 For news, I'm Savanna Raveev and these are the latest developments coming to you live from Tel Aviv. Today is Day 51 of Israel's war with Hamas. After hours of agonizing delay last night, Hamas finally released 13 Israeli hostages on the second day of its deal with Israel, including 8 children and 5 women. Additionally, 4 Thai nationals were released to Israel as well. Israel received the list of names of the third batch of hostages meant to be released this afternoon. The hostages had spent 50 days in Hamas captivity after being snatched from their homes during the deadliest massacre in Israel's history, in which at least 1200 people were brutally tortured and murdered on October 7th. One of the conditions which was not met by Hamas was not separating children from their mothers. Among the released hostages overnight was Hila Rotem, who was indeed released without her mother, Raya. Other hostages released included Yahel and Navesh Oam and their mother Adi. Their father Tal was left behind in captivity. Noam and Alma Or were released without their father, Dror. Maya Raveev was released without her brother, Itai. Maya was among the wounded and kidnapped from the Nova Music Festival and is currently treated in an Israeli hospital. Here are some of the latest released images in which 9-year-old Emily Hand reunited with her father in Israel. And 13-year-old Hila Rotem Shoshani with her uncle after 50 days of captivity. With us now in studio is Dr. Avi Bitzul, head of the Home Front and National Security Studies at Bed-Bell Academic College. Thank you, Avi, for coming in. You're seeing these images of hostages being released and it's a happy moment, certainly for the Israeli public. But there is also sadness that not everyone got out and some families are left behind. I think you are very right. First of all, you are so happy to see them released. And on the other side, 200 are still in the capture of Hamas. First and second, I think if you will let me later to speak, we must go on with the warfare that we stopped now and we know what Hamas is hoping. But to see them like this, to see this little kid run to her uncle because her parents are not here, it's something, something. And this is Israel. And this is the difference between us and others, especially the Hamas. This is this country. But look what is going to happen next. This is what it's thinking. And there was a long delay yesterday and a lot of drama involved with releasing those hostages. Do we know what happened there? You see, remember that when the both sides spoke about the beginning of the agreement, Israel saved four days, Hamas saved five days. If you see now, if it takes time to delay the hours in one day, you are going into the fifth day. Believe it or not, I think that in this day, they will stay and stuck to the agreement. But they will ask, will say, we have more people to release. We want much more days. They want to finish this war. We have to understand it. They want that we stuck in our place. They will carry on with this sense of, let's say, delayed. Let's say you are not staying by the rules. They say that they believe that the rule is the veteran of the prisoners, of the Palestinians in our prison must go on first. It was not written nowhere. But they broke the law that said not break families, release them together. Now you yourself show, Sivan, to all the people watching your show that are people that went free yesterday and their fathers and their mothers are still at the prison at the Hamas. You are not stuck into the agreement. It's not Israel. They want to gain time. They want to gain time. I think three major subjects that we have to remind all of us. Skip the fact that you and I, and you've said it now, you begin with it. The release of the hostages is first my priority for Israel. But there is the priority of carrying on this war to crush the head of the snake who is Hamas. They want to stop and they know what they are doing. First of all, the army is now standing, is doing nothing. Two days, three days, let's go, let's say 10 days. It's a plenty of time that the army will not be flexible and will jump and begin what is done till now. Second, you see what happened all around the world and you understand the Hamas want to gain the public relations all around the globe to influence USA, to stop this war, finish. I can imagine the headlines tomorrow in the papers, let's say in Washington or New York. Israel, you have make your revenge, lift it, skip it, finish it. No, we must not. The third thing that I'm most afraid of it is the approximately a million people of the north of Gaza that ran to the south. If they will try to come back, what we will do? Fire them. If you will let them, there will be plenty of people, let's say innocent Palestinians between our tanks and our soldiers and our troopers, how you can carry on this war. And the other priority of this war is not only the captures and the kidnappers, those to the second is to crush the Hamas. You cannot live as a nation with such a snake and we must realize it. We need to capture Hamas militants, terrorists, the heads of the organization and destroy its capabilities. Now, it appeared like Hamas yesterday, it was very much in control of what was happening. It's not as defeated as Israel thought. Look, they gain what they prefer. They are still innocent, okay? They are still alive, sorry that I'm speaking like I'm going to kill people every day, no. But they're still alive and they understand very well who we are. This is the resilience of society. I spoke in your show about it, the resilience. We are not there. We are not there and I know why. I know why. You can ask me, Avi, if it was your kid, what you have done. I was there in the square and I was cream and I won't let my boy free. And they're playing with us. They're playing in every inch of our soul. They understand us very well. You know what? They're in control now, okay? I'm skipping my pride as a macho military Israeli, let's say, support. I want that we will say it sharp and clear. When it will finish this going on with them, people who are free, we are coming back to the war. We will not live. We will not stop. Sorry to say. They understand it too because of that. I will not be surprised if the Qatar airplane yesterday was in Tel Aviv and there were negotiations. They did not speak about this 53. What's the decision that we want to release? They spoke about other. About what's next? What's next? And they will say, you know what? We will free 100, 10 a day, 10 and two days. We want three days of ceasefire for this 20 or 30. So our army will stand in the position, I say, that describe sorry to say in a very, very bad condition because we began with freeing the hostages and it's important and it's a command we must carry on and they will use it, sorry to say. Stay with us, Dr. Bitzul, joining us from the Tel Aviv Square for the families of hostages is our I-24 news correspondent, Robert Swift. Robert, what are we seeing happening at the square now? There's more and more people coming here as family members and Israelis who feel a connection to the events that are taking place are starting to arrive here in larger numbers. There's coaches of groups of teenagers arriving as well and many of the people are wandering around here looking at the posters of the hostages, those still remaining in Gaza and looking over the different art displays that are here, the memorials, both memorials of a visual nature. There's various pieces of artwork that have been put up but also musical and group activity. There's just a short while ago, there was a group... Robert, thank you. We need to now move on to the hospital. Robert, thank you very much. We need to move on to the hospital, the director of Safra Children's Hospital at Shiba Medical Center, Professor Itai Pesach is now giving an update on the conditions of the hostages. Let's listen in. Where we as an organization had the amazing privilege of being able to treat our brothers and sisters, our children that have been kept captive by the Hamas. In the last few weeks, the Edmoni Lili Safra Children's Hospital together with the whole Shiba Medical Center has been preparing for this opportunity. We've gathered the best professionals and trained them. We learned a lot. We consulted with our peers and with the Israeli Ministry of Health and tried to prepare to be able to give those that were kept captive any care and attention they might need when this fortunate event where they are released happens. And indeed, last night after a very confusing and stressful period at around 3.30 a.m., we received these 12 captives, children and women that came back. They underwent a medical evaluation and a psychological evaluation. I am happy to say that despite the fact that the harsh conditions that have been under and the experience of captivity, they did not require any emergent medical intervention. We will keep them here at the Edmoni Lili Safra Children's Hospital for as long as they need and care for them, help them in their preparation of coming back to their communities. Some of them have no homes to come back to, but they have a very significant and supporting community that will embrace them as the whole nation embraces them when they come back. On a personal note, this is a pediatric hospital. We have a lot of emotional and significant days here caring for children from all over. I have been doing this for many years and I have to tell you that this past night was one of the most significant evenings and nights for me and I feel privileged to have gotten the opportunity to be here for these children and their families. I think I share this with the other members of the team. We've been here for many hours and I think no team member has left. They all stay trying to care for these people, for these children. There are only a very, very small part of the people that are kept captive by Hamas. We pray together with the whole nation and I think with the world for the early release of the rest of the captives. There are children there, there are women there, there are elderly people there, there are women and men and we are ready to treat them as they come back hopefully very soon. I want to thank the Israeli Ministry of Health that supported us and our collaborators in the IDF and the other organizations that all came together in order to bring these people home and provide some hope to them and to the Israeli nation. Thank you very much. That was Professor Itai Pesach of the Safra Children's Hospital Achiba Medical Center. On the whole the hostages who were released are in good condition