Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Christmas Celebrations Canceled In Bethlehem As War Rages In Gaza; Security Council Adopts Key Resolution On Gaza Crisis; Havana's Neon Lights From The '30s And '40s Are Glowing Again; Swimmers Gearing Up For Annual Peter Pan Cup In London. Aired 1-2a ET

Aired December 25, 2023 - 01:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:00:25]

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome. I'm Michael Holmes. Appreciate your company. Coming up here on CNN NEWSROOM, reduced to rubble for Hamas controlled Ministry of Health says dozens of Palestinians have been killed in a Gaza refugee camp residential area.

A midnight mass but no Christmas celebrations in the biblical birthplace of Jesus, the city of Bethlehem breaks tradition in a sign of solidarity with Gaza.

And London's Christmas morning tradition a 100 yard race in icy waters you'll meet the swimmers of the Peter Pan Cup.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live from Atlanta. This is CNN NEWSROOM with Michael Holmes.

HOLMES: It is a quiet morning in the city of Bethlehem quieter than usual Christmas mornings there, subdued services are still being held at the Church of Nativity in the city where Christians believe Jesus was born, Bethlehem putting aside of traditional Christmas events in solidarity with Gaza amid the war between Israel and Gaza.

Meanwhile, Israeli forces announced approximately 200 targets in Gaza was struck over the last day. It comes as the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced intensifying operations inside the Strip.

The IDF says its troops located Hamas weapons compound inside what it described as a civilian structure near schools, a mosque and a clinic. The IDF also disclosed new information on an underground tunnel network believed to be used by Hamas. The Israeli military claims that tunnels served as the northern headquarters for the group.

At least 70 people meanwhile, were killed at the Al-Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza, that's according to the Hamas run Ministry of Health. Several others was said to be wounded many more trapped under the rubble. CNN's Will Ripley with more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: What we are seeing is just wounded people being piled in ambulances. And what is being alleged by the Palestinian Red Crescent on the ground in Gaza is that this residential Square was targeted.

Now, what the Israel Defense Force has claimed is that Hamas will embed itself in these tunnels or in these areas where civilians are sheltering, undisturbed by the piling number of civilian deaths well over 20,000 now, according to that health ministry in Gaza.

But in this case, CNN reached out wanting a comment about this accusation by the Palestinian Red Crescent, that they were targeting a residential square specifically, IDF saying that they are quote reviewing the incident and then saying that despite what they call the challenges posed by Hamas, they say they will continue to follow international law and try to take feasible steps to minimize the harm to civilians.

Because again, they claim that Hamas is deliberately trying to operate and conceal itself within these civilian areas, putting innocent children innocent people at risk.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: CNN's Nada Bashir now with more on the hardships of people of Gaza are in during a warning her report contains some disturbing images.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NADA BASHIR, CNN REPORTER (voice-over): Scenes of panic in the cold darkness of winter, central Gaza once again coming under heavy bombardment. Over the weekend, dozens are said to have been killed, adding to a death toll already topping 20,000 according to the Hamas controlled health ministry in Gaza, whose figures U.N. officials say were found to be accurate in previous conflicts.

Those injured including many children rushed to the Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah wounded parents seem here trying to comfort their young, but they have already seen. Parts of central and northern Gaza have been almost entirely emptied, if not flattened. This U.N. one school (INAUDIBLE) refugee camp has become a vital shelter to thousands but it is desperately overwhelmed.

AMIRA ABDEL BASSET, GAZA RESIDENT (through translator): We have 20 families within this room, about 63 people, including children and pregnant women, elderly people. Why can't these people go? Where can we take them? We are staying here.

BASHIR (voice-over): But for those who do choose to flee, there are no guarantees of survival, with regions deemed safe by the Israeli military, offering little in the way a security.

