this is is cnn break news. we are following breaking news this hour. the israeli war cabinet is meeting to make a deal to release some of the hostages held by hamas. that could come as early as today. prime minister benjamin netanyahu said that progress is made on the agreement and senior u.s. official said that a deal is quote very close, and stressing that it is not done yet. >> this is what we know so far about this possible deal. it is calling for the release of 50 women and children in exchange for four to five-day pause in the fighting and release of three palestinian prisoners for every civilian hostage released. >> we start this hour with alex marquardt and the latest from tel aviv? >> well, kate, they are quite optimistic and this is what we are hearing from the u.s. officials that they are close toclosest to a deal with the caveat that the fighting will end soon if this agreement goes into effect. the broad strokes of what we understand the agreement to be that was mediated by qatar and the u.s. agreed to by israel and hamas is that over a four or five-day pause in the fighting that some 50 civilian hostages, women and children would be released by hamas. in exchange, israel would release three times that in terms of the palestinian prisoners so 150 palestinian women and children who are in israeli prisons. now the number of hostages released by hamas could grow beyond the 50 in all goes according to plan. we suspect that the initial 50 is on a rolling basis of the course of the four or five days. if that goes well, more hostages who would then be released beyond that. remember, we understand the hostages to be spread out all over the gaza strip and factions of the hamas and other groups. then, kate, the question of aid. this is something that hamas has been insisting on that more aid be allowed to get into gaza, and hundreds of trucks of aid per day is something they are asking for. we are understanding this is something to be agreed to, but the implementation mechanism of how the trucks go in is something that is rather complicated and how they get inspected. one important thing, omar and kate, the list of the 50 hostages that hamas has agreed to release are all hostages who are alive. of course, that is very important, because of the 240 hostages being held by hamas in gaza, we are not clear on how many are dead and how many are alive. so the gaps have narrowed and optimism there, but keep in mind even if some 50 hostages released, the vast majority, 80% are still held hostage by hamas, guys. >> and a major question is if this is going to go through as it appears to, is this a one-off or the beginning of a longer term process. alex, we will come back to you. oren, i want to go to you, because the israeli war cabinet meeting is set to start right now as we understand. what are we teexpecting to see this point? >> the war cabinet will start a vote and procedures here by the procedure to release the palestinian prisoners as a part of this deal, and the war cabinet is a small group around benjamin netanyahu, and that effort just started a moment ago or at least supposed to have started a moment ago. in one hour, it is the wider security cabinet that meets including several other ministers, and then an hour after that will be the full cabinet for a government meeting. at each stage, some level of debate, discussion, argument, but the expectation here is that it could move fairly quickly. now, that in and of it is not the end of the process. it continues from there with a 24-hour window in which appeals can be filed to the supreme court to try to stop this deal, but it is also clear from the scheduling of what we are seeing here from the scheduling of the cabinet meetings that it is expected to move forward and to do so fairly quickly. the prime minister's office, benjamin netanyahu's office put out a statement that the director general has spoken to the directors general in other ministries in israel to prepare for the assistance needed as part of this, and all of the indications from this end from the government and the statements that this is moving forward. we have not heard today or lately from netanyahu other than there may be good news coming soon, but we would expect a statement from him, video or written at the end of the day, but it is important to point out that the defense minister who is a part of the war cabnet he did put out a statement referencing hostages. and i will read a part of this, that we will have to make difficult decisions in the coming days and there is not a moment in the war that i don't picture the pictures of the faces of the hostages, and i am aware of the pain of the families and returning the hostages is the primary goal and i will do everything possible to achieve it. we will see how it plays out this evening. >> and oren, if it is according to schedule, we will have hours before we have a full government approval, and we will continue to monitor as these meetings are going forward. and thank you, alex marquardt. >> and joining us is josh rogen, and cautious optimism is the mood of the day surrounding all of this, and what are you seeing in the deal and the talk around it. do you think -- what could -- well, still get in the way of this deal still happening? >> well, right. i mean, if it is comes off, it is the biggest diplomatic achievement since the terrorist attacks of october 7th, but it is not a done deal yet. there is still an opportunity for spoilers as jeremy pointed out earlier. israel is likely to escalate prior to any cease-fire as is often the case in these types of thing, and once it starts, because the deal is staggered over four or five days for the first phase, all of that time, there's a lot of things can go wrong, and especially the fact that hamas, as we know, doesn't control all of the hostages, and they don't control all of the forces and speak for all of the militant groups and any one of them could throw a wrench in the groups, and as oren pointed out ax lot of things can get in the way of what they need to do, so i think that we have to hold our breath and hope that over the next few hours nothing gets in the way, because if this does succeed, a lot of innocent