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CNN This Morning

39 Palestinian Prisoners to be Released; Fuel Trucks Entering Gaza; 200 Trucks with Food, Medicine and Water to Enter Gaza Daily; Father of Kidnapped Man Reacts to Release of Hostages; Interview with Son Taken Hostage by Hamas Jonathan Dekel-Chen; Truce Between Israel and Hamas Appears to Hold; Biden: "Optimistic" American Hostages Will be Freed; IDF Prepares to Care for Hostages; National Retail Federation Expects 182M People Shopping; Millions Expected to Shop Online and in Stores; Interview with Shopify President Harley Finkelstein; 13 Women and Children in Gaza Expected to be Freed. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired November 24, 2023 - 06:30   ET

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

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[06:30:00]

BECKY ANDERSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: -- held in Israeli jails are expected to be released at some point today as well.

CNN's Nada Bashir joins us from Beitunia in the West Bank. Nada, what can you tell us about these Palestinian prisoners who are expected to be released later today, local time?

NADA BASHIR, CNN REPORTER: Well, look, Becky, earlier this week, Israeli authorities released a list of about 300 Palestinian prisoners who could potentially be set to be part of this initial tranche of prisoners released as part of this truce agreement. We are expecting, as part of that first phase, 150 to be released over the course of the next four days if that truce continues to be upheld.

And today, we are expecting some 39 Palestinian prisoners to be released. They will be released from two prisons southeast of Haifa and transported to the Ofer Prison, which is just in the distance behind me near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank. And they will be held there until the Israeli authorities are able to confirm the safety and security and the safe evacuation of those 13 Israeli hostages who are set to be released from Gaza by Hamas.

Once that is confirmed, and once they are confirmed to be safely in Israeli hands, there will be Red Cross checks for these prisoners at the Ofer Prison. And once that is complete, at some point later this afternoon or this evening, they will then be able to cross this Beitunia Crossing and return to their homes.

Now, of course, it's unclear who exactly will form that first 39 set of prisoners released in that initial list of 300 names. We know, of course, that many of them were young men, teenagers between the ages of 16 and 18, not charged with serious offenses. But for many, it's unclear whether or not their loved ones, friends will be in that initial batch of 39 prisoners who are released.

We yesterday spoke to one family who are hopeful. that their niece, Israa Jaabis, will be released. We heard yesterday from the (INAUDIBLE), she was detained back in 2015, charged with attempted murder, according to Israeli authorities. They've accused her of attempting to harm soldiers at a checkpoint near East Jerusalem when her car set fire and exploded.

She and her family have long denied these allegations. They say this was caused by a faulty gas cylinder in her car, but she remains in Israeli prison at this current point in time. And we spoke to her uncle yesterday who said they are hopeful that she may well be among those names released over the next four days. Take a look.

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TALAL SAYYAD, UNCLE OF PALESTINIAN PRISONER ISRAA JAABIS (through translator): Israa has so far spent eight years in prison. And in that time, she has suffered a lot. We as Palestinians are used to injustice, but it's not just about Israa, there are many other women, many other prisoners still in Israeli custody. Her son, of course, is desperate to hold her. Imagine not being able to hold your mom in your arms for eight years.

He's been able to see her in prison, but they're always separated by a glass barrier. It's the same for her parents. They're very emotional right now. We're only human with emotions.

BASHIR: Are you hopeful that Israa will be released from prison tomorrow?

SAYYAD: We're hoping for the best. The whole family is. But even if she's released, our happiness will be subdued because the price we and other Palestinian families have had to pay is much too high. We're talking about 15,000 people killed in Gaza and many others injured. This is a very high price to pay for the release of some of our prisoners. There will be no celebrations when the blood of Palestinians in Gaza is still being lost.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASHIR: And Becky, it is important to underscore, of course, we do not know if Israa will be among those released. It's unclear who exactly will be released. We're seeing around us now dozens of people gathering, waiting for that crossing later today, hoping they may know some of those prisoners who have been released.

And of course, as we know, this figure is a small fraction of the more than 8,000 Palestinians currently in Israeli custody, including more than 3,000 currently under administrative detention, meaning no clear charges and no ongoing legal process. Becky.

