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CNN International: Source: Netanyahu Confidant Expected To Meet Biden Administration Officials Today For Talks On Gaza; U.S. Targets Iran-Backed Kataib Hezbollah Group In Iraq; Scores Killed In Central Gaza As Israel Intensifies Operations. Aired 11a-12p ET

Aired December 26, 2023 - 11:00   ET

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

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BIANNA GOLODRYGA, HOST, CNN NEWSROOM: Hello, and welcome to all of our viewers around the world. I am Bianna Golodryga in New York.

Just ahead, one of Benjamin Netanyahu's closest confidants is expected in Washington today, as the U.S. urges Israel to lower the intensity of the war. Ukraine strikes a Russian vessel off of Crimea. The Military is claiming to have destroyed the ship. At least one person was killed. And thousands of migrants join a caravan headed to the United States. We will take you to the Texas border to see how local officials are coping.

As the IDF intensifying military operations inside of Gaza, a source tells CNN a close confidant of the Israeli Prime Minister is expected to meet with Biden administration officials in the coming hours. Ron Dermer is reportedly holding in-person talks with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan this afternoon. Now, it comes one day after Benjamin Netanyahu vowed a long fight ahead in Israel's war with Hamas, after one of the deadliest 24 hours in the Palestinian enclave since the start of the conflict. Earlier, the Prime Minister's Senior Advisor said Israeli troops were making progress in Gaza, but their campaign isn't over yet.

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MARK REGEV, SENIOR ADVISOR TO ISRAELI PM BENJAMIN NETANYAHU: Every day, we are getting closer in the northern Gaza Strip where our campaign started earlier, where we're seeing the Hamas military machine crack. We're seeing more and more Hamas terrorists voluntarily surrender to the IDF, the Israeli Defense Forces. We are seeing Israeli control over the ground there. And I think it's only a matter of time before we have victory there in the north. In the south, we started later, as you know, only in November. That will take a touch longer. But, we will see victory there too. And it must be understood that destroying Hamas is a prerequisite for a better future both for Israelis and Palestinians.

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GOLODRYGA: CNN's Natasha Bertrand joins me live now from Washington, D.C. So, Natasha, we should note that Ron Dermer is not only a close advisor to Prime Minister Netanyahu. He is also a member of the war cabinet. And this meeting in Washington, D.C. comes just a couple of days after President Biden had a lengthy conversation with Prime Minister Netanyahu, where notably the word "ceasefire", it is reported, was not urged by the United States President just yet. What are we expecting to hear from this meeting today?

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: Well, Bianna, we just got confirmation from the White House National Security Council that Dermer will be meeting with Secretary of State Antony Blinken as well as with National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan later this afternoon. And what we're expecting is a conversation about the next phase of the war in Gaza. The Israelis have made clear to the U.S. that they want to continue their operation in Gaza until Hamas is eliminated. However, the U.S. is urging the Israelis to more clearly define their goals and to move to a lower intensity phase of this war so that the civilians in Gaza, of course, can be spared.

More than 20,000 civilians -- Palestinians, including civilians, have been killed over the last two months, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health. The U.S. has been urging the Israelis to move to a lower intensity phase of this conflict, one that is more targeted in its approach, one that is less reliant on heavy bombardment with airstrikes, for example. And they hope that they can urge the Israelis to move to that phase by January. That is what U.S. officials told CNN earlier this month. It's unclear, however, if the Israelis are prepared to do that. Last week, the Israelis said that they are going to continue to prosecute the war until Hamas is degraded to the extent, of course, that they can never carry out an attack again, like the one they carried out on October 7. So, that is really expected to be the focus of the discussions today.

But, of course, the U.S. has been urging them to scale back their operations, and that is something that -- there are no red lines or -- on the weapons and the equipment that these -- the U.S. is giving them, but still saying that they're losing the moral high ground. They're losing international support as this war continues in the kind of intensity that it has been.

