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Israel Warns of Potential War with Hezbollah Amid Escalating Tensions; US and Mexico Hold Crisis Talks Over Border Security; Kim Jong-un Orders Accelerated War Preparations in Response to Unspecified Threat; Israel Faces Increased Risk of Second Front on Northern Border; Deadly Strikes Reported in Gaza's Khan Yunis Amid Ongoing Conflict; Benny Gantz Emphasizes Need for Diplomatic Solution on Northern Border; IDF Shelling Raises Concerns Over Civilian Casualties in Southern Gaza; US Delivers $250 Million in Military Assistance to Ukraine Amid Eastern Front Challenges; Congressional Republicans Block Funding Bill, Delaying Aid to Ukraine Over Immigration Demands; Russia Claims Progress in Driving Ukrainian Forces from Marinka and Advancing on Avdiivka; Colorado Republican Party Appeals Trump's Ballot Ban; Top 20 Climate Stories from 2023; Renewed Space Race to the Moon in 2023. Aired 12-1a ET
Aired December 28, 2023 - 00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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JOHN VAUSE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Coming up on CNN, Israel says the clock is ticking down and could lead to war in Lebanon if Hezbollah missile fire continues to target Israeli towns in the north. Heading south in search of a solution, senior officials from the US and Mexico hold crisis talks over border security. But is it really a crisis? And at the annual get-together of North Korea's ruling Workers' Party, leader Kim Jong-un orders accelerated war preparations in the face of some unspecified threat from the US.
On day 83 of Israel's war with Hamas, the risk of a second front opening on Israel's northern border seems to have increased significantly. With a senior member of Israel's war cabinet warning Hezbollah militants that continued missile and rocket fire across the border will trigger an accelerated Israeli military offensive, an escalation which the US and its allies have tried to prevent since the war began. Cross-border attacks in the north have escalated since the October 7 attack by Hamas, with Wednesday seeing some of the highest number of rockets fired by Hezbollah so far. The same day which the Israeli foreign minister visited the northern border.
Hezbollah says it fired 30 Katyusha rockets in response to earlier IDF airstrikes on a Lebanese village. So with more now on that warning to Hezbollah, here's a member of the Israeli war cabinet, Benny Gantz.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BENNY GANTZ, ISRAELI MINISTER (through translator): The situation on Israel's northern border demands change. The stopwatch for a diplomatic solution is running out. If the world and the Lebanese government don't act in order to prevent the firing on Israel's northern residents and to distance Hezbollah from the border, the IDF will do it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: A day after Israel's military chiefs said forces are concentrating efforts in southern Gaza reports of deadly strikes in the city of Khan Yunis. The Palestinian Red Crescent Society says dozens of people have been killed after IDF shelling near a hospital on Wednesday. CNN's Will Ripley following developments from Tel Aviv, but a warning, some of the images in his report are difficult to watch.
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WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Smoke rises over southern Gaza, haunting from a distance, horrifying up close. Video obtained by CNN showing a sidewalk covered in blood and bodies. Men, women. Women, children, at least 20 dead from yet another Israeli airstrike, this time near a hospital the Hamas- controlled health ministry says. CNN is not able to independently verify the staggering death toll, around 21,000 and rising.
The wounded rushed to Al Amal Hospital, one of a handful still operating. In the parking lot, pandemonium. Doctors and nurses, already overwhelmed, scrambled to save lives. An international team of surgeons gaining access to emergency rooms on life support. Doctors warn supplies are running dangerously low, severely limiting treatment of trauma patients, some dying as they wait for urgent care. Civilian casualties climbing fast, more than 55,000 injured since October 7th, the Hamas health ministry says.
Inside a crowded medical tent in Jabalia, Palestinian Red Crescent medics treating a tidal wave of patients. Wounded women and children, many injuries, horrific. The pile of body bags growing by the hour, at times the dead seem to outnumber the living. Naval ships comb the coast, as drones hover overhead, documenting the destruction. Explosion after explosion. The IDF targeting tunnels used by Hamas fighters, hitting both military and civilian infrastructure. The Israeli offensive in Gaza showing no signs of easing up, Israel's goal to root out Hamas leaders.
An edited video circulating on social media appears to show Palestinian men and at least two children detained, stripped by the Israel Defense Forces in a stadium in northern Gaza. The fighting is fierce. The offensive expected to transition into a slower intensity mobile campaign. Soon, Israel says, the question haunting Israeli leaders, will the change in strategy be effective? Will it neutralize Hamas's military power? Israeli artillery hitting a UN-run school in central Gaza, leaving holes in the walls blood on the floors, next to the sleeping mats of displaced families.
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At this school in Rafah, some of those families crowd into classrooms, sharing what little food and water they have. Supplies are running low after 10 long weeks of war. The Palestinian prime minister says Israel is starving people to death. This teacher's lesson, a welcome distraction for children surrounded by suffering and death, trying to find some semblance of a normal life.
