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Group Of Hostages Arrive In Egypt; Interview With Dr. Majed Al- Ansari; Biden Spoke With Qatar Emir & Personally Involved In Resolving Dispute Over Hostages; CNN Sees Convoy Of Hostages Arrive In Israel; Palestinians Freed From Israeli Jails in Hostage Deal. Aired 5-6p ET

Aired November 25, 2023 - 17:00   ET

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

[16:59:39]

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And we have also learned the name of Hila Rotem 13 years and Emily Hand, 9 years old. She's an Irish- Israeli. Her father was in Times Square putting her picture up on a billboard there because she celebrated or went through her 9th birthday while in captivity.

So he has brought a tremendous amount of attention to her story. And although he missed celebrating the birthday, that is something they will be able to celebrate soon together, Fred.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Well, my goodness. All right. Thank you so much, Oren Liebermann.

And among those hostages, at least, based on what we know thus far that are being released ranging in ages between 9 and 52. Again, as we get to learn more about the condition of those who have been released today, you see the buses, the ambulances right there at the Rafah border crossing there on the Egyptian side there. It will take about an hour, hour and a half before they make it to at least one of many hospitals there in Israel. We'll continue to watch the developments about this group of hostages released today.

Thank you so much for joining us, I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

Wolf Blitzer was in Tel Aviv. You'll see him again at the top of the hour.

Our breaking news coverage continues right now.

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN ANCHOR: You are watching special live coverage here in the CNN NEWSROOM.

I'm Alex Marquardt in Washington, alongside Wolf Blitzer who is in Tel Aviv. Jim Acosta is off.

We are following major breaking news in the Middle East tonight.

After hours of uncertainty, a second group of hostages are now on their way back home to Israel. This was the moment -- the moment just moments ago at the Rafah crossing going into Egypt. You can see several Red Cross vehicles leaving the Gaza Strip and making their way into Egypt there.

And then moments later, several of those hostages are seen exiting the ambulances and entering a building on the Egyptian side of that border crossing. They will now be making their way into Israel very soon.

Qatari officials say that among the hostages released today are 13 Israelis who are being released. They are eight children and five women. Four foreign nationals are also believed to be in the second group released today.

CNN's Wolf Blitzer is live in Tel Aviv. He's been tracking all of the day' events and brings us the latest on the significant next step in the four-day truce between Israel and Hamas, Wolf.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Alex, thank you very much. A dispute with Hamas over the amount of aid going into Gaza threatened to derail the whole thing earlier today. Everyone was nervous about that. But Qatari officials announced the deal is back on. We're finally, finally beginning to see this important movement right now.

CNN has a team of reporters across the region. We're all watching very closely for that convoy of hostages to cross into Israel from Egypt.

Let's check in first with CNN's Jeremy Diamond. He's at the Kerem Shalom crossing from Egypt into Israel. We expect to see that convoy pass through momentarily, Jeremy. What are you seeing so far?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, it could be any moment now because moments ago, we just learned that these hostages are finally back on Israeli soil. And what that means, Wolf, is they are at the Kerem Shalom crossing just down the road.

And this is the second day that these hostages have been freed and gone through the Rafah border crossing in Egypt, and taken a less than 2-mile drive over to the Kerem Shalom crossing and come into Israel. So any moment now, Wolf, I expect that we'll see this convoy of newly freed hostages. 13 Israelis, 4 Thai nationals drive down this road and come here as they make their ways to hospitals across Israel.

This has been such a nerve-racking day Wolf, for the families of these hostages who have watched, as there have been reports that this deal, this release of today's hostages could potentially fall apart.

It began this morning with a dispute over exactly how many hostages there were. Hamas handed over a list of 13. Israelis were pushing for 14 hostages to be released. And then throughout the day, Hamas eventually acknowledged that it was delaying the release of these hostages over what it said were Israel not upholding its deal as it relates to the flow of aid into Gaza, arguing that not enough aid trucks were making their way into Gaza and most significantly into northern Gaza.

There was also a dispute over Palestinian prisoners. Hamas saying that Israel was not releasing the types of Palestinian prisoners in accordance with the protocols to which they had agreed. But ultimately Wolf, finally after hours of delays, these 13 Israeli

hostages and four Thai nationals who were also held hostage for 49 days finally, firmly back on Israeli soil.

