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All Living Hostages Freed After Two Years Of Hamas Captivity; World Leaders To Gather In Egypt For Summit On Gaza's Future; Some Palestinian Prisoners Now In West Bank, Gaza After Release. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired October 13, 2025 - 05:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL)

[05:33:08]

AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: A live look now at Hostages Square as Hamas and its allies are now releasing the living hostages to Israel. A group of the hostages are now with the Israeli military enroute to Israel. The first seven have safely arrived there at the Re'im military base.

Any moment now President Trump is expected to speak before Israeli's parliament, the Knesset. President Trump arriving to Israel a few hours ago and greeted by a large group of diplomats, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who will also address the Knesset soon.

Sabrina Singh is here to talk more about what we're looking at. And I know the Biden administration, on its way out, tried to get to a deal. It did not. What do you think is the difference here in this moment that put the Trump team ahead?

SABRINA SINGH, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS COMMENTATOR, FORMER DEPUTY PENTAGON PRESS SECRETARY: Yeah. The framework that has been put into place in this 20-point plan the Trump administration has implemented builds on the framework of the Biden administration.

And, of course, there are a few differences in the plan, but it was a phase one, two, and three approach. First, a ceasefire. Then the second phase was a return of the hostages. And then the third phase was more on the governing and what does governance look like in Gaza. And there are some differences --

CORNISH: And that's still a question mark right now, right.

SINGH: That is absolutely still a question.

CORNISH: So for as much as the Trump administration has gotten to this first phase --

SINGH: Yeah.

CORNISH: -- which is hostages exchanged for prisoners. We're also hearing about that release from the --

SINGH: Right.

CORNISH: -- government of Palestinian prisoners. Now there's going to be this conversation about what happens next.

SINGH: Right.

CORNISH: First, the physical.

SINGH: Um-hum.

CORNISH: Just what it means to rebuild Gaza.

SINGH: Yeah.

CORNISH: What's known about what the administration has proposed?

SINGH: Well, during the Biden administration it was some sort of Palestinian authority that would be the governing structure that would be implemented in Gaza. Under the Trump plan it is more a coalition and a committee, but it's unclear what that looks like. And I think -- I hope -- Donald Trump is going to Egypt later with Arab leaders and, of course European leaders to I think discuss what a governing structure could look like.

[05:35:10]

But there's so many remaining questions, including how does Hamas dismantle and disarm and what is their role? It is clear that they can have no role in governance in Gaza, but will they give it up so easily? It's always that phase three that was always going to be the hardest to implement.

And so you're looking at 90 percent of the buildings in Gaza destroyed. Who is going to rebuild it? Who is the governing structure that's going to, you know, implement -- be implemented there? And also -- and also, who is the police force? Essentially, you're going to need a police force --

CORNISH: Yes.

SINGH: -- that can work within Gaza to ensure that ceasefire holds.

CORNISH: And is that different from what is being called a stabilization force, right? We've heard a couple --

SINGH: Yeah.

CORNISH: -- different terms going into these couple of days. One, the idea of a stabilization force. Two, the idea that there are roughly 200 U.S. servicemembers there who are in some capacity helping through this, at least, initial phase of the process.

SINGH: Yeah.

CORNISH: Can you walk us through the differences?

SINGH: Yeah, and I think apologies. You know, the police force really -- what I mean is the stabilization force.

CORNISH: Um-hum.

SINGH: What is that initial force going in to not only keep the peace but also to just -- it's a day-to-day.

CORNISH: Yeah.

SINGH: It's always, you know, what does that governing structure look like.

In terms of what our troops are doing -- and you have 200 people from Central Command within Israel that are going to be helping to facilitate the movement of aid -- humanitarian aid into Gaza, but also they're helping to ensure that this ceasefire holds. It's similar to what we did in Lebanon with Hezbollah. And it was a mechanism that was in place to ensure that the ceasefire and that Hamas is not violating the ceasefire but also Israel.

And it's going to be very difficult but, you know, we have ways of monitoring that, including through military and intelligence presence that we can work with the Israeli government to make sure that protocols are upheld.

