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CNN International: Netanyahu Responds To Biden Weapons Warning; Palestinians Fleeing Rafah's Tent Cities In Large Numbers; Central Gaza Hospital Warns It Faces Shut Down In 48 Hours Due To Lack of Fuel Supply. Aired 8-9a ET
Aired May 10, 2024 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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SARA SIDNER, HOST, "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Oscar Pistorius, the Blade Runner, premieres this Sunday night 9 p.m. right here on CNN. A new hour of CNN News Central starts right now.
JOHN BERMAN, HOST, "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": We are at the critical phase in the criminal trial of Donald Trump. All set up for Michael Cohen's testimony, after the judge demeans Trump's defense lawyers in front of Donald Trump. You cannot ignore the feelings of your black and brown students, new outrage after school board votes to restore the names of Confederate leaders that had been banned. And incredible new images out of flood-ravaged Brazil, a horse finding refuge on a roof more than a --
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, HOST, "CNN NEWSROOM": Hello, and welcome to our viewers around the world. I'm Fredricka Whitfield, and this is the CNN Newsroom.
Straight ahead, Israeli whistleblower speak out about what they say is the systematic abuse of Palestinian prisoners in a shadowy detention center. We'll have an exclusive CNN investigation. Then, in the next hour, former U.S. President Donald Trump is back in court for day 15 of his hush money trial after Stormy Daniels' graphic testimony. We'll discuss what's next. And Prince Harry and his wife Meghan are in the spotlight as they begin a three-day visit to Nigeria. We'll tell you why they're there.
Palestinians are fleeing Rafah's tent cities in large numbers amid the threat of a full-scale Israeli assault. The UN is warning once again that nowhere in Gaza is safe. It estimates that nearly 110,000 people have fled the southern city since Monday. This as Israel keeps up its deadly bombardment of Gaza. At least a dozen people were killed in overnight strikes, including a man and his three children. That's according to Gaza's civil defense and hospital officials. As Israel ramps up operations in Rafah, U.S. officials say there is now a pause in ceasefire negotiations.
Meanwhile, Israel's Prime Minister says his country will go it alone and fight with fingernails, if necessary, to eliminate Hamas. He spoke after U.S. President Joe Biden issued a stark warning that Israel will get fewer weapons if it launches a full-scale assault on Rafah. Benjamin Netanyahu calls the President's public ultimatum a mistake.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: I've known Joe Biden for many years, 40 years and more. We often had agreements, but we've had our disagreements. We've been able to overcome them. I hope we can overcome them now. But, we will do what we have to do to protect our country, and that means to protect our future.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: CNN's Jeremy Diamond joins us now live from Jerusalem. Good morning to you -- or good afternoon, Jeremy. What are the chances of Israel launching this full-scale ground invasion in Rafah without U.S. weapons?
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, there is certainly no indication as of yet, as you just heard from the Israeli Prime Minister there, that he is being cowed or that he is going to course correct in the wake of these very public comments by President Biden threatening to withhold of more U.S. weapons if Israel moves in with an all-out ground offensive into Rafah. And he is talking fairly defiant, I should say, in his language there, vowing that Israel will fight with its fingernails if needed, offering no indication that Israel is going to back down from what they have said they're going to do, which is to continue to fight in Rafah, to continue to expand those ground operations, which so far have been mostly limited to the eastern part of Rafah.
But, there is a sense that Israel will continue to expand that operation. The timing of that is unclear, and whether it will happen all in one go or in sections, as we have seen so far, also remains to be determined. The United Nations' main agency for Palestinians in Gaza, UNRWA, says that about 110,000 people have now been displaced from Rafah over the course of the last several days, as the Israeli military has moved into eastern Rafah.
And we're finding that the conditions that those people are moving to further north in central Gaza as well as in the Al-Muwasi coastal area simply are not adequate for the number of people who are starting to flood in. These are mostly sandy areas with tents being erected on the sides of roads, very little sewage or infrastructure in those areas, and a bit more difficult for relief agencies to get the aid that is needed to the people there rather than in Rafah, which was so close, of course, to those two key crossings.
The Israeli government now says that the Kerem Shalom crossing has been reopened, but the Rafah border crossing has now been closed for several days, and if that continues, that will pose enormous challenges to Gaza's relief efforts as well as to its hospitals, which are starting to run low on fuel. Fred.
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WHITFIELD: And in fact, Jeremy, tell us more about the dire humanitarian situation there, particularly with the hospitals. I mean, hospitals warning they could shut down within 48 hours because of a lack of fuel.
DIAMOND: Yeah. Exactly. They -- these hospitals run on diesel fuels to power their generators. And right now, there is simply not enough fuel getting in. We've also seen that one of the three partially functioning hospitals in Gaza -- in Rafah, I should say, has now been closed as a result of these military operations. The Israeli military says that it must go into these population centers in Rafah going forward because they say that there are four Hamas battalions that are embedded among the civilian population there. But, of course, we've seen the concerns from the United States and others that this military operation will endanger civilians who simply do not have a safe place to go at the moment, do not have a place to go that has the adequate infrastructure to sustain them.
