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Israel-Hamas Truce Set to Expire This Hour; NYT: Israel Knew Hamas's Attack Plan More Than a Year Ago; People in Gaza Forced to Flee Homes; U.N. Climate Conference Agrees to Create a Damage Fund. Aired 12-12:45a ET

Aired December 01, 2023 - 00:00   ET

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

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

[00:00:00]

JOHN VAUSE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Hello, I'm John Vause at CNN in Atlanta. We begin with breaking news from Gaza, where a weeklong truce may just have come to an end.

A deadline for extending the pause in fighting for a third time expired moments ago without word from either Israel or Hamas.

This is a live view of Gaza right now where it has just gone 7 a.m. on a Friday with unconfirmed reports from the Shihad news agency which is considered close to Hamas, of gunfire and explosions in Northern Gaza. Again, unconfirmed reports.

Just over an hour earlier, sirens sounded in the Southern Israeli city of Sderot, with air-defense systems intercepting one rocket, which according to the IDF, was fired from Gaza by an as yet unidentified militant group.

For days now, Israeli officials from the prime minister on down have made it known, once the hostage negotiations in Doha come to an end, military operations in Gaza will resume with the same goal of eliminating Hamas.

The military wing of Hamas, the al-Qassam Brigades, has called on its forces to be remain on high combat readiness.

The operational pause was extended on Thursday after a last-minute deal, and despite Israel's demands for ten hostages to be released daily, Hamas released eight.

According to an Israeli official, two women were set free initially, followed by another six hours later, who are being held in a separate location in Gaza.

Also Thursday, another 30 Palestinian women and children were released from Israeli prisons as part of the agreement with Hamas. Many had been held under administrative detention and had never officially been charged. And there is reporting from "The New York Times" that Israel knew a

year ago about how Hamas planned to carry out its attack. While the actual date was not known. Detail in the intelligence was stunningly accurate, but ultimately dismissed by Israeli officials as aspirational, not operational.

Standing by this hour in New York is Tal Heinrich, spokesperson for the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. And again Tal, thank you for taking time to speak with us.

TAL HEINRICH, SPOKESPERSON FOR BENJAMIN NETANYAHU: My pleasure, John.

VAUSE: Where do you stand right now? Has the truce come to an end? Are negotiations ongoing? Is this where the military operations now resume?

HEINRICH: What I can tell you at this point is that, for the second time within one hour, the IDF has announced that sirens went off in communities surrounding the Gaza Strip. There was a successful interception about 50, 55 minutes ago.

Now, you see, according to this detail, it seems like a violation, indeed, of the framework that was agreed upon on the operational pause. And we will have to assess what transpired. I cannot provide much information in that respect.

I will just remind you that on Tuesday, there was another violation of the pause. We saw it in the Northern Gaza Strip. I think three explosive -- explosive devices detonated adjacent to our soldiers. And then terrorists open fired. Our soldiers responded.

Eventually, we did see, back on Tuesday, the release of hostages, but well, both sides continue back on Tuesday, to uphold the agreement. But we will have to be very careful in the statements right now and be patient.

VAUSE: I understand. So there is this possibility that this one rocket, which may not have been fired by Hamas. Do we know that at this point? Because other militant groups inside Gaza to have the capability of firing rockets at Israel, and have done so in the past.

HEINRICH: That is very true, but we will have to wait for the IDF to -- to make such assessments.

VAUSE: And this may be also an IDF question, but I'll put it to you anyway. There have been reports, unconfirmed reports of explosions and gunfire in the Northern part of Gaza. Can you comment on that?

HEINRICH: No. What I can tell you at this point is that the framework was very clear to all. We said that, for the release of ten Israeli hostages by Hamas, daily, we would agree to another day of humanitarian pause in the fighting.

Now, if Hamas fails to deliver, according to this framework, the humanitarian pause will stop and the fighting will resume. As our chief of staff, our cabinet, and the prime minister stated in recent days, we are prepared for the next stage of the operation. We know that the only reason why we've seen in recent days the release of many hostages was due to the pressure that we exerted on Hamas. Military pressure, and also diplomatic pressure.

