Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Three Israeli Hostages Now Back in Israel, Israel Releasing 180+ Prisoners; Young DOGE Workers Spark Controversy; Trump Downplays Significance of DOGE's Access to Federal Data; Pentagon Takes Workspace from CNN, "The Hill," "The Post"; Chiefs Attempting to Counter Dominant Eagles Offense. Aired 5-6a ET

Aired February 08, 2025 - 05:00   ET

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

[05:00:00]

(MUSIC PLAYING)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): This is CNN breaking news.

KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): I'm Kim Brunhuber. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM.

There is breaking news right now in the Middle East. Three Israelis who were held hostage by Hamas for 490 days are now back in Israel. Hamas released them earlier today to the Red Cross in Deir al-Balah, Gaza. Then they were handed over to the Israeli military.

Later today, Israel is scheduled to release 183 Palestinian prisoners. This is all part of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire agreement. I want to go now to Jeremy Diamond, live in Tel Aviv.

You were there when those hostages were released and you saw the emotions in the crowds behind you there. Plenty of celebration in Israel, seeing those images of the hostages being released, but also plenty of concern over their condition.

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: No doubt about it, this was a quite a different scene from the one that we have seen over the last four releases of Israeli hostages from Gaza.

Yes, there was that wave of relief that washed over people here as they saw them emerging alive after 491 days of captivity. There were cheers. There were applause as they saw them.

But then there were also pained looks of concern on the faces of so many here as they saw the condition in which these three men seem to have emerged after 15 months of being held by Hamas. All of them looking quite thin and relatively frail.

I think the most shocking one was Eli Sharabi in terms of a before and after of what he looked like before he was captured and kidnapped from his home in Kibbutz Be'eri on October 7th and how he looks today as he is being released. He has clearly lost an enormous amount of weight during his time in captivity. We also know that Or Levy, the 34 year old man who was released today,

the reason he is being released is because he's considered a, quote, "humanitarian case," meaning that he is likely either wounded or ill in some way. And so that may also point to his condition after 15 months in captivity.

We now do understand that all three men are indeed in Israel. They are on their way to that Reim military base in southern Israel, where we will finally see their first moments reuniting with their families very, very shortly.

From there, they will be taken by helicopter to hospitals here in central Israel, in Tel Aviv, where, on the outskirts of Tel Aviv, where they will be reunited with the rest of their families and begin a long road to recovery.

BRUNHUBER: Well, Jeremy, speaking of a long road, let's talk about the rest of this deal.

Where do things stand right now in terms of getting to phase two?

DIAMOND: Well, first of all, today, we expect that, in exchange for these hostages, Israel will release 183 Palestinian prisoners and detainees; 18 of them have been serving life sentences, 111 of them were detained in Gaza post October 7th by the Israeli military.

We do not yet know all of their identities or what condition they will be emerging from Israeli prisons. But we expect they will be released in the occupied West Bank, as well as in Gaza for those who were detained there.

Now we are at a moment of real uncertainty about what the rest of this deal mean will look like and whether or not it can be extended.

And make no doubt about it, the images that we saw of those hostages and the condition in which they emerged is going to play an enormous role in the public debate here in Israel over continuing this ceasefire, over getting the remaining hostages out.

Really, a flashing red light about the health condition of some of these hostages and the need to get them out as soon as possible.

But we know that there are forces in Israel who are arguing that, after this six week ceasefire is over, Israel should go back to the fight in Gaza, should go back to achieving the goal that the Israeli prime minister set out.

Which many here in Israel also believe is unachievable, which is to entirely destroy Hamas, remove it from power and ensure that it is no longer in existence in the Gaza Strip. And the Israeli prime minister was in Washington this week having conversations with American officials, including president Trump, about the fate of this deal.

There's no question that American officials are urging Israel to engage in these negotiations to reach phases two and three, to get the remainder of the hostages out. [05:05:04]

But it's also clear that president Trump has injected a considerable amount of unpredictability and really gamechanging ideas, for the better or for worse, when he talks about, you know, this takeover of Gaza.

What will that do to Hamas' negotiating position, for example?

How will that impact these talks?

And those are some of the concerns that we have heard from the families of hostages over president Trump's comments and the impact that it may have on the ability of the Israel and Hamas to actually reach an agreement to extend the ceasefire and to get all of the other hostages out.

