kidnapped by hamas was just released. "the lead" starts right now. after more than 50 days held captive by hamas, 11 more hostages are freed tonight after israel and hamas agree to pause fighting for a few more days, leading to more hostage releases to come. and the only israeli man released by hamas so far has a dual russian/israeli citizenship. why him, and how did he spend four days on the run? was his release a hamas favor to vladimir putin. plus, the palestinian prisoners who israel is letting go, and the two-tiered justice system for many of them that led to so many of them being held without trial in the first place. ♪ welcome to "the lead." i'm jake tapper. also this hour we're going to get to the major arrest of the man police say shot three college students in vermont. the suspect was in court today. the college students were speaking english and arabic at the time of saturday's shooting wearing the traditional palestinian keffiyeh scarves. a spokesman for the israel defense forces say all 11 citizens are israeli, although it's not clear if any of them are dual citizens. the hostages and missing persons forum says the freed hostages are a 12-year-old, sharon and her 3-year-old kids. emma and her two kids, 16-year-olds, and 16-year-old and 13-year-old. i spoke to the mother of orr and yakiil on october 8th, the day after the attack. she was listening to her sons on the phone when they were kidnapped. you might remember that horrible story. it's so great that they're back with her. now that this group of hostages has been released, the israel/hamas pause will be extended for an additional two days under the same conditions. that means another 20 hostages are expected to be freed. these join the 58 ores who have been released in others. that includes 40 israelis and 4-year-old american israeli abigail idan. she was orphaned in the october pth terrorist attacks. the hamas murdered her parents in cold blood. let's get straight to cnn's injure my diamond. he's at the border crossing. what are you seeing where you are right now? >> reporter: we just witnessed a very, very dramatic scene. three helicopters came very close to our location and came very close, landing right there. i'm going to have my man zoom in on that location where we can actually still see at least one of those helicopters. we saw buses getting very close to those helicopters, and i'm now told, jake, indeed, those hostages are crossing the border and they will go toward the hospital in israel. what's interesting about this is that it appears this crossing happened simply between gaza directly into israel. typically we see those images of the red cross vehicles heading to the rafah crossing, crossing into egypt, and then driving that less than two miles three egypt three the kerem shalom crossing and into israel, but now israeli officials are already con first-partying those hostages are indeed on the territory and we saw helicopters coming in very low. two helicopters, one look very similar to a black hawk, landing at the kerem shalom crossing. we're told they're going to be taken to one of the hospitals in israel that's prepared to receive these hostages. we have watched, jake, obviously over the course of the last several days as a couple of different modalities have been employed for the hostages to cross into israel. yesterday was the first day they crossed directly from the gaza strip into israel. at the time we were told that was in part due to the urgent medical condition of one of those newly released hostages. over the previous days they'd had gone into egypt first. but now it appears they're going directly in at this kerem shalom crossing. >> where do they come from? >> reporter: most came from the kib buts in israel where dozens were kidnapped from the kibbutz and taken into the gaza strip. we have a number of names and there are a number of children ranging from the age of 3 up until 16, 18 years old, all of these hostages. we have a statement from the head of the kibbutz that says the news brings a sigh of relief to the community, but we remain deeply concerned about our loved ones. it's a reminder for every hostage released, there are still hostages who remain in gaza. that will be key with the truce now being extended by an additional two days, hamas to release ten additional hostages for each of those days. how much further can they keep going? we know hamas does not hold ouall of the hostages inside gaza. in fact, dozens are being held by other militant groups. in fact, tonight, the israeli military fears the 10-month-old old, the youngest hostage is being held by another militant group. so a lot of questions about hamas' ability to wrangle these hostages and to return them to israel as part of this agreement. jake? >> jeremy diamond, thank you very much. i want to bring in oren lieber minnesota in tel aviv. there was a delay by hours. why? what were the issues holding it up? >> reporter: jake, the fundamental issue was over the number of hostages to be released. israel has demanded that families be kept together, that's something hamas has ha violated, by separating a daughter from her mother. that led to its own series of issues, roadblocks, and delays that eventually took time to work through. from what we're hearing, the same sort of issue, who was on the list, who was not on the list that caused a delay today. still, this is on par with what we saw over the weekend where there was a risk of the deal collapsing. it wasn't a great danger over the deal, but it obviously showing the friction taking place in these exchanges and as part of the truce and how fragile it will be, the effort it took -- i apologize for my light being a little finicky there -- the effort it took to get it across the line and keep it going especially with the challenges on the ground there. >> oren, what do we know about the two-day extension in the pause in fighting? could it go past that? could