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Trump Addresses Israeli Parliament After Hostages Freed; Trump Says, Triumph for Israel and World to Work Together to Free Hostages; Trump to Israeli Parliament, Let Us Remember How This All Began. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired October 13, 2025 - 07:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[07:00:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. The historic breaking news at this hour in Israel, you have a live look there at the Israeli parliament, also Hostage Square in Tel Aviv now that all 20 living hostages have been freed from Gaza after being held captive for 738 hundred and thirty eight days. We are standing by to hear from President Trump who is set to speak any moment at the Knesset. Right now, we're hearing from Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid. This after the U.S. brokerage ceased fire between Israel and Hamas.

Following the president's speech, he's expected to fly to Egypt for a summit on the future of Gaza with the leaders of more than 20 countries.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: And so we are monitoring all of this, watching this all together. It's really historic.

At the very same time, there are long awaited and very emotional reunions taking place between the freed hostages and their families. This is happening at a military facility in Southern Israel near the Gaza border. You're seeing right there, that's Omri Miran. That's Lishay Miran, we've spoken with her brother many, many times. It's so beautiful to see that man's face. Then they're being flown by helicopter to hospitals around Tel Aviv for further medical assistance. You're seeing one of those helicopters this morning.

CNN's Kaitlan Collins is in Tel Aviv watching all of this right alongside with us. A long road ahead, Kaitlan, for all of these hostages and a long road ahead from where this nation goes from here.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. And, Kate, you mentioned Moshe Levy, who I know so many of us at CNN have gotten to know as he has been building awareness for his brother- in-law as he has been held in Gaza for over two years now, and just today was among the first group. Of those living hostages to be released. And we saw Lishay posting videos telling her girls, their daughters, that their dad was coming home.

And so you've just seen the emotional moments that have been playing out here all morning, as a lot of these hostage families, including Moshe Levy, who we spoke with yesterday, were kind of waiting and holding their breath until that moment actually happened to see this all playing out here. And so that was quite a moment with them.

And I should note that as we are waiting to hear from President Trump here as he is set to speak at the Knesset, there had been some back and forth and some diplomacy playing out over whether or not that the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, was going to attend that summit in Egypt. We had heard confirmation from Egyptian officials, even a White House officials who believed he would, Israeli officials seemed to be leaning towards that as well. But now, the prime minister's office has put out a statement that despite a phone call that President Trump initiated with Egypt's President Sisi, Prime Minister Netanyahu will not be attending that summit in Egypt.

Of course, the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, is going to be there as well. They cited the Jewish holiday but certainly a lot of dynamics at play here, Kate and John.

And we have full coverage across the region that we are covering every aspect of this story with CNN's Nic Robertson is in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, where that summit is going to take place.

And, Nic, obviously just seeing how this dance played out even in just the last hour or so over whether Netanyahu would be joining that summit was quite something to watch.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, it really was. It was sort of redolent of history being made again when think back to the Camp David Accords, Anwar Sadat meeting Menchem Begin, and Anwar Sadat, the Egyptian president, Menachim Begin, the Israeli prime minister at the time, the sort of the peace that was established between the two countries then under the presidency of Jimmy Carter. That was 1978. 19 93, it's under the presidency of Bill Clinton. And he's overseeing a handshake at the White House, as you know, between Yitzhak Rabin, the prime minister of Israel, then who would later be assassinated, and Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian leader, the PLO leader at the time.

These were historic moments, moments where people thought more peace could follow. And there was a sense that if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came here, even if he wasn't engaged in handshakes, it would really signal the amount of distance that he and the others have traveled.

[07:05:00]

Of course, it was never going to be a handshake between prime Minister Netanyahu and Hamas. That was never ever on the cards. But even being in the room with Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority president, who will be here in Sharm El-Sheikh according to at least one Israeli source telling CNN, that also was a consideration for the Israeli prime minister as a reason not to come.

And I think in that context, the prime minister's words he spoke in the Knesset there so powerfully about President Trump, but also powerfully underscoring, I think, his position on where Israel stands in war and peace today, everyone is looking at this ceasefire and President Trump wants to describe it as peace. Prime Minister Netanyahu said, we've been at war for two years. We hope that there is peace coming, but he didn't say that this is an absolute end, that this today marks the spot, the time in history where Israel is on peace with its enemies because he believes, and as do many people in Israel, that those enemies are still active potentially against Israel, and he's advised the IDF similarly.

