 This is an I-24 News special report. I'm Albert Lewitton at the I-24 News headquarters in Tel Aviv. Welcome to our viewers around the world. We are bringing you live team coverage of the war. Let's give you an update number one. Another batch of Israeli hostages being held by Hamas are expected to be released within the next few hours. We are getting word now just in that Egypt says that 13 Israelis are expected to be released. Nine are expected to be children. One of them, four-year-old Avigayl Eden. Her family has confirmed this. She was one of the hostages that US President Joseph Biden pushed to release. American national security advisor Jake Sullivan has just told NBC's Meet the Press that she's expected to be one of those released. Egypt also says that 39 more Palestinians jailed on terrorism charges are also expected to be released. Number two, within the past few minutes, a Russian Israeli dual citizen was released. This was a report that Vladimir Putin personally reached out to Hamas. They get him freed, separate from the Israelis. In fact, the Hamas says thank you to the Russians for their support of the Palestinian cause and that's why he was released. Number three, Hamas has freed 13 hostages last night after an agonizing seven-hour delay plus four Thai men were released. Those who were released last night, Sharon Avigdori and her daughter Noam, siblings Alma and Noam Orr, Hila Rotem, without her mother Raya, one of the conditions of the troops actually was not to separate mothers from their children, but Hamas says they can't find Raya. Shiri Weiss and her daughter Noga, Adish Kham and her daughter and their children, Yael and Naveh, Maya Regev, Shoshan Haran and Emily Hand. Number four, Emily Hand is Irish Israeli, but the Irish Prime Minister just could not bring himself to condemn Hamas for abducting and keeping one of his own citizens and nine-year-old girl hostage for 50-plus days. And that has Israeli Foreign Minister Cohen fuming at the Irish government. He summoned the Irish Ambassador Israel to his office. Number five, within the past two hours, Houthi rebels hijacked a tanker in the Gulf of Oman, owned by an Israeli, flying the flag of Liberia. We have live team coverage of the war and all the situation going on with the release of the hostages. Let's first start with Emily Francis. I-24 News Correspondent joining us from Tel Aviv. Emily, the people behind you are waiting for some answers, some notes from what's happening outside. Tell us what's happening. That's right. Good evening, Albert. Yes, of course, people are waiting, you know, with a mix of hope, but also, you know, abated hope. After what happened, like you said at the top of the show, there was a seven-and-a-half-hour delay yesterday. We're hoping that the hostages are gonna get into Israel before midnight tonight. The hospitals are prepared for the return of the 13 hostages. But more importantly, I want to step out of the shop because this has become a nightly occurrence here, a singing circle. They've just been singing all kinds of Israeli folk songs, prayers right here. You can see people sitting, people are... I'm just gonna let the camera pick up the scene as it's unfolding. We have this beautiful singer who's been singing here in the plaza. So let's take a listen. Mixed with hope and also, you know, somberness. We're all really, you know, we've gone through so many ups and downs. This has been such an emotional roller coaster. So singing Israeli folk songs, prayers. We even had somebody blowing us so far. So hanging on to hope that this third group of hostages get home safely and are in good condition. That's all for now. Back to you in the studio, Albert. Emily, you know, one of the things I noticed around Tel Aviv right now is that those kidnapped posters that we saw, that horrible people around the world tore down, they've been changed to, don't forget me. And I think that's the situation all around Israel right now. Don't forget me. That's exactly right because let's not forget. You know, we're here counting our blessings for 50 to be to release, but there's still 200 more that are not released. And let's not forget, yesterday, there were children released without their parents, which went exactly against the conditions that were set. So we just can't trust Hamas to make right on their promise. I24 News correspondent Emily Francis, joining us live now from Tel Aviv. Thanks so much. We're gonna continue our live team coverage here in the studio now with Guy Azrael, I24 News senior editor. Guy, so last night it was a roller coaster ride for seven hours. We were here and we were hoping to get an answer and see those pictures of the people coming across at about eight o'clock, but it didn't happen until hours later. And it looks like there's always a snag. There's always something. Look, it's the third day of this hostage release deal. And obviously Israel is dealing with the terrorist organization, the wellbeing of the Israeli hostages or their families waiting at home, or every Israeli that is expecting their release is not the top priority for Hamas, despite the opposite, trying to inflict as much pain on the Israeli society as possible. We're seeing live images there of the offer of prison where Palestinian prisoners are expected to be released as part of this next batch of this deal. And despite both the first and the second day being very lengthy and complicated, perhaps some assurance today or some more positive feeling for now because the families of the Israeli hostages that are set to be released today have already been given an order to make their way into the hospitals where they are expected to meet their loved ones. So a positive sign indeed, if Israel reads the situation right, that things will go smoother today. But as we saw with Hamas, that nothing is to be taken for granted. Let me tell our viewers around the world if you're just joining us what you're seeing on the screen right now. That's a split screen. On the left-hand side is the offer of prison in the West Bank. This is where the 39 Palestinian prisoners that are being held by Israel on terrorism charges. Mind you, these are not Palestinian prisoners who just went through a traffic light or they got their license revoked. These are Palestinian prisoners who stabbed, attempted to stab or attempted to kill Israeli citizens or police officers, these are not. And also, as you might see on social media, oh, many people are saying, oh, they're children. They actually are 14 to 18 year olds. These are not children, but in the eyes of both the Jewish religion and then Muslim religion, they're adults. And these are teenagers who are committed, or allegedly have committed these crimes and some of them have not been convicted. On the right-hand side, that is the Rafa crossing that is between Gaza and Egypt. Now, what the process is, is that at some point tonight, the members, the 13 of the hostages will be put to the hands of the Red Cross and the Red Cross will shuttle them to the border. So we're monitoring both of these camera angles right now. We'll bring you as things occur. At the same time, Guy, there's also humanitarian trucks going into Gaza. So it's not, this is an important point that was pushed on by the international community for the humanitarian trucks to come in. And this was claimed to have been one of the reasons of the snag last night. Right, so we know that from the Egyptians that 120 trucks have come into Gaza today. That was one of the claims of Hamas why they delayed the deal so much yesterday, citing both the fact that not enough trucks, according to Hamas, have come into the strip. And also they had an issue with the names of the identity rather of the Palestinian prisoners who were released yesterday. Hamas wants more seniority, people who sit in prison for much longer to be released. Or dangerous. Right, you can imagine from the fact that they are sentenced for very extended periods, that they executed much more severe crimes. They want them released first, as Raul said. That is not part of the deal. Great, thanks so much. Guy, just stand by one second. We're gonna continue our live team coverage from I-24 News. I'm gonna go to Zach Anders, the I-24 News correspondent who's joining us now from the southern part of Israel. Zach, this is, again, everyone here is looking at the split screen that our viewers are seeing around the world, hoping that things progress a lot smoother than they did yesterday. And I'm hearing from sources within the IDF that it is appearing to go smoothly at the moment. Unlike yesterday, when we had signs of there being trouble, by now, by this point in the afternoon that we are hearing things are going apparently according to plan, but that could change very quickly. And the information is tightly controlled right now because this is an incredibly delicate dance. What we will expect in the coming moments is for either what the last two days we've seen social media posts from within Gaza showing the convoy of the Red Cross vehicles making their way towards the Rafa crossing. We have not seen that yet, but when we do, that would be a significant moment that we'll be looking for. The more important part that we'll be looking for was when they do get to the Rafa crossing. That is when they'll finally reach Israeli hands and then they can start their journey towards us at the air base. Zach Anders, joining us live now from the southern part of Israel on the Gaza border. Thanks so much for joining us. We continue our live team coverage of the release of the 13 hostages. I'm gonna be joined now by Yosef Kupavasser. He's the former director general of the Israel Ministry of Strategic Affairs. He's also the former head of research division for the IDF military intelligence. He's joining us now. Thanks so much for joining us. I very much appreciate it. Yosef, if I may, there was a really large snag here. But a lot of people are saying that what Hamas was doing was playing the Israelis. Do you subscribe to that? Not really. I think that there was some misunderstanding that are very common and very often happening in such deals. Each side understand the deal in a little bit different way and have different expectations. And when they are not met, according to what they understood, they feel that something is wrong and they have to protest. And this is what happened yesterday. It's not that anybody played with the other side because everybody wants the deal to go through. That's in the interest of both sides. I'm gonna have you hold for one second because we're now going to go to Pia Stechelbacher, our 24 news correspondent. She's gonna continue her live team coverage. She's joining us from the Sheba Medical Center. It's important that she's there because at some point, 13 hostages will be headed there. Talk to us, Pia. Right, Albert. In fact, I'm at Schneider Medical Center here at Schneider Hospital in Patakhtikva. And this is one of three hospitals where we expect that the 13 hostages that will be released later this evening will be brought to this is Schneider Medical Center. Also, Sheba that already received yesterday's hostages and also Wolfson Medical Center in Kholon. Now here, everyone is waiting for them to arrive here. We don't really know when that will be, especially after yesterday's experience of the heavy delay here yesterday. The hostages only arrived in the early morning hours. Now here, we know that the families of those hostages that are set to be freed today, they're already on their way to those three different hospitals that I mentioned here, including the Schneider Hospital. Schneider is also the hospital that received the first round of hostages that were released Friday night. Eight of them, eight women and children, have been brought to Schneider Hospital. Now what we do know is that they all are in good physical condition, I say physical, because of course, psychologically and mentally, this