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Hamas And Israel Agree To Ceasefire-Hostage Deal. Aired 2:30-3p ET
Aired January 15, 2025 - 14:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[14:30:00]
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: He was talking about it in the sense of making clear that this was his deal.
But what that also highlights is the eight months that have happened -- that have gone on since then, nearly eight months since then, during which time we know that approximately 9,000 more Palestinians have been killed during that time, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
And several Israeli hostages have also been killed during that timeframe. Notably, the American hostage, Hersh Goldberg Polin, who was executed by Hamas as Israeli forces closed in to try and rescue them.
And so it does bear focusing on the -- the toll that those nearly eight months have taken. In particular, when you think about the fact that these parties had a framework agreement back in July.
And we know that there is blame to go around for both Hamas as well as for Israel. The president certainly focused on the blame that Hamas has for that point.
But if you speak to many of the hostage families, as I did over the summer, many of them also believe that the Israeli prime minister was dragging his feet on this deal.
We know that he, you know, effectively rejected the deal in September because he did not want to withdraw from that Philadelphi Corridor. Hamas has since conceded that point in this current agreement.
But there's no question that that will also be something to look at. Those nearly eight months that went by since the president put this framework on the table and the true human toll that that those months have taken.
DANA BASH, CNN HOST: And, Jeremy, I do want to ask about the hostages who are there. Ninety-four remaining hostages, two are children. We know that 9-month-old -- 9-month-old Kfir and 4-year-old Ariel Bibas were among those taken from their -- their home in Israel and taken hostage inside Gaza.
What do we know about their condition and whether or not they will be among those -- DIAMOND: Well --
BASH: -- released?
DIAMOND: Yes, Dana, Hamas claimed many months ago that Kfir, Ariel and their mother, Shiri, were killed inside of the Gaza Strip by an airstrike. The Israeli government has yet to be able to confirm that information. Hamas never released any evidence, any proof -- of that claim.
And, you know, I've spoken with the Bibas family, several members of that family, including most recently last night, I spoke with the uncle of Yarden Bibas, the father of those of those young babies. And he told me that the family is still holding out some hope that perhaps they are alive.
You know, we do -- this agreement has talked about women getting out, children getting out. It has talked about men over the age of 50.
Kfir and Ariel Bibas, if, indeed, they are still alive and if their bodies are being held, they are the only children still being held hostage by Hamas at this hour.
And so we do expect that they will be emerging from the Gaza Strip, alive or dead is -- is the uncertainty here. And -- and we don't know exactly when their families will know which one of those outcomes it will be.
But we do expect that they will likely have some kind of conclusion, some kind of closure to this, you know, unending and incredibly agonizing tale, one that captured the attention of millions of people around the world as we saw the images of -- of them being taken hostage on October 7th.
But again, this speaks to the roller coaster of emotions that these families have been through, and that we expect they will continue to go through in the weeks ahead.
BASH: It's just barbaric. There's no other way to put it.
Thank you so much for that, your incredible reporting as always, Jeremy.
Don't go anywhere. We have a lot more reporting coming in on this historic phase one of a deal to end the bombardment in Gaza and to bring 33 hostages, being held there since Hamas' terror attack in October of 2023, home.
[14:34:08]
We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BASH: Welcome back. And back to our breaking news. Hamas and Israel agreeing to a 42-day ceasefire that will see the release of an estimated 33 hostages who have been held inside Gaza for more than a year, though, 467 days, to be precise.
My next guest lost family in the brutal attack by Hamas inside Israel October 7th, 2023. Ella Mor is here with me now.
Ella's sister-in-law and sister-in-law's husband were murdered on that day. The couple's daughter, 4- year-old Avigayll, was taken hostage for 51 days but was released in that only other time that -- that hostages were released back in November of last year.
I want to bring in Ella now.
I'm sure your feelings right now are quite complicated.
ELLA MOR, SISTER-IN-LAW AND SISTER-IN-LAW'S HUSBAND KILLED BY HAMAS & NEICE TAKEN HOSTAGE BUT RELEASED: Yes. Of course. It's -- it's like a roller coaster here in Israel. All our emotions are like mixing because it's such a happy day and such an excitement announcement.
