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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees

Israel Warns Gaza Airstrikes Will Intensify Ahead Of "Next Stage"; IDF Says One Israeli Soldier Killed Near Gaza Border; Sources: U.S. Seeking To Delay Israeli Ground Offensive In Gaza For More Hostage Talks; W.H.: Biden Spoke With Pope, World Leaders About Conflict; IDF: Hezbollah "Playing A Very Dangerous Game" With Israel; IDF Says Israel Conducts Dozens Of Strikes Against Hamas In Gaza Late Today; Inside Kibbutz Attacked By Hamas; 9 Republicans Join House Speaker Race After Jordan Drops Out; House In Chaos As GOP Struggles To Elect A Speaker; Blinken: 10 Americans "Remain Unaccounted For In This Conflict". Aired 9-10p ET

Aired October 22, 2023 - 21:00   ET

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

[21:00:00]

JIM ACOSTA, CNN HOST: According to the White House, Biden and Netanyahu have agreed that aid will continue to flow into Gaza.

And just a short time ago, Anderson, we learned that an Israeli American IDF soldier from Rockville, Maryland, right outside Washington, D.C., has died in a missile attack near Israel's northern border with Lebanon. This is the yearbook photo of Omer Balva. We're told he was just 22 years old. Anderson?

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: We're going to begin this hour with CNN International Diplomatic Editor Nic Robertson. He is in the Israeli city of Sderot.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: And the IDF, Anderson, has been talking about stepping up their airstrikes and artillery strikes on Gaza ahead of a potential ground incursion. And late Sunday, past few hours here into the early hours now, Monday morning, we've been seeing perhaps some of the heaviest rounds of strike this building, reverberating.

But when it comes to those troops on the border, waiting for that incursion, they're still not clear when it's going to happen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTSON (voice-over): Bristling with Battle Ready troops, farmer's fields north of Gaza churn with the controlled fury of a nation readying for an incursion to strike Hamas. Yet, they are waiting with no explanation why.

(on-camera): It feels like that early rush for battle readiness has passed. The troops are deployed standing by. The question is, how long can they be kept out here?

(voice-over): According to former IDF General Israel Ziv, as long as is needed, there are military gains

ISRAEL ZIV, FORMER IDF GENERAL: We are now improving our intelligence and our capacity of targets

ROBERTSON (voice-over): That the political calculation here is more complicated.

RON BEN YISHAL, MILITARY ANALYST: I think both in Washington and in Jerusalem, they understand that the legitimation, legitimization window is closing quickly.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): Civilian losses in Gaza are growing, more than a third of them children, according to Palestinian health officials. Lengthy negotiations have led to two American hostages released. There's a tiny amount of humanitarian aid that's crossed into Gaza that Israel fears ends up in Hamas' hands.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's calculus of when to send in ground troops has never been so fraught, under pressure from the White House for more hostage releases.

YISHAL: Netanyahu is in real problem. He is -- he cannot say no to Biden, but he cannot say yes today to the humanitarian aid that drifts into northern Gaza.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): But he is also under pressure at home too. Military and others hawkish for a decisive blow against her mass.

ZIV: We are finishing preparing, you know, the ground force, because we've changed planes. We are going to -- for heavy maneuvering.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): Netanyahu's dilemma compounded by his dependence on American weapons.

YISHAL: The pressure from Washington is real, is real and strong. And the Prime Minister says many times to his ministers, listen, we are getting from the United States more than you know.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): Where less than a week ago, these fields were teeming with tanks, troops making last minute repairs. Today, there are just tracks in the sand.

(on-camera): There's a soldier's jacket here, bread and a bag on the table. The question is, where have all the tanks gone? Forward for an incursion or back to base for a pause?

(voice-over): Close to the frontline in Gaza these days, more questions than answers. An incursion still highly probable, but when?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTSON: You know that said, it really is hard to toe with so many things in the balance. Could more hostages be released? Could more aid go into Gaza? Can all of these things change the dynamic? But I think the overwhelming force at play here is really that domestic pressure on the Prime Minister to do something. And my guess is that really is going to outweigh whatever pressure comes from the White House, Anderson.

