conspiracy theories about them. the first day of deliberations wrapping up a short while ago after giuliani opted not to take the stand. vladimir putin is vowing there will be no peace in ukraine until russia's military goals are received. krrn was inside the russian president's marathon end-of-the-year news conference, his first since the start of the war. welcome to our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." we begin tonight with the war in gaza, president biden stressing just a short while ago that he wants israel to, quote, be focused on how to save civilian lives. we'll have more on the mounding u.s. pressure on israel to be more targeted in its battle against hamas. cnn's alex marquardt is standing by live in tel aviv. first i want to go first to clarissa ward who made a truly extraordinary excursion into gaza. cnn is the first western media outlet to gain independent access to southern gaza without an idf escort. tell our viewers what you saw. >> reporter: that's right, wolf. we have been trying for weeks and weeks to get inside gaza. it has not been possible up until tuesday when we were finally able to go inside a contingent of medical volunteers from a newly established uae-run field hospital. up until now it's really been the journalists inside gaza who have been risking their lives and often paying with their lives to keep telling these stories. still, even the drive in, wolf, just that 20 minutes to get to the field hospital from the border offered a rare glimpse or window onto the conditions on the ground. take a look. >> reporter: you don't have to search for tragedy in gaza. it finds you on every street, strewn with trash and stagnant water, desolate and foreboding. >> so we've just crossed the border into southern gaza. this is the first time we've actually been able to get into gaza since october 7th, and we are now driving to a field hospital that has been set up by the uae. up until now israel and egypt have made access for international journalists next to impossible. and you can see why. since october 7th the israeli military says it has hit gaza with more than 22,000 strikes. that by far surpasses anything we've seen in modern warfare in terms of intensity and ferocity. and we really honestly are just getting a glimpse of it here. >> reporter: despite israel's heavy bombardment there are people out on the streets. a crowd outside a bakery. where else can they go? nowhere is safe in gaza. wolf, you really have a sense when you see the people on the streets that they're there primarily because there's nowhere for them to go. there's no place in gaza that is safe right now, and so they have to go about the task every day of working out how they're going to survive, how they're going to source food, how they're going to source drinking water, how they're going to source decent or even any kind of medical care. every single day it is a fight for survival for people. >> clarissa, tell us about some of the patients, especially the children being treated at that hospital that you visited. >> reporter: yeah. i mean, it was really harrowing, w wolf. i have to be honest with you. we knew the statistics going in. the u.n. has said two-thirds of the casualties in this war have been women and children, but to see what we saw, a 20-month-old little boy, amir who has been disfigured, lost his entire familiar lip. 8-year-old genan who is in a full body cast and will be for the next six weeks because her house was hirt. 20 yr lama, studying engineering busy planning her sister's wedding before the house where she was seeking shelter got hit by a strike and she lost her right leg in the process. take a look at one of those clips. in every bed, another gut punch. less than two years old, amir still doesn't know his parents and siblings were killed in the strike that disfigured him. >> translator: yesterday he saw a nurse that looked like his father his aunt tells us. he skept screaming dad, dad, dad. amir is still too young to comprehend the who roe all around him. wolf, we arrived at that field hospital, and literally within moments there was a large strike nearby, some ten minutes after that -- i should say the doctor didn't even flinch. she said this happens 20 times a day. ten minutes after that, two casualties were brought in. one was a man in his mid 40s who had lost half of his leg. the other was a 13-year-old boy whose foot was basically dangling off. both of those legs had to be amputated in the end. this was just a brief glimpse, a small window onto the horrors that are taking place in gaza every single day, and onto the reality that it is the civilians in gaza who are bearing the brunt of that. >> clarissa, how are scenes like that galvanizing people across the middle east right now? you've covered this region for a long time. >> reporter: wolf, it's not just the middle east. it's not just the muslim world. it's across the world. you see a huge sense of global outrage and despair when people look at these images, when they look at the fact that people in gaza are basically hermetically sealed into this tiny, densely packed very urban population, the fact that they have nowhere to go, that there's no real safe space, the fact that the munitions being used are not precise and are often vast bombs that are really designed to take out, for example, a hamas tunnel, but are not designed to try to spare civilian lives. i think that is why you are seeing such a high level of anger, really global anger. wurn security