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CNN International: IDF: About 450 Hamas Targets Struck in the Past Day; Heavy Fighting in Gaza as Humanitarian Crisis Worsens; Russia Fires Cruise Missiles at Ukraine After 79-Day Pause; Two Rockets hit U.S. Embassy in Baghdad; Joe Biden's Son Hunter Charged with Tax Evasion; India, China Adding Coal Capacity to Meet Energy Demands. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired December 08, 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]

RUBY CHEN, FATHER OF MISSING IDF SOLIDER ITAY CHEN: As well the other families. We need to understand that if we leadership of President Biden and the administration does not come to negotiate a deal, then there will be more American citizens that will die down. Adding to the 30 something, U.S. citizens that have already been killed on October 7th.

KASIE HUNT, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Ruby Chen, our hearts are with you very much. I am sure many in leadership are listening. Thank you very much for your time.

CHEN: Thank you for having me.

HUNT: Of course and "CNN This Morning" continues right now.

BIANCA NOBILO, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to "CNN Newsroom." I'm Bianca Nobilo in for Max Foster in London.

Just ahead. Israeli strikes pummel Gaza. The IDF says it has conducted its most extensive attacks since the fragile truce between Israel and Hamas ended a week ago.

Plus, Russia fires a barrage of cruise missiles towards Ukraine's capital Kyiv and Eastern Ukraine after weeks of relative calm in the region.

And then U.S. President Joe Biden's son Hunter faces new legal charges, this time for allegedly dodging more than $1 million in taxes.

Israel is unleashing an intense bombardment on Gaza from the air, sea and ground. The IDF says about 450 targets were struck over the past day, the most in one day since the end of the truce one week ago.

The fighting in Khan Yunis, Gaza's second largest city is particularly fierce. The IDF says its troops killed numerous terrorists in a two hour series of precision strikes. Disturbing images, meanwhile, have been posted to social media, showing a mass detention of men in Gaza by the Israeli military.

Some of the images of the men kneeling, blindfolded and stripped to their underwear have been geo-located by CNN to Beit Lahia, north of Gaza City. The exact dates and circumstances of what happened are not clear.

CNN's Alex Marquardt joins us now live from Tel Aviv. Alex, it seems that the military tempo has increased dramatically, the most number of strikes from air, land and sea since the truce ended a week ago. What do you think is behind this latest escalation and what the IDF think they're achieving?

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN CHIEF U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, Bianca, it is really part of this new phase that we saw start back up exactly a week ago when the pause ended and the release of hostages ended. So we have seen large numbers of bombardments. Numbers given to us pretty much every day by the IDF. This is the biggest number that we have seen in the past week, around 450 strikes carried out by Israeli planes, ships and ground forces.

So that the fighting truly has returned in earnest. The Hamas controlled Ministry of Health and Gaza now saying that the death toll in Gaza since October 7th has gone past 17,000. And despite the fierce attacks by Israel, on various parts of the Gaza Strip, not just in the south, but in the north as well, we continue to get responses from Hamas, presumably and/or other militant groups.

Just in the past few moments, Bianca, we have seen rockets fired -- a barrage of rockets fired from Gaza towards Tel Aviv. The sirens went off here in Tel Aviv. The Iron Dome intercepted, we believe, several of those rockets right above our heads. We heard the loud booms of those interceptions.

The Israeli efforts though, Bianca, have really focused in the past few days on that city of Khan Yunis, the biggest in the southern part of the Gaza Strip, where Israeli officials do believe that some of Hamas' top leaders may be.

That has fueled this humanitarian crisis that we've seen, because so many people from the northern part of the Strip who had been told to flee south went to Khan Yunis. They've now been told to go even farther south. Many hundreds of thousands have gone towards Rafah, that crossing with Egypt.

We have seen chaotic and truly disturbing scenes in Khan Yunis of the dead and wounded being taken to hospitals, which are simply overflowing. The humanitarian situation growing increasingly dire, all across the Gaza Strip, Bianca.

NOBILO: Alex moments ago, we showed our viewers the images that we have been -- well that have come to our attention over the last couple of hours of men in Gaza who appear to be stripped to their underwear and blindfolded. What more have you learned about the circumstances of those images? And has there been a response from the IDF?

MARQUARDT: There hasn't been a response from the Israeli military to our request for comment. It's not clear when these images were taken. They really are quite jarring. There are several images and a video showing dozens of Palestinian men who have been rounded up detained by Israeli forces.

