This is cnn Breaking News. Hello, im Brianna KeilarIn Washington with Anderson Cooper in tel aviv. We are beginning with Breaking News in the israeli hamas war. Sourcing telling cnn that the Terror Group Hamas has released two more hostages believed to be american citizens, anderson. Todays release is help from officials from qatar, involved in the other release as well as, as well as egypt at the time. And Alex Marquardt joins us on the details with Kaitlan Collins. Kaitlan, what exactly do you know . Obviously, we have some information that is not getting out in all of this is confirmed . Its a fluid situation, they are not in israel. Right. This is a very fluid situation. Were holding off on details because this is a fluid situation. We want to make sure we get everything right. What we do know two more hostages released by hamas. Im told theyre not actually in the custed to of the Israeli Government yet. But they are on the way there. But that is part of the sensitivity of the reporting around these hostages, obviously given their situations. This is significant. I am told theyre both female hostages released. They, of course, are the third and fourth hostages in total to the hundreds we do believe, according to the idf, hamas has in their custody at this moment. What were still trying to figure out, anderson, whether or not they are dual citizens. We do know theyre israeli citizens, but maybe they have dual nationalities as weve seen with hostages and people abducted by hamas. Those are the details people are trying to figure out. It does appear this came about from quiet mediation happening behind the scenes between the egyptian and qatari government, obviously playing a really significant role in trying to get these hostages released. Israel has made it very clear from officials they are not personally negotiating with hamas for the release of these hostages. And i do think this is a big part of what were seeing, in terms of the timing, what everyone is waiting to happen next in gaza, the ground incursion, and there have been discussions with u. S. Officials and other government officials, about holding off on that in more negotiations with these hostages can happen. Right now, what were working to confirm is the identities of these two hostages. Where exactly they are now. And once they get into the custody of the idf, anderson, as you know, happened with the two hostages last week. They came to the gaza border, they were given over to the idf who brought them to a Military Base are in central israel. Thats where they greeted their parents and had the medical checkups and kind of the debriefings of what theyve been going through. Alex, usually, this interim step there ended, usually, hamas is holding them, representatives of the International Community of the red cross, then they make that transfer to idf officials. These are two there were two there were two we talked about last week. Lets talk about the timing of this. Clearly hamas has many captives in their custody. They could release all of them, if they wanted to. They are releasing two by two. What does that tell you . Well, its certainly good news. No ones going to tell you otherwise, anderson. This is fantastic for those families and the raanan who saw two of their Family Members come back friday. No doubt, anderson, whether u. S. Or israel or qatar leading the negotiations along with egypt, they would like to see much bigger numbers. We heard from the idf earlier today there are some 222 hostages who are in custody. We certainly dont want to see the hostages coming out two by two. The qataris are pushing for much bigger numbers. Dozens or scores of the civilians, foreigners still in custody. In terms of the mechanics, anderson, obviously, hamas is not going to come facetoface with israeli officials as they hand over prisoners. So, you have the u. N. Which operates independently inside gaza. You have the red cross which operates fairly independently inside gaza. What happens today, like it did on friday, the same mechanism of hamas handing the two captives over to the red cross, they will then be taken somewhere along the border. With dont know where. There are two formal large Border Crossings in southern gaza. One goes into egypt, one goes into israel. Frankly, there are a number of places all along that fence line, where you are seeing today, all of those israeli troops where the red cross could hand those two israeli women over to the idf. As kaitlan mention they had will likely be taken to a Military Base to make sure theyre okay. Hamas has claims that the previous release was for humanitarian reasons. Its not clear what shape the raanan women are in. But we do understand from the white house today, that the u. S. Officials have debriefed, or are going to debrief the two americans to gather intelligence to get a sense how they were held, where they were held. Any information they could glean from those two women. But obviously, anderson, Everyone Wants to see a lot more hostages being released. That is why there is this pressure by the Israeli Government to delay their incursion, anderson. And the government has repeatedly denied the access. And Proof Of Life, last we heard, they have not received any of that along with those holding them from jihad or hamas. Alex, kaitlan, well check in with you. Kurt volker, the former ambassador to nato and former representative for ukraine negotiations. He joins me now, ambassador volker, theres a lot we do know which we are not saying at this moment. We are waiting to see these two former hostages in israeli custody. What are your thoughts on hearing this news . Well, i think that this is a very difficult situation for israel. The longer this goes on, and this is clearly hamas strategy, is to drag this out, the trickle of hostages here and there, harder for israel to go ahead with a fullscale invasion. And that means that time goes by