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Erin Burnett Outfront
Israel Warns "It's Only The Beginning" As Gazans Told To Evacuate; U.S. Preps Rapid Reaction Marine Unit For Potential Deployment; U.S. Intel Warned Of Risk For Hamas Violence Days Before Attack; GOP Picks Rep. Jordan As New Speaker Nominee, But Lacks Votes. Aired 7-8p ET
Aired October 13, 2023 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[19:00:37]
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: OUTFRONT next, the breaking news. Mass panic and fear amid a 24-hour deadline to evacuate northern Gaza. A U.S. rapid reaction marine unit is now in the region, poised to jump in as Israel warns it's only the beginning.
Plus, eight members of his family, eight, are missing tonight. I'm going to speak to one man about where he believes his son and grandchildren are tonight.
And Hamas' deadly weapons arsenal. CNN looked at dozens of videos from the attacks, and every weapon used by Hamas. What are they? Where do they come from? It's a special CNN investigation.
Let's go OUTFRONT.
Good evening, and welcome to a special edition of OUTFRONT. I'm Erin Burnett, live from Tel Aviv.
And tonight, the breaking news, a 24-hour deadline for 1.1 million people to evacuate northern Gaza. That timeframe is according to the United Nations, which claims Israel gave them notice of the warning Thursday night. It's now, of course, 2:00 a.m. on Saturday in Gaza.
And here in Tel Aviv, the tension is palpable. Silence throughout the evening, probable. This is new video into OUTFRONT of the moment Israel's Iron Dome intercepted a rocket here in Tel Aviv tonight, as the air raid sirens were sounding, and I'll show you the moment that we heard the blast.
We were all here. Anderson Cooper was actually on the air when it happened.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANDEROSN COOPER, CNN HOST: That sounded like an Iron Dome intercept --
(EXPLOSION)
(END VIDEO CLIP) BURNETT: Also tonight, that U.S. Marines rapid reaction force, capable of conducting special operations is being ordered closer to Israel. It's a 2,000-marine unit, also capable of supporting mass evacuations, a word that frankly does not do justice to what would be required in Gaza.
Evacuations within Gaza are supposedly underway. Supposedly because evacuations from one part of a tiny 25-mile long strip to another part of it, and on the edge of it, there are no borders open for anyone to actually leave. It's unprecedented situation, on a scale that we have not seen before. A massive ground invasion would turn the narrow strip into a death trap for anyone there.
But Hamas is dismissing Israeli warnings for civilians to even evacuate from the north. They're telling people to stay put.
And earlier today, we traveled south to an Israeli -- where an Israeli staging ground is for the military, a few miles from the Gaza and Egypt interpreters. We saw a tank brigade. They were regrouping. They have been responding to the initial terror attacks and now readying for a possibly being sent back into Gaza.
This was an earlier, as I was reporting live here on CNN.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Some of those tanks are actually going to be driving by right now. I'm going to probably get covered in this, so just bear with me. It's going to be really loud. Okay.
John and Kate, there is probably going to be another one. I don't know how long you're going to take this, but I'll tell you what we saw. This tank battalion had been in there. Merkava Israeli tank -- there's another one's going to come here.
All these guys are basically re-staging and getting ready to go. And we have seen today along the border checkpoints a much -- I would say higher state of readiness that we've observed over the past couple days. I'm going to move back from this one a little bit.
All right. That gives you a sense for the terrain here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: And they are ready. When they're at that touching area, and other checkpoints, we saw a bus after a bus of IDF soldiers was going to the front lines. They were at the highest state of readiness that we've observed this week as we traveled up and down that Gaza border area.
One IDF soldier telling me about finding Hamas terrorist last night who was still hiding in a house in a kibbutz where civilians were slaughtered.
This IDF soldier who grew up on Long Island in New York has been collecting the bodies of the murder. He said there will be, quote, many more skeletons. He says there are fighting the people that were hiding in their safe rooms, trying to run, and then they discovered their homes have been set on fire by Hamas and they died from smoke and fire in the basement. He says they're finding charred babies and bodies.
And in houses not destroyed by fire, there are finding bodies riddled with bullets and rooms bathed in blood, that safe rooms.
[19:05:01]
And that is why the hundreds of thousands of Israeli troops along that border are ready to go.
Tonight, I found a group of soldiers that had gathered to eat just outside what is now a militarized zone and this is what one of them told me.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Do you feel that you're ready to go? That things are about to happen?
AMIR KATZ, IDF RESERVIST: I don't know when they're going to happen. But they are going to happen because we cannot let it go this time. It's like, you know, I'm a yoga instructor. I'm a person who believes in peace and love, but you can't stand, you know, on the side and look at this cruelty, these barbarians, and just let go.
Now, we won't let go this time. We've had enough -- enough of this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: We have a team of reporters standing by tonight. Nic Robertson, Matthew Chance, and Sara Sidner all here with me in Israel. Oren Liebermann is standing by at the Pentagon this hour.
And I want to begin with Nic Robertson. He's in Sderot.
Nic, we are just seeing and hearing a barrage of explosions where you are. Tell us about it.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yeah, we are seeing the flashes on the horizon behind me, Gaza less than a mile or so away. Then you have a sort of delay of 10 or 15 seconds before you hear that massive explosion coming out of Gaza. So, we think these are happening deeper into the Gaza strip, perhaps around Gaza City, very, very hard to tell, but they're continuing.
