November 26, 2023 Israel-Hamas war

Our live coverage of the Israel-Hamas war has moved here.

Moshe Lavi speaks during an interview with CNN.

The brother-in-law of Omri Miran, an Israeli hostage still in Gaza, told CNN that the family received confirmation that Miran was still alive as of Sunday morning. 

Lavi said the family had received a call from a representative for the Israeli authorities confirming Miran was alive, but that no further details were provided. 

The past few days have been an “emotional rollercoaster”, Lavi said, seeing photos and videos of freed hostages being reunited with their families, while at the same time knowing there are hostages still in Gaza that have yet to be released. 

“It’s mixed emotions, but we are delighted that at least we see the beginning or possibly the end of the hostage crisis,” Lavi told CNN.  

All those released so far under the terms of the deal struck between Israel and Hamas have been women or children, putting the greatest strain on family members with male relatives held hostage.

“Those who are in the Gaza Strip are someone’s sons, someone’s fathers, someone’s grandparents and brothers and they’re not merely men, they are meaningful human beings to someone else and I hope that we will see them back,” he said.  

Lavi’s sister, Lishai Lavi, her husband Omri and their two young daughters were at home in Nahal Oz when Hamas gunmen broke into their homes during the October 7th attack and held them hostage. Hamas eventually kidnapped Omri, while Lishai and their daughters survived. 

An undated photo of Alma Avraham.

Eighty-four year old Alma Avraham, who was among the Israeli hostages freed Sunday from Gaza, is in critical condition and has been admitted to the intensive care unit of Soroka Medical Center, according to the hospital. 

“She is in critical condition, she is treated in the emergency department after significant medical neglect for the past several weeks while being held by Hamas. She is currently in unstable condition with risks to her life,” Dr. Shlomi Codish, CEO of Soroka Medical Center said in a video statement on Sunday. 

Avraham was released alone Sunday and she apparently has no relatives among the hostages.

The group of 17 hostages released by Hamas Sunday included 13 Israelis and four foreign nationals.

An undated photo of Hila Rotem.

Israel Defense Forces (IDF) is claiming Hamas violated the terms of the truce by releasing a teenage girl without her mother.

On Saturday, 13-year-old Hila Rotem was freed without her mother Raaya Rotem despite demands from Israeli officials. 

“They were supposed to not split families, but they released a teenaged girl and they kept her mother, Raaya, in captivity,” IDF spokesperson Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus told CNN.

When the IDF asked about Hila’s mother, Hamas claimed they did not know where she is, Conricus said.

“The daughter tells us that they were together up until two days before the release,” Conricus said, adding he believes Hamas kept Raaya Rotem to maintain leverage. 

“They want to leverage each and every Israeli in their captivity for political pressure,” Conricus said. 

Conricus said the IDF has indications that Hamas has been moving hostages during the truce period. 

“Our security agencies are debriefing and asking questions and trying to learn as much as possible from these women and children,” he said. 

Hamas has released a video showing the group hand over a third group of hostages to Red Cross officials inside Gaza.

Unlike two previous videos of hostage releases, this one shows a handover taking place in Gaza City — a move apparently aimed at projecting Hamas strength in a location where Israeli troops have focused their ground operations.

Like the two previous videos, Sunday’s release is made up of a series of edited clips and was released on the social media platforms of Al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’ military wing. CNN was not present at any of the locations when the clips were filmed, and had no control over the content.  

What the clips show: Crowds of people are seen gathered along the side of the road cheering as vans apparently carrying the hostages are driven to a handover point on Gaza City square, opposite the municipal building in the center of the city.

The handover is believed to be the first to have taken place in the northern part of the strip, which is where Israeli forces launched their ground offensive more than four weeks ago. 

Armed men form a guard awaiting the arrival of the Red Cross, an apparent projection of strength aimed at showing Hamas is still in control of a central location in Gaza City.

After the Red Cross vehicles arrive, the video shows a female hostage being carried by two Hamas fighters toward a Red Cross car. Subsequent clips show several adults and children also being escorted toward officials.