So, here, the diplomats are waiting. They've been arriving through the day. They would've been expecting sooner President Trump to arrive. Clearly, they will have a little more time to talk among themselves, but that's going to be key, coordinating their message to enhance and emboldened President Trump to continue to engage and put bones on that 20-point plan about stability and governance in Gaza.

COLLINS: Yes, I think Trump was supposed to leave Israel about 20 minutes ago, Nic. He hasn't even spoken yet to the Israeli parliament. So, obviously, a bit of a schedule that's in flux over here. But, obviously, the president will be making his way to you soon. We'll be watching that summit very closely as well to see them affirm their commitment to this peace plan. It would be notable for Netanyahu to not be there.

Nic Robertson and Sharm El-Sheikh, we'll check back in with you.

Clarissa Ward is here in Israel at Hostages Square where people have been gathered, Clarissa, for hours now, as watching all of these living hostages be returned. The president just met with the families of several of the hostages, including those whose loved ones are deceased, and their bodies are still being held in Gaza as of now.

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Kaitlan. I'm sorry, I can't hear you very well because you can probably hear the music behind me is extremely loud. And that's because people here, honestly, for the first time in more than two years, Kaitlan, are really just allowing themselves to celebrate, to have this moment. It was about an hour ago that we saw helicopters with some of the hostages arriving at the Ichilov Hospital about five minutes away from here, and the crowd just erupted in joy.

I was talking to one woman who was trying to explain to me what it has been like to be an Israeli during this past two years, and she talked about feeling like she could breathe again, feeling like she could enjoy things. She said that before she would go to the movies or she would go to a restaurant and always be thinking, why do I get to go here and these hostages don't?

And so for people here in Israel, there's a sense that they are closing the chapter on a very dark two years. You could probably see on the Jumbotron behind me, they have been broadcasting images and now videos of these very emotional family reunions, mothers hugging their sons, who they have not held for more than two years.

Some of these people came here, Kaitlan, at 4:00 or 5:00 in the morning. Earlier, it was a little more somber, a little more grieving (ph).

COLLINS: Clarissa, you've been watching all the coverage there from Hostages Square. I do want to go to the coverage now because you're seeing all this applause here at the Knesset. President Trump is now speaking.

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: Mr. President, Mr. Prime Minister, Mr. Speakers, the members of the Knesset and cherished citizens of Israel, we gather on a day of profound joy, of soaring hope, of renewed faith, and above all a day to give our deepest thanks to the Almighty God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

After two harrowing years and darkness and captivity, 20 courageous hostages are returning to the glorious embrace of their families, and it is glorious.

[07:10:13]

28 more precious loved ones are coming home at last to rest in this sacred soil for all of time. And after so many years of unceasing war and endless danger, today, the skies are calm, the guns are silent, the sirens are still, and the sun rises on a holy land that is finally at peace, a land and a region that will live, God willing, in peace for all eternity.

This is not only the end of a war. This is the end of an age of terror and death, and the beginning of the age of faith and hope and of God. It's the start of a grand concord and lasting harmony for Israel and all the nations of what will soon be a truly magnificent region. I believe that so strongly. This is the historic dawn of a new Middle East.

I want to express my gratitude to a man of exceptional courage and patriotism whose partnership did so much to make this momentous day possible. You know who I'm talking about. There's only one, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Bibi, please stand up.

And he is not easy. I want to tell you. He's not the easiest guy to deal with, but that's what makes him great. That's what makes him great.

Thank you very much, Bibi, great job.

And let me also convey my tremendous appreciation for all of the nations of the Arab and Muslim world that came together to press Hamas to set the hostages free and to send them home. We had a lot of help. We had a lot of help from a lot of people that you wouldn't suspect, and I want to thank them very much for that.

It's an incredible triumph for Israel and the world to have all of these nations working together as partners in peace. And it's pretty unusual for you to see that, but it happened in this case. This was a very unusual point in time, a brilliant point in time.

