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CNN's Breaking News Coverage on the Death of Iranian President and His Companions in a Helicopter Crash. CNN's Breaking News Coverage on the Death of Iranian President and His Companions in a Helicopter Crash. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired May 20, 2024 - 03:00   ET

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

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BECKY ANDERSON, CNN ANCHOR: Well hello and welcome to our viewers watching around the world. I'm Becky Anderson, in London.

And we are following breaking news out of Iran for you, where the government is expressing condolences over the deaths of President Ebrahim Raisi and the country's foreign minister and seven others in a helicopter crash. Now, the bodies of those killed will be transported to a staging area in the city of Tabriz.

Iranian officials say the helicopter with nine people on board ran into trouble amid heavy fog on Sunday afternoon. Images of the crash site in Iran's east Azerbaijan province show the remote mountainous area where the aircraft went down. The president and other officials have been attending an inauguration ceremony of a new dam near the border with Azerbaijan.

Iranian state TV is airing Islamic prayers between news broadcasts after word of the president's death and the country's supreme leader is vowing there will be no disruption in Iran's work.

Well, Ivan Watson following regional reactions from Hong Kong. First, let's bring in Paula Hancocks with more from Abu Dhabi and we are just, Paula, getting the first images of the removal of the bodies from the crash site. What more do we know at this point?

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Becky, we're hearing this and seeing this from the Iranian Red Crescent that they are transporting the bodies from that location where the helicopter crashed and taking them to the closest city of Tabriz.

At this point, they say now that the official search and rescue operation is over and now it is moving really towards a mourning period in Iran itself. Now, we have heard from the Iranian government. There was an urgent meeting of the government a little earlier this Monday morning. And what we did see as well was the seats where President Raisi usually sits had a black sash across the chair to show mourning as well. Now, we heard from the government saying they expressed their condolences over the deaths of the nine people on board, saying they praised President Raisi as hardworking and tireless and specified there wouldn't be the slightest disturbance in the administration of affairs in Iran.

Now, there were nine people on board this helicopter. It was part of a three helicopter convoy that had moved from the area close to the border with Azerbaijan. And we know that two of those helicopters did land safely. But the helicopter that was carrying the president, it was carrying the foreign minister, one of the local governors, also an imam, security officials, pilots and crew did, we can see their crash into the side of a mountain. Now, it is an area that is very mountainous. It is an area that is inhospitable when it comes to transport. And we have heard from the rescue teams themselves over those 16 hours that it took them to find this location, that it was extremely difficult conditions.

There was low fog, there was very little visibility, the temperatures were lower than they usually are at this time of the year. In fact, the rescue teams themselves said that they couldn't put a helicopter into the air to try and help them with the search because it was simply too dangerous. So that really speaks to the conditions that this helicopter was flying in.

In fact, Turkey, giving the use of a heat drone certainly helped in the search and rescue initially. But conditions will certainly be one thing that is looked at closely when it comes to the investigation. Becky.

ANDERSON: Good to have you, Paula. Thank you. Paula is in Abu Dhabi.

Let's cross to Ivan Watson, who is in Hong Kong, but spent years as the bureau chief for CNN in Turkey. I know you spent some time traveling through this region where this chopper went down. Initial reports, Ivan, Sunday afternoon, that this helicopter had experienced what was described as a hard landing.

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It was not until the early hours of Monday that it was confirmed that nobody had survived this crash. Let's talk about the chopper itself and the state of the hardware, as it were, that the second most powerful man in the country and the foreign minister were traveling. Many experts suggesting this decades-old chopper really speaks to the sense of where this country is, the state of its economy, the state of its airline industry as a whole. Ivan.

IVAN WATSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. Well, many aviation experts have identified the model of helicopter as a Bell helicopter, which is believed to be manufactured in the U.S. Iran had a famous rupture with its close ties with the U.S. in 1979 with the Islamic revolution that brought the current system of government to power.

So it stands to reason that this helicopter would have predated 1979. And the suggestion that the president of the country might be traveling in a helicopter of that age and model really says something about perhaps where the priorities are in the government there. Iran is producing its own. It has had a nuclear program. It has been producing its own drones, which have been used on the battlefields and against cities in Ukraine by the Russian military.

So one of the questions out there, why would the president of the country have to be flying in potentially such an antiquated aircraft?

