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Israel Says 4 Soldiers Killed By Hezbollah Drone Attack While Israeli Strike In Gaza Leaves 20 Dead; Deadly Fire Rips Through Tents After Israeli Attack On Gaza Hospital; New Poling Showing No Clear Leader In Presidential Race; Trump Conspiracy Supporters Shapes Georgia Election Rules. Israeli Strike Hits Al-Aqsa Hospital Killing 4, Wounding 40; Interview with Dr. Feroze Sidhwa; China Starts War Games Near Taiwan; Biden Tours Storm Damage for Second Time in Two Weeks; Spacecraft Aims for Jupiter's Europa Moon; Spanish Olive Growers Adapt to Climate Change. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired October 14, 2024 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Hello. Welcome everyone. I'm Michael Holmes, coming up here on CNN Newsroom, a deadly Hezbollah drone strike targets an Israeli army base, one of the bloodiest attacks on Israeli soil in a year, a fiery scramble for their lives, displaced Palestinians taking shelter in tents at a hospital in Gaza killed in an Israeli airstrike, and deadlock in key battleground states, the U.S. presidential candidates are looking to seize momentum in the home stretch.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live from Atlanta. This is CNN Newsroom with Michael Holmes.
HOLMES: And we do begin in the Middle East, where Israel is grappling with one of the bloodiest attacks on its soil since the war broke out last year. Israeli officials say Hezbollah launched a drone attack on Sunday, killing at least four soldiers and wounding more than 60 people.
The drones targeted an army base in Israel, about 40 miles from the Lebanese border. Hezbollah calling this retaliation for Israeli strikes in Lebanon on Thursday, which continued into the weekend. Lebanese Health officials say Israeli strikes on Saturday alone, killed 51 people and wounded more than 170 others.
Attacks reported across Lebanon from the north to the south. CNN's Nic Robertson, with more on that deadly drone attack in Israel.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: With the IDF has now confirmed this was a strike on one of their bases, and it does appear to be one of the bloodiest attacks on Israeli forces away from the front line since October the seventh last year. First Responders describe it as a very difficult situation. The IDF
confirming that four soldiers have been killed, seven are in critical condition. First Responders saying that they treated 61 different casualties at the site, some critically injured, some moderately injured, some lightly injured, and they were taken to eight hospitals in the area.
The IDF now saying they have control over the situation, but saying very clearly that this was a Hezbollah drone fired from Lebanon hitting the base close to 7:00 p.m. in the evening. The IDF though saying that they have the situation under control, but clearly they say this is going to be investigated, and their defenses, they say need improving. They've come up short.
REAR ADM. DANIEL HAGARI, IDF SPOKESPERSON (through translator): We are now busy contacting their families. All of the soldiers at the base were instructed to call home and update their families that they are OK. We are managing the incident. We will learn from and investigate the incident how a UAV entered without an alert at the base. The threat of UAVs is a threat we are dealing with since the beginning of the war. We need an improvement to our defense.
ROBERTSON: And in recent days, Hezbollah has been saying that they have been targeting what they have described as collections of Israeli forces near and behind the front lines. And after this strike, Sunday evening, they released a statement saying that they had achieved this by firing a number of missiles to confuse Israel's air defense systems, and then following that up with a number of drones and one of those drones very clearly getting through.
Hezbollah, it appears, is adapting and learning from Israel's air defense procedures to try to get missiles through, this really marks a significant moment for the IDF in this war. Nic Roberson, CNN, Tel Aviv.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: United Nations says Israel violated international law by breaching a U.N. peacekeeping post. Peacekeepers in southern Lebanon say two IDF tanks destroyed their main gate and forcibly entered the post.
Later, the IDF said that one of its tanks backed into the Peacekeeper post while evacuating wounded soldiers. The U.N. disagrees. In another area, the U.N. says that 15 peacekeeping soldiers suffered skin irritation and gastrointestinal reactions after Israeli troops fired rounds that emitted smoke.
The U.N. says it reminded the IDF of the obligation to quote, ensure the safety and security of U.N. personnel and property. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu putting responsibility on the UN and the peacekeepers.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: Mr. Secretary General, get the uniform forces out of harm's way. It should be done right now, immediately.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: A spokesman for the U.N. Secretary General said, quote, the peacekeepers remain in all positions, and the U.N. flag continues to fly.
Iran, meanwhile, bracing for a possible Israeli attack in retaliation for its October 1 missile strikes in Israel. CNN's Fred Pleitgen with that story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Some pretty tough talk coming from the Iranians. Iran's foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, saying that Iran was making, as he put it, tremendous efforts to try and stop what he called an all-out war here in this region. At the same time, though, he's also saying that there are no red lines, as he puts it, for Iran as far as the protection of its citizens and its interests are concerned.