GOLODRYGA: Yeah. Ron Dermer, well known in the United States, specifically in Washington. He had been Israel's former Ambassador to the United States. Natasha, I want to move on to a story that you've been covering for us, a development overnight, where the U.S. Military has carried out airstrikes on three facilities used by Iranian proxies in Iraq after a drone attack had injured several U.S. servicemen last night, Christmas Day.

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Talk to us more about this and the concerns about things escalating.

BERTRAND: Well, the U.S. ordered these airstrikes, President Biden did yesterday, in response to a rocket attack by -- or a drone attack, I should say, by Kataib Hezbollah, which is an Iran- backed Shia militant group in Iraq, on Erbil air base in Iraq where three U.S. service members were injured, including one critically. That is really an escalation, because while there have been over 100 such attacks by these Iran-backed groups on U.S. and coalition forces in Iraq and Syria over the last several months, most, if not all, of the injuries that have resulted from those strikes have been pretty minor in nature. And so, the fact that one service member is now in critical condition clearly led the U.S. to decide that it needed to respond very forcefully. So, they launched these attacks on these three facilities that they say are being used by this Iran-backed group in Iraq.

According to Central Command, several of the militants are believed to have been killed. They say that at this time, they don't know of any casualties, civilian casualties that resulted from these strikes. But, this is not the first time the U.S. has launched these airstrikes against these groups in Iraq and Syria. And so far, Bianna, it has not deterred them.

GOLODRYGA: Yeah. That is the big concern now about things escalating in Iraq and Syria, and obviously in Yemen, in the Red Sea, by Iranian proxies. Natasha Bertrand, thank you.

Well, the Hamas-controlled Health Ministry in Gaza says the death toll since the war broke out is approaching 21,000, with nearly 55,000 injured. The World Health Organization has been touring Gaza's overcrowded barely functioning hospitals over the past few days. The WHO director warns that many of the injured will not survive the wait for treatment.

Will Ripley joins me now from Tel Aviv. Will, just picking up from our conversation yesterday where for the first time it appeared that the IDF had given a specific figure to the number of Hamas fighters that they believe they have killed in Gaza since the war began, and that is nearly 8,000, you square that with the 20,000 plus that the Hamas-run Ministry of Health in Gaza says have been killed in total, this is a significant number. And according to the Prime Minister himself, the scale of the fighting is not going to end anytime soon. Talk to us about the reaction in both Israel and in Gaza.

WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. When Prime Minister Netanyahu made that second trip to Gaza, northern Gaza, and then came back and warned the nation that this is going to be a long fight, he was really speaking to the fact that Hamas and the war that Israel is fighting against Hamas is a war that is unprecedented in the world, for many reasons, but largely because Hamas has been planting itself inside these densely packed areas, putting itself right underneath buildings where it knows that there are huge amounts of people who are sheltering from either the airstrikes or because they've been displaced and had to move from their homes, sometimes once, twice or several times. And the results on the ground, as we've seen, devastating.

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RIPLEY (voice-over): Under the constant buzz of Israeli drones, Palestinians in Gaza once again dig through the rubble with bare hands. This is not a rescue mission. What they find, remains of loved ones crushed under a collapsed building.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (TRANSLATED): My nieces and nephews, they were all displaced in Al-Barrage. They fled the day before yesterday. It was their fate to be martyred here in the uncle's house. My nieces, Layan (ph), Lana (ph) and Rena, and my nephew, Hamada (ph), Hamada was only three-months-old, they are still under the rubble.

RIPLEY (voice-over): It's one of the deadliest 24 hours in Gaza in a war approaching its 80th day. The Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry says 250 people died in Israeli airstrikes on the Al-Maghazi refugee camp in nearby Bureij and Nuseirat since the start of Christmas Eve. CNN cannot independently verify the numbers released by the Ministry in Gaza. Responding to CNN questions, the IDF said, in response to Hamas' barbaric attacks, the IDF is operating to dismantle Hamas Military and administrative capabilities. IDF refers to Hamas' surprise attack against Israel on October 7. They killed at least 1,200 people and roughly 240 hostages kidnapped.

