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CNN International: 73-Year-Old Israeli-American Hostage Has Died In Gaza; U.S Will Likely Back Latest Gaza Resolution At U.N.; AAA Predicts Record Air Travel Through New Year's. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired December 22, 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, HOST, "CNN NEWSROOM": Hello, and welcome to CNN Newsroom. I'm Max Foster in London. Just ahead, in the last hour, it's been confirmed that a 73-year old Israeli-American male hostage has died whilst being held in Gaza. What we know, just ahead. Plus, new details about how a deadly shooting in Prague on Thursday unfolded. Police say 14 people were killed. And then, as millions of people head home for the holidays, is the travel industry standing up to the pressure?

We are just getting word that a 73-year-old Israeli-American hostage has died in Gaza. The Missing Persons Families Forum says Gadi Haggai was an Israeli-American dual national and Hamas hostage. The Forum says his body is still being held in Gaza where his wife is also being held captive. We're also watching for any word out of the United Nations whether U.S. will -- is expected to back the latest resolution on Gaza after repeated delays in a planned vote. That's what we're hearing from the U.S. Ambassador to the UN. A UN Security Council vote is expected later today.

Meanwhile, CNN is releasing new analysis about the first month of the Israel-Hamas war. It shows warfare experts pointing to Israel's extensive use of heavy munitions, such as 2,000 pound bombs. The analysis says those devices are four times heavier, the largest bombs dropped by the U.S. on ISIS in Mosul, Iraq.

CNN's Will Ripley live for us from Tel Aviv. And first of all, Will, about this hostage.

WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: 73-years-old, a musician, American-Israeli named Gadi Haggai who was taking a walk on October 7, the early morning hours, when they saw the barrage of rocket interceptions, and shortly thereafter came under fire. Friends say that Gadi Haggai's wife was able to get in touch with them to say that he had been hit. He was hurt. But, that's when they lost contact. Presumably, that's when they were kidnapped and taken into Gaza.

Now, we know based on testimony from other released hostages that they were likely separated. Family members, like brothers and sisters, husband and wives, they were put in different groups, kept in a total information blackout, sometimes sitting in these underground tunnels in the darkness, starving, in many cases, hungry all the time, hearing every single airstrike, but having a feeling that could probably linger in their minds that they might have been forgotten about, because they were told nothing, nothing about the status of the loved ones they were taken with, nothing about the situation back home. Hostages who were released usually said they got a few minutes notice, maybe an hour that they were going to be released.

What is particularly sad about this instance is that Gadi and his wife, Judi, both in their 70s, would have fit the category of the hostages that Israel is trying to negotiate a release for as soon as possible. Israel has been asking for a few dozen hostages in exchange for a one-week pause in fighting, an offer, by the way, that Hamas has rejected. So, those talks aren't going anywhere anytime quickly. But, it would have been for women, people who are elderly, and people like Gadi, who if he had been shot back in October 7 was probably very much in need of urgent medical care. Judi is still being held. And of course, her family, you would imagine, and presumably is holding out great hope that she will come back as part of any hostage deal. But, again, Max, that deal seems to be a long way off, given the status of the talks right now.

FOSTER: Some hope that there could be a let-up in the fighting if this UN vote goes through. Where does this stand?

RIPLEY: So, for the first time now, after a series of delays and the United States actually vetoing previous resolutions, it does now seem that the U.S. is poised to sign on to this UN resolution, which would basically start putting into action a means to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian relief, badly needed humanitarian relief into Gaza. You're talking about a place of with two million people, nearly all of them displaced, not even having access to the most basic of services, almost no hospitals operational, none in the north and a handful in the south.

So, this -- by the U.S. signing this, which would presumably also mean that they've included language that the U.S. feels is sufficient enough in condemning Hamas for the attacks of October 7 that started all of this, something that Israel has complained, has kind of gotten lost in the noise, and the absolutely horrific death toll which is now believed to be above 20,000, according to information from the Hamas- controlled Health Ministry in Gaza and the Palestinian Health Ministry in Ramallah, 20,000 people killed. Clearly, nobody on the ground here would disagree that there needs to be badly needed relief and a lot of it as soon as possible. But, getting there, finding a way to stop the fighting, this resolution will do its part, Max, to pile on the pressure on the Israeli government and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to figure out something.

But, of course, the Israelis are concerned about the concessions that Hamas is going to ask for. Will they want a longer pause in the fighting? Will they want militants that have been arrested and convicted here to be sent back over in exchange for these women and elderly and patients who need to go to the hospital very badly?

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Those are the details along with, of course, huge hate and mistrust on both sides that make it a very dim prospect that this is going to come together this holiday week, considering the last deal, Max, took more than a month to hammer out.

FOSTER: Okay. Will Ripley, thank you.

