This Morning’s Top Headlines – Oct. 09 | Morning News NOW

I'm Joe frier Savannah is On Assignment we're bringing you team coverage from the Middle East to Washington as the fighting continues let's begin with NBC News foreign correspondent Raph Sanchez who joins us from ashalon in southern Israel so Raph just walk us through what it is you are seeing on the ground right now what's the latest on the fighting that's happening within Israel yeah Joe well we are at the site of the latest rocket to fall inside of Israel this rocket came down just about an h

our ago you can see the back of this car is just absolutely riddled with shrapnel and if Dave Copeland's my camera operator can turn around here you can see Joe this is the impact site where the rocket went down into the concrete and the Miracle here Joe is that literally 10 ft away from this rocket and some sort of fuel tanker you can see it's windscreen Shattered by the shrapnel but almost miraculously the fuel tank itself self did not explode now as you said the Israeli military says this mor

ning that it is once again in full control of Israeli towns and communities along the Gaza border which is very significant because For The First 48 hours or so after this surprise attack Israel could not say that it controlled its own territory there were still Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad Fighters controlling streets building bus in some cases whole neighborhoods of Israeli towns the Israeli military says they are now fully in control there is still fighting inside of Israel but they sa

y it is sporadic they do not Joe seem to have managed to fill in the breaches in the Gaza border fence and it does appear that Palestinian Fighters are still making it through so Raph we are also watching the scenes inside Gaza that show buildings being flattened by the Relentless Israeli air strikes and now we're hearing Israel is opposing a full black blockade on the Palestinian Enclave just walk us through the latest of of what's happening in Gaza yeah Joe we are a little more than 10 miles f

rom Gaza here and we can hear the Relentless boom as Israeli aircraft are overhead they have been carrying out hundreds of air strikes and this morning the Israeli defense minister is saying he has placed Gaza Under Siege there is no electricity going in there is no fuel going in and there is no food going in that is according to the Israeli defense minister yav Galant he says that Israel is fighting what he calls Human animals and will act accordingly now Joe we should be really really clear ab

out this there are 2 million Palestinian civilians inside Gaza it is one of the most densely populated places on Earth these are people who live under Hamas control but they are not part of Hamas they have no say in what's going on on here and if it is the case that Gaza is without electricity without fuel it is those people who will be suffering right now officials inside Gaza say more than 400 Palestinians including a very large number of children have been killed so far in these Israeli air s

trikes the Israeli military says it is only targeting military targets and it is doing everything it can to spare civilians Jeff so rap the question now any indication just how far this conflict is going to go so many believe that we're going to see some sort of ground operation into Gaza but at the same time we know one of the big issues is those dozens of hostages who were taken from Israel into Gaza that presents another issue yeah Joe so just on the prospect of a ground defensive the Israeli

military has not confirmed anything they say all options are on the table in terms of what comes next but I can tell you in the two plus days that we have been reporting on this we have seen a near endless column of Israeli tanks armored vehicles artillery moving south towards the Gaza border every indication from what we can see with our own eyes is that Israel is preparing for a large scale ground defense of the Israeli military this morning saying they have called up 300,000 reservists which

is a number that you don't call up unless you were planning a very very large operation just think about it Joe to take 300,000 people out of the workforce has a potentially devastating impact on the Israeli economy but the Israeli government has decided it is necessary for security reasons you may be able to hear the booms Joe from Gaza now uh in terms of the hostages this is perhaps the most complex hostage rescue operation that the world has ever seen Hamas is saying today that four Israeli

hostages have been killed by Israeli bombardment inside of Gaza that is not something NBC News has been able to independently confirm but it speaks to the great fear that Israel has which is that as it carries out this military operation it may be putting its own hostages In Harm's Way Joe we just came from speaking to a man his name is Yoni Asher his wife donon his two little girls ages five and three were at their grandmother's house in southern Israel on Saturday morning when these Hamas mili

tants stormed into the kibuts that they living Joe he was able to track his wife's cell phone movements her iPhone and he saw that cell phone moving from the site of her grandmother's house into Gaza and he does not know where his family is today Joe I cannot imagine what that man is going through right now Raph as always we appreciate you're reporting you and your crew please continue to stay safe we want to bring in Barack mu he joins us now he's originally from Colorado he's currently living

