Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Hostages Released By Hamas Arrive At Hospital; Source: Israel Has Received List Of Hostages Set For Release Sunday From Gaza. Aired 8-9p ET

Aired November 25, 2023 - 20:00   ET

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

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN HOST: You are in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Alex Marquardt in Washington. My colleague Kaitlan Collins is in Tel Aviv.

Thank you very much for joining us.

[20:00:01]

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 in Be'er Ya'akov where those hostages will undergo medical evaluations and will 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 in 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. The video you're looking at there, that's the scene on the West Bank in just the last hour. A huge celebration, crowds gathering there to meet those Palestinians coming home from those Israeli prisons.

CNN's Kaitlan Collins is in Tel Aviv with latest developments on this second day of hostage releases -- Kaitlan.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN HOST: Yeah, Alex, we're in the second day, and now we are hearing from Israeli officials that they have received the list of the hostages who are expected to be released on the third day. We are still waiting to learn more about who is on that list, but tonight these are the 13 Israeli hostages who were released today -- eight children, five women in total. They range in age from 3 years old to 67 years old. The IDF says that in addition to those hostages who were released, four Thai nationals also being held hostage have been released.

I want to bring in CNN's chief global affairs correspondent Matthew Chance.

Matthew, as we're seeing this list, if people are just tuning in and watching, this is a group of hostages that almost potentially were not released to as there was this real delay by Hamas. What were their chief complaints, and why did they delay that release earlier? MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CHIEF GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: You're right.

There was a moment earlier on tonight where there was a possibility whether there was going to be no releases at all. Hamas issued a statement they delayed the release for these hostages for a couple of reasons. The primary reason being that they said they hadn't received sufficient relief aid across the border in trucks. You know, that had been agreed to.

That apparently has been sorted out along with the other issue which is something to do the identities and the types of prisoner that had been released from Israeli jails. The Hamas basically accusing Israel of violating the agreement in those two regards.

But those are obstacles that have been overcome. It took a big diplomatic effort, the Qataris, the Egyptians, the United States, they're all making these massive efforts to try and overcome these obstacles, and it was successful because we're seeing the evidence of that now. The first of the Israeli handles from the second group that were released and the foreign nationals, as well, released hostages. They're finding their way now toward hospitals. They're in Israeli hands. They're finding their way toward hospitals in Israel to be reunited with their families.

COLLINS: So, what's next for them in this process? Because they are on their way to these hospitals, honestly, medical evaluations. Those I imagine Israeli officials want to debrief them, to find out more about the conditions they're being held in.

CHANCE: Yeah. I mean, that's certainly the case. You know, I expect that every single one of those handles is going to have, you know -- intelligence potentially that, you know, may help Israel sort of work out perhaps where the rest of the hostages are or at least give them some intelligence of who was holding them captive, things like that.

So, Yes, I expect there's going to be debriefings for obviously just the adult members, adult people in those hostage releases. So that's something. In terms of the medical care, you know, one of the hostages tonight has already been taken to a hospital straight away as soon as she was kind of freed. The others will be evaluated.

But it's the psychological evaluation, as well, let's not forget that. Psychologists saying that it could be months before the real extent of the damage to these people who have been severely traumatized by their incarceration in Gaza and the terrible events that led to that on October 7th it could be months before even their symptoms are identified. And so, this is going to be a long road.

COLLINS: Yeah, serious post-traumatic stress disorder. Now we're learning that there is this third group, the list has been turned over quite late, but it has been turned over to Israeli officials who've could be released tomorrow. Obviously, we don't yet know who is on it. But one thin we do know is no Americans have been released yet, and that's something the White House had been anticipating. They would be in this group of 50 set to be released by Monday night.

CHANCE: Yeah, they still could be in that group of 50. I mean, there is one possibility which is that Hamas knows that American passport- holders are very valuable and perhaps want to keep those in reserve or hold them back until last moment.

[20:05:03]

That's one possibility. Of course, there's no evidence of that. But it's something that was suggested to me earlier by an Israeli official. So, yes, that certainly was going on. We'll see how this develops.

