have on thanksgiving eve. >> have a great holiday and enjoy your mother's delicious -- reportedly delicious thanksgiving stuffing. see you. thanks to you at home for joining me this hour. after 47 days of fighting, 47 days of israeli hostages held in captivity, israel and hamas have agreed to a four-day pause in fighting in exchange for the release of 50 hostages, but the timing of it all may still be an open question. now, the deal was brokered by qatar, egypt, and the united states it was also supposed to start by 3:00 a.m. eastern time tonight, but israeli officials are now saying the release of hostages will not happen before friday. what that means for the timing of the temporary cease-fire is unclear. "the new york times" reports the cease-fire may also be delayed until friday, but nbc news has not confirmed this. the deal itself involves the release of 50 civilian women and children currently held by hamas. the release of 150 palestinian women and children currently held in israeli jails and the delivery of more humanitarian aid to gaza. u.s. officials have warned that we won't know for sure which hostages will be released until they're actually released, but national security advisor jake sullivan told nbc news today that three americans should be part of this initial group of 50, two women and a child. the hostages will be released in four phases, one group for each day the fighting is paused. around ten hostages are expect today be freed every day over the course of four days beginning on friday. there's an option for this system of cease-fire and release to go on as long as ten days. an additional ten hostages would be released as there's a pause in fighting. today is a help hoful day but also the start of a week filled anxiety as family members of hostages wait to see if their loved ones will be among those released. >> it's been so long. we've been stuck on october 7th for 45 days looping this in our minds over and over again. and just to have a sliver of hope and just a break already, just a break. >> no information. i'm very nervous and frustrated, and i'm waiting for news. i want just good news. i don't want any bad news anymore. >> one side i'm happy. second side i'm worried. okay, because nobody told me that my family will be in this deal. okay. there were. >> american officials cannot confirm which will be released. he's a young man and the deal struck today is limited to women and children. instead his mother has another demand, the videos of the october 7th attack show that her son was severely injured, half of his left arm was blown off by a grenade. here was his mother's plea today. >> i'm not counting hostages being freed in this deal until i see them walk over the border and be embraced safely, and then god willing these 50 hostages are released, that still leaves 190 hostages that need to be released, and in the meantime we'd like the international red cross or any other humanitarian aid organization on planet earth to go and see every single hostage and let us know are they alive, have they been treated, are they getting the care that they need? >> hours after that plea prime minister netanyahu nounced as part of a deal the red cross will get to visit unreleased hostages to provide care. that detail was unveiled so secretly and at the last minute the red cross put out a statement saying the organization only learned itself after netanyahu put out the remarks. as the details of this highly choreographed exchange of 50 hostages are ironned out, the hope here it will be the start of a process, but keeping these negotiations on track is a delicate balance and a tense one, the situation is equally tense inside gaza tonight. i will warn you some of the images we're about to show you is unsettling, so if you'd like to turn away now, this is the time to do so. this is the video of a mass grave being dug today in the southern half of gaza. more than 100 people were buried there unanimously today, part of the 14,000 who have died since the beginning of this conflict. that's according to the hamas-run gaza media office. that number includes 5,000 children. and the fighting in gaza has not yet stopped. it's expected to continue right up to that pause. one of the details still not confirmed is hoouch aid. this is video yesterday of internally displaced gazans pushing past each other and essentially breaking apart an aid truck. they were looking for water. according to the united nations around 70% of gazans are drinking salinized and contaminated water. without fuel gazans have bun unable to power desalination pumps, water pumps, and sewage pumps leaving more than a million people without clean drinking water. because of the lack of fuel this week the world health organization says that critical trauma care is no longer possible at any of gaza's hospitals. that includes care for premature babies and ne natal intensive care units. over the weekend the ooup and red crescent evacuated 31 babies from the al-shifa hospital. the u.n. reports the other five babies died due to a lack of electricity and fuel. all 31 of the evacuated babies have serious infections. one of them is on a ventilator. the world health organization warns that even though this group of babies made it out, around 180 women give birth every day in gaza, so the need for care like this will not go away not the to mention the need to care for the tens of thousands of other wounded gazans, which will also require fuel. now, allowing more fuel into gaza is an explicit part of this deal, but how much of it and how quickly it gets in, that is all unclear. the broad strokes of this deal are in place, but that is just step one. all of the details here are in important. many of them are matters of life or death, and many of them are still being worked out as we speak. joining me now is ben rhodes, former national security advisor for president obama and co-host of the podcast "pod save the world." i want to get to the question of the hostages. there's been a lot of reporting how this deal came together, but sort of buried in that reporting is this reality, and i'm quoting from david ignaceous's reality in "the washington post," though the captives have often been described as being entirely under hamas' control, an israeli official says of a total of about 100 israeli women and children including toddlers and babies hamas had immediate access only to the 50 who will be released. ben, in your eyes how complicated and how problematic is it the reality hamas actually only knows about and is in control of the fraction of these approximately 250 hostages that are inside