a subtle message shift, but a strong message from secretary of state tony blinken saying that far too many palestinians have been killed. and senator joe manchin says he is not running for re-election and threatening the democrats' chances of keeping control of the senate next year and stoking speculation of a third-party presidential run. and dispatching alerts across the country with letters sent to election offices in six states and workers finding fentanyl in one office. john and sara are off today. i'm kate bolduan with omar jimenez. this is cnn "news central." this morning, secretary of state tony blinken says that israel must do more to protect palestinian civilians and seen as one of the most direct condemnations so far of the civilian death toll of the hamas-israel war. and this as strikes hit a hospital in gaza. watch this. explosions were seen near two hospitals where israel says that hamas has placed some of the headquarters underneath in tunnels. just a few miles away, and parent shelling was felt at gaza's largest hospital, and then a fourth hpospital for children has been surrounded by tanks as israel is pushing further in. we go to oren liebermann in tel aviv. these comments from secretary blinken, and are you hearing any comments from israeli officials yet? >>, we have not heard any comments yet, but as you point out, this is some of the most vocal criticism we have seen of the israeli operations in gaza and the coastal enclave as they operations around the gaza strip. now they say it is not time for a cease-fire according to the biden administration, and they are hoping to make the intervals of breaks on a continual basis, but still, blin ken was critica of the deaths of palestinians. >> these steps will enable lives to be saved and assistance to be reaching those in need. and more can be done to make sure that civilians are protected. far too many palestinians have been killed and far too many have suffered in the past weeks. we want to do everything possible to prevent harm to them and to maximize the assistance that gets to them. >> reporter: several hours after blinken made those comment, the health ministry of the occupied west bank, and the ministry of the occupied hamas says that over 4,300 have been killed in the recent days. so we will see if the same statements come from blinken or if there is a backing off here, and if that leading to pressure on israel and how they are operating. >> very good question. good to see you there, oren. now, nada, let's talk about the apparent strikes and explosions that we have talked about from the top. you are hearing more about the strikes and what is to come. what are you hearing? >> absolutely, kate. we have been hearing the warnings from the medics on the ground, and the air strikes have been edging closer and closer to gaza's hospitals and now a spokesperson for the world health organization has described the largest hospital in gaza as coming under bombardment, and what we have seen since the overnight hours is more video showing the impact of this apparent strike on the ground. several injured in what is said to be the outpatient clinic of the al shifa hospital. many on the ground are accusing israel of carrying out the air strike there on the hospital, and no respond from idf, but as you laid out, kate, we have been seeing other hospitals facing bombardment. and from another hospital, they have said that some infrastructure and including two ambulances were struck and they are accusing israel of carrying out the strikes, and more people have been injured there. we have also word from two other hospitals from the pediatric hospital, they have said they are surrounded by on the ground fighting. they have described the hospital as being completely surrounded. they are appealing to the red cross to facilitate and avert an immediate evacuation of the medical teams and patients there. it is important to underscore, we are not just talking about the patients and the medical team, because there are thousands of palestinian civilians who have flocked to the hospitals in hopes they will be a safe haven to take shelter there. some 1.5 million palestinians in gaza are displaced. when it is coming to the humanitarian situation, we know that the majority of the gaza hospitals are now out of service. this humanitarian situation, the crisis facing hospitals particularly with no fuel getting in is deteriorating by the hour. kate? >> nada, thank you so much for being there and the reporting. we will continue to follow the events in gaza and israel. and back home, we are following senator joe manchin, the end of an era for him, but potentially a new era for democrats. he says he is retiring at the end of the term. he has served since 2010, and helping the democrats to maintain a blue seat in an otherwise red seat. the democrats are holding the slimmest of margins of 51 democrats to 49 republicans. lauren fox is on capitol hill, and we know the stakes as far of the numbers, but what is the realtime fallout as to this news? >> well, a lot of disappointment to democrats who know that holding this seat in west virginia is now nearly impossible, right? it is always going to be a tough race for joe manchin even if he was the one to decide to seek re-election in ruby red west virginia. now that he is announcing that he is retiring, that means that the democrats have to try to find other opportunities to pick up seats. let's paint you a little bit of the picture of the races heading into 2024. you have other democrats who are running in red states like