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17 Hostages Return to Israel on Day Two of Truce. Aired 7-8p ET

Aired November 25, 2023 - 19:00   ET

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

[19:01:05]

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN HOST: You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Alex Marquardt here in Washington, D.C. My colleague Kaitlan Collins is in Tel Aviv. Jim Acosta is off tonight. Thank you very much for being with us for this special live coverage. We are continuing with our breaking news.

Emotions running high in Israel tonight as a second group of hostages make its way back home. Right now, these 13 Israeli hostages ranging in age from 67 to just 3 years old are on their way to loved ones after being taken from their homes by Hamas seven weeks ago. At the same time, some 39 Palestinian prisoners are also returning to the occupied West Bank to those large celebrations. You can see right there.

CNN's Kaitlan Collins is in Tel Aviv, bringing us up to the minute coverage of this second phase, this second day of what is expected to be at least a four-day pause in the fighting between Israel and Hamas -- Kaitlan.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, Alex. So it's all a major question as we saw tonight. It came down to the wire with the second phase of this agreement. Second day of this agreement where nearly it appeared for a moment that the deal might be off as there was a dispute between Hamas and Israel over whether or not Israel was living up to the terms of the agreement.

Hamas claims they weren't. Israel said that they were. But Hamas delayed the release of that second group of hostages. Something that was just absolute agonizing for the families who had already been told that they were on that list of hostages who would be released today. But they are now back on Israeli soil on their way to being reunited with their families at hospitals throughout Israel tonight.

And that convoy of trucks has got women and children on it, we know, from the list of what we saw. They will undergo medical evaluations and then be reunited with their loved ones after that.

CNN's Oren Liebermann is at the Shemer Medical Center, which is prepared to receive the freed foreign nationals that we know are on that list tonight.

Oren, last night was a bit of a surprise for us to see the several Thai nationals, the Filipino citizen Jimmy Pacheco who were all on that list. We now know four were included in the release tonight. What have you been seeing so far on the ground?

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And even now, these four was a bit of a surprise. We found that quite late in the process that in addition to the 13 Israeli hostages that were to be freed, that included four Thai citizens as well. We expect them here in about 30 minutes or so. Driving their way up from Kerem Shalom. That's about a two-hour drive. So they should be here sometime in the next half-hour.

They have rooms reserved for them in a private secluded section of the hospital. That's where all the hostages who came yesterday are now stating. The 10 Thai hostages and the one Filipino hostage. Now freed, now receiving not only medical treatment, and that includes physical and mental health checkups but also the services of their embassies here.

Keep in mind, they don't have families to meet them here in the vast majority of the cases. So it's phone calls to loved ones back home. And then it's the hospital staff trying to make this process as comfortable as possible.

We got a chance to talk to some of the staff members here and they said that everybody who arrived here yesterday was stable. They wouldn't say healthy but they said stable. Over the course of the past seven weeks, they have suffered from malnutrition so that is the first major focus. Making sure they get healthy foods. Get them nutrients. And crucially the calories they need to get back to the point where they're healthy again. And then it becomes a function of beginning the other medical checks, the other evaluations and the process of going through mental health.

One of the other challenges they face here is that they didn't know until the last few days that this would be the hospital that focuses on the foreign nationals. Until then they were just preparing to take in hostages. They didn't have a specific demographic or group. When they found out they would be handling the foreign nationals, that was an added challenge. It is easier obviously for Israeli staff to deal with Israeli patients.

Here they had to work around that and begin to understand how to deal with the Thai citizens and the Filipino citizens on their terms.

[19:05:06]

So they've had translators here. They've had embassy staff here to try to work through that process. And in about a half-hour again, there will be four more freed hostages here and that process will begin once again.

All of those patients or rather hostages who arrived yesterday remain here. They are expected to remain here for as long as they need to. They don't have any family to go home to here really so the staff here trying to make it as comfortable as possible for them for as long as they need to stay. Obviously the Thai community knows each other fairly well here, especially those who work right around Gaza.

So they know who they're waiting on. They know who they look forward to seeing here, and that's what all the staff here and from what we understand the freed hostages are waiting for as well.

COLLINS: Yes. And also just speaks to who Hamas abducted on that day. Who they targeted. It wasn't just Israelis. It wasn't just Jews. They took the workers, the laborers, the caretakers who were there at this kibbutzim.

