a deal to free some captives held by hamas. we are waiting on an announcement by the government and new details on the terms of the agreement. welcome to our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm pamela brown and you are in the situation room. this is cnn breaking news. versus hour, the breaking news out of israel on a high stakes invoke -- vote that could bring several dozen hostages home within days. covering the story from every angle. first, the israeli cabinet is heading towards a decision on this hostage deal. give us the latest. >> reporter: the debate in the israeli cabinet has been going on for several hours already and in my continue for another hour or two longer if not more than that. it has already gone through several stages of the legal and political approval process required here. it is through the war cabinet. it's gone through the security cabinet and it now requires the approval of the government and that is where this debate is happening. that's where we are waiting for a final decision. at the highest level of israel's government, a push to free hostages held in gaza. at least 50 hostages, women and children, in exchange for around 150 israeli held as prisoners in a pause in the fighting. >> [ speaking in a non-english language ] >> translator: before you now is a difficult decision but it is a correct decision said prime minister netanyahu. and where their stages and returning hostages there are stages. >> very close. >> the white house teased earlier that a deal was in reach. >> i don't want to get into the details because it's not done until it's done. >> reporter: the prime minister has already come out against a deal. some believe the ongoing bombardment is the best way forward. the only way to return all the hostages is to continue applying military pressure on hamas until its complete surrender. -- was to family members in gaza is confident the deal will not be derailed. >> where hopeful because that means there is trust, the trust has been built between the two sides, israel and hamas. it is not a simple thing to do. the fact that both sides can trust one another means that new deals are coming on the way. >> reporter: is part of the deal to free the first group of hostages the red cross will be able to visit those in gaza and provide medicine. according to a statement from the prime minister's office that was a major demand of the families of hostages. still, they were the next deal will be harder after the first one took weeks of sensitive negotiations. his cousin is among the hostages. >> you know, the first deal has been brokered and now maybe the price will go up. things would get difficult, there are so many variables in this equation that, you know, the anxiety is still there. >> reporter: the pause in the fighting has not started yet. we have seen large explosions indicating large airstrikes. we have also gotten red alerts from gaza indicating there has been continued rocket fire, largely into southern israel at this point. meanwhile i minister benjamin promised in the meeting even if there is a pause in the fighting the war itself will continue. at some point the mission for israel is still to destroy hamas. stay with us as we bring in , becky, to start with you, the deal on the table includes red cross visits to the hostages that will remain in gaza after this deal. tell us more about that. how soon could that take place? >> that is right. and i have been talking to a diplomatic source, very involved in these talks, by the way, we should get an announcement very quickly out of katsina. once we get an agreement by the israeli government and that announcement should have more granular detail on the parameters. the deeper understanding of this deal which is what we are looking for. in principle, we have got the main parameters and one of those is that the red cross will be allowed to go around and see the hostages who are released in the first group, in the first phase, as it were. we do understand that hamas doesn't hold all the hostages in gaza. that has been a problem from the outset. the israelis have been demanding that hamas collected the i.d.s of the hostages and begin to gather those hostages all the way through these negotiations hamas has said it needs a pause in order to do that. that is where we have gotten to in terms of this deal. the red cross will be able to see those who haven't been released who are still being held by hamas. it's 50+ at this point. how did we get here? well, you know, ultimately, the defense minister has pointed out in the war cabinet meeting this evening, the israelis perspective is that this is come about as a result of pressure from the idf in gaza on hamas and a diplomatic source familiar with these talks told me that that period of time that the israelis took to actually get their boots on the ground in gaza was what was needed by the israelis to come back to the table to really begin to negotiate. on hamas's side, they get 150 prisoners for the 50 that will be released on this first charge. that is an exchange of women and children to women and teenagers, crucially this is a truce about the gaza strip, the hostages remained but there is also a clause in here, a parameter, part of the deal is that aid is brought in and 300 trucks a day -- aid a day. that is something they're calling for. their demand for fuel has not been met as far as we can tell. so, we know that they delivered this deal in the wee