it become three days, each four? >> reporter: what's critical here is the arrangement for when they have this pause in fighting. israel said from the very beginning it would take ten israeli hostages for another dale of nonfight. there are still -- and this is before today's release i should note -- 52 women and 14 children. so there is at least in principle enough hostages under this agreement to keep this pause going for a few more days. it's also worth noting when israel put out its list of hostages to gaza, the number was 300. that's twice the initial agreement of 150, so that means at least israel is prepared for the possibility of an extension as well. still, qatar announced 48 hours of an extension right now. to keep that going, it will probably take another massive diplomatic effort. >> in tel aviv, thanks so much. let's bring in cn alex marquardt. have u.s. officials given any indication when they believe the nine american hostages might be released? >> they're certainly hoping two american women will come out in the next two days. there was the expectation that three americans would get released. one of them was young abigail e had hoped by today you would have the two american women because the deal was for women and children. that did not happen, and that is one of the reasons that the biden administration is really pushing for this extension. john kirby, the white house spokesman with the national security council, he confirmed just a short time ago on cnn that today's release would not see any more americans released. here's a little bit more of what he had to say. >> we are working very, very hard to keep this flow of hostages going. we're glad to see that there's a two-day extension, and we certainly would hope that in the next two days -- in the next couple of install manhattans, it will see some americans coming out. but it's difficult to know for sure day to day exactly how hamas is making these decisions. >> so the hope is two more americans in the next two days. you can imagine they're pressing hamas and qatar to release these hostages. hamas knows how valuable these american prisz nevers are. then there's the question of seven others who are men, and sullivan, the national security adviser said by tonight they're expecting an update from hamas as to the conditions of those seven american men, whether they're alive or not, the medical condition they're in. jake, we should note at least three of these sen we believe have nothing to do with the israeli military, whether they're reservists and two are idf soldiers. we believe that will make negotiations that much more complicated down about the line. >> yeah, you've got to believe hamas is playing with fire, holding onto those americans for so long. what role did the u.s. play in this agreement announced by qatar to extend this pause, this humanitarian pause between israel, hamas, and the gaza strip? >> a pivotal role, an essential one. this is something the u.s. has been pushing for since the beginning of the pause. they said the deal was designed in order to incentivize hamas to release more prisoner, a very simple deal. you get another -- >> not prisoners. >> hostages. absolutely they're hostages. that if you get another day of pauses, essentially for every ten hostages released, and so we know that the president himself has been intimately involved. he's been speaking with his counterparts over the weekend, speaking with the ee emir of qatar on down and the president has been involved in pushing this, and as you noted, the u.s. is hoping the pause goes on beyond two days so more hostages can be released and more aid can get in. >> yeah. one wonders, though, how long president biden's patience can last. >> and israel's. >> and israel's, yeah. alex marquardt, thanks so much. there's been some disappointment and some jubilation as we await more reunions with hostages and their families. there are some already sharing moments of joy and relief. >> reporter: it was a particularly excruciating weekend for the families of hostages being held by hamas. once the temporary pause between israel and hamas began, many of thome hoping, praying that their loved ones would be the once released. among the first wave of hostages freed, 9-year-old ohad munder seeing his father for the first time. he was kidnapped with his mother and 78-year-old grandmother ruth as well as his grandpa. another emotional moment, 9-year-old emily hand reuniting with her father who previously thought she had been killed by hamas. all weekend many americans were holding out hope that 4-year-old israeli american abigail idan would be released. both of her parents had been murdered by hamas and surchd she was finally released in the third round of hostage releases. also included was brodich. she was kidnapped along with her three children. a few weeks ago their father told me he was eager for any swap of palestinian prisoners. >> do whatever swap they want, do it. >> do whatever. my family's been there. they've been there over three weeks. do it. they're over there. i want my kids to be right here. i want uval to play soccer and the other to play xbox and guitar and my wife to be with me. >> reporter: another to be released was the goldstein family. she was kidnapped with her three children. her husband and another were killed in the safe room of their home. i spoke to hans' brother omari. >> it's a difficult situation, but we fight. i need somebody in the world to help them to make it back from the gaza strip back to israel. they cannot do this themselves. >> reporter: after the goldstein family returned to israel, the family knew all along that their loved ones hadn't made it. >>. >> i'm very happy to report they're back to us and they feel good and well and they knew the whole time that others were murdered in their house and they go away. they went to gaza as hostages. we're very happy to have them and they're in good