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IDF Say Hamas Defense Lines Breached In Khan Yunis; U.S. Vetoes U.N. Resolution Calling For Immediate Cease-fire; World Food Programme Officials Visit Gaza's "Immense Humanitarian Crisis"; Russia Launches Cruise Missile Attack After 79-Day Pause; Venezuela-Guyana Tensions; Tennis Star Chris Evert Has Cancer Recurrence. Aired 3-3:30a ET

Aired December 09, 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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MAX FOSTER, CNN LONDON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Hello and a warm welcome to our viewers, I'm Max Foster in London.

Just ahead on CNN NEWSROOM, a controversial move: the U.S. vetoes a U.N. resolution calling for a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

The struggle to get food and supplies to people in Gaza as the war rages on. We will speak to someone from the World Food Programme who was just there.

And Russian president Vladimir Putin says he will run for reelection after, in his words, having "different thoughts at different times."

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Live from London, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Max Foster.

FOSTER: Beginning in southern Gaza where Israeli military is pushing into the second largest city of Khan Yunis. A spokesman claims that Israeli troops have breached the defensive lines, what it calls the main stronghold of Hamas.

The IDF have released this video of ground troops, describing the combat as house to house, tunnel to tunnel. On Friday, Israel's defense minister told Israeli troops that he sees signs that Hamas was, quote, "beginning to break."

The United States vetoed the latest attempt by the U.N. Security Council to call for an immediate cease-fire between Israel and Hamas. The resolution had 13 votes in support, with the U.K. abstaining. The U.S. says it blocked the measure, because it failed to condemn Hamas for attacking Israel on October 7.

Israel has now responded to these images of men, wearing just underwear, being rounded up in Gaza. An Israeli government spokesperson says the detained men are suspected terrorists. He said anyone who is not associated with a terrorist group will be released.

CNN spoke with people who recognized some of the individuals and said that they were civilians, not militants. CNN's Ivan Watson covering this from Beirut.

So the war continues because the veto did not work?

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That is right. I think it reveals a failure of diplomacy, Max, as well as the growing international isolation of Israel and its closest ally, the U.S.

With the growing chorus of condemnation of the U.S. veto, of this cease-fire resolution, it has created a very unusual situation, where you have Russia echoing the same criticism of the world's largest human rights organizations.

The U.S. envoy, to the U.N., defending the U.S. veto of the cease-fire resolution, argued that a cease-fire would be, in his words, "dangerous." It would leave Hamas in power, to regroup and one day carry out future attacks against Israel.

The Israeli ambassador to the U.N. Security Council thanked the U.S. for their support. As for criticism of this, take a listen to the Palestinian ambassador to the U.N. Security Council.

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RIYAD MANSOUR, PALESTINIAN AMBASSADOR TO THE U.N.: Instead of allowing this council to uphold its mandate, by finally making a clear call after two months of massacres, that atrocities must end, the war criminals are given more time to perpetuate their crimes.

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WATSON: The UAE, which drafted the cease-fire resolution and reestablished ties with Israel as part of the Abraham accords in recent years, argued that, quote, "The council is growing isolated and appears untethered from its own founding document."

Russia's representative to the U.N. said that this move by the U.S. would condemn tens of thousands of civilians, including women and children, to death.

Quote, "History will assess what Washington has done."

Listen to what a human rights organization, like Human Rights Watch, Doctors without Borders, Amnesty International all said; Human Rights Watch saying that the U.S. is continuing to provide Israel with weapons and diplomatic cover. The U.S. risks complicity with war crimes.

MSF saying the U.S. Stands alone in casting its vote against humanity. The Biden administration, on one hand, has been criticizing Israel for not protecting civilians in Gaza.

[03:05:00] WATSON: But at the same time, CNN has learned that the U.S. State Department has requested permission from Congress to sell tens of thousands of tank rounds to Israel.

So the Biden administration in a curious position here. It has argued to continue the fight on the ground in Gaza. The Israeli Defense Force, the military, said it carried more than 450 strikes at different targets in Gaza over the period of some 24 hours.

Fierce fighting continuing in the southern part of Gaza in Khan Yunis, house to house fighting reported. The ministry of health, run by Hamas in Gaza, said that, in 24 hours, they received 71 killed people and at least 160 wounded -- Max.

FOSTER: Ivan in Beirut, thank you for the update.

The trauma from the war does not spare anyone, especially Gaza's children, as CNN's Ben Wedeman now reports.

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BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Eight-year-old Mohammad (ph) is doing his daily chores, fetching water, collecting scraps of paper and plastic to start a fire, to help his mother cook their daily meal. But he'd rather be elsewhere.

