next couple hours, but, you know, when i think about on friday is abigail's fourth birthday and she should be home with her family and her sister and brother and she isn't right now, it's just -- it's like you get your emotion, you have to keep them in check. >> we have global cnn coverage to bring you, some amazing reporters with their reporting that they have been delivering for days, particularly, in the last few hours, on the latest of what they are hearing from their sources. i want to start, alex marquardt, with you here in washington. what specifics at this moment are you hearing about the parameters of this potential deal? >> well, dana, what we've just learned in the past few moments sources have told our colleague kaitlan collins and myself the ball is in israel's court, it has to be approved by israel's government. there are several different groups within the israeli government, the war cabinet, security cabinet, broader cabinet, who have to vote on this deal to get it approved by the israeli side, but otherwise, the deal is essentially all said and done. in terms of what we expect to play out after an announcement is made, is that over the course of the next few days, four to five days we are told, there will be a pause, a halt to the military fighting, in gaza between hamas and israel, and during those four to five days, some 50 hostages held by hamas would be released. they are all women and children. they are all civilians. at the same time, around 150 palestinian prisoners held by israel would be released from israeli prisons. that ratio of three to one would also apply for more hostage and prisoner releases going forward because there is a chance that after that four to five-day pause, that if things go well, that we could see more hostages released. we would expect that during that pause there would be a rolling release of around 10 to 12 hams hostages women and children released per day. we have reported that hostages have been held around the gaza strip, held by different factions of hamas, different militant groups including palestinian islamic jihad. two more components to this agreement as we understand it. hamas has demanded more and continued humanitarian aid to go into the gaza strip. hundreds of trucks per day, up from around 150 per day that we've seen, to closer to 300 or 400 trucks per day. what we think the obstacle there is the inspection mechanism. israel has wanted to have oversight over everything going into the gaza strip, so we still need to understand better how the implementation would happen of those trucks going into gaza. and then finally, dana, there was also the question of surveillance drones. all over gaza in the skies above gaza, you have these israeli surveillance drones flying quite low collecting data on hamas trying to figure out where these hostages are. this deal, we understand, includes a pause of six hours during which time, six hours per day, during which time the drones would not be allowed to fly above gaza. but you can be sure that there are other ways for israel to peer into the gaza strip during these pauses. the last thing i'll say, dana, is that it is, of course, terrific news that some 50 hostages are expected to be released. at the same time there are 40 believed to be in gaza right now, so this would be a distinct minority, a small part, just around 20% of the overall group of hostages taken by hamas and others back on october 7th. >> alex, thank you so much for that amazing reporting. i want to go now to tel aviv where matthew chance is, and matthew, you are standing there in a sea of people. those people are the families of hostages being held. you just heard what alex and c kaitlan are hearing from their sources who are dealing with sort of finalizing this agreement, that it's in israel's court right now, that ball is there, it is up to the israeli government to approve it. aim sure that the feeling that you have among the people around you is incredible pressure and anticipation. >> reporter: yeah. i mean, i think it's fair to say, dana, feel here are very mixed. obviously, there's great deal of excitement and happiness at the fact that deal looks like it's going to be done. there's a government meeting right now under way in which it's expected the israeli government will approve this hostage swap deal in exchange for palestinian prisoners held in israeli jails, but, obviously, as alex was mentioning, it's going to be 50 people, maybe a few more than 50 people, if hamas, according to israeli government sources, are prepared to offer up more hostages in exchange for pauses in the fighting from israel's side, and the people, of course, the hostages who are first in line to be released, according to what we know, are going to be the women and children. of course that's fantastic news, but it means that there's lots of other people that will not be included in the first wave. so again, mixed feelings. i spoke to one woman earlier whose nephew is from the settlement of be' eri attacked on october th and his parents were killed, he's 38 years old. he was taken into gaza. there's no chance, they say no chance, of him being released in this wave, if ever. it is with immense sort of mixed feelings and sadness that people are preparing for this very big potentially hostage release that could be agreed later on. look to quickly give you a sense at the level of feeling, every night here in central tel aviv outside the tel aviv museum of art, people ordinary israelis not just family, but sympathiers are coming out and laying this huge table out, a place set for every single one of the hostages that are held inside the gaza strip by hamas and other palestinian militant groups. you can see there are toys, there are children's seat, children's lollipops, places for the many children that are held ho hostage in gaza and adult places as well. a mark, a memorial to the fact that these