CBS News’ Tony Dokoupil was moved by the deadly attacks by Hamas militants on Israel in Gaza.
On Monday, CBS Morning The co-host shared that his two children from a previous marriage are currently living in Israel and are doing well.
“It was a very long weekend and it was a very difficult situation,” Dokoupil told colleagues CBS Morning co-hosts Gayle King and Nate Burleson. “First of all, I want to thank our colleagues, friends who contacted us and asked how I am, how my family is doing… It’s difficult.”
“I have an 11-year-old [daughter] and a 14-year-old [son] who live in Israel,” he said. “They live there with their mother — my ex-wife. They are safe.”
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In addition to his two children in Israel, Dokoupil has children Eloise and Theodore with his current wife, journalist Katy Tur.
Dokoupil said he was in contact with his children in Israel when the first sirens sounded.
“As a father, I think people who can understand if somebody, anybody is firing rockets in the direction of your children whether they’re hit or not, you’re going to feel something,” he said. “So it was quite the weekend.”
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Burnt vehicles in Ashkelon are shown after a rocket attack from the Gaza Strip into Israel on October 7, 2023.
AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP via Getty
He later added: “I was saddened, angry and disgusted to see the news that has come out in the 48 hours since. We are talking about the direct killing at close range of more than 700 civilians in their cars and homes, at the festival. And then kidnappings, then hostage-taking, then evidence of rape. I think there is enough moral clarity in the world to say that this is wrong, this is terrorism. And if it’s being done in your name, speak up. Speak.”
“I am also heartbroken for the innocent people in Gaza and their children and what will happen to them in the days to come,” Dokoupil continued.
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As reported by the Associated Press, citing Israeli media, recent attacks by Hamas have claimed the lives of around 700 people in Israel. Gaza’s health ministry reported that nearly 500 people had died in Gaza — along with thousands wounded on both sides of the conflict.
The New York Times reported that about 150 Israeli hostages were being held by militants, adding that Israel had called for a “total siege” of the Gaza Strip on Monday.
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In the show, Dokoupil expressed his frustration that there was no peaceful solution in the region.
“Gayle, you asked, ‘How did this come about?'” he said. “I am disappointed that 75 years after the United Nations and the world said ‘Jews [and] Arabs, live in peace, divide the country, two countries’ that two people could not do it. And so three generations now live through war, terror and trauma, and now they are my children. These are other people’s children. What is the solution here? What now?”
In the segment, King told Dokoupil that at first she wondered if he would come to the CBS Morning studio on Monday morning regarding his family situation, to which Dokoupil responded, “I had to be here today for work, but I also want to be clear to our viewers that I’m going into this honestly as a journalist. But I’m also a father. You can’t separate the two at a certain point.”
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