you are live in the "cnn newsroom." i'm alex marquardt in washington alongside kaitlan collins in tel aviv. jim acosta is off tonight. thank you for being with us. we are continue with our breaking news coverage of the war between israel and hamas. a nightmare that began seven weeks ago has finally ended for several israeli families. today a third group of hostages was finally released from the gaza strip. in just the past few hours, we've watched as they arrived at hospitals in israel to be reunited finally with their loved ones. and for the first time tonight, we're also seeing some of those emotional moments. families inside hospitals finally embracing after weeks of heartbreak and uncertainty. these are 13 of the 14 israeli hostages released today, women and children. 13 of them ranging in age from 4 to 84 years old. there was a 14th israeli who was also a russian national, and then three more foreign nationals also freed today, bringing the total to 17. today we saw the first successful release of a young american hostage. this was 4-year-old abigail edan. she turned 4 while in captivity just a few days ago. her parents were killed by hamas on october 7th. president joe biden has spoken with her family tonight. he says he's hopeful that the four-day truce can be extended to allow more hostages to be released. kaitlan, i can't help but think as we see these reunions, these joyful moments between parents reuniting with their children, specifically the one between tom and emily hand yesterday, that ot going to have that. she's coming out, and she has to learn that both of her parents were killed and go on with her life. of course there is a family that is so ready to welcome her back. >> reporter: yeah. s she's survived by her two siblings who were able to escape on that day. they actually thought their younger sister had been killed because she was in her father's arms when he was killed. she ran covered in her father's blood to a neighbor's home. then they were kidnapped into gaza. the word bittersweet doesn't really do it justice, but that is what this moment is for so many of these hostages who are returning home, who are going to hospitals and undergoing these medical evaluations. a lot of them are learning the full scope of what happened today, whether their loved ones had been killed. adina moshe, one of the hostages, her husband was buried while she was being held captive. she did not get to go to his funeral. you see moments like that, and it speaks to the bittersweet nature of all of this. the question is whether or not there are going to be more hostages brought home after this four-day truce is over, if it's extended. we are hearing from hamas for the first time saying they do want to extend that deal. that is not something we had heard from the group so far. tonight a source tells me israel's war cabinet here in tel aviv has been discussing that possibility. it's not clear where it will end up yet. but as part of this pause now under way, an additional 39 palestinian prisoners and detainees were released from israeli jails today. you saw this moment in the west bank as they were being welcomed back by their families. also part of this pause, more than 100 trucks carrying desperately needed aid like food and baby formula arrived in gaza, in north gaza, today. i want to bring in cnn's chief global affairs correspondent matthew chance. you were outside the hospital earlier. can you kind of set the scene of what you saw as we've kind of watched this process take place now three times. >> two helicopters arrived, big, huge, israeli military-troop carrying helicopters filled with the hostages that were released in this third successive group under the hostage deal. there were lots of people that had gathered outside the fence of the helipad, 100 local residents waving israeli flags, giving those people the welcome home they feel they're deserving of. but also expressing sadness so many people left behind. still about 180 hostages inside gaza. we talked about the possibility of extending that pause to allow for more hostages to come out. that's something that's in everyone's interest. it's certainly something that the israelis we've spoken to want because they want to see as many hostages as possible sort of take advantage of this sort of diplomatic agreement between h hamas and israel to get these hostages out as soon as possible. >> we're seeing those moments with hostages being reunited with their families. this is a video of a hostage we reported on the first day, jimmy pacheco. he was the filipino caregiver in kibbutz nir oz. this is him being clapped out of the hospital earlier today. he has a wife. he has three children. you know, when you look at the moment of what we're talking about on october 7th, these people that are not you're, they're not israeli. they're caregivers and laborers who are living on these farms. >> they're a significant proportion of the number of people who are being held hostage inside gaza. what israel says is that it's going to give people like jimmy and people like the thais as well that have come out -- another fthree came out today - as much care as they can in hospitals inside israel to make sure they're recovered medically and psychologically as much as possible. i spoke to a foreign ministry official at one of the hospitals the other day, and he was telling me that each of these people, whether they're israeli