Transcripts For CNNW The 20240703

Their lives as well. It is you buried your son today and it is heartbreaking. Thank you for spending time with us on this awful day. Thank you for having me here. And thanks for tribute to our family, to our sons memory. It is thank you. Thank you for joining us. Alongside Boris Sanchez in washington, the lead with jake tapper starts now. This is cnn breaking news. Welcome to the lead, im jake tapper. And we start with breaking news. The white house said 20 or more americans are missing in israel. This is an addition to the 14 americans killed. This is after the Terrorist Attacks carried out by hamas. U. S. Officials say it is not clear if all of the these 20 americans missing are being held hostage, just that as of now, their currently unaccounted for. This aunnouncement came minutes ago after a speech by President Biden where he pledged support for israel, The Pure Unadulterated evil of hamas. Hamas offers nothing but terror and blood shed with no regard to who pays the price. And let there be no doubt, the United States has israels back. Well make sure that the jewish and Democratic State of israel could defend itself today, tomorrow and as we always have. It is as simple as of that. This afternoon we learned that that evil of hamas, has resulted in more than 1,000 deaths in israel so far. Mostly of civilians. The death toll also tragically includes a number of civilians from the town of southern israel, they say hamas killed civilians in town. Slaughtered them. It is the scene one israeli general described as worse than anything hes seen in his 40year career. I heard during my childhood about the holocaust, of course, all of my family came from europe and they are survivors, et cetera, i never think i would see with my eyes and pike anything like this. Fighting as erupted in recent hours as the sun began to set. Cnn is on the ground in ashkelon on the coast of the mediterranean, they canptured this video of rockets fired by hamas into israel followed by loud booms of the iron dome selfdefense system. And drone video from over gaza shows the scale of the destruction from israels air strikes against gaza. Palestinian Authorities Say homes, schools and hospitals have been hit by the idf and more than 100,000 residents have been displaced. Clarissa ward is in ashkelon, a few miles north of the boarder. Where you are, you could see them pommeling with rockets and it was so close it damaged your car. That is right, jake. We had seen on hamass Telegram Channel that they were warning people to leave the city by 5 00 p. M. We got here just about five minutes before that and right at the top of the hour a relentless bombardment began. That basically continued on and off for several hours. At a certain point i think we lost count of the number of times that the sirens went off, you would hear the missiles and you could hear, of course, the iron dome intercepting the vast majority of those missiles. It is always very difficult to get a precise sense of how many are intercepted versus how many make landfall. But there seems to be a consensus here at least that while the residents of ashkelon are no strangers to rocket fire, while they have shelters on every floor of every hotel and public buildings, they havent really seen anything on the scale of this kind of a sustained bombardment. So, very much a sense of tension here on the ground and in ashkelon and throughout many of these cities that are near to the border where the rocket fire has been continuing. Of course, on the other side of the border in gaza, it has also been a brutal day. Continued bombardm. The death toll there climbing now above 800 people. And no sense that any of this is going to stop. In fact, quite the opposite. It appears, you know, from what weve heard from President Biden, from what we heard from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday, that this spector of a Ground Invasion is entirely possible if not likely, jake. Clarissa ward in ashkelon, israel. 900 people have been killed in gaza since saturday. Buildings have been flattened and food and water cut off. This is after israel fired 200 rockets overnight into the densely populated area in retaliation for the atrocities committed by hamas over the weekend. A cnn ben wedeman reports that top military leaders say it is impossible to determine if they are striking hamas or innocent civilians as hamas embedded itself within the palestinian population. The gaza city neighborhood once known as the sands, reduced to ashes. Its residents retrieve what they can, which isnt much. Israel continues to pound this strip. Targeting it said hamas infrastructure. Residents in shock are asking why . I got married this year. What have i done. You destroyed an entire neighborhood. He said he never fired a rocket. And this is one of the most densely populated patches of land on earth, bombs crashing into crowded neighborhoods, rarely differentiate between fighter and civilian. The death toll rising by the hour. While gazas hospitals are overwhelmed with the wounded, including infants. Around 40 of the population of gaza is under the age of 15 according to the cia. The