And certainly that was being echoed here in Hostage Square. After we saw the images of those three hostages being released, we then heard a roll call of all of the remaining 76 hostages still being held in Gaza. And after each name, the crowd here chanted "Achshav," which means "Now." They want them to all return home now -- Kim.

BRUNHUBER: Jeremy Diamond, great to have you there, live in Tel Aviv. Thanks so much.

I want to go now to Salma Abdelaziz, who is live in London.

So Salma, Jeremy touched on the other half of this deal, that Israel will release more than 180 Palestinian prisoners. So let's dig into that a bit more.

What more do we know about how it will take place and who might be released?

SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So all of these steps need to be very carefully completed before that commences. But we've already seen, of course, these three hostages on that stage in central Gaza.

They went into the custody of the Red Cross and now, of course, are on the Israeli side and should soon, if not already, be receiving treatment and care. So the fact that we didn't see the chaotic scenes that had occurred during the last release, that already gives us an indication that things should go ahead as planned.

And the plan is, again, as you said, 183 Palestinians held in Israeli jails to be released today. That should take place at Ofer prison in the occupied West Bank. The Red Cross again will be in charge of the logistics here.

It will be their buses that ferry out these 183 individuals to various locations. More than 45 of them are going to be released into the West Bank but over 130 will be returned to Gaza. And already our team on the ground has seen families gathered at the Rafah border crossing at the European hospital. It is there that these prisoners are expected to arrive and receive

initial assessments and initial treatment. But many of these individuals who have been held in Israeli prisons, over 110 of them, were arrested or detained after October 7th. So they are returning to a very different reality and a very different Gaza.

It's important to note that, among these prisoners, during the past releases, we have seen journalists. We have seen mothers who were arrested while breastfeeding their children. We have seen political advocates.

So alongside those who have committed very serious and very violent crimes, there will be these really poignant and emotional reunions that will really unify Palestinians as they take place.

But again, that question of uncertainty that you heard Jeremy express there, it looms over all of this. This is only phase one of the deal. You can see how complex, how detailed the negotiations and logistics of all of this has to be for even just a few individuals to be released. There are still hostages.

Jeremy mentioned how those names were read out immediately afterwards. So for many, the question is OK.

But what next?

But what happens after this?

Do we continue that step by step path toward hopefully a more comprehensive peace here?

Or is this the end of the road? -- Kim.

BRUNHUBER: Yes, that's the question. Salma Abdelaziz, thank you so much. Appreciate that.

All right. For more on all of this, I want to go now to Yaakov Katz, a senior columnist at the "Jerusalem Post" and the author of many books about Israel's military. And he's speaking to us from Jerusalem.

Thank you so much for being here with us. So you've been watching along here this emotional release.

What stood out to you about this latest hostage release?

Three men, two in their 50s, one in their 30s. Certainly. It seemed orderly but the condition of the hostages was concerning.

YAAKOV KATZ, AUTHOR AND SENIOR COLUMNIST AT THE "JERUSALEM POST": You know, Kim, I always try to stay away from making any comparison to the Holocaust.

But when watching the images of Eli, Ohad and Or, the three men who were released today, come on stage, see how emaciated they are, how much weight they have lost and look at the photos of them today, compared to the way they looked when they were taken. Drag two of them from their homes in Kibbutz Be'eri or from the Nova

music festival, where he went with his wife -- his wife was murdered by Hamas -- and to see the way they look today, it can only -- unimaginable.

[05:10:00]

The horror they must have all gone through over the last 500 days almost in Hamas captivity. This is the terrorist group that Israel has been fighting with for the last 16 months.

And I think that we all need to remember these images and have them burned into our minds so we remember that this is the enemy that Israel has been waging war against, to try to eliminate and destroy, for the security of our country but for the security of all humanity.

BRUNHUBER: Yes. Although the scenes that Hamas were certainly eager to portray there, the images of their fighters heavily armed, again suggests they are still there, despite Israel's attempts to destroy them.

I want to look ahead now. Over the weekend, Israel is expected to send the -- their negotiating team to Doha to talk about the deal's second stage.

But according to Israeli media, the delegation members aren't authorized to advance the deal until prime minister Netanyahu returns to Israel next week and briefs the cabinet about his meeting with president Trump. So talk us through where things stand right now.

KATZ: Well, definitely the vast majority of Israelis -- I've seen polling indicating 70-80 percent want to see Israel move to the second stage.