COOPER: Nic Robertson, thanks very much.

For more on the impending ground operation, we're going to go straight turn next guest. Spokesman for the IDF, Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus.

[21:05:04]

Lieutenant Colonel, thanks very much for being with us again tonight. Nic Robertson just reporting there are dozens of Israeli troops ready at the southern border. Well, obviously, much more than dozens. We've yet to see a larger scale ground assault. Where do things stand tonight?

LT. COL. JONATHAN CONRICUS, IDF SPOKESMAN: Good evening, thanks for having me. Or Good morning, should I say. We are preparing ground activities. And as we've said before, all options are on the table and ready. And until anything else happens, we continue to strike Hamas. We're hunting the commanders, as we have said in the past, and we're trying to strike the various targets that we have regarding to Hamas.

We're focusing a lot of intelligence sensors on the Gaza Strip looking for new targets to emerge. Whenever they do, we strike them. Just today, we released footage of how Hamas uses the very dangerous proximity to U.N. facilities, schools, and even hospitals. We share that with the media in order for everybody to understand that it is a very tense situation in Gaza. We're targeting Hamas, but Hamas is hiding in or between different humanitarian positions.

COOPER: The Israeli soldier that we've learned about who was killed on the northern border with Lebanon, what more do you know about what happened?

CONRICUS: What I can say at this time is that the Hezbollah continues to deploy mostly squads of anti-tank missiles. They have been firing them across the entire blue line from oceanica in the West Coast, all the way up to Mount Dov in the East. And they've been targeting both military positions and civilian locations.

Unfortunately, we have had casualties. And this is the most current one, this Israeli soldier who now has been reported dead. And what we're doing in response is a very measured response so far. We are striking and defending ourselves against those anti-tank missile crews. We're using UAVs in order to take them out.

And now we've been able to, in the last few hours, to take out a few of those crews before they were able to launch any of their missiles. But it's definitely an escalation on the side of Hezbollah. They seem to be very focused on escalating and worsening the situation, killing civilians and soldiers and really trying to drag Lebanon into a very dangerous situation.

COOPER: Last night, around this time, you and I spoke about an operation that the IDF conducted, targeting you said a tunnel underneath a mosque. Palestinian officials today have called that strike a dangerous escalation. Are there still -- you said it was a combined Islamic Jihad, Hamas sale that you've been monitoring, and you'd found out about the tunnel in previous operations months before and this was to prevent an imminent attack. Are their operations that are ongoing in the West Bank now?

CONRICUS: Yes, that strike -- by the way, the imminent threat was information that we had live and time sensitive that they were about to launch a strike using explosives and attack using explosives against Israeli targets. That is why we struck that infrastructure. We did it without causing the building to collapse. And we did it in order to strike against a very legitimate military target.

Unfortunately, they were using a mask to hide. And yes, there are operations ongoing in Judea and Samaria as we speak almost every night. Israeli troops based on specific intelligence go in and look for and apprehend Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other operatives that are either planning or preparing different types of attacks against Israelis.

We have rounded up more than 50 -- sorry, more than 450 Hamas operatives in Judea and Samaria since the operation started, since October 7. And it seems as if Hamas is trying to destabilize that area as well. We're operating there and we definitely do not want to see an escalation there. So we are trying to preempt any type of activity there that may set into motion, more violence and more attacks against Israelis.

COOPER: Obviously, the IDF has been asking and urging Gaza residents to move to the south. We've been witnessing that. Hundreds of thousands of people have. We've been talking about the increase in this -- the trickle of humanitarian aid supply coming in and trucks 20 one day, 14, I believe it was today. And the hope is by Egyptian officials, humanitarian officials there would be more of that.

