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IDF Reveals Report on World Central Kitchen Attack; Aid Worker's Father Says Convoy was Deliberately Targeted; Israel to Open More Crossings for Aid Supplies to Gaza; More Legal Setbacks for Donald Trump; Israeli Protesters Blocking Gaza Aid in January; Earthquake Felt in New York and Surrounding Areas. Aired 10-11a ET

Aired April 05, 2024 - 10:00:00   ET

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

[10:00:02]

ANNOUNCER: Live from CNN Abu Dhabi, this is CONNECT THE WORLD.

ELENI GIOKOS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Welcome to our second hour of CONNECT THE WORLD. I'm Eleni Giokos in Abu Dhabi. I'm in for my

colleague, Becky Anderson.

Now a matter of mistaken identification. That is a result of the Israeli investigation into the killing of seven aid workers. The World Food Kitchen

says that report is insufficient. Plus.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SYLVIA LABRECQUE, MOTHER OF WCK AID WORKERS JACOB FLICKINGER: I'm like to say that this story is so much bigger than what happened to our son.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GIOKOS: We'll hear from the parents of one of the aid workers killed in that attack. Plus two legal setbacks for Donald Trump as the former

president pushes to have multiple criminal cases thrown out.

Israel's military has released its report on how and why it killed seven aid workers in Gaza on Monday, saying its internal findings show the deadly

attack should not have happened, but the individuals who approved it thought they were targeting Hamas.

Now, a short time ago, excuse me, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the U.S. is reviewing the report and will discuss it in the coming

days with Israeli officials and humanitarian organizations.

Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: It's very important that Israel is taking full responsibility for this incident. It's also important that it

appears to be taking steps to hold those responsible accountable. Even more important is making sure that steps are taken going forward to ensure that

something like this can never happen again.

Prime Minister Netanyahu indicated to President Biden that Israel would be making further changes to its procedures to make sure that those who are

providing assistance to people who so desperately need it in Gaza are protected. So we're going to be looking very carefully at what those steps

are.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GIOKOS: World Central Kitchen, whose workers were killed, is calling for an independent investigation saying the IDF cannot credibly investigate its

own failure.

Our Paula Hancocks joins us now to walk through that IDF report.

Paula, great to see you again. We've heard from Antony Blinken. He's also called for an independent investigation. Antonio Guterres, the secretary

general of the United Nations, spoke a short while ago and says, you know, 196 aid workers have died in Gaza and he wants to know why each of them

have died.

Has the IDF report revealed some of those and answered some of these pertinent questions?

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is the initial investigation, the IDF says, and there are still questions that remain as to what exactly

happened. Now they claimed that their forces identified a gunman which was on the aid convoy. So when one of the trucks, which was going towards the

warehouse, they then say they saw a second gunman and then after this aid was offloaded into the warehouse, three vehicles left that warehouse.

We know that those are the vehicles with the seven aid workers inside and they made an assumption that Hamas operatives were inside. Now they have

acknowledged that it was an error, calling it a grave mistake, speaking of serious failure due to a mistaken identification, errors and decision-

making, and also, it was contrary to their standard operating procedures.

Now we have had a response from World Central Kitchen and they have said, quote, "The IDF has acknowledged its responsibility and its fatal errors in

the deadly attack on our convoy in Gaza. It is also taking disciplinary action against those in command and committed to other reforms. These are

important steps forward." The statement goes on to say, "We demand the creation of an independent commission to investigate the killings of our

WCK colleagues. The IDF cannot credibly investigate its own failure in Gaza."

Now they're calling for an independent investigation. As you say, Secretary Blinken has backed that up. He is calling for an independent investigation

as well. Up until this point, the Israeli military has fired two individuals that it says was directly involved in this decision-making, but

a military spokesperson has admitted that forces identified a gun and they believe now that it was possibly a bag that was over the shoulder of one of

the individuals.

They also say that they didn't know it was a WCK car, even though these coordinates had been given and approved by the IDF ahead of time, saying

that the surveillance drones couldn't see the logo on the roof at nighttime. They're now considering distributing thermal stickers to aid

groups so that they can actually see who they are from the air at night. And so there are potentially lessons learned here.

[10:05:03]

But this is what the Biden administration and others want to see. They want lessons learned, they want it to be public, transparent, and they want to

see changes on the ground.

GIOKOS: And importantly never -- for this to never happen again. Of course, one of the biggest outcomes that they're expecting.

Paula Hancocks, thank you very much for breaking that down for us. Good to have you in the studio. Appreciate it.

