3 00 a. M. In tel aviv. Two more hostages, more than 200 still being held, are on their way home. Nurit cooper and Yocheved Lifshitz. Both israeli citizens, both taken from their kibbutz on october 7. Mrs. Lifshitz and her husband are founding members of the kibbutz. She and mrs. Cooper were handed over in southern gaza, where they each were examed by medics. Now the medics telling an egyptian media outlet that mrs. Kuiper and lifshitz were in stable condition. Just a few moments ago, we got this video of a Military Helicopter carrying the two freed women now safely back here in israel. This comes with sources telling cnn that the Biden Administration has been pressing israel to delay its ground incursion into gaza to allow more time to get hostages out and humanitarian aid in from the south. That said, National SecuritySpokesman John Kirby tells cnn tonight, quote, we dont believe this is the time for a ceasefire. Theres certainly a lot to get to in the hour ahead. We begin with my conversation with yocheved and Nurit Lifshitz daughter. When we spoke, she just got the news of her mothers release and was at heath row airport. What have you heard about your mother . My mom, shes now with us. Shes being flown out, and shes coming ive seen a picture of her in a bed, in a hospital bed. Shes waving her hand. I know shes well enough to speak and well enough to walk. I think she walked across the border. So, my moms story is an amazing story. My heart is with my father and the other 218 people also that are still held hostage. This is a great sign that other things can happen. Do you know the other hostage whos been released, nurit . Yes, of course. Of course, shes a kibbutz member. Her name is nurit cooper, and shes a member. Ive known her all my life. What did you when you heard the news, what went through your mind . Its impossible to describe. My mom i think she has a good smile. I dont know. Im so delighted. But my heart is with you know, this is a small ray of light in a big story that is still unfolding. My father is there. Theres so many other people. Were waiting for good news about everyone. My heart is with all my friends and loved ones and Everybody Else that are still hostage. I think this is a great sign that were moving in the right direction. Your father is still being held hostage. Have you had any information about him . No, i dont know any information. Im waiting to hear what my mom says. I do not know. What is your message to other Hostage Families who are watching this, eager for happy for you, wishing more were released . Whats your message to them . I hope we can share in this happiness and we can all join together. This isnt over. My mother is one ray of light, and my father is and everybody are happy for us. But im waiting to also be happy for them. There are so many from nir oz who are killed, who are missing. Its a community of 400 people. A quarter of them are believed dead or missing. Its unthinkable. No, no, no. More than a quarter. And we have to bring those if we still can. This is not a political issue. This is a humane issue. We have lost so many. People are going to funerals every day. This is a ray of light, but theres so much darkness. And i cant wait to hug my mom, and i cant wait to see my other members of my community and the region also hugging their loved ones. I have to go now. Theres a lot of members of your community who want to hug you as well. Have a good flight. Thank you. We speak again soon. Thank you. Weve just been able to establish communication with mrs. Lifshitzs grandson, daniel, who has just seen his grandmother at the hospital. Daniel, how is she doing . Well, shes talking. She can walk. She can hug her grandchildren, which are very happy from that. And we are very glad to meet her. It is incredible that we see her. I mean, we couldnt imagine that it will happen. And from one side, i have so much joy and light from sitting here. Im telling you, i have i came here from the helicopter to see her. And the joy gives huge amount of hope for the other families. That was just inspiring. I felt like everyone are just hugging me in an amazing gesture. People are there, theyre not sure if they will be back. But it was just giving them so much joy, so much life that i have goosebumps all over my body now to think about it. I mean, for this community to see these two old women was just an amazing thing. And meeting my grandmother here was i was thinking that i would never see her again. And to see her here, its just amazing. And shes shes a hero. She has so much courage. Shes so strong. Shes sikh and she suffered walks in tunnels and so many things that shes i dont know. I dont know where this woman have this power from. And seeing her, which i know that shes so strong, i can imagine other ones. And im telling you, we have to be fast. Seeing my grandma like that and from one side so happy but from the other side, ive seen her, what shes been through. And i know that the timeline, the clock is ticking and making everything to bring all those hostages back is so evident now. And its the top mission now for everybody. A lot, where most of the community from nir oz has been relocated to now. Youre all together. Did your grandmother, did she describe some of what her captivity was like . You mentioned tunnels she was moving through. So, she mentioned that she was awoke and then she was there in a room. But she didnt know much. And i actually didnt have the time to speak with her. So, i know the officials will speak with her. Im sure they will know more. We were more in the hugging and crying and kissing her coming here. Of course, of course. Yeah. Both your grandmother and your grandfather, who is still being held, they sound like such Extraordinary People. They were among the original founders of the community of nir oz, which i think has been there for more than 50 years. They were Peace Activists in many ways. Can you what are your thoughts . I mean, your grandfather is still