hours of this morning. it is now nearly 24 hours later and they expect if this is green lit by the israeli government, this will be announced imminently. back to you. >> in this deal that the government is looking at right now, we expect 50 hostages to be released, women and children and then to bring you in, becky talked about how the expectation is for hamas to go and gather up other hostages held by other groups in gaza. in those hostages include women and children, do we know that would be part of the potential future release since that is the focus right now? >> absolutely, pamela. that is the focus. the understanding is that these 50 would be women and children. once we are through the initial phase of 50 this initial phase of 45 days of pause, the hope certainly is that there could be a longer pause, that several dozen more hostages could be released, almost certainly the focus would be women and children. we have reported repeatedly that hamas does not have all the hostages themselves. their different groups within hamas. there are other factions across the gaza strip including palestinian islamic jihad. there is an expectation and a hope that more of these hostages would be released. we have to put this into broader contrast. when we are talking about 50 out of an overall 236 it is just 20%. the vast majority of hostages would remain and, frankly, we don't know at this point how many are alive and how many are dead. presumably those negotiations would continue. there is also a question of aid going into the gaza strip and we understand that hamas has demanded 300 trucks of aid per day and that that would continue, even after this temporary pause of four to five days. what would happen after that? the prime minister made it clear tonight that he expects the fighting to pick up once his temporary pause is over as alluded to at the beginning of the cabinet meeting he said he wanted to make it very clear, we are at war. we will continue to be at war until we achieve all of our goals. we do expect that even if the fighting picks back up, that negotiations will continue for the remainder of the hostages. >> i think you gave us an important reminder that the majority will remain in gaza. the majority of those hostages, even if it goes through and 50 are released, how are the israelis relax deck sheet -- reacting to this deal. ? >> we have seen doing demonstrations were some of them have been this evening. a large group in favor of this deal, in favor of any deal that would see any number of hostages brought home. another smaller group it seemed from what we are able to see, much smaller, trying to push against his deal demanding that all of the hostages be brought back. according to polling we have seen most of the israeli public would be in favor of deal like this it would start the process of bringing any number of israelis home. that is something the prime minister is fundamentally aware of that israel wants to see these hostages come back and he definitely would be aware of that as his own numbers have plummeted. >> what we know about the role that the biden administration played in this deal? >> it has been quite central. they have been the main go- between with qatar and israel. of course the u.s. does not speak directly with hamas. they are considered a terrorist organization by the biden administration and that is why qatar has been so central in this mediation. egypt has also been a part of this because they speak with hamas as well. so, this is gone to the very top of the biden administration. the president himself has had numerous calls, more than a dozen interactions with the prime minister. he spoke in twice last week with qatar and spoken with the president of egypt. we have also seen the cia director bill burns have a very central role in all this, the conversation has been taking place and the heads of intelligence of israel and the united states. we heard the white house say earlier today that biden has been expecting multiple updates per day and jumping in when he felt it was personally necessary to do so and in the same cabinet meeting tonight the prime minister also trained -- banked president biden for working on the terms of the deal and saying he managed to get a better deal, more hostages back for a lower cost israel. >> if you would, how many of these initial 50 are comprised of children that are being held hostage by hamas which we believe includes a newborn as well, right? the first lady of israel had written to joe biden about it. the logistics of coordinating a hostage release like this. >> as we understand it, the idf believes that there are some 40 or up to 40 kids being held in gaza. i've been told by a source very close to these talks to expect mostly or lots of children in this first phase. if we could assume to expect 10 in the first group, 10 the next and subsequently 10 after that for four to five days, do expect to see a lot of children in those -- in this initial phase and we have always known the priority was women and children. it was much talk about elderly. the elderly some weeks ago but the narrative is really clearly focused on women and children. these are, of course, let's not forget, civilian hostages. there is no parameter being discussed at present which involves men who are serving or men of reservist age. this is no soldiers. civilian hostages. this will be the biggest diplomatic breakthrough since his conflict began in october. this is