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Israel Marks October 7 Attack Anniversary As Middle East Tensions Continue; Harris, Trump Campaigns Lean Into Final 30 Days of Election; Milton Intensifies Into Category 1 Hurricane. Hurricane Milton Now Category 1, Set to Hit Florida Mid-Week; Israel Marks One Year Since Hamas Attacks on October 7th; U.S. on Alert Amid Record Spike in Anti-Semitic Threats; UNICEF: At Least 100 Children Killed, 690-plus Injured in Lebanon; Pope Francis Picks 21 New Cardinals in Surprise Announcement; Chinese Hackers Infiltrate U.S. Telecom Firms. Aired 1-2a ET

Aired October 07, 2024 - 01:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome, everyone. I'm Michael Holmes. Appreciate your company. Coming up here on CNN Newsroom. One year on Israel, marking the somber anniversary of the Hamas attacks that left hundreds dead and triggered a wide scale conflict in Gaza. Devastating human toll on both sides, with Israel currently fighting on multiple fronts.

And Florida bracing for yet another major hurricane as the state is still cleaning up from the devastation from Helene less than two years ago.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live from Atlanta, this is CNN Newsroom with Michael Holmes.

HOLMES: We begin with a milestone in Israel, where the country is marking one year since the deadly attacks by Hamas on October 7 that killed at least 1,200 people. Let's have a look at live pictures now of the Nova music festival site that's coming to us live. You see the people there marking the occasion. Survivors and families of the victims all gathered there.

One year ago today, Hamas militants killed 347 people at that spot. Earlier, the final music track of the festival was replayed before a minute of silence.

And in the hours ahead, other commemorations will be held across Israel for the attack victims ahead of the one year anniversary, images of the hostages taken by Hamas were projected onto the walls of Jerusalem's old city. As of today, the Israeli prime minister's officer says that there are 101 hostages in Gaza. That includes 35 believed to have died there.

CNN's Nic Robertson is following developments, joins me now from the Nova festival site in southern Israel. Nic, paint us a picture of how this anniversary is being marked there in terms of events, but also so in terms of the sheer emotion that you're no doubt seeing.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, it's somber, it's sad. You see a lot of tears here. Just look over my shoulder. There's a father there standing by the memorial to his son. He's been standing there for the last 2 hours. We've seen him. This has been a moment for families to come back here, to remember their loved ones, for young people who survived that night, to come back here.

One young lady told me that she still has guilt over it, that she came here. She told some of her friends to come with her. She survived. They didn't. She said that how do you move on from that? And this is a sentiment we've heard from a lot of people. I spoke to the aunt of Amit. Amit was 23 when she was killed here. Here's her aunt.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTSON: And how does it feel being back after a year? I mean, does it feel like a year? How does it feel?

RINAT LIOR, AUNT OF VICTIM AMIT LAHAV: It feels like yesterday. And we still haven't accept that she's gone. It's very hard to be here. We've been here a couple of times and it's very emotional. And she was murdered with her best friend Shira. That's very difficult to be here.

ROBERTSON: Because it's still -- you have your losses.

LIOR: Yes.

ROBERTSON: But still the loss going on is lost (inaudible).

LIOR: We didn't anticipate that it's going to be one year. We thought it's going to be one week, going to bring all the hostages and that's it. The world is continuing with people from the south and the north that haven't lived in their houses for a year. So it's very difficult and we're trying to move on, but I find it difficult to move on. Very difficult. And as you see, it's getting worse with the war in Lebanon and all the soldiers that are killed and all the civilians that are killed, and we want to stop it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[01:05:15]

ROBERTSON: Yes. I think the most striking thing about being here right now is to see how this site has become such a revered commemoration site, but to just see how many people have come despite the fact that a couple of miles away in Gaza there is still a war going on, there's a heavy security presence around Gaza. You probably hear some of the artillery being fired in the background there. There are Apache gunships overhead.

The government's done a lot to make the site safe. The president was here speaking to family members. He was speaking to a few journalists away from the main event a few minutes ago. I think this sets the tone for the day. And perhaps those that have been able to come here and commemorate here are the luckier ones today because many of the commemorations, the public has been told to stay away because it's simply too dangerous to have a lot of people all in one place. Michael.

HOLMES: Yes. We talked about this last hour, and I want to revisit it for people who may just join because I think it's important that people are saying, and I heard one father say, that he wasn't suffering post-traumatic stress because the trauma, the stress is current. Tell us what you've been hearing in that regard.

