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Hostages Release Expected to Begin in Coming Hours; CNN Visits Israeli Hospital Preparing for Hostage Arrivals; Hostage Families on Their Way to Re'im to Await Release. Aired 11p-12a ET

Aired October 12, 2025 - 23:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[23:02:10]

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello to you viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Sara Sidner in New York. Thank you for being here with us.

In just a couple of hours, the release of the remaining Israeli hostages held in Gaza is expected to begin more than two years after they were kidnapped by Hamas and have been held ever since. That is a look at just some of the celebrations in Israel where families are anxiously awaiting their loved ones return.

An Israeli official says 20 living hostages are expected to be released to the Red Cross first and eventually make their way to their families. A spokesperson for the Israeli prime minister's office says once the hostages cross back into Israel, hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and detainees will then be released. U.S. President Trump now headed to Israel where he is expected to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the families of hostages and then address the Israeli parliament, the Knesset. He spoke to reporters on board Air Force One.

Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: Mr. President, Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister has not gone so far as to say the way is over. In your view, is the war between Israel and Hamas over?

DONALD TRUMP (R), U.S. PRESIDENT: The war is over. The war is over. OK. You understand that.

REPORTER: Mr. President -- is the ceasefire going to hold? Are you confident the ceasefire will hold?

TRUMP: Say again?

REPORTER: Are you confident the ceasefire will hold?

TRUMP: I think so, I think it's going to hold. I think people are -- a lot of reasons why it's going to hold -- but I think people are tired of it. It's been, it's been centuries. OK, not just recent. It's been centuries. I think people are tired of it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: All right, let's head straight to Tel Aviv where CNN's Kaitlan Collins joins us now with the very latest. You know, hearing Donald Trump say, look, in his mind, the war is over. There are people in Israel that are watching this as well, where they are not sure that it is that cut and dry. But at this moment, what they are waiting for is the emotional moment where we will start to see the exchange of the hostages who have been waiting all this time, more than two years, to see their loved ones again.

What are you learning? What does it feel like being there in Tel Aviv as this is underway in the next couple of hours?

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, they're really hopeful, Sara, but definitely a bit of anxiety to kind of wait until they actually see these hostages returned before anyone breathes a sigh of relief here, as so many of them have been waiting. And it's also a really bittersweet moment for the families whose hostages are not coming back alive, whose loved ones have been held captive, but they are not expecting to be able to go to a hospital and greet them like so many of these families are going to be able to do in the coming hours.

[23:05:01]

And so, you know, I've been speaking with a lot of the hostage families that we've gotten to know incredibly well over the past two years about just how this moment feels. I spoke to one mother whose -- whose son was killed, and she was saying that she'd had a lot of outreach from families asking, what do I do when my loved one comes home after being held underground for two years?

And others asking, you know, what do I do when my loved one's not coming home alive? And so it's just a moment that obviously comes with a lot of happiness and a lot of grief and sadness, as well, all in one. And so, for President Trump, as he's making his way here, one thing that we have heard from a lot of these hostage families is -- is gratefulness for the Trump administration keeping this front and center ever since Trump retook office.

Bringing this war to an end was one of his biggest priorities when he reentered the Oval Office. And you could hear the president there as he was speaking with reporters, and they were asking him about Netanyahu's careful statements about whether or not the war is actually over and the president flatly stated, no, the war is over. And he said that he had gotten assurances from both sides that this deal would go on to be implemented.

Obviously, there are a lot of complicated parts of it, Sara, in terms of what that looks like. But he also said later on, as he was speaking with reporters there when I was listening to him, he doesn't think that anyone wants to disappoint him in terms of all the parties that came together to bring this deal together. And so, obviously, we'll see that play out when he's at that summit in Egypt in the coming hours.

But first, he's coming here to Israel. He's going to be meeting with the families of hostages before he speaks to the Israeli parliament. And I actually spoke with one family member of an Israeli hostage who is expected to be released today. That's Moshe Lavi, his brother-in- law, Omri, has been held in Gaza for two years now, over two years. He had a six-month-old baby. Now he's coming home to a two-and-a-half- year-old child whenever he returns home.

