Skip to main content

tv   Anderson Cooper 360  CNN  October 23, 2023 5:00pm-6:01pm PDT

5:00 pm
you. i'm probably going to die, so be safe. be careful. stay sweet. it's very important for me that my sweet children will stay close. >> and now when you're with your youngest child, your son -- >> yeah. >> we're talking about children the same age -- that he wrote you a note. >> a note, yeah. my son told me that he wants to take me along with his sister to the room and he wants to give me something. he wrote me two sentences. i hope you will be happy, and please don't be sad anymore. i love you. and they told thank you that you tell me that, and i will try to be more happy, like i used to be. >> yasmin is an extraordinary woman. thank you so much for joining us. us. "ac 360" starts now. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com
5:01 pm
3:00 a.m. in tel aviv. two more hostages, more than 200 still being held, are on their way home. nurit cooper and yocheved lifshitz. both israeli citizens, both taken from their kibbutz on october 7. mrs. lifshitz and her husband are founding members of the kibbutz. she and mrs. cooper were handed over in southern gaza, where they each were examed by medics. now the medics telling an egyptian media outlet that mrs. kuiper and lifshitz were in stable condition. just a few moments ago, we got this video of a military helicopter carrying the two freed women now safely back here in israel. this comes with sources telling
5:02 pm
cnn that the biden administration has been pressing israel to delay its ground incursion into gaza to allow more time to get hostages out and humanitarian aid in from the south. that said, national security spokesman john kirby tells cnn tonight, quote, we don't believe this is the time for a ceasefire. there's certainly a lot to get to in the hour ahead. we begin with my conversation with yocheved and nurit lifshitz daughter. when we spoke, she just got the news of her mother's release and was at heath row airport. what have you heard about your mother? >> my mom, she's now with us. she's being flown out, and she's coming -- i've seen a picture of her in a bed, in a hospital bed. she's waving her hand. i know she's well enough to speak and well enough to walk. i think she walked across the
5:03 pm
border. so, my mom's story is an amazing story. my heart is with my father and the other 218 people also that are still held hostage. this is a great sign that other things can happen. >> do you know the other hostage who's been released, nurit? >> yes, of course. of course, she's a kibbutz member. her name is nurit cooper, and she's a member. i've known her all my life. >> what did you -- when you heard the news, what went through your mind? >> it's impossible to describe. my mom -- i think she has a good smile. i don't know. i'm so delighted. but my heart is with -- you know, this is a small ray of light in a big story that is still unfolding. my father is there. there's so many other people. we're waiting for good news
5:04 pm
about everyone. my heart is with all my friends and loved ones and everybody else that are still hostage. i think this is a great sign that we're moving in the right direction. >> your father is still being held hostage. have you had any information about him? >> no, i don't know any information. i'm waiting to hear what my mom says. i do not know. >> what is your message to other hostage families who are watching this, eager for -- happy for you, wishing more were released? what's your message to them? >> i hope we can share in this happiness and we can all join together. this isn't over. my mother is one ray of light, and my father is -- and everybody are happy for us. but i'm waiting to also be happy for them.
5:05 pm
>> there are so many from nir oz who are killed, who are missing. it's a community of 400 people. a quarter of them are believed dead or missing. it's unthinkable. >> no, no, no. more than a quarter. and we have to bring those if we still can. this is not a political issue. this is a humane issue. we have lost so many. people are going to funerals every day. this is a ray of light, but there's so much darkness. and i can't wait to hug my mom, and i can't wait to see my other members of my community and the region also hugging their loved ones. i have to go now. >> there's a lot of members of your community who want to hug you as well. have a good flight. >> thank you. we speak again soon. thank you.
5:06 pm
>> we've just been able to establish communication with mrs. lifshitz's grandson, daniel, who has just seen his grandmother at the hospital. daniel, how is she doing? >> well, she's talking. she can walk. she can hug her grandchildren, which are very happy from that. and we are very glad to meet her. it is incredible that we see her. i mean, we couldn't imagine that it will happen. and from one side, i have so much joy and light from sitting here. i'm telling you, i have -- i came here from the helicopter to see her. and the joy gives huge amount of hope for the other families.
