paris. these are the headlines. hamas says it has released two more female hostages, they arrived at the rafah crossing with egypt. this follows too hostages being released last friday night. the u.s. has called for a delay to any ground invasion fearing for hostages. for the analysis and reaction, we have a guest.

the you in announces meeting to discuss later this week the war as israel steps up or strikes on gaza. hamas says more than 5000 people have been killed in is really since october 7. -- israeli airstrikes since october 7. president macron plans for a visit to israel. a call at the national assembly was made on monday to stop the airstrikes. this is live from paris. ♪ thank you for being with us. it is understood to more hostages have been released, hamas issuing a statement via telegram and later confirmed by

egypt as the hostages arrived at the rafah crossing. it's also reported that they are now free. the story isn't over and it remains complicated with more than 220 people still captive. very good evening. on the surface it seems like news. tell us how this release happened. irris: it seems like it wasn't negotiated, there is a larger release planned, beth and i thought it was following and then we saw this release not in exchange for anything, two older women who have health problems, we've seen photos of them crossing the border, in the itch option international red cross ambulance. i've heard their families have

spoken with them on the phone and they seem real enough to talk to them. they are being moved from the attraction border crossing to the israeli border crossing and afterward they will be flown to meet their families. they are no longer in the gaza community village they lived in, that has been more or less destroyed. they are going to meet their families in the interim. anchor: tell us about the women. irris: i can tell you they are from a kibbutz close to the border with gaza and they are true left wing women, idealistic, still believers in peace outreach. one woman and her husband, they would go to the gaza border to

take sick people from gaza being treated in israeli hospitals, no means from getting from the border once they were in israel, they would do that in their own free will, on their own time. they are believers in peace, so the irony of the impact of this on their lives is huge. i have to say, both of these women were taken hostage with their husbands. their husbands remain, along with other members of their family. i just heard an interview with a daughter of one of them and she was in tears, saying i can't wait to hug my mother again. all of the other 220 hostages should be able to hug their families too. and of course i want to hug my father. there is the joy of the release of the women but the knowledge that there are still more family members to be released. anchor: a very complicated issue, but a glimmer of hope.

i think whichever side of the fence you may find yourself on, the fact that families are being united can only be good news. in terms of what happens next, you were talking about monitoring possible larger releases, can you shed light on that? irris: it was reported earlier and i don't like to report these things that are rumors, but there was a discussion of 50 hostages and perhaps they were dual nationals or foreigners like the many thai workers taken. i don't know why that hasn't come to fruition. that was also being organized with input from qatar, a patron of hamas, egypt, and the united states. the united states has been heavily involved and this has

been reported heavily in u.s. media tonight. president biden is suggesting there should be of further delay to israel's round -- ground offensive to see if we can get more hostages released. anchor: is there anything to read into the fact that these women turned up at the rafah crossing? irris: i think it's the only place they could turn up safe and sound. the only other entrances and exits are from israel and israel is not really part of the deal. at the moment this is a qatar /egypt deal or communication. if israel was part of the deal i think you would not just see two women. it would be more large-scale, reasons, perhaps an exchange of prisoners this is a goodwill gesture by hamas.

i say that taking hostages is not a goodwill gesture in itself. but i think the only place they could leave would be through the border crossing with egypt. anchor: in terms of what happens next and you say their husbands are still held. we know nothing about the circumstances nor location, so clearly they are still in a sense of great peril considering the bombing of the gaza strip. irris: in peril for many reasons. those two men are also older and taking medicines they did not bring with them and will not get in the gaza strip. i think the women, the children -- there are 30 children under the age of 16 being held. three of them, their parents were murdered on october 7 and they were taken without their parents. there is a nine month old baby. i think the peril is enormous. there have been consistent

reports from hamas that some hostages have been killed in israeli airstrikes. there is no way of verifying that but that must be present in the minds of any israeli military person planning a ground offensive. anchor: indeed, certainly present in your mind and our minds as well. thank you for the latest. let's bring in shirley in the studio. great to see you. it's nice to have some good news at least for two families, but of course the story is far from over. surehirley: you've been about te negotiation. anchor: we have images of one of the women checked out in an ambulance and she looks relatively well. i am not a specialist but she

looks like she is talking. shirley: many people have been hoping to see dozens of hostages leaving gaza today. there were reports about that. but now we are seeing two women who have left the gaza strip and released by hamas and the wall street journal says this may be due to what hamas was asking in exchange, in that israel did not accept, to include fuel brought into gaza. anchor: good to see someone being taken care of, this is happening near the rafah crossing we believe. clearly that's where the two women turned up and we see another one put on the stretcher and taken into an ambulance to be further checked over. we heard that their husbands are still in captivity along with