people could be saved. >> you hit on something that is somewhat surprising coming out of the conversation, and the talks over the deals is that hamas says that it does not know where all of the hostages are held within gaza, and they need time to find them, and taking word of hamas to be believed and how does that complicate things if it is true? >> well, right. and also, israeli and other officials believe that a bunch of other groups, including the criminal groups will take other groups hostage, and some of them hamas nose and oth-- hamas know others will have droning available, and they told the iz ray leleighs that we -- israeli that we need to find them, and that is a tough pill for the israelis to swallow, but we have to see if it is in the final deal, because it is true that many of the hostages and including hostages that have dual citizenships and countries other than israel could be held by anybody including common thug, and that is a complex problem that would be better solved if hamas wants to generally get the people out, and genuinely figure out where they are, but we don't know. >> and a complex problem which is 100% by definition complex and complicated. we have seen the families of hostages protesting and marching to get the attention of benjamin netanyahu and the war cabinet to do more, and we have seen the families in a shouting match with the war cabinet overnight. and what do you think? will the release of a significant number of hostages though still by no way close to all of them, and what does that do in terms of the anger and the frustration that we have been seeing? >> i think it will first of all be a huge relief to those families who get their family members back and a huge ray of hope for those waiting not just for the families, and hostage members, but wait for information about them, and in that serngs it is seen as an accomplishment for the family members and supporters who are pressing the governments to put this at the top of the priority list. so, you know, i think that there is a lot of sympathy for these families as they press all of the governments to do more, to acknowledge that there is a tension at some point between military operations, and doing what is necessary to get the people out, and getting the people out should take priority, and i think that pressure and that movement is a big part of why you see a lot of these high level interactions, president biden, qatari emir, and they are spending a lot of time on this, because the families and the supporters are so passionate. i think that this is in one sense going to give them a moment of relief and hope, but also gird them for what is surely going to be a long continuing struggle ahead. >> absolutely. josh rogin, thank you for come on. >> sure. >> and now, these developments are coming in fast and we have been staying on top of it all, and at this point, the israeli war cabinet should have started ten minutes ago, and we will bring you details when we have them. and also, the appeals court, will they restore a gag order of what donald trump can and cannot say about his election subversion case. and after a massive advertiser exodus of some of the largest advertising g companieies, can musk have certrtain contenent o okay. going to washington right now, and president biden is holding a previously scheduled meeting at the white house and speaking about the negotiations over the israeli hostages and listen to this. >> the hostages and hamas have been holding since october 7th, and working on this intensively for weeks as you know. i have been speaking about it with prime minister benjamin netanyahu and the representatives in qatar. and my team has been shuffling between cabinets. wit we are now very close, very close, and we could bring some of the hostages at home very soon, but i don't want to get into the details of things, because nothing is done, until it is done. when we have more to say, we will, but things are looking good at the moment. now, we are here today to talk about fentanyl and what we can do to save more american lives. fentanyl is the number one killer -- all right. so we are listening in, and important to hear from president biden here publicly saying that things are looking good in terms of the negotiations to get the hostaging being held by hamas terrorists released from gaza and very close, and we could be bringing some of the hostages home soon, and things are looking good, and adding caveat and the caution that he is not going to say more until it is actually, and until it is actually happens. important to hear from the president there. and also, looking, as you can see from president biden, a major moment in the israeli-hamas war. the israel war cabinet to meet, and really, it could be imminent, and talking about a significant number of innocent hostages released. at the very same time this morning, multiple large explosions were seen in northern gaza, and this is the scene of one of them a few hours ago, and look at the plume, and this is the view that jeremy diamond is in sderot. what are you hearing? >> over the last few hours we are hearing a series of intense booms from gaza, and intense strikes and fighting, and just an hour ago we heard some powerful strikes from gaza, and i want to pause so you can hear how loud it was. that is just one of two loud explosions that we heard a few minutes apart, and it rattled the apart where we are shaking windows and the door frames here in sderot, and look, one thing that we have to keep in mind is that as we approach the possibility of a deal to free the hostages, and the multi day pause in the fighting, four or five days or possibly longer if additional hostages are released from that, and what we know from the past conflicts from israel and hamas, the 24 hours before the cease-fire or the temporary truce kicks in, it can be sometimes very, very violent. one of the things that we are watching for this evening and over the next 24 hours is to see whether or not the fighting grows more intense as already today, we have seen several intense scenes of fighting including smoke screens over the area here of betanoon to see if there is movement or increase in fighting. >> joining