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President Biden Says He Secured Deal with Egyptian President to Allow Trucks with Humanitarian Aid to Start Crossing into Gaza; U.S. Intelligence Says Errant Islamic Jihad Rocket Destroyed Hospital in Gaza; Humanitarian Crisis Unfolding in Gaza. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired October 19, 2023 - 08:00   ET

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

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POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: 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 is live in Tel Aviv, Israel. And today, President Biden is getting ready to give a primetime address to the nation after returning home from the war zone in Israel overnight. We are expecting him to make his pitch for war aid to both Israel and Ukraine. Biden says he secured a deal with the Egyptian president to allow some trucks with desperately humanitarian aid to start crossing into Gaza tomorrow where millions are of civilians are running out of food, water, and medicine.

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JOE BIDEN, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If you have an opportunity to alleviate the pain, you should do it. Period. And if you don't, you are going to lose credibility worldwide. And I think everyone understands that.

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PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR: President Biden also said U.S. intelligence backs up Israel's claim that a malfunctioning rocket fired by Palestinian militants caused the deadly blast at a hospital in Gaza, not an Israeli airstrike. New video has emerged, captured by Al Jazeera that appears to show a rocket fired from Gaza make a sudden and sharp turn back where it came from just moments before the explosion at the hospital. And CNN has geolocated a video where you can hear whatever caused the blast. Take a listen.

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HARLOW: CNN cannot independently verify what caused the blast. The Palestinian Red Crescent released this video of huge explosions near a different hospital last night where it says thousands of people are sheltering, and this morning Palestinian officials say the death toll in Gaza has now topped 3,500 people.

MATTINGLY: Let's go straight to Erin Burnett live in Tel Aviv. And Erin, this is just in now. Israel saying that it detained 63 Hamas terrorists overnight. What do we know about this?

ERIN BURNETT, CNN ANCHOR, ERIN BURNETT OUTFRONT: Well, Phil, they just come out and said that they detained, they say, in the West Bank 63 individuals that they say are Hamas terrorists, 80 detentions overall overnight in the West Bank. They say 63 of them were Hamas. They are also talking about skirmishes they say where there were injuries, a Palestinian was shot, IDF was injured in skirmishes as well in the town of Purduse (ph) in the West Bank.

So the violence continues there, but also very significant, when you talk about 63, again, alleged, we don't yet know who these individuals are or what role they played, if any, but the significance would be that they are there, that they got there, what role they had to play, whether they have moved there from Gaza or whether they were there to begin with.

So that is unclear, of course, at this time. And also the context of the fact that at least as of a few days ago, so I want to emphasize these numbers surely have changed. But I have been told by IDF sources that at least 10 senior Hamas commanders have been killed in airstrikes so far. So that number has surely gone up with the hundreds of airstrikes a day, including ones that we are hearing about Arlette Saenz this morning working to confirm if they were civilians killed in several strikes in southern Gaza in just these past few moments.

And I should say, Phil and Poppy, the rockets that came in here that anybody watching heard, Hamas have claimed responsibility for those, immediately claimed responsibility for those here in Tel Aviv. That horrific strike on a hospital in Gaza that reportedly killed hundreds of innocent civilians, we still don't know the death toll there. Those sparked angry anti-Israel protests around the world. This is now worldwide, and demonstrators gathered outside the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C., to stand for solidarity yesterday. That was, of course, yesterday. Nearby the capital police actually had to arrest about 300 people at another protest demanding a ceasefire in Gaza. In New York, thousands of demonstrators spilled into the streets on Wednesday in one of the largest pro-Palestinian protests that that city has seen so far.

Meantime, in the Middle East there have been large crowds in many cities around the Israeli embassy and Amman, Jordan, where protesters were expressing solidarity with the Palestinians, denouncing the violence, urging the international community to provide aid to intervene in Gaza, 80,000 people were demonstrating outside a consulate in Turkey, a U.S. consulate. That consulate is now closed, 80,000 people. Take a moment to absorb that.

