Transcripts For CNNW Inside 20240703

Fired over. A very tough day. Another tough day. Our continuing coverage continues now. This is cnn breaking news. Today in inside politics, the cost and chaos of war in response to an unprecedented Terror Attack against israel. First, Inside Israel [ sirens ] sirens and screams. Fire and rescues. And now the crackle of bombs. Youre looking at live images of the gaza skyline, smoky ash as far as the eye can see. And here in the u. S. , the worst Case Scenario for Nine American families, a National Security council official confirming that nine u. S. Citizens were murdered during attacks Inside Israel and there are also Americans Still missing. Today israel escalates. We should warn you that you are about to watch something quite graphic. It is carnage inside gaza. An air strike near a refugee camp, evidence of what the hamas attack has wrought on many innocent palestinians. Soot and mangled Concrete Strewn everywhere, amid a race to pull people from still burning rubble. Israels government response includes a complete blockade of gaza. Cnn teams spotted Hervery Machinery headed toward the border. Israel has called up 300,000 reservists. Its Prime Minister vowed to make hamas extinct. This morning, cnn cameras were rolling near the border when this happened. Get down. Down. Youre fine, youre fine. Youre okay. Youre all right, youre all right. Guys. Are you seeing our situation, guys . Yes. Okay. Stay down. We have to stay here. Guys, come to us. That was cnns Clarissa Ward and the rest of her cnn Team Sprinting for their lives as the clanging of missiles burst overhead. I want to make clear, thank goodness, clarissa and the team are okay. We want to start with another one of our extraordinary members of our Reporting Team in israel, nic robertson. You are near the gaza border at this time. Tell us what youre seeing there. Reporter the continual sound of jets flying overhead. A little earlier we were moving around. Now its dark. A little earlier we were standing quite close to the border with gaza. You could hear small arms fire coming, automatic weapons, and seeing huge plumes of black smoke like those youve been showing, huge plumes of black smoke rising up. We were able to see places where there had been strikes, columns of smoke rising up from there. Also, we were in the location where all those young Music Festival goers had been having a nighttime of dancing on friday night into saturday, when the hamas came across the border and just brutally slaughtered 260 of them. The road there was literally strewn and littered with their vehicles, shot up. Perhaps one of the most h harrowing scenes, people had gone to find shelter, that Dot The Landscape here, that are used Toy Communities to dodge and get out of harms way, and that was a natural place for people to go and try to seek shelter. What happened . They went inside the Concrete Bunker, and i took a look inside, and it was an awful scene. There was blood thick on the floor, blood on the wall, on the ceiling, and bullet holes in the wall. Its so clear that the Hamas Terrorists literally stepped into this Concrete Bunker where people, young people, innocent young people had been celebrating and enjoying that night, were trying to get away from the danger, and quite literally gunned them down mercilessly in cold blood, and its an awful, awful scene. Now it is israel that is deciding its at war. There is this blockade on electricity, on food, on any kind of coming and going from gaza. That will have a very, very quick impact, and as weve soon seeing the air strikes, were also seeing as we were driving around many, many more Israeli Defense force troops on the move. Groups of them, 20, 30, 40 at a time, in Armored Vehicles and soft skin vehicles, weapons at the ready, experienced troops that are deployed around the area, as well as dozens upon dozens of tanks and other heavy armor that are clustered there. Were seeing the army gathering, nothing like the 300,000 reservists who have been called up, but nevertheless, it is very clear that this deployment of troops close to gaza is really ramping up at quite a pace right now. Certainly, it is. And just the description that you have, and i know that you were there earlier today, of what happened at what was a very happy, joyous, peace festival, and the terror there. And i want to tell our viewers what were looking at right now. I think this is some of what you were referring to, that you could hear some big explosions inside gaza, as israel continues to respond to the Terror Attack that happened inside its own country on saturday, on the jewish sabbath. Nic, thank you so much for that. I want to go to lieutenant colonel, spokesperson for the global israeli forces. Thank you so much for joining me. To tonight in israel, sirens are going off in jerusalem and tel aviv. There have been multiple impacts in gaza and were showing our viewers that as we speak. What can you tell us about the Current Situation on the ground in israel and on the borders . So, first of all, im late to thank and compliment clarissa and nic for outstanding correspondence, endangering their lives in order to tell the story in a fair and balanced way. First of all, i would like to thank you. Were watching them work and talking to them in the field. Very impressive. So thank you for that. I would like to start with that, because being here and being under fire is not something we take for granted. The situation on the ground