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U.N. Aid Chief Says Carnage in Gaza Can't Be Allowed to Go on; Egypt Trying to Coordinate Transfer of 36 Neonatal Babies at the Al- Shifa Hospital; U.K. Supreme Court Unanimously Rules Against Plan to Deport Asylum Seekers to Rwanda for Processing; WHO Makes Loneliness a Global Health Priority. Aired 2-3a ET

Aired November 16, 2023 - 02:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:00:30]

ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Hello, and welcome to our viewers joining us from all around the world, and to everyone streaming us on CNN Max. I'm Rosemary Church.

Just ahead, Israeli troops say they have found evidence of Hamas activity inside Gaza's largest hospital. We will break down what we know and what we still don't.

Israel's Prime Minister comes under pressure, facing calls from some to step down. And a push from the public to do more for hostages held by Hamas.

And U.S. President Joe Biden holds high stakes talks with his Chinese counterpart. But how much did they actually accomplish?

ANNOUNCER: Live from CNN Center. This is CNN NEWSROOM WITH ROSEMARIE CHURCH.

CHURCH: Thaks for Joining us.

The Israeli military says its operation at Gaza's largest hospital has already yielded concrete evidence that Hamas use the facility as terror headquarters. There is been loud and growing condemnation over the Al-Shifa Hospital incursion.

The World Health Organization called a totally unacceptable and a possible violation of international humanitarian law. And the -- that's put pressure on Israel to justify the raid.

On Wednesday, the Israel Defense Forces revealed combat equipment inside the hospital that it says was used by Hamas along with technological assets. But we have yet to see evidence of the underground tunnel network. Israel said Hamas operated beneath the hospital.

Hamas has called Israel's claims about uncovering weapons, a blatant lie and propaganda. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LT. COL. JONATHAN CONRICUS, SPOKESPERSON, ISRAELI DEFENSE FORCES INTERNATIONAL: These weapons have absolutely no business being inside the hospital. The only reason they're here is because Hamas put them here, because they use this place like many other hospitals and ambulances and sensitive facilities inside the Gaza Strip for their illicit military purposes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Just hours ago, the U.S. president said he has urged Israel to be incredibly careful with this operation. Joe Biden also announced that he was absolutely confident Hamas was running a command center under the hospital, and call that a war crime.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Here is the situation. You have a circumstance where the first war crime is being committed by Hamas by having their headquarters, their military, hidden under hospital. And that's a fact. That's what's happened.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: After the hospital raid began, the U.N.'s humanitarian chief said the carnage in Gaza could not be allowed to continue.

CNN's Nada Bashir picks up the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NADA BASHIR, CNN INTERNATIONAL REPORTER: Weeks of bombardment had already left Gaza as large as hospital in what has been described as a catastrophic situation. Doctors at Al-Shifa, working under impossible circumstances, caring for hundreds of patients, as Israel's military incursion moves inside the hospital.

DR. MOHAMMAD ZAQOUT, DIRECTOR GENERAL OF HOSPITALS IN GAZA (through translator): The occupation soldiers are still on the ground floor. They are searching employees, civilians, even the injured, and patients. Some were stripped and placed in dehumanizing and miserable conditions.

BASHIR (voice over): Israel's raid on a shipper has been described as precise and targeted, focused, they say, on claims of a Hamas command center beneath the hospital.

But it is civilians, including medical staff and patients that have been caught in the center of this unrelenting battle.

DR AHMED EL MOKHALLALATI, SENIOR PLASTIC SURGEON, AL-SHIFA HOSPITAL: We can't look through the windows or doors. We didn't know what's happening. We can -- tanks moving within the hospital. You can hear continuous shooting. You can hear it now. But again, it's a totally scary situation.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What are the sounds, doctor? I'm hearing sounds.

EL MOKHALLALATI: It's continuous shooting from the tanks.

BASHIR (voice over): Israeli defense officials say soldiers found concrete evidence that Hamas used Al-Shifa Hospital as what they have described, as a terror headquarters.

There no further details were provided on the nature of this evidence.

