them and she was carrying the 3 1/2-year-old baby in her arms, and she understood that she couldn't run fast enough, so she gave her two, and said, run, the last time she saw her was when she was hiding behind a tree. and she was actually saving her girl, saving her baby girl because she knew that alan was going to run fast and she wasn't. i think that tells everything that you need to know about her and what a loving mother and loving person she was. and geffen, the 3 1/2-year-old, misses her very, very much. we really want her to come back. >> we all hope so much that you have them back, and soon. gil dickmann, thank you for being with us. >> thank you, good night.

it's been quite an hour, thanks for being with us. there are yet more new developments out of israel when the news continues right now with the source. this is the source, i'm pamela brown in for caitlin coppin. -- collins. the deal was approved by a significant majority according to a source and as part of the deal at least 50 hostages, women and children would be released in exchange for a four- day halt in israel's air and ground campaign. the statement from the israeli government made no mention of the release of palestinian prisoners thought to be a key part of this deal. we have team coverage with the very latest, matthew chance is live in israel. chief correspondent alex marquardt is here with me in washington.

let's start with matthew chance in tel aviv. the cabinet met for several hours, finally approving a deal, what do we know? >> yeah, seven hours, which is how long it took the 38 member cabinet to debate the various details of the deal that was agreed with qatari mediation of course, with the palestinian group, hamas. it was the release of 50+ hostages, from the gaza strip, over a course of four days. it will be a low infighting, they don't want to call it a cease-fire but that's effectively what it will amount to. there is a possibility of that low infighting being extended by a day, for every 10 further

hostages the hamas want to or agree to release. and so, that was the essence of the deal. in exchange for that, of course, the palestinians would be getting the release of, they didn't mention this but the expectation is that someone hundred 50 or so palestinian prisoners in israeli jails will be released in a staggered way, you know, alongside the releases of hostages. and so that deal has now been done, it seems, there was a pause, a legal pause asked to be implemented now for at least 24 hours, to allow appeals in the supreme court of israel, appeals relating particularly to the release of palestinian prisoners. that is something that is a legal obstacle that remains. but it's not expected to stop

the steal going ahead, because as far as we are concerned now, a significant majority as we been hearing from our israeli sources of the cabinet, approved this deal, and it's essentially been greenlighted, pam. >> still so much to learn, how this is all going to play out. for more on that let's go to becky anderson. becky, you've been following with negotiations for days, talking to your sources. explain how the deal was reached, and what it looks like now and moving forward? >> let's talk about what it looks like now and moving forward before we back into how we got to where we are today. what we understand, what we know now is that this deal has been approved by the israeli government. what wdon't have is any detail on when this pause will start. and therefore, when we are likely to start seeing these hostages released.

in fact, that is one of the reasons that the mediation team hasn't actually officially announced that this deal is now in play. and as i understand it from a diplomatic source close to the talks, they said that the details on when the pause starts, are still unclear. so no response yet, no statement yet from this mediation team, who's been working night and day, i have to say, in mediating between israel and hamas with support from the united states. we know that david air has been in there, the head of the cia has been working very closely with israel and that mediation team to try and get these talks over the line. so when this pause will start, it still unclear. my understanding is the hope is, that this will be within 24

hours. this deal, this proposal on a deal was delivered to the israelis 24 hours ago. the israelis have known about the complete details of a deal as delivered, it's taken seven hours to get it through the israeli government to get approval on this deal. so as we wait, at this point, for details of when this pause will begin and obviously, you know, details therefore when we will see the first hostages. what we do understand, what we've been told by diplomatic sources is it is very likely you will see a lot of children in this first phase. it does sound now as if we got close to the numbers of the 50, we are looking at something like 30 children or young teenagers, and 12 mothers and eight other women at this stage. so this is very specifically

