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CNN International: Israel Resumes Gaza Military Operations As Truce Ends; Hamas Frees Eight More Israeli Hostages Thursday; Qatar: Hostage Talks Continue Despite Renewed Fighting; Dubai Hosts Global Forum on Climate Action; Israel-Hamas War; As Ceasefire Expires, Israel Launches Military Operations in Gaza; Despite Increased Violence, Hostage Negotiations Continue, Says Qatar; Since Ceasefire Ended, No Assistance Vehicles Have Entered Gaza; Gazans Forced to Leave Their Homes Battle to Survive; Russian Court Bans "Extremist" LGBT Community; Wife of Ukraine's Spy Chief Recuperating in the Hospital After Being Poisoned; Liberated Captives Treated in Israeli Hospital; Thick, Dirty Smog Enveloped New Delhi. Aired 8-9a ET
Aired December 01, 2023 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[08:00:00]
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MAX FOSTER, HOST, "CNN NEWSROOM": Hello. This is CNN Newsroom. I am Max Foster in London. Israel resumes its military operation in Gaza after accusing Hamas of violating truce agreements. An eyewitness tells CNN, no aid has reached Gaza since then. And despite the resumption of fighting, Qatar says hostage negotiations are still ongoing. We'll have the details.
BECKY ANDERSON, CNN HOST: And I'm Becky Anderson live from Dubai where COP28, the global climate summit, is well and truly underway with a chorus of dire warnings from leaders such as the UN's Antonio Guterres and Britain's King Charles. Simply put, they say time is running out for old solutions and that we need bold action, and we need now. Well, some of that action came from host country UAE earlier on, which pledged to finance a new climate solutions fund to the tune of $30 billion, and of course on a day when the truce between Israel and Hamas has crumbled, global politics not too far away, either with a rare meeting between the Emir of Qatar, which of course have been negotiating between the two sides, and Israel's President Isaac Herzog, who was also in town. Lots to unpack from COP28 coming up later in the show.
FOSTER: The top UN official for human rights calls the developments catastrophic. Israel has resumed combat operations against Hamas, as their seven-day truce comes to an end, once again, explosions of rocking Gaza, with giant plumes of smoke rising over the skyline. The IDF says Hamas violated the terms of the truce and fired rockets towards Israel. This is the aftermath of an Israeli strike on Southern Gaza today. The Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry says at least 32 people have been killed. Israel is dropping leaflets in the southern city of Khan Younis, calling it a fighting zone, and telling people to evacuate immediately. Before the truce ended, Hamas released eight more hostages on Thursday. And despite the resumption of hostilities, Qatar says negotiations to free more hostages and return to the pause in fighting continues.
CNN's Ivan Watson is tracking developments from Beirut, Lebanon. In Israel, the Israeli Prime Minister did warn this would happen.
IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. Israel, the Israeli government said it will continue its war in Gaza to eliminate Hamas. And so, it's been about seven, eight hours really since the truce expired, and the fighting has resumed again. Again, Israel saying it will eliminate Hamas, Hamas saying that it has every right to defend itself, and accusing the U.S. and the international community of bearing responsibility for what it describes as a "brutal war against civilians, children and women in Gaza." As of now, the Ministry of Health in Gaza, which is run by Hamas, it says that at least 34 people have been killed in the first couple of hours of the resumption of hostilities. The reaction has ranged around the region from condemnation from the Jordanian Foreign Ministry to real concern.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has said that this is a catastrophe that's taking place right now, a humanitarian catastrophe. And we have some sound coming from a spokesperson, we can't play it right now, for the United Nations Children's Fund, actually in one of the hospitals in Gaza that he says is that too -- let's take a listen to what he says in a moment. He says that there has been an explosion from a bomb just 50 meters from the hospital where he is in, and that children's hospital, he says, is at 200 percent capacity.
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Take a listen to what he says.
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JAMES ELDER, UNICEF SPOKESPERSON: We cannot see more children with the wounds of war, with the burns, with the shrapnel littering their body with the broken bones. Inaction by those with influence is allowing the killing of children. This is a war.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WATSON: So, there you have the spokesperson for the United Nations Children's Fund, calling this a war on children. Now, Thursday night in Israel, the U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, he repeated that the Biden administration believes that in the right of Israel to defend itself, that it also supports a campaign to eliminate Hamas. But, he also said that there had to be -- - there could not be a repeat of the enormous loss of civilian life that took place in the first month and a half of this war before the pause.