But, we've heard -- as we just heard from the Israeli Prime Minister, he views it as essential to eliminating Hamas' last bastion in Rafah, as he has called it, and the only thing that could potentially avert that is if there is indeed a ceasefire deal. But, in recent days, there is no indication that those talks are headed anywhere close to a breakthrough.
WHITFIELD: All right. Jeremy Diamond in Jerusalem, thanks so much.
All right. Let's bring in Senior White House Correspondent Kayla Tausche now. Kayla, the Biden administration has a new report about Israel's conduct in Gaza. And is there a real correlation there between what that report is saying and why President Biden was willing to say -- giving conditions to Israel about more weapons?
KAYLA TAUSCHE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fred, we expect that report to be delivered by the State Department to Congress in short order. It was due by midnight on Wednesday, and officials here at the White House suggest that it's still coming. It was just taking additional few days to complete the report.
But, it does come after President Biden made that very public ultimatum to Prime Minister Netanyahu after what we're told is months of behind-the-scenes backchanneling between Biden, his top national security aides, and their Israeli counterparts through phone calls, virtual meetings, and in some cases, in-person meetings, where they said in no uncertain terms, if you go forward with a full-scale military invasion of Rafah, you will be doing so without U.S. weapons, that U.S. did not want its fingerprints on any sort of campaign that was seen having mass casualties in a densely populated region, as Jeremy was just describing, that has been a critical conduit, both for refugee resettlement as well as for humanitarian aid.
So, the Biden team had been communicating that to Netanyahu and his deputies, his war cabinet, for several months, but it was after they felt there was no clarity even still from the Israeli side on how they plan to proceed, and then the establishment of Israeli Defense Forces along the border in Rafah choking up some of those entry points that caused President Biden to go public with that warning. U.S. officials maintain that this should not have been a surprise to the Israeli side, despite the shock that Prime Minister Netanyahu has expressed upon hearing that. But, Fred, there is reporting from Axios' Barak Ravid, who is a CNN
contributor, suggesting that even despite some of those concerns, despite the frustration over the lack of clarity that Secretary of State Antony Blinken is still prepared to say to Congress that the U.S. believes that Israel is complying with humanitarian laws and norms, and the U.S. will continue sending aid, although the President, as we now know, has suggested that it's a hypothetical situation for the U.S., that if Israel goes forward with that full-scale campaign, then that aid will cease or slow. Fred.
WHITFIELD: All right. Kayla Tausche, thanks so much.
The Palestinians in Gaza are in desperate need of humanitarian aid, but a new shipment is sitting on an American Navy cargo ship off the coast of Gaza. That's because the U.S. continues to face obstacles as it tries to make its floating pier operational. We're hearing sea conditions and weather are causing problems.
Let's bring in now CNN's Katie Bo Lillis. Katie Bo, good to see you this morning. So, the military says the pier will be up and running within a few days. But, are they going to be able to hit that timetable?
KATIE BO LILLIS, CNN REPORTER: Yeah, Fred. It's still a big question at this point. There is a lot of really basic logistical issues to actually getting this pier to be operational to actually getting aid flowing down this pier, and weather conditions are a big part of that. And in fact, sea conditions have already impacted readiness with this pier. In fact, the U.S. was forced to, because of high seas, move the pier to a port in Israel where it is still sitting, even as the Pentagon is saying that they expect this thing to be operational within days.
So, according to reporting from our colleagues, in order for this pier to be safely used, sea level waves have to be three foot or under, and wind speeds have to be at 15 miles per hour or less.
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But, the problem is, according to data from an Israel maritime center, waves in the area where this pier is expected to operate are pretty typically at that three-foot limit. And so, I think there is this big question of whether or not weather conditions are essentially going to have to be unusually perfect for aid to flow down this pier, even once the U.S. is actually able to get it operational. There is also the question of what happens if the Israelis do launch a full-scale invasion of Rafah. That could fundamentally change the security concerns surrounding this pier. And in fact, the staging spot inside of Gaza where aid is supposed to go once it flows down the pier and gets onto the beach has been hit by rocket and mortar fire several times, twice in the past several weeks.
And so, we're kind of getting down to the wire here with a lot of big questions about how frequently this pier will actually be able to be used once it is operational. It's not just going to be kind of an open artery of aid flowing down it. There is also a big question about who is actually going to get the aid from the pier onto the beach. So, once you get the aid onto the pier, you have to actually then get it down the pier and into Gaza. The U.S. is flatly refusing to use its own personnel for this because the Biden administration does not want its personnel to be that close to Gaza.
