we have lots of news to cover and lots of questions to answer. let's get started. intensifying strikes -- israel's offensive in southern gaza is back in full force overnight with repeated rounds of shellings as more humanitarian aid makes its way into the ravaged gaza strip. we are live in israel with the latest. plus, the forgotten hostages -- we are shining a spotlight on the tie and filipino nationals released by hamas at this week and why they are not getting much media attention. no kings in america -- trump imperial immunity claims shot down by the d.c. federal judge overseeing his 2020 election interference trial. you won't believe what the front runner has to say about democracy and authoritarianism while on the campaign trail. we are going in-depth on it all. later, between life and death -- nearly 20 years after the bitter battle over terry schiavo which put the right to die movement in the national spotlight, we are going to go inside a new msnbc documentary retracing the death debate. all of that and more is coming out. a good sunday morning to you all. i am katie phang. we begin this morning with the latest on the israel-hamas war. the israeli military has widened its evacuation orders for civilians in gaza as they expand their offensive in the southern half of the territory. heavy bombardments were reported around gaza second largest city and the city of rafah. in an address saturday, prime minister benjamin yahoo vowed to continue the war until israel achieves, quote, all its goals. the head of the world health organization reiterated his call for a permanent cease-fire, though, saying the heavy bombardment of gaza was petrified. he said a w.h.o. team visiting a hospital in southern gaza yesterday found it three times over its capacity with some patients receiving care on the floor, screaming in pain. meanwhile, yesterday, humanitarian aid trucks entered from egypt into gaza for the very first time since the temporary truce ended on friday, bringing food, medicine, water, and 30,000 gallons of fuel. joining me now, msnbc news foreign correspondent raf sanchez is live from tel aviv with more. thank you so much for joining us. can you tell us what the latest is on the israeli offensive in the southern part of gaza and what is going on with the civilians seeking safety there? >> well, katie, palestinian civilians are telling us they have nowhere left to run at this point. it was just weeks ago israel was telling them, if you leave the north and go to southern cities like khan younis, they will be safe. they are now being told they need to get out of khan yunis because israel is targeting in that area. our team inside gaza spoke to one mother who really illustrates this point. her name is fatma. she said she took her children from a refugee camp all the way up in northern gaza and brought them down to khan younis, thought that they would be safe down there, and instead her son mohammed was killed in an israeli airstrike. the hamas-run health ministry says that he is one of more than 700 people who have been killed since that cease-fire broke out on friday. that is on top of the 15,000 or so who were killed in the first seven weeks of the fighting. we are hearing reports from inside gaza that ground forces are operating in khan yunis now. that would be a major added element. we have asked the israeli military about that. they are not commenting at this stage. here in israel, there was a rally last night where crowds gathered in support of the hostages and they heard it testimonials and recorded videos who were freed during the last week or so. she was pinching herself trying to see if she could wake up from the nightmare she was living through. we spoke to an american woman. her name is irish weinstein. both the four american parents were taken from a kibbutz into gaza on october 7th. she is telling us she now believes that her father is dead but she says it is absolute agony not knowing what is happening with her mother judy who was an elderly woman. she's someone who fit the criteria to be released in these swaps over the last week but never emerged from gaza. irish says she thinks it is possible that her mother is in the hands of a smaller faction that hamas has not been able to reach or it is possible that her mother is dead. she just doesn't know at this point. the prospects of revitalizing this truce are looking pretty remote at this point. israel pulled its negotiators out of qatar yesterday and hamas is now saying that there will be no further exchanges until the war is over. katie? >> unbelievably heartbreaking. rough sanchez, as always, thanks for being here in please day safe. this week, 17 thai hostages taken by hamas were greeted by their friends and family as they returned back to their home country. these farmworkers are among 23 tie in asheville streets so far since the october 7th attack during a separate agreement needed by qatar with the six remaining in israel due to medical issues. ty officials say another nine thai hostages are still held in gaza by hamas. this week saw the second of two filipino hostages who were also well the stories of israelis. hostages grab the majority of the headlines, the stories of the four workers who helped fu the economy in