though some of these hostages have lost families and have lost their homes and so the road to healing is a long one. There are 14 Thai hostages and one Filipino hostage who were also released into Israel without conditions and are now being looked after at the Shamir Medical Center. Here's an update from the director of that center. Hello my name is Dr. Osnad Levtsyon Koch. I'm the CEO of Shamir Osafo for Medical Center. We received 15 hostages, 14 from Thailand, one from the Filipino. They're in stable condition and they're improving. They get here all the coverage, all the medical, nursing and dietician and mental care that they need. They're very happy to be to be here and we're very happy that we can give them the best care that they need. They don't have families so we're we are active there are families we and the embassies that are here helping us with everything as well as with translations. We're longing for the rest of all of the hostages to come back home. Thank you. And back to our I-24 News correspondent Robert Swift in Tel Aviv. Robert we were cut off before. Please continue telling us you were mentioning an artist exhibition. That's right. Many of the displays here are essentially memorials to the hostages to those who are still trapped inside Gaza and we spoke a little earlier with one of the artists who put up a display. Let's take a listen to what she had to say now. We came this morning to paint the hearts of those who returned yesterday and this is what we will do in the coming days until the last of the hostages returns to Israel. We will come paint his heart and add the yellow hearts every day and we will celebrate life with them but we will not leave behind all those who did not return yet. We just pray that everyone will come back and that all hearts will be painted yellow. So that's just one of the artist displays at the square in Tel Aviv and we're seeing a lot of solidarity among the families of hostages those released and those who are not yet released. What can you tell us about that? That's right. The sentiment coming from many of the families is essentially that it's one thing that their close family relatives have been released but there are dozens still trapped in captivity in the Gaza Strip and the feeling among the families and among the wider public appears to very much be the case that while there are any of these hostages remaining the demands need to continue that no one family is going to focus in on the release of their relatives and that it is necessary for the Israeli society to continue to focus in on the continued pressure to release those hostages held in the Gaza Strip. This then obviously throws up a conundrum for the Israeli government. There are two more days of the ceasefire down on paper. There is a possibility of the ceasefire being continued if additional hostages are to be released by Hamas but the sentiment coming from the Israeli government and from the heads of the Israeli military is that at the end of the day the the war does need to continue. Hamas needs to be destroyed and this obviously then will raise the question of what remains of those hostages who are still in captivity once this ceasefire comes to an end. Thank you very much Robert Swift and Tel Aviv. Joining us now is the Tzchaq Lebanon former Israeli ambassador to Egypt and to the United Nations in Geneva. Thank you for joining. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. After last night's drama and stalling in the release of hostages finally Egypt stepped in to ensure that the deal will go through as well as Qatar behind the scenes. Now this game that was played made them look very bad as well seeing as they mediated the deal and put their own name on the line. What was Egypt's role in the release last night? Just to be clear the game is coming from Hamas not from Egypt and Egypt did not step in only yesterday. Egypt has a pivotal role since a long time. In the past history between us and Hamas and all the wars that we had against this terrorist organization. The Egyptians have succeeded to establish a kind of a leverage on the leaders of Hamas which help us to help I mean to help you know us in order to reach a kind of a ceasefire or the holding of the fire between us and Hamas. So the whole of Egypt is pivotal and Egypt will continue with that. And what happened yesterday it was really a shame from Hamas but let's see that today everything will go smoothly because Egypt is on alert because we told her to be on alert for today's exchange of the hostages. Now like you say Egypt is portraying itself as the big mediator the negotiator Egyptian television has sole coverage for visuals and footage of the hostage release. Where does this position Egypt in the Arab world and where does it position Egypt in the Western world. Well I think that everybody in the Arab world accept the role of Egypt in Israel definitely yes. You know I don't want to make the competition between Egypt and Qatar but definitely in my eyes and so somebody you know who have lived in Egypt and I have the contacts with the Egyptians. There are the main negotiators. I mean Hamas understand is the Hamas respect the Egyptians. And as I say before the Egyptian have a certain leverage on Hamas. So I think that Egypt is perceived in the world and now in the world in the United States and Europe as the country who can play a pivotal role in order to bring now the hostages and later on probably a kind of understanding. I would like well this is a personal wish. I would like that after the war if we can see a more active role of Egypt in Gaza but this we have to leave it for discussions after that we'll finish the job. Now might it be that some of the Arab world is indeed in favor of Israel defeating Hamas. Yes look everybody knows that Hamas cannot continue to be there. Everybody knows that what Hamas did it not only on October the 7th but much much before that the constructions you know abusing the money given by the world and the atrocity they did. Look everybody would like to see the Hamas stepping down or let's say that politically speaking and militarily for sure will not be active at all in Gaza and probably something else will emerge in Gaza for the best of the Palestinians living in in Gaza. I think in this regard we will see a more active role of Egypt because Egypt is interested of having a stable quiet neighbor to Sinai and to the Egyptian country. I think they will continue to play this important role that they are doing now. Thank you very much. It's Haq Lebanon. Thanks for joining and for your input. Thank you. And back in studio with me is Dr. Avib Itzo. We are hearing that Hamas confirmed the death of a number of senior military commanders before the ceasefire including the commander of the Northern Brigade. What do we know about this? We know it by being from human rights people that we have inside from the intelligence side I believe and we can see it by what we are seeing from there and it's important if we can crush their leaders it's something that I think will make us very happy okay and I mean it very happy. I'm happy about the refugees. I'm happy about everything but again and again we cannot stop this war we cannot stop before crushing the Hamas because and you know it very well if we had another one hour to speak about the hoots that we have been with them about Hezbollah that we have to speak about them I mean and don't forget Iran and we will have to deal with Iran. In Gaza Strip there must be a place that may be and let me be optimistic okay maybe from these ashes of everybody especially us we can raise up I mean about the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and Judea and Samaria and think about us we know what was wrong in us we will know everything and we'll fix it I believe and I believe we still find ourselves against Hezbollah and against others and maybe we will live on our soul forever I don't know we must deal with it we must go on and again resilience immunity stability of a nation we must have it we must or we will break up and we are not going to be break up. Now we saw the kind of delay the games the drama of last night should we be expecting a traditional drama like that today yes yes for sure I'm not Hamas and I'm not profit but Hamas won't Sivan he wants to gain time in every way you can think about okay the the second refugee you want she's 39 she's not old let's say presumed they will do everything and I believe it we must stick to the plan stick to the agreement go on and wait wait till it finish and continue and renew the war you must destroy Hamas we must renew the war that's what you're saying thank you very much for joining that's all for this edition of I-24 news we have rolling coverage providing you with the latest from israel i'm sivan reviv thank you for watching news story to the world for news i'm sivan reviv and these are the latest developments coming to you live from Tel Aviv today's day 51 of israel's war with Hamas after hours of agonizing delay last night Hamas finally released 13 israeli hostages on the second day of its deal with israel including eight children and five women additionally four Thai nationals were released to israel as well israel received the list of names of the third batch of hostages meant to be released this afternoon the hostages had spent 50 days in Hamas captivity after being snatched from their homes during the deadliest massacre in israel's history in which at least 1200 people were brutally tortured and murdered on october 7th one of the conditions which was not met by habas was not separating children from their mothers among the released hostages overnight was hila rotem who was indeed released without her mother raya other hostages released included yahel in the vishuam and their mother adi their father tal was left behind in captivity noam and alma or were released without their father dror maya reggae was released without her brother itai maya was among the wounded and kidnapped from the nova music festival and is currently treated in an israeli hospital here are some of the latest released images in which nine-year-old emily hand reunited with her father in israel and 13-year-old hila or rotem shoshani with her uncle after 50 days of captivity with us now in studio is dr aviv it's all head of the home front and national security studies at bedbell academic college thank you avi for coming in you're seeing these images of hostages being released and it's a happy moment certainly for the israeli public but there is also sadness that not everyone got out and some families are left behind i think you're