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CNN This Morning

Israel and Hamas Agree to Four-Day Ceasefire in Gaza in Exchange for Hamas Releasing 50 Women and Children Hostages; Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett Discusses Recently Agreed to Ceasefire with Hamas; Israel and Hamas Agree to Hostage Deal, 4-Day Fighting Pause; Expect Long Lines, Delays on Roads and at Airports; Pilot Dies After Plane Crashes into Plano Parking Lot. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired November 22, 2023 - 08:00   ET

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

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POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Top of the hour. So glad you are with us. We have team coverage on the big breaking news this morning. Kaitlan Collins and Clarissa Ward live with us in Tel Aviv, and we are now learning a four-day truce is expected to begin tomorrow morning as Hamas prepares to release dozens of hostages in this breakthrough deal with Israel. An Israeli source tells CNN the pause in fighting is expected to start at 10:00 a.m. local time tomorrow, which is 3:00 a.m. eastern time here in the United States.

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: Hamas has agreed to release at least 50 women and children who were abducted during the October 7th terror attacks. In exchange Israel has agreed to let 150 Palestinian prisoners out of jail.

HARLOW: A U.S. official says three American hostages could be part of this deal. The youngest is three-year-old Abigail Edan. Both of her parents were murdered by Hamas on October 7th.

HILL: We are still seeing this morning large explosions rocking northern Gaza. The Israeli military says its offensive is still ongoing ahead of this truce. The White House also weighing in this morning. Take a listen.

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JAKE SULLIVAN, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: And this will be done in a carefully choreographed way so that both sides can verify that the other side is upholding their end of the deal. We don't have exact proof of life on everyone, and that's why they are doing this in this staged way, to ensure that Hamas is actually following through on the people it says it has.

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HARLOW: Kaitlan Collins joins us from Tel Aviv. Kaitlan, what happens now?

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Major questions still, Poppy, about logistically what this is going to look like. But we are learning some of tomorrow is going to shape out, that is, what is expected now. Of course, none of this seems to be really concrete, but what we are hearing from Israeli officials is that 3:00 a.m. eastern tomorrow, 10:00 a.m. local here in Israel is when that pause in fighting is set it begin. That is when the hostages are going to start to be released, we are told.

And what I'm hearing from an Israeli official is there is essentially a window from 10:00 a.m. local to about 4:00 p.m. local, and that is that window of when the facilitation of the release of those hostages is expected to happen.

Now, I think there are still major questions about where they are going to be coming through out of Gaza, which crossing they'll be going into to get into Israel. We do know that is where they are expected to end up. We still don't know a lot of what the logistics are going to look like here. Right now, it's about 10 hostages per day, we believe. That's over this next four to five days in the pause in fighting that is slated to happen.

One thing that I have just learned is that there is essentially an option for this to go on as long as 10 days potentially, where we have heard from Prime Minister Netanyahu saying that for every additional 10 hostages that are released outside of that initial 50 that were agreed to between Israel and Hamas, that would warrant another day and a pause in fighting.

There is a lot of skepticism here among the Israeli officials here and government that it could actually go on for 10 days. I think there is questions about even the condition of all the hostages that Hamas is holding. Some are being held by outside groups. And so it remains to be seen just how long this goes on. But that is an option that's on the table.

And so I think really tomorrow we will get a sense of what this looks like and how these hostages are actually being facilitated as their release is happening. But it is slated to start, and of course, that is welcome news for a lot of these family members that have been on edge for several weeks now as we are now seeing what is the biggest diplomatic breakthrough since October 7th.

HILL: Getting to this point of this big diplomatic breakthrough, Kaitlan, has been delicate and it has been detailed. Walk us through the weeks, really, of meetings here and how we got to this point.

COLLINS: Yes, and it's come up to the brink several times where they thought they had a deal, even before Israel's ground operation in Gaza began. We saw how that has changed so many times. And so what has happened here essentially behind the scenes is a lot of back and forth, a lot of intensive negotiations, a lot of moments where they weren't sure if there was going to be a deal at all. I think there was a lot of skepticism initially among Israeli officials in the beginning that there was going to be any kind of hostage agreement because they just didn't believe that either Hamas, there was any proof of life that they actually had hostages together, what that really looked like.