RIPLEY: But a normal life may prove elusive for the children of Gaza for many months, if not years or even decades to come. That's how long it could take some of these communities to rebuild after the extensive devastation that has surrounded them. And back to that video that appears to show, in addition to Palestinian men being stripped to their underwear, at least two children. That edited video, CNN cannot independently verify when it was taken. It was posted on Christmas Eve. But we did geolocate it. It did happen in Gaza. And the IDF has said in the past that they strip people down because they need to check them for explosives. And in fact, within the last week or so, the IDF said that it found, among other weapons in Gaza, explosive vests modified to fit children. Will Ripley, CNN, Tel Aviv.
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VAUSE: To Jerusalem now, Yaakov Katz, senior columnist at the Jerusalem Post. Welcome back. Good to see you.
JAAKOV KATZ, SR. COLUMNIST, THE JERUSALEM POST: Thank you, John.
VAUSE: Okay, so this warning from Benny Gantz, a member of Israel's war cabinet, a former defense minister. It was clear, it was unambiguous, and it was also directed to the world and the Lebanese government, not Hezbollah. It also came without a deadline. So read between the lines here. What's going on?
KATZ: Israel wants to avoid a war with Hezbollah and Lebanon. I think that's been clear since day one, when on October 7th, there were some voices within the IDF and within the defense establishment that said instead of attacking and retaliating to the Hamas massacre, Israel should actually focus on its bigger and stronger enemy in the north. But Israel held off on doing that and instead has said consistently, we're dealing with Hamas. We hope that there is a diplomatic resolution for the clashes that have been taking place daily along the border with Lebanon.
However, there is patience running out here in Israel. There are daily rocket attacks. There are daily anti-tank missile attacks. There's 100,000 people, John, from the border area, Israelis who have been displaced from their homes, and they will not go back as long as Hezbollah is there and attacking Israel. So, Israel is trying to urge, I would read Benny Gantz's comments, is Israel saying to the world, the clock is ticking. You don't want us to have a war with Hezbollah and Lebanon. You have to get more active and you have to push Hezbollah away from the border.
VAUSE: Okay, so you mentioned this. Since October 7, there has been this cross-border exchange of fire between Israel and Hezbollah. It's been at its highest point since the 2006 war. Tensions continue to escalate there. But the calculation has always been it's not in anyone's interest, certainly not Israel's interest, and certainly not Hezbollah's interest to go any further. Essentially, this was almost a show, if you like, the exchange of fire. How has that calculation now changed for Hezbollah?
KATZ: You're kind of right. It's almost as if somebody is there, Israel and Hezbollah are talking to one another, and saying, listen, these are the rules of engagement. We attack each other just within a two, three kilometer radius of the border, no deeper incursions, no deeper strikes by missiles or Israeli Air Force attacks. And as long as we do this, everybody can kind of feel like they're involved somehow, right? So, Hezbollah wants to show solidarity to Hamas, that it's involved, and it's helping to defend Hamas, and it's our need as Israel is waging a battle against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. However, it's not sustainable. And we also can all keep in mind that any miscalculation can easily lead to a larger conflagration.
I think that the bigger question here, John, is after Israel was surprised on October 7th by Hamas, and is now trying to eliminate that threat and degrade Hamas's capabilities to the greatest possible extent, can it, or is it willing, better yet, to live with another enemy of this sort, stronger, more soldiers, more weapons, more rockets on its northern front? It would mean that it would end the war with Hamas, but still have a sword up against its neck in the north. And I'm not advocating another war here, necessarily. But what I'm saying is we have this other threat that might now seem to be small, but it's quite large. And if this whole conflict right now in the Middle East ends without that being resolved, then Israel will still be stuck with a big problem.
VAUSE: It's a very good point. And as far as Israeli ground operations in Gaza, they're now expanding into a number of large refugee camps in the central part of Gaza. This is the sort of urban fighting which can be especially deadly for civilians as well as soldiers. So, after 80 days of war, the mass-controlled health ministry in Gaza says 21,100 people have been killed so far, an average of 257 a day. So just very quickly here, Israel, for the most part, doesn't dispute the overall number of people killed, but rather how many civilians were killed and how many are actually Hamas jihadis, right?
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KATZ: Israel looks at it a little differently. They say that about 6,000 to 7,000 are Hamas or Islamic jihad fighters. So, when they look at it, there's actually a ratio of combatants to civilian of one to two. And if you were to look, John, at throughout history, if you include World War II, if you don't include World War II, that ratio, while tragic and horrific and every loss of life is a tragedy, that is within the realm of actually what would be considered in combat, in urban warfare, to actually be, unfortunately, and I hate to be saying this, to be a good ratio for this type of warfare.
And Israel, we have to remember, is doing everything it can to try to minimize those civilian casualties. And who's responsible is the way Hamas fights and how it defends itself and surrounds itself with these civilians.
VAUSE: But with that in mind, I just want you to listen to Mark Ragev, senior advisor to the Israeli prime minister, on those numbers, on the death toll. Here he is.
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MARK REGEV, SENIOR ADVISER TO PRIME MINISTER NETANYAHU: The numbers you get from Hamas, which are most likely exaggerated, but those numbers do not make a distinction between combatants and non- combatants. If you tell me we killed 200 people yesterday in Gaza and they're all terrorists, I'll tell you, good. We want to get those terrorists. We want to find those people responsible for the October 7th massacre.
