Three more Israeli hostages released in Gaza
Newshour
BBC
4.4 • 984 Ratings
🗓️ 8 February 2025
⏱️ 46 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Three more Israeli hostages are released in Gaza: we hear from the brother-in-law of one of the hostages and about the medical challenges that lie ahead.
Also in the programme: African leaders call for an immediate ceasefire in the Democratic Republic of Congo; and as the Trump administration slashes the 'indirect' element of all National Institute of Health grants, how will this affect medical science in the US?
(IMAGE: Or Levy, Eli Sharabi and Ohad Ben Ami, hostages held in Gaza since the deadly October 7, 2023 attack, are released by Hamas militants as part of a ceasefire and a hostages-prisoners swap deal between Hamas and Israel in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, February 8, 2025 / CREDIT: Reuters/Hatem Khaled)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to NewsHour from the BBC World Service with me, Sean Lake, coming to you live from London. |
| 0:10.9 | Three Israeli hostages were released by Hamas from captivity in Gaza Saturday morning into the hands of the Red Cross. |
| 0:18.0 | As the three men, looking gaunt, were brought out onto a stage escorted by Hamas |
| 0:22.2 | militants, the crowd chanted, Alu Akbar, God is great. |
| 0:30.3 | These latest releases bring to 16 the number of Israelis freed so far as well as five ties. In this, |
| 0:38.9 | the first stage of the ceasefire with Hamas, 183 detained Palestinians have also been freed |
| 0:44.8 | by Israel. The BBC's Middle East correspondent Yilan Nell has been watching from Hostage Square |
| 0:50.6 | in Tel Aviv. She joins us now live. Remind us, if you can, about who these three are |
| 0:57.8 | and what we know about their condition and indeed what reaction there's been from the Israeli |
| 1:02.0 | authorities to their release, your land. Yeah, so these three men are all civilians. Two of them |
| 1:08.7 | were captured from their homes in Kabuts's Bari on the 7th of |
| 1:12.6 | October, 2023. They are ahead Ben Ami, who's 56. His wife Raz had been released in the November |
| 1:20.9 | ceasefire deal. She's been an active campaigner for him to be brought home ever since. You have |
| 1:26.0 | Ellie Sharabee, who's 52. His British-born |
| 1:29.2 | wife, Leanne, and his two teenage daughters were all killed in the safe room of their house |
| 1:33.7 | in the kibbutz on the 7th of October. His brother was killed in Gaza, and his family had been saying |
| 1:39.5 | it wasn't clear if he knew any of this, as he was due to be released. There was also Orlevi 34 who was kidnapped from the Nova Festival. |
| 1:48.4 | His wife, Aenev, was killed that day. |
| 1:50.8 | And their son, who's just a toddler at the time, has been cared for by his grandparents ever since. |
| 1:56.5 | I mean, those who knew the men, and you just see the posters around me in Hostage Square, |
| 2:00.6 | are really ghastly, are shocked at their appearance. |
| 2:02.7 | They say they're much thinner than hostages previously released. They seemed very pale, very weak. |
... |
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