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Gaza Truce Shatters As Israel Carries Out Wave Of Deadly Strikes; NASA Astronauts Prepare To Return Home; Trump And Putin To Speak On Tuesday About War In Ukraine; Deadly Israeli Strikes in Gaza Shatter Ceasefire with Hamas; SpaceX Crew-9 Dragon Capsule Undocks from ISS; Legal Drama amid Trump's Deportation Flights; Source: Deported Doctor Attended Hezbollah Leader's Funeral; Trump Says He'll Release JFK Assassination Files on Tuesday. Aired 1-2a ET

Aired March 18, 2025 - 01:00   ET

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

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[01:00:25]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is CNN Breaking News.

JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Hello again. I'm John Vause with breaking news from Gaza where the fragile ceasefire appears to be over. Israeli airstrikes pounding the Palestinian territory over the past few hours killing more than 200 people and wounding hundreds of others, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

One Israeli official says mid-level Hamas commanders as well as Hamas infrastructure were targeted in quote, preemptive strikes without providing any further details.

With negotiations to extend phase one of a three phase ceasefire stalled, the order for a major military escalation came from the Israeli prime minister and his defense minister. And after weeks of relative calm, hospitals in Gaza once again overwhelmed. Among the dozens of dead and wounded are children and civilians.

According to health officials, Hamas has accused Israel of overturning the cease fire agreement, risking the lives of the last of the Israeli hostages still being held in Gaza.

For the very latest now live to Abu Dhabi, CNN's Paula Hancocks joins us. So what is the latest on these strikes and has there been any retaliatory strikes by Hamas?

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well John, we're hearing from those on the ground that these strikes are across the whole of the Gaza Strip from north to south according to our stringers on the ground. We also know that the Israeli prime minister has said that they will show that increasing military strength.

Now as you say, we are seeing those horribly familiar images of civilians being caught up in this war as well being taken to hospitals in the areas. So at this point there hasn't -- it doesn't appear to have been any kind of counter response from Hamas. We understand from the IDF that they are targeting Hamas infrastructure. Mid-level commanders, of course bear in mind that they did kill many of the top commanders, if not all of them before the ceasefire of January 19th that began.

So what we're seeing at this point is a resumption of this war in Gaza. We understand that the Israelis did run this past the Trump administration. Let's listen to the White House spokesperson.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: As President Trump has made it clear Hamas, the Houthis, Iran, all those who seek to terrorize not just Israel but also the United States of America will see a price to all hell will break loose.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANCOCKS: So an Israeli official tells CNN that these are preemptive strikes saying that it's preventing Hamas's readiness to execute terror attacks, build up force and rearm. Now Hamas for its side is saying that Israel has unilaterally gone back on the ceasefire deal and is putting the fate of its captives in Gaza in jeopardy.

Now we had been seeing, John, over recent weeks the mediators trying to bring both sides together, trying to move to the second phase of this three-phase deal, which was always expected to be difficult. But we have seen that Israel wants to just extend the first phase, extend the temporary ceasefire and secure the release of more hostages, something which the Middle east envoy Steve Witkoff was supportive of as well, trying to push forward. But as we can see, that has not happened. Israel blaming Hamas blaming Israel. The result is that the war has resumed.

VAUSE: Paula, so the Israelis have made it clear the airstrikes could just be the beginning and the military operation could expand. Is there any talk at the same time of an off ramp? What can be done to deescalate this?

HANCOCKS: Well, at this point there doesn't appear to because we know that Israel has the full support of the U.S. President Donald Trump. He has said that what Israel needs, he will provide. Now that has come in the form of military aid. It's come in the form of vocal support. And certainly there is no pressure on Israel to move back to the mediate and mediating stage.

We did hear from Steve Witkoff saying that they were trying to secure this temporary ceasefire for another month.

[01:05:00]

So it would go through the holy month of Ramadan. It would go through the Jewish Passover holiday. There would be a handful of hostages released in return for a number of Palestinian prisoners. But what Hamas has been saying is that it wants to stick to the original agreement of Israel having to pull out militarily of Gaza and for that permanent cease fire. John.

VAUSE: Paula, thank you. Paula Hancocks bringing us the very latest there from Abu Dhabi. Thank you.

