big three carriers? it's true. plus, when you buy your first line of mobile, you get a second line free. there are no term contracts or line activation fees. and you can bring your own device. oh, and all on the most reliable 5g mobile network nationwide. wireless that works for you. it's not just possible. it's happening.

good to be with you, i'm katy tur. we just got our first hopeful news out of israel in two weeks. nbc news can now report hamas has released two american hostages, judith renan, and natalie ranan of evanston, illinois. who are in israel and on their way to see their family. joining us is nbc news foreign correspondent raf sanchez. what else did we learn? >> reporter: we have received official confirmation from the israeli government that judith and natalie are in israeli hands, they were released at the gaza border and they are now in the custody of the israeli military. they were released to a former israeli general, his name is brigadier galhersh, he is in charge of the hostage recovery effort on behalf of the israeli government. the israeli government says that the hostages were released at

the gaza border. they were received at the border and at the moment, they are on their way to a meeting point at a military base in the center of the country where their family members are waiting for them. so judith and natalie, you can see, katy, some of those iron dome missile interceptors, continuing behind me. a sign that even as these hostages are being released, this war continues. a sign that rockets are coming out of gaza. you can hear the booms, see the night sky being lit up. even with the good news, this fighting inside of gaza does continue. now, judith and natalie were taken on the morning of october 7th. they were visiting family in a kibbutz. it is less than a mile from the gaza border. they were on a mother-daughter trip from the united states to israel. they are relatives of our colleague and friend, martin

fletcher, nbc's former tel aviv bureau chief. this is a trip that they were excited about. they had been sending updates, and they had been visiting family there. there was a family birthday. i keep looking over my shoulder, katy, because we are hearing continuing booms from the israeli iron dome. they were taken on the morning of october 7th. their family had been waiting desperately for news of them. and then earlier tonight, the spokesman for the so-called military wing of hamas, he goes by the name abu obdeh, that is not his real name, put out a brief update there would be important news coming and seven minutes later, simultaneously in english and arabic, he said that two american citizens, a mother and a daughter, had been released. he frames this as a humanitarian gesture and a rebuke of the comments made by president biden when he was here in israel earlier this week. the president condemned hamas as

a terrorist organization. he spoke out very forcefully about the atrocities committed. this is obviously, katy, extremely good news for the ranan family. you can only image the joy at knowing that natalie and judith are home safe. it gives some hopes to the families of the other hostages. we should be clear, hamas continues to hold hundreds of people, civilians, children, elderly people, sick people inside of gaza and there is no commitment at this point that they plan to release all of the hostages. >> and we believe that more than 20 of them are kids under the age of 18. raf sanchez, thank you very much. joining us is ambassador mark regev. a former israeli ambassador to the uk. good to have you back. what more can you tell us about this release? do we know the condition of judith and natalie? are they okay physically?

>> well, since being released of course there will be thorough medical checks, but it's too early for me to give you any information. it is of course just breaking at this moment. they have just arrived back in israel after their ordeal in gaza, and i'm sure this is great news for their families. it's great news for them. and i think all of us in israel celebrate with them. >> it is the first good news we have been able to report since the beginning of all of this. is there an expectation this is the beginning of maybe a bigger release of hostages, maybe more women and children coming over the border, if not israeli citizens, maybe foreigners or duel passport holders. >> as your reporter said, hamas still caught holds over 200 hostages who were abducted and taken back to gaza on the bloody saturday morning two weeks ago.

hamas hasn't suddenly become humanitarian. they have not ceased to be a dangerous and brutal, and terrible terrorist organization that's capable of committing the most horrific acts of violence, the most vivid atrocities that we saw two weeks ago. they haven't changed. obviously they have done this for all sorts of reasons and i would say primarily they have done this because they're under immense pressure. military pressure and the international pressure of public opinion. they have been condemned widely. the american president has been leading the global community in stressing the nature of hamas. he's compared them to isis. their hostage taking has been condemned and rebukes across the planet. and they're under that pressure, and i think if we keep the military pressure up, the diplomatic pressure up, the public pressure up, maybe we'll get some more people out. >> was there a trade here? did israel release anybody from

its prisons, make any assurances? >> not at all. this is hamas coming to the will of the international community and the pressure from israel, and we'll keep the pressure up. hamas has to understand that it is meeting its end. israel will continue to strike a hamas. we will dismantle its machine, take apart its political structure, and there's going to be no change in that. and they must release all the hostages immediately and unconditionally. >> what can you tell us about how this came to be, how israel -- was israel in tough with hamas, through the qataris, how did these two hostages get released? >> there will be time to talk about that. it's not the right time yet. i can only tell you there was not a deal, and i can tell you that hamas is under amazing pressure. every day, we're striking at its

