Transcripts For KNTV NBC 20240703

Possibly happen. And suddenly, bang, what an aboutface. Although the family are clearly celebrating, and i havent spoken to them in the last half hour, i imagine because theyre on the way to the border to meet natalie and judith. They havent got time to talk to me. What you know . What a moment. But i just need to emphasize its not over for this family. Theres they have i mean, i didnt know this, but while my family also buried somebody who was killed in that attack, october 7, that guy was killed and buried today, his wife is now still a hostage in gaza, so its another hostage and its not only my family. Its every family involved, because its such a tiny country, one or two degrees of separation, and everybody who was caught up in that attack was from a certain kind of people, if you like, people who settled on the border with gaza, mostly farmers or working locally, a certain kind of person answered the call from the Israeli Government in 1967 when the government said, go settle around the newly conquered area of gaza, create a kind of security buffer zone of kibbutz and settlements. Thats what they did. They answered that call. The contract with the government was, well live there in that dangerous area, and youll protect us, and that contract between the government and the people collapsed. Martin, the last time we spoke, i asked you how your wife was doing because she obviously is the one whos in contact with some of these relatives. You said she was in tears. I assume tears of joy. How is she doing now . Well, she was in she couldnt sleep for she couldnt sleep for a week, and then she gave me the news. Tears of emotion. Before, she was crying tears of anguish. Now shes, i guess, crying tears of joy, and she my wife is not a sentimental, particularly, woman. Shes a kibbutznik. She grew up in a hard area in the jordan valley. She spent two years sleeping in a bomb shelter when they were being bombed by the syrians when she was a child. She doesnt come from a background of, oh my god, this is terrible, but tears of anguish turning to tears of joy, and she was the first one that said, thats just our family. What about the rest . They pray for the news that you and your family have received tonight. Martin fletcher, im going to ask you to stand by with so many thanks for bringing us up to speed on developments very much in realtime as you are getting messages on your side. I want to go to Richard Engel. The question now for so many of those other families whose loved ones are still being held, is this release a oneoff or is it the very beginning of perhaps the dam breaking and the further release of other people by hamas . Reporter so, im in touch with a one of the negotiators whos directly involved in this, one of the people who confirmed to nbc news early on that this release had, in fact, taken place, and he hopes that this is just the beginning, that this is just the start, and we have been in touch with hamas over the last several days about this issue, and hamas has expressed a willingness to release civilians, to release foreign passport holders, not to release israeli soldiers, but what we saw today, which is changing everything, is that hamas actually did it. It did it under tremendous pressure. It did it under tremendous pressure from the arab world. It did it under tremendous military pressure. The group is being attacked relentlessly, day and night, by the israeli army. It is under threat of an imminent invasion, an invasion that could be launched at any time, an invasion clearly now that is going to have to be recalibrated, recalculated, now that hamas is showing some goodwill in releasing these hostages. So, i think now, theres absolutely going to be an effort to use this as a starting point. Those hostages who are now on their way to be reunited with their families undoubtedly are going to be debriefed. What do they know . Were they held with other hostages . What intelligence might they have . What is the condition of the other hostages . And we know that movement is under way on this issue, because just a few hours before this happened, the Israeli Military, this is the second briefing that you just heard live on television. This is the second brief that the Israeli Military has given about hostages. Earlier today, the military, the idf said that it has information that there are about 200 hostages held by hamas still in gaza and that most of them are still alive. The Israeli Military wouldnt announce that itself if it didnt have some sort of certainty, it didnt have proof of life, so there is movement on this issue because weve seen this hostage come out. Weve seen these two people on their way out to freedom, and weve heard about the Israeli Military just hours earlier talking about how most of them are still alive, so contacts are clearly under way. Hamas said it did this as a humanitarian gesture, but there is obviously a lot more than that. The group is under military pressure, diplomatic pressure, to do this. Pressure from all sides, richard. One of the things that we heard in that briefing we carried here life on the air from nbc news from the Israeli Military was the idea that the israelis are gearing up for the next phase of this war. That was made very clear. There will continue to be military pressure here. You talk about the recalibration, if you will, of what that ground incursion could look like. Explain that. Pull on that thread for us. Reporter so, the hamas had said earlier in the week, and i spoke to a senior hamas official about this issue directly. We broadcast it on nbc news. Hamas made an offer saying that it would release the foreign hostages, that it would release foreign hostages, meaning like the two people who were just held today, israelis who also hold foreign passports. It said that it