i think, is more or less, as you are seeing it, our first goal was after this unprecedented attack, again, the stories are coming out as were evacuating people from the gaza communities on the israeli side, horrific, carnage, kidnapping, terrible visuals. We managed to more or less take control of that security area. There may be some more terrorists, but theres no major fire fights along the gaza strip. Youre seeing the barrages of fire that they are firing. Weve also secured the border, which was a substantial thing. There were many crossing points. Now were responding very, very severely against hamas targets. Again, everybody has a mindset of conflicts in the past. This is something different. What they did on saturday is unprecedented. It was declaring war on the state of israel. Were at war. Again, we can talk about the north later, whats happening in gaza right now, weve deployed forces. Lieutenant colonel, i just want to make sure i heard you right. Did you say that you have been able to rescue israelis from the other side of the border from inside gaza . No. As you well know, were deployed and mobilizing our reserves, 300,000 reserves all over israel, north, center and south, to take that area. Again, we have a tragic situation where you have not only soldiers, but civilians, children, grandmothers, kidnapped inside gaza. No question about it. As you prepare to, you said you havent been able to rescue any of these civilian hostages that were taken outside of their homes and off the streets, any sense as the response begins inside gaza of where they are . Or is it too soon . Its too soon to ask that question. We are focusing very differently from our enemies who attack civilians. Just something which is important to mention, this attack, it was a massacre, and in one day they killed it was the biggest number of jews killed since the holocaust. Thats the scale of this event. Right now the hostages in gaza, its a tough one, and were all affected by it. Theres not one israeli who is not connected, because were the peoples army, but we are focusing on hamas targets. And i know the questions are going to come right now, but this is something different. Challenging. I mean, im just sort of taking in what you just said, that this is the most jewish deaths since the holocaust. Obviously, were talking about jewish civilian death, this is not like some of the wars that weve seen in israels past, where it is largely military on military. This is quite different. I want to ask you about the intelligence that you have right now about other Non State Actors moving in toward israel in addition to hamas. We would advise hezbollah not to join this horrific event. Weve responded with fire after they started firing rockets, and they also infiltrated immediately. We thwarted them. In the north our defenses are ready. Its important to mention that the americans sent a battle group, a carrier, moving in with a powerful statement, which were very thankful for from the Central Command commander, saying that he will support us, with a statement saying to advise anyone thats not part of whats going on in the south to join in on this. Thats a very strong message coming out from our brothers in arms in america. Just final question, i want to ask about a claim by hamas Military Wing that air strikes in response, israeli air strikes, killed four israeli hostages overnight. Do you have any sense of whether thats true . We have no sense at this point. Okay, i understand. It is very early and a lot of information that you do not know. I hope you come back, a lot more questions. I know that you are a very busy man. Thank you for your time. Here with me to share critical perspective is former commanding general of the u. S. Army in europe, mark hertling. General hertling, just your thoughts on what we just heard from that global spokesman from the idf. Its fast moving, dana, thats for sure. Theres a lot of activity going on throughout the day. Israel has ramped up their air attacks and their Combat Air Patrols over the gaza. It appears to me that they are assimilating their ground forces, getting their reservists potentially linked up with vehicles, and what weve heard so far about the potential for a second front in lebanon or against the hezbollah fighters that may be coming across the borders. Thats going to be very challenging. This is not going to get any lighter. This is going to continue to grow in terms of catastrophes and casualties and deaths. We can see that based on the films that youre showing, what we know will occur because israel is planning an operation inside of the gaza. But they are having to deal with a lot of things, not only the complex situation in the gaza strip, the continuing taking of hostages, deaths of israeli and other citizens, u. S. Citizens that we know about, the deployment of u. S. Forces into the region with the naval forces and the air forces coming there, as well as probably some intelligence collection devices from space and air breathers. But throughout the night, im sure the bombing is going to throughout the night in israel, im sure the bombing is going to continue and theres going to be more deaths and destruction that will make the incursion into gaza even tougher for the Israeli Defense forces. General, you are such an expert, not only serving in this region, but studying this region academically as a scholar. Can you talk about one of the things that you mentioned there, which is the possibility of this