official describing to me this is the most radicalizing moment he can think of since 2003 when the u.s. invaded iraq. >> clarissa ward reporting for us, so happy you're safe and out of there right now. clarissa, thank you very, very much. i want to go to cnn's alex marquardt right now. he's in israel. president biden's national security adviser jake sullivan has been in talks today with top israeli leaders. what are you learning about these key meetings? >> well, wolf, sullivan really did meet with the senior most leaders here from prime minister netanyahu to the defense minister and head of intelligence. sullivan and the administration don't want to be seen as telling israel what to do or being seen as applying too much pressure on israel. they're framing this trip as coming here to ask hard questions. it's clear so much of the discussion today, wolf, was about the conflict, where things stand now, where israel sees things going forward. the administration really wants to see a transition in this conflict soon for israel to move from what they're calling a high-intensity phase like we're seeing now to a low-intensity phase. you'll see many more counterterrorism operations against leaders inside gaza. when that transition will happen, no one is going to say publicly. the white house's john kirby says he hopes it will happen in the near future. my colleagues have spoken to several officials who say they believe that can happen in weeks, not months. president biden was asked today whether he would like to see a low-intensity phase. here is what he said. >> i want them to be focused on how to save civilian lives, not stop going after hamas, but be more careful. >> reporter: wolf, the administration continues to insist that israel has the intent to keep civilians safe. of course, there's a different reality on the ground. we heard president biden saying just yesterday that israel is carrying out what he called indiscriminate bombing. the million-dollar question is what israel sees as its time frame, when it might make that transition, if it will. we heard prime minister netanyahu after his meeting with jake sullivan saying they're more determined than ever to continue fighting until absolute victory, he said, wolf. >> alex, there's a new u.s. intelligence assessment that sheds light on how israel is conducting this work. tell our viewers about that. >> reporter: it sheds light on why we're seeing the scenes where we are, utter destruction and a huge number of civilians killed. this is an assessment from the office of the director of international trens that my colleagues were told about it. it said some 29,000 bombs have been dropped from the air on gaza. and almost half of them are imprecise, unguided so-called dumb bombs, 40 to 45%. that would mean 12,000 to 13,000 of these bombs are not precise. of course, that kind of thing can wreak havoc in such a densely populated area. one u.s. official defended israel saying they've used dive bombing tactics, dropping the bombs from a low altitude. that's no substitute for a laser guided rocket. we asked the idf for a response. they initially said they don't talk about the munitions they use. once they saw the attention this report was getting, they came back to me saying israel only uses high-quality munitions operated by skilled pilots and advanced systems. they went on to say the munitions used in each strike is determined according to the target, the operational need and the effort to mitigate harm to civilians. so you'll notice there that israel not denying that they're using these dumb bombs. we should note that the u.s. phased out its own use of dumb bombs but has offered thousands of their own to israel. wolf. >> alex far quart in tel aviv, thank you very much. just ahead, a jury begins deliberating how much rudy giuliani might have to pay two georgia election workers for defaming them after the 2020 presidential election. stay with us. you're in "the situation room." a jury has just wrapped up the first day of deliberations in rudy giuliani's defamations damages trial. their decision will determine how much he'll have to pay two georgia election workers in damages for spreading conspiracy theories about them in the aftermath of the 2020 president election. cnn's senior crime and justice reporter katelyn polantz is joining us just outside the courthouse in washington, d.c. katelyn, tell us what happened? >> reporter: this jury has been deliberating about 3 1/2 hours. they're going to have to determine how much rudy giuliani should have to pay two women, ruby freeman and shaye moss, two georgia election workers that he spread several lies about and became part of a viral, sustained campaign, according to their attorneys, after the 2020 election, where he essentially said they switched votes. they did not do that. wolf, i should remind you of what these two women went through. that is central to what the jury is looking at now, and it could amount to giving them an award of tens of millions of dollars. what they went through was death threats, harassing phone calls, voicemails left repeatedly on their phones, calling them racist names, telling them to be afraid because of what they were doing. they felt their names were complete mud because of what had happened. ruby freeman had to change the name of her business. she was afraid to use her id, to introduce herself to people. her daughter, shaye moss, had to essentially have conversations about racism with her 14-year-old son and tell him