[00:05:12]

Also President Biden stated it, by the way, just a few days ago, that Hamas only responds to pressure.

And so we will have to continue with pressure if we want to see the release of more hostages and complete the other goal of this mission, which is to eliminate the Hamas terrorist regime in Gaza.

VAUSE: When that fighting does resume. And it seems that will eventually happen, be it a matter of hours or a matter of days. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in the region. He says he has spoken with the Israeli prime minister about civilian protection plans when the fighting does resume.

This is what he told reporters. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: The way Israel defends itself matters. It's imperative that Israel act in accordance with international humanitarian law and the laws of war, even when confronting a terrorist group that respects neither.

In my meetings today with the prime minister and senior Israeli officials, I made clear that, before Israel resumes major military operations, it must put in place humanitarian, and civilian protection plans that minimize further casualties of innocent Palestinians.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Has Israel agreed to those civilian protection plans? If so, can you provide details?

HEINRICH: John, I think it's important to note here that there is no daylight between Jerusalem and Washington in what pertains to the goals of this operation.

Everyone understands that Hamas must be eliminated. Hamas can be no longer. Everyone understands that Gaza can no longer pose a threat, a terror threat to Israel, in that, because Israelis will simply not agree to continue to live like that and go back to the reality that predated the October 7th massacre.

And also, everyone wants to see the release of all hostages. Now, just like our American counterparts, and honestly, every -- every person with conscience, good conscience around the world and reasoning, and moral clarity, we do not want to see Palestinian civilians getting caught in the crossfire for that. And we are investing the most efforts, maximum efforts to make sure that they are out of harm's way.

And we have presented Secretary -- our war cabinet presented Secretary Blinken with plans for safe zones and more humanitarian corridors and the scope of humanitarian aid and health care coming in the Gaza Strip, with ten cities, and field hospitals, more fuel, more cooking gas over the past days. So we want to ease the civilians' suffering in Gaza.

VAUSE: It is not easy. It is complicated. It is difficult. And Israel is held to a much higher standard than Hamas. So you know, that is understood.

So clearly, if anything can be done to minimize civilian casualties, that is obviously a priority for, you know, many around the world. Also, as you say, a priority for Israel.

There has also been reporting by "The New York Times," in the last couple of hours. The headline reads, "Israel Knew Hamas's Attack Plans More Than a Year Ago."

The Hamas attack on October 7 played out almost precisely to those details, which "The New York Times" reports, "The document circulated widely among Israeli military and intelligence leaders. Experts determined that an attack on that scale and ambition was beyond Hamas's capabilities, according to documents and officials.

"It is unclear whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or other top political leaders saw the document, as well."

Did the document reach the prime minister's office? Was Benjamin Netanyahu made aware of it? Did he read it? If he didn't read it, he didn't see it, why not?

HEINRICH: I cannot directly comment on this particular report, but there's no doubt, John, that the October 7th massacre was a failure on their behalf. Of course it was a failure.

And we are a country that, as you know in the past, we conducted thorough inquiries. We will do it again. And we are drawing lessons as we go, because we must. There is no other choice.

But right now, everyone in Israel is united and very determined to complete the missions that we have defined to bring our hostages back home and to make sure that Gaza will never pose this terror threat against us ever again.

VAUSE: One very last quick question. Yesterday, there was what appeared to be an intelligence failure. But if you read this document, the intelligence was there. It seems like it was a policy failure.

And you've had a prime minister who's been in charge, who's been running Israel for the longest serving prime minister ever, 15 years. Doesn't the buck stop with Mr. Netanyahu?

HEINRICH: We will conduct inquiries. The prime minister also talked about it. When the time comes, he will speak further.

[00:10:06] VAUSE: Tal, appreciate your time. Thank you so much for being with us. Tal Heinrich there in New York, advisor to Mr. Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister. Thank you so much, Tal.