designed around women and children being held by hamas. how did we get here? it's been many weeks in the making, the israelis, from the outset have absolutely did -- demanded that the names and the ids of people being held by hamas would be delivered to the mediators and then, anybody else that they could identify and provide some proof of life of, possibly by other groups, that now seems to be in play. that seems to be something that has been agreed upon by hamas, which is a demand from the israelis. on the flipside, as we understand it, a week ago, when the israelis started their assault on al-shifa hospital, that became, that provided a

really difficult. period for negotiators, they didn't want to sign up for a deal while the raids were going on. that is when this proposal went back to the israelis as i say, on monday night, tuesday morning, very early and we are now what, 5:00 in the morning here, on wednesday, and this deal, now agreed in principle but the clear, there is no detail as of yet, provided by the israelis, nor did they have an announcement yet, and until they get details on when this pause begins, and that at the moment, is still unclear. >> we should remind our viewers, it still very delicate, even with the approval from the israeli government and the other side, you know, until these hostages

crossed the border, right, it's not essentially a done deal. becky anderson, thank you so much for your tireless reporting working overnight to bring the latest. alex is here with us now in washington, you heard becky make mention of the u.s. role in all this, benjamin netanyahu for his part, thanked president biden for his help with getting a better deal, so tell us more about biden's involvement. >> that comment by benjamin netanyahu tonight before going into this cabinet meeting was quite telling, and what he specifically said in thinking president biden, he helped israel get a better deal, more hostages at a smaller cost to israel. the u.s. had a central role here for a couple of reasons, not least because there are some 10 americans were believed to be hostages, they are missing, the youngest among them is someone who has been mentioned by president biden, young abigail, she's just three

years old, she's turning for on friday. there was a hope and expectation that she would be released in this first phase of these 50 hostages that we believe will be coming out in the coming days but of course, the u.s. also plays extremely pivotal role, in that part of the world, they have a lot of leverage with different players involved here, speaking directly of course with egypt, with israel, with qatar, the u.s. does not speak with hamas because it's considered to be a terrorist organization and that is why qatar has been deputized essentially to carry out the conversations with hamas but where needed and when needed, the u.s. can put pressure on those different countries. now some of the seniormost members of the biden administration have been involved in trying to get this deal across the finish line. we saw the most senior middle east advisor for the white house, he just got back from a tour of the middle east that included a stop in qatar where he talked about the hostage negotiations, bill burns, the

director of the cia, he's been absolutely no in these negotiations, talking with his israeli counterpart, with the qatari prime minister in doha. we understand from the white house, president biden has requested updates, daily, regular updates in deciding when to personally get involved. he has made numerous calls to the leaders of egypt, of israel, and of qatar. we do hope that there will be, the administration is hoping that some americans will be a part of this release but we certainly expect the u.s. to continue its anticipation as they continue to negotiate for what we will assume will be the vast majority of those hostages that are still being held by hamas. >> thank you so much, alex and as alex mentioned, it's believed 10 americans are held hostage of the youngest american, is a three-year-old little girl. abigail, she could be released in this potential deal her great aunt, liz hurst joins us now. we should note president biden appointed liz to the american

heritage abroad. in the wake of this deal, have you heard anything from officials yet? >> we have heard what you have heard, just listening to the people speaking before me, it's basically the only information that we have at this time. >> how hopeful are you that abigail will be released? >> well i am hopeful, our family is hopeful and it's been 45 days since abigail was abducted, taken to gaza, 45 days ago, her mother and father were murdered by hamas terrorists, this little three- year-old is somewhere in gaza i hope she is with the mother

that was taking care of her at that time with her own three kids. and i hope that abigail is being taken care of and left, and that this deal will follow through and these hostages, these children, will be back home with their families in the next couple of days. >> again, we don't know who exactly will be released as part of this deal, other than the majority being children and women, but of course, you must prepare for this possibility. and of course, holding out hope that abigail will be released. what are the discussions like among the family right now about welcoming her back in after going through such a traumatizing experience for a three-year-old. i have a three-year-old. i can't imagine. >> exactly. you have a three-year-old, can you imagine that your three- year-old would be with another mother and her three kids for 45 days? i mean, it's excruciating. and for our family, we have