According to the Ministry of Health of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, more than 14,800 people were killed in some six and a half weeks of fighting. More than 6,000 of them, Max, were children. The U.S. diplomat also went on to say that it was essential for aid to flow into Gaza. As of now, none of the aid trucks have been allowed through the Rafah gate since -- from Egypt since this fighting resumed. So, we're not seeing some of these concerns that were expressed by the Biden administration being followed through on as both sides resume combat in this contested area. Max.
FOSTER: Ivan, thank you. Let's just take in that image then of Gaza. These are live pictures coming into us, and you can see the scene. No. We haven't seen this for days.
Let's speak to Oren Liebermann. He is in Tel Aviv. I mean, how would you describe the -- what you're seeing today, and compared to how it was before the truce, and where you expect it to go?
OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Israel had very much promised that it was ready for a stronger campaign for what looks like the second phase of its war. And frankly, from the reports we're hearing on the ground in Gaza, from what we're seeing along the Gaza skyline, it very much looks like what we're seeing there, a strong campaign, crucially targeting southern Gaza as well, which is where Israel had told Palestinians in northern Gaza to evacuate to.
Allow me to pick up on part of what Ivan was talking about there with Secretary of State Antony Blinken here. Blinken said Israel needs to have a concrete plan to avoid civilian casualties as it launches the second phase of its war. At the time as it prepares to launch the second phase of its war, we have seen these leaflets dropped in Israel, trying to put a map up of Gaza broken up into different parcels. So, perhaps trying to say you can evacuate this part or should evacuate this area. This is where we're going to carry out operations. But, of course, that requires internet connectivity.
It'll be interesting to see and crucial to see, frankly, if that meets the U.S. requirement for enough done to avoid civilian casualties, because it was clear that the U.S. is seriously concerned not only about bottom line the number of Palestinians who have been killed in Israeli operations in Gaza, including women and children, but also the result of that on pressure, both in the U.S. and on Israel. Israel keenly aware that international pressure is very much growing, especially now that this appears to be the second phase of the war. Max.
FOSTER: Oren, thank you.
Well, as hostilities in Gaza resume, negotiations to release more hostages and pause the fighting continue. That's according to Qatar's Foreign Ministry. Israel believes there are still 137 captives being held in Gaza, all but 20 are men, we understand. Now, over the past week, the world has witnessed emotional scenes many times over with dozens of Israeli families reunited with their loved ones. CNN's Jeremy Diamond was there for one of those reunions.
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JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Hen Avigdori waited 50 days for this moment, embracing his wife and 12-year-old daughter, now freed from Hamas captivity. HEN AVIGDORI, WIFE AND DAUGHTER KIDNAPPED BY HAMAS: I can easily say, this was the happiest moment of my life, the depth and the amplitudes of the happiness and the emotion was almost unbearable, in a good way.
DIAMOND (voice-over): Waking up the next day brought a new flood of emotions.
AVIGDORI: And I was the first one to wake up and I just wake up and counted, one wife, two kids, and it was so -- it's supposed to be obvious that you wake up alongside with your family. But, for me, it wasn't obvious for the last 50 days.
DIAMOND: Tell us how they're doing, Sharon and Noam?
AVIGDORI: I didn't see anything that is abnormal till this point. They're sleeping well. They're eating well. They're making -- they're laughing a lot. Most of the humor has come from Noam, actually.
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She has given me a hard time. She is busting my ass with humor all the time. You are too old.
DIAMOND: Already?
AVIGDORI: You are too old. You are not updated. You don't know fashion. You don't know anything.
DIAMOND (voice-over): For now, the Avigdori family isn't sharing much about Sharon and Noam's captivity.
AVIGDORI: They tell me a lot. I can share nothing. This is a matter of privacy and national security.
DIAMOND (voice-over): Or the moment they were kidnapped from kibbutz Be'eri.
DIAMOND: Till a few days ago, you didn't know exactly what happened to them. What have they told you about that moment? It must have been absolutely terrifying.
AVIGDORI: It was absolutely terrifying. And again, I don't speak about what happened to them.
