Six Israeli hostages handed over to Red Cross by Hamas in Gaza
Newshour
BBC
4.4 • 984 Ratings
🗓️ 22 February 2025
⏱️ 47 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Hamas has released more Israeli hostages at highly stage- managed events in Gaza. In all, six men have been freed so far on Saturday. Television pictures of them being handed to the Red Cross were met with cheers by crowds in Tel Aviv’s Hostage Square. In exchange, more than six hundred Palestinian prisoners will be released by Israel.
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(Photo: The moment hostage Omer Shem Tov is released at the handover. Credit: Reuters)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to NewsHour from the BBC World Service coming live from London. |
| 0:07.9 | This is Owen Bennett Jones. So the hostage and prisoner releases in Gaza and Israel are still on track. |
| 0:16.2 | Today, six Israelis have been released. Two of them had been held for as long as a decade. |
| 0:22.7 | 600 Palestinians should be freed this evening. |
| 0:26.3 | In Gaza, a large crowd gathered in the rain, |
| 0:29.6 | and the hostages were paraded in two separate ceremonies there. |
| 0:32.9 | And in Tel Aviv, there were cheers. |
| 0:35.4 | As Israelis watched, the Red Cross take the hostages under its care. |
| 0:50.7 | Well, Yal Alexander is the mother of Idan Alexander, one of the Israeli hostages, who's actually |
| 0:56.7 | still being held by Hamas. She told the BBC, she is looking forward to the time her son and |
| 1:02.7 | other remaining hostages will be released. So I'm seeing this release. I'm here in Tel Aviv. I came a week |
| 1:10.0 | ago from Jersey. I don't know. I'm hopeful, |
| 1:12.8 | you know, to see the hostages on their feet. It's amazing after so long that we didn't know much |
| 1:20.1 | about them, just to see them alive and release from captivity. It's amazing. And I actually can see |
| 1:26.3 | when it's going to be our time, like to get it done back. |
| 1:30.8 | There is more than dozens young men alive, like my son, still waiting to be released. |
| 1:38.0 | And we need to, this is the main goal, to release the live people now from Gaza. |
| 1:44.6 | Well, as I say, some Palestinians also gathered to watch the hostages being handed over to the Red Cross. |
| 1:50.4 | And these onlookers in the southern Gaza city of Rafa gave their reaction. |
| 1:56.6 | I pray to God the Almighty that this truth will be fully implemented. |
| 2:01.2 | We do not want war. We do not want bombings. We want peace, security and safety in our beloved Gaza Strip. |
| 2:08.9 | Praise be to God for what we have lost. May he compensate us. |
... |
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