and increasingly Public Opinion is trending against israel. And many countries around the world. So this is a hamas tactic, from the beginning. Taking the hostages as a way to try to hold off an israeli fullscale assault. One of the things that hamas has said in the last couple of days is that some of these hostages may be being held by other groups whether Islamic Jihad which early on claimed to hold about 30. Or individual families or mob organizations in gaza may have crossed over, during the Terror Attacks and stolen people that they had seen that in the past. And hamas had said that they are, or want to locate where all of them may be and account for them all. Whether thats true or not sun clear. But certainly, israeli officials have said that in past experiences there have been individuals or families or other groups which have taken hostages. And then theyre sort of moved up the chain, ultimately to a group like hamas. Hamas, though, could release all of the hostages that they have. Theres nothing stopping them . Thats right. They took these hostages on purpose. And i think it suits hamas purposes for these hostages uld. Then they can say, oh, well, we dont even control all of them, its all part of a positioning of hamas to try to keep the israelis from launching that fullscale assault anytime soon. And i think it could be both ways it could be that yes, there are individuals or other groups that also took advantage of the mayhem to kidnap a few people to see if they can get ransom or payment from a higher level Palestinian Terrorist organization. But it also could be that hamas did this, and then distributed the hostages in order to create the very conditions where they can then claim, well, we cant even get them all right now, we have to work on it. Ambassador kurt volker, thank you for your time. Pleasure. Joining us now Lieutenant Colonel for israeli forces. Colonel, what you can say about this news . Yes, i dont have the official idf confirmation. I see israeli reports and other reports out there, as soon as we have handson and the idea for issuing the official confirmation of the situation. Of course, happy, or better news. And we want, of course, all of those held hostage, the women, the children, the babies, the men, the soldiers, all of them released. And not just the two being released now. In terms of how the handover process goes on the israeli side, can you talk about that, in past exchanges . Yeah, i meaner theres a special theres a designated lead here, a farmormer idf brigadier general, in charge of the whole mechanism, at the level of israeli offices and institution. He and his people are represented on the ground at the hanover, where the former hostages are hand over to islam. Usually by an intermediary. Last time it was red cross. Well see who it is this time. I suppose it will be the same. And once they are in israeli hands, they are brought back to an idf base, to make sure that, you know, for medical and psychological evaluations to be reunited with their family. And for additional interviews and cooperation. In terms of the operation itself, the potential nor a ground operation, how does this trickle of hostages being released, how does that affect Military Planning . Everything affects, but i think that we can see through the very obvious efforts that hamas is doing, probably, trying to play for time and play for legitimacy, using the hostages, the civilians and hostages that theyve taken. We see through that. And we demand all of the hostages back. We are ready to maneuver. We are ready, and every minute that goes by, we are more ready. More preparations, more practice. And better honing of all of the capabilities. So every minute that goes by is not necessarily a minute that is in the best intention of hamas. Do you have any has the red cross been able last i heard, red cross was not able to get Proof Of Life of any these hostages. They havent been able to visit these hostages . Yeah, i know requests have been made. But as of now, i do not have information of actual meetings which is what the red cross is supposed to do under its convention. And what we all accept from it. But weve seen that in the past. We saw it with the other israelis held hostage. Hamas doesntal allow anything that is in accordance with humanitarian international law. No visits no verification of anything. Ill remind everybody watching that theres still two bodies of dead Israeli Soldiers that have been in hamas that have been held by hamas for many, many years. That we have been asking the International Force to access and to get anything from. So far, without anything substantial. If we bring focus back to whats happening now, very cynical apractice by hamas, one that we are able to see through. Were happy to see people released, but from our perspective, all of them should be home. And they should be home quickly. And these practices are very clear what hamas is trying to do. Basically using hostages to play for time. In a kibbutz near nir oz where we hamas slaughter people, there were other young men, kids, who crossed over gaza in their wake, some of them armed, some of them not, looting, is it believed some hostages have been taken by other actors in this, whether its not hamas, not Islamic Jihad, but opportunists or criminal gangs . I mean, in the past, have you seen that . Well, in the past, no, as far as i recollect, weve never faced a situation like this. And yes, i am aware of those reports. And ive seen the video footage. Our perspective on this is that they are all hamas responsibility. Hamas bears full accountability and responsibility for the actions, for the atrocities of october 7th, for crossing and butchering and raping and maiming and murdering and burning people alive. All of that is on hamas. They will pay the full price for it. They will be dismantled. And whether or not our people were taken initially by young enthusiastic