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Israel Objective In Northern Gaza Nearly Completed; Red Cross Chief Arrives In Gaza, Says Suffering Intolerable; Carbon Emissions Expected To Set New Record In 2023; COP28's UAE President Defends Climate Science Comments; More Than 300 Killed As Heavy Rains Wreak Havoc Across East Africa; U.N. Special Sessions Examines Hamas Use of Sexual Violence; White House Warns Funding for Ukraine is Running Out; Civilian Who Tried to Stop Attack Killed by Israeli Reservist; Number of Anti-Semitic Attacks in Italy on the Rise; Ex-U.S. Ambassador Charged with Spying for Cuba. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired December 05, 2023 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Ahead this hour of CNN, after a seven day pause, Israel's renewed military offensive on Hamas wraps up. Ground operations now stretching from the north to the south.
U.S. Congress debates the price of freedom as financial and military support to Ukraine tops $100 billion and counting.
And the president of this year's UN's climate summit Sultan Al-Jaber is certainly a lot more like an oil executive and getting completely wrong on fossil fuels and carbon emissions, and then says he's been misreported and misunderstood.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live from Atlanta. This is CNN Newsroom with John Vause.
VAUSE: Israel has announced its renewed ground offensive against Hamas has expanded to all of Gaza, while at the same time wanting Palestinians to evacuate specific neighborhoods to try and reduce civilian casualties.
But that plan has been criticized by many aid groups and the UN, as well as the Secretary General Antonio Guterres, who says there is no way safe to go in Gaza.
The Israeli Defense Forces has confirmed a ratio of two Palestinian civilians killed for every Hamas militant death, describing it as tremendously positive for urban combat.
The Israeli military reports war objectives in northern Gaza and nearly completed. The defense minister Yoav Gallant says the entire area including Gaza City, will soon be broken. And despite the U.S. and other countries urging Israel to conduct a more precise and accurate renewed offensive, U.N. says civilian casualties are rapidly increasing.
New video appears to show an Israeli tank on one of the few north- south roads in Gaza erode used by those who have had to flee their homes for relative safety in the South. Here's the Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REAR ADM. DANIEL HAGARI, IDF SPOKESPERSON (through translator): Today fighter jets struck across the Gaza strip. These were very significant precise and intelligence base strikes. In addition, we are expanding our ground operations against Hamas strongholds throughout the Gaza Strip.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Other images on social media shows the Israeli military destroying a building which houses the justice ministry as well as courthouses in central Gaza.
As dozens of Israeli tanks rolled into southern guards are on Monday, it was clear long before any official announcement that Israel's expanded ground offensive was underway. But unlike any other Israeli offensive against Hamas in Gaza, this time battalions or tanks are rolling through Gaza spearheading the attack, more details down from CNN's Jeremy Diamond.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As Israel expands its ground offensive into southern Gaza
BRIG. GEN. HISHAM IBRAHIM, ISRAELI DEFENSE FORCES: I think it's no more question if the tank is relevant or not relevant for this war.
DIAMOND (voice-over): Brigadier General Hisham Ibrahim, the head of Israel's Armored Corps says tanks will once again be central to Israel's urban warfare strategy.
IBRAHIM: Our tanks is everywhere in the urban area. When you attack you have to in the beginning the thanks firing and the attack first and then just the infantry come and be close with the tank.
DIAMOND (voice-over): Israeli tanks were at the tip of Israel's offensive into northern Gaza in late October, clearing the way for infantry troops to move into dangerous and densely populated cities.
DIAMOND: So you're using the tank to clear the area.
IBRAHIM: To clear, yes.
DIAMOND: So that infantry troops can move.
IBRAHIM: Yes, exactly.
DIAMOND (voice-over): Ibrahim says this kind of coordination is a lesson learned from Russian failures in Ukraine.
IBRAHIM (through translator): We saw that where the Russians are only with tanks alone there are more vulnerable. This combination of combined power overcomes almost every problem on the battlefield.
DIAMOND (voice-over): Israeli tanks are pushing through not around residential buildings, reducing entire neighborhoods to rubble to minimize the risk to Israeli troops.
DIAMOND: That also means that you have to destroy a lot of residential buildings.
IBRAHIM: Yes, that's exactly what we do. We are firing for the buildings, we destroyed, but we make sure that this building is empty from citizens and we just destroy what we have to destroyed.
DIAMOND: We have seen a lot of civilians die of them.
IBRAHIM: Yes, but we make sure before that we attack Gaza that the citizens go south. You know, this is war.
[01:05:05]
DIAMOND (voice-over): Israeli tanks have also become a top target.
IBRAHIM: They have RPG and they want to destroy the tank because for them this is the win picture.
DIAMOND (voice-over): In a series of propaganda videos, Hamas fighters are seen ambushing Israeli tanks. But General Ibrahim says these fiery explosions often show the tanks anti-missile systems in action.
DIAMOND: No talks have gone out of commission?