In the past few hours, Prague Police confirmed that 14 students and staff were killed in the shooting at Charles University on Thursday. They also released body cam footage, giving a chilling insight into what happened during the attack. You can see officers searching through corridors and evaluating people from the university buildings. The government says three foreign nationals were amongst 25 people injured on Thursday. And we've gotten an update this morning. Melissa Bell was listening into it and joins us now live. Melissa.

MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Max, we've been hearing more from Czech Police country -- in a country that's really woken up in shock after the events of yesterday. It's being described as the worst atrocity in peace -- the peacetime history of the Czech Republic. It is also the first school or college shooting in the country's history. So, a great deal of shock out there that this could have happened at all. What we've been hearing from the Police this morning, as the country reels from the events of yesterday, is more about exactly what happened.

The fact that this young man, whose name they haven't released, by the way yet, Max, a 24-year-old philosophy student left his home and they found his father's body shortly afterwards there. They believed he killed him, made his way to the university, killed the people, he did, before killing himself. There had been some doubt yesterday as to whether his death had been a suicide or whether it had been -- that he'd been killed by the police. It turns out they say that he did commit suicide. What we've been hearing from the police are some pretty harrowing details about exactly the arsenal with which he'd come to the university, with the police spokesman saying, look, when you look at the amount of weaponry he had, the ammunitions he brought, you realize just how important that swift Police response was.

There might have been many more dead had they not intervened as effectively as he didn't, as you say, in that press conference, showing some of that body cam footage which shows not only the scenes of panic and of chaos inside the university, as the shooting went on, as the police moved in to try and bring it to an end, but also in some of the scenes and we've done what we could to blur them, the bodies of the students on the ground, some of the triage happening on the part of the police in those initial first moments when they discovered the victims of the massacre.

In all, 14 of those dead. We have had 11 of them identified, according to the Police. Most of them, of course, were students who were there studying the -- who were just about to head off their end of year exams and then Christmas. A few of them are university staff as well. A makeshift memorial has been set up at the university, and tomorrow, Max, will be a day of national mourning in their memory.

FOSTER: It's difficult for them to rationalize because they don't still have a sense of the motive. Do they? There are various parts to this as well beyond what actually happened there at the university. BELL: That's right. No motive for the time being. This was a man who had no criminal record, who had legal access to his guns. He had a permit to carry them. There was nothing that might have led Police to think that he needed to be kept an eye on. But, what they are saying is that as a result of the investigations at his home, they are now linking him to a double homicide that took place, yes, last week on the outskirts of a Prague suburb, where a man and his child, being described by the Police is a baby, were found in a forest on the outskirts of Prague. He is now being linked to that homicide, and which there had been no lead so far.

So, a slightly more complex picture is emerging. But, again, in a country that simply isn't used to these kinds of killings, plenty of questions about what needs to happen next. We hear from the Police that they're beefing up their security at what they describe as schools and other soft targets, the country trying to protect itself from something that it's only just coming to terms with, Max.

FOSTER: Okay. Melissa Bell, thanks for joining us from Paris with that update.

We're going to turn now to the U.S. where the holiday travel rush is well underway. AAA is predicting record levels of air travel through New Year's, and American Airlines and the nation's largest carrier expects today to be the busiest day of the travel season. Not everyone will be flying, though. Look out for the roads to be extra busy as well. You can see it is building up. Overall, 115 million Americans expected to travel 50 miles or more from home this holiday season.

CNN's Pete Muntean joins us live from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, and it's a holiday that people don't want to miss. So, they're determined to battle through the traffic.

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: No doubt, Max. And you know, the day is going to be really big. In fact, yesterday, we saw really huge numbers, according to the Transportation Security Administration, 2.64 million people passed their security at America's airports.

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That was bigger than the 2.5 million that was initially predicted. Today is going to be even bigger, 2.69 million people expected at airports nationwide. 44,000 flights. Things have been relatively smooth. Just check FlightAware here in the U.S. We've only seen about 40 flight cancellations, about 500 delays, although the FAA is warning of ground stops today in Phoenix, LA and in Palm Beach. There is also some low clouds ceilings impacting things in the plain states. We will see, though, as things go on, and there is some concern about weather over the weekend. The bigger days are still to come after the holidays. And Airlines for America, the top industry lobby, says Tuesday to next Friday will be huge.

I want you to listen now to this warning from Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. He says passengers need to be extra cognizant of the weather, especially after the Southwest meltdown of last year.

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PETE BUTTIGIEG, U.S. TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY: I would say, we know that weather is coming our way. It's why you want to make sure that you're keeping in touch with your airline. The big thing that we can control, though, that airlines need to control, is how resilient the system is to that weather.