Oren Liebermann, as they begin to arrive, we will continue to check back in with you on the ground, expecting a lot of activity there tonight.

Joining us now is Major Doron Spielman, a spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces.

And thank you so much for being here, sir. What we saw earlier, it appeared this deal was on the edge of falling apart. How close did it come to derailing?

MAJOR DORON SPIELMAN, IDF SPOKESPERSON: Thank you for having me, Kaitlan, once again. The deal was definitely on the rocks for a while. And I have to say we were not surprised with the delay. If you remember yesterday there was also a significant delay.

This is really probably part of Hamas's strategy. They are a cruel terrorist organization that never misses an opportunity to inflict emotional pain. You know, everybody was sitting on pins and needles. Everyone in Israel, certainly those families waited nine hours for their children and their mothers to come out of captivity after 50 days. And this was just more and more delaying tactics. I wouldn't be surprised if it happened again.

And this is what we're up against. This is Hamas. Who else leaves a family in such a lurch along with an entire nation? They know our weakness. Our weakness is how much we want these people to come home and they simply exploited it.

COLLINS: So are you expecting that it could happen again tomorrow?

SPIELMAN: I'm certainly hoping not. I mean, we are dedicated to this framework on our side. We've upheld all of the commitments that we committed to. The IDF has not fired on Hamas positions, even though we know that Hamas positions, we had the noose around the neck of many of the Hamas terrorists, and we've held down. We've taken a defensive position in order to enable our hostages to be freed.

Again, this is a drop in the bucket. But I wouldn't put anything by Hamas. Again, these are the types of tactics. It's psychological warfare. They know that they can basically take the Israeli people hostage by dangling over our heads our hostages in the most cruel and pathetic way, and I wouldn't be surprised.

COLLINS: We know one of the disputes today that led to that delay was over Hamas demanding more aid make it through the Rafah crossing before they released these hostages. The other seem to be over the number of hostages, Israeli hostages that were being released today, and ultimately, it was a list of 13 people, not 14 as we had heard. One of those hostages that was released today was Hila Rotem. She is on that list. Her mother who we know was also kidnapped with her is not on that list.

Can you explain why her mom was not released today?

SPIELMAN: Kaitlan, I really wish that I could explain to you why this young girl's mother is not on that list. It is truly horrific. This is a girl who saw her mother abducted in front of her eyes by Hamas. She then hid inside bushes at the kibbutz trying not to make any noise. We know this from eyewitness testimony. They saw her hiding. And then Hamas terrorists noticed a movement in the bushes, yanked her out of the bushes, and she was then taken off into captivity.

It's a horrific story. And to have a girl like that, she's not the only one. She's 13 years old. Back in Israel without her mother. It's tragic. We see this from two more children as well. The Or family. You know, 17-year-old and the 13-year-old girl Alma whose mother was killed in front of their eyes. They were sent into captivity with their father, and now they're back with neither a mother nor a father.

Just -- it blows the mind what is going through these poor children's minds as we speak.

[19:10:01]

COLLINS: But did Israel ask Hamas why? I mean, we've seen other mothers released with their children as part of this group. Did Israel ask Hamas where her mother is? What condition she's in?

SPIELMAN: Well, the communication here is going through the intermediaries which is Qatar and Egypt. Qatar and Egypt are working tirelessly to make sure Hamas keeps up to their bargain. The understanding is that you're not going to have children released without -- you know, without a parent. It's kind of just extra cruel to send them back into Israel. They have to undergo the emotional torment of, A, finding out that in some cases their mother is dead while that having their father with them, or having a mother trapped inside Gaza.

And again, this is Hamas. Even as the president of the United States said yesterday regarding that sweet little girl Abigail who we also were hoping to have come home, even the president of the United States he also doesn't know when she's coming home because Hamas, each of these children for Hamas is a bargaining chip. They don't care about their life. They just care about releasing them in a way that it will serve their goals. A, psychological warfare, and B, to buy them time to regroup in order to try to carry out more terror attacks. It's truly abominable.

COLLINS: OK. So, Major, you seem to not want to answer that question. Maybe the IDF doesn't know what is the status of her mother. I do want to ask you, we heard from the Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesperson earlier who said in the next few hours, they expected that the next name, that next list of names to be released. Has Israel received that third group of hostages that are set to be released tomorrow at this point yet?