ANDERSON: What happens next?

WATSON: Well, it is a succession and the Iranian constitution has spelled that out. And taking a look at Iranian state media, you can already hear anchors dressed in black television presenters talking about stability right now, about how the Islamic revolution is not just one person. This is a tragedy. This is a setback that Ebrahim Raisi is a martyr to be mourned, but that the Islamic Republic of Iran is stronger than that and will move forward. So that's one of the messages that's being sent by the government.

The constitution spells out that the vice president, who was not elected in 2021, he was appointed and is, you know, relatively speaking, a little known individual named Mohammed Mokhtar. He will serve as a kind of interim president while a council of the heads of the three branches of government, the judiciary, the parliament, and now this interim president, they will be tasked with setting up elections in some 50 days' time.

Important to stress that Ebrahim Raisi was not the most powerful individual in the Iranian government. That, of course, is the supreme leader Ali Khamenei, who himself is an octogenarian. There has been speculation about his succession plan somewhere down the road. Instead, the succession now for the president has been hastened as a result of this tragic turn of events.

ANDERSON: Good to have you, Ivan. Thank you very much indeed.

Joining me now is Ali Ansari, a professor of Iranian history at the University of St. Andrews. Let's just pick up where Ivan left off here and just how significant is this news early Monday that the Iranian president and the foreign minister, let's be quite clear, Hussein Amir Abdullahian, have passed away in this helicopter crash to the northwest of Tehran? Let's just start there. Let's just talk about the significance, if you will.

ALI ANSARI, IRANIAN HISTORY PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF ST. ANDRES: Well, I think it will certainly be a shock to the system in terms of the political order. They'll be extremely worried because it will obviously mean, as has been said, the management of some sort of transition with an election tempted, I suppose, in the next 50 days.

I think in the general administration of the country and the strategic overview, I don't think a huge amount will change.

I mean, as has been noted, you know, Raisi was not really driving that. He was an executor really for what the supreme leader wanted to be done. So what they'll be struggling to find, of course, is someone who they think is as loyal and reliable for the system as Raisi was. In terms of his general competence, I mean, he was widely criticized

from all sides of the spectrum, interestingly. Even hardliners didn't think he was as good an administrator as might have been.

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So there is the possibility, of course, that they may be able to find someone who's as loyal and, you know, even moderately more competent in trying to and running the country. But, you know, this will be something that they'll now have to go out and look for. And obviously for the system itself, I think it's the first time now in, I think, 40 years or so since a sitting president has died in office. But also, as you say, with the foreign minister.

ANDESON: Yeah, and running the country and its economy is no small order, given the state of play in Iran at present. So whoever is that next president --

ANSARI: Absolutely.

ANDERSON: -- has a big job on their hands. But as you rightly point out, this is not the most powerful position in the country. That is the supreme leader's position and the sort of the security infrastructure who effectively, you know, let's be quite clear, run national security and the ideological direction of this country.

So let's just concentrate there for a moment. I think what you're saying here, it's safe to assume there will be no change to the ideological direction of this country, nor will the loss of these two men, the president, the foreign minister, have a huge impact on Iran's influence around the region and the wider world, correct?

ANSARI: Yes, I mean, I don't think it'll have a significant impact in either of those areas, because these are run by the IRGC in a broad sense, certainly the foreign policy. And also, obviously, the strategic direction of the country is directed by the supreme leader in his office.

I think the more serious thing for the regime is the questions that will be asked by people about how this happened. I mean, why they were traveling, as has been said, in such aged, sort of, equipment, you know, the helicopters, why they were traveling actually in the fog in a mountainous area. I mean, these sort of things are going to be rife conspiracy theories in Iran, as you know, which don't need much to get going.

So people will start to ask questions about how this happened and what it means actually about the way in which the country operates, what the state of its economy is, what the state of the administration is. So I think a lot of these things will start to come out. And you're already seeing things on social media and other sources in Iran, where people are beginning to question what this tells us about the Islamic Republic itself and its current situation.

ANDERSON: Would you be surprised if this provided an opportunity for, for example, the protest movement, which was so noisy and prevalent 18 months ago, would you expect there to be some opportunity taken by the voices who are against this regime at this point? You point out already that in the sort of broad brush, there is reputational damage just about why it was that, you know, this, this event happened when it didn't, how it did.