HEINRICH: Thank you, John.

VAUSE: Let's go now to Tel Aviv now. Ronen Bergman, staff writer from "The New York Times" magazine and one of the reporters who broke that story that Israel had knowledge of the mass attack plans a year before October 7th.

Ronen, thanks for being with us.

RONEN BERGMAN, STAFF WRITER, "NEW YORK TIMES" MAGAZINE: Thank you.

VAUSE: Those Hamas plans were in a 40-page document, code name Jericho War, which lays bare what you report as a year-long cascade of missteps, which led to the attack on October 7th. Here's also part of the reporting.

"Underpinning all these failures was a single, frankly inaccurate, belief that Hamas lacked the capability to attack and would not dare to do so. That belief was so ingrained in the Israeli government, officials said they were disregarding growing evidence to the contrary."

So here were other warnings, as well, aside from this one. Egyptian intelligence officials say they warned their Israeli counterparts in the weeks before October 7 yes.

So where did that inaccurate belief come from, that Hamas lacked not just the desire, but also the capability to carry out this attack?

BERGMAN: So as you correctly identified, there are two kinds of failures leading to the third one.

The first one was the Israeli belief that Hamas could be Hamas's, as they called it, just five days before the -- the attack on October 7th. The national security adviser to Mr. Netanyahu, Tzachi Hanegbi, said publicly in the radio interview Hamas (UNINTELLIGIBLE). There were not there for a very long time onwards to attack Israel. They understand the price of defiance, he said.

Israel failed that with the Qatari mediation with Hamas and making some deals about more licenses to Gazans to come to work for, in Israel, in exchange for less riots of defiance.

This big closer, some kind of a ceasefire, now everybody understands this was just a deception, a cover for the ongoing planning and execution of this attack, the attack that is so well-detailed in this booklet. This plan that was obtained by Israeli intelligence more than a year ago.

The second failure was about the ability. Because Israel didn't believe that Hamas has the ability to send teams throughout the border, not as some kind of a raid of one or two villages -- This is something that they took into account -- but to invade Israel.

And even after they obtained this plan, this is a detailed plan. We spoke with a few professionals, my colleague and myself, who would ascent (ph) to things about operations.

This is a detailed, meticulous plan and one cannot be not impressed by the extent of knowledge of the Hamas about Israel. All the preparations, all the surveillance devices on the border, they're all -- and the semi-automatic machine guns. They are all strictly mapped.

And the plan, the Jericho War plan also understand and explain to the government of Hamas how to destroy all the fortification on the border. And Israel thought this is just a wishful, a dream plan. Aspiration. Not something that Hamas can do.

VAUSE: That stood out to me in the reporting there. And I want to read part of "The Times" article: "The plan also included details about the location and size of Israeli military forces, communication hubs and other sensitive information, raising questions about how Hamas gathered its intelligence, and whether there were leaks inside the Israeli security establishment."

So could that information, that sensitive information, be gathered in any other way, apart from some kind of human leak?

BERGMAN: Look, first of all, Israel is a democracy. There's a lot -- sometimes, maybe too much -- that is put on social media. Soldiers, reservists, putting stuff over there.

And I think people would be amazed on how much, if you have enough time -- Gazans have time -- and patience, how much you can collect.

However, looking at the details in that plan, I must say the details there, I find it hard to believe they were taken from either social media, or any kind of other open-source intelligence.

And even if Hamas was able to recruit some of the Gazans that are going to work in Israel, even those, even those being in Israel, sleeping overnight, they wouldn't have access to this information. How Hamas got that? Maybe time will tell.

[00:15:17]

We can assume that the people in Israeli intelligence that saw this -- this memo, this order possibly started to investigate. How come Hamas has this kind of information?

VAUSE: Also, what is also notable is that three months before October 7th, one Israeli analyst raised the alarm about a day-long Hamas training exercise similar to the attack plans.

