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Israel Drafts New Deal for a week-long Truce in Exchange of the Release of Hostages; Trump Out of the 2024 Colorado Ballot; Rescuers Struggle Cold Temperatures to Find Survivors of the Gansu Quake. CNN visits West Bank amid the Escalating Settler Violence; New COVID Variant Detected by WHO in the United States as Authorities Advised to Get Protected. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired December 20, 2023 - 03:00   ET

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

[03:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us from all around the world and everyone streaming also on CNN Max. I'm Max Foster, in London.

Just ahead. Israel reportedly draws up a new deal offering a week-long pause in fighting in Gaza in exchange for the release of dozens of Hamas hostages.

Donald Trump could get the boot from Colorado's 2024 ballot after the state's Supreme Court ruled he's ineligible to run for the White House

And thousands of rescuers in China are battling the bitter cold as they race to find survivors from Monday's quake. We're live in Beijing with the very latest.

UNKNOWN (voice-over): Live from London, this is "CNN Newsroom" with Max Foster.

FOSTER: Reports that Israel is now proposing a new deal to pause the fighting in Gaza in exchange for the release of more hostages held by Hamas. CNN political and foreign policy analyst Barak Ravid says that Israeli officials have told him that Israel has proposed a one-week pause in exchange for about 40 hostages. That would include women, the elderly and those in need of urgent care.

David says Qatari mediators are now taking that proposal to Hamas for its response. And this news comes after Israel's president suggested his country would be willing to agree to a new temporary truce with Hamas in exchange for more hostages.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ISAAC HERZOG, ISRAELI PRESIDENT: Israel is ready for another humanitarian pause and additional humanitarian aid in order to enable the release of hostages.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Those comments coming as the U.N. Security Council had been expected to vote on a resolution calling for a suspension of hostilities in Gaza. But that vote was delayed and sources say it's now expected to take place in the coming hours. The resolution aims to get more humanitarian aid into Gaza. Diplomats say there have been intense negotiations to finalize the resolution drafted by the United Arab Emirates.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MOHAMED ABUSHABAB, DEPUTY PARLIAMENT REPRESENTATIVE OF THE UAE TO THE U.N.: We are now coming to the end of what was the deadliest year in the occupied Palestinian territory. This should be a wake-up call that the current status quo cannot be allowed to continue.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Well, the militant group Palestinian Islamic Jihad has released a video of two Israeli hostages. The footage shows the two men speaking in front of a camera. We decided not to air it because they're likely speaking under duress. In the video, they asked the Israeli government to do, quote, everything necessary to secure their release. They say their lives in Gaza are extremely dangerous.

Islamic Jihad released the video a day after Hamas released similar footage showing three elderly Israelis in captivity. Israel's military said that video reflects Hamas' cruelty against innocent civilians in need of medical care.

CNN's Clare Sebastian following developments, joins us here in London. Clearly a will on the Israeli side to get more hostages out, but the question is, will Hamas release them?

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, I mean, if you look at this report and the ratio of hostages to the length of the pause, it does seem like, if this is true, that Israel is trying to sweeten the deal for Hamas, because a week-long pause is basically what we saw last time at the end of November. But that was in exchange for around 80 Israeli hostages.

So less hostages for the same amount of pause. Looks like they're trying to sweeten the deal. It would include the rest of the women, according to this report from Axios that Hamas is holding. You'll remember the reason why the talks broke down last time, one of the reasons was because Israel believed Hamas was still holding a number of women and refused to release them, so that would indicate fulfilling the terms of the previous deal.

Also men over 60 and anyone in urgent need of medical care. And it is, in a sense, a quick turnaround because just last week, Max, we heard that Israel had canceled a meeting between the Mossad chief and Qatari officials. That was later reinstated. At the time, an Israeli official told CNN that they didn't believe the conditions were right to restart the talks. Obviously then on Friday, we got the accidental killing by Israel of those three hostages. So it seems like that might have been part of the trigger point here to push them towards advancing this deal.

But of course, there's no guarantee the U.S. -- the Israeli ambassador to the US said look it's on the table. There's no guarantee that it will actually happen and Hamas has indicated not in response to this latest Reported offer but it has indicated that it's not wanting to do anything unless Israel stops its war in Gaza.

