the IDF um the Israel Defense Forces have made an announcement now saying that the Red Cross has communicated that the three Israeli hostages were transferred to them and are on their way towards IDF and Isa forces in the Gaza Strip so basically the the pictures um that you are still seeing in the background here that is a a loop of a Handover that has already happened and uh those Red Cross vehicles are now moving through Gaza uh towards that that Handover point now as Jonah was explaining there everything has been has been put in place
this was a process that was actually used during the last ceasefire where Hamas hands the hostages over to the Red Cross as we've been seeing um we've seen in the past you know different routs being used there was one particular occasion one hostage release where they're actually brought a different route out of Gaza instead of being taken down to the South they were actually brought out through a much quicker route halfway half halfway down the strip because one of the hostages needed urgent medical attention but the way that these things normally work is that they
go down uh they are handed over to IDF forces and we've been watching those uh live pictures as well of of Rim in the south of uh Israel um where the Israel Defense Forces will take possession if you like of the hostages they will check them over and then they will take them as quickly as possible they take them by helicopter uh just to make that Journey as quick as possible they will take them to uh to Sheba hospital where we were seeing and hearing Jonah just a few minutes ago and then that process of
Rehabilitation of medical treatment but also crucially of reuniting them with their families that will begin one element of what is happening just at the moment also we've been watching the scenes at offer prison as well in the occupied West Bank where Palestinian prisoners will be released uh they will climb onto buses and they will be taken to also be reunited with their loved ones as well you can see the pictures of preparations there at offer prison things happen in a certain order as well um the music's getting very loud by the way as you can
hear behind me um it happens in a certain order and the Handover of the hostages has to happen before the release of the Palestinian prisoners but let's just have a listen to what people in Jerusalem had to say about this fire deal the hostages have to come back it's a very very difficult deal lots of terrorists are being released and it's terrible but we have no option and another thing is that the it's not such a great deal for us either I'm just praying that most of the hostages come home alive please God and that
this suffering ends for them we release killers they will come back to kill we know it for sure and we are it's it's it's very hard what we are doing doing and it's very hard we're dealing with the terrorist they're cheating us every time again and again and we feel very very heavy it's like heavy feeling I can't do nothing I'm always thinking about the terrorist that going back to to Jerusalem the way the way the way I see it it's between uh bad bad deal to the worst deal unfortunately we're going to do that
but it's very very hard people don't nobody's really happy about what's going to happen we're happy to release the the hostages we really happy to have them home but we know what the cost going to be well that is what people uh in Jerusalem was saying a little earlier today about that ceasefire and you know you saw and heard the atmosphere there and and I just want to show you and and really bring you into this picture that you're seeing here this is is it's not officially called hostages Square in Tel Aviv it's the square
outside the Tel Aviv Museum of Art but it is a place that has become synonymous with the Israeli hostages in the 470 days since they were taken and you can hear the very loud music that's being played many people have got their phone torches in the air they're joining in they're singing with this music the volume has really been turned up just in the last few minutes and that has coincided with with the announcement from the IDF the Israel Defense Forces that those three hostages have been uh handed across um let's have a look at
pictures in Rim uh rayim in the south of Israel um is where those hostages are going to be handed over and also of a prison in the occupied West Bank as well we were looking earlier on at the buses there that will be used to take Palestinian prisoners uh to reunite them with their families so there are a few different things going on at the moment uh we're going to be bringing you obviously live pictures from those different locations as we're speaking uh so you can see exactly what's happening so this is Offa prison that
you're watching uh at the moment we saw some some people Gathering there earlier on today waiting for that uh that hand over essentially that freeing of Palestinian prisoners around 90 of them are supposed to be released part of the first phase of this deal 30 or so Palestinian prisoners for every Israeli hostage who's being released today the majority of them today we're told are women with around 10 or so men um but as you can see the scene behind me here um the sound that you're also hearing now as well that is um that is
Israeli TV news which is being broadcast on uh the big screen there behind me uh people you know now going very quiet to to listen to what's being said to listen to sort of every Crum of information as it's uh imparted there so you can see really it is a lot busier I've been talking to you uh all day today from here in hostages square and you can really see how the numbers have have swelled from earlier on today this is often a place that that people are drawn to um they've held regular rallies here
uh every Saturday night there was one yesterday evening as well where people come um often they're addressed by families of the hostages um there have been released hostages who have come here and and taken to the stage and actually addressed the crowds here as well um and when you look around this place as well you are surrounded by the faces and the images and the names of those hostages it's been such a an integral part of the Israeli Consciousness for the last 15 months while this war has gone on and a lot of the pressure
