Return to Transcripts main page
Connect the World
Israel Opens Evacuation Routes Around Al-Shifa Hospital; CNN Goes Inside Gaza Combat Zone with Israeli Forces; China Intimidating Critics in U.S. Via Online Campaign; American Teen Trapped in Gaza Hospital as War Rages; IDF and Hezbollah Trade Attacks Across Israel-Lebanon Border. Aired 9-10a ET
Aired November 14, 2023 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[09:00:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BECKY ANDERSON, CNNI ANCHOR: Well, this is the border of Israel and Gaza within the Gaza enclave hospitals are on the verge of collapse. It is 4 pm
there. It's 6 pm here in Abu Dhabi. Hello and welcome to "Connect the World", I'm Becky Anderson.
We have extensive coverage this hour and next on the crisis inside Gaza. And that is where we begin in the Gaza Strip where hospitals already
collapsing and our daily targets on the frontlines of the Israel-Hamas war. This video which I warn you, is graphic shows bodies wrapped in the yard of
Gaza's largest hospital Al-Shifa with nowhere to bury them.
Conditions at that hospital are catastrophic according to its Director and its Gaza's second largest outputs where operations ceased days ago under
Israeli bombardment. The Israeli military says it returned fire at the hospital entrance on Monday killing Hamas fighters.
While the IDF sent journalists this highly edited video showing what it says is a man carrying a rocket propelled grenade launcher at the entrance
of that hospital, saying after the terrorists fired they returned to hide in the hospital. The Palestine Red Crescent says no armed individuals were
inside.
The Israeli Prime Minister has doubled down on the fight against Hamas saying Israel will see the war to the end. But Gaza's hospitals are being
decimated in the process. CNN's Jeremy Diamond has a closer look and a warning his report does contain graphic images.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Gaza's largest hospital collapsing under the weight of war. Doctors at Al-Shifa Hospital
scrambling to keep patients alive amid power outages and severe shortages, including these premature babies wrapped in foil and blankets in a
desperate attempt to keep them alive out of their incubators.
In the hospital's yard dozens of dead bodies slowly decay unable to be buried. The hospital's complex has been struck repeatedly amid nearby
fighting with Hamas militants. Israeli military now closing in, accusing Hamas of operating an underground command and control center beneath the
sprawling multi block medical facility.
REAR ADMIRAL DANIEL HAGARI, ISRAEL DEFENSE FORCES SPOKESPERSON: It is here in chief of hospital with Hamas operate some of its command and control
cells. This is where the direct rocket attacks command Hamas forces.
DIAMOND (voice-over): But the Israeli military says this image which CNN cannot independently verify shows the location of those underground
facilities. And now as Israeli forces encircle the hospital, a U.S. official backing up Israel's allegations saying Hamas has a command center
under the hospital, uses its fuel intended for the hospital and positions its fighters inside and around the hospital complex.
Tonight the Israeli military says it found this cache of weapons in the basement of another hospital, Al-Rantisi Children's Hospital, which was
evacuated this weekend.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, it's a body first for terrorists to explode on forces along the hospitals among patients.
DIAMOND (voice-over): The Israeli military also uncovering this tunnel entrance which the IDF says is next to a school and about 200 yards from
the same hospital.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Have a woman clothes and a rope.
DIAMOND (voice-over): And saying they found signs that Israeli hostages may have been held in the hospital's basement. Today, the Israeli military also
says it opened fire on Hamas militants who are embedded among civilians at the entrance of Al-Quds Hospital, where this man with a rocket propelled
grenade can be seen in drone footage released by the IDF.
Hamas denies it operates in hospitals. There is some past evidence linking Hamas to the hospital. The human rights group Amnesty International writing
that in 2014, Hamas interrogated and tortured alleged Israeli collaborators in a disused outpatient clinic within the grounds of Gaza city's main Al-
Shifa Hospital.
The Israeli military has opened corridors to evacuate people in and around Shifa Hospital. But medical officials there say there is no way to evacuate
many of their 700 patients. How do we get 700 patients out on stretchers and beds? The Director General of the Hamas-Run Health Ministry tells CNN,
some of them are in intensive care.
