with the understanding that the only way to get israel to agree to a cease-fire was through this hostage release. and so this will be a cease-fire. they now expect it to be four or five days and possibly extended beyond that, depending on whether hamas is going to continue to release hostages. the white house released some details about the americans who could be released in the very first group of hostages released. we'll get into that with ben rhodes in this hour. >> a lot of hopes pinned on this negotiation. >> thanks, alex. breaking news tonight, prime minister benjamin netanyahu's office is telling nbc news that the israeli government has agreed to the framework of a deal to secure a release of some of the hostages held by hamas and a cease-fire to accomplish that release. the government of israel released this statement tonight. the government has approved the outline of the first stage of achieving this goal, according to which at least 50 hostages, women and children, it will be released over four days, during which a pause in the fighting will be held. the release of every additional tan hostages will result in one additional day in the pause. tonight the white house said the the word cease-fire and pause are interchangeable here. before a meeting of israel's war cabinet today, prime minister benjamin netanyahu said, in the last few days i spoke with president biden, and i asked for his intervention in order to improve the outline that will be presented to you, and it was indeed improved so that it would include more abductees and less abductees. president biden get involved, and i thank him for that. before us tonight is a difficult decision, but it is the right decision. and at a press conference this afternoon, state department spokesperson matthew miller said this. >> we are very close to an agreement. but we are not there yet. as you have heard us say in number of times over the course of the past few weeks, nothing is final until everything is finally. at this point everything is not yet final, but we are close. the israeli cabinet is meeting to discuss this matter right. now we're in close conversation with them, as we are with the government of qatar who has been helping to facilitate discussions since the early days of the crisis. we are hopeful to have some good news for the hostages and their families. we are hopeful we can bring some of them home. >> that was earlier today, before israel agreed to this deal, and also before israel agreed to this deal this morning, president biden said this. >> we've been working on this intensively for weeks, as you all know. i spoke recently about it with both v -- and the -- my team has been in the region -- we are now very close. we could bring some of these hostages home very soon. i didn't want to go into details. because nothing is done until it's done. we have more to say, but things are looking good at the moment. >> journeys now is ben rhodes, former deputy national security adviser to president obama and nbc political analyst. now ban, we have more detail from the white house tonight, including this statement about some of the hostages they expect to be released in the first ten, at least three americans. they say we have one child, a three year old girl named abigail. her birthday is on november 24th. that is the end of this week. and they expect to have three americans to be included in the initial 50. the details released by the white house tonight include a comprehensive description of how the biden white house, including the president, starting on october 7th, the day the hostages were taken, started working on this deal, with plenty of very direct intervention by the president, making very specific phone calls at crucial times to make this deal happen. this deal of always been part of what the white house saw as necessary to get israel to agree to a cease-fire. and all of those elements seem to have come together tonight. >> that's right, lawrence. essentially, from the beginning, the administration recognized that qatar would be the venue through which you could have a negotiation to reach out hamas and trying to secure the release of some of these hostages. it's not unusual that you would try to start with women and children, people who you feel like you're in the gravest danger, who are the most vulnerable. it's also the case, i think, that the israeli government was focused on its own military operation. what's interesting about this deal is that the unit u.s. government function in the diplomatic vehicle, trying to get as many hostages out, i'm sure, through constant cooperation with the israeli government but also through the qatar channel. the questions that should arise are how can you be sure that the hostages will be released, what timeline will they be released, how long is the pause in the military operation to facilitate this getting out, that itself is controversial with the israeli war cabinet. where are some people in the israeli government who don't want to halt military operations at all. there are also questions about how much humanitarian assistance can get into gaza during this pause in the fighting. and of course whether or not there are some palestinians released as well. but it's a complicated three dimensional piece of business but the good news that we should all focus on here is that it does appear the dozens of hostages are gonna be coming home including a very young american who will be home in time for her birthday that is terrific news. the pause self is also terrific news. >> and there is more tragedy in this story that emerges in these details released. craig zemple's three year old girl, this american girl who they expect to have released in time for her fourth birthday on friday, both of her parents were killed, murdered. when she was taken hostage. there are specific details in here about what everyone was doing. jake sullivan and others involved in this negotiation and president biden. we now get a more accurate description, i suppose we could call, it of what president biden did when he went to israel and spoke directly to netanyahu. it says here that the president made clear that humanitarian assistance had to reach gazans regardless of the deal and during the visit brokered the breakthrough with netanyahu in cc to begin the entry of assistance in gaza and so president biden, as much as he has been publicly supportive of benjamin netanyahu and israel's position in the israeli military, has, according to this, from the start, been arguing for humanitarian relief in gaza and a cease-fire coupled with hostage release. >> i think