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But as you saw over the course of several weeks, as they began to believe that Hamas did have that, you start to see a deal come together. And that came to points where we saw Brett McGurk, who is President Biden's top official for the Middle East, here on the ground multiple times. He was in Qatar multiple times, which has been where officials have been really mediating between Israel and Hamas.

At one point about a little over a week ago he was on the ground in Israel, and as they were leading a meeting, Prime Minister Netanyahu grabbed his arm and said he really needed to get a deal done. He was facing an immense amount of pressure from the family members, the loved ones of those hostages here in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, all over Israel, to bring their loved ones home. They didn't really care how. They just wanted them to get home.

And so now we will start to see some of that. Of course, a lot of these families are still waiting to learn more about whether or not their loved ones will be included in this initial group of 50. Clarissa Ward is also here in Tel Aviv where the families of the hostages have been gathering in what has informally and tragically been known as hostage square, a meeting group for a lot of these families. Clarissa, I know earlier you were saying that some of them have heard nothing from the government, that they found out about this agreement for the release of these hostages for this truce from the media. What else are you hearing from the families that you have been speaking with?

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: So, we've spoken to a number of families now, Kaitlan, and I think the sort of overriding sense is, of course, there is a glimmer of hope and there's some excitement about the possibility that they might see their loved one soon. But there is also a lot of confusion and a lot of concern. The confusion comes with the piece of they have not, anyone who we've spoken to, had direct communication from the Israeli government as to what sort of state their family members are in, what conditions they are being held in, if the Red Cross has had access to them, and, of course, most crucially at the moment, whether they are on the so- called list of 50 individuals who are believed or hoped will be released in the coming days as part of that agreement.

We spoke to Thomas Hand, you may remember, the Irishman who lived for 30 years in Be'eri Kibbutz. His daughter, Emily, who turned nine just last week, he was initially told that Emily had been killed during the Hamas rampage on October 7th. Then weeks later was told that, actually, they believe she might be held in Gaza. We have spoken to him. He says he has no information as to whether Emily is still even alive or whether she will be released in the coming days. He said -- and I want to quote him here -- "I want to jump through the roof with hope, but I also have to keep a level heady emotionally. I can't get too far ahead of myself." And I think that sentiment is one shared by a lot of these families.

They are so desperate to cling on to that sense of hope and the possibility that they might be reunited with their loved ones, but they are very concerned not only that they don't know about what state their loved ones are in physically, what conditions they have been held in, but what state emotionally they will be returning potentially in.

And we spoke to Hadas Kalderon, a mother, her case has drawn a lot of attention here in Israel and around the world because her two children are being held in Gaza with her ex-husband, their father. Her mother and her autistic niece were actually murdered on October 7th. And she says that she has been obviously fighting day in, day out, 47 days non-stop to really push emphatically for their release. She doesn't know if they are on this list, if they may be coming out soon, but she is so keenly aware that the little boy and girl who she last saw are not going to be the same little boy and girl who are going to potentially emerge from Gaza, even if they are safe, even if they are physically OK.

There is a broader understanding that the trauma that this experience will have taken on them, and she talked particularly about her little boy Erez. She said he was a nervous little boy. Anyway, he was prone to anxiety, and it has been eating her up at night to try to imagine what kind of emotional turmoil he has been through and what the impact of that will be on him going forward.

So while there is definitely a sense, Kaitlan, as you alluded to, of a glimmer of hope, a moment of desperately needed good news potentially, that is absolutely being tempered by the confusion, the questions, and, of course, the critical issue as to the state that these children who will, hopefully, be coming home will be returning in.

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COLLINS: Yes. It's hard to think of the trauma that they've faced. Clarissa Ward, thank you for that.

Of course, this hostage deal followed weeks of negotiations behind the scenes. It was eventually approved by Israel's cabinet in the early hours of Wednesday morning. It followed a six-hour meeting that we are told by one Israeli official was tense and it was emotional.

Joining us now is a man who has been in similar cabinet meetings before, maybe not to this degree given what they are facing, former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett. Prime Minister, what do you make of this deal? Do you think this is a good deal?

NAFTALI BENNETT, FORMER ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: I don't want to voice my personal opinion. I have an opinion, but I don't want to go against anything that Israel right now is doing. I am representing the state of Israel. This is the deal. The deal has arrived as a result of very successful Israeli pressure of activity of the IDF in Gaza. It has put the leaders of Hamas under tremendous pressure and loss. So they felt they have to do the deal in order to buy a few days of respite. And we're going to pay a price for that, but this would not have come about without the actions of the IDF.