Both Hamas and healthcare officials have long denied a military presence within Al Shifa.

[02:05:00]

CNN cannot verify either side's claims.

The IDF has not specified which area of the large hospital complex they operated in. And with over 1,000 patients and medical staff still inside, many have expressed alarm over the civilian impact of the Israeli military's operation.

MARTIN GRIFFITHS, EMERGENCY RELIEF COORDINATOR, UNITED NATIONS: Our concern on the humanitarian side is for the welfare of the patients of that hospital, which is, of course, in great peril at the moment, we have no fuel to run it, the babies have no incubators. Newly born, some are dead already, we can't move them out. It's too dangerous.

BASHIR (voice over): On Wednesday, the Israeli military said their troops had delivered incubators and medical supplies to the Al-Shifa Hospital. CNN cannot independently verify this claim and has not been able to reach the hospital for confirmation.

However, the director general of Gaza's hospitals has warned that babies at Al-Shifa are in severe danger, as conditions in the hospital deteriorate further. Adding, that there is no place to move dozens of incubators outside of the hospital under current circumstances.

But even as Israel tightens its grip on Al-Shifa, now said to be under the complete control of the Israeli military, according to Hamas, doctors say, they will continue to do whatever they can to save the lives of those wounded in this devastating war.

Nada Bashir, CNN, Jerusalem.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: CNN's Scott McLean has been following all this live from Istanbul. He joins us now.

So, Scott, what all did we learn from the IDF video of what was found in the Al-Shifa Hospital? And when will Israel present additional evidence that they say they have?

SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, Rosemary.

Yes, it is important to stress that this video was released by the IDF. CNN has no way to actually confirm or verify what the video shows or what the Israeli claim, what the Israelis claimed that the video shows.

The video was shot in one take. But I'll run you through some of the highlights of it. You see an IDF spokesperson going through the hospital walking inside. First, it goes inside of a room where it says that there's an MRI machine. And beside it, he says that there is a grab bag with what he describes as military equipment.

And you can see bits and pieces of it. There is -- there is a rifle, there is some magazines. He says that there's a uniform in there as well. Then, he goes back into a main corridor where he says that there's a closet and then he shows some more weapons that he says that the Israeli found in there.

Again, he goes back into another room, shows another grab bag. The contents of this one are laid out for you. Again, vests, magazines, ammunition, things like that.

And then, there is a cabinet as well, where you can see some more military equipment in the distinctive green insignia of Hamas. And lastly, he shows that there's a laptop, some C.D.s as well. And he claims that there is already at first glance, some incriminating evidence that they found though he doesn't say what there is.

Again, the Israelis have said that there is going to be more evidence coming. They just haven't said precisely when or what it might actually be.

You recall though about three weeks ago, Rosemary, that the Israelis gave a presentation to the media where they said that Israeli intelligence is Israeli Intelligence said that there was a complex, sophisticated system of tunnels, a command-and-control center that was actually underneath of that hospital.

Yesterday, President Biden, you played the clip earlier said that it is a war crime that Hamas has its headquarters underneath the hospital, and he said that it is a fact, though, it is not a fact based on the evidence that has been publicly presented by Israel thus far, that there is anything resembling those sophisticated tunnel systems or a command-and-control system of Hamas underneath that hospital.

Though again, an adviser to the Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu, Mark Regev, told Wolf Blitzer yesterday that there would be more evidence coming in the next couple of days.

Hamas, for its part, denied that any weapons were found inside of the hospital. Calling it a blatant lie, and propaganda.

CHURCH: And Scott, Turkey's president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan is reacting to Israel's bombardment of Gaza and its civilians. What is he saying? MCLEAN: Yes, what's remarkable here, Rosemary is that at the outset of this conflict, Turkish President Erdogan had sort of tried to position himself as a potential peace broker in this conflict, though, as it has gone on, as the weeks have turned into now, more than a month, the prospects of Turkey playing any kind of role in peace negotiations have gotten dimmer and dimmer, as Erdogan's rhetoric on this has ramped up.