ANDERSON: Thank you, Nada.

And the exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners, very much a key part in what is, Poppy and Erica, this humanitarian pause, as it is described in the Gaza Strip. The other key element there is the opening of the border crossing for humanitarian supplies. Humanitarian supplies, for humanitarian infrastructure, schools, hospitals, sewage plants, stuff that needs to work in order to keep the Palestinian population alive. It is near to catastrophic in Gaza at present. That aid is coming through the border as we speak.

[06:35:00]

The deal has an agreement for 200 aid trucks a day. That is half the number that were coming in before this conflict, but at least it's 200. We've seen 90 across the border as I understand it already, and seven trucks crucially of fuel, diesel. 130,000 liters of diesel is also baked into this agreement. That is absolutely crucial for the people of Gaza at this point. Poppy, Erica, back to you.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Becky, exactly the question I was going to ask you. How much fuel? Because Israel had been refusing to allow fuel in, which is crucial to keeping, for example, hospitals operating, water being cleaned. But it is, indeed, part of this deal, as you said. Thank you very much. Becky Anderson and Doha. We'll get back to you soon.

And while today's expected release of 13 hostages could bring a sliver of hope, other families are still in this agonizing wait. We will be joined by a father who will watch these hostages expected to be released today while his son likely remains captive.

ERICA HILL, CNN NEWS ANCHOR: Our team near Gaza did hear fighting right up until this pause began. We can tell you though, things are still quiet at this hour. We're going to continue our live coverage now of this truce between Israel and Hamas after this short break. Stay with us.

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HILL: The first hostages are expected to be released by Hamas today, and frankly, just a few short hours from now. Some families will finally, of course, be reunited with their loved ones. But for many more, the weight continues, including the family of 35-year-old Sagui Dekel-Chen, who disappeared on October 7th. His family believes he was kidnapped by Hamas, but he will likely, we know, will not be among those released today. His father, Jonathan Dekel-Chen, joins us now.

It's good to have you with us this morning. This is, in many ways, I would imagine, a very bittersweet day for you. I know how close the families have become, who have been fighting to bring their loved ones home. And yet, it's tough to watch knowing that your son will not be among them. Where are you at this morning?

JONATHAN DEKEL-CHEN, SON TAKEN HOSTAGE BY HAMAS: Well, first, I'd like a clarification if you'd allow for it. Sagui -- we don't believe Sagui was kidnapped by Hamas. He was kidnapped by Hamas along with another 80 people from our kibbutz, from our small cooperative farm on the border called Nir Oz, on October 7th, kidnapped with another 80 people, as I said. So, there's no question about that.

[06:40:00]

But that leads into my response to your actual question, which is, yes, it is mixed, but mostly I'll be overjoyed. Statistically speaking, some of the hostages released today, the children and the young moms, or perhaps elderly and given that one-third of all the hostages are from my one small community stands to reason that at least some of them will be my friends, young adults that I saw grow up, friends of my own children, my own grandchildren.

So, I will be overjoyed for them and their families, with all of the challenges that surely will be in front of them. You know, they don't know what happened to the kibbutz that morning or to their own loved ones who they didn't see. So, you know, there are all kinds of challenges.

As far as Sagui is concerned, look, I can speak only for myself, but I believe that all of the hostage families, the other 190 who will not be released, we hope over the next few days, we're absolutely committed to getting all of them home healthy and as quickly as possible.

HILL: Are you hoping that maybe you will also be, as these releases begin to take place, that there may be some news for you about your son?

DEKEL-CHEN: That would be great. Because since 9:00 a.m. on October 7th, we, like many other families, have heard absolutely nothing. And as you probably know, Hamas has not allowed Red Cross visits to any of the hostages and has not released any real information. And so, we've been in an information vacuum.

It would be really terrific if the Red Cross really must do in order to visit all the hostages and report back to the world, not just to the families about the status of all of them.

HILL: Have you had any communication in terms of the Red Cross being allowed in from the Israeli government? There's been a lot of back and forth on that.