[14:40:06]
And, in with that, we are so anxious to the hostages that are still there and will stay there until the next phase of the deal will start.
And I even cannot be happy until they really come back, you know, because they say they're going to come back. But until I don't see them in my -- in my eyes, I cannot believe they're here.
So it's such an emotional and so complicated feelings altogether for all of us here in Israel. Everybody is happy and sad at the same moment because we've been through a very, very hard time, very hard war.
And we're just waiting. We're exhausted. And we're just waiting for it to end. And the hostages will come back home.
BASH: Ella, I understand that, when it comes to your niece, Avigayll, who's just a little girl, 4-years-old, she was held for 51 days, which is a very long time for anybody, but certainly somebody who's only been alive for four years.
Without giving too much detail, because you want to protect her privacy, just, generally speaking, how is she doing?
MOR: Well, Avigayll is an amazing little girl, and I love her so much. Really, she was kidnaped when she was 3, and she was released when she was 4.
So I believe everyone that is watching us now can just try to imagine what it is like. If you go with your child to the beach or to the mall and you and you don't see them, like you lose them for like five minutes or for two minutes, it's like a two minutes of total horror.
You are afraid somebody kidnaped him or he is injured or he can't find you. So just imagine what it is like to go like that for 51 days when this little girl, this orphan, because her parents we're murdered, was in the hands of Hamas, is a hostage for 51 days. And I think it's like the most biggest nightmare a person can go
through. It's like -- if it could express how it feels, it feels like hell. This -- is hell to have a hostage in Gaza.
And we went through -- my family went through this hell for 51 days, and we got her back. But the other families, they are going through this for 40 -- 461 days. It's like more a year and almost a year and a half and --
(CROSSTALK)
MOR: I don't have any words to explain that.
BASH: Yes. No, I -- nobody -- nobody does or should.
But you did have that experience, after 51 days, of understanding as a close family member of somebody very, very young. The experience of welcoming her back and all of the physical and emotional toll that it took on -- on her.
We don't know if there will be small children who are alive who will be released. We are still praying that that is the case.
But regardless of their age, there will be people who are alive who will be released after being held in -- in tunnels in, you know, God knows where with --
MOR: Yes --
(CROSSTALK)
BASH: -- with little -- with little food and -- and just the most horrid of conditions.
So my question is, do you have advice for the family of those who are coming back and how to deal with that, when that hopefully will happen starting on Sunday?
MOR: Well, we don't know how the hostages will return. We know that they're being severely tortured. And they are in tunnels, and they are kept in cages -- most of them were kept in cages like animals.
So I think what the families need to do is just to give them time, with no press and no media and no politics that will come to take a picture.
I think there will be -- I expect that the hostages that come back will be totally overwhelmed. I don't know if they can speak, if they can talk, if they will recognize their beloved ones. I don't know because we know about severely brutal torture that they've been through.
[14:45:12]
So I think the only advice is to take a deep breath and to give them a lot of love, also to the families, and to give them the time just to be together in a very peace and protected place with no people.
Because we don't know if hostages were in tunnels. We don't know if they can see or if they can hear, or if it's too much light for them, or the flashes of cameras. So we have to take care of really, really with a lot of love and tender.
Also for the families, because it's going to be a long recovery. It's not going to be a recovery of a few days. It's a big, big trauma.
And even, you know, it's -- in Israel. it's going to be a trauma for generations, just like the Holocaust.
So I think it's going to take a long time to recover. But they have to come back that we can start this recovery. And when they come back, we can start to recover Israel.
Because Israel is very wounded right now. Everybody is sad. We cannot be happy if the hostages are not here with us.
BASH: Elle Mor, thank you so much for being here. Really appreciate it. Thank you for all of your -- your advocacy and your -- and your honesty and your -- and your candor. Appreciate it.
MOR: Thank you so much.
BASH: And love to Avigayll.
MOR: I'll send it to her.
BASH: Much more on our breaking news after a short break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[14:51:31]
BASH: Back to our breaking news this hour. After more than 15 months of fighting and bloodshed in Gaza, of course. 15 months after Israel was attacked by Hamas terrorists on October 7th and hostages we're taken, we do see an agreement for a ceasefire and hostage deal.