DIAMOND (voice-over): Avigdori did share that his wife and daughter were held alongside four other relatives, where Noam took on the role of big sister to three-year-old Yahel, and eight-year-old Naveh.
AVIGDORI: She is kind of surrogate old sister for them. And she kept this job all during her captivity. And now, the girls are at home. They're adjusting slowly, but surely.
DIAMOND (voice-over): For Hen's wife, that also means fresh grief.
AVIGDORI: Her brother was killed on the 7th of October. She didn't know what happened. She took it. Well, it will take time. DIAMOND (voice-over): They are also adjusting to this, realizing that people across Israel know their faces and their story. Noam's brother, meanwhile, is savoring the little moments.
OMER AVIGDORI, MOTHER AND SISTER KIDNAPPED BY HAMAS: It is like when we eat dinner and my mom brings like a bunch of food, that night most of us won't eat. But, she brings it anyway, like little things that you didn't realize how much we miss them until they actually happen again.
DIAMOND (voice-over): Those little moments followed seven weeks of relentless advocacy. But, even with his wife and daughter home, Hen Avigdori says his work isn't done yet.
AVIGDORI: Because I tasted the happy and I know that my country should be -- should do anything to give this experience to all the other members of the kidnapping and as soon as possible.
DIAMOND (voice-over): Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Hod HaSharon, Israel.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FOSTER: The New York Times is reporting that Israeli officials obtained Hamas' attack plan more than a year ago, but military and intelligence officials dismissed it as aspirational and too difficult to carry out. According to The Times, the document called for a barrage of rockets at the outset of the attack, drones to knock out security cameras, and automated machine guns along the border, and government to pour into Israel on mass in paragliders, on motorcycles and on foot, all of which happened on October the 7th. CNN spoke earlier with Staff Writer Ronen Bergman, who shares a byline on the Times story.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RONEN BERGMAN, STAFF WRITER, THE NEW YORK TIMES: Israel didn't believe that Hamas has the ability to send teams throughout the border, not as a some kind of a raid on one or two villages, this is something they took into account, but to invade Israel. And even after they obtained this plan, this is a detailed plan. We spoke with few professionals, my colleague, Adam Sella (ph) and myself, were the same few 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 in the automatic submachine guns. They're all strictly mapped and the plan, the Jericho Wall plan also understand and explain to the government of Hamas how to destroy all the fortification on the border.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FOSTER: A spokesperson wouldn't comment on whether the Israeli Prime Minister had seen the document outlining Hamas' massive attack plan. Here is what she told CNN. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TAL HEINRICH, SPOKESPERSON FOR ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: The October 7th massacre was a failure on our 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 was no other choice.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FOSTER: Well, still to come, it's the second day of the COP28 summit where world leaders are talking about their commitments to fight climate change. Becky will be live from Dubai with all the most significant moments, including some passionate words from Britain's King Charles.
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ANDERSON: Hello. I'm Becky Anderson live in Dubai for you today on what is the second day of COP28 summit.
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ANTONIO GUTERRES, U.N. SECRETARY GENERAL: We cannot save a burning planet with a fire hose of fossil fuels.
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ANDERSON: Well, the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, not mincing his words, giving a bleak warning during the first day of the climate conference here in Dubai, and that was echoed by Britain's King Charles. He reminded everyone that the time for change is now.
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KING CHARLES III, UNITED KINGDOM: I pray with all my heart that COP28 will be another critical turning point towards genuine transformational action at a time when, already as scientists have been warning for so long, we are seeing alarming tipping points being reached.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: Well, UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed used his speech to announce a major climate finance fund of $30 billion. The World Bank also adding to the sense of potential solutions, telling delegates that the loss and damage fund announced yesterday could be up and running within three months. Well, a lot of the talk is focused on finding solutions to this crisis. But, when you have the likes of Vice President Kamala Harris and Secretary of State Antony Blinken in town alongside the likes of the special climate representative from China and leaders like the Emir of Qatar and Israel's President, global politics won't be far from everyone's mind. Joining me here is a man who is no stranger to such global gatherings, and who can tell us a thing or two about what goes on in the halls of power. Borge Brende is President of the World Economic Forum. And your political career, of course before that, stands before you. It is an interesting time for this COP28 conference coming as it does against the backdrop here in this region, at least of a dreadful, worrying, deadly conflict.