is a completely different issue. Many of them are still here and do receive medical treatment, but we do know that to a mother and a daughter, a returned home this morning, they were received by big crowds in their home city in central Israel today and Schneider Hospital just announced a few hours ago that another mother and her two children are going to go home very, very soon. We do speak about Doron Asher and her two daughters. There was a video published from Schneider Hospital yesterday that showed them with their father, who had been waiting for them obviously for seven weeks almost here in Schneider Hospital, where the small, the youngest daughter said that it was always her dream while in captivity to go home. Now finally, that dream seems to be coming true for them today, but obviously we're still waiting for those other hostages, those 13 that are going to be released this evening, a number of them will be brought here. We believe that the children especially will be delivered to Schneider Hospital. And of course, this is what is everyone here is waiting for some of the family members are already on the way to the hospital. Of course, this is a very, very delicate issue, a very delicate moment as well. So this is dealt with the utmost privacy we're not expecting to see any of those family members or to actually see the hostages when they arrive to the hospital because of course, you don't know what condition they're in their first of all, we'll receive the necessary medical treatment here. Those hospitals are very much prepared for this situation. The rooms are prepared. Of course, we do speak about first and foremost children who need to be treated, who need to be attended to medically. So there is a team of experts waiting here, experts, of course, physically, but first and foremost also psychologically because after seven weeks in captivity, the condition of those hostages very much is unclear, but they are waiting to be received here whenever that might be tonight, Albert. Piyas Akhaba, thanks very much for joining us and giving us an update from the hospitals. Thank you very much. I wanna go right back now to Josef Kupavasa for just one second. I wanna talk to you if I may, Mr. Kupavasa, about the senior commanders that have been killed by the IDF in Hamas territory in the Gaza fighting. How important was it to get those senior commanders killed? Very important. I think that we're talking about really the highest echelon in the northern Gaza Strip leading the Hamas military operations there, responsible for much of the terror attacks that were carried out by Hamas, including the 7th of October. So it's a very important success for the Israeli forces and it's going to have an impact on the morale of the Hamas terrorists who are still there in Gaza. Right, but what it does is during this point, does it make the street fighters, if you will, more confused or do they have their orders? Like how, if you're gonna knock out the top echelon of Hamas, it doesn't exactly count for the people who are gonna be on the street fighting the IDF troops that are on the street. They know their routine, they know what to have to do, of course, but morale speaking, it's devastating to know that many of your commanders have lost their lives in an Israeli attack. By the way, the attack took place a couple of days ago. It was not carried out, of course, now. Right. So it took them time to find out what happened with them and they didn't report them dead until now. Let's talk a little bit about the hostages. One of the hostages that was just released as a Russian-Israeli dual citizen, their reports that Vladimir Putin himself called or reached out to Hamas and said, please let go of one of our guys. Although that doesn't seem like that's necessarily the case because if it was a deal like that, you would expect the Russians who have gotten involved a lot sooner than 50 days to have released one of these hostages. Well, the Russians are in a strange situation here. They are supporters of Hamas. They posted the Hamas delegation after the service of October attack. They definitely expect Hamas to be forthcoming to the demands and release the hostages even earlier. But it seems that with all the good relations that they have with Hamas, they are not able to actually get what was done around the release of this hostage after 50 days. That's the situation. I hope that Russia will be more able to help in releasing many more hostages, not only the Russians ones, and using its leverage over Hamas. But I doubt if this is going to be the case. I think we should explore this option. Mr. Gruberfosser, what you're seeing on the left-hand side of the screen is Ofer prison. This is where 39 Palestinian prisoners are expected to be released. And it sent back to either Gaza, they won't go back to Gaza, they'll go back to the West Bank. Yesterday, when that happened, there were showers of adulation, candy thrown at the 39 that were brought back in by bus. There was a parade, it looked as though it was more of a jubilation. Then there's an issue of the two that were hanged by those Hamas supporters on the streets of the West Bank. Is the West Bank something that still needs to be looked at? Definitely, the war goes on in the West Bank. And I'm very concerned that this deal, this is the downside of this deal, that it shows us how strong the Hamas is in the West Bank as well. It's not too strong only in Gaza. There were some people who were saying that Hamas does not represent the Palestinian people. What we see is that Hamas does represent the Palestinian people, not only in Gaza, but also in the West Bank. That's very concerning. It's a red light in front of the Palestinian Authority. They do nothing, they do not appeal on the street, they don't manage to control the jubilations that you mentioned to. And that's, and with Zabou Mazen being 88 years old, it's a major challenge for him and for the security in the West Bank. And we have to invest a lot in making sure that it doesn't explode. Stand by one second. So I'm gonna carry out all these arrests every night. Stand by one second, Yosef. Guy, go ahead. Yeah, just adding to Mr. Cooper Vassar here, I want to point out a tweet published short while ago by an Israeli lawmaker, Idan Rol. He's a member of the Yashatid Party. The same party led by Yair Lapidou, of course, has announced that he supports the Palestinian Authority to control the Gaza Strip after this war. Well, Mr. Rol is speaking about, first of all, the fact that two Palestinians were murdered in the city of Tulkarem over the weekend and then were hanged on an electric pole to the chairs of the crowd. And he says, even if you are among those who separate Hamas from the Palestinian Authority and see the Palestinian Authority as a solution, really speaking to his leader, Yair Lapid, you are still required to ask the following question. If the PA is unable to control even what is happening in its own territory, how is it supposed to successfully control the Gaza Strip, really alluding to what Mr. Cooper Vassar is speaking about right now? Mr. Cooper Vassar, your response. I think that the PA is not a real candidate to take control of the Gaza Strip. So then who is? The PA is the one who basically is a terrorist. So who is? The PA is the one that incites in its textbooks. The PA is weak and unable to control the West Bank, let alone the Gaza Strip. If we put the PA in the Gaza Strip after the war, we are going to get the same results as we did after the PA was in control of the Gaza Strip in the past, that it was used by Hamas to get stronger and stronger and eventually getting rid of the PA. So that's not a solution. And I don't understand anybody who's pointing at the PA as a solution. So then Mr. Cooper Vassar, if I may, then who would be the solution if you don't have the PA involved? You don't have PIJ involved? You don't have Hamas involved? I think in the short period of after we take control of the PA, we should really take it over. We should really take it, control it ourselves. And then we should have to look at the people from within the Gaza population that are not identified with Hamas, not identified with the PA, that are ready to take it upon themselves. I guess there are going to be some because there is a lot of resentment in the Gaza Strip right now against Hamas and against the results of its 7th of October terrible attack on Israel. You wouldn't know that from social media, sir? I just want to say thank you. Sorry? From social media, all you see is that this is not the situation at all, that Hamas is a stronghold, that there's nobody, that they don't want anyone else but Hamas to be in charge. I'm not able to say something different right now, but if you look into the, in between the lines, there are more and more Palestinians, you see them here and there, that they understand that they have very heavy prices. As long as Hamas is there, I'm afraid to say it out loudly, but once Hamas is not going to be there anymore after we eliminate the Hamas in Gaza, we might expect after a couple of months, not immediately, that these people will come up and be ready to take upon themselves the responsibility for the Gaza Strip. Mr. Gubba Vassar, I just want to ask whether or not there's a, hold on one second, we're getting actually just, we're getting word in now from, guy, go ahead, I'm getting an update. Yes, we're getting two updates. First from an Israeli official saying that the 13 Israeli hostages are being transferred at this very hour to the Red Cross and from the Red Cross itself, saying 13 Israeli hostages, among them nine children, have been brought into our hands. So this is a significant improvement in the speed of the deal, especially after what we saw in the past two days. It seems that the pressure of the Americans of the Qataris and the Egyptians has really worked today. It is not even 5.30 p.m. local time. And if these hostages are already in the hands of the Red Cross, as the Red Cross is saying, we should see them in Israel very soon, I imagine, within the next half or even an hour. It speaks to the fact that possibly somebody greased the wheels, if you will, to make sure that this happened better than it did yesterday. Some other group outside, some part of the negotiations made sure that they would take a lot sooner than it did yesterday. Look, it's not Israel that has the leverages of pressure over Hamas at this point. Obviously, it does so in the war when it threatens to eliminate Hamas completely. But when we're talking about this time of pause in the fighting, the Qataris, the Egyptians, the Americans, other strong entities in the region do have a say in what is going on. And the Americans have applied a lot of pressure, we know, also in the case of Abigail that was mentioned here. Of course, this is a four-year-old girl who saw both her parents being slaughtered, being murdered in front of her eyes, and she was taken hostage by herself into the hands of Hamas. You cannot imagine an atrocity greater than this in any Hollywood movie. And this is what we're talking about. Hopefully, we'll get confirmation that she is among those in the hands of the Red Cross. Sadly, she has no family to go to or home to go to. Mr. Kumpfasser, I just want to go back to you for just one second in terms of the other front that Israel is facing. This is the northern front. This is the front with Hezbollah. The past 24 to 48 hours, I'll call it relatively quiet. But I wonder whether or not you feel as though Hezbollah has been told, hey, just settle down and let things happen down in the South as possible. What's your opinion of this? My opinion is that everything that Hamas does now, Hezbollah does now, Iran does now, and the Iraqi militias and the Houthis, they're all working in concert in order to convince President Biden to put pressure on Israel not to resume the fighting after the deal is over. And I expect Hamas to