Let's remember, Kim, that what we're seeing now, this fifth release in the last three weeks or so of hostages, is only part of the first stage, under which only 33 of the hostages, we also don't know exactly how many are alive, how many of those 33 are no longer among the living.

Those are supposed to be released but there's supposed to be a second stage, which will hopefully, if it happens, bring back the remaining hostages, which will be about 60 almost, who will still be in Gaza after this first stage.

Prime minister Netanyahu has spent the last week in Washington, where he had some dramatic meetings, as we all know, with president Trump and his team, also having meetings on the Hill with Senate and the House leaders.

It'll be interesting to see, when he lands back in Israel tomorrow on Sunday and briefs the security cabinet, what will be the decisions going ahead to try to get to that second stage.

Because, as we know, we obviously need, of course, Israel's readiness to move forward but also Hamas. And Hamas is this barbaric, cynical terrorist group. They want to hold on to some of these hostages because that's their leverage, their insurance card.

We have to hope that they're willing to enter into that second stage and run those negotiations that can bring us there.

BRUNHUBER: I mean, you brought up those dramatic meetings. Certainly, Trump's statements, dramatic, to say the least, throwing everything into question when he announced that the U.S. could take over Gaza.

We've heard from the Israeli side, we've heard from Arab countries as well, that that plan could jeopardize that next phase.

So what do you think the implications of that so-called plan will be?

KATZ: Well, if I was asked what my greatest concern is, when I think about the plan that the president has spoken about, taking an ownership position, as he referred to it, over the Gaza Strip, what exactly that means.

You know, it remains unclear, even if it is a plan, Kim, or it's just an idea that the president is throwing out there.

But I think it is definitely -- will this undermine the movement to the second stage of the deal?

Because the most important thing -- and we see this today with these images of Or, Eli and Ohad coming home, there's no question in anyone's mind the danger that every hostage in Gaza remains as long as they languish in Hamas captivity.

Their lives are in danger every moment as time passes and we need to get them home. But I also think that Trump's statements have value because we have allowed the conversation, when it comes to Hamas, to basically be the same one for the last 20 years.

Ever since Israel pulled out of Gaza and every couple of years there was another round and cycle of violence between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. It's time to break that up. It's time to change the paradigm.

And whether the president's plan is realistic or not. It does make people break out of the conventional wisdom thinking and start to contemplate other alternatives for how to really bring security, how to really bring an end to hostilities for Israelis and for the innocent people of Gaza, who have also suffered greatly at the hands of Hamas.

We need this to change. And whether it's the evacuation of the people of Gaza or something else, there is definitely a need for a new, dramatic change to what happens here in this region.

BRUNHUBER: Yes, that's certainly been the line that they've been saying, that they need to shake things up. But I'm not sure that that that's really an alternative, in terms of having the U.S. take ownership without boots on the ground or without investing U.S. money.

And certainly Palestinians won't go ahead with any evacuation plan. But in terms of the real-world effects here, already, Israel's foreign minister instructed the Israeli army to prepare a plan to facilitate Palestinians' "voluntary" departure. I make air quotes there.

[05:15:00]

Was that just a symbolic move to show support for Donald Trump?

KATZ: Well, when the defense minister is giving those orders to the IDF, it's actually taking something from the level of an idea and putting it into practice.

The military is creating some plans, although I can tell you, from conversations there, they don't really yet know how this is all going to play out and what that means.

Like you said, how do you take ownership over Gaza without putting boots on the ground?

The president has said also in a tweet that America will only take ownership after Israel has completed fighting Hamas.

At what stage is that?

Because, as we see right now, Kim -- and you mentioned this before -- Hamas is still there, right?

They got their armed men in Deir al-Balah, the center of Gaza Strip, where the hostages were released, with their green bands, their AK- 47s. They're still present.

So at what point does someone say, OK, we're done; now America goes in?

So that raises a lot of questions, of course. But I think that what we can do, at least in an initial stage potentially -- and maybe this is what the defense minister is referring to -- is open the border with Egypt, right.

Gaza has a 14 kilometer border with Egypt. There's the crossing in Rafah into Egypt. If somebody from Gaza wants to leave and there is a country in the world that wants to take them in, let them have that opportunity to seek a better future, right?