JEHAD, GAZA RESIDENT (through translator): You say we're scared is an understatement. We're terrified. if I go to Deir al-Balah what will I do with baby if I don't find shelter there, do I keep on the streets? [01:05:07]

BASHIR (voice-over): Israel says it remains committed to destroying weapons and underground infrastructure belonging to Hamas. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday, telling the Israeli people that war comes at a heavy price after 15 Israeli soldiers were killed in combat over the weekend.

This as the Israeli military pushes ahead with plans to expand its military operation across both northern and southern Gaza. Despite the Biden administration, calling on the Israeli government to move towards a lower intensity phase of the war.

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER (through translator): Israel is a sovereign state. Our decisions in the war are based on our operational considerations. And I will not expand further.

BASHIR (voice-over): Indications that Israel may double down on its air and land operation has raised alarm bells. The U.N. warning that there are simply no safe spaces for civilians to turn to. 1.9 million Palestinians are now set to be displaced within Gaza, the vast majority taking shelter in the south.

But even in Gaza southern cities, in areas designated as so called Safe Zones, Israel's airstrikes have already left a deep scar. In the city of Rafah, a vital gateway for aid being transported from Egypt. There is no peace for civilians.

ISRAA ABOU AL-AWL, DISPLACED FROM KHAN YOUNIS TO RAFAH (through translator): We were told to head to Rafah that it was a safe area. Where is the safety? Look? Look at the people in every house there's at least one wounded, one dead. Where's the security in Rafah?

BASHIR (voice-over): But it is not just the horror of military warfare, which is now threatening the lives of those in Gaza. On Sunday, a scene of utter desperation and chaos in Rafah. People grabbing whatever they can carry from aid trucks at the border crossing.

Those who survived Israel's relentless bombing campaign must now also survive a worsening hunger crisis. Talk of famine. Now creeping into the vocabulary of the word sticking (INAUDIBLE) but still no word of a humanitarian ceasefire. Nada Bashir, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Joining me now is Sean Casey, Emergency Medical Teams Coordinator for the World Health Organization. He joins me from a Gaza. Thanks so much for doing so, Sean. Let's start with the U.N. Security Council. They passed that resolution calling for more aid but crucially not a ceasefire. What did you make of that vote given what you will seeing every day in Gaza?

SEAN CASEY, EMERGENCY MEDICAL TEAMS COORDINATOR, WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION: Thanks, Michael. We absolutely need more aid, we need more aid to come across the crossing the two crossings that are open, but we also need to be able to have access to get the aid the last to the last mile to the people who need it the most.

And there are serious excess constraints. There are not enough trucks coming across the border. There are not enough trucks moving across Gaza because of the conditions of the road because of checkpoints because of processes to have deconflict movements. So we're not able to deliver as much as we need to be to the people who need it most desperately.

HOLMES: Yes, that's the thing getting (INAUDIBLE) is one thing, distributing it in a place like Gaza with what's going on is quite another. I wonder, you know, I've been hearing a lot about what you've been saying and what you've been seeing and doing.

Do you think much of the world has become numb to the scenes out of Gaza when it comes to the civilian population the staggering death and injury toll, the hunger, the suffering? Do you think the scale of it all is even fully understood outside the strip? I mean, are Palestinians becoming dehumanized?

CASEY: I hope not. I hope that people understand that these are people these are civilians, children, women who are, unfortunately, losing their dignity in real time. We're seeing it happen. We're seeing people crying out for food crying out for water. They're desperate. And I hope that the world hasn't become numb to it because it's still happening every single day.

We're -- today it's Christmas. And we're seeing, you know, women and children. I saw in a family with a small child, mother barefoot, child barefoot running down the road under fire, trying to escape. I hope we can't become numb to that. We need -- this is why we need a ceasefire. We need to understand the level of human suffering and make it stop.

HOLMES: Yes, the scale of it is just beyond belief. I mean with well over 60 it might be close to 70 percent now have housing units destroyed or damage? Where are people living? Where are they going to live during the winter month?

CASEY: I mean, Michael right outside the window next to me there are thousands of people living in makeshift shelters. Here in Rafah every sidewalk is covered with shelters.

