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CNN International: Father Of Former Hostage Emily Hand Speaks To CNN; Palestinian Min. Of Health In West Bank: Fighting Has Claimed About 14,800 Lives In Gaza; Rescuers On Verge Of Reaching 41 Workers Trapped In Tunnel; Blinken To Highlight Support For Ukraine At NATO Meeting; Ukrainian Commander Captures Battle From The Trenches; CNN Marks Third Year Of Environmental Education Initiative. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired November 28, 2023 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

MAX FOSTER, CNNI HOST: Hello and welcome to CNN Newsroom. I'm Max Foster in London. Just ahead, an extended truce between Israel and Hamas appears to be holding as more hostages are expected to be released, one of the very latest.

Plus, we'll be live in India where officials say rescuers are getting closer to freeing 41 workers trapped in a collapsed tunnel for 17 days.

Then CNN's annual call to earth day. This year's theme, Our Shared Home, explores the ties between cities and more distant natural spaces.

For two more days of calm, we are in day one of the two-day extension of the truce between Israel and Hamas. The key to continuing that truce is daily hostage -- is a daily hostage for prisoner exchanges. And it appears today's release is on course, with Israel confirming 10 names are on a list of hostages expected to be released today.

And it says it has drawn up a list of Palestinian prisoners who will be freed in exchange. That should happen in the coming hours. Qatar, which helped negotiate the truce, says it hopes to arrange additional extensions between Israel and Hamas. The Israeli government says it believes 173 hostages taken on October the 7th are still in Gaza.

Clare Sebastian tracking developments in the Middle East. I mean, it's early stages of this second phase of the truce --

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

FOSTER: -- but it's playing out positively it seems.

SEBASTIAN: So it seems to be continuing along the same rhythm of what we've seen for the previous four days, Israel saying overnight that it had received a list, it said, of 10 names that could potentially be released today by Hamas. That seems to put them on a slightly firmer footing, even than on Monday, when we saw there was a delay because Israel had protested according to sources, that the list did not contain mothers whose children were on the list.

This had happened on Saturday and caused a great deal of concern. So, look, this is open-ended, right? So as long as Hamas keeps releasing hostages, Israel says they will keep extending the truce as long as there are at least 10 Israelis released every day. But there are limitations on that. We understand that this agreement only covers women and children.

And according to the latest Israeli estimate of the 173 hostages that are still in Gaza, 45 are women, 6 are children. So there are limitations. Secondary to that is the idea that not all of them are physically in Hamas's custody. A diplomatic source briefed on the negotiations telling CNN that at least 40 are not being held by Hamas.

And we understand that includes a family, the Bibas family, among them a 10-month-old baby, the youngest of the hostages. Israel saying that even though Hamas may not have physical custody of these hostages, it is still their responsibility. They are still the de facto government in Gaza. It's their responsibility to locate them and to keep up their side of the deal.

FOSTER: OK, Clare, thank you.

Among the former hostages being released from the hospital is Emily Hand. Her father initially thought the little girl was killed in the October 7th attack. Then he learned that she was being held by Hamas. Emily, who turned nine in captivity, was among the hostages released on Saturday.

Thomas Hand has spoken with CNN throughout this ordeal. Now he tells our Clarissa Ward about the reunion with his daughter.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

THOMAS HAND, FATHER OF FMR. HOSTAGE EMILY HAND: They said that she should be here in a couple of minutes. I'm like, oh, I don't believe it. And all of a sudden the door opened up and she just ran. It was beautiful. Just like in -- just like I imagined it, you know, running together.

I squeezed, I probably squeezed too hard. It was only when she stepped back a little, I could see her face was chiseled like mine, whereas, before she left it was, you know, chubby, curly, young, kid face. Yes, she's lost a lot of body weight.

And the color, she -- I've never seen her so white. The other and the most shocking, disturbing part of meeting her was she was just whispering. I couldn't hear her. I had to put my ear on her lips, like this close, and say, what did you say? And (INAUDIBLE) I thought you were kidnapped.

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: She said I thought you were kidnapped.

[08:05:01] HAND: She thought I was in captivity. They thought they'd kidnapped me. She didn't know what the hell happened apart from that morning. So she's presumed everyone's kidnapped, or killed, or slaughtered, or she had no idea.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: The violence in Gaza has claimed about 14,800 lives. That's according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in the West Bank. Now, the pause in the fighting has highlighted the full scale of the devastation in the enclave, with entire neighborhoods left in ruins. Aid coming into Gaza, but it may be too little, too late. The World Health Organization says we'll see more people dying from disease than from bombardment if the health system isn't fixed.