And that to some degree has been a distraction for many in this region in the lead up to this conference. Nevertheless, we have to remind ourselves that this is a region that is squarely in the crosshairs of climate change. King Charles talks about genuine transformational action need being needed here. What does he mean by that? What do you think can be achieved?
BORGE BRENDE, PRESIDENT, WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM: That we have to walk the talk. We cannot only any longer just say why, but we have to focus on how.
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And there are some silver linings. If we met 10 years ago and I said that the price of solar would fall to one tenth, I think that would be seen as a bit light and naive. Today, solar can be rolled out all over the world without any kind of subsidies, and it's cheaper than coal. And there is more solar rolled out this year than there is coal-fired power plants.
But, of course, that's not enough, because numbers that the World Economic Forum presented today shows that this year climate emissions increased at 1.5 percent, and we should have reduced them with seven percent. So, there is a delta of 8.5 percent that we have to fix.
ANDERSON: So, do we just have to, frankly, sit here today, despite the fact that this is an event full of solutions, and what is a climate expo being held here? And we'll talk about some of those solutions momentarily. Should we just assume that we will be living in a plus two percent, well, going forward, or can we genuinely do something about this?
BRENDE: We can. It's a question of political will. I mentioned solar that has fallen to one tenth. Wind energy has fallen to one seventh. And there are technology breakthroughs also expected in the decades to come. Can we capture and store a CO2 at a lower price? So, can we build a bridge between fossil fuel based-society into a renewable one, while we have even bigger breakthroughs? Then, of course, unfortunately today, too much money is going into subsidizing fossil fuels. There is more money going to subsidies for fossil fuel than it's invested in renewable some places. So, that could change.
ANDERSON: And Borge, the UN Chief has warned that fossil fuel companies -- has warned those companies that and I quote him here, "Their old road is aging." I wonder what you believe their new road looks like. Because, to be frank, at this point, short-term, their energy transition has almost been halted by governments and consumers demanding that they produce more in order to ensure that we have a secure energy environment. Long term, it's not clear what their energy transition looks like at this point. But, that sort of -- over the horizon, there is potential for these companies to do better on their emissions, to at least in principle help prevent the warming. Isn't there?
BRENDE: There is. And I was just coming from a launch we had on the agriculture side and food. 30 percent of all the emission comes from producing food and agricultural products. If you can then reduce that footprint with 20 percent, it is a good bridge. So, each sector has to deliver if aluminum could be 50 percent green steel. So, we have to have also a practical approach to this. The challenges that we're faced with the triangle that has to be squared is energy security.
We've seen in Europe this winter. Then we have accesses. 800 million people on our planet don't even have access to electricity. So, we cannot eradicate poverty without having energy. And then, the growth in energy consumption has to be decoupled from growth in CO2, and their technologies, the renewables, fusion, nuclear has to play a very important role.
ANDERSON: William Ruto, the Kenyan leader, wants to see Africa as the green powerhouse going forward. He said we must establish a new global financing pact so that no country is forced to choose between development obligations and its climate obligations and initiatives. But, speaking to your point, we need to come to this point where people can see that development and a greener world goes hand in hand. We can't leave people out from their opportunities to develop economically.
Nearly 200 countries now have just over a week to work on a unanimous agreement on how to tackle climate change. That is at the heart of what's going on here. That's the negotiations. The sort of solutions- based stuff, Borge, it's fascinating to see that in what we would describe as the Climate Expo. Those countries now do have to come together. I spoke to John Kerry ahead of this, U.S. Special Envoy. He said, at this time of war, at this time with not just the Israel-Hamas conflict, but what is going on in Ukraine as well, people here have to prove that multilateralism works. People here have to prove that nearly 200 countries can come together and what are really testing negotiations and make this work.
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Can they?
BRENDE: I hope so. But, there are some impulses that have to be broken multi-polarity that we're seeing with many different players, is OK. But, without multilateralism, when the biggest challenge has traveled without passport, for example, climate change, has to be agreed at the multilateral -- though multilateral deals and at the global level. In that way, China and U.S. meeting in San Francisco, between Biden and Xi Jinping, was important because we thought that was going to be a major hurdle. They are still not totally aligned. The U.S. focusing on --
ANDERSON: And the two leaders not here, which is -- BRENDE: Yeah.