[01:10:00]

Everywhere you go, you see people on the move. When I was in Gaza City a couple of days ago, you'd see children and families walking with white flags at the end of the stick on the move trying to find a safe place to say. So there are fewer and fewer places. Many buildings have been destroyed, more and more territory has become unsafe.

And people are constantly on the move, including my own colleagues who have had to move three, four or five times to continue to seek safety. And it's getting colder. It's getting rainy here. And many people including those people who were 50 meters away from me are sleeping under plastic. It's unbelievable the current situation.

HOLMES: Yes, yes, I've been to Gaza many times when people forget how small it is to. When you think of the damage done due to infrastructure to buildings, I mean, is it difficult to see how Gaza can be a functioning society for the foreseeable future, given that damage civil administration roads even once the war is over? Can Gaza you think operate as a society given what's been destroyed?

CASEY: What I've seen in the time that I've been here is that Gazans are very resilient that there's a huge level of infrastructure damage that's undoubted. At the same time, there are hospitals that are still functioning. There are services that are trying to continue to function primary health services, basic services here.

So people are still trying to make do, colleagues are still turning up. I work in health and I go to the hospitals and doctors and nurses are sleeping in the hospital grounds with their families so that they can continue to deliver.

So despite the destruction, Gazans are still trying to support one another and trying to work through this. We hope that it will stop it needs to stop. And when it does, I have full confidence that Gaza will be able to get on its feet again, with help but these people are suffering enormously now. And the solution to this problem is a relatively simple one. It's a ceasefire and that will allow people to access the services that they need to stop this unbelievable suffering.

HOLMES: Yes, the scale of it is almost beyond comprehension, those 2000 pound bombs. Israel has said it will need months to achieve its goals. Months. What would months more of this mean for Gaza and Garzans?

CASEY: I can't even think of what days more look like. I mean every day every hospital that I go to, with W.H.O missions to deliver medicines and supplies, they're packed to the brim. Hospitals have become safe shelters. The largest hospital in Gaza, Al-Shifa has 50,000 displaced persons in it and more coming every day. The services can barely be delivered.

So I can't imagine what weeks or months would look like. It needs to stop now. The health system is functioning at about 20 percent of its capacity after just over two months of this. More of the same could would just really be unimaginable.

HOLMES: You're in the thick of it and doing amazing work. Sean Casey with W.H.O., thank you so much. Really appreciate your time.

CASEY: Thanks, Michael.

HOLMES: Pope Francis says the message of Jesus's birth is being rejected by the war as he began Christmas celebrations at the Vatican on Sunday, adding that quote, our hearts are in Bethlehem. CNN's Will Ripley with the details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RIPLEY (voice-over): Christmas just cancelled in Bethlehem church bells ring, but no one's listening. The seasons magic missing from manger square, along with the Christmas tree and dangling decorations. In the biblical birthplace of Jesus, only sadness fills the air.

AKU THABET, BETHLEHEM RESIDENT (through translator): My son asked me why there's no Christmas tree this year. I don't know how to explain it.

RIPLEY: Are you sad?

THABET: Of course. Of course, I'm very sad.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The root of the tree is seen and we carve it in it.

RIPLEY: Beautiful.

RIPLEY (voice-over): Bombs may not be falling here, but everyone feels the fallout.

RONY TABASH, SHOP OWNER: Since three months. Honestly, we don't have one sale. I don't keep my father at home for not to give up from home.

RIPLEY (voice-over): Hope is in short supply in Bethlehem. For businesses banking on a busy Christmas, no comfort enjoy. Only silent nights. The usual crowds gone. Shops and restaurants shuttered. The handful still open, empty.

KHALID BANDAK, TOUR GUIDE: Most of the festivals were canceled during that that because of the war in Gaza.

RIPLEY 9voice-over): Across Bethlehem, red and white warning signs instead of red and green, barbed wire instead of mistletoe, barricades instead of decorations. Israeli bulldozers left behind piles of rubble blocking every road in and out walls and checkpoints part of life for Palestinians. This is a new extreme. Israel blames the blockade on security threats.