FOSTER: A pause would also allow some aid to get in, more aid to get in, and that's absolutely desperately needed in the hospitals in particular.

[03:05:05]

SEBASTIAN: Yeah, I mean, it's hard to find adjectives anymore to describe the situation. What the aid agencies are saying, for example, the World Food Programme, half of Gaza's population, they say, is starving. People are going entire days without eating. They say that just 10 percent of Gaza's food needs have entered the strip in the last 70 days.

Human Rights Watch is now accusing Israel of using starvation as a weapon of war. Moving on to the hospitals. Another hospital, according to the Hamas-run health ministry out of service as of Tuesday. That's the Al-Ahli Baptist hospital in Gaza Just 11 of the 36 hospitals in the strip now have some kind of functionality not even fully functioning.

And there was an incident where this is also reported by the Hamas run health ministry: a 13-year-old girl who had her leg amputated after an airstrike killed in the Nasser medical complex in southern Gaza This is something that the UNICEF spokesperson reacted to. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMES ELDER, UNICEF SPOKESPERSON: Truly, I'm furious. I'm furious that those with power shrug as the humanitarian nightmares unleashed on a million children. I'm furious that children who are recovering from amputations in hospitals are then killed in those hospitals. I'm furious that there are more children hiding as we speak somewhere, who will no doubt be hit and have amputations in the coming days. I'm furious that Christmas is likely going to bring increased savagery and attacks as the world is distracted with its own, you know, love and goodwill.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SEBASTIAN: Israel says, as you know, Max, that it does not target hospitals, that it targets Hamas strongholds. They have, as we've been reporting for several weeks now, been trying to show this through video evidence and other things that Hamas has been using these hospitals, critical for them to prove that, because if that's true, then the hospitals lose their protected status under international humanitarian law.

The latest piece of evidence, an interrogation video that the Israeli Defense Forces released with the director of one Gaza hospital saying that had been used by Hamas in the early days of the war. We're not showing that video. Obviously, it's not clear whether he was speaking freely.

FOSTER: Okay, Clare, Thank you.

U.S. officials say assaults on cargo ships have transformed the security situation in the Red Sea hitting a low not seen in at least two Generations, were told that Houthi rebels in Yemen who were trained and funded by Iran have launched at least 100 attacks on 12 commercial ships over the past month. Many of their drones and ballistic missiles have been intercepted.

The Houthis claim they're supporting Hamas and the Palestinians by targeting vessels that are linked to Israel. And Houthi forces say they won't stop until Israel lets more food and medicine into Gaza.

While Houthi rebels may not be able to pose a direct threat to Israel, their actions could jolt the global economy. Maersk and other shipping giants are already re-routing their vessels, sending them along the coast of Africa via the Cape of Good Hope. That's expected to add weeks of transit time whilst driving up energy and insurance costs.

Hapag-Lloyd is another shipping firm that's now sending its vessels around Africa. We asked its CEO what it would take to return operations to the Red Sea and if the presence of a multinational security force will be enough.

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ROLF HABBERI JANSEN, CEO, HAPAG-LLOYD: We're really happy that this coalition seems to be coming together because that's definitely a step in the right direction. And that alone, however, is not enough. I think if we look at what happened over the last couple of weeks, the number of attacks that have been on commercial vessels is really unacceptable. I mean, we were hit on Friday last week and then decided also to pause passages. And for now, we have decided to indeed reroute across Africa.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Well, we also asked the head of shipping equity research at DNB Markets, what impact these Houthi assaults have on global trade when it comes to the cost and supply of goods.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JORGE LIAN, HEAD OF SHIPPING EQUITY RESEARCH, DNB MARKETS: This is one of the most important waterways naturally for global trade. What we've seen so far is that especially on the container side, the owners and operators have been very vocal to redirect their volume outside of Suez Canal and south of the Cape of Africa.

The main effect this has on shipping is of course adding the sailing distance of that extra voyage and depending a bit on where the cargoes come from and where they're headed to. You can say the average distance added from that voyage could be between 30 to maybe 50, 60 or even up towards 100 percent added distance from this. So of course, that takes a long time. The main cost component when it comes to moving this cargo the further way around Africa is naturally fuel costs in the first point.

