Transcripts For CNNW CNN 20240703

Ground there as they heard the sirens go off. Israel is now striking back. Its launched its own air strikes into gaza, where palestinians say hundreds have been killed and many, many more injured. New video from cnn shows this Tower Collapsing in gaza city following an air strike. Israel also is mobilizing troops and calling up tens of thousands of reservists. Sam kiley has the latest. Reporter Palestinian Militants celebrate the destruction of an israeli tank, dragging what appears to be a body of a crewman from the vehicle. Dozens of Gazabased Palestinian fighters have infiltrated israel under the cover of a massive rocket bombardment. In what could be the biggest Israeli Intelligence failure since arab nations attacked israel 250 years ago. Hamas brought war to the streets. Its bullets tearing into civilian vehicles. Locals on rooftops and shooting. Here the aftermath of a gun battle. Israeli civilians lie dead on the street. Close by are what are reported to be Palestinian Militants, also dead. We are at war. Not an operation or in rounds, but at war. This morning hamas launched a Surprise Attack against israel and its citizens. They have been in this since the Early Morning hours. Reporter israel has already hit back with air strikes, but the countrys right wing government will be under pressure to attack deeper into gaza, as reserves are being mobilized countrywide. Its very possible that we will witness a massive Israeli Ground operation in gaza strip that basically will aim to try and change from the ground the conditions for the last almost two decades. Reporter israels death toll climbed throughout a day of fighting. Militants claim they have taken several israelis hostage, which the Defense Forces are saying are Prisoners Of War, and the hamasled operation is the most complex and ambitious in its history. Here militants on the best bank foreshadowed what was coming to cnn last october. There are extensive meetings with the resistance factions in gaza on the west bank and with our brothers abroad about starting that fire. Reporter that fight now appears to have begun in gaza with this hamas call to arms. If you have a gun, get it out. This is the time to use it. Get out with trucks, cars. Today the most glorious and honorable history begins. That appeal has so far not been answered on the west bank or among Israels Palestinian population, not yet. Sam kiley reporting there. That was sam kiley. So lets bring in head of the Palestinian Mission to the uk. Welcome to the program. First and foremost, do you condemn what hamas did inside israel to israeli civilians . Theyre dead and there are hostages. First and foremost, the Western Media must abandon this framework that has gotten us to where we are today. I just want to know, do you support the killing of civilians . Of course not, of course not. So you condemn that . The loss of civilian life is tragic on all sides and what is happening is extremely worrying and very tragic, as we speak the loss of life, youve counted 70, they believe there is more than 200 so far, more than 1,600 entire as compounds are being wiped out. This is a war crime. What is equally tragic is the blindness and the deafness of the world and the International Community for so many years, of the warnings we have been saying that this was coming. Israel knew this was coming their way. We, the National Movement of palestine, the plo, have found a different path 30 years ago. We have committed to what the world asked us, recognize israel, commit to negotiations of non violence, and to a resolution. Israel was expected to do one thing only, roll back its occupation, stub the colonial expansion. Not one day it did so, killing the process expect of the solution. And the world was expected to do one thing, Uphold International Law equally on everybody, on ukraine, on palestine. No accountability. Now every single political avenue is blocked, every single legal avenue is blocked, like the International Court of justice. Youve heard what the u. S. Said. I want to know what happens now. Theres a war that israel has declared after Palestinian Militants, who i dont think are your friends, hamas is not a supporter of the palestinian authority. Theres a war, and as you say, theres going to be a massive escalation. There is a war. This happened because israelis have seen what they have seen today. But my people see this every day, every single day. Palestinians are targeted, killed, arrested, their land is confiscated, their holy places are desecrated, not only muslims, but christians. You have been following what is happening in the christian churches, the spitting on worshippers. Our people have been seeing a p this happen and their rights disappearing. This is what we have to discuss. I know. As you know, neither the israeli political spectrum, nor the United States, nor anybody, its like the palestinian issue doesnt exist anymore, the twostate solution, the diplomacy is on deep freeze. Can i ask you, before we get to there, what triggered this attack . Its on a certain date, 50 years to the date, just about 50 years ago it was october 6th, yom kippur, syria launched a Surprise Attack on israel. What do you think triggered this . Its a very