ANDERSON: -- a shame.
BRENDE: So, that's the fact. They just met. But, I think the meeting was important. But, U.S. focusing on China's coal production and increases, China focusing on the lack from the global north in financing, what also the Kenyan President was underlining, there has to be a green transition in the developing world. So, when they now build out electricity, it should be renewable. It should be solar. It should be wind. But, that has to be mixed with something that can stabilize it too. That could be nuclear. It can also be natural gas as a bridge.
So, we have to be realistic. It's a biggest change in the way we are kind of driving our societies. For 200 years, the Industrial Revolution was based on fossil fuel. And now, we want to then base it on something else. So, this is huge, difficult, but doable. So, cost of inaction far exceeds the cost of action these days, but we haven't realized it. So, it should be common sense. But, definitely common sense isn't necessarily that common on (inaudible).
ANDERSON: Common sense and democratizing the message. So, common sense, common knowledge, common understanding, certainly is that since 2015 and the Paris Agreement. The world of climate crisis, the narrative about where we are at is democratized. Everybody gets it --
BRENDE: Yeah.
ANDERSON: -- these days. Don't they? And that's a really big change, isn't it, since 2015 in Paris.
BRENDE: I think that's a positive development. We do see some like populists that are -- like they were against --
ANDERSON: Climate deniers. They're out there.
BRENDE: -- climate deniers. They're unfortunately growing a bit. But, it's -- if you look outside, I think we all see that something is wrong with the global weather. But, I think what we have to agree on now are the next steps to fulfill Paris. And since we didn't want to be too much gloom and doom, before Paris, we were on track for a four degrees increase in the temperature. After Paris, three degrees. After Glasgow, maybe 2.2, 2.3. So, we are moving in the right direction, but not fast enough and not taking the necessary steps, because it's very difficult in a polarized world and fractured world to get the big players to agree on anything.
ANDERSON: I've been fascinated by the work that the World Economic Forum is doing on this. So, well done on that.
BRENDE: Thank you.
ANDERSON: You got to be applauded on that. And I know in Davos, there'll be more to come this year.
BRENDE: I hope you join us.
ANDERSON: Always a pleasure. Borge, for the time being, thank you very much indeed, Borge Brende, the President these days of the World Economic Forum.
Well, joining me now in Dubai is David McKenzie, who is following all the latest COP28 developments. What are your key takeaways today, David?
DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's kind of all seen her. In fact, Becky, there is a group of indigenous representatives meeting with some politicians from Brazil. And just the last few minutes, we saw the Chinese envoy walk past at a distance. I managed to catch up with Cyril Ramaphosa, the President of South Africa, have a brief chat with him. He said that he is very pleased that this loss and damage fund has been set up. He says this is good for the African continent, but that much more needs to be done, and much more money needs to be pledged to that fund.
There has been a parade of world leaders of royals and others, giving their pitch of why they think the world needs to do more to combat the climate crisis. I think chief among them is the UN Secretary General who helped lead off this conference, saying that the transition to energy sustainability and the transition of energy to cleaner methods is inevitable. But, it depends on how long we take. He said that the time is now to make that change.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GUTERRES: We cannot save a burning planet with a fire hose of fossil fuels. We must accelerate a just, equitable transition to renewables.
[08:30:00]
The science is clear. The 1.5-degree limit is only possible if we ultimately stop burning all fossil fuels. Not reduce, not abate.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, what they are looking for, at least the U.N. and many other countries, Becky, is -- are concrete steps on how exactly that will happen. Becky.
BECKY ANDERSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL NEWS ANCHOR: The UAE pledging some $30 billion in a new climate fund. What does that look like, and how does that help what is going on here, which is a, sort of, burgeoning narrative about the importance of climate finance and how that finance is, sort of, catalyzed to ensure it gets to the right places at the right scale?
MCKENZIE: Well, the devil's in the details, but certainly that significant amount of money pledged by the UAE will be welcomed by many nations here. It's on top of many other pledges. And now the key here, say those who are following this closely, including scientists, is that it needs to be used in a way that accelerates the energy transition. And climate justice goes hand in hand with climate finance, as you allude to, Becky.