And we do have the list of the names of all of these hostages now, and I can read them off to you now, Wolf.

[17:04:50]

DIAMOND: There are four different families as well as three individuals who come from different families.

The Or family: Noam Or who is 16 years old; Alma Or, 13 years old. There's the Weiss family: Shiri Weiss, 53 years old; Noga Weiss, 18 years old, 18 years old. Sharon Herschman Avigdori, 52 years old; her daughter Noam Avigdori.

And then there's the Haran family. Four members of that family, Shoshan, Adi, Naveh and Yahel. There's also Hira Rotem Shoshani (ph), Emily Tony Kornberg (ph) and Nia Regev Jarvi (ph).

49 days Wolf, all of these people have been in captivity, held by Hamas, unable to contact their families. Unable to get a wellness check from the Red Cross. But finally after being transferred to the Red Cross, after then crossing into Egypt and taking a drive along the Egyptian border into the Kerem Shalom border crossing, we understand that they are now in Israel, and any moment now I expect that we will see them drive down here.

BLITZER: Yes. This will be a really, really important moment indeed, now that they are in Israel and about to be reunited, we hope, with their families. This is a really significant, heart-wrenching moment.

Jeremy Diamond, thank you very much for your reporting. We'll get back to you for sure.

Alex, I want to get back to you in the meantime.

MARQUARDT: Wolf, thank you.

Let's get more now on the negotiations and what exactly unfolded today with Dr. Majed Al-Ansari, who's the spokesperson for the foreign ministry of Qatar which has been a leading mediator in these negotiations.

Dr. Majed, thank you so much for joining us tonight. For a moment today, it did look like the deal would fall through. So you have been at the center of this. You have been in this operations room in Doha. What happened today? What slowed this down?

DR. MAJED AL-ANSARI, SPOKESPERSON, QATAR FOREIGN MINISTRY: Well, as you know, Alex, I can't get into the details of the ongoing mediation as it is happening right now. Our main focus here is to get the hostages and prisoners back home, and reunited with their families. And as you might understand, there's a lot of tension within the process itself that we don't want to exacerbate even further. However, what I can tell you is that within this kind of mediation,

you're always going to find both sides saying that the other side did not abide by the agreement, and this is why we have the operations room. We are able to get (INAUDIBLE) in real time to immediately hash out these issues, and this is how we were able today to move on a very bleak moment, where it seemed like the agreement is not going to be delivered on this day to now the families on their way to be reunited with their families.

MARQUARDT: A very bleak moment, you say. Our understanding of this agreement that was put into place is that parents and children need to be released together. We have now seen several sets of family members released today and yesterday. Was that one of the issues today?

AL-ANSARI: I can't get into the details of what are the issues that you're talking about. But we are very happy to see, you know, family members, especially the children being reunited with their families. And on the other side, we have 39 Palestinians, and 13 Israelis, alongside the four Thai nationals.

So generally speaking I think we are progressing in a positive way. This is the second day of the truce, and being able to deliver now the first and second day, it makes us hopeful that we can work towards a more sustainable agreement and get more hostages out.

MARQUARDT: I understand you don't want to get into a tit for tat, you know, he said-she said, between the two sides. But one of the big demands by Hamas was that more aid be allowed into the Gaza Strip. You said in your press conference the other day that it was going to be 200 trucks of aid per day. Is the amount of aid that was agreed upon making its way into Gaza?

AL-ANSARI: Alex, as you were saying with the report that we are all have been getting here all the number of trucks getting in, they are certainly below -- well, they will always be below what is needed. The need is so great and the level of destruction is quite high.

However, the agreed amounts need to be there and it's something that we are working with our partners in Egypt and the United States and both parties of the conflict to make sure that logistically things are ready on the ground.

There are a lot of moving parts on the ground when it comes to the humanitarian aid there, which we need to work through our operations here in Doha has been working 24/7 since the humanitarian pause began to make sure that all of the elements come together. You know, the freeing of hostages, the freeing of prisoners from Israeli prisons, the aid coming in from Egypt. All of this is happening at the same time and at the same time we're maintaining and monitoring the pause itself, you know, from the military side in fact (ph).

