Transcripts For CNNW Anderson 20240703 : vimarsana.com

This is the yearbook photo. Were told he was just 22 years old. Anderson . I want to begin this hour with Cnn International diplomatic editor nic robertson. Reporter the idf, anderson, has been talking about stepping up their air strikes and their artillery strikes on gaza ahead of a potential ground incursion. And late sunday, past few hours here into the early hours now, Monday Morning, we have been seeing perhaps some of the heaviest rounds ofg reverberati. But when it comes to those troops on the border, waiting for that incursion, theyre still not clear when its going to happen. Bristling with battleready troops, farmers fields north of gaza churn with the controlled fury of a nation readying for an incursion to strike hamas. Yet, they are waiting with no explanation why. It feels like the early rush for Battle Readiness has passed. The troops are deployed, standing by. The question is, how long can they be kept out here. According to former idf general, as long as as is needed. There are military gains. We are now improving our intelligence and our capacity of targets. Reporter but the political calculation here is more complicated. I think both in washington and in jerusalem they understand that the legit Mization Window is closing quickly. Reporter civilian losses in gaza are growing. More than a third of them children, according to Palestinian Health officials. Lengthy negotiations have led to two american hostages released. Theres a tiny amount of humanitarian aid has crossed into gaza that israel fears ends up in hamas hands. Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahus calculus of when to send in Ground Troops has never been so fraught, under pressure from the white house for more hostage releases. Netanyahu is in real problem. He cannot say no to biden, but he cannot say yes to the humanitarian aid that drifts into northern gaza. Reporter but he is also under pressure at home, too. Military and others hawkish for a decisive blow against hamas. We are finishing preparing, you know, the guard force because we have changed plans. We are going to for heavy maneuvering. Reporter netanyahus dilemma compounded by his dependence on american weapons. The pressure is from washington is real. Is real and strong and the Prime Minister says many times to his ministers, listen, we are getting from the United States more than you know. Reporter where less than a week ago, these fields were teaming with tanks, troops making lastminute repairs. Today, there are just tracks in the sand. Theres a soldiers jacket here, bread in a bag on the table. The question is, where have all the tanks gone . Forward for an incursion . Or back to base for a pause . Close to the front line in gaza these days, more questions than answers. An incursion still highly probable, but when . You know, that said, it really is hard to tell with so many things in the balance, could more hostages be released . Could more aid go into gaza . Could all of these things change the dynamic . But i think the overwhelming force at play here is really that domestic pressure on the Prime Minister to do something. And my guess is that really is going to outweigh whatever pressure comes from the white house, anderson. Nic robertson, thank you very much. For more on the impending Ground Operation, i want to go straight to our next guest, spokesman for the idf. Thanks very much for being with us again tonight. Nic robertson just reporting dozens of israeli troops ready at the southern border well, much more than dozens. We have yet to see a larger scale ground assault. Where do things stand tonight . Good evening. Thanks for having me or good morning shall i say. We are preparing ground activities, and apz we said before, all options are on the table and ready. And, until anything else happens, we continue to strike hamas. Were hunting the commanders, as we have said in the past. And were trying to strike the various targets that we have regarding to hamas. We are focussing a lot of intelligence sensors on the gaza strip, looking for new targets to emerge. When ever they do, we strike them. Just today we released footage of how hamas uses the very dangerous proximity to u. N. Facilities, schools, and even hospitals. We shared that with the media in order for everybody to understand that it is a very tense situation in gaza. Were targeting hamas, but hamas is hiding in or between different humanitarian positions. The israeli soldier that weve learned about that was killed on the northern border with lebanon, what more do you know about what happened . What i can say at this time is that the hezbollah continues to deploy mostly squads of antitank missiles. They have been firing them across the entire blue line, from the west, the coast, all the way up to mount dove in the east. And theyve been targeting both military positions and civilian locations. Unfortunately we have had casualties, and this is the most current one. This israeli soldier who now has been reported dead. And, what were doing in response is a very measured response so far. We are striking and defending ourselves against those antitank missile crews. Were using uavs in order to take them out, and now weve been able to in the last few hours to take out the few of those crews before they were able to launch any of their missiles. But its definitely an escalation on the side of hezbollah. They seem to be very focussed on escalating and worsening the situation, killing civilians and soldiers and really trying to drive lebanon into a very dangerous situation. Last night around this time you and i spoke about an operation that the idf conducted targeting, you said, a tunnel underneath a mosque. Palestinian officials today called