right now on "early start," the temporary truce between israel and hamas has been extended by two days. could it go even longer? plus israel has received the list of hostages that could be released today. how many and how soon. and lawyers reveal the final witness at donald trump's civil fraud trial, the former president himself will take the stand last in new york. good day to our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm kasie hunt. it is 5:00 a.m. in washington, noon in gaza where israel and hamas have reached a deal to extend the four day truce that began last friday by an additional two days. >> in order to extend the pause hamas has committed to releasing another 20 women and children over the next two days. we would of course hope to see the pause extended further and that will depend upon hamas continuing to release hostages. >> monday hamas freed another 11 hostages mostly women and children, all israeli dual citizens, none of them american. so 69 hostages released by hamas in exchange for 150 palestinian prisoner and detainees freed by israel. several dozen humanitarian aid trucks meanwhile rolled into gaza on monday. the palestinian red crescent society says 150 trucks total since the truce began. clare sebastian is live for us in london. we've learned a lot more about the conditions these hostages have been facing. we knew almost nothing about it until friday. what have we learned since. >> reporter: yeah, before the truce, only four hostages released, so a lot more information coming out and certainly this was by all accounts not a comfortable experience for these hostages. lack of food, weight loss is a common theme, one of the families, a mother, grandmother and 9-year-old boy, they say the mother and grandmother lost some 6 to 8 kilos each. so quite a lot of weight over seven weeks that they mostly had rice and bread and sometimes just bread. obviously lack of food is something that the elderly felt particularly acutely, hygiene another problem. one elderly hostage, she's 72, her nephew wasn't able to shower for seven weeks and kept underground. lack of available medical supplies, lack of medication was a particular issue for alma, 85, now in israel in icu in a life threatening condition according to doctors. one of her family members said that had hoped to get her thyroid medication to her while in captivity and were unable to do so. so that has led apparently to the condition thshe's in now. in terms of physical recovery, i think that gives you a sense of why the hostages are immediately transported to hospital and even if some have already been discharged, it is clear that there will be a rehabilitation period. and that is even before you start talking about mental recovery. don't forget, they were in a situation it seems of information blackout and in the case of two of the teenagers who were released saturday, that meant that they had no idea until they were released that their mother had been killed on october 7. so that is sort of the mental trauma and extreme case that they will have to deal with. >> very difficult period of time for all these people even as they are able of course to celebrate their freedom now. clare sebastian, thank you very much. to help us understand more, lieutenant jengeneral ben hodges joining us. thank you for being with us. i'm interested in your view of this extended truce, what helped move these parties toward an extension and how fragile is or isn't it? >> the administration deserves huge credit for the tireless effort to bring about enough pressure on both hamas and the israeli government to create the conditions to have a pause or truce and begin the exchange of hostages. and so you can imagine the relief of those families who have gotten some of their loved ones back. we're talking about a terrorist organization, the hamas organization. and i think that they will use -- continue to use hostages to string this out as long as they can. and that is also why i think that they haven't released but one american hostage because that will keep the u.s. involved and putting pressure on israel. >> and to that point, the white house, the administration, according to cnn reporting have basically said there were two american women who they expected to be on the list for yesterday's release that were not, but they say at this point that was not purposeful or they don't believe it was purposeful on the part of hamas. what is your view of what could be going on there? >> i think there probably is a degree of chaos on the hamas side of this equation. there are other different militant organizations out there that could have taken advantage of this or have their own objectives. so i don't imagine that hamas is a totally cohesive organization. but again, when we're dealing with a terrorist organization, they clearly do not care what torturous circumstances they are putting people through. at some point the israeli government and the biden administration will have to make a decision how long does this go on. and this is where i think that the israelis could change the entire narrative if they were to adopt a narrative of, yes, we'll do a two state solution as soon as all the hostages are leased, we will move towards the two state solution. and we also, we israel, will crack down on the