Now, the Iranians have also made clear what exactly that means. They say that any attack by Israel will be met with an Iranian retaliation. The Iranians, of course, in the past, have said that if, for instance, Israel decides to attack Iran's oil and gas infrastructure, that then Iran could, in turn, also attack Israel's energy infrastructure as well.
At the same time, you have the speaker of Iranian parliament, who was in Beirut, and there, he not only pledged Iran's support for Lebanon and for Hezbollah. He also warned the countries of this region not to allow Israel to use their airspace for a possible attack on Iran. He said that could have serious repercussions for those countries.
At the same time, you also have the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Aerospace Forces, which is an extremely important group in all of this, because they are responsible for the ballistic missile program and also for air defense.
He said that Iran is, as he put it, prepared for any sort of missteps, as he put it, by Israel. Obviously, the Iranians right now bracing for what could be a strong Israeli attack. Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Tehran.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Meanwhile, the U.S. announcing Sunday it will send an advanced anti-missile system to Israel to help bolster the country's air defenses, along with about 100 U.S. troops to operate it. Cedric Leighton is a CNN military analyst and retired Air Force colonel. Always good to see you. Still want to talk about this missile defense system in a minute, but let's start with Hezbollah striking deep into Israel and succeeding in hitting a military facility and causing casualties. It's a new development in terms of Hezbollah penetration into Israel. How significant Do you think?
COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, I think it's pretty significant, Michael. One of the things about this is, you know, what were the tactics and techniques that Hezbollah used to carry out this attack? And it seems as if they may have, first of all, overwhelmed the Israeli missile defense systems, and they were also able to perhaps evade detection with the drone that was used that actually carried out this attack, that was actually the lethal weapon in this particular case.
They probably were able to navigate the area close to the surface of the earth. In other words, they didn't have the earth navigation, and that kind of navigation is extremely hard to detect when it comes to drones or airplanes, and if they did that, then they're certainly really figuring out what the vulnerabilities of the Israeli missile and air defenses are, plus what the vulnerabilities of Israeli radar are.
HOLMES: Right. OK, let's turn now to the U.S. moving this anti-missile system into Israel. Briefly, what's going to be the impact of this system? Its effectiveness militarily?
LEIGHTON: Well, I think it will be significant in the sense that it's, in some ways, it's a deterrent, but this terminal high altitude air defense -- area defense system is really a system that is designed to go after ballistic missiles, everything from short range missiles all the way to the intermediate range. And these are the classes of missiles that the Iranians use for many of their attacks against Israel or any of the other areas that they're targeting.
So it's significant in the sense that when it, when it is put in place, it will actually add layer to the Israeli air and missile defenses and will augment the Iron Dome David sling and the arrow systems.
HOLMES: Right. There are many, even in Israel, who've long feared Netanyahu actually wants a war with Iran, and, crucially, wants to drag the U.S. into helping fight it. I mean, does having this system, and importantly, U.S. boots on the ground to operate it, add to that risk for the U.S. being dragged into a conflict it doesn't want to fight?
LEIGHTON: Yes, certainly the U.S. does not want to fight this conflict. As you pointed out, Michael, you know, having 100 or so soldiers on the ground is, you know, a bit of a significant presence, but it's not unheard of.
[01:10:05]
We've deployed this system to Israel before, at least twice, once as early as 2012 and the second time in 2019. What it does? It does, you know, signify a presence in the Middle East and certainly an effort to protect Israel. It is a defensive effort on the part of the United States.
However, if those troops are harmed in any way, that could then result in the U.S. being dragged into the war, and that could, of course, have significant consequences beyond what we would like to imagine at this point. HOLMES: Yes, pretty much. I mean, I've been covering the region since
the late 1980s pretty much everything is, quote, retaliation. I mean, Israel says it's going to retaliate for Iran's missile strike. Iran will say those strikes were retaliation for killing Nasrallah. You know, Hezbollah says it's missile attacks on Northern Israel are retaliation for the Gaza war and on it goes.
I mean, Iran is preemptively warning of retaliating to any Israeli strike. And what are, as a military guy, what are the risks of endless, quote, retaliation?
LEIGHTON: Well, they're pretty significant, and especially when nobody wants to step off this retaliatory ladder. That's going to be a big issue, and it really will require the intervention that the diplomatic side from a number of countries that could help stop this, but there is a certain risk in a never ending escalatory retaliatory effort on both sides, whether the Israeli side or the Iranian side.
And each side seems to want to escalate the conflict to some extent, before they get the other side to back down. And either side, of course, wants to back down. So that's going to be the significant issue in the coming weeks, probably.
And when this is, you know, finally runs its course, there will still be, in fact, a war of sorts, in a sense, probably more of a cold war between Iran and Israel, and that, of course, will continue for a long, long time, even after this latest crisis blows over.
HOLMES: Indeed, the rules of unintended consequence. Colonel Cedric Leighton, always good to see you, my friend. Thank you.
LEIGHTON: Thank you, Michael, great to be with you.
