>> tonight, the temporary pause in the israel hamas war now delayed. israel says no hostages in gaza will be released before friday, as families eagerly await to hear if their loved ones are among them. then, the judge who critics say is slow walking one of donald trump's biggest criminal cases, and what that could mean for the 2024 election, and all the thanksgiving dinner our panel brings to the facts on these stories you will be talking about all weekend as the 11th hour gets underway on this wednesday night. good evening once again. i'm stephanie ruhle. the deal for us hostage release has brought hope but now new worries to families of those kidnapped by hamas. many of those families were anticipating reunions with their loved ones after initial reports suggested at least some hostages could be freed as early as tomorrow morning. but late today israel's government said there will be no release before friday. my colleague here simmons has all the details. >> tonight a delay for a long negotiated break. the hostage release including three americans and potentially many children will not happen before friday. three year old abigail idan may be among them. her parents were killed. >> our admissions are going a little crazy because it feel like we're closer. >> today despite -- agreed to finally details of 50 hostages to be freed over four days, the aim to receive 100 hostages, officials, say and 300 palestinian prisoners, teenagers and, women some jailed for minor offensives, others for attempted murder. a day of frantic phone calls for families like the families of this course to appear in a hostage video, hoping that their nightmare will soon be over. >> we are waiting to see who will come back home. >> prime minister netanyahu had hailed the deal. he said included -- red cross to the other abductees. vowing a short pause but would not end the war. while hamas today releasing another video of fierce fighting, truckloads of aid are planned, but today there was no into the civilian suffering. they are massacring us before the truce that this man says. >> meanwhile, pope francis heard directly from both palestinian families living through the fighting in gaza and israeli families who loved ones are being held by hamas. my colleague anne thompson has more from rome. >> and his private residence, pope francis met separately with families of israeli hostages and palestinians with relatives in gaza. american rachael goldberg's 23 year old son hersh was captured october 7th. a number of days he's been gone taped to her chest. >> i actually said to him, my heart was taken 47 days ago and i will wear the number on my heart until my heart comes back. >> she brought her picture of hersh and show the pulp video of his capture. his lower left arm blown off by a grenade. how did the pope react to that? >> he put his hand on his heart and he spoke in a tally in and said his heart is with me. >> rachel and her husband jon poland says today's hostage agreement gives them hope even if their son isn't freed, because the red cross will finally be allowed to see him. the palestinians say the pope listen to them about their plight. >> he can ask for an immediate cease fire but, this is not what the only thing that we ask for. we ask him to use his power for more just and long lasting peace. >> as we wait for humanitarian pause to begin, we should know that so far just five, only five of the more than 200 hostages have been freed. first i wanna turn to nbc news correspondent david noriega, live in tel aviv. david, help us understand. do we know any more details about why specifically this deal has been delayed? >> stephanie, unfortunately we don't. all we know is that it has been delayed. from what we know, the actual core elements of that agreement, the exchange of 50 israeli hostages 450 palestinian prisoners to begin possibly leading to more, as far as we know those parts of the agreement still stand. still, the fact of the timing of this agreement which people it israel respecting to begin to take place just four hours from now, where i'm standing, the fact that that has been thrown into uncertainty had you acted a degree of uncertainty into what was already a very high anxiety situation. people here understand that this is a very fragile agreement. it's a high wire act. it could collapse in a moment. there is a lot of hope that it will still happen, but what he's been an agonizing wait for the families of these hostages it's gonna be prolonged and we don't know how much. >> have we heard from the israeli government anything around how the hostages will be released? >> yeah, what we know is that we, we've gotten some details on the protocol for the release. it will involve the red cross. the hostages will be transferred to request and then transferred to idf custody. and there are six hospitals inside of israel they're already prepared to receive the freeze hot freed hostages. these will mostly be women and children. the priority is caring for their mental and physical health, ensuring they are okay and is terry not many people arrived to see them except for the closest family and any other people the hostages themselves request to see. also a lot of these hostages are children. so there's a lot of delicate consideration around how these children will be treated. the israeli ministry of welfare released very detail protocols for soldiers and health care workers receiving these children, saying, for example, don't pressure these children to do anything such as take a shower. allow them to if they want to. but otherwise don't put any pressure on them to do. so it's gonna be very delicate in these details are still coming in. but people are still very on and waiting to find out where whether this is gonna happen at all. >> david noriega, thank you for joining us. now let's bring in our lead off panel tonight, some of my favorites are here. my dear friend john allen, senior national policy reporter for nbc. peter baker, father of the, oh husband of susan, white house correspondent for the new york times, and his first visit to the 11th hour, george washington and lee university's elite school. so your theo is here and the audience tonight so on the let you go first. you better impressed. why do you think digital they? >> the law detail that go into something like this. you are trying to if effective effectuate the freeing of one-sided prisoners on the other side into it between two parties that are still at war with each other. it's easy to imagine logistics being enough to delay by a day. but if you are on the ground, if you're one of the hostage families, what