Global News Podcast - Three Israeli hostages 'stable' after being freed

Episode Date: January 20, 2025

The first three Israeli hostages freed by Hamas under the Gaza ceasefire deal have reunited with their families in hospital in Tel Aviv. Also: TikTok restores service in US after Trump pledge.

This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Nick Miles. And in the early hours of Monday, the 20th of January, these are our main stories. The first three Israeli hostages released by Hamas as part of a ceasefire deal have been reunited with their families in Israel. And a short time later, Romy, Dohon and Emily, an entire nation embraces you, he said. Welcome home.

A video message from the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. Meanwhile, in the occupied West Bank, crowds have gathered outside of a prison to see the first 90 Palestinian prisoners freed in exchange for the three Israelis. And a ceasefire deal has allowed more aid into Gaza, as many displaced people there return to what's left of their homes. Massive, indescribable destruction, unlike anything history has ever witnessed before.

But God willing, we will rebuild and live. We hear from our Gaza correspondent. Also in this podcast, in other news, TikTok has been restored in the United States after Donald Trump said he would allow the app to return. There were many false starts in the efforts to bring an end to the conflict in Gaza, but on Sunday, the latest diplomatic push came to fruition. After 15 months in captivity, three Israeli hostages were released by Hamas in Gaza. That was the moment the family of Romi Gonen, one of the women released, heard the news. Her father jumps in the air before breaking down in tears with his face in his hands.

In Tel Aviv, the hostage releases were met with huge cheers by Israelis watching the news on a large public screen. Our correspondent Anna Foster was also there. It's not officially called Hostages Square in Tel Aviv. It's the square outside the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, but it is a place that has become synonymous with the Israeli hostages in the 470 days since they were taken and you can hear the very loud music that's being played. Many people have got their phone torches in the air, they're joining in, they're singing with this music. The volume has really been turned up and that has coincided with the announcement from the

IDF, the Israel Defense Forces, that those three hostages have been handed across. Anna Foster. The Israeli hostages crossed the border into Israel before being reunited with their mothers. They were then taken by helicopter to the Sheba Hospital on the outskirts of Tel Aviv. Our Middle East correspondent Lucy Williamson watched the scenes unfolding at the medical complex. Outside Israel's Sheba Hospital, a small crowd gathered to welcome the hostages home. One patient had wheeled out her IV drip to stand in the evening darkness and watch the convoy pass. drip to stand in the evening darkness and watch the convoy pass. The vehicles disappeared swiftly into a screened-off area around the entrance, a gesture of

privacy to women who've spent the past 470 days in captivity. Inside, the long awaited reunion with their families. Well, Jonah Fisher was also at the Sheba Hospital and saw the arrival of a helicopter with the three young women on board. There are clearly physical injuries which are already being addressed. We saw Emily Demary, the British Israeli national, with bandages on one hand. We know that she was shot as she was taken by Hamas on October 7th, 2023 and it appears that almost immediately that she came out of Gaza that was addressed by medics down there. We also know that Romy has most likely got injuries which need to be addressed but in terms of their general health all three of them were walking and they seemed clearly in buoyant moods

in terms of what this means for them psychologically and there will be psychologists here available to them to work with them they will have to begin to try and address and to work through the trauma that they will no doubt experienced over the last 15 months being held captive in Gaza, possibly in tunnels, being hidden away. We don't know yet how they've been treated by their Hamas captors, but from the accounts of other hostages, perhaps not very well. They may have, and almost certainly have had, a miserable time for that period in captivity.

So there will be physical and psychological things that will be being addressed. This is a huge hospital, one of the biggest in the Middle East, so they will have all the specialists that they need on hand to start the process of coming to terms with what's happened to them. Later on, doctors at the hospital gave this update about their new patients. I'm happy to report that they are in stable condition. We will continue to monitor their clinical condition. This will take a few more days until we complete all the examinations that are needed.

We implore you to respect their privacy and dignity. The Ministry of Health and the personnel of the Israeli health care system are elated and we are doing everything we possible can to give them comprehensive, personalised and compassionate care. We hope from the bottom of our hearts to see all the captives come home. Dr Sefi Mendelovic and Professor Itai Pesac talking there. President Biden has welcomed the ceasefire in Gaza saying the Middle East had been fundamentally transformed. This deal has been not easy

at all on a long road but we've reached this point today because of the pressure Israel built on a mosque backed by the United States. Some said my policy of a firm support for Israel is relentlessly pursuing diplomacy, risk drawing America into a wider war in the region. I listened to those voices, many of whom I respected a great deal, but I concluded abandoning the course I was on would not have led us to the ceasefire we're seeing today. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, said a return to Palestinian governance was needed in Gaza. In a phone call with the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, Mr Macron said a return to Palestinian governance was needed in Gaza. In a phone

call with the Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, Mr. Macron said this should fully include the Palestinian Authority. Now the release of the Israeli hostages is part of a deal between Hamas and the Israeli government which includes a six-week ceasefire and the release of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. As we record this podcast, crowds have been gathering outside of her prison in the occupied West Bank, ahead of the expected release of 90 Palestinian prisoners, most of whom are women. Many of the prisoners have not seen their families for years. John Donnison is in Betunia in the West Bank.