ohio, like montana and that is before you get the swing states like nevada or arizona. we still don't know what kyrsten sinema is planning to do. there are 33 members up for re-election and 23 are democrats or independents who caucus with the democratic party and republicans have just 10 seats to defend. that is why this was such a massive blow. there is also the other factor here, and this is that some of the most centrist dealmakers in the united states senate have announceded they retiring. people like mitt romney and joe manchin, and what does that mean for the future of bipartisanship in the united states senate? that is another major question that some in the party are asking themselveses this morning. omar? >> thank you, lauren fox, for staying on top of it. it is a busy week coming up, and so i hope that you are well rested coming up for us. kate? >> in west virginia, this new political reality is just setting in. the political allies are thanking him for his service today, and also, everyone wondering what does this mean and what is next. the chair of the west virginia democratic party called manchin a larger than life figure in the united states senate and said that his name has been synonymous with west virginia government and politics for 41 years. mike pushkin joining us now, and that is showing us what a political earthquake it for west virginia, and how is this announcement hitting you? >> well, good morning first of all. senator manchin called yesterday a little bit before the announcement went out. we spoke and had a good conversation. he told me that he has been in public office for 41 years, whether it is the house of delegates, the state senate, and he was secretary of state, and two-term governor. he has been in the u.s. senate, and when he completes the term, it is 42 years of public service, so he expressed the interest of spending time with his family and grandchildren. i thanked him for the years of public service, and it is true, he is a larger than life figure in the senate. west virginia for being such a small state, we have benefited from having such a legacy of senators who were larger than life, whether it was jennings randolph or rand seaberg or jay rockefeller, and for the way that he got things done with the bipartisan infrastructure bill that he got done with president biden, and we have seen the unprecedented help in west virginia as result of it and these accomplishments happened in the first two years of the biden administration when the democrats had control of the house of rettpresentatives and senate and we want to continue that. >> talk about the continue that. so many want to see that democratic-held seat is for the republicans to take, and so are the west virginia democrats in a tougher spot today than yesterday? >> no denying that it is a tough spot. the people of west virginia are worth fighting for, and we will continue the fight for them. next door in kentucky, ruby red kentucky who brought you rand paul, and the state that brought you mitch mcconnell, and they elected andy bashir as governor, because he is a good job, and people like and trust andy bashir, and next door in virginia where the democrats held on the state senate and flipped the virginia husouse of delegates back against the co column, and against some of the extremist policies coming from the republican party, and across the river where you saw a landslide election in support of protecting a woman's right to choose, and pushback against the extremist taking of the rights, and right that women have almost taken for granted for 50 years now in this country, has been taken away by the extremism in the republican party. and governor justice, when he ran for governor in 2016 as a democrat claimed be pro choice, and he signed a complete abortion ban recently in west virginia. so you talk about florida where they are talking about six-week ban, and west virginia has a zero week ban. we have a complete ban in west virginia and governor justice signed the bill that the republican legislature sent him. >> the big question on a lot of people's minds is the what next and why is manchin announcing it now, and is that a tease to the next steps? the take from the former, and one of his former senior advisers in the senate is that you should always take manchin at face value. let me play what he said. >> i think that he is going to do what he said in the op-ed. he is going to travel the country and see if he can mobilize the middle and give a voice to those who are there, the 65 or 70% of the country that does not work on the fringes, and doesn't care what happens on twitter, and they want to get stuff done in the middle. >> but, but, but. this is obviously very much fueling the speculation that he is itching to jump into the presidential race in 2024 as a centrist third-party ticket. where do you put the chances that he does? >> well, first of all, i agree that there is a desire where most people are in this country, and that is in the middle. everybody knows that is where the real work gets done, however, i know senator manchin and he as been around politics long enough to know that there is no clear path to victory for a third-party candidate in a presidential election, and never has been, and teddy roosevelt was not able to do it, and he is on mount rushmore. so in the past, the third party candies is for president have resulted in playing the spoiler. if the result was the election of donald trump, that is someone who senator manchin has referred to as the greatest threat to democracy, and id dnd