They are either sitting or kneeling, almost naked, stripped to their underwear. In one image they are blindfolded, in another there in the backs of military vehicles. It's unclear exactly who these men are. Some of them may very well be Palestinian militants affiliated with Hamas or other groups.

[08:05:00]

But we've been told by multiple sources, there are at least several men who are -- in these images, who have nothing to do with any militant groups. The editor in chief of a news outlets said that the head of their Gaza operation was seen in the images. He's a journalist. He has no ties with militant groups. We spoke with a relative of two men seen in those images. The relative is in the United States. He says that he saw his brother and his cousin, one is a shopkeeper, the other works in construction.

Now the IDF was asked generally about this. Daniel Hagari, the military spokesman saying that, they had arrested hundreds of people suspected of having terror ties. He says that in these areas, they tell people to come out -- areas that they've taken over. That they detain them, they question them, they check who has ties to Hamas, and who does not.

But from what we are told, Bianca, there are at least several people in these rather disturbing images who do have absolutely no ties to Hamas or other groups, Bianca.

NOBILO: Alex Marquardt, thank you. CNN has learned that nearly 57,000 pounds of U.S. aid is enroute to Gaza by Egypt. The UN says 69 trucks full of humanitarian supplies and 61,000 liters of fuel made it into Gaza from Egypt on Thursday. That is well below the daily average during the truce.

The head of the UN Relief Agency is painting a bleak picture, saying its operation in southern Gaza is now barely functioning citizens. Larry Madowo is in Cairo and joins us now with more on the aid operations.

Larry, this does seem to be a bleak picture. The largest amount of strikes since the breakdown of the truce a week ago, but a small relatively amount of aid coming in. But there are discussions about possibly opening up another crossing.

LARRY MADOWO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That is right. There -- the reporting here is that the Kerem Shalom crossing is close to getting opened. Aid organizations are optimistic that that could really help alleviate the suffering you see on the Gaza Strip, especially in the southern Gaza Strip, which is where Israel is told the people to move to, as they were continuing this military operation in the north.

You got to understand that right now the only way in and out of the Gaza Strip that is not controlled by Israel is through the Rafah crossing. This Rafah crossing was never meant to be a goods outlet. It is for pedestrians, but it's been turned since October 7 for a way for these humanitarian trucks to come in, for the injured to come out, for foreign nationals to come out. But it's not nearly enough.

In fact, the UN the World Health Organization, other aid agencies say it any semblance of an aid operation is almost completely impossible right now using just the Rafah crossing. So 57,000 pounds of UN medical supplies and food and nutritional assistance is coming in from USAID from the Jordanian capital into El-Arish, that's in North Sinai here in Egypt, and that will be loaded onto trucks and taken to the Rafah crossing. There's a huge backlog there. That's part of the problem.

The other bigger problem is just that there's so many people who have lost everything, who have nowhere to stay the southern Gaza Strip, such as this man who says 23 members of his family were killed, and he's out of options.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HOSSAM HASANAT, DISPLACED FROM GAZA CITY (Translated): Concerning the lack of food, I don't know what they're waiting for. They're waiting for us to gradually die. Should we die from hunger? As a sick person I need food. OK, fine, I lost my family, no problem. But what about the children we have here? What about the injured children and the injured seniors who can't find the slightest bit of food to sustain themselves?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MADOWO: In the last week, we've heard increasingly desperate dire warnings from aid agencies operating in the Gaza Strip about the situation becoming catastrophic, about appalling conditions about lack of food and water and fuel and everything. And yet, the amount of aid coming in appears to be dwindling even more.

69 trucks got in yesterday, the day before that 85, 100, 75, these are smaller numbers than during the truce. And yet the humanitarian situation has gotten increasingly much worse, Bianca.

NOBILO: Larry Madowo, thank you.

For the first time in nearly three months Russia has rained a barrage of cruise missiles onto Ukraine. A visual say the air raid lasted about two hours, but all of the missiles headed to Kyiv were shot down. However, some homes were damaged by falling debris.

Elsewhere, officials say missile attacks killed two people, one in Kharkiv region, where shelling damaged seven apartment buildings. Another person was killed when missiles struck the eastern city of Pavlohrad. The attacks come as the outlook for more U.S. aid hangs in the balance.