There was a very sustained barrage of rockets coming out of Gaza, over Sderot, a low level overhead by the Iron Dome earlier on, perhaps it was the biggest barrage of rockets we've had from Gaza for sometime. But the troops definitely do seem to be getting closer to being ready to go in. One of the reads on that is because the IDF has told the citizens inside Gaza in the north of the Gaza Strip here to move to the south. Originally, that you and thought they'd be given 24 hours to do that. The IDF then clarified, no, there's more than 24 hours. But another indicator of just how ready the troops are.
In the last -- in the past 24 hours, the IDF incursion back into Gaza since last weekend.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTSON: Israeli troops inside Gaza for the first time since Hamas's attack on start the day, at-limited, local raid, targeting Hamas, search and four hostages, seemingly over by the time the IDF announced it late Friday.
Not far away, north and Gaza civilians being forest into a life of possible death choice. Flyers dropped by Israel told them to flee south, now triggering concern at the U.N.
ROLANDO GOMEZ, UNITED NATIONS SPOKESPERSON: The United Nations considers it impossible for such movement to take place without devastating humanitarian consequences.
ROBERTSON: No deadline given by the IDF in their effort to minimize mounting civilian casualties.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are asking them to evacuate, so we would be able to continue to strike military targets belonging to Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
(EXPLOSIONS)
ROBERTSON: Thursday night, the heaviest as really strikes on northern Gaza yet. But Hamas is telling its residents to stay put, setting the scene for a potential blame game over the rising Palestinian death toll.
JOHN KIRBY, WHITE HOUSE NATIONAL SECURITY COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: Hamas gave a counter order telling Palestinians in Gaza to stay at home. Why? Because having human shields they think protects them.
ROBERTSON: All of this as Israel's troop buildup at the border grows, signaling a larger ground attack may be getting close. U.S. secretary of defense, in country, making sure the IDF has what it needs.
LLOYD AUSTIN, U.S. SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: I am here in person to make something personal clear. America's support for Israel is iron clad.
ROBERTSON: And not just military support. E.U. leaders came close to Gaza, to see for themselves where some of Hamas's most brutal murders were executed. But inside Gaza, fears escalating about what the coming days will bring.
TARIK JASAREVIC, WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION SPOKESMAN: Time is running out to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe. Fuel, water, food, and life saving health and humanitarian supplies cannot be urgently delivered to the Gaza Strip.
(END VIDEOTAPE) ROBERTSON: I think the best assessment we have at the moment, however, of how many civilians are killed in the north of Gaza is a lot.
[19:10:07]
From the videos we've seen, the evidence that come out so far, it doesn't seem that many of that 1.1 million people have actually gone to the south yet. And what that means is, civilians are going to be caught up in a ground incursion if it happens as we expect it will.
BURNETT: Nic, thank you very much. As he said, just about a mile from the Gaza border tonight.
It comes as CNN has just learned multiple U.S. intelligence assessments warned the Biden administration about potential clash in the region just days before Hamas launched its unprecedented slaughter on Israel.
Katie Bo Lillis is OUTFRONT.
And, Katie Bo, you've had a chance to go through this. What is your reporting on what these intelligence assessments show?
KATIE BO LILLIS, CNN REPORTER: So, Erin, there were two U.S. intelligence assessments that were circulated amongst the U.S. government in the days leading up to this devastating attack. One of them on September 28th warned about the increased possibility of cross border rocket fire from Hamas into Israel. A second warning on October 5th, just two days before the attack, warned more generally of the risk of -- the increasing risk of violence between Hamas and Israel.
Now, Erin, very important to note, both of these reports or what the intelligence community refers to strategic warnings. They were not specific tactical details about the planning of the attack that actually unfolded, they were more general warnings, that look, they are kind of structural reasons to be concerned that violence between these two sides may become more likely.
And so, I think for many U.S. intelligence officials who are reading these reports, yes, they were viewing them as look, there's heightened concern about violence in between the two sides here. However, they were not able to review them as predictive of anything, even remotely resembling the sort of scope, scale, and brutality of the attack that unfolded on Saturday, in part because that U.S. receives warnings like these sort of regularly.
I mean, the idea of potential violence and between Hamas and Israel is on intelligence -- is on intelligence hot spot warnings just about every day. And so for many U.S. officials, that was what it expected through some of the violence we've seen in the past. Nothing like what unfolded on Saturday.
BURNETT: All right. Katie Bo, thank you very much.
And OUTFRONT now, Matthew Chance and Sara Sidner both with me here in Tel Aviv.
And also with us, Seth Jones. He's the director of the International Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
And, Matthew, I want to ask you, you know, in a moment about Katie Bo's reporting and also, of course, in the context of what Michael McCaul, the foreign affairs committee chairman of the House, said Israel had given a very specific -- I'm sorry, Egypt has given a specific warning three days ahead about that.
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CHIEF GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Yeah.
BURNETT: But, first, where we are tonight, to talk about the 24 hours of the U.N. said they were given to get people out, and now, Israel not being clear on what 24 hours actually means. What -- is this imminent? Is this happen -- when?
