Freed hostages and a fragile pause
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 27 November 2023
⏱️ 27 minutes
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Summary
After nearly seven weeks, Israel and Hamas reached a temporary deal: Hamas freed dozens of hostages in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners held in Israel. And Israel paused its bombardment of Gaza.
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Over the weekend, Israeli families celebrated the return of dozens of the hostages taken by Hamas, after the militant group’s attack on Israel on Oct. 7. In exchange, Israel released more than 100 imprisoned Palestinian women and teenagers.
The exchange is part of a fragile deal brokered between Israel and Hamas, with Egypt and Qatar serving as mediators. Under the terms of the agreement, Israel paused its assault on Gaza. Now the sides have agreed to extend the pause for two more days as more hostages and prisoners are exchanged.
Claire Parker is The Washington Post’s Cairo bureau chief reporting from Israel. She tells us what it took for this deal to take shape – and what could happen next.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It's the biggest development since the start of the Israel-Gazah War about seven weeks ago. |
| 0:17.0 | Israel and Hamas reached a deal that pauses fighting in Gaza. |
| 0:22.0 | As of Monday afternoon, Hamas has freed dozens of hostages in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners being held in Israel. |
| 0:32.0 | In Israel, families in Israel. |
| 0:33.2 | In Israel, families united cheering the hostages return. Claire Parker has been in Israel covering the releases as these |
| 0:46.8 | suspenseful days and nights unfolded. |
| 0:50.3 | It is Friday, November 24th. |
| 0:54.0 | There's a lot of uncertainty still. |
| 0:56.0 | It's unclear first whether it will hold. |
| 0:59.0 | It's unclear what will happen next. |
| 1:02.0 | It's very uncertain in what can do. clear what will happen next. |
| 1:03.6 | It's very uncertain in what condition the hostages will arrive medically, |
| 1:08.0 | you know physically and emotionally. |
| 1:10.6 | We still don't have a lot of information about the conditions that hostages endured, but their family members have started sharing some details. |
| 1:20.0 | Aial Nari, whose Aunt Adina Moshe was released by Hamas on November 24th, spoke about her condition. |
| 1:28.0 | She was in complete darkness. She had to adjust to the sunlight. |
| 1:32.6 | She was walking with her eyes down. |
| 1:37.4 | There's going to be basically a long road of recovery ahead. head. From the newsroom of the Washington Post, this is Post Reports. |
| 1:55.0 | It's Monday, November 27th. |
| 1:58.0 | I'm your guest host, Lillian Cunningham. |
| 2:00.0 | Today we speak with the Post's Cairo Bureau Chief Claire Parker, who's in Israel right now, |
| 2:07.0 | about the latest on how this major moment came to be, what happened and what might come next. |
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