or foreigners, they get a monthly stipend as well of a couple of thousand dollars. they get that for the rest of their lives. it's not much in israel to live on, but, you know, for people from thailand, people from the philippines that do often kind of agricultural laboring jobs in this country, that will make a significant difference. it's a way for israel to try and sort of, in part, compensate for what they've been through here. >> just in a monetary sense and the care for life they're going to need. we'll continue to check in with you. for more on what is happening, though, as we are now entering what is going to be the final stage of what has been agreed to so far, this temporary truce, lieutenant colonel jonathan can rick easy, it's good to have you on the program. i just want to first ask you about this request that we are now seeing hamas weigh in, i should say, on this idea of extending the truce beyond four days when it's set to expire tomorrow. does that seem like that's likely now that hamas is saying it also is on board with extending it? >> hi, kaitlan. thank you for having me again. it's part of the agreement. it's part of the terms that there is this option to extend the pause in return for 10 live -- at least 10 live israelis per day, and that may happen. i have read the reports and i've heard the statements made by the prime minister's office. and as we maintain our readiness to continue operations all over gaza, we, of course, wait for orders from the israeli cabinet and having another day of no hostilities in return for 10 israeli live hostages is, of course, a good deal. >> and if that extension does not happen, is your understanding that tuesday morning at 7:00 a.m. local when it hits that 96-hour period, that israel immediately resumes its military campaign in gaza? >> well, that is definitely what the idf is ready and prepared, equipped, and poised to do. i'm sure that hamas will try to make it -- you know, they'll muddy the waters and try to create a difficult situation, an unclear situation. they will try to, of course, use the pain and suffering and frustration and anger of israeli families, try to turn that against the government and the military, et cetera. we understand that. that's part of their psychological warfare. but at the end of the day, there's set terms to this agreement. the idf understand these terms. and if and when we'll reach that day and date without a clear indication, which has approval and support of outside factors as well, the qataris, for instance, that there will be another 10 live israelis released, then of course the idf is ready and, i might add, quite eager to get going back and fighting with hamas to make sure that the october 7th massacre and no other terrorist attack will ever happen from the gaza strip again. >> how many women and children do you believe, based on what israel knows so far, are still being held in gaza tonight? >> many, many women. i mean we're talking about the total number of under 19 was 40 before the first israeli hostages were released. we've heard some information from hamas that they allegedly don't know where they are and that they need more time. this sounds like more hamas lies and manipulations. by the way, they lied about the fact, you know, they've violated the terms of the agreement. they were supposed to not split families, but they released a young israeli girl, a teenage girl, and they kept her mother in captivity. and when we asked about it, they said, well, no, we don't know where she is, only that the daughter tells that they were together up until two days before the release, and they were together the entire time. so we know that hamas lies. we know they will try to manipulate and create a difficult situation here, and we are ready to continue fighting. in terms of the other women here, you know, there's female soldiers, and there's women civilians -- >> can i ask you -- i do want to follow up on that because you're talking about hila rotem. she was the first hostage we've seen who we knew was being held with her mother that wasn't released with her mother. what's your suspicion of why hamas did not release her mom? >> they're preying on the feelings of israelis, as simple as that. they want to manipulate. they want to create more suffering. they want to leverage each and every israeli in their captivity for political pressure. they think that they can buy their way out of this situation that they have forced upon us, this war, and that they want to use the civilian hostages in order to try to survive and see yet another day. this will fail. by whatever means necessary, israel will finish the business with hamas, and at the end of this war, the hostages will be home. that is our commitment. and hamas will be dismantled. >> does israel have evidence that hamas has been moving any of the hostages in this period of the pause in fighting? >> we have indications of it, yes, that they've been moved around, split and then regrouped. as we're speaking, of course, our security agencies are debriefing and asking questions and trying to learn as much as possible from these women and children that have been held for 49 or 51 days. and there's, of course, a lot to learn about the conditions, about where they were held, and any indications that could be substantial for the future. the working assumption and understanding is they were not static. they were moved around