[21:10:08]

In terms of the -- people who have decided to stay in Gaza, what are the rules of engagement when a ground operation is taken, if a ground operation is taken? Obviously, in any kind of urban combat environment, where you have a terror group, and also civilians still that is an extremely complex operation, we saw that in Ramallah, we saw that in Mosul, are there -- the -- what are the rules of engagement? Are they -- what are they now? Because I've been reading, that they've been loosened in some ways, is that accurate?

CONRICUS: No, the rules of engagement are that we always distinguish between combatants and non-combatants, even in war. Definitely, in routine operations, a civilian is a civilian until he acts different than becomes a combatant. And we try to distinguish between those two and target the militants or the combatants and not target the civilians.

The people in northern Gaza, Gaza City, I think are making a very, very dangerous decision. They are jeopardizing themselves. They're playing into the hands of Hamas. Hamas is just using them as cannon fodder, as human shields. They have -- Hamas has no concern for their security. And I think that they should evacuate as soon as possible to go down south to a safer area. I think that the -- what we're seeing Hamas kind of gravitating towards humanitarian facilities, specifically hospitals, is a very dangerous situation.

I've seen reports that Hamas isn't allowing the evacuation of hospitals, and actually keeping people in and disturbing the evacuation of hospitals. And I think we're going to see very difficult situations if Hamas indeed continues to prevent. And if the remainders of Palestinians in Gaza City, don't make the smart move and actually evacuate.

COOPER: We had an Israeli politician on in the last hour who said that he believes that Hamas, people in leadership positions have moved down south to Khan Younis, city in the south. Is that accurate to your knowledge? I mean, do you believe that there are Hamas operatives, you know, and leaders who have moved further south?

CONRICUS: So yes and no. On the yes part, we know that Hamas definitely rank and file and others have a tendency to whenever things get tough blend in the civilian population and seek refuge within the civilian population. The know part is that there's a lot of underground infrastructure and important assets for Hamas in Gaza. It is their center of gravity.

So I can't go into detailed intel analysis. But I can only say that we don't think that Gaza City is void of terrorists. Lots and lots of Hamas terrorists are in and under Gaza City. And they have very important infrastructure, hardware, weapons, communications and logistics there.

So there may be some truth in what that official said. But the bottom line is, that we see significant combat capabilities of Hamas in Gaza. Of course, we are trying to strike those capabilities and degrade them from the air and we will see where the situation -- where and how the situation unfolds.

COOPER: Lieutenant Colonel Conricus, thank you.

Coming up, hear from an Israeli-American volunteer call to action when the deadly attack took place.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[21:17:17]

ACOSTA: My next guest was on his way to a family wedding overseas, but just days later, he found himself collecting bodies including the charred remains of children. That's the story of Israeli-American Tomer Peretz when Hamas launched its brutal attack against Israel.

Peretz said he found himself call to action and took on a gruesome but necessary job, working with a civilian group to collect people's bodies in one kibbutz before they were given to the military so they can be identified for their families. And Tomer Peretz joins us now. Tomer, really appreciate your time and sharing your story. Can you tell us about what you saw?

TOMER PERETZ, ISRAELI-AMERICAN ARTIST: Yes, my first -- I did -- Kibbutz Be'eri, that was basically the operation of my team. Kibbutz Be'eri would picked up anywhere from little babies, few months old all the way up to 90 plus years old. Burn buddies, cut -- people body parts. The worst nightmare you can ever think of.

Looks like the closest to it maybe will be a video game. Not even a movie close to it. It's --

ACOSTA: Yes.

PERETZ: I don't know how about detail you want me to go in, but horrific.

ACOSTA: I'm sure. And you said you felt called to action. How did this all come about? You're on your way to a family wedding, and then you end up here doing this. What was that like?

PERETZ: Yes. So I was supposed to attend a wedding. And then obviously, the wedding never happened. You know, everything started on Saturday, on Sunday and made some phone calls already. I wanted to help out because I realized, you know, it's a big deal.

I called my friend from ZAKA (ph). He's one of the heads over there. ZAKA (ph) is the organization, basically, collecting and picking up those dead bodies. He didn't like the idea at the beginning, but then on Monday morning, it picked me up and I showed up with this team.