[08:10:00] CNN's Nick Paton Walsh joins us now from Eastern Ukraine. Nick, Russian strikes have been occurring over the last few months even though the world's attention has, obviously shifted off the conflict there while Israel has been attacking Gaza. But why now? Why this moment to suddenly resume a barrage of cruise missiles on Ukraine? What's the thinking there?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL SECURITY EDITOR: Yeah, as you said Bianca, there been Shahed drone attacks other kinds of attacks against Ukraine very regularly. But it's taken a lot of attention now this first time in 79 days that cruise missiles have been launched.

They formed the bulk of the onslaught beginning of last winter against key infrastructure targets across Ukraine. And it was in the dawn hours of this morning that 19 were launched. Ukraine says it took 15 of them out and the capital only experienced debris hitting it. Dnipropetrovsk one life was lost, four were injured.

We've just come from Pavlohrad were eight people were injured as well. Other cases of isolated injury around the country. A low injury toll, a low death toll, but a deep concern here that this may mark the beginning of a new wave of cruise missile attacks. There were thoughts that perhaps Russia was running low on its supplies. It boasted it can make infinite numbers. We're going to see over that winter what its capacities truly are.

But it really brings to focus the issue over United States aid here. The White House has made it clear that air defenses that Ukraine says shut down the vast majority of the missiles last night they could well be the first to suffer if funding does not come through.

At the same time, it may also impact the 155 artillery shells that formed the bulk of Ukraine's ability to attack Russian forces or defend their areas of terrain as well.

The last White House announcement of aid was $175 million, a lot to you and me but paltry compared to the billions who became accustomed to seeing over the last years or so almost every other week, unclear really we don't have good transparency as to when the money runs out. But it is a key moment for Ukraine, certainly.

A helicopter pilot I was speaking to this morning said without U.S. aid, we simply can't do this. They will keep fighting, certainly, but they won't have the capacity they do now that has enabled them to hold back an invading force. Yes, some counter offensive did not achieve the results that billions of NATO dollars had hoped it necessarily would. But the arguments happening on the Hill in Washington, DC suggesting essentially that the U.S. doesn't want to get itself dragged into a larger conflict here.

Well, misses the point entirely. It's an American aid that enables Ukraine to hold Russia back away from NATO's borders. And an entanglement there could very well drag the United States in wholesale into this war. So this debate over aid and the missile strikes last night, certainly bringing into focus globally, obviously to a war that occupies every daily moment of Ukrainians. Exactly how vital a moment this is both for the West to continue assisting Ukraine but also for the bleakness of the winter ahead here, Bianca.

NOBILO: Nick Paton Walsh, thank you so much. It will be interesting to see whether or not this renewed display from Russia of its arsenal and capability with cruise missiles does anything to move the dial within those backroom discussions. And those arguments you were just outlining. Thank you so much.

Two rockets have hit the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad causing minor damage but thankfully no casualties. No group has yet claimed responsibility. But the embassy says it's believed militias aligned with Iran were behind it. The U.S. is calling on the Iraqi government to do everything in its power to protect diplomats. U.S. soldiers across the region have come under regular attack due to Washington and support for Israel.

In the U.S., a special prosecutor says the Son of President Biden is a tax cheat who belongs in prison. The Justice Department filed new criminal charges, Thursday, against Hunter Biden, alleging he failed to pay $1.4 million in taxes, while spending lavishly on drugs, escorts and girlfriends.

Hunter Biden's lawyer says Hunter is only under indictment because of his last name. He was also charged in October with lying about his drug use when buying a handgun.

We'll be right back.

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[08:15:00]

NOBILO: As Israel closes in on Hamas' positions in southern Gaza, the U.S. appears to be growing more and more frustrated at the cost being paid by civilians there.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Thursday that every time he's visited Israel, it has resulted in Israel taking more steps to protect civilians. But Blinken noted that there is still a gap between what Israel says and what it does.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTONY BLINKEN, UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF STATE: As we stand here almost a week into this campaign in the South after the end of the humanitarian pause, it is imperative -- it remains imperative that Israel put a premium on civilian protection. And there does remain a gap between exactly what I said when I was there, the intent to protect civilians and the actual results that we're seeing on the ground.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Let's bring in CNN's Ben Wedeman in Jerusalem with a closer look at that. So Ben, the U.S. Secretary of State saying again that there is a gap between Israel's stated intent and what's actually happening on the ground. That's what's being said publicly. Would you imagine that privately there's a lot more pressure being put on behind the scenes?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, certainly there's verbal pressure. But in practical terms, there doesn't seem to be any. We saw, for instance, that overnight, there were 450 Israeli strikes on what the military calls Hamas targets. We saw in a 24 hour period yesterday, more than 350 people killed according to the Health Ministry in Gaza. There have been more than 2,000 people killed since the truce ended a week ago.

