hi, everyone. i'm alicia menendez in for nicolle wallace. it is 4:00 in new york. 11:00 p.m. in israel and gaza, where we may be on the verge of a breakthrough in the unprecedented hostage situation on the ground there. sources tell nbc news that a tentative deal has been reached for release of some of the hostages held by hamas. a spokesperson for the israeli military cautioning in the last few hours that there is no final deal yet, but that there is, quote, some progress. the israeli cabinet meeting to discuss the issue at this hour. here are the terms as it stands right now. this is according to a senior u.s. official. 50 women and children would be traded for 150 palestinian prisoners in israeli custody. there would also be a pause in the fighting for four days to allow for more rounds of hostages exchanges and for more humanitarian aid to enter gaza. up to 300 to 400 trucks per day. overall, the deal adds up to what u.s. officials are calling the most significant diplomatic breakthrough since the war began, if it can hold. and that is a big if. officials are stressing that the deal could fall apart at any moment. but for now, there is momentum in the push to release the more than 200 hostages 245 have been held captive by hamas for six weeks, a number that includes people from 40 countries and 40 children. that is according to the israeli government. they were taken from communities along israel's border with gaza that were stormed by hamas on october 7th in an attack that killed more than 1,200 people. and since then, they have been held in a war zone. israeli forces have pushed into gaza, bombarded the territory with thousands of air strikes, killing 14,000 people according to the health ministry in gaza, which is run by hamas. and that is where we start this hour with ruby chin, far of 19-year-old itay chen, an american israeli citizen who was serving in israel's army and is believed to be one of the hostages. from our top state department official during the obama administration, msnbc political analyst rick stengel. but first, let's turn to nbc news correspondent raf sanchez in tel aviv, israel. raf, what is the latest? >> alicia, we are now three hours in to this marathon cabinet meeting where israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu is urging his right-wing cabinet to vote to approve this deal. speaking at the beginning of the cabinet meeting, he said this is a difficult decision, but it is the right decision. the deal he is asking them to approve is the one you laid out, 50 women and children hostages released over four days in exchange for a four-day ceasefire, the release of 150 palestinian women and children being held in israeli jails, and israeli official also telling nbc news israel has agreed to suspend drone flights overhead gaza for a limited period each day while hamas gathers these hostages. this israeli official also saying there is the possibility that this initial deal could be extended. one day of extended ceasefire in exchange for ten hostages. they say that that could continue indefinitely. but that israel is skeptical, and that they will watch closely whether or not hamas delivers on this first tranche of hostages. alicia, we also heard from prime minister benjamin netanyahu at the start of this cabinet meeting saying that president biden directly intervened in these negotiations and successfully improved the terms in israel's favor so more hostages coming out in return for lower costs paid by israel. alicia, just in terms of the timeline here, it is 11 p.m. here now. they are still in this cabinet meeting. we are expecting a vote some time in the next couple of hours. assuming the israeli government approves this deal, there is then under israeli law a 24-hour period in which victims of the palestinians who were convicted and being held in israeli prisons, but are now slated for release can appeal to the supreme court of israel and ask that their release be blocked. now so far in israeli history, the supreme court has never blocked a high-stakes diplomatic deal like this. but the israeli official says that 24-hour window exists. so the clock will start when and if israel's cabinet approves this deal. it will extend 24 hours on, and it is only after that point that we will start to expect to see some of these hostages come out of gaza. some of these palestinian prisoners being released. and alicia, i'll just close by saying our focus is on the hostages here. but for civilians inside of gaza, this deal holds the promise of their first days of respite after 46 days of bombardment following hamas terrorist attack on october 7th. alicia? >> raf, i know that you have spoken with the families of hostages. what are they saying? >> so these are anxious hours. as far as we know, no israeli family has been told it is going to be your loved one coming out as part of this deal. but obviously, it is the families who are missing children or women who are the ones daring to hope right now that it might be their loved ones as part of this agreement. there are going to be, if this deal goes through, some unbelievably overjoyed, relieved people, but that's only 50 hostages, alicia, out of a total of 240. there are 190 families who are going to have a longer wait, assuming this deal goes through. we spoke earlier to shelly shemtov. she is the mother of a 21-year-old named omer who was kidnapped from the music festival in the early hours of october 7th. the last glimpse she had of her son, he was tied up in the back of a hamas pickup truck, being carried into gaza. and she knows that a 21-year-old man is not going to be in the first list of hostages being released. may not be in the second. may not be in the third. take a listen to a little bit of our conversation earlier. >> i'm happy for the one who will get free. but i am sad for myself and omer. because as i said, i'm a mother. and all the mother needs is to protect her son. and no mother in all over the world needs to feel like i feel now. >> and alicia, i asked her a painful question, whether she is emotionally prepared for the possibility that her son could be in gaza for years. because previous negotiations to release one israeli soldier held by hamas took years. omer is not a soldier, but he is 21 years old. he is an israeli citizen. he has no dual nationalities. i asked her is she ready for that possibility, and she said no, no, no, no. he has to be released. alicia? >> a difficult question indeed. ruby, i want your reaction to the news of a potential