us now is retired general james spider marks. so the details of the deal which could include a four or five-day pause, what does that mean? it is not like everyone lays down the weapons and goes home. >> in gaza, it means they are going to take on the operations that are headed to the southern part of gaza strip, and so if they are there, they are targets, and if there is a cease-fire, they will be very, very deliberate and cautious in terms of the force protection measures, et cetera. they will take care of themselves, and this is priority one. the challenge that you have is that this four-day pause means that hamas will in fact reposition, and reinforce their position, and do everything in their power to move hostages and make it that much more difficult for the israelis to take advantage of the intelligence they have built up over the course they have built up in gaza conducting military operations, and i would say with the cease-fire -- yes. >> go ahead. go ahead. >> i was going to say with the cease-fire like this, you could probably expect that there is going to be a violation of the cease-fire probably from both sides. look, you 18, 19-year-old young men and women in combat at the sharp edge and leaning forward. now, they are not supposed to engage. so something can happen. it would probably cause one of those elements to engage, return fire, and all of the sudden, you have a violation which could escalate. it is an accident, and you want to prevent it, but it could happen. >> and how delicate the negotiations have been, and how diplomacy gives way to the ground, and this is why you cautious optimism on the ground, and as far as what we know on the ground, israel would agree to stop flying drones over gaza for six hours each day as far as we know, and if this is going through, it is the longest pause that we have seen since october 7th. at this point, it is in spurts of hours. so you touched on some of it, but if you are israel, what would the concerns of a days' long pause be. >> primarily, omar, it is the atrophy of the intelligence that you have acquired over time, and you have done great analysis, and now you are paused and you cannot move forward on the execution of the tasks to go validate the intelligence and do something. do something that is targetable based on the intelligence, and the overflight of drones, and i find that hard to believe, but also, israel has the capacity to provide, you know, to conduct aerial operations to allow them over israel to slew the camera over an angle to pick up operations. >> at this point, negotiations have not been happening between hamas and israel officials and we have had qatari in betweens and other influences, but logistically, how do you exchange hostages and prisoners when both sides don't trust the other side at this point? >> you just used the word that describes all of this that should give all of us a level of concern which is trust. there is zero trust that exists between hamas and the idf and israel writ large. so there is some form of an intermediary that physically engages to ensure that the right folks are being released from israel and being returned. that is not going to be hamas and idf together doing a prisoner and hostage swap. that is not going to happen. it is going to be monitor and conduct badeed by a third party has to be. >> if it is approved, this is a four to five-day pause as part of it, and some question, and one-off or the beginning of potentially a longer term format of how to exchange hostages and prisoners and for you, in four to five days, what do you see as the most difficult thing to maintain over those four to five days, and again, to try and get some of these hostages exchanged? >> well, hamas hopes that this is the beginning of a pattern, because if there are two to three to four to five-day breaks, and then an exchange of prisoners and hostages and then another four to five-day break, that gives all of the advantage to hamas. they can resupply and reposition as i kind itted aed and they g -- as i indicated and they have a home game as a result of that, and as to what the idf has been able to achieve, and hamas with a pause and then a series of pauses potentially, gives them a great advantage to take advantage of the time, resupply, reengage, and you can imagine that with the prisoner release from the israeli prisons, and these are palestinian men and women, and even if there are children, 17 or 18 years old, these are hamas fighters. >> we will see what this potential deal yield, and lot of the moving parts, and we have been watching on the israeli side, war cabinet meetings to get under way, and president biden saying moments ago that they are close. but for now, major general james "spider" marks, thank you. and we will have much more coming out of this with the government meeting and possible hostage deal imminent as we heard from president biden a moment ago, and how this could be a major moment in the war. we'll be right back. c'mon, we're right there. c'mon baby. it's the only we need. go, go, go, go! ah! touchdown baby! -touchdown! are your neighbors watching the same game? yeah, my 5g home internet delays the game a bit. but you get used to it. try these. they're noise cancelling earmuffs. i stole them from an airport. it's always something with you, man. great! solid! -greek salad? exactly! don't delay the game with verizon or t-mobile 5g home internet. catch it on the xfinity 10g network. the breaking news, deal to secure the release of a significant number of hostages being held by hamas could be imminent. moments ago we heard from president biden and his view of how close this deal is. listen to this. >> and bringing home the hostages held by hamas since october 7th. we have been working on this intensively for weeks as you all know. i have spoken about it with benjamin netanyahu and the emir of qatar. we have been shuttling in between the cabinets, and now we have very close, very close. we could bring systemome of the hostages home very soon, but i don't want to get into the details of things, because nothing is done until it is done. when we have more the say, we will, but things are looking good at the moment. now, we are