ROBERTSON: Yes. The same thing that people just haven't been able to move on a day. They're not sure what it will take to do that. Will it bring peace to bring that? Will it bring the hostages being brought home to get a sense of closure for all the families who lost loved ones as well? Because I think they share that grief, the grief that hostage families experience. It is shared by those who lost loved ones.

And, you know, they can come back here and visit after a year. But it, and although several people have said to me they've come back because they hoped it would bring closure, when you ask, is it bringing closure? The answer is that it isn't one young man I spoke to, 26 years old, told me he'd been here at the festival that night, had managed to survive, had been back a number of times here.

But even for him, it doesn't really change his ability to cope with it. He was literally trembling when we spoke about it. You could see his lips were trembling, his arms were trembling. Just bringing those moments a year ago going from darkness because that's what really brought home to me, being here at that same time, 6:29 in the morning, it was dark. And that's when the confusion happened. That's when the sirens went off. That's when the missiles came in.

And for people here to have a sense of what was going on in what would have been darkness, like the verge of sunrise. You can begin to understand how bad the confusion and the terror and the horror must have been, particularly when people realized these were guys on trucks with automatic weapons who were driving in among them and shooting them.

I talked to one lady. I came back here with her a month after October 7, and she showed me the hedge line that she hid in the trees that she hid in. And she said, I lay there and I could see, you know, my friends begging for their lives while they were shot. They begged for mercy, and they didn't get mercy. They were killed.

So, anyone who has a connection with this side, who comes here, I think, gets wrapped up in those emotions. And that's what we're seeing here today.

HOLMES: Yes, Nic, thank you. Nic Robertson at the Nova festival site in southern Israel. I know you've been there many times, including in the days after the attacks. Thanks, Nick.

And the co-founder of the Nova music festival spoke with CNN earlier about the lasting effects of the October 7 attack. He says although a year has passed, it still feels as if he is living the same day over again.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OFIR AMIR, CO-FOUNDER, NOVA MUSIC FESTIVAL: October 7 is a year has passed, but we still feel like we are on October 7. And it's just a long day that never ends. October 6 was one of my happiest days of really. We accomplished to create the biggest festival we wanted to in Israel with collaboration of the biggest festival in Brazil, having over 300 people coming to Israel for this festival from all over the world to celebrate love, peace, freedom.

The dance floor is supposed to be the safest place on earth, where it doesn't matter where you come from, you can be whoever you want to be. And we believe that when you're in the dance floor, it doesn't matter who you are, what religion, what color, we are all the same.

[01:10:03]

So for us, the dance floor is supposed to be the most sacred and safest place. And it's unimaginable what happened on that day. It started on 6:29 with the rockets. And what happened next, no one could ever believe. Unfortunately, a year has passed. But like me and most of the survivors and the families, we still feel, unfortunately on October 7.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Alon Ohel was 22 years old when he was kidnapped by Hamas on October 7. He fled the Nova music festival in his car. But his mother says Hamas terrorists found the shelter he and others were hiding in and threw grenades inside. He was one of just the few who survived that. His family knew he was still alive after seeing a video of Alon getting pulled into Hamas truck. She says the world can't forget innocent people are still being held.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

IDIT OHEL, MOTHER OF HOSTAGE ALON OHEL: They're innocent civilians. They just went to, like, Alon just went to a Nova festival trying to have fun, and was taken from Israeli land. He did nothing wrong. And I say to everyone, to every mother, you know, Alon is not just my son. He's everyone's son.

And when you think about it, if your son was taken from you, you know, kidnapped or daughter, if you do everything in your power to bring them back home. So when you think about that and you take all the politics aside, this is a human thing to do.

And, you know, we have to continue thinking about them and doing what we can. We cannot forget that they are still there. I think about Alon as being in 367 days. I don't know if he's seen those days he ever seen sunlight. I don't know if he's getting enough food. I don't know anything.

But I know that this is wrong. And what Hamas did is not human -- it's not human. It's something that you don't do. And we have to change that. We have to make sure that this will never happen again, and we have to bring all the hostages home. It's crucial. It's crucial that this is happening. This will happen soon, now, tomorrow.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: People around the world joining Israel in marking the October 7 attacks. In Paris, people denounced antisemitism at a memorial ceremony for the victims on Sunday. Hundreds then marched near the Eiffel Tower, calling for the release of the remaining hostages.