Those families waiting to see this morning whether the names of their relatives were on the list of the 90 Palestinian prisoners who will be released. They are mostly the vast majority women. There's also some children and a small number of men. Now, they're being held just a couple of kilometres down the road from where I am here in Betounia. They're being held in off a prison. And the people here behind me, you can see them, large crowd, all waving from where I am here in Batuña, they're being held in off a prison and the

people here behind me you can see them large crowd all waving Palestinian flags with how chanting some chants in support of Hamas and basically they're waiting anticipating that reunion with their family members. You speak to people here and they're glad that their relatives are coming out but they're also delighted that we've got some sort of temporary peace in Gaza. John Donison in the West Bank. In Gaza itself the bombardments have stopped and the sound of drones has faded away for the moment. It paves the way for many displaced Palestinians to return to what's left of their homes. Many were clutching tents, clothes and other belongings. Families, many with young

children, thronged the road in cars and trucks. Others loaded all they had onto donkey carts or walked with large bags on their backs. One Palestinian man described his reaction as he returned to the city of Rafa in southern Gaza. I entered this area nearly 20 to 25 days before the Jewish forces came here. The houses were there where the people are standing. Our hearts were just aching once we saw the scenes today. Someone like my father, who's 75 years old, he'll get a stroke, he'll fall and who will compensate him? My cousin who was martyred, my brother who died, my cousin, my brother's house, my sister's house, my cousin's house, the neighbour's house, who will compensate us? Well the BBC's Rushdie Abu Alouf, our Gaza correspondent who's in Turkey at the moment,

has been following their journey. It was a very long day but also difficult and sad for the people. It started with the joy of the ceasefire going into effect for the first time in 15 months. Celebration, people were relieved. Some of the Israeli forces were withdrawn and people were allowed back, but they were shocked and surprised by the scale of destruction. I've been following two, three families, two in the north and one far south in Raffa Khan all of them they haven't found their homes are standing anymore.

One Palestinian woman lost her husband and her mother-in-law, her father-in-law, her sister-in-law in an airstrike. She survived with her two little daughters. Last October she escaped from the place she was treated. She said, I hope that I can just get the bodies and give them some dignity. So very sad situation for the people who were allowed back to their neighbourhoods but they didn't found their houses. You know, very sad, emotional day for the Gazan.

The infrastructure as well, running water, electricity, what kind of facilities are there for people who are returning? 80% of the hospital were destroyed, more than 80% of the schools were destroyed, the two main universities everywhere in Gaza City in the middle and in Khajounis, they all leveled to the ground. I have been talking to the power authority yesterday and they said they need from one year to three years just to repair the damage done by the war. He said 80% of the electricity network is destroyed,

most of the water system is destroyed, the sewage system is destroyed and you know still 1.2 million people who were first displaced from the north are still in the south and they are due to be allowed back after one week. But I think it will be more disaster for them when they go back because most of the houses were destroyed in Gaza City and the north. And there is no sign of rebuilding very soon because the first stage, 600 trucks only will carry water, food and medicine and some tins for the baby. So there is no plan for reconstruction soon. Rushdi Abu Alouf. Coming up in the podcast. Flow is an animated film about a cat who is afraid of water and then there is a big flood

that destroys the cat's home and it ends up in a small boat with a group of other animals. Could that small animated film from Latvia win an Oscar? In an inauguration ceremony later today in Washington, Donald Trump will become the 47th President of the United States and his second time in office. Joe Biden pardoned five more people on his last full day as US President, including a posthumous pardon for the civil rights leader Marcus Garvey. Mr Biden honoured the civil rights campaigner Martin Luther King Jr as well. In Washington, our North America editor Sarah Smith assessed the mood in the US Capitol.

Tens of thousands of ardent Donald Trump supporters have travelled the length and breadth of America to be in Washington to see him sworn in as president again. There is tight security, with miles of metal barricades and the police and the National Guard out in force on the streets. But this time around Donald Trump's arrival in the capital doesn't feel like a hostile invasion. He won a convincing election victory. America wants him to take decisive action on border security and the economy. Close the border and lower the taxes. I need my groceries to lower, I need my utilities to lower back down, gas is high.

