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IDF Urging Palestinians to Evacuate Farther South; Trump, Gov Ron DeSantis (R-FL) Hold Dueling Campaign Events in Iowa; Snow Drought Ongoing in Northeast While Heavy Rain and Snow are Forecast in Pacific Northwest. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired December 03, 2023 - 03:00   ET

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

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[03:00:00]

LAILA HARRAK, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us all around the world. I'm Laila Harak.

Israel is warning Palestinians in Southern Gaza to evacuate farther south as it intensifies its military campaign there. The question, will Palestinians get those warnings?

And a brutal attack near the Eiffel Tower leaves at least one person dead, but police in Paris are saying about the suspect.

And the U.S. announces significant cuts to planet warming methane emissions. We will go live to the COP28 climate summit in Dubai.

Intense fighting between Israel and Hamas is entering its third day since the collapse early Friday of a truce. A renewed pause seems unlikely. Both Israel and Hamas walked away from the negotiations on Saturday with Israel saying the talks had reached a dead end.

The Israeli military says fighter jets and helicopters have been striking Hamas targets across Gaza including tunnel shafts, command centers and weapons storage facilities. The IDF also says an IDF drone targeted and killed Hamas militants.

Well, as the Israeli military campaign ratchets up in Southern Gaza, Palestinians there are being urged to evacuate farther south. But it's not certain the message is being heard because of poor phone and internet connections across the region.

Here's what Israel's prime minister had to say on Saturday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: We determined safe areas in Gaza in coordination with international agencies and with our American friends. We determined safe areas to where the population knows it can evacuate. We did it in the north and we will do it elsewhere. And this is important because we have no desire to harm the population. We have a desire to avoid harming the population. We have a very strong desire to hurt Hamas.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRAK: While the Israeli military says it's hit hundreds of Hamas targets since Friday, the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza, meanwhile, says 193 Palestinians have been killed since Israel resumed its combat operations. It also says more than 15,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the war began eight weeks ago.

Elliott Gotkine is covering all developments for you from London. A good day again, Elliott.

Let's begin our conversation with the rally in Tel Aviv that saw thousands turn out demanding the release of hostages and included messages from those who have been recently released addressing the gathering.

ELLIOTT GOTKINE, JOURNALIST: That's right, Laila, really emotional scenes that the now unofficially renamed Hostages Square just by the Tel Aviv Museum of Art in Central Tel Aviv. Thousands gathering to reiterate their demands, bring them home now is what they were all saying. They sung the Hatikvah, the Israeli national anthem, and they heard firsthand from some of the hostages. There have been 110 released during that truce, hostages who were abducted by Hamas during its murderous rampage of October the 7th.

Some of them addressed the crowd. We had a pre-recorded message from one Raz Ben Ami saying that thank you for giving me life. Elena Trupanov, a Russian-Israeli 50-year-old woman, addressing the crowd in person, saying, I came to thank you because without you, I wouldn't be here.

And I think that really encapsulates what these people gathering there in Tel Aviv last night feel, which is that it is thanks to the pressure that they have brought to bear on the Israeli government that the issue of getting the hostages back home has gone to the top of the government's war objectives.

And we saw a subtle change in the rhetoric from the government, initially always saying that the main objective was to destroy Hamas, to prevent it from ever being able to carry out an atrocity of the sort that it did on October the 7th, and prevent it from remaining in power essentially in the Gaza Strip. Really, the idea of the hostages, getting the hostages back home, often now the first thing that the government mentions in terms of its war objectives.

So, these thousands of people last night, they've been gathering for weeks. They've been marching from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. They've been gathering outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's home. They feel that it's thanks to this pressure, pressure that they vow to maintain, that those 110 hostages, 86 of them Israelis, have come home.

[03:05:01]

And they want to continue that to get the remaining 136 or so Israeli hostages that are remaining in captivity by Hamas and other military groups inside the Gaza Strip to ensure that they come home too.