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And I want to go straight to our Nada Bashir. She is live in Amman, Jordan, where there have been so many protests. And Nada, what are you seeing on the ground in Jordan? NADA BASHIR, CNN PRODUCER: Look, Erin, I think it's important to note

that these protests are not new. We have seen demonstrations, hundreds, sometimes thousands of people taking to the streets here in Jordan and across the Middle East from the outset of this war, but they are certainly ramping up, and that is what we have seen on the ground. We were at a protest yesterday in downtown Amman near the Israeli embassy where hundreds of people had gathered, as you mentioned, expressing their solidarity with the Palestinian people but also calling for an end to Israel's aerial bombardment of the besieged Gaza Strip.

And this is, of course, an issue that is deeply personal for so many in Middle East, but particularly here in Jordan where some 50 percent of the population are either Palestinian or of Palestinian descent. But across the board, the people we spoke to on the ground at the protest, the people that we've been speaking to around Amman in general say this is something that feels very personal to them. We spoke to one protester yesterday who said he felt it was his duty to come out on the ground and to voice his support and solidarity for the Palestinian people. Take a listen.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The best thing we could all do is just to stand here and be the voice of the people. It's pretty emotional. The whole thing has been running for, like, nearly a lot of years, maybe 100 years it's been going on. And I think it's about time that people know the truth and what's exactly going on.

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BASHIR: Now, of course, we have seen protests here in Jordan, in Lebanon, in Tunisia, in Libya, Iraq, in the occupied West Bank, across the board, people taking to the streets in a show of solidarity with the Palestinian people. And of course, we are expecting these protests to continue ramping up, to continue to intensify. An essential message that we were hearing from people on the ground yesterday is they are outraged, they are frustrated by the situation inside the Gaza Strip, by the mounting civilian death toll, which is well over 3,000 now inside Gaza according to Palestinian authorities there. And they are frustrated by the international response as well as the delay in getting aid to those most in need, and so many, of course, in need inside Gaza.

Now, of course, this isn't just on the popular front. This has also translated to impacts on the diplomatic front, as we saw that planned summit between President Biden, King Abdullah of Jordan, President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, and of course Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority president, was canceled following that explosion, that attack on the Al-Ahli hospital inside Gaza. But we do know that today King Abdullah will be meeting with President El-Sisi in Cairo, the key focus there, of course, trying to bring about an end to this war. Erin?

BURNETT: Nada, thank you very much live in Amman. And we do just have some new video in of yet another strike in Gaza.

Gaza officials, the interior ministry, is saying there was a deadly airstrike hitting a neighborhood in Khan Yunis. Gaza, I will warn you that this video is difficult to watch. This is the video we just got in. People are streaming now into a hospital in Khan Yunis after what the general director of hospitals in Gaza says 13 were killed in the blast. The interior ministry of Gaza is naming the specific family that they say their home was hit by this. We do not yet have any comment from the IDF and we cannot confirm what caused the blast, who was behind it, a death toll. However, it happened.

And I want to go to Salma Abdelaziz who joins us now with more. And Salma, ingoing, outgoing, non-stop, and now more death.

SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN REPORTER: Yes. And so far we have that death toll from a hospital director, a local hospital director in Gaza who says 13 people killed. But that's expected to rise, Erin, because rescue workers are still pulling people out from under the rubble. We do have some graphic footage to show you that I do want to play you of this. This hospital director says that an entire city level was -- an entire city block, rather, was leveled in Khan Yunis. You mentioned the incoming, the outgoing, the reality is on the ground is that there are two million people who are trapped in an urban war zone, right. There are no safe places.

And what is significant about what you are looking at right now, the place you are looking at right now, is that Khan Yunis is one of the areas that families were told to flee towards by the Israeli military just a few days ago. If you remember, those evacuation orders over the weekend telling people to flee south. Well, this is south. This is supposed to be some semblance of safety. Clearly, it is not.

It is also the south of the Gaza Strip which means closer to the Rafah border crossing. You'll remember, of course, President Biden announcing this deal to allow some trucks, some aid into Gaza.