CHANCE: Well, I mean, look, I've tried to speak to sources that I've got inside the Israeli government and they're not giving me time on this. They are saying, look. We are determined to punish Hamas, and to end Hamas' military organization. They're talking quite openly about the factors going to be a land operation, and, of course, we're seeing a physical signs of that with hundreds of thousands of soldiers deployed on the border of Gaza, preparing to go in.
But the timing is not absolutely clear at the moment, or at least they're not making it public. And I think it's because they're giving time for a few things to happen. First of all, the hostage negotiations.
We've seen, you know, the secretary of state move around the region today, looking at ways of getting some of those 100 to 150 Israeli citizens that are inside the Gaza Strip as hostages freed. That's something they want to really get, something from, until they launch a massive military operation.
The other issue is the humanitarian corridor. There are negotiations underway in the region, to get some of those Gazan civilians, at least some of them, out of the firing lines before a big military operation begins.
BURNETT: Right, because, you know, we were -- we were on the south of Gaza, the border today. And ten miles away from the Egypt line, which is near the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza, that border crossing is closed.
SARA SIDNER, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Correct.
BURNETT: So where you move some around in that 25 miles? Right now, right now, there is nowhere else for them to go.
SIDNER: That's right, that's the problem.
You know, Israel's not going to open its two border crossings.
BURNETT: Right.
SIDNER: Egypt says, look, our border crossing is not closed. Our side is not closed. But because of airstrikes, they say, the Palestinian side of the border is closed. No matter what, there is no way out for 2 million people.
Now, they're saying, look, just the northern part of the Gaza strip? That's 1 million people.
BURNETT: Right.
SIDNER: To go where? Because it is, perhaps, the most densely populated city in the world. You've got a space that's about twice the size of Washington, D.C. And we know how congested that is, with three times the number of people. About 50 percent of them are children. They're under 18 years old.
So you have this population, extremely vulnerable, extremely frightened, and with nowhere to go. There is almost no way, there's already a humanitarian crisis. There is almost no way that crisis does not get worse.
BURNETT: Yeah, the U.N. has called it an open air prison well before any of this. I mean, this is the reality of that situation.
Seth, so when you look at the intelligence, you have a chance to see. You see two big challenges for Israel with a possible ground invasion. What are the ones that you see?
SETH JONES, DIRECTOR, INTERNATIONAL SECURITY PROGRAM AT CENTER FOR STRATEGIC & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES: Well, the challenges I see firsthand are just the challenges as everyone there has talked about. For anybody that's been to Gaza, the narrow alleyways, the concrete buildings, snipers, suicide bombers, this is very difficult urban terrain for IDF soldiers to operate in.
I was recently in Israel talking to them about urban warfare. But the second issue is that what are the Israelis do once this phase of the operation is done? What we call in the U.S. military, phase four. Who do they hand Gaza back to in the northern parts of Gaza, Hamas? No, that doesn't seem to be an option. Palestinian Authority doesn't seem to have much legitimacy.
So, this is a bigger mid to long term problem I think that Israelis are going to have here.
BURNETT: And, you know, obviously, when you hear things in the sky now you look up. You look up. That's almost like a small propeller plane. We've heard some of those, I don't know if it's going on the audio, we've heard some of that along the Gaza border. Obviously, some sort of surveillance or something, Matthew, unclear.
Katie Bo's reporting about the intelligence, I think the intelligence was -- there were lots of warnings given. They could've been dismissed with, well this is business as usual. Yes, Hamas is going to launch some more rockets. Okay. Maybe received with a bit of an eye roll. But when you couple it with what Michael McCaul, foreign affairs
committee chairman said, which is that Egypt gave a very specific warning to Israel three days prior, what are you hearing from the Israeli side?
CHANCE: Well, I mean, look. It's a question of was this incompetence, or was this negligence? Did they have intel that they didn't act on, which is -- which is negligence. Or did they just not have any intelligence at all. There's an operation like this that could've taken a couple of years, perhaps not quite that long, to plan in the Gaza Strip. Didn't know anything about it.
Whichever way you cut it, from an Israeli point of view to some extent from a U.S. point of view as well, you know, questions have to be asked. I think they are going to be asked once the initial crisis has been under control.
BURNETT: Seth, what are you hearing about the intelligence situation? I mean, you know, I was talking to a former Israeli IDF general who actually went in and was defending some of the kibbutz with a pistol and a group of others throughout the day on Saturday. And he said, look, it's a humiliation, a complete and utter collapse of our system. And there's no other way to look at it.
From what you understand from the intelligence side, how do you see it?
JONES: Well, I think there's no question that Israeli intelligence agencies, Mossad, Shin Bet, defense intelligence agencies failed to anticipate this particular operation. I mean, everyone knows that Gaza has been an issue. The Israelis have significant signals intelligence, human intelligence, imagery intelligence capabilities in Gaza. They missed it.
I do think there's a broader issue. The U.S. clearly missed this, too. The Egyptians, although we'll have to see what comes out of this. Jordanians, Gulf States, there's a broader intelligence failure for what just happened.
BURNETT: Yeah, certainly. Although it is amazing again, we talk about, they have eyes on it. It's 25 miles long, and they are doing outdoor training. I mean, it's sort of preposterous to imagine that what would happen, happened. It sort of seems preposterous.
Sara, the reality is as Israel is getting ready for possible ground invasion, could be hours could be days, and Matthew's talking about the context of these hostages still in there.
SIDNER: Yeah.