Generations from now, this will be remembered as the moment that everything began to change and change very much for the better. Like the USA right now, it will be the golden age of Israel and the golden age of the Middle East. It's going to work together. I'd like to thank several great American patriots for their invaluable help in getting something done that almost everyone thought was absolutely impossible, we were wasting our time. So many people said. You're just wasting your time. But we weren't because we had talented people working with us, and we had people that love your country and, frankly, people that love the region. They love the Middle East.

I want to thank my friend, Steve Witkoff.

You know, Steve was chosen by me. He never did this before, but I knew him as a few things. He was a great businessman, but I know a lot of great businessmen, to be honest with you. He had tremendous negotiating skills, but I know a lot of people that negotiate pretty well, although it is an art, but there are people that can negotiate pretty well.

But most importantly with Steve, he's just a great guy. Everybody loved him, everybody.

I mean, I know some negotiators that are so good, but you wouldn't have had peace in the Middle East. You'd be -- we would be in World War III right now with some of these guys. Everybody loves Steve and they respect him and they somehow can relate.

In the Middle East, he'd be -- we'd be in World War III right now with some of these guys.

[07:15:04]

Everybody loves Steve and they respect him, and they somehow can relate to him. I've known him for many years and I've seen it over, over, and over again.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sorry for that, Mr. President.

TRUMP: Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Please.

TRUMP: That was very efficient.

So, back to Steve, he's -- but I tell one story because he was so involved, and then we called in Jared, we called and we'd need that brain on occasion. We got to get Jared in here. We got to get a certain group of people. But Steve started this all by himself. I call him Henry Kissinger, who doesn't leak, okay? Henry is a big leaker. He leaked. Steve doesn't leak. Steve just wants to get the job done. He wants to do what's right.

But I'll give you just a quick story because, as you know, he's working on the war with Russia and Ukraine, a war that would've never happened if I were president, shame. 7,000 young soldiers a week are being killed, more than that this last week. It's a shame. It should have never happened. But it did happen. And we won the race and I took over this horrible war that's been raging and I thought it would be easily settled. I thought it was a hell of a lot easier than doing what we just did very successfully with Israel and a lot of other people. But this came first and we'll get that one.

But I set up a meeting for him to meet with President Putin, thinking it would be a 15 or a 20-minute meeting. Steve had no idea about Russia, had no idea about Putin too much, didn't know too much about politics, wasn't that interested. He was really good at real estate, but he had that quality that I was looking for and I didn't see it around in too many ways.

And I set up the meeting with Putin and I called, I said is Steve finished yet? That was about a half an hour into the meeting. No, sir. He is not. He's still inside. This is in Moscow. I said, well, how's he doing? I don't know, sir. He is still inside. I called up an hour later. Let me speak to Steve. Sir, he is still with Putin. He's with President Putin. I said, wow, that's a long meeting, one hour.

I called up an hour later, he is still with Putin. Three hours later, he was still with Putin. Four hours later, he started to get the word that he was going to be coming out soon. And in five hours he came out. I said, what the hell were you talking about for five hours? And he says, just a lot of interesting things. We just -- we're talking about a lot of interesting things, including what he went in there for. But you can't talk about it for five. You can talk about it for a certain period of time and you know what you're getting.

But that's a talent. That's a talent. Well, you can do that. Most people I'd send in, number one, they wouldn't be accepted. Number two, if they were, the meeting would last five minutes. And that's what happens with Steve. Everybody loves him. They love him on this side. They love him on the other side. And he really is -- he's a great negotiator because he's a great guy.

So, thank you very much, Steve, very much.

And let me also give a very special thanks to someone who truly loves Israel, in fact, loves it so much that my daughter converted. My daughter converted. I didn't know this was going to happen.

[07:20:00]

And Ivanka's here,

And, Bibi, you do know this was not in the cards for me. You understand that. And she is so happy and they are so happy. At least I think they're happy. If they're not, we have a big story, right? No, they have a great marriage and they're -- they get along great. They're best friends. They have a very special relationship.

But Jared has been so helpful. He really did something very special. He established the Abraham Accords with a group of very wonderful people. I like calling it the Abraham Accords, because people that -- well, Abraham, it's so cool. It's so much sort of nicer, you know, the Abraham versus the Abraham.

