Speaker 1: From The Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey.
Speaker 1: It's Tuesday, October fourteen, twenty twenty five, two years and
Speaker 1: seven days since the horror of the October seven Hamas
Speaker 1: massacre in southern Israel. The last living Israeli hostages are free, starved, abused,
Speaker 1: held in tunnels and tormented by the terror group. The
Speaker 1: twenty hostages freed include two soldiers and several men seized
Speaker 1: from private homes in kibbutz communities, as well as revelers
Speaker 1: from the Nova music festival and security guards who were
Speaker 1: working at the dance party. Israel has also released nearly
Speaker 1: two thousand Palestinians from prison, to scenes of wild celebrations
Speaker 1: in the gazen city of Carnunis. More on that story
Speaker 1: in a moment, and of course you can follow the
Speaker 1: latest at the Australian Dot. In other news today, a
Speaker 1: huge back down by Treasurer Jim Chalmers on his plan
Speaker 1: to tax unrealized capital gains on superannuation balances over three
Speaker 1: million dollars. Chalmers has dramatically scaled back the plan, but
Speaker 1: says he hasn't been forced to back down by the
Speaker 1: Prime Minister Today, the view from the Middle East with
Speaker 1: our correspondence on the ground, after seven hundred and thirty
Speaker 1: seven days freedom on a glorious clear skies morning, in
Speaker 1: a tiny slip of land which has known so much heartbreak.
Speaker 1: Our reporter Liam Mendez was on the ground as Israelis
Speaker 1: finally saw the pictures that mark the end of a
Speaker 1: living hell. You can barely hear Liam over the celebrations
Speaker 1: in Hostages Square in a sea of blue and white
Speaker 1: Israeli flags. The last twenty living hostages held by Hamas
Speaker 1: since October seven, twenty twenty three are all men civilians,
Speaker 1: mainly two soldiers, security guards, fathers, twin brothers, boyfriend's sons.
Speaker 2: The first thing Hamas did was connect these young men
Speaker 2: with their families via video calls, which really speaks to
Speaker 2: the surreal nature of this conflict. And so we just
Speaker 2: see some of these young men appearing on FaceTime calls
Speaker 2: with their families and speaking to them for the first
Speaker 2: time in two years, in some cases, often with our
Speaker 2: Hamas captor standing masked in the background, watching on listening
Speaker 2: to these interviews.
Speaker 3: JOHNI.
Speaker 1: Bashan has been reporting on the ground for Israel and
Speaker 1: Gaza since the war began two years ago.
Speaker 2: But in all cases these hostages, they've been underground for
Speaker 2: the past two years, so they appeared as you would expect, pale, gaunt,
Speaker 2: mountain nourished. They looked in some cases like they did
Speaker 2: in the proof of life videos that have been released
Speaker 2: over the past twelve to twenty four months. Their voices
Speaker 2: sounded surprisingly strong, but they're obviously experiencing a very happy
Speaker 2: occasion to be ending their nightmare in Gaza, so they
Speaker 2: did sound good. We know that some people in the
Speaker 2: second group appeared to be in quite a die away
Speaker 2: when we saw them in their proof of life videos,
Speaker 2: appearing skeletal, emaciated, in one case dicking his own grave
Speaker 2: in a tunnel.
Speaker 1: The hostages were released first to the Red Cross in Gaza,
Speaker 1: then driven across the border to Israel's m military base,
Speaker 1: where they were reunited with their families, and then medically
Speaker 1: assist before being airlifted north. So who are the hostages
Speaker 1: who are now free at last? On October seven, twenty
Speaker 1: twenty three, Matana Ungrest was a fit young Israeli doing
Speaker 1: his compulsory military service when Hermas took him prisoner. You
Speaker 1: can see in a stomach churning video his limp body
Speaker 1: being held by her MASS fighters, then tumbling from the
Speaker 1: top of a tank as men surround him. Five hundred
Speaker 1: days later, her Mass released video of an exhausted looking Angrest,
Speaker 1: saying he was losing hope.
Speaker 3: Shalom klimly Matan angrest oktobers Ungrest was one of only
Speaker 3: two soldiers still alive in her master's custody.
Speaker 1: The other is another young man, Nimrod Khan, who was
Speaker 1: captured when his tank caught fire in southern Israel. Islamik Jihad,
Speaker 1: which was holding security guard Rom Breslovski, forced him to
Speaker 1: record a video showing his emaciated body. In the video,
Speaker 1: Breslovski said he couldn't walk and begged for more food.
