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CNN International: Qatar to Announce Soon When Israel-Hamas Truce Will Begin; Israel: No Hostages Will Be Released Before Friday; Gaza Health Ministry: Al-Shifa Hospital Director Arrested by IDF. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired November 23, 2023 - 04:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[04:00:21]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news

MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us from all around the world. I'm Max Foster, live in London with our breaking news coverage of the Israel-Hamas war.

Qatar's foreign ministry says it will announce in the next few hours when the truce between Israel and Hamas will begin. A diplomatic source says it's likely to start Friday now, midnight local time at the earliest. The news comes after Israel said on Wednesday that the expected release of hostages and the pause in fighting with Hamas were delayed. Both U.S. and Israeli officials pointed to logistical details for that delay.

Ahead of the expected truce, Israeli forces continued around -- continued ground and air operations, striking parts of northeastern and central Gaza. The Palestinians say areas further south were also hit.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed confidence the deal would go into effect.

Here's what a top White House official told CNN.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KIRBY, U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL COMMUNICATIONS COORDINATOR: Well, we're not going into this with hubris or arrogance or ultra confidence. We're grateful that we were able to get the deal secured. But as I said, it all now comes down to execution. And so, we're -- nobody -- nobody is doing any touchdown dancing here. There's still work to be done, and a long way to go.

We're hoping -- hoping that implementation will start sometime in the next 24 hours or so, and then continue for the next few days. Both the days of a pause where there will be no fighting, so humanitarian assistance can go in at an accelerated rate, and of course, getting all those 50-plus hostages out.

And they'll come out in increments. They won't all come out altogether. And that's why this is a multi-day process.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: So, the agonizing wait continues for hundreds of families, for their loved ones to come home.

CNN chief international correspondent Clarissa Ward reports from Tel Aviv.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Even as the first batch of hostages is poised to be released, they are not backing down.

Look in their eyes, this protester says. Tell them that every day you are doing everything that it takes.

For 47 days, friends and family members and supporters of the estimated 240 hostages have demanded the Israeli government prioritize bringing them home.

Here they gather in support of Hadas Kalderon whose children, 12-year- old Erez and 16-year-old Sahar, were taken on October 7th along with her ex-husband.

Tell me what you're going through now. Are you hopeful? Are you anxious? Are you in denial, denial?

HADAS KALDERON, MOTHER OF HOSTAGES: I smile and a laugh and then I cry and then I --

WARD: Do you know anything? Have you heard anything?

KALDERON: Nobody knows anything. Nobody. Nobody. No information. I have to pray. We have to pray.

WARD: Kalderon is not the only parent desperately waiting and hoping for news that has yet to come.

Nine-year-old Emily Hand's father Thomas was initially told his daughter was killed on October 7th only to get the news that she may be alive and held in Gaza.

I want to jump through the roof with hope, Hand told us today about the possibility prospect of Emily's release. But I also have to keep a level head emotionally.

It's a challenge Kalderon is all too familiar with.

KALDERON: Every day is tough. Every day is all day tough. I don't want to think, I don't want to think because it's too painful.

You know, when they start to ask me like interview like you show me the picture of your child and tell me what was last thing they told you, it's breaking my heart because the last thing they told me was, mom, be quiet. I love you. He was worried for me.

WARD: When you think of, God willing, your babies come home and are part of this release, do you worry about how they will be changed by what they experienced?

KALDERON: They are changed. They won't be the same. They got -- they have been kidnapped, broken away from their beds, from the house where it's a safe place. They kidnapped their innocence in this day.

WARD: At the central hostage square in Tel Aviv, prayers for those who will come home over the next few days and a promise to keep pushing for those who will not.

[04:05:01]

Clarissa Ward, CNN, Tel Aviv.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Eleni Giokos following developments from Cairo for us.

The other part of this deal is obviously the effort to get aid into Gaza. What happens to that?

ELENI GIOKOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, I think this has been one of the big issues since October 7th, is trying to get humanitarian aid into Gaza. And we are -- from what we've been hearing, I will give you the numbers, this is from the Egyptian press center, that over 2,000 tons of medical aid has been delivered through Rafah, 6,000 tons of food, 4,500 tons of water. That might sound like a lot, but this is just a trickle and the aid agencies have been really ringing the alarm bells in terms of the humanitarian needs on the ground.