It will take years for Gaza to be rebuilt. It will take years for Hamas to be really replaced with a new governing entity. Let's enable -- and maybe this is what they're talking about -- the people of Gaza to seek a better future somewhere else.

Now does that mean coerced or voluntary?

We'll have to wait and see.

BRUNHUBER: Yes. In the midst of this, we were just showing pictures there of the helicopters at Reim military base, that will take those three hostages to hospitals in and around Tel Aviv.

And so many in Israel and beyond, thinking of the welfare of those three hostages now free on Israeli soil. Yaakov Katz, thank you so much. Appreciate it.

KATZ: Thank you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: Well, a controversial member of Elon Musk's new government task force is back in action after stepping away over controversial old social media posts.

What led to the man's reinstatement when we return, stay with us.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:20:00]

(MUSIC PLAYING)

BRUNHUBER: Want to give you an update on the breaking news in the Middle East.

Three Israeli men who were held hostage by Hamas for 491 days are now back in Israel. They were released earlier today to the Red Cross in Deir al-Balah, Gaza. They're expected to get health checkups and be reunited with loved ones.

The Israeli government on Saturday condemned the shocking images of the hostages' emaciated appearance. The prime minister's office says it won't go unaddressed. Some 21 hostages held in Gaza since October 7th, 2023, have been released since the ceasefire went into effect on January 19th.

Later today, Israel is scheduled to release 183 Palestinian prisoners. And we'll bring you updates as they happen.

Just days after Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu became the first foreign leader to meet with president Donald Trump at the White House, the U.S. State Department announced a $7 billion arms sale to Israel.

But according to a Democratic lawmaker, the sale bypassed the congressional review process that would have given lawmakers time to ask questions and raise concerns about the deal. The weapons involved include thousands of Hellfire missiles and bombs.

Thousands of U.S. federal employees still have their jobs for now. A U.S. federal judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from putting more than 2,000 USAID employees on leave. The judge also ordered the agency to temporarily reinstate 500 other workers who had been suspended.

The signage at the U.S. Agency for International Development was removed from its Washington, D.C., headquarters on Friday. Separately, another federal judge has struck down an emergency request to block access to Labor Department data by Elon Musk's DOGE team. The U.S. district judge said he had some concerns about how DOGE was

allegedly operating but ruled the unions that brought the challenge failed to show the level of imminent harm needed for a court to intervene. CNN's Alex Marquardt has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: A bit of good news for USAID, which has really taken a battering this week as the Trump Administration has tried to hollow out the agency as well as stripping it of its independence.

A federal judge here in Washington, D.C., who was actually named by Donald Trump, issued a temporary order blocking the Trump administration's efforts to put almost all of its staffers on leave as of late Friday night.

Now that came during a legal hearing closing out this week in which the acting leaders of USAID had said that all direct hires, as they're known, would be put on leave.

Except for essential personnel, numbering in the hundreds out of a workforce of some 10,000, which also includes thousands of contractors, many of whom have already been furloughed or laid off.

On Friday, workers took down the signage at the USAID headquarters here in Washington, D.C., and also covered up the agency's seals. The lawsuit was brought by USAID staffers against Donald Trump and his secretaries of State and Treasury.

They accused the administration of acting illegally, something that Democratic lawmakers have also alleged.

The suit said that the administration was not just throwing public servants into chaos and uncertainty but also creating a humanitarian crisis. This is a little bit of what they said in their suit.

"Deaths are inevitable. Already 300 babies that would not have had HIV now do. Thousands of girls and women will die from pregnancy and childbirth. Without judicial intervention, it will only get worse."

Well, judicial intervention did come on Friday and though the USAID staff who I have spoken with were relieved at the ruling, they do recognize that this is a temporary move.

And there's still much to come as Trump tries to dramatically scale back both the agency's staff and its operations all around the world -- Alex Marquardt, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: Well, president Musk (sic) is downplaying any concerns over Musk and his team. Musk is even bringing back a staffer who resigned after being linked to racist social media posts. This after the vice president voiced support for him.

[05:25:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

QUESTION: One of the DOGE engineers was fired for some inappropriate posts.

The vice president says, bring him back.

What do you say?

TRUMP: Well, I don't know about the particular thing but if the vice president said that, did you say that?