The fact is there is a list, a third list, and that in itself is a positive sign. Again, there was this possibility this process would collapse. Now at least even though it's late, the third list which gives us all hope that this process is going to continue despite the obstacles, despite the logistical problems, for a third day which is exactly what everybody wants.

COLLINS: Yeah, that's a really good point. It does show they are at least anticipating releasing more hostages.

Matthew Chance, thank you.

Of course, we've been tracking every angle of the story today with these hostages as they're making their way to hospitals here in Israel.

Clarissa Ward is outside one of those hospitals, Sheba Medical Center here in Tel Aviv.

And, Clarissa, it's also just 3:00 a.m. -- after 3:00 a.m. local where we are now. A lot of activity, you know, that we have seen last night way earlier than this has been delayed given the delay and the release of these hostages. What are you seeing at the hospital right now? Are officials anticipating that soon those hostages will be arriving?

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's what they're telling us. I mean, about an hour ago, there was a rumor going around that it would be within minutes. Then it was supposed to be three, now it's supposed 3:20. I think the reality is probably we're not getting a totally full and clear picture of when those hostages may be arriving.

But certainly fair to say that there has been a lot of preparation for their arrival. You can see behind me quite a few security personnel. They actually put up these Israeli flags to welcome the hostages back. If we just pan over, you can see this is where the ambulance will come in.

The journalists have all been penned into an area where I'm standing, and the hostages themselves will be brought in -- I should say the newly released hostages will be brought in behind the screen that we watched them erect over the past few hours. That screen obviously designed to afford them some degree of privacy because there is a very real understanding from the personnel here at this hospital and particularly from the psychologists and psychiatrists that they have been through an extraordinary ordeal. We know that at least seven of them are children. One is 18. 12 of the 13 Israeli hostages are expected to be arriving here at this hospital.

The administrator of the hospital told us they had been running drills for a month in preparation for this moment. They had gamed out multiple scenarios, and they wanted to ensure that they were at the highest level of preparedness. I think we have a photograph that we can show you now which shows what the room looks like inside that hospital where the hostages, the newly released hostages will be taken. You can see they've gone to great lengths to make it look not like a hospital, not clinical, not cold, not overwhelming, but more like a room with brightly colored covers and sort of a wash kit and toys on the bed. They say that that's very important in terms of trying to help particularly with the younger children to help them feel calmer, more at ease.

Those who were released with or were held with family members will be having larger family reunions here at the hospital. Those who were held without family members such as 9-year-old Emily Hand who actually marked her 9th birthday yesterday in captivity, they met with their relatives at the border. And so, they have been reunited.

We did speak to Thomas Hand earlier. That's the father of Emily Hand. He is an Irish citizen. He took their dog Johnny with him to meet Emily and greet her. He felt that that was an important first step in her recovery. But there's certainly a very real understanding and a sort of clear-eyed perspective on the future for these newly released hostages and the reality that they will be living with and dealing with and working on the scars of the trauma that they have experienced for some time to come.

We spoke earlier, as well, I should add, with the staff at the Schneider medical center where some of those hostages, freed hostages were brought yesterday. They said that they were in good physical condition, that they hoped that they would be able to go home either tomorrow -- I should say today now that it's 3:00 in the morning, or the next day. And people here and doctors here waiting to see what condition these hostages are brought in, though there's no indication at that stage that any of them are requiring any serious or pressing type of medical care.

[20:10:15]

I think the main concern that people have is the trauma and the impact that that will have had particularly on the youngest hostages, Kaitlan.

COLLINS: Yeah. Remarkable to hear you say that those officials at the hospital have been basically practicing, preparing for what is happening right now for a month now, anticipating the arrival of these hostages, that they didn't even know would actually ever come, just speaks to how everyone in Israel's been holding their breath basically waiting for this moment.

Clarissa Ward, we'll continue to check in as we wait for the arrival of those hostages at that Sheba hospital.

Joining me here live with more on what is to come, Danny Danon, Israel's former ambassador to the United Nations, and a member of the Knesset's foreign affairs and defense committee.

Thank you so much, Ambassador, for being here.

