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Israel-Hamas War marks its First Month; Trump at the Witness Stand but Intercepts with the Judge; G7 Members will meet in Tokyo to discuss the Israel-Hamas and Ukraine-Russia War. The Russian President closely monitors the Israel-Hamas War despite waging the war against Ukraine. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired November 07, 2023 - 03:00   ET

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

[03:00:00]

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ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us here in the United States and all around the world. I'm Rosemary Church.

Just ahead, today marks one month since Hamas launched its horrific attacks on Israel. And as Israeli forces strike back in Gaza, calls grow for a resolution to end the fighting.

Plus, order in the court. Donald Trump takes the witness stand in the civil fraud case against him. But his testimony is fraught with attacks on the judge.

UNKNOWN (voice-over): Live from CNN Center, this is "CNN Newsroom" with Rosemary Church.

CHURCH: It is 10 a.m. in Gaza where the war between Israel and Hamas marks one month today. As the conflict looks to intensify, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel will have overall security responsibility for the territory for an indefinite period once the war is over. His comments came during an interview with ABC News, where he once again stressed that Israel won't allow a ceasefire until Hamas releases all the hostages.

Meantime, Israeli forces are tightening their advance toward Gaza City.

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Israeli airstrikes hit near a hospital in Gaza City Monday after large explosions rocked the area the day before. The Palestine Red Crescent Society says there were casualties, including a number of deaths. Israeli ground forces say they have now circled Gaza City and cut northern Gaza off from the south.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health, which relies on data from inside Gaza, is controlled by Hamas. says the death toll in the besieged territory has now surpassed 10,000 since the war began on October 7th. A top United Nations official says that number, quote, "defies humanity."

And for more we want to go to journalist Elliot Gotkine who joins us live from London. Good morning to you again Elliot. So what are we to make of Prime Minister Netanyahu saying Israel will have overall security responsibility for Gaza after the war?

ELLIOT GOTKINE, JOURNALIST: It's interesting, Rosemary, that this appears to be his first comments referencing what happens the day after this war ends, and whether that's days, weeks or months down the line, of course, it will end eventually, and no one really knows what happens next.

If we assume, or if we expect, Israel to succeed in its objective of destroying Hamas, not just militarily, so that it can never again inflict a pogrom of the sort that it did a month ago on Israel, but also politically, so that it no longer controls the Gaza Strip, we really just don't know what's going to happen next.

But if you read between the lines of what Netanyahu says, he's not saying there will be Israeli boots on the ground in Gaza for an indefinite period, nor is he saying that Israel will govern the Gaza Strip for an indefinite period. What he's saying is specifically that Israel will have overall security responsibility for Gaza for an indefinite period.

Now, that could be in conjunction with peacekeeping troops that could be in conjunction with perhaps forces from other Arab nations with which Israel is allied or perhaps related to the United States. We really don't know because not a lot of discussion and it seems not a lot of thought has thus far gone into what happens afterwards.

Now, I suppose the most convenient solution for Israel, for the United States and perhaps many in the international community would be to have the Palestinian Authority which controls parts of the Israeli- occupied West Bank to have them go back to retake control of the Gaza Strip which they lost to Hamas in a violent struggle in 2007.

But Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, is anyway lacking legitimacy given that he's in his 19th year of a four- year term and he's hardly likely to go in riding in the slipstream of Israeli forces and be characterized as some kind of puppet government for the Israelis.

So that seems unlikely to happen certainly in the absence of any major concessions or agreement between Israel and the Palestinians.

[03:04:50]

And so the question of course is what happens next? And we really don't know. But the other thing of course to bear in mind is that as we've seen in previous wars between Israel and some of its neighbors, we saw it in the aftermath of the Yom Kippur War, the aftermath of the Lebanon War in 1982, the aftermath of the last major conflict with Hezbollah in 2006 that the government of the day when there are major questions raised about their performance or about their decision- making, when there are major Israeli losses, the government of the day often finds itself swiftly out of office. So, Rosemary, it may not actually be Netanyahu's decision to make as to what happens next in the Gaza Strip.

CHURCH: All right, Elliot Gotkine with that live report from London. Many thanks.