And there's been a lot of discussion today to make sure that the financing of climate initiatives, of the energy transition goes to those countries that need it most. As you earlier mentioned, the president of Kenya, several African leaders have called, for their continent to be part of the solution and to receive that funding. Because there are significant oil reserves and national gas -- national -- excuse me, natural gas reserves in Africa and off the coast of Africa that countries want to exploit. If they are to not exploit those reserves, they feel they need the financing to move towards energy transition.
This is something, in fact, South Africa is trying to do with funding from the U.K., U.S. and others, to wean themselves off coal and onto a more cleaner future. Becky?
ANDERSON: David McKenzie out and about here in Dubai at COP28. David, thank you.
And that's it from me for now, at least. I'm Becky Anderson in Dubai. I'll be back at the top of the hour. For more of CNN's coverage of COP28 with my show, "Connect the World with Becky Anderson." Max Foster will be back with more news after this short break. Stay with us.
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MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: Israel has resumed combat operations against Hamas as their seven-day truce comes to an end. Once again, explosions are rocking Gaza. The IDF says Hamas violated the terms of the truce and fired rockets towards Israel.
[08:35:00]
Hamas says, Israel refused all offers to extend the truce, a claim Israel's Prime Minister's office dismissed as propaganda. This is the aftermath of an Israeli strike in Southern Gaza today. The Hamas controlled Gaza Health Ministry says at least 32 people have been killed in today's hostilities.
Israel is dropping leaflets in the southern city of Khan Yunis calling it a fighting zone, and telling people to evacuate immediately. Israel also released a new interactive evacuation map for the next stage of the war, showing Gaza divided into hundreds of numbered districts.
Before the truce ended, Hamas released eight more hostages on Thursday. Scott McLean, following developments from Istanbul, joins us now. Clearly, you know, it was always a very delicate truce anyway, wasn't it? But there are efforts behind the scenes to bring it back again.
SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, the negotiations are still ongoing, but if you ask the Qataris who have been mediating these talks, certainly the quickness that Israel restarted its bombing campaign in the early hours since the truce expired complicates things to get things back on track. If you ask the Israelis, this military pressure that they are applying to Hamas and the Gaza Strip will ultimately help them, they say, in their negotiations and to try to lower the price of the hostages who are still outstanding, some 137 of them is what the Israeli Prime Minister's office believes are actually there.
In terms of the fighting on the ground, Max, there have been widespread airstrikes in Gaza. As you said, dozens of people killed. The Hamas led Ministry of Health says, that the majority of those victims are women and children. This is not helping Israel's cause when it comes to cutting down civilian casualties.
And this is a message that U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken brought yesterday when he visited Israeli leaders. He said that his expectation and the United States expectation which, by the way, he says that Israel had agreed to was that before any hostilities continue, before the fighting continues, there needs to be a plan to minimize civilian casualties.
So, as you pointed out, they have been doing things like dropping leaflets. They have also set up a website to try to make it easier for people inside Gaza to actually track where Israel is telling people to evacuate or where it's telling them to go at any given moment. Though, surely there will be plenty of criticism to that approach, given the connectivity issues in Gaza, given the lack of electricity, the lack of people with phones often it is not easy to get word out to people there.
Blinken also made clear that the U.S. does not want to see a repeat of the widespread bombing campaign that happened in Northern Gaza and also southern and central Gaza as well, but particularly in the north where you have 40 to 50 percent of the buildings that are damaged in some way. So, the message that Blinken brought was clear. The implementation of it and the effectiveness of it, I think, is less clear at this stage of the game, Max.
FOSTER: OK. Scott, thank you.
Well, as the fighting in Gaza resume -- resumes, negotiations to release more hostages do continue. That's according to Qatar, as Scott mentioned. Israel believes there are still 137 people being held in Gaza. All but 20, though, are men.
Arlette Saenz in Washington with details of that. And that's because the men are much harder to negotiate over, isn't it?
ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it certainly is. Throughout this process, the focus has been first on trying to get those women and children out, and then once they had those hostages out, the focus in the talks was expected to turn to elderly men, young men and then also those IDF Reservist soldiers.
Now, at the time, it's still unclear whether they will be able to get to that point in the negotiations. As you noted, there are -- is -- Israelis believe that there are still about 20 women who are being held who could fall into this category to be released. And then at that point, the hope would be is that they would turn to others as well.