COLLINS: It sounds like you are skeptical of this deal. What do you mean when you say pay a price for it?

BENNETT: Well, our opponent has been hit badly. Hamas has been taking massive hits over the past several weeks. And it's at a point of -- a very tough point. That's a point where you typically don't want to lift them up from the floor and allow them to recuperate. But the deal here is providing us, of course, with 50 lives, hopefully, assuming the deal will be performed as it's promised. And that, I would not assume that automatically. We are going to get home children and moms, and it's just heartbreaking. These are families that were in their homes in the morning, and they were taken out of their beds and kidnapped into Hamas land in Gaza. So Israel has a duty to bring them home.

COLLINS: And of course, the prime minister has been facing immense pressure to do so. But tactically speaking, it sounds like you think this is a mistake?

BENNETT: Again, I don't criticize or attack my own government. I am citizen of the state of Israel. I am not in the political scene. And therefore, I support any action that my government takes. And it is what it is. We are going ahead with this deal. I am sure the cabinet ministers were aware of both sides of the equation, and they probably have information that I don't hold, which ultimately tilted it in favor of the deal.

Israel set two objectives. One is to eradicate Hamas, and the other is to bring all the hostages home. We are making a major strand, a major advance in terms of bringing some of the hostages home. But, obviously, there is a price to pay, and I'm sure the cabinet ministers took this into consideration.

COLLINS: Would you have made this deal if you were the prime minister? Would you have signed off on this?

BENNETT: I don't want to second-guess people. I want to say that we're fighting a barbaric, savage enemy that literally pulled kids and babies out of their beds. I want to show you something. This is a teddy bear of Ofrie (ph) from Kfar Aza. She was pulled out of her bed with her small younger children, out of the shelter. I found this in their home. Obviously, I want this to go back to Ofrie (ph). But just imagine a terror organization that you can see how Ofrie (ph) had to let go of this doll. And we want Ofrie (ph) to come back to this doll.

We are fighting with the worst terror organization that has no qualms on anything, on raping women, on butchering families, on burning families alive. We have to eradicate Hamas. So when this temporary ceasefire ends, the IDF will continue until we eliminate Hamas from the face of the earth.

COLLINS: Yes, I visited a kibbutz. We saw several of those kinds of, just everyday mementos, stuffed animals, bikes from children, scattered across. But when you just mentioned there about this being a temporary ceasefire. [08:15:00]

We heard from Prime Minister Netanyahu saying that for every additional ten hostages that Hamas releases, there will be an additional day of pause in the fighting.

Do you think this could turn into a complete ceasefire one way or another?

NATFALI BENNET, FORMER ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: We set two objectives, one objective is bringing the hostages home, and the other one is to eradicate Hamas. So, we cannot allow this war to end with Hamas on our border because they explicitly already said they will do more massacres if they can.

We have sort of Al-Qaeda on our border, imagine if after 911, instead of Mexico, you had Al-Qaeda on the border of the United States of America. Obviously, the United States would wipe out that terror state, and that's what we're going to have to do to Hamas right now.

There's a temporary ceasefire and Prime Minister Netanyahu set an equation. And as a citizen of Israel, I stand behind all of the actions of my own country.

COLLINS: Former Israeli Prime Minister, Naftali Bennett. As always, thank you for your time this morning.

BENNET: Thank you very much.

COLLINS: Erica, Poppy, back to you.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN NEWS ANCHOR: As we learn more about the deal between Israel and Hamas, the role Qatar played in getting this deal to come to fruition is significant and it's coming into a greater focus, our Becky Anderson just spoke with the lead negotiator, she has those details ahead.

ERICA HILL, CNN NEWS ANCHOR: Plus, millions of Americans gearing up for the busy holiday. Thanksgiving, here we come. Severe weather could disrupt some of your travel plans, what you could expect, is that's just ahead.

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HILL: Heavy wind and rain still pelting the Northeast this morning. That is throwing a bit of a monkey wrench in holiday plans for folks on what is considered to be the busiest travel day of the year. CNN's Jason Carroll is live this morning at New York's LaGuardia Airport. So, 06:00 a.m. hour, it was smooth sailing over there.

What about now? JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, we're still smooth

sailing along at this point. So, we haven't jinxed it so far. I mean, look, I mean, this is everything, take a look behind me, very few lines. We keep checking the departures board again on time, no matter where you look on the board.