And if you start to account for that for a typical container headed from the Far East into Europe, for instance, you quickly get to around maybe 5, 6 to 8, 9 percent of added cost just purely from the fuel side of things.

[03:10:03]

And then you get the secondary effects here, which ties up a lot of capacity in the shipping fleet, and therefore tightens the shipping markets and that in itself would drive an increase in freight rates and therefore cost for the end consumer.

ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: So how much more will we all likely end up paying for this trade disruption and when will we start seeing those price hikes on goods?

LIAN: Yes, some -- Again, we're looking at how transitory this effect will be. But for a typical container, which perhaps is the most interesting to look at in terms of costs for the end consumer, we're seeing somewhere between probably six and eight percent direct costs on fuel. And then because of the insecurity of how this will happen and how available freight will be, we've already started to see the -- the freight rates and box rates for this type of transit to increase quite a bit. Over the weekend we had the Far East Mediterranean rates up roughly 20 percent.

And that is set to continue as long as there is risk to disruption here, which I think is the main driver from the logistics provider side. Now that's on the container side. I think it's also very interesting to mention that of course there are other types of cargo that pass through the canal.

For the time being, it has been the containers that have been leading the move outside of Suez, but you've also had some of the main tanker companies and also the energy companies saying that they want to redirect their ships outside of the Suez Canal. And that, of course, has a direct impact on the cost of oil or oil products and the security of such into, for instance, Europe.

And that in itself could also add additional costs to this. And just comparing to the average cost of crude oil today, we see that the direct implications on the current freight markets would maybe be two to three dollars added cost, thinking about land cost into Europe.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Well, that was Jorge Lian from DNB Markets.

Donald Trump's campaign is vowing to appeal a stunning decision by the Colorado Supreme Court disqualifying him from the 2024 presidential ballot. Now the justices ruled Trump is not eligible to be a candidate because of his role in the 2021 insurrection. CNN's Paula Reid has those details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAULA REID, CNN CHIEF LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: This is a remarkable case from the Colorado Supreme Court. They even acknowledged right in the top of their opinion, the magnitude and the weight of the questions that they are analyzing here. And here this court found that former President Trump should be disqualified from being on the ballot in that state because they say not only did he engage in an insurrection, but they believe that the 14th Amendment, which bars certain officials from holding office if they engage in an insurrection, applies even to presidents. Now a lower court oversaw a trial in this case.

The lower court found that Trump engaged in an insurrection, but they said presidents are not specifically mentioned in that section three of the 14th amendment, so they said it didn't apply. But here the Supreme Court looking instead at the intent behind this amendment, looking at the overall objective of what they were trying to do when they were working on the language of this specific section.

Now the issue there is that the Trump campaign, the Trump team, they've made it clear. They're going to appeal this to the Supreme Court. This decision will likely be on pause until the Supreme Court weighs in one way or another. But this decision, which is largely based on intent and larger objective, is likely headed to a Supreme Court that is dominated right now by originalists, textualists, judges who pride themselves on looking at the specific literal words in the Constitution.

So may not be the most favorable environment for this Supreme Court of Colorado decision. But again, it's unclear if the Supreme Court will take this up. They likely will want to resolve this issue because otherwise you're going to have this hanging over all 50 states and undecided. And if the Supreme Court weighs in, that decision would be binding across the country. But the Trump team says they're going to appeal swiftly. And as soon as they do, this decision is on hold until the Supreme Court rules one way or another.

Paula Reid, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Ukraine's president says he's confident the United States will keep its promise to provide wartime support, even as U.S. conservative lawmakers block a new aid package. Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke on Tuesday about the state of the war. He says he has faith despite the waffling in Congress.

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): Talking about financially, we are working very hard on this, and I am certain that the United States of America will not betray us. And that on which we agreed in the United States will be fulfilled completely.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Mr. Zelenskyy is also addressing his military's request to draft up to 500,000 people to join the war. He says it's a complicated issue and is asking for more arguments from military leaders to convince him it's a wise decision. President Zelenskyy also is saying the challenge is his military faces on the battlefield are immense. But when a reporter asked if he thinks there's a danger Ukraine is starting to lose the war, Mr. Zelenskyy answered firmly, no.

