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Famine in Northern Gaza "Imminent"; Machete-Wielding Militias Battle Gangs in Port-au-Prince; First Phone Conversation Between Netanyahu and Biden in a Month; Putin Formally Confirms Six-Year Tenure; Putin Blasts America for Claiming the Election Wasn't Fair or Free; Turkey and China Saluting Putin on His Victory; Donald Trump Doesn't Have the Cash to Pay $464M Bond; CNN Goes Inside One of Last Functioning Trauma Centers; Palestinian Patients Told to Leave Israeli Hospitals; Bank of Japan Raises Rates for First Time in 17 Years. Aired 12-1a ET

Aired March 19, 2024 - 00:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JOHN VAUSE, CNN NEWSROOM ANCHOR: Ahead here on "CNN Newsroom".

Starving to death in Gaza, with more than a million people facing catastrophic hunger, a declaration of famine, now just weeks away.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): We did it. It is a big event in the history of our country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: After a huge win in an election style event, Vladimir Putin again warns the West of World War III.

And Haiti spirals further into complete lawlessness and the total breakdown of civil society.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID CULVER, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This is actually where the community takes justice into their own hands.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: That would be justice from machete armed vigilantes killing suspected gang members.

ANNOUNCER: Live from Atlanta, this is "CNN Newsroom with John Vause".

VAUSE: And we begin with another Israeli raid on the biggest medical facility in Gaza. The IDF says hundreds of so-called terrorist suspects were arrested during a major operation at Al-Shifa Hospital. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: According to Israeli intelligence, senior Hamas leaders were at the hospital and were using the facility as their headquarters. Allegation Israel has made many times before, but one which CNN cannot independently verify. Hamas says, its fighters engaged in fierce clashes with the Israeli forces around the complex, while the IDF claims to have killed more than a dozen people described as terrorists.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REAR ADMIRAL DANIEL HAGARI, ISRAEL DEFENSE FORCES SPOKESPERSON (through translator): Hamas has tried to reestablish its face in the hospital and use it as a refuge for terrorists on the run. We will not allow this and we will attack and continue to attack wherever Hamas tries to reestablish itself.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: One witness tells CNN military vehicles were firing at the hospital buildings and windows. And the Palestinian Health Ministry says there were multiple casualties.

And for the first time in at least a month, the Israeli Prime Minister and U.S. President have spoken by phone. Tensions between both men have been visible for weeks. According to U.S. officials, they spoke about the hostage and ceasefire negotiations, as well as the urgent need to increase humanitarian assistance into Gaza, and possible alternatives to an Israeli major military offensive on Rafah.

More now from CNN's Priscilla Alvarez at the White House.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: President Biden held a call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday. It was the first in a month, and also comes as the rift grows between the two leaders.

Now, going into the call, there were two issues that were top of mind for them. That was the situation in Rafah, where more than a million displaced Palestinians have en masse, and also getting more humanitarian aid into the region. Now, White House officials said that President Biden affirmed his support for Israel and the call, but made clear that a ground operation in Rafah would be catastrophic for Palestinians. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan going so far as to say it would be a mistake.

JAKE SULLIVAN, WHITE HOUSE NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: It would lead to more innocent civilian deaths, worse than the already dire humanitarian crisis. Deepen the anarchy in Gaza. And further isolate Israel internationally. ALVAREZ: Now, the administration's message has been that there needs to be a strategic plan as Israel continues to go after Hamas. And President Biden requested that the Prime Minister send a delegation to Washington so that both sides can continue to talk about what the approach will be going forward, including a potential plan to go into Rafah, that is expected to happen late this week or early next week.

Now, when I asked the National Security Advisor what the tone of the conversation was, he said that it was businesslike and that the call did not end abruptly. But all the same, the pace of these calls just goes to show the fraying of this relationship when they once talked often after the October 7th terrorist attacks, they now talk far less as this rift continues to deepen.

Priscilla Alvarez, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: When Israel's war with Hamas began back in October, the Israeli military ordered a complete siege of the Gaza Strip. Stopping almost all deliveries of food, water, fuel and other supplies to 2.3 million people. More than five months on, with food in critically short supply, a new report is now warning of imminent famine in Northern Gaza anytime between now and May.