ANSARI: Well, my own view is, is that if the regime is sensible, of course, they will try and speed through a succession fairly quickly and run some sort of mock election. I mean, they won't want to bring crowds out onto the street. I mean, you're quite right about that. They won't want to run an election, so to speak. If anything, it will be an even more lackluster election than the one that got Raisi into office in the first place and the subsequent parliamentary elections.

So they'll want to make this quick, simple, clean, avoid any possible opportunity for crowds to get out on the street. But I think the damage about all this and the questions, it just sort of reinforces a sense among the wider population of the general malaise that's afflicting the Islamic Republic. I mean, this is important. And if you think about it in the context of the recent confrontation with Israel, where they made a lot of tub-thumping noises about how powerful they were as a regional player, this actually dents that argument somehow. I mean, it doesn't look good for them.

And at the end of the day, I think the longer term problems for the regime are probably going to be more serious than any immediate consequence. But we know from even the reactions of some people in Iran that, you know, Raisi's death is not being widely mourned. So let's put it that way. I mean, there are people who are not at all unhappy about what's happened.

ANDERSON: The public face of Iran for many people around the world, of course, is the foreign minister. And Hussein Amir Abdullahian, while conservative and very much aligned with the regime's foreign policy, has overseen what has been a relatively successful period of rapprochement with the United Arab Emirates, with the Saudis. We've seen him on the move exhaustively around the region and beyond, and in Washington. Who do you expect to take over that file?

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And how impactful or important is that new figure with regard to the reputation of Iran going forward, and indeed the very important files, for example, of the Iran nuclear file and the proxies around the region? And what happens next with regard to Iran and Israel?

ANSARI: Well, I would say that Abdullahian's successes are probably more performative than real, by the way. I mean, I would qualify. I don't think he was as successful as they tried to present it.

But the most likely contender to succeed him will be Bahri Kani, his deputy. And he's a similar, if anything, has got even more puritanical views than Abdullahian had, I mean, in the sense of his ideological convictions are pretty tight with the regime. So I actually see in the foreign ministry side of things probably much less change really going on. I mean, I think the continuity there will be pretty seamless.

ANDERSON: Good to have you, sir. Thank you.

ANSARI: Thank you. Thank you very much.

ANDERSON: Reactions from world leaders on President Raisi's death are coming in. India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi says he is deeply shocked and saddened by Raisi's tragic demise. And that, quote, "his contribution to strengthening the India-Iran bilateral relationship will always be remembered".

And this statement from the president of Venezuela, quote, "deeply saddened to have to say goodbye to an exemplary person", he said, Nicholas Maduro calling Raisi the defender of the sovereignty of his people.

There's this from Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who is the president of the United Arab Emirates. Quote, "I extend my deepest condolences to the Iranian government and people over the passing of President Ebrahim Raisi, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdullahian and those accompanying them following a tragic accident. We pray that God grants them eternal rest and we extend our heartfelt sympathies to their families". The UAE stands in solidarity with Iran at this difficult time.

We will be back with the latest on our breaking news story, the death of the Iranian president and the foreign minister of the country in a helicopter crash. We'll go to Detroit, Michigan, where US President Joe Biden has been on the campaign trail. Stay with us for more as we continue.

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ANDERSON: I'm Becky Anderson, in London. Back to our breaking news story this hour, Iranian state media has confirmed that President Ebrahim Raisi and the country's foreign minister have died in a helicopter crash. Seven other people were on board. This is a video of the site, search and rescue teams say they found no survivors at that crash site and the bodies of those killed in the crash will be transported to the nearby city of Tabriz. The aircraft came down early Sunday afternoon as it was flying over Iran's east Azerbaijan province.

Well, joining me now is CNN senior White House reporter Kevin Liptak. He has been traveling with U.S. President Joe Biden in Michigan. The administration will have been aware over the hours from Sunday afternoon when there were initial reports of a hard landing that something was afoot and that there was a likelihood that the president would lose his life. What's been the response?

KEVIN LIPTACK, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yeah and I can tell you officials at the White House and the State Department kind of across the Biden administration are watching this very closely and they haven't said anything yet now that Iran has confirmed that President Raisi has died and I can tell you that they will be picking their words very carefully certainly for how they're picked apart in Iran but also the wider world.