We just heard that Israel has gotten the list, the third list of the next set of hostages. Do you have any idea how many people -- how many hostages are on that list?

DANNY DANON, FORMER ISRAELI AMBASSADOR TO THE U.N.: I cannot comment on that. But with a very long night for us in Israel after we saw the hostages coming back finally, we were not sure about what would happen tomorrow, very relieved to see the list coming in. We are hopeful that everything will go smoothly tomorrow and Monday night they will be able to complete the release of 50 hostages.

COLLINS: Does it give you hope that you did get this third list of hostages, expected to be released, that Hamas does intend to hand those over?

DANON: We signed a deal with the devil. When you sign a deal with the devil, you don't expect much. So we do it day by day, and hour by hour, and we hope that we'll be able to get to the 50 hostages. Unfortunately, we saw today that babies came without their mother. That was not part of that agreement. So we are patient, but we expect that by the end of the period we agreed on which is Monday night we will see the 50 hostages here in Israel. That is an agreement we signed.

COLLINS: So, it wasn't the agreement that children who were kidnapped with their mothers were supposed to be released with their mothers.

DANON: Absolutely.

COLLINS: Which we saw not happen with at least one of the hostages who was on that list tonight.

What Hamas was complaining about and what we heard hours ago, hours before we realized this was going to be delayed, they were saying Israel was not complying with part of the agreement to release Palestinian prisoners by seniority, by how long they had been in prison.

Is that actually part of what Israel agreed to in this deal with the devil, as you call it?

DANON: We are complying with all parts of the agreement. Even if some parts need to be clarified, you speak with their negotiator. You don't block that agreement. Even if you have issue, that's what we expected to happen.

I think what they did was cynical because basically they told the Red Cross that it's happening, and in the last minute before the families actually saw their loved ones coming into Israel, they said, no, we have a problem, we have an issue, let's talk about our demands. Not all came into northern Gaza, the list are not in the order we expected them to be.

You don't stop the agreement because of those issues.

COLLINS: So, they had basically come up to the moment of that exchange actually happening and that's when they halted it, you're saying?

DANON: Exactly. And that showed the intention. If that issue with the order of release of those terrorists we are releasing as part of the deal, they could have come to the Qataris, Egyptians, sent a message, clarified the issue. They're playing with us.

They're good at terrorizing the Israeli public. We know that. They should not be so happy about it because in two, three, four days, we intend to engage again with the war efforts and will find all of those leaders who are playing today and terrorizing the Israelis.

COLLINS: It makes it sound like you don't think that there's going to be an extension to this temporary pause.

DANON: So after what happened today, we are very skeptical about it. But the government decided that if they will be able to find more children and they will be able to release them, we are willing to extend the pause. That's part of the agreement. And we will stand behind it.

COLLINS: So, there's still no decision from the Israeli government whether or not that extension is likely to happen?

DANON: Well, the decisions not in our hands. Hamas will have to relocate more children in the Gaza Strip and announce to the negotiator whether they're extending that agreement or not.

COLLINS: Do you think they can do that?

DANON: I know they do that. I don't know that they want to do that.

COLLINS: Part of the agreement prime minister opinion said to attend to the -- Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said to attend to those, young men in there, grandparents, IDF soldiers. Has that happened yet? Does Israel know?

DANON: Well, for a fact it didn't happen.

COLLINS: The Red Cross has not gone in?

DANON: No. No, and not even close to that. They didn't send medicines or letters to the hostages we have in Gaza, and we know that some of the hostages in medical conditions that they need medical supports. They need their medicines. Elderly people that cannot survive without it, the Red Cross is quiet about it. We expect Hamas to allow visitation of the Red Cross. That's a human request, part of an international law.

COLLINS: We're about to be on the third day of this agreement. If the Red Cross has not gone in yet, I imagine unless there's an extension they would not go in after Monday night if the fighting is going to resume then. Is that -- DANON: When you look at the history with Hamas and terrorist

organization, they never allowed Red Cross visitation which is unfortunate. It's in the agreement, we expect them to do it, we expect the negotiators to enforce it. But as you mentioned, Kaitlan, it's not moving to that direction.