on the Israeli government has come from here as well people here um some of those hostage families have been unhappy with the government's handling of this day they feel like it should have taken 470 days for their loved ones to be released they wanted to be uh to see a deal achieved far sooner so there's there's been a lot of emotion in this s i remember the time of the last ceasefire when there was you know almost A celebratory atmosphere of relief as people were being released last time round this has been a scene at
times of anger as well but what it is at the moment is people gathering in quite some numbers watching and waiting as uh the three Israeli hostages who've been released today who we now know are with the Red Cross are uh making their way towards uh the southern part of Gaza where they'll be handed over to uh the is isi military and that process will begin to actually get them back onto Israeli soil and then of course the release of Palestinian prisoners will begin as well and I think leis uset our chief International correspondent who's
still with us I think there's a sense of of relief for many people at this point because you know 10 or so hours ago it looked like this deal May falter before it even began people thought that they might not see what they're seeing now ATA prison here in t Aviv and I think there is a huge amount of relief that this ceasefire did come into place and and so far is is holding and appears to be going according to that that very very delicate and detailed plan yes and and then the hours it has
taken from the moment where the ceasefire finally began after a three-hour delay the process began of handing over three women the first three hostages to be released in this first phase which is called the humanitarian phase in exchange for uh 30 Palestinian prisoners for 30 for three uh Israeli hostages and we understand that there will be 50 uh P Palestinian prisoners released for every Israeli female soldier who was expected to be released uh in this first phase and now it's just down to the final mimes and these extraordinary scenes on where you are everyone could
be watching that at home but this desire to be there to be in that square where so many people as you mentioned have gone there some people have been going there day after day because it is a place where they have found soless where they have been able to raise your their voices as you say the mood in that square has changed uh over the last 15 months that now there's been a lot of anger because when they hear reports at the ceasefire which was finally agreed was the ceasefire which was on the table in
May so said President Joe Biden and they feel that time has been wasted lives have been lost Palestinian lives have been lost in the thousands so too they're not sure how many Israeli hostages would have died in captivity but these are these final moments where moments of tension moments of Happiness people holding their breath and this will be watched across Israel a nation where it's extraordinary that you know in Israel they say as you've heard it so many times on how the the country believes that they changed Forever After October the 7th everywhere you go
and today in that square the banners of the hostages they line all the streets and squares in Tel Aviv in many other cities they line uh the hallways in Israel's the international airport and Boran uh just outside Tel Aviv they feel that these are their sisters and brothers and and family members that they there's been this solidarity and solidarity among the families too and people will watching around the world because this is such as one of those Exquisite human moments of rare happiness which will give rise to cautious hope that this can be the beginning
of something where all of the hostages will go home those who are alive and the remains of those who did not survive so that their family knows at least what happened and then the hundreds of Palestinian prisoners who will go home many of them have been languishing in prison under human uh administrative detention not yet being charged never knowing when they would be free this is a time of intense emotion on both sides in this deeply deeply political deal um in a war that this this region has never the likes of which the region has
never seen and so many hope that there will be an end to that war but it's fraught with risk but this moment is one a very very human moment yeah it is and you can see from the reaction here you can see from people's faces you can see families holding each other parents putting their arms around children you know people wrapped looking at the screen cheering you know those those explosive impressions of of of Joy when they saw just the smallest smallest moment the suggestion that those women were being handed over somebody's back in a
vehicle and and the way that that people cheered and whooped and while we're speaking leis as well we're staying on these live pictures of Rim in southern Israel that we're seeing mini buses pulling up to the helicopters um because the next stage will be to take uh those three hostages to Sheba Hospital uh where preparations have been put in place to receive them and then also after that again as you were saying leas uh we will see the release of 90 or so Palestinian prisoners today and this is something that that the deal has on
repeat isn't it it's it's three phases but this first phase this first 6 weeks 42 days there there's a lot of movement like this to come if all goes well isn't there yes three every Saturday for the next several weeks and then perhaps on the last Saturday of what's supposed to be the end of this first phase the remaining alive uh women and children uh the elderly will be released and then that will well the the discussions the negotiations which are certain to be very very difficult far more difficult than for this first phase 16
