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CNN This Morning

Source Says, Slight Issue Could Delay Today's Hostage Release; Israel and Hamas Express Interest in Extending Truce; Man Arrested After Three Palestinian Students Shot in Vermont. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired November 27, 2023 - 07:00   ET

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

AVI MAYER, EDITOR IN CHIEF, THE JERUSALEM POST: -- as to what it is that led him and led the country to this point.

[07:00:03]

Right now, all Israelis can do is trust in their leadership and ensure that we are united in this very fraught moment and sure that we're, on the one hand, bringing those hostages home, while on the other hand, doing everything we can to decimate Hamas' ability to carry a massacre like on October 7th ever again.

And I think that Israelis really are untied in the moment like this one. It was quite unlike what we saw before October the 7th, where the country was really being torn apart by this judicial reform that was being advanced by the Netanyahu government. I think we have to harness that unity to see how we continue this mission and ensure that it's brought to its successful conclusion. POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Yes. It certainly is quite a change, Avi.

Thank you very much for your time this morning from Jerusalem.

And CNN This Morning continues right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Netanyahu told President Biden that the possibility of extending truce with Hamas would be welcome.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a pause. It's not a ceasefire.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The past few nights are emotional roller coaster.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: President Biden celebrated the release of Abigail Edan, the 4-year-old American hostage.

JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT: Keep building on these results. The more hostages come out and surge more humanitarian relief.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'd rather be doing anything else in the world right, but my son and other Israelis are being held captive and it's my job to keep this really prioritized.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Huge crowds in the occupied West Bank to welcome and celebrate the release of these women and children held in Israeli custody. OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: After seven weeks of darkness, finally a bit of light for all of these people here.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's not going to end before they're all out.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The hope is both on the Hamas side and the Israeli side is that this could be continued for some time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR: Well, a good Monday morning, everyone. The final day of the four-day truce between Israel and Hamas, and a source tells CNN there is at least a slight issue with the list of hostages and Palestinian prisoners set to be released that could delay today's swap.

Now, both sides are now talking about extending the pause in the fighting as Hamas plans to release a fourth group of hostages. Here's a look at the women and children who have been freed from Gaza since Friday.

HARLOW: And we have been seeing celebration and emotional reunions in Israel. Here, you can see a cheering crowd greeting a convoy of buses carrying some of those released hostages. There was also a crowd of well wishers waving Israeli flags outside of the hospital where former captives arrived in military helicopters.

Yesterday, we saw the release of the first American hostage, and there she is. That is now 4-year-old Abigail Edan. President Biden says Abigail is in Israel receiving the love and care she needs after 50 days in captivity and witnessing the deaths of both of her parents the October 7th terror attacks.

MATTINGLY: We also saw an update we'd all been waiting for. We've been following the story, 9-year-old Emily Hand, you see her there, reunited with her father. Her father says he was originally told Emily had been killed on October 7th. She was at a sleepover at her friend's house when Hamas attacked. Much more on that story in a little bit.

CNN's Oren Liebermann, though for now, is live for us in Tel Aviv. Oren, do we have any sense right now when that fourth group of hostages could be released? Do we know anything about who's in that fourth group?

LIEBERMANN: We haven't gotten any information about who is on that list. Of course, the U.S. is watching to see because they say there are at least two more women with American citizenship who could be part of the first 50 to be released under the women and children agreement between Israel and Hamas.

Israel is currently evaluating that list. And as we've heard from a source, there are some issues here. So, there's an open question about whether we may see the same sorts of roadblocks and delays that we saw two days ago that delayed the release of hostages by several hours. Instead of happening in the early or mid-evening, it ended up happening pretty much in the middle of the night. However, yesterday, the transfer itself went smoothly. And by early evening, the hostages were welcomed back in Israel. We saw people lining the roads, waving Israeli flags, that same sort of welcome playing out at the hospital. I, in fact, was at a hotel where families from Kfar Aza were celebrating the release of some of their friends, because many of those released were from that community.

That's the anticipating right now, that the process will continue to play out. It remains however a question how quickly, how smoothly and what does that mean for the possibility of extending this truce and the agreement for more -- the release of more hostages and the release of more Palestinian prisoners.

MATTINGLY: Oren, when we talk about the extension, obviously, all parties seem to be saying the right things in terms of getting an extension. We don't know if one will happen right now. One of holdups could be what we've heard from sources related to the Qataris who have been intermediaries saying that there are at least 40 women and children who are not being held by Hamas. Any idea who is holding these 40 individuals?

LIEBERMANN: Well, at the very beginning of the war, Palestinian Islamic Jihad claimed they were holding 30 hostages. Now, that number has yet to be confirmed, but it speaks to that exact issue, Hamas isn't holding all of the hostages and Islamic Jihad or other groups may be holding several.

