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00:00 for more on this now we're going to speak to reporter Noga Tarnopolsky in Jerusalem.
00:05 Good morning Noga, thanks for joining us this morning.
00:08 So knowing what we know about this agreement, what do you think is likely to be behind the
00:12 delay?
00:13 What are the possibilities?
00:14 Well, I think we have to just take a step back and note that none of us have seen the
00:19 agreement, even some Israeli ministers have not yet seen the agreement.
00:24 They have simply been told about different parts of it.
00:27 So what we understand in Israel is that the families need not worry that there is a technical
00:34 issue, but even that hasn't been specified.
00:37 And you know, when we say that it was a delayed from Thursday, for example, again, there were
00:42 rumors.
00:43 The air here has been rife with rumors that as of Thursday, Israeli hostages would be
00:48 released.
00:49 But in fact, that was never made official.
00:51 There was never, we are still awaiting any kind of official announcement from Qatar that
00:56 is supposed to be the body announcing the existence of this deal.
01:01 So we're all kind of breathing in ether right now.
01:05 So Qatar has been, of course, pretty involved, if not the major, main actor in this mediation
01:11 process.
01:12 But the US has also played a pretty significant role behind the scenes, especially when it
01:16 comes to the question of hostages being released.
01:19 So how likely do you think this deal, if it does move forward, would have been without
01:23 involvement from Washington?
01:25 How instrumental has the US been?
01:28 I think a hundred percent.
01:31 I think it can't be exaggerated.
01:32 And I actually think that we probably, if we take a step back and we look at President
01:38 Joe Biden's thread, his statements, his tweets last night, I think we have to acknowledge
01:44 that in fact, the principal actor and the principal mediator that pushed the sides together
01:50 here has been the United States.
01:53 And that Qatar, in fact, has the role of being sort of the internationally acceptable spokesperson
02:00 or proxy for Hamas, a terror group that does not really have legitimacy in the international
02:07 sphere.
02:08 But I really think that we have to acknowledge that the United States has been the number
02:14 one actor behind this.
02:16 Does this signal that the hostages are more of a priority than the Israeli government
02:21 made it seen at least at the beginning of the war?
02:26 That is another great question.
02:27 And I think what we're seeing is simply a shift.
02:31 I think at the beginning of this war, the Israeli government saw as its number one,
02:37 maybe sole aim to destroy Hamas that had invaded Israel and murdered more than a thousand citizens.
02:44 And over the past six or seven weeks, as the families have taken a more public role and
02:51 as their anguish has become really the central part of the kind of the debate in Israeli
02:58 society, the Israeli government has had to shift.
03:01 And there it found itself having real support from the United States that said it could
03:06 absolutely assist in getting the hostages freed.
03:10 As a final question for you, Noga, I'd like to know how you think this deal for now, again,
03:15 pending confirmation, how it's perceived first by relatives of the hostages in general.
03:22 Is there any division amongst them in terms of obtaining a deal and the sacrifices that
03:27 come with that?
03:28 And then more generally at large in Israel, how do Israelis seem to view it?
03:33 Israelis are waiting with bated breath just to see any hostages released.
03:38 There's a feeling right now in Israel of some kind of purgatory.
03:43 The families have stopped speaking to the media.
03:45 I have to tell you that the situation in which a terror group, Hamas, is the one controlling
03:51 the narrative, is the one releasing it when it never does.
03:54 The names, Israel hasn't even been able to verify that the names on the list of 10, just
04:00 10 hostages received last night are even alive.
04:04 So this situation has been torturous for the families and it really has put them in a terrible
04:10 anguish.
04:11 And this really public fear, I can't say it feels exactly like the families do, but it
04:17 is following that.
04:18 Like all eyes now are on the families and on if they get any of the kids home.
04:23 That's the situation.
04:24 There are divisions, what you allude to exist, but right now there's just this kind of bated
04:30 breath waiting.
04:31 All right.
04:32 We'll see then what comes on Friday.
04:34 If there's anything new.
04:36 In the meantime, Noga Tarnopolsky in Jerusalem, thank you very much for joining us today.