CORNISH: Yeah. Can you explain a little more about that? This is a celebratory day, obviously.

SINGH: Yeah.

CORNISH: We have so many people here who have been waiting so long for these surviving hostages to come home. And in the meantime, it is a fragile --

SINGH: Yeah.

CORNISH: -- ceasefire.

What are the mechanisms in place to enforce it and to make sure it can hold long enough for these discussions to go on?

SINGH: Well, it's an -- you know, again, that phase three is really going to be the hardest to implement because Hamas has not given up their arms. But Israel has made commitments to withdraw from within Gaza and is doing so. So I think both sides are taking steps in the right direction on progress.

But in terms of what the U.S. military can do, we know Palestinians in Gaza are starving. We need more humanitarian aid trucks to get in. Under the Biden administration, when I was there, one of the biggest things that we were running into was these aid trucks were just being held at the border -- at the Rafah crossing or other places.

And so what the U.S. military can help do is ensure that these trucks have been checked. That they're safe. That they're able to enter Gaza and then can help with the distribution efforts in terms of telling people on the ground where aid is needed most. And it's also going to be medical supplies, gas. Electricity needs to be -- you know, there are many places in Gaza that do not have electricity of even running water. So the U.S. military can help with some infrastructure --

CORNISH: Um-hum.

SINGH: -- and resetting that within the Gaza Strip, but it's not going to be overnight. It's going to take a lot of time.

CORNISH: Yeah. Some of the conversations that we're going to hear may be out of that summit. But before we get there --

SINGH: Yeah.

CORNISH: -- this kind of political and diplomatic moment before the Knesset, right, where we're going to hear the prime minister speak. But we're going to hear President Trump speak. And you can even see in the Knesset at this point there is people with red hats in the galley. This is a major anticipatory moment.

When you come back, we're going to be talking about that. Please stay with us.

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[05:43:35]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: And we are covering breaking news here on the ground in Israel as we are waiting for President Trump to deliver his speech to the Israeli parliament. We're getting word of what is happening behind the scenes.

Some intensive diplomacy is playing out here on the ground in Israel, including that we have learned here from my colleagues and myself here at CNN that President Trump initiated a phone call with the Egyptian leader, President Sisi, earlier today. And during that call Prime Minister Netanyahu joined, and they discussed have him attend that key summit that is happening later on today inside of Egypt at Sharm el- Sheikh, which is going to include not only the Egyptian leader and President Trump but multiple other leaders from different world countries.

Wolf, initially, Netanyahu was not excepted to attend that summit, but what we're told basically played out here behind the scenes was during that call, President Sisi invited Prime Minister Netanyahu. He clearly has accepted, as we've now confirmed that he is, indeed, going. And that is a huge deal because it just changes the entire dynamic of what that summit is going to look like.

We know the Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas is going to be there. He is slated to attend. So seeing this dynamic play out with Netanyahu at the table is going to be really something to watch.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Yeah. Very significant that President El- Sisi decided to invite the Israeli leader to attend this summit in Sharm el-Sheikh.

[05:45:00]

Israel and Egypt do have diplomatic relations but still, it's pretty significant right now and we'll see how that all unfolds and if it really achieves what the goal is of this summit in Sharm el-Sheikh to implement the ceasefire and to move the peace process forward. And let's see if that happens.

COLLINS: Yeah. And obviously, as we've been watching all this play out, our colleague Nada Bashir is actually over in Ramallah. And Nada, part of this has been obviously the hostages being return here to Israel. Now all living hostages are back on Israeli soil. Also, the exchange of the Palestinian prisoners and detainees is set to happen.

And so as we've been watching this play out -- you know, learning these dynamics that Mahmoud Abbas and Benjamin Netanyahu are going to be at the same summit in Egypt in just a couple of hours -- I mean, this is not something that they'll have time to really plan for. This is a very quick turnaround in terms of this summit actually getting underway.