very right first of all you're so happy to see them released and in the other side 200 are still in the capture of hamas first and second i think if you will let me later to speak we must go on with the warfare that we stop now and we know what hamas is hoping but to see them like this to see this little kid run to her uncle because her parents are not here it's something something and this is israel and this is the difference between us and others especially the hamas this is this country but look what is going to happen next this is what is thinking and there was a long delay yesterday and a lot of drama involved with releasing those hostages do we know what happened there you see remember that when when the both sides spoke about the beginning of the agreement is there a say four days hamas said five days if you see now if he if he takes his time to delay the hours in one day you are going into the fifth day believe it or not i think that in this day they will they will stay and stuck to the agreement but they will ask we will say we have more people to release we want much more days they want to finish this war we have to understand it they want that we stuck in our place and they will carry on with this sense of let's say delayed let's say you are not staying by the rules they say that they believe that the rule is the older the veteran of the prisoners of the palestinians in our prison must go on first it was not written nowhere but they broke the law that said not break families release them together now you yourself show sivan to all the people that watching your show that are people that went free yesterday and their fathers and their mothers are still at the prison at the hamas you are not stuck into the agreement it's not israel they want to gain time they want to gain time i think three three major subjects that we have to remind all of us keep the fact that you and i and you've said it now you begin with it the release of the austerech is first my priority for israel but there is the priority of carrying on this war to crush the head of the snake who is from us they want to stop and they know what they are doing first of all the army is now standing is doing nothing two days three days let's go let's say 10 days it's a plenty of time that the army will not be flexible and will jump and begin what is done till now first second you see what happened all around the world and you understand the hamas want to gain the public relations all around the globe to influence us to stop this war finish i can imagine the headlines tomorrow in the papers let's say in the washington or new york israel you have make your revenge lift it skip it finish it no we must not the third thing that i'm most afraid of it it's the approximately million people of the north of gaza that ran to the south if they will try to come back what we will do fire them if you will let them there will be plenty of people let's say innocent palestinians between our tanks and our soldiers and our troopers how you can carry on this war and the other priority of this war is not only the captures and then kidnaps those that the second is to crush the hamas you cannot live as a nation with such a snake and we must realize it indeed to um to capture hamas militants terrorists the heads of the organization and destroy its capabilities now it appeared like hamas yesterday it was very much in control of what was happening it's not as defeated as israel thought look they gain what they pray for they are still at han unison raffiach okay they are still alive sorry that i'm speaking like i'm going and kill people every day no but they're still alive and they they can they understand very well who we are this is the resilience of society i spoke in your show about it the resilience we are not there we are not there and i know why i know why you can ask me avi if it was your kid what you have done i was there in the square and i was cream and i want to let my boy free and they're playing with us they're playing in every inch of our soul they understand us very well you know what they're in control now okay i'm skipping my pride as a macho military israeli let's say support i want that we will say it sharp and clear when it will finish this going on with an people you are free we are coming back to the war we will not live we will not stop sorry to say they understand it too because of that i will not be surprised if the katar airplane yes that yesterday was in televiv and there were negotiations there they did not speak about this 53 hostages that we want to release they spoke about other about what's next what next and they'll say you know what we're free 100 10 a day 10 and two days we want three days of ceasefire for this three 20 or 30 so our army will stand in the position i say that describe sorry to say in a very very bad condition because we began with freeing the hostages and it's important and it's a command we are must carry on and they will use it sorry to say stay with us dr bitzul um joining us from the televives square for the families of hostages is our i-24 news correspondent robert swift robert what are we seeing happening at the square now there's more and more people coming here as family members and just israelis who feel a connection to the events that are taking place are starting to arrive here in larger numbers there's coaches of groups of teenagers arriving as well and many of the people are wandering around here looking at the the posters of the hostages those still remaining in gaza and looking over the different art displays that are here the memorials both memorials of a like visual nature there's various pieces of artwork that have been put up but also musical and group activity there's just a short while ago there was a robert thank you we are we need to now move on to the hospital robert thank you very much we need to move on to the hospital the director of saffra children's hospital medical center professor it is now giving an update on the conditions of the hostages let's listen in where we as a organization had the amazing privilege of being able to treat our brothers and sisters our children that have been kept captive by the hamas in the last few weeks the edmond elisa for children's hospital together with the whole sheba medical center has been preparing for this opportunity we've gathered the best professionals and trained them we learned a lot we consulted with our peers and with the israeli medians three of health and tried to prepare to be able to give those that were kept captive any care and attention they might need when this fortunate event where they are released happens and indeed last night after a very confusing and stressful period at around 3 30 a.m. we received these 12 captives children and women that came back they underwent a medical evaluation and a psychological evaluation i am happy to say that despite the fact that the harsh conditions they have been under and the experience of captivity they did not require any emergent medical intervention we will keep them here at the edmond elisa for children's hospital for as long as they need and care for them help them in their preparation of coming back to their communities some of them have no homes to come back to but they have a very significant and supporting community that will embrace them as the whole nation embraces them when they come back on a personal note this is a pediatric hospital we have a lot of emotional and significant days here caring for children from all over i've been doing this for many years and i have to tell you that this past night was one of the most significant evenings and nights for me and i feel privileged to be to have gotten the opportunity to be here for these children and their families i think i share this with the other members of the team we've been here for many hours and i think no team member has left they all stay trying to care for these to these people to these children there are only a very very small part of the people that are kept captive by hamas we pray together with the whole nation and i think with the with the world for the early release of the rest of the captives the children there they are women there the elderly people there the women and men and we we are ready to treat them as they come back hopefully very soon i want to thank the israeli ministry of health that supported us and our collaborators in the IDF and the other organizations that all came together in order to to bring these people home and provide some hope to them and today's really nation thank you very much that was professor itai pesach of the safra children's hospital at shiba medical center on the whole the hostages who were released are in good condition though some of these hostages have lost families and have lost their homes and so the road to healing is a long one there are 14 thai hostages and one filipino hostage who were also released into israel without conditions and are now being looked after at the shamir medical center here's an update from the director of that center hello my name is dr snetlev tion koh i'm the ceo shamir asafo of the medical center we received 15 hostages 14 from thailand one from the filipino uh they're in stable condition and they're improving they get here all the coverage all the medical nursing and dietician and mental care that they need uh they're very happy to be to be here and we're very happy uh that we can give them the best care that they need uh they don't have families so we're we are actually their families we and the embassies that are here helping us with everything as well as with translations we're longing for the rest of the all of the hostages to come back home thank you and back to our i-24 news correspondent robert swift in televiv robert we we were cut off before please continue telling us you were mentioning um an artist exhibition that's right many of the displays here are essentially memorials to to the hostages to those who are still trapped inside gaza and we spoke a little earlier with one of the artists who put up a display let's take a listen to what she had to say now we came this morning to paint the hearts of those who returned yesterday and this is what we will do in the coming days until the last of the hostages returns to israel we will come paint his heart and add the yellow hearts every day and we will celebrate life with them but we will not leave behind all those who did not return yet we just pray that everyone will come back and that all hearts will be painted yellow so that's just one of the artist displays at the square in televiv and we're seeing