Governments, charities, and U.N. agencies report 70 percent of the population is already experiencing catastrophic food insecurity. Parts of Southern Gaza are in the emergency phase with famine likely there by mid-July. The E.U. is calling on Israel to allow safe, unimpeded access to all people in need throughout Gaza.

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ANTONIO GUTERRES, UNITED NATIONS SECRETARY-GENERAL: The latest report on food insecurity in Gaza is an appalling indictment of conditions on the ground for civilians. Palestinians in Gaza are enduring horrifying levels of hunger and suffering.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Joining us is Abeer Etefa, Senior Middle East Spokesperson for the World Food Programme. Thank you for joining us.

ABEER ETEFA, SENIOR MIDDLE EAST SPOKESPERSON, WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME: Thank you for having me and good morning to you and your audience.

VAUSE: Thank you. Now, in the next few weeks, the U.N. expects conditions in Gaza to meet the definition, the technical definition of famine. The famine classification is the highest of the -- on the integrated security phase classification scale, this is a phase five, which occurs when at least 20 percent of the population face extreme food shortages and acute malnutrition rates exceed 40 percent.

OK. So, that's the legalities here. I want you to listen to what the situation is right now in Gaza. It's a situation where if the Israeli military doesn't kill you, then someone else will for a bag of flour, or you starve to death. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): People are hungry. People will die. They are killing us for five kilograms of flour. For God's sakes, look at us.

YASMEEN TOTAH, PALESTINIAN IN GAZA (through translator): Where should we go? There's no place left to go. All these problems and all this death for five kilograms of flour. A bag of flour costs up to $1,000 in Gaza.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: I think it's really important to note here that, you know, the famine declaration is not the beginning of something bad. Something bad's been happening for a very, very long time because of these food shortages. So, what does this declaration actually mean? What happens?

ETEFA: Well, it means that we are really at the doorstep of famine, if not already in it. It means that people are already dying. It means that we are -- we have a very, very small window, if it is still there to save lives, if we get humanitarian assistance in large quantities in fast and as soon as possible.

It's -- basically, it can be halted if full access is facilitated for aid organizations to provide food, water, medical supplies, nutrition products, medicine, health and sanitation services at scale so that the entire population can, you know, survive.

VAUSE: How long is that window? Is this the week that we're talking now -- about now that we have this short period until May?

ETEFA: It's a very short window. I mean, it's -- what the report is saying is that famine is eminent any time and it could happen anytime between now and May. It means that it can be -- it could be happening now. Now, the third criteria of declaring a famine is the children and adult mortality. So, death rates. And this is something that's always very difficult to count in a conflict and in a war situation.

So, this is why we could -- it could be actually there but we're unable to count this at the moment. But in any case, it's the -- the reality is that we need access quickly. And for this to be possible, a humanitarian ceasefire is very necessary at this moment, much more urgent than any other time.

VAUSE: Israel has denied accusations that its military actions in Gaza are to blame for this. I want you to listen to a spokesman for the IDF, here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LT. PETER LERNER, SPOKESMAN, ISRAEL DEFENSE FORCES: We are increasing the access of food supplies to the Gaza Strip, both to the north and to the south. There is no bottleneck on the Israeli side. On the contrary, the bottlenecks are on the Palestinian side and the distribution issue is actually the challenges that is faced inside the Gaza Strip.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: I just want you to explain what the situation is on the Palestinian side. Is there a Palestinian side here? Israel is the occupying power. The Israeli military has caused widespread destruction to the basic infrastructure there. I thought there was a legal responsibility for Israel to ensure aid actually reaches those who need it.

ETEFA: Well, let me walk you through how do we get assistance and aid into the Palestinian side. First of all, dispatching aid, especially to the north of Gaza, needs day to day approvals from the Israeli authorities. During the long waits, once they get and move -- if we get the approval and the clearance, then the convoys will move and get on the, you know, kind of, checkpoints and the entry points between Israel and the Gaza site.

And during the long waits at, for example, the Wadi Gaza checkpoints, truck convoys face long delays, and that increases the risk of, you know, desperation. Desperate people helping themselves into the trucks. We face looting and sometimes -- and many times the convoys are actually are turned back before even we can get them in.