"You think I like it here?" asks Mohammad (ph).

"Of course, we don't. It's terrible. I want to go home, where we had food and water."

That buzzing comes from Israeli drones hovering overhead. They never go away.

"He's been deprived of his childhood," says his mother, Um Oudai (ph). "He can't live like a normal child, he can't go to school. He misses his friends."

More than anything, the children here miss a sense of safety.

Overnight, Israeli warplanes struck the Yafa mosque in Deir al-Balah. No one was there but everyone heard it.

"In the camp, the best parents can do is keep the kids' minds off the danger. I play with them, I joke with them and distract them from their misery," says Ahmad Khaled (ph). "When they hear the bombing, they're terrified."

But there is no escape. These children have already seen too much.

"We miss our town. We lived well," says Jawaher (ph). "Now all we see are dead bodies everywhere."

There are no basic services here. The garbage piles up in the street.

Says Mohammad (ph), "We go from one place to the other and they keep bombing us."

Yet they still play, as the drones buzz overhead -- Ben Wedeman, CNN, Jerusalem.

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FOSTER: The Rafah border crossing from Egypt into southern Gaza is effectively the only humanitarian lifeline for the over 2 million people living in the besieged enclave. The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said some 100 aid trucks and 11 ambulances donated by Turkiye reached Gaza through the crossing on Friday.

The U.N. says Rafah is essentially the exclusive area where they can distribute aid. They had to stop giving it out in Khan Yunis and central Gaza in recent days, due to the intensity of the fighting there.

Senior officials with the World Food Programme visited Gaza on Friday, met with residents; they describe desperate scenes with people with nothing to eat or drink, overcrowded shelters and the sound of bombs exploding throughout the day.

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CARL SKAU, DEPUTY EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME: People are really desperate. There is fear in there, there is fear in the children's eyes that we see. And you can almost smell it, the fear.

They do not know where to go. They have nowhere to stay. And we have no answers for them. That is the most frustrating part really of being here, not being able to help.

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FOSTER: Carl Skau joins me live from Cairo now in Egypt, visiting Gaza. He's deputy executive director of the World Food Programme.

Thank you so much for joining us. You were clearly very affected by what you saw.

Can you describe in a bit more detail what you found surprising?

SKAU: When we visited Rafah, the city closest to the border of Egypt, it was very crowded. There are crowds moving south from the north, from the active operation. There are people everywhere, on the streets.

The shelters are overcrowded. People are camping on the streets. There is really a sense of desperation. Many have not eaten for several days.

In the survey we did during the seven-day pause, it showed half the population in Gaza is starving. And there was this sense of fear, that I tried to explain. You can see it in the people's eyes, you can almost smell it.

And they are asking us, "What is going to happen next to us?

"What are you doing?"

And there are very few answers.

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FOSTER: We are seeing aid being distributed there, Rafah probably the area getting the most aid or at least some aid.

What stories were you hearing about other parts of the territory?

SKAU: Well, the humanitarian operation is really on the brink of collapse. Law and order are breaking down in the south. This stems from the desperation. Not enough food is coming in. So food is maybe the most sensitive commodity.

So you see the desperation around the distribution sites. People do not know when they will get their next delivery, so it's almost to the point of violent. So it is not safe for our staff. They really live this crisis, while they're also trying to tackle it. And so we need a step (ph) change.

FOSTER: Your staff are very brave operating there.

Also you have diseases spreading, haven't you?

But when there is chaos and, as you say, you are concerned about violence, when do you make the decision about pulling staff out?

That's something obviously you wouldn't be able to tolerate.

SKAU: Well, WFP always tries to stay and deliver, wherever, wherever it is and under any conditions. But right now, we are we reaching the brink, as I said. And I think we will bring some hope, though.

During those seven days of pause we were able to deliver. We showed it was possible. We have assisted 1 million people in Gaza already since the crisis broke out. We even managed to get to the north.

So if the conditions allow, we can do this. We just need a change in the environment. We need to return to them. We have the food on the borders. We done have the procurement, the preparations. We just need the access points.

We need more crossings to come in and we need a humanitarian cease- fire so we can distribute to those who need it most across Gaza.

FOSTER: We are seeing boxes of food being delivered.

What about the water?

That is the primary need.

SKAU: Water is a huge issue. We are working closely with UNICEF, our partner U.N. Agency. They are bringing in bottled water for drinking. But we are desperately in need to get the pumping stations working, to have more water for sanitation.