sophisticated hamas attack. I dont know. I really, really dont know. What i know is that it was a matter of when, not if. The weve been shouting every day, downtown unheed what we are saying, pay attention. Dont underestimate peoples desire for freedom, for ending the bondage and captivity. Pay attention to the destruction that israel is doing. Make sure that these supremacists are not going to turn the whole thing upside down. This is not about timing and all that. This is about the fact that we discuss everything except the core thing, the fundamental issue, the root causes. Weve been doing this for 75 years. One sentence, you know that 70 of the population in gaza, the palestinians are refugees, since 1948. You know they have been under besiegement since 2007. This is what leads to events that you want to discuss. Obviously the israelis will say this is what happens when we evacuate, for instance, withdraw from gaza, which they have done. Youre right, it is sealed and it is a very heavily guarded situation. But what now happens . So, for instance, i was speaking to the former israeli ambassador to the u. S. , and he said, you know, even you, palestinian authorities, All Of You Guys who are in the west bank, youre under threat from hamas, and he said mustafa only allow it because israel keeps them alive, that youre under such threat from our own people. What would you answer to that . Nonsense. Absolutely nonsense. Lies all the time. What the people are subjected to are the same in the west bank, in jerusalem, and the refugees. We are united by our suffering and we are united by our goal, which is ending this occupation, ending this. We have our political differences, but we make no mistake, the one thing we need to rid ourselves with is the Israeli Military occupation, the colonization, the system of racial domination that has been imposed on us. We make no mistake of that. This is not a palestinian, this is the failure of every International Actor to pay attention. You see, instead of learning the lessons, what i heard today from many International Actors, including from the u. S. And uk, is doubling down on the very same mistakes and failure that has led us to where we are. What is the option right now . What happens . The alternative is statesmanship, courage, the equal application of International Law. We are not lesser of human beings. We are not the children of a lesser god. We are equal. Its been 75 years, 75 years of oppression, of wholesale destruction. Youve seen what happens in gaza. Wait until tomorrow and see the thousands who will lose their lives and livelihoods. Enough is enough. The only solution is respect peoples legitimate birthright, the right to return, the right to establish a state of their own, and stop dodging this. Stop finding detours around it. There is no such thing as detour. Peace can only be struck with us, the palestinians, not with anyone else. Because israel is at odds with us, because israel has taken our land, because israel is oppressing us, not anybody else. And bravery from the International Community requires equal application of International Law. Israel is occupying and as a full responsibility to protect the civilians under its own occupation, right . This is International Law. Israel has the full responsibility to make sure no civilian is harmed. Its been the opposite for 75 years. Do you worry that that statement that youre making is completely compromised when Palestinian Militants, terrorists, bomb israeli civilians, kill them, capture them, hold them hostage . No. How do you keep the moral high ground in that case . We keep the moral high ground by sticking to International Law. By reverting and seeking the ruling of the International Criminal court. Let International Judges come to palestine, the Occupied Palestinian Territory and rule, and we will accept the ruling. If we commit any mistakes or crimes, well accept it. But Everybody Knows its israel that has been violating every provision of International Law and our common human decency. Do you see final question, is there any mediator, the u. S. Or anybody right now, who would deescalate this . The u. S. Is completely disqualified. Ive been following what is coming from washington. What washington considers israel to be a domestic issue, not a Foreign Policy issue, and washington is playing political football with this, and regrettably we have been at the receiving end. The solution is the world, the International Community. The u. S. Should be at the table, but so is europe, the rest of the world, china. The world must come together to end this conflict as it did with all other conflicts. We are not an exception. Are head of the Palestinian Mission here. Thank you for that perspective. Cnns breaking coverage of this unprecedented situation continues right after a quick break, and we will be back. Welcome back. Were following a major breaking story out of The Middle East, of course, israel declaring its at war with hamas. At least 70 people are dead and nearly 1,000 wounded. Those numbers are expected to rise. Thats inside israel. The Palestinian Terrorist group hamas launched an offensive by air, sea and land at sunrise. The chief Military Analyst of the israeli newspaper, welcome to