here to talk>> thin the moment, according to president biden. we go to natasha bertrand, and things are looking good at the moment, but remind folk, natasha, how things got to this point. >> well, it is intensive negotiations and diplomacy over the last four weeks or so, to try to get a larger batch of the hostages released from gaza, because of course, we have seen sporadically some hostages released and four, including two americans over the last several weeks to a month. but this deal would be a huge diplomatic breakthrough, the release of 50 hostages from hamas' possession, and getting out of gaza, and into israel in exchange of course, the israelis would have to agree to four to five-day pause in the fighting as well as a pause in their drone surveillance flights over northern gaza. so, clear succession there, but the israelis now appear to be debating whether or not this deal is actually going to move forward. the question is if this is all in israel's court now, and has hamas agreed to the terms? things could go wrong quickly, and this is why we have seen so much trepidation among the u.s. officials and western officials to say it is not a deal until it is done. now, of course, one of the questions that we have as well is whether the u.s. is going to stop its drone flights over gaza, because they began to do that to help israel with the hostage recovery efforts, and so if the israel drone flights are to cease, will the u.s., too, and how they will monitor the gaza strip with hamas. so questions there with the steps moving forward, but it is a sign after weeks of intensive negotiations with the u.s. and the counterparts there. >> and natasha, you have reporting on the u.s. action taken as a result of u.s. and coalition forces fired upon or attacked if you will, and this is coming, and as you, well, this is all interconnected, because you have been looking at the jump in attacks on the u.s. forces since the october 7th hamas attack. >> yes, this is all connected, and the u.s. has warned the iran-backed groups not the intervene or get involved in the conflict, but they have been attacking u.s. forces in iraq and syria, and ever since october 17th, about ten days after hamas launched that terror attack, and most recently, today, a u.s. military aircraft fired on a military vehicle in iraq that was attacking forces near ra mmad, iraq, and it does seem that a number of militants were killed in the strikes. this is coming after six dozen or so attacks have been launched on u.s. forces in iraq and syria. many, many u.s. personnel have been injured as a result of the attacks, so the u.s. is clearly stepping up the response here. >> and the point being in part deterrence to try to keep iran-backed groups from tieing to expand this further and how well that deterrence is working, we will continue the track. great to see you, natasha, and thank you for the continuing reporting. we continue the follow the breaking news that we have been following all morning, a deal to release some of the hostages held by hamas could come at any moment. next, we will speak to a family member of one of the hostages. stay tuned. back to the breaking news. a deal could be imminent to release dozens of israeli hostages held by hamas. the israeli officials are meeting right now to begin the process to potentially do this deal. what do we know about israeli officials meeting at this moment? >> omar, the meeting of the war cabinet was scheduled to meet a short time ago and we have not gotten word that it has begun, but regardless, it is happening tonight followed by another series of meeting to approve the hostage deal and prisoner exchange. 50 hostages held in gaza for 150 palestinian prisoners held in israeli prisons. that would be women and children. again, that process would go through the war cabinet which is supposed to be meeting now, and the wider security cabinet and then the full cabinet as part of the process that it takes to approve this. following that, a 24-hour window to have appeals to follow to supreme court -- wait, we have gotten the official word that the war cabinet has begun. and let me bring in gail diktman who has two members held. your cousins who are being held, and is the government giving you information and do you know where the process is? >> not really. we know what you know. the government is not talking to us speckly about this. there are members of the cabinet meeting, but not in the last 12 hours. >> as the deal becomes more solid and we expect votes on the deal, and members of the coalition have said they will vote against it, the far right governing members of the coalition, and does that worry you or if there is a deal in place, it will get there? >> actually, i was in the knesset yesterday with two of the party members. i know that they are against it. i believe that we have the word of the people of the ministers from the cabinet who say we will make it happen, we will make the deal happen. we will bring the people home. it is not all of the hostages, not all of the people who have been kidnapped, but we will bring them home. so we are very hopeful, and we think that it is going to go through. >> and just as importantly, you have the vast support of the country. while you were in the knesset, a short time later, there was a meeting of the defense ministry, and your family members were in the meeting, and what did they hear from the car cabnet? >> they did not give them any specific updates, but they were optimistic, and this is sitting well with what we are seeing here, and it seems that there is a deal, and that is good for us even if my relatives are not released right now, the fact that there is a deal, and that the trust could be built is very, very important to us. because it is important that every deal opens the door for the next deal and the next deal and the next deal, and what we want is to keep on fighting until we see everyone back home. all of the hostages, all of the abductees. >> as we understand it now, we have video from just outside of the defense ministry, where there are protesters coming out against the deal. so i want to come back to this point, and you are confident with the deal in place, is that