It was last month that he made headlines when he said that Hamas was not a terror group, but instead a liberation organization.

[02:10:08]

Now, that -- now he is grabbing more attention by saying that Israel is the terror state. In his speech yesterday that he gave in Turkey, he said this: "Israel is implementing a strategy of total annihilation of a city and its people. I say very clearly and frankly that Israel is a terrorist state."

He went on to say that Turkey would take steps to try to hold military and political leaders in Israel to account in international courts.

Now, this did not go unchallenged by Israel, though. The Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu said on Twitter or X, as it's called now, that he would not take any kind of lectures from Erdogan. Saying that it was actually Turkey that was supporting terrorists, and it's supportive of Hamas.

And Turkey in recent years has, you know, followed other Middle Eastern countries in actually, you know, increasing its ties -- its economic, its political ties with Israel. It seems though that those efforts, at least at this point have all but gone up in smoke, as this conflict has gone on.

It was not long ago that Erdogan, as well, said that it was the West that was -- that was, you know, supporting Israel in what he described as crimes against humanity. Rosemary?

CHURCH: All right. Thanks to Scott McLean. Joining us live from Istanbul.

U.S. President Joe Biden is calling his high stakes summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping constructive and productive. They met for four hours Wednesday near San Francisco, their first face to face talks in a year, following months of tensions between their countries.

President Biden says they have agreed to restore high level communications between the country's militaries. They also agreed to crack down on illegal fentanyl production, as many of the chemicals used to make the drug are exported from China.

But even with all their agreements, its clear deep divisions remain. When pressed on whether he trusts the Chinese president? Mr. Biden summed up his approach to Xi, by saying, trust, but verify.

CNN's David Culver is following developments and has more now from San Francisco.

DAVID CULVER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The U.S. and President Biden portraying this four-hour discussion as a success of sorts.

In three areas, in particular, and cracking down on fentanyl, a huge crisis here in the U.S., as well as when reestablishing communications between both the U.S. and China militaries, and in putting parameters of sorts around artificial intelligence,

As far as China's take away, they are looking at this also in a positive light. However, also stressing Taiwan more than anything else, and hoping that the U.S. essentially keeps to its own business, as China has put it. Stay out of Taiwan, don't provide arms and allow, as China puts it, the reunification between the mainland and Taiwan to take place.

Obviously, it is the red line for China, it is perhaps the most sensitive issue. And so, it's one that they felt the need to reiterate in this summit. But President Biden's characterization is also something that's going to help fuel -- refocusing of sorts on the many other conflicts that the U.S. is keeping an eye on, particularly, Israel-Hamas, Russia-Ukraine, and of course, for President Biden personally, the 2024 campaign.

But here is a bit more from the President, as to how his summit with President Xi Jinping went.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: In the months ahead, we're going to continue to preserve and pursue high level diplomacy, the PRC in both directions to keep the lines of communication open, including between President Xi and me. He and I agreed that each of one of us could pick up the phone, call directly, and we'd be heard immediately.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CULVER: So, it all sounds quite positive. And there's three areas in particular: crack down on fentanyl, in reestablishing military communications, as well as putting parameters around the A.I.

Those are in the eyes of the U.S. administration potential deliverables here. The question is, how quickly will those agreements that are, in words, and perhaps soon in paper, turn into action?

We know China can mobilize overnight in many cases. They have that ability. And if they're serious about wanting to put this into practice, then, that is something that certainly could be done quite rapidly. Remains to be seen how they'll move on those areas, and how the U.S. will be able to verify if they have done so.

Overall, though, for China, it's also going to be about focusing over the next few days here on winning back businesses. International businesses, American companies, and trying to persuade them to either return to China for those that left around the pandemic or because of Beijing's crackdown on companies and corporations. [02:15:05]

Or perhaps, if they're still in China, to expand within the People's Republic.

These are going to be very difficult conversations. But President Xi is meeting one on one, trying to rub elbows with some of the business leaders here, and hopes that, that will perhaps, in turn, lead to a boost in the Chinese economy, which desperately needs it.