the program. First and foremost, tell us, youre in tell aviv, and weve heard sirens and loud booms reported from our correspondents. What are you hearing or seeing now . Im not seeing anything in particular, but there are quite a lot of alarms and sirens all over israel for 12 hours. There were recent attacks on tel aviv around 8 00 israeli time in the evening, just in time for the evening news, and there are casualties in tel aviv and other places, all over southern and central israel, as well as the massive event which occurred on the gaza border, which is the hamas unprecedented attack, a Massive Attack across both Israeli Military positions, and especially villages and towns near gaza. And are those villages and towns still being fought over . Are there active gun battles happening in those places . Absolutely in a few places. The idf has announced there were 22 different places in which hamas gunmen were seen and active. Its assumed that most of these places were taken over by the idf and other security forces, but there are many casualties on both sides, there are civilians, dozens and dozens of civilians that have been slaughtered murdered by Hamas Terrorists, and there are others who were kidnapped, both soldiers and civilians, among them young and old people, and even presumably children kidnapped into the gaza strip. This is still going on as we speak, and this is, i think, more than 15 hours since the attack had begun. Youre the chief Military Analyst for your newspaper, you know what your government does when its under attack, it defends itself. You also know what happens when hostages are taken, it does everything it can to get them back. Therefore, what are you expecting to be the next military moves from your government . I would assume that it wouldnt have to do with the hostages. There are so many hostages, these are Prisoners Of War from the israeli point of view. I dont think that israel would start any kind of negotiations for the time being. I think this is about a massive israeli response. Weve already heard of many, many air strikes, but this is not the end of it. It will continue for the next few days. I would guess that the israeli response would get harsher, i think there will be massive casualties on the palestinian side. Israel will focus on military targets, but since hamas is spread all over, there will be casualties for the civilian population. I would also take note of whats going on in lebanon. We havent seen any kind of threats from hezbollah, and this is probably going to get worse. You expected heavy palestinian casualties as well. Weve reported the numbers as far as we know that are being told to us from israel and the palestinians are saying already more than 200 dead on their side. But i also want to ask you, because weve talked about the intelligence failure, one of your own former Idf Fospokespeoe told cnn earlier this is like your pearl harbor moment. I was fascinated to hear from the former cia operative that he thought its not an intelligence failure, its the fact that hamas have completely gotten off the grid, off the telephone grid, off all those kinds of things that could be electronically surveilled. What is your feeling about that . And i know theres a lot of i think theres a lot of social media, ive been told, anger about the surprise nature of this from inside israel. Look, theres no point in hiding this. This is a spectacular failure, not only for the intelligence agencies, but for the whole Security Apparatus and for the government of israel, which has been otherwise occupied with this attempt at judicial upheaval for the last nine months. So this is a massive failure, something that we havent seen since the Yom Kippur War In 73, which was our equivalent of the american pearl harbor, if you like. Its a combination of an intelligence failure, of the fact, apparently, that hamas went off the grid, but also of the whole concept of the border, and i think we underestimated hamas capabilities, we were busy planning for a possible attack by hez babollah. Personally, my sense is that hamas leaders will come to regret this and there will be huge repercussions for what has happened. Thank you so much for joining us. In a few minutes, President Biden will speak about the unprecedented situation that were covering, so stay with cnn for that. Our Special Coverage continues right after the break. The power goes out and we still have wifi to do our homework. And thats a good thing . Great in my book who are you . No power . No problem. Introducing stormready wifi. Now you can stay reliably connected through Power Outages with unlimited cellular data and up to 4 hours of battery backup to keep you online. Only from xfinity. Home of the xfinity 10g network. We continue with our major breaking story, israel has declared war with hamas. It follows an unprecedented attack on israel itself, when at least 200 israelis have now been reported killed after Hamas Terrorists launched a Surprise Attack on the country earlier. According to israels Emergency Rescue Service Moments ago, and of course there are many, many more wounded. Hamas fighters infiltrating towns, launching more than 3,000 rockets, some Israeli Citizens and soldiers are being held as hostages and