[09:05:00]
And some of them are amputees. How do they want them to leave? For now many are simply trapped. Jeremy Diamond CNN, Ashkelon, Israel.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON: Want to bring in CNN's Nada Bashir she has been on the ground for weeks following this war from multiple angles -- as it continues. So the
news of these hospitals, the news of innocent victims of this war just gets worse at this point. What can you add to what we've just heard from Jeremy
Diamond in his report, Nada?
NADA BASHIR, CNN REPORTER: Well look as Jeremy outlined, Becky, the situation is dire, doctors on the ground are describing the situation as
catastrophic and as we have learned today, from officials. There is only one remaining Hospital in Northern Gaza out of around 30 hospitals in that
region, which is now able to accommodate more patients is actually able to function as a hospital at this point.
This hospital Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital already accommodated with some 500 patients. But according to officials on the ground, other hospitals in
Northern Gaza simply are unable to provide that urgent care that is so desperately needed. We've been hearing from officials for the last couple
of days for the last week from the Al-Shifa Hospital Gaza's largest hospital from the Al-Quds Hospital, as well as officials at the Al-Rantisi
Hospital describing the situation as deteriorating by the -- .
We know that Al-Shifa they have had to close down their operating theatres. We know that babies, premature babies have been taken out of neonatal units
out of their incubators because they have run out of oxygen supplies. The vast majority of Gaza's hospitals are running out of power in order to keep
their generators going because of that siege on fuel that ongoing siege and fuel getting into Gaza.
But it isn't just the medical supplies where they are facing shortages, but it's the situation around the hospitals as well. We are seeing ongoing
bombardment on the vicinity of his hospital complexes, particularly around the Al-Shifa Hospital, as you heard there in Jeremy's reporting the IDF.
The Israeli military says it is targeting Hamas around these complexes. They claim that there is a Hamas command and control center beneath Al-
Shifa. This has been echoed by U.S. officials, but important to note that this has also been denied by both Hamas and doctors on the ground as well
as health officials on the ground.
We've been speaking to international humanitarian workers who have worked for Al-Shifa for decades who tell us they've never seen any indication of a
Hamas presence at the hospital. And there is widespread concern that as Israel continues to intensify, its bombarding of what is said to be Hamas
targets.
We are seeing more and more civilians being caught up in this war losing their lives and hospitals unable to provide the care that is so desperately
needed by many of them. Now, the Israeli government has said it has established corridors for evacuation, particularly from the Al-Shifa
Hospital.
They say there is a safe corridor on the eastern side of the hospital. But we've heard from doctors on the ground, including medical staff and doctors
without borders who have described the situation they faced as impossible to evacuate both staff civilians, as well as of course, patients.
Many of these patients need specialized medical evacuations. They can't do the long walk from Northern Gaza to Southern Gaza, including the elderly,
including those who require constant medical care and of course, newborn babies, premature babies requiring incubators. And they haven't yet
received guarantees of a safe medical evacuation.
And of course, when it comes to evacuating from Northern Gaza to Southern Gaza, there is still no guarantee of safety in Southern Gaza. We are still
seeing airstrikes in Southern Gaza just overnight, further airstrikes in Khan Younis hospitals that are also overwhelmed.
And the fear is that while we are hearing these calls for citizens, civilians to evacuate while the idea claims that this is the safe
alternative for civilians, there is nowhere safe for the civilians to turn.
ANDERSON: Nada, thank you. Well, the families of hostages held in Gaza are ramping up the pressure on the Israeli government to do more to bring back
their loved ones. So right now, some are marching from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem over the next several days to shine the spotlight on these
hostages plight.
It's been over five weeks since more than 200 people were taken into Gaza following Hamas's attack on October the 7th. CNN's Oren Liebermann has more
from Tel Aviv.
OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We are here at the head of the march of the families of the hostages from where they were set up for the past two
weeks or so in Tel Aviv to Jerusalem leading the march here. Many here have spoken about their frustration, the lack of answers they're receiving the
demand that the government do everything it can to release the hostages.
Some 240 still held in Gaza from the very young, the grandparents, grandmothers and grandfathers.
