Transcripts For CNNW CNN 20240703 : vimarsana.com

CNNW CNN July 3, 2024

Youre watching cnn news central. Im Boris Sanchez in washington. And we are tracking major developments on day 6 of fighting in the middle east. Israel has launched largescale strikes on hamas targets in gaza and reports that israeli missiles are hitting inside syria, taking out runways at two major airports. During this latest barrage u. S. Secretary of state Antony Blinken stood side by side with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, vowing that israel will never have to stand alone. Moments ago Secretary Blinken discussed the gruesome evidence hes been shown by the israeli government, showing purported hamas atrocities. Listen to this. Its beyond what anyone would ever want to imagine, much less actually see and god forbid experience. A baby, an infant, riddled with bullets. Soldiers beheaded. Young people burned alive in their cars or in their hideaway rooms. I could go on. But its simply depravity in the worst imaginable way. You cant help but imagine yourself, your family, your loved ones, your friends in that situation, in that predicament. And maybe the best word for it for me is overwhelming. Weve just learned that after his visit to Israel Blinken will go to saudi arabia, egypt, the uae and qatar to continue working diplomatic channels as the fight rages on and the effort to get hostages home continues. Lets take you now to ashdod, israel with cnns jeremy diamond. And jeremy, youve been in and out of cover throughout the entire day. What does it look like where you are now . Reporter yeah, boris. This evening we had not one but two different barrages of rockets headed toward the city of ashdod. The second one was very, very close to our hotel. The booms that you hear when those Iron Dome Missiles Intercept the rockets were particularly loud, indicating their proximity to our location. We went into the shelter on our floor, and in there we saw a family that has been that has fled the city of ashkelon, which is the nearest city to me between me and the gaza strip. Ashkelon has been one of the hardesthit cities from those hamas rocket barrages. This family fled to this hotel here in ashdod, you know, hoping to find a sense of security and also because they dont have one of those Bomb Shelters inside of their home. And the father told me that he came because his children simply could not sleep because of how afraid they were in hearing those booms over the last several days. At the same time from this very position where we are we can hear the constant rumbling of airstrikes and artillery hitting the gaza strip. It actually shakes the windows here sometimes when you have a particularly heavy explosion inside of gaza. And the toll, the death toll in gaza has been consistently rising. More than 1,400 people have now been killed inside of gaza. Hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced. And there is no question that as we look toward the next phase of this Israeli Military campaign their response to those devastating hamas Terrorist Attacks over the weekend, the civilian death toll in gaza is sure to rise. That is just the nature of this conflict. Every time there are attacks there. And beyond of course the explosions we know that israel is also not allowing food, water or electricity or fuel into the gaza strip, causing precarious humanitarian situation which the top u. N. Human rights official has called out as a violation of international law. So whatever happens next, boris, very clear that this remains an extremely precarious situation both inside the gaza strip but also here in israel, or in these communities near to gaza. And jeremy, as you were listening to the Secretary Of State Antony Blinken there, what stood out to you from his comments standing side by side with Prime Minister netanyahu . Reporter well, i think the Secretary Of State, just like the israeli Prime Minister, were really trying to capture the emotion, the outrage, the devastation as it relates to the brutality of those hamas Terrorist Attacks over the weekend, details of which we are still continuing to learn in recent days. The killing of women and children inside of their homes. But what they are also doing is they are taking that outrage, they are taking that emotion, bottling it up and really sending it out to the public, to the world, perhaps to try and provide a rationale for what is sure to come next, which is a much widerscale Israeli Military response to those Terrorist Attacks with the overwhelming speculation leading to the possibility that there could be a Ground Invasion of gaza. And if indeed that is the case, if that is the direction in which we move, the israeli Prime Minister has to prepare the public here that there will be idf casualties with a Ground Invasion and also preparing the world for the fact that there will be casualties inside of gaza. And we know the death toll will mount. What is very clear is that regardless of what comes next it will be civilians who are too often caught in the crossfire. Boris . Yeah, the potential for that Ground Operation to cause enormous losses very high. Jeremy diamond from ashdod, israel. Thank you so much. So Israels Energy minister is now warning that gaza will not get any power, water or fuel until the israeli hostages being held by hamas are returned home. Joining me now is michael m millshtein, a former head of the Palestinian Department in Israeli Military intelligence. Michael, thank you so much for being with us. Do you think that strategy thank you, boris. Of course. Do you think that strategy is likely going to be effective in getting back those