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So, if they do get through, you know, the hours when we need to get through to avoid the crowds are very limited. And we never get the window to be there by that time so that we can avoid the lawlessness, the chaos that's on the ground. And it's an incredibly difficult process to the moving supplies in inside the north of Gaza specifically.

VAUSE: Yes, it's a very difficult situation now, especially for so many aid agencies and for the people of Gaza to know that there is all that assistance waiting on the other side of the border with Egypt just ready to go. It makes it just even worse in some ways. But, Abeer, thank you so much for being with us. We really appreciate your time.

ETEFA: Thank you for having me.

VAUSE: A day after a huge win in an election style event, President- elect -- I'll play along, Vladimir Putin has warned that a full-scale conflict with NATO could not be ruled out. And for the third time in less than a month, dangled the threat of nuclear confrontation with the West. Earlier, he addressed thousands of cheering supporters at a massive rally in Red Square, marking 10 years since Russia illegally annexed Crimea.

According to Russian officials, turnout during the three days of voting was a record high, with almost 88 percent casting their ballots for Vladimir Putin. Notably, during the rally, the three losing candidates still on stage with Putin. The nearest rival won just four percent of the vote.

More now from CNN's Matthew Chance in Moscow.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT: (Speaking in a foreign language).

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As he basks in the glory of a fifth term, President Putin is lashing out at U.S. criticism, that his carefully choreographed reelection was neither free nor fair. Instead, taking a swing at the U.S. political system.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: America.

CHANCE (voice-over): Suggesting court cases involving Donald Trump were politically motivated.

PUTIN (voice-over): Can it be considered democratic to use administrative resources to attack one of the candidates for President of the United States? The use of the judicial system, this has become simply ridiculous and a disgrace in front of the whole world.

CHANCE (voice-over): Officially, the Kremlin says it has no preference who's the next U.S. president. And amid a costly war in Ukraine, Donald Trump's claims he would end the fighting quickly if elected may play into the Kremlin's hands, pressuring Ukraine into a peace deal favoring Moscow.

The idea the U.S. and the West should back off military support for Ukraine to prevent escalation is also a theme Putin is pushing after his recent election win.

PUTIN: Conflict between Russia and NATO will be just one step away from a full-scale World War III.

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: I will prevent -- and very easily, World War II. Very easily.

CHANCE (voice-over): That overlapping rhetoric is now fueling concerns among western officials of a repeat of the damaging Trump- Putin relationship of Trump's first term, which Then-President Trump backed Putin over his own intelligence services on the issue of Russian election interference.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you so much.

CHANCE (voice-over): More recently, instead of criticizing Putin for the recent death in an Arctic penal colony of Alexei Navalny, Russia's most prominent opposition leader, Trump compared it to his own legal battles.

The sudden death of Alexei Navalny has made me more and more aware of what is happening in our country. Trump posted on his "Truth Social" platform.

And this was Putin after his election win on Sunday night, mentioning Navalny by name for the first time.

PUTIN (voice-over): As for Mr. Navalny, yes, he passed away. It is always a sad event. And there were other cases when people in prisons passed away. Didn't this happen in the United States?

CHANCE (voice-over): In a country shocked by the death, and after an election condemned by independent monitors as unfair it's one comparison with the United States that Kremlin is happy to make.

Matthew Chance, CNN, Moscow.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: And joining us this hour is Steve Hall, CNN National Security Analyst and former head of Russia operations at the CIA. Welcome back. Good to see you.

STEVE HALL, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST AND FORMER CIA CHIEF OF RUSSIA OPERATIONS: Good to be here again.

VAUSE: OK. So, now that Putin has his fifth term after an election style event. ?The question is, what will he do? And here's the Russian president speaking Monday in Red Square.

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PUTIN: Regarding Novorossiya and Donbas, people who lived there during the Russian spring expressed their will to return to their family as well. Their way to the homeland was much more grave and tragic. But in the end, we did it. It is a big event in the history of our country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: OK. So, this was to celebrate the anniversary of the illegal annexation of Crimea. And during his remarks, he also referred to New Russia. What did you make of all of this?

HALL: Yes, you know, the Novorossiya, the New Russia piece for the Kremlin is actually, you know, taken from the playbook of almost centuries ago, now Imperial Russia, where, you know, it was used to basically justify expansion -- expanding the Russian Empire. Which of course many of us in the West have been saying that this has really been what Putin has been about from the very beginning, expanding the Russian empire.