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VAUSE: But here's the problem. We're now to day 83 and all the dead in the 21,000 are not Hamas fighters. They're civilians as well. And those civilian numbers are going to go up and they're going to go up a lot. And so a lot more Palestinians are going to die, which just simply increases the pressure on Israel to wrap this up sooner rather than later.
KATZ: And that's true. And the world is laying on that pressure, John, and wants Israel to start to wind down. We know that the Europeans have definitely already shifted. They're gears and they're urging Israel to engage in a long-term ceasefire. But we've yet to hear that from the Americans. And the one country that really matters for Israel at the moment are the Americans, is the U.S., and is the Biden administration.
And as President Biden has said, I have yet to ask Israel for a ceasefire. Israel needs the U.S. for a number of reasons. One is for the continued supply of weapons. Two is for the continued supply of spare parts and for its airplane and aircraft. And three is for that diplomatic, which is a cover that it provides at places like the U.N. Security Council. So as long as Israel and the U.S. are coordinated and continue to be on the same page, I would not expect a major shift because of pressure from other places in the world.
VAUSE: Yacob Katz, as always, thank you, sir. Thank you for being with us.
KATZ: Thank you.
VAUSE: Mexico and the U.S. appear to have reached agreement on ways to deal with the crisis on their shared border. A senior U.S. delegation travelled to Mexico City for talks Wednesday with Mexico's president and other officials. Mexico's most senior diplomat says the meeting was very good, and details on agreements will be announced later in a joint statement. CNN's Rosa Flores has more now, reporting in from the southern U.S. border.
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ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As border authorities near a breaking point from the weeks-long migrant surge, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas meet with Mexico's president, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, in Mexico City to discuss ways to drive down the unprecedented number of illegal migrant crossings. The seven-day average earlier this month, 9,600. Blinken and Mayorkas are expected to ask Mexico to move migrants south, control railways that are used by migrants to move north, and provide migrants incentives to stay in Mexico, like visas.
In Eagle Pass, Texas, although migrant apprehensions dropped from about 3,000 daily encounters last week to about 2,000 Monday, according to a law enforcement source, one of two international bridges are still closed to vehicle traffic to redirect personnel to process migrants. The wait time to cross by car Wednesday afternoon, an astounding 15 hours. Many Americans who frequently drive back and forth are opting to cross on foot, like Minerva Castro. She says that when she ditched her car in Mexico, she saw a group of about 100 migrants walking towards Eagle Pass, some with children. One Eagle Pass business owner says the migrant surge is tearing the community apart.
EDDIE MORALES, TEXAS STATE REPRESENTATIVE FOR EAGLE PASS: I can tell that tempers are flaring everywhere you go. I'm hoping that there is a peaceful resolution to this crisis.
FLORES: Would you like to see President Biden visit Eagle Pass?
MORALES: I would. Very much so.
FLORES (voice-over): Texas State Representative Eddie Morales, a Democrat who represents residents from 11 West Texas counties along the state's border with Mexico, says the federal government's ongoing closure of the bridge and the recent five-day closure of the International Railway cost the U.S. economy hundreds of millions of dollars.
MORALES: Every day Texans are the ones that end up suffering.
FLORES (voice-over): Morales says he's hopeful that the top-level talks in Mexico City will pave the way for realistic change at the border but says he would have liked to see Texas Governor Greg Abbott have a seat at the table.
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MORALES: We're only going to get there if there's communication between these two countries and also with the state of Texas.
FLORES (voice-over): Texas recently passed its own immigration bill and has come under fire for Abbott's border security tactics like busing and flying migrants to blue states, separating migrant families, and deploying controversial border buoys and concertina wire. Morales initially supported Abbott's border security push, which has cost billions of dollars, but now says those efforts have fallen short.
MORALES: We have nothing positive to show to our taxpayers for the amount of money that we've invested. FLORES: If you take a look behind me, you'll see an open field with no migrants, and you might think that there is no border crisis. Well, here's the thing. The U.S. federal government has gotten really good at something called decompression because they've had a lot of practice. That's when migrants that are in an area that is over capacity are transported to an area that has processing space. Now, when it comes to the talks in Mexico City, one of the things that I'll be looking for as a possible clue for the outcome of those talks is the posture of law enforcement on the Mexican side of the border. Rosa Flores, CNN, Eagle Pass, Texas.
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VAUSE: To New York now, and Attorney Raul Reyes, a contributor to CNN, as well as National Public Radio's Latino USA. It's good to see you. Welcome back.
RAUL REYES, ATTORNEY: Good evening.
VAUSE: Okay, so both Democrats and Republicans have been talking for decades about a crisis on the southern border. You know, right now, a growing number of people trying to illegally cross the southern border in record numbers. In fact, here's Democrat Congresswoman Debbie Dingell.
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DEBBIE DINGELL, U.S. HOUSE DEMOCRAT: We are going to have to deal with this, and we cannot deal with it as Republicans or Democrats. We're going to have to deal with it as a Congress, come together and find solutions and get something done.
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VAUSE: Good luck with that. But it seems pretty simple. If the goal is to get the U.S. to deal with this, to stop illegal border crossings, then make it legal to cross the border. Here's how the Cato Institute describes it. Trying the legal immigration system as an alternative to immigration legally is like playing Powerball as an alternative to saving for retirement. Many do get to immigrate legally, but the odds are so low that it is simply not rational to expect that any particular person will be selected. So, when legal immigration seems hopeless, should anyone be surprised that there's a surge in illegal immigration?