israel largely remain on her. before the october 7th attack, about 30hai nationals were working in israel rgely as farmworkers. according to the philippines foreign ministry, about 30,000 filipinos live and work in the country, many as caregivers who look after the elderly, the ill, and those with physical disabilities. jointly now is rebecca tan, southeast asian bureau chief for the washington post. rebecca, i am grateful for you to join me today. i felt like it was important to talk about these filipino and thai workers who were not only taken hostage but have been a part of the israeli country and what they have been doing their. can we start off by talking about some of those who have been freed so far? about so>> definitely. i appreciate you taking the time to spotlight these workers as well. like you pointed out, there were more than 30 thai workers who were taken hostage. they were killed in the attacks. by nationality, they were the second largest group of hostages who were taken. they have occupied very little space in the overall discussion and the negotiations between the hostage releases. you are right. these workers have been a significant part of the israeli economy for a long time. their families, with the release of these hostages, it has come as an extreme relief to them. many of them in the initial weeks had to wrap their heads around what was going on, what had happened to their sons and to their brothers, and then they had to endure weeks where they felt quite helpless. in some instances, the governments have felt quite helpless. it's an important story. i appreciate you highlighting their experience. >> rebecca, you mentioned a minute ago that the release of these particular hostages, the thai and filipino hostages, was done separately from the release of the others. do you know why that took place in that way? >> that's what we have heard so far. to be honest, there's not extreme clarity on how these negotiations occurred. the thai government as well as thai muslim leaders -- there is a sizeable muslim population in thailand, about 5% to 7%. they have said that they took the initiative to establish content with hamas and the governments of egypt, qatar, the moment this happened to try to negotiate the release of their workers. i think it highlights as well the reason why they or were separate negotiations. they have been caught up in a geopolitical issue that they are not really a part of. they did not intend to be a part of that. until today, a lot of people in thailand are wondering how they got drawn into this. i think that is the possibility of a second truck of negotiations which was led by thai leaders directly with governments of the middle east to try to get their people and their nationals home. >> as we have discussed, there are tens of thousands of these nationals from the philippines and thailand who live and work in israel. do you know why they left their home countries to try to come to israel in order to work and live? >> yes. most of the hostages that have been released, the vast majority of workers in thailand actually come from the same regent. it's the most impoverished part of the country. it's predominantly agricultural. all of these workers, all of these predominantly young men are going to israel in search of a better work opportunities. they work at strawberry farms and avocado farms in israel because they can earn four or five times what they are able to earn a back home. it's a massive economic opportunity for them. we have seen even after the outbreak of violence that thailand's prime minister has pleaded to return home to safety. there are still tens of thousands of those workers who do not want to come back. they want to stay in israel. they want to keep working. it provides an economic lifeline for their families that they can't access back home. many of the people who have since evacuated say that they want to return the moment they can, the moment it seems it is possible for them to return, they want to go back. >> rebecca tan, thank you for joining me. i thought it was important to highlight another group, another group of people who were taken hostage on october 7th who maybe have not been spotlighted as much as some of the other hostages. thank you for being here. >> thank you. >> still to come this morning on the katie phang show, there were three. looking ahead to next week's fourth republican primary debate and if trump's continued strategy of not showing up will continue to keep him at the top of the pack. plus, inside trump's unhinged and rambling rant in iowa. what he has to say about threats to democracy and jesus christ. we have a lot more to come with this morning. don't go anywhere. me wit this morning don't go anywhere. don't go anywhere. at bombas we make the comfiest socks, underwear, and t-shirts that feel good and most of all do good. because when you purchase one, we donate one to those in need. visit bombas.com and get 20% off your first purchase. bombas. give the good. the subway series? 