And we're not far off, I don't think. I mean, if you just look back a couple of years, he's annexed or taking control of actually, you know, a third of the country of Georgia. He's illegally annexed Crimea. And now, of course, he is trying to lay claim by annexing illegally, again, the eastern part of Ukraine. which is, of course, All amazingly ironic given the sensitivity that Putin and the Kremlin show when any country talks about what's going on inside of Russia, messing with Russian internal affairs. So, he annexes, attacks, invades another country, yet demands respect from the International Community. This is pretty much standard stuff for Putin and the Kremlin.

VAUSE: Wash, rinse, repeat. And when it comes to elections in Russia, you often hear Russians will say, if not Putin, then who? Well, on Monday, they were all together on the stage. Meet the who for 2024. Here they are.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PUTIN (through translator): I just met with my colleagues who went their own path in the presidential campaign. They're all here. I invited them to come to this celebration today. We have different approaches to achieving our national goals, but we have one homeland. And here they are.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: All Kremlin handpicked. All Kremlin approved. You know, an election can be rigged after the vote by stuffing ballot boxes or just falsifying the results, or you can rig it before the vote by eliminating any credible opposition candidate. Putin likes to do both, it seems, and they went into overdrive to get people to vote. There were extraordinary efforts from the -- you know, in when it comes to essentially rigging this vote. Why?

HALL: You know, it's there -- there are so many layers here. I mean, I start with, it's amazing how Putin plays to western democracies here. This is -- this wasn't, of course, nothing resembling an election. There were no ballot boxes. There were no other candidates. There were other people who were cast in roles. There were set props that were put up that people were supposedly voting at.

And this is also that those of us who live in actual democracies look at this situation and go, well, hey, maybe there is something there. I mean, you know, nobody's democracy is flawless. And so, maybe the -- and of course, this is exactly what Putin wants to think.

But when you look towards the future, it's really going to be much more of the past. What we're going to see Putin do is as he comes to the end of his, you know, lifespan, which is going to be the end of this term, is he's going to look to anoint someone who is going to replace him just like his predecessor Yeltsin did with him.

And that's how it's going to go. There's going to be no process. It's going to be Putin looking to see who he is going to choose to, you know, to take his place in who knows how long. And that's really up to Putin at this point.

VAUSE: And in terms of outright illegitimacy of this result, an independent Russia vote monitoring group said Monday that the presidential election was the most fraudulent and corrupt in the country's history, or as China's president described it, fully reflects the support of the Russian people, or North Korea's Kim Jong Un calls it a sign of the Russian people's firm support. While Turkey's president says, it's a convincing victory.

It doesn't let a lot of credibility to the outcome of the vote when you have the club of autocrats and dictators around the world saying, well done. But are they now simply emboldened by this charade in Moscow?

HALL: You know, I think we are seeing that. I think what we're seeing now as you look forward geopolitically in the next couple of years, not just with Russia, but with all of these autocracies, is sort of a banding together or a natural sorting. You've got exactly the players that you mentioned.

Although the Turkish president is particularly concerning, given that, you know, supposedly Turkey is, you know, part of NATO and, you know, supposedly a democratic or a semi-democratic type of place. So, you could hope that he would not pair himself up with folks like, you know, the North Koreans and the Chinese, but there you have it.

But you do have this strong grouping of autocrats. And then you have on the other end of it, you have these, you know, democratic countries. And that's really what I think the world is going to look like in the near future. You're going to have these two camps that are going to be sort of battling it out as we move forward over the next couple of decades.

VAUSE: Steve, as always, so good to have you with us. Really appreciate your time and your insights. Thank you.

HALL: Great to be here.

[00:20:00]

VAUSE: Still ahead on CNN, cash crunch. The Former U.S. president struggling to make bond in his nearly half a billion-dollar civil fraud case.

Also, inside one of the last functioning trauma centers in Haiti's capital, this humanitarian crisis there gets worse.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VAUSE: For years now, Donald Trump's net worth has often been the punchline of a joke, the real number, shrouded in mystery. But we now know what he doesn't have. According to his attorneys, he doesn't have the cash to pay a $464 million bond in the New York civil fraud judgment against the former president and his adult sons.

