dozens of women and children kidnapped by hamas set to be released. what the hostage families are saying about this moment and what it means for israel's mission to defend itself and take out hamas. and president biden welcoming the deal as a major diplomatic victory after weeks of phone calls and negotiations vowing not to give up until every american is back home. >> and millions of americans are heading out today for the

thanksgiving holiday. we are tracking the roads, the airports and the storm systems for you this morning. i'm kate bolduan with omar jimenez. john and sara are off. this is cnn news central. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ the breaking news. there is an agreement, a truce, it's being called to soon see dozens of hostages free from captivity. they have been held by hamas for some seven weeks meaning right now there are families including american families waiting, hoping, praying that their loved ones are among the group that will be coming out in the coming days. as part of this truce, here is what we are told. a four-day pause in fighting will begin roughly 17 hours from now. hamas is then expected to begin releasing 15 women and children captive in gaza. in return, israel will release

150 palestinian prisoners held in israeli jails. >> before the truce begins tomorrow morning israel is continuing its assault on hamas targets. these are brand-new images. we want to show you them here of what rafah and southern gaza looks like right now. the images will come up shortly here. you see the smoke there on your screen. the plumes rising and that was just last hour and it was part of the barrage of air strikes we've seen over gaza. we have team coverage standing by in israel. cnn anchor kaitlan collins and how it will be carried out. what are you learning? >> what we are expecting this to look like at 3:00 a.m. local time in israel is when this is set to begin thursday and we expect the pause in fighting, the biggest pause we have seen, the most significant one since october 7th and that in and of

itself notable. what the release of the hostages looks like still remains to be seen, but right now based on our reporting and what we have heard from sources here on the ground is we expect about ten hostages per day to be released. those are not names that have been made public by either hamas or the israeli side. families are still waiting desperately to hear more about that, but that is what we are expecting in the four to five-day pause. there is an option for that to continue to go past the 50 women and children that will be released from hamas in exchange for 150 palestinian prisoners. that could go on longer because we heard from the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu who have said for every ten additional hostages released by hamas there will be another day in the pause in the fighting. the question is how long that goes on. how many more hostages hamas is ultimately able to produce because there are questions about the condition of the hostages and why not all of them are still alive and those are major questions that have not

yet been answered and that these families are waiting to hear. all of this is coming after days and weeks after five weeks of intense negotiations between the white house, qatar, israel and hamas on this very issue. it points after israel went into the al shifa hospital in gaza there was no communication between hamas and qatar for days and they had a disagreement whether or not that would happen going forward and then there is movement and counting down the hours until this is set to begin. cnn's orrin lieberman is on the ground. as we are waiting to learn more about technically what this is going to look like, we are also, you know, seeing fighting continuing in gaza as of this moment right now. >> very much so and frankly, that's not too much of a surprise. we have seen ceasefires and pauses in fighting take effect in previous round of fighting and right up until that pause starts, right up until 10:00

tomorrow we should very much expect to see fighting continue. in fact, an idf sopokesperson said when they stop fighting the idf will be ready and until that point this is very much still an ongoing bar and it is not surprising that we see continued israeli strikes in gaza and we have seen red alerts coming out of gaza and that is because the pause hasn't started yet. shouldn't be interpret as it is falling apart. not at all. the pause will go into effect and the war will be put on hold effectively until 10:00 tomorrow and until then it is very much on and prime minister benjamin netanyahu made clear in his cabinet meeting that after the pause, israel will pursue its mission in trying to destroy hamas. >> speaking of fighting, we saw the red alert in the southernmost point and we've seen the houthis in yemen firing

on israel and they're not a party in this agreement neither is hezbollah and lebanon. there were questions about what those other iranian-backed groups will be doing if hamas is living up to their part of the agreement there still could be action that we are seeing. >> absolutely. that's part of what makes this a dynamic and difficult situation to try to manage. we got a follow-up statement from the idf that one of their fighter jets intercepted a cruise missile. they haven't attributed that to the houthis in yemen in which they have claimed in recent weeks. the same question goes as you pointed out in hezbollah in lebanon. do they abide by this pause and they're not a party to this agreement and it depends how closely they are aligned and what messages have gone back and forth on that front and we don't have a window into that and there could be a four-day pause in gaza and thousands, if not tens of thousand of israeli troops waiting in gaza in defensive position for the

