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Gaza Officials: Nearly 100 Killed in Latest Israeli Strikes; Iran's Supreme Leader Honoring Slain Hezbollah Leader; Ex-Cops Convicted on Some Charges in Tyre Nichols' Beating; Fight for Latino Voters in Battleground States. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired October 04, 2024 - 04:30   ET

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

[04:30:00]

MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: -- thousands of people fleeing the fighting in Lebanon over the past few weeks.

Meanwhile, Israel says it killed the local leader of Hamas's network and other operatives in a strike in the occupied West Bank. The air strike late on Thursday night was unusual in the West Bank and killed at least 18 people, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

Videos show ambulances evacuating residents from the scene and people carrying victims to the hospital. The Israeli military says the Hamas leader of that area of the West Bank planned and took part in numerous attacks against Israelis. Hamas condemned the attack but didn't confirm the killing of the local leader.

CNN's Paula Hancocks following that, other developments as well from Abu Dhabi. You know, lots of attention obviously shifted to Lebanon, but the numbers of deaths in Gaza are still strikingly high.

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's right, Max. We get a daily death toll from the Ministry of Health in Gaza. And on Thursday, the death toll for the previous 24 hours was nearly 100 people.

Now, they don't give a distinction between militants and civilians. But from many of the images and the footage that is being sent to us by our team on the ground in Gaza, there are many women and children within that footage. Now, we know that many residents could have been hoping that while the Israeli military was refocusing its efforts on its northern border with Lebanon, it said it was going to be a pivot to the north, that that might mean that things would calm down somewhat in Gaza. It has not been the case.

And I must warn our viewers that some of the images in this upcoming report are disturbing.

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HANCOCKS (voice-over): Three-month-old Hala is rushed into hospital. Her shrapnel-marked body shakes as doctors check to see if her injuries are also internal. Her grandmother says, suddenly, the rocket hit and everyone was gone. I took the little ones and ran. I don't know what happened to their mother. Several schools turned into displaced shelters were hit by Israeli

airstrikes this week. These patients, mostly children from an UNRWA school in Nusrat, central Gaza.

Places of learning turned into hoped-for sanctuaries, becoming a burial ground for some. Israel's military says Hamas was using these schools as command and control centers, using civilians as human shields, a tactic Hamas denies. But these body bags are too small to be fighters.

Some of the injured say they tried to return to homes in the north of Gaza as they saw Iranian rockets overhead on Tuesday. The IDF says dozens of suspects moved towards troops, posing an immediate threat, so they opened fire.

More than 50 people were killed in Khan Younis overnight Tuesday in what was described as an Israeli incursion. Residents searched for bodies under the rubble any way they could. Heavy machinery has become a luxury item in Gaza.

The IDF told CNN it was targeting Hamas operatives in the area and blamed the group for embedding itself among the residents of Gaza.

A grandmother cradles the body of her 11-month-old granddaughter, killed while sheltering in one of the schools. If not for the trickle of dried blood by her mouth, you would think she was just sleeping.

She was born during war and martyred during war, her grandmother says. They killed her as if she were launching missiles at them.

Many Israeli troops may have been redeployed from Gaza to the border with Lebanon, announcing the center of gravity has shifted. But that means little to civilians in Gaza, for whom every day is a struggle to survive.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HANCOCKS (on camera): So clearly nothing has changed on the ground in Gaza, despite the Israeli military focusing on their northern border at this point. We know that there is still a shortage of shelter, of food and water.

And we've heard from UNICEF, James Elder, the spokesperson for UNICEF, posting on social media just recently, Max, quote: There's become an acceptance of the suffering of children -- Max.

FOSTER: I just wanted to ask you as well about the strategies you see coming out from Israel, the bombing of the road, for example, the targeting of Hezbollah leaders in Beirut.