offer a few more days of hostages exchanges. And Hezbollah keeps its fire on a very low level right now because they want to convince the Americans that if there is a resumption of the war, then there is going to be another escalation. But if there is no, then there is going to be quiet. And that's the name of the game right now. Israel, as you know, is determined to continue with the fight until we eliminate Hamas from Gaza. And we want to make sure that we get the American backing for that. And so far it seems that President Biden, especially now that he managed to convince Hamas to release Abigail, is going to be with us on that and understand that if he doesn't support us on eliminating Hamas, the repercussions for the security of the West are going to be very dangerous. Mr. Kupavassar, thank you very much for joining us. Yosef Kupavassar, the former director general for the Israel Ministry of Strategic Affairs, also the former head of research division for the IDF military intelligence. Thanks so much for joining us. Guy, I want to talk to you for one second before we move on to our next guest about the other theaters, Houthi sending and attacking a tanker in the Gulf of Moman. They apparently did not get the memo to hold off on everything. Well, there certainly were not part of this deal. This deal was signed with Hamas, with the negotiation of the Qataris and the Americans, obviously never a part of this deal. And today it is the third ship with some sort of Israeli ownership that is being attacked in the Red Sea. The Zodiac Maritime, that is the company that owns the tanker, said that there is a suspicion that the Central Park, that's the name of that tanker, was involved in a pirate incident as she was crossing near the Yemen coast, some 54 nautical miles from Somalia. She said that the safety of the 22 crew members on board is top priority. We know that the captain there is a Turkish national and the remaining crew are Russians, Vietnamese, Bulgarians, Indians, Georgians, and Filipinos. No relation to Israel when it comes to the... Well, the interesting part about this months ago, you remember months ago we reported about this, the American Sencom was very strong about saying, oh, we're sending ships to be in the Gulf of Oman, to be in the Red Sea, to make sure that tankers and ships can go through the straight forward moods without getting attacked by Iranian or Iranian-backed groups. Look, there's no question that this is a global issue. The crossing there, the route of cargo ships of tankers is vital for the world economy, for world trade, not only an Israeli problem, not only an American problem, something that's gonna have significant global implications. If we have our next guest, I wanna bring you our next guest, Izzy Azagi. He's a first sergeant in the reserves. He's an Israeli-American. Izzy, are you there? I'm here. Hi, Izzy, I just wanted to talk to you for one second. You're back in the US, but you're going back to the area within southern Israel. When you see the video, when you see these hostages being released, and you see what is going on in the southern part of Israel and border of Gaza, what's the first thing comes to mind? Well, if you're asking me as a civilian and a Jew, obviously I'm very happy to have our people home or some of our people. It's also a stark reminder that there's still over 200 hostages suffering in Gaza. As a reservist, I think that there are larger ramifications when I think of it as a soldier on the ground, what that means for my fellow reservists, what it means for the future of how we negotiate these things. I think there are some downsides, but right now I think it's more of a focus as a civilian that I'm happy to see young Israelis reunited with our people. One thing our viewers should know is that you lost your arm from a Hamas rocket on the Gaza border back in 2009. So there's a feeling that I'm sure an added level of anger towards what's happening, what happened back in October 7th, what's happening in terms of the hostages. Your special unit is right now inside Gaza. How do you reconcile with what's happening? I finished my service as a reservist nearly three years ago. I was ready to put my IDF service behind me. I woke up on the 7th, like the rest of the world or at least the world that is on our side and understands what is moral and what is right. And I was devastated by it. I was hurt, I was angry and I decided to re-up and re-enlist despite having been done with my service, despite having lost an arm and having served in the Special Forces for many years after the fact, I decided that I had to go back again. Being there with the troops on the ground, honestly, I can't think of a better place to be as a Jew right now to at least feel like I'm doing something actionable. I'm responding. I feel like a lot of the Jews around the world feel more of a helplessness. And I could say that because I've returned to Los Angeles for a few weeks and I feel helpless again. I'm looking forward to rejoining my unit next week. More than that, I think both with church feeling in Los Angeles, for I listen, I have friends and family in Los Angeles and they're terrified. There's demonstrations on the street. There was one in Brentwood recently where they were throwing smoke bombs. This is not, what I think the world doesn't understand even those Americans don't understand that this war doesn't exactly limit itself to 25 mile radius of Tel Aviv. No, I'm in Brentwood now. So that one obviously felt close to home. I passed through the Grove in West Hollywood the other day. There was something similar going on. I can tell you earnestly that I felt safer in Israel when I was being targeted by rockets than I do here in Los Angeles. And that speaks to the sat affairs of where things stand right now. This is, again, I just want to take time to thank you for your service and thank you for your time. And I know you'll be back on the side of the planet soon. So thank you again and hope and wish you much safety. I appreciate that. Guy, let me talk to you a little bit about that. We're getting some word in about the Prime Minister. Yes, the blackout has just been removed. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was in the Gaza Strip today with the Israeli forces and he is sending a very strong message to any of us who questioned here. Here we can see him. I wonder if we could hear the soundbite. I could translate it live for our viewers. Okay, so we'll just tell you what he's saying. We'll get the soundbite soon. His message is very clear. We continue until the end, until victory. Nothing will stop us and we are convinced that we have the power, the strength, the will and the determination to achieve all of the goals of the war and we will do so. So those definitely has been a doubt. We hear the conversation on the street here in Israel amid these days of a ceasefire, a very surreal situation when you're in a war, a serious war where so many IDF troops are inside Gaza and Hamas obviously is using the time to both achieve more days of pause in the fighting, to rearm and regroup, the message is clear. You know, many Israelis were fearing that this may stall the Israeli operation, the Israeli war against Hamas, may even lead to a situation which Israel backs off from some of its goals, eliminating Hamas's military capabilities and also returning the hostages. Well, if there were any questions, they were answered by the prime minister today and also a strong message of him being there inside the Gaza Strip that is unprecedented. I do not remember. I don't think there's any other prime minister going into the field like that. Into a war zone that not in Israeli territory. I certainly don't remember ahead of state that there was in Lebanon where Israel was operating there, perhaps a foreign minister, but then our defense minister, not a sitting prime minister, I think also sends a message of how secure the IDF is, where it is in the northern part of the Gaza Strip and the strong message there from Netanyahu, both to the people of Israel, I think first and foremost, but also to the rest of the world, to Israel's allies, to the Americans and the rest of the world, this war is far from being over and Israel has very serious goals to achieve. They will wait. They may wait several more days. There is this report in the Wall Street Journal today that they're perhaps looking to extend the pause in the fighting for four additional days in which the Hamas-Tera group will release between 1450 additional hostages. This is, if today's release goes through, we're seeing live images there, I believe. Are these live guys? This would be Ofer prison. No, no, that would be the rough crossing. We're seeing trucks going through, obviously awaiting the passage of the Red Cross ambulances. We hear the Israeli hostages are already in the hands of the Red Cross. What you're seeing there, this truck, just in case you didn't see it walk by, this is, those are generators. Those are, I mean, anybody who's done anything with you needed generators for a natural disaster, those are, I mean, there's a brand, a Greco, which is one of the big ones, this is, I don't think it's one of theirs, but this is a large generator of their fuel that was always asked for to power the generators. They're actually giving generators to the Palestinian citizens of Gaza. Other things that are on these trucks is food, aid, medical supplies. These are all checked by Israeli officials to make sure nothing's being smuggled, like arms. These are, there's about 200 trucks. I mean, think of it from this convoy, comes from Egypt. It goes up, it snakes up on the side, then goes into a checkpoint, an Israeli checkpoint, then comes across, then goes to the Rafa crossing where it gets checked again and then brought up. This is a situation that has occurred now for three days straight. One thing I wanna ask you, Guy, about going back to the prime minister showing up in Northern Gaza, that's important for a number of reasons in showing in a very Zelensky-esque kind of way that he's the commander-in-chief. Yes, obviously that helps him a lot politically as well, showing that he's there, that he's not intimidated, but a strong message to the people of Israel. And I think what Israel is engaged with right now is beyond politics, and that reflects with the fact that we have this wide unity government joined in by Benny Gantz's party, Gadi Eisencourt, another member of his party in this war cabinet, a really large consensus in the Israeli society about the need to achieve the goals of this war. And with Netanyahu being there, certainly adds to that message to the strong point that Israel is making amid this pause in the fighting, the war is far, far from being over. And also the US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, is expected to be here in Israel at some point this week too, Ted, that's an important moment. Yes, both in terms of the negotiations to extend this pause in the fighting to bring about to the release of more hostages. Of course, if Abigail is being released today, I believe she's the first US national to be released as part of this deal. America obviously wants more of them to be released. And another thing that we didn't even mention at this hour is the release separately of a Russian national that was confirmed today by Hamas saying that this was a response to the efforts of Russian President Vladimir Putin and in a sign of appreciation of the Russian position on the Palestinian cause, Hamas has released a hostage, an Israeli hostage with a Russian citizenship. And that is in addition to the 13 hostages without Russian nationality that are being released at this very hour. We do not know the exact identity of that national. We know more than one Israeli held in Gaza as a hostage with a Russian nationality. And normally that there's also there are Americans, there's British, there's French that are still remaining