COLLINS: Israel's been releasing Palestinian prisoners as part of this agreement, 39 yesterday, 39 again today. I mentioned the others who are being held that are not women and children. We've spoken to parents of 21-year-old men who were at the Nova Music festival having fun with their friends. They're being held hostage, their parents believe.

What kind of deal would Israel have to be willing to make to get them home? How many Palestinian prisoners do you think Hamas would demand in order to get them home?

DANON: We are committed to bring them back. Either we're going to force Hamas to release them or we're going to negotiate with them. And we are willing to pay a price.

Even today when you see the celebrations, in Judea and Samaria, the people who released that are criminals, terrorists. They were involved in terrorist activities. We released them back into their community in Judea and Samaria. So we're taking the risks in order to bring back our hostages. We will do that also in the future.

I cannot tell you about numbers, but we are willing to negotiate and pay a heavy price for that. If not, we have the strength and the stamina to continue with the military operation and to get to the hostages.

COLLINS: Well, I should note, some of those Palestinian prisoners are being held without any charges. They hadn't had any trial. Not all of them, but some of them that we look at that list. But on IDF soldiers, I mean, how big of a price would Israel have to pay to get those Israeli soldiers who are being held, men and women, back to Israel?

DANON: They're being detained -- stabbed Israelis, attacked Israelis. We're not holding anyone because we want to hold them. Those people are involved in terrorist activities.

I will not tell you the number of people we're willing to release. In the past, we released a lot of people to bring back Gilad Shalit. But I think also, today, we arrested people in Gaza. We arrested people in Judea and Samaria, in the last few weeks. So we have room to wait for those.

COLLINS: There have been two war goals that I've heard Prime Minister Netanyahu lay out explicitly. The first one obviously eradicate Hamas. Not diminish it, not demean it, eradicate Hamas as it exists. He also said yesterday, the other war goal is to bring every hostage home.

Can he do both of those?

DANON: Those are the goals of the war. If you will not be able to do that, we will fail the war. And eradication is very important. We compare Hamas to ISIS to Nazi Germany. It took the ally the long time to defeat evil and to eradicate Nazi ideas from Germany. We intend to do the same.

We intend to take out the leadership of Hamas, to destroy their military capabilities, and basically to allow the people in Gaza to have a new regime to prosper, to open a new future for themselves, and to bring some peace and quiet to Israel.

COLLINS: So, if they don't achieve both of those, they will have failed. This third list of hostages, obviously I understand Israel's not saying the names, we understand the sensitivity here. Are any Americans on that list of hostages set to be released tomorrow?

DANON: We don't decide about the names. We don't decide about the nationality. We know that there are American babies still in Hamas hands for almost 50 days. We expect them to be released. We will hope that in the next few days, we will see them back home.

COLLINS: So, you expect them to be released by Monday night, the Americans?

DANON: Yes. We cannot guarantee it, but we expect it to happen.

COLLINS: Ambassador Danny Danon, as always, thank you for your time.

DANON: Thank you so much.

COLLINS: Of course, we are waiting to see as Israel has gotten that list of the third set of hostages that are slated to be released by Hamas on day three of this temporary truce. We are covering all of this here as we are waiting for those hostages from day two to make their way to hospitals tonight.

Our special live coverage of this latest release continues right after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:23:26]

MARQUARDT: Tonight, Israel is also freeing around 40 Palestinians who have been held in Israeli jails. This is also part of its deal with Hamas during this pause.

CNN's Nada Bashir joins us again from the Batunia checkpoint near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.

Nada, we've seen huge celebrations there tonight. What are you -- what are you seeing?

NADA BASHIR, CNN REPORTER: Absolutely, Alex. The crowds have now left the area where we are outside the municipality office where we saw those crowds gathering earlier. Family members have been waiting for hours throughout the day anxiously waiting to see if their loved ones were on the list of names to be released today. That took a lot longer than we saw actually on Friday night. But, of course we have now seen the 39 Palestinian detainees and prisoners released. Many of them released, 33 of them were minors, children under the age of 18.

