inside, killing a number of the people who were in the bomb shelter, blew half of herch's lower arm off, so like one of the other israeli hostages, mia shem, who had serious injuries, he was taken captive and brought into gaza with very, very serious injury, and his mother rachel has no idea if he survived that ordeal. if he received appropriate medical treatment, where he is, what his status is. so it has to be awfully difficult seeing these hostages come home known her son, herch, is still in custody somewhere in gaza. >> sandra: ophelia brightman, 77 years old, also one of the hostages just released, she came to israel from argentina holding argentine citizenship. she's the wife of hector, mother of three children, grandmother of nine children. she had sent her last message to her family asking for help, stating that the terrorists were in her house and since that moment of her -- that she was taken, john, her contact had been severed and you can only imagine what is happening right now knowing that ophelia, 77 years old, has been put back in israeli hands in this transfer here, just unbelievable to see this happening right now. if we could stand by, general kellogg, and lieutenant colonel reserve jonathan conricus is joining us live, international spokesperson for the israel defense forces. jonathan is joining us now. thank you so much, sir. we are watching these hostages getting out of the vans and being transferred. can you tell us more about the process and what you know. >> yes, hi and thank you for having me. i hate to interrupt the general, but we are seeing positive images for the fifth day now. israeli women and children after 53 days of brutal hamas captivity are being returned home today. we are talking about ten israeli nationals and two foreign nationals that are being returned. all of them women, no men. as you mentioned before, of the previous four groups of israelis that have been released, 51 in number, not including those of today, we have torn families, women and children that have been returned, fathers who are still in hamas captivity. >> john: jonathan, we note that the youngest of the hostages released today was 17 years old. a lot of the hostages are elderly folks, i believe the mother of one of the hostages -- the young hostage was released today as well. but there are so many, if you say that 51 released prior to this, that's a total of 63. hamas was holding 239. so that still leaves more than 150 hostages in hamas captivity, and one of the big questions is, hamas seems to be playing this idea of a ceasefire or pause in military operations, however you want to characterize that, for all its worth here, and if you've still got 150 people left and you are releasing them at a rate of ten a day, it's another two weeks at least that they could try to hold off military operations by the idf in gaza. do you expect that that is the way that it's going to go in the days ahead? >> you are very correct in your analysis, i think, and what we are looking at, this current framework has a ten-day limit to it. so we understand who hamas is doing. if hamas would be able to do what they wanted and i'm sure they would be able to release only one hostage every day. part of the negotiations that went on, a lot of negotiations with very important american input by the president himself, and of course his team, we put it at a minimum of at least ten live hostages per day in order to have another day of pause in our activities. but there's a cap of ten days for the current framework, and if we want to expand that, then that has to be renegotiated and voted on again by the israeli war cabinet. so, what we are doing in the idf is of course facilitating these very important moments, each and every israeli that is brought home to safety and to be reunified with their family is a beautiful thing. the best thing i've seen in the last 53 days. but we are preparing for the future of operations, plans are already approved and ready to be executed to continue to fight and to eradicate hamas wherever hamas is in and outside of the gaza strip. >> sandra: lieutenant colonel we also have up live on the screen, gone from where the hostages were being turned over to israeli custody to now the ofar prison in the west bank where palestinian prisoners has been detained by israelis. can you talk about this process and the exchange of the hostages and the prisoners and what we will see in the coming minutes and hours perhaps? >> yeah, i mean -- unfortunately israel has been forced as part of the negotiations to free convicted felons, prisoner, some of them with blood on their hands, some of them who did attacks against israeli military pers personnel or against civilians. we have been talking about women and minors only. hamas wanted that kind of alleged parity between our women and children that were taken from their homes on the 7th of october and palestinian women and minors who are offenders, who are now in prison after a legal process, after they tried to stab soldiers or civilians or threw rocks or were otherwise part of illegal activity against israelis so. what we are going to see is the release of today's batch of palestinians. they will be returned to judea and sumaria, and very few palestinian flags, lots of hamas flags and that is a worrying sign of hamas growing and strengthening in judea and sumaria. >> john: we are looking at pictures of the ten israeli hostages who were released today. in addition as you pointed out, two foreign nationals. do we know which country they are from, or countries? >> yeah, as i understand now, still unconfirmed, but according to the pictures and preliminary information and i want to be cautious, these are caregivers who lived together with elderly people, elderly israelis and various countries. i'm afraid they are not american, i suppose that is part of the question. but i understand they are foreign caregivers who are also taken, held in captivity, without even being part of conflict or anything, they were just taken and are now being returned. i'm happy for them and their families and very happy for israeli women who are now brought back to safety in israel. >> sandra: thank you for joining us, we have the women hostages freed now up on our screen from teenage years, 17 years old, youngest, to a woman known as a grandmother to so many in her neighborhood, in her 80s. these are the women just released. as we know there are so many more that remain in our thoughts. colonel, where does all of this put us in this war? obviously we know things are about to change in the next couple of days. >> yeah, you know, you