Further clips show the three Thai nationals and the dual Russian-Israeli citizen who were also released Sunday being transferred into Red Cross’ hands.

There is no audio on any of the clips.

Undated photo of Abigail Edan.

Another 17 hostages held in Gaza have been released on Sunday, the third such handover during a four-day truce between Israel and Hamas.

The group was made up of Israelis, dual Israeli citizens and Thai nationals, Israel’s military said.

Among the freed hostages was 4-year-old American-Israeli Abigail Edan whose release marks the first time an American hostage has been successfully freed since the start of the truce. US President Joe Biden, who praised Edan’s release in an address Sunday, spoke with the girl’s family Sunday afternoon, according to the White House.

The 4-year-old is now receiving treatment at a hospital near Tel Aviv, a spokesperson from the Hostage and Missing Families’ Forum told CNN. The 16 other freed hostages had also been transferred to hospitals by late Sunday evening local time, according to information released by Israel’s Ministry of Health.

Officials released a full list of the freed hostages’ names and ages. They include two mothers with their children and a pair of siblings.

If you’re just joining us, here are today’s other key headlines:

Palestinian teens released from Israel jails: Thirty-nine prisoners and detainees from a total of seven Israeli prisons were released Sunday as part of the deal between Israel and Hamas, the Israel Prison Service confirmed. The group is made up of boys aged 18 and younger; two are 15, and one — the youngest released — is 14.

Twenty-three of those released had been held under administrative detention, a widely criticized practice in which a detainee is unaware of any charges against them, and their case is not subject to any legal process.

Talks of extending truce: Hamas wants to extend its four-day truce with Israel beyond Monday through an agreement to free more imprisoned Palestinians, it said in a statement after the latest transfer. Israel’s war cabinet discussed the possibility at its meeting Sunday evening, a source told CNN, and their conditions remain unchanged: Hamas would need to release an additional 10 hostages for each additional day’s pause in the fighting.

Key nations also support extension: US President Joe Biden’s goal is to extend the pause in fighting to try to ensure the safe release of more hostages and to get critical aid to civilians in the enclave, he said in a news conference Sunday. Qatar, which played a central role in mediating the original agreement, said it too was hoping to extend the truce.

Aid trucks enter Gaza: At least 120 aid trucks have entered Gaza through the Rafah border on Sunday, the Egyptian government confirmed. The delivery of aid to Gaza has been a key factor in sustaining the truce and exchanges between Israel and Hamas.

Hostages leave hospital: Some Israelis from the first wave of released hostages — members of two families — have been discharged from the Schneider Children’s Medical Hospital in Israel, it announced Sunday. They are the first former hostages to be discharged.

Palestinians killed in West Bank: Eight Palestinians were killed by Israeli gunfire in the occupied West Bank over the course of 24 hours, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said in a statement Sunday. CNN has asked the Israel Defense Forces for comment about the killings.

This post has been updated with the latest on the freed hostages and talks to potentially extend the truce.

There are efforts to return hostages held in Gaza by groups other than Hamas, a top US official said Sunday.

“Part of the effort here is to ensure all of these groups somehow get connected to a deal in which every last possible hostage in Gaza who is still alive gets turned back over and reunited with their families.”

Implementation is currently underway to return at least 50 women and children through a negotiated deal with Hamas, which continued with the release of 17 hostages hours after Sullivan’s interview.

Sullivan also spoke to CNN Sunday morning.

Israel’s war cabinet discussed the possibility of extending the temporary truce with Hamas when it met Sunday evening, an Israeli source told CNN.

The source said conditions for an extension remain unchanged from the original agreement, which means Hamas needs to release an additional 10 hostages for each additional day’s pause in the fighting.

Remember: Israel and Hamas reached a deal last week for a four-day pause in fighting and the release of at least 50 women and children held hostage in Gaza.