REYES: Well, see, that's the problem when we have, when we look at our, the United States, our broken immigration system from, you know, big picture. We have in this country right now, we have, you know, historic lows of unemployment, 3.7 percent. We have something like 7 million job openings. We have a labor shortage in this country. And yet our system keeps people out. You know, it keeps people who want to come here through employment-sponsored visas or the family reunification process. These delays can go, people are surprised, but this is no exaggeration, decades.
It can take so long for people to actually emigrate legally that for many people, the option is either to go to other countries because the U.S. competes, you know, with the EU, with Australia, with New Zealand, for skilled professionals. And for other potential migrants, they just decide to turn and come through unauthorized channels. They turn to smugglers or cartels, or they just attempt to come through unauthorized channels. And so, you know, especially for those people fleeing very dangerous conditions in their home country, they don't have time to wait months, years, decades to enter. So over time, as we've closed off legal channels for immigration, all that has done is really pushed people towards illegal, unauthorized crossings.
VAUSE: Yeah. And over the years, as this has become more and more politicized, it seems lawmakers in the U.S. have created sort of a feedback loop, if you like. The Daily Beast described it like this. Nearly everything that politicians now use to justify immigration restriction can be traced back to the restrictionist policies already in force. In other words, immigration restrictionists create the problems and then demand ever more restrictions to fix them. So yes, border towns may in fact be overwhelmed, but that's because there's no system in place which can process arrivals in an orderly way, which then leads to harsher laws to try and control immigration, wash, rinse, repeat, and on and on it goes. So instead of doubling down on what's been happening over the last 10, 20 years, again, maybe it's time for a new look.
REYES: Right. Well, see, that's the type of, as you say, the feedback loop that we seem to be in, you know, with through multiple administrations, because whether you're talking President Obama, President Trump, now President Biden, they have all tried different variations on basically immigration policy centered on deterrence, just trying to keep people out. And whether they were President Obama's deportations, President Trump's horrific family separations policies, they really have not worked. And yet Congress refuses to act. And so, what happens? We have presidents try to take some action on through executive action on immigration, and that immediately provokes a lawsuit from the opposing party. And so, this dysfunctional system continues
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VAUSE: As you mentioned, over the years, when people talked about immigration reform, what they've really been talking about is border security and wrapping it up. For more on that, here's the secretary of Homeland Security.
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ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS, U.S. SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY: The border is closed. The border is secure. The border is secure. The border. We are working to make the border more secure.
UNKNOWN: Secretary Mayorkas, do you continue to maintain that the border is secure?
MAYORKAS: Yes. And we are working day in and day out to enhance its security.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: You know, at the same time, Mexico has assigned more than 25000 troops on their side of the border. Apparently, they're arresting more people to do with immigration than crime. You know, this is a good way to increase the number of people being arrested on a daily basis. It doesn't really do a lot to stop them from trying in the first place. So maybe that's where the focus should shift now, as you know, Secretary Blinken is in Mexico dealing with the problem down there.
REYES: Right. Exactly. In fact, one of the things that Mexico wants is seeking from the United States is a potential path forward for Mexico. The president of Mexico is asking the U.S. to relax some of its economic sanctions on Cuba and on Venezuela, because those two nations account for about 20% of the unauthorized migrants are at our border. And the thinking is if the situation there is not so dire, we will not see so many people making this dangerous trek through Mexico, you know, trying to get to the United States.
On the American side, the U.S. wants Mexico to implement this policy called contention, which means that it will be harder for people to pass through Mexico to get to the United States. So those both sound like good ideas. And yet what we've seen through so many months, multiple administrations, and it gives me no pleasure in saying this, is that the immigration policy from D.C. is often very divorced from the reality at the border. So, although these ideas sound good and the American public supports both border security and a humane and efficient asylum and migration system, generally our political parties, our lawmakers in Washington here in the U.S., try to approach this as an either-or, in the sense that either we can have border security or we can have a compassionate and effective immigration system. The reality is we can have both.
VAUSE: Raul Reyes in New York. Thank you, sir. Good to see you. We appreciate your time.
REYES: Thank you, John Vause.
VAUSE: Make the most of it, Ukraine. When we come back, the last round of U.S. military assistance will soon be on its way. After that, well, ask Republicans in Congress.
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VAUSE: A quarter billion dollars in U.S. military assistance will soon be headed for Ukraine. What is likely to be the last from Washington for now includes ammunition for air defenses, artillery, as well as anti-armor. After this, any more help? Well, that's in limbo, with congressional Republicans blocking a bill which includes more than $60 billion in aid, demanding more concessions on immigration and border security.
Negotiations over that funding bill set to resume next month. The European Union has also put an aid on financial assistance after Hungary blocked it, at least temporarily, earlier this month. Ukrainian troops are now forced to ration ammunition, according to U.S. and Ukrainian sources. And as CNN's Fred Pleitgen reports, Russia turning up the pressure on the front lines.
