Biden says he has "fingers crossed" 3-year-old American will be among hostages released Friday
From CNN’s Sam Fossum and Betsy Klein
US President Joe Biden crosses his fingers while responding to a question about the release of Hamas hostages after a visit to the Nantucket Fire Department on Thanksgiving today in Nantucket, Massachusetts. Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images
“I’ll be able to talk to you guys tomorrow,” he told the traveling media pool in Nantucket, Massachusetts, after greeting first responders. “I’m not prepared to give you an update until it’s done.”
When asked about Abigail Edan, the 3-year-old hostage, he said: “Keeping my fingers crossed.”
The president also said he won't give up until he has freed other Americans held abroad, like Paul Whelan, the former United States Marine, and Evan Gershkovich, the Wall Street Journal reporter, who are being held in Russia. The US classifies both as being wrongfully detained.
12:22 p.m. ET, November 23, 2023
Israel has notified families of the hostages expected to be released tomorrow
From CNN's Tamar Michaelis in Tel Aviv
Posters of Israeli hostages held in the Gaza Strip are pictured in Jerusalem on November 5. Chen Junqing/Xinhua/Getty Images
Israel has notified the families of the hostages set to be released on Friday, the country's coordinator for hostages and missing persons, Gal Hirsch, said in a statement.
Hirsch said "liaison officers have informed all of those families whose loved ones appear on the list, as well as all of the hostages' families."
The first hostages expected to be released will include members of the same families leaving together, Qatar foreign ministry spokesperson Majed Al-Ansari said in a news conference earlier Thursday.
“They will be 13 in number, all women and children, and those hostages who are from the same family will be put together in the same batch,” he said.
A reminder: The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, a group that sprang up in response to the Hamas attack on Israel, lists 201 Israelis believed to be alive and held hostage in Gaza since October 7.
That list of Israeli hostages includes 39 children aged 18 and under; 44 adult women and 89 adult men aged 19 to 64; and 29 people aged 65 and over. The youngest is Kfir Bibas, who is 10 months old; the oldest are Yafa Adar, Shlomo Mansour and Arye Zalmanovich, who are all 85.
The Israel Defense Forces says the estimated total number of hostages — which includes Americans and other foreign nationals — fluctuates with the latest intelligence, but stood at 236 earlier this week.
11:10 a.m. ET, November 23, 2023
Qatar says it will receive lists of hostages and Palestinian prisoners to be released daily
From CNN’s Becky Anderson in Doha and Lauren Izso in Tel Aviv
Qatar foreign ministry spokesperson Majed Al-Ansari delivers a press conference on November 23 CNN
Qatar will receive a list with the names of hostages expected to be released by Hamas in a "day-by-day process," Qatari foreign ministry spokesperson Majed Al-Ansari said in a news conference Thursday.
Qatar will hand the names over to the Israeli intelligence service, Mossad, which will in turn hand over a list of Palestinian prisoners expected to be released to the Qataris, he added.
“Whenever we have both lists confirmed, this is when we can begin with the process of getting people out,” Al-Ansari said.
“There is an agreement with the time intervals: There will be a group each day released,” he added.
Once released, the hostages will be handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross, Al-Ansari said.
Some background: The Israel-Hamas hostage deal will see the release of 50 women and children held captive in Gaza by the militant group, according to Qatar, which mediated negotiations between Israel and Hamas.
In return, Israel will grant a “humanitarian pause” in its assault of the enclave and release some Palestinian prisoners.
The truce will begin Friday at 7 a.m. local time (midnight ET), with an initial group of 13 civilian hostages set to be released around 4 p.m. local time, Qatar said Thursday.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, a group that sprang up in response to the Hamas attack on Israel, lists 39 children and 58 women believed to be alive and held hostage in Gaza since October 7. The women range in age from 19 to 85.
Eleven of them are mothers of children also being held hostage, according to the group.
11:24 a.m. ET, November 23, 2023
US will contact families of American hostages released after their escape is confirmed, official says
From CNN's MJ Lee
The US government will contact family members of American hostages who are released from Gaza “after we have confirmation they are departing Gaza,” according to a US official.
That confirmation will come once an American official or a trusted third party has eyes on the hostage, the official said — which in some cases may not be until the hostages are out of Gaza.
As dual Israeli-American citizens are involved in the release, it is very possible that some of their families would hear first and separately from the Israeli government.
US officials also met earlier this week via Zoom with all of the families of the unaccounted for Americans who were available.