The deal involved hostages who were held captive by Hamas being released in exchange for a number of Palestinian women and children in Israeli jails. The truce, meanwhile, also allowed the entry of “a larger number of humanitarian convoys and relief aid.” The first release of hostages and prisoners took place on Friday, with others taking place Saturday and Sunday.

Palestinians walk through destruction in Gaza City on November 24, as the temporary truce between Israel and Hamas took effect.

Hamas says it wants to extend its four-day truce with Israel, which has entered its third day and has now seen the release of three groups of Israeli hostages from Gaza and three groups of Palestinian prisoners and detainees from Israeli jails.

Earlier this weekend, Qatar, which played a central role in mediating the agreement, said it too was hoping to extend the truce, which includes provision for an extension of one extra day for every ten hostages Hamas is ready to free.

“What we are hoping for is that the momentum that has carried from the releases … and from this agreement of four days will allow us to extend the truce beyond these four days, and therefore get into more serious discussions about the rest of the hostages,” Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Majed Al-Ansari, told CNN on Saturday.

US President Joe Biden also expressed wanting to extend the pause in fighting during remarks Sunday.  

Rep. Mike Turner speaks during an interview in Washington, DC, on Monday, November 6.

There is some skepticism about whether the US Congress can pass a package that includes aid to Israel by the end of 2023.

House Intelligence Committee chairman Rep. Mike Turner told NBC on Sunday that he is not optimistic about the prospects of Congress passing a large national security package that would include funding for Israel, Ukraine, Taiwan and the US southern border.

“I think it’d be very difficult to get it done by the end of the year. And the impediment currently is the White House policy on the southern border,” he said, noting that the White House needs to accept immigration policy changes, rather than just an increase in funding.

Pressed on whether he would support placing conditions on aid to Israel aimed at lessening civilian casualties in Gaza, Turner said that this is already the policy of the US and Israel.

On Hamas and hospitals: Turner did say that he believes the US should release some of its intelligence on Hamas and their use of hospitals and other civilian buildings, after Israel has faced sharp criticism for targeting those sites.

“Palestinians are as much prisoners to Hamas in Gaza,” he said. “Once Hamas won its election — however rigged it may have been — to take over Gaza, there’s never been another one. They are absolutely being pressed by Hamas itself.”

He added, “I think it is certainly beneficial to tell the story of what Hamas is, what it does.”

A bus carrying Palestinian teenagers released from Israeli prisons arrived in the center of the West Bank city of Ramallah on Sunday evening local time.

Earlier, Israel’s Prison Service confirmed it had released 39 prisoners and detainees from a total of seven Israeli prisons (six in Israel and one in the occupied West Bank), as part of a deal between Israel and Hamas that also saw the militant group release hostages today.

The group released Sunday included boys aged 18 and younger; two are 15 years old, and one, the youngest released, is 14.

They were welcomed in Ramallah by hundreds of well-wishers, some waving Palestinian flags, others carrying the flag of Hamas. 

Some were detained without knowing their charge: Sixteen of those released were serving sentences, mostly for attacks on Israelis, according to information drawn from the Israeli Prison Service and the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society, a non-governmental organization advocating for prisoners’ rights.

The remaining 23 released had been held under administrative detention, a widely criticized practice in which a detainee is unaware of any charges against them, and their case is not subject to any legal process.

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03:46 - Source: CNN

Freed Israeli hostage Keren Munder and her family endured days with only pita bread to eat during her captivity in Gaza, her cousin Merav Mor Raviv told journalists Sunday.

Munder and her mother each lost 12 or more pounds in weight due to the lack of regular nutrition, Mor Raviv said, adding, “They were eating — but not regularly.”

Their diet in captivity included a lot of rice and bread, she added. 

Munder, her mother and 9-year-old son were released Friday by Hamas. 

Adva Adar, granddaughter of 85-year-old Yafa Adar, who was also freed Friday, said her grandmother had also lost weight during her nearly 50 days in Gaza. 

Adar had kept track of the days as a hostage and was aware how long she had been a prisoner when she was released, her granddaughter said. 