[17:09:50]

MARQUARDT: In terms of those Palestinians now being released by Israel, some 39 today are supposed to be released. The head of the Palestinian Commission for Detainees and ex-Prisoners Affairs told CNN that Israel is not releasing prisoners in order of length of time served, that they are failing to adhere to the agreed upon criteria of the seniority of the prisoners. Is that true?

AL-ANSARI: Well, I mean, as you know, some of these prisoners spent decades in Israeli prisons and as you might understand, there's lots of talk about the criteria, the prioritization of people coming out on the hostages side with families being together and making sure that those who are most at risk are given priority.

On the prisoners' side, it's the length of time they spent in Israeli prisons and some of them have been there since they were, you know, children and now they are teenagers, and that is definitely something that we are working with both parties.

The lists were delivered to both sides by the first hours of dawn yesterday. And lots of discussions was done over these lists and we are now hopeful that with the second or the third day of this pause, we would be able to hash out a lot of these details that made this day so difficult.

MARQUARDT: And Dr. Majed, you did note that earlier today things looked really bleak. So do you think today showed how fragile this deal is? What does it tell you about what to expect in the next two days?

AL-ANSARI: Of course. And I can tell you that even before the pause began, we were anticipating that this would not be an easy process. We are in a war zone. Emotions are high on both sides. And the level of death and destruction that we are seeing is unprecedented, and therefore we shouldn't expect for the pause to be easily conducted and for the agreements be easily conducted and monitored.

We were ready for this and the operations from here in Doha became into effect as we saw the disagreements taking place. We know that we still have two days and our negotiation team here in Doha led by the prime minister and the efforts taken by all the officials in Doha is to make sure that whenever we have an issue like this, we immediately jump in and talk to all sides and get everybody on board and we're able to understand the concerns from both sides.

And before the end of the day, before you know, there will be any breach to the part, we have it all settled and back on track like we did today.

MARQUARDT: You're Emir spoke with President Biden earlier today. Of course they have been speaking quite regularly in the past few days. How much of that conversation was about unblocking the hold up today.

AL-ANSARI: Obviously, His Highness is (INAUDIBLE) in Doha, along with all the officials who are working with him and he had made countless calls and visits since the (INAUDIBLE) people who are leaders in the region and beyond to make sure that we don't leave anything to chance in this process.

And President Biden has been calling on constantly the -- His Highness the Emir, other officials here in Doha. The discussion of course has, you might have found, focused on implementing the agreement, how to make sure that it is implemented and how we make sure that we safeguard the pause. And I think the results we saw today with the resumption of the release of hostages and prisoners testify to the importance of making all and keeping all of these lines of communication open.

MARQUARDT: This is the second day in a row that the three Americans who have been expected to be released, two women and 4-year-old Abigail Edan, have not been. Obviously that's been a major concern for the Biden administration, and for President Biden himself who's mentioned Abigail repeatedly. Do you have any sense of when those three Americans will be released?

AL-ANSARI: Well, you know, the lists are delivered on a daily basis. We are now expecting the list for the third day. So sadly we can't know who's going to be on that list beforehand.

I know that the U.S. administration has been doing all it can to make sure that the U.S. citizens are out as soon as they can. We are also monitoring the list, as I said, as soon as we have them, which we'll have them probably in a couple of hours from now.

As soon as we have them from both parties, we will distribute the list amongst the parties and we will get the feedback, and hopefully tomorrow we'll see an earlier release if everything goes well.

MARQUARDT: Dr. Majed, to release women and children, it's obviously such welcome news. It will however leave quite a few Israeli soldiers in Hamas custody. Do you have any sense of how many Israeli soldiers there are and do you have a prediction of how difficult those negotiations are going to be?

[17:14:55]

AL-ANSARI: Regarding the numbers, of course, we can't validate any numbers right now. As you know, we are not there on the ground. Our operations are only situated here in Doha and we are getting information from both parties of the conflict from Israel and from Hamas and therefore I can't verify any of that information.

What I can tell you is that we prioritize first and foremost, the women and children to make sure that those who are most at risk are first to be released and this is what we're seeing right now with the first batch of 50 hostages being all women and children, and that will move us to discussions of civilian men and then to the soldiers.

What we are hoping for is that the momentum that have carried from the release of these two days, and from this agreement of four days, it would allow us to extend the truce beyond these four days and therefore get into more serious discussions about the rest of the hostages.