spent the last seven weeks, seven weeks, worrying, wondering, praying, hoping, abigail has a sister who is six, a brother who is 10, these two children saw their parents both be murdered. they spent 14 hours in a closet on the 7th of october, hiding . the one thing that we all hold onto is that hope that abigail comes home, she comes home by friday, friday is her fourth birthday and there's nobody that is giving up hope, it's just that we actually need to see abigail come out then we will be able to believe it. we spent all day today, and we watched the news and we are still at this place where we

haven't seen, we don't know any details about any of our hostages. and so, i hope that starting tomorrow, we will start to learn more about the hostages and we will start to see children, women, be the first group that is released. >> we all are hoping and praying that she will be released and be able to celebrate her fourth birthday on friday with her family. thank you for coming on. we are all thinking about you and your family right now as we await word about who will be released as part of this deal. thank you. >> thank you for sharing this story. >> what will a pause in the fighting mean for the overall war? would it be a setback for israel or hamas. what minister r benjaminin netanyahu u is saying g right n and anan idf spopokesman i is h with me nenext on this brereaki news. . we will l be right bacack.

back with their breaking news. israel's cabinet voting to approve a hostage release deal with hamas after nearly 7 hours of deliberation. in a statement, it says, as part of this deal, 150 palestinian prisoners will be released from israeli jails. according to hamas, the prisoners to be released are women and children aged 18 years and younger. joining us now to discuss all of this is idf spokesman lieutenant colonel jonathan.

first off, what can you tell us about this new hostage deal being approved by the cabinet tonight. when can we expect the pause to begin? >> thank you for having me. i think that there is a process of coming into effect, i understand that there's also a short time window for people to appeal. but that is really outside of the bounds of the military. what we will be focusing on is of course on hamas and that military activities, until we will be told to do so by the israeli government, we will continue fighting hamas and when such a deal will come into effect, we will respect that but we will be very vigilant on the ground, because we have bad experiences with hamas from 2014 when they violated a cease-

fire, so we know we will have to be vigilant on the ground as we see this unfold, hopefully, we will see the safe return of israeli hostages from 46 days of captivity at the hands of hamas. >> when do you expect the earliest would be for any of these hostages to be released, potentially? and would israel wait for the hostage to actually cross the border before the pause goes into effect? >> so those details will still have to be worked out. you know the government just approved this. and now we will have to translate it on the ground. i can assure you that we will be respectful of any agreement and we will honor the commitments made by the israeli government. i can only hope that they will do the same, based on their past behavior, i'm not so hopeful. hopefully, this will happen as soon as possible. every minute matters and for the families waiting for their loved ones to return, these children, women, babies and infants that have been in captivity for so long, every

minute matters. and we will do everything to facilitate it as fast and seamlessly as possible. >> i know you said the details are still being ironed out and you are speaking on behalf of the military but i have to ask, do you have a sense of who the hostages are that could be released beyond just children and women. we just spoke to the great aunt of the three-year-old little american girl, abigail edan, there's a lot of questions about what names are on that list to be released. has hamas handed that over? >> not that i am aware of at this stage. and i can think and assume that hamas will continue with their psychological warfare efforts and they will make things as painful and as excruciating as they can for the families. i don't think they will be humane or fair, after all they

abducted civilian so why would they began to act humane now. at the end of the day, we will get the list. i do know that all of the people on the list according to what i have, are israelis, some of them with dual nationalities but all are israelis. >> some of those with dual nationalities, do you know if any of those are american? >> i don't have confirmed information about that at this stage. >> what about the list of palestinian prisoners who i mentioned at the top, hamas said was a part of this, 150 palestinian prisoners will be released. you pointed out there is a 24- hour appeal process for anyone who wants to go to court about this, and tell us about how they were selected. history has told you in the past, for the release of the israeli soldier that was released as part of that was believed to be part of the mastermind of this terrorist attack on october 7th. >> you are absolutely correct. the butcher and that mastermind