Video obtained by CNN shows families still digging through the debris for missing relatives, some saying they're still buried under the concrete slabs of collapsed buildings. Children, children, children, innocent children, he says. This man says he lost 10 members of his family, and over the collapsed building, he bids farewell to his beloved Deena (ph), the 10-year-old he says was the playful one. In the mangle of debris, glimpses of the lives that sought safety from one place in Gaza to the other.

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It's up to the neighbors to find the bodies of the families trapped beneath. The injured, rushed to Al-Aqsa Hospital through the night, the hospital already struggling with an influx of injuries and bodies from other airstrikes. By daylight, the community came together for the ritual of mourning bodies, or what remained readied for burial. I was waiting for you to grow up, he says. The family moved from one shelter to another in pursuit of safety, this man says, my eldest son. Around every corner, families grappling with the scale of the loss.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (TRANSLATED): My daughter Emelia (ph) was martyred. My five brothers, their children and their wives, all gone. They were displaced from Beit Hanoun. There were 96 people in that building. All gone.

RIPLEY (voice-over): Survivors of previous airstrikes come to the aid of the new survivors. Khalim (ph) lost his grandchildren last month.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (TRANSLATED): This is utmost criminality. We are in festivities, celebrating Jesus Christ. Peace be upon him. People talk about human rights, mercy, the Security Council, the Red Cross and humanity. Where are these human rights?

RIPLEY (voice-over): That is the question Gazans keep asking, where is safe?

(END VIDEOTAPE) RIPLEY: And the answer to that sobering question is equally sobering from Israeli officials. They say, as long as Hamas is in Gaza in power, there are very few places that are safe. If Hamas is under people's homes, if Hamas is under mosque, if Hamas is under schools, then all of those become a legitimate military target, according to international law. And even though Israel sends out warnings and they try to get people to move, they know that civilians are dying. But, they say this is the only way to eliminate Hamas from power in Gaza, and restore some semblance of stability, and allow Israel, which it has every right to do, to defend itself against a region in which it is surrounded, Bianna, by enemies, people that want to see this state disappear. Israel says they will defend themselves and they'll do it whatever it takes.

GOLODRYGA: Yeah. And we know that Hamas does not abide by international laws, and repeatedly, its leaders have said that they would orchestrate an October 7 many, many times to come, if they have the opportunity. Will Ripley in Tel Aviv for us, thank you.

Well, Iran and its armed proxies are vowing to retaliate against Israel over the killing of a senior member of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard. Iranian state media says Sayyed Razi Mousavi, seen here on the left, was assassinated Monday in an Israeli airstrike in Syria. The Israel Defense Forces wouldn't comment, but Israel has for years targeted what it calls Iran-linked positions in Syria.

To Ukraine now where President Zelenskyy is praising the attack on a Russian warship in Crimea. Russia's Defense Ministry says the Navy ship was damaged in an airstrike. Guided missiles from Ukraine's Air Force hit the town of Feodosia, where you can see the explosion light up the night sky. The Russian-appointed head of Crimea says one person was killed and several others were injured.

Nada Bashir is following the developments for -- from London for us. And Nada, at a time when the counteroffensive was fair to say disappointing on the Ukrainian side, their offensive in Crimea continued to be a bright spot for the country. Talk about the reaction both in Ukraine, and we see the official confirmation from Moscow as well.

NADA BASHIR, CNN REPORTER: Yeah. Absolutely. This has been seen and received as a strategic win, a sign of progress for the Ukrainian Armed Forces. This vessel, according to Ukrainian commanders, was at the time of the strike carrying, according to Ukraine, Iranian-made Shahed attack drones. And of course, we know how reliant the Russian Armed Forces have been on the use of these Iranian-made drones in their attacks on Ukrainian territory in the east of Ukraine throughout this war. And of course, this has been a key and primary reason why Ukraine continues to push for further support when it comes to bolstering its air defense systems.

Now, this has been seen as a welcome step certainly by the Ukrainian Air Force, and as you mentioned, we have had that statement from the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy congratulating his troops for this latest airstrike. This vessel typically, according to the U.S. Military, would carry a crew of 87, and would -- could transport more than 200 troops, though it is unclear just how many were aboard the vessel at the time of the strike. Take a listen to one statement from today from a spokesperson for the Ukrainian Air Force.

