we are following breaking news this hour. israeli intelligence officials say a hamas terrorist plot set to be carried out in europe has been foiled. multiple terrorist suspects are now behind bars, but where they targeting? we will dig into that story. plus, a federal judge pumping the brakes on donald trump's 2020 election interference case, potentially delaying it further into campaign season. what does that mean for trump? and the republicans running against him. and a top white house official in israel right now meeting with prime minister benjamin netanyahu and members of his war cabinet. this as cnn's the first western media outlet to get access to southern gaza and report independently. we will show you that report this hour. a very busy day for us. we are following these major developing stories and many more all coming in right here too cnn news central. ♪ ♪ ♪ thank you so much for joining us this afternoon. i am boris sanchez alongside pam brown in the nation's capital. we are following fast moving developments. i suspected terror plot foiled in europe. german and israeli officials say several hamas members were arrested for allegedly plotting to attack jewish institutions in europe. the operations apparently involved law enforcement from germany and the netherlands. to related to rest have also been made in denmark, but authorities tell cnn that there is no direct connection with the german arrests. these arrests are the latest alarming example of a world on edge because of the israel hamas conflict. >> we have global coverage so let's start with cnn's alex marquardt in tel aviv, israel. alex, what are officials saying about these arrests? >> reporter: pam and boris, it appears that his role has been speaking with denmark about this terror plot that was interrupted about these alleged hamas members who were arrested, and that the drug -- driven arrests, but these are separate things. what we are hearing from the mossad intelligence agency here in israel is that thanks to the danes for thwarting what the israelis called an attack preparing to be carried out by people who are affiliated with hamas. earlier today, we've got a statement from the prime minister's office here in israel saying thanks to the danes, the danish security agency, which says they managed to thwart an attack on behalf of the hamas terrorist organization. they went on to say that this plot was to kill innocent civilians on european soil. as you were saying, boris, it's not exactly clear where in europe this attack was due to take place. whether it was denmark or elsewhere. three of the four arrests, according to the danes, took place in denmark. there was a fourth arrest that took place in the netherlands. so the danish security agency does not mention hamas in their statement. they also did not mention that they worked alongside the israelis, but they are certainly hinting or seeing quite clearly that they collaborated with what they called foreign colleagues. the people they arrested, so for people they said were pairing in active terrorism in connection with other countries. they also talk about an awareness of jewish places, so that could mean that the target or targets for these individuals were jewish institutions, jewish institutions across europe have been on high alert during this war in gaza. now, the israelis are also saying that hamas has been working on expanding its operations to be able to carry out attacks outside of his role in europe and elsewhere. so we really need a bit more clarification from the israelis about what this line on behalf of the hamas organization means. were these hamas members? where these people inspired by hamas? today belong to other terrorist organizations? right now we know there have been a number of arrests made in connection with a potential attack that was thwarted, but we still have lots of questions. pam, boris? >> alex, please stand by. let's go to europe with cnn's fred pleitgen live for us in berlin. fred, what are you hearing from german officials? >> reporter: hi there, boris. it's interesting because alex was talking about what is going on in denmark. there's no relations to what has been going on here in germany apparently, but there certainly are similarities. here in germany also, four people were arrested in total, but one of those arrests also took place in the netherlands as well. this is as far as the german federal prosecutors concerned. three people were arrested here in berlin. what we have from the federal prosecutors office and the german authorities is they say all three people who were arrested were long-standing members of hamas, or are long-standing members. they went even further to say that all of them have very close and direct ties to the leadership of the military wing of hamas which is of course the al-qassam brigades. with the germans are saying is they believe that hamas has started to put a weapons depot together here in germany, and that these three suspects apparently were trying to find that weapons depot to stockpile those weapons. they apparently were tasked with taking those weapons out of the depot and bringing the weapons to berlin also for attacks, as the germans put it, against jewish institutions across europe as well. it is unclear whether or not there were any direct plans, eminent plans, for attacks, but the germans are obviously saying this is a very pressing issue for them. all three of these people have been arrested. one person is detained in the netherlands. apparently, they will go before a federal judge here in germany tomorrow to then be decided how long they are going to remain in custody. obviously, this is a matter for the german authorities, and it's of the highest priority. in fact, tonight we heard from the german interior minister, her name is -- and here's what she had to say. she said, quote, the protection of is jews our top priority. we use all constitutional means against those who threaten the lives of jews and the existence of the state of israel. obviously, a top priority for the germans. one of the things we have been seeing here in germany, which has been happening in other european countries as well, is that security at jewish institutions has been increased immensely, with more police presence in these places obviously. as you can see, the germans are taking this extremely seriously, guys. >> thanks so much, fred pleitgen. alex, thank you. i want to bring in peter bergman, cnn international security specialist. peter, what does this all tell you? >> reporter: one thing, pam, is it's hard to prove negatives, but hamas does not really