people are still away from their homes, still being held. nobody knows how many of them of course are still alive. the other point that i want to put across very quickly is that there is a great deal of anger in -- monk this group of people about how the israeli government has handled this crisis, has handled this conflict. the overwhelming view of people i speak to here is that the number one priority shouldn't have been destroying hamas. it should have been getting israeli citizens out of gaza, and people here are frankly very angry that the government's priority, they believe, has been the opposite, destroying hamas and then getting the civilians out afterwards. they say they will not forgive the israeli government for making that cynical, in their words, decision. >> yeah. totally understandable. thank you for showing us that table and continues to humanize what is, obviously, a process. there are politics. but these are people, including very small children, including one who is also an american citizen, abigail, whose birthday is apparently this week, only 4 years old. thank you for that. let's come back here to the united states and at the white house is our own m.j. lee also doing incredible recording on this. m.j., we heard president biden a little while ago, i know you were in that room when he spoke. what are you hearing from your sources at this point about where this deal lies? >> reporter: yeah. you heard president biden saying himself that we are very close to a deal, that exactly echos what cnn has been reporting all day. when i was in the room for those remarks, i did ask the president at the end whether he has a sense of how many americans may be among the initial 50 hostages that are released. he said he will have plenty of time to talk about the hostages but now is not the time. reticent to get into any of the details. dana, this has been such an urgent priority for the biden administration. they have been saying all along that they believe there are at least a handful of americans that were taken hostage by hamas into gaza and now u.s. officials are saying today that they are hopeful that 3-year-old abigail idan will be among the 50 hostages that are released. she is the youngest known american hostage. her parents were killed by hamas, but what we don't know right now, dana, is how many other potential americans may be in the mix. i think it's worth pointing out that this is not only significant, of course, and would be incredible news if some of these hostages were able to finally get out of gaza, but also because this would mark the first significant pause in fighting since the war began. the first major deescalatory skep israel would take. it's important to keep in mind president biden has not called for a cease-fire. he has said all along calling for a cease-fire would basically give hamas time to regroup and strengthen hamas, and he has, though, however, called on his israeli counterparts to consider a multiday pause in the fighting, but israelis have been very resistant to that. i remember, dana, prime minister netanyahu telling you last weekend on our air when you were interviewing him, when you pressed him on this issue he basically said a multiday pause in his mine is akin to a cease-fire. just over a week ago there was resistance to this idea of a multiday pause in fighting. i think you can get a sense of how much the israelis are going to feel like they are putting on the line. and then finally i will note, you know, u.s. officials that we have been talking to this entire time, they have been very, very clear that when you talk about hamas, there is no trust there. there are serious questions about their motivations. they have not felt like there is any sort of real assurances that hamas can offer at any given time. not to mention the questions about hamas' own accounting of the hostages, that they don't even have a real sense of how many hostages there are, what's the condition of the hostages, where they might be, and that has been a significant reason that the negotiations have been so incredibly complex and tough and also why, after the initial 50 hostages are released, we may see an extension of the pause in fighting if hamas says they're able to locate additional hostages. >> truly unbelievable. thank you so much for that, m.j. i want to go to doha, qatar, where becky anderson is and doing reporting on the critical linchpin of the negotiations and that is the government or government officials inside the country where you are. becky, what are you hearing right now? >> that's right. they've been mediating the talks between israel and hamas now for weeks, and they've said time and again they need a period of time to get what are these very complex and complicated talks over the line. we've sort of been here before, what feels like there's a deal about to be done, only to find out that one side has either retracted, you know, a position or added in a demand. speaking to a diplomatic source, very familiar with these talks here, they said today that they are very confident and qatar hopes to be able to make an announcement at any point now. soonish. about this deal, and the parameters that you've been discussing with our colleagues, are now quite clear. 