And I spoke to him earlier about just what this moment means for these families and what they have been through as they've been fighting for the release of their loved ones for two years now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: What will it be like to not have to wear a shirt with your brother-in-law's face on it?

MOSHE LAVI, BROTHER-IN-LAW OF HOSTAGE OMRI MIRAN: Yeah. I really can't wait to put this in the archive of our family, to take off this necklace of bring Omri home. He'll be part of us. It left a mark, left both a positive mark, because it -- it showed how much we are dedicated to the cause, because we want to keep wearing Omri's face, sharing his story as a father, reminding people he needs to be brought home. But he also, of course, was a burden.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: And as the president was flying over here, I should note that where I was standing there speaking with Moshe was in hostage square, where so many of these families have gathered, where people have been gathering overnight as we are expecting these hostages to be released here just in the next few hours, Sara. And that was a place where last night, when Trump's special envoy was speaking there and he said Trump's name, there were cheers. When he said Netanyahu's name, there were boos.

Trump was asked about Netanyahu being booed. He didn't really respond to that, but only talked about the fact that he was cheered here on the ground in Israel. So, he'll be getting a warm reception here.

The other thing to watch, though, of course, Sara, is as so many Palestinians are making their way back to Gaza City. You've seen those remarkable images. The president said earlier that he would like to visit Gaza eventually.

He likened it to a demolition site right now in terms of just the level of destruction that you can see so plainly from those Israeli airstrikes. And so the question of what that looks like, he talked about starting to rebuild it immediately. Of course, there are huge questions about what that path forward looks like as well.

SIDNER: And a lot of complications as well. Kaitlan Collins, I'm glad you're there. Thank you so much, live there for us from Tel Aviv. I do want to bring in Dahlia Scheindlin, a political analyst and fellow at the Century Foundation. She joins me now from Philadelphia. As we are talking, I am just getting this new information in right now from the Missing Families Forum, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum. And what they are telling us is that the hostage families are on their way to Re'im to await the release of their loved ones as we speak.

So, it shows you that the expectation is that this is going to go forward, that the timing of this is likely in the next actually less than a couple of hours. And we're already seeing movement from the families. Re'im is where the hostages are expected to be received after crossing the border, knowing that first they will be handed over to the Red Cross, who will assess them to make sure that if they need medical attention, they can be taken out by helicopter. There are hospitals awaiting their return. And then they are expected to be, you know, reintroduced to their families.

So, this is a very big moment showing you that things look like they are going forward as planned. Just to get your sense of the enormity of all this, after two years, more than two years of war, and more than two years of these hostages being in the hands of Hamas, some of them taken into tunnels, some of them being shuttled from different homes, this is quite a moment, is it not?

[23:10:29]

DAHLIA SCHEINDLIN, POLITICAL ANALYST: Absolutely. It's a huge moment. I mean, it's almost hard to describe in words. And I think I would just add that, you know, this is a moment in which even the Prime Minister said all Israelis should be united right now. And it may be one of the few times when Israelis agree with him. The majority do want to be united over a day like today.

And there's very little division, whether you're talking about Jewish or Arab or Palestinian Israeli citizens. Everybody wants the hostages back. The bitter divisions that we've seen over this issue was about how to get them back.

And those divisions became politicized very early on in the war, with the majority of Israelis who pretty much consistently from the early months of the war, preferring to get to a deal to release the hostages, and really not being convinced by Netanyahu's approach and increasingly not convinced over time, that it was the war that would bring them back. Netanyahu has been trying to say that the war is the reason why Hamas eventually agreed to this deal. But Israelis, you know, the majority are showing that they don't totally believe that.

