terrorists. health officials say clashes have led to a catastrophic situation for gaza's hospitals. >> it puts rockets inside schools, hospitals. it has tunnels below children's beds. this is what we're dealing with. >> the prime minister says his top priorities are destroying hamas and getting all the hostages safely out of gaza. let's go to kevin wliptack. what more are you learning about this hostage being held by hamas. it's an awful situation, but it's good we're starting to learn new information. what can you tell us? >> it's terrible. and the white house put out this news in a readout. qatar has been playing broker in these talks to try and get some of these hostages released. in that phone call the white house said president biden condemned the holding of hostages, including this 3-year-old american toddler whose parents were killed in the hamas attacks in israel on october 7th. we don't know much more about this individual, but i am told that it is the youngest american being held and the only minor. but it is interesting the timing of this information being released. as these talks intensified to try to release some of these hostages, we did hear from the american national security adviser jake sullivan earlier today to say that the americans are in intensive discussions with parties to try and get some of these hostages released. there are nine americans unaccounted for, one green holder, some of them may be held hostage. the u.s. can't say exactly how many may be killed, may be held hostage. but the u.s. is in discussions with all of these parties to try and secure some kind of agreement to get them released and certainly the news that one of these hostages is a 3-year-old will only increase pressure on all of the parties to try and come to some sort of agreement, including the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu who president biden has been pressuring to secure the release of hostages using the longer pauses in the fighting. these humanitarian pauses. and we heard from president biden earlier this week saying that he had pressed netanyahu on a pause in the fighting that was longer even than three days. certainly u.s. officials do say that securing the release of all 200-plus hostages will prior a significant break in the fighting. there have only be a handful of hostages that have been released so far, including those two americans, the mother and daughter. u.s. officials say that was a pilot case and they do want to expand that further to try and get more hostages out. >> thank you very much for that. let's talk more about the situation at the hospitals inside gaza that have been the focus of so much attention this weekend. oren liebermann joins us now. what are you learning? >> reporter: looking at the hospitals from the inside and from the outside and we'll focus on the largest hospital in gaza. inside the hospital, the director says the hospital itself has had to shut down its operating rooms. meanwhile, babies who were in the neo native intensive care unit had to be pulled out of there. they're trying to keep them warm by using warm water and tinfoil. that's an idea of the level of suffering. there are thousands of people who have tried to take refuge there to stay safe from the fighting that's right around them, even damage to the hospital itself according to the hamas-controlled ministry of health in gaza. the challenge there. the second largest hospital in gaza has shut down. that's making a humanitarian crisis even worse. the idf says it tried to dropped off 300 liters of fuel for the hospital to run essential systems and it blamed hamas. officials say it wasn't hamas. they said they were too afraid to come out because of the presence of israeli forces in the streets. there is fighting to both israelis and palestinians right outside the hospital, intense battles in a densely populated area in northern gaza as israel moves in and surrounds the hospital and that general neighborhood. the israel sees the hospital as a command and control center for hamas, using it for a shelter where it keeps some of its infrastructure underground. >> you're getting new information on air strikes in syria. what's the latest on that? >> reporter: the u.s. has tried to keep that area separate. it has been unsuccessful in doing so. u.s. forces have been repeatedly targeted about 46 times since october 17th in iraq and syria. the u.s. now carrying out its third strike in three weeks in response to those attacks on u.s. forces, hitting a safe haven in eastern syria as well as a training facility that is affiliated with the iran revolutionary guard corps and militias backed by iran. the u.s. is trying to calibrate its response to send a message to iran but to try to make sure that it is able to -- or rather that it avoids escalating the situation in the region. the u.s. called it a precise strike and it has called previous strikes precise defensive strikes trying to avoid the whole region from escalating as it keeps an eye on the conflict in gaza. certainly the ongoing u.s. -- the ongoing attacks on u.s. forces in iraq and syria is something we'll watch closely and something the pentagon is trying to figure out how to respond to. >> thank you very much. the idf says its fighter jets attacked several hezbollah targets today. it came a short time after hezbollah claimed responsibility for firing antitank missiles towards israel. we have more on how the group is reacting to the israel/hamas conflict. >> reporter: in may of this year, hezbollah put on a show for the media, acting out perhaps a future operation. leaving no doubt who the foe would be. that was then. this is now. hezbollah posts almost daily videos of their attacks on israeli positions along the border. from the day after hamas' surprise attack on israel, a low-intensity war has been raising against israel and hezbollah. with israeli forces battling hamas inside gaza, rebels launching missiles. it's a multi-front war. saturday hezbollah leader proclaimed that the region's 75-year struggle with israel has reached a turning point. regardless of what they do, after october 7th, israel is a different israel, existential, strategically, historically and in terms of security. the day he made the speech saw the heaviest cross border exchanges yet. the weapons both sides are using ever more deadly reaching ever deeper into one another's territory. speaking with troops near the border, the israeli defense minister warned what we're doing in gaza we can also do in beirut. it's a slow burn for now. but it could at any moment explode into something much bigger. and certainly