10:47 a.m. ET, November 23, 2023
IDF fires back after Hezbollah launches attacks on Israeli military base, officials say
From CNN's Sarah El-Sirgany in Beirut, Amir Tal in Jerusalem, Lauren Kent and Tim Lister
Smoke billows from an area targeted by Hezbollah militants on November 23, near Israel's border with Lebanon Jalaa Marey/AFP/Getty Images)
The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah said it fired 48 rockets targeting the headquarters of an Israeli infantry unit at Ein Zeitim military base, near the town of Safed in northern Israel.
In a statement Thursday, Hezbollah said it also fired a guided missile at Israeli Merkava tanks located near Al-Raheb, near the Israeli town of Shtula, and targeted Israeli infantry forces in the area.
Hezbollah also launched nine other attacks on Israeli military posts and soldier gatherings Thursday morning, including in Jal Alalam, Berket Risha, Al-Manara and Ramim.
The Israel Defense Forces said it "intercepted a number of the launches," and later confirmed that it used helicopters and fighter jets to strike Hezbollah infrastructure and rocket launch sites in Lebanon, in response to the militant group's attacks.
"IDF soldiers struck Hezbollah military infrastructure with the 'Iron Sting' weapon system in Lebanon," the military said in an update on Thursday afternoon.
"In addition, an IDF helicopter, a UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle), and tanks struck a terrorist cell that launched an anti-tank missile toward the area of Biranit, and the launch post from which the missile was fired."
Meanwhile, the Lebanese state news agency (NNA) said that on Wednesday afternoon and in the overnight hours, it recorded the highest number of Israeli artillery fire and airstrikes on southern Lebanon since this round of hostilities began on October 8.
NNA reported on Thursday that several towns along the border came under Israeli artillery fire in the morning.
Remember: Hezbollah, the powerful Iran-backed paramilitary group, is one of the central focuses of international concerns that the war between Israel and Hamas could expand into a broader conflict in the Middle East.
The group's leadership has expressed support for Palestinians and condemned Israel's offensive in Gaza, but has yet to directly intervene on Hamas' behalf.
Israel-Hamas truce will begin at 7 a.m. local time Friday, Qatar says
From CNN’s Becky Anderson in Doha
A truce between Israel and Hamas will begin at 7 a.m. local time (midnight ET) on Friday, and civilian hostages will be released at 4 p.m. local time, Qatar announced Thursday.
Thirteen women and children will be released, according to a spokesperson for Qatar’s foreign ministry, Majed Al-Ansari.
An undisclosed number of Palestinian prisoners are also set to be released around 4 p.m. local time (9 a.m. ET), after the hostages are freed from Gaza, the Qatari spokesperson said in a news conference.
The route the freed hostages will take cannot be disclosed for safety reasons, Al-Ansari said in response to a question from CNN. Qatar will be working closely on the operation with the Red Cross and “parties of the conflict.”
The list of hostages expected to be released has been handed to the Israeli intelligence service Mossad, and talks between all mediating parties continued until this morning, Al-Ansari said.
Israel is "examining the details of the list and are in the meantime communicating with all the families of the kidnapped," Ofir Gendelman, the Israeli prime minister's spokesperson to the Arab world, wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
Remember: A truce was slated to begin Thursday but was delayed. Under the Israel-Hamas deal, at least 50 hostages held in Gaza are to be freed.
This post has been updated with further details from the news conference.
9:37 a.m. ET, November 23, 2023
Israeli prime minister says getting hostages back from Hamas "not without its challenges"
From CNN's Amir Tal in Jerusalem and Radina Gigova in London
Israel is working on getting the first group of hostages out of Gaza, but "it's not without its challenges," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday.
"We hope to get this first tranche out, and then we're committed to getting everyone out," Netanyahu said during his meeting with British Foreign Secretary David Cameron.
"We will continue with our war aims, mainly to eradicate Hamas," Netanyahu said.
"There is no hope for peace between Israel and the Palestinians, and between Israel and the Arab states, if we don't eradicate this murderous movement that threatens the future of all of us," he added.
Cameron is meeting with both Israeli and Palestinian leaders about the crisis and the way forward, the United Kingdom's foreign office said Thursday.
"He will discuss the need to get all hostages out of Gaza and get more aid in, as well as the need to work towards a lasting solution that delivers security and justice for Israelis and Palestinians," the British foreign office said in a statement on social media.
8:30 a.m. ET, November 23, 2023
Al-Shifa Hospital director reportedly arrested by IDF while evacuating. Here's the latest
From CNN staff
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it has arrested the director of Al-Shifa, Gaza's largest hospital.
Mohammad Abu Salmiya was detained for questioning "following evidence that the Shifa Hospital, under his direct management, served as a Hamas command and control center," the IDF said in a statement Thursday.