Well, to the International Space Station now, where the SpaceX Crew 9 Dragon capsule is in the process of undocking on board two NASA astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams. They've been stuck on the ISS for about nine months now. That's after an eight-day mission turned into a long, a nine-month long odyssey when they are stuck sort of indefinite orbit around the Earth until right now.

NASA moved up this return flight timeline, taking advantage of favorable weather through Tuesday if all goes according to plan, and that is an if, the Dragon capsule is expected to splash down off Florida's coast Tuesday evening.

Just now live from Los Angeles, former NASA astronaut Garrett Reisman and current professor at the University of Southern California, also former director of Space Operations at SpaceX. Garrett, thank you for being with us. Saying I'm late. Appreciate it.

GARRETT REISMAN, FORMER NASA ASTRONAUT: Sure thing, John. I do have to take issue with that, calling them stuck.

VAUSE: Yes.

REISMAN: Because they really could have left at any time if they had to.

VAUSE: Right.

REISMAN: But it's an easy mistake to make. I understand. In fact, I got an email from Suni herself when she said she was stuck and I yelled at her too. So I guess that's the thing.

VAUSE: Right. There's been this perception put out there by NASA and by Boeing and SpaceX. This is kind of business as usual. They stayed up there because they wanted to. They could come down at any time. And they've just made a point of sort of rolling them into what is essentially a crew rotation for the International Space Station.

Why is that? Why didn't they have an earlier rescue mission, if you like, an earlier trip to bring them home?

REISMAN: Well, when they first started having the trouble with the Boeing Starliner, they evaluated a couple of different options. So one was to say, well, let's just roll the dice, have them hop in and come home like we planned after just a couple weeks or at most a month or two. And they felt like they were pretty confident that would work, but they weren't willing to bet like somebody's life on it. So they decided not to pursue that course of action.

The other thing they could have done is they could have sent Butch and Suni home in the cargo area of the Dragon that left about back in September, and they would have had no spacesuits, they would have had no seats or seat belts. They would decide that, sit down there and hold on.

And they said, well, that's not really a great way to do it either. I think there's some discussion about a dedicated rescue mission, but that would have cost about a quarter of a billion dollars, and they just didn't have that in the budget. So they rejected that idea and they said, well, you know, the next bus is coming by in six months. How about you guys just hop on that and come home? And they said, OK, we'll do that.

VAUSE: Fair enough. It's a good explanation. Thank you for that. We can confirm right now that the Crew 9 capsule has actually undocked from the space station. And we are looking at, I think, a live image of this, of that.

This is all automated maneuvers right now. So talk us through what has happened with this undocking and what you can expect in the next hour or so, these series of maneuvers that the SpaceX crew capsule will make. I think it's called Enterprise or something, or deva, rather, to get this crew home.

REISMAN: Yes. So it's going to make a series of very carefully choreographed moves. When you're moving at 17,500 miles an hour with two different vehicles very close to each other, you got to be really careful with orbital mechanics that are a little tricky, that you don't accidentally. You don't want to be swapping paint. Right. You don't want to knock into each other. So you do back away very carefully. With an initial burn five minutes later, which is probably about, just about three minutes from now, they'll do another one to go further away.

And then eventually they'll go into a lower orbit underneath the space station, which allows them to sequence more or fly more rapidly around the Earth and line themselves up for that landing in Florida just right, and come home tomorrow at about 6:00 Eastern Time.

VAUSE: Explain to me why it takes longer to come back than it does to go up.

REISMAN: Well, it can take that long to go up, too. In fact, they're going to be coming home in less than 24 hours. So actually, it usually takes, you know, about that same amount of time to go up. In both cases, it's really just a function of where the space station is in its orbit. If it happens to be in a very fortuitous place as it's going around and around as it flies over Florida where we launch from, then you could actually get up there pretty quickly.

If it happens to be on the other side, though, and you're at 180 degrees out, then you have to spend a little bit more time catching up. And the same thing coming home, it all depends on where the space station is as it's passing near the latitude of Florida. And when you hop off, there's a complicated set. There's a lot of math involved. John. It's complicated.

[01:10:00]

VAUSE: Don't talk to me about math. That's mind blowing stuff. I guess, because when I read that the actual Dragon crew capsule to get the SpaceX Dragon capsule to get there to about 17 hours and it's taking 24 hours to get home. But as you say, it just depends on where the ISS is in its particular rotation of the orbit.