military machine, every day we're killing its people, and hamas understands that it has to play defense when there's all this pressure on it, and i think that's the reason for the release, and we're going to keep up the pressure. >> there are more than 200 hostages your country, israel, has confirmed, what do you know about the status of those hostages, the condition of those hostages? >> so very little, unfortunately. we know that most of them are still alive. that we do know, and we released a statement to that effect earlier today. we also know that there are, as you reported, 20 of them are under 18. some of them infants, babies. and the fact that hamas kidnapped children shows exactly, we can have no illusions about hamas, they are brutal, capable of horrific acts of violence. they beheaded people when they came into israel and attacked

us. they burned bodies alive. they killed children in front of their parents and parents in front of their children. we have no illusions whatsoever, about who we're dealing with here. and if they have released these two women, it's only because they're feeling they're in the corner, facing the brunt of israel's might and facing the rebuke and condemnation of the international community. and we have to keep up the pressure. >> i'm sorry for interrupting, when you say most of them are alive, do you have an idea of who? are the kids alive? are the babies alive? are those the ones? >> i'd like to be able to share that sort of information with you but i don't have it, and i apologize. we have received from the military that we know for a fact that over half of them are alive, more than 100. i would like to be able to share more information. i cannot at this stage. i would like to be able to tell you they're all alive.

unfortunately, i don't have that information. hamas has to release them all immediately and unconditionally. and i know everyone in america is very happy because they have apparently duel nationality, they're also american citizens, but everyone should be released irrespective of what passport they hold. >> i think everybody is hoping for everybody being returned. no one likes the idea of hostages whatsoever. when you are talking about the hope to get more of them out, you're saying repeatedly this is up to hamas to do it, there's not going to be any sort of trade. are there any discussions going on between intermediaries between israel and maybe the qataris to release more of them. are those discussions ongoing. is this the number one priority for israel? >> the release of the hostages is of course one of our, israel

will continue to make efforts to have the hostages released, and they must be released. but if you're asking me why hamas did what it did now and it's released these two women, it's because only because of the strong pressure, the forceful pressure that they have been under, and we have to keep that pressure up. and that's israeli military pressure, and that's the international pressure that's come from the united states and across the world, led my president joe biden, this strong condemnation of their behavior and the support they have given israel for our counter attack, and i think what hamas believes its back is up against the wall, and they're going to be on the receiving end, and more and more pressure, i think it's possible we're going to see more people coming out. >> were they released to the red cross in gaza? >> yes, that is my information. >> and do we know what role the red cross is playing among the

hostages now? have they been able to see any other hostages? >> i'm not aware of any such visits. so we publicly called earlier this week for such visits, and of course the red cross has not been able to visit the hostages. hamas, meaning in abducting these people has acted illegal and in not allowing the red cross to visit these people, it's doing so again. once again, we're dealing with a brutal terrorist organization, an organization that is capable of the most brutal violence. isis type violence. when the german chancellor was here earlier this week in israel, he, the german chancellor compared hamas to the nazis. these people, we have to have no illusions, and we have to fight them and defeat them, and that's the way we believe, keep the pressure up, and hopefully we'll get more of these hostages out.

>> ground incursion, what can you tell us about that? is that going to happen? is it going to happen soon? >> i can't go into timing. i can tell you israel is prepared. our soldiers are trained. they're ready for action, and we will go in when we believe it's the right time to go in. hamas has to understand that it's no longer business as usual. you attacked us, you massacred our people in the most brutal and atrocious way. we are responding and you will pay a price, and that pressure, i think, is crucial. and first of all, in getting the hostages out, and secondly, in ending the hamas reign of terror against us and their political dominance over the gaza strip, and just as the international community led by the united states defeated the territories in syria and iraq where isis ruled, we will defeat and end the rule of hamas in gaza. >> finally, ambassador, the president, president biden today

said that he believes aid will be getting into gaza through egypt within the next 24 to 48 hours. is that also the time line that the israelis are expecting as well? had you put any conditions on that aid? >> so i believe that's true. i'm cautiously optimistic that we'll see as early as tomorrow trucks going into gaza. we want to see the humanitarian aid, water, medicine, food, reach the civilian population, especially in the south, where you've had all of those people who have been relocated, who have left the north where we expect there to be heavy fighting. we support civilian aid. we don't want to see hamas steal the aid, we don't want to see the aid diverted to hamas's military machine, and that's something that the president has also articulated. there are different needs of the different parties. you know, egypt is involved. israel is involved. the united states is involved. the united nations is involved.