Well, before the internal report was released by the IDF, CNN's Erin Burnett spoke with the family of Jacob Flickinger, the U.S.-Canadian worker

for the World Central Kitchen, who was killed in that attack. She asked them whether they believe the attack was targeted. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN FLICKINGER, FATHER OF WCK AID WORKERS JACOB FLICKINGER: Yes. By all appearances, the facts as they been -- as they become known and as

presented so far seem to indicate that it was a deliberate targeting of a food aid convoy. We would like an independent investigation. We asked

everyone that we've talked to from the Canadian government, from the U.S. government that -- to persist and demanding for an independent

investigation so the all the facts can be known.

But from what we know now, you know, your viewers can make their own judgment. But all the facts point to that. Yes. This was a deliberate

attempt. Actions speak louder than words. The United States used these to use its leverage to force a change. We need to suspend aid to Israel until

they make some changes with the way they're conducting its operation. At the same time, the hostages need to be released and the humanitarian

corridors need to be opened up. The IDF needs to stop targeting civilians and aid workers.

LABRECQUE: I'd like to say that this story is so much bigger than what happened two our son. It happened to so many people. There's already been

thousands of people that died. It's about humanity. And right now, we are living in a very messy world. There's got to be some kind of clean up that

is done somewhere on the road. And just like John was saying, even if it's just a tiny inch, but change that will protect some childrens, some

mothers, some human beings.

I would be so proud and Jacob would be so proud of it. So we're just hoping that his light its signing all around the world the way that there's a

massive change somewhere somehow.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GIOKOS: The IDF report into that incident comes one day after a 30-minute phone call between the leaders of the U.S. and Israel. The White House says

during that conversation, Joe Biden demanded that Israel take specific and concrete steps to protect civilians and aid workers in Gaza or else the

U.S. would reconsider its own policy on the war. Hours later Israel's security cabinet approved plans to expand humanitarian access to Gaza by

reopening the area's border crossing.

I want to bring in now Samah Hadid. She is the head of Middle East communications at the Norwegian Refugee Council, and she joins us now live.

Great to see you, Samah. Look, we've been hearing the news and good news to say the least areas Kerem Shalom, Port Ashdod opening. In terms of timeline

in getting aid into Gaza as quickly as possible, what is your understanding of what the next few days entail?

SAMAH HADID, NORWEGIAN REFUGEE COUNCIL: Well, we're still trying to get more information around how the additional border crossings will be used

but it's absolutely urgent because famine is imminent in Gaza. Catastrophic hunger is spreading every day, especially in northern Gaza. So we need the

Erez Crossing to be opened up immediately. We also need additional border crossings because, you know, Erez, Kerem Shalom, Rafah is just not enough.

But what's really important here is to recognize that I think the U.S. has extraordinary leverage over Israel and needs to apply this to scale up aid

and to protect civilians and aid workers. But we also need the U.S. government to use its leverage to end the war.

GIOKOS: You know, Samah, I want to talk about the leverage that the U.S. has and actually being very, very, very pointed in terms of what they want.

They want to see results. And Antony Blinken, the U.S. secretary of state, said, you know, we're going to be looking at how they implement those. What

in your mind would work and what do you think the U.S. will be looking at in terms of how much aid actually needs to go in to see a real impact?

[10:10:09]

What is -- you know, what are you anticipating and hoping for?

HADID: Well, we desperately need Gaza to be flooded with aid through all possible crossings and access points. We need humanitarian aid to --

GIOKOS: How many trucks are we talking here, Samah?

HADID: I mean we mean --

GIOKOS: When you say flooded with aid, I mean, what do you mean? Yes.

HADID: At the very, very minimum, 500 trucks per day, but that needs to be increased urgently. But we also need commercial supplies to flood the

markets, to replenish the markets, especially as food insecurity grows throughout Gaza. So it's not just enough for humanitarian aid to come

through, we need commercial supplies as well.

But it's crucial that there's a ceasefire because we cannot deliver aid safely on the constant Israeli bombardment and attack. And these attacks

have been happening for months now. We really do need a ceasefire in order for us to scale up aid to all areas of Gaza and to do so safely so that our

aid workers are protected and they can deliver the aid, the life-saving aid that's needed without coming under attack.

GIOKOS: What is the Norwegian Refugee Council's reaction to Israel's report on what happened to the seven aid workers, the WCK aid workers? We've been

covering this extensively over the last few days and see Blinken calling for an independent investigation. The U.S. changing its stance very

significantly with Israel, applying a lot of pressure, but, you know, how do you feel about this report?