spirits. >> reporter: and we're just getting in the family you rue nighting with their family members outside schneider hospital. hugs, smiles, tears. we hope this scene repeats itself many, many times until all of the hostages, all of them are released free. even then, hamas is holding half of the hostages taken on october 7th, a father looking for an inchling about his son will join me next and a young russian who escaped captivity and was hiding for four days before being recaptured. are waiting to hear if their loved ones might be among the next hostages released including my next guest. his son, a 22-year-old, was taken hostage when hamas attacked the musikfest. thanks so much for being here. your son suffers from a chronic medical condition. have officials given you any updates on his condition, on how he might be doing? >> thank you, jake. no, we didn't have any information. we say it's 5 2 days. i don't know if he's getting any medicine. the chronicdy dy disease is gg severe when you're in a stressed situation probably like he do. this is unfortunately the worst case i can think about is not getting any medical aid, and the red cross is supposed to go-go inside tomorrow as part of the deal, and i don't know. i didn't get any information from the red cross or health care. they're going inside to visit the hostages or maybe give him some medicine that he needs and to bring us a sign of life. this is what i want. >> yeah. >> i think that part of the deal that's supposed to go in the next few days, i demand they care for the sick people and take them out, take my son out. they can't stay there. they can't stay there anymore. we saw -- as we saw with one hostage that came out, she's in the hospital in very serious, bad condition. i don't want to think about my son in this situation. we need to take all the sick people out, everyone. >> yeah. it must be very painful for the family members of men, young men especially given the fact that obviously they're prioritizing older people, women, and children understandably so, but the love you have for your son is very apparent. >> yeah. we welcome all the hostages that were released. it's very helpful for the families to give them more strength. some of them are combined -- a boy went out, but his father is still a hostage. i can't imagine what he feels about it. this is a horrible thing. again, i demand to take all hostages out, and first we have to deal with the sick people who are lying down on the ground probably, and we don't know anything about them, if they're getting treatment, if they're getting any medicine. >> and, shai, you first learned about your son being taken by hamas from a video that was shared on social media. i'm going to show it with your permission. i want to warn our viewers that the video is disturbing. your son is visible in the video. he he's in the back of the pickup. he's been stripped to his underwear. he's been surrounded by these terrorists, armed men who are continually beating him. that has to be horrifying to see, although, at the same time, you do see that your son is alive. >> it's horrible to see my son like this, handcuffed only with underwear. he's getting beaten, slaughtered, they pointed a gun at him. i don't -- it's horrible to think about it. yes, i can see my son is alive, he's kidnapped in this suv off of hamas. he's alive. he's looking at the camera. he's only in his underwear handcuffed. he's supposed to go to the palestinian refugees but the hamas did a terror act and take all the action. this is horrible. i know my son is alive from the video, but since then, i don't know nothing. >> yeah. >> i don't know nothing. i don't want to think that my son would be the next body that comes out from gaza. >> let's not think about that. let's hope for the best. what do you want people to think about when they think about him. i don't want to think about that image when i think about him. i want to think about what you tell me right now. what do you want -- when i think about olmert when i go home, what do you want me to know about him? >> first, you can see he's a very smiley guy from the photos. he's 22 years old. he's the manager of a restaurant, and this is the career he wants to do. he also wants to study about the restaurant management. he's a very friendly -- he's like a human magnet. everyone wants to be around him. he has a lot of friends. he do friendship very easy. he also went to the youth group. so he likes the good life. and this is how i want people to know olmert. he likes to go to chef restaurants. he likes to go to parties, music, drink some wine, and this is what i want people to know about olmert. he's a very handsome guy and i miss him a lot. i haven't seen him for 52 days. it's unimaginable. it's unimaginable. and i want everybody to imagine that olmert is coming home. this makes me more happy and more faithful. we're waiting for him. >> shai, the very first person i had who had somebody kidnapped was a woman who i interviewed on october 8th, and her two sons were returned today. her two sons were returned to her today. let's hope that that will be you. that will be you soon enough. shai wenkert, thank you so much for being here today. >> thank you very much. i have to ask you and the reporters and all the media, we have to keep doing the mission that the hostages need to be on the front page. we're very happy for the release of the hostages, but we still have 160 hostages that are still -- >> shai, you're on my show right now. you're on my show right now, shai. i know. i know. you're on right now. you're live on international tv right now. i'm not stopping, don't worry. coming up ahead, some palestinian leaders were held in custody without ever being charged with a crime. how did that happen? stay with us. all right. 