we are back with another hour of our special coverage of the hamas hostages being released today. i'm chris jansing in new york. it was a long-awaited moment. just last hour we saw this convoy of vehicles with israeli hostages crossing into israel. just moments after they were handed over to the red cross ahead of their medical evaluations and reunions with loved ones. these are the faces of the 13 hostages, women and children who were in captivity for 49 days as young as 2 years old, as old as 85. israel is releasing palestinian prisoners in the exchange, women and teenage boys. that is part of this deal, and with aid trucks arriving today through the gaza-egypt border, the palestinian red crescent is warning of a dire situation inside gaza saying the needs of the palestinians are increasing. a u.n. spokesman in geneva weighing in as well. >> we hope it allows grieving families to honor their dead and bury them with dignity. and we hope that this humanitarian pause leads to a longer term humanitarian cease fire for the benefit of the people of gaza, israel, and beyond. >> joining me now nbc news correspondent erin mclaughlin in tel aviv, nbc national security and global affairs reporter, dan delouis, and carleen savage. we were talking a little earlier with martin savage, whose two family members were released many weeks ago. they are still not talking about it, understandably so. the trauma that they went through. the folks who were released today have been held hostage. we don't know in what condition. weeks longer. what is facing them, even as we celebrate the fact that they're released, what is facing them and their families? >> this is life altering for them. this is going to be a lifetime that they need to work on this. community needs to work on this. family needs to work on this. and this is one of the worst traumas that they have faced, that anybody can face, and so they're in for a lifetime of work, not that they can't level out someplace, but it's going to be a long road ahead of them that great support can do a lot to heal. >> erin, 24 hostages overall have been released. bring us up to date. give us the latest. i see you're holding your phone, so my suspicion is you may even have some new information for us. what can you tell us, erin? >> reporter: that's right, chris, in terms of the total hostages released today, as you mentioned, 24 hostages. 13 israeli hostages, ten thai hostages, and one filipino hostage. so many of the farm workers that were working the kibbutz scene on october 7th were taken hostage into gaza. it appears that many of them have been released today as part of this overall release. it's not necessarily a part of the negotiations, what was negotiated by the israeli government. we are also hearing from the prime minister release a list of the identities of the hostages, their names, and their ages, they're grouped by families this list, we're hearing that the aloni family, daniel, 45 years old, amelia 5 years old, ruth monder, age 78. karen monder, 54 years old, ohad monder, hanna perry, 79 years old, yaffe adar 85 years old, and we're hearing that the asher family was also released, doron katz-asher, 34 years old. raz asher, 4 years old, and aviv asher 2 years old, and tonight yoni asher, their father expressing his extreme relief posting a statement on facebook saying they are finally here at home. there will be more time to talk about everything. for now thank you all from the bottom of my heart for the support and the warm hug. incredibly emotional moment for all of those families and also a symbol of hope for the vast majority of the hostages, which have yet to be released from gaza. now, we are also hearing that 39 palestinian prisoners were released today from israeli prisons. 15 males and 24 females. they'll be returned home to their -- to the occupied west bank, east jerusalem as well as gaza. the israeli officials announcing that this exchange for today is now complete, and the big question now overhanging all of this is what happens tomorrow, chris. >> that is the key question, and you mentioned the asher family. andrea spoke with the father, yoni asher back on october 11th, and i was struck by one of the statements he made about his daughters, who as we said have been released today, they are 2 and 4. he said they are tiny balls of energy. with three women in the house, there you see on the left his wife, we had enough noise for any man, and managed at that point to give a little bit of a smile. it does tell you, karleen how people who live these ordinary lives, if i can say that. you know, there's a dad, he's got a wife. he's got two little girls, he's got all this as he sees it female energy in the house, and the next thing you know he is in the middle of an international crisis. now as erin just pointed out, what happens tomorrow? what do you imagine are the negotiations that are going on so that other families tomorrow can have the relief that this family is feeling right now? >> the negotiations going on -- and i am so thankful that children are resilient, amazingly resilient, and they will do their work that they need to do. there's going to be some quiet in their house, but moving forward, the negotiators, this looks like a template negotiation. you negotiate, you look at the goals, what they want, there's obviously a want here that they have. that's what you look at, and then you start to deliver on that. and i think that everything that i've followed, heard and researched, they're doing what they need to do. the goal is to release hostages, and so that can take time, and unfortunately people that get in the cross hairs of that, you know, they're in the cross hairs, a much bigger problem, and a much bigger issue. and so as they move forward, they're going to have some of that same discussion of now we need to get this done next. you certainly don't want to have the wrath