IBRAHIM: Zero. Zero. We have thanks that we take to us some, maybe few days to fix them and they go back to the battlefield. But destroyed? Zero. Zero.
DIAMOND (voiceover): His troops though, are paying a heavy price.
ITAN, ISRAELI MILITARY RESERVIST WOUNDED IN GAZA (through translator): The first RPG that was fired hit the tank penetrated it and I got hit by the shrapnel.
DIAMOND (voice-over): During a visit to wounded soldiers, General Ibrahim says his core has suffered more casualties per capita than any other.
IBRAHIM (through translator): This is because we are on the front line. The tank core is the core that is winning this war. This is our war.
DIAMOND (voice-over): Jeremy Diamond, CNN, near the Israeli Gaza border.
(END VIDEOTAPE) VAUSE: Joining us now is retired U.S. Army Major John Spencer, Chair of Urban Warfare Studies at West Point and co-author of Understanding Urban Warfare. Major, good to see you. Thanks for being with us.
MAJOR JOHN SPENCER (RET.) U.S. ARMY: Thanks for having me.
VAUSE: So I think part of Israel's plan for reducing civilian casualties is to order specific areas, very specific areas to be evacuated. So if you look at the map, the small part in red in the South was evacuated over the weekend. The bigger yellow area next to it was just a few days before that.
But safe zones will only work if they're actually safe. And that's not hasn't been the case so far. People who are advised to leave Khan Younis say they couldn't go to where they were told to go because that area was under attack as well.
Are these kind of one of a better term teething problems for the Israelis where they actually, you know, work this out, the longer this goes on?
SPENCER: For sure. I mean, the complexity of this operation, when you have one side trying to cause civilian casualties and the other side trying to prevent it, in spite the mixed of the artists type of warfare to ever execute is the more targets go down, more areas secure. These areas are where Hamas doesn't have an underground network. So the answer is yes. But it feels like they're doing everything feasible, reasonable and possible.
VAUSE: Well, with that in mind, the more targeted evacuations, at least the plan so far had seemed to have been met with approval from the U.S. State Department. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MATTHEW MILLER, U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESPERSON: We've seen a much more targeted request for evacuations here where they the Israeli Defense Forces have identified specific neighborhoods where they plan to conduct military operations, and urged in advance of those operations that people in those neighborhoods to move rather than telling an entire city or an entire region to vacate their homes. So that is an improvement on what's happened before.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: So clearly, this is a big difference compared to the first seven weeks of the war. But what else would you expect the Israelis to be doing in terms of a more precise, more targeted military operation?
SPENCER: I mean, already what they've done is historic for me as a scholar of urban warfare across time, the issuing of these maps. Now we learned that they're using AI -- artificial intelligence and all data, they have to determine the density of places and that's driving, usually intelligence of where the enemy is drives operations.
But by giving out this information, they're also telling Hamas where not to be. So it's really fascinating what they're trying to do. Of course, it's hard and execution.
VAUSE: Well, with that in mind, here's how Israelis actually you touched on this decide which areas receive evacuation orders. Israeli soldiers and reservists working on a military base about 40 kilometers from Gaza, process information on population movements, using data from mobile phone, radio and television signals as well as open source information from local telegram groups. This helps generate a color map showing the projected population density of Gaza's residential areas. And once they have that they know which areas to order the evacuation from.
So is that something which is unique to Israel? Has anyone else done this before?
SPENCER: absolutely unique. I mean, I've, you know, in Ukraine I've heard of like the city administration, using the cell phones to know how many people are left in the environment. But a military usually relies on aerial intelligence or things that can see within certain areas.
So combining all forms of intelligence like this to include how many cell phones are in a certain area, really is the state of the art on trying to what we call a civilian harm mitigation. Implement steps to avoid civilian harm as much as possible. It's unique.
[01:10:00]
VAUSE: And as its military offensive heads south into Gaza, the World Health Organization is raising the alarm over health care, issuing a statement which read in part, intensifying military ground operations in southern Gaza, particularly in Khan Younis, are likely to cut thousands off from health care, especially from accessing a Nasser Medical Complex and the European Gaza Hospital. The two main hospitals in southern Gaza as the number of wounded and sick increases.
Raise this (ph), because the reality is regardless of how precise or targeted the IDF will be, there is still much worse to come for Gaza. This is still a war, and there's a lot more destruction and sadly, probably a lot more depth to be had.
SPENCER: Yes, absolutely. I mean, this is the problem with the alternatives to allowing Hamas to continue what it's doing to include the rockets, and you're ruling the Gazans the way they have for the last over a decade. The more closer this gets to a military accomplishing the mission, the more peace and betterment of for the citizens. I truly believe will happen.
VAUSE: Yes. They've been in Gaza's. Hamas has been in power since 2006. They seized control in 2007. People in Gaza didn't have a choice. They didn't vote for him most of anyway.
Major John Spencer, thank you, sir. Good to see you.