a lot of solidarity among the families of hostages those released and those who are not yet released what can you tell us about that that's right the sentiment coming from many of the families is essentially that it's one thing that their close family relatives have been released but there are dozens still trapped in captivity in the gaza stroke and the feeling among the families and among the wider public appears to very much be the case that while there are any of these hostages remaining the demands need to continue that no one family is going to focus in on the release of their relatives and it is necessary for the for israeli society to continue to focus in on the continued pressure to release those hostages held in the gaza strip this then obviously throws up a conundrum for the israeli government there are two more days of the ceasefire down on paper there is the possibility of the ceasefire being continued if additional hostages are to be released by hamas but the sentiment coming from the israeli government and from the heads of the israeli military is that at the end of the day the the word does need to continue hamas needs to be destroyed and this obviously then will raise the question of what remains of those hostages who are still in captivity once this ceasefire comes to an thank you very much robert swift and televive joining us now is the itzhak lebanon former israeli ambassador to egypt and to the united nations in geneva thank you for joining good afternoon good afternoon after last night's drama and stalling in the release of hostages finally egypt stepped in to ensure that the deal will go through as well as katar behind the scenes now this game that was played made them look very bad as well seeing as they mediated the deal and put their own name on the line what was egypt's role in the release last night just to be clear the game is coming from hamas not from egypt and egypt did not step in the you know only yesterday egypt has a pivotal role since a long time you know in the past history between us and hamas and all the wars that we had against this terrorist organization in the egyptian have succeeded to establish a kind of leverage on the leaders of hamas which help us to help i mean to help you know us in order to reach a kind of a ceasefire or the holding of the fire between us and hamas so the whole of egypt is pivotal and egypt will continue with that and what happened yesterday it was really a shame from hamas but let's see that today everything will go smoothly because egypt is on alert because we told her to be on alert for today's exchange of the hostages now like you say egypt is portraying itself as the big mediator the negotiator egyptian television has sole coverage for visuals and footage of the hostage release where does this position position egypt in the Arab world and where does it position egypt in the western world well i think that everybody in the Arab world accept the role of egypt in israel definitely yes you know i don't want to make the competition between egypt and katar but definitely in my eyes and so somebody you know who have lived in egypt and i have the context with the egyptians there are the main negotiators i mean the hamas understand is the hamas respect the egyptians and as i say before the egyptians have a certain leverage on hamas so i think that egypt is perceived in the world and now in the world in the united states and europe as the country who can play a pivotal role in order to bring uh now the hostages and later on probably a kind of understanding i would like well this is a personal wish i would like that after the war if we can see a more active role of egypt in gaza but this we have to leave it for discussions after that we'll finish the job now might it be that some of the Arab world is indeed in favor of israel defeating Hamas yes look everybody knows that Hamas cannot you know continue to be there everybody knows that what Hamas did it not only on october the 7th but much much before that the constructions you know abusing the money given by the world and and the atrocity they did look everybody would like to see the hamas stepping down or let's say that politically speaking and militarily for sure will not be active at all in gaza and probably something else will emerge in gaza for the best of the palestinians living in in gaza i think in this regard we will see a more active role of egypt because egypt is interested of having a stable quiet neighbor to sinai and to the egyptian country i think they will continue to play this important role that they are doing now thank you very much it's haklevanon thanks for joining and for your input thank you and back in studio with me is dr avib itzul we're hearing that hamas confirmed the death of a number of senior military commanders before the ceasefire including the commander of the northern brigade what do we know about this we know it by being from human aids people that we have inside for the intelligence side i believe and we can see it by what we are seeing from the air and it's important if we can crush the leaders it's something that i i think will make us very happy okay and i mean it's very happy i'm happy about the refugees i'm happy about everything but again and again we cannot stop this war we cannot stop before crushing the hamas because and you know it very well if we had another one hour to speak about the hoots that we have been with them about his bula that we have to speak about them i mean and don't forget iran and we will have to deal with iran in gaza strip there must be a place that may be and let me be optimistic okay maybe from these ashes of everybody especially us we can raise up i mean about the palestinians in the gaza strip and judae and samaria and think about us we know what was wrong in us we will know everything and we'll fix it i believe and i believe we still find ourselves against his bula and against others and maybe we will live on our soul sword forever i don't know we must deal with it we must go on and again resilience immunity stability of a nation we must have it we must or we will break up and we are not going to be break up now we saw the kind of delay the games the drama of last night should we be expecting additional drama like that today yes yes for sure i'm not hamas and i'm not profit but hamas won't sivan he wants to gain time in every way you can think about okay the the second refugee you want she's 39 she's not old let's say presume they will do everything and i believe it we must stick to the plane stick to the agreement go on and wait wait till it finish and continue and renew the war because you must destroyed hamas we must renew the war that's what you're saying thank you very much for joining that's all for this edition of i-24 news we have rolling coverage providing you with the latest from israel i'm sivan reviv thank you for watching dollars or mass altis la red global de los dominicanos israel is in a state of war families completely done down in their beds we have no idea where is she has our soldiers are fighting on the front lines but the general perception is something that certainly needs to to be fought as well drill story to the world i-24 news good afternoon and welcome to i-24 news is ongoing coverage of israel at war i'm ariel levin waldman a tense ceasefire still holds between israel and the hamas terror organization but for how long the international red cross is now saying they are not confident a third day of exchange will go ahead this comes after hamas later violated the terms of a qatari media deal to free hostages the release of 13 more of israel's kidnapped women and children was delayed for agonizing hours past the 4 p.m deadline last night as mass refused to relinquish the people they had promised eventually 13 hostages were released though some were swapped from the list raising some questions as to their fates particularly in light of the terror group refusing access to the international red cross determined the condition of remaining hostages one of the conditions that it was not met by hamas was not separating children from their mothers among the released hostages overnight was hila rote who was indeed released without her mother raya other hostages who have returned home include shannon avidori and her 12-year-old daughter noam and more members of that family released including shoshana haran her daughter adi shaham and adi's two young children including three-year-old yyle and her brother nava who's eight years old their father talvo still left behind in captivity noam and amour were also released without their father drawer maya reggaev released without her brother itai maya was among the wounded and kidnapped from the nova music festival and it was currently being treated in israeli hospital you can see here the emotional moment that emily hand a nine-year-old irish-israeli girl was reunited with her father who thought that she had died and learned afterwards that she was kidnapped israeli and medical professionals say that 12 of the 13 hostages released were in good condition and we now go to our correspondent robert swift who is standing on what's become known as hostages square in televiv robert what is the atmosphere there like right now given that we are seeing some exchanges is there hope or a lot more doubt given what we saw last night the mood here remains one of optimism i have to say most people they seem hopeful that something positive still will come a lot of people are arriving here at the square and they're moving around at the various memorials both visual and musical that are on display here many of the people are gathering together a lot of them younger people teenagers and those just around just before the entry into the army age many of them are here essentially to show their connection their solidarity with the the the impact of the hostage situation on wider israeli society but also among the the people coming here we have spoken with some of the family members including hagi khan who is the mother of itai a 19 year old israeli american who was he was a member of he was a serving soldier and a member of a tank crew that was overrun on the 7th of october let's take a listen to what his mother had to say with us my son is a is a man is 19 but is considered as a man so unfortunately we don't expect to see him in the today's list but still you know i'm very happy for all the families that do see their love ones yesterday and the day before and today and tomorrow and hopefully very soon i will hug my son again and i'm happy for every family and every kidnap that released you