According to U.S. officials who spoke to our colleagues, the UK had offered to use its own personnel to drive the trucks down the pier and onto the beach. They've since apparently backed out of that offer because of security concerns. The Pentagon Press Secretary saying on Thursday that civilian, non-U.S. civilian contractors could do this work but not clear who those contractors are. We heard from one source familiar with the matter that one possibility is using Israeli civilian contractors. There has obviously been some concerns raised about that in some quarters. So, I think what you're seeing here, Fred, is really, we're just getting down to the wire on trying to use this pier with a lot of big logistical questions about how it will be used and how effective it's going to be still unresolved.
WHITFIELD: Yeah. Still lots to work out. All right. Thanks so much, Katie Bo Lillis.
LILLIS: Thanks, Fred.
WHITFIELD: All right. With the vast majority of Gaza's hospitals destroyed, some of the wounded are being treated in Qatar. CNN gained rare access to Hamad Hospital in Doha, which is treating some of the most severely injured.
Jomana Karadsheh was there to document the stories. But, we do want to warn you that some of the images you're about to see are very graphic.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Behind every door is a story of what war has taken and what it has left, shattered lives, broken bodies, and tortured souls. This is the Gaza ward at Qatar's Hamad Hospital, where you find just some of the scores, countless critically injured. Some would say they're the lucky ones who barely escaped death, and the hellhole Gaza and its hospitals have become.
DR. HASAN ABUHEJLEH, CONSULTANT ORTHOPEDIC SURGEON, HAMAD MEDICAL CORPORATION: Hamad (ph) had a very severe injury. From the injury, he had an above knee amputation on one side and a below knee amputation on the other side.
KARADSHEH (voice-over): Most patients spent months with open wounds and arrived here with drug resistant infections, making their cases even harder to treat.
ABUHEJLEH: I've been working in orthopedics around 20, 21 years, and the kind of injuries, the severity of the injuries, the types of bone loss and infections we faced with Gaza patients are beyond whatever I've seen before.
KARADSHEH (voice-over): But, even those who've lost so much have found solace in having their children safe and by their side. Raneem sits alone in her hospital bed, no one by her side, the vacant look in the eyes of a woman who has seen death. It was on October 24, as Khan Younis was under Israeli bombardment, Raneem went eight months pregnant, was in bed cradling her one-year-old son Azuz (ph) to sleep.
RANEEM HIJAZI, SON KILLED IN GAZA (Interpreted): I had a feeling something bad was going to happen. So, I held him tighter. Whatever happens to me happens to him. You don't feel the strike itself. You just open your eyes and you're under the rubble. I woke up screaming. I was feeling around to find my son. Suddenly, my mother-in-law came screaming, Azuz. She found him over my belly. She picked him up. His body was in her hands and his head drops onto my belly.
KARADSHEH (voice-over): When Raneem got to hospital, they thought she was dead. Her baby girl was delivered by C-section.
HIJAZI (Interpreted): They delivered her, and as she took her first breath, I came back to life.
KARADSHEH (voice-over): With an amputated arm and serious injuries to her legs, Raneem couldn't even hold her baby girl before she was evacuated out of Gaza.
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Her daughter is now in Egypt. She has watched her grow in photos. Baby Mariam (ph) now is as old as this war. Raneem he says most days, not even her daughter is giving her the will to live anymore.
HIJAZI (Interpreted): It's over. Life has ended. There is no more joy. I shut my eyes and all the memories overwhelm me. I saw the baby formula I used for my son and I felt I was dying. And it was just baby formula. You can only imagine what happens when I see his picture or videos or his toys or his clothes. The pain will never go away. We give birth only to lose them.
KARADSHEH (voice-over): Every woman we spoke to in this ward has lost a child, some more. Shahed married the love of her life, Ali, a 26- year-old university professor. When the war started, she was seven months pregnant with her first child.
SHAHED ALQUTATI, CRITICALLY INJURED IN GAZA, LOST HUSBAND AND BABY: A week before the war, we bought everything for the baby, every clothes, every single T-shirts. Bank, bank, bank.
KARADSHEH (voice-over): On October 11, a blast hit their home. Ali and Shahed found themselves on the street. Shahed lost her leg, Ali, both legs and his arm. They called out each other's names before they were rushed to hospital. But, Ali didn't make it. Two days later, their baby girl, they'd named Sham (ph), arrived into this world lifeless.
ALQUTATI: It's really hard, very hard because this is like my everything, my everything. This is my everything suddenly disappeared.
KARADSHEH (voice-over): Shahed's nightmare didn't end here. She was one of hundreds of patients trapped in Shifa Hospital when it came under Israeli siege. Like other patients forced out, her father had to push her on a wheelchair for hours to get to Rafah.