gaza? >> yeah, alex, you have to think about all the complexity that goes into this. first of all, the negotiations were taking place through qatar, the qatari government, which has hosted a hamas political office in doha. those hamas political leaders are then in touch with hamas leaders on the ground in gaza and you have a situation where the hostages were taken in a chaotic and awful circumstance and other groups operating with hamas palestinian and islamic jihad apparently took some of these hostages as well. and over the course of the past 4r5 days you've had a war zone. you've had a bombardment of gaza. think about how complicated it is. this is a very complicated multifascinated situation. now the additional work has to be be done to find these people and figure out how to transfer them to israeli custody. it's not a surprise to me this might take a dumal of days in order to begin these releases. i think tragically and painfully. >> just to that end when you talk about the logistical difficulty, i wonder if there's a further complexity between the desire of the jihadist groups that may have these hostage. apparently there are just families inside gaza that are holding to some of these hostages and hamas. would you assume these groups are effectively standing shoulder to shoulder with whatever hamas is negotiating via qatar, or could there be separate demands on their behalf? >> none of us know. i would think, though, alex, that you have a situation where hamas with command and control has a certain number of these hostages. then beyond that there, there may be other elements, factions like islamic jihad, or there's reports there are criminal elements who may want to hold hostages for ransom, and it may be in the chaos of war some of these hostageerize among the population there trying to find shelter as well. so it's a complicated endeavor. i think what your try to do in any diplomacy is test what they can deliver and say. it will be an important test on hamas' capacity to see if they can follow through on ten hostages a day. that might give you at least confidence you have a mechanism setup to try to secure additional releases going forward. >> to that end how optimistic are you this agreement could last beyond the four days and 50 hostages? and i just want to read this excerpt in "the new york times" that details how difficult it was to get to this point. on november 14th there's a sense this deal is going to come together. netanyahu calls president biden to say he could accept hamas' offer, but hours after the call the idf storms al-shifa hospital in gaza and suddenly communication between hamas and all the official parties goes silent, and when hamas resurfaces hours later, they made clear the deal was off. israel has made very clear they would like this war to continue. on the eve of the deal initially potentially being agreed upon, they go ahead and raid al-shifa hospital for their strategic ends according to israel. i wonder what that indicates to you about israel's appetite to keep it going even if it could mean the release of hostages every day. >> you know, i think it's a really important question, alex, and first of all i want to say something clearly as someone who had a deal in government in hostage situations in difficult circumstances. and none, frankly, as difficulties gaza, this densely populated area most of whom are displaced, probably most of whom are homeless right now. the reality is it's going to be much easier to secure their release. there's discordance between this ground operation and trying to secure the safety of the hostages, and i think the u.s. has been trying to press the israeli government to take into account the fact it's easier to get the hostages out through negotiation. there's also pressure to put more on the focus on hostages than the military operation itself. prime minister he attacks right. they're going to be putting pressure on him to show the military operation is going to resume. i think there's going to be counter veiling pressure, alex, because the world is looking in horror at the same images you showed today. more 5,000 children have been killed. you have a siege mentality, and as you pointed out a capacity for water borne illnesses if you're not getting water and fuel in that could lead to many, many more deaths. so the idea of pausing this for several days and picking up where we were, i think that's going to cause a significant amount of blow back, and frankly from the united states concern about where this is all going. i think the best c scenario you try to extend this pause and de-escalate. can we talk quickly about that diplomacy? "the times" has a quote. from some senior american officials who signal they would not be disappointed if the pause became a more permanent cease-fire. is that the administration's best route to actually calling for a cease-fire? according to "the new york times" he's the one who pressured prime minister netanyahu to take the deal does the administration not have more leverage here if they actually would not be disappoint fd a cease-fire happened snd. >> i think they do. they have diplomatic leverage in the sense if they start taking a position calling for a cease-fire or deescalation that makes it harder for israel to sustain its operations given the international pressure they're facing. i think the other reality of this, alex, is where this is all going. we know there's major disagreement where this ends. there's some proposals about an arab peacekeeping force. we know prime minister netanyahu said, no, no, no, we're going have to sustain control over gaza for an open period of time. that's a huge gap. so the question is how long does this military operation go, how maximum is the objectives, and what is the end goal is it the end goal to have a palestinian authority in gaza and people can return to their home being rebuilt and/or the end goal israeli occupation? i think the sooner you can address those questions, alex, the better. and i think a pause is a good time to address those questions. look, we share your objectives of destroying hamas but what's happening now is a lot of international tension. hamas is probably blended into that civilian population of over a million people pushed out in gaza. the ability to go one by one and eliminate hamas in that kind of environment is very difficult and could lead to a significant loss of life. i think the administration is going to want to put forward the questions now about what is the objective, where is this going, how do we minimize civilian harm, and how we get aid to people, and how do