I'm with the vice president.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: We got more details now from CNN's Rene Marsh.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RENE MARSH, CNN U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the 25 year old DOGE staffer is also linked to social media posts calling for the repeal of the Civil Rights Act. Now Marko Elez graduated from Rutgers University in 2021 and, shortly after, began working at Musk's company, SpaceX.

As a DOGE staffer, he was considered a special government employee with access to sensitive federal agency I.T. systems and data. And like the slate of other 20-something year old engineers who are on Musk's DOGE team, he does not appear to have any experience working in the government.

Again, Musk's DOGE team consists of a slate of software engineers in their early 20s, who have impressive accomplishments in the tech world but are novices when it comes to the federal government and understanding how it works.

Musk's team includes a 23 year old software engineer from Nebraska, who used AI to help decipher an ancient scroll buried for centuries. Another was a runner up in a hackathon contest last year as a Harvard senior. A third is a CEO of a multi-billion dollar startup. And a fourth graduated high school just last year.

But there is high concern, especially among Democratic lawmakers on Capitol Hill, about the lack of transparency about who has been hired by DOGE and what security and background clearances they've undergone, what data they've been accessing and what they're doing with it -- Rene Marsh, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: "Time" magazine has put Elon Musk on its cover and, provocatively, it has him sitting behind the desk of the U.S. president known as the Resolute Desk. The image of power comes as the head of DOGE, the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, carries out a campaign to gut the federal workforce.

On Friday, Trump was asked what he thought of the cover.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

QUESTION: Mr. President, do you have a reaction to the new "Time" magazine cover, that has Elon Musk sitting behind your Resolute Desk?

TRUMP: No.

QUESTION: In "Time" magazine?

TRUMP: Is "Time" magazine still in business?

I didn't even know that.

(LAUGHTER)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: Of course, the president has been selected as "Time's" Person of the Year twice, most recently in 2024.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: I want to bring in Richard Johnson, who is a lecturer in U.S. politics at the Queen Mary University of London. And he joins us live from Oxford, England.

Good to see you again. So you know, obviously this is just sort of the -- that cover kind of symbolic but it does reflect how much influence Musk has on the government right now.

RICHARD JOHNSON, QUEEN MARY UNIVERSITY: Yes. It's a rather curious beast, this DOGE entity because, if you look at the executive order that set it up, it's actually a rebranding of an agency that was rather obscure.

Not known much to the public, the U.S. Digital Services Agency, which actually Barack Obama had set up to help manage the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, to help with the setting up of healthcare.gov.

And this agency has continued to exist. Joe Biden used it during the pandemic to help with the vaccine rollout. And then all of a sudden, it's kind of been rebranded as DOGE. And now Elon Musk is thought to have sort of the president's permission to go through and start shutting down agencies that have statutory basis.

I mean, these are agencies that, in some cases, Congress has set up and has appropriated funds to, which violates all kinds of Article I principles, Article I being the powers of Congress, including the power of the purse, where it's Congress' responsibility to set federal spending.

And it's the president's responsibility, the executive branch's responsibility to implement those instructions set by Congress. The executive branch doesn't get to second guess what the budget is.

BRUNHUBER: Yes, that's why we're going to see so many lawsuits as well. You said that the, you know, this entity was rebranded into DOG; Democrats would say weaponized. They, you know, kind of seem, Democrats, unsure how to handle Donald Trump this time around.

They seem to be focusing a lot of attention on Elon Musk, sort of casting him as this super villain puppetmaster but also concretely trying to highlight how much power he wields with little accountability or transparency.

JOHNSON: I mean, I think there obviously is a great deal that one -- concerns that one can raise about Musk and his particular role in government, although I would caution about over an overfocus on Musk and overpersonalization on it. There has been a range of policy changes that president Trump has brought in.

[05:30:02]

This is part of a strategy which his outrider, Steve Bannon, once called flooding the zone, this idea that we're just going to throw lots of different policies at the wall and see what sticks.

And that has two implications. One is the policy implications, that you have new policies that may come into effect. But the second is that it really changes the political weather.

Almost 100 years ago, a political scientist called E.E. Schattschneider, writing about tariff policy, actually said policy, new policy creates new politics. And that's very much, I think, what president Trump is trying to do with his executive orders, by implementing these existing -- sorry.

(CROSSTALK)

BRUNHUBER: Yes. No, just on that note, exactly, on the politics of it. But you know, even if you put politics aside, I mean, there are serious concerns about how much access this DOGE team has to finance payroll and so on.

