Rachel Abrams

In the meantime, I wanted to come to Israel, where there was this seismic event happening, which is the return of the hostages.

So just to start, can you remind us who are the hostages as a whole?

Can you remind us, Isabel, how these hostage returns have worked in the past, just mechanically, and what is different about this time?

One of our producers, Claire Tennisgetter, and I spent last night, Saturday night, at Hostage Square, where there have been weekly rallies in support of bringing the hostages home since the beginning of the war.

And last night was one of, if not the biggest crowd that has ever been there, according to a bunch of different reports.

Can you talk about the significance of the hostages to the war and to Israeli society and how that's changed since the start of all of this?

I was really struck by how many people were carrying signs saying, thank you, Mr. President, with pictures of President Trump on them.

There was one guy actually dressed as President Trump holding a sign that said Nobel Peace Prize, like indicating he should get it, which obviously...

A lot of people have talked about how he wants to get the Nobel Peace Prize.

And in the speeches that we heard, particularly in Steve Witkoff's speech, that's the Middle East envoy for the Trump administration, every time Witkoff mentioned Trump, the crowd would go nuts and cheer and clap.

And every time Witkoff mentioned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, people would boo.

And I wonder what you make of that.

What are we watching for now?

What are people expecting to happen next?

I mean, whatever happens next, clearly people, in Israel at least, are celebrating the end of the war.

It feels to them like we have reached the end of the war with this first phase.

Does that seem fair to you?

Isabel, thank you so much.

Thank you.

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