in order to protect them from us, in order to prevent us from getting there and to make it more difficult. some were a bit more static, but all of these details are now being looked into and assessed as we speak, and they will, imsure, be very positive and important for the future. >> okay. so you have seen that hamas is moving around the hostages that it does still have in its captivity. the ministry of health in gaza is saying that eight palestinians were killed by israeli fire in the west bank in just the last weekend. can you explain what happened there? >> so five of them were militants, i suppose. i mean i cannot, you know, take the palestinian health ministry reports, not in gaza, not in judea and samaria. i know of clashes and fighting in jenin and other locations, mens that took arms against israeli security personnel and tried to attack civilians. so you'll have to be a little bit more specific when it comes to palestinian reports for me to be able to respond to it. >> well, i understand that and your skepticism, but what does the idf say about this? you say five were militants. we're told that eight of them were killed. what about the other three, sir? >> right. so i don't have any updated information specifically about that. i know that there's been ongoing fighting basically before october 7th, but of course at the higher intensity since october 7th. and the idf has been operating in all of the known hamas and islamic jihad hotbeds in jenin and other places. and where there's fighting, there are also casualties. if you're insinuating and getting towards any unlawful activity by israelis or civilians or military, i want to be clear we in the idf do not condone and we do not see likely on any illegal or unprofessional activity, illegal on behalf of civilians and unprofessional on behalf of the security personnel. we do not take it lightly, and there's no tolerance for it specifically because we know how hamas and perhaps how many israel haters around the world will try to leverage that in their propaganda campaigns against israel. so there have already been strict measures taken against security personnel and police investigations against civilians. but that is not the case that i think that you're referring to. i think they're much more a result of active fighting. if you look at the names and pictures of them, they were the same age group that is so blatantly missing from hamas reports in gaza of the list of casualties. 17 to 35-year-old men. >> yeah. well, we needed to ask because we had seen these allegations. we had not seen a comment from the idf yet. so i wanted to make sure to get you on the record for that. lieutenant concern, as always, thank you for your time tonight. >> thank you for having me. up next, a man who is living in gaza is describing to cnn what life is like there right now. we're going to get inside that report with more of our special coverage that will continue right after a quick break. you're in the "cnn newsroom." we are learning more about life inside gaza during this war between israel and hamas and during the current truce. earlier today i spoke with an aid worker named youssef hamash. he works for the norwegian refugee council. he lives in gaza with his family. he told me people there are hoping the current truce may lead to a permanent cease-fire but many fear it's only a matter of time before the fighting starts again. >> people are really hoping and looking for an extending for this truce or this humanitarian pause and looking to reach a cease-fire. but if you look to the people reaction for that, they are feeling lost, and all gazans are hoping to get any sort of news to extend another few days of humanitarian pause, or it might lead for a cease-fire. we lived these three days, and tomorrow we're going to live the fourth day. but we're preparing ourselves we might die the fifth day. this is the situation in gaza. this is the first time since seven weeks we were able to walk safely in the streets, sleep safely, be in the streets without having that feeling you might get bombed at any second. that's what's going to make it really hard for people to go back into this cycle of violence because even for three days now, people have tasted the sense of safety. a lot of people were using this opportunity to reach for other people who are in the north or gaza city to check if their house is still there or have been destroyed. also a lot of people use it as a chance to feel sad and sorrow for their loved ones, who lost them. we didn't have even time to feel sad for our beloved ones that we lose during this seven weeks of madness. >> what have you done during these three days? what have they meant for you? >> so for three days at least, i managed to reach out for my relatives. some of them were injured during the bombardment. now we are going to the winter, and the winter have arrived, and people are not prepared. i use it as an opportunity to go and at least find clothes for my children because the weather is going to be -- we've never seen homeless people in gaza in our lives. now it's really common to see people sleeping in the streets and people just looking for any place and consider it as a shelter without any means of protection. with this weather, it's going to be really hard on them to cope with it. i work for a humanitarian organization, and if you combine us all as a humanitarian organization, international