but i think we're getting close to understandings that tomorrow will be the day it's going to happen. we're going to have, i hope, 20 trucks of aid going to the gaza strip, and if we succeed tomorrow, that's the prototype or that's the beginning of much more in the future. but once again, the israeli position, and i can speak boldly and represent the american position, it's all of this aid must go to the people of gaza. it cannot go to the hamas military machine, and i say that because in the past, just in the past few days when oil tankers went in with fuel, which was supposed to fuel the generators of gaza's hospitals to make sure the hospitals have electricity, there is documented evidence that hamas stole that fuel and diverted it to its military machine. that's unacceptable. donations of aid to the ga sa strip and many people are being

very generous, including the united states, in support of the civilian population of gaza, but donations of support of aid have to go to the people of gaza. if they are stolen by the hamas terrorist organization for its own purposes, that is unacceptable, and that can endanger the whole effort to bring aid to the people of gaza. >> ambassador mark regev, thank you very much for joining us on this hopefully day. maybe the only hopeful day we have had so far. appreciate it. >> thanks very fg me. joining us now, senior fellow at the carnegie endowment for international peace, aaron david miller. what is your reaction to this news that two hostages were released, two americans? >> we have been in a long tunnel, and this is the first life. i can only imagine the trauma that judith and natalie have been through. it's an extraordinary

demonstration of cruelty and manipulation. i expect mark regev is probably correct that pressure is leading hamas to release these two, two americans, not two israelis. but i think propaganda is also dragging the hamas organization as well. they clearly are feeling the pressure. the notion that they'll sort of dribble out hostages is a cruel manipulation. and if it were true that this would prestige a larger release or the possibility of some sort of negotiation, it would be a better sign. i'm not sure that's the case. i only have one other point. the fact is that qataris, if they were, in fact, the

interlock tours for this trade does show they can produce something, and it may alter the israeli calculations about the timing of this ground campaign. maybe there are more pressure, notwithstanding, maybe there are more hostages that could be released as well, without a trade. >> yeah, i was wondering that, and that's why i asked the ambassador about it, but obviously they're not going to get into details of when those tanks might go in. let me ask you about what officials can learn from these two women, the mother and daughter, two americans, could they potentially learn anything about the other hostages and where they might be held? >> i mean, i'm sure the emotional, physical condition of judith. >> judith and natalie. >> judith and natalie, there will be an effort to made to,

again, consistent with their emotional and physical condition. >> of course. >> report as much information as possible. the red cross obviously was also involved, and there was some sort of handoff, had to be, between hamas officials and red cross before they transferred from the israelis. i'm not sure the red cross thinking of itself as a neutral observer will want to cooperate with this. but much may be learned from them as well. >> the fact that there are americans. there are other foreign passport holders that we believe are being held, french as well as british, why do you think they released two americans specifically? >> well, you know, the statement accompanied their release by the hamas spokesman, to counter the

statement made by president biden that hamas was a fascist organization a fascist administration, i think, was the term that was used. it's clearly an effort on the part of hamas to want to demonstrate that, in fact, their conflict is primarily with israelis. and to put a different sort of face on the organization. given what we witnessed on october 7th. the default position in terms of anything that they say or do has got to be evaluated in terms of the savagery, the barbarity, the indiscriminate killing that they perpetrated on israeli soldiers and civilians within a 24-hour period. so i think it perhaps is a message to the arab world. they have obviously succeeded to qatari's pressure, the financiers over the last several

years of cash infusions to hamas, with israeli acquiescence, i might add, in an effort to keep gaza available, and in a way, it was one of the cover stories, one of the reasons the israelis were not alerted to the fact that hamas had focused on an e external operation. qatari payments, i suspect were part of that ruse. >> do you think this is effective propaganda if it is such for hamas? >> certainly not going to move me, and it's not going to move the israelis or most americans. it will, however, have an impact in the region. on the part of many who believe that the savagery of october 7th

that hamas perpetrated has now been sort of countered with the brutality of the israeli blockade and punishing air strikes. anything hamas could do to soften its image and assign more responsibility to the israelis, get away from that image of a brutal, savage organization, probably plays better in the region. but i can't imagine it's going to be effective anywhere else. >> aaron david miller, thank you very much for joining us again today. again, some of the best fuse we've gotten so far, however limited. i appreciate it. we want to go to the white house. we're going to find allie raffa at the white house. i heard there's a statement from the white house. is this from the president himself. >> reporter: in just the last two minutes we received a statement from president biden on securing the release of two americans who were taken