HOLMES: Well, with 22 days to go, the U.S. presidential election is closer than ever. How the two candidates are approaching the final days. That's coming up. Also, CNN speaks with a Trump supporter who brought a ballot shredding conspiracy theory in 2020 and now has control over election rules in the state of Georgia.
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HOLMES: Just over three weeks later. Left until the U.S. presidential election, and there is still no clear front runner, according to new polling.
[01:15:05]
CNN's latest poll of polls shows an average of 50 percent of likely voters will support Vice President Kamala Harris. 47 percent will back former President Donald Trump. That deadlock extends to key swing states where even smaller percentages separate the nominees in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Both candidates will focus largely on the battleground states in the coming weeks.
In North Carolina, on Sunday, Kamala Harris taking aim at Donald Trump, criticizing him for not releasing his medical records, refusing to do a second debate and opting out of the customary candidate interview with the CBS news program 60 Minutes. Eva McKend reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
EVA MCKEND, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Vice President Harris using her remarks at a rally in Greenville to argue that the former president is not being transparent enough with voters when it comes to sitting for that 60 Minutes interview, a long honored tradition when it comes to going up against her for another debate or even on releasing his medical records. Take a listen, and here's the thing.
KAMALA HARRIS, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: Here's the thing, it makes you wonder. It makes you wonder, why does his staff want him to hide away. One last question, one last question. Are they afraid that people will see that he is too weak and unstable to lead America?
MCKEND: And a clear goal of the vice president in her two-day swing here in North Carolina was to try to recreate President Biden's winning multiracial coalition that he relied in part on in 2020 with intentional outreach to black voters. She met with black farmers, she met with community leaders and faith leaders in Raleigh, and she also spoke at a black church.
But what we're also hearing from North Carolina Democrats is a big push for voters to get out and vote early. Early voting begins in this state in just a few days. Eva McKend, CNN, Greenville, North Carolina.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Now, as the election draws closer, Donald Trump is taking his dark anti-immigration rhetoric to disturbing new levels. He's doubling down on his false narrative that the Biden-Harris administration has somehow opened the floodgates to a crushing wave of violent migrant criminals that threaten to destroy the United States. Yes, he's saying those things. Alayna Treene with more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: Well Former President Donald Trump addressing a crowd in Prescott, Arizona on Sunday, really leaned into that anti-immigration, dark rhetoric that we've heard him escalate in recent days. He talked about Operation Aurora, something that he announced on Friday when he was in Aurora, Colorado, but essentially said that he would support the death penalty for any immigrant in this country, whether they're here illegally or not who kills a U.S. citizen or a law enforcement officer.
He also leaned in to his attacks in Kamala Harris, specifically when it comes to her handling of the border. I want to take a listen to what he said.
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: For four straight years, she's imported an army of illegal alien gang members and migrant criminals from the dungeons all over the world, not South America, all over the world, they come, from prisons and jails and stylings, mental institutions from Venezuela, from the Congo all over and she's resettled them into your communities to prey upon innocent American people.
TREENE: Now, when I talk to Donald Trump's senior advisers, they tell me that this is an issue that they are not running away from even as many people, many Republican allies and those who want Donald Trump to win in November say that the economy needs to be the top issue.
Trump has continued to argue, and he believes, personally, that immigration and the border is the top issue. And it was very clear during his remarks on Sunday that that is what he feels will help him be successful come November 5.
Now, a bit of news from Sunday. Donald Trump called a bunch of border patrol agents onto the stage in the middle of his rally, where they touted their endorsement of the former president, their first official endorsement of him this cycle, although I will note that they have supported him in the past.
Donald Trump, for his part, also announced a new plan that he would call to add 10,000 more Border Patrol agents if he were elected in November, and also that he would call on Congress to give those agents a 10 percent raise, as well as a $10,000 signing and retention bonus again if he is elected.
[01:20:00]
Really trying to lean into their support, court these border patrol agents, and really embrace what he argues is a necessary action and advancement for these officials on the southern border. Alayna Treene, CNN Prescott, Arizona.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Joining me now from Los Angeles to talk about the election campaign and where it stands is Caroline Heldman, Democratic strategist and professor at Occidental College. Professor, I mean, we know Donald Trump lies and distorts, but the last few weeks have been extraordinary in that regard, even for him, be it immigration, scare taxes, as we just heard this weekend and suggesting the U.S. military gets used on what he called the enemy within. You called this his apocalypse. America, to him, is that just going to get worse in these next few weeks.
CAROLINE HELDMAN, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Michael, I think it's going to get much worse as we get closer to the election. We're so close, and Donald Trump is really feeling the pressure in this incredibly tight race. We've heard him actually ramp up his rhetoric on immigrants. I mean, this is a man who came down an escalator and very soon thereafter called immigrants rapists and murderers, but just this past week, he talked about them being genetically criminal.