MARQUARDT: We certainly hope you're right. Dr. Majed Al-Ansari, spokesman for the Qatari foreign ministry. I know it's been a very long day for you, that it's very lately in Doha. Thank you so much for joining us. AL-ANSARI: Thank you, for having me.

MARQUARDT: And we will have more CNN special live coverage when we come back. Stay with us.

[17:16:02]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: As the hostage return happens, and it's happening right now, I want to check in right now with CNN Jeremy Diamond who's at the Kerem Shalom border crossing between Egypt and Israel.

We're seeing a convoy pass through, Jeremy. What's going on right now?

DIAMOND: Well Wolf, moments ago, we saw an ambulance drive by escorted by a couple of police cars. We understand that that was the first group or at least one hostage who is being transported, a newly-freed hostage of course, from the Kerem Shalom crossing en route to a hospital in Israel.

We were told that this convoy could potentially happen in multiple stages. And what we saw already, Wolf, was one ambulance driving down this road, heading north towards a hospital in Israel.

After that, we also saw a minivan that was also being escorted by police. We could not see inside. It's not clear whether or not there were newly-freed hostages inside.

But we do expect that we will see some more vehicles coming. Yesterday, there was a bus accompanied by several ambulances. So that may also be the situation here tonight.

But certainly, Wolf, what we do know for sure is that all 13 of these Israeli hostages, newly-freed are, indeed, on Israeli soil.

There are also four Thai nationals who were also taken hostage on October 7th who were also freed today and who are also on Israeli soil.

We believe that they are either still at the Kerem Shalom crossing or depending on the number of them, in that ambulance that we saw driving through here just minutes ago.

BLITZER: All right. Jeremy, we're going to get back to you.

I want to go to CNN's Clarissa Ward right now. She's over at the Sheba Hospital in Tel Aviv. It's the largest hospital in Israel. And they're getting ready to receive some of these newly-freed hostages, right, Clarissa?

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Wolf. And hospital officials tell us that they have been doing drills to prepare for this moment for over a month now.

They said they went through many different possible scenarios. They wanted to be sure that however this happened that they would be ready.

They have created an entire area for the hostages and family members who will be arriving here later tonight. They have ensured that they have the best staff, the most appropriate staff, specialists in trauma, psychiatrists. Each family will have their own social worker, doctor, nurse, dedicated to them around the clock.

And there had been a moment, Wolf, of some anxiety in the last few hours when it appeared that potentially this deal could be delayed or even derailed. I was talking during that period of time to Thomas Hand. He is the father of Emily Hand who was among that batch of hostages who are now safely on Israeli soil.

He spoke of the anguish of not knowing whether this was going to happen. He called it a form of psychological warfare. Emily, of course, actually just marked her 9th birthday yesterday, still in captivity. She has been held without any family members. Her mother tragically died of cancer some years ago and she lived with Tom.

She had gone to a sleepover on the Friday night before the October 7th attacks. And Thomas Hand described to me how he brought their dog, Johnny, and I think we actually have a picture now of Emily with Johnny. He brought the dog Johnny with him to the border crossing so that Johnny would be there for Emily when she made that crossing. And he called it first step in her recovery.

But certainly, Wolf, everyone here, all the hospital personnel who you talked to are keenly aware of the fact that it is a long road to recovery psychologically for these children, particularly who have been held for over seven weeks.

I mean, just imagine for a young girl like Emily with no family members, likely held in very difficult circumstances and conditions. Some hostages who have been released talk about being held underground without seeing daylight. No concept of time.

[17:24:52]

WARD: And crucially, Wolf, of course, and this is something they're really bracing themselves for here, no information about what happened on October 7th, about what happened to their loved ones.

And you have seen Israeli authorities, particularly the Ministry of Welfare go to great lengths to prepare guidelines for the IDF soldiers who are accompanying these hostages, these now freed hostages across the border and back towards these hospitals.

They're bound to get questions from some of these children. What happened to mommy, what happened to daddy, what happened to grandma, what happened to our community.

They have been given instructions about how to answer those questions or I should say how not to answer those questions. They're told not to give any information but rather just to provide a reassuring presence and it will be the job of the doctors here often to really -- and their families, of course, to then break the news to them about everything that happened that day, Wolf.