In London, several thousand attended a vigil at Hyde Park, where the mother of Emily Demari, the only remaining British Israeli hostage, spoke. Some waved Israeli flags. Others held posters of hostage photographs. And in Berlin, hundreds of people rallied at the Brandenburg Gate in support of Israel.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

YEHUDA TEICHTAL, RABBI (through translator): Today we remember over 1200 men, women and children. They were murdered by Hamas on October 7. And we say together, the voice of your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground. Genesis 4:10. We will never forget them. We stand together with them and we pray to God that the hostages will come home now, bring them home now. It is our job, every single person to fight antisemitism.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Israel on high alert for possible attacks by Hamas on the anniversary. The military says it's ramping up security measures across the country, including bolstering troops near Gaza. Now that comes after Israel's military launched a new ground operation in northern Gaza, saying their troops have encircled Jabalya after seeing signs of Hamas regrouping.

To the north. Meanwhile, the IDF says it struck multiple Hezbollah targets in Beirut on Sunday as it continues to pummel Lebanon as well. An additional 19 villages in southern Lebanon are now facing new evacuation warnings. 120 others already do.

In northern Israel, an attack on Sunday wounded at least five people. Hezbollah says it launched rockets targeting an Israeli military base near Haifa. CNN's Paula Hancocks joins me now from Abu Dhabi.

Paula, obviously an emotional day in Israel, but when you look at Israel's response to October 7, in a military sense, almost total destruction in Gaza, 40,000 dead, 100,000 wounded. Civilians in Gaza are paying and still pay for what Hamas did that day.

[01:15:04]

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's right, Michael. It was the deadliest attack in Israel's history. But it's also been that the most deadly and devastating impact in Gaza, as you say, well over 40,000 killed, 41,800 according to the Ministry of Health figures. And they say that around almost 17,000 of those, our children, many women as well.

So it really has been a devastating year for the civilians of Gaza. They have been evacuated from different areas as the Israeli military has been operating in different areas. They say to eliminate Hamas, also accusing Hamas of hiding among the civilian population, which Hamas denies. But for civilians on the ground, they have been moved countless times. Food, shelter, water is in very scant supply.

Humanitarian aid groups talk about the devastation in Gaza and just how difficult it is to be able to get enough supplies into the enclave to try and make a difference on the ground.

And you did mention there, Michael, it's interesting that the IDF says it is now about to carry out a ground operation in Jabalya. Now, this is an area in northern Gaza which was really one of the first areas that the Israeli military was operating in just after October 7, home to the biggest refugee camp in Gaza. And it's an area where the Israeli military has operated a number of times. And they have said that they have cleared Hamas from that area, but they now say that they believe that Hamas is regrouping. It is rebuilding within Jabalya itself.

And this is something we have seen across the Gaza Strip as the Israeli military says it has cleared an area and moves onto another area. Then they say that Hamas is able to regroup. So Israel's declaration, the Israeli prime minister's declaration that he would destroy Hamas is clearly not happening at this point.

We heard from the United States and President Biden saying he doesn't believe that Hamas would be able to carry out anything like an October 7 attack. It has been degraded militarily and politically up until this point. But a year on, we're still seeing the Israeli military going into areas that they said they had cleared months ago. So a very difficult situation for people on the ground, Michael.

HOLMES: Yes, yes. Hamas may be degraded, but it is still operational, clearly. Meanwhile, Israeli attacks on Lebanon continue apace.

HANCOCKS: That's right. Well, there were a number of airstrikes overnight in southern Beirut. The Israeli Air Force saying that they were striking intelligent -- the intelligence headquarters of Hezbollah, also weapons storage facilities. And there were continued airstrikes in southern Lebanon as well.

There have been more evacuation orders issued to some of those places. And villages in southern Lebanon telling civilians to move away from those areas as Hezbollah, they say, is operating in those areas. There's some more than 120 villages at this point which have the evacuation orders.

So we're seeing great displacement within Lebanon itself. We have also seen that Hezbollah is still firing rockets. The IDF saying that there were more than 100 rockets that had been fired on Sunday. And it appears for the first time they actually hit the city of Haifa.

The Hezbollah saying that they were trying to target the Carmel military base. And we understand that at least five people were injured in that particular rocket attack. Now this is an area, Haifa, that was targeted frequently back in 2006 during that war with Israel. But we're seeing now what appears to be the first time that this city is really coming under fire from those rockets. Michael.

HOLMES: All right. Appreciate the update, Paula. Thank you. Paula Hancocks there in Abu Dhabi for us. We are less than a month away now from the election day in the US. Kamala Harris and Donald Trump entering the final sprint for the race -- in the race for the White House. We'll explain what they've been doing with that time when we come back.

