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CNN International: W.H.O.: No Functional Hospitals Left" In Northern Gaza; U.N. Security Council Could Vote Today On Gaza Resolution; Blinken: Hamas Could End This By Laying Down Weapons. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired December 21, 2023 - 08:00   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, CNNI HOST: Hello, and welcome to CNN Newsroom. I'm Max Foster in London. Just ahead, after being delayed three times, the UN Security Council is expected to vote on a resolution calling for a pause to the fighting in Gaza. Home for Christmas, six Americans wrongfully detained in Venezuela are enjoying their first taste of freedom in quite some time. And the lava from a volcano in Iceland is easing, but it's also filling the air with smoke and toxic gas.

The World Health Organization says there are no functioning hospitals left in northern Gaza. With no power and barely any medical supplies, the last of them can no longer take any more patients. The WHO says only a handful of hospitals in southern Gaza are able to treat patients. That desperate assessment comes as the UN Security Council tries to agree on a resolution urging Israel and Hamas to work out a new ceasefire. There are hopes a vote could come today, but the U.S. has balked at language. They say it is too critical of Israel. And the U.S. Secretary of State says Hamas has the power to end the suffering of Gaza's people.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: I hear virtually no one saying, demanding of Hamas that it stop hiding behind civilians, that it lay down its arms, that it surrender. This is over tomorrow if Hamas does that. And how could it be -- how can it be that there are no demands made of the aggressor and only demands made of the victim?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Let's bring in CNN's Jeremy Diamond with the very latest from Tel Aviv. So, are hopes relatively high that some sort of break in the fighting could come soon?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, not anymore, especially because we just got a statement in the last couple of hours from Hamas saying effectively that they will not engage in hostage negotiations until there is a cessation of aggression, as they term it, before any of those negotiations can move forward. That has been Hamas' position for several weeks now. But, there was some hope that perhaps they would move off of that position, especially as yesterday we saw Ismail Haniyeh, the head of Hamas, traveling to Cairo for meetings with Egyptian officials, who have been key in -- key mediators in these talks alongside the Qataris. But, very clearly, Hamas is sticking to this position, which is untenable for Israel.

Israel, of course, has put an offer on the table that would see some 40 hostages released in exchange for a week-long pause in the fighting, but they are not going to agree, at least at this time, to a pause in the fighting in order to allow space for the negotiations. And so, what we are seeing is that the fighting is very much going to continue on the ground in Gaza. And that also, of course, means that more Palestinian civilians are going to continue to suffer as a result.

More than 20,000 Palestinians have now been killed in Gaza since the beginning of this war. 70 percent, 70 percent of those are believed to be women and children, according to the Hamas-controlled Palestinian Ministry of Health. That is an extraordinary number. And of course, behind that number are the lives of so many civilians who have been killed in this fighting and in the bombardment of the Gaza Strip that has been relentless since the beginning of this war.

At the same time, we're also learning more, Max, about these three hostages who were killed late last week by Israeli soldiers, mistakenly identified as a threat despite the fact that they were waving a white flag and have their shirts off. But now, the mother of one of those three hostages delivered a message, an audio recording to the unit that was involved in that shooting, effectively telling them not to blame themselves. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

IRIS HAIM, MOTHER OF SLAIN HOSTAGE YOTAM HAIM (Translated): I know that everything that happened is completely not your fault, it's nobody's fault -- except the Hamas, may their name and memory be wiped off the face of the earth. We all need you to be safe and sound. Don't hesitate for a single moment -- if you see a terrorist, don't think that you have deliberately killed a hostage. You need to protect yourselves because that's the only way you would be able to protect us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DIAMOND: The Israeli Military also uncovered new footage just two days ago that was filmed by a military K9 dog who was involved in the fighting between those Hamas fighters who are apparently holding those three Israelis hostage and the Israeli soldiers who apparently killed those Hamas fighters. That dog was killed in the fighting. And unfortunately, the GoPro that he was wearing was only recovered two days ago. But, on it, the Israeli Military actually found that the voices of those three hostages was recorded on that GoPro. This happened five days before those hostages were shot and killed mistakenly by those Israeli soldiers. This, of course, will be a part of the broader investigation into this incident that the Israeli Military is conducting.

FOSTER: I just wonder, Jeremy, what you think would happen if we've got a situation where Hamas isn't going to hand over the hostages, but the UN calls on Israel to cease fighting even, if it is temporarily? How will Israel respond to that? Is it a binding agreement with the UN, or does it ignore it because it is not going to get the hostages in return?