I mean, we see that, you know, interestingly, surveys are showing that like 67 percent of Israelis, according to a Channel 13 poll recently, say that it was Trump that pushed Netanyahu to the deal and contributed more to reaching this deal. Only 22 percent said that about Netanyahu. But on a day like today, it's absolutely the case that, you know, there's no disagreement about the sense of just overwhelming, you know, something that might be called relief or happiness mixed with relief, mixed with tragedy and sadness. There's no other way to describe it. Nobody can be jumping for joy. Of course, the families are joyful that the people are coming back. Everybody's joyful they're coming back. But there's been so much suffering over these last two years that it's, you know, extremely complicated day as well.

SIDNER: Extremely complicated. And what is also very complicated is the politics in Israel, as you alluded to. We saw this remarkable moment where Witkoff is talking to the crowd who has been involved in these negotiations. And he mentions Donald Trump's name and the crowd goes wild cheering. And then he mentions Netanyahu and the, you know, the crowd in Tel Aviv that has been there in Hostages Square for all this time, day in and day out, boos. What do you see happening here?

Because as the hostages are released, if they are all, you know, back, 48 of them, 20 of them still alive. Do you think that changes the way that people will feel about Netanyahu? Do you think that's already baked in? Because it has been two years of a lot of anger aimed directly at the prime minister for how he has handled this.

SCHEINDLIN: Yeah, well, I mean, your question is really on point, because as I mentioned before, if in the early stages of the war, we had a majority who would have preferred for Israel to get to an agreement in return for a ceasefire to bring the hostages back, that majority became increasingly firm and grew over time. And, you know, the sense that Netanyahu was at least one of the main reasons why there was not an agreement alongside Hamas, because I think Israelis are aware of Hamas' rejectionism as well.

But the fact is that every time they were asked in surveys, do you think this government and Netanyahu are doing enough? The majority said no. And that became, you know, there were simply numerous times where it seemed like a deal was on the table and the Israeli government waited or didn't respond. And of course, broke the ceasefire back in March after two months in which there was a deal where many of the hostages were released.

Israelis also were convinced, again, of the basic idea that only that hostages are only going to be released through a deal. And the idea that more military action is what would bring them back became something that increasingly Israelis just didn't believe. So, are they going to change their minds about Netanyahu? It's hard to say. You know, nobody can really tell what could change in public opinion over the next few weeks. But I will say that there's been a tiny lift for his party in the immediate surveys that have been done this week.

But we can't make too much of it because there's been almost no overall change or very minimal overall change in the strength of his coalition government. Which is still unable to win a majority in surveys that we've seen, even since this deal has passed and gone through. And the striking gap is that over 80 percent support the deal in the same Channel 13 poll that I referred to before, reinforced in several other surveys that were conducted last week.

And so, the overwhelming majority support the deal. And yet there's barely any change in so far in his political position, even if there might be a very slight rise. But it's too early to say. And I think we would really have to wait and see over the next few weeks if it changes something fundamental about his position.

[23:15:13]

Remember that even after the war with Iran, which many people thought was going to, you know, completely boost the prime minister and his government, and especially after convincing the U.S. to enter that war, the polls showed almost no change at all, which was frankly surprising even to a, you know, pretty veteran pollster like me. But like you said, you put it very well. A lot of this is baked into how people already think about Netanyahu. Of course, Israelis have been living under his leadership since 2009. There are few surprises.

SIDNER: I want to get your view of the sentiment of Israelis, which, you know, is hard in some ways to get because there is -- there are different ideas and factions in Israel like every society. But what -- how they view what has happened in Gaza and the utter destruction, the 70 percent of buildings being demolished, the 60,000, 65,000 and more Palestinians who have been killed throughout this time, including too many children almost to count. What is the sentiment about what has happened there and how Israelis feel about that?

SCHEINDLIN: Well, first, let me point out there's a very, very deep divide between Jewish Israelis and Arab citizens of Israel, because, of course, Palestinian citizens of Israel are deeply, you know, profoundly devastated by what's happened in Gaza. And that is an enormous divide with the Israeli Jewish population, which has taken a very, you know, opposite view. They have the way of sort of trying not to know.