had no issue with them, that they were not party to the conflict that it has with israel, and it said it would release all civilians, including just those who are purely israeli citizens. But it did say it would only do that if the air strikes stopped. It would not do this under fire. We saw today is it did, in fact, release these two people, this mother and daughter, while still under fire. So, israel kept up the pressure, and these two people are now on their way to be reunited with their families. That is a change in hamass position. It shows that they are under military pressure and reacting to it as well. Richard engel, thank you. Im going to ask you to stay on the line for a minute while we bring in jeremy bash, former chief of staff at both the cia and department of defense and an nbc news analyst. Jeremy, this is obviously very clearly a moment of deescalation with the release of these two hostages. Can it last . If its a moment of deescalation, hallie, i think its a very small and tiny moment. Its certainly hopeful for this family. Its going to be a joyous reunification for judith and natalie with their loved ones who have been so concerned about them, but there are 200 hostages, including as many as 13 americans and someone like hersch goldberg, whos grievously wounded. Hes got chicago roots. Hes an american. These are families that are deeply concerned about the welfare of these hostages. I think two is great, and every life is precious, but the enormity of this hostage crisis really means this was a, in my view, a very small offer or gesture by hamas or islamist jihad or whoever was holding them. We dont know why they released them. We dont know if they released them because they had to move positions and it was too difficult to move with the hostages. We dont know if, for example, the Israeli Military had them in their sights and there was a potential raid or an operation under way. We dont know the details, and so i think the idf and the Israeli Internal Security service is going to first make sure that theyre healthy, but very quickly try to debrief these two hostages and try to learn every single thing about their captivity that they can learn. You have been inside an administration, jeremy, at moments of critical diplomacy, of critical intelligence gathering. Whats happening behind the scenes for the Biden Administration at this moment . Well, they are burning up the phone lines, talking to their counterparts in the region, including, obviously, inside israel, but also within egypt and also within qatar, and i would argue the other gulf arab countries, including jordan, that have any influence at all with the terrorist organization hamas. Its most likely going to be qatar thats going to have the best line into hamas because hamass Political Leadership lives and works out of qatar, lives and works out of turkey and has also relationships with egypt, and when theres been a need to get messages to hamas usually in the past, qatar is one of the gobetweens, and so the u. S. Is actively engaged in diplomacy. I think theyre also talking to the idf about the military battle space about what the Ground Invasion looks like or i should say what the Counterterrorism Operations look like generally speaking because part of the counterterrorism landscape is going to be hostage rescue, making sure we have prepositioned assets in the region to, if necessary, go in and get these hostages or if theyre released to provide and render medical care, to rescue them from the border, to reunify them. We dont just hang back and wait for moments to develop like this. We go forward and try to get ready in a threepoint stance and ready posture. Jeremy bash, thank you so much. I want to get back to our chief Foreign Correspondent, Richard Engel, who is joining us on the phone. Your location, i believe, is along the israeligaza border here. Talk to us about what else youre learning and where this goes in the days to come. So, according to hamas, and i could confirm this as well, there was a direct qatari mediation, that the qatari mediation is ongoing, that it has been an intense pressure from qatar to help secure this release. There has also been pressure on hamas from the palestinians themselves inside gaza. About 4,000 of them, according to hamass own count, have been killed, and every day, we see more images of palestinian casualties, so you get a sense watching events that are unfolding there that as the death toll is mounting, theres concern in gaza that a humanitarian catastrophe could lead to even higher that these attacks could lead to a greater humanitarian casualty, and there is concern about the region that unless this deescalates somehow, we could be spilling into a much larger middle east war. It is not over. It is two people, as jeremy bash was just saying. There are hundreds more held hostages, but there is this hope that once it starts flowing, once you get two, that it can lead to more. What would your expectation be, timelinewise, richard, on that . Or is that simply a question mark at this point . Well, i think the fullon ground offensive that israel has been threatening is certainly now, well, not certainly but is likely in a pause position, because if Israeli Ground troops suddenly start moving into gaza tonight or tomorrow, just as hamas is releasing these two hostages, potentially more, and as hamas is providing proof of life with the israelis saying that they believe most of the hostages are still alive, it would put israel in a very difficult position if suddenly the tanks started rolling across the border tonight. Richard engel, thank you so much for the context, for the reporting there live from the region. This has been a day here at home, a night overseas of incredibly fastmoving developments. Were on top of all of it and well bring you the latest as