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Fourth Round of Hostages Released, 10 Set to Be Released Today; Today: CIA Director William Burns Returns to Qatar; Freed Hostages Share Emotional Reunions with Families; Rescuers Reach 41 Workers Trapped in Himalayan Tunnel. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired November 28, 2023 - 06:00   ET

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

[06:00:15]

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. So glad you're with us. I'm Poppy Harlow with Phil Mattingly.

And happening today, Hamas is getting ready to release ten more hostages. That is the plan after the temporary truce with Israel was extended. And new this morning, Israeli officials tell CNN their families have been notified.

A fourth round of Hamas captives were released yesterday, late afternoon. A mother and her 3-year-old twin daughters were among those released. Their father, though, still being held hostage.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR: Take a look at this new video. It shows 12-year-old Aton Haloni (ph) getting a big hug from his mom, reuniting after spending 51 days in captivity.

This morning, we are getting brand-new details about the conditions hostages endured and the trauma they're grappling with now, like 13- year-old Hila Rotem-Shoshani, who talks about what happened to her in the third person.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

YAIR ROTEM, UNCLE OF FREED HOSTAGE, HILA ROTEM-SHOSHANI: She says she saw horrible things, but she say it with a straight face. It's like she's describing a scene from a movie that she -- she watched somewhere.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: Seventy-two-year-old Adina Moshe was kept deep underground with little food to eat and was only allowed two hours of sunlight per day, according to her nephew.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

EYAL NOURI, NEPHEW OF FREED HOSTAGE, ADINA MOSHE: They were fed only by rice and some beans from can, which they tried to avoid eat in order not to have stomachache.

(END VIDEO CLIP) HARLOW: Just unbelievable conditions. And teenage siblings Noam and Alma Or did not know that their mother had been murdered until they were released.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AHAL BESORAL, UNCLE OF FREED HOSTAGES, BROTHER-IN-LAW STILL CAPTIVE: The first news that they had to confront with was the fact that their mom is no longer alive. And that was a terribly emotional and traumatic moment for them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Oren Liebermann starts us off live in Tel Aviv.

Oren, just to hear each and every one of those accounts of what it was like for them during these weeks, it's unthinkable. What can you tell us about the extended truce and what we're expecting today?

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's simply impossible to imagine what these hostages endured over the course of more than seven weeks now, in the cases of those who are newly-released. But these are the stories we are beginning to learn about.

There are ten more hostages who will be released tonight, according to Israeli officials. We have learned that as part of the extended truce that's supposed to go today and tomorrow, into the following morning.

Crucially, we've learned from the family of the youngest hostage, 10- month-old Kfir Bibas, his names and the names of the family not on that list. A strong lobbying effort. They're trying to push to see what they can do, if they can make sure the family is on the list before the extended truce is over.

We, of course, don't have news that will be extended any further, even though that remains at least somewhat of a possibility.

Meanwhile, we're still seeing the joyful reunions in Israel for those families that are able to come together. Aton Haloni (ph), 12 years old, let's see that video again.

This is him being embraced by his mother, who waited all this time to see him. You can see that hug, not letting go in any way. I suspect that will be a hug that lasts quite a while and is replayed many, many times over the course of the coming days.

And then the video of the reunion of the Brodutch family in the hospital here. The three kids and the mother, newly released, all the joy there. You can even see the dog joining in the celebrations in the hospital.

We have seen these videos. We have seen these pictures. They are powerful each and every time we watch them. And we look forward to seeing more of these play out tonight, even as we wait for more than 100 more hostages to be released. And we'll see if the truce can hold. Right now, it's scheduled for

another 48 hours. That will be ten Israeli hostages released today, ten more released tomorrow in exchange for humanitarian aid going into Gaza, and Palestinian women and children being released from prison.

It is still a delicate truce, and we will follow it, Poppy and Phil, every step of the way as it plays out.

MATTINGLY: Yes. Oren, I kind of just want to watch the video of the kids and the dog on repeat for the remainder of the morning.

You know, Oren, in talking with U.S. officials last night, something they said is behind the scenes one of the big parts of this truce has been their conversations with Israeli officials about what happens next militarily, when these truces come to an end.

The Israeli defense minister said they're actually going to fight with a stronger force when combat continues. What does that mean?

[06:05:00]

LIEBERMANN: So, there's the short-term question and the long-term.