Well, U.S. Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, is in Japan following a whirlwind Middle East tour where he said he made progress on the goals he set. Throughout his meetings in Israel, the West Bank, Iraq, and Turkey, Blinken focused on the humanitarian needs in Gaza and the hostage situation with Hamas.

Meanwhile, the head of the CIA is in Israel, the first of several countries he will visit in the region this week. William Burns is expected to meet with intelligence counterparts discussing the latest on the hostage negotiations in Gaza and the U.S. commitment to keeping the Israel-Hamas war from spreading further.

H.A. Hellyer is a Senior Associate Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and he joins me now from Cairo. Many thanks for speaking with us.

H.A. HELLYER, SR. ASSOC. FELLOW, CARNEGIE ENDOWMENT FOR INTERNATIONAL PEACE: Thank you.

CHURCH: So as Israel continues to bombard Gaza in an effort to obliterate Hamas, the civilian death toll rises along with the human suffering. And in the background, we see U.S. diplomatic efforts working to find a two-state solution once the war ends. How achievable is a political solution to this long and complicated tension in the Middle East, do you think?

HELLYER: So the question around obstacles to actually implementing a two-state solution has been in effect since the occupation began in 1967. Israel occupied Gaza, the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights. Golan Heights from Syria, the others are considered to be the occupied Palestinian territories by the international community, including the United States.

And since then has been unwilling to withdraw and turn over those territories to an independent Palestinian state. That's the root of this particular conflict over the past more than five, six decades.

Now, when you see the tension, as you called it, escalate to the point where we're bombarding the Gaza Strip, which was not only occupied but under siege, and also had a Hamas government, which didn't make things any better, to put it lightly. I find it very difficult to imagine that in the aftermath of whenever this particular escalation ends, it's going to be easy to have some sort of political solution. Your reporter mentioned the idea of some kind of Arab peacekeeping force within the Gaza Strip after Israel ends its bombardment.

I think that we have to be aware here, there's very few little appetite in the region to come in and clean up the mess that Israel has carried out in the Gaza Strip and I don't think that people really realize that the level of antipathy towards Israel's policy on the Gaza Strip is incredibly high.

CHURCH: And Prime Minister Netanyahu now says that Israel will have overall security responsibility for Gaza after the war ends. What is your response to that and what happens beyond that point? Who is equipped to govern Gaza if Israel does step back eventually?

HELLYER: So it's good that you mentioned the Prime Minister because the Prime Minister, of course, Benjamin Netanyahu has said many times on the record that he opposes a Palestinian state. He has many in his government that are openly opposed to a Palestinian state. And on the contrary, I've said on a number of occasions that they see the existence of Palestinians even in their own country, Palestinian- Israelis, Palestinians with Israeli citizenship, to be there by mistake because they weren't all pushed out in 1948 by Ben Gurion, the founder of the State of Israel.

So, you know, there's very little appetite on the Israeli side to do this, whereas on the contrary, what appetite there is, is to maintain effective control over the territories, over Gaza, over the West Bank and over East Jerusalem.

[03:10:06]

Of course, East Jerusalem is annexed. I don't think they're interested in annexing Gaza, but it still remains an occupied territory, but one that they don't want to have to deal with. So your reporter did mention the idea of, you know, indefinite security control, indefinite security control, but without occupation.

Of course, that's completely contradictory. They will remain legally speaking in occupation of the territory, the question then becomes who's going to govern because they're destroying every semblance of government structure within the strip right now health infrastructure, electricity infrastructure, educational infrastructure.

So I'm not sure what's going to be left to govern in that regard they'll be people but they'll be people who have to you know spend years if not decades trying to recover, let alone the human cost of course and again I'm not sure who's going to want to step in it's going to be a mammoth effort and one that again the international can at least the regional part of the international community suspects greatly that part of the policy of the Netanyahu government right now is making so difficult for people in Gaza that they are forced to flee, go to Egypt, and then never be allowed to return by the Israeli forces.

And the Jordanians are worried about this, the Egyptians are worried about this, and it's been roundly condemned by regional governments.

