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CNN This Morning

Israel and Hamas Agree to Hostage Deal; Growing Hope, Anxiety for Families of Hostages after Deal; Winds, Rain, Snow Hit Northeast Ahead of Holiday. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired November 22, 2023 - 06:00   ET

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

KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: Should just be able to bask in that moment. Thirty-eight is not old!

[06:00:05]

CAROLYN MANNO, CNN SPORTS: I wanted to get your thoughts on this, because that just felt ice-cold. I mean, are you kidding me? The guy is just etching his name further and further into history. He stands alone on an island.

And you've got a reporter -- I love them all -- in the locker room, taking a shot at him being older than the coach? Come on.

HUNT: All right. You know what? You can still sink a three-pointer that way, man, that's all you need.

Carolyn Manno, thank you very much. Happy Thanksgiving to you.

MANNO: You, too. Happy Thanksgiving.

HUNT: And thanks to all of you for joining us, and happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrate.

I'm Kasie Hunt. Don't go anywhere. CNN THIS MORNING starts right now.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone.

Breaking overnight, Israel and Hamas have reached a breakthrough deal to release hostages in exchange for a four-day pause in fighting after weeks of painstaking negotiations.

The timing is expected to be announced sometime today. And Israeli sources say the first hostages could be released as early as tomorrow morning.

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: So here's what we know at this hour. The deal calls for a four-day truce. Hamas is set to release at least 50 women and children who were abducted during the October 7 terror attacks.

Now, in exchange, Hamas says Israel has agreed to release 150 Palestinian prisoners from jail. A U.S. official telling CNN three Americans could be among those hostages who are released. HARLOW: Three-year-old Abigail Edan, the youngest American hostage

being held by Hamas. Both of her parents were murdered in the October 7 terror attack.

Abigail's family tells CNN that they are hoping that she will be released in time for her fourth birthday, and that is this Friday. The timing, though, for all of this, very fluid.

HILL: And we should point out, we are still seeing large explosions rocking Northern Gaza. And last night Qatar saying a pause in the fighting would be announced within 24 hours.

Under the terms of this deal, that four-day pause in fighting can be extended. An extra day could be added for every ten additional hostages released by Hamas.

HARLOW: We have team coverage this morning from the White House to Tel Aviv. Let's start with our colleague, Oren Liebermann. He is live in Tel Aviv.

And what welcome news this is, certainly, but has not happened yet. How is it being received in Israel?

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Poppy and Erica, this is generally broadly supported here. And I say that from the perspective of the families of the hostages with whom we have spoken and at least according to the reports we're seeing and the numbers we have seen from the Israeli public. This is something they were waiting for, the first release of hostages.

It is what one family told us the beginning of what they hope will be a process. Fifty women and children opens the door and builds a structure, a framework to continue this process and try to release more hostages if the pause in fighting holds and if this process works out.

Crucially, we're not there yet, and the pause in fighting has not begun. And that's part -- and that's because the last part of the Israeli legal and political process is right now happening.

After the full government vote late last night, or I should say early, early this morning, there's a 24-hour window in which someone can file an appeal to the Supreme Court to try to stop it.

Once that clock runs out, then the government can announce that a ceasefire has begun. The release of Israeli hostages, women and children held in Gaza, can begin. The release of 150 Palestinian women and children held in Israeli jails can begin.

Crucially, Israel put out a list earlier today of 300 Palestinian women and children held in Israeli jails. So it seems to be saying, Look, there's an offer here after this first 50 Israeli hostages. If you release ten more Israeli hostages, we can continue this on a day- by-day basis.

So at least that window is there. Certainly, the international community trying to push this into something broader than just a single hostage exchange.

HILL: And I take it they want to get beyond that by putting that out there, having this 300 number just noted.

HARLOW: What is the IDF on the ground doing in Gaza now, in anticipation of this?

LIEBERMANN: So as of right now, the fighting still continues. An IDF spokesperson came on our air last night and said, When we get the order from the political leadership to stop fighting, that a ceasefire is in place or that it's about to come into effect, then we'll stop fighting. But until then, the fighting continues.