And it's a really kind of troubling ramp up of the racism and, of course, the lies post hurricane that are potentially discouraging people from seeking the FEMA assistance and other federal assistance that they may need. His own party had to check him on that because they're worried about the damage that he's doing. So yes, this is Trump a little unhinged in this last month. HOLMES: I mean, it really is. It is dark doomsday stuff. I mean, given that rhetoric, and quite apart from the immigration stuff, there were 100 economists from all political persuasions who wrote in The Wall Street Journal that his economic policies would damage to the economy.
Given all of that the immigrant hate messaging, why then is it that the polls say it's a dead heat that's resonating all that stuff. Clearly.
HELDMAN: It's absolutely resonating. I mean, look at how he has risen to where he is. He's risen by making people who feel like they've been left behind feel good about themselves. These are people who are threatened by the social order, giving women and people of color more leeways. He hasn't been shy about this.
So his rhetoric is really speaking to these folks who want, you know, to take America back. Well, where do they want to take it back to? They want to take it back to a time when women and people of color didn't have the power that they have now.
And so he can get away with almost anything. He even said, you know, I can shoot somebody on Fifth Avenue and they'll follow me, because this is an emotional, fear based race, rather than one that's based on policy.
HOLMES: And yet voters seem so entrenched that very little seems to move the needle. When you look at the two candidates polling, I mean, it's just been the same line all the way through. Nothing changes. How then do Democrats, for example, get independents or swing voters, or perhaps Trump hating Republicans, to vote for Harris?
HELDMAN: That's a great question. Michael, I don't think we're going to see much a swing from Trump's voters, but they're really vying for that 4 percent that is undecided, meaning that they are likely voters, but they don't know who they're going to vote for.
And just for context, when it was Biden and Trump in the race, that was 25 percent were undecided. So as that number has whittled down, it seems to have broken evenly for the candidates. And you're right, the polls are eerily stable. They are not shifting, you know, when the Fed cuts the interest rate, when you get a great jobs report, even with two assassinations, they're just not moving.
So at this point in time, the candidates are really doing micro targeting, right? So Kamala Harris is going after where she's a little weak, which is black voters, Latin voters and young voters. And Donald Trump, I think he will just ramp up that rhetoric and really feed that fear, because it's incredibly effective for him.
HOLMES: Right. I only got a minute left, but I wanted to ask you this. I mean, the swing states, as usual, are going to be deciding things. What can voters there expect in terms of being swamped, I guess, by politicians and political ads?
HELDMAN: Oh, Michael, I wouldn't want to be in a swing state just it's going to be a barrage. And it's, you know, Harris is spending most of the money there. The Republicans are actually breaking about 80-20 with mailers, but Harris is about 80-20 with TV. So, good luck in those swing states. They're just going to have a deluge of political advertising for the next month.
HOLMES: Yes. Professor Caroline Heldman, thank you so much. Good to see you.
HELDMAN: Good to see you. Michael,
HOLMES: Well, Donald Trump lost the state of Georgia in the last election by less than 12,000 votes, but his supporters launched a number of debunked conspiracy theories, some even claiming that ballots were shredded after the vote. As Donie O'Sullivan now reports a major player behind that conspiracy is now shaping new election rules in the state.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: How does it feel to be labeled a conspiracy theorist, as I'm sure you have been?
SALLEIGH GRUBBS, CHAIRWOMAN, COBB COUNTY REPUBLICAN PARTY Am I? That's news to me.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: for free and fair elections that the United States of America with only citizens voting, I want you to make some noise.
O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): Trump supporters like Salleigh Grubbs are making last minute changes to election rules in Georgia on things like how ballots are counted and how easy it is to challenge the election results.
O'SULLIVAN: Before the 2020 election, you weren't necessarily involved at a political organizing level at all.
GRUBBS: No.
O'SULLIVAN: What changed?
GRUBBS: Because of the ballot shredding that happened at Jim Miller Park.
O'SULLIVAN: Ballot shredding?
O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): As Trump's election denialism gripped Georgia in November 2020, Salleigh got caught up in a conspiracy theory of her own.
GRUBBS: November the 20th, Friday morning. I got a phone call from a friend and said they're shredding things. You know, you need to get over there.
I'm watching all of these ballots being shredded now. Unlievable.
O'SULLIVAN: They jumped in their cars and chased the truck. Salleigh said it was like a scene from Thelma and Louise.
O'SULLIVAN: What did you see? You saw --
GRUBBS: I saw big containers, big bins of things that said official absentee ballot wheeled over to a shredding truck, sucked up into the truck and shredded.
O'SULLIVAN: The story went viral, but county and state election officials, even the shredding company itself said that no ballots were shredded, only things like envelopes and mailing labels were destroyed.
GRUBBS: If we can get lottery tickets right, we should be able to process ballots.
O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): Salleigh was directly involved in changing a rule to give local election officials the power to delay certification of the result.
GABRIEL STERLING, CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER, GEORGIA SECRETARY OF STATE'S OFFICE: She is highly motivated individual who has taken advantage of the laws as written. If you're relentless, you can get some places and get things done.