CHURCH: And how much do you worry that this war might expand beyond the borders of Israel? Do you see that as a possibility here?

HELLYER: It is a possibility every day that the bombardment continues. It becomes more and more of a possibility that other governments and particularly non-state actors like Hezbollah decide that they want to jump into the fray. Right? Now, last week, Hassan Nasrallah did give his speech. I think,

frankly, the content was -- was somewhat ambiguous but I think clear that they're not interested in jumping in that the -- at the level of escalation that we're at right now is already quite concerning and I don't think that Hezbollah has a great deal to lose if it jumps into the fray.

Of course, Israel also would suffer in terms of a conflict with Hezbollah, in a way that, I mean just to be blunt here, Hezbollah, I think, has about 10 times the amount of men and 10 times the amount of weaponry. So it wouldn't be, it wouldn't be the same as fighting Hamas.

But I think resoundingly the loser in such a conflict would be Hezbollah and more importantly the country of Lebanon. And I think Hezbollah knows that and I think Iran knows that and I don't think either are particularly interested in jumping in any further. But having said that war has the law of unintended consequences, right? So a stray missile or an unintended target or -- or can always lead to escalations to a development of hostilities on fronts that they weren't otherwise considering.

There's another escalation though, that I think is important for us to keep in mind, which is that on the West bank, on the occupied West bank, there's escalation going on right now from Israeli far-right settlers, extremist settlers, that are engaged in evicting Palestinians from their homes on occupied territory, which otherwise we would call ethnic cleansing.

And that, to me, is a ticking time bomb. That on the West Bank, we've been seeing over the past few weeks' extremist settlers taking advantage of our attention on Gaza. And using that to move forward their plans for the West Bank.

The United States has condemned this, has very publicly gone after Israeli policy on this particular point, and that's come from the White House and the State Department, but very little seems to be changing to the point where one arms transfer from the United States that was agreed with the Israelis was made on the condition that, you know, the weaponry does not go to extremist settlers on the West Bank. So they're obviously aware of the situation and taking it seriously, but I think that we all need to note it because the West Bank is a ticking time bomb in that regard. And of course there's no Hamas there.

[03:14:57]

So you know everybody is trying to use Hamas as the reason why this bombardment which now has taken the lives of 10,000 people in Gaza, that this is why it needs to continue until Hamas is removed. Well there's no Hamas in the West Bank. And yet we still see an uptake of violence there by the Israelis.

CHURCH: H.A. Hellyer, thank you so much for joining us live from Cairo. We appreciate your perspective on this issue. Thanks for joining us. HELLYER: Thank you.

CHURCH: It's election day in the U.S. and in the hours ahead, Americans will head to the polls to vote. There's a race for governor in Kentucky. where Democrat Andy Beshear is seeking re-election against Republican challenger Daniel Cameron. If Cameron wins, he would be the state's first black governor and the country's first black Republican governor to be elected.

CNN Senior Data reporter Harry Enton discussed Cameron's chances.

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HARRY ENTON, CNN SR. DATA REPORTER: It's a very red state that has only elected, I believe, three Republican governors in the last like 75 years. So Andy Beshear is running in a very red state that Donald Trump won, I think, by 26 points. At this point, it looks like a very tight race. You know, I basically looked at historical data and the chance of Beshear holding on, winning a second term is about 60 percent. That is well within any margin of error, right? Daniel Cameron has a real shot on this race, but at this particular point, it seems like Beshear would hold on and give Democrats at least some leg in a very red state.

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CHURCH: The big issues in Ohio are cannabis and abortion. Voters will decide on a ballot measure that would enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution. Ohio will also vote on whether to legalize recreational marijuana.

In Virginia, racists will determine the balance of power in both chambers of state government. And in deeply-conservative Mississippi, a second cousin of the king of rock and roll, Elvis Presley, is challenging the incumbent governor. It's Democrat Brandon Presley on the right versus Republican Tate Reeves.

Well, for the first time in more than a century, a former U.S. president has taken the stand as a defendant. During his testimony, Donald Trump hurled insults at the court, the judge, and the prosecution while repeating campaign trail claims about the trial being a political witch hunt and election interference.