And I -- I have a hard time explaining it because there's been a lot of attention to how the Israeli media doesn't cover it very closely. And you see that there aren't a lot of images on Israeli TV over all of this time of the suffering of people. If anything, you see devastated buildings. But there's been a lot of criticism of that.

I think at this point, nobody can say Israelis don't know. There's so much international coverage. There's been criticism of Israel and Israelis are covering that criticism. Everybody has access to social media. Everybody knows. And Jewish Israelis have, frankly, either tried not to see it on some level, almost consciously, because all the information is there, or they have simply said to themselves, this is a war of survival. What happened on October 7th would have been a genocide if it had been allowed to continue and everything that Israel is doing is justified. That's a very common thing to hear.

And then there are those, you know, by all accounts that I can tell and by all of my research, they're a minority, but they're a very vocal minority who happens to be in the government who are frankly happy about it and think that it is an opportunity to, you know, lay the groundwork for Israel to conquer, annex Gaza and reestablish settlements. And those are the parts of -- those are -- those people are represented by this government. And that's probably the direction this government would have taken if this deal had not been pushed through by U.S. President Trump.

SIDNER: Yes, thank you for that. Just getting some idea of the sentiment there on -- on what has happened over this two years, but I do want to reiterate what we have just learned from the hostages and missing families forum that just came in as we were bringing you in, and that is that the hostage families are on their way to Re'im to await the release of their loved ones. There will be a process here.

It is expected to happen in the next actually under two hours if the timing sticks with what is expected. And this is a huge moment for these families as they go and hope that they will see their loved ones. The first of the hostages will be the 20 hostages who are still alive.

The condition of those hostages is unknown at this point. These families hoping and praying that they are well enough to be able to put their arms around them. It is now about 6:18 in the morning there in Re'im in Israel. We will be watching this scene very, very closely.

And Dahlia Scheindlin, thank you so much for your analysis. We will be right back.

SCHEINDLIN: Thank you, Sara.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[23:21:29]

SIDNER: All right, just a couple of hours from now, the remaining hostages held by Hamas are expected to finally be returned home, and we are learning that the families are heading to Re'im, where there is a military base waiting for their loved ones to arrive. That movement has been happening in the last 30 minutes or so. There are hospitals that are ready to provide support and care for the urgent medical needs that the hostages may have.

Our Wolf Blitzer was able to visit one of the medical centers preparing to treat the surviving hostages.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN'S THE SITUATION ROOM ANCHOR: We're here at the beautiful Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv, one of the main hospitals in Israel. And I'm being helped by Dr. Eli Sprecher, who's the CEO, he's a doctor himself, a dermatologist, but he runs this hospital, you're in charge, and this is where some of the hostages will be arriving soon to get their initial medical check-ups, right?

DR. ELI SPRECHER, CEO, ICHILOV MEDICAL CENTER: Absolutely. And we are all very much looking forward to that truly historical moment, I would say.

BLITZER: This is not the first time that you at Ichilov Hospital here in Tel Aviv have received hostages who have been freed.

SPRECHER: No, it is not. So, far we have been taking care of 24 --

BLITZER: 24 hostages.

SPRECHER: -- hostages, yes.

BLITZER: And so, let's walk in. This is a typical room.

SPRECHER: So, the general idea here was to try to recreate a kind of a home-like atmosphere. Of course the best would have been to bring the hostages directly to their home. We cannot. On the other hand, of course, this doesn't look like a typical hospital room, so we have arranged it in order to give the hostages kind of a good feeling about being almost at home.

BLITZER: And there's two beds, one for the hostage and one for a family member, is that right?

SPRECHER: In case the hostage wants somebody to stay with him during the night, there is a bed here. The family will be accommodated in the room next to us, and we have additional room in a small hotel within the hospital for the bigger family.

BLITZER: And so, when they get here, based on your previous experience with other hostages who have been released, what are the main medical issues you're looking at?