Information Ministry in gaza reports that nearly 170 buildings have been destroyed and more than 12,000 residences damaged and Tens Of Thousands have fled their homes seeking shelters in schools. And an oven in this bakery is shut down and many of the shelves emmy. Life here already difficult and now the future looks liker than ever. Gaza will take five years to recoup and there will be two or three more wars. It is a cat after catastrophe. And there is more than 100 israeli captives with fates unknown. Tuesday afternoon israel truck the only port used principally by fisher men. At the same time hamas unleashed a massive volley of rockets toward ashkelon. The abyss approaches. And this evening we heard from a spokesperson from the Israeli Military who said that several rockets were fired from syria into the Israeli Occupied Golan Heights landing in open territory. He said that the Israeli Forces responded to the source of that rocket fire with mortars and artillery, jake. Ben wedeman in jerusalem, thank you. The hamas Terrorist Attack over the weekend was followed by a promise by the Israeli Military of swift and devastating retaliation. And a warning to gaza residents to leave any any area near hamas which would be quite difficult since hamas is embedded within the palestinian population in gaza. On saturday night, i asked a spokesperson for the Israeli Defense forces just where gaza is supposed to go and that has made gaza in the words of a british Prime Minister an open air prison. Here is his response. But they should go south. They could go to the shore and they could be in locations that are not close to hamas facilities. More than 2 million palestinians laugh in gaza. About half of those are children. Lets bring in hannino call, from union county, jersey and shes stick in gaza city with three children, eight, two and a 2 m 2monthold. Has the embassy given you any help to get out. Hi, how are you . Yes. We tried to contact the u. S. Embassy so many times and unfortunately they couldnt help us at all. I contacted them through the phone. Via email. I texted and i called different numbers, but nobody i couldnt hear back from any. They said that were going to call you back within 24 hours or so, a couple of hours, but they couldnt they couldnt at all call us or we didnt get any information from them. I applied i submitted a form through the website, but that didnt work as well. And i dont know, with what happened with areas crossing border and what is happening with the border. I dont know if were going to make it. But i am absolutely looking forward to the help of the u. S. Embassy. Were all here feeling abandoned and were feeling that were left alone. So we really are looking for the u. S. Embassy to help the u. S. Citizens who are living in gaza. That was just an israeli air strike that we just heard . That was just an israeli a strike that we just heard in. What . We just heard a sound like a bomb or a missile. Is that what we just heard . Yes. That is happening 24 hours. All time they are bombing all around from south to north, to the center of gaza. Everywhere. Bombing is everywhere. Your kids, how are they doing with that . It is terrible. My kids are very scared and theyre afraid of what is going on. I have to explain all of the time that i have to calm them down and trying to make them feel comfortable, safe and trying to make them busy with other things so they cant feel afraid or scared. But they are, like what happened with me, for example today, i was going trying to get out from gaza, i was going to the border and while were going there, we tried multiple ways to get out of gaza, going to the south. We couldnt make it at all. So my son said all of the locations destroyed his favorite places, he was shocked with what he saw. So, we had to see all of that and we had to go into what we say okay. So it was like, you know, youre going to death. Yes. There needs to be a way for you to get out. Youre not hamas. Youre an innocent person and you have three kids. You need to be able to get out. You heard earlier the suggestions from the idf spokesperson, i spoke with on saturday night, where are innocent palestinians supposed to go, he said to go the south and go to the shore. Is that at all realistic . We just heard about your attempt to go to the Border Crossing in the south and that didnt work. Is there any where for you to go to escape this barrage of missiles . No. No, we tried everywhere. They say go to the shore. And then they bomb the shore next day. They say go to north and then they bomb the north areas the next day. Like everywhere. Theyre bombing everywhere. So no place is safe here in gaza strip. And it is like it is just terrible and very, very, you know, very hard to explain. Because theyre bombing everywhere. Well i hope it is just a place for or a place that is close to hamas. Theyre bombing places that are not related to hamas, like i dont know, everywhere. Hannin, we have your number, i know that the white house watches this show. The white house could call me and we will put them in touch with you. You and your kids need to get out safe. And you need to get out safe as soon as is humanly possible. Stay safe and stay in touch with us. Were going to do everything we can to help you. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Thank you. And well make sure that the white house gets that information whether theyre watching or not. So, what could an israeli Ground Invasion to gaza look like . Well israel has saturated the southern border with tanks and called up more than 300,000 reservists to fight. Where that operation stands right now, that is next. Teps of thousands of israeli troops are on the move as isreal prepares toer a possible Ground Invasion into gaza. In total more than 300 israeli troops have been called up to fight, to retaliate against the hamas Terrorist Attack over the weekend. Cnns Jeremy Diamond is in Ashdod Israel which is north of the gaza border following the largest mobilization in history on such short notice. Reporter infiltrated israel, Israeli Forces are still fighting to eliminate the threat. We are here right outside of the israeli town where we have been hearing repeated exchanges of gunfire over the last ten minutes or so. These exchanges, we havent seen who exactly they are between, but we do know that Israeli Forces have been continuing to try and clear some of these israeli towns around the gaza strip from those hamas militants. Reporter the idf later confirming they killed two Hamas Terrorists in the battle. But minutes after it ended, Israeli Defense forces rushed a casualty into an ambulance. Were coming. Reporter but the soundtrack to life in most israeli communities around the gaza strip today wasnt gunfire, but it was rockets. Insterot, the booms punctuate the stillness of the day. Just come into a shelter here where we could take cover from the iron dome interceptors an theyre intercepting active rocks coming from in gaza. The booms are very loud and directly overhead. Reporter 20 minutes later another barrage of rockets hitting for the city of ashkelon. Were in the city of sderot where we could see the barrage that hamas promised at 5 00 p. M. , appearing into the area of ashkelon, that is where they said about an hour ago that they would fire rockets in that direction. But there is also another sound in towns like sderot. Reporter israeli troops and reservist mobilized to the gaza front. Part of a massive call up of more than 300,000 reserve troops. Preparation for a potential Ground Invasion of gaza. For some this moment feels different. When we came in with a concept of full control. This started with much more confusion and and the Playing Field is different. That is certainly but i think in the last two days, the momentum is shifted. Reporter and the entire country is jumping into action, with those out of uniform with troops. After days of tragedy, also a sense of resilience. Im not afraid at all, she said. When it will be my time, it will be my time. And driving through the towns bordering the gaza strip, one thing is clear, that the situation right now is far from stable. And it could get much, much worse. As we drove through these towns, we continually have this kind of eerie sense of calm. Punctuated only by those sirens here on the israeli side, the rockets and also as were hearing tonight, that steady rumble of israeli air strikes hitting the gaza strip. But the question is, what is going to come next. 300,000 more than 300,000 israeli reservists have been called up. One of the largest mobilizations in israels history. Most folks think that a Ground Invasion is imminent but israeli officials have yet to confirm that. The Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu in a speech last night made clear that he plans to take unprecedented action against maamas but has yet to give an order on invasion. During jeremys report, we could see a number of explosions over gaza. And another scary night for the innocent palestinians there. Families of those missing or held hostage in gaza are understandably growing more anxious and frustrated by the day. Cnn was there as many of those israelis and americans voiced some of that frustration today. Theyre desperate pleas for hamas to return their loved ones, that is next. From chrome to duckduckgo. Duckduckgo is a browser you download to your mobile and desktop devices. Unlike chrome, the Duckduckgo Browser has privacy builtin. It comes with a private alternative to google search, which doesn■t spy on your searches, and it blocks cookies and creepy ads. And theres no catch. Its free. We make money from ads, but they dont follow you around. Join the millions of people taking back their privacy by Downloading Duckduckgo On Mobile and desktop today. We dont know if shes alive. If shes hiding, or that we went to the went to the Missing Persons center. We gave them all of the information that we had and since then were waiting. If somebody knows anything, please let us know. We need ben back. We need him back. I need him back. I just need to hold her. I really need to see her. Im calling and im asking people where is my sister and nobody can give me answers. You could imagine . Shock and fear. Turning into anger and frustration. As israeli families search for their loved ones. This is four days after