HADID: Well, I think that this isn't an isolated incident. This isn't just one mistake. This is a pattern of aid workers coming under constant attack

by Israel. And we've seen this for months now. Gaza has become one of the most dangerous places for civilians and aid workers because of the constant

Israeli bombardment and indiscriminate killings of civilians.

And so we need to see that accountability is applied for all civilians and all aid workers that have been killed, and independent, proper

investigations into these violations because without this and without the stronger protection that we need for our aid workers, we can't continue to

deliver life-saving aid and that's urgent right now in Gaza as civilians are desperate for humanitarian assistance.

GIOKOS: Indeed there, Samah, and we thank you for joining us today. 500 aid trucks as the minimum, as you said, is what is needed right now. Thank you

so much, Samah Hadid, from the Norwegian Refugee Council there for us.

We're going to a very short break. I'll be back right after this. Stay with CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:15:13]

GIOKOS: Right now the U.N. Security Council is meeting to discuss the war in Gaza. It is also expected to address what it calls the Palestinian

question. Earlier in a symbolic move the U.N. Human Rights Council adopted a resolution calling for member states to suspend arms trade with Israel.

The U.S. and five other countries voted against this, and the Israeli ambassador walked out of the session following the vote in protest.

The U.N. secretary-general says Israel needs to make a whole paradigm shift in its approach to the war.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTONIO GUTERRES, U.N. SECRETARY-GENERAL: The question is not only to know if some mistakes were committed and who committed them. The question is the

system that allows those mistakes to happen time and time again. And it is the change of their system that is required, which implies a change in the

strategy and the procedures that the military are using in Gaza.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GIOKOS: Arwa Damon founded the non-profit INARA, which provides medical and mental health care to children in crisis zones. She spent years covering

Gaza for us as a senior international correspondent. She is in Rafah in Gaza right now and she joins us live.

Great to see you, Arwa, at this very critical moment where we of course have been seeing the U.S. changing significantly its stance towards Israel,

asking for more aid to go in, and of course accountability around the seven WCK aid workers that were killed earlier this week.

You're in Rafah. You're seeing the humanitarian crisis playing out. Tell me what you're seeing and hearing on the ground, and of course, safety for aid

workers right now.

ARWA DAMON, FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT, INARA: Well, here's the thing, Eleni, is that obviously everyone is extraordinarily jittery given what happened. WCK

is known to be among the top aide organizations that actually has the best line of communication to the Israeli side, to the IDF, and that's why the

strike on their convoy came as such a shock to everybody because they, many will argue, actually have the best deconfliction process, are able to get

to areas past majority of the rest of us.

Other aid organizations are not -- to stop one side of it and absolutely, I mean, it was very unnerving. And it's really jarring to, you know, on the

ground as a humanitarian wanted to go and assistance and food and medicine, all sorts of other things that the population here needs because they

(INAUDIBLE). And to have that pit in your stomach of, am I going to be targeted because I am part of, you know, organization or because the whole

deconfliction process isn't working properly.

The other aspect of this, you know, going around and talking to people over the last two days is you really realize the reach that WCK had in providing

hot meals. Just about everyone who I met at one point in time had received food from the World Central Kitchen. Their reach across Gaza was massive.

On the one hand, you have the impact of this, you know, on overall operations and how aid organizations are moving around on the ground.

Keep in mind that, you know, even the best (INAUDIBLE) so extraordinarily limited what you're able to provide. And you also have on top of that the

impacts that WCK is having on the population that inexplicably desperate, Eleni. I mean, I do not have the words to explain the situation here.

GIOKOS: Arwa, Erez, Kerem Shalom, Port Ashdod will hopefully be new entry points, opening up to bring more aid into Gaza. I just spoke to Samah Hadid

from the Norwegian Refugee Council. She says at least 500 aid trucks need to be entering Gaza on a daily basis because Gaza needs to be flooded with

aid right now. What numbers are you looking at? I mean, what do you think the needs are on the ground?

DAMON: First of all, everyone needs everything. Everything from baby powder to diapers to sanitary napkins to food, to access water, to basic medicine.

You know, kids have diaper rash and fungus, and the infant hospitals don't have the supplies that they need. So in terms of what is needed it quite

literally is everything.

The reason why it's so important to have the zones flooded as you keep hearing so many aid organizations saying is that right now because aid is

so limited, that makes distributing it and accessing the population in need that much more (INAUDIBLE), it's chaos.