DEKEL-CHEN: You're right, there has been a lot of back and forth, but I have no more information than you would about whether it's actually going to happen. It doesn't depend on the Israeli government. This is a whether or not Hamas will allow Red Cross officials access to the hostages in Gaza.

HILL: You -- as you mentioned, your kibbutz, 70, 80 members of your kibbutz were kidnapped. I believe 20 members of the community were murdered. Your son, who was kidnapped, he has two little girls, another one on the way. How is your family? How are those other families holding up in this moment?

DEKEL-CHEN: Yes. Well, first, just some gruesome clarity. As of the moment, 28 people were murdered on my kibbutz. This is a community of about 440 on a good day and another 10 Thai workers who were, you know, guest workers in Israel were also murdered that day who worked on the kibbutz. We all knew. As far as our family, look, the two little girls, they just want their dad back. They want their dad back and they want to go home. And we don't have answers for any of these desires or hopes of the little girls because we don't know when their dad is going to come back. We're doing everything we can. What we do know is that we can't go home. Our kibbutz, like many kibbutzim in the area, was totally destroyed by Hamas terrorists and the looters in Gaza on October 7th.

So, we are currently in an evacuee hotel hundreds of miles from where the kibbutz is and trying to figure out what our next steps in life are. The individual families in the community as a whole.

HILL: Jonathan Dekel-Chan, we're unfortunately out of time, but I would just like to know your son is actively involved in a lot of really important social justice and philanthropic work, and it continues to inspire a lot of people as they learn more about him. Thank you for your time this morning.

DEKEL-CHEN: Thank you for having me.

HARLOW: Well, today, one of the hostages being held by Hamas turns four years old. This is Abigail Adan's fourth birthday. She's among the Americans kidnapped and now held for 48 days. Next, why President Biden is optimistic they'll be released soon.

And these are new images just in from the Israel Defense Forces showing how they will care for hostages, including children, once they are hopefully released in just hours. Soldiers will bring stuffed animals and toys for the children. We also know they will bring noise- canceling headphones for the 13 women and children expected to be released today to try to make that helicopter ride home a bit more peaceful. More after the break.

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[06:45:00]

HARLOW: This morning, the holiday shopping rush is on. The National Retail Federation expecting a big Black Friday turnout in stores and online. It predicts 182 million people will shop through the weekend, about 15 million more than last year. But Black Friday is not what it used to be. Retailers offering discounts sometimes days and weeks in advance.

CNN Consumer Reporter Nathaniel Meyersohn is here. I've seen this online. A lot of the sales you'd expect this morning are already up.

NATHANIEL MEYERSOHN, CNN CONSUMER REPORTER: They are, Poppy. And the question is always when should you buy. Today is going to be a really good day to buy TVs, Black Friday. On Sunday, that's going to be the best deals for toys. Also on Sunday, we're going to be looking at some new sweaters. And then furniture, the best deals will be on Cyber Monday.

And the discounts this year are actually better than they were last year. Peak discounts online for toys, 35 percent. Electronics, 30 percent. Clothing, 25 percent. Sporting goods, 24 percent. And last year, the discounts on sporting goods were just 10 percent. The retailers, they have too much inventory right now. They're going to be it down to try to --

HARLOW: Well, why would things like toys go on sale Sunday and not today? I think parents are going to go out, try to buy Christmas, you know, Hanukkah toys for their kids today.

MEYERSOHN: You wait a couple days and, you know, they mark it down. If you can -- yes. If you can extend even further, towards Christmas, that's when they really start to mark it down.

HARLOW: There's still a lot of concern among consumers about inflation. Target had that warning about expecting lower discretionary spending for the holiday. What are we looking at?

MEYERSOHN: So, last quarter, a lot of red. Target down 5 percent. Macy's down 7 percent. We see shoppers really start to pull back on electronics, furniture. Interestingly, the only company that was up last quarter was Walmart because they sell mostly groceries. So, people are focusing on groceries, but not some of these bigger ticket items.

And look, it's going to be a slower holiday shopping season. 2021 sales increased 14 percent. This year, we're just looking at 1 to 3 percent because of inflation, higher borrowing costs, but there will be more discounts.