“We were asked to let her share whatever she feels comfortable sharing, and not to ask a lot of questions, so she wouldn’t feel obligated (to answer), or that it wouldn’t be too much for her,” Adva Adar said of the instructions the family had received regarding her grandmother’s first days of freedom. 

Adar said her grandmother thought more of her family had been killed in the October 7 Hamas attacks, and only discovered they were alive when she was out of Hamas’ hands.  

Yafa Adar’s house was destroyed in the fighting on October 7, her granddaughter said. 

Young boys look at humanitarian aid trucks entering Gaza on November 26. 

At least 120 trucks carrying aid have entered Gaza on Sunday, according to the Egyptian government.

Trucks carrying fuel and cooking gas headed toward northern Gaza in coordination with the United Nations and the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS), Diaa Rashwan, chair of Egypt’s government press office, said in a statement. 

Rashwan said the number of aid trucks will likely increase in the coming hours. 

The PRCS said in a statement that an aid convoy of 100 trucks was sent to Gaza City and northern areas of the strip, carrying food, water, relief items, first aid supplies and medicine. 

A freelance journalist working with CNN in Rafah, Egypt, also witnessed aid trucks continuing to enter the Rafah border from the Egyptian side on Sunday. 

Dozens of trucks that entered the crossing on Saturday were still being processed through the Israeli checkpoint as of Sunday afternoon local time, or they were still unloading on the Gaza side of the border crossing, an Egyptian border official told CNN.

The official added that about 129,000 liters of diesel and 80,000 liters of gas went through the Rafah border crossing from the Egyptian side of the border. 

Some background: While Sunday’s exchange of Hamas hostages for Palestinian prisoners and detainees has already been completed, the Saturday exchange was delayed by Hamas over a dispute that centered largely on the issue of aid for Gaza.

Hamas said Israel was not holding up the terms of its agreement to supply aid to the besieged enclave, saying “less than half” of the expected aid trucks had entered northern Gaza.

The issue was eventually resolved through mediation by Qatar, Qatari officials said.

A bus carrying four of the hostages who were released by Hamas today has been seen arriving in Egypt via the Rafah crossing.

The Israel Defense Forces confirmed that Red Cross officials have transferred the group – three Thai nationals and a Russian-Israeli dual citizen – out of Gaza through the crossing.

The hostages released Friday and Saturday also went via the Rafah crossing, which has played a pivotal role in the efforts to get people out and aid in to Gaza, as it is the only entry or exit point not controlled by Israel.

Remember: There were 17 hostages released Sunday in total, with the others group made up of women and children with Israeli citizenship, according to the IDF.

Freed Israelis on the move: A separate group of 13 Israelis freed in Sunday’s hostages release saw one airlifted by helicopter to a hospital, and the other 12 taken through the border fence directly from Gaza into Israel, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

A CNN team witnessed the Israeli convoy of vehicles carrying the hostages drive by the area of Kibbutz Urim, about 15 kilometers (9 miles) inside Israel, en route to the airbase.

The army said that after an initial medical assessment, the hostages will be flown to hospitals in the Tel Aviv area, where they are expected to be reunited with their families.

This post has been updated with details about the citizenship of the two groups of hostages released Sunday.

US President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the release of hostages from Gaza, on November 26, in Nantucket, Massachusetts. 

US President Joe Biden welcomed the release of 4-year-old American-Israeli citizen Abigail Edan, who is now free after weeks held hostage in Gaza. 

“Today she’s free, and Jill and I — together with so many Americans — are praying for the fact that she is going to be alright,” he continued, referring to first lady Jill Biden.

Having arrived in Israel, Biden said Edan is receiving love, care and “the supportive services she needs.” 

Biden said the 4-year-old girl “has been through a terrible trauma.” Her mother, he said, was killed in front of her. She then ran to her father, Biden said, who used his body to shield his daughter and was killed. 

He did not have details on Edan’s condition.

“She is safely ensconced in Israel, but there’s a lot more work to be done,” he said.

