happening now, the anxious wait for the first major release of hostages from gaza after an agonizing delay. israel and hamas once again on the verge of a temporary truce, expected to begin just hours from now. if all goes according to plan, it would mark the first pause in the hostilities since the war began and could, potentially could set the stage for even more captives to come home. welcome to our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer in tel aviv, israel. and this is "the situation room" special report. let's begin our coverage right now here in the middle east where we appear to be on the cusp of a critical moment in the war. 13 hostages now just hours away from returning home if the agreement between israel and hamas holds firm. cnn's oren liebermann has the latest. >> reporter: after nearly seven weeks of war it is the storm before the calm. final hours of fighting in gaza ticking down until a pause in the conflict set for early friday morning. ♪ 13 hostages, women and children, will then be freed by hamas friday afternoon, transferred to the red cross and then back to israel. >> we are waiting on a day-by-day basis to wait for a phone call to see if our loved ones are coming back. >> reporter: under the agreement the pause in the fighting is scheduled to last four days, a total of 50 israeli women and children will be released in stages in exchange for 150 palestinian women and children held in israeli prisons. the spokesperson for qatar's foreign ministry expressed hope that the deal could be the basis for a longer pause. >> we are hoping that these four days would work as a proof of concept for further de-escalation measures including expanding, extending this humanitarian truce, pause, but also getting to a more sustainable truce. >> reporter: hundreds of trucks are waiting at the rafah border crossing outside of gaza ready to enter the strip as a part of the agreement. nearly 80% of gaza's population is displaced, facing critical shortages of food, water, and fuel. these trucks will provide only a fraction of what's required. for gazans the pause in fighting is a brief respite after weeks of relentless israeli bombardment. as of tuesday more than 12,700 palestinians have been killed in gaza based on numbers from the hamas-controlled ministry of health, which have not been officially updated because of a breakdown in communications. on thursday israel detained dr. muhammad abu salmia, the director of al shifa hospital. the idf says he was questioned about alleged hamas activity at the hospital. the idf released footage of additional tunnels they say were uncovered below gaza's largest medical facility. health officials in gaza have consistently denied hamas used the hospital for military purposes. israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu in a meeting with the new uk foreign minister david cameron said the pause in fighting is not the end of the war. >> we'll continue with our war aims, namely, to eradicate hamas because hamas has already promised that they will do this again and again and again. >> reporter: the prime minister's office said in a statement that it had notified the families of the first 13 hostages to be released. gil dickman says he's holding his breath even though his loved ones are not in that initial group. >> i'm actually myself very excited to hear about the kids that are coming home and the hostages that are coming home. and -- but after saying that, i can't really believe anything until i see them free and home. >> and oren liebermann is with me here in tel aviv. oren, we're only a few hours from this agreement supposedly about to be implemented. what's been the latest as far as military activity in northern gaza is concerned? >> reporter: our colleague jeremy diamond is in sderot watching over northern gaza and has seen a tremendous what appears to be an uptick in israeli military activity. heavy artillery strikes in northern gaza where the idf has said they're operating and going after the northern branch of hamas's division there. and according to reports on the ground there are a terrifying number of strikes. we've also spoken with a palestinian journalist in northern gaza who says 20 were killed in a strike on two buildings in the jabalya refugee camp. the idf hasn't commented on that specifically but we know that's where they're operating. crucially, wolf, just because there is activity, there is fighting right up until that deadline, which is seven hours from now, that does not mean the deal is off. to some extent it was expected that there would be fighting and the idf said they would continue to operate until they get the order to stop fighting and move into defensive positions. >> i know you've been speaking with family members of the hostages. what are you hearing from them? >> still very difficult moments now. there are only 13 families out of this initial group of r50, and out of the much larger group of nearly 240 who have gotten the notification according to the israeli prime minister's office that their loved ones should if everything goes well here come home tomorrow. that means even the other 37 families in that initial batch of 50 in this agreement haven't heard anything, which means more agonizing hours of waiting, hoping that there is good news at the end of this. we have spoken with a few of them who have said look, we're happy that somebody is coming out and that this process has begun. we won't necessarily believe it until we see it, but it seems like this process is moving forward and we hope it expands beyond the initial 50 to all the women and children and from there hopefully grows into the elderly men and from