have a long record of carrying out terrorist attacks in europe. so that is sort of striking to me that we have now cases in germany and also in denmark, as alex and fred pleitgen reporting. the danish case seems to be about people affiliated with hamas. what that means is not really clear. people who sympathize? in the german case, these appear to be people -- members of hamas. we've certainly seen a sharp rise in anti-incidents across europe since october 7th. i think this is certainly a new phenomenon where hamas appears to be allegedly carrying out, or trying to carry out, terrorist attacks in europe against jewish sites. that to me is new. >> and does it represent an expansion of hamas's scope and what its goals are now? >> reporter: i think it does. hamas has traditionally been very focused on gaza, the west bank and israel. here we are seeing expansion. by the way, this was somewhat predicted by fbi director christopher wray and also kristie -- who runs the national counterterrorist center, which are -- testified in late october that terrorist groups around the world who are going to be sort of inspired by the events of october 7th. using that as a rallying cry. unfortunately, if these allegations are true, then this seems to confirm that analysis. >> peter according to alex's reporting it's not exactly clear the extent of israel's role in the intelligence sharing and gathering. obviously, a scenario like this with hamas, apparently now trying to carry out its agenda on other continents, how significant is that intelligence sharing? and how easily do these nations coordinate with one another to stop attacks that are planted like this? >> reporter: i will speculate here, boris, but i think -- intelligence was implicated here. with all the information we are getting about this particular set of allegations coming from the israelis. everyone thanking the danish security services for their work. we still don't know a lot. we know less about the danish case then we do the german case. the germans have been clear that these are hamas operatives. in the danish case, these are simply people who were inspired by hamas. we don't know. something to mention is that denmark has been a frequent target of jihadist terrorists. there is a particular emphasis among jihadists because of the -- newspaper which published cartoons of the profit muhammad. there has also been multiple attempts against that newspaper over the years. an attack on the danish embassy in paxton back in 2008. so denmark is certainly a country that terrorist jihadists have had in their sights. there has been a spade of quran burnings in denmark and sweden, which has caused a lot of angst among these groups. i don't know if these arrests are in any way related to that. the fact is that denmark is certainly facing these kinds of jihadist terrorist threats in the past and here we seem to be facing them again. >> i want to follow up because germany is saying these are actual hamas operatives. we are unclear about the other arrests, whether they were acting on behalf of hamas or just sympathizers. does that matter? is it a distinction, or does it matter to determine just sympathizers trying to help hamas cause, versus actual operatives attached to hamas? >> reporter: if a bomb goes off, it's a distinction without a difference to the victims. on the other hand, as a legal matter and as an intelligence matter, people are actually bona fide members of hamas terrorist organization, many countries have designated hamas as a terrorist organization. belonging to it, raising money for it, it's illegal in a lot of countries. so there's certainly a legal distinction to be made if you are simply a sympathizer without being part of the organization. that would change the legal framework around which you might be prosecuted. certainly if you are in the united states, but also many european countries also have designated hamas as a terrorist organization. so i do think it matters as a legal matter. >> peter bergen, thank you so much fun analysis. >> reporter: thank you. still ahead on cnn news central, donald trump sharpening his message for caucus goers in iowa. hear what he is saying to try to galvanize republican support in the hawkeye state. and cnn is the first u.s. news organization on the ground in gaza without an israeli escort. what we are hearing from the injured inside a field hospital. >> the world isn't listening to us, she says. nobody cares about us. we have been dying for over 60 days, dying from the bombing, and nobody did anything. we are fewer than five weeks away from the iowa caucuses, and despite dominating in the polls, former president donald trump took his campaign to the hawkeye state for the third time this month, telling voters not to take his front runner status for granted. watch. >> we are leading by a lot, but you have to go out and vote. because so much means, you know, going out, the margin of victory is very important. it's very important. even for foreign countries watching, but it's very important, that margin of victory is so, so powerful. >> cnn's kristen holmes joins us live with more on the trump campaign final push in iowa. kristen, what is trump's message leading up to the caucuses? >> reporter: first of all, let's talk about what he just said. this is something trump's team fundamentally believes, when they talk about that margin. they do want the margin to look like the des moines register poll which had him at 51%, and desantis at 19%, because they believe that will help him build momentum going into new hampshire and eventually south carolina. in terms of what his message was directly to iowans, he really wanted to push forward saying this wasn't just about the primary, but about the general election. he's hoping to galvanize voters by really using joe biden's unpopularity, and sending a message that if you are happier when i was in office, then you should vote for me again at the caucus. take a listen. >> during this holiday season, families all across america are struggling under the brutal weight of bidenomics. you know bidenomics. it means a lot of bad things. this year alone, the typical american family is $7,500 poorer because of crooked joes globalist blenders, greedy betrayals, they really hurt us badly. >> reporter: if he is to win the nomination, his team does believe the economy will be a very big argument for them. however, we have obviously seen the dow surging. the big question is there is still a year to go. donald trump would still have to win the nomination. how will that people -- how will that affect peoples wallets ahead