[07:05:01]

Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, will need time to gather those hostages and make the arrangements to transfer them to the Red Cross if this continuation or this truce is expected to be continued.

That takes time. That takes, frankly, internal Gaza and Hamas politics. And that's part of the reason for the truce and part of the reason that Israel, for example, is not allowed to fly drones during this truce for certain hours. So, Hamas can have the ability to move around, to find and to bring together the hostages that they don't control. So, that is an open question here.

However, in terms of domestic pressure, we are seeing, including from the hostages who have been released in their families, pressure on the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to keep this going. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM HAND, FATHER OF RELEASED HOSTAGE EMILY HAND: Lost a lot of weight from her face and body but generally doing better than we expected. We were still fighting and want Raaya Rotem, the Aya's (ph) sister and Hila's mother. We want her back. As they promised, they wouldn't release children without their mothers but they did.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIEBERMANN: Of course, it has just started raining out here, so we're going to hop inside in a minute here. But one of the key moments we're looking for to see if there's a possibility of extending the truce is whether Israel receives a list of more hostages who could be released tomorrow. That would be a very strong indication here that the truce can continue, more humanitarian aid can go in, more Palestinian prisoners could be released as well.

MATTINGLY: All right, something to watch for, for sure. Oren Liebermann, thank you.

HARLOW: So, these are the faces of the Israeli hostages who have been freed over the last three days, all of them women and children, as agreed upon by the terms of this truce, Adi Shoham was among them. She was released with her mother and her two children and extended family members on Saturday.

The Israeli prime minister's office shared this video. It shows Adi smiling and playing with her children after they spent 50 days in captivity. But Adi's husband, Tal, is still being held hostage in Gaza.

We are joined now by Adi Shoham's cousin, Inbal Zach, who joins us now live. I can -- and you're obviously holding the image of Tal, right, still being held next to you.

INBAL ZACH, COUSIN OF FREED HOSTAGES: Yes. But I just want to say I'm Tal Shoma's cousin, not Adi.

HARLOW: Yes, I apologize.

ZACH: Tal is my cousin. No, no, it's fine. Yes, so Adi and the kids just got home on Saturday night, almost Sunday morning. And Tal is still there 52 days now that we haven't seen him, and we don't know anything about him. And, you know, you just say about Adi and the kids. So, I want to say without Tal, the family will never be complete. And they will never be family as we know them. Because, as a family, we know Tal and Adi, it's time together as -- Tal and Adi, it's always Tal and Adi, Tal, Adi and the kids. And now when you say, Adi and the kids, it's like something is missing.

So, the situation now, it's rather sweet because we're so happy to have Adi and to have the kids but we are waiting for Tal. And the kids and everyone waiting for Tal, his brothers and his parents, of course, the kids, the old family, the friends of Tal, the neighbors. You know, it's so many people that Tal took a part of their heart, okay? So, we just want him back.

HARLOW: Of course you do. And I'm so glad you have his face and his beautiful smile right there. We'll do everything we can to keep --

ZACH: Just look on these eyes. His eyes are so good. You can see he's a good person. Tal is a good friend. He's always taking care of someone. He's trying to help. He will make you laugh. And he can make the children laugh so loudly.

So, we just want to be a family back, to get to normal back, to have private moments without the camera and without interviews. But we just -- and the first thing that we just want him back, alive, we want him back alive. And we miss him very much.

HARLOW: You have described --

ZACH: And we want to say thank you for your time to hear about Tal.

HARLOW: Of course. I know --

ZACH: It's very important to us. But --

HARLOW: You have described -- you have described this as the saddest joy and the happiest sadness because of those mixed emotions, right, to have her back, to have Adi and her children back but to be missing your cousin, Tal. As I understand it, I believe you were able to visit with them, is that right, at the hospital this weekend?

ZACH: I just saw them yesterday night for a few minutes. And today, all my power, and also yesterday, all my power goes directly to Tal. I will have all the time in the war to see the kids and to play with them and to talk with Adi, but the time for Tal is -- I'm afraid to say, is running out.

It's 52 days but we don't know if he'd got something to eat, if they give them, I don't know, shower or just water to drink, we don't know anything about him. What is the medical situation of him, and if he needs any treatment or to see a doctor, we don't know about him, anything.

So, all of my worry today and for the -- until he will come back, it's to Tal and to all the other hostages that -- in Gaza, because as I say, we don't know anything about all of them.

HARLOW: Inbal Zach, thank you very, very much. And, of course, we will keep --

ZACH: Thank you for your time. And just don't forget them, because for you maybe, it's only a picture, but for us, Tal is the entire world. So, we miss him and we want him back.

