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CNN This Morning

Israel and Hamas Agree to Hostage Deal, Four-Day Fighting Pause; Travelers Flock to Airports in Race to Get Home for Thanksgiving. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired November 22, 2023 - 07:00   ET

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

MAURA GILLESPIE, PRESS ADVISER, FORMER SPEAKER JOHN BOEHNER: I really think they need to be caught off with hypocrisy there, the contradictions, kind of putting forth by imposing their will on the people.

[07:00:06]

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: The real question is where is the court on this one. I mean, that's going to determine everything.

Thank you guys very much. We appreciate it.

CNN this morning continues right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Israel's cabinet voting to approve a hostage release deal.

BECKY ANDERSON, CNN ANCHOR: As delivered by Qatar and agreed upon by Hamas.

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The release of 50 women and children in exchange for a four-day pause in the fighting.

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN ANCHOR: 150 or so Palestinians held in Israeli jails will be released.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We actually need to see Abigail come out and then we will be able to believe it.

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: It is possible the U.S. says that three Americans could be released.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How would we feel if it is not our child?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We want a chance to see our loved ones back.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These children, women, babies, every minute matters.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CHIEF GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: This deal for the Israelis has been so controversial, all the people that it leaves behind.

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: This, a first major step, the first 50 coming over the course of four days.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Good morning, everyone. It's the top of the hour. We have team coverage on the big, breaking news this morning, Kaitlan Collins, Clarissa Ward in Tel Aviv. Israel and Hamas reaching a breakthrough deal to release hostages in exchange for a four-day pause in fighting. Israeli sources say the first hostages could be let go as early as tomorrow morning.

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: So, here is what we know at this hour. The deal causes for a four-day truce and we are expecting to find out today when that fighting might actually be put on pause. Hamas has agreed to release at least 50 women and children, hostages who were abducted during the October 7th terror attacks.

Now, in exchange, Hamas and Israel have agreed to let 150 Palestinian prisoners, we're told some of them women, many minors, is agreeing to release them from jail.

HARLOW: A U.S. official says these American hostages could be included in this part of the deal. The youngest is three-year-old Abigail Edan. Both of her parents murdered by Hamas on October 7th, and Abigail's family tells CNN they are hoping that she will be released in time for her birthday, her fourth birthday, which is this Friday.

HILL: It is important to point out here the timing is fluid. We are still seeing, we're told from our colleagues there on the ground, there are still large explosions rocking Northern Gaza. The Israeli military says its offensive will continue ahead of the truce.

Now, under this deal, Hamas could potentially extend this four-day pause in fighting if more hostages were to be released, so one extra day for every ten additional hostages released.

HARLOW: Let's start with Kaitlan Collins. She joins us in Tel Aviv. Kaitlan, what happens now?

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Yes. Well, it's important to note, Poppy and Erica, that nothing has happened yet, that this fighting is still going on and this deal has not actually gone through yet after we heard from the Israeli cabinet that they had approved this following the late night announcements last night.

But what I was just told by an Israeli official is that the first releases of this, and pause of the fighting is expected to begin around 10:00 A.M. local tomorrow morning. That would be around 3:00 A.M. on the East Coast. And whether or not that is a hard and fast time, it still remains to be seen because there are a lot of outstanding questions here about what this will look like.

But what we do know is that they have agreed to this deal, the two sides here, Israel and Hamas, to this deal that would allow 50 Israeli women and children to be released in exchange if 150 Palestinian prisoners who are being held in Israel. That's expected to happen kind of in a succession with a few being released each day in exchange for a pause in this fighting. But it's expected to last at least four days.

But a key thing we heard from the Israeli prime minister is that for every additional ten hostages that are released by Hamas, there will be another pause, another day of a pause in the fighting. So, the question of how long this goes on, whether or not this deal sticks together still remains to be seen.