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FRED PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Russia's most recent claimed battlefield victory, driving Ukrainian forces to the outskirts of Marinka on the eastern front. The prize, though, dust and rubble as the vicious fighting has turned the town into a waste land. Still Russia's defense minister claiming this is a significant progress for Moscow. The Russian army is constantly taking more favorable positions and expanding control territories in all directions, he said. We are consistently moving forward, achieving the stated goals of the special operation.
Russia says its forces are now pressing in the entire east, looking to encircle the Ukrainians in Avdiivka, increasingly laying waste to that city as well. Russia says its forces are now pressing in the entire east, looking to encircle the Ukrainians in Avdiivka, increasingly laying waste to that city as well. Ukrainian authorities still operating their show. We've been bringing humanitarian aid and food here for a long time, he says. People have already left. I hope there were no casualties. This is what Avdiivka looks like. There's nothing here.
Kiev says the Russian army is suffering catastrophic losses during their assaults. But Ukraine's military also acknowledges their own large-scale counteroffensive started this summer has essentially stalled. A situation compounded by severe ammo shortages. Ukraine desperately hoping Congress will end its impasse and greenlight further U.S. military aid after months of delays. Ukraine's top general in a rare press conference says he's confident the assistance will come and that on the whole foreign military help for Ukraine has made a huge difference.
GEN. VALERY ZALUZHNY, UKRAINAN MILITARY CHIEF: We had rather ambitious goals in 2023, he says. I was not disappointed by the level of assistance in 2023. Of course, it was not everything, but it allowed us to conduct confident military operations.
PLEITGEN (voice-over): While gains on the ground remain incremental for both sides, the air war continues. Russian missiles and drones striking in Kherson and in Odessa killing two people. And Moscow now admits Kiev's Air Force managed to strike a large Russian landing ship, but only vaguely says the vessel suffered damage. Ukraine, though, claims the ship and its cargo were completely destroyed.
Footage on air now is impressive indeed, the Air Force spokesman says. A warship was destroyed, most likely a warship with a set of ammunition, powerful ammo. A key strike for Ukraine, but on the front lines, the war grinds on in the harsh eastern European winter. Little territory changing hands, but many soldiers on both sides killed and wounded.
PLEITGEN: The Ukrainians do acknowledge that the Russians really are pressing along the eastern front, but they also say that the Russians are suffering immense casualties, saying the Russians lost about 3,000 soldiers in just a week's time, with 1,000 of those killed. The Russians themselves, of course, not giving any exact numbers.
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VAUSE: North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has ordered ramped-up war preparations in response to unspecified confrontational moves by the United States. More now from CNN's Oren Liebermann.
OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: According to North Korean state, Kim Jong-un ordered, and I'll quote here, the munitions industry, nuclear weapons, and civil defense sectors to further accelerate the war preparations due to the anti-North Korean confrontation moves of the U.S. and its vassal forces unprecedented in history. In that case, vassal forces means South Korea coming from Kim Jong-un there.
So he is pushing his weapons programs and his nuclear programs even further as he orders this to accelerate here in the face of what he accuses the U.S. of doing, of expanding its own efforts in the region. It's worth noting that just 10 days ago, North Korea tested the Hwasong-18 intercontinental ballistic missile. It is the third solid- fuel ICBM test we've seen coming from North Korea this year that also came with a short-range ballistic missile test. So, you can see here Kim Jong-un seeing the U.S. working with South Korea and Japan. He is pushing his country even harder as well.
VAUSE: Thanks to CNN's Oren Lieberman there reporting in from the Pentagon. Just last week, Seoul, Tokyo, and Washington activated a system which assesses and shares real-time data on North Korean missile launches.
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When we come back, a legal victory for Donald Trump in Michigan. But it may not be any better for his chances to win the primary for the general election.
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VAUSE: Welcome back. I'm John Vause. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected to return to Israel next week, according to a senior Israeli official. Blinken will also stop in a number of countries in the Middle East to discuss the next steps in Israel's war with Hamas.
The State Department has yet to confirm Blinken's visit.
The French president is urging Israel to protect civilians in Gaza, ensuring lifesaving aid is delivered. According to Emanuel Macron's office, he spoke with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, expressed deepest concern over the civilian death toll, humanitarian emergency.
President Macron also stressed the need to work towards a lasting ceasefire, with the help of regional and international partners. Meantime, an Egyptian official says another 92 trucks with aid and commercial goods entered Gaza Wednesday through the Rafah crossing, but that's still way below the daily amount Gaza -- daily amount of resistance that Gaza received before the October 7th Hamas attacks.
Stephen Ryan is a rapid deployment coordinator with the International Committee of the Red Cross. He's with us on the line now from Southern Gaza.
Stephen, thank you. I just want to get straight to the current news. With the Israeli ground forces moving into central Gaza, in particular a number of crowded refugee camps.
So what are your concerns right now, firstly about civilian casualties, and what sort of treatment is available to them, to the people who are wounded during the Israeli offensive?
STEPHEN RYAN, RAPID DEPLOYMENT COORDINATOR, INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE OF THE RED CROSS (via phone): Well, as fighting continues to cross the Gaza Strip. The -- the tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of families, are continuing to suffer from dire conditions and being put in a position where they have to flee from ongoing fighting to anywhere they can find that is safe.