Speaker 1: One of the most distressing videos her Mass released showed
Speaker 1: Evata David in a tunnel looking like a skeleton, digging
Speaker 1: his own grave.
Speaker 3: A social shash Demisler sagging me all.
Speaker 1: David was with his friend Guy Gilboa Delao at the
Speaker 1: Nova dance party, a bunch of free spirited kids gathered
Speaker 1: in southern Israel. Two of their friends were murdered at
Speaker 1: the party. A previously freed hostage has described Guy and
Speaker 1: Evatar enduring malnutrition and torture. They were reportedly forced to
Speaker 1: sit facing a wall with black bags over their heads
Speaker 1: for long periods of time. Still to return are the
Speaker 1: corpses of remaining hostages who've died in the world's darkest places.
Speaker 1: They include an eighty five year old man abducted from
Speaker 1: his kibbutz and a twenty seven year old woman in
Speaker 1: Bar Hayman, abducted from the Nova festival and killed in captivity.
Speaker 1: There's an African student, a Thai farm worker, and a
Speaker 1: taxi driver, all seized by HAMAS during their rampage.
Speaker 2: What complicates this matter logistically is that HAMAS doesn't hold
Speaker 2: all of the bodies of the captives. There are other
Speaker 2: factions in Gaza and they have custody of some of
Speaker 2: these bodies. And we also know, because FAMAS has made
Speaker 2: this point several times, that some of the dead captives
Speaker 2: are hidden under rubble or they're located in areas that
Speaker 2: are particularly difficult to reach, just because of the circumstances
Speaker 2: of the war. But so this is an operation that
Speaker 2: is being coordinated by a number of different parties. It
Speaker 2: does involve from US, of course, but it also involves
Speaker 2: members of Palestinian Islamic she Had. They've been holding captives
Speaker 2: this entire time, and obviously you've seen some differences in
Speaker 2: the treatment between some of the captives between the two groups.
Speaker 2: Those who've spent time in Hamas captivity have often reported
Speaker 2: slightly better conditions. Those who've spent time in Palestinian Islamic
Speaker 2: she Had captivity very different conditions. So the time that
Speaker 2: one spent in Gaza as a hostage really depended on
Speaker 2: who they were being held by, whereabouts, and at what
Speaker 2: point in time they were being held.
Speaker 1: Israel held up its end of the deal, releasing more
Speaker 1: than nineteen hundred Palestinian prisoners. That includes seventeen hundred Palestinians
Speaker 1: detained in Gaza during the war and another two hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty prisoners serving life sentences in Israeli prisons.
Speaker 2: They belonged to Kamas, they also belonged to Palestinian islamicis
Speaker 2: he Had, and they also belonged to the secular Palestinian
Speaker 2: nationalist group concentrated in the West Bank called Fattah. One
Speaker 2: of the people being released, if I could combde you
Speaker 2: with a case study, is a man by the name
Speaker 2: of Ziad Ahwad, and he was originally released in twenty
Speaker 2: eleven under the deal to free Corporal Gilad Shalit. That
Speaker 2: was an Israeli soldier that was taken hostage by Hamas,
Speaker 2: kept in captivity for five years, and when he was released,
Speaker 2: there were more than a thousand Palestinian prisoners was swapped
Speaker 2: for his life, and one of them was this man
Speaker 2: named Ziad Ahwad, and he'd been in prison for allegedly
Speaker 2: murdering a number of so called collaborators with Israeli authority.
Speaker 2: So these were Palistinians who had been killed. And after
Speaker 2: he was released three years later, he took up a
Speaker 2: position on a roadside approaching the town of Hebron. He
Speaker 2: armed himself with an assault rifle and he waited for
Speaker 2: a passing car, and that passing car happened to belong
Speaker 2: to the Mizrachi family. He opened fire on the car
Speaker 2: and shot a number of bullets into it, instantly killing
Speaker 2: the driver, Baruch Misrachi, and injuring quite badly his pregnant wife.
Speaker 2: Her name is Hadas, and we spoke to her over
Speaker 2: the weekend.
Speaker 4: My husband, Bach Mislachi was murdered in Revron in two
Speaker 4: thy fourteen. Now the terrorists, the father and his son
Speaker 4: who murdered my husband, we're getting released.
Speaker 2: Everyone in Israel is elated with the arrival of the
Speaker 2: hostages back in Israel, but there's a steep price to
Speaker 2: pay for some Israelis in order to bring them home.