But on that, we've had these guys up there for almost 300 days. It's not a record. It's certainly a long period of time, but it's not the longest period of time. How have they sort of spent that time in a productive way? What are they actually been doing that they can get back to here on Earth and say, hey, look what we've done. We've done all this sort of stuff, all this, we've taken advantage of this time and space and here it is. What do you expect?

REISMAN: Well, you know, so there are five NASA astronauts that have spent more consecutive days in space than Butch and Suni will after they get home tomorrow. And so this is not a record by any means, but I think it's the longest extension of, relative to the original mission, which is why it's so special and garnering so much attention.

As far as what they did, you know, they took the place of two astronauts that were supposed to come up on that along with the two that they're going home with. So that Dragon has four seats. When it came up, two of those seats were empty to allow Bush and Suni to go home on this vehicle today. So they took the place and they did basically the same thing those other two astronauts that were bumped off the mission were supposed to do.

They did a lot of science experiments, they did some spacewalks. They just did a lot of things to keep the space station moving. They were -- they filled in for the crew and we're all trained to do pretty much anything it takes to keep the space station running and to do its science and payloads. And they just filled in admirably. So I think they'll be pretty happy with their contributions.

VAUSE: And just in terms of what this means for the Boeing, Space X rivalry when it comes to commercial spaceflight, all right, the fact that a Boeing crew, I don't want to say rescued, but is coming to the aid of a Boeing crew which was left on board the ISS for a much longer period of time than they expected.

What does it say about the current state of play between these two private companies when it comes to commercial space travel?

REISMAN: Well, you know, I have to tell you, I'm biased on this because I worked at SpaceX.

VAUSE: Yes.

REISMAN: I was part of the team that --

VAUSE: I gave you an easy one.

REISMAN: Sorry?

VAUSE: I gave you an easy question there, Garrett.

REISMAN: Yes, yes, yes, yes. But, you know, we don't want it -- I really don't want to rub it in or anything because the truth is that the Boeing Starliner, when it did depart with nobody inside, did great. It performed flawlessly and had a very successful landing. Butch and Suni, had they exercised that option, would have been just fine. That's of course all in hindsight. You know, at the time weren't completely sure.

So it is ironic because back in the day, I think NASA had a lot more confidence in Boeing, a lot more familiarity and comfort with the people sitting across the table. And we knew that were the underdogs at SpaceX and had to overcome some long odds to be a part of this. And it turned out pretty well for SpaceX with the 10th mission, if you count also several private missions.

They've done a lot of flying and Starliner is yet to make a successful round trip. So it's certainly turned out pretty well for SpaceX. I really hope that the next flight of the Starliner, that they fixed all these problems and that because it's good for the country, that multiple option and I hope they're successful.

VAUSE: Yet competition is never a bad thing, Garrett. Thanks so much for being with us. I really appreciate your insights here and talking us through what's happening and what will happen over the coming hours. Thanks so much.

REISMAN: My pleasure.

VAUSE: We will take a short break when we come back. A high stakes phone call just hours away now between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. With the U.S. aiming for a possible peace deal to end the war in Ukraine dividing up just a few assets, according to President Trump. We'll look at the main issues in a moment.

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[01:17:42]

VAUSE: Breaking news from Gaza this hour. The Palestinian health ministry says Israeli airstrikes have killed at least 210 people and injured hundreds of others. An Israeli official describes the strikes as a preemptive targeting of Hamas leaders.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claims Hamas has repeatedly refused to hand over hostages. Hamas leader says the airstrikes are a death sentence for the hostages still being held in Gaza by Hamas. Continue to follow the story. Bring you updates throughout the hour.

Possible deal on how to end Russia's war in Ukraine could be decided in the coming hours during a phone call between the U.S. and Russian presidents. The White House says a peace agreement has never been closer with President Donald Trump telling reporters the call will focus on dividing up some assets which includes Ukrainian territory, energy infrastructure which could also include the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant.