I just don't want to sound too sanctimonious when I do it. So, you know, I sort of split it up this way to keep everybody happy. But we have some very great talent and they have no excuses for anything that's taken place because we had some unbelievably good people working on this.

And then you're going to add a man named Marco Rubio, who he's also here. That's right.

And I have a prediction that Marco will go down, I mean this, as the greatest secretary of state in the history of the United States. I believe that. I believe that.

And he and I, you know, we really fought it out. You remember he was tough. He was nasty. Who the hell thought this was going to happen, Marco, right? And now I'm saying he's going to go down as the greatest. He will. He was always smart and sharp and people respect him.

And then we have somebody who's young, but an unbelievable leader. I saw it a long time ago, and he's turned out to be even better, even better than we thought, right, Susie? I think even better. And that's Pete Hegseth, who is our secretary of war, formerly secretary of defense.

And as you know, we decisively won World War I. We decisively won World War II, decisively, and everything in between and everything before it, we won everything. And then they had the brilliant idea of changing the name from war, you know, it was war to defense. And with that went a certain thinking, and we fought in a very politically correct way after that. We always had the strongest military and now we have a stronger military than we've ever had before because of my first term. I've totally rebuilt the military, every aspect of it.

But we have -- if you think we settled eight wars in eight months, I'm now including this one, by the way, if that's okay. They may say, well, that was quick, because yesterday I was saying seven, but now I can say eight. The hostages are back. The hostages are back.

It is a good feeling. Isn't that nice to say? You know, I just said the hostage -- first time, I said the hostages are back. It sounds -- it feels so good to say it.

But when you settle eight wars in eight months, that means you don't like war.

[07:25:01]

Everyone thought I was going to be brutal. In fact, I remember Hillary Clinton during a debate. She said, look at him. Look at him. He's going to go with war with everybody. And actually she said he's got a personality that's all about war. No. And my personality actually is all about stopping wars, and it seems to work. It seems to work.

But it also means this name change and our attitude that we're not going to go into a war. But if we do, we're going to win that war like nobody has ever won a war before. We will not be politically correct. But we're not going to be there. And I think, you know, as you mentioned, Bibi, before, peace through strength, and that's what it's all about. The United States has the greatest and most powerful military in the, right now, history of the world. I can tell you, we have weapons that nobody's ever dreamt of. I only hope we never have to use them. I rebuilt the military. I was proud to do it. But some of the things I hated to do, I hated certain of the weapons because the level of power is so enormous, it's so dangerous, so bad, but we have to do what we have to do.

We make the best weapons in the world and we've got a lot of them, and we've given a lot to Israel, frankly. And, I mean, Bibi would call me so many times, can you get me this weapon, that weapon, that weapon, some of them I never heard of, Bibi, and I made them. But we'd get them here, wouldn't we? And they are the best. They are the best. And but you used them well. It also takes people that know how to use them, and you obviously used them very well, but so many that Israel became strong and powerful, which ultimately led to peace. That's what led to peace.

So, as we celebrate today, let us remember how this nightmare of depravity and death all began. Two years ago on the eve of the Simchat Torah holiday, thousands of innocent Israeli civilians were attacked by terrorists and one of the most evil and heinous desecrations of innocent life the world has ever seen, the worst slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust.

The cruelty of October 7th struck to the core of humanity itself. Nobody could believe what they were witnessing. The United States of America grieved alongside you and we mourned for our own citizens who were so viciously taken that day. And to all the families whose lives were forever changed by the atrocities of that day and all of the people of Israel, please know that America joins you in those two everlasting vows, never forget and never again.

From October 7th until this week, Israel has been a nation at war, enduring burdens that only a proud and faithful people could withstand. It was a very tough period of time for so many families across this land. It has been years since you've known a single day of true peace. But now at last, not only for Israelis, but also for Palestinians, and for many others, the long and painful nightmare is finally over.

And as the dust settles, the smoke fades, the debris is removed, and the ashes clean from the air, the day that breaks on a region transformed and a beautiful and much brighter future appears suddenly within your reach. This is now a very exciting time for Israel and for the entire Middle East, because all across the Middle East, the forces of chaos, terror, and ruin that have plagued the region for decades now stand weakened, isolated, and totally defeated.

[07:30:03]

A new coalition of proud and responsible nations is emerging.