Now, by accident or by design at about the same time that we were seeing these scenes in Tel Aviv, almost over the other side of the street at the headquarters of the Defense Ministry, Prime Minister Netanyahu was holding a press conference.

It was quite a self-aggrandizing conference, talking about how he was making these really tough decisions to get the hostages home, how he'd spoken with President Joe Biden a number of times about the negotiations, about the war effort, how he'd met with soldiers, how fighting inside the Gaza Strip, families of those have been taken as well and reiterated the government's war aims to destroy Hamas militarily, prevent it from being able to carry out an attack on that scale again and to stop it from governing inside the Gaza Strip too.

One element of intrigue, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant held a separate press conference. When asked about it, Netanyahu said he'd suggested a joint one but that in his words Gallant had decided what he decided and maintained that they were working together, in his words, to achieve the war's goals. Laila?

HARRAK: Elliott Gotkine in London, thank you very much for your continued coverage.

And even though the fighting has resumed, the Palestine Red Crescent Society says 108 trucks made it through the Rafah crossing into Gaza on Saturday. They said the trucks from Egypt carried much needed food, water and medical supplies.

CNN's Larry Madowo has the latest details from Cairo.

LARRY MADOWO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: aid finally trickling back into Gaza through the crucial Rafah border crossing in Egypt after Friday where the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said Israeli officials allegedly prohibited any aid coming in until further notice, and it took the intervention of U.S. officials to have that aid flowing back again.

The Palestinian Red Crescent confirming that 100 trucks got in on Saturday with food and water, relief supplies, medical supplies and medicine that is destined for a strip that's been badly devastated. About 80 percent of the population right now completely displaced and they don't have any basic necessities.

You hear from this 80-year-old man who has given up on life completely

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ABU WAEL NASRALLAH, 80-YEAR-OLD GAZA RESIDENT: There is nothing left to fear for. Our houses are gone. Our property is gone. Our money is gone. Sons have been martyred, some died, some handicapped in the hospital. What is left to cry for? And then they tell us we will get aid. Where is it?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MADOWO: The devastation across the Gaza Strip has been especially difficult for so many orphan children who are alone that a new acronym has come up to describe them, wounded child, no surviving family. UNICEF now saying the Gaza Strip is the most dangerous place in the world to be a child. They will need a lot of help going forward.

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris has met with regional leaders, the leaders of Qatar and Egypt on the sidelines of the COP28 summit in Dubai, and the Egyptian redux specifically calls out the targeting of civilians, what they call collective punishment and finding a way to make sure that civilians are not targeted and more aid comes in.

Here's the vice president.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KAMALA HARRIS, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: Our work is ongoing to support some ability to reopen the pause and to have a deal going forward where there will be a pause so that we can get hostages out and get aid in.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MADOWO: I've been to the Rafah border crossing and seen just hundreds of trucks that were waiting to get in before the truce expired.

The aid may be trickling back in, but the U.N. says this is still a drop in the ocean. One U.N. official has said they would need 20 trucks coming in continuously for two months to meet the needs of the people in Gaza. But also U.S. officials say the next stage has got to be commercial goods being able to come back into Gaza. And they're discussing with Israeli officials about how that would happen, even if the fighting were to continue. There is no announcement on that as yet.

Larry Madowo, CNN, Cairo.

HARRAK: Israeli farmers tell CNN they're struggling to find workers since Hamas' attack on October 7th. The Israeli government believes thousands of foreign farm workers have fled in fear after many were killed or taken hostage.

Nic Robertson has the details.

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NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR (voice over): In a safe room on a dairy farm, a respectful recovery is underway, ten foreign workers murdered in here by Hamas, October 7th.

The farm's camera recorded others taken at gunpoint, later found executed.

[03:10:01]

23 foreign workers on this farm, mostly Thai, some Nepalese, brutally killed, some of them taken through this door. STEVIE MARCUS, DAIRY FARM MANAGER: Every time I come out, I have a I see the safe room where ten foreign workers were slaughtered and living quarters where another six or seven were killed so it's always there.