hostage as well. When Abigail, if she is one of the veterans being brought out according to all our sources that she will be one of those that's being released. If she does get released, she will go to Schneider's Children Hospital. That's actually where Pia Stachelbacher is right now and she's continuing our live team coverage of the release of the hostages, Pia. Right, Albert, Schneider Medical Center, everyone is waiting for those hostages. Those 13 Israeli hostages is at least part of them to arrive to Schneider Medical Center. Later that evening, they are supposed to arrive to three different hospitals in Israel. First and foremost, the Schneider Medical Center here in Petah Tikva, then also Shiba Hospital in Ramatgan and Wolfson in Kholon or Schneider's, also the hospital that received some of the hostages that were released on Friday night. The first round of hostages that were released, Schneider Hospital received eight of them and some of them have already gone home already because it was said here from the hospital that at least their physical condition was severe and was relatively good. Now we do know that Daniela Aloni and her daughter Emilia went home this morning to the home city of Yavne in central Israel there. They were received by massive crowds cheering them on and also Doron Asher and their two daughters, Raz and Aviv, they also were announced to go home this afternoon. I'm sure you have seen that video yesterday coming out from Schneider Hospital here where they were sitting with their father and the daughters were telling him that they've been dreaming about coming home while they were in captivity. So that dream was coming true this afternoon here. Now we also know that the families of those hostages that are said to be released tonight are on their way to those three different hospitals that I just mentioned, including Schneider Hospital. But that issue is of course treated with the utmost privacy. And so we do not expect to actually see the families ignore the hostages. And also after yesterday's experience, the hostages yesterday were released only in the early morning hours. Everyone here is prepared to stay up late and for a very long night obviously. But the most important thing, and this is what everyone of course knows, is that the most important thing is that they will be released. And of course the families are incredibly on edge as well. And earlier on I-24 News had the chance to speak to a family member of a hostage that was released yesterday and brought to Shiba Medical Center, a family member of the Norma Victoria. Let's take a listen to what she had to say. I think my smile is speaking better than me, they're better than my English. It was, we all could felt our heart bombing and, you know, and it was unbelievable. It was unbelievable that that's what was the, this was the situation, okay? It was unbelievable. We were so thrilled, we were so emotional. So waiting for them for so many days and so many hours and the clock was ticking and ticking and not moving. And you know, it was complicated yesterday, but it finally happened. Of course, Albert, these are very, very emotional words here coming up from those family members now. As I said, the families of those who are expected to get released tonight are already on. They're way to different hospitals, including here to Schneider Hospital in Petah Tikva. This issue is of course a very sensitive one so we do not expect to see them actually, but of course everyone here, the journalists, the medical staff are really waiting for that moment to happen, for that helicopter to bring them from the military base in Southern Israel to Petah Tikva here, to the hospital here. And they of course will be attended medically too. There are experts waiting for them here, both physical experts, doctors who will examine them physically, but obviously also mentally because after seven weeks of captivity, of course they all experience massive trauma and they will be attended to here once they arrive, experts are waiting for them and everyone is waiting for that moment here to happen in a couple of hours. Piers Sacherbach joining us live now from the Schneider Children's Hospital in Petah Tikva. Thanks so much for joining us. We have breaking news coming into the I-24 News Desk. You're seeing it on the bottom of the screen there. 17 hostages will be released tonight. The number has changed. We have now been told, we have now gotten confirmation from the Red Cross that there are now 17 hostages in the hands of the Red Cross. 14 Israelis, three foreign nationals. I'm joined now live in studio with a guy, Israel, our senior editor at I-24 News. This is a different number than expected. We expected 13, it's now 17, which is 14 plus three. Yes, we need to separate the foreign nationals from that number because that is not part of the deal with Israel. Other negotiations that are going around in the backstage, the breakdown of these hostages is as follows. We're speaking about nine children, nine Israeli children, four women, one Israeli-Russian national, and then three foreigners. We believe there are Thai nationals that were taken hostage by Hamas on that October 7th onslaught. So yes, good news for the families who are anxiously waiting now at the hospitals. Of course, nothing is done until we finally see them crossing into Israeli territory. We've seen so many disappointments, so many delays. Even hearing from the hostages that were released on the way through the Gaza Strip, on the way to the border. They say the cars were being hit by rocks, by sticks. They were fearing that they will be lynched over there. And also when we saw the footage released by Hamas of their militants, as if Hamas thinks that this would be good PR for them to show those ninja turtles with their AK-47s physically abusing and grabbing Israeli hostages, including little children and women, and dragging them into the cars as if that was going to be a good PR for them. But they were not just there for the pictures. They were there to protect them from the masses that otherwise would have loved to see some more Jewish blood as we saw on that October 7th massacre. This was not just a Hamas terrorist, well-trained terrorist that infiltrated Israel, but also so many Gazan civilians who joined the party, the bloodbath, on that terrible Saturday. One thing that struck me also is the public spectacle of the handover to the Red Cross. Normally things like this, you would imagine they'd be in a warehouse, no one would know about it. They'd be handed over, but it was a public spectacle with flags, Hamas flags being waived. It was something unreal. I think many parties to this deal wanted to show off, obviously, Hamas sees this on its side as an achievement being able to reach this ceasefire. And of course, the release of Palestinian security prisoners from Israeli prisons. Also, a lot for the Egyptians, for the Qataris to brag about their strong connections both with Israel and with Hamas have brought about the existence of this deal. And I think that is the reason why both the Egyptians and the Qataris were furious. Please, the Egyptians last night about the delays in the execution of the deal. It looks bad for business. Obviously, this is bad for their image, for their leverage on Hamas. They were not having none of that. Eventually, Hamas had to give in and release the hostages. It is a shame that that was on the cost of the Israeli families. Another very important issue to discuss is the Israeli demand of Hamas not to separate families, not to separate children from their parents, particularly from their mothers, because we're talking about only children and women that are being released as part of this deal. Yesterday, one Israeli girl, 13 years old, Hila Rotem Shoshani, was released from Hamas' captivity. But she was released without her mother. Hamas' excuse for the past several days to the Israelis, to the Americans, to the Qataris, was that they were not able to locate her mother. And that is part of the reason why there was delay in that release yesterday, saying we don't know the whereabouts of the mother, and therefore, we are releasing the girl by herself. Well, that surprise, surprise turns out to be another lie from Hamas, because when this girl, she's 13 years old, so she knows a thing or two, she was able to speak to her family. She says, I was held captive with my mom the whole time until two days ago. I was held together with my mom and another girl. I was separated from her just two days ago, and then I was released. So that absurd claim by Hamas that it was not able to find the mother is just a ridiculous lie. We heard from the uncle, from the brother of the mother, saying today, we demand of Hamas and from the negotiators to return Raya. That is the name of the mother. This is the girl, 13 years old, Hila Rotem Troshani, unfortunately, had to be torn away from her mother, as if she hadn't gone through enough when she was taken with her mother, captive into the Hamas tunnels, had to separate from her mom and was released by herself. The uncle is saying we demand of Hamas and the negotiators to return Raya immediately, not now, not immediately yesterday. And unlike the publications, Hila tells us that she was in captivity with her mother until two days ago, she was in good shape. And we demand of Hamas for her shape to still be as good as her daughter last saw her. She saw her well in good health, and everybody's hoping she stays this way and that she will be reunited with her daughter. This is obviously so painful. Here we can see Raya Rotem. I mean, one of the things that we should note is that the idea that they can't find her is absolutely absurd for another reason. You and I have run news organizations. We know where all our staff are. We know what their cell phone numbers are. We know if we can find it on a map if we had to. The other issue and also something that's I'm for trying to find out more information is from the Red Cross. They are, under the Geneva Conventions, supposed to find out where hostages or anyone being held captive in a war zone is supposed to be. That's part of the Geneva Convention. It's written in the Geneva Convention that Israel signed that the Palestinian, whatever the Palestinians, I'm using quotes because the Palestinian members are members or non-members. It's supposed to be a signatories tour. This is supposed to happen. This is what the Red Cross is supposed to do. They're supposed to find these hostages and find out what the medical conditions are. First of all, Hamas also just confirms that it has transferred those Israeli hostages into the hands of the Red Cross. Now, to your point, it is absurd to expect anything of a murderous Islamist jihadist group like Hamas to abide by any international rules. But what it does, is expected to abide by, is the deal that it signed with the Qataris, with the Egyptians, with Israel for this deal. And we are hearing from National Security Advisor Jack Sullivan today, and he has approved, if anyone had doubts about this, that there is indeed a clause in that deal under which the Red Cross has to visit the Israeli hostages that are expected to remain in Gaza. Those are the ones that will not be released under this deal. He says there is a very clear clause in the agreement stating that the Red Cross must be visiting those Israeli hostages and provide information about their condition. And he says that must be done by tomorrow. Obviously, Hamas is trying to ignore that clause. The Red Cross, you spoke to a representative of the Red Cross just two days ago, saying there was absolutely no leverage from Hamas to visiting those hostages. We're talking about some 200 Israelis that will be remained in Gaza. They said they asked politely. Yes, absolutely no word about their whereabouts, about their well-being. We know so many of them are in need of medical care. Many of them were elderly, or not even