Good morning, everyone. Welcome to cnn this morning. Its saturday, october 14th. Im amara walker. Im victor blackwell. Thank you for joining us as we follow developments out of the middle east. First, the Israeli Defense forces say they have killed the senior hamas commander who was behind much of last weeks carnage. They killed the head of the hamas aerial system. These strikes come as the Israeli Military is warning the people of gaza to evacuate now. There are two hours left of israels sixhour Safe Passage Window. Thats allowing people to leave and head south. So far Tens Of Thousands have left, but the request is for 1. 1 million civilians to relocate, and leaders in the region are criticizing israel for ordering the rushed evacuation. Jordans minister said it would be a blatant violation of International Law and would amount to a war crime. Hamas says israel is still carrying out air strikes as theyre trying to evacuate. Theres an Evacuation Route south of gaza city. We want to warn you this video could be graphic to some people. The video was taken on friday before the Safe Passage Window was set up. Were in that window now, a few hours away from it closing 4 00 p. M. Local. Hamas says several people were killed in the strike and 200 other evacuees were wounded. On friday, u. S. Secretary lloyd austin was there reit rags u. S. s unwavering support of israel. When asked about civilian casualties in gaza and how israel will use those munitions, this is how he answered. This is a professional force thats well led, so im sure theyll do the right thing. Cnns Becky Anderson is joining us from tel aviv. I understand youve been monitoring the evacuations in Northern Gaza. Whats the latest . Eah,hese are evacuations from gaza city effectively down into the gaza valley, and the u. N. Is warning that the situation in gaza is, quote, A Matter Of Life And Death as 2 Million People now risk running out of water completely. People are being forced to use dirty water from wells, and they say we need to truck fuel into gaza now. If not, they say people will start dying. As you report, there are sort of, quote, safe corridors for those who have tried to leave, but this is a Monumental Task and very late last night the u. N. Was suggesting its almost impossible. Were getting reports from hospitals, not the least of those run by msf saying how on earth are we to evacuate hospitals, the elderly, those at ill . Theyre getting the corridors established immediately on top of what is the safe zone is absolutely front and center here. Getting aid into the rafah Border Crossing is also, you know, massively important, and i know thats being discussed by regional leaders as they talk to the u. S. Secretary of state who, of course, is doing the rounds at present. There is aid sitting on the southern id of egypt of the rafah border saying theyve got medical supplies there. The uae has told us they have sent aid and its sitting on the ground. Its a question of how that aid gets in. We also know theres some concern of that opening up of the rafah Border Crossing because, frankly, weve been told by diplomatic sources that neither egypt or jordan can cope with the potential for palestinians evacuating out of gaza completely. Just consider the enormous impact that jordan already has with Syrian Refugees and iraqi refugees within its borders, both egypt and jordan very, very concerned about what would happen if there was a huge influx. What were looking at at the moment is a closed border. Gaza is being told to evacuate down into the southern valley at present, and this is a Monumental Task. How long this pause is, this window, is unclear at present, and what happens next is also very unclear. Are the israelis building for what was presumed to be a massm massive assault . I do want to underscore to you guys how much concern there is around the arab world that this war could spread. Theyre concerned about what is going on in the enclave and what could spread. We were in jerusalem yesterday. People were killed there just yesterday. In the west bank and jerusalem, weve already seen 50 deaths of palestinian deaths by settlers and israeli police, according to the palestinian ministry. Idf reported will i warning settlers to, quote, not interfere with counterterrorism efforts. The responsibility, the ididf h said, is with the Israeli Military. President biden has warpned others not to join in the conflict, vowing steadfast support for israel. U. S. Secretary of state, as i say, on a Whistlestop Tour of the region. Hes in washington as we speak. He was in jordan yesterday where he met Kueng Abdullah and the Palestinian Authority leader. This is what the jordan minister who was with blink ken and the king told me after those meetings. So the priority now, get immediate humanitarian supplies, and when it comes to a safe journey, we have to be very careful. It has to come up through gaza. We need to make sure that now, stop the escalation, get the humanitarian supplies, work for a humanitarian corridor to be working and start this big move as advocates. Reporter its a real, real concern where this goes next. At the same time and lets just close with this as Secretary Blinken is doing the rounds of this region, the Iranian Foreign minister has been in beirut. Hes been holding talks with the hezbollah leader. Hes been in syria speaking to assad and baghdad, the iranian minister warning all options are possible if this war continues. Back to you guys. Becky anderson for us