ROBERTSON: Stevie Marcus runs the farm, Gaza, close across his fields. His surviving foreign workers all fled. And that's a problem.

MARCUS: Basically the foreign workers ran the farm.

ROBERTSON: He has 730 calves and cows, 350 producing milk. A shortage of skilled labor is limiting productivity.

MARCUS: We have four volunteer milkers.

ROBERTSON: But this is a technical business as well. You need skills.

MARCUS: Yes. So, we're doing the bare minimum we need to do, making sure they have food and clean water, milking them.

ROBERTSON: This is where the Thai workers were living. It's completely torched and destroyed. According to the Thai government, before October 7th, there were about 5,000 Thai workers, and what they describe as the danger zone around Gaza.

So, you got your weapon after the attack?

YOSI INBAR, VEGETABLE FARMER: Yes.

ROBERTSON: Why is that?

INBAR: Because we need to protect ourselves.

ROBERTSON: Yosi Inbar is a vegetable farmer. His farm close to Gaza too. Half his foreign workers fled, volunteers saving his crops.

INBAR: I can't stop smiling, you know, all the time, thanks to them, and tell them how we're grateful about it, because without them, I just close the water and everything, you know --

ROBERTSON: Everything would die, you'd lose the whole crop without them.

And that could be bad for the whole of Israel. According to Israel's Farmers Federation, 40 percent of vegetables consumed in Israel are produced close to Gaza. It's what motivated Avi Leibovich to use his day off from his tech job in Central Israel to help on Yosi's phone.

AVI LEIBOVICH, FARM VOLUNTEER: It seems like they need us to come and support them, to support us, because without them, probably the markets will be empty.

ROBERTSON: Danny Parizada is on a day off from his tech job too, came despite the dangers of rocket fire from Gaza.

DANNY PARIZADA, FARM VOLUNTEER: But here they don't have enough people are afraid to come next to the Gaza Strip, fear of bombs. You know, if something happens, we only have 15 seconds.

ROBERTSON: Yosi knows his farming on borrowed time. Eventually, the volunteers will go back to their regular routines.

But can you really make a business here in the future if there isn't additional security around?

INBAR: No, no, nobody will come back.

ROBERTSON: At Stevie's dairy farm, the same concerns.

MARCUS: At the end of the day, everyone is going to come and live here, and it's not safe, that's not just for the farm, it's for the population, the whole population.

ROBERTSON: What does being safe look like here?

MARCUS: Quiet.

ROBERTSON: And that seems a very, very long way off.

Nic Robertson, Alumim, Israel.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRAK: In Paris, the anti-terrorism prosecutor is investigating after a German tourist was killed and two others injured by an attacker wielding a knife and hammer. Police say the suspect, a 26- year-old French national, shouted, God is great in Arabic, during the attack near the Eiffel Tower. The French interior minister spoke to reporters after the incidents. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GERALD DARMANIN, FRENCH INTERIOR MINISTER: He also said the police cameras were turned on so everything was filmed, that he was upset about what was happening in Gaza and that France was an accomplice in what Israel was doing. He said that he was tired of seeing Muslims dying.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRAK: Well, officials added that the suspect had been sentenced to prison in 2016 for planning another attack.

Still to come, the U.S. outlines plans to significantly cut methane emissions as countries at COP 28 make a wave of commitments to combat the climate crisis. The latest from the summit in Dubai, next.

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[03:15:00]

HARRAK: The Biden administration has finalized a rule to significantly cut the U.S. oil and gas industry's emissions of methane, a powerful planet warming gas. Well, the announcement comes amid a wave of commitments at the COP28 climate summit in Dubai, including a pledge from at least 117 countries to triple renewable energy by the year 2030.

CNN's David McKenzie joins me now live from Dubai. Good to have you back with us, David.

You know, big pledges so soon into the climate talks, unpack it for us. What makes this announcement stand out?

DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well it stands out because there has been long discussion about methane being a particularly dangerous emissions agent that is warming the planet, much more powerful than carbon dioxide, which has obviously been the focus for many years of greenhouse gas emissions.