5:07 pm
that was just inspiring. i felt like everyone are just hugging me in an amazing gesture. people are there, they're not sure if they will be back. but it was just giving them so much joy, so much life that i have goosebumps all over my body now to think about it. i mean, for this community to see these two old women was just an amazing thing. and meeting my grandmother here was -- i was thinking that i would never see her again. and to see her here, it's just amazing. and she's -- she's a hero. she has so much courage. she's so strong. she's sikh and she suffered walks in tunnels and so many
5:08 pm
things that she's -- i don't know. i don't know where this woman have this power from. and seeing her, which i know that she's so strong, i can imagine other ones. and i'm telling you, we have to be fast. seeing my grandma like that and from one side so happy but from the other side, i've seen her, what she's been through. and i know that the timeline, the clock is ticking and making everything to bring all those hostages back is so evident now. and it's the top mission now for everybody. >> a lot, where most of the community from nir oz has been relocated to now. you're all together. did your grandmother, did she describe some of what her captivity was like? you mentioned tunnels she was
5:09 pm
moving through. >> so, she mentioned that she was awoke and then she was there in a room. but she didn't know much. and i actually didn't have the time to speak with her. so, i know the officials will speak with her. i'm sure they will know more. we were more in the hugging and crying and kissing her coming here. >> of course, of course. >> yeah. >> both your grandmother and your grandfather, who is still being held, they sound like such extraordinary people. they were among the original founders of the community of nir oz, which i think has been there for more than 50 years. they were peace activists in many ways. can you -- what are your thoughts? i mean, your grandfather is
5:10 pm
still being held. this is just -- this is an impossible situation for families like yours. >> yeah, it's so much joy and light and, you know, happiness from one side and so much sadness. and still this roller coaster. we don't go out of it. i could describe my feeling. i went up on a roller coaster, and i can't go out. when i sleep, it's tame, but i'm still on the roller coaster and i can never go out in the morning and in the night. now my grandmother is back. but still now i'm more afraid about my grandfather, that he's still there and still no men being released. but, you know, if they are so extraordinary people that even when they were so sick like that, they would be helping so many people in gaza strip. you know, these sick people, which had the cancer and other
5:11 pm
disease, they took them every week to the hospitals in israel, hospital like where i am now, to get treatment and getting them back to gaza strip. you mentioned the time in the kibbutz since 1955. and it was heaven. and imagine the hell came there. >> and there are so many people from nir oz who have been murdered, so many who are believed to be held, shim bah bass, her children, her parents. their whereabouts are unknown. so many families from nir oz. daniel lifshitz, i'm so happy for your family tonight. thank you for talking with us. >> thank you, really. most important, as you said, those children, do everything for those children to come back. >> the two children of sherry
5:12 pm
bob bis. ares calderon was also kidnapped and many others. cnn's clarissa ward has more on all this. she joins us from cairo. clarissa, what have you learn frd that side of the border? >> reporter: so, it was earlier this evening, anderson, that we first heard of ambulances, kind of, pulling up at the rafah crossing, essentially nurit cooper and yocheved lifshitz were released by hamas militants. they also released a propaganda video as well. we're not showing it. it shows the militants offering the women tea and biscuits. they want to milk this as a propaganda opportunity. the women were escorted by members of the red cross into an ambulance, cross to the rafah side of the border. they were taken from there really straight to an airport where they were then flown out to a medical center, where they
5:13 pm
now are, as you see daniel has just visited with his grandmother, who you just had on the show there. questions still remain, of course, anderson, about the future of all the other hostages who have been taken. there have been discussions of other deals in the works. we know the egyptian government and the qataris have been very actively involved in those negotiations, anderson. >> clarissa ward, thank you very much. i appreciate it. perspective from rammy -- former chief of the hostages and m.i.a. unit of ma sad. what does this release tell you when it comes to hamas' tactics and overall strategy? >> well, as we have already spoken, hamas is using the hostages as their cards of negotiation. they are trying to do two things. first of all, they're trying to get a ceasefire. they would like to stop the
5:14 pm
