Return to Transcripts main page

CNN This Morning

CNN Speaks to Nine-Year-Old Former Hostage's Father; Families of Ten Hostages Set for Release Today Notified; Freed Hostages Share Emotional Reunions With Families. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired November 28, 2023 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00]

JOHN AVLON, CNN ANCHOR AND SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Was that demonization and division worth it? No.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR: I thought we were going to have a lengthy debate about risk pools.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Oh, God.

MATTINGLY: No, it's not going to happen.

AVLON: We could do that later.

MATTINGLY: Can I just close by saying I texted a senior Republican aide about whether or not there was an alternative or something Republicans wanted to pursue and the response I got was LOL, what?

AVLON: So, I don't think it's real.

I don't think it's real. Sarah Feinberg, John Avlon, Errol Louis, thanks guys. I appreciate it.

HARLOW: Risk pools next hour. I'm just kidding.

CNN This Morning continues right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: 11 women and children are back in Israel after being held hostage in Gaza.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You cannot explain the emotions. It's pure joy that comes out of you after so many days.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: The four-day pause extended by another two days.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We would like to see the reliefs go on. We're very happy for the other families, but it's really hard.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's relief that they've been set free but they've still got to deal with that trauma. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Psychological, medical, nutritional, they have many deficiencies.

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: The moment this pause is over, the war itself is back on in all of its intensity.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT): Gaza is a total humanitarian disaster. There's going to be a huge amount of aid coming into Gaza and that is going to save lives.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Two American women that the White House was anticipating would be released or not. They do not believe that Hamas was intentionally holding back the Americans.

JOHN KIRBY, COORDINATOR FOR STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS, NATIONAL SECURITY: We want to see them back with their families where they belong.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: And we do have breaking news. This hour, our own Clarissa Ward has just spoken to the father of Emily Hand, the nine-year-old former hostage released by Hamas. This is his first interview since his little girl was let go, leading to that hug you're watching now after nearly 50 days in captivity.

He was originally told, you'll remember, Emily was killed during the October 7th terror attacks. Clarissa is standing by to bring that to us.

HARLOW: And this comes as we are watching and we are waiting for Hamas to release ten more hostages today after the temporary truce with Israel was extended for two more days. A fourth round of Hamas captives was released late yesterday. And that includes a mother and her three-year-old twin daughters, their father, though, still being held hostage.

MATTINGLY: And take a look at this new video. That's 12 year old Eitan Yahalomi getting a big emotional hug from his mom as they finally reunited last night.

There are a lot of big developments this morning but we want to go straight to CNN Chief International Correspondent Clarissa Ward.

Clarissa, you just spoke to Thomas Hand, the father of Emily Hand. You've been following this story from day one. What did he say?

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, as you can imagine, Phil, he was extremely emotional at times. This has been a horrendous roller coaster. Originally, he had been told his daughter was dead. Then he was told she might be alive.

And then, of course, the moment he hadn't dared to even dream of, that moment when she was finally released after more than seven weeks in captivity, he told us that she was not held in the tunnels, as many people -- many of the hostages were, that she was constantly moved from house to house in her captivity and that she referred to Gaza as, quote, the box, talking about her captivity there, said that her physical health was relatively okay, but the psychological wounds, of course, are much deeper.

I want to play you this clip, though, Phil, where he talks about that first moment of being reunited with his little girl after an agonizing wait.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

THOMAS HAND, NINE-YEAR-OLD DAUGHTER RELEASED BY HAMAS: She said, she'll be here in a couple of minutes. I was like, oh, don't believe it. And all of a sudden, the door opened up and she just ran. It was beautiful, just like I imagined it running together.

I squeezed. I probably squeezed too hard. So, only when she stepped back a little, I could see her face was chiseled like mine, whereas before she left, it was a chubby, curly, young kid face. Yes, she's lost a lot of body weight. And the color, I've never seen her so white.

The other and the most shocking, disturbing part of meeting was she was just whispering. I couldn't hear her. I had to put my ear on her lips like this close and say, what did you say? And she was like, I thought you were kidnapped.

WARD: She said, I thought you were kidnapped?

