airport hours and hours earlier and be prepared for any contingency. >> if you have to go to the airport, you better plan ahead, at least 3 to 4 hours ahead of time. >> wet weather from the south to the northeast could impact some on time arrivals and departures. some folks say that's why travelling early pays off. >> more people want to work right up to the last minute and then get their flight and it's congested and hectic and i would rather enjoy my time with family and friends without the stress of it all. >> a current look across the country right now, more than 2,000 delays and 28 cancellations today in the u.s.. denver, los angeles, phoenix, the top three trouble spots, but john, fortunately no widespread delays or disruptions to tell you about. back to you. >> john: at this point, but a lot can change, casey. >> at this point, it can. >> john: two major developments in the middle east as we await a pentagon briefing any moment announcement u.s. killed several militants in a retaliatory airstrike in iraq. and there was a vehicle attack on a u.s. base. 65th attack on our troops since last month. this is the first u.s. strike in iraq since the attack started. >> sandra: the biden administration says a deal to free dozens of hostages from hamas is nearing the finish line. >> we are very close to an agreement, but we are not there yet. as you have heard us say a number of times over the course of the past few weeks, nothing is final until everything is final, and at this point everything is not yet final. >> john: i'm john roberts in washington as we have a lot of breaking news this afternoon. hi again, sandra. >> sandra: welcome, everyone. this is "america reports". that deal could come any moment now, there are reports it would free 50 israeli women and children in exchange for 150 palestinian prisoners. >> john: and all happen during a multi-day ceasefire that could last as long as five days and maybe beyond that. what would that look like and would a ceasefire give hamas a leg up to reposition its fighters. we will ask retired lieutenant colonel daniel davis in just moments. >> sandra: jeff paul is on the ground live in southern israel to kick things off this hour, jeff. >> yeah, sandra, and it is a critical time right now in this war. we are standing by and watching closely what happens during this meeting involving israeli government officials. they could potentially vote to approve a hostage deal at the same time that is all happening the chief of hamas earlier today saying they are "close to a truce" now exactly what that would look like, that could be developing as the minutes tick on, the hours tick on, during these tense negotiations. but as we understand, roughly 50 israeli hostages, women and children, would be exchanged for a multi-day pause. it could get aid into gaza, included fuel, food and clean water. yesterday some of the families of the hostages met with israeli war cabinet members. demanding not only answers as to what's going on but want the israeli government to act now to bring all the hostages home. but the idf told fox news israel is trying to negotiate with a violent terrorist group so right now there are no guarantees. >> until we see things with our own eyes and get our hands on whatever or whomever we get out, we cannot be certain of anything happening. >> while the negotiations continue, the fighting does as well. the idf says they have encircled the city of jabalia, considered the last stronghold in northern gaza. israeli forces hit the area with heavy artillery, as well as airstrikes and added that soldiers found as many as three more tunnel shafts but as it stands here on the ground there, is no deal, but israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu earlier said he's hoping for good news and for that to happen soon. >> sandra: jeff paul reporting live from southern israel, john. >> john: daniel davis, i want to put up this map, the latest tally of attacks against u.s. forces by iranian proxies in the middle east. they are up to 65 attacks now, and you see right there in the middle of iraq, the al-asad air base. there was a vehicle attack against that air base, a spector gun ship, c-130 was dispatched to the area and took out a vehicle that was responsible for that attack, killing a number of iranian proxy fighters at the same time. this would appear to be probably the hardest punch in the nose that we have hit these iranian proxies with. do you think this will dissuade them or will they keep attacking us? >> no, 0 chance -- there will be no deterring. they are committed to continue doing this as you have seen every time we have had the airstrikes or whether it was this one here that actually hit the people that did it. so, certainly good in that point finally, if you are going to go after somebody, go after the guys who are attacking the americans and not building somewhere which don't deter anyone. but the fact is, these are going to continue and reading some comments from the region, especially those in iraq, they are saying they are going to continue to do this, they are trying to suck the united states into more conflict and they want to try to tie them down. they are not going to stop, and it will continue on until i fear one of us gets killed. >> john: also seems as though hezbollah has tried to suck israel into a deeper conflict in the north. it helped up its harassment of idf forces, almost kind of goading them to come across the border and give hezbollah a chance to enter the war fully. rear admiral said, lebanon citizens will bear the cost of recklessness of hezbollah to be defender of hamas-isis. idf has operational plans for changing the security situation in the north. the u.s. has been keeping a lid on this war expanding. do you expect that it can do that, or at some point will the idf say enough is enough, we are going after hezbollah? >> that is a constant stress and pressure on the israeli government for sure. the number of attacks yesterday was 18 coming from hezbollah into the south. it's starting to really aggravate the israeli civilians living in the area or within range of that, putting pressure on the government but we are putting pressure on them to prevent that, to not expand this war and it's hard for israel to stay, and i believe what they are saying that they have plans to go in there. they have done it on a full-out war in 2006 and i'm sure they have plans to do that. but that is going to be playing into the hands of many in the region and like some of these arab regimes or some of these arab groups that are trying to draw us in, they are also trying to do that, because