aviv ezra, civilians, as i mentioned. aviv ezra. acting — civilians, as i mentioned.neral i civilians, as i mentioned. aviv ezra, acting consul general of israel in new york, thank you forjoining us.— forjoining us. thank you for havin: forjoining us. thank you for having me- _ well, for the families of the hostages released on friday, there were reunions like this. a 9—year—old israeli boy, his mother and grandmother — all now free. and in the west bank, 17—year—old palestinianjamal barameh celebrated his release from an israeli jail. here's what he told reporters there. take sot) translation: i can't even describe myjoy, we were released at five in the morning but we did not know why till now, we were told there was a prisoner swap deal, may all the prisoners be released soon. ~ , ., all the prisoners be released soon. ~ ,, ., , all the prisoners be released soon. ~ , ., . , yes, soon. were you assaulted? yes, every day _ soon. were you assaulted? yes, every day we _ soon. were you assaulted? yes, every day we were _ soon. were you assaulted? yes, every day we were

israel's acting consul gerneral join us, aviv ezra. what is the latest on this command center and parts of media want to blame israel? >> thanks for having me, al-shifa hospital represents what is happening in the gaza strip. we have hamas, vicious terrorist organization hiding in a hospital like they are hiding in hospitals, school, kindergartens, shooting at israeli forces coming in and complaining israel is shooting back. we have verified and shared evidence with the media that we know hamas is running their command and control center from beneath the hospital and have weapon depots there. use these attacks against israel. this was independently verified by the white house saying clearly what hamas is doing is a war crime, what hamas is doing is unacceptable and israel has right by international law to defend itself and shoot back when attacked, even from a location like a hospital. will lose immunity if it attacks forces coming in. it was verified by the white house that independently verified it. >> trey: let me ask you something

trey: aviv ezra thank you for joining us, on what is likely to be a protracted battle in gaza we lookorward to having you back at some point. >> president biden and chinese president xi jinping gathered for a summit outside of grand to quote help th friendly ties between the two countries. it is hard to reconcile friendly ties with spy balloons. china may give the u.s. more panda bears. probably a good idea to check the panda bears for listening devices. joining us now house foreign affairs commity chair, texas congressman michael call. two world super powers need to talk, but what do you make of what was accomplish ed, if anything at this meeting. >> i think that military to military communication was important that is with admiral a. >> is' problem, they dean have a minister of defense in china, he has disappeared under chairman xi 's reign, that calls into question whether you can trust china. i am skeptical they removed institute of forensic science from our entity's list, our sanction list, they take biometrics and genetic information from uighur muslims and transport them to for

maya, you just heard what consulate general aviv ezra just said. any reaction to that news of this deal and anything you may have just heard? >> i think aviv spoke very eloquently. i think, you know, my family like all the other families is going to go through a terrible week. we don't know if my cousin is going to be amongst those released in this round. and as it seems, worked on to have to wait and see every day who are going to be released the following day. and that's going to be extremely hard. already, we see it's causing a lot of tensions among the different families and it's going to be hard. at the same time, you know, without any cynicism, i am proud of my government. i think this is a good deal. this is what we wanted for our loved ones to start coming back. and you see, as israel keeps saying what is important for us, it is life and live in. we are willing to exchange more people and to get your people back, to give the cease-fire. because the one thing that's important as here is to get the hostages back and me and my family kept fait

joining me now to discuss is israeli consul general aviv ezra. great to have you here. tonight we are told by sources that the israeli war cabinet met to talk about the idea of extending this temporary pause that we've seen in the fighting so this hostage deal could be facilitated. for the first time we're hearing hamas say they are in favor of extending that pause. do you believe that israel is on the verge of doing so? >> thank you for having me on your show, kaitlan. this is definitely a roller coaster, emotional roller coaster, bittersweet days we're dealing with. we're coping with our first number one goal, which is actually to bring back the hostages. you see the dog tag i'm wearing, with the promise to take it off only when all 240 are back home. you've seen the reunions with the families, . stories of return of mothers without children, children without mothers, with all the atrocities. to your question, we are going to continue focusing on that effort, which is to bring all of the hostages back. the mechanism that was built, four days originally and then an add

caitrÍona:carÍona: we will have to leave it there, aviv ezra, acting consul for israel in new york.ers have asked joe biden to provide more funding. secretary blinken and secretary lloyd austin testified and pushed for biden's request for $106 billion to fund support for ukraine, israel and the u.s. border security. stealing a lot of the attention however were antiwar protesters who interrupted secretary blinken and called for a cease-fire in gaza. standing up one by one, the protesters waited for mr. blinken to begin before shouting over him again. police said 12 people have been arrested. the antiwar group code pink acknowledged some of its members were arrested. secretary blinken meanwhile did not respond directly to protesters, but when asked later about the possibility of cease-fire, he said that would only help hamas to regroup. the biden administration argues supporting u.s. partners is vital to national security and is asking for the $100 billion plus package to include $60 billion plus for the ukraine. for the middle east, biden asked for 14.3 billion dollars for israel's m

we also heard from aviv ezra, acting consul general of israel in new york, speaking again to catrionalitres of fuel into gaza every two days, the un has described this as barely a drop in the bucket of what it needs would israel be minded to perhaps increase the amount of fuel to further ease the humanitarian crisis in gaza? thank you very much for having me. 100% this is exactly the difference between israel and hamas, we are always focusing on how to do the right thing in terms of humanitarian aid, we have opened the border, we have humanitarian aid, and there are hundreds and hundreds of trucks that are convoys coming in, and due to the united states our main push will be to... the reason we do not have the fuel is hamas used to steal them, and they utilise them and took them for the hospitals, their war machine which does not make sense. fisid war machine which does not make sense. �* . . , war machine which does not make sense. ~ . . , ., sense. aid agencies have said this amount _ sense. aid agencies have said this amount i _ sense. aid agencies have said this amount i feel— sens

david: aviv ezra, thank you for joining us. alex hogan joins us live from jerusalem. and i'm wondering if we have been able to confirm it independently at all? >> hi, david, yes, there's a statement from hamas officials saying they're delaying the start of the release of these hostages citing, they claim that israel is not abiding by the conditions of the cease-fire. what they mean by that, they're arguing that there are simply not enough aid that's flowing into gaza to give relief to more than a million people displaced. we know within southern gaza there's a flow throughout gaza. three quarters of more than two million population are out of their homes because of the fighting. hamas has not given clarity as to specifically how long the delay could take place, but that's what they're citing right now, there needs to be more humanitarian aid sent in in order for the the release of the hostages. we had heard earlier this hour from officials in egypt they have started to see hamas bring the hostages, start to transfer them to the red cross. obviously, that's all been ha