know each person is the whole world thank you very much rob it's just a small sample of the shattered families and shattered dreams we've seen since october 7th thank you very much for that reporting but we are going to return to the studio now where we are joined by colonel grisha yukubowitz former head of civilian department at koga of the idf and an israeli palestine relations expert grisha as much as israel is celebrating right now much of the military establishment believes this fire has been a massive miscalculation and a mistake why is that well i don't know about the military what i know about the let's say the experts okay so any expert in the arab world any middle eastern expert would say and if i will you know take my emotions aside as in israeli with our values as a society you know if it would be my family i will probably talk differently but i want to put that aside okay let's let's let's try and analyze it as experts at the moment you negotiate with the third entity in the moment you are squeezable you know reaching to a deal they will release 50 they will release 60 70 30 they will stop it they will move it they will lead it it shows a weakness and if you are weak in the middle east somebody will eat you so uh the deal as bad as it sounds okay as a as a human being as a citizen this is a bad thing to israeli strategy we need to understand that because it shows a weakness i think it will be way better to say something very simple no conditions you should return all the people that have kidnapped civilians we're not talking about prisoners we're talking about innocent kids women all people so an unconditional return of all the people that have kidnapped only after them we will stop the war the moment israeli did not do that it shows a weakness it shows that you can play it should actually you are giving Hamas legitimacy to think already about the day after the war and the day after the war is very simple is res goals is to make sure that Hamas regime will collapse and they are trying to show that they are relevant the moment you negotiate with them the moment there are deals the moment they can i would say play around with human beings that's the thing here they are playing with people's life and is well placed to their hands because there's no other option i understand that also not only emotionally not only as human beings not only as israeli it's part of our culture our beliefs but also from a political aspect the government must and this is something that sinwall planned in advance we spoke in the past about Hamas strategy and the strategy was to one of the parallel accesses was the people that were kidnapped that they would play with that psychologically and this is exactly what they are doing as expected i think that the most difficult thing would be to return back after the four days of the ceasefire to return back to the military way and this will be the only way to to win a venture we're going to continue this line of discussion in a brief moment but first though i do have to bring in another voice that is our senior diplomatic correspondent owin altman who is standing just outside just inside it looks like the shiba medical center in israel where i believe most of the hostages that were released have been sent to for a medical examination oh and what's going on there yeah that's right arielle of the 13 israeli hostages 12 are being hospitalized here that includes eight children and four women uh they're said to be in good condition the 13th we should say uh maya reggaeve uh taken to suroka hospital in berseva why she was shot uh while trying to flee the nova music festival on october 7th itself and so needed more immediate medical care so taken by helicopter during the night last night to that hospital in berseva this morning the director of that hospital said she is expected to undergo surgery today considered to be in moderate condition and most importantly expected to make a full recovery as for those who are hospitalized here and how the staff here is experiencing that well just about an hour ago dr professor itai pesach the head of the children's hospital here at shiba medical center at the podium or at a podium just near where i'm standing gave statements to the international media or the non-hebra language media and here's part of what he had to say last night after a very uh confusing uh and stressful uh period at around 3 30 a.m we received um these 12 captives children and women um that came back um they underwent uh a medical evaluation and a psychological evaluation i'm uh happy to say that despite the fact that the harsh conditions they have been under and the um experience of captivity they did not um require any emergent medical intervention we will keep them here at the admonie lily suffer children's hospital for as long as they need uh and uh care for them help them uh in their preparation of coming back uh to their communities some of them have no homes to come back to but they have uh a very significant and supporting a community that will uh embrace them uh as the whole nation embraces them uh when they uh come back so ariel there you have at the head of this children's hospital obviously a very difficult but also in a way inspiring story of the hostages of the families and of course of those at this hospital charge with their medical care ariel well thank you very much oh and i'm sure there's a lot of families that have been there are so grateful to have their people back once again we are going to move though to another aspect of this and while they have been released in what's going to be good condition what does that actually mean is good condition simply physical well what about their mental state for more on this we are joined by dr ilan volkov psychiatrist and director of the mind meat medical center tell aviv what can we expect regarding the hostages that have returned what are they likely experiencing right now hi thank you for having me at this important morning because we're so excited and happy to see those hostages come back however i think it's only the first part of their recovery we have studies that shows that up to 80 percent of people who've been tortured and who've been kept captive are about are about to have a ptsd apostromatic stress disorder and we have to make sure right now that those people won't be in the statistics and will have the opportunity to fully recover in their muddy in their body just like the doctor before me spoke but also in their mind and that recovery is going to take much more time is it always possible even because from what i understand there is a small subset that the experience in the ordeal ultimately breaks them so i think it has a lot to do with how are we going to read them right now how much empathy and how how the bigger hog is going to is going to be towards us people also we should be patient and should take into the account that it's going to take lots of time i think what is mostly important for those children and also for the grown-ups to realize right now is that we have to give them some kind of certainty one of the biggest problems of being captive is the feeling of uncertain certainty that they weren't sure what's going to happen will there be a released will there be injured we have to give them certainty in a way that they're going to feel that they're safe right now we have to give them certainty that they're going to be all treated and kept safe because they've been feeling unsafe for so long and also we have to give them certainty that after everything ends after the world ends we're not going to forget about them and we're going to keep treating them no matter how long it's going to take us and no matter how many how many amount of funds and how much resources we will have to invest in their mental health we're going to still do it and we're also going to take care of their families and that their job at the war has ended and right now someone else is taking care of them their families and the rest of the situation what about the case of children with children they need certainty in their lives you just mentioned that everyone needs but with children all the more so children that have been taken hostage you can't lie to them you can't tell them that they're going to be safe they experienced firsthand that's not exactly true was it so we're going to work really hard in reassuring them that right now they are safe i mean something was broken they were sure they're they're going to be safe in their beds and they don't have that anymore some of them don't have their parents taking care of them some of them don't have their houses so we have to do an extra effort in order to convince them that right now they're actually the children of all of us because you know in Israel we like to say that they're all of our children but we have to convince them that this is true and not only by saying that but by acting like we are we have to take care of them we have to hug them we have to show them love appreciation and to give them whatever the need in order to feel safe and reassure them that we're going to keep doing that for a very prolonged period of time and that we're not going to forget in a week or so but we're going to be there for them forever as a state of Israel and also as the citizens of Israel and Dilan you said it's a very long road ahead i want to focus now on the more immediate steps that will be taken in the first days the week stretching into the first months what is the most important thing what needs to be done right now well we have to rewrite their narrative because what's happens in post trauma is that we have all these memories just thrown to all these different places and not being put in the right place in their minds we have to rewrite the narrative we have to work them through the process we have to fill the gaps in their memory about what had happened and also about what we know right now that they didn't know as that happened and when their narrative is fulfilled they will be able to do some emotional work on that and to understand what how impossible that was for them to survive in the situations and feel like the heroes they are because it did took an unbelievable unhuman effort to survive that situation and we have to make them feel responsible for surviving show them their strengths and how much strength did it take show them how proud we are of them doing so and once again give them enough space to relieve their lives and to build their lives again the way the thing that it should be but right now just walk them through the steps understand what had happened and be there for