being held. This is just this is an impossible situation for families like yours. Yeah, its so much joy and light and, you know, happiness from one side and so much sadness. And still this Roller Coaster. We dont go out of it. I could describe my feeling. I went up on a Roller Coaster, and i cant go out. When i sleep, its tame, but im still on the Roller Coaster and i can never go out in the morning and in the night. Now my grandmother is back. But still now im more afraid about my grandfather, that hes still there and still no men being released. But, you know, if they are so Extraordinary People that even when they were so sick like that, they would be helping so many people in gaza strip. You know, these sick people, which had the cancer and other disease, they took them every week to the hospitals in israel, hospital like where i am now, to get treatment and getting them back to gaza strip. You mentioned the time in the kibbutz since 1955. And it was heaven. And imagine the hell came there. And there are so many people from nir oz who have been murdered, so many who are believed to be held, shim bah bass, her children, her parents. Their whereabouts are unknown. So many families from nir oz. Daniel lifshitz, im so happy for your family tonight. Thank you for talking with us. Thank you, really. Most important, as you said, those children, do everything for those children to come back. The two children of sherry bob bis. Ares calderon was also kidnapped and many others. Cnns Clarissa Ward has more on all this. She joins us from cairo. Clarissa, what have you learn frd that side of the border . Reporter so, it was earlier this evening, anderson, that we first heard of ambulances, kind of, pulling up at the rafah crossing, essentially nurit cooper and Yocheved Lifshitz were released by hamas militants. They also released a Propaganda Video as well. Were not showing it. It shows the militants offering the women tea and biscuits. They want to milk this as a propaganda opportunity. The women were escorted by members of the red cross into an ambulance, Cross To The Rafah Side of the border. They were taken from there really straight to an airport where they were then flown out to a medical center, where they now are, as you see daniel has just visited with his grandmother, who you just had on the show there. Questions still remain, of course, anderson, about the future of all the other hostages who have been taken. There have been discussions of other deals in the works. We know the Egyptian Government and the qataris have been very actively involved in those negotiations, anderson. Clarissa ward, thank you very much. I appreciate it. Perspective from rammy former chief of the hostages and m. I. A. Unit of ma sad. What does this release tell you when it comes to hamas tactics and overall strategy . Well, as we have already spoken, hamas is using the hostages as their cards of negotiation. They are trying to do two things. First of all, theyre trying to get a ceasefire. They would like to stop the israeli attack, and they would like to stop the israeli incursion. Still under the false thought that by doing these things, israel will change its resolve and not go into the gaza strip. The second thing is theyre trying to somehow show their humanity. Remember these people are trying to show their humanity, went into nir oz, decapitated babies, killed women, raped women, and now theyre trying to show to the world and to some of your viewers that maybe theyre freedom fighters. But theyre not freedom fighters. They are terrorists and theyre murderous terrorists. And this is what theyre trying to do. Very important here is the fact that the egyptians mediated this deal, not the qataris. The egyptians, as you understand, really the entrance to the gaza strip, the entrance where the supplies come. The egyptians are also the people that dont want the gaza strip citizens to move into egypt. There is another deal that is now brewing, and thats the deal for releasing 50 hostages. Its been talked about. Qataris have been putting it forward. Is it going to happen . We dont know. They insist on getting fuel into the gaza strip, and Israeli Government is against doing that. The fact they want it to be used in fighting that will come in the next couple of days or soon, very soon. The Israel Government has been holding back for several reasons. One is netanyahu is being a little hesitant. And the fact that we are letting all the possibilities of releasing these hostages come to light. What kind of information can a released hostage provide thats useful to intelligence officials or in just finding out about the status of other hostages . In the past, have they been able to provide any information . I dont think that theres any very important information. There is information. As the grandson just said, the grandmother doesnt know a lot. You know, shes in a room, shes been through a tunnel. This is not going to give us a lot. The information is being gathered. And as i said before, the israeli army now has put a lot of emphasis into gathering information about the hostages. This is the way in the end, unless theres a miracle. Unless theres a miracle, at the end, the way these hostages are going to come home is by force. And in order to do that, israel has deployed a lot of tools in order to gather the information needed to place the hostages and create special operations. This means visual information, a lot of cyber, human assets that israel has in the gaza strip all working on the collection of this kind of information. What a hostage can tell is a perspective that doesnt really give you, you know, any tool to use if you want to go into the area and release the other hostages. Rami ig rah, thank you very much. Much more now on preparations for any possible move by the idf into gaza. Nic robertson joins us live from sderot, not far from the gaza border. What have you been seeing on the ground there . Reporter were continuing to get artillery