nicolle wallace. we have a lot of developments out of the middle east right now including a last minute deal bringing a temporary reprieve to millions of people in the middle east. extending a truce that has led to the release of d of hostages and palestinian prisoners. at this hour 11 hostages have been freed, they are now in israel. this has just happened moments ago. this footage from al jazeera shows them being handed over to the red cross. the group, the israeli group includes three french citizens, six argentinians and two germness. you can see two of the hostages here, two boys, seen in yellow sweaters in exchange for the release of these hostages israel has released 30 minors and three women who were being held in israeli prisons. there will be more exchanges in the days to come. the humanitarian truce between israel and hamas that was put in place on friday has now been extended for two more days under the same terms, meaning more hostages released in exchange for a pause in combat. the release of more palestinians detained by israel and for more humanitarian aid to reach gaza. now, here is what the national security council spokesperson john kirby had to say about the extension. >> the humanitarian pause in gaza now in its fourth day will be extended for another two days through thursday morning israel time. this humanitarian pause has already brought a halt to the fighting together with a surge of humanitarian assistance. now, in order to extend the pause hamas has committed to releasing another 20 women and children over the next two days. we would of course hope to see the pause extended further and that will depend upon hamas continuing to release hostages. >> and that's a suggestion the administration has made, that they will continue to see these pauses in exchange for hostage release. prime minister benjamin netanyahu has said he wants a minimum of ten hostages released per day in order to continue on with this arrangement. kirby added that the administration believes that fewer than ten americans are now being held captive in gaza but it's unclear who is holding them hostage, whether it's hamas or another group. for days now we've witnessed incredible scenes of israeli families reuniting with their loved ones who spent weeks held hostage in gaza in the middle of a brutal and bloody conflict. this video shows a 15-year-old and 8-year-old reunited with their mother after 51 days in captivity. their father and their brother were killed by hamas during the october 7th attack. this photo shows 4-year-old israeli-american abigail edan, she, too, was released sunday where she is at a children's hospital with her aunt and uncle. her parents were killed on october 7th. in exchange for those hostages dozens of palestinian prisoners have been freed. they're being released at a ratio of three prisoners for every hostage. 39 prisoners were released on sunday, all of them are minors according to the qatari government which is facilitating the negotiations that are resulting in these hostage and prisoner exchanges. you can see one of these released prisoners kissing his mother in ramallah in the occupied west bank late on sunday. the extension of the truce today brings hope to many more israeli and palestinian families that they will see their loved ones, gives millions of people much needed breathing room. 1.8 million people have been displaced in gaza. that's about 80% of the population, and the death toll has surpassed 14,5 o 0 people. with the skies over gaza silent one resident says during the truce we felt like we began to gradually get our lives back. we were able to check on our loved ones, to move around and buy necessities for the house and kids. that's where we start this hour with nbc news chief foreign correspondent richard engel in tel aviv, plus former deputy national security adviser to president obama ben rhodes and the former cia director now a msnbc national security analyst john brennan. richard, i want to start with you, you are back in tel aviv. this is an eventful day, not just the hostage release, but the announcement that this will be extended, they will keep on trying to do this for succumb more days. the united states suggesting this could go on even longer. tell me what you are seeing from your end. >> reporter: so 11 more israelis are tonight in slye territory according to the israeli military. nine children and two women, described as mothers. all of them according to the kibbutz they were released from and all of them were released from the same kibbutz have other relatives who are still being held by hamas. also according to the israelis 33 palestinians will be released and all of the palestinians according to activists and people who support the palestinians say -- or people who are following the palestinian side of this negotiation say that the palestinians have been released thus far have been relatively low level. a lot of administrative detainees. but at the end of the day this all shows progress. it shows that compared to where we were two or three weeks ago, we're starting to see diplomacy pay off. the qatari, the egyptian mediation is getting hostages out of gaza, it is getting the israelis to release some prisoners, although some say they are very low-level prisoners but they are still being released nonetheless. so this is perhaps a way out of this and if you speak to the arab mediators and we've been speaking to them all day, they are hoping that this can become the bedrock, the foundation for a more lasting ceasefire, but if you listen to what prime minister netanyahu says, he insists that this has nothing to do with finding a long-term solution, not even -- not even the basis of a ceasefire. that this is strictly about releasing the hostages and that as soon as the hostages are released or as soon as hamas stops releasing them the military campaign will resume. we are seeing progress but i really don't know where this is going is the point. is this the start of something or no? >> that's the biggest point, richard. thank you for that. that's the important point. where does this go now? if we are trying to look at the future because for 51 days we've been looking backward, we are now looking at something that, john brennan, could result in the release of in theory all the hostages if hamas knows where all the hamas are. when i was in israel the families of the hostages were saying if they can just get negotiations for hostages maybe they can have negotiations for peace, but there does seem to be space growing between the united states and the netanyahu administration because in theory