there in tel aviv. I want to talk more about whats happening in lebanon because israels Northernle Border has been active. Theyve struck hezbollah targets in southern lebanon. Hezbollah claimed responsibility for the attacks on four israeli locations. That was on friday. Now the is rah i will i military says theyve killed seven militants trying to i infiltrate the border. Theyre calling them terrorists. Cnns ben wedeman is in southern lebanon. Ben, youve been at the fun rahel of a journalist killed in this conflictet. You knew this man killed and others also injured. Whats happening where you are and can you also talk about what led up to his death . Reporter were in south lebanon, very close to the border between israel and lebanon. It was there to the west of here that i sam abdallah, a cameraman for reuters, ive known him for years, we worked together in syria, iraq, and lebanon as well, what happened is yesterday afternoon, the israelis claimed there was an explosion on the border wall and that set off a series of fire back and forth, and what we understand is that just before dusk there were two missile strikes where they were gathered together. All of them were wearing press gear, clearly marked press gear. They were out in the open, so there was nothing suspicious about their movements. They had tripods out and everything. Anyway, apparently they were struck twice with missiles. Issam was killed almost immediately. Anothers leg had to be amputated, and others were injured as well. We were at this funeral. This is issam abdallahs hometown. There were loved ones, friends, relatives who came, but also journalists from beirut. He was with very popular with the press corps in beirut, somebody you would run into all overer the region. This is somebody who dedicated his life to journalism and now has lost his life doing journalism. Israelis say they regret the incident, but they dont know exactly what led to this incident. But certainly its the gravest incident hear in south lebanon. Of course, in gaza, weve seen seven, eight journalists killed already in this conflict. So much travelinggy. Two of americas Top National Security officials are putting up a united front to visits in the middle east. Defense secretary laid austin and secretary Antony Blinken pledge United States support for israel in separate meetings. This is a major diplomatic challenge, you understand. How does the u. S. Keep this war from expanding . With us now Jennifer Hansler from washington d. C. Jennifer . Good morning, amara and victor. This is something thats concerning given the defensive deployment weve seen overer the past few days. As you mentioned, Defense Secretary lloyd austin was there yesterday. Blinken was in bahrain, qatar, now saudi arabia. Their messaging has been full. Theyve been offered their fullthroated support. Secretary blinken said yesterday these would not be retaliatory but defensive. At the same time theyve spoken on the need to protect the civilians. Thats a message blinken reiterated this morning in a meeting with the Saudi Arabia Foreign minister. Take a look at that. As israel pursues its legitimate right to defending its people and to ensure it never happens again, its vitale important we look out for civilians, and were working together to do exactly that. We know Behind The Scenes Blinken has been pushing for safe zones within gaza to protect them from incoming incursion by the military. Its unclear where those safe zones will be established. There is also, of course, the issue of trying to prevent the war from expanding even further. At this point its on one front with hamas. However, iran, hezbollah have threatened to join. Thats something blinken has pushed. Hes pushing those partners who have any sway over these actors to stop them from joining. Theres also the issue of the hostages. We know blinken has brought this up in a number of his meetings, plaerly with with the qataries to get them to release these hostages. Amara and victor . Jennifer, thank you very much. Kimberly dozier with the new york times. Good morning, kimberly. Lets talk about the border. Obviously there have been explosions and fighting, but for the most part, the way its been described is kind of eerily quiet. Do you see this as the lull before the storm . Well, the israelis have had to pause at least their Ground Operations as we suspect that theyre planning to do some major incursion into gaza long enough for some of the civilians to head south. I think this has come from the public pressure in the days past. The reports from inside of gaza of civilian casualties thus far, and this is exact Ly The Action from the israelis that hamas hoped to likely provoke because its now dominating international airways, Galvanizing Airways across the world in support of a palestinian cause that they hadnt paid much attention to in the past several years and also creating an outcry to the International Community including top european officials that this is a human rights violation, and the Ground Invasion hasnt even started. If and one it does, you know, what is the concern in terms of regional reaction and what is the threshold for lebanon to get involved . I think the Hezbollah Fighting Organization is waiting for help from iran and that depends on the type of level of destruction we see out of gaza. Its unclear whether iran in this situation is playing a harassment role, having Hezbollah Fire just enough rockets to keep is israelis Military Focus On Gaza or whether