hostages . Well, i think, boris, that this kind of strategy israel has never promoted such a strategy. Is actually the new but the only way to achieve anything important in gaza. You know, till today during the last two years israel tried to promote a unique policy toward gaza which actually was we realized on the 6th, on the 7th Of October At 6 30 in the morning that it was totally failure. And im meaning a policy that is based on improvement of the economic of the civil situation in gaza in order actually to create the prize, something that hamas could lose if he will promote any escalation. And right now i think that you know, in the horrible situation we found ourself actually this is the only way really to push hamas. And just this evening we heard salah araoui, number 2 in hamas leadership, declare that actually hamas members, Hamas Terrorists from the military wing were not involved in killing, Slaughtering Civilians in israel but it was civilians from gaza. So hes trying actually, you know, to change the damage in the image of hamas. But i really hope that those steps, i mean, you know, banning water and electricity and other things will cause protest among the citizens of gaza and maybe now finally they will understand that their worst enemy is hamas and the source for all their suffer is hamas. And i think this is the only option israel has today. So michael, this morning Secretary Of State Antony Blinken echoed remarks from President Biden, his pledge of u. S. Unconditional support for israel. He said, we will always be there by your side. He also talked about the need for moral clarity, the importance of separating the Palestinian People from hamas. You were just making the argument that leadership in hamas is trying to muddy the waters and blur those lines. There are some 2 million palestinians packed into a tiny sliver of land that is gaza. Many of them are just women and children that had nothing to do with the atrocities that we saw over the weekend. How does the idf go about trying to ensure that innocent people arent hurt . You know, first of all, boris, we must emphasize that the idf attacks on gaza right now, its not a blind attack. We are trying to be very accurate. And of course israel has no interest to harm any citizens. But in the current situation, though in the past we believed if there would be any escalation the public will promote protest against hamas, so hamas will not wont have any interest to promote escalation. And this assumption was totally wrong. Right now, you know, civilians, citizens from gaza were involved in looting the villages, the kibbutzim and the moshavim nearby the border. They were also participated in all those really crazy events in gaza when they showed the corpse of Israeli Soldiers and citizens. You know israel is trying to improve their situation. And i think that, you know, after saturday there are less and less israelis who can really understand what is the basic logic of the Palestinian People. Not of hamas. And less and less israelis believe that if you will improve the situation of the palestinians in gaza so there will be less interest in promoting the escalation. This kind of formula, this kind of insight belongs to the past. And right now i think that, you know, as we mentioned before, boris, i think that we are in existential conflict, in an existential fight and therefore we will attempt any effort not to harm citizens but we must understand that this kind of conflict is different from the conflicts of the past and this time we cannot end this conflict while hamas is in the same situation as it was a week before. So michael, given your former position as the head of Palestinian Affairs in Israeli Intelligence and given some of what youve described as a misled belief among israelis that providing gaza and hamas with economic incentives would promote peace, what do you make of the fact that there was such a colossal Intelligence Failure in israel that could have indicated that an attack like this was imminent . Well, its a very good point. And you know, in israel most of the Public Discourse and the political discourse is focused on this issue, boris. You know, we are speaking about two things. First of all is the Intelligence Failure to recognize actually all the signals. During the last day we understood that those signals were elaborated only a few hours before the offensive began and it was quite too late to do something. But the other failure actually is connected or in regard to the question of the intentions of hamas. You know, the basic assumption regarding hamas was that this organization is very much deterred, it has no interest in promoting escalation. And of course this assumption was really wrong because i think that we you know, i would call it we thought in a western style, you know, western style patrons and we actually enforced our way of thinking on the other side, on an Islamic Radical organization whose basic aim is actually to eradicate israel from the map. It has no intention to take care of the palestinians in the territories, of the life of the people in gaza. His basic aim is to promote jihad. Mukawama. Resistance. So in the morning of saturday we realized the new, or the basic dna of hamas. Michael milshtein, we very much appreciate you sharing your perspectives with us. Thanks for joining us. Thank you, boris. Of course. We want to take you straight to the white house now, the press room there where Nsc Spokesperson john kirby is giving remarks. Lets listen in. Ill start with the saddest of news. We can now update the number of americans that we know have been killed the number stands today at 14. Were