I don't think the White House wants to provide any pretext for Iran to claim that somehow the U.S. was behind this which is something that they've done in the past and so I think as President Biden and his team wake up in the morning they will have a decision on how exactly they want to go about responding to this sort of seismic event in Tehran and I think they'll be looking at a couple of different areas for continuity when it comes to the leadership.

One is of course the nuclear program in Iran that is something that President Biden had at one point tried to contain through indirect negotiations of course those fell apart and Iran has been enriching nuclear fuel since then the president has applied sanctions and that has done a large part to put a damper on the Iranian economy and so I think what President Biden will want to do is to see exactly where that goes next.

The other of course is the Iranian proxies in the region that President Biden has been dealing with in the context of the Israel- Hamas war of course those proxies have been targeting troops in the region. President Biden has responded he has tried to prevent the U.S. from getting dragged into this broader conflict with Iran more directly but part of that has also been these indirect conversations with Iran that have given U.S. officials confidence that Iran at least under the leadership of President Raisi did not want a broader conflict.

Now as I've talked to officials today I don't think that there is any great hope that the leadership in Iran will somehow adopt a new tone a less hardline tone they do view of course the supreme leader is the ultimate decision maker, they see the IRGC is having more and more a role in Iran more generally and so I don't think that there is any great hope that there will be an easing of tensions. I think what the primary goal will be to contain the volatility that this event has caused in an already, you know, deeply uncertain region President Biden certainly doesn't want to see any you know more uncertainty than there already exists.

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Particularly as he is on sort of the precipice of all of these different things whether it's a ceasefire paired with the hostage deal or this broader regional vision that he is trying to promote including a new defense pact with Saudi Arabia potentially bringing Israel into that as well all with the broader goal of providing a bulwark against Iran.

You know his national security advisor Jake Sullivan was just in Saudi Arabia and Israel trying to come to some kind of agreement on that front so this is all happening at quite a critical moment for President Biden when it comes to his Middle East policy this adds I think just another layer of volatility that his aides and his team will be trying to ascertain and assess as the sun rises on the east coast in a couple of hours from now. ANDERSON: Good to have you Kevin thank you very much indeed.

And we will have a lot more of our special coverage of the death of Iran's president died in a helicopter crash earlier on Sunday. Ahead we'll hear from our chief international anchor Christiane Amanpour and look at what all of this could mean for the country's future stay with us.

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ANDERSON: Well, I'm Becky Anderson out of London for you more on our breaking news from Iran. Iranian news agencies say the government there has convened an urgent meeting following the announcement that the Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi has died in a helicopter crash. His chair at that meeting was left vacant and a black sash was placed in his memory.

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Eight other people on board were also killed including Iran's foreign minister. Iranian officials say the helicopter ran into trouble in heavy fog. On Sunday it was returning from a trip to the Iran Azerbaijan border where the president had attended a ceremony for the opening of a new dam.

This video shows President Raisi during that trip on board a helicopter over the weekend. He was elected in 2021 and Iran's government is expected to move quickly to organize a new election for his replacement.

Well earlier we spoke with our chief international anchor Christiane Amanpour. She noted how this could not come at a more unstable time for Iran or the region as a whole.

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CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR (on the phone): -- those internal protests and discontent that have been crushed brutally in the aftermath of Massa Amini's death and that was under the direction of President Raisi and the Supreme Leader and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. It also comes at a time when this Israel war on Gaza against Hamas continues and as you know the perennial shadow war between Israel and Iran that had been going on broke into the open over the last several weeks.

That somewhat subsided after a reaction from both sides but nonetheless it shows the peril of the situation. You can imagine for the United States for the West one of the most important issues is the Iran nuclear issue that had been somewhat contained after the 2015 nuclear agreement that President Obama negotiated with Iran and with Europe and was rubber-stamped or rather stamped into officialdom by the entire United Nations process.

President Trump and the urging also of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pulled the United States out of that and that caused much more uncertainty and stability over the process of the Iran nuclear program. We understand over the last week or so there was some word from the IAEA, the U.N. nuclear agency, that they were back in talks with Iran to make sure that everything was happening above board and within the nuclear regulations, the non-proliferation treaty. We wait to see what kind of work they were doing on that and it's known that the United States is trying to stabilize issues with Iran given the volatility of the region right now.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

ANDERSON: That's Christiane Ampour reporting.