About that U.S. political stalemate, and it looks like Congress will not be making a deal to fund new Ukraine aid before the end of the year at least. Senate leaders say the negotiations will pick up early 2024 to discuss a larger national security package, which includes funds for both Ukraine and Israel.

And one Republican senator says he thinks it'll take weeks before they can reach a deal. Conservative lawmakers have refused to sign off on billions of dollars worth of aid to U.S. allies unless the legislation contains tougher rules on immigration from the southern border with Mexico.

The White House slamming a new taxes law that makes it a state crime or Texas law rather, that makes it a state crime to enter Texas illegally, calling it incredibly extreme. The White House says the law, quote, "will not and does not make the communities in Texas safer." The state's Republican governor signed the bill on Monday, which will give local law enforcement authorities the power to arrest migrants. Civil rights organizations have filed a lawsuit challenging the bill.

CNN's Rosa Flores reports the legislation comes amid the surge of migrants in the southern border.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: What you see behind me are thousands of migrants in Eagle Pass, Texas waiting to be transported for immigration processing. Now, Eagle Pass, Texas is the epicenter of the immigration crisis in the United States right now. It is where the federal-broken immigration system collides with the State of Texas who wants to take this issue into its own hands.

And I want to show you exactly what I'm talking about. If you look over my shoulder, you'll see that these are men, women, children who are waiting right now out in the cold to be transported for processing. And what you're looking at right now is a federal issue in the United States. It's up to the federal government to apprehend these individuals, process them and hold them.

But Texas Governor Greg Abbott has just signed a bill known as SB4 that would -- that has created a new state law for illegal entry into the United States.

And what that means is, is the images that you're looking at right now could turn into a state issue. Now I've talked to state leaders all along the border who are very concerned about this. Why? Because it's going to cost their communities money.

I talked to the sheriff here in Maverick County and he says that his deputies don't have training in immigration law and that he doesn't have space in his jail to house all of these individuals is jail can only house 250 individuals there's already 180 in custody and there's thousands of people behind me so why is all this happening and why is there this bottleneck.

Well right now there's about 23,000 migrants in border patrol custody and holding capacity is only 10,000. So do the math. There is an overwhelming number of migrants who are in custody right now, and it has created this bottleneck, which raises the question, why? What's happening? Why is this different?

I'll tell you why. There's a few factors. Of course, the capacity issue, the flow issue. There's a lot of migrants who are coming to the United States from all around the world. And then there's this, the Biden administration is trying to implement and use legal consequences for illegal entry into the United States. And what they're doing in certain processing areas along the U.S. southern border is using something called enhanced expedited removal.

And what that means is that asylum officers make a determination on a migrant's case while the migrant is in custody, which means that migrants are spending more time in custody. And as I mentioned, they only have holding capacity for about 10,000. They're already holding 23,000. migrants and so what this is doing is it's testing the infrastructure on the U.S. southern border.

Rosa Flores, CNN, Eagle Pass, Texas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Still to come, more than 100 people are dead after one of the deadliest earthquakes in years hits northwest China. We'll go live to Beijing for the latest.

[03:20:00]

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FOSTER Rescue workers in China are scrambling in sub-zero temperatures to reach survivors after one of the deadliest earthquakes to hit the country in nearly a decade. State media says at least 131 people have been killed, hundreds of others have been injured, tens of thousands of people have been evacuated and others spent the night in temporary shelters.

For more, let's go over to Steven Jiang, live in Beijing. What are the authorities telling you about the state of the rescue, Steven?

STEVEN JIANG, CNN BEIJING BUREAU CHIEF: Yeah Max, after rescuers dug through the debris for a second night, you just mentioned the authorities have said their search and rescue effort is quote unquote "now basically over." Now there might still be some small-scale operations ongoing according to state media focused on some small remote villages said that were not only hit by the quake but also ensuing mudslides because officially there are still more than a dozen people missing.

