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CNN International: Israel's Next Move in War in Gaza; Major Israeli Offensive in Khan Younis Expected to Last Days; New Strikes on Iran-Backed Houthis in Yemen; Trump Verses Haley in New Hampshire Primary Today. Aired 4-4:30a ET
Aired January 23, 2024 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Israel has made relatively little inroads when it comes to dismantling and destroying Hamas.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The U.S. carried out strikes on eight separate sites using some 25 to 30 precision guided munitions. And we saw the U.K. take part in these strikes with an international coalition.
DONAL TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Now we're down to two people.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nikki Haley has captured all six votes here in Dixville Notch.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: Live from London, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Max Foster and Bianca Nobilo.
MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us around the world. I'm Max Foster.
BIANCA NOBILO, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Bianca Nobilo. It is Tuesday, January 23rd. And we begin with new reports about the prospect for a ceasefire in Gaza. The first one comes from Axios, which cites unnamed Israeli officials who say Israel has offered a two-month pause in fighting as part of a possible hostage deal.
CNN foreign policy analyst Barak Ravid reports that Israeli officials are optimistic about the Hamas response to the deal. Ravid, you broke the story in Axios. He spoke to CNN about the proposal late on Monday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARAK RAVID, CNN POLITICAL AND GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: What I hear from Israeli officials is that they are much more, let's say, optimistic than they were ten days ago or even a week ago or even three days ago. Because they get the feeling that every day that passes, there is more willingness by Hamas to agree to start discussing this idea in more detail and basically drop their maximalist position of, you know, end the war, release every Palestinian prisoner in Israeli prisons and give us immunity for the rest of our lives.
And so Israeli officials say that they believe that in the next 24 to 48 hours, they'll be much smarter on whether Hamas is ready to engage on this or not.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NOBILO: Now to a CNN exclusive about another proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza. Israel's spy chief is proposing that Hamas senior leaders could leave Gaza as part of a broader ceasefire agreement. That's according to two officials familiar with the ongoing discussion.
FOSTER: The suggestion has been discussed as part of a ceasefire negotiation at least twice in recent weeks. Alex Marquardt explains why Israel would offer safe passage to the architects of the October 7th terror attacks.
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ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Israel has made relatively little inroads when it comes to dismantling and destroying Hamas.
You have the most senior leadership of Hamas that is still alive, still believed to be in those tunnels. You have around 70 percent of the Hamas fighting force by Israel's own estimation still on the battlefield.
Now of course this could also benefit Israel if these Hamas leaders were to leave. It would weaken Hamas in the Gaza Strip. It would take away their leadership. And it would allow Israel to target Hamas leaders wherever they go.
And Israel has said repeatedly that they intend to go around the world and kill Hamas leaders because of October 7th.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NOBILO: The IDF is reporting that 21 Israeli soldiers were killed in southern Gaza on Monday. An Israeli tank was hit by a rocket propelled grenade and an explosion occurred in two buildings causing them to collapse.
FOSTER: It was a single deadliest day for Israeli forces since the start of the war against Hamas on October 7th.
NOBILO: Let's bring in Elliott Gotkine who is following developments live for us here in London. Elliot, what more do we know about the circumstances of those explosions and the deaths of those Israeli soldiers? And what has the response been in Israel?
ELLIOTT GOTKINE, JOURNALIST: So the response, let's start with that. We've heard from President Isaac Herzog saying that this is an unbearably difficult morning. Prime Minister Netanyahu saying that in the name of our heroes, for the sake of our lives, we will not stop fighting until absolute victory.
So it's a very sad day in Israel for the loss of these troops. Not just that, by some margin, this is the deadliest day for Israeli forces since the war began on October 7th in the wake of the Hamas massacre. And what we're understanding from the IDF is that a rocket propelled grenade, an RPG, was fired towards an Israeli tank that was protecting Israeli forces inside two buildings.
[04:05:00]
Israeli media saying that two troops inside that tank were killed. And now at the same time, so it's not clear if it was the RPG that did this, at the same time, an explosion occurred in these two buildings, two-story buildings, in central Gaza, causing them to collapse and killing the other soldiers. So 21 soldiers killed in all.