that she was very afraid of what was happening. he would see her phone and see racist text messages coming into it. so all of that put together is the type of damages that the jury is looking at to compensated them, to compensated for the reputational harm, the emotional distress, also potentially to punish giuliani. >> katelyn, tell us about giuliani's approach. what has it been? >> reporter: well, rudy giuliani at the beginning of this week, wolf, pledged he was going to take the stand in his defense. he did not ultimately today. after hinting he might, he didn't because his lawyer said and told the jury that they wanted to show respect to these women, that they had been through enough, that their emotional testimony was something the jury should be considering. however, his attorney argued that giuliani is a good man. he wasn't the only person putting forward this information. there were other places, like news outlets, spreading these lies as well, so they should have compassion for the former mayor of new york. we did see him in court all day today throughout this week. at times he was very much looking intently on, but through much of the arguments that ruby freeman and shaye moss' lawyers made today, the closing arguments to the jury, he was barely paying attention, he was on his ipad, barely looking at the jury and definitely not at the two women he had defamed. >> katelyn polantz outside the courthouse in washington. i want to bring in our legal experts. joey, let me start with you. the jury heard the truly racist threats to these election workers. i want to remind our viewers one very disturbing voice mail to them that was actually played in court. listen to this. >> how does the jury process this, joey, as that deliberate? >> i think in a very emotional way, wolf, in a very relatable way. trials are about telling stories. remember what this is about. it's about defamation. that means that your reputation was damaged and you were damaged as a result of false statements that were made about you. when you go to the issue of damages and injury, you look at how were you harmed? you play messages like this. for the jury this isn't just two workers, shaye moss and her mom saying we were harmed, this is actual people saying we're going to harm you, we're going to do this to you. you match that, wolf, against mr. trump, the former president said, mentioned over and over and over again. that was played in a conversation with georgia election officials, with respect to trying to overturn the elections, and they went through a horrifying experience, final point. then you look at the defense, the defense attorney talks about compassion before your client doesn't testify, doesn't own what you did, refers to them in saying they just saw a deep pocket in giuliani, meaning a person who can give them a payday. i think a tone deaf defense mixed with a very compelling narrative means multiple millions in damages from my perspective. >> andrew, what do you think? do you see the jury rewarding reputational damages? how likely is it that they'll award emotional and punitive damages as well? >> wolf, i think all of that is on the table. i think it's likely their award will address each one of those points. i think joey is exactly right in his assessment of the sort of case that went in front of them. there's only one issue for them to decide and that's how much, how much of a penalty to assess on giuliani, the fact that he defamed them has already been established in this court proceeding previously. there's no universal understanding of how much definition is worth. so every jury comes to it in their own way. they've seen some incredibly powerful evidence. shaye moss and ruby freeman are we know very strong and very compelling witnesses. i think there's every reason to believe that the jury is going to lean in their direction in a significant, monumental way. >> giuliani's lawyers say he doesn't have deep pockets. how do you read that? >> well, what they're trying to say is, to discourage the jury from awarding a very high amount on the theory that he wouldn't be able to pay it anyway. i suspect that's not going to be so persuasive. there have been other circumstances in other cases that mr. giuliani has been involved with where he's hosted fund-raisers, had third parties pay off some of his debt. he has found ways in other contests to be able to pay. now, if they come back with tens of millions of dollars, then that certainly will be challenging for him to have to pay. but there's a wide range of what in terms of dollar amounts, of what this jury might come back with, both in terms of trying to compensated the plaintiffs for the actual reputational harm that they suffered as well as in terms of punitive damages to punish him and to send a message, that this type of activity against people like them, just individuals working on elections, trying to make our elections work seamlessly and smoothly, is not okay. >> joey, giuliani, as we heard, didn't even seem to be paying attention during the closing arguments today, and he didn't testify, even though he repeatedly promised he would be testifying. and he repeated his baseless defamatory lies outside the courtroom on monday. so how much does that totally undermine his case? >> i just think it does, wolf, that's very compelling, particularly when your attorney has the gall to talk about have compassion, you act disinterested and disconnected with respect to the proceedings, you're playing with your