SPENCER: Thank you for having me.
VAUSE: This is the Gaza Monday, the President of the International Committee of the Red Cross describe the suffering of Palestinians as intolerable. Along with increased international assistance, she also insisted Hamas allowed Red Cross officials to safely meet with hostages still being held in Gaza to provide care as well as update for families.
(BEGIN VIDEO LCIP)
MIRJANA SPOLJARIC, PRESIDENT, INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE OF THE RED CROSS: I was told today that the nose has lost its entire surgical capacity. We have to find solutions to this. We can turn away from what is evidently a moral failure in the face of the international community. I'm calling on all parties and everyone who has an influence to deescalate and to find other the military solutions to what is an immense suffering of the people on both sides.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: With renewed fighting in Gaza comes renewed warnings about the humanitarian crisis, the head of the U.N. Relief Agency says Gaza is going war apocalyptic by the day. And the World Health Organization says appalling living conditions have increased the risk of a major outbreak of disease.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. RICHARD BRENNAN, WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION: We're hearing 200 people sharing one toilet. So you know, with toilets overflowing open defecation. These kinds of conditions are ripe for the spread of disease, and we're seeing increased numbers of respiratory infections of diarrhea. We've had over 1,100 cases of jaundice which would make us concerned about the spread of hepatitis as well as terrible skin infections, scabies and head lice and so on.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: More details now from CNN Senior International Correspondent Ben Wedeman.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BED WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Desperate times call for desperate measures and in Gaza if that means looting the local bakery destroyed overnight by an Israeli airstrike, so be it.
Look at the people says Ikramarai (ph). They're doing this out of hunger. It was the Baraka bakery. Baraka is Arabic for blessing. But now Gaza is under the curse of war. It was the last function in bakery in Derel Bella (ph).
People's basic needs striking it is a kind of terrorism.
Once the sun came up Monday, people of all ages descended upon the bakery. Taking away bags of flour, cooking oil, scraps of wood to use for cooking and heating, and just about anything else they could carry away. This man describes it in one word, chaos. The World Food Programme Abeer Etefa warns that people of Gaza are
reaching the breaking point.
ABEER ETEFA, WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME: When you have civil order breaking down completely because people are becoming desperate, hopeless, hungry by the moment this is of course, bound to happen.
WEDEMAN (voice-over): And with Israeli ground forces now operating in southern Gaza, the hundreds of thousands who fled the north in search of safety are now even more than before in the line of fire. Gaza after almost two months of war has come to this. Ben Wedeman, CNN, Jerusalem.
(END VIDETAPE)
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VAUSE: U.S. officials tell CNN hostage negotiations aren't likely to resume anytime soon. According to the White House, one American woman and seven men unaccounted for after the October 7 Hamas attacks. U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan says securing their release remains paramount priority.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAKE SULLIVAN, U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: There are still intensive discussions among us, Israel, Qatar and Egypt about how to best get traction on a strategy that will get all the hostages out. But of course for the United States, the paramount priority is getting the American hostages out. And we are talking to the president about all of his options in terms of securing the release of American hostages.
Beyond that, I'm not going to comment because we need to be able to have those sensitive diplomatic discussions behind closed doors.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: At least 17 women and children are still being held hostage in Gaza, including 23-year-old Romi Gonen, who was taken at the Nova Music festival October 7. Her mother told CNN the family waited for her release over the weekend. But it never happened.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MEIRAV LECHAM, MOTHER OF ROMI GOREN TAKEN HOSTAGE ON OCTOBER 7: We were sure that Romi will be released on Friday. There are only 18 women in Gaza now and we -- were so sure she will be released on Friday either Saturday, but that didn't happen. It was so horrible for us. It was so terrible.
I was awake since 4:30 in the morning waiting to see if there is a list, when the list is coming out. And no list. Not just now list but fighting started again. And you know we were so close, so close to have her back. Her and all the other women and any didn't happen.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Romi's mother says two of her daughter's friends were killed at the Music Festival. All they know about Romi is that she was shot in the hand and her iPhone was later traced to Gaza.
Just ahead here on CNN, is he the president of the COP28 Climate Summit, or the CEO of a state owned giant oil company or maybe both and over major gas from Sultan Al Jaber.
Also hundreds killed in torrential rains and flash flooding across parts of East Africa. And Kenya's president tells COP28 that lays bare the harsh reality of climate change.
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VAUSE: Welcome back. 2023 is expected to be a record year for carbon emissions. The Global Carbon Project says global emissions could rise 1.1 percent compared to last year. However, the United States is expected to reduce emissions by 3 percent and the EU by 7.4 percent. But China though is up 4 percent or likely about 4 percent. India shows more than an 8 percent increase.
Coal and oil emissions are also growing significantly in both nations. Meantime, the president of the COP28 Climate Summit is defending his dedication to science. Here's CNN's David McKenzie.
