And streets completely torn apart. The desperate population pushed to the brink as basic services fail. And later, the search for the missing, President Biden set to speak today to the families of americans taken hostage by hamas as he denounces the terror attack. This is not even human behavior, it is pure barbarism. And were going to do everything in our power to get them home if we can find them. On what is happening on the ground, joining us now, ellison barber, along the israelgaza border. What are you seeing . Reporter hey, lester, hey, jose, you can probably hear a little bit where we are. There are helicopters that have been circling overhead, gaza just back in the direction behind us. You see we have seen throughout the last hour or so, a number of smoke plumes popping up and you can hear the Bombardment Taking place inside gaza. It is like a lull of thunder, but just one after another after another. We have been here for the last couple of hours and have just watched some of
you re watching cnn news central. hope you re having a happy and healthy thanksgiving. grateful you are sharing part of it with us. i m boris sanchez in washington, d.c. the israeli military is warning there could be changes at any moment, just hours before 13 women and children are set to be released from gaza. at midnight eastern time, a truce between israel and hamas is expected to go into effect. about nine hours later, hamas is set to free that first group of hostages. right now, the israeli government has a list of those captives and says it has notified their families. this plan coming together after a one-day delay, but the qatari government, which mediated the deal, says it is hopeful it will go as planned. we are hopeful, i don t know if i should say confident, but i m very hopeful, and as i said, the commitment we have seen from both sidese very positive to deal with this very positively. we are seeing a good level of commitment over the agreement itself, the d
what about the idea that he did not end up meeting with the iraqi prime minister? the white house said it s because it was a last-minute visit, they talked on the phone. everything is fine. do you buy that? i do not. we have 14,000 troops in the country. we have to fight with the iraqis and have a political diplomatic strategy work ed out with them. if the president travels all that way, he could have met them at an american air base at a secure cloeks. they would have done that. it s a lack of respect to visit someone else s country and not even meet that country s leadership. you didn t see president obama or president george w. bush do that when they visited combat zones in the past. colonel peter mansour, ambassador nick burns, thank you for joining us. we appreciate it. what s going on with the stock market right now. wild ride. dow down nearly 500 points after that historic thousand-point surge yesterday.
argument, that isis no longer poses a threat to the united states and have been completely eradica eradicated. that was the old argument. now he seems to be settling in this middle ground. and the fact that he did not meet with the prime minister of iraq is causing ripples. the president said troops will stay in iraq for the foreseeable future but it s unclear whether they ll be welcomed in iraq. hallie? hans nichols, thank you. peter mansour, military historian who served as executive officer to david petraeus in iraq. and former undersecretary of state for political affairs is joining us as well. colonel mansour, let me start with you. president trump was definitive on how he sees the role of troops in iraq as it relates to the drawdown of troops in syria.
agree with colonel mansour? i think the president s policy is one of lack of strategic coherence here. in taking the american forces out of syria, he s helping the russians, strengthening them, the iranians and hezbollah and president assad. we ve been fighting with the syrian kurdish partners for several years. they re the ones helping us to destroy the islamic state but that job is not finished. the president is essentially leaving the field with the job unfinished and is weakening the united states. he s also putting israel at risk. the iranians and other shia forces in syria, hezbollah, are trying to get the leg up on israel and israelis had to conduct air strikes just over this past weekend. there doesn t seem to be any sense of strategy here. it s quite superficial. it s about photo-ops on this trip with the troops. i m glad the president went to iraq. he had to do that. but there s no sense of strategy of how the united states is going to benefit from all of this.