[04:35:00]

HANCOCKS: Yes, so this bombing of the road, this was a road that goes towards the main crossing between Lebanon and Syria. It's an area that we know that tens of thousands had been crossing into Syria in recent days. The latest figure I think we have is something like 160,000 have believed to have left Lebanon to find shelter in Syria, many of them Syrians, but also Lebanese.

Now, we know that this road is closed. It's inaccessible by car. We know some are trying to access the crossing by foot at this point.

CNN has reached out to the IDF to ask why this particular area would be targeted. It's understood that this is an area where civilians are trying to flee the fighting in Lebanon. And when it comes to the targeting of Hezbollah commanders, this has been a consistent message from Israel saying that they want to degrade the ability of Hezbollah to be able to cause a threat or be a threat to tens of thousands of Israelis along the northern Israel border.

They have had to move since October. Israel has said they want them to be able to go back to their homes but not have the threat of Hezbollah operatives just across the border in those southern Lebanese villages. At this point, we have asked why that specific road on its way into Syria would have been targeted. We have yet to hear from the IDF -- Max.

FOSTER: Paula, thank you.

We want to return to one part of the story out of Lebanon that we're following. These are live images actually coming to us from the Grand Mosque in Tehran, where huge crowds have gathered for Friday prayers, as you can see.

Now, Iran's supreme leader is paying tribute to the slain Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, and we're watching closely to see what he says. Obviously, a huge amount of interest and concern around the world about their response to Israel about the current events going on throughout the Middle East now.

Now, FIFA, world football's governing body, says it'll look into a Palestinian request to ban Israel from participation.

The Palestine Football Association has asked for the action -- or it did back in April, and it said the Israel Football Association should be banned for violation of international law based on the occupation of Gaza and discrimination against Palestinian athletes. The time frame for a decision has been delayed until, well, for multiple times, but FIFA says they will now investigate and Israel rejects the accusations. FIFA didn't say when the decision will come.

Three former police officers have been found guilty on some of the federal charges in last year's deadly beating of a Black man in Memphis, Tennessee, but acquitted on others. The officers were seen on video striking Tyre Nichols, who tried to run after a traffic stop. CNN's Shimon Prokupecz has details, but warning that some of the images in this report are graphic.

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SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: The jury finding that the three officers, Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, and Justin Smith, not guilty on the most serious charge, the first count in the indictment. They convicted all of the former officers on witness tampering charges. The three officers have been on trial for about a month.

Of course, there's that horrific video that we all saw back in January of 23, which depicted the beating that Tyre Nichols took, his injuries so severe that he would die a couple of days later from brain injuries and other injuries to his body.

The judge remanding the three officers who faced a pretty serious charge here and a pretty serious length of time in prison now that they've been convicted.

Also important to note that two officers who were also involved in this, this was a total of five officers who were involved in this. Two of the officers pleaded guilty some time ago and were cooperating with prosecutors in this case.

All of the five officers are still facing murder charges on state charges in relation to the beating of Tyre Nichols.

Shimon Prokupecz, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: 32 days until election day in the U.S. and early voting is in full swing already. Edison Research and Catalyst report more than a million people have already cast their ballots. Virginia's leading the way so far with close to 400,000.

New Jersey, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Maryland, all above 100,000. The one million ballots cast so far amount to less than one percent of the 2020 vote total. That was 158 million. Absentee ballots are set to be mailed out and early voting gets underway in more states in the weeks ahead.

[04:40:00]

Recent nationwide polling of Latino voters shows that a majority of Latinos back Kamala Harris, but inflation and worries about the overall economy have given Donald Trump a way to potentially peel off some of that support.

Our Danny Freeman examines the effort to win the Latino vote in the battleground state of Pennsylvania.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DANNY FREEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Fresh off his vice presidential debate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz was in Redding, Pennsylvania, stopping at a Puerto Rican owned restaurant to boost support among the city's majority Latino population.

GOV. TIM WALZ, D-MN, VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: This thing's going to come down to our blue wall states, come down to Pennsylvania, might come right through this restaurant.