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DIAMOND: I think it's very rare to see an instance where Israel abides by or listens to what the United Nations is saying. We will see how they will actually react to it if indeed this resolution passes. But, of course, we know that the United States is very much working to tweak the language of this resolution so that it can be something more palatable, more acceptable to Israel's position, and more importantly, something that the U.S. could potentially support. The Secretary of State yesterday indicated that the U.S. is trying to get to language that it could actually support beyond just an abstention, something that they might actually vote in favor of.

And so, they've been trying to work in language, not only about Hamas' roll in carrying out the October 7 terrorist attacks, which launched this entire war, but there is also negotiation around the language about stopping or suspending the hostilities in order to allow for the entry of aid, in order to provide some kind of a humanitarian pause. But, there is no question that now you have in the backdrop of all this Hamas effectively refusing to negotiate for a pause in the fighting for the release of hostages until Israel stops the fighting. So, this kind of just adds to the mix of this kind of complex situation that we are watching unfold, and perhaps we'll have a vote at the UN today if they don't delay it again.

FOSTER: OK. Jeremy, thank you. The U.S. President has been speaking out about the release of 10 Americans who had been held in Venezuela, in exchange for the freeing of a close ally of Nicolas Maduro. Joe Biden said the deal was made because Venezuela had agreed to hold free elections, and so far has maintained that requirement. Six of the Americans had been wrongfully detained and they've been expressing their relief as they return home.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SAVOI WRIGHT, AMERICAN RELEASED BY VENEZUELA: It's really scary to be in a place where you're used to having freedoms and you're locked into a cell, sometimes with four other people in a very tiny cell, and to realize, am I ever going to get out of this? Am I ever going to make it home? How did I get to this point? Yeah. There is some places where I was held where I was worried for my safety. I definitely had to go to a spiritual place, ask for guidance, and navigate that time, and other times, I was taken care of very well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Well, in exchange, the U.S. has freed Alex Saab, the alleged financier to Venezuela's President. Ed Lavandera is in San Antonio, Texas, with more on the release of those Americans. And also some concern, obviously, about how the swap went the other way.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN U.S. SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. There has been some concern. But, overall, I think what U.S. officials were saying is that they were much more intentionally driven by getting these Americans out. U.S. officials say now there are no wrongfully detained Americans inside of Venezuela.

This deal came together so quickly yesterday morning that many of the family members of the Americans that arrived here in Texas didn't have time to make it here to the city to watch them walk off the plane. Many family members have arrived here since then. But, they said -- several of the released Americans said that they woke up yesterday morning in a Venezuelan jail cell. They were then flown to an island in the Caribbean, which turned out to be a meeting point, where they waited for almost six hours as the final details of this deal between the U.S. and Venezuela were hammered out. Then they were told that they were going to be getting on another plane that would be taking them home.

One of the men that spoke after landing yesterday was Eyvin Hernandez. He had been held in Venezuela for almost two years, more than 20 months. He said it was an excruciating time. And then, he is just simply grateful to be back here in the United States, reunited with his family.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

EYVIN HERNANDEZ, AMERICAN RELEASED BY VENEZUELA: All you think about when you're in prison is how you didn't appreciate being free while you were free. There is no way to understand what it's like to be in prison unjustly and not have any way out. And so, it's been a long time coming.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAVANDERA: So, to kind of recap the highlights of this deal, 10 Americans, six of which we saw arrived here yesterday. We don't have a lot of information on where the other four arrived. They were told they were taken to a different location. Venezuela also sent back a man by the name of Leonard Francis who has escaped from the U.S. after he was convicted back in 2015 on -- in a huge scandal of the bribery and money laundering following -- it was a U.S. Naval scandal. He was supposed to be sentenced and then escaped to Venezuela. He has also been brought back. And as you mentioned, all of this in exchange for a man by the name of Alex Saab, who is facing criminal charges here in the U.S., and is a close ally of the Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. Max.

FOSTER: Ed Lavandera, thank you.

Well, those Americans have arrived back home from Venezuela. Their countryman, Paul Whelan, says he feels abandoned by the U.S. government.

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Speaking to the BBC from a Russian prison, he said it was a serious betrayal that the U.S. government can't make a deal with Russia for his release. Whelan, a former U.S. Marine, has been behind bars in Russia since 2018, and was sentenced to 16 years in prison on espionage charges. He was -- well, he has consistently denied.

The presidents of the U.S. and Mexico expected to speak this week amid the surge of migrants in America's southern border. According to the White House, Joe Biden and Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador opened discussions on the subject last month when they met at a regional summit in San Francisco. Officials point to multiple reasons for the latest increase in migration, including misinformation spread by smugglers and limited resources also in Mexico.

I want to bring in our White House Reporter Priscilla Alvarez live from Washington, D.C., because this really has been the political talking point going into the end of the year.