So, this is a significant move. We were expecting the U.S. to make an announcement of this kind. It's enforceable and it certainly could move the needle in inspiring other countries to do better.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MCKENZIE (voice over): In a made for T.V. moment, world leaders and royals entering a critical climate change summit hosted by the UAE, a major oil producer.

ANTONIO GUTERRES, SECRETARY-GENERAL, UNITED NATIONS: We cannot save a burning planet via fire holes or fossil fuels.

MCKENZIE: We are already living in a climate crisis.

[03:20:01]

A new U.N. report shows that global efforts to cut emissions are wildly off track. There are growing calls at COP28 for concrete plans to phase out the use of fossil fuels.

Now, in a major announcement from the White House, new rules from the Environmental Protection Agency to slash methane, a dangerous byproduct of the oil and gas industry, are nearly 80 percent.

ALI ZAIDI, WHITE HOUSE NATIONAL CLIMATE ADVISER: We've got to get the receipts, make sure we're making the progress we need to make in this critical decade.

MCKENZIE: Are you hoping that these new rules will be inspiring other countries to follow suit?

ZAIDI: Absolutely, we've seen that on the basis of strong domestic action in the United States. Countries are coming along adopting the same playbook and scaling those solutions worldwide.

MCKENZIE: Chief among them, China. The White House is hoping to build on the momentum of President Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping's meetings last month.

ZAIDI: China has got to step up in a big way to take a chunk out of emissions.

MCKENZIE: Even as the Biden administration pushes the energy transition, U.S. oil production is breaking records, churning out more than 13 million barrels a day.

BILL HARE, CEO, CLIMATE ANALYTICS: It's really hypocritical both the Emirates and the U.S. are saying they're committed to 1.5 degrees, but you can't be committed to the Paris Agreement's temperature limit if you go on expanding fossil fuel production.

MCKENZIE: There are very bold pronouncements on one hand and actions on the other. Are the two lining up?

HARE: No, they're not. One of the big concerns that many have about the process here is that we're seeing an awful lot of announcements which are never followed up.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCKENZIE (on camera): Now the White House climate advisor said the key to this it's enforceable.

I have to say, Laila, the next few days, I think we'll get a sense of where these negotiations are going on for the big issue, I think, at this COP, which is, will there be a concrete plan with actionable outcomes to try and phase out fossil fuels in the coming decades?

Because no matter what is done on the energy transition or trying to reduce emissions when it comes to methane and other climate change agents, it really is, say scientists, the need to get away from the use of, in particular, coal and oil and gas in the coming decades. Without that, they say, we will blow past the agreement of Paris to try and limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

And so we are looking, and they are looking for very concrete action from the delegates here by the end of this COP. Laila?

HARRAK: They've got their work cut out for them. David McKenzie reporting in Dubai, thank you so much.

And global warming is a major issue for Latin America, which has been hit by multiple natural disasters this year. The region also plays a key role in climate talks because of the Amazon rainforest.

Stefano Pozzebon reports.

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STEFANO POZZEBON, JOURNALIST (voice over): I couldn't do anything. It was terrifying. It's a miracle I'm alive.

Maria Reyes (ph) barely escaped when a flash flood overtook the car she was traveling in, in the Dominican Republic last month. But others were not as fortunate. At least 30 people have died in catastrophic floods in the Caribbean country in recent weeks. Never has the Dominican Republic received so much rain in solid time, authorities say. It's a sign of a new reality where climate emergencies have become the norm.

2023 has brought a slew of natural disasters to Latin America. In September, Southern Brazil was impacted by a tropical cyclone, extraordinary at those latitudes. October saw the strongest hurricane to ever hit the Pacific coast, ravaging Mexico with devastating effect. And Bolivia is currently battling a historic fire season that could change the local environment forever.

VINCENT VOS, BIOLOGIST, BENI UNIVERSITY, BOLIVIA: The forests that are burning now produce the water for the rest of the country. Our forecast shows that in ten years, all the tropical forests of the Bolivian lowlands will become a savanna.