HARLOW: Of course, and we will, we will. Thank you very much.

ZACH: Thank you. Thank you very much.

MATTINGLY: Well, we have new details this morning about ballistic missiles being fired toward a U.S. Navy destroyer by Houthi rebels near Yemen after it foiled an apparent hijacking attempt of a commercial tanker in the Gulf of Aden.

CNN's Katie Bo Lillis joins us from Washington. This is a wild story on its face. What more can you tell us about what actually happened here?

KATIE BO LILLIS, CNN REPORTER: Yes. So, Phil, on Sunday, a commercial tanker carrying phosphoric acid with some apparent public links to an Israeli-owned company sent out a distress call while it was operating in the Gulf of Aden, saying that it was under attack. The USS Mason, a guided missile destroyer that also operates in the Gulf of Aden and off of the coast of Somalia as part of a counter- piracy task force, responded to that call. When they arrived at the commercial tanker, five armed hijackers jumped off of the ship into a smaller boat of their own and sped away. The Mason pursued those attackers and ultimately were able to gain their surrender.

Now, the United States has not publicly identified who those hijackers were, but what we do know is that in several hours after this episode, a pair of ballistic missiles were fired from Houthi-controlled territory in Yemen in the general direction of the USS Mason.

Now, those missiles did land harmlessly in the Gulf of Aden, about ten nautical miles away from the American ship. There were no casualties or injuries of any kind, but this is also obviously hugely concerning for U.S. officials because the Houthis are an Iran-aligned, an Iran- backed, an Iran-supported group that has launched numerous attacks against both U.S. interests in the region, as well as Israel since the events of October 7th, both using missiles as well as drones.

And so the concern, of course, is that this is yet another troubling sign of an effort by the Houthis to try to sort of escalate this broader conflict. The U.S. broadly believes that Iran itself is seeking to kind of calibrate the response to the Israeli invasion of Gaza in such a way that it will avoid a broader escalation, but the Houthis are a little bit more independent than some of the other Iranian proxies. They don't always act under perfect command and control from Iran. And so, again, this attack yet another concern of a potential escalation by the Houthis.

MATTINGLY: Yes. Katie Bo Lillis, great reporting, thank you.

HARLOW: President Biden making it clear that he hopes today will not be the end of the truce between Israel and Hamas.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: That's our goal, to keep this pause going beyond tomorrow, so that we can continue to see more hostages come out and surge more humanitarian relief into those who are in need in Gaza.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: And it all comes as The Washington Post is reporting internal divisions inside the White House over the war. We have a lot to discuss with White House National Security Council Spokesman John Kirby. He's going to join us next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:15:00]

MATTINGLY: Well, a short time from now, Hamas is expected to release more Israeli hostages today, marking the fourth and at this point, final day in the agreed-upon truce. But there is hope it could go longer. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told President Biden yesterday in a phone call that the possibility of extending the truce would be welcome and return for the further release of 10 hostages per day from Gaza. This comes as Hamas says it too wants to extend the pause in the fighting.

Joining us now is White House National Security Council Spokesman Admiral John Kirby. Admiral, we appreciate your time.

I want to start with what your understanding is of the Americans that are still there. We saw the release of the first American, Abigail Edan, the 4-year-old yesterday. U.S. officials were clearly aware that she had been on a list, that her release was imminent yesterday morning. There are two other women we know of that are being held. Are they on the list to be released today?

JOHN KIRBY, SPOKESMAN, NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL: We don't know right now, Phil. I mean, we'll have a better sense, I think, later on this morning of who's going to be in this next batch coming out today. We obviously hope that those two American women are on that list and will be reunited with their families today, that's certainly our hope. We're working on this literally by the hour.

MATTINGLY: To that point, the president yesterday in his remarks in Nantucket made a point of thanking the leader of Qatar. They have been in regular discussions over the course of the last several days, but it has been made clear that he repeatedly made the case of Abigail Edan central to his conversations.

[07:20:05]

Was there some sense that she would not have been part of the release were it not for that push from the president?

KIRBY: The president has been personally engaged in this entire deal since going back to when we were trying to fasten it and put it together and then, you know, getting it to execution and then every day since execution began. And he's been personally involved in moving things forward.

Obviously, Abigail was on everybody's mind, just turned 4 on Friday, just a little girl who had to watch her parents get slaughtered right in front of her. So, clearly, we obviously all felt a special need to try to get her out. But by no means are we forgetting the other Americans that are being held hostage, including these two American women that, again, we hope are on the list today.

MATTINGLY: You mentioned other Americans, I believe there's roughly seven more. Should we assume that they are men, that they are male, that they perhaps serve in the IDF? Why are they not considered, expected to be on any eventual list?