you're worried about is that it could signal more than that. it signals and things that could be coming apart of the seams. that's the worry. hamas doesn't always live up to its agreements. even if it did you have other groups in the palestinian, in gaza, that are not necessarily subscribing to their leadership that might do something that would upset the apple cart. you could see the whole thing unraveling rather quickly. that is why everybody is on tenterhooks right. now >> to the positive, ned, do you think there's a chance that the delay is a sign of something bigger? >> i think that the delay is a sign that there is, as peter said, no trust between these parties. as far as the details that come out the delay is due to amassed not having signed off officially on protocol of how it would happen and not having shared some details in the list of hostages who will be released. every single detail that is possible to get control and beware of is necessary for these parties to go ahead with. >> new, the families of these hostages have been suffering an unimaginable suffering for the past, what, 41 days, and they have worked so hard to keep their family stories front and center. what less the feeling be like today when they learned this a delay? >> i think it's hard for any of us to imagine. it's 48 days now, and we have seen in the israeli media many interviews have kept the story front and center and have gone internationally marched through the country, arriving in jerusalem and protesting just this week. there are a lot of tensions. this is a partial deal. only less than a quarter of hostages are slated to be released. still no one knows who's going to be released. in the media interviewers asked, other tensions between you, they ask families of hostages. people try very hard to say will be happy for everyone who is released, but you can't imagine the tension of not knowing up to this point whether or not your child, your wife, your son, your father is going to be freed. >> alive or dead. john, president biden spoke to benjamin netanyahu today, two leaders of egypt, and qatar. what does egypt say? >> i think they're trying to be as circumspect as possible about the possibility that it could be problematic. they obviously have done some briefing around town to talk to reporters about what they might expect. but they don't want to blow this thing off for, just the reasons that peter in and we're talking about. once they come to an agreement, an agreement in principle, all the logistics have to be working that worked out. lisa 300 prisoners in israel to get 50 hostages who may be in different levels of health and strength. there's a lot there has to be worked out. i think they're hopeful, they would love to be able to claim victory here, make it look like there's something approximating piece for the hard left with calling for a cease-fire to have a pause, they think that's politically helpful to them. but i think they are also aware that these things can dissolve very quickly. and there's no trust between the united states of hamas, much like there's no trust between hamas and israel. and so we talk about these other countries that are intermediaries. people wonder, why is this country talking to hamas? the united states and israel can't negotiate with a terrorist group without an emmy in an intermediary. >> we heard e. d. earlier from a key biden adviser who worked on the hostage deal. i want to share a bit of that. >> we recognize very early the only way, the only real tick way to get a humanitarian pause in place, and we support humanitarian pauses, is you vehement to bring the hostages home. there is a number of very difficult intensive conversations between the president and other leaders that helped get this done. this was originally negotiated deal. the terms of this deal really could not have been achieved a month ago. >> your colleagues at the times and reported on this secret cell of biden advisers. how important are those advisors? how important is the u.s. to nailing this agreement? >> that's one of the senior right now, rutland, kirk without telling the rest of the government that gets relatively secret, even within the biden administration, to keep from getting out what details they were given. he was on the phone almost every day with the head of qatar, the intermediary of a mass. points along way where it almost came apart, at one point they thought they had a deal and then some of the communications with gaza went dark. remember when these really strikes were apparently having some sort of impact on the communications and hamas wasn't able to communicate. we came back online they said no, the deal is off. so you had all of these tense moments along the way as john politely pointed out, they don't trust each other, they don't have a working relationship in that sense at a moment of great violence and anger and tragedy. so we required the americans to be the arbiters of this. i think that doing what they -- what they hope is the first stage of a multi staged process. get these 50 out, and more to come. the 240 total. that's what they like to get out. >> john, how do you believe joe biden sees his role in trying to resolve this conflict, this idea to bring peace to the middle east? even within his own democratic party, there are factions who want very different things. >> it's politically complete disaster for the biden administration. >> for everyone. for anyone in the white house. >> certainly for every democrat in the. white house the republicans are unified on. this the democrats are divided on it. for biden what he's been trying to do the entire time, in this is not solely religion politics. in this case the politics of the policy is that he's trying to keep a lid on what could become a broader where the middle east, which still could become a broader war in the middle east. you try to keep a lid on his own party. the best way to do that is to resolve this as quickly as possible. so they're trying to do that. i'm also hearing they are moving from a place of just crisis to just trying to see if they could turn a crisis into an opportunity to try to move forward. i would say this with skepticism, that they're gonna be able to do it. but when you hear the rhetoric, what they're saying is they would like to see something that turns into a broader deal. again -- >> we're threatens the expert in the region. do you actually believe that the biden administration or anyone could turn this crisis into an opportunity? you have spent years in the region. do you see reasonably, not idealistically, any reasonable idea of peace