But once this does happen, once this does begin, which we are expected again around 10:00 A.M. local Israeli time tomorrow morning, it is going to be the biggest and most significant pause that we have seen since October 7th, since the fighting began. And there has been a lot behind the scenes as how this came together.

There is a lot of skepticism from officials here in Israel and inside the U.S. over whether or not this was actually going to happen. But right now, what we are hearing from officials, they don't expect any objections from the Israeli Supreme Court, that 24-hour waiting period, and that is what is supposed to happen before tomorrow when this is slated to begin.

HILL: And, Kaitlan, just give us a better sense of -- there has been such a push, we heard very emotional meeting with the families and war cabinet just a couple of days ago. How did all of this come together?

COLLINS: Yes. There was such an intense amount of pressure on the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and that is something that he made clear to U.S. officials, including Brett McGurk, who is President Biden's top Middle East official.

[07:05:00]

He has been deeply involved not only here in Israel but also in Qatar since all of these talks have been happening since October 7th. I mean, at one point, feeling behind needing to get a deal done was so intense that the prime minister grabbed Brett McGurk by the arm and told him that he needed to get a deal done.

And, of course, that is something that happened about a little over a week ago when McGurk was here on the ground in Israel. What has happened before then and since then were a lot of moments where officials felt like they got really close, only to then have the outlines of an agreement fall apart.

There was a point after Israel took over the Al-Shifa Hospital when we saw those raids begin that Hamas kind of went dark on these talks, on these discussions that were going back and forth with officials in Qatar who were really the main mediating force here. But then once Israel kept that hospital running, that is when things seemed to get back on track.

And so that is still the outlines of what's happening, what we're expected to happen. There has been a lot of intensive work behind the scenes.

Clarissa Ward is also here on the ground in Tel Aviv. She's been where families of these hostages who are so desperately waiting on word of their family members have been gathering what's known as Hostage Square.

Clarissa, I mean, imagine there's a lot of hope, but also anxiety given we know, we know what the -- at least not the names, but what this group will look like demographically that's going to be released.

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Kaitlan. As you can probably hear behind me, there's also a sense that this is just the beginning of the fight. This is not the end. People here want to see every single one of those 240-some hostages released. There are camps like this that have sprouted up in several parts here in Central Tel Aviv.

We're in an area where the focus is on the family of a woman called Hadas Calderon. And you can see this poster. Excuse me, ma'am. Can I just move you for one second? This is Hadas Calderon's family. That is her ex-husband, Ofer, who has been kidnapped along with her two children, Erez and Sahar, her mother, Carmela, and her autistic niece, Noia (ph), were actually murdered in those October 7th attacks.

And the hope is, of course, for Hadas Calderon and many mothers and family members like her, that potentially we may see the release of Sahar and Erez and of some of the other children who are currently being held.

Now, I've also spoken, Kaitlan, to Thomas Hand. You may remember him. We interviewed him early on after the October 7th attacks. He is an Irishman who was living in the Be'eri Kibbutz for some 30 years. His eight-year-old daughter, Emily, was among those. Initially, he was told she had been killed. Then he was told just about a couple of weeks ago that actually she may be alive.

I have spoken to Thomas Hand. He has said, quote, I want to jump through the roof with hope, but I also have to keep a level head emotionally. I can't let myself get too far ahead of myself.

And he made a couple of important points, Kaitlan. He said that so far no one from the Israeli government has reached out to him. He has learned about this hostage release deal on television, as many different families have. He still has no information as to Emily's exact whereabouts, as to the conditions she's being held in, as to her own conditions. There has been no specific proof of life.

And that's why I think you're seeing this kind of measured approach on the one hand, obviously, ecstatic at the potential that he may be able to see his daughter again in the coming days, but also trying to temper that fervent hope with the possibility at this stage that she may not be coming out, that she may not be alive, that he simply doesn't know enough about her condition or whether she will be among these initial releases.