that's, right. lawrence and i remember him back when i was in the obama administration. president biden's view has always been that you fully embrace and are supportive of israel in public and you do other messages in private. i think the two areas that the administration has been focused on other once you hit on. first of, all the need to get humanitarian assistance across the border crossing with egypt. israel has been reluctant to allow anything in because they are essentially laying siege to gaza and are concerned that anything that gets in could be utilized by hamas. egypt likes to keep that border crossing shot because they don't want refugees going across their border. they don't want to open up that crossing, generally. but i think they understand the need to address the humanitarian crisis that was taking place. i think the u.s. has been really actively pressing to get more humanitarian assistance in. but it's obviously difficult in the type of military operation we've seen in gaza. the other piece of this is that the israeli government is split on whether to seek the release of hostages through a negotiation like this or whether to go full board with their military operation and perhaps try to recognize rescue hostages in that manner. it is safer and frankly easier to secure the release of hostages safely through negotiation than the kind of chaos and violence of any kind of military operation makes that lets harder to locate and secure safe passage for the hostages. i think they wanted to test the proposition, can we get these people out through the negotiation? two things, releases, humanitarian assistance. they feature in the messaging to the israeli government other regional governments and you see that on display. >> we have more detail of the president straight communication with netanyahu on this. this is from the white house. it says the president held calls with netanyahu one october 20th, october 22nd october, 23rd in october, 25th in every call the hostage deal was a key topic as the president and his team recognized first that there was now a possibility to secure a release of a large number of hostages and second that the hostage deal was the only realistic path to securing a pause in the fighting. so those two pieces have always been together in this negotiation for the white house. >> that's right. i'm sure that, for instance, as someone in the israeli government you don't want to see a pause, but you have a lot of pressure inside israel to get as many hostages home safely fascist possible. therefore the only way that you're going to create the political dynamic with in the israeli government with facilitated pausing the fighting is to show that you can deliver a significant number of hostages home. let's be clear, there are a lot of people that will remain in danger even after this. you hope there can be further negotiations for further releases. but that linkage, i think, was very important, there has to be a pause in the fighting in order to get people out safely. it's also the case that there have been reluctance to bring in humanitarian assistance. you have seen, however, a growing humanitarian crisis in gaza. and growing pressure on the u. s. to alleviate that suffering. the only way you can do that is through a pause. it's hard to get tracks. and it's hard to get assistance to people, medicine, food, hard to get people out who are severely injured in egypt if you don't stop the fighting for a few days. so therefore these two things become linked. stopping the fighting, having a cease-fire in pause, is what both allows for safe passage for hostages and allows for a significant amount of aid to get. ian again, the israeli government can only agreed to that if it's a number of hostages was significant. and it is. this is dozens of people who will be reunited with their families. >> one of the points in the white house account was that hamas was saying we need a pause in the fighting in order to locate and round up all of the hostages. we can't get to all of them safely or move all of them safely or even find all of them or account for all of them without that pause in the fighting. another crucial detail, here in this account of when president biden personally intervened. this is on november 12th the president called the emir of qatar and said enough was enough. we need the names or clear identifying information for who is in the 50 people ages, gender, nationalities. without that there was no basis to move ahead. shortly after this call, hamas produce the identifying criteria for the 50 hostages it said would be released in the first phase of any deal. and ban, according to this account, before that call hamas was saying we don't have that information. suddenly after the president puts it straight to the amir, we have to have it, we have to have it now. a mass produces that information. >> yeah. that's an important data point. you learn things and negotiation. what we learned here is that when pressed they could produce that information. qatar's role here is complicated. i'm sure a lot of people watching this are saying what's going on? why is there hamas office in qatar? why can't these people do more to force hamas to release its hostages? that's obviously what we'd all like to happen. i think the administration's frustration is, they know that qatar has links to hamas. they have this connection. to be clear, the reason they allow that to happen is because it is a conflict of diplomacy. you need some channel through which you can negotiate something like this. but i think the top message delivered to the amir's, look, guys, if you're gonna be this venue for diplomacy, then you have to, whoever you have to talk to, whatever message you have to deliver, enough is enough and we need to get these people out. look, i'm sure it is possible that there are hostages that are not -- that hamas's command and control has been disrupted. you've seen u.s. intelligence put out of resources into trying to identify the locations of these hostages, as has the israeli intelligence community. you saw bill barr the, intelligence director, going over. i'm sure this issue is front and center. what we've emphasized here, every negotiation is a confidence building staff. if you can get 50 hostages out this way, you know you should be able to get 50 more out. this is not the end of the release. it's not the end of the negotiations that you're seeking the israelis, palestinians, regional players. additionally you can accomplish something important to diplomacy. >> we also have president biden in san francisco for his china summit in