[09:10:00]
The message that they are trying to send a Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a war cabinet is do whatever it takes, make whatever deal is
necessary to bring them home as soon as possible regardless of the deal their priority, not destroying Hamas, not destroying your tunnels, but
bringing the families, home.
For the past two weeks or so, they've been outside the Defense Ministry when the walkout was met. Trying to make sure that the government hears
them in that way. They feel that hasn't been enough. So now they've taken to the streets of Tel Aviv where they will march from here to Jerusalem
over the course of the next several days.
This march, very reminiscent of a march from more than a decade ago and the family of Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier who was held prisoner in Gaza
for five years, decided they too, had enough and marched from their home in Northern Israel to Tel Aviv by the time they -- Jerusalem.
By the time they arrived in Jerusalem, they had thousands with them and put a tremendous amount of pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to
make a deal to free their son. The same idea, but now the family of 239 or so hostages trying to put that same sort of pressure to bring their family
home.
They're trying to demand answers, and this is the way they're doing it now. Oren Liebermann CNN, on the streets of Tel Aviv.
ANDERSON: Well, the release of those hostages and the complete dismantling of Hamas in Gaza, the two stated objectives by the Israeli military and the
Israeli government, the Prime Minister, the Defense Minister, the war cabinet, and those involved in what is going on, let's get more on this.
It's bringing out Nic Robertson, he's been covering this war on the ground since the very beginning, and Nic you were able to get into Gaza very
recently. You were taken by the Israeli army to a hospital. Although we must note that you were escorted by the Israel Defense Forces at all times.
We know the stated objectives of the IDF at this point are, and how are they going about it, Nic?
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: It's a war, Becky, and they will tell you and they told us it's a war. It's a war zone. And that's
what they've been telling the residents of Gaza and the leaflets that they dropped that it's now a battle zone. And that's exactly how it looks in
fields.
The roads are pulverized by the tracks of heavy armored vehicles, tanks and armored personnel carriers, houses, apartments, shops, hotels, a blasted
some reduced to rubble, summer collapse piles and semi collapse piles of concrete, some have got chunks of concrete missing out of them and a
blackened.
It's very hard to see how a civilian population could easily move back into that area. But as I say, we didn't see any civilians. So presumably they
have gone to the South of Gaza. But it's hard to imagine how they could come back because the infrastructure is so damaged.
So that's, you know, that's the war scenario of what the effects of the IDF going after Hamas looks like and the IDF when you ask them and say look,
there's a lot of destruction around here. They say that is on Hamas. That's their responsibility. They build their tunnels and hide weapons inside
hospitals, which is what the IDF was showing us yesterday weapons, they said that they'd found inside hospital.
And evidence that they said could connect hostages being held in the basement of the particular hospital we were in the Al-Rantisi hospital it's
sort of you can see behind me into Gaza there that smoke rising, that sort of the area we were in conflict is ongoing. It's the population that is if
you will catch between Hamas and the Israeli Defense Force that's going after them.
So it is I don't think there's any other words to describe it other than a war and wars are incredibly brutal. And what we saw yesterday was evidence
presented by the IDF showing very clearly tunnels very close to the hospital or though they said they couldn't yet say whether they connected
directly to the hospital.
But we could see very clearly how these tunnels were fed by electricity and communication lines and how close. They were very close to the hospital
physically itself and to a nearby school and to the building that the IDF said belong to a Hamas commander, a terrorist commander they called him.
So you can see how the IDF is embedded into the civilian neighborhoods and therefore from the IDF perspective, why the damage is the way that it is.
[09:15:00]
ANDERSON: Hamas embedded into the neighborhoods I think is what you meant. Nic, thank you very much indeed now and we will see next full report in the
next analog. Well, you're watching "Connect the World". Still ahead, the U.S. and Chinese Leaders prepare to sit down for a high stakes meeting in
California, what's changed and what hasn't since the last time that they met.
And what CNN reporting is uncovered about China building the world's largest known disinformation campaign and who is being targeted?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANDERSON: U.S. President Joe Biden heads to San Francisco in a few hours for what is known as the APEC summit. Now the highlights will be a closely
watched meeting with the Chinese President Xi Jinping. During that event, the two leaders will sit down -- strained ties with major disagreements
over trade and technology and wars raging in Europe and the Middle East.