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: It has. This is a political vulnerability for President Biden as he heads into the 2024 presidential election. And now, sources tell me that the White House is expected to place additional pressure on Mexico to help with the surge at the U.S.-Mexico border. Now, the U.S. has generally leaned on Mexico to assist with stemming the flow of migration to the U.S. southern border. And that is what President Biden and Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador are expected to talk about this week.

Now, again, the reason that this is happening is because of what is an unprecedented surge at the U.S. southern border. There have been several days of more than 10,000 encounters daily. Those are numbers that haven't been seen since the spring. And current and former officials tell me that that is bringing the U.S.-Mexico border to a breaking point. And it's not only because of the numbers that we're seeing, but that it is happening across the U.S. southern border. In previous instances, there are often spots or sectors where there is a surge, and that is where all resources are deployed to assist. But, what is happening now is that there are multiple searches across the border.

So, that means that officials are being sent to these different locations that there really -- their hands are tied in terms of where they can send migrants that they're receiving to get additionally processed, and if they are eligible, repatriated to their country. So, all of this is a steep, steep challenge for U.S. officials who are scrambling to respond. And that also means that they need more assistance from their regional partners, which is the reasons sources tell me that the President is expected to get on the phone with the Mexican President to talk about this.

But, again, Max, this is a political liability, again, going into next year. It is one that the President has contended with since taking office, border security being an issue that Republicans have slammed the administration on as it faces unprecedented migration in the Western Hemisphere. And it is also the reason, Max, that Ukraine aid is currently stalled in Congress as Republicans seek border policy changes to get any aid forward. So, these domestic issues are at the center of the President's foreign policy agenda. All of this converging at the end of the year, and just placing additional urgency to those talks between the U.S. and Mexico. FOSTER: Yeah. And also in terms of the White House and some

conservative lawmakers who are blocking various other packages because they're not happy with what's going on at the southern border. Is there any suggestion that some progress on common ground is occurring in those talks?

ALVAREZ: Lawmakers have been signaling that there has been progress. But, this is a very complicated issue for years, decades. The Congress has been unable to reach consensus on any immigration reform. And Senate negotiators tried this month to reach some sort of agreement on border policy changes, and the White House desperately wants this to happen. They too were involved, and even considering some pretty strict border measures that were against some of their own party members, and that includes, for example, expelling migrants at the U.S. southern border, which doesn't make them eligible for asylum, also more deportation flights, more detention. All of these are issues that Democrats have been speaking out against over the last several years.

But, it just goes to underscore how desperately the White House wants this deal to get that aid to Ukraine and Israel. And again, while lawmakers were signaling progress, we're now almost at the end of the year, and the Senate is going home, and there hasn't been any deal accomplished. So, what we've heard so far is that this will be kicked up again in the New Year, and they hope to reach one then. But, Max, having covered this for years now, it is very difficult, perhaps unlikely for that to happen on what has been an intractable issue here in Washington.

FOSTER: All right. OK. Priscilla at the White House, really appreciate your time today. Thank you so much for that.

Now, still to come, as the U.S. election cycle kicks into gear, it could be up to the Supreme Court to decide the fate of Donald Trump.

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Next, we'll take an in depth look at the legal challenges he faces in 2024.

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FOSTER: Welcome back. Donald Trump wants the U.S. justice system to come to his rescue. But, above all, he wanted to take plenty of time thinking about it, ideally about a year. In the case of alleged elections diversion, he claims he is immune from prosecution because he was President, but he is also opposing special prosecutor Jack Smith's motion for the Supreme Court to deliver a fast track decision on that. Trump's election interference trial is scheduled to begin on March 4. On top of all this, the Colorado Supreme Court's stunning decision this week, barring Trump from appearing on the ballot in the state's primary elections.

I want to bring in our Senior Crime and Justice Reporter Katelyn Polantz live from Washington. I mean, it's so hard, isn't it for people in America, let alone around the world to try to keep up with all of these trials. But, which is the one you're really looking at? And presumably, it's the Supreme Court that ultimately decides on all of them.

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: Max, we're watching the Supreme Court so closely right now, and the one that I'm watching most closely this week is this question of whether the Supreme Court is going to take this case about presidential immunity.

So, all of these things before the Supreme Court right now related to Donald Trump, they're all about what happened in the 2020 election, after the 2020 election, and what Trump did or allegedly did that he is charged with. In the criminal context, he is charged with a crime. He is set to go to trial in March. And he is arguing that he should have some sort of immunity because he was President at the time after the election, and what he was doing should be considered part of the presidency. He also went to trial already before Congress. That's different than a court of law.

But, the question of whether he has that immunity, that has to be settled by the Appeals Court before he goes to trial, or it would deprive him of some of his rights as a criminal defendant. And so, the question now is, does the Supreme Court do something immediately with this? Do they figure out the law here around presidential immunity for someone who was the President and is charged with a crime? Or do they wait and watch for another Appeals Court, the Appeals Court below them to make a decision first?