[10:20:06]

The minute it went out of your vehicle and they see that you're an aid organization, people swarm you because they have so little and they have

zero faith as to whether aid is actually going to reach them. So it's complete chaos. When you flood the zone and when you start to reassure

people that aid is coming in the right manner, at that point you can actually start having more organized distributions.

But right now it's a complete and total, to a certain degree chaotic insanity because no one has anything. Everyone is terrified. Also don't

forget people here are very aware of the fact that the IDF has an (INAUDIBLE), that there's this big impending invasion and no one knows how

to even cope with that information. They're obviously under so much pressure, so much stress you don't know when or where is going, you don't

know how to keep yourself safe.

(CROSSTALK)

GIOKOS: Look, Arwa, there's been a big shift, as I mentioned, from the U.S. side. I mean, you know, Antony Blinken said that if Israel doesn't change

its policy towards what they're doing in Gaza then the U.S. will be forced to change its policy. And there'll be measuring, you know, the impact of

their decisions in the next few days into Gaza. I mean, this is pretty significant.

You've been covering the story for a long time. You know, what do you make of this that there could be consequences for Israel if they don't make good

on their promises at this point?

DAMON: I mean, look, we're really going to have to wait and see exactly what those consequences are. To people here, they're very well aware with

the relationship between the U.S. and Israel. They're very well aware of the fact that, you know, the U.S. is essentially helping to, you know, fund

this war of the bombs that are falling on them and fund a lot of the aspects of this that are leading to complete and total miserable situation.

What we haven't yet seen is the U.S. actually putting any muscle behind any of its rhetoric to date. We've heard in the past American officials meeting

with Israelis promising more aid access, promising to allow more humanitarian workers into Gaza. None of that has ever really materialized.

You know, I was talking to a young male here. He said to me hope is a dangerous thing, and it's very true because when people here do hear things

like that from the U.S., it does give them hope that this might be nearing an end. It does give them hope that maybe there will be increased

assistance coming in, that maybe their misery is going to ever so slightly decrease. But up until now it has been (INAUDIBLE), and that's why, you

know, this young man speaking to him, and many others here will tell you either they don't have hope or when they do get hope, they find it's very

dangerous, there's been no changes and they just crashed down deeper than they were before.

GIOKOS: Yes. Arwa Damon, thank you so much for joining us. Good to speak to you and get your insights from on the ground in Rafah in Gaza for us.

Now, Donald Trump suffered a pair of legal losses on Thursday in his long- shot efforts to get some of the charges against him dropped. The judge in the Georgia election interference case tossed out Trump's arguments that

his actions to overturn the election were protected free speech. And the federal judge overseeing the classified documents case denied Trump's claim

that he could not have committed a crime because the documents belong to him as parts of the Presidential Records Act. But the judge left open the

possibility that she might revisit that defense claim during a trial.

CNN's senior legal analyst Elie Honig explains why that could be worrisome for the special prosecutor.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: This is why I think Jack Smith is concerned with today's ruling. Although he won in the sense that the court

did not dismiss the charges, if I'm Jack Smith and I think Smith feels the same way, I'm very worried about this defense going to a jury because it's

confusing, because it's complicated, because it's technical. And prosecutors always want to tell us simple, straightforward story and

frankly defendants want to muck things up.

And as much as I think this defense lacks merit, I do think it could confuse the jury in a way that would worry me as a prosecutor.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GIOKOS: CNN's Katelyn Polantz has been tracking all the Trump legal developments for us.

Great to see you. Look, what do you make of what Elie Honig is saying?

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, he's saying that Donald Trump's team is mucking it up for trials and that is

indeed what is happening. They're at the stage in these cases where Donald Trump has made arguments to have the indictments dismissed, asking the

judges throw out these cases in their entirety, and the judges are saying no.

[10:25:02]

But Donald Trump's team is getting little pieces of wins where judges like Aileen Cannon, the judge in federal court in Florida who's overseeing the

classified documents and obstruction case against Donald Trump, is saying, you know, and I'm not going to throw out this case right now. But your

claims that these are your personal records, that you have the authority under the Presidential Records Act, and as president, to take them with you

after the White House, that's something we might come back to at a later date potentially even right before the trial when we're talking about what

the jury gets to hear.

That is happening in another case as well where Trump's team tried to delay the hush money case that he is set to go to trial on in just 10 days. The

judge said no, I'm not throwing this out or I'm not delaying it right now on presidential immunity, but that is something that you might be able to

claim before the jury to slow down the case or to make those claims while the trial is ongoing. There has been another claim Donald Trump made

recently, an argument on constitutional law saying this should have been protected speech.