KIRBY: Well, this first -- this deal was really for these first 50. What Hamas agreed to was women and children. And so we knew that there was Abigail and two women. And, again, we hope that those two American women can get released today. The other hostages that are being held do not fall in that category. They're men. And I don't want to go into too much more detail about their identities. That wouldn't be prudent here on national T.V., but we certainly hope that back to what you said at the very beginning, that Hamas will agree to an extension of this deal so that we can get more hostages out in coming days. The Israelis have agreed to continue to pause in the fighting to stop while more hostages get out, more aid gets in. We certainly hope that Hamas will be able to deliver on that.

MATTINGLY: To that point, if everyone agrees, what's the issue, what's the hold up to an extension?

KIRBY: Well, some of it is just the ability of Hamas to, A, be willing to let men go. They hold men in a different category. And, number two, to be able to find additional hostages. I mean, not all of the hostages we believe are in Hamas' hands, that there's other groups that could have some, and that, of course, it's going to be on Hamas to go get them and to be able to produce them in exchange for additional Palestinian prisoners as well coming out from Israel.

So, again, the onus is really on Hamas right now. We hope that they'll be able to continue the release of additional hostages over the coming days.

MATTINGLY: The administration's knowledge, are the seven other Americans, or actually the nine Americans, I guess, I would say, is there any chance that they are among the 40 that the Qataris say are held by other groups?

KIRBY: We don't know, Phil. We wish we did know, but we don't have perfect visibility as to where they are and who's exactly holding them. But we have to keep open the possibility that some other groups, other than Hamas, might be holding some of those additional Americans.

MATTINGLY: The Qataris have made the point that they'd negotiate with the political wing of Hamas. What assurances do you have that that can actually get done, that there is contact with the other groups, that there's ability to get those prisoners in hand for any swaps?

KIRBY: Well, that's going to be up to Hamas, though. I mean, these groups are operating in Gaza. We know they have some connectivity with them. I'm not suggesting there's some sort of strong chain of command here. But, clearly, Hamas, they would know how to get a hold of these groups and to get additional hostages released from these groups if it's within their -- if they believe that they want to do that.

So, again, we're hoping that they'll do the right thing here, identify additional hostages and help get them released.

MATTINGLY: Last one before I let you go. There has been some question about the idea of conditioning U.S. military aid to Israel. We've seen Chris Murphy, who's the Connecticut senator, who's a very prominent spokesperson on foreign policy issues in the Democratic Party, as well as Bernie Sanders. The president was asked about this. Jake Sullivan was asked about this. Just to put a fine point on it, is this something the administration is considering right now or open to?

KIRBY: Right now, the actions that we've been taking, the actions the president has been leading, have had results. We've had outcomes.

Now, we've got hundreds of trucks going into Gaza every day. We've got hostages coming out. Several -- I mean, almost a thousand American citizens have been able to leave Gaza through the Rafah crossing. And now, we're into a multi-day pause in the fighting. And so the president is going to stay focused on getting those kinds of results.

We're obviously going to continue to support Israel. They have a legitimate right and responsibility to go after Hamas, which has literally genocidal -- poses a genocidal threat to the Israeli people. So, we're going to keep providing that aid and assistance to Israel going forward.

MATTINGLY: Just to put a finer point on it, so the answer is no at this point?

KIRBY: What I'm telling you is that, as the president said yesterday, you know, it's a worthwhile thought. But if we had executed on something like that, we wouldn't have had the results that we've been able to see so far.

MATTINGLY: Three days of results, a forthcoming of potential extension as well.

[07:25:02]

John Kirby, Admiral, we appreciate your time, sir, as always. Thank you.

KIRBY: Yes, you bet.

HARLOW: All right. We have new details about the man accused of shooting three Palestinian college students this weekend in Vermont. Why investigators say the victims, they believe, were targeted.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: This breaking overnight, a 48-year-old white man is in custody after police say three Palestinian college students were shot in Burlington, Vermont. Listen to first responders reacting to that shooting.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ambulance 2, respond to the area of 69 North Prospect Street for times two males with possible gunshot wounds.

Both patients at this location are being packaged prepared for transport.

Shooter is unaccounted for, wait for P.D. to clear that backyard before entering.

P.D. sent the third victim with a cruiser to the hospital.

(END VIDEO CLIP) HARLOW: And you heard the authorities say right there the shooter is unaccounted for. Well there has been an arrest made overnight and investigators are looking into whether this was a hate crime.

The victims are all just 20 years old. They were walking along the street on Saturday night when police say a man came up to them and shot them without saying a word.

[07:30:04]

Polo Sandoval is covering it all live in Burlington, Vermont, this morning. A really significant development that there --