behind many of the horrible things that are unfolding since october 7th, was indeed released in the latest hostage deal. he was returned to israel and more than 1000 hamas prisoners and terrorists were returned. hopefully, we are not going to make that same mistake, and what i know is the palestinians that are being freed from prisons, they are not at all that caliber of terrorists that we were talking about before, not serious offenders, and once i will have that list, of course we will be able to share it. i do not have that list just yet. >> and you don't know when it'll be released, correct? >> momentarily, i suppose but as you said correctly, there is a process of appeal which needs to be followed, and then i

think everything will be made official. >> are you worried that the pause in fighting for the hostage release could be a setback for the idf and give hamas time to regroup? >> yeah, you know, one would hope that hamas has been asking or pleading for this pause for many days now. one would hope that they would use it in order to care for civilians in the southern gaza strip and take care of their needs, but i think one would be naove in doing so. hamas, they don't care about the palestinians, they don't care about their humanitarian needs. and i feel that hamas will use the pause in fighting in order to try and resupply and regroup. and of course, we would rather continue to apply pressure on hamas, continue to fight them and defeat them in our stronghold as we are doing in northern gaza city. but, this pause is of course were a very important cause, and that is why the idf said

clearly on record to the israeli government that we do support them. and of course we want to see the hostages back and any means of achieving that is worthwhile doing. we will be vigilant on the ground and we will continue to monitor hamas activities, and we will try and be ready for any such violation and respond accordingly. >> thank you so much. >> thank you for having me. much more time on the major breakthrough in this war. a former israeli national security advisor is here with us and he can help walk us through this deal, and what comes next. we will be right back.

back with her breaking news, israel's newly approved deal with hamas that wouldst seal the release 450 hostages in exchange for a four-day truce. jeremy diamond is in israel near the gaza border. jeremy, what have you learned? >> reporter: as you said israel's cabinet has finally approved this deal that would see the release of 50 women and children in exchange for a four- day pause in the fighting. there's a component of releasing palestinian prisoners as well. 150 palestinian president desmond prisoners also women and children, it's effectively

three prisoners for everyone civilian hostage that is being released. and hundreds of trucks are expected to enter gaza. i'm told this deal was approved by an overwhelming majority of the cabinet although i am told that the national security administer the far right minister of benjamin netanyahu's cabinet voted against the deal along with another minister. i also just spoke with the special representative for hostage affairs for the prime minister. and he told me that this is only the first phase of hostage release. he really wanted to emphasize that point and in fact, tonight, i'm told he delivered a message directly to the families of those hostages to let them know that the government will do everything in its power to bring back all

of the hostages, beyond the first 50 who are expected to get out over those four days. but if hamas releases additional hostages, 10 hostages per day, it could earn them an additional day of truce for every 10 hostages. and that could certainly materialize as we look forward to this. what's also important to keep in mind is the israeli prime minister and his governor -- government tonight making clear that the pause in fighting is not a permanent cease-fire and in fact, they will resume their fighting against hamas and they will continue their effort and continue to try and reach their objective of eradicating hamas once this pause in fighting ends. >> let's get more perspective now from, who has served as a national security advisor to past israeli prime minister's and just got back from israel. you have fresh perspective after just being there. what do you make of the cabinets approval of this deal? >> first of all, it's been a long deliberation. and as expected, they approved that this deal has been negotiated for weeks. israel has insisted that we get

the largest group that we could, and within this, to have all the children and women, the mothers of those children, released together. hamas tried to break that into groups in previous weeks so at this point, it seems like this is going to happen. of course, when it happens, we will believe it because hamas has been playing with their emotions and psychological warfare throughout this time, and it has broken its promises many times before so hopefully this will be the case. the cabinet approved it. and in 24 hours i assume we will start seeing the hostages released. >> in 24 hours. >> thursday morning. >> part of this deal will include women and children. do you know how many will still be held in captivity after these 50 are released? >> so we believe this should be the entire group of children, their mothers -- >> that hamas has? >> we know who are taken.