[01:15:02]

Palestinians, the U.N. and human rights groups call it collective punishment, cutting people off from their homes, their loved ones, their livelihoods.

RIPLEY: When you see it empty like this?

FATHER SPIRIDON SAMMOUR, HIGH PRIEST, GREEK ORTHODOX NATIVITY CHURCH: I have never seen.

RIPLEY: Never seen it this.

SAMMOUR: Like this, yes, no.

RIPLEY: The restaurants, the hotels, the shops, the square, emptiness surrounds you here in Bethlehem, perhaps nowhere do you feel it more. And here, the Church of the Nativity.

SAMMOUR: Is very ready.

RIPLEY (voice-over): Father Spiridon Sammour has been in Bethlehem since 1970, 54 years. He's never seen a Christmas season like this.

SAMMOUR: Christmas is joy, love and peace. We have no peace. We have no joy.

RIPLEY (voice-over): Long lines usually wrapped around the Basilica, the grotto always standing room only. Now you can practically hear a pin drop.

Priests are still praying, praying for all this madness to end. But these days, only God is listening. Will Ripley, CNN, Bethlehem.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Still to come here on the program. But look at why neon signs are returning to nightlife in Havana after decades. That story and more when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Unrest in Serbia's capital on Sunday with at least 35 people reportedly arrested, thousands of people participating in anti- government protests for the sixth straight day over what they call blatant election theft.

It began the day after President Aleksandar Vucic declared victory for his Serbian Progressive Party during snap elections. Opposition parties and rights groups say the party and Mr. Vucic himself are guilty of bribing voters committing violent crackdowns on dissent and corruption among other things.

Now in Cuba, our efforts are underway to bring Havana's neon lights back to the city's nightlife after they went dark decades ago. CNN's Patrick Oppmann is in Havana with more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Throwing a party with 20 musicians for a neon sign may seem like overkill, but repairing and relating this pre-revolution Ice Cream Shop storefront has been a long time coming.

Before Fidel Castro took power Havana was a sea of neon. After his 1959 revolution, the government seized all private businesses and as replacement parts became scarce, the signs began to go dark.

ADOLFO NODAL, HABANA LIGHT SIGNS: Cuba was an early adopter of neon rivaled Paris and New York in terms of the amount of neon.

[01:20:00]

OPPMANN (voice-over): Enter Adolfo Nadal, he co-founded a small band of mostly U.S. and Cuban neon enthusiasts who have made it their unlikely mission to rescue as many of the signs as possible.

NODAL: Helps you see the city in any way. It brings back a lot of the memory of the city. People remember the signs from 30s and 40s in Havana as well.

OPPMANN (voice-over): The artisans who search out and repair the signs, it's a labor of love that can take months.

It depends on the complexity of the metal structure, if it's in good condition, she says, if we have to make new parts depends on the availability of the raw materials. Unfortunately, none of these items you can find in this country, and they have to be important.

Repairing Havana's neon signs can seem like a quixotic pursuit in a city where aging buildings collapse every day. Even when they are restored the signs often stay dark during the regular power cuts here.

OPPMANN: The sudden restoration is say that fixing up the sign is just the beginning of a transformation. The people are more likely to walk down a well, it's street, less likely to throw trash on the ground. And then what they're hoping to have Cubans is not just a restoring sign, but a little bit of hope as well.

OPPMANN (voice-over): Nodal says the signs are his small gift to the homeland he left the young age.

NODAL: I'm Cuban-American I wanted to come back and make a contribution to my country and I'm an neon guy so I figured that neon would be a wonderful thing to do and it did it. It goes in keeping with the history of Havana.