We were one of the first team who showed up in Kibbutz Be'eri and picked up tens of buddies from Kibbutz Be'eri. I have no idea. You know, I wanted to help somehow. I had no clue what I'm about to see. I had no idea what is it all about?

I knew it's crazy. I know it's really bad. But I didn't know that burned kids and women's alive. So --

ACOSTA: Yes. That must be terribly traumatic and I understand you have two young boys of your own. It must be very difficult to process all of these. Are you trying to -- can you make sense of any of what you witnessed and what you went through?

[21:20:13]

PERETZ: I still can't process that. I can't believe. I do have three kids. I don't talk to them about that. I don't try to explain. I don't -- I have no idea how to deal with that, to be honest with you. I'm -- and I don't know how I feel. I have no idea. It's -- I've never thought that I will have to see stuff like that. Even though I feel very good about me helping, but I had no idea how bad is it.

ACOSTA: Yes. And what do you want people to know about what your experience, what you went through and what the people there in that kibbutz experienced what they went through? PERETZ: The worst movie you could ever think of. Terrorists are -- those organization getting into a kibbutz which you can consider it as a village and just laddering everyone. And when they shoot someone, they don't shoot one bullet, they should 20, 30 on the same body.

There is no animal that does stuff like that. I didn't even know that humans can do stuff like that. This is a monster work. People have to know about that. There is no question about that. This is an easy a lot of denying out there.

ACOSTA: Right. What do you say to those folks?

PERETZ: You know, about what happen. What's that?

ACOSTA: What do you say to those folks who are in denial about what happened?

PERETZ: I don't really -- you know, I won't get into arguments and stuff like that. I just --

ACOSTA: Yes.

PERETZ: -- you know, I, you know, I'm OK with talking in the media everywhere and to help people what I've seen in my eyes. It -- that's my goal, to share it as much as I can. I really want to talk more about that. I want to tell more people about what I've seen because I've never seen anything or heard anything like that happened before.

ACOSTA: Yes.

PERETZ: Yes.

ACOSTA: Well, Tomer Peretz, we appreciate you taking the time to talk to us and sharing your story. It's critically important that people hear from folks like yourself who are literally right there on the ground witnessing all this assault with your own eyes.

Tomer, thank you very much for your time tonight. We appreciate it.

PERETZ: Thank you for having me. Jim. Thank you.

ACOSTA: Thank you. And much more from Israel after a quick break. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[21:26:38]

COOPER: President Biden speaking today with a number of world leaders in Canada and Europe, the Pope and the Israeli prime minister. Also today, sources tell CNN the White House is pressing Israel to delay any ground invasion into Gaza. The administration is studying progress on the hostage front and the need to bring in additional humanitarian aid. A senior Israeli official denied the report.

Priscilla Alvarez is live in Delaware with details. So what more do we know about these calls the President has been making?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, he has been working the phones over the course of the day as all of this continues to develop. And President Biden speaking to European and Canadian leaders, but also notably talking again to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. This is the eighth call that you have had since those terror attacks on October 7.

And according to a read out by the White House, that conversation included developments, discussing the development of what is happening in Gaza and Israel as well as the president affirming that the flow of critical assistance to Gaza and talking about those ongoing efforts to release hostages.

Of course, this slew of calls comes on the heels of President Biden's trip to Israel, and also amid those ongoing efforts to again get aid to Gaza as well as work on the release of hostages still held by Hamas. Now, while here in Rehoboth, Delaware, the President was asked about whether the U.S. was encouraging Israel to delay the invasion into Israel.

And to that, the President simply said that he was speaking to the Israelis and that continued to be the case today. The President also staying very close with his national security team. We're learning that the President was briefed by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and also Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, among other senior officials to the White House, keeping a very close eye on all of the developments.

And Anderson, one other issue that came up in that talk with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was facilitating the Americans who are stuck in Gaza getting out of Gaza. This has been an ongoing issue that still has no resolution. That too coming up in this call with the Prime Minister among the many other world leaders that the President spoke with today.