that deadly act of terror by hamas. Many of the people still have not heard a word from the Israeli Government or military. Cnns Becky Anderson is in tel aviv. And you heard from some of the families today, what are they asking of israeli and u. S. Authorities . Reporter they are pleading for help and information. And they are urging the u. S. Government to help negotiate the release of these hostages. Just let me explain what happened today. We heard from families of four dual citizens, u. S. And Israeli Citizens who are missing and presumed to be held hostage by hamas. We heard from the son and daughter of a 66yearold nurse from the parents of a 23yearold who was at the rave on saturday morning. We heard from a the father of a boy named saggy, and hes a grown man, hes 35 years old and he has two kids and his wife is pregnant with their third. He lives on the kibbutz in oz. This is a kibbutz that was overrun on saturday morning. There is video on the social media of militants paging through a Military Base very close to this kibbutz which has been reduced to rubble. It was a kibbutz of 400 people and we spoke to saggys dad today who said that they have heard nothing from saggy since saturday morning. Hes father is flown in from the u. S. To try and illicit some sort of information about what is going on with his son. And he is pleading for help from both the israeli and the u. S. Governments. Have a listen to what he told me. The United States administration and its various services have relationships in the worl world with countries that israel does not. And it could be helpful for the United States and its various parts engage with those friends, those acquaintances to help in negotiate in some way to get solid information. My children and gand children who were on the kibbutz. So siggys family and another young family experienced a living hell for the better part of 20 hours. These are young children. And young men and women who cannot be anything other than traumatized by what they witnessed. My job now as a parent is to try to put the pieces back together. Reporter put the pieces back together he said is the job that he has now. And he also feels as a father that he has a responsible to do whatever it takes to try and get his son released. Jake, that was a community of 400. And as far as jonathan knows, there are only 160 survivors of that massacre there on saturday morning. The fourth family member, let me tell you that we heard from today was the father ruby of a boy called ita, who 9 years old and is a reservist in the idf and he was down on border and hasnt been heard of since saturday as well. So members of four families, four individuals who have been taken pro taken presumed to be taken hostage by hamas and they just need help. They have heard nothing from either or they certainly hadnt when i spoke to them this afternoon, from either thei israeli or u. S. Governments. And yesterday you were at a hospital in tel aviv overwhelmed. How are they prepared to treat any additional kazcasualties af a potential Ground Incursion. Reporter well the director of that hospital told me that he never seen anything like this. This is the biggest hospital in israel. It is the hospital in tel aviv. And it is generally where youll get the most serious victims coming in and that is exactly what is happened this time. For from so many of the incidents in this massacre, mostly people were dealt with on the sigh first when eventually the army got to them and that was some 10, 12, 15 hours in and then evacuated to this hospital. He said he expects to see three, four, five times the numbers that hes currently seeing at present. He said the difference between what theyre seeing now and what theyve seen in conflicts in the past here and of course there have been numerous conflicts here in the past, generally in the past the serious injuries and the burns an the Gunshot Wounds that theyve seen are from soldiers, unfortunately this time it is civilians and soldiers. And they are not overwhelmed, they could cope at this point. But clearly hes very concerned about the prospect of a Ground Incursion and what will happen and what sort of price will be paid by the people there in gaza. Both these hostages potentially and civilians. Becky anderson, thank you so much. Gaza is coming up on the midnight hour where were monitoring the night sky when once again explosions have sent large plumes of smoke up. Day daylight might reveal what was hit. Well talk with a member of congress who was a middle east analyst for the cia. Stay with us. And were back with our world lead. As if it needs to be said, saturday was the deadliest day for jews in the world. Since the holocaust. Since then. And at least 1,000 people have been killed in the hamas attacks. Mostly civilian. Among them, 14 americans. The u. S. State Department Said it is in contact with Many Americans till stuck in israel and wanting to get out. Elissa slotkin of michigan is with me on the Armed Services committee and used to be a middle east analyst in the cia. Thank you so much for being here. Your office has gotten calls and texts about civilians trying to get out of palestine. So