David Culver, CNN, San Francisco.

CHURCH: Frank Lavin joins me now from San Francisco where he is attending events around the APEC summit. He previously served as the U.S. ambassador to Singapore.

Thank you, Ambassador for joining us.

FRANK LAVIN, FORMER UNITED STATES AMBASSADOR TO SINGAPORE: Thanks, Rosemary.

CHURCH: So, in his rare solo press conference, U.S. President Joe Biden said important progress had been made in his meeting with China's President Xi Jinping with U.S. China military communication set to resume and progress on fentanyl regulation.

But do these small developments represent a reset, do you think, for the relationship and a chance to defuse tensions, and of course, stabilize relations between the two nations?

LAVIN: Well, reset is probably over states what happened here. But I think it was a serious effort by both sides to try to establish some kind of positive tone. And not just with atmospherics, not just rhetorically being a bit positive, but trying to find a series of call them baby steps that would actually show forward movement in the relationship.

So, I don't think it's a reset, in terms of completely redefining the relationship. But I don't think this is the first time in a few years that we have a bit of positive activity in the bilateral relationship.

CHURCH: And after this carefully choreographed meeting, President Biden said he would trust, but verify in his relationship with President Xi. And he said, he is still a dictator. How is that likely to be received by China? And, of course, the China's president?

LAVIN: Yes, I have to say this as an American, I was sort of heartened to hear President Biden say that, because some of these agreements are welcome agreements, welcome on fencing all -- welcome on climate change, but nothing has been done yet.

So, of course, it has to be verified, and there has to be integrity in the process, and there has to be some way to manage it. And I'm glad that he said that, because I don't think you always can take people's word for it. And, look, the Chinese political system is a one-party system. You can -- there's different words that describe it, but I don't think it's an accurate description with the president views.

CHURCH: Ambassador Frank Lavin, thank you so much for joining us. Appreciate it.

LAVIN: Thank you, Rosemary.

CHURCH: And you can watch the full interview with former ambassador Frank Lavin ahead in our next hour. Do stay with us for that.

Well, coming up, it has been 40 days since more than 200 people were violently kidnapped by Hamas, and their families are sick of waiting. How they are applying pressure to the Israeli government. That is next.

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[02:20:07]

CHURCH: When Hamas militants broke through the border fence and began the terror attack on October 7th, many of them were wearing GoPro cameras to document the assault.

Some of these videos were then shared as Hamas propaganda, but not all of them. CNN has obtained video from one of these cameras from the Israeli military.

The IDF says it shows the reality of what happened, which many have called Israel's 9/11.

In one long, continuous video, it shows 100 minutes of horror. And we have to warn you some of what you're about to see is very graphic. CNNs Oren Lieberman takes us through it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: An explosion --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Allahu Akbar!

LIEBERMANN: -- before dawn, on October 7th.

The time is here, and the attack is underway.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Allahu Akbar!

LIEBERMANN: Allahu Akbar! God is great, they chant, as they cross the breached fence.

Go right -- go right -- go right they say. Less than two minutes later, they crossed the second security fence. They are in Israel heading towards the kibbutz.

The sun is up in a day that will reshape the region has begun. This video comes from the body cam of one of the terrorists who took part in the attack. It was obtained exclusively by CNN and the Israel Defense Forces.

For the first time, we also see video inside Hamas tunnels before the attack. It is a look into a network of tunnels, with what appeared to be supplies stored in the darkness. Writing on the wall is in Arabic says, what's hidden is far worse.

Above ground, the gunman fired his first shots.

Go on, men. Go on, man, he screams.

They stop on the way. More than a dozen militants gathered here to prepare for the next assault. One has several rocket propelled grenades on his back.

Minutes later, a group advances across an open field, moving towards the village of Kissufim. The gunman charges the last bit, and spots an Israeli soldier on the ground.

Others join in celebration.

Moments later, he's more composed as he turns the camera on himself. He says his name and that he's 24 years old. He's a father. He says he killed two Israeli soldiers. He asks God for victory and well-deserved martyr.