fighting to resume and we see the southern border and northern border continue to see fighting and that is something that we are going to keep an eye on here. >> yeah. that's a huge part of this conflict. orrin leishman, we'll continue to check back in with you. here in tel aviv, this is where the families have been sharing their anguish and anger as they wait for news of their loved ones. we still don't know which 50 hostages are on that list that are set to be released by hamas, when and if this agreement is carried out in the coming days. so many of them are still waiting to find out. there are many who don't believe their family members, if they will be released, will be in the list of 50. clarissa ward has been in what is now informally known as hostage square, and i spoke to her a short time ago. >> this is just the beginning of the fight. it is not the end. people want to see every single one of those 240-some hostages

released and there are camps like that that have sprout up in several parts here in central tel aviv. we are in an area where the focus is on the family of a woman called hadas calderon. this is hadas calderon's family. that is her ex-husband ofir who has been kidnapped along with her two children, eras and sahar and her mother carmela and autistic niece were murdered in those october 7th attacks and the hope is for hadas calderon and many mothers and family members like her that potentially we may see the release of sahar and arez and of some of the other children who are currently being held. now, i've also spoken, kaitlan to thomas han.

you may remember him, we interviewed him after the october 7th attacks and he was an irishman living in the be'eri kibbutz. initially he was told he had been killed and actually, she may be alive. i have spoken to thomas hand. he has said, quote, i want to jump through the roof with hope, but i also have to keep a level head emotionally. i can't let myself get too far ahead of myself. he made a couple of important point, kaitlan. he said so far no one from the israeli government has reached out to him. he has learned about this hostage release deal on television as many different families have. he still had no information as to emily's exact whereabouts, as to the conditions she's being held in, as to her own

conditions. there has been no specific proof of life, and i think that's why you are seeing this measured approach on the one hand, obviously, ecstatic at the potential that he may be able to see his daughter again in the coming days, but also trying to temper that fervent hope with the possibility at this stage that she may not be coming out, that she may not be alive. that h that he simply doesn't know enough about her condition and whether she will be among these initial releases. so i would say exactly as you kind of summarizeded it, an extraordinary amount of excitement and hope, but also real anxiety. not just as to whether their children or their family member will be among those who are initially released, but also so importantly, kaitlan, as to what kind of a condition they will be

returning in. these children have been held in potentially very difficult, if not horrific circumstances for many weeks on end. there is bound to be a huge, psychological impact to the trauma that they have endured and so everybody here hoping for the best and bracing themselves for the worst, kaitlan. >> clarissa ward, thank you. omar, kate, just a lot of questions for these families who are living and have been living for weeks in anguish and are still waiting to find out. obviously being it's a glimmer of hope for them, but they are still waiting to see what will begin to happen at 10:00 a.m. local tomorrow. >> we talked about how loittle time it seem for people, each hour and each minute is just waiting and that tenseness trying to figure out, all right

s my loved one -- >> literally holding their breath. kaitlan, thank you so much for being there. >> still ahead for us. the four-day pause in fighting will allow more aid to get into the besieged gaza as the humanitarian crisis worsens. we are hearing new stories about the horrific cost of the war especially among children. before the truce begins in 17 hours. the idf says it is still targeting hamas infrastructure. will the truce open the door for the terrorist organization to regroup? lu plus as millions head to their destination, a storm can put a damper on your plans. where that bad weather could hit next.