there beyond that. is that reasonable to think at this point? still very difficult to come to that conclusion definitively. the idf has warned there are going to be changes up until the last second and even as the agreement plays out over the next four days of the pause in fighting. >> let's hope all those hostages come out. oren liebermann reporting for us. thank you very, very much, oren. for more on qatar's role, and it's a critical role in these negotiations, i want to bring in cnbc becky anderson. she's joining us from doha, qatar. becky, you were there at the news conference, asked some important questions to the qatari foreign minister. how important is qatar's role in getting these hostages released, hopefully in just a few hours? >> reporter: it's been absolutely crucial. i mean, qatar have a reputation of mediation. it's part of their foreign policy. and they've spent a long time building that up through the afghan role. obviously, eight weeks ago when the qataris mediated the release of the u.s. hostages from iranian prison. afghanistan, sudan. they have a role in mediation. but this, the team tells me, has been really difficult, intense, complicated. really, really tough at times. and that is because these two sides, these two groups, israel on the one side and hamas on the other, simply do not trust each other. there's no trust between the two. and that is what's made these talks really difficult. i've been back and forth from -- into qatar over the past weeks. we thought we'd get there. we got there at one point. twice we thought we'd got there. and then things fell apart. so this is absolutely crucial. they say their work is not done, but this is the biggest diplomatic breakthrough since this conflict began. if this works as the plan has suggested. but i did ask the spokesman for the foreign ministry today who held that press conference, majid al ansari, whether he expected any further delays. this is what he told me. >> we are hoping that we don't see any delays, and i think we've reached a point now where everything is in place and we are ready to go on the ground. so we are hopeful that, as i told you, by 7:00 a.m. tomorrow everything will stop and we'll have the beginning of the humanitarian truce. or pause. when it comes to the -- what were the reasons of the delays, i can tell you that the discussions over the details and the schematics of how this will happen were very difficult and very detailed because we wanted, as i said, to make sure that nothing would cause harm in the process of getting the hostages out but also that the parameters of the agreement are agreed upon in the operational sense between both sides. and that took a lot of, you know, discussions between both sides, but we are happy to report the discussions have been in a very positive environment where both sides showed their commitment to the agreement itself. >> reporter: it was about 48 hours ago, wolf, you will remember that there was an announcement that there was an agreement. they got this across the line. and then we waited to find out when this truce would begin and when these hostages would be released. we have those scheduled times now. we just hope that this comes together. wolf? >> let's hope. becky, i know we're also learning more from israeli officials about the palestinian prisoners who will be released by israel on friday in exchange for the hostages. what are you learning on that front? >> reporter: 39 women and young men under the age of 18. they will be released from a prison in haifa and taken into the west bank down towards ramallah, where they will be met by the icrc. their health will be checked, and then they will be returned home. this is an exchange, of course. it's been described as a three for one exchange. we're looking at 11 hostages released by hamas tomorrow, 39 released by the israelis from palestinian prisons. we do know hamas has the list of names, but we also know that the palestinian prisoners group the committee who had overlooked those who were in prison, they keep a tally of those in prison, have not been given those names. so very unclear whether the families of those palestinians will know that their women and young men are being released tomorrow. >> it's an important part of this arrangement to be sure. becky anderson reporting for us from doha, qatar. thank you very much. now to the u.s. reaction to all these major developments in the middle east. our chief national security correspondent alex marquardt is tracking the story for us from washington. alex, i understand the biden administration says there are ten americans likely among the hostages. what do u.s. officials know about the release starting tomorrow? >> reporter: well, they know that of those ten, wolf, that there are three who qualify for this first phase of hostage releases, that there are two women and one young child who they hope to get out in the next few days. what they're less clear on is whether they will be part of this initial 13 expected to be released tomorrow, but they are hopeful, they are expecting that those three americans would come out in the coming days. now, the youngest is 3-year-old abigail edan. she has been talked about a lot by president biden. in fact, she turns 4 tomorrow, wolf. the u.s. has also said that they will not, unlike the israeli government, they will not be telling american families that their relatives are coming out. because of how fluid the situation is, they say they want to confirm that those american citizens are out of the gaza strip or at least in safe hands before they alert the families. so we can expect that once american citizens make their way out of gaza or on