On motorbikes now, they keep advancing, moving together along empty Israeli roads, or nearly empty.

The man cheers as he sees bodies on the road. His is not the first wave. He rounds a corner.

Here, we have seen this place before, among the first videos to come out after the attack. This is dash cam video from a car on the same road moments earlier. The car approaches a group of militants who opened fire. The car coasts, it's driver almost certainly dead by now. It's just after 7:40 in the morning.

After a quick reload, the group approaches a military base near the kibbutz of Re'im.

For 65 minutes, since crossing the Gaza fence, they've had nearly free rein in Israel. The gunman closes the distance with a weapon he took from an Israeli soldier, opening fire. And fire comes back.

This man's part of the attack comes to an end. The terror is just beginning.

Oren Liebermann, CNN, in Tel Aviv.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: For the first time since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7th, Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid is calling on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to resign.

Lapid says Netanyahu has, "lost the public's trust and he needs to go now." Lapid is a former prime minister, who says the government is dysfunctional. But now is not the right time to hold elections. He says the best course of action is for Netanyahu's party to replace him with a party colleague.

Well, the families of Israeli hostages in Gaza are demanding the government bring their loved one's home, and they won't stop until they reach the prime minister's doorstops -- doorstep.

[02:25:01]

Wednesday was day two of a five-day march from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. They plan to end their protests outside Benjamin Netanyahu's residence, to bring their message directly to his home.

Some 240 people are still in Hamas captivity, from elderly people to infants. Each day, Israel's government is facing growing pressure at home and abroad to rescue them.

And Yaakov Katz is a senior columnist for The Jerusalem Post, and the paper's former editor in chief. He's also the author of "Shadows Strike: Inside Israel's Secret Mission to Eliminate Syrian Nuclear Power". And he joins me now from Jerusalem.

Appreciate you being with us.

YAAKOV KATZ, FORMER EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, THE JERUSALEM POST: Thank you, Rosemary.

CHURCH: So, Israel's military says, excuse me, says Hamas combat equipment has been found in Gaza's -- excuse me, I need to have a sip of water, excuse me.

So, equipment has been found in Gaza's Al-Shifa hospital during a raid that's still underway. CNN cannot independently verify their claim, though, but no evidence has yet been found of a tunnel network under the hospital, despite Israel claiming Al-Shifa was a Hamas command center.

And now, this doesn't amount to concrete evidence, does it? Of a command center. So, when do we find out more about what is happening at that hospital? And what could this ultimately mean for the war?

KATZ: Well, I think you're right. So far, we haven't seen the evidence of what the IDF, the Israel Defense Forces has claimed as there being this extensive tunnel network underneath Al Shifa Hospital, and from which Hamas was commanding, controlling many of its forces.

But let's keep in mind that yesterday, when the IDF started operating inside the compound -- Shifa is a big hospital. Right? You know, people need to think about it, like, kind of, you know, Memorial Sloan Kettering in New York or HSS Hospital for Special Surgery. These are big compounds, lots of multiple several buildings. Israel went into one of those facilities, for example, near an MRI machine, they found AK-47s, grenades, and uniforms. They found other equipment, and other parts of the intensive care unit. There are a lot of facilities and a lot of buildings.

And I think we're going to see over the next day or so more -- greater entry of the IDF into some of those facilities, and maybe we'll find more evidence.

But what's important, I think, bigger picture, Rosemary, is that the IDF are sending a message to Hamas, nowhere are you immune. Right?

Hamas thought that they could hide in hospitals, they thought they could hide in schools, they felt they could hide in apartment buildings. What the IDF has been doing over the last few weeks is going into all of these different places and trying to smoke out those Hamas fighters and terrorists. Kill and capture them, destroy the infrastructure to be able to take down Hamas and prevent it from able to carry out what Oren showed us in that horrific video just moments ago.

CHURCH: Yes. Yes, and I want to talk about that a little later too. A possible deal is in the works to stop the fighting for a few days at least to secure the release of some of the hostages being held by Hamas in exchange for Palestinian prisoners. What more are you learning about this as pressure builds inside Israel and abroad to do more to free the hostages?