illegal settlements and on the own right swing extremists and the west bank area. that would put i think a lot more pressure on hamas because other arab countries i think would help bring it to a conclusion. >> do you think that would be tenable for netanyahu considering the domestic situation he has on his hands? >> you are right, that is the main problem. the prime minister has had no interests for years in a two state solution. so again part of the challenge for the u.s. and others who want a peaceful outcome and of course we'll help israel continue to provide what they need, but this will never end until we do what every american administration has sought for decades, a two state solution. so somehow there has to be leverage on the prime minister both internally which there is a lot of pressure there and also from us. >> lieutenant general, thank you very much. always grateful to have you on the show. just ahead here, joe biden and benjamin netanyahu, pressure building on both of them for different reasons during this pause in the gaza fighting. plus questions remain as suspect in the shooting of three palestinian college students has pleaded not guilty. >> and less than seven weeks until the iowa caucuses. can nikki haley and ron desantis make any dany dent in donald tr lead. welcome back. the extended truce between israel and hamas giving palestinians brief period of calm after nearly 50 days of relentless bombardment. to allowed eight convoys to scale up and gazans time to stock up on essentials and assess the devastation. ben wedeman has more. >> reporter: in gaza city they clepg cle collect the dead lies in the street an load them on to donkey carts. thousands more remain trapped under the rubble, the fate of so many still unknown. we can't contact our very relatives he says. we don't know who has died and who still alive. according to the ramallah based palestinian health ministry, the death toll the day before the truce began reached nearly 15,000, two-thirds of whom were women and children. a few days of relative calm have allowed people to emerge and see what this war has wrought, destruction on a scale gaza which has been through so much over the decades has never seen before. according to the u.n., around 1, 700,000 gazans have been displaced, about 80% of the population. many of those crammed into the south. the pause has allowed people to resupply, but so far only a drop in the ocean says the u.n. all the while people are hoping, wishing, today's calm will not be followed by the storm. we hope he says that the truce continues and holds permanently and that the israelis pull out of the north so that everyone who was forced to flee can return to their homes even if they are in ruins, even if they have to live in tents. with winter's grip tightening, hundreds wait for a bag of flour from the u.n. more supplies are getting into gaza, but not enough. how many days is this bag of flour supposed to ask us, she asks? one, two, three days? and how many days before this war flares anew. ben wedeman, cnn, jerusalem. our thanks to ben wedeman for that report. for more on all of this, let's bring in max foster. always wonderful to see you. so these extensions have been for these brief periods of times, we had some planned four days, now another two. wolf blitzer our colleague spoke with one of netanyahu's senior virzs on monday, and he asked him about the pause. let's take a look at what he had to say. >> as long as they keep releasing hostages ten a day, humanitarian pause will continue. so people who want to see the pause continue should be putting pressure on hamas continue to release hostages. >> what do you hear when you hear him talk about that? it really does seem to me, you know, if they run out of -- hamas using these hostages as leverage and there is also a difference between the win and children that they are releasing and military aged men. >> absolutely. so women and children, i mean, they will run out as it were as a bargaining tool as more are released. and then they do get on to the men. and then it becomes the soldiers as well, the serving idf soldiers who they have in captivity. so at what point do they start releasing them and at what price. so one would assume if you look back at the release of gilad, remember that story, 1,000 palestinians in return for him. and at the moment we're talking about three palestinian prisoners for each israeli. i imagine hamas would ask for more as they move on to the men and idf soldiers. that is one thing that might change the dynamic a bit. also it does depend on hamas, we've talked about this a bit, managing to get hold of all of the hostages. we know some are held by islamic jihad. those two groups seem to be working and coordinating well right now. i was speaking to an analyst in israel earlier on saying there are other hostages being held as he called it families. other people may call them groups. these are hostages that he says were taken in during this chaos on october 7. other groups, our families, our individuals even taking hostages, they are with those hostages right now. and the analysts i'm speaking to saying that there is a price to return those hostages to hamas so that they can become a part of this truce agreement. so there are complexities behind the scenes and they