220 others and they range all ages, babies to older people. shirley: and that is who israel wanted released first, young people and older people. in recent hours, hamas was willing, it was reported that hamas was willing to release dual nationals. that was the priority, 50 people we are talking about. this was extremely uneasy in israel society saying you release people according to health condition and age, one of the babies less than one-year-old. they are saying we don't want to be part of the selection of hostages by passports. today hamas released two israeli women based on their physical

condition, which could be good news. we never know, this could play in the way things move forward because the israelis said they wanted to press on with a ground operation and the americans said we want to negotiate first to bring aid into gaza. maybe this will change something and bring some sort of exchange, mediation. we know what hamas has been asking for and what the israelis have been willing to give. this may bring some kind of change. the identity of these hostages. anchor: we have a 79-year-old and an 85-year-old now safe, obviously a great piece of news for them. but clearly as we've been discussing, it is more complicated and more hostages are there and there is the issue of the ground invasion. joe biden apparently urging israel to wait, to try to have some sort of leverage, some sort

of negotiation or progress on releasing more. shirley: and perhaps more aid for the palestinians blocked south of the gaza strip because we know the humanitarian situation is extremely complicated with several hospitals not being functional anymore and a real risk for people who are being treated and also for newborns. they need fuel to activate the generators, otherwise they have no electricity, so lives are at stake. maybe the americans want to improve the situation, not to have a huge humanitarian catastrophe because they show support for israel and they don't want to see this happening. at the same time the israelis are divided, the army saying we need to press on with this operation and move forward and then we can stop the operation and move out, but the government is under pressure from the americans and we don't really know everything at stake. in israeli intervention on the

ground could lead to more violence with has a lot to the north, violence on the west bank. there is a lot unknown and all of the experts are thinking how to move on without too much damage or deaths. anchor: and limiting that is one of the key things joe biden has said from the start. emmanuel macron due to visit israel and the coming hours. please bear with me, how do israelis feel about this in general? are they split on the issue or unified saying there must be a ground invasion? what is the since you get? shirley: probably more united than ever because when you see the people who were targeted in the hamas attack, there are people leaning more to the left usually hostile to these massive operations and saying you should think about what the palestinians are going through, it is tough for them.

there are mainly civilians in the gaza strip. anchor: indeed, the two women released were campaigning for peace. they were making sure their voices were heard. shirley: and even the families have been saying some of them that we are for peace and we don't regret because this is not the fault of the civilians. still, the part of those people always on the left are saying now we are thinking and operation could be a solution because we cannot live in that part of the country if this goes on and if nothing is done against hamas, this could progress and all of israel could be attacked. even people leaning to the left and against these operations, they are gradually shifting, not all of them but part of them. anchor: i think you've hit the nail on the head that this is by hamas, some would say terrorists.

hamas is listed as a terrorist group. i think what they did comes under the umbrella of terrorism if you go through the details that are all documented. that is horrific, but it is the civilians as you pointed out, in the hospitals and hurt and the brunt for what this tight group of militants decided to do, that's one of the big tragedies, isn't it? shirley: yes, the question is what will happen? we understand, we heard an interview a few days ago saying civilians will be killed as they are in every war, that is extremely cynical, but israelis have to think about that as well for the future you can't just have a new generation of people traumatized by these airstrikes,

by the war, this creates new generations of people who will feel hatred and anger and that is a negative. that's why the international community wants to negotiate something to limit the number of deaths and find other solutions than the ground operation. anchor: thank you as ever for keeping up with all develop men's for us and bringing us analysis. we value that clarity. our reporter keeping up with all of this for us. great to see you. we continue to monitor the developments from the middle east. two women have been released, the second hostage release since last friday, two women freed this evening, aged 79 and 85. we are waiting to see and hear more from their circumstances. we saw that they look relatively well but it is hard to tell from the basic news footage.

just to remind you, today israel ramped up airstrikes in gaza into local health officials say the death toll is rising rapidly. gaza doctors say 436 people have been killed in the past 24 hours. israel pounding the highly populated territory. we have this. reporter: the dust still settling in gaza city, where is really airstrikes and shelling stretched into the early hours of monday. the number of bodies been carried out from what remains of residential buildings only continues to grow, despite the israeli military saying it is not targeting civilians. hundreds of thousands of gaza residents have tried to evacuate south no place in the besieged enclave is truly safe. the situation in southern gaza has forced civilians to return north and some of the targeted

areas are where palestinian civilians have been told to seek refuge, including hospitals. >> we are afraid for the lives of children. what is the fate of these children when we live in devastation and complete destruction? reporter: israel says it is stepped up its bombing campaign on gaza to reduce risk to its troops ahead of its widely expected ground offensive on the territory. israel's defense minister incenses -- insists the offensive is to destroy hamas, which he says could take months. anchor: emmanuel macron preparing to carry out a vital visit to israel. he has expressed concern that the war between israel and hamas could create divisions in france. thousands of people rallied in paris on sunday demanding an end to the israeli military operation in gaza following the hamas attack. the speaker of the national simply was visiting israel in solidarity and visited two of

