♪ i couldld get luckyky ♪ oh, t things coululd go rit ♪ i want ththe easy, ayay, unh ♪ easy, easy money ♪ maybe this one time ♪ maybe tonight chowchilla was a wonderful place to grow up. never did i think that something like this could happen. i did not want to go down there. was it a thrill crime? your guess is as good as mine. we■re being buried alive. i thought, “if we're going to die,” “we're going to die getting the hell out of here.” god forgive them, because i won't. it was possibly the story of the century. chowchilla tomorrow at 9 on cnn.

welcome to our viewers in the u.s. and canada, you are watching cnn newsroom. israel's bombardments of hamas targets is now in its third day. since the truce collapsed early friday. fighter jets and helicopters have been striking hamas installations across gaza including tunnel shafts, command centers and weapons storage facilities. the idf is urging thousands in gaza, many of them already displaced, to keep evacuating to the south. internet service in gaza has been spotty at best and it is not clear they are getting the message. the pause in fighting is not likely to be repeated again soon. on saturday both sides quit the

hostage negotiations with each blaming the other for the breakdown. all balanced against israel's operations are warnings from the u.s. about mounting civilian casualties and many israelis are the many the government to more to free the remaining hostages. >> reporter: israel is still pounding the gaza strip, hitting as many as 400 hamas targets according to their military but it is also taking a heavy human told with the health ministry in gaza saying nearly 200 have been killed since israeli strikes resumed. this as the u.s. defense secretary warns that there is a possible sign of growing u.s.

concern about the mounting casualties. in israel thousands have turned out to support the 130 or more hostages still being held in gaza and to demand the government prioritize their relief. there are differences over how that may be achieved, the israeli government which recalled the hostage negotiators says military pressure on hamas will force the group to release more but many family members and their supporters say negotiations should be resumed so their loved ones can be brought home at any cost. cnn, tel aviv. several officials are calling on israel to protect civilians in gaza as fighting resumes. they include the vice president, who says too many innocent palestinians have been killed. >> frankly the scale of civilian suffering and the

images and videos coming from gaza are devastating. five principles guide our approach for post conflict gaza, no forcible displacement, no reoccupation. no siege or blockade, no reduction in territory and no use of gaza as a platform for terrorism. we want to see a unified gaza and west bank under the palestinian authority. >> in this kind of a fight, the center of gravity is the civilian population, if you drive them into the arms of the enemy you replace a tactical victory with a strategic defeat, so i have made clear to israel's leaders that protecting civilians in gaza is both a moral responsibility and a strategic imperative. >> israel has one of the most

sophisticated militaries in the world, it is capable of neutralizing the threat posed by hamas while demising harm to innocent men and children and it has a obligation to do so. >> they are a expert on policy in the middle east. and the director of finance at the atlantic council. you are in washington, how would you describe the mood of the biden administration in light of the resumption of these ferocious bombardments. we have heard from senior members of the biden administration talking about the need to protect palestinian lives. so rhetorically it seems there is some pressure there. are you seeing a shift? >> definitely, we are seeing the biden administration respond to domestic and international

pressure. like you said, in light of the utter devastation we are seeing in gaza, what the biden demonstration may have been doing in private in the early weeks of the war by pressuring israel to limit civilian casualties is doing it publicly. however in the international community and domestically, that rhetoric is juxtaposed against the u.s. providing much of the you need munitions israel is using to attack civilians and infrastructure in gaza. the biden administration has to juggle these perceptions. >> is the public criticism being leveled right now having any impact? we heard from the prime minister in a wide ranging speech where he doubles down and says we must be victorious, it is not a

leader that sounds receptive to these messages coming from the biden administration urging restraint, are we witnessing the limits of u.s. influence or does the u.s. have the power to stop the war? or has it gotten away from the u.s.? >> we know the only power right now in the international community is the u.s. that has the ability to put pressure on israel. however, the international support that was on the u.s. side in the beginning of the conflict is fading away. the u.s. positions which are often seen at best as contradictory and at worst having limited influence on its ally are putting the u.s. in a position that is questioning its ability to actually have a impact on the course of this war. >> i want to ask you about the knock on effect this is having on the u.s. internationally.

the focus is on the u.s. response to this war. if i may, i want us to listen to the french president, europe is not playing a decisive role right now. >> i think we are at a moment where it's really authorities need to more precisely define their goal in the final outcome . what does the total destruction of hamas mean? does anyone think it is possible? if this is the case the war will last 10 years. it needs to be better defined. >> since then the french leader has left for qatar to mediate a new truce, is there a understanding in the white house of the growing alarm as expressed by leaders like the

french president over the objectives of the war? >> i think that is the crux of the issue, continuing this rhetoric about israel having to defeat hamas is one thing but the actual reality on the ground is in the first several weeks of israel's bombardment, they were not able to achieve the first goal of releasing the hostages on its own, only through negotiations and exchanges. so the first goal of releasing hostages through military pressure did not happen. now you have the second goal of eliminating hamas is very much in question, during the truce hamas released hostages in areas that is real was supposed to be in control of, you now have 80% of the gaza population in the south constrained in a small area where israel told them to

go to and now they are bombarding the south so it is not clear that is real has a plan or is succeeding in its goal of eliminating hamas. for those of us that understand the region, we understand how hamas emerges, it is unrealistic to say a military solution will eliminate this movement that stems from the palestinian people's urge to and the occupation. you eliminate this version of hamas you will create another version through the thousands of children that have now been orphaned and devastated through this war. >> thank you so much. still to come, former president trump and floor the governor run canvassed for votes in the hawkeye state on saturday with six weeks left

until the iowa caucuses. we have the latest on the suspect la police arrested in the murders of three homeless men. that report is just ahead.