So, I would say exactly, as you kind of summarized it, an extraordinary amount of excitement and hope, but also real anxiety, not just as to whether their children or their family members will be among those who are initially released, but also so importantly, Kaitlan, as to what kind of a condition they will be returning in.

These children have been held in potentially very difficult, if not horrific, circumstances for many weeks on end. There is bound to be a huge psychological impact to the trauma that they have endured. And so everybody here hoping for the best and bracing themselves for the worst, Kaitlan.

[07:10:03]

COLLINS: Yes. And Emily had just turned nine years old last week.

Clarissa Ward, thank you. We'll get back to you as you're checking in with those families.

And, Poppy and Erica, I mean, just hearing what Clarissa said there, that Thomas Hand has heard nothing from the government, that he found out about this agreement and this deal from the media, from us, that he found out about the contours of this as we were reporting it out from sources inside that meeting yesterday is striking.

And what I keep thinking about is not just nine-year-old Emily Hand, but also three-year-old Abigail Edan, whose aunt, Liz Naftali Hirsh, she's been on CNN multiple times, she was saying that all she wanted was for her to be able to come home, to be released by Friday, because that is when she turns four years old. She has two siblings who are still alive. Both of their parents were killed in the October 7th attacks.

And so you can just see, you know, as we talk about the logistics of what this looks like, what it means for these sides to come together, it is absolutely agonizing for these families who still don't know if it's going to be their loved ones released.

HILL: Absolutely, the big question for so many of them hanging over right now as they wait throughout these next several hours. Kaitlan, thank you.

HARLOW: Back here at home, millions of Americans gearing up for a busy Thanksgiving holiday week. Severe weather could disrupt some travel. We'll have that next.

HILL: Plus, OpenAI co-Founder Sam Altman now returning to the company as CEO just days after being fired by the board of directors. The details of that sudden reversal and what the new board looks like, next.

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[07:15:00]

HILL: Today is the day. We talk about it, the busiest, one of the busiest travel days of the entire year. Get this to put it in context. The FAA reporting, there will be nearly 50,000 flights taking off today alone. And, of course, there will be extreme weather being thrown into the holiday mix across America could lead to some holiday chaos.

CNN's Pete Muntean is camped out at Reagan National Airport. I see a large crowd behind you there, my friend, folks making their way there, maybe a little tough on the East Coast. Give us a sense. Where are things this morning?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: You know, what you're looking at right now at, Erica, is an airport at capacity. This is the 7:00 A.M. rush here at Reagan National Airport.

Airport can handle typically about 40,000 people a day. That's what it's designed for. And TSA tells me we will get that number today right at the limit. The wait time right now to get through the standard lane here at the Terminal 2 north checkpoint, about 25 minutes, according to TSA.

Now this, we are not really out of the woods just yet. We saw 5,200 delays nationwide yesterday. It is a story playing out from coast to coast. And we will see if airlines can stick the landing.

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MUNTEAN (voice over): A crammed Thanksgiving for travel is on from Chicago --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm feeling really positive.

MUNTEAN: -- to Dallas --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Check the gates. They've already changed hours three times in the last four hours.

MUNTEAN: -- to L.A., where gas is averaging above $5 a gallon.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I had to pay for it no matter what.

MUNTEAN: AAA says 49 million people will take road trips over the next five days as air travel is rebounding from cold rain and wind that swept through East Coast airports.

When Wednesday is finished, airlines are expected to have operated 49,000 flights. 2.7 million people are projected to pass through TSA checkpoints nationwide.

DAVID PEKOSKE, TSA ADMINISTRATOR: I think through the process steps, you're going through to screening because you don't want to be that passenger that holds everybody else up.

MUNTEAN: At United Airlines Washington Dulles Hub, workers are rushing to get 200 daily flights parked, boarded and pushed back in four major shifts starting early in the morning.

United Airlines says its planes will be full not only on the busy travel days but also on days that haven't been busy before. The rush is getting longer, it says, thanks to remote work and hybrid schedules.