While the Kremlin says it agrees with the broad outlines of President Trump's vision for peace in Ukraine, Russian officials are yet to commit to a 30-day cease fire, with President Putin continuing to add more conditions for any cease fire and insisting on further in depth discussions. Still, the U.S. President remains hopeful of a possible breakthrough.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: We're going to have a very important call. You know, we've had calls, but we're getting down to a very critical stage and we want to get the whole Russia, Ukraine thing done. And I think Ukraine wants it. I know they want it. Everybody wants it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: This new round of high level diplomacy between Washington and Moscow is bringing renewed hopes in Russia that the war in Ukraine may soon be coming to an end. CNN's Fred Pleitgen has the very latest reporting in now from Moscow.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): Excitement on Russian State TV, the leading talk show previewing President Trump's latest diplomatic advances towards Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

The pace of negotiations between Moscow and Washington has accelerated, the anchor says, tomorrow there will be a phone conversation between Putin and Trump. The U.S. President announced a new call to the Kremlin.

As the unrelenting battles continue on the ground, the White House claims it's making progress towards a possible ceasefire.

[01:20:04]

With the Ukrainians already on board, President Trump now trying to convince Putin to sign off as well, even as the Russian leader says many issues still need to be sorted out.

TRUMP: We'll be talking about land. We'll be talking about power plants. That's, you know, that's a big question, but I think we have a lot of it already discussed very much by both sides. Ukraine and Russia. We're already talking about that. Dividing up certain assets.

PLEITGEN (voice-over): Dividing up assets between Ukraine and Russia. While Moscow's forces are seemingly on the brink of ousting Ukrainian troops from their shrinking foothold in Russia's Kursk region. Soldiers collecting war trophies after hard fought battles.

The Russians say they're also pressing on various other front lines and they don't want to give any of that territory back to Kyiv. Moscow also giving a big net to the idea of putting European NATO troops on the ground in Ukraine as peacekeepers. The Kremlin lashing out at the notion. We are talking about the fact that viable regulation is only possible

by taking into account and solving the root causes of the problems associated with Ukraine. And they are going to create additional root causes.

But on Moscow's streets, optimism that an end to the war may be in sight, brokered by the U.S. President.

PLEITGEN: Do you think that progress is possible in this phone call to end the war in Ukraine?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think progress will be definitely.

PLEITGEN: Definitely. Why do you think so?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're very optimistic.

PLEITGEN: Yes. Why?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because I love my life. I left my country and I think all this will be good for our country.

PLEITGEN (voice-over): But the Kremlin has cautions. Diplomacy is still in its early stages and many hurdles will have to be overcome to silence the guns on the battlefield. Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Moscow.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Jill Dougherty joins us now from Washington. She's an adjunct professor at Georgetown University, a CNN contributor and CNN's former Moscow bureau chief. Welcome back. It's good to see you.

JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Thank you, John. Glad to be here.

VAUSE: So ahead of this phone call between Trump and Putin, there's a lot of optimism from the White House. There's a belief that progress can be made at least towards a ceasefire and then maybe a diplomatic end to the war. Here's the White House press secretary.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LEAVITT: We are on the 10th yard line of peace and we've never been closer to a peace deal than we are in this moment. And the president, as you know, is determined to get one done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: The Kremlin, though, doesn't seem to share that optimism, at least publicly, especially when it comes to the implementation of at least a 30-day ceasefire. So where are the differences here between both Washington and Moscow?

DOUGHERTY: Well, I think the biggest thing, and actually President Trump talked about this is territory. You know, Zelenskyy does not want to give up territory. And The Russians hold 20 percent of Ukraine. And President Trump said, you know, we're going to be talking about land, a lot of land, he said, and then also power plants. So I presume he means the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.

Well, but, you know, when you get into that territory, that's where it really gets sticky, because politically and every other way for Zelenskyy to give it up legally would be a, you know, a bridge almost too far.

VAUSE: Could that include recognizing Crimea as basically being Russian territory? Because that's something which the west has never recognized, that claim by the Russians to hold Crimea.

DOUGHERTY: Right. And that's another sticking point. There is a report out there that unconfirmed, and apparently the White House is not saying anything about it, that the United States would indeed legally recognize Crimea as part of Russia.

Now, if you go back to 2018, President Trump actually said Crimea is pretty much Russian because they speak Russian there. Now, of course, you know, people all over Ukraine speak Russian as well as Ukrainian. But the point is that again, would be a turning point. And a lot of people, I think, in Europe would have real difficulty with taking that step.

VAUSE: The Ukrainians committed to a 30-day ceasefire last week, and on that, his President Zelenskyy. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: It has been nearly a week since it became absolutely clear to everyone in the world that it is Putin who continues to prolong this war. For a week now, Putin has been unable to muster a simple yes in response to the ceasefire proposal.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: And to that point, the Europeans say this is the moment for the Russian president to prove that he is committed to ending the war. So what concessions do they want from Putin and what's the likelihood he will make those concessions?