no cease-fire at this point as we have been pointing out. this is a truce, a pause, for 50 , mainly kids and women, to be released from gaza. >> as we wait, it is important to remind everyone there is not a deal until there is a deal, right? until there is final signoff and until the deal is executed. we will be waiting and watching. thank you all for bringing your excellent reporting to the forefront. stomach just ahead, more on the breaking news s as isrsraelis anxiouously await t words of a hoststage deal. . i will speak with one womaman with f family stilill missining the hahamas attackck. we are back with more breaking news, israel anxiously awaiting word of a proposed hostage deal with hamas. for more reaction i'm going to bring in leo. she has family members missing after the attack on israel. i know this has been a nightmare for you. two of your female relatives are being held in gaza. have you heard anything from the israeli government about whether they will be included in this potential hostage release and this deal? how optimistic are you? >> we have not heard anything yet. i, by nature, and an optimistic person. i have to be optimistic that they will be included. they are young women. we really hope that they are included in this group of 50 that is released on the front end. >> so, you are waiting on whether they will be included. heavy beginning any update from the government since they were taken hostage on october 7th? >> no. we have not gotten any update. carmel was taken at a different time. we know that much just from our family members who were there at the time who managed to escape. we have not been given any word if they are alive, if they're injured, where they are, we just don't know anything more. >> what is your reaction to the fact that this deal only includes the release of about 50 hostages leaving the vast majority still in gaza. are you disappointed by that? what do you think? >> it is tough. i have to imagine that this is a good start. if the israeli government could have reached a deal for the release of all of the hostages on the front and, that would've been great. but i have to trust that hamas wants to see how this goes and that will lead to the release of more hostages eventually. we, of course, want everybody to come home right away. i know that a lot of international players have been working hard to secure this release, including the israeli government and i hope that this is the first step in the right direction to bring all the hostages home right away. >> several countries have been involved. the prime minister credited president biden for including this negotiation. are you satisfied that the u.s. is doing enough to help bring about the release of these hostages? >> i have to say, i have been presently surprised by the strong stance that the u.s. has taken to support israel right now. there have been a lot of anti- somatic, anti-israeli sentiments in the u.s. in the last month or so which have really taken me by surprise and it has been nice to see that the government has not fallen victim to that and is standing strong with israel. >> i'm going to ask you about your cousin's wife. that is your cousin's wife, right? he and his three-year-old daughter have been without her after they escaped capture on october 7th. how they been doing? >> oh, gosh. it has been really tough on her husband. our whole family has been doing everything possible, including her family, her extended family, we have been doing everything possible to bring them home, to keep their memory strong in people's minds that this is so important to bring them home. it has been tough on her husband though. but her daughter is three and while it is difficult, everyone says she has been doted on by her family, her grandfather is still there. and other uncles and aunts and cousins are around and we are all just praying that she will get to see her mom soon. >> yes, we are all praying. our thoughts and prayers are with you and think about you and your family and the other family members of the other hostages as well. thank you so much. >> thank you for having me. more breaking news ahead as hostage families await official word. we will get the latest on the liberation going on right now. we are back with our breaking news, israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu urging his cabinet to approve a deal to secure the release of hostages held by hamas. avoca happen at any moment now. we're tracking all this year at cnn. i'm going to bring in who has it all from jerusalem. what is the latest on this proposed deal? >> look, we know the deliberations on the israeli side are still ongoing. the proposal said to put forward by the qatar site on tuesday morning has gone past 1 a.m. here in jerusalem. we are still waiting for the granular details of this proposal. we understand to be key priorities laid out in the proposal and what will be a key priority for the israeli government is the potential release of some 50 women and children currently held hostage by hamas and other groups. crucially here hamas inside the gaza strip, that would be in exchange for 150 palestinian prisoners currently in is really custody. there's also talk of a potential humanitarian pause on the table. four to five days of a humanitarian pause. that will be crucial in terms of getting aid into the gaza strip and now we are learning that there is a potential for a red cross visit for hostages still in gaza