Gaza. No elections have been held here since the group seized power in 2007. Still, it is these residents that will pay the price and with a potential ground incursion expected, that cost is unfathomable.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ABDELAZIZ (on camera): Now, as you know, Erin, there are intense diplomatic efforts underway to open the Rafah border crossing, to allow some aid, some humanitarian aid that's piling up in Egypt into Gaza and to allow foreign nationals out. So far, there seems to be a standoff there.

Israel has denied -- Israel's government has denied that there is any ceasefire that's about to take place or any humanitarian pause. Egypt continues to insist that aid must go in before foreign nationals come out. For US officials, this is absolutely a matter of priority, particularly with the clock ticking and that potential ground incursion coming any day now.

BURNETT: Salma, thank you very much. A powerful report there.

The Secretary of State Antony Blinken is here in Tel Aviv, where I'm standing right now coming back for what was not announced until last night and had not been expected for a second visit, but is back and right now. meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he is also going to be meeting with the Israeli president, Isaac Herzog, so all of that happening.

Christiane Amanpour joins me now.

And Christiane, I want to start by Salma's reporting obviously about what's going on inside Gaza. The context of his border crossing. Could you put it in context, because obviously, it is crucial for people getting out and supplies getting in.

But how crucial is it for Israel's decision on a ground offensive? I mean does that border need to open for that offensive to happen or are -- is linking those two things temporarily a mistake?

[08:25:07]

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Well, it's possible that the US is trying to link those two things in order to get out as many civilians as possible from harm's way.

It's not clear, we don't know -- I don't know what Blinken is talking to Benjamin Netanyahu about in that regard. But what's clear, and we've heard from the Egyptian Foreign minister in a statement, that there has been "no progress made" on any opening for any reason, at the Rafah Crossing. And as you know, there's only two crossings, one is Rafah into Egypt, and one up in the north is the Erez Crossing into Israel, where there's obviously no humanitarian or any other movement as Israel braces for what looks like a ground offensive there.

So what the Egyptians are saying, that they don't want to open it until Israel agrees to allow humanitarian aid in, that hasn't been agreed to yet. And others say that they can't open it because the bombing around the Rafah Crossing has made the roads impassable, they can't be used. So it's unclear exactly what the exact reason is.

Now Palestinians are saying, and other Arabs are saying who I've been speaking to that they -- many of them do not want to move from Northern Gaza to the south A., because they don't want to leave their homes. They don't know how to survive there. They think, it is probably just as dangerous in the south as in the north.

But many are concerned that they may never be allowed to go back to their homes in Gaza City and in Northern Gaza after any war is over. They're worried about that.

There are Arab leaders who are concerned that if the aim is to, you know, push Palestinians into Egypt, first, Egypt doesn't want that because they don't want to have a mass influx. They don't want to have potential terrorists coming in, the Hamas people, weapons and all the rest of it. They've spent years trying to cleanse their Sinai area of militants.

BURNETT: Yes.

AMANPOUR: And the Arabs are very concerned that this becomes another forced exodus that disallows Palestinians to come back into Gaza.

BURNETT: So, Christiane, when you think about -- you know, Israel isn't even -- there is no notion of that border, of the Israeli border opening at any time, right? Possibly ever. I mean, you've got 350,000 troops massed on that border.

And yet, even still, today, John Kirby said, the National Security Council just a few moments ago, that the United States still believes in a two-state solution, a Palestine and an Israel.

Here's what he just said to Phil.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KIRBY: I won't talk about the specifics of the diplomatic conversations, Phil. I think, you know, we're careful about that.

We all want to see the people of Gaza protected, we all want to see innocent civilians not harmed, have ability to leave, have ability to get access to food, water, medicine, as appropriate. And the president still believes even for all this conflict, he still believes in the promise of a two-state solution, that the Palestinians deserve their own state, a place where they can call home. We're still fixed to that notion.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: So Christian, of course, they believe it. At this point, is that anything close to reality? Or is it a bit of wishful thinking or perhaps even naivete?

AMANPOUR: Well, clearly, there are people who still, you know, belong to a rapidly dwindling peace camp who would like to think that out of this calamity, on all sides; out of this terrible, terrible, terrible calamity will come some kind of game-changing event in the future. But it's very hard to see that at the moment, it is almost cavalier, perhaps to say that the United States has had eyes off the Palestinian issue for way too long, thinking that there's no return for them, no political return, internally, domestically, no ability to convince the leadership in either Israel or the Palestinian territories to actually go for that.

This is a big problem. The United States has not been involved in this peace process for a long, long time. The Israeli government is nowhere near being in a peace camp, and has been, you know, as you know, fighting against its peace camp and its liberal, you know, democratic population as it has gone further and further to the extreme right, to the religious nationalist extreme right, who would like to see an annexation of the West Bank and a massive increase in settlements, and perhaps even solve "the Palestinian issue" by sending the West Bank Palestinians into Jordan. This is a nonstarter and a red line for countries like Jordan and the

other, so it requires leadership after this calamity whether anything like that is going to be possible.

BURNETT: Anybody, any leader who can rise to that occasion in this context, Christiane Amanpour, thank you so much -- Phil.

MATTINGLY: Well, extensive tunnel systems below Gaza played a key role in allowing Hamas to orchestrate their deadly attack on Israel. We're going to go through the current challenges those tunnels pose to the IDF.

HARLOW: Also, you're going to see something extraordinary. After the horror that played out in Israel, many Israeli-Americans quickly jumped at the opportunity to join the fight and defend their homeland.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID FRANKEL, IDF RESERVIST: I want to come home safely to my family. I want to see my boys grow up, but you have to put that aside and stop the madness.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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