The shelters that we visited yesterday, sanitation is a huge issue. We went in the bathrooms. One bathroom is used by some 500 people. And, yes, you cannot explain really, the conditions.

So disease is a major issue. Water and sanitation needs to be addressed.

FOSTER: The number of people in southern Gaza, particularly around Rafah, is quite extraordinary.

Can you describe how they are living, where they are sleeping, what they are doing?

SKAU: They have come from the north to the south. Now the fighting happens in the south and they are pushed even farther south toward the border. So there are people everywhere.

We would see, driving around, that they are putting up makeshifts on the sidewalks, because the shelters are already overcrowded. So there are people everywhere. You can sense this. There is confusion.

You see cars driving around with everything they have on the roof but with no particular destination, basically asking us and others where to go. And there is no answer. So, yes, it is getting increasingly desperate and the people are being pushed out.

FOSTER: OK. Carl Skau, really appreciate you spending your time with us after that visit to Gaza.

Now Russia stepping up relentless air attacks across Ukraine, as an alarming increase in disease poses yet another threat to that wartorn country.

And how U.S.-China ties and security in the Asia Pacific region could be affected by Taiwan's upcoming election. A report from Taipei, straight ahead.

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FOSTER: U.S. health officials are warning about an alarming rise of drug resistant infections in the Ukraine amid its war with Russia. Researchers say the spread of these infections is an urgent crisis which must be addressed.

They looked at three regional hospitals in November and December last, year speaking to hundreds of patients. The report says this increase can be linked to Ukraine's high prewar rates of drug resistant infections, mixed with a rise of traumatic wounds and the war-related strain on health care facilities. Meanwhile, Ukraine says Russia launched 95 air attacks across the country in the past 24 hours. Several areas in the east were targeted, including Kharkiv, Luhansk and Donetsk. It comes after Russia fired a wave of cruise missiles for the first time in nearly 80 days. CNN's Nick Paton Walsh has the details.

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NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The ground is turning hard, even hostile, as winter sets in. But Ukraine appeared bullish, Friday, releasing these drone images of strikes on Russian positions in the hotly contested eastern town of Avdiivka.

The light bravado off the soundtrack belying real Ukrainian anxieties but Russia slow and brutal grind forward in this town and elsewhere, may be what persists in the savage cold of winter. Not Western unity behind Ukraine as U.S. Congress stalls in approving vital aid.

Fears echoed in renewed dawn destruction Friday. Kharkiv here hit hardest, perhaps but across Ukraine and old terror returned to the skies. Cruise missiles fired at an array of targets, including the capital.

Ukraine said 14 of 19 fired were shot down, only debris hitting Kyiv. But as they surveyed the damage, the White House is warning era defenses will be perhaps the first impacted when U.S. aid ran out, was surely front of mind.

Less fracture and debris in Moscow, where in a year of surprises for the Kremlin, Friday had none. Vladimir Putin prompted by a Russian occupying soldiers saying he would run again to be Russian president.

Still, after facing down a coup and military setbacks in Ukraine, he said he had thought twice about it. I won't deny it, he said but at different times I had different thoughts. This time, you're right. It is the time to be decisive.

Like nearly everything in Russian politics, it was as arranged is the results in the March vote will likely be.

Also on hand in Moscow was Iran's president Ibrahim Raisi, one of the few world leaders who will still shake Putin's hand. His drones have aided Russia's bombardment of Ukraine's cities all summer and now winter has left Putin walking surprisingly tall.

WALSH: It's going to be a brutal winter for both sides. It may be very static on the front lines but, most importantly, I think Ukraine is very anxious to see Western support return with the same resolve that it has had for the past months -- Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, Zaporizhzhya, Ukraine.

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FOSTER: A bold gesture by Venezuela's president in the face of an ongoing territorial dispute. Nicolas Maduro unveiled a new map of Venezuela that included the disputed territory of Essequibo, which is a part of neighboring Guyana.

Venezuelan voters recently approved a measure claiming rights over the area. The Essequibo region has been disputed between the two countries for years.

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FOSTER: Venezuela has claimed it since the late 19th century. It is rich with oil and minerals, makes up about two-thirds of Guyana's national territory.

U.S., South Korea and Japan say they're working on initiatives to respond to North Korea's various threats. During a visit to Seoul, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Saturday, these threats include Pyongyang's, quote, "reckless space and ballistic missiles."

Sullivan also said the three countries would continue to work together against economic coercion, like supply chain disruptions.

Just under a month to go until Taiwan's presidential election. A senior Taiwan security official says Beijing is ramping up its efforts to interfere in the contest. This as voters face a choice between the current ruling party and two opposition parties that favor China. Will Ripley explains.