their way out of gaza that those families will be alerted. once that has been confirmed by american officials or israeli officials. but the biden administration insistent they've been in very close contact with these american families. there was a zoom call with the families a couple weeks ago, with president biden himself. a senior administration official said it was one of the most gut-wrenching experiences, one of the most gut-wrenching things he had heard happen in the oval office. now, president biden himself, he's in nantucket for his thanksgiving holiday. when asked by reporters whether that young abigail edan would be out tomorrow, he just put up his hand and said fingers crossed. wolf? >> let's hope. alex marquardt reporting for us. thank you very, very much. i want to get some analysis now from former state department middle east negotiator aaron david miller and cnn political and national security analyst david sanger, who's also with the "new york times." aaron, i'll start with you. do you see this hostage deal as being the first step to a much larger deal to secure the release of more of the hostages being held by hamas in gaza? >> if -- first of all, thanks for having me, wolf. if this one goes well, the next four days are relatively problem-free and there's no broken trust, let alone a renewal of hostilities in the truce, yeah, i think it could lead to a larger release pattern. the problem of course will be hamas will still have, even if it leads to 100, which is extraordinary and extremely welcome to the hostages and their families, hamas will maintain control of at least another 100 and the game -- the cruel game here i think is very clear. to dribble our hostages over time, buy time, rearm, regroup and hope that international pressure including from the united states leads to pressing the israelis to constrain, diminish or even end their ground campaign. that i think is the real challenge ahead. but for the moment we'll know in a matter of hours whether or not the qatari-brokered negotiations have actually succeeded. i truly hope so. >> yeah, we all hope it succeeds and all those hostages can come home. david sanger, what stands out to you about the framework of this hostage deal between israel and hamas? >> well, a few things jump out at me. first of all, where the hamas started on this was a return of hostages in return for a complete cessation of the bombing of the plntalestinian plnts. so it was quite a piece of diplomacy to move to a 3 to 1 deal, three palestinians released for each israeli or in this case some israeli americans as well. that's quite a piece of diplomacy. and as aaron suggested, there's the hope it will expand to more. ♪ pardon me. that would be great news if we can make that work. the down side to it would be if in fact they can't make anything happen after the next few days, after the next five or six days of additional hostage releases. and if that happens then we're in a different world where the israelis are going to have to decide whether or not to pursue their bomb campaign. and as aaron points out, that's going to be a really, really hard call because if they do israel will be charged with starting this war up again and hamas i'm sure will make the case that there were more hostage releases that were possible but cut off by that. and that could be a really difficult domestic position. on the other hand, hamas isn't going to give up all the last of these hostages. they are their leverage. >> good point. aaron, the hostages are clearly leverage for hamas. so how does israel negotiate for their release while at the same time continuing to fight this war and try to destroy hamas? >> it's the cruelest dilemma, wolf. and david referred to it. and you've witnessed it. you've talked to the hostage families. you understand that the dilemma the israelis face is how to -- i won't use the word avenge. but how to prevent this -- prevent this from ever happening again. so 1,200 israelis won't be -- or any israelis won't be cruelly murdered, sadistically and indiscriminately, balanced against -- that commitment to the dead balanced against the commitment to the living, which as you know israel puts a premium on redeeming their people. dead or alive. from the battlefield. and that i think is the cruelest choice of all that the israelis are going to have to make. i think that if david's correct and in fact the deal breaks down the israelis are going to continue their ground campaign as intensely as they possibly can and look for operational opportunities perhaps to rescue hos hostages. but that seems to be extremely difficult. and frankly, wolf, i don't think the israelis have a good answer for the dilemma that they face. >> it's an extremely delicate moment right now. aaron david miller, david sanger, guys, thank you very much for joining us. coming up, after weeks of uncertainty families of the hostages face the agonizing hours of waiting and wondering. in a moment i'll speak with a man who lost family members while others were taken hostage. this is "the situation room" special report. as we await the start of the truce between israel and hamas i'm joined now by omri al mog whose sister and three of her children are among the hostages. her husband and their oldest daughter were killed by the terrorists. omri, my heart goes out to you. thank you so much for joining us right now. your family obviously is very close family. what's going through in your mind right now as we await to see what happens in the next few hours? >> do you know in the beginning for the first ten days they were missing. so we hope from october 8th basically, when we found out that the family of six