We've also reported on this mock village that was built in Gaza. She raised these concerns with the IDF Gaza division. They were brushed off. Here's part of the email exchange, her response to the Gaza division of the IDF: "I utterly refute that the scenario is imaginary. It is a plan designed to start a war. It's not just a raid on a village."

She could not have been more emphatic and not even -- she could not be more accurate. So again, the answer seems to be here this wasn't an intelligence failure. It's a policy failure.

The intelligence didn't fail. They knew what was going on.

BERGMAN: No, that's a failure. I think that the people who assessed the Jericho War plan to be a compass for top-secret documents, a compass for the building of the force.

From this angle, Hamas is an army making plans, not only for execution, they present current capability. And there was a significant gap between this plan, this plan that was almost 100 percent executed on October the 7th, and what Israel believed Hamas could do.

This veteran analyst was basically the only one. She and two of her colleagues were the only ones who said to the intelligence colleagues, the intelligence officials in the Southern front, they have narrowed the gap between the plan and their real capability the real competence.

We should look at them much more carefully. This is not a drill. This is not an exercise. They said for sure this is something where they are preparing for war. Not that they knew there was a date for war, but there are preparing for war.

And unfortunately, all of them was kept in a low-level relevance (ph). It did not get out of the Southern front in unit 8200. And we know how this ends.

VAUSE: Ronen, great to have you with us. Great reporting. It's very much appreciated. As we talk, we will be keeping an eye on the Israel- Gaza border, because it appears this truce has come to an end.

Ronen Bergman there in Tel Aviv, thank you sir, as always. A honor to have you with us. Thank you.

Well, the IDF is now saying military operations have resumed in Gaza. CNN's Jeremy Diamond joins us now live from Ashkelon with the very latest there.

So Jeremy, I understand you're in Southern Israel, communities around Gaza. There have been the air raid warnings. The sirens has sounded. What's the latest from there, and what do we know about these operations inside of Gaza?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, after a weeklong truce between Israel and Hamas, the war between the two parties appears to be back on.

The Israeli military at this hour is confirming that it has resumed its combat operations in Gaza against Hamas, accusing Hamas of having violated the truce.

And of course, we know that that truce was, indeed, set to expire about 18 minutes ago at the top of the hour.

There were rocket -- there was at least one rocket interception of a rocket being fired from the Gaza Strip in the direction of the town of Sderot. We also heard rocket sirens in the town of Falit (ph), which is very close to that Kerem Shalom border crossing, where we have seen many of the 110 hostages who have been freed over the course of those last seven days as part of this very fragile truce between these two parties.

But for all intents and purposes, at least for now -- there could always be some kind of extension after the fact -- but for now, it appears that this war is back on.

And it also appears crucially that there will be no more hostages released from Gaza today, at least. What we do know is that there have been intense negotiations over the past 24 hours to see if a truce could, indeed, be extended between Israel and Hamas.

The Texas secretary of state, Tony Blinken, was in Israel yesterday, working to achieve that end. We know that there were also intense negotiations in Doha, Qatar, towards Israeli, Qatari, Egyptian, and American intelligence officials, seeing whether or not they could work towards an extension of this truce.

Israeli officials have been intent on seeing all women and children held hostage in the Gaza Strip released as part of this first phase that was initially a four-day pause in fighting. Extended by two days, and then extended by one more day until 7 a.m. local time this morning.

[06:20:20]

But for now, it appears that that pause, which has also allowed for the entry of hundreds of aid trucks per day into Gaza, and has given the people in the Gaza Strip a much-needed respite from the relentless bombing in Gaza, it appears that all of that is over now.

Now, the question, John, is what comes next? Will we see a full resumption of Israeli military activity, a full resumption of Hamas fighting?

What we do know is that if, indeed, that is the direction we're heading in, that could very well mean fighting deeper in Gaza. Israeli military and political leaders have made very clear that the next phase of the military campaign is likely to involve a ground operation in the Southern part of the Gaza Strip.

Up until now, there has been bombardments in all parts of Gaza. The ground operations have focused almost exclusively on the Northern half of the Gaza Strip. But that could now push South, putting more people in danger, of course, and widening this war.

