♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ announcer: funding for presentation of this program is provided by... brett: you know as someone coming out of college it can be very nerve-racking not knowing what to expect, whether you'll like your job or not,

whether you'll make friends, whether you'll fit in, and here i feel like it's so welcoming and such an inclusive place to work, you just feel like you're valued. announcer: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. and by judy and peter blum kovler foundation, pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. announcer: and now, "bbc news" >> i am in washington and this is a deal for a cease-fire in gaza and the exchange of prisoners. president biden says the people of gaza can recover and rebuild and hostages will return home. >> we have not given up and now after more than 400 days of struggle, success has arrived. >> for those who have long urged

the government to secure the release of hostages. ♪ >> welcome to world news america. israel and hamas have a cease-fire and hostage release will to end 15 months of war in gaza. the agreement follows months of intense negotiations brokered by qatari officials. the war between israel and hamas started on october 7, 2020 three when hamas fighters stormed israeli communities, taking more than 250 people captive. since then, the hamas run health ministry in gaza says israel's ministry has killed 46,707 palestinians and injured more than 110,000. as moose surface of the cease-fire displaced celebrating -- civilians it celebrated the idea of returning home while

families of hostages expressed their relief that they loved ones will return home. he think u.s. diplomats for their help in securing a deal. >> but we have seen a momentum that started to build in the last month and we kept pushing for that, working together very closely with our partners and i can say that what we have seen from the u.s. in the past few days, seeing -- transcending the administration was a clear demonstration for the commitment for the u.s. to reach a deal. for us and egypt this is something that we are a stakeholder in that conflict that we have to do it and we have to help and support but we have seen the steps that has been taken recently from the u.s. has yielded to this moment. >> as we mentioned, phase one of the deal will begin on sunday

during a six-week initial cease-fire. hamas will release 33 israeli hostages made up of women, children, and the elderly. some palestinians held in israeli prisons will be freed and returned. israeli troops will partially withdraw from gaza and some displaced palestinians sheltering in southern because i will be allowed to return to the north. amen terry and aid trucks will be allowed into the liver relief. negotiations for the second phase will begin 16 days into the deal but should see the remaining hostages released, a full israeli troop withdrawal, and sustainable calm. the final phase will see the beginning of gaza's reconstruction and the return of remaining hostages bodies. let's go right to jerusalem where jenna fischer is standing by for us. good to see you. we mentioned the prime minister released a statement. take us through a little bit more of what he has been saying. >> there has been reaction from all around the world as this deal was coming through that we

had president trump trying to claim responsibility from it almost immediately after news of the deal came through words of encouragement from the british prime minister as well. this is a three-part deal and i think it should be stressed at this point that only the first phase of it has actually then agreed between the two sides so it is a carefully phased out agreement which involves the release of 33 hostages over the period of six weeks. in return, dozens of palestinian prisoners will be released in return for each of those israeli hostages or indeed the remains of israeli hostages because we believe that some of those 33 may in fact be dead and there were also become as you mentioned, a withdrawal of israeli troops from the most populated parts of gaza mostly into a buffer area along the border in the east and we are

going to see if the deal is implemented as planned. a big increase in the amount of aid and fuel that gets into gaza so yes, this is due to start on sunday and there will then be the six-week period and in the middle of that six-week period, negotiations are supposed to start to really thrash out the real key issues for gaza. things like who will govern gaza in the future. israel made it very clear they don't want hamas to be involved in that and indeed, will israel keep a military presence in gaza in the longer term? >> what is the sense of how fragile this agreement is at this point? >> well, it has taken a long time to get to this point. the first outlines of a deal like this first came to light in may of last year. there was talk of it being quite close to an agreement at that point and then that fell away quite rapidly. though at the moment, i think

there is a sense of optimism and a huge amount of optimism has gone into making -- effort has gone into making this happen especially pressure from the united. the envoys from the ongoing biden administration and the trump administration have been heavily involved in trying to create this pressure to get this deal across the line this time so i think it is probably too early to talk about it being fragile. it has taken a huge effort to get to this point and there are many unknowns. they will no doubt have to deal with pretty complicated periods and incidents during this initial six-week period but at the moment, as you may have seen from the scenes in gaza and indeed the action for some of the hostage families here in israel, it is one of relief that after so much speculation, having come so close in the past , the deal got across the line today. >> jenna fischer for us in jerusalem, thank you so much.