SPRECHER: So, first and foremost, I think the major issue will be malnutrition. And as you know, malnutrition can affect almost any organ in the body, any tissue in the body, the heart, the brain, the kidneys, et cetera. So, they will go through a very thorough screening process.

We are expecting them to arrive here in much worse conditions than they were based on the videos that I'm sure that you have also seen, and also the fact that they have been staying there for so long, two years, under terrible conditions. And I'm not speaking about isolation, starvation, torture in some cases as well.

BLITZER: We're here in the middle of this tunnel that goes from Gaza into Israel. It's about --

BLITZER: I was one of the first journalists that the Israeli army allowed to go into one of those tunnels between Gaza and Israel. And it was hard to even breathe. I was there for maybe an hour or two, and I remember getting nauseous at the time. But these hostages have been in there for a year, let's say. So, they have potentially medical complications as a result of spending all this time underground. And for the most part, those tunnels are pretty low. You can't even fully stand up.

SPRECHER: Exactly. So, the fact that you cannot stand up is actually causing wasting of your muscles, all kind of orthopedic problems. And all this will be looked at and also being -- being taken care of.

[23:25:06]

BLITZER: So, Dr. Sprecher, this is another room that you've established for the children of the hostages. And a lot of toys you've created. That's so nice. I'm sure these kids are going to be very excited. SPRECHER: Yes, we expect, of course, you know, that those children are emerging from two years waiting for their parents and one of their parents. And this is, on the one hand, a very emotional, but on the other hand, also a very challenging time point. And we are trying to, again, create a kind of environment which is as supportive as possible. And children like to play with toys.

BLITZER: And a lot of these children will have not seen their fathers in almost more than two years.

SPRECHER: Absolutely.

BLITZER: So, that's going to be a major adjustment for these little kids.

SPRECHER: Yeah, it will be. Indeed.

BLITZER: So, they will come here, they'll have a chance to give their dads, their fathers, a big hug and a kiss, and then they'll be able to play a little bit with these toys that you've established.

SPRECHER: Mm-hmm, absolutely. Very important.

BLITZER: Thank you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIDNER: Giving you a real look at what the hostages will be seeing if they do need medical attention right now.

Let's bring in CNN Political and Global Affairs Analyst Barak Ravid. He's also the Global Affairs Correspondent with Axios and the author of "Trump's Peace."

Barak, this is a moment that cannot be understated, especially for the 48 families who have been waiting for more than two years for their loved ones. What are you learning about the movement of families right now and the expectation as to how this will all unfold with Hamas handing over the hostages first to the Red Cross?

BARAK RAVID, CNN POLITICAL & GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: So, the 20 live hostages are expected to be released in two tranches, one at 8 a.m. local time, which is 1 a.m. Eastern, and the second tranche at 10 a.m. local time, which is 3 a.m. Eastern. And then in the third tranche or the fourth tranche, there will be the bodies of the deceased hostages. The hostages will be released in two different locations in the Gaza Strip.

Hamas will transfer them to the Red Cross, will transfer them to the IDF, and the IDF will transfer them from Gaza into Israel, first to a military base near Gaza, where they will be reunited with their families and then to several hospitals, depending on the medical condition of each and every one of them.

SIDNER: I do want to ask you, we're looking at Re'im, Israel, where the military base is, where the families, as we have learned in just the past half an hour, are heading as we speak, you know, waiting for this all to unfold. And we understand and people should understand that there can be hiccups, there can be timing differences. But the expectation is, is that the first tranche, as you said, will show up in about an hour and a half or so.

I am curious, Barak, what we've been hearing from President Trump, who is on his way there and will be speaking to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the hostage families. I'm curious about what you think about hearing him say the war is over, because everyone sees this as a permanent ceasefire, that phase one is underway. But in talking to , you know, former high-ranking members of the IDF, like Jonathan Conricus, that's not exactly the wording that we are hearing from him and some others. How do you see this?