After the 2020 election, a judge in Georgia, another one of those criminal cases he's facing, says that's not going to be the case. I'm not throwing

it out on those grounds. There's no authority that political speech should be protected. So we're moving forward. So what you're seeing now is indeed

the process of moving forward, setting the table for these trials with that first one set to occur -- such to start with jury selection in about a week

and a half.

GIOKOS: All right. We'll be looking out for that announcement. Great to see you, Katelyn Polantz. Thank you so much.

Well, you're watching CONNECT THE WORLD. I'm Eleni Giokos.

Now it's not six months. It's not -- it's one long day in fact. Those words from the father coming through and we'll bring you an update on that story

in just a bit.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GIOKOS: Welcome back. This is CONNECT THE WORLD. I'm Eleni Giokos. I'm in for Becky Anderson.

Now Israel has dismissed two military officers following an IDF report into this killing of seven World Central Kitchen aid workers in Gaza Monday.

[10:30:08]

Now the reports says Israeli personnel believed they were targeting Hamas operatives in the aid convoy. The White House says it will reserve judgment

on the report until it's able to go through its findings. The report was released after Israel said it would reopen the Erez border crossing into

northern Gaza to allow aid shipments. The U.S. secretary of state speaking in Belgium was cautiously optimistic.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BLINKEN: These are positive developments but the real test is results and that's what we're looking to see in the coming days and in the coming

weeks. Is the aid effectively reaching people who need it throughout Gaza?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GIOKOS: Well, CNN's Nic Robertson is in Jerusalem for us to talk about this report. It's received quite a bit of reaction. We've heard from the U.S.

that they're going to be reviewing this. We've heard from U.N. Secretary- General Antonio Guterres as well, asking many questions about why almost 200 aid workers have died thus far, and you know, how this could have

happened. The national security minister, Israeli National Security Minister Ben-Gvir saying -- he's criticizing the dismissal of those two

military personnel.

Give me a sense of what you're hearing about this report, Nic.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: A spokesman for the prime minister's office a few minutes ago said that this was just the

initial report. We know it's the initial report from the IDF and that there will be more details, more of a report coming in days, weeks, definitely

not months is what she said. We also have had a separate briefing from the IDF that adds other details to this report.

So what the IDF has in the report is a misidentification of the vehicles and a misclassification or clarification of what was happening on the

ground. The IDF said that they spotted gunmen on -- or a gunman on the aid truck itself and then they saw another gunman. They followed the trucks or

they saw the trucks going into a warehouse, and when they left or when the vehicles left the warehouse, the IDF thought that the SUVs, the three SUVs

that contained those aid workers, they thought, because they couldn't clearly identify it because it was nighttime, these SUVs, this is what the

IDF says in its report.

They thought that the gunman might have been in one of those vehicles and that's why they targeted the vehicles. In the separate briefing, the IDF is

saying that they believe that they saw somebody with something over their shoulder that could have been a weapon that they later identified as a bag

in one of those vehicles.

And they also say so they can see how when they hit the first vehicle, and this is very harrowing detail from the IDF in this briefing that's not in

the report, that the survivors of the first strike got out of the first vehicle, ran to get safety in the second vehicle, and of course the second

vehicle and then the third vehicle were hit as well. Grave mistake, not within the IDF's rules of engagement is how the IDF is describing this.

And the World Central Kitchen has said that while these steps to acknowledge responsibility by the IDF to hold people to account, that these

are good steps. They're also saying that these outrageous killings that the report really is cold comfort for them when they were following the

protocols. But again, you know, what we're hearing from the prime minister's office spokesperson is that there will be more details to come.

And I think everyone, including the White House, of course, looking to scrutinize those because the World Central Kitchen has said that the videos

that they say the IDF showed to them to explain the report, they said they don't see the evidence in that video. We haven't seen the video. But this

is what World Central Kitchen say the IDF has shown them.

GIOKOS: You know, this particular incident has put a lot of pressure on Israel, particularly from the U.S. In fact, President Biden saying he's

outraged. There was a 30-minute call between Biden and Netanyahu pushing for more aid into Gaza, and now we know these border crossings that are

going to open up.

You were at Kerem Shalom in January. It was a key crossing. I want our viewers to hear some of your reporting. Listen in.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTSON: Getting close to the border now. There are a lot of police and a lot of soldiers here. But it seems that people can just pass through.

[10:35:01]

(Voice-over): They've come, a hundred or so, to Kerem Shalom, Israel's only functioning border crossing to Gaza, to block aid trucks.