MIKE HANNA, AIRPORT OPERATIONS, UNITED AIRLINES: People are able to leave earlier and stay longer. Sunday after Thanksgiving is still going to be the busiest day of the year for us.

MUNTEAN: One challenge, a shortage of air traffic controllers. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg stresses whether is the top cause of cancelations.

PETE BUTTIGIEG: TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY: Mother Nature, of course, is the X factor in all of this.

MUNTEAN: Peak road travel is yet to come with AAA anticipating traffic will hit its high on Wednesday. On the 5 in Los Angeles, traffic is expected to spike, taking a full three hours to get to Bakersfield. At rush hour on Friday, the trip from Birmingham to Atlanta will nearly double along Interstate 20. And on Sunday add an hour between Houston and San Antonio when traffic climbs 40 percent on Interstate 10.

AIXA DIAZ, AAA SPOKESPERSON: Many people they don't have a choice but to leave on Wednesday afternoon, which we say is the worst time to be on the roads ahead of Thanksgiving.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MUNTEAN (on camera): We saw major delays here yesterday, about 30 percent of all flights out of Reagan National Airport here were delayed, 38 percent of all flights out of Charlotte were delayed, a big hub for American Airlines, and at one point, the FAA imposed a ground delay program there, meaning holding flights on the ground there.

There could be, the FAA warns, ground stops today going into some of the big three New York airports as well as Boston. So, we are not out of the woods yet.

I just booked Lisa Farbstein at the TSA, and she reminds me, passengers have to stay on their game, especially as they are in this line. You have to think, this airport has about 6,000 more passengers going through security here today than any other normal day, so you have to think about it like those 6,000 passengers are in front of you in line. You got to stay sharp when you go through security so you don't add to the delays.

HILL: I like it, be on your game. You know what, Pete, I'm replacing pack your patients with be on your game. Thank you, my friend.

Three Americans, we're learning, maybe among the 50 hostages said to be released by Hamas in the coming days. President Biden, for his part, vowing, he will, quote, not stop until all American hostages are released.

[07:20:04]

Just ahead, we're going to ask Jon Finer from the White House more about how this deal come came together, what this pause could mean, and what more we know about when these Americans could be released.

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RACHEL GOLDBERG, MORTHER OF HERSH GOLDBERG, TAKEN HOSTAGE BY HAMAS: The issue of the hostages is really a global humanitarian catastrophe and needs to be treated as such. I think I don't count my chickens before they hatch. So, I'm not counting hostages being freed in this deal until I see them walk over the border and be embraced safely.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: That was Rachel Goldberg, the mother of Hesch Goldberg-Polin, who was one of the Americans who was being held hostage by Hamas. She joined other relatives of Israeli hostages that held that news conference after meeting with Pope Francis at the Vatican.

And overnight, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken reacted to the news of a hostage deal between Israel and Hamas in a statement. He said the U.S. welcomes the deal. He emphasized that the 50 hostages who will be released include American citizens. But he also made clear the process is not done.

He wrote in part, quote, while this deal marks significant progress, we will not rest as long as Hamas continues to hold hostages in Gaza. We should note, there are currently believe to be ten Americans unaccounted for and assumed held hostage in Gaza.

This announcement of a deal has sparked a lot of new hope, but also new fear for the families of more than 230 hostages.

[07:25:04]

One of the hostages likely included in the deal is three-year-old American Abigail Edan, her family hoping, praying she will be home for her fourth birthday, which is Friday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LIZ HIRSH NAFTALI, GREAT AUNT OF THREE-YEAR-OLD HOSTAGE ABIGAIL EDAN: The one thing that we all hold onto is that hope now that Abigail comes home. She comes home by Friday. Friday is her fourth birthday. And that's -- 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)

HARLOW: Joining us now is Principal Deputy National Security Adviser for the White House Jon Finer. Jon, thank you very much for your time this morning, and let's start there. Has the White House been given a list of the 50 people who will be released by Hamas? Does it include three Americans? Is Abigail one of them?

