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"the story" starts right now. >> martha: thanks, john and sandra. good afternoon. i'm martha maccallum. there's a lot at stake and going on behind chosed doors at this hour. we have high level meetings among members of the israeli government, possibly deciding if there is a deal that they can pass in their government to free some of the faces and the people behind them that you're seeing right now on your screen. about 50 hostages, women and children, in this first group is what is being considered right now. would be an exchange for a multiday pause in fighting and also for the release of about 150 palestinian prisoners to include women and some under 18 as well. so president biden made a comment on this not that long ago saying we're now very close. you can see these loved ones of hostages gathering in tel aviv. looking at their pictures, lighting candles, bring alma back says that poster. all of these families distraught for over a month now. the president was asked about the number of americans that may be released in this dial and whether or not it would include this little 3-year-old child. abigail eden. abigail lost both of her parents in the hamas attack on october 7th. the white house would not comment on the status of abigail saying it wouldn't be prudent to talk in numbers at this moment. israeli prime minister ben netanyahu is live. first we go to the reporter on the ground, correspondent jeff paul. hi, jeff. >> yeah, martha. the israeli government just getting the meeting underway a few moments ago. it's important to point out that this was previously unscheduled. so really speaks to how possibly close they could be to approving a potential hostage deal. they're expected to vote on it tonight. at the same time, this would hinge on hamas agreeing to the deal as well. earlier today, the chief of hamas put out a statement saying that they're getting close to reaching a "truce." now, as far as the specifics of the deal, that could shift. as it stands, 50 real hostages would be released. media records it would be 30 kids, eight moms and 12 women. in exchange, hamas would receive a group of palestinian prisoners and a multiday pause in the fighting. the u.s., egypt and qatar have all been involved in the negotiations and they are all signalling the same thing, that a deal could happen. >> we are now at the closest point we've been in reaching an agreement. >> sandra: >> while the negotiations continues, so does the fighting. the idf circled the last strong hold in northern gaza. israeli forces hit the area with heavy artillery and strikes and added that soldiers found as many as three more tunnel entrances. martha, it's also point to point out if this deal were approved and you had this multiday sort of pause in the fighting, it comes at a critical time for the civilians in gaza that are running low on essentials like clean water and food. martha? >> martha: thanks, jeff paul on the ground in southern israel. let's go to tel aviv and speak with ambassador mark regev. ambassador, good to have you back on the program today. what can you tell us about how quickly this meeting came together of israel's government and what are the major sticking points in the discussions ongoing. >> so i've left now the government discussions to talk with you. those discussions are going on. this is the full israeli government. it's over 30 ministers and sitting around the time. my prime minister addressed them before. he said, if we're not getting all of our people out now, that remains our goal. but we're getting out people and that's the main thing. he said specifically that we're talking about a temporary, if this works, a temporary cessation of fire to get our people out. we've said that from the very beginning. we said we'll agree to ass paus in operations. they agree because they're facing the blows of the idf. we were destroying their military machine and eliminating senior commanders. they were hurting. because they're feeling the pain, they agreed to things that they didn't agree to in the past and we'll see if this proceeds as i hope it does. we'll see a substantial group of hostages freed and coming back to their families. that is very, very important. >> martha: it's very important, obviously, sir. was there a discussion in the room that you were just in with prime minister netanyahu about specifically which hostages would be part of this particular group and whether or not there would be americans among those released in this group, sir? >> so at this stage, while the discussions in my government are still going on, i can't go into that level of detail and i apologize. i'm not saying that anything you have reported so far is wrong. all i'm saying is i'm not at liberty at this stage to go into the details, only when my government reaches a final decision, which could take a few hours. because once again, we have a parliamentary democracy. all the members get to express their opinions and in the end there will be a vote. i'm pretty sure the prime minister will have a majority to get it through the government. we still have to do through the process. >> so if that takes a few hours and it sound as though you are optimistic that the israeli government will approve the tenants of this particular deal and the pause in fighting that is part of it, how long -- then what happens? how long do you think it will take for us to actually see people start emerging and would that be happening at the rafah gate? >> we have a legal process in israel where once the government reaching its decision and if the decision involves the release of terrorists in israeli prisons, then the families of those that were killed by those terrorists have the right under our law, under our constitutional practice, have the right to petition israel's supreme court. if they oppose the release of people that are involved in the murder of their loved ones. that can added maybe another 20, 24 hours to the decision-making process in israel. it's not enough that the government decides. after that, the israeli supreme court, if there are petitions, must hear those petitions. as i say, that could add 24 hours to the process. we have judicial review like you have in the united states. but i would expect in the past, the israeli supreme court has not gone into -- has not overruled the government on these sort of things. so i would expect that everything goes according to plan, tomorrow is wednesday. by thursday we could already, if all this works, we could already see the release of hostages held today in gaza by the terrorists. >> martha: we look forward to that and hope it happens. for those americans, thanksgiving would be a wonderful day to receive that news and have a lot to give things for if their loved ones are released and healthy. so ambassador regev, we're praying for these discussions with a positive outcome to get as many people as home as possible. good to have you back on our program. we'll speak soon. good luck. >> thanks for having me. >> martha: so the united states carries out a fourth round of air strikes in the middle east. it was a response to the 66 attacks on the u.s. forces in the region. but also a recent attack on the al-assad air base. we heard from some of this on the pentagon. we'll get more help from general jack keane that will join us in moments on that next. >> we know that iran supports, backs, arms, equips, financially supports these groups. so we're hitting them where