And we also heard Blinken before saying that he told Israel not to repeat the kind of civilian death toll and the level of destruction and displacement in the south that had been done in the north before this ceasefire. But what we're seeing is that there doesn't really seem to be any change in Israel's conduct of this military campaign.

I spend every day here for hours looking at video of injured and dead civilians and it doesn't seem to be any different now than it was before. And the United States, as I said, there's perhaps verbal pressure, but in practical terms, they don't seem to be doing anything to restrain Israel at this point.

They have the ability, certainly the United States is providing a vital supply of weapons and ammunition and intelligence. United States is flying, survey -- drone surveillance flights over Gaza. But none of that has been in any way impacted by the fact that, yes, Israel's words of restraining itself and avoiding civilian casualties are simply not reflected on the ground. Bianca.

NOBILO: So Ben, if Israel continues to fall short of expectations from its allies to reasonably protect civilians, not to mention countries that are hostile to it and neighbors in the region, what repercussions might there be?

WEDEMAN: I don't know. I think that -- you know, the, as I said, the United States has the ability to change Israel's behavior because it's a critical source of funding, weapons, ammunition, technology, diplomatic support.

[08:20:00]

But until it actually does something with all those tools that it has that it could use to restrain Israel or change Israel's conduct of the war, it won't make any difference.

And keep in mind, of course, that there's an election coming up next year in the United States. Perhaps President Biden doesn't want to be seen putting too much pressure on the Israelis during this war. But certainly, the repercussions, long-term, in terms of the United States standing in the Middle East, and certainly in the Arab and broader Muslim world after this bloody two month war, that still doesn't seem to be approaching an end. Those repercussions could be serious.

NOBILO: Ben Wedeman for us in Jerusalem. It's always really good to talk to you and get your perspective. Thank you so much for joining us.

We'll be right back.

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NOBILO: Officials from India and China have made it known that burning more coal is a key part of their plans to meet future energy demands. At the same time, they're refusing to join 118 countries which signed a pledge to increase power generation from renewable sources. CNN's Vedika Sud in New Delhi with the details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VEDIKA SUD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The world's two most populous nations are deepening their reliance on fossil fuels. Governments in India and in China, home to almost 3 billion people combined, want to satisfy a growing need for energy by burning more coal. Both are pledging greater coal fired power capacity and putting that net-zero emissions in doubt.

There will be no compromise in power needed for growth. India's Minister for Power R. K. Singh said last month, even if it means the addition of coal base capacity.

In November, the United Nations production gap report revealed that if all the coal projects currently planned around the world materialize, we will burn 460 percent more coal in 2030 than water be consistent with limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

KATE LOGAN, ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR OF CLIMATE, ASIA SOCIETY POLICY INSTITUTE: This energy security issue has really spooked a lot of the local governments in China and prompted China to basically renege on that commitment to limit new coal power builds.

[08:25:00]

SUD (voice-over): China says it will be carbon neutral by 2060, India by 2070. But according to a report by the Global Energy Monitor. China had 136 gigawatts of coal power in construction, and over 255 gigawatts in earlier stages of development. While India had over 65 gigawatts in the pipeline.

HARJEET SINGH, HEAD OF GLOBAL POLITICAL STRATEGY, CLIMATE ACTION NETWORK: We understand Indian context in a much more nuanced manner than just looking at it as a large emitter. You should also look at its energy needs, its poverty levels, its energy poverty.

SUD (voice-over): As both countries continue to develop and drag people out of poverty, the baseline power that coal provides remains attractive. But it's not all bad news.

LOGAN: In the near term, there are signals that China is actually very close to peaking its emissions, in part, because China is also the world leader in adding new renewable power.

SUD (voice-over): China possesses more solar power capacity than all other countries combined, and could hit peak emissions before the end of the decade. While India could soon be producing 500 gigawatts of renewable energy by 2030, far more power than it currently produces.

SINGH: More than 80 percent of green finance in India is domestic, which means that international partners have not played their role. They have only put pressure on India. So India is largely on its own.

SUD (voice-over): For both countries, coal capacity is the backup plan. The danger is that if a coal power plant is built, they will always be pressure to use it.

Vedika Sud, CNN New Delhi.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NOBILO: Thanks for joining me. I'm Bianca Nobilo in London. "World Sport" is up next.

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