far the American Government has not been helpful. There is not a way to get out of gaza. What are you hearing from your constituents and how concerned are you about their safety . I think there are more american Passport Holders in israel than any other country in the world. So getting those american Passport Holders out if they want to come out is a huge endeavor. We know that carriers arent leaving from the airport. Weve had some other International Flights canceled today. Ive been helping per the jordanian border over land and theyve been facilitating that. And Church Groups and individual students, parents, it is just been a huge effort and i know every member of congress is dealing with in a same onslaught of requests. Could egypt help at all with the Palestinian Americans stung in the gaza strip . Certainly. I think israel will have to be a part of that conversation and i dont know where they stand on that. But certainly that is a border area, yes. So you have lived in israel, is that right . Lived in israel, lived in jordan. When you were with the cia. No. Just in different times in your life. When at tack happened, the Defense Forces were mainly located in the west bank or at home. Does this surprise you how much israel was caught off guard and how slowly it the rescues came for israelis . Could more lives have been saved if troops werent so positioned in west bank. Well have a lot of tile to go over how an Intelligence Failure happened. Think about the 9 11 commission and taking a deep look at this. Theyll have to do the same thing. They did the same thing after the 1973 war when they were caught off guard. A Big Supreme Court justices and everything. So theyll have plenty of time. But it is a failure and theyll have to grapple with this. One thing it is not knowing it is coming not to have Human Intelligence sources embedded with hamas to tip them off which is Gold Standard and not to have Signal Intelligence of what they were saying across telephones an computers and walkietalkies but there is the second kofg about the military and were they focused not on gaza. Why they were there. And why. To protect the settlers who were i think that is a very serious question for the Israeli Government. But there is going to be plenty of time. F i think right now people are in shock and still finding out today including members of my own staff that they have friends and loved ones who are missing and injured. And so i think that the time will come for that. And it will be a serious groundbreaking thing for theize raely government to deal with that. So you have a democratic colleague from michigan, congresswoman rashida tlaib. The first Palestinian American to serve in congress and she released a statement i grief the palestinian and israeli lives lost. The path to peace must include lifting the blockade and ending the occupation and dismantling the Apartheid System that creates the suffocating dehumanizing conditions that could lead to resistance. As longs our country provides billions in unconditional funding to support the apartheid government, this heartbreaking cycle of violence will continue. What was your reaction when you heard congress womans tlaibs statement. I handle my issues with other members of congress privately. I have a lot of private conversations. But i think for me, it shouldnt be hard to condemn terrorists and terrorism. Right. And that doesnt mean you dont have beef with the Israeli Government, right. A lot of people. We saw a fifth of the israeli population had beef with the Israeli Government but it should be easy, especially with the details coming out to condemn terrorism and terrorists and hamas is a terrorist organization, they do not represent all palestinians. We shouldnt connect those two. So, to me, i think that was the hardest part. Not just about that statement but a number of statements that have come out from organizations and individuals. I dont question whether someone has the right to be angry at the Israeli Government, i question their inability to condemn grievous violence and that is what has been difficult. There does seem to be, look, we spent a lot of time in during the trump years looking at antisemitism on the right. This does these last few days have been a real eyeopening period for a lot of people. A lot of democrats and a lot progressives in terms of ant semitism on the left. More people see more shocks at dehumanizing language to describe hamas than what hamas actually perpetrated on saturday. Yeah, i mean, look, antisemitism should be stamped out wherever it is. On the right, or on the left. And we shouldnt look more glowingly on it if it comes from our side. Right. So republicans need to strongly condemn the grievous antisemitism that ive seen on their side and we need to absolutely go after antisemitism on the left. And that should just be a standard thing and not a political thing. Whether you condemn it or not. Democratic congresswoman elissa slotkin, thank you so much. And for days weve heard how hamas storm into the musical festival and killed people and raping women. My next guest was there. And there is now video showing the cold hearted actions of the