becoming a twofront war for israel . And by two fronts, were talking about gaza and were talking about the north at the border with lebanon. Well, it has the possibility of even more than that, dana, because youre talking about not only threats from hezbollah, which is linked to the same supporter that supports hamas, and thats iran. But youre also concerning im sure the Israeli Government is concerned with uprisings in the west bank. This is the kind of threat they face daily in their country, but weve seen some things that have happened this time with the attack of hamas and using the multidimensional operations that has taken this to a whole new level. The mass killing of israeli citizens, as you just heard, as well as the potential for hamas and other forces using new types of techniques to attack the state of israel. Yeah, and as youre speaking, you can probably hear the bombs going off, the explosions, which is happening inside gaza right now. Thank you so much, general her l hertling, for your time, your expertise. Youre welcome. Thank you. Again, you are looking at pictures of gaza. You can see that the sun has set. It is darkness, which means that it is going to be, as the general said, the beginning of a very long night. This is three days after an unprecedented Terror Attack and intense fighting that ensued. Were going to go live to jerusalem next, plus israeli families are desperately searching for their loved ones taken by hamas. Well speak to someone whose r was killed and whose nephew is wounded and missing. Right now, you are seeing darkness in the region, in gaza, but we are seeing overa and ove the orange glow of war. At this very moment, nowhere inside gaza or Inside Israel appear to be safe. The video is from jerusalem were looking at now. That was under threat from hamas rockets. Jerusalem is where hadas gold is right now. We usually dont see this as active when israel is under threat in the holy city. This is different. Reporter this has felt much different. In 2021, jerusalem was sort of symbolically targeted on the outset of that war, but this time there have been several rounds of air raid sirens, indicating incoming rocket fire, and the sirens today, we heard at least ten Explosions In The Sky when the sirens came our way earlier. We know of several injuries, including one 10yearold who was injured, in serious condition. Most of these rockets fell in areas outside of jerusalem, one of them is actually a town thats mostly made up of arab israelis, and it shows you that these rockets can hit anyone. Its striking to see them targeting jerusalem, because of the proximity to the holy sites, all of the important sites in jerusalem. But, dana, i want to bring up something that we just have now from cnn exclusively, and this is body Camera Footage of hamas militants while they were infiltrating some of these towns in southern israel. This was provided to me by the Israel Defense forces. They say they got this footage off of a body camera a hamas militant was wearing at the time they infiltrated this village. This was taken the body Camera Footage was recorded on october 7th, on saturday morning. Now, weve edited out a little bit so that you dont see the moment where this dog was shot. But you see them walking into what appears to be a neighborhood. The dog walks up to them, they shoot and kill the dog. They go into a house, theyre looking for water, they say to each other. Then they go to the entrance to another house and seem to be trying to set fire to something. Of course, this video has been edited by the Israeli Military and provided to us, and im sure theres body Camera Footage of much worse. The Israeli Military, in their comment to me, they said these fighters, they called them worse than isis, and it is just incredible, also, just to see from sort of a Security Failure aspect that these are hamas fighters wearing the green hamas bands, walking freely through an israeli town, and just walking up and into all of these houses. That gives you the idea of what it looked like when these militants going into these houses, were abducting and killing people and doing all these horrible things, that now we are hearing about. It is really interesting and noteworthy that the idf wanted the world to see those, and as you said, im sure we will get a lot more to give an illustration of the fact that these are Hamas Terrorists who were going into civilian homes, they werent attacking the Israeli Military. I appreciate you bringing that to us, hadas. I want to show our viewers some video we just got in from Clarissa Wards Team Showing Shelling in the city of ashkelon. I want to bring in somebody whose family was directly affected by the hamas attack in southern israel, lost family in a kibbutz near the border and still has a family member, a nephew, unaccounted for. Thank you for joining me. Your brother was the mayor of the kibbutz right near the border with gaza, and he was murdered. Your nephew is unaccounted for. Yes, my brother, who was dedicating his life for peace, was murdered on saturday morning at the beginning of this attack. And, also, his wife was murdered, 80 years old, and his wife, nephew, 22 years old, also was murdered on the same day. We are now looking for his son. His son is 19 years old and he was wounded in his room from a gunshot and we lost contact with him at 2 30 midday. Its been more than 55 hours, and we havent heard anything from him or from anyone else in israel. We are all trying to