COOPER: All right. Priscilla Alvarez, thanks so much.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met earlier this evening with his war Cabinet and also senior security officials. This is apprehension gross over Hezbollah launching attacks from Israel's northern border. U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin warning the possible or potential, I should say, for escalation throughout the Middle East.

Joining us with more, CNN Global Affairs Analyst Kim Dozier, CNN Senior National Security Analyst Juliette Kayyem. Kim, let's just talk about the northern border with Lebanon. I covered in 2006. I think I was here for about six weeks in the fight -- Israel's fight against Hezbollah. That was a very, very tough fight, though, the weaponry of Hezbollah has gotten a lot more sophisticated since then.

KIM DOZIER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: This is one of the reasons that Israel was expecting some sort of attack to come from the north not from Gaza, because Hezbollah has something like 150,000 missiles, including sophisticated missiles that can reach just about all of Israel, and that is according to Israeli and U.S. intelligence. But it seems like Hezbollah has decided to just stay at the edges of this conflict. There have been harassing attacks, keeping Israel's attention focused up north, preserving the possibility of something more out perhaps during an Israeli ground offensive.

[21:30:09]

But some I've spoken to do not think that Iran wants Hezbollah to get involved like that. Neither do Lebanese leaders who think that Israel will follow through with its threats to strike back, and have an incursion into Hezbollah territory, possibly while simultaneously going into Gaza.

COOPER: Juliette, in terms of the ground operation or potential ground operations in Gaza, look, there's obviously a lot of very understandable fury and shock and horror over the sickening attacks on October 7 that occurred here. Do you see that there has been planning for what may happen after -- even if it's a successful operation in Gaza --

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Right.

COOPER: -- destroying Hamas leadership, what happens in the power vacuum after that? Because certainly, the IDF doesn't want to be on the ground in Gaza for, you know, the next few years.

KAYYEM: It's interesting, Anderson. I mean, that's the question that senior White House officials have clearly been asking the White -- Netanyahu and his war Cabinet, and they are leaking at various times. It's pretty clear that there is no day two plan by the Israelis, that this is -- by the buildup that you're showing, this does not look like a strategic strike. This looks like a long term investment or time in Gaza, including the death of those living there, not just Hamas.

I mean, we have to -- Israel would have us believe at this stage. I'm just saying factually at this stage, that a operational and intelligence failure that they experienced two weeks ago has somehow now completely turned 180, and now they're ready to fight a strategic war that only gets to Hamas leadership.

It's just -- it defies sort of explanation at this time. So we know, we simply know that there will be other fatalities, not just humanitarian, but hostages, civilians, and others. And the question for Israel is, will that more radicalize people in Gaza and in the outside Muslim world, or will they be able to solve this issue? Because without a governance structure in Gaza, you will have Israelis getting killed.

You cannot fight an urban war like this without Israelis being vulnerable, especially given the intelligence setbacks that we know exist. We just can't deny them they existed two weeks ago.

ANDERSON: Well, Kim, it's important to point out, and I've talked to a lot of, you know, Israelis throughout the course of the days here. There's a lot of concern. You know, the -- a number of intelligence officials, military officials, security officials have effectively apologized or accepted a level of responsibility for the failures that occurred that didn't catch the intelligence and the build up to this sickening Hamas terror attack, and also on that day, the failures that occurred.

Benjamin Netanyahu has not accepted any responsibility, has not apologized. His whole focus is on this operation in Gaza. Is it clear to you that whatever those failures were have been in any way addressed that will help Israel moving forward in whatever this ground operation?

I mean, if there were failures in the military capabilities and the intelligence, and they haven't been corrected, it's understandable why some Israelis would have be raising questions about a ground operation. Is this the best thing to do?

DOZIER: Well, a senior Israeli official here confirmed that they believed that they were looking at the dots but not connecting them properly because they thought that Hamas wanted to govern. They thought that giving Hamas work permits for something like 15,000 Gazans to come into Israel had pacified Hamas.