JOHN FINER, PRINCIPAL DEPUTY NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: Well, Poppy, we expect 50 people to be released over the course of the next four days according to this agreement that was just painstakingly and quietly negotiated over a period of weeks. We do not know the exact names who will be on that list. We know that it will be women and children. We know that there are three Americans we believe were held in Gaza in that category, two women and Abigail, who you mentioned. And it is our strong conviction and expectation that they'd be released in this group.

But as one of your previous guests said, until we actually see people coming out of Gaza, we will not know exactly who is going to be released.

HARLOW: And, Jon, who are those two women?

FINER: It is two people who are -- who were taken also from a kibbutz near Gaza on the day of October 7th.

HARLOW: You can't show the names, but you have the names?

FINER: I want to maintain a degree of privacy for the people who are involved.

HARLOW: Does the U.S. have proof of life that all of the Americans believed held hostage are still alive?

FINER: We do not have proof of life for all the hostages. Certainly, we know that there have been some who have been found by the IDF who have been killed tragically during the course of this. And that's what underscores the imperative of getting all of these people out of Gaza as soon as possible. This is a dangerous place in the best of times during a conflict while you're being held by Hamas is almost an unimaginable situation for anyone to find themselves in.

And so we do not want another period to go by without these people being released and that's why we're glad this deal got done when it did.

HARLOW: Jon, the president said in his statement last night, quote, today's deal should bring home additional American hostages. Speak to the family of those seven that are not included in the three in the deal today, those seven families who don't know when they're loved one or if they will come home.

FINER: So, you heard Secretary Blinken say and President Biden say that we will not rest until all of the hostages are home, certainly with a significant focus for the United States government on the Americans who are held in this situation.

It is hard to overstate the degree to which the President has focused on this. I'll just point you to a comment he made during a news conference the other day when he was asked for an update on the hostage deal. And he said, you know, I'm reluctant to speak to this because I haven't gotten information in the last four hours. I mean, that shows how the degree to which he has been following this minute by minute, hour by hour, making phone calls and trying to get this deal across the line. But even after this deal is implemented, there will be hostages still held in Gaza and we will be working on getting them home as well.

HARLOW: Quick logistics, Jon, to tick through before we get to some other bigger issues. What is the timeline for the release? Meaning -- Kaitlan has some reporting from the Israeli official. It will start at 10:00 A.M. local time tomorrow. Is that what you know?

FINER: We expect this to be implemented beginning in the next 24 hours. I don't want to give an exact timeline for operational reasons, but we expect it to be soon.

HARLOW: And where will the hostages be released?

FINER: Again, that's not the kind of information that we want to put out because we want to do nothing that interferes with the implementation of this deal and the execution of getting these people safely out of Gaza.

HARLOW: Can you speak to how long it will be until they can be reunited at least with their families or is that all determined on their medical condition and how they actually are doing?

FINER: I suspect it will vary family to family. Some of the hostages' families are obviously in Israel waiting for them to be released. Others are citizens of other countries and it will take time for them if they need medical care, if they need transportation. But, obviously, that will be a high priority to get people reunited with their families as quickly as they possibly can safely.

HARLOW: This deal includes a four day pause in fighting for now, but, obviously, there could be a sort of more for more situation that that pause is extended as more hostages held by Hamas could be released. Do you believe, Jon, that this could effectively become a ceasefire?

FINER: The goal, Poppy, is going to be to try to get more hostages out. Even after the four-day pause and the 50 hostages have been released, that's going to depend on the two sides. It will need to involve the release of more hostages and the agreement for the fighting to pause on an ongoing basis.

But, to be honest, we are really focused, laser focused on just getting this first step implemented and executed as agreed.

[07:30:04]

Anything we can do to build on it would obviously be positive, but that will have to wait for another day.