Prisoners Of War. Also, a short time ago, sirens and more than a dozen loud booms could be heard across tell a leave. Hamas says its fired 150 rockets at the city. This was the scene earlier this cnns Nic Robertson and others took cover while at the airport. [ sirens ] we literally just got the plane here. The sirens have gone off, people are taking cover. You can hear the intercept missiles banging in the air. Nothing incoming here. Everyone is taking cover. A lot of concern about whats going to happen here this night. Now, the u. S. , of course, is calling on its airlines to be very careful around that area and to, perhaps, avoid it. That warning has gone out internationally. Israel itself is striking back, launching air strikes into gaza, where palestinians say hundreds have been killed, 232, according to their latest numbers, and more than 1,600 injured. Now, video from cnn earlier shows a Tower Collapsing in gaza city following an air strike. Israel also is mobilizing its troops and calling up tens of thousands of reservists. Were also seeing video that shows hamas appearing to take israelis captive. This video has been geolocated by cnn and we want to say it could be disturbing for some. This is in gaza. You can see a barefoot woman pulled from a trunk of a jeep by a gunman and then forced into the back of the seat of the car there. Her face is bleeding and her wrists appear to be cable tied behind her back. The jeep also appears to have an Israeli Defense force license plate, suggesting that it may have been stolen and brought into gaza. Were waiting for President Biden to speak publicly from the white house on this situation thats unfolding in israel. While we wait, were joined by the former israeli Prime Minister, bennett, welcome to the program. Could i just start by asking you what you expect to hear from President Biden, since he will be speaking very shortly . Well, we know that President Biden and the United States of america stand behind israel, and that warms our heart and strengthens us. Now the job is ours to do. Its time to strike back. Thats what the idf is doing right now. This morning at 6 30 in the morning, we were attacked by hamas in a sinister attack against dozens of communities, women, children, elderly people were all murdered point blank, well over 200 israelis were murdered point blank by these terrorists. It was unprovoked and, in fact, over the past week or so the Israeli Government had opened up gaza for more palestinian employees to come in. So this was totally unprovoked, and now israel is hitting back. What do you think your government, your country will do next . When you say hitting back, so far weve seen air strikes. What do you think is going to happen . We understand Prime Minister netanyahu has had an allcabinet National Security meeting. What do you think, given your experience in government, as head of the government, will happen next . Were at full war with the hamas and with the palestinian state of hamas. I want to be clear, theres a f fullblown palestinian state in gaza run by hamas, and we had an unprovoked act of war this morning. The Prime Minister correctly defined this as an act of war. What were seeing in israel right now is everyone left and right, religious and secular, who have been divided over the past eight, nine months in a meaningful domestic debate, but everyone is uniting behind the idea and everyone in israel, from left to right, is in full consensus that we need to go out and defend ourselves, and we need to hit back very severely. Im not going to give advice to my government, im going to stand behind my government, because were all one today. You mentioned the internal debate, and others have mentioned it today, and suggesting that perhaps that was a distraction. Do you think so . Well, certainly our enemies interpreted it as a sign of vulnerability and they are taking advantage of it. But throughout the day, ive spent hours with the fighters, i, myself, many years have been a fighter. I was in their launch grounds and i can tell you that the israeli fighters and soldiers are all ready, in fact, eager to strike back and defend our families. So the terrorists, hamas misinterpreted israels mentality. Youre in tel aviv. We had our correspondent, Nic Robertson, at the airport. Are you hearing or seeing anything now around tel aviv . Yeah, well, just about six minutes ago there were sirens and booms just a few hundred meters away from where im sitting right now. Really, the main events right now that are still open are roughly a dozen Battle Points where, as we speak, Israeli Citizens are usually within a lockedin shelter. Im talking to some of them and theyre whispering to me, help, help, because just a meter or two outside theres terrorists, hamas walking next to them, and sometimes calling them to come out and im telling them, dont go out unless you confirm that its, in fact, idf soldiers and not Hamas Terrorists. What the hamas is doing, theyre beginning to burn some of the homes in order to smoke out the Israeli Citizens. This is horrible. This is going on right now. I was talking to a mom that had a baby in the shelter for the past 14 hours. Shes running out of food. And its very tough. So my message to them is to keep strong, were