and bloodthirsty palestinians that are not necessarily members of hamas, less important, they are all under the responsibility of hamas. And in terms of the movement of people that you have been tracking from the north of gaza, down south, as we know, Hundreds Of Thousands of people have made that trek. Families have moved down. Do you believe, currently, and i think we spoke about this a little bit yesterday that hamas operatives have also moved further south . They may have. Which is part of what we assessed would happen. Part of the risk assessment. We understand that hamas has that tendency, like all other terrorists, whether they face real fighters and not grandmothers and babies in shelters, but when they face real fighters, they have that tendency to flee, either hide underground in tunnels or try to look like a civilian and flee down south, using the safety of those civilians. And weve calculated that in. And we still advertise our intentions, because we want the gazan civilians away from what is going to be a very intensity, combat area. Its a risk that we take. We will get our hands on those Hamas Terrorists as well. Were hunting them, and weve had quite a lot of success over the last days with tactical commanders. We have a Special Task Force that is interrogating many of those socalled elite forces, many of them were apprehended in israel. Theyre being interrogated by the isa. And the live intelligence that is extracted is helping us in targeting the whereabouts of those that were able to get back to gaza. And that has led to quite a lot of successful strikes on their whereabouts. We continue with that. None of them will end this war alive. Lieutenant colonel jonathan conricus. Thank you so much. More of this breaking story. Two more israelis have been released. Trying to find out, as soon as we know, that theyre in israel, have more details. Stay with us. House republicans are getting ready to, again, start the process of trying to pick a new speaker after nearly three weeks with no one in that top job. These are nine candidates that are now running. Theyre going to deliver their pitches to their gop colleagues during a closeddoor Candidate Forum that is set to begin about three hours from now. And then tomorrow morning, members will take an internal secret ballot vote, with the goal of selecting their nominee. The big question, who can get those 217 votes that are needed to win the gavel. Joining us now is republican congressman Larry Bucshon of indiana. Sir, thank you for being with us. Who are you planning to support for speaker, you have many options . At this time, im noncommitted. I want to listen to what the nine have to say, i know all of them very well. I want to see what they have to say tomorrow because its challenging times. Right now, im not committed. Some people who have been in leadership positions, chair people, have a legup organizationally, but i think everyones in the game at this point, so im not committed. That would bring me to, you supported candidates who could get the most support. Why not tom emmer, hes apparently the frontrunner at this point in time . Well, tom and i are friends, he did a great job from the rnc from two perspective, hes on the w. H. I. P. Team. Im on the w. H. I. P. Team. And you have to get the other majority to agree with that, the other candidates, some are pretty strong. Well see, at this point, personally, im still uncommitted. Does the fact that tom emmer voted to certify the 2020 election as you did as well, disqualify him with a significant part of your conference . Well, i would hope not. I voted to certify eat ethe ele, because as you just mentioned, constitutionally it was the right thing to do. I dont think its disqualifying, and it wont be for tom. It seems were watching the conference moving with candidates with more, though still not support for a candidate with less, and obviously still not enough support. How is is that a strategy for electing a speaker, how is that going to turn around . Well, let me just say, i supported Kevin Mccarthy. I supported him as speaker and throughout his career. He helped me start from the beginning. Im a big Kevin Mccarthy supporter. Going forward, of course, hes not in this race. So, i think what you have to do is look at the candidates. And once conference picks a solid candidate, i would expect all the conference members, except for maybe a few, to vote for them. So, i was telling someone this earlier, the lack of confidence and faith in our traditional institutions in the u. S. Is the issue, government, Law Enforcement, faith in general. Is a problem. I think youre seeing that reflected somewhat amongst House Republicans. You know, you need to pick a candidate, that the majority of the people choose. And then you need to go to the house floor and you need to vote for them. Thats my approach. So, ive supported our nominees at this point. Ive supported congressman jordan because he was picked by the conference. A lot of people now are not doing that. I think we need to change that. To your point there, do you want to see in this internal ballot, a candidate get to 217 before they take this to the floor, so that you dont see another situation like you saw with jim jordan . Yeah, ideally that would be the case, but i dont think that will happen. I think, you know, to get 217 in the conference, probably wont happen, and heres the other thing. That doesnt guarantee that people will not still go to the floor and not vote for the person that they said they would. So, weve had that happen in the past. Ive been here since 2011, and with speaker boehner, we had a number of people who defected from speaker boehner, when they said they were going to support him. I dont think its that important. It would be nice, but i do think we need to have a Strong Majority supporting our candidate. Because if we just have a barely supported candidate and ano