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This could potentially complicate that. If there are heavy airstrikes as officials are saying inside Gaza, intensifying airstrikes on the south of the strip, that complicates the ability to bring that desperately needed aid in. And you know that many hospitals are saying that they are simply on the brink of collapse, that they are just hours away from losing fuel, losing medical supplies.

So you have these 2 million people who are already trapped in a very densely populated enclave. Now they've been pushed into this even smaller corner in the south, hoping for safety, seeking safety, but of course continuing to face that bloodshed. These hospitals, they are absolutely overwhelmed. What treatment they can get is unclear. But doctors were telling us that they were performing surgeries on the floors of hospitals in Gaza.

BURNETT: All right, Salma, thank you very much. A doctor there telling us -- barely could speak for 20 seconds on a recorded clip to tell us there is no medicine, no medical supplies, nothing. There is smoke right now rising over Gaza as these strikes continue.

Phil and Poppy, this particular strike we understand in the Al-Amal neighborhood, a spokesperson for the IDF just speaking to Jim Sciutto saying they have no comment and they have no information about this block. So more will be forthcoming. But as Salma says, people are dead, some civilians are dead. We don't know the death toll, and there, of course, is more tragedy and more things needing to be answered. Back to you.

WALKER: Erin, thank you very much. We will get back to you very soon.

With us now is retired four-star general and former CIA director David Petraeus. He is now the chairman of the KKR Global Institute and the co-author of a brand new book, "Conflict." It traces the evolution of warfare from 1945 to now. General Petraeus, thank you.

DAVID PETRAEUS, FORMER CIA DIRECTOR: Good to be with you.

HARLOW: Let's start where Erin left off and the importance of accuracy in all of this. You quote Winston Churchill in the book, famously saying, I think it was 1943, quote, "In wartime, truth is so precious that you should always be attended by bodyguard of lies." How do you think about this now in this war?

PETRAEUS: We have seen a number of cautionary tales here about the first report is always wrong, which is a truism in the military often. Let's pause and always try to get additional information. Let's try to develop it and so forth. So the reaction to the hospital bombing, which we now have quite high confidence was not caused by an Israeli bomb but by an errant Islamic Jihad rocket, again, upheaval in the region over something that they should be blaming Islamic Jihad for, the terrorists, not the Israelis.

But again, this is also a reminder that operations in urban areas are just extraordinarily difficult. Inevitably, there will be consider damage to civilian infrastructure and there will be loss of life for innocent civilians, especially against an enemy like Hamas and the Islamic Jihad who fight from the population.

HARLOW: Is that why you warned, and something you wrote recently, because obviously this book was completed before this war broke out, that a ground invasion by the IDF into Gaza, quote, could be Mogadishu on steroids?

PETRAEUS: Yes. And again, I recognize this may be necessary. And again, the desire for revenge, for vengeance is absolutely understandable. Keep in mind that in per capita terms, the loss of 1,300 Israelis in a barbaric attack, unspeakable actions, is the equivalent of well over 40,000 for us compared with the 3,000, not quite 3,000 that we lost in 9/11. So this has touched everyone. They are all called up.

But again, I think the recognition is increasing about how challenging this would be. I think this is a military mission that can be accomplished but it's not going be quick. It's not going to be in the least bit clean or antiseptic. This is going to be hugely damaging. And the question that has to be asked is, then what? During the fight

to Baghdad, I was just a two-star division commander. I remember a moment where we took the first large Iraqi city. Several days of fighting, enemy collapses. I called up my boss, and I said I've got good news and bad news. The good news is we own Najaf, a city of about 400,000 people, only a city in Shia Islam. Guess what's the bad news? I said we own Najaf. What do you want us to do with it?

And I can see on a much grander scale, if you destroy Hamas, and again, we all want to see Hamas -- Hamas is the Islamic state. This not an ideological movement or something like that. These are barbarians. And if you dismantle the political wing as well, which is what Israeli senior officials have said they intend to do, then what? Who is going to own Gaza? And again, you will have 2 million people who will be in even worse humanitarian crisis than they already are.