hostages. it says quote, today we have secured the release of two americans taken hostage by hamas during the horrific terrorist assault against israel on october 7th. our fellow citizens have endured a terrible ordeal these past 14 days and i'm overjoyed that will be reunited with their family who has been racked with fear. these individuals and their family will have the full support of the u.s. government as they recover and we should respect their privacy at this moment. from the earliest moments of the attack, we have been working around the clock to free citizens taken hostage by hamas. we have not ceased our efforts to secure the release of those still being held. the government of qatar and israel for their partnership this this work. jill and i have been holding close in our hearts, the families of the unaccounted for americans. we won't stop until we get their loved ones home. i have no higher priority than the safety of americans held hostage around the world. that's the latest we have from

the president. of course we're still awaiting the briefing from the state department that was delayed in the wake of this breaking news. >> everybody holding their breath, hoping that, number one, they're okay. and number two, that they don't say or do anything that could imperil the release of more hostages if that is a possibility, or they can potentially get more of them out. thank you very much. joining us now, former nbc news tel aviv bureau chief, martin fletcher. this is your family, your wife's family that has been released. tell us everything you know so far. >> well, katy, first of all, obviously as you can imagine, a huge release. apparently they're on their way now to the gaza border to meet their relatives. the family is getting together. as a matter of fact, i just got a call from one of the family on the way there. i missed it. actually, she's calling now. anyway, so relief, joy.

and also unfortunately for her family, look at that beautiful young woman, natalie and her mother judith. >> martin, hold on, my friend. take that call. take that call, please. take the call. we'll come back to you in just a moment. >> get information on your family. martin fletcher. when you're ready just wave at the camera, and we'll come back to you. again, this is two members of our dear friend martin's family. his wife's family that were taken hostage. we found out about it yesterday, i believe, a couple, maybe 24 hours ago, and he joined my colleague stephanie ruhle a little bit later, and got, you know, understandably pretty emotional in that learning. israel is a very small country, and when we talk about how this affects that country, there's somebody -- everybody knows somebody who is affected in one way or another. they know someone who's family member was murdered. they know someone whose family

member was taken hostage. they know someone who has been called up into the reserves or they themselves have been called up into the reserves. it is very small. same thing goes for those in gaza. it is also a very small community, and palestinians who are living abroad also have been directly affected in one way or another by the situation in that region. so it is a tightly knit world out there, and one where the wounds can run really deep. aaron david miller is still with us as we wait for martin to get more information and to come back on to talk to us. aaron, thanks for sticking by. we appreciate it. that's part of the reason why this is such a difficult thing to cover as a reporter. it is part of the reason why it's difficult to untangle diplomatically, is that a lot of these wounds run so deep that everybody has an intimate story about something or other.

obviously this is i mean, what we have been talking about for two weeks is insane and awful and horrible, and it's only going to make it harder, i imagine, to come to a diplomatic solution to all of us. >> yeah, i don't think diplomacy, frankly is on anyone's mind right now. for the israelis, it's a cruel dilemma, on one hand they have a commitment to the 1,400 israelis, soldiers and civilians killed by hamas. and grieving hundreds of thousands of people who knew and loved them. on the other, they have a commitment to redeem the living, the hostages. and each one of those individuals represents a universe of possibility. and to have to make that decision, what do you choose? to have it all, to avenge and

preempt, not just avenge but to preempt by dealing with hamas to ensure that nothing like this ever happens again. on one hand, but their commitment, again, to the living, and the asymmetrical trades that israelis have engaged in with palestinians over the years. palestinian prisoners, one corporal, one of those palestinian prisoners released in 2011 happened to be sinwar, who is the planner and head military commander of hamas in gaza. that is a cruel and unforgiving set of choices. it's one of the reasons that it's extremely difficult to talk about the hostage situation.

we have so little information, and it's such a huge potential tragedy as the israelis weigh a ground operation, and once that ground operation begins, i suspect even though they may be better positioned, the israelis to identify where these hostages are located, it poses a central question whether any sort of negotiation or redemption of those individuals, the chance of redemption, are much less, so again, it's agonizing choice for a small country which is committed to redeeming its soldiers and civilians left behind on the battlefield. >> so we are still waiting for our cleaning and friend martin fletcher to finish up that call. as we wait, i want to ask you about hamas's motivation here. israel has promised to root them out.

we have heard a number of analysts say they're very serious about it, and it's going to be very difficult for most of the fighters to survive. i'm sorry, i have a terrible could have i have to keep trying to suppress. what is their goal right now? what motivates them to even keep the hostages at the moment, to keep them alive, number one, or to trade them period? >> i mean, i think the -- hamas clearly had objectives for this operation to reenergize the palestinian issue, to radicalize the region, which seems to be working and embarrass and put pressure on key arab regimes, but to kill indiscriminately, and to brutalize in an effort to demonstrate that israel should not only feel afraid, but helpless. that combination of fear and helplessness is what is so