really define whether or not hamas is in a strong position to negotiate. >> very complex indeed. can we talk about benjamin netanyahu? because, you can sort of hear it in the israeli official's voice as well, sort of like the unce certainty that the bombing campaign will clearly continue when hostage releases cease. and that is due in no small part to political pressure on netanyahu pl how . how do you understand the dynamics he is facing? >> he vowed to destroy hamas, so it seems as though he has to complete that goal to live up to his promise. he has to be shown to be a strong leader because within the country he is very weak politically. i think the challenge is almost international amongst the allies because more and more the longer this war grinds on, the more civilians that die, the more israel is accused of war crimes, obviously not proven, but those allegations are starting to be made. there will be more fractious i think within the international alliances for israel and that was a challenge also for america because they are seen as the most closely aligned to israel. so perhaps biden and his administration could come under pressure from countries in europe, for example, and that does change the dynamic a bit and put pressure on israel. >> and our colleague wrote there will be no pause in biden's headache over the israel-hamas war which i think you are alluding to there. max foster, thank you as always. and just ahead here, when lawyers say we'll see donald trump back on the stand in his new york itcivil fraud trial. anand where itit feeeels li wintnter and looooks like itit momorning. authorities in vermont are investigating whether the shooting of three palestinian college students is a hate crime. two men remain hospitalized and one has been released. suspected shooter jason eaton has pleaded not guilty to attempted murder charges. border patrol officials say a new spike in my grant encounters is forcing them to redirect personnel shutting down two busy crossings at the u.s./mexico border. bridges for vehicle traffic in texas and arizona were temporarily closed to deal with what they call an dented frolow of migrants. and donald trump will be the final witness on december 11. his younger son eric set to testify next wednesday. they have been already found liable for inflating the value of his assets. chilly temperatures across much of the u.s. bringing lake-effect snow for some regions and causing major headaches on the roadways. let's get straight to our weatherman derek van dam tracking it all for us. it is very chilly here in washington. what have you got for us? >> so it is the lake-effect snow we're focusing in on it because it is so hazardous across very localized areas from upstate new york to parts of pennsylvania and into parts of ohio. this is what it looked like in hamburg just outside of the buffalo city region. and you can see multiple spinouts. there were car crashes. you can see interstate 90 just piled up with snow. we're talking about 1 to 2 inch snowfall per hour, and even some reports of lightning or thundersnow i should say. erie county, pennsylvania, low visibility because of the intense lake enhanced snow bands that have formed. and we've seen over a foot of snow in some of these locations. radar shows the narrow bands that continue to impact cleveland, just south of buffalo. and there is erie, pennsylvania. these snow bands really are only a couple miles wide. you go just to the south of that and you have clear skies overhead. so very localized, but nonetheless, there are still about 3 million people under the lake-effect warning downwind from lake ontario and lake erie as well. so as this cold air that is surging across the northeast moves over the relatively warm lake waters, it draws the air into the atmosphere, cools, condenses and ultimately creates the snow. the point i'm getting at here, once the cold air goes away like it is forecast do, we turn the lake-effect snow taps off and this will come to an end by this time tomorrow. here is a quick look at the temperatures. for you, 40 degrees in d.c. >> thank you very much. appreciate it. still ahead here, what we know so far about the possible release of hostages from gaza in the coming hours. and republican congressman george santos facing expulsion when the house returns to the capitol today. good morning, thanks for being up early with us. i'm kasie hunt. today more hostages are scheduled to be released after hamas and israel struck a deal to extend their four day pause in fighting by an additional two days. >> for every ten hostages released, we're willing to give an extension of another day and if hamas will release israeli hostages as agreed, we'll extend. that is the bottom line. >> so yesterday on what was originally going to be the last day of the truce, hamas freed 11 hostages, all israeli dual citizen, none of them american. israel released 33 palestinian prisoners and detainees, mostly teenage boys. hamas released 69 hostages in total in exchange for 150 palestinian prisoners freed by israel. let's bring in shawn turner. always good to see you. what do the extra two days mean for hamas in particular? >> good morning, good to be here. first of all, it is important to say that the release of 69 hostages so far is some of the most positive