I'm hoping he lowers it back down so middle class can live. You look quite moved by the idea of seeing Donald Trump. My grandfather was a big Trump supporter. Unfortunately he's not with us anymore. So I'm basically here for him. An Arctic blast is forecast and has forced the inaugural ceremony to move indoors inside the Capitol building. Mr Trump's fans will have to watch on giant screens inside a sports arena as he cements

what is surely the greatest US political comeback and he can start to use his electoral mandate to introduce a programme of radical change to America. Sarah Smith in Washington. TikTok has been restored in the United States. The hugely popular Chinese-owned app thanked Donald Trump, saying that he'd clarify that there would be no penalties for companies like Apple and Google for providing the service. TikTok is used by over 170 million Americans. It said it will work with the incoming US president

on a long term solution to keep it available in the US. It had closed out briefly because of concerns that Chinese officials could access American users data. The new US National Security Advisor Mike Waltz told the CBS television network that Mr Trump required time to get a deal that would satisfy Americans who use TikTok and protects them from any Chinese influence. We can have an app that Americans can enjoy, but at the same time that protects their data and protects them from outside influence and undue influence. And that's the time and space that the president is seeking.

And as a dealmaker, I think we all should be confident that he can craft that kind of a deal. I heard more from our North America technology correspondent, Lily Jamali, who's been following the story. This has really felt like a roller coaster for many months now. TikTok has been tapping every legal option it can. The Supreme Court did not rule their way on Friday. So they've upheld this law that required its Chinese owner to

sell to a US buyer or face this ban that kicked in today. And then, you know, since then there's been a lot of tit for tat. President Biden's White House saying Friday they wouldn't enforce the ban on this one day when the laws in effect but Donald Trump hasn't taken office. TikTok said that wasn't enough and now we're seeing Donald Trump saying that on day one of his new term he'll issue this executive order that you mentioned that grants TikTok a reprieve. The legality of that however is a bit murky. Well that's the thing isn't it? So does this executive order completely wipe the slate clean or could there be other challenges? It's a great question. I mean, for one thing, you know, Donald Trump has seemed very keen to be viewed as the savior of TikTok. And it's hard sometimes to parse the

language from what he is actually allowed to do under this law. He is planning this executive order that would give TikTok more time, but not just to maintain the status quo, but to sell itself. That is interesting to me. There does seem to be this requirement still for TikTok to divest. That's not what ByteDance wants.

That's the Chinese owner of TikTok. They have had nine months to do that and they've dug in and said they're not doing it. Lily Jamali. Next to Colombia and despite numerous peace plans over the last 50 years or so, militant groups are still fighting the government and each other over the control of parts of the country. The latest upsurge in violence has left at least 80 people dead near the Venezuelan border.

Thousands of people have been forced to flee their homes in the Catatumbo region. Camilena Perez left with her grandchildren and elderly husband. The Catatumbo hurts me. Colombia hurts me. The whole country hurts me because there are so many innocent people suffering through war, enduring things we shouldn't have to live through. We have many children and we are not to blame for what is happening. We are not responsible for this war between these armed groups. I spoke to Luis Fajardo our Latin America specialist from BBC Monitoring in Miami and asked him what exactly is going on in Colombia. Colombia has experienced decades of internal conflict, and it continues despite several attempts

at peace negotiations, including by the current government of President Gustavo Petro. Right now, the ELN, which is a Marxist group that appeared first in the 1960s, is trying to fight with a dissident faction of another Marxist group, which demobilized in its majority a few years ago, it's called the FARC, and they are fighting over control of this Catatumbo region.

A lot of people suggest that the fight has to do not so much with ideology, but also with drug trafficking. These groups are said to be very involved in drug trafficking, and this is an area where coca leaf is grown which is eventually turned into cocaine and is used by the drug trafficking industry. So there's a lot of money involved here and these groups are fighting each other for control over this peripheral area next to the border with Venezuela and this is causing a lot of hardship for civilian population. As you mentioned mentioned there's the Colombian authorities are

talking about even up to 80 people dead and around 5 000 or more people having been forcibly displaced in the last few hours because of the fighting between these two rival groups. Luis you mentioned there's money quite a lot of it from drugs maybe extortion as well and that means that these groups are very well armed still aren't they and the soldiers that have been sent into the area to maintain control, I imagine they're going to find it very difficult to do that. Certainly, that's been one of the tragedies of the Colombian conflict over the years, that the Colombian central government has always had a weak level of control over these peripheral areas, particularly areas where there's a

lot of illegal business activities going on, not only drug trafficking, it is also on the border with Venezuela, so there's illegal people trafficking, there's minerals, illegal exploitation of minerals. So as you say, these groups are very well financed. Also, there is very strong accusations against the ELN regarding the way in which they are said to cooperate up to a certain extent with Venezuelan authorities just across the border. So it's a very difficult situation.