In the short-term, both Israel and Hamas have said, Look, this war is still on. This may be a pause in the fighting. But when that pause ends and when as many hostages as possible are brought out of Gaza, this is still very much a war.

Israel has thousands, if not tens of thousands, of troops who remain in Gaza. They're in defensive positions.

When this truce expires or runs its course or whatever terminology you want to use there, this is very much still a war, and Israel has said clearly its goal is to destroy Hamas.

And you can expect that Hamas will fight back and try to fight back against the Israeli forces that are still there.

In terms of the long-term question, what happens when this war is over, Phil, that is very much a serious and open question.

MATTINGLY: Yes. And a critical day ahead in the near term. Oren Liebermann, thank you.

So this just in: CIA Director William Burns returns to Qatar this morning, as the White House works to free more hostages with help from Israel and Egypt.

Burns' visit comes as the National Security Council spokesman John Kirby has warned that Hamas could use the pause to regroup.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KIRBY, SPOKESMAN, NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL: Any pause in the fighting could benefit your enemy, in terms of time to refit, to rest your fighters, to rearm them, reequip them. But again, I want to stress, this was always part of the calculus.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: CNN's Katie Bo Lillis joins us from Washington. Katie Bo, this is your reporting. What are you learning about this visit?

KATIE BO LILLIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So Phil, officials tell my colleague Alex Marquardt that Burns -- CIA Director Bill Burns will be joined in Doha by the head of Israel's Mossad, David Barnea, as well as the director -- Egypt's director-general intelligence, Abas Kamel, coming, of course, as the U.S. has helped broker this two-day pause in the fighting in Gaza in exchange for the expected release of ten additional hostages for each day of the pause.

And as incredibly delicate conversations are expected to continue in the coming days about the potential of possibly extending this pause even further.

The interest, of course, for the Biden administration is not just the sort of general release of as many hostages as they can help engineer, but also, I think, in particular, these two American women who were expected to be part of the original tranche of 50 released over the past four days that ultimately were -- that ultimately did not -- did not leave Gaza.

These obviously have been incredibly, incredibly sensitive negotiations. Burns has been an integral player, really, from the beginning.

He's been in regular contact with Israel's Barnea, who's been kind of Israel's point person on hostage negotiations. He's been in and out of Doha over the past month.

And I think interesting really here, Phil and Poppy, to sort of see how Biden has sort of chosen to deploy his CIA director in this context specifically. This is something that presidents will often do when they want the United States to be able to talk to, even indirectly talk to an entity that is not State Department recognized as a nation state and they don't want to send the secretary of state.

But Biden, I think, has -- has really leaned very heavily on Burns in his capacity as kind of a shadow diplomat, first in Ukraine and now here in Israel.

And this is a space in which Burns has an extended amount of experience. He was, of course, a State Department diplomat in the region. He also was the lead negotiator under Obama for secret talks with Iran that ultimately became the Iran nuclear deal.

So this is a space in which the CIA director has a lot of experience, and the president is leaning on him very heavily for a very, very sensitive mission.

HARLOW: That's a really interesting point. Katie Bo Lillis, thank you for the reporting. We are getting new information about what life was like for those

hostages during their weeks in Hamas captivity: what they ate, where they slept, and how one man actually escaped for four days before he was recaptured.

Egypt's director-general intelligence Plus, how the freed hostages are coping with the physical and emotional trauma they've endured. One woman still fighting for her life. We're going to speak to a doctor who's treating her. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:12:42]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(SOFT UNINTELLIGIBLE TALKING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: That touching reunion just in overnight. Three siblings reuniting with their dog, Rami (ph) -- looks like a Rhodesian Ridgeback -- at Schneider Children's Hospital in Israel.

The children and their mother were released by Hamas Sunday night.

Maayan Zin lived every parent's worst nightmare when her two daughters -- Dafna, 14, and Ela, 8 -- were taken hostage. They were finally released and shared this moment. You see it there. A hug that certainly never wanted to end.

And on Monday, 12-year-old Aton Haroni (ph) was released and reunited with his mother. Another touching hug.

These touching reunions come as we're learning more about the conditions that the hostages were held in during their captivity in Gaza.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATTINGLY (voice-over): It's the chilling testimony shining a light on the conditions in which Israeli hostages were held for seven weeks.

Now freed, those hostages say they mostly survived on rice and bread and reportedly slept on chairs pushed together, all as bombs rained down overhead.

Karen Munder, her mother, and 9-year-old son all lost considerable weight, according to their cousin.