Don't the army and police stop you?

SEFI BENCHAIM, PROTEST ORGANIZER: They now -- they tried, but we came, a lot of people. And they are with us because --

ROBERTSON (voice-over): A pause as he finds the right words that the soldiers sympathize with them.

BENCHAIM: All of us were the same. We have the same kids inside Gaza.

ROBERTSON: Sefi organizes the protests, and their last four days have effectively shut the border. Their demand, no aid until all hostages are

released.

BENCHAIM: We're saying the simple thing. Very, very simple. We're saying that you want humanitarian aid. OK, we will give you everything. First of

all give us our people.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GIOKOS: Nic, brilliant reporting there inside into how people feel on the ground but what is to say that that won't happen again?

ROBERTSON: You know what we've heard from the prime minister last night saying that he's okaying the opening of a crossing, Erez in the north of

Gaza, to the most desperately hard hit in terms of food shortages part of Gaza, and the fact that the Ashdod port will be open do, as the U.N. says,

sort of offer a glimmer of hope there for aid. But as we saw back in January around about the time of my reporting at Kerem Shalom there, the

government had also OKed the use of Ashdod to bring food supplies in for Gaza.

The United States flour was being bought to that port. And back then protesters came out and essentially blocked the convoys at least for a long

period of time, blocked the convoys of flour getting out of the port. Now there's nothing to say that that can't happen again. We've heard from

Itamar Ben-Gvir, the minister of security here, saying that, you know, that he's disappointed essentially with this announcement by the prime minister

and it's his supporters that could potentially come out again and block off the port.

Erez crossing itself is not really at the moment set up for large numbers of trucks to be crossing in the way that Kerem Shalom has been. So there's

a lot that could still go wrong with what the prime minister has said has been agreed or decided. Then I think this is why we're hearing skepticism

from the Secretary of State Antony Blinken coming from the White House as well.

You know, and on another point about what the -- Itamar Ben-Gvir is also saying, he's also criticizing the division, the decision rather by the IDF

to let these two senior officers go, to discipline them and fire them from their positions, a colonel, a reserve colonel and a major. They're saying

that you don't do that to troops in the field. You don't leave them in the field, you don't take these decisions in a moment of war. It amounts to

weakness.

I mean, take these two statements on these two different issues, this just again looks like internal strains within the Israeli government, but they

do point to the difficulties that the government have with pushing through the measures it wants to take.

GIOKOS: All right. Nic Robertson, great to have you with us and thank you so much for that analysis.

All right. Breaking news from what I understand against this backdrop, negotiators will try again for an agreement on a temporary ceasefire and

the release of some of the hostages. CIA director William Burns will leave this weekend for the next round of talks in Egypt. Israel's intelligence

chiefs are also expected to take part. Hamas has not said there's not been progress and a diplomatic source tells CNN the deal is not close.

OK. So just news that's just coming into CNN. We're getting word of an earthquake felt in New York and the surrounding areas. Now the preliminary

report says 4.7 magnitude earthquake. That is coming through right now. This isn't very high on the Richter Scale. It is not a major earthquake,

but indeed it is quite unusual that coming through from New York earthquake felt there 4.7 on the Richter Scale. We'll get more news for you on the

story as it happens.

Well, you're watching CONNECT THE WORLD. There's more news straight ahead. Stay with CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:42:03]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

GIOKOS: All right. News just in. We're getting word of an earthquake felt in New York and the surrounding areas. Preliminary report says a 4.7

magnitude quake felt in New York, not very high on the Richter Scale, but strong enough to have been felt.

We've got Elisa Raffa joining us now, meteorologist, that will give us a breakdown of what we've seen and the impact and what was felt.

What more can you tell us?

ELISA RAFFA, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes. So 4.7 magnitude is what we know so far. That center in New Jersey, in the center of New Jersey right there.

That just happened just shortly after 10:20 this morning. And I do know that New Yorkers have felt it. I'm actually from New York so my family has

been calling and texting to tell me that they were able to feel this earthquake. I have family and friends that had some dishes and things that

were, you know, kind of falling off of shelves. You know, definitely feeling it.

Now this was a pretty shallow earthquake, which is why they were able to feel it. And yes, 4.7 magnitude on the Richter Scale is not huge for this

area and we have been talking about this 7.9 magnitude earthquake in Taiwan this week. That was in an area that has seismic activity right on the ring

of fire where they're used to earthquakes all the time and they do get these types of earthquakes.