SPIELMAN: So we don't yet have that information. And the way the process goes is when we get the information very hesitantly, I have to say, we have to go through a horrific process, which is to make those phone calls and to meet face to face with the families whose relatives are on that list. And this goes back to kind of a holocaust like scenario. But selection. You know, you're going to some families, and you're saying, OK, your members are coming back and the other families you're saying, we don't know where your family members are, and we don't know if they're on the list.

It's one of the most difficult parts elements of this terror drama that Hamas has put us through. But that's the process. We let the families know. We try to keep their privacy for as long as probable. And then at some point we release it to the general public.

I do just want to add about the previous question. I'm not trying not to answer your question. I do not know the status of this young woman's mother. And I think it's important to say that all of these people, including those people on the list, we do not have confirmation of exactly what their status is, Kaitlan, until they are back in Israel. Some of them could be alive. Some of them are reported to be dead and ended turning up alive.

Hamas is the shadow organization that is keeping that information from us. I really wish we knew more about the situation.

COLLINS: Yes. I understand. And I know that there's not a lot of visibility into the condition of these hostages until they truly get back here. I do appreciate you going back to that. It's just a major concern obviously since she was released without her mother and we've seen these other hostages being released with their mothers who were being held with them.

The role -- you talk about Egypt and Qatar and the role that they play in mediating this. Obviously they've been at the center of it. President Biden himself had a phone call today with the Emir of Qatar earlier. What role did he play in resolving this delay that was happening today?

SPIELMAN: The specifics of that call I'm not privy to, to tell you. What I can say is that as we all know, none of the hostages released, none of the situation of Israel, A, being able to retrieve its hostages, the humanitarian aid, our ability to carry out this war against Hamas could be done in the same way if it were not for American support. And we all credit President Biden with that and the American people.

You know, this is a time where watershed moment for the people of Israel. Both because of the massacre, our feeling that we have an organization that simply wants to kill us. They've taken our people hostages. And this is one of those times in history where we'll look back in 100 years and say who was with us and who was against us? And I can tell you that the fingerprint of America is with Israel. The support is truly incredible this whole process the whole way through.

COLLINS: Major Doron Spielman, IDF spokesperson, thank you for your time tonight. Thanks for joining us at this late hour.

SPIELMAN: Thank you, Kaitlan.

COLLINS: And you heard the major say there, Israel has not yet received the list of the third group of hostages who are set to be released tomorrow. It is now 2:15 a.m. here in Israel.

CNN's special live coverage of the hostage release continues as those families are now on their way to the hospitals. Stay with us. We'll be back in just a moment.

[19:15:04]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: It's a little after 2:00 a.m. here in Tel Aviv. And after many agonizing hours of a delay, a second exchange of prisoners has now finally happened.

CNN's Clarissa Ward is live outside the Sheba hospital in Tel Aviv.

Clarissa, obviously there is still a period of waiting as these hostages are going to be evaluated by doctors. But the ultimate goal, obviously, to be reunited with their families. What's the latest you're seeing from the hospital tonight?

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: So there's definitely a sense of great anticipation at the moment. We've been told that we could be expecting some of those newly released hostages to arrive here at the Sheba Medical Center any moment. Now there is a large build-up. You can probably see behind me of security personnel.

[19:20:07]

And also I don't know if we can just pan over. You can see this is where the ambulance will come in, and it would drive over to this other entrance here where you can probably see, Kaitlan, they have put up a large screen. That screen is designed to offer some privacy to the hostages who will be arriving here. We understand there are at least seven children among the hostages. One 18-year-old, as well as five adults.

We don't know exactly how many of them will be brought here, although it's our understanding that most of the children will certainly be brought here. Those children who are traveling with their family members who were abducted and held and have been released with family members will obviously be coming here, and then reuniting with the rest of their family. But for some of the children who are not with family members, they were actually able to reunite with their families along the border earlier on.