israeli attack, and they would like to stop the israeli incursion. still under the false thought that by doing these things, israel will change its resolve and not go into the gaza strip. the second thing is they're trying to somehow show their humanity. remember these people are trying to show their humanity, went into nir oz, decapitated babies, killed women, raped women, and now they're trying to show to the world and to some of your viewers that maybe they're freedom fighters. but they're not freedom fighters. they are terrorists and they're murderous terrorists. and this is what they're trying to do. very important here is the fact that the egyptians mediated this deal, not the qataris. the egyptians, as you understand, really -- the entrance to the gaza strip, the entrance where the supplies
5:15 pm
come. the egyptians are also the people that don't want the gaza strip citizens to move into egypt. there is another deal that is now brewing, and that's the deal for releasing 50 hostages. it's been talked about. qataris have been putting it forward. is it going to happen? we don't know. they insist on getting fuel into the gaza strip, and israeli government is against doing that. the fact they want it to be used in fighting that will come in the next couple of days or soon, very soon. the israel government has been holding back for several reasons. one is netanyahu is being a little hesitant. and the fact that we are letting all the possibilities of releasing these hostages come to light. >> what kind of information can
5:16 pm
a released hostage provide that's useful to intelligence officials or in just finding out about the status of other hostages? in the past, have they been able to provide any information? >> i don't think that there's any very important information. there is information. as the grandson just said, the grandmother doesn't know a lot. you know, she's in a room, she's been through a tunnel. this is not going to give us a lot. the information is being gathered. and as i said before, the israeli army now has put a lot of emphasis into gathering information about the hostages. this is the way in the end, unless there's a miracle. unless there's a miracle, at the end, the way these hostages are going to come home is by force. and in order to do that, israel has deployed a lot of tools in order to gather the information
5:17 pm
needed to place the hostages and create special operations. this means visual information, a lot of cyber, human assets that israel has in the gaza strip all working on the collection of this kind of information. what a hostage can tell is a perspective that doesn't really give you, you know, any tool to use if you want to go into the area and release the other hostages. >> rami ig rah, thank you very much. much more now on preparations for any possible move by the idf into gaza. nic robertson joins us live from sderot, not far from the gaza border. what have you been seeing on the ground there? >> reporter: we're continuing to get artillery impacts, artillery taking off from outside of gaza impacting inside the gaza strip. it's low-level compared to the
5:18 pm
very heavy missile strikes we were hearing last night. there are fighter jets in the sky. but it doesn't seem as if this is a particularly heavy night of shelling. during the day, hamas or other groups have fired a couple of salvos of rockets into this town of sderot. but as far as that incursion goes and the troops that are getting ready for it, according to the idf chief of general staff, their troops are ready. they're ready to go. we're also learning that they're doing additional training. they're not moving away from the border, as best we can tell at the moment. but they're also not formed up at the border. it doesn't appear that they're going to go in tonight. but we do get the sense that this continues to be the expectation. i don't think anything we're hearing, despite the hostage releases, despite hamas' efforts to derail a possible incursion, i don't think we're hearing an off-ramp for it at the moment. and that was another detonation
5:19 pm
just heard in the background. two fighter jets -- yeah, two fighter jets, i think, in the sky behind me right now as well, anderson. >> the israeli defense minister said today in a statement that israel's preparing for what he called a multilateral operation. i assume that means by land, by sea, by air. obviously not a lot of detail in there. that's pretty obvious that it would be multilateral, no? >> reporter: it is. i mean, look, you have to -- when you go in, you have to overwhelm whatever hamas resistance there's going to be. one way you can do that is by air. i was, just a couple of minutes ago, hearing a helicopter flying by. we don't see them too often here, but absolutely helicopters can be expected to be involved supporting troops on the ground, even dropping troops deeper on the ground. and by sea, either support by shelling or troops landed by
5:20 pm
sea. because of course, you know, the top of the gaza strip is quite nare narrow. so, you can bring troops in by the sea, some by helicopters, and others can come in by land. you can put a lot of forces on the ground concentrated in an area quite quickly depending on the objective. and, again, we don't know the specific objectives yet. but the town behind me, 2 1/2 kilometers away, beit hanoun, one of the first objectives in 2014 and quite likely will be again this time, anderson. >> nic robertson, thank you, again. joining us, retired army colonel, currently professor of military history at ohio state university. colonel, thanks so much for being with us again. hamas could release all the hostages or all the civilian ones if they wanted to or all the wounded ones. releasing two at a time like