And many states are suing to stop that team from accessing Treasury Department data. And this is going to be, as I kind of talked about earlier, I mean, this is going to be a recurring theme when it comes to the actual cuts that Musk and DOGE are pursuing, eradicating departments and getting rid of employees.

They're now running up against the courts and some of those efforts have been stopped in their tracks.

Is this just a preview of how the next four years will go?

Or will Trump sort of run out of executive action steam and start getting Congress to put the force of legislation behind some of these initiatives?

JOHNSON: Well, personnel management, I suppose, has been one of those ways that presidents have always been able to put their put their stamp on things in a dramatic fashion.

I mean, you go back to the very early years of the republic, one of the most famous early Supreme Court cases, Marbury versus Madison, was a question about the appointments that John Adams was making in the final days of his presidency.

This whole notion of the spoils system -- "to the victors, the spoils" -- comes from Andrew Jackson, one of president Trump's presidential heroes, who, when he came into the White House, he sacked about 10 percent of the federal workforce, including hundreds and hundreds of Post Office officers, because they weren't Democrats.

So there is a long tradition of that. But the difference today is the federal government does so much more than it used to in the 19th century, that its policy scope is so much broader.

And so this isn't just a question of, you know, who's running a particular Post Office in a particular county in Kentucky. You know, this has implications for people's lives. People are depending both in the United States and around the world on these federal programs.

And actually, I think there is a lot of damage that the president can do to these agencies. The courts will be able to step in. But I think it's not going to be that the court can just come in and just hold the president, you know, reverse, revert back to the way things were.

That Trump is a master at what we sometimes say, "shifting the Overton window," shifting the range of possibilities. And people learn. People, when I say people, both the public and policymakers learn from when you try making policy change here.

If it doesn't quite work, they make adjustments and then they try something different. That's what he did in his first term and he's learned from his first term. And I think this is you know, why you see even more energy in his second term with these executive actions.

BRUNHUBER: Yes. Absolutely. Right. We'll have to leave it there. But always appreciate all the context you bring to these to these issues. Richard Johnson, thank you so much.

JOHNSON: Thank you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: Three former hostages held in Gaza for 491 days are now back in Israel. But there are concerns about their health after their gaunt appearance when Hamas released them. Stay with CNN for the latest. We'll be back.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:35:00]

(MUSIC PLAYING) BRUNHUBER: More now on the breaking news in the Middle East. Three

Israeli men who were held hostage by Hamas for 491 days are now back in Israel. They were released just over an hour ago.

But there are concerns about their health. The Israeli government on Saturday condemned the shocking images of the hostages' emaciated appearance. The prime minister's office says it won't go unaddressed. The three men are expected to get health checkups before being reunited with loved ones.

And later today, Israel is scheduled to release 183 Palestinian prisoners. Now these are images just into us from near Ofer prison in the West Bank, where they're being currently held.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: Now for more on all this, we're joined by Paul Salem, the vice president for International Engagement at the Middle East Institute. And he's speaking to us from Beirut, Lebanon.

Thank you so much for being here with us. So we've just seen our fifth release of hostages, as well as Palestinian prisoners.

How do you assess the process so far?

We're three weeks now into the ceasefire.

PAUL SALEM, VICE PRESIDENT FOR INTERNATIONAL ENGAGEMENT, MIDDLE EAST INSTITUTE: Well, I mean, it's a very, very bumpy process. And certainly there's a lot of snags along the way.

But the bigger picture remains the case in that president Trump, who entered the White House on January 20th, had made it very clear to prime minister Netanyahu that he wants this ceasefire agreement to be, you know, reached.

And it was reached just hours before he entered the office and that he wants it to hold. So I think overall, it will hold through March 1st. It will be, you know, unstable and not very smooth.

These two ceasefires, the ceasefire in Gaza that expires on March 1st and the ceasefire and withdrawal in Lebanon, which was extended to February 18th, are two deadlines that Israel and, behind them, the U.S. are facing.

The big question remains, what is Trump's broader plan vis-a-vis Israel and the Palestinians?

We've seen his announcement on Gaza and he said he wants to make an announcement on the West Bank. So once he does that, we'll have a bigger picture of what Trump has in mind.