find out what happened to him, but we have no clue. Just want to ask you about that. You said that you lost contact with your nephew at 2 30 local time. What contact did you have up until then . Was he calling and explaining what was happening . Yes, exactly. He was calling ask asking for help, and he was guided how to rescue himself and rescue his leg, because he was shot in his leg. At 2 30, the battery of his mobile was dead. You have to understand that there was no electricity in the kibbutz. More than 100 terrorists was all around and shooting everyone and a lot of people died, and he was helping himself until, probably, the battery was dead. Later on, when they rescued the kibbutz, the room was empty, and we have no idea where he is. We need help from anyone in the world to get more information about where he is. We hope that he managed to maybe get out of the room and hes still there somewhere. There was gunfire all day long, today and yesterday and the day before, so only in the last few hours people are searching for him. We need all the help in the world to find him. As you talk about him, we can put his photo back up, because you do have hope he is somewhere on the israel side of the border and wasnt taken across the border to gaza. Exactly. He is not in one of the hospitals, he is not one of the dead, and we hope that hes still in the kibbutz and a lot of soldiers are looking for him right now. We have hope that hes still alive and we still have hope for peace in the world and we are shocked with what is happening right now in our area. It is the worst ever, a horrific attack on civilians. It says a lot that you are still hoping for peace in the world, given what you are going through, losing so many Family Members, and obviously having a nephew unaccounted for. Thank you for sharing your story. I very much appreciate it. This is the legacy. Thank you so much. Thank you. And coming up after a break, President Biden told israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that assistance is on the way. Will it be enough . What will it look like . The details next. Cmon, were right there. Cmon baby. Its the only we need. Go, go, go, go ah Touchdown Baby touchdown are your neighbors watching the same game . Yeah, my 5g Home Internet delays the game a bit. But you get used to it. Try these. Theyre noise cancelling earmuffs. I stole them from an airport. Its always something with you, man. Great solid greek salad . Exactly dont delay the game with verizon or tmobile 5g Home Internet. Catch it on the xfinity 10g network. The literal fire of war, swallowing more and more of gaza each and every minute. The fury of israels response to an unprovoked Terror Attack from hamas Inside Israel, on civilians. And here in washington, President Biden has been in touch with israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu throughout the weekend. Yesterday a u. S. Carrier strike group was redirected towards the Eastern Mediterranean sea to act as a deterrent to hezbollah forces in lebanon and other militant groups. Joining me from the white house is cnns m. J. Lee. What are you hearing from your sources at the white house about the prepared response right now . Reporter well, dana, needless to say, the situation in israel has been front and center for President Biden all weekend as he has been getting briefings by his National Security team. And as you said, hes spoken already twice with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and we saw overnight how abruptly the president s focused and priority can change. This is now a president who is overseeing and contending with two different wars in two different regions of the world, and even though he as a candidate really explicitly ran as the person who he said is best equipped to handle this kind of global crisis, really better than anybody else, he is about to be tested in a whole new set of ways, and certainly when it comes to sort of the efforts to reshape diplomacy in the middle east, those efforts, at the very least, are on hold or disrupted right now. Now, as for the immediacy of the president s actions and how he is responding, of course he has been talking with his counterpart about the assistance that he wants to send israels way. Were already seeing over the weekend u. S. Military assets being moved into the region. The president has made clear ther there is going to be more assistance, though that will be complicated by the unusual situation on capitol hill of there not being a permanent speaker, and of course officials are working around the clock to try to gather as much information as possible about this attack that really did take israeli and u. S. Officials by surprise, including irans potential role in all of this. Though at this moment in time, u. S. Officials still say theyve not found anything to draw a distinct connection between iran really helping to execute and plan this specific attack. They do say, though, that that connection could soon be made. M. J. , thank you so much for that reporting. As m. J. Just mentioned, this attack, this war that is happening now in the middle east, is happening as the u. S. Congress is without a speaker of the house. Joining me now the congressman adam smith, the ranking democrat on the House Armed Services committee. Thank you so much for joining me. You have been briefed. What can you tell us about the situation in israel that we might not know yet . Well, youve covered it reasonably well. I think its