have four missing people, so we hope they are alive. and right now it's in this crucial moment, in all the situation, i mean, my parents and my brother-in-law, nadav parents is just waiting patiently. we have people from the army that is in contact with us. and they're talking to us. and we understand the situation. and we'll see in a few hours, tomorrow morning in israel, when we siege fire, what happened. so we hope, we have patient, we nervous, but the best is in the front of us. i mean, whatever happened is said and it's behind us. now we have to look forward and imagine chen and the three kids coming back to us. the government in israel, the prime minister in israel, this is his fault and this is his -- he needs to do it for the families, to start to rebuild kfar aza and the families and to close this gate, to finish the situation for some families so they can start. there's over 230 hostages. but i hope the prime minister and his people doing the best they can and it's the top priority, part of this war is to bring these hostages back. >> if this initial group of hostages comes home, and of course we hope your loved ones will be among them, i suspect they're not necessarily -- >> tomorrow they are not. but we hope for the next few days they should be on this list. >> well, are you optimistic there will be more batches of hostages released in the next few days? >> i believe this organization is a torture, cruel organization. they don't think like us. they don't behave like us. but i believe this is part of what they want, to release some people and to siege fire. i mean, the war is difficult for them very much, i hope. so we'll see. we'll see. there's four and then we can keep going until 80 people. we'll see. >> how is your family dealing with this? it's so painful to hear these stories. >> it is. it's almost 50 days. i left everything. i live up north. i take my family, my wife, and we are only two brothers. so i'm with my parents. and the lost of, nadav, my brothe brother-in-law, is huge, and yom, the oldest daughter. we're just trying to do the best as we can every day. i try to do the best i can. each person is different. my parents is very nervous. but we just try to spend the hours together and to support each other, to go through this moment and feelings and it's crazy. it's crazy. it's beyond imagination. i've been in kfar aza a few times. it's a zone war. these people, these kids they took it out from beds in the morning with pajamas, they're not part of this conflict. they just should be where they should be in the house, and somebody just came in the morning, took them out. you don't know where are they. you don't talk to them. and there's so many -- you know, i went to the europe union, i talked to people. i talked to the red cross. i talked to unicef. there are so many people that they supposed to support kids all over the world that doesn't do anything, that it's a shame. it's a shame. but i hope the world understand now what this organization did on october 7. it's something that we have to take these people off this planet. it's so important the world to understand, to give us the time to do that. because it's can happen anywhere. in europe. anywhere. this is how it looks when 20 years israel doesn't do anything. we tried to buy quiet. we tried to buy peace. and we couldn't. we couldn't. they deceive us by so many things. and now we understand it. we understood it. now we need the world to give us this opportunity to finish this once and forever. >> omri almog, we hope your family will be reunited soon. >> thank you so much. i hope. >> thank you for joining us. omri almog helping us appreciate the enormity of this horrible, horrible situation. up next we're going to have much more on the anxious wait for the hostages as new tensions flare on israel's northern border with lebanon. stay with us. ththis is the e "situationon ro special l report." 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. as we close in on an expected truce between israel and hamas, the idf is still striking targets inside the gaza strip. cnn's jeremy diamond has more for us. he's joining us from sderot in israel, not far from gaza. jeremy, even though we're just, what, a few hours away from this truce, and let's hope it happens, you've been seeing lots of military activity close to where you are in northern gaza. >> reporter: that's exactly right, wolf. less than seven hours away from this expected truce we are still hearing heavy military activity inside the gaza strip. there has been some heavy bombardments from the israeli forces into gaza over the last several hours. a clear uptick in activity ahead of this expected truce. of course this was expected. the israeli military made very clear earlier today that they plan to continue their military operations, to continue hitting hamas targets inside of gaza up until they get the order to stop, before that expected 7:00 a.m. local time truce. and one idf spokesman earlier today described the current situation effectively as business as usual. and we are continuing to hear active fighting in northern gaza in the area of the jabalya refugee camp as well as be beit lahiya, two areas in northern gaza. and also there have been strikes in southern gaza as well. all of this as we expect the hostage release to take place several hours after that 7:00 a.m. truce around 4:00 p.m. local time. we are expecting that they will be taken out of gaza at several different points potentially and reunited with their families after that at the hospitals perhaps where they are taken for medical evaluations. but what is ultimately clear is this is merely a pause in fighting to get these