who haven't been released. we are talking about the potential release of some 50 hostages but it is understood there around 240 hostages currently being held in the gaza strip. this will be a welcome development for many families in israel waiting anxiously for news of loved ones still held captive in the gaza strip. on the palestinian side another welcome development but that figure is still a very small fraction of the thousands of palestinians in is really custody including some 3000 according to the palestinian prisoners society for being held under administrative detention meaning no clear charges and no ongoing legal process. we did here earlier today from that u.s. national security council spokesperson, he said that this would would require if the deal is put through, this would require careful monitoring to ensure that the terms of the deal are followed through and also said that this could take a significant amount of time, unclear what the timeframe that we are talking about here. >> it is also very delicate. as one source told me who was involved in the negotiations or briefed on them, anything could be thrown sideways at any moment. you also have these israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu making a statement about talking about the war not stopping. >> absolutely. this will be a cease-fire in the eyes of the israeli government or the israel lee defense. we heard from the prime minister speaking earlier urging the cabinet to prove this deal saying it had the backing of the security forces but making clear this will not mean an end to the fighting. he said this pause of 45 days would allow for the continuation of fighting on the israeli side and he reiterated the israeli governments core aims here when we are talking about the ongoing war namely to eradicate hamas, to eradicate hamas's military capabilities inside the gaza strip and, crucially, to bring home all hostages currently being held in the gaza strip. of course, as we know, there are mounting fears that regardless of this proposed humanitarian force we could begin to see an intensification of fighting in southern gaza. we have already seen northern gaza continuing to come under intense fire just over and in fact the last couple of hours we have seen the bombardment and shelling across northern gaza. at the end of last week we saw leaflets being dropped in southern gaza warning civilians there to move to known shelters. this is a huge point of concern because this is a signal that we could begin to see the israeli ground incursion moving further south and now we know according to the u.n. there are 1.7 million people inside gaza currently internally displaced. many of them seeking shelter in southern gaza. that will be a huge point of concern. the humanitarian situation is deteriorating by the hour. >> thank you very much. now let's get more in president biden's role pushing a hostage deal forward. cnn is in nantucket where the president plans to spend thanksgiving. israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu gave a lot of credit to the president today. >> yes, he did, and president biden has continuously been speaking with israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu since the start of this attack by hamas on october 7th. the president has repeatedly held these calls with him that have included focusing in on the need to try to secure the release of some of these hostages. the last known call that the white house read out is just a week ago today when the two leaders got on the phone in the white house released a distinct readout saying that the to discuss specifically the hostages were being held by hamas and the need to get them out, including americans. today the israeli prime minister gave president biden a lot of credit for the current state of these negotiations as he spoke to the israeli war cabinet, he said, quote, and the last few days i talked with our friends, the president of the united states, joe biden. i asked for interventions in order to improve the outline presented to you and it was indeed improved so it would include more hostages and less prices. these talks bore fruit. he added president biden got involved and i thank him for that. now, this comes as both president biden and officials across the administration have been engaged as these hostage negotiations have played out. in addition to speaking with benjamin netanyahu last week president biden spoke with the amir of qatar. he's played a key role as they are working to secure the release of hostages. one big question is if this deal is reached how many americans might be included? there's hope that the three- year-old american girl abigail might be a part of that group. president biden is expressing some optimism saying he believes the deal is very close. >> all right, thank you so much. joining is now a democrat who serves on the foreign relations committee. thanks for coming on. are you satisfied with this deal as we know it between israel and hamas? for the release of 50 of the hostages? >> well, this deal is good news. it shows there are lines of communication in which qatar has been able to stand in for hamas and work out a strategy. benjamin netanyahu is advocating for passing it and it is the beginning of a vision of the possibility of more to come. there is discussion about, well, if this can work, can we extend the cease-fire for another day? could there be another 10 hostages released? in