Also, less than two weeks after Helene, Florida getting ready for another major hurricane. We'll have the latest on Milton's track and how millions across the state are starting to prepare once again.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:21:55]

HOLMES: Live pictures coming out of Re'im in Israel, the site of the Nova music festival massacre one year ago today, Hamas militants swarmed the festival killing Israeli civilians and kidnapping others. Today, survivors and victims' family members are gathering at the site to pray for their loved ones and demand the safe return of the remaining hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza.

Israel's defense minister is telling CNN that Israel continues to be in close contact with the US. Meanwhile, as it prepares to respond to Iran's October 1 missile strike. Yoav Gallant saying everything is on the table even as the U.S. has made it clear that it opposes a strike on Iranian nuclear or oil facilities.

Gallant will meet with his us counterpart Lloyd Austin this week to coordinate on threats from Iran and its proxies.

Election day in the U.S. is now 29 days away after what a four-year campaign and the Harris and Trump campaigns racing to win over undecided voters in critical swing states. Republican nominee Donald Trump addressing supporters in the battleground state of Wisconsin on Sunday, ramping up his attacks on the Biden-Harris administration and his grim, dark rhetoric on what he thinks will happen if he loses in November.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: But if you go four more years, you may never recover. In fact, I will say and some people say it. I think it's very severe, but I can understand it. Some people say you'll never have an election again. This would be your last election, and I can see it. Remember, I used to say we'll be Venezuela on steroids. And that's sort of what's happening. We're Venezuela on steroids.

(END VIDEO CLIP) HOLMES: A recent CNN poll of polls in Wisconsin, as you see, they're showing a tight race, no clear leader, well within the margin of error. But the Harris campaign is conducting a series of high profile interviews this week in the hopes of winning over any undecided voters.

Political analyst Michael Genovese joins me now from Los Angeles. He's the president of the Global Policy Institute at Loyola Marymount University. I wanted to start with Israel on October 7 if I may, as that is being marked, death and destruction continues in Lebanon and Gaza.

What has been the political impact in the U.S. of particularly the scale of death and destruction in Gaza? Considerable anger towards the Biden administration's support for Israel from its own party supporters. How much is it hurt with the election looming?

MICHAEL GENOVESE, POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, you know, Michael, rarely do American elections hinge on foreign policy issues. Most American voters are concerned with bread and butter issues, pocketbook issues, the economy. The crisis in the Middle east is the exception. And that exception is going to hurt the Harris campaign. She is attached to the Biden policies and she has to defend them.

[01:25:04]

And so what we're seeing is that a lot of traditional democratic voters, for example, young people, are turned off by the administration's position. And so she may lose some of those voters in a race that is so tight, it's like two coats of paint. A small defection by just a small number of young voters who just don't show up could turn the tide against Harris.

HOLMES: Yes. Yes, very good point. I mean, and I guess, you know, in real politics, Biden's room to maneuver, to influence or leverage Netanyahu is limited because he's got to avoid exacerbating the domestic political impact of the war in the Middle East. And that's a factor that Netanyahu, a consummate operator in us politics, surely understands as well. He's got him over a barrel.

GENOVESE: Well, Joe Biden is a lame duck, and in the last few weeks, he'll be a dead duck politically. He doesn't have the kind of clout or influence that the president normally would have. And all of the sides in the region are kind of very tentative right now, playing a waiting game in a kind of political limbo, waiting and calculating to see what will come next. How will we respond to a Trump presidency or Harris presidency? And so that brings a little bit of confusion and a lot of uncertainty, and that's never a good thing.

HOLMES: So what sort of challenge, then, does the Mideast more broadly, whether it's Israel-Gaza, Israel-Lebanon, Israel-Iran, what sort of challenge does the region pose to whoever wins this election and how differently might it be handled?

GENOVESE: Well, Michael, every president since Ronald Reagan has been hounded and in some cases haunted by the complex politics and the uncertainty and the contradictory politics of the Middle East. And so the question president's face coming in is, how much of my political capital will I invest? How much shall I focus on the region? Would I better off pulling back a little bit, maybe distancing myself? American presidents just can't do that, though.

We are so enmeshed in the region and the future, not just of that region, but global politics hinges a great deal on what happens in that region. So the next president's going to have that on his plate, and it's going to have to be very seriously dealt with. You can't run away from it any longer.

HOLMES: Yes. It's been interesting watching Donald Trump's public performances and what appear to be, you know, even more egregious lies about immigrants, hurricane relief, funding, election security, even whether his opponents tried to kill him. All sorts of things, really. I mean, is this situation normal or are you sensing some panic from him?

GENOVESE: I don't know if it's panic, but he's certainly gone past the norms of rhetoric, very heated and excessive rhetoric. You know, we all know they're eating the dogs. And he keeps going further and further. So the question is, why would he do that? Maybe he's panting, but maybe he's decided that he can't win. Switchover voters who are on the fence, and he's given up on trying to convince people to come on board.