BURNETT: There were even Hamas militants in Israel here, last night. I last night I was told there was some still locked up in a house. And they were worried about others coming through tunnels, in these situations.
And they are still finding bodies, bodies. I should say they are finding skeletons. This is what you are hearing from families as well.
SIDNER: That's right. They are so terrified. Some of them are terrified that their loved one is badly injured, and still alive, and suffering. And some of them have a great hope that their loved ones are alive, and that they can be rescued. That by the day, it's becoming more and more and more precarious.
When you think about the possibility of a ground war in all of this, we know there is a whole network of tunnels, that exists. There are so many things to stop that from happening.
I did speak with Dan Mor. His sister-in-law had been taken. They found out because she called them. She was at that Supernova rave. She was selling jewelry for the very first time. She was displaying it. All the sudden, she calls and they can hear just rat-tat-tat.
[19:20:02]
They can hear the shootings of guns. Her screaming, running. And then they get silence and their phones.
A day or so later, they see a video of her and two men, both of them, Hamas terrorists. They have her. And they don't know what to do.
Here's how he sort of described what they heard.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAN MOR, SISTER-IN-LAW TAKEN HOSTAGE: We could hear the gunfire over the phone. It was the scariest, most surreal thing you could ever imagine. And a few hours later, after we lost contact, later on, a video showed up on TikTok, an Arabic speaking video, and Arabic captions saying that some women go to sleep with their family and some women are abducted to Gaza. They are speaking in Arabic, some very -- kind of derivative stuff.
SIDNER: What are they saying?
MOR: Something along the lines, we found another bitch (ph) on a tree. As if they went hunting, basically. We found another, some more game.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SIDNER: He talks about finding more game, and basically saying that they were treated as animals.
BURNETT: Well, they were. They were. I mean, what they are finding, absolutely horrific.
All right, thank you very much. Matthew, Sara, thank you so very much. Seth, thank you.
And next, eight of his family members, eight of them are missing tonight, including his son, his grandchildren, and where he thinks they may be, tonight. Plus, a CNN special investigation. Tonight, shedding new light into
how Hamas was able to pull off the savage attack, the slaughter. At least 260 people are dead at that music festival. But there are details that up until now have not been reported. And we'll share them with you this hour.
And a 72-year-old war veteran took on Hamas fighters. He saved lives, and he lived to tell the tale to Matthew Chance.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BURNETT: Breaking news. These are live pictures of Gaza that you are looking at on your screen. Our teams have seen and heard multiple explosions this hour. This is Israeli soldiers are searching for the hostages taken by Hamas.
You can see these images, maybe in the center you can get a sense of how it is obscured by the smoke. And just to perhaps give a sense, many, even last, night we heard a lot of those explosions from here in Tel Aviv. We have not heard in the past few minutes. So, unclear what that means, those explosions are happening a little bit further south, or towards the middle of Gaza, with just some perspective here, from the distances, for context.
CNN has learned that Israeli troops have been carrying out local raids inside Gaza. And as all of this is happening, Israel's Defense Forces now says it has notified 120 families that their loved ones were taken captive during the Hamas attack.
It comes, of course, as hundreds of thousands of soldiers are on standby, outside of Gaza.
[19:25:05]
OUTFRONT now, Gilad Korngold. He has eight members of his family missing tonight. His son, his daughter-in-law, two of his grandchildren, they are just eight and three years old. They were all staying at a home in kibbutz, near Gia (ph) -- near Gaza.
Gilad, I'm so sorry to be talking to under these circumstances. I wish we never had to have this conversation. But I have to ask you at this time days here have passed, do you know anything, have you heard anything at all about what happened to your son and his family?
GILAD KORNGOLD, 8 FAMILY MEMBERS MISSING FROM ISRAELI KIBBUTZ CLOSE TO GAZA: Well, first, officially, nobody phoned me from the government. We don't know. We decide to take care about ourselves and we start to break the puzzle. We know one now for sure that my son was taken alive on the feet with clothes, okay, with handcuffed under the back. And they throw him to a car trunk, okay?
This is more big story but this is what I know now. I don't know if he's alive. But I do know for sure they take him from the house.
BURNETT: So you know that your son was taken alive I know you would never want to hope your son is a hostage of Hamas but on some level the fact that he was taken alive must mean so much to you. You don't know anything though about his wife, your daughter-in-law, or your grandchildren, at this time?
KORNGOLD: Yes. I have the proof I have somebody taking hostages, except from the car -- run away with his daughter. He's now stuck in the kibbutz Be'eri, and he called me and told me that he saw -- he know my son, he saw him taken alive. For me, this is the proof that my son was alive, unhurt, and because the house would burn. So, it's mean -- it's mean that nobody is killed by this smoke or by the fire. So --
BURNETT: So you believe that they all may have gotten out of the house?
KORNGOLD: No. I know -- I know that I have family from the rescue force, military force, they check for me the house after they burned. They told me there is surely no bodies, dead bodies in the house. No dead bodies around the house. It's not the same case in other houses.
So it means for me to possibilities that I can think. First, everyone is captured and took to Gaza Strip. Or they're killing them in the fields. That now, the Israeli military go through into Gaza Strip today, and found a lot of bodies dead bodies, Israeli bodies, after -- after the border.