in the middle east at this point? what would that even look like? >> not in the immediate term. but depends on the steps the biden administration takes and whether concurrence the israeli government to take certain steps it will be crucial in determining whether this happens again in five years or in ten years for weather in five years we are looking at the beginning of a different direction. this is the worst crisis that has happened between israel and hamas and it's really the worst crisis in the israeli palestinian conflict since probably 1948, since the foundation of israel. but we have the fifth or sixth round of hostilities, major hostilities, between israel and hamas since hamas seized control of the gaza strip in 2007. so this is something that has happened every few years. the biggest question, diplomatically speaking, politically speaking, is at the end of the war, is this just another round in that ongoing conflict, or is this really going to change the situation in gaza and the situation between israel and the palestinians? it is not going to be peace, certainly, at the end of this. but again, the steps that are taken, the governance that is established in gaza after the war will be crucial in determining whether that becomes more possible. >> and what do you think it will look like? let's say israel is successful in leveling gaza while at the same time trying to be mindful of all the palestinians there? let's say gases level levels, what happens from there? >> it's important to be clear. i don't think leveling gaza is the goal, as the stated goal is to remove hamas is a mentality threat. >> it's not a goal but it seems like it's approaching to be the consequence. >> it's certainly the destruction in north gaza right now is enormous. but i think the goal is to remove hamas from power as the governing authority in gaza and to remove the gaza as a military threat. if israel is successful, and there's no guarantee that that will be the case, the whole conversation about the day after that is very big conversation popping up more and more even in israel, which is a current leaders would like to say that conversation for sometime later. and you know the options that are being raised our israeli occupation, the occupation of gaza, the somehow international force, made up of arab states that have police for relations with israel and the yuan, or the palestinian authority. the term they're using for it right now is revitalized palestinian authority because there's a recognition that the palestinian authority currently is widely seen as corrupt, is not popular with its own people, and would only be seen as an effective framework for governing if it were to walk in tomorrow. >> peter if this deal happens, what does it mean for the palestinians trapped in gaza? >> pauses for four days. it's not that much on the front and. i think they hope it gets extended. we have ten hostages per day in the first tranche and then ten, then another time becomes six days. you talked about the last date on your show. >> thank you very much. >> and the idea i think in the administration they will say it out loud quite this way, but i think their hope is that at some point down the road, maybe this leads to a sensation that goes beyond human hostages, that is reminded side that they have accomplished enough, and they don't even necessarily continue to go as far as they want to go. we want to go to so gaza, for instance in the administration so they don't like that idea. that's where a lot of people are taking shelter. so i think that their hope is that maybe we get into a new phase with this pause and then it becomes a little more sustained but we don't know what that's going to be the case. netanyahu doesn't want to be a case. that was the problem with the war cabinet. didn't want it to be the case either. they want to lose sight of their goal of destroying hamas just to get the hostages out. but they're sort of an inexorable momentum at that point. that's the fear. >> jon, we keep reading these headlines to given biden's position he had lost some support, and you are referencing it a moment ago, from some democrats. but given that the parties divided on this, it was going to lose some no matter what position he took. >> i think that's right. the reason i said originally that this was a political crisis for biden, just let it happen, it's not a huge advantage for him. he's got to try to control what the problem is. yeah, he had, i think, a place where he risk losing on either side. i think what he risks now is having to come out firmly on one side and potentially retreating and potentially angering both sides and really getting them in a place where they can trust each other. they are watching each other. the hard left as watching moderate democrats, saying i don't trust this because there is a democratic party makes me feel like god not a democrat. the -- pro israel democrats are looking at the far left and saying even though i like what joe biden is doing, i don't know if i can be part of the party because of what the folks on the hard left to say. so for biden, resolving this quickly is the best policy for what goes on in the middle east. but -- >> in terms of politics, you just mentioned, the hard left democrats were looking at the moderate democrats, the moderates are looking at the hard left. are either one of them looking across the aisle and republicans and saying what do we need to do? because a year for now, what we need more than anything is to make sure joe biden is in the oval office. i know i'm being terribly practical. >> right now the passions are so high on this issue, on both sides, they are only doing that. there's a republican primary going on, people say donald trump could be the nominee, most republicans think that. by the time don trump has been out there for a long time the white house hopes and it is perhaps true that the democrats will start to focus on him rather than with aca shortcomings of biden or shortcomings within their own party from each of the sites. for the moment the passions are high. they're looking internally and they're saying why isn't that somebody who i've been allied with on several things sees this so differently than i do? why is it that they can feel the pain that i do in seeing my side or the people like her most about dying, being taken hostage, losing their homes? it's something that, again, the people are passionate about it because it hurts. it really matters to them. i don't think it's eagerly irreconcilable. >> before we go, ned, you are the expert in this region, what do you think is one thing t