KATZ: I mean, like you mentioned, the families of the hostages have been marching from Tel Aviv towards Jerusalem. They're supposed to arrive here on Saturday, and have a sit-down protest in front of the prime minister's residence.

There is a lot of public support, obviously for their campaign, you know, 20 or 40 people, we heard the other day of a woman who gave birth in captivity, that means there is a baby just days old being held hostage by Hamas.

We know of 10-month-old Kfir Bibas, a child just -- who doesn't even speak yet, doesn't walk yet, who's being held hostage among when alongside 29 of their children.

This is heart wrenching and heartbreaking. At the same time, though it's difficult to make a deal. Right? Hamas is not a trustworthy partner. They want not only the release of Palestinian security prisoners, in other words, terrorists that Israel has in jail, but they also want Israel to stop its operations for several days.

Now, we all understand what that means, Rosemary. If you stop fighting for four days, three days, five days, that gives Hamas the ability to entrench itself, to rearm, to reposition its forces.

And it makes your forces inside the Gaza Strip static. That is a threat to the continuation of this military operation, which is not yet over.

Israel has only operate in northern Gaza. There still southern Gaza, where there are three Hamas brigades, thousands more fighters, where probably the hostages are being held.

We're not done with this operation yet, and that's what makes this so, so complicated.

CHURCH: I don't want to get to the IDF releasing that GoPro video to CNN that was found on the dead body of one of the Hamas militants who took part in the October 7th attacks on Israel.

And what this video reveals as well as the horror, of course, of the actual attack is a stunning security lapse on the part of Israel with some of the militants clearly surprised themselves by the absence of any resistance to their deadly attack.

[02:30:00]

What is the likely fallout from this clear intelligence and security failure on the part of Israel?

KATZ: I mean, this is one of -- like you said, one of the greatest failures probably in Israeli history. Not having any intelligence about thousands of people who are going to be breaking and breaching your -- what is supposed to be the most secure and concrete defenses along that border, coming in without you knowing about it, passing those defensive measures, and then having free reign for hours until your forces are able to deploy.

This is a horrific, not only massacre, but also the debacle by the Israeli military and political echelon. And this ties in to what you said before, Rosemary, of Yair Lapid, the Head of the Opposition, calling on Prime Minister Netanyahu to step down. He will have to pay a price for this, right? There needs to be accountability when, on your watch, something of this magnitude happens. Unfortunately, what we have seen until now is, while some of the security chiefs have said we take personal responsibility, we saw that with the Chief of Staff of IDF, the Head of Military Intelligence, the Head of the Shin Bet Security Service which is responsible for gathering intelligence on the Gaza Strip. They have all said we take personal responsibility. But the prime minister has refused to do that.

All he is willing to say until now is that there will be tough questions to ask after the war and then I will answer them, but not now. And I think that that hurts to an extent some of the public trust. The public wants to see its leaders understand that there is personal accountability when such a failure of such magnitude takes place.

CHURCH: Yaakov Katz in Jerusalem, thank you so much for joining us. Appreciate it.

KATZ: Thank you.

CHURCH: And still to come, the lives of 36 babies at Gaza's Al-Shifa Hospital are hanging in the balance with no fuel to keep their incubators working. How Egypt is trying to help, that's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) CHURCH: Israeli troops are conducting what they call a precise and targeted operation on Al-Shifa hospital. But the U.N. Humanitarian Chief Martin Griffiths says the "carnage in Gaza cannot be allowed to continue." Hundreds of patients are still inside the hospital, according to officials in Gaza. Among them, vulnerable babies in the neonatal unit.

[02:35:00]

CHURCH: Although Egyptian officials are trying to help evacuate them, the task is not easy. CNN's Eleni Giokos has this exclusive report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELENI GIOKOS, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In a command center in Cairo, Egyptian authorities working against the clock.

GIOKOS (voice-over): Egypt's health minister on-call to receive some of the most vulnerable patients. He is expecting over 30 neonatal babies to enter Egypt. New to the world, but caught in the crossfire as the IDF begins its raid inside Al-Shifa Hospital.