O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): Gabriel Sterling is one of the top election officials in Georgia.
STERLING: Most of the stuff they do is just adding extra stress to our county workers more than anything. If Trump wins the state, everything will be roses. If he loses the state by a small amount, which is a possibility too, then this is just laying the foundation for the conspiracy theories of how the election got stolen this time.
O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): One of the last minute changes here involves an additional count of ballots by hand.
JOSEPH KIRK, ELECTIONS SUPERVISOR, BARTOW COUNTY: And I want to be clear, I have a problem with hand counting ballots.
O'SULLIVAN: Yes.
KIRK: There's different times to do that. There's different reasons to do that, and the process we normally go through is called an audit.
O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): Joseph Kirk is the election administrator in the county next to Salleigh's.
KIRK: We do it after the election in a controlled environment where it's easier to observe, easier to monitor the process, and my folks have a chance to rest first. We're just giving folks a chance to make a mistake. We're just having very, very tired in many cases, senior citizens try to hand count stuff in front of people, which can be nerve wracking.
O'SULLIVAN: And I asked Gabriel Sterling, who you saw in that piece, one of the top election officials in Georgia, if officials there, if election workers are ready for all the conspiracy theories the chaos and confusion that could come. And he said, Look, at least they know how this misinformation playbook works.
Now, they went through it in 2020 with all those many conspiracy theories and former President Trump contesting the result there. So at least he said they know what is ahead of them in November, back to you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Still to come on the program, volunteer doctors who have witnessed hell on earth in Gaza are demanding the world's attention. I'll speak with one of them. Coming up.
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[01:31:01]
MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM with me, Michael Holmes.
An Israeli air strike on a hospital in central Gaza has killed four people and wounded dozens of others. That's according to officials at the al-Aqsa Hospital.
Have a look at the scene inside the hospital courtyard. Tents in flames, people trying unsuccessfully to put out the fires and also trying unsuccessfully to escape the flames.
Gaza officials say this was the seventh time that the camp inside the hospital grounds has been struck. Hospital officials say about 5,000 people had been sheltering on the grounds.
The Israeli military says it conducted what it calls a precise strike on a Hamas command center inside the compound.
Now, airstrikes in other parts of Gaza killed more than 40 people Sunday at least 13 of them children according to hospital officials. And a warning, what follows is disturbing video.
At least 22 of the dead were killed when the Al-Mufti school located in the Nuseirat refugee camp was hit. More than 5,000 displaced people are sheltering there according to Gaza's civil defense.
A paramedic who spoke to CNN said the Israeli military itself classifies the area as a safe zone.
One Palestinian wounded in a different incident voicing his despair over the conditions in Gaza.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is no medicine, no treatment for the wounded, and no doctors, no one cares for us.
(END VIDEO CLIP) HOLMES: CNN has reached out to the IDF for further comment.
Now 99 American doctors who have volunteered in Gaza have written an open letter to U.S. President Joe Biden, describing the horrors of what they witnessed there. With foreign journalists banned from reporting freely in Gaza or reporting at all, the physicians say they are the only acting independent monitors on the ground in many ways.
I want to read from just part of that letter, quote, "We wish you could see the nightmares that plagues so many of us since we have returned. Dreams of children maimed and mutilated by our weapons and the inconsolable mothers, begging us to save them.
We wish you could hear the cries and screams our consciences will not let us forget. We cannot fathom why you continue arming the country that is deliberately killing these children en masse."
Now one of the contributors to that letter, Dr. Feroze Sidhwa is a trauma surgeon who volunteered at the European Hospital in Khan Younis in Gaza. He joins me now from New York and thanks for doing so.
An article you co-authored for "Common Dreams" was headlined this. "As surgeons, we have never seen cruelty like Israel's genocide in Gaza." It's a powerful article.
You've had a lot of experience treating trauma injuries. How bad was it for you and your colleagues.
DR. FARRO SINWAR, TRAUMA SURGEON: I think before the commercial you described it as hell on earth. and that's -- that's pretty accurate.
when I was there from March 25 to April 8th, I was in Khan Younis at the European Hospital and at the time that was probably the best resource city block in all of Gaza.
And despite that, it was exactly that, it was hell on earth. Massive, overwhelming, the hospital is just massively overwhelmed with the wounded.
The hospital, just like every hospital in Gaza was itself a displaced persons' camp. There were about 10,000 to 15,000 people sheltering on the grounds. There were four toilets available for them. There was no way for them to consistently get food or electricity. It was an absolute nightmare.
HOLMES: Yes. The letter itself speaks of nearly half of the authors having seen pre-teen children shot in the head or chest.
[01:34:50]
HOLMES: What -- what sorts of things did you see and what made you think it was deliberate targeting of children.
SIDHWA: Yes, I just -- a correction.