POZZEBON: Climate conditions are deteriorating across the region, which means extreme events will become even more common, putting the limited humanitarian aid available under renewed stress.

KATHRYN MILLIKEN, WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME: I think one of the bigger concerns is when you get multiple major disasters or a hurricane, for example, that sweeps across many countries in succession, you end up having a huge draw on humanitarian resources. So, this is where we get into the loss and damage discussions that are also happening this year at the climate negotiations at COP28.

[03:25:06]

POZZEBON: As leaders meet in Dubai for the 28th U.N. Conference on climate, or COP, Latin American countries are pushing for concrete actions, not only to mitigate the effects of climate change but also to adapt to the new normal.

Together with more funding, the Colombian government is proposing an international treaty to phase out fossil fuels similar to the Montreal Protocol, an agreement to protect the ozone layer from the 1980s.

SUSANA MUHAMAD, COLOMBIA ENVIRONMENT MINISTER: While the COP, which has been a very important international agreement, is about how do we reduce emissions, we are not in any international and multilateral space talking about what it means actually to eliminate or start reducing the frontier of fossil fuel extraction.

POZZEBON: Convincing the world to abandon oil and gas is already proven difficult, let alone when the meeting is chaired by a hydrocarbon powerhouse.

But global warming is a vital issue for Latin America, a region that plays a key role in climate thanks to the Amazon rainforest and that is extraordinarily exposed to climate catastrophe, yet another reason to push for action this year.

Stefano Pozzebon, CNN, Bogota.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRAK: Flights in Munich, Germany, have now resumed after heavy snow blanketed the region Saturday and shut down the airport. Some 200 flights are already canceled for Sunday. More than 700 flights were canceled Saturday. Buses, trams, and some train services in the city were also suspended. Officials say it's the most snow that's ever fallen in December in Munich and close to a century.

That wraps up the CNN Newsroom for now. I'm Laila Harrak.

African Voices Changemakers is next, and Kim Brunhuber will be back with more news in about 30 minutes time.

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[03:00:00]

HARRAK: Welcome to our viewers in the United States and Canada. I'm Laila Harrak and you're watching CNN Newsroom.

Israel's relentless bombardments of what its military calls Hamas targets is now in its third day since a truce collapsed early Friday. The IDF military says fighter jets and helicopters have been striking Hamas installations across Gaza, including tunnel shafts, command centers and weapons storage facilities. Well, the IDF is urging thousands in Gaza, many of them already displaced, to keep evacuating to the south.

But internet service in Gaza has been spotty at best and it is not clear Gazans are getting the message. The pause in fighting worked out last week isn't likely to be repeated again soon. On Saturday, both sides quit the hostage negotiations in Qatar with each blaming the other for the breakdown.

Balance against Israel's operations are warnings from the U.S. about mounting civilian casualties and many Israelis are demanding the government do more to free the remaining hostages.

CNN's Matthew Chance is in Tel Aviv with the latest.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CHIEF GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Israel is still pounding the Gaza Strip, hitting as many as 400 Hamas targets, according to the Israeli military, but it is also taking a heavy human toll with the Hamas-controlled Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza saying nearly 200 have been killed since Israeli strikes resumed, this as the U.S. defense secretary warns that Israel risks strategic defeat unless it protects civilians inside Gaza, a possible sign of growing U.S. concern about the mounting casualties.

Back in Israel, thousands of people have turned out to support the 130 or more hostages still being held in Gaza and to demand that the government prioritize their relief, calls to free the hostages of reunited Israelis. But there are differences over how that may be achieved.

The Israeli government, which has recalled its hostage negotiators from talks in Qatar says military pressure on Hamas will force the group to release more, but many hostage family members and their supporters say negotiations should be resumed so that their loved ones can be brought home at any cost. Matthew Chance, CNN, Tel Aviv.