President Biden announced the agreement. And he says that U.S. hostages will be part of phase one, American citizens. And that is what he means by that now.
Qatar's prime minister says the deal will go into effect on Sunday.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office says there are several unresolved points but remains sure that they will be settled.
Joining me now to discuss all of this is retired Army General "Spider" Marks, and CNN national security analyst, Beth Sanner.
General Marks, I want to start with you just on the mechanics of this. What needs to be in place to make sure that this agreement is implemented starting on Sunday? GEN. JAMES "SPIDER" MARKS, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, thanks, Dana.
Great to be with you and Beth. I mean, you got a real pro sitting on your shoulder there. So ask her the tough questions.
Look, we should all celebrate this deal. First, let me take a step back. I mean, this -- is absolutely great news. And good on President Biden and his team sprinting through the tape.
You know, 72 to 96 hours before the inauguration of a new administration, you get this accomplished. So good on -- good on that team.
But they also need to be very sober about their view of this, because execution will occur with the subsequent administration. We'll see how this thing turns out.
The ceasefire is incredibly difficult. Of all the military operations, the disentanglement of combatants is incredibly hard to achieve.
Look, there's no striped referee that walks out there with a hat and blows a whistle and says, everybody go to your -- to your sides, break it up, stop fighting. And you know, I'll throw the flag and call penalties.
No, this -- is the -- the only way something like this takes place is leadership at both levels. I'm not sanguine what type of leadership Hamas has.
But I do know in the IDF intimately. They've got incredible rules of engagement. They will ensure that their soldiers are protected during this period of, as I've described, this disentanglement that takes place. You just don't put vehicles in reverse and start to back up.
Weapons are still locked and loaded. Targets are identified. Engagement criteria still exist. And there has to be a level of trust at that individual soldier level with somebody -- you've been trying to kill this guy over the course of the last 400 days, and now you're trying to ask them to break apart.
It happens. It can work. But it really takes immense leadership and oversight in order to achieve that. And it won't be an immediate withdrawal. Look, we're going to -- different sides are going to go to their corners.
But also bear in mind that Yahya Sinwar is gone. He got killed. His brother now is resurrecting Hamas in an attempt to make it a fighting force. Look, they've had some pretty good recruitment. But these are not fighters. These are passionate new recruits.
But this is a very dangerous, dangerous time. And also the IEDs, the unexploded ordinance that exists within Gaza, now become weapon systems if it's not monitored in some way.
So that's just kind of a tip-of-the-iceberg view of how difficult this really is.
[14:55:01]
BASH: So that's from a military point of view.
Beth Sanner, you spent your career in intelligence. And what is it that you're looking at, as this becomes --
(CROSSTALK)
BETH SANNER, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Right. Spider makes all these great points about just logistically how all this will play out.
And, you know, one part of the deal is 600 trucks of aid are supposed to be going in a day. And we know how those things have gone awry and caused conflict. We know dozens of IDF have been killed during this period.
So politically, we also have to add the level of difficulty. This is why this agreement doesn't start the second phase of negotiation until day 16. So they won't start negotiating the end of the war. They've put that off to try to get those 33 hostages out.
You know, we're only going to get a handful on that first day. And remember the nail biting we all did last time and how it fell apart.
So, you know, we're going to have the situation where we're -- where we have a lot of space for lots of things to happen, from what happens if a soldier gets killed? What happens if that hostage bus doesn't make it? Or the aid trucks?
But what happens to Israel domestically? Because we know, right now, in the streets of Israel, we have right-wing protesters who are against this deal, blocking a highway.
And we have a minister who is threatening to quit. And we have 10 Likud who are threatening Netanyahu as well --
BASH: -- members of --
SANNA: Members of his -- yes.
BASH: His own political party.
SANNA: Right. A lot going on.
BASH: Thank you for that insight.
General Marks, thank you as well.
We are going to have to sneak in a very quick break. As we do, want to show you live pictures from Hostage Square in Tel Aviv. Families there celebrating, praying that their loved ones could be among those released as part of this deal we've been talking about. Don't go away.
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