You know, New York City, you know, doesn't quite sit on classic seismic activity like places in California or, you know, in Southeast Asia. So, you

know, for them, this is really, you know, waking up people in the Big Apple here today and, you know, many New Yorkers saying that they can feel the

shake. Unclear right now, you know, of any other damage or impacts other than, you know, New Yorkers really just kind of visit physically,

literally, emotionally being jolted by this.

You know, again, unclear about any other impacts, but 4.7 on the Richter Scale right now in New Jersey.

GIOKOS: Yes. Really fascinating. I've just popped up, you know, I've just done a quick search to see the tectonic plates. I mean, nothing lies, you

know, the East Coast of the U.S. Doesn't lie specifically on a tectonic plates or one of the fissures. Could you give me a sense of how unusual

this is that it's happening on the East Coast of America?

RAFFA: Very unusual. You know, there is -- you know, again, the plates and the seismic activity is not, you know, one of those classic hot -- you

know, hot areas. You know, it's not like those areas that you would expect like the West Coast of the U.S. that has a lot of those fault lines from

Alaska down towards California.

That's where you've got a lot of volcanoes and a big, you know, fault line with the tectonic plates. That's on the West Coast of the U.S. where this

is much more common. But for this to happen on the East Coast of the U.S., it is very rare, you know, especially of this magnitude. You know, you

might see, you know, something small that you might not even feel, but something -- for something of this magnitude that people in New York could

actually feel, it is incredibly rare.

[10:45:04]

And like I said, I have lived nearly my entire life in that area and have never felt something like that. So when you're looking at the, you know,

the depth of an earthquake like this, again, pretty shallow and that's where you could feel the impact when it's shallow. When it's deeper into

the earth, it's hard to feel those impacts on the surface. But with it being pretty shallow, that's why people in New York are feeling this.

Now, like I mentioned, we're not really sure about any other impacts as far as, you know, damage or things like that, but we do know that New Yorkers

are literally, figuratively shook. They felt this earthquake, 4.7 magnitude at the center of New Jersey. People in New York City reporting that they

are feeling this. You know, things are shaking or at least at that moment they were in toppling over. And, you know, I've heard that, you know,

firsthand.

GIOKOS: OK. Well, Elisa, great to have you with us and thank you so much for breaking that down for us and how unusual this earthquake in New York

is.

Elisa Raffa for us.

I want to bring in Susan Hough of the U.S. Geological Survey to give us her perspective on why this happened, how it happened. We're just talking about

the tectonic plates and the fault lines. This wasn't very deep, 4.7.

What more do you know?

SUSAN HOUGH, SEISMOLOGIST, U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY: Well, so we don't know a lot, you know, at this point. We have the preliminary information. As we

heard earthquakes in New York and New Jersey are not common. They're not unheard of. You know, the plates in the West, the Pacific plate and North

America moving separately. So you have the San Andreas Fault, you have all of that activity.

On the East Coast the North America and the Atlantic Ocean are glued together. So that you don't have an active plate boundary, active fault

lines, but you do have stresses in that area. One of my colleagues called it a passive aggressive margin because we call it a passive margin. There's

no active plate boundary, but there are stresses because you transition from the continent to the ocean.

And so we have had earthquakes going back in time. There were earthquakes upwards of magnitude 5 that caused damage in New York City in the 1700s and

the 1800s. So they're more common there than, say, Wisconsin, which is much more stable and away from (INAUDIBLE). Yes.

GIOKOS: So, I mean, we don't know what the damage could have been. I mean, it's 4.7 magnitude, you know, as Elisa was saying. It's quite shallow. What

kind of damage can 4.7 creates? I mean, everyone felt it. Can you imagine being in those high-rise buildings, for example, in Manhattan and feeling

that? But I think it was mostly New Jersey. But could you give me a sense of what this could ultimately mean?

HOUGH: Well, some modern high-rise buildings are built to withstand wind, which makes them quite strong whether or not there's specific earthquake

engineering. For 4.7 we don't expect to see major damage if you're right on top of it. Maybe a few things would fall off of your shelves. Maybe a

window would break. It's really too small to cause serious damage.

The one thing we worry about in the east is that a few places aren't prepared. The construction, you have brick construction, things you

wouldn't see in California. So for 4.7, we're not too concerned about damage potential, but there is the potential out there for larger

earthquakes to strike and frequently and those are the ones that we worry about.

GIOKOS: I mean, do you think that this could result in aftershocks or this could be, you know, something before a stronger earthquake? How does that

sort of work out? Because everyone is always worried about aftershocks usually, but also concerned that this could be sort of more shallow

earthquake that comes before something a bit stronger.