50 hostages, mostly women and children, in fact i will say i just heard from a source it's almost entirely going to be children and as i understand it, so do expect to see, if this deal is announced and if they can get the deal across the line in the next couple of hours or however long it takes them, and then we see these pauses, do expect to see significant number of kids being released from captivity. you know, i think you made the point right at the beginning of all of this, this couldn't be more important after the massacre on october the 7th, 1200 it's and those who were taken from that site, the kibbutzes around the gaza, 46 days being held hostage, particularly for these children, has just -- can only be described as an incredibly traumatic experience. we are waiting to hear more from our sources as we speak, but i think it's really important to point out the language in what we expect to hear in an announcement. if we can get that in the coming hours it will be a truce in the gaza strip. that is how the mediators who are expected to announce this deal from qatar are likely to couch their language. a trous in the gaza strip, the main pillar of which will be the release of the first tranche of hostages, civilian hostages, not males of military age or serving soldiers. that will be a disappointment to the hostage families who are, obviously, traumatized by the fact that their kids, their husbands are still being held and are likely to be held for some time. this is a truce, not a cease-fire. and it's a truce for four days, as we understand it, to allow for the release of these prisoners. that's where things stand at the moment. we know that the war cabinet has met and the security cabinet is now meeting. we are expecting to hear some detail on an announcement at any time soon. dana in. >> becky, thank you so much for that reporting. to sort of highlight one of the things that i had not heard that becky just said is that we've heard that 50 are expected to be women and children, but becky just reported her sources are telling her it is going to be mostly children. we're going to talk more about this and sneak in a quick break. the breaking news coming out of the middle east on a potential hostage deal. stay with us. we're back with our breaking news. a deal to bring home dozens of hamas hostages, about 50, is the latest reporting, it's said to be imminent. israel's government as we speak, they are meeting to possibly approve the plan. here with us now to discuss, cnn military analyst retired air force colonel cedric leighton, political and national security analyst david sanger and former israeli national security adviser eyal hulata. thank you so much, gentlemen, for being here. i want to start with you, as somebody who has serve in the israeli government and as they are the ones currently deciding whether or not this deal will go through, you heard the reporting from all of our colleagues there in israel and here in washington talking to sources who are involved in this. what could be the holdup? obviously, it is controversial. there are lots of questions, including maybe the biggest which is the four or five-day pause. what is your sense as somebody who served in the israeli government of how it's going to go? >> as national security adviser, i organized the meetings of the security cabinet for the period of time that i was there. the security cabinet is the bodies that has the authority to decide such issues. israel cannot start a war without approval of the security cabinet and israel cannot go into a pause as it's called right now in that regard. the controversy is around the fact that there are two contradicting goals that the security cabinet has approved for this war that can be contradicted. the first is to remove hamas from its role in gaza, not only to win it over, but also to free gaza from hamas' terror organization. they turned against their own people. the second is to bring back all of the hostages, alive if possible, meaning as soon as possible. those two things, it's difficult to reconcile the two of them. there's controversy among the security cabinet. i expect this to be approved. israel has delayed for several weeks, as becky explained before, this has been in the making because the demand was to bring back as many as possible and not to break the women and children apart and slice it up the way hamas wanted because, you know, it's like playing with their emotions. as i understand it right now there is -- a full group can be released. hamas has said they're alive and i expect this to be released. there's nothing to celebrate here. this will bring relief to some of the families but by and large this doesn'tp end the war. >> celebrating the feeling of -- of human lives, especially children. >> very important, for us as israelis and jews it's important to bring back alive we saw, whoever saves one soul, saves the entire world. this war will continue. >> i want to ask you from a military perspective, one of the aspects of this deal which is during the pause, israel would stop flying surveillance drones over northern gaza for at least six hours a day. talk about the implications of that. >> yeah. dana the real implication is this gives them a potential gap in their intelligence coverage. every time the israelis fly a drone they gather intelligence, the general sources they use, and the key thing is during that time hamas fighters can move into position and they can potentially set up ambushes and they can lay ieds and do things like that. it's potentially a dangerous time for the israelis during that period. now there are -- >> forgive me for interrupting you. the idf is giving a briefing as we speak. let's dip in. >> operation brings achievement but there's a long way. we will keep pressuring hamas until the goals of the war will be achieved with them, of course, is bringing back the hostages. we will update the hostages' families on any information we have on their loved ones and then the public and the media. anything regarding this topic, i recommend listening to official representatives only. we will report on the truth once we have the details and the facts. during the day, forces of idf continued deep in their operation in gaza. we finished, we completed the encirclement of jabalia and deepened the combat in the compound. our forces exposed trierrorists and eliminate them. we have the upper hand on any battle. we'll destroy hamas fighters everywhere they are. we continued exploring -- exposing the terrorists parts under shifa. we will expose more hospitals in