this is a wider twofront war with irans backing. Iran knows if it reveals a direct role, it also risks getting hit by israel by rocket fire and it risks further censure by the International Community. We have no way of knowing at this point. But the iranian minister has warned if the fighting gets worse, things could change. He did say lebanons security is irans security, obviously an ominous warning there. Regardless of whats happening on the front we just heard secretary austin is on this whirlwindle trip. Of course, this is to avoid worldwide escalation. What kind of role could qatar even play . Qatar has not only hosted hamas leaders but also been in charge of funneling a great deal of aid, including construction capability into gaza, basically vouching for the cement that goes in, et cetera, that it will only be used for civilian construction and not hamas military tunnel network. Theyve bragged its like 300 miles long. They have this political conduit that has lent hamas legitimacy, so theyre one of the best possible routes to some sort of compromise, but with every passing hour and every reported civilian casualty on the gaza side, that means that hamas position is likely hardening. Look, the possibility of negotiating the release of the hostages was always very slim. If anyone could pull it off, its probably the qataries and the do you sorry to jump in there. Do you think there are active conversations happening between the qataries and hamas leadership . I know the qataries were willing to take part in the conversations, and i believe cnn has reported theyve been going on. But with every hour that passes, time is running out. The only exit, i get, for Human Passage right now out of gaza is the Rafah Crossing Out off of egypt down south. Do you expect egypt to step up and help with evacuations . I know the humanitarian aid is at the border on the egypt side, were hearing from egyptian officials. How do you expect that to play out . I think humanitarian aid will be allowed to come in, but egypt doesnt want to become like lebanon or jordan with an influx of Palestinian Refugees that will never be allowed back and then becomes egypts responsibility. I dont know the israel would allow them to leave, but i think you might see it open up to at least allow american citizens, german citizens, eu citizens, and for the u. N. And other agent aboutcies to bring in things like tents, water, food, things to support the vast population for months to come. Its already one of the most dense will i populated urban areas in the world. Still to come, Tens Of Thousands of people are evacuating Northern Gaza after israels urging. Well talk with a man whose palestinian mother is trying to get out. So there are an estimated 500 to 600 palestinian americans in gaza right now today in collaboration with authorities. The u. N. Intends to open the crossing to allow them from gaza into egypt. Theres a sixhour time frame for millions to evacuate south for their own safety, which were more than halfway through that window. Its about 2 30 local time there, which means they have about an hour and a half before that Safe Passage Window closes. Were joined by a man whose mother, a palestinian american, is currently trying to leave gaza. I appreciate you joining us this morning. Im sorry about the stress an ld the anguish you must be going through. When did you last speak with your mother, and where is she now . Thank you very much for having me, amara and victor. Right now my mother is still in gaza. The last time i spoke to her, its been at least over 12 hours. However, ive spoken to my uncle to check up on her about 12 hours ago. Im not able right now to communicate with her, but im hoping that shes okay. I read that shes traveling with i forgot this number right dozens of Family Members. Have they been forced because of the aerial strikes to move around gaza, or have they been hunkered down in one location . Yes. So recently israel gave them about 24 hours to evacuate and 1. 1 million to leave gaza down south. My mother when she heard that news, she was like, i dont want to leave. Shes with her siblings, with her grandmother. There are about 50 people in the building. She didnt want to leave with the bombing continuing. Then she thought, all right, i have to get out of here. Right now they started in groups of five or ten to get into vehicles, and once they sort of secured a place down south, they started slowly heading down south. Now, i have my wife also who has her grandmother there as well. She didnt leave right away. She waited until the last hour of that 24 hours, you know, until it got really bad, and then she decided, thats it, i. Ed to get out. But by that time there was traffic, right, so here she is, my wifes grandmother, bombs sort of reigning down on her and shes heading south and shes trying to have to deal with traffic. The situation is just horrible, horrible. Its terrifying. Forgive me if you already mentioned this. Did you say your mother is in gaza city or where was she when you last spoke with her if you dont mind me asking . Yeah. She was in gaza city, but last time i spoke to her, she did leave south, so she moved eventually with her entire family. They went down south. Are you concerned about this window . Its a sixhour window thats going to close in about an hour and a half. With all the traffic your Family Members have been encountering, what are your biggest concerns. My biggest concern is the israelis have cut off water, food, fuel, medical