And we've seen that with the explosions over Gaza. Neither side has announced, hey, we're not -- we're not fighting at this moment, so there is still a war going on.

And Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised last night, even as he pushed this agreement through the war cabinet, the security cabinet, and then the cabinet itself, that the war will continue. Although there's a pause in fighting and the IDF will take defensive positions inside of Gaza, once that pause is over, the fighting resumes.

Also come back on one more point on the 300, if I may for a second, of those Palestinian prisoners. Israel released a list that it was interesting to look at that list. Many of them held for what are considered relatively minor charges. So for example, throwing stones, the transfer of weapons, support of a terror organization.

[06:05:05]

From my brief look through the list, it looks like some are members of Hamas, according to Israel. Some are members of other organizations like Islamic Jihad, and some aren't members of any organization. It seems the vast majority are men between 16 and 18 years old. I'll take a more in-depth look at the list, but it seems there are very few women on that.

It's unclear who gets to choose which of those Palestinian prisoners are released. And frankly, which of the Israeli hostages are released.

HILL: Yes. Both important questions.

HARLOW: Oren Liebermann, thanks so much, in Tel Aviv for us.

Well, right now, the families of the American hostages, as you can imagine, are anxiously waiting for word as to whether their loved ones will, in fact, be among those being released.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYA ROMAN, COUSIN OF HOSTAGE YARDEN ROMAN: My family, like all the other families, is going to go through a terrible week. We don't know if Yarden, my cousin, is going to be amongst those released in this round. ANAT MOSHE SHOSHANY, GRANDDAUGHTER OF ISRAELI HOSTAGE: I really do

hope to see someone walking out of there, like, and to it will be just -- I think it will fill us with hope for the others, first of all, and for a chance. We want a chance to see our loved one back.

LIZ HIRSH NAFTALI, GREAT-AUNT OF HOSTAGE ABIGAIL MOR EDAN: There's nobody that's giving up hope. It's just that we actually need to see Abigail come out, and then we will be able to be -- to believe it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: A senior U.S. official telling CNN at least ten Americans remain unaccounted for. The Biden administration is determined to get everybody home.

CNN's M.J. Lee is live for us this morning at the White House with some of that new reporting.

M.J., walk us through a little bit more of what you've learned over the last 24 hours about how this deal came together.

M.J. LEE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, all day yesterday, we were talking about Abigail Edan, the 3-year-old American citizen toddler and the hope that she could be among the first 50 hostages that are released.

But now U.S. officials say that they know of at least two other American citizens, two women. So the hope now is that there could be three American citizens that are in the mix of the women and children that are first released in this first phase of the process.

But as you say, Erica, there are ten Americans that are unaccounted for right now. And what isn't clear is could there be, for example, adult men in the mix who wouldn't be counted in that first phase? And how would the U.S. government try to get them out.

And what they have said is that they believe this deal is incentivized in such a way as Oren was just talking about, so that after the first 50, Hamas would have an incentive to continue releasing more hostages.

But obviously, this is a very slow process. And as far as the women and children are concerned, the ones that will be released, there is a very long road ahead of them in terms of medical attention and making sure that they can actually safely get out of Gaza, as well.

HARLOW: M.J., you have fascinating reporting this morning that everyone should read, by the way, on CNN.com, with all of these details about the weeks leading up to this and just how integral and how involved top-ranking Biden administration officials were in getting to this place. What can you share with people this morning?

LEE: Yes, you know, we're just learning so much more about the weeks and weeks of painstaking negotiations between the U.S., Israel and Hamas and Qataris, of course, to try to get to this point.

And basically, soon after October 7, just to put it in plain English, top-secret level of communication channel was created among a small group of White House officials and Israeli and Qatari officials to basically try to communicate with Hamas and negotiate with them about the hostages.

We saw last month that two American citizens were released, and when that happened, U.S. officials basically felt like, OK, we now have a model for trying to get out a larger group of hostages. They felt like there was an effective method for actually negotiating with Hamas, even if that process was incredibly delicate and slow.