in Israel is a survivor of the attacks good morning thank you for joining us we are glad you're safe first I just want to ask how are you doing right now wow uh so many emotions at once um this mainly just a bunch of adrenaline uh fear it's too much to control you I want to walk through what happened on Saturday morning you stayed locked in your place in your home by yourself when those attacks first broke out and you say you've saw videos of the violence online how did you realize what was happ

ening what was going through your mind as the violence started to unfold on Saturday uh for me the first Rockets caught me outside of my house I was on my way to uh go I was with my friends we were going to work out and then when I got home after running from Rockets um I opened my phone and all of a sudden I see these videos of terrorists running around the street and at first to be completely honest I laughed I thought it was a joke because it doesn't it doesn't really does not seem real and t

hen the it just kept on coming and I understood that the situation is is legit and in that in that exact moment um completely like shut down I went into a safety mode I locked my house completely and just since then it's just been on uh just a feeling of uncertainty of how this is going to continue I understand that you lost a friend in this one of your friends was killed I'm so sorry to hear that what happened what should we know about that um do not want to go too much into detail uh he he was

a Surfer he went to go surf in the morning and when I got home on um on that in that same morning I saw the messages that he was missing and then later uh that night we heard that he was killed I'm so sorry to hear about about this loss I know so many people have been impacted so many people have lost loved ones or don't know where their loved ones are right now I understand your mother was actually out of the country when the violence broke out you've been able to talk with her since then righ

t yes sir uh I was alone for the first 28 hours of the uh the whole war and uh I just kind of just made sure I was safe talked to family uh made sure everyone was okay just did whatever I could do in the situation to keep myself in As Good As a position as I can um now my mother has returned she came on an emergency flight uh from Italy and luckily we are together but you know the feeling is still there bunch of booms going on it's it's just unreal what is your hope at this time this could be a

long and difficult War as the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said what are you hoping happens moving forward uh on the the big picture I just hope that it'll just return to turn to how life is supposed to be but this is a this is a marathon this is not a Sprint things take time but uh we will be okay I I have no doubt in my mind this is our country we're here to stay and the civilians are doing what they can to help the soldiers um myself I have gone and I've been collecting food around t

he city and uh clothing for soldiers to bring them supplies um and I just hope that the casualties will stop and that you know I'll be able to live my normal life roock schmuel thank you so much for joining us this morning we're glad you're okay we're glad you've been reunited with your mom and we are thinking about you your family at this time thank you let's take a closer look at how America is responding NBC News senior White House correspondent Gabe Gutierrez joins us now with more on this G

abe Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer confirmed that at least four American deaths so far what more can you tell us about that and what has been President Biden's reaction to these attacks hi there Joe good morning well us lawmakers got an unclassified phone briefing late last night and as you said according to three sources familiar with the call at least four Americans are among the dead and that number is expected to rise now presid President Biden over the weekend spoke with uh prime mini

ster Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and the president as giving his full throated support for Israel when he spoke here at the White House on Saturday let's take a listen we will not ever fail to have their back we'll make sure that they have the help their Citizens need and they can continue to defend thems Israel has the right to defend itself and its people full stop there's never justification for terrorist attacks and my Administration and support for Israel's security is Rock Solid and unwav

ering now Joe a message that the president and the White House stressed over the weekend is that they are warning any enemies of Israel not to take advantage of any perceived vulnerability here to attack Israel and this all comes as the Biden Administration is scrambling to make sure that this conflict does not escalate into a broader War across the Middle East yeah and G that brings up the topic of Iran right now we're hearing from Secretary of State Anthony blinkin he was asked about whether I

ran played any role in these attacks what is he saying about that and any possible motives at this time well Secretary of State Anthony blinkin over the weekend says that the Administration has not yet seen evidence linking Iran directly to this attack now there was some reporting over the weekend the Wall Street Journal citing sources with Hamas and Hezbollah citing saying that Iran helped plot these attacks over last over the last couple of weeks but three us officials tell NBC news that they

