Transcripts For CNNW Anderson 20240703 : vimarsana.com

CNNW Anderson July 3, 2024

Expectations out there. My pleasure. Thank you for joining us. Ac360 begins now. It is 3 00 a. M. Here in israel, which is even at this late hour dealing with repercussions of a huge tragedy on a terrible, terrible scale. The massive explosion at a hospital in gaza city. We should say at the outset the pictures are as horrible as the incident itself. We want to show you new video moments after the blast. Hundreds are believed dead. We are talking about men, women, and children, civilians, more may still be buried in rubble at the alahli baptist hospital. The hospital not only had patients and doctors and nurses inside, but thousands of displaced people outside who had been seeking shelter there displaced from the bombings that had been going on in gaza. Compounding the loss of life. We cannot independently confirm how many people were killed in this blast, but the pictures are sickening. One photojournalist witnessed many moments like this, telling the new york times, quote, there were so many bodies, i couldnt even photograph. Many, many wounded people. Women, children were taken to a hospital nearby. Here you see a child and an adult being taken from an ambulance. The number of dead and wounded so great, there was almost no room for the medics. Another reporter who witnessed the initial wave of casualties telling the times, quote, their bodies are in the courtyard. The Morgue Freezer is full. The Morgue Extension is full. Now they are storing the bodies in the area designated for journalists. Hamas officials are blaming israel for the blast. Israel denies that, saying a failed rocket long by Islamic Jihad fell short landing by the hospital. An idf spokesman saying the idf has intelligence which might be made public suggesting that possibility. We are in the progress of declassifying. I cannot promise yet that we will, but maybe because of the importance and because of what is at stake here, that may happen. The stakes could not be higher. The consequences already playing out with protesters taking to the streets on the west bank near the u. S. Embassy in lebanon and in cities in jordan, including near israels embassy in amman where Secretary Of State Antony Blinken has been staying in preparation for wednesdays now canceled summit with President Biden, Palestinian Leader Mahmoud Abbas and jordans president alsisi. President biden left several hours ago. His visit for a summit that has now been canceled, being overtaken by events on the ground. There is a lot to get to in the hour ahead on this. A lot of things in play. First to our Clarissa Ward in ashkelon with the latest that we know on the blast at the hospital. Clarissa, what can you tell us . Reporter well, anderson, we have been talking to people inside gaza, talking to doctors who are inside that hospital, one of them said that the ceiling actually collapsed on to the Operating Room Floor where he was carrying out a surgery. Palestinian authorities and also the entire really arab world coming forward almost immediately and laying the blame for this at Israeli Forces feet, saying was an israeli strike. Eyewitnesses on the ground also saying that. The idf, as you mentioned, coming out and saying a fullthroated denial, saying that this was caused, they believe, by a misfire potentially, rocket from the Militant Group Islamic Jihad. I will say just based on seeing these rocket attacks many times over the years that they dont usually have an impact like that in terms of the size of the blast, in terms of the scale of the death toll, and the scope of the damage. Its also not the first time, its important to add, we have seen the idf categorically denih my something before being forced to do an aboutface after an extensive investigation. But at this stage it remains to be seen exactly what happened. We will have to try to put together a fuller picture, and that could take days. Meantime, what is clear is that these images that you have been playing, which are absolutely horrifying and hard to watch, are having a huge impact across the region. Certainly here in the west bank. You have seen protests outside demanding that Mahmoud Abbas step down. Protests, as you mentioned, in amman, jordan, turkey. You will see calls from hamas and other groups for people to take to the streets, to voice their anguish and horror at this event, and all of this coming as President Biden expected tomorrow to arrive in israel. Obviously, he was supposed to also meet in amman, jordan, with leaders of the Palestinian Authority of egypt, of jordan. That meeting now has been canceled. I think this calls into question the specter of any possibility to try to resolve the logjam that had existed that was preventing the flow of aid through that rafah Broward County in Southern Gaza strip on the border with egypt to prevent that and allow that aid to get back in. [ inaudible ] it took place in Northern Gaza city. They asked, the israelis asked people to evacuate, but there were strikes earlier today in the southern part of gaza. I spoke to one family from Northern Gaza who saw those strikes and said that they did not feel comfortable leaving their hoepgs, that they felt too frightened, felt the situation was not secure there, and all off this, of course, taking place against the rapidly unraveling situation with regards to the humanitarian catastrophe. One u. N. Person calling it an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe playing out as gaza runs out mof food, water, medicine, electricity, anniversary. You know, lets talk about