Sending Hundreds Of Thousands of idf soldiers, flooding the south with them, while also strengthening the north against potential hezbollah attack. Nthank you for joining us. Were waiting for President Biden to speak at the white house on this attack. I want to go to our cnn reporter, kevin liptak, for more. What should we expect to hear from the president beyond the statement hes made . Reporter certainly forceful condemnation of these attacks. I expect to hear that from President Biden. Also reiterating his support from israel, amid all of this, and he did just get off the phone with the israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a few hours ago and reiterated that the u. S. Stands ready to support israel. The one thing im going to be listening for is any indication of how he sees this conflict unfolding Going Forward, whether he got any indications from Prime Minister netanyahu about where this goes next. Of course, that is the Big Question American officials are asking now, what room is there for diplomacy to diffuse sort of a broader conflict . And you have seen the americans act as a broker in the past for potential ceasefire. You saw that in 2021, President Biden on the phone almost daily trying to organize the ceasefire between the palestinians and israel, with the help of egypt and qatar. And i think when youre talking to american officials today, that is the question theyre asking, what are these avenues with which they could take to try and diffuse this crisis. We did also hear that President Biden spoke today with the king of jordan, king abdullah. I think this is an important indication of the president trying to find avenues for diplomacy. The bottom line, this is a very sensitive moment for u. S. israel ties. The relationship between the president and the Prime Minister had been strained over some of the steps taken by this far right governing coalition. President biden and netanyahu did speak last month on the sidelines of the u. N. General assembly, and he was expected to visit the white house in the coming months. But the bottom line is this is a tense moment, and of course President Biden is also working to negotiate this historic agreement between israel and saudi arabia. That was expected to include some serious concessions from israel to the palestinians. But when you talk to american officials this morning, they say its just too early to tell how that process will go forward, christiane. Indeed. And just listening to you speak as we watch a split screen of where the president will speak and the podium getting ready, the context around this is so huge and so dramatic and so important that it really does beg the question of whether any of these big strategic goals can be achieved at this particular time. You know, kevin, you know and weve all watched the 2021 issue when President Biden intervened and used diplomacy. But this is, by some counts, round five of israel and hamas going at it in gaza, and it never leads to anything permanent. I wonder whether youre picking that kind of stuff up, that no matter what happens now, theres likely to be a good many days of heavy military escalation. Certainly, and that had been one of the goals of this Normalization Effort between israel and saudi arabia, is to try and establish some normalcy for the palestinians, things like freezing settlements in the west bank, talking about israeli acknowledgment of an eventual palestinian state. The situation certainly becomes more chaotic, and i think for President Biden the question is where he can have the most effect. For now, certainly, that will be on the side of the israelis, and politically for President Biden, he will have to support the israelis sort of fullthroatedly Going Forward. I think the other big again that youre hearing from american officials today is where was the intelligence, why werent the israelis able to see this coming . When you talk to american officials, they say they did not detect any indication that this attack was in the works in their own intelligence, and certainly if they had, they would have shared it with the israelis. So the question i think american officials are asking, did they miss anything, or did the intelligence just not exist at all. So a lot of questions Going Forward in the Opening Hours of what certainly u. S. Officials expect to be quite a prolonged conflict, christiane. Kevin liptak at the white house, thank you. We will be right back after a break. So as we wait for President Biden to speak from the white house and tell the world what the u. S. Is going to do to try to deescalate the situation, were joined now here on set by Cnn International correspondent, sam kiley, along with cnn white house reporter, kevin liptak, and the National Security reporter. First let me turn to you, sam. Obviously youve covered it for a long time. One of your reports today showed conversation that you had with hamas militants in the west bank a year ago, almost predicting that Something Big was going to happen. So put it in context. Why now . Well, i think from the hamas perspective, and when we talk about hamas, were talking about the highly militant groups that deny the right of the state of israel to exist, theyre very closely linked to