Since this is a civil fraud trial, there is no risk of jail time. However, the case could hurt Trump's brand and see him barred from doing business in New York State. He was already found liable for inflating financial statements about the value of his properties to get more favorable loans. The judge, who appeared visibly annoyed with Trump's combative performance, will decide the outcome. Trump's legal team has threatened to file a motion for a mistrial. And yet outside the courtroom, Trump said his testimony quote, "went very well."

CNN's Kara Scannell has our report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Donald Trump publicly blasting a New York judge and the state's attorney general, capping off a marathon day of testimony at the civil fraud trial centered around his sprawling global business empire.

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: This is a case that should have never been brought. It's a case that should be dismissed immediately. The fraud was on behalf of the court. The court was the fraudster in this case. It's a terrible thing that's happened here.

SCANNELL (voice-over): The former president on the witness stand taking questions for just under four hours today and just moments after going under oath, the mood quickly becoming combative. Inside court, Judge Arthur Engoron repeatedly warning Trump not to give speeches in response to direct questions and Trump attacking the judge saying, I'm sure the judge will rule against me because he always rules against me.

The judge replied, you can attack me, you can do whatever you want, but answer the question.

Soon after things started getting heated with the judge asking Trump's lawyer to control his client, warning that this isn't a political rally. Mr. Kise, that was a simple yes or no question. We got another speech. I beseech you to control him if you can. If you can't, I will. I will excuse him and draw every negative inference that I can. Do you understand that?

At one point during testimony Trump leaned into the microphone saying, this is a very unfair trial, very, very. And I hope the public is watching.

Trump testified he did look over the financial statements and acknowledge some property values on them were incorrect, agreeing that his triplex apartment at Trump Tower was overvalued one year. But others were undervalued, he said, including Mar-a-Lago.

Still, Trump said the statements were not important and had worthless clauses warning bankers not to rely on them. He added it was the responsibility of internal and external accountants to put together the statements, but he did acknowledge that the banks reviewed them. New York Attorney General Letitia James addressing those claims head on before the cameras today.

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LETITIA JAMES, NEW YORK ATTORNEY GENERAL: He continued to persistently engage in fraud. The numbers don't lie. Mr. Trump obviously can engage in all of these distractions and that is exactly what he did, what he committed on the stand today, engaging in distractions and engaging in name calling. But I will not be bullied. I will not be harassed.

SCANNELL (on-camera): Court is closed Tuesday for Election Day. Ivanka Trump is the state's next witness. She is expected to take the stand on Wednesday. That could carry into Thursday and then the New York Attorney General's Office will rest their case. Trump's lawyers say that they will begin presenting their evidence on Monday. They said that could go as long as December 15th.

Kara Scannell, CNN, New York.

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CHURCH: Still to come, dozens of foreign nationals and injured Palestinians cross into Egypt from Gaza as the Rafah border crossing reopens. We'll take a look.

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CHURCH: The Rafah border crossing reopened on Monday after it was temporarily closed over the weekend in a dispute between Hamas and Israel. Dozens of foreign nationals and injured Palestinians crossed into Egypt as limited evacuations resumed.

An Egyptian border official says 15 people with severe injuries were sent through to receive medical treatment and 99 foreign nationals were allowed to pass into Egypt. They were on the initial list when the crossing opened Wednesday for evacuations for the first time since the war began.

And CNN's Melissa Bell is in Cairo and has more on the reopening of the Rafah border crossing.

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MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The resumption of crossings at Rafah on Monday as a result of a revival of the deal that had seen some of those foreign passport holders able to get out over the course of the last week as well as some of the most severely wounded Palestinians.

A break over the course of the weekend, nearly 48 hours where no one got out of Gaza as a result of the Palestinian authorities' insistence after the bombing of the Al Shifa hospital on Friday that they would only allow it to open if the ambulances carrying the most severely wounded, were allowed to get safe passage down to Gaza's southern border with Egypt.