I mean, they get back to Gaza Strip and now into Tel Aviv, found, bodies dead bodies of Israeli ones, and bring them back to Israel. So this is (INAUDIBLE). I believe -- I believe that everybody is in Gaza strip. Well, I don't have proof.
BURNETT: No, you don't have proof. But you've got hope. And, of course, that's what a father, a grandfather would have, Gilad.
Could you -- if you could say something to your son or to those precious grandchildren. We saw pictures of them that you shared with us. You know, what would you say, or if you see them again, if you are so blessed, what will you say to them?
KORNGOLD: First, I would give hugs and big kiss. I will swear myself that if they come back, I never anger for anything in my life. I'm 62, I would be more relaxed, and I try to be better man. Okay, better human being, and try to help everybody. I need them back. Without them, it's not a life.
BURNETT: Without them, it is not life. Gilad. Thank you so very much for talking to me and talking about them. Thank you.
KORNGOLD: Thank you very much.
BURNETT: And also tonight, a special investigation, here at CNN, looking at the deadly weapons arsenal that Hamas had, that they used to unleash terror and to slaughter all those innocent people.
[19:30:02]
What weapons did they use? And where did they get them?
Oren Liebermann is OUTFRONT.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): An entire arsenal on display. Weapons, fashioned in Hamas's homegrown facilities, but no less deadly. CNN analyzed dozens of photos and videos of Hamas militants during the surprise assault, to identify the weapons used to kill at least 1,200 people in Israel.
MAJ. MIKE LYONS, U.S. ARMY (RET.): The most important characteristic of the military equipment they have is that it's easily interchangeable. It's reliable, dependable. You can get parts for it.
LIEBERMANN: Many, like the Soviet built 50 caliber machine gun, appeared to be Russian, or Chinese firearms, relics from previous wars that made their way into the hands of Hamas. Ubiquitous among many of the photos and videos, the Avtomat Kalashnikova, the AK-47, the preferred weapon for militant groups capable of spewing automatic fire with horrific results.
The assault rifles, along with grenades carried by Hamas militants, made them deadly when reached Israeli towns and near Gaza.
LYONS: All they are trying to do is provide the shock effect, provide dependability, their weapons have to work. So they are very rudimentary. But based on their training, based on how they operate them, they are successful with them.
LIEBERMAN: Hamas's main weapon has long been the supply of rockets, short-range, to long-range. The terror attack on Saturday morning began with a barrage of rocket fire, a smokescreen for the imminent attack. Thousands of rockets overwhelmed Israel's Iron Dome air defense system, a tactic Hamas has refined over the years.
LYONS: That's the capability for the enemy, for Hamas, to fire them up against a potentially commercial aircraft. That, I think, is one of the major issues of these terrorist groups, if they have those kinds of weapons in their hands.
LIEBERMANN: Hamas use paragliders to cross the Gaza border. The recreational vehicles are barely maneuverable, and easy to target in the air. But in the chaos of the moment, the plan worked. Some of the weapons and equipment were decidedly more low tech. Israel built a complex underground barrier to stop tunnels from crossing the Gaza border, so Hamas used a bulldozer to try to tear down the above ground fence.
LYONS: They are just looking to create chaos, with the kind of equipment they have, and the equipment has got to be reliable.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LIEBERMANN (voice-over): Worth noting that these are only the videos and the weapons we saw in the videos and the photos from the attack. We've seen them use other weapons in the past, like antitank, and anti-armor rockets and missiles. And, Erin, that's what makes a ground incursion by Israel, such a difficult proposition.
BURNETT: All right, Oren, thank you very much.
With all of that reporting on the weapons, I want to go now to Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus, the international spokesperson for the Israeli Defense Forces.
Colonel, obviously, welcome back to the program. You heard Oren's report. Do you feel, right now, that the IDF knows what sort of an arsenal Hamas has right now? Whether it be rockets and other sorts of weaponry -- do you know the extent of the arsenal for right now?
LT. COLONEL JONATHAN CONRICUS, ISRAEL DEFENSE FORCES SPOKESPERSON: Hi, Erin, thank you for having me again.
I think that the story just aired is very comprehensive,, interesting and well done one. I think that the short answer to your question is no. We don't.
I think that we have to be extremely cautious, and very humbled in our approach for the next stage of operations. Clearly our enemy has shown that they have had the ability to acquire and train and use weapons that they haven't done before and they fielded them unfortunately, successfully on the battlefield. We have to be very humbled and strong for focus I would say aggressive in our approach against them.
BURNETT: So you talk about being aggressive in the next stages even as you say you need to be humble. You know, Israel obviously issued that evacuation order from northern Gaza. The United Nations said it was a 24-hour deadline.
Where are we in this? Are you able to give any sort of a sense of when is real may move?
CONRICUS: Yeah. It's about 2:30 a.m., local time. So it's dark, and it's, of course, very difficult to see exactly what's happening in the Gaza Strip. But we've been following, throughout the day, and we've been monitoring the movement, the mass movement of Palestinian civilians who, I'm happy to say, many, many -- I don't know exactly how many, but many, many have listened to our warnings and have indeed moved, evacuated themselves to the south.
[19:35:01]
And that is very good for them and their families. I'm not going to put a timeline on, sorry, or time schedule, on our activities, I can only say that we are trying to do the right thing here. We are trying to get civilians out of the way, because we are going to intensify the operations in and around Gaza city.