of this to come down. you certainly don't want to see this happen next. those are the discussions that they're going to have because there's a different goal that maybe we're not completely aware of. we get to be told what they want us to know, but those negotiators, there is a deep going on there, and it looks like they're doing their job in order for us to have accomplished this. so i commend what's happening as far as the negotiations go. we are releasing hostages. is that our goal? >> dan de luce, we know that president biden may speak on this today. we also know from our nbc reporting that he played a key role in the negotiations that led to this release today, both in terms of his own conversations with the israelis, but also getting the qataris to stay involved in being a go between with hamas. what's top of mind for u.s. officials who are watching this truce and this exchange today? >> chris, i think on the one hand, i think they will see some vindication that all of their long, pain staking diplomatic work along with the qataris has paid off. it seems to be paying off. i think they will also feel that -- the president himself i think sees this as the vindication also of his idea of personal diplomacy. he's also put a huge amount of value on personal relations with other leaders, other officials, and he was very much trying to push israel behind the scenes to agree to an arrangement that would allow some kind of temporary cease fire and the release of hostages. i think the white house is also, of course, looking to make sure the cease fire holds. there's no guarantee that it will hold. it's holding so far. and they're hoping obviously that it holds so that all the remaining 50 hostages as part of this deal get released. it's also giving him a little bit of breathing space with his own party because, as you know, he's come under criticism from progressives in his own party, publicly and privately, to be more critical of israel and how they've conducted that military offensive in gaza. and so this is a little bit of proof to say, listen, all of this wrangling and pushing and diplomacy has beared some fruit. >> dan de luce, erin mclaughlin, and karleen savage. joining us now is former ambassador to the uk, mark regev. tell us what you know, where are the hostages now, and anything you can tell us about their conditions is, how are they doing? >> well, the first thing it's good they're back. what is it, 13 people who were in hamas's captivity in dark tunnels. i don't yet -- cannot tell you what they went through in those last 50 days, but i can only presume it was not pleasant and that these people are free, and that's a good thing. but it's bittersweet because as you've been saying on the panel, these 13 people are out, but there's still over 100 kept in gaza. it's true, according to the formula that was negotiated and here we have to praise president biden who played a key role in making this happen, but according to the formula in the next four days, another 37 hostages have to be released, taking the number to 50. that was agreed and it's also agreed that the humanitarian pause can continue if hamas continues to release extra hostages. we've got a formula for that too. once again, negotiated with the help of president biden that says we will give an additional day of humanitarian pause for ten hostages, and another day for another ten hostages, and so basically now the ball is in hamas's court. this humanitarian pause can stop four days from now and we'll be back to square one and back at full scale war or we can extend the pause by the release of more hostages. i hope they release more hostages. >> is there anything you're seeing so far, your government is seeing, ambassador, that would suggest that hamas at least at this early stage is not keeping its end of the deal? does everything seem to be going as well as could have been expected? >> i suppose the expectations are low, and they are low, when something succeeds, everyone is pleased, and of course we know who we're dealing with with hamas. just looking at the names of the people released. hamas released a 2-year-old girl, a 4-year-old girl, a 5-year-old girl and a 9-year-old boy. together with six people over the age of 70. they claim their operation was against military targets, yes? the 2-year-old, the 4-year-old, the 5-year-old. this just shows what we're up against, a brutal, fanatical terrorist organization. so when actually we did get a release today, of course everyone's happy, but we have to keep making sure that hamas stands by its commitments. we have to see 37 additional people released in the coming days, and once again, if hamas want this is humanitarian pause to be extended, they know exactly what they need to do. they have to free more of the hostages. >> so in addition to the children you just mentioned, there are five women who are in their 70s and an 85-year-old. >> six. >> oh, sorry, you're correct, yes, yes. >> five. and then a sixth who was 85 yees old, who is not in good health, and who has a number of we know medical needs, so it's going to be different from person to person, but what can you tell us about what the coming days look like for the hostages who have been released? >> so obviously they have to be cared for and no one could have gone through 50 days being taken hostage by a terrorist group like hamas and it can affect them. so obviously their physical health is a concern, but also their psychological health, what trauma did they go through? especially the children. and so i think here we'll have israel's best experts working with the families to try and help them come through this in a way that they can return to normal lives, that these children can return to being normal children. i'm not a psychologist, i don't know what they went through, and i don't know what needs to be done, but i can tell you israel and all its social