But the challenges that they confronted were incredibly immense. For example, we were told that Hamas basically refused for a very long time to offer any identifying information about the hostages: their gender, their nationalities, their age.

And that ended up being such a sticking point that, at one point, the parties felt like they were actually getting pretty close to a deal and even discussed Israel potentially delaying its ground invasion. But they decided not do that, because they weren't buying what Hamas was selling at the time.

They still weren't giving any proof of life, any of this identifying information. They didn't buy their argument that they needed a pause in order to identify these hostages. So Israel goes ahead with the ground invasion on October 27 anyway.

And then there was a point in recent days when Hamas just went dark. It stopped negotiating, stopped responding. And when they finally resurfaced, we are told that they demanded that the IDF pull out their forces of the raid in al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza. Obviously, IDF didn't do that.

[06:10:10]

But you can see now, as we start to get a clearer picture of how all of this unfolded, why officials all along had stressed so much that things were so delicate, so tenuous. And they almost just didn't want to get their hopes up, because they truly felt like things could fall apart at any moment.

HILL: Yes, it is. It is a fascinating look at all of those steps and those tenuous moments, as you pointed out.

M.J., just incredible reporting over the last 24 hours. Thank you.

HARLOW: And joining us in our next hour, someone who was directly involved in these negotiations, principle deputy national security advisor Jon Finer.

HILL: And in our 8 a.m. hour, we'll be joined by the family of the 3- year-old American hostage, Abigail Edan.

HARLOW: New overnight, the U.S. military retaliating after multiple close-range ballistic missiles were fired at an air base in Iraq. We have details on what is clearly growing escalation in the region. That's ahead. HILL: And while you were sleeping, a big announcement from OpenAI, which may make you feel like you've got whiplash this morning. Just days after his board ousted the CEO, Sam Altman, sparking an uprising from employees, there's yet another development this morning. Those breaking details, ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HILL: We are following breaking news out of Israel and Gaza, where hostage exchanges could get underway as soon as tomorrow, following that breakthrough deal.

[06:15:06]

New overnight, Israel has released now a list of 300 Palestinian prisoners who could ultimately be freed in exchange for the hostages being held by Hamas.

HARLOW: Joining us now, former White House foreign policy adviser in the George W. Bush administration, Dan Senor. He's also the author of a fantastic new book, "The Genius of Israel: The Surprising Resilience of a Divided Nation in a Turbulent World."

Dan, thanks so much for being here on a morning like this. You're waking up to this news, and you're thinking, Thank God for those families.

DAN SENOR, AUTHOR, "THE GENIUS OF ISRAEL": Right.

HARLOW: But you also have a lot of questions. Is this a good deal?

SENOR: Look, the Israeli officials I've spoken to and the Israeli families I've spoken to -- including one family in particular that has a hostage, not one who will be a part of this exchange -- argue that this would not have happened, had Israel's advance into Gaza not been as effective as it has been.

This is not what Hamas wanted to do. this is not the deal Hamas wanted to do.

And So Hamas wanted to hang onto those hostages, which they viewed as currency, for as long as possible. Because Hamas is under so much pressure, they have to do this deal. And Israel still can obviously resume in a matter of days.

HARLOW: Dan, what do you mean effective? Because there have been thousands of civilian casualties. Do you mean effective in how many Hamas fighters it's taken out?

SENOR: Hamas. If you think about the thousands of Hamas fighters that Israel is trying to wipe out and the pressure it's putting on Hamas commanders, both political and military commanders, the architects of the attack, they are on the move.

And Israel has -- so in that sense, Israel has been effective. Of course, there's been collateral damage, as there always is in war. I think Israel is bracing for a much different -- much more difficult

advance into Gaza.

So Hamas is under pressure militarily and, therefore, has to do this deal. And there is a sense that the world is recognizing the depravity of what Hamas did on October 7.

And Hamas may not have anticipated the reaction to holding women and children. It's almost a concession by Hamas. This is a problem for us. We have to give back the women and children.