[01:25:04]

DOUGHERTY: Well, one thing that the Europeans want is for this not to happen again. And so how do you prevent an invasion from not happening again? You put some peacekeepers in there and you make sure that Russia can't invade again. But there is another problem, because Putin says no peacekeepers from NATO countries, even if they're under the flag of their individual countries. And yet the Europeans are Talking about maybe 30, three zero, countries participating in some type of coalition of the willing. Some want to put or willing to put troops on the ground, others are not.

But the sticking point here, and every time there's a sticking point, as you can see, the sticking point is they want backup. They want a backstop from the United States, which would be, you know, in case something goes wrong, the United States comes in and make sure that Russia does not invade.

So there are a lot of details here, but I think, you know, President Putin and President Trump want the big deal, and the big deal really is their relationship, the U.S. Russia relationship.

VAUSE: Well, according to the U.S. President, momentum towards this ceasefire picked up after his confrontation with the Ukrainian president in the Oval Office more than two weeks ago. For more on that, here is Donald Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: It's humanity. I'm involved for humanity. A lot of people are being killed over there. And we had to get Ukraine to do the right thing. It was not an easy situation. You got to see a little glimpse at the Oval Office. But I think they're doing the right thing right now, and we're trying to get a peace agreement done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: So, as far as Donald Trump is concerned, had to get the Ukrainians to do the right thing. But what pressure is on Putin now to do the right thing? What's the leverage here that the White House can apply, and is the White House prepared to use it?

DOUGHERTY: Well, they talk about sanctions, you know, increasing sanctions. President Trump has talked about tariffs. But again, the United States basically does not trade with Russia, so tariffs really aren't going to do it particularly. But they're not really the -- I think the American administration isn't really talking about a lot of pressure on Putin.

Now, interestingly, Putin did kind of give a bone to the United States by just at the last minute allowing these big U.S. and U.K. Investment funds to sell their investment -- their frozen securities that were frozen by the Russian government. That would really help them out because a lot of them said goodbye to those investments. Now they could recoup some money. Might be a way of getting around sanctions. So that's kind of something, you know, a sweetener that President Putin is offering to the United States.

But I don't see a whole lot of demands at all from the United States toward Russia.

VAUSE: It does seem there's a lot of pressure on Ukraine, not a lot of pressure right now on Moscow. That may change. Jill, as always, good to have you with us. Thank you.

DOUGHERTY: Thank you.

VAUSE: And still come here on CNN. More on the deadly Israeli airstrikes in Gaza, how doctors once again struggling to cope with an overwhelming number of casualties.

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[01:32:13]

JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back everyone.

More than 200 people have reportedly been killed in Gaza following Israeli airstrikes in the past few hours. That's according to the Palestinian health ministry. Hundreds more have been wounded.

This move by Israel breaks a fragile ceasefire agreement with Hamas. One Israeli official says the strikes were a pre-emptive move, but did not provide any further details about what they claimed was Hamas', quote, "readiness to execute terror attacks".

Earlier, I spoke with Dr. Razan al-Nahhas, a doctor volunteering at the Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City. It's a small, poorly-equipped hospital now dealing with an overwhelming number of wounded, which she says are mostly women and children.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. RAZAN AL-NAHHAS, VOLUNTEER, HUMANITY AUXILLIUM: It's been absolutely horrific. Nothing close to anything I've experienced before. We were asleep at around 2:05, I believe.

Multiple explosions within just a span of a few minutes back-to-back. The building shook. Immediately, I just got dressed. I knew big pieces coming in, and since then, we have been receiving patients nonstop.

The first two hours, I would say, were the most intense. I think at this point, I mean, it's really hard to tell the numbers right now because there are just patients everywhere on the floor and the stretchers in the hallways outside with, you know, at least over 50 martyrs.

It's you know, you're really just doing damage control, just trying to do what you can because you have limited resources.

We didn't even have access to a CT scanner for the first couple of hours, until the technicians came in to run the machine. There's no radiologist to read the scans. There's minimal surgeons, ORs, there's -- we're really not doing much at this point. And the scenes are just horrific.

Babies, children all over the floor, bleeding from their -- from their heads, bleeding from their abdomens, extremity injuries.