We saw them being carried on people's shoulders up the street to the municipality office where they were surrounded by thousands of people who had gathered -- more than 1,000, rather, who had gathered to welcome them, to celebrate their release from detention. Important to note that the majority of those children had been released, were held under administrative detention, meaning no charges were laid against them, no ongoing legal process.

We've been speaking to many of the families here, many have been waiting outside the municipality office even before find could out whether their -- finding out whether their loved ones were on the list. They were hoping today would bring positive news for them. Some of them were indeed lucky enough to see their children released today.

[20:25:05]

Many of the people that we spoke to, to children who had been detained and now are released, spoke about their experience in detention, how difficult it's been over the last few months with no information as to the legal process that they were going through.

We spoke to one young man, a 17-year-old boy. He was released tonight. He spoke about the last couple of months that he has spent in prison, in detention. He described this as one of the most difficult experiences of his life but was happy to be home, to be with his family, and to have his mum's home cooking again.

Now, of course, this is part of a wider release of Palestinian detainees and prisoners as part of the truce agreement between Israel and Hamas which will see approximately 150 Palestinian detainees and prisoners released over the four-day truce period if indeed the terms are upheld in exchange for at least 50 Israeli hostages who are set to be released from Hamas captivity in Gaza as we saw today. Another group of Israeli hostages were released today by Hamas.

Of course, there isn't a lot of clarity on who else will be released on the Palestinian side. Nor on the Israeli side. We will wait day by day for those details. Of course there are questions around the charges that many of these Palestinians have faced.

Earlier in the week, we did see an initial list released by Israeli authorities of about 300 names of people who would be eligible for potential release. Many of them, again, were minors under the age of 18. Of course, among the charges that many of them face, the majority were minor offenses including throwing stones at Israeli soldiers and also threatening, risking regional security. They were the most common amongst those charges.

Of course, with the people here in the occupied West Bank, this is a huge and welcome moment of relief for many of them.

MARQUARDT: Nada, we've also seen teargas and other munitions deployed against crowds waiting for the prisoners to be released. I understand there have been restriction that's Israeli authorities have been put on how Palestinians are allowed to celebrate these releases. What can you tell us about that?

BASHIR: Yeah, typically, we would see these crowds gather in closer toward the prison exits when people are released. There are typically celebration when Palestinian detainees and prisoners are released. But we have seen an effort by security forces to try and quell those celebrations, to try and move those celebrations along.

What we have seen today and on Friday is crowds gathering around the Batunia crossing near the Ofer prison where those detainees were held while awaiting confirmation of their release. We saw crowds once again in gathering on the hilltop overlooking that. And in fact, we saw ourselves at least three people shot by live fire injured, confirmed by the Palestinian Red Crescent society, trying the Israeli defense forces trying to disperse crowds using teargas, as well, targeting the crowds that have gathered there today.

MARQUARDT: All right. Nada Bashir near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, thank you very much.

Now, one of the sticking points for the latest hostage release was aid going into the Gaza Strip. We'll have the latest on that and much more next.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:32:29]

COLLINS: Tonight, Palestinian humanitarian officials say that they have just delivered the largest shipment of aid to northern Gaza that has happened since October 7th. This after nearly 200 trucks that were loaded with food, water, and medical supplies were allowed to cross into Gaza from the Rafah Crossing in Egypt earlier today.

CNN's Larry Madowo is in Cairo with the latest.

Larry, I mean, we have been talking about this for hours from when we were initially hearing complaints from Hamas that enough aid was not getting in. What do we know about the aid now that it's 3:30 here local time?

LARRY MADOWO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kaitlan, now the U.N. and the Palestinian Red Cross confirmed that 187 trucks made it into Gaza today. That is the largest aid convoy to come into the Gaza Strip. But also 61 trucks made it all the way to northern Gaza, and that was important because that was part of the delay in the release of the hostages because Hamas complained and warned that Israel was endangering the entire deal by not allowing enough aid to come in, into northern Gaza where the U.N. has warned that there's a risk of dehydration, a risk of diseases breaking out as people are consuming water from unsafe zones. At the same time, the world health organization says that the health

system is all but collapsed there, that's why it is so important to get aid to northern Gaza. Overall, 129,000 liters of fuel made it into Gaza today. So that number is 50 trucks more than got in on Friday. So a huge ramp-up from what's happened on Friday. That was already a record, Saturday another record. But it's still below the 200 quarter that they agreed on as part of this deal.