For decades, the Colombian government has tried to control the periphery. It is not seen as close to achieving this right now. Luis Fajardo from BBC Monitoring. It is the season of film awards, and one small animated film from Latvia has emerged as a major contender. In Los Angeles it's made history by becoming the first film from Latvia to be shortlisted for an Oscar. The film is themed around climate change and critics think that may resonate with Oscar voters in Hollywood whose lives had been affected by the wildfires.

From New York, Tom Brook reports. Flow is an ingenious animation featuring a cat battling catastrophe who learns to rely on others. This critically praised film has no dialogue. It's set in a world of animals where humans are not present. It is a handiwork of Latvian filmmaker Gintz Zilbalodis. Flow is an animated film about a cat who is afraid of water and there is a big flood that destroys the cat's home and it ends up in a small boat with a group of other animals and they don't really get along. And what's unique about Flow is that they don't speak.

This is real animals becoming like animals. Flo has made history by making it onto the preliminary Oscar shortlist for best international film, a distinction Latvia has never held before. Although the director worked with an orchestra for the score, the production was very modest. This is not a studio film, yet in terms of awards recognition, the picture has outdone some Hollywood heavyweight animated movies.

Audiences have found much in this animation to savour. Among Flo's fans is New York-based film critic Jordan Hoffman. It's not hand-drawn, classic 1940s Walt Disney-style animation. It looks like what it is, which is an inexpensive computer software program. The director just used it, it was an open source software. A bit of a breath of fresh air compared to other loud and histrionic animated films that make a lot of money. Flow can be understood as a cautionary tale, warning of the perils of climate change.

But to the director, it's more personal. So it's really a story about the character who has to learn how to work together and collaborate, which is something I had to do myself when making this film, because I used to work alone and this is my first actual experience working with a team, so it's a very personal story. Is there anything about the film that makes it distinctively Latvian? Well, this main character is a cat who is very independent and wants to do things its own way and can be a little bit introverted, at least in the beginning of the story. And I think Latvians are a bit stubborn like that, independent.

And it's also just my story. So at the core it's a personal story, but yeah, there's the cat's home. I think where the story begins it could be like set in Latvia, but then it goes on this crazy global adventure. Six thousand of the Academy's voting membership live in the Los Angeles area, and there is the view that this Latvian film could be a source of comfort to them amid the devastation of the wildfires and help the animation pick up support. Film critic Jordan Hoffman again. The wildfires in Los Angeles may you know get people thinking about environmental issues in a way that they when they watch flow they might think

wow this is really speaking to me directly what's happening in my neighbourhood. To its credit, Flow doesn't have a neat happy ending. It's a more complex story, but it's an inspiring work. And whatever happens in the awards sweepstakes, Flow has already made its mark. A small animation from Latvia with no dialogue in which many have found great beauty and hope. Tom Brook reporting. We return to our main story. Israeli doctors who have been treating three female hostages released on Sunday from Gaza by Hamas say that they are in a stable condition. The women had been taken by helicopter to the Sheba Hospital on the outskirts

of Tel Aviv. They were freed as part of a ceasefire deal. An official in Qatar who helped to negotiate the ceasefire described it as the last chance for peace in the region and a deal for hope. Our international editor Jeremy Bowen considers the chances of the pause in the fighting becoming an end to the war. All ceasefires are fragile, especially when they start, but this one is more fragile than most. A total absence of trust on either side is not surprising after so much killing, but there is also a sense that the war will resume.

Israeli ultranationalists have resigned from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition government. They believe that a ceasefire is a betrayal while hostages are still in Gaza and Hamas still has political and military power, even though it is a shadow of what they had when they attacked Israel on the 7th of October 2023. There's strong evidence that Mr Netanyahu put off a ceasefire to preserve his coalition until his arm was twisted by Donald Trump. Palestinian civilians in Gaza are desperate for an end to the war, but Israelis will be infuriated by the sight of defiant armed and masked Hamas fighters celebrating their survival. The ceasefire comes in phases

and is due to unfold over months, not weeks. That leaves plenty of time for it to be sabotaged by those on either side who want to fight on. Jeremy Bowen. And that's all from us for now, but there will be a new edition of the Global News podcast later. If you want to comment on this podcast or the topics covered in it, you can send us an email. The address is globalpodcast.bbc.co.uk. You can also find us on X at Global News Pod.

This edition was mixed by Chris Lovelock. The producer was Leah McShepard. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Nick Miles and until next time, goodbye.