news we've seen since the start of the conflict. but i'm looking at this through a military and intelligence lens and thinking about as you asked what is means for hamas. what i'm confident of, that hamas is not taking time to sort of enjoy the relative calm of this pause. these terrorists understand, they know that israel is bent on taking them off the battlefield. so they are contemplating, plotting, thinking about their next move. they understand what it means for them and that next move could mean anything from thinking about how they -- if they capture and live to fight another day to resupplying or recharging and getting ready to take the fight back to israel. so for them, it means more time for them to figure out what their next move is. but on the other hand, it is very positive we're seeing the release of some of the hostages. >> absolutely. and it does make sense. one thing that i'm particularly curious about, only on one american has been released so far, the 4-year-old abigail edan. there is a pair of american women that they expected to have been part of the release yesterday, and they were not. so far the administration seems to be holding back and at least saying publicly that they are upset about it, but so far they don't believe -- they have no reason to believe that hamas is doing this intentionally. what is your sense of what is going on there and what is kind of the calculation for hamas in terms of releasing americans that it may be holding? is it in their interests to give them up, in their interests to hang on to them and why? >> i think that it is no coincidence that as we're seeing hostages released that antony blinken is heading to israel, you know, i understand that publically the united states officials are saying that they don't believe there is anything to the fact that we haven't seen any americans released, but we know that the entire world recognizes that the united states is israel's closest and most important ally. and as long as there are american hostages being held, the leverage that hamas has is not just leverage with israel and leverage with international powers, but it is leverage with the united states. i think that it would be foolish for us not to think that that is a factor and i think that part of antony blinken eye's trip is only send a clear message that the united states wants to see the pause continue so we get more hostages released, but there will certainly be discussions about the flight of american hostages and what might be able to be done to see americans released. >> what aspects of blinken's trip do you think might be related to the potential resumption of fighting in the wake of this truce? >> i think that while certainly american hostages are important, the bulk of the sort of purpose of this trip is really going to be related to what happens next. the fact that we've seen a willingness to release more hostages for a continued pause is very positive development. for the united states, it is two things. one is how do we continue that pause, but the other part of it is that the united states needs to continue to put pressure on israel to come up with a plan for what is next. and obviously from u.s. perspective, that is a two state solution. but those discussions, it is time for those discussions to really begin in earnest and for israel to continue to talk about eliminating hamas, to talk about what gaza looks like once the war has wrapped up. >> all right. shawn turner, thank you very much for being with us. always appreciate your insight, sir. >> thanks. despite doubt expressed by other republicans, speaker mike johnson is feeling, quote, confident in the house's ability to push through supplement al funding for ukraine and israel. >> and there are deadlines on it, so i'm confident and optimistic that we'll be able to get that done. >> he might be the only one. at a press conference yesterday, johnson named both israel and ukraine aid as top priority, but he didn't commit to tying the two of them together. he did demand that any ukraine aid must include changes to u.s. border policy. of course many democrats are opposed to that. let's bring in our political reporter. thank you for being here. how complicated is johnson's path forward? i'm honestly surprised that he could say with a straight face we're confident that we'll get that done because sitting here, i don't see it. what is your reporting? >> it is a tall order at this point. right now the funding is in the senate. when i talk to republicans in the senate, they say the president's plan is dead on rifle arrival in its current form. so that means to me that there has to be some kind of bipartisan negotiation to basically come up with some kind of agreement. there has been a lot of -- everyone knows that border control or border security is the item that republicans want put forward on this. so we'll have to see whether or not that comes to fruition. >> the sticking point here of course, and you're right to point out this is all tied together, it is in the senate, there there have been negotiations going on back and forth between republicans and a ski key group of democrats, to try to figure out how to make changes to border policy that republicans have been demanding. that is the real sticking point. mitch mcconnell talked