What we are seeing right now I want to show you the images of those aid trucks lining up in Al Arish, heading towards the Rafah Border in anticipation for this four-day truce to try to get as much aid as possible into the Gaza Strip. We've seen this activity playing out for the last 24 hours. And, clearly, aid agencies are waiting to get that water, the food, the medical supply which by the way they are in dire need right now, across the health care sector.

We've also heard the harrowing stories from doctors that had to embark on surgeries without anesthesia. Also, amputations without anesthesia. One only wonders what it means for the patients, and also for the doctors themselves.

Listen to the U.N.'s Martin Griffin yesterday, he said they negotiated with the Egyptians in terms of getting aid into the Gaza Strip. The number of trucks, the amounts of fuel, the amounts of water, but the opening of the new crossing whether it happens or not, and basically creating those humanitarian lines, they say it all comes out with negotiations with Israel. So, Israel definitely has the final say.

The Norwegian Red Cross also categorically say that this four-day truce to get more aid into Gaza is not enough, they are calling for a full out cease-fire because we've been seeing the images of the displaced Palestinians, 1.7 million people are in dire need of food and water. You know, Max, you know, being in a hotel here in Cairo, we've bumped into some of the foreign nationals and dual passport holders and they've been evacuated from Gaza.

We met a family that had American passports and they were saying they couldn't find food and water for many days. We're talking about them having three little children, being stuck at the Rafah Border until they got their name on the list to eventually evacuate.

Importantly, and we have to say this, the two criteria to get out of Gaza right now, you either need to have two passports. You need to be a dual passport holder or foreign nationals or you need to be critically injured to be able to get out into Egypt. That is a scenario that's playing out.

For everyone else that is in Gaza right now, and the agencies have said this, they are running out of food, they are running out of water, and this will be a welcomed relief. We've seen those trucks, Max, hopefully, they get in as soon as possible.

FOSTER: What about the fuel situation? Hamas fuel will be in that delivery?

GIOKOS: Yeah. So, we don't know how much fuel would be in the delivery. But since November 21st, 378 tons of fuels have been delivered into Gaza. This was, of course, a really breakthrough moment because it was a sticking point, Israelis, of course, have been saying that any fuel that enters the Gaza Strip could end up in the hands of Hamas, but then we saw the breakthrough deal because the hospitals, to keep the generators going, to keep operations going need fuel.

Of course, also part of the blackouts is because the telco companies in Gaza didn't have any fuel for the generators, so won't be seeing fuel entering the Gaza strip. It's going to be tightly monitored, as it always is, go straight into the humanitarian agencies hands. They will decide how that will be distributed across the board. But the priority, of course, is the hospitals, and also getting the water pumps going, Max, for clean water.

FOSTER: Eleni in Cairo, thank you.

Well, joining me now from Ramallah in the West Bank is Bushra Khalidi, a policy lead for Oxfam.

Thank you so much for spending your time today. What are you hearing about the deal and where it may come through and you can start delivering that aid?

BUSHRA KHALIDI, POLICY LEAD, OXFAM: We were hoping, of course, for that to happen today, but what we are hearing that this delayed to tomorrow, so hopefully, the entry of the trucks, though, limited, will -- can start tomorrow for four days. You know, this pause is a welcome respite.

I have family in Gaza., I have my colleagues there. I hope they will be able to get sleep because that has been something that has been -- that we don't necessarily talk about, people are surviving on very little sleep, because of the relentless bombing and the relentless sound of drones that are constant over their heads.

[04:10:04]

So -- and we hope that also, it gives time to those families to grieve their relatives, and mourn their relatives, because in the last two months now, there has been really no time to do so.

But beyond that, any aid that enters in the next four days is not enough. And not nearly enough to meet the needs of 2.2 million civilians, half of which are children, especially after relentless bombardment in the last months causing immense suffering, destruction and injuries.

FOSTER: What are the rules around what you are allowed to take it and how much? You have a five-day window. You're obviously going to try to take advantage of that as much as you can. But what are the restrictions?

KHALIDI: In fact, the plan for the pause has not been communicated to the broader humanitarian country team responding. These are -- these have not yet been shared. So, it's unclear whether we will be able to deliver much needed aid in the north that has been besieged and completely sealed off by the IDF, from the south.

We don't know if there is going to be more fuel than the already agree quantity that only reflect a third of the needs per day and bearing in mind that this is every 48 hours, not every day coming into Gaza. So, there's no indication that these quantities will be increased. And again, there's no restoration of electricity, water or comms.

