Gaza hostage families to meet with Netanyahu
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00:00 It is understood there are at least or around 137 hostages still being
00:04 held in Gaza.
00:05 During the six-day ceasefire last week, 78 were released as part of a
00:09 deal between Israel and Hamas, along with another 23 foreign nationals
00:13 in separate talks with other governments and Hamas.
00:16 In exchange, 180 Palestinians were freed from jail in Israel.
00:20 Today, some of the families of those still missing are due to meet
00:23 with the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, after demanding
00:26 talks with him, saying he dodged their requests for days.
00:29 Our correspondent Iris Mackler has the latest from Jerusalem.
00:33 Whose loved ones are still being held and there's been no explanation
00:36 given to them personally, which is what they want from the war cabinet,
00:40 about what the government's policy is in order to release them.
00:45 Let's not forget that any advance in respect of the hostages has only
00:49 come about as a result of pressure, and huge emotional pressure, I have
00:53 to say, from the families of the hostages themselves.
00:57 So they've gone out on a limb for this meeting as well.
01:01 I think their anguish and their motivation is also sharpened by the
01:05 stories that are coming out from the released hostages.
01:07 We heard someone giving evidence to the parliament within the last 24
01:11 hours, and she said her mother had come out of being held hostage and
01:16 had stories of being shackled, not having food, not having water, seeing
01:21 other people beaten.
01:22 She said, "I can't actually bear to hear my mother's stories.
01:25 I have to bring in a psychologist to do it.
01:27 I'm not strong enough to imagine my mother in this condition."
01:31 So there are stories that are public and there are stories that aren't
01:33 public in Israel at any rate.
01:35 We have heard an official in Washington suggesting that Hamas is no
01:39 longer prepared to release women and children.
01:41 That's after all what this ceasefire truce deal founded on, that they're
01:46 no longer prepared to release women and children, perhaps because of
01:49 the stories that will emerge about mistreatment of women.
01:53 That's something that's not being reported in Israel, at least not
01:56 publicly, but we did hear it from Washington yesterday.
01:59 So I think all of these things together make the families even more
02:02 nervous than they already are, very fearful for the condition of their
02:06 loved ones, and that's why they've sought this meeting.
02:09 Although I don't know, having heard the cabinet, the war cabinet that
02:13 they're meeting with, I don't know that they're going to get much in the
02:16 way of a change of policy at this moment.