As far as the Americans go, there are currently eight remaining Americans in Gaza, that includes one American woman who the administration had been hopeful would be part of this initial negotiated release. She has not been released just yet, and the White House has been unable to provide any update on her whereabouts or her status.
Then there are seven men, three of which are Israeli reservist soldiers. Those IDF Soldiers are expected to be the toughest to get out in these negotiations. But the White House says that they remain in these talks with Qatar, Israel and Egypt to try to get more hostages out of Gaza. There's going to be working towards it. Seeing if there's maybe some type of solution, they can come to today but it is the hope of the White House that they will be able to do more to get the remaining hostages out.
[08:40:00]
It just remains unclear where these negotiations will go if Hamas will agree to release those elderly men and then turn their focus, potentially, to those IDF soldiers who are being held.
FOSTER: OK. Arlette at the White House, thank you.
Now, eyewitnesses tell CNN that no aid trucks have crossed into Gaza since the truce expired. Dozens of trucks that had undergone inspection at the Nizania -- Nitzana Crossing in Israel was seen waiting at the Rafah Crossing gate. Under the truce agreement, up to 200 trucks carrying desperately needed aid were allowed to enter Gaza each day.
But Israel's campaign against Hamas in Gaza has already left much of the landscape as a wasteland. Homes, businesses and infrastructure in ruins. Many people have become internally displaced. Refugees struggling to survive every day. CNN Senior International Correspondent Ben Wedeman takes a closer look at the already dire humanitarian situation there.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): 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 Amjad Ashanti (ph). The kids' things, our clothing, whatever we can get from under the rubble. Here, I found this, my 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 hewers of wood, where they can find it. And drawers of water, even if that water is barely potable. Bassem al Attar (ph) goes out early 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 Bassem (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. Bassem's wife, Khitam (ph), tears up the daily bread, old and stale, to be made into a thin soup with 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 Maghazi, 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.
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FOSTER: Still ahead, a landmark ruling in Russia has many people worried about the safety of LGBTQ people, details just ahead.
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FOSTER: Russia's made a move, many fear will lead to the further persecution of gay and transgender people. Its Supreme Court has declared a ban on what it calls the International LGBTQ Movement, labeling it an extremist organization. That opens up the threat of prison terms for up to 10 years for anyone associated with it. The United Nations said it deplores the ruling.
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RAVINA SHAMDASANI, SPOKESWOMAN, U.N. HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS: We call on the Russian authorities to immediately repeal this law and other laws that infringe upon the rights of LGBT people or the rights of people who are advocating for human rights across the board. We are worried that this law could effectively criminalize any advocacy relating to the rights of people of a different sexual orientation. And peaceful advocacy must never be criminalized.
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FOSTER: Homosexuality was decriminalized in Russia in 1993, but homophobia and the -- and discrimination are still rife across the country. The wife of Ukraine's top military intelligence officer is recovering in hospital after apparently being poisoned. She's the latest in a list of Russian enemies also likely poisoned. CNN's Fred Pleitgen reports.
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FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): Ukraine's military intelligence wages war in the shadows, but it is hitting the Russians hard. Orchestrating cruise missile attacks on Vladimir Putin's Black Sea fleet, ousting Moscow's forces from oil and gas drilling platforms off the coast of occupied Crimea in a daring amphibious assault, and attacking the Russian capital with long distance combat drones while maintaining deniability.
The man leading the intelligence service GUR is Kyrylo Budanov, one of Russia's most feared enemies.
I appeal to Russian soldiers, to those who got lucky enough to survive in destroyed trenches, he recently said. It will be even worse. You have a choice. Die or save your life.
But now, Ukraine believes the Russians may have struck back. Kyiv saying, Budanov's wife, Mariana Budanova, has been poisoned by what they say is, "A heavy metal." A Ukrainian source telling CNN, Budanova tested positive for both arsenic and mercury poisoning. Ukrainian officials believe the Kremlin could be behind it, like the foreign minister in an interview with CNN's Aaron Burnett.
DMYTRO KULEBA, UKRANIAN FOREIGN MINISTER: Definitely our intelligence chief is the enemy of Russia, as all of us are. All those who are fighting against Russia. So, it's highly likely that Russia is behind it.