that, need medical aid, they need their medicine. And beyond that, so many of the Israelis that were taken hostage were badly wounded in that onslaught, some of them shot, beaten, all sorts of other injuries. And we do not know that they even saw a doctor that they're being treated for their injuries. The Red Cross has not visited them. And there is a clause that says, states that Hamas must provide that access. We'll see if that indeed happens. I answer, I'm gonna have you hold on one second. We're approaching the top of the hour and I just wanna bring our viewers up to speed right now. You're watching I-24 News Live, special coverage, a breaking news coverage of the release of 17 hostages, 14 Israeli hostages, three foreign national hostages, which you're looking at at the screen right now. This is the Rafa crossing. This is the crossing by which the 17 hostages will be crossing into Israeli territory. Actually, it'll be into Egyptian territory first and then into Israeli territory after that. And then from there, they'll be sent to military and medical facilities all throughout Israel. Those who are looking at this scene right now, this is happening all across the country here in Israel. Everyone in Israel is glued to their TV sets. And if they're not glued to their TV sets watching the news coverage of this, they're in the hostage and missing square in the middle of Tel Aviv. We continue our live team coverage with Emily Francis, who's there right now with the latest, Emily. Hi, Albert, yeah, you're absolutely right. People are glued to the television. I mean, last night there were thousands and thousands of people here in hostage square. Tonight is much more subdued. We've had people singing, doing prayer circles, everything to bring about this hope that these hostages will be released according to schedule, which fortunately, like you just said, we know that they are in the hands of the Red Cross making their way over the Rafa crossing where they will be flown in by helicopter to Israel and taken to area hospitals. It's interesting in this update that we have, the military arm of Hamas, this is the way they quoted basically saying as part of the third strike, we handed over 13 Zionist prisoners, three ties, one Russian to the Red Cross. Again, we don't know. We have heard from the Qatari Prime Minister speaking to the media that one of them is Avigail Idan. We don't know if that is true. She, of course, is the one who is a dual citizen American and Israeli. Both of her parents were murdered and the grandfather also spoke to the press, very concerned obviously about his granddaughter who doesn't know that she is an orphan. So a lot still remains to be seen until we could pray that Avigail Idan is among those being released right now. That's all for now. We'll be back with more at the top of the hour. Back to you in the studio. Emily Francis, joining us live now from downtown Tel Aviv. Thanks so much for joining us. I'm in the studio with Gaia Israel. I'm Albert Lewitson at the I-24 News Desk in Tel Aviv. I wanted to just before we end our this, before we go to break, we're waiting for the 14 hostages to make their way down to the Rafa crossing and back into Israel. It's a process that we have seen twice. We will see again for the third night. Last night after an agonizing seven hour delay, 13 of those hostages were released. Sharon Avigdori and her daughter Nawam, siblings Alma and Nawam War, Hila Rotem, Shiri Weiss and her daughter Noga, Adi Shoham and her children E'el and Nave, Maya Regev, Shoshan Haran, and Emily Hand. We wanted you to see them. Take a look. We are now at the end of the night. We are at home. We are still in our home. Israel is in a state of war. Families completely done down in their beds. We have no idea where is she as our soldiers are fighting on the front line. The general perception is something that certainly needs to be fought as well. You're watching I-24 News. We're coming to you live from Tel Aviv. The IDF says that 14 Israeli hostages due to be released tonight are in the custody of the Red Cross. The 14 include one Israeli Russian citizen who was freed as a gesture to Russia's Vladimir Putin. Three foreign nationals are also being released. They've all been held by terrorists in Gaza for the past six weeks. 26 Israeli hostages, all women and children, have been freed over the past two days. This part of a four-day ceasefire deal for the past two nights. The hostages have traveled via the Rafa crossing into Egypt before going back into Israel. All those freed last night include nine-year-olds Emily Hand who's been reunited with her father. Three-year-old Ya'el and her nine-year-old brother Navey, one of those released, was 21-year-old Maya Regev. She had to be taken to hospital for surgery, and her brother Itai remains in captivity. And just to tell you what you're looking at now, these are live images of the Rafa crossing between Gaza and Egypt, where we are expecting to see those Red Cross vehicles bringing the 14 Israeli hostages and three foreign nationals should be sometime in the next hour. Possibly sooner. We are, of course, keeping a very close eye on that. Well, earlier, a senior Biden official, Jake Sullivan, said that he was hopeful American citizen Abigail Maury-Dan, who turned four in captivity, will be among those being freed tonight. Here's what he had to say. We're dealing with Hamas. We are in a don't trust but verify situation here. And so we have reason to believe that there will be an American release today. While the families of the hostages are gathered in Tel Aviv, we can go now to our Emily Francis, who is with some of them now. And Emily, here we are again, another nail-bicing night of absolutely unbearable tension as we wait for the hostages to be released. 14 Israelis now on their way to the Rafa crossing, we hope. Hey, good evening, Laura, and you're right. We have a question. Abigail-Dan and we can hope and pray that she is among those being released, not knowing that she is indeed an orphan. We do need to highlight again. She's an Israeli-American citizen and both of her parents were murdered. So let's just hope and pray that she is among those being released right now. A much more subdued night than last night here on Hostage Square, mainly because people are literally at home glued to the television watching the drama of this unfold as the newly released hostages are making their way across the Rafa crossing with the military by helicopter in Israel and taken to area hospitals. But people are still here gathering, lending support, doing prayer circles, singing, doing everything they can to be part of this. This is the heart and soul of the Israeli spirit. And we're now joined by a mother and son, Madeline and Levy Golding from the UK, who are kind enough to come up to us, who watch I-24. And first of all, what is, why are you here tonight and why is it so important to be here showing solidarity with this horrible journey that we've been on for the past 51 days? So we have been glued to I-24 since day one. And I felt very strongly that I wanted to come and see for myself and bring my son to see for himself how moving the, you know, all the, this, everything here and just lend our support and solidarity with the family who are affected by it. We're not affected at all by it. We only moved here a few years ago. But, you know, we feel part of the country and, you know, we, you know, the whole one family. Of course, and also coming here a few years ago, but I mean, what's made this so much more painful is seeing, you know, the vitriol across the world, the UK, the UK being among them. I mean, what is it like for you to watch what's been going on in the UK from here? Well, it's been especially difficult considering not just that we're from the UK, but my brother still lives with his wife and child in the UK and seeing all of this new wave of antisemitism unfurling, not just in the UK, but all over the world. It's just disturbing and it makes me feel like how the only place that Jews are meant to be is under the state of Israel where we have our own army and we protect our own citizens. Thank you both so much. One other thing is that we're not surprised to see how antisemitism and pro-Hamas the movement has in Europe, especially in London, because we feel very strongly that the government appease them and especially the police and of course the BBC and CNN. Thank you both so much for joining us and for coming up to us. Very much appreciated. And that's all for now, Laura. We'll check in with you later. Back to you in the studio. All right, thank you very much, Emily and I believe we can now make the list of names that has been released official. Guy-Adriel, can you confirm that for me before we go ahead and do that? We would wait with the list of names for now. All right, there we go. That's the list of names who the government has received. So these are the hostages who should be with the Red Cross, who are with the Red Cross now and who are making their way to the Rafa crossing. We've got the Broduc family. The mother, Hagar, who's 40. Her children, Ofri Broduc, who's 10 years old. Yuval Broduc, who is 8 years old. And little Orla Broduc, who is 4 years old. We also have the Goldstein Alamog family, 48-year-old Chen, 17-year-old Agam, 11-year-old Gal and 9-year-old Tal. And this is the American-Israeli citizen, Avigayel Mour Idan. She turned 4 while in captivity. She should be on her way home to Israel as well. We also have 84-year-old Elma Avraham, 62-year-old Aviva Segal. And the two girls, the two sisters, Daphna and Ella. Daphna is 14. Ella is 8. Two sisters, their mother, Mayan, has been campaigning tirelessly for her daughters to come home. So all of these women and children on their way back to Israel, the Red Cross and the IDF confirming, they are now in the hands of the Red Cross traveling through Gaza towards the Rafa crossing. They will then cross over into Egypt before coming back to Israel. All right. Well, the families of the 14 have made their way to one of three hospitals where the hostages will be taken as soon as they arrive in Israel. One of those hospitals is the Schneider Hospital, and our Pia Stechelbach is there for us now, Pia. Right, Laurel. Everyone here at Schneider Hospital is waiting for the arrival of at least part of those hostages that will be arriving to Israel in the next coming hours. Those hostages or former hostages by then will be brought to Schneider Medical Center here in Petachik and also Shiba Medical Center in Ramazgan and Wolfson Hospital in Cholón. And here they already received the first hostages that were released Friday night. They received eight people, first and foremost children. Here at Schneider Hospital, and a part of them could already go home. We've been hearing from fear from Schneider Hospital that those whom they received on Friday are overall in a good medical, physical at least condition. We have been hearing that this morning a mother and her daughter, Daniela Aloni, and her daughter Amelia could go home to the home city of Yavne in central Israel. This is where they were received by cheering crowds. And also Doron Asher and her two daughters, Raz and Aviv, they made their way home this afternoon. I'm sure, Laurel, you saw the video yesterday, her and her two daughters sitting together with the father in Schneider Hospital here, and the daughter is saying that she wished to go home while she was in captivity and now after seven weeks, that wish came true this afternoon here. Now, we do expect that also children will arrive to, especially the Schneider Children Medical Complex here only in a matter of hours, and this is where they will be received by an expert team of, of course, psychologists, but also people who will examine them physically, doctors and experts really in the field of also how to deal with trauma, because even though the hostages seem medically, physically fine, they