VAUSE: Jeremy, it is Friday there. It is a day of prayer for the Palestinian Muslims. It is a -- it is shabbat, a day of rest for Israelis, for Jewish Israelis. So clearly, this is a day where there will be no rest for anybody if

this military operation resumes. What we saw over the last 24 hours or so, this pause almost didn't happen. The one from Thursday night, or from Wednesday night into Thursday night.

Hamas initially offered seven hostages and three dead bodies. Israel rejected that. Ultimately, they came down to eight hostages were released on -- on Thursday.

Are we now at the point when maybe there's just no more women and children who are alive, who could be released from Gaza? And that' s why this pause has now come to an end? Because the Israelis have been adamant: ten Israeli hostages each day for a 24-hour pause?

DIAMOND: Well, the Israeli government is convinced that there are more women and children being held hostage in Gaza. They have said repeatedly that they know who is being held hostage there, particularly the women and children.

But it does raise questions, significant questions, about Hamas's -- about that statement, first of all, we should say. And then also, about Hamas's potential ability to collect those women and children being held hostage in Gaza and release them.

As we know, while Hamas has held the overwhelming majority of those hostages, and while Hamas also is the sovereign power, effectively, in the Gaza Strip, they do not hold all of those hostages. And there have been some questions raised about their ability to get the remaining hostages from other militant groups in Gaza.

Now we also know that there have been the beginnings of some negotiations about the release of men and Israeli soldiers, as well. But Israeli officials that I've talked to have said that they won't move to that next phase of release until all women and children have been released.

And what Israeli officials also know is that releasing men, releasing Israeli soldiers from Hamas captivity is going to come at a much more significant price.

Just think back to Gilad Shalit, who was released in 2011 after five years of captivity. He was released for over 1,000 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails. And so that certainly, you know, is much different than the 3 to 1 ratio of 30 Palestinian prisoners for every ten Israeli hostages, for example.

And Israeli officials have made clear. They believe that military pressure is one way to lower that price for releasing additional hostages held in Gaza.

VAUSE: Jeremy, thank you.

Gilad Shalit, who 1,032 was the official number of Palestinians released from Israeli jails in exchange for him. So we'll see what happens. Jeremy, we appreciate the update. If anything happens, we'll get back to you as soon as it does. Jeremy Diamond there in Southern Israel.

We will take a short break. It is 23 minutes past 7 in Gaza on a Friday morning. It appears that the truce, which had lasted for seven days, has now ended. The IDF confirming operations ongoing in Gaza. More on this breaking news story here on CNN in a moment.

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VAUSE: Twenty-six minutes past the hour. Welcome back. We're following breaking news this hour.

Israel says military operations in Gaza have resumed after a seven-day truce which expired 26 minutes ago. Israel Defense Forces says Hamas violated the terms of the agreement by firing towards Israel.

The Hamas-controlled Ministry of Interior in Gaza says Israeli aircraft in the skies over Northwest Gaza. Military vehicles are now firing in the area. There have been reports of gunfire and explosions, as well.

Joining me now from Canberra, Australia, military analyst Malcolm Davis.

Malcolm, thank you for being with us as this breaking news happens. I want to get your opinion. First up, we saw rockets -- at least that's what the IDF is telling us -- being fired about an hour before the deadline was set to expire for an extension in this truce. Was that a warning shot?

And can we be certain it came from Hamas? It certainly looks to be the case right now. Why would that have happened at that particular time?

MALCOLM DAVIS, MILITARY ANALYST: Well, let me preface my analysis by say I think these events have caught me by surprise as much as everyone else. I was just informed that the truce had broken down.

But having said that, firing that rocket an hour before the truce had ended sounds to me like Hamas was basically delivering a message that they did not intend to continue with the truce.

So that basically, they were sending the signal they were sabotaging any further chances of extending this truce. And you know, now we're here. We're back into the fight. So, let's see what happens from here.