5:21 pm
that, what, kind of -- what do you see that as the -- what's the tactic there? >> they're, sort of, dribbling them out, showing good will, but not giving away their trump card, which is these hostages that they can use to release palestinian prisoners and as bargaining chips. i think that they will release those that are too ill to continue in captivity because if they die in hamas' care, it does hamas no good to have them -- a dead body on their hands and them blamed for killing them. this is what we're seeing. it may go on for some time. but i think the ground invasion will begin before those hostages are leased. >> you and i talked earlier today, and you said something that really got my attention. you said the fighting in gaza city will be more complicated
5:22 pm
than it was for the u.s. in fallujah, iraq, as well as mosul. what are the -- for idf forces when they're fighting in an environment where it's urban warfare and there are a lot of civilians around. as many civilians that have gone to the soulgt, there are still a lot of civilians and a lot of men, women, and children in gaza city and elsewhere. >> yeah, exactly. so, under the rules of war, the israelis have to do what they can to minimize civilian casualties. they don't have to eliminate them. you know, i've been thinking about parallels in history. and what i came up with was the battle of manila in 1945. there were about 1 million filipinos in the capital city. the japanese wouldn't let them leave. they used them as human shields, and the united states forces attack to clear the city. and in the process, 100,000 filipinos died, some of them by japanese atrocities. this is a potential future for gaza city, if the israeli forces
5:23 pm
use all the fire power at their disposal, as the american army did back in february 1945. >> what is the calculation, though, for a soldier manning a weapon in gaza city? how do you determine when it's okay to fire? who makes those choices? >> well, when it comes to the decision to pull the trigger, that's up to the individual soldier and his immediate leader. these are tough decisions. we saw it in the battle of mow by dee shoe in 1992, when the rangers went in -- maybe '93. the rangers went in and there were a bunch of somalis that were used as human shields. and the rangers had to sometimes kill the civilians in order to kill the fighters hiding behind them. and this is something that the israeli army is going to have to face and hopefully they're being
5:24 pm
trained up for these eventualities while they're waiting for the invasion to begin. >> given the planning and training we saw from hamas in their sickening attacks on october 7th, one has to assume -- correct me if i'm wrong -- that they have planned for the israeli response. and i guess the conundrum is, if israel does go in, are they doing what hamas wanted? and if they don't go in, how do they defeat hamas? they can't do it from the air. >> yeah. i think it's a dilemma. i think this is exactly what hamas want. they want israeli forces to go in, kill a lot of civilians. the hamas fighters with 15 years of preparation can pop up in tunnels behind israeli forces, kill a lot of israeli soldiers. that would be the ideal. but even if they lose, a lot of their civilians are going to get killed in the process. and that will inflame world
5:25 pm
opinion and turn the world against israel. so, it's damned if you do and damned if you don't. i don't envy the israeli government on having to make this decision on whether to launch this ground envision. my guess is they're going to remain committed to doing it. >> i appreciate your time again. thank you. >> thank you. coming up next, my conversation with the mother and father of a 23-year-old american who was badly wounded when taken hostage by hamas, is being held tonight. their reaction to video they didn't even know existed at first. and we'll tell you how they got to see it coming up. also, a report from a hospital in gaza city on a grim, horrible condition there, which could only get worse in the days ahead.
5:26 pm
5:27 pm
5:28 pm
5:29 pm
i want to show you a picture of a 23-year-old american israeli, her sh goldberg poland. he is believed to be a hostage in gaza. last monday i did a live interview with his mom, rachel, and his dad, john. they told me that hersh's arm had been partially blown off by hamas gunmen after tossing grenades into the shelter he was hiding in. eyewitnesses told them their son was put into a truck by hamas gunmen and driven off. during that live interview a week ago when we showed a picture of hersh, this picture,
5:30 pm
i realized i actually had seen their son and had a video of their son on my phone. it had been shown to me by a soldier at the music festival. we recorded it off his phone. we had permission to do so. and it had never been released publicly. i did not want to shock them, so i waited until the interview was done and called rachel and john immediately, and i sent them the video. and it was their son, hersh. the family would like everyone to see this video. they want you to know what has happened to their child, and they want the world to know that there are seriously wounded people who were taken by hamas. and this video is proof of that. we blurred out some parts of it, but we want to warn you, it is disturbing. >> "god is great," the gunman shouts, recording on his phone. he checks a car, looking for anyone else hiding.