terrorists there. Stay with us. Of the 1,000 People Killed in the Terrorist Attacks by hamas, more than 260 were at the nova Music Festival on saturday. Some were killed at point blank range. Theyre belongings were looted and their actions seen in the cars dash cameras parked at festival. And that was obtained by cnn today. One was at the festival when it came under fire and he joins us now. Ameet. Good afternoon, jake. Words fail. Im so sorry you went through this. Im flad youre okay. Could you tell us what happened that morning. So, me and the three of my friends, we were at the Music Festival. Which is very close to the border with gaza. Towards 6 30 a. M. , while we were dancing on the dance floor, the music suddenly stopped and we thought it was it was something can electricity but then we but then we realized that they were shooting rockets at us from gaza. We tried to find a shelter. We were basically in the desert with some eucalyptus trees. We lied on the ground and tried to find shelter, but we realized there is no way to find shelter in such a great open area. While the Security Personnel on the festival started to aim us to leave the space and to start to escape, Me And My Friends were probably the first group of people who realized we need to go into our vehicles to start the engines and to flee out. Now, this was a festival attended by thousands of people. 3,500 people were there, not just israelis. This festival was also inviting a lot of global guests in collaboration with a brazilian festival, so there were a lot of foreign people attending. Many of them didnt know even what to do. They didnt understand what is happening, as us israels, we are kind of used to Rocket Attacks in israel. So we know what we should do. Anyways, me and three of my friends, we met by our camping site, and we started to run towards our car, actually my car is quite a new vehicle. Im a tour guide. Its a fourwheel drive that im using to drive my tourists from place to place, and this vehicle failed to start, which later on possibly saved me from something else. So we were basicalliy escaping from the Rocket Attack and we made our way out, so we had to drive a bit on the not on the paved roads, and we found a way out towards the roads in the Gaza Envelope area, while my friends asked me where im aiming towards, i told them im aiming away so if rockets are coming from southwest, which is the location of gaza on the map of israel, im driving to f northeast towards the rising sun. And over there we found after maybe 10 or 15 minutes drive while trying to call to our friends, which were on their way, they told us that they are in a shelter but there are shootings. Now, we didnt realize yet that those shootings were not rockets. They were right, because of the terrorists on the ground, right. Yeah, so as we found a way towards the shelter, towards a gas station and a coffee place, which is a building and this is where you want to hide by, you want to hide by a wall that can protect you. En route, we saw a gmc savannah, so its a wide truck, and we saw that all the windows were shattered. We didnt even realize what just happened to this car. I imagined that this car was hit by a rocket. Later in time after realizing what really happened at the festival, we understood that most likely one of those Pickup Trucks that possibly you have videos of that were carrying terrorists from the gaza strip into israel, they were driving on that road possibly a minute or two before we took this road, and they shot down the vehicle and all the people that were there. Possibly they enmaven managed t kidnap some of the people. We saw only one body, and it was not the driver. It was the drivers passenger. And i know that you have three daughters, and one of your daughters, her friend is missing, was kidnapped. So we were expecting friends to join us, and they had not been yet in the festival. They were they found shelter in a place very close to one of the settlements in the Gaza Envelope, and unfortunately they were encountered terrorists, most likely from a distance, and those two friends, they are my best friends, and they are the parents of my daughters besties, so i have a 10 years old, they have a 10 years old, i have an 8 years old, and they have an 8 years old. They are the best friends. Those two friends of mine that are gone missing, we dont know what happened to them. We just found their vehicle, i think it was two days ago in the morning. We found their vehicle. We probably have videos. All right, so i just want to emphasize that the attack was like the attacks that you understand and know like isis. Yeah. Yeah. They were butchering people, and they were abusing the bodies of people. Those are not people. Those are not animals. Those are monsters. Yeah. And they are Rempresenting Al the people that are in the gaza strip. This is the ruling entity in gaza. Im so sorry you went through that, and its horrible, and i hope that you hear from your friends soon. Thank you so much for sharing your story. Thank you very much, and i hope america will continue to support us. Well be right back. 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