indeed, both president biden and trump are hailing today's cease-fire deal. trump road onto social that this epic cease-fire agreement could have only happened as a result of our historic victory in november as is signaled to the entire world that my administration would seek peace and negotiate deals to ensure the safety of americans and our allies. i am thrilled american and israeli hostages will be returning home to be reunited with their families and loved ones. benjamin netanyahu did release a statement thanking trump for his help and advancing the release of the hostages. the statement said netanyahu's spoke with president biden to thank him as well and biden championed the role american diplomats played in the deal while outlining the opportunity for change in the middle east. >> the palestinian people have gone through hell. too many innocent people have died. too many committees have been destroyed and this deal, the people of gaza can finally

recover and rebuild and look to a future without hamas in power. the bible says blessed are the peacemakers. many peacemakers helped make this deal happen including an extraordinary team of american diplomats. who have worked nonstop for months to get this done. i would also note this deal was developed and negotiated under my administration but its terms will be implemented for the most part by the next administration. in these past few days, we have been speaking as one team. this has been a time of real turmoil in the middle east but as i prepare to leave office, our friends are strong, our enemies are weak, and there is a genuine opportunity for a new feature in lebanon. there is an opportunity for a future free from the grip of hezbollah. in syria, a future free from the tyranny of assad, and for the palestinian people, and

incredible pathway to a state of their own. >> let's go to our state department correspondent, tom bateman, who is standing by for us. to see you. we heard president biden praising diplomats but we saw in the statement from the israeli prime minister, he also pointed to the incoming president, donald trump. how much of a sense is there that there was the pressure of the incoming trump administration that brought this to fruition? >> well, just on the first point of that statement from prime minister netanyahu, it was really notable for how he has dominated with effusive praise for trump and joe biden -- the comment about joe biden was relegated to a single sentence, a single line right at the end. the white house will be very appreciative of that, frankly, but this has been a deeply dysfunctional relationship between the biden white house and prime minister netanyahu which will be one of extensive military support from the u.s.

to the israelis. but that takes us to the second point now which is where disagreement goes from here. first of all, it has to establish itself at the place on sunday as the first day that it will take place and then that six-week phase of the release of a batch of hostages in staggered stages. and israeli withdrawal from population areas of gaza but the critical point now is what the biden administration does is to hand over that extremely important attempt to get to a second phase which has to be negotiated still between the two sides. a full end of the war and full israeli withdrawal from gaza and the release of the rest of the hostages in exchange for more palestinian prisoners. now, a whole lot of questions arise therefore. does the trump administration have the same commitment to the detail of this question are will they see it through? rackley, has president trump got the desire to make this one of

his key foreign policy priorities to stay with it? it will be very tough. that is what the biden administration folks will be handing over in five days time. >> tom bateman, great to speak with you. thank you. if implemented, the cease-fire would allow for the recent -- the release of israeli hostages held in gaza and palestinian prisoners in israel. hamas seized 200 51 hostages in october of 2023 and it is still holdin 94 although israel believes only 60 are still alive. families of the hostages issued a statement saying we welcome with overwhelming joy and relief the agreement to bring our loved ones home. they also expressed deep anxiety and concerns regarding possibility that the agreement might not be fully implemented, leaving hostages behind, and they are calling urgently for swift arrangements to ensure all phases of the deal are carried out. let's speak about that now with a hostage antimilitary and

advocate and the great aunt of abigail, a three-year-old who was held hostage in gaza for 51 days. it is very good to see you again. we have seen the images of hostage square where we saw some of the family members of hostages gather earlier in israel. tell us how the families are processing this moment. >> so i can speak from experience of what it meant to be a hostage family for 51 days and find out that there was a list and your loved one was going to come out perhaps. it is excitement but very tempered with what does this really mean? is the list going to be with my person? is my loved one going to come home? you really do not know that until you actually see that person and we know that this is a deal that is based on different phases and the first phase is 33 people. it is not clear exactly if it is going to be women, the elderly, the old, the handicap.