hostages out. the israeli prime minister and his defense minister making very clear that they intend to continue this war, perhaps even for at least two months after this pause ends, in order to achieve their military objectives. wolf? >> jeremy diamond in sderot, israel for us, not far from gaza. thank you, jeremy. be careful over there. other tensions we're following ot in the middle east, hezbollah and the idf exchanging fire near israel's northern border with lebanon. cnn's ben wedeman is joining us live from beirut right now. so what's the latest, ben? >> reporter: well, the last few days, actually, wolf, have been pretty intense on the border and today perhaps one of the most intense. hezbollah claiming almost two dozen strikes on israeli targets along the border. in one instance they say they fired 48 katyusha rockets on the 18 infantry base on the israeli side. hezbollah claimed they killed four israeli soldiers, but there's no comment on that from the israeli side yet, although one hezbollah fighter was killed according to the group. now, in response the israelis launched a series of drone, artillery, helicopter and airstrikes throughout the day. they said they hit hezbollah's military infrastructure and rocket launch sites. now, al jazeera arabic has cited a hezbollah source saying that hezbollah will actually abide by the four-day truce that goes into effect tomorrow at 7:00 a.m. local time even though hezbollah is not part of the agreement worked out by qatar. now, also we saw the iranian foreign minister was in beirut. he met with the leader of hezbollah and he also said on one of the local television stations that if the truce in gaza does not hold the scope of this war will expand. wolf? >> ben wedeman reporting for us from beirut. thank you, ben. appreciate it very much. turning now to the humanitarian crisis in gaza where civilians are begging the world to pay attention to their plight. cnn's jomana karadsheh has our report. i want to warn our viewers, some of the images are very disturbing. >> reporter: life before the war felt like a distant memory for video blogger ayat hadura. they were the days when she'd smile in her videos, taking her followers behind the scenes of her work in gaza. for weeks now her posts have been about life at a time of war. >> translator: we now wake up at 5:00 a.m. to queue for bread. we now walk more than six kilometers to fill up a gallon of salty or fresh water. we charge our phones on the streets using the solar power we can find. we crave our favorite foods but there's no power, no gas or water, so we have to make do with canned foods. >> reporter: ayat showed people how gazans survive, neighbors showing the little they have to bake bread in clay ovens. and at times it was about how close death felt as bombs rained down on gaza. >> translator: this might be my last video. they dropped leaflets asking people to evacuate the area. most people fled. people were running in the streets like crazy, not knowing where to go. the situation is terrifying. god have mercy on us. >> reporter: as the war intensified in the north, ayat didn't leave. the safety they were told to evacuate to in the south was an illusion. nowhere in gaza is safe, she said. >> translator: death and destruction is everywhere in gaza. the occupation has no mercy on anyone, not the elderly, not the children, not the women. no one. all civilians are under fire in gaza. where are the decision makers? where's the world? gaza is being annihilated. we are dying. someone do something. enough. >> reporter: but these desperate cries of so many like ayat haven't stopped the seemingly endless nightmare for the people of gaza where burying their dead has become their every day, where every moment feels like it may be their last. on monday it was ayat's. killed along with other family members in a night of intense bombardment of beit lahiya. her last words the haunting words of a 27-year-old with a final message from gaza to the world. >> translator: we're humans like everyone else. we had big dreams. now our dream is if we are killed we are a body in one piece so we can be identified, buried in a grave, not body parts in a bag. when will this war end? who will remain to tell people what happened to us, what we lived through, what we've witnessed? >> reporter: jomana karadsheh, cnn, london. >> our thanks to jomana karadsheh for that report. we're going to have much more just ahead from tel aviv as well as today's other news, including in new york state a deadline has prompted a flood of sexual assault allegations and denials by prominent political and entertainment celebrities. we have details coming up. i'm wolf blitzer in tel aviv, where we're awaiting the start of a truce between israel and hamas as well as the release of some israeli hostages. we're also following other important news back in the united states including a deadline that's prompting a flood of shocking allegations of sexual assault against very prominent political and entertainment celebrities. cnn's jean casarez has the details. >> reporter: new york city mayor eric adams firing back after a document was found in new york's supreme court accusing him of a 1993 sexual assault. >> as i indicated, it's absolutely not true. this is something that's never happened. i don't even recall meeting the person. >> reporter: the three-page civil summons alleges sexual assault, battery, gender-based employment discrimination, retaliation, hostile work environment and intentional infliction of emotional distress by adams. with defendants including the city of new york and the nypd. the 30-year-old claim brought under new york's adult survivors