This is a special unholy update.

Three Israeli hostages, Romi Gonen, Emily Damari, and Ron Steinbren are home.

After 471 days, it's the first day of the first stage of the second hostage deal.

And it was a good day, Jonathan.

Yeah, I mean, watching it from afar, although in the case of Emily Damari, not so far,

because she is, you know, a British Israeli, so the British media and British Jewish community,

incredibly engaged by her case, you know, football fans last, just the other day,

were chanting, she's one of our own, she's one of our own, just days before her release.

So, you know, the emotion of this event has rippled around all around the world,

but just give us, I mean, obviously you were sitting in the anchors chair for a marathon 12 hours. So you have a very particular vantage point. But just how that has been emotionally for the country and where you're sitting. I mean, first of all, it was a good day of joy and of relief.

You know, when we talked last time, I thought it's a moment of grace.

And the one thing that we were worried about, concerned is how they will be coming home.

Because we knew, obviously, the sadism of these people.

We saw it on October 7th. We knew what the people who had returned in the first hostage deal

back in November, December of 2023 said about the way they were held. We knew, you know,

how the hostages that were found dead in the way that they were found. So we were quite,

I mean, the Israeli public, if there was something that they were concerned and kind of everyone was, if this is a Jewish podcast, I can say everyone was on

Spilkes yesterday, right, because we were all kind of tense and waiting to see how they would be

coming home in that moment. These things always take a long time. We saw the sort of convoys of the

Red Cross and we could report that they were handed or being handed

over from Hamas to the Red Cross.

Everyone saw these pictures right of the Hamas, uh, Nukba armed.

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