And trying to figure that out, and I am sure, I know the IDF, the Israel Defense Force chief of staff and the others. I am sure that they are saying, boss, we can do this, but it's going to be hugely costly, and we'd sure like to know what will be done afterwards.

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How are you going to administer this and make sure that Hamas doesn't come back? You not only need an organization in there to hand out humanitarian assistance and rebuild and restore basic services, but you need an organization that's going to conduct a counterinsurgency campaign because a Hamas counterterrorism campaign would be even more accurate.

Hamas and Islamic Jihad will try to come back and there will be remnants, regardless.

MATTINGLY: In talking to U.S. Officials, I think there is a more palpable concern about this escalating to a regional conflict than I've heard in a very long time, if ever.

PETRAEUS: Yes.

MATTINGLY: How real is that, that this could escalate and escalate very quickly and very broadly?

PETRAEUS: I think it's very real. You saw, again, in response to the inaccurate information about the hospital bombing real upheaval in the West Bank in Lebanon, keep in mind that Hezbollah on the northern border of Israel has 150,000 rockets, and if they decide to unleash those, that could overwhelm the very sophisticated Iron Dome and other integrated air defense systems that they have.

And now realize that in 2006, when there was a war with Hezbollah, they got hammered by Israel, and we reassessed several times after that the increasing amount of damage. So, I'm not sure they want to get into this, but it's not impossible, and you have to be very concerned about it.

MATTINGLY: The region is different than it was in 2006. There has been a realignment of sorts in several of the players. There are new leaders in several of the players right now. Does that add to the risk right now?

PETRAEUS: It does, certainly, it does. And of course, you have Iran, which is frankly probably delighted to see all the trouble that is going on. They've stoked it. They fund Hamas, Hezbollah, the Shia militia that they support in Iraq and Syria, Houthis in Yemen, and any of all of these could do something.

You saw actually three drones intercepted that were headed toward the US. Bases in Iraq. We still have several thousand soldiers there, and in northeastern Syria, at the request of the Iraqi government, in the case of Iraq, to help them keep an eye on the Islamic State, which is necessary, by the way, because even after you destroy the Islamic State, which is what happened finally in Mosul, by the way.

And Mosul is a city about the size of Gaza City. It took nine months for the Iraqi security forces to clear all of Mosul with our direct assistance. So, again, it puts it in perspective as well as identifying the potential for regional escalation.

It's why we have two entire carrier task forces either out there or the second, just on the way, additional air power, heightened force protection, and all the rest of this.

HARLOW: You know one of the through lines in your book that I think is so critical then and now especially, is this. You've got to good leaders have to get the big ideas right.

PETRAEUS: Yes, yeah.

HARLOW: You say it starts with getting the big ideas right. Failing to do that typically dooms what follows. If you were sitting down with Netanyahu right now, how would you talk to him about those big ideas?

PETRAEUS: Well, he's laid out what I think one big idea is, but it's only one, and there needs to be several more. One is the destruction of Hamas. Again, entirely understandable, that you need to do that, but the military has to acquaint him. This is how hard this is going to be, how many casualties they're going to take civilians, damage, destruction.

If you think there's a humanitarian crisis now, wait until this begins. But then what's the other big idea here, which is just begging for an answer and that is what next? Who's going to take over Gaza? If you break it, you own it. And again, we broke a rock and owned it.

And it turned out that our phase four planning, the post-conflict planning, was inadequate. I remember asking, actually in Kuwait, again, just a two-star. I said, "Can you give us a little more detail on what happens when we get to did top of the regime?"

And they said, "You just get us to Baghdad, Dave. We'll take it from there." And obviously, that planning proved to be wholly inadequate. And then we compounded it by some decisions that we made.

HARLOW: This is the question Phil has been asking from day one to day two of this.

MATTINGLY: Well, and part of the reason for asking the question is your quote from 2003 to Rick Atkinson is ringing in my head all 30. Tell me how, tell me how this ends and no one has a great answer yet. The book is conflict, it is excellent, particularly at this moment. General David Petraeus. We appreciate it. Thank you, sir.

PETRAEUS: It's good to be with you, Phil, Poppy.