Certainly, the International Committee of the Red Cross is doing that to make sure that services are provided. But with the level of humanitarian assistance that has entered Gaza, and the level of humanitarian need, the gap between those two things is huge.
While we welcome any increase in aid coming into Gaza, for weeks, if not months, the amount of humanitarian assistance that have reached people here in Gaza, the sort of war (UNINTELLIGIBLE) they need. And in terms of what assistance is possible, what has been affected by the fighting.
The health service here in Gaza has been almost decimated. On top of that, the -- the medical supplies for hospitals is extremely limited, and doctors and (UNINTELLIGIBLE), nurses and other medical staff have told me that they're actually weeks and weeks surprising (ph). They're extremely tired, and they're hanging on by a thread.
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VAUSE: Stephen, how would you describe the level of care the Red Cross and other aid groups are able to deliver to the people of Gaza right now?
RYAN: Well, I can speak on the half of the ICRC, the International Commission of the Red Cross. We're doing our best to help people with what resources we have, and what we're able to bring into the country.
Here in Southern Gaza, we have a medical clinical team working at one of the hospitals in Rafah, but while these teams work around the clock together with their local colleagues, they know that there's never going to be enough doctors and nurses. There's never going to be enough supplies available to us here to meet the growing need. And some of the patients that I met in the hospital just yesterday,
they're desperate for more support. I've spoken to mothers and fathers. I've spoken to children. And they're at their wits end. Unlike the amount of medical need here, both from the impact of the fighting and from the fact that people don't have more food, water. You don't have enough adequate shelter.
This is just compounding the situation, making it more and more difficult. Not just for humanitarian organizations to respond.
And their response cannot meet the needs that they actively have at the moment, but there are people trying to survive. And we're deeply concerned and appeal to all actors of influence: the states, and indeed to the parties in the conflict, that they have a responsibility to make sure that civilians have access to humanitarian need, that they have sufficient access to health care. And right now, that is woefully short of what it should be.
VAUSE: We're reporting 93 trucks -- a convoy of 93 trucks, made it into Gaza from -- from Rafah over the past 24 hours. That's an increase in what we've seen, but it's still under what Gaza normally gets.
Is it within Israel's power to increase the number of trucks which are entering Gaza? Could they, essentially, alleviate this problem in a very easy way?
RYAN: I can understand, of course, that people have many different concerns about how humanitarian goods come into Gaza. There's a much greater need than what is being met at the moment.
Certainly, it might seem like an increase that -- that there might be more trucks. But this is not a dramatic increase.
There were 2.2 million people in Gaza before the conflict started. Those people are not able to work. There isn't enough sufficient supplies in countries. There is not enough food. There isn't enough water.
On top of that, there's isn't safe conditions for organizations to deliver aid to where they need it most across Gaza. And as such, the International Committee of the Red Cross has and will continue to call on the parties and anyone who has influenced, any state, to make sure that humanitarian aid that is going by the hour are better.
Because at the moment, we're on the brink of catastrophe.
VAUSE: On the brink of catastrophe right now, but the Israelis say that this military offensive will not only go on for months to come, but could likely intensify over that period.
What does that mean for people who are already suffering so much right now?
RYAN: Well, outside the fact that there isn't enough supplies coming into the country, an increase in intensity in the conflicts and greater amount of fighting is going to lead to greater numbers of people being injured.
We have deep concerns about the state of the health service, because this is one of the areas of the International Committee of the Red Cross, it's focusing strongly on reporting.
Our medical teams are -- have been rotating in and rotating out through Gaza for the last weeks and months, and what they've been witnessing is terrible.
I've spoken my colleagues yesterday, and they -- the only wish that they could do more. Supporting the health authority here. But if and when fighting increases or continues to, there will be more dire injuries. And I mean, extremely severe injuries, including of children.
And this is something that much more supplies are going to be needed. But what's really needed is for the parties of this conflict to promptly form agreements so the fighting can stop and so that the international community can encourage and support them and facilitate that the suffering of the civilians that's happening on the ground here in Gaza, that some solutions comes to that, but some resolution is made. And you can acquire a political solution, not a humanitarian one.
VAUSE: Stephen, thank you for joining us there. I know it's difficult for you right now. Communications are extremely difficult, as well. I wish you all the very best and urge you to stay safe, and we hope to get to talk to you again. Thank you.
RYAN: Thank you.
VAUSE: Well, the mayor of New York City says protests over the Israel- Hamas war are among his concerns for this New Year's Eve celebration.
Mayor Eric Adams says he's sure protesters will try to use the famous celebration in Times Square for their own purposes. He added that there were already -- there was already an attempt to disrupt the lighting of the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center.
[00:40:06]
The mayor says the city will use technology to help secure the event Sunday night. Earlier this year, the police department used high-tech drones to monitor complaints about large gatherings.
Some civil liberties advocates denounced that.
Now, to the race for the White House. The Michigan Supreme Court has rejected a bid to remove Donald Trump's name from the state's primary Republican ballot. But he could still be kept off the general election ballot.
A voters' advocacy group filed a lawsuit in September, arguing Trump should be disqualified because of a violation of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution by engaging in insurrection.