ALQUTATI: When we reached Rafah, like my injury was all infections. Like, the hospitals is not to clean to go in it. If want to go to the hospital, it will -- I will die.
KARADSHEH (voice-over): Despite everything she has gone through, a resilient Shahed somehow still smiles.
ALQUTATI: No one will feel the pain here. Like, I'm -- with my -- with the people stirring happy, like laughing. But, when I'm like alone, I feel something painful here. I cannot be any healed from that.
KARADSHEH (voice-over): In every corner of this ward, a story of pain and grief, too many for us to tell. The journey to recovery for the few who make it out begins here. But, how does anyone ever heal from this?
Jomana Karadsheh, CNN, Doha.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: In a little more than an hour from now, Donald Trump's hush money trial will resume with a former Trump White House aide back on the stand. She has been testifying about how checks were sent from New York to Washington for Trump's signature. Of course, the most riveting moment from Thursday was the cross-examination of Stormy Daniels. It was contentious as Trump's lawyers attempted to poke holes in her story about an alleged sexual encounter with Trump. After it was all over, the judge denied a defense request for a mistrial, telling Trump's lawyers they could have objected more during Daniels' testimony but did not.
CNN's Kristen Holmes is at the courthouse for us this morning. Kristen, good morning to you. I want to start with what happened right after testimony wrapped yesterday. Talk about the judge's decision not to grant Trump's mistrial motion and not to alter the gag order.
KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. This was really an interesting move by Donald Trump's lawyers. They essentially said -- now, the mistrial, we've seen before. But, on the gag order, they essentially said that because Stormy Daniels had gone into such extensive detail about what happened between she and Donald Trump that former President Donald Trump should have the right to respond, which, of course, would be against the gag order. So, they were trying to alter that gag order.
Now, the judge said, no, that's not happening. But, we did see a tweet from Stormy Daniels that seemed to be goading the former President after all of this. She posted "Real men respond to testimony by being sworn in and taking the stand in court. Oh, wait. Never mind." Now, obviously, she is trying to poke the bear here because the former President has a hard time not responding to people who lash out at him or who tried to goad to him. So, we'll see if Donald Trump can maintain that gag order.
But, again, getting back to what we're going to see today before the big bombshell testimony of Michael Cohen, which we expect next week, today we are back in the courthouse with this former White House aide.
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And while she was a low-level aide, she actually had an extensive amount of information and knowledge, just given where we were in 2016 and where Donald Trump's candidacy and an infant presidency was, they did not expect to be President, which meant that there was a lot of scrambling, a lot of chaos in the White House, and not only would have been really privy to all of it, she was somebody who would have been seeing every single person coming in and out of the Oval Office. She was somebody who would have been called if someone was trying to get in touch with former President Donald Trump, because remember, he didn't really use his own phone. So, she was kind of a conduit for former President Trump.
Now, whether or not this knowledge translates into anything that's going to actually help the case or hurt the case against Donald Trump remains to be seen. But, right now, she is clearly speaking to what happened in the White House, when those checks would arrive. And the prosecution trying to show that Donald Trump knew exactly what he was signing. They have not quite gotten there yet. But, we'll see what happens today. Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: All right. Kristen Holmes, thanks so much.
All right. Still to come, thousands are protesting the Eurovision Song Contest over Israel's war in Gaza. Will that sway the outcome? We'll take a look. And Harry and Meghan get the royal treatment on their trip to Nigeria. We'll look at the Duke and Duchess' itinerary and Meghan's connection with the African country.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: The iconic Eurovision Song Contest provides a stage for up and coming talent, but it also has become a stage for protest.
(VIDEO PLAYING)
That's Israeli singer Eden Golan performing on the competition's semi- final on Thursday. She has advanced to Saturday's Grand Final -- finale, I should say. Well, earlier on Thursday, thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in Malmo, Sweden, which is hosting this year's Song Contest. Critics say Eurovision should disqualify Golan from the contest over Israel's conduct in the war in Gaza. Golan says the attention should be on the performances.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
EDEN GOLAN, EUROVISION CONTESTANT: I think we're all here for one reason and one reason only, and the EBU is taking all safety precautions to make this a safe and united place for everyone. And -- so, I think it's safe for everyone, and we wouldn't be here for any other reason.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: Anna Stewart is joining us from London. Good day to you, Anna. So, tell us more about these protests in Sweden.
ANNA STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, they're expected to be pretty big tomorrow. Organizers say they're expecting 20,000 people to turn up. And just to give you a bit of context, the city of Malmo has a big Muslim and pro-Palestinian population. They already have weekly protests for pro-Palestinian purposes and they have done since October. So, you can imagine adding to that at all the crowds that are coming there for the Eurovision.