What he would be trying to do is basically gin up the base, get them excited, get them committed, and get them out to vote. In a tight race, as this will be, turnout might be the key. And so if you have an enthusiastic base, you throw them the red meat and they get excited, they'll turn out to vote. And that's the way Trump thinks he might be able to win.

HOLMES: Yes. Even the New York Times out with an article today about how incoherent and rambling these rallies are. And if you actually listen to one for more than five minutes, it's pretty stunning to hear. So what then does the Harris campaign need to do to carve off more of those independent voters or Trump reluctant Republicans says her messaging been effective enough?

GENOVESE: Well, number one, she's got to do what she's starting to do, which is send Barack Obama into the Midwest, into those key states and have him try to work his magic. She also has to convince people that she's the candidate because she is still known, but not well known. And she's going to be spending certainly the next week, we know, going out and doing a lot of interviews and trying to show people that she's presidential.

She still, even at this stage, has not demonstrated that, If she can do that, she can win some of the undecided. But I think Harris, like Trump, is going to be a base election. She's going to have to get them energized and hope that there's a high turnout. And that means the ground game is going to be important.

And at this point, Harris has a better ground game than Trump. Trump's ground game is a lot invested in trying to deny people the right to vote and then prepare for lawsuits if he loses. So there are various different strategies in the ground game. Harris's best chances are ground game.

[01:29:50]

HOLMES: Yes. Always good to talk to you, Michael. Michael Genovese, thank you so much.

GENOVESE: Thank you, Michael.

HOLMES: All right. We are following a new hurricane forming in the Gulf of Mexico, which is set to make a direct hit on Florida later this week, a state still reeling from Hurricane Helene less than two weeks ago.

Hurricane Milton quickly grew to Category 1 strength on Sunday and could become a major Category 3 storm before its expected landfall on Wednesday.

More than 15 million people in Florida are under flood watches, nearly 400 millimeters of rain possible in some areas.

Florida's governor expanding a state of emergency now to more than 50 counties in advance of Milton's approach.

More now on the preparations happening throughout the state from CNN's Rafael Romo.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: In addition to the declaring a state of emergency in 51 counties, Florida governor Ron DeSantis has ordered management sites to remain open 24/7, so that many areas covered by debris after Hurricane Helene can be cleared before the arrival of Milton, which became a hurricane.

More than 800 guardsmen are currently deployed for debris removal, but DeSantis said there will soon be up to 4,000 available.

We also heard from Florida Senator Rick Scott, who said that Milton has the potential of causing much greater damage than Helene, which pummeled Florida less than two weeks ago.

With Helene, Scott said, over a million households were left without power. Milton has the potential of having an impact that will be much worse.

SENATOR RICK SCOTT (R-FL): It seems like a lot of our storms have become water events. We got it all with this one. We're going to have storm surge. We're going to have flooding. We're going to have massive winds, and guess what I mean you're going to lose power.

ROMO: We heard a similar assessment from Governor DeSantis Sunday, who also said that Florida is going to see a lot of power outages and that is something that people should prepare for adding that crews are already getting staged to restore electricity as soon as possible. His emergency management director warned people that evacuations will

be necessary at a level Florida hasn't probably seen since 2017 when Hurricane Irma hit the peninsula.

Florida attorney general Ashley Moody says, people should realize that evacuating is a life-or-death decision.

ASHLEY MOODY, FLORIDA ATTORNEY GENERAL: If they say get out and it's going to hit us like this and they can't predict exactly that storm surge and you are in an evacuation zone, you probably need to write your name in permanent marker on your arm so that people know who you are when they get to you afterwards.

ROMO: More than 500,000 people in Pinellas County where we saw many getting sandbags ready on Sunday could be ordered to evacuate Monday as well. Many of these people were also impacted by Helene and have yet to recover from it.

Manatee County located just north of Sarasota, earlier announced that they will begin evacuations Monday afternoon in preparation for the storm's arrival.

Rafael Romo, CNN -- Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: The death toll from Hurricane Helene is now at least 232 across six states. North Carolina with the majority of those deaths, nearly 120 lives lost according to officials.

Helene's path of destruction battered the western part of the state, tearing up roads, and making some areas unrecognizable.

Florida has recalled assets deployed across the region to assist with its own cleanup. One resident telling CNN, they were quote, "mountains and mountains: of garbage and debris waiting to be disposed of.

They fear if cleanup doesn't progress quickly, the coming hurricane could do even more damage.