Now that resumption, very good news for the families of those still stuck inside. Overall, when all this began, it was estimated by both Egyptian and American authorities that there were some 7,000 foreign passport holders inside the Gaza Strip. It is now just over 1,000 that have managed to get out. It comes as aid organizations, 18 of them, get together to demand urgently a ceasefire for the Gaza Strip. The U.N. agency in charge of Palestinian refugees says that it has lost 88 of its staff members over the course of the conflict, the largest number of U.N. staff ever lost in a single conflict.

And we've had also the call of the U.N. secretary general on Monday urgently calling for a ceasefire saying this is not just a humanitarian crisis but a crisis of humanity. For the time being all eyes very much on who continues to be allowed out of the Rafah crossing and what continues to be allowed in. It is estimated there have now been just under 500 trucks of aid allowed in over the course of the last nearly month of this conflict. It had been before the conflict, about 500 trucks a day that had been getting in. Important then to note how much more needs to get in for the urgent needs of the Palestinians to be met over the coming days.

Melissa Bell, CNN, Cairo.

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CHURCH: Donald Trump wraps up a day of combative testimony in a trial that could topple his business empire, details on his tumultuous time on the stand, that's next on CNN.

Plus a jury returns its verdict in the case against a Colorado police officer in the death of Elijah McClain. That is just ahead.

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ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back everyone. A stunning day in court as Donald Trump took the stand for nearly four hours at his civil fraud trial. Trump and his adult sons have already been found liable for fraud. Now he's at risk of being fined up to $250 million and losing the right to do business in the state of New York.

As Kristen Holmes reports, the former president says it's all about politics.

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KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Former President Trump's testimony in court was a preview as to what the next year is going to look like. The former president, not surprisingly, doubled down on the idea that this was election interference. He said this was all political, that it was his rivals as well as Democrats who were out to get him. That's why he was facing so many charges, so many different trials. And we really heard this messaging over and over again. Take a listen to just some of what he had to say.

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: It's very unfair. But in the meantime, the people of the country understand it, they see it, and they don't like it, they don't like it. Because it's political warfare, as you would call it, or political lawfare.

HOLMES: And Trump's campaign believes this strategy of painting this as some kind of persecution against the former president is working, particularly after they saw polls this weekend from the "New York Times" showing Trump in a head-to-head hypothetical with Joe Biden leading in several key battleground states.

That's what they talked about all day Sunday ahead of Trump's testimony, not just preparing him for that testimony, but those poll numbers. They believe their political strategy is working. Now, of course, Trump advisers will warn that this is unprecedented that this former president who is running for president who is in the middle of all of these legal battles.

So they don't know how this will actually play out in a general election should Donald Trump be the Republican nominee. However, again, when they see those poll numbers, when they see him leading, when they see the fundraising numbers and the amount of support He gets after events like today after he is indicted or arrested They believe that their political strategy is worse working.

Kristen Holmes, CNN, New York.

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CHURCH: I want to bring in Areva Martin from Los Angeles now. She is an attorney and legal affairs commentator. Thank you so much for joining us.

AREVA MARTIN, ATTORNEY AND LEGAL AFFAIRS COMMENTATOR: Hi, Rosemary.

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CHURCH: So a combative Donald Trump testified Monday lashing out at the judge and New York's attorney general while admitting he probably saw some of the disputed financial statements that went to banks and lenders. How critical is that admission in this civil fraud trial?

MARTIN: Yeah, Rosemary, Donald Trump in the midst of all of his bluster, his belligerent conduct, his disruptive conduct, made statements that were hurtful to his legal case. At one point, I determined that Trump and his legal team had pretty much given up on mounting a defense to this case and that he was more focused on playing to his MAGA base, making this part of his political rallies, a part of his efforts to become the next president.

He made many admissions that you would not have expected someone in his position to make. You saw his sons who testified earlier in this trial said that everything was pretty much done by the accountants, by the lawyers, so they tried to pass everything off on those other professionals.

Trump, on the other hand, as you stated, said that he did see financial records. At one point, he said everyone, meaning him and his sons, were responsible for ensuring that fraud wasn't committed or that the records weren't fraudulent.

So he didn't serve himself well in the testimony that he gave today, even though you could tell that, based on his ego, that he thought he was one-upping the judge, but I think the prosecutors were very strategic in allowing him at point to just ramble because in his rambles, he did give testimony that was adverse to his case.