good to frame sort of what the u. S. Response is, and what our priorities are. Number one priority, obviously, is to get whatever help to israel that they need, and the president and the White House Team is in communication with them on that, offering that support to israel. Number two, crucially, work with our allies in the region to try and make sure this conflict doesnt expand, and specifically that focus is on hezbollah up north and lebanon and syria. So theres talk with various allies about that. And then, third, to make sure that we protect u. S. Interests in the region. Thats why dod has moved some assets into the region and is focused on that. Now, for now, thats what we can do. The big question that comes is, what if we need some sort of specific aid package, how do we work that through the process . Those conversations are beginning between the white house and congress as well. Let me ask you about the u. S. Carrier strike group headed into the Eastern Mediterranean sea. You said it is to be there just in case. Tell us what your understanding is is, the top democrat on tahe Armed Services committee is for it to be there, and what should the u. S. Extent of involvement be . Just to understand, the u. S. Military is not going to get involved in terms of sending troops or our assets to fight with israel against hamas. We will certainly support israel as our ally in terms of providing equipment, military ammunition if they need it, other forms of support. Were there because were kind of worried more broadly about iran. And keep in mind, we have u. S. Forces in iraq, we have u. S. Forces in syria. Iran has various malitia groups they back. There is concern they will seize the opportunity to launch further attacks against u. S. Interest and forces. We have forces in syria, primarily because of isis, which has not completely gone away. There are large prison camps with isis fighters there. And iran, through its malitias have been harassing those elements, and iran has looked for ways to destabilize iraq. We have a concern about what iran might do with its proxies to specifically target u. S. Interests or further destabilize the region. It sounds like is there credible intelligence that is something that is imminent, or this is an Insurance Policy . Well, forgive me, dana, but theres credible intelligence in the sense of just your average intelligence. Theres no doubt that this war benefits iran, theres no doubt that iran is the number one backer of hamas and has been providing them with missiles. Have you seen evidence that shows that iran was aside from just being a financial backer of hamas, was integral in the planning of this attack . I cant talk about anything classified, so i cant get into that. But, again, i think we should just rely on the logic of the situation, both in terms of what iran has always supplied hamas, and also to hezbollah. But, also, irans clear interests in trying to stop the movement of the peace effort between israel and saudi arabia and other arab states. Iran fears that peace effort, and its perfectly logical that they would want to launch an attack like this or encourage an attack like this to disrupt that process. So, yes, iran is definitely in the middle of this. How specifically in this attack, well have to look at some of the intel. Some of that were not going to reveal. Clearly iran is profiting. Iranian regime is a problem here is certainly an understatement, im sure he would agree. Thank you so much for coming on. I appreciate it. Thanks, dana. Appreciate the chance. And as the conflict rages on, questions are mounting within israel as to how this dire Intelligence Failure actually happened, and whether the israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, should move to a new coalition government. Well talk about that next. Youre looking at what will very likely be a very long night ahead in gaza, bombs piercing the night sky, setting fire to the city, as israel ramps up its response to the hamas Terror Attack inside its country on saturday. Israeli government is giving little answers to a very, very big question, and that is how is it caught so off guard. I spoke yesterday with the israeli minister of Strategic Affairs and asked him this question. Whether or not your government, the Netanyahu Government, was distracted because of the domestic fights going on, very, very public fights going on about the judiciary and others . No, i can tell you as a member of the security cabinet, we werent distracted at all. We have our eye on the ball. Joining me now to discuss this is a senior columnist and former editor of the jerusalem post. Thank you for joining me. You just heard him insist that the Netanyahu Government did not take its eye off the ball with all of the domestic issues it has been dealing with. Normally you see countries rally around a leader at a time like this. What is the reality for netanyahu and his government right now . Look, dana, people are not going to be rallying around netanyahu, but they will be rallying around the state of israel. What we saw happen saturday with this horrific massacre of almost 100 israelis, and that number is, sadly, going to continue to rise, in their homes, beds, bomb shelters, is something that brings out within the israeli, that sense of allegiance, stories im hearing of people getting on planes in sri lanka and flying back to israel to make it to their units and to make it to their reserves. That is what people rally behind. So