And we will be right back.

[01:33:36]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Welcome back. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM with me, Michael Holmes.

At the Nova Music Festival Memorial, Israelis have been paying somber tribute to the victims of the Hamas terror attacks on October 7. The militants killed 347 people at the festival and took 40 others hostage, turning a joyful festival into a scene of horror and death.

The images of the hostages were projected onto the walls of Jerusalem's old city on Sunday. The friends and families of those still held captive in Gaza, demanding the Israeli government bring their loved ones home.

Now the events of October 7th continued to affect so many a year later, of course. A former hostage and a woman whose father was killed at the Nova Festival, spoke of their unresolved trauma.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NOA ARGAMANI, FORMER HOSTAGE IN GAZA (through translator): The entire country is in mourning. We've all lost someone close to us and we are all left with a huge hole in our hearts.

I still don't know where to start picking up the pieces, how to find hope, and how to look forward.

I'm still asking why, why this happened, why it happened to our loved ones, to those dear to us.

SHAKED SHALEV, FATHER WAS KILLED AT NOVA MUSIC FESTIVAL (through translator): For us, those who lost their dearest ones, nothing will ever be the same again.

What do we do? Where do we go from here? I don't know. Maybe I'll have an answer one day. Maybe answers will come to everyone one day for everything.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Law enforcement across the U.S. will have a greater presence in some communities on Monday amid the escalating conflict in the Middle East. It comes amid new data from the Anti-Defamation League showing a record spike in anti-Semitic threats.

CNN's Josh Campbell with details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The number of anti-Semitic incidents in the U.S. tripled since last October's deadly terrorist attack in Israel by Hamas. That according to new data out from the Anti- Defamation League.

They say this is the largest number of incidents that they've recorded since they began tracking threats in the U.S. back in 1979. They say, as of this point, over 10,000 incidents that they've recorded since October 7.

Let's take a look at the numbers. They say at least 8,015 incidents involve verbal or written harassment. There were at least 1,840 incidents of vandalism and at least 150 incidents of physical assault.

Now the CEO of the Anti-Defamation League was on CNN Sunday with our colleague Dana Bash. He spoke about this very dire milestone.

JONATHAN GREENBLATT, CEO, ANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE: ADL has been around for over 110 years and we've never seen data like this before. Think about it. Like we are honoring, commemorating the solemn

anniversary of the murder of 1,200 people, simply because they were Jewish. Like they were slaughtered, they were tortured, they were killed, they were kidnapped.

And yet here in the United States, that triggered a tsunami of anti- Jewish hate.

CAMPBELL: Now the FBI, which enforces federal hate crimes law and collects statistics of its own on violence in this country say that the number of incidents involving Jews far surpass any other hate crime regarding religion.

Take a listen here to FBI director Christopher Wray. He spoke to Congress just after the October 7th attack.

CHRISTOPHER WRAY, FBI DIRECTOR: The Jewish community is uniquely, uniquely targeted by pretty much every terrorist organization across the spectrum.

And when you look at a group that makes up 2.4 percent roughly of the American population, it should be jarring to everyone that, that same population accounts for something like 60 percent of all religious- based hate crimes.

CAMPBELL: And finally, we're learning that the FBI and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security have issued a public advisory warning that Monday's one-year anniversary first three of the October 7th terrorist attack in Israel, along with continued Mideast turmoil, could serve as motivators for violence by extremists.

[01:39:45]

CAMPBELL: They didn't point to any specific and credible threat to the homeland, but they are urging the public to remain vigilant, to report any suspicious activity to law enforcement.

Josh Campbell, CNN -- Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: In Pakistan, a huge explosion outside the Karachi Airport has killed two people and injured at least eight others. Officials say an oil tanker exploded, shaking the country's biggest airport on Sunday.

In this video, you can see vehicles engulfed in flames. A home ministry official says the blast was an attack targeting Chinese nationals one of whom was injured.

There are thousands of Chinese workers in Pakistan, most of them involved in Beijing's multi-billion-dollar belt-and-road initiative that connects East, South, and Central Asia.

Still to come on the program, children in Lebanon have been forced out of their homes and their schools, paying the price for the Israeli- Hezbollah conflict. We'll discuss that when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: UNICEF says at least 100 children have been killed amid the ongoing fighting in Lebanon, hundreds more have been wounded. Lebanese officials say about 400,000 children have already been displaced across the country.

