Transcripts For CNNW CNN 20240702

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. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to cnn this morning. Im amara walker. Im victor blackwell. Israel now has Ground Forces in gaza. An Idf Spokesman confirms its infantry, artillery, and other units entered into gaza into the north overnight with one saying its expanding operations. Over the last couple of days weve seen an expansion with targeted raids, but the forces retreated back to the border after the raids. Its unclear if this new move is part of the major Ground Offensive that the idf has been preparing for since the start of the war three weeks ago. Israel seems to also be ramping up its air strikes on g gaza. Our reporters near israels border reported on sustained attacks. New video shows the level of destruction as people continue to dig through the rubble. Cnns jim sciutto is with us from northern israel. Jim, israel has said that it will send troops into gaza to seize territory. Is that whats happening now . Whats the situation . Reporter that is what the idf is saying this morning that israeli troops, both artillery units, tank units, armored units, Infantry Have Entered Fwz for sustained Ground Operations. We should report we have limited visibility. Were relying on the idf for the extent of the operation and largely what we can see are israeli strikes from the air. Beginning last night, our correspondents on the border there, we could see the explosions, which were at a rate we had. Seen since those october 7th attacks. Then we saw the air strikes, Artillery Strikes calm down a bit, and appears what followed is this expanded Ground Operation. Again, we know what the idf is telling us as well as the goal of the operations. They say theyre expanded. They say they include units, again, Armored Infantry and engineering units. The question is how long will they be there and what are the number of those forces on the ground . We can say that the u. S. View of this is somewhat clear because we have a comment from the Marine Come Man Dant following the return of a u. S. Marine general whos advising israeli commanders here that what is happening now is purely an israeli operation, the u. S. Offered its advice, and the israeli commanders took some of that advice and didnt take other parts of the advice. We do know the u. S. Was counseling in places like fallujah and mosul. It appears the commanders were not heeding all that advice and all that experience. Youre in northern israel. Lets talk about the Israeli Border with lebanon and this firing back and forth between the idf and hezbollah overnight. Whats happening on that front . Reporter so weve been up here for a number of days, and we have spent some time with idf forces here who have been saying that theyve been receiving regular fire, sniper fire, Artillery Fire, as well as attempted missile fire, and what weve seen in the last 24 hours are at least two instances where Israeli Forces fired back, strikes on hezbollah positions in southern lebanon. They say one of those strikes in response to antitank missiles that hezbollah forces fired. Another strike was a miss industrial strike. Theyre taking shots at them in the north, not, though, to the degree that it seems hamas has wanted. Hamas has had Public Comments saying they expected more from hezbollah, but, of course, were watching very closely, victor and amara, because that could change at any moment particularly as we learn more of the expansion of the Israeli Ground operations inside gaza, because the fear had been that as those operations expand in gaza, that hezbollah will expand its own retaliation here in the north. Were watching very closely. We know those Israeli Forces are watching very closely as well. Jim, what is the situation now in terms of the bombardment weve been reporting on overnight, especially the Artillery Strikes and the air strikes . Have things kind of slowed down a bit . Reporter youre talking up here in the north. Its been a regular pace of firing back and forth. Not a high volume, but each side testing the others defenses. In terms of gaza, the pace of air strikes and Artillery Fire has been lower today than we saw last night, and that would make sense, right, that typically you would have that expanded aerial campaign to soften up the defenses. Thats the intent before a Ground Operation is underway. If what the idf says is true, they have a large number of idf forces there now, it would only be natural the air strikes have slowed down a bit, because they wouldnt want to upset Israeli Forces on the ground. The white house says theyre not going to try to dictate to the Israeli Military. Hamas are intensify ing their attacks. Theres the active negotiations of hostages held by hamas. They would not comment on israels expanded Ground Operations and reiterated americas support for israel to defend itself. Cnns kevin liptak joining us now from wilmington, delaware, where the president is this weekend. Kevin, what is the latest . Reporter the white house is being very careful not to weigh in. Theyre not saying whether they got a headsup of this kpangs of is reelings response to the Terror Attacks. One thing we can see is it deeply complicated the objective. Chief among them, their release of hundreds of hostages being held by hamas including potential americans. There are some unaccounted for, some being held by hamas. Recently as yesterday it did seem as if negotiations to free the hostages had been intensifying with the help of the government. Certainly israel, qatar, trying to release a large number of hostages. This will complicate it deeply. Remember, the United States were trying to encourage is reeling to delay the Ground Invasion. The securing of the release of any hostages will be much more