netanyahu will have political trouble, but that will be after this political conflict. He made a career of being mr. Security. Well, he isnt mr. Security after what happened on saturday, and while i have a lot of respect for the minister, they did take their eye off the ball. What happened over the last nine months with the judicial reform, the division they kcreated withn the society, created a situation that we were not focused on what was really happening here. And the writing was on the wall, that when the jews are divided, when the country is divided, there will be an enemy who will try to take advantage. Can i ask you about you say right now no one is going to try to topple netanyahu, but very much an offer from Opposition Leaders for a unity government. Is that realistic . Look, its realistic if netanyahu is willing to do it. The former chief of staff, the former defense minister, form a National Unity government with netanyahu back in 2020 because of a virus called covid19, and then was stabbed in the back by netanyahu. So there wasnt that rotation that was supposed to take place in the Prime Ministers office, and that government fell. He has said im willing to come in with no conditions. They could close this deal within an hour, if the two of them get in the room. For some reason thats not happening. Only representatives are sitting and talking. We need responsible people in the cabinet right now. Unfortunately, were out of time, but i do want you to come back. Unfortunately, this is going to be a very long and drawnout process. Thank you so much. And we are hearing devastating accounts of israeli civilians discovering their Family Members are missing. One family is going to share their harrowing story live next. Explosions rain down on gaza families in israel are waiting for, hoping for news about their loved ones who are still missing following saturdays brutal attack by hamas. Im joined now by a man who is missing members of his family. Thank you for joining me. I understand that several members of your family are missing, including your 9yearold cousin, abducted from kibbutz not far from the gaza border. Tell us about the moment that you understand they were taken and when you last heard from them. Yeah, so basically the five of them are now hostages by the hamas. You know, the grandmother, which is who is my aunt, and, you know, three of her grandchildren and the father of two of them, we just lost contact with them. They are just gone. And that happened we basically found out that they are not there only in the aftermath of the horrific events in the kibbutz near oz which we learned later about, but when the mother of two of the kids basically regrouped with all the survivors in the kibbutz, basically the army put them together in one room and protecting them, she realized only her oldest son is within the survivors. So it was 7 30 p. M. , but 7 30 p. M. Was exactly 12 hours after it all started. So for 12 hours with no clue even if she survived or her oldest son, but we did have rapid connection with them through Whats App Group since 7 30 a. M. You had a connection what happened you had a connection with the mother who was safe after the attack . Yeah, actually i had a connection with carmilla who is on the screen now, my aunt, shes 80 years and she has now been taken hostage. She takes medicine on a daily basis, serious medicine, Heart Medicine and were very, very worried about her. And then she was in a safe room with one of the grandchildren, with noya, she is 12 years old, a girl with Special Needs on the spectrum and we are in touch with them through whats app. What happened is 7 30 a. M. There was whats called in israel its red color alert and that means basically that you need to, you know, to execute the drill of going to the safe room. Safe room is, you know, its mandatory for New Buildings in israel so almost everyone has that. Then you have to go to the room and wait for ten minutes, unless theres another red alert and then you leave the room. 7 30 it was a surprise because we havent seen missiles from gaza strip for a while, but then i just basically asked you know, as a drill, i asked in the family Whats App Group whats going on . Are you okay . And then hadas, the mother, said, no, its terrible here, something very, very terrible is happening. We have terrorists inside the kibbutz. I hear them. Oh, my god. Im in the safe room and i hear them. Theyre knocking on doors, shouting, shooting all over. I think i heard grenades because it doesnt sound like, you know, a missile, and i hear people shouting that they got hurt from them shooting. Ido, i apologize, this is a horrific story. I want to see if you can come back and talk to us. We are unfortunately out of time for this hour, but as we go i want to put up the picture of your cousin, 9yearold arraz calderone, one of many members of your family who are missing. Im so grateful that youre sharing their story and please come back, i want to talk a lot more and i want you to tell us if you hear from anybody. Can i just say one sentence, dana . I really think i want to tell the hamas theres no basically one war crime that was not committed yesterday you know, on saturday and i think that kids, such young kids. I understand. Very young. Very young. Absolutely. Thank you for sharing that. Thank you for sharing the story of your family. Were sorry we have to leave it there. Thanks for joining inside politics, Cnn News Central starts after a quick break. Of