It all comes as an additional 19 villages in southern Lebanon are facing new evacuation warnings, adding to the 120 towns and villages that have already been told to evacuate.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees raising concerns about what's happening on the ground.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FILIPPO GRANDI, U.N. HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES: Unfortunately, many instances of violations of international humanitarian law in the way the airstrikes are conducted that have destroyed or damaged civilian infrastructure, have killed civilians, have impacted humanitarian operations.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: UNICEF spokesperson Tess Ingram joins me now from Beirut in Lebanon. It's good to see you, Tess.

UNICEF says the conflict is exacting a tremendous toll on children, many hundreds wounded, dozens of others dead. What are the children in Lebanon going through right now as the attacks continue?

TESS INGRAM, UNICEF SPOKESPERSON: Yes. That's exactly right. The toll of this conflict has escalated in recent weeks and is really, really taking a tremendous toll on the children here, both as you say, in terms of the numbers killed and injured, but also displaced.

According to the government of Lebanon, 1.2 million people have been displaced here. And we estimate that about 400,000 of those are children. That's several football stadiums full of children displaced from their homes with almost nothing.

The families that I've spoken to here tell me that many had to leave in the middle of the night with only the clothes that they're wearing. So the needs at the moment are enormous and so is the mental health toll from that experience and from the attacks which continue every day.

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HOLMES: What sorts of injuries are we talking about? Because we also know that many I think -- I think it's around 40 health facilities have been closed down. I mean, that that's an issue.

What sort of injuries are these kids getting? INGRAM: The doctors that I've spoken have told us that children have the scars of war -- both physically and mentally. In terms of the physical injuries we're talking about brain injuries and concussions from being thrown by blasts, limb injuries including amputations. And most common is shrapnel injuries from the debris that explodes out from a blast and affects children.

And I've met a couple of kids this week who had quite bad shrapnel injuries, including one boy who had shrapnel penetrate from the back through his abdomen and some still remains lodged in his spinal cord.

And then of course, in terms of mental health, I think that's far more widespread. Children are experiencing anxiety and nightmares and flashbacks. So every aspect of their young lives, unfortunately.

HOLMES: Yes, that's very important aspect of this.

So how is UNICEF specifically trying to help? And what are the challenges you're encountering?

INGRAM: The services and supplies right now, our immediate response for children in this crisis. In terms of supplies, we're really focusing on shelters, making sure that these people who have left with nothing are able to get through this immediate period of crisis.

Most of the shelters are schools. And so they're not equipped with beds and showers. So we're bringing mattresses and blankets, hygiene supplies like soap and shampoo. We're also bringing recreational activities and kits for kids.

And then in terms of services, we're running mental health and psychosocial support programs and these recreational activities to try and help deal with some of these immediate trauma.

We're also -- we've delivered 150 tons of medical supplies, which is fantastic. We've got to another charter plane in yesterday of 52 metric tons of medical supplies.

So it's really good that we're getting these in despite the challenges which are of course, roads and air freight are a significant challenge.

Many airlines are no longer flying into Lebanon so to be able to get these supplies in is really, really important.

HOLMES: Yes, absolutely. You touched on this and I want to revisit it -- the numbers of displaced people are staggering. I mean more than a million people. That's 20 percent of the population already displaced and as you pointed out, more than 400,000 of them children.

Where are they and what are they going through, particularly these kids?

INGRAM: Look, they've (ph) predominantly been displaced from the south of Lebanon, but also the southern suburbs here in Beirut where the strikes have been really intensive, particularly these last few days. They've been consistent at nighttime, but also increasingly during the day now.

And so people are really leaving that area for other parts of Beirut, but also other parts of the country.

If you look at a map of Lebanon, the areas where displaced people have moved to it's quite a consistent route across the country. People are just trying to find somewhere safe to go.

And of course, hundreds of thousands of people have left Lebanon including for neighboring Syria.

And for these displaced people the challenges are meeting their basic needs right now. And of course, dealing with what they have experienced and this unexpected future. They're in an uncertain and unfamiliar environment and for kids that can be really scary particularly without the structures and safety that they used to have in their community. And of course, school, which was meant to go back this way and didn't (ph).

HOLMES: Yes. Yes. Exactly. I was -- I know you've worked elsewhere too. And U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin warned last week of -- he said that devastating consequences if Israel engages an all-out war with Hezbollah. And he told CNN casualties would equal or exceed the number in Gaza.

As I say, I know you've looked at and around Gaza as well. What are your concerns for Lebanese civilians if this continues on the path of escalation?

INGRAM: It's horrifying to think that this could reach the magnitude of what we have seen in Gaza over the last year.

Having been in Gaza, including towards the beginning of the war, there I'm seeing in some ways, familiar images on the ground that remind me of those moments of a dad in the back of a truck holding his children and all of his belongings.