RAVID: First, I spoke to President Trump about an hour and a half ago while he was on Air Force One en route to Tel Aviv. We spoke for a few minutes and President Trump sees this deal to end the war in Gaza and to release the hostages as something that could be his biggest foreign policy achievement as president so far. That's at least what he told me.

And this means a lot when you ask whether he's going to allow this ceasefire to fall apart and the parties to go back to the war. It seems to me that he's really not interested in this war resuming. And I think this is why he said on Air Force One that for him, this war is over.

And he also said that he got guarantees from both parties that they will implement this agreement. And he said that he doesn't think anybody on both parties wants to disappoint them.

[23:30:03]

So, I think Trump is clear. I think he will make it clear in his speech at the Knesset that the war is over. And, you know, one of the things President Trump told me was that he watched the rally on Saturday night. He watched on TV the rally for the hostages in Tel Aviv on Saturday night, and he spoke after the rally with his envoy, Steve Witkoff, and with his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and with his daughter, Ivanka Trump. The three of them spoke at this rally. And he said, I spoke to them, and I watched it, and it was an incredible rally.

And when I asked him, what's going to be your message in the speech to Knesset, the message to the Israeli people? So, what he said was, peace and love for eternity. That was his message. So, when you -- when I take all that together, I just don't see how President Trump is going to allow the Israeli government to resume the war.

SIDNER: Barak Ravid, having spoken directly with the president about this, and the rest of the world will be hearing from him in the coming hours as he touches down there in Israel, I do thank you for -- you have been covering this, obviously, for such a very long time, throughout this two years and many, many years prior to this. There is just so much emotion right now in Hostage Square and among the families waiting for their loved ones to be returned in such a very short time now.

We are, every minute, it seems like an eternity to them, but they are waiting for their loved ones to come home. We will have much more to come. Thank you to Barak Ravid and all who have been here this hour with us.

We are going to also be giving you the very latest on President Trump's trip to Israel and their really high-stakes summit on Gaza's future that he will also be attending after he alights there in Tel Aviv.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[23:36:45]

SIDNER: We want to keep you up to date on the breaking news. We're giving you two images here. You are looking on the right of live pictures from Hostage Square in Tel Aviv, where tens of thousands, it appears, of people have shown up, awaiting the moment that these families have been waiting for -- for more than two years, the return of their loved ones after Hamas captured them and kidnapped them into Gaza.

You're also seeing on your screen Re'im, Israel, where some of the families have headed. And you see people standing outside there. There is a military base there. And how this is supposed to all happen and go down is that there will be two separate tranches of hostages. The 20 remaining hostages who are alive will be the first to be handed over by Hamas, first to the Red Cross and then to this military base where you see the families waiting for their loved ones. This is quite a moment in the history of the region. But for the families, this is going to be one of the most emotional times that they have experienced yet so far.

Let's bring in CNN Chief International Correspondent Clarissa Ward, who is live from Hostage Square. I just want to get from you, Clarissa, you have covered this conflict for the entirety of it. What it is like right now in Hostage Square there in Tel Aviv?

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Sara, the sun came up just about half an hour ago and the square is starting to fill more and more. Several people who we talked to have been actually waiting here a couple of hours. And I would say it's a very calm, almost serene atmosphere.

There is a sense, of course, of celebration, of relief. But there's also sadness. There's also grief. We see so many people holding up posters of the hostages who will be coming home today but who are not alive. Among those 28 hostages who are deceased, who are being released as well, there remains as part of this deal. And we heard some chants going back and forth from the crowd. The classic chant that has been repeated week after week since this all began two years ago of now, achkav, achkav (ph), now. Now is the time to bring them home.

And today, Sara, that is actually finally happening. Everybody now coming home. We also heard chants of not left, not right. The hostages are everybody. And that really setting the tone here, despite what we saw the other night when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's name was mentioned by U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff and there were loud boos from the crowd.

[23:40:01]

Today is not about politics. Today is not about left. Today is not about right. Today is about a country coming together, mourning the dead, welcoming the living, and turning the page on what has been for many Israelis, a very dark and very distressing and very disturbing chapter.