have undergone severe trauma, obviously, and they will be attended to here. What has been emphasized by all of these hospitals is that the treatment will be done according to their pace. They will decide how, how the treatment will go. They will orient themselves according to the pace that especially the children will give them and they will stay in hospital as long as needed. As I mentioned, a few of the hostages that arrived to Schneider on Friday have already been going home. They were strong enough to go home, but of course they will continuously receive, especially psychological attendance about Schneider Hospital. Everyone, journalists, doctors are waiting for the, the hostages to arrive really in the next coming hours, and of course families are also on the way here, but it is a very sensitive issue, so we do not expect to see any of them. All right, Pia, thank you very much. Pia Steckelback there. She's at one of the hospitals where the hostages, once they are freed, will be taken, and we're just hearing that they are now in the hands of the IDF. That's wonderful news. The hostages, the Israeli hostages are now in the hands of the Israelis and they will be making their way back to safety after a horrendous ordeal at the hands of terrorists in Gaza. Our guy, Azrael, is with us, and Guy, their ordeal is not over yet. Let's talk about some of them. Avigayl Idan. She just turned four while in captivity. She was kidnapped from Kfar Azar, one of the worst-hit Kibbutzim. Both her parents were murdered. It's one thing for these hostages to remain, to go back to Israel, but many of them do not have a place to go to or they will have to deal with very difficult news upon their return. So Avigayl will, whether she saw her parents murdered in front of her eyes or she realized that or not, well, she lost both of her parents. Her two other brothers were hiding in the closet six and nine years old. This is how they were saved, all three of them are orphan. The family of Almog Golstein has lost both the father and their elder sister, Yam, they both slaughtered on that October 7th. Also the father of Daphna and Ella El-Yakim. We remember that video that was streamed live on Facebook, that family, that poor family that was being held by Hamas in their home. The brother was being used by Hamas to tempt other families in the Kibbutz to get to try and lure them out of their homes, to try that for several hours and then at the end of that, he was murdered as well. Those two daughters are the only ones left from that family. Okay, so thank you guys. Let's go to our correspondent Zach Anders. You're looking at a live feed of Rafa crossing there. Zach, what's happening? Well, we're on location expecting the route to pass on this specific route here. The thing that what we're hearing now is that of the released, there are nine children. This is huge news for the families. We've been speaking of course to many of the families, even with the adult hostages and they want to see these children released first. So nine children in this latest batch. Again, we're waiting for the arrival. The route is supposed to be coming south of us. We're not allowed to share that specific location. The IDF is not giving us a timeline of when they're expected to pass, but they do say that they were through the Rafa crossing and in Israeli hands. They're on their way here. Wonderful news. Zach, can just talk us through then how it will work logistically. Now that the hostages, the freed hostages, the nine children, as you point out, are in the hands of the Israelis. What happens now? They're going to travel to Hatsarim Air Base where once they're on the base, they've already been assisted or accompanied, I should say, by professionals, psychologists, doctors. They're going to see them right on scene after the Rafa crossing. And then when they get to the air base, there's going to be a second round of more thorough screening. That's going to be the chance that they, the first opportunity they get to take a shower, a change of clothes. This won't be the moment, necessarily, where the reunification happens with the families. They'll load helicopters and fly north to hospitals in Tel Aviv and that's where they'll get the chance to meet their families. Alright, Zach, thank you very much indeed. And Guy Azrael is with me this year. And Guy, thankfully, what are we? Quarter past six, this has happened a lot more quickly than that awful delay that we had last night when there was a hold up. Hamas said that Israel wasn't upholding its side of the deal. There was a horrendous delay that went on for many hours and the hostages weren't released until, I think, it was well after 10 o'clock in the evening, was it? Yes, a sigh of relief for the families. Not so lucky for the families. The two previous days who had to undergo very difficult hours of waiting and anticipation today, after the force of the past two days. Finally, this has gone smoothly, I think, both the Qataris and the Egyptians made it clear to Hamas that what has transpired over the first days cannot repeat itself. We know that eight trucks have come into this trip today. 120 such trucks with the Hamas terror group had no reason to postpone this release once again. Another thing that Hamas has been doing is separating Israeli families. And that is very important because beyond the issue of the Red Cross that we will touch upon soon, Israel has insisted in this deal that Israeli families will not be separated. The children will be released together with their mothers. Well, the one case is of Hila Ortem Shoshani. She's 13 years old. She was returned back to Israel yesterday without her mother. Now Hamas has claimed falsely that it was not able to locate the mother and therefore it only returned Hila by herself. When you speak to Hila who's 13 years old and can speak for herself, she knows very well what has been going on. She will tell you that she was held captive together with her mother until two days ago. So Hamas' claim has seriously no basis and the family is demanding that the mother, Raya, will be returned. We know from the daughter that the mother was in good health and the family is demanding that she will be released and to ensure that she remains in good health. Hamas has been using this cynically, separating children from their mothers as if they haven't gone through it. And when we look at this group, Guy, it does appear that there haven't been any separations this time. It seems so this time, it seems so this time. We've got Abigail. With the exception of Abigail who cannot be returned to her parents because they were worth murdered. Her parents were murdered. Her oldest sibling survived. She was actually with neighbors who were also being released tonight offering you a valent urea, the Boddads family. So they are all being released. We've also got the Alamov Goldstein family to the father and the elder sister were murdered. But again, Gal and Tal, all siblings, they will be free tonight. They're on their way home. But as you say, many of those freed hostages will be coming back to find out. Perhaps they don't know. We've heard reports that they were given limited access to Israeli media. One of the elderly hostages found out that her husband had been taken captive and her son murdered. Just an impossible situation. The family didn't even know how much did she know about what happened there. They had to break the news. It's an impossible situation of joy for their return but at the same time having to inform them of what has happened to their families, to their communities, to the entire communities that have been eliminated. We're keeping in close eye on the Rafa cross. On the other side, you're looking at the off-air prison because of course as part of the deal, Israel has to release 39 Palestinian prisoners, including the people jailed for attempted stabbing, shootings, attempted bombings, stone-throwing connections to terrorist groups, conspiracies to commit acts of terrorism, all sorts of crimes. So they'll be freed as well. My wife is an 18-year-old female soldier. She was kidnapped from the Kibbutz of Nahal Oz and her family have been campaigning tirelessly for her release and her cousin Tamir Rahamim is with me in the studio now. Thank you very much for being with us, Tamir. Thank you for having me. A horrendous ordeal you're going through. I mean, we're all very emotional about this. I imagine it's a million times worse for you knowing that your cousin is still in there. Well, I think the worst part of it is the idea we are playing in Hamas' playground. No, when we swore to not bring the humanitarian aid until we get humanitarian and humane treatment to our hostages, and I mean, this is the initial bad choice in Slippery Slope, which led us to partial deals when you actually separate kids from their mothers even though our governments wore to not do so. So this is what worries me the most, actually. I think they're going to play this out. Hamas is going to drag it out as long as possible. Yeah, I mean, we basically play straight into their hands. I mean, my cousin is among the top qualities because she's a soldier, she's a soldier, so the chances we will get her in any initial or partial deal is null to see. She's 18, so she's only just being conscripted. Yeah, I mean, it's sort of like it, but eventually she was two months in the area. Yeah, and just two days in Nakhaloz, basically. So, yeah, even she's that young and that new green to the army, she's still considered as, you know, higher priority hostage, which is... That's your cousin we're looking at on screen. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, so basically it's... She's a young girl, we can say. She's a young girl, she likes to take a lot of pictures, travel a lot, have a lot of friends, so basically she haven't do anything bad besides born Jewish in Israel. That's her crime, yeah? And the fact we're releasing three prisoners, you know, with blood on their hands and attempts to gain much more blood on their hands for every innocent child, soldier, elderly, whatever, you know, a citizen who done nothing besides born in the wrong religion, wrong place. And, you know, the International Red Cross is also committing huge atrocities by simply accompanying and supporting this behavior from Qatar and Hamas. Well, I want to ask you about that. I guess one of the most important things for you right now is that the Red Cross uphold their obligations under the Geneva Convention to access hostages like your cousin and make sure that they're okay and that they're being treated humanely. Exactly. They have failed to do so. You know, they don't try to do so. They don't attempt. Even during the Second World War, when the International Red Cross got into Nazi Germany, they actually got access to a demo concentration camp. You know, it wasn't fully candid, but they tried. Today, we're just seeing an organization say, I don't give about the rights of those prisoners. Those hostages are not prisoners, they are hostages. They were kidnapped from their houses from their basically day-to-day life. So it's a huge absurd. And you know, it's not just the Red Cross. It's also an international human rights organization, which when it comes to Jews, they simply don't care. I mean, a lot, a lot, a lot of puppets in the hand of Iranian regime and Hamas. That's frustrating. It's horrendous. It's really hard. How is the rest of your family getting through this? Well, you know, you try to get along. You know, my venture, Lyris Smile is still up in the air and still looking. Yeah, this is Lyris Smile, it's called, right? Yeah. So basically, we're still looking for more information and getting more insights. But eventually, you know, the void we're trying to fill and the accompanying entities to the Hamas regime make things quite frustrating because eventually you need to fight a huge machine with, you know, a massive propaganda arm with a