we get it. That does it for this nbc news special report but we have much more on our streaming channel, nbc news now, also on nbcnews. Com. Im hallie jackson. For all of us here at nbc, thank you for watching. You for watching. Better breathing, symptom improvement, and reduced flareups. Breztri wont replace a rescue inhaler for sudden breathing problems. It is not for asthma. Tell your doctor if you have a heart condition or high Blood Pressure before taking it. Dont take breztri more than prescribed. Breztri may increase your risk of thrush, pneumonia, and osteoporosis. Call your doctor if worsened breathing, chest pain, mouth or tongue swelling, problems urinating, vision changes, or eye pain occur. Ask your doctor about breztri. Depend keeps you drier than ever. So you can say yes to more than ever. Yes. Yes. Yes. No. Depend, the only thing stronger than us, is you. 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Two american hostages released from hamas and israels government confirmed the release a short time ago. Names judith and Natalie Raanan relatives of Martin Fletcher nbc news former foreign news chief. Well bring you an nbc news special report when it begins. Two week since the terror attack that sparked this war. Joining us now nbc news Foreign Correspondent Josh Lederman in tel aviv, israel. A major deal. How are these two doing . What do we know about their release and where they are right now . Reporter we know they are safely on israeli territory. The Israeli Military saying after hamas released these two americans, they were met at the gaza border by Israeli Military forces who are now in the process of bringing those americans to a military site in the center of israel where their relatives are waiting to receive them. Clearly that will be quite a reunion after two weeks in which these two americans were among, we believe, about 200 people. Some of them american. A larger number israelis, held hostage in the gaza strip by the hamas terrorist organization. These are the first two hostages that we know of who have been released since the beginning of this crisis, and while we still dont know exactly what might have led to this release, why hamas decided to release these two americans now it is certainly raising hopes that additional hostages could be released in the future. This hostage release was negotiated by the qatari government speaking both to the americans, to the israelis and to hamas. I am told by qatari officials tonight they are still speaking both to the israelis and hamas and hopeful theyll be able to bring even more americans home as well as other hostages from gaza. But for tonight, this is the, really, the biggest positive news weve had since start of this crisis. These two americans from evanston, illinois, now safely on israeli territory after two weeks held hostage by hamas. Biggest positive news many of us are welcoming at this moment here. Go ahead and bring in Gabe Gutierrez at the white house now. Gabe, how is the Biden Administration reacting to this announcement especially on the heels of the president just returning from tel aviv . Reporter hi, there morgan. Actually waiting for the first statement from the National Security council here at the white house. The Biden Administration has not officially commented on this release, but as you said. This comes just days after a whirlwind trip to israel where the president and his top advisers have been talking about what a high priority was to get some of these hostages, all of these hostages, released as best they could and, morgan, it also comes just hours after the president gave this Oval Office Address here at the white house. Just his second Oval Office Address of his presidency. Also it come on the same day that his administration is asking congress for 105 billion in funding for not just israel but also ukraine, and some other domestic priorities, which the administration sees as key to National Security. But, again, were still awaiting that statement. First statement, from the Biden Administration reacting to release of these hostages. We understand that so far the president earlier today he was asked by humanitarian aid heading into gaza, the president during his trip to israel was able to broker an agreement with the israelis for them to allow humanitarian aid heading into gaza and the president said now it will happen within the next 24 to 48 hours he believes. Again, still awaiting first comment regarding hostages here at the white house. So much happening in realtime this friday afternoon. Full coverage both abroad and here at home. Thank you j vo you werent made for moderate to severe Crohns Disease or ulcerative colitis. But entyvio is. 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The goal is to reopen in time for the monday morning commute. The northbound lanes, they got the same treatment last month. This might seem familiar. We took a drive on 87 south to show you the reason why. If this is your route, you will know what were talking about. You will be glad to hear cal trans is improving drainage and upgrading guardrails and barriers. The bike line is getting resurfaced as well. Until its over, it will be rough for drivers. Im driving, and i lose a lot of money. Reporter he might just take the weekend off rather than try to deal with those detours. The goal is to have all of this work complete by the monday morning commute. Cal trans has had a good record of finishing ahead of schedule. Hopefully, we didnt jinx that. In the meantime, there will be a lot of detours for people through the weekend. Thanks. Police in walnut creek are looking for Armed Robbers who targeted people eating outdoors. Two men armed with handguns approached two people who were eating outside. The robbers then demanded their possessions before taking off in a white sedan