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(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, these comments that have come to light from the COP president certainty add to the controversy surrounding these critical climate change meetings. It was already a controversial set of meetings here in Dubai because it's hosted in an oil rich nation, and presided over by a man who is also the head of the state owned oil enterprise.
And now Sultan Al-Jabir, the COP president hit back at the allegations and said that, in fact, he was taken out of context. He said that everything they do here is underpinned by the science. And then it's inevitable that there'll be a transition away from fossil fuels.
SULTAN AL JABER, COP28 PRESIDENT: We did not in any way, underestimate or undermine the task at hand. We understand fully the urgency and we understand the responsibility that we have taken on board.
MCKENZIE: I spoke to the head of the Greenpeace delegation, they said it's now game on. They're hoping in the next week or so that they will be firm language on phasing out of phasing down from fossil fuels to help our boiling planet. David McKenzie, CNN, Dubai.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Katharine Hayhoe is the Chief Scientist for the Nature Conservancy, and a distinguished professor at Texas Tech University. Welcome back. It's good to see it. KATHARINE HAYHOE, CHIEF SCIENTIST, NATURE CONSERVANCY: Thank you for having me again.
VAUSE: OK. So these comments were made about two weeks ago, but they're only coming to light now. We're probably all very preoccupied with Mr. Jaber (ph) other controversy, the one involving plans to use a COP28 gathering to spook oil and gas deals with other countries.
So here's what the president of the COP28 summit told panelists back in November 21st, there is no signs out there or no scenario out there that says the phase out of fossil fuels is what's going to achieve 1.5 degrees.
In terms of right, and in terms of wrong, could he be more wrong?
HAYHOE: No, he couldn't. Because achieving 1.5 degrees means we have to stabilize temperature and to stabilize temperature, we must reach net zero. And that means that all of the carbon emissions that we're producing have to be near zero. And then we have to be investing everything we can in nature to take the last little bit of our carbon emissions out of the atmosphere. And there is no way to accomplish that without phasing out fossil fuels.
VAUSE: So here's the question. Something like that saved me like that would be bad enough coming from Sultan Al-Jaber, CEO of Abu Dhabi National Oil kind of almost be expected in some ways. But it is another thing altogether, when it comes from the president of COP28, the biggest annual gathering to try and fix climate change the world ever hold.
So I guess which one is he talking -- in which capacity? Is he talking as COP28 president here? Or is he talking as an oil industry executive?
HAYHOE: Unfortunately, it sounds very much like the latter because I have heard that statement before. And he also went on to say that there is no path to sustainable development without fossil fuels, or else we'd go back to living in caves. And that is such a frequent argument employed by the fossil fuel industry that I made a global weirding episode on YouTube about it five years ago.
These are talking points we've heard again and again by those who are trying to delay and avoid climate action as long as possible.
VAUSE: Five years ago, wow. You think they get some new material by now? Regardless, here's kind of a walk back, if you like from Sultan Al-Jaber, sort of, listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AL JABER: I honestly think that there is some confusion out there. And misrepresentation and misinterpretation. I have said over and over, that the face down. And the phase out of fossil fuel is inevitable. In fact, it is essential. And this transition is in fact, essential. And it needs to be orderly, fair, just unresponsible.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: And here's the problem having an oil executives running a U.N. climate conference, when it comes to transition away from fossil fuels. What the oil and gas industry believes to be fair, just at reasonable seems to be totally at odds with what is fair, just and reasonable for everyone else.
HAYHOE: I think you've hit the nail on the head there. I completely agree that we need a fair and adjust transition to a zero carbon world. But what that looks like for the heads of some of the richest multinational corporations in the world is very different than what it looks like from somebody who is a subsistence farmer suffering from climate field droughts, or someone who lives in a low income neighborhood surrounded by concrete, where their temperatures soar and heatwave six or seven degrees Celsius warmer than their wealthier neighborhoods with green space in the same city.
When we look at who's suffering the impacts of climate change to literally the countries that are suffering the most are those who have done almost nothing to contribute to the problem and we will look at the countries, the people and the companies who have created this problem in the first place.
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They are the very ones who are not bearing the brunt of the impacts. It is the definition of injustice and unfairness.
VAUSE: Just looking at back at COP28 already, is it too soon to write it off? Or is it more of a missed opportunity that much more could have been done?
HAYHOE: Well, there's a misunderstanding that somehow one COP is going to fix the whole problem. This one is number 28. And I think we've learned by now it won't, why not? Because when it comes to climate solutions, we need countries. But we also need cities. We need companies and businesses, we need organizations. We need schools and universities, tribal nations, faith based organizations, we need the Rotary Club. We need everyone in here together.
And that's why I'm so excited that there are the Africa Climate Summit, the Latin American Climate Summit, Climate Week in New York City, there are these gatherings springing up all around the world to discuss in a democratic, open manner, what climate solutions look like. We need everyone everywhere, all at once fixing this thing.