gaza. hamas terrorists built and expanded terror infrastructure and are using the medical staff as human shields for terror operations. this is war crime and against the international law and we will expose it to the world in order to end this method. in the north we eliminated missile squads and we are removing any immediate threat to our territory. this compound is a war zone out of which hezbollah are operating terror attacks against the u.n. and security council. the hezbollah is an organization of terror, from south of lebanon and is putting civilians' lives at risk. we will -- we' have we've tacke weaponry headquarters of hezbollah in response to shooting towards the civilian compound in the north. there are no casualties for us. we are both on the offensive and the defensive. in the home command, we are continuing to update the guidelines. please listen to it. so far we have notified 390 idf soldiers who fell in combat on israel. we hug and embrace the families in their difficult, most difficult hours and we will continue to be with them. regarding the deal, the hostages deal, how can we ensure our forces will not be hurt during the cease-fire? what if hamas will stop the deal once our forces are inside? there is progress in regard to a deal with the -- about the hostages. it needs to be agreed by the political people. we are focused, as the idf, on the combat. we will know how to estimate everything in such a way that our military achievements will be contained. i suggest to wait until these things are sealed. i'm saying it because there might be a long road. i hope there won't be, but there is an option of that. how do we foe know what's happe in gaza during the time where our planes are not in the air? i repeat what i've said. as it's an important question. there is a path they try to reach. idf will know how to deal with any agreement and to maintain its achievement. there is a long war with many stages and for this framework there are also going to be stages. it's a long war. there are goals that's been agreed upon. in order to achieve them, we need to have a long -- there's a long way ahead of us, and we need to maintain our military achievements and prepare for the next stages of the war. is the cease-fire going to hurt mat new ver and give the hamas time to prepare their next stage? there are goals to the war, to demolish hamas, to bring back the hostages, to bring -- to build secure borders for the citizens of israel and this is the goals that idf got from political rank. there are stages to that, to those goals, so for now the goal is to bring back the hostages, is a significant purpose, and if it's prioritized over other tasks we will know how to maintain our achievements in a different way. we know how to go forward. we need to understand it will take time. >> we've been listening to a briefing from the idf spokesman talking about a number of issues. of course what we have been waiting for and still waiting for, news of this deal being finalized. at this point israel and the cabinet there is working on that, this deal to release about 50 hostages, women and children, from inside gaza. but we also heard, eyal, i will ask you about this, the argument or the reporting from the idf spokesperson that the incursion is still under way inside gaza an it will until and unless this deal happens and they're trying to, in his words, expose more hospitals. we've been looking for days andedation at al shifa and at -- days and days at al shifa and what israelis say and they showed american media, and media from around the world, some tunnels and some weapons, looks like they're going to do the same at other hospitals, which your government says is kind of the place where hamas hides. >> yeah. unfortunately this -- we knew this for many years, and the ability to expose this is important because people need to understand what terrorist organizations such as hamas is doing. we've been telling everybody that they're using their people as humidity shields. very difficult to believe us when we just say it, unless we can put footage. we talked about shifa over the last few weeks. before that there was a children's hospital where we found evidence of hostages, baby hostages, kept in tunnels underneath the hospital. mort cycles where they carried hostages into the hospital connected to the network of tunnels. this is what they do. hiding underneath the hospitals where they know we will not bomb from the air is just -- this is the role. we need to fight them while we maintain our values, maintain the international law, we need to reach places otherwise we cannot remove hamas from the leadership of gaza. we will continue to do that at other hospitals because they continue to use it. they're underneath schools, underneath mosques. every civilian infrastructure they can hide underneath because they know we will not bomb them from the air. >> david sanger, let me bring you in. you heard an argument which we've heard over and over again along with images and video and you name it from the israelis saying this is why we're fighting. this is why we're doing what we're doing. and despite that, because there have been a lot of palestinian civilians who have been killed along the way, there is a backlash worldwide, a lot of it is egged on by misinformation, nevertheless it's happening. given that, if this deal goes through and if there is a pause for four days, five days, we were talking as we were listening about how difficult it would be for israel to resume their operation with one of their twin goals, which is to eliminate hamas. >> that's right. i think the easy decision is the one we see ahead of us today. as eyal has said, i suspect this will get approved because who wouldn't aprovenprove a way to back 50 women and children, particularly if the majority of these are children. the hard part is going to be four days from now. maybe there will be