That said, the risk is what happens after these four or five days. What happens when the 50 hostages are released. Does Hamas say, All right, we'll give you ten more. We'll give you ten more. We'll give you ten more. And is this really just a -- is Israel being sort of tricked into a slow walk into a ceasefire?

HILL: And so that's one of the questions. And among the resistance, right, which we know from the far-right national security minister. He said, Look, this is a very big, big mistake.

And in his sense, there were concerns about who could be released in terms of prisoners, what that could then lead to. Benjamin Netanyahu though is addressing that. I want to play a little bit of what he said and get your take on it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER (through translator): All the security forces supported fully. They understood that not only will the war effort not only be compromised, on the contrary, this will allow the IDF to prepare for the continuation of the fighting. And I would like to make it clear here again, the war continues. The war will continue until we achieve all of our goals.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: I read that as him saying some of the concern had been with this pause, every time there's a pause, and if the pause continues to drag out, that just gives Hamas time to regroup, to get everything back in order.

He seems to be saying, Hey, you know what? We get to do the same thing. We're coming back stronger.

SENOR: Look, there is some truth to that. Going into the South is a whole other operation. Southern Gaza is much more complicated. Some Israelis I've spoken to said, We could benefit h=from having a few days to get organized. Hamas also has a few days to get organized.

Again, the Israeli leadership tends to believe that the military pressure to give up hostages and Israel could benefit from a few day.

The one community or constituency we're not talking about in this conversation is the Israeli public. And this is gut-wrenching for the Israeli public. Just to put it in context, if you compare Israel's population to the

U.S. population, so for every Israeli, there's about 35 Americans, given the differential in size.

So if we're talking about 50 hostages, women and children, being released, that would be like 1,750 American women and children being held hostage and being released.

There's still another 40 -- the equivalent, in American terms, 40,000 hostages.

So just this touches all of Israeli society, which is why, even if Israel has to make -- give up a little bit on military effectiveness, there's a sense in Israeli society that it's worth it.

HARLOW: What about the other hostages and how did Bibi get from just as recently as last weekend, saying way, no pause, no how, to yes, four days and maybe more?

SENOR: I think a few things. One, I think that its focused on the women and children, is important. Again, imagine 1,750 American women and children being held. It touches every part of Israeli society, and the pressure had been building internally.

And, B, a sense that they can still resume military operations in a few days. And they can, you know, they can still continue to be very effective in a few days. So he felt that he wasn't giving up that much.

[06:20:02]

Now, again, I tend to agree with that, if it's really limited to four or five days. If suddenly, they say ten more hostages and another day; ten more hostages, another day; and then you get slow-walked into what is effectively a soft ceasefire, that's a very dangerous situation for Israel.

One other thing I should say that is important to Netanyahu, which he got, was Red Cross access. The Red Cross has not --

HILL: Into Gaza.

SENOR: Into Gaza to see the other hostages. Make sure they have medical care, see how they're doing and be able to report back.

HILL: And that information is going to be key, right? Not only for so many families but I would say for the Israelis, for so much of the world to actually understand what they have.

SENOR: This is so unprecedented for hostages in a war-like situation, for the Red Cross to not have access.

By the way, shame on the Red Cross for not pushing for it. Normally the Red Cross is pushing aggressively to get access. They were not pushing for access. The Israeli government was asking for the Red Cross get access, and they made Red Cross access central to part of this deal.

HARLOW: So we have -- that's something we want to know a lot more about. We have Jon Finer from the White House will join us in about an hour so we'll try to get more details on that. Thank you.

SENOR: Thanks, guys.

HARLOW: Appreciate it.

HILL: So just what will it take to move these hostages out of the warzone? Those logistical challenges, we're going to dig into that when it comes to escape (ph) from jail, just ahead.

HARLOW: And if you are heading out on the road or the airport for the Thanksgiving holiday, what you need to know about this major storm impacting travel for millions of Americans. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:25:45]

HARLOW: It is the busiest travel day of the year. I'm happy to be seated (ph).