the words coming out of israel do indicate there is an escalation on the way. this evening, the chief spokesman from the israeli military came out and said that the israeli military has -- i'm going to read this, operative plans to change the security situation in the north. the security situation will not remain such that residents of the north will not feel safe to return to their homes. jim? >> all right, ben wedeman, thank you very much for that. president biden and china's xi jingping are set to meet. wewe'll break k down the g goal that meeeeting just t ahead. president biden is preparing for a meeting with china's xi jingping in san francisco later this week. the meeting comes as the two superpowers try to find common ground on a multitude of global threats. jake sullivan previewed one goal the white house hopes to achieve. >> when it comes to managing the relationship, ties and communications between our two militaries are critical. the chinese have basically severed those communication links. president biden would like to re-establish them and he will look to the summit as an opportunity to try to advance the ball on that. >> mark stewart is our correspondent in beijing. mark, what does xi jingping want to accomplish? what do you make of the very big meeting coming up? >> first and foremost, we have to point out that the fact that this meeting is even taking place is a very big deal. i remember earlier in the year we were on the air together right after the u.s. shot down one of those chinese balloons making a very frosty relationship even colder. yet things have moved forward. time, you could argue, heals in a way. as far as military issues like jake sullivan brought up, for china, this is all about setting barriers, setting red lines, if you will. especially when it comes to taiwan and to u.s. surveillance, the skies over the taiwan straits and the south china sea. there is room for compromise and goodwill, especially on economic issues. expect xi jingping to open the welcome mat to the u.s. especially at a time when many american businesses have feel they have faced crackdowns while doing business here in china, expect for him to encourage more foreign direct investment. but above all, in many ways, this is preventing future diplomatic meltdowns. that's going to be a big goal here. it's something i talked about with one longtime china observer, let's take a listen. >> the u.s. prc relationship could potentially spiral out of control and i think beijing recognizes it's probably not going to be in beijing's interest for that to happen either. >> and looking at things from china, for xi jingping, this is a chance for him to look strong in front of the chinese people especially as china deals with so many different domestic issues. and then from a broader picture, as a chance for xi jingping to really come across as almost a leader on the world stage. we've been hearing a lot of discussion from xi jingping himself about creating this new world order, almost an alternative to the west and to the united states, that way of doing things. and in recent weeks, we have seen him meet with vladimir putin, with syria's ba president and now president joe biden. >> we'll be watching this big meeting coming up. we appreciate it. let's continue the conversation right now with. we did hear jake sullivan say military communication the at the top of the agenda for the u.s. obviously there have been a number of incidents recently highlighting this deed. help us walk through why this is so important right now. >> jim, what i tell you is what mark said just now is exactly on target. the relationship between the united states and china is going to be the key diplomatic and military challenge of this century. how the u.s. addresses this, how president biden addresses this during the meeting later this week could be the difference in the asia pacific theater and as well as the u.s. influence around the world. jim, not a lot of people know this, but china has turned from a regional approach to a global power. an example, europe is monitoring what china is doing, africa is monitoring what china is doing, and, in fact, africa has become the biggest trading partner with china with over 10,000 chinese firms currently operating throughout the continent. the value of chinese business there since 2005 is close to $2 trillion with about 300 billion more in current investme investment. you're talking about a china that is looking to become a world power. >> and one subject we don't talk about as much as we probably should with everything that's going on in israel right now is the war in ukraine. obviously china is watching what takes place in ukraine and there are concerns that china could draw lessons from vladimir putin if he's allowed to get away with taking over large chunks of ukraine when it comes to taiwan. i have to think that the president and xi jingping are going to have maybe at least an uncomfortable conversation to some extent about taiwan. >> i think there's going to be a lot of uncomfortable conversations this week, jim. you hit it right on track. but what i would also say, china has been very delicate in the way they've dealt with europe during putin's invasion of ukraine. because they don't want to lose their customers there. so coming down on one side or the other would cause them some problems. but, yes, the only difference what i would say, jim, is that the chinese military is so significantly different than the russian military. it is not -- it is well led, it is large, and it has a lot of modern equipment and it knows how to use it from a standpoint of doctrine, training and leadership. so i think we should be concerned about the potential actions of china towards taiwan and that's going to be interesting as we head into 2024 and elections taking place in taiwan. >> yeah, a lot of reporters covering this meeting are going to be going through the readouts to see what was discussed about taiwan, what went on there when that subject came up. touchy subject, indeed. general, let's talk about the breaking news tonight out of what's taking place in gaza, the white house saying that a 3-year-old american child is among the hundreds of others being held hostage by hamas. what do you make of these negotiations, if they're even going on right now, they're said to be going on right now, to create some sort of long pause or cease-fire? i know you kind of get into a semantics game there as whether you talk about pauses or cease-fires. that would be long enough to try to get some of these hostages out, in particular, the children, the elderly and