VAUSE: Because the Israelis were clear. As long as they could come up with ten living hostages each day, that this pause in fighting would continue for another 24 hours.

And on Thursday, they came up with eight, initially offering up seven live hostages and three dead bodies. It does beg the question that, if you're looking at women and children being released from Gaza, which is what the focus was, you know, Israel insisting that there's still women and children being held. Maybe they're just not alive? DAVIS: I mean, that's a good possibility, sadly, that we do have to

consider. Once those hostages were under the control of Hamas, or indeed other radical Palestinian groups, there/s no guarantee that they would be alive very long.

So we have to prepare ourselves for that disturbing possibility that many of the hostages have, in fact, been murdered. And that Hamas decided there was little point in going on with this truce because then they would be getting to the point whereby, maybe they would be handing over male hostages. Or they would not be able to sustain ten hostages to extend the truce for another day. So I think that this truce had run its course. We are now back into the ward situation.

VAUSE: With that in mind, I want you to listen to the Israeli prime minister, Netanyahu, who was speaking on Thursday about his commitment and what this military operation will look like once it resumes. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER (through translator): We swore, and I swore, to eliminate Hamas. Nothing will stop us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: So he is determined to push on. We're also hearing from the U.S. secretary of state, Antony Blinken, who is calling for civilians safe zones, a protection plan for civilians in Gaza.

[00:30:06]

These two things right now seem to be not very compatible. They don't seem to be complementary of each other: eliminating Hamas whilst also having these safe zones, having these surgical strikes. They certainly don't want to a repeat of the next several weeks as they move this operation down to the South. How do you see this now playing out?

DAVIS: Well, the safe zones, I think, would be exploited by Hamas. They would put their fighters in there, and they wouldn't be very safe for very long.

I think that, for the Israelis, they have to defeat Hamas. They can't leave them intact. To end this war with Hamas basically intact as a fighting force, with their leadership still alive would be a crushing blow to Israel. And it would guarantee further Hamas attacks, you know, like October the 7th in the future.

So they have -- the Israelis have to defeat Hamas and utterly destroy them. They have to rout them, to be honest. And the challenge is to do that in an operational environment like Gaza, which is incredibly densely populated. It's a very small, large numbers of civilians in harm's way. It's virtually impossible for the Israelis to achieve that without inflicting further civilian deaths.

And I don't think civilian safe zones are really going to work. Because they will simply be exploited by Hamas. VAUSE: Malcolm Davis, as always, sir, it is good of you to be with us,

especially at short notice. Your time is valuable, your insights more so. Thank you, sir.

DAVIS: Thank you.

VAUSE: With that, we'll take a short break. More on our breaking news in a moment. Thirty-one minutes past the hour on a Friday morning here in Gaza. Truce now coming to an end. Military operations resuming. More on this when we come back!

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VAUSE: Welcome back, everyone. Israel says military operations have resumed in Gaza following a weeklong truce with Hamas.

That truth expired 33 minutes ago. We have not received any word of a potential extension at this point.

Hamas released eight hostages on Thursday, the final day of the pause. Two women were freed early in the day, followed by another group of six people who were held at a separate location.

In exchange, about 30 Palestinian women and children were set free from Israeli prisons, as part of that agreement with Hamas.

When U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with the Israeli prime minister Thursday, he made clear the next stage of the war in thousand must not be a repeat of the last several weeks.

It has been described as one of the most intense air campaign since World War II. Along with an unprecedented death toll, Israel's military has displaced 1.3 million and Gaza according to the U.N., and destroyed more than half of all housing units.

Entire neighborhoods, villages, entire towns have been wiped out. Basic infrastructure destroyed. Destruction so sweeping it could take decades to rebuild.

Here's CNN's Ben Wedeman.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): There isn't much left to retrieve from the moonscape that was Zahra City in central Gaza. Just some scraps of wood, pulled from the ruins. The odds and ends that were once people's lives.

"We've come to get what we can," says Amja Dishanti (ph). "The kids' things, our clothing, whatever we can get from under the rubble. Here under this, a daughter's toy."