I mean, we were really worried about the weather system that was moving through the area, in addition to what TSA was saying, predicting this to be the busiest Thanksgiving travel season that they've had on record. The TSA expects to basically go through 30 million travelers going through their checkpoints.

So, with all that, we expected things here to be much, much worse. But, at last check, LGA has twelve cancellations so far; JFK looking at 47; Newark looking at just 13 cancellations; One traveler we spoke to, said as she walked in here, we looked at her face, and she said, "Where is everybody?"

Listen to what some of the travelers had to say to us.

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TRAVELER #1: I am shocked, there is nobody here, it is empty and it's 7:21 in the morning.

TRAVELER #2: I got here early because I'm slow.

TRAVELER #3: I came early because the weather is horrible and I heard that it was going to be packed, but it actually doesn't look that bad.

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CARROLL: So, you see there, travelers did what they were supposed to do, what everyone has been recommending, which is basically get here 2 hours before if you're on a domestic flight. Wait, come here at least 3 hours before if you're on an international flight.

That still stands because even though things look good, now you have to consider the rest of the country. Whether you're in Denver, whether you're in Los Angeles, Chicago, or Atlanta, O'Hare, conditions there are going to be different than conditions here. But where we are right now, things looking pretty good.

HILL: I think we'll take that bit of good news, Jason Carroll. Well done on not jinxing.

CARROLL: Yeah, absolutely.

HILL: Thank you, my friend.

HARLOW: Also, we do have this video to show you this morning's news that the pilot of a single-engine plane has died. It crashed into the parking lot of a shopping center and exploded into flames. Just happened in Plano, Texas, just north of Dallas.

Fire officials say no one else was injured, luckily, in the incident, but it was at a busy intersection. A witness who was driving by describes what they saw.

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WITNESS: And I saw just black smoke coming off on the sky and I was really close by and I saw flames just bursting out flames.

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HARLOW: The FAA and the NTSB are investigating. OpenAI's Co-founder Sam Altman is back at the top of the company. He's CEO again, what a week it has been. And Senior U.S. Officials say three Americans could be released from Gaza. One of them is three-year-old Abigail Adon, and her family is here with us, next.

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COLLINS: We're following breaking news this morning as a hostage deal between Israel and Hamas has been reached after weeks of painstaking negotiations. Here's what we know about the deal so far and the outlines of it. Hamas has agreed to release at least 50 women and children who were abducted during the October 7 terror attacks.

In exchange for that, Israel has agreed to release 150 Palestinian prisoners from jail. All of this will happen amid a four-day pause in fighting. Sources are telling me that the hostage release will begin here on Thursday at 10:00 AM local time; that's 03:00 AM in the Eastern time in the United States.

This is a deal that was approved by Israel's cabinet in the early hours of Wednesday morning following a six-hour meeting that was described to us by an Israeli Official as tense and emotional. And it was something that the Israeli government said came as they published the names of up to 300 Palestinian prisoners.

That is the potential of who could be released. Right now, the deal is only for 150, but clearly 300 there is Israel saying that they are potentially prepared to release more. We've heard from the Prime Minister who has said that for every additional ten hostages that are released by Hamas, there will be an additional day of the pause in the fighting.

All of this remains to be seen once it gets started. This morning, we are still seeing large explosions that are rocking Gaza, as you can see here. CNN's Becky Anderson interviewed Qatar's Prime Minister of State, the lead negotiator on this hostage deal, and she joins us live from Doha.

Becky, I mean, this is obviously something that has been a very intense kind of negotiation happening behind the scenes. What did this chief negotiator here tell you about what was happening behind the scenes? BECKY ANDERSON, CNN ANCHOR & MANAGING EDITOR, ABU DHABI: Yeah, it was

really interesting. He described the atmosphere of the last 45 days as intense, extremely challenging, and complex, not least because of the escalation in hostilities on the ground in Gaza.

But they are hopeful that what they've got in the first instance here is at least a deal that could, they hope, lead to a more sustained peace ceasefire going forward. They describe this very specifically as a humanitarian pause or lull or truce in the Gaza Strip with two main pillars, the release of these hostages and an increase in humanitarian aid to those who need it most in the Gaza Strip.

And I think that's really important, that this is a kind of 360 deal, as it were, which includes those two key pillars. What do we know about how they're going to operationalize the hostage --

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