But the casualty figures you just mentioned including the death toll have been revised up only slightly since we last spoke on Tuesday. So that perhaps a reflection of the remoteness of this quake zone. It's mostly rural, often mountainous and sparsely populated despite the epicenter being only some 60 miles or so away from the provincial capital of Gansu.

And so that's why authorities say their focus is now shifting to post- disaster relief, including treating the injured. There are nearly a thousand people injured in this quake. But also we settling the tens of thousands of people displaced by this very powerful quake forced to evacuate from their homes and farms. And that process obviously not easy due to the best of condition, but right now very harsh winter conditions there with overnight temperatures reaching zero.

Fahrenheit kind of degrees as you mentioned and that obviously hampering the speed of some of these efforts and they may also take some convincing for some of these people to leave because many of them are very poor farmers so they told state media they're not only concerned about their own safety but also the fate of their crops and the livestock but overall the authority are saying they have mostly restored electricity, communication signals as well as road access to a large part of the quake zone hit by that very powerful quake late Monday night. Max.

FOSTER: Okay, Steven in Beijing, thank you.

India's ruling party is being accused of an attack on democracy after suspending a record number of parliamentarians for the remainder of the winter session. 141 opposition members were removed after demanding a parliamentary debate about last week's security breach in which two men stormed the lower house of parliament.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi says the breach was a serious matter, but not one that required a parliamentary debate. Modi's ruling party has majorities in both houses of government and is expected to legislate with almost no opposition until the end of the term on Friday.

The wife of jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny says her husband has now been missing for two weeks and she doesn't know where he is or what's happening to him.

[03:25:07]

Navalny didn't appear at a scheduled court hearing on Monday, raising new concerns about his well being. His lawyers have said they're checking more than 200 detention centers across Russia, trying to learn where Navalny could be. A judge has suspended any more hearings until Navalny is found, frustrating his lawyers, who are criticizing the court's failure to find him. Still to come. CNN visits the West Bank to witness firsthand the

conflict between Palestinians and Israeli settlers and the measures making everyday life more difficult.

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FOSTER: France's foreign minister says the country will take action against what it calls extremist settlers in the occupied West Bank. At a news conference Tuesday, along with her British counterpart David Cameron, Catherine Colonna condemned violence committed by Jewish settlers and said France is working on sanctions at the European level.

The U.S. has already issued travel restrictions against those, quote, "involved in undermining peace, security or stability in the West Bank." The U.N. Humanitarian Affairs Office has recorded more than 300 Israeli settler attacks against Palestinians since October the 7th. Nearly 100 Palestinians have been injured in those attacks, with at least eight killed by settlers.

CNN's Nima Elbagir visited the West Bank to speak with Palestinians living in fear of attacks from those Israeli settlers. Here's what she and her crew experienced whilst they were there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIMA ELBAGIR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): We stopped at a service station in the occupied Palestinian West Bank. A man in military fatigues demands to check our I.D.'s.

PRODUCER: He said I have the right to secure this area. And to check who you are and what you are doing here.

ELBAGIR (voice-over): He has no identifying insignia, won't tell us who he is, but he's got a gun, so we oblige. We're confused, and we're not the only ones.

UNKNOWN: You are a settler.

UNKNOWN: Shut your mouth. I'll start shooting.

ELBAGIR (voice-over): CNN obtained this video from Inside Hebron, a divided city, filmed a few days after the Hamas October 7 attack.

UNKNOWN: You're not a soldier.

UNKNOWN: You want me to shoot?

UNKNOWN: Anyone who's not clearing out, I'll shoot.

ELBAGIR (voice-over): The Palestinian man won't comply. He says he recognizes the man with the gun as a settler, not a soldier.

In this tense climate, if a soldier issues an order, you comply. But is everyone with a gun and fatigues a soldier? [03:30:00]

The West Bank is under Israeli military occupation. It's also believed to be home to almost three-quarters of a million settlers, Israeli civilians living in the occupied territories. Settlers consider this part of their Biblical homeland and are expanding into Palestinian territories, even though the U.N. Security Council considers their presence illegal.