ipad, looking at the news or whatever you're doing, reading the newspaper. how about taking the stand and owning it and saying, i'm sorry, it didn't have to go this far. instead, a couple days hence or before you're saying, you know what? this is really true. the reality is i don't reget anything i did. i think it's a tough climb and a tough lift. when you're this tone deaf, it has to resonate with the jury. we're going to punish you and punitive damages, i look for them to be significant. >> i totally agree. we'll see what happens when the jury reconvenes tomorrow. coming up, another record day on wall street amid signs of an improving u.s. economy. why aren't voters giving president biden credit for that? i'll ask the vetereran d democr strarategist jamames carvilllle. he's s standing byby live. tonight a new sign of economic optimism on wall street. the dow jones industrial closing at a record high for the second day in a row. cnn business and politics reporter vanessa your kay vi vich is joining us. what's behind the stock market boom and what does it say about the state of the u.s. me sdm. >> wolf, another record day on wall street. the dow closing up 180 points, beating the record yesterday. that record because the federal reserve announced they were holding rates steady and projecting three rate cuts next year. today we saw the dow pop on better-than-expected retail sales and the fact that mortgage rates dipped below 7% for the first time sings august. this is obviously welcome news for anyone who has money in the stock market or has a 401 kfrj, but also for folks who do not. retail sales coming in better-than-expected signals a strong u.s. consumer. mortgage rates coming down below 7% will likely get some first-time home buyers off the sidelines who have been holding out, unable to pay the 7%, nearly 8% mortgage rates. wolf, it's worth pointing out that this economic data we got today does not include the fed's announcement from yesterday. if the fed, particularly on mortgage rates, goes ahead and cuts rates next year, that will make mortgage rates more affordable. it will also help cool interest rates on things like student loans, car loans and credit cards, something that americans need badly right now, especially because, wolf, it's important to point out that the fight against inflation is not over yet. there's still more work to be done. prices are still too high. we heard from federal reserve chair jerome powell yesterday saying we should not declare victory yet. wolf, we are certainly moving in the right direction. >> certainly looks like that, vanessa uric vich, thank you very much. joining us, vitt ran democratic strategist james carville who famously coined the phrase "it's the economy, stupid" during bill clinton's 1992 campaign. james, that's where you and i met in little rock, arkansas, back in 1992. in addition to the booming stock market, inflation is cooling, gas prices are going down. in a recent cnn poll of two key battleground states by a more than two-to-one margin, voters have said economic conditions have worsened under president biden. why do you think voters aren't crediting the president with an improving u.s. economy? >> well, we had the same situation in 1995 with president cli clinton. the hope is as this recovery matures, it decision down deeper and deeper, and the numbers we were quoting from today give some hope to that. what people worry about is does the president's age have an opaque effect on the economic news that we see. these are questions we'll have to see going forward this year. these are undoubtedly very favorable numbers. >> just hours after yesterday's all-time high for the dow, donald trump said this. watch this and listen. >> during this holiday season families all across america are struggling under the brutal weight of biden oomics. >> trump also predicted the stock market would crash under president biden during the 2020 presidential campaign. is president biden doing enough to tout these positive economic trends that are clearly unfolding right now? >> so far, not so much. the idea is, as it takes hold, it penetrates deeper and deeper in the economy. i see the stuff about bidenomics. people said it was a mistake to call it obamacare. now nobody wants to get rid of obamacare. the stock market numbers are just good. the secretary never allowed us to use the term stop market. you don't know why markets go up, why they go down. you can talk about job numbers, you can talk about gdp growth. -mile-per-hour own sense is trump might be making a mistake talking about the stock market. if it goes in a direction he's not seeing, it will make him look like not a knowledgeable economic analyst. >> just yesterday you told cnn's kasie hunt you thought it was still possible someone other than joe biden could be the democratic nominee. do you think that should happen? can democrats still win with biden? >> yes, they can win. i think the number of people in this country want a choice other than donald trump and president biden is like 70%. so will that happen? i'd have to say it's doubtful, but anything is possible going forward. the third party vote is just as high as i've ever seen it. it promises to be a pretty rocky year. for someone like you, strap in, it's going to be pretty interesting and pretty hard to predict. i take polls right now in light of these really improving economic numbers with a slight skepticism. we'll see if it digs down, the concerns about the president's age just penetrates