confidence shared across the families of 240-nearly hostages do they say? >> well, they say two jews have three opinion, so i am not sure that there is a big consensus between all of the families, but something that, something that, but in the big picture, i think that we all want a deal. we want everyone to come home, and what i think is that a deal that brings some of the hostages home is the great step towards a bigger deal that brings all of us home. we don't all share this, but most of us do, and i personally support it, and i believe that many others are going to be very happy with the deal whether it is everyone or just a small fraction. >> for everybody, it is not all at once, but even if it is 50 women and children, and even if it is the cousin or family member in that group, it is the begin of the process which is important from your perspective, right? >> yes, mainly, because it is a matter of trust there. is no trust between the israelis and the israeli government, and there is no trust between the israeli government and hamas right now, and both of them should be built, and it is very, very difficult to do, and so the fact that it could be built and there is a deal in which the two sides can trust one another is huge, and it is very meaningful for us. i can only imagine how we are all going to be feeling when 10-year-old fiel comes home with his mother and brother, and it is going to be so hopeful that soon enough baby gefen is going to meet the wife of my cousin and my cousin is going to meet his wife, and we even if it takes time, it is much closer than yesterday or the week bef before. >> you have heard the word imminent before in that a deal is imminent, but this is feeling palpably different, and do you believe it as well? >> i believe that the fact that my family members met with the cabinet members and assured them that if it is said it in the war cabinet, it is settled in the cabinet and in the whole government, and that means that we feel, we can feel certain until we see them, but we are feeling okay. but, it is the middle east, and you never know what is going to happen. we are dealing with a terror organization, and this is a very important thing to ask. to remember. i can't really trust, really trust the terror organization that killed my aunt. i can only trust them when i actually see my relatives coming home. >> gill dickman, who has family members as hostages speaking to us. thank you. >> and bringing us this perspective as always, thank you. and kate, one thing that stuck out, even though he has two family members as hostages if this deal goes through, he didn't care if it is one of the family members, but as long as this process is happening, it is sort of opening door for potential future deals. >> yes, the view in saying that every deal is leads to kind of builds that impossible trust that another deal will come. but just hearing from a, hearing gil say there at the end that he has a hard time understandably trusting terror organization who killed some of his family, but he has to in some way at least hope and trust to get some other of his family home, that is the definition of an impossible situation that so many of the families are finding themselves in. >> and reminder that military efforts and diplomatic efforts are to find out where their loved ones and family members are. >> thank you for that, oren. and we are going to stay on top of the breaking news. and the israeli war cabinet meeting is under way right now, anded they are going to be voting or expected to vote on the deal to swap prisoners for hostages held by hamas in gaza. we'll be right back. ( ♪♪ ) welcome to big tobacco's fantasyland. the industry's idea of a healthier tomorrow. where vapes are deemed safer. nevermind that they'll increase your risk of lung cancer. and they're anti-aging. because you're more likely to die younger from a stroke. in big tobacco's fantasyland, the deadliest industry can rebrand itself as your friend. breaking news right now, israel's war cabinet is meeting to discuss the potential deal to free dozens of hostages kidnapped on the october 7th attack. sources saying a deal could be announced as soon as today. >> sources say the name of those who could be released, the names are still being worked out, but officials are hoping that one of them will be 3-year-old abigail edon. she's the youngest hostage being held. you see her picture there. both parents were killed in the october 7th attack. and cnn spoke with her great aunt this morning after this news broke. take a listen. >> i'm a cautious optimist, because we have heard this before. and although there's more excitement ask more news right now, we can't get our hopes up. but when i think about that on friday is abigail's 4th birthday and that she is should be home with her family and with her sister and brother and she isn't right now, it's just like you get your emotions, you have to keep them in check, because if not, you think about 9-month-old children, little girls, little boys, you hope there's somebody holding these little children. abigail is a beautiful child who wants to run around and play soccer with her brother and sister. and she hasn't been able to run around in a 45 days. i don't know where she is. we don't know. we just hope that she's with a mother who is giving her love. and that on friday she will be with her family back in israel. without her parents, but with her aunts and uncles and her grandparents. for me, it's really emotional because i have no idea if this is real, but my heart believe it is has to be. i have faith. i just pray that this is going to be the real peace. until we see them come out and until abigail is in the arms of her family, i can't go down to that point where i'm relieved and i believe it's going to happen fully. >> that iss understandable. abigail is the youngest american hostage currently being held by hamas in gaza. now for 40 plus days. the war cabinet is meeting as we speak on the potential of this deal being struck. could be approved very soon, even today. we're staying on top of the breaking news. thank you for joining us. this is "cnn news central." 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