But aid organizations say that is still a drop in the ocean. The need is far greater, especially when we talk about 1.7 million people displaced since October 7. They are in temporary shelters. They are in places where they're not supposed to be living long term.

So a lot of this food and fuel and water and cooking gas is going to hospitals, going to shelters, going to the food distribution facilities and not necessarily to the people who are waiting. And there's been long queues of people waiting for gas, waiting for fuel, just to get whatever they can, tiny drops, any amount to try and have a similar --

COLLINS: Larry, let me interrupt you nature a moment here. I know we're getting an important update on the aid. I want to describe to our viewers what they're seeing right now.

These are the vans that we believe are carrying the hostages who were released in a late moment tonight outside of the Sheba Medical Center. That's where we've seen our Clarissa Ward reporting all day. This is where we've been expecting hostages to arrive any moment now.

Now, two large black caravans showing up. We do believe this is what is carrying those hostages who were released today.

CNN's Clarissa Ward is outside of the hospital.

Clarissa, we've been anticipating the arrival of these hostages to show up. Do -- have we confirmed that these are, indeed, the hostages that we were expecting?

WARD: Yes, yes, Kaitlan, hi.

So as you can see right now, we've just seen several trucks or I should say vans containing the hostages. They are now pulling up. You can see that screen has been pulled behind. They are disembarking the first van. The second van is waiting.

They're part of a larger convoy of vehicles, but it appears that there's just the two vans that contain the 12 newly freed hostages, among them seven children, at least one also 18-year-old, and a number of adults, some of them family members. And actually having said that, there appears to be a third van now pulling up, as well.

You can see the windows are tinted. There's been a lot of effort to try to preserve the privacy of these families as they arrive here at the hospital. It is after 3:30 in the morning. They have been through a tremendous ordeal. It has been going on for more than seven weeks. And now they are finally reaching the Sheba Medical Center where staff

tell us they have been drilling for over a month to prepare for this moment gaming out any number of possible scenarios. They have taken great care to make sure that the ward, the unit, the area where they will be sleeping tonight is as cozy, as intimate, not as clinical as we would traditionally think of hospitals as being.

They have handpicked the top psychiatrists, social workers, doctors, nurses, to be dedicated to each individual family, to help them begin this next phase of their journey, Kaitlan. And so as you're seeing now the second van waiting, that is because they're being disembarked one van at a time so that it can be done behind the cover of that screen.

And all the media have been penned in understandably into one area because it's extremely overwhelming for these families, extremely overwhelming particularly for these children, some of whom, at least two of whom that we know for sure are not -- were not with their parents or either one of their parents as they left captivity. You're seeing one of those vans now is pulling out. Presumably the hostages, the freed hostages who were in it are now inside the building.

And so we would expect shortly to see the screen be pulled back and for the second van to then move into that area that would allow them to go into the hospital.

[20:40:07]

Now, we know inside one of the vans, and we don't know which van exactly, is Thomas Hand -- you're seeing now the screen is going back, and we expect that van to move forward.

Thomas Hand is an Irish national. He was reunited just hours ago with his daughter Emily. She just marked her 9th birthday in captivity. Most of these hostages if not all of them are residents or were residents of the Be'eri kibbutz.

Emily's story, which we have brought you from right after October 7th, was an unusual one. She was actually having a sleepover with a friend on the night of Friday, the 6th of October. Hence why she was separated from her father.

She was initially reported dead. And Thomas Hand believed that his daughter had died only to be told weeks later that they thought that she was alive. Even then it was uncertain where she was, who was holding her, what kind of condition she was in.

So the tremendous relief and incredible emotional roller coaster that Thomas Hand has been on, but so many of these parents and all these family members who of course are united in this moment of joy right now, but there's also absolutely more than a tinge of sadness, of somberness, a very real awareness of the trauma that has been experienced, the long road ahead, and, of course, the fact that so many continue to be held captive in Gaza.