obviously doing everything we can to support and inform the families. Now sadly five more families have now gotten the worst possible news that any family can conceive of getting. And were going to stay in touch with them as appropriate. Same goes for those Family Members of those who are unaccounted for. And by unaccounted for we mean that, we dont know where they are. They dont know where they are. So were going to obviously stay in touch with them as well. And certainly were continuing to work with israeli officials to make sure were getting as much context and information as possible that we will share with them. Also, as you i think realize, we are all acutely aware of limited availability right now in commercial flights out of israel and the Demand Signal by u. S. Citizens who may want to depart. The president has asked his team to ensure we are assisting u. S. Citizens who do want to leave israel and providing them with a safe means of doing that. So beginning tomorrow the United States government will arrange Charter Flights to provide transportation from israel to sites in europe. Theyre still working through some of the details of that to assist u. S. Citizens and their immediate Family Members who have for whatever reason not been able to provide commercial transit out of the country. And i would add that were also exploring other options to expand the capacity of doing this including exploring whether its possible to help americans leave by land and by sea. So again, were working hard on this. We know theres a Demand Signal out there. And were going to try the best we can to meet it. I would encourage any american citizen in the need of assistance to please complete the intake form that you can find on travel. State. Gov. Its very simple. Go right to that site. There is an intake form. Fill it out. It helps us get a sense of what the scope of the need is. And i would im sure you guys are going to ask me that. I dont have hard figures handy with me now. We do know there are certain american citizens that want to go. Its all available through the state departments website. And id encourage them to go look at that. Okay. Thanks for taking my question. Gazas main power plant has run out of fuel. The humanitarian situation there is becoming quite dire. Im wondering if there have been any communications about allowing shipments of food, fuel, electricity to help lessen civilian casualties and suffering there. Yes, there have been ongoing conversations with our israeli counterparts about the need for continued flow of humanitarian assistance. I had a couple of questions on the american hostages. Is it still the case that the administration doesnt know anything about the condition about the american hostages and is the number still believed to be less than a handful . Yes and yes. I know youve been pretty open about the fact that its hard to ascertain at this moment. The limited information that you do have, is that coming mainly from the israelis and the qataris or is there another source of information that you the families too. As i mentioned yesterday, some of these families actually saw their loved ones being abducted and taken away. So they have been a significant source of information as well. One other quick thing. The assumption that the hostages may not necessarily be in one place, was there specific intelligence to point the administration to not make that assumption, or is that based on Something Else . I wont speak about specific intelligence matters. But it is a common tactic in the hamas playbook to break up hostages and move them sometimes in small groups. We have nothing that would indicate to us that they would follow a different set of pr protocols. But i cant stand here today and prove to you that that is exactly whats happening. We have to, in order to think about our policy options, you have to make some assumptions. And we cant rule that out as a possibility. Thank you, john. What is the status of the 6 billion that iran was set to have access to . Its still sitting in the qatari bank. All of it. Every dime of it. Is there an agreement now to in essence withhold it from iran should they come asking for it . None of that money has been spent. And i have no updates to provide today. Was the decision to reach a quiet understanding with qatar about whether or not it would be accessed by iran made because of the attack or political pressure recently . Im not going to talk about diplomatic conversations One Way Or Another, ed. What i can tell you is every single dime of that money is still sitting in the qatari bank. Not one of it, not one dime of it has been spent. Id also remind because this in certain audiences inconvenient facts are easy to fo forget. The regime was never going to see a dime of that money. And this account, although its moved from south korea to qatar, was set up by the Previous Administration for this exact purpose. In fact, i think it was back in 2018 the former Secretary Of State mike pompeo actually talked in quite some detail about how this money and these accounts could only be used for humanitarian purposes and that there was going to be oversight. Weve done nothing different. It is the same process. All weve done is move that funds from south korea where for some technical reasons it wasnt accessible to qatar, where it is more accessible. All that said, none of it has been accessed by the iranian by iranian by iran at all and even if they had accessed it, it wouldnt go to the regime. It would go to approved vendors that we approved to go buy food, medicine and medical equipment, Agricultural Produc

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