Having been with CNN for over two decades and a foreign journalist for more than three decades, CNN international diplomatic editor Nic Robertson has seen plenty coveringnatural disasters, terror attacks, and war zones. But on Monday’s The Lead, he was repeatedly on the verge of breaking down in tears describing what he called “callous, cruel, cold-blooded killing” of Israelis and other innocents by Hamas terrorists at a Re’im music festival.
Robertson went into graphic detail describing what he saw at the now-eerie site, including evidence of Hamas hunting attendees down into bomb shelters as they fled both the terrorists and incoming rockets, leaving blood splattered “on the ceiling and...bullet holes...in the concrete wall.”
Robertson was moved by a conversation host Jake Tapper had with Biden National Security Council official John Kirby, who was similarly choked up. Tapper said he’s “never seen anything like this” with “the images of children kidnapped, of — of young women who have been abducted, who have blood in their pants because they’ve been repeatedly raped.”
This moved Kirby: “I — I — it — I’m sorry. It’s very — excuse me. It’s very difficult to look at these images, Jake. It is — the human cost and these are human beings. They’re family members. Their friends and loved ones and cousins and brothers and sisters. Yeah, it is difficult and I apologize.”
“Nothing to say sorry for,” Tapper replied.
Tapper replayed that portion before asking Robertson about what Israel looks to do next.
Robertson went in a different direction and conceded he was “hit emotional by listening to the testimony of — of the people that you were talking to just there because we’ve been there in Re’im — witness firsthand what I think they’re talking about”.
Adding that Hamas was “just murdering and slaughtering them in the fields,” he described seeing “the line of cars and how they were shot up and how they were strewn across the road as people were trying to — trying escape and trying to save their lives and drive away.”
Robertson began to slowly lose his composure as he went into more graphic detail about how the shelters that were normally a refuge were a death trap:
I went to have a look, and there were torn-up shoes outside and I could see bloodstains. And as I — as I went inside and this is why I wanted to speak it now because it — you know, being there, I’m trying to be professional and I’m trying to tell a story and bear witness to the barbarity and the callous, cruel, cold-blooded killing that Hamas was — was ripping on those poor, innocent young people.
Robertson kept going, noting “the smell when you step into a shelter is kind of what hits you first” and “this stuff on the floor is what you fear it is”: “It — it — it’s — it’s blood and you realize in an instant looking at the strewn shell casings on the floor, looking at the bullet holes in the concrete in front of you”.
He noted the horrific irony that “people were used to going to these shelters for safety and security from Hamas rockets and when Hamas was chasing them, they were hoping there was safety and security in these concrete bunkers,” but that wasn’t “what happened.”
Robertson reiterated what he saw with the blood and bullet holes before saying he was going to be “moving on” to what’s happening in the present, but Tapper stopped him: “You don’t actually — Nic, you don’t actually have to move on. You don’t actually have to move on”.
Tapper observed that, along with this being “one of the most horrifying terrorist attacks in the history of the world” and how it’s proportionally bigger than 9/11 for Israel, these acts of terror were “done person to person, individual to individual, you know, terrorist to child, terrorist to young girl, terrorist to senior citizen.”
He made sure to note “terrorism is all horrible no matter” what, but the “evil” “wreak[ed]...upon” people Saturday was particularly cruel. Robertson agreed and concluded by remarking how Hamas unleashed “barbarism” (click “expand”):
TAPPER: The remarkably up-close and personal nature of this barbarism is one of the things that strikes you about it. I mean, terrorism is all horrible no matter how it’s done, whether it’s an airplane into a building or a suicide bomber, whatever, it’s all awful. But the viciousness, the pure inhumanity of this — of these teams of — of Hamas terrorists going into these neighborhoods, these towns, these kibbutzes, to this music festival where young people were just trying to listen to music, and — and wreaking this evil upon them.
ROBERTSON: And it were — and it was so organized, Jake. You — you look at the Hamas vehicles there. And they’ve all got numbers on them and you see the body armor of Hamas laying on the ground where they had been killed. You see everything’s numbered. This was organized. They came in in a systematic way and — and just, as you say, unleashed this — this barbarism. But, when you — you’re standing there in front of it, you understand, as you do, as John Kirby does, as our audience does, you understand that this was face-to-face utter barbarism and terror in the final moments for — for those — for those people and — and — and, you know, we can only think about their families in this moment. That’s what we’ve come here to do, to bear witness, to tell what we see, and — and — and we have. And thank you.
TAPPER: Nic Robertson, thank you so much. Really appreciate your time and your description of what you saw. Thank you for that.
To see the relevant transcript from October 9, click “expand.”
CNN’s The Lead with Jake Tapper
October 9, 2023
4:24 p.m. EasternJAKE TAPPER: I mean, the images of children kidnapped, of — of young women who have been abducted, who have blood in their pants because they’ve been repeatedly raped. It’s horrifying. I — I — there has been a lot of death and destruction in that region but I’ve never seen anything like this.