HILL: I was going to say the same thing.

HARLOW: Grounded. And the weather is not looking so great everywhere. Heavy rain and winds will continue in the Northeast. The storm system that will also bring snow to New England.

Jason Carroll standing by at New York's LaGuardia Airport, who is also -- Jason is also staying grounded this holiday, very, very wisely.

Allison Chinchar is tracking the storms.

Jason, let me start with you. What does it look like this morning?

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I have to tell you, not too bad. And you know I've done this story a lot of times. And I have to tell you, I haven't seen an airport looking this good since I've been doing this.

Look behind me here. A few lines behind me here, the travel board pretty much says it all when you look at the departures board here: on time, on time, on time.

When you consider you've got this weather system moving through the area, when you consider that TSA is predicting that this is going to be the busiest Thanksgiving holiday travel season on record. Expecting to screen some 30 million travelers through the Thanksgiving travel weekend.

We did a check, my producer and I, of the airports, you guys. LaGuardia, just about five delays here. JFK, 25 delays. Really not bad. Newark, they were looking at just 12 delays. I mean, when you consider all that I've told you, again, things are

looking pretty good out here. The travelers that we spoke to say they took all of the warnings that they heard about before they came out here to the airport. Here's what they had to say about it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEFFREY MOORE, TRAVELER: Yes, wanted to make sure that I was early. It was the earliest flight I could actually get on. Because usually this -- I don't think that I ever remember traveling on this day because of all the horror stories I've heard. So, yes, hopefully, knock wood everything will good and it will be a happy Thanksgiving.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARROLL: And the weather system that we were talking about, that's supposed to be moving out of the area later this morning. When we do see travel delays at the airports, guys, they usually sort of accumulate as the morning drags on. So again, I don't want to jinx it --

HILL: Yes, please don't.

CARROLL: -- but right now, things are looking pretty good.

HILL: All right. We'll cross our fingers. We will hope that, for everyone's sake, it stays that way.

The roads, I have to say, my roads coming in this morning, rough. O dark 30. A little rough. We know millions of people are soon going to be hitting the roads. And in addition to the airports, meteorologist Allison Chinchar sticking by.

Give us a sense of these storms, Allison, and how that could impact travel throughout the day.

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, good morning.

Yes, the biggest issues right now are really focused mainly along the East Coast, up and down the Eastern Seaboard.

Now, on the South side, you've got rain. You've got some very gusty winds and a few thunderstorms mixed in here, basically from Florida all the way up through Virginia.

On the North side, it's a little bit of everything. You've got some snow. You've got rain/snow mix, even a bit of freezing rain and then also the gusty winds.

Yes, we're starting to see it end across portions of Philadelphia and New York, but still dealing with some issues around Hartford, Boston, and especially interior. That's where we've got that rain and even a bit of freezing rain.

Snow totals here, where you've got these advisories, about 6 inches. Obviously, when you get higher in elevation, the Green and White Mountains, then you're talking closer to a foot.

Yes, as this system progresses Eastward, we are going to start to see things drying out slowly but surely as we head into the afternoon. And then, by Wednesday evening, pretty much most of the East Coast finally starts to see dryer conditions.

But the wind is going to stick around. So do keep that in mind, especially if you're driving. That could end up causing some issues there.

Then we fast forward to actual Thanksgiving day. The Eastern portion of the country looks nice. It's now the Western U.S. that starts to begin to pick up some issues.

We've got this next system sliding in. It's likely going to bring rain and snow to cities like Denver eventually towards Salt Lake City, as well.

The heaviest snow obviously going to be across portions of the inter- mountain West and those temperatures a little bit on the cool side.

Then for Friday, a lot of folks, they want to get out, maybe do some Black Friday shopping. The bigger issues are going to be the Inter- Mountain West and also the central U.S., where we're going to start to see some new rain showers begin across portions of Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri.

HILL: All right. Allison, appreciate it. Thank you.

HARLOW: Coming up, what CNN has uncovered about the new house speaker, Mike Johnson, and his call to challenge.