CHURCH: And New York's attorney general says, all that matters are the facts and the numbers. And she says the numbers don't lie. So how strong is this case against Trump? And with his real estate empire on the line, how do you expect this fraud trial will play out in the end?

MARTIN: Well, we know, Rosemary, the judge has already determined that Trump and his organization engaged in fraudulent conduct, that they inflated the value of properties in order to submit these false statements to banks to get loans.

So there's already been a determination about liability. This phase of the trial is really about the size of a penalty that may be assessed against Trump and his organization. $250 million is what the attorney general has estimated this fine should be. She's also on a mission to have Trump be prohibited from conducting and doing business in the state of New York to have his businesses unraveled, to have his properties sold.

And I think attacking the judge, attacking the attorney general, attacking the judicial system didn't do Trump any good. This judge said he was going to make inferences negative to Trump because Trump refused to give answers to many of the questions posed by the attorney general. So I think it's a foregone conclusion that there's going to be a fine assessed against Trump, that his properties probably will be forced to be sold.

You know, now it's just a question of the record and whether Trump will have any kind of favor at the appellate level, because we know, given his playbook, he will appeal this to every possible higher court.

CHURCH: And Trump's older daughter, Ivanka, is expected to testify on Wednesday. How significant will her testimony likely be, do you think?

MARTIN: Well, we know that Ivanka was originally a defendant in this case, and she was dismissed because of the statute of limitations. We know that Trump is very, very upset that his sons and particularly his daughter, who was dismissed as a defendant, was subpoenaed by the New York attorney general that she has to come forward and testify.

It's going to be interesting to see if she testifies consistently with her brothers and say that she basically didn't have any responsibility for the records that she relied on the professional accountants or if she will testify consistent with her father and basically say, yes, she did see records, that she did have information about the financial documents.

I think at this point, there's not much that she can say or testify to that will salvage this case for Trump and his organization.

CHURCH: Areva Martin, many thanks for your legal analysis as always, I appreciate it.

MARTIN: Thank you.

CHURCH: The office-sharing company WeWork has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The company, which was at one time valued at $47 billion, tried and failed to go public back in 2019. It eventually went public two years later at a much-reduced valuation of about $9 billion. After the pandemic, an economic slowdown caused many clients to close their doors. Shares for WeWork plunged roughly 98 percent in 2023 alone.

An Aurora, Colorado police officer has been acquitted on all charges in the 2019 death of Elijah McClain. Nathan Woodyard and other officers responded to a call of a suspicious person wearing a ski mask and wrestled the unarmed black 23-year-old to the ground.

[03:40:06]

Woodyard placed him in a choke hold and medics injected McClain with a powerful sedative. He suffered a heart attack and died three days later. McClain's mother spoke out after the verdict.

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SHENEEN MCCLAIN, MOTHER OF ELIJAH MCCLAIN: My son was murdered by killer cops and their accomplices. And the system, the justice system, allows for them to continue with their crimes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: One of the two other officers indicted was recently found guilty of lesser charges. The other officer was acquitted and two paramedics are set to go on trial soon.

Still to come, G7 foreign ministers are gathering in Tokyo for two days of discussion. What's likely on their agenda? We'll take a look.

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[03:45:00]

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CHURCH: Representatives from G7 member countries will be meeting in Tokyo today with a long list of issues to discuss. And Israel's war on Hamas will no doubt be high on the agenda. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Tokyo after visiting Israel and also meeting with key Arab leaders last week. He is expected to meet Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida this hour.

So let's go live to Beijing and CNN's Steven Jiang for more on all of this. And Steven, what can we expect to come out of this G7 meeting?

STEVEN JIANG, CNN BEIJING BUREAU CHIEF: Yeah, Rosemary, you know, the two wars, the one in Ukraine, but especially the war in Gaza, undoubtedly featuring time high on their agenda. And the foreign ministers probably hope their previous more unified reaction to the Russian invasion of Ukraine could serve as an inspiration and example of them adopting a firm and united approach to conflict.