HARRAK: Well, several top U.S. officials are again calling on Israel to protect civilians in Gaza as fighting there resumes. Well, they include Vice President Kamala Harris, who said, quote, too many innocent Palestinians have been killed.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KAMALA HARRIS, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: Frankly the scale of civilian suffering and the images and videos coming from Gaza are devastating.

Five principles guide our approach for post-conflict Gaza, no forcible displacement, no reoccupation, no siege or blockade, no reduction in territory and no use of Gaza as a platform for terrorism. We want to see a unified Gaza and West Bank under the Palestinian Authority.

LLOYD AUSTIN, DEFENSE SECRETARY: You see, in this kind of a fight, the center of gravity is the civilian population. And if you drive them into the arms of the enemy, you replace a tactical victory with a strategic defeat. So, I have repeatedly made clear to Israel's leaders that protecting Palestinian civilians in Gaza is both a moral responsibility and a strategic imperative.

ANTONY BLINKEN, SECRETARY OF STATE: But Israel has the most sophisticated -- one of the most sophisticated militaries in the world. It is capable of neutralizing the threat posed by Hamas while minimizing harm to innocent men, women and children, and it has a obligation to do so.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRAK: Tuqa Nusairat is an expert on U.S. policy in the Middle East and the director for Strategy, Operations and Finance at The Atlantic Council. A very warm welcome to CNN.

[03:35:00]

You are in Washington. How would you describe the mood of the Biden administration in light of the resumption of these ferocious bombardments in Gaza? I mean, we have now heard from senior members of the Biden administration talking about the need to protect Palestinian lives, laying down some red lines as well. So, rhetorically, it seems there is some pressure there. Are you seeing a shift?

TUQA NUSAIRAT, DIRECTOR FOR STRATEGY, MIDDLE EAST PROGRAMS, ATLANTIC COUNCIL: Definitely. I mean, we are seeing the Biden administration respond to domestic and international pressure. Like you said, in light of the utter devastation we are seeing in Gaza, what the Biden demonstration may have been doing in private in the early weeks of the war by pressuring Israel to limit civilian casualties is now doing it publicly.

However, in the international community and even here domestically, that rhetoric is juxtaposed against the United States providing much of the you need munitions that Israel is using to attack civilians and infrastructure in Gaza. So, the Biden administration has to juggle these perceptions.

HARRAK: Is the public criticism that's being leveled right now, is it having any meaningful impact? I mean, we heard earlier from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a very wide ranging speech where he essentially doubles down, says, we must win the war. This is not a leader who sounded like he's receptive at all to these messages coming from the Biden administration urging restraint.

So, I'm wondering, are we witnessing the limits of U.S. influence or does the U.S. have the power to stop the war or has it just simply gotten away from the U.S.?

NUSAIRAT: Well, look, we know that the only power right now in the international community is the U.S. that has the ability to put pressure on Israel. However, the international support that was on the U.S. side perhaps in the beginning and on the Israeli side in the beginning of this conflict is fading away. And the U.S. positions, which are often seen at best as contradictory and at worst as having very limited influence on its ally, are putting the U.S. in a position that is questioning its ability to actually have an impact on the course of this war.

HARRAK: I want to ask you also about the kind of knock-on effect this is having on the U.S. internationally and in the Mid East. The focus obviously, as you know, is very much on the U.S. response to this war.

If I may, I want us to listen now to the French president, Emmanuel Macron. Europe, as you know, are not really playing a very decisive role right now, but take a listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

EMMANUEL MACRON, FRENCH PRESIDENT: I think we are at a moment where Israeli authorities will have to more precisely define their goal and the final outcome they're trying to achieve. What does the total destruction of Hamas mean? Does anyone think it is possible? If this is the case, the war will last ten years. And I don't think that anyone is really able to define that goal. So, it will need to be better defined.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRAK: Well, since then, the French leader has headed to Qatar trying to mediate a new truce. Is there an understanding in the White House of the growing alarm, as expressed by leaders like the French president, over the objectives of the war?