them one of the most important thing in treating PTSD is just knowing that someone is there for you no matter what are your needs right now some of them are gonna need a break some of them would like to know exactly what had happened some of them will need a hug others will want us to give them space we have to honor that and just make sure that they know that at each and every point there is someone there with them and it's a very important thing to do Ilan we've been focusing specifically on the hostages right now because that is the the most integral story for the day but it's not just the hostages there's also the survivors there's the witnesses there's so many more are we at risk of seeing trauma not just the hostages not just to the witnesses but people that hear all the stories that hear all these nightmares an entire generation at risk of trauma most definitely I keep saying everywhere that we should limit the amount of the information that we consume right now because it's psychological warfare terrorism by definition is a bunch of people doing something terrible to a small group of people in order to terrorize the rest of us so just like we close our doors we have to close our brains and our minds to the flow of the information to the brutal flow of information and to make sure that we are safe then we also have to make mental health available for everyone I mean there are so many different aspects to that like the Nova survivors there were a disparity some of them had consumed drugs that made them more vulnerable for PTSD we know that today we have different ways to treat PTSD one of them is psychedelic drugs but it's not available right now in Israel so we might make an effort to make those special PTSD treatments available we have to make psychology treatments more available to people because right now it's quite easy to find a mental health supporter to do the first intervention but I'm not sure about our ability to allow that for the rest of the year for everyone who needs that and PTSD usually needs about a year or two in order to treat it correctly so we have to throw funds and that the government has to do something active in order to enable psychiatrists like me and others make this available for the public and so many people are going to suffer that and you can get PTSD only from watching the videos on telegram you don't have to actually experience the situation you can relieve it through the video films and this is something that we have as a community to take care of because it's going to be a very very deep wound that unless we treat now we're going to have much more problems treating that later in the future it's going to be a challenge for everyone one big collective and you have to reach out for help I mean if you're feeling this tension that it's overwhelming reach out and ask for help all the mental health system right now makes itself available for you you just have to ask well it's a good thing we have people like you that will be there when the call comes in that was Dr. Ilan Volkov psychiatrist helping with this situation and explaining some of the challenges ahead for the nation and the hostages we are going to return to the studio now we have Colonel Grisha you could what's still with us Grisha one of the things that we've been talking about is the sheer amount of damage that has been done to Israel by Hamas's atrocities on October 7th in light of that getting hostages back clearly isn't enough it doesn't resolve the war it doesn't resolve Israel's Cassus belly here there is still the fact that Hamas tortured and mutilated to death 1200 people that's not a small number that's colossal it's the worst attack on Israel in the nation's history in light of that how could people even conceive of a ceasefire that stretches on indefinitely the military has said they're still ready to make war it'll take a few minutes get the airplanes back in the air again the military says they're ready to go at it is there a real risk of the ceasefire extending or is the military really as they say ready to continue immediately the military is ready this is not the issue this is a decision that the government of Israel it's the government's responsibility to take the decision not the idea that it's like just imagine that you're building a house so you need somebody to plan it you need somebody to give you the permissions and you have the constructor to do it so the constructor is ready to do the job and to build it so let's look at the idea as the constructor okay the ones who will implement any mission any order the problem will be a political problem if the government of Israel will stand the pressure from Europe from the Arab world from the countries that are part of the Abraham code from Egypt Jordan let's not forget the events in the west bank we need to make sure that the west bank will also be stabilized we don't want to open another front and Hamas with this psychological warfare as was mentioned here before players in an asymmetric war you know playing on our emotions on our morality on our culture on our society playing with babies playing with buddies this is something that you know as I see you know how how the whole world looks at it it's like nobody nobody even enters and tries to understand what is happening here because Hamas succeeded to I don't know if it's to buy the heart of the people in Europe in the States or all of the world but to show the damage to show the casualties you know to show kids it's painful to see that and nobody cares who did it not nobody cares whose fault it is what everybody cares is to stop to stop this so so it would be very very difficult after accepting the ceasefire okay and I'm excited as any Israeli to see the kidnapped being returned back home I'm really happy it's it's it feels me with joy but again operationally strategically it's a mistake and we shouldn't probably be together and I know that if families of those kidnapped will hear me they will be very very angry on me and and very upset from what I'm saying but again I'm trying to pull myself out of this emotional event and to look at it professionally it's a mistake to Israel and I hope that we will be able to return and to complete the mission given by the policymakers the government one of the problems from what I already get now is three events one is already statements of Palestinians that the number of trucks that were supposed to enter to the Gaza Strip is 200 and only 160 entered the time now in Israel is 125 let's see if until four o'clock the rest of the trucks another 40 would enter and number three already seven people who were injured a shepherd that was killed and another guy that was trying to cross from the south to the north also was injured or killed so Hamas can define it as Israelis not implementing the ceasefire as it was supposed to and already a statement by the Red Cross to Sky News that probably the deal the third deal will there will be difficulties to implement it today I look at it as an opportunity by the way I would really want to see them back home again I will it will really feel my heart with joy but on the other hand there is an opportunity here to say okay guys we agreed four times you are not implementing it we should not wait a minute a minute so you're saying that there is a chance it seems to get them back and not be a deal but by forcing Hamas to an unconditional surrender I think that the only way the only way to achieve our goals is by and I will say three times force force force this is the only language that this terror organization understands well that is I suppose the watchword that the Israeli military will have to be listening to going forward and we'll see how things develop in the coming hours if Hamas holds to the deal because certainly they did not last night or if things resume today thank you very much Grisha for helping explain everything going forward for everyone else though we are about to go on a short break when we get back we're going to be covering so many different aspects of Israel at war including of course the escalation we are starting to see in the West Bank all this and so much more in just three minutes after a short break so stay with us because we will be right back thanks for staying with us history's worst atrocities are not simply numbers in history book or statistics on a screen October 7th was the worst atrocity in Israel's history and 1200 victims each represent an individual life filled with hopes and dreams tragedies and triumphs all cut short in the most brutal ways imaginable there are more than 200 additional lives still hanging in the balance in that hostage situation that's still ongoing Israel's national library wants people around the world to realize that the hostages that are being held in Gaza are human beings they're not numbers they're not faces on a poster Nahum Zitter head of reference services the national library of Israel now explains just how they intend to do it Nahum thank you very much for being with us so what is this initiative that you're doing how are you humanizing faces on a screen the initiative started with the executives a library saying we have to do something to keep them alive in our understanding and the general public we wanted to use the library space for the readers who come so we've added one of our staff members curated this exhibition took over 200 chairs with the faces of the hostages and we started out as an idea to put a book on each chair and just say we have 200 books waiting for them to come back to read it developed from that into trying to understand each individual person's person's story and have a book they're ready for them something that applies something that that really describes them so for instance I have a book here by for Raya Rotem who was taken into the hostage together with her daughter we put the book and not without my daughter which describes a woman stuck in Iran who did not want to leave without her daughter in the meantime her daughter has been write out but she is still there for and the way we went but I'll describe a few other books later but the way we went about this we asked the families to give us names to give us names of books that are important for their families to give us information and so we took those books that were suggested to us and going beyond that families that did not reach out we scoured the internet finding people's personal histories and then tried put something that's relevant and another one with a 70 year old baby who's you know avid sports fan we put a book about the success of her favorite team and there's a family