organization, u.n. agencies and international organizations, we cannot the need for the people in the south. and these four days are not enough, and it's an impossible mission that we can't cover all the need. comparing to the need, unfortunately it is not covering the scale of need that we have. the aid is changing something, but you cannot -- it's not tangible. you cannot feel it because the amount of need is massive. >> it sounds like everyone is just hoping that these exchanges just continue so you can drag out this moment of quiet as long as possible. but at the same time, there's a recognition that at some point, the violence will start again. >> people are really hoping that this will get longer and longer. so with every day, they extend it, people can breathe more. but also we know that it will be limited if they didn't reach a permanent cease-fire, and that's the responsibility for world leaders to maintain a solution for the scale of suffering in gaza. all what people can do is keep hoping. >> how is your family doing? >> we are in a surviving mood. we have to to look for is to survive. i hope i can provide everything for my children and my family, but unfortunately even if you have the financial capacity and have money to afford buying things, you cannot find it. i have two children. i have a 5-year-old and a 2 1/2. and they witness several wars, and my daughter can understand the difference between a missile and tank shell. we became experts. our children became experts on war. everyone is responsible for that. the international community and world leaders should do a real action to intervene, to stop this madness that it's affecting more than 2 million people in this narrow piece of land. we didn't see all of what we see in the news and this propaganda is not enough. we need a real action from people who have the influence and have the ability to stop this madness. it's they are responsible, and i'm really hoping they understand their responsibilities. it's completely madness, the amount of bombardment, the amount of explosives that have been thrown into gaza is unimaginable. we were having like an earthquake continue for seven weeks. our houses were shaking for seven weeks. we were completely disconnected during the bombardment and during this seven weeks, we have been disconnected a few times. we were even disconnected from each other. you don't know what happened the next street because there's no communication, no internet. we were completely in a blackout, and that was horrific. that experience was really horrific. we are in tlhe telecommunicatio age and in a few second, we found ourselves in the stone ages. >> hearing youssef talking about his children and how used to war they've become at just a few years old was absolutely heartbreaking. the children of gaza are bearing so much of the brunt of this war. ch thousands of children believed now to have been killed. it was clear in that conversation that youssef and so many others are taking a breath right now but are truly fearful of what lies ahead. our thanks to youssef for taking the time to speak with us today. cnn's special live coverage continues in a moment. stay with us. the fragile four-day pause in the fighting between israel and hamas is set to expire early tuesday morning local time in israel and gaza. but tonight there are talks about extending it. an israeli source telling cnn that israel's war cabinet has met to discuss that possibility of extending the temporary truce in gaza. this comes after hamas released a statement saying similar, that it supported the idea. joining us now to discuss this and more cnn military analyst wesley clark and middle east negotiator aaron david miller. thank you for joining me this evening. general clark, even if this pause is extended, we do expect israel to start its military operations again. do you think that the united states is increasing its pressure on how israel's military should conduct its activities going forward given this extraordinary level of death and destruction we've seen? >> well, i think there's a lot of pressure on israel not only from the united states but from others to somehow contain the level of destruction. go after hamas. do it in some other way. somehow get rid of the problem, but don't kill so many. don't damage, don't destroy gaza the way you've destroyed it. that pressure is real. it's on israel, and the israeli military is well aware of it and trying to implement it, but that's a very tall order. it's very difficult to go after hamas, hiding in civilian buildings behind hostages and other things, and not use kinetic means. >> aaron, we have seen and heard clear discomfort from within the biden administration about how israel is prosecuting this war, social when it comes to civilian infrastructure and civilian deaths. do you have a sense of where the white house is hoping this is going to go in the coming weeks? >> you know, i think the biden administration is understandably interested in return of hostages. even though there are only 10 americans unaccounted for, 1 returned today, i think they see these negotiations, the extension of the truce, not just as a way to get hostages back, but to get aid into gaza, both in the south and in the north. and, again, this is -- i'm not sure that they've reached this conclusion, but i do believe that they think that de-escalating this situation, keeping this humanitarian pauses going for as long as possible, is, in fact, a way to somehow constrain and/or delay military operation. i just don't believe -- even if you ran this for another four or five days, channel 12 reports there are 177 hostages that hamas has ever today's release. 