which contained two more people. The crime left many downtown visitors shocked. Typically, its busy and safe. Its scary. Its a violation for your rights. Walnut creek leaders cite data showing the most recent numbers show crime is dropping. The city averages between 10 to 14 Violent Crimes per month. Here are other stories. A warriors legend is hanging up his sneakers. Pleasant hill has become the most recent bay area border city council to ban remote public comments. An Anonymous Group disrupted the meeting this week with offensive hate speech. Going forward, there will be no Remote Access for public comment. Residents can submit comments via email or through the mail up until 4 00 p. M. On the day of the meeting. Half a dozen bay area boards and councils have made similar moves. The governor . Israel. He was supposed to travel directly to hong kong next week but then he adjusted his travel plans and made a stop to meet those directly affected by the conflict. We understand he will leave and continue on his way later this evening. Iguadala is calling it a career. He made his greatest impact with the warriors. Winning the finals mvp award when the steph curry warriors won their first title. He won three championships with the team. He says he now plans to become a startup investor. The heat advisory has passed. You should expect temperatures to drop rapidly. Here is kari hall with our forecast. Look at our temperatures for today. Its going to be so nice for the afternoon. Instead of upper 80s, it will be in the upper 60s in san francisco. A drastic drop in temperatures as the fog returns and we get the ocean breeze carrying in milder weather for the inland areas as well. Expect it to reach 81 in concord as well as san jose. Mid 70s for napa this afternoon. 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Ask your gastroenterologist how you can take control of your crohns with skyrizi. Control is everything to me. Learn how abbvie could help you save. Welcome back to nbc news daily and thank you for joining us. We are continuing to follow breaking news as we speak. Two american hostages released by hamas. Israels government saying judith and Natalie Raanan in israel territory. Nbc correspondent Josh Lederman has the latest for us. Josh, of course, talking about this since it began. Bring us up to speed on whats happened this afternoon. Reporter well, whats happened is apparently remarkable diplomatic breakthrough quite unexpected. I dont think any of us here in israel who have covered this conflict from the getgo thought we report on americans being freed. Instead, all the signs pointed to a likely ground incursion starting imminently. But we have a breakthrough. According to the Israeli Government those two americans after being released by hamas were met at the border with gaza by israeli officials. Were just hearing from the red cross in the last few minutes saying it was their official who actually escorted americans from hamas control to the gaza border, met by israelis there and now on their way to a military site here in the center of israel where they are expected to meet and be reunited with family members. Qatar playing a key role, still talking to israelis and has maas trying to release more americans and President Biden with a statement said the u. S. Will spare no effort to get remainder of american hostages back to the u. S. Close to 200 hostages they believe are still in the gaza strip. Josh lederman, thank you so much. Nearly two weeks since the surprise attack by hamas pushed the reachen into war. Thousands of unsuspecting concertgoers ran four their lives as hamas started their attacks. More than 200 die and some of the 200 hostages taken were captured at that festival. Joining us is a Jewish American from new york who survived that massacre festival. Thank you for being here especially so soon after that incident. Thank you for having me. Of course. How are you doing and talk to us about what happened that day. Im happy to be alive, and to be able to share my story and share the story of what happened there, and speak out for those who arent as fortunate and who have been kidnapped and murdered and cant share. Well, the rockets, they all started around 6 30 a. M. I happen to have been resting by the campsite, by the camp grounds at that time. One of the girls that i was with came over to alert me of what happen happening at the time. The way she described what was happening, with such calmness, she came up to me. She said a few rockets had been intercepted overhead, but its fine. Its normal for the area that were in. It happens. Try to match an festival happening anywhere else in the world where a kid would react so calmly to a situation like this . That just wouldnt happen. For israeli kids, this is a reality. Something that they have dealt with in the past and will probably deal with in the future unfortunately. At first we thought maybe the rockets would stop. The festival would continue, but obviously after a few minutes, as the rockets kept coming we realized this is a slightly different situation than the norm. Eventually the festival security turned off the music and asked everyone to, please, evacuate to their cars. On the way to our car i asked my friends if i could stop and use the bathroom. In my head i thought at this point we didnt know there were terrorists on the ground, on foot with guns. We thought just rockets, and we figured it would take a while to get out. There are thousands of kids trying to get out at the same time. I asked to go to the bathroom. My friend said, yes, go. Meet us at the car. A few days ago i saw a video that surfaced of the terrorists coming to exact bathroom and just shooting at every stall, just to kill anyone inside. One of the moments it hit me hardest where i really realized how close i was to death. If