so deeply that you can't move it. i don't know the answer to that. i don't think anybody does. >> before i let you go, despite the election lies, indictments, desire to be dictator for a day, trump is in the strongest position yet to win the iowa caucuses next month and is leading president biden in general election polling as well. what do you attribute that to? >> i think within the republican party it's just as important to look at trump as a theological figure as it is a political figure. his is kind of almost a religion. now, as the year progresses and other things happen, it's hard to say that you don't have an accretion piling up. let's wait and see. i try not to affect elections as much as predict them. there's still a lot -- the people that say we're just destined to have a biden-trump election, that's just the way it's going to be. i don't agree with that. it might be that, but there could be a no labels, a cornell west, a bobby kennedy, a jill stein. there's a lot of football left. that's all i can say. anybody that thinks they know where it's going to end, my hats off to youi don't have any idea >> i don't think any of us has any idea where this things is going. james, let's continue this conversation down the road as we always do. thanks so up many for joining us. >> thank you, wolf. go saints, go pelicans. >> go bills. just ahead, european officials arrest four suspected hamas members planning attacks on jewish targets. we have new information and details and we'll share them with you right after a quick break. tonight european officials say they thwarted a terror plot involving four suspected hamas members who were planning attacks on jewish targets in europe. brian todd is monitoring the story for us. brian, how serious is this threat? >> reporter: german officials say it is very serious, involving planning, weapons and orders from the highest ranks of hamas. the terror group waging war on israel attempting strikes on targets in europe. three people just arrested in germany were longstanding members of hamas and are suspected of having planned attacks on jewish institutions in europe. a fourth person was arrested in connection with the same case in the netherlands. their alleged mission was to locate an undergrcache of weapo. >> so far israel has focused on israel, gaza, the west bank. this suggests a new development, if hamas's ambitions. >> reporter: the three in germany were closely linked to hamas' military leadership and receiving orders from hamas leaders in lebanon. >> that would imply to me that they were ordered by the military leadership of hamas to go to europe and try and do something. >> reporter: in addition, at least four other arrests were reported in denmark and the netherlands as well. authorities saying they're not directly related to the other case. israeli intelligence saying those arrested in denmark were terrorists acting on behalf of hamas, and the arrest thwarted an attack, the goal of which is to kill innocent civilians. security has been dialed up since the israel-hamas war began. american officials warning of an increase in terrorism against the u.s. as well. >> hamas or another terror organization may exploit the current conflict. >> reporter: all this comes as the department of homeland security and the fbi this week warned americans more broadly of threats around the holidays saying the war could heighten the threat of loan actor violence targeting large public gatherings through out the winter including holiday related and faith-based events. the agents did note the public bulletin wasn't in response to any specific plotting activity. >> it's the holiday. people are congregating in malls, people going to shopping centers, going to houses of worship which are particularly vulnerable and have been targeted before. >> reporter: terrorists have targeted holiday festivals before in europe. a year ago in new year's eve in new york's times square a man with a machete attacked police officers. as for hamas' possible reach inside the u.s., terrorism experts we spoke to say traditionally hamas activities in the u.s. have been more along the lines of fund-raising and logistics. right now they say the group's most realistic threat to america is the ability to inspire lone actors to commit violence we'll keep an eye on what's happening over the holiday. >> brian todd, thank you for the report. coming up, vladimir putin answers questions for hours. cnn is there. we'll go live to moscow. that's coming up next. russian president vladimir putin held a marathon question-and-answer session today, his first formal end of the year news conference since the start of the conflict in ukraine. cnn's matthew chance was at the news conference in moscow and is joining us live. matthew, what message is putin trying to convey with this event? >> reporter: he covered a whole range of topics in this press conference that lasted more than four hours. one of the main points he was talking about is the conflict in ukraine, of course, what russia calls the special military operation. it reveals that russia had about 600,000 troops in the conflict zone. we hadn't heard about that before. he didn't talk about losses, although we know from our reporting at cnn that the losses according to u.s. intelligence are likely to be very high indeed. he did go over again what the objectives were for russia inside ukraine, was to de nazifi it. he's focused on that ukraine is run by nazis, make sure it was demilitarized as well. he