difficult if gaza is being bombed by israel. So certainly the u. S. Says that those talks will not end. Theyre not dead. Theyre hour by hour in trying on to get the hostages released. One thing the u. S. Government has been recommending more vocally in the last coming days is to allow for a humanitarian pause to allow the hostages to come out. Its certainly something the u. S. President is talking about more. Now in addition to releasing the hostages, the u. S. Wants more aids to flow into gaza. Of course, this escalating conflict will increase the desperation of the civilians who live on the strip, including Hundreds Of Americans who are trying to get out and many Palestinian Americans stuck in gaza and the u. S. Says it wants to work to get them out as well. It also wants to work to get more aid into gaza, things like food, water, medicine, and fuel. Fuel has not been allowed into gaza us that far. Certainly this escalating conflict, the bombing, the potential for a Ground Invasion is complicating all of those objectives, guys. Continuing to be a terrifying situation for those civilians. Kevin liptak, thank you. Lets talk more about this war. Cnns political analyst david sanger is joining us. Good morning to you. Lets focus on the Ground Invasion or the fact that you have is rah i will i troops or Ground Forces inside gaza for these very targeted raids according to the Idf Spokesperson and the expanded Ground Operation. What does this mean for the hostages . Good morning, amara. Whats interesting is this isnt quite the Ground Invasion we had initially envisioned when this whole tragedy began two weeks ago. What we thought at the time was a massive invasion that would hold all of gaza and gaza city, and i think the more the discussions took place with the United States, the more it became clear to the israelis, if they did that, they were going to take tremendous casualties among their own troops. So here theyre doing much more of a kind of targeted attacks as you said, which enabled them to go in and then turn around and leave. That double leave much of a target. For hamas. The interesting question is this a stage or is this what its going to look like . And to your question on the hostages, it also then gives them the opportunity to be doing some intelligence gathering about where the hostages are and makes it easier to do a pause and not have to pull out a large force if it looks like hamas is ready to negotiate. So far theres been too much distance. We havent seen the hostages. So far only four have been released. So far you have 120 nations voting for a quote, unquote sustained humanitarian truce, pause, ceasefire, whatever you want to call it. There were 14 countries who voted against that including United States because it didnt specifically criticize hamas. Why has it been so difficult to get a humanitarian pause so that the civilians can get help and some of those people stuck inside the foreign nationals to get out . So really its in question. There are sort of three answers, and they dont all line up with each other. The first is that the maine israeli objective is to destroy hamas. They havent said over what time period. It gives hamas time to regroup, move hostages, impreev defenses. The second part is theyre fearful that as they bring in the humanitarian goods, theyre also going to be helping hamas. Thats inevitable, and if you have a group of people suffering luke this, i cant see an option, but, yes, some of this aid is definitely going to help hamas. And i think a third question which is the one no one is really breaching here yet is why havent the arab states stepped up to open the rafah gate and allow some of these longsuffering people to go into the sinai where you could see tents and Relief Operations set up. I think the answer is the egyptians simply dont want to have them there. But the idea of pushing everyone down to the bottom end of the bottle here just means youre moving the suffering south. David, publicly what were seeing is the u. S. Unwavering in its support, reiterating that israel has the right to defend itself, that it will not dictate how to carry out its military operations, but you also have, you know, comments from the president , from the defense secretary, lloyd austin, reiterating the importance of protecting them. Give us a per speck active. Do you think theres a different, i guess, tenor, privately . Amara, youve identified, i think, whats the fascinating arc of what this conversation has been like. When the president first came out after the october 7th Terror Attack that killed 1,400 people and started all of this, he was completely unwavering in his support for israel. Of course, he went to us real the next week, but that next week you began to hear tenors of, we understand you have the right to defend yourself, everyone is wanting to make sure they get rid of hamas because they cant allow attacks like this to ever go on again. As they were hugging them in a tight embrace and whispering in that ear, they said it makes a difference how you do this. They were told to talk to the israelis first and give the warnings before going public each stachlkt by the end of the week, theyre warning to be careful about the palestinians and humanitarian issues. Fa sizing that piece of it. And the question is has that fully surge in in the israeli strategy. The fact that they havent done an allout invasion at this point partly may reflect that and partly may reflect the divisions in the war cabinet to go about this. Thank you. Jim sciutto report odden the gunfire across the border between israel and lebanon. Were going to dig deeper. Blue, 48 hours after a shooter killed 18 people in maine. The spmts has been found dead. The latestst on that investigigation. In about 12 1 2 hours, maine plans to have