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So, 20,000 people potentially protesting tomorrow in addition to the 15,000 people who are actually attending the event, the arena of the Eurovision. Now, the EBU, which organizes this event, have long maintained that they are apolitical. They did actually Eden Golan, the Israeli act, to change the title of her song from "October Rain" to "Hurricane", to try and remove any references to the Hamas attack on Israel back in October. So, they've done that. But, it's not enough for some protesters who would much rather see Israel banned altogether. Let's listen to one.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MATILDA VARATTA, PROTESTOR: What we expect and what we would like to see is that they disqualify Israel like they did with Russia when Russia invaded Ukraine, because that -- it is not true that the Eurovision is not political. It has always been political, and it will always be. So, it's just my face, excuse.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STEWART: So, that protestor there and many others are saying that the EBU, the organizer of Eurovision, they essentially have double standards here, given that in 2022 they barred Russia from being in the contest, in 2021, Belarus was banned for a crackdown on dissent. And actually, over the many decades of the Eurovision, politics has always overshadowed it. Yugoslavia, for instance, was banned from taking part in the 1990s. So, the motto (ph) is united by music, but not for the first time overshadowed by politics.
WHITFIELD: OK. So, we've got those protests taking place outside. There are lots of rules to keep protests from happening inside. How is that going?
STEWART: There are so many rules with Eurovision. So, you are not allowed to bring a flag of a non-participating Eurovision country or territory into the arena. So, you can imagine the bag checks that will go on to the 15,000 people who will be in that audience. They can't prevent, of course, the booing. And we are told that the EBU are ready to turn up the volume of the Israeli act in order so that people can hear it. Then you get to be on the stage protest, which is always an interesting one, because contestants from different countries and territories are not allowed to make any kind of political statement. But, that hasn't always stopped them in the past.
In fact, in 2019, I think an Icelandic act held up, displayed a Palestinian flag, and they received a hefty fine from the EBU. But, we could see a lot of that happen tomorrow. And of course, the ultimate protest is the votes. Who is going to vote for Israeli act? What will the vote -- because all that to come, Fred.
WHITFIELD: OK. Keep us posted. Anna Stewart, thanks so much, in London.
All right. Still to come, inside Israel's shadowy desert prison. We'll take an exclusive look at the facility where a growing number of Palestinians are being held amid reports of widespread abuse. And we're waiting for former President Donald Trump to make his way to the Manhattan courthouse to wrap up a tumultuous week in his hush money trial. We'll tell you what to expect, a bit later.
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(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: As the Israeli operation in southern Gaza moves forward, U.S. officials say there is now a pause in ceasefire negotiations. The IDF bombardment of Rafah continues, and you could see smoke rising over the buildings earlier. Meanwhile, new satellite imagery shows Palestinians have begun leaving Rafah's tent cities in large numbers as the threat of a potential major Israeli assault looms.
The UN's agency for Palestinian refugees says around 110,000 people have fled the area since Monday. Since military operations began in Gaza, a growing number of Palestinians are being held in the Sde Teiman military detention center in the Negev Desert, a shadowy facility where reports of the widespread abuse of detainees are emerging.
For the first time, CNN speaks to three serving IDF whistleblowers who have worked in various capacities at the present, and they describe a systematic pattern of abuse there, including mass detention in stress positions, sensory deprivation, beatings and torture. They say they are speaking out as a matter of conscience.
Matthew Chance has this exclusive report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CHIEF GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's a place the Israeli military doesn't want us to see.
CHANCE: How many Palestinians are there in there right now?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who are you?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Give me please now.
CHANCE: Hang on. What is it that you want? My camera or card?
CHANCE (voice-over): But, CNN has gained exclusive evidence of Palestinian prisoner abuse from multiple Israeli whistleblowers. At the Sde Teiman facility in southern Israel, we joined human rights activists amid growing public concern for the detainees being held inside.
CHANCE: This is a protest by Israeli citizens outside a detention center close to Gaza, where we know hundreds of Palestinians have been held. You can see, it's a closed military facility. It's behind the barbed wire fence. We're not permitted access.
CHANCE (voice-over): And this hostility from passers-by.
CHANCE: Passed in a car and they shouted to us in Hebrew.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah.
CHANCE: You're defending murderers.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.
CHANCE: You are defending --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, no. We're defending basic human rights.
CHANCE (voice-over): And eyewitnesses are now speaking act. Away from the military facility, near the beaches of Tel Aviv, one young Israeli Army reservist agreed to speak about scores of detainees at Sde Teiman. He says they are kept in cages or pens, constantly shackled and blindfolded, many for weeks on end. We've hidden his identity and voice to shield him from prosecution.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (Interpreted): We were told they are not allowed to move and must sit upright. They're not allowed to talk or peek under their blindfolds.
CHANCE: And what happened if they did do that? What punishments will lead to that?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (Interpreted): We were allowed to pick out problematic people and punish them, having them stand with their hands above their heads for an unlimited time. If they didn't keep their hands up, we could zip tie them to the fence.