And you know, after the first wave, there were a few more explosions and we got a few more waves of patients. They continued to trickle in.

VAUSE: Yes. Take a moment.

AL-NAHHAS: I was just standing. I'm sorry. Sorry. I know it's a -- it's a lot.

VAUSE: Yes.

AL-NAHHAS: I was just standing on a on a balcony in one of the hospital buildings that has the operating room and the ICU. And from the balcony, there's no morgue here, from the balcony, you can see all the bodies of the people who've been killed lined up.

[01:34:50]

AL-NAHHAS: And I tried to count. And there's at least 50 of them. They're just wrapped in blankets and, you know, just waiting -- I guess the families were just waiting to figure out their next steps.

And they keep bringing more bodies. I lost count of how many patients, you know, I pronounced dead myself. But it was at least maybe 15 or 20 with just myself.

VAUSE: And this is one hospital which is obviously operating at a minimum capacity, right. Because you've been under the state of war for 15 months already. So, this is -- like you said, this is just one hospital across Gaza.

AL-NAHHAS: This is just one very small hospital in Gaza City that has very, very limited capacity even prior to the war. Very minimal resources, no x-ray overnight. The x-ray. You know, I don't think we have access to it after 4:00 p.m. Only two pseudo-operating rooms.

So, you know, you see patients and normally, you know, I practice in the states, I would get a CT of this patient's brain, a CT of their abdomen, and you really don't have a -- there's a line now that they have the CT scanner working, there's a line for CTs.

But most of these patients will either die waiting for their CT or will get the CT, we'll make a diagnosis and there's nothing to be done for them.

To the patients that need oxygen -- go ahead.

VAUSE: I was going to say, do you know -- we're being told that the targets here were Hamas commanders as well as Hamas infrastructure that was part of some kind of preemptive -- preparing for some kind of strike on Israel.

From what you've been able to see, do you know how many civilians, how many kids have been killed or wounded so far?

AL-NAHHAS: Oh my goodness. I mean, it's the majority are women and children. The majority are women and children. I mean, I -- just babies like one, two, three-year-olds just lined up four or five to a stretcher. And many, many, you know, young women, entire families wiped out.

I'll be -- I'll take care of one patient and it will be a family or a neighbor that will tell me it's the only -- they're the only survivor.

I just was taking care of a seven-year-old boy who was gasping and taking his final breaths and begging me to try to save him, because they're telling me that his entire family was killed. Multiple siblings, parents.

But the majority of cases that we've seen tonight are children.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Dr. Al Nahhas speaking to us from Gaza City.

With that, we will pause. We'll take a short break. You're watching CNN.

[01:37:30]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VAUSE: What began as an eight-day visit to the International Space Station is finally over after nine months for NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams. In the past 35 minutes or so, their SpaceX Dragon capsule undocked from the Space Station, now heading back to earth, traveling at about 17,000 miles per hour which means splashdown off the Florida coast is expected later Tuesday.

Well, for more David Soucie is -- Soucie a CNN safety analyst and former safety inspector with the Federal Aviation Administrator -- Administration, rather. It's been one of those nights.

He joins us now live from Denver, Colorado. David, thanks for staying up. And it's good to see you.

DAVID SOUCIE, CNN SAFETY ANALYST: Hi, John. Good to see you as well.

VAUSE: Ok. So the reason why these two astronauts were left on board the Space Station was because of helium leaks and thruster problems with Boeing's Starliner.

So just to recap here, what's the status of those issues? Have they actually finally been identified and properly fixed? And where does this leave Starliner in the big picture?

SOUCIE: That's a good question, John. The thing to keep in mind is that this flight with those two astronauts was actually a test flight, if you think of it that way.

So what they did was they took -- they took the spacecraft up, and then they exercised it. They used all the different rockets. They used all the different alignment tools that they had.

There's 48 boosters on that -- on that unit, 20 of those or 28 of those are small boosters. And so they put them to the max test that they could. And one of those boosters failed, one of the small boosters, which is about 100 pounds of thrust. So it overheated.

And so what they're trying to do is figure out what that was. They believe that it might be something along the lines of when they tested it, they left one side of it in the sun for a long, long time to feel that heat and see if it still functioned.

So it's not uncommon during high tests of that nature to have a failure. The question now is, can they get it fixed and make sure it doesn't happen again?