supplies. So every time when i call my mother, all i hear are sort of bombs in the background. Whats concerning to me, one time i speak to her, im able to reach her. Half an hour later im not able to reach her. Your mind begins to wonder, is she still alive . Was she another victim of Collateral Damage . So really my wife as well with her extended family there is dealing with the same situation, too, so were constantly calling each other just checking to make sure, did you talk to someone . Are they okay, are they alive. You know, recently my mother also called me. She turned roaming on her cellphone and then she calls me and says, its not working, call at t. So i go, mom, its probably Israeli Military bombed one of the cell towers. So i go. I call at t. Yes, they did confirm one of their partner cell towers is down over there. So its really challenging. When they do get a little bit of Electricity Due to generators or solarpowered generators, they get a little bit of electricity there. Shes able to connect to wifi, i talk to her, and then it goes away. So its really challenging. And here i am just trying you know, trying to be strong for my three little kids worried about their grandmother, my wife, her family as well, and im trying to put emotion aside. Weve got to try to let it work with our representatives and try to get my mother out. We know youre working with senator dick durbin and you have been in contact with the state didnt and so hopefully youll get answers soon. Nabil alshurafa, thank you. Still to come, u. S. Intelligence warned of potential violence days before the hamas attack in israel. Details of what was suspected after the break. We have more details about the u. S. Intelligence assessment before the attack on israel. Sources tell cnn while there were warnings of increased activity by hamas, they did not warn of any attacks that unfolded. Its unclear if any of the assessments were shared with israel. Heres cnns Alex Marquardt with where and when. Reporter cnn says there were warnings by gaza that something could happen but nothing like we saw last weekend. There were at least two reports in the days leading up to the horrific events in the days leading up to october 7th. The u. S. Intelligence community issued warnings of Potential Cross Border Warnings by hamas with rocket fire and then the growing possibility of violence around gaza. Then on october 6th there was a third report from israel. That was the day before the attacks saying there was unusual activity by hamas. Sources are now telling cnn that these reports look nothing like what ended up unfolding in terms of the scope and barbarity. A Biden Administration official tells cnn, quote, there wu no Information Warning of the Terrorist Attack ahead. Instead they said if something happened it would look more like it had in the past with interceptions of rockets by gaza. But more profoundly, there was a general complacency that had taken hold in israel, Ujds Estimating What Hamas could pull off. Given that hamas and gaza are in israels backyard, the onus is primarily on isthe israelis abo the potential plot. This is also raising questions about whether the Biden Administration was taken the hamas threat seriously enough. Alex marquardt, cnn, washington. All right, alex, thank you. To analyze these new revelations, lets get to shaun turner, former director of communications. Good morning to you. Its not clear whether this intel or analysis was shared with israel, but typically would Something Like this be shared with israel . Well, good morning, victor. Typically this is the type of intelligence that would be shared with israel, but i think its important to put some perspective around that. As alex pointed out in his piece, u. S. Intelligence regularly picks up on various aspects of whats happening in israel and gaza in relation to what hamas might be planning. I think as the piece pointed out, what ive been told and experienced when i was with the intelligence community, this is not terribly unusual, and so you get a situation in which you see indications that hamas might be planning something. And what typically i ha ps is you see that in one location. That intelligence is analyzed, its shared, and rarely does anything happen, and when it does, its usually dealt with. I think whats difference with this intelligence is we begin to see indications that there was something that was going to happen in multiple locations often ld the same time, and that certainly raised some alarms, but, again, theres the sense that this is the environment there and so there wasnt a lot of concern where the intelligence was initially seen. Lets put up a timeline of the reports just days before the attack. September 28th. Multiple intel streams warned hamas was poised to ramp up rocket attacks. And then on the 5th, the cia warned of Potential Increase in violence. The 6th, and then on the 7th, one week ago today were the attacks. We have in the media and i think in National Security circles, this has been characterized as a failure of Israeli Intelligence. Was this a failure of Israeli Intelligence alone . No, not of the Israeli Intelligence alone. Im glad you raised this point, victor. It certainly is the case that the gaza strip is one of the most surveilled and monitored areas on earth. There are cameras everywhere, sensors, listening devices. Israel has a really strong and solid sense of whats happening there. But its important to point out that hamas also understands