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>> it doesn't. donald trump is continuing his campaign of projections. everything that he says about joe biden's things that he says himself he will do. he is running his campaign of retribution, right? he's going to indict those that are against him if he becomes president again. he's going to throw them in jail. he wants to shut down to this network. he said msnbc must go. he is telling us everything that he wants us to do. he's saying it out loud. this time, unlike 2016, we need to believe him. what is really important here is that every single time that he says something about joe biden, we need to ask ourselves, what have we seen over the last few years under the biden administration? we have seen him tackle a pandemic, provide vaccines for the american people. we have seen him tackle an economy that the prior administration tanks. we've seen him added more jobs that the prior administration tanked. everything that he says about joe biden, a man that is only 36 months older than him, by the way, is something that we know joe biden has shown himself and proven himself to be capable of, to take this country in the direction that it needs. donald trump tells us every single time he opens his mouth what he plans to do, which is to finish the hijab on our democracy. >> we heard what the biden harris administration has done and done well through gavin newsom. there was that random debate that popped up between gavin newsom and ron desantis. i know a lot of people were pooh-poohing it before it happened, but when i watched it, i thought it was refreshing. it reinforce that ron desantis has a zero chance whatsoever. gavin newsom took on the mantle of being an effective surrogate for the biden harris administration to talk about its accomplishments. was somebody listening? >> i was one of those people that was pooh-pooh in this entire debate. i thought to myself, why are we doing this right now? we need to focus on the presidential. i thought to myself as i watched gavin newsom just mocked the floor with ron desantis, why would the desantis team even agreed to this? why did they think this was a great idea? what it did for the democrats is give us the confidence to believe that we have a pipeline of candidates, that we do have talent in the wings to take our progress and our country forward. there been a level of instability in our vibe as a country. what gavin newsom did was tell us, no, we can, i'm doing it in california. we can do this across the country. let me debunk one sentence at a time every thing that the republican party are doing. they won a national ban on abortion. they're coming after the lgbtq community. they are coming after a black people. they are coming after people of color. what could ron desantis say? >> all of his mumbling and robotics mile and weird laughter. >> he could not say it was not true. he had the receipts. kevin newsom showed up with the receipts that the democratic party needs to use for the next 12 months. >> what does it say that desantis has wasted a lot of time? you were asking what the campaign was thinking. clearly not much because desantis wasted 99 cities in -- we have serious problems in florida. he is doing that. is that simply because nikki haley is running behind donald trump in the numbers? is it because he actually thinks that halle is an adversary versus ron desantis who is not? >> every time he opens up his mouth, he does not provide us with anything. he doesn't have the oomph needed to be a presidential candidate. nikki haley, all of the money is going behind nikki haley right now. do i like nikki haley? i think she's not an authoritarian. do i think she would be good for the country. absolutely not. i don't want us to be fooled in a place where, oh, she is not that bad. she believes in all of the rhetoric that the republican party does. she just doesn't offer it with the same hateful zeal that donald trump does. i think donald trump is going after her because she is an easy target. she needs to dismantle the idea that she has any chance whatsoever. when you look at trump and her in comparison, the numbers, give me a break. >> i got 30 seconds tops. i wanted to share something anecdotally. i spoke to an iowa gop or who told me you, as a democrat, you want trump to get the nomination. i looked at him and i was like, are you crazy? he said to me, hear me out for one second, he was like, biden can beat trump. biden has beaten trump and biden can beat trump. i thought about it for a hot second and i was like, you know what? does it make sense? does it make sense? >> no one wants donald trump as a candidate. nobody wants him to be the absolute rival to joe biden. two i think joe biden can beat him? i absolutely do, but i think that donald trump is dangerous and we should not play games with fire. >> i like that answer. that's why i have you here. danielle moodie, thank you so much for being here and happy holidays. good to see you, my friend. still ahead, is there a judge in america with the courage to kick donald trump off the ballot under the 14th amendment? elie yang says no. he will explain why after the break. keep it right here. look at him shaking his head. you are watching msnbc. ing his head you are watching msnbc you are watching msnbc how's the heart? i feel like it's good. you feel like it's good? how do you know when it's time to check in on your heart? 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