have the pictures of those beautiful innocent israeli civilians that have endured hell and are now on their way back to -- back home, but there are still israeli babies being held by hamas in israel. very famous or unfortunately it's a sad kind of fame, but a few month old baby, two red head children, a 3-year-old boy and a baby that were taken from one of the kibbutz are also being held, and it is tremendously sad. where we are going forward is that we understand the game that hamas is playing. we understand they are trying to buy time while using hostages as their currency. we knew that would be the hamas game. we know they are heavily engaged in psychological warfare. everything is staged and choreographed from the moment hostages are exposed and the process of transferring them into israel, everything is staged, and hamas is hard at work in trying to picture themselves as some humane organization that cares for civilians and has been treating them well. really obscene efforts by hamas, even forced an israeli mother to write a letter of thanks to her captors thanking them for taking care of her daughter and letting them play with them. things totally absurd and where this is going forward from here, we are ready and as soon as we will get the green light from the government of the state of israel to continue operations, we will do so, because we understand there is a direct link between ground operations and pressure on hamas and their willingness to hand over the hostages. and we are ready and equipped to do so, and i hope that that will commence as soon as possible. every day that israeli hostages are returned is great but we are preparing for the next stage of operations and we have our sight firmly focused on the aim, to dismantle hamas, make sure never again will any terrorist organization in gaza have the ability to do what hamas about on october 7th. >> john: lieutenant colonel, we have information william burns, cia director and the director of mossad were both in doha, qatar, meeting with the prime minister about the status and fate of the hostages. do you have any information as to what may have come out of those talks? >> not yet. you know, there's a lot that goes on, very much goes on. there are reports of delegations in israel and the report you mentioned. what i know and the idf level is no stone is left unturned. no diplomatic kinetic or intelligence option is left unchartered in order to get the hostages back. we are doing everything we can in order to get them back and we will do everything necessary in order to get our people back from a military perspective, that means fighting on the ground, collecting intelligence, and when possible, getting our people out, using kinetic and military operations as well. >> john: lieutenant colonel, thank you so much for the update. appreciate you joining us. >> sandra: thank you very much. and now to the pentagon, brigadier general pat ryder is just briefing, took a question from our own jennifer griffin on attacks on u.s. forces. >> at least one missile and we also assess the vessels, mason and the central park, were not the intended targets. that said, i can't speak for what the intended targets -- target was and would have to refer you to the houthi rebels to talk to that. >> how can you say the u.s.s. mason or central park were not the target? what would be the target if -- >> that's a great question, something we are continuing to analyze. this missile landed approximately ten nautical miles away from these vessels, but again, current assessment right now is it was not -- the ships were not specifically being targeted. >> is the u.s. planning any sort of military action against the houthis? >> well, look, when it comes to our forces as i highlighted, i'm not going to telegraph or forecast or speculate on any potential strikes that we might take in the region other than to say we will do what's necessary to protect our forces. >> and lastly, the irgc released some footage of drone video of the u.s.s. eisenhower passing through the strait of hormuz. were you aware that there was iranian drone up above the ike? >> yeah, i'm aware of those reports. we are looking into that. don't have anything to pass along. if we do, we will let you know. >> yesterday senior administration officials said that the israeli -- anticipate israeli campaign in the south -- southern gaza can't be the same as it was in the north in terms of the number of people that were displaced and in terms of the targeting of hospitals, water and power, and u.n.-supported shelters. can you speak to any of the conversations the secretary has had with his israeli counterparts on that front or can you elaborate? >> sure. without getting into the specifics of the conversations, you've seen in the read-outs we have issued that a topic of discussion between secretary austin and the israeli minister of defense continues to be the importance of conducting operations in accordance with the law of armed conflict protecting civilians and ensuring that aid does get into gaza, so that will continue to be a focus going forward. we do not want to see innocent civilians being harmed or impacted to a greater extent than they have been already, and so that, i'm sure, will continue to be a focus of our conversation. >> pentagon share the assessment if there is a campaign in the south, israeli campaign in the south, it cannot be the same as, carried out the same way it was -- >> it would be inappropriate for me from the podium to talk about idf operations and what they should or shouldn't do on the ground. certainly it's their operation. but in the contours of understanding the importance of protecting civilian lives, innocent civilian lives, and the same time going after the terrorist group hamas that inflicted pain and suffering, not only on the israeli people but the palestinian people, that will continue to be a priority for us. >> i want to ask about the service members that we have seen over the last several weeks. do you believe everyone who may be experiencing that has come forward, are you seeing any more people asking to get screened, and just given the persistent nature of the attacks, is there any proactive screening done instead of waiting people to come to you, but going and giving them the information to know if they can tell something is wrong. >> i don't have any new updates to provide in terms of folks in iraq and syria that have been diagnosed with tbis. we have been providing that information as it becomes available. history has shown, experience has shown that sometimes there are latent symptoms, and so service