So, it is a pretty extraordinary moment, I have to say, having been back and forth over the last two years and spending a lot of time here. You can feel the lightness in the air, Sara.

There is anticipation. There is excitement. But there is also lightness and tremendous grace as people here wait to see these images that they will be watching behind me on Israeli television, Channel 12 News, that will be broadcast as those 20 living hostages are finally released. After more than two years of harrowing captivity, they will finally be released and reunited with their loved ones.

Sara?

SIDNER: And that is expected to happen in the next couple of hours. This is a huge moment for those families.

Clarissa Ward, thank you so much for all of your in-depth reporting that you have done throughout all of this there. I appreciate your time this evening.

CNN's Nic Robertson is also joining us. He's been following the developments and joins us now from Sharm El-Sheikh, where we do expect President Trump at some point to join a group of, what, 20 countries who are looking at this from another perspective, one, while the concentration of the world's eyes are on these hostages being released.

There is another part to this agreement, the ceasefire agreement, Phase 2. What can you tell us about what is happening with that part of the agreement? Because Phase 1 looks like to be well underway, the ceasefire so far holding. The expectation is in the next couple of hours we will see the hostages being released. And then some very difficult decisions have to be made and agreed upon. What are you learning?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yeah, the 20-point plan President Trump put forward, one tiny part of it was this Phase 1 ceasefire, hostage release, prisoner release. Phase 2, in a way, begins today. And the idea is to take the momentum of Phase 1 and really channel all that energy into beginning to set some of the very difficult parameters for imagining and putting into effect this Phase 2. The international stabilization force, how big, which countries contribute, what mandate should it have? Israel expects it to disarm Hamas. Hamas doesn't want to disarm. What are going to be its rules of engagement? All those sorts of very, very thorny issues. The British Prime Minister already arrived here. U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres arrived here. A German Chancellor, French President, Italian Prime Minister, Spanish Prime Minister all expected here. Mark Carney, the Canadian Prime Minister, as well as the President of Indonesia, representatives from Pakistan, from Saudi Arabia, from the United Arab Emirates, from Jordan, Qatar, Turkey, obviously Egypt here already.

These key players, many of them who met with President Trump and listened to his 21-point plan in New York on the margins of the UNGA just a few weeks ago, are now here to try to encourage the U.S. President to remain engaged. But kind of one of the things that this peace summit and the signing ceremony will lack will be a meeting of the principal protagonists. Hamas will not be here. Israel will not be represented here.

So, you know, you go back to the Camp David peace accords in 1978 where you have Anwar El-Sadat meeting with Menachem Begin, the Egyptian president meeting with the Israeli leader, shaking hands. 1993 at the White House, President Clinton standing by as Yitzhak Rabin, the Israeli Prime Minister, shook hands with the PLO leader, Yasser Arafat.

That's not going to be a thing here. It's an aspiration for the future. But very clearly there are high stakes and the road map and the meat on the bones of what President Trump talked about just a few weeks ago. This is where it begins to get real bad.

Sara.

SIDNER: Thank you so much, Nic Robertson, there in Sharm El-Sheikh, watching all of the developments that have been happening throughout. Really appreciate it.

And we will be right back just with the breaking news. We are expecting in the next couple of hours to see images of the hostages that have been in the hands of Hamas in Gaza released.

[23:45:08]

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SIDNER: The United Nations is saying, quote, "There is real progress being made in humanitarian operations now across Gaza." Since the ceasefire took effect, hundreds of thousands of meals have finally been distributed to displaced families. You see some of the chaos there. Just the desperation is just unfathomable as you see people trying to get to the aid.

[23:50:15]

The U.N. confirmed that Israel has approved additional shipments, dozens of aid trucks. You see there lining up in Egypt waiting for the signal to enter Gaza through the Rafah border crossing.

Joining me now to discuss live from Ramallah in the West Bank is Dr. Mustafa Barghouti. He is a member of the Palestinian Parliament and leads the Palestinian National Initiative political party.