So we know that Emily Hand, who just marked her 9th birthday yesterday in captivity, that she has been reunited with her father, Irishman Thomas Hand. He told us over the phone that he brought their dog Johnny with him to try to help on the first step of Emily's recovery. And I think there's certainly a strong sense here, Kaitlan, when you talk to the hospital staff of realization that this is really just the first step. That it is going to be a very long journey. That all of these

hostages, but particularly the children, have gone through an unimaginable and harrowing ordeal. And that's why the hospital has taken such care to try to put together the most experienced staff, psychiatrists, social workers, doctors and nurses appointed to each individual family. We've seen some images that the hospital has shared of the rooms that they have created for the younger hostages.

Particularly they don't look like hospital beds. They look like normal beds with covers and toys and little wash kits because, of course, for these hostages, the experience that they've been through, they haven't had most likely the ability to have their toys around them or even have a shower, things like that. We don't know the details of their captivity.

But certainly, any psychologist or psychiatrist that we've spoken to here is assuming that they will have undergone a significant trauma. And I'm sorry, I'm just getting some more reaction from the hospital here. This is Sheba Medical Center is eagerly preparing for the arrival of the 12 returning hostages to Israel from Gaza. The hospital's medical team is on stand by for their arrival. These are very sensitive moments, they say, for the families of the returning hostages and we ask you to respect their privacy at this time.

That's why you're seeing that screen that's been hung there. We saw that also, Kaitlan, you may remember yesterday at the Schneider Children's Medical Center as the newly released hostages were disembarking from that helicopter, they erected a series of screens. So again the utmost care and sensitivity and thoughtfulness being put in to try to shield these people in what must be an incredibly overwhelming experience, from all of us here at the media who are gathered to try to capture this moment, and also, the sensitivity around what these newly released hostages may soon be learning that they don't know.

The fate perhaps of their loved ones, of their family and friends, people in their community. And the broader scope and scale of the massacres that took place on October 7th. So I would say the atmosphere here right now is one of anticipation. There's a sense of joy. But it's also tinged with sadness knowing that a lot of innocence has been lost. And that it is still just the beginning of a very difficult journey ahead for these newly released hostages, and particularly for those youngest hostages -- Kaitlan.

COLLINS: Yes. And we're watching for them to arrive there any moment now.

Clarissa Ward, we'll continue to check back in with you outside the Sheba Hospital.

We have much more of our special live coverage as these hostages are now back on Israeli soil heading to medical facilities for the first time in 50 days after being held captive by Hamas in Gaza.

[19:25:10]

Live coverage when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MARQUARDT: It has been a nerve-racking day to say the least for so many watching this hostage deal unfold including President Joe Biden. We now know which of the hostages have been released in this second day of this pause. 13 Israeli women and children along with four nationals from Thailand. Once again, Americans are not part of the latest group.

CNN's Arlette Saenz is in Nantucket, traveling with President Biden. He's been spending the Thanksgiving weekend there with his family.

So, Arlette, what's the White House now saying about this second day with no American citizens released?

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Alex, we got word early this morning that it was not expected that American citizens would be part of this release, but certainly it is disappointing for the White House as they want to get these Americans back home to their families as soon as possible.

[19:30:15]

The White House has said that they remain hopeful that three American citizens will be part of this larger deal to release 50 women and children, that includes two women and also that four-year-old girl, Abigail Idan.

The president said that he is hoping that they will be released in the coming days, but did not have an exact timeframe for when he believes that will happen, but White House officials say that they've been working around the clock, not just to get those American citizens home, but also that broader group that still remains in Gaza at this moment.

And it does come as there were some potential delays in today's hostage release, which the White House was watching very closely, President Biden himself became personally engaged spending some time on the phone this morning with the Amir of Qatar, as well as the Qatari prime minister to talk about the potential hurdles that were coming up, as well as some of the mechanisms that they could use to try to work through these differences that were occurring between Israel and Hamas.

Vice President Kamala Harris spoke to that a bit earlier today as she was in California. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There were some issues and challenges around implementation. President Biden spoke with the Amir to resolve those issues and we do believe they are being resolved.

We're going to continue to be diligent and vigilant and doing all that we can in that regard to ensure that there is humanitarian aid going in, that hostages are going out, and our highest priority, of course, are the American citizens who are being held.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAENZ: Now, when the president spoke to reporters here in Nantucket on Friday, he talked about the need to ensure that this deal remains on track. He said he would be in touch with his counterparts in the region to ensure that the plans that had been outlined were stuck to as these releases proceeded, and the White House will be watching the next 24 hours very closely to see if they get any word about whether American hostages will be a part of this next group.