NUSAIRAT: I think that is real the crux of the issue, is that continuing this rhetoric about Israel having to defeat Hamas is one thing but the actual reality on the ground was that in the first several weeks of Israel's bombardment of Gaza, it wasn't able to even achieve the first goal, which is release of the hostages on its own. It only did so during the negotiations and the exchange of hostages and prisoners.

So, the first goal of releasing the hostages through military pressure and military might did not happen. And now you have the second goal of eliminating Hamas is also very much in question. During the truce, you had Hamas released some of the hostages in areas that Israel was supposed to be in control of. And at the same time, you now have 80 percent of the Gazan population in the south constrained in this very small area, which Israel told them to go to, and now Israel is bombarding the south.

So, it is not clear that Israel has a plan, not clear that Israel is succeeding in its goal of eliminating Hamas. And for those of us who understand the region understand where Hamas -- how Hamas emerges, it is kind of unrealistic to say that a military solution is going to eliminate this movement that stems from the Palestinian people's urge to and the occupation.

[03:40:07]

You eliminate this version of Hamas, you will create another version through the thousands of children who have now been orphaned and devastated through this war.

HARRAK: Tuqa Nusairat, thank you so much.

NUSAIRAT: Thank you.

HARRAK: And still to come, former President Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis canvassed for votes in the Hawkeye State on Saturday with just six weeks left until the Iowa caucuses.

And we will have the latest on the suspect Los Angeles Police have arrested in the murders of three homeless men. That report just ahead.

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HARRAK: Former U.S. President Donald Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis held dueling campaign rallies in Iowa Saturday. With just six weeks to go until the Iowa caucuses, DeSantis has traveled to all corners of the state. He has gone to places in Iowa that Trump is unlikely to visit.

The former president meanwhile dredging up his lies about the 2020 election, he's also handing out these signs and accusing the Democrats of subverting democracy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: We have a lot of opponents but we have been waging an all-out war on American democracy. You look at what they have been doing and becoming more and more extreme and repressive. They have just waged an all-out war with each passing day.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRAK: Well, Trump encouraged his supporters to go into a ballot counting facility next year to, quote, guard the board votes.

CNN's Kristen Holmes was at Saturday's Trump rally and has this report.

[03:45:01]

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Former President Donald Trump really delivering his most forceful rebuttal of President Biden's argument that a second Trump term would be bad for democracy. He even made a veiled reference to the speech that Biden gave in which he said that MAGA Republicans and Donald Trump would be bad for American institutions and for the country as a whole.

Listen to some of what Donald Trump had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Joe Biden is not the defender of American democracy. Joe Biden is the destroyer of American democracy. So, if Joe Biden wants to make this race a question of which candidate will defend our democracy and protect our freedoms, and I say to crooked Joe, and he is crooked, the most corrupt president we've ever had, we will win that fight and we're going to win it very big, very big.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: He also one point said that his campaign was a righteous crusade to liberate our republic from Joe Biden, which, of course, raises the question to what exactly is Joe Biden, President Biden, doing that as anti-democratic. Well, the former president had a list several things, which included forcing people to buy specific cars, went on a long tangent about electric vehicles. At one point, he talked about the First Amendment and subpoenaing these social media companies.

But the main crux of the argument was really about Donald Trump himself claiming that President Biden is using his administration to come after the former president, referring to these multiple charges against former President Trump, including his attempts to overturn the 2020 election, so really trying to flip the narrative but, again, using an argument that we have heard over and over again from the former president.

But I will note, we are just about six weeks out from those Iowa caucuses and all polling that we have seen shows Trump with a very dominant lead when it comes to those caucuses. And when we were at this event, there was an earlier speaker who asked the crowd if anyone had ever -- this is their caucusing, and about half the people here raised their hand to say it was, showing that Donald Trump still has a lot of support, but even a lot of new support despite those charges and his ongoing legal problems here in the state of Iowa.