So, it's not just the generators or comms, it's also that there has been full comms blackouts not because of the fuel crisis but because of telecom lines have been turned off. So, really, the restoration of services, we also don't know if that's going to be restored for four days and turned off by Israeli authorities after four days. We're waiting to see.

FOSTER: You've also -- your staff also are facing a huge risk, aren't they, because it's going to be a very fractious truce, presumably could break at some point. Your people could be caught in the middle of it.

KHALIDI: Yeah. This is a worry for us. I mean, our staff right now, they are struggling to survive. They are hungry. They are thirsty and they're very tired.

They have not just been physically, mentally drained, but physically drained. You know, they don't have high energy level. So, we are not actually relying completely on our staff responds. We're hoping that teams of humanitarian workers mobilize and they will be allowed in.

This is also unclear as to whether, you know, extra medical teams, extra humanitarian workers will be allowed in. You have to understand that these people have been under relentless bombing for 48 days. How can they, you know, really meaningfully deliver humanitarian aid when they are trying to protect their own children and fend themselves to find food and any type of water for their children? It's an unprecedented situation as humanitarian workers are responding.

This is -- we've never seen a scale -- the scale of destruction in such a short amount of time and a response that has been completely obstructed and halted by Israeli authorities by closing the borders and using and limiting the humanitarian aids in.

FOSTER: Bushra Khalidi, in Ramallah, thank you.

KHALIDI: Thank you.

FOSTER: If you want information on how to help with humanitarian relief efforts for Gaza and Israel, do go to our website CNN.com/impact where you'll finalist of vetted organizations providing assistance. CNN.com/impact.

Just ahead, we're live in Tel Aviv with the latest from the spokesperson from the Israeli Defense Forces, on the hostage deal with Hamas. And so far, there's been no letup to the fighting in Gaza, ahead of an unexpected truce. We'll have details just ahead.

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[04:18:15]

FOSTER: We are waiting to hear about a new proposed time for a start of the truce between Israeli forces and Hamas. Qatar's foreign ministry says it will be announced in the coming, hours with the diplomatic, source telling CNN it will likely begin on Friday.

Hamas is expected to release at least 50 hostages of the hostage is believed to be held in Gaza. The U.S. has a working list to some individuals they believe are most likely to be released according to a source familiar with the matter.

Clare Sebastian joining us here in London.

First of all, what do you understand this delay to be about?

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's not 100 percent clear, but it totally doesn't see that anyone else thinking about it there's an actual exit essential promotion with the deal itself. It's more about execution, implementation, logistics, things like that.

And what we heard from Israeli official, Wednesday, was that there were rarely implementation details to be ironed out.

FOSTER: What's that mean?

SEBASTIAN: I think that surrounding sort of how to get the hostages out. It's not 100 percent clear. There was a suggestion as well in Israeli media that perhaps neither Israel nor Hamas had already signed this agreement yet, but it wasn't clear sort of how significant that was.

The White House said they needed an extra day to sort of minimize the chance of something going wrong and we're here now from the Qatari foreign ministry this morning that talks are still ongoing and progressing positively, So that sort of seems to take a step back from what we're hearing around a day ago. But it seems that no one is saying that the deal is about to collapse.

And it's still continuing down this path and according to the Qatari foreign ministry, the earliest, a truce from a diplomatic source to CNN, the earliest that a truce would start, would be midnight, local time, 5:00 p.m. on the U.S. East Coast. And we do understand that once this gets underway, it will progress with aligned with the deals that had already come to life. As you said, some 50 hostages over the -- over the space of some four days and a minimum of ten per day.

[04:20:04]

And then return, Hamas secure the release of some 150 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. The majority of which we understand are male teenagers and some women, along with more aid into Gaza, a pause in drone flights, things like that.

But, you know, it's fragile. They're still working on these logistics, and I think there are a lot of nerves around this.

FOSTER: And a huge amount of anxiety, obviously, for the families of the hostages, also for people living in Gaza because the fighting continues right up until the truce begins.

SEBASTIAN: Yeah, I mean, more explosions over Gaza we witnessed overnight, into the morning. We know that the IDF says that it's still actively striking Hamas targets, especially in the north, though we also heard from Palestinian accounts that they have been strikes in the South around Khan Younis and Rafah.