COLLINS: And, Clarissa, you mentioned Thomas Hand being with Emily Hand at this moment. Do we know if the other families are with the hostages in these vans, or are they waiting for them inside the medical center?

WARD: So, we were told by hospital staff that some of the family members were waiting inside the medical center. And our understanding is that minors or children who were not being released and had not been held by their parents would be met at the earliest available opportunity, so right at that border crossing by their loved ones or by their family members.

You can see the screen now, Kaitlan, going back again. The second van pulling up -- sorry, is that the third van? Four vans total. Forgive me. And the screen going back again as they prepare to let those newly freed hostages out and into the hospital.

So, there are a number of family members believed to be waiting. But we saw at least two reunions taking place near the border. One of them, Thomas Hand, of course, with Emily hand. And I don't know if you've been able to ingest that video yet I'm going step in front of the camera now because I think that's all we'll be able to see.

Thomas Hand reunited with his daughters daughter, Emily. We saw another family, as well, who were reunited, a father with his family at the border crossing. But as I said, there are believed to be more family members inside the Sheba Medical Center.

And again, it's really been stressed to us over and over and over again, Kaitlan, how important it is for the families to have privacy in this moment and for them at this stage to try to break the news to their children, to their loved ones, to their relatives, about what happened on October 7th because crucially many of the hostages have no real sense of the full scope of what took place on October 7th. And that's why so much care has gone into ensuring that the media's kept a at a distance, that there's a degree of privacy, but also that the appropriate staffing and psychiatrists and social workers are in place.

And also a lot of guidelines that were given to the IDF in terms of how they handled the hostages when they first were there during that initial hand-over from the Red Cross. They did a cursory medical search and checking their identities. They were told not to answer questions such as where is mommy, where is daddy, to ask permission of any children before trying to pick them up.

And so every possible care has been taken here and also at the Schneider Children's Medical Center where we were last night to try to minimize any sort of re-traumatizing, particularly of these children, as they return home, and many of them no longer have homes. But return home to Israel for the first time in seven weeks, Kaitlan.

COLLINS: Yeah, and, Clarissa, to set the scene for people who are just watching, we are just shy of 4:00 a.m. here in Israel. We just watched four vans that are carrying those hostages who are parts of that second group to be released arrived there at the Sheba Medical Center here in Israel, to undergo these evaluations where we know they have a lot of questions, a lot of tests for these people who have been held. Most of them, we believe, from what we've been hearing, under ground for nearly 50 days in Gaza after being kidnapped in that brutal day on October 7th.

And, Clarissa, something you said earlier that stood out to me was that officials at these hospitals here in Tel Aviv, in Israel have been preparing for a month for this very evening, for this very moment of these hostages to arrive and going to great lengths to make sure that for these people who have been through hell that they can be as comfortable as possible and not feel like they're walking into this kind of sterile hospital room.

[20:45:13]

WARD: Yeah. I mean, it was very striking. Said they've been doing drills, and they didn't know exactly what the scenario would look like. But they wanted to try to be prepared for any possibility. I don't know if we still have that photograph or if we can pull it up of what the room here, one of the rooms for the children looks like here. But it really doesn't look like a hospital honestly.

You can see they've taken a lot of care to put toys and wash kits and -- wash kits, such a simple thing, but it's so important because often when hostages are held in these types of conditions they don't have privacy. They don't have the ability to do simple things like have a shower or brush their teeth.

Again, we don't know the details of the circumstances in which these hostages were held. But we do know that it is so important arriving here for this to feel like a warm space, like an intimate space, like a quiet, safe space. And you can see with the way they've done the beds with different covers and toys that a lot of care has been taken and a lot of thought has been put into how to try to do that and make it a safe space.

And we saw also videos that have come out from the Schneider Medical Center of some of those family reunions. There's one with a father with his son and he's hugging him and holding him and saying, we're just going stay here for a couple of days because the doctors want to be sure everything's okay, and then we're going to go home. And you have no idea how many presents everyone has brought for you.