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MUNTEAN: Of course, a lot of people are going to be driving, and AAA says the vast majority will be hitting the roads 50 miles or more. The big interesting thing here, Max, is that a lot of people don't have the full next week off. Christmas falls on a Monday. So, there could be a bit of a confluence of traffic between holiday travelers and normal traffic when it comes Wednesday time. The good news here in the U.S. is that people are a bit encouraged by the price of gas. $3.12 is the national average. That is down from where we were a month ago, a few cents higher from where we were a year ago, though.

FOSTER: Okay. Pete, we wish more luck. Thank you so much.

In Southern California where more heavy rain and flash flooding are in the forecast, wet weather might disrupt some of those travel plans as well. Over the past 48 hours, a slow moving storm has unleashed torrential downpours, prompting evacuation warnings and wreaking havoc on the roads. The Los Angeles area could see more than an inch of rain today. Derek Van Dam joins me at the CNN Weather Center with more on that extra layer of disruption.

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yeah. Max, I think I heard Pete mention that Los Angeles to Phoenix were the travel trouble spots for today. And here is the reason why. I mean, look at what commuters are having to deal with in Santa Barbara. This is in Southern California. You can see some of the flooded roadways and flooded intersections. This is incredible. Oxnard, California, this is in Ventura County in Southern California, received more rainfall in just one hour yesterday than it does on average for the entire month of December. That is why we have seen these flooding scenes. Here is some more imagery coming out of water in the backyard of people's homes. So, yeah, big trouble spots for this area.

There has been a brief lull in and around LAX, Los Angeles International Airport, but there still remains are flood watches that extend from LA through Palm Springs all the way to Phoenix. So, all in all, about 26 million Americans under this flood threat today. It's a level two of four where you see that highlighted area of yellow, just east of San Diego into Phoenix, and just west of Albuquerque. So, considerable amount of precipitation still to come. The bulk of the rain moving east of Los Angeles. But, again, Southern Arizona, that's the concern taking you through the holiday weekend. You can see that storm and its energy will bring some snow to the Rockies and Denver. But then, it's just simply too warm for this to be a snow maker along the East Coast.

So, expect rainfall, as we head into Tuesday and Wednesday for some of the major hubs from Detroit, D.C., all the way to Boston and New York City as well. Here is your forecast for Christmas Eve. And a quick look at the warm Christmas day forecast for the rest of the country. Max.

FOSTER: Happy holidays to you, Derek.

Now, Rudy Giuliani, one of Donald Trump's former attorneys, has filed for bankruptcy. It comes just days after he was ordered to pay close to $150 million to two Georgia election workers he defamed following the 2020 presidential election. Giuliani, who also served as New York Mayor, claims he has up to $10 million in assets, and between $100 and $500 million in debt.

Still to come, Harvard's President Claudine Gay is under fire again, this time over allegations of plagiarism. More details next.

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FOSTER: Now, there are new plagiarism allegations against the President of Harvard. The university says Claudine Gay has now asked that corrections be made to her 1997 dissertation because of what it called inadequate citations. She had already requested corrections to two scholarly articles she wrote years ago. Harvard's board called the instances regrettable, and said they do not amount to research misconduct that will be punishable. It comes as a House panel announced it would widen its probe of Harvard to include the plagiarism allegations.

Danny Freeman is tracking this story for us. He is in Cambridge, Massachusetts. So, just take us through, Danny, the specific accusations here. Were they mistakes or were they plagiarism, as many people understand it?

DANNY FREEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, listen, Max, I'll get into it in a moment. But, I think that the key thing that we're hearing from experts is that it's really a range of what we've seen in terms of the accusations of plagiarism against Harvard's President Claudine Gay. But, listen, despite these accusations and allegations at the moment, Harvard is standing by its president. That's despite, as you noted, a very challenging week for President Gay, not only because of these new allegations of plagiarism that have come up in the past few days, but also because that U.S. House Committee now promising not only to investigate antisemitism, but also plagiarism allegations as well.

But, let's back up for a second, Max, and remember how we got here. Really a lot of the public scrutiny of Harvard's president really kicked into high gear back when there was that congressional testimony at the beginning of the month. That was over antisemitism on college campuses. But, the university largely supported President Gay after the -- in the aftermath of that particular testimony. But then, that's when conservative activists really started the first round of pitching these allegations of plagiarism, and some were citation problems, Max. That's what some experts that we spoke with said when they kind of assessed what the accusations were.

But, these newer claims, specifically about that 1997 dissertation, really were more troubling to some, as it appeared in some -- in one case, at least, that a whole paragraph was apparently copied. So, Harvard, as you said, called this duplicative language, and said they were inadequate citations, while regrettable, they did not constitute research misconduct. These newest allegations, these newest citations, they will be fixed. But, nevertheless, Max, that House Committee said they're going to investigate to see if Harvard's standards are the same for their faculty and academic leaders as they are for their students. Max.