BRUNHUBER: Well, yes, I mean, you talk about bumps, certainly that one is a huge one. When president Trump announced that plan for the U.S. to take over Gaza with no boots on the ground and no U.S. money. So everybody's scrambling to find out how exactly that would happen. We've heard from both the Israeli side and from Arab countries that

this plan could jeopardize the next phase.

What do you think the implications of this so-called plan will be?

SALEM: Well, I think the plan is not workable, I mean, in the first case.

[05:40:00]

I mean, it was quite clear that there would be no American boots on the ground. The American public and public opinion has no appetite for that, to get into a fresh war in the Middle East. Of course, it was surprising that Trump even put it on the table.

In months of war by Israel on Hamas has not defeated Hamas in a major way nor has it enabled the displacement of Palestinians to Egypt and Jordan. Egypt and Jordan and all the Arab countries have said absolutely not. They will not go along with a displacement or ethnic cleansing or something like that of Palestinians out of that Strip.

So I don't think it's a workable plan per se. But I think by president Trump injecting himself so directly and saying, effectively, Gaza is my call, or, Gaza is mine, is politically, you know, quite, quite interesting. But we'll have to see what his position on the West Bank is and then how prime minister Netanyahu deals with both of those positions.

BRUNHUBER: Yes, we're expecting some kind of announcement about the West Bank. But all of this underscored that the real power center for this deal is the White House. And it's striking how much more power Trump has compared to Biden. I mean, it seems very much that Trump's in the driver's seat here.

SALEM: Yes, absolutely. I mean, keep in mind that, when Netanyahu went to Washington, what he wanted to get from Trump was a green light or support for an Israeli strike on Iran.

Interestingly enough, Trump, you know, sort of took control of the press conference afterwards by the surprise announcement about Gaza, completely changing the conversation. So Trump did not give Netanyahu a green light on Iran. He effectively took the Gaza card out of Netanyahu's hand and put it in his hand.

And we all know that the big prize that Trump is gunning for is a historic deal between the U.S., Saudi Arabia and Israel. He would love to get a Nobel prize for that at some point and to be able to claim that he settled the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

And in order to get that deal, he's going to have to offer the Saudis something on the West Bank. So absolutely, Netanyahu is not in the commanding position that he was under Biden. And Trump is really gaining the upper hand.

BRUNHUBER: Yes, certainly his plan on Gaza is raising more questions about the palatability of normalizing relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel. We will have to leave it there. Paul Salem, thank you so much for speaking to us. Really appreciate it.

SALEM: Thank you, sir.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: All right. When we come back, new details on the upheaval in the U.S. government as Donald Trump's administration shakes up Washington. Stay with us.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:45:00]

(MUSIC PLAYING)

BRUNHUBER: More now on the breaking news in the Middle East. We're getting a live look at the West Bank near Ofer prison, where Israel has begun the release of 183 Palestinian prisoners. And some of those buses have already left.

As we see the car pulling up to the opening there, it's part of the ceasefire agreement that saw Hamas release three Israeli men a short time ago and they were held hostage for 491 days.

The Israeli government's condemning what it says are shocking images that show the men emaciated. Veteran Israeli negotiator turned peace activist Gershon Baskin says the men's appearance would remind many Israelis of Nazi concentration camp survivors.

The men are now back in Israel and expected to get medical checkups before being reunited with loved ones.

Donald Trump's overhaul of the U.S. government is broadening in scope and now he plans to remake one of America's leading cultural centers. In a social media post, the president said he would fire several board members of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington.

He also said he would replace the current chairman with himself. President Trump took issue with the center's programming, calling out drag shows from last year. In his post, he said the center's best days are yet to come.

And president Trump has followed through on his plan to replace the national archivist. Colleen Shogan was dismissed via a social media post on X late Friday. She was nominated by former President Biden, was the first woman to serve and has been in the position since 2023.

But she blocked Biden's move to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment, citing precedent, before he left office, Shogan had personal ties to first lady Melania Trump, having worked together on projects during the first Trump administration.

But last month, Trump hinted that he planned to replace Shogan. He's been critical of the office since the previous archivist asked the Justice Department to investigate Trump's handling of the White House records in 2022.

And Trump has also set his sights on the FBI. He told CNN on Friday that he plans to fire some of the FBI agents who worked on investigations into the January 6th Capitol riot. He claims, quote, "Some of them were corrupt but he didn't provide any evidence." CNN's Paula Reid has more from Washington.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAULA REID, CNN CHIEF LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: On Thursday, the FBI provided the Justice Department with the names of investigators who worked on cases related to January 6th.