BLITZER: All right, Clarissa, good explanation. Thank you very much.

I want to go to CNN's Oren Liebermann right now. He's over at another major Israeli hospital, the Shamir Medical Center, not far from Tel Aviv. What's the situation where you are?

LIEBERMANN: This is the hospital that is set to intake and take care of the foreign nationals who were taken hostage and have come out. So yesterday they brought in ten Thai citizens and a Filipino citizen. Tonight they are expected to take in the four Thai citizens that were released from captivity from being hostages at seven weeks at the hands of Hamas in Gaza.

Now, let me pick up right where Clarissa left off, because obviously one of the most important parts of the recovery is seeing family as quickly as possible, and for many of these foreign nationals who are coming here, that's simply not possible. They came here to work. Many came on their own to raise money and then take money home to their families. So their families simply aren't here.

One of the Thai nationals was able to hop on the phone yesterday with his family back home in Thailand and that is effectively where -- or as close as they can get at this point.

It is worth noting why they're here, so many of the Thai citizens who are here come as farm workers to do grueling work on the farm land across the country here.

Many of Filipino citizens who are here come here to be nannies or to help out families. In fact, the one Filipino citizen who came out last night was welcomed here by the family with whom he worked. And that became the closest ones, the family that effectively greeted him here at the hospital.

So that is the sort of welcome they can hope to get here as they try to connect on the phone or in other ways with their families back home.

It is about a two-hour drive from Kerem Shalom where we saw Jeremy Diamond to here. So it will be a bit of time before we get here.

But just like what Clarissa is at Sheba Medical Center, the staff here set up and ready to take them in and to care for them, not only to check over of course, their physical condition but also their mental health as well after seven weeks in captivity.

This is another part of the effort to take care of all of the hostages. Here the focus is on the foreign nationals, some of who, are still hostages in Gaza, Wolf.

BLITZER: And they want to take good care of those foreign nationals indeed, and they deserve only the best care.

Oren Liebermann, thank you very, very much. He's over at that Shamir Medical Center, not far from Tel Aviv. Everybody stand by, we're going to have more of CNN's special live

breaking news coverage right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:32:45]

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN HOST: President Joe Biden and White House officials have been closely watching today's events unfold.

CNN's Arlette Saenz is in Nantucket, Massachusetts, where President Biden has been spending the Thanksgiving weekend with his family.

Arlette, the president spoke with the emir of Qatar earlier today. Do we know what role the president played in resolving today's dispute over the hostages?

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Alex, President Biden was personally engaged this morning as there was that delay playing out when it came to releasing these hostages.

He was briefed by his team throughout the morning. And then around 10:00 a.m., he got on the phone with the emir of Qatar, as well as Qatar's prime minister to talk about the possible obstacles they needed to overcome and the mechanisms they could put in place to overcome them. That's according to a National Security Council spokesperson.

The U.S. continued throughout the day to be engaged with their counterparts in Israel, Egypt and Qatar.

And it was around 1:30 p.m. Eastern, when the White House got word from the Qataris that the deal was on and the Red Cross was moving to retrieve the hostages. At that point, they updated President Biden on the matter.

The president has been talking about the need to keep an eye on the implementation of this deal. Just yesterday, he had said that he would stay in contact with his counterparts in the region to ensure this deal stayed on track.

A bit earlier today, President Biden was walking around downtown Nantucket, popping into shops with his families, and he told reporters that hopefully they would be seeing something soon when it came to the second release.

The president -- and that is, in fact, what happened just moments later as we have seen the release of these Israelis as well as some foreign nationals.

Vice President Kamala Harris was out in Los Angeles told. She actually also spoke to the fact that there were some issues with the implementation, and praised the president for getting on the phone to try to work through some of that.

But one key thing, even as there's that second wave of hostages released today, there are no American citizens who are part of that release.

The president has yet to pinpoint an exact date of when the Americans will come out. The White House is hopeful they will be part of the larger group of 50 women and children that have been negotiated to be released by Hamas.

The White House believes there are three American citizens who could be released. That includes two women and also the young girl, Abegail, who turned 4 years old yesterday.

[17:35:06]

Vice President Kamala Harris said they would be diligent and remain vigilant about getting all the hostages out, with placing the highest priority of ensuring the Americans are out.