VAUSE: And with that, we'll leave it there, Katherine, good to see you. Thanks so much.
HAYHOE: Thank you, John.
VAUSE: And delegates at COP28 were reminded of the harsh daily impact of climate change after the president of Somalia spoke about hundreds killed in recent days from traditional rains and flash floods across East Africa. Here's CNN's Lynda Kinkade. LYNDA KINKADE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Trapped and submerged by water. This was the scene in recent weeks, as heavy rains inundated the Horn of Africa, causing unprecedented flooding and landslides.
Hundreds of people have been killed, more than 1 million now without homes. Displaced many saw their possessions swept away in seconds, a trail of devastation left behind.
After the floodwaters swallowed her home, one resident returned recalling the horror.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): The waters have ruined everything, my house and the toilet. It rained from the morning until the evening. By 8:00 p.m. we had to pack and flee.
KINKADE (voice-over): The heavy rains in East Africa follow the worst drought in four decades. And whilst there's been some respite in parts of Somalia, where the water has begun to recede, displaced families and others are still facing the risk of disease after floods destroyed toilets and drinking wells.
Speaking at COP28 in Dubai, Somalia's president says climate change is a reality they have to deal with every day.
HASSAN SHEIKH MOHAMUD, SOMALIAN PRESIDENT: I must note that today's victims of these devastating floods are sadly the survivors of yesterday's droughts. Only a year ago, Somalia apparently averted farming, following consecutive failing, rainy seasons. What's transpiring in my country today is not unique to us.
KINKADE (voice-over): With vast areas of farmland decimated by the floods and livelihoods wiped away. There seems to be no break. As meteorologists say parts of Kenya will experience rain into the new year. Lynda Kinkade, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: In a moment here on CNN, new details on yet another sickening atrocity from October 7. Israel says Hamas militants systematically targeted women and girls with terrible acts of violence and brutality. Hamas denies the allegations, details in a moment.
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JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back.
I'm John Vause. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM.
Well, there's widespread agreement that October 7 was the result of a major failure of Israeli intelligence. Now the Israeli military says an investigation into specifics will get ahead before the end of the war.
Under investigation, at least partly, will be Israel's decision to move reinforcement troops from the Gaza border to the West Bank in the days before the surprise assault. Israel's Channel 11 reported Sunday that more than 100 reinforcement combat troops were relocated two days before, October 5th, to coincide with the Jewish high holidays.
New research shows some financial traders may have actually cashed-in on October 7th. A report titled, "Trading on Terror", law professors from Columbia and New York University say they found a significant and unusual spike in short selling a bet against Israeli companies in the major popular funding to Israeli companies. That also happened October 5th two days before the surprise attack.
Researchers though stressed these findings are preliminary and say, as of yet, they are not able to link specific traders to the actual deals.
Israel is also demanding that the world pay attention and condemn what it calls systematic gender-based violence by Hamas. Authorities say Hamas militants committed brutal assault against women and girls on that day.
Hamas denies the allegations saying they are unfounded lies but Israel is (INAUDIBLE) possible war crimes, using witness testimony and forensics to build their case.
CNN's Jake Tapper has the story. And a warning: his report contains extremely graphic descriptions of rape and sexual violence.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GILAD ERDAN, ISRAELI AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS: On October 7th, Hamas perpetrated rape and sexual violence, exploiting these unforgivable crimes as weapons of war.
JAKE TAPPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Nearly two months after the October 7th attacks, the international community is finally beginning to investigate and recognize reports of brutal and inhumane rape and sexual assault by Hamas terrorists, torturing and terrorizing the people of Israel.
For weeks, Israeli police have been collecting eyewitness testimony, video and forensic evidence detailing countless accounts of rape and sexual assault perpetrated by terrorists on Israeli women and children. And for weeks there has been very little outcry or condemnation from the international community, including from the United Nations.
ERDAN: Sadly the very international bodies that are supposedly the defenders of all women showed that when it comes to Israelis, indifference is acceptable. To these organizations Israeli really women are not women. The rape of Israelis is not an act of rape. Their silence has been deafening.
TAPPER: But Monday the United Nations held a gathering hosted by Israel examining sexual and gender-based violence committed during Hamas's attack on Israel.
Hamas has denied committing any rapes or sexual assaults.
SHERYL SANDBERG, FOUNDER OF LEAN IN: There are exactly no circumstances that justify rape. None. Rape is targeted. Rape is terror. Rape is torture.
SENATOR KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND (D-NY): It doesn't just strike fear in the hearts of Israeli women, it strikes fear in the hearts of every woman and girl around the globe. Their bodies are not worth defending.
TAPPER: The chief superintendent of the Israeli police read numerous accounts of the atrocities witnessed by survivors and first responders.
[01:34:45]
YAEL RICHERT, ISRAELI POLICE CHIEF SUPERINTENDENT: Everything was an apocalypse of corpses. Girls without any clothes on, without tops (ph), without underwear. People cut in half, butchered. Some were beheaded.
