she is also a member of the elders, an international non governmental organisation of public figures who are calling for a shift in policy from us presidentjoe biden. the elders were started with nelson mandela as patron, kofi annan has chaired it, until his untimely death, and now it is the former president of ireland mary robinson. and mary robinson and ban ki moon, former un secretary general, both actually visited israel palestine backin actually visited israel palestine back in may this year and came away extremely worried about what they saw. and it was really with a sense of dread that the elders saw these events unfold. so, we did in the past of weeks right to president biden, we said that it needed him to step up now to rally forces for peace. there needs to be a clear plan for peace. now, clearly the longer you can keep a cessation of hostilities and a truce going, the more chance you have of building the conditions for peace. but it is going to need a big coalition
stories from around the world. let s begin in the middle east, and two further hostages taken from israel by hamas have been released. they were two russian women, one, 73, on the left hand side, and 150, on the right. one is 50. they are now with its special forces insight is really territory. idf special forces inside israeli territory. the israeli army says it s investigating claims by hamas that three hostages, including a baby, were killed in an israeli missile strike. hamas says ten month old kfir bibas died, along with his four year old brother, ariel, and their mother, shiri. the whereabouts of the father, yarden, remains unknown. family members say they ve been informed of the claims. on monday, the israeli army said the missing family members had been transferred by hamas to another palestinian group in the gaza strip and were being held in the southern city of khan younis. the us is reported as saying it is hopeful the truce in gaza can as pa rt of as part of
released people resportedly arrived in ramallah, in the west bank. the international red cross has been helping transport freed hostages from gaza and palestinian detainees from israel. in this war, they re maintaining a role of a neutral intermediary. for more on this let s speak to matt morris from the international committee of the red cross. thank you forjoining us. first of all, explain what the role is of the red cross when it comes to the transportation of these hostages. yes, so we work in conflict zones around the world and we have done so for very many years. our role, it is quite clear. once an agreement is reached, the two site have come to an agreement and they have decided what that agreement entails, then they come to us, the idea being that perhaps we are the trusted organisation that can be given the role of transferring people. once that agreement is made we are then requested to do this. what that has entailed over the last four days, as you have been descr