No one can live here anymore. The destruction, total.

Life in Gaza has been reduced to the basics: a pre-industrial existence, where people have become huers of wood, where they can find it. And drawers of water, even if that water is barely potable.

Bessam El-Atar (ph) goes out nearly every day to collect the firewood his wife uses to prepare meals. The United Nations estimates around 80 percent of Gaza's population has been displaced. More than a million, jammed into schools, converted into shelters.

"People here are living on top of one another," says Bessam (ph). "The place is full of filth. All these kids are going to get sick."

The World Health Organization reports that, without adequate hygiene, health care, and food, disease is spreading. Bessam's (ph) wife, Hitam (ph), tears up the daily bread, all of its stale, to be made into a thin soup of lentils.

"We used to feed this to the sheep. Now, we give it to the children," she says.

There's no more room at this school in Morazi (ph), central Gaza. Um Shadi (ph) and her extended family of more than 20 sleep in the back of a truck, protected from the elements by a plastic tarp. She fled from Northern Gaza, with only what she could carry, desperate now to find enough food to feed her children.

"When my son tells me, 'I'm hungry,' what can I say?" she asks. "We try, but we can't find anything. Our life is hard."

Hard, perhaps, is an understatement. Welcome to the apocalypse, now.

Ben Wedeman, CNN, Jerusalem.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: When we come back on CNN, agreement at COP28. Wealthy nations will pay pennies on the dollar for the amount of destruction caused to the smallest countries in the world, impacted the most by a warming planet.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:40:12]

VAUSE: Welcome back, everyone. We're following breaking news this hour.

Israel says military operations in Gaza have resumed after a seven-day truce with Hamas expired less than 30 minutes ago. The IDF says Hamas violated terms of the agreement by firing a rocket towards Israel. The Hamas-controlled Ministry of the Interior in Gaza says Israeli aircraft are now in the skies over Northwest Gaza, as well as military vehicles are firing into the area.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP) VAUSE: Yay us! A standing ovation for COP28 delegates, by COP28 delegates, after an agreement to establish a damage fund to help developing countries cope with the impact of climate change.

Some countries have already pledged funds. That include almost a quarter of a billion dollars from the E.U. That's 30 plus countries. One hundred million dollars from the UAE. And of course, a grand total of $17 million from the United States.

Now we go to David McKenzie in Dubai, where the conference is set to resume in the coming hours. It's a pittance. It's a pittance, seriously.

DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It isn't very much, but it could grow. And certainly, John, this is something that has been negotiated for decades.

Rich countries had to be dragged over the line on some level last COP in Egypt, because as the Americans have put it several times, they didn't want this to become a compensation fund for compensating poorer nations for the damage that richer nations has caused to those countries, with the hurricanes, the droughts, the intense weather events caused and made worse by climate change.

Still, it is seen as a positive move by many of those in developing nations, who want to see money to help the citizens cope with the intensity of the climate crisis. Here's the COP president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SULTAN AL JABER, COP28 PRESIDENT: This is historic. The fact that we are able to get the agenda voted, and agreed on, without any delay. For those who have been involved in previous COPs, this is just unprecedented.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCKENZIE: So, it is unprecedented, in his mind, but the key thing that needs to happen, John, for all of us in humanity is for emissions just to be cut and cut drastically, to lessen the impact on this boiling planted. That is, at this stage, way off the mark.

What many are hoping for at this COP, which might be difficult, given the oil nation hosting it, is to have a pledge, concrete action to phase out from fossil fuel usage, particularly oil and gas and coal.

That will be the actual litmus test on how this is judged in the coming hours. World leaders, royals, and others, will be speaking in the beginning of the high- level version of this event, and I'm sure many nations will be calling for faster action -- John.

VAUSE: Here's a number: 58.5 billion dollars' worth of oil in 2021 exported by the UAE. David McKenzie in Dubai, thank you, sir.

I'm John those. WORLD SPORT is up after a short break. See you back here in 17 minutes. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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