That Appeals Court below them already has arguments set for January in this case, and the Justice Department, the people who are prosecuting Trump, they want the Supreme Court to just skip that and get involved now because someone needs to figure this out. It's in the public interest. They say they need an answer. And they want to obviously hold that trial date of March for Donald Trump. Donald Trump's team, they're cautioning the Supreme Court and they're saying no, no, not yet. Let this play out in the courts. We can delay, delay, and clearly their strategy is that they don't want that case to go to trial in March. They want it to go well past the election, and they're telling the Supreme Court, don't do anything with reckless abandon.

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Those are the words they used. Of course, the Supreme Court doesn't do much with reckless abandon, but that is where that case stands. And the Supreme Court could act at any time on whether they are going to look at this immunity question. We're waiting to see what they say.

FOSTER: He never looks intimidated. Does he, in any of these situations? Do you think in a way, all of this chaos, the fact that people don't really understand all the detail of everything that's going on, works in his campaign's favor?

POLANTZ: It may, and he certainly tries to exploit that. He is out there pushing himself as someone who is victimized. Right? He is being prosecuted in four different cases, four different jurisdictions, in Georgia, in New York State, in federal court in Washington, in federal court in Florida. There is always some confusion about what are each of these cases about and how are they different. Two of them are about the January 6 attack on the Capitol, what Trump was doing after the election. One of them is about his business practices, and how he kept his books as a businessman. And another one is about his handling of documents after the presidency, in Florida.

And so, all of those things are things that Trump has said, the prosecutors, they go after me because I am in their minds of prime (ph), somebody that politically people want to prosecute. That isn't what has happened though. These cases have gone through grand juries. They have been approved by people sitting on those grand juries. The prosecutors have investigated thoroughly, and they will go to trial to determine whether Trump is acquitted or found guilty on these. So, a lot is happening, and he is trying to exploit it also with Colorado.

FOSTER: Katelyn Polantz in Washington, thank you so much. You explained it very well. At least you can.

POLANTZ: Thank you.

FOSTER: Still to come, lava flows from a volcano in Iceland. They're easing. But, authorities aren't ready to let people in a nearby village back into their homes just yet. We'll explain why.

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FOSTER: Nearly two days after a volcano erupted in Iceland, officials in the town of Grindavik are still assessing the possible dangers. Roads are closed to everyone except emergency services, and police are asking people not to try to approach the eruption area and to be cautious of the toxic gas being emitted. The government says it is helping around 4,000 people who had to evacuate in November, buying up dozens of apartments, with some of those forced out of their homes. CNN's Fred Pleitgen is on the scene.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): Up close as the Earth spews fountains of lava, South Iceland remains in a state of emergency as the volcanic eruption continues.

PLEITGEN: This is as close as the Icelandic authorities are going to allow us to the actual fissures or where the eruption is happening. I'd say we're going mile, maybe a little less than a mile away from it.

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Now, things have calmed down a little bit, but at the same time, of course, the danger is still there. The authorities fear that there could be new events that might open up, pop up, and that more lava could be gushing to the surface, and then could be coming to the surface in fountains like we've seen over the past day and a half. So, while things have gotten a little bit more muted, certainly the danger is not over. PLEITGEN (voice-over): In the early stages of the eruption, a wall of

lava spewing hundreds of feet into the air. While it has subsided somewhat, the underground magma tunnel remains active and dangerous.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's still dangerous, of course, and the magma that is coming up is around 1,200 degrees hot when it comes to the surface, and it takes a long time for the surface to cool down.

PLEITGEN (voice-over): The area around the eruption zone remains cordoned off, critical infrastructure in danger, the world famous Blue Lagoon hots spring is closed.

PLEITGEN: Here is another reason why the situation is so dangerous. You see over there is the volcanic activity, and if we pan over in this direction, over there is a geothermal power plant. That's extremely important for the electricity here in this area. The authorities are trying to protect that power plant by building a berm against any lava flows.

PLEITGEN (voice-over): For the local residents, no respite --

KATRIN JAKOBSDOTTIR, PRIME MINISTER OF ICELAND: We now have this volcanic eruption very close to Grindavik. I think it is -- it has proven vital that the town was evacuated in November. We have been buying flats for the residents. So now, we actually have 70 flats that people can move into before Christmas, which is the most people who are in most dire need of housing.

PLEITGEN (voice-over): -- leaving many residents wondering if they will ever see their homes again. Fred Pleitgen, CNN, near Grindavik, Iceland.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Thanks for joining us on CNN Newsroom. I'm Max Foster in London. World Sport with Carolyn Manno is up next.

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