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YURII IHNAT, SPOKESMAN, UKRAINIAN AIR FORCE COMMAND (TRANSLATED): This is such a powerful event for us. In fact, we destroyed both the ship and the occupiers through well-coordinated actions.

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BASHIR: And the Kremlin has issued a statement. They say the Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has reported this attack to President Putin, acknowledging that some damage has been sustained by the vessel, not going so far as to say that it has been entirely destroyed, as Ukraine has said. But again, that message from President Zelenskyy saying that there will be no place of peace for occupying forces, Russian forces, on Ukrainian land. Bianna.

GOLODRYGA: And this would not be the first vessel that Ukraine has either severely damaged or destroyed in this war in Crimea. Nada Bashir in London, thank you.

Well, jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny is in good spirits after a 20-day grueling prison transfer. That's according to a spokeswoman who spoke to CNN earlier today. She adds that his health is not worse than it was before the trip. In a social media post, Navalny said he is relieved to be in the new prison. His comments come after his arrival in a prison called Polar Wolf. It sits north of the Arctic Circle. Conditions there are harsh and there is no standardized mail service. Alexei Navalny is serving a 30-year sentence on a number of charges, including extremism. His supporters say the charges are trumped up.

Well, still to come for us, a new caravan of migrants is headed to an already overwhelmed U.S.-Mexico border. We're live from Eagle Pass, Texas, with that story ahead.

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GOLODRYGA: Mexico's President is set to meet with top U.S. officials tomorrow to discuss the migrant crisis at the U.S. southern border. U.S. authorities reported a seven-day average of more than 9,600 migrant encounters along the border in December, among the highest ever recorded. And now, a new caravan of thousands of migrants is on its way to the border from southern Mexico. The surge is stretching resources for already overwhelmed U.S. agencies, and has become a political vulnerability for President Joe Biden.

For more on this, let's turn to CNN's Rosa Flores who is an Eagle Pass, Texas, for us. Rosa, good to see you. So, the timing of this caravan coinciding with Secretary of State Blinken's meeting with the Mexican President, I would imagine, is not a coincidence. What are you hearing there from any migrants that you've been able to speak with, along with border officials who have been overwhelmed for quite some time?

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, border officials, what they're doing is stretching every resource that they have to try to grapple with this ongoing migrant surge all across the U.S. southern border. We're seeing that Border Patrol resources are being surged to those areas, including Eagle Pass where I am now. Now, the scene here has changed significantly. Last week, there were thousands of migrants that you would have seen behind me. Right now, there is just a small group.

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But, Bianna, we're also learning what is driving this new surge. Now, we learned from a CBP official that there are pseudo legitimate travel agencies abroad that are promising individuals trips to the United States but ultimately connecting them to smugglers south of the border. And one of the nationalities being targeted, the Senegalese. Now, I want to show you some video that we shot a few weeks ago in Arizona, and we didn't know this at the time. But, in hindsight, it makes a lot of sense. Take a listen.

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FLORES: I work for CNN. And I'm wondering where you're from, what country you're from.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Senegal.

FLORES: Senegal.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Senegal.

FLORES: Senegal. Senegal. Senegal.

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FLORES: Now, Bianna, a lot of those men were from Senegal, Mauritania, and Guinea. And from talking to a CBP official, they tell us that a lot of these groups from Western Africa have been targeted, and they were funneled through the Arizona desert. And they're being dropped off in very large groups, about 500 to 1,000 individuals, which makes the job of the U.S. Border Patrol very difficult, because imagine, this is the rural areas of the desert. Sometimes, Border Patrol agents have to use all-terrain vehicles to get to those areas, to get to these large groups, and then figure out a way to transport them for immigration processing.

And so, it really creates a nightmare for Border Patrol agents, who then have to figure out how to maximize those limited resources that they have to deal with the ongoing surge. Bianna.

GOLODRYGA: And your reporting shows us firsthand that many of these migrants aren't from expected countries, where people would assume that Latin America, Mexico, and what have you, and South America. But, as you said, as far as many thousands of miles away, given these sinister traps that people are trying to just profit off of. Rosa Flores, thank you so much.