Now last week, the Justice Department had been provided with employee ID numbers. But the acting deputy attorney general said that was not enough information. Now understandably, there are concerns among agents and their union that this list of names could potentially be leaked.

Now there was a lawsuit that was filed over these concerns, and on Friday, an agreement was reached between the Justice Department and the FBI that bars the Justice Department from releasing this list of names without giving the agents at least two days' notice.

Now the agents say their biggest concern is that this list would be shared with DOGE or the White House and released that way, even though the Justice Department denies it has any interest in releasing this publicly.

So these agents clearly have a lot to be worried about, not only for their security if these names are released but also because president Trump said on Friday he does expect that some of these investigators will be fired -- Paula Reid, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's press office is taking away CNN's workspace at the Pentagon. As part of a so-called media rotation program, CNN, "The Washington Post," "The Hill" and "The War Zone," which covers the defense industry, will lose out in favor of explicitly pro-Trump media outlets.

Excess old network FOX News keeps its place. Change doesn't remove credentials, so the affected media will still have access to officials and briefings.

CNN's statement said, quote, "CNN's mission to report on the Department of Defense, U.S. military and Trump administration will continue, regardless of office arrangements. We will not be deflected from our duty to hold all three fairly and fully to account."

[05:50:04]

We'll be right back.

(MUSIC PLAYING) (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(MUSIC PLAYING)

BRUNHUBER: The NFL is set to reach the pinnacle of its season tomorrow. The Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs will battle it out in Super Bowl LIX. CNN's Andy Scholes checks out the teams' strategies heading into the championship game.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORT CORRESPONDENT: Well, that was.

Another beautiful.

Day here in.

New Orleans.

As we get closer.

And closer.

To super.

Bowl LIX.

The Eagles and Chiefs fans have certainly been enjoying the French Quarter ahead of the game but only one of those fan bases is going to be happy come Sunday night.

And if the Chiefs want to become the first team ever to threepeat, they're going to have to try to find a way to stop the most dominant play in football, the Eagles' tush push.

Whenever Philly gets third and one or fourth and one, you can pretty much say good night. It's over. They are getting it. Jalen Hurts in that Eagles O line are the premier tush pushers. And Chiefs all-pro defensive tackle Chris Jones, well, he's not looking forward to facing it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS JONES, KANSAS CITY CHIEFS DEFENSIVE TACKLE: They're so good at it. They've been doing it for a while. Tough to stop. They've kind of mastered the leverage and the rugby style of running.

[05:55:00]

I think they have like a 95 percent win rate with that. They need to make the game even for us. Y'all bad to play (ph).

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: Now there are talks that the NFL may ban the tush push after this season. But for now, it remains just an incredible weapon for that Eagles offense.

Now Patrick Mahomes meanwhile, he's trying to win his fourth Super Bowl in just his 7th season as a Chiefs starting quarterback. And we've seen him time and time again just come through in the big moments.

And on Thursday night, I got the chance to catch up with Mahomes' mom, Randi, at NFL honors.

And I asked her, what is it about her son that makes him so clutch?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RANDI MAHOMES, PATRICK'S MOM: After the last game at halftime, I literally looked around and said, he's going to come out and he's going to kick the ball. He's going to hike the ball. He's going to punt the ball like -- and then he comes out running.

I'm like, yes, of course, he's going to run, like that's just him even though he knows I stress out. And -- but I'm like, I know him. Up until the last second, like he's going to be playing 300 percent.

And so I knew, like I'm like, he's going to come out and just try to do whatever. And that's what he does. So.

SCHOLES: What moment during the game makes you the most nervous?

MAHOMES: When he runs the ball.

Mama said, "Don't run the ball." But he still likes to do it. And so that's what makes me the most nervous.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: Yes, moms are certainly always nervous. We'll see if the Mahomes family will once again get to celebrate on the field after the Super Bowl.

But here in New Orleans, all of the talking is over. The teams will have one more walk through practice on Saturday before enjoying some time with their families at the Superdome. And then it's time for Super Bowl LIX.

BRUNHUBER: Mama said, "Don't run the ball." That's great.

That wraps this hour of CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Kim Brunhuber. "CNN THIS MORNING" is next.