Israel welcomes home more freed hostages

CGTN Europe

As part of the ceasefire deal, three more hostages were released by Hamas amid celebratory scenes in israel.   French-Israeli Ofer Kalderon, Yarden Bibas and US-Israeli national Keith Siegel were handed over to the Red Cross to be reunited with their families. Jonathan Regev reports from Tel Aviv.  #HostageRelease #PrisonerExchange #Israel #Palestine

Transcript

00:00The reaction of course, Paul is very happy, finally three more hostages are back home.

00:07And of course it's happiness with a lot of sadness behind,

00:11especially for the story of Yarden Bibas, one of the three hostages released today.

00:16He's back in his home, already in hospital being treated.

00:19But his wife and his two little children, one of them was abducted when he was nine months old,

00:24the other when he was four, they were also taken to Gaza.

00:27We know they were taken alive, but there's no sign of them.

00:30And according to the agreement, any woman or children that are alive are meant to be released

00:35before the men, before even the women soldiers.

00:38And yet these three, Shiri Bibas, Kfiri Bibas and Ariel Bibas, have not been released

00:44and there is a lot of fear regarding their fate.

00:48So happiness to see those three hostages back, a lot of concern for all of those remaining

00:54and especially for those three hostages I named.

00:56Regarding their well-being, all three of them came out on their feet.

01:00They've all been taken to hospitals in central Israel.

01:03The hospitals which are closer to the Gaza border in the south of the country

01:07are always prepared to receive them in case there's a medical emergency.

01:11This was not the case, not today and not in previous cases.

01:14All three hostages were taken by helicopters to hospitals where they met with their extended families.

01:21And according to what we're hearing, their situation is quite good

01:25and now begins for the three of them the long way to recovery.

01:29And as far as Israel, already anticipation for the next release of three hostages scheduled for next Saturday.

01:35And so Jonathan, what is the latest on the push to secure the terms of that second phase of the ceasefire?

01:44So the negotiations regarding that stage are set to begin on Monday.

01:49That's day 16 of the first stage of the ceasefire.

01:52Monday will be the day it will coincide with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu being in Washington

01:58just ahead of his meeting with the U.S. President Donald Trump.

02:01That is scheduled for Tuesday. A lot depends on that meeting.

02:05We know that the United States is very much interested in this second stage of the agreement going on

02:10and the U.S. will surely put a lot of pressure on Israel, on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

02:16and eventually it will be up to the Prime Minister to decide on the one hand

02:19how to react to this pressure coming from the very friendly U.S. administration on one hand

02:24and his own coalition, which may very well collapse if Israel goes to the second stage of the ceasefire.

02:32We know that the Jewish Power Party, led by Tamar Ben-Gvir, already left the coalition.

02:36The Religious Zionism, led by Bezalel Smotrich, the other far-right party, said that if the second stage goes ahead

02:43they will also leave the coalition. Both these parties together have enough fingers to bring the coalition down.

02:49So it will be very interesting to see.

02:52Maybe the calls by U.S. President Donald Trump to set aside the Palestinians from Gaza,

03:03remove them perhaps to other countries, maybe that is a sort of a call by the Americans to those far-right parties

03:10don't leave the coalition even if Israel goes along to the second stage.

03:15There is something good for Israel in it. How will that work on the far-right parties?

03:19Of course we will have to wait and see. There is still about five weeks to go until March 6th.

03:25That is the end date for the first stage of the ceasefire.

03:29Then Israel will have to decide which way to go and it will have clear implications on the Israeli coalition.

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