FREEMAN (voice-over): At the same time, just four blocks away, the Trump campaign was holding its own phone bank, specifically targeting Latinos in the Lehigh Valley.

FREEMAN: Why are you supporting President Trump? What are the three reasons you are supporting President Trump?

MARCIA HERAS, TRUMP SUPPORTER: (SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

FREEMAN: Family.

MARCIA HERAS, TRUMP SUPPORTER: (SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

FREEMAN: Life.

MARCIA HERAS, TRUMP SUPPORTER: (SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

FREEMAN: And end of war.

FREEMAN (voice-over): The dueling outreach, just the latest sign both campaigns understand the importance of Latino voters in the Keystone State. In 2020, President Joe Biden beat former President Donald Trump in Pennsylvania by about 80,000 votes. But with this race still extremely tight, the estimated 615,000 eligible Latino voters here could easily help decide the November outcome.

While recent national polls show Harris doing better than Biden was with Latino voters, they also show Trump outperforming past Republicans among this group, which in recent elections has solidly backed Democrats.

At a Harris campaign event this week in Allentown, another deeply Latino city, there were plenty of voters excited about the vice president. This man told me he feels Harris represents hope and will help small businesses.

But there were warning signs too.

(SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

FREEMAN: You're not going to stay home. You're going to vote.

[Speaker 16] Today, you have not made a decision on who you're going to vote for.

HECTOR SANTANA, UNDECIDED VOTER: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

FREEMAN: Today you have not made a decision on who you're going to vote for.

CARMEN DANCSECS, MORTGAGE LENDER: I think we have too many people that are kind of like on shaky waters. They don't know where they stand.

FREEMAN (voice-over): To energize this community in Pennsylvania, the Harris campaign is turning to volunteers like Yamelisa Taveras, the campaign featuring the Allentown small business owner and mom in a new ad focused on health care this week.

YAMELISA TAVERAS, HARRIS SUPPORTER: I believe we have a great shot with Harris/Walz. However, the campaign can do more. There's still so many people on the fence and having those conversations and knowing that there truly are a lot of people that can benefit from so much more information.

FREEMAN (voice-over): For their part, the Trump campaign is turning to men like Daniel Campo, the Venezuelan born pilot recently spoke at a Trump rally in northeastern Pennsylvania. But Campo said his biggest challenge when canvassing Latino neighborhoods are people who feel the former president is prejudiced against Latinos.

FREEMAN: How do you convince them to vote for him?

DANIEL CAMPO, TRUMP SUPPORTER: So are you going to invite him to your wedding? Are you going to invite him to your birthday party or your kid's birthday party? You have somebody that did the job and did a good job and you're hiring him again for that job. You're not inviting him to your wedding.

FREEMAN: Now, one thing several Democratic Latino voters told me over the course of the week is that they hope to see more popular Latino celebrities come out in support of the Harris/Walz campaign, especially considering that a few reggaeton stars have already come out in support of former president Donald Trump. These Democrats say that star power and more face to face interactions can help perhaps bridge some of the energy gap they're seeing on the ground.

Danny Freeman, CNN, Allentown, Pennsylvania.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: All right, we'll be right back with the latest from the Middle East.

[04:45:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FOSTER: Once again, live images coming to us from the Grand Mosque in Tehran where huge crowds are gathering for Friday prayers. And there you see Iran's Supreme Leader leading Friday prayers in Tehran today, remembering the slain Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah.

Fred is monitoring this, as he does with so much out of Iran. And this is a pretty rare appearance.

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's a really rare appearance. In fact, the last time that the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, led the Friday prayers in this specific place, in the Mosala compound, which is an extremely important place for the Friday prayers, was actually more than four years ago, after the assassination of Qasem Soleimani, who of course back then was the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Quds Force, who was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Baghdad.

Now, of course, after the killing of Hassan Nasrallah, we can see how important Hassan Nasrallah is to Iran's Supreme Leader, for him to come out again and now give a sermon at the Friday prayers.