Whatever we will feel that the situation is tenable for military operations I assume that that's when the operations will continue.
BURNETT: And you also -- you did have some operations today, obviously there's more special forces back in there, can you tell us anything about whether they were successful, or what was accomplished? CONRICUS: Yeah, they were successful in the sense that they were able
to find new intelligence perhaps shed a little bit more light on the very complex task we have of understanding who was taken hostage, and who wasn't, who is dead, and who might be missing. And then trying to piece together other sources of intelligence and building a more cohesive picture of where they are, and who they are, then of course supporting a plan on how to get them out.
So yes, it was successful. We found intelligence that supports that, and, of course, that is a very high, and number one priority for us, is to find those people, get them back home to Israel.
BURNETT: And Hamas claims that 13 of them, 13 Israeli hostages in Gaza, they say were killed. They say were actually killed by IDF airstrikes in the past 24 hours. I know that one of your colleagues has said that Israeli intelligence was looking into it.
Is there any truth to what Hamas is claiming?
CONRICUS: Well, Hamas is a lying, cowardly terrorist organization. I don't think any of their statements are true. It is all propaganda. They also said, I think it was on the second or third day of the war forgive me for not keeping track of the days totally. On the second or third day, they also said they would start executing hostages and filming, if Israel doesn't start talking their facilities.
So, it's impossible to trust what they are saying and we will have to believe it, only when we see it, and when we have our intelligence that will improve it. But at the end of the day, Hamas is responsible. Hamas will pay a price.
BURNETT: Colonel, thank you very much. I appreciate your time again, thank you.
CONRICUS: Thank you.
BURNETT: And next, a special report here OUTFRONT. CNN's analyzed dozens of videos from the music festival of the attack. Dozens, like this one of people running through fields. And you are going to be able to see minute by minute how the attack unfolded.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are like ducks. It was a like range. People were running in the hundreds. You can hear the bullets coming.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Plus, an incredible story of courage. 72-year-old former Israeli paratrooper taking on heavily armed Hamas fighters, surviving, and saving others. These heroic actions saved lives that day.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:40:56] BURNETT: Breaking news out of Tel Aviv. We have new video that we are about to show here OUTFRONT, for the first time. I do warn you that it is disturbing. Because what it is is shocking new body cam footage of Hamas shooting indiscriminately at the bathrooms of the port-a-potties at the Nova Music Festival, indiscriminately shooting at port-a- potties, attempting to kill anybody who might have been inside.
We've not yet been able to verify of people were actually killed in this moment, if you're actually looking at people die behind those doors. But obviously that was the plan. That was the intent of what they were doing.
And CNN is analyzing and verifying more than 50 videos, like this one. Piecing together exactly how many of the brutal killings, the slaughter, unfolded that morning.
Katie Polglase is OUTFRONT with an in-depth investigation.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KATIE POLGLASE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's 6:30 a.m. On October 7th, and things are getting into full swing at the Nova Festival in the south of Israel.
GAL BUKSHPAN, NOVA MUSIC FESTIVAL SURVIVOR: We were having fun. Peace, love, good vibes. And an hour, hour and a half after, we are running from bullets.
POLGLASE: Suddenly, the music stops.
There's frustration, but no sense yet of the horror about to unfold. As news spreads of rocket attacks from Gaza, people begin seeking shelter, crouching close to the ground. But even this doesn't lead to outright panic, rocket attacks visible here are a regular occurrence in this part of southern Israel.
About ten minutes later, and some start heading to their cars, the decision of when and how to leave the festival would mean life or death for many. Some fled early to nearby bomb shelters, at 7:10 a.m., and many are crammed inside this one to the north of the festival. They've been followed.
At 7:24 a.m., Hamas throw a grenade inside, causing horrific damage. This man, Noem, emerges stunned into the daylight. And it's not the only shelter to be targeted.
Thirty minutes later, and further down the same road, Hamas militants are caught on dash cam footage outside another shelter. They throw a grenade inside.
In total, CNN has identified four different shelters near the festival that Hamas attacked, all full of people. Over the next six hours, hundreds of civilians were killed, hunted down as they try to flee the festival.
By examining over 50 videos of that morning, and speaking to 12 survivors, CNN has established that Hamas surrounded the festival, blocking three approaches to the south, north, and west, forcing people to flee across the fields to the east. Even then, they were hunted.
It's now 8:15 a.m., and Gal Bukshpan survives, along with others, by running across the fields. He is pictured here in the white t-shirt. Local police and security told them to drive east across rough land, due to roadblocks on the main road. But many end up fleeing on foot.
BUKSHPAN: We were like ducks. It was arranged, people were running in the hundreds. And you can hear the bullets coming.
POLGLASE: Were you seeing anyone get shot?
BUKSHPAN: Yeah. You can see people fall.
POLGLASE: It's 8:30 a.m., and as Gal and others continued running east, others running north met with more bullets and a police blockade, causing further panic. As a result, revelers start running back down the main road towards the festival, not knowing there are more militants just a few kilometers further down. On that same road, chilling dash cam footage shows Hamas militants shooting directly at an approaching car, just an hour earlier.
Those festival goers that remained closer to the concert site hid behind anything they could find. Even behind trees, waiting while the bullets closed in.