act, allowing a one-year window for victims of sexual abuse to legally come forward, regardless of the statute of limitations. it is just the latest in an avalanche of claims against high-profile men, among others, as the look-back window closes this week. ♪ so if you want to love ♪ "henthouse" 3408d and actress sheila kennedy filing suit against lead singer for guns & roses axel rose alleging in 1989 in a new york city hotel room he violently sexually assaulted her. the attorney for axl rose saying "simply put, this incident never happened. rose has no recollection of ever meeting or speaking to the plaintiff and has never heard about these fictional allegations prior to today." >> it was like something you never heard about. >> reporter: academy award-winning actor jamie foxx accuse aaccused in a civil suit of offensively touching a woman at a popular new york city restaurant in 2018. a spokesperson for fox in a statement saying the alleged incident never happened. saying the claims were brought in a previously dismissed case. "we are confident they will be dismissed again and once they are mr. foxx intends to pursue a claim for malicious prosecution against this person and her attorneys for refiling this frivolous action." joan tarsus the latest to file suit against disgraced comedian bill cosby. she told cnn in 2014 cosby gave her a drink. she passed out. >> when i came to, it was the next morning. and i was in bed with him naked. >> reporter: cosby's spokesperson had no comment on the allegations. and cassie ventura, long-time girlfriend of sean diddy combs, accused the rapper and producer of years of sexual abuse, rape and trafficking in a suit that was resolved amicably one day after the filing. combs' representative saying it was in no way an admission of wrongdoing, does not in any way undermine his flat out denial of the claims. jean casarez, cnn, new york. >> and thanks to jean casarez for that report. we're watching a lot of news right now. and this just coming in to cnn. musician and producer sean combs has just been hit with another sexual assault lawsuit. the suit accuses combs of drugging and sexually assaulting a woman who says she was a victim of revenge porn. cnn has reached out to combs and bad boy entertainment but has not heard back. we have much more ahead. we're reporting tonight from tel aviv. we're watching other news including the latest signs of a volcanic eruption that may be imminent in iceland. observers say everything in one town is on a knife's edge. you want to be able to provide your child with the tools or resources they need. with reliable internet at home, through the internet essentials program, the world opened up. fellas, fellas. that's how my son was able to find the hidden genius project. we wanted to give y'all the necessary skills to compete with the future. kevin's now part of this next generation of young people who feel they can thrive. ♪ ♪ in iceland right now, they're keeping close watch on a town where cracks are opening in the ground and there are fears of a volcano eruption that could destroy everything. fred pleitgen filed this report after getting a look from overhead. >> taking off straight to the emergency zone. we're on a mission with iceland's coast guard to the effected area by what could soon be a massive volcanic eruption. >> you can see how everything here is on knife's edge. the authorities are doing everything they can to save the town and the infrastructure. >> the town has massive cracks in the roads, a magma stream has burst through the earth's crust. the crew says they've been observing the rift widening in the past days. >> we see differences between days. we see the -- sometimes we see the crack a little bit wider. >> the city was evacuated and could soon be completely destroyed by hot lava. >> you can already see just how extensive the damage already is for the town. and that crack that you see runs all the way to the ocean. >> reporter: iceland is in an area of massive volcanic activity while this part of the country had been dormant for around 800 years. in the past two years, a volcanic activity has come back to life with several major eruptions. we fly over the most recent one. past the mouth of the volcano and over seemingly obvious love have a feels still steaming hot after the eruption ended. on the ground, crews are working around the clock to try to build a berm to protect this geothermal power plant. and we also see the world-famous blue lagoon hot springs now closed down and also evacuated. the economic toll already immense. what do you think it means for the people there? >> i can't imagine. losing houses and maybe the -- you know, work, their life. just -- it's crazy. >> reporter: iceland's government says a major eruption here remains highly likely and it could happen in a matter of days. iceland coast guard aviators say they're on alert all the time. >> in case of the volcano starts, we will fly over the area to help evacuate the people. >> reporter: fred pleitgen, cnn, iceland. >> thanks for that report. important report. we're watching it closely. and stay with us. we're live here in tel aviv, counting down to the start of a truce between israel and the hamas which result in the release of some israeli hostages. but this has not been a quiet day in gaza at all. an update on what we're seeing and hearing as our situation room special report continues. happening now, the temporary truce between israel and hamas is just now hours way. the pause in hostilities expected to set the stage for the first major hostage release of the war, followed by more in the days to come. anxious families are hoping the deal holds without another