it is also going to be children but we are not quite sure in what order so people are excited and yet they do not know and then there's people in israel and in america whose family members will be in the second and third phase so i think it is incredible, so incredibly painful after all of this time because you still have to wait and he still just do not know. >> incredible anxiety of course that is part of the process as you are describing. it seems that many of these family members of hostages, they really have become a community themselves, haven't they? supporting each other through this process. >> yes. abigail was released on the 51st today. i have been there with the american families specifically because i am american but with all of the families and you become like a big family. he went to bed on october 6 and did not know these people and on october 7, you do and you know their loved ones who are hostages and you even know some

of these families who know that their loved one has been killed but they just need their body back. it is so complicated but you know, we are sitting here and there is a mother and her two young kids. is she alive? are they alive? for us, that is a family that is real. in our kibbutz where abigail came from and where she lived before october 7, there's two young women in their 20's and 30's. so you know their mothers in the work that they have done and an american from that kibbutz -- his family and -- in israel and in america, they are part of my family now. they are having a wedding and you know when they have certain things and you know that sorrow. and his wife who was released with abigail has been fighting all this time to get her husband to come home.

we are really like a family in a very odd way. >> speaking to american family members of the hostages, is there any sense of frustration that it has taken 15 months to get to this point to finally have an agreement to have hostages released, step-by-step as you said? >> yes. i mean, look, there was a deal and since that deal back in the end of november 2023, it was almost impossible to get both israel and hamas with the political will to make a deal and i give credit to the biden administration and we were able to meet with them for doing everything but here we are now with the trump administration coming in and basically, to be clear, it is the same deal president biden has been pushing since may but here we are and there is just a new dynamic. so i think it is one of those things where they have been collaborating since trump was elected.

he's now working side-by-side with bidens envoy in the middle east and there is a collaboration and i have to say that for the united states, we are united so while we could have had frustrations, what i want to point out is that at this moment, there is with all the talk going on, there is a president we have for a few more days who has done an incredible job leading and we have a new leader in president trump coming in and there is a collaboration with their team and we needed because this deal will be dependent on how trump and his team carry it out. >> before we let you go, can you give us a sense of what these next few days you think are going to be like for some of these hostage family members like yourself who went through this? >> look, it's going to be a lot of emotions, a lot of crying, a lot of -- most of the families that believe that first group of 33, 30 2 -- they have to protect themselves.

they don't know what is going to happen. you just want to make sure the deal keeps moving forward and everybody oks it. when they come out in a few days which we believe will happen, then you can start to go, ok, maybe it is real. until you see that, people are just raw so i feel like we have to give as much positive energy, prayers, positive thoughts, making sure everybody keeps so that this deal does continue and it goes through to getting all 98 hostages home. >> thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us today. really appreciate it. >> thank you so much. >> let's show you the scene in gaza now. celebrations erupted across the territory where palestinians have endured 15 months of war and destruction. the cease-fire offers hope for relief from what age groups have called a humanitarian catastrophe.

the united nations says agencies are mobilizing applies to get aid in as quickly as possible and it is demanding workers be offered unfettered access to people in need wherever in gaza they are and since the outbreak of the war, bbc news followed the stories of people struggling in that desperate crisis. our special correspondent reports now on gaza after more than one year of war. a warning, you may find some of the images upsetting. >> they are used to false rumors . hope has been a lost language in this war. but tonight perhaps an end to fear, exhaustion, degradation. they have suffered while the talk has gone on and on. bakhmut and his family have

evacuated nine times. his children scavenge for anything that could be sold to buy food. and they suffer for it. skin diseases, hepatitis. the smell is suffocating, he says. there is nowhere to go to the bathroom so at night, my family and i went together to relieve ourselves only to be attacked by dogs that tried to bite us. they lived here before the war. jubail you. prompt now into an age of stone. the consequences of the war stretched the length of gaza and into every life in one way or another.