And these officials will tell you that, yes, we saw them doing some training. We thought that was posturing to keep them popular inside Gaza Strip. We didn't understand. Now we do, and now we've taken a different posture. That said with this potential ground invasion, you know, that Special Forces teams train all the time, the kind of teams that would go in and try to affect hostage rescue.

But the majority of the troops that would be sent into Gaza, there are either young troops who've never seen battle or reservists who saw it a long time ago and only meet together a couple of times a year. Going into a complex environment where things are going to be booby trapped, there are going to be snipers, as Israeli officials have said we know that Hamas has been preparing for this.

[21:35:14]

And they say that's even one of the reasons they've taken down some of the high rises to deny Hamas snipers a place to shoot from. Still, they are expecting casualties, even though they believe that now they're looking at the right threat, and they understand what's arrayed against them.

But once they do, the U.S., Israel, they all know that those hostages are likely going to be killed by their captors. So I don't think Israel doesn't want to look like it's being pushed by the White House, but it doesn't seem to be rushing into a ground offensive either.

COOPER: Well, Julia, I think this point that Kim raises is so important. I raised it with a politician in the last hour not to take anything away from Israeli forces. They have an extraordinary military machine here, an incredibly lethal force.

But I remember in 2006, I mean, there's a lot of young troops who, you know, are reservists, who have come back, and young soldiers who are doing their service. And the level of -- you know, I assume they have been using the last few weeks to try to just refresh people in house to house, street to street combat, because that is a very particular thing, and one needs training in that.

KAYYEM: Right. That's exactly right. And the training, though, isn't simply to protect yourself. It is also to try to empty places, get places where there may be Hamas leadership, but also civilians. So nothing -- there's not no amount of training can make an urban environment like this civilian death free. Let's just put it that way.

So we are -- we just have to be honest. There's going to be a certain level of civilian death. Not everyone can leave. There's a separate humanitarian issue because no one can get water or food. And so the question for Israel is, what kind of training? What is the plan after they claim or they are able to get Hamas leadership?

Are you leaving? Well, then what happens? Is the Palestinian Authority ready to go? Ready to go but they don't.

COOPER: Right. Because the Palestinian Authority is not going to be -- they have said we're not going to be riding in on Israeli tanks in order to rule --

KAYYEM: Right.

COOPER: -- Gaza --

KAYYEM: Right.

COOPER: -- on, you know, with backed up by Israeli guns. That's not a tenable situation. And just as we saw in Iraq with the De- Ba'athification campaign, you know, you there's a lot of people who then form an insurgency.

KAYYEM: Right. That's exactly right. Look, we have -- we -- there's no example of a warfare like this. This doesn't create an insurgency, even by those who were nonviolent at the moment of the original Hamas attack. Look, people always say, what does Hamas want? Hamas wants this, right?

I mean, they want to ignite the Middle East in a way that it hasn't --

COOPER: Yes.

KAYYEM: -- been before and that we have seen. And so this effort by the Biden administration to at least slow down, to try to focus on --

COOPER: Yes.

KAYYEM: -- at least not giving Hamas the narrative that they want, which is Israelis --

COOPER: Yes.

KAYYEM: -- come in or killing civilians and humanitarian. So that's --

COOPER: And yet -- KAYYEM: what the challenge is.

COOPER: And yet, of course, Israel will point out that they have the right to respond and the necessity to respond, that it's impossible not to --

KAYYEM: Right, and the --

COOPER: -- to in some way respond to the atrocities.

We're out of time. Juliette Kayyem, Kim Dozier, appreciate it. Thank you. Up next --

DOZIER: Thank you.

COOPER: -- a look inside one of the Israeli communities that came under attack by Hamas.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[21:42:28]

COOPER: This week, I got a chance to visit Nir Oz, Israeli kibbutz attacked by gunmen October 7. Because of security concerns, it was the first time journalists were allowed to go there. I want to warn you, some of the video is hard to watch. This is what happened. And the destruction left behind at Nir Oz.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER (voice-over): Nir Oz was one of the first kibbutzim attacked on October 7 by Hamas gunmen. Security cameras recorded some of them entering, armed with automatic weapons and RPGs. When we visited Nir Oz this week, the carnage was clear. No family, no home here was untouched by terror.