a conference. Investigators believe the suspect died from a selfinflicted gunshot wound. Theyre trying to figure out why this happened. The suspect left behind a note, but theyve not reflected what was in the note. Lets go straight to omar jiminez. W what do we know so far and what happens now that the search is other . Reporter Law Enforcement says the note at the very least gave the indication to authorities he did not plan to be alive when the note was found, where things could be found. Its part of two planes of investigation. One was, of course, the more urgent one, the urgent manhunt part of things. That came to an end after 48 hours last night when they found the body of the 40yearold suspect robert card. As we understand from a Law Enforcement source, the body was found near the main essentially a Recycling Center where he used to work and was recently fired. The exact location, were still not sure. Those are part of the questions were hoping to have answered at the Press Conference thats supposed to be happening later on this morning including how long is going to take. The other comes from trying to piece together why this happened. This was a shooting that took place wednesday night across two different locations each about ten minutes from each other. His vehicle was found abandoned ten minutes from the shooting site here and that was about a 15minute walk to around the area where his body was found. So investigators are going through his social media accounts. Many in the community were just dangerous about where he was. Take a listen. This is maines governor. Like many people, im Breathing A Sigh Of Relief tonight knowing that robert card is no longer a threat to anyone. I know there are some people, many people who are Breathing A Sigh Of Relief, but for others reporter it doesnt bring back the 18 that were killed as well. So as one chapter closes, arguably a more difficult one ahead for this community. Omar jiminez reporting for us this morning. Omar, thank you. Joining us now is cnn senior Law Enforcement analyst charles ramsey. Chief, good morning to you. So there will be no prosecution. The threat to the public is no mo more. What now happens to the investigation . Getting to the question of why, but what else happens . First of all, this is a huge relief for everyone concerned. The town, families, the police, everyone that we now know hes no locthreat to anyone. But the investigation will continue. That i have to find out why. They have to get to a motive. In many cases you never quite get what the motive is, but in this case, i think theyll pretty much come to a conclusion what it possibly was. There are still unanswered questions. The Press Conference last night didnt shed a light on anything. Hopefully stored we learn a little bit more. I was listening to omar, and hes absolutely right. We need to know from a medical examiner the prox maam time of death, how long had he been there, did they search that area before . This is an area close to where he was fired, the business where he was fired from. One of my fears was he had a third target, and that would have been where he was fired or perhaps his girlfriend or Something Like that if he was still in the area. There are still a lot of unanswered questions, which is huge. Families deserve to know those answers, the survivors of these shootings deserve to know them. But from a Law Enforcement perspective, you mentioned, had they searched this area before. It seems there are elements, answers that i could get that would be valuable to police departments, state and federal investigators maybe not in getting answers to this but in Setting Patterns and understanding future situations like this. Yeah, youre right. I mean, first of all, this is i dont know if this was a heavily wooded area or not. But it wasnt far from where they found his car. That would be an area they would want to search. You have to figure he left that car by another car, a boat, on foot, but you have to search that area. You would ask, did you hear a gunshot . There are things we would like to know. What investigators do now and unfortunate i will weve had so many Mass Shootings in this country psychologically you want to know exactly what are the warning signs, what are the things you want to be looking for before the event takes place. Theyll be piecing together a lot of information from social media, interviews, family, friends, relatives, forensic evidence they find at the scene, all of that to try to put together a puzzle that right now existses to really kind of get a better sense and feeling about the individual and what drove him to this. Its interesting you mentioned a profile because we have seen when these shootings end with the death of gunman or suicide on the scene or suicide by scene where they intentionally engage with the officers by shooting at them. But you suggest its possible that this facility, this mail facility was maybe a third target. What do you make of where he was found . Thats all things theyll have to look into because that is unusual. I mean, was he going to go there and suddenly changed his mind . I dont know. I mean the weapon that was found in the car. That was the same one used at the previous two shootings. The note indicates he wasnt plan on being alive. What does that mean . Taking his own life . Suicide by cop . What exactly hes dead, so you certainly cant question him, but they may be able to pease together a few things to try to find out what was on his mind at the time. Again, we may never know because the suspect is dead. It is unusual. Usually that takes place at the scene or they get into a shootout early on with police and wind up getting killing. This with us a well planned event. Youre a Law Enforcement analyst. This is House Speaker mike johnson when