how this may, as you said, complicate, if not halt, efforts to get humanitarian supplies on to the ground at the very least in Southern Gaza across that rafah Border Crossing. Do we know exactly what the holdup has been and how and why this blast at the hospital would make it even more difficult . Well, there has been a lot of fingerpointing on this, right . The egyptians laid the blame with the israelis, saying these continued strike near Broward County makes it impossible to open the Border Crossing. Hamas at israel. The u. S. Has been engaged in Shuttle Diplomacy trying to get all different sides to agree on some sort of a mechanism. And yesterday Secretary Of State Antony Blinken after more than 7 1 2 hours sitting with the Israeli Cabinet came out and said that he was optimistic that they had agreed on some kind of a plan, they would be able to open that that corridor, may be able to establish these socalled humanitarian zones in the southern part of the gaza strip. But what this horrible strike on the hospital does is it kind of hardens everyones positions and makes it impossible for people to sit down at a table and have that conversation. So that summit that was supposed to take place with the leader of egypt, with President Biden, with king abdullah, with Mahmoud Abbas, that is no longer on the table. That means that its that much more difficult for diplomacy to take place and everyones priorities is on condemning and containing the outrage from this as opposed to being able to find some kind of a consensus to try to allow the Border Crossing to open, the aid to come in, the foreign nationals to leave, the most heavily wounded to be evacuated, let alone to begin trying to construct these humanitarian zones that have been suggested. We should also point out, given the destruction we have seen in gaza, for people who have been wounded and, now, have need urgent attention from this Hospital Blast, they are being taken to another hospital nearby, but that hospital was already, according to Health Officials on the ground, hamas Health Officials, that hospital was already overwhelmed and at capacity. Reporter so the hospitals on the ground in gaza are now, according to Palestinian Health ministry, basically not able to function. They dont have enough medicine. They dont have proper electricity. There were reports that some surgeons were forced to perform surgeries without any painkillers. Beyond that, as you said, anderson, these hospitals are often a place of refuge for people. Hospitals, hotels. These are the places that people in gaza go to, to try to get some respite from these bombardments because they believe that they will be safe. So for a number of reasons now, that becomes, you know, impossible for many people. The hospitals that are still operational to some extent are completely overrun and the supplies that they need in order to be able to carry out even the minimum level of services are not incoming. So it is a catastrophic situation. It is an unsustainable situation, and very sadly, part particularly in light of tonights strike, a very difficult situation to resolve in the near future. Certainly President Biden will have a huge challenge on his hands. Yeah, Clarissa Ward. Thank you. Now to Oren Liebermann at the pentagon with new reporting we are getting about the intelligence that israelis say they are providing american officials about the blast. Oren, what are you learning . Reporter Israeli Intelligence shared with the u. S. Counterparts the intelligence they have related to the explosion at the Gaza Hospital there. Thats not just from the israelis. A source familiar with the matter on the u. S. Side has confirmed that as well. The u. S. Is now analyzing that and look at the intelligence shared to get a better sense of what truly happened there. And thats an important point to make. In terms of what sort of intelligence has been shared, the israeli official said it signals intelligence, intercepted communications and conversations passed to the uss so those could be analyze. Look at intelligence has been shared with at least some members of congress who have pretty much voiced fullthroated support for israel. The idf is well aware especially in times of conflict it can have a credibility issue, especially with others in the region. If the u. S. Were to look at the same set of data and come to same conclusion, that would at least back israel up and give them much more credibility even if it doesnt change the situation diplomatically, meaning nobody would expect to see the arab states to rescind their statements blaming israel for the explosion at the hospital, but gives the idf much more credibility here as right now it is them saying, look, we have the intercepted communications, videos that we might put out and this will show what they claim is that Islamic Jihad was responsible and it was a failed rocket. So the u. S. Has the intel from the israelis and is looking at it as the u. S. Tries to draw its own conclusions it to get a better understanding of what happened at the hospital there. Anderson. How concerned are pentagon officials about the demonstrations, the outpouring of anger that has occurred just in the last couple of hours in the west bank, in jordan, in beirut and elsewhere . Reporter so, they are certain to be monitoring this. Those are conversations i would imagine are happening between the Defense Department and State Department on if there needs to be some sort of effort to get diplomats or others and perhaps diplomatic families out of those embassies. We havent gotten any indications for that yet. The