MEREV MOR RAVIV, RELATIVE OF FREED HAMAS HOSTAGES: They ate a lot of rice. Sometimes they didn't have rice, so they ate only bread.

She told me that, if you want to go to the toilet, you have to knock on the door. And only after one and a half hour or two hours, they open the door, and you can go to the bathroom. MATTINGLY (voice-over): Two teenagers, Noam and Alma Or, only learned

of their mother's death after they were released. Their uncle provided CNN with some details of their time in captivity.

AHAL BESORAI, NIECE AND NEPHEW RELEASED BY HAMAS: They were held in a house, in a room with another lady, also from the kibbutz. I know also that they were keeping a diary, the three of them together. And the terrorists did not allow them to take it.

MATTINGLY (voice-over): Seventy-two-year-old Adina Moshe was held underground and was only allowed two hours of sunlight per day.

EYAL NOURI, AUNT RELEASED BY HAMAS: They didn't have any decent facilities like shower. They didn't shower for seven weeks, so it's horrible condition.

MATTINGLY (voice-over): Margalit Moses was released by Hamas, but her ex-husband remains in Gaza. Her niece tells CNN her aunt is a hero.

EFRAT MACHIKAWA, AUNT RELEASED BY HAMAS: She actually took the role of taking care of others, and she helped many of them. Even in the tiny little things, like getting up from the mattress. They're all very old. They were old. They had all the oldies together, so it was -- it was challenging. And knowing she was there for all the others, I think, made her even stronger.

MATTINGLY (voice-over): A Russian-Israeli hostage whose release was negotiated as part of a separate deal was the first adult male released from Gaza.

His aunt tells an Israeli radio station that the 25-year-old escaped his captors after an Israeli air strike collapsed the building where he was being held. After four days, he was caught and returned to Hamas captivity.

And 13-year-old Hilla Roten Shoshani was released over the weekend, but her mother still remains in Gaza.

Israel Defense Forces say their separation is in direct violation of the hostage agreement. Hilla's uncle tells CNN about the moment she was separated from her mother.

YAIR ROTEM, NIECE RELEASED, SISTER STILL HELD BY HAMAS: They came and they took us, and they didn't give us a lot of time to prepare. But I had time to give her a hug and yes, my sister, her mother, was crying when the girls -- the children left.

She had to -- to say good-bye to her mother.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARLOW: And joining us now to provide more insight on the mental and the physical recovery they are facing ahead, we are happy to be joined again this morning by Dr. Hagai Levine. He's the head of the medical team for the hostages and Missing Families Forum. And he's been monitoring especially the condition of 84-year-old Elma Avraham. She was rushed to an Israeli hospital in critical condition after she was released this weekend.

Doctor, thank you for joining us. And can we just begin there on how -- because you had contact with her and been overseeing her care, how is her recovery coming? Is she still critical?

DR. HAGAI LEVINE, HEAD OF MEDICAL TEAM FOR HOSTAGES: And hello, Poppy and Phil. Yes. Elma Avraham is still in critical condition, fighting for her life.

She's ventilated, and you know, we are just focusing now on saving her life. The medical team and the medical center.

But I must testify to the world, her condition not only medically, that she didn't receive the medications she needed and some of them are rather simple medications that could have been given, and obviously, she deteriorated with time.

But also, you can see on her body that she was dragged from a place to place and that she was handcuffed. That, you know, like she has chemical wounds from -- from not meeting her basic needs, if you understand what I mean. So you know, that's loss of basic dignities. That's immense suffering.

It's not clear why they didn't release her before based on humanitarian.

And we are very worried that some of the other hostages, hopefully also released today but some of the other hostages are dying or are in such a condition. And -- and they must be released immediately, for the very least, to allow the Red Cross to -- to visit them.

It's really worrisome. As we see the light and we are so glad with the release and the recovery of some of the hostages, I must say that also for those who seems when -- there are shades. We hear from them, some were -- underwent, you know, it's not necessarily intentional torture, which also is possible, but they were cuffed for long periods. They were in dark places. They were in poor ventilation. They got a poor diet, as you just showed.

And they have mental consequences. And they will need strong and lasting support from their families and from the multidisciplinary teams.

MATTINGLY: Professor, to that point, I want to play some sound. We've seen these emotional reunions. I think your heart fills with joy when you watch them. Doesn't appear to be any physical harm, at least on the surface.

