“The View” forced to cut off live Israel interview due to 'security incident'
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The View's interview with ABC News chief national correspondent Matt Gutman about the ongoing conflict in Israel was cut short during Monday's broadcast when he was forced to evacuate the area due to a "security incident."
On Saturday morning, militant group Hamas launched a surprise assault that has led to 1,600 people in Israel and Gaza killed and thousands more injured in the days since, the Associated Press reports. Reporting live near the western city of Sderot, Gutman noted that he had heard "small arms fire here for the past hour and a half" as he showed off torched cars and bullet casings that remained on the military-occupied streets.
"The amount of anger in Israel is monumental, people want Hamas destroyed both militarily and politically and I think it would be very difficult for Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to launch some sort of significant incursion at this point," Gutman said about the conflict, before looking off screen. "Sorry, there's some soldiers calling out… We have to leave. Why? What's going on?"
ABC (2) Whoopi Goldberg and Matt Gutman
A man, who appeared to be an official, then explained, "The IDF [Israel Defense Forces] has issued an immediate alert that everybody has to leave, there is some security incident just near us."
"There's this battle that we've been hearing about," Gutman told the camera as he began to move. "We're gonna just walk to the car if you guys wanna stay with us." Goldberg then interjected, "Do what you have to do. Matt. Go do what you gotta do, we got you."
"We're okay, we're walking to the car anyway which is right over there," Gutman calmly replied, walking backwards toward the vehicle as he spoke to the camera. "Can I explain what's going on? They've had this battle — and I just want to show you what's going on here — these armored jeeps are going towards where we've been hearing this incessant gunfire. And just on the other side of that bridge, we've seen a large number of troops head in that direction."
As Gutman explained the situation, soldiers could be seen walking in the background. "Okay, given what's going on, I think we're gonna hop in the car," he said. "This is our vehicle right now but, as you can tell, this is obviously a massively dynamic situation here and the battle in Gaza is definitely not over at this point and Israel does not have a firm grip over the south despite having so many hundreds of thousands of reservists here."
"Get in the car, Matt," Goldberg answered. Her fellow cohosts could be heard encouraging him to be careful offscreen.
When the camera returned to the View table, Goldberg appeared visibly stunned by the events of the interview. "Well, that's what happens when it's live and you're in the middle of it," she said.
The hosts were notified that they had a couple more minutes left in their opening segment, but appeared at a loss for words on how to resume their conversation following the harrowing encounter. Each host weighed in on the conflict briefly, with Alyssa Farah Griffin describing the conflict as a "tragedy" adding, "We are witnessing true evil and my heart is with the Israeli people, and my heart is praying for a peaceful solution to this, and also for the incredible journalists making these stories told. They put themselves in such harm's way."
The panel was able to reconnect with Gutman after the commercial break, where he confirmed that he and his team were now in a safe location. "We're okay where we are right now," he said, "but you can hear booms in the distance, there was significant gunfire, there was a helicopter gunship in the air, obviously they found something, but we are safe right now, Whoopi."
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