People's possessions are strewn all around, left behind by men who looted and killed for more than seven hours. The silence now sounds sickening. A breeze blows through broken windows. Flies buzz in the debris.

The residents who survived are gone. Only some cats have returned. Every home, it seems, has been defiled. Family photos remain on the fridge. The people who lived here hid in their safe room. Lucky for them, the door held strong.

(on-camera): You can tell gunmen tried to pry this door open. This handle has nearly been pulled off from tugging it. They weren't able. The lock held. It looks like they tried to pry open the door as well. You can fit your hand through here. They could just maybe look in, but they couldn't actually break through this door.

(voice-over): Around back, we check the window of the safe room. Inside, the bed and sheets are soaked with blood. One member of the family who hid here was wounded, but he and they survived. But according to the IDF, about a quarter of the 400 people who lived in Nir Oz are dead or missing.

(on-camera): In another house in this kibbutz, gunmen broke in and murdered a woman named Bracha Levinson. They not only killed her, they got access to her Facebook account, and they live streamed an image of her lying in a pool of blood on the ground so that her friends and family could see.

This is Bracha Levinson. She was 74 years old. Her neighbors, Adina and David Moshe, were also in their 70s. They'd lived in Nir Oz for more than 50 years.

We found their home completely torched. Dishes were still in the dishwasher. They hid in their safe room when the gunman came. Her granddaughter Anat says Adina messaged her family they were OK.

[21:45:08]

ANAT MOSHE, SHOSHANY GRANDMOTHER KIDNAPPED BY HAMAS: My grandmother was a very, very strong. She didn't want us to be panicked. Everyone --

COOPER (on-camera): They're very much worried about you in that attack (ph).

A. MOSHE: Yes. She's -- this kind of woman she always take care of us.

COOPER (voice-over): But inside the safe room, there was reason to panic. A pool of dried blood evidence of what happened. David Moshe was shot and killed holding onto this door handle to prevent the gunman from getting in.

A. MOSHE: He was a hero. He was shot. So there are three gunshots on the door that succeeded to break through the door.

COOPER (voice-over): Their attackers dragged Adina Moshe out through the safe room window. She later appeared in this video posted online, sandwiched between gunmen on a motorbike in Gaza. Some of the missing have been found. The bodies of 80-year-old Carmela Dan and her 13- year-old granddaughter Noya were identified this week.

Her former son in law, Ofer Calderon, is still missing, as are two of his children, Sahar and Erez. This video shows Erez being dragged away by gunmen, one of whom appears to have blood on his hand. We geolocated where the video was shot.

(on-camera): This is the last known location of Erez Calderon. He was 12 years old. He was kidnapped by Hamas gunmen and he was videotaped as they were dragging him away in this direction. This is the fence to the kibbutz, and Gaza is only about 1.5-mile away.

You can see an explosion that's just taking place in Gaza off in the distance. So the gunman didn't have far to take him in order to get him back into Gaza.

(voice-over): There's video of Shiri Babas (ph) being kidnapped as well, clutching her two children, Ariel (ph) and Kafar (ph). Her husband is missing too. We talked to her cousin last week.

YIFAT ZAILER, COUSIN KIDNAPPED: I want my family back. I want my family back. I'm trying to be strong and stoic and speak clearly, but I'm devastated.

COOPER (voice-over): All of the families of Nir Oz are devastated. David Moshe was buried there this week. His granddaughter Anat wanted us to see a video that was played at his funeral and from a celebration at the kibbutz earlier this year.

That's David singing. He's then joined by other members of the kibbutz.

A. MOSHE: He's singing the first sentence. This is what the song means. The time will fix all that breaks. That's the message. And you're allowed to be afraid and you're allowed to be sad. But tomorrow, we can rebuild and recover.

