in fact the longest serving conservative defence secretary ever, ben wallace, who stepped down from his job in the summer citing the cost of what he said was putting work and country ahead of my family. a member of the government in some form ever since the conservatives came to power in 2010, he can now reflect on what he s learned about politics and about defence as he prepares for a life outside westminster. ben wallace, welcome to political thinking. thank you. we are speaking a few hours after the chancellor unveiled what he called his largest ever tax cut for workers. if you were running at the next election, would you be preparing for a spring election? no. i would probably be waiting for september. i think it is a good autumn statement. jeremy has gone on the right place around national insurance, effectively rewarding effort, work and trying people who we need to generate wealth and pay tax receipts so we can have more to spend and grow the economy. i think he has do
abducted without any family. also freed, 12 year old hila rotem. she was taken captive with her mother raya rotem, who remains a hostage in gaza. also released, an accountant shiri weiss, aged 53, and her 18 year old daughter, noga weiss, were also released, along with 21 year old maya regev. andadi shoham aged 38, who was kidnapped from kibbutz be eri during a visit with five other members of the family. this is her son, 8 year old nave, and her 3 year old daughter gani yahel, who are also on their way home. the hostages were released in exchange for a group of palestinian prisoners from israeli jails also all women and children. here they are being welcomed back in the west bank. there had been fears the deal was off after hamas accused israel of reneging on the temporary ceasefire agreement, by not allowing enough aid trucks into gaza. that led to a delay of several hours. let s get more from our middle east correspondent tom bateman. we are at day two of the trips agree
hello, everyone. welcome. i m fredericka whitfield in atlanta alongside my colleagues wolf blitzer and fareed zakaria. we begin with this breaking news. the third group of the hostages released by help as is now safe in israel ending an excruciating 50 days of imprisonment for them and here we are, there were 17 handed over to the red cross a short month ago including 13 israeli citizens and for the first time in this limited four-day truce, an american was also among the freed hostages, 4-year-old abigail edan is now safe. she was the youngest of the americans captured by hamas on october 7th. let s send it over to wolf blitzer in tel aviv. thanks very much, fred. this is an important day, indeed. we have a team of our correspondents covering all of the latest developments. i first want to go to cnn s jeremy diamond. he is joining me from urim in israel. i understand you saw this convoy of the hostages pass through your area very, very quickly, but only a little whil
. you are live in the cnn newsroom. my colleague kaitlan collins is in tel aviv. jim acosta is off tonight. thank you for being with us. we are continuing with our breaking news. emotions running high in israel tonight as a second group of hostages make its way back home. right now, these 13 israeli hostages ranging in age from 67 to just 3 years old are on their way to loved ones after being taken from their home by hamas seven weeks ago. at the same time, some 39 palestinian prisoners are returning to the west bank to large celebrations. you can see it there. up to the minute coverage of this second day of what is expected to be at least a four-day pause in the fighting between israel and hamas. kaitlan? reporter: yeah. it s all a major question as we saw tonight. it came down to the wire with the second phase of this agreement. it appeared for a moment that the deal might be off as there was a dispute between hamas and israel over whether or not israel was living up to
in gaza to be released but also the release today of 39 palestinian detainees and prisoners from israeli prisons. that followed the same number being released yesterday. the video you re looking at there, that s the scene on the west bank in just last hour. a huge celebration, crowds gathering there to meet those palestinians coming home from those israeli prisons. cnn s kaitlan collins is in tel aviv with latest developments on this second day of hostage releases. reporter: alex, we re in the second day, and now we are hearing from israeli officials that they have received the list of the hostages who are expected to be released on the third day. we are still waiting to learn more about who is on that list, but tonight these are the 13 israeli hostages who were released today. eight children, five women in total. they range in age from 3 years old to 67 years old. the idf says that in addition to those hostages who were released, four thai nationals also being held hostage