i was in a bathroom moments late ire might not be here today. Once we got to our cars the festival security did everything that they could to escort everyone out safely. Most of them died doing their jobs. We all started driving in one direction, and eventually the security hi to ask everyone to pull over to the side of the road and get out of their cars and start running, and at first we couldnt understand why they would give us such directions. But once we pulled over our cars, thats when we heard the first gunshots, and it automatically occurred to us that being in our cars and being in such a confined space with so many cars was making us an easy target for the terrorists. We opened our car doors and just started to run. Kids were running in every t direction. Nobody knew which way was the way to safety. One of the most terrifying things was running and after a while thinking you were running to safety and then seeing dozens of kids running in your direction, and realizing they were running from a terrorist. Running from being shot at, and you now have to make a splitsecond decision. To change directions, and you dont know which decision, which direction is either going to save your life or get you killed. Along the way, i rememberhe me d my friends passed by ditch with a number of kids hiding inside from the terrorists, and they told us to get in the ditch with them and to hide. We almost did. Until one of my friends said, this is a bad idea. If we hide in this dump and the terrorists find us and theyre surrounding us from above, we have nowhere to run. Thats it. Were done for. We decided to keep running and we later found out that the kids who did stay behind and hid in the ditch were shot and killed. Eventually we had run into a police officer. He didnt have much to protect us with. All he had was a handgun. He couldnt even call for backup. Because the terrorists had taken over the local police station, and had taken over think Radio Station and as he was walking along side with us, you could hear the terrorists yelling on his walkietalkie. If he did try to call for backup he would obviously give up our position and they would know where we are and come for us. After about four hours of walking and running on and off. We decided to take a break. Try to imagine. We had been in the sun all day. Had no water. We hadnt heard gunshots for a few minutes and decided to sit under a tree and get some shade. Sitting with a number of kids and see a white, big pickup truck coming in our direction. Our automatic reaction this was a terrorist coming after us to kill us. I just remember all of us kind of half getting up for a second, thinking to maybe run for our lives and then kind of realizing, hes in a car. We have nowhere to run to and sat back down and accepted our fate, that if this was a terrorist, that was it. Thankfully and luckily for us it wasnt. It was a man from the town which was the closest town we were told to run to do safety. He left the safety of his town and he drove towards all of this risking his own life to save us. I dont even know his name. I never even got a chance to thank him. We just all hopped in the back of his pickup truck. He drove us to the town, dropped us off. Soon as he dropped us off he turned around, went back and risked his life all over again to save more kids. If it wasnt for. I probably wouldnt be here today. Natalie, i think what you just described is truly in the realm of unimaginable for a lot of us. A lot of us doing reports things we see on social media and through verified channels, but when you hear the fever pitch, the conversation and the debate around this moment right here at home, what is it that you want those people who were posting and opining what do you want them to know about what you experienced . What i want them to understand, i think a lot of people are making this about the palestinian israeli conflict that has been going on for years. Thats not what this is about. This isnt about israel versus palestine. This is about israel versus a terrorist organization. This is about israel and the jewish people versus hamas. Hamas is just complicit in deaths of innocent palestinians as they are of innocent israelis. Using citizens of gaza as their own human shield. Thats what people need to understand. We have one enemy and that when we come together and realize that, well have more of a chance to defeat this enemy. Natalie, strikes me that you were with us announcer this is an nbc news special report. Heres hallie jackson. Good day. We are coming on the air once again with more breaking news. The secretary of state about to brief the rest of the country on what is a Huge Development in the war between israel and hamas. Officials have now confirmed that two american hostages have been released. They are judith and natalie, a mother and daughter from illinois. They were kidnapped along with about 200 other people during the hamas terror attack inside israel just about two weeks ago, according to israeli officials. They are now safely back in israel. The white house has just put out a statement. I want to get to our Gabe Gutierrez who is at the white house, while we wait for the secretary of state, tony lincoln, to come out, and the president making some news here, indicating there are other american hostages being held by hamas and he had a phone call with the israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. Reporter thats right, hallie. President biden speaking with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier today, discussing how they will be able to secure the release of more hostages but that written statement coming out within the last few minutes and in it, the president says, our fellow citizens have endured a terrible ordeal these past 14 days and i am overjoyed they will soon be reunited