CHANCE (voice-over): The Israeli military says detainees are handcuffed based on their risk level and health status. But, the account tallies with photographic evidence obtained by CNN of Palestinian detainees inside Sde Teiman, and with hand and wrist injuries shown to CNN by dozens of Palestinians released back into Gaza. Zip tied and blindfolded, says this former detainee, and tortured in a way I never imagined. One source telling us the restraints were so tight, they had to amputate a man's hand.
CHANCE: The view that I've heard expressed is that, how do you think Israeli hostages are treated by Hamas?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (Interpreted): This sentiment was voiced in the facility. But, I think that if Hamas is so abominable, which I agree with, then why use Hamas as a bar. It's a descent into dehumanization.
CHANCE (voice-over): A dissent that's accelerated since the rampage by Hamas on October 7 last year, the killing and abduction to Gaza of hundreds of Israelis provoked outrage and a brutal response made Israel's wrath, tens of thousands Palestinians have been killed, and thousands detained for interrogation, transported to facilities like Sde Teiman where one Israeli guard now tells CNN prisoners are beaten.
[08:35:00]
We've hidden his identity and voice too.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (Interpreted): You can take them out and hit them maybe four or five times with the club. It's no doubt in the face, so you don't see blood. The detainees lie belly down, being hit and kicked, people screaming and dogs barking at them. It's terrifying. Some detainees are taken away and beaten really hard. So, bones and teeth are broken.
CHANCE: So, you saw people who were subjected to these beatings, who had their bones broken and who had their teeth broken.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (Interpreted): Yes. It's a practice which commanders know about. They want intelligence but they also want revenge and punishment for what happened on October 7.
CHANCE: Can we ask?
CHANCE (voice-over): The Israeli military hasn't approved CNN's requests for access to Sde Teiman. But, at the gates of the facility, we challenged the Israeli guards.
CHANCE: How many Palestinians are there in there right now?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know. I prefer not to answer it.
CHANCE: Do you know if they are being handcuffed? Are they being blindfolded?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, no, no.
CHANCE: This is a facility.
CHANCE (voice-over): As we leave, masked soldiers approach.
CHANCE: Hello. How are you? I'm filming this way.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who are you guys?
CHANCE: We're CNN.
CHANCE (voice-over): They tried to take our cameras.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Give me please now.
CHANCE: Hang on. What is it that you want? My camera or my card? CHANCE (voice-over): Then order us to leave.
CHANCE: Well, we're driving now to meet one Israeli with personal experience of the Sde Teiman facility. It is experience that he says has left him shocked at the condition and the medical treatment of Palestinian detainees there.
CHANCE (voice-over): He told us he treated Palestinian detainees with gunshot wounds fresh from the war zone in Gaza, but was appalled at the lack of equipment and expertise.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (Interpreted): The problem is Gazans who were brought in are labeled as terrorists and it is very popular opinion over here that terrorists deserve to die. So, they do not deserve the same medical care as everyone else.
CHANCE (voice-over): Satellite imagery obtained by CNN shows how the Sde Teiman facility was expanded after the October 7 attacks, with detention facilities and makeshift medical bays being added of the public hospitals in Israel, refused to treat injured Gazan suspects. Eyewitness accounts describe a field hospital with 15 to 20 patients virtually naked and blindfolded, with hands and feet shackled to their beds, and wearing diapers. One eye witness told CNN, painful procedures were carried out by under-qualified medics, treatment, the medical worker told us, amounts to punishment.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (Interpreted): In my view, it's the idea of total vulnerability. If you imagine being unable to move, being unable to see what's going on, that's something that borders if not crosses into psychological torture.
CHANCE (voice-over): The Israeli military says prisoners are stripped for security checks, and that investigations are opened when there is suspicion of misconduct. Still, accounts from Israelis and Palestinians inside and the shocking images, paint a disturbing picture.
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WHITFIELD: Matthew Chance joining us now. I mean, these images and the information is so incredibly disturbing. So, what has the reaction been?
CHANCE: Well, obviously, before we broadcast these allegations, we gave the Israeli authorities an opportunity to respond and they did that in quite a detailed way, which we've reflected in that report you've just heard. But, it boils down to this. As far as the Israeli authorities are concerned, they didn't do anything that violates Israeli or international law. That's their position.
But, I think what's interesting about this investigation is that it is Israelis themselves, Israeli citizens that are increasingly disputing that. I mean, those whistleblowers that we spoke to, they're not pro- Palestinian activists. They're not the people that we're seeing protesting on campuses across the United States. These are Israeli citizens. Many of them are serving in the Israeli military or have served in the military or working alongside it in a medical capacity. And they're increasingly uncomfortable with what they've been asked to do and what they're still being asked to do as well. And I think that's something that will have resonance inside Israel.