The Michigan courts didn't address that issue, but rejected the lawsuit on procedural grounds.
Trump's ballot ban in Colorado is now on hold indefinitely after an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. But the challenge did not come from Trump's legal team.
CNN's Paula Reid explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PAULA REID, CNN CHIEF LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: The Republican Party of Colorado has filed an appeal asking the Supreme Court of the United States to overturn that unprecedented decision from the Colorado Supreme Court last week that removed former President Trump from the ballot.
Now, Trump has signaled that he, too, will appeal that ruling, but he hasn't done so yet.
Well, the GOP has been a party in this litigation. They are fighting for the ability to list Trump as a candidate on the primary ballot. And one of the immediate impacts of this appeal is that the Colorado decision is now on pause.
And until the Supreme Court reveals whether it wants to get involved. They're under enormous pressure to take up this case and to offer some clarity on exactly who the 14th Amendment applies to and the extent of the states have power to remove candidates from the ballots.
So unclear if the Supreme Court will take this up or how long it will take them to decide, but because of this appeal, that Colorado decision now on hold.
Now, one of the places where this question of whether Trump will be on the ballot is still outstanding is in the state of Maine. Now, what's interesting about Maine is, there, the secretary of state is actually the first one to review ballot eligibility, and then it can go to the courts to be appealed.
And Trump and his team calling for the secretary of state to be recused, to recuse herself from this case. They are arguing that things that she said about January 6th should make her ineligible to review this case.
She's expected to make her decision on this any day now. She did not respond to our request for comment, though it does appear unlikely that she would recuse herself.
Now, the special counsel, Jack Smith, also hard at work just days after the holiday. He has filed a request with the court to limit Trump's ability to argue that he is the victim of political persecution, if and when the January 6th federal case goes to trial.
Now, that whole case is on hold right now. Well, larger constitutional questions are appealed. But the special counsel hopes to be able to take that case to trial before the 2024 election. In order to make that happen, he continues to make filings and
requests of the court so that once those appeals are resolved, if he prevails, he can move ahead with trial as quickly as possible.
Paula Reid, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Well, a year of climate disasters, historic floods, record- breaking heat waves, sweeping wildfires, brings some consensus among world leaders about the need for urgent change. In a moment, the biggest, baddest climate events of 2023.
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VAUSE: Jacques Delors, known one of the founding fathers of the euro, has died at 98. He was president of the European Commission from 1985 to 1995, a major backer of a single currency for the E.U.
Current President Ursula von der Leyn described Delors as "a visionary who made our Europe strong. His life's work is a united, dynamic and prosperous European Union. It has shaped entire generations of Europeans, including mine."
French President Emmanuel Macron called him "a statesman with a French destiny, inexhaustible architect of our Europe, and a fighter for human justice. His commitment, his ideals, and righteousness will always inspire us."
Unconfirmed reports there's now a possible tornado just outside Manchester, England. Early reports say there has been damage. The area remains under a severe storm threat until early Thursday.
The possibility of an isolated tornado remains.
More than 200 high wind reports across the British isles on Wednesday. A yellow warning for high winds remains across parts of the U.K. for Thursday. This storm has caused widespread flooding, heavy downpours, expected to continue in some parts.
And as this year draws to a close, let's look at some of the historic devastating and catastrophic climate events that marked the year. Here is CNN's Bill Weir with the top 20 climate stories of 2023.
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BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Starting our list at No. 10, the water whiplash that became a signature of 2023 in the American West.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What you're seeing here is an attempt to try to get ahead of the storm that continues to pound California.
WEIR (voice-over): After years of megadrought, rivers in the sky unloaded on California, turning dust bowls into raging floods that took at least 20 lives and filled the mountains with record snow. But not enough to end the drought.
At No. 9 is COP-28 in Dubai.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Allow me, please, to declare the meeting adjourned.
WEIR (voice-over): Where the world came together and, for the first time in three decades of climate talks, agreed to transition away from fossil fuels.
Over 130 nations were hoping for a more ambitious phase-out of oil, gas, and coal, but petrol states like Saudi Arabia would not agree. Scientists warn that, to meet the ambition of the Paris Accord, planet-heating pollution must be cut by more than 40 percent by 2030. A rate four times faster than the current pace.
At No. 8, the Mediterranean storm Daniel blasted parts of Greece with over an inch of rain an hour on its way to drowning thousands of people in Libya.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everywhere you turn, it's apocalyptic scenes here.
WEIR (voice-over): Entire neighborhoods in Derna were washed into the sea, a tragedy that scientists say was 50 times more likely on an overheated planet.
At No. 7, over a dozen young people successfully sued the state of Montana for ignoring their constitutional right to a clean and healthful environment by developing fossil fuels. For the dozens of states and cities taking big oil companies to court for their role in climate change, it was a key win.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We've got this, guys. We love you!
WEIR (voice-over): No. 6 is the summer of smoke, brought by a record- shattering scale of Canadian wildfires. An area the size of Missouri burned North of the border.
WEIR: If you get any glimpse of the sun at all on these surreal days, it's this apocalyptic bowling ball in the sky.
WEIR (voice-over): American air quality in some cities was the worst in generations, closing schools and filling emergency rooms.