Trump has until the end of the month unless an appeals court agrees to a delay. Monday's court filing says, Trump has approached 30 underwriters with no success. One broker who testified for Trump during the trial says, securing the bond is practically impossible.

Well, the U.S. Supreme Court has blocked Texas from enforcing an immigration law which would let state officials arrest and detain people they suspect of entering the country illegally. This administrative block will remain in place while legal challenges play out. The Biden administration and Justice Department opposed the immigration law that has raised concerns about increased racial profiling. But Texas officials insist the state has the right to defend itself against violent transnational cartels that bring drugs and weapons over the border.

Armed gangs are turning Haiti into a war zone. New images show bodies lying in the streets of the capital Port-au-Prince. Police say, at least 10 people were killed in Haiti's capital on Monday as gang violence spreads into more communities. People are running out of food and basic necessities, largely cut off from the outside world. The U.S. is raising red flags about this growing crisis.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VEDANT PATEL, DEPUTY SPOKESPERSON, U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT: It is not hyperbole to say that this is one of the most dire humanitarian situations in the world. Gang violence continues to make the security situation in Haiti untenable, and it is a region that demands our attention and action.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: New York State Department charter flight evacuated dozens of Americans from Haiti on Monday, landed in Miami after leaving Cap- Haitien about -- Cap-Haitien, rather, about 200 kilometers north of Port-au-Prince where the main airport is still out of service. The U.S. says it's open to sending more evacuation flights if needed.

CNN's David Culver now explains how police are working with militias to fight gangs for control.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID CULVER, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Port- au-Prince feels post-apocalyptic.

CULVER: This is basically the aftermath of a war zone.

CULVER (voice-over): Driving through the battlegrounds between gangs and police, we dodge massive craters and piles of burning trash. The police controlled these roads leading to Haiti's international airport, for today at least. It's been shut for weeks. Out front, checkpoints to search for suspected gang members. And an armored truck to keep watch. It sits beaten and battered.

Less than a month ago, we flew in and out on commercial flights here, now it's desolate. The country is in chaos, essentially held hostage by gangs eager to expand their reign of terror.

[00:25:00]

Over the weekend, more businesses looted and cars stolen. Gangs leaving behind a scorched path of ruin. We're headed to one of the last remaining hospital trauma centers that's still functioning in Port-au-Prince.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: February 29th was probably the worst.

CULVER (voice-over): As soon as we meet one of the doctors, a call comes in.

CULVER: Go ahead if you need to get it.

CULVER (voice-over): A gunshot victim heading into surgery. He takes us to him.

CULVER: Most of those cases that are brought here are gunshot victims from the gang violence.

CULVER (voice-over): With the patient's family giving us permission, we go in as staff prepare to operate. We're told the 24-year-old truck driver was caught in the crossfire between police and gangs.

CULVER: The doctor is showing me here images that are very disturbing, but they show an entry wound of a bullet, basically, around the temple and went right through. It caused damage to at least one eye.

CULVER (voice-over): The doctor tells us the man's lost vision in both eyes. Another bullet hit his arm.

CULVER: And so, they will have to amputate his arm?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

CULVER (voice-over): Yes, we peer into the ICU, it's full.

CULVER: Are most of these gunshot victims?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All of them.

CULVER: All of them are?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She's in pain. She feels the pain in her leg.

CULVER: And so, how did it happen? Where were you?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She was going to the market.

CULVER (voice-over): 86 years old. A reminder no one is shielded from the violence that's gripped Haiti's capital in recent weeks.

Police are exhausted. One local commander telling me morale is broken and that the gangs have more money and resources than they do. Low on ammo. Their squad cars out of gas. It is personal for the commander.

CULVER: He was forced out with his family from their own home, and now this is his home, essentially.

CULVER (voice-over): The police, at least in this community, do have backup in the form of local residents. CULVER: Do you feel like gangs are trying to move in and take this area?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, for sure.

CULVER (voice-over): While many community leaders call for peace, they admit they're tired of feeling threatened. So much so, some have created their own checkpoints and barricades, staffed 24/7, redirecting traffic and determining who comes in. Not everyone gets out.