terrifying, and what today, even now, you have hysterical stories, meaning they're not so hysterical of hamas gunmen loose in israel, and israelis concerned. i saw a report this morning that there have been a hundred thousand requests for firearms, and to get a firearm in israel is not easy. excruciatingly more difficult than buying a gun here. but that sense of insecurity, i think, is now pervasive. and if hamas wanted to inflict a blow on the israeli psyche, in those 24 hours, following october 7th. they succeeded. it will not undermine israel's capacity and its resilience, but their objectives were in many respects, focussed on creating a

sense of vulnerability, and inflicting the greatest terror attack in the history, on israel in the history of early conflict. >> getting a gun, you have to take a mental fitness test, a marksmanship test. my loss for words, and you got to retake them to make sure that you're still able to mentally hold a gun and also fire it competently. the state department will be holding a press briefing at 3:45 with secretary of state antony blinken. we are watching that room. we will go there once it begins. let us go back to former nbc news tel aviv bureau chief martin fletcher. what did you learn? >> katy, thank you for allowing me to take the phone call. so well, you know, i spoke to the cousin. at the moment, the mother soriah, and the mother tammy,

and the sister soriah are on the way to the border with gaza to meet judith and natalie. they haven't met them yet as far as we know, but they're on the way. it's going to happen any moment. the family was of course the friend, the cousin told me we're shocked, happy, it's unbelievable. we're celebrating. i said, how much are you drinking, and they said we're not celebrating too much yet because we don't know what condition their family members are in. are they hurt, they don't know so they're not celebrating yet, but they're getting ready to celebrate. they're certainly celebrating that they're alive and well. but the next step is going to be, there will probably be questions of course about their conditions by the secret service. they will try and get as much information that they can glean from them as possible about the conditions of the hostages and the conditions that they were in, but, you know, delight and

joy. the person i spoke to was a bit overwhelmed and said she's celebrating with friends and waiting to hear really the condition of judith and natalie. alive but how are they. that's the question. >> how long does it take to get from the gaza border to the center of the country? >> it's very close, it's about 40 miles. actually, depending on the traffic, and -- >> i don't think there's a lot of traffic right now. >> no, there will not be. especially because it's in the evening. basically it's about one hour from the tel aviv area. and from jerusalem, it's also about one hour. it's pretty quick. i mean, they should be there now. they're probably at this very moment with the family. they have been reunited, i would imagine. another phone call coming in from the same lady. let me just take it. >> no, no, you can definitely take it. we can hurry up another guest to speak to.

i don't want to get in between you and finding out about your loved ones, martin, thank you very much. let's go to former ambassador to egypt, thank you very much for joining us. your reaction to the news that two of the hostages were released. do you think that bodes well for the release of perhaps more? >> who knows. hamas is playing a psychological game here. you know, you indicated earlier it's propaganda. it certainly is. everybody else, we now have more than the families of more than 200 hostages wondering are their relatives next or not. it's kind of a selection process that we haven't seen since world war ii. i mean, the joy of having these two people released, particularly the joy in america that these were american hostages has to be tempered a bit by the fact that hamas is

playing a game with us, and it's a brutal, cruel, psychological game. >> the role of qatar here, what sort of conversations can you imagine that the leadership there have been having with the leadership of hamas? >> well, qatar, as you know, hosts the external hamas political leadership. and they therefore carry some weight. they also have sent millions of dollars through israel to gaza for hamas over the past years. so when qatar speaks, hamas needs to listen, and i'm sure there was a tremendous amount of pressure put on hamas to release these two hostages. my assumption is that qatar will continue doing that. whether or not they can be successful remains to be seen. they haven't yet found a way to moderate hamas's rhetoric.

there's a story out of saudi arabia, the former head of the political bureau gave a very nasty statement to saudi television that indicates no sense of understanding of how cruel and brutal what hamas has wreaked upon israelis and others. it's a mixed picture, happiness that two hostages are released. but we have a long way to go. >> what's your pulse on the region itself, and what might happen next? >> well, katy, the narrative has changed. the few days after october 7th, i think people in the region and governments in the region were shocked by the brutality of what they saw. as soon as israel started responding, narrative changed. the bombing in the hospital in gaza, which at least we're convinced that it was an errant

palestinian islamic jihad projectile was persuasive in the region that it was an israel attack, and you see what's happened. the region is burning. the streets are full of people. and that's putting a tremendous amount of pressure on governments, most of whom have no love for hamas, and they would love to see hamas just fade away. but they're now dealing with domestic strife of growing proportions. >> i want to go back to our friend martin fletcher, if you can hang around, we appreciate it. i understand if you can't, but if you can, please do. martin, i hear you are now off the phone, what can you tell us? >> well, katy, you know, not much more actually, but emphasizing how fluid and sensitive the situation s that was a call from somebody in the family who i have been llee, i

told you something sensitive, please don't say it on air, and i said don't worry, i understood that, and i didn't mention it on air, and don't worry about it because we're all getting information that can harm other people. this is all happening now, and so, you know, got to be careful. >> all of this is great news to see that two of them are out. but all of are us still very concerned about the others who are still being held hostage. 200, and the idf says more than 100 of them they believe are alive. 20 or so are under the age of 18. martin, stand by for us as well. we want to go to a friend of judith ranan, shabah rachelle golden. thank you for being with us. how are you doing right now? >> i am just, i got confused suddenly, and i forgot what i'm doing. but i'm just so happy.