Meir Javedanfar is director of the Middle East Economic and Political Analysis Company. He joins us now from Tel Aviv. It's good to have you sir. I mean as Christiane rightly pointed out this is a complex, complicated time not just for the country but for the region as a whole and from your perspective there in Tel Aviv that will be quite clear. Let's start with though how big a gap the departure from the scene, the death of Ibrahim Raisi will be for the Islamic Republic to your mind?

MEIR JAVEDANFAR, DIRECTOR, MIDDLE EAST ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL ANALYSIS COMPANY: Well as president the fact that he's no longer there, the gap is not going to be very difficult to fill.

President Raisi was not a very successful president in terms of the economy. In Iran the president's hands are usually tied because although they have a lot of responsibility, the authority to carry out things really remains in the hands of the supreme leader and this was discovered soon after revolution, Becky, you know the first prime minister of Iran, Mr. Bazargan, said being a prime minister which back then had this almost the same authority as president is like having a knife but the blade is in someone else's hand. So the blade was in the hands of the supreme leader.

The same applies to the president in Iran. Of course the relationship with Ayatollah Khamenei does bolster their power but president Raisi was not somebody with a background in security, he was not somebody with the background in Iran's bureaucracy, he was the chief of the judiciary, he cut his teeth in the judiciary system of the Islamic Republic and he was not a man of vision. He was not a charismatic politician who came to change things.

He was a follower of Ayatollah Khamenei and the economy which he was supposed to manage actually got worse under him. I mean under president Rouhani. President Rouhani inherited Iran's economy at 39 percent inflation in 2013. He brought it down to 15 percent by 2015 already, two years after being in power.

Mr. Raisi, the average inflation rate under his term was 45 percent so the filling of his shoes is not going to be that difficult.

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ANDERSON: The vice president is a man by the name of Mohammed Mokhber. Just tell us what we know about what happens next so far as the Constitution is concerned, what we know about the vice president and what the likely consequences are for foreign policy and national security. As you rightly point out, not the files held by the presidency necessarily, certainly not the ideological direction of the country, that's certainly not a file held by the presidency. But what do we know about the man who is likely to take on this role going forward?

JAVEDANFAR: Mokhber is somebody who was a senior figure in one of the foundations, economic foundations, under the guise of basically which is owned by the Supreme Leader. It is the biggest economic foundation, which means the base to carry out the orders of the imam, basically Imam Khamenei.

According to a Reuters investigation, if I'm not mistaken, in 2012, it owns something at least $10 billion, if not more, the conglomerate. And this is one of the biggest conglomerates that reports directly to the Supreme Leader, is not subject to tax or excise. It carries tremendous political and economic weight because it has the Supreme Leader behind it.

And Mr. Mokhber was one of the people running it. And this is where he comes from. He's somebody who's very trusted by the Supreme Leader.

But, again, these are not people who are going to, who have a vision, who are people who are going to change things or are going to envision some new way to develop Iran's economy. Their job is most importantly to follow the orders of the Supreme Leader. As somebody once said, you know, the Supreme Leader says where the rails or the track goes, and their job is to just put the rails there.

And this is his job. He's not going to be somebody who's going to change things much. And he and the vice president, the speaker of the parliament, Mr. Ghalibaf, and the head of the judiciary, Mr. Ejraei, for the next 50 days are going to arrange a new presidential election, which will have to be held by, if I'm not mistaken, 8th of July.

ANDERSON: Let's get some response, not least from the Iranian-backed proxies around the region. From the Houthis, our deepest condolences to the Iranian people and the Iranian leadership. Importantly, I think we should point out that goes on to say, the Iranian people will continue to have leaders loyal to their people, Al Houthi said.

Sincere condolences, deep sympathy and solidarity to the Supreme Leader and leader of the Islamic revolution, his eminent side, Ali Khamenei, to the Iranian government and to the brotherly Iranian people. We are confident that the Islamic Republic of Iran will be able, with the help of Allah, to overcome the consequences of this great loss as the dear Iranian people have strong institutions capable of dealing with this ordeal.