said that could be achieved either through diplomacy or by force. take a listen. >> translator: either we work on demilitarization, agree on certain parameters, and, by the way, during the negotiations in istanbul we agreed on them. then they threw these agreements into the oven. or there were other possibilities, either to reach an agreement or resolve it by using force. this is what >> reporter: now, this was a carry choreographed event, and the questions were closely vetted. but some managed to get through that were quite challenging. there was a sort of live stream which the general public could pose questions. that threw up some personal challenges. one of them asking, how many yachts does putin have? others saying what reality do you live in? so it's not clear how those got through those questions, but it gave us a glimpse into what russians in reality are thinking. >> matthew chance in moscow, thank you for that report. joining us now, the russia expert and historian, ann applebaum. thank you for joining us. how much does this event in moscow reflect putin's growing confidence in his positioning? >> you know, it reflects not so much his confidence in his ability to win the war on the ground. the russians are still losing incredible numbers of troops, they're not making much progress. but it may reflect his belief that the western coalition behind ukraine is splintering and in particular, that u.s. support for ukraine is not going to be there because of the republican objection of passing a bill giving ukrainians more money. it's more than he has the confidence that he has that he can outlast us, and you can see why he might believe that. >> how does benefit from the u.s. stalemate over providing more military aid to ukraine right now? >> remember, as i said, this is a war of nerves. it's partly psychological. so the russians are losing incredible numbers of people, but they think if they just stick it out, we'll divide, we'll prove putin right. he's been saying for years that the west is degenerate, divided, can't do anything, and he's waiting for that to be the case. even by delaying this vote or delaying this bill on aid for ukraine, we are giving him the confidence that he's right. he's going to stay on the ground, despite his losses and despite the fact that ukrainians have taken back 50% of the territory that he conquered originally. despite the fact that he's lost some enormous portion of his army, that he's spending 40% of his budget on the military. he'll keep doing all of that until we -- until he outlasts us. and by delaying, by having this public argument about the american border, you know, we're giving him the feeling that he can keep going. >> those tough questions that imposed to putin and showed up on the screen, is that a sign of deeper discontent or is putin orchestrating this? >> some i don't know. one that essentially asked the putin on the stain whether he was a -- on the stain wge whethe was a body do you believe, which a lot of people believe. so i don't know if that was a desire to give us a sense of awe the -- authenticity. they like to show arguments so they can defeat those arguments. we know from many sources there is a lot of discontent, both in the russian population, but also among the elite who matter with the war. you know, it wasn't a war people really wanted to fight. people are ambivalent about it. nobody is signing up to join it. so that obviously exists, and that might have been their way of trying to mitigate it or turn it down, or maybe it was an accident. i don't know. >> ann applebaum, thank you for joining us. we'll be right back with more news. tonight, there's a new push in the u.s. senate to keep working to resolve the standoff over new u.s. military aid to ukraine. cnn's reporter is on capitol hill with details. melanie, update us on the negotiations and whether something might get passed before the holidays. >> reporter: chouck schumer decided to cope the senate in to get a deal on the border. he's hoping for a deal in principle by monday, and he's vowing to hold a vote on an aid package no matter what next week. wolf, there has been some signs of serious progress over the last 24 hours or so, with the white house now signaling that they are willing to make some significant concessions on the border. that has democratic negotiators like kyrsten sinema feeling more endo you remembered where they are in this process. but republican negotiators are skeptical they can finalize a deal next week, given where they are in the process. just listen. >> well, the fact that the white house is fully engaged in the negotiations have definitely made a difference. it's communicated to senate republicans this is serious, and that we have a deal in the future. so that's been really helpful. and we're also beginning to talk in more detail about what some of the elements of a potential deal would look like. >> there's no legislative text. the white house just got involved three days ago. you expect to, you know, to run out the clock and get it done? i think the best thing to do is keep talking, try to find a deal that we can live with that will get through the house, come back in january and do it. >> reporter: the house has already left for the end of the year, so that means something can't be signed until january at the earliest, wolf. >> melanie, thank you very much. to our viewers, thanks for watching. erin burnett "outfront" starts right now. 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