One of the things about some of the live images that we're seeing, Max, we can see the big crowds that are around there, a lot of them with Palestinian flags, a lot of them with flags from Hezbollah.

These crowds are much larger than what you would normally see there at Mosala on a Friday. So certainly a massive turnout that has taken place for this sermon by the Supreme Leader.

And I've been listening in a little bit to what he's been saying. He has said this is going to be a longer speech. He is urging unity among Muslims. That's one of the first and foremost things that he kept saying during the early stages.

Right now, we can see the crowd sort of chanting. We can see some Lebanese flags also there as well. And that was really one of the things that was key to what he's been saying so far, is he has urged the Muslim nations to come together and support each other, as he put it, in the defense.

Of course, first and foremost, speaking about being against Israel. There was one section that kind of stood out a little bit, where he said the meaning of this is, quote: The people of Palestine have the rights to face the enemy who has taken over their land, their home, their farms, and impacted their life to stand up for themselves.

Obviously, that meaning that Iran supports Hamas in Gaza, and the Supreme Leader believes that other Muslim nations should do the same as well.

That, of course, is quite an important message from the Supreme Leader, especially after that missile attack that the Iranians launched on Israel, where, for instance, countries like Jordan shot down some of those missiles. The Jordanians, of course, saying that they are not going to be a country where a battle between Israel and Iran is going to take place, that they say that the sovereignty of their airspace is something that they are going to defend.

But, of course, you also have other nations that, so far, by and large, have been standing on the sidelines, like, for instance, Saudi Arabia, whom, of course, right now, the Supreme Leader is also calling upon.

And, of course, this could also be seen as a reaction to that video message that we saw from Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel, who was calling on Iranians to essentially change the form of leadership that they have in their country.

[04:50:00]

So, I think, right now, for the Supreme Leader, this is an extremely important sermon that he's holding right now, and it also shows how important Hassan Nasrallah was to him. One of the things that we've noticed in the past years, coming to Iran again and again, was that very close bond between Iran's Supreme Leader and the leader of Hezbollah, especially after that Israeli incursion into Lebanon in 2006, where that bond became even stronger -- Max.

FOSTER: OK, Fred, quite the scenes there in Tehran today. We'll continue monitoring that very crucial speech. We'll be back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FOSTER: It was the Thursday night thriller in the NFL as the Atlanta Falcons played host to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Falcons quarterback, Kirk Cousins, broke the franchise record with 509 passing yards. He threw four touchdown passes, including this one to Darnell Mooney.

The Buccaneers kept the game close. Quarterback, Baker Mayfield, threw three touchdowns, including this one to Mike Evans. But it all came down to overtime. Cousins threw a 45-yard touchdown pass to secure the win, 36 to 30.

[04:55:00]

Stories in the Spotlight. King Charles got his moves on Wednesday at a reception celebrating the Commonwealth diaspora.

The King traveling to Samoa later this month for the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting, where delegates from 56 nations from across the globe will gather. And so to give him a taste of what to expect, guests at the Samoan reception, including former rugby player Freddie Tuilagi, cheered him on as they taught him that traditional dance.

Undersea investigators off the coast of California have discovered the wreck of a U.S. Navy destroyer known as the Ghost Ship of the Pacific. And they say it's in exceptional condition. It's been nearly 80 years since the USS Stewart was deliberately sunk during a U.S. Navy exercise. Explorers have been looking for it ever since scans of the ocean floor revealed the Stewart sitting 3,500 feet or 1,000 meters below the ocean's surface.

Finally, the star of the center of our solar system, also known as the Sun, has been on quite a show. You're looking at strong solar flares that were captured by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory on Thursday. These are X9 flares. They're so far the strongest of this solar cycle, which has been unusually busy this year and has yet to reach its peak. The flares prompted NASA to post strong geomagnetic storm watches on Earth through to Sunday.

Thanks for joining me here on CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Max Foster in London, CNN "THIS MORNING" with Kasie is up next.

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