NADA BASHIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, absolutely. And, of course, there is a huge amount of significance in the diplomacy that is going on right now. And we've certainly seen an increased level of coordination it has to be said with regards to the operation of actually ensuring the release of Palestinian prisoners following that confirmation of the return of all Israeli hostages onto Israeli soil.

And what we're seeing now behind me and what we're expecting actually just in the next few moments is for that bus carrying the Palestinian prisoners to arrive. We're just outside the Ramallah Cultural Palace. This is expected to be the release point.

So some 250 Palestinian prisoners overall have been released or are expected to have been released as part of that ceasefire deal. Many of them are being released here into the occupied West Bank in Ramallah and some to east Jerusalem. At least 100 or more are expected to be deported essentially to Egypt via Gaza. But we're certainly expecting a significant amount of them to arrive here in just the next few moments.

And you can see -- I mean, there is a significant security presence by the Palestinians (INAUDIBLE). This is a very tightly controlled situation. But we're also seeing huge crowds turning out to celebrate (INAUDIBLE).

COLLINS: We're watching this play out. It's so loud there it's obviously even difficult to hear your reporting there from Ramallah obviously as we're watching all of the events of today unfold -- similar scenes that we've seen before on a much smaller scale and also with not as huge of implications as we are seeing with this ceasefire right now.

The president told reporters earlier he believes it means that the war has ended in Gaza. He said that in front of Netanyahu, Wolf, which was something that Netanyahu himself has not said.

And Wolf, I just want to note we've gotten some excerpts from the president's speech to the Israeli parliament, and I wonder what you make of part of this. There is one part where he says, and I'm quoting from what we got from the White House earlier speaking of what's happening in Gaza. He says, "The total focus of Gazans must be on restoring the fundamentals of stability, safety, dignity, and economic development so they can finally have the better life their children deserve."

That's obviously -- a part of that line is they were carefully crafting this peace proposal and what it was going to look like.

BLITZER: And those are words from Prime Minister Netanyahu -- the speech he's about to deliver. They've released these excerpts in advance, and we can report what they have publicly released so far. But the speech is going to go in-depth we're told not only in terms of what's happening in the region but U.S.-Israeli relations as well.

COLLINS: Yeah. And obviously, you mentioned the Abraham accords earlier, Wolf. And obviously, we'll continue watching and monitoring what's happening in Ramallah as we're seeing what we believe is the first buses pulling up. But Wolf, to what you were mentioning earlier about the Abraham accords and potentially building on those going forward -- I mean, we're watching the mechanics of this ceasefire play out today with the release of the detainees, the prisoners, and also the release of the hostages back here on Israeli soil.

The president has much grander goals here in terms of expanding the Abraham accords and even potentially, he says, getting Iran to join. And one remark from the speech that stood out to me was he said, "Even to Iran, whose regime has inflicted so much death in the Middle East, the hand of friendship and cooperation is always open."

BLITZER: And that's from --

COLLINS: President Trump's speech that he's expected to give shortly.

BLITZER: And President Trump, yeah. So let's see how that works out. I suspect it's not going to necessarily work out as he would like to see but it's really significant.

Let's get some reaction from Nada Bashir. Oh, we don't have Nada Bashir anymore. The noise over there in Ramallah is so intense because of what's going on. The Israelis are about to release Palestinian prisoners and detainees, and people are excited in Ramallah.

COLLINS: Well, and that's a huge part of this agreement, Wolf, in terms of what this was looking like. And how they got the hostages released was they had to offer an exchange -- the release of these prisoners.

[05:50:00]

I do want to note on the left side of our screen what you're seeing is the Israeli parliament. And you just saw the president's daughter Ivanka Trump being welcomed with applause there from the members of the Israeli parliament as they are waiting to hear from President Trump.

You know what he's been doing behind the scenes, Wolf. We haven't seen the president on camera in quite some time. I was texting with some of the hostage families that he's been meeting with behind the scenes -- behind closed doors.

BLITZER: Yeah, they really want to meet with him. They are grateful to him for what he has done -- set the scene for the release. Now all 20 living, remaining Israeli hostages have been brought back to Israel. Such a significant development indeed. And now the Israelis are waiting for the coffins -- for the bodies of the other Israeli hostages who were killed, and they're waiting for them to be returned as well. They haven't been returned as well.