And similar response from the Hezbollah group and indeed a response in the same vein from Hamas. We're also getting responses from around the region. Well, I tell you what, before I get you a regional response, let's just get your reaction to the response of the Iranian proxies to this news.

JAVEDANFAR: No, Becky, when it comes to Iran's proxies, the person we should focus on alongside Mr. Raisi is the other person who was killed in the helicopter crash, that's Foreign Minister Amirabdohllahian. He, according to his own account, is a fluent Arabic speaker, very, very close to Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, the head of Hezbollah. He said that prior to becoming foreign minister, when he visited Lebanon, he would stay up all night sometimes till 4 a.m. in the morning speaking to Hassan Nasrallah in Arabic. The two were very close.

The foreign minister was somebody with a security background, somebody who was, again, in charge of carrying out the Islamic Republic's policies, proxy policies in the Middle East, and I think successfully so. But in terms of any change in the region, the death of Mr. Raisi and Mr. Abdollahian and others is not going to bring any change to the Islamic Republic of Iran's policies in the region, because they are set in reality, I mean, not bureaucratically, realistically.

They are set by the security establishment and a very close number of confidants of the supreme leader who set different options for the supreme leader. They present different options. They come up with new plans. Mr. Raisi was not known to be one of those people, and nor was Mr. Amirabdohllahian.

[03:40:04]

So it's not expected that we're going to see much change in the Islamic Republic of Iran's policies in the region after yesterday's tragedy. \

ANDERON: It's good to have you. And to your point, Hezbollah responding to this news with the following. The Iranian president was a big brother and a strong supporter. Hezbollah in Lebanon extends its deepest condolences and feelings of sympathy for Iran's supreme leader, Iranian officials and the Iranian people's loss, a statement by the group said.

Meir, it's good to have you. Thank you very much. Indeed.

Well, this is expected to be a big day and a big week in the form of U.S. President Donald Trump's criminal trial. We will explain why just ahead with my colleague, Kristie Lu Stout, after this.

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KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Welcome back. You're watching "CNN Newsroom".

Now, with ceasefire and hostage talks stalled, the U. S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan met with the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday. Israel's government press office says that they discussed the war with an emphasis on Rafah on humanitarian aid on the status of Israeli hostages, as well as renewed fighting in northern Gaza.

Now, the Israeli military released new video, it says, shows IDF troops in eastern Rafah. The idea of says it is conducted targeted raids. They're killing at least 80 Hamas members. Meanwhile, Palestinians say that there are no safe places left in Gaza. Scott McLean joins us now. He's live in Istanbul for us with more on

the situation and Scott, also, we've heard from the idea of revealing more details on the ground and its aerial operations inside Gaza. So what's the latest on the conflict?

[03:45:01]

SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Because, yeah, so the IDF says that the bombing campaign and the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza continued over the weekend. There was also artillery shelling in that area, and it's been going on for about a week now.

The last fully functioning hospital in that part of Gaza says that there were dozens of bodies that came in and many more injured. But some of those wounded ended up dying because they say that they are running out of supplies. They simply do not have everything that they need.

The IDF also says that it hit dozens of targets in and around the Rafah area. We know, of course, at last word that there have been some 800,000 people who have fled Rafah searching for safety in other parts of the territory. Some have gone to that humanitarian zone along the coast. But given the lack of infrastructure to accommodate that volume of people, many others have gone elsewhere. And an overnight strike in the early hours of yesterday morning that killed some 35 people at last count really shows just how difficult it is to find any measure of safety right now in Gaza.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MCLEAN (voice-over): Put the blanket up. It's a woman, rescuers say, as they recover a body from the rubble of a collapsed building.

People in the Nuiserat refugee camp in central Gaza say an Israeli airstrike hit around 3 a.m. Sunday morning. Eyewitnesses say they only heard a single explosion. It was big enough to leave five houses mostly flattened.

Suddenly, while we were asleep, an airstrike hit, this man says. Some were killed, some were injured and others are still under the rubble. We were displaced from Rafah and came here to find safety.

As bombing and ground campaigns ramp up in parts of northern Gaza and in Rafah in the south, central Gaza is where scores of people have fled to find refuge. Many have found none.

This is safety. You can film around you all of the safety, he says.