And what the IDF is saying is that it seems that these explosions in these buildings were triggered by mines that the IDF itself had laid with a view to destroying these buildings and other surrounding infrastructure. Because what they're trying to do is to create some kind of buffer zone. And this area is about 600 meters away from the border with Israel. They want to create some kind of buffer zone to enable the people who have been displaced from their homes on the other side of the border to return to their homes.
FOSTER: What about this -- I mean, it's an extraordinary story, isn't it? That the idea that Hamas leaders could leave Gaza as part of a truce deal, considering everything that the Prime Minister has been saying about Hamas and the mission.
GOTKINE: I think we've got to a point where, as we heard from Alex, you know, Israel isn't necessarily achieving its objectives in the sense that it's only, even by its own estimates, killed about a third of Hamas's fighting force. It has failed to rescue a single Israeli hostage, and there are more than 100 inside the Gaza Strip, with the exception of one female soldier.
So I guess they're kind of thinking more creatively. This suggestion was put forward by David Barnea, the head of the Mossad, Israel's equivalent of the CIA, first to his counterpart at the CIA, Bill Burns, and then to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
The response from the Qataris, who of course have been integral to mediating that first truce, is that this is really a non-starter. Number one, because presumably Hamas leaders understand that they're probably safer underground, under Khan Younis, where they're presumed to be, than in other cities around the Middle East.
Just evidence for that being New Year's Day, I think it was, or January 2nd, when that Hamas top commander was killed in a presumed Israeli assassination in southern Beirut. And the other is that they may prefer to go down fighting inside the Gaza Strip when they're fighting against their sworn enemy.
But just one final thing to remember, if you cast your mind back 40 years or so, when Yasser Arafat, then head of the PLO, with his forces inside Beirut, they were allowed to leave Beirut to exit, to go into exile, in exchange effectively for Israel's war with Lebanon coming to a close.
So although history doesn't necessarily repeat itself, it does sometimes rhyme, so it's not completely inconceivable to imagine a situation where a Palestinian leader might leave. But again, Hamas is a very different organization to the PLO back then, and there's no sense that this is something that could happen.
However, the fact that we're talking about proposals means perhaps that at least we are having conversations about conversations, and maybe that can count for progress.
FOSTER: OK, Elliot, thank you so much.
Israel's military operation in southern Gaza is expected to continue for several days, and the Israel Defense Forces say it requires precise operations due to the dense civilian population in the area.
Military officials say they are targeting Hamas outposts, infrastructure and command and control centers in the city, and they claim to have seen Hamas militants in sensitive sites such as hospitals.
NOBILO: But Palestinian health officials say Israel is battering medical facilities in the city. The Palestine Red Crescent Society says the situation in the Al-Amal hospital in Khan Younis is extremely dangerous, with around 80 percent of the entrances and exits obstructed.
CNN's Ben Wedeman shows us what's happening on the ground.
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BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): By hand, they bury the white, shrouded body of a young girl on the grounds of the Nasr hospital in Khan Younis. The soft sand at the hospital, one of the only safe places to put the dead to rest.
The girl suffocated, they couldn't save her, says her grandmother, Saadia Abutaima (ph).
Khan Younis is now the focus of Israel's offensive in Gaza, where Israel believes some of the hostages as well as some of Hamas's leaders are located. But after weeks of intense operations, they've found neither.
The war is well into its fourth month. Israeli leaders warn it could go on until year's end. The prospect of an early halt to fighting brushed aside by the White House.
JOHN KIRBY, U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL COORDINATOR FOR STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS: We don't believe a ceasefire is going to be to the benefit of anybody but Hamas.
WEDEMAN (voice-over): Some in Gaza might beg to differ. Israeli forces have pulled out, for now, from parts of central Gaza.
In the Nuseirat refugee camp, people search for what's left of their shattered lives. Or perhaps just scraps of firewood.
Hundreds of thousands have taken refuge in now overcrowded UN schools. Officials warn that lack of sanitation, clean water, medicine and proper shelter is leading to the spread of disease.
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Um Hamad (ph) fled here with her family, only to find no space.
Where is there shelter where we can stay, she asks. We're not the Hamas people they're talking about. We just want to live like everyone else. By al-Bureij camp, at another UN shelter, school books keep the fire going to cook a meal.