[19:45:03]
Many did not survive, 260 are reported dead. But that toll could rise. Just three hours after the start of the massacre, at 9:39 a.m., videos emerge of some festival goers already held hostage in Gaza. This man, still wearing a festival wristband, and another, visibly wearing the security uniform. Their fates remain unknown.
Gal and others are still processing the trauma of what they went through.
BUKSHPAN: I know people who spent 12 hours in bushes, and they didn't move. People who tried to hide and they died. Humanity never has seen this in the last couple hundreds of years, since maybe the Holocaust. This is just horrific. Horrific.
POLGLASE: It would be ten hours until help arrived for some. Others are still missing, feared dead or held hostage in Gaza. The scale of this tragedy may grow greater yet, after those six hours of horror in the desert.
Katie Polglase, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BURNETT: And OUTFRONT now, Wolf Blitzer. Of course, he's been following this story for decades. He knows it better than anyone. So, Wolf, when you look at that report, and how intricately planned
the massacre was at the music festival, the slaughter of at least 260 people, that footage of someone shooting up a port-a-potty, going shelter to shelter, because they knew where they were. Waiting till people were in them, then throwing in grenades. The more we find out, the harder it is to see a way for this to de-escalate, for anyone to back away.
And I know, yesterday, you and I spoke. You thought there was a very tiny chance that this could come down and de-escalate.
Has that chance basically gone to zero now?
WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST, "THE SITUATION ROOM": Yes. It's basically zero. Based on everything I'm hearing from my Israeli sources, the Israeli military does not mobilize 300,000, or maybe close to 400,000 troops, deployed them to this area around Gaza, and is not about to try to achieve two major objectives. The first objective, to either capture or kill the Hamas leadership. The second objective, to either capture or destroy the Hamas weapons.
They'd like to capture a lot of those weapons, because if they can capture the weapons, they can determine, presumably, where they came from. Did they come from Iran, for example?
If they did come from Iran, that creates a moment for the Israelis, if they want to continue the escalation to target some objectives in Iran as well. This could really escalate, not just in Gaza, but elsewhere as well.
I'm convinced that the Israelis are not going to back away. They want to achieve those two objectives. It could happen within a matter of hours, could happen within a matter of a few days, but everyone should brace for a major Israeli ground invasion of Gaza.
BURNETT: And interesting, Colonel Conricus, you've been speaking to him to, Wolf, he said they still don't know the depth of that arsenal and those special forces raised today. They were about trying to get that information of the names, who was involved, exactly what.
It seems like they're being extremely, they're trying to be surgical. To get exactly what they need, because it's very clear what the intent is. As you said, who puts 400,000, or close to 400,000 troops along a 25-mile border if you're not going to do something?
BLITZER: Yeah, they are going to do it, and it's just a matter of when. In my opinion, it will be fairly soon.
BURNETT: All right, Wolf, thank you very much. And Wolf Blitzer with us tonight, grateful to have that. His sources, his expertise, knowing this better than anyone.
Also, tonight, stories of incredible acts of courage emerging amid the horror. This 72-year-old former paratrooper and war veteran is recovering tonight at a hospital in Jerusalem. His leg amputated after refusing to back down from Hamas fighters, saving his kibbutz from mass slaughter. Matthew Chance is back with this report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHANCE (voice-over): The attacks by Hamas were a bloodbath. Israelis slaughtered were taken hostage.
The kibbutz Magen near Gaza, militants met their match.
BARUCH COHEN, SURVIVED HAMAS TERROR ATTACK: As I always was, I thought you should never catch me with my underwear in my end.
CHANCE: Never catch you with your pants down?
B. COHEN: Never.
CHANCE: He suffered shrapnel wounds and an amputated leg when dozens of Hamas fighters tried to breach his kibbutz fence last weekend, this 72-year-old former paratrooper and war veteran swung into action.
B. COHEN: I decide to take my car, I take a few magazines with me.
[19:50:02]
And I decided to enter as much as soon as I can to shoot them over the window of my car.
CHANCE: So you drove towards the attackers and you started shooting at them?
B. COHEN: I try -- I shoot them.
CHANCE: Before they came through the fence?
B. COHEN: Before. In my head, that was the only way to stop them.
CHANCE: In nearby Jewish communities, or kibbutzim, Hamas attackers ran amok in a vile killing and kidnapping spree.
But in kibbutz Magen, home to more than 400 Israelis, the small team of armed volunteers trained and led by Baruch, kept the militants at bay.
His wife, Mina, at his bedside, told me she has no doubt why.
MINA COHEN, SURVIVED HAMAS TERROR ATTACK: The difference is Baruch because --
CHANCE: Your husband?
M. COHEN: My husband, Baruch, 20 years that he's in this position, and every time that the lot of young people coming, have made the same position that Baruch in the other kibbutzim, they laugh at him. They said that he's crazy. They said that he's speaking nonsense. Nobody will come.
And Baruch defended the kibbutz year by year. And all the people laugh at him.
CHANCE: They laugh at him, they said he was paranoid.
M. COHEN: Yes. He's paranoid.
CHANCE: They said it's not going to happen.
M. COHEN: It's not, it never will happen, because we have the army.
CHANCE: In fact, the Israeli army came under attack by Hamas, too. Leaving Baruch and his team to fight alone for more than six hours, way longer than expected.