5:31 pm
[ speaking in a non-english language ] >> other gunmen shout, as they bring survivors from a shelter. come, come, they yell. load them. that's hersh on the right with another hostage. his left hand and part of his arm is blown off. the bone sticks out. the other hostage appears wounded as well. another wounded hostage is dragged by his hair and tossed into the truck. a fourth man is thrown on top of them. >> when i sent the video to you, what was your initial -- >> first of all, it's a crazy sequence of events that we talked to you through a computer screen and then get a phone call from you saying, i have a video of your son. >> i didn't want to say on live
5:32 pm
television -- >> which we so appreciated. >> of course, of course. >> the way everything has unfolded, the gentleness that you used -- at the end of the day, you're a journalist. and journalists want a story. and that could have been dealt with in many other ways that were not kind and gentle. >> so, first seeing that video in general gave us a dose of optimism. as horrible as it is as a parent to see your kid under gun point being pushed with one arm, the composure with which he's walking on his own legs, pulling himself with his one weak hand. he's a lefty and his left arm is blown off. pulling himself with his one weak hand onto the truck, gave me a real dose of strength that he's handling a horrible situation and he's doing it with composure. >> i mean, we're saying, he walked out calmly, which he did. but i think it was from shock. >> they have this photo taken inside the shelter before hamas
5:33 pm
gunmen began throwing grenades inside. rachel says as many as 29 people were cramped together. that's hersh, and this is his friend honor. >> hersh and honor went to the festival. honor was by the door. and honor, by everyone as account who we spoke to, as they were throwing in grenades, he would keep picking them up and throwing them out. all these witnesses said there were 11 grenades thrown in. he threw out 8. >> rachel says eight people survived and avoided capture by hiding under the blown up bodies of the dead. but honor didn't make it out alive. >> his parents, they just came to our house on friday, and the people who are identifying bodies actually let them know that they identified him with dna. but in his hand, he was holding a grenade. his dead body had a grenade in his hand. >> that's incredible.
5:34 pm
>> he's the real hero. those eight people -- and even the people who walked out and are now in gaza, it's because of honor. >> how are you able to get through each day? >> i personally feel like we have to keep running to the end of the earth to save him. and we have to try to go, believing that somehow he got treatment and he's there and he's in pain and he's suffering but he's alive and he's there. and there are also the moments in this universe that we now live where you say, maybe he died on the truck. maybe he bled out in that truck. maybe he died yesterday. maybe he died five minutes ago. and there are those moments where you think, how are these thoughts even -- i don't understand these thoughts, but they're real thoughts. >> they often go down to see their son's room. >> this is hersh's room?
5:35 pm
>> this is hersh's room. this is a steal door because this is our -- >> safe room. >> -- bomb shelter, yeah. >> you can feel him here close. his globes, books, mementoes, all as he left them. rachel did make his bed, however. she wants it ready when he returns. >> i went out friday night screaming to him. friday night, you know, we bless our children traditionally. in jewish homes, you bless your children on friday night. so, i was screaming. it's a traditional blessing from the bible. and so i was screaming the blessing to him with my hands up. i usually put my hands on his head when he's home. >> what does the blessing say? >> it says, may god bless you and keep you, may god's face shine upon you and be gracious to you, may god's countenance be lifted up toward you and give
5:36 pm
you peace. >> what do you want people to know about hersh? >> he's just a super curious kid. and this wonder lust that he developed when he was six or seven years old has been his life obsession, always asking for maps and globes and atlases for his bar mitzvah. really these last few years, he saved every penny to go on this trip that he has a ticket for on december 27th. he was going to go to india and then all points east. >> rachel and john were just on the cover of "time" magazine. they're trying to get the world to pay attention to the plight of the hostages. >> as american israelis, we've been embraced by the u.s. government. the support is there. the empathy is there from the u.s. we're obviously hungering for more than that. we want action. we want results. there are hostages from
5:37 pm
somewhere around 30 countries. why have we not yet seen prime ministers, foreign ministers, global leaders screaming to get the wounded help? >> rachel also got to be in a paul with other american families and president biden. >> he stayed for 90 minutes and he listened to us and he cried with us. >> i know loss. i've lost two children, i lost my wife, and i'm telling you that you need to go through this. but you also need to remember that you will be strong again for your family. you know, and he said things that because he knows loss -- so, it wasn't platitudes. it was someone speaking who has lost children speaking to a mother who lost her two children. and it was a real moment of coming together just as people who know what pain is. you know, this very excruciating