i don't b he wants that to be his legacy. >> a lot of threads to follow. and law enforcement is looking for the person who sent suspicious letters one containing fentanyl to election offices. and now, cnn has exclusive reporting on the mar-a-lago resort workers who may be brought to the stand. and major first in medical field and how doctors conducted the partial eye and whole face transplant. i know. this morning, justice department and the fbi are investigating a series of letters sent to election offices in six states and more than a dozen suspicious letters were found in washington, oregon, nevada, texas and georgia. at least one of the envelopes contained fentanyl inside. nick valencia is tracking this for us, and what is being done to figure this all out? good morning, nick. >> yes, this is chilling stuff, and the investigators are treating them as if they were all connected because they were sent at the same time, and so that is a clue as to who is behind this. the justice department is investigating this as well as the fbi. and of course, this is one of the place where is the former president has been indicted and in the ire of the former president, and a target for far right election deniers and conspiracy theorist, and it was believed that one of the letters that contained fentanyl was en route to georgia. the secretary of state held a press conference and full throated in asking the election officials to condemn the suspicious activities. it is without saying that georgia election officials are nervous as to what has happened to the election workers. take a listen to what they had to say yesterday. >> we will make sure that we prepare all 159 counties for events such as this so that there is narcan available for all of the election offices that do receive incoming mail. we will train them in the use of that. >> there are some crazy people out there who will go to any extreme to disrupt, interrupt, and try to disrupt our election before and to electionsf 2024h. >> reporter: and also, we have learned that his son died of a fentanyl antantidote and he tols how dangerous this is, and this is behind those being intimidated and robb pits called this a forerunner to 2024, and we are only going to hope that he is wrong. kate? >> thank you. omar? >> and we are looking at the cnn exclusive reporting of what the mar-a-lago workers may have in common when it comes to testifying in the classified documents case. and a fthe families of the hostages taken october 7th by hamas and their pleas. we will speak to a brothther. and now to a cnn exclusive report. cnn is told that a maid, a plumber, a woodworker and a chauffeur might be asked to testify as part of the federal investigation into donald trump's handling of classified documents at his florida property. new today, the judge in the case has decided to keep the judge scheduled for may of next year which is significant, because it is adhead of the 2024 presidential election. joining us is political analyst michael moore at moorhead and hall, and tell us what is significance of the everyday staffers at mar-a-lago, a plumber, a maid, a chauffeur, and what are the prosecutors are hoping to learn from them as opposed to people more in the trump inner circle? >> well, i am glad to be with you this morning and the latest reporting is significant from the sense that this is lay witness, and people who would have no political bent and may not come in with some preconceived notion that they are on one side or another to be argued to the jury, and give context to the picture that jack smith is trying to paint. maybe they saw something in a room where they were cleaning club or somebody who was doing some construction work, and su a questionable or suspicious to them some folder of some type, and while it may not go to whether or not they are classified documents, it is certainly going to paint a picture of maybe the insecurity or the lack of physical security and at some point the chaotic sense that these classified documents may have been kept at mar-a-lago, and so they are important witnesses, but again, these are not silver bullets that have been held back, but i think from the trial perspective, they are significant when it is coming time to tell the story of the documents and how they were kept or not kept safely in mar-a-lago. >> more of the day-to-day workings of the club, and people paying attention that this trial won't have been in mar-a-lago on daily basis would have. >> and i will say that it is a little bit of the credibility boost for them, because typically they come in without really being on one side or the other, and just fact witnesses. well, the light was red or green. that is different than having the passenger in the car that was involved in the wreck talk about what happened. so that is just fact witnesses, and they will be important to the case. >> the other aspect that i wanted to touch on is judge aileen cannon has decided that the trial will begin in may 2024 despite the trump team wanting to have it start after the election. what important factors is she weighing in on there, and what is the importance of the decision? >> well, a benefit to keep the trial scheduled. i would urge anybody who would not buy a ticket for may, because i believe that there is going to be a likelihood to get it bumped. we have appeal, and issues sent up to the 11th circuit, and things to delay a case, especially one like this. while it is important to keep the window open, it is at the same time might freeze out the issue of binging the state of georgia