impacts, artillery taking off from outside of gaza impacting inside the gaza strip. Its lowlevel compared to the very heavy missile strikes we were hearing last night. There are fighter jets in the sky. But it doesnt seem as if this is a particularly heavy night of shelling. During the day, hamas or other groups have fired a couple of salvos of rockets into this town of sderot. But as far as that incursion goes and the troops that are getting ready for it, according to the idf chief of general staff, their troops are ready. Theyre ready to go. Were also learning that theyre doing additional training. Theyre not moving away from the border, as best we can tell at the moment. But theyre also not formed up at the border. It doesnt appear that theyre going to go in tonight. But we do get the sense that this continues to be the expectation. I dont think anything were hearing, despite the hostage releases, despite hamas efforts to derail a possible incursion, i dont think were hearing an offramp for it at the moment. And that was another detonation just heard in the background. Two fighter jets yeah, two fighter jets, i think, in the sky behind me right now as well, anderson. The Israeli Defense minister said today in a statement that israels preparing for what he called a multilateral operation. I assume that means by land, by sea, by air. Obviously not a lot of detail in there. Thats pretty obvious that it would be multilateral, no . Reporter it is. I mean, look, you have to when you go in, you have to overwhelm whatever hamas resistance theres going to be. One way you can do that is by air. I was, just a couple of minutes ago, hearing a helicopter flying by. We dont see them too often here, but absolutely helicopters can be expected to be involved supporting troops on the ground, even dropping troops deeper on the ground. And by sea, either support by shelling or troops landed by sea. Because of course, you know, the top of the gaza strip is quite nare narrow. So, you can bring troops in by the sea, some by helicopters, and others can come in by land. You can put a lot of forces on the ground concentrated in an area quite quickly depending on the objective. And, again, we dont know the specific objectives yet. But the town behind me, 2 1 2 kilometers away, beit hanoun, one of the first objectives in 2014 and quite likely will be again this time, anderson. Nic robertson, thank you, again. Joining us, retired army colonel, currently professor of Military History at ohio state university. Colonel, thanks so much for being with us again. Hamas could release all the hostages or all the civilian ones if they wanted to or all the wounded ones. Releasing two at a time like that, what, kind of what do you see that as the whats the tactic there . Theyre, sort of, dribbling them out, showing good will, but not giving away their trump card, which is these hostages that they can use to release palestinian prisoners and as bargaining chips. I think that they will release those that are too ill to continue in captivity because if they die in hamas care, it does hamas no good to have them a dead body on their hands and them blamed for killing them. This is what were seeing. It may go on for some time. But i think the Ground Invasion will begin before those hostages are leased. You and i talked earlier today, and you said something that really got my attention. You said the fighting in gaza city will be more complicated than it was for the u. S. In fallujah, iraq, as well as mosul. What are the for idf forces when theyre fighting in an environment where its urban warfare and there are a lot of civilians around. As many civilians that have gone to the soulgt, there are still a lot of civilians and a lot of men, women, and children in gaza city and elsewhere. Yeah, exactly. So, under the rules of war, the israelis have to do what they can to minimize civilian casualties. They dont have to eliminate them. You know, ive been thinking about parallels in history. And what i came up with was the Battle Of Manila in 1945. There were about 1 million filipinos in the capital city. The japanese wouldnt let them leave. They used them as human shields, and the United States forces attack to clear the city. And in the process, 100,000 filipinos died, some of them by japanese atrocities. This is a potential future for gaza city, if the Israeli Forces use all the fire power at their disposal, as the American Army did back in february 1945. What is the calculation, though, for a soldier manning a weapon in gaza city . How do you determine when its okay to fire . Who makes those choices . Well, when it comes to the decision to pull the trigger, thats up to the individual soldier and his immediate leader. These are tough decisions. We saw it in the Battle Of Mow by dee shoe in 1992, when the rangers went in maybe 93. The rangers went in and there were a bunch of somalis that were used as human shields. And the rangers had to sometimes kill the civilians in order to kill the fighters hiding behind them. And this is something that the israeli army is going to have to face and hopefully theyre being trained up for these eventualities while theyre waiting for the invasion to begin. Given the planning and Training We Saw from hamas in their sickening attacks on october 7th, one has to assume correct me if im wrong that they have planned for the israeli response. And i guess the conundrum is, if israel does go in, are they doing what hamas wanted . And if they dont go in, how do they defeat hamas . They cant do it from the air. Yeah. I think its a dilemma. I think this is exactly what hamas want. They want Israeli Forces to go in, kill a lot of civilians. The hamas fighters with 15 years of preparation can pop up in tunnels behind Israeli Forces, kill a lot of israeli soldiers. That would be the ideal. But even if they lose, a lot of their civilians are going to get killed in the process. And that will inflame World Opinion and turn the world against israel. S