No. 5 is the ocean water around Florida, reaching hot-tub temperatures of nearly 100 degrees in July, Bringing devastating new levels of coral bleaching into the cradles of Caribbean sea life.
That warmer water is also jet fuel for hurricanes and, at No. 4, rapid intensification became a watch word phrase of 2023.
WEIR: The water has come up and over that that sea wall, and we're getting sprayed every minute or so. WEIR (voice-over): Storms like Idalia in Florida's Big Bend, Otis in
the East Pacific, and Hilary in Southern California showed us how modern storms are getting stronger and faster.
At No. 3, Phoenix, Arizona, gave us a new definition of heat wave, with 31 straight days at or over 110 degrees. Temperatures hot enough to kill cactus plants also took the lives of at least 100 people, a grim new record. That is just one facet of a warmer globe.
At No. 2, Earth's record temperatures, the highest in 120,000 years. A few days in 2023 were a full two degrees Celsius warmer than pre- industrial levels and, if that becomes the new average, science warns of cascading collapse.
And at No. 1, the Maui wildfires.
WEIR: We're just pulling into Lahaina now, just getting our first glimpse at this town after hearing these nightmare stories. It is worse than you can imagine.
WEIR (voice-over): Generations of water theft, invasive grasses, and recent drought created the fuel. Downed power lines are suspected of providing the spark, and hurricane winds fanned the flames until most of beloved Lahaina was turned to ash.
With around 100 souls lost, it is the deadliest fire in modern U.S. history; and the battle over how best to rebuild has just begun.
Bill Weir, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: In a moment here on CNN, why 2023 saw renewed interest in the moon, and a growing number of countries scramble to join the lunar club, a review, in a moment.
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VAUSE: An update now on the story we brought you 24 hours ago. After some legal back-and-forth, Apple says it will begin selling its latest and most technologically advanced Apple watches in U.S. stores starting Thursday. Thank goodness.
The watches are manufactured abroad, but an important ban on the Series 9 and the Ultra 2 watches had put into effect earlier this week. U.S. officials ruled Apple's watches violated another company's patents.
But now, a U.S. federal appeals court has temporarily blocked that ban, saying the blocking ban has been blocked. Apple was expected to redesign the watches by January 12th. Thank goodness they're on sale.
The space race seemed to kick into high gear in 2023, with renewed interest in traveling to the moon and beyond. There were some historic successes and epic failures, and efforts to perfect a new learning landing system. Here's CNN's Kristin Fisher.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN F. KENNEDY JR., FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.
KRISTIN FISHER, CNN SPACE AND DEFENSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): More than 60 years after those famous words, it was full steam ahead for a new space race in 2023.
Space agencies from around the world are once again competing to get to the moon and, this time, they're hoping to stay for good, leaving more than just flags and footprints.
In 2023, India's space program took a giant leap forward, successfully landing it uncrewed robotic Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft on the lunar surface in august. It's only the fourth country to do it, after the United States, the former Soviet Union, and China.
But, so far, India is the only one to reach the South pole of the moon, where water, in the form of ice, has been detected.
NARENDRA MODI, INDIAN PRIME MINISTER: India's successful moon mission is not just India's alone. This success belongs to all of humanity.
[00:55:02]
FISHER (voice-over): Russia tried to beat them to it, but 2023 wasn't its year. Its first lunar mission in nearly 50 years ended in failure after the Luna 25 spacecraft crashed into the moon.
NASA has ambitious plans to land astronauts on the moon again and, eventually, create a lunar base camp. But first, it has to perfect the technology for a new crewed landing, which is set for the Artemis 3 mission in 2025.
2023 was all about the lunar landing system that will help them get there, with SpaceX continuing to test its Starship spacecraft that will carry the crew on the last leg of their journey to the surface of the moon.
The first two test flights ended in explosions.
FISHER: And, as you can see, the super-heavy booster has just experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly.
FISHER (voice-over): But SpaceX says that is part of the process. Lessons were learned with each attempt, and valuable data was gathered to refine designs, though there's still widespread speculation that Artemis 3 will be delayed.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And, lift off Starlink. Go Starlink.
FISHER (voice-over): But it's not just lunar landers going up. SpaceX sent satellites into space in rapid-fire succession in 2023, launching, on average, once every four days.
And in 2024, it's aiming even higher, shooting for launches 12 times per month. The goal is to expand its Starlink Internet system and blanket the globe with high-speed wi-fi.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You see the reaction there, just moments ago as they got their tempo back on the ground.
FISHER (voice-over): And there were big cheers when a capsule full of rocks and dust parachuted back down to Earth. The OSIRIS-REx mission marked the first time that NASA brought samples from an asteroid back to earth.
NASA hopes that the particles from the metal-rich asteroid Bennu, which dates back four and a half billion years, will help answer some of humankind's most existential questions.
BILL NELSON, NASA ADMINISTRATOR: Why are we doing this? Because at NASA, we are trying to find out who we are. What we are. Where we came from. What is our place in this vastness called the universe?
FISHER (voice-over): Kristin Fisher, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: I'm John Vause. Thanks for your company this hour. I'll be back with a lot more CNN NEWSROOM after a very short break. See you in a moment.
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