CULVER: You can see right here at this intersection, there's a massive burn pile. This is actually where the community takes justice into their own hands. About a week ago, it's the most recent such case, they captured four suspected gang members. They brought them here, killed them with machetes, and set their bodies on fire.

CULVER (voice-over): The gruesome vigilante acts recorded in part as a warning to the gangs. But even amid utter turmoil, life moves forward, and with it, moments to celebrate. Outside a church, these bridesmaids excitedly awaiting their cue to walk down the aisle. Port- au-Prince is a city now shattered by the relentless blasts of violence that have forced more than 300,000 of its residents out of their homes.

CULVER: Where are you staying here? Where's your home in this facility?

Right up there?

CULVER (voice-over): They take refuge in places like this school. Classrooms turned dorm rooms, where more than 1,500 people cram in.

CULVER: So, she's showing us, this is all her stuff --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That her, stuff, yes.

CULVER: -- that she's been able to bring. And this is where she is set up right now.

CULVER (voice-over): In the classroom next door, we meet this woman. Her husband killed by gang members. She and her five-year-old, like many here, have been forced to move every few weeks.

We're sleeping and hungry. We're in misery, she tells me. We'd probably be better off dead than living this life.

CULVER: Adding to the complication for those folks is the reality that they are not only facing threats from gangs. But as they describe it to me, they're also being ostracized from the communities in which they are now essentially camping out in. They say those neighbors don't want them there and will likewise attack them because they feel like having these refugees now within their community is drawing the gang's attention and potentially bringing more violence to their homes.

David Culver, CNN, Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Still to come here on CNN, sent back to a war zone. Palestinian patients, including mothers with newborns, being treated in a hospital in Jerusalem, now ordered by Israeli officials it's time to go.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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VAUSE: Welcome back, everyone. I'm John Vause. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM.

[00:32:10]

For years, critically ill Palestinians have been treated in Israeli hospitals, and so it was before October 7. But now, Israeli officials have ordered almost two dozen Palestinian patients, it's time to return to Gaza, because they no longer are in need of medical care.

Among them, mothers with newborns.

CNN's Jeremy Diamond has our report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Little Sara (ph) is barely six months old. Born in East Jerusalem, all she knows is the safety of this hospital room. This week, that will be torn away. War will become her new reality.

"I might go back, and they invade Rafah," her mother, Nima (ph), says. "I'll be the one responsible for anything that harms them. If I said, if I go back with the twins, where do I go with them? Where would I get diapers and milk? Gaza is not the same anymore."

For nearly six months, these three mothers have been living, sleeping and nursing their five babies in this hospital room together. Before the war, their high-risk pregnancies made them eligible to leave Gaza and give birth in Jerusalem hospitals.

But now they've packed their bags after learning that the Israeli government is sending them back to Gaza, where Israel's brutal military campaign has made survival a daily struggle.

Hanan (ph), the mother of twins, says she's scared of going back to Gaza without a ceasefire. "There are diseases spreading, infections," she says. "It's not a normal life."

They will be among the 22 Palestinians set to be bused on Wednesday to the Kerem Shalom crossing in the South. Her husband is in the North, and Hanan (ph) is still trying to find a place to live.

Despite that uncertainty, Usmat (ph) wants to return to Gaza. "My daughter is there. She needs me," Usmat (ph) says. "Every time she speaks to me, she asks when I'm coming back. Every time there's an airstrike, children go to hug their mothers. Mine has no one to hug."

At nearby Augusta Victoria Hospital, nearly 50 Gazan cancer patients have been receiving treatment since before October 7, watching from afar as their families endure the horrors of war.

For Hamed (ph), one of the ten who are in remission and being sent back to Gaza, being far away from his son, Hamza (ph), who's blind, has been the hardest to bear.

But going back is also terrifying. "I'm torn," he says. "The only wish I have in life is to go back home. I regret even coming here for treatment. I wish I could be with them, because I know how they need me."

[00:35:08]

In a statement, the Israeli agency in charge of their returns said patients who have received medical treatment and who are not in need of further medical care are returned to the Gaza Strip.

After more than two months of pushing back on Israeli demands, Dr. Fadi Atrash says he was ordered to compile a list of patients to be sent back to Gaza this week.

DR. FADI ATRASH, CEO, AUGUSTA VICTORIA HOSPITAL: We don't want to send them, but it's not our call, at the end of the day.