5:38 pm
part of pain. >> this is a particular kind of pain. >> correct. there's no playbook for this that we know of. of the game, daily, is he alive? is he getting treatment? did he die 15 days ago? like we're on the head of a pin, and every direction you fall is a bad direction. so, a lot of how we get through the day, when you asked that before, is we're trying to balance on the head of the pin and just get everything done with the hope that he'll come home to us alive and he'll go on that trip with one hand. >> john and rachel. with me now is editor and chief of "the jerusalem post." the situation with hostages is so sickening and horrific, do you hear -- i mean, when you
5:39 pm
talk to people here, is that what people talk about first? what do you hear from people? >> i think israelis are in a state of shock, in a state of trauma. and they're also in the, sort of, waiting game, not knowing whether this ground offensive is going to happen or not. there are 360,000 people who were massed on the border, and that affects families across the country. we're talking about people's siblings, spouses, parents, in some cases. so, i think that's what people are mostly thinking about. but of course the hostage situation is very much on people's minds. and that's been very much the conversation in israel at this time. >> hamas could release all their hostages right away. i mean, the game that they're playing of releasing two by two, it's very clear there's a tactic there, there's a strategy there. the ma up inipulation of it. it is incredible to me, though, that, you know, wounded hostages, infants, toddlers, people with severe medical conditions, are still being held. >> it's shocking.
5:40 pm
i mean, there's no words to describe anything we've encountered over the past two weeks. i don't know that the english language has the vocabulary to enable us to describe what we're all going through. but the horror of having small infants, elderly people, people with disabilities or chronic illnesses who are still being held by hamas as hostages and are not being released is unfathomable. we don't know exactly what their calculus is, how they're deciding who they're going to release and who they're not. >> the thing that i think people who have not been here and have not been to be'eri, which you were at, have not been to nir oz and the nova music festival site, do not understand or do not want to think about, is the personal nature of this brutality. this is people looking each other in the eye and shooting to death brock levinson in nir oz and logging onto her facebook account and live streaming it for her friends and family to
5:41 pm
see. it's -- this is, kind of, a new -- there's something particularly personal about this. >> i think the cruelty of it all was so shocking to many israelis. i think, you know, israelis know hamas. they're not new to hamas. they know it's a terrorist organization that wants to murder israelis and wants israel to not exist. i think for many years, israel has thought of hamas as a pragmatic organization that is tasked with caring for the people of gaza and so on and so forth. what you saw on saturday the 7th was an organization that is insagsable in its thirst to just murder jews in the most horrific and cruel ways. and i think that is a wakeup call for many israelis. >> there is also this -- obviously the political situation in israel has been incredib incredibly divisive over the last year or so. how does that impact the lack of confidence many people have in netanyahu? how does that impact the way people think now about the
5:42 pm
possible ground operation? or does it? >> i think the fact that we now have an emergency unify government is helpful in that respect because you have -- >> that was the whole idea. >> exactly, exactly. the prime minister primary opponent is benny gunts, who was prime minister under netanyahu, and they had a major falling out, is part of the decision making. i think that's helpful in ensuring the people of israel do have the confidence that this government can lead the country forward and do whatever it must to make sure hamas doesn't have the capacity to carry this out ever again. >> the ub in of people from the military leadership have accepted a level of responsibility for the intelligence failures, for lack of response, have apologized in some ways. netanyahu has not done that. is that something you hear from people? are there many israelis who want that or are they not thinking about that? >> israelis are very much thinking about that. right now they're just thinking about how to move forward, how to ensure that israel does whatever it must to ensure that hamas doesn't have the capacity
5:43 pm