HAND: She thought I was in captivity. They thought they'd kidnapped me. She didn't know what the hell happened apart from that morning. So, she's presumed everyone's kidnapped or killed or slaughtered or she had no idea.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WARD: Emily also had to find out the very hard news that the woman she regarded as her second mother, Tom's first wife, had been killed in the October 7th attacks. He said that she is getting stronger, she is eating well, she is smiling more, and psychiatrists at the hospital have been very optimistic about her progress.

But still it is a long road ahead. He is so keenly aware of that. He described to us how last night, without indicating why, she just had hid underneath the covers and started crying for an hour and didn't want to be comforted and didn't want to talk about what it was that was upsetting her so much.

And he said that the staff at the hospital had said it's very important not to try to coax things out of Emily at this stage, after what she's been through, but to allow her in her own time to naturally process and begin to share more details of what she has gone through.

HARLOW: Clarissa, it's extraordinary to hear those details from the whispering in his ear, I thought you were kidnapped as well. But there was something he told you. They didn't hold her in tunnels. They moved her from house to house.

WARD: Right. The sort of working assumption, I think, had been that most of the hostages had been held underground in this network of tunnels that Hamas has built, but Emily says that she was held, along with some others, including 13-year-old Hila Rotem, who she was basically her best friend, the girl she had gone for a sleepover with, that's how she came to be separated from Thomas in the first place.

And Hila's mother, Raaya, who was expected to be released with them, he said that Raaya had become like a second mother to Emily during captivity. And then at the last minute, for reasons that we still don't fully understand, Hamas separated Raaya from Hila and Emily.

But during the vast majority of their captivity, he says that Emily told them they were moved from house to house, that there was bombardment, obviously. She also said that they did not undergo any kind of physical abuse of any kind but that she had learned the word now in Arabic for, be quiet. And you heard him talking about the whispering as well, that they understood that they were not allowed to speak very loudly at all.

The only activities that they were allowed to do were quiet activities, like drawing and playing cards to pass the time.

And one thing that also just stuck with me so much, when he asked her, do you know how long you were held for? She -- understandably, she's a little girl. The passage of time can be hard to mark, let alone when you don't have a clock or a watch or a calendar. She said she thought it was a year that she had been held in captivity. Of course, it was actually 50 days, Poppy.

MATTINGLY: Clarissa, one, the three of them being together, particularly since Raaya has not been released yet, is a fascinating detail. But also her father, when we spoke to him here, you spoke to him, continuously referenced her birthday, which she was in captivity for release shortly thereafter. Did she know -- did you ask, did she know that she'd had a birthday, that she missed her birthday?

WARD: It's not clear that she knew that it was her birthday. I think the sort of any sense of time went out the window. He did say that they had celebrated a little birthday just now, where they're currently staying for Emily and also for her friend, Hila.

He said it was very important that the two of them be together. They became really, truly in captivity. Like sisters, he described how Emily would stroke Hila's ear in order to comfort herself, to fall asleep at night. Hila is a little bit older. She's 13 years old.

And one other detail that really stayed with me, he brought the dog, as I've reported before, John Z (ph), to greet her at the border crossing. But then when they got into the van and began driving back into Israel, he said that the first thing she wanted to do was listen to some music. She wanted to put a Beyonce song on his phone. And that was the sort of first comfort for her, the first distraction from the horror of what she had endured. HARLOW: And, you know, Clarissa, when you -- when speaking so many times you have with Thomas Hand, he talked about wanting to take her to a Beyonce concert, right, to give her the world, to take her to Disney World. She's looking for those comforting things that every girl that age loves. Can you speak more to Hila as well, and, obviously, she provided such comfort for Emily?

[07:10:04]

WARD: I think the two of them have become inseparable. Tom's focus absolutely right now is on doing everything he can to try to campaign for the release of Raaya. And he talked about seeing Hila's brother every day and the pain of knowing that he was so lucky that Emily is out and, of course, they're lucky that Hila is out but the pain of knowing that Raaya is not.