Speaker 2: And Hadas Misrahi is one of those people. And what
Speaker 2: she said to me was essentially, there is a great
Speaker 2: deal of happiness the hostages, an enormous amount of happiness,
Speaker 2: but fur there is a sense of betrayal, and there
Speaker 2: is a sense of sadness. And it hurts a lot
Speaker 2: to know that just ten years ago the man who
Speaker 2: took her husband's life was given a life sentence for
Speaker 2: the crime. He's supposed to be serving life. And in
Speaker 2: Australia we know life as being life in jail. But
Speaker 2: here in Israel there's a slightly different calculus with people
Speaker 2: who are in prison for terrorism. And it's because they
Speaker 2: know that if they waited out long enough, they can
Speaker 2: envision the situation in which hostages are taken held by
Speaker 2: a terrorist group and then bartered for their release. And
Speaker 2: that appears to be quite sadly and cynically. What's happened
Speaker 2: in this case.
Speaker 1: Those life sentence prisoners have been told they'll be exiled
Speaker 1: from the West Bank and will be taken to Egypt.
Speaker 1: Their families also claim they've been threatened by Israeli officials
Speaker 1: not to publicly celebrate the releases or host family parties
Speaker 1: coming up. Donald Trump addresses the Kanesset. Donald Trump addressed
Speaker 1: Israel's parliament, the Kanesset, on Monday night, before traveling to
Speaker 1: Egypt for a peace summit co convened with Egyptian President
Speaker 1: Abdel Fatah LCC. The topic how to turn the ceasefire
Speaker 1: into a lasting peace.
Speaker 5: The hostages are back. The hostages are back. It is
Speaker 5: a good feeling. That nice to say. Peace through strength,
Speaker 5: and that's what it's all about. The United States has
Speaker 5: the greatest and most powerful military in the right now
Speaker 5: history of the world. I can tell you we have
Speaker 5: weapons that nobody has ever dreamt of. They only hope
Speaker 5: we never have to use them. For so many families
Speaker 5: across this land, it has been years since you've known
Speaker 5: a single day of true peace.
Speaker 3: But now, at.
Speaker 5: Last, not only for Israelis, but also for Palestinians and
Speaker 5: for many others, the long and painful nightmare is finally over.
Speaker 1: Even before Donald Trump boarded Air Force One, he kept
Speaker 1: saying that the war is over. It's absolutely over. This
Speaker 1: is yet, and he's very confident that Hamas is going
Speaker 1: to disarm. Not confident. Do you think Israelis feel about that?
Speaker 2: What certainly a remark that's being made by some of
Speaker 2: the hostage families and some of the people who've gathered
Speaker 2: at Hostage Square. And I think it's partly motivated by
Speaker 2: not just optimism, but a great deal of hope. I
Speaker 2: think everyone in Israel really wants the war to be over.
Speaker 2: And I'm sure there are plenty of people in Gaza
Speaker 2: who want the water web ended, and plenty of people
Speaker 2: around the world feel the same way. But there are
Speaker 2: a couple of realities that need to come into effect
Speaker 2: for the water to truly be over, and key amongst
Speaker 2: them is that Hamas needs to lay down its arms
Speaker 2: and its leaders need to go into exile. And on
Speaker 2: its face, they appear to have committed to do that,
Speaker 2: But where only the first phase of this deal, And
Speaker 2: the first phase really was to get the hostages, all
Speaker 2: forty eight of them alive and dead, out of Gaza.
Speaker 2: The next phase of that is going to be the
Speaker 2: real test for Hamas to see if it really does disarm,
Speaker 2: and if it does so, then the expectation is that
Speaker 2: the Israeli defense forces will pull out of Ghazan territory
Speaker 2: entirely or almost entirely, and it will create an opportunity
Speaker 2: for the Palestinian population there to rebuild their lives, to
Speaker 2: be done with the tunnels, and for some kind of
Speaker 2: civil authority to come in and rebuild the territory and
Speaker 2: improve their lives and create a circumstance of flourishing for them.
Speaker 2: But all of that is contingent on whether Kamas does
Speaker 2: actually disarm, and that remains to be soon.
Speaker 1: Joanni Vashan and Liam Mendez are in the Middle East
Speaker 1: for The Australian. You can check out their reporting and
Speaker 1: all our coverage right now at the Australian dot com
Speaker 1: dot au