with their families. He goes on to further say, i thank the government of qatar and the government of israel for R Partnership in this work. Jill and i have been Holding Close to our hearts all of the families of unaccounted for americans. Again, hallie, that breaking news, those two hostages that are released, and we just heard from President Biden about working with the qatari government, was able to secure their release. This comes, hallie, after a whirlwind week from the president where just yesterday, he spoke here in the oval office at just his second Oval Office Address of his presidency, talking about the need for more funding for not just israel but also ukraine and linking those two wars as vital to u. S. National security. But for the Biden Administration, this is certainly news that they have been waiting for, the release of two american hostages. So far, 32 americans have been killed in this war. 11 other americans remain unaccounted for. Hallie . Gabe, thank you very much there live for us on the lawn. I want to go to the state department where Andrea Mitchell is there inside the room where we expect to hear from secretary of state blinken really any minute now. We know these hostages have been released now, these two women. We know that they are safe in israel at this point. What we dont know is anything else about the negotiations to get them out. I have to imagine that is going to be something that you and the other reporters there will press the secretary of state on. Thats a great question. Thats exactly what were going to be asking, hallie. The interesting sentence in President Bidens release, his statement from the white house, was that qatar, the country of qatar, in partnership with israel, he thanked them in partnership with israel, meaning that this was from the american perspective, at least, both qatar and israel working together to make this happen and just going back a few days, you know, just a week ago or six days ago, the secretary of state was on that shuttle diplomacy, going to qatar. Thats what the focus was. He said the primary focus, the top priority for the president and the secretary, one of the challenges, they did not know how Many Americans were being held hostage. They knew how Many Americans were missing. Some of, as you know, have more than 30 dead but they didnt know how many of the missing were actually held, alive and held or hostages who might tragically have been killed once they were in gaza. So, the numbers were not known, but clearly with the help of the red cross, the International Red cross, and that was one of the things that we were all pushing for, in fact, just earlier today in talking to Martin Fletcher before he knew that, in fact, its now been confirmed that it was his relatives, these two women, judith and natalie, who were released. He said weve got to get the red cross into it, because it is the rule of law, the law of war is that the red cross should always have food and contact with hostages during wartime and make it possible for them to talk to their families. So, hallie, were waiting for the secretary, but he was in the middle of all these negotiations and of course in israel with the president that were supposed to go to jordan and enlarge and improve upon the relationship with the arab leaders, and that was impossible when the arabs canceled their decision to meet with the president as he was driving in the motorcade to leave for israel and jordan. As you know. And it was because of the bombing that was the u. S. And israel say erroneously laid at the feet of the israelis. We have no way of confirming who was responsible, but the u. S. , as you know, have released intelligence and are considering declassifying more intelligence, but by the time the u. S. Confirmed that and the president said it and said it in his speech last night and the israelis said it about an hour and a half after hamas had announced that it was israel who was responsible, the arab street, the region was aflame, and the arab leaders feeling vulnerable chose to say that they could not accept a summit with the president at that time. Thats what the the balancing act that President Biden was trying so hard to perform when he went to israel to also go to jordan to meet with King Abdullah and the other leaders, of course, with Mahmoud Abbas from the palestinian side, from the west bank, and that is now not possible inperson. Theyre going to try to put something together to try to retrieve that. I should also point out, hallie, as you know, that Bipartisan Senate delegation has left, i guess, left last night for the region and is going to saudi arabia as well as israel. We dont know other destinations, but with Lindsey Graham and the leadership, the coleadership of that and a number of democrats, senator booker and others on that delegation, they are trying to pursue the negotiation between saudi arabia and israel, which we thought, frankly, was because of the Andrea Mitchell, live for us at the state department, thank you. I know you will stand by. I want to bring in now our nbc news Foreign Correspondent josh letterman. With preemptive apologies, because we will interrupt you. We have heard from the white house. Were about to hear from the state department, and now i understand we are hearing from hamas. Tell us more. Reporter thats right, hallie. We are hearing from hamas in a new statement. They say, we stress we are working with all movements if appropriate security are available. Just to read civilians in they custody. We have heard from hamas in different venues, suggesting they were open to releasing the civilians. They have no intention the israeli troops who they captured and are now hostage, hamas making clear that would have to be a prisoner swap with the Israeli Government, but they have suggested openness to releasing