And he feels this enormous debt of gratitude to Raaya because she was a mother to Emily during that time in captivity. She treated her the same way she treated her own daughter. She hugged her and provided comfort to her and stroked her hair. And that debt of gratitude that he feels the only way that it can be repaid is in person and by having her out. And he really had such a strong message on that front not even just for Raaya but for all the hostages that the world can't forget and shouldn't forget and must continue to push as hard as humanly possible for their release, Poppy.

MATTINGLY: Clarissa, how is he?

WARD: He is -- I mean this is something I asked him about because he talks so much about how Emily is doing and what Emily is going through. And when you ask about his own well-being, I think there's an element of guilt there that he's not being able to overcome fully, which is, of course, irrational but I think any of us as parents can relate to it, the idea that you were separated from your child, that you weren't able to rescue them.

He says that when he found out that she might be alive, that he would fantasize in his mind about trying to sneak into Gaza to rescue her. And he knew it was absurd and it was impossible but he was so consumed with this desire, this need to do everything in his power to get her back.

And what kept him going during that time was the adrenaline, being on the road traveling to New York, traveling to London, raising awareness, giving interviews. And now that that has sort of passed and that Emily has been freed, he really suddenly felt every ounce of energy just drain from his entire body.

He is completely exhausted, and yet the only thing that really gives him the strength to keep putting one foot in front of the other is, firstly, to continue to campaign for the release of the other hostages but, secondly, to do everything within his power to help Emily on what is going to be a very challenging, challenging journey.

And he said that starts out with giving her a beautiful Hanukkah. He said it's going to be a big Christmas. He said we've got to get her weight up, get her smiling more, get her playing more. And he understands that it will take time and he understands that he has to be patient and I think he understands as well we try to impress upon him how important it is for him to care for himself as well and to make sure that he also is getting all of the emotional support that he needs.

Because indeed it's not only the hostages who have been through such a trauma but also their loved ones who have been on the other side waiting, agonizing and now grappling for a still challenging journey ahead.

HARLOW: Clarissa Ward, thank you for that. Thank you for bringing us his story in the days after the attack and continuing to keep him and Emily in the spotlight. We'll have a lot more of your interview with Thomas Hand a little bit later and get back to you soon, Clarissa. Thank you.

So, again, another hostage release expected today after this temporary truce between Israel and Hamas was extended. We will speak next with the mother whose son, Lior, was killed on October 7th, and she is now waiting for the release of her 15-year-old daughter, Gali.

MATTINGLY: And the suspect in the shooting of three Palestinian college students in Vermont pleading not guilty to attempted murder charges, and update on the victims ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:15:00]

HARLOW: Well, the breaking news this morning, ten additional hostages expected to be released today as the truce between Israel and Hamas enters day five now. We are told the family members of those who are set to be released have been notified if their loved one is on the list.

Let's go straight Oren Liebermann. He is live in Tel Aviv.

So, day five longer than they thought it was going to be at the outset, what is the expectation today?

LIEBERMANN: Absolutely. Sometime in the next few hours, and just so our viewers are aware, it is just after 2:00 in the afternoon local time, sometime in the next few hours, if all goes smoothly, as it seems to have gone today until now, unlike previous days in some cases, we expect the hostage transfer to begin, the same process we've seen play out. Hamas will transfer hostages to the Red Cross, and then in different ways and through different means, they'll be brought into Israel.

Crucially, we have heard from the family of the youngest hostage, ten- month-old Kfir Bibas, that his family's name is not on today's list. So, there's a tremendous effort there to see what they can do to make sure that he is somehow brought out. Either the list is updated today, which seems unlikely, or that he is on tomorrow's list, him and his family. Meanwhile, for those who have gotten out, we have seen some very emotional reunions, and this has played out now over the course of the past four days. Today will be the fifth day of this. This is video of 12-year-old Eitan Yahalomi running into the arms or stepping off the bus into the arms of his mother, Batsheva (ph). You can see that hug there, a hug that is 51 days in the making.

There is also this video of the Brodutch family. This is four members of that family, at least, who were kidnapped, Hagar, the mother, Ofri, Yuval, and Oriya. You can see the joy in their faces in the hospital there, the dog joining in the welcome here. He seems just as happy to see everybody as well there.