Abu Salmiya was reportedly arrested while evacuating from the the embattled Al-Shifa hospital as part of a convoy marshalled by the World Health Organization. In response to his arrest, the Hamas-run Ministry of Health in Gaza said it had suspended cooperation with WHO and said the United Nations "bears full responsibility" for his detention.
Meanwhile, if all had gone to plan, by this time the skies in Gaza would have finally fallen silent, and some of the Israeli hostages would have returned home to their loved ones. But the Israel-Hamas truce agreement, slated to begin earlier on Thursday morning, was delayed and will not come into effect at least until Friday, diplomatic sources have told CNN.
Here are the latest developments:
Al-Shifa arrest:Abu Salmiya was reportedly arrested Thursday while evacuating with a World Health Organization convoy, a doctor in the hospital told Al-Jazeera. The IDF later confirmed it had detained Salmiya, saying "there was extensive Hamas terrorist activity" inside the hospital under his management. “He was in a constant state of denial saying it doesn’t happen. How could a General Manager of the hospital not know about the extent of the tunnel system?” an IDF spokesperson told CNN. Israel launched a “targeted” operation inside Al-Shifa last week, trapping patients, doctors, refugees and newborns inside the complex it says Hamas has used as a military base. Hamas denies the allegations.
WHO criticized: The Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health said it has suspended operation with the WHO after Salmiya’s arrest. Ashraf Al-Qidra, a spokesperson for the ministry, said the IDF on Wednesday stopped a WHO convoy at a checkpoint in central Gaza, as it was attempting to evacuate people from Al-Shifa. Al-Qidra said the IDF arrested several medical staff, including Salmiya, and as such the ministry had suspended cooperation with WHO and blamed the United Nations for failing to safeguard its staff. “The United Nations bears full responsibility for this event and we await appropriate and urgent measures on their part to address this,” the ministry said in a statement.
Truce delayed: Plans to release the first hostages under the deal Israel reached with Hamas were delayed overnight, just hours ahead of the expected beginning of a hard-negotiated pause in fighting. The truce – which would see an initial four-day pause to allow more aid to enter Gaza and the first hostages to be released – will now not begin until Friday, an Israeli official told CNN. Qatar, which has played a crucial role in the painstaking negotiations, is imminently set to announce when the truce will begin.
An agonizing wait: In the meantime, Israeli strikes in Gaza are showing no sign of relenting ahead of the pause in fighting. The IDF said Thursday it had struck more than 300 Hamas targets over the past day – a slight uptick from the 250 strikes it reported Tuesday. Further south, a large convoy of trucks carrying aid has lined up on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza, on standby for when the truce finally begins.
Indonesian Hospital: Hundreds of patients and medical staff have been told by the IDF to evacuate the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza, the Hamas-run Ministry of Health in Gaza said Thursday. About 450 patients and medical staff are now traveling to the Nasser Hospital and the European Hospital in the south of Gaza, Dr. Munir Al-Bursh, the ministry's director-general, was quoted in a statement as saying. Israel stepped up its strikes on the Indonesian Hospital earlier this week, alleging that Hamas have used the building for military purposes.
Hezbollah-Iran meeting: Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian is in Lebanon, where he met with the leader of Hezbollah Hassan Nasrallah Thursday. Nasrallah reportedly stressed the “readiness of the resistance on various fronts,” according to a statement from the Iranian Foreign Ministry. In a separate statement, Hezbollah said the two discussed the “existing possibilities regarding the course of events and efforts to stop Israeli aggression on Gaza.” The Iran-Hezbollah meeting comes amid fears that Israel’s offensive in Gaza could spiral into a broader regional conflict.
8:24 a.m. ET, November 23, 2023
IDF confirms director of Al-Shifa Hospital detained
Dr. Mohammed Abu Salmiya was earlier reported to have been arrested while evacuating the embattled Al-Shifa Hospital as part of a convoy organized by the World Health Organization.
Abu Salmiya was "apprehended and transferred for ISA questioning following evidence showing that the Shifa Hospital, under his direct management, served as a Hamas command and control center," the IDF said Thursday in a joint statement with the Israeli Security Agency, also known as Shin Bet.
The statement said Hamas' "tunnel network situation under the hospital also exploited electricity and resources taken from the hospital. In addition, Hamas stored numerous weapons inside the hospital and on the hospital grounds."
“In the hospital, under his management, there was extensive Hamas terrorist activity. Findings of his involvement in terrorist activity will determine whether he will be subject to further ISA questioning,” the statement said.
On Wednesday, the IDF released video showing a tunnel network which it said extended from the main hospital building underneath other buildings in Al-Shifa complex.
Hamas, the Gaza Health Ministry and hospital officials have denied Israel’s claims, saying that hospitals in the Strip have only been used to treat patients.
