Hostage-prisoner swap: Franco-Israeli 21-year-old Mia Schem among the freed

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00:00 Two more Israeli women held hostage by Hamas in Gaza were released to the Red Cross a short

00:06 time ago and are now in Israeli territory.

00:09 The pair have been identified as 21-year-old Franco-Israeli Mia Shem and 40-year-old Ahmed

00:16 Susana.

00:17 Others are expected to be released in the coming hours.

00:20 Hamas pledged to release 10 people today as part of a last-minute deal in exchange for

00:25 a seventh day of a truce.

00:27 For more, let's cross to Jerusalem and speak with ABC News foreign correspondent Jordana

00:32 Miller.

00:33 Jordana, what more can you tell us about these two women who have been freed?

00:37 Well, first of all, it's unusual that they've been freed so early in the night.

00:43 Usually these hostage releases are playing out over several, several hours, sometimes

00:49 even happening just at the strike before midnight.

00:52 So you know, it's good news that they are already on Israeli territory and they're back

00:58 home.

00:59 Mia Shem is the 21-year-old who was kidnapped from that all-night rave music festival.

01:08 Her face known really around the world because she was in the first Hamas propaganda video

01:14 that was put out at the early part of this war.

01:18 She clearly had been injured.

01:22 It looked like she had some kind of operation on the top part of one of her arms.

01:27 And she, you know, it seems clear that under duress she read a script about how the war

01:34 has to stop and she wants to go home and, you know, clearly meant to really try to influence

01:42 the decision makers because she's a young girl in captivity.

01:49 Her mother here in Israel happened to be, someone happened to be filming her when she

01:54 got the call that her daughter was free and she was crying.

02:00 She's been very vocal, her mother, on the scene here in Israel, you know, about representing

02:06 the families of the hostages and the urgent need to bring them home.

02:11 The other woman is a 40-year-old, Amit Susanna, who was kidnapped from her home in one of

02:16 the communities in southern Israel.

02:18 She's a lawyer and her family also, you know, so happy that they are out of danger.

02:26 You know, what sets this hostage release apart from the former ones, this is the first time

02:31 we're seeing young women get out who were not, you know, not mothers.

02:37 And it will raise questions here about whether these two were sexually assaulted in any way.

02:44 Israel has said that one of the top priorities is to get women out of the Gaza Strip after

02:49 hearing testimonies from survivors about rape on October 7th and some of the horrific things

02:57 that Hamas terrorists did to some of the women.

03:01 And that includes a priority to get female, female soldiers, IDF soldiers out.

03:09 Jordana, what is next for the additional eight people that Hamas has pledged to release today?

03:15 And do we have any signs that a truce could be extended for an eighth day?

03:19 Well, we expect to see another eight Israelis, you know, come home.

03:26 Six of them will be from the deal that Israel and Hamas have negotiated.

03:30 Two will be from a parallel deal that Hamas negotiated with the Kremlin.

03:34 So we'll wait for that to unfold.

03:37 There is a very strong likelihood that this ceasefire will be extended again.

03:43 Secretary of State Antony Blinken is here visiting America's top diplomat and certainly

03:50 extending the pause is one of his goals.

03:54 And you know, we have to realize that the ceasefire right now seems to be serving both

03:59 sides.

04:00 Israel wants to get out as many people as it can that were innocently abducted in such

04:07 a cruel way by Hamas on October 7th.

04:10 And Hamas obviously wants time to regroup and figure out what its strategy is when Israel

04:17 begins the second phase of the war, which is inevitable.

04:21 Jordana Miller in Jerusalem.

04:24 Thank you so much for that update.

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