hamas, mostly through the funding and inspiration coming out of tehran. So that links up into hezbollah. Well probably come to that. There has been a steady buildup of militant energy and anger on the west bank. Gaza is a Pressure Cooker at all times, but on the west bank where settlements have been gouging into the landscape, the israelis almost comfortable with the allegation that theyve established a system of apartheid, theres been a steady buildup of violence. And, clearly, theres always going to be a Palestinian Group who says war is coming, but we have seen this incremental increase. And i think what i heard last year really was, if not part of the early planning or a confession to the early planning, certainly an expression of intent. What were seeing is the manifestation of that intent, which is to stop a whole bunch of israelis plans. The other intent, the other manifestation is that this was a very its not planned last week. This is months, at least, in the planning. Absolutely. They went in on paragliders. Theyve been trained, theyve shown Training Videos of using moto motorized paragliders, but it looked a bit amateur. It seemed to be effective. Theyve come in by sea, used their tunnels, theyve overrun the crossing, probably the most fortified location in the strip. It is a kind of enormous fortress with tunnels and sniper positions. Theyve somehow managed to get in there, kill a large number of israelis, get out the other side, capture israelis. Theyve released Propaganda Video along these lines. Not only have they planned it militarily, but from a propaganda perspective. So releasing these, quote, unquote, success videos, and the Hostage Videos israel calls them Prisoners Of War, but they are releasing this. Feeding it out with the hope that they will see an uprising, perhaps, on the west bank, perhaps among the palestinian population of israelis. All of this is an effort to try to combine it. Incredible. I just want to turn to Natasha Bertrand at the state department. With all of that in mind, this incredible planning that happened, and everybody has been calling it an unprecedented attack inside israel, for decades and decades, what does the u. S. Have front and center . Is it to try to deescalate the local situation, are they worried about a bigger conflict . Yeah, christiane, i think the chief concern for the u. S. Right now is what kind of blind spots exist in Israeli Intelligence that may have allowed Something Like this to happen. I know were expecting President Biden to come out within the next minute or two. That is really what the president and his National Security team are homing in on, is to see whether there were any signs that were missed that potentially could have predicted this kind of largescale coordinated attack, or whether the intelligence was simply not there at all. Now, israel has long prided itself on being able to detect these kinds of mass operations, these kinds of communications that may have led up to this. And the fact that it appears that they were completely caught off guard by this, something that Benjamin Netanyahu acknowledged earlier today, this was a surprise, is highly concerning to the u. S. Because the u. S. Does rely a lot on the israelis to inform them about what is going on, of course, in their own back yard. So there are going to be a lot of questions in the next few days and weeks and months as this goes on about whether the terror groups have perhaps gotten more sophisticated, whether there are serious gaps in Israeli Intelligence that the u. S. Needs to be aware of and needs to perhaps help them fix. But this is, obviously, very concerning to the u. S. , which has a very robust intelligence sharing partnership with the israelis. Clearly, something went very wrong here, christiane. Natasha, just want to say were looking at the podium. Weve seen a president ial aide place a statement and we know within a minute the president should be there. Kevin, what do we know hes going to say beyond his statement of earlier today . Youve probably got about 30 seconds. I wouldnt be surprised if these are extraordinarily short remarks, because i think the president doesnt feel like he can say a great deal about the actual situation on the ground there, because, one, it is in folding, and israel hasnt yet responded. But, also, because he doesnt necessarily want to inflame tensions any further. And so i think youre going to hear from him sort of a generic condemnation of the attacks, support for israel, a brief readout, potentially of his conversation with the Prime Minister. Here he is, kevin. Thank you. With the secretary of state, antony blinken. Today the people of israel are under attack, orchestrated by a terrorist organization, hamas. In this moment of tragedy, i want to say to them and to the world, and to terrorists everywhere, that the United States stands with israel. We will not ever fail to have their back. Well make sure that they have the help their citizens need and they can continue to defend themselves. You know, the world has seen appalling images, thousands of rockets in a space of hours raining down on israeli cities. I got up this morning and started this at 7 30, 8 00, my calls, Hamas Terrorists crossing into israel, killing not