case in middle of next year, because typically the federal trials would take priority or precedence over the state court trials, and so that is doing to block some of the calendar, but again, we have not had a issue of taking issues of the presidential immunity or the executive privilege up to the appellant court, and those will take some time to decide, and you will see the issues raised on the federal and the state level, but for now, she has blocked out some of the calendar for some other cases to be forwarded. that is not the intention, but it is the reality of what has happened. we will see. i think that it is a bittersweet pill for the trump team, since you saw the that the early georgia trials are resulting in plea, and that opened up the time for the fulton county judge to leave things in place. we will see where it goes. >> and you saying that the court proceedings could get delayed, and that is unheard of in the legal justice system of course. >> absolutely unheard of. it is a game of wait sometimes. >> yeah. michael moore, thank you so much. kate. >> coming up for us, a medical first. the world's first eye and partial face transplant is giving a retire army reservist new hope. we will bring that remarkable story to you. and families begging the united states to bring their loved ones home after more than a month and more than 200 hostages still being held by hamas terrorists in gaza. up next, i will speak to one man who a says that his brother, and to talk about his brother who is among those missing now for more than a month. secretary of state tony blinken declared again this morning that the united states will continue to focus relentlessly, his words, on getting our hostages home. more than 200 people are still in the hands of the hamas terrorists kidnapped on october 7th. now more than a month later, families of the hostages are begging for help. some are even traveling to the united states this week to appeal to the lawmakers and the american people not the give up and not the forget about them, and warning that this is about much more than bringing their loved ones homes. listen to this. >> we need help now. we don't know what is their condition. this is a call for action. this is wakeup call not only for israel, not only for the jewish community, but it is a wakeup for all of you here. all of america. all of europe. you are next. you are next. and we should do everything that we can to stop this atrocities. >> that is jonathan, and his 26-year-old brother is believed to have been kidnapped by hamas along with others from his kibbutz where 29 others were killed. jonathan shamriz is just returning from the trip, and now, when i spoke to your father last week, he said that it is assumed that he is kidnapped, but it had not been confirmed by the israeli officials that he was kidnapped which almost makes it all of the more worse. have you received any further word? >> not yet. the assumption that he has been kidnapped is getting strong. so we are still grasping on that he is kidnapped in gaza. >> and so, messaging you as everything was happening on october 7th, and this is moments before hamas took him, and you were able to text him back as well. can you tell me about the text messages in that moment, which is also a moment when you, yourself was hiding with your family from the very same terrorists. >> yes, i was with my pregnant wife and daughter and two dogs in the safe room. we were getting texts that the hamas were going inside of houses and killing people. then my brother sent me a message that he could hear the terrorists going inside of his house. in that time, you know, you know what is going on, and it is, you try to think what you are going to write to your brother if you think that you are going to write him in the last time. it was like very hard, but i wanted to tell him that i love him, and i loved him and he is strong. and that is it. he sent me back a heart emoji, and after one minute, i sent him, did they go? are they gone? he never responded back. >> what do you think was in that heart emoji? what do you think that he meant? >> i think that it was a message that was containing despair and hope together, because they sent me a private message because i am the eldest brother, and so i think that he, you know, he want to protect him and doing some, and after i wrote him, he understand that he is all alone in this battle unfortunately. and blame is like in me every minute, every day. >> you feel guilt? >> yes, of course. this is my younger brother, and i could not protect him. and from the inside, sure. >> your father told me something that really stuck with me, and his biggest fear is that your brother could be killed or injured by the idf bomb or explosion as they are trying to carry out attacks against hamas in gaza, and it is a helpless place to be, because you support isra israel's ability to take out hamas, but you don't want your brother caught in the middle of it. it seems impossible. >> yeah, it is like we are in limbo from one end you want to destroy hamas and destroy gaza strip, but then you want your brother back. you know, hamas is accountable for their lives, and hamas is accountable for their condition. so, there is no excuse for anything. hamas needs to take care of the civilian, and we have to remember that hamas is a barbaric organization, and everyday in captivity it is grave danger for them, and there are children and elderly there. >> i and i have to ask you about that, and i can't let you go without that strong message that you had for americans