But, you know, already we are seeing differences emerging when it comes to the Gaza conflict because of different concerns, different political loyalties and different economic priorities. The French, for example, voted for a U.N. Security Council resolution late last month calling for a ceasefire even though the U.S. vetoed it and other G7 members abstained. And the host nation, Japan, resisting pressure from its closest ally,

the U.S., when it comes to a more public stance of pro-Israeli positions. Instead taking them, quote unquote, "balanced approach" because of its own diverse interest in the Middle East, including its heavy reliance on oil imports from that region.

And they use mounting civilian casualties in Gaza in a way only reinforcing that approach in Tokyo. So it's going to be a very tall order for the foreign ministers to agree on any wording when it comes to Israel's right to defend itself to the civilian casualties in Gaza and especially when it comes to any concrete proposals to get humanitarian aid into an increasingly devastated Gaza.

But I think they're also keenly aware that what they end up saying or not saying is being closely watched by not only allies and partners, but especially by critics and detractors, including Russia, but also increasingly China, both Moscow and Beijing, blaming the U.S. and its Western allies for being the root cause of this conflict and portraying themselves as champions of the developing world and as peacemakers.

So the foreign ministers of G7 certainly understand their actions. This gathering has real implications when it comes to the political relevance of this grouping of wealthy democracies. Rosemary.

CHURCH: All right, many thanks to Steven Jiang joining us live from Beijing. And we'll be right back.

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CHURCH: Russian President Vladimir Putin is closely watching the conflict between Israel and Hamas as he wages his own war in Ukraine and is using the war in Gaza to craft a new narrative about the West, CNN's Fred Pleitgen explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As Israel's military continues its war against Hamas, Russian leader Vladimir Putin is framing the conflict as part of a global struggle of America and the West against the rest of the world.

VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): It's the current ruling elites of the United States and their satellites that are the main beneficiaries of global instability. They extract their blood toll from it.

PLEITGEN (voice-over): While many nations around the world condemned Hamas after the October 7th raid on southern Israel, killing more than 1,400 and taking hundreds of hostages, including Russians, Russia invited a high-level Hamas delegation to Moscow for meetings.

A top Hamas leader saying the group would give preference to captives from what they call their, quote, "Russian friends."

MOUSA ABU MARZOUK, CHIEF DEPUTY OF HAMAS' POLITICAL BUREAU (through translator): This request from Russia, we treat more positively and attentively than others due to the nature of our relations with Russia.

PLEITGEN (voice-over): So far, no Russian hostages appear to have been released. Still, Moscow not criticizing Hamas, instead ripping only into Israel for the many Palestinians killed by the IDF's ongoing aerial campaign in Gaza.

SERGEY LAVROV, RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTER (through translator): Condemning terrorism, we categorically disagree that terrorism can be responded to by violating the norms of international humanitarian law including the indiscriminate use of force against targets where the civilian population is known to be located.

PLEITGEN (voice-over): But for years, it was Russia that waged a relentless bombing campaign against areas held by rebels opposed to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

The U.S. and various international aid groups accused Moscow of deliberately targeting civilian areas, including hospitals and markets, killing and wounding scores, even though the Kremlin has consistently denied those claims.

And Russia's war against Ukraine continues. Moscow once again harming civilian structures overnight in the port town Odessa, wounding several people. Vladimir Putin, though, trying to argue that Russia is invading Ukraine to help the Palestinians.

[03:54:59]

PUTIN (through translator): These are our soldiers and officers. And the choice of a real man, a real warrior, is to pick up arms and stand in line with his brothers, be in a place where the fate of Russia and of the whole world is being decided, including the future of the Palestinian people.

PLEITGEN (voice-over): Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Berlin.

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CHURCH: More than 500 protesters gathered at the Statue of Liberty on Monday, calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. Jewish Voice for Peace, which organized the demonstration, said in a statement, from Ellis Island to Gaza, never again means never again for anyone. And it said the iconic landmark has a long tradition as a protest site and holds significance among American Jews whose families fled violence and pogroms.

Thank you so much for your company this hour. I'm Rosemary Church. "CNN Newsroom" continues with Max Foster and Bianca Nobilo, next.

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