the boats -- kibbutz attacked by hamas. for more, let's bring in our guest, a middle east specialist. we have news that two more hostages have been released, aged 79 and 85. can i get some reaction from you to this news? eberhard: of course, as usual we have to be extremely careful and that was said earlier. we are seeing very limited releases of hostages and we need to wait and see how this will unfold the next couple of hours and asked couple of days. anchor: moving onto emmanuel macron and his visit, what do you think the french president be hoping to achieve when he lands in tel aviv in the coming

hours? eberhard: i suppose like president biden earlier and numerous other european leaders, and not only europeans of course, he will try and show solidarity with israel. he will come to israel in support. he will also obviously try to reassure his domestic audience, and as you set a couple of minutes ago, france is divided on the issue. not everybody is of the same opinions and people support israel, others support palestinians, possibly not hamas but certainly palestinians. it is always a little bit like squaring the circle. he will have to reassure especially those in the country that fear the country is divided and it is bad for the country. it will be playing to the is really audience -- israeli

audience and various domestic audiences. i heard not long ago that he will, like president biden in a sense, try and argue in favor of a long-term negotiated settlement. now, i don't know whether he will say this or not, this is what we saw in the news earlier, but i think the entire question hanging over the visit like over other visits is to what extent indeed he can support those in the country who feel left alone in israel and yet bring them somehow to accept the issue in the end needs to be negotiated? maybe not with hamas but certainly with other palestinians. anchor: a message of caution perhaps, a message that things need to be somehow delayed in

order to perhaps facilitate more releases of hostages, hopefully a total release of hostages. eberhard: certainly. quite certainly he hopes and i don't know what has been done on the french side to bring about a solution for, say, french hostages, but certainly he will hope to be in israel at the right moment when possibly some french hostages will be released. that's obviously a major concern as well. ultimately i suppose the question is to what extent this visit, like others, will finally help to bring about -- maybe not today or tomorrow, and maybe only after military action -- another and more lasting solution? which everybody has over the last couple of years or even decades has neglected. anchor: indeed i imagine that's what everybody wants you

sometimes wonder what is going through the minds of the people who don't seem to want that. it is a complicated story. more hostages needing help, liberation and safety. two more released tonight. eberhard, thank you very much for joining us, we appreciate it. it is time for truth orphic, catalina has -- truth or fake, catalina is by the big board. we have one in a major newspaper targeting our observers team. catalina: this has been circulated since october 21,

shared over 1000 times on x. they were allegedly reporting that our team investigated and concluded the photos of burned babies shared by the israeli government on x were fake. a reminder to our viewers this is a tweet that the fake report is referring to the official account by the prime minister of israel where they show horrifying pictures of babies burned by hamas. they say they allegedly came to this conclusion after studying the metadata, 80% of burned bodies on twitter and the pictures shared by the prime minister were taken before october 2023.

that is for claim number one. in particular they say the photos of the burned babies were taken by special services in 2016 following the 2016 fires in northern israel. photos they say are now used by israel to show fake proof of atrocities committed by hamas. anchor: what are the elements we should be looking for to see the fakery about these claims? catalina: these type of fake reports, western type news is more and more characteristic of russian propaganda. you always have to look at the profile of the account sharing this fake information. the account sharing this fake report has every indication of being a bot.

it joined x in october 2023, just risen. -- just recently. following 53 people and has zero users following. little to no engagement. this user has no profile picture and it is important to check the name. names with numbers on them like these are actually automated accounts that never set the username. this account is highly suspicious. also look at the followers. you can see very similar to this user, no profile pictures and names of followed by five to six numbers. accounts with automated usernames. if we take a look at the account

activity, the only post it has is a fake report by le figaro, widely shared, but only eight comments. 1000 shares for eight comments, this is another indicator of highly suspicious activity indicating this is probably shared by bots. the comment section is important. this is where we found this first comment made by a le figaro journalist claiming this is fake, he also said don't trust any of -- only trust videos, text and pictures from verified accounts. anchor: x has become an epicenter for disinformation. is it fair to say elon musk has

not been doing enough to tackle this issue or am i being harsh? catalina: it's not only you. e.u. found x to have the highest amount of disinformation on all social media, following the attacks by hamas on israel. the eu found indications that x is being used to disseminate illegal content and information. they want elon musk to help fight disinformation. elon musk does not seem like he will comply with this petition anytime soon. on october 19, a report that elon musk is considering removing x from europe because of compliance laws. anchor: thank you for sorting out the truth and the fake. catalina with that session.

we have much more to come live from paris, stay with us. ♪

10/23/23 10/23/23 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> our near-term goals must be clear, immediate and sustained humanitarian aid for civilians in gaza, immediate conditional release of all hostages, and immediate and dedicated efforts to prevent spread of violence which is increasing the risk