that the gaza area is heavily surveilled. When all the planning was happening, the plogt was happening, its important to understand that was happening in the Context Understanding they needed to work to stay under the radar. When we look at the aftermath, go back and assess what happened here, well certainly see israelle tied off the ball and that contributed to what happened here, but well also see hamas came up with ways to communicate that allowed them to stay under the radar. They came up with ways to train that did not look suspicious at the time. So youll see a sort of interaction effect, sort of convergence of events that will have led to what will certainly be seen as an Intelligence Failure but not simply on the part of israel. There will be the subsequent commissions and investigations and reports an probably changes to the intel sharing between maybe the u. S. And israel specifically. Sh shawn turner, thank you so much. Coming up, were going to hear from the uncle of the twin babies killed in the hamas attack. We are continuing to hear of stories of hoerer and survival just miles from gaza. This one at the kfar aza kibbutz. The uncle of those babies spoke to cnns anderson cooper. We woke up. We heard a lot of missiles and bombs starting to fall in the kibbutz, then realized that somethings happening, but in the beginning, you didnt hear it wasnt too different than other times that they shot on us, but very soon after they started here, Hand Grenades and automatic rep weapons just outside of their houses, outside of my window. We realized Something Else else was going on. We got into the shelter, my wife, myself, and our baby. Slowly, slowly the electricity just fell down. We stayed with no air, no light, no nothing, and slowly, slowly from the messages, whats up between friends and family and people in the kibbutz, we realized whats going on all over. Do you know at this stage what happened to your sister and her husband . Did they have a safe room. Yeah. All of us have these shelter rooms, and in the beginning, i think around quarter to 7 00, 7 00 in the morning my sister was still on whatsapp on the family group, and all of us texted to each other all is all right, everything is all right at that point. But slowly, slowly all of the all of us kept texting and con except them. They didnt answer. We knew all of us were having problems with the connection and with the electricity. I dont know. Maybe this is the story we wanted to tell to ourselves to feel better about it. But after five, six hours we thought something was wrong. After we got the messaged from their neighbor that that hears twins screaming nonstop, plus that they didnt answer us, didnt text for many, many hours, i think that even though we didnt want to believe it, we knew that something is wrong there. Well be right back. Now to a cnn special investigation, looking into the Deadly Weapons used by hamas during their Surprise Attack on israel. Cnns Oren Liebermann has what those weapons were and where they came from. Reporter weapons fashioned in hamas Homegrown Facility but nonetheless deadly. They worked to identify the weapons used to kill at least 1,200 people. The most important is that its easily interchangeable, its reliable, dependable, and you can get parts for it. Reporter many like this machine gun appear to be russian or chinese firearms, relics from previous wars that made their way into the hands of hamas. The ak47, the preferred weapon for militant groups, capable of Spewing Automatic Fire with horrific results. The Assault Rifles a long with the grenades carried by the hamas militants made them deadly when they neared villages and towns of gaza. All theyre trying to do is provide the shock effect. Theyre very rudimentary, but based on their training and how they operate them, theyre successful with them. Reporter hamas main rep weapon has been their rockets, shortrange and longrange. The terrorism that began on saturday began with a barrage of rocket file, a smoke screen. Its a tactic theyve refined over the years. Thats the capability for the enemy, hamas, to fire them up against potentially commercial aircraft, and that, i think, is one of the major issues of these Terrorist Groups is they have those kinds of weapons in their hands. Reporter hamas used pair a gliders to cross the border. Theyre barely maneuver aboutle but easy to target in the air, but in the chaos of the moment, the plan worked. Many of the weapons wither low tech. Israel built a Complex Underground Barrier to stop them crossing the border so hamas used a bulldozer to tear down the fence. Theyre looking to create chaos with the kind of equipment they have, and the equipment has got to be reliable. Reporter the weapons that we looked at are only what came out of the attack, but we know hamas has other weapons. We have seen them use antitank and armor weapons. Its what makes an Israel Ground incursion so much more difficult. Well go live with more on the war in israel at the top of the hour. Thousands are leaving Northern Gaza in cars and taxis. Many are seen walking. Weve got about an hour left in this sixhour window of free passage from Northern Gaza to southern gaza. Stay with us. 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. Is it possible my network could take my business to the next level . It is with comcast business. Powering all your devices with gigspeed wifi. And you get fast downloads and uploads. 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