their intent is to spread this out so it becomes a region wide war and draws more arab support into the palestinian side ultimately and we have to be disciplined to do everything we can to prevent that because we will not win if that happens. >> john: and colonel, pause with us for a second, sabrina singh is talking about the attack outside al-asad. >> one other topic, so not the first time you have responded but i think the building has been -- announced basically all the other strikes and said it's a weapons storage facility or training facility and if people have been killed it has been kind of because of the strike, not because they were targeted specifically. so you are not saying that like these specific militants -- do you have any idea who the militants were? >> we know they are iranian-backed militia members but again, just to differentiate, we have taken three strikes in self-defense, but those were preplanned. so a little different here in terms of the nuance of how we are talking about this self-defense strike early morning our time, eastern time. we were able to identify the point of origin of these attacks because ac 130 was in the area and it was able to respond. we do read out any retaliatory or self-defense strikes we take but put these into separate buckets as we talk about them. >> retaliatory strike. >> yes, but it was not planned. there was an ac130 up in the air to defend point of origin and respond. >> as negotiations for hostage release continue, part of what has been negotiated is there might be a pullback of any surveillance. does this include u.s. surveillance systems with the u.s. pull back its drones? >> i think you saw the president speak to this earlier today, while we are certainly heartened by the way the conversations are going, there is still not a deal reached until there is one, i'm not going to get ahead of anything that we will or won't do when it comes to isr or anything that we are doing when it comes to hostage recovery. we are assisting with that from the embassy, of course, but i don't have more details and don't want to get ahead of any deal that might happen. >> whether or not it's part of it, is that one of the options? >> i'm not going to get into further details on that. >> thank you, sabrina. north korea, successfully placed a spy satellite into orbit? >> we are aware of the dprk launch of a space launch vehicle and consulting with iraq and japan and other regional allies and partners. so i can confirm that we are aware of that, but still assessing the success of the launch. >> how do you assess the new spy satellite potentially -- >> john: as we veer off into north korea here, the news that this was not a planned retaliatory strike, colonel davis, it just happened to be retaliation of opportunity. there was a c130 gun ship in the area over al-asad air base when the attack happened and the 65th attack, it was a vehicle -- i don't want to say it was a vehicle-born attack, because the vehicle was not a part of the attack, it just contained militants inside it. c130 identified the target and took it out. they knew they were going after iranian proxy personnel and not just a weapons storage facility. so, this would seem to be a retaliation of a different sort rather than saying we are sick and tired of this, let's plan some targets to hit. we just got hit, take 'em out. >> yeah, i thought it was odd they are trying to make some distinction. i don't understand what the benefit of that s. i imagine the gun ship was up in the air as a result of these increased defensive positions that secretary austin has been talking about of late that they are going to give more defensive capabilities, air defense and now air power is also on the ground and if they identified a target coming after america, absolutely take them out. that's what they should be doing. i'm not sure why she's trying to distinguish between planned and unplanned, it should be a benefit and positive thing. >> john: trying to interpret was the u.s. was absorbing the first set of attacks and said ok, enough, let's give 'em a brushback pitch, which did not seem to brush them back at all. and then this one was we got 'em on the run, we know where they are, we have the asset in the air, let's send 'em a message. that's just me interpretation of it. something else that's happening in terms of, and we are talking about potential escalation to the north. we have some escalation in the south now, houthi rebels are brazenly, and they video taped the whole thing, took over an israeli flagged cargo ship. what benjamin netanyahu said about that. >> these people have no qualms atang peaceful shipping on the high seas, no qualms using hospitals as military installations, no qualms about shooting their rockets into civilian areas trying to kill as many innocent civilians, this is our enemy. >> john: the houthis are ramping it up, are we going to run interference for israel on the high seas? >> this is kind of what we were talking about the u.s. interest to keep it contained in gaza and white house is putting more emphasis and pressure on the netanyahu government that they cannot be killing innocent civilian on the palestine side for collateral damage or whatever word, they have to be better at what they are doing, that's inflaming the region. and so you see what's going on in iraq with this happening, what's going on with hezbollah, and now all of a sudden allies in yemen are trying to step up and lots of people want to take action against israel and it is gonna get harder and harder to keep this war from escalating in a way that could draw us in. and it just is not in our interest if that happens. so i hope we don't get into running interference, that's going to put us in position to draw them in by having to destroy targets in yemen and now that's going to open up a new front against us. it has the chance to spiral out and we have to be careful here. >> a lot of balls in the air at the moment. lieutenant colonel dan davis, good to get your thoughts. appreciate it. >> always my pleasure. >> sandra: the white house says they are hopeful the hostage deal will happen, a mother of two little girls held captive by hamas cannot wait any longer. she is begging the u.s., israel, red cross, and other organizations to help bring her to gaza. writing every passing hour feels like an hour closer to the phone call telling me that they have not survived. let's bring in roger zachheim, former assistant secretary of defense, thank you for being here. what do you want to tell us we are waiting for any sign this deal is going to happen and at least 50 hostages will be turned over. >> i think it's what you are hearing from the reporting you are showing earlier, accomplishment to get a deal but the deal can go away with the blink of an eye. hamas is not an honest broker, and so every step of the way anything could change. 