benjamin netanyahu is suggesting through his spokespeople and his own speeches that this thing resumes. after the hostage releases are done this all out war on gaza resumes. it seems both i'm placket cal and out of synch with what the rest of the world is going to think appropriate. >> as richard said, there has been good progress, four days of adherence to the terms of this truce by both sides with hostages and prisoners being released with the truce cessation of the hostilities for this period of time holding and the humanitarian aid coming in. but i do believe that netanyahu is going to be determined to relaunch the military campaign at some point. whether or not this truce extended for another two, ten or 20 days, i do not believe hamas is going to give up all of the hostages, absent some type of real change in the situation. they know that that is leverage that they have and they're buying time, they're trying to extend this truce so that they can reequip their forces as well as prepare for the day after. but, again, as richard said, we don't know what's going to happen the day after the truce ends, but i do believe that netanyahu is serious when he says this campaign is going to continue. the question is at what scale and what scope given that the biden administration has been putting a significant amount of pressure on netanyahu and the israelis to try to scale back the extent of their strikes that have killed so many palestinian civilians over the past seven weeks. >> let me ask you about this, ben, pause john just used the term "the day after." that's what we are talking about, what happens when whatever goal, if we accept that the goal is to neutralize hamas and they are neutralized, what happens the day after? again, the united states has discussed support for a two-state solution, something that has increasingly got less and less support on the ground amongst israelis and palestinians. they've talked about using perhaps the palestinian authority as a negotiating partner, something benjamin netanyahu has said there's not a chance of that happening. what is happening on the palestinian side? we're seeing prisoners released. here is a good example, these were prisoners who were in there sometimes for what they call administrative detention, some without charge, some very young, they come out, put on hamas paraphernalia and a flag because hamas got them out of jail. they may not have been hamas supporters when they went into jail. tell me about what the day after looks like from the palestinian there's a couple of questions, ali, that are relevant here. the first is assuming israel does resume its military operation and assuming that it is of a scale that is similar to what they were doing in the days before this pause, i do think that there's very real challenge that that's going to contribute to the radicalization of the palestinian public, a hard nick of attitudes, if you will, given the bombardment they're under, the siege they're under, in ways that may make it more complicated to fully sideline hamas. i actually think we have to name the reality that the goal that israel states is to destroy hamas but that is not really an achievable goal when you have hamas political leadership in other countries, you i'm sure have hamas blended in with a large civilian population in southern gaza. you can degrade their military capabilities, try to eliminate the membership of their military wing that is identifiable, but i think that if your approach is this full-scale bombardment, part of what you're doing is contributing to a hardening of attitudes with people that are going to be living in gaza assuming that they are not displaced en masse in egypt which is something that neither the palestinians or egyptians want. i think the second question is what is the israeli political objective in terms of the day after, the day of a an actual ceasefire is put into place. let's bear in mind that there is a difference between the israeli and u.s. government about how gaza should play out. that runs counter to the american view there should be palestinian authority under the leadership of the pa, the palestinian authority, but also a two-state solution. this israeli government, prime minister netanyahu and his ministers they don't support a two-state solution. that's not their position. so when you have the u.s. and other western politicians talking about a two-state solution, i think a very big caveat is that's not the policy of the israeli government. what needs to be done is an effort to identify and resource and support and empower an alternative palestinian leadership to hamas that draws on the palestinian authority but also draws on palestinian civil society, doctors, lawyers, people who have credibility in communities and trying to get them in charge of gaza and the reconstruction of gaza that has a political horizon of a palestinian state in both the west bank and gaza but i think we have to name the reality that there is a chasm between that american vision for how this all ends and the current policies of the israeli government. >> richard, you have spent a great deal of time with all of these parties and in all of these places. what's your take on where we go from here? >> reporter: well, i think it would be very difficult for israel to reoccupy the gaza strip. israel for years expressed no interest whatsoever in going back and reoccupying gaza. israel was content to have effectively forgotten about gaza, locked up the gaza strip, locked up the 2 million plus people inside, put them behind security fence and ignore the problem. that clearly didn't work when hamas was able to use gaza as a springboard to launch the october 7th attacks. so now it is at a difficult crossroads. does it go back and try to build a better prison and lock in the people of gaza more tightly with more effective controls? or does it go in and try to clear, secure and hold the terrain of gaza and then impose some sort of puppet government? that is a process that could take years, that could take decades. may never succeed. so this is -- these are really difficult questions. and what the -- what ben was just talking about and what the biden administration is talking about is instead of just going in and trying to reoccupy gaza, perhaps it's a time to relaunch the peace process based on a two-state solution. that's what president biden has said, that's what numerous middle east analysts have suggested. but as ben was just talking about a moment ago, that is not something that the netanyahu government has expressed interest in pursuing. so where does it go from here? are