Actually, it says that everybody who worked in the emergency room, the ICU or the operating rooms saw children, young pre-teen children who had regularly been shot in the head.
I was there for 14 days, like I mentioned, and I saw 13 kids shot in the head and the thing I would just emphasize to everybody is I'm not even the person they call when a kid gets shot in the head.
So I happened to find them as I was walking to the emergency room, which is usually where I worked or through the ICU. But this is happening throughout Gaza in the catchment area of every hospital on a regular, if not daily basis.
HOLMES: Yes. Single shots to the head --
(CROSSTALKING)
HOLMES: Yes.
The physical aspects of what you saw is horrific enough, but the letter also speaks to something pretty important, you know, what was described as nearly universal psychiatric distress in young children. Some who was suicidal, or said they wished they had died.
I mean, you have to wonder with the natural resilience of kids how bad things are for them to have those thoughts.
SIDHWA: Yes, that's why we included it.
I'VE worked in Haiti. I've worked in Ukraine during the Russian invasion. I've worked in southern Zimbabwe, I've worked in Burkina Faso. These are very difficult places a for child to be
I've never seen a child who was suicidal. I know we're not talking about 18-year-olds, we're talking about five-year olds, four-year- olds, six-year-olds, toddlers slightly older.
It's very unusual to see children who are suicidal in any significant number without having some underlying psychiatric disorder.
And actually, you know, I'm sure your reader or your listeners might know, but we also wrote an article for "The New York Times" based on a poll of the same physicians mostly who signed the letter, physicians and nurses who signed the letter.
And they were basically we all saw the same thing.
HOLMES: You're right. And this article in Common Dreams is so powerful, you wrote that there was no greater pain as a humanitarian surge and then being unable to provide needed care to a patient and end quote, "but that was before coming to Gaza".
Now, we know the pain of being unable to treat a child who will slowly die, but also alone because she is the only surviving member of an entire extended family.
SIDHWA: Yes.
HOLMES: It's important that you've revealed this stuff. Hut how do you and your colleagues deal with what you've seen and had to treat.
SIDHWA: Different ways for different people to be sure. For me, I've worked in these settings and I happen to know something about the Israel-Palestine conflict. So I knew what I was going to see when I was there.
But I'll tell you I was the only person on my group of 13 or 14 people who didn't break down crying at some point while there. I'm the only person from the trip that doesn't have nightmares on the regular -- on a regular basis. It's hard but one of the things that we do find some solace in is actions that can hopefully get this insanity stop.
You know, the long and short of it is we need to stop sending arms to Israel so that this lunacy will stop.
HOLMES: Yes. And to that point, the letter is obviously a powerful testament to what's going on in Gaza and the horrors of it. And of course it calls on the Biden administration to act.
What specifically do you want the administration to do? And perhaps more importantly, and maybe depressingly, do you have any faith you'll even be heard?
SIDHWA: So the letter calls for a few things. The most important is a ceasefire, but that it's very obvious that the Israelis don't want a ceasefire so it has to be imposed. And that can be done very easily just by withholding our own arms.
And someone might say, but that would leave Israel defenseless. And I agree, so that wouldn't be good and that's why the U.S. should also announce that it will participate in an international arms embargo on Israel and all Palestinian and Lebanese armed groups.
That would be a very simple step and that would stop the violence almost immediately. But in addition to that, we pointed out that there are lots of just kind of petty and ridiculous things that the Israelis are doing like they're not allowing Palestinian, they're not allowing physicians of Palestinian descent to go into Gaza to treat people.
That's just totally -- even if they're Americans, even if they're Europeans, that's totally outrageous. There's no justification for that and in behalf of my delegation who's Palestinian, they pose no security threat to anybody. It's completely absurd.
The Israelis, as we all know, are blocking humanitarian aid as the State Department and U.S. AID has said and despite being overruled by the administration. That should obviously stop leaving aside that it's just illegal for us to keep sending them arms when they're doing that.
[01:39:49]
SIDHWA: And more importantly we ask that -- no not maybe more importantly, just as importantly, we asked them for a meeting to meet with the physicians and nurses who've been to Gaza who've seen what it is with their own eyes, and to be able to tell Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris what we saw, what's going on, what are the effects that our weapons are having? What the Israelis are doing with them?
Which to be fair, I think they know already, but I want to tell them in person. I do. As for having any faith, yes, I have faith that our leaders will listen to us and are not monsters. I do. And we'll see if I'm right.
HOLMES: Yes. Yes. I mean, the work that you are talking to many doctors who have worked in Gaza and, you know, the work you do is incredibly courageous and important. And hopefully you will be heard.
We can't get in there either, and we would like to report on the ground. I've been there several times myself in the past.
Dr. Feroze Sidhwa, I've got to leave it there, unfortunately, really appreciate your time and appreciate the work you do.
SIDHWA: Thank you, sir.
HOLMES: Well, the U.N. is set to begin the second phase of its emergency polio vaccination campaign in Gaza today. The World Health Organization hopes to give more than half a million children a second dose of the vaccine.