We've learned the U.S. is flying three plane loads of critical humanitarian aid into Egypt, which will be brought into Gaza. Larry Madowo joins us now live from Cairo. Larry, in terms of the aid coming in, as we keep mentioning, it's not going to be enough. But what's going to be the impact of that?

LARRY MADOWO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's not going to be enough, but it's still critical to get this aid into Gaza. Since the beginning of this temporary truce, about 800 trucks of humanitarian aid have come into Gaza. Food, fuel, water, baby formula shelters, these are all necessary for people who are displaced.

The World Health Organization, as you mentioned, warning that more people might be killed from bombardments than -- from actually diseases breaking out than from the bombardments that they've been living through over the last 50 days. And the U.S. is now flying in three plane loads of more crucial humanitarian aid.

The first of those planes will be arriving here in Egypt tomorrow. There will be two more coming in. Aid has been a key part of this deal to release the hostages that was agreed upon between Israel and Hamas with the United States and mediated by Qatar and Egypt.

And it almost threatened to derail the whole thing on Saturday when Hamas was unhappy about how much aid was going, getting into northern Gaza. Because even though there's a lot of trucks lined up on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing, getting to cross, checkpointed, and then released and distributed across the strip is not an easy process.

And for a lot of people who finally have had a chance to locate family, to go to the markets, to try and find some food and fuel, they were just hoping there was going to be a longer pause in the fighting. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KHAN YOUNIS, RESIDENT (through translator): The biggest catastrophe that will only compound our pain more and more will be if the fighting resumes and if the truce is not extended. I call on all the world to stand by us to extend the truce and to create a ceasefire once and for all, because we've been through enough. It will be a tragedy, a catastrophe, if this aggression continues.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MADOWO: This truce includes a ceiling for how many humanitarian aid trucks can come in, 200. And today is the first of the two days of the extension. So if that ends, even this extra aid coming in might be very difficult for it to get into Gaza for so many people, 1.7 million people for displaced, Max?

FOSTER: Larry Madowo in Cairo, thank you.

Now, rescuers in India are just about 2 meters away now, we're told, from 41 workers trapped inside a tunnel for more than two weeks. Ambulances are standing by to take them to hospital. The men have been trapped since November the 12th after part of a tunnel they were building gave way, blocking their only exit.

CNN's Vedika Sud is live in New Delhi for us. Give us the update, Vedika.

VEDIKA SUD, CNN REPORTER: Max, undoubtedly, this is the final stretch, but what we don't know is how many hours it could still take to get these men out of that Himalayan tunnel that collapsed on the 12th of November. Today is day 17 and there's hope that they will be extracted any moment now, but I'm really not sure how long this moment is going to last.

The officials on the ground very positive that these men should be out in the next couple of hours. But the last two meters that you were talking about, this is going to turn out to be the most challenging 2 meters that we're talking about. It is this fragile ecosystem around really that they have to be very careful about.

This is a very fragile, ecologically fragile belt. After this tunnel collapse, there has been no exit for these men. The one single exit was blocked. Now, what we do know is, according to officials and a press conference that just wrapped up about 30 minutes back, that these men will be pulled out through a pipe, which is about 3 feet in width.

They're going to come out in stretchers on wheels. Now, that itself could be a challenge. What we're being told is it's going to take about three to five minutes to pull one person out at a time, which means we talk about 41 migrant laborers who trapped inside and about five minutes for each labor. That in itself would be a three-hour process.

[08:10:04]

We don't know what's going on inside. We know the rescuers are inside that pipe for now trying to get through the last 2 meters to these men. But like I said, it's already about 6:40 p.m. local time. This could happen perhaps by midnight. It could happen by tomorrow morning. We have to wait and watch.

But what we do know at this point is there's a huge crowd that's gathered outside this tunnel. There's media personnel, there are friends, their family members who have been standing by for 17 days and nights, hoping to see their people step out, their loved ones step out from that tunnel where they've been trapped.

They've been given food and water through pipes. They've been supplied oxygen through pipes. But this is, yes, the final lap. We don't know how long it's going to take to see that first man emerge from outside that pipe for now, Max.

FOSTER: OK. Vedika, back with you as soon as you get any update on that.

