November 23, 2023 Israel-Hamas war

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant says Israel’s military operation against Hamas will continue “forcefully” after the brief truce beginning Friday, and that the fighting is expected to go on for at least two more months. 

"A fighting of at least two more months is expected," he added.

A tenuous agreement: The Israeli military has said the hostage handover process will be “complicated,” warning there could be changes in the deal at any moment.   

He said the Israeli army continues to fight in the Gaza Strip "at this hour," pointing out that once the pause goes into effect, the IDF soldiers will be stationed along the “truce lines” established inside the strip. 

The truce line effectively keeps Israeli troops in northern Gaza, and they won't move south during the pause in fighting, an IDF spokesperson told CNN.

This post has been updated with comments from an Israeli military spokesperson on the state of the hostage deal and fighting in Gaza.

CNN's Jeremy Diamond in Sderot and Sugam Pokharel in London contributed reporting to this post.

A Palestinian official with a lead role in the planned prisoner release has told CNN he has not yet received a list of names of those expected to be freed on Friday.

Qadura Fares, the head of the Palestinian Commission for Detainees and Ex-Prisoners’ Affairs, indicated to CNN he expected about 30 to 35 people to be released tomorrow as a first group.

All prisoners would be released at the Beitunia checkpoint, which is immediately south of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, he said.

Israel has published a list of 300 names of people eligible for release in the exchange. The vast majority are male teenagers aged between 16 to 18 – children under the United Nations definition – although a handful are as young as 14.

Some 33 people on the list are women, according to a CNN count. 

US President Joe Biden told reporters he has his “fingers crossed” that a 3-year-old American girl being held hostage in Gaza will be among those released Friday in the Israel-Hamas hostage deal — but that he will not be providing any updates until the deal is finished.

“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.

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. 

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.

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. 

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.

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.

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.

"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.

Skirmishes at the Israel-Lebanon border, however, have seen an uptick since Hamas launched its October 7 terror attacks in Israel. The crossfire is becoming increasingly deadly.

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.

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 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.