HARLOW: OK. Nathaniel Meyersohn, thank you. I guess I'm waiting until Sunday to get the kids' stuff. We appreciate it. Erica.

HILL: All right. Take a look at this. That number that you're seeing, it's actually a real-time view of the shopping happening right now on Shopify's live view math. So, this also breaks down just how much people are spending at the moment. Well over $900,000 at the moment at the Shopify merchants.

Joining us now is Harley Finkelstein. He's the CEO of Shopify. It's an e-commerce platform. You've likely seen. It helps businesses sell their products online and in stores. Good to have you with us.

HARLEY FINKELSTEIN, PRESIDENT, SHOPIFY: It's good to be here.

HILL: So, as we're, you know, following up on some of those numbers and what people were worried about leading into this, it really does feel like, you know, Black Friday has become -- I mean, it almost starts at Halloween at this point.

[06:50:00]

FINKELSTEIN: Yes. I mean, it's kind of amazing, you know, what started as sort of this weekend -- we call it BFCM, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, is now an entire season. And it actually started as early as early October and we'll go right until Christmas time.

But it's really the Superbowl for the businesses and merchants on Shopify. And it's kind of our Superbowl also, but really the heroes here seem to be the U.S. consumer. They are strong and resilient and they're buying, as you can see on our live map.

HARLOW: So, they're still buying. There had been some concern, right? As Poppy pointed out, some of the -- what we saw from Target, what we saw over the last couple of quarters, to concerns about people who are paying their student loans again, they're realizing how high the numbers are on their credit cards. But this is also a key time for retailers. What is it, 20 percent of businesses, November and December?

FINKELSTEIN: So, what's really interesting, a couple of things are happening right now. Number one is, consumers are really voting with their wallets to buy from the brands they love. So, I was just in, you know, backstage here and I was seeing everyone with their Stanley kind of mugs and I was seeing people wearing Alo Yoga and Viore and all these brands that people love. Consumers really want to buy from brands that they love.

HARLOW: We do have a stylish team here.

FINKELSTEIN: Yes, yes. A very stylish team here.

HARLOW: At "CNN This Morning."

FINKELSTEIN: I think they're quite amazing. But a couple other things are emerging. Retailers really need to pay attention to Gen Z. They're really powering this economy. And when you think about the younger consumer, they're doing a couple things really interesting.

First is, they want experiences. So, it's not just online. They want great physical in store experience as well. Also, 50 percent of Gen Zers tell us they want to buy or they will buy on a social media platform as well, which we power at Shopify.

But a couple other things, we did a survey a couple weeks ago with Gallup to figure out what is the U.S. consumer going to buy? Are they buying more or less? And three quarters of them said they're going to buy at least as much or more this year than they did last year.

HARLOW: Hold on, but more stuff or spend more money on, you know, better stuff or things that they want more?

FINKELSTEIN: It's a great question. So, it's actually really about intentionality They're buying things they really care about. So, rather than buying 10 t-shirts, they're buying the three shirts and the brands they really care about.

HARLOW: Maybe I'm sort of doomsday prediction here, but you look at "The Journal" this morning has this piece on toy sales, they're down 8 percent. You look at how Target won, they really think discretionary spending is going to be down for the holiday season. Yes, Walmart's up. And Nathaniel pointed out the number one selling thing, by the way, at Walmart is?

HILL: Groceries. FINKELSTEIN: Groceries.

HARLOW: Bananas. They sell more bananas than anything else, which you wouldn't really expect. So, the question is, are you also preparing for a consumer that is more cautious?

FINKELSTEIN: Yes. So, Shopify powers about 10 percent of all e- commerce in the United States right now. We're all over the world, but in the U.S. alone, we're about 10 percent. We're not seeing that.

You put up the live globe before. And so, anyone watching, you can actually see real-time tracking shopping happening all over the world on Shopify, shopify.com/bfcm. And I just pulled the most recent numbers. Average cart size right now is $119. That's up from last year. Peak sales per minute globally was 1.6 million, that happened last night. We also -- we start tracking this from UTC. So, basically, midnight in Europe.

Last year, we crossed the $1 billion mark Friday morning EST. This year, we crossed the $1 billion mark before midnight EST. So, a lot is happening there. Right now, we're seeing about 8,500 orders per minute, and about 900,000 of sales happen every single minute.

