US has ‘working list’ of hostages they believe are likely to be released first by Hamas, source familiar says

By MJ Lee, Alex Marquardt, Jennifer Hansler, Sam Fossum and Tim Lister, CNN

Washington (CNN) — US officials have a working list of 10 hostages that they believe are likely to be released from Gaza on day one, a source familiar told CNN. It was not clear whether any of the three American hostages – including 3-year-old Abigail Edan – would be released on the first day.

The working list consists of 10 individuals who Hamas had proposed releasing earlier in the negotiations. The list consists of information like gender, nationality and age, but the names of the individuals were never offered.

The deal is structured in such a way that each day, a group of hostages to be released would be handed off to the Red Cross; the Red Cross would then take the group to a designated border point, which will largely depend on the location of those hostages, the source familiar said. Many of the first 50 hostages are expected to come out through Egypt, they said.

The first two days of the hostage release will be treated as a “testing period,” a source said, to make sure the process is working. By day three, there is expected to be intense discussions about the potential second phase of the hostage release beyond the initial group of 50.

“The first swap is the most crucial to see that the mechanism is working as was agreed,” the source said.

A source familiar with how hostages are expected to leave Gaza told CNN that the first swap had been expected to take place on Thursday. However, the Israeli National Security Council said later that the pause would be delayed and no hostages are expected to be released before Friday.

“Talks to release our hostages are advancing and are ongoing. The start of the release process will take place according to the original agreement between both sides, and not before Friday,” Israel’s National Security Council said in a statement.

A senior US official said Wednesday evening that more time was needed to iron out details related to the locations and routes of each of the hostages as well as the logistics of moving them. A decision was made to wait one extra day to minimize things going wrong, said the official, who added Israel made the decision together with Qatar and Egypt, and that the US was consulted on and agreed with the decision.

Fifty Israel hostages — including some with dual nationalities — are expected to be released over the four-day pause, with a minimum of 10 hostages to be released each day. Under the terms of the deal, the Israeli Cabinet Secretariat said 150 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails would also be released in four stages over four days.

Every evening before the next day’s release Israel and Hamas will give the Red Cross the list of hostage and prisoner names being released.

Hostages will be brought by the Red Cross to Rafah where they will be met by specially trained Israeli soldiers. They will verify that the hostages released were the people expected and on the list. The families of the hostages will not be notified until the identities of those released have been confirmed.

Hostages will then be taken by helicopter to several designated hospitals in Israel where there will be special areas and rooms for them, closed to the public. There, their families will finally be able to see them after more than six weeks in captivity.

The Red Cross is expected to be able to visit and offer medical support to the hostages that remain in Gaza as part of the deal, the source said.

Biden administration ‘hopeful’ release process to begin Friday

National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said in a statement Wednesday night that the Biden administration was “hopeful” the hostage release process would begin Friday morning as the parties were working out “final logistical details.”

“The deal was agreed and remains agreed. The parties are working out final logistical details particularly for the first day of implementation,” Watson said. “It is our view that nothing should be left to chance as the hostages begin coming home. Our primary objective is to ensure that they are brought home safely. That is on track and we are hopeful that implementation will begin on Friday morning.”

White House Coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa Brett McGurk confirmed earlier Wednesday that three US hostages – Edan and two women — are expected to come home as part of the 50 hostages released by Hamas. A total of 10 Americans are believed to be hostages.

“I was asked earlier do we know if the 50 are alive and well. We understand they’re alive, but they’re certainly not well,” McGurk told CNN’s Boris Sanchez on “CNN News Central.” “These 50 women, children and toddlers, it’s just unimaginable what they’ve gone through, but we’re gonna make sure that they get the care they need when they come home.”

McGurk suggested that the humanitarian pause and hostage releases could continue beyond the initial four-day period, saying they “do have some assurances” on this.

“For this humanitarian pause to continue, we have to see more hostages coming out,” he said. “We do have some assurance that even beyond the four-day period, on day five, day six, we will meet that benchmark to extend the humanitarian pause at least by those period of days, but I can’t guarantee that.”

“We have to see,” he said, “and again, we’re dealing with Hamas, a terrorist group here, who’s holding toddlers and babies at the other end of the table.”

Asked whether there are concerns around the release of the Palestinian prisoners, McGurk said that “the Israelis are balancing a number of different objectives and risks and they determined that the release of the Palestinian prisoners in this circumstance, after a full debate within their government, was the way to proceed.”

A senior Israeli official previously told CNN that there was a 24-hour window following the announcement of the deal for appeals to be lodged with the court.

The Israeli Supreme Court rejected a challenge, clearing any legal objection in Israel to the execution of the hostage deal.

The Almagor association, which was set up in 1986 to represent victims of terror, had argued that the government’s decision, among a series of objections, intensified the risk of “the recurrence of serious acts of terrorism to which all the citizens and residents of the country are exposed.”

The court said it rejected the petition outright on the grounds that the hostage deal “is a clear political issue to which this court does not consider its involvement as necessary.”

Focus will shift to other groups after expected release of women, children

After the expected release of the women and children hostages held by Hamas begins, focus will turn to the other groups being held in the Gaza Strip, the release of whom is expected to be harder to secure, sources said.

Women and children have been the first priority to get released and if that is successful, it will leave men, Israeli soldiers and the remains of those killed – either bodies taken into Gaza on October 7 or those who were killed after.

A source familiar with the negotiations said that US and Israeli officials viewed elderly men as being the next category of people that may be easiest to get out of Gaza, followed by foreign national men. Both female and male soldiers were considered the hardest to negotiate out of Gaza, the source added. In addition, the parties would also need to work toward retrieving the bodies of those killed that Hamas is believed to be holding.

The negotiation for those categories hasn’t started in earnest yet, the source said. As a result of the complexity for the remaining hostages, another source familiar with the discussions confirmed that the others have not been part of the immediate conversations and therefore are on something of a separate track.

Another complicating factor in the case of many of those who would remain, the person added, is that they’re not in Hamas custody but with other groups and individuals.

Israeli soldiers held hostage could give Hamas huge leverage in negotiations. In 2011, Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit was exchanged for more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners after years of negotiations.

Following mandatory Israeli military service for both men and women, most Israelis become reservists. Hamas had wanted to consider all Israeli women under age 45 as soldiers, given that women have to serve in the Israeli military and are often reservists, the source said. Israel rejected that, and the two sides ultimately agreed that only women in uniform when they were abducted, would be designated as soldiers.

Aside from Israelis, there are kidnapped nationals from other countries, like Thailand and Nepal, whose countries have been in contact with Qatar, since Qatari mediators have been a main point of contact with Hamas, a person familiar with the discussions said.

This headline and story have been updated with additional developments on Wednesday.

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