In terms of the process to go from here, the prime minister's office says, as of their latest estimate, there are 173 hostages who remain in Gaza.

[07:20:06]

That includes 17 foreign nationals, according to the forum for the missing hostages and for the families, six of those are children.

HARLOW: Oren, thank you for being with us every step of the way. Everyone anticipating that expected release in just a couple of hours. We'll get back to you soon.

MATTINGLY: Well, as Oren just said, six children under the age of 18 are still being held hostage in Gaza. One of them is 13-year-old girl Gali Tashansky. Gali was declared a hostage after her 15-year-old brother, Lior, was killed in the October 7th terror attacks.

Joining us now is Reuma Aroussi Tarshansky, Gali's and Lior's mother. Thank you so much for joining us.

I would start with what we just heard from Oren. You've been notified at all the Gali may be released in this next phase of these hostage releases.

REUMA AROUSSI TARSHANSKY, SON KILLED OCTOBER 7, DAUGHTER REMAINS HOSTAGE IN GAZA: Hi, it's very difficult times these days because every day we're waiting for Gali. And at night, we have the list, and each day until now, we heard that Gali is not in the list. So, it's very difficult for us.

But we're still hoping that maybe tomorrow she will be in the list and we're waiting for the telephone at night to tell us that.

MATTINGLY: We're showing pictures on the screen right now of Gali.

When you see the reunions that we've seen, when you know that more than 60 hostages have been released up to this point, what do you feel?

TARSHANSKY: I just talked with one of them, the friend of Gali, that was released days ago, three days ago. And I was so happy for her and for her family because we all are from the same kibbutz, Gali and her was friends. And for me to know that some children were released, it makes me happy for them. And hopefully know that maybe Gali will be released also today, tomorrow or the day after. So, it's very difficult to see that, but it's also bringing hope for me.

MATTINGLY: Have you prepared for that moment what it will be like?

TARSHANSKY: Wow. I can -- I imagine it for 53 days, but I think nothing will be like the moment itself because you can't prepare. We couldn't prepare for the 7th of October and the day after when the children were missing. And each day brings to me, brings to us the family, another challenge, another new thing to deal with. And we just imagine the meeting and the hugging and the quiet that we will be together and we deal with every situation, but we need her to be here with us.

MATTINGLY: I do want to ask, I can't imagine as a parent, going through what you're going through with your daughter while also trying to grieve for your son, Lior. He was, I think, a devoted fan to Maccabee Haifa. They had a tribute to him on what would have been his 16th birthday. I just wonder how you think he would have felt about that as you grieve his loss.

TARSHANSKY: Yes. I have two children, Lior and Gali. Lior, we even didn't make (INAUDIBLE) because of the situation. And every memorial that made until now for him, it's for us, it's very warm in the heart because we didn't make it ourselves yet. We will do it, but now we don't have time and don't have any -- we just want -- now we're making things that Gali will come and Lior will be the next grief that we will -- when Gali will come, we have time to grieve on Leo.

[07:25:00]

And until then Maccabi Haifa and other -- all of his friends and surrounding us, then it's very warm in the heart that they do it for us.

MATTINGLY: With the support of the community, it's certainly unequivocal. Our hearts go out to you and your family. We are certainly hopeful for Gali.

Reuma Aroussi Tarshansky, thank you so much for your time.

TARSHANSKY: Thank you. Thank you very much.

HARLOW: It's so striking to hear her talk about -- she hasn't even been able to grieve, right, the loss of her son because she is waiting for her daughter every single day, praying that she is on that list.

MATTINGLY: I mean, how many times of the course of the last seven weeks, as a parent, you try to think through, you can't. You can't. It's unfathomable.

HARLOW: You can't. We are hoping her daughter is on that list tomorrow.

With aid hanging in the balance, aid for Israel, the IDF in Washington making a push for Senate Democrats who have been critical of Israel and want conditions on that aid to change their minds.

MATTINGLY: And the suspect in the shooting of three Palestinian college students pleading not guilty to attempted murder charges, as officials are working to determine if it was a hate crime. We're going to be live in Burlington with the latest.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:30:00]