15 hostages would be fantastic, and women with urgent medical needs, and a priority for the united states, not just israel. at least ten u.s. citizens held hostage in gaza. that's an american priority. so not just something for the israeli cabinet to focus on, but a focus of the president of the united states. >> sandra: bring this into the discussion, i spoke to the israeli president isaac herzog yesterday he talked about what it's like dealing with hamas to make a deal and get this done. listen. >> we are all waiting and we are dealing on the opposite side with a leadership of hamas, led by a man basically a psychopath in the way he operates. so, nothing that you and i can say real changes the picture. we are all waiting for what is the basic humanitarian deed, which is releasing the children and the women and of course all the rest of the hostages. >> sandra: dealing with a psychopath. how can they have any faith that hamas, even if they agree to this deal, they'll come through with it. >> trust and verify, dealing with the political leadership in qatar, it's unclear to what extent the leadership in qatar can influence events on the ground. and there was always a possibility that they are exploiting these opportunities to advance hamas militarily. so you make the deal not because it's in hamas's interest but because of israel's interest get the hostages out, humanitarian, and american interests, but nothing gives us guarantee it's going to play out in gaza. >> sandra: as so many have said in the hours leading up to where it happens, a ceasefire benefits hamas. >> israel has a sense of the battlefield, they are on the ground and could pretty much mitigate the risk of the ceasefire to make sure that it's not going to disadvantage them militarily, why they would go into it. there's been discussion whether drones will continue operating above, but other tools israel has for intelligence, particularly because they have people on the ground. so, whatever they are giving up, you can image and carry on operations if the ceasefire goes to an end, and it's not a five-day guarantee, or four, it's going to be daily if not hourly, whether it's disadvantaging israel's interests. >> sandra: how do you manage the risk of the prisoners released, 150 of them for the hostage swap. >> always a recurring concern when you enter, for one they gave 1,000, and the israeli population has felt it was not the right decision. it's a decision of the cabinet in israel, not just the prime minister. >> sandra: we were given a picture of the israeli war cabinet engaged in these negotiations and discussions we know is happening right now behind closed doors and you wonder how much time passes and the more time that passes, what would that tell you? >> it does beyond the war cabinet, it has to go to the full cabinet. news reports that elements of the current cabinet will resign over the deal but it takes time and discussion and deliberation, and they are talking about a ceasefire the same time the rockets pound on the coast, this is very complicated but the right call for israel to prioritize making a deal to get hostages out, israeli decision, not something for the west to impose. >> sandra: the picture i just referenced, we are told it's the war cabinet meeting right now on the hostage negotiations, this is what they have released to us and we have it on the screen now. that is an update to the situation. it's about all we have right now. the white house is optimistic, they said, the pentagon, sait department, the pentagon still briefing right now, israeli officials optimistic, but obviously acknowledging just how difficult and sensitive this is. thank you so much, roger. good to see you. >> john: right now we are monitoring the pentagon press briefing as israel's government considers that deal that could rescue dozens of hostages being held by hamas and iranian proxies launch at least 66 attacks against u.s. troops in the middle east. we will bring you any new developments as they are announced. >> sandra: and america's airports are already packed with thanksgiving travelers. that looks pretty civil, pretty organized. we spoke to a few people hoping to make it home to their families in time. >> got here really early. >> five hours. >> get to the airport two hours early. always somebody in the line that seems to not know all the rules. . treat it that way with aveeno® daily moisture. formulated with nourishing, prebiotic oat. it's clinically proven to moisturize dry skin for 24 hours. aveeno® ♪ if you're on medicare, remember, the annual enrollment period is here. the time to choose your coverage begins october 15th and ends december 7th. so call unitedhealthcare and see how you can get more of what matters, with our broad range of plans including an aarp medicare advantage plan from unitedhealthcare. it can combine your hospital and doctor coverage with part d prescription drug coverage, and more, all in one simple plan. these plans are made to support your whole health with $0 annual physical exams, $0 lab tests and $0 preventive care like mammograms and colonoscopies. and you'll get more for your medicare dollar with $0 copays on most covered dental services a $0 eye exam and an allowance for eyewear plus $0 copays on hundreds of prescriptions, at the pharmacy or by mail. now's the time to look at unitedhealthcare's variety of plans. so give us a call to learn more about coverage options in your area. with our right plan promise, you have our commitment to helping you find the right plan for your needs. and to help make life with medicare simpler, you'll get the all-in-one member ucard. only from unitedhealthcare, the ucard is your unitedhealthcare member id and much more. show your ucard when you visit your primary care provider, dentist or eye doctor, or fill a prescription at the pharmacy. and use it to access medicare advantage's largest national network of providers. you can count on unitedhealthcare to help you get the care you need, when you need it. enrollment ends december 7th. now's the time to learn more about america's most chosen medicare advantage plans and how they can open doors to a simpler healthcare experience with the all-in-one ucard. call unitedhealthcare today about the only medicare advantage plans with the aarp name and get more of what matters to you. 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