(SINGING)

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: It's extraordinary to think of the 400 people who lived in Nir Oz, a quarter of them are dead or missing. We'll be right back.

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[21:52:24]

ACOSTA: Nine Republicans have thrown their hats into the ring for the speaker's gavel after the House Republican conference failed to elevate their last two nominees to the speakership. And CNN's Manu Raju has a look at the chaos up on Capitol Hill and what's next for the House GOP.

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: House Republicans remain in turmoil almost three weeks after the unprecedented ouster of a sitting speaker. Kevin McCarthy was pushed out after eight Republicans joined with Democrats and voted out Kevin McCarthy as speaker. This was initiated by House Republicans, and they have not been able to coalesce around anyone to replace McCarthy as of yet.

And the house can't do any business, no legislating at all, until a speaker is elected. And they have been unable to unite behind any candidate. First, they nominated Steve Scalise, the House Republican Majority Leader. He was unable to get the votes to be elected speaker. He bowed out before going to the floor.

Jim Jordan, the House Judiciary Committee chairman, was nominated then to be the next speaker of the House. He did go to the floor three times, and he failed to win over enough support. He could only afford to lose four Republican votes on this party line vote. He lost 25 on his third ballot. Ultimately, he bowed to reality and stepped aside.

Now, nine Republican candidates have filed to run for speaker. Unclear which of those nine will ultimately get the Republican nomination, and more importantly, who can get the 217 votes that they would need on the floor of the House to be elected speaker. It is unclear if any of them can, given the sharp divisions within the ranks.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's the biggest fu to Republican voters I've ever seen.

REP. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (R), GEORGIA: This conference is absolutely broken.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Americans are sick of it, and I know most members of the House are sick of it. It is time for big boys and big girls to stop with the nonsense.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This swampy as swamp gets.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We need to get over it, and we need to move on.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We cannot have an entire branch of government offline.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We got to get our act together, because I'm getting calls from my constituents and saying, what the hell is going on with you Republicans?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think history will assign the blame in the right places.

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RAJU: Now, a bit here about the timing. On Monday evening, that's when the House Republicans will meet behind closed doors yet again. Those candidates will try to make their pitch to the conference. They'll answer questions from their members. They'll do that one by one, and we'll see how that ultimately goes then.

And Tuesday morning is the significant vote. Behind closed doors, Republicans will have a secret ballot leadership election. That means a majority of their conference will vote to nominate the next speaker candidate. That person, it will be a secret ballot election. So it's unclear exactly who's the front runner and who might emerge here, but we'll see if how close that person who gets the nomination is to the magic number on the House floor. 217 votes to be elected speaker.

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This is challenging for any Republican candidate because in the narrowly divided House, there are only 221 Republicans. Democrats are going to vote for Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic leader. That means that person, the candidate, the Republican nominee, must limit defections in the ranks.

And it is unclear if any of them will be able to do that after we've seen just Republicans going after each other after McCarthy was pushed out, unable to get behind anyone, unable to do the nation's business and much businesses waiting, dealing with aid to Israel, calls for aid to Ukraine, avoiding a government shutdown by mid-November.

None of that can be dealt with the Republican agenda is completely stalled amid this GOP leadership infighting. Can they get it resolved this coming week? That remains a huge question. But a possibility, it could still be unresolved and slip into another week if they can't get their act together behind the nominee.

Manu Raju, CNN, Capitol Hill.

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ACOSTA: This evening, the New York Giants honored American hostages taken from Israel. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said there are still 10 Americans unaccounted for, some of whom are being held by Hamas. The team honored these Americans by displaying American flags in the 10 empty seats that you see there at MetLife Stadium.

For more information about how you can help humanitarian efforts in Israel and Gaza, go to cnn.com/impact or text relief to 707070 to donate.

Thank you very much for joining me here this evening. On behalf of my colleagues Anderson Cooper and Erin Burnett, I'm Jim Acosta. See you here next weekend.

"The Whole Story with Anderson Copper: Inside Hamas" is next after a quick break. Have a good night, everybody. Have a good weekend.