There were girls with broken pelvis due to repetitive rapes. Their legs were spread wide apart in a split. A witness from the rape party testified.
We heard girls that were pulled out from the shelters. Girls that shouted. They raped girls, burned them just after that. All the bodies outside were burned.
A rescuer that arrived to a house on a kibbutz testified. Inside the shower there was a body of a (INAUDIBLE) woman. She was without her underwear. The body was in the corner and her hands were tied.
Another testimony from the rape party survivor. Women without clothes. Some without the upper body clothes, some without the lower body clothes. Blood over the lower body. Everyone was full of blood. Butchered people.
We found a woman's body dumped outside without pants, without underpants, burned. Barely any hair left on her.
TAPPER: And videos were played from a first responder, a paramedic and a survivor of the music festival detailing firsthand what they experienced.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The two we had were bound by their hands. Their hands were behind their back. There was a body of a woman that had a bloodstain on her genitalia.
There was a lot of gun wounds there. Shooting was targeted at sexual organs. We saw that a lot. They had a thing with sexual organs, both in women and in men.
The women we received, they were civilians. We mainly saw either breast amputations or gunshots just to the breast, simply shooting from one side of the breast to the other. They were conscious when they got to us. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They laid a woman down and I understand that he
is raping her. He's basically shifting her position and then they pass her on to another person.
Was she alive the girl they raped?
Yes, she was alive. She had long hair. He was pulling her hair. She's not dressed and he cuts her breast. He throws it on the road and their playing with it.
TAPPER: Another survivor of the attack described seeing a horrific rape the Nova Music Festival to London's "Sunday Times". "I saw this beautiful woman with the face of an angel and eight or ten of the fighters beating and raping her. She was screaming, 'Stop it already. I'm going to die anyway from what you are doing. Just kill me.' When they finished, they were laughing. And the last one shot her in the head.
SANDBERG: Do we believe the Hamas spokesperson who said that rape is forbidden therefore it couldn't have possibly happened on October 7th?
Or do we believe the women whose bodies tell us how they spent the last minutes of their lives? Who are we going to believe?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Back in a moment. You're watching CNN.
[01:38:35]
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VAUSE: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will appear remotely at a classified briefing on Capitol Hill Tuesday. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer wants lawmakers to hear firsthand what's at stake with the U.S. funding bill for Ukraine still stuck in partisan limbo.
The White House is warning if more aid is not approved it would effectively kneecap Ukraine on the battlefield.
Here's part of a letter from the Office of Management and Budget to lawmakers. It reads, "Without congressional action, by the end of the year, we will run out of resources to procure more weapons and equipment for Ukraine and to provide equipment from the U.S. military stocks. There is no magical pot of funding available to meet this moment. We are out of money and nearly out of time."
Well, for more, we're joined now by Matthew Schmidt, expert of foreign policy, including Ukraine and Russia. He's also an associate professor of national security at the University of New Haven. And it's been a while. So welcome back. Good to see you.
MATTHEW SCHMIDT, FOREIGN POLICY EXPERT: Good to be here, John.
VAUSE: OK. So, here's a little more from that assessment which came from the Office of Management and Budget. "Cutting off the flow of U.S. weapons and equipment will kneecap Ukraine on the battlefield, not only putting at risk the gains Ukraine has made but increasing the likelihood of Russian military victory."
So if U.S. financial support was cut tomorrow, no one is saying Ukraine would lose the war the next day. So game this out from here. What does the war look like without that U.S. commitment in terms of military hardware and financial assistance?
SCHMIDT: It forces Ukraine to the negotiating table with the (INAUDIBLE). Ukraine has said from the beginning, Zelenskyy has said from the beginning that he wants Russia out of all Ukrainian territory including Crimea and then he would sit down and negotiate. But without U.S. weapons that's simply not going to be possible.
VAUSE: Well, in terms of the bigger picture and what is sort of at stake here, apart from democracy and freedom, listen to the U.S. national security advisor Jake Sullivan.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAKE SULLIVAN, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: Congress has to decide whether to continue to support the fight for freedom in Ukraine as part of the 50-nation coalition that President Biden has built or whether Congress will ignore the lessons we've learned from history and let Putin prevail. It is that simple. It is that stark a choice.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: How long will that coalition survive without U.S. leadership and dollars?
SCHMIDT: Not very long. Look, some people in the Pentagon are saying that if funding is tomorrow, they'll be able to string the money out and the weapons out, and the training out through the winter.
But by summer, no matter what happens now frankly, by summer the voices for a negotiated settlement here are going to become very, very loud, in any case, because we will be in an election year.
VAUSE: OK, So since the war began in February of last year, the U.S. has sent more than $100 billion to Ukraine, and yes, that's a ton of money. But it's not like Ukraine is living la vida loca.