so on. >> as prime minister netanyahu has said repeatedly, there's no cease-fire on the horizon. israel will continue to attempt to do humanitarian pauses to get food, gasoline, so forth into the palestinians within gaza. but truthfully, jim, all of this just goes to the normal operations of a terrorist group. they will try and do things to divide nations that are fighting against them. so taking hostages from all the nationalities they have and i think the -- the number is upward of 30 different nationalities, hostages that hamas has taken, causes that dynamic of, hey, israel has to stop the operations so we can try and get the hostages out. but that's part of the plan by hamas. they want people calling on israel to stop the dynamics of an operation, but at the same time hamas wanted israel to come into gaza. so this is an attempt to embarrass the nation of israel. they're doing a pretty good job of it based on the fact that we have so many people revolting against the number of injuries and death that is have occurred in palestinian. so it is part of their playbook. what i don't think we're going to see a release of a massive number of hostages, but i think hamas will play the various countries other than israel who they have hostages from. so in other words, there could be an attempt to slowdown israelis' operation by giving up two, three, four hostages to countries other than israel. i've said that from the very beginning. it's very difficult for hamas to do that, but i think that's the game they're playing to keep people on edge. >> and, you know, also tonight we're learning of these u.s. air strikes against iranian-affiliated targets in eastern syria again. what do you make of this? this is continuing to happen. obviously the u.s. is trying to send the iranians a message. it sounds as though when we were talking to oren lieberman that u.s. service members are coming under attack by these affiliated groups and the u.s. has no choice. they have to retaliate and try to take out these targets. >> yeah, i think what you're going to see, jim -- and having spent a lot of time in the middle east and seeing these iranian proxies continually doing the rocket attacks, drone attacks, that's part ofary mode of their mode of operation as well. what i think we're going to see is an increasing exponential of proportionality. as long as these rocket and drone attacks continue against u.s. service members or bases that aren't hitting, the u.s. is going to continue to strike with precision the pmfs and with more effort, i guess, and more accuracy to strike more and more of these targets. it's difficult because it is a proportional response to get them to stop. but it shows how rabid some of these pmf groups are. they'll continue to launch these imprecise weapons against u.s. military bases and not worry about the response that we're doing. >> and, general, i really wanted to get into the subject with you about the hospitals. we've had a number of conversation with israeli defense force officials, they have maintained that the hospitals are sitting on top of tunnel networks that are controlled by hamas. when we talk to palestinian doctors who are operating in some of these hospitals, we spoke with one earlier, he said, we don't know what's going on underneath the hospital. it just gets to the opaqueness of what is going on in gaza in terms of understanding what is taking place there. what is your sense of it in terms of what is going on around these hospitals? >> i certainly haven't seen any of the more recent intelligence, jim, on what's underneath the hospitals. the last time i was in israel, i was shown intelligence that showed those tunnel complexes were building. and knowing how a terrorist group operates, it only makes sense that they would build their command and control infrastructure, their barracks underneath these kind of facilities. hospitals, schools, infrastructure plants, libraries, mosques, because that's the way terrorists do business. to draw the west, if you will, across the board israel, the united states and others, to attack them, to destroy them. israel has said their purpose, their intent and purpose is to destroy hamas. you can't do that unless you go after these tunnel complexes because that's where they live and that's where they operate, and they have purposely put those under the kinds of areas that if they're used as a target, it will draw the world's ire. it will cause people to revolt, to say civilians are being injured. but we also have to remember, the palestinian doctors that are complaining work under the hamas ministry of health. and so we're getting the kind of propaganda, i think, from those doctors and even doctors without borders who feel like they're working in a hospital that should be safe not realizing what is underneath those facilities. and i think we're going to see israel increasingly give out intelligence that says here's what's under these facilities and this is why we have to attack them. >> all right, general, always appreciate the insights. thanks so much. >> thanks, jim. and d more on n the breaeak nenews when wewe come backck. health officials are warning of the dire situation inside hospitals in gaza. we have more and a warning some of the images you're about to see are graphic and disturbing. >> reporter: these are the sounds of the final gasps from gaza's collapsing health care system. medical staff in gaza city working under near relentless israeli bombardment for over a month. but now these frantic voices tells its own gut-wrenching story. the hospital, the second largest in gaza, has now collapsed. the hospital no longer operational, according to the palestinian red crescent society. but these scenes are all too familiar across the gaza strip. the vast majority of hospitals here are already completely out of service. the palestinian health ministry says. those remaining now on a cliff edge. >> there was a direct injury in the head. internal bleeding and we can't do surgeries. no surgeries. no oxygen. no electricity. we work manually. we are using a manual resuscitator. it is a clear injury, it needs an urgent surgery, a life-saving one. he's less than a year old. >> reporter: remarkably, this baby survived, but his father who is in the very same building when an israeli air strike hit did not. at gaza's largest hospital, officials say newborn babies had to be moved and that at least three babies in the neonatal unit died after a generator was damaged in an israel strike. cnn has reached out to the israel military for comment. the idf regularly says it is targeting hamas. but doctors here s