that strike a dangerous escalation. Are there still you said it was a combined islam and jihad, hamas cell that youve been monitoring and that you found out about the tunnel in previous operations months before and this was to prevent an imminent attack. Are there operations that are on going in the west bank now . Yes. That strike, by the way, the imminent threat was information we had live and time sensitive that they were about to launch a strike using explosives. An attack using explosives against israeli targets. That is why we struck that infrastructure. We did it without causing the building to collapse. And we did it in order to strike against very legitimate military target. Unfortunately they were using a mosque to hide. Yes, there are operations on going in y judea and su maria. Israeli troops go in and look for and apprehend hamas, Islamic Jihad and other operatives that are either planning or preparing different types of attacks against israelis. We have rounded up more than 50 sorry, more than 450 hamas operatives in the Judea And Samaria since october 7th. It seems as if hamas is trying to destabilize that area as well. Were operating there and we definitely do not want to see an escalation there. So were trying to preempt any type of activity there that may set into motion more violence and more attacks against israelis. Obviously the idf has been asking and urging gaza residents to move to the south. We have been witnessing that, hundreds of thousands of people have. We have been talking about the increase in the trickle of humanitarian aid supply coming in trucks, 21 one day, 14 i believe it was today and the hope is by egyptian officials, humanitarian officials there would be more of that. In terms of people who have decided to stay in gaza, what are the Rules Of Engagement when a Ground Operation is taken, if a Ground Operation is taken. Obviously in any kind of Urban Combat Environment where you have a terror group and also civilians still, that is an extremely complex operation. We saw that in mosul. What are the Rules Of Engagement . What are they now . I have been reading that theyve been loosened in some ways. Is that accurate . No. The Rules Of Engagement are that we always distinguish between combatant and noncombatant, even in war. Definitely in routine operations, a civilian is a civilian until he acts different and becomes a combatant. And we try to distinguish between these two and target the militants or the combatants and not target the civilians. The people in northern gaza, gaza city, i think are making a very, very dangerous decision. They are jeopardizing themselves. They are playing into the hands of hamas. Hamas is just using them as cannon fodder, human shields. Hamas has no concern for their security. And i think that they should evacuate as soon as possible to go down south to a safer area. I think that the what were seeing, hamas kind of gravitating towards humanitarian facilities, specifically hospitals, is a very dangerous situation. Ive seen reports that the hamas isnt allowing the evacuation of hospitals. And actually keeping people in and disturbing the evacuation of hospitals. And i think were going to see very difficult situations if hamas indeed continues to prevent, and if remainders of palestinians in gaza city dont make the smart move and actually evacuate. We had an israeli politician on in the last hour who said that he believes hamas people in leadership positions have moved down south to hans unis, a city in the south. Is that accurate to your knowledge . Is there hamas leaders who moved further to the south . So, yes and no. On the yes part, we know that hamas definitely rank and file and others have a tendency to when ever things get tough blend in the civilian population and seek refuge within the civilian population. The no part is that theres a lot of underground infrastructure and important assets for hamas in gaza. It is their center of gravity. So, i cant go into detail intel analysis, but i can only say that we dont think that gaza city is void of terrorists. Lots and lots of Hamas Terrorists are in and under gaza city and they have very important infrastructure, hardware, weapons, communications and logistics there, so there may be some truth in what that official said. But the bottom line is that we see significant combat capabilities of hamas in gaza. Of course, we are trying to strike those capabilities and degrade them from the air. And we will see where the situation where and how the situation unfolds. Thank you. Coming up, here from an Israeli American volunteer called to action when the deadly attack took place. My next guest was on his way to a Family Wedding overseas but just days later he found himself collecting bodies, including the charred remains of children. Thats the story of israeliamerican when hamas launched its brutal attack against israel, he said he found himself called to action and took on a gruesome but necessary job, working with a civilian group to collect peoples bodies in one kibbutz before they were given to the military to be identified for their families. And we are joined now by tomar. Thank you for your time and sharing your story. Can you tell us about what you saw . Yeah. My first i did the operation of my team kibbutz deeri. We picked up anywhere from little babies, few months old all the way up to 90 plus years old. Burned bodies, cut people, body parts. The Worst Nightmare you can ever think of. Looks like the closest to it will be a video game, not even a movie close to it. Its i dont know how detailed you want me to go in. But horrific. Im sure. And you said you felt called to action. How did this all come agent . You were on your way to a Family Wedding and then you end up here, doing this. What