Listen to Ukrainian ambassador to the United States. Here she is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OKSANA MARKAROVA, UKRAINIAN AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED STATES: We still have more than 2,800 villages and cities under Russian occupation where people have been killed and tortured. 6 million people still live under occupation. 12 million people are internally displaced not to mention those we have lost already.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: But having said that, corruption was at least a major concern during the early months of the war. Have the Ukrainians done enough to address those concerns to ensure U.S. financial system gets to where it's intended? That all of it gets there?
SCHMIDT: No one ever does enough to fight corruption but Ukraine has done more than anyone should expect them to be doing. And the money that Americans are spending to support Ukraine, most of it, as the letter says, stays in the U.S. Most of it is actually paying American defense contractors in Republican states to build more weapons that go into the hands of American troops while existing lower grade weapons go to Ukrainians. That money is not being corrupted away.
VAUSE: OK. Here's a question though. What does it say about U.S. commitment if Congress doesn't approve this money, if the U.S. commitment sort of fades away, as the Kurds, as the Afghans, you know, what does it say about U.S. commitment?
[01:44:50]
SCHMIDT: What it says is something about the U.S. system. Says that a two-party system with the kind of divisions that we see is unstable. And that our friends and our enemies know that and they have to calculate that when they take these risks to rely on us to support the war or, in Putin's case, to rely on us to fold and leave our ally in the field at a vulnerable moment. It's our system that's broken.
VAUSE: And this is all foreseen by Putin in many ways wasn't it?
SCHMIDT: Yes, it's not that Putin is some kind of genius to foresee it. It's been out there for a long time. Again foreign politics, foreign policy is always A product of domestic politics. And that's what you're seeing here. Domestic politics playing itself out in Ukraine and in Israel and Gaza.
VAUSE: Yes. As we said before, we've had discussions of what the U.S. is getting out of this war in terms of value for money. It's a pretty good deal right now. Let's see what they do with it in Congress, but yes, politics always does weird things.
Matthew, thank you. Good to see you. Matthew Schmidt there in New Haven.
SCHMIDT: Take care.
VAUSE: When two Palestinians opened fire at a bus stop in Jerusalem, one of the heroes of that day was an Israeli lawyer, Yuval Castleman. He ran towards the gunman, firing his own personal handgun. Four Israelis were killed in the attack including Yuval.
But as CNN's Alex Marquardt reports he wasn't shot dead by those Hamas militants but allegedly by an Israeli soldier who's now detained for questioning by police.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Video posted online shows Yuval Castleman, a former Israeli police officer, with his hands in the air. Then, he's shot at twice.
Then, twice more. On the ground, his shirt bloodied, clearly in pain. He later died of his wounds.
Castleman had sprung into action when this light-colored car pulled up on Thursday at a Jerusalem bus stop. Two Hamas gunmen jumped out and opened fired on the crowd who tried to run away. Three are killed. As the terrorists tried to drive away, Yuval Castleman runs across the road and opened fire with his pistol to help take down the attackers. But an army reservist here also opens fire on Yuval Castleman.
Two soldiers from this red car run out with their weapons. Castleman apparently trying to show he is not an attacker, he has his hands in the air, and his jacket open. But he appears to have been killed by the reservist -- a fellow Israeli.
In Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu first comments about Yuval Castleman death, he said, that is life when civilians carry guns, which he supports. That comment angering many Israelis. Benjamin Netanyahu later called Castleman's action supreme bravery.
Friends and family gathered Monday night for Shiva, a Jewish mourning period, at the home of Castleman's father. His sister Noga and best friend, Guy Itzkovich (ph), showed me a photo album of Castleman's life.
Guy Itzkovich is also a former police officer and says they're outraged that Yuval Castleman was shot with his hands up.
GUY ITZKOVICH, YUVAL CASTLEMAN'S FRIEND: Yuval was not gunned down. Yuval was murdered.
MARQUARDT: So what is the hardest part of all of this?
ITZKOVICH: I lost my brother because of a stupid mistake. It was a stupid mistake. It should have never happened. And I know that if they were following the same orders that I was given and that they were given, my friend would still be alive.
MARQUARDT: Yuval Castleman's Moshe sits low on the floor, as is custom as guests pay their respects.
Moshe calls his son a hero, and wants an investigation of what happened.
"All his life, Yuval was always that kind of person," Moshe said. That's how he behaved, despite knowing that he was taking a risk and endangering his life, he did not hesitate.
Alex Marquardt CNN, Tel Aviv.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: We'll take a short break.
When we come back anti-Semitism on the rise in Italy. We'll hear from those affected by this hate and violence in a moment.
Also ahead, a former U.S. ambassador is charged with colluding with Cuba for decades. Details on the case and how he was caught.
[01:49:08]
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VAUSE: Anti-Semitic attacks in Italy have surged in the weeks since October 7th. Currently Italy is marking the 80th anniversary of the deportation of thousands of Italian Jews in concentration camps during World War II.