Thank you for joining us on this day with so much happening in the region. I am just first curious, when you hear that there was this first phase of a ceasefire that had been agreed to, what do you think of the details of this first phase and what it means more specifically to the Palestinians who have been suffering over two years of bombardments there in Gaza?

MUSTAFA BARGHOUTI, PRESIDENT, PALESTINIAN NATIONAL INITIATIVE: Well, it's a mixture, a mixture of feelings. There is definitely the sense of relief that this bombardment finally stopped after two years. But it's also accompanied with a great sense of sadness because you're talking here about no less than 250,000 Palestinians who have been killed or injured by the Israeli bombardment.

That is 11 percent of the population of Gaza. It's huge. There is no family in Gaza that did not lose a child or a mother or a father. There are families, more than 2,500 families, who have been erased completely from the civil record.

So, there is a great sense of sadness, also because people are turning back to destroyed homes. Everything is destroyed in Gaza. Most hospitals, most clinics, all universities, most schools. But most importantly, 92 percent of all homes have been destroyed. That is so horrible.

And also it is accompanied by a feeling of worry because the people are not sure that Israel might not reactivate its war after they get their captives. Of course, there is a sense of relief because 1,700 people will be relieved from Israeli jails. But that is only 10 percent of the Palestinians who are in Israeli jails, including many, many Palestinian leaders that Israel refused to release. So, that also leaves a lot of worry.

The most important thing for people who have been following this for decades, like myself, is that unfortunately the world and everything that we see today is dealing only with the symptoms of the disease, while the cause of the disease is still there, which is the Israeli military occupation of Palestinian land and not allowing Palestinians finally to have their freedom and their ability to build their future in freedom, without occupation, without oppression, without a system of discriminatory apartheid.

SIDNER: Mr. Barghouti, I want to ask you about a couple of things that have happened in the last several hours. One, we have reporting from our Ibrahim Dahman and Tim Lister about seeing Hamas reassert itself in the parts of Gaza that does not have the Israeli military. We also know that the Israeli military is occupying more than 50 percent of Gaza at this point in time.

Are you concerned in hearing Hamas say things like they are going to go after a number of collaborators and informants, while at the same time the Israeli military is still there, and, you know, there is always the possibility that this just ramps right back up again. What -- what do you see when -- when you consider what they're seeing in the streets, which is Israeli military in one part of it and Hamas in another?

BARGHOUTI: Well, there are so many sides to this issue. First of all, yes, the presence of Israeli army inside Gaza is definitely a cause for friction, not just with Hamas, with everybody in Gaza. And it is not clear that president -- that Prime Minister Netanyahu is ready really to remove all his troops from Gaza.

What he speaks about is that at least he wants to keep 25 percent of that little area, which is only 140 square miles with 2.2 million people. There is no justification for that. Keeping the Israeli troops inside Gaza means a big problem.

[23:55:04]

On the other hand, yes, there has been some efforts to control the internal security, but -- and that's what some Israelis refer to, saying that for the first time the humanitarian aid that gets to Gaza does not get stolen. And it seems that there was a time during this war when the Israeli army was encouraging gangs of thieves to steal the humanitarian aid. This is gone now that the Israeli army is out of the inner circle of Gaza.

So, the question really is about what will happen in the future. And I don't think the future can be bright unless there is a real serious pressure on Israel. First of all, not to reactivate the war once they get their captives.

And second, that there will be a total and complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. And third, that we will start to deal with the whole issue of occupation, given the fact that in the West Bank we are subjected in the West Bank to constant attacks by settler gangs, terrorist settler gangs who are attacking communities, burning houses and burning cars, et cetera, et cetera.

SIDNER: Yeah, Mr. Barghouti, I know this has been a very, very difficult time seeing what is happening to the Palestinian people. Thank you so much for joining us, and thank you for being with us.

I'm Sara Sidner. CNN's special coverage of the hostage release continues in just a bit.

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