the meantime there could be discussions about the extent of the humanitarian disaster and how much damage that is doing directly to so many civilians, so many children dying, so much medical care and food and water that are needed, medical supplies that are needed, and also, to have real conversation about the strategy of the bombing and shelling that has been so broad in its impact on killing women and children. >> right, i'm going to talk to you about that further down but i first want to go to this essay you wrote calling for it cease-fire. it reads, in part, that you're calling for, quote, hamas must release the hostages without conditions and lay down their arms. it can no longer have operational control of gaza. i mean, why do you think hamas would agree to these conditions? >> yes, so, when you go into the details, the point i'm making is that the negotiation for an initial cease-fire and the negotiations a follow, there's going to have to be a vision of how you get to an enduring cease-fire. certainly, there is going to be no wondering cease-fire if hostages are held. there will be no enduring cease- fire if hamas is still in control of 1000. so, it is a part of the complexity of the middle east and the complexity of gaza and we need to step back from that and realize that there is a bigger framework here. that bigger framework is how do we break this cycle of hate and violence and have it towards a vision of two states for two people with aspirations that can be fulfilled and then cultivating animosity between the palestinians and israelis. >> you and others have been calling on president biden to push israel to get more humanitarian aid into gaza. do you think israel is doing enough to limit the toll this war is taking on palestinian civilians? >> israel has not been doing enough. we are seeing so many children and women die. we see so many people without food and water and medical supplies. just if we think about the military strategy, israel has been very clear and ambassadors made this clear to me, well, we believe that we are hitting the targets we want to hit. but then you dig deeper and the justification is that each building might have a tunnel under it, might be a location for a future sniper, might've had a hamas family living in it. every building becomes a target. certainly in the international world, that starts to look like an indiscriminate campaign with the human toll that is extraordinary in comparison to the actual what would be a targeted attack on hamas. i think this starts to hurt israel in the long-term. i know in our rage following 9/11 we made some massive mistakes including the occupation of afghanistan and pursuing the invasion of iraq on the basis of nonexistence weapons of mass destruction. my concern here is that in israel's rage and the where they are conducting this campaign both by denying humanitarian aid and bombing the takes out a lot more civilians and men women and children than it does fighters is doing not just damage, obviously, clearly damage to the people were getting killed and injured, but also to israel's reservoir of goodwill that is a part of what creates security for israel in the future. >> of course, israel says that hamas is using the civilians as shields, right? they're hiding in hospitals and other areas where the civilians are and i'm wondering, you bring up rage and how the u.s., you say the u.s. acted after 9/11. you think that israel is responding out of rage? do not believe that they are thinking through their plan here? the strategy? >> there is tremendous rage. they desire to do as much damage as possible and not enough thought to thinking about the way that you avoid civilians. just to give you examples, israel said they were no longer going to do the double tap process where you put off a large firecracker if you bomb a building before you drop a bomb on the building so the civilians can get out of the building. israel said, well, instead we are doing lots of emails and lots of phone calls but the fact is israel had cut off the power so people's computers, cell phones, had run out of power. they could not get those messages by and large and, so, it is a pretty problematic situation where hamas fighters are not located in a residential building. there are outside the country. you have the fighters who have been underground and the people in these buildings being collapse and you're not talking something close to 50% of residential buildings in northern gaza are largely noncombatants who are in some ways as much victims of hamas but we should not lump all palestinians together. hamas fighters comprise a couple percent of the total population of gaza. you have to make every effort to distinguish between fighters and civilians. >> thank you. we will be right back. tonight, a georgia judge has decided not to send one of donald trump's co-defendants to jail. prosecutor claimed harrison ford violated his conditions with the social media post. evan, what reasoning did the judge give for making this decision? once again, it's another example of what they are trying to way with the defendants having the right to criticize. >> right. exactly. and then trying to protect witnesses from intimidation. what the judge decided here was that not every technical violation is enough to have someone's bill revoked and have them go back to jail. in this case he said that he believes that they can change the terms of harrison floyd's release