HOUGH: Sure. That's a great question. And 4.7 is big enough that we expect to have a few aftershocks that are big enough to be felt. So people,

especially right in the area, shouldn't be surprised if they feel, you know, magnitude three-ish aftershocks. They won't necessarily happen. They

could.

There is always the chance that an earthquake could be followed by something bigger. We typically think within three days, but, you know, it

could be within weeks. This could be a foreshock. There's no way to know unfortunately until a bigger earthquake happens. The odds are low. So it's

not something that we can predict, you know, certainly, it's not. But it's something that people should be aware of when you feel an earthquake.

There's always a chance, there's higher chances that you're going to feel more quakes. And so it's just a good time to think about preparedness.

GIOKOS: Well, I just want -- we just heard from the New York Police Department saying there was no damage or injuries reported in the wake of

the North Jersey earthquake. NYPD is receiving numerous calls about buildings that shook and are seeing for potential damage.

[10:50:04]

Now you've just mentioned the probabilities that could occur in the next day or, you know, the next few hours. If you could just give me a timeline

here, but importantly, how should people prepare for an aftershock or sort of a stronger earthquake if that could be sort of -- something that people

should be expecting?

HOUGH: Well, so again, we're talking about low probabilities, but not zeros and the kind of preparedness that people can think about is whether they

have water in their house, whether they have, you know, medication and pet food and food for three days, whether they have a heavy mirror or a picture

that could fall on the bed or --

GIOKOS: OK. We unfortunately lost our guest. We'll try and get back to this important story. 4.7 magnitude quake hitting New York. No injuries or

damage reported as yet. We will be keeping you abreast of the story.

We'll be right back after this short break. Stay with CNN.

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GIOKOS: All right. Welcome back. And we just heard news of a 4.7 magnitude earthquake hitting New York and surrounding areas affecting mostly New

Jersey. NYPD says there's no injuries that have been reported or damage as yet. And of course, still assessing the situation there saying that anyone

that has anything to report, of course, need to call 911 immediately.

But the most recent developments, the Federal Aviation Administration says flights to New York Philadelphia, Baltimore and Newark airports are being

held. Air traffic control tower at New York Liberty Airport is being evacuated. A controller said in a radio transmission after the earthquake

that they are being evacuated. That means the flights were being held while control is moved to an alternate location.

The runways were in the process of being inspected for damage. Shortly after the earthquake controllers at LaGuardia were still clearing flights

for departure there. This, of course, is preliminary information. We are waiting for more on this.

Right. We've got Jason Carroll standing by in New York for more on this.

What do we know right now, Jason?

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, again, we are here located at Hudson Yards in New York City, in Manhattan. The newsroom is on the 18th

floor. Several of us felt the quake when it happened, including myself. Again, when you're from a place and living in a place like New York City

incredulous when you feel this type of movement. So it's probably pretty easy to understand why many of us second-guessed ourselves when we

initially felt the ground moving.

I for myself was standing at my computer and the computer started moving ever so slightly. I am from California, so I'm accustomed to feeling

earthquakes, not accustomed to feeling it in a place like New York City. We are being told that it is a magnitude 4.8 earthquake. I've heard from many

of my colleagues from places like -- from Long Island, from places like New York, New York, places like New Jersey. All of them say that they felt it.

[10:55:01]

Some people coming in and saying that they had dishes rattling, things like that. Haven't had any reports of any severe damage at this point, but

apparently this quake, shaking buildings from as far away as Philadelphia to New Jersey, to New York, to Connecticut, to Westchester, New York. We've

already heard from the governor's office. Governor Hochul said the quake was felt throughout the New York City area.

The governor is saying my team is assessing impacts and any damage that may have occurred, and we will update the public throughout the day. This is

what she posted on social media. So we're still getting reports coming in from the city, but again, you can imagine the shock that many of us

experienced because New York City is not a place that is accustomed to feeling any type of earthquake at all. Back to you.

GIOKOS: Yes, look, it is rare indeed. 4.7 magnitude quake in New York. It doesn't normally happen. And importantly, the question is the probabilities

for anything more in terms of tremors after this.

Jason Carroll for us in New York giving us an update of what he and his teams and friends experienced at Hudson Yards at CNN.

We are going to be continuing this story. Earthquake in New York, 4.7 magnitude, right after the short break. I'm Eleni Giokos. Stay with CNN.

"NEWSROOM" up next.

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