in washington, and the warning that this is a wakeup call not just for israel and not just for jews, but you can be next. what were you trying to say? >> simple as that. when hamas starts the terror attack, they didn't kill just jews and israelis, but they kill americans and thai people and citizens from 40 country, and nothing to do with the israeli-palestinian conflict. if you can see what is going on in europe and the u.s. campuses, this is not going for a good direction. i think that what i am trying to say is that they can turn anything on you at any second, and it can be much worse than what happened on the 7th of october. >> it is hard to imagine anything that could be much worse than what happened on the 7th of october for sure. jonathan shamriz, looking for his brother amon shamriz, still held by hamas in gaza one month later. >> omar. >> thank you, kate. and now, a surgery with success, and we will meet the man who is the first to receive a partial eye and full face transplant. ♪ i think the control room is trying to tell me something. taylor swift made history again. this year's grammy nominations just came out and her song is norminated for song of the year. here's the history. she's the first person in grammy history with seven nominations in the song writing the category. is and there's more. midnight was normal the nated for album of the year, which ties taylor swift with barbara streisand for the most all-time nominations by a female artist in that category. rock star. a new jersey man wanted in had connection with a january 6th attack has turned himself in. he was the subject of an fbi manhunt. it's also $10,000 in a reward-he evaded arrest. he's in custody facing multiple charges including assaulting officers and engaging in physical violence on cap doll grounds. this is honestly incredible. a tremendous breakthrough in medicine. doctors successfully completed the world's first whole eye and partial face transplant surgery. the patient is a man in arkansas, whose injuries stemmed from touching a high voltage wire two years ago. as a result, he lost his left eye, most of his face and went into a coma. he was set to receive a partial face transplant, but his doctor had a bigger plan in mind. take a look. >> aaron james was working as a high voltage lineman when his face accidentally touched a live wire. he lost an arm and parts of his face. james' new reality left him nearly unrecognizable, with no memory of what happened, he was sent to a hospital in texas not long after. >> basically, i got up and went to work and woke up six weeks later in dallas, texas. >> reporter: doctors at new york university soon got wind of his case and saw a possibility. less than two years after the accident, they performed a successful partial face and whole eye transplant, the first time that's ever been done in history. and this is what james looks like now. a new eye still not open, but receiving blood flow, his doctors say. >> when you walk by the mirror, do you ever stop yourself and go, wow? >> every time i see a mirror, i'll stop. it's unbelievable. >> in the very beginning, it was a poor outlook. they were basically preparing me for his death. >> did you ever lose hope? >> no. >> why is that? >> because he was fighting. >> their daughter wasn't sure what he would look like. but that's not what she cared about. >> most of my worries was just how he was going to be when he was awake and aware. >> did you ever think you were going to lose him? >> yeah. >> i think i'm still a little in shock. how in the world this happened to us. >> the 21-hour procedure was intricate at every level. why is adding an eye to a face transplant much more complicated than the already complicated face transplant? >> it's uncharted territory. >> doctors helped lead the surgery and one of two operating rooms, he dissected the face that james would soon receive, including an eye. >> we disconnected from the donor and the race begins. at this point, the face and the eye are not receiving any blood supply. so the amount of time it's not receiving blood is critical. the eye can die. so i take the face from the donor room to aaron's room, and i begin all those connections. >> having to use a microscope to connect nerves no more than a millimeter wide to connect the eye. >> is there a possibility that he will see in the future? >> at this point, had he does not see, but the fact that the eye is there, we have already made one huge step forward. >> this was james seeing himself for the first time post surgery. >> you don't look at this as a finish line? this is more of a starting point? >> absolutely. >> through it all, james sees a purpose greater than his own. >> that's really my biggest hope out of this deal. if i can see out of it, that's great. but get a kick start the next path in the medical field, i'm all for it. >> i mean, look. he still has more work to be dope. he still doesn't have teeth. some swelling needs to go down. he also told me that one thing he wants to make sure people know is that he thinks about the donor families all the time. on the other side of his successes are someone who lost someone and gave up a piece of their loved one for him. >> i mean, amazing. there aren't the right words. what a marvel and what an amazing man and wife and family to charge through this. he woke up six weeks later. >> i can't imagine. and just the strength they have had through it all is unbelievable. >> thank you for being here. thank you all so much for joining us. this is "cnn news central." "inside politics" is up next.