services will be working with these families to make sure they get the best help that is available. >> i was looking at the statement from your prime minister, and one of the things that benjamin netanyahu said was this is one of the goals of the war and that the goal continues to be to obtain the release of all of the hostages, but he added and we are committed to achieving all the goals of the war. he has been very clear, you have been very clear about what that is, which at the top of it is to destroy hamas, to see that that terrorist threat is gone. but given that there is a pause now, that pause may go on for four days, perhaps longer depending on how the situation unfolds. how do you restart a war? >> i don't think we have a choice, to be frank because to leave hamas in power in gaza is just an invitation for another october 7th massacre. it's not that mark regev says so, they said so. hamas leaders when interviewed said they would do october 7th again and again and again. given the capability, given the opportunity, they'd once again massacre israeli civilians. they'd once again pitcher our people. they'd do the massive rapes all over again, they'd machine gun the young people at the music festival, all that they say they will do again given the opportunity, so when israel says no more, we mean it, and we refuse -- the people of israel refuse to live next to this terror enclave on our southern border. it's just not sustainable. we don't have to live in permanent terrorists butchering our children in the middle of the night. no one should have to live like that. let's be frank. getting rid of hamas is also good for the people of gaza. hamas has ruled them for 16 years, and what have they bought, the people of gaza, just pain and suffering and poverty. surely the people of gaza deserve better too. >> if i can just put this little point forward, we've just been informed by the white house that we will hear from president biden, who is in nantucket right now at 1:45. so a little more -- a little less than half an hour from now, if he is on time. but let me go back, if i can, to you talked about the other 100 hostages. of course there are more than 180 hostages still being held by their families, 100 it is believed to be held by hamas. let me ask you about the other 80. how much clarity is there, how much intelligence do you have about where they are, who is holding them? and what is going on behind the scenes to see that they are released as well? >> so the numbers are a little different. there were 236 hostages that we knew about before today's release. so you take off the 13 israelis who are freed, and then you also had, i believe it was a group of nine foreign nationals, mainly thai and filipinos who come here to work in israel, in agriculture and other areas. so the number's gone down, but once again, hamas has committed to release a number 37. so that means there's over 100 left of all the hostage community, that's probably the wrong word, but the people who have been abducted and held against their will by hamas. we want to see as many of them released. our goal in this campaign is to see all the hostages released. now, people say but you're at the same time doing a military war against hamas, and they say there's a contradiction. there's no contradiction. hamas wouldn't have released anyone today, not one of the 13 israelis would have been released today without military pressure. because hamas knows -- and we've said it repeatedly. we will only agree to this sort of humanitarian pause for the release of our hostage, and we were hitting hamas hard. we were destroying its military infrastructure. we were eliminating its top command. hamas was receiving very powerful blows from the israeli defense forces, and they needed this time-out. they needed this pause, and so our military action expedited, in my opinion, the release of hostages, and if they release more hostages, it's only because they fear the resumption of israel's military operation. so we see the two goals of our operation, the military campaign to destroy hamas's military machine and getting our hostages out, they complement each other. >> you don't have to be a military strategist to understand the advantage for hamas of continuing to hold the american hostages, no americans were released today. what is your level of confidence, ambassador, that tomorrow or in the coming days americans will be released? >> they promised as part of the understandings to release the children, and there's one specific, abigail, who you know is a joint israeli american citizen. we will hopefully see her in the next coming days. we are waiting to see the next list that hamas will bring us, yes. they have committed to release 50. we believe all the children should be part of that 50, and i hope she'll be one of the people. once again, we're dealing with a brutal fanatical terrorist organization, not humanitarians, and it's difficult sometimes to understand their calculations. but we will insist, yes, that they keep what they agreed to, which is there has to be 37 more people released in the next three days. and that all the children must be released. >> former ambassador mark regev, thank you, we appreciate your taking the time to talk to us. stay with us as we continue our breaking news coverage. we'll have more right after this. we'll have more right afte this rsv can severely affect the lungs and lower airways. but i'm protected with arexvy. arexvy is a vaccine used to prevent lower respiratory disease from rsv in people 60 years and older. rsv can be serious for those over 60, including those with asthma, diabetes, copd, and certain other conditions. but i'm protected. arexvy is proven to be over 82% effective in preventing lower respiratory disease from rsv and over 94% effective in those with these health conditions. 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