FOSTER: I mean, there is so much support for her, wasn't there, within the institution following the antisemitism debate. Is there a similar sort of support for her around this? I mean, is there a concern that her position could be undermined by two different sort of issues coming at her at once?

FREEMAN: Let me put it this way, Max. What we saw after the antisemitism controversy earlier in the month was not just the school eventually supporting her, but we heard a lot of clamor about the issue and the criticism. I think that in this particular case, we're not hearing as much public criticism about this say from donors, and we are in contrast seeing more immediate support of Claudine Gay from kind of a larger Harvard institution. So, it does feel a little bit different than the larger antisemitism debate that really blew up in the past few weeks.

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FOSTER: It's the process now. Then what happens next?

FREEMAN: Well, frankly, Max, at this point, while the Harvard, like I said, is standing by its president, this House Committee, they have requested troves of documents from the school really to drill down and learn more about this plagiarism issue. At this point, the House said that they have given a deadline. They wrote a letter basically outlining their demands, and this House Committee gave the university a deadline of December 29 to respond. So, while these corrections will be made to these plagiarism allegations, this story, Max, is probably far from over just yet.

FOSTER: Okay. Keeping busy, Dan. Danny Freeman in Cambridge, Massachusetts, thank you so much.

Now, up next, the amount of fire and ice will take you to the sky. See the impact of Iceland's volcanic eruption, and how it's still affecting thousands of people.

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FOSTER: A vaccine that is said to be highly effective is preventing malaria in children, and it may soon be widely available. It is called R21/Matrix-M. And the World Health Organization has just given it pre- qualification status. That means, among other things, that it is now eligible for procurement by UN agencies. It was developed by the University of Oxford and manufactured by the Serum Institute of India, which says it can be made on a mass scale at an affordable cost.

Right now, the volcanic eruption in Iceland appears to be simmering down, but authorities say there is still a threat from magma, and the area around the volcano remains dangerous. CNN's Fred Pleitgen was able to fly over the eruption zone with Iceland's Coast Guard, as they assess the ongoing risks.

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FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): Iceland's Coast Guard flying into the eruption zone in the Arctic night.

PLEITGEN: These flights are extremely important for the Icelandic Coast Guard. On the one hand, they have to survey any area but they also have to practice in case they need to do mass evacuations at night.

PLEITGEN (voice-over): Iceland was prepared for the massive eruption that started early this week. A more than two-mile-long fissure spewing magma hundreds of feet into the air. But, while residents have been evacuated, authorities are still working in the area.

JENS POR SIGURBARSON, COMMANDER, ICELANDIC COAST GUARD: So, this is highly important for us to do this during the night. And it's a lot of effort involved.

PLEITGEN (voice-over): The crew even spots a person walking close to the lava and say the notified police to check it out. The eruption has weakened considerably, but magma is still bubbling below us. The crew strapped me in for a closer look.

PLEITGEN: This is an amazing thing to be witnessing from up here. We can see just how active the volcanic zones still is. We can see the lava. We can smell the magma. We can feel the power that our planet is unleashing.

PLEITGEN (voice-over): The chopper drops us off right by the lava field to train evacuations.

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This is extremely challenging flying for these aviators. Right now, they're practicing hoist operations in case they have to medically evacuate a casualty from this area in the dark.

PLEITGEN (voice-over): As furious as the eruption was initially, it also seems to be subsiding fast, Seismologist Kristin Jonsdottir tells me.

KRISTIN JONSDOTTIR, ICELANDIC METEOROLOGICAL OFFICE: It was very active in the beginning. Four- kilometers-long fissure that opened, and very high rates of magma flow. So, it's a bit of a surprise that it has culminated.

PLEITGEN (voice-over): Those evacuated cannot return home yet as the magma tunnel here remains active, and authorities say further eruptions are still possible. Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Grindavik, Iceland.

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FOSTER: Mother Nature is wrapping up the year with one last show across the night sky. The peak of the last meteor shower of 2023, the Ursids, kicked off last night, and continues to the early morning hours of today. The American Meteor Society says if you look up during the show, you would be likely to see five to 10 meteors per hour potentially if it's dark enough. NASA says no special equipment is needed to view the shower since the meteors could be seen all over the sky. So, if it is still dark, may be a good time to go out and have a look in the next few minutes.

And before we go, a remarkable image from the U.S. space agency just days away from Christmas. This is a so-called Christmas Tree Cluster. It's about 2,500 light years from Earth. Two of NASA's space telescopes captured the image which shows young stars surrounded by gas cloud.

Thanks for joining me here on CNN Newsroom. I am Max Foster in London. World Sport with Carolyn Manno is up next.

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