And so, I think there's a real appreciation of the fact that even though this is good news and even though this is a beautiful reunion for these families, these lives have been changed forever. And this is not a scenario where you can wave a magic wand and make everything better again.

And so, there does needs to be that sense of purpose and intention and thoughtfulness and sensitivity into how you reintroduce these newly freed hostages, and particularly the children, into -- back into their homes.

COLLINS: Yeah. And so many of them from this group are from kibbutz Be'eri, they don't -- those homes they have, they don't exist certainly not in the way they did before.

Clarissa, we are watching hostages arrive at the Sheba Medical Center. We'll continue to check back with you. And we'll continue our special live coverage of the second group of hostages now have been released by Hamas. They are back in Israel. The second group of Palestinian prisoners have now returned to the West Bank. We are tracking every angle of the story and will be back after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:52:27]

MARQUARDT: We have been closely following the release of the 17 hostages freed tonight by Hamas who are now in Israel. They have been taking a path from Gaza into Egypt from several checkpoints. Here to talk her through the logistics is CNN military analyst, retired U.S. Air Force Colonel Cedric Leighton.

So, Colonel, walk us through the path out of Gaza, and how they are making their way home.

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: So, the big thing here, Alex, is they really had a circuitous route, going through these crossings, and ending in Tel Aviv. But let's take a quick look at some more detail here because the first crossing that they had right here at Rafah, which was across from Gaza into Egypt. They went from Egypt to the other Kerem Shalom crossing, which crosses from both from Gaza and into Israel, as well as from Egypt into Israel.

They crossed through this way. And then there was another crossing down here at Metsanah (ph), where they could have crossed right here. Go back to the other map. The first days, they went to the base in Hatzerim. That's not the case as far as I know today. For tonight's release, all of them seem to be ending up in the hospitals here in Tel Aviv.

MARQUARDT: So, essentially going like this and end up at the hospital up there.

LEIGHTON: That's right.

MARQUARDT: What is interesting, Colonel, is that there are a number of crossings between Israel and Gaza directly. And those are not being used. These two days, they have gone from Gaza, into Egypt, before going into Israel. So, why do you think that is? Do you think this will continue in these next two days at least?

LEIGHTON: I think it will continue that way, Alex, because, first of all, the crossings in the north, have all been damaged. So, they are crossings that, you know, basically, are not --

MARQUARDT: Erez up there.

LEIGHTON: Erez is the one, right near Sderot. That crossing is completely unusable for these purposes right now. These actually have the facilities. The have the border crossings. We have Israeli officials all appear. That was the best fit for them to move, and go in this way. They are going up through the areas like we talked about. MARQUARDT: We have been so focused of course on the treatment that

these hostages may need. As you can imagine, Shin Bet, and the IDF, so the local security service, they are going to be wanting to be speaking to these hostages. What are they going to be asking?

[20:55:00]

What do want to find out about their ordeals?

LEIGHTON: So, one of the key things that they want to know is, for example, what did they see? Did they see things like this? Did they see these tunnels? Did they notice where they might have been? Did they have any daylight at all? Were there times where they were outside?

For the most part as far as we know right now, the hostages were held inside tunnels like this one. They didn't have any interaction with any other groups. They may have had some interactions with the hostages. That would also be a point of interest. They would want to know what facilities they were so that they could match them up with the maps and the tunnels that the Israelis may have to see if there are some points of vulnerability that could be exploited for future operations.

And then, of course, the other thing they want to know, is if they encounter these types of people. They obviously did. Many of them, when were they there? Were they only with Hamas? Were they with the other groups?

Those were the kinds of things that they may or may not know. Those are the kinds of questions that they would be asked in cases like this.

MARQUARDT: Because the expectations now with these days of pause, is that Hamas is going to be trying to round up other hostages who may be in other locations. Are they going to be held by other groups, gangs, individuals, or families, that kind of thing?

Colonel Cedric Leighton, thank you very much.

We will have much more on the release of the 17 hostages that happened today, and what is coming in the days ahead?

CNN's special, live coverage continues in just a moment. Stay with us.