B. COHEN: Where is the army? They teach us that if something happens, I always say to my friends, that we've got 35 minutes, minutes that belong to us. After 35 minutes, the army should be here. The best units should be here, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
CHANCE: But they didn't come.
B. COHEN: It didn't work.
CHANCE: As Israelis elsewhere were taken hostage, the communities overrun. Baruch fought on. Severely injured and out of ammo, armed with just a blade.
B. COHEN: I take it in my hand, -- you should find me with a knife.
CHANCE: A stubborn determination, his friends and neighbors say helped save them from the grim fate of others nearby.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHANCE (on camera): The hero of that report, Erin, who we met at the Hadassah Medical Organization in Jerusalem said to me that he had been a lifelong supporter of peace negotiations with the Palestinian state, for the Palestinian state. But the events of the past week, all that had changed. He's not alone, because you get a sense being here in Israel, that Israel itself is more hard lined, less willing to compromise.
BURNETT: Yeah. All right. Matthew Chance, thank you.
And next, our breaking news continues. We have an incredible story of what Matthew and I are seeing every day. People in Israel coming together in remarkable ways to help the victims the first responders. And I'm going to tell you why toothbrushes matter.
Plus, we are also following the breaking news out of Washington. Republicans just choosing Jim Jordan as their nominee for how speaker, but guess what? He doesn't have the votes. So what now?
We'll go to Manu Raju on Capitol Hill.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:56:07]
BURNETT: On Capitol Hill, breaking news as well, the House in complete disarray. Republicans nowhere near consensus on a speaker, after Jim Jordan backed by Donald Trump beat back a last-minute bid by a less well-known congressman, Austin Scott, of Georgia.
But more than 50 Republicans declaring they will not back Jordan in a vote on the House floor, which is a problem, because you can only afford to lose four votes. So 50, four, you get it, they're not close.
Manu Raju is OUTFRONT.
Manu, it's unbelievable, with the crisis unfolding in Israel, that this is still unfolding in the House. If anything, the death rate is even more awful when you think about it, amidst this, that they couldn't get it together.
Where does Jim Jordan in the House go from there?
MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, look, this is really significant stuff, given the fact that without a speaker of the House, the Congress can't act, the House can't act on legislation. It can't deal with aid to Israel, or any other major national, and international issues here. The aftermath of the first, the ouster of Kevin McCarthy, last week, that unprecedented vote, and the failure of Republicans to get behind a single candidate. Fifty-five Republicans voting against him, real concerns that Jim Jordan simply cannot get 217 votes.
In talking to several of those members, they are expressing concerns. Some of them are indicating that they won't vote for Jordan no matter what.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I really do believe that Steve Scalise, the way they dealt with him yesterday was wrong.
RAJU: You think Jordan should have unite -- you think Jordan should endorse him right away?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah, much more aggressively.
RAJU: What is your level of concern about Jim Jordan?
REP. ANN WAGNER (R-MO): I think I laid that out yesterday. So --
RAJU: Has that changed at all?
WAGNER: Not overnight.
RAJU: Do you have another candidate in your view?
WAGNER: There should be.
(END VIDEO CLIP) RAJU: They are voting on other members as well, saying they will endorse another candidate. Speaker McCarthy, that you heard, Speaker McCarthy from favor -- they want Kevin McCarthy to run as well.
Jordan is going to spend the next couple of days trying to convince those members to flip, to back him in some way, and hope that he can get there in 217 votes by Tuesday, which is when they expect to go to the House floor, if they can get the votes.
But if Jordan stepped aside, Erin, that is back to square one. Can they find the consensus? Can they figure out some sort of alternative, even potentially propping up the interim speaker of the House, Patrick McHenry, who does not have the power to preside over legislative power, but could potentially take some legislative action to give him that kind of power.
All these things because Republicans are in this desperate posture here, not able to govern, try to show the country they can govern, but consumed with this internal party civil war that has completely stymied all legislative action here in Washington -- Erin.
BURNETT: All right. Manu, thank you very much.
And our top story here, I want to show you some Israeli soldiers tonight, gathering just a few miles from Gaza. Tonight, beginning the Jewish Sabbath together, at a barbecue by a gestation. There are now 100 volunteers here, giving out 10,000 hamburgers a day.
In fact, we've seen such generosity also at a hospital where 650 terror attack victims went for treatment. Restaurants from Tel Aviv came down to serve meals for first responders and victims families. And we saw at a tank brigade near Gaza today we saw food trucks for the soldiers there. Those soldiers and the tank brigade, 700 lunches were served there, today.
We are witnessing a mass outpouring of support which one IDF soldier, a former reservist who joined back up to fight, the Amir Katz, is his name, described so well of that barbecue.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AMIR KATZ, IDF RESERVIST: Here, you can really see how strong we are, how together we are. People here are volunteers. People donate their own money to give us food. We are staying in one place, but they are bringing us food for us. We are giving them everything they want. If I want ten toothbrush if I want if, it's unbelievable to see the unity that our nation has.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: You hear in the background, Shabbat, the music, the prayers as they are getting ready to celebrate the Sabbath.
Ten toothbrushes, though, you heard him say, something so specific and so personal. We all can relate to that, ten toothbrushes. And it's also something that raises the reality that such an intense outpouring of daily generosity is both incredible, and not infinite.
That means the world watches to see what Israel will do in these coming days.
Thank you so much for joining us.
"AC360" begins now.