have not yet seen any evidence to corroborate that report still there are also questions about the motivation for this attack and the Secretary of State said over the weekend that something that may have played a role is of course the recent talks between uh Israel Saudi Arabia and the us to try and broker an agreement to normalize relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia here is the secretary yesterday responding to a question about that it's entirely possible that one of the motivations for t

his attack was to try to derail these efforts to advance normalization something that is very hard there are a lot of really challenging issues to to work through we're in the process of trying to do that but the result would be uh if we were able to get there a much different path for the region and uh for the future and Joe critics of the Biden Administration have suggested without evidence that those $6 billion dollar in Iranian oil revenues that were unfrozen several weeks ago in exchange fo

r those five American citizens those critics are saying that that perhaps may have been used to fund at least part of this attack that is something that the Biden Administration is pushing back very strongly against calling it misinformation Joe Gabe let's talk about some of the movement that's taking place in the Mediterranean we know the US military is moving an aircraft carrier strike group plus aircraft closer to Israel what should we know about that how involved is the US going to get in th

is conflict right there you see it on your screen Joe the US is sending several military assets including the US uh the USS Gerald R Ford aircraft carrier also uh several uh guided missile destroyers to the Eastern Mediterranean as you mentioned and this is seen as potentially uh to having a deterrent effect it's also a show of force but the goal is here again to try and prevent other actors other enemies of of Israel from taking advantage of the situation uh the White House again trying to prev

ent this from escalating into wider conflict right Gabe Gutierrez at the White House Gabe thank you so much we have some new information and we want to share with you a statement just released from Israel the Air Force now launching an extensive attack on many centers of the terrorist organization Hamas in the Gaza Strip let's stay in Washington as we continue our coverage and take a closer look at how lawmakers are reacting we're joined by NBC News Capitol Hill correspondent Ali Vitali Ally goo

d morning so we know there's this bipartisan group of senators in Beijing right now where Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer met with the Chinese foreign minister what's he saying about how China is reacting to the attacks in Israel well look Schumer of course condemning these attacks writ large but also saying that he didn't necessarily appreciate or like the way that the Chinese responded listen to a bit of Senator Schumer the top Democrat overseas right now on a Congressional Delegation vis

it watch the ongoing events in Israel over the past few days are horrific I urge you you and the Chinese people to stand with the Israeli people and condemn these cowardly and vicious attacks I was very disappointed to be honest by the F minist Ministry statement that showed no sympathy or support for Israel during these troubled times so you heard there of course Schumer saying he was disappointed by the reaction of the Chinese foreign minister to what's happening in Israel right now but the fa

ct that Schumer and several of his Senate colleagues are overseas underscores the idea that we're not going to see them in Washington this week that does make it slightly more difficult for them to get the kinds of classified briefings that many senators want in these kinds of settings they have been briefed in an unclassified fashion of course those were are likely to continue but we're not going to see Senators back in town at least at this point until next week and Ally on top of that Congres

s currently acting without a house speaker at the moment after Kevin McCarthy was ousted last week so it's still going to be at least a few more days before a new speaker is elected how are lawmakers able to move forward with Aid without a house Speaker lay out what some of the challenges could be here they're probably not going to be able to move forward with Aid at least as things stand right now because although there is an acting speaker a speaker prot tempore in Patrick McKenry that he is l

argely powerless in running the house floor he can open it he can close it that means he can slam a gavel in and out but he can't bring resolution to the floor for example we've heard from some lawmakers who want to put forward a resolution condemning Hamas that's likely to Garner a lot of bipartisan support but in terms of actually bringing something as simple as that to the floor it's not clear that McKenry right now has the power to do that it's important to remember too that all of this is b

eing played out in real time you've never had a speaker prot tempore in this instance before it was the first time just a few days ago that we saw a speaker of the house ousted from that role so all of this is really being tried and tested in real time here and under seriously stressful and tense conditions you have to imagine that a resolution is the least that the house is going to want to do there's going to come a point where there's a real conversation about sending more Aid you can't do th

at unless you change the landscape in the house there is some talk potentially of electing McKenry to this role so he has those Powers even on a temporary basis but I have to tell you I talked to a democratic lawmaker this morning who sort of panned the idea and demurred at the idea that there could be a bipartisan way of doing that even at this point Ally I quickly want to ask you about what's happening on the Senate side despite the ongoing violence in Israel Alabama Senator Tommy tubber Bill