this is the last thing i expected to hear today. >> what have you heard so far? do you know about her condition? do you know if she's okay? >> oh, i don't know if she's okay, but if i know judith, i know she's okay just because i know her. >> tell me. >> you know, she's a doer. i don't care so far, you know, what has ever gone or come her way, she's found a way. if it didn't work one way, she goes another way. she does not stop. >> are you in illinois or are you in israel right now? >> i'm in illinois. i'm near evanston, right near chicago. >> what's the reaction among the friend group, among the community? >> the rabbi are watching closely on israeli tv. he's israeli he was in the yom kippur war, our rabbi. he's watching on tv, and doesn't

want to talk right now. he just wants to hear it, and the people that i know, my community, i'm just getting text after text after text after text. oh, my gosh. thank god, and, you know, everything you can imagine that's good is happening right now. it's the most good i've ever seen. >> president biden said that it's the u.s.'s number one priority to get these american hostages out. he has been working on it. the administration has been working on it. i'm not sure if you were able to watch his speech last night, and i apologize, again, i keep trying to suppress a cough, but what was your reaction to the president's words yesterday? >> i tend to believe him. i do believe hostages are our priority. i also believe hostage situations are very complex, and there's all kinds of sides, not just two, and there's all kinds of transport, and there's all

kinds of everything that goes into releasing hostages, so being that his number one priority, i still didn't think it would be today. and i did believe him, though, that it is his number one priority, and i expect to hear more. >> thank you so much for joining us and we're so happy about this news, and i imagine the welcome they're going to get when they get home is going to be a pretty good one, a lot of really tight squeezes and hugs and kisses, and prayers answered. thank you very much for joining us. >> okay. thank you. martin, we're going to come back to you. obviously this is still a sensitive situation. there are still so many hostages that are left. what can you tell us about, i mean, in the past, israel has been so -- we've talked about this a lot -- so determined to get its hostages out. trading over a thousand prisoners for one israeli

soldier. is it your sense right now, given everything that's happened, that the hostages are still the number one priority or have they dropped down a notch as the government wants and tries to root out hamas? >> probably nobody would say this but they're the number two priority. it's clear. the first priority has to be to fulfill israel's war aims. the hostages are in the way. one of the guidelines of hamas instructions was kill the hostages who made trouble and bring the rest back as human shields. we know this is the plan. israel unfortunately cannot dictate its war effort based on saving some lives, when the larger picture is to save the country. so i think this is, you know, it's sad. but it's inevitable.

and certainly israel held by the united states, and look held by other countries to some extent, will be gathering intelligence to save lives, to save hostage lives. ultimately, where are these hostages, probably down a tunnel somewhere inside gaza. they're probably being looked after allegedly or whatever the phrase is you want to use, guarded by hamas fighters inside those tunnels. they are probably in groups of four or five all over the gaza strip. that's about 50 different places where hostages could be. there's no way the israeli intelligence is going to be able to find out where they are and tailor their war plans accordingly. so sad but inevitable will be loss of life, once the israeli invasion goes ahead, and right now, there's this short period of negotiations of the question, will more hostages be released? if so, will israel release their security prisoners, what's going

on now? will this take a day, a couple days, a week, will it delay the ground invasion. all of these questions but the bottom line is of course israel's priority is to save the hostages. the bigger priority is to punish hamas and make sure this kind of thing can never happen again. >> we're watching the room in the state department for the briefing to begin. we're going to go there when it begins. in talking about negotiations for hostages, do you believe that negotiations are happening? i mean, this from the account that is we've heard so far, officials, nothing was traded here. this was just a release by hamas. do you expect that israel would be willing to negotiate at all, give anything for the hostages give those prisoners, as you mentioned, maybe have a cease fire for an undetermined period of time, as hamas has said it wants for the hostages? >> yeah, well, i mean, on past