that's been keeping diaries of things that happen every day for each family member to tell their to tell you Ossisha Abi who's currently in hostage what has happened in the meantime for him we put the book sometimes something I've been meaning to tell you a where's spot you put for the two twins the two twin three-year-olds um that's a book you know that they they've probably read many a time in in their house and we're waiting for them to read it with their parents again so Nahum who is the message for here I mean these are books for the hostages themselves it seems but obviously they're not able to see it not yet anyway who is getting the message right now the message is for the the library patrons for people who have seen this afterwards on the social media but it's mainly for the patrons people come into the building and see wow this is a this book is about is connected to a person I am now understand this person's life this is it's not just a name and not just a face this person has a whole life uh that that is being described that can come comes alive by connecting to this book so we've had family members of the aside from the regular you know library users hundreds or possibly thousands see it today we have people coming in especially to see to see this to look for their loved ones or their friends and see what the book looks replaced there how it brings them to life again I've heard a number of people and talking about the others my grandmother teaches these the children or someone someone else spoke about you know this she knows you know a child here you know she's studied together with them and it's very meaningful for them to see not just the face not that they were keeping that information alive alive and well that's in those faces you can see everywhere but this really gives them a little piece of of their life looking inwards and saying this is a real person it's important to to to keep his uh to keep him in the public eye is a very strong message and anyone looking at this will just be grabbed by the gut they will feel it but ultimately this is israelis that are seeing is there a way or any plans to make it the rest of the world we all just see this initiative see this statement feel the same thing we we've uploaded uh a short blog post and I think it's it will be published even greater in the next coming days articles news articles are getting out about this social media is definitely spreading it around father and father and we we definitely want to develop this we're also working on you we've taken pictures of each chair each individual a chair with its book on it with its with the company face and we're going to put them with family's permission up on on the web and that that way it gives also digital presence and a future digital presence as well hoping that this is this will become part of the history of the of the war and not you know once they're all back this will become history and we were definitely trying to get the message out um and we see that uh that people are really sharing this um all over on social media and we suggest to all people who can come or have come it's taken the picture shared with your friends shared this message and we're looking forward to them coming back and being able to read these and other books here and with their families and wherever they want another book that a personal story that touched me the the I was involved um a person um spoke about her uh his partner who was uh currently in hostage and they were reading the art of loving where from and now they're waiting to read it together um the cookbooks for for the the great cooks who were taken in um and many and many other books are available just you know describing it's an eight year old a book about Minecraft is something that describes his life to a certain extent um the book that lassie comes home for a girl who's dreaming to build a dog shelter these are the things we we are definitely we'd like everyone to take apart sharing these pictures and getting them worldwide well thank you very much knock them for your work and making sure that it's not simply history it's not simply pictures that people actually understand that these are their fellow human beings thank you very much and just because fighting has paused in the Gaza Strip doesn't mean it stopped everywhere the west bank has been escalating and the IDF is forced to constantly operate all around the west bank but as some terrorists are arrested others are being released as part of the exchange deal with Hamas i-24 news senior defense correspondent jonathan reggaev has more details it took more than three months but finally happened this was the hideout used by osama bani fadel the terrorist who killed two israelis last august in the village of khawara he was arrested sunday morning in the janin refugee camp in the northern west bank the weapon and ammunition around him show he was ready to fight but was surprised and apprehended this was part of another major israeli operation in janin overnight five terrorists were killed and various others injured in the operation which included airstrikes took the injured people to hospital one of the injured was directly hit in the head and had no pulse and no breath 29 terrorists were arrested all over the west bank overnight more than 20 of them only in janin the operation against hamas is not only taking place in the gaza strip israeli is also acting in full swing in the west bank more than 200 terrorists have been killed in the west bank since october 7th and some 2 000 terrorists arrested but don't expect hamas to be gone anytime soon the faith that palestine will be liberated due to the efforts of the resistance thank god it will be liberated soon the resistance as far as the palestinians are concerned is hamas it is mostly green hamas flags seen in the welcoming parades for the prisoners released by israel much more than any other flag even more than palestinian flags the idea behind this terror organization is something that even thousands of arrests and hundreds of terrorists killed cannot eradicate and we return now to the studio where colonel grisha yukubowitz is still with us grisha we just saw in that video returns exactly to what you were saying a hamas victory is what we're currently seeing in the west bank their flags are everywhere and they haven't even been defeated in gaza let alone talking about their surge in the west bank ultimately is israel looking weak right now yes israel looks very weak very weak now especially in the west bank the palestinian authority looks very weak now and hamas as i said again and again it's a very smart organization and they already thought in advance about the day after now what do i mean by that the plan the original plan was to flame the borders to flame the borders from gaza from the west bank from lebanon in syria and the arab is really inside israel actually the two boards the two fronts that hamas fell with was the west bank and the arab israelis now let's look let's check the lists of the prisoners that were released not even one of them is a gaza prison the prisoners are only from the west bank and from east jerusalem arab israelis yes they are not citizens they are residents but they are arab israelis and what is the purpose the purpose or the goal is that people will look at the palestinian authority and say okay what did we get from muhammad abbas what did we get from the pa on tl what is the most important thing that we all want we want to see our sons getting back home from prison okay any mom will want to see her son back home so when hamas makes sure that at any deal prisoners will be released only to the west bank the heroes of the street are actually hamas and we know that that when we release pa fatah or not fatah prisoners okay to the west bank we are actually playing to the hands of hamas and against muhammad abbas because we are the ones who are feeding the machine of hamas becoming the heroes of the street and this is actually plan b of hamas strategy to release them in to gain support and then to call the people of the west bank we are the heroes now listen to what we call and flame the west bank and then let's see what we muhammad abbas do now we're going to return to this conversation in a brief moment but first i am going to quickly go to our reporter robert swift who is in hostages square in televieve robert we are hearing from the red cross that they are not really convinced they're not certain that the hostage exchange tonight is even going to go down as planned what are people saying right now about this current level of uncertainty people here not really sure what to make of it after the events of last night where there was a hours long delay i don't think people are so surprised to be hearing that the the deal may not be continuing at the pace that had originally been hoped however as you can imagine people are hopeful and they want to believe that the hostages will be released there's still a great deal of pressure from the israeli public to towards the the israeli government to ensure that that that does go ahead that those individuals are released but obviously there's two parties involved in this and people here understand that they cannot rely upon khamas necessarily to do what they wish well uh rob there's the uncertainty as you mentioned people not really sure but when we are seeing the success story is about 26 hostages released so far what has the atmosphere there been like i mean obviously there's hope and rejoicing but are they as pessimistic as some people about the future and the fate of the rest well it's interesting that you contrast the fate of the rest with the joy of of the families of those returning because when we were here last night as the the events around last night's hostage release was taking place the thing that struck me was the fact that people here they weren't exactly glued to their phones they weren't looking for the exact moment that the hostages were released because they seem to be much more uh focused in on the fact that they don't just want small groups of hostages hostages released they are unified in wanting all of the hostages out that was made very clear in a number of the the statements that were made by people at an event last night and it seems to be repeated by uh individuals that we've spoken with today many of of the members of the public as well as family members you know rather than being fixed on the release of hostages today or the release of hostages tomorrow it's more the question of the of the greater um return of the hostages including um Israeli military personnel