KHALED ABDEL GHAFFAR, EGYPTIAN HEALTH MINISTER: Time is important, and every single minute that we are not getting them in, the incidence or the chances of losing their lives is very high.

GIOKOS (voice-over): Since November 1st, injured Palestinians have crossed through the Rafah Border into Egypt, the only lifeline to leave Gaza.

GHAFFAR: We had indicated 37 hospitals with more than 11,000 beds for that purpose and more than 1,700 IC units. Together with incubators for kids and other facilities for renal dialysis and so one, so forth.

GIOKOS: Would you say that the number of injured Palestinians that are in Egypt right now are in the hundreds?

GHAFFAR: Approaching more than 200.

GIOKOS: In an exclusive, Minister Ghaffar takes us to visit patients.

GHAFFAR: This is the champ. This is the champ. This is Abdul Rahman (ph).

GIOKOS (voice-over): Here, at the Nasser Medical Institutes in Cairo, finally safe but haunted by what brought them here. Guilt, heartbreak, utter despair. Mohammad Wadia (ph) blames himself for his children's injuries. He says he listened to the IDF's warning and moved to south from the north, only to be part of an airstrike in Khan Younis on October 16.

He went to buy food and when he got back, everything was gone, he tells me. His son, Abdul Rahman (ph), just nine-years-old, and fighting through seven war injuries. His 14-year-old sister beside him, both had shrapnel in their tiny bodies and broken bones. DR. AHMMAD ABDELLATIF, NASSER MEDICAL INSTITUTE IN CAIRO: For me, I am a orthopedic consultant, orthopedic surgical consultant and the other team is plastic.

GIOKOS (voice-over): They say no physical wounds can compare to the mental scars.

ABDELLATIF: Can you imagine a child, you have a child who is scared. He should be scared from a cat or a dog or dark -- so, when you find that scared from losing his family, it is really shocking.

GIOKOS: Did you get a warning? Did someone tell you (inaudible).

(CROSSTALK)

GIOKOS (voice-over): He tells me no, no warning. On his knowledge of Hamas in his building, he says no. We meet the next family and they recalled this strike. 2 p.m., 31st of October, Jabalia Camp, Alhad Magged (ph) was praying when her husband Rami Mahmoud (ph) went out to get food. And when he returned, his house gone. He found Alhad (ph) by seeing one finger sticking out from the rubble. She survived but two of her children did not.

The 15-year-old daughter called a friend before she died, predicting something would happen to her. Rami (ph) shows me a video of his son. It got a haircut three days before the strike. They tell me he wanted to look good if he died. For all the survivors we met, one wish binds them all, to return home to Gaza.

Eleni Giokos, CNN, Cairo.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: We will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:41:00]

CHURCH: Welcome back everyone. Britain's prime minister says he will introduce emergency legislation to formally recognize Rwanda as a safe country for deportations. Now, this comes after the U.K. Supreme Court unanimously ruled against his controversial immigration deal with the African nation. That agreement announced last year, would allow the U.K. to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda for processing regardless of their nationality. Despite numerous legal setbacks, the prime minister said he is prepared to do whatever it takes to see the plan through, including a formal treaty with Rwanda.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RISHI SUNAK, PRIME MINISTER OF THE UNITED KINGDOM: But we need to end the merry-go-round. I said I was going to fundamentally change our country and I meant it. So, I'm also announcing today that we will take the extraordinary step of introducing emergency legislation. This will enable parliament to confirm that with our new treaty, Rwanda is safe.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Loneliness is now a global health priority for the World Health Organization. On Wednesday, the WHO launched a new commission on social connection to address the pressing health threat. The committee will review the latest science and come up with strategies to help people combat loneliness, and more and more people are dealing with it. A recent survey found nearly one in four adults reported feeling very or fairly lonely.

Now, thank you so much for joining us. I'm Rosemary Church. "World Sport" is coming up next and I'll be back in 15 minutes with more to "CNN Newsroom". Do stick around.

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