There's been a flurry of high level diplomacy ahead of this formal meeting aimed at mending ties. Arlette Saenz is at the White House for us. Marc
Stewart is in Beijing. Arlette, let's start with you. What are the expectations going into this meeting?
ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Becky, President Biden's main goal and having this sit down with Chinese President Xi
Jinping is trying to bring some more stability to the relationship and prevent it from the tensions from deteriorating even further, as we've seen
these strains between the two countries over the last year.
It's now officials say the fact that the two men are meeting for this sit down the first time in a year is a positive side. But they're also
realistic about the fact that there may not be a lot of tangible outcomes directly from this meeting. They say not to expect an immediate thaw in
relations between the two countries.
But there are a host of issues. President Biden wants to press Chinese President Xi Jinping on. That includes among the top priorities is trying
to restore the military to military communications between the U.S. and China. That is something that China pulled the plug on last year after
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had visited Taiwan.
The U.S. is seeking to try to re-establish those ties to try to avoid any misconceptions or surprises that might arise between the two countries
military operations. It's unclear whether Xi might agree to re-establishing those ties at this meeting. Another issue the President is expected to push
him on is relating to this conflict that's been brewing between Israel and Hamas.
The U.S. the President really wants to press Xi to lean on his relationship with Iran to encourage Tehran and their proxies to not act in a way that
could escalate this conflict even further. We're also learning that there could be some areas of agreement between two leaders.
[09:20:00]
The U.S. and Chinese officials are on the cusp of a possible agreement when it comes to try to crack down on the Fentanyl crisis. Officials say that
there may be some agreement for China to try to take aim at the production and export of the source chemicals used to make fentanyl so all of these
things are expected to come up between the two leaders at that as they sit down for this meeting tomorrow in the California area.
ANDERSON: Marc, relations of course have been somewhat strained and that is an understatement ahead of this meeting, we are hearing about a number of
issues, not least the potential for an agreement on the crackdown on fentanyl. Now that may be an issue that is unfamiliar to our viewers.
So just fill us in on what we know about this problem between the U.S. and China and what more do we know about how they will go about fixing it?
MARC STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right, Becky, there is concern in the U.S. that there are individual for lack of better words, ingredients that are
often brought in the U.S. from China different chemicals that can create this drug basically known as fentanyl, and has led to an epidemic in the
United States.
And there have been calls for China to take the movement of these different products more seriously. In fact, it was just a few weeks ago, that a
delegation of U.S. lawmakers a bipartisan delegation, including Chuck Schumer, the most Senior Ranking Member of this delegation came here and
actually had a face to face meeting with Xi Jinping and I talked to those lawmakers right after.
And they brought up two points. One, they felt that the time spent with President Xi was much longer than they had expected. So that was
noteworthy. And two, they told personal stories about the addictiveness of fentanyl, with people in their own districts and he paid attention to that
too.
This is an area where I think there has always been seen as perhaps some kind of middle ground or an agreement point on. So that is not necessarily
surprising. But you know this is certainly an opportune backdrop to present this kind of agreement. Real quickly, I do want to mention about other
points that could come up in this conversation.
And not all that different from what Arlette said, even though we are on other sides of the globe. When it comes to these military issues and the
need for conversation, this will likely be a chance for President Xi to make it very clear to President Biden that Taiwan and his view is there's.
He's aware of some of these military flights over the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea. He's going to set the lines but again, does not want any
kind of surprise to cause this relationship to escalate out of control.
ANDERSON: Good to have you both on the story and we will continue to watch what happens on the West Coast, thank you guys. Well as Joe Biden and Xi
Jinping prepare to meet. A CNN review as found the Chinese government has built the world's largest known online disinformation operation to harass
its critics in the U.S. CNN's Donie O'Sullivan has the details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JIAJUN QIU, FORMER PROFESSOR IN CHINA & U.S. RESIDENT: I feel really, really afraid.
CHEN POKONG, ACTIVIST & U.S. CITIZEN: They use hateful words or threatening words.