The president and White House are hopeful that they will be coming out in the coming days. But yesterday, President Biden did also say that they are thinking of the hostages who are being released in this moment saying that there is a long journey of healing ahead.

MARQUARDT: And the president has spoken repeatedly about Abigail Idan, that four-year-old, she turned four yesterday, her birthday in captivity.

Arlette Saenz in Nantucket with the president. Thanks very much.

Joining us now is Christopher O'Leary, a former US director of Hostage Rescue and Recovery now a senior vice president of global operations at The Soufan Group.

Chris, welcome. Thanks so much for joining us, really appreciate and look forward to your expertise on this. There is so much going on. I want to start with what happened today.

Were you surprised that this plan was thrown into doubt early in the day. There were questions about whether it would happen at all, there were questions about whether the Israeli military would start up their military operations again, or do you think that this was to be expected because of how fluid this situation has been?

CHRISTOPHER O'LEARY, FORMER US DIRECTOR OF HOSTAGE RESCUE AND RECOVERY: I think, unfortunately, the latter.

This is a day-to-day deal. It's got -- it is fragile. It could come collapsing down at any day. Earlier in the hour, you had the IDF spokesman talking about the fact that one of the principals in this negotiation is a terrorist organization. They can use this, you know, cancel this agreement day-to-day to their advantage. They can mentally manipulate the Israeli people, continue to terrorize them, hold the families hostages, which is exactly what happened today.

And then the mental roller coaster for the victims who might have thought they were being released and then put back into captivity. Their resistance, posture, and ability to endure this starts to go into a spiral when that happens.

MARQUARDT: So what does that mean for how much faith you have that this four days of pause will actually happen and the possibility of several days more beyond that?

O'LEARY: I'd be shocked if it goes smoothly, to be completely honest, which I know that's not what hostage families want to hear. What we generally do when I was still doing this in government, we are very direct with the hostage families.

We lay out what the conditions are and we continue to work the problem and try to find adaptive solutions, but you cannot put your faith in a terrorist organization. They are doing this because hostage taking works. You know one only has to look back to the 1972 attack in Munich. Israeli hostages were taken, the athletes were killed and massacred and two years later, Yasser Arafat was speaking on the floor of the UN General Assembly with a gun belt on.

So hostage taking works. Hamas knows that and they're using you know, this is leverage to buy time and gain leverage with Israel.

The other thing is, they can cancel it at any time and blame it on Israel, which is what was happening today. They can use disinformation and misinformation. It doesn't have to be accurate, but they look -- they come out on top with this.

[19:35:06]

MARQUARDT: So under this deal that was struck, Hamas is supposed to release 50 hostages over four days. That means that they have to release 24 more Israeli hostages. We frankly been surprised about the foreign nationals who have been released, there are 15 so far. What does that tell you about who Hamas has? Who they can find?

O'LEARY: I don't think it can tell us anything about that, unfortunately. You know, I think they have the large majority of the hostages. Yes, do I believe that Palestinian Islamic Jihad has some, and is likely that some of the other disparate groups still hold some hostages, which is why Hamas wanted the removal of the ISR, the drones, so they can move around and try to collect the rest of the hostages.

The release of the foreign nationals, the Thai citizens and the Filipino, that is to continue to erode international support for Israel, it's going to put additional pressure to keep this truce going for as long as possible from the international community, from the United States who has you know, supported Israel from the beginning, but now, we're asking them to pause for as long as we can so we can get our citizens home.

That runs counter to defeating Hamas, which is one of Israel's principle goals in this.

MARQUARDT: And of course, there is a recognition that even if all of the civilians were released, they would still have quite a few Israeli soldiers. And as you were just pointing out, they take those kinds of people, take soldiers because they know that they can -- they have a lot of leverage with people like that.

Christopher O'Leary, we have to leave it there. Really appreciate your thoughts and your perspective this evening. Thank you.

O'LEARY: Good to be here.

MARQUARDT: And we will have much more of CNN's special live coverage of the latest hostage release, coming up next. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:41:17]

MARQUARDT: Welcome back to our special coverage.