WHITFIELD: And then, could this investigation have a political impact, especially after we've - - people have seen a higher content inside Israel?
[08:40:00]
CHANCE: Well, I think potentially it could, because it points to a much broader debate that is underway right now in Israel about the strategy being pursued by the government of Benjamin Netanyahu when it comes to the response to the October 7 attacks. I mean, one example of that is the complaint or the concern that Israel -- Israeli security forces are emphasizing the destruction of Hamas too much and not the release of the hostages enough. This is another iteration of that, concerns that in its anger, in its desire for revenge and retribution. Israel is overstepping its own moral boundaries, and that could have a political impact.
WHITFIELD: All right. Matthew Chance, thank you so much.
All right. Back in this country, Donald Trump has just departed for the courthouse in Lower Manhattan. You see the images from moments ago. His hush money trial is still reeling from two days of dramatic testimony from Stormy Daniels about the alleged sexual relationship she had with Trump. Today's testimony will begin with more questions for a former Trump aide who worked in the White House and handled checks that Trump signed.
All right. For some analysis of everything happening at the trial, we welcome former federal prosecutor Gene Rossi. Gene, great to see you. So, it's a new day, but still lingering is the testimonies from yesterday. Stormy Daniels' testimony was pretty explosive, again, very detailed, hugely embarrassing for the former President. Overall, as a prosecution witness, did her testimony advance the storytelling to help establish motivation toward alleged falsifying of records?
GENE ROSSI, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: Yeah. This is a case or instead of "A Tale of Two Cities", Charles Dickens. It's a tale of two witnesses all wrapped in one. In the beginning of the week, Stormy Daniels did not do very well. In fact, some people would say she did poorly. But, I think what happened yesterday was they crossed the Rubicon and they really presented, in my view, through cross and redirect the theme that they wanted to get out. And this is it. After that Hollywood tape came out, Stormy Daniels came forward, and her salacious alleged tryst with Donald Trump way back in the day, I think in 2006, Donald Trump allegedly and Michael Cohen allegedly were scared to death that they may have to deal with that story.
And here is the point. Even if the story is 100 percent false or it's 100 percent true, they knew this story was coming out, and that gave motive for Donald Trump and calling allegedly to engage in falsification of business records. WHITFIELD: And so, now, new day, the testimony of how the former White House assistant Madeleine Westerhout, is she beginning to paint a picture? We saw a little bit of her testimony yesterday. Today, we'll resume. Is she helping to begin to paint that picture of how payments were made when Trump was in the White House, which might be critical?
ROSSI: That is an outstanding question. Stormy is Stormy. We know what she testified to, good or bad, salacious or not. But, these two witnesses that I think, well, one of them testified yesterday and they're finishing up today, they are prosecutors' dreams, and here is why. Both of those witnesses still love Donald Trump. They adore him. They revere him. And when you have a witness for the prosecution that has witnesses that are biased towards the defendant, and they say things that don't help the defendant in terms of how the checks were cashed, presented and all that, it's very devastating or harmful to the defense's defense.
And I think these witnesses are a great way to end the week. They didn't want to end with Stormy alone. You've got to have witnesses like this. And the way those checks were handled, I got to say that was creepy. That was creepy.
WHITFIELD: Yeah. Creepy in what way? What did you find creepy about that in terms of -- they were delivered without the signature in portions. I mean, what -- there were a lot of things there. But, what did you find creepy?
ROSSI: I did a lot of trials. OK? It's creepy in this sense. The check writing process had its own new and novel procedure. It could have stayed in the old ordinary procedure if it were legal fees, but they had separate checks, FedEx to his aid, his bodyguard, it was on his personal checking account or a different checking account. That's creepy in the sense that it's out of the ordinary.
[08:45:00]
And why is that important? Because it corroborates Michael Cohen's testimony that they had to keep this secret, and because it was out of the ordinary, what I call creepy, that goes to their consciousness of guilt that they're trying to hide that payment.
WHITFIELD: And the way in which those payments were made, I thought was striking. At least I learned something that the way it was portioned out perhaps would not be detected in your taxes in the same manner as if it were like one big chunk. You could justify it as an employee expense or a paycheck, but if it were more sizeable, you'd have to explain it. And I didn't know until yesterday's testimony that Michael Cohen had gotten a separate payment, almost like -- and here is a bonus for doing what you did.
ROSSI: Yeah. Look, listen, I'm Italian. I love food. So, all I can think of is --
WHITFIELD: Me too. And I'm not Italian. Oh my God. ROSSI: That's OK. I will hold it against you. I'm Italian.
WHITFIELD: OK.
ROSSI: Levity is the life, as they say. What I call these invoices, the souffle (ph) invoices. And the reason I call them that is this. He was reimbursed for $130,000 and Trump has already admitted that.
WHITFIELD: Yeah.
ROSSI: So, they had to give him back his $130,000.