about this on the senate floor yesterday. let's listen to what he had to say and then we'll talk about what it means. watch. >> biggest holdup to national -- to the national security supplement is insistence by some republicans, just partisan border policy. >> apparently our colleagues are considering putting support for israel on the chopping block unless we promise not to fix the border crisis they helped create. so madam president, this sort of cynical short sided politics has denied the american people real border security too many times. >> and of course we heard chuck schumer there before mitch mcconnell. what exactly do republicans want to see in terms of border policy changes, and how much do you think democrats are willing to give? this seems to be more about ukraine than israel but mcconnell saying they are holding up israel for this. that is not fully my understanding. what is your? >> you're right. when i talk to republicans, they say that finishing the border wall is one of their priti priorities, but they also want to address the credible threat issue and they want to raise the threshold where immigrants can come across to the country. democrats don't want to put that measure or those restrictions on aid because they feel like it will drop out specifically ukraine funding won't be supported by the mass and be able to pass. >> let's talk briefly about george santos. he wrote in a post on the platform that he will not resign and that he will stand for expulsion vote. house speaker has said votes your conscience. so it doesn't seem like they are whipping to protect him necessarily. how do you think this plays out? >> what we know now, two democrats will put a resolution on the floor to expel george santos. this will be the third resolution that comes to the house floor and dan golden and garcia from california. it is not clear whether they have the votes at this point however. there was also this renewed push from clay higgins yesterday, he sent out a dear colleague letter that asked his republican colleagues to reconsider voting santos out because he wasn't comfortable with the ethics procedure. so again, we're not sure if this is going to move forward. it is definitely coming to the floor probably thursday. not sure if two-thirds of congress or the house will vote to oust george santos. >> well, pins and needles for him. it has been an interesting career in the united states congress for him so far. thank you for being with us this morning. appreciate it. all right. up next, hunting for votes in the hawkeye state. can next week's debate give the republican field a chance to put a dent in donald trump's lead? plus former president jimmy carter expected to attend a memorial service today for his late wife rosalynn. ahead, who else will be attending. it is officially no longer too early. final countdown has begun. we're now seven weeks from the iowa caucuses where donald trump is currently cruising. nickki haley and ron desantis ae battling it out for a distant se second. this contest of course will be the first real world test of whether any of these republicans can put a dent in donald trump's, frankly, easy march to the nomination. let's bring in our cnn politicalen a list jackie could you jackie kucinich. donald trump learned it back this 2016 when he their rowly l lost to ted cruz. there is they have he have faction in iowa and an organizing principle that make them a little unpredictable. and ron desantis has gotten an endorsement from the iowa governor, very rare thing for a governor to endorse, also has endorsement from an influential evangelical leader who basically stood with the winner every time in recent contests. what do you see playing out here, how does desantis' standing at the moment, what does it say about him? seems like it is do or die for him. what does doing it well mean, does it mean coming this second? >> i think at this point if anyone can show that they can defeat trump on any plane, but particularly iowa, because it is the first one that could potentially change the pace of the race. right now you're seeing really a race for second place throughout the debates and polling. and that is between ron desantis and nikki haley. and you're right, desantis has put a lot of time and resources in iowa. and he is polling behind now in a lot of polls in new hampshire behind nikki haley. so he does need this momentum boost and that could come from iowa. now, if trump trounces both of them, i think that we're in for an early night. >> potentially, yeah. and we can put this up on the screen, the current standings in iowa or at least the most recent credible standings from the "des moines register" poll which has trump out at 43%. that is below 50%. a lot of the national polls have him above 50%. haley coming from behind. desantis had been a strong second previously. haley is experiencing a surge, up at 16% now. i guess i think the thing that i'm most interested in seeing, if ron desantis falls behind haley in iowa, and the air goes out of that balloon and then haley -- polls in new hampshire shows haley in an even stronger second position to trump, what kind of an opportunity does that create for her? >> let's be honest, one of these candidates could use a win in iowa, but if haley has a strong showing in iowa, just