Netanyahu claims pressure on Hamas is working
Newshour
BBC
4.2 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 4 October 2025
⏱️ 48 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has said that diplomatic and military pressure have forced Hamas to agree to free the hostages it is holding. As Israel and Hamas prepare to take part in indirect talks in Cairo, Mr Netanyahu thanked Donald Trump for his peace plan.
Also in the programme: protests in Georgia; and 50 years of the Rocky Horror Show.
(Picture: Hostages Square 2-Year Rally - a large banner reads: 'It's Now or Never' - displayed in response to Trump's Gaza peace plan to end the war and the return of all the remaining hostages: The rally was held at Hostages Square to mark two years since the October 7 attacks. Credit: Hostages Families Forum)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:08.8 | Hello and welcome to NewsHour from the BBC World Service. |
| 0:12.0 | Coming to you live from London, I'm James Kamara Sami. |
| 0:20.0 | In Tel Aviv tonight, the crowds of people gathered in hostages square, |
| 0:24.5 | called as they have been doing for almost two years for all the remaining hostages to be brought home. |
| 0:30.3 | It's a chant which has gained a new sense of urgency and perhaps momentum |
| 0:34.2 | since Hamas gave their very qualified approval to Donald Trump's 20-point |
| 0:38.7 | peace plan for Gaza late on Friday night. Some of the hostage families there did express |
| 0:44.5 | their deep concern, though, that far-right members of the Israeli cabinet who reject any compromise |
| 0:49.9 | with Hamas could still scupper an agreement. Aenev Zangoka is the mother of the hostage, Matan Zangoka. |
| 0:57.9 | We have never been so close to getting Matan back and all the hostages. |
| 1:05.1 | And I know that the closer we get to that moment, |
| 1:07.7 | the more Ben Gvier, Smotrich and Netanyahu will do everything, absolutely everything, |
| 1:12.9 | to sabotage my chance to Hagmatan. These are critical days. The saboteurs of the negotiations |
| 1:18.5 | are organising to pressure Netanyahu. We must stand against them like a wall. We must not abandon |
| 1:24.3 | the negotiation arena to sabotage. We must not miss the opportunity. |
| 1:28.7 | We cannot rely solely on Trump. |
| 1:31.1 | Other families have said it is only because of pressure from the US president |
| 1:34.5 | on both Hamas and Israel that they are feeling more optimistic. |
| 1:39.1 | Vicky Cohen's 21-year-old son Nimrod Cohen is another of those still being held in Gaza. |
| 1:44.6 | Now we have hope. |
| 1:47.0 | We see that President Trump is very demand to bring the hostages back home. |
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