you are looking, we will take you to some live images right now over northern gaza. you can see what we've been watching our combination of flares and what appear to be strikes as night begins to fall over there in gaza and, of course, as we've been monitoring the israeli military says it's still been targeting hamas infrastructure ahead of the truce that doesn't take effect until tomorrow morning. prime minister benjamin netanyahu has vowed to continue the war after the fighting paused saying it won't end until, quote, hamas is destroyed, all of the hostages are released and there is nobody in gaza who can threaten israel. so we will continue to monitor some of these images as we welcome our next guest, cnn military analyst and former nato supreme allied commander general wesley clark. obviously, we've been watching some of these -- some of these

images here. there was a question of how, perhaps, intense strikes would be in the leadup to the actual moment this truce took effect and so we're expecting it to begin at 3:00 a.m. eastern time and this precedes my question, but what do you think will happen leading up to that moment? >> first of all, i think the strikes will be as intense as israel has targets for. there will be no slacking off until the exact moment of the truce, and i'm sure this was an issue that was really hammered out in the cabinet. i'm sure there were voices saying you can't give a truce. you've got to go through with this. you've got to finish the job against hamas, and so the israeli military will be pressing to do as much as they can. during the truce period, omar, they will still have the right to self-defense and you call it a truce, it could be called a pause. it could be called a temporary ceasefire, but whatever you call it, there's no enforcement

mechanism, so there are no independent observers on the ground, and what normally happens when this kind of a pause occurs is maybe the shooting stops for a while, but pretty soon it starts again because someone feels threatened and they have the right to self-defense. after the period of four or five days assuming the hostages get released on schedule, unless there is a continuing release of hostages beyond the 50 as prime minister netanyahu said, he's going to resimeume and this wile the real struggle. there will be strong political forces and pressure on israel not to resume. so how this gets resolved is the key, strategic problem for israel. >> and for those tuning in, we are monitoring the scene over gaza right now. we've been seeing some flares and a combination of what appears some strikes going into gaza as night begins to fall and obviously under 20 hours to when

this truce takes effect before then. when we look, general, at some of the details in this deal. a four to five-day pause and what does a pause like this typically mean militarily. what can and can't you do essentially in a timeframe like that? >> when it starts, let's look at it from the israeli side. they'd like to punish and relax and can they really trust hamas and there will be a period of doubt and they'll have to keep their guard up and they'll consolidate their positions and they're inside gaza and they don't control gaza. there are tunnel entrances that are being shot at from behind on some occasions and they don't have any security in there. maybe they'll rotate some troops in and out. on the hamas side they're going to use it to consolidate, replenish, resupply, reorganize and try to re-establish communications and be ready for

the next wave of the israeli fighting. this is a humanitarian effort. there will be some humanitarian assistance that comes in unless there are some really strange, strong controls here. hamas will get what needs out of that humanitarian assistance and it will replenish its own fuel stocks or whatever. so this is -- let's get the hostages out. that will be a great thing, but this is far from over, omar, and it's very dynamic, it's really hard to predict where it's going to go. >> it's not just on the ground. u.s. and israel both pausing drone strikes over hostage as part of the deal per a senior white house official. to one of the pointses that you made, israel's government plans to resume the air and ground campaign to completed eradication of hamas after this -- this truce, temporary pause, whatever you want to call it and they left the door open to continue the pauses for every

ten hostages released. how do you expect israel to balance the hostage release and also with their goal of destroying hamas? >> that's the tough call, and it's a really tough political call on netanyahu and his war cabinet because the military knows that hamas is -- hamas to win -- a victory for hamas is they have the hostages and they emerge as heroes among the iranians, hezbollah and the other jihad i groups. they will use the hostages and eventually they hope israel will lose the appetite for the fight and they'll say we made it. it was a successful operation. israel knows this. israel knows that if they don't,

limb nate eliminate coming out of lebanon so this is a really, really tough call. in the past israel has turned loose a thousand prisoners to get one israeli soldier back. so the weight on israel is human life, israeli human life is the most important overriding factor, but this is the first time that israel has declared an existential threat according to prime minister netanyahu. this is, hamas, is an existential threat. maybe that changes the calculous. there are all kind of dynamics that make it very unpredictable, omar. >> of course, i should mention again, as you've been talking we've been seeing those flares as night begins to fall and a lot of dynamics to keep an eye on even ahead of this long-negotiated truce or pause. thank you so much. leaders from around the world are reacting to and praising this deal reached between israel and hamas.