61 of those are women and children. 116 are adult males and females, civilians and members of the idf. hamas is not going to release certainly not the idf troops that they have. so they're going to run out of hostages to trade, and the reality is this israeli war cabinet is committed, i think, particularly now that hamas seems to have grown in stature with palestinian prisoner releases, trying to eradicate hamas' military structure above ground and below ground and to kill its senior leaders. i don't think that objective has changed. >> those negotiations for one soldier lasted years, and now we may have dozens or even scores. general clark, when it comes to the possibility of a wider war and the fears around that, we have hezbollah, the militant group to the north in lebanon, abiding by this pause even though they aren't a party to this deal. we have seen dozens, more than 70 now of smaller attacks on u.s. forces in iraq and syria. if all of these groups haven't really tried in earnest to open another front, do you think that that fear is now over. >> i don't think it's over. i think the israeli military leadership understands full well that what hamas did, hezbollah could do, and it could be much more damaging if done by hezbollah. they realize they've got to deal not only with the hamas issue, but they have to face up to the fact that hezbollah can do the same thing. it depends on how this is resolved obviously. if it's resolved and hamas is the big loser, then hezbollah may be deterred. if hamas comes out of this as a hero for having blunted the israelis, survived, released palestinians, and raises its prestige all over the palestinian cause, well, that incentivizes hezbollah to follow suit, and the israelis are going to be watching this very closely. they do not want to do anything that incentivizes hezbollah to try to imitate hamas in this. so this fear is not over. what this pause indicates, alex, is that these groups all communicate. they understand pain. it's a system. it's a way of putting maximum pressure on israel. take the hostages, prove your power, and show through global pressure that israel cannot effectively respond. that the game. israel knows it, and israel is wrestling with it because they want their people back. they want their security. >> aaron, we only have a couple moments left. where do you think the conversation stands about the governance of gaza and the palestinian people after this conflict because there has been some daylight between the u.s. and israel on that? >> i think, frankly, the idea of the arab states and a security force patrolling the streets of gaza, quashing hamas insurgency, not going to work. the palestinian authority revitalized maybe, but for the foreseeable future, no way. and they'll demand some sort of hamas sanction even if the p.a. is ready to return. the only thing that i know for certain is that the israelis are likely, regardless of how this military campaign ends, they're going to be in gaza in some form, in some fashion for some time. >> yeah, the u.s. is calling it a transition period. thanks as always for your time and your perspective. have a good night. getting aid into gaza is a major part of this truce. a u.n. official involved in getting that help to palestinians will join us next. stay with us. at least 120 aid trucks have entered gaza through that rafah border crossing on sunday, we are told, by the egyptian government that delivery of essential supplies that so many people have gone for so long without has been a key factor in sustaining this temporary truce between israel and hamas. therefore, the exchanges of israeli hostages for palestinian prisoners. i want to discuss the humanitarian aspect of this with the executive director of the united nations relief and works agency in the united states, mara cronin feld. thank you so much for being here. we've seen these truckloads of what we are told is fuel, water, food supplies going in through the rafah crossing into gaza. we're told a lot of it has made it to north gaza where it's desperately needed. what can you tell us about what has made it in so far? >> yeah. so like you said, there were over some 150 trucks that made it in today. we know on november 24th, there were 137 trucks, and this is a much larger number than the number of trucks that had come in previous to this humanitarian pause. on average, there were some 35 to 45 trucks that were able to make it in. very importantly, there's been about 190,000 liters of fuel that's finally been allowed in. this fuel is absolutely essential for the desalination of water. water, up until recently, potable water was running out. then also the fuel is essential for hospitals to function, for bakeries to function. there were so many bakeries that were both out of fuel and out of flour. now with flour and fuel, hopefully bakeries can start working again. there is still not enough, however, getting to the north of the strip, and we hope in the coming days, that we can get more and more supplies there. we know that many people are facing starvation in the north, and there are only two functioning hospitals right now out of 24 that there