Now still ahead, a town in eastern Ukraine is at the center of round the clock attacks by Russian forces. We'll have rare footage of what it's like to be inside the Ukrainian trenches just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FOSTER: A NATO Secretary General says he's confident the U.S. would keep up its weapons deliveries to Ukraine as NATO foreign secretaries meet in Brussels this hour. America's top diplomat is Antony Blinken. He is there and he'll highlight the U.S.'s commitment to Ukraine.

Meanwhile, fierce fighting continues in eastern Ukraine, where Russian forces are trying to surround the town of Avdiivka.

CNN's Anna Coren spoke to a soldier and filmmaker who recorded an intense battle from the trenches.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANNA COREN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the pre-dawn light, a cacophony of military firepower fills the air. Incoming explosions, outgoing fire. As one of Ukraine's assault infantry units, the 47th Mechanized Brigade, tries to take back trenches in Avdiivka, captured by Russian forces.

We need drones, we need drones, says company commander Oleh Sentsov filming on his GoPro. The bastards are sitting in the tree line shooting at us, he explains.

In a rare interview, the former filmmaker, imprisoned by the Russians in 2014 for five years, tells me about last month's mission in what has become one of the hottest spots on the Eastern front.

OLEH SENTSOV, COMPANY COMMANDER, 47TH MECHANIZED BRIGADE (through translator): My goal was for people to watch this and know what this war is really like. Because it's very important to record it so that people know now and know later what a cruel and terrible war it is.

COREN (voice-over): One of his troops has been hit. They remove his body armor to reveal a bullet hole.

[08:15:04]

As they apply a chest seal, the team has even bigger problems on their hands. "Duck, the tank is coming", yells one of them. And then the war from the sky begins. "Drone, drone, FPV", cries a soldier. "I see it", another shouts back.

Minutes later, another soldier is hit. This time shrapnel to the legs. While talking on the radio, reporting on his injured troops, Oleh also gets hit, but doesn't realize for a few moments. "There's a small hole. I see the blood. You're bleeding", says the female paramedic.

Quickly patched up, Oleh remains focused and composed. Until suddenly, they hear the rumble of tanks. Oleh's unit tries to bury themselves in the earth as one drives by. The female paramedic cries, "We are surrounded, the tanks are shooting on us". Approximately 40 tons of terror so close, the earth is shaking.

Drone footage taken by the Ukrainian military shows four Russian tanks firing on the tree line. Positioned in those trees are three Ukrainian assault groups in trenches spread out over a kilometer. Oleh's unit is in the middle. They were the only ones to be spared.

SENTSOV (through translator): We failed to hold our position and had to retreat. We had injuries but survived. But the other two groups were almost completely destroyed.

This is the first time Oleh has failed a mission as commander in the almost two years that he's been fighting. The 47-year-old tells me he wants the world to know the truth on the front line.

A war this father of four is returning to this week.

Anna Coren, CNN, Kyiv.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: A memorial service honoring former First Lady Rosalynn Carter is set to take place in Atlanta in just a few hours time. Jimmy Carter, who is in a hospice, will attend the service for his late wife, along with President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden, Bill and Hillary Clinton and former First Ladies Michelle Obama, Melania Trump and Laura Bush.

The service is part of a series of events paying tribute to Mrs. Carter this week. She died on November the 19th at the age of 96. A private funeral will be held in Plains, Georgia tomorrow.

The first transatlantic flight by a commercial airliner powered by 100 percent sustainable fuel. It's now on its way to New York. The Virgin Atlantic jet took off from London's Heathrow Airport a little over an hour ago. The aviation fuel being used for the flight is mostly made from agricultural waste and used cooking oil. No paying passengers are on board, but the founder of Virgin Atlantic, Richard Branson, is amongst those on that flight.

Indonesia's Ministry of Environment and Forestry has released pictures of a newly born, critically endangered Sumatran rhino. The male calf, born at the country's Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary over the weekend, is the 10th individual of his species at the National Park. They are the smallest and hairiest living rhinos, with fewer than 80 left in the world. Conservationists fear the species is at risk of becoming extinct.

And we'll have more about animal conservation coming up as part of CNN's Call to Earth Day. I'll speak with a photographer and environmentalist who's dedicated her work to raising awareness on climate issues. Cristina Mittermeier will join me after a short break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:21:09]

FOSTER: Welcome to CNN's annual Call to Earth Day, an environmental initiative that celebrates a planet worth protecting. In a world where the majority of the population resides in big cities, this year, we are focusing on how our actions affect remote and wild regions with the theme, Our Shared Home.