Yet settlers are integral to Israel's security plan in the occupied territories, as Israel's defense force reservists and settlement security squads. Responding, the IDF says, to security threats in settlements, towns and villages. Palestinians told CNN they consider armed settlers a greater threat than ever before.

Their remit from the IDF is blurring the lines as settlers encroach on Palestinian land. Like here, in the Palestinian village of Tuwani, where there's a settlement at the top of the hill.

In this video, you see men in military fatigues. The IDF equips both civilian settlers' security squads and soldiers in the region. As you can see here, it's almost impossible to differentiate.

They point their rifles at residents and then they shoot, according to eyewitnesses.

CNN shared the images we gathered in the West Bank with a senior IDF official who was unable to tell us who here is in the IDF and who is not. We asked how then are Palestinians expected to differentiate.

The official told CNN there have been cases of reservists who did not act in accordance with army standards, adding there is no place in the IDF for such behavior. Every case that breaches army standards will be investigated.

Palestinians, the officials said, should contact their local brigade.

But Palestinian rights activist and local resident Basel Adra says settlers in military fatigues are forcing Palestinians off their land.

BASEL ADRA, RESIDENT AND ACTIVIST: These settlers are with their guns and they're pointing it to the head of the residents and they tell them, if you don't leave in 24 hours, we will shoot you. So the family would understand that they're not playing. It's a serious threat of killing if you don't leave your home. That led to 35 families to leave. And these settlers have been wearing uniforms also.

ELBAGIR (voice-over): Settlers have heavyweight support in Israel's far-right government. Itamar Ben-Gvir, Minister for National Security, Settler. After the Hamas October 7 attack, Ben-Gvir loosened gun permit regulations making it easier for tens of thousands of Israeli civilians to bear arms.

Bezalel Smotrich, Minister of Finance, Settler. Also post-attack, pushed through over 100 million US dollars for West Bank security, including funds for training and equipping Settler security squads. But it's not just arming and equipping. We witnessed first-hand some

of the restrictions the IDF imposed on Palestinians.

Ihtidal's house is not even five minutes away from the other side of this checkpoint. But she can't get through.

ELBAGIR: Every day they tell her to go back. And every day she has to do this extraordinarily long loop to try and get it. She said they are intentionally making it difficult for us, making it so we have to cross through areas that are hostile to us to get to our homes.

ELBAGIR (voice-over): Ihtidal picks up a few more things before she sets off home. But not too many. It's a long walk uphill.

IHTIDAL, SETTLER (translated): They closed off the road. For the sake of a five minute walk now I have to go around a one hour journey.

ELBAGIR (voice-over): Since the 1990s, the city of Hebron has seen many curfews. The day we visited, there was a curfew in place, from 7.00 p.m. to 7.00 a.m.

Ihtidal has to go through this checkpoint. Palestinians have to be searched. Settlers aren't normally checked. Ihtidal has to walk. Settlers can drive. Palestinians need permission for visitors. Settlers don't.

The IDF says all these measures are in accordance with their security assessments to provide security for all residents. Settlers and Palestinians live side by side, but the rules for each are very different.

Faisa and her husband have lived in this house for 14 years. They inherited it from her husband's grandparents. Their house is overlooked by an IDF sentry post, yet they fear for their safety.

FAISA, SETTLER (through translator): This scene is so inappropriate and depressing for our home. You can see up here what we've had to put in place to protect ourselves from the settlers.

ELBAGIR (voice-over): As we leave Faisa's house, we get stopped by an Israeli soldier. He says we're not allowed to walk along the main road. We have to go back to the checkpoint to be searched again because we've been inside a Palestinian home.

[03:35:07]

ELBAGIR: I would just point out a lack of logic, which is that these Palestinian houses, the Palestinians have come through that checkpoint, so they can't have possibly bought in anything.

PRODUCER: Sorry, just so I can understand, just so I can understand, because I'm really confused as usual.

ELBAGIR: So, even though we went through that checkpoint.

PRODUCER: Okay. ELBAGIR: Even though we went through that checkpoint, because we have

been in the house of Palestinians, we now have to go jumping over people's garden walls.

PRODUCER: So we can't walk on the streets.

ELBAGIR: We can't go straight down.