deal. >> i think we have a new family, which is the family of the hostage families. and if one of our family members is about to be joyful, then we need to be joyful with them. and we should also thank president biden and the administration, which i know has been working around the clock to broker this deal, to get a stage where a framework can be in place for additional deals to happen. we also have similar in the fact that italia is 19 years old, and most likely is not part of this deal. and we just need to continue to have hope that the international community will continue its efforts to bring all of the hostages back home alive, well, and in a time frame that is not years. >> ruby, what more do you want us to know about itay? tell us about him. >> a new yorker, grew up on the streets of flatbush. itay lived here most of his life, even going to the u.s. every summer visiting family in long island, boston, catching baseball games, watching basketball. he played professional basketball until the age of 18. spunky kid. he needed to earn his minutes on the court. so he played spunky and always played against bigger kids, more physical kids, but he never backed down. i hope to think part of that dna, the tough dna of "the new yorker" hopefully when he had his moment, he knew how to survive the holocaust that he was in to at least be a at a stage now where he is being held captive after being abducted. but that i think is the most difficult thing to comprehend, which i don't think the word "pain" is a good description, not knowing if your son is alive or not for 46 days. >> i think most parents know just how incomprehensible that is, rick. i want to pick up on something that ruby referenced there which is the president and the administration working to make sure that this deal in place also then provides a framework for future deals, focusing on the short-term, the immediate. this is being debated right now while also keeping an eye to making sure that the door is open for future negotiation. >> yes. i just want the say how agonizing this is for israeli families, agonizing for the palestinian families. the israeli woman who said no mother anywhere should have to go through what i have gone through. i'm sure we all agree with that. >> david rohde who himself has been in a hostage situation says when you're the hostage, you know what is happening. when you're the family, you were in the dark. you have a million questions about what is happening to your loved one. >> yes. and there is absolutely nothing guaranteed, not their release, not how long it will be. but to your question about the biden administration, i think behind the scenes, the biden administration has been working as tremendously. they have obviously some control over -- not control, but some influence over the israelis where part of biden's calculation was if i show unconditional support for the israelis and they will listen to me when i ask them to be better, more careful. also, qatar has been involved in these negotiations. we have our largest military base in the middle east in doha. we are in frequent contact with them. doha has been acting as a kind of middle man in these negotiations, and that has been something that seems to have been successful as well. but the caveat being this -- these kinds of things can break up and collapse at the 11th hour. >> as the administration continues to remind us. >> yes, yes. so, you know, hope -- trust but verify, keep your fingers crossed. >> very tenuous indeed. raf sanchez, i don't know if i still have you with us. talk us through what have been the stick points in these negotiations. and stepping back, big picture, set the stakes. what does this mean for israelis, this potential deal? what does it mean for palestinians? >> well, starting with the palestinians, as we were saying, it's been 46 days of unrelenting bombardment. 13,000 people killed inside of gaza, according to the hamas-run health ministry. the u.n. estimates more than half of the houses in gaza have been damaged. so four days is not a long time in terms of a ceasefire, but it opens the window for large scale humanitarian aid to get into gaza, something the u.s. has been pushing for. it gives the possibility for palestinian mothers and fathers just to catch their breaths for a moment to know that they can step out into the street without fighting going on. for israel, i've been covering this war since the opening hours of october 7th when we woke up here in tel aviv to rockets overhead, and we saw these chilling videos of hamas terrorists on the street of sderot. this has been a nightmare israel has not been able to wake up from. the rocket fire has stopped. hamas fighters have been pushed into gaza. but knowing that there are 240 people, including these tiny children being held, most likely in the tunnels away from the sunlight inside of gaza has been a nightmare. and 50 of them were to walk out some time this week, it would be just an unbelievable weight off the shoulders of the people of israel who know full well that there are another 190 or so. i can tell you from the israeli government's perspective, they are absolutely adamant that this deal only came about because of the military pressure that they have put on hamas inside of gaza. there has been a lot of concern around the world that a -- this israeli ground offensive inside gaza might actually endanger a hostage deal. israeli government is saying it is what led to it. that's an unknowable. we don't know what would have happened if another course had been taken. i can tell you the streets here are quiet. this is a country that has been absolutely glued to the news since october 7th, never more so than tonight as their government is meeting into the late, late hours. it is now 11:15. we still have no idea when the israeli cabinet meeting is going to break up, when this vote is going to happen. but i can tell you people here are holding their breath. >> i want to read a statement you put out with other families with other americailies taken hostage. quote, i has been 45 days our children, our parent our siblings, our nieces and nephews, our cherished loved ones were taken hostage by hamas orists on october 7th. we don't know wre they are or how they are doing. we only want them ho as we gather to commemorate thanksgiving, let u hold those with us close and keep those who can't join us this year inur hearts. in solidarity w our families and all the peopleei held hostage by terrorists in gaza, we ask that you