the asia pacific meetings. we also know during that time on november 17th the president told the emir of qatar that this was the last chance. the mayor pledged to apply all of the pressure he could to close the deal. the president insisted the deal had to close now. time was up. the president was in san francisco for this call with jake sullivan and the apec conference. that is the way so many days have been going behind the scenes for jake sullivan, for the president, for others involved in the white house. while they were also conducting other important foreign policy work and domestic policy work. >> it calls to mind, i was in an asian summit in cambodia in 2013, or 2012. actually with jake sullivan and president obama. and there was a gaza war taking place. nowhere near the scale of horror of this war. nowhere near the scale of death. but i do remember having to wake president obama up in the middle of the night to call muhammad mercy, president of egypt, he was the guy at the time that had connections to hamas to say enough is enough and we're back on a plane and she's gonna have to come home with a cease-fire. and it was multiple phone calls, and you are doing multiple things at once. you're conducting diplomacy with important countries and asia and allies from around the world. at the same time you're managing this time of crisis. you've seen the white house adjust to this rhythm, where this is the pressing international issue. it same time you have a war in ukraine, and you're trying to reestablish communication with china. they're doing all this stuff at the same time. but i think what you've established is a rhythm where there is constant communication at the working level, the shuttle diplomacy taking place. you have officials going to different companies countries. tony blinken making trips out of the country. you call president biden into deliver a tough message. he's not the one who's on the day today negotiation. he gets on the phone when we're really coming to the chase and saying look, this is the deal, my team tells me this is the time, these are the best terms we're going to get, let's go. including he was able to deliver that message to the leader of qatar, to convince president netanyahu, to make concessions with his own government, including people from the right, who don't want any part in this fighting. this can be a precursor to further negotiations to get more hostages out, more humanitarian aid in, and ultimately trying to seek resolution here that allows for a different kind of palestinian leadership. >> joining discussion from tel aviv's roman bergman of the new york times. his the author of rise and kill first, the secret history of israel's assassinations. how will this deal be perceived in israel? as usual you will find multiple difference and the majority of people will support this. the idea that he's going to this ground offensive, it is saying israel has two main goals. one of them is to eradicate harass, dismantle hamas, the other one is to free the hostages. those two sometimes could predict, though, that military pressure is push of hamas the more hamas is likely to agree. so fire if you see what hamas is willing to do, i think maybe this proves to be right. however, the idf and the minister of defense also wanted to make sure that the effect continues after what they call the humanitarian pause. the cease-fire, humanitarian pause, something that would last a few days and military can continue and we will see, but i think lawrence, the -- has said there is no bigger mix-up, no bigger religious addict than the redemption of -- vws and m. i. a.'s. for that you will get most people say first is released free those hostages and only then sank about other military objectives. >> the current deal could to create a cease-fire in about 4 to 5 days, with about ten hostages being released per day, possibly more, and there is an anticipation at the white house that if hamas continues to release some number of hostages every day, then that would extend the cease-fire. >> yes. the deal is basically built upon one part of 50 or around 50 hostages. hamas is not committing to the exact number because they say they don't have the ability to fully control under the terms of war -- so 50, five days, 50 hostages, five days of humanitarian pause, and 150 inmates from israeli prisons that will be released. and then something around 30 or so more hostages, depends on hamas in the village capabilities and the control over much of the territory. the assumption israel's this will take more than five days, maybe more than eight or ten days, because hamas will have an interest to prolong the cease-fire, to gain more time to regroup, to get more ammunition and more gear in order to continue the fighting in their fall will come with more hostages to try to make this. this is where the next crisis, the next argument inside is really leadership will lie. how much time israel will give hamas to release more hostages, again very very sensitive topic. or go back to the first goal of the offensive, which is to dismantle, deprive amounts of its military capabilities. >> ben rhodes, once there is a cease-fire to release hostages, president biden the white house no doubt will be in communication with israel about the possibility of extending that cease-fire. >> no, i think that's right. i think it's the administration's judgment that it's easier to get the hostages out through negotiation then in the course of a military operation. so if hamas is capable of delivering on its commitment to get people out, you want to test if you want to get people. it's possible that there are delays, and that takes time. you might have pressure building inside parts of the israeli government resume the operation. but also there's gonna be a lot of international pressure to facilitate a longer pause, to get more humanitarian assistance in. so all these things are gonna be coming into play. i think what the administration wants to keep its on what is, can we ensure study release of hostages? as long as we are doing that, we are accomplishing the objective that we all share, which is getting these people out, and it's something that the israeli public cares a lot about as well. but i think there's a lot of complexity on the back end of the cease-fire because resuming the military operation at the same scale is going to reinvent that international pressure and if all the hostages are not out, there's gonna be ongoing ongoing negotiation to identify the next tranche of hostages. this is a major breakthrough for the 50 people you're getting out, they're a l