We are getting new information right now for the third day of this hostage release, the third day of this pause in the fighting between Israel and Hamas.

Kaitlan Collins joins me now from Tel Aviv.

Kaitlan, what have you learned?

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Alex, we're not long from hitting the 72-hour mark of this -- the 48-hour mark of this truce being into agreement here into play as we are waiting to see if it does make it the full 96 hours.

I should note that we did just learn that Israel has received the list of the hostages that are slated to be released on day three of this truce, that of course is a list that is coming much later than when they got the list last night. That was when the implementation of this deal, the facilitation of the release of those hostages that happened much earlier.

But due to that delay tonight, we saw a delay in the release of the second group of hostages. And now we have just learned Israel does have the list of the third group of hostages that are expected to be released.

And of course, Alex, as you know, that triggers a period where then the Israeli government is not only calling the list of the group of people who are on that list, their families, their loved ones to let them know that it is expected that their loved ones will be released.

Every Israeli official will tell you that comes with a major caveat of they're not technically here until they've actually made it onto Israeli soil, because as you saw with that delay today, there's basically no trust with Hamas, but they also call the families of the other hostages to let them know that it is not going to be their loved ones who are on that list that day.

MARQUARDT: It is interesting, Kaitlan to see how Israel versus the US handles this. This is a pivotal moment every night, and so this is the third time during this pause that we've been waiting to see when the list have been handed over and Israel to your point, they are very transparent with who is expected to come out the next day.

They tell the families and they tell the families of those who are not expected to come out. This is very different from what the Biden administration has been doing. The US of course, waiting for these three Americans to be released, two women and one child, Abigail Idan, who we've spoken so much about, but the US is taking a much more cautious tack by only waiting until they would be released, waiting until they're in American hands, Israeli hands or with the Red Cross, for example, to then alert the families, because this is such a fluid situation and they essentially don't want to get the hopes up of the families.

And this is a really complex game of telephone, isn't it, where you've got Hamas handing over their list to the Qataris, the Israelis also hand over their list of Palestinians who they expect to release the next day to the Qataris as well.

COLLINS: Yes and we've heard from the US government, you know, the last few days, you know, when no Americans were on that list, that is going to be a major question for day three, because they do expect at some point in this four-day truce, that in those first, in that group of 50 hostages that Hamas and Israel have agreed to women and children to be released, that three Americans are set to be on that list.

So far, zero Americans have been on the list of the first two days. That is a major question. We still don't know the answer to that whether or not any Americans will be on this list that was just handed over to Israeli officials, and just to speak to how the governments handle it, it is kind of a reversal of what we've actually been hearing from hostages' families that they said actually, they felt like the US government had been much more transparent with them in the last several weeks as far as hearing them out, hearing their needs, hearing what they want to see happen here compared to the Israeli government.

[19:45:00]

I spoke to Ruby Chen who is the father of Itay Chen. He is an Israeli- American IDF soldier actually who is being held hostage and he told me, he believed the Israeli government could take a lesson out of the US playbook, out of how the Biden administration had been handling it.

But really, what these families care about is that it is their loved ones coming home, and so we are still waiting to find out which families are going to be being notified that they are on this list for day three of this temporary truce -- Alex.

MARQUARDT: And today, we saw how fragile this is. There were real doubts about whether this deal would be falling apart. Now, we've heard confidence from the administration, that this could -- that this will last, these four days and there really is an expectation that it could be extended beyond that, that more hostages could be released beyond the four days, beyond the 50 that we could see this pause extended.

But I think if today taught us anything, it's that there are so many moving parts. The sides are very quick to blame each other and there is the distinct possibility that things really could go off the rails and what happens then, does that mean that the Israeli military starts up their operations in Gaza?

Again, all of that remains to be seen, but Kaitlan, this is a really important moment that you're reporting that the list has been received by Israel, of the hostages that Hamas expects to release tomorrow.

In the meantime, Kaitlan, we're going to take a quick break. We are expecting to see some of the hostages released today arriving soon at Israeli hospitals. We will be there on the scene. We'll bring you that when our special coverage continues right here on CNN right after this. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:50:58]

MARQUARDT: We do have breaking news. I want to get straight to CNN's Oren Liebermann who is outside of the Shamir Medical Center.

Oren, what are you seeing?