lot of resources because the international organizations fail and don't want to commit our part, basically. We need to gather this information because the Red Cross isn't functioning. International human rights, Mitu movement, you know, all those alleged woke people simply don't care about our rights as humans here. Are you, it's a little bit of hope the way the country, Israel has thrown its arms around people like you, like all the families of the hostages, that we're all very much in this together. Does that give you some comfort? You know, the world might have turned their back on us, but we are very much together here. Well, basically, the solidarity within our people is heartwarming and it is extremely heartwarming, contradicting to what happened before the 7th of October, although Lee's parents are broken. You know, they have four kids. One of them is nowhere to be found for almost two months at the moment and it's not really comforting at all. You know, I'm a day-to-day entrepreneur actually, so I know what is feel to be hopeless. Do you have no clue about what's going to come at you next? So when your uncertainty is not on the, you know, your business is actually something you created and something you need to take care of and often you swore to take care of as you gave birth to her. It's unspeakable. It really is. I'm so sorry. Nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing can cover or comfort this feeling. Yeah. Well, you're doing your best. I'm doing my best. I try eventually. I'm, you know, just a small screw in this huge machine and my, you know, more, my greatest entity and reason why I'm doing stuff is to help Lee's parents get her home faster and get all the hostages. I mean, hopefully alive, but even though, so there are corpses as well to hear. I mean, we don't want another Gilac Jalit or Ron Arado or whatever because this is devastating and everyone here from the over 200 left has a story and it can't be, you know, much influential or stay there or end there. I know. It's really hard, Tamir. We're very sorry for you, Tamir Rahmi. When we heard that Liri Elbag, 18 years old, she's just 18, you've seen her pictures there just in uniform a couple of months. She was kidnapped. She's one of the hostages. We're all praying for her that you'll be reunited soon. Thank you very much. Thank you for having me again. All right, for just to update you, we know that 13, 14, I should say, Israeli hostages are on their way back to Israel. They are in the hands of the IDF, all women and children and one male Russian citizen, Ronny Kribay. We have his name now, Ronny Kribay. He's a 25-year-old Russian male as a gesture to, by the way, Putin. Hamas decided to release him as well. Otherwise, all women and children on their way back to Israel. Stay with us. We're taking a short break. Is in a state of war, families completely gunned down in their beds. We have no idea where she is. Our soldiers are fighting on the front line, but the general perception is something that certainly needs to be fought as well. Prior to the State of Israel, at 6.45 approximately, the terrorist... ...steal them. And then we are... Thank you for watching I-24 News in Israel. The third batch of hostages, 14 Israeli citizens are back in Israel after they were freed earlier in the day by the terrorist group Hamas. There you can see the faces of 13 women and children. All mothers and children. We've got Raya Rotem, 54. Hila Rotem, Shashani, 13. I'm sorry, you're looking at the wrong picture here. This is last night's hostages. Can we rectify that? We're looking at the wrong picture here. Let's get that fixed for you right now. Okay. 14 Israeli citizens have been freed. They are now back in Israel. They are all women and children, except for one Russian citizen who was freed as a gesture to Russia's President Vladimir Putin. His name is Ronny. He's 25 years old. He was kidnapped from the supernova party. With me in the studio this hour, our senior editor, Guy Azrael, we're also joined by former MK Ruth Wasserman Lan. And there we go. We're looking at the updated list. Okay. These are the hostages who have been freed. Hagal Poddar, she's 40 years old. Her daughter... Or three brothers. Or three brothers. We've got Yuval Brodage, who is eight. We've got a little Uriah Brodage, who is four. We've got Ken Godstein-Almog, 49 years old. Her daughter Agam Godstein-Almog, who is 17. San Gal, who's 11. And Tal, who is nine. And that's Avigal Moridan. She turned four in captivity around a week ago. She has American citizenship. She's been freed. Both her parents were murdered on the 7th of October. She is an orphan, but she is now back in Israel. We've also got Elma Avraham, 84-year-old lady. Aviva Siegel, who is 62. That's the Russian citizen Ronny. And the two sisters, their mother Mayan has been campaigning tirelessly for their release. That's Daphna, who's 16. Ella, who is eight. They're now back in Israel after more than six weeks being held by terrorists in Gaza. So they are all free. This is the third batch on the third night of that deal, that ceasefire agreement with Hamas for the hostages to be released. Alon Evieta is with me. He's formerly of Koga as well. Thank you very much too all for being with us, Ruth. Not quite as tense and nail-biting as last night, thankfully. Hamas didn't drag it out for many, many hours as they did last night. 14 Israeli citizens are now back tonight in Israel. It's difficult for me to give them credit, but yes, it was less dragged out than yesterday. We'll have to see what happens tomorrow. It's the last day of the, let's say, crux of the deal. And after which, if they will provide 10 more hostages, they will receive a whole day of a ceasefire in return. This is what we are expecting. Alon, they have been laid on the deal already. Though yesterday they split up families, the Shoshani family, the Rago families, brother and sister and mother and daughter. They are yet to allow the Red Cross to access the remaining hostages. Today there is not separation, but we should expect for any scenario. Today is not any indication what will be tomorrow. And tomorrow this is the last day for this ceasefire or release of the hostages. I think generally that Israel should think, I hope that the leadership do so, create another system, another way to release the Israelis. We have over there more than 200. 200 Israelis, soldiers, civilians, children and so on. And we should not accept the Hamas system that they separate between those who are uniform and those who are civilians. And you know, every day, if you, I don't want to illustrate the hostages to a cake, but every day, if Hamas, by Hamas I mean, they cut a piece of the cake, and the pieces between 12 to 14 Israelis every day and they want to, they want extension, right? They're going to drag it up as long as possible. The strategic mission, the strategic mission for Hamas headquarters is along ceasefire till the end of the war. Israel has said the ceasefire will not, the ceasefire will start to fail in 10 days. Yes, so I think we should not let the Hamas headquarters to lead the system, to lead SETs, and we should create something else through America, through Egypt and so on. What would that look like? We should not agree for this way, because so far, three days, 25 or 30, if something like that in hostages, is not the way that we should continue. Ruth, if we carry on like this, will we at least get all of the children back? I believe that we're talking about approximately 50 that should include all of the children. That was the direction of the deal in the first place, and that was the reason that, that was the reason why Israel had agreed to go and go ahead and do what it is doing, even though we're talking about a very, very cruel, very manipulative enemy, I agree, with Alon in that sense. I think that those 50 hostages, particularly the women and the children, at least the vast majority of them, and the elderly should be completed, after which there needs to be a rethinking about how much of the military action is in fact causing the Hamas to want to give in and to release more of the hostages, because they are desperate for more, whether it's oxygen and food and fuel and or a ceasefire to reorganize. Either way, there must be absolutely no remorse. And I say this as a liberal politician, against the Hamas, against this horrific terrorist organization that kills carnages, rapes, murders, and then tells the hostages as they are released to wave and smile at the cameras. It's beyond sickening. There's no way to even begin to describe this. One important update about those Israelis released this evening. Well, those Israelis were released through the Carney crossing in the more northern part of the Gaza Strip. The reason for that is that one of the hostages, unfortunately, is in a serious condition, and she was taken directly by a helicopter to Soroka Medical Center. Do we know who that is? No, that her identity was not given. We can assume it is one of the elderly women in serious condition. That is why all of those Israelis were transferred via that crossing. The remaining four, which are the three Thai nationals and the other one who has a Russian nationality. Ronny Kovol, because he's Israeli. But he's also Israeli. He's not just Russian. Yeah, he's a dual-national Israeli. Russian, like many Israelis. He is a male in his 20s and under the hood. Obviously, that is, and we should mention, this is the first adult male that is being released since this hostage deal even began. Of course, it is separate from the deal that Israel has signed with Hamas through the Qataris and the Egyptians. This is thanks to Russia's involvement and its close ties perhaps with Hamas. We saw the unfortunate Russian support or at least the lack of condemnation to say to the very least of the Hamas atrocities in this war in that onslaught. Okay, where is this? Can we go back to that? No, we've lost it, okay. Also, the places that Israelis were kidnapped from were in the north of the... Right, from the Kharazan. Western Nagav, yeah. Yes, the Kharazan. It does make sense that perhaps they were held more nearby there, not in the southern part of the Gaza Strip if indeed not all of them were taken to the southern part. Because two of the families were from Kfar Azar. Correct. Which is in the north. The 25 of them were taken to the north. In the previous days, we saw a hostages that were taken from near Oz and from Bari, both of them much closer to the southern part of the Gaza Strip. Nachalaz on the northern part close to the city of Sderot, et cetera, areas crossing in that area. Southern tunnels in the north of Gaza. Yeah. So they would have been held in southern Gaza. What kind of information... I can assume that... You know, now the first hostages have been back for a couple of days already. Of course, we're talking about young children and elderly people, but can the IDF be able to get any useful information from them about where the rest of the hostages are? I can assume that, you know, part of the intelligence information was located from the... I would say from the hostages that are already in Israel, right? We collect the information from them. I can assume that... And I heard that part of them told a lot of stories, right? A lot of details, a lot of information that are useful. And I think that Shabak and the IDF, the intelligence department as well, used this data or information in order to release or also to, let's say, to go forward also in the military course or in the military operations, which already or should start, let's say, renew the military pressure immediately after those days. Ruth, we're learning also about the conditions that they were held in. We've heard stories about the food dwindling over the past two weeks, medications that weren't given to people. Just the fact that they were not permitted to be seen by the Red Cross is enough for me to understand