Throughout the day, we'll take you around the world to tell stories of some incredible people working to protect endangered species and threatened ecosystems. My guest today is Cristina Mittermeier, a photographer and environmentalist, whose focus her work on raising awareness of climate issues as part of Rolex's Perpetual Planet initiative. She joins me now via Skype from Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. Beautiful place. Thank you so much for joining us.

I just want to -- we're going to see some of your images as they come up. But just explain the mission behind your work.

CRISTINA MITTERMEIER, SEALEGACY CO-FOUNDER: Yes, good morning and thank you for having me, Max. I have been a photographer for about 30 years. But before I was a photographer, I was a biologist, and I've been working in conservation my entire career. And we have two crises happening at the same time, biodiversity loss and climate change.

So I've dedicated my entire career as a photographer to reminding us that we live in a very small planet, we have nowhere else to go, we have to take care of it. Biodiversity is the engine that keeps us alive and climate is threatening us today more than ever.

FOSTER: And stills often portray that better than anything, don't they? If we look at the one we've got right now, someone looking out at this landscape on an ice cap.

MITTERMEIER: Yes, photography has the unique power of being an inviting entry point for large audiences. People usually feel intimidated or off put by science and politicians can be really polarizing. But photography is a way of inviting people to learn more, to remind people that we live on a beautiful place, a planet that gives us everything we need. And all we have to do is take care of it.

FOSTER: What's shocked you most as you've gone about your work over the years?

MITTERMEIER: I think public apathy is pretty shocking to me the under layer of -- I'm not going to call it ignorance, but people just are not very aware of what's happening out there. And most people don't understand just how close we are to really going off the cliff. So to me, that's shocking because this is the point where if we were flying on an airplane, the flight attendants will be telling us to brace for impact. And people are still ordering cocktails.

FOSTER: And what are the most hopeful things? I mean, it's not all bad, is it? There is some progress being made and give me some examples of that.

MITTERMEIER: Yes, there's incredible progress being made and there's thousands of small conservation groups working all over the world and they're holding the battle in the front lines. They need our support. Today is Giving Tuesday and people should be donating generously to the environment.

The Conference of the Parties on Climate Change is happening in the next couple of weeks in Dubai. The delegates, the representatives from countries from all over the world are going to go to negotiate climate deal. You as a voter have a role to play. Make sure that you know how your government is paying attention to climate and make sure that they know that you care.

FOSTER: People talk about, you know, the global temperatures. You -- there's so many of your images are of the sea and the ocean, aren't they? And it's harder to see the damage done there, and that's what your work often does. You show how rising temperature of the oceans is hugely damaging a bit more recent perhaps?

[08:25:01]

MITTERMEIER: Yes, it's becoming dire. It's becoming really serious. In some places, the ocean is over 100 degrees Fahrenheit warm, and that is completely abnormal. So what that does is it destroys the microscopic vegetation that flows in the ocean, the phytoplankton, which is what produces most of the oxygen we breathe.

And from there, it cascades down the entire ecosystem to, you know, really damage coral reefs, killed forests, whales. I mean, everything that lives in the ocean. So the only way that we can control the warming water in the ocean is by curbing emissions. There's no other way to do it. And so that should be priority number one.

FOSTER: We had the first transatlantic flight with sustainable fuel today. I don't know if you saw that, but, you know, flights are the big problem, aren't they, air travel?

MITTERMEIER: Oh, they're one of the big problems. You'd be surprised to hear that fashion is a huge problem. The shoes we wear, you know, they emit -- the production of sneakers and runners produces more emissions than the entire aerial fleet.

How we shop, how we vote, what we consume, all has an enormous impact. And people like to pass the buck on and say, you know, what I do doesn't matter, but it does. Your actions in a single day multiply 8 billion times make a huge difference. FOSTER: OK, Cristina Mittermeier, we really appreciate your time today and your beautiful photos. Thank you for sharing them.

MITTERMEIER: Thank you, Max.

FOSTER: Don't forget, you can always join in on the conversation at hashtag calltoearth. You can also read more about our initiative at cnn.com/calltoearth.

Thanks for joining me here on CNN Newsroom. I'm Max Foster in London. Call to Earth Day Special actually hosted by Becky. It's coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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