an extension and the way we understand this gre agreement may call for two-day extensions for additional releases. that would be terrific. at some point of those we'll run out of those and israel will face the problem of going from a pause or a truce situation, to a resumption of the kind of bombing we have seen. i think the international outcry from that, as it resumes, because it's going to have to be their decision to resume it, is going to be a really, really tough one. tough for president biden, who has been increasingly vocal. we saw it out in san francisco last week and we've heard it before then, about how israel has a responsibility even if there are tunnels under these hospitals to avoid killing civilians and i can't imagine a situation in which this resumes and doesn't have a significant boomerang effect. >> as you were talking, eyal, i want to bring you back in, i'm told the war cabinet is meeting to vote right this second as national security adviser in the past, you helped to coordinate that. you gathered the war cabinet. what's going on behind the scenes right now in israel as we speak? >> so, it's very likely that before the decision, i mean, this is the way things go. the idf was there, the shinbet internal services has prepared the details. i'm sure they debated. i'm sure there was a lot of work behind the scenes before that to ensure how this will go. if prime minister netanyahu brought this to a vote he probably knows it has the approval. the way things are, this is the way it should be. the pushback from the other ministers are important also to address what david said before. i'm sure their message is that we need to continue the fighting until we get all of our goals and this will be imminent, with the discussions between prime minister netanyahu and president biden, after this deal is hopefully approved in the near future. we'll wait and see. >> colonel? >> well, i think, you know, it's very interesting to hear eyal's comments about this because that internal process is going to be really important when it comes to the future phase of this war. you know, what is israel going to do next? that is going to really depend on its ability to realize those strategic goals that it has. it was interesting hearing the idf spokesman talk about not only is the goal right now to get the hostages, but the other goal is still to eliminate hamas and if hamas is to be eliminated, that, you know, that may counteract some of the other things that have been going on in this immediate future. >> we have to sneak in a quick break, but i want to ask you about what matthew chance reported earlier, which is a lot of anger from -- and frustration from families of hostages held inside gaza that the israeli approach should not have been to eliminate hamas until their families and their loved ones were brought home. is that a fair point? >> well, you know, it's a fair point from personal perspective. we have to be honest with this, if it wasn't for the military going after the leadership of hamas, we wouldn't have this deal. the anger of the people is because of the situation. the israeli public has been failed by the government. the israeli public has been failed by the military. the military's purpose is to defend against enemies, against hamas in this particular case, and failed miserably our own people on october 7th. the level of anger is high all over. specifically on this, i understand the reality. if idf hasn't done what it has done, they wouldn't release any of them. he delivered two voluntarily first time, dana, when two american women were released and then another two and then israel rescued a soldier that we knew where she was and until then we only get corps. this will be the first time this is done. this wouldn't have happened or occurred unless the pressure on hamas. >> we are going to sneak in a quick break and we are waiting for word first and foremost from the israeli government, from the war cabinet, as we said and more broadly about the expected 50 hostages, mostly children and women, to be returned home as a result of this deal. stick around. we'll be right back. the power goes out and we still have wifi to do our homework. and that's a good thing? great in my book! who are you? no power? no problem. introducing storm-ready wifi. now you can stay reliably connected through power outages with unlimited cellular data and up to 4 hours of battery back-up to keep you online. only from xfinity. home of the xfinity 10g network. we continue to follow breaking news. a deal to free about 50 hostages, we are told, who are held by hamas, this could be imminent and that source, one of the sources that our team is talking to, say that the hostages to be released would be the first phase of a potential deal. israeli citizens and dual nationals are among those who they are talking about. women and a lot of children, according to our own becky anderson. as we speak the israeli government is meeting to review this potential deal. an announcement could had happen very soon. sources say that the agreement would call for the release, as i mentioned, of 50 women and children. the source telling cnn most will be children. in exchange, intthere would be four to five-day pause in fighting. three palestinian prisoners would be released for each civilian hostage released and israel would stop flying surveillance drones over gaza for at least six hours a day. hezbollah says it is launching attacks on northern israel in response to the killing of journalists and civilians in lebanon today. international correspondent ben wedeman is live in beirut. ben, what can you tell us about what's happening there in? >> reporter: dana, this has probably been one of the most intense days of cross-border shelling between israel and hezbollah. the highest death toll as well on the lebanese side, we have recorded eight people being killed. among them an 80-year-old