MATTINGLY: Secretary of State Anthony Blinken is asking U. S. Embassies around the world to reevaluate their security as the war between Israel and Hamas rages on. And law enforcement here in the US. Also remains on high alert. A look at those warnings and potential threats. That's next.

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HARLOW: Secretary of State Anthony Blinken ordering all U.S. embassies, and consulates to conduct emergency reviews of their security to determine if it needs to be stepped up. Here in the United States, law enforcement remains on very high alert.

The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security issued a Joint Intelligence Bulletin warning that, quote, "Lone offenders inspired by or reacting to the ongoing Israel-Hamas War pose the most likely threat to Americans."

Joining us now, CNN Chief Law Enforcement and Intelligence Analyst John Miller. So, what do people do with that information?

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT: Well, I think what people do with the information is we get back into kind of the post 9/11 mode of the heightened version of, if you see something, say something. What law enforcement is looking for is help from the public in terms of suspicious activity.

The LAPD put out a note to their community saying, you know your community and you know your neighbors, and the best way to protect them is to share information and come forward if you see something that doesn't fit in. So, there's a lot of that. But what we're seeing in terms of police departments is the NYPD put 3500 people who would normally work this is thousands in plain clothes, in uniform.

No requests for days off that weren't scheduled are being approved. In L.A., they did the same thing in Chicago they've enhanced things. In Las Vegas, they've tightened their communications with tourist locations in the casino industry and their camera systems.

The Major City Chiefs Association, which is all the most populous urban areas in the country, had a conference last week and sent out a notice today with a ten-point set of recommendations for enhancing intelligence, counterterrorism plans, and contingencies strategies for demonstrations.

So, what you're seeing is a girding of the American security apparatus on the federal, state, and local levels.

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MATTINGLY: Can I ask on the international level? You know we were watching, I think, in real time yesterday. We were all watching what was happening in Beirut as some of the protests in the wake of the hospital bombing or the hospital explosion, the cable from Blinken, obviously a lot has changed in terms of embassy security in the wake of Benghazi and things like that.

What are they doing right now?

MILLER: Well, they've told everybody, "Get your Emergency Action Committee together within the embassy, assess what we have as our day- to-day security. Where are we in the world, and what are the level of tensions where we are? What do we need to ratchet up in terms of do we need more people out front? Do we need more help from the host country at the perimeter?"

But there's a flip side to that, which is what do we need as a regional security officer from the Diplomatic Security Service to be putting out from the embassy to our Americans in that country, in that region, to say, here's where to go, here's where to avoid. These are potential flashpoints.

So, it's a top-to-bottom threat assessment. And he didn't just say do it. He said do it and send it back to Maine State because we want to review it and make sure we're doing enough.

HARLOW: What is the significance of it's believed to be a mosque spokesperson taken among the 63 that were detained in the West Bank overnight?

MILLER: Couple of things, Poppy, and it's an interesting distinction because you have the military wing and you have the propaganda and political people, but this isn't a regular law enforcement posture in Israel. This is war, and that is in terms of war, the people doling out the propaganda or setting the message are operational, and in addition, they can be given operational responsibilities beyond their day job as spokesmen.

But I think if you look at this in when it happened and who it happened to, you see Israel trying to control a message, which is the Israelis bombed this hospital and killed 500 innocent people, including women and children. When we have sorted through, there is at least significant doubt, if not evidence to the contrary, and those facts aren't fully established yet.

So, somebody who would be stirring that kind of emotion in a genre where people would commit acts of terrorism just based on that is considered somebody you would probably want to roll up in the West Bank as opposed to Gaza. He's got communications, infrastructure, and advantage there.

MATTINGLY: John Miller, thank you, as always, for your expertise.

MILLER: Thanks.

HARLOW: So, the World Health Organization says the situation in Gaza is, in their words, quote, spiraling out of control for millions of civilians trapped there. Our Sanjay Gupta has reported across the Middle East, and Afghanistan, even performed brain surgery in a war zone. He's with us next to help us understand what the doctors there are going through.

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