So that is something that White House officials continue to work on and hope will come in the coming days.

MARQUARDT: Arlette Saenz, in Nantucket, thanks very much.

Wolf?

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Alex, I want to read the names of the 13 Israelis released by Hamas. There you see the pictures, the second group of hostages released, their names and ages. These pictures have been released by the Israeli prime minister's office and the hostage family's forum in Tel Aviv.

Let me read their names and their ages. I think it's important that we see the individuals that have just been freed.

Heli Ratemp (ph), 13 years old, Emily Hand, 9 years old. Maya Regev, 21 years old, Noam Orr, 17 years old, Alma Orr, 13-year-old old. Shiri Vice, 53 years old, Noga Vice, 18 years old.

Sharon Avigdori, 52 years old, Noam Avigdori, 12 years old, Toshan Haran (ph), 67, Addi Shohan (ph), 38, Yahel Shohan (ph), 3 years old, and Navel Shohan, 8 years old.

A powerful, powerful group of Israelis who have been held for almost 50 days under Hamas control in Gaza. Now they are back in Israel.

Several of them will be going to hospitals to get some medical treatment and some care. Others are going to be meeting directly with their loved ones, if there are loved ones still in Israel right now.

We're going to watch all of this unfold. It's a really, really powerful moment in Israel's history right now.

And much more of our special coverage will continue right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:41:20] MARQUARDT: Welcome back to our special live coverage. The 13 hostages just released by Hamas have arrived in Israel, along with four foreign nationals. They are Thais.

I want to get straight to our Jeremy Diamond.

Jeremy, we understand that you've got more information about this latest group of 17 hostages who are now in Israel.

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right, Wolf -- Alex. We understand that at least one of those hostages was taken, it appears, in an ambulance just along this road that you see behind me.

Behind me here, you have the Kerem Shalom crossing. We saw one ambulance already go by. Our understanding is that the rest of hostages are still at the -- newly freed hostages, I should say, are still at the Kerem Shalom crossing.

I want to talk about some of those newly freed hostages who we are reporting on. We have the list and I believe you're seeing images of these 13 Israeli hostages who were released.

I want to draw your attention to a couple of them. The first of those is the Avigdori family, Sharon Avigdori and Noam Avigdori, who is 12 years old.

I spoke with Noam's father just a few days ago, and he just talked to me about the anxiety that he was feeling, the nerve-racking period of waiting.

Of knowing that his family members might get out in this group of 50 civilian hostages who were set to be released by Hamas over these first four days of a pause in hostilities and how he didn't know when it would come.

He was getting his hopes up but he didn't want to get his hopes up too high until he knew they were firmly back on Israeli soil, and finally, now, he has that moment of relief.

But he talked to me about the fact this it was only a matter of faith and destiny, he said, that I have a wife and a daughter there and that they are supposed to be on the first wave of release.

And yet, even amid that, you know, the anticipation that his family members would finally get out, he said he was optimistic, but he also said the fight is not over until every last one of the kidnapees is with his loved ones in his own home.

The other newly freed hostage that I want to draw your attention to is another 12-year-old, Hela Shoshani. What's interesting about Hela is that she and her mother were both taken hostage on October 7th yet her mother remains in Gaza as far as we know.

And it's interesting because what we have seen over the last two days is that mothers and their children have been released together. In the instances of yesterday, we saw several examples of that. Today, we saw again with Sharon and Noam, for example, released

together, and yet today, Hela Shoshani was released without her mother.

And we know that earlier in the day, Alex, there were a dispute about whether it would be 13 or 14 Israeli hostages who would be released. The Israelis were saying that they expected that 14 hostages would be released.

But the last that Hamas sent and the number of people ultimately released tonight, Israeli civilians, was 13. And so that may be part of the dispute there.

And we don't know what the reason is for why Hela's mother was not released with her. What we know is she was not among this list of people released tonight.

And obviously, Alex, in addition to the 13 Israelis, there are four Thai nationals released tonight. We understand that they arrived at the Kerem Shalom crossing earlier in this hour.

And as of right now, we are waiting for the second convoy to come by this road and head off to hospitals in Israel.