hamas has said that they would release all of them alive, which is something we need to see when it happens. choristers also elderly, sick people, wounded, injured, i mean, a total of 240 hostages. the focus on women and children is of course, because we want the week people to come back home, the more fragile, that's more important to bring them back but this won't stop. israel will continue the pressure until we get back all of the hostages and until we eradicate hamas. there is no future for gaza as long as hamas is still there controlling and terrorizing people. >> we should also note, so that 50 is what is believed that hamas has under its control but there are other groups in gaza, holding hostages and my understanding is that during

this pause in fighting, hamas will try and get those hostages back. >> they tried to make it as if they don't control all of it. hamas is the role of gaza. and they will be able, i'm sure they have already, as you recall in the second week, just after the beginning of the ground invasion, we rescued one of the captives, a female soldier because we knew where she was. she was held in an apartment somewhere north of gaza, after that incident, hamas moved them together to be in more control because these are bargaining chips for them, as horrific as it sounds, this is what they do. at this point, i think the idf believes that hamas knows where they are and they are controlling them and hopefully we will start getting them thursday morning. >> the hostages are what is giving them so much power. >> there's probably a newborn,

hopefully, this is part of it, and 45 days, in tunnels. it's just outrageous. >> thank you so much. >> more reaction to this approved deal with a cousin of two bebelieved hostages,s, one them, amamerican. what is gogoing ththrough his m tonight asas he and so many y others await w word.

back with our breaking news. the horror and red for the families of those kidnapped by hamas on october 7th, is tonight making way for a new sliver of hope. the deal between israel and hamas just approved by israel's cabinet, opening the door for dozens of hostages including little children, who could be back in their loved ones arms in the next 48 hours. joining us now is boaz, whose cousins are presumed to be held by hamas, after their home was burned to the ground. thank you for coming on. i'm sure you are feeling so much emotion right now. what are your thoughts, how are you feeling about this deal and are you concerned that he could come back and not leave? >> it's really a lot of emotions, like what we know from the deal, it seems that

men are not included in it, so my cousin is likely to not be released tonight or in the first wave. if liam will be released, that would be great but we don't know that. we don't know the names, we didn't get a list of names or anything, as far as i know the israeli government doesn't know the name either. so, we are really hoping that, you know, every, every hostage release is really good news for the family, in particular, the children. i met last week with the family of abigail, the little girl it

was heart wrenching they can go back, hoping, that is a great start, we want everybody to come back. >> has the idf or any official been in contact with you or your family? >> at least, as of a few minutes ago, i don't know that they have. and i'm not like next of kin so they would contact as far as i liam. what would it mean to have them home again? >> aviv and liam are a wonderful couple, they are both 48, they live in the couple

#tran05, they were completely taken over and destroyed on october 7th aviv is a mechanic. in the kibbutz, fixing agricultural machinery, and is also an artist. he takes like pieces of scrap metal or old machinery from the workshop and he paints tiny miniatures of fields, tracks. >> you see it right here on the screen. >> yeah, and he just had his

first exhibition in tel aviv, that was ironically closed on october 7th . and liam is also 49, she's an american citizen, she's a high school teacher, she teaches civics, and she's also an instructor. they love to travel, you can see them last august in new york. they came for a trip to

yellowstone. >> they are clearly a beautiful couple, and we appreciate you coming on to reflect on them and we are thinking about you and your family as we await word on which hostages will be released as part of this initial deal. >> thank you. there have been dozens of attacks on us forces in the middle east since the war broke out, the latest, just last night in iraq where ballistic missiles were fired at an air base. the pentagon says the u.s. has launched precision strikes, the threat of a wider war, when we return.