33 more hostages are expected to be released on top of the 117 already released in part of this pause between israel and hamas. some of these individuals were convicted in a criminal court of law for criminal acts. for example, in 2015 is reeling sentenced a woman to 13 years in prison. she had been convicted in a court of law of attempted murder when she drove up with her car and with gas canisters, her car blew up at a checkpoint and the explosion blew up a police officer. she yelled. she denies it. and there are a host of palestinian prisoners who have been held and denied due process such as a 17-year-old. he was arrested by the israeli defense forces in june for the offense of possessing a weapon, but he was never even charged. he sat in prison for five months. and as reported, israeli law actually allows palestinian prisoners to be detained indefinitely without a trial or even a chark. >> reporter: the moment a mother finally sees her son after eight weeks in prison. it was very emotional. he was part of a prisoner exchange. >> translator: it was painful because i was leaving the prisoners i named as my sisters arkansas and then in 2014 she was charged with stabbing. no one was injured and yet she was convicted of atimted murder and sentenced to ten years. when her family appealed, it came down to nine. she served almost eight of those years maintaining her teenage years behind bars. her mother had dreamed of this day for years, to embrace her daughter, to share that joy with her community. she says this was denied. >> translator: the israeli authorities were with us at 2:00 p.m. they surrounded the house and ripped down the decorations of any display of celebration. they stole the joy of my daughter's release. >> reporter: to be released doesn't mean you are fully free. israeli cabinet minister who was himself found guilty in 2007 before he was a minister of incitement to racism against arabs and supporting a terrorist organization, they were forced to use an iron fist, preventing palestinians from celebrating the release of their loved ones saying the prisoners were terrorists. >> translator: expressions of joy, celebrations of victory give strength to the same human scum, those nazis. the policy here is very, very, very clear, not at to allow these expressions of joy and resolutely strive to make contact and stop any support of these nazis. >> reporter: another night, another scene of israeli forces were with well wishes and gists at the home of a released palestinian prisoner, taking a very heavy-handed approach as ordered by their security minister. in belkt le hem in the occupied west barpg tbank, they were prevented from celebrating. she left her home walking and returned seven years later. shot by soulderies and accused of attempted murder. >> reporter: >> translator: it's not true, i was hit in the spine with two bullets. two vertebrae were replaced with titanium. i cannot stand up. >> reporter: for months her family was denied access even as her detention stretched on. >> translator: it was forbidden for my relatives to visit me or evenmy lawyers. i was not allowed to make any calls. >> reporter: israel says she attempted murder, and yet she was only detained. she was not given any opportunity to defend herself and this is a story we keep hearing again and again from released prisoners, that they are given due process and yet this crime exists alongside their names. the israeli prisoner service responded to these allegations saying national security prisoners who were released from the israeli prison during the past two days were serving time for serious crimes such as attempted murder, assault, and carrying explosives. all prisoners in idf custody are held according to the law. that's not true. cnn broke down the numbers. in a list of 300 palestinian prisoners identified by israel as eligible for release, 80% are listed as just detained, which means they have not been formally sentenced. israel operating two systems of law in the occupied territories, palestinians under the military, israelis under civil law, creating a low bar for the arrest of increasing numbers of palestinians. israeli hard-liners and others seek to characterize every palestinian as a terrorist. that number is rising every day. the israeli defense force didn't respond to our request for comment, but the numbers speak for themselves, jake. that was just a very small sample that was released by israel's didepartment of justic but the number who have been swept up in israeli jails in the last two to three months are almost at 9,000, and if they give us any kind of insight into what those other thousands of palestinians are going through, there's a real concern that there is no distinction between a palestinian and a terrorist in the way that israel chooses to apply its law to them. it's martial law, jake. >> thank you so much for that report. coming up next, the hamas relationship with vladimir putin that seems to have led to the release of one man among so many women and children who are being released. stay with us. . we've got breaking news for you. a helicopter took off at the border of gaza and egypt. that's where we find cnn's jeremy diamond. jeremy, walk us through what you're seeing there. >> reporter: well, jake, we've watched as three helicopters landed at the kerem shalom crossing. then we found that the helicopters came in it appears directly from gaza, and moments ago we just saw helicopters taking off. we officer one helicopter take off and head in the direction of tel aviv. we know that those 11 hostages where headed to the hospital in tel aviv tonight and we believe that that one helicopter was likely carrying those hostages. we are still watchesing i ing if two more take off. that's the scene. >> thank you very much. so far the hostages released by hamas have primarily been women and children with the exception of a 25-year-old, and israeli russian. as fred pleitgen reports, he cites the intervention of vladimir putin and the support of russian position for the palestinian cause. >> reporter: israel is rejoicing over the hostages released in the prisoner swap with hamas, almost exclusively women and children. only one military age male israeli has been set free so far pictured in this hamas video showing the exchange with the red cross. he's also a russian citizen and his brother thanked the russian government for making the release happen. >> translator: we see what russians can do. they helped us and we believe they can help others too. >> reporter: his aunt told israeli media he escaped his captors after the house he was koept in was bombed but he was apprehended by hamas again after four days. his release now was not part of the larger prisoner swap agreement between israel and hamas. it happened thanks to moscow's good relations with hamas' leadership, russian officials say. his release was possible following direct intensive contact between our diplomats and hamas representatives, russia's ambassador to israel. after hamas' october 7th assault on southern israel killing more than 1,200 people and leaving more than 200 in captivity inside gaza, much of the world condemned hamas, but not russian president vladimir putin. instead the kremlin invited a high-level hamas delegation to moscow for talks. and putin has ripped into israel over its military response to hamas' raid, which haskill and wounded many people across the gaza strip. putin compared his invasion to ukraine against the hamas war with israel. >> translator: i understand that this war with ukraine must be shocking but what about the bloody state coup in 2014 which was followed by the war against their own regime in donbas. was that no shocking? was not the palestinians in gaza? >> reporter: for its part, hamas clearly views moscow as an ally. hamas leaders making clear russian hostages captured on october 7th will get preferential treatment and have good chances of getting released faster. >> translator: this request from russia, we treat more positively and attend actively than others. the nature of our relations with russia. >> reporter: and, jake, so far they have not said how many russian citizens are being held by hamas, but those being held are also dual russian israeli citizens. so in this case the relationship that they have can be quite beneficial. at the same time, you do have rapp ripping into israel, at the same time ripping into the u.s. saying essentially he believes the u.s. needs in12stability in the middle east to dominate. >> thanks very much. coming up, the court appearance of a man who police say shot three innocent college students. stay with us. three palestinian college students went out for a walk in vermontment they were wearing their keffiyehs speaking arabic and english, they were shot -- shot before they could make it home for dinner. all three remain in intensive care as investigators today are looking for a motive. as cnn's polo sandoval reports, this attack comes among the rise in attacks since the war between israel and hamas began. >> the saturday evening shooting of three young palestinian college students visiting burlington on their holiday breaks is one of the most shocking in this city's history. >> reporter: after the shooting left three young palestinian men skashd sfrefr, the suspect charged with three counts of attempted second degree murder. 43-year-old jason eaton was arraigned in burlington this morning, held without bail. >> atf agents were greeted by a man who stepped out of the door towards them with his palms up at waist height and stated something to the effect of "i've been waiting for you." the atf agents said, why's that? and the gentleman said i would like a lawyer. >> reporter: the three victims are hisham awartani, a student at brown university in rhode island who now has a bullet in his spine. kinnan ab ball hamid shot in the glute and tahseen ahmed who still has a bullet in his chest. the students were walking down the street saturday evening while visiting one of their relatives for thanksgiving. >> they were speaking in a mixture of english and arabic which is their want. two were wearing keffiyehs and they had no knowledge of this individual, had not encountered him before. he stepped off a porch and produced a firearm and began discharging that firearm. >> reporter: the rising reports of targeted violence against joous and palestinians since the start of the war have shifted calls that it should be considered a hate crime. >> i believe the families fear this was motivated by hate, that these boys were -- these young men were targeted because they were arabs, that they were wearing keffiyehs. i think that is our fear. >> reporter: federal officials investigating whether it was a hate crime in the eyes of the law. the families of the victims said they thought their loved ones would be safe here. >> kinnan grew up in the west bank. we thought that could be more of a risk in terms of his safety, and sending him here would be the right decision. i feel somehow betrayed in that decision here. >> reporter: having had an opportunity to speak with some of these family members today they really did underscore that, jake, these young men left a conflict zone, came to the united states only top shot. we should mention burlington police did confirm they have been able to establish a ballistic connection between the pistol seized from the suspect's home, the apartment behind me, with the casings recovered in the street. they have that piece of the puzzle in the bag. the next will be challenging whether this is actually a hate-driven crime. >> absolutely disgraceful. polo sandoval, thank you so much right now we're monitoring hostages released from hamas believed to be on a helicopter headed for a hospital in tel aviv. our coverage continues right after this break. in order for small businesses to thrive, they need to be smart, efficient, savvy. making the most of every opportunity. that's why comcast business is introducing