we just talk being a tactical pause to get out the hostages, get out as many as possible, particularly the most vulnerable hostages, the elderly, the women, the children, before fighting resumes in earnest? and if so for what purpose? what is the goal of that fighting? is it to create a new -- is it -- is it to carry out regime change? and if so regime change, and i think the israelis and anyone who has been engaged in military policy in the middle east including the united states will know is a very, very slow process, fraught with difficulties which often does not succeed. >> yeah, you know, you talked about what's supposed to happen afterward. i guess that's part of the issue. in the early days of this war there were a lot of israelis who were telling you and me when we were there that joe biden -- there's no space between netanyahu and joe biden and anybody who knows these two men's history knows there's a great deal of space typically between them but they eliminated that in the early days of the war. now there is real space and that's going to develop. what happens here because we are on the verge of the united states of passing a very big bill to extend funding to israel, israel has just extended new funding equivalent of $1.3 billion in she can else which is going to include money for settlements something joe biden has said has to stop. we have growing tension of the west bank, more arrests there. before october 7th we had 200 palestinians and 30 israelis killed just in that tension that's been going on for a year. so is there someone looking at -- have you heard anybody in israel talking about a strategic plan as opposed to a tactical plan. there is nobody that doubts they can achieve some degree he have success in gaza what does strategic look like? ? >> reporter: if you talk to senior israeli officials in this government or advising this government they say they do have a strategic plan. that the strategic plan is to eliminate hamas. that their strategic plan is to make sure that no government in any shape or form in the gaza strip can ever threaten israel the way that israel was threatened on october 7th. but the question is how do you get there? and i haven't heard convincing answers or even very much discussion of specifics about how they are going to get there. what they're talking about now is a military campaign, a clearing operation that begins in the north where israeli troops are on the ground and prime minister netanyahu was himself with a flak jacket on visiting troops in gaza over the weekend. a clearing operation in the north that will eventually move south, but at the top of this show, ali, you mentioned how 80% of palestinians have already been displaced from their homes and there has only been an operation in the north. so eventually is israel going to move south? that's what the israeli prime minister says, he says that is his strategic plan, to clear all of gaza. are they going to move south and push all the people who were driven from northern gaza to the south, are they going to suddenly drive them to another part of southern gaza along the coast? that's what they're talking about, or drive them to the central gaza and keep stirring the population there around? how is that necessarily going to eliminate hamas? how is that going to root out the militant group and how is that going to ease tensions? i think everyone on this show ben and the former cia director will know from the u.s. experience in the middle east you cannot beat people into moderation. >> yeah. >> and i think just having a strictly military approach if you are looking for a more moderate government it could easily come up short. >> so, ben, tell me about how that goes. you have joe biden trying to manage the relationship with netanyahu and the israelis, and you've got antony blinken who is doing some of that but he is bopping around between middle eastern capitals dealing with everyone else, including the qataris who are helping facilitate these hostage negotiations. he's getting an earful from a lot of people about what america needs to ask for particularly on the eve of get more funding going to israel from the united states. what do those conversations look like? because americans -- the white house and the administration are practical about this. they understand what's possible and that's not possible. what are they actually asking for? what are they pushing the israelis for? we know what netanyahu doesn't want, but what is possible? >> well, i think already what those conversations have done is the increased focus on needing to get humanitarian assistance into gaza i think was definitely a focal point of a lot of what secretary blinken was hearing in the region as well as this concept of a multiday pause. i think this emerged out of travel that secretary blinken had across the arab world. i think that there is this other question about trying to assure a few things. there are things that the arab governments, i think, don't want to happen. number one, there cannot be a mass displacement of palestinians out of gaza into egypt. that's both from egypt's perspective about its own stability, it's also about this not being another mass displacement of palestinians where they are pushed out of gaza and can never come back. that's the one thing people are concerned about. another thing is this question of whether or not there is a reoccupying of gaza or an israeli de facto control over gaza. that's something that the arab states are giving an earful about, they see that as potentially destabiliing and a recipe for a long-term conflict and one that might serve not to disempower hamas but serve to elevate the iranian backed resistance part in the middle east, hezbollah they prey on this conflict. there is a desire to see that there is a political horizon of a palestinian state, of palestinian administration of gaza and right now obviously the main discord is with the israeli government's opposition to that. there are other ideas, too, for instance, is there potentially a role for a peacekeeping force, arab multinational peacekeeping force to go into gaza. you have resistance from the arab governments to play that active role. the other thing the u.s. will put on the table is there is a lot of resources in the arab world, qatar and saudi arabia and uae, can they be a solution to palestinian state building and if the war stops today, ali, you have 1.8 million people who are displaced. i don't know how many of those hundreds of thousands of people are homeless but that also depends on israel being willing to let assistance into gaza and in the pa