bigger concern for d. O. D. s end, and this is something they have been watching from the beginning, is whether this conflict in gaza escalates to the point where iran or iranian proxies, hebz and lebanon, feel its their time to get involved here, especially as israel has so many forces focused on the regional. And again we talked about this a little bit. There is the Carrier Strike group in the eastern med, another on the way. The pentagon confirming reporting from yesterday that a Marine Rapid Response force is headed the red sea with another ship. There are tremendous amount of u. S. Assets headed that way. Not to get involved in the conflict in gaza. Israel made it clear it doesnt want that to happen. Send a message of deterrence to others they should not get involved as this war between israel and hamas in gaza, Islamic Jihad as you see here, very much continues. Oren liebermann. Thank you. President biden is on his way here. And within the hour the white house put out a new statement. Cnns m. J. Lee is at the white house tonight. What are you hearing . Reporter yeah, anderson, in the last hour the president putting out a new statement on this Hospital Blast offering his condolences and the president saying that he is directing his National Security team to continue gathering information and to determine what exactly happened. As you can imagine, this is going to be an extraordinarily sensitive issue for the white house. And u. S. Officials to weigh in on given that there are conflicting claims from hamas, from the idf, and so u. S. Officials for the time being trying to make clear they have not made a determination as to who is responsible but as oren said, they are just going through the intelligence, trying to collect information and trying to figure out exactly what happened and who might be responsible. But needless to say, as we have been talking about, its had a huge effect on the President S Upcoming travel to jordan, being canceled after Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas pulling out of that meeting and this is going to be a very disappointing setback for the administration. They had wanted to show signs that diplomacy was possible, that diplomatic talks were possible. Certa certain certainly aub as pulling out and that gets infinitely harrarder not to mention the fact that egypts president , el sisi, he was supposed to be there as well. So all the conversations that we have taken place in person with these regional leaders no locker going to happen face to face and the president had very much wanted these conversations to happen and be in the room with these leaders from the region and to try to sort of get across the finish line some of the things that they thought might be achievable in the coming days. So, is it possible that the president would still have, you know, phone conversations, you know, on remote meetings with each of these leaders . Reporter yeah. The white house has been clear about that. They said that even though this meeting is not going to happen tomorrow, they are actually saying that it has been postponed and they have made here clooer that the president will stay in close contact with these leaders that he is no longer going to see in person. Look, anderson, i think Administration Officials knew going into this week and this trip just how volatile the situation is. The scenes that you are playing on the screen right now very much validate those expectations. I think, if anything, what has happened today, what transpired today is just going to bring even more clarity to one of the most urgent prior teayer tease this president as he heads to israel, minimizing the number of civilian casualties. If you have been paying attention to statements from the president , statements out of the white house since the Israel Attack began last weekend, we have seen a more forceful tone coming from the president when he has talked about urging the israelis, urging his counterpart in israel, Prime Minister netanyahu, to take every effort to every measure and effort that they can to make sure that civilian casualties can be minimized, they are adhering to the rules of law, of war, rather, and so this is going to be something when he meets face to face with Prime Minister netanyahu, and we can certainly expect that he is going to be even more emphatic about that than before. Also, just on the humanitarian aid piece of this, i know clarissa touched on this a little bit, this is going to be an increasingly urgent matter for the president. The fact that we have these scenes of hundreds of people that have died, casualties of this, they are now going to need medical help when this is an area where people are not even able to have access to basically needs right now like food, water, electricity. So these scenes are all unfolding as the president is headed to israel and it is certainly going to continue to remain top of mind for him as he meets with Prime Minister netanyahu. The nature of how diff difficult sorry. You know how inflamed things are right now, both in, you know, in the west bank, in beirut, and elsewhere. You know the skepticism among many israelis saying this explosion was not their doing. Should israel publicly release whatever intelligence they say they have according to our reporter has been passed on to u. S. Intelligence already . Hi, anderson. First of all, the pictures from gaza are heartwrenching. No one wants to see these people suffer this way. Very, very disturbing. I am also deeply dismayed. Once again, the world jumps to conclusions

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