conditions to specify that certain things, like these inflammatory statements that he has been making on social media, that those things are prohibited. in other words, giving him another chance to try to abide by the restrictions. of course, the prosecutor there who was personally involved today, she gave a very fiery presentation and she wanted him sent back to jail saying, this is beyond the pale. she was arguing that, you know, this is the kind of thing that does affect the way that you can see the jury and it intimidates witnesses. so, in the end, the judge decided that he deserves another chance and, you know, it's one of those things, the judge is always trying to make sure that they do not go beyond what they should do to allow witnesses -- i'm sorry, to allow defendants. >> the bottom line is it could have wide ranging implications not just for harrison ford but other defendants moving forward. donald trump. >> especially donald trump. >> thank you so much. coming up, as we await for the hostage release deal with hamas we will look at the key role played by qatar in these negotiations. we are here in the situation room. we are waiting for the israeli cabinets vote on a tentative hostage relief -- release deal with thomas. cutter delivered the proposal. we are looking at the role as a middleman in the isreal-hamas war and other sensitive negotiations. tell us more about why qatar has played such a critical part. >> the small country has been amazingly effective at walking a tight rope between the u.s. and its allies and their sworn enemies. a pivotal player in getting the hostages freed from hamas captivity, is a tiny emirate over 1000 miles away from gaza. smaller than the state of connecticut. qatar, an oil-rich nation on a peninsula in the persian gulf real ruled by up 43-year-old who took over when his father advocated 10 years ago. qatar has been indispensable in brokering this hostage deal. >> it is central. has relationships with a broad range of terrorist groups throughout the region and unsavory regimes. >> qatar was instrumental in getting four hostages released about two weeks after the current war started and that was their first go around with deals like that. >> they have had a long role in these kinds of negotiations, most recently playing an important role in getting five american prisoners released from iran. >> they are seen as a sort of a fair player by many of the different actors in the region and they do have some leverage over hamas. >> for years, qatar has given sanctuary to top political leaders. >> the state of qatar funding hamas for many years underwriting the salaries of hamas and palestinian employees and gaza. >> but qatar has also been one of america's closest allies in the middle east. not only supplying oil and gas but also allowing the u.s. to maintain the air base, headquarters of you a central command. >> we ran obligations -- operations not only but in iraq. >> it was crucial in facilitating america's 2021 evacuation from afghanistan. it's maintained back channel contacts with israel and at the same time having relationships with groups like the taliban and al qaeda. and sharing an enormous electric gas field with iran. an expert say, qatar is willing to do things in negotiations over hostage situations that the u.s. and others won't. >> the united states the way, in the past, has not paid ransoms but qatar has no qualms about it. >> analysts say when tensions in the middle east to subside, they will be under significant pressure from some members of the u.s. congress, to sever its relationship with hamas and can hamas leaders out of qatar, but they say it's an open question right now whether qatari leaders will take that step. >> c coming up, , tensns o of m of people e are under a severer storm ririsk as the thanksksgiv travel season g gets underwrway. an u update on t the forecasast next.. a storm system across the eastern united states is threatening to disrupt thanksgiving travel plans. chat, what is the latest? >> pamela, i know some people love a rainy night according to the song, but not people that are traveling and it's raining all the way from buffalo to d.c. and down to the south. to the north you are seeing the snow already. the air is cold enough to make the snow. to the south we have risk of severe weather that's gone away for the most part right now. there's still a slight risk. we had a tornado on the ground near alabama but that has completely disintegrated. here's the rainfall later tonight and into tomorrow. if you can put off all your travel until tomorrow you will be in much better shape. the berkshires up to the green and white mountains, that's where the snow will be. for people that go there for the holidays, they want the snow because they want to go play in it so you take the snow when you can get it but they really don't want it in others. there's the heavy snow. parts of maine, pick up a foot of snow, and that would be some good news if you want to go play in it, i guess. now, flight radar 24, is still showing us all the flights pamela, that are in the sky. that 6000 but now 4000 were delayed today but the good news of all of this, only 68 cancellations across the united states. so yes, you may have been delayed but you didn't get canceled, so you are not trying to make up for that flight tomorrow. that's the good news. look at this mess, i'm glad that the planes aren't this. >> erin burnett out front starts right now.