[17:45:07]

MARQUARDT: It does highlight the importance that each party puts on the lists exchanged each night. The Israelis receiving the names of the hostages due to come out the next day. Hamas received the names of the Palestinian prisoners who are also being released.

And when there is a discrepancy there, that throws a lot of this into doubt.

Jeremy, thank you very much for that report.

You are watching special live coverage right here on CNN. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:50:18]

MARQUARDT: Now that the release of hostages is underway, the West Bank is watching for the return of more Palestinians being freed from Israeli jails.

And 39 prisoners were freed yesterday as part of the deal. The expectation is that a similar number is released today.

CNN's Nada Bashir is live near Ramallah in the West Bank.

Nada, what's the latest that you're learning?

NADA BASHIR, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We have in the last half-hour, Alex, we have seen and have confirmation of that bus carrying 39 prisoners and detainees leaving the prison on its way to transport those prisoners and detainees to their homes.

We have already seen videos now emerging of some of the detainees being released in other areas near Ramallah and across the occupied west side. We are expecting the bus to come to where we are now in al- Bireh (ph).

This crowd is growing, ready to receive those detained. Many of them expected to arrive here today to celebrate and welcome those being released.

We are speaking to the family members here who have had to wait quite a while to find out whether or not their loved ones are on the list. Today, they are getting the confirmation of the list, 39 according to the Palestinian Prisoner Society.

Among them, 33 children, minors under the age of 18. The vast majority of those minors were held under administrative detention, meaning no charges were laid against them.

We spoke to two families, both of whom had teenage sons who were held under administrative detention. You could imagine the relief that they felt to hear that they would be returned home today. And we are still waiting for their arrival now.

This is, of course, the second cohort of Palestinian prisoners and detainees being released as part of the truce agreement between Israel and Hamas.

We understand, under the terms of that agreement, some 150 are set to be released over the coming days. That is dependent on the safe evacuation and release of Israeli hostages inside Gaza. And it is very much dependent on the actual release of prisoners and detainees.

It cannot take place until then and they are back in Israeli hands. That is now what we have seen transpire over the last hour or so.

We do imagine the crowds will begin to gather more and more over here. It is certainly getting bigger.

Though not as big as we saw yesterday. Thousands gathered yesterday to welcome that first group of prisoners and detainees who were released. It was a huge moment of celebration.

But of course, many feel this is a moment of subdued celebration because many have told us they feel this has come at a high price, referencing the death toll that we have seen in the Gaza Strip.

And of course, for those loved ones and family members now waiting to be reunited, many of them with their children, this is a welcome step for them.

MARQUARDT: Nada, I want to explain administrative detention. This is a system in Israel where the Palestinian prisoners can be held without charges. They haven't had a trial. There is no trial date. They can be held for months or years. So can you just give us a sense of who some of these prisoners are? I

was speaking with a person from Qatar. Some of these teenagers have been held since they were children.

BASHIR: Absolutely. There are quite a lot of them, of teenagers, children under the age of 18, who are held in Israeli prisons at this point in time.

Earlier in the week, we saw a list of about 300 names who were potentially eligible to be released under the terms of this agreement. The vast majority were minors, children under the age of 18.

Many of them are held under administrative detention, meaning no charges have been laid against them. They haven't been made aware of why they were detained or arrested. There is no ongoing legal process. Many of them haven't had access to legal representation.

Their families have been left in the dark as to what is happening behind bars, what is happening in terms of the legal process.

This is an issue which has been longstanding here, particularly for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

We have seen, over the last few weeks, since October 7th, an uptick in the number of minors being arrested, often violently in raids, saying that many children are actually injured in the process of being detained.

[17:55:03]

Now as we understand it, many of those who will be released tonight, as were many yesterday, were held under administrative detention.

MARQUARDT: All right. Nada Bashir, from the occupied West Bank, thank you very much for that report.

We'll squeeze in a quick break. We'll be right back with more of our special coverage. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MARQUARDT: You are in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Alex Marquardt in for Jim Acosta. I'm in Washington.

[17:59:58]

We continue our breaking news coverage as Israel prepares to welcome home a second group of hostages. The IDF says they are all back on Israeli soil.

Now, this was the remarkable scene at the Rafah Crossing going into Egypt in the last hour as we witnessed those hostages finally making their way out of the Gaza Strip.