OPPMANN (voice-over): His team's dream as they slowly bring the lights back is the neon signs are not just part of the city's past, but also its future. Patrick Oppmann, CNN, Havana.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: What a great story. Still to come. Imagine spending Christmas morning braving the elements to take part in a race meet some swimmers who do just that, when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Well, you better watch out you better not cry or else Santa Claus might show up at your door with a sledgehammer. This video released on Saturday by the Peruvian national police shows an undercover officer dressed as Old St. Nick executing a drug bust.

Police said Santa's disguise was used to infiltrate an unsaved neighborhood without a rising suspicion. The operation led to the arrest of two men one of whom is known in the local press as the Grinch.

Now while most of us would prefer to spend Christmas morning perhaps in our pajamas with a cup of coffee, there's a group of swimmers in London getting ready to take a plunge into icy waters right now. Meet some of the participants in this year's Peter Pan Cup. The Race it's been held in the city since 1864.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Race number four, all aboard.

LUCY HARRIS, MEMBER, SERPENTINE SWIMMING CLUB: People think it's a pretty bonkers way to start your Christmas morning.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why don't we inflict this pain upon us.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They never really enjoyed getting in, to be honest.

HARRIS: On Christmas day, we get up at about six. It's zero degrees outside your driving pitch black and then make the ice on the windscreen and you're thinking what am I doing?

LAURE LATHAM, HONORARY SECRETARY, SERPENTINE SWIMMING CLUB: It's 7:00 a.m. in the morning, we are in the changing room of the Serpentine Swimming Club in Hyde Park in London.

[01:25:00]

HARRIS: For Christmas Day race started in the late 1800s is one of the oldest swimming races in the world.

LATHAM: Races from veteran members of the club.

HARRIS: J M Barrie who wrote Peter Pan, who donated the first cup, and that is why it's called the Peter Pan Cup.

My grandfather, Albert Greenbury, swam in the seventh time from 1906. He was probably one of the handful of people who swam religiously every day. He became president of the club in 1935, until he died in 1955.

And then my family took over the honor of presenting the Peter Pan Cup on Christmas Day. This is 1986. Here's me and my brother, my sister. I went every single Christmas Day to present a cup with my family.

Every year, I thought, I really should try this. And I never did.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lucy --

HARRIS: Harris.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Harris. Yes.

HARRIS: That was about 52 when I started and have to be in the first race because I get so nervous that I just have to get it over and done with. As I'm walking down towards the Serpentine, I'm really, really nervous and then getting in the water it's like, how am I going to do it? Am I going to do it? Why am I doing it?

Already.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 21, 22, 23 , 24, 25, go on Harry, 26, 27.

HARRIS: It's really hard to get into that water. And you think these thoughts but you do it and then after it's like, oh my god, that what I've done.

When you get out is like your fingers feel like they're burning.

I cheated nobody call them out. But you've got five minutes (INAUDIBLE). The people who swim and who belongs to Serpentine, all particularly unique in their own way.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tea, most important part of swimming.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Feeling the right, feeling the call is just an amazing constituent.

ROBIN HUNTER-CODDINGTON, VICE PRESIDENT, SERPENTINE SWIMMING CLUB: It doesn't matter how cold waters you will get. And when there's ice, we still get it.

PAUL ARTHERTON, MEMBER, SERPENTINE SWIMMING CLUB: You come out, you have a hot toddy and you wish people a Merry Christmas. What better start of Christmas morning is that?

HARRIS: The Christmas race is the ultimate race. And I don't know ever give it up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: And finally, here's an out of this world holiday gift from NASA. The U.S. space agency releasing this stunning new image known as the Christmas tree cluster. NASA explains the nebula gas around it resembles the pine needles of a Christmas tree. It's made up of a grouping of relatively young stars a mere one to 5 million years old. The cluster is some 2,500 light years from Earth so you can't really pop out and see it.

Thanks for watching CNN NEWSROOM spending part of your Christmas day with me. I'm Michael Holmes. You can follow me on X, Threads and Instagram at home CNN. I'll be back with more news at the top of the hour. African Voices Changemakers coming your way next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:30:00]

(INSIDE AFRICA)