JIAYANG FAN, STAFF WRITER FOR THE NEW YORKER: They will make life very uncomfortable. For those who speak ill of China.
DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They are here on American soil thousands of miles from Beijing, but still being hounded and harassed
by the Chinese government.
FAN: I was instantly flooded with messages asking me to kill myself.
O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): Her name is Jiayang Fan, a Writer for "The New Yorker". She has been targeted with a wave of online harassment since she
covered pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong four years ago, more than 12,000 tweets calling her a traitor.
FAN: I was caught so off guard and I weren't sure, if it was a coordinated effort.
O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): It is a co-ordinated effort of fake and anonymous accounts, and it's called Spamouflage.
DARREN LINVILL, PROFESSOR OF MEDIA FORENSICS HUB AT CLEMSON UNIVERSITY: Depending on how you measure it. It's the biggest disinformation campaign
the world's ever seen.
O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): Professor Darren Linvill from Clemson's Media Forensics Hub has tracks Spamouflage for years, but it's only now been
revealed that the vast disinformation campaign is tied to the Chinese government.
LINVILL: Thousands and thousands of messages repeated over and over again.
O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): A CNN review of court documents, social media reports and interviews with victims revealed a massive, relentless campaign
of intimidation by the Chinese government targeting people on U.S. soil.
QIU: They told me they will kill me if I don't delete my YouTube.
O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): Jiajun Qiu post pro-democracy YouTube videos criticizing the Chinese government from his office here at this church in
Virginia. To hit back the Chinese trolls posed thousands of messages attacking him.
QIU: They cover people's eyes so the Chinese people cannot see the reality.
[09:25:00]
O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): A vast campaign of intimidation that even employs artists to create original illustrations to mock and harass its victims.
O'SULLIVAN: It's not just some guy in his basement.
LINVILL: No. I think it's clearly a very sophisticated effort. I'm often staggered at the number of platforms where we come across their content.
O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): Some of the people behind Spamouflage are these Chinese police officers according to the U.S. Department of Justice. DOJ
charged 34 Chinese Police officers for using social media comes to threaten, harass and intimidate specific victims in the United States.
The indictment is full of pictures allegedly taken from inside the special trolling unit showing laptops, phones and other equipment used as part of
the operation. A spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington D.C. said the DOJ's allegations are politically motivated and have no factual
evidence or legal basis.
POKONG: Yes, they try to shut me up. They try to silence me you know, to minimize my voice.
O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): Chen Pokong spent nearly five years in a Chinese prison for his pro-democracy work. Now, he's an American citizen and
campaigns from here.
POKONG: They started to make noises yelling, shouting.
O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): At the height of COVID in 2021, he organized a Zoom meeting for pro-Chinese democracy activists in the U.S. But Chinese
police officers part of Spamouflage broke into the Zoom and shut it down.
POKONG: That time I was myself even shocked. I said what? The CCP don't even allow us to have a meeting, overseas meeting.
O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): The U.S. State Department has warned that the Chinese government is spending billions of dollars annually on foreign
information manipulation efforts. And if it goes unchecked, it will reshape the global information landscape.
JAMES RUBIN, SPECIAL ENVOY AND COORDINATOR AT U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT: Our Communist Party's bloodstream is propaganda repeating it over and over
again and trying to get everyone to repeat that same point of view and reject alternatives that's in the DNA of Communist Parties.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON: And that was CNN's Donie O'Sullivan reporting. Well, an American teenager horribly wounded while trying to flee Gaza. We'll have her story
and the latest on Gaza is crumbling healthcare system up after this and a worrying situation on the Israeli-Lebanese border, Israel and Hezbollah
trading fire there yet again. We are live to find out what our team on the ground is seeing there today.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:30:00]
ANDERSON: Welcome back. I'm Becky Anderson in Abu Dhabi. You're watching "Connect the World". Well, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that
Israel is not conducting an operation in Gaza but a war which it will see and quote him here to the end.
With a large percentage of Gaza's population on the move, UNICEF says 700,000 children have been forced to flee their homes. Well, doctors are
scrambling to save patients, including children and babies third, Gaza's hospitals U.N. says only one hospital is functioning in the northern part
of Gaza.