only israeli soldiers, but civilians. In the streets, in their homes, innocent people murdered, wounded, and entire families taken hostage by hamas, just days after the holiest of days in the when i spoke with Prime Minister netanyahu this morning, i told him the United States stands with the people of israel in the face of these terrorist assaults. Israel has the right to defend itself and its people, full stop. Theres never a justification for Terrorist Attacks. My administrations support for israels security is rock solid and unwavering. Let me say this as clearly as i can. This is not a moment for any party hostile to israel to exploit these attacks to seek advantage. The world is watching. Ive also been in contact with the king of jordan. I spoke with members of congress, directed my National Security team to engage with their israeli counterparts military to military, intelligence to intelligence, diplomat to diplomat to make sure israel has what it needs. Ive also directed moye team to remain in Constant Contact with leadership throughout the region including egypt, turkey, qatar, saudi arabia, amman, the uae as well as our European Partners and the palestinian authority. Its also a terrible traj gentlemen on a human level, hurting innocent people, seeing lives broken by this, families torn ap past. Its heartbreaking. Jill and i are praying for those families impacted by this violence. We grieve with those who have lost their loved ones, lost a piece of their soul. We have hope for a swift recovery for many who have been wounded. Were going to remain in close contact with Prime Minister netanyahu as this situation continues to develop, and let there be no mistake, the United States stands with the state of israel. The United States became the first nation to recognize israel 11 minutes after its founding 75 years ago. Thank you very much. Mr. President , was there an intelligence barrier in the leadup to this attack . The president taking no questions, delivering a twominute or so address. A very strong and unmistakable statement, saying several times we stand with the state of israel, condemning the Terrorist Attack against them, giving all those who have been killed the condolences and sympathies, as he said jill and i are praying for those who have lost their lives and those injured. He said hes been talking and has instructed his teams to talk to all their allies in the region, in europe, also, of course, the palestiniansment let us turn quickly to our cast of experts with us. First to you, sam kiley, sitting next to me, Senior Correspondent in this region. What can actually somebody like turkey, like jordan, like egypt, all the usual interlocutors also do right now . Literally he was waving his finger saying any regional players who think about exploiting this, dont. Were watching you carefully. Anyone who has a line into tehran, and there are limited communications there, will be instantly trying to insist to keep hezbollah under control. Theyre highly disciplined, but might want down the line to exploit this. That would be regionally catastrophic. Also a slight dug at qatar who has blamed the israelis for this complex incursion that has come entirely out of gaza. And then, of course, youve got the ones that are closer, jordan, the uae, of course recently normalized relations, again, trying to make sure they keep their own populations under control, that they dont join a bandwagon of this energy which is precisely what hamas is trying to create, to reignite The Middle East in an antiisrael fur very at a time when theres been a process of normalizations. Thats whats going on on a wider regional level with his statement. Let me turn to you if youre there, natasha and kevin. What did you take away from actually a very short and scripted statements, no questions. Natasha, is that what you expected to hear . Reporter i dont think we expected a Fulsome Press Con Fr Fence Scenario at this point. Hes still working to determine exactly what they need. As kevin mentioned earlier, he doesnt want to inflame the situation earlier. It was an effort by the president to show that the United States stands in complete solidarity with israel and convey that with the secretary of state standing directly behind him. It was an opportunity for him to take the statement he put out earlier on paper and address the American Public about it directly, christiane. Very quickly to kevin, because were coming up to the end of this particular show, the u. S. Is banking on its historic influence. Does it still have what it takes given that the u. S. Has seemed to literally put this issue on the back burner for many years now . I think in President Bidens view they do. I think that will be the test over the next months, weeks, days is whether President Biden can lean on regional partners who have influence with the palestinians to make what difference they can, and whether he can lean on his personal decades old relationship with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to defuse this crisis in any way he can, christiane. Kevin, natasha, sam, thank you for joining. Thank you so much for joining me today. Im Christian Amanpour in london. Our Special Coverage with dana bash with start after a quick break