to do this again. but we know there's going to be a reckoning after all this. there's going to be a commission of inquiry. i don't see how netanyahu survives this politically. >> this isn't just going to get pushed down the road? >> no. this is a turning point in israeli history and we're going to see a totally different political map at the end of this. >> thank you so much. appreciate it. >> thank you. we've got a lot more ahead. clarissa ward is back with us with new reporting on the situation in gaza. clarissa, what's the latest on aid getting in, your reporting from egypt tonight? >> reporter: anderson, through the rafah cross you there egypt and gaza, another convoy of trucks came in today. that brings the total number of trucks in the last three days to just over 60. to give you some perspective, that's 60 trucks in about 16 days compared to what would normally be in the same time period more than 7,000 trucks of aid. and all of this is happening
5:44 pm
against the backdrop of some of the most relentless and punishing bombardment, more than 300 strikes in gaza last night alone. and it's the hospitals, anderson, really feeling the pressure. the situation going from critical to dire. you are entering the al shifa hospital in gaza city. this is just one minute, one day. doctors tell us it could be any minute of the last 16 days. it is a scene from hell. many of the patients are young children. the reception area now a triage center. and everywhere you turn, another casualty. every one of these people has been ordered by israel's military to evacuate the hospital, including the staff
5:45 pm
already outnumbered and overwhelmed. and as the punishing bombardment continues, the wounded keep flooding in. doctors say there's nowhere else for them to go and no way safe to transport them out. >> now we have half an hour. it has overloaded our emergency department and our o.t. department and our -- department, overloaded with patients. >> reporter: dr. marwan warns the situation is about to get dramatically worse. the hospital, he says, is just two days away from running out of fuel, needed to power the generators that are keeping the hospital and its patients alive. if you do run out of fuel in two days, what will you do? i mean, what can you do? >> i think the international community will be part of the
5:46 pm
process of killing all our people if they don't act on israel to allow this fuel enter into gaza, what to do for the people who are in the icu. there was about to be -- there are small babies. we have more than 130. what to do with them? okay. i think we are allowing them to die. >> reporter: just a trickle of aid has been allowed to cross into gaza, and none of it fuel. blocked by israel, it says over concerns it will be taken by hamas. hundreds of trucks are waiting along the egyptian side of the border. diplomatic efforts to establish a continuous humanitarian corridor have failed. and there is no more time for debate.
5:47 pm
>> those babies, clarissa. can you talk about why fuel has become such a sticking point here? >> reporter: well, from the israeli perspective, anderson, they say that hamas has been stealing fuel. they are concerned that if more fuel goes in, that they will co-opt it and take it and use it for their own purposes. at the same time, it is abundantly clear from talking to humanitarian organizations on the ground, talking to the u.n., talking to dr. abu sa da at the hospital in gaza that fuel is essential, not just even for the generators, anderson. fuel is essential also for their desalination plants. the doctor talk about how people are drinking brackish water because there isn't fresh water. they need to keep the
5:48 pm
desalination plants going. fuel is life for the people of gaza. but so far, there is just a paralysis, an inability, it seems, for everyone to come together and try to come up with some kind of mechanism that could satisfy israels concerns but ensure that that desperately-needed fuel gets to where it needs to be, anderson. >> i mean, organizations, you know, the u.n. has people on the ground. does the u.n. say that hamas takes stuff from them? >> the u.n. has not publicly said anything like that. and, you know, we haven't -- the only place we have heard that from on the record is from the idf. actually they reiterated a claim on our air earlier tonight, they said that hamas had stolen fuel and that they have 1,000 liters of fuel that they could be giving to the hospitals, that they do have fuel.
5:49 pm
just to give you perspective, when we interviewed dr. marwan, he said that even when they turn off the electricity and the ac, that one hospital goes through 9,000 liters of fuel a day. and there are many hospitals in the gaza strip right now, all of them desperate for fuel, all of them on the brink of running out. so, even if this claim that hamas has taken this fuel and is holding this 1,000 liters of fuel is true, that would potentially help one hospital to operate for maybe a few hours, anderson. >> clarissa ward, thanks. just ahead, difficulties israel is now facing from the fact it's not just security threats from gaza and southern lebanon to deal with. a report from the west bank, next.
5:50 pm
5:51 pm
5:52 pm
is it possible my network could take my business to the next level? it is with comcast business. powering all your devices with gig-speed wifi. and you get fast downloads and uploads. pick it up! pick it up! oh we got this! because it's powered by the next generation 10g network. more speed for your business? it's not just possible. it's happening. get started for $59.99 a month for 12 months. plus, ask how to get an $800 prepaid card with a qualifying internet bundle. comcast business, powering possibilities.