civilians, and when hamas talks about if appropriate security conditions are available, that appears to be a reference to the kind of ceasefire that hamas has been demanding. We heard from our own Richard Engel who reported recently that hamas was open to releasing all of these civilians in as little as an hour if only israel would is stop the air strikes. For various reasons, the israelis said that was not going to be possible, and we did not see any progress on it, but we clearly have seen messaging from hamas making clear they are open to releasing from their control additional hostages beyond these two americans who have been released today, but they dont want to do that until they see israel pull back from the continual air strikes that have really bombarded the gaza strip over the last two weeks. Were also hearing in a new statement from the red cross describing their role in this spectacular prisoner swap, prisoner release of these hostages over the last few hours. The red cross saying it was their aid workers who actually escorted these two american citizens from hamas custody to the israelgaza border where they were then met by those israeli officials. The red cross, they are also calling for immediate access to the remaining hostages, saying that the red cross is fully prepared to go and observe their condition, provide whatever assistance they can. That speaks to a demand that both the u. S. Government and the Israeli Governments have made, that they are insisting that the red cross have access to the remaining hostages that are currently in hamas custody in the gaza strip, hallie. Josh, thanks. I want to bring in our chief Foreign Correspondent, Richard Engel, who was live on the ground in the region, and richard, one of the things that you are hearing as josh laid out in that hamas statement is the idea that necessary security conditions would need to be met in order to release other hostages, beyond these two americans who have been released so far. At the same time, we saw israeli air strikes continuing even with the release of these first two hostages. What does that say to you . Reporter well, hamas is effectively saying that these two were the exception, that these two were released for humanitarian reasons, but that they are going back to the same position that they told me several days ago, that they are willing to release more hostages, but they want the air strikes and other attacks against the gaza strip to stop. Several days ago, hamas initially made this offer. The chief spokesman for the military wing made a proposal, saying, initially, that hamas would release all foreign hostages, that is, israeli americans, israeli germans, any other dual national from their custody if the security conditions were right. We were able to get in touch with the senior hamas leader and ask him what that meant, and he told us that it meant that israel must stop its air strikes in order to allow hamas to release its hostages. We saw just over the last several hours hamas release two of its hostages, this mother and daughter, israeli americans, and now hamas just a short while ago is clarifying its position, going back, if you will, to the original position that it told us, saying, yes, it is still willing to release others. It is still willing to release civilians and dual nationals. That wasnt spelled out in this latest statement, but that has been the position that hamas has told us. If the air strikes stopped. So, we will see if this does lead to more or if this is just a negotiating tactic from hamas. We are in contact im in contact directly with some of the negotiators who are dealing with hamas, who are trying to free the rest of the hostages, and they are optimistic. It is a difficult process. They are not getting much sleep. They have been working on this for the last several days straight, but they hope this is just the start. This is a critical diplomatic moment here, richard, as the work continues, this scramble to try to see if more hostages can be released. What will you be listening for, and what will leaders in the region be listening for when secretary blinken takes to that microphone just minutes from now . Reporter i think they are going to be looking for a broader statement. Does this moment open up a chance for dialogue . Does this moment open up a chance for to ease some of the pressure on gaza, ease some of the pressure on the 2. 3 Million People who are inside gaza who are under attack. Many civilians are dying. Many hamas leaders are being killed, but for the people who live in gaza, there is a an extraordinary humanitarian crisis that they are going through right now. It is putting pressure, obviously, on the people of gaza, obviously on hamas, but it also has this entire region on edge. There is a deep concern from cairo to jordan to qatar and beyond that we could be at the gates of a new massive regional war, that the middle east does not want, a war that could drag in the United States, which the United States does not want, which is why the United States is trying to deter iran and other actors from taking advantage of this moment to escalate this. That is why middle eastern leaders are pressuring hamas to free some hostages so that there will be relief for the people of gaza and so that this region does not once again spill into the chaos of an allout war. Richard, thank you. Ill ask you to stand by while we bring in jeremy bash now, former chief of staff of the cia. As we have learned more over the course of the last 90 minutes as to how this particular hostage release unfolded, these two women from illinois being released in israel, what is standing out to you . What feels most significant to you about how this process played out . Its a crack. Its a crack in the efforts by hamas to show i think theyre trying to show goodwill. I