which of course are not included as part of this temporary ceasefire agreement so while obviously people are uh overjoyed to have the hostages returned they're still very much focused on on the wider picture and I also have to be said that those families who are receiving uh their family members both last night and the night before to a certain degree you know they they there are images being shared on social media the Israeli public are you know are very happy to see those images and are sharing them between themselves but at the same time there's a degree of privacy a moment of quiet that's being given to the families whilst the remainder of the public you know stays focused on those hostages still yet to come no thank you very much Robert for that update from hostages square in Tel Aviv and just in the last few moments we did get an update from the Red Cross who says they do not have any indication that the deal will not go through tonight that they were simply basing their statements on the uncertainty that happened last night that said we are first going to go to our senior diplomatic correspondent Owen Altman standing by the Sheba Medical Center where the hostages have been taken for a medical assessment now we're hearing the term in good condition what exactly does that mean is that only cover the physical needs well I think the overall condition are both physical and in terms of mental health the hospital has said it several times over the course of the day that they can certainly see the scars whether physical or mental of the fact that these people were in captivity for seven weeks but that all things considered they're in good condition of course there is a 13th hostage who's been freed who is not here at Sheba Medical Center who is instead at the Soroka Medical Center in Bersheva why because she Maya Regev was shot in the foot at the Nova Music Festival on October 7th seen as being having been freed yesterday as part of this tranche if you will for humanitarian reasons she needed more immediate medical care which is why she was taken by helicopter to Bersheva closer geographically to the point of the of the freeing then here uh set to undergo surgery over the course of today her condition said to be moderate and she is expected to make a full recovery we'll also update you that just a short time ago a family member of several of the hostages who were freed came down to speak with the media we did we're able to ask her a few questions we'll get that on air as soon as we can but again the family members slowly slowly starting to come out and be speaking with the media of course the hostages themselves still with the medical staff here at the hospital getting the care they need they are hospitalized here Arielle until they feel they don't need to be hospitalized anymore this is a children's hospital by the way we're standing as evidenced by the fact that eight of the 12 hostages who are here at Sheba Medical Center Arielle are themselves children well thank you very much for that update it's definitely a very heartbreaking affair all around so many children so many broken families at least some of them now return home that we can all rest a little bit if not entirely now why we have to ask about the mental state of the hostages is of course because of the brutality we saw on october 7th among Hamas's most vile crimes against humanity on that day in addition to murder torture and butchery was the use of rape as a weapon of war despite mounting evidence including live video of Hamas's savagery women's organizations around the world have maintained either silence or criticized israel itself for the war against Hamas yesterday marked the international day for the elimination of violence against women and the silence from feminist groups around the world is deafening joining us now is Anita Friedman the chairperson of the world women's international Zionist organization from Tel Aviv Anita thank you very much for being with us these are real for having us these organizations they say they serve women's interests but if they can't even say a single word about rape as a weapon of conflict what cause are they really serving here that's a very good question you know in the environment that we're living where antisemitism is raising its ugly head we see it also in these called humanistic and the feminist organizations we've been working with them for the past which exists for 103 years and since then we've been working with different organizations women's organizations all over the world the silence that we're meeting now it's so deafening that there's no other explanation I mean there is no excuse for rape being um um the arm of anybody you know it's it's it's it's a terror rape is rape no matter who is done to and these organizations have the motto of we believe you we hear you in this instance they're making differentiations and they're trying to frame it politically it's not political it's gender-based rape we also have men that have been raped it's sexual violence in general there's not bad under that sort of circumstances why have they not made a statement then we can discuss what cause they're trying to serve but ultimately does not undermine their legitimacy as organizations can they be held accountable and fortunately I think you're right they it does undermine the work that we've so hardly been working towards for so many years it has been so hard to prove and to make sure that we believe victims that this just undermines everything that has been done in the last 30 years in these organizations I don't know how they're going to move forward we did have a statement from the UN a very laconic statement and we will have our we have our own commission humanitarian commission finding out about the race we will come out with it with all the information and these organizations will have to deal with it if these organizations are not going to do their most basic duty then who will take up that mantle who will ensure that there is some form of justice for all of these Israeli women that have been so brutalized well as you know Israel it's pretty much isolated throughout history and this is one of the instances where we know what we have to do we are an organization that it's 103 years old we've been dealing with these issues we've been taking care of ourselves together with the government of course we're the right hand of any government and we do everything we can for the people of Israel and this is the same thing right here we know what we have to do we know how we have to deal and if we need to we will go to the international courts to make sure that this is addressed in the right way and we're talking about justice from the international court but there are survivors there are people that are suffering right now what can be done here in Israel alone since the rest of the world doesn't seem to want to help or care for them specifically well as I said we have centers for prevention of violence and we have centers for victims of sexual assault they are very much experienced in what kind of help we can give these women this is a long process it's going to be a long process to make sure that all the people it's not only the women that were raped themselves or that were killed it's also the people that were witnesses you know we have a lot of witnesses that maybe they themselves were not raped but they saw everything that happened next to their friends and so on and so forth so so this is an immense task of um taking care therapeutical physically in every way we can and of course which will do whatever we can to help these women now you've probably seen the hashtag that went viral in response to the world's silence on the topic of Hamas's use of rape as a weapon of war there was me too unless you're a Jew can we truly dismiss the world's silence as strictly political and related to Israel or ultimately does it come down to the age-old anti-semitism that we've seen across the entirety of the world I think it comes down to the age-old anti-semitism people already don't need an excuse this is so glaring this lack of any kind of statement I mean these organizations their first duty is to believe the victims that's their motto and to say you're not alone and they are reneging on everything they're based on and we've been sending letters we've been communicating with them I mean in a personal basis in an organizational basis anything we can and that's why you saw finally after 50 days the UN representative saying I met with Israeli women and heard about their work they're doing and we remain alarmed even their language is so iconic it's just incredibly incredibly I don't understand it any human person any feminist any humanitarian organization I think they need to do housekeeping on what they're doing and why are they doing and how are they doing it and this is our call from here Anita we already discussed that this undermines their legitimacy in every possible way given that are these organizations going to continue to even exist if they've betrayed their principles so badly that is up to you know they I think there's a very important place for organizations like this regardless I mean it was very hard to create this kind of organization it was very hard to carve a legitimate way of proving rape in general but rape as a tool of of war as a tool of coercion in in societies it was very hard to create it as I said it's has taken at least 30 years for these organizations to be created I really hope that they renaig or we can't on being silent and they come behind Israeli women who have been raped especially when they see the proof there's a lot of proof out there and I do hope for human beings and for feminists and for societies in general for these organizations could continue doing what they need to do but without politicizing it without the but that we as Israeli women see they're using definitely a challenge going forward very very briefly in the last minute that we have left do you have a message to the world in light of everything that we've just said yeah the message is stopping silent look what is in front of you you will be next we are the first ones but you will be next and there will be nobody to stand next to you if you don't stand next to everybody else that's it a call to stand on principles instead of politics thank you very much Anita for everything that you've said and for revealing the blatant hypocrisy and I guess the subversion of organizations that we're supposed to serve a better purpose now that said we are at just about the end of this part of the show so we are going to go on a short break