hello, again. thank you so much for joining us. i m fredricka whitfield in atlanta, alongside wolf blitzer in tel aviv. we re monitoring breaking news in the middle east, tense moments as families in israel await the release of a second group of hostages, who have been held by hamas for an agonizing 49 days now. and just moments ago, we learned of a diplomatic scramble happening behind the scenes, as officials from qatar, the u.s. and egypt are pushing to sort out the current situation. right now hamas says there is a delay in the handover to the red cross, the handover was expected to happen hours ago. they say there is an ongoing dispute about the amount of aid being delivered into gaza, and the selection of palestinian prisoners set to be released by israel as part of their brief four-day truce. israeli officials had told cnn that they were preparing for 13 more hostages to be released today, but so far that has yet to happen. for more, let s send it over to wolf blitzer i
expecting more protests to get underway a few hours from now. that sets the scene for our second hour, welcome back as america reports rolls on. i m john roberts, good to be with you today. gillian: good to be with you, john. interestingly, john, i have to tell you, the protests have spread here, too. covering the state department, walked out, was greeted by 100 protestors who were very rowdy, yelling as officials as they came out of the building, shame on you, even at the nation s capital. and students walked out of classrooms to show solidarity for palestinians. and anti-israel is spreading to others, and calling for a national day of walkouts and the white house is facing criticism from the other side that he is not curtailing hate speech. john: hillary vaughn with more there, but first alexis mcadams kicks things off live in new york city, quite a protest yesterday. hi, john, that s what we have seen. starts with a few dozen and then expands to hundreds and move a
thank you. before i close i want to reaffirm once again the need to work together and bridge whatever gaps we have in our position because ultimately we want the same thing. but again ijust ultimately we want the same thing. but again i just want to say one thing. imagine you are a palestinian father, mother, you have to leave your home and you already miserable existence in a refugee camp in gaza, you head south, take shelter in hospital and you are looking at the eyes of your children and did you know you can t protect them. you know you can t protect them. you know that you cannot find a place where they can escape the bombing. how do you explain to these, to a father who we saw yesterday in the rubble looking for four children of his who are still buried under the rubble and he cannot find them? i think we need to remind each other of our humanity. i think we need to accept that killing more people will not bring those who are lost on both sides, as tragic as the loss is.
it is the top of the hour. i m boris sanchez along side jessica dean in washington, d.c. tracking an israelied a vance inside gaza right now and the rush to get thousands of civilians out of gaza through egypt while another high-stakes visit to israel conducted by u.s. secretary of state antony blinken. weighing all factors trying to avert a wider war in the region. the secretary of state departed last hour. before leaving he reiterated israel s right to defend itself and addressed the immense civilian suffering unleashed inside gaza. listen. we will be talking about concrete steps that can and should be taken to minimize harm to men, women and children in gaza, and this is something that the united states is committed to. i m not getting into the details here but it s very much on the agenda. when i see a palestinian child, a boy, a girl, pulled from the rubble of a collapsed building, that hits me in the gut as much as seeing a child in israel or anywhere else. notably,
On the face of it, israel has achieved a form of stability, led by the same man for eight years, locked in a state of hostile Non Communication with the palestinians, and confident in strong support from washington. But dig deeper and cracks appear. Prime minister netanyahu is under investigation. Israeli society appears ill at ease with with itself. My guess is moshe yaalon, mr netanyahus former Defence Minister turned harsh critic. How fragile is israeli unity . Moshe yaalon, welcome to hardtalk. Thank you for having me. Its a pleasure. Israel has just marked 50 years since the victory in the six day war. But you seem to feel, right now, there are very serious questions about the direction israel is going in, and about national cohesion. Why are you so worried . From the Security Point of view, we enjoy, today, a relatively calm situation, security wise. This is a result of the six day war, in which i believe it was the peak of the idea of our coalition. Since then, the idea of our c