PLEITGEN (voiceover): Kremlin controlled media already in a feeding frenzy, rejoicing in the news while seemingly brushing off the allegation.
OLGA SKABEEVA, RUSSIAN NEWS ANCHOR (through translator): Maybe she just broke a thermometer during one of the parties with her husband's colleagues. Not very sensational, but Ukrainians and their western owners literally screamed from such news and began to blame Putin.
PLEITGEN (voiceover): But in a different episode, they brought in a Russian parliamentarian accused of poisoning and killing a former Russian agent in London in 2006 to explain how it would be done.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): With something slipped in her tea and she drank it.
ANDREI LUGOVOI, FORMER KGB SPY (through translator): There's no other way to poison food and drink other than to pour it in and slip it in somehow.
[08:50:00] PLEITGEN (voiceover): In the past, the U.S. and others have accused Vladimir Putin of ordering poison attacks on his opponents. And few groups have enraged the Russian leader more than Ukraine's military intelligence led by Budanov, the former head of Ukraine's foreign intelligence says.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I believe that this was a personal revenge from Putin. Personal revenge for all the shame that the defense intelligence under the leadership of Budanov have inflicted on him. Shame that supersedes what Prigozhin has done to him.
PLEITGEN: The Kremlin hasn't issued a direct denial of these allegations, but they do seem to be trying to brush them off. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov came out and said, "Ukraine blames Russia for everything." All this, says Kyrylo Budanov's wife, battles the effects of that poisoning.
Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Berlin.
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FOSTER: And we'll be right back after this short break.
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FOSTER: Hospitals across Israel have been playing a key part in the road to recovery for so many of the freed hostages. CNN's Wolf Blitzer takes us inside a medical center near Tel Aviv where a number of released captives have been treated.
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WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR AND "SITUATION ROOM" HOST (voiceover): For these women released from Hamas captivity, this hospital is a key stop on their road to recovery.
DR. ADAM LEE GOLDSTEIN, DIR. OF TRAUMA SURGERY, WOLFSTON MEDICAL CENTER: The hospital, you know, since the war began, every hospital turns into a, "War hospital", where we're prepared for anything at any moment.
BLITZER (voiceover): The team at Wolfson Medical Center has been gathering health records and talking to family members to anticipate any potential concerns.
DR. GOLDSTEIN: Thank you.
BLITZER: Thank you so much for all you're doing.
BLITZER (voiceover): Dr. Adam Lee Goldstein is the head of trauma surgery and saw patients to confirm they didn't have any traumatic injuries.
DR. GOLDSTEIN: Most importantly is for us to make sure they're OK health-wise and to reunite them with their families, which is, you know, just as important as anything else.
BLITZER (voiceover): Still, there's a long road ahead for those who spent weeks in Hamas captivity.
DR. GOLDSTEIN: We've had a multidisciplinary team dealing with all the aspects from psychosocial to nutrition, surgical, infectious.
BLITZER (voiceover): Those long-awaited family reunions, an incredible relief for loved ones in limbo.
DR. GOLDSTEIN: Families were waiting in the private rooms. And, you know, the second that these women saw their families, nothing else mattered, really. When you're dealing with life and death, they're just happy they're alive.
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BLITZER (voiceover): But Dr. Goldstein fears for the fate of other hostages still in captivity.
DR. GOLDSTEIN: We're trained to think about worst case scenarios and how to treat worst case scenarios. I just want them to get home.
BLITZER (voiceover): Despite the trauma, these survivors show incredible resilience.
DR. GOLDSTEIN: When you have one of these women and the first thing that she says to you is, I'm so sorry for making you work tonight. You know, after everything she's been through, you know, you never -- it's things you never expect and, you know, it just shows what type of people these are.
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FOSTER: Wolf Blitzer there reporting.
Now, India continues to grapple with toxic pollution, a problem that worsens at the onset of each and every winter, particularly in New Delhi. As you can see, the capital is shrouded in a thick layer of toxic haze today with prominent city roads and landmarks barely visible. Last month, New Delhi was ranked by one group as the world's most polluted city.
Thanks for joining me here on "CNN Newsroom". I'm Max Foster in London. "Connect the World with Becky" live in Dubai, up next.
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