So, it is maybe a tale of two different retail worlds.

HARLOW: Yes.

FINKELSTEIN: But the brands, the retailers, the companies that people love, consumers want, they're having an amazing holiday season right now.

HARLOW: It also tells the Fed, you know, on the inflation front, this fight is going to remain hard when you've got shoppers spending a lot. Harley, thank you.

HILL: Nice to have you.

FINKELSTEIN: Thank you very much.

HARLOW: Thanks, Harley.

FINKELSTEIN: Thanks for having me.

HARLOW: So, obviously, we're focusing keenly on the situation in Gaza right now. Almost seven hours into this temporary truce between Israel and Hamas. We'll take you to the potential path that these hostages could take when they are expected to be released in just two hours' time.

Our team is live at the crossing where they are expected to pass through, and at one of the hospitals where some of these children taken hostages -- hostage could go. We also have new information how the hostages will be evacuated next.

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[06:55:00]

HARLOW: Welcome back. So, the White House cautiously optimistic this morning as everyone awaits the release of these hostages being held by Hamas. That release for 13 set to begin in about two hours' time. A big question this morning is whether the youngest American hostage, Abigail Adan, will be among those released today. Reporters asked President Biden that yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you expecting that the little three-year-old girl to be among hostages released, Mr. President?

JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT: Keeping my fingers crossed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: As is everyone. Today, by the way, is Abigail's fourth birthday. MJ Lee joins us live in Washington. MJ, good morning to you. So, the president's fingers are crossed. Everyone is hoping. The administration feeling confident.

MJ LEE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, Poppy, you said cautiously optimistic. I do think the emphasis right now is probably more on cautiously. It has been such a difficult process to even get to this point.

But what we can tell you is that there are three Americans expected to be in the initial group of 50 women and children that hopefully will be released in the next four days or so. What we don't know is whether any of those three Americans will end up coming out on day one, will end up being among the 13 hostages that are first released.

Among the three Americans are two women, we are told. And then, of course, Abigail Adan, who you were just talking about. Her parents were killed by Hamas. Her two siblings apparently saw that murder take place. All three of them have been orphaned. And today, Abigail, as you said, turns four. As of last night, I should note, Abigail's family tells CNN that they have yet to hear from either the Israeli or American governments.

HILL: MJ, one of the things that we've heard from the families over the last couple of days is that the U.S. has actually been fairly communicative with the families of the American Israeli hostages. Do we know more about the contact from the administration with the families of the hostages if and when their names are one of these lists?

LEE: Yes. What a U.S. official told me yesterday is that the government would be reaching out to family members of the hostages once they have confirmation that the hostage is departing Gaza. So, what that probably will look like is that a U.S. official or a trusted third-party actually has eyes on the hostage. So, in practice, this probably means that for a lot of these families, they're not going to hear from the U.S. government until the hostage is physically out of Gaza. Now, I should note, some of these hostages are believed to be dual American Israeli citizens. So, it's very possible that they end up hearing first from the Israeli government before they hear from the U.S. government. We do expect that the White House will be very, very careful about this. You'll recall last month when the two American women, the Raanans were being freed from Gaza. We really didn't hear anything from the White House until the two women were safely out of Gaza. So, I do think that's the kind of caution that we're going to see from the White House, the U.S. Government in the coming days.

HARLOW: But, MJ, you had really interesting reporting that when the release of the Raanans happened, the White House had eyes on it as it was happening. Have we learned anything more about whether the White House will have actual eyes on this as it's happening?

LEE: Yes. This is something that U.S. officials were able to really keep a close eye on in real-time when the Raanans, Judith and Natalie, were coming out of Gaza last month. I think it's a big question whether any of that actually changes, particularly because our reporting is that as a part of this deal, there's going to be a period every day during this four-day truce when there is no surveillance, either Israeli or American surveillance over Gaza.

So, whether that affects the ability to keep a better track of these American hostages potentially coming out, that is a really, really good question, Poppy.

HILL: Yes, and such an interesting point as well. MJ, appreciate --

[07:00:00]