Jomana Karadsheh joins us now with that. Hospitals under international humanitarian law are supposed to be protected because of their life saving
function for the wounded and sick. There is an argument from the IDF side, or at least the Israeli side that says they lose their protection if they
shelter combatants -- I think the ICRC had been very clear today, Jomana that, that it is not as clear cut as that.
And as we look to report more on what international humanitarian law says the facts are clear on the ground, the situation in Gaza is hospitals have
gone -- well, has gone from bad to very much worse.
JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Catastrophic by all accounts, Becky, according to international aid organizations, as well as doctors on the
ground if you're able to reach these doctors, because communications are very, very difficult right now, with Gaza, especially with the hospitals in
the north.
And doctors there have been warning for weeks saying that these hospitals are struggling to save lives that they're watching patients die because
they don't have enough of the most basic of medical supplies they need. And they've been warning that they're going to run out of fuel and electricity.
And we're seeing this happen in the last 48 hours or so. The two largest medical facilities in Gaza Shifa and Al-Kuds (ph) hospitals have
essentially collapsed. You've seen the reports coming from a Shifa those pictures coming where they say that they have lost several patients in the
ICU.
They have lost a number of newborn babies just because they can't run the incubators without fuel. And they're doing their best they say to try and
keep more than 30 babies and other patients alive. And then you've got these two hospitals Shifa and Al-Kuds -- they are surrounded right now by
intense fighting a very dire and dangerous situation.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KARADSHEH (voice-over): Darkness has descended on yet another Gaza medical facility. Al-Kuds hospital where they've been trying to save lives with the
very little they have left. But it's become nearly impossible. This was Al- Kuds just hours before causes second largest hospital was declared out of service on Sunday.
Like other hospitals in the north, the fighting has been closing in on Al- Kuds were thousands of displaced had been sheltering amongst like the injured. Among them are at least two U.S. citizens Farah Abuolba and her
mother Noha.
FARAH ABUOLBA, AMERICAN INUJRED IN GAZA: I want to feel like oh, I can't move my fingers. My fingers are gone now.
KARADSHEH (voice-over): Farah says she was injured in an attack on their bus on the road south as they try to make their way for a third time to the
Rafah crossing with Egypt. The family blames Israel whose military denied to CNN that they struck that street on that day.
ABUOLBA: I walked from the beach like it was probably three miles from the beach to the hospital. I could have given up. I felt like all my blood --
all my blood drips all over me. How I felt when I saw my hand falling or how I felt my skin just and my bones breaking and I how I saw my wrist just
turn blue. I knew that my hand was gone.
KARADSHEH (voice-over): This interview with Farah was filmed a few days ago by a journalist working for CNN on the eve of her 17th birthday before the
hospital was almost completely cut off from the outside world.
ABUOLBA: When I sleep I dream of what happened to me. I can hear the rock kids when they hit me and my sister and my mom just screaming when they saw
my hand fall.
KARADSHEH (voice-over): This is the scene just outside the hospital.
[09:35:00]
This video released by the Israeli military captures a militant carrying a rocket propelled grenade they say was part of a group that attacked their
forces. Palestinians deny anyone armed is inside and say the Israeli military is surrounding and targeting the hospital. Israel says it's
targeting Hamas.
Farah was born in Gaza and left with her family when she was three. They were back to visit family when the war broke out. For her father Karam
Abuolba (ph) in Pennsylvania, the past few weeks have been hell desperately trying to get his wife and daughters back home, exchanging almost daily
emails and calls with the State Department.
KARAM ABUOLBA, FATHER AND HUSBAND OF AMERICAN IN GAZA: I'm asking is there a Class A, Class B from the U.S. citizen for the entire U.S. citizen. I pay
tax for the United States of America to support Israel to shoot and to pump my daughter and my wife?
I need the President. I need Mr. Blinken to listen to this message. We are a U.S. citizen. We are loyal to this country. Send the Red Cross. Send them
to support the U.S. citizen they are outside they are not hostage with Hamas.
KARADSHEH (voice-over): A father's desperation to make his family suffering heard. But like so many thousands he feels no one is hearing Gaza's cries
for help.