he was asked about demands to do something legislatively about Mass Shootings in america. I want to play for you what he told we dont have the sound bite. What he said was this is the matter of the human heart. Mmhmm. Whats your reaction to that . Yeah, i heard that. Is he suggesting they get Heart Transplants . I think it proves he doesnt plan to do anything about this. You know, listen. I listen to the politicians when they talk about this and they want to get into thoughts and prayers. Ive a believer of prayer too, but it has to be followed up with legislation. We have to do something to stop this carnage. We only talk about it when its a Mass Shooting and it gets this kind of national attention. Were losing people on the streets of our city every single day, and many of those deaths come as a result of Assault Weapons that are in the hands of people that should not happen. Believe me, not all of these guys are mentally ill. Some are flat out evil, violent, and just dont care. We need to get guns out of the hands of people that should not have them. Not just focusing on Mass Shooting. I think youll be surprise. I cant remember the last time i went on a crime scene where you found only one or two Shell Casings on the floor. You find 30 or more. Its not just about Mass Shootings, and our elected officials need to stop with the nonsense and actually sit down and figure this out where we can have that balance between the Second Amendment and actually keeping people safe. Charles ramsey, thanks. All 18 of those victims have now been identified. Many of them were fathers and several were members of the local Deaf Community who were Playing In A Cornhole tournament at Sheg Years Bar and grill. Leroy walker said his son was a manager at the bar and grill and tried to stop the shooter, but he cant hate the man who took his son from him. I cant hate him. When you rupp around hating, it causes more. A father and son were playing a game when they were shot and killed. And bob and Lucille Violette were gunned down. He stood between the shooter and victims to protect them. Those deaths shattered the town of lewiston which is only 38,000 strong, may every single one of their memories be a blessing. Right now israeli Ground Forces are fighting inside gaza. Israels military is also confirming this morning that their warplanes targeted 150 underground locations or tunnels in Northern Gaza including Terror Tunnels and underground combat spaces. They say their operations killed several hamas operatives and took out communications and Internet Services in gaza. Cnns chief National Security correspondent jim sciutto is in northern israel. Hi, there, jim. Whats the situation on the ground . Reporter well, the concern from the beginning is that this would become a twofront war for israel with gaza in the south and lebanon in the north with hezbollah. So far the activity back and forth between israel and hezbollah have been regular. There have been a number of strikes in the last 24 hours. Hezbollah attempting to fire in or attempting to and israel firing back with both air strikes and Artillery Fire, which weve heard. A large swath of the communities along the lebanese border have been evacuated, residents now replaced by israeli soldiers. We visited one of those towns, metula, just across the border from lebanon. Main street, metula, israel, normally the busy center of town, now abandons. Metulas 2,000 residents fled in the wake of the october 7th attacks. Part of a mandatory evacuation with israel too close to the border with lebanon and too close to the border of hezbollah. The problem is with too many windows, were under threats very now based here are hundreds of idf soldier. Here were under attack, other places as well. We need to keep ourselves ujds cover to make sure we dont get exposed. Reporter Metula Is Sur rounded by three sides. Thats why the town has been evacuated because of the threat. And they say they face three threats from hezbollah, sniper fire, Rocket Fireworks but also the possibility of ground incursions. One happened here several days ago, and theyre on constant alert for the possibility of the next one. The towns mayor has the job of relocating residents further south and keeping metula residents ready to turn. The old status quo is no longer sustainability, not the hezbollah on their doorstep. Translator we dont want a war. We want to move hezbollah out of the area. We can make a peace deal. If not, we can have war. Reporter the Israeli Military does not comment. For now its an operation designed to threaten and deter. You can find more than 400 soldiers looking at you. Reporter for the soldiers, their job now is to make sure metula can come alive again. Do u you believe people will be able to come back to a town like metula again or is it too close to lebanon. To zez blah . I know theyll do nefrg to make them safe, to protect. I watched a man pack his luggage with tears in his eyes. I asked why. He said, i dont know if i will return here. Reporter thats still very much an open question. Since we left metula, theres been more fire back and forth, hezbollah in, israel out. The question is when will you reach a level of safety that the people can come back safely. As ive been speaking to them and the soldiers, its just not clear when that will be, victor and amara. I appreciate your reporting. Coming up, gulf coast more ahead. Israel says gazas largest hospital is being used as a command center. Palestinians and others reject that claim. Cnns nada bashir joining us this morning with more on the situation. What do we know whats happening inside of these hospitals . Reporter well, look, as weve seen for now three weeks, the situation inside gazas hospitals, particularly inside the Al Shifa Hospital has been rapidly deteriorating