of a general election? that's the case heading into the season. >> kristen holmes, thanks so much for the reporting. let's get some analysis now with former trump white house press secretary sarah matthews and former biden 2020 campaign senior adviser alexia johnson. thank you both so -- for being here. sarah, we should mention you are not backing your former boss in the primary. i'm wondering if donald trump wins iowa by 20 or 30 points, the way that polls are trending right now, is the race over? >> reporter: obviously, we are still going to have other voting contests after that. nikki haley is performing well in new hampshire and south carolina right now. so i think her best bet is to bank on those states. someone like are you with the vote is divided because ron desantis is polling well there as well. however, his campaign is kind of a one state strategy right now, solely focused on iowa. chris christie is solely focused on new hampshire. nikki haley is actually in multiple states. unfortunately, i don't know if it's going to be enough to overtake trump. right now there's still too many people in the race, and even if all these other folks dropped out at backed nikki haley, his league might be too commanding for them to overtake her. but i have long said that the best way to defeat donald trump in the primary is to have one alternative to challenge him. right now, it seems like no one is going to drop out and coalesce that one person. >> alexa, on the other side, a president going into a reelection effort never wants to be associated with the word impeachment. right? however, paradoxically this could wind up helping joe biden. >> it absolutely could help joe biden, yeah, because with a lot of american people, they see this as a political sham investigation. what we are paying attention to our those 18 republican members of congress who were elected in biden held districts. they voted for this inquiry. that might be helpful for them to get republican donors to help them with their reelection campaign. however, for democrats that is motivation for us, and the general election next year, to make sure they are held accountable for this. additionally, the american people are concerned about congress doing something around the economy. they are concerned about what is happening around abortion rights, voting rights, the list goes on and on. so these sham investigations versus actually having a conversation that the american people want does help democrats in the long run. >> you mentioned abortion rights. of course, that is very motivating for democrats. it looks like the so-called soft landing to avoid a recession could happen. then you have biden running against, you know, likely the winner of the republican nominee, donald trump, who has nearly 100 criminal charges. right? who said he's going to be a dictator on day one, for one day. you have to take him at his word. how do you explain how biden is still running behind trump if we took a look at the polls? >> the polling is not a key indicator of how voters will vote a year from now. a lot of things happen within a year. i will say that i think it's a compounded poll that we are looking at. if you take biden out of the equation and look at the issues that the democratic platform stands on, those are winning issues. there are concerns with president biden that i do think he can overcome. voters are taking that into account as they respond to some of this polling. i will say this, should the campaign be extremely worried? i would not say so, but i do think the biden reelection campaign has to pay attention to these numbers, and adjust accordingly, and listen to the very diverse coalition that has some very real concerns. >> sarah, going back to donald trump for a moment, we have sowed from former house speaker paul ryan. let's take a listen. >> historically speaking, all of his tendencies are basically where narcissism take some. which is whatever makes unpopular makes him feel good at any given moment. and he doesn't think in classic liberal conservative terms. he thinks in an authoritarian way. and he's able to get a big chunk of the republican base to follow him because he's a culture warrior. >> how significant is that attachment that certain voters after donald trump? ryan mentions culture warrior. ron desantis is running on culture war issues but he's not having the same kind of penetration with those voters. what do you think would work for someone like ron desantis at this point? >> i think it's almost too little too late for someone like ron desantis. we have seen him become more aggressive in his attacks against donald trump, but i wish he was doing that six or nine months ago when he was polling ahead of donald trump. he kind of like donald trump define him and create this narrative around him. i think he was largely untested on a national scale. we have seen kind of his personality come forward, and him tend to be a bit awkward with voters. so i don't know if there's anything that he can do to course correct at this point, but i do want to say on former speaker paul ryan's comments, that when he says things like donald trump isn't authoritarian narcissist, he's saying publicly what a lot of republicans feel privately. so i commend him for coming forward and saying these things now. and i know it sounds a bit alarmist to people at home when they hear the word authoritarian being thrown around, but we need to pay close attention to what donald trump is saying on the campaign trail. i think voters have become a little desensitized to his crazy statements, but he is using authoritarian rhetoric. he's saying things like let's do away with part of the constitution. that he will weaponize the doj to enact revenge on his enemies. so i think that it's encouraging to see republicans, like the former speaker, come forward and highlight these things. obviously, donald trump still has a hold on the base, which is about 30% or 40% of the republican party. so it will be tough to defeat him in a primary. >> [inaudible] they can continue to make these cases about who donald trump will be, but then what will they do in the general? will they support democrats? because that's the only other option. >> that is true. thank you so much, sarah matthews and alencia johnson. still ahead, a cnn exclusive, u.s. intelligence finds nearly half of the israeli munitions dropped on gaza are imprecise dumb bombs. this is the presidents national security advisor meets with the israeli war cabinet to discuss efforts to beat more surgical in targeting hamas. this is cnn news central. we will be right