This is a genocide. They're killing the Palestinian people and the Palestinian cause. That's what they're doing. There was no prior warning, says this woman who's searching for her sister's body. She says she already lost her mother and three other family members in a similar strike in October. With only basic tools, rescue efforts are painstakingly slow. It's very difficult to pull out people alive from under the rubble.

We try to do what we can with our own hands, he says.

Onlookers watch as bodies are pulled out one by one, first a woman, then two Children from the same building. Inside the morgue, bodies cover the floor. Some literally piled on top of one another. According to the local hospital, the strike killed dozens, including women and Children. Many more were injured and some are still missing. The IDF did not comment on this specific strike beyond insisting it follows international law as it tries to dismantle Hamas.

The renewed military push has throttled even more aid deliveries and made finding enough food even harder. The American built floating pier is receiving its first trucks packed with aid. But on Saturday, they didn't get far.

People managed to climb aboard the convoy, spilling boxes onto the side of the road. Some people were even willing to fight for whatever was inside.

We want to eat. We're hungry. We've become poor, this man says. Enough with this misery.

A second convoy was completely swarmed. Within minutes, all of the boxes are gone.

Why are you filming? This woman asks. Perhaps to show the world just how desperate the people of Gaza have become after seven months of war.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCLEAN: So the IDF released two videos of strikes. It says it carried out in central Gaza against Hamas members. It is not clear if either of those are the same -- the same strike that you saw there in that story. Should also mention, Kristie, that Jake Sullivan's visit here. Of course, we know that he discussed the usual U.S. Talking points on Rafah and on aid when he met in Israel with the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

But he also brought up what seems to be a sore spot not only between the U.S. And Israel, but also between Netanyahu and his opposition rival, Benny Gantz. And that is connecting the military operation for some kind of an end game and a day after plan that does not involve the status quo of Israeli control. Kristie.

LU STOUT: Yeah. More domestic pressure on Benjamin Netanyahu to find out what is going to be his next plan. What's next is a situation inside guys are getting increasingly dire. Scott McLean in London, we thank you so much for your reporting. Take care.

[03:50:00]

Meanwhile, Donald Trump and his criminal trial. It could see some dramatic moments today as the cross examination of former Trump attorney Michael Cohen resumes. CNN's Marshall Cohen explains what is expected to happen.

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MARSHALL COHEN, CNN REPORTER: We're expecting Monday morning. Michael Cohen will be back on the witness stand to finish up his testimony. The defense is in the middle of its cross examination. They are trying to undermine his credibility and trying to persuade the jurors not to believe what he told them about the hush money payments to the adult film actress Stormy Daniels.

The defense at that point, when they're done with Cohen, the prosecutors will get another bite at the apple. They'll be able to pose some questions to him as well.

But after five weeks of testimony, they don't have any other witnesses to call. They are going to, at that point, rest their case. And then it's on the defense. They can put on a case. They can put on some witnesses if they want. But they don't have to. The burden is, of course, on the prosecutors to affirmatively prove their case to the jury.

So, they may have one or two witnesses on the defense side. Donald Trump's lawyers have not said definitively whether or not he is going to testify in his own defense. It is possible, but seems rather unlikely.

Looking later into the week, the judge has signaled that closing arguments could begin as soon as Tuesday. Then, of course, there would be jury instructions. And then what we've all been waiting for, jury deliberations. Not exactly sure which day that would begin, but the end is near for this historic trial, the first ever trial of a former U.S. president.

Marshall Cohen, CNN, New York.

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LU STOUT: You're watching "CNN Newsroom". Still ahead, we will continue to bring you all the latest developments from Iran as we cover the breaking news of President Raisi's death. Stay with us.

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[03:55:00]

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ANDERSON: I'm Becky Anderson, updating you on the breaking news out of Iran. President Ebrahim Raisi has died in a helicopter crash that also killed the foreign minister and seven other people. This is video of searchers transferring the bodies of the victims from the crash site. Raisi is being remembered inside and outside Iran. A spokesperson for the country's Guardian Council saying that it is a great loss for the Iranian nation. Hezbollah, Hamas and Yemen's Houthis have separately sent condolences to Iran over Raisi's death.

More on the significance and consequences coming up in the next hour. For the time being, thanks for joining us. I am Becky Anderson. I'll be back with more breaking news just ahead.

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