WHITFIELD: Yeah.
ROSSI: But, what Michael Cohen is going to say is, I didn't want to pay taxes on that if you're going to call it legal fees. So, you got to give me a little extra money. The souffle has to be high enough, so at the end of the day, I have a net of $130,000. So, that's why they had to souffle, and there is arguably tax cases for 11 years for DoJ. The reason it violates taxes is it's not a legitimate business expense that was either taken on a corporate return or taken out a personal return as a deduction. So, I call to souffle because it went from $130,000 to $420,000. That's a pretty good souffle.
WHITFIELD: Yeah. Oh, this is going to be in the intent category, isn't it, if they were to parse out portions of testimony and where they're going, that this is going to be your intent stuff.
ROSSI: Yeah, absolutely. I wish I were given a closing.
WHITFIELD: OK. Well, you might get a chance on the air and we'll see how it sizes up, right, to what we actually hear. Thank you so much, former federal prosecutor --
ROSSI: Thank you.
WHITFIELD: -- Gene Rossi. Appreciate it. Thank you. Have a good lunch today.
ROSSI: Thank you.
WHITFIELD: I am going to find one too, since we both like to eat.
All right. Still to come, a warm welcome in Nigeria for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. We'll be live in Abuja.
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WHITFIELD: Prince Harry and his wife Meghan are in Nigeria today to take part in a mental health summit. Upon arrival in Abuja, the two visited a school in the Nigerian capital where they spoke to students and staff taking part in the event.
[08:50:00]
Their three-day visit follows an alleged snub by Prince Harry's father, King Charles, who said he was too busy to meet with his son while he was in London.
Stephanie Busari joining us now from Abuja. Good to see you, Stephanie. I imagine people were super, super, over the top, excited about their visit. Give us details of what happened.
STEPHANIE BUSARI, CNN SENIOR EDITOR, AFRICA: Just still a bit excited. We were at a secondary school, and actually primary and early year school, and very excited to see that the conductors at the school. We spoke to some of the students and some of them got the book signed, and they were just so excited, so over the moon, and they were there this morning, straight off their flight to attend a mental health summit. And it was just a snippet of what is in store for them on this trip. It really embodies what the Duke and Duchess stand for, mental health, and of course, the Invictus Foundation, which hosts the Invictus Games that Harry founded 10 years ago to rehabilitate wounded military personnel.
Now, the royal couple are here on the invitation of Nigeria's defense headquarters, who consider themselves part of the Invictus community, they say, and this trip was planned as late -- as early as last year when Nigeria first took part in the Invictus Games in September last year. And people are just very excited to see Meghan, of course, because she revealed that she is 43 percent Nigerian after taking the ancestry tests. One woman told me that she was giddy to think about Meghan in the country, in a place where she is absolutely loved and welcomed, perhaps an allusion to Meghan's experiences, what she detailed in the UK.
But, people here are very excited to see the royal couple. They interacted. They posted for pictures. They had a troupe of cultural dances welcoming them this morning. So, it's been very colorful. Now, they're in Kaduna state, a neighboring state to the capital Abuja, where they're visiting a military rehabilitation center for wounded soldiers. So, that Invictus element is very much a part, a strong theme in this visit, a private visit. They won't be meeting the Nigerian President because they're no longer working royals. And so, it's not considered an official visit. But then, they'll be meeting the governors in Lagos state and Kaduna, and really just engaging with everyday Nigerians, Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: That's so nice. Stephanie Busari, thank you. It's nice to have some happy and it was a very lovely moment that they're having in their three-day visit. There is more to come. I know.
BUSARI: Yes.
WHITFIELD: Y'all let us know. Thanks so much.
All right. Taylor Swift's "Eras Tour" is back with Europe currently under her spell and her show. Guess what? It has a new look. We'll have details.
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WHITFIELD: Taylor Swift's "Eras Tour" is back.
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[08:55:00]
Well, she and they are having fun of a mega superstar played in Paris on Thursday following a two-month break. It's the first stop of the European leg of her tour. The concert had a revamped setlist, which included songs from her new album "The Tortured Poets Department". This is the first time Swift has performed these tracks in front of a live audience since the album was released last month, and there were several other changes to the show, including new costumes, choreography and props.
And before we go, exciting news for fans of "Lord of the Rings".
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Precious. Two new movies based on characters by J. R. R. Tolkien are in the works. The first one is tentatively titled "Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum". It reunites the team behind the original "Lord of the Rings" and "The Hobbit" trilogies, which includes filmmaker Peter Jackson. But, don't put off -- put on your elf ears just yet. The first film isn't scheduled to hit theaters until 2026. Warner Bros. is owned by CNN's parent company Warner Bros. Discovery. All looks good.
All right. Thank you so much for joining me here in the CNN Newsroom. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. Connect the World with Becky Anderson is up next.
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