These sorts of things that we're seeing now in Lebanon, and so it is a horrifying thought to think that it could escalate further.

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INGRAM: It would have a tremendous toll on the children here because of course, Lebanon was already a vulnerable population before this conflict. They've been through five years of economic collapse and many people are in poverty.

So for these conflicts to then compound that it's already -- already having an impact. And if it continued much more, I think it would be catastrophic.

HOLMES: Yes. Tess Ingram with UNICEF.

Thank you for taking the time. Thank you for the work that you do, too, it is vital work. Appreciate it. Thank you Tess.

INGRAM: Thank you.

HOLMES: Around the world, demonstrators gathered on Sunday to call for an end to the violence that has unfolded in Gaza and the wider Middle East since October 7. Rallies across Turkey drawing thousands of people to mark a year of fighting.

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ENES CINAR, PROTESTER (through translator): Today the children in Palestine see bombs even in their dreams. They live with bombs even in their dreams. And I am here today because I cannot sit comfortably in my home when they live like this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: In Berlin, thousands gathered, waving Palestinian and Lebanese flags and demanding the end of the war in Gaza and the wider region.

In Indonesia, many called on world leaders to stop selling weapons to Israel.

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators in Sydney, Australia also calling to an end to the carnage.

Pope Francis delivering a surprise announcement on Sunday, naming 21 new cardinals.

CNN's Christopher Lamb explains what it could mean for the Catholic Church.

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CHRISTOPHER LAMB, CNN VATICAN CORRESPONDENT: Pope Francis on Sunday causing a surprise in the Vatican when he announced he'll be creating 21 new cardinals. Now, choosing cardinals is the closest thing a pope has to succession planning because it is from the cardinals that the Pope is chosen and it is the cardinals who will select the successor to Pope Francis.

The 87-year-old pontiff, choosing cardinals from across the globe and significantly, the archbishop of Tehran in Iran, a sign that the Pope is seeking to push for dialogue and peace in the Middle East. And by choosing a cardinal from Iran, he is bolstering the work of the church in this area.

Before announcing the names of the cardinals, the Pope commemorated the one-year anniversary of the October 7th Hamas attacks, calling for the release of hostages and for peace across the region, including in Lebanon, and for an end to retaliatory attacks.

Now, throughout his pontificate, Francis has thrown out the old unwritten rulebook for when it comes to appointing cardinals.

In the past, there were cardinals chosen from specific parts of the world, including in Italy. But Francis has changed all that. He chooses cardinals from the far-flung peripheries of the church. And today, Francis chose cardinals from Indonesia, the Ivory Coast, Algeria. Francis seeking to, in a way, reward the unsung heroes of the church with his choices.

And he has over his pontificate changed and reshaped the body of cardinals and men who will be choosing whoever comes after him.

So a significant decision by the Pope today.

Christopher Lamb, CNN -- London.

Stay with us. We'll be right back

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[01:54:48]

HOLMES: A day of mourning and remembrance continues across Israel as the country marks one year since the October 7th Hamas attacks. The grief palpable in the Negev Desert in southern Israel, the site of the Nova Music Festival where hundreds were gunned down by Hamas militants at an event meant to celebrate unity and love on that fateful day.

Earlier today, memorial sirens rang and those gathered at the site, including some of the victims' families observed a minute of silence.

Verizon and AT&T are among multiple U.S. telecommunications firms recently breached by hackers. And U.S. investigators believe they were looking for sensitive national security information.

CNN's Sean Lyngaas has the details.

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SEAN LYNGAAS, CNN CYBERSECURITY REPORTER: A group of highly-skilled Chinese government-linked hackers has breached multiple U.S. telecommunications firms in a likely search for sensitive national security-related information, multiple sources briefed on the matter told CNN.

The U.S. investigators believe the hackers potentially accessed wiretap warrant requests. U.S. broadband and Internet providers like AT&T, Verizon, and Lumen are among the targets.

U.S. telecom firms hold enormous volumes of data and user data that could be of interest to Beijing. The U.S. government has in recent years brought charges against Chinese government agents for allegedly harassing Chinese nationals on U.S. soil, for example.

U.S. officials are concerned about the potential national security damage done by the hacking which they only recently discovered. Sources said that an investigation is ongoing and the Senate and House Intelligence Committees have been briefed.

Sean Lyngaas, CNN -- Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE) HOLMES: Thanks for watching CNN NEWSROOM, spending part of your day with me. I'm Michael Holmes.

My friend and colleague, Rosemary Church picks up our coverage after a short break.

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