But it's interesting that the Israelis are about to start releasing Palestinian prisoners and detainees -- a lot of them. And so --

COLLINS: Let's --

BLITZER: -- significant.

COLLINS: Let's check in with Nada Bashir. Nada, can you tell us what you're seeing behind you right now?

BASHIR: Yeah, absolutely, Kaitlan. We are seeing the Palestinian prisoners now disembarking. They are leaving the buses after being released from the Ofer Prison here in the occupied West Bank. They are being welcomed, as you can see, by an enormous crowd of people. We have people -- if you can see them, they are hugging the prisoners as they are getting of the buses. People are crying. They are very emotional.

Important to note that many of the prisoners who have been released today were serving long-term sentences, many of them for serious offenses. Many of them also serving life sentences. So for those family members that are being reunited now this is something that they would not have been expecting to happen and maybe have been hoping for as part of that ceasefire deal.

But look, there are huge crowds. This is something that the Israeli authorities did not want to see. They have called for no celebrations to take place. In fact, just a little earlier we were outside of the Ofer Prison where these prisoners were being released from, and a helicopter flew over dropping leaflets saying we are watching you everywhere. Warning people that they should not be celebrating and should not be showing any sort of support for what they've termed to be terrorist organizations.

And, of course, we're not seeing what we've seen in the past, which had been many waving flags and banners in support of various political factions, including Hamas. But we certainly are seeing a largescale gathering.

And it's important to note that there is also a very significant presence by the Palestinian Security Forces and police. This appears to be a more controlled release process than we may have seen in the past. And it's certainly a smaller crowd than we may have seen in the past.

But our understanding now is that these prisoners are being welcomed into the -- into the Ramallah Cultural Palace. They will be welcomed inside, where we understand there is also a huge audience and crowd there, before being released and returning home.

And, of course, just to remind our viewers, we are expecting 250 Palestinian prisoners to be released today as part of that ceasefire deal, many of them to the occupied West Bank here. Some returning to east Jerusalem. But we're also expecting around 140 to be deported potentially to Egypt by Gaza. And separately, we're also seeing around 1,700 Palestinians who were detained during the war in Gaza to be returned to the Gaza Strip, but we're still waiting to get more details on that particular process.

But, of course, this has all been dependent on the safe return of Israeli hostages held in captivity in Gaza returned to --

BLITZER: And Nada, you're there ==

BASHIR: As we've seen the process of.

BLITZER: You're there in Ramallah on the West Bank, Nada. What's been the reaction among Palestinians that you sense to this ceasefire deal? The freedom that these 20 remaining living Israeli hostages now have. And obviously, they're very pleased that these Palestinian prisoners and detainees are being released by Israel.

BASHIR: Well look, we've been speaking to people across Jerusalem, across the occupied West Bank, and all have shared their deep sense of relief that the war in Gaza, they hope, is now over. That there is an end to the bloodshed that we have seen over the last two years.

And, of course, this is an important aspect of the ceasefire deal -- the release of these prisoners. But when we've been speaking to people the main focus has, for the most part, been the war in Gaza. Bringing an end to the hostilities that we have seen in the Gaza Strip.

And, of course, important to remember that many people -- many Palestinians in the West Bank and Jerusalem will know people in Gaza. Will have family, relatives, friends, and colleagues in Gaza. And that's certainly the message that we have been hearing.

But it's important to note that we're also hearing a sense of -- I'd phrase it as cautious optimism. There is fear around what will happen next. What phase two of the ceasefire agreement will look like and whether we do see a return to hostilities in Gaza over the coming days. That is certainly a concern that many are feeling here -- Wolf.

[05:55:10]

BLITZER: All right, Nada Bashir in Ramallah for us. Nada, thank you very, very much.

And Kaitlan, we're about to take another quick commercial break, but when we come back, we anticipate that momentarily the President of the United States, President Trump, will be speaking formally, publicly at the Israeli parliament. Actually, we're now told it could start even now.