Well, Apple fights back. Still ahead, the last-minute appeal, the tech giant has filed to keep selling its watches. We'll have a live report ahead.

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GOLODRYGA: The rapper and entertainer, Ye, also known as Kanye West, has apologized to the Jewish community in a message he shared on Instagram. The post appeared in Hebrew. Ye wrote, "It was never my intention to hurt or disrespect, and I deeply regret any pain I may have caused." It's not clear what prompted this apology. Ye has had a long history of antisemitic statements. Last year, his Twitter account was locked when he posted an ugly statement against Jewish people.

Well, switching gears now, Apple news we've been following, the company has filed a motion to pause a ban on the import of some Apple watches. The U.S. International Trade Commission had ruled that Apple's latest watch violated patents registered to another company. Christmas was the deadline for President Joe Biden to overturn the ruling and keep the watches on store shelves, but he did not intervene.

Joining us now is CNN Business Correspondent Rahel Solomon. Rahel, so, it is rare to see the U.S. government step in on issues like this. What prompted it, and I guess more importantly, what does this mean for consumers?

RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. So, we have -- there is some precedent, but you're absolutely right, Bianna, that we don't tend to see the government get involved in this way.

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And we got a statement this morning essentially saying, yeah, we've decided not to intervene. But, I want to just turn your attention to this Apple statement we got really within the last hour or so, essentially saying that, we are going to appeal this decision. I'm going to paraphrase here, basically just saying, we strongly disagree, but we're going to take all legal actions to try to get these items back on store shelves. That came after a comment from the U.S. Trade Rep, essentially saying, and we can pull this up for you, but we decided not to intervene, and that the decision became final on December 26, 2023.

So, let's talk about how we got here, because this has been a few years coming. Let's go back to about October of this year, just a few months ago, the ITC essentially argued that or essentially ruled that Apple did in fact infringe upon this California-based company Masimo's trade infringement patent, essentially saying that the blood oximeter, the technology that reads blood oxygen levels, it's a light-based technology, the group said that, yeah, that was trade infringement. And so, Masimo, getting a bit of a victory there. But, as I said, it has been years coming. And it looks like it's not over yet.

So, for consumers, this basically went into effect this morning, December 26. As you said, the deadline was Christmas midnight. And so, if you're looking for one of these newer models, well, you're probably not going to find it at an Apple store. You're definitely not going to find it on the Apple website. I just went to the Apple website a short time ago, and it said "currently unavailable". You could however find it if you go to a big-box retailer like Target or Walmart. Bianna, they can continue to sell it so long as they have it, but they cannot restock. So, then the question becomes, OK, so, they can get rid of what they have. But, what then? I mean, how much of an impact is that to Apple?

Well, I've spoken to analysts this morning who say it's probably not going to be a huge financial impact. Dan Ives, the Managing Director of Wedbush, Bianna, I'm sure you know him well, he covers this space really closely. He has been covering Apple for more than 15 years. He told me that he estimates it to be about a $200 million to $300 million loss in revenue. He actually called it more of a PR black eye than a financial black eye. And the reason why he says this is because, one, I mean, $200 million to $300 million to most mere mortals, Bianna, is a lot of money. To Apple, not so much. Two, it came late in the season. So, anyone who probably wanted to buy an Apple watch, probably already has one. And three, he believes that this could be solved perhaps with a software update.

So, still a lot of sort of questions to come. Only time will tell. But, Apple, again, for its part saying, we're going to appeal.

GOLODRYGA: Yeah. These patent infringement lawsuits, it looks like we'll see more and more of them as we talk about --

SOLOMON: Absolutely.

GOLODRYGA: -- the development, the increased development of wearables, smart wearables, and smartphones in general. Rahel Solomon, always great to see you my friend. Thank you.

SOLOMON: Yep.

GOLODRYGA: And thanks so much for joining me here on CNN Newsroom. I'm Bianna Golodryga in New York. Marketplace Middle East is up next.

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