members are screened, especially in the environment, whether it's self-recording or your teammates notice something. so that's something we will continue to stay on top of. i don't have any new numbers beyond what we have passed along to you. megan. here, i'm sorry. >> so u.s. space com has stated the satellite that north korea launched did enter orbit. so can you state that the satellite was a success? >> we are aware that the dprk launch of a space launch vehicle did -- was conducted. we are aware that it did enter into orbit and that it involved ballistic missile technology. but beyond that, i'm not going to have further details to provide. >> there seems to be some discrepancy. since it did enter orbit, what constitutes a successful launch? >> well, i'll leave it to others for successful launch, the question was did it go into orbit. we know it went into orbit. for something to go into orbit, it needs to escape earth's gravity and be able to be sustained in orbit around the earth. so really it would be up to the north koreans to define what the parameters of this launch were and what they were hoping to achieve. i'm not going to speak to that, other than to say again we do know it's in orbit. we will continue to stay in close consultation with our republic of korea and japanese allies, as well as other regional partners and allies and monitor that closely. the phone here and come back in the room. phil stewart, reuters. >> yeah, hi. just trying to drill into the idea that missile or two missiles that were fired off yemen, that was truly a coincidence then? is that the understanding? >> yeah, thanks, phil. i'm not going to characterize it. just provide the facts as we know them and as we continue to analyze this, we are aware there was at least one missile and at this point our assessment is that those ships were not specifically targeted as to what was being targeted, again, that's something that we'll continue to look into. so, those are the facts as i have them right now. go to jeff shogal. >> thank you. given that the pentagon is under continuing resolution, is it having to move funds from training and maintenance accounts in order to pay for operations such as deploying aircraft carriers to the met and to the -- >> thanks, jeff. so as you know, you know, training funds and operation and maintenance funds come from different pots of money. as it does relate to the situation in the middle east, we are -- the military departments are currently cash flowing those requirements from existing accounts with funding that was provided by the continuing resolution, and so as we go forward, the military departments and u.s. central command will be assessing new requirements that support both current and future operations within this area of responsibility against previously planned requirements. and so that will be important work going forward. in the meantime, as you know, we have requested supplemental funding from the congress and so we will continue to stay in close contact with the hill to work through that and of course as always, would advocate for a full year appropriation. thank you. back into the room here. >> we were promised that the pentagon would provide us with more information on the value and scope of u.s. military assistance to israel since october 7th. is that information available to you now? >> thanks, fadi, certainly aware of the request and i can assure that is something we are taking seriously and as soon as we have that information to provide we will do that. >> previously you told us there were u.s. assets over in gaza doing isr to help with hostage recovery. is that activity continuing or did the u.s. pause that activity as part of the operation pause in gaza? >> thanks, fadi. in light of the operational pause and in compliance with the agreement reached between israel and hamas, we are not currently conducting those isr flights and so those have been paused for now. thank you. nancy. >> i wanted to ask for clarification something earlier, what specifically has the u.s. sent to egypt and how much is it worth? >> in terms of the humanitarian aid? as i understand it, usaid can provide more detail, medical supplies to support the health system in gaza, ready to use food, foods for displaced u upon -- populations, includes clothing, since winter is upon us, and so that's essentially what's being provided. >> approximate value of it? >> i do not. >> a sense when it arrived in gaza. >> it arrived in egypt today. my assumption is it's being loaded on to vehicles now foreground delivery into gaza so very soon. and as i mentioned, and more later on this, but we expect additional flights in the coming days, we'll certainly keep you updated on that. >> you didn't know the value. >> i do not know the value. >> you had said that you are still working on the number for how much equipment has been provided israel. why is it -- can you give us a sense why it's taking so long to get that approximate assessment? other conflicts, notably ukraine, why is this different? >> thanks, we are working to get those numbers in terms of what we can provide. as i understand it, part of the complexity is the methods by which we are providing these. some of that, which is already, for example, paid for through the -- for military sales, financing, preexisting agreements with israel, some is coming from stocks that we have in the region, some is coming from, you know, u.s. inventory, so there's a multitude of different methods in order to meet this urgent need, and so it's not the exact same thing as the way we are providing assistance to ukraine. so, this goes into the how do you provide an accurate figure that accurately reflects what we are providing in terms of our funding versus what israel has funded and we are expediting and those kinds of things. >> lastly, you were asked about comments hopes operations in the south would be at a different tempo than they were in the north. and secretary austin's discussions with israeli counterparts, has he talked about different munitions to support a different kind of conduct in the south in terms of the weapons used? >> i won't get into specifics other than to say in their conversations they are certainly discussing what israel's needs are. again, in the broader context of what it is they are trying to achieve against hamas while at the same time ensuring that we are taking -- they are taking civilian casualties and civilian safety into account. i'll leave it at that. thank you very much. >> thank you, two questions on north korea. north korean leader kim jong-un announced yesterday said that north