we address muhamas militarily that replaces some palestinian leadership. >> ben rhodes, thank you so much for your time and wisdom this evening. >> thanks, alex. coming up, the decline and fall maybe of the desantis campaign after spending $100 million and falling to fifth place in the polling. the blame game begins in desantis world. but today trump talks and talks some more. today we got an update on the sheer number of attacks on the subjects. that's up next. r number of attae subjects that's up next while you were out today grabbing a last minute bag of frozen cranberries, trump was lashing out at prosecutors. ranting about the crooked prosecutors working closely with my political opponent. trump is currently free to say whatever he wants at least for now about judge engoron and his court staff in his $250 million civil fraud case. and that is happening while an appeals court decides whether to revoke judge engoron's gag order. but things could soon change for donald trump. today an attorney for judge engoron argued in support of keeping that gag order citing an alarming increase inthets against the judge and his clerk since the gag order was temporarily lifted. since trump posted a picture of the judge's clerk online last month she has received 20 to 30 calls a day per day on her personal cellphone and 30 to 50 daily messages on her personal e-mail and social media accounts. today the attorney said the hundreds of voice mail messages fills more than 275 single-spaced pages. roughly half of those messages the filing states had been anti-semitic. meanwhile we continue to await a ruling from the circuit court of appeals. joining me now is josh gerstein. christine, the evidence the attorney for the court presented today is staggering. it is when donald trump posts pecktures and posts messages about this judge and this clerk. how does the appeals sort of process balance, yes, trump's first amendment rights but quite obviously the security concerns that are on the table here? >> well, the judge has to -- the judge has to look at this and balance. you don't have particularly as a defendant either in a civil case as it is in new york or in a criminal case as he has in d.c. or florida -- don't have an aunfettered right to say whatever you want to say. you are in a court proceeding and there are counter veiling interests here in particular the safety of the people that are involved, and when you look at some of these messages, just look at the sampling that were in there, they are vile. the messages against the clerk were wishing her death and demise. i mean, they are sickening. and the worst part about it is in the affidavit that was put in, the department of public safety -- so these are the police that are helping the court administrators, said they found these sort of credible violent threats, right? they researched. they looked into this and they substantiated them. they found that they were credible, and so they got the fbi involved and homeland security involved to make sure there are security measures in place to protect them. but every time they found them when donald trump opened his mouth and threatened and attacked these people, the threats went up, and so it just -- enough is enough already. like there just has to be a gag order that has teeth, that will be inforlsed that is going to shut him up and stop it. like, this is completely unacceptable. >> i should also just say, you know, if donald trump himself could stop doing it, too. there are not a lot of former presidents in this club that people willingly put out messages that foment violence. i digross. josh, we're waiting for the d.c. circuit court of appeals to decide whether to revoke judge chutkan's gag order down in d.c., and you wrote earlier this week this panel is likely not the time word. the losing side may appeal the judge's decision to the full bench of appeals or the supreme court. now, judge chutkan has been adamant about keeping this trial on track. and yet how optimistic are you that she will be able to given the fact this could be an opportunity for further delays? >> well, i think the gag order is just a small part of the maneuverings that could happen in advance of this march 4th trial date. it may end up at the supreme court. i think, though, alex, if there's a snag that starts to delay the trial it's more likely to be around some of the very broad claims, in fact the claims of absolute immunity that former president trump has put forward in the case basically saying he cannot be prosecuted for these events because they involve things that took place while he was president. we expect judge chutkan do deny the motions he's already brought on those grounds, and those i could see definitely going to the d.c. circuit or the supreme court, and those are the ones i think if we do derail the trial date, it'll be coming from that particular direction. >> we know trump has filed a reply in support of his -- this was as i was walking to celt, in support of his motion to dismiss the selective and vindictive prosecution tonight. am i wrong when i believe this is the sort of throw everything at the wall and see what sticks delay sort of strategy? >> it is. and i think this was clearly expected based on his rhetoric, based on what his lawyers were saying. it's not surprising he's making this kind of motion because, again, for him it's always he's the victim even though he's the one as we know from everything he's saying that's actually putting other people at danger and risk for their own safety. but it's always that people are continually attacking him. so, again, i don't think this is going to have much to it. there's ample evidence of there being probable cause they had a worthy case to bring. >> josh, there are some things the judges can control and some things they can't. we are sitting here at thanksgiving effectively. as you pointed out the hut chutkan case is expected to go to trial march 4th and judge cannon in florida who has not said forthrightly i'd like to deny the case but in your writing last week you point out cannon is aware of the suspicion in some quarters but sees no reason at the moment to ignite the firestorm she would face if she puts it off. there is at this point no real reason to believe this trial is going to happen when it is supposed to. is that fair to say, josh? >> that's what all the legal experts i talked to said including the ones that have handled cases involving classified information, criminal prosecutions. they think that what judge cannon is up to here, the lawyers sometimes call taking a position subsilentio in latin meaning you d