performance as we know, israel is willing to give up many many more times the numbers of its own palestinian prisoners to swap them for israeli prisoners. when israel released him, when hamas released shalid, a thousand prisoners. and i remember being in the northern border when the israeli hostages came back, soldiers in the 10, 15, no, 20 years ago, whenever it was, then the israelis released palestinian prisoners and, they just kept coming there was a line of people. a hundred people for one soldier. israel has a history of being able to release prisoners. not only soldiers that are alive, they swap prisoners for the corporations of dead

israelis. israel does not want to leave a man behind, a body behind, that's one reason of course this time hamas not only went back to gaza with live hostages but they took dead israeli corpses too. they know how israel feels about its bodies, they want to bring every last person home dead or alive, and that's one reason israeli soldiers go to war, they know they're going to be, the government will do everything for them. >> martin fletcher, thank you very much for joining us today. and we're so happy that your family members are out, and hopefully they're safe physically and mentally. i know they've gone through quite a journey. martin, thank you very much. >> thanks, katy. joining us now, nbc news senior executive editor for national security, david rhodes, i want to get your first reaction to today's news? >> i'm incredibly happy for martin and his family. it's a positive thing that hamas

has released two prisoners without anything in exchange. this is a cruel sort of business. i think they're trying to maybe buy goodwill with the u.s. government or the american public, but they still hold this, you know, staggering number of prisoners. >> david, i want to remind our audience, in case they don't know, but you were once held hostage. you have been in a situation like this in the past, so few of us have, thankfully, held by the taliban. what can you tell americans or people who are worried about those that are currently being held, what the experience is like, and, i mean, it's such a hard question, what they can do to survive? >> well, for the families it's particularly difficult. they have this sense that if they can just get to president biden or prime minister netanyahu they can get their loved one freed. kidnapping is a very cruel and cowardly crime, so the families aren't alone. sadly there's been a lot of

organizations in the u.s. and in israel that have worked with families in the past that have been in these kidnapping situations. they should look out for support. and then a lot of it just comes down to luck. these hostages are very valuable to hamas. they would prefer to exchange every one of them and get as many prisoners as they can. they will be safe in the short term. it's the long-term issue that becomes more difficult. >> i'm sorry, i didn't mean to interrupt. i want to ask about the region, all sorts of reporting today. we have seen the images of the protests and the arab street angry about what's happening and the changing of the reaction over the past two weeks from intense sympathy to israel to anger toward israel for what's happening in gaza. there's also a lot of reporting here in the united states about the elevated threat environment here. and abroad. a warning to all americans abroad to be vigilant, to stay safe or get out of certain

countries. and then just what are the conversations you're having with people who work in the intelligence world and the security world about everything that's happening? i mean, you have the middle east, you have china, russia and ukraine, north korea, it feels lick there's a lot going on right now. >> it does feel like there's a lot going on. in terms of this specific conflict we're hearing from national security officials, there's a lot of chatter. calls for groups in the middle east for people here to carry out attacks. there's been no discoveries of sort of large scale plots going on here in the u.s., and i guess i would urge people to sort of stay that there are -- it's a terrible situation for these hostages, a terrible situation right now for israelis, for palestinians. but right now in the united states, you know, so far the online noise has not resulted in any major terrorist plots being carried out.

there has been a rise here in new york in anti-semitic attacks on the jewish community. so far things have remained relatively peaceful in the u.s. we have to, again, be careful. but you know, it's a much worse situation on the ground in israel. >> what's your sense of the diplomatic tightrope that the u.s. is walking right now and latching itself so closely to israel but also cautioning israel against going overboard? >> it is a tightrope. it's a difficult strategy. i think the u.s. is trying to stand by israel. the biden administration demonstrated that in the trip that's happened and the moving of these two, the carriers, the aircraft carriers in the mediterranean. but what the united states does not want, and i don't think what israel wants is a wide regional war. hamas is trying to sort of drag the u.s. and israel into that kind of war, and the danger is that iran has hezbollah joining this conflict.

again, you're moving -- it's walk softly but carry a big stick. it's trying to limit this to gaza, to have back channel conversations with the iranians, and not have this explode into a much larger conflict that spans the middle east. >> thank you so much. joining us correspondent for "the times of israel" taal schneider. good to have you back. what do you know about how this came to be? >> you know, details are sketchy at the moment. we know that the notification came for the red cross, they crossed the border about an hour ago. we also know that the qatari government was involved, and the israeli government was involved. you know, family knew maybe short time before the rest of the public. we just got a note from the person in charge of releasing of these people inside the israeli government. his name is gal hersh. he went to the border to receive

them an hour ago. it went very, very quickly. we don't know much about their wellbeing and about their -- obviously about their physical or emotional state at the moment. everybody's just sitting tight, you know, looking for images, first images of their release and, you know, homecoming. i know their home is in chicago, but you know, they spent a week or several days in israel visiting relatives in the area, one of the kibbutz, a farming village next to the border. they were just visitors for the weekend. no intention of, you know, harming anyone. this is a really horrific situation because after those two amazing women, one of them is very young, you still have more than 200 kids and elderly and sick people, men, women, you know, they have over 30 people who are elderly, above the age