a deal that will free 50 hostages kidnapped and held by hamas for 46 days and it will remain that way for four days putting this on pause beginning tomorrow morning. jordan's foreign ministry said it hopes that this truce will lead to the end of this war which has created a humanitarian crisis and rising death toll on civilians in gaza, as well. cnn's nada bashir is tracking this. nada, what are you hearing this pause means for the people in gaza? >> well this is alleviating some of the humanitarian catastrophes, the pressures that we have seen put on the people of the gaza strip for over a month now. we have seen the humanitarian situation deteriorating across the board, particularly across northern gaza where we have seen that heavy bombardment concentrated over the last few weeks and also in the south where there are hundreds of

thousands of people inside gaza now displaced, sheltering in these temporary tent cities. the hope is that this temporary pause, this truce, whether it be four days or potentially even longer will allow for crucial aid convoys to access the gaza strip safely and securely to have the humanitarian aid to people inside gaza and also to allow aid agencies to get into gaza. according to sources who are familiar with the ongoing negotiations and the terms of the agreement are working to 400 aid trucks being allowed into the gaza strip, and that wouldn't be far off from the pre-level of aid and some 455 trucks before the war and this would be a welcome development for those in need. as we know, gaza has a shortage in fuel inside gaza. the israeli govern allow minute

get sewage systems and what is needed is fuel allow hospitals to keep running and allow people on power their generators ands that is what is so des from thely needed and there will be aid delivered on other fronts, as well. safe drinking water, food, as well and medical supplies and medication to allow hospitals to keep treating patients. the vast majority of hospitals in northern and central gaza are now inoperational. we've seen doctors, working under the most challenging and difficult circumstances trying to provide care from the so many patients that are coming in wounded as a result of this war and unable to do so. we've been speaking to people on the ground and we managed to speak to families with young children who have had to have amputations as a result of the ongoing air strikes and what they are facing is difficult, to say the least. take a look. >> translator: i was walking with my friends and suddenly the missile fell. i found myself on the ground lying on my right side.

i kept trying to stand up, but there was rubble on top of my leg. when they removed the rubble i saw that my foot had been ripped off. i've been watching and playing soccer since i was a little boy. it's still my favorite sport, reza tellings us and now this war has destroyed my dream. >> for so many children inside gaza, for so many families inside gaza their lives have been completely changed forever as we know according to the u.n. 1.7 million people now internally displaced and that death toll continues to rise with each present day. >> nada bashir, thank you. coming up still for us. i'd like to welcome you to one of the busiest travel days of the year. what you will find on the roads and at airports across the country ahead of thanksgiving and on the campaign trail, what we're hearing from presidential candidates on the breaking news of this hostage deal and why some republicans are even giving credit to joe biden.

today millions of americans are all trying to do the same thing, get where they need to go ahead of thanksgiving. heading to airports, hitting the roads, all of the above en masse. one thing we can all be thankful for, the bad weather that was feared is expected to taper off by tonight. so what does that mean for you today? cnn's pete muntean is at reagan

national airport outside of washington for us. pete, what are you hearing about all of this right now? >> well, you know, right now, kate, we're looking at an airport that is pretty much at capacity. we are through the first part of the morning rush at reagan national airport and tsa tells me the airport is designed to handle 40,000 people in total on any one given day and we are going to get right up to that limit. the issue is not getting through security, but what happens after. the weather is having a big impact. here are the latest numbers of flight aware where we hit 1,000 delays nationwide today after we saw 5200 yesterday. airlines are rateight you in in recovery mode getting people to where they need to go. the anticipation from tsa, 2.7 million passing through security at america's airports today. the big thing that the tsa is trying to underscore is not to add to any of the delays if you can help it and be your game

going through security. the line here at some points for standard screening has gone up to about 25 minutes under the tsa goal getting you through in a half hour or less, and i want you to listen to some of the passengers who took that advice to heart. >> it's pretty crazy, but it could be worse. >> this is crazy, you know, i thought it would be like this. so i'm three hours in advance for my flight. >> see? that's the way to do it. >> so i'm just chilling now. >> there are a lot of people driving. of the aaa forecasts, 55 million people in total traveling 50 miles or more over the next five days. 49 million people will be driving. the worst time to go is later on this afternoon. if you can hit the road now before 11:00 a.m. that is when aaa says you can still hit a bit of of a sweet spot, if not, wait until later tonight.