But that is part of the process, and they're deep into that process right now.

VAUSE: It is part of a process. But there have been problems, a lot of problems or setbacks, if you like, for Boeing. And in September, those problems were just sort of the latest, if you like. And a safety report, which came out last month, raised questions about Starliner's future and whether or not it was actually viable.

And the problem now for Boeing is that the whole Starliner project is way over budget and it's years behind schedule and the International Space Station closes down in 2030. So there's questions about whether or not it'll actually have a crewed flight to the ISS, whether that opportunity will ever actually emerge for Starliner.

SOUCIE: Yes. And those are problems that occur. I kind of parallel this a lot to the technology plateaus that we saw in the aerospace industry. For example, when we came up with new technologies, different turbofans, better efficiencies.

So when companies invest in a level of plateau of technology, and then they are all invested in that and then something new comes along and it leapfrogs ahead of them.

So for example, with SpaceX you have the boosters that return back to the -- to the ground without having to be wasted. So those are advancements in technology that really give an edge to the newer technologies that come along.

When I did the certification on the Airbus 380, we had that same kind of issue where Airbus was advanced far beyond what Boeing could produce. And so Boeing had to play catch up. And once they did, then it starts to balance out again.

But I think we're seeing the same thing in this space race, if you will, with what's going on. But I do see some issues with Starliner being able to get things back up and running and become viable before 2030.

VAUSE: And for NASA, there's always been this desire to have two viable options to go into space, right? They learned something after the, you know, the space shuttle disasters that they needed to have, basically one operational, and at least one spare. And they don't really have that right now.

SOUCIE: Yes. That's right. And so what they're looking for right now is what options do they have. It's -- I think it's important to point out that during this time, while that spacecraft was up in the -- up in the Space Station, that NASA did approve that aircraft -- that spacecraft to come back to earth, but only for as an emergency, they didn't want to take any risks -- take any risks.

But it was approved, say, if something hit the spacecraft and they had to make an emergency descent, they could have done that. In addition, there's always seems to always be a Dragon attached to

the space -- to the Space Station or a Soyuz as well. So there are other options for emergency exits. Actually three in this case.

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SOUCIE: Now, is there another option? Is there a viable option? And that's what they're going to have to understand NASA with this backup option. What -- what do they have now?

VAUSE: Is there a knock-on effect here. Because Boeings have a lot of problems right now with its main business, building and selling commercial planes I mean, without directly spilling over. But is there some kind of spillover into the space program from those other bigger problems.

SOUCIE: No, actually, when we did the tours at the aerospace facility versus the aircraft -- commercial aircraft facility, there are really firewalls between them and that's required by the federal government as well, because there are certain space secrets that are done and isolated from what's going on with commercial aerospace. So those are really strict firewalls between them.

Now, what you might be thinking of is as something that occurs to me is the bleed over of the safety culture. What is the safety culture? For many years it started at the top, worked its way down. And that's what you -- the way that you look at safety, the way that you look at engineering and the way that you assess risk.

So if Boeing had always been that way, there is a piece of the culture, regardless of the firewalls that can bleed from one side of the company to the other, because the main ownership of the company is driving it in a certain direction towards profit versus safety.

And so those are things that always have to be watched. Can Boeing recover from that? I'm going to ask the question first, because I know that was going to be your next question.

But I believe that they can they've got to throttle back though. They've got to come back to a sensible mode of production, both on the space side and on the commercial side.

And I think they can recover from this. They have the -- I think the right leadership in place with the new CEO. But again, it's a throttle back and they're going to have to accept their position and maybe drop into that number two or even number three position for a while, while they allow themselves to regroup and retool and be ready for the next phase.

VAUSE: We've been talking for so many years, you know me so well. David, thank you. Good to see you.

SOUTCIE: Thank you so much for having me, John.

VAUSE: Thank you. Take care mate. Thank you. And when we come back, the White House gets a scolding from a federal

judge after the Justice Department defied fight a court order and deported hundreds of alleged gang members. Those details in a moment.

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VAUSE: The sounds of explosions shattering the fragile ceasefire. Our breaking news this hour.

Israeli airstrikes on Gaza reportedly killing more than 200 people, wounding hundreds of others. That's according to the Palestinian health ministry. One Israeli official describes the strikes as, quote, preemptive targeting Hamas leaders without providing further details.

The Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, ordered the military escalation after negotiations over extending phase one of the three-phase ceasefire stalled.

We'll continue to follow the story, bring you updates as soon as they come to us.

Mexico has arrested an alleged leader of the MS-13 gang, who is on the FBI's ten most wanted list. Authorities say he was detained in the city of Veracruz and deported to the U.S., facing charges of narco terrorism and racketeering, as well as accusations of involvement in gang activities in the U.S., Mexico and his native El Salvador. The Trump administration designated MS-13, which originated in Los Angeles, as a terrorist organization.

A U.S. Federal judge is demanding answers from the White House after hundreds of alleged Venezuelan gang members were deported under a rarely used wartime power. The judge characterized the Justice Departments reasoning as, quote, "We don't care, we'll do what we want."

CNN's Priscilla Alvarez has been covering this legal battle from the very beginning.

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PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: President Trump is escalating his immigration crackdown and setting up a legal showdown. Trump invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, a little-known 18th century law that gives the president tremendous authority to target and quickly deport migrants.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Think of that, 1798. It's a powerful act. You couldn't pass something like that today.

ALVAREZ: The measure used only three times, all during major wars, including during World War II, is tied to what Trump described as an invasion of criminals.

TRUMP: These are criminals. Many, many criminals, murderers, drug dealers at the highest level, drug lords, people from mental institutions.

That's an invasion. They invaded our country. So this is in that sense -- this is war.

ALVAREZ: The move was immediately challenged in court, setting off a legal clash that's raised questions over whether the administration violated a court order.

The controversy unfolded in a matter of hours. On Saturday afternoon, a federal district judge kicked off a hearing over use of the Alien Enemies Act. The hearing was briefly adjourned for the government to collect more information.

In that time, two removal flights took off to El Salvador, which has agreed to take Venezuelan migrants. The judge verbally told the Justice Department to turn around any planes carrying people being deported under the alien enemies act. A written order came an hour and 20 minutes later.

In a post on X, El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele seemed to taunt the judge's order, writing, quote, "Oopsie, too late," with a laughing emoji.

TOM HOMAN, TRUMP ADMINISTRATION BORDER CZAR: By the time the other order came, the plane was already over international waters with a plane full of terrorists and significant public safety threats. The president did exactly the right thing.

ALVAREZ: The administration's primary target is the Venezuelan gang Tren De Aragua, which was recently designated a foreign terrorist organization by the administration. More than half of the 261 migrants expelled to El Salvador were done under the wartime authority, according to a senior administration official.

The administration has not provided identities of those removed.

LEE GELERNT, ATTORNEY, AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION: The law says explicitly it may only be used against a foreign government or a foreign nation when we are in a declared war with that foreign government, or that foreign government is invading us.

This gang is not invading. So in our view, there is no question that this administration is just thumbing their nose at Congress.

[01:54:48]

ALVAREZ: Now, according to some of the sources I've spoken with, the legal fight is the point. This, in particular is a remarkable measure that has been taken by the Trump administration, leaning on these rarely-used provisions in the law to justify speeding up their deportation plans, particularly in this case with those Tren de Aragua gang members.

All of this, though, just part of one broader effort by the administration to use these legal bases, some of which have only been invoked a few times in history to press forward with the president's agenda.

Priscilla Alvarez, CNN -- Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: New developments to report in the case of deported Brown University assistant professor, Dr. Rasha Alawieh. A source says federal agents at Boston Airport found photos of former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on her phone when she returned from Lebanon last week. And Dr. Alawieh acknowledged she attended his mass funeral.

On Monday, protesters gathered in support of Alawieh, a Lebanese national and U.S. visa holder. A federal judge has delayed her deportation hearing until later this month after her lawyers withdrew from the case.

U.S. President Donald Trump says he's releasing about 80,000 unredacted files Tuesday on the assassination of former President John F. Kennedy, fulfilling a long-time campaign promise.

Shortly after taking office, Trump ordered the release of files relating to the assassinations of Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr.

99 percent of the records on JFK's 1963 assassination have already been made public, but the FI said last month it discovered around 2,400 new records following Trump's executive order.

Thank you for watching. I'm John Vause.

"THE SOURCE WITH KAITLAN COLLINS" is up next for our viewers in the United States.

For everyone else, please stay with us. Another hour of CNN NEWSROOM starts after a short break.

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