dont think its going to go very far, though. I think youll hear from the secretary of state appreciation for qatar, for qatars efforts. I think youll hear appreciation for israels efforts. But fundamentally, youre going to hear the same posture from the secretary of state that you heard from the president , which is that, were not going to rest, were not going to stop until all hostages are released. Certainly, the american hostages are our highest priority, and i dont think its going to stop israel from launching its offensive, its Counterterrorism Operations against hamas, and so this call for a ceasefire, which hamas has been sort of saying to Richard Engel and saying to the international media, i think its, in some respects, a nonstarter. The only thing thats sort of going through my mind, hallie, is that i do think that there were probably voices inside the Israeli Military establishment saying that the hostages presence there is really a complication for our operations on the ground. We certainly dont want to inadvertently kill our own people. If, in fact, theres some largerscale deal very soon to get all of these hostages out of harms way, maybe from the International Red cross, maybe from qatar, maybe from others, then we should take that deal, hold off for a few days to try to get that, because that will give us a freer hand down the road to go into gaza and take out hamas without worrying about where the hostages are. That might be part of the calculus, but i think by and large, this is great news for this family. This is a small bit of good news, as i said, a crack in hamass resistance at this point, but its really not much that the israelis are going to use to sort of hold off on their military Counterterrorism Operations. For judith and natalie, this is obviously an incredibly intense, emotional moment for them as they are really reacclimating to what its being like now not under duress. There is also an opportunity to debrief them on what they saw while they were in gaza, while they were being held by hamas here, right . Yeah, theyll be quickly but carefully debriefed by Israeli Internal Security service officials. Theyll want to know, did they overhear any names . Where, physically, were they held . What were the conditions . What was the equipment that the captors had . What phones did they talk on . What was their general pattern of life during the day . Were they moved around . Were they talking to other people who were Holding Hostages . All along the way, the hostages had an opportunity to observe what their captors were doing, and assuming they were trying to pay attention, trying to memorize details, trying to listen for certain things, that information is going to be fresh in their minds and theyre going to want to very carefully debrief them. Obviously, theyll be sensitive to their health condition. Theyre going to be sensitive to not forcing them to relive the horrors of the last 12 days, but this is going to be very actionable intelligence that israel will be now in possession of. On the left side of your screen, you may have noticed Andrea Mitchell taking a seat, an indication that we are getting close now to hearing from the secretary of state. I want to go back to Richard Engel, and just briefly here as we do expect the secretary to come out, there has been discussion now about just how imminent any kind of ground incursion by israel would be. This changes some of the calculation here, presumably, for the israelis. Reporter it has the potential to do that. I think that jeremy bash is right, that israels not going to stop its military campaign. It is not going to stop its air strikes, but there is another component to all of this, which is the Ground Invasion. Israel has tanks and troops built up all along the border with gaza. There was there have been indications over the last several days that israel was going to go in imminently. If israel rolled into gaza now, heavy with this new information, as it is still debriefing the hostages, the newly freed hostages, about the whereabouts of israelis and americans in there, i think it will give the israelis a moment of pause before they send in the heavy armor. I think theyre going to want to learn whatever intelligence they can first and see if there is a possibility to free the other hostages. But that does not mean they will ease up on their campaign to continue to target hamas leaders with air strikes, attacking from the sea, commando raids. I think this campaign continues, but it might change the calculus for sending in the tanks. You make an important point, richard, that even as lately as late today, after word of this hostage release, the Israeli Military made clear that they would gear up now for the next phase of this war. They are gearing up, and they have been saying that. And that is part of the pressure campaign. They have been attacking hamas from the air, and they have these troops built up. That has gotten the arab worlds attention. That is one of the reason that the arab states are pushing against hamas, because they dont want to see the israelis go in heavy and trigger a much larger regional war. So, hamas is under pressure from the outside. It is also under pressure from the palestinian people, who are paying an enormous price. Hamas wants to remain popular in gaza. It claims that it is representing not just the people of gaza but the palestinians writ large. Many people in the arab world are ashamed of what hamas did. It has made it difficult to defend the palestinian people. It has made it difficult to defend their legitimate struggle that has been reaffirmed time and time again by the united nations. Hamas has made the palestinians look bad, and that is one of the reasons, i think, that so many muslim countries are trying to pressure hamas to show goodwill, to have these