woman who was in her home and two journalists working for an arabic satellite news network that is largely pro-hezbollah and pro-syria. we did contact the israeli military to get comment from them for the killing of these two journalists. there's been now three journalists killed here in lebanon along the border. the israeli army responded this is an area of active hostilities where exchanges of fire occur. people should stay out of that area. but we also saw hezbollah responded to much of this fire. in fact, i just counted the number of incidents of israeli shelling or drone strikes that come out to 21 today, with 12 incidents of hezbollah firing back. now hezbollah also targeted a factory of the rafahle defense systems in the town of shlomi not far from the border. hezbollah said that was in retaliation for an israeli strike the other day on an aluminum warehouse outside a town. this is probably the most intense day of cross-border fire and there's no indication if it's going to become quieter, if this pause goes into effect in gaza. dana? >> yeah. that's a big question. again, just for people who are wondering about the geography, you are in lebanon. we're talking about the southern lebanon, northern israel, which is very different area from where we have been talking about gaza, which is in the southwest of israel. thank you so much for that. appreciate that reporting. as we're talking i just want to give an update on what we're hearing from the white house which is national security spokesperson john kirby said if a deal is reached, it's going to have to, quote, be obvious -- have ap execution and monitoring component to it and talked about the fact that they are entering into negotiations with open eyes and pragmatism and they're hopeful that if they get this done, that they are going to commit to actually doing other things in the future. this is an interesting note from the white house just saying effectively that they are going into this deal, they are hopeful with eyes wide open, given how hamas deals with such things. thank you so much and thank you to ben wedeman. stay with cnn. we're following breaking news out of the middle east. as youou've bebeen watchining. more w when we return. a deal to free hostages from inside gaza, potentially is coming together very soon. as that's happening, the u.s. is experiencing attacks. another one happened on u.s. troops in the region. this time it was in iraq. according to a u.s. official, afterwards, a military plane, a gun ship fired on the hostiles. natasha bertrand joins us with more. what can you tell us? >> the u.s. military responding to an attack on u.s. and coalition forces inside iraq at al assad air bass. this military aircraft it did launch a strike against a vehicle that militants were inside of, that apparently they were using that vehicle in order to launch these attacks against this air base. yet another response by the u.s. here to these groups that have been launching these attacks on u.s. forces over 60 times since october 17th that have resulted in dozens of injuries among u.s. service members at bases in iraq and syria. rough live 64 times american personnel have been attacked by these iran-backed proxy groups. u.s. officials say these groups are taking advantage of the broader regional tensions to stage these attacks and send a message to the u.s. and its allies that they are not going to be safe. however, the u.s. responding to air strikes in syria and now this strike against these militant groups in iraq. it remains to be seen whether these groups will be deterred by this. >> thank you very much for that reporting. appreciate it. colonel leighton, that's something we cannot lose site of. 64 times she's reporting that iranian-backed proxies have attacks u.s. -- u.s. forces in the region. >> yeah. that's right. you have to be really careful with what the iranians are doing. ever since we came into iraq in 2003, the iranians have been incredibly active in iraq. they are looking at iraq as kind of their area to play in. they are doing this with their proxy forces, with their intelligence services, and they're doing it so they can influence iraq's behavior as well as control more land and get closer to syria in geographic terms. >> you have some reporting on this as well, david? >> the big question here has been is iran going to get into this in a full way? are they just going to use their proxies to try to be a bit of an annoyance? how far can they push it? we knew out in san francisco that the topic came up between president biden and xi jinping with the president asking the chinese leader to use his influence on the iranians to make sure they calm down. the message we heard back was that the chinese saying they have already told the iranians to calm down. whether they are or how strongly they're delivering the message -- what strikes me about natasha's report, until now we have not seen american strikes back on iranian proxies inside iraq because president biden has not wanted to do anything that might destabilize the iraqi government. this may mark a change. i can't tell. this was a fairly small retaliation. but clearly the one thing that president biden could not abide in any time, but particularly as you're a year out to an election, is strikes that that caused american casualties. i think that's the big concern they've got right now. >> when we talk about escalation, we talk about a broader regional war, then if you put iraq in the mix, particularly for the -- for the world, but especially through the prism of what you just said, the american electorate, that brings up a whole lot of -- >> so far the president has been lucky, american forces have been lucky that we've not had significant american casualties. >> thanks to both of you. thank you for watching. i'm dana bash. stay with cnn. our coverage of this potential hostage deal will continue after a short break.