Abigail was the youngest American hostage, according to officials.

Edan’s release, along with the release of dozens of hostages since the pause began Friday, is the product of “hard work and weeks of personal engagement from me and my team,” Biden said. 

The president said he would speak “shortly” with Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying the two would discuss implementation of the existing deal and also efforts to extend it to bring additional hostages home. Biden also pointed to his engagement with the highest levels of Qatari and Egyptian leadership. 

Biden said he was “hopeful this is not the end” of the temporary truce.

Top row, from left: Chen Goldstein Almog, Gal Goldstein Almog, Tal Goldstein Almog, Agam Goldstein Almog and Abigail Edan. Middle row, from left: Ofry Brodutch, Oria Brodutch, Yuval Brodutch, Hagar Brodutch and Adrienne (Aviva) Siegel. Bottom row, from left: Alma Avraham, Dafna Elyakim and Ela Elyakim.

The 13 Israeli hostages released as part of the formal Israel-Hamas agreement have been handed over to the Israel Defense Forces on Sunday, military officials said.

One hostage was airlifted by helicopter to a hospital, and the other 12 taken through the border fence directly from Gaza to Israel.

Israel’s prime minister’s office has released the names of the freed hostages. They are:

Other hostages released today: The IDF and Hamas each said a total of 17 hostages were freed Sunday.

Israel said the four other hostages were headed through the Rafah border crossing, like the hostages that were released Friday and Saturday.

That group was made up of three Thai nationals and a dual Russian-Israeli citizen, who was released as a special case, outside the parameters of the Israel-Hamas truce, which does not allow for the release of adult men.

This post has been updated with details about the citizenship of the two groups of hostages released Sunday.

Lauren Izso in Tel Aviv contributed to this reporting.

US President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the release of hostages from Gaza, on November 26, in Nantucket, Massachusetts.

US President Joe Biden said his administration’s goal is to extend the pause in fighting in Gaza to provide for the safe release of hostages and allow more critical aid to reach civilians in the enclave.

Biden said that the deal struck between Israel and Hamas was “structured so that it can be extended to keep building on these results.”

“That’s our goal: to keep this pause going beyond tomorrow,” Biden said.

US President Joe Biden delivers remarks from Nantucket, Massachusetts, on November 26.

US President Joe Biden is now delivering remarks following the release of 17 hostages from captivity in Gaza — including a 4-year-old American-Israeli girl.

The Red Cross received 17 hostages on Sunday, including Israelis and foreign nationals, Israel’s military confirmed. Thirty-nine Palestinians will be released later today, Qatar said, in the third such exchange of a four-day truce between Israel and Hamas.

Biden confirmed in the news conference that 4-year-old American-Israeli Abigail Edan was freed on Sunday, marking the first successful release of an American hostage since the start of the truce.

Thirty-nine Palestinian prisoners are set to be released on Sunday, according to Qatar.

The Palestinians will be released in exchange for the 17 hostages freed by Hamas in Gaza, Qatar foreign ministry spokesperson Majed Al-Ansari said on X.

This would mark the third such exchange of hostages for prisoners between Israel and Hamas during their current four-day truce.

Undated photo of Abigail Edan.

Abigail Edan, a 4-year-old American-Israeli citizen abducted by Hamas on October 7, is in the hands of Red Cross officials, a senior US official tells CNN.

This marks the first successful release of an American hostage since the start of a truce between Israel and Hamas. Edan is one of the 17 being released Sunday.

Edan was orphaned when her parents were killed by Hamas on October 7, family previously told CNN. She was 3 years old when abducted, and her birthday passed while she was being held in Gaza.

Abigail was the youngest American hostage, according to officials.

She has a 6-year-old sister and 10-year-old brother, who saw their parents being murdered on October 7, Liz Hirsh Naftali, Edan’s great-aunt, told CNN. They hid in a closet for 14 hours, she said.

US President Joe Biden had told reporters last week that he was keeping his “fingers crossed,” that Edan would be among the hostages released soon.