days into this process as well the negotiations will begin on that second phase where they will then discuss uh the freeing of the the male soldiers and Hamas uh in this terrible terrible trade and human lives uh will be demanding a higher number of prisoners because they see them as and it's it's horrible to be able to say it but such as the nature of this merciless war that and and Palestinians describe the people in prison their people in prisons as hostages too being held there against his will not being charged and so there's a
there's a price in this process so in that second phase it will be the male soldiers and that's why Anna we've been hearing you've been hearing when you speak to people that of those holding their breath it is the people who know that they whose male relatives who are soldiers or who are young they know they will not be reled in this first phase they share the joy of the families who will share their loved ones because it's been this intense coming together of all the families sharing in their Joys even those who've lost their
loved ones they rejoice when they when they see someone else's uh relative sister daughter grandfather father coming home because they they somehow feel uh that that's something that's something for them as well even though their own uh relative didn't survive this this ordeal and so today there will be rejoicing among all the hostage families even those who are hoping against hope that this moves to the second phase and that there is a chance in the second phase after those first 42 days if all goes smoothly that there that there will be then the beginning of
a process that they too uh can have an evening like this where they're within literally touching distance of embracing their loved ones again something that they've every day they've lived this nightmare of never knowing whether and they still don't know whether their loved ones will finally come home alive we were talking Lee earlier here in the Square to to exactly one of those moms her son Tamir a soldier he was boast at Ares that day uh she was saying that she she has heard nothing nothing at all doesn't know if he is alive doesn't know
if he's been killed in captivity but but something she said was really interesting and she was absolutely sharing those sentiments that you described there Le the the joy for fellow hostage families people who've been bound together by these most traumatic circumstances who've gained strength and support from each other but what she was saying she was worried about is the fewer hostages that are still being held she was concerned that attention would be drawn away International pressure would be drawn away as those numbers of hostages being held in Gaza dwindled because that's been a big part
of this hasn't it that's why host families have have talked about their ordeal that's why they've been so Keen to put the the pictures the images of their loved ones in the public eye because they know that often it is international pressure that leads to a breakthrough like this one yes they must be hoping tonight that in in being part of this uh this extraordinary moment this roller coaster of a moment that the nation will rally then and will will and with even stronger voice that this process has to continue that the hostages must be
made the priority um in these efforts to try to end the war and we've seen Anna even senior Israeli generals and the Israeli Defense Forces even the defense minister who eventually uh was let go yav Galan saying that we've achieved everything we can militarily in Gaza we must put the lives of the hostages first and it is as you say it is has been the hostages family not just gathering in hostages Square those marches that they've done they've been they were joined at one point by the history trade unions the largest Trade union in Israel
people coming together and raising their voice marching towards Jerusalem to the prime minister's residents who of course has been saying that he has been putting the the lives of the hostages first that there was two War aims as he has said repeatedly to destroy Hamas and to bring the hostages home but there is so much bitterness and anger as you've heard yourself among the hostages family they feel that they have been sacrificed and that their the lives of their loved ones have not been put first and yes there is this fear that once the women
the children the elderly come home the most the more vulnerable hostages come home that once it gets to the soldiers the male soldiers uh that interest will will not be sustained but there is a hope in this process that even though we hear about the risks that once it starts and it's clearly starting now with uh in all its intensity that there will be a momentum and it will be very difficult to stop this process as it starts moving in this direction and certainly we heard today from the Qatari government spokesman Majid alansari Qatar and
Egypt are now going to play they played a key role in the mediation which got to this point they will now play a key role in the implementation of it for watching for the violations having people on the ground to improve the logistics they are calling then for international pressure they are hoping that the new Administration which takes charge tomorrow in the White House that they won't stop at simply pushing this helping to push and they played a big role in pushing it over the line President elect Trump saying I want it done by the
20th well it has been done by the 20th but they will have to be there at the table putting pressure on both sides to keep this process going there are so many dangers along the way but people must be hoping against hope tonight that this will continue Palestinians want more prisoners to be released there's many many thousands who are languishing in Israeli detention centers uh and this is just a beginning and just a beginning too 97 hostages of the more than 250 who were taken during those Dreadful day that Dreadful day of October the 7th
it's believed that possibly more than 30 are not alive but right now the hope is that everyone who is alive can be brought home