COLLINS: Look, there's the president, Wolf. He's walking in right now.

BLITZER: Yeah. He's walking into the Knesset. He's going to be introduced and then he will speak. We'll hear what the introduction says. But you can hear the applause already for President Trump as he's walking in. So many Israelis on the left and the right -- they are grateful to him for working out this ceasefire deal, which has brought all of the surviving -- the living Israeli hostages -- all 20 of them -- now back to Israel.

A very historic day and we'll see what follows next. But the president and prime minister are there. This is the Knesset, Israel's parliament. I think it's fair to say, Kaitlan, all 120 members of the Israeli Knesset are there, and there will be left-wingers, right- wingers. There will be supporters of the government opponents. But they will all be applauding the president. They are grateful to him for the ceasefire, first of all.

He says the war is over. The Israelis are not yet convinced of that. But he says the war is over. At least the ceasefire, Kaitlan, is being implemented.

COLLINS: And Wolf, also just to note -- I mean, obviously, if Ivanka Trump walked in that room and got a big standing applause, obviously the president was as well. You see him up there clapping as he -- as he stands up on the dais pointing to the members of the parliament that are in there, Wolf.

He's also got a huge group of his own aides who are with him -- traveling with him. The Secretary of State is here. The defense secretary Pete Hegseth is here. And also the Joint Chiefs chairman Dan Caine is present as well, Wolf.

And so obviously, you know, watching all this play out and this speech and what he's going to say -- one thing that I was just talking with you about Wolf in the commercial break was according to these excerpts we got, the president is going to say this is the day of a new dawn -- a new era for the Middle East.

As someone who has covered the Middle East extensively, I wonder what you make of that?

BLITZER: I hope so. I certainly heard that when I covered the Camp David accords with Jimmy Carter and the resulting Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty. And I covered with President Bill Clinton the Oslo accord when there was a peace agreement that was negotiated on the North Lawn and the South Lawn of the White House involving Yassar Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin, then prime minister of Israel. And there were new dawns and new hope, and unfortunately, it didn't exactly turn out that way.

But let's hope that this is a new hope right now for peace in the Middle East and expansion of what is happening -- the end of the war, hopefully, between Israel and the Palestinians in Gaza, and the start of a new peaceful arrangement not only there but in the region. We shall see.

COLLINS: And right now, Wolf, just so people know what they're watching, this is the speaker of the Knesset who is addressing everyone right now. We're also going to hear -- I believe, according to our schedule -- from the prime minister, from the opposition leader Yair Lapid, and then also from President Trump as he -- as he takes the moment.

He's incredibly behind schedule but that's because he was meeting behind closed doors with the families of hostages.

BLITZER: And it's not surprising because at a lot of these types of events President Trump is usually a little bit behind schedule -- at least the schedule that the White House released -- which is understandable given the nature of what's going on right now.

COLLINS: And Wolf, I should note I said earlier that only two U.S. presidents had spoken to the Knesset. Three actually have -- Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, and George Bush -- and now Donald Trump will become the fourth here in a few moments.

BLITZER: And he's getting standing ovations already even before he starts speaking.

But let's hear what the prime minister has to say in introducing the president and we'll hear what the president then has to say as well.

COLLINS: Yeah. And, I mean, this just comes at a huge moment as we just learned that Netanyahu's schedule today has changed greatly Wolf as he's going to head to Egypt here in a little bit. Obviously, at this moment as we watch this round of applause for him -- there are some of his top aides, including Ron Dermer, who has fingerprints all over this peace proposal that was put out.

Right now the Knesset speaker is speaking in Hebrew, as you can hear.

For Netanyahu's political standing here in Israel as we've watched that play out.

BLITZER: All right, stand by for a moment.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BLITZER: A very, very dramatic day here in Israel. The prime minister of Israel getting ready to introduce the President of the United States who is getting ready to speak before the Israeli Knesset -- the Israeli parliament -- on this day.

All 20 -- get this, all 20 surviving, living Israeli hostages are now within Israel.