The WHO says the first round of vaccinations was successful with 95 percent of eligible children inoculated in September.
UNICEF says it is critical that all parties in the Israel-Hamas war respect the area-specific humanitarian pauses so that aid workers can reach as many children as possible, and perhaps deliver the aid, just one of the many issues they face.
Still to come on the program, escalating tensions in east Asia as China launches a new round of war games around Taiwan.
We'll get the latest details from our correspondent in Taipei.
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HOLMES: Beijing is sending a warning to Taiwan with the launch of a new round of war games on Monday, this coming on the heels of a speech from Taiwan's president last week asserting China has no right to represent the island. Taiwan has condemned the new exercises, calling them an unreasonable provocation.
CNN senior international correspondent Will Ripley joins me now from Taipei with more. Good to see you mate.
These drills have been a regular occurrence really ever since, well, former U.S. Speaker Nancy Pelosi went to Taiwan. What's the reason China is giving this time.
WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, you said it Michael. They're pointing to that speech last week by Taiwan's president Lai Ching-te, where he basically rejected Beijing's long- standing territorial claims over this self-governing democracy. And predictably, as we said last week, China launched these drills. [01:44:44]
RIPLEY: Now it's not as if these drills were spontaneously launched. These are a massive undertaking. In fact, we have a map just to show you what China's military claims to be doing right now.
Basically, you can see these six red blocks that are supposed to be possible locations of a potential blockade of Taiwan. They also were doing coast guard patrols around Taiwan's outlying Matsu Islands.
The blockade, of course, could be a precursor to a full-scale invasion. It could be an attempt just to choke off, you know, commerce and all the supplies that this island needs. Basically to survive a blockade could very quickly make daily life here pretty miserable. Although these are just military drills.
And we checked with Taiwan's transport ministry, everything's going ok as far as flights and shipments into Taiwan and shipments through the Taiwan Strait.
So I guess the message that they're trying to try to send with these drills is yes, we're practicing now, but this could become the real deal at any moment. At least that's what China tries to project here.
And it's interesting, Michael, how much money they spend to do these drills. We actually had a briefing with Taiwan's defense ministry. The drills earlier this year in May, right around the time of Taiwan's presidential inauguration.
You know, they had 91 warship sailings, more than 110 flights, costing $13 million for China's navy, $48 million for the air force.
And if you add up all of the cost of the drills last year, 2023, all the drills combined. That's 71,000 or so warship sailings, 9,200 plus flights. You're looking at a $13 billion bill almost for China's navy and more than $3.5 billion for China's air force.
So clearly, they're not spending this kind of money just for propaganda value, Michael. They're also rehearsing and practicing real life skills that could be used militarily down the road and that's why the government here in Taipei obviously says the world needs to be on alert and be on guard for this.
They put out their own propaganda video in response showing the Taiwanese military deploying its own resources. But you know, because China does this so frequently, it's easy to kind of fall into the trap.
And even here in the Taiwanese capital, most people just going about their day-to-day lives not too perturbed about this. But normalizing these drills is exactly some say what Beijing wants Michael.
They want people to kind of just forget that this is happening. But then of course someday it could be the real thing.
HOLMES: Yes, absolutely. Good to see you Will. Will Ripley there in Taipei for us.
Well now for the second time in just two weeks, U.S. President Joe Biden returned to Florida to survey the damage from a major storm. This one, of course, Hurricane Milton.
During his visit on Sunday, Biden announced more than $600 million in projects to help states like Florida bolster their power grids. Fuel and power shortages continue to hamper recovery efforts across western and central Florida.
Nearly half a million customers still without power and almost 30 percent of the state's petrol stations were without fuel as of early Sunday.
Now, Biden's visit to Florida comes one day after he approved a major disaster declaration for the state's impacted counties.
CNN White House correspondent Arlette Saenz with the latest.
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ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: President Biden saw the devastation wrought by Hurricane Milton firsthand when he toured St. Petersburg, Florida on Sunday.
The president said that this hurricane was not as cataclysmic as many had predicted, but he did acknowledge how personally it could feel cataclysmic for people as individuals are still reeling after the disaster wrecked their community.
Now President Biden, while he was on the ground, touted the federal response while also saying the federal government is working hand in hand with state officials to try to get the resources needed to those individuals most impacted.
Take a listen.
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This is a whole of government effort from state and local to FEMA to U.S. Coast Guard, Army Corps of Engineers, the Energy Department, Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Defense -- just to name a few.
FEMA has delivered 1.2 million meals over 300,000 liters of water, 2 million gallons of fuel. And so far, we've installed 100 satellite terminals to restore communications and impacted areas.
SAENZ: Now Biden was joined for part of his appearance by a Republican Congresswoman from the area, Anna Paulina Luna. He was not joined by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, though President Biden and DeSantis spoke twice on the phone in the last week and Biden has said that they have had a cooperative working relationship in response not just to hurricane Milton, but also Hurricane Helene.
