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It was a day of joy, sorrow and diplomatic drama in the Middle East. Chief reporter Dan Boffey was in “hostages square” in Tel Aviv as the final hostages who were kidnapped on 7 October were released. As news broke out that the first seven hostages were safe, cheers erupted throughout the crowd.
Boffey tells Lucy Hough about the final hostages and what their release means to people. One person in the square told him: “Israel is a place where Jews are meant to be safe, and if these people didn’t come home, then what is the point of Israel?”
Trump had flown into Israel to give a speech at the Israeli parliament, the Knesset. There he was lauded by Benjamin Netanyahu and cheered by the crowds in hostages square. International security correspondent Jason Burke says: “It’s pretty clear that nothing would have happened in the last few weeks had Trump not really decided it was going to happen and was going lean very heavily on Netanyahu.” He tells Hough about the talks in Egypt that Trump continued on to and why so many world leaders had amassed there.
Reporter Will Christou, meanwhile, was in Ramallah in the West Bank, with families waiting for loved ones to be released from Israeli prisons. He explains the joy there was mixed with sorrow, however, as some who expected family members to be released were told they were being sent to Gaza instead. For many, however, the ceasefire at least allowed a break in the suffering of the last two years. “I think people appreciate the chance to breathe, and they’ve needed that over the past two years,” he says.
English (US) ·