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00:00I just got an official notification from the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
00:05that these three names, the three Israeli hostages, the British-Israeli citizen Emily
00:11Damari and two other civilians, Romi Gonen and Doron Steinbrecher, are all slated to
00:18be released later today.
00:20We don't yet have an updated schedule, so the ceasefire is not yet in place.
00:27We're sort of, I would say, ceasefire, but a few hours delayed.
00:32I think we should expect to have further notification about that within the next two or three hours
00:36at most.
00:37Right.
00:38And the national security minister, Ben Givier, resigned along with two other ministers from
00:42his party in opposition to the ceasefire.
00:45This is a major fracture within Israel's government.
00:50This is a very major fracture within the Israeli government.
00:54Despite the fact that this won't topple Netanyahu, it is a blow to him.
00:59It does weaken him.
01:00The other thing that's important to mention, Ben Givier is the most kind of extremist nationalist.
01:07He's been an extremely prominent provocateur since this government came into being two
01:13years ago.
01:14He was one of the proponents of returning to war, of rejecting the ceasefire.
01:19He has been overtly, overtly rejecting of any claims that Israel had any obligation
01:25to bring its civilian and military hostages home.
01:30And so Netanyahu is now, we see him and his other ministers trying to kind of patch things
01:36up by releasing messages indicating that Israel still may return to war, and they're trying
01:41to shore up popularity among that extremist right-wing base in Israel.
01:47And Noga, lastly, what is the general sentiment of Israelis at the moment?
01:50I mean, it must be a very anxious time for everyone involved, but also the Israeli citizens.
01:59Extremely anxious, extremely nerve-wracked.
02:02Last night, the entire France 24 team was at Hostages Square, and the feeling was really
02:08remarkably one of loss, a very somber feeling.
02:12And today has been a day filled with confusion.
02:15Until we heard just now from the office of the prime minister, in fact, the only thing
02:20we knew is that the list hadn't been arrived, that was announced by the Israeli army.
02:23And other than that, Israelis have been completely dependent on rumors and news coming out of
02:29Qatar, out of Doha.
02:31So I think now, again, there's a feeling of anticipation that hopefully things will go
02:37well and these three women will be seen alive in Israel sometime later today.
02:43But a lot will depend on seeing actually that process occur smoothly, as smoothly as possible.