And, of course, it's not clear even though in the deal, there are sort of baked in, and understanding that it might be extended, that the four-day pause might be extended. There might be more hostage releases, more prisoner releases. It's not clear how far you can push this, right, because Prime Minister Netanyahu is still saying the fight continues, the war will continue. They still want to, as well as getting the hostages out, they want to finish the job of completely dismantling Hamas.

And on the flip side, Hamas is likely going to want to keep some hostages there to provide cover for these ongoing Israeli operations.

FOSTER: OK. Clare, thank you.

Joining me from Tel Aviv now, Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner, spokesperson for the Israeli Defense Forces.

Thank you as ever, Lieutenant, for joining us today.

Are you able to shed anymore light on these logistical issues that have been holding up the truce?

LT. COL. PETER LERNER, SPOKESPERSON FOR ISRAELI DEFENSE FORCES: I don't want to go into specific details. Obviously, the negotiations are ongoing, Max, and we would probably expect nothing to happen before Friday morning. So, tomorrow morning, we'll have to see.

And from our perspective, the IDF's perspective, of course, we would be holding our fire as the instructions of the government are issued, in accordance to the implementation of the framework, and that's what we will be doing.

We're instructing our forces to pursue and continue with the battle as we speak today, and we are continuing the fight against Hamas, a terrorist organization that launched the most brutal attack in our history, on our people.

FOSTER: And that will continue, obviously, into the beginning of the truce.

Does it move more into the south, in the meantime, as we head up to that truce?

LERNER: I think as we look, we're focused very much on the north. And we have been now for probably four weeks already with the extensive operation in the north, precisely because that is Hamas's center of gravity around its governance capability and so on.

And we have since the onset of this war made it very clearly that Hamas cannot be allowed to control and govern the Gaza Strip as a staging ground for attacks against Israel ever again. And this is why we are very much focused on northern Gaza Strip.

And specifically, I think it's important to know that yesterday we revealed the extent of Hamas's activities under Shifa Hospital, in the hospital itself. And I know it's just a developing issue. Every single day, we are seeing more and more of Hamas's tunnel, their capabilities, command and control capabilities, and revealing it to the world.

So I think it's important that we continue our operation and pursue Hamas wherever they are so that they can no longer ever wield that sort of death above our heads.

FOSTER: On the Al-Shifa Hospital, can you confirm that the IDF has detained the director?

LERNER: I've seen that this morning, I haven't got an official confirmation for you yet. I mean, it wouldn't -- after seeing what we've seen yesterday, and I saw that CNN also broadcast the images of the extent of tunnel network that Hamas had built beneath and connecting to the hospital premises, it makes a logical sense that he needs to be questioned at least, for -- he was in constant state of denial, saying that it doesn't happen.

How could a general manager of a hospital know -- not know about the extent of this tunnel system? So it makes complete sense, although that's not a confirmation, and

I'm still waiting for that from the forces on the ground.

FOSTER: The IDF, you showed us what you said was a hostage cell beneath the hospital. So, would the premise of that arrest be war crimes?

LERNER: Again, I don't know the specifics, and I have not -- I'm still waiting from the field to confirm the detention of him and I think the min -- at minimum, we need to see exactly what he can share with us about his knowledge. And I think this was what we need to move forward, of course.

It is a developing issue as we speak this morning, and as I said, I was relating to the reports coming out, not a confirmation, but it makes -- is absolutely reasonable that he needs to be asked at least a few questions about -- about what happens and what's happened in and around the hospital.

FOSTER: I was interviewing someone yesterday, interviewing someone later today as well -- families with hostages in Gaza.

[04:25:02]

It's an incredibly painful time for them, isn't it? This delay is absolutely horrific for them, waiting to see whether or not hostages will be released and then seen whether or not their family members being released. I mean, what reassurance can you give to those people back in Israel?

LERNER: I mean, obviously, this is heart-wrenching for the families of 236 people. I can't imagine being in their situation today and over the last almost 50 days now.

I would -- you know, our goals are to bring the hostages home, every last one of them. Our goal is to dismantle and destroy Hamas so that they could never have this power again.

The framework agreement that's currently being negotiated and hopefully will be put in place tomorrow may bring peace to some of the people. But obviously, it appears that it's going to continue, and therefore, we need to be very, very strong in moving forward in order to complete our mission on one hand, and help the families through this devastating time that they are going through.

FOSTER: Okay, Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner, appreciate your time. Thank you.

Now, the release deal does not spell out one adult male hostages will be free. Still to come, we'll speak with the father of the missing American Israeli soldier, as he awaits word on the fate of his son.

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