a lot of people, kate, simply don't have the choice, though, but to travel on the wednesday before thanksgiving which they say is the worst day to travel. i talked to a teacher here and she teaches in montgomery county in d.c. and she couldn't get the time off and she had to travel today. >> are you trying to make up for now what we've gone through every holiday cycle with you, pete, which is telling me that we should all be just taking off more time in order to avoid the travel congestion? thanksgiving -- the thanksgiving holiday is a week long. >> trend is that there's more of a wave now. it's not as much of peaks and valleys like big days on wednesday and sunday. the tsa administrator tells me it's really a 12-day long period that they count for all of the people traveling. so we are not -- we are only at the midpoint right now, kate and maybe the worst is still to come. we could see 2.9 million people at airports nationwide on sunday and that would be the biggest

number the tsa has recorded in its 22-year history. >> we will flip the script. the worst is yet to come or the best is yet to come because we can all spend so much time in airports with new friends that we have yet to meet and this is wonderful and this is one of the great reasons, and we avoid all of these headaches. you stay there. you're never allowed to leave. bring a cot and sleeping bag. we always happy to be present and we'll get back to you, pete. >> always find the lines are longest when i'm in them. that's usually when they peak. >> so the common denominator is you. >> hi, it's me. i'm the problem. we have alison chinchar here with a look at your holiday weather forecast. all right. what have we got here? >> the issues are lingering across much of the eastern

seaboard and if you have travel along interstate 95, you still have patches that are dealing with wet conditions. down to the south and the main focus for the heavy rain right you in is over the carolinas and starting to see that wrap up across georgia and florida and it should be dryer in the second half of the day. off to the north and east we're seeing it dry out to the north in philadelphia and providence, boston and portland and then you have the snow in the interior portions of new england and the low pressure systems will continue to slide off to the east and the main one finally getting back out over open water and seeing things dry out once we get into late tonight and today into thanksgiving. that means the eastern half of the country for thanksgiving day itself likely looks pretty good in most spots and the troublesome area flips to the other half of the country where we have rain and snow over the intermountain west and this pushes into friday and into the weekend and black friday and going into the weekend and now you have snow across the west

and creating more rain showers across portions of the center of the country. take denver, for example. a high of 68 today, a very nice day out there dropping back to a high of only 26 on friday and you've got some snow showers into the mix, as well. they can expect the forecast calling for one to three inches if denver itself and you may have travel problems there on friday. >> alison chinchar all things to keep an eye. thank you. coming up for us, flares over northern gaza. what we are seeing into gaza from our location in israel as israel continues its bombardment, though ahead of the truce setting in as part of this major hostage deal. the breaking news coming up.

we are an hour from the first major pause in the israel-hamas war and this, we want to show you, is what we're seeing over gaza today. israel continuing its bombardment of gaza from the air. the pause in fighting is slated to begin at 10:00 a.m. local time tomorrow as part of the deal to free 50 hostages from hamas captivity in gaza. so hours to go and it seems a very active scene right now. let's get over to jeremy diamond in sderot, israel. jeremy, what are you seeing and hearing right now in. >> well, kate, all afternoon and evening we have been seeing large plumes of smoke, heavy explosions and also incendiary

rounds being fired into the gaza strip. we have been hearing the constant thud of artillery continuing today, certainly more active even than it was yesterday and this is, of course, as we are less than 24 hours away from the expected start time of this pause in fighting in order to secure the release of those 50 hostages over a period of four days, and the israeli military has telegraphed very clearly that they intend to continue with their ground operations up until that truce actually begins. in fact, they said that they are -- carrying out very active operations in the jabalia refugee camp and right behind us and in the city beit lahia and it is very clear they are carrying out these operations up until the moment that the truce begins. one thing that the israeli prime minister has also telegraphed, of course, is that this is

simply a pause in the fighting to get the hostages out, but it is not a full ceasefire, and he has made very clear that after that pause in fighting ends that he will resume military operations, that this war will continue up until the israeli military achieves its objectives as it's been laid out to destroy hamas and also, he has said, to secure the release not just of the 50 hostages, but of the 240 hostages who are being held in gaza. in the meantime, we know that this has been a nerve-racking and anxiety-induced period for the ham leafamilies of the host they are released in the first round. >> jeremy diamond, thank you. >> also, several republican presidential candidates are waiting on the news of the war of israel and hamas. one is giving credit to president biden. we will go back to the middle east and when this truce will

begin anand when hostages s mige released.. stay witith us.