still not backing down on his oneman months-long block of hundreds of military promotions could that change at all here sounds like it's not going to change and even though the current landscape has become even more dire in terms of the US needing to have key commanders in positions like the ones that Gabe was talking about moving some of those fleets in they need some of these positions to be confirmed because as of now they're vacant to go through them one by one again I think we need to remin

d would take hours that the Senate doesn't have again the Senate is not even in this week but tuberville doesn't sound like he's backing down on this hold and even with the changing circumstances overseas it sounds like he's holding fast all right Ali Vitali in Washington Ally thank you so much let's bring in AI mayor he is the editor-in chief of the Jerusalem Post AI we appreciate having you uh with us you've been very helpful over the last 48 hours as we've been trying to report on what's Happ

ening inside Israel I know your newspaper the Jerusalem Post has been under Cyber attack since this started talk about why you think your paper is a Target and how this is impacting your ability to report but also to get information to people who desperately need it right now well as you said our paper has been under constant attack since Saturday morning uh since this assault was launched at 6:22 am we've been under fairly constant assault um that continues at this time our website has been on

and offline alternately over the past 48 hours or so um we believe that this is a sustained effort to keep Israel and keep Israeli citizens from telling their side of the story from bringing the reality on the ground to the world um we have encountered this before it has been directed by state actors we can't confirm whether that's the case here um but it is a very serious effort indeed we have very I think robust cyber defenses and they've managed to overwhelm those which indicates that this is

a very serious effort to ensure the truth is not getting out there of course we will not let that deter us um we remain active on all social media platforms and we're doing whatever we can to get our website back online in order to ensure that our audience is kept informed Around the Clock I want to ask you about an opinion piece you wrote You referred to the attack as Israel's 911 you're not the only person to say that over the past 48 hours for you why is it important to make that comparison

look I was a high school senior um on September the 11th 2001 in the DC area and I remember that sense of chaos and confusion um not knowing whether people were alive or dead where the next attack was going to come from um and that is very much what Israelis are feeling today but in orders of magnitude even worse if you can understand Israel is a very small country under 10 million people 700 are the equivalent of about 7 911 would adjusted for proportion that is an unimaginable number of people

who have been killed so there's not a single family in Israel that hasn't been touched by this in some way that doesn't have a family member that's been lost or a neighbor a loved one a colleague um the country is in mning and that is exactly what we are encountering today alongside of course the tremendous sense of uncertainty about whether loved ones are alive or indeed being held by Hamas um there have been horrific images of elderly men and women uh being taken captive by Hamas young childr

en have been uh seen in the Gaza Strip being taunted um by by Palestinians on the street it is absolutely devastating and quite terrifying for Israelis who don't know whether they'll ever see their loved ones alive again just like 9/11 this was such a surprise what do you make of the Israeli government's response to this so far do you think there'll be any shakeups in the military because of the intelligence failures here leading up to it although will absolutely have to be a commission of inqui

ry this is Israel's worst military and intelligence disaster I think ever um perhaps on par with the yonip poor war and those who are saying uh that it is actually worse um there will certainly be a commission of inquiry I assume that certain people will be taken to account right now though the country is united in the effort to First recover those Israelis who have been uh taken hostage by Hamas and then uh to deal a devastating blow to Hamas and its leadership for challenging Israel in this wa

y for invading Israeli territory in such a heinous manner murdering so many Israelis um there is very broad support for such an effort as your correspondent mentioned earlier 300,000 Israelis have already been called up for Reserve that is a tremendous tremendous number um which indicates that there is going to be a military assault targeting Hamas and its infrastructure um we hope that this will be a fairly short campaign but there are no guarantees the the goal here again is twofold to bring t

hose Israelis home the innocent men women and children who are being held by Hamas held hostage at this time while dealing Hamas a devastating blow that it will never forget and ensuring that it is not able to carry out such a dreadful attack ever again something we of course never want to see repeated AI mayor thank you so much for joining us thank you to you and your colleagues for your Relentless reporting during this time we appreciate it thanks for watching stay updated about breaking news

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