It was a nightmare here while the fighting raged nearby. A nightmare that, for some, isn't over.
My father's gone. My father, the pillar of my life, is gone, says 11- year-old Karim Hussein. How can I live without him after the war?
His father's body, and others, lies in Gaza's soft sand behind the school. No gravestone, just names spray-painted on the wall.
Ben Wiedman, CNN, reporting from Beirut.
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FOSTER: A senior U.S. defense official says the latest U.S. and U.K. strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen were successful. The targets include missiles, drone systems and weapons storage sites.
This is the eighth round of strikes meant to deter Houthi attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
NOBILO: The Iran-aligned Houthis control much of western Yemen, as you can see there, including the capital, Sanaa. They say the attacks on shipping won't stop until Israel ends the war in Gaza.
The Houthi leader responded to the latest western strikes, saying they will make the Yemeni people stronger and yet more determined.
FOSTER: CNN's Scott McLean following developments from Istanbul, Turkey. I mean, they're saying it's a success, but arguably, you know, the first round didn't work. It's not actually working, their strategy there, because the Houthi attacks continue.
SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right, Max. So, the Pentagon had initially said last week that, look, we never said the Houthis would stop immediately, and that certainly was true.
There was a raft of attacks that continued on commercial shipping, even after these U.S. and U.K. strikes on Houthi targets really started to ramp up. Last week, case in point, you had Houthi attacks on U.S.-owned ships Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. Two of those attacks actually hit their targets, the ships, though they weren't damaged enough to actually prevent them from continuing to sailing.
You even had the president, President Biden, acknowledging that they weren't working, but they would actually continue. Now his answer might be different to that same question, because it does appear that these strikes are having some of the desired effect. In fact, one Pentagon official said that this latest round of strikes achieved the desired effect and removed significant Houthi capability.
They also said that, look, there's still plenty of weapons that they have at their disposal. But this latest round of strikes, there were eight targets, go beyond just the immediate threats. Because last week you had the Pentagon saying that they were striking anti-ship missiles that were locked and loaded, targeted or pointed at the Red Sea. Now you're seeing them strike other targets, aerial systems, underground weapons storage, things like that.
What these strikes have not done, though, is dampened any of the resolve of the Houthis, case in point.
A member of their leadership, Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, said this in response, quote, "The American and British must understand that we are in a time of response and that our people do not know how to surrender. Our Yemeni people today are fighting to prevent the genocide and seizure of the people of Gaza, and the Americans are fighting and bombing the people of Yemen to protect the terrorist criminal, the Israeli enemy."
Now, the U.S. has made clear, obviously, that it doesn't see any justification, not the war in Gaza, not anything that justifies the strikes on commercial shipping vessels in the Red Sea. We also just this morning heard from the U.K. foreign secretary, David Cameron, who said that the Houthi strikes on targets are illegal and unacceptable, and he said that they will continue.
But the reality, though, Max and Bianca, is that the Houthis, at least according to the Americans, are getting a steady stream of ammunition coming from Iran.
In fact, two U.S. Navy SEALs were killed trying to intercept one of those vessels destined for Yemen. And, you know, this supply of weapons from Iran is also the same weapons that are being supplied to militaries or militant groups, excuse me, in Syria and Iraq, some of whom are actually -- some of which are actually landing on or around U.S. bases there -- Max, Bianca.
FOSTER: Scott McLean in Istanbul. Thank you so much.
NOBILO: Voters in New Hampshire head to the polls today for the first primary in the U.S. presidential race. Ahead, why this could be the critical moment for Nikki Haley.
FOSTER: Plus, large crowds lining up to visit a Hindu temple inaugurated by the Indian prime minister. Why analysts say this controversial place of worship could help Narendra Modi win this year's elections.
NOBILO: And later --
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BARBIE: What are you doing here?
[04:15:00]
KEN: I'm coming with you.
BARBIE: Did you bring your rollerblades?
KEN: I literally go nowhere without them.
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NOBILO: To be honest, their relationship and dynamic reminds me of us slightly.
We'll know in just a few hours if Barbie is up for any Academy Awards or Oscar nominations.
FOSTER: I'm not sure I could pull off the outfit.
NOBILO: No, but, you know, it's for you.