K. ABUOLBA: I feel everything hopeless. I feel like I'm dead.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KARADSHEH (on camera): And Becky, there are as we understand hundreds of patients, their family members and medical staff have both Al-Kuds and
Shifa hospital. And even if there are evacuation routes out of the hospital, we understand they just can't walk out. They need the medical
support.
They need assistance to get out of there. And we have heard from the Palestinian Red Crescent also from "Doctors Without Borders" MSF saying so
far attempts to try and get convoys to these hospitals to evacuate them have failed and they're calling on both sides to provide them with safe
passage.
ANDERSON: Absolutely, extremely important stuff. Thank you very much indeed. Jomana is on the story for you. More intense shelling has been
reported on Israel's northern border with Lebanon. Hezbollah says it struck an IDF post while Israel says its fighter jets hit Hezbollah targets in
Lebanese territory.
These exchanges of fire have intensified. Fears are growing in recent days about the possibility of a wider war. Ben Wedeman monitoring that uptick in
tensions on the border joins me now from Southern Lebanon.
And Ben, you and I talked this time yesterday. And you said there was certainly a ratcheting up of cross border action and also of tension, a
real sense of tension on that border. What's the situation today?
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's really the same. It's been ratcheted it up since Saturday and continuing along the same
pace. But certainly the tension, the fear that this could broaden has been growing certainly since what we've been hearing from these rallies, were
indicating that at this point, if they do go into action, and they say they have plans for their northern front, that it won't be just Hezbollah that
pays, but Lebanon and the people of Lebanon.
So the worry is that perhaps, as we've heard before, they're going to punish the entire country, for what Hezbollah has done. Now, keep in mind
that after the 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel, the Israelis coined what they call the Dahiya Doctrine (ph). That is the idea that you respond
with massive, disproportionate force to any sort of violence on the border.
And the worry is that they may put that doctrine into work now. In 2006, the Dahiya is the southern suburbs of Beirut, where Hezbollah is
headquartered. And at that time, the Israelis essentially flattened the entire area just massively, pummeling that area.
And the worry is that perhaps Israel will do it again, if it decides to take decisive action that perhaps they'll strike the airport, again, as
they did in 2006. Perhaps they'll hit oil storage facilities. So there's real worry that this is perhaps coming. The question is when and what
exactly it's going -- it's going to set it off?
[09:40:00]
WEDEMAN: Israelis have made it clear they have plans and they may soon act upon them Becky.
ANDERSON: Ben's been on that border now for weeks. It is nobody better place to really explain what is going on one there and two the context for
this and the importance of that Ben was appreciated thank you very much indeed. We are taking a very short break back after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANDERSON: You're watching "Connect the World". I'm Becky Anderson out of your Programming Hub in Abu Dhabi. Turning our attention to the world of
sport and in football can Barcelona banish Benfica?
Well, the winners of last year's UEFA Women's Champions League kick off the group stages tonight. Question is can they do it all over again and repeat
what were those jubilant celebrations? Oh, they were jubilant, Amanda Davies joining me now thoughts.
AMANDA DAVIES, CNN WORLD SPORT: Yes, they were Becky. They came back from 2-0 down in that final against Wolfsburg to win it 3-2 looking to defend
that European crown for the first time in their history. Arguably there is strengthened side than they were last year. Nine of the women who helped
Spain lift that World Cup in Sydney at the end of August.
If they're looking for good Omens they kick off against Benfica the side they beat 9-0 in their opening game of the group stage this time last year.
But this is very early days. And Chelsea, of course under the guidance of Emma Hayes for just a few more weeks, and Leon certainly want to have
something to say about Barcelona successfully defending their crown Becky. We've got plenty more coming up in a couple of minutes.
ANDERSON: Fantastic. And it is so good that women's football and particularly Spanish women's football is back doing what we want it to do,
which is performing on the pitch with exciting matches, like the one that we are expecting good stuff. Thank you. World Sports up after this short
break, I'm back top of the hour for you.
(COMMERCIA BREAK)
[09:45:00]
(WORLD SPORT)
[10:00:00]
END