But to your point, what actually is happening inside for, particularly these kids. Listen to what one child has been referring to herself as in the wake of her release.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROTEM: She's a little bit distant now. She's a little bit cold. She talks about things that happened like it's in third person, like it happened to someone else. She says she saw horrible things, but she say it with a straight face. It's like she's describing a scene from a movie that she -- she watched somewhere.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: That's the uncle of Hilla Rotem-Shoshani. What does that tell you, Professor Levine, when you hear that?

LEVINE: Well, you know, when the situation is completely abnormal, it's something that you just simply cannot accept. You cannot accept for some of the children, seeing their parents and family members, and killed, murdered mortally, in front of their eyes.

They need the necessary help to digest this kind of very, very difficult things that they experienced. So they distance themselves away from that, and now seven weeks have passed.

And they cannot close it now, because what we do usually when you have a trauma, said OK, the trauma is over. It was how horrible, but now you are in a safe place and that we can start recovery.

But, you know, for her, her mother is still there. It's not only against basic agreement, but it's against basic morality. Why would you at least separate kids from their living mothers, and I also must remind you that, for many of the families, the fathers are still there. It's horrible.

You know, (UNINTELLIGIBLE). We normalized Hamas way that, yes, we now released children and women. But you know, all of them deserve to be free. All of them deserve to get proper medical and mental care.

For Elma Avraham, not only she didn't return home yet -- she's hospitalized -- but also her home was violated. She doesn't have a home to return to when she's hopefully released from the hospital after she rehabilitate, because now she's in life-threatening condition.

So, it just shows you how deep is the -- the tragedy and, for many of the families, not only that they care about the hostages that are still there. They just -- their own family is still there. So it's very difficult to recover.

I must say a bit of the medicine that the support and solidarity among the hostages, among the families of the hostages, and among all the people around the world that support the families and the hostages, is very stressing the families and hostages. And we thank all of you that sent support.

HARLOW: Dr. Hagai Levine. Thank you so much. You're so right about being traumatized on so many different levels. Thank you for the work you do.

LEVINE: Thank you for good news.

MATTINGLY: And happening now, a rescue mission to save 41 workers who have been trapped inside a tunnel in Northern India for more than two weeks. Some should be coming out at any moment. We're going to take you there live.

HARLOW: Also, new information this morning on the tragic shooting of those three Palestinian students. The mother of one of them will join us live as her son recovers.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:26:39]

HARLOW: Well, breaking news: It appears the dangerous weeks-long saga is reaching a dramatic conclusion. You are looking at live pictures right now of rescue workers closing in on 41 trapped workers inside of a collapsed tunnel.

They have been trapped for two weeks in India. And they could emerge at any moment.

Let's go straight to our Vedika Sud. She joins us live in New Delhi.

Two weeks. And they've been feeding in water and oxygen and food to keep them alive. And are they all going to get out alive today?

VEDIA SUD, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, they're hoping they do, Poppy. What we've just been told through a press conference, a representative of the National Disaster Management Authority just briefed the media and said they're about two meters away from these 41 men.

They've been inside that tunnel for more than 17 days now. So that's more than just two weeks. And they've been waiting to hear from these rescue teams to pull them out. They've heard from them on multiple occasions.

There have been disappointments over the last 17 days. But this, we believe, is the final phase.

The rescuers have gone inside this tunnel. It's a 16-meter distance between the exit, the only exit, and them. And we're being told that it could take a couple of more hours. We shouldn't expect them to be out any time soon, because the last two meters is extremely crucial.

They're dealing with mangled metal. They're dealing with debris. They're dealing with rocks. And this is an ecologically fragile area.

The family members are waiting outside. More than two dozen ambulances are on stand-by to get these people out. Can you just imagine what their mental health state would be right now, or even physically, how they would be placed at this moment.

So we're waiting to hear from them, but this could take more time than just a couple of hours, given that it's already 5 p.m. in the evening as we speak.

Back to you.

HARLOW: Hoping for the best news possible. Vedika Sud, thank you very much, live from New Delhi for us.

MATTINGLY: And we have breaking news in just the last hour. The U.S. military is set to deliver three planeloads of aid for Gaza this morning. Aid workers are going to describe a situation that is growing more desperate by the hour.

HARLOW: Also, really interesting new development on Capitol Hill: Israel making a push to Senate Democrats, as aid is hanging in the balance for Israel.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:30:00]