Now at the same time the president has stressed that getting additional funding for disaster relief should be a top priority for Congress. But so far, House Speaker Mike Johnson has reiterated that he is not going to bring the House back early to deal with additional disaster relief.
[01:49:51]
SAENZ: Now, officials have said that they have enough disaster relief funding to deal with FEMA's immediate needs in the wake of Hurricane Milton and Hurricane Helene. But they have warned that they could need more funding down the road especially as they are trying to anticipate any further natural disasters that could be around the corner.
Arlette Saenz, CNN -- traveling with the president in Wilmington, Delaware.
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HOLMES: A really big spacecraft is about to set off on a really big mission. Coming up, what scientists hope to learn from one of Jupiter's icy moons?
Also, with climate change hurting the lucrative olive oil industry in Spain, farmers are figuring out how to adapt and are taking their trees further north.
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HOLMES: SpaceX has another mission heading into space today. The massive Europa Clipper is scheduled to launch from Florida aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy Rocket. It's headed for Europa, one of Jupiter's many moons. That journey will take about seven years.
The Clipper will gather information on the moon's icy shell and could help scientists learn if there's actually an ocean underneath it. Scientists suspect that the ingredients for life could well exist there. The Clipper is the largest spacecraft NASA has ever built for a planetary mission.
Now, thousands of people took to the streets of Madrid on Sunday to demand more affordable housing. Many of the signs reading "housing is a right, not a business".
Tourism is a key driver of the Spanish economy, but residents blame the housing crisis on landlords who turned properties into expensive short-term vacation rentals.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIANCA PRIETO, NURSE IN SPAIN: We Spaniards cannot live in our cities. We're being driven out of the cities, not just out of the center. Cities don't belong to us.
So we have to regulate it. The government has to regulate prices, to regulate housing.
(END VIDEO CLIP) HOLMES: Smaller demonstrations also happened in Barcelona, Sunday. Residents there blaming events like the Americas Cup Yacht Race for pushing up housing prices.
The Spanish government has said it will start cracking down on short- term vacation rentals.
Now, as Europe gets warmer, olive groves in Spain are producing less of their prized oil and farmers are looking for cooler locations. That means heading north where rich soil and plenty of rain can help olive trees grow and thrive.
CNN's Eleni Giokos with that story.
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ELENI GIOKOS, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: Farther and farther north in Europe, olive trees are taking root. Around 40 percent of the world's olive oil typically comes from Spain.
But for two years, heat waves and prolonged drought in the country have hurt harvests and doubled olive oil prices, one glaring effect of climate change on the world's fastest-warming continent.
JOAN SALA, ACCIO ECOLOGISTA-AGRO (through translator): Last year, in liters, we have less than half the average rainfall of a normal year. This year, we barely have 10 percent precipitation.
If with climate change, it's going to get worse, hotter, less rain, then we are already entering a climate emergency.
[01:54:44]
GIOKOS: Farther north, this farmer is planting the seed for alternative olive growing. The 55-year-old finding a home for his trees in the southern slopes of Hungary. There, the winters are mild, the soil is rich and the rain is plenty for his 200 or so Spanish olive trees.
CSABA TOROK, WINEMAKER AND OLIVE GROWER (through translator): We increasingly tend to belong to a climate where the trees can find a home on better slopes. For me, it's not about wanting a decorative tree. I see the trees as the integral part of the landscape here in the future.
GIOKOS: As the climate warms up and olive groves seem to shift northward, some farmers have planted their feet in Austria and Croatia.
In Slovakia, homeowners are buying their own Spanish olive trees, looking to get that Mediterranean feeling all the way in central Europe.
ISTVAN VASS, GARDEN CENTER OWNER (through translator): We are seeing it in practice that there are lots of olive trees planted outside in the gardens and they cope really well. So no need to worry about them. GIOKOS: Things are looking up for Spain's olive industry for now. The Spanish foreign ministry says it estimates a recovery in olive oil production in the country this year.
But as climate change elicits more heat waves and droughts farther south, olive farmers must continue to adapt to Europe's changing climate.
Eleni Giokos, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Kenya's Ruth Chepngetich has shattered the women's marathon world record by almost two minutes in Chicago. That's a lot.
The 30-year-old finished in two hours, nine minutes, and 56 seconds breaking the previous record set by Ethiopia's Tigist Assefa in Berlin last year.
Chepngetich says she is proud of herself and quote, "this is my dream that has come true". She is the first three-time women's winner of the Chicago race and has dedicated the victory to Kelvin Kiptum. He died in Kenya four months after setting the men's world record last year.
Thanks for spending part of your day with me. I'm Michael Holmes.
You can follow me on Instagram @HolmesCNN.
Stick around CNN NEWSROOM continues with my friend and colleague, Rosemary Church because too many Australians is never enough.
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