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FOSTER: Republican voters in the U.S. state of New Hampshire have a choice to make in the coming hours.
NOBILO: As you can tell from our backdrop.
FOSTER: Yes. Yes. Donald Trump or Nikki Haley, their decision could have a massive impact on the presidential race.
NOBILO: Voters in the tiny township of Dixville Notch made their choice a few hours ago, with polls opening at midnight and closing just minutes later. Haley took all six votes in Dixville Notch. Since 1960, they've been the first in New Hampshire to vote in the state's primary.
While Haley won in Dixville Notch, the rest of the state could be a very different story. If she loses in New Hampshire, some experts think she may drop out of the race. But for now, Haley is still fighting and still attacking Donald Trump.
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NIKKI HALEY, U.S. REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This really is an option. Do you want more of the same? Or do you want to go forward? Are we really going to say that we're OK with having our options be two 80-year-olds that run for president? I'm not being disrespectful. I'm saying we need somebody with eight years.
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FOSTER: Trump told supporters Monday night he expects to win in the state, as well as in November's general election.
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TRUMP: Now we're down to two people. And I think one person will be gone probably tomorrow. And the other one will be gone in November.
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FOSTER: And the latest polling supports Trump's claims as well.
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Our CNN senior data reporter, Harry Enten, broke down the poll numbers for the Republican candidates.
NOBILO: I love a poll.
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HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: Our CNN poll at the University of New Hampshire has Trump with an 11-point advantage. That is up from where it was last month, when it was in fact just a 7-point advantage for Donald Trump.
Monmouth University, look at this, an 18-point edge. Donald Trump at 50 percent in the CNN poll, clearing 50 percent here. Haley way back.
And you'll notice DeSantis, who of course has dropped out of the race, he's at 6 percent in that poll, 8 percent in the Monmouth poll, which might give you a reason why he left. He really had no shot in the state of New Hampshire.
DeSantis' supporters, their second choice for the GOP nominee, look at this. They don't go to Haley. They go to Donald Trump, 62-30 percent for Haley. So DeSantis' exit doesn't in fact help Haley. It probably helps Donald Trump, which is not necessarily something he needs, because he was already ahead. He's probably a little bit more ahead now that DeSantis has left the race.
If these polls are right, and Nikki Haley loses in New Hampshire, Donald Trump wins, he's already won in the state of Iowa, what do we see? Won the GOP nomination after losing Iowa-New Hampshire, zero. It's never happened in the modern era. So the fact that Haley has lost Iowa, looks like she's going to lose New Hampshire, not good. Another bit of bad news for Nikki Haley.
Look at this. Choice for GOP nominee nationally among likely GOP voters, look at this. Donald Trump at 69 percent, Nikki Haley at 12 percent. That is tied for the largest advantage nationally at this point, basically ever, for a GOP nominee.
So the fact is Donald Trump looks like he's on his way to a victory in New Hampshire after Iowa, and nationally he's well ahead at this point.
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NOBILO: Despite what the polls say, Haley's supporters are urging her to stay in the race no matter what happens in Tuesday's primary. CNN's Jeff Zeleny is in New Hampshire with more.
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DONAL TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We have to win on Tuesday.
JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's a two-person race in New Hampshire. The question is for how long.
NIKKI HALEY, U.S. REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: America doesn't do coronations. We believe in choices.
ZELENY (voice-over): On the eve of the New Hampshire primary, Nikki Haley stands as the last remaining challenger to Donald Trump in a one-on-one contest that could show he's vulnerable or unstoppable and on a march to the Republican nomination.
HALEY: Can you hear that sound? That's the sound of a two-person race.
ZELENY (voice-over): The former president heading back to New Hampshire for one final rally before the voting begins. Embraced by former rivals rallying around his candidacy after Ron DeSantis threw in the towel on Sunday.
TRUMP: He ran a really good campaign, I will tell you. It's not easy.
ZELENY (voice-over): In rally after rally, Trump's closing arguments revolved as much around defending his pending legal cases, suggesting the president can act outside the law than articulating a vision for the party's future.
TRUMP: If you have a president that doesn't have immunity, he's never going to be free to do anything.
ZELENY (voice-over): To keep the primary race alive, Haley is trying to build a coalition of independents and Republicans, like Carol Booth, who met Haley today at a Manchester brewery.