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Alex just moments ago, the four Thai hostages that were freed earlier this evening were brought through the roundabout here into the hospital complex with an escort from both police and border police. They then came right down behind me here.

In fact, I believe they might have come in that minivan that you just saw a moment ago, as well as a medical van of some sort right behind them.

And then of course that police and border police escort to get them down here behind me to the hospital where they are and here is one of the police cars that escorted them, where there is a secluded area in the hospital for not only the four Thai hostages that arrived a short time ago, but also the 10 Thai hostages that arrived last night, the freed hostages, of course, I mean by that, as well as the one Filipino hostage who had been freed, so they are here.

They will now be taken care of. We heard from hospital staff a short time ago that those who arrived yesterday were stable, but not healthy. They have suffered from a tremendous lack of nutrition from over the course of the past seven weeks. I understand we now have the video. This was them just a few minutes ago really pulling into the hospital. You can see that escort there as they came around and were taken straight in, not to the emergency room, but straight to the secluded area of the hospital where the doctors and the staff are waiting for them there to begin not only the physical evaluation checks on their physical condition, but also the mental health checks.

One of the added challenges for the hospital here is that obviously, it is a little easier for Israeli staff to deal with Israeli patients. The added challenge here is making sure they're working with and treating Thai citizens and Filipino citizens on their terms and that includes not only having the translators around, but also representatives from the embassies here that has been part of the challenge that the staff here has had to work around. They have been preparing for weeks to have hostages here, but only found out a few days ago that it would be the freed foreign citizens who were here, so they had to prepare very quickly for that.

We just saw the second group of them arrive a short time ago in that video. That was four Thai citizens in addition to the 10 Thai citizens and one Filipino citizen who came last night. Crucially, they are ready to take in many more as we wait to learn more about the list who are supposed to be freed tomorrow.

This hospital as are all the other hospitals we have been at over the course of the past few days since they are ready to take in more as many as needed -- Alex.

MARQUARDT: Oren, you and Clarissa have been at a variety of different hospitals over the past few days. Is there any difference in terms of where the Israeli citizens, the Israeli hostages are going versus the foreign hostages and the types of treatment that they're getting?

LIEBERMANN: The treatment as we've been told, is all supposed to be the best of the best, essentially, especially picked doctors and staff to make sure they have all the treatment they need and all the evaluations can happen in a fairly quick, but deliberate process.

Nobody is trying to rush anybody through this process. Crucially, the different hospitals have been given a specific task. So for example, Wolfson Medical Center in south Tel Aviv, or south of Tel Aviv, in Holon on where I was last night, that focuses on the elderly.

Shamir Medical Center focuses on the foreign citizens. The hospitals that Clarissa has been at, that is Sheba Medical Center, as well as Schneider Children's Medical Center, those focus on the children because there's been so many of those. So they each have a different task.

Soroka where one freed hostage was taken tonight, that's supposed to deal with physical injuries. So you see how the system was set up to take in and to treat the hostages based on who they are and what their condition is.

Again, Shamir Medical Center where we are right now, this is the medical center, the hospital that will focus on the foreign citizens and the foreign nationals who have been freed and as we understand it, there are at least several more who are remain in Gaza.

MARQUARDT: Yes, four Thais who were released today after 10 yesterday along with a Filipino citizen and 26 Israelis so far getting the much needed medical treatment that so many will need and an assessment for what they will need going forward both medically and psychologically.

[19:55:10]

Oren Liebermann, terrific reporting as always, thank you so much for joining us. We'll be back with you in just a moment.

We are going to squeeze in a quick break. CNN's ongoing special coverage will continue right after this. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:59:46]

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

My colleague, Kaitlin Collins is in Tel Aviv. Thank you very much for joining us.

We are continuing our breaking news coverage a second wave of hostages now back in Israel to be reunited with their families.

Just moments ago, we watched several ambulances arriving at a hospital in Israel and Be'er Ya'akov where those hostages will undergo medical evaluations and we'll finally be reunited with their families after 50 days in captivity.

This is happening amid a pause in the fighting. We are halfway through what is supposed to be a four-day truce, allowing not just hostages being held by Hamas and other groups inside Gaza to be released, but also the release today of 39 Palestinian detainees and prisoners from Israeli prisons that followed the same number being released yesterday.

[20:00:43]