it is the top of the hour. i m brianna keilar with boris sanchez in washington. wolf blitzer is live from tel aviv. intense talks are under way to try to extend the truce between israel and hamas. here in just hours the current deal is set to expire. we want to show you some video with a red cross convoy entering the rafah crossing. this, as we wait for hamas to release in the group of hostages today. wolf? as these critical talks continue, we know the top u.s. hostage envoy is here in israel and that secretary of state antony blinken is headed here in the coming days. he ll be in israel very soon. a key mediator from qatar says they re hopeful an extension will be announced soon. cnn is following all these angles of a very fast developing situation. let s start with oren liebermann. what have you learned? reporter: two israelis were handed over to the red cross from hamas and will have a quick medical checkup and to the hospital for fourth evaluations. it s impor
hello again, everyone. thank you so much for joining us, i m fred dreek with a whitfield alongside wolf blitzer in tel aviv. now to our breaking news. 13 israeli hostages are now back in israel. they were released by hamas after being abducted and held prisoner in gaza for 50 days. among those released today, dual israeli-american citizen abigail edan who is only 4 years old. she is the first american released since the four-day truce began between israel and hamas and that got started on friday. we re told 12 of the hostages were taken through the border fence directly from gaza to israel, while one was airlifted by helicopter to a hospital. an additional four foreign nationals separate from today s deal arrived in egypt earlier today. that group includes three thai nationals and a russian-israeli dual citizen. there are also celebrations in the west bank where 39 palestinian teenagers have now been released from israeli prisons as part of today s agreement. as the truce n
hello, again. thank you so much for joining us. i m fredricka whitfield in atlanta, alongside wolf blitzer in tel aviv. we re monitoring breaking news in the middle east, tense moments as families in israel await the release of a second group of hostages, who have been held by hamas for an agonizing 49 days now. and just moments ago, we learned of a diplomatic scramble happening behind the scenes, as officials from qatar, the u.s. and egypt are pushing to sort out the current situation. right now hamas says there is a delay in the handover to the red cross, the handover was expected to happen hours ago. they say there is an ongoing dispute about the amount of aid being delivered into gaza, and the selection of palestinian prisoners set to be released by israel as part of their brief four-day truce. israeli officials had told cnn that they were preparing for 13 more hostages to be released today, but so far that has yet to happen. for more, let s send it over to wolf blitzer i
people certainly being handed over. you can see a bank of ambulances. an elderly womanjust being you can see a bank of ambulances. an elderly woman just being delicately walked out as some of these transfers continue thereat rafah. so many different points in this choreography before they ultimately get back to israel and the israeli authorities have that news conference they were talking about to confirm the various transfers, but a little glimpse perhaps of one of the people that were contained in those red cross convoy in ambulances earlier as we see shots both from the air and ground. we will continue with these pictures, but as we continue to watch them, let s bring in gideon leavey, an israeli author and journalist. thank you very much for being here and being on the programme. your headline thoughts as we hear some of the thoughts and details of this hostage release. very mixed feelings, all kind of thoughts. fin feelings, all kind of thoughts. on one hand, one cannot