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WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): From the Taiwan Strait to the South China Sea, saber-rattling and rising U.S.-China tensions.

Beijing says the U.S. Navy illegally intruded its territorial waters, mobilizing China's military to track an American warship near the hotly contested Spratly Islands, nearly 700 miles from the Chinese coast.

A People's Liberation Army statement says the U.S. deliberately disrupted the situation in the South China Sea. The U.S. Navy says the ship was conducting routine operations in international waters, consistent with international law.

Taiwan keeping a close eye on that latest regional standoff between two global superpowers. Beijing's expanding military exercises and persistent incursions, setting the stage for a powder keg. Taiwan bracing for potential conflict, developing its first indigenous submarine, hoping to stop China from blockading the island.

Taipei says Beijing is bolstering its military might on the sea, beefing up air bases, deploying drones and fighter jets near the island.

A new report from Taiwan's defense ministry says the Chinese military uses realistic combat training and exercises to strengthen its preparedness against Taiwan, an island democracy China's Communist rulers claim as their own territory, despite never controlling it, even unveiling a blueprint plan for one day integrating Taiwan.

All on the verge of what could be its most crucial presidential election ever. Three political parties battling for the hearts, minds and votes of nearly 24 million Taiwanese. Last month, a nail-biting political showdown, playing out live on screens across Taiwan.

Rival leaders storming out, flinging accusations; the clock ticking toward a crucial registration deadline. Two opposition parties seen as friendly to China failing to find common ground, paving the way for a three-way race. The ruling party seen as tough on China, taking the lead in early presidential polls.

WEN-TI SUNG, FELLOW, ATLANTIC COUNCIL'S GLOBAL CHINA HUB: The China policy will always be the single most important issue in Taiwan's presidential elections.

RIPLEY (voice-over): Taiwan's ruling party promotes peace through military strength, prioritizing partnership with the U.S. over economic opportunities across the strait. The opposition says voters are choosing between war and peace.

DREW THOMPSON, SENIOR RESEARCH FELLOW, LEE KUAN YEW SCHOOL OF PUBLIC POLICY: The mainland has always been a paradox for Taiwan. It's not only its biggest security threat, it's also its biggest economic partner.

RIPLEY (voice-over): A delicate, dangerous stance. For the U.S., China and Taiwan, the stakes could not be higher.

RIPLEY: In addition to military shows of force, like the late night display we saw on Friday night, a Taiwanese official speaking to CNN says that Beijing is also ramping up its push to interfere with next month's presidential election and encouraging operatives to do so in a more discreet manner, so they cannot be traced back to the mainland.

Now Beijing has long been accused by Taiwan of employing this three warfare strategy -- Public opinion warfare, psychological warfare and legal warfare in addition, of course, to the very real and looming threat of a military conflict.

CNN reached out to China's Taiwan affairs office for comment. So far, no response -- Will Ripley, CNN, Taipei.

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FOSTER: New York's mayor says hate crimes are on the rise in the city. Just ahead, we'll tell you why police are looking for this man in relation to an incident on the first night of Hanukkah.

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(MUSIC PLAYING) FOSTER: The mayor of New York says the city has seen a 150 percent

rise in anti-Semitic hate crimes and also, a dramatic rise in hate crimes targeting Muslims. Right now, New York police are looking for an attacker, who beat and robbed a Jewish man while spewing anti- Semitic slurs at him.

Police say this surveillance video, shows the suspect entering the subway after he punched the 40-year-old victim in the head several times and took his cell phone. It happened on Thursday, the first night of Hanukkah.

A retired American tennis great, Chris Evert, has been diagnosed with cancer again. She says the disease will force her to miss her job as an analyst for ESPN and next month's Australian Open.

She was the world's number one for seven years in the '70s and '80s and won 18 grand slam singles titles. She was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in January 2022, completing treatment several months later. She admits the diagnosis is not what she wants to hear but is glad the cancer was identified early.

She hopes to return to her broadcast duties later next year.

Now an ancient prison/bakery has been uncovered in the ruins of Pompeii in Italy. The discovery shows that enslaved people and donkeys were bound together to manually run a mill and grind grain for bread.

Marks on the floor apparently forced the donkeys to walk in a circle like a clock. Archaeologists made the discovery, while excavating a home that was being renovated when Mt. Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD, covering the city with ash.

Thanks for joining us. I'm Max Foster. "VITAL SIGNS WITH DR. SANJAY GUPTA" is up next. We'll be back in 30 minutes with more CNN NEWSROOM.