that we have not the normal kind of conditions that one would expect. But what could we possibly expect from an organization which kidnaps in the first place innocent civilians, not to mention young children and the elderly and women? And that's, again, not to mention the horrific hyenas deeds that were perpetrated beforehand. So we're not talking about a normal organization. Yes, there has been talk of dwindling food and supplies in the last two weeks and that raises questions as to perhaps the Hamas didn't expect this kind of military operation and the fact that it would take more time than they had accounted for and therefore they didn't have enough food in the tunnels. And that's an interesting fact to think about. What can we say? Expectations of the Hamas? Yeah, low at best. We're looking at live pictures coming to us from this is the Schneider Children's Medical Center. This is one of three hospitals where the now freed hostages will be taken and reunited with their families and of course checked out to see that their medical condition is okay. One of the hostages has been taken to hospital. We're hearing already because she is in a serious condition. We don't know which hostage and we don't know what the condition of hostages is. We are hearing the identity of the woman who's seriously wounded, Elma Avraham. I believe she's 86 years old. And we hear from the hospital that her family is there and the family is well aware of her situation. She's surrounded by her family as she's being treated at this very hour. I don't want to mention two statements that we hear today from Israeli officials. The first is from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who made a rare visit to the Gaza Strip. It's the first time into Gaza, right? Absolutely. And this is I think almost unprecedented for a leader of a state to be in a fighting zone like inside Gaza. Right, still at this time and not something to be taken for granted. His message is clear in his message. I think it's both for the Israeli public but also for the rest of the world because as we are in this time of a ceasefire there's a lot of talk in Israel about whether this is going to hold up Israel from executing the goals of this operation, namely to eliminate Hamas' military capabilities in Gaza. Well, Netanyahu is making it very clear we continue until the end until victory nothing is going to stop us from achieving the goals of this war eliminating Hamas. If anyone had any doubts that this is fire or this pause rather would change things when it comes to the goals of the war. Well, that is not what Netanyahu is saying. And another message from Gallant maybe we can get to it later. Yeah, let's listen to, we'll have a soundbite of Netanyahu, we can listen to that in a moment as it goes on for the first time today. But I want to bring in Heisem Hassanain he's an adjunct fellow at the FDD the foundation for the defense of democracies an expert in Egyptian affairs. Heisem, thanks for being with us. Well, for the first time the hostages did not come via the Rafa crossing which of course Egypt controls they were taken via the Kani crossing into Israel because one of the hostages was severely wounded. I mean, how will that be interpreted in Cairo? They've kind of been cut out of this stage of the hostage release. Thanks for having me, Laura. Basically currently in this war Hamas has been giving Qatar more leverage than Egypt when it comes to the hostage negotiations. The terror group sees Doha as more invested in its survival than Cairo. Generally speaking, Cairo doesn't like Hamas it sees them dangerous because they are the military wing of the Muslim Brotherhood which till today the CC regime considers a national security threat. Plus historically Hamas had a track record of helping ISIS in Sinai and back in 2011 when there was a revolution in Egypt Hamas operatives sneaked in in Egyptian territories and conspired against the state. So Heisem, I mean, does Cairo want Hamas destroyed? Cairo likes the stethoscope. As I mentioned earlier, doesn't like them but it would rather deal with the group. It knows very well. A month ago at the beginning of the conflict the president CC publicly warned Israel from the idea that eliminating Hamas would be an easy task. He stated his government had a similar experience with dealing with militia groups in Sinai and it took for a while to do so. And based on this perspective the Egyptians believe Hamas is easier to deal with compared to other extremist jihadist groups in the strip. So Cairo worries more about the vacuum the group will leave and who's coming next and how are they going to be dealing with that? So it's a case of better the devil you know so to speak. What about those comments there? Hi son, by president of CC in the last few days talking about what Gaza might look like in the future and he says that it is essential that the strip is de-militarized. It's a diplomatic bargain a trip he's sending to Jerusalem to stop the war. The Egyptian leader cares about one thing since the beginning of the war. Noro fijis from Gaza should be allowed into Sinai and this explains why Cairo has a keen interest nowadays in prolonging the current ceasefire and potentially end the war. DC the north was destroyed in Gaza so they want at least to keep the south livable and yeah so the de-militarized statement means CC sending a message to Jerusalem that from now and so on his regime will cooperate fully with the Jewish state to ensure no weapons enter Gaza. So that would suggest then that Egypt will not be favorable to the IDF's plans to move the war to the south of Gaza. Yes as I said because if this happens the north is destroyed and then the south will be destroyed so Gazans will go ultimately they will have to go settle in Egypt by way or another and the CC regime sees this as a red line and worried about that. Okay Hassan thank you very much we appreciate it. Hi Hassan, I know he's at the FDD. Thank you. Thank you. So just a reminder 14 Israeli citizens are now back in Israel tonight. They were freed after more than six weeks being held by terrorist groups in Gaza. They're all women and children except for one 25 year old Warni a male who also holds Russian citizenship. He was freed as part of a separate deal with the Russian President Vladimir Putin other than that though all women and children one of the elderly women has been taken to hospital. She's in very poor health. You can see the youngest is Avigail of course Avigail has become one of those famous faces here in Israel and around the world Avigail's parents were murdered. She was with another family and was taken hostage along with all of them from Kfar Azar. We're also going to see sisters Daphna and Ella reunited with their mother Mayan who has really been campaigning non-stop for their release. They'll be reunited tonight and Elma Avraham we're hearing 84 years old. It appears that the ordeal has been perhaps too much for her and she has been taken to hospital for emergency treatment for the first time the hostages were not taken via the Rafa crossing which Egypt controls they were taken via the Karni crossing into Israel and reportedly that is because Elma is in very ill health and needs to get medical attention as soon as possible. But some kind of good news tonight Ruth we are going to see that those children reunited with surviving family members of course many family members were murdered on the 7th. One of the things that characterizes the Israeli society is the fact that we nurture and sanctify life as opposed to Hamas that sanctifies death and destruction and there is a huge value that Israeli society and governments throughout the decades hold for life. Of course the Hamas and other organizations terrorist organizations manipulate that and nonetheless we do still sanctify life. Every life is worth a world this is a notion in Judaism and this is what is the essence of Israeli society and spirit I don't believe that will change and the entire society is very very happy and very touched to see those children and women and elderly at least some of them return but they will not rest until all the hostages return Absolutely Let's take a listen to Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who visited Gaza for the first time since the war began earlier today We are here in Gaza with our heroic fighters we make every effort to return our abductees and eventually we will return them all we have three goals for this war eliminate Hamas return all our abductees so that Gaza does not become a threat to the state of Israel again I am here to say to my friends here to the fighters here who tell me the same things and I repeat this to you citizens of Israel we continue until the end until victory nothing will stop us and we are convinced that we have the power, the strength the will and the determination to achieve all the war's goals and we will Alon, do you think that after this pause however long it might go on do you think Israel will be able to recover the momentum it needs to destroy Hamas in Gaza I think yes there are a lot of let's say a package of preparation military operations the IDF headquarters is already everything is done and the generals and the officers and the soldiers waiting for an order from the Israeli Prime Minister in order to continue the so important military pressure and operation inside the Gaza Strip we are just looking at the IDF vehicles now the hostages are inside those vehicles in Israel they have come into Israel by the Kani crossing so we are looking at the hostages inside IDF vehicles a huge side relief for the whole country really last night their release was dragged out over several hours but here we are they're in Israel before 7pm after a pretty swift handover from Gaza one of the hostages has been airlifted to hospital for emergency treatment she's 84 years old and needs to be seen as soon as possible but there we are mainly women and children and the 5 year old male is with them as well and they are all back in Israel tonight sorry Alan just pick up of course to destroy the military capabilities and collapse the structure, the military structure of Hamas take time it takes time you cannot do it by few weeks you have to continue more and more military operations especially now we are talking about complete the mission in the north but the main challenge will be in the south of Gaza Strip, Chanyones district and the Rafah is that going to be far more complicated it's complicated different from the north because let's say more than 1 million .5 Palestinians are already there part of them came from the north the north of the Gaza Strip and the second part are civilians located over there from dozens of years but it's a crowded area and I can assume that the friction between the IDF and the population or the civilians Palestinians over there will be challenging it's not easy you know when you what about reports that we've seen I don't know if this is anecdotal but it's a broader trend of some Palestinians in Gaza turning on Hamas they blame Hamas for what's happened yes I saw it and you know day by day I see watching video Palestinian videos about that and posting the Facebook and so on but the phenomena or the protest if you want the Palestinian protest against the Hamas regime is not so high it's not so strong to push Hamas away or to throw them from the regime I don't see any huge impact by this civilian protest but it could be helpful for the Israeli mission to collapse also the political capabilities of Hamas okay all right thank you very much indeed just to remind then Israeli citizens they are back in Israel there they are all women and children one 25 year old Ronnie who was kidnapped from the supernova rave other than that all women and children who were kidnapped from their homes in the Kibbutz mainly from Kfar Azar and Neil Oz this time no families have been separated unlike last night we know that a girl was