aged 15, he was born with a severe brain disability. but before the war, there were working hospitals and days and nights without terror. >> she was the flower of our neighborhood. she used to walk, play, and was just like any other child. >> three months into the war, hannah became ill with cancer of the eye. now in constant agony, she can no longer see. with a cease-fire, her mother hopes israel will allow hannah evacuation from gaza. >> i feel like i am losing my mind. i am so worried about her and i feel so bad for her. i want to do whatever i can to help her and i do not want to be helpless. >> as the world waits for

details of peace come across gaza, the scale of rebuilding, of a lost world, broken lives, is immense. bbc news, amman. >> joining me now in studio is the former executive director of the american task force on palestine and former political advisor to the palestinian authority. thank you for joining us. we were seeing the impact of the 15 months of war in that report on gaza. just give me your thoughts first of all on this agreement coming to fruition after what has been for both gazans and israelis 15 terrible months. >> the initial reaction is just relief. the fact to think that the families of the hostages -- the whole israeli society can see hope and to see the end to a tragic 15 months of death and destruction and mainly the loss of hope. palestinians and israelis wake

up every morning thinking they will see more of the same so now, there is some hope. there are a lot of challenges but the moment now is one of hope and celebration and may be working towards insuring that the deal sticks in the coming phases. >> what more do we know about the palestinian prisoners who would be released in this first round? >> we know that the majority will be women and children but there will be some prisoners who are serving life sentences. these are prisoners with blood on their hands. this was part of the price israel was willing to pay but they will not be high-value prisoners so some of the more politically symbolic, like mara one, would not be released but they would certainly be heavy security prisoners released this time. >> what happens if there are violations already in this first round? there are concerns on both sides of what happens if this deal falls apart. >> i am optimistic.

there will be some violations but largely, they will be minor . the real concern is what happens in phase two because phase i has been laid out in great detail but in the middle of phase one, there is supposed to be a negotiation and that is when things are going to probably start going bad and we are starting to hear indications of it right now even on day one. >> it does strike me that the most difficult decisions seem to have been postponed to phase two including the complete and to this war. how do you see that progressing those negotiations? >> ok, the hope is the implementation of phase one will create a momentum that makes it hard for both sides. at least the israeli public will not want to go back to war and the palestinian public put pressure on hamas not to go back to war. that is the hope. the reality is the views of hamas and israel are so far apart and i see this will collapse. even today, we started seeing hamas saying we want the war

over. piercing the israelis saying it is not over yet and this is just a pause. but bridging this is going to be difficult and this is the real challenge for trump and his team. the pressure worked. in this phase, that yahoo! and the qatari's did not want to start the relation with trump on a bad term but as he sits in office with deep issues, that is why i am a bit worried. >> the question is whether the war is deemed over by israel and also whether the israelis would remain in some parts of gaza. do you think more pressure from the egyptians, the qatari's, could overcome and bridge that gap? >> up to a point. all politics are local and the israeli prime minister will look and see would a decision to end the war keep his coalition alive? perhaps the same with hamas. they have their own politics and pop -- hardliners, etc., and get

some benefits out of it, some goodies out of this agreement, so all of it will ultimately go back to local politics. mediators can change the calculus by incurring a cost, by adding a cost, whether it is on the israeli side in terms of trump saying if you do not move forward, i will speak out against you, and trump is very popular in israel. no israeli prime minister want to be against him. in terms of hamas, i think most of the pressure can come from qatar and turkey and say if you don't play ball, we are going to expel you and you will have nowhere to go. >> very quickly before we let you go, it seems steven witkoff, donald trump's envoy to the middle east, he has been instrumental in this process. the fact that president trump has basically said, if you don't get the deal done, then there is a price to pay and the price to pay is both for hamas and israel. for israel, it is a political price. >> great to speak with you.

thank you so much for the analysis. i appreciate your perspective today. that is our program at this hour but you can follow the latest on this momentous agreement between israel and hamas on a cease fire deal. the first phase set to take place on sunday. you can find all of that on our website, bbc.com/news. thank you so much for watching world news america and stay with bbc news. announcer: funding for presentation of this program is provided by... announcer: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. and by judy and peter blum kovler foundation, pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. ♪ ♪ announcer: "usa today" calls it, "arguably the best bargain in streaming." that's because the free pbs app lets you watch the best of pbs anytime, anywhere.

geoff: good evening. i'm geoff bennett. amna: and i'm amna nawaz. on the newshour tonight, a major breakthrough. israel and hamas reach a hostage and ceasefire deal that could end the 15-month war in gaza. geoff: an oval office address, joe