of 70, and you have about 30 kids. i mean, some of them are babies, toddlers, which is obviously really, really hard to listen to the news in israel these days. >> what is this news doing to the mood of israel? >> so it's difficult because as we all know hamas is playing with terroriing civil society demands, to let some people be afraid and concerned. and what we know from this event so far is that if you have an american citizenship, then you may be out, while most of the people that were kidnapped do not have an american citizenship or other french or -- or german citizenship. so i think it's like the hamas is playing this divide, you know, we will rescue the americans, what about rest of them? so every israeli who is watching

the tv understands fully well -- i mean, i'm very happy that those two women are out. don't get plea wrong. this is -- get me wrong. this is amazing news. i think the israeli government will be able to ask them a lot of questions and understand what's going on inside there. but of course, you know, it's -- it's devastating when you know that people who -- most of the people do not have dual citizenships, and what will be -- you know, with them. >> yeah. we had our correspondent raf sanchez on our air yesterday talking about the worry for an 8-year-old boy who needs his glasses, and the worry whether he has his glasses. so simple, and it's so familiar and so awful to consider that, you know, that an 8-year-old boy is being held hostage for something that he had no part in, no say in, you know. he's not voting, he's not in the reserve, he's an 8-year-old boy. all the other children that are involved in what's happening. so the israelis and so far what

we've heard from others is that there was no exchange for these two hostages. is that also what you're hearing in israel, or do you know of anything more about in your reporting of the conversations for the release of the other hostages, whether anything is even on the table for anyone else? >> key definitely heard from spokespeople half an hour ago saying that the intention is to release all captives as much as -- as federal government as they can. they said -- as federal government as they can. they said top priority. obviously it's conflicting the goal of the israeli government at the moment to finish off hamas. that's the declared goal, to just make sure that the terror organization doesn't exist as was done with isis a couple of years ago. this is the declared goal. how do you get to that goal when you have 200 people in the tunnels or underground area in

there. obviously we know by now that the 203, maybe now 201, are held by different organizations. you have the islamic jihad and the hamas. maybe they are held with some other minor groups, we don't even know that. so how could you -- how can you get your military in in order to combat the hamas to make sure that they don't continue their atrocities. and on the other hand, you save 201 people out from there. they keep saying in israel that things will continue in parallel, but everybody understands that's a huge risk for the safety of those people. and on other hand, we are under huge risk here -- i mean, we are being bombarded at all times both from lebanon and from the southern border, from gaza. 14 days in, the terror

organization still have huge amounts of rockets -- i mean, they keep saying they don't have water and food, but they do have still so many rockets. how come they don't have -- they don't provide food and water, but they have rockets being bombarded all over israel. and again, it's coming also from lebanon, from lebanon they say it's hamas people who sit in lebanon who are firing at us. so israel's -- the entire population, the entire region is in shelters from north to south. and people are being evacuated. so it's a big question, how do you proceed with a military plan -- as of now, military did not enter on foot on the ground. it's just air strikes. how do you continue from here when you can save people? >> so we're watching for the state department briefing. we got a two-minute warning about a minute ago. we'll go there in -- i apologize if i have to interrupt you. the iron dome, there's been questions about whether the iron dome can handle all of the rockets that are being fired at

it. what are you hearing about that? >> so we're hearing two additional iron dome, you know -- troops will be turned from the united states into israel. so there's two of the troops were provided to the united states couple of years ago. they've been tested. they will just be shipped over here. definitely you need supply of the intercepts, you know, the parts inside the iron dome that's can intercept the missiles. i mean, the americans are doing an amazing job yesterday in yemen with intercepting the houthis. it's like a long-range missile was coming into israel, on top of everything. they intercepted that. five missiles, i think. that's an amazing job on behalf of the american military. and there is other supplies coming in. i just saw a photo yesterday of armored vehicles, sort of jeeps,

and you know i think other ammunition is coming in. and i think the israeli people are looking at the americans with such admiration at this point of time because all of these amazing -- this amazing help, direct help and indirect help and releasing people, that's another help and assistance. so it's very helpful. >> tal schneider, thank you so much, of "the times of israel." the breaking news during our hour, judith and natalie raanan were released by hamas, two americans released by hamas now in israel. they're the only two hostages that have so far been released. they were just visiting a kibbutz. they are not israeli citizens. just american citizens. we're waiting on the state department. it should start any moment now. while we wait, let me toss it to "deadline white house" which starts right now. hi there, everyone.