-- not going to be a major issue for the israelis. >> what about the posture, as these hostages are being released and there's a pause in the fight, and they're going to go into more of a defensive mode. they have been on the offensive there. so what kind of risk, what kind of challenges does that present for the israeli military? >> they certainly are going to be more vulnerable. there are continuing their offensive, certainly. so they are going to have to continue to take that into account. they're also going to have to reestablish their intelligence baseline after this pause, and if it's five or four days or a little longer. that certainly unusual -- but there is certainly risk because they are not -- they're not going to be maintaining the initiative during this pause, obviously. so there is concern, but i'd also say the israelis have nominated from the ear, the ground, since they started their offensive. so i don't think it will take long for them to reestablish the offensive and going after

their objectives once the fighting resumes. >> let's broaden out a little bit and talk about what else is going on in the region. is there anything that u.s. can do to prevent these attacks by iranian-backed groups? it seems as though these retaliatory strikes, they're not really acting as much of a deterrence. because as we noted, there have been 60 attacks since middle tomorrow. >> there is more of that can be done. there is a range of options that are available to u.s. central command. and certainly, those discussions, i'm confident, our ongoing. your right. they haven't proved as a deterrent. and i think, if the attacks continue, that we will also escalate primarily in iraq and primarily and cynthia. probably not and iran, we haven't hit that threshold yet for my assessment. >> there is that concern, this is going to spill over into jabalero conflict. the idf, they said it exchange

more fire across the israel lebanon border yesterday. what do you think the u.s. can do to stop this conflict him escalating beyond gaza and possibly to lebanon? >> we've had director burns in the region, obviously, director of cia. i'm sure there is a lot of discussions, ongoing, with both our allies in the region and saudi arabia and others, also probably directly with our adversaries. i mention there's a lot of behind the scenes dialogue and discussions about what the repercussions are going to be. beyond that, i think demonstrating that we are not going to stand for attacks against u.s. forces and our allies and partners in the region, which we have done. and it hasn't stopped the attacks. but i think every time that that happens, i think the iranians and their proxies are reassessing how high they want to escalate. >> lieutenant general schwartz, thank you for coming on. peppy things given to you. >> thank you. >> coming up, new information

about the americans who could be part of this hostage really steel. and some really interesting behind the scenes details on how this all went down.. when we e come back.k. >

we are back with breaking news. a deal with hamas to release 50 hostages kidnapped on october 7th. we have new details coming in about the painstaking negotiations that transparent to get the steal approved on all sides. according to sources, a week ago, israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu grabbed the arm of president biden's middle east advisor brett mcgirk as he will get out of a tense meeting with the israeli cabinet saying, quote, we need the steal. and now we know a deal has been approved by the israeli government. joining us now is cnn and white house correspondent arlette saenz who is president with president biden. what can you tell us? >> pamela, president biden and top officials at the administration have been working around the clock on these painstaking associations to try to secure the release of these hostages. president biden earlier today having said he believed they were very close to that deal. and tonight they have in fact, israel has approved this deal

to move forward. president biden is here, now, in nantucket where he's spending the thanksgiving holiday. we are still waiting to hear from the white house whether there will be any type of official statement last evening. but it comes after president biden had personally been engaged in these talks. that's according to senior admonition officials since the beginning of this attack hamas launched lincoln's role, president biden has repeatedly spoken to israeli prime minister benjamin yahoo and today, netanyahu said he had asked the president to get involved in these negotiations. and so the president himself had helped improve these talks. in addition, speaking to man yahoo, president biden also spoke with the mayor of qatar twice last week and really pushed him, as qatar has served as the media and peace talks. but it all comes as people will be watching closely to see how many americans might be included in this deal. the steel is expected to include 50 women and children. it's possible that u.s., says, three americans could be released. and that includes that three

year old girl abigail a don, someone president biden himself has talked about in recent days. in the hope, the administration says, this could potentially pave that way for other releases down the road. but it's clear, this is welcome news for the whole white house. as president biden had been quite hopeful that been able to get to this moment. it will take, they say, about 24 hours to implement this deal and that's the question, exactly when and how many americans will be included as part of this release? >> right now, the thinking is potentially as early as thursday morning. but it's still fluid. so we're still waiting to find out more on that. arlette saenz, thank you for bringing us the latest. and thank you for joining us tonight. cnn news night with abby phillip starts right now. ,.