HARRAK: Well, as Kristen said, DeSantis is trailing badly in the polls but he is leaving no stone unturned as he tries to pull off a political miracle in Iowa. He has now campaigned in every one of the state's counties and he says it was about more than just drumming up votes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL): I don't think doing the 99 counties is just about the caucus. Like, yes, obviously, we are going to use that to win the caucus, but I think it has significance beyond there. One, by the fact that I am willing to do this, that should show you that I consider myself a servant, not a ruler, and that is how people that get elected should consider themselves.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRAK: Well Los Angeles Police say they have arrested a suspect in connection with the murders of three homeless men over the last week. The suspect was identified as 33-year-old Jerrid Joseph Powell, a resident of Los Angeles. The arrest came a day after authorities asked for the public's help identifying the suspect.

The police chief says videos from cameras across the city helped their investigation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHEL MOORE, CHIEF OF POLICE, LOS ANGELES POLICE DEPARTMENT: Our investigation has documented his vehicle at the murder scene of all three homicides and Mr. Powell's physical appearance is consistent with the imagery recovered to this point.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRAK: Well, police believe Powell is connected to a fourth homicide that happened Tuesday just outside Los Angeles. They do not believe he knew the victim.

And a look now at U.S. weather when we come back. Snow is in the forecast for parts of the country while some cities are in the midst of a snow drought. We will explain straight ahead.

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[03:50:00]

HARRAK: The Pacific Northwest could get heavy rain and snow over the next few days, but it's quite the opposite in the northeast where some cities have gone nearly two years without receiving more than an inch of snow.

Here is CNN Meteorologist Elisa Raffa with the details.

ELISA RAFFA, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Some of these cities in the northeast are not only breaking the record but completely shattering and obliterating it. In New York City, it has been 656 days since they have seen at least one inch of snow. The last record for this stretch was 383 days, so, again, almost doubling it. The last time that New York City had more than an inch of snow was back in February of 2022. So, again, very significant.

And it's not just New York. Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Baltimore, all taking the top spot for the longest stretch without more than an inch of snow well over 600 days, Richmond, Virginia, tops out the top four on that list with 684 days, so just incredible to see.

And looking at the forecast, we're now looking at snow anytime soon in the forecast. Some rain in New York City by Sunday, temperatures below average through a lot of the extended forecast here, but, overall, not really looking at any snowmakers any time soon.

Not the case, though, for the Pacific Northwest. A series of storms will bring heavy rain and snow going through the next several days. We will find some of this rain and snow really setting up going into Sunday. Some of that rain could be heavy at times from Portland and into Seattle. You'll have a little bit of a break, but, again, another storm like train cars on its heels going into Monday and Tuesday with heavy rain and the snow setting up.

What's happening is we have an atmospheric river setting up. That's when that jet stream or the path of storminess really just sits over the Pacific Northwest, really pumping that moisture, storms just one after another, level four out of five. This could be hazardous, talking about river rises and mudslides.

We are looking at some three to seven inches of rain in the low lands, but up in the high elevations, we could be, looking at up to ten inches.

[03:55:00]

Where it's cold enough, looking at two to three feet of snow, a pretty significant snow totals up in the Pacific Northwest going through the next several days.

HARRAK: Thanks to Elisa.

Well, flights in Munich, Germany, meanwhile, have resumed after heavy snow blanketed the region Saturday and shut down the airport. Some 200 flights already canceled for Sunday, more than 700 flights canceled Saturday, buses, trams and some train services in the city were also suspended. Officials say it is the most snow that has ever fallen in December in Munich in close to a century, too much of a good thing.

And before we go, a light show of holiday colors put on by Mother Nature. The aurora borealis, otherwise known as the northern lights, lit up the skies over northern China Friday. Well, the brilliant array of red and green could be seen not only from Beijing to Inner Mongolia but also across parts of North America, including parts of the U.S. mainland.

Well, scientists point to a strong geomagnetic storm is the reason for the brilliant auroras and they expect more and stronger geomagnetic storms in the months ahead. What a sight to behold.

I'm Laila Harrak. On behalf of all of us, thank you so much for spending time with us.

Kim Brunhuber picks up our coverage after a quick break. Stick around.

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