CAROL BOOTH, NEW HAMPSHIRE VOTER: I just feel she has a shot, especially now that DeSantis is gone. I think that between her and Trump, I think Nikki's got a -- she's got a good chance.
ERIC MEYER, NEW HAMPSHIRE VOTER: We're in it for you.
HALEY: Get everybody else to vote. Get all your friends out and we'll get it done.
ZELENY (voice-over): Eric Meyer left the Republican Party when Trump was elected. He believes Haley could unify the country and win the White House. MEYER: It seems like she wants to sustain her campaign, at least with South Carolina. So that gives me hope.
ZELENY (voice-over): Some Haley supporters fear it's an uphill battle. But the New Hampshire primary has a storied history of delivering surprises.
BILL CLINTON, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: New Hampshire tonight has made Bill Clinton the comeback kid.
ZELENY (voice-over): And different verdicts than the Iowa caucuses. In 2000, John McCain's resounding victory over George W. Bush.
JOHN MCCAIN, FORMER U.S. STATE SENATOR: On to South Carolina. Thank you.
ZELENY (voice-over): And in 2008, Hillary Clinton's defeat of Barack Obama opened an epic fight for delegates.
HILLARY CLINTON, FORMER U.S. DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We are in it for the long run.
ZELENY (voice-over): Yet history may offer limited lessons for this race, considering Trump is a quasi-incumbent who is swiftly coalescing the Republican Party around him and eyeing a rematch with Joe Biden.
TRUMP: This is the greatest movement in the history of politics in this country.
ZELENY: As Nikki Haley was making last-minute appeals to voters on Monday in Manchester, one man approached her and said, stay in the race. Stay in the race. She said, Don't worry. We will stay in the race until South Carolina.
That primary, of course, is February 24th. But the question is, does she leave New Hampshire as a winner or reassessing her candidacy to Donald Trump?
Jeff Zeleny, CNN, Salem, New Hampshire.
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FOSTER: The U.S. Supreme Court has allowed border patrol agents to remove razor wire installed by the Texas governor along a stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border to deter migrants.
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The vote on Monday was 5-4. It's a major victory for the Biden administration in this ongoing dispute with the Republican governor, Greg Abbott.
NOBILO: Abbott doubled down following the court's ruling. In a tweet he said, this is not over. And he added, he plans to continue to defend Texas's constitutional authority to secure the border and prevent the Biden administration from, quote, destroying our property. FOSTER: CNN's Laura Coates spoke exclusively with U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris on Monday. Harris accused the Republicans of playing politics with immigration as border crossings continue to surge.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LAURA COATES, CNN ANCHOR: There is anger on both sides of the aisle, Democrats and Republicans, about an unsustainable border, what they're calling a crisis. Why can't this be accomplished during this administration?
KAMALA HARRIS, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: Well, so there is no question that our immigration system is broken. And so much so that we, as the first bill that we offered after our inauguration, was to fix the immigration system, which included what we must do to create a pathway for citizenship and to put the resources that are needed into the border.
But sadly, people on the other side of the aisle have been playing politics with this issue.
The solutions are at hand. And, you know, gone are the days, sadly, where a President Bush or a John McCain understood that we should have a bipartisan approach to fixing this problem, which is a longstanding problem.
COATES: But what are those solutions?
HARRIS: The solutions include putting resources at the border, to do what we can to process people effectively, and putting in place laws that actually allow for a meaningful pathway to citizenship.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NOBILO: Without providing any evidence, Elon Musk has claimed his platform, X, formerly known as Twitter, has less anti-Semitic content than other social media platforms. The billionaire's comments came after he visited the Auschwitz death camp in Poland with his three- year-old son.
FOSTER: He also attended a conference of the European Jewish Association, during which he admitted that he wasn't aware until recently that anti-Semitism was a pervasive problem in the U.S. Musk has faced heavy backlash over anti-Semitic content on X, including a conspiracy theory that he amplified himself in November of last year.
Now ahead, Russia's top diplomat slams the U.S. at a U.N. Security Council meeting on Ukraine.
NOBILO: Plus, researchers believe a simple blood test could someday help with the early detection of Alzheimer's disease. We'll have a closer look when we come back.
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