Joy and concern in Israel after hostage release

CGTN Europe

There are mixed emotions across Israel after four more hostages were freed.   Jonathan Regev reports from Tel Aviv on the mood in Israel with celebrations over the return of the female soldiers and worry over those still remaining in Gaza.  #gaza #israel #hostages

Transcript

00:00So the mood in Israel, Paul, is one of happiness and joy on one hand, and concern on the other.

00:07Happiness and joy, of course. Israel saw four female hostages returning today,

00:12and seven female hostages just in the past week since the ceasefire came into effect

00:16with those other three hostages which returned last Sunday.

00:19So, all together, seven hostages, four coming back today.

00:22They're already in Israel, they're already with their families, treated in hospitals.

00:27Great joy, and it seems as if the ceasefire is going according, pretty much according to plan.

00:34So that's the concern for joy, the reason for joy and happiness.

00:39Concern, on the other hand, because, as you mentioned, there is a female civilian who is still in captivity,

00:45according to the terms. There are actually two female civilians in captivity,

00:49and according to the terms, both of them were supposed to be released today.

00:54Are they alive? Are they not alive? It's not exactly clear.

00:57The Islamic Jihad is saying that it is holding the woman civilian who was set to be released today,

01:04and the Palestinian factions have said that she will be released now in the next release process,

01:10which will happen seven days from now, next Saturday, according to the plans.

01:14Israel said that it will not allow civilians to return to northern Gaza due to this breach,

01:19but as it seems, according to Palestinian sources, Israel will eventually allow the Palestinians to go back north

01:28through that part of the Netzarim corridor, which will be cleared from soldiers,

01:33and that woman civilian will return next week.

01:36As for the other one, as it seems, she might not be alive. There's no concrete proof for that.

01:43Hamas is also meant to release a list later on today detailing which of the 33 hostages

01:49that are meant to be released in the first phase, which of them are alive and which are not.

01:54We might get a very difficult answer to that question later on in the day.

01:59And of course, there's a concern because with all of the happiness, 90 hostages are still held in Gaza.

Category

Transcript

Recommended