our viewers in the united states, and around the world. i m becky anderson live for you today from doha in qatar. a four-day truce between israel and hamas does now appear to be taking effect. seven weeks of a punishing air ground campaign to root out of the militant group hamas now on hold. that is part of a deal to secure the release of israeli hostages captured in the october 7th terror attack. cnn s jeremy diamond and his crew near the border with gaza report what sounded like artillery fire in the early minutes of today s truce that started two hours ago. that has since stopped. according to qatar which was absolutely instrumental in brokering this deal, the first hostages from israel are now expected to be released at some point after four pm local time. that is about seven hours from now. women and children, some from the same families will be turned over. at least this is the plan, to the red cross. because amongst those held hostage in gaza. i hope that this happ
group of hostages being held by hamas is expected to be released. wolf? 13 women and children are set to be freed in that first group. the israeli government says it has the list of names and has notified the families. but in advance of all of this, israel says it has conducted hundreds of strikes in gaza. cnn s jeremy diamond is a few miles from gaza right now. he s joining us from sterot and he just heard a bombardment last hour. we also have oren leiberman here with me in tel aviv. oren, let me go to you first. walk us through what we ll see on the ground. wolf, a few moving parts here and it all requires meticulous planning which is why we might have seen that delay last night. we ll see hundreds of aid trucks begin to enter gaza for that desperately needed humanitarian assistance there, then nine hours after that pause in fighting begins we ll begin to see the release of those 13 women and children, the first group of hostages. they ll go to the red cross from hamas,
happening now, the anxious wait for the first major release of hostages from gaza after an agonizing delay. israel and hamas once again on the verge of a temporary truce, expected to begin just hours from now. if all goes according to plan, it would mark the first pause in the hostilities since the war began and could, potentially could set the stage for even more captives to come home. welcome to our viewers in the united states and around the world. i m wolf blitzer in tel aviv, israel. and this is the situation room special report. let s begin our coverage right now here in the middle east where we appear to be on the cusp of a critical moment in the war. 13 hostages now just hours away from returning home if the agreement between israel and hamas holds firm. cnn s oren liebermann has the latest. reporter: after nearly seven weeks of war it is the storm before the calm. final hours of fighting in gaza ticking down until a pause in the conflict set for early friday mo
found at gaza s largest hospital. and what is next for skonk m congressman george santos after an ethics report accuses him of using donor money on his rent and skin care routine 3. and the show will go on, the drag show, that is. good morning to our viewers in the united states and around the world. i m kasie hunt. it is friday. we made it, november 17th. it is 5:00 a.m. in the east. it is noon in gaza where the israeli military says that they found a hamas tunnel shaft inside the al-shifa hospital complex. you are looking at video shot and handed out by the israel defense forces. three sources tell cnn that the u.s. has intercepted conversations that indicate hamas has been using the hospital as a command center. cnn cannot verify idf claims of finding an operational tunnel shaft. hamas calls the claims, quote, baseless lies. meanwhile the idf says that it has found the bodies of two israeli hostages near the hospital. a 65-year-old and also a 19-year-old. the idf did
and on that note, i wish you a very good and safe night. good to be back with you. from all our colleagues across the networks of nbc news, thanks for staying up late with me. i will see you at the end of tomorrow. today, in new york, don trump s eldest son, don jr., took the stand in a civil fraud case against the former president and his family and his business. down in d. c., and in florida, judges issuing orders in both of special counsel jack smith s criminal cases against donald trump, the d. c. case involving trump s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, and the florida case centered only former presidents unlawful retention of classified documents. so a flurry of legal action today from mr. trump. and i m gonna get some expert legal help breaking down all of that just a second. but perhaps the biggest legal news of today was this. the federal judge in charge of the mar-a-lago classified documents case, judge aileen cannon, who was of course appointed by presi