UNKNOWN: If you go through the checkpoint and you stay here, it's great, but as soon as you move from different areas, so you need to get rechecked.

ELBAGIR: Now do you understand it?

PRODUCER: Oh.

ELBAGIR: Yes, so we need to get rechecked. So we're going to the route that's.

UNKNOWN: Now you know for next time.

ELBAGIR: Come on, let's just go. Thank you, we'll see you in a bit.

UNKNOWN: See you soon.

ELBAGIR (voice-over): But we can't get down. The access to the garden is closed.

ELBAGIR: So the path I can see is the other side of that fence, but if you can see when I can't.

ELBAGIR (voice-over): We can't walk on the street because we've been in a Palestinian house, and now we're deemed a security risk, so we're stuck.

Eventually, the soldier has to call in to his superior to give us special permission to walk on the main road.

ELBAGIR: Thank you so much.

ELBAGIR (voice-over): We head out, and back through the checkpoint where we're searched again. A tiny glimpse into what Palestinians navigate every day.

The U.N. says that post-October 7th, over a thousand Palestinians in the West Bank have been displaced, forced from home by security restrictions and settler violence. The U.S. and U.K. are now sanctioning extreme settlers, but Palestinians say it's not enough. Not one settlers can cloak themselves in the authority of the Israeli state.

Nima Elbagir, CNN, Hebron.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: Still to come, U.S. health officials warn of the fastest growing COVID-19 subvariant out there right now. Details just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FOSTER: The World Health Organization and U.S. health officials are warning that a subvariant of COVID-19 is spreading quickly. Our CNN medical correspondent Meg Tirrell has the details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MEG TIRRELL, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the strain known as JN1 now being characterized as a variant of interest by the World Health Organization is the fastest growing here in the United States. And that's because it has a growth advantage over other variants that are spreading here and around the world. If you look just back about a month ago in November, it accounted for about 4 percent of new cases in the United States, according to CDC's estimates. And now that's up to more than 20 percent nationally.

It's already predominant in the northeastern part of the United States and is expected to become the dominant variant here in the U.S. and worldwide over the coming weeks.

[03:39:53]

What we know about JN1 is that it's descended from another sub-variant of Omicron known as BA2.86. Now this variant we were paying a lot of attention to over the summer because it has a number of mutations in its spike protein that experts worried would make it better at evading our existing immunity from COVID, either from vaccination or from prior infection.

It didn't end up taking off with the speed that a lot of people feared it would. But JN1 is a descendant of that variant and it does seem to have a better ability to spread, at least than its predecessor.

The good news though is that early research suggests that the currently updated vaccines for COVID should protect well against JN1, at least in terms of severe disease. And so Public health officials, especially here in the United States, are encouraging folks to get their updated COVID vaccines if they haven't already. Currently, only about 18 percent of U.S. adults have done so because COVID hospitalizations are rising. In many parts of the country, they're at the medium or even high levels.

They have been increasing along with hospitalizations from flu and RSV as well. And so as we're heading into this winter respiratory season, a lot of folks are traveling. The encouragement is, of course, to get protected any way possible.

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FOSTER: Comedian Jerry Seinfeld met with hostages who have been released by Hamas amid the ongoing war in Gaza between Hamas and Israel. In a social media post, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum thanked Seinfeld and his family for visiting the organization's headquarters in Tel Aviv on Monday. The organization shared that Seinfeld spoke with families about his commitment to raising awareness about the hostages in the ongoing conflict.

Meteorologists say lava flow from the volcano in Iceland is decreasing now down to about one quarter of Monday's levels, but gas pollution remains a potential threat to the capital Reykjavik and surrounding areas. Residents were evacuated from the closest town weeks ago after a burst of seismic activity.

A power company is increasing its alert to emergency level and building defenses against the lava at nearby power masts. The volcano isn't producing ash clouds like another one in Iceland in 2010, which caused major aviation The government says Reykjavik's international airport remains open and is unlikely to experience any flight delays.

Thanks for joining us. I'm Max Foster. "Marketplace Europe" is coming up next. I'll be back in 15 minutes with more "CNN Newsroom."

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