5:53 pm
in addition to israel's fight against hamas in the south and hezbollah to the north, we're also closely watching the increasingly volatile situation in the west bank. israeli forces have increased incursions into the occupied territory, targeting what they say are hamas operatives. the hamas controlled palestinian health ministry says 95 palestinians have been killed there and more than 1,800 injured since the october 7th attack. sara sidner has more on the ground tensions between palestinians and jewish settlers there. >> he's had enough. >> reporter: he's doing his normal dad duties, but this scene is not at all normal. everything has changed in their jewish settlement in the west bank. >> we need to protect ourselves because we're surrounded by people who don't necessarily like us. >> reporter: since the october 7th attack to their south by
5:54 pm
hamas on shabbat, he rejoined the army and is patrolling his fortified neighborhood instead of working his factory job. >> at the end of shabbat we say a prayer asking god to help us and to keep our children safe and to keep our soldiers safe. some of the words, i just couldn't say them because, you know, we weren't safe on october 7th. >> jewish settlement presence has always been fraught, deemed illegal by international law because they're built on occupied palestinian land. but this is a different kind of fear, he says. hanaan ash wah ri is a palestinian activist and a former palestinian liberation organization official. >> why are you committing a war crime? why are you living on palestinian land illegally?
5:55 pm
just because israel tells you you can? this is occupied territory. >> reporter: and she says then there's the growing settler palestinian violence, violence between jewish settlers and palestinians has been caught on camera for decades. one of the latest shows settlers throwing rocks and firing guns at palestinian homes. in another incident, after a confrontation, a jewish settler shoots an apparently unarmed palestinian man in the stomach. we asked -- the governor of some 60 settlements in the west bank about the incident. >> how do you defend the palestinians who have been killed by settlers? [ speaking in a non-english language ] "i'm supposed to explain to cnn why terrorists that tried to kill civilians or soldiers were shot by security forces, the police, or the army? with all due respect, i don't really understand the question." we clarified in english and
5:56 pm
hebrew, showing the video. this is why i'm asking this, this information is out. groups are saying, these settlers, it's not the idf, it's people fighting against palestinians and shooting them. >> what you are showing me now is an edited, tan dishs video. this happens a lot, and unfortunately, there aren't two equal sides. >> reporter: the video you're seeing is not edited. but palestinians agreed with one thing he's saying, the sides are not equal. they say they are the overwhelming victims in this. in the two weeks after october 7th alone, more than 90 palestinians have been killed in the west bank from attacks by settlers and the israeli security forces. according to the palestinian ministry of health in the west bank. back in settlement -- he does his patrols to protect his family and neighbors like leah. >> i am here for 24 years.
5:57 pm
i never feared, never. we work with them. we talk with them. we work with them in the industry just across the road. they're friends. we're friends with them. it was always like that. >> reporter: and now? >> something has been cracked. something is not the same anymore. >> sara sidner joins me now from jerusalem. the issue of settlers is a hugely controversial one here. the government of benjamin netanyahu has been very encouraging, certainly, of those settlers. >> reporter: yeah, they have. and e lot told us, the woman you just heard there, that she basically moved there because the land was cheap in part. but many settlers also moved there for religious reasons. they believe that it is part of the jewish biblical homeland that they refer to add judea and
5:58 pm
samar i can't. international law says they are occupying palestinian land illegally. and what happens in all of this is, as more and more of these settlements occur, the palestinians see this as less and less of a chance for them to have their own state one day, their own official state, as their territory is literally shrinking. anderson? >> sara sidner, thanks very much. we'll be right back.
5:59 pm
♪♪ alex! mateo, hey how's business? great. you know that loan has really worked wonders.
6:00 pm
that's what u.s. bank is for. and you're growing in california? -yup, socal, norcal... -monterey? -all day. -a branch in ventura? that's for sure-ah. atms in fresno? fres-yes. encinitas? yes, indeed-us. anaheim? big time. more guacamole? i'm on a roll-ay. how about you? i'm just visiting. u.s. bank. ranked #1 in customer satisfaction with retail banking in california by j.d. power. for information on how to help israel or gaza, you can go to cnn.com/impact. you can text the word relief to 707070. "the source" with kaitlan "the source" with kaitlan collins starts now. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com