DIAMOND (voice-over): Now, he fears for his patients.

ATRASH: All the support, all the efforts that we have been we have been putting to -- to try to cure them or to put them in a good condition, or to improve their quality of life will be lost, because there is no care in Gaza. There is no hospitals. There is no health care. The system is totally destroyed.

DIAMOND (voice-over): The mothers are preparing for their journey. They bought sweets and toys for the children who are waiting for them.

"If they want to throw away all my belongings, they can, but not this bag for my daughter."

It is all they can bring for the children who have endured so much in six months and the babies who will soon learn the reality of war, far too young.

Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Jerusalem.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: When we come back a major shift in economic policy for Japan. We're live in Tokyo with a look at what it means to consumers, investors, and world financial markets. Number one, negative interest rates.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VAUSE: Well, oceans around the world have broken heat records every day for the past year, according to climate experts.

Now, research out of the University of Maine call it remarkable, yet dangerous accomplishment the gold line you see on the screen represents ocean temperatures last year, with the solid black line above it showing how 2024 is already worse.

Marine life has consistently been threatened by this trend, and experts warn if the extreme heat continues, it could mean very active hurricane season later this year, in addition to other extreme weather events.

Well, the era of negative interest rates in Japan may be coming to an end after Japan/s central bank announced a hike in rate, the first time in 17 years.

CNN's Hanako Montgomery following these developments. She joins us now live from Tokyo.

So why this -- you know, this sort of aggressive stimulus, which the central bank has embarked on for so long, why is it coming to an end?

HANAKO MONTGOMERY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, John, Japan has decided to end negative interest rates, which is a key policy shift for really two main reasons.

The first because we're finally seeing inflation after years of deflation. And also because wages are finally going up.

So right now the rate of inflation in Japan for our core consumer prices -- this includes everything besides food and fuel -- is hovering at about 2 percent, that magic number you need to see in order to indicate that the economy is healthy, that it's moving in the right direction.

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So prices in Japan are reaching levels that we haven't seen in years. But it's not so unaffordable for consumers that it's unbearable.

And actually, you need a bit of inflation in the economy to indicate that it's healthy, that it's in a good spot.

Now, also pay is increasing significantly in ways that we haven't seen in years. RENGO, Japan's largest labor union, which is comprised of the country's biggest companies, announced that they were increasing pay by 5.28 percent, the largest pay hike we've seen in 33 years.

And I mean, this is so significant, because Japan's annual wages have an increase in the same way at the same rate that you've seen in the United States or in the U.K. and Germany, other OECD countries, for example.

So these two key components being met encouraged the Bank of Japan governor, Kazuo Ueda, to end negative interest rates, which will now set the tone for the economic agenda in the months to come, John.

And in terms of, you know, the effects that we can expect to see both in the country and outside of the country, this is great news for people living in Japan, people like myself. Experts tell me that we'll likely see a stronger yen now, riding on the back of those higher interest rates, which will mean that import prices go down.

And this is so significant, because Japan is very resource poor. It imports more than 90 percent of its fuel, of its energy, and about 60 percent of its food.

So once those input prices go down, that means the cost of living in Japan will go down. Our grocery bills, our energy bills, our gas bills. All of that will go down.

Now for foreign tourists, however -- so maybe you, John, when you're visiting Japan -- it will be a little bit more expensive, because the yen will be stronger against the dollar. That means experts say we could see prices go up by 15 to 20 percent, still not entirely unbearable, but those are the changes we can expect to see in the coming months -- John.

VAUSE: Well worth it for a trip to Hong Kong, to Tokyo, rather, I should say. Thank you, Hanako. Appreciate your time.

The FBI has announced a pair of stolen ruby slippers from "The Wizard of Oz" have actually been now returned to their owner. That comes with a single red sequin that was left at the scene of the crime almost 20 years ago.

These iconic shoes, worth an estimated 3.5 million, and were stolen from the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, back in 2005.

Two men have been charged with the theft of the slippers. One has already pleaded guilty, was sentenced to time served, was clicking his heels. There's no place like home. And that's a penitentiary.

I'm John Vause, back at the top of the hour with more CNN NEWSROOM. But first, WORLD SPORT, after a short break.

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