JOHN KIRBY: I — I — it — I’m sorry. It’s very — excuse me. It’s very difficult to look at these images, Jake. It is — the human cost and these are human beings. They’re family members. Their friends and loved ones and cousins and brothers and sisters. Yeah, it is difficult and I apologize.
TAPPER: Nothing to say sorry for.
(....)
5:01 p.m. Eastern
TAPPER: These are images you should not have to see because, frankly, such depravity should not exist, but it does and that depravity, which I discussed, led to this response from White House official, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby when I asked about some of the images we’ve been seeing on The Lead just a few minutes ago.
JOHN KIRBY: I — I — it — I’m sorry. It’s very — excuse me. It’s very difficult to look at these images, Jake. It is -- the human cost and these are human beings. They’re family members. Their friends and loved ones and cousins and brothers and sisters. Yeah, it is difficult and I apologize.
TAPPER: Of course, he has nothing to apologize for. Some of the images I was referring to had to deal with elderly people at a bus stop who had been slaughtered. Young women taken whose — taken hostage, their pants filled with blood presumably because of being repeatedly raped. Our coverage started — starts now with CNN’s Nic Robertson. Nic, you were in Re’im, Israel earlier today. That’s the site of the music festival where Hamas did mass slaughter of young people, taking hostages, rapes — reportedly young women were raped next to the bodies — the dead bodies of their friends. Now you’re in Sderot, Israel, just miles from the Gaza border. Israel’s been pummeling Gaza all day. What do you expect will happen this evening?
NIC ROBERTSON: Yeah, Jake, I was hoping we might talk — I’m hit emotional by listening to the testimony of — of the people that you were talking to just there because we’ve been there in Re’im — witness firsthand what I think they’re talking about, that they’re seeing the video images of where people had come out, those young partygoers at the music festival there, had run away from Hamas, who — who were just murdering and slaughtering them in the fields as they ran away. And they — they got to their cars, and we saw the line of cars and how they were shot up and how they were strewn across the road as people were trying to — trying escape and trying to save their lives and drive away. And — and next to that was one of those rocket shelters. There’s one just here, but there was one just there. And I went to have a look, and there were torn-up shoes outside and I could see bloodstains. And as I — as I went inside and this is why I wanted to speak it now because it — you know, being there, I’m trying to be professional and I’m trying to tell a story and bear witness to the barbarity and the callous, cruel, cold-blooded killing that Hamas was — was ripping on those poor, innocent young people. But that — listening to that conversation you were having there with John Kirby, it puts me at mind to explain physically what we saw. So, let me explain because the smell when you step into a shelter is kind of what hits you first. And you realize that this stuff on the floor is what you fear it is. It — it — it’s — it’s blood and you realize in an instant looking at the strewn shell casings on the floor, looking at the bullet holes in the concrete in front of you and you’re sort of — you can understand what happened that people were used to going to these shelters for safety and security from Hamas rockets and when Hamas was chasing them, they were hoping there was safety and security in these concrete bunkers. And, of course, there wasn’t because we — we could see what happened. Hamas had gone in there with guns and — and quite literally shot them — this is a deployment of military hardware going by. I’m going to pause. Had — had quite literally shot them in calculated, cold blood as they were cowering there on the floor and the blood’s on the wall and the blood’s on the ceiling and the bullet holes are in the concrete wall. And you — you know in that instant how horrible and how terrible it was. And your conversation brought that back. But I’m moving on. But I wanted to share that because it’s important for people to understand, but I’ll move on to tonight and what’s happening here where we are now.
TAPPER: You don’t actually — Nic, you don’t actually have to move on.
ROBERTSON: It seems and feels a bit — yeah?
TAPPER: You don’t actually have to move on because, look, this is one of the most horrifying terrorist attacks in the history of the world, and one of the things about it is not only proportionally, if you look at the size of Israel in terms of population, not only in that sense is it worse than 9/11, is that this was — this was done person to person, individual to individual, you know, terrorist to child, terrorist to young girl, terrorist to senior citizen. The remarkably up-close and personal nature of this barbarism is one of the things that strikes you about it. I mean, terrorism is all horrible no matter how it’s done, whether it’s an airplane into a building or a suicide bomber, whatever, it’s all awful. But the viciousness, the pure inhumanity of this — of these teams of — of Hamas terrorists going into these neighborhoods, these towns, these kibbutzes, to this music festival where young people were just trying to listen to music, and — and wreaking this evil upon them.
ROBERTSON: And it were — and it was so organized, Jake. You — you look at the Hamas vehicles there. And they’ve all got numbers on them and you see the body armor of Hamas laying on the ground where they had been killed. You see everything’s numbered. This was organized. They came in in a systematic way and — and just, as you say, unleashed this — this barbarism. But, when you — you’re standing there in front of it, you understand, as you do, as John Kirby does, as our audience does, you understand that this was face-to-face utter barbarism and terror in the final moments for — for those — for those people and — and — and, you know, we can only think about their families in this moment. That’s what we’ve come here to do, to bear witness, to tell what we see, and — and — and we have. And thank you.
TAPPER: Nic Robertson, thank you so much. Really appreciate your time and your description of what you saw. Thank you for that.