for those requiring urgent care because of the ongoing air strikes were seeing. You mentioned the spokesperson yesterday saying there are hamas Command Posts beneath the Al Shifa Hospital. This has been flat out rejected by palestinian officials and health ministers. Theres one norwegian doctor, dr. Mads gilbert who says hes been working at the hospital for decades during peace time and war time. He said if thats the case, no foreign doctors would stand by and allow patients to be used as human shields. There is real concern, of course, for medics, patients inside the hospital in gaza that this could be something that would lay the ground work of attacks against hospitals. That is a concern because as we know, there are thousands and thousands of patients currently receiving treatment in hospitals. Weve heard from doctors there. The doctors refuse to leave their patients behind. Theyll stay there despite evacuations from the idf. Of course, the secondary issue also is there are tens of thousands of people, palestinians, who have been displaced either by air strikes or told to evacuate now sheltered outside the street surrounding the hospitals. That is the fear because for many palestinians who have been displaced, they see the hospitals as a safe haven, but the latest remarks from the udf has made their concerns worse. Weve had warnings repeatedly if hospitals are targeted, we could see unimaginable bloodshed. Of course, there is an ongoing siege. Theres a limit on the amount of medication, supplies, reduction of fuel and electricity available to the hospitals. Weve heard the warnings from the Health Ministry in gaza. Take a listen. Translator hospitals arent just for patients and the injured. I thatve become the place for Hundreds Of Thousands of displaced people forced by the Israeli Occupation to flee toward hospitals and schools. That led to a Difficult Health situation that will have Dangerous Health consequences. The lack of water is leading to problems with personal hygiene thats affecting all patients and hospitals. Some patients have open wounds and third and fourth degree wounds. You have kids and those with disease and it will spread the disease among displaced people. Reporter victor and amara, we saw intense bombardment yesterday on the gaza strip. Of course, as we learned overnight last night, communications were cut off, and that raises concerns between aid groups and Hospital Workers who werent able to communicate with colleagues on the grounds. It disrupted the work of the Ambulance Teams to respond to the ongoing attacks from the air strikes and Artillery Fire. Of course, weve heard the warnings from leaders particularly from jordan that was passed yesterday at the u. N. Assembly calling for an immediate ceasefire to thank you. Right now, israel is still hitting targets in gaza, and a spokesman confirms forces are now on the grounds inside. Ahead what we know about which areas have been a focus of Isisraeli Strikekes today. You want to be able to provide your child with the tools or resources they need. With reliable internet at home, through the internet essentials program, the world opened up. Fellas, fellas. Thats how my son was able to find the hidden genius project. We wanted to give yall the necessary skills to compete with the future. Kevins now part of this next generation of young people who feel they can thrive. This morning, israel is ramping up its offensive in gaza with Ground Forces moving in to Northern Gaza, backed by heavy air strikes. Here is cnns tom foreman with a detailed look at how this assault is unlike anything gaza has seen in recent history. Reporter hey, victor. Hey, amara. Gaza has not seen an attack like this in decades. This is a really powerful assault on the area by the Israeli Forces right now. Lots of explosions going on here, being dropped by aircraft, fired by tanks, fired by artillery, coming from the sea, coming from the land. A tremendous amount of pressure going on here. The New York Times has it about 7,000 targets have been hit for an awful lot of tragic reasons from the israeli standpoint. For example, along the borders of gaza, we have seen these groups of tanks and bulldozers moving in, knocking holes in the defenses, wearing away at mine fields or anything explosives out there that might stop them from bringing in heavier equipment and literally shaping what looks like the coming battlefield for the Israeli Forces against hamas in this area. The result of all of this, well, we have seen some of the video of that. Its really quite a sight to see. In some cases whole buildings gone. In other cases, whole blocks gone. The israelis have insisted that what theyre doing is trying to target military assets. Although, that may include for example, the home of a hamas leader. A hospital in which hamas says, well, thats a hospital. Israelis say, its a hamas base hiding in a hospital. That sort of thing. Going after the entrances to tunnels. The Tunnel Network there is a big deal. Going after command and control structures. If you look at an overall Satellite Map of the area, you can see that in the northern part here, this is where most of this happens, most of the population lives, every Little Orange dot there represents one of the strikes that we know of. Theres been talk of israeli troops coming into this area as well. What it all adds up to, really, as we said at the beginning, extraordinary Military Assault on this area. Yes, hamas still tried to fire some missiles out, striking israel. Some of them have struck. That seems to be greatly reduced as this tremendous Military Pressure comes into this area and we wait to see what might come next. Victor, amara . Tom foreman, thank os much jnks right now israel says its Ground Forces are inside gaza. Well go back live to israel next