had been previous to this conflict. >> well, given that, what's the biggest challenge with getting more to the north? is it just because it's a greater distance, or what's been the biggest obstacle so far? is it because it's total destruction and the roads are messed up? what's your sense of that? >> it's safety concerns. i have heard news reports that gazans who are coming back to their homes in the north, there have been people shot at. and also i can tell you just a couple of days ago, my dear colleague, who has been interviewed on cnn a number of times, his brother and his bro brother's wife and four children were killed in their apartment in north gaza. so frankly, north of warigaza is still extremely unsafe. but that said, there is no safe place in gaza right now. we have had 99 incidents of our own u.n. buildings being hit. some 77 buildings have been hit, and 27 of those are direct hits, which is a clear violation of international humanitarian law. >> mara, given that one concern had been hamas taking this desperately needed aid for themselves, for fighters, using the fuel for their military purposes, have you seen any evidence of that happening with this aid that's going in? >> no. we don't -- unrwa has a no-contact policy with hamas. this aid goes directly to unrwa, whether it's from world food programme or from the world health organization, or from the palestinian red crescent. unrwa receives all these goods and services, the vast majority of them on the other side of the rafah crossing. and then unrwa trucks takes these supplies to what are now over 1 million internally displaced individuals who are in unrwa shelters. actually 80% of this population of 2.2 million in gaza, 1.7 of them, 80% are displaced. 1 million of those are in unrwa shelters, and unrwa provides this food and medicine and other support to those in these shelters. >> because they've all been forced to go to the south as a part of this war. mara, thank you for joining us with the latest update on this crucial aid in gaza tonight. >> thank you. and we'll have much more on that angle of this story and the rest of our special coverage. we're going to take a quick break. we'll be back in j just a momem. there's a call for a hate crime investigation in vermont after three palestinian college students were injured in a shooting in burlington. this is the last photo taken of the three of them before they were shot. police say they are looking for a white male who they say opened fire without saying a word. cnn's carlos suarez joins us now. carlos, what more are we learning about this? >> alex, authorities in vermont are looking into the possibility that this shooting was a hate crime, but they have yet to establish a motive. here is what we know at this hour. the three palestinian students, according to police in burlington, vermont, were walking down a street. they were visiting a relative for thanksgiving holiday when they were approached by a man who was armed with a gun and opened fire. all three of these students were shot. now we're told that at the time of the shooting, two of these palestinian students were wear wearing a kkeffiyeh, a traditional palestinian scarf, and they were wearing it before this shooting took place. all three of the students were taken to vermont medical center, two of them at last check are in stable condition, and the third, we're told, had some more serious injuries. now according to the institute for middle east understanding, that's an organization that's in contact with some of the family members. they identified these students as 20-year-olds tahseen ahmad, kinnan abdalhamid, and hisham awartani. all of them we're told graduated from a private school in the west bank before they came to the u.s. to attend various colleges here. now awartani's great uncle, who we're told is a former education minister pour the palestinian authority, he said that hisham was visiting his grandmother when this shooting took place. in fact, we're told that his mother right now is in the process of trying to come to the u.s. to see her son. again, police in burlington, vermont, are still trying to figure out a motive for this. they're looking at the possibility that this was a hate crime. here now is an attorney that is representing some of the family members that say the details surrounding this shooting really believes them to believe that this in fact was a hate crime. >> the suspect walked up to them and shot them. they weren't robbed. they weren't mugged. it was a targeted shooting and a targeted crime. and they were wearing the kkeffiyeh. it's a very well-known symbol. it's a very well-known cloth that is very symbolic of the palestinian cause, the palestinian culture and history. so the fact that they were wearing this and fell victim to a shooter leads us to believe that that played a role, their identity played a role in them being targeted. >> all right. so the chief of police out in burlington said that he believes no one can really look at this incident without thinking this was a hate-motivated crime. alex, one final note out here. the fbi said they are aware of this incident, and they are prepared, rather, to investigate the shooting. >> extremely troubling. carlos suarez, thank you so much for that report. we'll have much more of cnn's special coverage of the israel-hamas war and the tenuous four-day pause currentntly i in fighghting. ststay with usus.