CNN's Barbie Nadeau has our report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BARBIE LATZA NADEAU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The winds of war are fanning the flames of a new wave of anti-Semitism in Italy. Ever since Israel responded to the attack by Hamas on October 7th, the frequency of anti-Semitic attacks has across Italy has increase according to the national commission of the fight against anti-Semitism.
Cobblestones marking Jewish people who were deported to concentration camps have been vandalized in Rome and anti-Semitic graffiti has appeared in Genoa, Ravena, Milan, Florence and elsewhere.
Here in the Jewish ghetto (ph) in Rome, thousands of Jewish people were taken away to concentration camps 80 years ago. Today the commission says security is at an all-time high.
Marco Misano (ph) gives tours of Jewish history in Rome. He has one son living in Israel and another going to the Jewish school here.
MARCO MISANO, HISTORIAN AND JEWISH ROME TOUR GUIDE: Now I think this is my, of course, personal opinion, that we always had anti-Semitism but was sleeping.
When the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians restarted after October 7th, it woke up all of these people. And it's just an excuse because you can be against Israeli politicians, but why you make these anti-Semitic things against the Jews in Rome, against the Jews in Paris and London.
NADEAU: Here in Italy, the scars of the holocaust are still there.
Liliana Segrae (ph) is a 93-year-old Holocaust survivor who was deported to Auschwitz concentration camp when she was 13 years old. She's the only one her from her family who survived.
She recently told the Italian parliament that she's worried about indifference to anti-Semitism today. Authorities are worried too.
GIUSEPPE PECORARO, NATIONAL COORDINATOR FOR THE FIGHT AGAINST ANTI- SEMITISM: The indifference is because when people aren't interested they are afraid to intervene. The worst thing is those who don't care. NADEAU: Luciano says he sees many Jewish people now hiding the fact
that they are Jewish, wearing a baseball cap over the yarmulke, or covering the logo of the Jewish school uniform.
MISANO: I wear the yarmulke. I keep wearing it when I do the tour because the time that you start to wear something to cover they have won. We have a Jewish school in the ghetto with 950 kids. We have more police. We keep living.
NADEAU: Barbie Latza Nadeau, CNN -- Rome.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Purdue Pharma's controversial opioid settlement with a number of U.S. states is now being heard before the Supreme Court. The drugmaker produced and promoted highly addictive oxycontin for years.
Under the deal, the Sackler family which owns Purdue Pharma would pay up to $6 billion dollars in damages which would go to the victims of the opioid crisis. The Sacklers would then be protected from future opioid related lawsuits.
U.S. Justice Department blocked the agreement asking the Supreme Court to review it. Some justices emphasized that most victims are in favor of the deal.
A former U.S. ambassador has been arrested on spying charges accused of being a secret agent for the Cuban government for four decades. The Justice Department says he supported Cuba's secret intelligence gathering against the U.S. during his diplomatic postings across Latin America.
CNN's Evan Perez has details.
[01:54:48]
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
EVAN PEREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A retired U.S. ambassador is facing charges of spying for the Cuban government for more than 40 years. Manuel Rocha, 73 years old served as ambassador to Bolivia from late 1999 to 2002 but he's facing three federal charges including acting as an agent of a foreign government.
Justice Department prosecutors in Miami said that Rocha boasted to an undercover FBI employee that he worked for decades to strengthen the Cuban revolution.
The former long-time diplomat served in roles from Argentina to Cuba to the Dominican Republic. He also served in the National Security Council at the White House.
Now, according to Attorney General Merrick Garland, Rocha represents one of the highest-ranking infiltrations of the U.S. government by a foreign intelligence service. MERRICK GARLAND, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: This action exposes one of the
highest reaching and longest lasting infiltrations of the U.S. Government by a foreign agent. Specifically the criminal complaint alleges that for over 40 years, Rocha acted as a covert agent of the Cuban government.
To that end, the complaint alleges Rocha sought out employment with the U.S. government that would provide him with access to non-public information and the ability to affect U.S. foreign policy. Between 1981 and 2002 --
PEREZ: The FBI says it got a tip in 2022 that Rocha was acting as a foreign agent. According to prosecutors an undercover FBI employee posing as Russia's new Cuban handler reached out to Rocha and proceeded to arrange three meetings.
In those meetings Rocha repeatedly referred to the United States as the enemy and praised Cuban leader Fidel Castro. Prosecutors say he worked to recruit people in the U.S. government to help in intelligence gathering.
According to prosecutors during one of those meetings with his purported handler, Rocha said, "My number one concern, my number one priority was any action on part of Washington that would endanger the life of the leadership or the revolution itself."
In a hearing Monday in Miami, federal prosecutors asked for him to remain in detention until trial. They said they expect to added additional charges.
Evan Perez, CNN -- Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Thank you for watching this hour.
I'm John Vause.
CNN NEWSROOM continues with my friend and colleague Rosemary Church after a very short break.
Hope to see you right back here tomorrow.
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