reserve a special seat of your thanksgiving dinner table w hopeful hearts that our loved ones are released and returned home safely. happy thanksgiving. i wonder, ruby, what your message is. you know the cabinet is meeting right now, the israeli cabinet. what your message is to those hold utahs who say this deal isn't good enough. >> maybe just refer to the statement. thanksgiving is one of the most unique holidays that is pan-religious, meaning jewish people celebrate that. we even here celebrate thanksgiving annually where we enjoy the thanksgiving watching a football game afterwards and enjoy being with family. and i think anybody in the u.s. can relate to that statement of having an empty chair for those that have not been given the privilege to have a family dinner and enjoy family. i would like to comment a component of the deal that i do not think that you mentioned is the fact that the international red cross should be provided access to the remaining hostages, and the hostages should receive medical attention. that has not happened until now, which is something basic, even in conduct of war. but unfortunately, 46 days, this has not happened. >> raf, two questions for you. one, i want you to pick up on what ruby just said there of the possibility of the red cross being able to give medical attention to some of these hostages, but also you have been on our air all day. we have been watching this unfold all day from here in the united states. your sense of what the next few hours could look like. >> well, alicia, at some point prime minister netanyahu and his cabinet are going to emerge. we don't know if they will speak in front of the cameras, but our expectation is the prime minister has the votes inside of his cabinet to pass this deal. i can tell you a couple of hours ago there was a large barrage of rocket fire from gaza here into central israel. the skies here lit up by iron dome missile interceptors. counterintuitively, alicia, that may be a good sign, because what you often see in these situations in the final hours before a ceasefire deal is these palestinian militant groups in gaza trying to get their final blows in before the guns go silent. so the fact that there was a lot of rocket fire earlier may be a sign that both hamas and palestinian islamic jihad believe that there is about to be a ceasefire going into effect. once we hear from the israeli government, if they have indeed passed this bill, like i said, it starts this 24-hour period where israelis can go to the supreme court and try to block the release of these 150 palestinian prisoners. as you know, alicia, we've been talking a lot about the supreme court in israel over the last year or so. the supreme court has never derailed one of these negotiations in the past. it is not clear if anyone would try to derail this deal, but you can imagine people will be very, very anxiously watching the docket at the israeli supreme court to see if anybody does file a motion. assuming the court does not intervene and this deal 24 hours on goes into effect, what we're expecting on the first day of the deal, for starters, the guns to go silent inside of gaza. the thousands of israeli troops in gaza city to freeze their positions. the hamas fighters on the outskirts of gaza city and further south to also stop their attacks, stop their movements. and then for this first bunch of hostages, we expect it probably would be 10, 15 or so to be handed over into the custody of the international committee of the red cross. as we have seen with the four hostages who have been released so far, these are normally highly choreographed affairs from hamas' part. you see these masked gunman handing over these hostages to the red cross workers in their white bibs. and either the red cross workers will head directly to the israel-gaza border, or potentially they will go south to egypt and the hostages will be delivered to israel from there. alicia? >> we thank ruby chen for joining us and for sharing more about your son. we will all be watching with you. raf sanchez, as always, thank you for spending time with us. please come back when you learn anything about this potential deal. it could be any moment now. and when we come back, d.a. fani willis taking a hearing. who she says has intimidated victims and witnesses in social media posts. the judge is issuing his ruling right now. that breaking decision is coming up next. plus, new house speaker mike johnson has made the trek to mar-a-lago pledging his fealty to the four times indicted ex-leader. how the party's full trumpification is being received back on capitol hill. congressman allred joins us on that. and new fears about the growing rhetoric from donald trump and the threat it poses to democracy. all that after this. do not go anywhere. ot go anywhee 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. breaking news today out of georgia, just minutes ago a judge appears to have rejected a request by the fulton county district attorney to order one of the disgraced ex-president's 18 co-defendants in georgia back to jail. district attorney fani willis took the lead for the first time in a hearing related to her sprawling racketeering indictment, making her case why she says one of the disgraced ex-president's 18 co-defendants should go back to jail while he waits in trial. willis cited a podcast and more than a dozen social media posts harrison floyd has made since his release in an effort to, quote, effort to intimidate co-defendants and witnesses in her case. what willis calls a, quote, intentional flagrant violation of floyd's bond agreemen as for floyd'sargument, his attorney say he is simply excing his first amendment rights, calling willis' request a retaliatory measure for rejecting a plea offer. joining our conversation, former top official at the department of justice andrew weissman and atlanta journal constitution political reporter greg bluestein is here. greg, walk us through the latest here. >> judge mcafee just finished speaking moments ago. he is calling both sides back closer to 5:00 to hash out arguments. but he appeared to indicate there was a technical violation of the bond. but what he also said is not every violation of bond compels revoking that bond. so he is indicating he is likely not to throw harrison floyd in prison. he is asking the state and the defense for recommendations on how to be more explicit in the terms of his bond agreement, perhaps to have more restrict rules on what he can and cannot say on social media.