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Connect the World

Israel-Hamas War; Court Rules against Trump Claim of Presidential Immunity. Aired 10-10:07a ET

Aired February 06, 2024 - 10:00   ET

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

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Live from CNN Abu Dhabi, this is CONNECT THE WORLD with Becky Anderson.

BECKY ANDERSON, CNN HOST (voice-over): Coming up this hour, the U.S. secretary of state back in the Middle East for the fifth time since the war

in Gaza began. These are pictures just in of his arrival in Doha, in Qatar.

His aim: to push for the release of the hostages and a lasting truce between Israel and Hamas.

CNN goes back to the heart of the suffering one year after what was the catastrophic earthquake that struck Turkiye and Syria. How survivors are

coping and what is being done to help them.

Well, (INAUDIBLE) for the shocking news of King Charles' cancer diagnosis. We take a look at what this means for the future of the British monarchy.

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ANDERSON: Well, regional coordination to end -- or at least pause -- the nearly four month-long Israel, Hamas war. That is what U.S. secretary of

state Antony Blinken is pushing in his fifth tour of the Middle East since war started.

Blinken just arrived in Qatar and will be in Israel later. He's already sat down with leaders in Saudi Arabia and in Egypt, trying to shore up support

for another temporary truce.

This happening amid the increasingly dire situation in Rafah, with more than half -- half -- of Gaza's 2.2 million people now crammed into that

city. And these are images of what life looks like there. Israel set to ramp up its operations on the ground there.

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YOAV GALLANT, ISRAELI DEFENSE MINISTER (through translator): We will continue this action and we will reach the places where we have not yet

fought, in the center and the south of the Gaza Strip and especially in the last remaining center of gravity in the hands of Hamas, Rafah.

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ANDERSON: The Hamas-run health ministry says the death toll in Gaza now tops 27,000. And with each passing day, traumatized civilians say they are

being forced to flee their homes with no safe place to go.

CNN's Nada Bashir has more and I have to warn you, her report contains graphic and disturbing images that you may find hard to watch.

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NADA BASHIR, CNN REPORTER (voice-over): Surrounded by chaos and panic, the wounded lay quiet. This little girl's pain masked by shock. It is all too

much.

This mother shields her child's eyes from horror, telling him, "Don't look."

In the morgue at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, the bodies of those who did not survive lay shrouded on the ground, the tiles beneath still bloodied.

A doctor here says at least 14 were killed as a result of a series of airstrikes by the Israeli military on this mosque in the central region of

Deir el-Balah. The IDF, however, did not respond to CNN's request for comment on the incident.

Locals here are left to sift through the rubble, retrieving fragments of bodies, those killed said to have been leaving the mosque following morning

prayers.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): This neighborhood is full of people who have been displaced, all taking shelter in schools.

Clearly, there is nowhere safe anymore, not on mosques, not on schools, not in the streets. Nowhere in Gaza is safe.

BASHIR (voice-over): But just as there is no escape from the airstrikes, it seems there is also no escape from grief. The families of Gaza's latest

victims, old and young, left to share in their unending mourning.

Elsewhere in this hospital in central Gaza, at least 20 women and children have arrived seeking safety, forced to flee once again after being ordered

by the Israeli military to evacuate their shelter in Gaza City.

WAILA AL-ARBEEL, DISPLACED GAZA RESIDENT (through translator): The Israelis came and surrounded us with tanks. We were not able to go out.

There was no food, no drinks, no water. We were not even able to turn on the lights. We were scared they would see us.

ISRAA AL-ASHKAR, DISPLACED GAZA RESIDENT (through translator): They took all the men and started beating them. They stripped their clothes off and

took them to the tanks. After that, they told all the women to go down to the basement and they deployed explosives. They wanted to lock us in and

then blow up the whole building.

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They wanted to kill us. We told them that we are civilians, that there are children with us, that we have done nothing to deserve this. We begged them

and then they agreed to let us out.

BASHIR (voice-over): Troubling accounts like this shared with CNN by several women forced to flee central Gaza, though CNN has received no

comment from the Israeli military. What comes next for these families and for all in Gaza is unclear.

But there is little hope left. In Rafah, now home to more than a million Palestinians, tent cities for the displaced continue to grow. This region,

once said to be a safe zone, now facing relentless airstrikes.

Israel's defense minister has warned that troops will soon enter the southern city, they say targeting terrorist infrastructure. But there are

deepening fears over the potential for a humanitarian catastrophe and the looming threat of untold bloodshed in the south (ph) -- Nada Bashir, CNN,

in London.

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ANDERSON: Well, the IDF has since responded to CNN's question on airstrikes in Deir al-Balah, saying it takes, quote, "feasible" precautions

to mitigate civilian harm in its war on Hamas.

The Israeli military has also admitted it is detaining, questioning and taking clothes away from what it calls terror suspects but says that they

are treated in accordance with international law.

It did not respond to the women's other allegations featured in our report.

Well, to some breaking news just in to CNN and a federal appeals court in the U.S. issuing a ruling on Trump immunity claims. So I want to join our

partners on CNN Domestic. Stand by.

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PAULA REID, CNN CHIEF LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: -- while he served as president no longer protects him against this prosecution. So this, again,

this was expected. They were affirming what the trial court found when they -- when it contemplated this question.

But look, just as much as this is about constitutional questions, presidential protections and presidential authority, John, as you know,

this is also about timing.

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