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new details about how the deal secure the release of the 50 hostages by hamas came together. there were weeks of pain staking negotiations between israel, the u.s., qatar, hamas and cnn's m.j. lee joins us from the white house. m.j., you have this info on how involved top administration officials have been especially on the u.s. side. how involved were they, even the president in getting to this point? >> we now have a much clearer picture of the weeks and weeks of intensive negotiations that

took place behind the scenes that really got us here. what we have learn side that shortly after october 7th there was essentially a top secret channel of communication that was established among just a small group of white house officials and israeli and qatari officials to discuss the hostage situation and essentially negotiate with hamas. omar, last month we saw the release of those two children women who were being held hostage in gaza and when that was successfully executed, we are told, it sent a signal to the administration that they basically had a model for how to move forward and it is when that is when they sort of set out to try to get out a larger group of hostages, but the challenges that they confronted in dealing with hamas, they were just immense. we are told that hamas, for weeks just refused to give any identifying information about the hostages, like their age, their nationality, their gender

and it became such a major sticking point, actually, that at one point when the matters felt like they were actually close to a deal they even talked about whether israel should delay its ground incursion and ultimately decided not to because they just were not sold based on the information that hamas was not providing. they had no proof of life and they hadn't given any identifying information about the hostages and israel went ahead with its ground incursion on october 27th. we are also told that in the last few days or so hamas ended up going entirely dark. there was a period when they were completely not responsive and when they finally resurfaced they demanded that the idf take its forces out of al shifa hospital in gaza. this was something, obviously, that didn't happen and then the talks eventually did resume. so all of this just goes to show you how intensive and complicated and just touch and go these negotiations were, not

to mention as you mentioned, the phone calls, the conversations that took place from the president himself and other top national security officials like jake sullivan, brett mcgirk, cia director bill burns and all of these folks had a big behind the scene role, and what we have now is a much better sense of why these officials all along had said they were just not even willing to get their hopes up sometimes because they really did fear that these talks could break down at any point. >> yeah. gives you an idea of just how significant this dip thlomat be breakthrough is. m.j. lee, thank so much. >> now president biden is g getting a pat on the back. what are the candidates saying about this deal? >> well, kate, so far we've only heard from a handful of the republican candidates in light of this deal being announced

last night, but look, this is tough for them to navigate because this is a deal that biden helped negotiate, but as you mentioned, we did hear from some of them who said they recognized this deal for what it is and that's a win. take a listen. >> we need to prioritize bringing those americans home. i will say this and this is the first time in a while, he should pat himself on the back. >> i've met with a number of the family members whose family members have been held hostage now for over seven weeks, and they gave me this dog tag to keep with me. it says bring them home now, and i think that's exactly the imperative not only for the israeli hostages, but for the american hostages that are held there, as well. to those people who want a ceasefire. listen, was there a ceasefire on october 6th. it was hamas that broke on october 7th. >> now, kate, despite hearing that from vivek ramaswamy and

chris christie, not all candidates were giving biden credit. we heard from ron desanntis yesterday and he criticized him for being not strong on israel. quote, he's walking this political dance because there is a lot of energy on the left that is hostile to israel. we are still waiting to hear from some of the other candidates including the crurret front-runner donald trump, but as you know, many of these republican contenders are very pro-israel a pro-israel and we'll have to wait and see how they respond to this deal. >> good to see you. thanks. >> much more still ahead on the top story. israel and hamas agreed to a deal. we are getting more details on how it will all happen tomorrow morning. stay with us.