it hurts. we're hitting weapons storage facilities and destroying them so they're no longer of use. we do want to see this conflict contained. elief fast. only tylenol rapid release gels have laser drilled holes. they release medicine fast for fast pain relief. and now, get max strength topical pain relief precisely where you need it. with new tylenol precise. this is a tempur-pedic mattress and it's designed to help make aches and pains a thing of the past by relieving pressure points 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(music ends) dear moms and dads, what you have achieved here today is going to help us and our futures. it is why we're coming up on stage to collect your diplomas. mom, love you always. vo: when you graduate, they graduate. visit finishyourdiploma.org to find free and supportive adult education centers near you. . >> martha: so once again, u.s. forces under assault in the middle east. and then launching a retaliatory strike against i ran-backed militants operating in iraq. the previous exchanges have been in syria. so that happened after tehran's proxies attacked american troops at least 66 times and hamas' war in israel continues to increase the risk of a broader conflict. as you see the expansion of this. very unsettling ways. so with that, we bring to brant in general jack keane, senior strategic analyst and chairman of the institute for the study of war. good to have you here today. we heard about what happened in iraq. there was an ac-130 gun ship that we're told that was in the area when a vehicle was attacked. it was able to respond to it rather quickly. what was your take in terms of what we just heard from the pentagon on all of that and how it transpired? >> well, i think what this was, certainly, is fortuitous for us that we had the means to defeat the attackers and do it quite decisively with a c-130 gunship, which is very deadly. the attacks in the past have been different where we have scheduled an attack and we haven't gone after the people that were directly involved in an attack. we've gone on after weapon storage and ammunitions and a safe house where it's possible that some people were involved. this is people -- this is actually an attack is underway and we thwart the attack and kill the attackers. this is obviously a defensive operation on our part. that was very successful. >> sandra: >> martha: so let me ask you this. there's reports in "the washington post" that there are inner struggles at the white house among the biden team over the response to these 66 attacks. in those you've got 62 u.s. service members that have been injured in all of these attacks. we can show this on the map. sabrina singh, the deputy press spokesperson at the pentagon was asked about -- the question was -- the deterrence is not working. here's what she had to say about that. >> i know 66 is a high number, again, we have days sometimes where we don't have attacks. so like would you say that the strategy is working when there's not an attack on u.s. forces? i'm not saying that's the way to caveat it. what i'm saying we don't want to see this conflict widen out. >> martha: what do you think of that response, general? >> it's pretty ludicrous, to be frank about it. since the biden administration has been in power, we've had -- it's been documented, 150 attacks on our forces in iraq and syria. to remind our audience, why is iran doing this? they don't get involved directly themselves. they've had a brilliant strategy for 43 years. use multiple proxies to do their dirty work for them. the purpose is to drive the president military presence out of the region and also to destroy and weaken the state of israel. that is what this is all about and has been about for 43 years. the history shows us and i fundamentally disagree with those that say if the united states responded strongly we'll expand the war. we'll have a regional war on our hands. the history does not support that conclusion. the people that come to that conclusion, it's their fear of this escalation that is driving them. why do i say it doesn't support that? because the proxy strategy has been largely successful. secondly, the two presidents that challenged this and said no, the only way we're going to deter them is we have to attack something that iran values. reagan hit their oil platforms at sea and also the irgc bases after they were attacking u.s. ships escorting tankers through the persian gulf. trump went after the commander of the irgc quds forces. the iranians attacked back. yes, they did. it was a measured attack. what happened after that? nothing. what happened after what reagan did? nothing. history supports that iran does not want a direct war with the united states. this is the issue that the administration and those who fear this cannot come to grips with. oh, there's a possibility that will happen. of course, there is a possibility it's going to happen. but the evidence does not support it. why would iran ever want to get involved in a direct conflict with the united states that would involve the destruction of the thing that they value the most? their regime. and they know that. that is why they have the proxy strategy. that is -- to me it's fundamental, it's logical and you have to see through it and find some spine to execute it. >> martha: understood. very quickly, general, it appears that though iran is quite emboldened. we're seeing attacks from the north and activity from the east from the houthis. they took a ship and said they will take more if they have any israeli affiliation. there's an argument to be made here that iran believes that now is the moment to succeed in their goal of finishing off israel. >> well, i think there's something happening here with the three of our major adversaries, china, iran and russia. all of them have become considerably more aggressive during this administration. i'm not getting in to the politics. just the perceptions that they have. they believe the leadership is weak and the u.s. in decline. there's a window of opportunity here to take the initiative and achieve some of their national goals. you saw that in the invasion of ukraine, you see it with president xi's fundamental increase in two years of aggression in the taiwan straits, south china sea. it's amazing how much he stepped up his game. iran is doing the same thing. this is not independent of each other. this is a fundamental conclusion that they have come with. they operate in terms of their own national interests and they also are supporting each other. they have a common goal. take advantage of the united states when they perceive its weak and in decline. whether that is -- it's a perception or a fact, it is irrelevant. that's what they believe and they're acting on those beliefs. >> martha: seems clear and well articulated, general. thank you very much. good to see you, sir. thank you. general jack keane. >> great talking to you, martha. >> martha: you as well, sir. speaking of iran, continuing that conversation, reports breaking today that the regime is about to supply russia with even more weapons to fight their battle in order to take ukraine. congressman michael waltz joins us next. ♪ i wanna hold you forever ♪ hey little bear bear. ♪ ♪ ♪ i'm gonna love you forever ♪ ♪ ♪ c'mon, bear. ♪ ♪ ♪ you don't...you don't have to worry... ♪ ♪ be by your side... i'll be there... ♪ ♪ with my arms wrapped around... ♪ >> tech: cracked windshield on your new car? 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