was that like . Yeah. So, i was supposed to attend a wedding, and then obviously the wedding never happened. You know, everything started on saturday. On sunday i made some phone calls already. I wanted to help out because i realized, its a big deal. I called my friend, who is one of the heads. Its an organization basically collecting and picking up those dead bodies. He didnt like the idea at the beginning, but then on Monday Morning he picked me up and i showed up with his team. We were one of the first teams that showed up in the kibbutz be eri. I have no idea. I wanted to help somehow. I have no clue what im about to see. I had no idea what is it all about. I knew its crazy. I know its really bad. But they burned kids and women alive. So yeah. That must be terribly traumatic. I understand you have two young boys of your own. It must be very difficult to process all of this. Are you trying to can you make sense of any of what you witnessed and what you went through . I still cant process that. I do have three kids. I dont talk to them about that. I dont try to explain. I have no idea how to deal with that, to be honest with you. I dont know how i felt. I have no idea. Its i have never thought that i will have to see stuff like that, even though i feel very good about me helping. But i have no idea how bad is it. Yeah. And what do you want people to know about what you experienced, what you went through and what the people there in that kibbutz experienced what they went through . The worst movie you could ever think of, terrorists are the organization getting into a kibbutz, you can consider it as a village and just slaughtering everyone. And when they shoot someone, they dont shoot one bullet, they shoot 20, 30 on the same body. There is no animal that does stuff like that. I didnt even know that humans could do stuff like that. This is a monster, monster work. People have to know about that. There is no question about that. This is you see a lot of denying out there. Right. What do you say to those folks . They have to know about what happened. What is that . What do you say to those folks who are in denial about what happened . I dont really i dont get into arguments and stuff like that. I just im okay with talking in the media everywhere and tell people what ive seen in my eyes. Thats my goal to share it as much as i can. I really want to talk more about that. I want to tell more people about what ive seen because ive never seen anything or heard anything like that happen before. Yeah. Well, tommer peretz, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story. Its critical important that people hear from folks right there on the ground, witnessing this, saw it with their own eyes. Tomer, thank you for your time. Thank you for having me, jim. Thank you. Much more from israel after a quick break. Well be back. Tonight, how did hamas orchestrate their Massive Attack Ons Secretive And Dangerous Terror Group and what comes next. The whole story next on cnn. Nice footwork. Man, youre lucky, watching live sports never used to be this easy. Now you can stream all your games like its nothing. Yes [ cheers ] yeah woho running up and down that field looks tough. Its a pitch. Get way more into what youre into when you stream on the xfinity 10g network. President biden today speaking with a number of World Leaders in canada and europe. The pope and the israeli Prime Minister. Also today, sources tell cnn the white house is pressing israel to delay any Ground Invasion into gaza. The administration is citing progress on the Hostage Front Seat and the need to bring in additional humanitarian aid. Senior israeli official denied the report. Priscilla alvarez is live in delaware with detail miss ch what more do we know about these calls the president has been making . Reporter well, he has been working the phones over the course of the day as all of this continues to develop. And President Biden speaking to european and canadian leaders, but also notably talking again to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. This is the eighth call the two have had since those Terror Attacks On October 7th. According to a readout by the white house, that conversation included developments discussing the developments of what is happening in gaza and israel as well as the president affirming that the flow of critical assistance to gaza and talking about those on going efforts to release hostages. Of course this slew of calls comes on the heels of President Bidens trip to israel and also amid those on going efforts to again, get aid to gaza as well as work on the release of hostages still held by hamas. Now, while here in rehoboth, delaware, the president was asked about whether the u. S. Was encouraging israel to delay the invasion into israel. And to that, the president simply said, that he was speaking to the israelis. And that continued to be the case today. The president also staying very close with his National Security team. Were learning the president was briefed by Secretary Of State Antony Blinken and also defense secretary lloyd austin among other senior officials. So the white House Keeping a very close eye on all of the developments. And anderson, one other issue that came up in that talk with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was facilitating americans who are stuck in gaza, getting out of gaza. This has been an on going issue that still has on going resolution that with the Prime Minister among many World Leaders that the president spoke with today. Benjamin netanyahu met earlier this evening with his war cabinet and Senior Security officials. This is apprehension grows over hezbollah launching attacks from israels northern border. Lloyd austin warning the potential for escalation thro