putting it out there, but if haley has a strong showing in iowa going into a friendlier terrain which is new hampshire and then south carolina her home state, that could potentially boost your candidacy. but that said, getting from second to first place is quite a task because the former president has a commanding lead. but iowa caucuses are very unpred unpredictable. being someone's second choice could actually matter there. so this could have huge potential for either one of those candidates, but they have got to get closer than the 20 odd point deficit that we're currently at in most polling. >> yeah, and this is of course predicated on the idea that's would count its votes out in time so that it would matter. they haven't done that in the last cycles. and there is another debate coming up. nikki haley said yesterday -- well, just take a look. >> we've got another debate next week. you're going to see, my guess, three candidates on the stage. so the stage is getting smaller. when the stage gets smaller, our chances get bigger. >> is she right? >> she's really excelled at these debates. that has been a real boost to her candidacy as more people see her. but one person is still not on that stage and that would be the republican frontrunner, at least at this point. former president trump is not expected to be there. and without him there, you don't see how the match-up would work. that in and of itself i think is limiting for her. that said, fewer people on that stage if you are nikki haley is a good thing because it has been a forum where she's been able to show what she can do. >> it has really been the thing that changed her trajectory. all right. jackie kucinich, very grateful to have you. thank you for being here. former president jimmy carter traveling to atlanta today to attend a memorial service to his late wife the former first lady rosalynn carter. and also in attendance, jill biden and laura bush, hillary clinton, michelle obama and melania trump. today's service is part of a series of events honoring mrs. carter this week. a private funeral will be held in plains, georgia tomorrow. mrs. carter died peacefully on november 19 at the age of 96. she and former president carter were married for 77 years. do be sure to join jake tapper for special live coverage of the memorial service that starts today 12:00 p.m. eastern on cnn. 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. welcome back. some remarkable and remarkably good news coming out of northern india right now. crews there apparently rescuing 41 workers who were trapped for more than two weeks after a tunnel partially collapsed. this is a live picture just outside the tunnel. medics have now gone inside ahead of bringing the workers out. the men within trapped after the tunnel gave way blocking their only exit. glad there is good news there. and sports now. lebron james has now played more minutes than any other player in nba history. but that was really the only positive of the night for the lakers. andy scholes has the "bleacher report." good morning. >> good morning. and so counting the regular season and playoffs, lebron has now played 66,319 minutes. he's now first all-time passing kareem abdul jabar. but tough to celebrate as the 6ers blowing out lebron's lakers. so philly outscoring l.a. by 26 in the fourth quarter to win this game 138-94. the 44 point loss the worst of lebron's entire career. and another wild stat in this one, lebron also failed to grab a rebound for the first time in 1098 games. so you can imagine he was not in the best of moodses after the loss. >> having to change things. >> anything in particular? >> not a lot. >> and bears and vikings delivering a dud last night. this game was 6-3 entering the fourth quarter. vikings quarterback josh dobbs threw four interceptions but justin fields wasn't much better, he lost two fumbles in the fourth quarter because he was able to manufacture a big drive at the end. dj moore, 114 yards in this one and chicago kicks the go-ahead field goal with ten seconds left and win 12-10, becoming the first team to win this season without scoring a touchdown. panthers firing frank reich yesterday less than one season into the job. so second straight season now that reich has been fired mid season. last season he was let go in indy. panthers owner has now had six different head or interim coaches since buying the team. carolina has the worst record at 1-10 and they don't have the first round pick because they traded it away in order to move up to draft bryce young. finally college football playoff rankings will be out tonight, the last ones before championship weekend. all 41 bowl match-ups will be announced sunday. including the inaugural pop starts tarts bowl and they announced the winning team will eat the mascot. so i guess a giant poptart and the winning players get to take a bite. >> okay, sure. whatever works. >> maybe they will have a giant toaster that they jump in right before hand. >> exactly. and i'm like this is -- as a child of the 80s, i feel like poptarts were a big part of my i was never right out of the box all chocolate all the way. not sure that was healthy for breakfast, but that's what we did. andy scholes, thank you very much nar. i'll see you soon. thanks to all of you for joining us.. i'm kasie