former president trump and floor the governor run held dueling campaign rallies in iowa saturday. with just six weeks to go before the iowa caucuses, ron has traveled to all corners of the state, he has gone to places where trump is unlikely to visit, the former president meanwhile dredging up his lies about the 2020 election and handing out these signs and accusing the democrats of subverting democracy. >> we have a lot of opponents but we have been waging a all out war on american democracy.

you look at what they have been doing, becoming more and more extreme, they waged a all out war with each passing day. >> trump encouraged his supporters to go into a ballot counting facility next year to guard the board votes. kristen was at saturday's rally and has this report. >> reporter: the former president really delivering his most forceful rebuttal of president biden's argument that a second term would be bad for democracy. he said that republicans and donald trump will be bad for american institutions, listen to some of what trump had to say. >> joe biden is not the defender of american democracy, he is the destroyer of american democracy, if he wants to make this race a question of which candidate will defend democracy

and protect our freedoms, i say to crooked joe, we will take that fight. >> he e also said it one point his campaign was a righteous crusade to liberate our republic from joe biden which raises the question, what is joe biden doing that is anti- democratic, the former president had a list which included forcing people to purchase specific cars, going on a tangent about electric vehicles. he talked about the first amendment and subpoenaing social media companies but the main crux was about donald trump himself claiming that president biden is using his administration to come after the former president, referring to these multiple charges against former president trump including his attempts to overturn the 2020 election, so

trying to flip the narrative but using a argument we have heard over and over again but i will note, we are six weeks out from the iowa caucuses and all polling we have seen shows trump with a dominant lead when it comes to those caucuses. when we were at the event there was a earlier speaker that asked the crowd if anybody is experiencing their first caucus and half the people raised their hand showing he still has a lot of support but even a lot of new support despite the charges and ongoing legal problems. >> ron is trailing bad in the polls but he is leaving no stone unturned as he tries to pull off a political miracle in iowa. he has now campaigned in every one of the states counties and

he says it was about more than just drumming up votes. >> i do not think doing the 99 counties is just about the caucus, obviously we will use that to take the caucus but it has significance beyond their. the fact that i am willing to do this should show you i consider myself a servant, not a ruler and that is how people that get elected should consider themselves. >> la police say they have arrested a suspect in connection with the murders of three homeless men over the last week. the suspect was identified as 33-year-old jarred joseph powell, a resident of la. the arrest came a day after authorities asked for the public's help identifying the suspect. the police chief says videos from cameras across the city helped the investigation. >> our investigation has documented his vehicle at the

murder scene of all three homicides in his physical appearance is consistent with the imagery recovered at this point. >> police believe powell is connected to a fourth homicide that happened tuesday outside of la. they do not believe he knew the victim. a look at u.s. weather when we come back, snow is in the forecast in parts of the country while some cities are in the midst of a snow drought. we will explained straightahead.

the pacific northwest could get heavy rain and snow over the next few days, it is the opposite in the northeast where some cities went two years without receiving more than eight inch of snow. here is our senior meteorologist lisa with details. to make some of the cities in the northeast are not only breaking the record but completely shatter rating it. in new york city it has been 656 days since they have seen one inch of snow. the last record was 383 days to almost doubling it.

the last time they had more than a inch was in february 2022. it is not just new york. washington dc, philadelphia, and baltimore all taking the top spot for the longest stretch without more than a inch of snow , well over 600 days. western virginia tops out the list. it is incredible to see. we are not looking at the snow anytime soon in the forecast. temperatures below average but overall we are not looking at any snow makers. not the case for the pacific northwest, a series of storms will bring heavy rain and snow over the next several days. we will find some of this going into sunday. it could be heavy at times going into portland and seattle. another storm on its heels going into monday and tuesday with heavy rain and snow setting up. we have a atmospheric river

setting up where the jetstream really sits over the pacific northwest, pumping that moisture. just one storm after another, this could be hazardous, talking about river rises and mudslides. we are looking at 3-7 inches in the low lands, at the higher elevations we could be looking at up to 10 inches. 2-3 feet of snow where it is cold enough. significant snow totals in the pacific northwest over the next several days. flights in germany have resumed after heavy snow blanketed the region saturday. 200 flights already canceled for sunday, more than 700 flights canceled saturday, buses, trams and some train services in the city were also suspended. officials say it is the most

snow that has ever fallen in munich in close to a century. before we go, a light show of holiday colors put on by mother nature. the northern lights lit up the skies over northern china friday. the brilliant array of red and green could be seen not only from beijing to inner mongolia but also across parts of north america including parts of the u.s. mainland. scientists point to a strong geomagnetic storm for the reason for the brilliant auroras and they expect more and stronger geomagnetic storms in the months ahead. what a sight to behold. you so much for spending time with us. we pick up our coverage after a quick break. stick around.

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